News
to Me




...like a new Pearl Harbor


"When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it."
  -- Dwight David Eisenhower


"If we make the wrong choice, then the danger is that we'll get hit again --
that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating from the standpoint of the United States."
  -- Dick Cheney


“Every war plan looks good on paper until you meet the enemy.”
  - George W. Bush, March 21, 2006


"I fully understand that the intelligence was wrong,
and I'm just as disappointed as everybody else is."
  - George W. Bush, April 7, 2006


"The goal has never been to get bin Laden."
  - Richard Myers, White House, March 13, 2002,
DOD, April 6, 2002.

"In a sense, when you're at war, you keep
prisoners of war
until the war is over with."
  - Dick Cheney



"To be responsible, one needs to stop
defining success in Iraq as the absence of
terrorist attacks." -Donald Rumsfeld


Israeli soldiers accused of raping 11-year-old

· Allegation erodes public respect for armed forces
· 17 military personnel and five civilians questioned
At least 17 soldiers and five civilians are
under investigation for the rape of an
11-year-old girl at an Israeli air base, the
military confirmed yesterday. -May 2, 2006

Lucky find reveals nuke-tank flaws

A Bechtel National quality-control official
acknowledged "dumb luck" played a role in the
discovery of a flawed inspection of an
8,000-gallon tank intended to contain
radioactive liquids and gases at the Hanford
Nuclear Reservation, according to draft
meeting minutes made available from a
corporate whistle-blower.

Bechtel installed the stainless-steel tank in
November 2003, receiving a $15 million
payment for reaching that milestone.

Bechtel whistle-blowers say the tank problems
are indicative of broader safety problems
that still hang over the unfinished plant.

4um: Banning MP3 Streaming

If the PERFORM Act becomes law, webcasters
who use the statutory SoundExchange licenses
to play music would have to give up MP3
streaming in favor of a DRM-restricted,
proprietary formats that impose restrictions
on any recordings made.

Israeli Troops Face Probe on Rape Charges

It's being described as the worst sexual
abuse scandal in the army's history. At least
17 Israeli soldiers are under investigation
in the statutory rape of an 11-year-old girl
who lived with her family on an air force
base in southern Israel.

Dear Leader’s prep plan for
the upcoming hurricane season

"“The lessons of Katrina are
important,'’ Bush said. “We’ve
learned a lot here at the federal
level. We’re much more ready this time
than we were the last time.'’

“Let’s, first of all, pray there’s
no hurricanes,'’ Bush said. “That would
be, like, step one.'’"

The Shadow Government

The Boston Globe is now reporting that the
president believes he has the authority to
disobey over 750 laws passed by Congress. And
those are just the laws passed on his
watch. As we've already seen with the FISA
statute, the president also feels he has the
right to ignore laws passed by previous
administrations as well.

Cheney exempts his own office
from reporting on classified material

As the Bush administration has dramatically
accelerated the classification of information
as "top secret" or "confidential," one office
is refusing to report on its annual activity
in classifying documents: the office of Vice
President Dick Cheney.

A standing executive order, strengthened by
President Bush in 2003, requires all agencies
and "any other entity within the executive
branch" to provide an annual accounting of
their classification of documents.

Bush challenges hundreds of laws

President cites powers of his office
President Bush has quietly claimed the
authority to disobey more than 750 laws
enacted since he took office, asserting that
he has the power to set aside any statute
passed by Congress when it conflicts with his
interpretation of the Constitution.
April 30, 2006

Examples of the president's signing statements

Since taking office in 2001, President Bush
has issued signing statements on more than
750 new laws, declaring that he has the power
to set aside the laws when they conflict with
his legal interpretation. -April 30, 2006

Building the Secrecy Wall higher and higher

The judicially created "State Secrets
Privilege" was first recognized by the
Supreme Court in United States v. Reynolds,
345 U.S. 1 (1953), a suit brought under the
Tort Claims Act by the widows of 3 civilians
who died when an Air Force plane crashed.
...
One of the odd - and dangerous - features of
this privilege doctrine is that, in many
cases, courts allow the Government to assert
the privilege without even submitting the
documents in question to a judge for the
judge to review in secrecy, a process known
as in camera review.
April 29, 2006

Law-Breaker in Chief

David Golove, a New York University law
professor who specializes in executive-power
issues, said Bush has cast a cloud over "the
whole idea that there is a rule of law,"
because no one can be certain of which laws
Bush thinks are valid and which he thinks he
can ignore.

Polygraph Results Often in Question

The study found that if polygraphs were
administered to a group of 10,000 people that
included 10 spies, nearly 1,600 innocent
people would fail the test -- and two of the
spies would pass.

State Secrets Privilege, the NSA and the EFF

Save Family Farms, Save America

By Willie Nelson, AlterNet. April 27, 2006

Specter Wants More Debate on Spying

Senator to Try to Block Program's Funding

Bush’s Impeachment As Serial Law Violator

Bush ends rule of law;
Americans continue to shop, enjoy TV.

April 30, 2006

Last Words

Something like 50 to 90 percent of the
world's 6,000 languages are expected to
die in the next century.

Though it is characterized by polysyllabic
words, Penobscot can be brilliantly
concise. An entire sentence in English can
often be expressed by a single Penobscot
word. For example, [word] means "You are a
very smart, intelligent, dependable person."

Bush Rejects Calls for Tax on Oil Profits

"I have no evidence that there's any rip-off
taking place," Bush said. "It's the role of
the Federal Trade Commission to assure me
that my inclination and instincts is right."

DOJ Seeks to Dismiss Domestic Spying Suit

The lawsuit, brought by the Internet privacy
group, Electronic Frontier Foundation, does
not include the government.

Instead, it names AT&T, which the San Francisco-
based group accuses of colluding with the
National Security Agency to make communications
on AT&T networks available to the spy agency
without warrants.

Bush Rejects Calls for Tax on Oil Profits

I have no evidence that there's any rip-off
taking place," Bush said. "It's the role of
the Federal Trade Commission to assure me
that my inclination and instincts is right."

FBI secretly sought data
on 3,501 people in ’05

Agency ramped up use of approach
that requires no court approval
The FBI secretly sought information last year
on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents
from their banks and credit card, telephone
and Internet companies without a court's
approval, the Justice Department said Friday.

Limbaugh arrested on drug charges

Conservative talk-show host
has been released on bail

Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth

reveals that current Iraqi oil policy will
allocate the development of at least 64% of
Iraq’s reserves to foreign oil companies.
Iraq has the world’s third largest oil
reserves.

Figures published in the report for the first
time show:

• the estimated cost to Iraq over the life
of the new oil contracts is $74 to $194
billion, compared with leaving oil
development in public hands. These sums
represent between two and seven times the
current Iraqi state budget.

• the contracts would guarantee massive
profits to foreign companies, with rates of
return of 42% to 162%.

Fla. Attn'y Gen. Wants Probe of Coroner

Anderson died Jan. 6, a day after he was
punched and kicked by boot camp guards during
a videotaped scuffle. Siebert determined the
boy died of complications from sickle cell
trait, a usually benign blood disorder.

Among the cases Crist listed for review were
the autopsies of James Terry and Donna Reed,
a father and daughter killed by a tornado
during Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Siebert's
autopsy described Reed, a woman, as having
``unremarkable'' testicles

Analysts Behind Iraq
Intelligence Were Rewarded

The problem, according to the commission,
which cited the two analysts' work, is that
they did not seek or obtain information
available from the Energy Department and
elsewhere showing that the tubes were indeed
the type used for years as rocket-motor cases
by Iraq's military. The panel said the
finding represented a "serious lapse in
analytic tradecraft" because the center's
personnel "could and should have conducted a
more exhaustive examination of the
question."

Senators to push for $100 gas rebate checks

However, the GOP energy package may face
tough sledding because it also includes a
controversial proposal to open part of the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to
oil exploration, which most Democrats and
some moderate Republicans oppose.
April 27, 2006

Tony Snow On President Bush: ‘An
Embarrassment,’ ‘Impotent,’
‘Doesn’t Seem To Mean What He Says’"

Rove to Testify Again in CIA Leak Case

Among other things the prosecutor is
investigating why Rove originally failed to
disclose to prosecutors that he had talked to
Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper about the
CIA status of Plame.

Maoists declare three-month truce in Nepal

Maoists declare three-month truce in Nepal
Maoist rebels in Nepal declared a unilateral
three-month truce on Thursday ahead of the
country’s first parliamentary meeting
since King Gyanendra handed over power to a
seven-party alliance on Monday. -April 27 2006

Conviction of 'ganja guru' up in smoke

Juror asked attorney about the case before
the verdict
AN FRANCISCO -- A federal appeals court
Wednesday overturned the conviction of "ganja
guru" Ed Rosenthal and ordered a new trial,
saying a juror tainted the case by seeking
the advice of a lawyer before the verdict.
- April 26, 2006

More top brass blast Rumsfeld

More top brass blast Rumsfeld Two retired
generals and an admiral denounce his
leadership -- and say he's protected by a
handpicked ring of high-ranking yes men.

The Bush Agenda: Invading
the World, One Economy at a Time

We speak with Antonia Juhasz about her new
book, "The Bush Agenda: Invading the World,
One Economy at a Time." The book tracks the
radical neo-liberal economic program the Bush
administration has tried to impose on Iraq,
which threatens to leave Iraq's economy and
oil reserves largely in the hands of
multinational corporations.
04/25/06 Democracy Now

Jury Convicts Calif. Man in Terrorism Case

Prosecutors described Hamid Hayat as having
"a jihadi heart and a jihadi mind." They
presented no evidence that such attacks were
imminent or planned.

Canadian creates cigarette with vitamin C

A Quebec company is producing a cigarette it
claims does not stain teeth, has less of an
odour than regular brands and contains
beneficial ingredients like vitamin C.

Called the "VitaCig," it was invented by
non-smoker Roger Ouellette for his wife, who
has smoked a pack of cigarettes every day
since the age of 14.

Fla. Lawmakers Agree to Close Boot Camps

Florida lawmakers agreed Wednesday to shut
down the state's juvenile boot camp system
and pour more money into a less militaristic
program for dealing with juvenile offenders.

The sheriff-run boot camps have been under
scrutiny since the January death of a
14-year-old boy who had been kicked and
beaten by guards at a Panama City camp.

Media largely ignore ex-CIA official's
disclosure that White House dismissed
contrary prewar intelligence on Iraq's
WMD

Vermont lawmakers to
call for Bush impeachment

Juvenile jail workers charged in sex case

INDIANAPOLIS -- Nine former employees of a
county juvenile detention center were charged
Monday with using their positions of
authority to have sex with teenage girls.

The nine workers were accused of having sex
with six girls who were 13 to 15 years old at
the time. -April 24, 2006

Resolutions Supporting Impeachment

Transcript of 60 Minutes on Echelon

"Mr. FROST: Oh, yeah. Baby monitors
give you a lot of intelligence.
(Footage of listening posts)"

Bush Says He Tried to Avoid War
'To The Max,' Explains How God Shapes
His Foreign Policy

Hero Iraq vet tossed from
wheelchair in cop brawl

"“I said, ‘I’m a Marine. What are
you doing?’ ” James Crosby, 21, told
the Herald he pleaded for his life as he was
allegedly being hoisted off the ground by his
windbreaker and slammed back down by Revere
police officers. “They said, ‘If
you’re a Marine then you know how to shut
the (expletive) up.’ ” "

AT&T's Good Name?

It's beginning to look as if one of the first
returns SBC is getting from its $16 billion
acquisition of AT&T is a legal and public
relations nightmare. -April 14, 2006

Chief of CIA's Investment Group Resigns

The new chief of the CIA's venture capital
organization, In-Q-Tel, has resigned after
just four months on the job.
Amit Yoran, who was the government's
cybersecurity chief until he left that job in
2004, said Monday he stepped down for
personal reasons.

California Becomes Second State
to Introduce Bush Impeachment

California Assemblyman Paul Koretz of Los
Angeles (where the LA Times has now called
for Cheney's resignation) has submitted
amendments to Assembly Joint Resolution
No. 39, calling for the impeachment of
President George W. Bush and Vice President
Richard Cheney.
The resolution, in the words of Koretz's
press release, "bases the call for
impeachment upon the Bush Administration
intentionally misleading the Congress and the
American people regarding the threat from
Iraq in order to justify an unnecessary war
that has cost billions of dollars and
thousands of lives and casualties; exceeding
constitutional authority to wage war by
invading Iraq; exceeding constitutional
authority by Federalizing the National Guard;
conspiring to torture prisoners in violation
of the 'Federal Torture Act' and indicating
intent to continue such actions; spying on
American citizens in violation of the 1978
Foreign Agency Surveillance Act; leaking and
covering up the leak of the identity of
Valerie Plame Wilson, and holding American
citizens without charge or trial."

Peppers call for Bush impeachment

The Red Hot Chili Peppers have called for US
President Geroge W. Bush to be impeached in a
posting on their official website.

L.A. Times Editorial Calls for Cheney's Ouster

April 24, 2006

Photos from Iran


Rabbinical sages exonerate
father charged with killing son

Eight prominent rabbis in the Lithuanian
faction of the ultra-Orhotdox community
published an announcement entitled "Sacred
Call," asking the public "to assist the Vales
family and other rabbis who are doing their
utmost to bring justice and truth to light,
to prove that he is innocent and release him
from gaol." ...:
The baby was hospitalized at Hadassah
University Hospital, Ein Karem, in serious
condition, with brain hemorrhaging, edema,
signs of violence and bites on his body...

During his second questioning, Vales admitted
he slammed the baby against a wall and had
previously attacked him numerous times,
because he "wouldn't let him sleep." He said
he would beat his son with his fists, slap
him and bite him on the neck.

The Stanford Daily Online Edition

Protests force Bush to relocate Hoover
meeting; three students detained

A fireman became agitated when a group of
students and community members sat on the
street in front of the fire truck, blocking
access to the Hoover Institute. Three of the
students were eventually arrested.
April 21, 2006

Senate Vote Inquiry Widens as
Democrats Probe White House Link


Republican leaders are facing questions
stemming from a criminal case involving
efforts to suppress voter turnout in a
U.S. Senate election in the state in
2002. Republican John Sununu won that
race over Democrat Jeanne Shaheen,
helping Republicans retake control
of the Senate.

Propaganda From Dr. Ron Paul

Government, including Dr. Paul, has no duty
to protect anyone (Bowers v. Devito, 686 F.2d
616). This is only one way to prove this. I
use this because it’s straight from a
politician’s mouth. Therefore, because
there’s no duty to protect, there is no
duty of allegiance. Without these “duties,”
there are no “citizens.” Because there
are no “citizens,” there is no “nation”
and of course, no “illegal aliens.”

F.D.A.'s Report Illuminates Wide Divide on Marijuana

In Vermont, for example, a statute enacted
several years ago called for a research
program on the therapeutic effects of
marijuana. When a legislative group asked
more recently why that had not been
conducted, the Vermont Health Department
said it could not be done under federal
law, Mr. Treadwell said.

Congressional Investigators
Are Critical of F.D.A.'s Efforts
to Detect Drug Dangers

When it approves new drugs for sale, the drug
agency often requires manufacturers to study
whether the medicines are working as intended
and whether they have unwanted side effects
once they get into a broader market.

But the agency announced in March that
two-thirds of these promised studies had not
even been started, and hundreds of trials
have been pending for years.

CIA Officer's Job Made Any Leaks More Delicate

CIA Officer's Job Made Any Leaks More Delicate The rare firing last week of a CIA officer
accused of leaking information to the news
media stems both from the sensitivity of the
subjects she allegedly discussed and the Bush
administration's forceful efforts to block
national security disclosures that have
proved embarrassing or caused operational
problems, according to current and former
intelligence officials.

Attack Iran, Ignore the Constitution

Police follow money trail from nuke plant

SHIPPINGPORT

- For now, there are still few answers as to
what two Texas men were doing with more than
$500,000 in cash at the Beaver Valley Nuclear
Power Station on Tuesday, but investigators
insist there was no terrorist activity
involved.

A group of state troopers and investigators
from the FBI are continuing to investigate
the bizarre incident, in which two men from
Houston, Donald R. Kingsby, 29, and William
Lewis Jr., 28, went to the plant to pick up
tools for Bechtel Corp., a contracting
company doing work for the plant's $300
million upgrade. -04/23/2006

Bush Impeachment

The Illinois State Legislature
is Preparing to Drop a Bombshell

Utilizing a little known rule of the US House to bring Impeachment charges April 22, 2006

Kevin Phillips as Cassandra

After Enron receded from the George W. Bush
sort of lifetime patron list, the one that
came on was MBNA, which was the leading
credit card company. The credit card industry
has found the Bush people, but also the
Democrats and Republicans in Congress, very
collaborative. They deregulated the credit
card industry. As a result, they can charge
people 28% interest and make 40% of their
money from slapping on fees, which are
penalties.

Torture in Guantánamo

White House knew there were no WMD: CIA

The CIA had evidence Iraq possessed no weapons
of mass destruction six months before the 2003
US-led invasion but was ignored by a White House
intent on ousting Saddam Hussein, a former senior
CIA official said, according to CBS.

New penicillin found in wallaby milk

Scientists have discovered a bacteria-
fighting compound 100 times more effective
than penicillin - in wallaby milk.

This goes back to the Clinton administration.

Sandy Berger is a liar every bit as much as
Condoleezza Rice is. Madeleine Albright’s
a liar every bit as much as Donald Rumsfeld
is. I mean, they’ve all lied about the
same thing, which is that Iraq represented a
threat in the form of weapons of weapons of
mass destruction that warranted military
action.

Biotechnology: Still Fueling Controversy

News out of India last year showed that since
1997 some 25,000 farmers have committed
suicide after going bankrupt when Monsanto's
pesticide resistant cotton didn't work as
promised.

Won't you come home, Reno Harnish

DynCorp began in 1946 as a project of a
small group of returning World War II
pilots seeking to use their military
contacts to make a living in the air
cargo business.

The uncovering of the crime linked to
the sale of Azerbaijani girls to the USA, and
the punishment of the guilty parties merely
shows the high level of American-Azerbaijani
relations,” Jonathan Henick, head of the
Public Relations Centre for the US Embassy in
Azerbaijan, commented on the situation,
without a trace of embarrassment.

Republican Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld authorized the rape of children
in Iraqi prisons in order to humiliate
their parents into providing information
about the anti-American insurgency.

Schools locked down after gunshots heard

Sarasota County Sheriff's deputies are
questioning two men at this hour following
an incident that sent three area schools
into lockdown.

Booker High School, Booker Middle and Emma
E. Booker Elementary were put in lockdown
while authorities investigated the incident.
The identity of the two men being
questioned has not been released.

Political climate unfriendly to ID devices, backers say


"We're scared to go to New Hampshire," he
said. "They have gun racks on their motorcycles.
They don't want anyone telling them what to do."

4/20/06

Hu's Big on Democracy?

"Last night, in a speech before a Washington
power crowd, Hu Jintao mentioned democracy
nine times. Nine times -- and his security
team and intelligence/police forces did
nothing about it.

Jiang Lijun, however, mentions democracy in a
draft, unsent email and is sentenced to four
years in prison." -April 21, 2006

Creature's picture irks Board of Ed member


Yippie, it was fun once

QUITE inadvertently, Spike Milligan founded a
terrorist organisation. He was thrilled when
I told him. It was at the time of the
hippies, when the citizens of Haight-Ashbury
were doing it in the street and frightening
the policemen.

Dean: If Past Is Prologue, George Bush Is
Becoming An Increasingly Dangerous President

"Apparently, Bush does not realize that to
lead he must continually renew his approval
with the public. He is not, as he thinks,
the decider. The public is the decider."

Appeals Court Rules Against Islanders

A federal appeals court said Friday it is
powerless to grant compensation to people
forced from their homes on Indian Ocean
islands because of the U.S. military base
at Diego Garcia.

Furor Grows Over Fla. Boot Camp Death

Gov. Jeb Bush is facing a rapidly growing
furor over the death of a 14-year-old boy
at a juvenile boot camp, with about 1,500
demonstrators accusing authorities Friday
of a cover-up, and Florida's chief law
enforcement officer resigning under fire.

At Least 3 Killed In Nepal Protests

Witnesses said the shooting in Kalanki
began when a senior police officer drew his
pistol and shot a protester in the head, an
act followed by gunfire from police and
soldiers.

Nuke plant riddle: Whose $504,000?

Beaver County Times Allegheny Times
Schneider and state police did not release
the name of the trucking company or say to
which contractor the equipment belonged.

Kingsby said the money belonged to his boss,
who had planned to buy a truck, according to
the warrant.

Davis said Kingsby and Lewis called their
boss while state police were being notified,
and their boss told the men to leave and he
would send another truck to remove the tools.
04/20/2006

No one claims $500,000 stash in truck

April 20, 2006

Security Scare At Nuclear Plant

Pennsylvania State Police said two men tried
to get into a nuclear power plant in
Shippingport, and were carrying more than a
half million dollars.

It happened at the Beaver Valley Power Plant
in Beaver County near East Liverpool.

$500K Seized; Strange Situation
Reported At Nuclear Plant

"Never saw nothing at all"

Two Houston men driving a tractor-trailer
pulled up to the gate of Pennsylvania's
Beaver Valley nuclear power station Tuesday
afternoon. They said they'd arrived from
Chicago with an empty flatbed to pick up a
large tool container bound for Youngstown,
Ohio.
...
In the sleeping compartment, more than half a
million dollars in ten bundles of small bills
wrapped in plastic and duct tape was found
stuffed in a locked duffel bag.
April 20, 2006

Israeli Moving Van Mystery Deepens;
1. Tennessee
2. Washington State
3. Pennsylvania
4. WTC
5. New Mexico
...
'Mover' is son of top Likud Official

posted on 2004-05-13

Two men arrested after high-
speed chase in Tennessee

Associated Press
May 09, 2004

New Israeli Moving Van Mystery

"I got a sick feeling when I saw it (the
business card)," Kent Harris, Sheriff of
Unicol County in Tennessee, told the
Associated Press, expressing concern about
the proximity of the nearby Nuclear Fuel
Services plant in Erwin.
“Its the nation’s sole provider of fuel
for the Navy’s nuclear subs,” he
explained in a phone interview Monday
evening.

The Tennessee arrests are eerily-similar to
two other widely-publicized incidents
involving Israelis in moving vans engaged in
suspicious activity since the 9/11 attack.

Dahan gave authorities a fake Florida
driver's license issued in Plantation, Fla.,
police said, while Naor produced a fake
identification card. -12 May 2004

Contents of vial linked
to Israelis not a threat

ERWIN, Tenn. - A bottle that authorities say
was tossed onto a Tennessee highway during a
chase Saturday contained a latex stripper and
an acid compound but didn't pose any threat
of explosion, according to the FBI and
authorities in Unicoi County. ... Harris said
it's not clear why the two were mixed together.
May 11, 2004
"Presumably, if the men in the moving van had
been Arabs, the FBI would have been less
lackadaisical. A scientist at the nearby
nuclear lab told Harris the liquid could
possibly be used as a culture for a
biological agent."

Bechtel's Nuclear Nightmares

Pratap Chatterjee, May 6, 2003
The company estimates that it has built 40%
of the United States nuclear capacity and 50%
of nuclear power plants in the developing
world. That accounts for 1,200 reactor years
at 150 nuclear power plants. Indeed, Bechtel
is still building nuclear reactors including
the 1,450 megawatt nuclear reactor in
Qinshan, China.
...
"Nobody doubted that nuclear energy could
work. The real question was, could anyone
make a profit in it?" recall the authors of
Bechtel: Building a Century , the coffee
table book that the company produced to mark
the company's 100th anniversary in 1998.

Fallout at Shippingport

US allies are behind the death
squads and ethnic cleansing

Iraq's American overlords at last seem to
have grasped the danger posed by their
friends' militias. But it may be too late

Death squad allegations threaten
to derail Bush's last Latin ally

Colombia's leader denies using death
squads to wipe out opponents

Novak: Feds know who outed CIA agent

At an appearance in December, Novak said
President Bush knows his source, too. On
Wednesday, he called those remarks
"indiscreet." -April 20, 2006

The Worst President in History?

One of America's leading historians
assesses George W. Bush According to the Treasury Department, the
forty-two presidents who held office between
1789 and 2000 borrowed a combined total of
$1.01 trillion from foreign governments and
financial institutions. But between 2001 and
2005 alone, the Bush White House borrowed
$1.05 trillion, more than all of the previous
presidencies combined.

In New Job, Spymaster Draws Bipartisan Criticism

In Rare Move, 2nd AIPAC
Dismissal Hearing Set

The judge overseeing the prosecution of two
former pro-Israel lobbyists charged with
violating the 1917 Espionage Act has set an
unusual second oral argument for tomorrow on
the defendants' motion to dismiss the
charges.

Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, accused
of receiving and transmitting national
defense information, contend that the
espionage statute is unconstitutionally vague
and overbroad and may violate the First
Amendment. Rosen and Weissman are the first
nongovernment civilians to be prosecuted
under the Espionage Act for receiving
national defense information orally.

Russia rejects US call to quit Iran power plant

"The Bushehr power station is being built in
compliance with all international rules and
under the supervision of the U.N.'s nuclear
watchdog, he said."

National Archives Pact Let
C.I.A. Withdraw Public Documents

An Embargo Is Not a Peaceful Alternative

It is difficult to understand how denying
access to food, medicine, and other products
benefits anyone. Embargo advocates claim that
denying people access to our products somehow
creates opposition to the despised leader.
The reality, though, is that hostilities are
more firmly directed at America.

Kucinich Demands Answers From
Administration About US Troops In Iran

Sends Letter To The President

Group on U.S. terror list lobbies hard

May 31 (UPI) -- U.S. lawmakers and former
military officers are backing Mujahedin-e
Khalq, an Iranian opposition group, despite
its inclusion on the State Department's list
of foreign terrorist organizations and its
role in the killing and wounding of
U.S. military personnel and civilians in the
1970s.
...
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., who sits on the
House Intelligence Committee, responded in a
written statement saying he supports the MEK
because it is an "asset to U.S. intelligence"
and "the most reliable source of information
for the region."

Woman Is Treated for the Plague

A Los Angeles woman is being treated for
bubonic plague, the first case of the age-old
pestilence in the county since 1984, health
officials announced Tuesday.
April 19, 2006

Federal Court Orders Bush Administration to
Turn Over Key Documents on Mercury

Germany to open Holocaust records

CNN Features Real News About Fake TV News

A Rooftop Windmill Of Your Very Own

Rove gives up White House policy role

McClellan Leaves White House Press Office

"They are working assiduously to restore

Babylon, home to one of the Seven Wonders of
the World, and turn it into a cultural center
and possibly even an Iraqi theme park.

Group files FOIA for Justice Dept.
findings on White House involvement
in 'phone-jamming scandal'"

A "Pulitzer Prize for Treason"

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald
Chip said...
"It would seem to me that the best thing that
could have happened to thwart this (spurious)
war on terror it would be the fear that is
caused by this leak!"

Senate Hearings on Bush, Now

In this VF.com exclusive, a Watergate veteran
and Vanity Fair contributor calls for
bipartisan hearings investigating the Bush
presidency. Should Republicans on the Hill
take the high road and save themselves come
November?
By Carl Bernstein

The Nuclear Bunker Buster


Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator

On Cheney, Rumsfeld order, US outsourcing
special ops, intelligence to Iraq terror
group, intelligence officials say

One of the operational assets being used by
the Defense Department is a right-wing
terrorist organization known as Mujahedeen-e
Khalq (MEK), which is being “run” in
two southern regional areas of Iran.

“The MEK is run by a husband and wife team
who were given bases in northern Baghdad by
Saddam,”

Guantanamo Tortures Approved by Rumsfeld

April 16, 2006

Spy Chief: CIA Detainees
Will Be Held Indefinitely

Spy Chief: CIA Detainees Will Be Held
Indefinitely Exclusive: John Negroponte
says accused Al-Qaeda members will remain
in secret prisons as long as 'war on
terror continues'

RTE Business - US government wants PayPal records

PayPal said it was evaluating its options,
and added that it takes the privacy of its
customers' information very seriously. Tax
collectors wanted records of transactions
connected to countries where local laws could
protect specious tax shelters from scrutiny
by US officials, it said.

U.S. Plan For Flu Pandemic Revealed

U.S. Plan For Flu Pandemic Revealed
Multi-Agency Proposal Awaits Bush's Approval

Ex-Professor in Terror Case to Be Deported

Sami Al-Arian, who had met with
U.S. presidents and other political leaders
before his terrorism indictment in 2003,
reached an agreement with prosecutors to
plead guilty to a lesser charge and be
deported, two lawyers familiar with the case
said Friday. The arrangement requires the
approval of a judge.
It was not clear where Al-Arian would be sent.

Courtroom bumps for the war on terror

Khan pointed to an image of Osama bin Laden's
No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, that had come up on
a news clip on his TV and said he'd seen him
in Lodi in 1999.
The FBI pounced on this disclosure, and soon
Khan was on the Bureau's payroll at $50,000 a
year as an undercover informer, charged with
returning to Lodi and probing the terror
ring. To date the Bureau has paid him
$250,000.

Cat in Germany saves baby's life

Homeless arrests in L.A. ruled unconstitutional

The unidentified woman would randomly scream

out the window, wave her fist or point and
then throw paper or decorations outside.
At one point she tossed items like a fire
extinguisher, a bicycle helmet and an
umbrella out of her window.
...
”I can go up there and get her to come
down, I guarantee it,” Smith said."

"No-fly’ list delays Marine's Iraq
homecoming

Minnesota reservist detained after being
identified as possible terrorist

Thousands of credit card
details traded online

At least 400 credit card numbers are sold per
day, along with other personal information
such as dates of birth and mothers’ maiden
names, The Times said. A credit card number
fetches one dollar (0.83 euros) in Internet
chatrooms, whereas a card with a three-digit
code is traded for five dollars.

Decoding Bojinka

Decoding Yousef's computer was not
difficult. I bypassed the passwords and
immediately accessed the files. The principal
job was reading the files and summarizing
them. This was done using a text search
program.

Poll: Most Americans Say Tax System Unjust

US allies are behind the death
squads and ethnic cleansing

Feckless leader

Bush still can't answer important questions;
life's just a big old joke.

Richard Blum

The man behind URS,
next to Sen. Feinstein

Sinking to new lows - attacking the motives
of the war critic Generals

Attacking the motives -- not the arguments or
judgments, but the motives -- of a bunch of
retired Generals, all because they expressed
criticism of the administration's war
efforts, gives you a pretty good idea of how
these Bush supporters are feeling.

Outsourcing saves less than claimed

Outsourcing of information technology and
business services delivers average cost
savings of 15 percent, a survey found on
Thursday, disproving market claims that
outsourcing can reduce costs by over 60
percent.

McClellan: Media Should “Publicly
Apologize” For Reporting On Mobile Weapons
Lab Story

When McClellan was asked when the White
House became aware of the Pentagon field
report, however, McClellan couldn’t
say. He told the press corps “I’m
looking into that matter” but the answer
was “not the point.”

Iran not in breach of international
law, says British MP

Iran's successful enrichment of uranium for
nuclear fuel this week was a breakthrough in
its civil program and does not constitute a
violation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty (NPT), said British MP Jeremy Corbyn.

Lacking Biolabs, Trailers Carried Case for War

Administration Pushed Notion of Banned
Iraqi Weapons Despite Evidence to Contrary
"There was no connection to anything
biological," said one expert who studied the
trailers. Another recalled an epithet that
came to be associated with the trailers: "the
biggest sand toilets in the world."

Niger-Gate: The Scandal behind the Scandal

The fact that the Niger documents were fake
is hard proof that the lies that tricked this
nation into war were not an accident, not
"misinterpreted" or "bad" intelligence, but
deliberate falsehood with malice
aforethought.We The People were lied to
intentionally to trick us into supporting a
war of conquest against an innocent nation
that had done us no wrong.

Data Leaks Persist From Afghan Base

A computer drive sold at a bazaar for $40 may
hold the names of spies for the United States
who inform on the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Blumner: Pathological lies in
the name of national security

President Bush once famously stumbled over
the phrase ''Fool me once, shame on you. Fool
me twice, shame on me.'' It was a Freudian
slip. Bush knew just how often he's put one
over on the American people. Why rub it in?

Another general joins anti-Rummy brigade

The extraordinary "Revolt of the Generals"
continued yesterday with a fourth
high-ranking senior military leader calling
for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's head.
Retired two-star Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who
commanded the Big Red One - the Army's 1st
Infantry Division - in Iraq until November,
said Rumsfeld must go for ignoring and
intimidating career officers.

CIA Expands Use of Drones in Terror War

Little is known about the targeted-killing
program. The Bush administration has refused
to discuss how many strikes it has made, how
many people have died, or how it chooses
targets. No U.S. officials were willing to
speak about it on the record because the
program is classified. Several U.S. officials
confirmed at least 19 occasions since
Sept. 11 on which Predators successfully
fired Hellfire missiles on terrorist suspects
overseas, including 10 in Iraq in one month
last year. The Predator strikes have killed
at least four senior Al Qaeda leaders, but
also many civilians, and it is not known how
many times they missed their targets.

White House Demands Media 'Correct' Itself

April 12, 2006

Bush WMD Statements Based
On Debunked Evidence

Another Major Bush Lie
Leading to War Revealed

White House admits Iraq WMD report
false ... From 'Biological
Laboratories' to Harmless Trailers

White House denies report on Iraq WMD

The three-page field report and a 122-page
final report three weeks later were
classified and shelved, the Post reported.
It added that for nearly a year after that,
the Bush administration continued to publicly
assert that the trailers were biological
weapons factories.

Bush glad Cheney not running for president

"I want to sprint out of office."

San Francisco Wi-Fi Plan
Stirs Big Brother Concerns

Bush's Catch-22

Because Libby so badly misrepresented the
content of the NIE, it is very difficult for
the White House to claim that the President
authorized the disclosure without also
implicating the President in a rather
egregious bit of deception.

Physicist says heat substance felled WTC

Extremely hot fires caused structures
to fail, BYU expert says
April 10, 2006

The tethered goat strategy

Amid an internal crisis of credibility,
Condoleezza Rice has washed her hands of
her department

Last month there were eight times as many
assassinations committed by Shia militias as
terrorist murders by Sunni insurgents.
...
State department officials in the field are
reporting that Shia militias use training as
cover to infiltrate key positions.
April 6, 2006

Ohio Official Invested in Vote Machine Co. --

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, who
is seeking the Republican nomination for
governor, said he discovered the shares
for Diebold Inc. while preparing a required
filing for the Ohio Ethics Commission.

"While I was unaware of this stock in my
portfolio, its mere presence may be viewed as
a conflict and is therefore not acceptable,"
he said in a letter included in his filing.

Radioactive Steam Escapes From Ill. Plant

Steam containing radioactive tritium escaped
from a valve at an Exelon Corp. plant even as
company officials met with local residents to
discuss efforts to clean up earlier leaks.

About 500 gallons of water pooled on the
grounds of the Braidwood Generating Station
as the steam condensed Thursday, and some of
it flowed into a ditch that lies between the
plant and the village of Godley, company
spokesman Craig Nesbit told the Chicago
Tribune for a story on its Web site.

Iraq Findings Leaked by Cheney's Aide
Were Disputed - New York Times

The filing revealed for the first time
testimony by Mr. Libby saying that Mr. Bush,
through Mr. Cheney, had authorized Mr. Libby
to tell reporters that "a key judgment of the
N.I.E. held that Iraq was 'vigorously trying
to procure' uranium.

In fact, that was not one of the "key
judgments" of the document. Instead, it was
the subject of several paragraphs on Page 24
of the document, which also acknowledged that
Mr. Hussein had long possessed 500 tons of
uranium that was under seal by international
inspectors, and that no intelligence agencies
had ever confirmed whether he had obtained
any more of the material from Africa.

Sex tourism thriving in Bible Belt - Yahoo!

A new federal law passed in 2003 ensures that
American sex tourists landing on foreign soil
and hiring prostitutes under the age of 18
can get 30 years in prison.

But in Georgia, punishment for pimping or
soliciting sex with a girl under 18 is only
five to 20 years, according to Deborah Espy,
the Deputy District Attorney of Fulton
County.

Briefing: why Moussaoui
confession doesn't add up

Daniel McGrory,a Times expert on al-Qaeda,
examines the inconsistencies behind Zacarias
Moussaoui's confession that he was part of
the 9/11 plot

Senior Republican to Bush:
say "exactly what happened"

A leading Republican urged President George
W. Bush on Sunday to "tell the American
people exactly what happened" in a leak of
information aimed at countering criticism
of his reasons for taking America to war
in Iraq.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/09/AR2006040900890.html

Military Plays Up Role of Zarqawi

Jordanian Painted As Foreign
Threat To Iraq's Stability

Daily Kos: Even the President Can't Lie
to a U.S. Attorney

The only difference is that they charge you
with perjury if you lie under oath, and OOJ
if the misrepresentation to a federal officer
wasn't sworn. A legal distinction without a
difference, in this case, as it was also for
Martha Stewart and Zakarias Moussaoui. The
latter will die for his unsworn lie to a
federal officer.

13-year-old boy charged for threatening Bush

"He is extremely well-versed in the history
of President Bush," Cloyd said. "In talking
with him, you can tell this is a hot-button
topic with him."

Google Earth to Get Discovery

Video Venture Is Part of Cable Programmer's
Effort to Branch Out From TV
Discovery Communications Inc. is teaming up
with Google to offer video clips of historic
sites and other spots around the world
through Google Earth software, one of several
new ways the Silver Spring cable programmer
is distributing its content beyond
television.

White House: No Denial On Intel Leaks

On July 18, 2003, McClellan said that the
information had been declassified that
day. "It was officially declassified today,"
he told reporters in a briefing in Dallas,
Texas. At the White House on Friday,
McClellan interpreted his own remarks to mean
that the information had been officially
released to the public.

The date could be significant because Libby
discussed the information with a reporter 10
days earlier, on July 8 of that year.

W. House does not dispute leak claim

April 7, 2006

Federal lawyers try to seize gold
caps from drug suspects' teeth

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - Talk about taking a bite
out of crime.

Government lawyers tried to confiscate the
gold tooth caps known as "grills" from the
mouths of two men facing drug charges, saying
the dental work qualified as seizable
assets. The feds had the suspects in a
vehicle headed to a dental clinic by the time
defence lawyers persuaded a judge to halt the
procedure.

Forfeiture law in the American colonies

evolved from the practice of deodands to the
seizure of property following a conviction of
treason. This became the precursor to our
modern criminal forfeiture laws. Among the
earliest laws enacted by the infant nation,
Congress enacted Article III, Section 3 of
the U.S. Constitution, which speaks to
forfeiture: "The Congress shall have power to
declare the punishment of treason, but no
attainder to treason shall work corruption of
blood, or forfeiture except during the life
of the person attained."

AT&T Forwards ALL Internet
Traffic Into NSA Says EFF

EFF's evidence regarding AT&T's dragnet
surveillance of its networks includes a
declaration by Mark Klein, a retired AT&T
telecommunications technician, and several
internal AT&T documents. This evidence was
bolstered and explained by the expert opinion
of J. Scott Marcus, who served as Senior
Technical Advisor for Internet Technology to
the Federal Communications Commission from
July 2001 until July 2005. -April 6, 2006

EFF's Class-Action Lawsuit Against
AT&T for Collaboration with Illegal
Domestic Spying Program

Did Bush Lie to Fitzgerald?

By Robert Parry
April 7, 2006

Evidence Suggests White House Conspiracy

"During this time, while the President was
unaware of the role that the Vice President's
Chief of Staff and National Security Adviser
had in fact played in disclosing Ms. Wilson's
CIA employment, defendant implored White
House officials to have a public statement
issued exonerating him," the filing
states. "When his initial efforts met with no
success, defendant sought the assistance of
the Vice President in having his name
cleared."
April 6, 2006

Q: You never stop talking about freedom,

and I appreciate that. But while I listen to
you talk about freedom, I see you assert your
right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and
hold me without charges, to try to preclude
me from breathing clean air and drinking
clean water and eating safe food. If I were a
woman, you’d like to restrict my
opportunity to make a choice and decision
about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my
own behalf. You are –"

Iran: The Next Neocon Target

Before the U.S. House of Representatives
HON. RON PAUL OF TEXAS
April 5, 2006

Helen and Sylvia, the new face of terrorism

Two grandmothers from Yorkshire face up to
a year in prison after becoming the first
people to be arrested under the Government's
latest anti-terror legislation.

Moussaoui jury hears about impact on kids

Defense lawyer Gerald Zerkin said both
Moussaoui's sisters are paranoid
schizophrenics and his father is very
troubled and may be schizophrenic as
well. Noting the disease is inherited,
Zerkin plans to call a doctor who believes
Moussaoui suffers from a mentally [sic]
illness that probably is schizophrenia."

Bush Authorized Leak to
Times, Libby Told Grand Jury

April 6, 2006

Do you know where your seeds come from?
You may be surprised...
The gardening game

"The American nursery trade is a 39.6 billion
dollar a year industry. With the purchase of
Seminis in January of 2005, Monsanto is now
estimated to control between 85 and 90
percent of the U.S. nursery market. This
includes the pesticide, herbicide and
fertilizer markets. By merging with or buying
up the competition, dominating genetic
technology, and lobbying the government to
make saving seeds illegal, this monolith has
positioned itself as the largest player in
the gardening game.

Bush Defends Surveillance Policy

Papers: Cheney Aide Says Bush OK'd Leak

Libby's participation in a critical
conversation with Miller on July 8, 2003
"occurred only after the vice president
advised defendant that the president
specifically had authorized defendant to
disclose certain information in the
National Intelligence Estimate," the
papers by Special Counsel Patrick
Fitzgerald stated. The filing did not
specify the "certain information."

Rumsfeld Challenges Rice on
'Tactical Errors' in Iraq

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said
he did not know what Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice was talking about when
she said last week that the United States
had made thousands of "tactical errors"
in handling the war in Iraq, a statement
she later said was meant figuratively.
April 6, 2006

Rice Dismisses Talk of U.S. Bases in Iraq

However, Rice did not say when all
U.S. forces would return home and did not
directly answer Rep. Steven Rothman (news,
bio, voting record), D-N.J., when he asked,
"Will the bases be permanent or not?"

'To Catch a Predator' III

Michael Burks: My father was a police
officer. I was a police officer. I work
for the Department of Homeland security.
I understand you guys have a job to do
and I’m not trying to tell anything
else other than that. I swear to God,
as God as my witness, I’m wearing a
St. Michael’s medal right now, okay?
I was not going to do anything with her.

2nd Homeland Security official in teen sex scandal

exposed himself to teenage girl in mall, formerly

ran sex predator operation at Homeland Security

...that law enforcement agent, Frank
Figueroa, used to run Operation Predator.
April 05, 2006

Apple Unveils Software to Run Windows XP

Apple's new "Boot Camp" software, a "beta"
test version available as a free download,
lets computer users with a Windows XP
installation disk load that system on the
Mac. Users could then switch between the two
operating systems — using only one at a
time — by rebooting, a process that could
take a few minutes.

Disney offers teen-tracker mobile

The childrens' mobile phone market is growing
rapidly Disney is launching a US service that
will enable parents to monitor how their
children use their mobile phones.

Briton held as terror suspect over punk song

Lyric from Clash anthem 'London Calling'
raised suspicions of taxi driver

DHS Official Charged in Online Seduction

A deputy press secretary for the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security was charged
with using a computer to seduce a child
after authorities said he struck up sexual
conversations with an undercover detective
posing as a 14-year-old girl.

Brian J. Doyle, 55, the fourth-ranking
official in the department's public affairs
office, was expected to appear in court
Wednesday afternoon in Maryland and also to
be placed on administrative leave.

Propping Up the War on Terror: Lies
about the WTC by NIST and Underwriters
Laboratories

Stories by Topic
March 28,2006

Chairman of 9/11 Whitewash Commission
sets stage for Al Qaeda Nuke Attack

The press conference before the speech was
turned out to be a great opportunity, because
literally half of the questions were hostile,
and I was able to ask Mr. Kean a question
about why the 9/11 Commission, on page 172 of
their report, stated that the question of who
bankrolled the September 11th attacks was "of
little practical significance." He replied
that the job cost so little money and that it
was too hard to trace. So I got from Mr. Kean
an admission that following the money trail
in a crime that took the lives of 3000 people
was "of little practical significance"
because it only cost about $166 per murder
and was too much of a bother to pursue. This
was an astonishing red flag screaming "cover-up".

Pakistan military brass knew in
advance that 9/11 would take place

New Delhi: Top commanders of the Pakistan
military establishment knew in advance about
the Al Qaeda's plans to attack the United
States in September 2001, claims a former
senior Indian Government official.

B.Raman, a former Additional Secretary in the
Cabinet Secretariat, claims that there are at
least 220 references on Pakistan's
involvement with Jihadi terrorists, including
those associated with the Al Qaeda, in a
report prepared by a U.S. National Commission
which enquired into the 9/11 terrorist
strikes across the United States.

The Schumer NSA Bill and the
Feingold Censure Resolution

March 31, 2006

Genocide charge against Saddam
Hussein will be tough to prove in court

April 4, 2006

Results 11 - 20 of about 858 for dick
cheney, pinnacle body armor dragon skin Air
Force Office of Special Investigations.

Moussaoui Roommate Says He Warned FBI

The CIA Passed Nuclear
Weapons Technology To Iran

Venezuela Promotes Microsoft Alternative

Venezuela's science and technology ministry
recently held the Latin American Free
Software Installation Fair, an event
promoting the use of the open-source Linux
operating system and other nonproprietary
programs over Microsoft's Windows.
March 30, 2006

Supreme Court Rejects War Powers Case

Justices Sidestep Challenge From Padilla
A divided Supreme Court on Monday rejected an
appeal from a man held until recently as an
enemy combatant without traditional legal
rights, in effect sidestepping a challenge to
Bush administration wartime detention powers.

Former Head Of Star Wars Program
Says Cheney Main 9/11 Suspect

Official version of events a conspiracy
theory, says drills were cover for attacks
April 4 2006

SF Chronicle- Headline - AN INSIDE JOB?

April 03, 2006

Saddam Accused of Genocide in New Charges

The Iraq tribunal announced new
criminal charges against Saddam Hussein
and six others Tuesday, accusing them of
genocide and crimes against humanity
stemming from a 1980s crackdown against
Kurds.

Thai prime minister to resign

A day after claiming victory in a national
election, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin
Shinawatra has announced he will resign amid
mass protests and a political crisis that has
thrown the future of the government into
question.

Bush does not equal Hitler: The 17 Points

Moussaoui Found Eligible for Death Penalty

A federal jury found al-Qaida conspirator
Zacarias Moussaoui eligible Monday to be
executed, deciding that his lies to FBI
agents led directly to at least one death in
the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"You'll never get my blood, God curse you
all," Moussaoui said afterward. He had sat in
his chair and prayed silently as the verdict
was read.

Men With Two Brains

The suggestion of conservatives that the
government engage in all-out war on the world
but otherwise leave people free to manage
their own affairs is completely absurd in
every way. It is akin to the demand that
one's left leg march in one direction and the
right leg march in the other direction. If we
know how the human body works, we know that
this suggestion is ridiculous. So too, if we
know how government works, we know that a
state that is expansionist abroad will never
let well enough alone at home.

Senators' briefs rejected

The D.C. Circuit Court, pondering the meaning
of the court-stripping law passed late last
year by Congress (the Detainee Treatment
Act), has refused to accept three senators'
attempts to help shape the ruling.
March 31, 2006

Founder of Delta Force: "There is no
real threat to the US in the world"

"Bush has formented world war three"

"Americans voted for a second Bush
administration out of fear, so fear is
what they're going to have from now on."

Brain chip reads man's thoughts

The "chip" reads brain signals A paralysed
man in the US has become the first person
to benefit from a brain chip that reads
his mind.
...
The pioneering surgery at New England Sinai
Hospital, Massachusetts, last summer means he
can now control everyday objects by thought
alone.

Insulating Bush

Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political
adviser, cautioned other White House aides
in the summer of 2003 that Bush's 2004
re-election prospects would be severely
damaged if it was publicly disclosed that
he had been personally warned that a key
rationale for going to war had been
challenged within the administration.
March 30, 2006

FBI, police spying is rising, groups allege

Time's UP! is one of the groups that says
the alleged surveillance is aimed at
intimidating them. They acknowledge public
events can be watched by anyone but they're
concerned police have crossed the line into
inappropriate spying to discourage people's
from publicly criticizing government
policies.

John Dean Blasts Warrantless Eavesdropping

"Had the Senate or House, or both, censured
or somehow warned Richard Nixon, the tragedy
of Watergate might have been prevented," Dean
said. "Hopefully the Senate will not sit by
while even more serious abuses unfold before
it."

Admin. Spends $1.62B On PR, Ads,

"Propaganda Effort Is Unprecedented”..."

The Lobby Strikes Back

Harvard study of Israeli lobby's influence
costs the dean of the Kennedy School his job
"Now, somebody please tell me that
Mearsheimer and Walt have overplayed
the power and influence of the Lobby
in American political life."
March 31, 2006

Cheney And Halliburton Hold Title
- Top Earners In Iraq

A study released in June 2005, originating
from the Defense Contract Audit Agency
(DCAA), revealed that overall, Halliburton
had received roughly 52% of the $25.4 billion
that has been paid out to private contractors
since the war in Iraq began.

Halliburton was the top profiteer when it
came to funds belonging to the citizens of
Iraq as well.

Because I Say So

The Supreme Court takes the military
tribunals out for a spin.
March 28, 2006

Judges on Secretive Panel
Speak Out on Spy Program

What Are We Fighting For?

Interview with Naomi Klein:
"What they've actually done to Iraq instead
is reduce the debt just enough to make sure
that Iraqis can repay it. It was at a
completely unsustainable level and was never
going to be repaid previously so it was
restructured — so that they could demand
that it be repaid. Then it was attached to an
IMF structural adjustment program that makes
debt forgiveness contingent on adherence to
incredibly damaging and dangerous new
economic (free market) policies."

Major update to Cooperative Research website

This new update is easily the biggest update
the Cooperative Research website update has
ever had. The 9/11 Timeline alone has over
300 new entries and 200 significantly updated
entries.
March 27, 2005

Long Live The 9/11 Conspiracy!

Anyone still care about the heap
of disturbing, unsolved questions
surrounding Our Great Tragedy?
March 29, 2006

Moussaoui Offered to Implicate Himself

In Trade, 9/11 Figure Sought Better Jail
Conditions Until Execution, Jury Is Told

By Jerry Markon and Timothy Dwyer
Washington Post Staff Writers
March 29, 2006

Caspar Weinberger, Cabinet officer
for two presidents, dead at 88


Weinberger was a lifelong Republican, who
called himself a "fiscal Puritan" and
believed that budgets should always be
balanced, first demonstrated his
budget-trimming talents in the late 1960s
when he helped solve California's budget
problems as then-Gov. Reagan's finance
director.

He also served as Nixon's secretary of
health, education and welfare before
returning to San Francisco in 1975 as
special counsel to the Bechtel Corp.,
the huge worldwide construction company.

Weinberger was recalled to public service
from Bechtel by Reagan, reports AP.

About Moussaoui, much ado about nothing

March 28, 2006

Moussaoui wore 'stun belt' for new testimony

"Rove was the source of 'feelers' put out
before the last presidential election in
which he was suggesting that Cheney could be
replaced on the ticket with someone who had
better poll ratings," said one of the former
experts approached who wished to remain
anonymous.

Bush Looks to Inner Circle
After Chief of Staff Resigns

March 28, 2006

"Have you noticed how Bush, Blair, and the

right-wing columnists have shifted their
rhetoric over the last few weeks? Not so long
ago their whole Iraq dialogue was about evil
Sunni Baathist terrorists. Now it’s all
about evil Iranian Shiites and they’re
saying the Tehran mullahs are supplying the
roadside bombs used to target Coalition
troops."

"Food not Bombs" on "terrorist watch list"

March 27, 2006

Iraq wants US to cede control after raid

Scalia has hand gesture for critics

A Boston Herald reporter asked the 70-year-
old conservative Roman Catholic if he faces
much questioning over impartiality when
it comes to issues separating church and
state.

"You know what I say to those people?" Scalia
replied, making the gesture and explaining
"That's Sicilian."
...
"Don't publish that," Scalia told the
photographer, the Herald said.

Freedom as a Ticket for Power

President Bush exploits the word
“freedom” more than any other
president. Unfortunately, Americans
are sufficiently ignorant that almost
any reference to freedom garners
applause. “Freedom” has become
simply another word to lull listeners
to whatever politicians are pushing.

Spring Breakthrough for 9/11 Truth

Alex Jones,Webster Tarpley, and Charlie Sheen
on Corporate Media

If the Congress had any commitment to the
Constitution, Bush would have been impeached
a long time ago

(audio) James Fetzer, PhD: The Congress is
Corrupt (1.5 min mp3 play at work)

U.N. to Inspect Iran Enrichment Program

The International Atomic Energy Agency - the
U.N. nuclear watchdog - is clearly rankled by
the U.S. assertions just days ahead of a trip
by IAEA inspectors to Natanz, the site of
Iran's known enrichment efforts.

The information on where Iran was on
enrichment and where it was headed was not
new, but the U.S. officials claimed "the
... IAEA was blown away by (Iran's) progress
and had the U.S. redefining its timeline"

Homeland security group to
meet away from public eye

A new advisory committee in the Homeland
Security Department is free to disregard
a law designed to keep meetings open and
proceedings public, according to a
departmental notice.

How To Steal an Election

It's easier to rig an electronic voting
machine than a Las Vegas slot machine, says
University of Pennsylvania visiting professor
Steve Freeman. That's because Vegas slots are
better monitored and regulated than America's
voting machines, Freeman writes in a book out
in July that argues, among other things, that
President Bush may owe his 2004 win to an
unfair vote count.

Court Grants Request to Question
Abramoff in SunCruz Slaying Trial

Abramoff and Adam Kidan have insisted,
through their attorneys, that they know
nothing about the slaying of Konstantinos
"Gus" Boulis, who was ambushed in his car by
a gunman in Fort Lauderdale a few months
after the pair bought SunCruz Casinos from
him.

Meatpacker Sues Feds Over Mad Cow Test

A Kansas meatpacker sued the government on
Thursday for refusing to let the company test
for mad cow disease in every animal it
slaughters.

Bush Was Set on Path to War,
Memo by British Adviser Says

"The U.S. was thinking of flying U2
reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover
over Iraq, painted in U.N. colours," the memo
says, attributing the idea to Mr. Bush. "If
Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach."
March 27, 2006

Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement

In addendum to law, he says oversight rules
are not binding
March 24, 2006

9/11 Trial Reveals Troubles Then, and Ahead

In his eyes, whatever threat Moussaoui
had posed was neutralized by his arrest.
For that reason, Rolince said, the search
warrants were not approved.

Instead, Rolince OKd Samit's last-ditch
idea to fly with Moussaoui when he was
deported back to Europe. Moussaoui's bags
and other belongings would be automatically
subject to inspection there.

Rolince gave his approval late in the day,
on Sept. 10.

Bush shuns Patriot Act requirement

In addendum to law, he says oversight
rules are not binding

Justice Department responds to House
questions on NSA wiretapping program


The US Justice Department has responded to
questions from Republican and Democratic
members of the House Judiciary Committee on
President Bush's warantless wiretapping of
international calls, releasing their
responses quietly on a Friday afternoon.

Good versus evil isn't a strategy

For years, the president has acted as if Al
Qaeda, Saddam Hussein's followers and Iran's
mullahs were parts of the same problem. Yet,
in the 1980s, Hussein's Iraq and Iran fought
a brutal war. In the 1990s, Al Qaeda's allies
murdered a group of Iranian diplomats. For
years, Osama bin Laden ridiculed Hussein, who
persecuted Sunni and Shiite religious leaders
alike. When Al Qaeda struck the U.S. on 9/11,
Iran condemned the attacks and later
participated constructively in talks on
Afghanistan.

KSG Seeks Distance from Paper
Controversial paper on “Israel Lobby

” will not display KSG logo or series

Yesterday’s issue of The New York Sun
reported that an “observer” familiar
with Harvard said that the University had
received calls from “pro-Israel donors”
concerned about the KSG paper. One of the
calls, the source told The Sun, was from
Robert Belfer, a former Enron director who
endowed Walt’s professorship when he
donated $7.5 million to the Kennedy
School’s Center for Science and
International Affairs in 1997.

Israeli Software Firm Abandons U.S. Deal

Check Point had been told U.S. officials
feared the transaction could endanger some of
government's most sensitive computer systems.

US asks Japan to stop
Iran oil development-paper

Apocalyptic president

Even some Republicans are now horrified
by the influence Bush has given to the
evangelical right
March 23, 2006

Former first lady's donation aids son

Katrina funds earmarked to pay for Neil
Bush's software program

Government Won't Allow Mad
Cow Tests; Meatpacker Sues

The Agriculture Department threatened
criminal prosecution if Creekstone did the
tests, according to the company's lawsuit
filed in U.S. District Court in Washington.
March 23, 2006
The biggest Patriot Act bombshell of recent
times detonated last November when the
Washington Post revealed that the FBI is
issuing 30,000 National Security Letters
(NSLs) a year. The Patriot Act made it far
easier for the FBI to use NSLs to compel
private citizens, banks, nonprofits, and
other entities to surrender information upon
demand. These subpoenas, like Section 215
searches, are accompanied by a gag order:
Anyone who discloses receiving such a
“letter” can be sent to prison.

We don't need reason to hold you, Hammoudeh told

Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyers
argue they can hold someone six months
without justifying it.

Charlie Sheen Questions
Official 9/11 Explanations

"Young and Restless" Star
Weighs in on Political Topics

CNN Produces Balanced Piece
On Sheen 9/11 Comments

Fly Into a Building? Who Could Imagine?

Three little words:
Still employed there.

Bush Slipping and Spinning
on Iraq and Wiretaps

No needless partisanship? It's not needless
partisanship to accuse the Democrats of being
opposed to a "terrorist surveillance program"?
This was a good example of the White House's
Rove-ian response to criticism of the
wiretapping program: equate the controversial
(if not illegal) wiretapping with all
surveillance conducted of terrorist suspects,
including that which occurs lawfully under
the authority of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act and is monitored by the FISA
court established by that law.

A Punchy President Meets the Press

March 22, 2006

Bush Bombs in Cleveland

On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported
that a treasure trove of translations of
audio tapes of top-level Iraqi meetings
involving Hussein, released at the request
of U.S. Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the Republican
chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,
show that Iraq destroyed its WMD program by
1992. Those tapes were obtained soon after
the 2003 invasion, yet the Bush administration
kept them secret while continuing to assert
that Iraq had an active WMD program.

Why does Bush keep lying
about the weapons inspectors?

Iraq: The big lie

Bush and Rumsfeld robotically repeat their
Iraq talking points, ignoring the fact that
their ambassador and generals are
contradicting them.
In a tone of moral indignation after bomb
attacks in Iraq this week, al-Sadr said of
Rumsfeld, "May God damn you. You said in the
past that civil war would break out if you
were to withdraw, and now you say that in
case of civil war you won't interfere." No
one argued with al-Sadr's logic.

Russ Never Sleeps

Myth-making and excuse-making
on the Feingold Resolution

In defending itself, the Administration is
offering only legal arguments -- not factual
disputes -- as to why it had the right to
eavesdrop without complying with the law
(namely, that the President has inherent
authority to eavesdrop even if the law
prohibits it, and that Congress gave him
implicit permission to eavesdropping outside
of FISA when it enacted the AUMF). But the
Administration is not denying -- and has
never denied -- the fact that it engaged in
the very warrantless eavesdropping covered by
FISA.

Using character smears to prevent
foreign policy discussions

IRS plans to allow preparers to sell data

Critics said the proposed regulation could
lead to a loss of privacy for clients.

Bush warns Iran on Israel

"The threat from Iran is, of course, their
stated objective to destroy our strong ally
Israel. That's a threat, a serious threat.
It's a threat to world peace," the US
president said after a speech defending the
war in Iraq.

Bush: U.S. will protect Israel

Asked about Iran’s nuclear threat, he
said, “The threat from Iran is, of course,
their stated objective to destroy our strong
ally, Israel. That’s a threat, a serious
threat. It’s a threat to world peace,
it’s a threat, in essence, to a strong
alliance. I’ve made it clear, and I’ll
make it clear again, that we will use
military might to protect our ally, Israel.

Those Lies, Again

Even in ancient times, democracies often
were the instigators of war. Democratic
Athens broke the Peace of Nicias in 418
B.C. by attacking undemocratic Sparta. The
Roman Republic waged war on its neighbors
for generations before it became an empire.

Even in American history, the democratic
government of the United States has waged war
against Native Americans, Spaniards, Mexicans
and even against other Americans in the Civil
War. In modern times, the United States also
has gone to war without direct provocation,
most notably in Vietnam in the 1960s and in
Iraq now.

European democracies have a similarly spotty
record.

A Sliding Scale for Victory

As the conflict in Iraq enters its fourth
year and civil war threatens, the Bush
administration is again working to lower
expectations.

U.S. abuses extended beyond Abu Ghraib

Death raises concern at police tactics

Peter Kraska, an expert on police
militarisation from Eastern Kentucky
University, says that in the 1980s there
were about 3,000 Swat team deployments
annually across the US, but says now
there are at least 40,000 per year.

Downtown protesters mark
Iraq war's anniversary


March 20, 2006

How Would a Patriot Act?

At its core, this scandal is not and has
never been about the scope of eavesdropping
powers which the Government ought to have.

It is much more significant than that.

The Bubble Squad: Shape-shifting
Republican operatives impersonate reporters
and the Secret Service

Bush's Iran plan a time bomb with explosive results

If the US had to find euros (or yuan) to pay
for its oil, it would have to increase taxes,
cut consumption and increase exports. In
short, according to this scenario, the US
could no longer afford to be a military
superpower and would have to cut back its
global adventures.

If the Republicans lost control of Congress,
the way becomes open for hearings into the
constitutionality of the Bush
Administration's use of wiretaps on Americans
without warrants as required by legislation.

Cheney announced he has been drafted

New York Times Shines Shills Again

The New York Times has had some remarkable
coverage about Senator Feingold's censure
resolution. Remarkable in its naivete and
lack of balance. -John Conyers

Children of Abraham: Death in the Desert

by Chris Floyd
We know that two Iraqi police officials,
Major Ali Ahmed and Colonel Farouq Hussein
– both employed by the U.S.-backed Iraqi
government – told Reuters that the 11
occupants of the house, including the five
children, had been bound and shot in the
head before the house was blown up.
March 19, 2006

Bush at the Tipping Point: A
Lawless and Incompetent Leadership

By Ralph Nader

Task Force 6-26 In Secret Unit's 'Black
Room,' a Grim Portrait of U.S. Abuse

Task Force 6-26

Hell, Yes, They Knew

The lapdog media loves to talk about the
chances that the Clinton administration had
to collar Osama bin Laden that it supposedly
"turned down." Not true. In March and April
of 1996, the administration brokered an
agreement with the government of Sudan to
arrest bin Laden and turn him over to Saudi
Arabia. For ten weeks, Clinton tried to
persuade the Saudis to accept the offer. They
refused. With no cooperation from the Saudis,
and no case to mount indictments with in the
U.S. judicial system, the deal fell apart.

Killing Women and Children: The “My
Lai Phase” Of The Iraq War

The US military openly admits it attacked
the house in Ishaqi where the incident took
place. Reuters reports that, “Major Ali
Ahmed of the Ishaqi police said US forces
landed on the roof of the house in the early
hours and shot the 11 occupants, including
five children.”

“After they left the house they blew it
up”, he said. “The bodies, their hands
bound, had been dumped in one room before the
house was destroyed,” (policeman) Hussein
said. Police had found spent American issue
cartridges in the rubble.” (Reuters)

The autopsy report at the Tikrit hospital
said, “All the victims had gunshot wounds
to the head”.

Iraqi policeman Farouq Hussein noted, “It
is a clear and perfect crime without any
doubt”. -03/20/06

Iraq: Next Steps for U.S. Policy

by Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski
Neither President Truman nor Eisenhower –
Democrat and Republican – ever spoke of
America being a “nation at war” during
the Korean War. Neither President Johnson nor
Nixon ever spoke of America being a
“nation at war” during the Vietnam
War. -3/16/06

Saddam Was Trying to Capture Zarqawi

March 16, 2006

The Merton file / Dissent was
once a cherished American value

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Gerry Adams Detained By US Terror Forces

Gerry Adams was detained at a Washington
airport after his name appeared on a terror
watch list. It came shortly after celebrating
St Patrick's Day with George Bush at The
White House. He was held for more than an
hour.

AP Erases Video of Israeli Soldier Shooting Palestinian Boy

Who Is Osama? Where Did He Come From?
How Did He Escape? What About Those
Anthrax Attacks?

In fact, the U.S. government engaged in a
massive covert operation to infiltrate
Islamic fighters, many of them veterans of
the Afghan war, into the Balkans for the
purpose of undermining the Milosevic
government.

Bush Using Straw-Man Arguments in Speeches

"It's such a phenomenal hole in the national
debate that you can have arguments with
nonexistent people," Fields said. "All
politicians try to get away with this to a
certain extent. What's striking here is how
much this administration rests on a
foundation of this kind of stuff."

Bush has caricatured the other side for
years, trying to tilt legislative debates in
his favor or score election-season points
with voters.

New Scientist Stealth sharks
to patrol the high seas

Engineers funded by the US military have
created a neural implant designed to enable
a shark's brain signals to be manipulated
remotely, controlling the animal's movements,
and perhaps even decoding what it is feeling.

The Torture Judge

U.S. court rules our government can break
international laws to keep us safe
In a startling, ominous decision—ignored
by most of the press around the
country—Federal District Judge David
Trager, in the Eastern District of New York,
has dismissed a lawsuit by a Canadian
citizen, Maher Arar, who, during a stopover
at Kennedy Airport on the way home to Canada
after vacation, was kidnapped by CIA agents.

Britain breaks with the US over Iran

Britain has told the United States that it
will not take part in any armed action
against Iran’s nuclear sites, according to
diplomatic sources in London.

The Israel Lobby

Beginning in the 1990s, and even more after
9/11, US support has been justified by the
claim that both states are threatened by
terrorist groups originating in the Arab and
Muslim world, and by ‘rogue states’
that back these groups and seek weapons of
mass destruction. This is taken to mean not
only that Washington should give Israel a
free hand in dealing with the Palestinians
and not press it to make concessions until
all Palestinian terrorists are imprisoned or
dead, but that the US should go after
countries like Iran and Syria. Israel is thus
seen as a crucial ally in the war on terror,
because its enemies are America’s
enemies. In fact, Israel is a liability in
the war on terror and the broader effort to
deal with rogue states.

US denies strike-first policy targets Iran

March 17, 2006

Police Memos Say Arrest Tactics Calmed Protest

In five internal reports made public
yesterday as part of a lawsuit, New York City
police commanders candidly discuss how they
had successfully used "proactive arrests,"
covert surveillance and psychological tactics
at political demonstrations in 2002, and
recommend that those approaches be employed
at future gatherings.

Among the most effective strategies, one
police captain wrote, was the seizure of
demonstrators on Fifth Avenue who were
described as "obviously potential rioters."
... About 30 people were arrested there, and
virtually all their cases are now sealed,
indicating that the charges were either
dismissed by prosecutors or dropped after six
months without further incident.
March 17, 2006

Hospital probed over baby release

Israel's justice ministry is investigating a
hospital that allegedly held a newborn baby
as a "guarantee" until a bill was paid.

Iraq & the Nuremberg Precedent

March 16, 2006

Tin Foil Hat Tango

Moussaoui is facing the death penalty, but
he didn't kill anybody. The reason prosecutors
are seeking capital punishment is this:
they're arguing that, had Moussaoui told
all when he was picked up, 9/11 could have
been prevented by airline security. This
argument, at least to the keen ears of
American lawyers, sounded like an admission
that, had American known (and don't forget
they were warned that something was up by the
FAA weeks before), they could have stopped
the hijacking. Hence, testimony to this
effect could be very damaging, not in the
criminal case, but in the tort suit against
American.

Three Years On: Survey Shows
Misinformation on Iraq Endures

Despite one official finding after another,
debunking the involvement of Saddam Hussein's
Iraq in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on
America, nearly one in four Americans
continue to embrace that notion. And nearly 6
in 10 are fairly certain, contrary to most
evidence, that Iraq did have WMDs before the
war started. -March 17, 2006

United States v. Zacarias Moussaoui

Criminal No. 01-455-A
E-Mail Alerts

Brzezinski calls for Iraq pullout

"We are teaching them about democracy by
arresting them, bombing them, by
humiliating them and also helping them.
It is an ambivalent course in democracy."

Democracy Push by Bush Attracts Doubters in Party

"There's an assumption here that somehow you
can neatly build a civil society, and neatly
build the habits of democracy, and then you
take off the authoritarian hat and everything's
in place for democracy to rise," Ms. Rice said,
when asked about such criticism. "I just don't
think it works that way in the real world."

The President Has Broken the Law

President Bush Must Be Held Accountable for
His Illegal Domestic Spying Program
By Sen. Russell Feingold
March 16, 2006

Study: U.S. Middle East policy
motivated by pro-Israel lobby

By Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz Correspondent
The U.S. Middle East policy is not in
America's national interest and is motivated
primarily by the country's pro-Israel lobby,
according to a study published Thursday by
researchers from Harvard University and the
University of Chicago.

"No lobby has managed to divert U.S. foreign
policy as far from what the American national
interest would otherwise suggest, while
simultaneously convincing Americans that
U.S. and Israeli interests are essentially
identical," write the authors of the study.

Retirees Have Pointed Questions for Bush

The new Nixon Law is introduced --
that which the President does is legal

...
Laws passed by Congress which are designed to
place limits on the President's actions are
worthless because the President has claimed
the power to ignore those laws.
March 17, 2006

Preemptive Strike Out

This morning's news that President Bush is
reasserting his doctrine of preemptive war
is a bit of a surprise because, well, I
think most people thought the Bush Doctrine
was dead.

How can Bush still argue for attacking
another country based on his suspicions
about their intentions -- when the first
time he tried it, his public case turned
out to be so utterly specious?

Defense Files Objection to Reconsideration
of Moussaoui Ruling

March 16, 2006

‘Gitmo’ prisoners wrapped in Israeli flags

Thomas Kinkade's "Meth Lab in
the Woods" a Poor Seller

First poll - Americans support
Censure Resolution

March 16, 2006

Half of Americans Say Bush Misled on WMD's

March 16, 2006

Greek general strike shuts down country

Greek private and public sector unions
launched a 24-hour strike on Wednesday in
protest against government economic reforms,
shutting down most of the country and
crippling transport.

"Freeing" Iraq's Economy - For Its Occupiers

Not satisfied with creating an overarching
Bank, and giving its control to a US firm,
the CPA issued the "Iraq Banking Law," Order
40, on September 24, 2003. "The new banking
law permits six foreign banks over the next
five years the right to enter the Iraqi
market. An unlimited number of banks may
purchase up to 50% of an Iraqi bank." (19)
Thus immense control has been opened up for
foreign capital into the Iraqi economy -- by
determining credits, loans, and influencing
finances. (20)

Prosecutors Scramble to
Salvage 9/11 Case After Ruling

March 16, 2006
wherein we prove that the "wartime president"
defense is inconsequential - no - make that
outright "lame" -March 13, 2006

Was Milosevic Poisoned?

Milosevic contends he acted in defense of
the Serbs against Muslim extremists. He
claims he was fighting the same type of
terrorism the United States is now battling
in Afghanistan and elsewhere. At that time,
the United States gave active support to the
Kosovo Liberation Army, a Muslim terrorist
group financed by the Third World Relief
Agency, through which Osama bin Laden and
others funneled $350 million. Milosevic
insists that his pleas to Clinton to get bin
Laden out of Kosovo were ignored; instead,
Clinton allied with the Albanian Muslims
against the Serbs.

Bruce Schneier: Your vanishing privacy

Over the past 20 years, there's been a sea
change in the battle for personal privacy.
The pervasiveness of computers has resulted
in the almost constant surveillance of
everyone, with profound implications for our
society and our freedoms. Corporations and
the police are both using this new trove of
surveillance data. We as a society need to
understand the technological trends and
discuss their implications. If we ignore the
problem and leave it to the "market," we'll
all find that we have almost no privacy
left.

Stephen Elliott: Supporting Feingold

A Peculiar Politician

Senator Russ Feingold is an embarrassment to
the US Senate, which makes him an authentic
hero of the Republic. The Wisconsin senator
gets up and says out loud what half of the
country is thinking and talks about every
day. This President broke the law and lied
about it; he trashed the Constitution and
hides himself in the flag. Feingold asks:
Shouldn't the Senate say something about
this, at least express our disapproval? He
introduces a resolution of censure and calls
for debate. -March 14, 2006

UK govt urges British to leave
Palestinian territories after Israel
raid

The anger followed Britain's withdrawal of
three monitors from a prison run with
Anglo-US supervision in the West Bank town of
Jericho just minutes before a massive Israeli
assault.

Around 180 Palestinians were taken into
Israeli custody during the raid on the prison
compound in Jericho, a military spokesman
said.

"We have detained around 180 people at this
point. I stress that right now they're not
officially under arrest," he told Agence
France-Presse.

Israeli troops backed by tanks and
helicopters stormed the prison compound to
seize militants held over the assassination
of an Israeli minister in 2001.

"We haven't arrested any of those we've come
to arrest yet," the army spokesman added.

Lessons of Iraq War start with U.S. history

By Howard Zinn

Pakistan weekly spills 9/11 beans

New Delhi, March 12: The Pakistan foreign
office had paid tens of thousands of dollars
to lobbyists in the US to get anti-Pakistan
references dropped from the 9/11 inquiry
commission report, The Friday Times has
claimed.

American arrested with arms in Iraq, official says

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - An American described as
a security contractor arrested by police in a
northern Iraqi town was carrying weapons in
his car, a provincial official said.

Surprise! Dems pretty much wimp out on
Feingold and censure. And NYT adopts GOP
talking points

Bush ready to initiate 'regime
change' for the mullahs

After five years of indecision and internal
disputes the Bush administration has started
a new, more vigorous phase in trying to
undermine the ruling mullahs of Iran.

The phrase "regime change" is seen as too
loaded to use in public but in effect that is
what the administration is hoping to do,
according to officials in Washington.

Inherent, Not Absolute Authority, Senator Specter

by georgia10
In his ill-informed "rebuttal" to Senator
Feingold's censure motion, Senator Specter
falsely claimed that FISA conflicts with the
President's Article II authority. It's an
argument we've heard since the defenses of
the program first began "evolving," but
Specter's invocation of an patently false
legal claim proves this horse isn't dead yet,
so allow me to beat it one more time.
March 13, 2006

Former top judge says US risks
edging near to dictatorship

· Sandra Day O'Connor warns of
rightwing attacks
· Lawyers 'must speak up' to
protect judiciary
March 13, 2006

U.S. Push for Democracy
Could Backfire Inside Iran

TEHRAN -- Prominent activists inside Iran say
President Bush's plan to spend tens of
millions of dollars to promote democracy here
is the kind of help they don't need, warning
that mere announcement of the U.S. program
endangers human rights advocates by tainting
them as American agents.

"“He Shall Direct Thy Paths to the
Weapons of Mass Destruction.”

The former U.N. inspector behind the
“Saddam Tapes” says God revealed
WMD sites to him.

'Leprosy drug in Milosevic's blood'

Traces of a drug used to treat leprosy and
tuberculosis were found in a blood sample
taken in recent months from former Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic, a news report
has said.

Editorial About That Rebellion ...

We keep hearing that the Republicans in
Congress are in revolt against the president.

Some rebellion. -March 11, 2006

Spitzer Collects Endorsements And Heckles

Internet blows CIA cover

In addition to stepping up recruiting, Goss
has ordered a "top-down" review of the
agency's "tradecraft" following the
disclosure that several supposedly covert
operatives involved in the 2003 abduction of
a radical Muslim preacher in Milan, Italy,
had registered at hotels under their true
names and committed other amateurish
procedural violations that made it relatively
easy for the Italian police to identify them
and for Italian prosecutors to charge them
with kidnapping.

Feingold announces he will
move to censure President

RAW STORY
March 12, 2006

300,000 Marched in Chicago Friday.
Why Doesn't Anyone Know?

FBI supervisor David Frasca and his

underling, Michael Maltbie failed to permit FBI agents to request a FISA warrant for
Moussaoui but also altered the agent’s
initial request for it.

30 US Reps for Bush Impeachment Inquiry APN

Interviews Conyers, Swanson, and Goodman
30 US House Representatives have signed on as
sponsors or co-sponsors of H. Res 635, which
would create a Select Committee to look into
the grounds for recommending President
Bush’s impeachment, Atlanta Progressive
News has learned.

US Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) withdrew her name
from H. Res 635 last month, whereas she had
been listed as a cosponsor throughout January
2006. Lofgren cited a clerical error for her
name having been listed in the first place.

A trip down right-wing memory lane

What "conservatives" used to say about the
Limits of the Federal Government, the Dangers
of Surveillance Powers, and Investigations
into Alleged Governmental Law-breaking

One of the most truly extraordinary
spectacles to witness is the way in which so
many self-proclaimed conservatives have shed
their core defining "principles" in order to
justify and defend the ever-expanding powers
of the Federal Government under the Bush
Administration. Throughout the 1990s,
conservatism was defined by its fear of
expansive powers seized by the Federal
Government -- particularly domestic law
enforcement and surveillance
powers. Conservatives vigorously opposed
every proposal to expand government
investigative and surveillance power on the
ground that such powers posed intolerable
threats to our liberties. -March 11, 2006

Ridge: War on terror will not end

Former homeland security secretary speaks at Mercer
When answering a question as to whether the
government's efforts to protect citizens is
jeopardizing freedoms, Ridge said he believes
there is a place for measures such as the
Patriot Act in pursuing terrorists, but
cautioned against curtailing civil liberties.

"We can't give up our freedoms even a little
bit because then (terrorists) start winning
and we can't allow them even a small
victory."

The Death of the Intelligence Panel

The Republicans' idea of supervision
involves saying the White House should
get a warrant for spying whenever possible.
Currently a warrant is needed, period.
And that's the right law. The White House
has not offered a scrap of evidence
that it interferes with antiterrorist
operations. Mr. Bush simply decided the
law did not apply to him.

"A Slightly After-The-Fact Quality"

by georgia10
In response to a lawsuit filed by the
Electronic Privacy Information Center, the
ACLU, and the National Security Archive, the
government has released a minuscule amount of
information about the illegal domestic spying
program. (See the documents here.) Part of
the handful of documents disclosed is a
series of emails between a former Associate
Deputy Attorney General David Kris and
Courtney Elwood, Attorney General Gonzales's
Chief of Staff. The correspondence, taking
place after the story broke in the New York
Times, reveals a behind-the-scenes scramble
to find legal footing for the program.
March 9, 2006

Democrat Says Spy Briefings Violated Law

Ms. Harman wrote in her letter that the law
allowed briefings to be limited to the eight
leaders only in cases of covert action. The
National Security Agency program does not
qualify as a covert action, which the law
says does not include activities whose
"primary purpose is to acquire intelligence,"
she wrote.

A window into the Bush Administration's
legal manuevering

The Patriot Act made many significant
changes to FISA--changes which were made
permanent by this bill--but there is one
crucial provision that has not changed; FISA
still clearly states that its procedures
"shall be the exclusive means by which
electronic surveillance . . . may be
conducted." In other words, the President
has once again reaffirmed the validity of
a law which expressly criminalizes the type
of warrantless surveillance which his
administration has been conducting for
four and a half years. -March 10, 2006

Feds Order U.S. Banks to Sever Syria Ties

Acting to crack down on terrorist financing,
the Treasury Department on Thursday ordered
all commercial banks in the United States to
end their relationships with two Syrian
banks. -March 9, 2006

"Freeing" Iraq's Economy - For Its Occupiers

Operating the Trade Bank of Iraq will give
banks access to the financial system of Iraq,
where foreign bank companies haven't operated
since a policy of nationalization in the
1950s and 1960s. And who will operate the
Trade Bank? JP Morgan Chase & Co, the second
largest US bank by assets, which also
happened to give $105,705 to Bush's 2000
campaign, making him the fourth-biggest
recipient of Chase political contributions
since 1990, will lead a group that includes
thirteen banks representing thirteen
countries to run the Bank for three
years. (18)

Not satisfied with creating an overarching
Bank, and giving its control to a US firm,
the CPA issued the "Iraq Banking Law," Order
40, on September 24, 2003. "The new banking
law permits six foreign banks over the next
five years the right to enter the Iraqi
market. An unlimited number of banks may
purchase up to 50% of an Iraqi bank."

Big Bucks in Iraq

The new laws, drafted by the CPA, allow
foreign investors to own 100 percent of any
Iraqi asset except oil and real estate and to remit profits and royalties when they
choose. They also reduce import tariffs to 5
percent and allow foreign banks to take over
the country's banking system. Iraq is now
"one of the most open countries in the
world," proclaimed Gailani. But his reforms
were denounced by Iraq's leading business
association, which warned that the new laws
would "destroy the role of the Iraqi
industrialist."

Many observers, including even US businessmen
and Iraqis who favored "regime change" in
Iraq, agree. They say the shock therapy being
applied in Iraq will concentrate wealth in
the hands of large US and Iraqi corporations,
particularly the family-owned businesses that
have won the majority of subcontracts from
Bechtel and Halliburton.

Moussaoui was a flight school washout

'He wasn't a good stick,' fellow student
testifies

Pentagon admits errors in spying on protesters

NBC: Official says peaceful demonstrators’
names erased from database -March 10, 2006
The Department of Defense admitted in a
letter obtained by NBC News on Thursday that
it had wrongly added peaceful demonstrators
to a database of possible domestic terrorist
threats. The letter followed an NBC report
focusing on the Defense Department’s
Threat and Local Observation Notice, or
TALON, report.

No Evidence al-Qaida Planned Madrid Attacks

A two-year probe into the Madrid train
bombings concludes the Islamic terrorists
who carried out the blasts were homegrown
radicals acting on their own rather than
at the behest of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida
network, two senior intelligence officials
said.
The attack has been frequently described as
al-Qaida-linked since a man who identified
himself as Abu Dujan al-Afghani and said he
was al-Qaida's "European military spokesman,"
claimed responsibility in a video released
two days later.

WHIG: The Sequel

With all the sabre-rattling over Iran, it
should come as no surprise that the U.S. is
now establishing a special office solely to
deal with Iran. But even they aren't foolish
enough to make such obvious comparisons to
the Iraq campaign; this one is called the
"Office of Iran Affairs."

Post-mortem on the Intelligence Committee vote

The Administration has told Congress to
its face that it has the power to ignore
Congressional laws with regard to
eavesdropping and that it is free to defy
Congressional law mandating briefings on
these types of intelligence activities. So,
Congress' response is to pass another law
to replace the one the White House violated,
and to require some more briefing. Isn't
that too absurd even for the Congress? At
the very least, would it be possible for
the media to explain to the public what
has happened here? -March 08, 2006
Days after the bombing of a Shiite shrine
unleashed a wave of retaliatory killings of
Sunnis, the leading Shiite party in Iraq's
governing coalition directed the Health
Ministry to stop tabulating execution-style
shootings, according to a ministry official
familiar with the recording of deaths.

The Dilemma Of The Last Sovereign

By Zbigniew Brezezinski

Might not efforts to perpetuate America’s
unique status as an unconstrained sovereign
eventually come to threaten America’s
national security, and its civil liberty as
well?

America needs to face squarely a centrally
important new global reality: that the
world’s population is experiencing a
political awakening unprecedented in scope
and intensity, with the result that the
politics of populism are transforming the
politics of power.

Shock And Awe; The sequel

The Bush administration has unilaterally
repealed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty
(NPT) by demanding that Iran cease all
uranium enrichment. This action overturns the
central principle of the treaty which
provides states with the “inalienable
right” (NPT phrase) to enrich uranium for
peaceful purposes. Two years of intrusive
inspections by the UN watchdog agency (IAEA)
have not produced “any evidence of nuclear
weapons programs” or any diversion of
nuclear material. Nevertheless, the US
insists that Iran be deprived of the same
right that is afforded to every other
signatory of the NPT.

G.O.P. Senators Say Accord Is Set on Wiretapping

The measure would require the administration
to seek a warrant from the court whenever
possible.
...
If the administration elects not to do so
after 45 days, the attorney general must
certify that the surveillance is necessary to
protect the country and explain to the
subcommittee why the administration has not
sought a warrant.
...
Republicans on the committee, however,
emphasized the administration's resistance to
the accord. Senator Pat Roberts, the Kansas
Republican who is chairman of the
Intelligence Committee and helped broker the
deal, called it "the agreement we insisted
upon."
...
But Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon,
compared the proposed bill to a doctor's
diagnosis of an unexamined patient.
-March 8, 2006

Gonzales defends conditions at Guantanamo

Gonzales May Be Recalled on Eavesdropping

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' written
answers to questions about the Bush
administration's eavesdropping program may
require him to testify a second time before
the Senate Judiciary Committee, the panel's
Republican chairman said Monday.

More pushback from Hill on eavesdropping

"Saudi Group Alleges Wiretapping by U.S.

Defunct Charity's Suit Details Eavesdropping
Documents cited in federal court by a defunct
Islamic charity may provide the first
detailed evidence of U.S. residents being
spied upon by President Bush's secret
eavesdropping program, according to the
organization's lawsuit and a source familiar
with the case. ...
According to a source familiar with the case,
the records indicate that the National
Security Agency intercepted several
conversations in March and April 2004 between
al-Haramain's director, who was in Saudi
Arabia, and two U.S. citizens in Washington
who were working as lawyers for the
organization.

Can We Fix Iraq?

This advice, if taken, would clear out most
of our current members of Congress, before or
during the next election. It would put
right-wing administration-apologist talk
radio and TV completely out of business, and
it would crush the emerging left-wing critics
who want more government power in order to
"fix" someone else.

Thousands of Federal Trials Kept Secret

Despite the Sixth Amendment's guarantee of
public trials, nearly all records are being
kept secret for more than 5,000 defendants
who completed their journey through the
federal courts over the last three
years. Instances of such secrecy more than
doubled from 2003 to 2005.

DOJ opens probe into online music pricing: sources

The U.S. Department of Justice has opened an
investigation into online music pricing at
the world's major music labels, sources
familiar with the matter said on Thursday.

The DOJ probe closely tracks a similar
investigation by New York State Attorney
General Eliot Spitzer into the pricing of
digital music downloads, the sources said.

Top CIA Official Under Investigation

A stunning investigation of bribery and
corruption in Congress has spread to the
CIA, ABC News has learned.
The CIA Inspector General has opened an
investigation into the spy agency's executive
director, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, and his
connections to two defense contractors
accused of bribing a member of Congress
and Pentagon officials.

The newest set of changes quietly
went into effect 14 February 2005.

The unclassified regulations describe their
purpose as follows: "This regulation provides
Army policy and guidance for establishing
civilian inmate labor programs and civilian
prison camps on Army installations.

"Mystery Woman" Told Military of Atta Long Before Sept. 11

The source of the photo, O'Connor now
writes, is "a female contract employee of
defense contractor Orion Scientific,"
nowadays a data-mining subsidiary of SRA with
heavy Homeland Security involvements. This
would appear to confirm an earlier assertion
by Orion employee James D. Smith, who had
also worked with Able Danger, "that
Mr. Atta's name and photograph were obtained
[in 2000] through a private researcher in
California who was paid to gather the
information from contacts in the Middle
East." Since that story was already in the
New York Times of Aug. 23, 2005, we wonder
why it should take until now for a Pentagon
inspector-general to "identify" someone who
was working for the Pentagon in the first
place.

Progressive genocide

In 1907, Indiana passed "the first
sterilization law in human history,"
Bruinius writes, and "in the next two
decades, the United States became the
pioneer in state-sanctioned programs to
rid society of the 'unfit.'" At least
30 states enacted similar laws, and
sterilization became routine. California,
which ran the most aggressive program,
sterilized more than 2,500 people in a
10-year period; in all, more than 65,000
Americans were rendered infertile.

Gonzales: I didn't mean what I
said when I said what I said

When Alberto Gonzales appeared before the
Senate Judiciary Committee last month,
Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy asked him to say
when it was that the White House first
decided that its warrantless spying program
was authorized by the use-of-force
authorization Congress passed in the wake of
9/11.

"From the very outset" and "before the
program actually commenced," Gonzales said."

The US's Nuclear Cave-in

The Indian leaders and press are crowing
about their victory over the United
States. For good reason: President Bush has
done what Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy
Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and his
own father refused to do - break US and
international law to aid India's
nuclear-weapons program. In 1974, India
cheated on its agreements with the United
States and other nations to do what Iran is
accused of doing now: using a peaceful
nuclear energy program to build a nuclear
bomb. -March 4, 2006

Alleged terror plot 'trainer' worked for FBI

There is a new twist in the Chicago
connection to an al Qaeda terror plot. The
scheme to attack American soldiers overseas
involved a former member of the US military
who was secretly working for the FBI.

U.S. panel objects to software
handover to Israeli company

The same Bush administration review panel
that approved a ports deal involving the
United Arab Emirates has notified a leading
Israeli software company that it faces a
rare, full-blown investigation over its
plans to buy a smaller rival.

"Wanted: Competent Big Brothers"

As the Senate frets over whether the NSA has
violated the outdated Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act, no one is paying attention
to the real issue: proficiency.

The Bush administration calls the war on
terror "the long war." But if we are to take
the president and his aides at their word, it
is more like a permanent war, one that by
definition can never end.

Senate Approves Patriot Act Renewal

The Senate's passage of the USA Patriot Act
hands President Bush a victory in his
troubled second term and allows the
Republicans to polish their tough-on-terror
image for the midterm elections.

The 89-10 vote on Thursday was months overdue
and came only after a Democrat-led filibuster
that attracted GOP support forced Bush to
accept modest curbs on the government's power
to investigate suspects in terror probes.

"The erosion of freedom rarely comes as an
all-out frontal assault," warned Byrd, the
dean of the Senate. "Rather, it is a gradual,
noxious creeping cloaked in secrecy and
glossed over by reassurances of greater
security."

The "no" votes came from Jim Jeffords, I-Vt.,
and Feingold, Byrd and seven other Senate
Democrats: Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, Jeff
Bingaman of New Mexico, Tom Harkin of Iowa,
Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Carl Levin of
Michigan, Patty Murray of Washington and Ron
Wyden of Oregon.

What Bush Was Told About Iraq

Two highly classified intelligence reports
delivered directly to President Bush before
the Iraq war cast doubt on key public
assertions made by the president, Vice
President Cheney, and other administration
officials as justifications for invading
Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein, according
to records and knowledgeable sources.
March 2, 2006

Lawmaker: Port deal never probed for terror ties

"Congressman, you don't understand, we don't
conduct a thorough investigation. We just ask
the intel director if there is anything on
file, and he said no."

"There was no real investigation conducted
during the 30-day period," King, who has been
a vocal critic of the deal, told CNN. "I
can't emphasize this enough,"

King's comments appear to contradict
testimony by administration officials before
Congress this week that a through review of
any terrorism ties had occurred during the
initial review of the deal.
March 1, 2006

Bush Katrina Video Lie Will Be Ignored Too

March 2, 2006

I Blame Al Gore

Because I am about to criticize certain
actions of the US government, I hereby insist
that any reader who is not a citizen of the
United States cease reading this post, lest I
criticize America in front of a foreign
audience. Such behavior is unacceptable, and
given that the Internet is a global medium
like television and print media, I am always
careful what I say. -February 28, 2006



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