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Iraqi parliament votes to stop rubber-stamping endless war| |
Excerpt: In Baghdad, Iraqi lawmakers have passed a resolution that may force an end to the U.S. military occupation. By an 85 to 59 vote, the Iraqi parliament passed a binding resolution to require the al-Maliki government consult lawmakers before extending the U.S. military mandate in Iraq. The move was spearheaded by supporters of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr as well as several Sunni parties. Iraqi blogger Raed Jarrar described the vote as an enormous development. Jarrar reports that lawmakers in Baghdad are planning to block the extension of the coalition's mandate when it comes up for renewal in six months.
Comment: So how can we import some of that occupied-Iraq political backbone and install it in the jellyfish officeholders of the Democratic Party? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
U.S. dropping many more bombs, killing many more Iraqis| |
Excerpt: Four years into the war that opened with "shock and awe," U.S. warplanes have stepped up attacks in Iraq, dropping bombs at more than twice the rate of a year ago.
At the same time, the number of civilian Iraqi casualties from U.S. airstrikes appears to have risen sharply, according to Iraq Body Count, a London anti-war research group that compiles news reports on Iraqi war deaths. |
G8 abandons promise of universal access to AIDS drugs| |
Excerpt: Campaigners say that a pledge brokered by the outgoing British prime minister when he chaired the Gleneagles summit almost two years ago has been "watered down".
[Two years ago, the G8 countries] agreed to "implement a package for HIV prevention, treatment and care", with the aim of coming "as close as possible to universal access to treatment for all those who need it by 2010". The United Nations says this would mean giving 9.8 million people free drugs by 2010. At least seven million would be Africans.
Yesterday's summit declaration on Growth and Responsibility in Africa, agreed by all G8 governments, did not meet this target. Paragraph 58 states that G8 countries will "support life-saving anti-retroviral treatment for approximately five million people" in Africa. This falls two million short of "universal access" in Africa.
On a global level, giving free drugs to five million people would leave at least 4.8 million AIDS sufferers without treatment. |
Judge dismisses charges against Guantanamo prisoners ... but they'll remain imprisoned| |
Excerpt: A US military judge has thrown out charges against two Guantanamo Bay detainees, casting fresh doubt on efforts to try foreign terror suspects. Both cases collapsed because military authorities had failed to designate the men as "unlawful" enemy combatants.
Comment: They charges are dropped, but the prisoners will not be released. They were classified as "enemy combatants" (which makes sense if they were picked up on a battlefield) instead of "unlawful combatant" (a made-up term that doesn't appear in the Geneva Conventions). Under the new American rules of justice (make 'em up as you go) it's, back to your cell, "detainees," for a few more years or for the rest of your lives ... Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Republicans use Justice Department to work against justice and democracy
DoJ legal counsel contradicts Gonzales, suggests other spying programs exist| |
Excerpt: [Deputy assistant attorney general Steven] Bradbury's testimony contradicts what Alberto Gonzales said just last week. Gonzales claimed that former Deputy Attorney General James Comey's testimony about Ashcroft's reservations related to the "program which the president confirmed to the American people sometime ago."
So, if Gonzales is telling the truth, Bradbury misled Congress under oath. If Bradbury is telling the truth, it means that Gonzales has again lied about the controversy surrounding the administration's spying efforts. Moreover, if Bradbury is correct that Ashcroft's disagreements were not about the NSA warrantless wiretapping program, that must mean other spying programs exist. |
Former Justice Official suspects foul play in election-timed indictments| |
Excerpt: Five days before the 2006 mid-term elections, Bradley Schlozman, then the U.S. Attorney for Western Missouri, filed indictments against four voter registration recruiters for the community organization group Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN).
The timing of the indictments contradicted long standing Justice Department policy, which advises that "most, if not all, investigations of an alleged election crime must await the end of the election," to avoid influencing the outcome.
Comment: Fired prosecutor David Iglesias in New Mexico says that he was pressured to illegally bring indictments against the same voter-registration group, ACORN. He didn't, and was fired shortly afterwards. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Cheney blocked promotion for DoJ lawyer who opposed illegal spying| |
Excerpt: Vice President Dick Cheney blocked the promotion of a Justice Department official involved in a bedside standoff over President Bush's eavesdropping program, a Senate committee learned Wednesday. |
Gonzales contradicts his sworn testimony about Bush's warrantless spying program| |
Excerpt: Attorney General Alberto Gonzales directly contradicted his 2006 sworn testimony about the NSA domestic surveillance program during a press conference today. |
Justice Dept's "civil rights" division is wholly partisan, works to suppress Democratic vote| |
Excerpt: Since 2005, department civil rights lawyers have sued election officials in seven states -- Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Missouri, New Jersey and New York -- and sent threatening letters to others, in some cases demanding copies of voter registration data.
Former lawyers in the Civil Rights Division, however, said the voter fraud campaign is a partisan effort to disqualify legitimate voters, as occurred in Florida before the 2000 presidential election.
The former department officials note that researchers have found no evidence of widespread voter fraud and that no lawsuits have targeted states whose elections were managed solely by Republican officials.
At the same time, the department has done little to enforce the core provisions of a 1993 law that requires public assistance agencies to help register the mostly Democratic-leaning, poor and minority voters they serve despite complaints from a national group, Project Vote. |
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Cheney overruled Justice Dept. to continue illegal spying program| |
Excerpt: For the first time, Cheney is shown to have been personally involved in attempting to override the Department of Justice's own ruling that Domestic Spying was illegal; and it indicates that the urgency of the White House's attempt to bully Ashcroft into authorizing the spying was directly linked. |
Secret memo: 'Surge' isn't working| |
Excerpt: Three months after the start of the Baghdad security plan that has added thousands of American and Iraqi troops to the capital, they control fewer than one-third of the city's neighborhoods, far short of the initial goal for the operation, according to some commanders and an internal military assessment.
The assessment offers the first comprehensive look at the progress of the effort to stabilize Baghdad with the heavy influx of additional troops.
Violence has diminished in many areas, but it is especially chronic in mixed Shiite-Sunni neighborhoods in western Baghdad, several senior officers said. Over all, improvements have not yet been as widespread or lasting across Baghdad, they acknowledged. |
Blackwater mercenary company sues to silence dead employees' families| |
Excerpt: Blackwater last year filed a $10 million (€7.4 million) countersuit against the person representing the estates of the slain employees, claiming the wrongful death suit breaches the men's original contract. |
Iran -- Run-up to the next war:
Republican presidential
candidates endorse nuking Iran| |
Excerpt: Nine of ten candidates for the Republican presidential nomination explicitly or tacitly supported a US attack on Iran using nuclear weapons, in response to a question at Tuesday night's nationally televised debate in New Hampshire.
Despite the extraordinary character of these declarations-giving support to the first use of nuclear weapons in war since Hiroshima and Nagasaki, 62 years ago-there was virtually no US press coverage of these remarks and no commentary on their significance. |
Lieberman advocates military strike on Iran| |
Excerpt: "Iraq is now the main front in the long war we are fighting against the Islamist terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. In fact 90% of the suicide bombers in Iraq today killing Iraqis and American soldiers are foreign Al Qaeda fighters. Iran is training and equipping soldiers, Iraqis, to come in and kill American soldiers and Iraqis," said Sen Joe Lieberman. |
CIA running black propaganda operation against Iran, Syria and Lebanon, officials say| |
Excerpt: The Central Intelligence Agency has received approval at least twice in the last several years to conduct an "information war" against several countries in the Middle East, including Iran, Lebanon and Syria, according to current and former intelligence officials. |
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List of Bush-Cheney administration scandals| |
Excerpt: ... because there's just too many scandals to remember. |
Backlash -- Teaching Democrats
to stop the war or get out of our way
Democrats' poll numbers plunge
after refusing to end unpopular war| |
Excerpt: Disapproval of Bush's performance in office remains high, but the poll highlighted growing disapproval of the new Democratic majority in Congress. Just 39 percent said they approve of the job Congress is doing, down from 44 percent in April, when the new Congress was about 100 days into its term. More significant, approval of congressional Democrats dropped 10 percentage points over that same period, from 54 percent to 44 percent.
Much of that drop was fueled by lower approval ratings of the Democrats in Congress among strong opponents of the war, independents and liberal Democrats. While independents were evenly split on the Democrats in Congress in April (49 percent approved, 48 percent disapproved), now 37 percent said they approved and 54 percent disapproved. Among liberal Democrats, approval of congressional Democrats dropped 18 points.
Comment: This is what makes me so crazy about the Democrat's decision to endorse perpetual war last month. They refused to stand up to a wildly unpopular president, refused to carry out a policy that three-quarters of Americans want -- but worse, they said it was because they were afraid ending the war would hurt their election chances. People vote for you because you do stuff they want! Duh!! Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
New York Democrat already
faces challenger after pro-war vote| |
Excerpt: Democratic Party activist [Morris Guller] has said he will challenge Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) in a primary next year because of her vote last week on the Iraq war-spending bill. "To vote 'yes' to supply additional funds to prolong the suffering and deaths of American troops and Iraqi citizens, to break your promise to help bring a quick end to this war ... is devastating," said Guller in a letter to Gillibrand. "You will have a primary race in '08." |
Protesters hand out fake war checks
at fundraiser for pro-war Democrat| |
Excerpt: Seven war protesters set up shop Monday evening in front of the Madison Club to call attention to freshman Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen's vote in support of continuing the war in Iraq. Protesters handed out slips of paper in the form of a check that asked, "Congressman Kagen: WHY?" The checks were made out to George W. Bush for $95 billion and 00/100 cents. "For war in Iraq" was on the memo line. |
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Bush succeeding in
attempts to re-ignite Cold War| |
Excerpt: President Bush pressed his plan for a proposed European anti-missile defense on Friday with the president of Poland and won his strong support for installing interceptors on Polish soil.
Both Bush and President Lech Kaczynski said the missile-defense system would not threaten Russia in any way. The system has been an issue of contention between Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Comment: Oh, good. The author of the worst foreign policy debacle in American history turns his attention to an unstable country with the planet's second-largest nuclear stockpile. And since the missile defense system has never ever come close to working at all, I still have to wonder if this is a deliberate attempt return to the good old days of the Cold War. Maybe Jesus told W it's time for a little nuclear apocalypse. Maybe he doesn't want to live in a world he doesn't run anymore after 2008 ... and he's taking the rest of us with him. Could we please, please start impeaching this lunatic, already? Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK
Putin blunts Bush talking points
on "missile defense shield"
Excerpt: Russian President Vladimir Putin turned the tables on Washington today by suggesting the United States use a Russian-controlled radar instead of US anti-missile hardware in central Europe.
At a meeting with US President George W. Bush during a Group of Eight summit, Putin proposed that the United States and Russia jointly use a radar in Azerbaijan as part of an anti-missile shield that would protect all of Europe.
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Paris Hilton: Serious thoughts about the frivolous
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: What I see happening today is the psychological deconstruction of an ego, a person's personality and mentality pushed past the breaking point. Whether young Paris will reconstruct herself successfully is an open question. Good hearted people will be wishing her a speedy and complete recovery. |
On life and writing: A manifesto
by pittershawn palmer, Pittershawn's Realm
| |
Excerpt: I have no need to conform to a school of thought for the sake of social acceptance. I will leave that to the weak in mind and heart. I wish to be free. And true freedom comes from not feeling intimidated by being alone in one's thoughts -- alone to know one's self -- alone to be different from those who must conform to feel whole. I am free to believe and believe with conviction ... with questions, doubts and ultimately, comfort. I am free. |
Middle East meltdown:
The crisis accelerates
by Justin Raimondo, AntiWar| |
Excerpt: We have the mightiest military machine in human history, yet what do we have to show for it? In Iraq, we have an insurgency mounted by a rag-tag army of Ba'athist "dead-enders" and makeshift local militias that have fought us to a standstill. In the meantime, we have no effective defense against the day the Chinese and Japanese dump their dollars and stop subsidizing American militarism. No purse is bottomless: our empire of debt puts us at the mercy of our creditors. |
Paris Hilton & Iraqi prisoners
by Juan Cole, Informed Consent
| |
Excerpt: The US military is holding 19,000 Iraqis, 16,000 of them at Bucca. Although most are guerrillas or their helpers, a lot of them were picked up because they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Once arrested, an inmate often cannot clear himself for months or years. I don't think they have access to attorneys. No one cares if they are depressed. At Abu Ghraib earlier on, some inmates were systematically tortured. It is unclear if all such practices have ceased.
Some Iraqi women have been held in this way. Some were essentially hostages, taken to make them reveal where their husbands or fathers were or to guarantee their good behavior. Their reputations were shot, since Iraqis think Americans are sex fiends and wouldn't trust the virtue of a woman who had been in their custody. The unmarried among them are likely doomed to be spinsters.
American television never mentions that the US has 19000 Iraqis in jail, or that some have been women, or that some are innocent, or how they feel about being in prison.
So is Paris Hilton being given special treatment by our media? We all are, folks.
Comment: We know hardly anything about these 19,000 imprisoned Iraqis -- men and women -- but there
is almost nothing we DON'T know about Paris Hilton. Which gives us a great DEAL of
information about our journalists and our media. E13 PERMANENT LINK |
The Dick Cheney situation
Editorial, The New York Times| |
Excerpt: The Associated Press reported that Mr. Cheney's office ordered the Secret Service last September to destroy all records of visitors to the official vice presidential mansion -- right after The Washington Post sued for access to the logs. That move was made in secret, naturally. It came out only because of another lawsuit, filed by a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, seeking the names of conservative religious figures who visited the vice president's residence.
This disdain for accountability is distressing, but not surprising. Mr. Cheney has had it on display from his first days in office, when he refused to name the energy-industry executives who met with him behind closed doors to draft an energy policy.
In a similar way, Mr. Cheney seems unconcerned about little things like checks and balances and traditional American notions of judicial process. At one point, he gave himself the power to selectively declassify documents and selectively leak them to reporters. In a recent commencement address, he declaimed against prisoners who had the gall to "demand the protections of the Geneva Convention and the Constitution of the United States."
Comment: An editorial is nice and appreciated, but it will be read only by eggheads and political junkies. Nothing will be accomplished until the Times and other trusted papers and newscasts assemble these and other pertinent facts of the Cheney-Bush administration's illegal acts, and put the information of the frickin' front page where it belongs.
Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Lord, save us from those who
preach death in Your name
by Bradley Burston,
Ha'aretz [Jerusalem, Israel]
| |
Excerpt: But if fundamentalist rabbis in Israel taught Jewish children that all of the Holy Land belonged to them alone, and that it was permissible that all of the Palestinians should be killed or expelled, how did we respond? |
The arbitrary and unjust
power of government
by Charley Reese, syndicated columnist
| |
Excerpt: If you are not a Muslim or an Arab-American who has been a victim of the PATRIOT Act and other laws carelessly passed in the hysteria following the attacks in 2001, then the Bush administration probably looks perfectly normal. You probably even believe that it is really protecting you from terrorists, just as many Germans believed Hitler was protecting them from the "bad guys." |
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| | Comment: Bush lies that this proposed "missile shield" is about protecting America from Iran's dastardly threats, not from Russia. Putin says, well then, use our defenses in Azerbaijan, and protect all of Europe. Point, match, Putin.
Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo complicit in on-line censorship, says Amnesty Int'l| |
Excerpt: Amnesty International has warned that the internet "could change beyond all recognition" unless action is taken against the erosion of online freedoms. The warning comes ahead of a conference organized by Amnesty, where victims of repression will outline their plights. The "virus of internet repression" has spread from a handful of countries to dozens of governments, said the group.
Google goes on attack after being named the net's worst privacy offender
Excerpt: London-based Privacy International has ranked Google among the worst top Internet sites for privacy protection, and Google is reportedly taking the watchdog group to task. |
Chinese reporter sues Yahoo for ratting him out to commie authorities| |
Excerpt: Shi, a former writer for the financial publication Contemporary Business News, was jailed for allegedly providing state secrets to foreigners. His conviction stemmed from an e-mail he sent containing his notes on a government circular that spelled out restrictions on the media.
Yahoo has acknowledged turning over data on Shi at the request of the Chinese government, saying company employees face civil and criminal sanctions if they ignore local laws. It denies Yahoo Hong Kong was involved. |
Senate committee votes to restore Constitution, give Guantanamo prisoners habeas rights| |
Excerpt: The US Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday voted 11-8 in support of a measure that would return habeas corpus rights to terror suspects imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay military prison. The Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007 , sponsored by Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), would allow Guantanamo detainees to challenge their detention in US federal courts for the first time since the Military Commissions Act of 2006 revoked that right. The bill, passed in committee without debate, was unanimously supported by Committee Democrats; Specter was its only Republican supporter. It is expected to be attached next month as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for 2008. |
Powell: Close Guantanamo now, restore habeas corpus| |
Excerpt: "[E]very morning I pick up a paper and some authoritarian figure, some person somewhere, is using Guantanamo to hide their own misdeeds," Powell said. "[W]e have shaken the belief that the world had in America's justice system by keeping a place like Guantanamo open ... We don't need it, and it's causing us far more damage than any good we get for it." |
Bush judicial appointee loves corporations, hates Americans| |
Excerpt: [[Judge Leslie Southwick]] has a pattern of voting against workers and the injured and in favor of corporations. According to the advocacy group Alliance for Justice, Southwick voted "against the injured party and in favor of business interests" in 160 of 180 cases that gave rise to a dissent and that involved employment law and injury-based suits for damages. When one judge on a panel dissents in a case, there's an argument it could come out either way, which makes these cases a good measure of how a judge thinks when he's got some legal leeway. In such cases, Judge Southwick almost never favors the rights of workers or people who've suffered discrimination or been harmed by a shoddy product. |
Court rules cops can steal cars and lie to victims in order to conduct a warrantless search| |
Excerpt: Using wiretaps and surveillance, the DEA learned that Alverez-Tejeda was using the leader's car to transport illicit drugs. The agents then decided to stage something, perhaps even a carjacking, in order to seize the drugs without tipping off the conspirators. They never consulted a judge, but every person in the story, other than Alverez-Tejeda and his girlfriend, was a cop of some sort. |
Striking Iraqi oil workers threatened with arrest| |
Excerpt: International concern is mounting over threats by the Iraqi government to arrest union leaders following strikes by oil pipeline operators in the country last week.
There is uncertainty over whether warrants have already been issued for the arrest of [Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions president Hassan] Juma'a and his comrades. Some reports indicate the men have been threatened with warrants, others that the warrants have been issued directly by the office of the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
Workers are objecting to Iraq's proposed hydrocarbon law, which unions claim will amount to privatization of the industry, allowing Western oil executives to sit on an oil ministry council which will approve contracts under which foreign companies can operate.
Comment: That hydrocarbon law, by the way, has such strong U.S. support and that it is one of the "benchmarks" that has been tossed around as a condition for U.S. troops starting to leave Iraq. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
U.S. bombs Somalia ... again| |
Excerpt: A U.S. warship has shelled a village in northern Somalia marking at least the third US strike in Somalia this year. U.S. officials said the target of the attacks was a base run by Islamic militants. The shelling came five months after U.S.-backed Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia and toppled the Union of Islamic Courts. Meanwhile, Somalia's transitional prime minister -- Ali Mohammed Ghedi -- has survived an attempt on his life. On Sunday a suicide car bomber crashed into the gates of the prime minister's estate. Ghedi was unhurt in the blast but it killed six of his bodyguards and a local student. |
Turkey invades Kurdish Iraq
Tensions rise as Turkey shells Iraq| |
Excerpt: Turkish patience is running out over the cross-border raids by Kurdish militants based in northern Iraq. US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has urged caution, but Ankara is openly debating an incursion to root out the rebels. And it plans to take its case for action to the UN this week.
The signs have become increasingly ominous. For weeks, Turkey has been building up its military presence on its south-eastern border with Iraq in response to cross-border raids by Kurdish rebels. Potentially more concerning, Ankara has been openly considering an incursion into Kurdish-dominated northern Iraq in an attempt to root out members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) based there. |
Turkish officials say troops enter Iraq| |
Excerpt: Hundreds of Turkish soldiers crossed into northern Iraq on Wednesday pursuing Kurdish guerrillas who stage attacks on Turkey from hideouts there, Turkish security officials and an Iraqi Kurd official said. |
Turkey denies they invaded Northern Iraq ... sort of| |
Excerpt: Turkey denied a report on Wednesday that it had launched a major incursion into northern Iraq to crack down on Kurdish rebels. A military source told Reuters that troops had conducted a limited raid across the mountainous border, adding that the operation could not be called an invasion. The source did not say how many troops were involved in the raid. |
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Cheney aide Libby sentenced to 30 months| |
Excerpt: Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Tuesday for lying and obstructing the CIA leak investigation -- the probe that showed a White House obsessed with criticism of its decision to go to war. No date was set immediately for Libby to report to prison.
Comment: Since he helped create an environment where the lies that started this war went unchallenged, how about locking him up until the war is finally over? Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK
Judge smacks 'luminaries' defending Libby
Excerpt: "It is an impressive show of public service when twelve prominent and distinguished current and former law professors of well-respected schools are able to amass their collective wisdom in the course of only several days to provide their legal expertise to the Court on behalf of a criminal defendant. The Court trusts that this is a reflection of these eminent academics' willingness in the future to step to the plate and provide like assistance in cases involving any of the numerous litigants, both in this Court and throughout the courts of our nation, who lack the financial means to fully and properly articulate the merits of their legal positions even in instances where failure to do so could result in monetary penalties, incarceration, or worse. The Court will certainly not hesitate to call for such assistance from these luminaries, as necessary in the interests of justice and equity, whenever similar questions arise in the cases that come before it." |
Commerce Dept Inspector General quits amidst corruption investigation| |
Excerpt: The Commerce Department's inspector general, the official charged with investigating wrongdoing at the agency, announced his resignation in the midst of an investigation by a congressional committee into allegations of improper conduct.
Johnnie E. Frazier, who had served since 1999 as the agency's chief watchdog, said in a resignation letter obtained by The Associated Press that he would step down effective June 29. |
Unions complain that Sen Clinton's top adviser is a union-buster| |
Excerpt: The presidents of two large labor unions have written to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to complain that Mark Penn, her pollster and chief strategist, is chief executive of a public relations firm that is helping a company fight a unionization drive. Four years ago, the two unions began a major drive to unionize 17,000 workers at the Cintas Corporation, the nation's largest uniform rental company. Cintas, helped by Burson-Marsteller, has responded with a vigorous -- and thus far successful -- effort to resist unionization. |
Pace out as Chair of Joint Chiefs| |
Excerpt: The Bush administration yesterday attempted to wipe the slate clean on the Iraq war and chart a new way forward with the surprise announcement that it was replacing General Peter Pace as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
The defense chief, Robert Gates, said he had reluctantly decided on the reshuffle -- despite his initial support for General Pace -- to avoid a "divisive ordeal" at the Senate which would have had to approve an extension of the general's term.
New Joint Chiefs nominee: 'This war is going to go on for a long time. It's a generational war.'
Excerpt: In his opening remarks, [Navy Adm. Mike] Mullen, a Vietnam War veteran, told Pearl Harbor sailors: "I honestly believe this is the most dangerous time in my life. The enemy now is basically evil and fundamentally hates everything we are -- the democratic principles for which we stand ... This war is going to go on for a long time. It's a generational war." |
Torture -- America's most famous export
CIA "extraordinary rendition" trial beings in Italy| |
Excerpt: The first trial involving the CIA's extraordinary rendition program opened in Italy on Friday without the presence of any of the 26 American defendants.
The Italian government has asked the country's highest court to throw out the indictments against the Americans -- all but one of them believed to be CIA agents -- who are accused of abducting Osama Moustafa Hassan Nasr from a Milan street on Feb. 17, 2003.
Italian prosecutors say Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was abducted in an operation coordinated by the CIA and Italian intelligence, then transferred to U.S. bases in Italy and Germany before being moved to Egypt, where he was imprisoned for four years. Nasr, who was released Feb. 11, said he was tortured. |
Rights groups sue U.S. for info on "disappeared" prisoners| |
Excerpt: Six human rights groups urged the U.S. government on Thursday to name and explain the whereabouts of 39 people they said were believed to have been held in U.S. custody and "disappeared."
The groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said they filed a U.S. federal lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act seeking information about the 39 people it terms "ghost prisoners" in the U.S. "war on terror." |
American torturer regrets his actions| |
Excerpt: Tony Lagouranis conducted mock executions, forced men and boys into agonizing stress positions, kept suspects awake for weeks on end, used dogs to terrify detainees and subjected others to hypothermia.
But he confesses that he was deeply scarred by the realization that what he did has contributed to the downfall of American forces in Iraq. Mr Lagouranis, 37, suffered nightmares and anxiety attacks on his return to Chicago, where he works as a bouncer. |
U.S. torture sites in Poland, Romania confirmed| |
Excerpt: Despite denials by their governments, senior security officials in Poland and Romania have confirmed to investigators for the Council of Europe that their countries were used to hold some of America's most important prisoners captured after 9/11 in secret.
None of the prisoners had access to the Red Cross and many were subject to what George Bush has called the CIA's "enhanced" interrogation methods. These included water-boarding which leads detainees to believe they are drowning, which critics have condemned as severe torture. |
CIA 'torture flights' are still landing in the UK| |
Excerpt: The [controversy] over CIA 'torture flights' using British airports has deepened following fresh evidence that a plane repeatedly linked to the controversial program landed in the UK just days ago. |
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Pentagon sought to build a 'gay bomb'| |
Excerpt: Pentagon officials on Friday confirmed ... that military leaders had considered, and then subsequently rejected, building the so-called "Gay Bomb." |
Robert Bork, longtime advocate against "frivolous lawsuits."
sues for punitive damages over missing handrail| |
Excerpt: In a 2002 article published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy -- the official journal of the Federalist Society -- Bork argued that frivolous claims and excessive punitive damage awards have caused the Constitution to evolve into a document which would allow Congress to enact tort reforms that would have been unconstitutional at the framing: |
Chiquita sued for sponsoring Colombian paramilitary groups| |
Excerpt: Family members of people killed by militant groups in Colombia sued Chiquita Brands International on Thursday, accusing the banana company of sponsoring terrorism.
The lawsuit, filed anonymously by family members of 144 victims, follows the company's admission in March that for years it paid Colombian terrorists to protect its most profitable banana-growing operation. |
Most people will have to work for longer and save more| |
Excerpt: Pension reforms in rich countries mean that retirement benefits will be 15-25 percent less than would have been paid, and most people will have to work for longer and save more, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Thursday.
Comment: Corporations are making record profits and CEOs are getting paid as much as 500 times what their workers get. But to keep up the momentum of stealing ever more from the poor to give to the rich, the poor must work still more hours, for still less pay, and give up increasingly big chunks of their retirement funds and health insurance.
You know: Enron on a global scale.
JR Mooneyham PERMANENT LINK |
Document suggests a larger (secret) intelligence budget| |
Excerpt: Classified budget numbers concealed in an unclassified PowerPoint document suggest that total U.S. intelligence spending is significantly larger than generally assumed, perhaps around $60 billion annually. |
Mexican President's crackdowns "make George Bush look like a member of the ACLU"| |
Excerpt: Like George Bush, Mexico's Felipe Calderon came into office after a bitterly contested election. And he is using the same methods to unite his people behind him. Just as President Bush's war on terror successfully boosted his support during his early years, President Calderon is now declaring war on both crime and terror.
Calderon's war promises to be even more destructive for civil liberties. In an attempt to combat narco-violence and discourage subversive activities, he has already ordered unilateral military takeovers of seven states and disarmed local police corps. The military has begun operating random checkpoints throughout the country.
He has modified the criminal code so as to facilitate the jailing of anyone who looks to "pressure the authorities". Calderon also wants to amend the constitution to allow the attorney general to conduct wiretaps, detain suspects and conduct searches without a court order. |
Tens of thousands protest G8 summit in Germany| |
Excerpt: Activist groups said they were delighted with their campaign of blocking roads leading to the summit venue on the Baltic coast, while police denied they had been outwitted by protesters.
Protest groups claimed they had achieved their aims in attracting the world's media day after day to see a series of sit-ins on roads, sometimes featuring demonstrators dressed as clowns.
Police used water cannon to clear some roads but on Wednesday the sit-ins had effectively sealed off the summit to traffic. |
Mercenaries in Iraq have "license to kill"| |
Excerpt: As he scurried out the door in 2004, Paul Bremer -- the first US viceroy to Iraq -- issued Order 17, which exempted all mercenaries operating in the country from having to obey the law. He in effect gave these men a license to kill -- and they are using it, every day. |
U.S. bureaucracy too incompetent to implement stupid passport rule| |
Excerpt: The Bush administration is poised to suspend a major post-9/11 security initiative to cope with increasingly angry complaints from Americans whose summer vacations are threatened by new passport rules.
A proposal set to be announced as early as Friday will temporarily waive a requirement that U.S. passports be used for air travel to and from Canada and Mexico, provided the traveler can prove he or she has already applied for a passport, officials said Thursday.
Comment: I see a typo here. I think the reporter left out the word "wealthy" before the word "Americans" in the first sentence quoted above. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK
Brits face more delay as US plans fingerprinting
Excerpt: Passengers travelling from the US will have to present their fingers as well as their passports at check-in from the end of next year, according to a senior security official. Virgin Atlantic, whose customers may be forced to endure longer waits in terminals, has vowed to oppose the move.
Comment: It would be less expensive, I think, and just as effective, if America hired homeless drunks to harass and assault foreign visitors.
Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
War czar nominee says he questioned the 'surge'| |
Excerpt: President Bush's nominee to be the new White House war advisor has admitted he doubted the administration's so-called troop surge in Iraq. Lieutenant General Douglas Lute has told the Senate Armed Services Committee he voiced his concerns during a White House review of Bush's plan to send tens of thousands more troops to Iraq earlier this year. Lute's confirmation hearing is set to begin [Wednesday, June 6]. |
U.S. panel punishes anti-war Marine for t-shirt| |
Excerpt: A US military panel has recommended a marine be involuntarily discharged after he was pictured at an anti-war protest dressed in desert fatigues.
Marine Corporal Adam Kokesh was accused of misconduct. The military bans the unauthorized wearing of uniforms. But the 25-year-old insisted that as his name tag and military emblems were removed he had done nothing wrong. |
Romney lies about weapons inspectors being thrown out of Iraq| |
Excerpt: At the Republican candidates' debate on June 5, White House contender Mitt Romney remarkably claimed that weapons inspectors were barred from entering Iraq before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. But Romney's error was little noted by the mainstream media. As Media Matters noted (6/6/07), the Washington Post had a "Gaffe of the Night" feature, but that honor went to candidate Mike Huckabee for getting Ronald Reagan's birthday wrong. The New York Times' Paul Krugman (6/8/07) cited the Washington Post's ignoring Romney's clear lack of understanding of the events that led us into the Iraq War in favor of the birthday goof as evidence that "the bad media habits that helped install the worst president ever in the White House haven't changed a bit." |
Wall Street Journal reporters threaten walkout if Murdoch buys paper| |
Excerpt: Journalists at The Wall Street Journal, the US financial newspaper being stalked by Rupert Murdoch, may stage a walk-out if he buys the title's parent company Dow Jones, the Observer newspaper reported, quoting sources close to the publication.
The Bancroft family, which controls 64 pct of Dow Jones through shares with special voting rights, said last week it would enter talks with Murdoch's News Corp after it tabled a $60 per-share bid for the group last month. |
America's "dry drunk" President is drinking again| |
Excerpt: President George W Bush has been taken ill on the final day of the G8 summit and is resting in his room.
Dan Bartlett, a White House counselor, said Mr Bush had a stomach ailment which he described as "not serious".
"We're not sure if it was something he ate last night or this morning," he said. ...
Bush pours and spills a tall one VIDEO
Excerpt: "The U.S. President did seem to | 
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| | be having a little trouble pouring himself a beer."
Comment: George W. Bush has never said he's an alcoholic, but his recovery from years of 'heavy drinking' is common knowledge. He has said he spent years "drinking too much" and that he couldn't remember a day when he hadn't had a drink.
The official story on Bush's bender this week will no doubt be that he was drinking "near beer", and of course, nobody should believe it -- the Bush administration lies about everything. (And by the way, "near beer" does contain alcohol, and Alcoholics Anonymous warns that "near beer" can spur a renewed desire for the real thing.)
So we're left with two unpleasant possibilities: Either Bush is just having a harmless beer in this photo, in which case the entire backstory of his life has been a lie -- or the stories of his drunken years are true, and the President of the United States is an alcoholic who's fallen off the wagon. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Head of Arkansas Republican Party: We need more 'attacks on American soil' so people appreciate Bush| |
Excerpt: "At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001]," [Arkansas Republican Party chief Dennis Milligan] said to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, "and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country."
Comment: What do you suppose would be the media response, and the White House's response (same thing), if a Democratic Party mucky-muck said this?
Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
"JFK Airport plot" is, of course, another piece of wildly overhyped fearmongering| |
Excerpt: ... But according to the experts, it would have been next to impossible to cause an explosion in the jet fuel tanks and pipeline. Furthermore, the plotters seem to have lacked the explosives and financial backing to carry out the attack.
Comment: Why is it that the only 'terrorists' U.S. authorities ever seem to catch are bumbling fools, keystone crooks, and the mentally ill?
Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK
New York's Mayor Bloomberg responds sanely
Excerpt: While questions continue to arise about the alleged plot to blow up a fuel pipeline beneath JFK Airport and surrounding neighborhoods, some are questioning why New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg hasn't had a louder voice since the plot was foiled on Saturday.
On Monday, Bloomberg finally weighed in, but his response was not what some would have expected. "There are lots of threats to you in the world. There's the threat of a heart attack for genetic reasons. You can't sit there and worry about everything. Get a life," he said.
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Bush administration blocks merger between Whole Foods, Wild Oats| |
Excerpt: We're in the midst of a merger mania, and the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department's antitrust division-the agencies tasked with assuring that mergers don't harm consumers by reducing competition-have approved almost every deal. If the nation's largest hog producer buys the second-largest hog producer? OK. Telecommunications giants SBC and AT&T want to merge? No problem. Giant supermarket company Albertson's and giant supermarket company SuperValu get together? You got it.
But when Whole Foods, the extremely successful, bobo-friendly, high-end, blue-state organic grocery chain and Wild Oats, the less successful, bobo-friendly, high-end, blue-state organic grocery chain, say they want to merge, the answer is no. This week, the FTC sued to stop this puny ($670 million) merger, saying the planned deal would "eliminate[e] the substantial competition between these two uniquely close competitors in numerous markets nationwide in the operation of premium natural and organic supermarkets" and result in higher prices and less consumer choice. |
Don't ask, don't tell about Sen Lindsey Graham| |
Excerpt: Did the Pentagon investigate the rumors about Senator Graham's orientation prior to choosing to have him serve active duty? Doubtful. But the rumors are out there, and the Senator's very presence has been known to fuel such rumors, so it is not out of the realm of the possible that others with whom he served had the same questions. And once they have those questions, per Don't Ask Don't Tell, there is a threat to unit cohesion. So why did the Pentagon risk unit cohesion in this case? |
Israel 'stops' West Bank radio| |
Excerpt: [Israel's communications minister] Ariel Atias was quoted in Haaretz as saying: "We have stopped the operations of the pirate radio station in Ramallah in a way that is best not spoken about, and I will not provide any more details, but it is clear to everyone that this is not the way." |
Bush's Health Secretary wants to meet with dead Senator| |
Excerpt: Maybe Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt and his staff are just in denial. Or maybe they don't read the papers, thus missing the sad news that Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.) died Monday, seven months after he was diagnosed with leukemia.
Whatever the case, Leavitt's office called Thomas's office late Thursday afternoon to request a meeting with the late senator. |
Gingrich's ideas benefit contributors| |
Excerpt: Potential GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has promoted public policy positions that closely track the financial interests of companies that underwrite a think tank he founded.
Comment: Well, frickin' duh. Rebecca PERMANENT LINK |
Cheney will have his heart defibrillator replaced
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Lightning round news
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"More people died last year from eating spinach than smoking pot"
California man's driver's license suspended for criticizing DMV
'I took a picture of Tower Bridge and was arrested for terrorism'
"So, basically, a couple of grandfathers took care of the situation"
Teacher's "pop-up porn" conviction overturned
Mohammed likely to top British boys' names list by year-end
Pope urges kidnappers everywhere to release their victims
Republican lawmaker slugs Democrat
Creationist actor's porno past is 'revealed'
Spelling reformers picket Bee, say 'enuf is enuf'
Blair may become a Catholic deacon
Sheriff who freed Paris Hilton had ties to family
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