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Please call Nancy Pelosi and tell her to impeach Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, et al: (202) 225-4965.
This week's top headlines:
Bush-Cheney admits much more spying on
Americans than previously acknowledged| |
Excerpt: The Bush administration's chief intelligence official said yesterday that President Bush authorized a series of secret surveillance activities under a single executive order in late 2001. The disclosure makes clear that a controversial National Security Agency program was part of a much broader operation than the president previously described.
Comment: If these anti-American monsters are not impeached and brought to justice, then everything we've always been told about the sanctity of the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the glory of democracy and the rule of law -- all of it -- is just plain bull, and America is over. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
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Congress gives Bush all the additional unConstitutional spying powers he sought| |
Excerpt: The U.S. House of Representatives has approved legislation authorizing temporary changes to a U.S. electronic surveillance program to allow more flexibility to intercept communications overseas. VOA's Dan Robinson reports that approval by a vote of 227 to 183, following a Senate vote on Friday, sent the bill to President Bush.
Comment: The spectacle of the Democratically-controlled Congress rushing before their summer break to provide President Bush "legal" warrantless spying powers, instead of impeaching him for his past abuses, and voting to give him vast new sums of money in fiscal year 2008 for his wars and his "Homeland Security" Gestapo forces, boggles my mind and sickens me. ... MORE ... Hazel Burke PERMANENT LINK
Make careful note of these names. ...
Excerpt: These are the 41 Democrats in the House who'd betrayed the 4th amendment at 10:20 last night by approving the FISA "amendments" that essentially gives Bush, Mike McConnell and Alberto Gonzales the power to spy on whomever they want, wherever, whenever without being burdened by providing any transparency whatsoever. They're all up for re-election next year, by the way.
Secret Court's super-secret ruling against secret eavesdropping
program fuels bipartisan effort to legalize more eavesdropping
Excerpt: The Bush administration's attempt to change laws governing wiretapping by U.S. spies was prompted by a defeat in the FISA secret star-chamber court, it has emerged.
Newsweek reporters Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, quoting an unnamed legal source "who has been briefed on the order", revealed yesterday that a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) judge has refused to renew a warrant for at least part of the National Security Agency (NSA) mass surveillance program.
Originally, in the aftermath of 9/11, the President's men claimed that the executive branch needed no judicial or legislative approval for its actions.
Even the compliant dial-a-judges of the star-chamber weren't consulted, and no provision for mass domestic surveillance was requested in the already draconian post-9/11 PATRIOT Act. Since the matter became public knowledge, however, parts of the NSA campaign have been placed under FISA review: and this has led to some activities being blocked.
Bush officials quietly use case of 3 missing U.S. soldiers to argue for new spy powers
Excerpt: It cannot be known whether faster warrants would have helped rescue the soldiers. One official, who like others spoke on condition of anonymity given the sensitive nature of intelligence collection, said the situation compares to issuing a special alert hours after a child is reported missing. Delays may hinder the search because the best information often comes early in an investigation.
Comment: Curiously, the article makes no mention of the previously-publicized "72-hour rule," the FISA provision that allows surveillance without warrants in emergencies, so long as the proper paperwork is filed within 72 hours after the surveillance begins.
If the 72-hour rule doesn't apply in this particular situation I'd probably support an amendment to the law... But when the 72-hour rule flat-out isn't mentioned, my first suspicion is that the White House is lying yet again, deceiving a reporter who isn't doing his job very well, and of course, by habit and by policy, deceiving the American public. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK
House Republican leader leaked classified information, government officials say
Excerpt: House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) disclosed what government officials say was classified information when trying to defend President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program Tuesday on Fox News Channel.
Democrats happy to expand illegal eavesdropping
Excerpt: Democratic leaders emerged from a breakfast meeting at the White House Wednesday and appeared willing to pass a limited expansion of spying powers before Congress leaves for a month-long recess at the end of this week, Reuters reported.
"What we committed to was to work closely with the administration to come to agreement," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
Comment: Nancy Pelosi is the "leader" of which party, again? Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Republicans use Justice Department
to subvert justice
Justice Dept suggested firing
prosecutor who wouldn't
"slow down" OxyContin prosecution| |
Excerpt: The night before the government secured a guilty plea from the manufacturer of the addictive painkiller OxyContin, a senior Justice Department official called the U.S. attorney handling the case and, at the behest of an executive for the drugmaker, urged him to slow down, the prosecutor told the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday.
John L. Brownlee, the U.S. attorney in Roanoke, testified that he was at home the evening of Oct. 24 when he received the call on his cellphone from Michael J. Elston, then chief of staff to the deputy attorney general and one of the Justice aides involved in the removal of nine U.S. attorneys last year.
Brownlee settled the case anyway. Eight days later, his name appeared on a list compiled by Elston of prosecutors that officials had suggested be fired. |
Gonzales retracts a piece of perjury,
admits illegal all-political
meetings at Justice Dept| |
Excerpt: Justice Department officials attended at least a dozen political briefings at the White House since 2001, including some meetings led by Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, and others that were focused on election trends prior to the 2006 midterm contest, according to documents released yesterday.
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that he did not believe that senior Justice Department officials had attended such briefings. But he clarified his testimony yesterday in a letter to Congress, emphasizing that the briefings were not held at the agency's offices. |
Bush invokes executive privilege
for Rove in attorney firings| |
Excerpt: Ratcheting up the stakes in a legal battle with Congress, President Bush on Wednesday ordered White House adviser Karl Rove and a senior political aide to refuse on grounds of executive privilege to testify before the Senate on the firings of nine U.S. attorneys.
In a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee leaders, White House counsel Fred Fielding declared that Rove, "as an immediate presidential advisor, is immune from compelled congressional testimony" about matters involving his service to the president. |
New documents suggest
broader White House involvement
in replacing New Mexico prosecutor| |
Excerpt: New documents turned over to Congressional investigators Wednesday show that a White House official echoed a message from the office of Senator Pete Domenici to the Justice Department seeking the installation of a new 'team' in New Mexico's U.S. Attorneys office.
"[Steve Bell, Chief of Staff to Senator Pete Domenici] mentioned he had chatted with you today about his request for a non-partisan team that specializes in corruption to be sent down to New Mexico," wrote Andrea Becker Looney, then the Special Assistant to the President in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, in a Dec. 21, 2006 e-mail to William Moschella, a top Justice Department official. |
House ethics committee
to question Iglesias| |
Excerpt: New Mexico's former U.S. attorney, David Iglesias, says he's been asked to testify Wednesday before the House Ethics Committee. The topic is expected to be whether Republican Congresswoman Heather Wilson broke rules last October when she asked him about ongoing investigations. |
Justice Dept raids home of alleged
whistleblowing former employee| |
Excerpt: The controversy over President Bush's warrantless surveillance program took another surprise turn last week when a team of FBI agents, armed with a classified search warrant, raided the suburban Washington home of a former Justice Department lawyer. The lawyer, Thomas M. Tamm, previously worked in Justice's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR)-the super-secret unit that oversees surveillance of terrorist and espionage targets. The agents seized Tamm's desktop computer, two of his children's laptops and a cache of personal files. ... Two legal sources who asked not to be identified talking about an ongoing case told Newsweek the raid was related to a Justice criminal probe into who leaked details of the warrantless eavesdropping program to the news media. |
House Democrats to seek
impeachment inquiry for Gonzales| |
Excerpt: Democratic House members, including several former prosecutors, introduced a measure Tuesday directing the House Judiciary Committee to investigate whether to impeach Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales.
Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kan.), a co-sponsor of the measure, said the investigation was warranted given the questions about whether Gonzales misled Congress in testimony about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys and about a secret government eavesdropping program.
"The resolution isn't for impeachment, it's an inquiry," Moore said. "If the investigation concludes that he misled Congress and gave false information or otherwise, I would certainly look into whether further action is necessary."
Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), who was a prosecutor in Washington state in the late 1970s and '80s, is the lead sponsor of the measure.
Comment: This is not only the right thing to do, I think it's kind of politically brilliant. It doesn't carry the stigma of a presidential impeachment, plus it's one of the few avenues left to hold the administration accountable, plus ... well, eight more reasons, actually. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK
Top Ten reasons for
impeaching Gonzales,
or, How I learned to stop worrying
and love Jay Inslee
by Madeline Zane, Unknown News
Excerpt: Out of all this administration's top criminals, Gonzales seems to have left the messiest trail of documents and witnesses in his wake. Many of his subordinates and even leaders in other departments (like Robert Mueller from the FBI) have already contradicted his testimony. Every week, almost every day, it seems, we get more and more documentation about some criminal enterprise or other with a trail leading right to Alberto's office. |
Gonzales has been Bush's
cover-up kid for a decade| |
Excerpt: Democrats and some experts on the use of language say that Gonzales's gaffes are too numerous and consistent to be chalked up to misunderstandings. In most instances, his answers, or his refusals to answer, have served to obscure events that would be damaging to the administration, Gonzales or Bush. |
Gonzales wouldn't answer the
question for Senate, but N.Y. Times
said it was Cheney who
sent him to Ashcroft's bedside| |
Excerpt: Why did [Sen Chuck] Schumer, during Gonzales Testimony, hit on whether the Vice President asked him to visit Ashcroft? Does he know something which is not public? Does someone on the New York Times Editorial Board know something we don't?
Cheney says he has "no
recollection" of ordering Gonzales
to rush to Ashcroft's hospital room
Excerpt: That Cheney may in fact be the administration official who sent Gonzales should come as no surprise. In May 2006, the New York Times reported that in the wake of 9/11, Cheney pushed for a much more expansive version of the NSA surveillance program, but was rebuffed by NSA lawyers. |
Analysis: Gonzales situation
demands impeachment| |
Excerpt: Gonzales is not going to resign. He is in a position to block any criminal inquiry into his own misdeeds and those of other Administration officials, and that is exactly what he is doing. Under his watch, the Department of Justice has become what the Fire Department is in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 -- as you will recall, it existed not to put out fires, but to start them; and in a similar manner, the Bush Justice Department seems to exist not to prosecute crimes, but to commit them. At this point, the Gonzales Justice Department is easily guilty of enough predicate criminal offenses to qualify for application of the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO"). |
Analysis: Why Bush can't fire Gonzales| |
Excerpt: Gonzales is all that stands between the White House and special prosecutors. As dicey as things are for Bush right now, his advisers know that they could get much worse. In private, Democrats say that if Gonzales did step down, his replacement would be required to agree to an independent investigation of Gonzales' tenure in order to be confirmed by the Senate.
Without Gonzales at the helm, the Justice Department would be more likely to approve requests for investigations into White House activities on everything from misuse of prewar Iraq intelligence to allegations of political interference in tobacco litigation. And the DOJ could be less likely to block contempt charges against former White House aides who have refused to testify before Congress. "Bush needs someone at Justice who's going to watch the White House's back," says a Senate Democratic Judiciary Committee staffer. If Gonzales steps down, Bush would lose his most reliable shield. |
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Justice Dept gave implied OK
to Chiquita's terrorist payments| |
Excerpt: On April 24, 2003, a board member of Chiquita International Brands disclosed to a top official at the Justice Department that [Chiquita] was evidently breaking the nation's anti-terrorism laws. Roderick M. Hills, who had sought the meeting with former law firm colleague Michael Chertoff, explained that Chiquita was paying "protection money" to a Colombian paramilitary group on the U.S. government's list of terrorist organizations. Chertoff, then assistant attorney general, affirmed that the payments were illegal but said to wait for more feedback, according to five sources familiar with the meeting.
Sources close to Chiquita say that Chertoff never did get back to the company or its |
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Top Ten reasons for
impeaching Gonzales,
or, How I learned to stop worrying
and love Jay Inslee
by Madeline Zane, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Out of all the administration's top criminals, Gonzales seems to have left the messiest trail of documents and witnesses in his wake. Many of his subordinates and even leaders in other departments (like Robert Mueller from the FBI) have already contradicted his testimony. Every week, almost every day, it seems, we get more and more documentation about some criminal enterprise or other with a trail leading right to Alberto's office. |
Zen and the art of road rage
by Don Nash, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Have you ever been severely tempted to run over your neighbor? No particular reason. Homeboy just might bug the bejesus out of you on principle, so why not insert your "neighbor" under the wheels of the family Suburban? That is how American foreign policy works under the grand direction of our insane Boy King George. |
From inside the numbness
by Helen & Harry Highwater, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Sometimes I think I'm growing numb to the horror, other times I think numbness is the only way it's possible to endure it. Our method is to remain fixated, as much as possible, on the website, or on activism toward a specific and possibly even attainable local goal, and try to block out "the big picture" as much as possible ... because any time I see the big picture clearly, I want to cry or scream or just blow my brains out.
So toward that end, here are a few glimpses of "the little picture" ... |
Is it insane to notice that virtually
our entire leadership is insane?
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: If the current insane leadership of the U.S. is allowed to continue along its current course, we will not only be sealing our own fates, but also the fate of the entire world. An insane cabal armed with 10,000 nuclear weapons will most likely destroy the world. |
Bush and the Democrats' danger to America
by Hazel Burke, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The idea that the U.S. can monetarily afford to continue an indefinite occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan is pure fantasy. The costs are growing every year and will not total less than $1 trillion under any circumstances.
And the political and moral costs are increasing faster than the Pentagon can ask for more money to blow sh*t up. |
America's gift to Iraq:
Slow motion genocide
by Mr. Chuckles, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: America is now the main force promoting war and destruction throughout the Middle East and Islamic countries. More than one billion Islamic people occupy Earth, and the Bush administration is busy not just antagonizing them but supplying them advanced weaponry! |
We won the war!
Everybody can go home now!
by Don Nash, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Bush should just declare Iraq won. Not like that "Mission Accomplished" bullshit from 2003. No, he should level with the American people and tell us that he's screwed the pooch from day one on this one and well, sorry about that! Sorry to all the mourning mothers and fathers, the widows, wives and lovers, the children without fathers and mothers, and America overall and in general. Bush should just own the bank and be done with it. |
March of the grave
by Chris D., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Forgive me if it seems insulting to pen a funeral dirge, sung to the tune of a children's ditty, to capture the ever-increasing death toll and senselessly repetitive nature of the War on Terror... |
If'n they's not Christian,
ain't we's supposed to be a killin' 'em?
by Cletus Cob and Cracker Copeland, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: Now, I'm fairly positive that G. Bush said somewhere or should that be sometime, that he was. Christian. So, if'n G. Bush says he's Christian and then does all those Christian things like renditions and detentions and tortures and war and that genocide killing stuff, don't we'uns supposed to take him at his word? |
Making sense of covert foreign policy
by Herb Ruhs, MD, Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The urge is to just back away in confusion. That is a mistake. Refusing to try to make sense of this stuff as it plays out on the world stage is to just become an enabler of the criminally insane that are caught up in it. |
What we can do as psychiatrists is to call a spade a spade
by Frederick K., Unknown News| |
Excerpt: The diagnosis is on full display. We the People don't need psychiatrists, just our own smarts and common sense. We have eyes to see and ears to hear. Nothing more is needed. What we can do as psychiatrists is to call a spade a spade.
BUSH IS A CRIMINAL! |
Reframing the Republican lie
about wealth in America
by Sam Smith, Scholars & Rogues
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Excerpt: In America, the Republicans are seen as the party of money and wealth. This perception is certainly accurate in one sense -- the GOP is the favored party of the wealthy elite. Unfortunately, the party is also supported in large numbers by those who have no wealth, and thanks to the policies of the Republican party, no hope of ever attaining any. But they continue to support the party for reasons that seem irrational to us. Why?
Comment: The author goes on to succinctly explain why, and offers a strong and viable game plan for a solution. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Don't forget 'the other war'
by Cindy Sheehan| |
Excerpt: It must seem like the peace movement in the U.S. has forgotten about our troops in Afghanistan and the Afghani people. I know that I don't talk about that conflict enough, although I think that it is morally wrong, too. I know that our soldiers are dying and being harmed there, too. As much as the media doesn't cover what's happening in Iraq, it pays even less attention to Afghanistan. However, the peace movement is not united on Afghanistan, because many people think that it is a "good war." I believe no such thing and I promise you that I will be more vigilant about exposing that war crime, too.
Comment: I don't think I've ever read anything by Cindy Sheehan that didn't make me either cry or whoop for joy... Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
A con man in the White House
by Gene Lyons, syndicated columnist| |
Excerpt: With Iraq War support eroding among Republicans, the White House launched a recent propaganda offensive. On Independence Day, Bush informed a West Virginia audience, "Many of the spectacular car bombings and killings you see are as a result of al Qaeda -- the very same folks that attacked us on September the 11th. A major enemy in Iraq is the same enemy that dared attack the United States on that fateful day."
"The very same folks," he said. Except that al Qaeda in Iraq -- the fanatics he's talking about -- didn't exist on 9/11. The 2003 U.S. invasion created them. The word "folks," incidentally, is what poker players call Bush's "tell." It invariably signifies he's lying to people he considers yokels. |
Heroism and the language of fascism
by Rosa Brooks, Los Angeles Times
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Excerpt: The empty rhetoric of heroism is everywhere these days. You know what I mean. Pat Tillman -- the former NFL star -- is "an American hero," apparently because he volunteered for duty along with several hundred thousand other people, then had the misfortune to be accidentally shot by his own side. Every wounded service member is a "hero" too: Sen. Hillary Clinton proudly sponsored the "Heroes at Home Act of 2007," intended to improve medical care for wounded military personnel, and the Defense Department recently sponsored the "Hiring Heroes Career Fair" to encourage companies to hire wounded veterans. No soldier left behind!
Bah, humbug. |
Immoral philosophy fuels
Bush and Republican Party
by Paul Krugman, New York Times| |
Excerpt: Now, why should Mr. Bush fear that insuring uninsured children would lead to a further "federalization" of health care, even though nothing like that is actually in either the Senate plan or the House plan? It's not because he thinks the plans wouldn't work. It's because he's afraid that they would. That is, he fears that voters, having seen how the government can help children, would ask why it can't do the same for adults.
And there you have the core of Mr. Bush's philosophy. He wants the public to believe that government is always the problem, never the solution. But it's hard to convince people that government is always bad when they see it doing good things. So his philosophy says that the government must be prevented from solving problems, even if it can. In fact, the more good a proposed government program would do, the more fiercely it must be opposed. |
If I disappear, I disappear. But I will not go willingly, and I will not go unnamed.
by Marie Marchand, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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Excerpt: In case I get picked up and taken away under President Bush's Military Commissions Act of October 2006, I want it on record that I am not a terrorist or an enemy combatant, and that the organization I run in Bellingham is not associated with any terrorist cell. ...
In case my assets, which are few, get seized and my hard drive gets robbed under Bush's new executive order of July 17, 2007, I want you to know my name so that I am not disappeared. I have a 6-year-old son to raise, and, like so many intelligent, passionate peace activists, the world needs me to be a leader in ending my country's imperial addiction to warfare. |
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Comment: Chertoff's tacit approval of Chiquita's payments to terrorists occurred while he was working for the Justice Department -- which means that the ongoing Chiquita-terrorist scandal has suddenly become just another example of how the Justice Department has been politicized to the point where it no longer functions properly. Have we mentioned that a bunch of House members have proposed impeaching Alberto Gonzales? Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
FBI and IRS raid home of GOP Sen. Ted Stevens| |
Excerpt: FBI and IRS agents have raided the home of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK). The 83-year-old Stevens is the longest serving Republican in the Senate's history and considered one of the most powerful Republicans on Capitol Hill. He served as chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee for six years.
The raid is connected to a widespread corruption probe surrounding the Alaskan-based oil pipeline service company VECO Corporation. Last August, the FBI and IRS raided the offices of several Alaskan state lawmakers including Senator Stevens' son, state Senate President Ben Stevens. In May three current and former state lawmakers were arrested on bribery charges.
Three days later VECO's CEO Bill Allen and the company's vice president pleaded guilty of extortion, bribery, and conspiracy to impede the Internal Revenue Service. Allen had been one of Senator Stevens's closest political allies.
Contractors have told a federal grand jury that in 2000, VECO executives including Allen oversaw a lavish remodeling of Stevens's home. Since then VECO has received more than $30 million in federal contracts. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Alaska's sole congressman, Republican Don Young, is also being investigated as part of the VECO criminal inquiry.
Comment: Stevens famously claimed a few months ago that the Internet was not a big truck, but a series of tubes. Here's a way to remember the difference: The FBI got all that evidence of bribery and corruption out of Stevens' house on a big truck, but people are sharing this story with each other and calling for Stevens to resign using the series of tubes. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK
Justice Dept tipped off Republican before feds searched his home
Excerpt: [Sen Ted] Stevens said in a statement that his attorneys were advised of the impending search yesterday morning.
Comment: I spent nearly 9 years as a federal prosecutor. I'm not aware of a single instance when any prosecutor or agent told anyone outside the Justice Department that a search warrant was going to be executed later in the day. Telling outsiders -- especially lawyers for the person whose property will be searched -- defeats one of the principal purposes of a search warrant: SURPRISE to ensure the integrity of the evidence field.
If you're going to tell the target of the search in advance, then why not just serve a subpoena and trust in compliance? ... MORE ... Shertaugh at Crimes & Corruption PERMANENT LINK
Comment: Yet another example of just how staggeringly, mindblowingly corrupt the "Justice Department" has become, under Bush, Cheney, and Gonzales. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Stevens (R-Alaska) donors fed Inouye's (D-Hawaii) campaign, too| |
Excerpt: Hawaii's senior Sen. Daniel Inouye has received $11,000 in contributions from officers and employees of VECO Corp., the Alaska oil utility firm involved in the federal investigation of Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.
Inouye and Stevens are close friends who call each other "brothers." They travel together and share responsibilities in Senate committees, although Inouye is a Democrat and Stevens is the Senate's longest-serving Republican. |
Iraq gov't: Unions get no say in oil policy| |
Excerpt: Iraq's energy ministry is using a Saddam-era decree to crack down on trade unions and stifle dissent against foreign exploitation of the country's vast oil reserves, the Basra-based oil workers' union claims.
Hassan Juma'a, the union's leader, has been at the forefront of a public campaign against the signing of a controversial new oil law -- demanded by Washington -- that would lead to long-term profit-sharing contracts being signed with multinational oil giants.
But Hussein Shahrastani, Iraq's oil minister, has now issued a directive banning unions from participating in any official discussions about the new law, 'since these unions have no legal status to work within the state sector'.
Comment: In English: the Iraqi oil workers don't think the Iraq government should pass the U.S.-backed oil law that would sign over Iraq's oil profits to foreign companies. The Bush administration is desperately pushing the new oil law, while claiming that they are motivated not by all those beautiful oil profits, but by a deep-seated need to stabilize Iraq. Because everyone knows the best way to stabilize a Middle Eastern country is to get them to screw over their own people as a personal favor to the infidels. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK
U.S. oil workers back Iraqi oil workers, urge Congress to stop pushing oil law
Excerpt: The main U.S. union representing oil workers has called on Congress to stop pressing Iraq to pass its oil law and support the rights of oil workers.
"To all appearances the labor movement is one of the few organizations structured on a secular basis, has genuine popular support, and has membership across the growing ethnic and sectarian divisions," United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard wrote in a letter to the leadership of key U.S. Senate and House committees.
"This suggests that the labor movement in Iraq is one of the few organizations capable of playing a significant role in lessening and hopefully ending the sectarian strife plaguing their country," Gerard added.
"The unions believe ... Iraq's oil is a national resource that should not be privatized, and specifically that oil privatization should not be used as any kind of 'benchmark' of the Iraqi government's success or failure," Gerard continued. "Therefore we ask that you do all you can to oppose the privatization of Iraq's oil resources, correct the inequities present in Iraqi labor policy, and continue to support an end to the U.S. military presence in Iraq." |
Commander of Marine black ops unit warned Bush that Tillman wasn't killed by enemy fire| |
Excerpt: Just a day after approving a medal claiming former NFL player Pat Tillman had been cut down by "devastating enemy fire" in Afghanistan, a high-ranking general tried to warn President Bush that the story might not be true, according to testimony obtained by The Associated Press.
[Lt. Gen. Stanley] McChrystal acknowledged he had suspected several days prior to approving the Silver Star citation on April 28, 2004, that Tillman may have died by fratricide.
He said that suspicion led him to send a memo to top generals imploring "our nation's leaders," specifically "POTUS" -- the acronym for the president -- to avoid cribbing the "devastating enemy fire" explanation from the award citation for their speeches.
Despite this apparent contradiction, Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal was spared punishment in the latest review of Tillman's shooting. On Tuesday, the Army overruled a Pentagon recommendation that he be held accountable for his "misleading" actions.
Army doctors suspected Tillman was murdered
Excerpt: Army medical examiners were suspicious about the close proximity of the three bullet holes in Pat Tillman's forehead and tried without success to get authorities to investigate whether the former NFL player's death amounted to a crime, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
Among other information contained in the documents:
• Army attorneys sent each other congratulatory e-mails for keeping criminal investigators at bay as the Army conducted an internal friendly-fire investigation that resulted in administrative, or non-criminal, punishments.
• The three-star general who kept the truth about Tillman's death from his family and the public told investigators some 70 times that he had a bad memory and couldn't recall details of his actions.
• No evidence at all of enemy fire was found at the scene -- no one was hit by enemy fire, nor was any government equipment struck.
Comment: As damning as these articles are, they are by the Associated Press, so they somehow forget to mention the elephant in the room: Pat Tillman, America's favoritest, famousest, NFL-iest soldier, was about to start speaking out about the war just before that "enemy fire" didn't kill him. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
Minneapolis bridge collapse: Public anger will follow our sorrow| |
Excerpt: The death bridge was "structurally deficient," we now learn, and had a rating of just 50 percent, the threshold for replacement. But no one appears to have erred on the side of public safety. The errors were all the other way.
Would you drive your kids or let your spouse drive over a bridge that had a sign saying, "CAUTION: Fifty-Percent Bridge Ahead"?
Flashback to 2006: Minnesota Governor (R) gleefully vetoes highway repair funding
Excerpt: Literally wielding a big red VETO stamp to appease the no-tax crowd that remains hell-bent on a something-for-nothing relationship with government, Gov. Tim Pawlenty deep-sixed the bipartisan transportation bill. "How dumb can they be?" he sneered of the lawmakers who dared approve a tax hike to fix the state's roads.
A metallurgist's insights into the Minneapolis bridge disaster
Excerpt: Make no mistake: The deeply researched and totally supported case for a massive national infrastructure spending program could not have been clearer. But spending on infrastructure is not sexy and politicians at ALL levels of government have found countless excuses for not facing the totality of the problem.
Instead, public spending is dribbled out, dealing with the most urgent problems or, worse yet, the ones that are the most visible to the public. Left unaddressed are massive numbers of problems, such as the Minneapolis bridge and thousands more bridges, that our bureaucratic system has learned to game, postpone, rationalize and, therefore, put the public safety at considerable risk. |
Election fraud: Quietly undermining democracy
Ohio voting records from 2004 illegally destroyed| |
Excerpt: In 56 of Ohio's 88 counties, ballots and election records from 2004 have been "accidentally" destroyed, despite a federal order to preserve them -- it was crucial evidence which would have revealed whether the election was stolen. |
Voting machines in Florida can be hacked| |
Excerpt: Reversing an unofficial policy of denial, the Florida Secretary of State's office has conducted an elections study that confirmed Tuesday what a maverick voting chief discovered nearly two years ago: Insider computer hackers can change votes without a trace on Diebold optical-scan machines.
The study by Florida State University found that, despite recent software fixes, an "adversary" could use a pre-programmed computer card to swap one candidate's votes for another or create a "ballot-stuffing attack" that multiplies votes for a candidate or issue. |
Study shows hackers could change e-voting machine results| |
Excerpt: University researchers have demonstrated multiple ways of compromising all three of the electronic voting machine systems certified for use in California. The hacks could result in hijacking machines and altering election results, they claim. Although the system vendors have issued a detailed rebuttal of the study, critics are calling for an investigation into the e-voting certification process.
California de-certifies hackable voting machines ...
then instantly re-certifies them again
Excerpt: University of California computer experts found that voting machines sold by three companies -- Diebold Election Systems, Hart InterCivic and Sequoia Voting Systems -- were vulnerable to hackers and that voting results could be altered. [Secretary of State Debra] Bowen said she had decertified the machines for use and then re-certified them on the condition they meet her new security standards. When asked what would happen if the companies failed to do so, Bowen responded, "I think they will." |
Diebold hard-codes two passwords into its voting machines: "diebold" and "12345678"| |
Excerpt: Some of these are problems that the vendors claimed to have fixed years ago. For example, Diebold claimed in 2003 that its use of hard-coded passwords was "resolved in subsequent versions of the software". Yet the current version still uses at least two hard-coded passwords -- one is "diebold" and another is the eight-byte sequence 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8.
Similarly, Diebold in 2003 ridiculed the idea that their software could suffer from buffer overflows: "Unlike a Web server or other Internet enabled applications, the code is not vulnerable to most 'buffer overflow attacks' to which the authors [Kohno et al.] refer. This form of attack is almost entirely inapplicable to our application. In the limited number of cases in which it would apply, we have taken the steps necessary to ensure correctness." Yet the California source code study found several buffer overflow vulnerabilities in Diebold's systems ("multiple buffer overflows"). |
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Fewer U.S. deaths in Iraq in July? That's spin that's basically a lie.| |
Excerpt: For two days, the press has touted the notion that July was an encouraging month for the U.S. in Iraq, partly because American deaths declined from previous months this year. Maybe this meant the surge was working?
Closer (but usually ignored) analysis shows something else, however. Actually, the number of fatalities made it the deadliest July yet for the U.S. side. The number of confirmed deaths, 78, was indeed the lowest for any month in 2007, but it easily topped the worst July ever, with the previous mark of 54 in both 2004 and 2005. |
Peace in the Middle East means ... arming all sides
White House plans massive weapons sale to
homeland of 9/11 hijackers and most foreign fighters in Iraq| |
Excerpt: The Bush administration has proposed a major new arms deal with Saudi Arabia and greatly boosting military aid to Israel as part of an effort to counter Iran by arming its regional rivals. President Bush wants to sell $20 billion worth of high-tech weapons to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. The sale could lead help spur a new arms race in the Middle East as the Bush administration is proposing to give $30 billion in new aid to Israel and $13 billion to Egypt.
The arms deal is being proposed at a time when Saudi's actions in Iraq are coming under increasing scrutiny. On Sunday the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, accused Saudi Arabia of undermining efforts to stabilize Iraq. Earlier this month the Los Angeles Times revealed that nearly half of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops in Iraq have come from Saudi Arabia.
Comment: I can't believe I'm typing this -- can't believe anyone should have to point this out. But 15 of the 19 hijackers didn't come from Iraq. They came from Saudi Arabia. And most of the foreign fighters in Iraq don't come from Iran. They also come from Saudi Arabia. So not only are we NOT fighting those who attacked us on 9/11 ... we're selling them more and better weapons. Which also lets them do better job of picking off additional Americans, a few at a time, in their own backyard. Madeline Zane PERMANENT LINK |
Israel gets $30-billion in "defense" aid from U.S.| |
Entire item: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem. Olmert announced a new 30 billion dollar U.S. defense package to preserve Israel's regional military superiority, as Washington readied an Arab arms deal to counter Iran. |
The $63 billion sham| |
Excerpt: Over the next decade, the Bush administration wants to give Israel $30 billion in military aid, a nearly 43 percent increase over what that nation received over the last 10 years, according to the New York Times. We want to give $20 billion to Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. We want to give Egypt $13 billion. |
Hezbollah leader slams U.S. arms deals, says aim is to drown Mideast in wars| |
Excerpt: "The United States is bringing billions of dollars worth of arms to ignite wars in this region," [Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan] Nasrallah said in a speech beamed through giant television screens to hundreds of thousands of supporters in eastern Lebanon's city of Baalbek. "The American administration is working on instigating sectarian strife and civil wars in Palestine, Iraq, the Gulf and ... between the countries of this region." |
Condi and Gates drop off weapons, ask for help demonizing Iraq| |
Excerpt: U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged U.S. partners in the Middle East on Thursday to put pressure on Iran to end its nuclear program, warning there's "not really room for bystanders here."
A key part of Gates's and Rice's tour was to discuss a multi-billion-dollar military aid bonanza for Washington's allies in the Gulf amid U.S. accusations that Shiite Iran is trying to destabilize the region. |
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Life in liberated Afghanistan & Iraq
Water taps run dry in Baghdad| |
Excerpt: Much of the Iraqi capital was without running water Thursday and had been for at least 24 hours, compounding the urban misery in a war zone and the blistering heat at the height of the Baghdad summer.
Residents and city officials said large sections in the west of the capital had been virtually dry for six days because the already strained electricity grid cannot provide sufficient power to run water purification and pumping stations. |
Half of Iraq 'in absolute poverty', 25% of kids are starving| |
Excerpt: Up to eight million Iraqis require immediate emergency aid, with nearly half of the population living in "absolute poverty", according to a report by Oxfam and a coalition of Iraqi groups. |
Sunnis withdraw from Iraqi government| |
Excerpt: Baghdad shook with bombings and political upheaval today as the largest Sunni Arab bloc quit the government and a suicide attacker blew up his fuel tanker in one of several attacks that claimed 142 lives nationwide. |
Pentagon can't account for $19.2 billion worth of equipment lost or stolen in Iraq| |
Excerpt: The finding by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, comes a few days after the Pentagon acknowledged that the U.S. and its allies have delivered a little more than a third of the equipment in the pipeline for the Iraqi Army and less than half of what is destined for the Iraqi police. |
Corrupt gov't officials are "untouchable" in Iraq| |
Excerpt: Supplies and medicine in strife-torn Baghdad's overcrowded hospitals have been siphoned off and sold elsewhere for profit because of corruption in the Iraqi Ministry of Health, according to a draft U.S. government report obtained by NBC News.
The report, written by U.S. advisers to Iraq's anti-corruption agency, analyzes corruption in 12 ministries and finds devastating and grim problems. "Corruption protected by senior members of the Iraqi government," the report said, "remains untouchable."
Comment: Just as Bush did with Libby, Iraqi high officials let potential witnesses against them off the legal hook. JR Mooneyham PERMANENT LINK |
One-third of Iraqis need immediate aid| |
Excerpt: About 8 million Iraqis -- nearly a third of the population -- need immediate emergency aid because of the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, relief agencies said Monday.
Those Iraqis are in urgent need of water, sanitation, food and shelter, said the report by Oxfam and the NGO Coordination Committee network in Iraq. |
Iraqi soccer star wants Americans to leave| |
Excerpt: "I want America to go out," [team captain Younis Mahmoud] said. "Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but out. I wish the American people didn't invade Iraq and, hopefully, it will be over soon."
Mahmoud also said he will not return to Iraq to celebrate. "I don't want the Iraqi people to be angry with me," he said. "If I go back with the team, anybody could kill me or try to hurt me." |
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Doctors blast Guantanamo force-feeding as unethical| |
Excerpt: Military doctors violate medical ethics when they approve the force-feeding of hunger strikers at the U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, according to a commentary in a prestigious medical journal.
The doctors should attempt to prevent force-feeding by refusing to participate, the commentary's three authors write in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. |
Congress considers giving health care to poor kids without Bush's permission| |
Excerpt: The move to offer government-funded health insurance to more poor and low-income children is headed for an apparent showdown this fall between Congress and President Bush, after the Senate passed legislation late Thursday with 68 votes -- just one vote more than lawmakers need to override a threatened veto from the president.
But the House and Senate bills are markedly different in many respects. Lawmakers from both chambers will meet early this fall to find compromises, under a tight deadline: SCHIP is set to expire Sept. 30. |
Cunningham bribery co-conspirator hearing held in super-secret| |
Excerpt: The court hearing will be closed to everyone -- the public, the news media, the defense attorneys -- save for the judges and a few lawyers from the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The extreme secrecy is highly unusual. Veteran lawyers could not remember another time when the appeals court held a completely closed hearing.
Comment: This is criminal. In America, justice is supposed to have an open-door policy, supposed to be transparent and on the record for anyone to examine. The three judges who've allowed this un-American secret court proceedings ought to be removed from the bench at once. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
U.S. underwrites Sunni militia in Iraq| |
Excerpt: U.S. commanders are offering large sums to enlist, at breakneck pace, their former enemies, handing them broad security powers in a risky effort to tame this fractious area south of Baghdad in Babil province and, literally, buy time for national reconciliation.
American generals insist they are not creating militias. In contracts with the U.S. military, the sheiks are referred to as "security contractors." Each of their "guards" will receive 70 percent of an Iraqi policeman's salary. U.S. commanders call them "concerned citizens," evoking suburban neighborhood watch groups.
But interviews with ground commanders and tribal leaders offer a window into how the United States is financing a new constellation of mostly Sunni armed groups with murky allegiances and shady pasts. |
Insurance companies' secret tactics cheat fire victims, hike profits| |
Excerpt: The 60 million U.S. homeowners who pay more than $50 billion a year in insurance premiums are often disappointed when they discover insurers won't pay the full cost of rebuilding their damaged or destroyed homes.
Property insurers systematically deny and reduce their policyholders' claims, according to court records in California, Florida, Illinois, Mississippi, New Hampshire and Tennessee.
The insurance companies routinely refuse to pay market prices for homes and replacement contents, they use computer programs to cut payouts, they change policy coverage with no clear explanation, they ignore or alter engineering reports, and they sometimes ask their adjusters to lie to customers, court records and interviews with former employees and state regulators show. |
Murdoch clinches deal to buy Dow Jones, Wall Street Journal| |
Excerpt: Rupert Murdoch on Wednesday clinched victory in his battle to acquire Dow Jones after securing support from enough Bancroft family members to secure majority backing for his $5bn cash offer for the owner of The Wall Street Journal. |
Mortgage market teeters near meltdown| |
Excerpt: No-one wanted to buy mortgage backed securities this week. And only "conforming" loans can be offloaded by the originating banks. What this means, until the situation changes, is that banks might only loan what they themselves want to keep on their books.
Mass foreclosures threaten U.S. economy
Comment: Presented in graphs, the facts are even more frightening. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
Most wrongful convictions are not accidents
Use our New York Times login unk.news and password unknown | |
Excerpt: My recently completed study of the 124 exonerations of death row inmates in America from 1973 to 2007 indicated that 80, or about two-thirds, of their so-called wrongful convictions resulted not from good-faith mistakes or errors but from intentional, willful, malicious prosecutions by criminal justice personnel. (There were four cases in which a determination could not be made one way or another.)
Yet too often this behavior is not singled out and identified for what it is. When a prosecutor puts a witness on the stand whom he knows to be lying, or fails to turn over evidence favorable to the defense, or when a police officer manufactures or destroys evidence to further the likelihood of a conviction, then it is deceptive to term these conscious violations of the law -- all of which I found in my research -- as merely mistakes or errors.
Mistakes are good-faith errors -- like taking the wrong exit off the highway, or dialing the wrong telephone number. There is no malice behind them. However, when officers of the court conspire to convict a defendant of first-degree murder and send him to death row, they are doing much more than making an innocent mistake or error. They are breaking the law. |
TSA searches bus passengers without cause| |
Excerpt: "It's called Visual Intermodal Prevention Response. We have plainclothes inspectors, blue-gloved uniformed security officers who are checking baggage, the behavior detection officers, and federal air marshals, which are the law enforcement arm of TSA."
Security stations were set up at bus stops at Capitol Avenue and Market Street, and Ohio and Meridian streets. Some passengers were patted down or submitted to having bags checked.
TSA said the searches were "by-permission," meaning patrons could decline to be checked. Those who did would not be turned away, an official said, unless they otherwise appeared to be a security threat.
Comment: That last paragraph, of course, is bullsh*t. Passengers who are wearing nice suits may decline and still ride, or more likely won't be approached for a search at all. Passengers who "otherwise appear to be a security threat" are the dark-skinned passengers, passengers speaking Spanish or Farsi, and passengers wearing more 'working class' clothes, all of whom understand that these searches are not at all voluntary. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
There are more than three stooges (and one of them will be America's next President)
Tancredo's Presidential platform: U.S. should bomb Mecca| |
Excerpt: "If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina," the GOP presidential candidate said. "That is the only thing I can think of that might deter somebody from doing what they would otherwise do. If I am wrong fine, tell me, and I would be happy to do something else. But you had better find a deterrent or you will find an attack. There is no other way around it. There have to be negative consequences for the actions they take. That's the most negative I can think of."
Comment: Helen tells me I shouldn't use the word 'stupid', but sometimes there's no workable substitute: So many Republicans are so stupid, I wouldn't be surprised if Tancredo's unfathomably stupid idea actually raises his poll numbers. Harry PERMANENT LINK
Counter-comment: Harry grew up in big cities, but I grew up in a small town. So I know what it's like to grow up sheltered (which is a little different than stupid), where your only idea of the world is your neighbors and the TV, which are both telling you the Muslims are evil incarnate. Tom Tancredo, on the other hand, is objectively, indisputably a complete moron. Helen PERMANENT LINK |
Obama says he might send troops into Pakistan| |
Excerpt: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Wednesday that he would possibly send troops into Pakistan to hunt down terrorists, an attempt to show strength when his chief rival has described his foreign policy skills as naive. |
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FBI recruits 15,000 informants as part of expanded spying campaign| |
Excerpt: ABC News is reporting the FBI is recruiting thousands of undercover informants to help the agency spy inside the United States. According to a recent unclassified report to Congress, the FBI wants to build a network of more than 15,000 informants. ABC reports the aggressive push for more secret informants appears to be part of a new effort to grow its intelligence and counterterrorism efforts. |
Al-Jazeera offers news diversity to U.S. online after cable shuts them out| |
Excerpt: Ignored or shunned by almost every cable provider in the U.S., the al-Jazeera English news channel has turned to the internet in an effort to reach American viewers -- with much more success.
Since April, when al-Jazeera struck a distribution tie-up with YouTube, the popular video clip site owned by Google, the channel has received 2m hits and on one day last month was ranked first ahead of Paris Hilton and other staple fare. |
Congress passes ethics legislation ... sort of| |
Excerpt: While proponents hailed the measure as the most significant reform since Watergate, questions remained on how some provisions would be enforced and whether the measure would change lawmakers' ability to secure pet projects known as earmarks.
For a special project to be approved, lawmakers would be required to publicize their plans 48 hours before the Senate votes on them. One loophole, though, allows lawmakers to say such disclosure is not "technically feasible," or the majority leader could waive the provision.
Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, said that the earmarks had "turned Congress into a giant favor factory for special interests."
"This bill is actually worse than doing nothing," DeMint said of the legislation approved by the House on Tuesday and by the Senate on Thursday, "because it preserves business as usual and fools people into thinking that things are fixed." |
FBI to Congress: Murder, wrongful imprisonment
may be necessary to preserve drug investigations| |
Excerpt: This would be a morally dubious policy even if we were talking about matters of, say, national security. But we aren't. We're talking about the FBI concealing evidence of murder and other violent crimes, and of knowingly allowing innocent people to go to prison in order to not disrupt drug investigations. In other words, all of this is necessary, the FBI is saying, to keep people from getting high. |
A rare look inside the CIA's secret torture program| |
Excerpt: The CIA's director, General Michael Hayden, has said that the program, which is designed to extract intelligence from suspects quickly, is an "irreplaceable" tool for combating terrorism. And President Bush has said that "this program has given us information that has saved innocent lives, by helping us stop new attacks." He claims that it has contributed to the disruption of at least ten serious Al Qaeda plots since September 11th, three of them inside the United States. |
Iraqi, Yemeni men join lawsuit over CIA torture flights| |
Excerpt: Two men who say they were flown by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to secret overseas prisons where they were interrogated and tortured joined an American Civil Liberties Union lawsuit on Wednesday.
The ACLU filed the original complaint in May, accusing Jeppesen Dataplan Inc., a unit of Boeing Co., of providing flight and logistical support to at least 15 aircraft on 70 so-called "extraordinary-rendition" flights. |
First new nuke plant in 30 years planned 50 miles from DC| |
Excerpt: The first application to build a new U.S. nuclear power plant in three decades has been filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, bumping a proposed third unit at a Calvert County site to the front of a list of reactors being considered by the nuclear power industry.
The filing marked another small step toward a resurgence of the nuclear power industry, bolstered by generous federal tax incentives.
There has not been an application to build a nuclear power plant in the United States since before the partial meltdown at one of the Three Mile Island units in Pennsylvania in 1979. |
One sentence in energy bill gives out billions of gov't loans for new nuke plants| |
Excerpt: A one-sentence provision buried in the U.S. Senate's recently passed energy bill, inserted without debate at the urging of the nuclear power industry, could make builders of new nuclear plants eligible for tens of billions of dollars in government loan guarantees.
Lobbyists have told lawmakers and administration officials in recent weeks that the nuclear industry needs as much as $50 billion in loan guarantees over the next two years to finance a major expansion.
The provision has the potential to dramatically expand the nuclear industry, which plans to build 19 new power plants at an estimated cost of about $4 billion to $5 billion apiece. |
Abu Ghraib whistleblower's ordeal after Donald Rumsfeld blew his cover| |
Excerpt: And then he was sitting in a crowded Iraqi canteen with hundreds of soldiers and Donald Rumsfeld came on the television to thank Joe Darby by name for handing in the photographs.
"I don't think it was an accident because those things are pretty much scripted," Mr Darby says.
"But I did receive a letter from him which said he had no malicious intent, he was only doing it to praise me and he had no idea about my anonymity.
"I really find it hard to believe that the secretary of defense of the United States has no idea about the star witness for a criminal case being anonymous."
Rather than turn on him for betraying colleagues, most of the soldiers in his unit shook his hand. It was at home where the real trouble started. |
House votes to overturn U.S. Supreme Court wage-bias decision| |
Excerpt: The House of Representatives voted to overturn a Supreme Court ruling by allowing workers to sue for wage discrimination long after a deadline the court imposed.
The House measure, approved 225-199 today under a veto threat from President George W. Bush, responds to a decision by the Supreme Court in May. The justices ruled 5-4 that workers can't sue under a federal job-bias law to claim they are underpaid because of gender or race discrimination that occurred years earlier. In a dissenting opinion, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg suggested Congress would move to reverse the decision. |
American emigration to Canada on the upswing| |
Excerpt: The number of Americans admitted to Canada last year reached a 30-year high, with a 20 per cent increase over the previous year and nearly double the number that arrived in 2000. |
Court says FBI violated Constitution in raid on cash-on-ice Congressman| |
Excerpt: A federal appeals court ruled Friday that the FBI violated the Constitution when it searched Rep. William Jefferson's congressional office last year as part the bribery probe against the New Orleans Democrat.
The much-anticipated 3-0 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said that Jefferson is entitled to the return of all "privileged legislative materials" seized in the May 2006 raid. |
Another rich guy gets away with stealing millions| |
Excerpt: John Felderhof, the lone remaining key figure in the multibillion-dollar Bre-X gold fraud, was found not guilty on Tuesday of insider trading and misleading investors in the only prosecution brought in the greatest mining scam of all time.
The Ontario Securities Commission, Canada's main market regulator, accused him in 1999 of four counts of each charge, saying he illegally sold C$84 million (now worth $79 million) of Bre-X stock in 1996, and issued misleading press releases touting the property's rich gold content.
Soon after, independent surveys showed the company's much-touted Busang gold deposit in Indonesia was worthless.
Comment: Here's a story about another Ken Lay type character who stretched out his trial for years and finally got off scot-free -- partly because possible witnesses died along the way. Hmmm.
When the court acquitted John B. Felderhof, he wasn't even there. No-one's sure where he is. So even if he hadn't been acquitted, he probably wouldn't have served time.
Plus, the possible punishment sounded like a wrist slap even if they could have laid it on him: a MAXIMUM of 8 years and a fine -- for fraud amounting to $84 million in 1996, with maybe quite a few victims.
Most people younger than 55 or so would probably come out ahead giving up 8 years for even just a sizable fraction of $84 million (but "good behavior", etc. would likely have got him out in 3 or whatever -- right?)
The story's confusing, though. It says the courts only charged him for $84 million in fraud, but when his company crashed, it appears investors had already poured $6 BILLION into it, so that it's called "one of the world's biggest mining swindles." JR Mooneyham PERMANENT LINK
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New information could implicate the FBI in the Oklahoma City bombings| |
Excerpt: This federal judge then ordered the FBI to do a search and to come back with all documents linking the Southern Poverty Law Center and the FBI to a failed sting operation at Elohim City connected to McVeigh and the bombing. They came back with about 150 pages -- I'm sure that it had many, many more, but 150 pages of documents. They were heavily redacted. They go to the judge, and they say, "Your honor, don't make us turn these over, because we had at least four informants who had been promised anonymity, and under the law you can't release that information." And what the judge did is said to them, "Black out the names and turn over the documents."
And these documents, just as Mr. Ridgeway said, reveal a widespread informant operation, at least in the fall of '94, leading up to and through the bombing, where the FBI and the ATF knew well in advance of April of 1995 that there was a bombing in place and/or planning, who was involved, and did nothing to stop it. |
News from America's very bestest ally, Israel
If Hamas isn't in the game, there is no game| |
Excerpt: ... In accepting the right to be naturalized in the West Bank, they (Palestinian refugees) must give up their United Nations refugee certificates. From a Palestinian nationalist perspective, this is practically treason, since it means giving up the right of return. In the past 60 years, almost all Palestinian political statements have completely rejected the idea of resettling the refugees anywhere other than where they used to live in Palestine. |
British woman watches in shock as Israeli bulldozers raze her home| |
Excerpt: Six months pregnant and exhausted, British mother Jessica Barhoum is still shocked that Israeli authorities ordered her, her husband and their baby out of bed at daybreak and pulverized their home. "I can't believe that it's lawful, that this law exists. I'm from England. Do you know what I mean?" asked Jessica, 32, who grew up in the southern city of Salisbury but moved to Israel after marrying Moussa, her Arab Israeli husband. "You can't believe a country like this would make a law against its own citizens," she added. |
Water tank, tractor confiscated from Palestinian shepherds| |
Excerpt: The tractor driver, Ahmed Bani-Oudeh, said he was stopped near the Beka'ot roadblock when he was on his way to fill the tank with water. After the equipment was confiscated last Sunday, the families have had to buy water at three times the price from nearby water tank owners. |
Israel announces plan for nuclear power station| |
Comment: By Bush-Cheney standards, America should attack Israel. Helen & Harry PERMANENT LINK |
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Wal-Mart says un-paid Mexican workers are "volunteers"| |
Excerpt: 19,000 [Mexican] youngsters between the ages of 14 and 16 work after school in hundreds of Wal-Mart stores, mostly as grocery baggers, throughout Mexico -- and none of them receives a red cent in wages or fringe benefits. The company doesn't try to conceal this practice: its 62 Superama [Wal-Mart de Mexico] supermarkets display blue signs with white letters that tell shoppers: "OUR VOLUNTEER PACKERS COLLECT NO SALARY, ONLY THE GRATUITY THAT YOU GIVE THEM. SUPERAMA THANKS YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING." |
Judge says Valerie Plame, who was a CIA agent from
1985-2006, can't mention what years she worked for CIA| |
Excerpt: Valerie Wilson may be the best known former intelligence operative in recent history, but a U.S. judge in New York has ruled that she is not allowed to say how long she worked for the Central Intelligence Agency in the memoir she plans to publish this fall.
Although the fact that Wilson worked for the CIA from 1985 to 2006 has been published in the Congressional Record and elsewhere, the judge, Barbara Jones of U.S. District Court in Manhattan, said Wilson was not free to say so.
"The information at issue was properly classified, was never declassified and has not been officially acknowledged by the CIA," Jones wrote. |
Virus lab behind new British foot and mouth outbreak| |
Excerpt: A science laboratory that develops vaccines for the government was last night identified as the suspected source of Britain's latest outbreak of foot and mouth disease. Merial SAS, a private research firm, agreed to suspend production of a strain of the foot and mouth virus that it had been using to produce vaccines. It is based just three miles from the fields where the outbreak was first detected. So far it has led to the culling of at least three herds. |
Pre-Iraq warnings from British intelligence were swept aside by an obsessed White House| |
Excerpt: The worrying, even terrifying, thing about these and other accounts by former CIA officers is the ease with which America's intelligence agency was swept aside by cliques in the White House and the Pentagon intent on war. The CIA's weakness had a knock-on effect on MI6 as both agencies became victims of the blind determination of their respective political masters. |
So why hasn't Iran started by wiping its own Jews off the map?| |
Excerpt: There is an interesting problem with selling the "Iran as Nazi Germany" line. If Ahmadinejad really is Hitler, ready to commit genocide against Israel's Jews as soon as he can get his hands on a nuclear weapon, why are some 25,000 Jews living peacefully in Iran and more than reluctant to leave despite repeated enticements from Israel and American Jews? |
Armed robots to go to war in Iraq | |
Excerpt: American forces have deployed robots equipped with automatic weapons in Iraq, the first battlefield use of machines capable of waging war by remote control. |
All charges dropped against that "terror doctor
you were supposed to be all panicked about| |
Excerpt: Australia's chief prosecutor today dropped a terror charge against an Indian doctor accused of supporting last month's failed bomb attacks on London and Glasgow.
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions Damian Bugg withdrew the charge against Mohamed Haneef in the Brisbane Magistrates Court.
Bugg told reporters in Canberra that he ordered the charges withdrawn because he was satisfied "there was no reasonable prospect of conviction". |
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Lightning round news
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Obituary: Oliver Hill, civil rights lawyer
Jury scolds but doesn't punish mercenary firm in Iraq
that fired whistleblowing workers after murder
Video, report details evangelism at highest levels of U.S. military
Bush beats Nixon for disapproval
Back-asswards town drops charges against couple who flew flag upside-down
Another record poppy crop in Afghanistan
If Church got rid of gay clergy it would collapse, says homosexual bishop
Judge says crooked lawyers must pay $62-million
Online snooping gets creepy
Why this Minnesotan will be mailing my Republican Governor a nickel tomorrow
Elton John wants the internet gone
U.S. automakers market share lowest ever
Protesters in D.C., arrested for no reason, get $1-million from city
Ohio bill would make abortion the man's choice
Radioactive-waste leak at Hanford worst in years
TV's Robin Roberts has breast cancer (and fortunately, health insurance)
Simple method detects cervical cancer
Coffee drinking related to reduced risk of liver cancer
Brits end occupation of Northern Ireland
Court orders newspaper to turn over unpublished crime scen |
