posted by profmarcus at
9/23/2006
France, Britain and Germany would be willing to begin talks with Iran even if it has not suspended its nuclear enrichment programme first, but Washington would not take part, a German magazine reported on Saturday.
[...]
The United States would not join in any talks with Iran until a full enrichment suspension was in place, the paper said.
[...]
The new plan was discussed at a meeting of senior officials of the six countries and the EU in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, Der Spiegel said.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice voiced no direct approval to this strategy but signalled she could tolerate it, the magazine reported.
posted by profmarcus at
9/23/2006
The intelligence estimate, completed in April, is the first formal appraisal of global terrorism by U.S. intelligence agencies since the Iraq war began, and it represents a consensus view of the 16 disparate spy services inside government. Titled "Trends in Global Terrorism: Implications for the United States," it asserts that Islamic radicalism, rather than being in retreat, has metastasized and spread across the globe.
An opening section of the report, "Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement," cites the Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology. The report "says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse," said one U.S. intelligence official.
posted by profmarcus at
9/23/2006
At a Republican fundraiser held in Rochester, New York on Friday afternoon, Vice President Dick Cheney said that his "old friend," Democratic Congressman Jack Murtha was "wrong" on Iraq, and that following his advice to withdraw our troops would "simply validate the al Qaeda strategy and invite more terrorist attacks in the future."
The vice president also condemned the "Dean Democrats" who "have purged Joe Lieberman from the ranks of the Democratic Party in Connecticut," in favor of primary winner Ned Lamont, "a candidate whose explicit goal is to give up the fight against the terrorists in Iraq."
[...]
The Vice President maintained that "[i]f we follow Congressman Murtha's advice and we withdraw from Iraq the same way we withdrew from Beirut and from Somalia, we will simply validate the al Qaeda strategy and invite more terrorist attacks in the future."
Cheney then praised Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, and slammed the Democratic party for "turning its back" on him.
"Senator Lieberman was my opponent in 2000 -- Al Gore's running mate, a longtime senator, and one of the most loyal and distinguished Democrats of the generation," said Cheney. "Joe is also an unapologetic supporter of the global war on terror."
"He voted to support military action in Iraq when most other senators in both parties did the same -- and he's had the courage to stick by that vote even when the going gets tough," Cheney added. "And now, for that reason alone, because he supported the President in the global war on terror, the Dean Democrats have purged Joe Lieberman from the ranks of the Democratic Party in Connecticut."
posted by profmarcus at
9/23/2006
So far, there has been no sign that the Bush administration's considerable efforts to get Ambassador John Bolton confirmed are yielding any success in changing the environment currently blocking him.
But the White House has considered a shocking plan to keep the Ambassador in his position at the UN that may not involve a second recess appointment to his current position -- which would mean that he could not be compensated, may not be eligible for travel funds, may not be able to actually use government facilities for his work, and would possibly be time limited to a certain number of days that he could remain in this position, even if largely stripped of all taxpayer support.
The White House is studying appointing Bolton as one of the deputies at the United Nations, specifically the "political deputy." This position also carries the title of Ambassador, as do four other slots at the US Mission to the UN. Bolton would take a pay cut, and would then be made "Acting Ambassador" and chief of mission.
Those I have bounced this news off in the diplomatic community are stunned by even the conceptualization of this strategy and have a hard time believing that the administration would allow itself to appear in such a desperate position to retain Bolton.
I have no indication that this course is "likely." I only know that it is on the roster of options being considered about Bolton.
posted by profmarcus at
9/23/2006
Nagourney relates: “His White House colleagues and friends poke fun at his obsession with order and measurement, at his daily spreadsheet of to-do lists.” He quotes Karl Rove on Mehlman: “He’s anal-retentive, man!”
posted by profmarcus at
9/23/2006
The French defense ministry on Saturday called for an internal investigation of the leak of an intelligence document that raises the possibility that Osama bin Laden may have died of typhoid in Pakistan a month ago but said the report of the death remained unverified.
“The information defused this morning by the l’Est Republicain newspaper concerning the possible death of Osama bin Laden cannot be confirmed,” a Defense Ministry statement said.
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has a water-borne illness, a Saudi intelligence source told CNN on Saturday, knocking down a report in a French newspaper that the man who has been hunted by the United States for the past five years is dead.
The Saudi intelligence source told CNN's Nic Robertson that there have been credible reports for the past several weeks that bin Laden is ill, but there has been no word of his death.
posted by profmarcus at
9/23/2006
The United States is following the lead of “dirty war” nations, such as Argentina and Chile, in enacting what amounts to an amnesty law protecting U.S. government operatives, apparently up to and including President George W. Bush, who have committed or are responsible for human rights crimes.
While the focus of the current congressional debate has been on Bush’s demands to redefine torture and to reinterpret the Geneva Conventions, the compromise legislation also would block prosecutions for violations already committed during the five-year-old “war on terror.”
The compromise legislation bars criminal or civil legal action over past violations of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, according to press reports. Common Article 3 outlaws “violence to life and person,” such as death and mutilation as well as cruel treatment and “outrages upon personal dignity.”
The legislation now before Congress also would prohibit detainees from citing the Geneva Conventions as a legal basis for challenging their imprisonment or for seeking civil damages for their mistreatment. [Washington Post, Sept. 22, 2006]
Since U.S. courts generally limit plaintiff status to people who have suffered definable harm, these provisions amount to a broad amnesty law for Bush and other administration officials who have engaged in human rights violations since the 9/11 attacks.
The emerging U.S. amnesty law would be unusual in that it wouldn’t explicitly acknowledge that offenses had been committed, nor is the word “amnesty” used. Nor have there been public hearings in Congress to determine what the Bush administration might have done that requires amnesty.
posted by profmarcus at
9/23/2006
Meanwhile in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, about 3,000 people demonstrated outside a downtown mosque then marched through the streets to demand the return of the former dictator to power.
posted by profmarcus at
9/23/2006
Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 07:19:48 -0400 (EDT)
To: gulf2000 list
Pakistan About-Face
From: Juan Cole
The United States demanded last week that Pakistan close the borders with Pakistan, cut off fuel to the Taliban, open its air space to the US for an attack on Afghanistan, and indicate a willingness to have US and allied troops stationed on its soil.
[...]
Dawn [a Karachi daily English-language newspaper, 9-17-01] quotes Pakistani officials as saying, that "Pakistan has the option to live in the 21st century or the Stone Age' is roughly how US officials are putting their case."
Bush said he was "taken aback by the harshness of the words" attributed to Armitage but had no knowledge of such a threat. He said the first he heard of it was in the newspaper Friday.
Armitage categorically denied it. "I've never made a threat in my life that I couldn't back up," he told CNN, "and since I wasn't authorized to say such a thing and hence couldn't back up that threat, I never said it."
posted by profmarcus at
9/23/2006
GOP Upbeat on Terror-Trial Bill
House Leaders Satisfied With Bush-Senate Compromise
By Charles Babington and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 23, 2006; Page A06
House GOP leaders signaled yesterday that they are satisfied with the main elements of a bill on military trials negotiated Thursday by dissident Republican senators and White House officials, and they predicted that Congress will pass the measure before adjourning next week.
On Rough Treatment, a Rough Accord
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 23, 2006; Page A06
Draft legislation to create a new system of military courts for terrorism suspects would allow prosecutors to introduce at future trials confessions that were obtained through "cruel, unusual, or inhumane" interrogations by the CIA or the military before 2005, but not afterward.
The legislation would also allow defense attorneys to challenge the use of hearsay information obtained through coercive interrogations in distant countries only if they can prove it is unreliable, a daunting task if the information consists of written statements from people the lawyers have no right to confront in court.
posted by profmarcus at
9/23/2006
[I]t evens the odds against these scumbags for the first time in decades.
- U.S. Representative Charlie Norwood, Ninth District, Georgia, on the House immigration reform bill, HR 6089
posted by profmarcus at
9/22/2006
Submit To Propeller
posted by profmarcus at
9/22/2006
David Nalbandian swept past Mark Philippoussis 6-4 6-3 6-3 to give Argentina a 1-0 lead over Australia in their Davis Cup semi-final.
posted by profmarcus at
9/22/2006
The stakes are high.Submit To Propeller
The danger is real.
The case is compelling.
The cause is just.
The time is now.
The choice is yours.
This age of The American Crisis must end.
The renewal of The American Spirit must begin again.
posted by profmarcus at
9/22/2006
posted by profmarcus at
9/22/2006
"We proposed a more direct approach to bringing clarification," Dan Bartlett said. "This one is more of the scenic route, but it gets us there."
posted by profmarcus at
9/22/2006
Walk out of the Capitol
by Bob Johnson
Thu Sep 21, 2006 at 11:16:57 PM PDT
It's time to shut down the government.
Torture.
The gutting of habeus corpus.
And now this.
An attack on Iran.
These people are lunatics. Insane, fascist, psychotic, psychopathic, sociopathic lunatics.
Our Democratic leaders must throw political calculation ito the wind. The future of our Republic is at stake. We must shut down the government.
Hillary Clinton, this is for you. Barack Obama, this is for you. Joe Lieberman. go fuck yourself. Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, time to stand up and say, "Enough is enough." Rahm Emanuel, I know you're a political prodigy, but we cannot afford to calculate any longer.
Throw down the gauntlet to these thugs and let Amrica decide: Do we want to live in fear and destroy the essence of what made us a great nation, or do we want to become all the things we've long despised?
Bill Clinton, are you ready to step up? I know Jimmy Carter is.
Colin Powell, will you be counted among those who stand against this lunacy? Or will you, once again, put your own future ahead of the future of our nation and our children?
This madness must be stopped.
And to my fellow community members: Will you stand up and be counted? Can we protest in massive numbers? Can we shut down the Capitol and our major metros? Can we say to these lunatics, "Enough is enough?"
It's time. Shut it all down and make them do what they must do if they want to proceed: Overturn democracy.
At least we'll know where we stand.
posted by profmarcus at
9/22/2006
posted by profmarcus at
9/22/2006
Legislators of conscience should filibuster the Torture Bill, but there's just about zero chance of that happening -- there will be enough Dems who need to be "tough on" … whatever they're supposed to be tough on this week to get cloture just a month before a big election. The Nelsons will bite, as will Lieberman, and probably Martinez in that tough race in Jersey, maybe Cantwell -- just to name a few obvious ones. But even if they could muster the votes (and the cojon), the Repubs would be all over the airwaves whining about how they're coddling terrorists and hate babies and puppies.
This measure was right out of Rove's playbook for holding onto the House and Senate, and it was executed perfectly. Meanwhile, the Dems didn't even get in the game, apparently believing -- for reasons that are truly unfathomable -- that McCain and the other "mavericks" would, just this once, stick to their guns and do what's right.
Last week, the AP quoted Harry Reid (D-NE) saying the Dems were sitting on the sidelines "watching the catfights" among Republicans and quipping that the GOP was debating border security "because they have nothing else to do." Well, Harry, they found something to do. And you're the sucker this time.
As Chris Bowers pointed out last week, if the Dems don't turn out their base in big numbers this November, all the happy prognostications of a big win are going to dissipate like a puff of smoke in the wind. The fact that millions of progressives have to sit by and watch this debacle unfold with nary a peep from those supposedly on their side isn't going to help
Digby notes that as well, before summing the whole thing up quite neatly, if depressingly:Here's how the optics look to me:
McCain, the Republican rebel maverick, showed that Republicans are moral and look out for their troops.
Bush, the Republican statesman and leader, showed that he is committed to protecting Americans but that he is willing to listen and compromise when people of good faith express reservations about tactics.
The Democrats showed they are ciphers who don't have the stones to even say a word when the most important moral issue confronting the government is being debated.
That about covers it. I need a drink.
posted by profmarcus at
9/22/2006
Senators Snatch Defeat From Jaws of Victory: U.S. to be First Nation to Authorize Violations of Geneva
Marty Lederman
I hope that that headline is a gross exaggeration, but based on a few quick seconds purusing the "compromise," I'm afraid it's not. [The Administration appears to agree. Stephen Hadley was crowing to reporters within minutes that the bill would authorize the CIA "program" to "go forward."]
Here's the language. It's not subtle at all, and it only takes 30 seconds or so to see that the Senators have capitualted entirely, that the U.S. will hereafter violate the Geneva Conventions by engaging in Cold Cell, Long Time Standing, etc., and that there will be very little pretense about it. In addition to the elimination of habeas rights in section 6, the bill would delegate to the President the authority to interpret "the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions" "for the United States," except that the bill itself would define certain "grave breaches" of Common Article 3 to be war crimes. [UPDATE: I hear word that Senator McCain thinks the definition of "grave breaches" covers the "alternative" CIA techniques. I hope he can make that interpretation stick somehow, but on quickly reading the language, it still seems to me as if it's carefully crafted to exclude the CIA techniques. Also, some Senators apparently are taking comfort in the fact that the Administration's interpretation would have to be made, and defended, publicly. That's a small consolation, I suppose; but I'm confident the creative folks in my former shop at OLC -- you know, those who concluded that waterboarding is not torture -- will come up with something. After all, the Administration is already on record as saying that the CIA "program" can continue under this bill, so the die apparently is cast. And the courts would be precluded from reviewing it.]
And then, for good measure -- and this is perhaps the worst part of the bill, for purposes going far beyond the questions of torture and interrogation -- section 7 would preclude courts altogether from ever interpreting the Geneva Conventions -- any part of them -- by providing that "no person may invoke the Geneva Conventions or any protocols thereto in any habeas or civil action or proceeding to which the United States, or a current or former officer, employee, member of the Armed Forces, or other agent of the United States, is a party as a source of rights, in any court of the United States or its States or territories." [UPDATE: I've heard some people argue that this language would retain the power of courts to construe Geneva in a criminal proceeding. That remains to be seen (the language is not clear). But even if that's so, it's not at all obvious how or why the question of the meaning and application of Common Article 3 would ever be one that a court would have occasion to resolve in a criminal proceeding.]
posted by profmarcus at
9/21/2006
Today in Washington DC we have an administration that has lost touch with America. It has lost touch with America and all that this great nation has stood for for more than two centuries. The conduct of the war in Iraq has been and continues to be an embarrassment to this nation and has undermined our moral standing in the world to the point of making us virtually irrelevant. From the falsehoods that took us to the preemptive war in Iraq, to the atrocities of Abu Ghraib, to the shame that is Guantánamo Bay, and on to the injustices put upon innocent victims of rendition such as the Canadian Citizen, Maher Arar, and many others currently incarcerated in Guantánamo Bay, this administration has ceded the moral high ground. Indeed the chaos that is Iraq today serves only to shine a bright light on what I believe is this administrations ineptitude and moral depravity.
The debate that is occurring in Washington DC is one that should never occur and is a simple continuation of a policy that is lost. It is indeed a needless exercise that can only result in the further deterioration of what is left of our standing in the international community and jeopardize the well being of every American Soldier for generations to come. Torture simply does not work. This has been proven time and time again and I can personally witness to that fact and I believe that Senator John McCain can certainly attest to that fact even more strongly than I. Torture is not and instrument for extracting truth but is more accurately an instrument of revenge and an extractor of fiction.
Have we become a nation of cowards who seek revenge at any and all costs? Have we become a nation that is so depraved that we would resort to physical and psychological torture to extract information from another human being? These are the acts not of a just and honorable people but of cowards and people without moral stature. If the answer to these questions is yes then the constitution and nation that I and millions of other Americans dedicated their lives to, died for, and shed our blood for no longer exist.
posted by profmarcus at
9/21/2006
When I get up everyday at 5:30am to start working, it is still dark out. I read through the clips and digest the daily dose of ever-more raw hatred coming from our nation's capital and directed at the majority of Americans. Then I try to have some breakfast without feeling totally demoralized. But as I look out on the darkness outside, I always remind myself of the famous parable: "It is always darkest before the dawn." Win or lose, November 7th isn't going to change everything. But win or lose, it's clear that things are already changing. The rising anger coming from the halls of power are a reflection of the establishment's deep understanding that change is coming. The screams from the angry pundits and the desperate politicians and the paying-to-play lobbyists are like the early warning sirens at a beach. And just over the horizon, they see that tidal wave coming.
posted by profmarcus at
9/21/2006
The Bush administration had to empty its secret prisons and transfer terror suspects to the military-run detention centre at Guantánamo this month in part because CIA interrogators had refused to carry out further interrogations and run the secret facilities, according to former CIA officials and people close to the programme.
The former officials said the CIA interrogators’ refusal was a factor in forcing the Bush administration to act earlier than it might have wished.
posted by profmarcus at
9/21/2006
The Pentagon's top brass has moved into second-stage contingency planning for a potential military strike on Iran, one senior intelligence official familiar with the plans tells RAW STORY.
The official, who is close to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest ranking officials of each branch of the US military, says the Chiefs have started what is called "branches and sequels" contingency planning.
"The JCS has accepted the inevitable," the intelligence official said, "and is engaged in serious contingency planning to deal with the worst case scenarios that the intelligence community has been painting."
A second military official, although unfamiliar with these latest scenarios, said there is a difference between contingency planning -- which he described as "what if, then what" planning -- and "branches and sequels," which takes place after an initial plan has been decided upon.
Adding to the concern of both military and intelligence officials alike is the nuclear option, the possibility of pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons targeting alleged WMD facilities in Iran.
posted by profmarcus at
9/21/2006
Torture may be worse now in Iraq than under former leader Saddam Hussein, the UN's chief anti-torture expert says.
Manfred Nowak said the situation in Iraq was "out of control", with abuses being committed by security forces, militia groups and anti-US insurgents.
Bodies found in the Baghdad morgue "often bear signs of severe torture", said the human rights office of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq in a report.
posted by profmarcus at
9/21/2006
According to two conservative websites, White House political strategist Karl Rove has been promising GOP insiders that there will be an "October surprise" before the midterm elections.
[...]
"President Bush's political strategist is also saying that the final two weeks before the elections will see a blitz of advertising, and the Republican National Committee is deploying an army of volunteers to key locations to help the grass-roots effort and monitor the election," the article continues. "The RNC is offering to fly in volunteers and cover their expenses."
posted by profmarcus at
9/21/2006
"I think the same thing will happen as in Romania when I grew up there. It starts with fixed elections. First the 2000 election was fixed and then the 2004 election was fixed. It happened in Communist elections just like it happened here. The people who count the votes are all in the government that's in power. And even when it seems like people have had enough, the tyrant will always somehow come out winning just enough to make your conspiracy theories seem ridiculous. Just like in Romania and Bulgaria of the sixties and seventies, the press may even report problems with elections, but Bush knows that Americans are lazy. I am sorry my friend. Maybe not you. But Americans are lazy and they will not seek their freedoms. Because it is always frightening to fight the government. But you are mistaken if you think you will avoid trouble by going along with the government. One day you will write a letter to the editor and sign your name, and then the next time you are at a train station, they will tell you `you cannot ride'. Or at the airport they will say you cannot get on a plane. Or they will stop you are the border, and just like Romania and the other Communist countries, America will become your prison. When the 2000 elections happened, my 89 year grandmother-in-law asked if we could go back to Bucharest. You see, this smells just like the communists in Europe to her. Corrupt. Incompetent. Totally controlling the media, the elections. Once they have that, and a lazy press, that's it. I mean that's it. They will continue to install an overbearing government where idiots who wear white gloves and badges, low-level-small-paycheck bureaucrats get to stop you at airports and demand to know where you are from and where you are going and what your business is. They will ask if you support the Party, or "who did you vote for?' It will come down to the day when you will see the police jump on someone for no reason and you will turn your heads and act like you have seen nothing. Your neighbor's wife will knock on your door desperately at 3 in the morning and tell you her husband was arrested out of his sleep last night. And she will cry and ask where he is. And you will make her coffee and call the local police and they local gendarme or sheriff or whatever will come by and pat her on the shoulder and will say he was taken by the Feds and they have no idea where he is going."
"You will notice more and more changes. The leash will get shorter, little at a time. And so slowly even you will not protest because you will hardly notice. You will lose your freedoms little at a time. One day you will speak out against the president in hushed tones even at a party. Then you will drive home from the party and steam at yourself for being so much like a little pussy cat. Then you will wonder who heard you."
"In Romania we can burn flags, threaten to kill the president. The government is not allowed to give shared fund- or taxes of any kind to churches. In Romania, if the government took someone with out charges, they would be freed within a day or two. Not in this country. In Romania you are not raped in jail cells. In America you are not only raped in jail, they use the fear of rape and beatings to control you. In Romania, no one tells you you can't have an abortion. In many areas it is illegal. In others it is fine. All over the country you can get an abortion if you need one."
"It may take about ten years. But it will be very much like the old Soviet Union. Incompetent government. Walls will appear around you. On the borders. Your internet sites will be scrubbed or monitored or may suddenly disappear. A government will control everything from one branch, businesses too will be in bed with the government. One day you will see your boss have the power to go through your bags. One day your corporation will have more rights than you have. Just like in Romania, we had conspiracy theories. One nuttier than the next. It turned out to be mostly true these things. This thing that has happened to America was planned for a long time. And like Romania, people will forget and lose all the principles that your country was founded on. We had a Constitution in Romania. Under the communists?....just words."
"Do you have kids?" he asked me.
"No, I don't"
"Are you married?"
"Yes."
"Leave. That's my advice to you. Leave and don't look back."
posted by profmarcus at
9/21/2006
PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. President, thank you for coming. Yesterday, in my speech to the United Nations, I said that you're a man of peace who believes in a two-state solution. And after our conversation today, once again you confirmed that.
[...]
So welcome to Washington, D.C. I think this is our fifth visit. Every time, I've left our visits inspired by your vision.
posted by profmarcus at
9/21/2006
White House officials said Norquist, who runs the nonprofit Americans for Tax Reform, was cleared for 97 visits to the White House complex between 2001 and 2006, including a half-dozen with the president.
Reed, former executive director of the Christian Coalition and an unsuccessful candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia earlier this year, got 18 meetings, including two events with Bush.
Officials said they believe all meetings with Bush involved larger group settings, such as Christmas parties or policy briefings for GOP supporters.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, however, it was possible some of Norquist's meetings might have been directly with Karl Rove, the president's longtime confidant and political strategist.
posted by profmarcus at
9/20/2006
Having gone through the diplomatic motions with Iran, George W. Bush is shifting toward a military option that carries severe risks for American soldiers in Iraq as well as for long-term U.S. interests around the world. Yet, despite this looming crisis, the Bush Family continues to withhold key historical facts about U.S.-Iranian relations.
Those historical facts – relating to Republican contacts with Iran’s Islamic regime more than a quarter century ago – are relevant today because an underlying theme in Bush’s rationale for war is that direct negotiations with Iran are pointless. But Bush’s own father may know otherwise.
The evidence is now persuasive that George H.W. Bush participated in negotiations with Iran’s radical regime in 1980, behind President Jimmy Carter’s back, with the goal of arranging for 52 American hostages to be released after Bush and Ronald Reagan were sworn in as Vice President and President, respectively.
In exchange, the Republicans agreed to let Iran obtain U.S.-manufactured military supplies through Israel. The Iranians kept their word, releasing the hostages immediately upon Reagan’s swearing-in on Jan. 20, 1981.
Over the next few years, the Republican-Israel-Iran weapons pipeline operated mostly in secret, only exploding into public view with the Iran-Contra scandal in late 1986. Even then, the Reagan-Bush team was able to limit congressional and other investigations, keeping the full history – and the 1980 chapter – hidden from the American people.
Upon taking office on Jan. 20, 2001, George W. Bush walled up the history even more by issuing an executive order blocking the scheduled declassification of records from the Reagan-Bush years. After 9/11, the younger George Bush added more bricks to the wall by giving Presidents, Vice Presidents and their heirs power over releasing documents.
posted by profmarcus at
9/20/2006
A federal judge has restored the “Roadless Rule,” a ban on road construction in nearly one-third of national forests (58.5 million acres in 38 states and Puerto Rico). President Bush overturned the rule, established by President Clinton, in favor of much looser policy of requiring state governors to petition for federal forest protection.Submit To Propeller
posted by profmarcus at
9/20/2006
The Bush Administration is seeking to undermine legislation that, if passed, would protect journalists and anonymous whistleblowers, RAW STORY has learned.
Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will listen to testimony today regarding a reporter shield law called the Free Flow of Information Act.
"I think they want no law at all," said one senior staffer familiar with the proceedings. "They're sending [Deputy Attorney General Paul] McNulty up to hammer it."
The bill, cosponsored by a bipartisan coalition of nine moderate senators, is a successor to a similar piece of legislation that appeared before the same committee last year.
Last year's bill never made it past committee hearings, despite having a greater number of cosponsors--including Senators Feingold (D-WI), Kerry (D-MA), and Obama (D-IL)--who have not supported the current version.
Both bills would make it more difficult for prosecutors to force reporters to name sources or to yield information that would result in their sources being identified.
posted by profmarcus at
9/20/2006
posted by profmarcus at
9/20/2006
Representatives from the International Committee of the Red Cross are scheduled to begin meetings Monday with the 14 terrorism suspects who were held for years in secret CIA custody, the detainees' first contact with the outside world since they were captured after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
[...]
It is possible that, in such discussions, the Red Cross will become the first organization outside of the Bush administration to learn about the practices in the CIA-run facilities, including the interrogation techniques used. But the international agency's guidelines require the information to be completely confidential, meaning that the representatives will be able to directly raise their concerns only with U.S. authorities.
posted by profmarcus at
9/20/2006
Bush framed his Sept. 19 speech in the context of the U.N.’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “The words of the Universal Declaration are as true today as they were when they were written,” Bush declared.
But it’s hard to believe that Bush had the faintest idea what principles he was embracing – or perhaps he has grown so self-confident in never being challenged on his hypocrisies that he believes he can say anything he wants, no matter how false or deceptive.
[...]
Though Bush is arguably in violation of many if not all the ... human rights tenets, he unblushingly cites the Universal Declaration as the foundation for his international policies, from the invasion of Iraq to his handling of the “war on terror.”
Even as Bush criticizes the U.S. Supreme Court for stopping his planned kangaroo courts for terror suspects and as he battles members of Congress over his desire for harsh interrogation of detainees, he invokes principles that bar exactly what he seeks to do.
posted by profmarcus at
9/19/2006
Roll Call executive editor and Fox News host Mort Kondrake included this tidbit in his most recent syndicated column:In a controversial move within the administration, [Undersecretary of State Karen] Hughes and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seem to have persuaded Bush — temporarily, at least — to drop the label “Islamic fascism” from his speeches; diplomats say that Muslims hear it as an attack on their religion, thereby validating the extremists’ false charge that the United States is at war with Islam.
The move is a blow to conservatives, who celebrated last month when President Bush used the term several times in his speeches on terrorism. The phrase is a favorite of right-wing commentators like Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity; the AP called it “the new buzzword” for conservatives “in an election season dominated by an unpopular war in Iraq.”
posted by profmarcus at
9/19/2006
There is so much political corruption on Capitol Hill that the FBI has had to triple the number of squads investigating lobbyists, lawmakers and influence peddlers, the Daily News has learned.
For decades, only one squad in Washington handled corruption cases because the crimes were seen as local offenses handled by FBI field offices in lawmakers' home districts.
But in recent years, the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and other abuses of power and privilege have prompted the FBI to assign 37 agents full-time to three new squads in an office near Capitol Hill.
FBI Assistant Director Chip Burrus told The News yesterday that he wants to detail even more agents to the Washington field office for a fourth corruption squad because so much wrongdoing is being uncovered.
posted by profmarcus at
9/19/2006
President Bush and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will face off at a distance over Middle East democracy and nuclear weapons when both address the United Nations on Tuesday.
Bush faces growing international skepticism over his policies for Iran and Iraq, with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warning that Iraq was in grave danger of descending into civil war and French President Jacques Chirac arguing against a rush to impose sanctions on Iran.
U.S. officials said that, undeterred by setbacks in Iraq war and the Palestinian territories, Bush would stress his so-called "Freedom Agenda" of aggressively promoting democracy, calling the Middle East "the central battlefield."
posted by profmarcus at
9/19/2006
not to quibble, but karl rove does not spew bullshit, he spews pure, unadulterated evil... bullshit is one thing, evil is wholly another...
- Clinton on Rove: "I am sick of Karl Rove's bullshit."
- Clinton on the Kerry campaign: "Like a deer caught in the headlights."
- Clinton on the vote to go into Iraq: "I'm sick and tired of being told that if you voted for authorization you voted for the war. It was a mistake, and I would have made it, too....The administration did not shoot straight on the nuclear issue or on Saddam's supposed ties to Al Qaeda prior to 9/11."
posted by profmarcus at
9/19/2006
[N]otice that [Lieberman's] campaign is now referring to him as a Trans-partisan, which might be interpreted as someone undergoing a party change procedure.
posted by profmarcus at
9/19/2006
In a reprise of criticism showered on McCain during his 2000 campaign, some prominent conservatives are branding him a disloyal Republican and an unreliable conservative because of his assertiveness on the detainee issue.
posted by profmarcus at
9/19/2006
The America We Believe in Would
Preserve Fair Trials and Humane Treatment
Recently the Supreme Court struck down the President’s Military Commissions and restored minimum Geneva Conventions protections to people in US custody, but now the President has asked Congress to authorize military commissions proceedings similar to those that were struck down. In addition, the President has asked Congress to codify the indefinite detention regime and to provide immunity for the CIA, civilian contractors, and Administration officials who may have violated the War Crimes Act. Act urgently to tell Congress to uphold fair trials and ensure those involved in human rights abuses are held accountable.
posted by profmarcus at
9/18/2006
Should Democrats retake the House in November, George Soros says they should have one priority: Subpoena President George W. Bush.
[...]
“Clearly,” he said, “using the subpoena power to bring to light the misdeeds by the administration would have to be, I think, a top priority.”
Asked whether he’s given thought to supporting moderate Republicans, he said he believed the party couldn’t be “recaptured from extremists” without the right wing of the caucus suffering defeats.
“I don't think it can be done without a defeat that will lead the Republicans to regroup, when the extremists are distracted,” he said. “Right now the extremists are still ridding themselves of the moderates in the Republican Party.”
“But I don't yet see moderates knocking out Republicans,” he added. “There are many radical or extremist challengers to moderates within the Republican Party, and very few -- if any -- to the extremists from moderates.”
posted by profmarcus at
9/18/2006
Terror plot scenario "untenable"
"The idea that these people could sit in the plane toilet and simply mix together these normal household fluids to create a high explosive capable of blowing up the entire aircraft is untenable," said Lt. Col. Wylde, who was trained as an ammunition technical officer responsible for terrorist bomb disposal at the Royal Army Ordnance Corps in Sandhurst.
After working as a bomb defuser in Northern Ireland, Lt. Col. Wylde became a senior officer in British Army Intelligence in 1977. During the Cold War, he collected intelligence as part of an undercover East German "liaison unit," then went on to work in the Ministry of Defense to review its communications systems.
"So who came up with the idea that a bomb could be made on board? Not Al Qaeda for sure. It would not work. Bin Laden is interested in success not deterrence by failure," Wylde stated.
posted by profmarcus at
9/18/2006
Give Bolton the Boot
The U.S. shouldn't have an ineffective bully as its U.N. envoy.
By Stephen Schlesinger
...among the most ineffective envoys the United States has ever sent to the U.N.
posted by profmarcus at
9/18/2006
"We can have a good country without Lindsey Graham being in the Senate. We cannot have a great nation when we start redefining who we are under the guise of redefining our law.
"My biggest fear is that as we try to solve these complicated legal procedures and problems that we're seen as taking shortcuts and we don't redefine the law, we redefine America in a way so we can't win this war. That's what Colin Powell is saying. That's what General Vessey's saying. It's not about my political career. America can do well without me, but we cannot do well if we're seen to abandon our principles and the rule of law."
- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)
posted by profmarcus at
9/18/2006
Bush’s torture policy is a centerpiece of his effort to concentrate unfettered power in the executive, an overarching change justified by an executive order declaring that in his role as commander-in-chief in wartime he can make and enforce laws at will.
[...]
The debate over Bush’s insistence on the use of torture is not a weird aberration, but central to his entire radical project to transform the American constitutional system, create an unaccountable executive, and operate outside the rule of law if he so decides.
[Bush is] an autocratic leader who is both “inner-directed” and possesses a messianic view of the world. “Inner-directed” could be defined as impervious to outside criticism, advice or even reality. Many of the history’s most dangerous dictators also were “inner-directed.”
[...]
[H]e and his neoconservative advisers have operated in an ideological reality of their own making, that they have too little respect for the opinions of others, that they are hubristic and anti-democratic.
posted by profmarcus at
9/18/2006
Senator Lindsey Graham, left, with
Stephen J. Hadley, the president’s
national security adviser
The adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, is negotiating with Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, and other Senate leaders over the administration’s proposal, which would give the C.I.A. permission to use “alternative” techniques when interrogating terrorism suspects.
[...]
Asked if he believed compromise was possible, Mr. Hadley said, “I do.” He said it was essential that “we continue to have this terribly important program for protecting the country, as the president requires, that gives the men and women who carry out this program clear guidance and clear Congressional support, and also achieves Senator McCain’s requirement that we don’t amend or change Common Article 3,” referring to the Geneva Conventions.
“I don’t think anyone anticipated the avalanche of opinion that would be assembled on the other side of what seemed like a pretty abstruse legal issue,” one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss the issue with a reporter.
posted by profmarcus at
9/18/2006
Playing Politics With Terror
Is John Boehner more interested in keeping the House than protecting Americans? We're just wondering.
Monday, September 18, 2006; Page A16
"I LISTEN TO MY Democrat friends, and I wonder if they are more interested in protecting the terrorists than protecting the American people."
That was House Majority Leader John A. Boehner of Ohio talking to reporters last week. He should apologize.
[...]
But whether one disagrees with Democrats on any particular issue, it is offensive to try to paint opponents, as Mr. Boehner did, as uninterested in "protecting the American people" -- and to dodge the implications of that statement by claiming, as Mr. Boehner did, that he was simply wondering. As the election season heats up, this is a line of argument that Republicans would do well to drop.
posted by profmarcus at
9/18/2006
If Northrop Grumman Corp. gets the multibillion-dollar contract to secure America's borders, the sky above the Rio Grande would be thick with drones.
Cellphone maker Ericsson Inc. thinks drones are largely a waste and would focus instead on giving Border Patrol agents wireless devices capable of receiving live video.
Boeing Co. would build high-tech towers, lining the borders with 1,800 of them.
For Lockheed Martin Corp., blimps are a big part of the solution. And for Raytheon Co., the key is letting agents watch incidents unfold on Google Earth.
posted by profmarcus at
9/18/2006
What War With Iran Would Look LikeSubmit To Propeller
A conflict is no longer quite so unthinkable. Here's how the U.S. would fight such a war - and the huge price it would have to pay to win it.
posted by profmarcus at
9/17/2006
The third all-important reason the Republicans will shake off modest losses this midterm election, and then beat the Democrats to death with their own severed legs, is ELECTION FRAUD.
The evil electronic voting machines have been installed far and wide, although it has now been revealed that a mongoloid penguin could break into these devices, reverse any election result it wished, and be gone inside of four minutes, leaving nothing behind but a stolen election and the faint aroma of herring. Let us remember the apocryphal quote attributed to Joe 'Laughing Boy' Stalin: "It's not the people who vote that count, it's the people that count the votes". There are other problems, too. Gerrymandering has proceeded apace, sealing off entire slabs of the landscape from Democrats. Black people will find the nearest polling station is five hours from where they live (or used to live before the hurricane). And the whole anti-immigrant maneuver wasn't just a Republican faux pas-- it had a severe dampening effect on the desire to vote of persons of the recent immigrant persuasion, just as the anti-gay legislative efforts have a dampening effect on the desire to vote of homosexual queers. People don't vote for revenge. They avoid voting for revenge. That's why the elections are being decided by a tiny percentage of eligible voters.Submit To Propeller
So there is my reasoning for why the Republicans will enjoy a surprise resurgence at the polls this November. If one wanted to add a few categories, there's the perennial favorite God, who will command millions of witless Americans to vote for Republicans. There's hate, which will drive many Americans to vote against fags and macacas and towelheads, regardless of other factors. There's misinformation, as what we consider to be 'data' is actually 'balderdash' (see The Path To 9/11I, et al). In the end, however, it will be an overarching failure of will on the part of the American people that accounts for the astonishing, last-minute surge the Republicans enjoy at the polls, leading them to what the utterly guileless news media will narrate as a 'near-disaster-but-actually- almost-a-second-chance-referendum-to-continue-to-lead', or 'benefit of the doubt' (it's coming, and it will be mind-blowing).
Even a modest failure will be regarded as a mighty triumph for the Republicans this November. And if there's one thing the Bush administration excels at, it's making triumph and failure interchangeable.
posted by profmarcus at
9/17/2006
Several former U.S. defense officials who maintain close ties to the Pentagon say they've been told that plans for airstrikes [on Iran] - if Bush deems them necessary - are being updated.
The leader of a Persian Gulf country who visited Washington recently came away without receiving assurances he sought that the military option was off the table, said a person with direct knowledge of the meetings.
"It seems like Iran is becoming the new Iraq," said one U.S. counterterrorism official.
Some officials at the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the State Department said they're concerned that the offices of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney may be receiving a stream of questionable information that originates with Iranian exiles, including a discredited arms dealer, Manucher Ghorbanifar, who played a role in the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal.
Officials at all three agencies said they suspect that the dubious information may include claims that Iran directed Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, to kidnap two Israeli soldiers in July; that Iran's nuclear program is moving faster than generally believed; and that the Iranian people are eager to join foreign efforts to overthrow their theocratic rulers.
The officials said there is no reliable intelligence to support any of those assertions and some that contradicts all three.
posted by profmarcus at
9/17/2006
The U.S. military in Iraq has imprisoned an Associated Press photographer for five months, accusing him of being a security threat but never filing charges or permitting a public hearing.
Military officials said Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen, was being held for "imperative reasons of security" under United Nations resolutions. AP executives said the news cooperative's review of Hussein's work did not find anything to indicate inappropriate contact with insurgents, and any evidence against him should be brought to the Iraqi criminal justice system.
Hussein, 35, is a native of Fallujah who began work for the AP in September 2004. He photographed events in Fallujah and Ramadi until he was detained on April 12 of this year.
"We want the rule of law to prevail. He either needs to be charged or released. Indefinite detention is not acceptable," said Tom Curley, AP's president and chief executive officer. "We've come to the conclusion that this is unacceptable under Iraqi law, or Geneva Conventions, or any military procedure."
Hussein is one of an estimated 14,000 people detained by the U.S. military worldwide - 13,000 of them in Iraq. They are held in limbo where few are ever charged with a specific crime or given a chance before any court or tribunal to argue for their freedom.
posted by profmarcus at
9/17/2006
The former secretary of state, James A. Baker III, a confidant of President George H.W. Bush, visited Baghdad two weeks ago to take a look at the vexing political and military situation. He was there as co-chairman of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, put together by top think tanks at the behest of Congress to come up with ideas about the way forward in Iraq.
posted by profmarcus at
9/17/2006
Congressional Republicans had carefully orchestrated the finale of the legislative year to be a showdown with Democrats over which party is best equipped to keep the country safe, a handpicked fight on traditional Republican turf.
But the high-stakes standoff between President Bush and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) over military tribunals could ruin that legislative strategy, political analysts and strategists say. Instead of fighting Democrats, Republicans find themselves in the middle of an intraparty struggle between an embattled president and two of the most respected figures in their party, McCain and his ally on the issue, former secretary of state Colin L. Powell.
[A]llow us to elaborate, again, exactly what Mr. Bush means by "the program." He's talking about the practice of sequestering terrorist suspects indefinitely and without charge in secret foreign locations and holding them incommunicado even from the International Red Cross. Until recently, such "disappearances" were the signature of Third World dictatorships. U.S. adoption of them has roiled relations with our closest European allies and impeded collaboration with foreign police and intelligence services.
Mr. Bush also wants the CIA to be able to treat its detainees to such practices as "cold cell," or induced hypothermia, in which detainees are held naked in near-freezing temperatures and repeatedly doused with water; "long standing," in which prisoners are handcuffed in an uncomfortable standing position and forced to remain there for up to 40 hours; and prolonged sleep deprivation.
[I]f the Republicans stand firm, and Democrats insist on the needed changes, they might just require Mr. Bush to recognize that he is subject to the same restraints that applied to every other president of this nation of laws.
[T]he president has broader goals than even fighting terrorism — he has long intended to make reinvigorating the presidency a priority. Vice President Dick Cheney has rightly deplored the “erosion of the powers and the ability of the president of the United States to do his job” and noted that “we are weaker today as an institution because of the unwise compromises that have been made over the last 30 to 35 years.”
[...]
Congress now must act to guide our counterterror policy, but it should not try to micromanage the executive branch, particularly in war, where flexibility of action is paramount.
posted by profmarcus at
9/17/2006
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