Loads of laughs

Who Will Be the Woodward and Bernstein of New 'Hookergate' Story?
It's almost too-perfect for the press: a Washington, D.C. sex scandal involving congressmen, lobbyists, poker and prostitutes, partly centered on, you guessed it, the Watergate complex. So will it be called Watergate II or Hookergate? How high, or low, will it go? In any case, guess who is hitting it hard--The Washington Post, after allowing the Wall Street Journal, and then the San Diego Union-Tribune, to own it.
The Post's first big story, by Jo Becker and Charles Babcock, opened on Saturday: "Federal authorities are investigating allegations that a California defense contractor arranged for a Washington area limousine company to provide prostitutes to convicted former congressman Randy 'Duke' Cunningham (R-Calif.) and possibly other lawmakers, sources familiar with the probe said yesterday."
Investigators have contacted Washington-area escort services, two hotels and a limousine company in recent weeks, one official said.
Dean Calbreath in the San Diego Union-Tribune reported on Saturday that federal prosecutors are reviewing records of two Washington hotels, the Watergate and the Westin.
The allegations were raised by Mitchell Wade, another defense contractor who also has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the bribery conspiracy involving former Rep. Cunningham, the officials said. Cunningham is serving a prison term of eight years, four months after pleading guilty in November to taking $2.4 million in homes, yachts and other bribes.
Wade is cooperating with investigators as part of his plea agreement in February. He has told them that Brent Wilkes, a San Diego defense contractor who has been identified as a co-conspirator, secured prostitutes, limousines and suites at two Washington hotels--including the Watergate--for Cunningham, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.
Wilkes, founder of ADCS Inc., has not been charged. Mike Lipman, his attorney, did not return messages left seeking comment. Reginald Brown, Wade's attorney, declined comment Friday.

Here's the really intriguing bit: So far, none of these stories have specified the sex of the prostitutes. Read the WSJ piece carefully, and you'll see that writer Scot Paltrow goes out of his way to avoid assigning gender-revelatory pronouns to the "escorts." As I noted in a previous piece (scroll down to "Finally, our story goes gay"), the Washington Blade identified Cunningham -- who has made some rabidly anti-homosexual pronouncements -- as having, shall we say, a secret life. One of Wilkes' few employees appears to be the same fellow who owns a San Diego dance club with a gay clientele. Gay porn has been shot there in "off hours."
There's no point in humiliating Duke further. But don't you want to know who else might have made use of this service...?

One official said agents have been checking out investigative leads, but so far have been unable to confirm that, even if true, the prostitutes were part of the bribery scheme. Investigators have not turned up evidence that other lawmakers were involved, the official said. The investigation, spawned by reports of the former California congressman's extravagant lifestyle, is continuing both in Washington and San Diego, the officials said.
Justice Department and FBI spokesmen declined to comment on the investigation.
The wider picture, involving possibly other congressmen involved with prostitutes, emerged Thursday in an appearance by Calbreath of The Union-Tribune on MSNBC's Joe Scarborough show, in which he suggested that as many as six lawmakers could eventually be named. The Union-Tribune earlier this month won a Pulitzer for its coverage of the Cunningham case.
Then Calbreath reported in Friday's paper: "Federal prosecutors are reviewing records of two Washington, D.C., hotels where Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes rented suites as part of their investigation into whether prostitutes were involved as he tried to curry favor with lawmakers and CIA officials." Two sources said "they were present on several occasions when Shirlington Limousine & Transportation Service of northern Virginia brought prostitutes to the suite. They say they did not see lawmakers in the suites on those occasions, though both had heard rumors of congressmen bringing women to the rooms."
On MSNBC, Calbreath said "the rumor mill is alive with names. The rumor mill is alive with at least half dozen names. Congressman Cunningham in today’s story in the Wall Street Journal that is really the first solid confirmation we have gotten of an eyewitness report."

Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner-- President Not Amused?
A blistering comedy “tribute” to President Bush by Comedy Central’s faux talk show host Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close.
Earlier, the president had delivered his talk to the 2700 attendees, including many celebrities and top officials, with the help of a Bush impersonator.
Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged the Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
He attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. “This administration is soaring, not sinking,” he said. “If anything, they are re-arranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg.” Colbert told Bush he could end the problem of protests by retired generals by refusing to let them retire. He compared Bush to Rocky Balboa in the “Rocky” movies, always getting punched in the face—“and Apollo Creed is everything else in the world.”
Turning to the war, he declared, "I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."
He noted former Ambassador Joseph Wilson in the crowd, just three tables away from Karl Rove, and that he had brought " Valerie Plame." Then, worried that he had named her, he corrected himself, as Bush aides might do, "Uh, I mean... he brought Joseph Wilson's wife." He might have "dodged the bullet," he said, as prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald wasn't there.
Colbert also made biting cracks about missing WMDs, “photo ops” on aircraft carriers and at hurricane disasters, melting glaciers and Vice President Cheney shooting people in the face. He advised the crowd, "if anybody needs anything at their tables, speak slowly and clearly on into your table numbers and somebody from the N.S.A. will be right over with a cocktail. " Observing that Bush sticks to his principles, he said, "When the president decides something on Monday, he still believes it on Wednesday - no matter what happened Tuesday." Also lampooning the press, Colbert complained that he was “surrounded by the liberal media who are destroying this country, except for Fox News. Fox believes in presenting both sides of the story — the president’s side and the vice president’s side." He also reflected on the alleged good old days, when the media was still swallowing the WMD story.
Addressing the reporters, he said, "Let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The president makes decisions, he’s the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Put them through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration. You know--fiction."
He claimed that the Secret Service name for Bush's new press secretary is "Snow Job."
Colbert closed his routine with a video fantasy where he gets to be White House Press Secretary, complete with a special “Gannon” button on his podium. By the end, he had to run from Helen Thomas and her questions about why the U.S. really invaded Iraq and killed all those people.
As Colbert walked from the podium, when it was over, the president and First Lady gave him quick nods, unsmiling. The president shook his hand and tapped his elbow, and left immediately.
Those seated near Bush told Editor &Publisher's Joe Strupp, who was elsewhere in the room, that Bush had quickly turned from an amused guest to an obviously offended target as Colbert’s comments brought up his low approval ratings and problems in Iraq. Several veterans of past dinners, who requested anonymity, said the presentation was more directed at attacking the president than in the past. Several said previous hosts, like Jay Leno, equally slammed both the White House and the press corps.
“This was anti-Bush,” said one attendee. “Usually they go back and forth between us and him.” Another noted that Bush quickly turned unhappy, and left the dais shortly after while most seated near him, including Colbert and Snow, glad-handed the crowd. “You could see he stopped smiling about halfway through Colbert,” he reported. After the gathering, Snow, while nursing a Heineken outside the Chicago Tribune reception, declined to comment on Colbert. “I’m not doing entertainment reviews,” he said. “I thought the president was great, though.”
Strupp, in the crowd during the Colbert routine, had observed that quite a few sitting near him looked a little uncomfortable at times, perhaps feeling the material was a little too biting--or too much speaking "truthiness" to power. Asked by E&P after it was over if he thought he'd been too harsh, Colbert said, "Not at all." Was he trying to make a point politically or just get laughs? "Just for laughs," he said. He said he did not pull any material for being too strong, just for time reasons. (He later said the president told him "good job" when he walked off.) Helen Thomas told Strupp her segment with Colbert was "just for fun."
In its report on the affair, USA Today asserted that some in the crowd cracked up over Colbert but others were "bewildered." Wolf Blitzer of CNN said he thought Colbert was funny and "a little on the edge." Earlier, the president had addressed the crowd with a Bush impersonator alongside, with the faux-Bush speaking precisely and the real Bush deliberately mispronouncing words, such as the inevitable "nuclear." At the close, Bush called the imposter "a fine talent. In fact, he did all my debates with Senator Kerry." The routine went over well with the crowd -- better than did Colbert's, in fact.
Among attendees at the black tie event: Morgan Fairchild, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, Justice Antonin Scalia, George Clooney, and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter of the Doobie Brothers--in a kilt.

The Bush administration's credibility is at an all-time low, on every front.
The cartoons today were so funny I had to make today a cartoon roundup.
Enjoy!

More terror drills?

THREE Stage Terror Drill to Take Place in Chicago: May 2-4

Considering that "drills" were taking place the morning of 9/11 and 7/7 there is always the remote possibility that this is cover for another "inside job". We pray to God that it is not.

Osama Connected to 9/11? Not According to the F.B.I. If you take a minute to visit the F.B.I. website and check out their most wanted list you will run across a familiar face; Osama bin Laden. Of course we know that Osama is wanted by the F.B.I. but did you know he is NOT wanted in connection to the events of September 11th 2001 ?

New York court acquits "anti-war grannies" of disorderly conduct

A New York criminal court acquitted Thursday 18 anti-war activists who call themselves the Granny Peace Brigade of disorderly conduct for staging a rally outside a Times Square military recruiting center last year. His ruling sent the packed courtroom into applause. Lead defense lawyer Norman Siegel said he was extremely pleased, calling his clients "great Americans," who walk the shoes of great Americans who have made America the place that it is.

Mississippi governor helped implicated firm
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a former Republican Party chairman, arranged the startup financing for a GOP telemarketing company implicated in two criminal cases involving election dirty tricks.

Republicans Involved In Lobbyist Sex Scandal At The Watergate Hotel?
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that there is enough evidence of a lobbyist-sponsored prostitution ring that investigators are scurrying across D.C., trying to figure out exactly which lawmakers were involved.

Speculation Increases Over Rove Indictment in CIA Leak Case
In Washington, speculation is increasing White House aide Karl Rove will be the next person charged in the CIA leak case. On Wednesday, Rove spent more than three hours appearing before the grand jury investigating the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. It was Rove’s fifth grand jury appearance. MSNBC is reporting Rove was questioned about his previous failure to disclose he had spoken about Plame to a reporter for Time Magazine. Several analysts said the questioning suggests the grand jury is preparing an indictment on perjury charges. Lawyers in the case expect a decision within the next few weeks.

CIA Warns Ex-Employees Against Speaking To Media
In other news, the CIA is warning former employees not to engage in unapproved conservations with the media. According to the Financial Times, one former official said several retired employees have been threatened with the loss of their pensions. Another former official said CIA head Porter Goss has increased polygraph testing on current employees. The official said Goss is trying to “scare everybody.”

Specter Warns of NSA Funding Cut in Domestic Spy Row
On Capitol Hill Thursday, Republican Senator Arlen Specter said the Bush administration is continuing to stonewall congressional inquiries into its warrantless domestic spy program. Specter said he is considering a proposal to cut off funding for the National Security Agency until the Bush administration answers questions over the program’s legal justification. Specter said : “Institutionally, the presidency is walking all over Congress.”

States Challenge EPA Over Pollution Standards
In other news, ten states have filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency over its decision not to regulate carbon dioxide pollution as a contributor to global warming. The states, led by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, are asking the government to impose tougher pollution standards on new power plants.

18 Wealthy US Families Bankroll Estate Tax Campaign
A new report from two watchdog groups says 18 of this country’s wealthiest families have been behind a multi-million dollar lobbying campaign to repeal the federal estate tax. According to Public Citizen and United for a Fair Economy, the families have directely funded campaigns and set up shadow associations to spread misleading information on the benefits of repealing the tax. The groups say a repeal of the estate tax would save the families over $71 billion dollars. The families include those behind the companies Wal-Mart, Campbell’s soup, and Mars Incorporated. Joan Claybrook of Public Citizen called the campaign “one of the biggest con jobs in recent history.”

Lawsuit Alleges Bush Administration Failed Medicare Recipients
A coalition of elderly advocacy groups have filed a lawsuit accusing the Bush administration of failing to ensure low-income Americans are properly enrolled in the new Medicare prescription drug benefit. The suit says the Bush administration’s alleged negligence has prevented thousands of Medicare recipients from receiving proper care.

Iraq War Costs Approach $320B
A new Congressional report says the cost of the war in Iraq will soon top $320 billion dollars – a figure that will likely more than double by war’s end. According to the Congressional Research Service, the ongoing operations in Iraq and Afghanistan stand to cost nearly as much as the departments of Education, Justice and Homeland Security combined.

Exxon Posts $8.4B Quarterly Profit
As gas prices continue to soar, the world’s largest oil company has once again announced record-breaking profits. On Thursday, Exxon Mobil reported a quarterly profit of $8.4 billion dollars -- the fifth-highest quarterly total for any public company in history. In January, Exxon posted profits of almost $11 billon dollars, which stands as the highest quarterly profit of any company ever.

Dirty deeds, done dirt cheap

THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION: WHY AMERICANS WILL BELIEVE ALMOST ANYTHING
We are the most conditioned, programmed beings the world has ever known. Not only are our thoughts and attitudes continually being shaped and molded; our very awareness of the whole design seems like it is being subtly and inexorably erased. The doors of our perception are carefully and precisely regulated. Who cares, right?

American Samizdat

The Orwellian “Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act of 2006,” sponsored by Congressman Joe Barton (R, Texas), will, if it becomes law, allow your Internet provider to charge you extra to read this column. It will allow your provider to block this column entirely. In short, the Barton bill opens the door for the Bells and other ISPs to throw out a key principle of net neutrality and enact a new era of telecom taxes and tolls, roadblocks that would shut down the avenues of innovation that have allowed the Internet to become what it is today.

Exxon Quarterly Profit Exceeds Annual GDP of UAE, Kuwait
Oil price drives Exxon to $8.4bn profit
That's right. According to the CIA, Exxon makes more in one quarter than the nations of the UAE or Kuwait make in the entire year.

Cheney still profits from Halliburton ties
The $211,465 that Halliburton paid him in 2005 was more than Cheney’s government salary of $205,031. So who does he really work for?

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman rebuffs attempts to interview Administration officials in pre-war Iraq probe

The Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has denied Democratic attempts to interview Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former CIA Director George Tenet and two former senior aides to erstwhile Secretary of State Colin Powell.

House panel rejects US-bound container inspection

The cargo screening gap has prompted warnings from some U.S. lawmakers and security experts that sea cargo is still one of the nation's most serious security vulnerabilities more than four years after the September 11 attacks.

Analysts Behind Iraq Intelligence Were Rewarded

Two Army analysts whose work has been cited as part of a key intelligence failure on Iraq -- the claim that aluminum tubes sought by the Baghdad government were most likely meant for a nuclear weapons program rather than for rockets -- have received job performance awards in each of the past three years, officials said.

$20,000 bonus to official who agreed on nuke claim

A former Energy Department intelligence chief who agreed with the White House claim that Iraq had reconstituted its defunct nuclear-arms program was awarded a total of $20,500 in bonuses during the build-up to the war, WorldNetDaily has learned.

Sen. Roberts seeks delay of Iraq Intel probe

Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said he wants to divide his panel’s inquiry into the Bush administration’s handling of Iraq-related intelligence into two parts, a move that would push off its most politically controversial elements to a later time.

Wounded Soldiers Fight Off Bill Collectors at Home
Army specialist Tyson Johnson of Mobile, Ala., had just been promoted in a field ceremony in Iraq when a mortar round exploded outside his tent, almost killing him.
"It took my kidney, my left kidney, shrapnel came in through my head, back of my head," he recounted.
His injuries forced him out of the military, and the Army demanded he repay an enlistment bonus of $2,700 because he'd only served two-thirds of his three-year tour.When he couldn't pay, Johnson's account was turned over to bill collectors. He ended up living out of his car when the Army reported him to credit agencies as having bad debts, making it impossible for him to rent an apartment.
"Oh, man, I felt betrayed," Johnson said. "I felt like, oh, my heart dropped."
And there are many more like Johnson. Staff Sgt. Ryan Kelly lost his leg in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq. He didn't realize it, but the Army continued to mistakenly pay him combat bonus pay, about $2,000, while he was in the hospital rehabilitating, and then demanded that he pay it back. He, too, was threatened by the Army with debt collectors and a negative credit report.
"By law, he's not entitled to the money, so he must pay it back," said Col. Richard Shrank, the commander of the United States Army Finance Command. The Army said it moved wounded soldiers out of the battlefield so quickly its accounting office could not keep up, resulting in numerous payroll errors.

Could Rumsfeld court-martial the retired generals?

One of the assumptions surrounding the recent criticism of Rumsfeld is that the retired generals, unlike active-duty officers, are free to criticize the defense secretary without fear of reprisal. Surprisingly, this assumption is untrue. Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, one of the many activities deemed punishable by court-martial is "contempt toward officials." This code of laws applies not just to active-duty officers but to retired ones, too. It's right there in Article 2, Section (a) (5): Persons subject to the UCMJ include "retired members of a regular component of the armed forces who are entitled to pay."

Majority in Army Times poll think Rumsfeld should resign

At the time of this writing, 2985 readers have voted in the latest Army Times poll (link), with 1,889 (63.28%) agreeing that the "U.S. war effort is grounds for Secretary Rumsfeld to resign."

Iraqi-Born Actor Denied Entry For 9/11 Film Premiere
In other news, an Iraqi-born actor who appears in a new film about the 9/11 attacks has been denied entry into the US for the film’s premiere. Lewis Alsamari, who stars as the lead hijacker on United Airlines Flight 93 in the film “United 93”, says he believes his denial was based on his nationality. Maybe they were afraid he would "hijack" the theatre!!!!

The latest twist in the AIPAC spies case
The spies are American citizens with First Amendment rights to receive classified information. Right.

Polls Low, Bush Recasts Himself as the Next John Kennedy
George Bush thought the Iraq War was his ticket to immortality. While vision was just a "thing" to his father, to him it's a quest. But, also the practical businessman, he knows he took a bath on Iraq. Always alert to a new opportunity, he and his administration have found yet another product to foist off on us. In other words, Bush hopes Iran will be his administration's gusher.

Rove to Testify for 5th time in CIA Leak Case
In Washington, senior White House aide Karl Rove testified Wednesday before the grand jury investigating the CIA leak case. It was the fifth time Rove has been called to appear. This is why he surrendered his "portfolio".

Congressional Chairmen on intelligence won't hear out NSA whistleblower
Four months later, the Chairmen of the House & Senate Intelligence Committee have yet to respond to requests from a former NSA intelligence analyst to testify about "probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted" at the NSA and Defense Intelligence Agency. The following is a press release issued by the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition regarding the silence of the top congressional representatives on intelligence committees about ex-NSA officer Russ Tice's unheard charges.

Impeaching Bush, State by State
Taking advantage of 'Jefferson's Revenge,' state legislatures have brought impeachment much closer to reality.

Bush Introduces New White House Press Secretary Tony Snow
At the White House on Wednesday, President Bush introduced his new Press Secretary, former Fox News commentator Tony Snow. Bush said: "He's not afraid to express his own opinions. For those of you who have read his columns and listened to his radio show, he sometimes has disagreed with me. I asked him about those comments, and he said, ‘You should have heard what I said about the other guy.’ I like his perspective, I like the perspective he brings to this job, and I think you're going to like it, too."

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

Tony Snow's racist commentary:
Black Underclass Is “Most Dangerous Thing In Our Lifetime”
Tony Snow is already coming under scrutiny for a series of controversial comments he’s made on his radio program. Just last week, he shared these views:
"People like Jesse Jackson who have committed themselves to a view that blacks are constantly victims, have succeeded in creating in the United States the most dangerous thing that we’ve encountered in our lifetime; which is, an underclass that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere."
Tony Snow went on to criticize what he described as: "the idiotic culture of hip-hop”
"You have people glorifying failure. You have a bunch of gold-toothed hot dogs become millionaires by running around and telling everybody else that they oughtta be miserable failures and if they’re really lucky maybe they can get gunned down in a diner sometime, like Eminem’s old running mate."

America's rags-to-riches dream an illusion: study
America may still think of itself as the land of opportunity, but the chances of living a rags-to-riches life are a lot lower than elsewhere in the world, according to a new study published on Wednesday.
The likelihood that a child born into a poor family will make it into the top five percent is just one percent, according to "Understanding Mobility in America", a study by economist Tom Hertz from American University.

Florida Attn'y Gen. Wants Probe of Coroner
Florida's attorney general is calling for an investigation into the medical examiner who ruled that a 14-year-old boy beaten by guards at a juvenile boot camp died of natural causes.

EU Reports 1,000 Clandestine CIA Flights In 5 Years
In Europe, an EU commission has concluded the CIA has operated more than 1,000 clandestine flights over Europe in the past five years. Analysts said that figure is considerably higher than previously thought. The commission also concluded that incidents where detainees were handed over to US agents were not isolated cases. In many instances, the suspects were ferried around Europe on the same planes used by a small group of the same agents.

Al-Jazeera Bureau Chief Arrested in Cairo
In Egypt, the Cairo bureau chief of the al-Jazeera television network has been arrested. Egyptian authorities said Hussein Abdel Ghani had reported false information about this week’s suicide bombing in Dahab. In a statement released by his network, Abdel Ghani said he was the victim of "a complete police kidnapping operation beyond the law.”

FEMA Cutting Back Housing Assistance to 55,000 Families
Back in the United States, the New York Times is reporting FEMA is reducing or eliminating housing assistance for 55,000 families displaced by Hurricane Katrina. One-third of this total have been told they no longer qualify for housing vouchers and must now pay their own rent or leave. The rest will be forced to sign new leases, pay their own utility bills and re-apply for housing assistance every three months.

Senate Committee Calls For Abolishing “Beyond Repair” FEMA
Meanwhile, a bi-partisan senate committee has called for abolishing FEMA. In a report that is to be released today, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee says FEMA’s performance during the Hurricane Katrina crisis was so poor that the agency is “beyond repair.” Maybe they should just restore FEMA to a non-DHS limb status like it used to be when it was quite effective.

Report: U.S. Unprepared for Major Disaster
The U.S. is unprepared for a disaster of Hurricane Katrina's scale, according to a Senate inquiry that lawmakers said Wednesday took a critical look at failures in responding to the storm.

House reverses course, supports expanded use of deadly force

In a surprise turnaround, the House supported legislation it defeated last month that would give people more leeway to use guns to defend themselves in public places.

Human Rights Groups Say Most Detainee Abuse Unpunished
A coalition of human rights groups has released what they say is the first comprehensive list of abuses of detainees in US custody in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanano Bay. The effort, named the Detainee Abuse and Accountability Project, says abuse has been widespread and that the US government has taken few steps to investigate implicated high-ranking personnel. According to the report only half of more than 330 claims of detainee abuse and torture have been adequately investigated. And only 40 of over 600 US personnel implicated in these cases have been sentenced to prison time.

Why Indeed Did the WTC Buildings Collapse?

In this paper, I call for a serious investigation of the hypothesis that WTC 7 and the Twin Towers were brought down, not just by impact damage and fires, but through the use of pre-positioned cutter-charges. I consider the official FEMA, NIST, and 9-11 Commission reports that fires plus impact damage alone caused complete collapses of all three buildings. And I present evidence for the controlled-demolition hypothesis, which is suggested by the available data, testable and falsifiable, and yet has not been analyzed in any of the reports funded by the US government.

U.S. seeks to keep evidence from 9/11 families

Prosecutors asked a judge to rethink granting 9/11 families suing airlines access to evidence gathered for the criminal case against al Qaeda terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui. Prosecutors called the order "unprecedented" and urged Brinkema to withdraw it. The motion was filed by Chuck Rosenberg, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

60 Minutes: CIA Official Reveals Bush, Cheney, Rice Were Personally Told Iraq Had No WMD in Fall 2002

"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons."
-- George W. Bush Speech to UN General Assembly September 12, 2002

"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent."
-- George W. Bush State of the Union Address January 28, 2003

"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have."
-- George W. Bush Radio Address February 8, 2003

"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." -- George W. Bush Address to the Nation March 17, 2003

" We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them."
-- George W. Bush NBC Interview April 24, 2003

" We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so."
-- George W. Bush Remarks to Reporters May 3, 2003

"I'm not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein -- because he had a weapons program." -- George W. Bush Remarks to Reporters May 6, 2003

See LIE OF THE CENTURY and send it to everyone you know.

New! Lower approval rating!

Bush Sinks To 24% In State Poll

Resolutions Supporting Impeachment

Bush's Slide Deeper Than Any One Poll Shows
Impeachment Talk Reaches The Mainstream
Bush Says He Tried to Avoid War 'To The Max,' Explains How God Shapes His Foreign Policy
President Bush’s Approval Rating Sinks to 32 Percent
A new CNN poll found only 32 percent of the country approve of the president’s performance. Last week a Fox News polls put Bush’s approval rating at just 33 percent.

Tehran insider tells of US black ops
A former Iranian ambassador and Islamic Republic insider has provided intriguing details to Asia Times Online about US covert operations inside Iran aimed at destabilizing the country and toppling the regime - or preparing for an American attack

CHOKING ON GAS PRICES AND EXECUTIVE PAY
The war in Iraq is among the factors that have driven the price of crude oil to more than $70 a barrel.


Report Criticizes U.S.-led Reconstruction of Iraq
A new report has determined the U.S.-led reconstruction of Iraq has largely been a failure. Nearly $60 billion has been spent but Iraq is still producing less oil, has less electricity and less water than before invasion. The authors of the report, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the slow pace is largely due to bad planning and poor execution on the part of the Bush administration.

Halliburton collected $100,000 a day for a pipeline it never built

What he found instead that day in July 2004 looked nightmarishly bad. A crew had bulldozed a 300-foot-long trench along a giant drill bit in their desperate attempt to yank it loose from the riverbed. A supervisor later told him that the project's crews knew that drilling the holes was not possible, but that they had been instructed by the company in charge of the project to continue anyway.
A few weeks later, after the project had burned up all of the $75.7 million allocated to it, the work came to a halt. The project, called the Fatah pipeline crossing, had been a critical element of a $2.4 billion no-bid reconstruction contract that a Halliburton subsidiary had won from the Army in 2003. The spot where about 15 pipelines crossed the Tigris had been the main link between Iraq's rich northern oil fields and the export terminals and refineries that could generate much-needed gasoline, heating fuel and revenue for Iraqis.
For all those reasons, the project's demise would seriously damage the American-led effort to restore Iraq's oil system and enable the country to pay for its own reconstruction. Exactly what portion of Iraq's lost oil revenue can be attributed to one failed project, no matter how critical, is impossible to calculate. But the pipeline at Al Fatah has a wider significance as a metaphor for the entire $45 billion rebuilding effort in Iraq. Although the failures of that effort are routinely attributed to insurgent attacks, an examination of this project shows that troubled decision-making and execution have played equally important roles.

Levees not fully ready for hurricane season
All day, every day and into the night, crews for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pour concrete into walls, pack dirt into hills and ram steel into the earth. They are scrambling to undo the damage Hurricane Katrina inflicted on the region's levee system. But even when the holes are plugged — a $2 billion endeavor — the entire 350-mile protection system remains flawed, the corps now admits. Flood walls are too weak in some places; earthen levees are too short in others. Locals say the only thing that will save the low-lying region from more flooding this summer is not getting hit with a strong storm.

A Cornered Administration

At a book signing on Friday at Columbia University, a number of journalists told me they worried that Bush, Rove and Cheney, if they thought they were going to lose the House in November and face serious investigations into their crimes and deceits, would do something treasonous, like launching a war against Iran, or perhaps allowing another major terrorist attack against a U.S. target, so that they could then clamp down further on domestic freedom and ramp up jingoistic support among their wavering base.

Touching the third rail
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III and prosecutors were running in to an invisible buzzsaw of pressure for a dismissal motion. Ellis authorized defense subpoenas for calling Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns, two ranking officials Rosen claims also shared classified information. Ellis then postponed the trial from May 17 to early August -- when most chattering class cognoscente will be on vacation and a motion to dismiss will hardly be noticed.

Report: White House to Hire Fox News Anchor As Spokesperson
In news from Washington, CNN is reporting that Fox News anchor Tony Snow is likely to soon leave his job at Rupert Murdoch’s network and become the chief spokesperson of President Bush -- succeeding White House press secretary Scott McClellan. Sources said they expect an announcement within the next few days.

Congress tries to keep smaller parties down

On Feb. 1, congressional Democrats led by Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin introduced a bill that, if approved, would end viable third-party competition in races for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Bird flu threat not so grave, CDC chief says
But we made Donald Rumsfeld millions richer by stocking up on his flu vaccine!

Oooh, let's screw the veterans one more time!
General Terry Scott wants to study if vets should get VA compensation and Social Security disability at the same time with the aim of reducing benefits. In an unconstitutional move, he asks Congress to interpret its own law so he would have the power to launch the study.
The Veterans’ Disability Benefits Commission (VDBC) was established by Public Law 108-136 and signed into being by President Bush in November 2003. The VDBC’s charter states they are to study “whether a veteran’s disability or death should be compensated” and at what level if any.
As the VDBC’s meetings progressed, veterans began to notice a “secretive” quality to the workings of the Commission. Last fall the VDBC issued a list of questions they would study. They asked for input and gave veterans just a few days, over a Holiday weekend, to respond. The questions signaled the direction of the VDBC. One question was: “Does the disability benefit provided affect a veteran’s incentive to work?”
General Terry Scott and other members of the VDBC want to cut veterans’ benefits and will try to hold secret votes and try to get Congress to, unconstitutionally, interpret its own laws.
General Scott must be reminded that veterans’ disability compensation is not welfare. It is not to be confused with welfare. It is not to be confused with any other sort of compensation. Veterans receive disability compensation because they earned it. Many earned it on the field of battle. They don’t deserve to lose it in a Commission hearing.

New York Teens Sue Rumsfeld Over Recruiting Database
Six New York teenagers have sued Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld alleging that the Pentagon has illegally created a massive student database to help identify college and high school students as young as 16 to target for military recruiting. The database includes an array of personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the six teenagers by the New York Civil Liberties Union.

Fired CIA Analyst Mary McCarthy Denies Being Source of Leak
In Washington, fired CIA analyst Mary McCarthy is denying that she leaked classified information to the press about how the CIA is running secret prisons overseas. McCarthy was fired from her job in the CIA’s Inspector General’s office last week. On Monday her attorney said that McCarthy did not have access to the information she is accused of leaking.

	Antonia Juhasz on The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time The book tracks the radical neo-liberal economic program the Bush administration has tried to impose on Iraq, which threatens to leave Iraq's economy and oil reserves largely in the hands of multinational corporations. LISTEN TO INTERVIEW

The Peace Patriots: New Film Documents Dissent in a Time of War A newly-released film takes a look at dissent in America during a time of war. "The Peace Patriots" follows the activities of anti-war activists before and after the Iraq invasion. We play an excerpt of the film and speak with the film's director. LISTEN TO INTERVIEW

They thought they were free...

THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE FREE
How can we spoiled Americans have forefathers who fought a world war to stop the slaughter of Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and Communists and then wind up with a president whose grandfather helped Hitler rise to power and invested in the company which manufactured the Zyklon B Gas used to kill these "undesirables"? This is a mystery that shows many things about turning wheels and the "smallness" of the world.
How can we believe the 9/11 fantasy constructed for us by our leaders and not believe we are presently living in a land with little freedom and no privacy from government surveillance? How can we listen to a demagogue like Alan Dershowitz extol the necessity of using torture on our "enemies" while trumpeting the fact that he lost 40 family members in the holocaust?

California Becomes Second State to Introduce Bush Impeachment

The resolution, in the words of Koretz's press release, "bases the call for impeachment upon the Bush Administration intentionally misleading the Congress and the American people regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify an unnecessary war that has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives and casualties; exceeding constitutional authority to wage war by invading Iraq; exceeding constitutional authority by Federalizing the National Guard; conspiring to torture prisoners in violation of the 'Federal Torture Act' and indicating intent to continue such actions; spying on American citizens in violation of the 1978 Foreign Agency Surveillance Act; leaking and covering up the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, and holding American citizens without charge or trial."

Bush Impeachment - The Illinois State Legislature is Preparing to Drop a Bombshell

The Illinois General Assembly is about to rock the nation. Members of state legislatures are normally not considered as having the ability to decide issues with a massive impact to the nation as a whole. Representative Karen A. Yarbrough of Illinois' 7th District is about to shatter that perception forever. Representative Yarbrough stumbled on a little known and never utlitized rule of the US House of Representatives, Section 603 of Jefferson's Manual of the Rules of the United States House of Representatives, which allows federal impeachment proceedings to be initiated by joint resolution of a state legislature. From there, Illinois House Joint Resolution 125 (hereafter to be referred to as HJR0125) was born.

Bush Brandishes Jail Time at Critics

Over the past five-plus years, the American people have gotten a taste of what a triumphant George W. Bush is like, as he basked in high approval ratings and asserted virtually unlimited powers as Commander in Chief.
Now, the question is: How will Bush and his inner circle behave when cornered? So far, the answer should send chills through today’s weakened American Republic. Bush and his team – faced with plunging poll numbers and cascading disclosures of wrongdoing – appear determined to punish and criminalize resistance to their regime.

Kenneth Ford will be the first political prisoner of the Bush regime jailed for purely retaliatory reasons over the phony reasons for the Iraq war
Former NSA signals intelligence analyst Kenneth Ford Jr., whose May 2003 analysis of Iraqi communications concluded that the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq was not proven and was subsequently set up by the NSA, the FBI, and Justice Department in a crafty operation that saw a classified document placed within his home by an FBI contractor, has been ordered to report to the high security Federal Prison in Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania on May 15. Ford was convicted by a tainted jury, acting under the influence of a judge who was "shopped for" by a Federal prosecutor who was carrying out a political vendetta against a member of the intelligence community who challenged the Bush White House line on Iraq.

Is U.S. being transformed into a radical republic?

As Alexis de Tocqueville once said:
"America is great because she is good. If America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."
From the Kyoto accords to the International Criminal Court, from torture and cruel and unusual treatment of prisoners to rendition of innocent civilians, from illegal domestic surveillance to lies about leaking, from energy ineptitude to denial of global warming, from cherry-picking intelligence to appointing a martinet and a tyrant to run the Defense Department, the Bush administration, in the name of fighting terrorism, has put America on the radical path to ruin.

The 'American Inquisition'
Paranoia gripped Spanish society as the Inquisition coincided with a Christian war against the Muslims of southern Spain. Clandestine trials, secret prisons, rampant eavesdropping, torture, desecration of Islam's holy books, and gruesome public executions created an atmosphere of pervasive terror. Suspects were assumed to be guilty, with no recourse to a defense, to a jury, or to a legitimate court.
In the chaos now roiling the Western world, does any of this sound familiar?

Reliance on supplemental funding draws bi-partisan attack

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., doesn't like the way the Bush administration is paying for the Iraq war. Neither does Rep. David Obey, D-Wis. Granted, the two don't agree on much. But they do agree that funding the war piecemeal and off the books -- through "emergency" supplemental spending bills -- is a phony way of doing business.

RUMSFELD's existential poetry:

The Unknown
As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know. —Feb. 12, 2002, DoD news briefing

Happenings
You're going to be told lots of things.
You get told things every day that don't happen.
It doesn't seem to bother people, they don't-
It's printed in the press.
The world thinks all these things happen.
They never happened.
Everyone's so eager to get the story
Before in fact the story's there
That the world is constantly being fed
Things that haven't happened.
All I can tell you is,
It hasn't happened.
It's going to happen. --Feb. 28, 2003, DoD briefing

Donald Rumsfeld Makes $5 Million Killing on Bird Flu Drug
Donald Rumsfeld has made a killing out of bird flu. The US Defence Secretary has made more than $5million in capital gains from selling shares in the biotechnology firm that discovered and developed Tamiflu, the drug being bought in massive amounts by Governments to treat a possible human pandemic of the disease.
Maybe the "killing" in profits on Tamiflu is the real "pandemic"?? If they buy the Tamiflu, even if they never use it....

Soldiers wounded in war have been improperly billed by Pentagon

Hundreds of soldiers wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq have been improperly billed for service-related debts as a result of systemic errors by the Pentagon's Defense Finance and Accounting Service, according to documents obtained by U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT.
Almost 900 Army soldiers were assessed debts totaling $1.2 million between 2001 and 2005, according to two draft reports from the Government Accountability Office that were obtained by the magazine; 73 percent of the debts assigned to the soldiers were the result of Pentagon payroll errors.The Government Accountability Office reports identified "331 battle-injured soldiers whose military-service debts were undergoing collection action, including at least 74 soldiers whose military debts had been reported to credit bureaus and private collection agencies."
The House Committee on Government Reform is scheduled to hold a hearing on the payroll errors this week. David Marin, the committee's staff director, declined to comment on the GAO findings but said that Rep. Tom Davis, who chairs the panel, "wants to make sure that these brave victims of financial friendly fire are taken care of."
Be all that you can be.

New Plans Foresee Fighting Terrorism Beyond War Zones
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has approved plans to greatly expand the use of elite Special Operations forces to secretly take part in missions outside of war zones as part of the so-called war on terrorism. According to the Washington Post, the Pentagon has already dispatched teams of Army Green Berets and other Special Operations troops to U.S. embassies in about 20 countries in the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America. The secret forces are instructed to carry out clandestine military activities including hunting down wanted individuals, gathering intelligence, attacking sites believed to be terrorist training camps and partnering with foreign militaries.

Details of the plans are secret, but in general they envision a significantly expanded role for the military -- and, in particular, a growing force of elite Special Operations troops -- in continuous operations to combat terrorism outside of war zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan. Developed over about three years by the Special Operations Command (SOCOM) in Tampa, the plans reflect a beefing up of the Pentagon's involvement in domains traditionally handled by the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department.
And in a subtle but important shift contained in a classified order last year, the Pentagon gained the leeway to inform -- rather than gain the approval of -- the U.S. ambassador before conducting military operations in a foreign country, according to several administration officials. "We do not need ambassador-level approval," said one defense official familiar with the order. The secret operations will be run off the books and largely free from Congressional oversight and legal restrictions imposed on the C.I.A.

This is why they "cleaned house" at the CIA.

Ex-CIA agent says Bush ignored WMD intelligence
The CIA's former top official in Europe has revealed that President Bush ignored intelligence that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. The CIA had evidence Iraq possessed no weapons of mass destruction six months before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion but was ignored by a White House intent on ousting Saddam Hussein, a former senior CIA official said according to CBS. The official, Tyler Drumheller, said former CIA Director George Tenet personally told Bush and Vice President Cheney that Iraq’s foreign minister had admitted to U.S. spies that Iraq had no WMD program. Drumheller said the information was ignored. He told 60 Minutes "The policy was set. The war in Iraq was coming and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy.”

Whistleblowing Past the Graveyard
CIA Fires Official For Leaking Info About Secret Prisons
The Central Intelligence Agency has fired a longtime officer named Mary McCarthy. The CIA accused her of leaking classified information to the press about how the agency is running secret prisons in several foreign countries including two in Eastern Europe. McCarthy had worked at the CIA for over two decades most recently in the Inspector General’s office where she investigated allegations of CIA-backed torture inside Iraqi prisons. Former State Department counterterrorism expert Larry Johnson said QUOTE “I am struck by the irony that Mary McCarthy may have been fired for blowing the whistle and ensuring the truth about an abuse was told to the American people."

Condoleezza Rice Accused of Leaking Classified Info on Iran
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been accused of leaking highly classified military intelligence on Iran to a pro-Israel lobbyist in the same manner that landed a lower-level Pentagon official a 12-year prison sentence. The allegation surfaced on Friday in the case of two former lobbyists from AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The lobbyists are charged with receiving and disclosing national defense information. Lawyers for the men asked a federal judge to subpoena Rice to testify in order to show that top Bush administration officials approved of disclosing sensitive information to the defendants and that the leaks may have been authorized.
Perhaps she should be dealt with like Mary McCarthy was?

Protesters At Stanford Univ. Block Bush Motorcade

Protests force Bush to relocate Hoover meeting

In California, over 1,000 protesters greeted President Bush on Friday during his visit to Stanford University. Protesters blocked the only street to the site of the president’s meeting at the Hoover Institution. This forced the White House to move the planned meeting to the residence of former Secretary of State and Hoover Fellow George Shultz on the outskirts of the campus. Over 100 police dressed in riot gear attempted to clear the street. Three students were arrested for blocking the road. On Saturday, another 2,000 protesters lined the streets of Sacramento where the president gave an Earth Day speech on fuel cell technology. 500 protesters also gathered in San Jose where Bush met with California governor Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and high-tech leaders at Cisco Systems.

Flight 93 cockpit recording is a hoax

It took the authorities a long time to come up with evidence from the flight recorders which they had earlier stated were not recoverable. It seems to me they still did a rather sloppy job when replacing the real recordings with this dramatic production.
From the content one would assume that it is addressed to the plane's passengers as it starts with "Ladies and Gentlemen." From the context it is said in the cabin upon first encounter with the captain. You can't talk from the flight deck to the passengers except over the intercom system, so it is unclear who the addressees of these sentences are meant to be. But neither crew nor passengers would have understood Arabic. If the remarks were made in conversation to fellow hijackers then they would hardly begin with "Ladies and Gentlemen" nor would they bother to inform them that they had a bomb on board.
...
Nice try, I say, but there is no doubt in my mind that, once more, we are being taken for a ride.

Is it a coincidence that "United 93", a depiction of the official version of events, just happened to be released at the same time the "cockpit recording" was played at the Moussaui trail? I doubt it.

Thermite Identified As Culprit Of WTC Collapse
Evidence of Thermite on Core Columns at WTC

Autopsy: No Arabs on Flight 77
It is my opinion that the monsters who planned this crime made a mistake by not including Arabic names on the original list to make the ruse seem more believable.

An untold story of 9/11

A mix-up in Boston prevented the luggage from connecting with the plane that hijackers crashed into the north tower of the trade center. Seized by FBI agents at Boston's Logan Airport, investigators said, it contained Arab-language papers revealing the identities of all 19 hijackers involved in the four hijackings, as well as information on their plans, backgrounds and motives.

Uh, yeah, right. How convenient for the FBI.

Israeli crimes blanked out in UK, but...

Below is a partial list from occupied Palestine of shellings, killings, robberies, savage beatings, attacks on schools and infrastructure, home demolitions, kidnappings, the use of sewage as a weapon, and more. Virtually all of these Israeli government, military and settler crimes went unreported.

Expert: Russia overtakes Saudi Arabia as world's largest oil and fuel exporter

Meanwhile, the bubbling liquidity of Russian energy companies is fuelling a flurry of Merger and Acquisition activity across all aspects of the energy sector from refining and transportation companies to downstream petrochemicals and gas station chains.
Perhaps we should try being friends with them?

Free labor?

Immigration Crackdown: 1,200 Undocumented Workers Detained Across U.S.
1200 Undocumented Workers Detained In Record Immigration Sting
In what is being called one of the largest immigration crackdowns in recent US history, 1200 undocumented workers from 26 different states were rounded up and detained late Wednesday. The raids focused on the Houston-based company IFCO Systems North America. Seven current and former managers were charged with conspiracy to transport, harbor and encourage illegal immigrants to reside in the US for commercial and financial gain. The managers face up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each undocumented worker. The arrests come on the heels of the massive rallies in support of immigration rights that have taken place in the last month.
Will they take them back to the border, in detain them in a FEMA Concentration Camp?

FEMA CONCENTRATION CAMPS: Locations and Executive Orders
There are over 800 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty. These camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United States and all it would take is a presidential signature on a proclamation and the attorney general's signature on a warrant to which a list of names is attached.
The Rex 84 Program was established on the reasoning that if a "mass exodus" of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA. Rex 84 allowed many military bases to be closed down and to be turned into prisons.
Operation Cable Splicer and Garden Plot are the two sub programs which will be implemented once the Rex 84 program is initiated for its proper purpose. Garden Plot is the program to control the population. Cable Splicer is the program for an orderly takeover of the state and local governments by the federal government. FEMA is the executive arm of the coming police state and thus will head up all operations. The Presidential Executive Orders already listed on the Federal Register also are part of the legal framework for this operation.
The camps all have railroad facilities as well as roads leading to and from the detention facilities. Many also have an airport nearby. The majority of the camps can house a population of 20,000 prisoners. Currently, the largest of these facilities is just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. The Alaskan facility is a massive mental health facility and can hold approximately 2 million people.
Executive Orders associated with FEMA that would suspend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. These Executive Orders have been on record for nearly 30 years and could be enacted by the stroke of a Presidential pen:...
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10990
allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and control of highways and seaports.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10995
allows the government to seize and control the communication media.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10997
allows the government to take over all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10998
allows the government to seize all means of transportation, including personal cars, trucks or vehicles of any kind and total control over all highways, seaports, and waterways
EXECUTIVE ORDER 10999
allows the government to take over all food resources and farms.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11000
allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11001
allows the government to take over all health, education and welfare functions.
EXECUTIVE ORDER 11002
designates the Postmaster General to operate a national registration of all persons.
MORE

Hundreds seized in immigration raids
A customs official said federal authorities checked a "sample" of 5,800 IFCO employee records last year and found that 53 percent had faulty Social Security numbers.
"They were using Social Security numbers of people that were dead, of children or just different individuals that did not work at IFCO," Immigration and Customs agency chief Julie Myers told CNN.

Pentagon Guantanamo List Angers Nations
A chorus of complaints against the Bush administration erupted Thursday after the Pentagon released a previously secret list of the names and nationalities of 558 people held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay. Britain said its citizen should be freed after being held for years without charges. Afghanistan's peace and reconciliation commission vowed to send a delegation to the prison to make sure Afghans are not being mistreated. China demanded custody of a group of Muslim separatists so it can prosecute them on terrorism charges. The information stirred anger in many countries. In Pakistan, a senior official said it shows Washington concealed information about its citizens. Egyptian and Jordanian security officials said none of their citizen detainees had criminal records or known terrorist connections. Activists in Mauritania and Bahrain demanded freedom for their citizens, who are approaching their fifth year without trial. In Afghanistan, the Taliban's former ambassador to Pakistan, who was held from 2002 to late 2005 in Guantanamo Bay, said the world deserved a better idea of who remained behind bars and whether they committed any crimes.

Polls: Support For Bush, Iraq War At New Lows
Back in the United States, a new poll shows President Bush’s approval rating is at a record low. According to Fox News, just 33% percent of Americans say they approve of the President’s performance. Meanwhile, a new Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll has found that 58% Americans believe the war in Iraq was unnecessary.

A third of plant jobs evaporate in Mich.
Michigan has lost nearly 1 in 3 manufacturing jobs since 1999 and impending factory closures by automakers and suppliers could further erode the state's position as a major global automotive hub, according to a new analysis by the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor.
Plenty of good jobs in the ARMED FORCES!

BLOOD IS THICKER THAN BLACKWATER
For most people, the gruesome killings were the first they had ever heard of Blackwater USA, a small, North Carolina-based private security company. Since the Falluja incident, and also because of it, Blackwater has emerged as one of the most successful and profitable security contractors operating in Iraq.
A day after the killings, Prince enlisted the services of the Alexander Strategy Group, a now disgraced but once powerful Republican lobbying and PR firm. By the end of 2004 Blackwater's president, Gary Jackson, was bragging to the press of "staggering" 600 percent growth. "This is a billion-dollar industry," Jackson said in October 2004. "And Blackwater has only scratched the surface of it."
But today, Blackwater is facing a potentially devastating battle--this time not in Iraq but in court. The company has been slapped with a lawsuit that, if successful, will send shock waves through the world of private security firms, a world that has expanded significantly since Bush took office. Blackwater is being sued for the wrongful deaths of Stephen "Scott" Helvenston, Mike Teague, Jerko Zovko and Wesley Batalona by the families of the men slain in Falluja.

Monthly Spending on Iraq, Afghan Occupations Nears $10 Billion
A new report from the Congressional Research Service says the US is now spending close to $10 billion dollars a month on the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan – an increase of nearly $8 billion dollars from one year ago.
Just think of what that money could do to improve the lives and cities of people here in America instead of going into defense contractors' coffers. Instead we are cutting infrastructure repairs and social programs to waste it on the death machine.

In Closing Testimony, FBI Analysts Doubt Moussaoui Claims
So do I. He's a brainwashed patsy or an actor.
In Virginia, testimony in the trial of 9/11 suspect Zacarias Moussaoui concluded Thursday. In a statement read before the court, two FBI analysts said they highly doubted Moussaoui’s claim that he and Richard Reid were meant to have flown a fifth plane into the White House. Closing arguments in the case are expected Monday. The jury will then decide if Moussaoui is to be sentenced to death or to life in prison.

U.S. makes plans for a hostile China
The Pentagon has made no secret of its increasing focus on China as a potential threat to stability in Asia and the Pacific, where U.S. alliances with Japan and South Korea have been key underpinnings of the region's economic growth. At the same time, the U.S. has been careful not to describe the Chinese as an adversary.

Here it comes
In March of 2006, Iran broke the OPEC oil-for-U.S. dollars-only agreement by offering oil on the Paris stock market for EUROdollars. Other OPEC countries fed up with U.S. hegemony are sure to follow. China and Japan, with their wallets stuffed with yuan and yen, are cheerfully holding Iran's coat while waiting for the dust to settle.

Dollar falls as Sweden slashes holdings in half
The US dollar fell against the euro in European morning trade on Friday as Sweden’s central bank said it had slashed its dollar holdings almost in half. The Riksbank revealed that it had cut the proportion of dollars in its reserves from 37 to 20 per cent, as well as selling off all its holdings of yen, which previously amounted to 8 per cent of its reserves.

Drivers Turn To Pawn Shops For Gas Money
Oil: Exxon Chairman's $400 Million Parachute
"But real Americans blame the Arabs for high gas prices!"

Experts Defining Mental Disorders Are Linked to Drug Firms
Every psychiatric expert involved in writing the standard diagnostic criteria for disorders such as depression and schizophrenia has had financial ties to drug companies that sell medications for those illnesses, a new analysis has found. Of the 170 experts in all who contributed to the manual that defines disorders from personality problems to drug addiction, more than half had such ties, including 100 percent of the experts who served on work groups on mood disorders and psychotic disorders. The analysis did not reveal the extent of their relationships with industry or whether those ties preceded or followed their work on the manual.

FCC Launches Payola Probes of 4 Radio Giants
The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday launched formal investigations into pay-for-play practices at four of the nation's largest radio corporations, the biggest federal inquiry into radio bribery since the congressional payola hearings of 1960.
Two FCC officials with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed that the agency had requested documents from Clear Channel Communications Inc., CBS Radio Inc., Entercom Communications Corp. and Citadel Broadcasting Corp. over allegations that radio programmers had received cash, checks, clothing and other gifts in exchange for playing certain songs without revealing the deals to listeners, a violation of federal rules. The four broadcasters have been negotiating with the FCC for weeks to forestall a federal inquiry by offering to discontinue certain practices and pay limited fines. But those talks stalled last month over the issue of how much the broadcasters should pay. Clear Channel proposed a fine of about $1 million, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations. Some commissioners were pushing for as much as $10 million, those sources said.
The FCC's action comes amid New York Atty. Gen. Eliot Spitzer's pay-for-play probe, launched in 2004, which has alleged wrongdoing by both music and radio companies. In February, Spitzer sued Entercom, alleging that high-ranking executives had implemented scams to trade cash for airplay of songs by such artists as Avril Lavigne, Liz Phair and Jessica Simpson. Entercom has denied the allegations. The other three radio companies are also under investigation by Spitzer, who has shared his evidence with the FCC.
Radio programmers at stations around the country say that fear of regulatory scrutiny has scared them into airing fewer new songs. Instead, many stations are sticking to less diverse playlists.
The last time the FCC took action on pay-for-play allegations was in 2000, when it fined two stations in Texas and Michigan $4,000 each for not disclosing payments received from A&M Records in exchange for playing songs by Bryan Adams.
So that's why they play all that terrible music all the time--they're bribed to! But to Clear Channel, $10million is only pocket change. What they fear is enforcement of existing rules.

US Ambassador to Azerbaijan recalled after prostitute scandal
Actually the FBI was on the tail of the major mafia which trades in “living” goods. FBI agents turned up in (USA’s Ambassador in Baku) Reno Harnish’s lobby, embassy officials began to be called in to speak with them. It is known for certain that the enlistment and transfer of young people from sunny Azerbaijan to no less sunny Florida were organized on a truly American scale and brought large profits. There turned out to be a large demand for scorching brunettes in the USA, and so joint business between American diplomats and Baku prostitutes, which had lasted for many a year, flourished. Baku has been more successful with its integration into the Western sex industry, than in its NATO partnership.
There's a place for everyone here.

Political climate unfriendly to ID devices, backers say
At the Smart Cards in Government Conference, advocates for RFID and tech-based "smart cards" said mandates to use modern technologies would dramatically improve the nation's security infrastructure. But resistance to such measures and technologies is swelling, they said

New Mexico VA Hospital Admits Nurse Wrongfully Accused
In New Mexico, Albuquerque’s Veterans Affairs Medical Center has publicly admitted it wrongly accused one of its nurses of sedition. In September, the nurse, Laura Berg, wrote a letter to a local newspaper criticizing the Bush administration's handling of Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war. Her employers responded by confiscating her computer. Shortly after she was informed she was being investigated. Up until this week, the hospital had given Berg a private apology, but had resisted calls to publicly admit that its allegations were false.

Native Protesters Re-Occupy Disputed Site After Police Raid
In Ontario, Canada, a major standoff at a native site intensified Thursday when police used taser guns and tear gas to disrupt a protest. Native protesters have occupied the site for the last seven weeks in an attempt to prevent construction of a housing development on what they say is the ancestral land of the Onkwehonwe people. 16 people were arrested in the raid. Within hours, the site was re-occupied by a group of over 200 native protesters who had come to provide their support.

HISTORY CORNER:

IN MEMORIAM - WACO, TX

Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq
From Democracy Now!
Author Stephen Kinzer discusses his new book, "Overthrow: America's Century of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq." In it, he writes that the invasion of Iraq "was the culmination of a 110-year period during which Americans overthrew fourteen governments that displeased them for various ideological, political, and economic reasons."

History shows Jews and Christians killed more Muslims than Muslims killed Jews and Christians
"Muslims feel they are paying the heavy price of Western guilt over Europe's past mistreatment of Jews. Not even one UN statement against Israeli aggression has been allowed to pass!"

On the morning of December 5, 1996, union leader Isidro Segundo Gil was standing at the gate of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Carepa, Colombia, when two paramilitaries drove up on a motorcycle and shot him dead. A week later, unionists say, paramilitaries lined up all the workers inside the plant and forced them to sign a letter resigning from the beverage union SINALTRAINAL, spelling the end of the union at the plant. Violence against union members is a fact of life in Colombia, where nearly 4,000 have been killed by paramilitaries in the past two decades.

JAPANESE OFFICIALS RESIGN OVER U.S. MAD COW DEBACLE
Despite new cases of Mad Cow disease surfacing in the U.S., Japan is reopening its borders to American beef. As a result of the policy decision half of the members of Japan's beef-safety government advisory panel have resigned. Morikazu Shinagawa, a researcher at the national Institute of Animal Health and a resigning member of the panel, told Kyodo News Service he "couldn't continue to work" on the panel because the conclusion to resume imports was preordained by the government. Japan banned U.S. beef imports in 2003 due to weak beef safety regulations in the U.S. While 100% of cows in Japan, aged 24 months and older, are tested for the Mad Cow disease, only 1% of the 35 million cattle slaughtered annually in the U.S. are tested. Japan recently caved to pressure from the Bush Administration and lift the ban on U.S. beef imports while appointing new "experts" to its beef safety advisory panel. http://www.organicconsumers.org/artman/publish/article_227.cfm

Bye, buy Karl & Scotty

Bush rocked by resignations

THE THREE STOOGES
Rove Loses a Post in White House Overhaul
The overhaul of the White House staff continued today as Karl Rove gave up his portfolio as senior policy coordinator (this sounds like he was fired) to concentrate more on politics and November's midterm Congressional elections and Scott McClellan stepped down as the president's chief spokesman.
As the administration's point person with the media McClellan became a lightning rod for complaints by the press corps about the adequacy of information provided by the White House. Those tensions first boiled over last year when it was revealed that Mr. Rove had been involved in the the disclosure of the identity of Valerie Wilson, an undercover operative for the Central Intelligence Agency, despite earlier public denials by Mr McClellan. More recently, Mr. McClellan was yelled at, during a briefing, by an NBC correspondent, David Gregory, who was frustrated by how little information was being made available after Vice President Dick Cheney shot a hunting partner.
Where will they find another lickspittle to replace him? And what about Rove? Did he resign to prepare for an upcoming indictment? Or just to prepare some of his old "Dirty Tricks" for November elections?

FOX News' Tony Snow Among Possible White House Spokesman Candidates
One of the people the White House has approached as a possible replacement for McClellan is FOX News Radio host Tony Snow. The White House discussed the possibility with Snow as recently as this week.Snow, who hosts "The Tony Snow Show," once served as a speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush.Other people have also been approached about the position, including former Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clark and Dan Senor, the former Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman in Iraq, who served the U.S. civil administrator in Iraq, Paul Bremer.

Some background on Dan Senor, another potential replacement for Scott McLellan
The following elements of Senor's CV are not present in the version on the White House website:

• In 1993 Senor did an internship at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a powerful pro-Israel lobby organization which some regard as being affiliated to the Likud party. AIPAC's website quotes him as saying: "Whether I was learning the ins and outs of Washington with my fellow interns or attending briefings on Capitol Hill, my internship at AIPAC prepared me for my work in politics". His sister, Wendy Senor Singer, heads AIPAC's office in Jerusalem. His brother-in-law, Saul Singer, is the very right-wing opinion editor of the Jerusalem Post.
• Senor is listed as a director on the website of USIBEX, the US-Israel Business Exchange. It describes him as a Senior Associate of the Carlyle Group. It is not clear from the website if this information is still current.
• Senor worked for the Carlyle Group as a venture capitalist from 2001 to 2003. The Carlyle Group is a venture capital company specializing in defence and industry which has strong ties to the Bush family.
• Before going to Baghdad, Senor was briefly deputy to White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.

Bush: the Decider Dictator

I recall months ago, when folks began first murmuring about booting Donald Rumsfeld, arriving at the obvious conclusion—Donald Rumsfeld is not going anywhere, not anymore than Cheney is (short of a heart attack). Rumsfeld and Cheney are integral to the Straussian neocon hold on both the Pentagon and the Oval Office. Bush may appoint Rob Portman to head the Office of Management and Budget, and Dan Senor (former AIPAC flunky, director of the US-Israel Business Exchange, and associate at the Carlyle Group) may replace Scott McClellan, but Cheney and Rumsfeld are like white on rice.

Bush Plan To Hide Data on 1.5M Lbs. of Toxic Chemicals in California
April 17 - A Bush Administration proposal to roll back Americans' right to know about chemical hazards in their neighborhoods would let California industries handle almost 1.5 million pounds of toxic chemicals a year without telling the public, according to an investigation of federal data by Environmental Working Group (EWG).


Mutiny of the Generals
As Richard Holbrooke, a former ambassador to the United Nations, points out in a Washington Post commentary, "it is also clear that the target is not just Rumsfeld. Newbold hints at this; others are more explicit in private. But the only two people in the government higher than the secretary of defense are the president and vice president. They cannot be fired, of course, and the unspoken military code normally precludes direct public attacks on the commander in chief when troops are under fire."
In short, Rumsfeld is the civilian with command oversight who is responsible for the abysmal failures in the Middle East, but he serves at the pleasure of the president -- he reminds us -- and the vice president. They are three peas in a pod. That the mutiny will expand appears likely. So, the revolt of the retired generals is likely just the tip of the iceberg.
"Let it come down."

UN torture panel presses US on detainees
In questions submitted to Washington, the panel also sought information about secret detention facilities and specifically whether the United States assumed responsibility for alleged acts of torture in them, UN officials said.
"It is the longest list of issues I have ever seen," Mercedes Morales, a UN human rights officer who serves as secretary to the UN Committee against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, said.

Sex and money bought Iraq contracts

Philip Bloom faces up to 40 years in prison after admitting paying more than $2 million in bribes to US officials with the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ruled Iraq after the US-led invasion in 2003.

US firms suspected of bilking Iraq funds
Millions missing from program for rebuilding
American contractors swindled hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraqi funds, but so far there is no way for Iraq's government to recoup the money, according to US investigators and civil attorneys tracking fraud claims against contractors. Courts in the United States are beginning to force contractors to repay reconstruction funds stolen from the American government. But legal roadblocks have prevented Iraq from recovering funds that were seized from the Iraqi government by the US-led coalition and then paid to contractors who failed to do the work. A US law that allows citizens to recover money from dishonest contractors protects only the US government, not foreign governments. Time to change the law.
The coalition ultimately controlled more than $20.7 billion in Iraqi funds. The money was deposited into an account called the Development Fund for Iraq, or DFI, which was set up, in the words of the US administrator at the time, L. Paul Bremer III, ''for the benefit of the Iraqi people."
RELATED: Allegations of waste, fraud, and abuse

CDC Says Bird Flu Not Serious Threat to Humans In what appears to be a reversal of previous policy, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Julie Gerberding, says that "there is no evidence that it will be the next pandemic", commenting about avian flu.

Free Press uncovers evidence of ballot tampering in Warren County, Ohio
After locking out all media observers and declaring a Level 10 Homeland Security Alert, the Republican-dominated Warren County, Ohio reported in the wee hours of the morning on November 3, 2004 -- and gave George W. Bush a surprising 14,000 vote boost. Two election workers told the Free Press that the ballots had been diverted to an unauthorized warehouse where they had been possibly stuffed. That is, punched for Bush only.

U.S. Stalls on Human Trafficking
A proposal prohibiting defense contractor involvement in human trafficking for forced prostitution and labor was drafted by the Pentagon last summer, but five defense lobbying groups oppose key provisions and a final policy still appears to be months away, according to those involved and Defense Department records. The lobbying groups opposing the plan say they're in favor of the idea in principle, but said they believe that implementing key portions of it overseas is unrealistic. They represent thousands of firms, including some of the industry's biggest names, such as DynCorp International and Halliburton subsidiary KBR, both of which have been linked to trafficking-related concerns.


Chavez begins turning off US oil taps after inking deal with India
Venezuela's state owned oil company PDVSA has inked a key deal with India, taking the first key step away from the U.S. as its major oil buyer. At the same time, PDVSA has announced that it will no longer reveal oil statistics to the SEC after paying off its debts. The India deal and the refusal to disclose information are not just strategic, but also send a message to the US about Venezuela's future plans with regard to supplying the US with oil.

The Pulitzer awards reflect discontent

Many awards presentations are accused of being out of touch with the public or even appearing to be popularity contests. But I contend that many of the Pulitzer Prizes, handed out on Monday, accurately reflected the nation's growing discontent with President Bush.

CIA mines 'rich' content from blogs
President Bush and U.S. policy-makers are receiving more intelligence from open sources such as Internet blogs and foreign newspapers than they previously did, senior intelligence officials said.

Lock him away to stop the next war
Phillip Adams
Little wonder six retired senior generals have joined ranks with the American public in condemning the war, or that many in the Republican hierarchy have joined left-wing critics denouncing the invasion as a mistake and a failure, calling for immediate withdrawal.
Now journalist Seymour Hersh's revelations of a US plan to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, perhaps with nuclear bunker-blasters, are causing national and international dismay. They've also provoked anger among the Pentagon's highest-ranking officers already enraged by Donald Rumsfeld's stewardship of the Iraq invasion and occupation.
With his presidency a total mess, what's there to lose? So it's time to certify the President. Yes, you'd have to certify his equally deranged Vice-President as well. And toss in Rumsfeld to keep them company. Along with anyone else in the administration, the Congress, the Senate or the Australian parliament mad enough to think Iraq a sane decision.

Terrorism is a tricky business
The trillions expended on an orchestrated panic means only a pittance is spent on the world's real problems. On AIDS in Africa killing millions today. On the prevention of a bird flu pandemic that may well kill a hundred million tomorrow. On climate change, which may well kill the planet. If terrorism is madness, our response is madder still.
The truth of the matter is that terrorism doesn't frighten Western leaders as much as they pretend. Rather it's a potent weapon for political incumbents. Any magician will tell you that the secret of all conjuring tricks and illusions is misdirection. The audience is tricked into looking away while the switch is made or the trapdoor opened. Thus terror is used to trick the terrified, distracting attention from more urgent issues.
In Bush's case, from poverty, public health, decaying infrastructure, environmental scandals, budget blowouts. If you take the nail clippers from air travellers they mightn't notice the injustices of the Bush tax cuts.
Terrorism is the biggest example of misdirection since Hitler blamed Germany's problems on the Jews. As he said: "If the Jews didn't exist we'd have to invent them."
In the same way, the West invents the terrorist threat. The problems that cause terrorism are not addressed. The big money is spent on the advertising campaign known as the war on terror.

Stop Us Before We Kill Again!
The essence of Bush&Co. strategy, from January 2001 to today, can be boiled down to this: We'll continue doing whatever we want to do until someone stops us. But consciously, as they sense their time in power may be coming to an inglorious end and as they read their quickly-sinking poll numbers, they can't help themselves from issuing their traditional, in-your-face dare: "Stop me if you can, losers!"
This big-A "Attitude" started long before Inauguration Day, when Karl Rove & Dick Cheney were devising their strategy and theory of governance. It goes something like this: We need only one vote more than the other guys -- on the Supreme Court, in the Senate, in the popular vote totals in key states. Once we get our victory by whatever means necessary, we are then the "legitimate" rulers. We can claim The People Have Spoken and that we have a "mandate" for action and can do whatever we want. If you don't like it, tough. If you're foolhardy enough, you can try again at the next election and see where that gets you, suckers -- our side counts the votes!

Questions--we have questions

THE REAL WMDS IN IRAQ - OURS

Weapons of mass destruction are all over Iraq. Iraqi children are playing among them every day. According to Iraqi doctors, many are developing cancer as a result. The WMD in question is depleted uranium (DU). Left over after natural uranium has been processed, DU is 1.7 times denser than lead - effective in penetrating armored vehicles such as tanks. After a DU shell strikes, it penetrates before exploding into a burning vapor that turns to dust.
"Depleted uranium has a half life of 4.7 billion years - that means thousands upon thousands of Iraqi children will suffer for tens of thousands of years to come. This is what I call terrorism," says Dr Ahmad Hardan.
Ah, depleted uranium, the gift that keeps on giving - the gift of cancer, that is. Doesn't it make you feel really proud about all the kids we've killed - and will continue to kill- with this stuff?

Depleted Uranium in Urine of Soldiers

Check out the charts for how long DU remains in the body.

9/11 families to testify for Moussaoui
To support its case, defense attorneys called Alexandria jail guard Vikas Ohri to the stand. Ohri told the jury Moussaoui has consistently insisted that President Bush will release him, and that he will then return to England and perhaps write his memoirs for a substantial sum."He tells me he will be set free," Ohri said. "He doesn't say when."
Was Moussaoui promised a deal? Confess to 9-11 and bolster the official story of the "Bad Arabs" in exchange for freedom? I'll bet they told him his execution will be faked if he goes along with the game. Probably the same promise made to Tim McVeigh.

Berlusconi's Men "Doctor" Niger Uranium Dossier
Nigergate won't go away. Berlusconi not only forwarded the bogus Nigergate dossier to Washington, but had his intelligence people doctor the documents in an attempt to make them look real. But they made one mistake while cutting and pasting which the US Senate discovers.
Later on, the Italian Parliament fingered four men as the source of the original fakes. Ahmad Chalabi , Francis Brookes, Dewey Clarridge, and Michael Ledeen.

See story that follows.

FLASHBACK: Berlusconi, che Bello!

Michael Ledeen (Oliver North Iran/Contra co-hort & renound Zionist) sticks up for Berlusconi.

Mondo Washington by James Ridgeway: Unanswerable Questions for Mike Ledeen

Last week, Raw Story questioned whether Ledeen might have been involved in the forged papers that suggested Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from Niger. Ledeen, it turns out, once wrote for the Italian magazine Panorama, whose reporter first got the papers. The bogus documents somehow found their way to the U.S. and into the White House, where they were included in the president's 2003 State of the Union speech.

The Crimes of Mena

This is the article which had been scheduled to appear in the Washington Post. After having cleared the legal department for all possible questions of inaccurate statements, the article was scheduled for publication when just as the presses were set to roll, Washington Post Managing Editor Bob Kaiser (Like George Bush, a member of the infamous "Skull & Bones Fraternity), killed the article without explanation. According to the sidebar which appeared with the Penthouse Magazine version of this story, Bob Kaiser refused to even meet with Sally Denton and Roger Morris, hiding in his office while his secretary made excuses.This is the story that couldn't be suppressed. An investigative report into a scandal that haunts the reputations of three presidents - Reagan, Bush, and Clinton.
Relinked in light of the aircraft captured with 5 tons of cocaine.

PLANE WITH 5 TONS OF COKE OWNED BY "ROYAL SONS," TOM DELAY APPOINTEE

One of the two owners of the DC9 (tail number N900SA) busted at an airport in the Yucatan last week after lumbering in from Caracas, Venezuela carrying an astonishing 5.5 TONS of cocaine was appointed in 1993 to the Business Advisory Council of the National Republican Congressional Committee by then-Congressional Majority Leader Tom Delay.

CIA: The Mena Connection

Senate Hearings on Bush, NowAlready in the White House, there is talk of a nightmare scenario in which the Democrats successfully make the November congressional elections a referendum on impeachment—and win back a majority in the House, and maybe the Senate too.But voting now to create a Senate investigation—chaired by a Republican—could work to the advantage both of the truth and of Republican candidates eager to put distance between themselves and the White House.

Oh come ON, now!!!!!

A mix-up in Boston prevented the luggage from connecting with the plane that hijackers crashed into the north tower of the trade center. Seized by FBI agents at Boston's Logan Airport, investigators said, it contained Arab-language papers revealing the identities of all 19 hijackers involved in the four hijackings, as well as information on their plans, backgrounds and motives.
HOW CONVENIENT!!!

Okay, let me see if I have this right. A guy who is planning suicide thoughtfully packs a suitcase he expects he will never see again with all the evidence the FBI will need to figure out the crime if by some miracle that suitcase doesn't get onto the plane that the suicide hijacker expects will perish in a huge ball of flame.

Who is behind "Al Qaeda in Iraq"? Pentagon acknowledges fabricating a "Zarqawi Legend"
In an unusual twist, the Washington Post in a recent article, has acknowledged that the role of Zarqawi had been deliberately "magnified" by the Pentagon with a view to galvanizing public support for the US-UK led "war on terrorism":

"The Zarqawi campaign is discussed in several of the internal military documents. "Villainize Zarqawi/leverage xenophobia response," one U.S. military briefing from 2004 stated. It listed three methods: "Media operations," "Special Ops (626)" (a reference to Task Force 626, an elite U.S. military unit assigned primarily to hunt in Iraq for senior officials in Hussein's government) and "PSYOP," the U.S. military term for propaganda work..." (WP. 10 April 2006)
The military's propaganda program, according to the Washington Post, has "largely been aimed at Iraqis, but seems to have spilled over into the U.S. media. One briefing slide about U.S. "strategic communications" in Iraq, prepared for Army Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, describes the "home audience" as one of six major targets of the American side of the war." (WP, op cit.)

Anyone remember Emmanuel Goldstein in the novel "1984" by George Orwell??

Rumsfeld: US Media Manipulated By bin Laden and Zarqawi

Yesterday on Rush Limbaugh, (quite a desperate move, I'd say) embattled Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that those who criticize the Iraq war are being manipulated by terrorists, including Zarqawi and bin Laden, through the U.S. media:

There have always been people who have opposed wars…I think we just have to accept it, that people have a right to say what they want to say, and to have an acceptance of that and recognize that the terrorists, Zarqawi and bin Laden and Zawahiri, those people have media committees.They are actively out there trying to manipulate the press in the United States. They are very good at it.

Pretty good for two dead guys to be able to pull off, right, Rummy?

No wonder Chavez makes Bush uneasy

When the hated despots of nations like Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan loot their countries' treasuries, transfer their oil wealth to personal Swiss bank accounts and use the rest to finance (in the House of Saud's case) terrorist extremists, American politicians praise them as trusted friends and allies. But when a democratically elected populist president uses Venezuela's oil profits to lift poor people out of poverty, they accuse him of pandering.

States Omit Minorities' Test Scores To Keep "No Child Left Behind" Funding

An Associated Press computer analysis has found Laquanya is among nearly 2 million children whose scores aren't counted when it comes to meeting the law's requirement that schools track how students of different races perform on standardized tests. The AP found that states are helping public schools escape potential penalties by skirting that requirement. And minorities — who historically haven't fared as well as whites in testing — make up the vast majority of students whose scores are excluded.

Foreign group taking over Indiana Toll Road

In the biggest highway privatization deal in U.S. history, state officials last week signed an agreement to turn the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road over to a foreign consortium that will operate it for a profit for the next 75 years. Under the lease, Spanish-Australian consortium Cintra-Macquarie will pay the state $3.8 billion up front and will be responsible for operating and maintaining the highway. It will get to keep the toll revenue it collects.
(but they're not from Dubai, so it's no big deal?? Maybe there will actually be some oversight)

Mass whale deaths tied to U.S. Navy sonar

The U.S. Navy's deployment of active sonar to detect submarine activity is believed to have been responsible for at least six incidents of mass death and unusual behavior among pods of whales in the last 10 years, according to a recent U.S. Congressional Research Service report.

Report: Chernobyl Toll May Top 90,000
Greenpeace said Tuesday in a new report that more than 90,000 people were likely to die of cancers caused by radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, countering a United Nations report that predicted the death toll would be around 4,000. A reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing radioactive clouds over much of Europe. The fallout was particularly severe in northern reaches of Ukraine, western Russia and Belarus.Areas immediately around the now-inoperative plant remain off limits, but people in other areas that received significant fallout are anxious about their health.
Greenpeace countered that statistics from Belarus indicate there will be 270,000 cases of cancer attributable to Chernobyl radiation throughout the region and that 93,000 of those are likely to be fatal.
Greenpeace also cited a report by the Center for Independent Environmental Assessment of the Russian Academy of Sciences that found a sharply increased mortality in western Russia over the past 15 years, suggesting the rise was due to Chernobyl radiation.
"On the basis of demographic data, during the last 15 years, 60,000 people have died additionally in Russia because of the Chernobyl accident and estimates of the total death toll for Ukraine and Belarus could be another 140,000," Greenpeace's international office said in a statement.
The report also finds that "radiation from the disaster has had a devastating effect on survivors" other than cancer cases — "damaging immune and endocrine systems, leading to accelerated aging, cardiovascular and blood illnesses, psychological illnesses, chromosome aberrations and an increase of deformities in fetuses and children."

Do your own research

A Defiant Sheen Challenges Official 9/11 Fable on National TV
Dares Millions of Viewers to "Do [their] own research"
From: Prison Planet | April 15 2006
Actor Charlie Sheen made history when he first questioned the official story of 9/11, calling it the "biggest conspiracy theory of them all." Sheen's comments sent shockwaves across the alternative media and have been one of the biggest stories on the internet for weeks. The story also garnered prime time coverage by major news outlets including CNN, FOX News, and hundreds of newspapers worldwide.
Following his brave step into the spotlight over his 9/11 questions and the ensuing backlash of attacks and hit pieces, Sheen issued an email statement to the media demanding that he be challenged on the facts instead of junior high name-calling. Not one single mainstream media outlet has had the nerve to take Sheen up on his challenge.
Only a few days after Sheen's story broke in the mainstream press, sources within FOX News and CNN told Alex Jones off-the-record that there was a concerted effort from their companies' management to "kill" the Sheen story and to end any favorable coverage of the 9/11 Truth Movement. Producers were given this dictate despite the record high ratings and positive audience feedback that was received from coverage of the Sheen 9/11 story.

On Friday, April 14th on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live talk show, Sheen once again brought forward his questions about the official story to tens of millions of Americans. When asked by host Jimmy Kimmel about the statements he made on The Alex Jones radio show, Sheen succinctly remarked, "I just had questions, I had a lot of questions."
He went further, decrying the media's treatment of his statements, noting that "[the mainstream media] didn't really take a look at any of the stuff I was asking them to look at, any of the evidence or any of the stuff that generated those questions..." instead they spun it into the story of whether or not he was "qualified" to question the government.
"I felt the only real validation that I needed was being a tax paying citizen that loves my country," Sheen expressed to a powerful round of applause from the studio audience. Sheen continued, "What happed to the time in this country when we were entitled, when we had a constitutional and a God-given right to be curious about things that didn't make sense?"
When asked by Kimmel what had brought him to pose his questions about the official story, Sheen replied, "I've done a lot of research," then referred to the growing number of high-profile individuals who have already bravely stepped forward to ask questions about 9/11, stating "...its not just me, its the people that have come before me - the experts and the engineers, the physicists and the scientists and the scholars, that raised a lot of these things and I took a look at their research and said yeah, it doesn't add up, a lot of it doesn't add up, hence these questions."
Before Kimmel moved the discussion to another topic, Sheen was careful to remind the audience, "There are two areas: Building 7 and the five frames from the Pentagon. Don't listen to me, do your own research."
Following the broadcast of the Jimmy Kimmel Live show, Alex Jones spoke with Sheen about his views concerning the interview. Sheen made the following statement:
"This is a landmark moment in the 9/11 Truth Movement. We have fired a flaming arrow into the heart of the myopic propaganda posing as the irrefutable official story. Come one, come all, the floodgates have opened! Reveal your patriotism."
In response Alex Jones stated, "In my 12 years of broadcast, I have broken hundreds of stories that have gained national attention, but none have captured the imagination of the people like Charlie Sheen's statements on 9/11. Universally people recognize that his courageous stand has smashed the floodgates and the tide has now turned. The 9/11 Truth Movement saw its birth over four and a half years ago and it witnessed an unprecedented infusion when Charlie Sheen spoke out. The bottom line is that people resonate with Charlie Sheen's courage. The average man or woman understands that Sheen is taking a risk by saying aloud what they have only thought about in secret: 9/11 was an inside job and the foundational event for the police state growing in America and the pretext for the ongoing wars for global empire.”

Rumsfeld Potentially Liable for Torture
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld could be criminally liable for the torture of a detainee at Guantanamo Bay in late 2002 and early 2003, Human Rights Watch said today. A December 20, 2005 Army Inspector General's report, contains a sworn statement by Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt that implicates Secretary Rumsfeld in the abuse of detainee Mohammad al-Qahtani. Based on an investigation that he carried out in early 2005, which included two interviews with Rumsfeld, Gen. Schmidt describes the defense secretary as being "personally involved" in al-Qahtani's interrogation.
Rumsfeld could be liable under the doctrine of "command responsibility" – the legal principle that holds a superior responsible for crimes committed by his subordinates when he knew or should have known that they were being committed, but fails to take reasonable measures to stop them.
A special prosecutor is needed because Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was himself deeply involved in the policies leading to the abuse of detainees, a conflict of interest that is likely to prevent a proper investigation from being carried out. U.S. Department of Justice regulations call for the appointment of an outside counsel when such a conflict exists and the public interest warrants a prosecutor without links to the government.

Permission to Speak Freely, Sir
Those who have never served in the military don't understand how extraordinary it is for career military officers to say the things these guys are saying about their former civilian superiors.

How Many Deaths Until Congress Knows?
Seymour Hersh has much more credibility than the Cheney/Bush White House. He has been right and truthful on a regular basis, a claim that cannot be made for our nation’s reigning warlords. In his article, “The Iran Plans,” in the April 17 edition of the New Yorker magazine, Mr. Hersh warns that the administration has already ordered teams of combat troops “into Iran, under cover, to collect targeting data and to establish contact with anti-government ethnic-minority groups” in preparation for a massive air attack that may involve nuclear “bunker buster” bombs. Reading this, and listening to Cheney, Bush, and their various mouthpieces as they ratchet up their “threat to the United States” and “war on terror” rhetoric, any thinking person has to wonder, “Are they insane?”

Dead Cities
Of all the war crimes that have flowed from the originating crime of President George W. Bush's unprovoked invasion of Iraq, perhaps the most flagrant was the destruction of Fallujah in November 2004. Now, as ignominious defeat looms for Bush's Babylonian folly, some of the key players in fomenting the war are urging that the "Fallujah Option" be applied to an even bigger target: Baghdad. What these influential warmongers openly call for is the "pacification" of Baghdad: a brutal firestorm by U.S. forces, ravaging both Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias in a "horrific" operation that will inevitably lead to "skyrocketing body counts," as warhawk Reuel Marc Gerecht cheerfully wrote last week in the ever-bloodthirsty editorial pages of The Wall Street Journal.

Rumsfeld Sends MEK Terrorists into Iran
In short, as usual, the United States is sponsoring terrorism against a sovereign state. It is interesting, if not absurd, that Stephen Cambone would have MEK terrorists “swear an oath to Democracy” before killing Iranians.

US Selecting Design For New Generation Of Nuclear Warheads
By the end of the year, the government plans to select the design of a new generation of nuclear warheads that would be more dependable and possibly able to be disarmed in the event they fell into terrorist hands, according to the head of the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The new warheads would be based on nuclear technology that has already been tested, which means they could be produced more than a decade from now to gradually replace at lower numbers the existing U.S. stockpile of about 6,000 warheads without additional underground testing, said Linton F. Brooks, administrator of the NNSA, which oversees the U.S. nuclear weapons complex, and other government officials.

FLASHBACK: US TROOPS ADMIT SHOOTING IRAQI CIVILIANS
American troops today admitted they routinely gun down Iraqi civilians - some of whom are entirely innocent.

Your future according to Rockefeller

Would you like to know the future the Rockefeller group plans for you? Check out this excerpted quote, from a 50-year old book about the family:

“Rockefeller by no means neglected their program of converting our government into a totalitarian device for looting. The basic plan was published in 1930 by his intimate friend Hoffman Nickerson in his book, the American Rich. Nickerson’s scheme is to nullify the Constitution by converting our Government into an absolute monarchy. He concludes, the only perfect form of government is hereditary absolute monarchy, but it might be wiser at the start not to violate American sentiment by undertaking to impose it openly. The conversion of President to absolute monarch merely requires the elimination of checks and balances on the power of the President that the framers of the Constitution “unwisely” incorporated into it, to convert his role to that of absolute dictator.”

“The key to converting Congress into a mere “rubber stamp’ is the budget plan. If the Presidential elective monarch presents to Congress, year after year, budgets so huge and complex that members could not possibly find the time to read it, and so richly provided with graft and pork barrel for each member of Congress that none of them would dare to sincerely attack it for fear of losing their shares - Congress would eschew the powers granted it by the Constitution. The presidential monarch would easily rob Congress of its Constitutional power to initial any legislation under the pretense of contrived “emergencies” and “crises”…”

Does this sound like something we have today? Exxon (ex-Standard Oil) Bechtel and Halliburton, the top profiteers of Iraq are all major Rockefeller outfits. So why in the Democrats’ media where denunciations of PNAC, Perle, Wolfowitz and Cheney fly thick and fast there is not a peep about Rockefeller? Apparently there’s another 1913-style treason in the making. Remember how in 1913 Rockefeller & Co. pushed for tax and central banking laws so crooked even the Republicans bailed from the effort? (This says a lot.) Rockefeller then simply had the Democrats parade in as “saviors of justice” and complete the crime. Today I can see only once conceivable reason why the Democratic Party doesn’t shout on the top of its lungs about the scandalous Rockefeller monarchical plan while it is visibly taking body (actually, 35000 bodies) in front of our eyes. As in 1913, they are preparing to parade in as “saviors of justice” to complete the coup.

Light at end of the tunnel over near death experiences
Today, new evidence is published that backs the idea that the near-death experience is a biological experience, rather than anything to do with a larger, spiritual dimension, a glimpse of heaven, or the existence of the soul.
The study found that people with near-death experiences were more likely to have a sleep-wake system in which the boundaries between sleep and wakefulness were not as clearly regulated, and the dream sleep state - when there is rapid eye movement - can intrude into normal wakeful consciousness.
Examples of "REM intrusion" include waking up and feeling that you cannot move - sleep paralysis - having sudden muscle weakness in your legs, and hearing sounds just before falling asleep or just after waking up that other people cannot hear. Of the people with near- death experiences, 60 per cent reported REM intrusion, compared with 24 per cent of people who had not had near-death experiences.
"These findings suggest that REM-state intrusion contributes to near-death experiences," said Prof Nelson. "During a crisis that occurs with REM-state intrusion, this lack of muscle tone could reinforce a person's sense of being dead and convey the impression of death to other people."

90% agree

George W. Bush IS a Liar
The White House is taking umbrage over new press reports that George W. Bush misled the American people on a key justification for invading Iraq. But Bush’s latest excuse – that he was just an unwitting conveyor of bad information, not a willful purveyor of lies – has been stretched thin by overuse.

Live Vote
Do you think President Bush authorized Scooter Libby to leak classified information?
* 9191 responses
Yes 90%
No 6.1%
I don't know 4.1%



The Week the Bush Administration Fell Apart

Bush is reeling and having to actually face bracing questions from the media.
Various on-line Impeachment polls are lopsided in favor.
A recent MSNBC poll with over a quarter million votes is running 86% in favor of Impeachment.

Oil man's half a billion dollar bye-bye
Mr Raymond received a compensation package worth about $140 million last year, including cash, stock, options and a pension plan. He is also still entitled to stock, options and long-term compensation worth at least another $258 million, according to a proxy statement filed by Exxon with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The total sum for Mr Raymond's golden years comes to at least $398 million ($545 million).

Libby Lawyers Want Access to More Evidence
Lawyers for a former top White House aide accused a prosecutor Wednesday of trying to "have it both ways" by playing up President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney's role in leaking intelligence on Iraq to reporters but refusing to turn over evidence in the case.

Judge in Libby case considers gag order for lawyers

See next three stories.

FLASHBACK: Former FBI whistleblower files against judge in Libby trial over secrecy issues

Former FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds filed a motion asking for the recusal of the judge assigned to her case because of his alleged "bias to secrecy," RAW STORY has learned.

This story and the two that follow paint a disturbing picture of the Federal Court system. In theory, judges are assigned at random to cases. However, the same Judge, Reggie Walton, (appointed by Bush) has been assigned and REassigned to the Sibel Edmonds AND THE SCOOTER LIBBY cases! As the second article down shows, the Judge has some secret financial dealings of his own that raise questions about his impartiality.

FLASHBACK: FBI translator suit dismissed over security issues
The Justice Department and the FBI both argued to the court that her lawsuit should be dismissed because much of the information needed to be considered for it was protected by the "state secrets privilege," which is meant to protect classified national security information from being disclosed. U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton agreed with the government's position.

Judge in Scooter Libby, Sibel Edmonds cases is redacted in action All federal judges are required under ethics rules to file what is known as “financial disclosure reports.”
Well, it seems, at least according to the only document that Judicial Watch could shake loose in its public-records quest, that Walton doesn’t think so. His financial disclosure statement, the one released for public inspection through Judicial Watch, is completely redacted, every line of it.


"Painwashing" the Moussaoui jury and us

As of September 27, 2002, in an explosive New York Times article, "U.S. Gave Secrets to Terror Suspect" by Philip Shenon, the reporter tells us, “Although Mr. Moussaoui, 34, a French national, has admitted that he is a member of Al Qaeda and is loyal to Osama bin Laden, he has insisted that he had nothing to do with the Sept. 11 attacks.” Remember that: insistence he had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks. Then ask, what occurred in the interim to turn his testimony totally around? Could it possibly be brainwashing, painwashing?
"Moussaoui" is an actor, who's going to be "executed" and returned to France after it's all over and the 9/11 blood lust for revenge is played out.

Reinforcing The Official Lie

"At least six air traffic controllers who dealt with two of the hijacked airliners on Sept. 11, 2001, made a tape recording that day describing the events, but the tape was destroyed by a supervisor without anyone making a transcript or even listening to it."
Officials destroyed the tapes despite FAA orders to retain all evidence relating to the events of that day. So keen were 'quality assurance managers' to get rid of the tapes that one, "crushed the cassette in his hand, cut the tape into little pieces and dropped them in different trash cans around the building."

Smear and Fear

Israel's once-powerful lobby in the U.S. is running scared. The American Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is facing a burgeoning scandal with the upcoming trial of Steve Rosen their longtime chief lobbyist, and Iran policy expert Keith Weissman, who are accused of spying on behalf of Israel.
Their source in the Pentagon – Iran analyst and neoconservative ideologue Larry Franklin – was caught red-handed by the FBI handing over top secret information to the two AIPAC officials, who then turned the vital data over to Israeli embassy employees. Franklin pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 years, with time off for good behavior – i.e., testifying against his fellow spies.

The part of the scandal they WON'T tell you? Franklin worked in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, the very office from which many of the now discredited claims about Iraq were coming. So the real scandal isn;t what information flowed from the Pentagon through AIPAC to Israel but what DISinformation flowed from Israel through AIPAC, into the Pentagon, forming part of the lies and deceptions that tricked our nation into war.


Trial Unnerves Some U.S. Jewish Leaders

The coming trial of two former representatives of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee for alleged violations of the Espionage Act is fueling concern among Jewish leaders that Israel and the Jewish-American community increasingly are being blamed for the Bush administration's troubles in the Middle East.

Zionist does not equal Jewish.

Village Councilman refuses to take oath of office
An appellate lawyer, elected to the Tequesta Village Council, is refusing to take an oath of office because he refuses to say that he supports the government.

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

The Pentagon is bypassing official US intelligence channels and turning to a dangerous and unruly cast of characters in order to create strife in Iran in preparation for any possible attack, former and current intelligence officials say.

Live Vote
Should Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld resign?
Yes 92%
No 8.1%

Now Powell Tells Us

On Monday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell told me that he and his department's top experts never believed that Iraq posed an imminent nuclear threat, but that the President followed the misleading advice of Vice President Dick Cheney and the CIA in making the claim.
Then why didn't he have the balls not to lie to the UN?

FLASHBACK: US man made hoax execution video

A man from San Francisco has admitted staging a hoax video that appeared to show him being beheaded in Iraq.

Which means all such videos are suspect.

one more cover up?

Cheney Violated International Law In Failing To Report The 1991 B-52 'Lost Nuke Incident' In Iran, According To Former Forensic Intelligence Officer
UK source, close to the oversea's arms scandal, says intelligence officer's report would be damaging to Cheney if revealed in the upcoming Scooter Libby trial.
10 Apr 2006
By Greg Szymanski
Stephen P. Dresch, a former American forensic intelligence officer with CIA ties, is on the top of Vice President Dick Cheney's hit list and one man he'd like to silence for good, according to a confidential source in the United Kingdom. The source, close to the massive arms dealing scandal brewing on both sides of the pond involving the Lewis 'Scooter' Libby trial, said Dresch verified in a confidential report that the loss of W-69 nuclear warheads from a B-52 in 1991 ended up in Iran. According to the UK source, Cheney wants Dresch silenced because he was U.S. Secretary of Defense in 1991 and, if proved true, he would have been in direct violation of international law for not reporting the lost nuclear weapons involving the B-52 incident.
"Stephen's report would have a devastating effect if produced at the Trial (now schedule for early 2007) of Lewis Scooter Libby," said the source, who needed to remain anonymous due to the UK's stringent Official Secrets Act.

The Lies just keep on coming!

Bush Silent on Whether He Authorized Plame Leak to Reporter
Monday, President Bush struggled to answer a question on new evidence linking him to the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame: "You can't talk about -- you're not supposed to talk about classified information, and so I declassified the document. I thought it was important for people to get a better sense for why I was saying what I was saying in my speeches. And I felt I could do so without jeopardizing, you know, ongoing intelligence matters, and so I did."
On Sunday, the New York Times reported the intelligence was leaked despite the fact the administration knew its accuracy had been disputed. During his appearance Monday, President didn't answer whether he had authorized Libby to leak the information to a reporter.

Then why didn't he just tell the nation this when Judith Miller was in trouble for the article? Why did he let her go to jail? Why did he say he wanted to find out who in the administration leaked it? Why didn't he tell the nation when Scooter got arrested? Why didn't he say this YEARS ago?

Support for President, GOP-led Congress At New Lows
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll has found that the President's approval rating remains near an all time low of 38 percent. Sixty percent of Americans disapprove of the President's performance. On Capitol Hill, support for the Republican-controlled Congress is at its lowest point in nine years. Barely one-third of voters approve of the Congress' performance. 55 percent of voters say they plan to vote for the Democratic candidate in their House district come November's mid-term elections.

Third Retired General Wants Rumsfeld Out

In an article published in Time magazine, Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold said Rumsfeld should be replaced. He is the third retired senior officer in recent weeks to do so. General Newbold also said he regretted he hadn't more openly challenged the Bush administration before the invasion of Iraq. He also encouraged current officers to speak up if they harbor doubts about the US occupation of Iraq.The decision to invade Iraq, he wrote, "was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions — or bury the results."

All About NSA's and AT&T's Big Brother Machine, the Narus 6400

It monitors 10 billion bits per second at level four and 2500 million bits per second at level seven. For reference, the 256K DSL line I am using equals .25 million bits per second. So one NarusInsight machine can look at about 39,000 DSL lines at once in great detail. That is a pretty damn big number. This is some really serious hardware with equally serious software.

Chavez Threatens US Ambassador's Expulsion
In Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez has threatened to expel US ambassador William Brownfield. Chavez said Brownfield provoked a protest on Sunday when he traveled to a poor neighborhood with a large armed security detail. The ambassador's car was pelted with tomatoes and eggs during the visit, with demonstrators shouting: "Get out, coup-backer!, Get out, rubbish!"

French Government Backs Down on Unpopular Job Law
France has scrapped a widely unpopular job law that would have made it easier for employers to fire young workers. French President Jacques Chirac announced the decision following two months of protests attended by millions of people. Student groups and unions hailed the decision as a major victory over a measure they claimed would have only worsened job security in France. Chirac said the measure would be replaced by a new initiative to help disadvantaged young people find work.

Sunni, Kurdish Leaders Deal Blow to Iraqi PM Jaafari
Sunni Arab and Kurdish leaders have rejected an effort to preserve the term of Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari. Jaafari was dealt another blow Monday when the Shiite coalition led by former premier Iyad Allawi voted to reject him as well. Iraqi politicians have come under pressure from the Bush administration to replace Jaafari with a new prime minister.

Iran shoots down spy plane from Iraq

Iran said on Sunday that it shot down an unmanned spy plane from Iraq in the south of the country.
Gee, wonder who sent that plane to Iran?

For Some CEOs, Pay Soars Past $100 Million Mark

These people should be in the 99% income tax bracket!
Median Pay for CEOs of 100 Largest Companies Rose 25 Percent

Physicist says heat substance felled WTC
Extremely hot fires caused structures to fail, BYU expert says
A Brigham Young University physicist said he now believes an incendiary substance called thermite, bolstered by sulfur, was used to generate exceptionally hot fires at the World Trade Center on 9/11, causing the structural steel to fail and the buildings to collapse.
"It looks like thermite with sulfur added, which really is a very clever idea," Steven Jones, professor of physics at BYU, told a meeting of the Utah Academy of Science, Arts and Letters at Snow College Friday. The government requires standard explosives to contain tag elements enabling them to be traced back to their manufacturers. But no tags are required in aluminum and iron oxide, the materials used to make thermite, he said. Nor, he said, are tags required in sulfur.
Jones is co-chairman, with James H. Fetzer, a distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota of Scholars for 9/11 Truth, a group of college faculty members who believe conspirators other than pilots of the planes were directly involved in bringing down New York's Trade Towers. The group, which Jones said has 200 members, maintains a Web site at www.st911.org. A 40-page paper by Jones, along with other peer-reviewed and non-reviewed academic papers, are posted on the site.
Last year, Jones presented various arguments for his theory that explosives or incendiary devices were planted in the Trade Towers, and in WTC 7, a smaller building in the Trade Center complex, and that those materials, not planes crashing into the buildings, caused the buildings to collapse. At that time, he mentioned thermite as the possible explosive or incendiary agent. But Friday, he said he is increasingly convinced that thermite and sulfur were the root causes of the 9/11 disaster. He told college professors and graduate students from throughout Utah gathered for the academy meeting that while almost no fire, even one ignited by jet fuel, can cause structural steel to fail, the combination of thermite and sulfur "slices through steel like a hot knife through butter."
He ticked off several pieces of evidence for his thermite fire theory:
First, he said, video showed a yellow, molten substance splashing off the side of the south Trade Tower about 50 minutes after an airplane hit it and a few minutes before it collapsed. Government investigators ruled out the possibility of melting steel being the source of the material because of the unlikelihood of steel melting. The investigators said the molten material must have been aluminum from the plane. But, said Jones, molten aluminum is silvery. It never turns yellow. The substance observed in the videos "just isn't aluminum," he said. But, he said, thermite can cause steel to melt and become yellowish.
Second, he cited video pictures showing white ash rising from the south tower near the dripping, liquefied metal. When thermite burns, Jones said, it releases aluminum-oxide ash. The presence of both yellow-white molten iron and aluminum oxide ash "are signature characteristics of a thermite reaction," he said.
Another item of evidence, Jones said, is the fact that sulfur traces were found in structural steel recovered from the Trade Towers. Jones quoted the New York Times as saying sulfidization in the recovered steel was "perhaps the deepest mystery uncovered in the (official) investigation." But, he said, sulfidization fits the theory that sulfur was combined with thermite to make the thermite burn even hotter than it ordinarily would.
Jones said a piece of building wreckage had a gray substance on the outside that at one point had obviously been a dripping molten metal or liquid. He said that after thermite turns steel or iron into a molten form, and the metal hardens, it is gray.
He added that pools of molten metal were found beneath both trade towers and the 47-story WTC 7. That fact, he said, was never discussed in official investigation reports.
And even though WTC 7 was not connected to the Trade Towers — in fact, there was another building between it and the towers —and even though it was never hit by a plane, it collapsed. That suggests, he said, that it came down because a thermite fire caused its structural steel to fail.
Jones said his studies are confined to physical causes of the collapses, and he doesn't like to speculate about who might have entered the buildings and placed thermite and sulfur. But he said 10 to 20 people "in the know," plus other people who didn't know what they were doing but did what they were told, could have placed incendiary packages over several weeks.

The Destruction of the World Trade Center: Why the Official Account Cannot Be True

by Dr. David Ray Griffin

The official theory is rendered implausible by two major problems. The first is the simple fact that fire has never---prior to or after 9/11---caused steel-frame high-rise buildings to collapse. Defenders of the official story seldom if ever mention this simple fact. Indeed, the supposedly definitive report put out by NIST---the National Institute for Standards and Technology (2005)---even implies that fire-induced collapses of large steel-frame buildings are normal events. Far from being normal, however, such collapses have never occurred, except for the alleged cases of 9/11.
Steel does not even begin to melt until it reaches almost 2800° Fahrenheit. And yet open fires fueled by hydrocarbons, such as kerosene---which is what jet fuel is---can at most rise to 1700°F, which is almost 1100 degrees below the melting point of steel. We can, accordingly, dismiss the claim that the towers collapsed because their steel columns melted.
PLEASE READ ENTIRE ARTICLE

We want out

Marine Corps vet speaks out:
Why Iraq Was a Mistake
From 2000 until October 2002, I was a Marine Corps lieutenant general and director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After 9/11, I was a witness and therefore a party to the actions that led us to the invasion of Iraq--an unnecessary war. Inside the military family, I made no secret of my view that the zealots' rationale for war made no sense. And I think I was outspoken enough to make those senior to me uncomfortable.
But I now regret that I did not more openly challenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were peripheral to the real threat--al-Qaeda. I retired from the military four months before the invasion, in part because of my opposition to those who had used 9/11's tragedy to hijack our security policy. Until now, I have resisted speaking out in public. I've been silent long enough.

US Army Facing Major Officer Shortaget
The Army expects to be short 2,500 captains and majors this year, with the number rising to 3,300 in 2007. These officers are the Army's seed corn, the people who 10 years from now should be leading battalions and brigades.
Time to promote some of the mercenary Private Corporate Security contractors?

Seymour Hersh: Our Military Is ‘Very Loyal to the President, But They’re Getting to the Edge’

BLITZER: Some senior military officers are prepared to resign?
HERSH: I’m saying if this isn’t walked back and if the President isn’t told that you cannot do it — and once the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, some senior members of the military say to the President, let’s get the nuclear option off the table, it will be taken off. He will not defy the military in a formal report. Unless something specific is told to the White House that you’ve got to drop the dream of a nuclear option, and that’s exactly the issue I’m talking about, people have said to me they would resign.
BLITZER: Do you want to name names?
HERSH: Are you kidding?
BLITZER: I’m giving you the opportunity.
HERSH: No. You know why? Because this is a punitive government right now. This is a government that pretty much has its back against the wall, as you’ve been saying all morning in iraq, and in the military — one thing about our military, they’re very loyal to the president, but they’re getting to the edge. They’re getting to the edge with not only Rumsfeld, but with Cheney and the President.

The Weehawken Five -
The Weakest Link Is Now Strongest
What is the greatest headline, and undeniably so? To me, it is the incomplete story of the "Weehawken Five," the five Israeli Intelligence agents, identified as the Mossad, captured right here in the state of New Jersey.
"Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information." -- US official quoted in Carl Cameron's Fox News report on the Israeli spy ring and its connections to 9-11.

Bush, GOP Approval Ratings Hit New Lows

Which party would you prefer control Congress?
Democrats 67%
Republicans 24%
Other 9%
Total Votes: 267,820

How has your opinion of the GOP changed in the past five years?
It has declined 70%
It hasn't changed 25%
It has improved 5%
Total Votes: 127,286

Predict the outcome of this fall's elections:
Democrats win control of House and Senate 56%
GOP holds on to one chamber; Democrats win the other 29%
GOP holds on to House and Senate 14%
Total Votes: 130,418

President Bush has hit new lows in public opinion for his handling of Iraq , his campaign against international terror and his overall job performance. Polling also shows the Republican Party surrendering its advantage on national security.

FLASHBACK: Did Plame out White House plans for finding WMD in Iraq?

Did the White House plan to 'find' WMD in Iraq until Valerie Plame of CIA front Brewster-Jennings intercepted their shipment? Was that why Plame was in their crosshairs long before Wilson's editorial?

Gangster Government --
A Leaky President Runs Afoul

OK, let's accept the White House alibi that releasing Plame's identity was no crime. But if that's true, they've committed a bigger crime: Bush and Cheney knowingly withheld vital information from a grand jury investigation, a multimillion dollar inquiry the perps themselves authorized.

'The Washington Post': At War With Itself
The newspaper's editorial page on Sunday declared Scooter Libby's notorious 2003 gift to reporters "The Good Leak." On the same paper's front page two reporters thoroughly debunked the notion.
On page one on Sunday, Post reporters Bart Gellman and Dafna Linzer observed that Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald this week in his latest court filing had for the first time described a "concerted action" by "multiple people in the White House" using classified information to "discredit, punish or seek revenge against" Wilson. “Bluntly and repeatedly, Fitzgerald placed Cheney at the center of that campaign,” they write.
Fitzgerald said the grand jury has collected so much testimony and so many documents that "it is hard to conceive of what evidence there could be that would disprove the existence of White House efforts to 'punish' Wilson." Then, getting right to the point, the two reporters debunk their own paper's “public service” defense by observing “that the evidence Cheney and Libby selected to share with reporters had been disproved months before." Libby, allegedly at Cheney’s direction, "sought out at least three reporters to bolster the discredited uranium allegation.” In other words: Far from serving our citizens, the White House was misleading and manipulating them.

Most human beings 'natural born slaves'
Aristotle argued that the majority of human beings could and should be enslaved because they are naturally slaves. Professor Heath argues that Aristotle was not saying that natural slaves lack the distinctive human capacity for reason. They are not subhuman. Natural slaves may be extremely creative and intelligent. But they simply have a defect that prevents them recognising the way to live a good life. (Defect? It's known as slavery to DEBT, the new slave chains)
Northern Europeans are natural slaves because our climate is too cold. Asiatics and Africans are natural slaves because the climate is too hot. (PUH-LEEZE!!)
Western society today values economic prosperity and the quest for eternal youth, rather than our intrinsic goodness or happiness. (Yes, and the word for that is capitalism). We would be better off if we natural slaves put our lives under the control of the natural, rational slave masters.
I wonder who funded that piece of propaganda. Seems you could rationalize anything with that sort of logic. Never hurts to remind the proles that there is no escape...

Abramoff: The House That Jack Built

A comprehensive look at the potential scope of the “biggest scandal in Congress in over a century“:

Jack Abramoff *
SunCruz Sen. Conrad Burns + Rep. Tom DeLay + Rep. Bob Ney * Adam Kidan * Neil Volz	Tigua Casino Sen. John Cornyn Rep. Bob Ney * + Rep. Don Young Ralph Reed Michael Scanlon * Neil Volz
Mariana Islands Sen. Conrad Burns + Rep. Tom DeLay + Rep. Don Young President Bush +	Saginaw Funding Sen. Conrad Burns + Sen. Byron Dorgan + Rep. J.D. Hayworth +
Choctaws Grover Norquist Ralph Reed	Capital Athletic Foundation Julie Doolittle *
Coushatta Campaign Rep. Roy Blunt + Rep. Eric Cantor + Sen. Thad Cochran + Rep. Tom DeLay + Rep. John Doolittle Sen. John Ensign Sen. Charles Grassley Rep. J. Dennis Hastert + Rep. Ernie Istook + Sen. Trent Lott Sen. Harry Reid Rep. Pete Sessions Rep. David Vitter + Rep. Roger Wicker Grover Norquist	Cronyism Sen. Conrad Burns + Rep. Tom DeLay + Rep. John Doolittle Rep. Bob Ney * + Grover Norquist Tony Rudy Neil Volz J. Steven Griles Susan Ralston
Favors Rep. Bob Ney * + Rep. Richard Pombo + Rep. David Vitter + Rep. Don Young Doug Bandow Italia Federici Timothy Flanigan J. Steven Griles Gale A. Norton Susan Ralston	Trips Rep. Tom DeLay + Rep. John Doolittle Rep. Tom Feeney + Rep. Bob Ney * Ed Buckham Susan Hirschmann Ralph Reed David Safavian
Mashpee Rep. Richard Pombo +	Gifts Rep. Tom DeLay + Rep. John Doolittle Sen. Tom Harkin + Rep. J.D. Hayworth + Rep. Bob Ney * + Rep. Don Young

* denotes individuals who have been subponaed, indicted, or found guilty in the Abramoff investigation.

+ denotes individuals who have returned donations from Abramoff, his clients, or his partners.

Methodology: Members of Congress were included if they received over $10,000 from Abramoff, his clients or his partners and have allegedly done favors for Abramoff, his clients or his partners. Members who were acting on behalf of a constituent in their state were excluded, even if those constituents were Abramoff clients. Certain members who received less than $10,000 in Abramoff were included because of extensive allegations of favors done for Abramoff.

Parade of Shame

Briefing: why Moussaoui confession doesn't add up

"Prosecutors have no interest in demolishing Moussaoui’s extraordinary confession as the self- proclaimed al-Qaeda terrorist seems to have done their job for them. It does not appear to matter to them that Moussaoui’s testimony contradicts their own evidence.
Has it occured to anyone else that Moussaoui is an actor hired by the government to be the 9/11 patsy.? After his death-penalty conviction, they will stage a mock execution around the time of the 2006 November elections, then he'll get a new identity under some sort of witness protection program and they will attempt to get "revenge" for the incidents of 9/11. All wrapped up in a neat little bundle, just in time for the elections.
The travesty of his "confession" and then Guiliani and 50 victims' family members testifying of their pain and loss smacks of a propaganda theatre piece.

Washington's Invisible Man

As the lobbyist who has ignited what might be the biggest government scandal since Watergate, Jack Abramoff—now sentenced to 70 months in jail for conspiracy and fraud—became notorious for tossing around money, much of it from the casinos of his Indian-tribe clients, to influence key lawmakers. As he talks (and talks) to the feds, Washington is waiting to see whom he'll take down with him

Whistle-Blower Outs NSA Spy Room

AT&T provided National Security Agency eavesdroppers with full access to its customers' phone calls, and shunted its customers' internet traffic to data-mining equipment installed in a secret room in its San Francisco switching center.

Demonizing the Internet

Can't risk young people learning about the lies the government and media use to control them, so let's heap on MORE lies to keep them away from that damned internet hookup!

Fool Me Twice

I used to think that the Bush administration wasn’t seriously considering a military strike on Iran, because it would only accelerate Iran’s nuclear program. But what we're seeing and hearing on Iran today seems awfully familiar. That may be because some U.S. officials have already decided they want to hit Iran hard.

U.S. to look past Security Councity for options on Iran: Bolton

The Bush administration is considering diplomatic and economic options to deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons if diplomacy at the UN fails, and it envisions sanctions if Tehran will not back down, UN Ambassador John Bolton has said.

October Surprise 2006 - Iran

What would be the benefits of such an October surprise? Bush’s rating could soar 20 points. Republicans would rally at the return of the 9/11 president. The neocons and Christian Right would hail Bush as the new Churchill. Bush would hold onto both houses in November, costing Democrats their best chance in a decade of recouping power.
And the risks? Iran could push its Shia allies to attack British and U.S. troops and send Revolutionary Guard “volunteers” in, which could mean a U.S. debacle, unless we responded with more American troops. Tehran could make us pay a price in blood in Afghanistan. Tehran could also send its agents into the emirates, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia to attack U.S. installations, setting the Near East ablaze and oil prices soaring to $200 a barrel, plunging the West into recession. Thus a pre-emptive war on Iran, while a political triumph for the president this fall, could, like the invasion of Iraq, prove a long-term disaster.

US considers use of nuclear weapons against Iran

One former defense official said the military planning was premised on a belief that "a sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government," The New Yorker pointed out.

Feds Try to Seize Gold From Suspects' Teeth

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

Senior Republican to Bush: say "exactly what happened"

A leading Republican urged President George W. Bush on Sunday to "tell the American people exactly what happened" in a leak of information aimed at countering criticism of his reasons for taking America to war in Iraq.

Bush hits new low

"These numbers are scary. We've lost every advantage we've ever had," GOP pollster Tony Fabrizio said. "The good news is Democrats don't have much of a plan. The bad news is they may not need one."

White House Tries to Quell Anger Over Leak Claim

President Bush's spokesman insisted today that any release of information was "in the public interest."
That's for sure. Bush is about to learn the lesson Nixon did. It isn't the crime that gets you, it's the cover-up.

The Bush Administration may be destroying the US dollar.

Ben Affleck: Bush Can Be Hung for 'Leaks' in Plamegate

Actor Ben Affleck suggested this weekend on 'Real Time with Bill Maher' that President Bush “probably leaked” Valerie Plame's name and so “if he did, you can be hung for that! That's treason!”

Washington Post Praises Bush Leak, Mangles Facts

This morning, the Washington Post published an editorial — entitled “A Good Leak” — vigorously defending President Bush’s decision to authorize a leak of classified information as part of a political effort to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Apparently, it isn’t a very strong case because, in order to make their point, the editors had to mangle the facts –

Uranium's Effect On DNA Established

The use of depleted uranium in munitions and weaponry is likely to come under intense scrutiny now that new research that found that uranium can bind to human DNA. The finding will likely have far-reaching implications for returned soldiers, civilians living in what were once war-zones and people who might live near uranium mines or processing facilities

LUNG CANCER EPIDEMIC FROM Depleted Uranium HAS BEGUN IN U.S.

Breathing radioactive particlulate matter has long been known to cause lung cancer. Miners working in uranium mines and other types of mining where radioactivity is an occupational hazard have a higher incidence of lung cancer. This danger from airborne radioactive iodine is greater than that found from cigarette smoking. The radioactive iodine particles go directly to DNA which is “trashed”. There are no ways the human body can rid itself of the radioactive particles so the health damage is permanent. This results in severe health problems particularly malignancies which have no effective therapies. Physicians in Bosnia are seeing patients present for care with three simultaneous malignancies something never previously reported in medicine.

No al-Qaeda link found in London 7/7/06 bombings

A government inquiry into the terrorist attack in London last July 7 will say there was no direct support from al-Qaeda, even though two of the bombers had visited Pakistan. The attack was the work of four "seemingly normal" men who had scoured terrorist sites on the internet, not an international terrorist network, the inquiry will reportedly say when it is published in the next few weeks
Sure, sure, that's right, four totally normal guys, one a newly wed, the other a brand new father, all hard-working men, just decided to blow up a train, right in the middle of an ongoing anti-terror exercise taking place at the exact same time and place. Right. You believe that, don't ya? Huh? Huh? Huh?

3 U.S. commanders relieved of duty as Iraqi town mourns its dead

In the middle of methodically recalling the day his brother's family was killed, Yaseen's monotone voice and stream of tears suddenly stopped. He looked up, paused and pleaded: "Please don't let me say anything that will get me killed by the Americans. My family can't handle any more."

U.S. report offers bleak picture of Iraq

An internal staff report by the United States Embassy and the military command in Baghdad provides a sobering province-by-province snapshot of Iraq's political, economic and security situation, rating the overall stability of 6 of the 18 provinces "serious" and one "critical." The report is a counterpoint to some recent upbeat public statements by top American politicians and military officials.

Iraqi prisoners vanishing in 'black hole': Blair envoy
Ann Clwyd, an MP for the governing Labour Party, in The Observer newspaper, expressed concern about the "tremendous effort" required to trace detainees. The MP spoke about the plight of two detainees who went missing.
The first was an elderly Iraqi woman picked up in the middle of the night by US soldiers shortly after the war. Relatives in Britain appealed to Clwyd for help in finding her. "I spent days and weeks trying to trace where this woman was," she recalled. In the end, Clwyd flew to Washington to meet top White House officials including former deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who eventually ordered an investigation in Iraq. The woman was located at a US-run prison near Baghdad airport.
The second case was of an elderly Iraqi man who vanished in 2004 and was reportedly sighted in a US-run prison. Despite Clwyd's efforts, however, the man remains unaccounted for.

Pentagon rules thwart fair trials for Guantanamo detainees: US military lawyer

US military lawyer acting as defense counsel for a Yemeni prisoner on trial for terrorism-related offenses before a military commission at Guantanamo Bay on Friday challenged a US Department of Defense regulation that says that only military attorneys with security clearances are allowed to see secret documents relating to their cases, effectively precluding detainees from representing themselves. Army Maj. Tom Fleener said that self-representation was recognized as a right by virtually every court in the world, and argued that "the secretary of defense and his delegees have messed this thing up" by enforcing procedural rules that make impossible a fair trial of detainees as mandated by presidential order.

Soldiers flee to Canada to avoid Iraq duty

Hundreds of deserters from the US armed forces have crossed into Canada and are now seeking political refugee status there, arguing that violations of the rules of war in Iraq by the US entitle them to asylum.

The Army Slays Its Own

PTRP is where the Army, desperate for bodies in a time of war, puts broken enlistees whom it is committed neither to cure nor to release, nor even to respect as soldiers and human beings. There they are warehoused, in anticipation of the time they manage to recuperate, pass the grueling PT (physical training) test and can be sent to battle; or fail the test, try again, fail again, stumble through the bureaucratic labyrinth until the point they are chaptered out or medically discharged. All were injured in basic training or advanced individual training and so have yet to be granted "permanent party" status in the Army, even those who have been in service for six months or longer, when that status is supposed to be automatic. In military hierarchy this makes them lower life forms, which is how they've been treated at Fort Sill.

"The 'department [of defence] must be prepared to 'fight the net'"

Firstly, the Pentagon says it will wage war against the internet in order to dominate the realm of communications, prevent digital attacks on the US and its allies, and to have the upper hand when launching cyber-attacks against enemies. Secondly, psychological military operations, known as psyops, will be at the heart of future military action.

American economy full but underutilized employment, lowered pay for common people, tax heaven for rich

American economy is in a strange state. The unemployment level is at the lowest – almost full employment is there. Then why are Americans so unhappy with the economy? The problem is with under employment for the common people. It is a paradise and tax heaven for the rich and those sitting and doing nothing but enjoying the inherited wealth. People used to make above $100,000 in large corporations are now employed with jobs making less than $40,000. They are surviving with home equity loans, credit card debts.
Does this have a familar ring? This piece seems to explain much of the discontent some Americans are feeling right now. It will be an interesting factor to see how this plays out in the next cycle of elections (If we can demand paper trails for voting machines, so votes can't be rigged).

The world's biggest prison system

The Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons (CSAAP) issues its final report in about eight weeks time, but the testimony of violence, abuse and over-crowding it has already heard has shocked few familiar with the largest documented prison system in the world. More than 2.1 million people are in jail in the US at any one time; that is about one in 140 Americans, or as many people as live in Namibia, or nearly five Luxembourgs - and it is a number that continues to rise.

Perverts with Power

Brian J. Doyle used his position at the Department of Homeland Security as a come-on in what he believed was a cyber-chat with an underage girl. I grant that it's hard to believe that any self-respecting pedophile would admit to working for the Bush administration, but there it is.
Turns out Doyle is also the guy who claimed a passenger murdered by TSA officials in Miami had "a bomb in his backpack" when other passengers denyed he ever said that:

Brian Doyle, the #2 spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, has done yeoman work in helping Americans understand how the Transportation Security Administration is protecting them. After TSA air marshals gunned down Rigoberto Alipizar outside of a plane in Miami last December, Doyle justified the killing to the media: “He threatened that he had a bomb in his backpack.” Other TSA spokesmen claimed that Alipizar had shouted that he had a bomb as he ran up and down the plane aisle. None of the passengers on the plane heard Alpizar say anything about a bomb. But false statements by federal spokesmen are public service, not a federal crime. Doyle is getting more press coverage today than ever before.

According to today’s Tampa Tribune:
“LAKELAND -During his Internet chats, Doyle quickly revealed his name and job, and he sent his office and government-issued cell phone numbers. The information allowed detectives to quickly verify Doyle’s identity, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday night.Doyle moved quickly in other regards, officials said, sending enough sexually explicit messages and movie clips that they were able to secure a warrant for his arrest on 23 felony counts roughly two weeks after he responded to the detective’s profile.”
*****
What has this nation come to if bragging about being a spokesman for a federal agency can supposedly help a guy get laid? There have been gross abuses in some previous online porn stings, and we don’t know the details of this case. How many unsolved homicides are there in Polk County, Florida? How much in Homeland Security funding, if any, did the Polk County sheriff’s department receive? But, regardless, it looks like Mr. Doyle could be on the other end of the wand for a long time.

Estimated $3.3 Trillion Missing From U.S. Treasury

While Americans worry about the disastrous effects on our economy of the accounting scandals at Enron, WorldCom and elsewhere, an even larger accounting scandal has somehow escaped the public consciousness. According to estimates, the Department of Defense and the Department of Housing and Urban Development cannot account for over $3 trillion allotted to them by Congress, amounting to thousands of dollars of missing money for every man, woman and child in the country.

Then there is the trillions missing from the Pentagon budget while Dov Zackeim was comptroller? Where is all this tax money vanishing to?

NASCAR furious with NBC over 'Dateline' racism segment
The National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing said the NBC network's "Dateline NBC" confirmed it was sending Muslim-looking men to a race, along with a camera crew to film fans' reactions.

Time for shame?

Bush Event Goes Off Script
‘I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration,’ Taylor said, ‘And I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and grace to be ashamed of yourself.’

Wave of Criticism Engulfs Bush Over Leak Case
At an oversight hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), interrogated Attorney General Gonzales about Mr. Bush's authority to order the release of classified information.
"Is the president covered under the same law that you and I are?" Mr.Weiner asked.
"No, he's not," Mr. Gonzales replied. "I think the president has the inherent authority to decide who, in fact, should have classified information. And if the president decided that a person needed the information, that he could have that information shared."
Mr. Weiner said the defense reminded him of President Nixon's explanations of his conduct during Watergate. "Your answer seems to be when the president does it, that means it is not illegal. That is exactly what President Richard Nixon said," the congressman said.
When he was asked if the president might order strictly domestic spy operations, Gonzalez said "I'm not going to rule it out."
Congressman Adam Schiff of California said he found Gonzales' statement to be very disturbing. "If the administration believes it can tap purely domestic phone calls between Americans without court approval, there is no limit to executive power. This is contrary to settled law and the most basic constitutional principles of the separation of powers."
Send Anthony Weiner an E-Mail
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the disclosure punctures the president's credibility.
"The president has always stood so strong against leaks. If he leaked himself, he should explain why this is different than every other leak. The more we hear, the more it is clear this goes beyond Scooter Libby. At the very least, President Bush and Vice President Cheney should fully inform the American people of any role in allowing classified information to be leaked. Did they believe they had the right to do this and if so, in what circumstance? Or is this just something that may have been done to accommodate the president's momentary political needs? According to court documents today, Scooter Libby said that the president authorized the vice president to direct him to disclose classified information to reporters in order to bolster support for the war in Iraq."



He hates leaks, but Bush authorized one
George Bush, who has denounced government leaks, authorized a White House official to leak U.S. intelligence about Iraqi weapons while he sought to persuade the world to support an invasion, court documents suggest.
Libby: Bush Authorized Plamegate Leak
Bush Accused Of OK'ing Leak of Classified Info
Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff has testified that President Bush authorized him to leak a highly classified intelligence document on Iraq to the press in an effort to defend the administration's decision to go to war. This marks the first time Bush has been linked to the leaking of classified information.
On Sept. 30, 2003, President Bush warned against anyone in his administration leaking classified information. "Let me just say something about leaks in Washington. There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington," Bush said. "There's leaks at the executive branch; there's leaks in the legislative branch. There's just too many leaks. And if there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is. And if that person has violated the law, the person will be taken care of..."


AT&T Whistleblower:
AT&T Cooperated With NSA Over Spying
A retired AT&T telecommunications technician named Mark Klein has reportedly given a sworn statement that AT&T has been working with the National Security Agency to spy on Americans. Klein gave the statement as part of a lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation against several major telecommunications companies. Klein reportedly also disclosed several internal AT&T documents that showed AT&T put a "dragnet surveillance" in place to help the NSA. Klein's statement and the documents have been put under seal. According to attorneys at EFF, the leaked AT&T documents supports the group's claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment. EFF's staff attorney Kurt Opsahl said "Mark Klein is a true American hero. He has bravely come forward with information critical for proving AT&T's involvement with the government's invasive surveillance program."

Sen. Harkin Urges Democrats To Back Censure of Bush
Democratic Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa has admitted in a radio interview that he is embarrassed that more Democrats have not supported Russell Feingold's motion to censure the President for illegally ordering the NSA to conduct domestic spying.

U.S. Forces International AIDS Programs To Focus on Abstinence
The Bush administration's international AIDS-prevention programs are being hampered by requirements that force recipients to spend significant amounts on abstinence education. According to the Government Accountability Office, AIDS specialists in 17 of the 20 countries surveyed said the Bush administration's requirements "would prevent them from allocating prevention resources in accordance with local HIV/AIDS prevention needs." In order to qualify for US assistance, seven countries had to allocate one third of their prevention funding on abstinence education, forcing cuts to several essential programs.

'Iraq was awash in cash. We played football with bricks of $100 bills'
Some $8.8 billion dollars are missing from Iraq. Another $2.3 trillion went missing from the Pentagon while Dov Zakheim was comptroller.Where is all this cash vanishing to?

U.S. Reduces Spending on "Democracy Promotion" in Iraq
Washington Post is reporting the Bush administration is dramatically reducing spending on so-called "democracy promotion" in Iraq. The move has angered several Republican-linked organizations who were awarded contracts after the US-led invasion. US officials said the money was needed to pay for increasing security costs.

He's BACK! James Ridgeway returns to Village Voice!
Mondo Washington
Bolten: Loyalist, Lone Voice of Dissent—or Both?
New White House chief of staff challenged Cheney on 9-11
by James Ridgeway
March 29th, 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C.—On the morning of 9-11, it was White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card who whispered into the president's ear the news of a plane hitting the World Trade Center. As President Bush sat reading My Pet Goat to a Florida elementary classroom, Card told him, "America is under attack."
That same morning in Washington, at around 10 o'clock, Joshua Bolten, then deputy chief of staff, sat with Vice President Dick Cheney, Cheney's wife, Lynne, and a group of political aides in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) located below the East Wing of the White House. When Dick Cheney gave the orders to shoot down commercial aircraft headed for Washington, only one person challenged his authority.That person was Joshua Bolten, the person Bush has just announced will become his new of staff, replacing the veteran Card. And in the unlikely event there is ever to be any serious investigation of what happened that morning, Bolten's testimony would be crucial.
The key question was whether to order the U.S. military to shoot down commercial planes full of passengers so the aircraft could not become suicide missiles aimed at the nation's capital. The chain of command goes from the president to the secretary of defense and then on down to the various commanders. Under the 25th Amendment, the vice president does not have authority to issue such an order. Nevertheless, Cheney did issue the orders. Cheney told the 9-11 Commission that just before 10 a.m. he called President Bush to say the Air Force was trying to set up combat air patrol over Washington and needed to have rules of engagement—i.e. the authority to shoot down planes that did not obey orders to change course. Cheney said the president signed off on that issue, and press accounts said the president remembered answering the notion with “You bet.” The 9-11 Commission reported, “There is no documentary evidence for this call,” but tactfully went on to note that the “relevant sources are incomplete.” According to press accounts, some of the commission staff think the call never took place.
The only reported challenge to Cheney's actions that day came from Joshua Bolten. According to the 9-11 report, Bolten “told the Commission that he watched the exchanges and, after what he called ‘a quiet moment,' suggested that the Vice President get in touch with the President and confirm the engage order. Bolten told us he wanted to make sure the President was told that the Vice President had executed the order. He said he had not heard any prior discussion on the subject with the President.” Cheney then made this well documented call to the president, who concurred with Cheney's decision.

DHS teen sex predator caught in sting

Online Predator of Teens in Dept. of Homeland (In)Security
Brian J. Doyle, the deputy press secretary for the Department of Homeland Security was arrested in Maryland Tuesday for trying to solicit sexual relations with a child over the internet. Doyle was arrested after he made contact online with an undercover police officer posing as a 14-year old girl. Doyle sent pornographic movie clips and had sexually explicit conversations via the Internet with what he believed was a 14-year-old girl whose profile he saw on the Internet on March 14.
Doyle also sent photos of himself that were not sexually explicit, authorities said. One photo, which authorities released to the news media, shows Doyle in what appears to be homeland security headquarters. He is wearing a homeland security pin on his lapel and a lanyard that says “TSA.” The Transportation Security Administration is part of the Homeland Security Department. (This is the caliber of people working for Homeland Security???)
On several occasions, Doyle instructed the girl to perform a sexual act while thinking of him and described explicit activities he wanted to have with her. (did it involve a loofah or falafel?) Doyle has been charged with 23 counts for using his computer to seduce a child and transmitting harmful materials to a minor. According to police, he had identified himself in his communications online and given his office phone number.
Washington television stations showed footage of police escorting Doyle from his home in handcuffs. One arresting officer carried a large box. Doyle was bent over in the front seat of the police vehicle in an apparent attempt to hide his face. Doyle, who is the fourth-ranking official in the department’s public affairs office, was expected to be placed on administrative leave Wednesday morning.

Scott McClellan ‘Next On the Chopping Block’
At the same time, though, very important to point out that there are many who insist that McClellan is very secure because of his close personal relationship with President Bush. (He looks so cute in knee pads).

Is President Bush guilty of war crimes?
In medialand, when the subject is war crimes, the president of the United States points the finger at others. But a few journalists, outside the corporate media structures, are seriously probing Bush's culpability for war crimes. One of them is Robert Parry.
During the 1980s, Parry covered U.S. foreign policy for Associated Press and Newsweek; in the process he broke many stories related to the Iran-Contra scandal. Now he's the editor of the 10-year-old website Consortiumnews.com, an outlet he founded that has little use for the narrow journalistic path along Pennsylvania Avenue.
"In a world where might did not make right," Parry wrote in a recent piece, "George W. Bush, Tony Blair and their key enablers would be in shackles before a war crimes tribunal at the Hague, rather than sitting in the White House, 10 Downing Street or some other comfortable environs in Washington and London."

Angry exchange halts Guantanamo tribunal

A Canadian teen charged by a U.S. military tribunal with killing a U.S. Army medic in Afghanistan refused on Wednesday to participate in the proceedings, citing unfair treatment that his lawyer said included solitary confinement.
"I am boycotting these procedures until I am being treated humanely and fairly," Toronto-born Omar Khadr told the presiding officer during his pretrial hearing at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo bay Cuba.
Khadr's military lawyer, Lt. Col. Colby Vokey, angrily told the presiding officer that Khadr had been moved to solitary confinement "for no reason whatsoever" on March 30. He said that made it difficult to meet with Khadr and prepare a defense. Vokey shouted and slapped the table during a heated argument with the presiding officer, Marine Col. Robert Chester, who recessed the hearing and asked to see Vokey in private.
Khadr is charged with murdering U.S. Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer with a grenade during a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan in 2002. Khadr, now 19, was 15 at the time and his lawyers have argued previously that trying him before a military tribunal for crimes alleged to have been committed as a juvenile is a violation of international law. Khadr is being tried as an adult and faces life in prison if convicted on the charges, with include murder and conspiracy to commit war crimes.

Democracy In Iraq Not A Priority in U.S. Budget
While President Bush vows to transform Iraq into a beacon of democracy in the Middle East, his administration has been scaling back funding for the main organizations trying to carry out his vision by building democratic institutions such as political parties and civil society groups.

Bush Slashes Richest Americans' Taxes, those making $26,000,000, Pay Same Rate As Those Making $200,000

And who in this country is picking up that slack in taxes for these folks of approximately $500,000 dollars per family? You guessed it. Face it; except for those taxes, you're expendible to this administration.

Rebuilding needs, here and there

From hospitals to bridges, highways, roads and streets, mass transit systems, power grids, drinking water systems and hospitals and health care facilities, America is in a sad state of disrepair. One third of all bridges are deemed "structurally deficient" by the American Society of Civil Engineers. U.S. infrastructure thus gets a falling "D" grade, down from D+ five years ago. Estimated costs to put America's infrastructure back on its feet: $1.6 trillion. According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, 75 percent of America's school buildings are "inadequate" to meet the needs of school children. Some $300 billion are needed to bring school plants and teaching faculties up to scratch. The country's 16,000 wastewater systems face a $12 billion shortfall for infrastructure needs, not counting funding to protect from terrorist attack. Some sewer systems are over 100 years old. As Katrina demonstrated, our domestic infrastructure problems are a lot more urgent than the meritorious attempt to democratize 25 million Iraqis.
For the most part, America's managerial class does not use public transportation and is unaware of the extent of crumbling infrastructure, from public schools to unsafe neighborhoods. Nor, as Congress grapples with immigration reform, has anyone raised the social, economic and legal costs arising from this witch's brew of failing infrastructure, illegal aliens, health care and rampant crime.

New Orleans Mayor Blocks FEMA Trailer Park

Mayor Ray Nagin suspended the construction of FEMA trailer parks in the city after a confrontation between federal workers and homeowners who were outraged that a government trailer park was being built inside their gated community. ("Chocolate City", right Ray?) The Lakewood Estates trailer park was meant to house 34 single women and their children who were left homeless by Hurricane Katrina, but area residents complained it was too close to their homes. The neighborhood association also sued the Federal Emergency Management Agency seeking a permanent injunction against the project.
(NOT what I'd call being on the side of the "little guy")

Many Wisconsin voters demand Iraq troop pullout

With public support for the Iraq war ebbing and President George W. Bush's popularity skidding, voters across Wisconsin approved measures calling for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

The Uninsured now Criminals in Mass.
The bill would force individuals to buy their own health insurance, and provide subsidies for a private health plan for those who couldn’t afford the coverage on their own. Companies that don’t provide health insurance would also be forced to pay a $300-per employee penalty. While the bill drew widespread praise, some analysts questioned whether the state has committed adequate funding. According to a recent study, Massachusetts would have to spend four times the amount provided in the bill to bring health coverage to its uninsured residents. Let them pay it. Maybe they will realize all they have to do is remove "Insurance" from the mix, replace it with HEALTH CARE. Just tell 'em you can't afford Insurance, the biggest rip-off system ever devised by human beings.

Israel Strikes Targets in Occupied Territories
In the Occupied Territories, one Palestinian was killed and seven were wounded when Israeli tanks shelled areas in the Northern Gaza Strip. The wounded included a mother and her 6-month old baby. Meanwhile, two people were wounded when Israeli aircraft fired missiles at an abandoned building in the compound of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
So much for Kadima being the "moderate" "peace" party.

UN Humanitarian Official Abandons Effort to Visit Darfur
Jan Egeland, the UN’s Under-Secretary General For Humanitarian Affairs, says the Sudanese government is trying to hide the ethnic cleansing that is occurring in the area. UN Under-Secretary General For Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland: "Suddenly not being welcomed in South Darfur, nor in West Darfur, nor in Khartoum where they say come back in some weeks is, I think, a sign they don't want me to see how bad it has become in Southern Darfur, where tens of thousands have had to flee from renewed attacks against vulnerable populations in villages for examples in places where I was planning to go in Gereida in Southern Darfur."

Ohio Secretary of State Discloses Investments in Diebold
Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell has disclosed he purchased stock from the electronic voting machine company Diebold. Blackwell is Ohio’s top election official. Both Blackwell and Diebold became synonymous with the controversy surrounding Ohio’s voting irregularies during the 2004 presidential elections. Blackwell says the stock purchase was made by a financial manager without his consent and that’s he’s divested the stock. Last year, the state of Ohio reached a multi-million dollar deal that would see it pay Diebold $2700 dollars per voting machine.

DeLay steps even further down

Former GOP Majority Leader Tom Delay to Resign
Republican Congressman Tom Delay has announced he is resigning and will give up his House seat within the next few months. DeLay announced his resignation just days after a former top aide, Tony Rudy, pleaded guilty in connection to a lobbying scandal involving Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Last November, Delay’s former press secretary Michael Scanlon also plead guilty to related charges. Delay was up for his re-election but polls showed he would likely lose. Last year Delay was forced to give up his position as House Majority Leader after he was indicted on criminal charges of conspiracy to violate Texas election laws. Federal investigators have also probed Delay’s personal dealings with Abramoff. DeLay’s wife worked for the lobbying firm Alexander Strategy Group which had close ties to the Republican lobbyist. (Maybe he figures he's got a stint with the TDC coming up).

Lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s “Charity” a Front for Terrorism
by Juan Cole
The guilty plea of fabulously wealthy and highly corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff raised the question of whether he would roll over on congressmen involved in illegal fund-raising and other crimes with him. Some 20 Republicans on Capitol Hill are said to be in danger.

Armed Jewish settlers board a bus at the illegal Beit Hadassah settlement in the West Bank town of Hebron Jan. 16, 2006
But the investigation into his activities by the FBI also shed light on the ways in which right-wing American Jews have often been involved in funding what are essentially terrorist activities by armed land thieves in Palestinian territory. Indeed, it was this terror funding of Israeli far-right militiamen that tripped Abramoff up, since the FBI discovered that he had misled Indian tribes into giving money to the Jabotinskyites, and then began wondering if he had defrauded the tribes in other ways. (You betcha!) The Indian leaders were furious when they discovered they had been used to oppress another dispossessed indigenous people, the Palestinians, calling it “Outer Limits bizarre” and saying that they would never have willingly given money to such a cause. Newsweek’s Mike Issikoff reported last May that Abramoff diverted $140,000 from a charity ostensibly to benefit inner-city youths to militant Israeli colonists who had usurped land in the Palestinian West Bank. Issikoff wrote:
“Among the expenditures: purchases of camouflage suits, sniper scopes, night-vision binoculars, a thermal imager and other material described in foundation records as ‘security’ equipment. The FBI, sources tell Newsweek, is now examining these payments as part of a larger investigation to determine if Abramoff defrauded his Indian tribe clients…” Abramoff, a legendary lobbyist particularly close to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), is also a fierce supporter of Israel—”a super-Zionist,” one associate says. That may explain why Abramoff’s paramilitary gear ended up in the town of Beitar Illit, a sprawling ultra-Orthodox outpost whose residents have occasionally tangled with their Palestinian neighbors.
If a Palestinian-American had diverted $140,000 from a Muslim charity to purchase “security equipment” and “sniper lessons” for Palestinians on the West Bank, that individual would be in Gitmo so fast that the sonic boom would rattle your windows.

Cynthia McKinney Accuses Capitol Police of Racial Profiling
Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA) has complained she was the victim of racial profiling that led to a run-in with a Capitol police officer last week the officer last Wednesday. The incident occurred when McKinney went around a metal detector -- as lawmakers are permitted to do -- while not wearing her congressional lapel pin. McKinney said she was rushing to a meeting and that most members of Congress expect Capitol police to recognize them. She reportedly poked the officer with her cell phone when he stopped her.
McKinney said "This whole incident was instigated by the inappropriate touching and stopping of me, a female black congresswoman."

Personally procured Body Armor nixed

Like a number of companies nationwide that consider the Department of Defense their largest customer, DHB Industries has seen sales skyrocket since 9/11. Thanks to Point Blank's lucrative military contracts to manufacture body armor for thousands of troops stationed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Djibouti, DHB, a publicly traded company, has grown lightning fast, from $70 million in sales in 2000 to $340 million last year. During that period, DHB's chief executive and board chairman, David H. Brooks rewarded himself with a roughly 3,000 percent raise, from $525,000 in 1999 to $70 million last year.

Sunnis Form Militias To Protect Neighborhoods
In other news from Iraq, new statistics show that nearly eight times as many Iraqis died in March in execution-style killings than in suicide and roadside bombings. This has prompted many Iraqis not previously involved in fighting to begin carrying weapons for protection. The Financial Times is reporting middle class Sunni neighborhoods are now forming their own militias to counter the Shiite militias and death squads.

Jury: Moussaoui Is Eligible For Death Penalty
In Virginia, a federal jury ruled Zacarias Moussaoui is eligible for the death penalty in connection to his role in the 9/11 attacks. Moussaoui was arrested in Minnesota in August 2001 but did not tell law enforcement about an eminent plan to attack the World Trade Center and Pentagon with hijacked planes. The jury determined that by lying to the FBI after his arrest, Moussaoui was directly responsible for at least one death in the 9/11 attacks.
Agent: FBI Ignored Moussaoui Warnings
The FBI agent who arrested Zacarias Moussaoui in August 2001 accused FBI headquarters of criminal negligence for its refusal to investigate Moussaoui aggressively after his arrest, according to court testimony Monday. Agent Harry Samit testified under cross-examination at Moussaoui's trial that FBI headquarters' refusal to follow up "prevented a serious opportunity to stop the 9/11 attacks" that killed nearly 3,000 people. Moussaoui is the only person charged in this country in the attacks. But Samit's testimony suggests the FBI had enough trouble connecting dots even if Moussaoui admitted being an al Qaeda terrorist. Under cross-examination by defense attorney Edward MacMahon, Samit acknowledged that he warned higher-ups and others in the government at least 70 times that Moussaoui was a terrorist. He said he sought Justice Department permission to seek a search warrant — and never got it.

Niger Bars BBC From Reporting on Country’s Hunger Crisis
The government of Niger is barring the BBC from reporting on the country’s increasing hunger crisis. The BBC recently revealed that the country is facing severe food shortages and that 1,000 children were recently admitted within a single week to a feeding program for the malnourished. Officials said international and local media would not be allowed to do stories about the food situation as they did not want that subject touched.

ExxonMobil Tops Fortune 500 List
In business news, ExxonMobil tops the new Fortune 500 list of the nation’s largest publicly traded companies. Last year Exxon pulled in $340 billion in revenue and a record $36 billion in profits. Wal-Mart came in second on the Fortune 500 list.

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

The former head of the Star Wars missile defense program under Presidents Ford and Carter has gone public to say that the official version of 9/11 is a conspiracy theory and his main suspect for the architect of the attack is Vice President Dick Cheney. .Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret. flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam. He is the recipient of the Eisenhower Medal, the George F. Kennan Peace Prize, the President’s Medal of Veterans for Peace, the Society of Military Engineers Gold Medal (twice), six Air Medals, and dozens of other awards and honors. His Ph.D. is in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering from Caltech. He chaired 8 major international conferences, and is one of the country’s foremost experts on National Security.
Bowman worked secretly for the US government on the Star Wars project and was the first to coin the very term in a 1977 secret memo. After Bowman realized that the program was only ever intended to be used as an aggressive and not defensive tool, as part of a plan to initiate a nuclear war with the Soviets, he left the program and campaigned against it.
In an interview with The Alex Jones Show aired nationally on the GCN Radio Network, Bowman (pictured below) stated that at the bare minimum if Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda were involved in 9/11 then the government stood down and allowed the attacks to happen. He said it is plausible that the entire chain of military command were unaware of what was taking place and were used as tools by the people pulling the strings behind the attack. Bowman outlined how the drills on the morning of 9/11 that simulated planes crashing into buildings on the east coast were used as a cover to dupe unwitting air defense personnel into not responding quickly enough to stop the attack.
"The exercises that went on that morning simulating the exact kind of thing that was happening so confused the people in the FAA and NORAD....that they didn't they didn't know what was real and what was part of the exercise," said Bowman "I think the people who planned and carried out those exercises, they're the ones that should be the object of investigation." Asked if he could name a prime suspect who was the likely architect behind the attacks, Bowman stated, "If I had to narrow it down to one person....I think my prime suspect would be Dick Cheney."

Bowman said that privately his military fighter pilot peers and colleagues did not disagree with his sentiments about the real story behind 9/11. Bowman agreed that the US was in danger of slipping into a dictatorship and stated, "I think there's been nothing closer to fascism than what we've seen lately from this government."
Bowman slammed the Patriot Act as having, "Done more to destroy the rights of Americans than all of our enemies combined."
Bowman trashed the 9/11 Commission as a politically motivated cover-up with abounding conflicts of interest, charging, "The 9/11 Commission omitted anything that might be the least bit suspicious or embarrassing or in any way detract from the official conspiracy so it was a total whitewash. There needs to be a true investigation, not the kind of sham investigations we have had with the 9/11 omission and all the rest of that junk," said Bowman. Asked if the perpetrators of 9/11 were preparing to stage another false-flag attack to reinvigorate their agenda Bowman agreed that, "I can see that and I hope they can't pull it off, I hope they are prevented from pulling it off but I know darn good and well they'd like to have another one."
A mainstay of the attack pieces against Charlie Sheen have been that he is not credible enough to speak on the topic of 9/11. These charges are ridiculed by the fact that Sheen is an expert on 9/11 who spends hours a day meticulously researching the topic, something that the attack dogs have failed to do, aiming their comments solely at Sheen's personal life and ignoring his invitation to challenge him on the facts. In addition, from the very start we have put forth eminently credible individuals only for them to be ignored by the establishment media. Physics Professors, former White House advisors and CIA analysts, the father of Reaganomics, German Defense Ministers and Bush's former Secretary of the Treasury, have all gone public on 9/11 but have been uniformly ignored by the majority of the establishment press. Will Robert Bowman also be blackballed as the mainstream continue to misrepresent the 9/11 truth movement as an occupation of the fringe minority?
Bowman is currently running for Congress in Florida's 15th District.

Dropping the ball

Paid $200M, U.S. Contractor Fails To Complete 122 Of 142 Health Clinics In Iraq
U.S. Plan to Build Iraq Clinics Falters, Contractor Will Try to Finish 20 of 142 Sites
A reconstruction contract for the building of 142 primary health centers across Iraq is running out of money, after two years and roughly $200 million, with no more than 20 clinics now expected to be completed, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says. The contract, awarded to U.S. construction giant Parsons Inc. in the flush, early days of reconstruction in Iraq, was expected to lay the foundation of a modern health care system for the country, putting quality medical care within reach of all Iraqis. (Ironic, when there is no modern health care system putting quality medical care within the reach of all Americans!)
Parsons, according to the Corps, will walk away from more than 120 clinics that on average are two-thirds finished.
Brig. Gen. William McCoy, the Army Corps commander overseeing reconstruction in Iraq, said he still hoped to complete all 142 clinics as promised and was seeking emergency funds from the U.S. military and foreign donors. McCoy rejected the reasons that Parsons put forward for the slow progress. "In the time they completed 45 projects, I completed 500 projects," he said.
By the end of 2006, the $18.4 billion that Washington has allocated for Iraq's reconstruction runs out. All remaining projects in the U.S. reconstruction program, including electricity, water, sewer, health care and the justice system, are due for completion. As a result, the next nine months are crunchtime for the easy-term contracts that were awarded to American contractors early on, before surging violence drove up security costs and idled workers.

U.S. to create a bird flu virus mutation
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has begun a series of experiments to see how likely the bird flu virus could result in a human pandemic. The six-month series of experiments seeks to simulate the mixing and matching of genes from the H5N1 avian flu virus that has plagued Asia and a common human flu virus that public-health experts fear could turn avian flu into a pandemic. CDC scientists inside an ultra-secure laboratory have started swapping the genes of the H5N1 avian virus with the genes of an H3N2 virus, the strain behind most recent human flu outbreaks. The goal is to substitute the eight genes of each virus, one by one, with the eight genes from the other virus to see which of more than 250 possible combinations create flu viruses that could spread easily among humans. The work responds to fears by global public health experts that the bird flu virus could mutate to form one that could spawn a global outbreak of the disease.
I guess it wasn't turning into a pandemic fast enough on its own.

War Against Iran, April 2006 Biological Threat and Executive Order 13292
The US promised Russia and China that the UN Security Council statement just approved will not be a trigger for military action after 30 days; true to its promise, the US will attack before the 30-day deadline imposed by the UNSC for Iran to stop its nuclear enrichment activity, i.e. before the end of April. The "justification" is likely to be an alleged threat of imminent biological attack with Iran's involvement. A small group of thugs is about to lead America across a line of no return. On the other side of this line there is no nuclear taboo, no restraint on preemptive nuclear attacks on non-nuclear nations, and no incentive for non-nuclear nations to remain non-nuclear. A global nuclear war and the destruction of humanity will be a distinct possibility.

Rice Says She Looks Forward To Closing Of GITMO
And just how long are these prisoners going to be held,? Until they're dead? That appears to be the policy right now. A news report I heard recently said they are suggesting to prisoners at Gitmo that they get a job at the prison because they are there for good.

When is Killing Arab Civilians Considered a Massacre?
Recent reports from Iraq indicate beyond doubt that the U.S. occupation army has embarked on a new "tactic" from its menu of atrocities, in an attempt to counter the burgeoning Iraqi resistance attacks against its soldiers. "Old-style" massacres of Iraqis have become so commonplace lately that even Iraqi "allies" of the U.S. were forced to unreservedly condemn them.

Christian right start to lose faith in GOP
In the political culture wars, religious conservatives say they've been electing candidates but not getting the results they want. And leaders worry that they might be about to lose Christian conservatives as a potent political force because of unmet expectations on a host of issues and stumbles by a Republican administration they helped elect.

Agent Orange: the legacy of a weapon of mass destruction
Thirty-five years after the US sprayed the jungles of Vietnam with toxic defoliant, thousands of babies are still being born with horrific defects. But unlike the American veterans, no one in the war-ravaged country has received any compensation.
Last year, Vietnamese veterans sued the same US chemical companies claiming that they knew Agent Orange contained a poison - dioxin - and their action in supplying it to the US government breached international law and constituted a war crime. Dioxin is a by-product of the manufacturing process of Agent Orange and a key issue in the case is how much the manufacturers knew about their product, and at what stage. (OH PLEASE!! It's a defoliant made to kill all plant life--how could it NOT be harmful to humans??????)
Former US President Bill Clinton in 1996 formally accepted a recommendation from the American Institutes of Medicine that 13 conditions ranging from prostate cancer to peripheral neuropathy (numbness in the hands and feet), should be recognised as likely to have been caused by Agent Orange. That decision led to American veterans with the conditions receiving payments worth thousands of dollars a year while the Vietnamese get nothing.
The Americans hoped that concern in Vietnam about Agent Orange would gradually die, along with the ageing war veterans. Instead, the sense of injustice has grown. In Tu Du hospital, and in the 10 Peace Villages across the country where the children with the worst birth defects live, they are pinning their hopes on the outcome of this month's court case.With a shake of her head, Professor Phuong says: "Please ask for justice for the Vietnam victims. Time is running out."

Privatizing the apocalypse

US-Iraqi row over 'mosque massacre'

A weekend raid by US-backed Iraqi special forces has sparked some unusually bitter exchanges between Iraq's politicians and the Americans. In response, Baghdad's provincial council says it is suspending co-operation with both the US military and embassy. Talks on forming a new government were briefly suspended and Iraq's president has ordered an investigation into the incident.
Shia leaders have accused the Iraqi and US troops of massacring unarmed worshippers in a mosque - all of them believed to be Shia. One minister has said 37 unarmed men were killed.
The US military says no mosque was entered or damaged during the raid, which it says was carried out on a compound by 50 Iraqi special forces backed up by 25 American advisors.
Graphic footage shown on Iraqi TV channels of the bodies of men lying close together, apparently unarmed, have further fuelled concerns over the incident. But the Americans have suggested the scenes were faked. There has been confusion too over who controls the shadowy Iraqi force involved. The Iraqi defence ministry has denied knowledge about the operation. But the Americans insist the operation was co-ordinated with senior Iraqi military officials.

Iraqi civilian deaths shrouded with secrecy

A US statement at the time said the civilians, including seven women and three children, died in a roadside bomb explosion that also killed a marine in the western town of Haditha. But survivors and those who saw the bodies said the account was not true.
"Their bodies were riddled with bullets, there was evidence that there had been gunfire inside their homes, there were blood spatters inside their homes," Bobby Ghosh, a journalist who took up the case for Time magazine, told the BBC. "It was quite clear that these people were killed indoors, which couldn't possibly have happened if they'd been involved in a roadside blast."
An initial military inquiry found the two families had indeed been shot dead in their homes by the marines, but it described the deaths as "collateral damage". The report has now prompted the US Naval Criminal Investigation Service (NCIS) to determine the motives behind the killing. The NCIS will have to decide whether the civilians were killed by accident or were targeted by the marines as an act of revenge in a potential war crime. Several American veterans of the war in Iraq have told the BBC's Newsnight programme that the marines' reaction to the roadside bomb attack in Haditha was not an isolated incident. Specialist Michael Blake, who served in Balad, said it was common practice to "shoot up the landscape or anything that moved" after an explosion.

Cheney And Halliburton Hold Title - Top Earners In Iraq
There has never been an investigation into Cheney's involvement in awarding Halliburton no-bid contracts making the company the number one war profiteerer in Iraq. Apparently people have forgotten about the March 5, 2003 e-mail between the Army Corps of Engineers and a Pentagon employee that stated the contract "has been coordinated w VP's office." A study released in June 2005, originating from the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA), revealed that overall, Halliburton had received roughly 52% of the $25.4 billion that has been paid out to private contractors since the war in Iraq began.

Privatizing the Apocalypse
We know as well that, under this administration, the Pentagon has been on its own privatization binge, turning what were once essential military activities over to Halliburton, its subsidiary KBR, and other private firms in a wholesale fashion.

NEW YORK magazine investigates 9/11 theories:
How, if no steel-frame building had ever collapsed from fire, did three such edifices fall that day, including 7 World Trade Center, which was not hit by any airplane?

Hot Zone: The fact that people, like the woman in this picture, could survive near the impact zone suggests the fires weren’t hot enough to melt structural steel.
And why, if hydrocarbon-fueled fire maxes out at 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit and steel melts at 2,700 degrees, did the towers weaken sufficiently to fall in such a short time-only 56 minutes in the case of the South Tower? And why, if the impact destroyed the planes' supposedly crash-proof flight-recorder black boxes, was the FBI able to find, in perfect condition, the passport of Satam al Suqami, one of the alleged American Airlines Flight 11 hijackers?

Smoke Bomb: Could this puff of smoke be evidence of an internal explosion consistent with controlled demolition?
And how to explain the nonperformance of the FAA and NORAD?
How could they, an hour after the first World Trade Center crash, allow an obviously hostile airplane to smash into the Pentagon, headquarters of the entire military-industrial complex, for chrissakes?
And why did the Defense Department choose to stage an extraordinary number of military exercises on 9/11--occupying material and spreading confusion about who was who on that day?

Brother Act: One of many eerie 9/11 coincidences is that Marvin Bush, the president’s brother, worked for a firm that handled security for the WTC, and United and American airlines.

And why was it so important, as decreed by Mayor Giuliani, to clear away the debris, before all the bodies were recovered? And what about the short-selling spree on American and United airlines stock in the days before the attacks? Betting on the stocks to go down-was this real sicko Wall Street insider trading?

CHENEY ADMITS OSAMA HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH 9-11
QUESTION: I want to be clear because I've heard you say this, and I've heard the President say it, but I want you to say it for my listeners, which is that the White House has never argued that Saddam was directly involved in September 11th, correct?
THE VICE PRESIDENT: That's correct... So we've never made the case, or argued the case that somehow Osama bin Laden was directly involved in 9/11. That evidence has never been forthcoming. But there -- that's a separate proposition from the question of whether or not there was some kind of a relationship between the Iraqi government, Iraqi intelligence services and the al Qaeda organization.

BBC: Thursday, 18 September, 2003,
Bush rejects Saddam 9/11 link


Bush maintains Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda are connected
US President George Bush has said there is no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved in the 11 September attacks. The comments - among his most explicit so far on the issue - come after a recent opinion poll found that nearly 70% of Americans believed the Iraqi leader was personally involved in the attacks. Mr Bush did however repeat his belief that the former Iraqi president had ties to al-Qaeda - the group widely regarded as responsible for the attacks on New York and Washington. Critics of the war on Iraq have accused the US administration of deliberately encouraging public confusion to generate support for military action.

The Hidden Hand of the CIA, 911, and Popular Mechanics
A brutal purge of the senior staff at Popular Mechanics preceded the publication of last month's scandalous propaganda piece about 9/11. Its March cover story, Debunking 9/11 Lies, has been exposed by credible researchers to contain numerous distortions and flawed conclusions. Pulling the strings is the grand dame of Hearst Magazines and behind the scenes is her obscure husband, a veteran propaganda expert and former special assistant to the director of the C.I.A.
American Free Press revealed that Benjamin Chertoff, the 25-year-old senior researcher who authored the 9/11 article, is related to Michael Chertoff, the new Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The PM article illustrates how a propaganda method, used by dictatorships, is now being employed by the U.S. government: controlling mainstream media outlets to promote its version of 9/11.

General Motors building $600 to $650 million US plant in Mexico
General Motors Corp., which is closing plants in the United States, says it will spend $600 million to $650 million to build a small car assembly plant in Mexico, employing 1,800 to 2,300 workers (Won't have to pay for health care or pensions for them!) It is to open in 2008. The plant will produce compact and subcompact vehicles, he said, adding that GM does not plan to sell any of them in the United States.
"We are looking to try to export some of the production of that plant to Central America and South America," he told the Detroit Free Press. He did not say how many vehicles it would build annually but said it would make 30 vehicles an hour.
GM lost $10.6 billion in 2005, largely due to declining U.S. sales and rising costs. The company is in the midst of a restructuring plan and has offered buyouts to its 113,000 U.S. hourly workers in hopes of cutting its hourly work force by 30,000 by 2008.
For how long will these cars not be sold in the U. S.?

Delphi moves to tear up union contracts
Expect reverberations from this in all industries involving union labor, whether or not they are in bankruptcy.

'Innocent Until Proved Guilty?'
A Pentagon study obtained by ABC News finds that a new kind of voice lie detector used by the U.S. military and American police departments is no better than "flipping a coin" in detecting lies. Until the Pentagon ordered a halt to its use, the Voice Stress Analyzer was being used by military intelligence interrogators at Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq. Several suspected terrorists were released from custody based on the machine's results and former Iraqi deputy prime minister Tariz Aziz was one of the many "high value targets" who were hooked up to the now discredited machine.

Inside Trading: Congress for sale
Unfortunately, Congress forgot itself. It remains perfectly legal for a member of Congress to buy and sell stocks based on information that's not available to the public. Last year it was reported that a "political intelligence" firm tipped off its clients to an undelivered speech by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on asbestos liability. The information was profitable to those in the know.

US Officials Indicted in Botched Terror Case
Dealing a blow to US President George W. Bush's so-called "war on terror", two US federal officials were charged with hiding evidence to win conviction in a terrorism case against four Muslim men following the 9/11.