Caught in the Crossfire was shot from November 2004 to April 2005 inside the city of Falluja, Iraq. The film details the conditions experienced by the civilians of Falluja as they endured the violent clashes and consequences of Operation Phantom Fury and became refugees outside the eyes and care of the international community.
A joint production of American and Iraqi filmmakers, Caught in the Crossfire was filmed entirely un-embedded, outside the protection or influence of the military or corporate media, to bring a unique and honest perspective of Iraqi civilians to the world.
Proceeds for the the sale of this film go directly to aid the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire of combat areas inside Iraq.
See the preview:
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14.1.06
Download video, audio, interviews - Dahr Jamail on the war in Iraq and Falluja
Download video, audio, interviews - Dahr Jamail on the war in Iraq and Falluja:
If there were to be any hero's in this war, one would be Dahr Jamail.
His desire to persevere to bring the truth to the forefront of an otherwise disparaging and unprecedented war impresses me.
He's a very nice young man with purpose, I admire and respect him and his work, and have communicated that to him.
If there were to be any hero's in this war, one would be Dahr Jamail.
His desire to persevere to bring the truth to the forefront of an otherwise disparaging and unprecedented war impresses me.
He's a very nice young man with purpose, I admire and respect him and his work, and have communicated that to him.
Fear Overshadows Eid
Fear Overshadows Eid Festival
*Inter Press Service* Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed*
BAGHDAD, Jan 14 (IPS) -
What should have been a joyous four-day Islamicholiday for Eid al-Adha which Iraqis began to celebrate Jan. 10, hasonly highlighted the suffering under U.S. occupation.*
The feast of sacrifice which begins on the tenth day of the Islamicmonth of Dhul Hijja is celebrated as a commemoration of Prophet Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son for God.
Eid festivities in Baghdad used to be an occasion for family reunions,where everyone turned up in their best. But sky-rocketing fuel cost shave driven up the price of food, clothing and everything else, and Eid could no longer be the same.
The frightening lack of security did much to dampen the holiday mood."I hope that everybody finds happiness in these days, even our enemies,"Salma, a 15-year-old student told IPS.
"Because these are days we wish good to everybody, even though we are not free to go where we like due to the security situation or the obstacles that are put up to secure our city, as they say."Salma, who did not want to give her last name added, "I wish for God to forgive their sins against these peaceful people.
Eid is the day we meet our relatives, yet on this one we are missing so many of our friends andrelatives."U.S. Brig. Gen. Donald Alston estimates that at least 500 Iraqis have been killed since the Dec. 15 elections.
Over this period, at least 54 U.S. soldiers have also been killed."Nobody will allow us to leave our homes now," 17 year-old student Salam told IPS after a roadside bomb exploded just blocks away from his homein central Baghdad.
"Everybody is afraid they might be kidnapped just like our relative who had been kidnapped for two weeks."Salam said his relative was released after 4,000 dollars ransom was paid. Now, he said, no one will allow children to leave the house.
Salam's uncle who had traveled from Amman to join them in their Eid celebration had his car robbed at gunpoint."They held guns to me and my mother's heads," the 50 year-old man told IPS. "They then pushed both of us out of the car along with my daughter,and took our car.
We tried to catch them but they went away very fast.."He added: "How can we love the country if we can't enjoy the pleasure of celebrating Eid with our family?"Those meant to provide security are themselves not safe. Two policemen died and five were wounded when a car bomb struck their patrol in Baqubaon Friday.
In Iskandariya, Iraqi police found the body of a blind folded policeman with his hands tied behind his back. He had been shot in the head.
"There is a big difference between here and Amman," his 14 year-old daughter Maessa told IPS. "We are free to go wherever we want there buthere we should stay in our homes. Everybody here is afraid we will be lost, even during Eid.
What kind of freedom have the Americans brought us? The freedom to steal, kill and humiliate everybody. And deny their rights to live as humans?"
I am very sorry america has destroyed your country. My prayer for you now is that justice will be served.
*Inter Press Service* Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed*
BAGHDAD, Jan 14 (IPS) -
What should have been a joyous four-day Islamicholiday for Eid al-Adha which Iraqis began to celebrate Jan. 10, hasonly highlighted the suffering under U.S. occupation.*
The feast of sacrifice which begins on the tenth day of the Islamicmonth of Dhul Hijja is celebrated as a commemoration of Prophet Ibrahim's willingness to sacrifice his son for God.
Eid festivities in Baghdad used to be an occasion for family reunions,where everyone turned up in their best. But sky-rocketing fuel cost shave driven up the price of food, clothing and everything else, and Eid could no longer be the same.
The frightening lack of security did much to dampen the holiday mood."I hope that everybody finds happiness in these days, even our enemies,"Salma, a 15-year-old student told IPS.
"Because these are days we wish good to everybody, even though we are not free to go where we like due to the security situation or the obstacles that are put up to secure our city, as they say."Salma, who did not want to give her last name added, "I wish for God to forgive their sins against these peaceful people.
Eid is the day we meet our relatives, yet on this one we are missing so many of our friends andrelatives."U.S. Brig. Gen. Donald Alston estimates that at least 500 Iraqis have been killed since the Dec. 15 elections.
Over this period, at least 54 U.S. soldiers have also been killed."Nobody will allow us to leave our homes now," 17 year-old student Salam told IPS after a roadside bomb exploded just blocks away from his homein central Baghdad.
"Everybody is afraid they might be kidnapped just like our relative who had been kidnapped for two weeks."Salam said his relative was released after 4,000 dollars ransom was paid. Now, he said, no one will allow children to leave the house.
Salam's uncle who had traveled from Amman to join them in their Eid celebration had his car robbed at gunpoint."They held guns to me and my mother's heads," the 50 year-old man told IPS. "They then pushed both of us out of the car along with my daughter,and took our car.
We tried to catch them but they went away very fast.."He added: "How can we love the country if we can't enjoy the pleasure of celebrating Eid with our family?"Those meant to provide security are themselves not safe. Two policemen died and five were wounded when a car bomb struck their patrol in Baqubaon Friday.
In Iskandariya, Iraqi police found the body of a blind folded policeman with his hands tied behind his back. He had been shot in the head.
"There is a big difference between here and Amman," his 14 year-old daughter Maessa told IPS. "We are free to go wherever we want there buthere we should stay in our homes. Everybody here is afraid we will be lost, even during Eid.
What kind of freedom have the Americans brought us? The freedom to steal, kill and humiliate everybody. And deny their rights to live as humans?"
I am very sorry america has destroyed your country. My prayer for you now is that justice will be served.
World Can't Wait | Drive Out the Bush Regime
World Can't Wait Drive Out the Bush Regime:
There is no doubt that Bush has committed “impeachable offenses.”
There is no doubt that millions of Americans – and tens of millions of people in other countries! – would jump for joy if he were to be impeached.
Impeachment, in short, is one way that this regime full of fascists could be driven from power.
Yet not a single Democratic Senator has stepped up to the plate on impeachment.
People can debate why this is so, and should – and some of that debate is in the articles on this site.
The question we address here is how to change the political equation in this country so that Bush is forced to step down.
To do that, there must be a political demand coming from the grassroots.
There must be thousands, and then millions, in the streets demanding that Bush step down – and that the country change direction.
“Power,” as the one-time slave and famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass once said, “concedes nothing without a struggle.”
Without such struggle, there will be no impeachment. And without that happening soon, the momentum that currently exists to oust Bush will dissipate, and even the new outrages that have come to light will take on a patina of “legitimacy.”
Millions must be awakened to the scope of Bush’s crimes and the danger of his agenda bringing need for him to go!
Agreed.
There is no doubt that Bush has committed “impeachable offenses.”
There is no doubt that millions of Americans – and tens of millions of people in other countries! – would jump for joy if he were to be impeached.
Impeachment, in short, is one way that this regime full of fascists could be driven from power.
Yet not a single Democratic Senator has stepped up to the plate on impeachment.
People can debate why this is so, and should – and some of that debate is in the articles on this site.
The question we address here is how to change the political equation in this country so that Bush is forced to step down.
To do that, there must be a political demand coming from the grassroots.
There must be thousands, and then millions, in the streets demanding that Bush step down – and that the country change direction.
“Power,” as the one-time slave and famous abolitionist Frederick Douglass once said, “concedes nothing without a struggle.”
Without such struggle, there will be no impeachment. And without that happening soon, the momentum that currently exists to oust Bush will dissipate, and even the new outrages that have come to light will take on a patina of “legitimacy.”
Millions must be awakened to the scope of Bush’s crimes and the danger of his agenda bringing need for him to go!
Agreed.
U.S. and Germany Promise to Press Iran on Uranium - New York Times
U.S. and Germany Promise to Press Iran on Uranium - New York Times
WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 - President Bush and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, meeting for the first time since Mrs. Merkel took office last month, promised Friday to step up pressure on Iran at the Security Council to abandon nuclear activities that could be part of a weapons program.
But at a news conference at the White House, Mr. Bush declined to predict what sanctions might be imposed on Iran if the Security Council took up the issue in answer to a referral by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"I'm not going to prejudge what the United Nations Security Council should do," he said, seeking to avoid putting the United States in the position of demanding severe action while talks continue with other nations, notably Russia and China. "But I recognize that it's logical that a country which has rejected diplomatic entreaties be sent to the United Nations Security Council."
Q: If you don't like what the UN says, will you make another unilateral decision, negating your meeting with Chancellor Merkel?
WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 - President Bush and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, meeting for the first time since Mrs. Merkel took office last month, promised Friday to step up pressure on Iran at the Security Council to abandon nuclear activities that could be part of a weapons program.
But at a news conference at the White House, Mr. Bush declined to predict what sanctions might be imposed on Iran if the Security Council took up the issue in answer to a referral by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"I'm not going to prejudge what the United Nations Security Council should do," he said, seeking to avoid putting the United States in the position of demanding severe action while talks continue with other nations, notably Russia and China. "But I recognize that it's logical that a country which has rejected diplomatic entreaties be sent to the United Nations Security Council."
Q: If you don't like what the UN says, will you make another unilateral decision, negating your meeting with Chancellor Merkel?
Bush v. Reality
Bush v. Reality
2006 is sure to be the year of living dangerously -- for the Bush administration and for the rest of us. In the wake of revelations of warrantless spying by the National Security Agency, we have already embarked on what looks distinctly like a constitutional crisis (which may not come to a full boil until 2007). In the meantime, the President, Vice President, Secretaries of Defense and State, various lesser officials, crony appointees, acolytes, legal advisors, leftover neocons, spy-masters, strategists, spin doctors, ideologues, lobbyists, Republican Party officials, and congressional backers are intent on packing the Supreme Court with supporters of an "obscure philosophy" of unfettered Presidential power called "the unitary executive theory" and then foisting a virtual cult of the imperial presidency on the country.
On the other hand, determined as this administration has been to impose its version of reality on us, the President faces a traffic jam of reality piling up in the environs of the White House. The question is: How long will the omniscient and dominatrix-style fantasies of Bushworld, ranging from "complete victory" in Iraq to non-existent constitutional powers to ignore Congress, the courts, and treaties of every sort, triumph over the realities of the world the rest of humanity inhabits. Will an unconstrained presidency continue to grow -- or not?
Who, after all, can predict what will hit our country this year. From a natural-gas shock to Chinese financial decisions on the dollar, from oil terrorism to the next set of fierce fall hurricanes, from the bursting of the housing bubble to the arrival of the avian flu, so much is possible -- but one post-9/11 truth, revealed with special vividness by hurricane Katrina, should by now be self-evident:
Whatever the top officials of this administration are capable of doing, they and their cronies in various posts throughout the federal bureaucracy are absolutely incapable of (and perhaps largely uninterested in) running a government. Let's give this phenomenon a fitting name: FEMAtization. You could almost offer a guarantee that no major problem is likely to arise this year, domestic or foreign, that they will not be quite incapable of handling reasonably, efficiently, or thoughtfully -- to hell with compassionately (for anyone who still remembers that museum-piece label, "compassionate conservative," from the Bush version of the Neolithic era). So here are just four of the most expectable crisis areas of 2006 as well as three wild cards that may remain in the administration's hand and that could chase all of us through this year -- adding up, in one way or the other, to the political tsunami of 2006.
1. Iraq Bush's war (and occupation) of choice has shadowed him like a boogeyman from the moment that banner over his head on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln announced "Mission Accomplished" and he declared "major combat operations" at an end on May 2, 2003. On that very day, in news hardly noticed by a soul, one of the first acts of insurgency against American troops occurred and seven GIs were wounded in a grenade attack in Falluja. As either a prophet of the future or a master of wish-fulfillment, the President was never more accurate than when, in July 2003, he taunted the Iraqi guerrillas, saying, "Bring ‘em on." Well, they've been bringing it on ever since.
Unwilling to face the realities of its trillion-dollar folly of a war and dealing with presidential polling figures entering free fall, the administration did the one thing it has been eternally successful at -- it launched a fantasy offensive, not in Iraq, but here at home against the American people and especially the media.
Read on.
2006 is sure to be the year of living dangerously -- for the Bush administration and for the rest of us. In the wake of revelations of warrantless spying by the National Security Agency, we have already embarked on what looks distinctly like a constitutional crisis (which may not come to a full boil until 2007). In the meantime, the President, Vice President, Secretaries of Defense and State, various lesser officials, crony appointees, acolytes, legal advisors, leftover neocons, spy-masters, strategists, spin doctors, ideologues, lobbyists, Republican Party officials, and congressional backers are intent on packing the Supreme Court with supporters of an "obscure philosophy" of unfettered Presidential power called "the unitary executive theory" and then foisting a virtual cult of the imperial presidency on the country.
On the other hand, determined as this administration has been to impose its version of reality on us, the President faces a traffic jam of reality piling up in the environs of the White House. The question is: How long will the omniscient and dominatrix-style fantasies of Bushworld, ranging from "complete victory" in Iraq to non-existent constitutional powers to ignore Congress, the courts, and treaties of every sort, triumph over the realities of the world the rest of humanity inhabits. Will an unconstrained presidency continue to grow -- or not?
Who, after all, can predict what will hit our country this year. From a natural-gas shock to Chinese financial decisions on the dollar, from oil terrorism to the next set of fierce fall hurricanes, from the bursting of the housing bubble to the arrival of the avian flu, so much is possible -- but one post-9/11 truth, revealed with special vividness by hurricane Katrina, should by now be self-evident:
Whatever the top officials of this administration are capable of doing, they and their cronies in various posts throughout the federal bureaucracy are absolutely incapable of (and perhaps largely uninterested in) running a government. Let's give this phenomenon a fitting name: FEMAtization. You could almost offer a guarantee that no major problem is likely to arise this year, domestic or foreign, that they will not be quite incapable of handling reasonably, efficiently, or thoughtfully -- to hell with compassionately (for anyone who still remembers that museum-piece label, "compassionate conservative," from the Bush version of the Neolithic era). So here are just four of the most expectable crisis areas of 2006 as well as three wild cards that may remain in the administration's hand and that could chase all of us through this year -- adding up, in one way or the other, to the political tsunami of 2006.
1. Iraq Bush's war (and occupation) of choice has shadowed him like a boogeyman from the moment that banner over his head on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln announced "Mission Accomplished" and he declared "major combat operations" at an end on May 2, 2003. On that very day, in news hardly noticed by a soul, one of the first acts of insurgency against American troops occurred and seven GIs were wounded in a grenade attack in Falluja. As either a prophet of the future or a master of wish-fulfillment, the President was never more accurate than when, in July 2003, he taunted the Iraqi guerrillas, saying, "Bring ‘em on." Well, they've been bringing it on ever since.
Unwilling to face the realities of its trillion-dollar folly of a war and dealing with presidential polling figures entering free fall, the administration did the one thing it has been eternally successful at -- it launched a fantasy offensive, not in Iraq, but here at home against the American people and especially the media.
Read on.
When is a War Considered Just?
When is a War Considered Just?
When a country attacks us with out prior knowledge of the US government, who allowed an attack to fulfill a self serving agenga.
This war was premeditated.
When a country attacks us with out prior knowledge of the US government, who allowed an attack to fulfill a self serving agenga.
This war was premeditated.
Every Generation Has its Heroes, and Every War Wants Them
Every Generation Has its Heroes, and Every War Wants Them
There won't be any this time. The men who come home are changed forever. Countless have committed suicide, or killed their families.
Bush has blood on his hands, going all the way back to the thousands beginning 9-11.
There won't be any this time. The men who come home are changed forever. Countless have committed suicide, or killed their families.
Bush has blood on his hands, going all the way back to the thousands beginning 9-11.
Proof Bush Deceived America
Proof Bush Deceived America
I already know he did on a much deeper level than most americans realize http://kmwittig.blogspot.com
James Risen’s State of War: the Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration, may hold bigger secrets than the disclosure that President George W. Bush authorized warrantless eavesdropping on Americans.
Risen’s book also confirms the most damning element of the British Cabinet Office memos popularly called the “Downing Street memos;” namely, that “the intelligence and the facts were being fixed around the policy.” The result is that it is no longer credible to maintain that the failures in the Iraqi intelligence were the product of a broken intelligence community.
The Bush administration deliberately fabricated the case against Iraq, lying to Congress and the American people along the way.
It goes back further than that...
I already know he did on a much deeper level than most americans realize http://kmwittig.blogspot.com
James Risen’s State of War: the Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration, may hold bigger secrets than the disclosure that President George W. Bush authorized warrantless eavesdropping on Americans.
Risen’s book also confirms the most damning element of the British Cabinet Office memos popularly called the “Downing Street memos;” namely, that “the intelligence and the facts were being fixed around the policy.” The result is that it is no longer credible to maintain that the failures in the Iraqi intelligence were the product of a broken intelligence community.
The Bush administration deliberately fabricated the case against Iraq, lying to Congress and the American people along the way.
It goes back further than that...
US Law Unclear if Bush Can Invade Without Congress OK: Alito
US Law Unclear if Bush Can Invade Without Congress OK: Alito
Democratic US Senator Joseph Biden prodded Alito for his position on the issue.
Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito said US law is unclear as to whether President George W. Bush could launch a military invasion of Iran or Syria without congressional approval.
It's really kind of important whether or not you think the president does not need the authority of the United States Congress to wage a war where there is not an imminent threat against the United States, stated US Democratic Senator Joseph Biden.
"The constitution divides the powers related to making war between the president and the Congress. It gives Congress the power to declare war. It gives Congress the power of the purse," Alito said during his Senate confirmation hearing.
However "the president has the power of a commander-in-chief," Alito told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Alito's remarks came in response to a hypothetical question asking if he believed the US president would have to secure approval from lawmakers in Congress before launching an invasion of Syria or Iran.
"There's been general agreement ... to support the authority of the president to take military action on his own in the case of an emergency, when there is not time for Congress to react," Alito said.
He said, however, that US law is less clear on the subject on what is to occur if the executive and legislative branches of the US government collide.
It would be american suicide to attack Iran. I don't thing Bush really cares, but I hope Chancellor Merkel talked some sense into him...whether he will make another unilateral decision remains to be seen.
Democratic US Senator Joseph Biden prodded Alito for his position on the issue.
Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito said US law is unclear as to whether President George W. Bush could launch a military invasion of Iran or Syria without congressional approval.
It's really kind of important whether or not you think the president does not need the authority of the United States Congress to wage a war where there is not an imminent threat against the United States, stated US Democratic Senator Joseph Biden.
"The constitution divides the powers related to making war between the president and the Congress. It gives Congress the power to declare war. It gives Congress the power of the purse," Alito said during his Senate confirmation hearing.
However "the president has the power of a commander-in-chief," Alito told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Alito's remarks came in response to a hypothetical question asking if he believed the US president would have to secure approval from lawmakers in Congress before launching an invasion of Syria or Iran.
"There's been general agreement ... to support the authority of the president to take military action on his own in the case of an emergency, when there is not time for Congress to react," Alito said.
He said, however, that US law is less clear on the subject on what is to occur if the executive and legislative branches of the US government collide.
It would be american suicide to attack Iran. I don't thing Bush really cares, but I hope Chancellor Merkel talked some sense into him...whether he will make another unilateral decision remains to be seen.
Heat Rises on German Spies in Iraq, CIA Activities
Heat Rises on German Spies in Iraq, CIA Activities
BERLIN - German's security services faced the prospect of a parliamentary inquiry on Friday, triggered by reports that German agents in Baghdad had helped the United States pinpoint bombing targets at the start of the Iraq war.
Despite official denials, the reports have stirred unease in Germany and drawn accusations that the then government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was secretly aiding the U.S. war effort, while publicly opposing it to win votes.
What will Angela Merkel do? She had the red carpet treatment at the White House this week, and is building a friendly allience with US, but what is her real position...I am hopeful her agenda is true and just.
BERLIN - German's security services faced the prospect of a parliamentary inquiry on Friday, triggered by reports that German agents in Baghdad had helped the United States pinpoint bombing targets at the start of the Iraq war.
Despite official denials, the reports have stirred unease in Germany and drawn accusations that the then government of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was secretly aiding the U.S. war effort, while publicly opposing it to win votes.
What will Angela Merkel do? She had the red carpet treatment at the White House this week, and is building a friendly allience with US, but what is her real position...I am hopeful her agenda is true and just.
NSA Used City Police as Trackers
NSA Used City Police as Trackers
The National Security Agency used law enforcement agencies, including the Baltimore Police Department, to track members of a city anti-war group as they prepared for protests outside the sprawling Fort Meade facility, internal NSA documents show
An internal NSA e-mail, posted on two Internet sites this week, shows how operatives with the "Baltimore Intel Unit" provided a minute-by-minute account of Pledge of Resistances' preparations for a July 3, 2004, protest at Fort Meade.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, members of the group say, their protests have come under increasing scrutiny by federal and local law enforcement officials working on behalf of the NSA.
An internal NSA e-mail, posted on two Internet sites this week, shows how operatives with the "Baltimore Intel Unit" provided a minute-by-minute account of Pledge of Resistances' preparations for a July 3, 2004, protest at Fort Meade.
An attorney for the demonstrators said he obtained the document through the discovery process from NSA."
****UPDATE: 11:55 HRS. S/A V------- ADVISED THE PROTESTORS LEFT 4600 YORK ROAD EN ROUTE TO THE NSA CAMPUS ... S/A V----- REPORTED FIVE OR SIX PEOPLE IN A BLUE VAN WITH BLACK BALLOONS, ANTI-WAR SIGNS AND A POSSIBLE HELIUM TANK," reported an internal NSA e-mail.
Later, those shadowing the peace group reported on their arrival at the NSA's Fort Meade headquarters.
"****UPDATE: 1300 HRS. THE SOC WAS ADVISED THE PROTESTORS WERE PROCEEDING TO THE AIRPLANE MEMORIAL WITH THREE HELIUM BALLOONS ATTACHED TO A BANNER THAT STATED "THOSE WHO EXCHANGE FREEDOM FOR SECURITY DESERVE IT, NEITHER WILL ULTIMATELY LOSE BOTH," the NSA's somewhat garbled account of the event reported.
The Gov. has so much to hide, everything is watched. Pity.
We are not free.
The National Security Agency used law enforcement agencies, including the Baltimore Police Department, to track members of a city anti-war group as they prepared for protests outside the sprawling Fort Meade facility, internal NSA documents show
An internal NSA e-mail, posted on two Internet sites this week, shows how operatives with the "Baltimore Intel Unit" provided a minute-by-minute account of Pledge of Resistances' preparations for a July 3, 2004, protest at Fort Meade.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, members of the group say, their protests have come under increasing scrutiny by federal and local law enforcement officials working on behalf of the NSA.
An internal NSA e-mail, posted on two Internet sites this week, shows how operatives with the "Baltimore Intel Unit" provided a minute-by-minute account of Pledge of Resistances' preparations for a July 3, 2004, protest at Fort Meade.
An attorney for the demonstrators said he obtained the document through the discovery process from NSA."
****UPDATE: 11:55 HRS. S/A V------- ADVISED THE PROTESTORS LEFT 4600 YORK ROAD EN ROUTE TO THE NSA CAMPUS ... S/A V----- REPORTED FIVE OR SIX PEOPLE IN A BLUE VAN WITH BLACK BALLOONS, ANTI-WAR SIGNS AND A POSSIBLE HELIUM TANK," reported an internal NSA e-mail.
Later, those shadowing the peace group reported on their arrival at the NSA's Fort Meade headquarters.
"****UPDATE: 1300 HRS. THE SOC WAS ADVISED THE PROTESTORS WERE PROCEEDING TO THE AIRPLANE MEMORIAL WITH THREE HELIUM BALLOONS ATTACHED TO A BANNER THAT STATED "THOSE WHO EXCHANGE FREEDOM FOR SECURITY DESERVE IT, NEITHER WILL ULTIMATELY LOSE BOTH," the NSA's somewhat garbled account of the event reported.
The Gov. has so much to hide, everything is watched. Pity.
We are not free.
13.1.06
911Truth.org ::::: The 9/11 Truth Movement
911Truth.org ::::: The 9/11 Truth Movement
The top 15 reasons to doubt the official story of Sept. 11, 2001
Disclaimer
Background Issues: The Abiding Truth Deficit
1) The 9/11 Commission Fraud: Conflicts, Collapse and Cover-up
2) The Hundreds of Still Unanswered Questions, the Scores of Documented Lies
Motive Issues: Cui Bono - Who Profits Most?
3) Instant Fulfillment of Neocon Wish List
4) Political Bonanza for Bush/Rove team
5) Scale and Diversity of Profiteering
Means and Opportunity Issues: How to Make it Happen
6) Ignored Foreign Warnings
7) Quashed Domestic Investigations
8) Incapacitated Oversight
9) Disabled Air Defenses
10) The Amazing Disappearing National Chain of Command
11) The Pakistan Intelligence Chief Who Loved Everyone At Once
Aftermath Issues: How to Keep the Lid On
12) The Bitter Fight Against Investigations
13) The Amazing Disappearing Evidence
14) The Amazing Disappearing Demand for Accountability
Wildcard Issues: Just How Stupid They Think We Are
15) The Ripley Believe It or Not Sideshow of 9/11 Miracles
Epilogue: For the 9/11 Legacy Victims Still Dying in New York
References:
The original 400+ Family Steering Committee questions that Commissioner Gorelick said would be the Commission's "road map"
FSC co-founders Mindy Kleinberg & Lorie van Auken rate the Commission's performance
A fine compendium of administration 9/11 lies, some aforethought, some afterthought, some cobbled on the fly.
Rep. Henry Waxmann picks up the pattern downstream in his
"Iraq on the Record" database of 237 subsequent Bush official lies about Iraq.
For more specific indictments, see:
"NORAD Lied about 9/11" : Senator Mark Dayton
Lies A Sixth Grader Would Not Accept by Michael C Ruppert
An Open Letter To Condoleezza Rice: "You Are a Liar" by Catherine Austin Fitts, former Assistant Secretary of Housing
FBI Whistleblower Says Rice Is Lying - Bush knew al-Qaida was planning attack by Andrew Buncombe, The Independent [London, UK]
The top 15 reasons to doubt the official story of Sept. 11, 2001
Disclaimer
Background Issues: The Abiding Truth Deficit
1) The 9/11 Commission Fraud: Conflicts, Collapse and Cover-up
2) The Hundreds of Still Unanswered Questions, the Scores of Documented Lies
Motive Issues: Cui Bono - Who Profits Most?
3) Instant Fulfillment of Neocon Wish List
4) Political Bonanza for Bush/Rove team
5) Scale and Diversity of Profiteering
Means and Opportunity Issues: How to Make it Happen
6) Ignored Foreign Warnings
7) Quashed Domestic Investigations
8) Incapacitated Oversight
9) Disabled Air Defenses
10) The Amazing Disappearing National Chain of Command
11) The Pakistan Intelligence Chief Who Loved Everyone At Once
Aftermath Issues: How to Keep the Lid On
12) The Bitter Fight Against Investigations
13) The Amazing Disappearing Evidence
14) The Amazing Disappearing Demand for Accountability
Wildcard Issues: Just How Stupid They Think We Are
15) The Ripley Believe It or Not Sideshow of 9/11 Miracles
Epilogue: For the 9/11 Legacy Victims Still Dying in New York
References:
The original 400+ Family Steering Committee questions that Commissioner Gorelick said would be the Commission's "road map"
FSC co-founders Mindy Kleinberg & Lorie van Auken rate the Commission's performance
A fine compendium of administration 9/11 lies, some aforethought, some afterthought, some cobbled on the fly.
Rep. Henry Waxmann picks up the pattern downstream in his
"Iraq on the Record" database of 237 subsequent Bush official lies about Iraq.
For more specific indictments, see:
"NORAD Lied about 9/11" : Senator Mark Dayton
Lies A Sixth Grader Would Not Accept by Michael C Ruppert
An Open Letter To Condoleezza Rice: "You Are a Liar" by Catherine Austin Fitts, former Assistant Secretary of Housing
FBI Whistleblower Says Rice Is Lying - Bush knew al-Qaida was planning attack by Andrew Buncombe, The Independent [London, UK]
Sept. 11's Smoking Gun: The Many Faces of Saeed Sheikh
Sept. 11's Smoking Gun: The Many Faces of Saeed Sheikh
If you read just one thing at this website, please read this essay.
Don't mind the length and complexity. Saeed Sheikh's story is not just mildly interesting. Understanding the history of this young man may not only explain many mysteries of 9/11, including solid evidence of foreign government involvement in the attacks, but may also reveal if nuclear war in the near future is likely. No kidding.
Please read! Note that this was first written in September 2002 but has been thoroughly overhauled based on exposure to additional evidence. Also, click to find more details about Saeed Sheikh and his boss Mahmood Ahmed.
The ISI: “The Invisible Government”
As the London Times has put it, Saeed Sheikh “is no ordinary terrorist but a man who has connections that reach high into Pakistan's military and intelligence elite and into the innermost circles of Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda organization.” [London Times, 4/21/02]
To understand why Saeed is so important in understanding 9/11, it is necessary to first understand the Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The ISI plays a much more significant role in the Pakistani government than do its counterparts in other countries.
Time Magazine has noted, “Even by the shadowy standards of spy agencies, the ISI is notorious. It is commonly branded ‘a state within the state,’ or Pakistan's ‘invisible government.’” [Time, 5/6/02] The ISI grew into its present form during the war between the Soviet Union and mujaheddin guerrillas in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
The CIA thought the Afghan war could be Russia's own costly Vietnam War, and they funneled billions to the mujaheddin resistance to keep them a thorn in Russia's side. The strategy worked: Soviet soldiers withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, and the Soviet Union collapsed two years later, partly due to the costs of the war. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/23/01]
The essay is much more detailed, and well worth reading.
If you read just one thing at this website, please read this essay.
Don't mind the length and complexity. Saeed Sheikh's story is not just mildly interesting. Understanding the history of this young man may not only explain many mysteries of 9/11, including solid evidence of foreign government involvement in the attacks, but may also reveal if nuclear war in the near future is likely. No kidding.
Please read! Note that this was first written in September 2002 but has been thoroughly overhauled based on exposure to additional evidence. Also, click to find more details about Saeed Sheikh and his boss Mahmood Ahmed.
The ISI: “The Invisible Government”
As the London Times has put it, Saeed Sheikh “is no ordinary terrorist but a man who has connections that reach high into Pakistan's military and intelligence elite and into the innermost circles of Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda organization.” [London Times, 4/21/02]
To understand why Saeed is so important in understanding 9/11, it is necessary to first understand the Pakistan's intelligence agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The ISI plays a much more significant role in the Pakistani government than do its counterparts in other countries.
Time Magazine has noted, “Even by the shadowy standards of spy agencies, the ISI is notorious. It is commonly branded ‘a state within the state,’ or Pakistan's ‘invisible government.’” [Time, 5/6/02] The ISI grew into its present form during the war between the Soviet Union and mujaheddin guerrillas in Afghanistan in the 1980s.
The CIA thought the Afghan war could be Russia's own costly Vietnam War, and they funneled billions to the mujaheddin resistance to keep them a thorn in Russia's side. The strategy worked: Soviet soldiers withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, and the Soviet Union collapsed two years later, partly due to the costs of the war. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 9/23/01]
The essay is much more detailed, and well worth reading.
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (Arabic: Ø£Øمد عمر سيد شيخ ) (a.k.a. Sheikh Omar, Sheik Syed) is a British terrorist of Pakistani descent with links to various Islamic-based terrorist organisations, including Al-Qaeda and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
In his youth he attended Forest School Snaresbrook, a public school in North-East London, whose alumni include English cricket captain Nasser Hussain. He also attended the London School of Economics.
The Times describes Saeed Sheikh as "no ordinary terrorist but a man who has connections that reach high into Pakistan's military and intelligence elite and into the innermost circles of Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda organization."
According to ABC, Sheikh began working for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence in 1993. By 1994 he was operating terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and had earned the title of bin Laden's "special son." At the time, the Taliban were beginning to dominate Afghanistan, much due to support received from the ISI.
In May 2002, the Washington Post quotes an unnamed Pakistani as saying that the ISI paid Sheikh's legal fees during his 1994 trial in India on charges of kidnap. However, this claim has not been confirmed by any other source.
US authorities have also named Saeed Sheikh as a key figure in the funding of the 9/11 attacks. [1]
On October 6, 2001, a senior-level U.S. government official told CNN that U.S. investigators had discovered Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (Sheik Syed), using the alias "Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad" had sent about $100,000 from the United Arab Emirates to Mohammed Atta.
"Investigators said Atta then distributed the funds to conspirators in Florida in the weeks before the deadliest acts of terrorism on U.S. soil that destroyed the World Trade Center, heavily damaged the Pentagon and left thousands dead. In addition, sources have said Atta sent thousands of dollars -- believed to be excess funds from the operation -- back to Saeed in the United Arab Emirates in the days before September 11. CNN later confirmed this. [2]
The 9/11 Commission's Final Report states that the source of the funds "remains unknown."
They knew.
More than a month after the money transfer was discovered, the head of ISI, General Mahmud Ahmed resigned from his position. Indian news outlets reported the FBI was investigating the possiblity that Gen. Ahmed ordered Saeed Sheikh to send the $100,000 to Atta, while most Western media outlets only reported his connections to the Taliban as the reason for his departure. [3]
"There are many in Musharraf's government who believe that Saeed Sheikh's power comes not from the ISI, but from his connections with our own CIA."[6]
There are many in our country that believe the same to be true, in fact He and the ISI were in Washington DC the week of 9/11.
Sheikh rose to prominence with the 2002 killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who at the time was in Pakistan investigating connections between the ISI and Islamic militant groups. In Pakistan, Sheikh was sentenced to death for killing Pearl, however his complicity in the execution and the reasons behind it are in dispute.
A Wall Street Journal review of Bernard-Henri Levy's book “Who Killed Daniel Pearl?” notes, “It is a fact that Gen. Mahmood Ahmed, then head of the ISI, wired $100,000 to Mohamed Atta before 9/11 through an intermediary."[7]
Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (Arabic: Ø£Øمد عمر سيد شيخ ) (a.k.a. Sheikh Omar, Sheik Syed) is a British terrorist of Pakistani descent with links to various Islamic-based terrorist organisations, including Al-Qaeda and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen.
In his youth he attended Forest School Snaresbrook, a public school in North-East London, whose alumni include English cricket captain Nasser Hussain. He also attended the London School of Economics.
The Times describes Saeed Sheikh as "no ordinary terrorist but a man who has connections that reach high into Pakistan's military and intelligence elite and into the innermost circles of Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda organization."
According to ABC, Sheikh began working for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence in 1993. By 1994 he was operating terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and had earned the title of bin Laden's "special son." At the time, the Taliban were beginning to dominate Afghanistan, much due to support received from the ISI.
In May 2002, the Washington Post quotes an unnamed Pakistani as saying that the ISI paid Sheikh's legal fees during his 1994 trial in India on charges of kidnap. However, this claim has not been confirmed by any other source.
US authorities have also named Saeed Sheikh as a key figure in the funding of the 9/11 attacks. [1]
On October 6, 2001, a senior-level U.S. government official told CNN that U.S. investigators had discovered Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh (Sheik Syed), using the alias "Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad" had sent about $100,000 from the United Arab Emirates to Mohammed Atta.
"Investigators said Atta then distributed the funds to conspirators in Florida in the weeks before the deadliest acts of terrorism on U.S. soil that destroyed the World Trade Center, heavily damaged the Pentagon and left thousands dead. In addition, sources have said Atta sent thousands of dollars -- believed to be excess funds from the operation -- back to Saeed in the United Arab Emirates in the days before September 11. CNN later confirmed this. [2]
The 9/11 Commission's Final Report states that the source of the funds "remains unknown."
They knew.
More than a month after the money transfer was discovered, the head of ISI, General Mahmud Ahmed resigned from his position. Indian news outlets reported the FBI was investigating the possiblity that Gen. Ahmed ordered Saeed Sheikh to send the $100,000 to Atta, while most Western media outlets only reported his connections to the Taliban as the reason for his departure. [3]
"There are many in Musharraf's government who believe that Saeed Sheikh's power comes not from the ISI, but from his connections with our own CIA."[6]
There are many in our country that believe the same to be true, in fact He and the ISI were in Washington DC the week of 9/11.
Sheikh rose to prominence with the 2002 killing of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who at the time was in Pakistan investigating connections between the ISI and Islamic militant groups. In Pakistan, Sheikh was sentenced to death for killing Pearl, however his complicity in the execution and the reasons behind it are in dispute.
A Wall Street Journal review of Bernard-Henri Levy's book “Who Killed Daniel Pearl?” notes, “It is a fact that Gen. Mahmood Ahmed, then head of the ISI, wired $100,000 to Mohamed Atta before 9/11 through an intermediary."[7]
NECESSARY BUSH SAYS
NECESSARY, BUSH SAYS
In Washington, Bush told reporters on Friday: "Guantanamo is a necessary part of protecting the American people." (Wrong, you had a role as well as the CIA and FBI in 9/11)
Human rights activists said the horrific nature of the charges is being used as an excuse to justify a flawed system that allows the use of secret evidence and evidence that may have been obtained through torture.
If this is the best we can do, we risk forfeiting our ability to hold ourselves out as examples to the world," said Ben Wizner, who is monitoring the trials for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Fleener said he believed in protecting Americans from al Qaeda but viewed the tribunals as fundamentally unfair.
He is a federal public defender in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in civilian life and an Army reservist called to duty three months ago. His client is an alleged bodyguard for Osama bin Laden and does not want a lawyer appointed by the military enemies who captured him.
Fleener said he would comply with orders to put on a zealous defense but believes representing a client who has rejected him is an ethical violation that could cost him his law license.
In Washington, Bush told reporters on Friday: "Guantanamo is a necessary part of protecting the American people." (Wrong, you had a role as well as the CIA and FBI in 9/11)
Human rights activists said the horrific nature of the charges is being used as an excuse to justify a flawed system that allows the use of secret evidence and evidence that may have been obtained through torture.
If this is the best we can do, we risk forfeiting our ability to hold ourselves out as examples to the world," said Ben Wizner, who is monitoring the trials for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Fleener said he believed in protecting Americans from al Qaeda but viewed the tribunals as fundamentally unfair.
He is a federal public defender in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in civilian life and an Army reservist called to duty three months ago. His client is an alleged bodyguard for Osama bin Laden and does not want a lawyer appointed by the military enemies who captured him.
Fleener said he would comply with orders to put on a zealous defense but believes representing a client who has rejected him is an ethical violation that could cost him his law license.
Guantanamo defense lawyers criticize tribunals
International News Article Reuters.com
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - U.S. military officers ordered to defend accused war criminals at Guantanamo base in Cuba have joined the outcry of activists assailing the court system for human rights violations.
"It was horrific to sit there and watch this happen," said Army Maj. Tom Fleener, who represented a Yemeni prisoner in pretrial hearings at Guantanamo this week.
The nine Guantanamo prisoners charged so far are accused of conspiring with the Islamist militant al Qaeda group to kill Americans in the September 11 attacks and on the battlefield.
"We live in a country where we've spent a couple hundred years putting together a good system of justice where people have rights to counsel (of their choosing), people have rights to confront accusers, people have rights to evidence," Fleener told journalists.
"None of that stuff is present in these hearings."
The five military defense lawyers appointed so far have challenged every aspect of the tribunals.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, who represents another Yemeni prisoner, has asked the Supreme Court to rule that U.S. President George W. Bush lacked authority to create the new court system rather than try the prisoners under existing civilian or military law.
The Bush administration and the military prosecutors said the system was designed to provide fair trials for suspected terrorists whose crimes had not been contemplated under existing law.
GUANTANAMO BAY U.S. NAVAL BASE, Cuba (Reuters) - U.S. military officers ordered to defend accused war criminals at Guantanamo base in Cuba have joined the outcry of activists assailing the court system for human rights violations.
"It was horrific to sit there and watch this happen," said Army Maj. Tom Fleener, who represented a Yemeni prisoner in pretrial hearings at Guantanamo this week.
The nine Guantanamo prisoners charged so far are accused of conspiring with the Islamist militant al Qaeda group to kill Americans in the September 11 attacks and on the battlefield.
"We live in a country where we've spent a couple hundred years putting together a good system of justice where people have rights to counsel (of their choosing), people have rights to confront accusers, people have rights to evidence," Fleener told journalists.
"None of that stuff is present in these hearings."
The five military defense lawyers appointed so far have challenged every aspect of the tribunals.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, who represents another Yemeni prisoner, has asked the Supreme Court to rule that U.S. President George W. Bush lacked authority to create the new court system rather than try the prisoners under existing civilian or military law.
The Bush administration and the military prosecutors said the system was designed to provide fair trials for suspected terrorists whose crimes had not been contemplated under existing law.
Iran threatens to curb inspections
Top News Article Reuters.com
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran threatened on Friday to block snap U.N. inspections of its nuclear facilities if it is taken to the U.N. Security Council, but the United States said the West would not be deflected from that course.
"I'm not going to prejudge what the United Nations Security Council should do," President George W. Bush told a news conference in Washington with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"But I recognize that it's logical that a country which has rejected diplomatic entreaties be sent to the United Nations Security Council."
Chancellor Angela Merkel has seemingly talked some sense into Bush.
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran threatened on Friday to block snap U.N. inspections of its nuclear facilities if it is taken to the U.N. Security Council, but the United States said the West would not be deflected from that course.
"I'm not going to prejudge what the United Nations Security Council should do," President George W. Bush told a news conference in Washington with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"But I recognize that it's logical that a country which has rejected diplomatic entreaties be sent to the United Nations Security Council."
Chancellor Angela Merkel has seemingly talked some sense into Bush.
US helicopter shot down in Iraq: witnesses
Top News Article Reuters.com
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. army helicopter crashed near the city of Mosul, north of Baghdad, on Friday after coming under fire from insurgents on the ground, witnesses said.
The witnesses in al-Sukar district north of Mosul told Reuters they saw gunmen fire on the helicopter, causing it to crash.
It was not immediately clear whether the crew survived the crash. U.S. forces had sealed off the site, the witnesses said. The U.S. military said it was checking the report.
It was the second U.S. helicopter to crash in Iraq in less than a week. A military UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed on Saturday, killing all 12 aboard in one of the worst incidents of its kind since the war began in 2003.
The U.S. military believes the Black Hawk may have been brought down by bad weather, but the cause is still under investigation. (clearly indicating their heads are where the sun doesn't shine)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. army helicopter crashed near the city of Mosul, north of Baghdad, on Friday after coming under fire from insurgents on the ground, witnesses said.
The witnesses in al-Sukar district north of Mosul told Reuters they saw gunmen fire on the helicopter, causing it to crash.
It was not immediately clear whether the crew survived the crash. U.S. forces had sealed off the site, the witnesses said. The U.S. military said it was checking the report.
It was the second U.S. helicopter to crash in Iraq in less than a week. A military UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter crashed on Saturday, killing all 12 aboard in one of the worst incidents of its kind since the war began in 2003.
The U.S. military believes the Black Hawk may have been brought down by bad weather, but the cause is still under investigation. (clearly indicating their heads are where the sun doesn't shine)
Bloomberg.com: U.S.
Bloomberg.com: U.S.
Bush Urges Diplomatic Solution to Iran Standoff (Update1)
Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush urged a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Iran over its nuclear ambitions, saying the United Nations Security Council should deal with the issue.
A nuclear-armed Iran would pose a ``grave threat'' to the world and is ``unacceptable,'' Bush said after White House talks today with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel agreed, saying the U.S. and European allies would ``try to persuade as many countries to ally themselves with us.''
``We will certainly not be intimidated by a country such as Iran,'' she said, The U.S., Germany, France and U.K. yesterday said negotiations have failed to persuade Iran to stop processing nuclear fuel. The four countries want the UN International Atomic Energy Agency to hold an emergency vote to refer the matter to the Security Council, where Iran may face censure or sanctions.
Merkel, making her first official visit to the U.S., is seeking to repair ties with the U.S. without alienating Germans skeptical about Bush's Iraq policy. She called today's talks ``open and candid,'' and ``a good beginning.'' Bush called the meeting with Merkel ``extraordinarily positive.''
The president defended U.S. detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, rebuffing Merkel's call to close the military prison in Cuba. ``There are some misperceptions about Guantanamo,'' Bush said. ``Guantanamo is a necessary part of protecting the American people,'' he said, and ``so long as there is a threat, we would inevitably need to hold people.''
I see perhaps (or I am hoping this to be so) a brilliant strategist coming to light with Chancellor Merkel; She's maintaining peaceful relations with the US, especially since The Bush administration is clearly war happy, her approach needs to first establish neutrality. Establish a common goal.
Originally she seemed to be very concerned about closing Guatanamo, but has chosen not to bring this issue up in these meetings.
Last night I was concerned with her new and different approach and possible tactics, but I suspect it all serves its purpose, in its own time. I think she clearly knows what she is doing, and paving her way quite diplomatically.
Bush Urges Diplomatic Solution to Iran Standoff (Update1)
Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- President George W. Bush urged a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Iran over its nuclear ambitions, saying the United Nations Security Council should deal with the issue.
A nuclear-armed Iran would pose a ``grave threat'' to the world and is ``unacceptable,'' Bush said after White House talks today with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel agreed, saying the U.S. and European allies would ``try to persuade as many countries to ally themselves with us.''
``We will certainly not be intimidated by a country such as Iran,'' she said, The U.S., Germany, France and U.K. yesterday said negotiations have failed to persuade Iran to stop processing nuclear fuel. The four countries want the UN International Atomic Energy Agency to hold an emergency vote to refer the matter to the Security Council, where Iran may face censure or sanctions.
Merkel, making her first official visit to the U.S., is seeking to repair ties with the U.S. without alienating Germans skeptical about Bush's Iraq policy. She called today's talks ``open and candid,'' and ``a good beginning.'' Bush called the meeting with Merkel ``extraordinarily positive.''
The president defended U.S. detention of terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay, rebuffing Merkel's call to close the military prison in Cuba. ``There are some misperceptions about Guantanamo,'' Bush said. ``Guantanamo is a necessary part of protecting the American people,'' he said, and ``so long as there is a threat, we would inevitably need to hold people.''
I see perhaps (or I am hoping this to be so) a brilliant strategist coming to light with Chancellor Merkel; She's maintaining peaceful relations with the US, especially since The Bush administration is clearly war happy, her approach needs to first establish neutrality. Establish a common goal.
Originally she seemed to be very concerned about closing Guatanamo, but has chosen not to bring this issue up in these meetings.
Last night I was concerned with her new and different approach and possible tactics, but I suspect it all serves its purpose, in its own time. I think she clearly knows what she is doing, and paving her way quite diplomatically.
Report: German Secret Agents Helped in Iraq Invasion | Germany | Deutsche Welle | 12.01.2006
Report: German Secret Agents Helped in Iraq Invasion Germany Deutsche Welle 12.01.2006
A scandal is brewing in political Berlin after two news organizations reported Wednesday that German intelligence agents helped the US during military operations in Iraq. Germany's foreign minister denied the reports.
In a front page story in the respected Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), renowned investigative journalist Hans Leyendecker and colleague Wolfgang Krach quoted a high-ranking German security source as saying that two Federal Intelligence Agency agents (BND) in Baghdad helped the US military assess targets during the air invasion of Iraq in the war's opening weeks.
The office of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who thrust US-German relations into an ice age through his disapproval of the Iraq invasion, reportedly knew about the cooperation and approved of it, according to the article. The cooperation was made after a "political decision" by Schröder's coalition government. "This wasn't the decision of some department head," the SZ quoted their source as saying.
Current foreign minister denies report
Schröder opposed the war, but reportedly approved intelligence cooperation.
I know we had international help, but will be disappointed in Germany did anything unscroupulous . I believe Chancellor Merkel will effectively do her job to resolve this matter.
A scandal is brewing in political Berlin after two news organizations reported Wednesday that German intelligence agents helped the US during military operations in Iraq. Germany's foreign minister denied the reports.
In a front page story in the respected Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), renowned investigative journalist Hans Leyendecker and colleague Wolfgang Krach quoted a high-ranking German security source as saying that two Federal Intelligence Agency agents (BND) in Baghdad helped the US military assess targets during the air invasion of Iraq in the war's opening weeks.
The office of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who thrust US-German relations into an ice age through his disapproval of the Iraq invasion, reportedly knew about the cooperation and approved of it, according to the article. The cooperation was made after a "political decision" by Schröder's coalition government. "This wasn't the decision of some department head," the SZ quoted their source as saying.
Current foreign minister denies report
Schröder opposed the war, but reportedly approved intelligence cooperation.
I know we had international help, but will be disappointed in Germany did anything unscroupulous . I believe Chancellor Merkel will effectively do her job to resolve this matter.
Europeans Agree to Refer Iran to UN Security Council | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 12.01.2006
Europeans Agree to Refer Iran to UN Security Council Europe Deutsche Welle 12.01.2006
The EU-3 negotiations team dealing with the Iranian nuclear crisis agreed Thursday that an emergency meeting of the UN IAEA watchdog should be convened with a view to bringing Iran before the UN Security Council.
Europe's big three powers called Thursday for UN Security Council action against Iran over its nuclear program, saying two years of delicate negotiations with Tehran had reached a "dead end."
Speaking at the end of a crisis meeting here after Iran resumed sensitive nuclear fuel activities, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany said they wanted an emergency meeting of the UN atomic watchdog to refer the dossier to the world body's executive.
"We believe the time has now come for the Security Council to become involved to reinforce the authority of IAEA resolutions," the troika said in a statement, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The EU will meet with the UN (IAEA), while Bush is planning attacks.
The EU-3 negotiations team dealing with the Iranian nuclear crisis agreed Thursday that an emergency meeting of the UN IAEA watchdog should be convened with a view to bringing Iran before the UN Security Council.
Europe's big three powers called Thursday for UN Security Council action against Iran over its nuclear program, saying two years of delicate negotiations with Tehran had reached a "dead end."
Speaking at the end of a crisis meeting here after Iran resumed sensitive nuclear fuel activities, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany said they wanted an emergency meeting of the UN atomic watchdog to refer the dossier to the world body's executive.
"We believe the time has now come for the Security Council to become involved to reinforce the authority of IAEA resolutions," the troika said in a statement, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The EU will meet with the UN (IAEA), while Bush is planning attacks.
Darfur
Action Items:
60 Seconds of Action: Take a moment to visit the new site for the Million Voices for Darfur campaign, http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=72108034&url_num=2&url=http://millionvoicesfordarfur.org/, and fill out an online postcard to President Bush. After you’re finished, use the Forward to a Friend function to spread the word!
60 Minutes of Action: When Congress returns to Washington, DC in a few weeks to begin the new legislative session, make sure that they’ve got Darfur on their minds by scheduling a personal meeting with your Representative while he or she is back home for recess. Visit http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=72108034&url_num=3&url=http://genocidehitshome.org/ for help and instructions on how to go about setting up a meeting. If you are able to secure a meeting, email us at info@savedarfur.org and we will gladly send you a list of talking points.
This week in Sudan:
The situation in Darfur remained chaotic and dangerous this week, as another African Union peacekeeper was killed by unnamed forces. The incident quickly became another chance for Chad and Sudan to inch closer to open conflict, as each blamed the killing on the other. Chad went on to demand that Sudan disarm anti-Chadian rebels who are based in western Darfur, and also demanded that Sudan not be given the presidency of the African Union at that organization’s summit meeting in Khartoum next week. The escalating violence and rhetoric has many worried about the possibility of a regional meltdown which could engulf the entire horn of Africa. In response to the grim prospects in Darfur, a number of different actions have been suggested, including the possibility of turning the African Union peacekeeping force into a United Nations force, which would open the door to further funding and international military help. Whether the Sudanese government would welcome further UN involvement is in doubt, however, as the government of Sudan has denied international investigators access to Sudan in order to investigate war crimes and acts of genocide in Darfur. A UN report also recommended this week that sanctions be implemented against several Sudanese involved in the genocide in Darfur.
In addition to further UN involvement, appointing a high-level Special Envoy to Sudan in the mold of former U.S. Ambassador John Danforth (who played an integral role during the negotiations over the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signe last year between Khartoum and South Sudanese rebels) has also been suggested. Meanwhile, editorials and letters to the editor continue to push for a larger U.S. role as well, even as the Million Voices for Darfur campaign was launched in order to raise the level of public support for stronger international action in Darfur to protect civilians.
For additional information on any of these stories, either click on the links embedded in the above paragraphs, or scroll to a list of the articles below. In addition, a more complete list of articles on Darfur is available on our website, updated daily. You may also request daily email news updates with the day's top articles by emailing info@SaveDarfur.org.
60 Seconds of Action: Take a moment to visit the new site for the Million Voices for Darfur campaign, http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=72108034&url_num=2&url=http://millionvoicesfordarfur.org/, and fill out an online postcard to President Bush. After you’re finished, use the Forward to a Friend function to spread the word!
60 Minutes of Action: When Congress returns to Washington, DC in a few weeks to begin the new legislative session, make sure that they’ve got Darfur on their minds by scheduling a personal meeting with your Representative while he or she is back home for recess. Visit http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=72108034&url_num=3&url=http://genocidehitshome.org/ for help and instructions on how to go about setting up a meeting. If you are able to secure a meeting, email us at info@savedarfur.org and we will gladly send you a list of talking points.
This week in Sudan:
The situation in Darfur remained chaotic and dangerous this week, as another African Union peacekeeper was killed by unnamed forces. The incident quickly became another chance for Chad and Sudan to inch closer to open conflict, as each blamed the killing on the other. Chad went on to demand that Sudan disarm anti-Chadian rebels who are based in western Darfur, and also demanded that Sudan not be given the presidency of the African Union at that organization’s summit meeting in Khartoum next week. The escalating violence and rhetoric has many worried about the possibility of a regional meltdown which could engulf the entire horn of Africa. In response to the grim prospects in Darfur, a number of different actions have been suggested, including the possibility of turning the African Union peacekeeping force into a United Nations force, which would open the door to further funding and international military help. Whether the Sudanese government would welcome further UN involvement is in doubt, however, as the government of Sudan has denied international investigators access to Sudan in order to investigate war crimes and acts of genocide in Darfur. A UN report also recommended this week that sanctions be implemented against several Sudanese involved in the genocide in Darfur.
In addition to further UN involvement, appointing a high-level Special Envoy to Sudan in the mold of former U.S. Ambassador John Danforth (who played an integral role during the negotiations over the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signe last year between Khartoum and South Sudanese rebels) has also been suggested. Meanwhile, editorials and letters to the editor continue to push for a larger U.S. role as well, even as the Million Voices for Darfur campaign was launched in order to raise the level of public support for stronger international action in Darfur to protect civilians.
For additional information on any of these stories, either click on the links embedded in the above paragraphs, or scroll to a list of the articles below. In addition, a more complete list of articles on Darfur is available on our website, updated daily. You may also request daily email news updates with the day's top articles by emailing info@SaveDarfur.org.
Bush Explains Medicare
Bush Explains Medicare Drug Bill --
Verbatim QuoteSubmitted on 2005-12-13 16:35:14
WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: 'I don't really understand. How is it the new plan going to fix the problem?'
Verbatim response:
PRESIDENT BUSH:
'Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculated, for example, is on the table. Whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases.
There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to that has been promised. Does that make any sense to you?
It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, supposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.'
Share this with others -- so they, too, can understand...
(now you know why everything is so screwed up)
Verbatim QuoteSubmitted on 2005-12-13 16:35:14
WOMAN IN AUDIENCE: 'I don't really understand. How is it the new plan going to fix the problem?'
Verbatim response:
PRESIDENT BUSH:
'Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculated, for example, is on the table. Whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases.
There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to that has been promised. Does that make any sense to you?
It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, supposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.'
Share this with others -- so they, too, can understand...
(now you know why everything is so screwed up)
12.1.06
POGO
POGO
Here at home:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 12, 200612:37 PM
CONTACT: Project On Government Oversight
Scott Amey scott@pogo.org or
Beth Daley beth@pogo.org at (202) 347-1122
Investigations into Katrina Waste and Fraud Detailed
WASHINGTON - January 12 - A new report sheds light on efforts of Inspector Generals to oversee spending for major hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. The report, which was first reported on by the Associated Press yesterday (see recent version of article below) is here: http://www.pogo.org/m/cp/cp-OIG-12302005.pdf
Titled the "90-Day Progress Report to Congress," the 141-page report details the actions of 21 federal agencies that are overseeing taxpayer dollars and programs awarded after hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma ravaged the U.S. coastline from Florida to Texas. More than 4,700 contracts have been awarded, totaling more than $8.1 billion of the $62.3 billion approved by Congress and the President.
The report provides a listing of all final, ongoing, and planned audits and investigations that have been conducted by Homeland Security, Defense, Energy, and Labor among other federal agencies.
Up to this point, the President's Council has released data listing oversight staff, total contracts, total contract awards, government credit card spending, arrests, indictments, and convictions
(see http://www.ignet.gov/pande/hsr/121605katrinarpt.pdf).
"Some of the audit findings confirm our worst fears -- agencies were ill-prepared to meet the country's contracting needs," said Scott Amey, General Counsel of POGO. "These audits ensure that contractors did not exploit mistakes that may have been made in the chaotic rush following the hurricanes."
read on...
Here at home:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JANUARY 12, 200612:37 PM
CONTACT: Project On Government Oversight
Scott Amey scott@pogo.org or
Beth Daley beth@pogo.org at (202) 347-1122
Investigations into Katrina Waste and Fraud Detailed
WASHINGTON - January 12 - A new report sheds light on efforts of Inspector Generals to oversee spending for major hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. The report, which was first reported on by the Associated Press yesterday (see recent version of article below) is here: http://www.pogo.org/m/cp/cp-OIG-12302005.pdf
Titled the "90-Day Progress Report to Congress," the 141-page report details the actions of 21 federal agencies that are overseeing taxpayer dollars and programs awarded after hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma ravaged the U.S. coastline from Florida to Texas. More than 4,700 contracts have been awarded, totaling more than $8.1 billion of the $62.3 billion approved by Congress and the President.
The report provides a listing of all final, ongoing, and planned audits and investigations that have been conducted by Homeland Security, Defense, Energy, and Labor among other federal agencies.
Up to this point, the President's Council has released data listing oversight staff, total contracts, total contract awards, government credit card spending, arrests, indictments, and convictions
(see http://www.ignet.gov/pande/hsr/121605katrinarpt.pdf).
"Some of the audit findings confirm our worst fears -- agencies were ill-prepared to meet the country's contracting needs," said Scott Amey, General Counsel of POGO. "These audits ensure that contractors did not exploit mistakes that may have been made in the chaotic rush following the hurricanes."
read on...
Army Documents Confirming that�Black Ops "Special Access Program" Unit Covered Up Detainee Abuse
Army Documents Confirming that�Black Ops "Special Access Program" Unit Covered Up Detainee Abuse
Army Documents Confirming that Black Ops "Special Access Program" Unit Covered Up Detainee Abuse(released by the Government 11/9/2005, released by the ACLU 02/12/06 More Torture Documents Released Under FOIA )
Army Documents Confirming that Black Ops "Special Access Program" Unit Covered Up Detainee Abuse(released by the Government 11/9/2005, released by the ACLU 02/12/06 More Torture Documents Released Under FOIA )
ACLU
ACLU
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEJANUARY 12, 20061:17 PM
CONTACT: American Civil Liberties Union media@aclu.org
New Army Documents Confirm Black Ops "Special Access Program" Unit Covered Up Detainee AbuseArmy Knew of Systemic Abuse in Afghanistan Back in January 2002
NEW YORK - January 12 - The American Civil Liberties Union today released new documents obtained from the Defense Department detailing abuse at U.S. facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. Included in the release is the first publicly available government document confirming the existence of a secret “Special Access Program” involving a special ops unit, Task Force 6-26, which has been implicated in numerous detainee abuse incidents in Iraq, and whose operatives used fake names to thwart an Army investigation.
“These documents confirm that the torture of detainees and its subsequent cover-up was part of a larger clandestine operation, in all likelihood, authorized by senior government officials,” said ACLU attorney Amrit Singh. “Despite mounting evidence of systemic abuse authorized or endorsed from above, however, not a single high level official has thus far been brought to justice.”
In one Army file, an investigator states that he is unable to continue an investigation into claims that a detainee captured by Task Force 6-26 in Tikrit, Iraq, was stripped, humiliated and physically abused until he passed out, because the unit accused of the abuse is part of the Special Access Program (SAP).
A memorandum included in the report states that “fake names were used by the 6-26 members” and that the unit claimed to have a computer malfunction which resulted in the loss of 70 percent of their files. The memorandum concludes, “Hell, even if we reopened [the investigation] we wouldn’t get any more information than we already have.”
To date, almost 90,000 pages of government documents have been released in response to the ACLU's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The ACLU has been posting these documents online at www.aclu.org/torturefoia.
The documents released today are available at: http://action.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/011206
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEJANUARY 12, 20061:17 PM
CONTACT: American Civil Liberties Union media@aclu.org
New Army Documents Confirm Black Ops "Special Access Program" Unit Covered Up Detainee AbuseArmy Knew of Systemic Abuse in Afghanistan Back in January 2002
NEW YORK - January 12 - The American Civil Liberties Union today released new documents obtained from the Defense Department detailing abuse at U.S. facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. Included in the release is the first publicly available government document confirming the existence of a secret “Special Access Program” involving a special ops unit, Task Force 6-26, which has been implicated in numerous detainee abuse incidents in Iraq, and whose operatives used fake names to thwart an Army investigation.
“These documents confirm that the torture of detainees and its subsequent cover-up was part of a larger clandestine operation, in all likelihood, authorized by senior government officials,” said ACLU attorney Amrit Singh. “Despite mounting evidence of systemic abuse authorized or endorsed from above, however, not a single high level official has thus far been brought to justice.”
In one Army file, an investigator states that he is unable to continue an investigation into claims that a detainee captured by Task Force 6-26 in Tikrit, Iraq, was stripped, humiliated and physically abused until he passed out, because the unit accused of the abuse is part of the Special Access Program (SAP).
A memorandum included in the report states that “fake names were used by the 6-26 members” and that the unit claimed to have a computer malfunction which resulted in the loss of 70 percent of their files. The memorandum concludes, “Hell, even if we reopened [the investigation] we wouldn’t get any more information than we already have.”
To date, almost 90,000 pages of government documents have been released in response to the ACLU's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The ACLU has been posting these documents online at www.aclu.org/torturefoia.
The documents released today are available at: http://action.aclu.org/torturefoia/released/011206
Let's Make Sure We Do Better With Iran Than We Did With Iraq
Let's Make Sure We Do Better With Iran Than We Did With Iraq
The west's next step on Tehran's nuclear plans should be to understand the regime and society, not to start bombing
by Timothy Garton Ash
Now we face the next big test of the west: after Iraq, Iran. As the Islamic revolutionary regime breaks the international seals on its nuclear facilities, and prepares to hone its skills in the uranium enrichment that could, in a matter of years, enable it to produce nuclear weapons, we in Europe and the United States have to respond. But how? If we mishandle this, it could lead not only to the edge of another military confrontation but also to another crisis of the west.
The European policy of negotiated containment, mistrustfully backed by America and ambiguously accompanied by Russia, has failed. It was worth trying, but it was not enough. The Europeans did not carry sufficiently credible sticks and the Americans did not wave large enough carrots to sway the theocrats in Tehran. Neither half of the old transatlantic west could induce oil-hungry China and energy-rich Russia to play the diplomatic game sufficiently clearly our way.
The seemingly half-crazed new Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would probably regard a cost-benefit analysis as an invention of the Great Satan and a prime example of western secular decadence. Allah, he would say, is not an accountant. Yet if cooler heads in the regime behind him are making a cost-benefit analysis, they could still conclude that this is a risk worth taking. The mullahs are floating high on an ocean of oil revenue: an estimated $36bn last year. This money can be used to buy off material discontent at home
They know that the US is deeply mired in neighbouring Iraq, where the Iranians wield growing influence in the Shia south. As President George Bush might privately put it, Tehran has Washington by the cojones. The mullahs also know that China (which has a large energy-supply deal with Iran) and Russia have very different interests from Europe and the US; and they know that countries like Germany and Italy will be deeply reluctant to let sanctions restrict their lucrative trade with Iran. That's a strong hand.
Everyone seems to agree that the next major step is for the matter to be referred to the UN security council. Even the Bush administration, so contemptuous of the UN during the Iraq crisis, now regards that as Plan B. What then? The security council raps Tehran over the knuckles. President Ahmadinejad says go to hell. The security council comes back with sanctions, which would be limited by the geopolitical and energy interests of China and Russia, and the economic interests of Germany, Italy and France.
This is going to get ugly, and left up to the US, it will get real messy, real quick
The west's next step on Tehran's nuclear plans should be to understand the regime and society, not to start bombing
by Timothy Garton Ash
Now we face the next big test of the west: after Iraq, Iran. As the Islamic revolutionary regime breaks the international seals on its nuclear facilities, and prepares to hone its skills in the uranium enrichment that could, in a matter of years, enable it to produce nuclear weapons, we in Europe and the United States have to respond. But how? If we mishandle this, it could lead not only to the edge of another military confrontation but also to another crisis of the west.
The European policy of negotiated containment, mistrustfully backed by America and ambiguously accompanied by Russia, has failed. It was worth trying, but it was not enough. The Europeans did not carry sufficiently credible sticks and the Americans did not wave large enough carrots to sway the theocrats in Tehran. Neither half of the old transatlantic west could induce oil-hungry China and energy-rich Russia to play the diplomatic game sufficiently clearly our way.
The seemingly half-crazed new Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, would probably regard a cost-benefit analysis as an invention of the Great Satan and a prime example of western secular decadence. Allah, he would say, is not an accountant. Yet if cooler heads in the regime behind him are making a cost-benefit analysis, they could still conclude that this is a risk worth taking. The mullahs are floating high on an ocean of oil revenue: an estimated $36bn last year. This money can be used to buy off material discontent at home
They know that the US is deeply mired in neighbouring Iraq, where the Iranians wield growing influence in the Shia south. As President George Bush might privately put it, Tehran has Washington by the cojones. The mullahs also know that China (which has a large energy-supply deal with Iran) and Russia have very different interests from Europe and the US; and they know that countries like Germany and Italy will be deeply reluctant to let sanctions restrict their lucrative trade with Iran. That's a strong hand.
Everyone seems to agree that the next major step is for the matter to be referred to the UN security council. Even the Bush administration, so contemptuous of the UN during the Iraq crisis, now regards that as Plan B. What then? The security council raps Tehran over the knuckles. President Ahmadinejad says go to hell. The security council comes back with sanctions, which would be limited by the geopolitical and energy interests of China and Russia, and the economic interests of Germany, Italy and France.
This is going to get ugly, and left up to the US, it will get real messy, real quick
The Impeachment of George W. Bush
The Impeachment of George W. Bush
Its about time, and get rid of Cheney too.
Finally, it has started. People have begun to speak of impeaching President George W. Bush - not in hushed whispers but openly, in newspapers, on the Internet, in ordinary conversations and even in Congress.
As a former member of Congress who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon, I believe they are right to do so.
I can still remember the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach during those proceedings, when it became clear that the President had so systematically abused the powers of the presidency and so threatened the rule of law that he had to be removed from office.
As a Democrat who opposed many of President Nixon's policies, I still found voting for his impeachment to be one of the most sobering and unpleasant tasks I ever had to undertake.
None of the members of the committee took pleasure in voting for impeachment; after all, Democrat or Republican, Nixon was still our President.
At the time, I hoped that our committee's work would send a strong signal to future Presidents that they had to obey the rule of law. I was wrong.
Like many others, I have been deeply troubled by Bush's breathtaking scorn for our international treaty obligations under the United Nations Charter and the Geneva Conventions.
I have also been disturbed by the torture scandals and the violations of US criminal laws at the highest levels of our government they may entail, something I have written about in these pages. These concerns have been compounded by growing evidence that the President deliberately misled the country into the war in Iraq.
But it wasn't until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) - and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country's laws- that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate.
As a matter of constitutional law, these and other misdeeds constitute grounds for the impeachment of President Bush. A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law -- and repeatedly violates the law -- thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors, the constitutional standard for impeachment and removal from office.
A high crime or misdemeanor is an archaic term that means a serious abuse of power, whether or not it is also a crime, that endangers our constitutional system of government.
This story is quite a bit longer, but well worth reading and recapping all the obvious reasons Bush should be impeached.
Also Published on Thursday, January 12, 2006 by The Nation
Its about time, and get rid of Cheney too.
Finally, it has started. People have begun to speak of impeaching President George W. Bush - not in hushed whispers but openly, in newspapers, on the Internet, in ordinary conversations and even in Congress.
As a former member of Congress who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon, I believe they are right to do so.
I can still remember the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach during those proceedings, when it became clear that the President had so systematically abused the powers of the presidency and so threatened the rule of law that he had to be removed from office.
As a Democrat who opposed many of President Nixon's policies, I still found voting for his impeachment to be one of the most sobering and unpleasant tasks I ever had to undertake.
None of the members of the committee took pleasure in voting for impeachment; after all, Democrat or Republican, Nixon was still our President.
At the time, I hoped that our committee's work would send a strong signal to future Presidents that they had to obey the rule of law. I was wrong.
Like many others, I have been deeply troubled by Bush's breathtaking scorn for our international treaty obligations under the United Nations Charter and the Geneva Conventions.
I have also been disturbed by the torture scandals and the violations of US criminal laws at the highest levels of our government they may entail, something I have written about in these pages. These concerns have been compounded by growing evidence that the President deliberately misled the country into the war in Iraq.
But it wasn't until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) - and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country's laws- that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate.
As a matter of constitutional law, these and other misdeeds constitute grounds for the impeachment of President Bush. A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law -- and repeatedly violates the law -- thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors, the constitutional standard for impeachment and removal from office.
A high crime or misdemeanor is an archaic term that means a serious abuse of power, whether or not it is also a crime, that endangers our constitutional system of government.
This story is quite a bit longer, but well worth reading and recapping all the obvious reasons Bush should be impeached.
Also Published on Thursday, January 12, 2006 by The Nation
US General Invokes Right in Iraq Cases: Paper
US General Invokes Right in Iraq Cases: Paper
WASHINGTON - A U.S. Army general who helped set up operations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has asserted his right not to incriminate himself in the courts-martial of two soldiers accused of mistreating detainees there, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
The move by Major Gen. Geoffrey Miller is the first time he has indicated he might have information that could implicate him in wrongdoing, the newspaper said, citing military lawyers. Invoking the right does not legally imply guilt it said.
It said the action came shortly after the commanding officer at Abu Ghraib, Col. Thomas Pappas, accepted immunity this week and was ordered to testify at upcoming courts martial.
Miller once supervised the jail for foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He helped introduce Guantanamo-style questioning methods in Iraq ahead of the 2003 abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
No I think in this case IT DOES IMPLY GUILT
WASHINGTON - A U.S. Army general who helped set up operations at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq has asserted his right not to incriminate himself in the courts-martial of two soldiers accused of mistreating detainees there, The Washington Post reported on Thursday.
The move by Major Gen. Geoffrey Miller is the first time he has indicated he might have information that could implicate him in wrongdoing, the newspaper said, citing military lawyers. Invoking the right does not legally imply guilt it said.
It said the action came shortly after the commanding officer at Abu Ghraib, Col. Thomas Pappas, accepted immunity this week and was ordered to testify at upcoming courts martial.
Miller once supervised the jail for foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He helped introduce Guantanamo-style questioning methods in Iraq ahead of the 2003 abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad.
No I think in this case IT DOES IMPLY GUILT
Iraq: Another Raid Brings Further Alienation
Iraq: Another Raid Brings Further Alienation
...and yet another unprecedented act. More Bu*sh*it.
BAGHDAD - The Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni organisation that was created in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, was again targeted by the United States military last Sunday.
The raid on its mosque served only to alienate Sunnis further. The Association of Muslim Scholars, now considered the highest Sunni authority in Iraq, has been working to support those who have lost their families, or the unemployed. It is also a strong critic of the United States occupation.
(we now know anyone who opposes US policy is perceived as terrorists, which now includes more than 1/2 of the US citizens)
Its stand has provoked several raids by the U.S. army and continuing conflict with the Shia-dominted interim government.
...and yet another unprecedented act. More Bu*sh*it.
BAGHDAD - The Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni organisation that was created in the aftermath of the Iraq invasion, was again targeted by the United States military last Sunday.
The raid on its mosque served only to alienate Sunnis further. The Association of Muslim Scholars, now considered the highest Sunni authority in Iraq, has been working to support those who have lost their families, or the unemployed. It is also a strong critic of the United States occupation.
(we now know anyone who opposes US policy is perceived as terrorists, which now includes more than 1/2 of the US citizens)
Its stand has provoked several raids by the U.S. army and continuing conflict with the Shia-dominted interim government.
Disaster Planning: Norway Builds a 'Doomsday Vault'
Disaster Planning: Norway Builds a 'Doomsday Vault'
Norway has revealed a plan to build a "doomsday vault" hewn out of an Arctic mountain to store two million crop seeds in the event of a global disaster.
The store is designed to hold all the seeds representing the world's crops and is being built to safeguard future food supplies in the event of widespread environmental collapse.
Yep, they know whats coming. Our government wouldn't think of such a thing, unless there was OIL there. That seems to be the only priority.
Norway has revealed a plan to build a "doomsday vault" hewn out of an Arctic mountain to store two million crop seeds in the event of a global disaster.
The store is designed to hold all the seeds representing the world's crops and is being built to safeguard future food supplies in the event of widespread environmental collapse.
Yep, they know whats coming. Our government wouldn't think of such a thing, unless there was OIL there. That seems to be the only priority.
US Army in Iraq Institutionally Racist, Claims British Officer
US Army in Iraq Institutionally Racist, Claims British Officer
A senior British officer has criticised the US army for its conduct in Iraq, accusing it of institutional racism, moral righteousness, misplaced optimism, and of being ill-suited to engage in counter-insurgency operations.
...and then some. Since we have an ignorant, incompetant leader, what did you expect?
A senior British officer has criticised the US army for its conduct in Iraq, accusing it of institutional racism, moral righteousness, misplaced optimism, and of being ill-suited to engage in counter-insurgency operations.
...and then some. Since we have an ignorant, incompetant leader, what did you expect?
US Lifts Longtime Drilling Ban on Alaskan Wildlife Habitat
US Lifts Longtime Drilling Ban on Alaskan Wildlife Habitat
The Department of Interior on Wednesday approved oil and gas drilling on Alaska land considered such sensitive wildlife habitat that it was first protected by former Interior Secretary James G. Watt under President Reagan, and by four Interior secretaries since.
The decision — decried by Native American, hunting and environmental groups — comes just weeks after the U.S. Senate rejected drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, about 200 miles to the east.
Bureau of Land Management staff said the decision was made after three years of study and in response to requests by Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force.
The area is a critical stop for molting geese on the Pacific flyway, with as many as 90,000 birds resting in flat wetlands in the summer. Up to 46,000 caribou also use areas near the lake for calving and migration paths.
Its all about oil, at any cost, no matter what. Greedy A**holes. They do not care about preserving land and wildlife, as long as there is oil there. grrr
The Department of Interior on Wednesday approved oil and gas drilling on Alaska land considered such sensitive wildlife habitat that it was first protected by former Interior Secretary James G. Watt under President Reagan, and by four Interior secretaries since.
The decision — decried by Native American, hunting and environmental groups — comes just weeks after the U.S. Senate rejected drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, about 200 miles to the east.
Bureau of Land Management staff said the decision was made after three years of study and in response to requests by Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force.
The area is a critical stop for molting geese on the Pacific flyway, with as many as 90,000 birds resting in flat wetlands in the summer. Up to 46,000 caribou also use areas near the lake for calving and migration paths.
Its all about oil, at any cost, no matter what. Greedy A**holes. They do not care about preserving land and wildlife, as long as there is oil there. grrr
U.S. Supreme Court to Decide if Police Can Barge in Unannounced
U.S. Supreme Court to Decide if Police Can Barge in Unannounced
NEW YORK - Forget the ongoing privacy debate over U.S. government spying on telephone conversations--soon you may not have the right to tell cops to wait until you open your door.
In a case involving a private citizen and police authorities of the Midwestern state of Michigan, a team of civil rights lawyers appeared before the Supreme Court this week to challenge the police practice of storming into homes to look for whatever they want as evidence of a crime.
Well.... Some of us shoot at intruders.
Hudson's lawyers argued that police had no right to enter his home without knocking at the door and announcing their presence, which is a requirement under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
"It is undisputed that the police violated the Fourth Amendment by barging into Hudson's home," says David Moran, a law professor at Wayne State University, who appeared before the Supreme Court Monday on Hudson's behalf.
The fourth amendment states that, "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated." It also notes that warrants shall only be issued once authorities have established "probable cause" and described the people, places, and things to be searched and seized.
Apparently we don't use the Constitution anymore.
NEW YORK - Forget the ongoing privacy debate over U.S. government spying on telephone conversations--soon you may not have the right to tell cops to wait until you open your door.
In a case involving a private citizen and police authorities of the Midwestern state of Michigan, a team of civil rights lawyers appeared before the Supreme Court this week to challenge the police practice of storming into homes to look for whatever they want as evidence of a crime.
Well.... Some of us shoot at intruders.
Hudson's lawyers argued that police had no right to enter his home without knocking at the door and announcing their presence, which is a requirement under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
"It is undisputed that the police violated the Fourth Amendment by barging into Hudson's home," says David Moran, a law professor at Wayne State University, who appeared before the Supreme Court Monday on Hudson's behalf.
The fourth amendment states that, "the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated." It also notes that warrants shall only be issued once authorities have established "probable cause" and described the people, places, and things to be searched and seized.
Apparently we don't use the Constitution anymore.
Refuse & Resist!
Refuse & Resist!
History repeats itself, now america is the #1 offender, thanks to our current leaders.
History repeats itself, now america is the #1 offender, thanks to our current leaders.
Home Front Casualties
Home Front Casualties
Home Front CasualtiesMurders and suicides by military personnel might be part of the Iraq war toll.
by Rick Anderson
When young Marine Renee DiLorenzo of Whatcom County was shot and killed last month, she became an uncounted statistic of war. Same for Kim Denni, killed last year in a place appropriately called Battle Ground. They are among 10 Western Washingtonians who've died in military-related conflicts since the 2003 invasion of Iraq—four in just a two-week period last month.
None of the casualties, however, occurred in Iraq. Like the others before them, the four all died on the home front: DiLorenzo, 18, who'd just signed up for the U.S. Marines, was killed July 28 by boyfriend Saxxon Rech, 20. Rech, who was mysteriously discharged early from the Marines in February, then turned the shotgun on himself. Army Spc. Leslie Frederick Jr., 23, a decorated Fort Lewis soldier who served in Iraq, committed suicide July 26 in Tacoma. And Army Spc. Brandon Bare, 19, also an Iraq vet, stabbed to death his wife, Nabila, 18, at Fort Lewis, military prosecutors allege.
The case of Nabila Bare is at least the third in the past two years involving a local soldier who killed a lover after returning from Iraq; the DiLorenzo/Rech deaths may also qualify.
Altogether since 2003, there have been seven homicides and three suicides on Western Washington soil involving active troops or veterans of Iraq, based on an accounting of medical examiner, military, and news reports. Fives wives, a girlfriend, and one child have been slain; four other children have lost one or both parents to death or imprisonment. Three servicemen have committed suicide—two of them after killing their wife or girlfriend. Seven of the deaths are linked to soldiers from Fort Lewis. Four soldiers have been sent to prison, and one awaits trial.
No one can say if the killings can be directly connected to the psychological effects of war. But most involve a risk factor distinctive to the military—armed men trained to kill—and some killers carry the invisible scars of war. Bare, for example, was being treated for a brain injury from an Iraq roadside bomb. Army Reserve Sgt. Matthew Denni, who killed his wife, Kimberly, in Battle Ground, Clark County, apparently suffered from the post-traumatic stress of Iraq combat, convincing a jury to convict him of second-degree rather than first-degree murder. Two weeks ago, Sgt. 1st Class James Pitts was imprisoned for drowning his wife in the bathtub of their Lakewood, Pierce County, home just weeks after returning from Iraq. "I wish I was dead," he told a judge.
Statistics on home-front casualties tend to be anecdotal. Neither the Pentagon nor the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) keeps figures on military-involved stateside homicides or suicides. "It's almost impossible to track," says Steve Robinson, head of the National Gulf War Resource Center in Maryland. "I tracked it last year and found as many as 35 suicides [nationwide], but I am sure it's higher now."
Another group, the National Gulf War Service Center, estimates as many as 90 soldiers and vets committed suicide while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan or after returning home—including several at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
After four women at North Carolina's Fort Bragg were killed by their military husbands over six weeks in 2002, the Army stepped up mandatory counseling on combat trauma and domestic violence prevention. But the Pentagon's mission is fighting real, not imagined, wars, and VA counseling is underfunded. "They're doing something," says Robinson, "but I don't think it's enough."
The Body Count
July 28, 2005—Marine veteran Saxxon Rech, 20, given an early honorable discharge from the service in February, killed girlfriend Renee DiLorenzo, 18. DiLorenzo, who'd recently enlisted in the Marines, was shot in the back at Rech's family home in Everson, Whatcom County; Rech then turned the shotgun on himself. A motive is unknown. Rech joined the Marine Corps in November 2003, and officials are so far uncertain why he was discharged after just 16 months, or whether he saw combat in Iraq, where Marines from his regiment have been killed in action.
July 26, 2005—Army Spc. Leslie Frederick Jr., 23, stationed at Fort Lewis, shot and killed himself at his South Tacoma apartment. Wounded while serving 15 months in Iraq, Frederick had recently been among the first soldiers to receive the Army's new Combat Action Badge, which represents, says Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, "the Warrior Ethos." Frederick, according to relatives, suffered psychologically from the stress of combat. His wife also won a divorce and custody of their child six days before his suicide.
July 12, 2005—Army Spc. Brandon Bare, 19, was arrested and later charged with stabbing to death his wife, Nabila Bare, 18, at their Fort Lewis residence. Nabila was hoping to return to high school for her senior year this fall. Brandon Bare, who was wounded by a March roadside bomb explosion in Iraq, had spent about six months in combat with Fort Lewis' second Stryker Brigade and was receiving counseling for behavioral problems. He faces a military trial.
April 21, 2004—Army Sgt. 1st Class James K. Pitts, 32, drowned his wife, Tara Pitts, 28, in the bathtub of their Lakewood home, a few weeks after returning from a year's duty in Iraq. The couple, who had a son, 10, was involved in a domestic dispute after she gave his commander copies of letters revealing Pitts' affair with a fellow soldier in Iraq. Pitts confessed to killing his wife and two weeks ago was sentenced to 20 years for second-degree murder. Pitts' father said after his son returned from Iraq, "All he could talk about was how many people he killed over there and how easy he could do it."
March 18, 2004—Army Reserve Sgt. Matthew Denni, 39, shot his wife, Kimberly Denni, 37, at their home in Battle Ground, Clark County. The couple had a 7-year-old daughter. His wife had just told Dennis she was leaving him for another man when he shot her. Denni, who buried her body in a footlocker, later confessed. He served as a supply sergeant in the Iraq war zone and was accidentally wounded by gunfire. Four months ago, Denni got 20 years for second-degree murder, escaping a first-degree sentence after the jury was given evidence that Denni was affected by post-traumatic stress disorder.
July 17, 2003—Army Spc. Jeremy L. Meyers, 22, and friend, Spc. Christopher R. Baber, 21, both Fort Lewis soldiers, strangled to death Meyers' wife, Jessica Meyers, 21, who had a five-week-old son. She had been lured to a Tacoma site on the bizarre pretense of faking her death because, her husband convinced her, a paramilitary group wanted to kill her. In fact, the soldier hoped to collect a life insurance payoff and run away with his girlfriend, who was 15. Meyers was sentenced to 41 years. Baber got eight years for manslaughter. Neither had served in Iraq.
April 4, 2003—Army Spc. Thomas R. Stroh, 21, strangled his wife, Brittany Stroh, 17, and son Dylan Stroh, 2, at their Fort Lewis home. He later committed suicide driving head-on into a semi truck in Oregon. The Army would reveal little about Stroh's record, insisting he'd been a good soldier. Pierce County detectives, however, learned he was about to be confined to barracks for abusing his wife and being drunk on duty. The Army was unaware of the murders until after they went to clear out Stroh's base belongings. They assumed Brittany and Dylan had departed for parts unknown, then found their bodies hidden in a closet.
You can thank George and Dick et al.
Home Front CasualtiesMurders and suicides by military personnel might be part of the Iraq war toll.
by Rick Anderson
When young Marine Renee DiLorenzo of Whatcom County was shot and killed last month, she became an uncounted statistic of war. Same for Kim Denni, killed last year in a place appropriately called Battle Ground. They are among 10 Western Washingtonians who've died in military-related conflicts since the 2003 invasion of Iraq—four in just a two-week period last month.
None of the casualties, however, occurred in Iraq. Like the others before them, the four all died on the home front: DiLorenzo, 18, who'd just signed up for the U.S. Marines, was killed July 28 by boyfriend Saxxon Rech, 20. Rech, who was mysteriously discharged early from the Marines in February, then turned the shotgun on himself. Army Spc. Leslie Frederick Jr., 23, a decorated Fort Lewis soldier who served in Iraq, committed suicide July 26 in Tacoma. And Army Spc. Brandon Bare, 19, also an Iraq vet, stabbed to death his wife, Nabila, 18, at Fort Lewis, military prosecutors allege.
The case of Nabila Bare is at least the third in the past two years involving a local soldier who killed a lover after returning from Iraq; the DiLorenzo/Rech deaths may also qualify.
Altogether since 2003, there have been seven homicides and three suicides on Western Washington soil involving active troops or veterans of Iraq, based on an accounting of medical examiner, military, and news reports. Fives wives, a girlfriend, and one child have been slain; four other children have lost one or both parents to death or imprisonment. Three servicemen have committed suicide—two of them after killing their wife or girlfriend. Seven of the deaths are linked to soldiers from Fort Lewis. Four soldiers have been sent to prison, and one awaits trial.
No one can say if the killings can be directly connected to the psychological effects of war. But most involve a risk factor distinctive to the military—armed men trained to kill—and some killers carry the invisible scars of war. Bare, for example, was being treated for a brain injury from an Iraq roadside bomb. Army Reserve Sgt. Matthew Denni, who killed his wife, Kimberly, in Battle Ground, Clark County, apparently suffered from the post-traumatic stress of Iraq combat, convincing a jury to convict him of second-degree rather than first-degree murder. Two weeks ago, Sgt. 1st Class James Pitts was imprisoned for drowning his wife in the bathtub of their Lakewood, Pierce County, home just weeks after returning from Iraq. "I wish I was dead," he told a judge.
Statistics on home-front casualties tend to be anecdotal. Neither the Pentagon nor the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) keeps figures on military-involved stateside homicides or suicides. "It's almost impossible to track," says Steve Robinson, head of the National Gulf War Resource Center in Maryland. "I tracked it last year and found as many as 35 suicides [nationwide], but I am sure it's higher now."
Another group, the National Gulf War Service Center, estimates as many as 90 soldiers and vets committed suicide while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan or after returning home—including several at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
After four women at North Carolina's Fort Bragg were killed by their military husbands over six weeks in 2002, the Army stepped up mandatory counseling on combat trauma and domestic violence prevention. But the Pentagon's mission is fighting real, not imagined, wars, and VA counseling is underfunded. "They're doing something," says Robinson, "but I don't think it's enough."
The Body Count
July 28, 2005—Marine veteran Saxxon Rech, 20, given an early honorable discharge from the service in February, killed girlfriend Renee DiLorenzo, 18. DiLorenzo, who'd recently enlisted in the Marines, was shot in the back at Rech's family home in Everson, Whatcom County; Rech then turned the shotgun on himself. A motive is unknown. Rech joined the Marine Corps in November 2003, and officials are so far uncertain why he was discharged after just 16 months, or whether he saw combat in Iraq, where Marines from his regiment have been killed in action.
July 26, 2005—Army Spc. Leslie Frederick Jr., 23, stationed at Fort Lewis, shot and killed himself at his South Tacoma apartment. Wounded while serving 15 months in Iraq, Frederick had recently been among the first soldiers to receive the Army's new Combat Action Badge, which represents, says Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker, "the Warrior Ethos." Frederick, according to relatives, suffered psychologically from the stress of combat. His wife also won a divorce and custody of their child six days before his suicide.
July 12, 2005—Army Spc. Brandon Bare, 19, was arrested and later charged with stabbing to death his wife, Nabila Bare, 18, at their Fort Lewis residence. Nabila was hoping to return to high school for her senior year this fall. Brandon Bare, who was wounded by a March roadside bomb explosion in Iraq, had spent about six months in combat with Fort Lewis' second Stryker Brigade and was receiving counseling for behavioral problems. He faces a military trial.
April 21, 2004—Army Sgt. 1st Class James K. Pitts, 32, drowned his wife, Tara Pitts, 28, in the bathtub of their Lakewood home, a few weeks after returning from a year's duty in Iraq. The couple, who had a son, 10, was involved in a domestic dispute after she gave his commander copies of letters revealing Pitts' affair with a fellow soldier in Iraq. Pitts confessed to killing his wife and two weeks ago was sentenced to 20 years for second-degree murder. Pitts' father said after his son returned from Iraq, "All he could talk about was how many people he killed over there and how easy he could do it."
March 18, 2004—Army Reserve Sgt. Matthew Denni, 39, shot his wife, Kimberly Denni, 37, at their home in Battle Ground, Clark County. The couple had a 7-year-old daughter. His wife had just told Dennis she was leaving him for another man when he shot her. Denni, who buried her body in a footlocker, later confessed. He served as a supply sergeant in the Iraq war zone and was accidentally wounded by gunfire. Four months ago, Denni got 20 years for second-degree murder, escaping a first-degree sentence after the jury was given evidence that Denni was affected by post-traumatic stress disorder.
July 17, 2003—Army Spc. Jeremy L. Meyers, 22, and friend, Spc. Christopher R. Baber, 21, both Fort Lewis soldiers, strangled to death Meyers' wife, Jessica Meyers, 21, who had a five-week-old son. She had been lured to a Tacoma site on the bizarre pretense of faking her death because, her husband convinced her, a paramilitary group wanted to kill her. In fact, the soldier hoped to collect a life insurance payoff and run away with his girlfriend, who was 15. Meyers was sentenced to 41 years. Baber got eight years for manslaughter. Neither had served in Iraq.
April 4, 2003—Army Spc. Thomas R. Stroh, 21, strangled his wife, Brittany Stroh, 17, and son Dylan Stroh, 2, at their Fort Lewis home. He later committed suicide driving head-on into a semi truck in Oregon. The Army would reveal little about Stroh's record, insisting he'd been a good soldier. Pierce County detectives, however, learned he was about to be confined to barracks for abusing his wife and being drunk on duty. The Army was unaware of the murders until after they went to clear out Stroh's base belongings. They assumed Brittany and Dylan had departed for parts unknown, then found their bodies hidden in a closet.
You can thank George and Dick et al.
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
"Dear Dahr,
It is difficult to make a picture of what is going on, the situation isjust so bad.
Lack of supplies, including water, petrol and electricity. Jamming of traffic, as the police allow one lane to pass through thesecurity check points, and it takes long time to pass through thesecheck points. Many areas in Baghdad are very unsafe, and quite inaccessible.
The kidnapping and assassination of physicians is still going on.A consultant surgeon was recently assassinated in his home.
He lives inYarmouk district near the culture center. One of his sons was kidnappeda few months before and released after paying several thousands of U.S.dollars.A friend of mine, Dr. S. who is a well known Neurologist, was kidnappedfrom his clinic and his family asked the help of his friends andrelatives to help collect the ransom.
My wife was driving downtown and she was hit on her left hand by a bigstone thrown from a police pickup because she did not recognize that she should give way to a fast car that was trying to bypass her.....she is lucky not to get shot by them!!!!
The Iraqis now get frightened from the local police and military as theyexhibit a very high level of misconduct and abuse of the authority that they now have.
Have I mentioned that power supply is one hour every five hours!!!!!
Ahmed [Name changed for security reasons]"
This is no way for any human being to live.
I destest US infiltration of this country and destroying any freedom they used to have. Sadaam was no angel, but the more I learn about US gov secret agencies, we are do different, probably worse.
But then I say to my friends overseas who think it is so wonderful here...have you been here?
What makes you thing america, which deserves no capital a is such a great country?
Our Government DOES NOT CARE about the people, they only care about thier foreign investments, and as you well see they will destroy any country to get fulfill their own self serving agendas.
Watch and see, this is going to get much worse.
It is difficult to make a picture of what is going on, the situation isjust so bad.
Lack of supplies, including water, petrol and electricity. Jamming of traffic, as the police allow one lane to pass through thesecurity check points, and it takes long time to pass through thesecheck points. Many areas in Baghdad are very unsafe, and quite inaccessible.
The kidnapping and assassination of physicians is still going on.A consultant surgeon was recently assassinated in his home.
He lives inYarmouk district near the culture center. One of his sons was kidnappeda few months before and released after paying several thousands of U.S.dollars.A friend of mine, Dr. S. who is a well known Neurologist, was kidnappedfrom his clinic and his family asked the help of his friends andrelatives to help collect the ransom.
My wife was driving downtown and she was hit on her left hand by a bigstone thrown from a police pickup because she did not recognize that she should give way to a fast car that was trying to bypass her.....she is lucky not to get shot by them!!!!
The Iraqis now get frightened from the local police and military as theyexhibit a very high level of misconduct and abuse of the authority that they now have.
Have I mentioned that power supply is one hour every five hours!!!!!
Ahmed [Name changed for security reasons]"
This is no way for any human being to live.
I destest US infiltration of this country and destroying any freedom they used to have. Sadaam was no angel, but the more I learn about US gov secret agencies, we are do different, probably worse.
But then I say to my friends overseas who think it is so wonderful here...have you been here?
What makes you thing america, which deserves no capital a is such a great country?
Our Government DOES NOT CARE about the people, they only care about thier foreign investments, and as you well see they will destroy any country to get fulfill their own self serving agendas.
Watch and see, this is going to get much worse.
January 12 2006- Freedom in Action
January 12, 2006
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
"Freedom in action"
Yesterday Mr. Bush warned U.S. citizens of more violence in Iraq.again.
He called it the "price of progress" as Iraq "moves toward democracy."
In the shady, smoke and mirror filled world of Mr. Bush where violenceis progress and Iraq inches ever closer to their elusive "democracy,"truth remains ever distant from the rhetoric of his speech writers.
Mr. Bush referred to "a good deal of political turmoil" in Iraq as"freedom in action."If only reality matched his hallucinatory projections.
If only Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, the most influential politician in Iraq andleader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, hadn'tissued a not-so-veiled warning yesterday to Sunni Arab Iraqis that theruling Shiites would not allow significant amendments to the country'snew constitution.
If only.
The commander-in-chief of the U.S. military, speaking to members ofVeterans of Foreign Wars also stated yesterday, "We will continue tohand over territory to the Iraqis so they can defend their democracy, sothey can do the hard work, and our troops will be able to come home withthe honor they have earned."
Like Brandon Bare from North Carolina.
The 19 year-old soldier returned from Iraq last April, wounded with cutsand other injuries from a grenade attack. Three months after his returnhome young Brandon Bare found it necessary to kill his 18 year-old wifeby stabbing her 71 times. He was obviously traumatized by his time inIraq which found him engaged in combat in both Mosul and Fallujah.
"Pacified" Fallujah, the "City of Hope," as FOX "News" likes to call it,where three more U.S. soldiers were killed yesterday when their Humveewas destroyed by a roadside bomb.and a fourth soldier, like BrandonBare, was wounded in action.
Yet, the land of hallucinations is a nice place to be for someone likeMr. Bush, who also said yesterday that most Iraqis are upbeat about their future.
Despite rampant kidnappings, unemployment soaring to well over 50%,little electricity, no potable water and violence continuing unabated,Bush said, "The vast majority of Iraqis prefer freedom with intermittentpower to life in the permanent darkness of tyranny and terror.
"The security is so bad in Baghdad now that many people now don't leavetheir homes unless it is absolutely necessary. Rampant abductions ofIraqis are symptomatic of the escalating lawlessness in Iraq which is ofcourse aggravated by the political turmoil that has engulfed the countrysince the December 15 polls.
Iraqi officials say as many as 30 Iraqis a day are reported kidnapped in Baghdad.
The abductions are part of the rising lawlessness accompanyingthe country's political turmoil/"freedom in action.
"Nothing has changed with the kidnapping since my last trip to Baghdad.
Many of the hostages are freed when the ransom demanded is paid by their families.
Other times when the ransom is paid, as happened to a friendof my interpreter, the family received a call telling them they couldpick up the body of their 16 year-old son at the morgue.
Thank you for that entry, Darh. It is so important people become aware of
The costs of this war full spectrum;
Iraq has limited freedom, can expect more violence for reasons beyond my comprehension, except greed and supreme control by the US.
I do not support this, and frankly am being pushed to the limit of what I am willing to tolerate from the US Government.
As we know, this is not a war about terror, it is about the US bullying its way to take ownership of the middle east.
The US Government DOES NOT CARE about affairs at home, they are too consumed with their foreign investments, and taking ownership of land that does not belong to them.
I am vehemently opposed to the United States Government;
As I read” the definition of a terrorist as one who is violently opposed to USA Government policy” in a book last night, while I have not gotten violent, the feelings about what they are doing is growing close to it.
I guess that makes me a terrorist too.
Power to the people who oppose US Policy.
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
"Freedom in action"
Yesterday Mr. Bush warned U.S. citizens of more violence in Iraq.again.
He called it the "price of progress" as Iraq "moves toward democracy."
In the shady, smoke and mirror filled world of Mr. Bush where violenceis progress and Iraq inches ever closer to their elusive "democracy,"truth remains ever distant from the rhetoric of his speech writers.
Mr. Bush referred to "a good deal of political turmoil" in Iraq as"freedom in action."If only reality matched his hallucinatory projections.
If only Abdul Aziz Al-Hakim, the most influential politician in Iraq andleader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, hadn'tissued a not-so-veiled warning yesterday to Sunni Arab Iraqis that theruling Shiites would not allow significant amendments to the country'snew constitution.
If only.
The commander-in-chief of the U.S. military, speaking to members ofVeterans of Foreign Wars also stated yesterday, "We will continue tohand over territory to the Iraqis so they can defend their democracy, sothey can do the hard work, and our troops will be able to come home withthe honor they have earned."
Like Brandon Bare from North Carolina.
The 19 year-old soldier returned from Iraq last April, wounded with cutsand other injuries from a grenade attack. Three months after his returnhome young Brandon Bare found it necessary to kill his 18 year-old wifeby stabbing her 71 times. He was obviously traumatized by his time inIraq which found him engaged in combat in both Mosul and Fallujah.
"Pacified" Fallujah, the "City of Hope," as FOX "News" likes to call it,where three more U.S. soldiers were killed yesterday when their Humveewas destroyed by a roadside bomb.and a fourth soldier, like BrandonBare, was wounded in action.
Yet, the land of hallucinations is a nice place to be for someone likeMr. Bush, who also said yesterday that most Iraqis are upbeat about their future.
Despite rampant kidnappings, unemployment soaring to well over 50%,little electricity, no potable water and violence continuing unabated,Bush said, "The vast majority of Iraqis prefer freedom with intermittentpower to life in the permanent darkness of tyranny and terror.
"The security is so bad in Baghdad now that many people now don't leavetheir homes unless it is absolutely necessary. Rampant abductions ofIraqis are symptomatic of the escalating lawlessness in Iraq which is ofcourse aggravated by the political turmoil that has engulfed the countrysince the December 15 polls.
Iraqi officials say as many as 30 Iraqis a day are reported kidnapped in Baghdad.
The abductions are part of the rising lawlessness accompanyingthe country's political turmoil/"freedom in action.
"Nothing has changed with the kidnapping since my last trip to Baghdad.
Many of the hostages are freed when the ransom demanded is paid by their families.
Other times when the ransom is paid, as happened to a friendof my interpreter, the family received a call telling them they couldpick up the body of their 16 year-old son at the morgue.
Thank you for that entry, Darh. It is so important people become aware of
The costs of this war full spectrum;
Iraq has limited freedom, can expect more violence for reasons beyond my comprehension, except greed and supreme control by the US.
I do not support this, and frankly am being pushed to the limit of what I am willing to tolerate from the US Government.
As we know, this is not a war about terror, it is about the US bullying its way to take ownership of the middle east.
The US Government DOES NOT CARE about affairs at home, they are too consumed with their foreign investments, and taking ownership of land that does not belong to them.
I am vehemently opposed to the United States Government;
As I read” the definition of a terrorist as one who is violently opposed to USA Government policy” in a book last night, while I have not gotten violent, the feelings about what they are doing is growing close to it.
I guess that makes me a terrorist too.
Power to the people who oppose US Policy.
11.1.06
International Gun Trade Targeted at U.N.
International Gun Trade Targeted at U.N.
UNITED NATIONS - As diplomats from around the world gather this week to lay the groundwork for a major June summit on arms control, leading rights advocacy groups are demanding that governments agree on a proposed treaty that would ban the illegal trade in guns.
"No one but a criminal would knowingly sell a gun to a murderer, yet governments can sell weapons to regimes with a history of human rights violations or to countries where weapons will go to war criminals," says Barbara Stocking, director of the international humanitarian group Oxfam International.
Just remember all the countries, and groups of people that the US gave weapons to that they have turned around and started a war with...Osama, Taliban, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran...is next.
UNITED NATIONS - As diplomats from around the world gather this week to lay the groundwork for a major June summit on arms control, leading rights advocacy groups are demanding that governments agree on a proposed treaty that would ban the illegal trade in guns.
"No one but a criminal would knowingly sell a gun to a murderer, yet governments can sell weapons to regimes with a history of human rights violations or to countries where weapons will go to war criminals," says Barbara Stocking, director of the international humanitarian group Oxfam International.
Just remember all the countries, and groups of people that the US gave weapons to that they have turned around and started a war with...Osama, Taliban, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran...is next.
US Holds New Guantanamo 'War on Terror' Trials
US Holds New Guantanamo 'War on Terror' Trials
GOOD. Let the people speak. Listen to their truth.
The United States will start new military trials of "war on terror" detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval base, amid new criticism of the camp and its courts.
Accused Al-Qaeda propaganda expert Ali Hamza Ahmad al-Bahlul will be the first of two defendants to face hearings this week. He will be followed by Omar Khadr, a Canadian who was 15 when he was detained over the killing of a US soldier in Afghanistan.
Lawyers for the two have condemned the trials, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a veiled call for Guantanamo to be closed ahead of her visit to Washington this week.
US authorities continue to defend the holding of hundreds of detainees without charge at the camp as part of the "war on terror" declared after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
What part of "There is no war on terror, this is all about OIL do you NOT understand?"
GOOD. Let the people speak. Listen to their truth.
The United States will start new military trials of "war on terror" detainees at the Guantanamo Bay naval base, amid new criticism of the camp and its courts.
Accused Al-Qaeda propaganda expert Ali Hamza Ahmad al-Bahlul will be the first of two defendants to face hearings this week. He will be followed by Omar Khadr, a Canadian who was 15 when he was detained over the killing of a US soldier in Afghanistan.
Lawyers for the two have condemned the trials, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a veiled call for Guantanamo to be closed ahead of her visit to Washington this week.
US authorities continue to defend the holding of hundreds of detainees without charge at the camp as part of the "war on terror" declared after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
What part of "There is no war on terror, this is all about OIL do you NOT understand?"
U.S. Airstrikes in Iraq Could Intensify
U.S. Airstrikes in Iraq Could Intensify
WASHINGTON - U.S. warplanes have carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Iraq in the past two years, bombing and strafing insurgent fighters and targets almost daily. And the air war, which has gone largely unnoticed at home, could intensify once American ground forces start to withdraw.
Since Iraq doesn't have a working air force, U.S. jets are expected to provide air cover for Iraqi troops for at least several more years.
Some analysts have raised questions about how effective air power can be in a counterinsurgency war. A key fear is that Iraq's mostly Shiite Muslim and Kurdish army will use American and allied bombing missions for revenge attacks on the Sunni Muslim Arab minority, which provides most of the insurgency's fighters.
"If we allow that to happen, then in essence we'll be doing the same thing we accused Saddam Hussein of doing," said Larry C. Johnson, a former CIA and State Department official. "We'll just be substituting one tyranny for another."
You're catching on.....this next parahraph makes me sick!
American military officials say they try to minimize civilian casualties as much as possible. Nevertheless, civilians die. On Jan. 2, a U.S. plane bombed a house in northern Iraq where insurgents were thought to be hiding, killing at least eight people, including two children, according to news reports.
BU*SH*T! Stop killing innocent people!
We've already done worse than what Sadaam is accused of doing, but now the people of Iraq can't even get jobs, food or medical care, so we have destroyed a nation innocent people.
Or is this to build the oil pipelines, like Afghanistan?
WASHINGTON - U.S. warplanes have carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Iraq in the past two years, bombing and strafing insurgent fighters and targets almost daily. And the air war, which has gone largely unnoticed at home, could intensify once American ground forces start to withdraw.
Since Iraq doesn't have a working air force, U.S. jets are expected to provide air cover for Iraqi troops for at least several more years.
Some analysts have raised questions about how effective air power can be in a counterinsurgency war. A key fear is that Iraq's mostly Shiite Muslim and Kurdish army will use American and allied bombing missions for revenge attacks on the Sunni Muslim Arab minority, which provides most of the insurgency's fighters.
"If we allow that to happen, then in essence we'll be doing the same thing we accused Saddam Hussein of doing," said Larry C. Johnson, a former CIA and State Department official. "We'll just be substituting one tyranny for another."
You're catching on.....this next parahraph makes me sick!
American military officials say they try to minimize civilian casualties as much as possible. Nevertheless, civilians die. On Jan. 2, a U.S. plane bombed a house in northern Iraq where insurgents were thought to be hiding, killing at least eight people, including two children, according to news reports.
BU*SH*T! Stop killing innocent people!
We've already done worse than what Sadaam is accused of doing, but now the people of Iraq can't even get jobs, food or medical care, so we have destroyed a nation innocent people.
Or is this to build the oil pipelines, like Afghanistan?
NSA Whistleblower Alleges Illegal Spying
NSA Whistleblower Alleges Illegal Spying
Russell Tice, a longtime insider at the National Security Agency, is now a whistleblower the agency would like to keep quiet.
We need to clean up the intelligence community. We've had abuses, and they need to be addressed.
Russell Tice, NSA whistleblower For 20 years, Tice worked in the shadows as he helped the United States spy on other people's conversations around the world.
"I specialized in what's called special access programs," Tice said of his job. "We called them 'black world' programs and operations."
But now, Tice tells ABC News that some of those secret "black world" operations run by the NSA were operated in ways that he believes violated the law. He is prepared to tell Congress all he knows about the alleged wrongdoing in these programs run by the Defense Department and the NSA in the post-9/11 efforts to go after terrorists.
"The mentality was we need to get these guys, and we're going to do whatever it takes to get them," he said.
Tracking Calls
Tice says the technology exists to track and sort through every domestic and international phone call as they are switched through centers, such as one in New York, and to search for key words or phrases that a terrorist might use.
"If you picked the word 'jihad' out of a conversation," Tice said, "the technology exists that you focus in on that conversation, and you pull it out of the system for processing."
According to Tice, intelligence analysts use the information to develop graphs that resemble spiderwebs linking one suspect's phone number to hundreds or even thousands more.
Tice Admits Being a Source for The New York Times
President Bush has admitted that he gave orders that allowed the NSA to eavesdrop on a small number of Americans without the usual requisite warrants.
But Tice disagrees. He says the number of Americans subject to eavesdropping by the NSA could be in the millions if the full range of secret NSA programs is used.
"That would mean for most Americans that if they conducted, or you know, placed an overseas communication, more than likely they were sucked into that vacuum," Tice said. Oh good, count me in....I made several calls overseas.
The same day The New York Times broke the story of the NSA eavesdropping without warrants, Tice surfaced as a whistleblower in the agency. He told ABC News that he was a source for the Times' reporters. But Tice maintains that his conscience is clear.
"As far as I'm concerned, as long as I don't say anything that's classified, I'm not worried," he said. "We need to clean up the intelligence community. We've had abuses, and they need to be addressed."
The NSA revoked Tice's security clearance in May of last year based on what it called psychological concerns and later dismissed him. Tice calls that bunk and says that's the way the NSA deals with troublemakers and whistleblowers. Today the NSA said it had "no information to provide."
Now if he mysteriously dies we'll have confirmed what we already know about how these control freaks operate.
Thanks Russell, you did the right thing.
Problem is the main terrorists are running the show here.
Russell Tice, a longtime insider at the National Security Agency, is now a whistleblower the agency would like to keep quiet.
We need to clean up the intelligence community. We've had abuses, and they need to be addressed.
Russell Tice, NSA whistleblower For 20 years, Tice worked in the shadows as he helped the United States spy on other people's conversations around the world.
"I specialized in what's called special access programs," Tice said of his job. "We called them 'black world' programs and operations."
But now, Tice tells ABC News that some of those secret "black world" operations run by the NSA were operated in ways that he believes violated the law. He is prepared to tell Congress all he knows about the alleged wrongdoing in these programs run by the Defense Department and the NSA in the post-9/11 efforts to go after terrorists.
"The mentality was we need to get these guys, and we're going to do whatever it takes to get them," he said.
Tracking Calls
Tice says the technology exists to track and sort through every domestic and international phone call as they are switched through centers, such as one in New York, and to search for key words or phrases that a terrorist might use.
"If you picked the word 'jihad' out of a conversation," Tice said, "the technology exists that you focus in on that conversation, and you pull it out of the system for processing."
According to Tice, intelligence analysts use the information to develop graphs that resemble spiderwebs linking one suspect's phone number to hundreds or even thousands more.
Tice Admits Being a Source for The New York Times
President Bush has admitted that he gave orders that allowed the NSA to eavesdrop on a small number of Americans without the usual requisite warrants.
But Tice disagrees. He says the number of Americans subject to eavesdropping by the NSA could be in the millions if the full range of secret NSA programs is used.
"That would mean for most Americans that if they conducted, or you know, placed an overseas communication, more than likely they were sucked into that vacuum," Tice said. Oh good, count me in....I made several calls overseas.
The same day The New York Times broke the story of the NSA eavesdropping without warrants, Tice surfaced as a whistleblower in the agency. He told ABC News that he was a source for the Times' reporters. But Tice maintains that his conscience is clear.
"As far as I'm concerned, as long as I don't say anything that's classified, I'm not worried," he said. "We need to clean up the intelligence community. We've had abuses, and they need to be addressed."
The NSA revoked Tice's security clearance in May of last year based on what it called psychological concerns and later dismissed him. Tice calls that bunk and says that's the way the NSA deals with troublemakers and whistleblowers. Today the NSA said it had "no information to provide."
Now if he mysteriously dies we'll have confirmed what we already know about how these control freaks operate.
Thanks Russell, you did the right thing.
Problem is the main terrorists are running the show here.
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