British military chief reveals new legal fears over Iraq war - Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports |

Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | British military chief reveals new legal fears over Iraq war:

"The man who led Britain's armed forces into Iraq has said that Tony Blair and the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, will join British soldiers in the dock if the military are ever prosecuted for war crimes in Iraq.

In a remarkably frank interview that goes to the heart of the political row over the Attorney General's legal advice, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, the former Chief of the Defence Staff, said he did not have full legal cover from prosecution at the International Criminal Court (ICC). 'If my soldiers went to jail and I did, some other people would go with me,' said Boyce.

In his most detailed explanation yet of why he demanded an unequivocal assurance from lawyers that the war was legal, he said: 'I wanted to make sure that we had this anchor which has been signed by the government law officer ... 'It may not stop us from being charged, but, by God, it would make sure other people were brought into the frame as well.'

Pressed by The Observer on whether he meant the Prime Minister and the Attorney General, Boyce replied: 'Too bloody right.'

The admiral added that he had never been shown the crucial 7 March advice by Goldsmith that questioned whether the war was legal."

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Nation -- U.S. contracting firm accused of bilking millions and running wild in Iraq

SignOnSanDiego.com > News > Nation -- U.S. contracting firm accused of bilking millions and running wild in Iraq:

"His career in Baghdad was brief. And it ended badly. On a blistering July afternoon, three MP5 submachine guns were pointed at Robert Isakson. The men carrying the weapons wanted his money and his security pass. As Isakson tells it, they also wanted his guns, leaving him unarmed in a mess of a country and banned from its safest haven.

'We were defenseless,' says the former cop and FBI agent. He had come to Iraq to help rebuild the devastated country, accompanied by his 14-year-old son, Bobby. Now, after less than a month, they were being expelled at gunpoint.

By Americans.

The gunmen and Isakson all worked for Custer Battles LLC, a Rhode Island-based contracting firm now mired in lawsuits and a criminal investigation by the Pentagon. Isakson claims company employees ordered him out because he refused to help defraud the U.S. government."

Blair hit by new leak of secret war plan - Britain - Times Online

Blair hit by new leak of secret war plan - Britain - Times Online: "Blair hit by new leak of secret war plan"

They record a meeting in July 2002, attended by military and intelligence chiefs, at which Blair discussed military options having already committed himself to supporting President George Bush’s plans for ousting Saddam.
...
The political strategy proved to be arguing Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction (WMD) posed such a threat that military action had to be taken. However, at the July meeting Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, said the case for war was “thin” as “Saddam was not threatening his neighbours and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran”.

Straw suggested they should “work up” an ultimatum about weapons inspectors that would “help with the legal justification”. Blair is recorded as saying that “it would make a big difference politically and legally if Saddam refused to allow in the UN inspectors”.

A separate secret briefing document for the meeting said Britain and America had to “create” the conditions necessary to justify a war.

US turns away Saudi delegation member: possible terrorist - Yahoo! News

US turns away Saudi delegation member: officials - Yahoo! News: "Mon Apr 25, 6:54 PM ET

CRAWFORD, United States (AFP) - A member of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz's delegation was denied entry into the United States after authorities found he was on a government 'watch' list, a US official said.
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The US Department of Homeland Security, in a routine check of the delegation passenger manifest, found that one traveller was on a government list meant to screen out possible terrorists, the official said on condition of anonymity.

'This information was shared with our interagency partners, including the State Department,' the official said. 'My understanding is that the State Department denied that person a visa and so they did not enter the country.'"

Nina Shea on Saudi Arabia on National Review Online

Nina Shea on Saudi Arabia on National Review Online:

"Before boarding his flight to Crawford to meet with President Bush Monday, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah presided over the arrest of 40 Pakistani Christians on Friday. Their crime? The Pakistanis were caught praying in a private home in the capital Riyadh in violation of the state’s strictly enforced religious law that bans all non-Muslim worship.
...

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks — and the discovery that two thirds of the hijackers were Saudis — Saudi state ideology has become a matter of U.S. national security. As bad as it is that Wahhabism is Saudi Arabia’s state religion, even worse is that it is the Saudi government’s aim to propagate it and have it replace traditional and moderate interpretations of Islam worldwide, including within the United States. Earlier this year, Freedom House’s Center for Religious Freedom released a report based on a year-long study of the radically intolerant Wahhabi ideology contained in documents spread, published, or otherwise generated by the government of Saudi Arabia and found in the United States.

In one example, a publication for the “Immigrant Muslim” bearing the words “Greetings from the Cultural Department” of the embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington, D.C., gave detailed instructions on how to “hate” the Christian and Jew: Never greet them first. Never congratulate the infidel on his holiday. Never imitate the infidel. Do not become a naturalized citizen of the United States. Do not wear a graduation gown because this imitates the infidel. The opening fatwa of another a book distributed by the embassy that was published by the Saudi air force responds to a question about a Muslim preacher in a European mosque who taught that it is not right to condemn Jews and Christians as infidels. The Saudi state cleric’s reply emphatically rebukes the Muslim cleric: “He who casts doubts about their infidelity leaves no doubt about his.”"

Editorial: Social Security/Three risks to Bush's new plan

Editorial: Social Security/Three risks to Bush's new plan:

"• Bush's answer to Social Security's solvency problem, described in soothing lingo as 'progressive indexing,' amounts to a dramatic change in the way retirement benefits are calculated. Wisely, the president would exempt the poorest 30 percent of workers from this change. But he certainly doesn't exempt middle-income Americans. A worker earning $59,000 in today's dollars and retiring in 2055 would see a benefit cut of 31 percent -- or at least as much as if Congress did nothing at all and let the Social Security trust fund expire. That would sharply erode the program as a foundation of retirement security.

• So far, the president has said almost nothing about new revenues as part of a solution. This means, ipso facto, that benefit cuts would be deeper than necessary. Simply raising the cap on earnings subject to Social Security taxes, from $90,000 now to $140,000, would solve nearly half of the system's projected shortfall, while asking upper-income Americans to make exactly the same contribution to Social Security that they made in the 1970s and 1980s. If Congress did raise the earnings cap, it would have to impose benefit cuts only about half as deep as those proposed by the president.

• The president continues to insist on private retirement accounts that are 'carved out' of Social Security -- that is, funded by rebating a portion of current payroll taxes to younger workers. This has two grave consequences: It would require hundreds of billions of dollars in new government borrowing, at a time when Washington already is deeply in the red, and it would require Social Security to make a second round of benefit cuts in the future to recover the lost revenue."

Bush SS Plan places hardship on middle-income wage earners - Denver Post

DenverPost.com - EDITORIALS:

"President George W. Bush has finally put some meat on his long-standing but vague exhortations to reform Social Security - proposing to cut future benefits for all Americans who earn more than $25,000 a year. We commend the president for exempting the poorest workers from his proposed cuts. But his plan would still work a major - and unnecessary - hardship on middle-income wage earners.

The White House predicted Bush's proposal would solve 70 percent of a $11 trillion funding gap it predicts Social Security will face by 2080. (Projections by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predict a much smaller shortfall that wouldn't begin until at least 2052.)

Under Bush's plan, workers who earned an average of $25,000 or less per year over their careers would continue to see their Social Security benefits rise according to the current formula, which computes benefit levels based on wage growth. Anyone earning more than $25,000 would see gradual benefit reductions, with those earning $113,000 or more taking the sharpest cuts because their benefits would rise only along with consumer prices, which historically increase at a slower rate than wages.

Those cuts in benefits would apply even to workers who did not opt for the private accounts proposed by Bush. Workers who did divert part of their existing taxes into private accounts would receive additional cuts in their benefits - which might or might not be offset by the earnings on those private accounts."

Limbaugh's Religious Hate Talk Blasphemes Religion, Interfaith Alliance President Says - Interfaith Alliance

Press Releases - Interfaith Alliance:

"Washington, April 28 –Today, in response to Rush Limbaugh's statement that 'the religious left in this country hates and despises the God of Christianity and Catholicism,' the Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of The Interfaith Alliance, released the following statement:

'All people of faith in the most religiously diverse nation on earth should be insulted by the uninformed religious pronouncements of a vitriolic radio host,' said Rev. Dr. C Welton Gaddy, President of the Interfaith Alliance. 'Mr. Limbaugh has repeatedly demonstrated his ignorance and insensitivity to the religious communities in this nation.

'Mr. Limbaugh demeans the very spirit of Christianity as well as the faithful Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu, Baha'i, and other religious communities. Unfortunately Mr. Limbaugh's words echo the recent misuse of religion by politicians. We remain gravely concerned about the continuing manipulation of religion for partisan political purposes. The fusion of partisan politics and religion arrogantly blasphemes religion and aggressively threatens the vitality of democracy."

Print Story: Pentagon Shows Flag-Draped Coffin Photos on Yahoo! News

Print Story: Pentagon Shows Flag-Draped Coffin Photos on Yahoo! News:

"The Pentagon, under pressure from open-government advocates, released hundreds of images Thursday of flag-draped coffins of American soldiers.

The Pentagon had previously refused to release such images, which were taken by military photographers. Nor has it allowed the news media to photograph ceremonies of soldiers' coffins arriving in the United States, saying it is enforcing a policy installed in 1991 to respect the privacy of families of dead soldiers."

Bush sees progress in Iraq, sets no withdrawal time - Reuters AlertNet -

Reuters AlertNet - Bush sees progress in Iraq, sets no withdrawal time:

"WASHINGTON, April 28 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush said on Thursday that despite a violent insurgency, progress was being made in Iraq which just formed a new government, but he refused to set a timetable for withdrawing American troops.

'I believe we're making really good progress in Iraq,' Bush said. 'They saw a government form today. The Iraqi military is being trained by our military, and they're performing much better than the past.'"

Congress Passes Budget That Cuts Medicaid - Yahoo! News

Congress Passes Budget That Cuts Medicaid - Yahoo! News:

"WASHINGTON - A $2.6 trillion budget outline barely approved by Congress will cut projected spending on Medicaid for the poor, lock in tax cuts and — Republicans claim — put the country on a path toward lower federal deficits.
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Democrats unanimously opposed the spending outline passed late Thursday. They said the budget reflects the president's misplaced priorities by freezing or trimming health, education and agriculture programs while cutting taxes by as much as $106 billion over five years."

Fla. Court Refuses to Hear Limbaugh Appeal - Yahoo! News

Fla. Court Refuses to Hear Limbaugh Appeal - Yahoo! News:
"Thu Apr 28, 5:50 PM ET

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - The
Florida Supreme Court on Thursday declined to consider an appeal from commentator Rush Limbaugh claiming his privacy was violated when his medical records were seized for an investigation of whether he illegally purchased painkillers."

Saudis arrest 40 Christians in raid on secret church

Saudis arrest 40 Christians in raid on secret church: "April 29, 2005

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- Forty foreign Christians, children included, were arrested for proselytizing when police raided a clandestine church in suburban Riyadh. Convictions could result in harsh prison sentences, followed by deportation.

Lt. Col. Saad al-Rashud, who heads a wide-ranging security campaign in the capital, said the believers' meeting place, which displayed crosses, was run by a Pakistani who led prayers, heard confessions, distributed Communion and claimed to heal the sick.

Although the Prophet Muhammad tolerated Christian churches in his realm, modern Saudi Arabia has made it illegal to promote any religion other than Islam and outlaws churches."

3 networks cut off President Bush before end of his news conference - News | canada.com network

News | canada.com network:

"Three of the country's four biggest broadcasters gave the president a quick hook, however, by cutting away to entertainment programming before his session was finished. The White House moved the news conference from 8:30 p.m. EDT to 8 p.m. after realizing that CBS, Fox and likely NBC would not air it live. ABC said all along it would cover the president fully.

The White House tried to be accommodating when it realized it had left the networks in a bind on the first night of the May 'sweeps,' when ratings are closely watched to set local advertising rates, said White House press secretary Scott McClellan."

Italian Papers reject US death finding

BBC NEWS | Europe | Papers reject Calipari death finding:

"In an interview with La Repubblica, Ms Sgrena describes the report's outcome as 'incredible'. 'Calipari is being blamed for what happened,' she says and urges public opinion to rally behind her view.

'It is important that the judges continue...we need pressure from public opinion,' she says. 'I know that there is already a demand for an independent international commission of investigation, there is an initiative of Euro MPs and Nobel prize winners who are urging the truth about what happened and what is happening to Iraqi civilians every day.'

Rome to continue probe

Under the headline 'Not guilty', the Turin-based La Stampa says that Rome does not accept the conclusions of the investigation.

'As far as Italy is concerned, we are not willing to sacrifice the truth about Nicola Calipari's death on the altar of political and diplomatic relations with our American ally,' the paper says. 'Perhaps the government's embarrassment and current silence are due to the awareness of having turned into a dead end.'

The paper quotes Italian intelligence sources as saying that the US decision to announce the report's findings without consulting the Italian authorities could force Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to publicly oppose the US findings.

'The consequences could be devastating,' an intelligence officer said."

Interrogations Faked at Guantanamo, Witness Says - Yahoo! News

Interrogations Faked at Guantanamo, Witness Says - Yahoo! News:

"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Authorities at Guantanamo Bay staged interrogations of detainees for visiting politicians and generals to give the impression that valuable intelligence was regularly being gathered, according to a former Army translator at the camp.

Former Army Sgt. Erik Saar told CBS television show 60 Minutes that he believes 'only a few dozen' of the 600 detainees at the camp were terrorists and that little information was obtained from them.

'Interrogations were set up so the VIPs could come and witness an interrogation ... a mock interrogation, basically,' Saar told the program, to air on Sunday.

'They would find a detainee that they knew to have been cooperative. They would ask the interrogator to go back over the same information,' he said, calling it 'a fictitious world' created for the visitors."

Withheld Data Shows 'Dramatic Up-tick' in Terrorist Attacks

Withheld Data Shows 'Dramatic Up-tick' in Terrorist Attacks:

"At a congressional briefing yesterday, Administration officials revealed that the data that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has withheld from this year's Patterns of Global Terrorism report shows a 'dramatic up-tick' in terrorist attacks in 2004. The data presented by State Department and National Counterterrorism Center officials showed that there were approximately 650 significant terrorist attacks throughout the world in 2004, more than triple the 175 attacks reported in 2003, the previous 20-year high."

Terror attacks increased sharply last year to record high - WTNH.com -

WTNH.com - Terror attacks increased sharply last year to record high:

"The State Department is due to report to Congress and make public by the end of the month its annual report on terrorism around the world. The department announced last week it had decided to stop including an annual statistical account of incidents, turning the task over to a counterterrorism center Congress established last year.

In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that his staff circulated to the media, (Rep.) Waxman said the 2004 figure may be underestimated significantly. Many incidents that most Americans would regard as terror attacks were excluded from State Department data, he said, because they did not meet the department's definition.

Waxman has been critical of State Department reporting on terrorism. Last week, he accused Rice of denying Congress and the public important information about the number of incidents.

'There appears to be a pattern in the administration's approach to terrorism data: Favorable facts are revealed while unfavorable facts are suppressed,' Waxman said in a letter to the department's acting inspector general, Cameron R. Hume, demanding an investigation."

U.S. reports huge spike in global terror

U.S. reports huge spike in global terror:

"The U.S. State Department says the number of major international terrorist incidents more than tripled to 655 last year, the Washington Post reports.

Congressional sources told the newspaper the total was up from the record of around 175 in 2003 and included such acts as the bloody school seizure in Beslan, Russia and violence related to the disputed Indian territory of Kashmir.

Terrorist incidents in Iraq also increased from 22 attacks to 198, or nine times the previous year's total. The newspaper said that draws into question the Bush administration's assertion the situation there had stabilized after the handover of political authority to an interim Iraqi government last summer.

The State Department announced last week it was withholding the statistics on terrorist attacks from its congressionally mandated annual report. A year ago, the department retracted its annual terrorism report and conceded its initial version vastly understated the number of incidents."

S. Edmonds, 911, Drugs & Campaign Finance - Scoop: UQ Wire:

Scoop: UQ Wire: S. Edmonds, 911, Drugs & Campaign Finance:

"In an exclusive interview on Saturday, we asked Edmonds if she would deny that laundered drug money linked to the 911 attacks found its way into recent House, Senate and Presidential campaign war-chests, according to what she heard in intelligence intercepts she was asked to translate.

'I will not deny that statement; but I cannot comment further on it,' she told TomFlocco.com, in a non-denial denial.
...........................

'Tom, I’m telling you that not a single newspaper covered what happened to me on Thursday when I went into court,' said the exasperated translator, adding, '[Judge David] Ginsberg kicked everyone out, cut off my lawyer’s arguments and told us ‘we have questions to ask the government’s attorneys that you cannot hear.’ '

Criminal evidence in Edmonds’ explosive case is apparently getting too close to Washington officials, since the former contract linguist also told us she would not deny that 'once this issue gets to be...investigated, you will be seeing certain [American] people that we know from this country standing trial; and they will be prosecuted criminally,' revealing the content of the FBI intercepts she heard indicates that recognizable, very high-profile American citizens are linked to the 911 attacks.

Edmonds implied that legislators and even lobbyists were benefiting from laundered narcotics proceeds in an earlier interview with the Baltimore Sun, '...this money travels. And you start trying to go to the root of it and it’s getting into somebody’s political campaign, and somebody’s lobbying. And people don’t want to be traced back to this money.'

So the Bush administration’s Department of Justice enlisted its taxpayer-funded lawyers to petition a Republican U.S. Appeals Court to suppress Sibel Edmonds’ criminal evidence allegations--linked to a 3,000 death mass murder--in the name of 'state secrets.'

When we asked how many Americans were named in the intercepts, Edmonds said 'There is direct evidence involving no more than ten American names that I recognized,' further revealing that 'some are heads of government agencies or politicians--but I don’t want to go any further than that,' as we listened in stunned silence."

House Overturns New Ethics Rule as Republican Leadership Yields - The New York Times > Washington >

The New York Times > Washington > House Overturns New Ethics Rule as Republican Leadership Yields:

"April 27 - In a rare retreat, the Republican-led House on Wednesday overturned contentious rule changes made to the House ethics process, with Republicans saying they surrendered to the Democrats to try to restore a way to enforce proper conduct in the House.

'I am willing to step back,' said Speaker J. Dennis Hastert of Illinois, the moving force behind ethics revisions forced through by the majority in January.

After a closed-door meeting with House Republicans, Mr. Hastert indicated that the reversal was primarily motivated by a need to resolve the torrent of questions surrounding the conduct of Representative Tom DeLay, the majority leader.

Mr. Hastert's relenting to Democrats' demands marked a startling turn as Republicans confronted the fallout from a stalled ethics process that Democrats said was rigged to protect Mr. DeLay, who was admonished three times by the ethics committee last year. The Republican majority has also come under increasing criticism for the rule changes, which their opponents said would render the committee impotent to pursue wrongdoing by members.

One of the most immediate effects of the House's reverting to the old rules will be the opening of an investigation into persistent questions about Mr. DeLay's overseas travel and his relationships with prominent lobbyists. His fund-raising operations are under investigation by a grand jury in Texas, and some of the lobbyists' roles have come under increasing scrutiny by federal investigators in recent months."

Economy Grows at Slowest Pace in Two Years

Economy Grows at Slowest Pace in Two Years:
"
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 28, 2005; 9:41 AM

The U.S. economy grew at its slowest pace in two years in the first three months of 2005, the Commerce Department reported today, thanks to slowing consumer and business spending, rising energy prices and the expanding trade gap.

The rate of growth of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) -- the broadest measure of economic activity -- slowed to 3.1 percent, today's report said, down from 3.8 percent in the previous quarter and significantly below the 4.5 percent growth rate in the first quarter of last year.

Today's figure of 3.1 percent also failed to meet the expectations of economists for a growth rate of 3.6 percent.

The report, an estimate which is often revised up or down, was yet another sign of a slowing economy even as prices, and inflation, are on the rise."

Revealed: the government's secret legal advice on Iraq war - Guardian Unlimited | Special reports |

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Revealed: the government's secret legal advice on Iraq war:

Thursday April 28, 2005
The Guardian

Tony Blair was told by the government's most senior law officer in a confidential minute less than two weeks before the war that British participation in the American-led invasion of Iraq could be declared illegal.

In a legal opinion Mr Blair has repeatedly refused to publish and never seen by the cabinet, Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, spelled out the dangers of going to war, including the prospect of Britain losing a case in an international court.

He warned that while he could argue a 'reasonable case' in favour of military action, he was not confident a court would agree. Indeed, a court 'might well conclude' that a new UN resolution was needed before military action could be undertaken."

Early Iraq legal opinion leaked - BBC NEWS | UK | UK Election 2005 | Election 2005 |

BBC NEWS | UK | UK Election 2005 | Election 2005 | Early Iraq legal opinion leaked:

"In the newly-leaked document, retyped from its original form, Lord Goldsmith says: 'I remain of the opinion that the safest legal course would be to secure the adoption of a further resolution to authorise the use of force...

'I accept that a reasonable case can be made that resolution 1441 is capable in principle of reviving the authorisation in 678 without a further resolution...

'However, the argument that resolution 1441 alone has revived the authorisation to use force in resolution 678 will only be sustainable if there are strong factual grounds for concluding that Iraq has failed to take the final opportunity.'
...

The document concludes by saying: 'If we fail to achieve the adoption of a second resolution we would need to consider urgently at that stage the strength of our legal case in the light of circumstances at the time.'"

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2005®

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2005®:

"AIR AMERICA RADIO INVESTIGATED AFTER BUSH 'GUNSHOTS'

**Exclusive**

The red-hot rhetoric over Social Security on liberal talkradio network AIR AMERICA has caught the attention of the Secret Service, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

Government officials are reviewing a skit which aired on the network Monday evening -- a skit featuring an apparent gunshot warning to the president!

The announcer: 'A spoiled child is telling us our Social Security isn't safe anymore, so he is going to fix it for us. Well, here's your answer, you ungrateful whelp: [audio sound of 4 gunshots being fired.] Just try it, you little bastard. [audio of gun being cocked].'

The audio production at the center of the controversy aired during opening minutes of The Randi Rhodes Show.

'What is with all the killing?' Rhodes said, laughing, after the clip aired.

'Even joking about shooting the president is a crime, let alone doing it on national radio... we are taking this very seriously,' a government source explained."

KCBS: Company Plans To Build Space Elevator

KCBS: Company Plans To Build Space Elevator:

"Apr 26, 2005 2:13 pm US/Pacific
BREMERTON, WA (AP) A company in Washington State wants to send an elevator into space.

The LiftPort company says it will open a plant this summer in Millville, New Jersey, to start producing nanotube fibers, which are 60-times stronger than steel.

The company plans to create an eight-inch wide ribbon that would stretch from an ocean platform 62-thousand miles into space.

A robotic elevator would crawl up and down the elevator to carry satellites and eventually people into orbit."

U.S.: Abu Ghraib Only the "Tip of the Iceberg - Reuters

Reuters AlertNet - U.S.: Abu Ghraib Only the "Tip of the Iceberg":

"(New York, April 27, 2005)- The crimes at Abu Ghraib are part of a larger pattern of abuses against Muslim detainees around the world, Human Rights Watch said on the eve of the April 28 anniversary of the first pictures of U.S. soldiers brutalizing prisoners at the Iraqi jail. Human Rights Watch released a summary (below) of evidence of U.S. abuse of detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as well as of the programs of secret CIA detention, 'extraordinary renditions,' and 'reverse renditions.'

'Abu Ghraib was only the tip of the iceberg,' said Reed Brody, special counsel for Human Rights Watch. 'It's now clear that abuse of detainees has happened all over-from Afghanistan to Guantánamo Bay to a lot of third-country dungeons where the United States has sent prisoners. And probably quite a few other places we don't even know about.'

Human Rights Watch called this week for the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the culpability of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and ex-CIA Director George Tenet, as well as Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, formerly the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the former commander of the prison camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba in cases of crimes against detainees. It rejected last week's report by the Army Inspector General which was said to absolve Gen. Sanchez of responsibility."

the graham report

the graham report

LETTER TO SCOTT McCLELLAN:

April 25, 2005

Scott McClellan
Assistant to the President and Press Secretary
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. McClellan,

We write to ask you to identify who in your office, or in the White House generally, gave Mr. James Guckert a.k.a. "Jeff Gannon" virtually unfettered access to the White House. In reviewing the response to our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the Department of Homeland Security several of our specific concerns were validated. While your office and the White House have claimed Gannon was treated as just another reporter, the records we have obtained affirm that Gannon was granted access to the White House which appears to be unusual for any reporter. Out of concern for not only security, but also avoiding White House dissemination of propaganda, we request an explanation to the following:

1. The Department of Homeland Security's records indicate that Mr. "Gannon" entered the White House Complex 196 times in the past two years. He attended 155 of the 196 press conferences held at the White House in the two year period. This is disconcerting considering that your office and "Mr. Gannon" have maintained that his access was sporadic. At what point is a "hard pass" required?

2. The records show that Mr. "Gannon" was allowed access to the White House 38 times when no public press events occurred. He also spent hours in the White House both before and after press events took place. With whom did he meet on those occasions and what was the subject matter of those meetings?

3. On 13 occasions there is a record where he checked in with security, but is never registered as leaving the White House complex. How do you explain this?

4. Your Media Assistant, Lois Cassano, requested a total of 48 day passes for Mr. "Gannon" which helped facilitate his access for nearly 200 times over the last two years. It is nearly impossible that she would have made Gannon such a priority without direction from a supervisor. Would you like to revise your claim that, "I don't involve myself in that process, it's handled at a staff level."<1>

These records appear to confirm our concern that Gannon was treated in a manner that deviated from standard White House procedure for determining who receives press credentials, and to what degree members of the press and public are granted access to the White House complex. In fact, these entry and exit records only raise more questions, as your office has issued conflicting statements about his activities and apparently abused the press pass policy to avoid a full-fledged background investigation and allow Republican propaganda to be disseminated through a counterfeit media operation and a fake reporter.

Mr. McClellan, we have yet to receive any direct communication from your office in response to our repeated requests for information. The American people deserve to know what is happening in the White House Briefing room. It is unacceptable that you continue to deny them this information.

Sincerely,

/s

Rep. Louise Slaughter
Ranking Member
House Rules Committee

Rep. John Conyers, Jr.
Ranking Member
House Judiciary Committee

Americans Oppose Senate Rule Changes, Poll Shows

Americans Oppose Senate Rule Changes, Poll Shows:

"But by a 2 to 1 ratio, the public rejected easing Senate rules in a way that would make it harder for Democratic senators to prevent final action on Bush's nominees. Even many Republicans were reluctant to abandon current Senate confirmation procedures: Nearly half opposed any rule changes, joining eight in 10 Democrats and seven in 10 political independents, the poll found.

The wide-ranging survey also recorded a precipitous decline in support for the centerpiece of Bush's Social Security plan -- private or personal accounts -- despite the fact that the president and other administration officials have been stumping the country in a 60-day blitz to mobilize support. The Post-ABC poll found that a bare majority -- 51 percent -- opposed such accounts, while 45 percent supported them."

TIME.com: Any Kerry Supporters On The Line? -- May. 02, 2005

TIME.com: Any Kerry Supporters On The Line? -- May. 02, 2005:

"The State Department has traditionally put together a list of industry representatives for these meetings, and anyone in the U.S. telecom industry who had the requisite expertise and wanted to go was generally given a slot, say past participants. Only after the start of Bush's second term did a political litmus test emerge, industry sources say.

The White House admits as much: 'We wanted people who would represent the Administration positively, and--call us nutty--it seemed like those who wanted to kick this Administration out of town last November would have some difficulty doing that,' says White House spokesman Trent Duffy. Those barred from the trip include employees of Qualcomm and Nokia, two of the largest telecom firms operating in the U.S., as well as Ibiquity, a digital-radio-technology company in Columbia, Md. One nixed participant, who has been to many of these telecom meetings and who wants to remain anonymous, gave just $250 to the Democratic Party. Says Nokia vice president Bill Plummer: 'We do not view sending experts to international meetings on telecom issues to be a partisan matter. We would welcome clarification from the White House.'"

Weapons Inspector Ends WMD Search in Iraq - Yahoo! News -

Yahoo! News - Weapons Inspector Ends WMD Search in Iraq:

"WASHINGTON - Wrapping up his investigation into Saddam Hussein's purported arsenal, the CIA's top weapons hunter in Iraq said his search for weapons of mass destruction 'has been exhausted' without finding any.

Nor did he find any evidence that such weapons were shipped officially from Iraq to Syria to be hidden before the U.S. invasion, but he couldn't rule out some unofficial transfer of limited WMD-related materials.

He closed his effort with words of caution about potential future threats and careful assessment of this and other unanswered questions.

The Bush administration justified its 2003 invasion of Iraq as necessary to eliminate Hussein's purported stockpile of WMD.

'As matters now stand, the WMD investigation has gone as far as feasible,' wrote Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, in an addendum to the report he issued last fall. 'After more than 18 months, the WMD investigation and debriefing of the WMD-related detainees has been exhausted.'"

Rice pressures Iraqis to form a government - After Saddam - www.smh.com.au

Rice pressures Iraqis to form a government - After Saddam - www.smh.com.au:

"The Bush Administration has pressured Iraqi leaders to end their stalemate over forming a new government, because it says it is worried about a political deadlock and increasing violence from insurgents."

Experts say insurgents have retaken momentum as politicians 'dither' over cabinet posts. | csmonitor.com

Experts say insurgents have retaken momentum as politicians 'dither' over cabinet posts. | csmonitor.com:

"Just a few weeks after US military officials optimistically predicted that the Iraq insurgency was 'fizzling' because the number of attacks per day was down, many of those same officials now believe they were wrong, and that the insurgency is strengthing again.

The Boston Globe reported Sunday that US military officials now believe that the greater coordination and sophistocation of attacks demonstrated by insurgents in recent weeks means they have changed their tactics, rather than disappeared or given up.

'One of the insurgency's strengths is its capacity to regenerate,' said retired Army General John Keane, who returned recently from a fact-finding mission in Iraq. 'We have killed thousands of them and detained even more, but they are still able to regenerate. They are still coming at us.'"

Group Says U.S. Sent Up to 150 to Possible Torture Sites

Group Says U.S. Sent Up to 150 to Possible Torture Sites: "
April 24, 2005

WASHINGTON — A civil liberties group investigating allegations of prisoner abuse will report today that since the Sept. 11 attacks, U.S. agents have secretly transported up to 150 detainees to countries that may practice torture.

Such transporting, known as rendition, is more widespread than the government has reported, according to Human Rights Watch. In a report issued a year after the earliest revelations of the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, the group said the renditions, along with abuses of foreign detainees by U.S. forces, were possible violations of international law.

The group also said an Army investigation clearing top U.S. military commanders of wrongdoing in the scandal at Abu Ghraib in Baghdad established the need for an outside inquiry.

'This just proves the military can't investigate itself,' said Reed Brody, a lawyer for Human Rights Watch, which monitors civil rights issues around the world. 'It seems like another in a long line of attempts at self-absolution.'"

Six Months in Ramadi: Bloodied Marines Sound Off About Want of Armor and Men - The New York Times > International > Middle East > The Company |

The New York Times > International > Middle East > The Company | Six Months in Ramadi: Bloodied Marines Sound Off About Want of Armor and Men:

"Sergeant Valerio and others had to scrounge for metal scraps to strengthen the Humvees they inherited from the National Guard, which occupied Ramadi before the marines arrived. Among other problems, the armor the marines slapped together included heavier doors that could not be latched, so they 'chicken winged it' by holding them shut with their arms as they traveled.

'We were sitting out in the open, an easy target for everybody,' Cpl. Toby G. Winn of Centerville, Tex., said of the shortages. 'We complained about it every day, to anybody we could. They told us they were listening, but we didn't see it.'"

Terrified US soldiers are still killing civilians with impunity, while the dead go uncounted

News:

"'We should end the immunity of US soldiers here,' says Dr Mahmoud Othman, a veteran Kurdish politician who argues that the failure to prosecute American soldiers who have killed civilians is one of the reasons why the occupation became so unpopular so fast. He admits, however, that this is extremely unlikely to happen given the US attitude to any sanctions against its own forces.

Every Iraqi has stories of friends or relatives killed by US troops for no adequate reason. Often they do not know if they were shot by regular soldiers or by members of western security companies whose burly employees, usually ex-soldiers, are everywhere in Iraq."

Justice Sunday: Relilgion and Politics

Foes attack event as intolerant:

More than 700 people joined religious leaders and Democratic politicians at two rallies yesterday to denounce Christian conservatives' use of a Louisville church as a platform to advocate prohibiting filibusters against judicial nominees.
...
The larger of the two rallies, designed to counter a telecast from Highview Baptist Church last night, took place at Central Presbyterian Church near downtown Louisville. More than 600 people came to hear Baptist, Episcopal, Jewish and ecumenical leaders from around the country criticize what they described as an effort to paint dissidents as anti-religion.
...
At the rally at Central Presbyterian, the Rev. Jim Wallis of the United Church of Christ, who wrote the book "God's Politics" and is editor of the Sojourners Christian-ministry magazine, urged like-minded congregations to "wake up" to what he called a Republican-led "religious war" intended to usher in a "theocracy."

The "religious right," Wallis said, has tried to "steal our faith" and turn it on its head.

Putin deplores collapse of USSR - BBC NEWS | World | Europe |

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Putin deplores collapse of USSR:

"Russia's President Vladimir Putin has described the collapse of the Soviet Union as 'the greatest geopolitical catastrophe' of the 20th century.

Mr Putin's annual state of the nation address to parliament was broadcast live on Russian television."

Senate wants Iraqi invite for US troops

Senate wants Iraqi invite for US troops:

"Top Senate leaders want the United States to seek a formal invitation from the new Iraqi government to keep American troops in the country.

Senators John Warner, R-Va., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., who head the Senate Armed Services Committee, asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to discuss the matter with the Iraqi government. They contend that if U.S. and other foreign forces remain in Iraq at the request of the government they will be less likely to be seen as occupiers and more as a helpful security presence."

DeLay Airfare Was Charged To Lobbyist's Credit Card (washingtonpost.com)

DeLay Airfare Was Charged To Lobbyist's Credit Card (washingtonpost.com):

"The airfare to London and Scotland in 2000 for then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was charged to an American Express card issued to Jack Abramoff, a Washington lobbyist at the center of a federal criminal and tax probe, according to two sources who know Abramoff's credit card account number and to a copy of a travel invoice displaying that number.
..............................

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay R-Texas, left, is greeted by protestors at the dedication of the International Space Station Monument, Saturday, April 23, 2005, in Houston. (AP Photo/The Houston Chronicle, Carlos Javier Sanchez) (Carlos Javier Sanchez / Ap)


Friday's Question:
It was not until the early 20th century that the Senate enacted rules allowing members to end filibusters and unlimited debate. How many votes were required to invoke cloture when the Senate first adopted the rule in 1917?
51
60
64
67


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House ethics rules bar lawmakers from accepting travel and related expenses from registered lobbyists. DeLay, who is now House majority leader, has said that his expenses on this trip were paid by a nonprofit organization and that the financial arrangements for it were proper. He has also said he had no way of knowing that any lobbyist might have financially supported the trip, either directly or through reimbursements to the nonprofit organization.

The documents obtained by The Washington Post, including receipts for his hotel stays in Scotland and London and billings for his golfing during the trip at the famed St. Andrews course in Scotland, substantiate for the first time that some of DeLay's expenses on the trip were billed to charge cards used by the two lobbyists. The invoice for DeLay's plane fare lists the name of what was then Abramoff's lobbying firm, Preston Gates & Ellis."

Rice changed terrorism report - Guardian Unlimited | Special reports |

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Rice changed terrorism report:

"A state department report which showed an increase in terrorism incidents around the world in 2004 was altered to strip it of its pessimistic statistics, it emerged yesterday.

The country-by-country report, Patterns of Global Terrorism, has come out every year since 1986, accompanied by statistical tables.

This year's edition showed a big increase, from 172 significant terrorist attacks in 2003 to 655 in 2004.

Much of the increase took place in Iraq, contradicting recent Pentagon claims that the insurgency there is waning.

Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, ordered the report to be withdrawn and a new one issued minus the statistics."

Rice Accused of Suppressing Terror Info - Yahoo! News -

Yahoo! News - Rice Accused of Suppressing Terror Info:

"A senior House Democrat who has been sharply critical of State Department reporting on terrorism is accusing Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of denying Congress and the public important information about the number of incidents.

'There appears to be a pattern in the administration's approach to terrorism data: favorable facts are revealed while unfavorable facts are suppressed,' Rep. Henry A. Waxman (news, bio, voting record) of California said in a letter to the department's acting inspector general, Cameron R. Hume.

The question is 'whether political considerations played a role in Secretary Rice's decision' to hand off a State Department report to a government counterterrorism center, Waxman said. He requested an inspector general's investigation."

New Pope condemns Spain gay bill - BBC NEWS | World | Europe |

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | New Pope condemns Spain gay bill:

"Pope Benedict XVI has responded firmly to the first challenge of his papacy by condemning a Spanish government bill allowing marriage between homosexuals.

The bill, passed by parliament's Socialist-dominated lower house, also allows gay couples to adopt."

Accused BTK Serial Killer Thanks Church - Yahoo! News -

Yahoo! News - Accused BTK Serial Killer Thanks Church:

"PARK CITY, Kan. - The man accused of the BTK serial killings wrote a 'very generic, very laid-back' letter to his former congregation, thanking church members for their support and asking for their prayers, the pastor said Friday."

Words from the front-lines - Traveling-Soldier

Traveling-Soldier:

“They’re tired. They’re tired of being here.” – Navy Lt. Matthew Weems, chaplain for the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, Fallujah, Iraq.

“When people say that war is the most terrible thing, they ain’t wrong. The things it does to people. You think that killing people for your country is cool, but when you do, it just numbs you.” – Sgt. Dave Bowden, Alpha Company, Task Force 2-2, 1st Infantry Division, Fallujah, Iraq.

“I don’t think we’re being completely clean about the reasons that we’re really over there and how we’re really treating the people. Those incidents of, say, prisoner abuse don’t just go on in certain places; they’re happening everywhere, all over the country. It’s not necessarily just the insurgents who are against us. I think it’s the general population of people. They get tired of seeing armed soldiers. What would you say if you saw Muslims from a different country out patrolling your streets every day? I’d be out there fighting them too.” – Army Spc. James Furnas"

Iraq War Veteran to Speak - The Mountain Times Online

The Mountain Times Online:

"After become a leader in Iraq Veterans Against the War, Anderson decided the best way to utilize his experiences was to tell the public about ways in which he feels that veterans and active military personnel are being treated unfairly by the policies of the Bush Administration.

“There was a lot of misunderstanding among military personnel and the public about why we went to war in the first place,” said Anderson. “I’m trying to raise the collective consciousness of the people who were lied to. Most of the people in the military went in wanting to help other people. Some went in for job opportunities, some went in to better themselves as people, and some went in to get money to go to school.

“We were misused and misled. At first we were told that it was about weapons of mass destruction. They were not there and our leaders knew that before the invasion. We were told that there was a link between Iraq and 9/11 when there was no such link. And we were told that Saddam Hussein was a threat when he was no threat whatsoever.

“We keep losing good people over there and it’s wrong.”
........................

“Veterans benefits are a completely under-funded aspect of the war,” said Anderson. “There are a lot of vets coming home that are going to need those benefits and they just aren’t going to be there. That was supposed to be the deal with an all-volunteer military. We have contracts that we signed in good faith and now they are not being honored. I’m speaking to people to tell them that if we send people to war, we need to be willing to honor those contracts and do the right thing when they get home.”
.............................

“I’ve talked to a lot of people who don’t even realize that there is still a war going on in Iraq,” said Anderson. “I talked to a high school group a couple of weeks ago and one guy asked me what war I was talking about. He was honestly surprised when I told him that we were still in Iraq. The problem is that we just don’t hear about it as much these days.”
..................................

“A lot has been made of the fact that this war has resulted in a lower number of people killed (1,559 American deaths as of Wednesday, April 19) in this conflict compared to, say, the Vietnam War,” said Anderson. “A lot of that is due to modern medicine and advances in in-the-field care. A lot of people who would have been dead in Vietnam or in other wars have been kept alive. They’re coming back to communities that are simply not prepared to receive them. They are becoming misfits in their own communities, without the help or training that they will need to become useful members of society for the rest of their lives. That issue is like the elephant in the room that no one is willing to talk about.”
....................................

“When I returned home to Virginia Beach, I felt a very hollow sense of support from a lot of people in my community,” said Anderson. “When I went to church that first Sunday, a lot of people pointed to the yellow stickers on their cars that said ‘Support Our Troops.’ But those same people did very little to help my family or send letters to the troops in Iraq. It takes about 30 seconds to buy a sticker at Wal-Mart and put it on your car. But what does it really mean?”
....................................

For more information on Anderson’s appearances in the High Country, call (828) 268-1532."

'04 Ratzinger letter seen as Kerry rebuke - Chicago Tribune |

Chicago Tribune | '04 Ratzinger letter seen as Kerry rebuke:

"German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, played an indirect role in the 2004 U.S. campaign when he directed Catholic bishops to deny Communion to abortion rights supporters such as Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

But Kerry, a lifelong Catholic and former altar boy, declined to criticize the new pontiff Wednesday.

'The election of a new pope is a great moment of hope, renewal and possibility for the Catholic Church,' Kerry said in a statement.

Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote a letter last June to U.S. bishops stating that Catholics who support abortion rights are guilty of a 'grave sin' and are unworthy of Communion.

Although he did not mention Kerry or any other person by name, it was widely viewed that he was referring to Kerry when he said the sacrament should be denied in 'the case of a Catholic politician consistently campaigning and voting for permissive abortion and euthanasia laws.'

Further, his letter said any Catholic who votes for such a candidate is likewise 'unworthy.'

However, 'Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia,' Ratzinger wrote. Disagreeing with the pope 'on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war' would not make someone unworthy to receive Communion."

Bolton Gets Unequivoval Backing From Bush, but Not Powell NYT

The New York Times > Washington > Bolton Gets Unequivoval Backing From Bush, but Not Powell:

"April 21 - President Bush issued a strong new defense today of John R. Bolton, his nominee as ambassador to the United Nations, even as associates of Colin L. Powell, the former secretary of state, said that Mr. Powell had expressed reservations about Mr. Bolton in conversations with at least two wavering Republican senators.

The associates said that in private telephone conversations Mr. Powell had made clear his concerns with Mr. Bolton on several fronts, including his harsh treatment of subordinates. The associates said that Mr. Powell had also praised Mr. Bolton's performance on some matters during his tenure as undersecretary of state, but they also said that Mr. Powell had stopped well short of the endorsements offered by President Bush and by Mr. Powell's own successor as secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice."

Military targets illegal gas sales -- The Washington Times

Military targets illegal gas sales -- The Washington Times:

"On any day in many Iraqi cities, men with plastic containers full of gas line the roads outside gas stations, offering the same product for a much higher price but faster. Motorists pull up, hand a wad of dinars out the window, and wait as the bootlegger fills the tank using a funnel and a hose.

Filling your tank illegally takes only minutes, but costs as much as 8,000 dinars ($5.50), whereas a legal tank of gas might cost half as much, but requires hours of waiting in lines that stretch as long as a half-mile.

Long lines at an inadequate number of gas stations -- a result of decades of underinvestment by dictator Saddam Hussein's government -- have given rise to thousands of illicit gas stands.

In Nineveh and Diyala provinces, U.S. troops are shutting down bootleggers and giving their gas away for free in an effort to control the price of gasoline, protect the livelihoods of gas-station owners and employees, and in the long term, reduce the wait and encourage investment in gas distribution."

Neil Bush, Ratzinger co-founders

New York City: Neil Bush, Ratzinger co-founders: "Neil Bush, Ratzinger co-founders

WASHINGTON -- Neil Bush, the president's controversial younger brother, six years ago joined the cardinal who this week became Pope Benedict XVI as a founding board member of a little known Swiss ecumenical foundation. The charter members of the board were all well-known international religious figures, except for Bush and his close friend and business partner, Jamal Daniel, whose family has extensive holdings in the United States and Switzerland, public records show.
..........................

Gary Vachicouras, a theologian and foundation official in Geneva, would not explain in a telephone interview yesterday why Bush, who has no clear public connection to religious causes, was on the first board.
...........................

The foundation, based at the Orthodox Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Geneva, is listed by Dun & Bradstreet business credit reports as a management trust for purposes other than education, religion, charity or research."

Kerry: Don't t - ell me what God wantsBostonHerald.com - National Politics:

BostonHerald.com - National Politics: Kerry: Don't tell me what God wants:

"WASHINGTON - Sen. John F. Kerry yesterday attacked Republicans for having an ``orthodoxy of view'' and overly inserting religion into politics, accusing them of using God as a justification for appointing conservative judges.

``I am sick and tired of a bunch of people trying to tell me that God wants a bunch of conservative judges on the court and that's why we have to change the rules of the United States Senate,'' Kerry told a group of Bay State residents who traveled to Capitol Hill for U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan's annual legislative seminar."

Kerry: Don't t - ell me what God wantsBostonHerald.com - National Politics:

BostonHerald.com - National Politics: Kerry: Don't tell me what God wants:

"WASHINGTON - Sen. John F. Kerry yesterday attacked Republicans for having an ``orthodoxy of view'' and overly inserting religion into politics, accusing them of using God as a justification for appointing conservative judges.

``I am sick and tired of a bunch of people trying to tell me that God wants a bunch of conservative judges on the court and that's why we have to change the rules of the United States Senate,'' Kerry told a group of Bay State residents who traveled to Capitol Hill for U.S. Rep. Martin Meehan's annual legislative seminar."

Clinton impeachment was retaliation for Nixon, says Henry Hyde - ABC7Chicago.com: retiring congressman

ABC7Chicago.com: Clinton impeachment was retaliation for Nixon, says retiring congressman:

April 21, 2005 — Republican Congressman Henry Hyde made some surprising comments Thursday on the impeachment hearings of President Bill Clinton. He now says Republicans may have gone after Clinton to retaliate for the impeachment of Richard Nixon. Hyde is stepping down after this term.

Video ABC7 Video

Hyde's comments came as he talked with ABC7 political reporter Andy Shaw about his 30 year in Congress.
....................................

Hyde's comments reflect what Democrats have been saying for years about the Clinton impeachment. It will be interesting to see what happens when Hyde's comments hit the national media."

Colo. Lawyer Says Bush Event Being Probed - Yahoo! News -

Yahoo! News - Colo. Lawyer Says Bush Event Being Probed:

"DENVER - A lawyer for three activists removed from one of President Bush's town hall events said Thursday that the Secret Service has opened a criminal probe into whether the man who escorted them from the hall was impersonating an agent.

The man was dressed in a dark suit and wore an earpiece when he escorted the three from the March 21 event. The Secret Service has said it has determined the man was not one of its agents, but a staff member with the host committee."

1000 Iraqis dying each month: expert - The Daily Telegraph |

The Daily Telegraph | 1000 Iraqis dying each month: expert:

April 22, 2005

DESPITE a decrease in American deaths in Iraq, Iraqis continue to die and suffer under poor economic conditions, a foreign policy expert said today.

Between 500 and 1000 Iraqis would be killed each month in the war-torn country, the Washington-based The Brookings Institution foreign policy expert Michael O'Hanlon said."

O’Reilly Accuser Buys U.W.S. Condo for $809,500

O’Reilly Accuser Buys U.W.S. Condo for $809,500; Ted Greenberg Dukes It Out in $4 M. Bid:

"Andrea Mackris, the former associate producer for Fox News Channel who made headlines by suing talking head Bill O’Reilly for sexual harassment, recently purchased an Upper West Side condo for $809,500, according to deed-transfer records."

FBI PROTECTS OSAMA BIN LADEN’S “RIGHT TO PRIVACY” IN DOCUMENT RELEASE - Judicial Watch

Judicial Watch:

"(Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that fights government corruption, announced today that it has obtained documents through the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) has invoked privacy right protections on behalf of al Qaeda terror leader Osama bin Laden.

In a September 24, 2003 declassified “Secret” FBI report obtained by Judicial Watch, the FBI invoked Exemption 6 under FOIA law on behalf of bin Laden, which permits the government to withhold all information about U.S. persons in “personnel and medical files and similar files” when the disclosure of such information “would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.” (5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(6) (2000))
.........................................

“It is dumbfounding that the United States government has placed a higher priority on the supposed privacy rights of Osama bin Laden than the public’s right to know what happened in the days following the September 11 terrorist attacks,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “It is difficult for me to imagine a greater insult to the American people, especially those whose loved ones were murdered by bin Laden on that day.”"

Greenspan Warns Deficits Endanger Economy - Yahoo! News -

Yahoo! News - Greenspan Warns Deficits Endanger Economy:

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned on Thursday that unless lawmakers come to grips with spiraling U.S. deficits, the economy was at risk of stagnation 'or worse.'
...........................

'Under existing tax rates and reasonable assumptions about other spending ... projections make clear that the federal budget is on an unsustainable path, in which large deficits result in rising interest rates and ever-growing interest payments that augment deficits in future years,' Greenspan told the Senate Budget Committee."

Two in Five U.S. Adults Believe that Torture of Prisoners by Americans Still Prevalent in Iraq and Afghanistan

Two in Five U.S. Adults Believe that Torture of Prisoners by Americans Still Prevalent in Iraq and Afghanistan:

"By a 66 to 32 percent majority the American public believes that torture of prisoners by Americans has taken place in Iraq and Afghanistan. Furthermore, 61 percent of those who believe that torture has taken place (or 41 percent of all U.S. adults) also believe that it is still happening in spite of the public disclosures of events that took place in Abu Ghraib prison.

In addition, while six in 10 (60%) adults favor bringing most U.S. troops home in the next year, similar numbers (58%) do not expect that this will happen within two years, and a majority of people (55% ) are not confident that Iraq will be successful in developing a stable government. These are some of the results of a Harris Poll of 1,010 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone by Harris Interactive(R) between April 5 and 10, 2005.

Torture of Prisoners Other findings about the torture of Iraqi and Afghan prisoners include: -- Among the 66 percent of adults who believe that prisoners captured in Iraq and Afghanistan were tortured, a 41 percent plurality feel that those in command are most responsible followed by the soldiers (30%), the Administration (13%) and the Pentagon (10%)."

Iraqi Lawmakers Demand Apology From U.S. - ABC News:

ABC News: Iraqi Lawmakers Demand Apology From U.S.:

"BAGHDAD, Iraq Apr 20, 2005 — Iraqi lawmakers adjourned in protest Tuesday and demanded an apology after a Shiite legislator linked to a radical anti-American cleric tearfully said he was handcuffed and humiliated at a U.S. checkpoint."

Berlusconi to resign as Italian PM - Guardian Unlimited | Special reports |

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Berlusconi to resign as Italian PM:

"Silvio Berlusconi will today resign as Italian prime minister in a gesture intended to win the support of two rebel coalition partners for a new government to replace his struggling administration."

NEA, School Districts Fight No Child Law - Yahoo! News -

Yahoo! News - NEA, School Districts Fight No Child Law:
WASHINGTON - The nation's largest teachers union and school districts in three states are launching a legal fight over No Child Left Behind, aiming to free schools from complying with any part of the education law not paid for by the federal government.

The lawsuit, expected to be filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for eastern Michigan, is the most sweeping challenge to President Bush's signature education policy."

Witnesses leery of testifying while Roberts stays on White House investigation

Witnesses leery of testifying while Roberts stays on leak investigation:

"Two witnesses interviewed by the FBI in its probe of classified information leaked from a joint congressional inquiry in 2002 say they are very concerned about cooperating with a Senate Ethics Committee review of the matter because Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) has not recused himself from the review.

Roberts is a member of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics and chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Good-government advocates have called on Roberts to recuse himself from the committee’s probe into the leak case, which the Justice Department referred to it last summer.

The witnesses are reluctant to cooperate with the ethics panel because, they said, the FBI’s investigation focused on Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who at the time was the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, and because Shelby’s former staff director Bill Duhnke and deputy staff director Jim Hensler now serve as Roberts’s top aides on Intelligence.

The Washington Post reported last August that federal investigators concluded that Shelby had divulged classified intercepted messages to the media in 2002 during the joint House-Senate inquiry into the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

One cardinal deciding on the next pope has had some embarrassing legal troubles

Yahoo! News - One cardinal deciding on the next pope has had some embarrassing legal troubles:

"ROME - If things had gone differently, one of the 115 men sequestered within Vatican walls this week to select the next pope might well have been somewhere equally confining but far less appealing: prison.

Cardinal Michele Giordano, archbishop of Naples, was charged in 1999 with allegedly funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars in church funds to his brother in what authorities said was a massive loan-sharking ring. The charges followed a two-year investigation in which prosecutors tapped the prelate's telephone and raided his offices.

A judge found him not guilty in December 2000. But the cardinal's legal troubles aren't over. In 2002, Giordano was convicted and sentenced to four and a half months' confinement for illegally subdividing a historic palace. The wealthy heiress who bequeathed the property is also suing the cardinal because he sought to convert the palace into apartments instead of a home for poor retired priests as she'd wished, according to Italian news reports."

New pope shelved sex abuse claim, accuser says

International news from swissinfo, the Swiss news platform:

"MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A former trainee priest who has accused the founder of an influential Catholic order of sexual abuse said on Tuesday that new Pope Benedict XVI deliberately shelved a probe into his claims for six years."

Liberal U.S. Catholics Dismayed at Choice of Pope - Yahoo! News -

Yahoo! News - Liberal U.S. Catholics Dismayed at Choice of Pope:

"- Liberal U.S. Catholics on Tuesday expressed dismay at the choice of a conservative new pope and doubted he will heal an institution racked by disillusionment and tarnished by a sex abuse scandal among the clergy.

The election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI rankled those who advocate married priests, a bigger role for women within the church and softening its policy on homosexuality, birth control, euthanasia and abortion.
............................

The sense of alienation deepened with a well-publicized scandal over pedophile priests, which erupted in 2002 in the Archdiocese of Boston as court documents showed bishops shuttled pedophile priests from parish to parish.

Victims of sexual abuse by members of the clergy reacted skeptically to word that Ratzinger was the new pope."

National Socialist Principles of Education

National Socialist Principles of Education:

"Life comes from God and returns to God. All life and all races follow God's ordinances. No people and no race can ignore them. We want the German youth to again recognize the religious nature of life. They must realize that God wants the individual as well as the whole people, and that they lose contact with life when they lose contact with God! God and nation are the two foundations of the life of the individual and the community. We want no shallow and superficial piety, but rather a deep faith that God guides the world, that he controls it, and a consciousness of the relationship between God and each individual, and between God and the live of the people and the fatherland. The National Socialist state will promote such a deeply religious educational system. We want parents to support and strengthen this by honesty and by good example.

Race, military training, leadership, religion! These are the four unshakable foundations of the new German National Socialist education!"

Papal hopeful is a former Hitler Youth - Sunday Times - Times Online

Papal hopeful is a former Hitler Youth - Sunday Times - Times Online:

"THE wartime past of a leading German contender to succeed John Paul II may return to haunt him as cardinals begin voting in the Sistine Chapel tomorrow to choose a new leader for 1 billion Catholics.
......................

Unknown to many members of the church, however, Ratzinger’s past includes brief membership of the Hitler Youth movement and wartime service with a German army anti- aircraft unit.
......................

“Resistance was truly impossible,” Georg Ratzinger said.
......................

Some locals in Traunstein, like Elizabeth Lohner, 84, whose brother-in-law was sent to Dachau as a conscientious objector, dismiss such suggestions. “It was possible to resist, and those people set an example for others,” she said. “The Ratzingers were young and had made a different choice.”

In 1937 another family a few hundred yards away in Traunstein hid Hans Braxenthaler, a local resistance fighter. SS troops repeatedly searched homes in the area looking for the fugitive and his fellow conspirators. “When he was betrayed and the Nazis came for him, Braxenthaler shot himself because he knew he couldn’t escape,” said Frieda Meyer, 82, Ratzinger’s neighbour and childhood friend. “Even though they had tortured him in Dachau concentration camp he refused to give up his resistance efforts.”
..........................

His condemnations are legion — of women priests, married priests, dissident theologians and homosexuals, whom he has declared to be suffering from an “objective disorder”.

He upset many Jews with a statement in 1987 that Jewish history and scripture reach fulfilment only in Christ — a position denounced by critics as “theological anti-semitism”. He made more enemies among other religions in 2000, when he signed a document, Dominus Jesus, in which he argued: “Only in the Catholic church is there eternal salvation”.”"

150 hostages and 19 deaths leave US claims of Iraqi 'peace' in tatters - Belfast Telegraph

Belfast Telegraph:
By Patrick Cockburn in Mosul
18 April 2005

Ironically, one reason why Washington can persuade the outside world that its venture in Iraq is finally coming right is that it is too dangerous for reporters to travel outside Baghdad or stray far from their hotels in the capital. The threat to all foreigners was underlined last week when an American contractor was snatched by kidnappers.

When I was travelling in the northern city of Mosul this week, my guards ­ Kurdish members of the Iraqi National Guard ­ said it was too dangerous for them to travel with me in uniform in official vehicles. They donned Arab gowns, hid their weapons and drove through the city in a civilian car.

Most violent incidents in Iraq go unreported. We saw one suicide bomb explosion, clouds of smoke and dust erupting into the air, and heard another in the space of an hour. Neither was mentioned in official reports. Last year US soldiers told the IoS that they do not tell their superiors about attacks on them unless they suffer casualties. This avoids bureaucratic hassle and 'our generals want to hear about the number of attacks going down not up'. This makes the official Pentagon claim that the number of insurgent attacks is down from 140 a day in January to 40 a day this month dubious."

Is The Oil Industry Purposely Driving Up Gas Prices? - abc7news.com:

abc7news.com: Is The Oil Industry Purposely Driving Up Gas Prices?:

"Apr. 14 (ABC7) — First Senator Boxer, now State Attorney General Bill Lockyer is asking for transcripts of what an oil refinery executive said about limiting supply - comments made in front of our cameras, by one of the country's biggest independent refiners. ABC7's Mark Matthews reports.
.............................

The oil companies tell us high prices are the natural result of demand outstripping supply. This is how President George Bush described it today to a group of newspaper editors.

President George W. Bush: 'You see, the problem is the supplies are out of balance with demand.'

Sounds simple enough. But listen to what the president of Premcor refining told a gathering of refiners here in San Francisco.

Hank Kuchta, President & COO of Premcor (3/10/05): 'If we go in and we start expanding like crazy before the demand gets there, that's the shoot yourself in the foot theory, and we'd all be the opposite of geniuses, you pick the word. They'd kill us, believe me.'

Hank Kuchta is president of Premcor, an independent oil refiner with the capability of processing nearly 800,000 barrels a day. But Kuchta told his fellow refiners his company doesn't want to produce as much gasoline as it can because that might flood the market and drive down prices.
........................

Bill Lockyer, (D) California Attorney General: 'This is the first time that a high executive was recommending, and no one disagreed, that they restrict supply.'"

Rising hatred of occupation - Mail & Guardian Online:

Mail & Guardian Online: Rising hatred of occupation:

"Saddam Hussein’s effigy was pulled down again in Baghdad’s Firdos Square last weekend. But unlike the made-for-TV event when United States troops first entered the Iraqi capital, the toppling of Hussein on the occupation’s second anniversary was different.

Instead of being done by US Marines with a few dozen Iraqi bystanders, 300 000 Iraqis were on hand. They threw down effigies of US President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as well as the old dictator, at a rally that did not celebrate liberation but called for the immediate departure of foreign troops."

New Reports undercut Iraq, al-Qaeda link - The Daily Telegraph |

The Daily Telegraph | Reports undercut Iraq, al-Qaeda link: "April 16, 2005

A TOP Democratic senator has released formerly classified documents that he says undercut top US officials' pre-Iraq war claims of a link between Saddam Hussein's regime and the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

'These documents are additional compelling evidence that the intelligence community did not believe there was a cooperative relationship between Iraq and al-Qaeda, despite public comments by the highest ranking officials in our government to the contrary,' Senator Carl Levin said today.
..............................

In October 2002, Mr Bush said: 'We've learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases.'

But a June 2002 CIA report, titled Iraq and al-Qa'ida: Interpreting a Murky Relationship, said 'the level and extent of this is assistance is not clear'.

The report said that there were 'many critical gaps' in the knowledge of Iraq-al-Qaeda links due to 'limited reporting' and the 'questionable reliability of many of our sources', according to excerpts cited by Senator Levin."

Marriage Act sponsor facing divorce - Nashville City Paper

Nashville City Paper:

"Senate Republican Caucus Chairman Jeff Miller, the sponsor of Tennessee’s Marriage Protection act, is facing divorce because of his alleged relationship with a Senate aide, his wife said.

Miller (R-Cleveland) has been the chief sponsor of the Marriage Protection Amendment, which passed the Senate in February mere days prior to the divorce filing.

Brigitte Miller, Sen. Miller’s wife of 15 years, said he is having an affair with a legislative researcher and that he and the young lady accompanied the Millers’ three daughters to a November Martina McBride concert in Nashville."

Torturers' confessions - baltimoresun.com -

baltimoresun.com - Torturers' confessions: "Originally published June 13, 1995

TORONTO - Jose Barrera gulped down a double shot of Sambuca before he began to talk about his past as a torturer and murderer.

He recalled how he nearly suffocated people with rubber masks, how he attached wires to their genitals and shocked them with electricity, how he tore off a man's testicles with a rope.

'We let them stay in their own excrement,' he said, his gold front tooth reflecting the dim lamplight. 'When they were very weak, we would take them to disappear.'

Images such as these cast a shadow over the lives of Barrera and other men who served in Battalion 316, a CIA-trained military unit that terrorized Honduras for much of the 1980s.

At a time when Honduras was crucial to the U.S. government's war on communism in Central America, the battalion was created and trained to collect intelligence. But it also stalked, kidnapped, tortured and murdered hundreds of Honduran men and women suspected of subversion.

At least 184 of the battalion's victims are missing and presumed dead. They are called 'desaparecidos,' Spanish for the 'disappeared.'

In hours of interviews over two weeks in Toronto, where they live in exile, Barrera and other former members of the battalion - Florencio Caballero and Jose Valle - told The Sun how the unit operated.

Each of the men said he was trained by instructors from the CIA, sometimes together with instructors from Argentina, where a campaign against suspected subversives left more than 10,000 dead or disappeared in the 1970s.

Some training was conducted at an army camp in Lepaterique, a town 16 miles west of the capital, Tegucigalpa, the men said. Other sessions were held at a base in the United States whose location was kept secret even from them.

In separate interviews, they described the courses in the same way: CIA officers taught them 'anti-guerrilla tactics' - how to stake out suspects' homes, use hidden cameras and tap telephones, and how to question prisoners.

The training of battalion members in the early 1980s was confirmed in 1988 by Richard Stolz, then-CIA deputy director for operations, in closed-door testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The testimony was recently declassified at the request of The Sun."

Torturers' confessions - baltimoresun.com -

baltimoresun.com - Torturers' confessions: "Originally published June 13, 1995

TORONTO - Jose Barrera gulped down a double shot of Sambuca before he began to talk about his past as a torturer and murderer.

He recalled how he nearly suffocated people with rubber masks, how he attached wires to their genitals and shocked them with electricity, how he tore off a man's testicles with a rope.

'We let them stay in their own excrement,' he said, his gold front tooth reflecting the dim lamplight. 'When they were very weak, we would take them to disappear.'

Images such as these cast a shadow over the lives of Barrera and other men who served in Battalion 316, a CIA-trained military unit that terrorized Honduras for much of the 1980s.

At a time when Honduras was crucial to the U.S. government's war on communism in Central America, the battalion was created and trained to collect intelligence. But it also stalked, kidnapped, tortured and murdered hundreds of Honduran men and women suspected of subversion.

At least 184 of the battalion's victims are missing and presumed dead. They are called 'desaparecidos,' Spanish for the 'disappeared.'

In hours of interviews over two weeks in Toronto, where they live in exile, Barrera and other former members of the battalion - Florencio Caballero and Jose Valle - told The Sun how the unit operated.

Each of the men said he was trained by instructors from the CIA, sometimes together with instructors from Argentina, where a campaign against suspected subversives left more than 10,000 dead or disappeared in the 1970s.

Some training was conducted at an army camp in Lepaterique, a town 16 miles west of the capital, Tegucigalpa, the men said. Other sessions were held at a base in the United States whose location was kept secret even from them.

In separate interviews, they described the courses in the same way: CIA officers taught them 'anti-guerrilla tactics' - how to stake out suspects' homes, use hidden cameras and tap telephones, and how to question prisoners.

The training of battalion members in the early 1980s was confirmed in 1988 by Richard Stolz, then-CIA deputy director for operations, in closed-door testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The testimony was recently declassified at the request of The Sun."

Fox News host: Repeat after me - New York Daily News - News & Views -

New York Daily News - News & Views - Fox News host: Repeat after me:

"If the conservative guests on Fox News' 'Hannity and Colmes' sound especially on-message, that's because they're being coached by the best:

Sean Hannity himself.

On the March 31 installment of the shouting-head show, the guests included two of the late Terri Schiavo's former nurses, Trudy Capone and Carla Sauer Iyer, arguing that their patient wasn't brain-dead.

Between commercials, according to an off-air audiotape obtained by investigative comedian Harry Shearer for last Sunday's episode of his weekly radio program, 'Le Show,' Hannity coached the women on exactly how to respond when liberal co-host Alan Colmes cross-examined them.

'Just say, 'I'm here to tell what I saw,'' Hannity can be heard instructing his guests. 'No matter what the question, 'I'm here to tell you what I saw. I'm here to tell you what I saw.''"

2 Houston businessmen arrested - HoustonChronicle.com

HoustonChronicle.com - 2 local men arrested in U.N. oil-for-food scandal:

"A New York grand jury has accused two Houston oilmen of paying illegal kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime when buying Iraqi crude under the United Nations' oil-for-food program.
..........................................
Chalmers and Dionissiev appeared before Magistrate Judge Calvin Botley in chains this afternoon where details of their bonds were set.
........................................

Bayoil's accused of paying millions of dollars in secret surcharges to Saddam's regime in order to acquire Iraqi oil. Prosecutors say the secret payments were not made to the U.N. bank account from which food and medical supplies could be purchased for the people of Iraq.

While the United Nations was overseeing the oil-for-food program and was supposed to be controlling the proceeds, Saddam's regime was allowed to chose who would purchase the oil. The buyers would then resell the crude to oil companies or traders.

Saddam's regime required the recipients of its oil to pay kickbacks into secret bank accounts controlled by Baghdad. The recipients of the crude would then pass along the cost of those kickbacks to their customers."

Military Families for Peace - Wisconsin State Journal

Wisconsin State Journal:

"An otherwise peaceful student protest against the war in Iraq and military recruiting on campus briefly turned threatening at UW-Madison Thursday when police disconnected the groups' speaker system.

Flipping the switch effectively silenced remarks by Jane Jensen, leader of Military Families for Peace and the mother of a Blackhawk helicopter pilot who served in Iraq.
.......................................................

In a later interview, Jensen, 71, of Fitchburg, said she was 'humiliated and insulted' to have the microphone cut off halfway through her message about supporting the troops while fighting for their quick return.
Advertisement:

'I just thought it was so rude,' she said. 'There was absolutely no reason for it. We were all speaking in a normal tone of voice. I think they were trying to incite the kids.'"

Bush 'not sexy' - World - www.smh.com.au

Bush 'not sexy' - World - www.smh.com.au: "He may be leader of the free world and Time magazine's 'Person of the Year,' but a new international survey of women makes certain that US President George W Bush is far from being the sexiest man alive.

In a recent online poll conducted by Esquire magazine, 11,000 women in 15 countries were asked to rate Bush's sex appeal on a scale of one to 10, and America's commander-in-chief failed to register much more than a two.

Women in Australia, Germany and the Netherlands were the harshest judges of George W.'s sexual allure, giving him an average rating of 1.4 each, Esquire said in its survey released earlier this week.

By contrast, Indonesian women were the most generous, giving Bush an average score of 2.2; American women found their president slightly less appealing, rating him a 2.1"

Army reservist witnesses war crimes

Army reservist witnesses war crimes:

"Delgado says he observed mutilation of the dead, trophy photos of dead Iraqis, mass roundups of innocent noncombatants, positioning of prisoners in the line of fire—all violations of the Geneva conventions. His own buddies—decent, Christian men, as he describes them—shot unarmed prisoners.

In one government class for seniors, Delgado presented graphic images, his own photos of a soldier playing with a skull, the charred remains of children, kids riddled with bullets, a soldier from his unit scooping out the brains of a prisoner. Some students were squeamish, like myself, and turned their heads. Others rubbed tears from their eyes. But at the end of the question period, many expressed appreciation for opening a subject that is almost taboo. 'If you are old enough to go to war,' Delgado said, 'you are old enough to know what really goes on.' It is a rare moment when American students, who play video war games more than baseball, are exposed to the realities of occupation. Delgado does not name names. Nor does he want to denigrate soldiers or undermine morale. He seeks to be a conscience for the military, and he wants Americans to take ownership of the war in all its tragic totality."

"Bush event exclusions ripped" - Rocky Mountain News: Local

Rocky Mountain News: Local: "April 1, 2005

Members of Congress from both parties on Thursday raised sharp questions about the exclusion of political opponents from two taxpayer-funded appearances by President Bush.
..............................

The Denver incident happened after a list was discovered in Fargo, N.D., naming 42 people to be barred from a Bush speech there in February attended by 8,000 people.

North Dakota's two Democratic senators, Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan, on Thursday jointly called for an investigation into the list. And the state's lone congressman, Democrat Earl Pomeroy, was quoted by the Fargo Forum as saying the list now appears to be standard operating procedure for the White House, rather than an isolated incident."

Ill. Druggists Must Dispense Birth Control - Yahoo! News -

Yahoo! News - Ill. Druggists Must Dispense Birth Control:

"CHICAGO - Gov. Rod Blagojevich approved an emergency rule Friday requiring pharmacies to fill birth control prescriptions quickly after a Chicago pharmacist refused to fill an order because of moral opposition to the drug."

DeLay Wants Panel to Review Role of Courts (washingtonpost.com)

DeLay Wants Panel to Review Role of Courts (washingtonpost.com):

"DeLay issued a statement asserting that 'the time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior.' He later said in front of television cameras that he wants to 'look at an arrogant, out-of-control, unaccountable judiciary that thumbed their nose at Congress and the president.'

Democrats continued to criticize DeLay yesterday, with Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) charging that the Republican might have broken a federal statute against threatening U.S. judges.

'Threats against specific federal judges are not only a serious crime, but also beneath a Member of Congress,' Lautenberg wrote. 'Your attempt to intimidate judges in America not only threatens our courts, but our fundamental democracy as well.'"

New Zealand's leading news and information website

STUFF - STORY - HOME : New Zealand's leading news and information website:

"He was a one-man megaphone for Christian indignation for more than a decade. Now Graham Capill stands disgraced, a convicted child molester.

His downfall has shocked former colleagues and dealt a potentially fatal blow to Christian Heritage, the political party he led for 13 years.

In Christchurch District Court yesterday, the 46-year-old father of 10 admitted a charge of indecent assault for fondling an eight-year-old girl's genitals."

Senator blames Clinton administration for U.S. intelligence woes - KYTV Springfield, MO

KYTV Springfield, MO:

"“The Clinton administration cut the intel budget by 20 percent. The Director of Intelligence got rid of spies -- human intelligence that we badly needed in the war against terror,” said Bond.

An expert on terrorism, Southwest Missouri State University political science professor Mehrdad Haghayeghi, says many Democrats and even some Republicans never would have voted for the war if the president hadn’t hyped the threat.

“Traditionally, intelligence is the foundation for policymaking. In this case, unfortunately, the Bush administration had devised the policy of intervention in Iraq and looked for intelligence that fit that policy,” said Haghayeghi."

President wants Senate to hurry with new laws - July 30, 1996 - CNN -

CNN - President wants Senate to hurry with new laws - July 30, 1996:

"July 30, 1996
Web posted at: 8:40 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Clinton urged Congress Tuesday to act swiftly in developing anti-terrorism legislation before its August recess. (1.6 MB AIFF or WAV sound)sound icon

'We need to keep this country together right now. We need to focus on this terrorism issue,' Clinton said during a White House news conference.

But while the president pushed for quick legislation, Republican lawmakers hardened their stance against some of the proposed anti-terrorism measures."

Doubts on Weapons Were Dismissed - Yahoo! News -

Yahoo! News - Doubts on Weapons Were Dismissed:

"As former secretary of state Colin L. Powell worked into the night in a New York hotel room, on the eve of his February 2003 presentation to the U.N. Security Council, CIA officers sent urgent e-mails and cables describing grave doubts about a key charge he was going to make."

Many Guard returnees jobless.: Corvallis Gazette-Times

.: Corvallis Gazette-Times :. Archives:

"PORTLAND — About 40 percent of the 700 Oregon National Guardsmen who just returned from Iraq and Afghanistan are unemployed, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

Some didn't have jobs before they were deployed; other members of the 2nd Battalion, 162nd Infantry, which arrived home last week lost their jobs while they were on active duty.

Their numbers are far bleaker than Oregon's overall unemployment rate, which stands at about 6.4 percent."

U.S. Soldier Convicted of Killing Iraqi Walks Free - Yahoo! News -

Yahoo! News - U.S. Soldier Convicted of Killing Iraqi Walks Free:

"BERLIN (Reuters) - A U.S. army tank company commander convicted of shooting dead a wounded Iraqi walked free from court on Friday, although he was dismissed from the army for what he called a 'mercy killing.'"

Key Iraqi informant was 'crazy,' U.S. was told before war - Star Tribune

Key Iraqi informant was 'crazy,' U.S. was told before war:

"April 1, 2005
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Prewar claims by the United States that Iraq was producing biological weapons were based almost entirely on accounts from a defector who was described as 'crazy' by his intelligence handlers and a 'congenital liar' by his friends.

The defector code-named 'Curveball' spoke with alarming specificity about Iraq's alleged biological weapons programs and fleet of mobile labs. But postwar investigations found that he wasn't even in Iraq at times when he claimed to have taken part in illicit weapons work.

Despite persistent doubts about his credibility, Curveball's claims were included in the Bush administration's case for war without so much as a caveat. And when CIA analysts argued after the invasion that the agency needed to admit that it had been duped, they were forced out of their jobs."