In Iraq -- Key issues still under dispute as deadline for new Iraqi constitution nears - SignOnSanDiego.com >

SignOnSanDiego.com > In Iraq -- Key issues still under dispute as deadline for new Iraqi constitution nears:

"'There is a group that wants Iraq to be called 'The Iraqi Islamic Federal Republic,' while the other wants it called the 'Iraqi Federal Republic' and another group rejects both names,' Taha said.

Another problem is whether the official language of Iraq should be Arabic alone or Arabic and Kurdish, he added.

There are even differences over whether Iraq should be formally declared part of the Arab and Islamic nation, or whether the document should state that the Iraqi people are parts of those nations, he said.

A serious point of disagreement appears to be the role of Islam in the state. Shiites, who make up about 60 percent of Iraq's estimated 27 million people, want Islam to be the main source of legislation, while the Kurds want it to be one of the sources – as it is in the interim constitution approved before the Americans restored Iraqi sovereignty in June 2004."

IRAQ: NEW CONSTITUTION PREVENTS CITIZENSHIP FOR JEWS, SAYS MP

IRAQ: NEW CONSTITUTION PREVENTS CITIZENSHIP FOR JEWS, SAYS MP:

"Baghdad, 27 July (AKI) - The first draft of the new Iraqi constitution will prevent Iraqi Jews, stripped of their nationality in the 1940s and 1950s, from re-obtaining it, Mundhir al-Fadl, an Iraqi MP and member of the constituent assembly's constitution commisssion, has told Adnkronos International (AKI). Al-Fadl, one of the commision members responsible for drafting the constitution's chapter on 'rights and duties' explained that one paragraph of the draft says that 'the Iraqi nationality is a right acquired by every Iraqi, which cannot be withheld for any reason and is the basis of his citizenship.'

'All those who have been deprived of their citizenship after 8 February 1963 have the right to recover it, as they have the right to multiple nationality,' the draft continues.

However, the parliamentarian, who is part of the Kurdish list, pointed out that this rules out Iraq's Jews, who were forced to emigrate from the country before 8 February 1963, the date of the coup carried out by the Baath party, who overthrew the country's then ruler, Brig Abd-al-Karim Qasim, who had taken power in a military coup almost five years earlier.

'I believe that every Iraqi citizen deprived of their nationality for any reason, political, ethnic or religious, has the right to recover it,' al-Fadl told AKI."

U.N. Nominee Omitted Data at Hearings in the Senate - New York Times

U.N. Nominee Omitted Data at Hearings in the Senate - New York Times:

"John R. Bolton, President Bush's nominee to be ambassador to the United Nations, failed to tell the Senate during his confirmation hearings that he had been interviewed by the State Department's inspector general looking into how American intelligence agencies came to rely on fabricated reports that Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Africa, the State Department said Thursday."

US military hits ammunition shortages - Yahoo! News

US military hits ammunition shortages - Yahoo! News:

"The United States cannot keep up with military demand for ammunition which has more than doubled since the war on terrorism and the invasion of
Iraq were launched, according to a Congress watchdog report."

Iraqi president signals end to night-time police arrests - Yahoo! News

Iraqi president signals end to night-time police arrests - Yahoo! News:

"July 27 (AFP) - Iraqi police will detain suspects by day rather than at night, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said, after a number of people were found murdered after being picked up by men in uniform."

Former Bush aide turns critic as Iraq inspector

Former Bush aide turns critic as Iraq inspector:

"n 1994, Mr. Bowen was a senior member of Mr. Bush's campaign team in his successful run for governor of Texas. After Mr. Bush took office, Mr. Bowen served as assistant general counsel in the governor's office and then deputy general counsel under Alberto Gonzales, now U.S. attorney general. Mr. Bowen crafted some of Gov. Bush's most controversial legal decisions, such as ousting a Democratic judge and dismissing widespread questions about the guilt of a death-row inmate.

When Mr. Bush ran for president, Mr. Bowen spent 35 days in Florida during the recount, and then served as deputy counsel to the Bush transition team. He rejoined Mr. Gonzales at the White House as associate counsel.
.........................

Some findings of Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction:

A third of the $10 billion in contracts signed in fiscal 2003 were awarded without competition.

A contractor charged the U.S. $3.3 million for phantom employees assigned to an oil-pipeline repair contract.

Iraqi construction firms allegedly paid U.S. soldiers to help steal construction equipment from the interim government.

At least a third of the government-owned vehicles and equipment that Halliburton was paid to manage were believed lost.

The U.S. failed to keep track of nearly $9 billion it transferred to the new Iraqi government, much of which appears to have been embezzled."

Witness: Dogs Bit Abu Ghraib Detainees - Yahoo! News

Witness: Dogs Bit Abu Ghraib Detainees - Yahoo! News:

"Two Iraqis at the notorious
Abu Ghraib prison were bitten by dogs as they were being handled by sergeants who were competing to see who could scare more detainees, a witness testified Tuesday.
................

A dog handled by Cardona bit a detainee on both thighs, severely enough to require stitches, Frederick said. A dog handled by Smith bit an inmate on one of his wrists, but not hard enough to the break the skin, he said.

Frederick also said he heard both defendants say they were competing, using their dogs, to see how many detainees they could frighten into urinating on themselves."

Italian court orders arrests of six more CIA operatives UPDATE - Forbes.com

Italian court orders arrests of six CIA operatives UPDATE - Forbes.com:

"MILAN (AFX) - An Italian appeals court today ordered the arrest of six CIA (US Central Intelligence Agency) operatives accused of involvement in the 2003 kidnapping of a radical Muslim cleric from a street in Milan.

A court last month issued arrest warrants for the other 13 US intelligence operatives Italy says took part in a clandestine operation to kidnap Egyptian national Abu Omar, handing him over to Egyptian authorities for questioning. "

Jane Fonda --------LOCAL 8 :: KFMB Stations, San Diego, California

LOCAL 8 :: KFMB Stations, San Diego, California:

"Actress and activist Jane Fonda says she intends to take a cross-country bus tour to call for an end to U.S. military operations in Iraq."

Senior constitution writer surprised at initial documen---tPeople's Daily Online --

People's Daily Online -- Senior constitution writer surprised at initial document:

"The Sunni Arab deputy head of Iraq's constitutional committee expressed his astonishment over a draft constitution text on Sunday.

'I have received yesterday an initial document of a draft constitution. I am astonished. I don't know who wrote it,' Adnan al-Janabi said in a statement."

Iraqi women fear for their rights---BBC NEWS | Middle East |

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraqi women fear for their rights:

"Women's groups in Iraq are stepping up a campaign to try to ensure that the country's constitution does not restrict their rights.

With the approach of the 15 August deadline for completing the new constitution, the role of women in society has become a political battlefield.

It pits secular Iraqis against newly powerful religious parties who want a greater role for Islam written into the document.
................

Saddam-era rights

Under Saddam Hussein, Iraq had some of the most secular legislation in the region.

But all that could change, with hardline Shia members of the national assembly pushing for the country to be named the Islamic Republic of Iraq.
..........

'We are worried that the interpretation of Sharia law will take us backward and that people will think that, regarding women, the era of Saddam Hussein was better,' Ms Damluji says."

Conflicts' costs may exceed $700 billion - 07/25/05

Conflicts' costs may exceed $700 billion - 07/25/05: "The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost taxpayers $314 billion, and the Congressional Budget Office projects additional expenses of perhaps $450 billion over the next 10 years.

That could make the combined campaigns, especially the war in Iraq, the most expensive military effort in the last 60 years, causing even some conservative experts to criticize the open-ended commitment to an elusive goal. The concern is that the soaring costs, given little weight before now, could play a growing role in U.S. strategic decisions because of the fiscal impact.

'Osama (bin Laden) doesn't have to win; he will just bleed us to death,' said Michael Scheuer, a former counterterrorism official at the CIA who led the pursuit of bin Laden and recently retired after writing two books critical of the Clinton and Bush administrations. 'He's well on his way to doing it.'

The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonpartisan Washington think tank, has estimated that the Korean War cost about $430 billion and the Vietnam War cost about $600 billion, in current dollars. According to the latest estimates, the cost of the war in Iraq could exceed $700 billion.

Put simply, critics say, the war is not making the United States safer and is harming U.S. taxpayers by saddling them with an enormous debt burden, since the war is being financed with deficit spending.

One of the most vocal Republican critics has been Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who said the costs of the war -- many multiples greater than what the White House had estimated in 2003 -- are throwing U.S. fiscal priorities out of balance.

'It's dangerously irresponsible,' Hagel said in February of the war spending."

Women's right in Iraq under question

Recieved in my email -

Women in Iraq need you
Condemn a Constitution of de-humanizing Women

An era of post-occupation atrocities unfolded to disclose the final chapter of human rights abuse in Iraq: A constitution of legalizing women’s discrimination.

The constitution draft which was circulated secretly eliminated the minimal rights women had under the previous 1959 “Personal Status Law”. Although this law was partly based on Islamic Shariaa, it included much reform that secured minimal standards of human rights for women, such as preventing marriage for female children and making polygamy more difficult for men – a practice that is allowed under Shariaa in addition to beatings, stoning, flogging and forced veiling.

The draft constitution indicates in its article 14 the elimination of the current law and refers family laws completely to Islamic Shariaa and to other religions in Iraq. In other words, it leaves women vulnerable to all inequalities and social hostility in addition to designating females as second rate citizens or semi-humans.

Since the beginning of the occupation, the US administration has recognized Iraqis according to their ethnic/nationalist and religious identities. This predetermined polarization of the society around its most reactionary forces has resulted with a most lethal weapon which is a government of division and inequality - a potential timed bomb for a civil war that has already started. Furthermore, the only mutual agenda for the parties in power is one of oppression, bigotry and misogyny in addition to representing the US occupation interests.

The enemies of the people seated in the panel of writing the constitution have decided to give life to resolution 137. This resolution isolates Iraqis from the modern world and turns Iraq into an Afghanistan under Taliban where oppression and discrimination of women is institutionalized under Shariaa.

We have witnessed stages and kinds of atrocities under this occupation. The time comes for the US occupation to leave an unprecedented hallmark of abusing human rights by forcing a constitution that turns 13 million women into semi-humans.
We need your support in rejecting a constitution that gives way to decades of silent massacres against women.

Let the freedom loving people of the US know what is being committed in their name and in the name of democracy.

Write open letters to the US administration, to its allies, and especially to the UN. Remind them that women’s rights cannot be the price for a hideous democracy of racism, ethnicity, religiosity, sectsrianism and misogyny.
Help us find a way out of the never ending attack on our freedoms and lives.

Yanar Mohammed
Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq
23 July 2005

Email :owfi_abroad@yahoo.com- Mobile 1: 00 44 7890 065933- Mobile2: 00 44 795688 3001
Bank account : Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq- HSBC Bank (UK- London) Sort Code: 40-06-03 - Bank account No: 91429574- Website: www.equalityiniraq.com

Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq
منظــمة حــرية المــرأة في العـــراق
Al- Fardawse Square Area – Al Za’im Street – Next to Al Saadoun Private Hospital - Tel no. 011 964 1 7170953
العراق- بغداد قرب ساحة الفردوس- شارع الزعيم – جوار مستشفى السعدون الأهلي

Reuters AlertNet - IRAQ: women alarmed at prospect of rights erosion, UNIFEM says

Reuters AlertNet - IRAQ: women alarmed at prospect of rights erosion, UNIFEM says:

"DUBAI, 24 July (IRIN) - Iraqi women are extremely concerned that the national assembly committee drafting the country's new constitution is curbing women's rights, established under the interim constitution and prior national laws, the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) reported on Friday.
................

The current draft of the constitution 'subordinates guarantees of women's human rights and international law to religious Shari'ah law and replaces one of the Middle East's most progressive personal status laws with arbitrary interpretations of religious law', according to the US-based international women's human rights organisation MADRE.

If the national assembly approves such a constitution, it said, 'it could give self-appointed religious clerics the authority to inflict grave human rights violations on Iraqi women' in relation to freedom of movement, travel, property inheritance and custody of their children. Iraq, which had been overwhelmingly secular until the 1990s, was in danger of being 'catapulted towards theocratic rule', the group warned last week."

MercuryNews.com | 07/21/2005 | Memo with agent's name was marked secret

MercuryNews.com | 07/21/2005 | Memo with agent's name was marked secret:

"A classified State Department memo central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked ``(S)'' for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials.
....................

The memo was delivered to Secretary of State Colin Powell on July 7, 2003, as he headed to Africa for a trip with President Bush aboard Air Force One. Plame was unmasked in a syndicated column by Robert Novak seven days later.
....................

Karl Rove, President Bush's deputy chief of staff, has testified that he learned Plame's name from Novak a few days before telling another reporter she worked at the CIA and played a role in her husband's mission, according to a lawyer familiar with Rove's account. Rove has also testified that the first time he saw the State Department memo was when ``people in the special prosecutor's office'' showed it to him, said Robert Luskin, his attorney."

MercuryNews.com | 07/21/2005 | Memo with agent's name was marked secret

MercuryNews.com | 07/21/2005 | Memo with agent's name was marked secret: "A classified State Department memo central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked ``(S)'' for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials.

Plame -- who is referred to by her married name, Valerie Wilson, in the memo -- is mentioned in the second paragraph of the three-page document, which was written June 10, 2003, by an analyst in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), according to a source who described the memo to the Washington Post.

The paragraph identifying her as the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson was clearly marked to show that it contained classified material at the ``secret'' level, two sources said. The CIA classifies as ``secret'' the names of officers whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials.

Anyone reading that paragraph should have been aware that it contained secret information, though that designation was not specifically attached to Plame's name and did not describe her status as covert, the sources said. It is a federal crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for a federal official to knowingly disclose the identity of a covert CIA official if the person knows the government is trying to keep it secret.

Prosecutors attempting to determine whether senior government officials knowingly leaked Plame's identity as a covert CIA operative to the media are investigating whether White House officials gained access to information about her from the memo, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

The memo may be important to answering three central questions in the Plame case: Who in the Bush administration knew about Plame's CIA role? Did they know the agency was trying to protect her identity? Who leaked it to the media?

Almost all of the memo is devoted to describing why State Department intelligence experts did not believe claims that Saddam Hussein had in the recent past sought to purchase uranium from Niger. Only two sentences in the seven-sentence paragraph mention Wilson's wife.

The memo was delivered to Secretary of State Colin Powell on July 7, 2003, as he headed to Africa for a trip with President Bush aboard Air Force One. Plame was unmasked in a syndicated column by Robert Novak seven days later.

Wilson has said his wife's identity was revealed to retaliate against him for accusing the Bush administration of ``twisting'' intelligence to justify the Iraq war. In a July 6 opinion article in the New York Times, he cited a secret mission he conducted in February 2002 for the CIA, when he determined there was no evidence that Iraq was seeking uranium for a nuclear weapons program in Niger.

White House officials discussed Wilson's wife's CIA connection in telling at least two reporters that she helped arrange his trip, according to one of the reporters, Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, and a lawyer familiar with the case.

Karl Rove, President Bush's deputy chief of staff, has testified that he learned Plame's name from Novak a few days before telling another reporter she worked at the CIA and played a role in her husband's mission, according to a lawyer familiar with Rove's account. Rove has also testified that the first time he saw the State Department memo was when ``people in the special prosecutor's office'' showed it to him, said Robert Luskin, his attorney."

MercuryNews.com | 07/21/2005 | Memo with agent's name was marked secret

MercuryNews.com | 07/21/2005 | Memo with agent's name was marked secret: "A classified State Department memo central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked ``(S)'' for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials.

Plame -- who is referred to by her married name, Valerie Wilson, in the memo -- is mentioned in the second paragraph of the three-page document, which was written June 10, 2003, by an analyst in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), according to a source who described the memo to the Washington Post.

The paragraph identifying her as the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson was clearly marked to show that it contained classified material at the ``secret'' level, two sources said. The CIA classifies as ``secret'' the names of officers whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials.

Anyone reading that paragraph should have been aware that it contained secret information, though that designation was not specifically attached to Plame's name and did not describe her status as covert, the sources said. It is a federal crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for a federal official to knowingly disclose the identity of a covert CIA official if the person knows the government is trying to keep it secret.

Prosecutors attempting to determine whether senior government officials knowingly leaked Plame's identity as a covert CIA operative to the media are investigating whether White House officials gained access to information about her from the memo, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

The memo may be important to answering three central questions in the Plame case: Who in the Bush administration knew about Plame's CIA role? Did they know the agency was trying to protect her identity? Who leaked it to the media?

Almost all of the memo is devoted to describing why State Department intelligence experts did not believe claims that Saddam Hussein had in the recent past sought to purchase uranium from Niger. Only two sentences in the seven-sentence paragraph mention Wilson's wife.

The memo was delivered to Secretary of State Colin Powell on July 7, 2003, as he headed to Africa for a trip with President Bush aboard Air Force One. Plame was unmasked in a syndicated column by Robert Novak seven days later.

Wilson has said his wife's identity was revealed to retaliate against him for accusing the Bush administration of ``twisting'' intelligence to justify the Iraq war. In a July 6 opinion article in the New York Times, he cited a secret mission he conducted in February 2002 for the CIA, when he determined there was no evidence that Iraq was seeking uranium for a nuclear weapons program in Niger.

White House officials discussed Wilson's wife's CIA connection in telling at least two reporters that she helped arrange his trip, according to one of the reporters, Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, and a lawyer familiar with the case.

Karl Rove, President Bush's deputy chief of staff, has testified that he learned Plame's name from Novak a few days before telling another reporter she worked at the CIA and played a role in her husband's mission, according to a lawyer familiar with Rove's account. Rove has also testified that the first time he saw the State Department memo was when ``people in the special prosecutor's office'' showed it to him, said Robert Luskin, his attorney."

Appeals judge gets nod for high court---DallasNews.com | News for Dallas, Texas | Latest News

DallasNews.com | News for Dallas, Texas | Latest News:

"Role in 2000 recount

In the aftermath of the disputed 2000 presidential election, Judge Roberts played a key, if quiet, role in the Florida recount.

Although his name did not appear on the briefs, three sources who were personally aware of Judge Roberts' role said he gave Republican Gov. Jeb Bush critical advice on how the Florida Legislature could constitutionally name George W. Bush the winner at a time when Republicans feared that if the recount were to continue the courts might force a different choice."

11 Former Intelligence Officers Speak Up on Behalf of Protecting Valerie Plame's Identity - from TBO.com

11 Former Intelligence Officers Speak Up on Behalf of Protecting Valerie Plame's Identity - from TBO.com:

"Eleven former intelligence officers are speaking up on behalf of CIA officer Valerie Plame, saying leaking her identity may have damaged national security and threatens the ability of U.S. intelligence gathering.

In a statement to congressional leaders, the former officers said the Republican National Committee has circulated talking points focusing on the idea that Plame was not working undercover and deserved no protection.

There are thousands of U.S. intelligence officers who work at a desk in the Washington, D.C., area every day who are undercover as Plame was when her identity was leaked, the 11 former officers said in a three-page statement.
...........................

'Intelligence officers should not be used as political footballs,' the 11 said. 'In the case of Valerie Plame, she still works for the CIA and is not in a position to publicly defend her reputation and honor.'"

Army finds morale woes among U.S. soldiers in Iraq - Yahoo! News

Army finds morale woes among U.S. soldiers in Iraq - Yahoo! News:

"Fifty-four percent of soldiers questioned as part of an Army survey stated that morale in their individual units was either low or very low, the report said. Nine percent reported high or very high unit morale."

U.S. releases 8 Guantanamo prisoners, 510 remain - Yahoo! News

U.S. releases 8 Guantanamo prisoners, 510 remain - Yahoo! News:

"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Wednesday it has released seven Guantanamo prisoners to their home countries after sending another to Spain where he will be questioned in an al Qaeda probe, leaving about 510 jailed.
.......................

The United States opened the Guantanamo prison in January 2002. The Pentagon said a total of 242 detainees have been transferred out of the prison to other countries either to be freed or for continued detention, while approximately 510 remain at Guantanamo. Many have been held for more than three years and only four have been charged.

Human rights groups have criticized the United States for the indefinite detentions, and former Guantanamo prisoners have said they were tortured."

Group: 25,000 Civilian Deaths in Iraq - Yahoo! News

Group: 25,000 Civilian Deaths in Iraq - Yahoo! News:

"Iraq Body Count found:

• U.S.-led coalition forces were responsible for 37.3 percent of the total. About three-quarters of those fatalities occurred during the invasion phase up to May 1, 2003.

• 'Predominantly criminal killings' linked to the huge crime wave that struck Iraq after the collapse of
Saddam Hussein's government accounted for 35.6 percent."

Independent Judiciary: The Nominees

Independent Judiciary: The Nominees:

"John Roberts

Nominated to: Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit

Status of nomination: Confirmed 5/8/2003
May 8, 2003: The Committee voted out Roberts 16-3.

Alliance for Justice Resources:

* Alliance for Justice to Senators Hatch and Leahy Re: Deborah Cook and John Roberts
* Alliance For Justice Full Report on John Roberts

* Born 1955, Buffalo, NY
* B.A., 1976, summa cum laude & J.D., 1979, magna cum laude, Harvard University
* 1979-80, Clerk for Judge Friendly, Second Circuit
* 1980-81, Clerk, Associate Justice Rehnquist, Supreme Court
* U.S. Department of Justice
o 1981-81, Special Assistant to U.S. Attorney General William French Smith
o 1989-93, Principal Deputy Solicitor General
* 1982-86, White House Counsel's Office, Associate Counsel to the President
* Hogan & Hartson, LLP, Washington, DC
o 1986-89, Associate
o 1993-present, Partner

General Background. Mr. Roberts, a partner at the D.C. law firm Hogan & Hartson, has long-standing and deep connections to the Republican Party. He is a member of the Republican National Lawyers Association and worked as a political appointee in both the Reagan and Bush I administrations. President George H.W. Bush nominated Mr. Roberts to the D.C. Circuit, but he was considered by some on the Senate Judiciary Committee to be too extreme in his views, and his nomination lapsed. He was nominated by President George W. Bush to the same seat in May 2001.

Reproductive Rights. s a Deputy Solicitor General, Mr. Roberts co-wrote a Supreme Court brief in Rust v. Sullivan,1 for the first Bush administration, which argued that the government could prohibit doctors in federally-funded family planning programs from discussing abortions with their patients. The brief not only argued that the regulations were constitutional, notwithstanding the Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade, but it also made the broader argument that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided - an argument unnecessary to defend the regulation. The Supreme Court sided with the government on the narrower grounds that the regulation was constitutional.

Environmental Issues. As a student, Mr. Roberts wrote two law review articles arguing for an expansive reading of the Contracts and Takings clauses of the Constitution, taking positions that would restrict Congress' ability to protect the environment. As a member of the Solicitor General's office, Mr. Roberts was the lead counsel for the United States in the Supreme Court case Lujan v. National Wildlife Federation, in which the government argued that private citizens could not sue the federal government for violations of environmental regulations."

Most foreign fighters didn't wage terror before Iraq war

HoustonChronicle.com - Studies: Most foreign fighters didn't wage terror before Iraq war:

"New investigations by the Saudi Arabian government and an Israeli think tank — both of which painstakingly analyzed the backgrounds and motivations of hundreds of foreigners entering Iraq to fight the United States — have found that the vast majority of them are not former terrorists and became radicalized by the war.

The studies cast serious doubt on President Bush's claim that those responsible for some of the worst violence are terrorists who seized on the opportunity to make Iraq the 'central front' in a battle against the United States."

Karl Rove's Nondisclosure Agreement

Karl Rove's Nondisclosure Agreement: "THE WHITE HOUSE OBLIGATIONS UNDER EXECUTIVE ORDER 12958

Under the executive order, the White House has an affirmative obligation to investigate and take remedial action separate and apart from any ongoing criminal investigation. The executive order specifically provides that when a breach occurs, each agency must 'take appropriate and prompt corrective action.'8 This includes a determination of whether individual employees improperly disseminated or obtained access to classified information.

The executive order further provides that sanctions for violations are not optional. The executive order expressly provides: 'Officers and employees of the United States Government ... shall be subject to appropriate sanctions if they knowingly, willfully, or negligently ... disclose to unauthorized persons information properly classified.'9

There is no evidence that the White House complied with these requirements."

Waxman: New Bush Statement on Rove Conflicts with Executive Order

Waxman: New Bush Statement on Rove Conflicts with Executive Order: "Author: Rep. Henry A. Waxman
Published on July 18, 2005, 12:22

Dear Mr. President:

In June 2004, you said that you would fire anyone found to be involved in the disclosure of Valerie Wilson's identity as a covert CIA agent.1 Today, you significantly changed your position, stating that you would remove Karl Rove or other White House officials involved in the security breach only 'if someone committed a crime.'2

Your new standard is not consistent with your obligations to enforce Executive Order 12958, which governs the protection of national security secrets. The executive order states: 'Officers and employees of the United States Government ... shall be subject to appropriate sanctions if they knowingly, willfully, or negligently ... disclose to unauthorized persons information properly classified.'3 Under the executive order, the available sanctions include 'reprimand, suspension without pay, removal, termination of classification authority, loss or denial of access to classified information, or other sanctions.'4

Under the executive order, you may not wait until criminal intent and liability are proved by a prosecutor. Instead, you have an affirmative obligation to take 'appropriate and prompt corrective action.'5 And the standards of proof are much different. A criminal violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, which Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald is investigating, requires a finding that Mr. Rove 'intentionally disclose[d]' the identity of a covert agent.6 In contrast, the administrative sanctions under Executive Order 12958 can be imposed without a finding of intent. Under the express terms of the executive order, you are required to impose administrative sanctions – such as removal of office or termination of security clearance – if Mr. Rove or other officials acted 'negligently' in disclosing or confirming information about Ms. Wilson's identity.7

I have enclosed a fact sheet on Karl Rove's Nondisclosure Agreement and its legal implications, which provides additional detail about the President's national security obligations. I urge you to act in compliance with Executive Order 12958 and your responsibility to safeguard national security secrets.

Sincerely,

Henry A. Waxman
Ranking Minority Member"

Reporter Says He First Learned of C.I.A. Operative From Rove - New York Times

Reporter Says He First Learned of C.I.A. Operative From Rove - New York Times:

"Matthew Cooper, a reporter for Time magazine, said the White House senior adviser Karl Rove was the first person to tell him that the wife of former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was a C.I.A. officer, according to a first-person account in this week's issue of the magazine."

Saddam Hussein charged, trial to begin in days

Top News Article | Reuters.com:

"The tribunal's chief investigating judge said on Sunday that Saddam had been charged along with three other defendants in connection with the killing of Shi'ite Muslims in the village of Dujail, north of Baghdad, in 1982."

Reporter: Rove was first source on CIA leak - Politics - MSNBC.com

Reporter: Rove was first source on CIA leak - Politics - MSNBC.com:

"White House political aide Karl Rove was the first person to tell a Time magazine reporter that the wife of a prominent critic of the Bush administration's Iraq policy was a CIA officer, the reporter said in an article Sunday.

Time correspondent Matthew Cooper said he told a grand jury last week that Rove told him the woman worked at the 'agency,' or CIA, on weapons of mass destruction issues, and ended the call by saying 'I've already said too much."

Britain places blame on Islamic extremists - USATODAY.com -

USATODAY.com - Britain places blame on Islamic extremists:

"In his first address to the House of Commons since the attacks, Tony Blair said, 'It seems probable that the attack was carried out by Islamist extremist terrorists ... He said no specific intelligence was available that might have helped authorities thwart the attacks.
...

Christophe Chaboud, head of France's Anti-Terrorist Coordination Unit... said, 'The nature of the explosives appears to be military, which is very worrisome.'"

Britain places blame on Islamic extremists - USATODAY.com -

USATODAY.com - Britain places blame on Islamic extremists:

"In his first address to the House of Commons since the attacks, Tony Blair said, 'It seems probable that the attack was carried out by Islamist extremist terrorists ... He said no specific intelligence was available that might have helped authorities thwart the attacks.
...

Christophe Chaboud, head of France's Anti-Terrorist Coordination Unit... said, 'The nature of the explosives appears to be military, which is very worrisome.'"

Dems call for action against Rove after leak report - USATODAY.com -

USATODAY.com - Dems call for action against Rove after leak report:

"Democrats and liberal activists demanded action, from hearings to prosecution to Rove's firing from his post as deputy chief of staff at the White House. Reporters at Monday's question-and-answer session at the White House peppered spokesman Scott McClellan with 41 questions in 35 minutes.

McClellan declined to comment. In June 2004, President Bush pledged that any administration official who broke the law by leaking a covert officer's identity would be prosecuted and fired. (Related item: Transcript of McClellan press briefing)"

CIA leak scandal - Top News Article | Reuters.com

Top News Article | Reuters.com:

"The White House faced mounting Democratic calls for President Bush to sideline or fire his top political aide Karl Rove on Monday over his involvement in a CIA leak scandal.

After publicly defending Rove two years ago, the White House responded to the barrage by saying it would not comment at the request of the prosecutors investigating who leaked the identify of CIA agent Valerie Plame.

'The White House promised if anyone was involved in the Valerie Plame affair, they would no longer be in this administration. I trust they will follow through on this pledge,' Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said.

Other Democrats urged Bush to sideline Rove by suspending his access to classified information and said the deputy White House chief of staff should 'clear the air' by answering questions from Congress. Another lawmaker said the intentional disclosure of a covert agent's identity amounted to an 'act of treason.'"

White House rebuffs queries about CIA leak - Americas - International Herald Tribune

White House rebuffs queries about CIA leak - Americas - International Herald Tribune:

"President George W. Bush's chief spokesman, Scott McClellan, declined to repeat his earlier assertions that Rove, the deputy White House chief of staff, had had nothing to do with leaking the name of the operative, Valerie Plame of the CIA, to get back at her husband, a former U.S. ambassador who had publicly challenged Bush administration policy.

Nor would McClellan repeat his earlier statements that any White House staff person who had leaked the name should be fired."

CIA Leak Quotes from WH Spokesman - Guardian Unlimited | World Latest |

Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | CIA Leak Quotes: "July 11, 2005:

Q: Do you want to retract your statement that Rove, Karl Rove, was not involved in the Valerie Plame expose?

A: I appreciate the question. This is an ongoing investigation at this point. The president directed the White House to cooperate fully with the investigation, and as part of cooperating fully with the investigation, that means we're not going to be commenting on it while it is ongoing.

Q: But Rove has apparently commented, through his lawyer, that he was definitely involved.

A: You're asking me to comment on an ongoing investigation.

Q: I'm saying, why did you stand there and say he was not involved?

A: Again, while there is an ongoing investigation, I'm not going to be commenting on it nor is ... .

Q: Any remorse?

A: Nor is the White House, because the president wanted us to cooperate fully with the investigation, and that's what we're doing."

CIA Leak Quotes from WH Spokesman - Guardian Unlimited | World Latest |

Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | CIA Leak Quotes: "July 11, 2005:

Q: Do you want to retract your statement that Rove, Karl Rove, was not involved in the Valerie Plame expose?

A: I appreciate the question. This is an ongoing investigation at this point. The president directed the White House to cooperate fully with the investigation, and as part of cooperating fully with the investigation, that means we're not going to be commenting on it while it is ongoing.

Q: But Rove has apparently commented, through his lawyer, that he was definitely involved.

A: You're asking me to comment on an ongoing investigation.

Q: I'm saying, why did you stand there and say he was not involved?

A: Again, while there is an ongoing investigation, I'm not going to be commenting on it nor is ... .

Q: Any remorse?

A: Nor is the White House, because the president wanted us to cooperate fully with the investigation, and that's what we're doing."

White House Won't Comment on Rove, Leak

White House Won't Comment on Rove, Leak:

"For the better part of two years, the word coming out of the Bush White House was that presidential adviser Karl Rove had nothing to do with the leak of a female CIA officer's identity and that whoever did would be fired.

But Bush spokesman Scott McClellan wouldn't repeat those claims Monday in the face of Rove's own lawyer, Robert Luskin, acknowledging the political operative spoke to Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, one of the reporters who disclosed Valerie Plame's name."

Herald Sun: Blair rules out bomb inquiry [11jul05]

Herald Sun: Blair rules out bomb inquiry [11jul05]:

"BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair today will dismiss calls for an inquiry into the London terror attacks.

The Conservatives have called for a probe to see if anything could have been done to prevent the bombings."

Iraq suspects suffocate in heat--BBC NEWS | Middle East |

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraq suspects suffocate in heat:

"Police sources told the BBC that at least 12 men had been arrested on Sunday after they had taken a colleague to hospital in Ameriya with gunshot wounds.

A local resident, thinking they were insurgents, called the police, who sent commandos to arrest the men.

The survivors were taken to a central Baghdad hospital where staff said a ninth man died.

The Iraqi capital suffers scorching heat during the summer months, with temperatures often reaching 50 degrees.

A doctor told the BBC that one of the survivors had said he had been given repeated electric shocks by the commandos.

The survivors were kept under police guard as they were treated and were taken away without being allowed to speak to journalists.

Recent UK press reports have alleged police commandos systematically torture and abuse detainees. The security forces themselves are the target of much of Iraq's insurgency violence."

David Corn: Explosive New Rove Revelation Coming Soon? UPDATE: It's Here - Yahoo! News

David Corn: Explosive New Rove Revelation Coming Soon? UPDATE: It's Here - Yahoo! News: "Explosive New Rove Revelation Coming Soon?"

this new evidence does show that Rove -- despite his lawyers claim that Rove "did not tell any reporter that Valerie Plame worked for the CIA" -- did reveal to Cooper in a deep-background conversation that Wilson's wife was in the CIA. No wonder special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald pursued Cooper so fiercely. And Fitzgerald must have been delighted when Time magazine -- over Cooper's objection--surrendered Cooper's emails and notes, which, according to a previous Newsweek posting by Michael Isikoff, named Rove as Cooper's source. In court on Wednesday, Fitzgerald said that following his receipt of Cooper's emails and notes "it is clear to us we need [Cooper's] testimony perhaps more so than in the past." This was a clue that Fitzgerald had scored big when he obtained the Cooper material.

This new evidence could place Rove in serious political, if not legal, jeopardy (or, at least it should). If what I am told is true, this is proof that the Bush White House was using any information it could gather on Joseph Wilson -- even classified information related to national security -- to pursue a vendetta against Wilson, a White House critic. Even if it turns out Rove did not break the law regarding the naming of intelligence officials, this new disclosure could prove Rove guilty of leaking a national security secret to a reporter for political ends. What would George W. Bush do about that?

On September 27, 2003 -- after the news broke that the Justice Department, responding to a request from the CIA, was investigating the Plame/CIA leak -- White House press secretary Scott McClellan said of the Plame/CIA leak, "That is not the way this White House operates, and no one would be authorized to do such a thing." He also declared that the allegation that Rove was involved in this leak was "a ridiculous suggestion, and it is simply not true." Days later, Bush issued a straightforward statement about the Plame/CIA leak:

There are too many leaks of classified information in Washington. If there's leaks out of my administration, I want to know who it is, and if the person has violated the law, the person will be taken care of.

Perhaps Bush won't have to "take care of" Rove if this new evidence does not lead to a prosecutable violation of the law. But Bush also called on any government official with knowledge of the leak to "come forward and speak out." Has Rove done so? No. So it seems he violated a presidential command. Would Bush be obliged to fire him for insubordination? And there's another key point to consider: whether Rove told the truth when he testified to Fitzgerald's grand jury. Rove's attorney, Robert Luskin, has acknowledged that Rove appeared before the grand jury, and Luskin has said that Rove did speak to Cooper prior to the publication of the Novak column. But what did Rove tell Fitzgerald and the grand jury about this conversation with Cooper? And -- here's the big question -- does Rove's account jibe with the new documentary evidence that Newsweek is scheduled to disclose? If it does not, Fitzgerald would have a good start on a perjury charge against Rove.

Bush aide 'was reporter's source' | North America | Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au (11-07-2005)

Bush aide 'was reporter's source' | North America | Breaking News 24/7 - NEWS.com.au (11-07-2005):

"TOP White House adviser Karl Rove was one of the secret sources who spoke to reporters about a covert CIA operative whose identity was leaked to the media, Newsweek has reported.
Mr Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, confirmed Mr Rove talked to Time about former ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife, CIA agent Valerie Plame, the magazine reported.
......................

It is illegal to knowingly reveal the identity of an undercover CIA agent.

Mr Rove has previously made statements about the Plame leak but has never publicly acknowledged talking to any reporter about the CIA agent.
Advertisement:

He has chosen his words carefully when questioned about the leak.

'I didn't know her name, I didn't leak her name,' he told CNN last year when asked if he had had anything to do with the leak of Ms Plame's name."

Allawi: this is the start of civil war - Sunday Times - Times Online

Allawi: this is the start of civil war - Sunday Times - Times Online:

"IRAQ’S former interim prime minister Iyad Allawi has warned that his country is facing civil war and has predicted dire consequences for Europe and America as well as the Middle East if the crisis is not resolved.

“The problem is that the Americans have no vision and no clear policy on how to go about in Iraq,” said Allawi, a long-time ally of Washington.

In an interview with The Sunday Times last week as he visited Amman, the Jordanian capital, he said: “The policy should be of building national unity in Iraq. Without this we will most certainly slip into a civil war. We are practically in stage one of a civil war as we speak.”"

Rove Told Reporter of Plame's Role But Didn't Name Her, Attorney Says

Rove Told Reporter of Plame's Role But Didn't Name Her, Attorney Says:


"White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove spoke with at least one reporter about Valerie Plame's role at the CIA before she was identified as a covert agent in a newspaper column two years ago..."

Universal Health Care Push Being Revived

Universal Health Care Push Being Revived: "Universal Health Care Push Being Revived"
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A push for universal health coverage is being rekindled in some states by the soaring cost of health care and the lack of political support in Washington for federal changes.

Advocates of a single-payer system _ where the government would collect taxes and cover everyone, similar to programs in Canada and across Europe _ have introduced bills in at least 18 state legislatures. Some are symbolic gestures, but heated debate is taking place in California and Vermont.

In Ohio, doctors, union officials and religious leaders are gathering signatures to get a single-payer health system placed on a ballot next year.
....
"There's no other solution out there," said David Pavlick, a member of the United Auto Workers in Cleveland, which has endorsed the Ohio campaign. "The system we have now is immoral, it's foundering and it's on its last legs."
....
Claims that the system would cost less have merit, said John Sheils, vice president of the Lewin Group, a Virginia consulting firm that conducted a study last year of how a single-payer system would work in California. The study found that the state would save $343.6 billion in health care costs over 10 years.

Reports Reveal Karl Rove Named in Matt Cooper Documents

Reports Reveal Karl Rove Named in Matt Cooper Documents: "July 02, 2005 1:00 PM ET

NEW YORK Now that Time Inc. has turned over documents to a federal judge, revealing who its reporter, Matt Cooper, identified as his source or sources in the Valerie Plame/CIA case, speculation runs rampant. Lawrence O'Donnell, senior MSNBC political analyst, now claims that at least two authoritative sources have confirmed that one name is top White House mastermind Karl Rove.

This afternoon, Newsweek's Michael Isikoff confirmed that Cooper did indeed talk to Rove for his story, but Rove's lawyer denied he was the key leaker in the case.

'The e-mails surrendered by Time Inc., which are largely between Cooper and his editors, show that one of Cooper's sources was White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove, according to two lawyers who asked not to be identified because they are representing witnesses sympathetic to the White House,' Isikoff writes on the Newsweek web site. 'Cooper and a Time spokeswoman declined to comment. But in an interview with Newsweek, Rove's lawyer, Robert Luskin, confirmed that Rove had been interviewed by Cooper for the article. It is unclear, however, what passed between Cooper and Rove.'"

Revealed: grim world of new Iraqi torture camps---Guardian Unlimited | Special reports |

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Revealed: grim world of new Iraqi torture camps:

"What happened to him in his 24 hours in captivity was written across his body in chapters of pain, recorded by the camera. There are police-issue handcuffs still attached to one wrist, from which he was hanged long enough to cause his hands and wrists to swell. There are burn marks on his chest, as if someone has placed something very hot near his right nipple and moved it around.

A little lower are a series of horizontal welts, wrapping around his body and breaking the skin as they turn around his chest, as if he had been beaten with something flexible, perhaps a cable. There are other injuries: a broken nose and smaller wounds that look like cigarette burns.

An arm appears to have been broken and one of the higher vertebrae is pushed inwards. There is a cluster of small, neat circular wounds on both sides of his left knee. At some stage an-Ni'ami seems to have been efficiently knee-capped. It was not done with a gun - the exit wounds are identical in size to the entry wounds, which would not happen with a bullet. Instead it appears to have been done with something like a drill.

What actually killed him however were the bullets fired into his chest at close range, probably by someone standing over him as he lay on the ground. The last two hit him in the head."

From Filmmaker in Los Angeles to Iraq Detainee - New York Times

From Filmmaker in Los Angeles to Iraq Detainee - New York Times: "July 5 -

Like a lot of aspiring filmmakers in Los Angeles, Cyrus Kar was obsessed with his project, a documentary about an ancient Persian king who championed tolerance and human rights even as he built an empire that stretched across the Near East.

But Mr. Kar, 44, a naturalized American born in Iran, followed his dream where few others might have gone. In mid-May, he traveled to Iraq with an Iranian cameraman to film archaeological sites around Babylon. After a taxi they were in was stopped in Baghdad, the two men were arrested by Iraqi security forces, who found what they suspected might be bomb parts in the vehicle.

Since then, Mr. Kar has been held in what his relatives and their lawyers describe as a frightening netherworld of American military detention in Iraq - charged with no crime but nonetheless unable to gain his freedom or even tell his family where he is being held.
..........................

Mr. Kar, the son of an Iranian physician, came to the United States when he was 2 and was raised partly in Utah and Washington State, where he played high school football. He attended college in California, received a master's degree in technology management from Pepperdine University, worked for years in Silicon Valley and served in the United States Navy and the Naval Reserve.

Nonetheless, Mr. Kar's relatives and their lawyers said they had been utterly stymied in trying to learn his fate despite repeated inquires at the Defense Department, the Justice Department, the State Department, the allied forces in Iraq and the offices of two United States senators."

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | So, Mr Bremer, where did all the money go?

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | So, Mr Bremer, where did all the money go?: "July 7, 2005
The Guardian

When Paul Bremer, the American pro consul in Baghdad until June last year, arrived in Iraq soon after the official end of hostilities, there was $6bn left over from the UN Oil for Food Programme, as well as sequestered and frozen assets, and at least $10bn from resumed Iraqi oil exports. Under Security Council Resolution 1483, passed on May 22 2003, all these funds were transferred into a new account held at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York, called the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI), and intended to be spent by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) 'in a transparent manner ... for the benefit of the Iraqi people'.

The US Congress also voted to spend $18.4bn of US taxpayers' money on the redevelopment of Iraq. By June 28 last year, however, when Bremer left Baghdad two days early to avoid possible attack on the way to the airport, his CPA had spent up to $20bn of Iraqi money, compared with $300m of US funds. The 'reconstruction' of Iraq is the largest American-led occupation programme since the Marshall Plan - but the US government funded the Marshall Plan. Defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Bremer have made sure that the reconstruction of Iraq is paid for by the 'liberated' country, by the Iraqis themselves.

The CPA maintained one fund of nearly $600m cash for which there is no paperwork: $200m of it was kept in a room in one of Saddam's former palaces. The US soldier in charge used to keep the key to the room in his backpack, which he left on his desk when he popped out for lunch. Again, this is Iraqi money, not US funds.

The 'financial irregularities' described in audit reports carried out by agencies of the American government and auditors working for the international community collectively give a detailed insight into the mentality of the American occupation authorities and the way they operated. Truckloads of dollars were handed out for which neither they nor the recipients felt they had to be accountable.

The auditors have so far referred more than a hundred contracts, involving billions of dollars paid to American personnel and corporations, for investigation and possible criminal prosecution. They have also discovered that $8.8bn that passed through the new Iraqi government ministries in Baghdad while Bremer was in charge is unaccounted for, with little prospect of finding out where it has gone. A further $3.4bn appropriated by Congress for Iraqi development has since been siphoned off to finance 'security'."

News on President George W Bush and the Bush Administration

White House Briefing  News on President George W Bush and the Bush Administration:

"More than four in 10 Americans, according to a recent Zogby poll, say that if President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment.

But you wouldn't know it from following the news. Only three mainstream outlets that I can find made even cursory mention of the poll last week when it came out.

You also wouldn't know it judging from the political discourse in Washington, but that makes a little more sense. After all, impeachment is for all practical purposes a political act, not a legal one. So with a Republican-controlled Congress that doesn't even like to perform basic White House oversight, it's basically a moot point.

Nevertheless, could there be anything that 42 percent of Americans agree on that the media care about so little?"

Reuters - IRAQ: Focus on illegal organ trade

Reuters AlertNet - IRAQ: Focus on illegal organ trade:

"The main gate of Baghdad's Karama hospital is the place to go if you want to trade a kidney. A man, who calls himself Bashar, hovers by the entrance, his front business is selling tea and soft drinks but his real trade soon becomes apparent.

'I can get you a healthy kidney. It will cost you US $2,000 to $3,000, you just have to give me your blood type and I will get it for you even before you have finished a cold pepsi,' Bashar said, smiling. Donors are taken into the hospital laboratory where blood tests to establish compatibility are carried out.

Fadhel's new kidney came from a man who initially asked $4,000 but was bartered down to $3,000 after long hours of negotiation."

Judge Jails Times Reporter Over Source - Yahoo! News

Judge Jails Times Reporter Over Source - Yahoo! News:

"New York Times reporter Judith Miller was jailed Wednesday for refusing to divulge a confidential source to a grand jury investigating the Bush administration's leak of an undercover
CIA operative's name. Another reporter, Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, agreed to talk and avoided jail.

......................

Cooper said his source had given him a waiver just before the court session, enabling the journalist to cooperate with the probe into who leaked the name of CIA officer Valerie Plame.
........................

Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is investigating the question of who leaked the identity of CIA officer Plame. Disclosure of an undercover intelligence officer's identity can be a federal crime if prosecutors can show the leak was intentional and the person who released that information knew of the officer's secret status.

Plame's name was disclosed in a column by Robert Novak days after her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, questioned part of
President Bush's justification for invading
Iraq.

Wilson was sent to Africa by the Bush administration to investigate an intelligence claim that
Saddam Hussein may have purchased yellowcake uranium from Niger in the late 1990s for use in nuclear weapons. Wilson said he could not verify the claim and accused the administration for manipulating the intelligence to "exaggerate the Iraqi threat."

Novak, whose column cited as sources two unidentified senior Bush administration officials, has refused to say whether he has testified before the grand jury or has been subpoenaed. Cooper's story mentioning Plame's name appeared after Novak's column. Miller did some reporting, but never wrote a story.

Among the witnesses Fitzgerald's investigators have questioned are Bush; Vice President
Dick Cheney; Bush political adviser Karl Rove; Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, and former White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, who is now the attorney general. Fitzgerald has said his probe is finished except for hearing from Miller and Cooper."

John Conyers, Jr. --NEW Letter to Pres Bush Concerning the "Downing Street Minutes"

John Conyers, Jr. -- Letter to Pres Bush Concerning the "Downing Street Minutes":
"The Downing Street Minutes memo has generated enormous ongoing interest. Last week I personally delivered 560,000 letters from individuals to the president demanding he respond to questions raised by these documents.

On Thursday, I held hearings to receive testimony about the Downing Street Minutes. Republicans forced us to use a cramped room in the basement of the Capitol little bigger than a closet, even though plenty of larger hearing rooms were available. The Republican Leadership also scheduled votes for nearly two straight hours in an unprecedented attempt to limit the ability of Democratic Members of Congress to participate in this hearing. (Links to video from the hearing are to the right, or may be found here.)

Thanks to the help of more than 560,000 individuals who signed the letter to the president, the mainstream media felt compelled to cover this event. The room was packed with television cameras and there was significant coverage in national newspapers and radio networks.

There still remains much more to do to make President Bush answer the questions raised by the Downing Street Minutes. We are not through by a long shot.

We are collecting more signatures to send a second batch of letters to the president. You can find the letter at http://johnconyers.com/downingstreetminutes. Please pass on this important letter to your friends and colleagues, and ask them to sign as well."

Bush Job Approval Unchanged by War Speech; Question on Impeachment - Zogby International

Zogby International:

"No Bounce: Bush Job Approval Unchanged by War Speech; Question on Impeachment Shows Polarization of Nation; Americans Tired of Divisiveness in Congress—Want Bi-Partisan Solutions—New Zogby Poll

President Bush’s televised address to the nation produced no noticeable bounce in his approval numbers, with his job approval rating slipping a point from a week ago, to 43%, in the latest Zogby International poll. And, in a sign of continuing polarization, more than two-in-five voters (42%) say they would favor impeachment proceedings if it is found the President misled the nation about his reasons for going to war with Iraq.
...............................

In a sign of the continuing partisan division of the nation, more than two-in-five (42%) voters say that, if it is found that President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should hold him accountable through impeachment. While half (50%) of respondents do not hold this view, supporters of impeachment outweigh opponents in some parts of the country."

World - Illicit drug transit from Afghanistan set to increase - RIA Novosti -

RIA Novosti - World - Illicit drug transit from Afghanistan set to increase:

"July 1 (RIA Novosti) - The illicit drug transit from Afghanistan is set to increase soon, Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev said at a bilateral border cooperation conference here."

Number of rich paying no tax is rising

Number of rich paying no tax is rising:

"The number of affluent individuals and married couples who paid no federal income taxes jumped more than 15 percent in 2002, to 5,650, new government data showed yesterday.

The chances of having a large income but not paying taxes on any of it are growing, according to the data, issued in the Internal Revenue Service's annual report to Congress on well-to-do Americans who live tax-free. About one in every 436 high-income Americans paid no taxes in 2002, up from one in 531 in 2001 and one in 1,010 in 2000.

Overall, the top 2 percent of earners, the 2.5 million filers with income of $200,000 or more, paid almost 27 cents in taxes for each dollar of income they reported in 2002, other IRS data showed. This group accounted for 53.5 percent of the income tax paid by all Americans.

Among that high-income group, however, almost 83,000, or one in 33, paid less than a dime in taxes for every dollar of income. An additional 79,000 paid less than 15 cents. The average for all Americans was 13 cents.

Congress taxes Americans on their worldwide income. Of the 5,650 individuals and couples who paid no income taxes to the United States, only 728 paid any to a foreign government, while 4,922 lived completely free of income tax."