Foley's secret confounds friends

Foley's secret confounds friends: "His sudden resignation as a Congressman, a position he loved, came only hours after he was confronted with e-mails and AOL instant messages he had exchanged with a pair of teenage boys. ABC News since has reported that as many as five boys — all congressional pages — have come forward."

Hastert, Top Aides Knew of Foley Allegations

Hastert, Top Aides Knew of Foley Allegations: "Saturday, Sept. 30; 8:58 pm

Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and at least three of his aides were told of allegations that then-Rep. Mark Foley (R-Fla.) had improper e-mail contacts with a former House page months before the incident became public and Foley resigned from Congress, according to a senior House Republican and a report released by Hastert’s office on Saturday.

This contradicts earlier claims from Hastert’s office that the Speaker did not know of Foley’s behavior until it was revealed this week by ABC News.

Hastert and other GOP leaders also continue to insist that they were unaware of much more sexually graphic electronic messages from Foley to unidentified young men. The release of these explicit messages, which occurred after the first ABC story broke, spurred Foley to immediately resign from the House.

Democrats have pushed for an ethics committee investigation, and some Congressional insiders suggest a criminal probe of Foley will begin soon, if it has not already.

As of Saturday evening, nearly a dozen House GOP lawmakers and staffers have acknowledged that they knew of the initial batch of non-sexually explicit messages from Foley to a 16-year-old former House page, some of them for a year or more. These include Hastert; Majority Leader John Boehner (Ohio); National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Reynolds (N.Y.); Reps. Rodney Alexander (La.) and John Shimkus (Ill.); Mike Stokke, the Speaker’s deputy chief of staff; Ted Van Der Meid, Hastert’s counsel; Paula Nowakowski, Boehner’s chief of staff; Jeff Trandahl, the former Clerk of the House; and another Hastert aide and Alexander’s chief of staff, according to public statements and GOP insiders.

Most troubling for Hastert was a statement released by Reynolds on Saturday afternoon in which the NRCC chairman said he had informed Hastert personally of the Foley situation after he was told of it by Alexander. Alexander, who represents the teen’s district, was acting at the behest of the boy’s parents, who wanted Foley to stop contacting their son."

Daily Kos: State of the Nation

Daily Kos: State of the Nation: "From: Jack Abramoff
To: 'octagon1'
Monday, March 18, 2002 8:31 AM
Subject: RE: Sunday

I was sitting yesterday with Karl Rove, Bush's top advisor, at the NCAA basketball game, discussing Israel when this email came in. I showed it to him. It seems that the President was very sad to have to come out negatively regarding Israel, but that they needed to mollify the Arabs for the upcoming war on Iraq. That did not seem to work anyway. Bush seems to love Sharon and Israel, and thinks Arabfat [sic], is nothing but a liar. I thought I'd pass that on."

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi: "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 01, 2006

CONTACT:
Brendan Daly/Jennifer Crider
202-226-7616
Pelosi Letter to Ethics Committee on Cover Up of the Foley Matter

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi released the following letter sent today to House Ethics Committee Chairman Doc Hastings and Ranking Member Howard L. Berman about the Foley matter. The text of the letter follows:

October 1, 2006

Chairman Doc Hastings
Ranking Member Howard L. Berman
Committee on Standards of Official Conduct
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Chairman Hastings and Ranking Member Berman:

On Friday, I offered and the House unanimously passed a resolution directing the Ethics Committee to begin an immediate investigation and provide the House with a preliminary report in 10 days concerning allegations about Congressman Mark Foley's highly inappropriate and explicit communications with a former underage Page. The resolution called for an investigation of 'when the Republican leadership was notified, and what corrective action was taken once officials learned of any improper activity.'

Since that resolution unanimously passed, Republican Leaders have admitted to knowing about Mr. Foley's outrageous behavior for six months to a year, and they chose to cover it up rather than to protect these children.

As the author of the resolution that the House unanimously passed, I am writing to insist that the Ethics Committee act as directed and immediately form the investigative Subcommittee and begin work on the preliminary report in 10 days. Central to the investigation is immediately questioning, under oath, the House Republican Leadership.

It is a nightmare for every child, parent and grandparent to learn that a child is being stalked on the internet by an adult in a position of authority. The fact that Mr. Foley was engaging in this behavior with underage children, that the Republican Leadership knew about it for six months to a year and has characterized the inappropriate behavior as 'overly friendly' and 'acting as a mentor' and that apparently no action was taken to protect these underage children is abhorrent.

The children, their parents, the public, and our colleagues must be assured that such abhorrent behavior is not tolerated and will never happen again.

Sincerely,

/s/

NANCY PELOSI"

REPUBLICAN SEX CRIMES

Here is the list....

* Republican "child protection advocate" Rep. Mark Foley..accused sexual predator of Congressional Pages,
at large, checking into rehab.


* Republican anti-abortion activist Howard Scott Heldreth is a convicted child rapist in Florida.

* Republican County Commissioner David Swartz pleaded guilty to molesting two girls under the age of 11 and was sentenced to 8 years in prison.

* Republican judge Mark Pazuhanich pleaded no contest to fondling a 10-year old girl and was sentenced to 10 years probation.

* Republican anti-abortion activist Nicholas Morency pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography on his computer and offering a bounty to anybody who murders an abortion doctor.

* Republican legislator Edison Misla Aldarondo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raping his daughter between the ages of 9 and 17.

* Republican Mayor Philip Giordano is serving a 37-year sentence in federal prison for sexually abusing 8- and 10-year old girls.

* Republican campaign consultant Tom Shortridge was sentenced to three years probation for taking nude photographs of a 15-year old girl.

* Republican racist pedophile and United States Senator Strom Thurmond had sex with a 15-year old black girl which produced a child.

* Republican pastor Mike Hintz, whom George W. Bush commended during the 2004 presidential campaign, surrendered to police after admitting to a sexual affair with a female juvenile.

* Republican legislator Peter Dibble pleaded no contest to having an inappropriate relationship with a 13-year-old girl.

* Republican activist Lawrence E. King, Jr. organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

* Republican lobbyist Craig J. Spence organized child sex parties at the White House during the 1980s.

* Republican Congressman Donald "Buz" Lukens was found guilty of having sex with a female minor and sentenced to one month in jail.

* Republican fundraiser Richard A. Delgaudio was found guilty of child porn charges and paying two teenage girls to pose for sexual photos.

* Republican activist Mark A. Grethen convicted on six counts of sex crimes involving children.

* Republican activist Randal David Ankeney pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault on a child.

* Republican Congressman Dan Crane had sex with a female minor working as a congressional page.

* Republican activist and Christian Coalition leader Beverly Russell admitted to an incestuous relationship with his step daughter.

* Republican governor Arnold Schwarzenegger allegedly had sex with a 16 year old girl when he was 28.

* Republican congressman and anti-gay activist Robert Bauman was charged with having sex with a 16-year-old boy he picked up at a gay bar.

* Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped.

* Republican activist Marty Glickman (a.k.a. "Republican Marty"), was taken into custody by Florida police on four counts of unlawful sexual activity with an underage girl and one count of delivering the drug LSD.

* Republican legislative aide Howard L. Brooks was charged with molesting a 12-year old boy and possession of child pornography.

* Republican Senate candidate John Hathaway was accused of having sex with his 12-year old baby sitter and withdrew his candidacy after the allegations were reported in the media.

* Republican preacher Stephen White, who demanded a return to traditional values, was sentenced to jail after offering $20 to a 14-year-old boy for permission to perform oral sex on him.

* Republican talk show host Jon Matthews pleaded guilty to exposing his genitals to an 11 year old girl.

* Republican anti-gay activist Earl "Butch" Kimmerling was sentenced to 40 years in prison for molesting an 8-year old girl after he attempted to stop a gay couple from adopting her.

* Republican Party leader Paul Ingram pleaded guilty to six counts of raping his daughters and served 14 years in federal prison.

* Republican election board official Kevin Coan was sentenced to two years probation for soliciting sex over the internet from a 14-year old girl.

* Republican politician Andrew Buhr was charged with two counts of first degree sodomy with a 13-year old boy.

* Republican politician Keith Westmoreland was arrested on seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious exhibition to girls under the age of 16 (i.e. exposing himself to children).

* Republican anti-abortion activist John Allen Burt was charged with sexual misconduct involving a 15-year old girl.

* Republican County Councilman Keola Childs pleaded guilty to molesting a male child.

* Republican activist John Butler was charged with criminal sexual assault on a teenage girl.

* Republican candidate Richard Gardner admitted to molesting his two daughters.

* Republican Councilman and former Marine Jack W. Gardner was convicted of molesting a 13-year old girl.

* Republican County Commissioner Merrill Robert Barter pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and assault on a teenage boy.

* Republican City Councilman Fred C. Smeltzer, Jr. pleaded no contest to raping a 15 year-old girl and served 6-months in prison.

* Republican activist Parker J. Bena pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography on his home computer and was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and fined $18,000.

* Republican parole board officer and former Colorado state representative, Larry Jack Schwarz, was fired after child pornography was found in his possession.

* Republican strategist and Citadel Military College graduate Robin Vanderwall was convicted in Virginia on five counts of soliciting sex from boys and girls over the internet.

* Republican city councilman Mark Harris, who is described as a "good military man" and "church goer," was convicted of repeatedly having sex with an 11-year-old girl and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

* Republican businessman Jon Grunseth withdrew his candidacy for Minnesota governor after allegations surfaced that he went swimming in the nude with four underage girls, including his daughter.

* Republican director of the "Young Republican Federation" Nicholas Elizondo molested his 6-year old daughter and was sentenced to six years in prison.

* Republican benefactor of conservative Christian groups, Richard A. Dasen Sr., was charged with rape for allegedly paying a 15-year old girl for sex. Dasen, 62, who is married with grown children and several grandchildren, has allegedly told police that over the past decade he paid more than $1 million to have sex with a large number of young women.

YumaSun.com > News

YumaSun.com > News: "SHANNON, Ireland (AP) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she cannot recall then-CIA chief George Tenet warning her of an impending al-Qaida attack in the United States, as a new book claims he did two months before the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

'What I am quite certain of is that I would remember if I was told, as this account apparently says, that there was about to be an attack in the United States, and the idea that I would somehow have ignored that I find incomprehensible,' Rice said.

Rice was President Bush's national security adviser in 2001, when Bob Woodward's book 'State of Denial' outlines a July 10 meeting among Rice, Tenet and the CIA's top counterterror officer.

'I don't know that this meeting took place, but what I really don't know, what I'm quite certain of, is that it was not a meeting in which I was told there was an impending attack and I refused to respond,' Rice said."

Rolling Stone : Follow Omar Khadr From an Al Qaeda Childhood to a Gitmo Cell

Rolling Stone : Follow Omar Khadr From an Al Qaeda Childhood to a Gitmo Cell:

"He was a child of jihad, a teenage soldier in bin Laden's army. Captured on the battlefield when he was only fifteen, he has been held at Guantanamo Bay for the past four years -- subjected to unspeakable abuse sanctioned by the president himself"

Condi Rice vs. Bob Woodward: Let the Battle Begin

Condi Rice vs. Bob Woodward: Let the Battle Begin: "Condi Rice vs. Bob Woodward: Let the Battle Begin
Editor&Publisher: Condi Rice vs. Bob Woodward: Let the Battle Begin
Why wasn't the 9/11 Commission told about a July 10, 2001, meeting in which Condoleezza Rice was warned, in no uncertain terms, that a terrorist attack on the U.S. was near at hand? Now she disputes the account in the Woodward book. If it's accurate, will she resign?
By Greg Mitchell

(October 01, 2006) -- While it may get overlooked in the torrent of revelations related to Iraq in the new Bob Woodward book, “State of Denial,” his bombshell account of a previously unknown warning about terror attacks on the U.S. just before 9/1, delivered directly to Condoleezza Rice, seems equally significant. Now Rice is disputing the account. How will Woodward respond? And if his story holds up, will she resign?

This angle gained more attention on Monday with The New York Times reporting that some 9/11 Commission members are alarmed that they were never told about this warning. Timothy J. Roemer, a member of the commission, tells the Times, “I’m deeply disturbed by this. I’m furious.” The Times relates that some commissioners question "whether information about the July 10 meeting was intentionally withheld from the panel." The Washington Post, meanwhile, on the same day, carries Rice's denial -- meaning the next move belongs to Woodward, perhaps on "Larry King Live."...

***

So, if the story is confirmed -- Woodward's track record is strong -- Rice should quit. Let's see what Tenet and (CIA counterterrorism chief J. Cofer) Black and any documents say.

My check of her testimony before the 9/11 Commission in 2004 reveals that not only did she not disclose this meeting with the two men -- she also gave misleading information about the level of threats to the homeland that she learned about that summer.

How do we square Black’s account (in the Woodward book) of that July 10, 2001, meeting -- "The only thing we didn't do was pull the trigger to the gun we were holding to her head" -- and Rice’s statement to the 9/11 Commission, “There was no threat reporting of any substance about an attack coming in the United States”?..."

According to this Act, an "unlawful enemy combatant" is to be defined as:

Elliot D. Cohen: Bush's Chilling New Definition of "Unlawful Enemy Combatant"

by Elliot D. Cohen, Ph. D.


George W. Bush has repeatedly warned, "Either you're with us or you stand with the terrorists." Now he has gotten through legislation that allows him to back it up. On Thursday, September 28, 2006, in a hastily drawn decision that will likely live in infamy, the Senate nodded assent to the Military Commissions Act (PDF).

According to this Act, an "unlawful enemy combatant" is to be defined as:


"an individual engaged in hostilities against the United States who is not a lawful enemy combatant."
This basically means that if a person is not a soldier in the service of a foreign government, but is nevertheless engaging in "hostilities" against the United States, then this person is an unlawful enemy combatant. Notice that this definition does not require that such a person be an "alien," which accordingly leaves open the possibility that this designation could also be applied to an American citizen.

This definition as contained in the approved version of the Act, is substantially broader than that included in an earlier version (PDF), according to which a person so designated must also be

(A) part of or affiliated with a force or organization-including but not limited to al Qaeda, the Taliban, any international terrorist organization, or associated forces-engaged in hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents in violation of the law of war;

(B) to have committed a hostile act in aid of such a force or organization so engaged; or

(C) to have supported hostilities in aid of such a force or organization so engaged.

According to the definition approved by the Senate, you don't even have to be part of a terrorist organization. Nor does your "hostile" act have to be done to aid such a force; nor do you have to have supported such acts. Nor do you have to be in violation of the "law of war." Nor is there anywhere in the act where the term "hostilities" has itself been defined. For example, is an anti-war activist an unlawful enemy combatant? What about an American journalist who publishes leaked information damaging to the Bush administration? What about an anti-Bush blogger? In short, the definition is broad (and vague) enough to include any American citizen who is acting in a way the President deems "hostile" to the United States. As such, it is difficult to imagine a single piece of legislation with greater potential to undermine freedom and democracy in America.

In chapter 948c ("Persons Subject to Military Commissions"), the Act does stipulate that "any alien unlawful enemy combatant engaged in hostilities against the United States or having supported hostilities against the United States is subject to trial by military commission..." (my italics). However, any student of elementary logic knows that, from "All A are "B" it does not follow that All non-A are non-B." In other words, this does not mean that someone who is determined by the President or the Secretary of Defense to be an "unlawful enemy combatant," but who also happens to be an American citizen is therefore automatically off the hook.

The Act also suspends the constitutional protection of habeas corpus, which means that those branded as unlawful enemy combatants can be incarcerated indefinitely without even being charged. And, if the person so branded happens to be an "alien" (say, a Canada citizen) he can no longer use the Geneva Conventions in his defense because "no alien enemy unlawful combatant subject to trial by military commission... may invoke the Geneva Conventions as a source of rights at his trial by military commission."

As for who interprets the meaning and application of Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, concerning whether or not a prisoner has been tortured, "the President has the authority for the United States to determine the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions and to promulgate higher standards and administrative regulations for violation of treaty regulations which are not grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions."

While a list of "grave breaches" is provided in the legislation, the bill enjoins that no foreign or international law shall be used by any U.S. court of law to interpret these breaches. This means that it is up to the President to decide whether or not someone is guilty of torture or other cruel and inhumane violations of the Geneva Conventions. This in turn means that George W. Bush now has the authority to decide whether he himself is guilty of having tortured anyone. And, of course, the provisions of this Act regarding torture have been conveniently made retroactive and take effect as of November 26, 1997.

The Act also makes clear that the President's power to establish military tribunals does not "alter or limit" his authority "to establish military commissions for areas declared to be under martial law..." Now, a presidential declaration of a state of martial law in America might well be the last thing any American would care to envision. Nevertheless, checking the awesome power of government cannot safely be left to chance or the goodness of those who govern. This is why our founding fathers established a system of checks and balances. Unfortunately, with the passage of the 2006 Military Commissions Act, our nation has moved considerably closer to dissolving legal protections that have helped sustain our democracy in the past.

Unfortunately, this conclusion does not appear to resonate with lawmakers who have supported the Act. For example, according to Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican of California and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, "We are dealing with the enemy in war, not defendants in our criminal justice system...In time of war it is not practical to apply the same rules of evidence that we apply in civil trials or courts martial for our troops."

However, the war to which this Act applies is not a "war" at all in the conventional sense. The "enemy" is now defined as anyone who is "hostile" to the United States. This is an "enemy" that is not attached to a state government and is not necessarily attached to an organized terrorist group. This "war" knows neither geographical nor temporal boundaries. It is a "war" without end, where "victory" is an empty concept. Empty metaphors have taken over the job of criminal court proceedings and due process, and have instead been misguidedly placed in the hands of a powerful federal government. Ironically, in the ongoing, gradual process of tearing down our internal system of checks and balances, we face a much more ominous and identifiable threat, one that has just, with the passage of this Act, become even more ominous.


Elliot D. Cohen is a media ethicist and author of many books and articles on the media and other areas of applied ethics.

House Republicans grapple with sex scandal - Yahoo! News

House Republicans grapple with sex scandal - Yahoo! News: "Hastert and other top House Republicans said over the weekend they knew of e-mail traffic between Foley and a 16-year-old boy, which was described to them as 'over-friendly,' but were not made aware of the explicit nature of messages sent to other pages.

Some members of both parties suggested any congressional leader who knew about the content of the messages and failed to take action should step down.

'Congressman Foley duped a lot of people,' Hastert said. 'He deceived me too.'"