Just Foreign Policy Iraqi Death Estimator    

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Israel Attacks America

Insiders and Angry Survivors Speak Out On The Deadly Assault On A U.S. Naval Vessel
By Paul Craig Roberts
The assault on the Liberty is well docu­mented. With no warning, the Liberty was attacked by successive waves of unmarked jets deploying cannons, rockets and napalm. The attacking jets jammed all of the U.S. communications frequencies, an indication they knew the Liberty was American.

Why Iraq Won't be South Korea

By Pepe Escobar
Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Maliki that Iraqis have to "think of a solution to free" themselves from US power. Not surprisingly, Khamenei advised Maliki not to sign the deal. Maliki, for his part, reassured the Iranians in no uncertain terms Iraq is not an arena for a deadly US-Iran Armageddon.

LinkHere
House Resolution Calls for Naval Blockade against Iran
By Andrew W Cheetham
America's powerful pro-Israel lobby pressures the US Congress

Maj. Gen. Taguba Accuses Bush Administration of War Crimes

By Democracy Now!
Retired Major General Antonio Taguba, the Army general who first investigated the abuse at Abu Ghraib, has accused the Bush administration of committing war crimes. “The commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture,” Taguba said.
CLICK PLAY TO LISTEN

Ex-State Dept. official: Hundreds of Detainees Died in U.S. Custody, at Least 25 Murdered

In memory of Dilawar, 22, part-time taxi driver died on December ...
Mr. Dilawar (one name) was a farmer and part-time taxicab driver in Khost. ... Murdered by CIA interrogators at the secret U.S. prison at Bagram Air Base.
By Think Progress
At yesterday's House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil Rights hearing on torture, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, told Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) that over 100 detainees have died in U.S. custody, with up to 27 of these declared homicides.

Roadmap to Torture

Spencer Ackerman, for The Washington Independent, reports on Tuesday's Senate Armed Services Committee's release of numerous classified documents: "In a marathon hearing spanning eight hours and three separate panels, the committee revealed, in painstaking detail, how senior Pentagon officials transformed a program for Special Forces troops to resist torture -- known as Survival Evasion Resistance Escape, or SERE -- into a blueprint for torturing terrorism detainees."

Another one bites the dust.

Donna Edwards Wins Maryland Congressional Seat
Michael Teitelbaum for The Congressional Quarterly:
"Democrat Donna Edwards, best known for defeating incumbent Rep. Albert R. Wynn in a February primary, defeated Republican Peter James in Tuesday's special election in Maryland's 4th District."

Mr. Bush v. the Bill of Rights

The New York Times: "In the waning months of his tenure, President Bush and his allies are once again trying to scare Congress into expanding the president's powers to spy on Americans without a court order."
LinkHere
Techno-Fascism
Every Move You Make

By Chellis Glendinning
Surveillance of private calls and emails. Cameras documenting every move. No habeas corpus. Unimpeded entry into personal financial records. Voting machines changing election outcomes with the flick of a switch. Protest defined as terrorism. Many people hope that the loss of civil rights Americans have endured since the onslaughts mounted by Bush Administration II is a political reality that can be reversed through electoral will.

Government Warning 32,000 Vets That They Are Using Suicide-Linked Drug

ABC News/Washington Times Investigation Leads To Action
By BRIAN ROSS and VIC WALTERJune 19, 2008
Responding to an ABC News/Washington Times investigation, the Veterans Administration plans to inform 32,000 veterans that they are using a drug linked to suicide or violent behavior.

The investigation revealed that the VA waited three months to notify veterans in a VA experiment of the possible side effects from the anti-smoking drug Chantix.
All of the veterans enrolled in the Chantix study suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and had been recruited, with monthly $30 payments, for a behavioral study with the drug.
Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake told Washington Times reporter Audrey Hudson Thursday that he was personally sending new warning letters to the 940 veterans in the study and some 31,000 other veterans who have been prescribed Chantix by the VA.
"Our first responsibility is to our veterans," said Peake, who said he has asked VA doctors to review "the communications process" involving all VA studies using veterans who are suffering from PTSD. Some 400,000 veterans are being treated for PTSD.
The Bush White House had initially defended the VA's handling of the Chantix experiment.
"The VA is doing everything they can to be mindful of the safety of these veterans in all their programs and try to help them." said Deputy White House Press Secretary Tony Fratto at a briefing on Tuesday after the ABC News report aired.
"This is the Veterans Administration, under wonderful leadership by Secretary Peake, who is interested in the health and safety of these veterans that are under his care, and every other member of that VA system is the same," said Fratto.
In contrast, Secretary Peake said he "wished" the VA had not taken so long to warn veterans being used in the Chantix test.
One of the veterans in the Chantix study, James Elliott, of suburban Washington, suffered a mental breakdown and near-lethal confrontation with police which he blames on Chantix.
VA doctors say there is no evidence Chantix was responsible.
Elliott's incident with police occurred in February, after the VA knew of the possible risks, but before it had notified veterans.

LinkHere

Friday, June 20, 2008

Barack’s Bounce

The latest NEWSWEEK Poll shows the Democrat with a 15-point lead over McCain.

Obama Backs Bill Giving Immunity To Telecoms

Sen. Barack Obama's campaign released a statement Friday afternoon saying that while Obama opposes amnesty for telecom firms that spied on Americans, he will support the House compromise legislation.
The statement in full:
"Given the grave threats that we face, our national security agencies must have the capability to gather intelligence and track down terrorists before they strike, while respecting the rule of law and the privacy and civil liberties of the American people. There is also little doubt that the Bush Administration, with the cooperation of major telecommunications companies, has abused that authority and undermined the Constitution by intercepting the communications of innocent Americans without their knowledge or the required court orders.
"That is why last year I opposed the so-called Protect America Act, which expanded the surveillance powers of the government without sufficient independent oversight to protect the privacy and civil liberties of innocent Americans. I have also opposed the granting of retroactive immunity to those who were allegedly complicit in acts of illegal spying in the past.
"After months of negotiation, the House today passed a compromise that, while far from perfect, is a marked improvement over last year's Protect America Act.
"Under this compromise legislation, an important tool in the fight against terrorism will continue, but the President's illegal program of warrantless surveillance will be over. It restores FISA and existing criminal wiretap statutes as the exclusive means to conduct surveillance - making it clear that the President cannot circumvent the law and disregard the civil liberties of the American people. It also firmly re-establishes basic judicial oversight over all domestic surveillance in the future. It does, however, grant retroactive immunity, and I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses. But this compromise guarantees a thorough review by the Inspectors General of our national security agencies to determine what took place in the past, and ensures that there will be accountability going forward. By demanding oversight and accountability, a grassroots movement of Americans has helped yield a bill that is far better than the Protect America Act.
"It is not all that I would want. But given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as President, I will carefully monitor the program, review the report by the Inspectors General, and work with the Congress to take any additional steps I deem necessary to protect the lives - and the liberty - of the American people."
Also today, in an interview with Bloomberg's Al Hunt, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he would attempt to remove the amnesty provision in the bill:

LinkHere

McClellan: Bush, Cheney Wanted Me To Say Libby Wasn't Involved In CIA Leak Case

MCCLELLAN: BUSH HAS LOST THE PUBLIC'S TRUST Former presidential spokesman Scott McClellan on Friday said President Bush has lost the public's trust by failing to open up about his administration's mistakes and backtracking on a promise be up front about the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.
"This White House promised or assured the American people that at some point when this was behind us they would talk publicly about it. And they have refused to," McClellan told the House Judiciary Committee. "And that's why I think more than any other reason we are here today and the suspicion still remains."

McCain: I 'Didn't Love America' Until Held Prisoner (VIDEO)

"What is good for the Goose is good for the Gander."
Republicans have hammered Michelle Obama for her remarks in February that she was proud of America "for the first time in my adult life." Tonight, however, Dan Abrams showed footage he uncovered of a Fox News interview with John McCain on March 13, 2008, in which McCain said, "I didn't really love America until I was deprived of her company."
Abrams thinks McCain's comments could undermine the "right wing's steady attacks against Michelle Obama."
[WATCH]

Barack Obama is not Muslim, Bloomberg tells Jewish voters

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Friday, June 20th 2008, 10:47 AM
Mayor Michael Bloomberg urged Jewish voters to denounce the whisper campaign that for months has pushed the false rumor that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim.
Bloomberg warned a Jewish group in Boca Raton, Fla., on Friday that the attempt to portray Obama as a shadowy Muslim with a hidden agenda often targets Jewish voters online and with e-mails.
The deceptive campaign against Obama, who is Christian, "threatens to undo the enormous strides that Jews and Muslims have made together in this country," the New York mayor said.
The lies are "cloaked in concern for Israel, but the real concern is about partisan politics," said Bloomberg, who is Jewish. "This is wedge politics at its worst, and we've got to reject it— loudly, clearly and unequivocally."

LinkHere

Denial of Care: Is This What It Means to Support Our Troops?

Geogie and the GOP Supports the troops?
By Donna Smith, American SiCKO, communications specialist for the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee
This isn’t such a day of honor for Michael Baranik of Jennings, LA. His nation doesn’t seem very grateful for his service. He is dying. And he is being denied the medical care that could save his life.
Here’s what Michael wrote in as he told his story on the guaranteedhealthcare.org website: “In January 2007, on the worst day of my life, I sat in a doctor's office and was told I had terminal cancer, and then in the next breath he told me my insurance was not good enough to cover reimbursement of the chemotherapy.
“Now I am a retired military veteran, I spent 24 years in the United States Navy, I served my country for 24 years, now my country is giving up on me.”
Many Americans think that veterans always have access to quality healthcare through the Veterans Administration system. Many Americans think that when our leaders espouse loyalty and admiration for our military personnel that it means these men and women are adequately taken care of as the heroes we all know they must be on our behalf when our nation calls. But as Michael tells us, quality care for our service men and women is often not the reality.
“I have no choice of my insurance. I thought my military insurance was good coverage and was accepted by most doctors. What I found out was most doctors are not accepting military insurance. I had to go and beg doctors to give me a chance to live,” Michael wrote.
He had to beg. A 24-year veteran of the United State Navy was left begging for care. Not exactly the picture of honor and glory we paint as we place wreaths at the Tomb of the Unknowns or place flags on every corner. Michael begged.
“I was shocked at the unpatriotic sense these people have. I will never in my life recommend any person join our armed services. Why should they? So they can get sick and be told, sorry, we know you fought for our country, and this is how we repay you,” he said. “It is insane and un-American.”
While it is true that our VA system is leaps and bounds ahead of what millions of uninsured and under-insured Americans can access, veterans’ healthcare is grossly underfunded in this nation, and those service members and veterans who are covered under Tri-Care (and do not receive their healthcare through the VA) often find themselves victim to the same insurance denials that the general population suffers.
Michael kept trying. “Luckily I begged and begged a doctor who said he would only give me seven treatments, because of insurance. Insurance was his primary concern, he even told me, ‘Tri-Care just doesn't cover enough’ ...like I have anything to do with that. This is what I get for serving my country for 24 years. If I had known this when I joined, I would have never joined, I would have left this country, given up my citizenship and lived in a country where they respect the men and women that protect their freedom.”
Wow. On Memorial Day 2008, this is what we gave Michael. We did not give him honor or glory or blessings or peace. We gave him sorrow and regret and longing for compassion.
If our nation had in place single payer, universal health care, Michael would have a chance to live. With access to the treatments that might abate his cancer, Michael would not spend his days feeling as though his sacrifice was dishonored. With adequate healthcare through publicly funded, privately delivered single payer care, all veterans of this nation – and all the citizens they fought to protect -- would enjoy the peace of mind they truly deserve.
HR676, The National Health Insurance Act, now has 90 Congressional co-sponsors who believe that a single payer system is the right way to address our healthcare crisis. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan is the chief co-sponsor of the bill, and the 80,000 member strong California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee supports this bill and is actively working to encourage its passage. Nurses know that veterans deserve healthcare and that they do not always get that care.
Still, in spite of how his nation is treating him, Michael said, “Thank you for letting me share.”
Isn’t it we who should be thanking him?
I will protest for him in San Francisco tomorrow, June 19th, at noon, 4th and Howard. It’s time to tell the private insurance companies that Michael is a patient not a profit, Michael is a veteran not a bottom line, Michael is a hero not a revenue liability. I will thank him by standing up for him as he stood for me.
To see all the venues for protest of the private health insurance industry, check out:
http://www.healthcare-now.org/june19.html
LinkHere

"Country I Love" TV Ad

Exclusive: MoveOn To Close Its 527 In Response To Obama's Candidacy

By Greg Sargent - June 20, 2008, 12:05PM
MoveOn, the advocacy group supporting Barack Obama, has decided to permanently shutter its 527 operation, partly in response to the Illinois Senator's insistence that such groups should not spend on his behalf during the general election, I've learned from the group's spokesperson.
MoveOn's decision, which will dramatically impact the way it raises money on Obama's behalf, is yet another sign of how rapidly Obama is taking control of the apparatus that's gearing up on his behalf.
By shuttering its 527, MoveOn is effectively killing its ability to raise money in huge chunks from labor unions, foundations, and big donors who would give over $5,000. The decision doesn't mean MoveOn will stop spending on Obama's behalf. Instead it will raise money exclusively with its political action committee, whose average donation is below $50 and will even be raising money with things like bake sales starting this weekend.
To put this in perspective, MoveOn's 527 raised $20 million for the general election in 2004 -- and at least half of that came from donations over $5,000.
"This is an affirmation that we, like Senator Obama, believe that this election can be won by ordinary Americans giving small donations," MoveOn spokesperson Ilyse Hogue told me.

LinkHere

Feith Chickens Out Of Congressional Hearing On Torture, Refuses To Appear With Wilkerson»

Today, the House Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Rights held a hearing on abusive interrogation to look at the role of administration lawyers in crafting policies allowing the torture of detainees.
Former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith was
scheduled to testify today about his role in vigorously pushing to eliminate the standards of the Geneva Conventions and making the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay a “Geneva-free zone.” However, at the opening of the hearing, subcommittee chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) declared that Feith “withdrew from the hearing.” Nadler explained:
Despite his prior commitment to testify, this morning, Mr. Feith informed this committee through his counsel that he would not appear today because he is not willing to appear alongside one of our other witnesses.

Watch It
Sources on Capitol Hill told ThinkProgress that Feith was afraid to appear with Colin Powell’s former chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson, who was also testifying today. After leaving the State Department in protest over Bush’s policies, Wilkerson became an outspoken critic of Bush’s foreign policy and aggressively criticized Feith’s incompetence. From a speech to the New America Foundation in 2005:
Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith, whom most of you probably know Tommy Franks said was the stupidest blankety-blank man in the world. He was. Let me testify to that. He was. Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man.
Nadler emphasized that Feith would “appear before this committee before too much time has elapsed,” adding, “We will reschedule a hearing at which Feith will appear so he can elucidate his testimony on this issue.”
UpdateRead what Feith was so afraid of in Wilkerson's opening testimony
here. The Gavel has more coverage of the hearing here.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Colors of an Occupation.

Friday, June 20, 2008
You know something, I still can't get over it...
However much I try, however much I twist it, turn it upside down, look at it from a thousand angles, I still can't get over it.
I simply can't come to terms with a very simple fact--this Occupation (Zionist American and racist Iranian - and I will never cease repeating it) has managed to turn a modern country, a modern state, a functioning entity, a sovereign nation into a rubble of sectarianism, corruption, theft and murder.
Think about it for a minute...In the space of 5 years, this country has been turned into a disfigured entity, a monster.
Many of you can't see that. I'll tell you why - because in the recesses of your minds, you have this automatic voice like a tape that keeps playing and which says - "Saddam was a dictator, he was a bad man, so yes, it is unfortunate but..."
We really need to get to that voice inside your heads that keeps repeating these injunctions and turns you into parrots, because it is these injunctions that prevent you from fully recognizing how Iraq has been deformed into a grotesque place, and it has become only a place, nothing else, a place of bloodied thorns...
Make no mistake about it. What do you expect from a Woman who has been repeatedly gang raped for over 5 years? Close your eyes and try to imagine any woman you personally know who has been gang raped for 5 years, daily, daily, daily...
What will she look like now ? Can you see her ? I do.
Here was a Woman, who had a mission, a function, laws, a system, a state... Here was a Woman who like the Queen of Sheba commanded an army, an economy, a polity...Here was a great ruler who cared for all her subjects, regardless of their ethnicity, religion or gender...She had a vision. She had a plan. She had a dream...
Here was a Woman, tall and proud, characterized by her perseverance, endurance and dignity, cognizant of Her own history, of Her roots, of Her past battles, Her defeats and Her victories.
Here was a Mother struggling along, "tant bien que mal". Here She was patching up, making ends meet, feeding hers, ingenuously fixing things, rationally prioritizing...Her aim was survival. Yet She still found time to beautify herself, spread her knowledge, culture, art, music and even supporting others during Her hardest times...
Here was a Woman I knew...I once knew. I had met Her, cohabited with Her, lived inside of Her...I embraced Her, loved Her, and She took me to her generous bosom...She took it all, the ugly and the pretty...Until,
They arrived at dawn, just when the Light broke and scattered the night, like golden dust...And they pulled the thick black curtain down, and exploded their fiery projectors...Balls of fire fell like yellow snow flakes, breaking through the thick curtain and showing bits of indigo sky...The earth shuddered and shook, and the Light recoiled back...far back.
And since that day, they took turns, armies of men, colored of mud, and everything else took on their colors, a feces brown mixed with a green, a darkish green the color of mold...
Her the chameleon, turned into a desert lizard, a desert dragon, spitting back...
And Noah's ark sunk...in a flood of blood, engulfing young and old...
And the brown and green turned into a crimson red, rivers, oceans of red...
And She turned into arrows, like poisonous thorns, red, bright red...
Then the bodies multiplied taking on a dark navy blue, a blue black, and blue black colored everything...
She became the endless blue black velvety night. Darkness all over. But Her's was a smooth darkness like a touch of satin...And She is satin to me.
At night, when all was silent, she would scream in the abyss, scream and scream...and during the day She would run from morgue to morgue gathering in more blue black for the following day...picking limbs from streets, heads from ditches, engraved names from pieces of flesh dispersed in markets and alleys...
She'd pick them up and remember. Here is Ali, and this is Omar, and there is Fatima and over there Aisha...and these are the left overs of Hanna and those of Marie...
She picked up them all up, and found more in anonymous mass graves, and She recognized each single one of them...
She would roam the streets, in rags, pick up some more, and beg for food and shelter.
She'd look around the corner and see them all lined up begging with her...
Do you recognize the Woman she has become ? Do you recognize the Woman you have turned her into ? Do you recognize the brown, green, red, blue black Woman.
Do you see the color of excrements, the color of mold, the color of fire and blood, the color of bruised clots, of bloated dead bodies, where life has stopped flowing...Do you ?
Can you see Her ? I can.
And I can't get over the fact that this what You've done to Her. Will never get over it and will never accept it.
I will never accept your colors. Ever.

LinkHere

Did everybody forget Bush cut the levee maintenance funds?

by martinweiss
Before Katrina hit New Orleans, Bush cut the budget of the Army Corps of Engineers for levee maintenance. So once again we have a disaster carefully engineered to cost billions which could have been prevented at a cost of millions.
The Bush cabal profits from suffering and death. They employ it to take control of resources, as Naomi Klein has demonstrated in her book. I keep thinking the book is called "Shock Economics", but that could be wrong.
The Iraq debacle is no mistake. Every move made by Bush generates crisis, catastrophe, and conflict on purpose. Cynical? Yes. But terribly acute.

LinkHere

219 page US military counterinsurgency manual.

How to covertly train paramilitaries, censor the press, ban unions, employ terrorists, conduct warrantless searches, suspend habeas corpus, conceal breaches of the Geneva Convention and make the population love it

The People Lying About Michelle Obama Are Not Conservatives But Ignorant Boorish Thugs Who Deserve to be Whipped

Michelle Obama is the most attractive aspect of Senator Obama's presidential race. She is the jewel in the crown of a beautiful and exemplary family, the kind of family that "family values" Republicans such as myself are supposed to revere. The fact Michelle Obama is Senator Obama's wife is one very good reason amongst many to vote for him.
As a lifelong Republican conservative one of the reasons I left the Republican Party and reregistered as an independent voter was the fact that American "conservatism" seems more and more made up of pigs who wouldn't know what gentlemanly behavior consists of if it bit them in their "fleshy parts," as Bertie Wooster might put it.

======
In the attacks on Michelle Obama the glaring reality of the utter hate-filled moral bankruptcy of the Republican Party and its supporters is apparent. These liars and bullies are all about seeking power through any means. Having failed miserably to govern for the last eight years, having gotten us into a war-of-choice -- in which, by the way, my honorable Marine son fought bravely -- they now turn to character assassination of an outstanding mother, woman, executive and yes I dare use the term, Lady.
I have this to say to my old friends on the Republican right: you are not gentlemen, (or ladies) either because you are part of these attacks yourselves, or because you are not standing up and denouncing them. Shame on you. And the fact that the arcane term "gentleman" means nothing to you these days -- from the punk editors of the sniveling National Review on up to the half-baked nitwit "conservatives" braying on talk radio and FOX News, is all of our loss. You have made America poorer.
Michelle Obama has more class, intelligence and civility in her little finger than the sputtering mass of prejudice, lies and bullshit that the Republican Party and it's supporters has become. Thank God for our next First Lady!
Michelle Obama brings intelligence, humor, wit and above all a straightforward manner, to this country we desperately need. She is noble and beautiful. She is the best of the American story. Her smear-grubbing critics deserve to be whipped. Since we can't do that literally (the way my old headmaster would have -- "six of the best, trousers down"), lets give them what they so richly deserve in the voting booth this November.
Once and for all: may the smirking thugs fail and fail so miserably that it is going to be a long time before this sort of scum is allowed to crawl out from under the slime rock again by any political party
.

General who probed Abu Ghraib says Bush officials committed war crimes

The report, "Broken Laws, Broken Lives," concurs with

By Warren P. Strobel McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON — The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and called for those responsible to be held to account.
The remarks by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a new report that found that U.S. personnel tortured and abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings, electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices.
"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes," Taguba wrote. "The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
Taguba, whose 2004 investigation documented chilling abuses at Abu Ghraib, is thought to be the most senior official to have accused the administration of war crimes. "The commander in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture," he wrote.

LinkHere

The Physicians for Human Rights report.
McClatchy's investigation of Guantanamo Bay detainees.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Blackwater wants lawsuit decided under Islamic law

Source: The News & Observer
The private military company Blackwater has cultivated a patriotic reputation, with its staff of retired military and former police officers, and the requirement that most of its workers swear an oath to support and defend the U.S. Constitution.
Blackwater’s aviation wing recently filed a unique request in federal court, where the widows of three American soldiers are suing the company over a botched flight supporting the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
The company, based in Moyock, doesn’t want the case heard in an American courtroom under American law: it wants the case heard under Shari’a, the Islamic law of Afghanistan.
-----
“North Carolinians are a very patriotic people,” Drescher told Prince. “It’s hard to read that brief as an American citizen and not be insulted by it.”
“Where did the crash occur?” Prince responded. “Afghanistan.”
“What you are saying is you don’t want to have this case heard by an American judge, by an American jury, under American law,” Drescher said. “We want it heard under Sharia law, under Islamic law?”
And why do the "great patriots" want this case heard under Shari’a law - Shari’a law does not hold a company responsible for the actions of employees performed within the course of their work.Hope the judge refuses!
Just find a law that will work..or make one up. That's what the law is for..to protect the haves, from the have-nots.

http://www.nndb.com/people/926/000117575 /Edgar Prince developed the lighted vanity mirror and made his fortune with Prince Automotive, an auto parts and machinery manufacturer that became, after his death, part of Johnson Controls. He established the Prince Foundation, which has spread millions of dollars to such groups as Focus on the Family, Promise Keepers, and Don Wildmon's American Family Association, and he co-founded the Family Research Council with Gary Bauer. Prince's children, Erik Prince and Betsy DeVos, have become major players in right-wing political circles.---------------------Erik Prince is a multi-millionaire right-wing fundamentalist Christian from a powerful Michigan Republican family. His wealth came from his father, Edgar Prince, who headed Prince Automotive, an auto parts and machinery manufacturer.A major Republican campaign contributor, he interned in the White House of President George H.W. Bush and campaigned for Pat Buchanan in 1992, finding time to intern for conservative congressman Dana Rohrabacher as well. Prince founded the security and mercenary firm Blackwater Worldwide in 1997 with Gary Jackson, another former Navy SEAL.Prince's sister Betsy DeVos is a powerful conservative in her own right. Married to the son of Richard DeVos (Republican bankroller and co-founder of Amway), she served as chair of Michigan Republican Party in the 1990s.

House Democrats call for nationalization of refineries

Source: Fox News
House Democrats responded to President's Bush's call for Congress to lift the moratorium on offshore drilling. This was at an on-camera press conference fed back live.
Among other things, the Democrats called for the government to own refineries so it could better control the flow of the oil supply.
They also reasserted that the reason the Appropriations Committee markup (where the vote on the amendment to lift the ban) was cancelled so they could focus on preparing the supplemental Iraq spending bill for tomorrow.
At an off-camera briefing, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said the same. And a senior Republican House Appropriations Committee aide adds that "there were multiple reasons for the postponement" including discussion on the supplemental. But the aide said there was the thought that Democrats may wish to avoid a debate today on energy amendments.

LinkHere

General Accuses WH of War Crimes

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com Wednesday,
June 18, 2008; 12:44 PM
The two-star general who led an Army investigation into the horrific detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib has accused the Bush administration of war crimes and is calling for accountability.
Now, in a preface to a Physicians for Human Rights report based on medical examinations of former detainees, Taguba adds an epilogue to his own investigation.
The new report, he writes, "tells the largely untold human story of what happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture.
This story is not only written in words: It is scrawled for the rest of these individual's lives on their bodies and minds. Our national honor is stained by the indignity and inhumane treatment these men received from their captors.

RIGHT ON

Huckabee: Demonizing Obama is a ‘fatal mistake’
(CNN) – Former GOP presidential contender Mike Huckabee called Barack Obama's candidacy "a landmark achievement" Tuesday, and warned fellow Republicans not to demonize Obama.
"Republicans will make a fundamental if not fatal mistake if they seek to win the election by demonizing Barack Obama," Huckabee told reporters in Tokyo, according to a report by Agence France-Presse.
Huckabee praised the country for getting "to a point where we did not see his color but we truly saw his charisma, his message and what he brought to the campaign trail."
"When people are really hurting — and they are right now — they're not looking at a person's race," he added.
Huckabee said he hopes John McCain beats Obama, but that Republicans should focus on policy differences, not race.
Huckabee suggested questions about whether he might join McCain on the ticket were premature. "You can't accept an invitation to the prom until the football captain asks you. So I'm not going to go out and buy the outfit just yet," said Huckabee, according to AFP.

The conference will be held on September 13-14 on the Andover campus.

Bush pulled us out of the world court in 2002. And don't forget about that nice plot of land the family bought in Paraguay (no extradition treaty)....
"We must try to hold Bush administration leaders accountable in courts of justice," Velvel said. "And we must insist on appropriate punishments, including, if guilt is found, the hangings visited upon top German and Japanese war-criminals in the 1940s."

Support Rep. Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment

Rep. Dennis Kucinich performed a heroic service for our Nation by introducing 35 Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush.Rep. Kucinich thoroughly researched and documented every single article. Any one Article would be sufficient grounds for impeaching Bush and removing him from office; taken together, the case for impeachment is overwhelming and urgent.
I thank Rep. Kucinich for his true patriotism and I urge you, my Representative and Senators, to fully support all of his Articles of Impeachment.

Link Here
Kucinich Presents 35 Articles Of Impeachment Against Bush

You go Girl

Michelle Obama On "The View": Fist Bumps All Around
Michelle Obama opened up her long-awaited cohosting day on "The View" with fist bumps to all the ladies. Poking fun at the "terrorist fist jab" remark a Fox News correspondent made after her infamous fist bump with her husband, Michelle said after sitting, "I have to be greeted properly. Fist bump please."
Watch:

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

DNC Wants McCain Investigated

WASHINGTON — Democratic Party officials plan to file a new lawsuit to compel federal regulators to investigate whether Sen. John McCain violated election laws by withdrawing from public financing.
The Democratic National Committee announced Tuesday it will sue next week in U.S. District Court. It will ask the court to order the Federal Election Commission to examine, within 30 days, the legality of McCain's decision to reject $5.8 million in taxpayer funds.
By turning down the money, the presumed Republican nominee was able avoid strict spending limits between now and the GOP's national convention in September.

LinkHere

John McCain TV Ad - Global

Not Alex



Report Questions Pentagon Accounts

Officials Looked Into Interrogation Methods Early On
By Joby WarrickWashington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, June 17, 2008; Page A01
A Senate investigation has concluded that top Pentagon officials began assembling lists of harsh interrogation techniques in the summer of 2002 for use on detainees at
Guantanamo Bay and that those officials later cited memos from field commanders to suggest that the proposals originated far down the chain of command, according to congressional sources briefed on the findings.
The sources said that memos and other evidence obtained during the inquiry show that officials in the office of then-Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld started to research the use of waterboarding, stress positions, sensory deprivation and other practices in July 2002, months before memos from commanders at the detention facility in Cuba requested permission to use those measures on suspected terrorists.
The reported evidence -- some of which is expected to be made public at a Senate hearing today -- also shows that military lawyers raised strong concerns about the legality of the practices as early as November 2002, a month before Rumsfeld approved them. The findings contradict previous accounts by top Bush administration appointees, setting the stage for new clashes between the
White House and Congress over the origins of interrogation methods that many lawmakers regard as torture and possibly illegal.

"Some have suggested that detainee abuses committed by U.S. personnel at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and at Guantanamo were the result of a 'few bad apples' acting on their own. It would be a lot easier to accept if that were true," Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote in a statement for delivery at a committee hearing this morning. "Senior officials in the United States government sought out information on aggressive techniques, twisted the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees."
The new evidence challenges previous statements by William J. "Jim" Haynes II, who served as
Defense Department general counsel under Rumsfeld and is among the witnesses scheduled to testify at today's hearing. Haynes, who resigned in February, suggested to a Senate panel in 2006 that the request for tougher interrogation methods originated in October 2002, when Guantanamo Bay commanders began asking for help in ratcheting up the pressure on suspected terrorists who had stopped cooperating. A memo from the prison's top military lawyer that same month had suggested specific techniques and declared them legal.

Justice for Iraqis in Georgies America, There is none

Haditha charges dropped against top Marine
From correspondents in Los Angeles
June 18, 2008 05:34am
Article from: Reuters
A MILITARY judge has dismissed the case against the highest-ranking US Marine charged in the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians at Haditha.
Military Judge Colonel Steven Folsom dropped all charges against Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Chessani, who was accused of violating a lawful order and dereliction of duty, at a hearing at the Camp Pendleton Marine base in Southern California.
Col Folsom's decision means that, out of eight Marines originally charged in the events at Haditha, six won dismissals of their charges and one has been cleared at court martial.
The accused ringleader, Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, still faces court martial. The proceedings against him, however, have been put on hold pending the appeal of a pretrial ruling.
Col Folsom threw out the charges against Lt-Col Chessani after finding that a four-star general who oversaw the investigation was influenced by an investigator who later became his adviser. The judge ruled that prosecutors could refile the case but it was not immediately clear if they would do so.
"We are grateful for the judge's ruling today. He was truly the last sentinel to guard against unlawful command influence," said Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Centre, which represented Lt-Col Chessani.
"Tragically, our own government eliminated one of its most effective combat commanders," Mr Thompson said in reference to Lt-Col Chessani. "The insurgents are laughing in their caves."
Lt-Col Chessani was the highest ranking officer accused of wrongdoing in the shootings at Haditha, which was portrayed by Iraqi witnesses as a "massacre" of unarmed civilians and brought international condemnation on US troops.
The witnesses claimed angry Marines killed the two dozen men, women and children after a popular comrade, Lance Corporal Miguel "TJ" Terrazas, was killed by a roadside bomb.
Defence lawyers said the civilians were killed during a pitched battle with insurgents in and around Haditha that followed the death of Terrazas.
Lt-Col Chessani had been expected to face court martial later this year.

BITCH

Georgie lied and she didn't want to waste her beautiful mind


OBAMA ON IRAQ: What is Success with Al Qaeda in Iraq & Iran?

The reality is that Iraqi authority would be nominal:

"Status Of Forces Agreement",
Patrick Cockburn:
The US is lowering the number of bases it wants from 58 to "the low dozens" and says it is willing to compromise on legal immunity for foreign contractors according to information leaked to The Independent.
LinkHere

Ron Paul: Nancy Pelosi pulled Iran Bill on orders of Israel

Ron Paul: in a speech given on 06 June 2008, congressman Ron Paul, tells how speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi, acting on behalf of israel and AIPAC, 'deliberately' pulled a supplemental bill requiring congressional approval for attacking Iran.

Jail Time for Tenet?

By Ray McGovern
When Bush screwed up royally - whether in his personal or business affairs - he had to suffer the humiliation of asking his father or his father's friends (sometimes Arab friends) to bail him out. But now? Wow! As president, young George has found he can escape accountability altogether.

LinkHere

Case of political hiring at Justice Department could lead to criminal charges

LARA JAKES JORDANAP News
Jun 16, 2008 18:47 EST
The Justice Department is considering launching a grand jury investigation into whether one of its former leaders misled Congress about playing politics with civil rights issues, a government official said Monday.
The move amounts to a first step from an internal inquiry toward possible criminal charges in the scandal that helped force the resignation of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
At issue is whether Bradley Schlozman intentionally misled senators during a June 2007 hearing when he gave conflicting statements about his role in an election-eve filing of a voter fraud lawsuit in Missouri while serving, a year earlier, as a U.S. attorney based in Kansas City, Mo.
He also angered Democrats at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing when he admitted to boasting about hiring conservative loyalists over better-qualified lawyers in 2005 when he served as acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's civil rights division.
The department's inspector general has been investigating Schlozman's statements to the Senate Judiciary Committee in an internal inquiry over the last year.
On Monday, an official said the Justice Department has issued a grand jury referral — an internal first step toward asking a grand jury to take up the case. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the issue.
It's not clear whether the issue already has been sent to a grand jury.
Both Schlozman and his Atlanta-based attorney, Bill Jordan, declined comment Monday. In an e-mail statement, Jordan said Schlozman "has not been contacted by the Justice Department regarding this alleged referral."
A Justice spokesman also declined comment. >>>cont

Michael Reagan's solution for the Middle East.

Hell Freezes Over


"After Eight Years Of Incompetence, Neglect And Failure, We Need Change"

"Over the past 18 months, Barack Obama has united a movement. He knows change does not come from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or Capitol Hill. It begins when people stand up and take action," Gore wrote. "With the help of millions of supporters like you, Barack Obama will bring the change we so desperately need in order to solve our country's most pressing problems."
===
Many people have waited for some sign that our country is awakening once again. How will we know when a massive wave of reform and recovery and regeneration is about to take hold and renew our nation? What would it look like if such a change were beginning to build? I think we might recognize it as a sign of such change if we saw millions of young people getting involved for the first time in the political process. I think we might just recognize it if we saw that new generation casting aside obsolete and hurtful distinctions and reaching out to one another across the ancient divisions that have frustrated action in the past. I think we would know this change was coming if a new generation rejected the special interest politics of the past and the big money that fueled it, and instead used the internet to get small donations and unite Americans in a common effort to realize our common destiny.
LinkHere

"Lab rat, guinea pig, disposable hero,"

They will do anything, committ any crime, they are without shame. When I say When will the BASTARDS be charged with war crimes?
'Disposable Heroes': Veterans Used To Test Suicide-Linked Drugs
An ABC News and Washington Times Investigation Reveals Vets Are Being Recruited for Government Tests on Drugs with Violent Side Effects

By BRIAN ROSS and VIC WALTERJune 17, 2008
Mentally distressed veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are being recruited for government tests on pharmaceutical drugs linked to suicide and other violent side effects, an investigation by ABC News and "The Washington Times" has found.

The report will air on "Good Morning America" and will also appear in "The Washington Times" on Tuesday. (click here to read "The Washington Times" coverage of "Disposable Heroes")
In one of the human experiments, involving the anti-smoking drug Chantix, Veterans Administration doctors waited more than three months before warning veterans about the possible serious side effects, including suicide and neuropsychiatric behavior.
"Lab rat, guinea pig, disposable hero," said former US Army sniper James Elliott in describing how he felt he was betrayed by the Veterans Administration.
Elliott, 38, of suburban Washington, D.C., was recruited, at $30 a month, for the Chantix anti-smoking study three years after being diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He served a 15-month tour of duty in Iraq from 2003-2004.
Months after he began taking the drug, Elliott suffered a mental breakdown, experiencing a relapse of Iraq combat nightmares he blames on Chantix.
"They never told me that I was going to be suicidal, that I would cease sleeping. They never told me anything except this will help me quit smoking," Elliott told ABC News and "The Washington Times".
On the night of February 5th, after consuming a few beers, Elliott says he "snapped" and left his home with a loaded gun.
His fiancee, Tammy, called police and warned, "He's extremely unstable. He has PTSD."
"Do you think that he is going to shoot or attack the police?" the 911 dispatcher asked.
"I can't be certain. I don't know," she said. (
click here to hear part of Tammy's 911 call)
"He was operating as if he was back in theater, in combat theater," she told ABC News. "And of course, a soldier goes nowhere without a gun."
When police arrived, they found Elliott in the street, with the gun in the front pocket of his hooded sweatshirt.
"Are you going to shoot me? Shoot me," Elliott said, according to the police report.
(click here to see the police report) >>>cont

Monday, June 16, 2008

Lost Army Job Tied to Doubts on Contractor

WASHINGTON — The Army official who managed the Pentagon’s largest contract in Iraq says he was ousted from his job when he refused to approve paying more than $1 billion in questionable charges to KBR, the Houston-based company that has provided food, housing and other services to American troops.
The official, Charles M. Smith, was the senior civilian overseeing the multibillion-dollar contract with KBR during the first two years of the war. Speaking out for the first time, Mr. Smith said that he was forced from his job in 2004 after informing KBR officials that the Army would impose escalating financial penalties if they failed to improve their chaotic Iraqi operations.
Army auditors had determined that KBR lacked credible data or records for more than $1 billion in spending, so Mr. Smith refused to sign off on the payments to the company. “They had a gigantic amount of costs they couldn’t justify,” he said in an interview. “Ultimately, the money that was going to KBR was money being taken away from the troops, and I wasn’t going to do that.”
But he was suddenly replaced, he said, and his successors — after taking the unusual step of hiring an outside contractor to consider KBR’s claims — approved most of the payments he had tried to block.
Army officials denied that Mr. Smith had been removed because of the dispute, but confirmed that they had reversed his decision, arguing that blocking the payments to KBR would have eroded basic services to troops. They said that KBR had warned that if it was not paid, it would reduce payments to subcontractors, which in turn would cut back on services.
“You have to understand the circumstances at the time,” said Jeffrey P. Parsons, executive director of the Army Contracting Command. “We could not let operational support suffer because of some other things.”
Mr. Smith’s account fills in important gaps about the Pentagon’s handling of the KBR contract, which has cost more than $20 billion so far and has come under fierce criticism from lawmakers.
>>>cont

Limbaugh’s Work For George Bush Pays Off ...

Crooks and Liars » ...11 Jun 2008 ...
WASHINGTON—The Senate unanimously confirmed Stephen Limbaugh Jr. to the federal court in St. Louis Tuesday.
Limbaugh, currently a Missouri Supreme Court judge, won final approval to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri after being nominated by President George W. Bush in December.
Limbaugh is a cousin to conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. Read on…
Well, Rush, your water carrying for George Bush and the GOP has finally paid off. My condolences to the people of Missouri.

He Said It First

John McCaan call his wife the C word.

Hundreds Escape in Taliban Prison Attack

Prison break a setback for Canadian efforts in Afghanistan

Prison break a setback for Canadian efforts in Afghanistan

1 hour ago
OTTAWA — The prison outbreak that freed captured Taliban fighters will bolster criticism that the Afghan government can't control its territory and will force Canada and its NATO allies to improve their intelligence capabilities, military experts say.
The jailbreak is also a devastating setback for a small team of Corrections Canada officers who were training local guards, some of whom were killed in the bombing that set an estimated 1,200 prisoners free.
"The hardest thing to swallow is that it's a step back," said Lee Windsor, a New Brunswick professor who is concluding a book on one of the Canadian troop rotations through Kandahar province.
Windsor said the assault was a blow to Canadian security, coming so close to the Canadian forces' main base of operations. But he said it's also a setback for Canada's attempts to improve humanitarian conditions for inmates who had been held in the prison and their families.
"It's not an issue just because there were Taliban in it," said Windsor, with the Gregg Centre for Studies on War and Society.
"It's an issue because it's one of our signature areas, in which the Canadians were trying to make Kandahar a better place. In that sense, it's a great blow."
Canada last fall announced $1.5 million for projects at the Sarposa prison, where the escape occurred, and another detention facility in Kandahar. A spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay said the aid went to such things as upgrading the septic system and infirmary, beds, humane hand and leg restraints and coloured detainee uniforms that would allow the reduction of physical restraints >>>cont

LinkHere

Afghan Prison Break

Wall Street Journal - 16 hours agoAs for security, the Kandahar prison break is not the Taliban's first, and it won't be its last. To the extent that the Supreme Court has made secure ..

.US soldiers rarely disciplined for detainee abuse at Afghanistan ...

Executive pay reached 'dizzying heights' in '07; lawmakers flush too.

America's prison for terrorists often held the wrong men

Georgie and his Gang of thugs really care, wouldn't you say.

Soldiers risk ruin while awaiting benefits
MICHELLE ROBERTSAP News
Jun 16, 2008 13:07 EST
His lifelong dream of becoming a soldier had, in the end, come to this for Isaac Stevens: 28, penniless, in a wheelchair, fending off the sexual advances of another man in a homeless shelter.
Stevens' descent from Army private first-class, 3rd Infantry Division, 11 Bravo Company, began in 2005 — not in battle, since he was never sent off to Iraq or Afghanistan, but with a headfirst fall over a wall on the obstacle course at Fort Benning, Ga. He suffered a head injury and spinal damage.
The injury alone didn't put him in a homeless shelter. Instead, it was military bureaucracy — specifically, the way injured soldiers are discharged on just a fraction of their salary and then forced to wait six to nine months, and sometimes even more than a year, before their full disability payments begin to flow.
"When I got out, I hate to say it, but man, that was it. Everybody just kind of washed their hands of me, and it was like, `OK, you're on your own,'" said Stevens, who was discharged in November and was in a shelter by February. He has since moved into a temporary San Antonio apartment with help from Operation Homefront, a nonprofit organization. >>>cont

Waxman subpoenas FBI transcripts of Bush, Cheney interviews

By Nick Juliano Uncategorized Monday, 16 June 2008
House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman is demanding the Justice Department hand over transcripts of FBI interviews with President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney conducted during the investigation into who outed former covert CIA agent Valerie Plame.
The committee on Monday
issued subpoenas ordering the Justice Department to hand over the transcript. Of course, if the Bush administration treats this subpoena like they have virtually every other one issued by Congress, it could take months or even years of legal wrangling before the issue is resolved.
Waxman (D-CA) requested the transcripts of the FBI interviews earlier this month, after publication of Scott McClellan’s tell all memoir revealing Bush administration deception. A transcript of Cheney’s interview would be of particular interest because his former aide, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was the only official convicted of a crime in relation to the Plame probe.
Libby told the FBI that it was “possible” Cheney instructed him to leak Plame’s name, Waxman wrote in his initial letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
The affair that would become known as Plamegate began in the summer of 2003, when Plame, wife of former ambassador Joseph Wilson, was named in conservative pundit Robert Novak’s syndicated newspaper column. Novak eventually revealed that his source was former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, but investigations revealed that several White House officials, including Libby and former Bush political adviser Karl Rove, also disclosed Plame’s identity.
Many believed that Libby and Rove were exacting political revenge on Wilson, who weeks earlier had gone public with revelations that undercut the administrations’ claims that Saddam Hussein had tried to buy nuclear materials from Africa. >>>cont

Full Story Finally Emerges

Greg Mitchell, 06.16.2008
Jeffrey McKinney's family believes that if his chain of command had paid closer attention to the symptoms, his death might have been avoided.

Lieberman Becoming Democrats' 'Public Enemy No. 1'

Judge Rules Missing White House Email Records Can Remain Secret

WASHINGTON — A federal judge ruled Monday that a White House office that has records about millions of possibly missing e-mails does not have to make them public.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly says the Office of Administration is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, enabling the White House to maintain the secrecy of a lengthy internal paper trail about its problem-plagued e-mail system.
The decision came in a lawsuit filed against the administration by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a private group that has been trying to find out the extent of the White House's e-mail problems for more than a year.
The functions of the Office of Administrative "are strictly administrative," Kollar-Kotelly ruled.
Since its creation in 1978, the Office of Administration has responded to FOIA requests. But the Bush White House reversed that policy in August 2007 in the lawsuit filed by CREW.
The administration says the Office of Administration has no substantial authority independent of President Bush and therefore is not subject to the disclosure requirements.
Despite Kollar-Kotelly's decision, the White House's legal problems over its e-mail system are not over.
CREW and another private group, the National Security Archive, have sued the Executive Office of the President, claiming that the EOP has failed to comply with legal obligations by failing to take steps to ensure preservation of electronic records.
A judge is considering whether to instruct the White House on steps it must to take to safeguard electronic messages. The White Houes is seeking to have that suit thrown out.

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