Republican Criminals

Fitzgerald Presents New Information to Grand Jury

2005-12-07T15:22:00.000-05:00

Fitzgerald plows ahead, more indictments are coming for Republican Traitors.

With the new grand jury, Fitzgerald continues to consider charges against Karl Rove, White House deputy chief of staff, who failed to reveal to the FBI and the grand jury in the early days of the investigation that he had provided information about CIA analyst Valerie Plame

WashingtonPost.com

Bush the Worst President Ever.

2005-12-04T23:42:00.000-05:00

# He has taken the country into an unwinnable war and alienated friend and foe alike in the process;

# He is bankrupting the country with a combination of aggressive military spending and reduced taxation of the rich;

# He has deliberately and dangerously attacked separation of church and state;

# He has repeatedly "misled," to use a kind word, the American people on affairs domestic and foreign;

# He has proved to be incompetent in affairs domestic (New Orleans) and foreign (
Iraq and the battle against al-Qaida);

# He has sacrificed American employment (including the toleration of pension and benefit elimination) to increase overall productivity;

# He is ignorantly hostile to science and technological progress;

# He has tolerated or ignored one of the republic's oldest problems, corporate cheating in supplying the military in wartime.

huffingtonpost.com

"God help us if we have another attack"

2005-12-04T23:35:00.000-05:00

Republicans control the House, the Senate and the White House. And now we are "at great risk for more terrirst attacks because Congress and the White House have failed." Heck of a job.

The U.S. is at great risk for more terrorist attacks because Congress and the White House have failed to enact several strong security measures, members of the former Sept. 11 commission said Sunday.

"It's not a priority for the government right now," said the former chairman, Thomas Kean, ahead of the group's release of a report Monday assessing how well its recommendations have been followed.

"More than four years after 9/11 ... people are not paying attention," the former Republican governor of New Jersey said. "God help us if we have another attack."

Added Lee Hamilton, the former Democratic vice chairman of the commission: "We believe that another attack will occur. It's not a question of if. We are not as well-prepared as we should be."

The five Republicans and five Democrats on the commission, whose recommendations are now promoted through a privately funded group known as the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, conclude that the government deserves "more Fs than As" in responding to their 41 suggested changes..............

WashingtonPost.com

Our ALLIES say Iraq is WORSE off now that we are there.

2005-12-01T22:40:00.000-05:00

.....But a new public opinion poll to be released tomorrow finds that 77 percent of those surveyed in six countries -- Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, all U.S. allies -- say Iraqis are worse off than before the war began in 2003.

On democracy, 58 percent believe the U.S. intervention has produced less democracy in the region, said Shibley Telhami, author of the annual survey, a joint effort by the University of Maryland's Anwar Sadat chair for peace and development, and Zogby International. Almost 70 percent said they do not believe democracy was the real U.S. goal in toppling Saddam Hussein..........

WashingtonPost.com

Congressional Republican Criminal Pleads Guilty to Bribery. Faces 10 Years.

2005-11-29T01:10:00.000-05:00

Yet another corrupt Republican Criminal goes to jail. MANY more to follow!

San Diego-area Rep. Cunningham pleads guilty to bribery, resigns

SAN DIEGO - Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a Vietnam War ace and eight-term congressman, resigned Monday after pleading guilty to taking $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors and others that went to pay for a condominium in Virginia, a Rolls Royce and other luxury items.

Prosecutors said Cunningham, a Republican, used his influential position as a member of a House Appropriations subcommittee to secure defense contracts worth tens of millions of dollars for people who bribed him........

mercurynews.com

Oh, and by the way, indicted Republican Criminal Tom DeLay said, "“Duke Cunningham is an honorable man of high integrity......"

thehill.com

COALITION SECURITY GUARDS KILLING CIVILIANS IN IRAQ. Video Proof.

2005-11-28T03:20:00.000-05:00

What in the HELL are we doing?! Gee... I wonder why they hate us so much!!

'Trophy' video exposes private security contractors shooting up Iraqi drivers

A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

The video has sparked concern that private security companies, which are not subject to any form of regulation either in Britain or in Iraq, could be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent Iraqis.

The video, which first appeared on a website that has been linked unofficially to Aegis Defence Services, contained four separate clips, in which security guards open fire with automatic rifles at civilian cars. All of the shooting incidents apparently took place on "route Irish", a road that links the airport to Baghdad.

The road has acquired the dubious distinction of being the most dangerous in the world because of the number of suicide attacks and ambushes carried out by insurgents against coalition troops. In one four-month period earlier this year it was the scene of 150 attacks.

In one of the videoed attacks, a Mercedes is fired on at a distance of several hundred yards before it crashes in to a civilian taxi. In the last clip, a white civilian car is raked with machine gun fire as it approaches an unidentified security company vehicle. Bullets can be seen hitting the vehicle before it comes to a slow stop.

There are no clues as to the shooter but either a Scottish or Irish accent can be heard in at least one of the clips above Elvis Presley's Mystery Train, the music which accompanies the video.

Last night a spokesman for defence firm Aegis Defence Services - set up in 2002 by Lt Col Tim Spicer, a former Scots Guards officer - confirmed that the company was carrying out an internal investigation to see if any of their employees were involved.

The Foreign Office has also confirmed that it is investigating the contents of the video in conjunction with Aegis, one of the biggest security companies operating in Iraq. The company was recently awarded a £220 million security contract in Iraq by the United States government. Aegis conducts a number of security duties and helped with the collection of ballot papers in the country's recent referendum

Lt Col Spicer, 53, rose to public prominence in 1998 when his private military company Sandlines International was accused of breaking United Nations sanctions by selling arms to Sierra Leone.

The video first appeared on the website www.aegisIraq.co.uk. The website states: "This site does not belong to Aegis Defence Ltd, it belongs to the men on the ground who are the heart and soul of the company." The clips have been removed.

The website also contains a message from Lt Col Spicer, which reads: "I am concerned about media interest in this site and I remind everyone of their contractual obligation not to speak to or assist the media without clearing it with the project management or Aegis London.

"Refrain from posting anything which is detrimental to the company since this could result in the loss or curtailment of our contract with resultant loss for everybody................"

telegraph.co.uk

Watch the actual video here:

flurl.com

ogrish.com

crooksandliars.com

LOSING IN AFGHANISTAN: Thanks to Bush, Terrorism is SPREADING!!!

2005-11-28T03:05:00.000-05:00

The very latest post was about Losing in Iraq, and the same day we learn we are Losing in Afghanistan -- the opium capital of the world. Is this what Bush calls "winning" the war on terrorism?

Afghans Confront Surge in Violence
Foreign Support Seen Behind Attacks That Mimic Those in Iraq

KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 27 -- An onslaught of grisly and sophisticated attacks since parliamentary elections in September has left Afghan and international officials concerned that Taliban guerrillas are obtaining support from abroad to carry out strikes that increasingly mimic insurgent tactics in Iraq.

The recent attacks -- including at least nine suicide bombings -- have shown unusual levels of coordination, technological knowledge and blood lust, according to officials. Although military forces and facilities have been the most common targets, religious leaders, judges, police officers and foreign reconstruction workers have also fallen prey to the violence.

The success of the September vote, which was relatively peaceful despite Taliban threats of sabotage, initially raised hopes that the insurgency was losing strength. But after two of the bloodiest months since U.S. forces entered Kabul in 2001, officials now say the Taliban might have been using that time to marshal foreign support and plot new ways to undermine the Western-backed government.

The attacks have been particularly noteworthy for their use of suicide bombers. Some have struck in waves, with one explosive-laden car following the next in an effort to maximize casualties. That sort of attack has been a hallmark of al Qaeda and a regular occurrence in Iraq. But in Afghanistan, suicide attacks of any kind have been relatively rare, despite a quarter-century of warfare...........

WashingtonPost.com

LOSING IN IRAQ: Iraq is now as bad as it was under Saddam.

2005-11-27T12:36:00.000-05:00

Iraq is as bad now as it was under Saddam. Could you think of a more damning statement about the incompetence of George Bush and his administration?

Human rights abuses in Iraq are as bad now as they were under Saddam Hussein and could become even worse, the country's former interim prime minister said in an interview published Sunday.

"People are doing the same as Saddam's time and worse," Ayad Allawi told The Observer newspaper. "It is an appropriate comparison.................."

ABCNews.com

Never underestimate the power of makeup...

2005-11-23T00:02:00.000-05:00

A littly humor today. :)

The Retarded President Of The United States.

2005-11-21T09:38:00.000-05:00

Eschaton

It's Official -- Bush Is Now As Unpopular As His Dad.

2005-11-19T22:11:00.000-05:00

a
America's Least Wanted
Another Bush earns his place on a Rushmore for the rejected.
By Bruce Reed
Updated Friday, Nov. 18, 2005, at 2:09 PM ET

Friday, Nov. 18, 2005

Sinker: Back in August, when George W. Bush crossed the Mendoza Line with a disapproval rating in the Gallup Poll of 56 percent, he still had four men left to pass for the title of most unpopular president in modern history: Jimmy Carter (59 percent), George H. W. Bush (60 percent) Richard Nixon (66 percent), and Harry Truman (67 percent). I predicted that the way things were going, he could speed past Carter and Bush 41 "within the next month."

I was wrong—it took the president two months. This week's Gallup puts his disapproval at 60 percent, which means father and son share third place on the all-time list.............

Slate.com

We TOLD You More Indictments Were Coming!

2005-11-18T23:21:00.000-05:00

Read our earlier post:

http://republicancriminals.blogspot.com/2005/11/more-indictments-coming.html

Now read this!

Prosecutor in Leak Case Calls for New Grand Jury

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 - The special prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case said on Friday that he would use a new grand jury in his continuing investigation, a development that seemed certain to extend the political cloud hanging over the Bush administration and could draw new players into the investigation.

The prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, told a federal judge in a court filing that he would begin additional proceedings before a grand jury different from the one that brought an indictment last month against I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

The 18-month term of the previous grand jury expired last month. In his previous statements, Mr. Fitzgerald had left the door open to using a new grand jury in the case.

The prosecutor also made clear in the new court filing that "the investigation is ongoing............"

NYTimes.com

Republican Criminals Stealing YOUR Money, This Time in Iraq.

2005-11-18T23:16:00.000-05:00

Ex-Official Held in Bid-Rig Scheme
Robert J. Stein Jr., who awarded reconstruction deals for the coalition, allegedly got kickbacks for conspiring with a businessman.
By Paul Richter
Times Staff Writer

November 18, 2005

WASHINGTON — A former U.S. contract supervisor in Iraq has become the first current or former American official to face criminal charges in connection with the multibillion-dollar reconstruction of the country, federal authorities said Thursday.

Robert J. Stein Jr., 50, a former Coalition Provisional Authority official in Hillah, Iraq, was arrested in Fayetteville, N.C., in connection with an allegedly fraudulent scheme to award construction contracts worth more than $18 million. Philip H. Bloom, 65, a New Jersey businessman, allegedly paid Stein at least $630,000 in kickbacks for his part in a bid-rigging scheme in 2003 and 2004, according to documents filed by the Justice Department in Washington.

Stein, who was arrested Monday, and Bloom, who was arrested Sunday in New Jersey, are accused of "conspiring to commit money laundering and wire fraud in connection with a bribery and fraud scheme," the papers say. Both are in federal custody.

The case grew out of an eight-month investigation of the Coalition Provisional Authority's office in Hillah by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, an independent agency created by Congress.

Jim Mitchell, a spokesman for the inspector general's office, said these were only the first charges, and "there will be more." He said investigators were looking at about 50 potential criminal cases across Iraq.

The federal affidavit says that another person who worked with Stein at the CPA has been cooperating with the government. Other public officials were involved in the alleged fraud as well, the affidavit says.

According to the papers, Bloom, who has lived for years in Romania, controls several construction and service companies.

To rig the bidding process, more than one of Bloom's companies would submit fake or excessively high "bids" designed to allow another to win the bid by submitting a more favorable price, the papers say.

Although Stein controlled the disposition of about $82 million in U.S. funds, he was not permitted to award any single contract worth more than $500,000. Several of the winning bids were just below that ceiling.

The contracts were awarded between October 2003 and June 2004 for such projects as the renovation of a public library in Karbala, the construction of the Hillah police academy and related demolition work, and building a Tribal Democracy Center.

To reward the U.S. officials, Bloom allegedly would pay bribes, kickbacks or gratuities out of bank accounts in Iraq, Switzerland, Romania and the Netherlands. The money for Stein and his wife would be sent to bank accounts in the United States, the affidavit alleges.

The papers say the money was spent on cars, jewelry and real estate.

A footnote in the court papers notes that Stein was convicted in a fraud case in 1996, raising questions about how carefully he was vetted before being hired by the CPA. Stein has a military background.

If convicted on all charges, the two men face up to 30 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and three years of supervised release, the Justice Department said.

Mitchell, of the inspector general's office, said the case stemmed from a tip to the organization's hotline. An audit of the CPA's south-central regional office found discrepancies in the financing for the region's reconstruction, he said.

The affidavit also says an Iraqi witness has been cooperating with the investigation.

LATimes.com

Afghanistan insurgence growing stronger -- THAT MEANS WE'RE WINNING!

2005-11-17T00:57:00.000-05:00

Afghanistan insurgence growing stronger
U.S. Special Forces soldiers hunting Taliban and foreign fighters in southern Afghanistan say they are encountering a fiercer and more organized adversary than last year, and one that is far from being near collapse........ USAToday.com

"I think these people are the last remnants of a dying cause," -- Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz

Afghanistan insurgence growing stronger
U.S. Special Forces soldiers hunting Taliban and foreign fighters in southern Afghanistan say they are encountering a fiercer and more organized adversary than last year, and one that is far from being near collapse........ USAToday.com

In most of Iraq, there is steady movement toward reconstruction and a stable, self-governing society. This progress makes the remaining terrorists even more desperate and willing to lash out....." Bush

Afghanistan insurgence growing stronger
U.S. Special Forces soldiers hunting Taliban and foreign fighters in southern Afghanistan say they are encountering a fiercer and more organized adversary than last year, and one that is far from being near collapse........ USAToday.com

You have some remnants -- you have remnants of a regime that we removed, that was an oppressive regime, that is desperate -- more and more desperate every single day, because of the progress we are making on many fronts in Afghanistan. Press Secretary Scott McClellan

Afghanistan insurgence growing stronger
U.S. Special Forces soldiers hunting Taliban and foreign fighters in southern Afghanistan say they are encountering a fiercer and more organized adversary than last year, and one that is far from being near collapse........ USAToday.com

The more progress we make, the more desperate the holdouts of Saddam Hussein's regime and foreign terrorists become. Press Secretary Scott McClellan

Afghanistan insurgence growing stronger
U.S. Special Forces soldiers hunting Taliban and foreign fighters in southern Afghanistan say they are encountering a fiercer and more organized adversary than last year, and one that is far from being near collapse........ USAToday.com

The more progress we make on the ground, the more free the Iraqis become, the more electricity that's available, the more jobs are available, the more kids that are going to school, the more desperate these killers become. Bush

Afghanistan insurgence growing stronger
U.S. Special Forces soldiers hunting Taliban and foreign fighters in southern Afghanistan say they are encountering a fiercer and more organized adversary than last year, and one that is far from being near collapse........ USAToday.com

The closer we come to passing sovereignty, the more likely it is that foreign fighters, disgruntled Baathists or friends of the Shia cleric will try to stop progress. Bush

(credit to Daily Kos for the earlier research)

Homeland Security + Bribery + Organized Crime = BUSH!

2005-11-17T00:44:00.000-05:00

Bush nominated Bernard B. Kerik as Director of Homeland Security. Heck of a job!

Kerik Is Accused of Abusing Post as City Official

New Jersey officials said yesterday that Bernard B. Kerik abused his position as New York City correction commissioner in the late 1990's by accepting tens of thousands of dollars from a construction company that he was helping to pursue business with the city. They say the company has long had ties to organized crime.

The accusations against Mr. Kerik, who had to withdraw his nomination as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security last year, are in court papers filed by the state Division of Gaming Enforcement.

The agency is seeking to keep the construction company, Interstate Industrial Corporation, from doing work on Atlantic City casinos and became interested in Mr. Kerik's role with the company when the ties were disclosed after his nomination failed.

The agency officials said yesterday that Interstate paid another contractor for renovations worth more than $200,000 made to Mr. Kerik's apartment in the Riverdale section of the Bronx in 1999 and 2000.......

NYTimes.com

Bush HATES Our Vets.

2005-11-17T00:37:00.000-05:00

Unemployment Rate Skyrockets

WASHINGTON - The return to civilian life for U.S. Soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan is full of pitfalls, with an unemployment rate three times the national average.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that for the first three quarters of 2005, nearly 15 percent of veterans aged 20-24 are jobless -- three times the national average.

According to the website VeteransToday, published by veterans for veterans, the high unemployment rate is "partly because most service members seriously injured in Iraq and Afghanistan are in the early stages of their military careers and possess limited transferable job skills or very little civilian work experience".

The government is also worried about the number of veterans without a permanent address.

"The tragedy of homelessness among veterans persists, even when the economy is robust and unemployment is low............"

Military.com

"After months of lies the president has given millions reason to doubt that he has sent Americans into battle for the right reason."

2005-11-17T00:34:00.000-05:00

Read what the REPUBLICANS said!

p m carpenter's commentary

Secret Iraqi Jail Bane for U.S.

2005-11-17T00:29:00.000-05:00

President Bush's already embattled policy to shape postwar Iraq as an ethnically balanced democratic state faces a new hurdle after the discovery of a secret jail in which Sunni prisoners may have been tortured.

With Bush's approval ratings declining, U.S. casualties mounting and even some Republicans in Congress pressuring the White House for an exit strategy, the president and his senior advisers have been counting on next month's parliamentary elections in Iraq.

Bush's chances of succeeding in Iraq, and perhaps his presidential legacy, rest heavily on an outcome reflecting a new spirit of cooperation among that country's Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. But already reluctant Sunnis, whose participation in a referendum last month approving a Constitution was less than enthusiastic, could now become even more wary of cooperating.

And that could spell more political trouble for Bush.

"This disclosure has the potential to create the perception among the American public that the war in Iraq has replaced Saddam Hussein's repressive regime, dominated by Sunnis, into a repressive regime dominated by Shiites," said Kenneth Katzman, senior Iraq expert at the Congressional Research Service, an agency of Congress.

The allegations of secret detentions of 173 mostly Sunni Iraqis and the possible abuse of some of them, following U.S. mistreatment of Abu Ghraib prisoners, could make it harder for Bush to reverse a growing sentiment among Americans that the U.S. is caught in a quagmire.

Yahoo!

REPUBLICAN CRIMINAL Georgia State Rep. David Graves GOES TO JAIL.

2005-11-17T00:27:00.000-05:00

Lawmaker jailed, ends case on 2 DUIs

State Rep. David Graves swapped his trademark pinstriped suit for a blue jailhouse jumpsuit Tuesday after closing the case on his two DUIs in Cobb County.

Graves (R-Macon) gained national attention this fall when he tried to invoke a centuries-old provision granting legislators limited immunity from arrest to avoid prosecution on a DUI last February. He later abandoned that defense, and, on Tuesday, stopped fighting the charges.

Graves, 47, a nine-year legislative veteran and one-time House committee chairman, pleaded guilty to the second DUI Tuesday, after a judge found him guilty earlier this month of a previous drunken driving charge he received in 2004.

Graves was then sentenced by Cobb State Court Judge Irma Glover to serve 10 days in the county jail, followed by 20 days of home confinement and 12 months on probation. He also was ordered to pay a $1,600 fine, perform 280 hours of community service and surrender his driver's license for 12 months, Cobb County Solicitor Barry Morgan said.

ajc.com

MORE INDICTMENTS COMING!

2005-11-16T00:58:00.000-05:00

There are more lying, TRAITOROUS, Republican Criminals working in the White House right now. Can't wait till they are thrown in jail... or worse! The Fitzgerald investigation rages on...

Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward testified under oath Monday in the CIA leak case that a senior administration official told him about CIA operative Valerie Plame and her position at the agency nearly a month before her identity was disclosed....

Fitzgerald interviewed Woodward about the previously undisclosed conversation after the official alerted the prosecutor to it on Nov. 3 -- one week after Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was indicted in the investigation....

Woodward's testimony appears to change key elements in the chronology Fitzgerald laid out in his investigation and announced when indicting Libby three weeks ago. It would make the unnamed official -- not Libby -- the first government employee to disclose Plame's CIA employment to a reporter. It would also make Woodward, who has been publicly critical of the investigation, the first reporter known to have learned about Plame from a government source.....

WashingtonPost.com

Death by Lions!?!? Torture. Starvation. Iraqis Take the Lead From the Republican Criminals!

2005-11-16T00:52:00.000-05:00

How the hell can we expect the new Iraqis in power to behave any differently than the White House criminals train them?

173 prisoners found beaten and starved in Iraq government bunker

· PM's deputy leads inquiry into torture allegations
· Reports of corpses among malnourished inmates

Jamie Wilson in Washington
Wednesday November 16, 2005
The Guardian

The Iraqi government has begun an investigation into the alleged abuse of more than 170 prisoners who were found locked in an interior ministry bunker in Baghdad, many of them beaten and malnourished and some apparently brutally tortured.

US troops who were searching for a missing teenage boy discovered the detainees on Sunday night during a raid. They were found in an underground cell near an interior ministry bunker in Jadiriya, in middle of the city. "I was informed that there were 173 detainees held at an interior ministry prison and they appear to be malnourished," prime minister Ibrahim Jaafari said. "There is talk that they were subjected to torture," he said.

Earlier a deputy interior minister put the number of prisoners at 161 and said he was stunned by their treatment. "They were being treated in an inappropriate way ... they were being abused," Hussein Kamal told Reuters.

"I've never seen such a situation like this during the past two years in Baghdad. This is the worst," he told CNN. "I saw signs of physical abuse by brutal beating, one or two detainees were paralysed and some had their skin peeled off."

US military sources said troops were shocked when they came across the prisoners, some of whom showed the marks of beatings and looked like they had not been fed well for weeks. "It's not what we expected, we were looking for a 15-year-old boy," a soldier from the US 3rd Infantry Division, the Baghdad-based force which conducted the raid, told Reuters.

Reports received by the Guardian from sources in Baghdad said there were rumours that mutilated corpses and torture instruments had also been found at the underground bunker, including bodies with electric drill holes in their heads...........

guardian.co.uk

Lt. Bush Heads the GOP Hero-Wannabe Unit

2005-11-16T00:46:00.000-05:00

AWESOME accounting of the Republican Draft-Dodging WARMONGERS. A must read!

The Ostroy Report

After Lying About Using Illegal Chemical Weapons, Pentagon Retracts After Undeniable Proof.

2005-11-16T00:37:00.000-05:00

US used white phosphorus in Iraq
The Pentagon has confirmed that US troops used white phosphorus during last year's offensive in the northern Iraqi city of Falluja.

"It was used as an incendiary weapon against enemy combatants," spokesman Lt Col Barry Venable told the BBC - though not against civilians, he said.

The US earlier denied it had been used in Falluja at all.

Col Venable denied that the substance - which can cause burning of the flesh - constituted a banned chemical weapon.

Washington is not a signatory of an international treaty restricting the use of white phosphorus devices.

Col Venable said a statement by the US state department that white phosphorus had not been used was based on "poor information".

The BBC's defence correspondent Paul Wood says having to retract its denial has been a public relations disaster for the US military.

'Incendiary'

The US-led assault on Falluja - a stronghold of the Sunni insurgency west of Baghdad - displaced most of the city's 300,000 population and left many of its buildings destroyed.

Col Venable told the BBC's PM radio programme that the US army used white phosphorus incendiary munitions "primarily as obscurants, for smokescreens or target marking in some cases".

"However it is an incendiary weapon and may be used against enemy combatants."

And he said it had been used in Falluja, but it was "conventional munition", not a chemical weapon.

It is not "outlawed or illegal", Col Venable said.

"When you have enemy forces that are in covered positions that your high explosive artillery rounds are not having an impact on and you wish to get them out of those positions, one technique is to fire a white phosphorus round or rounds into the position because the combined effects of the fire and smoke - and in some case the terror brought about by the explosion on the ground - will drive them out of the holes so that you can kill them with high explosives," he said.

'Particularly nasty'

White phosphorus is highly flammable and ignites on contact with oxygen. If the substance hits someone's body, it will burn until deprived of oxygen.

Globalsecurity.org, a defence website, says: "Phosphorus burns on the skin are deep and painful... These weapons are particularly nasty because white phosphorus continues to burn until it disappears... it could burn right down to the bone."

A spokesman at the UK Ministry of Defence said the use of white phosphorus was permitted in battle in cases where there were no civilians near the target area.

But Professor Paul Rodgers of the University of Bradford department of peace studies said white phosphorus could be considered a chemical weapon if deliberately aimed at civilians.

He told PM: "It is not counted under the chemical weapons convention in its normal use but, although it is a matter of legal niceties, it probably does fall into the category of chemical weapons if it is used for this kind of purpose directly against people."

When the Rai documentary revealing the use of white phosphorus in Iraq was broadcast on 8 November, it sparked fury among Italian anti-war protesters, who demonstrated outside the US embassy in Rome.

BBC

'I treated people who had their skin melted'

2005-11-16T00:32:00.000-05:00

'I treated people who had their skin melted'
By Dahr Jamail
Published: 15 November 2005

Abu Sabah knew he had witnessed something unusual. Sitting in November last year in a refugee camp in the grounds of Baghdad University, set up for the families who fled or were driven from Fallujah, this resident of the city's Jolan district told me how he had witnessed some of the battle's heaviest fighting.

"They used these weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom cloud," he said. He had seen "pieces of these bombs explode into large fires that continued to burn on the skin even after people dumped water on the burns".

As an unembedded journalist, I spent hours talking to residents forced out of the city. A doctor from Fallujah working in Saqlawiyah, on the outskirts of Fallujah, described treating victims during the siege "who had their skin melted".

He asked to be referred to simply as Dr Ahmed because of fears of reprisals for speaking out. "The people and bodies I have seen were definitely hit by fire weapons and had no other shrapnel wounds," he said.

Burhan Fasa'a, a freelance cameraman working for the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC), witnessed the first eight days of the fighting. "I saw cluster bombs everywhere and so many bodies that were burnt, dead with no bullets in them," he said. "So they definitely used fire weapons, especially in Jolan district."

Mr Fasa'a said that while he sold a few of his clips to Reuters, LBC would not show tapes he submitted to them. He had smuggled some tapes out of the city before his gear was taken from him by US soldiers.

Some saw what they thought were attempts by the military to conceal the use of incendiary shells. "The Americans were dropping some of the bodies into the Euphrates near Fallujah," said one ousted resident, Abdul Razaq Ismail.

Dr Ahmed, who worked in Fallujah until December 2004, said: "In the centre of the Jolan quarter they were removing entire homes which have been bombed, meanwhile most of the homes that were bombed are left as they were."

He said he saw bulldozers push soil into piles and load it on to trucks to carry away. In certain areas where the military used "special munitions" he said 200 sq m of soil was being removed from each blast site.

The author is an unembedded journalist reporting from Fallujah

news.independent.co.uk

Iraq = Vietnam. --The American People.

2005-11-16T00:22:00.000-05:00

Poll: American attitudes on Iraq similar to Vietnam era

WASHINGTON — There are enormous differences between the war in Iraq and the one in Vietnam that defined a generation. The current conflict hasn't lasted as long, taken nearly as many American lives or sparked the sort of anti-war movement that marked the '60s and '70s.

But when it comes to public opinion, Americans' attitudes toward Iraq and the course ahead are strikingly similar to public attitudes toward Vietnam in the summer of 1970, a pivotal year in that conflict and a time of enormous domestic unrest.

Some political scientists and historians predict that the Iraq conflict, like the one in Vietnam, will shape American attitudes on foreign policy and the use of military force long after it's over.

"This war is probably a really big deal historically in terms of America's perspective on the world," says John Mueller, a political scientist at Ohio State University. "What you're going to get after this is 'We don't want to do that again — No more Iraqs' just as after Vietnam the syndrome was 'No more Vietnams.' "

In a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday, more than half of those surveyed wanted to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq within the next 12 months. In 1970, roughly half of those surveyed wanted to withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam within 12 months.....

USAToday.com

More Analysis of the Shrill Bush Lies

2005-11-15T10:26:00.000-05:00

Bush is screaming his lies now. Everyone knows he is lying now. He is desperate to pull a 1984. Keep the criticisms coming!

Decoding Mr. Bush's Denials

To avoid having to account for his administration's misleading statements before the war with Iraq, President Bush has tried denial, saying he did not skew the intelligence. He's tried to share the blame, claiming that Congress had the same intelligence he had, as well as President Bill Clinton. He's tried to pass the buck and blame the C.I.A. Lately, he's gone on the attack, accusing Democrats in Congress of aiding the terrorists.

Yesterday in Alaska, Mr. Bush trotted out the same tedious deflection on Iraq that he usually attempts when his back is against the wall: he claims that questioning his actions three years ago is a betrayal of the troops in battle today.

It all amounts to one energetic effort at avoidance. But like the W.M.D. reports that started the whole thing, the only problem is that none of it has been true.

•

Mr. Bush says everyone had the same intelligence he had - Mr. Clinton and his advisers, foreign governments, and members of Congress - and that all of them reached the same conclusions. The only part that is true is that Mr. Bush was working off the same intelligence Mr. Clinton had. But that is scary, not reassuring. The reports about Saddam Hussein's weapons were old, some more than 10 years old. Nothing was fresher than about five years, except reports that later proved to be fanciful.

Foreign intelligence services did not have full access to American intelligence. But some had dissenting opinions that were ignored or not shown to top American officials. Congress had nothing close to the president's access to intelligence. The National Intelligence Estimate presented to Congress a few days before the vote on war was sanitized to remove dissent and make conjecture seem like fact.

It's hard to imagine what Mr. Bush means when he says everyone reached the same conclusion. There was indeed a widespread belief that Iraq had chemical and biological weapons. But Mr. Clinton looked at the data and concluded that inspections and pressure were working - a view we now know was accurate. France, Russia and Germany said war was not justified. Even Britain admitted later that there had been no new evidence about Iraq, just new politics.

The administration had little company in saying that Iraq was actively trying to build a nuclear weapon. The evidence for this claim was a dubious report about an attempt in 1999 to buy uranium from Niger, later shown to be false, and the infamous aluminum tubes story. That was dismissed at the time by analysts with real expertise.

The Bush administration was also alone in making the absurd claim that Iraq was in league with Al Qaeda and somehow connected to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That was based on two false tales. One was the supposed trip to Prague by Mohamed Atta, a report that was disputed before the war and came from an unreliable drunk. The other was that Iraq trained Qaeda members in the use of chemical and biological weapons. Before the war, the Defense Intelligence Agency concluded that this was a deliberate fabrication by an informer.

Mr. Bush has said in recent days that the first phase of the Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation on Iraq found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence. That is true only in the very narrow way the Republicans on the committee insisted on defining pressure: as direct pressure from senior officials to change intelligence. Instead, the Bush administration made what it wanted to hear crystal clear and kept sending reports back to be redone until it got those answers.

Richard Kerr, a former deputy director of central intelligence, said in 2003 that there was "significant pressure on the intelligence community to find evidence that supported a connection" between Iraq and Al Qaeda. The C.I.A. ombudsman told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the administration's "hammering" on Iraq intelligence was harder than he had seen in his 32 years at the agency.

Mr. Bush and other administration officials say they faithfully reported what they had read. But Vice President Dick Cheney presented the Prague meeting as a fact when even the most supportive analysts considered it highly dubious. The administration has still not acknowledged that tales of Iraq coaching Al Qaeda on chemical warfare were considered false, even at the time they were circulated.

Mr. Cheney was not alone. Remember Condoleezza Rice's infamous "mushroom cloud" comment? And Secretary of State Colin Powell in January 2003, when the rich and powerful met in Davos, Switzerland, and he said, "Why is Iraq still trying to procure uranium and the special equipment needed to transform it into material for nuclear weapons?" Mr. Powell ought to have known the report on "special equipment"' - the aluminum tubes - was false. And the uranium story was four years old.

•

The president and his top advisers may very well have sincerely believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. But they did not allow the American people, or even Congress, to have the information necessary to make reasoned judgments of their own. It's obvious that the Bush administration misled Americans about Mr. Hussein's weapons and his terrorist connections. We need to know how that happened and why.

Mr. Bush said last Friday that he welcomed debate, even in a time of war, but that "it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began." We agree, but it is Mr. Bush and his team who are rewriting history.

NYTImes.com

If You Criticize Bush, You Should Be Executed!

2005-11-15T10:19:00.000-05:00

"Aid and Comfort to the Enemy" is the definition of Treason, punishable by DEATH.

...Bush was not subtle. He said that anyone accusing his administration of having "manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people" was giving aid and comfort to the enemy. "These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America's will," Bush declared last week. "As our troops fight a ruthless enemy determined to destroy our way of life, they deserve to know that their elected leaders who voted to send them to war continue to stand behind them."

You wonder: Did Patrick Fitzgerald, the special counsel in the Valerie Plame leak investigation, send the wrong signal to our troops and our enemy by daring to seek the indictment of Scooter Libby on a charge of perjury and obstruction of justice? Must Americans who support our troops desist from any criticism of the use of intelligence by the administration?.....

WashingtonPost.com

9/11 Commission Members Criticize Bush for not Protecting US from Nukes.

2005-11-15T02:47:00.000-05:00

US faulted on handling nuclear threat

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is not doing enough to protect nuclear weapons from terrorists and its handling of terrorism suspects is undermining America's image in the Muslim world, members of a commission that investigated the September 11 attacks said on Monday.

Although President George W. Bush calls arms proliferation the country's biggest threat and al Qaeda has sought nuclear weapons for a decade, the former commission's chairman Thomas Kean said, "the most striking thing to us is that the size of the problem still totally dwarfs the policy response."

"In short, we still do not have a maximum effort against the most urgent threat ... to the American people," he told a news conference, noting that half the nuclear materials in Russia still have no security upgrade.....

Yahoo!

Be sure to see earlier post on nukes available to terrorists right here in the US!

BUSH IS LYING RIGHT NOW About Iran Having Nukes!!

2005-11-15T02:39:00.000-05:00

US atomic expert doubts report of Iran weapons work

A prominent American nuclear security expert challenged a report of new US intelligence purportedly suggesting Iran was planning to build a nuclear warhead as misleading.

David Albright, head of the US-based Institute for Science and International Security think-tank and a former UN arms inspector, said the report was off the mark on one key issue and glossed over two others......

ddinews.com

LOSING THE WAR ON TERROR... Does Anyone Remember Afghanistan?

2005-11-15T02:34:00.000-05:00

Does anyone remember Afghanistan? That was the country that hosted Osama Bin Laden and had all the terrorist training camps which produced all those people who attacked us on September 11th. How is THAT war going?

world's largest producer of opium; cultivation of opium poppy reached unprecedented level of 206,700 hectares in 2004; counterdrug efforts largely unsuccessful; potential opium production of 4,950 metric tons; potential heroin production of 582 metric tons if all opium was processed; source of hashish; many narcotics-processing labs throughout the country; drug trade source of instability and some antigovernment groups profit from the trade; 80-90% of the heroin consumed in Europe comes from Afghan opium; vulnerable to narcotics money laundering through informal financial networks

This page was last updated on 1 November, 2005

I guess we have 100% capitulated on The War on Drugs. Anyone remember when Republicans SAID they thought that was important?

CIA Factbook

The US used chemical weapons in Iraq - and then lied about it.

2005-11-15T02:28:00.000-05:00

Now we know napalm and phosphorus bombs have been dropped on Iraqis, why have the hawks failed to speak out?......

guardian.co.uk

Not Content with Bringing TORTURE to American, Dick "Hiding in a Spider Hole" Cheney Practices SLAVE LABOR to Make More Money for Halliburton.

2005-11-15T02:23:00.000-05:00

Gulf Coast slaves
Halliburton and its subcontractors hired hundreds of undocumented Latino workers to clean up after Katrina -- only to mistreat them and throw them out without pay.
By Roberto Lovato

Nov. 15, 2005 | Arnulfo Martinez recalls seeing lots of hombres del ejercito standing at attention. Though he was living on the Belle Chasse Naval Base near New Orleans when President Bush spoke there on Oct. 11, he didn't understand anything the ruddy man in the rolled-up sleeves was saying to the troops.

Martinez, 16, speaks no English; his mother tongue is Zapotec. He had left the cornfields of Oaxaca, Mexico, four weeks earlier for the promise that he would make $8 an hour, plus room and board, while working for a subcontractor of KBR, a wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton that was awarded a major contract by the Bush administration for disaster relief work. The job was helping to clean up a Gulf Coast naval base in the region devastated by Hurricane Katrina. "I was cleaning up the base, picking up branches and doing other work," Martinez said, speaking to me in broken Spanish.

Even if the Oaxacan teenager had understood Bush when he urged Americans that day to "help somebody find shelter or help somebody find food," he couldn't have known that he'd soon need similar help himself. But three weeks after arriving at the naval base from Texas, Martinez's boss, Karen Tovar, a job broker from North Carolina who hired workers for a KBR subcontractor called United Disaster Relief, booted him from the base and left him homeless, hungry and without money.

"They gave us two meals a day and sometimes only one," Martinez said.

He says that Tovar "kicked us off the base," forcing him and other cleanup workers -- many of them Mexican and undocumented -- to sleep on the streets of New Orleans. According to Martinez, they were not paid for three weeks of work. An immigrant rights group recently filed complaints with the Department of Labor on behalf of Martinez and 73 other workers allegedly owed more than $56,000 by Tovar. Tovar claims that she let the workers go because she was not paid by her own bosses at United Disaster Relief. In turn, UDR manager Zachary Johnson, who declined to be interviewed for this story, told the Washington Post on Nov. 4 that his company had not been paid by KBR for two months.

Wherever the buck may stop along the chain of subcontractors, Martinez is stuck at the short end of it -- and his situation is typical among many workers hired by subcontractors of KBR (formerly known as Kellogg Brown & Root) to clean and rebuild Belle Chasse and other Gulf Coast military bases. Immigrants rights groups and activists like Bill Chandler, president of the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, estimate that hundreds of undocumented workers are on the Gulf Coast military bases, a claim that the military and Halliburton/KBR deny -- even after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency turned up undocumented workers in a raid of the Belle Chasse facility last month. Visits to the naval bases and dozens of interviews by Salon confirm that undocumented workers are in the facilities. Still, tracing the line from unpaid undocumented workers to their multibillion-dollar employers is a daunting task. A shadowy labyrinth of contractors, subcontractors and job brokers, overseen by no single agency, have created a no man's land where nobody seems to be accountable for the hiring -- and abuse -- of these workers.

Right after Katrina barreled through the Gulf Coast, the Bush administration relaxed labor standards, creating conditions for rampant abuse, according to union leaders and civil rights advocates. Bush suspended the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires employers to pay "prevailing wages" for labor used to fulfill government contracts. The administration also waived the requirement for contractors rebuilding the Gulf Coast to provide valid I-9 employment eligibility forms completed by their workers. These moves allowed Halliburton/KBR and its subcontractors to hire undocumented workers and pay them meager wages (regardless of what wages the workers may have otherwise been promised). The two policies have recently been reversed in the face of sharp political pressure: Bush reinstated the Davis-Bacon Act on Nov. 3, while the Department of Homeland Security reinstated the I-9 requirements in late October, noting that it would once again "exercise prosecutorial discretion" of employers in violation "on a case-by-case basis." But critics say Bush's policies have already allowed extensive profiteering beneath layers of legal and political cover.

Halliburton/KBR, which enjoys an array of federal contracts in the United States, Iraq and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, has long drawn criticism for its proximity to Vice President Dick Cheney, formerly Halliburton's CEO. Halliburton/KBR spokesperson Melissa Norcross declined to respond directly to allegations about undocumented workers in the Gulf. "In performing work for the U.S. government, KBR uses its government-approved procurement system to source and retain qualified subcontractors," she said in an e-mail. "KBR's subcontractors are required to comply with all applicable labor laws and provisions when performing this work."

Victoria Cintra is the Gulf Coast outreach organizer for Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance, which recently partnered with relief agency Oxfam America to help immigrant workers displaced by Katrina. She says KBR is exposing undocumented workers like Martinez to unethical and illegal treatment, even though they are supposed to be paid with federal Katrina-recovery dollars to clean and rebuild high-security facilities like the one President Bush recently visited. Cintra is one of several people fighting to recover the wages owed the workers: She drives her beat-up, chocolate-colored car across the swamps, damaged roads and broken bridges of the Gulf Coast to track down contractors and subcontractors. With yellow legal pad in hand, she and other advocates document abuses taking place at Belle Chasse, the Naval Construction Battalion Center at the Seabee naval base in Gulfport, Miss., and other military installations.

I was with Cintra when she received phone calls from several Latino workers who complained they were denied, under threat of deportation, the right to leave the base at Belle Chasse. Cintra also took me along on visits to squalid trailer parks -- like the one at Arlington Heights in Gulfport -- where up to 19 unpaid, unfed and undocumented KBR site workers inhabited a single trailer for $70 per person, per week. Workers there and on the bases complained of suffering from diarrhea, sprained ankles, cuts and bruises, and other injuries sustained on the KBR sites -- where they received no medical assistance, despite being close to medical facilities on the same bases they were cleaning and helping rebuild.

Cintra and other critics say there's been no accountability from the corporate leaders who signed on the dotted line when they were awarded multimillion-dollar Department of Defense contracts. "The workers may be hired by the subcontractors," Cintra says, "but KBR is ultimately responsible."

"Latino workers are being invited to New Orleans and the South without the proper conditions to protect them," adds Cintra, who recently provided tents to Martinez and several other unpaid Mexican workers who fled Belle Chasse for Gulfport after being dismissed by Tovar. Cintra, a Cuban exile and born-again Christian, has since seen a small tent city of homeless immigrants spring up in the yard of her church, Pass Road Baptist, in Gulfport. "This is evil on top of evil on top of evil," she says. "The Bush administration and Halliburton have opened up a Pandora's box that's not going to close now."

Halliburton/KBR is the general contractor with overarching responsibility for the federal cleanup contracts covering Katrina-damaged naval bases. Even so, there is an utter lack of transparency with the process -- and that invites malfeasance, says James Hale, a vice president of the Laborers' International Union of North America. "To my knowledge, not one member of Congress has been able to get their hands on a copy of a contract that was handed out to Halliburton or others," Hale says. "There is no central registry of Katrina contracts available. No data on the jobs or scope of the work." Hale says that his union's legislative staff has pressed members of Congress for more information; apparently the legislators were told that they could not get copies of the contracts because of "national security" concerns.

"If the contracts handed out to these primary contractors are opaque, then the contracts being let to the subcontractors are just plain invisible," Hale says. "There is simply no ability to ascertain or monitor the contractor-subcontractor relationships. This is an open invitation for exploitation, fraud and abuse."

Congress has heard a number of complaints recently about Halliburton/KBR's hiring practices, including the alleged exploitation of Filipino, Sri Lankan, Nepalese and other immigrant workers paid low wages on military installations in Iraq. And KBR subcontractor BE&K was a focus of Senate hearings in October, for the firing of 75 local Belle Chasse workers who said that they were replaced by "unskilled, out-of-state, out-of-country" workers earning $8 to $14 for work that typically paid $22 an hour.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., who has been an outspoken critic of the use of undocumented workers at Belle Chasse and on other Katrina cleanup jobs, said in a recent statement, "It is a downright shame that any contractor would use this tragedy as an opportunity to line its pockets by breaking the law and hiring a low-skilled, low-wage and undocumented work force."

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., is also against the practice, citing its "serious social ramifications." As he told Salon, it devastates "local workers who have been hit twice, because they lost their homes."

Seventeen-year-old Simitrio Martinez (no relation to Arnulfo) is another one of the dozens of workers originally hired by Tovar, the North Carolina job broker working under KBR. "They were going to pay seven dollars an hour, and the food was going to be free, and rent, but they gave us nothing," says the thin Zapotec teenager. Simitrio spent nearly a month at the Seabee base. "They weren't feeding us. We ate cookies for five days. Cookies, nothing else," he says.

Simitrio, his co-workers, and the dozens of KBR subcontractors that employ them operate under public-private agreements like federal Task Order 0017, which defines the scope of work to be fulfilled under the contracts. Under the multimillion-dollar Department of Defense contract, KBR is supposed to provide services for "Hurricane Katrina stabilization and recovery at Naval Air Station Pascagoula, Naval Air Station Gulfport, Stennis Space Center and other Navy installations in the Southeast Region," according to a Defense Department press release.

But the details of the agreements remain murky. "Not only is it very difficult to see the actual signed DoD contracts, but it is nearly impossible to see the actual task orders, which assign the goods or services the government is buying," says Scott Amey, general counsel for the Project on Government Oversight in Washington. The military can ask for goods and services on an as-needed basis, he says, which means that the contracts, which add up to tens of millions of dollars, can remain open ended. According to DoD press statements, the contracts call for considerable manual labor, including "re-roofing of most buildings, barracks, debris removal from the entire base, water mitigation, mold mitigation, interior and exterior repairs to most buildings, waste treatment plants, and all incidental related work."

Simitrio and any other workers on the high-security military bases must get permission before entering the guarded gates, where they get patted down by M-16-wielding military police. Responsibility for getting private-sector construction and cleanup workers on the bases rests with the general contractor -- in KBR's case, security chief Kevin Flynn. One of Flynn's responsibilities is to negotiate passes and entry for KBR subcontractors -- and their hires -- to do the work stipulated by the task order.

Yet, following several complaints by Landrieu, and just a few days after President Bush visited the Belle Chasse base, agents from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency raided the facility and detained 10 workers who ICE spokeswoman Jamie Zuieback said had "questionable" documentation.

Representatives of Halliburton/KBR do not acknowledge the existence of undocumented workers providing labor for their operations on the Gulf Coast bases. Flynn suggested speaking to the U.S. military, who he said "has real strict control" and would know whether there were undocumented workers. "We have workers from all ethnic groups on the base," Flynn said. "To the best of my knowledge, there are no undocumented workers."

Steve Romano, head of housing on the Belle Chasse base, said, "We have no relationship with [KBR] at all. I have no idea what that's about." A similar response was given by an official at the base's health facility when asked about undocumented workers who complained about health issues and injuries sustained on the KBR sites. The only military person to acknowledge seeing Latino workers was a watch commander who greeted me at an entry to the base. The commander estimated there were 100 such workers there. Meanwhile, representatives with the Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance say they received calls from undocumented workers at Belle Chasse who estimated there were more than 500, or "about eight busloads" of immigrant workers on-site.

Texas-based DRS Cosmotech is another subcontractor that provided cleanup crews to Halliburton/KBR in the Gulf. Roy Lee Donaldson, CEO of the company, refused to respond to accusations of non-payment and exploitation leveled at his company by several workers, including 55-year-old Felipe Reyes of Linares, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. (Donaldson hung up the phone when I identified myself as a reporter.)

"Mr. Donaldson promised us we'd live in a hotel or a house. We lived in tents and only had hot water that smelled like petroleum," Reyes said. The city of Belle Chasse has been identified in recent years as one of the most toxically polluted areas in the entire region, with several major energy companies operating there. A wide range of advocacy groups have warned about serious health risks facing Katrina cleanup workers.

"They didn't want to pay us for two weeks of work. So we stopped working. We started a huelga [strike] on the base" added Reyes, who along with other workers, says he was later paid $1,100 -- only part of what he says he was owed.

Another KBR subcontractor, Alabama-based BE&K, says it is not responsible for keeping track of the workers. BE&K spokesperson Susan Wasley said, "I can't say that we require our subcontractors' employees to produce documentation for us, because that's what our subcontractor as employer has to do. That's his responsibility."

At the bottom of the KBR subcontracting pyramid are job brokers like Tovar and Gregorio Gonzalez, who helped hire laborers for Florida-based On Site Services, another subcontractor that reportedly failed to pay wages owed to workers in the Gulf Coast. The job brokers find workers by placing ads in Spanish-language newspapers like La Subasta and El Dia in Houston; the ads typically promise room, board and pay in the range of $1,200 a week. Job brokers also run television ads on Spanish-language stations like Univision. And they attend job fairs in places like Fresno, Calif.

Not all subcontractors refuse to discuss their links to KBR. Luis Sevilla is pretty open about it if you can get to the crowded hangar on the restricted premises of the Seabee naval base where he and his crew sleep and work. Sevilla put together crews for KBR subcontractors to remove asbestos and do other construction work; his workers told me they are paid and treated well. Asked about the people who own the R.V. with a "KBR" logo outside the hangar where his workers crowd into small tents, Sevilla says, "They contract with many, many companies." Interviews with members of Sevilla's crew revealed a number of undocumented workers.

Despite the evidence of undocumented workers cleaning up after Katrina, Halliburton/KBR maintains that it runs its operations within the bounds of the law. "KBR operates under a rigorous Code of Business Conduct that outlines legal and ethical behaviors that all employees and subcontractors are expected to follow in every aspect of their work," spokesperson Norcross said by e-mail. (She did not respond to several requests for a phone interview.) "We do not tolerate any exceptions to this Code at any level of our company."

Standing in spitting distance of the KBR-branded R.V., which is parked as if it were guarding the hangar, Jose Ruiz of Nicaragua knows that his role in the Katrina cleanup is anonymous at best. "I don't have any papers, kind of like in that song by Sting -- 'I'm an illegal alien,'" says Ruiz, who lived in the United States for many years before arriving to work for Sevilla at the Seabee base. "That's the way it is."

-- By Roberto Lovato

Salon.com

Bush The Draft Dodger HATES OUR TROOPS.

2005-11-15T02:20:00.000-05:00

You wouldn't expect a draft-dodger to understand the mental problems soldiers bring home. There are probably about 70,000 of them...

Nearly 2,000 US troops have been killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and tens of thousands wounded. But many have found themselves dealing with psychological - as well as physical - trauma. In the second of a five-part series, BBC News talks to soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related symptoms.....

BBC

Bush Balls Out Lies Exposed

2005-11-15T02:13:00.000-05:00

A in-depth accounting of Bush's new strategy of lying to America: accusing Democrats of rewriting history as he rewrites history. (See earlier entry about 1984!)

When I made the decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, Congress approved it with strong bipartisan support.

Actually, Congress did not approve Bush's decision to remove Saddam.

There are so many lies, you have to read them, it's really appaling!...

DavidCorn

Another Politician With Principals Takes Responsibility and Admits Mistake in Iraq. Not Bush.

2005-11-13T14:15:00.000-05:00

The Right Way in Iraq
By John Edwards
Sunday, November 13, 2005; B07

I was wrong.

Almost three years ago we went into Iraq to remove what we were told -- and what many of us believed and argued -- was a threat to America. But in fact we now know that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction when our forces invaded Iraq in 2003. The intelligence was deeply flawed and, in some cases, manipulated to fit a political agenda.

It was a mistake to vote for this war in 2002. I take responsibility for that mistake. It has been hard to say these words because those who didn't make a mistake -- the men and women of our armed forces and their families -- have performed heroically and paid a dear price..........

WashingtonPost.com

Bush. Republican Criminals. Stolen Election in Ohio. Hard... To... Track... All... The... Crimes......

2005-11-13T07:30:00.000-05:00

Federal investigators identify local figures as ‘conduits’
Affidavit: Noe gave funds to Shultz, Thurber, Owen

Federal investigators pored through Tom Noe’s garbage and his bank records before identifying three public officials and 10 others as the people who Mr. Noe used to funnel money into President Bush’s re-election campaign, according to a record obtained by The Blade yesterday.

An affidavit filed in April with the U.S. District Court in Toledo shows that Betty Shultz, a Toledo city councilman; Maggie Thurber, a Lucas County commissioner, and Donna Owens, a member of the Ohio Industrial Commission, took checks from Mr. Noe before writing their own to the Bush-Cheney campaign.

Ms. Owens is a former mayor of Toledo who served as state commerce director under Gov. George Voinovich.

The affidavit is the first evidence from federal investigators about who was involved in the money-laundering case.

It also reveals, for the first time, that prosecutors believed that Mr. Noe’s wife, Bernadette, was involved.

In laying out its evidence, the FBI felt there was “probable cause to believe that” Mr. and Mrs. Noe had “conspired” to violate federal campaign-finance laws.

In one instance, Mrs. Noe was present when Mr. Noe exchanged checks for the fund-raiser, according to the FBI’s affidavit.

All but one of the people identified in the affidavit testified before the federal grand jury that returned a three-count indictment against Mr. Noe late last month. He is charged with violating federal campaign-finance laws that could result in up to 15 years in prison and a fine of nearly $1 million.

Mrs. Noe was not indicted, and no one has indicated she will be. At the time of the donations, she was chairman of the Lucas County Republican Party, a post her husband had held.

The U.S. Justice Department has said the Noe case is the largest campaign money-laundering scheme prosecuted since new campaign-finance laws were enacted by Congress in 2002.

The donations, allegedly given to attend an Oct. 30, 2003, fund-raiser in Columbus that generated $1.4 million for the Bush-Cheney campaign, helped propel Mr. Noe to the status of a Bush “Pioneer,” or someone who helped raise at least $100,000 for the campaign........

Toledoblade.com

Bush's Church Turns On Bush.

2005-11-13T07:27:00.000-05:00

Methodist Bishops Repent Iraq War 'Complicity'

WASHINGTON — Ninety-five bishops from President Bush's church said Thursday they repent their "complicity" in the "unjust and immoral" invasion and occupation of Iraq.

"In the face of the United States administration's rush toward military action based on misleading information, too many of us were silent," said a statement of conscience signed by more than half of the 164 retired and active United Methodist bishops worldwide.

President Bush is a member of the United Methodist Church, according to various published biographies. The White House did not return a request for comment on the bishops' statement.

Although United Methodist leadership has opposed the Iraq war in the past, this is the first time that individual bishops have confessed to a personal failure to publicly challenge the buildup to the war.

The signatures were also an instrument for retired bishops to make their views known, said bishop Joseph H. Yeakel, who served in the Baltimore-Washington area from 1984 to 1996. The current bishop for the Baltimore-Washington area, John R. Schol, also signed the statement......

FoxMorons

Americans Unwelcomed All Over the World.

2005-11-13T07:21:00.000-05:00

Thanks George! I wanted to visit Italy some day, and now they think we are a bunch of criminals. Is there anywhere in the world where they don't hate us now?

Italian prosecutors on Friday formally requested the extradition of 22 U.S. citizens believed to be CIA operatives on charges that they seized an Egyptian Islamic cleraic off a Milan street in early 2003 and flew him to Cairo, where he later said he was tortured.

The prosecutors' decision places added pressure on U.S. officials to explain the Bush administration's alleged role in the abduction of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar. Italy and the United States have an extradition treaty that generally requires both countries to hand over defendants facing charges.....

WashingtonPost

I Am A Traitor. I Really Do Want Terrorists To Kill Americans!!!

2005-11-13T07:16:00.000-05:00

Bill O'Reilly, a draft-dodging weasel, AGAIN says he wants terrorists to come here and kill Americans. And he means it!

O’Reilly Responds: “What I Said Isn’t Controversial. What I Said Needed to Be Said.....”

ThinkProgress.org

Further Proof President Moron is KILLING YOUR CHILDREN!

2005-11-13T07:07:00.000-05:00

As noted in an earlier post, thanks to the catatrophic failures of the Bush administration, the number of terrorist in the world has nearly doubled. Here is even futher proof.

Amman Bombings Reflect Zarqawi's Growing Reach
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, November 13, 2005; A01

BERLIN, Nov. 12 -- Triple suicide bombings in Jordan this week marked a breakthrough for Islamic guerrilla leader Abu Musab Zarqawi in his efforts to expand the Iraqi insurgency into a regional conflict and demonstrated his growing independence from the founders of al Qaeda, according to Arab and European intelligence officials.

Zarqawi, 39, has sought for years to overthrow the monarchy in his native Jordan. But since he emerged over the past two years as the best-known leader of the insurgency in Iraq, his success in rallying Islamic extremists from other countries to fight U.S. forces there has enabled him to extend his reach and influence, officials and analysts say. His guerrilla network, they say, has established roots in Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

"This is really alarming, if Zarqawi is able to carry out these kind of attacks in Jordan and if Iraq is able to become the headquarters for terror attacks in the region," said Mustafa Alani, senior policy analyst for the Gulf Research Center in Dubai. "We're talking about the emergence of another Afghanistan."

Some terrorism analysts and officials say Zarqawi has already eclipsed al Qaeda's founder, Osama bin Laden, in terms of prominence and appeal to Islamic radicals worldwide. Both want to establish a new Islamic caliphate in the Middle East but have clashed over tactics, such as whether it is advisable to avoid targeting Muslims.

While bin Laden has been on the run for the past four years, largely cut off from the outside world, Zarqawi has attracted hundreds if not thousands of fighters to Iraq and has avoided capture despite the presence of as many as 150,000 U.S. troops. He also has raised his profile by embracing merciless tactics, including videotaped beheadings and suicide attacks on civilian targets, such as the bombings in Amman that killed nearly 60 people at three hotels Wednesday night......

WashingtonPost

Bush Foreign Policy Fails Miserably for the Second Time in Less Than One Week!

2005-11-13T07:03:00.000-05:00

After failing miserably to do anything other than incite violence in South America earlier in the week, President Moron fails in the Middle East.

Mideast democracy summit ends with no deal

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — A U.S.-backed summit meant to promote political freedom and economic change in the Middle East ended Saturday without agreement, a blow to President Bush's goals for the troubled region....

The White House had hoped the conference would showcase political progress in a part of the world long dominated by monarchies and single-party rule, and spread goodwill for the U.S....

USAToday, Yahoo!

Conservatives HATE America.

2005-11-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

Conservatives Hate:

Human Rights
The Environment
Separation of Church and State

Conservatives Hate America.

Can we please have a real president back, like Jimmy Carter, who does not hate American values?

Yahoo!

Proof Libby Is Covering for President Cheney.

2005-11-13T06:57:00.000-05:00

Libby May Have Tried to Mask Cheney's Role

In the opening days of the CIA leak investigation in early October 2003, FBI agents working the case already had in their possession a wealth of valuable evidence. There were White House phone and visitor logs, which clearly documented the administration's contacts with reporters.

And they had something that law enforcement officials would later describe as their "guidebook" for the opening phase of the investigation: the daily, diary-like notes compiled by I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, then Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, that chronicled crucial events inside the White House in the weeks before the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame was publicly disclosed.

The investigators had much of this information before they sat down with Libby on Oct. 14, 2003, and first heard from him what prosecutors now allege was a demonstrably false version of what happened. Libby said that, when he told other reporters about the CIA operative and her marriage to Iraq war critic Joseph C. Wilson IV, he believed he had first learned the information from Tim Russert of NBC News and was merely passing along journalistic hearsay. This was an explanation made dubious by Libby's own notes, which showed that he previously had learned about Plame from his boss, Cheney.

In the aftermath of Libby's recent five-count indictment, this curious sequence raises a question of motives that hangs over the investigation: Why would an experienced lawyer and government official such as Libby leave himself so exposed to prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald?

Libby, according to Fitzgerald's indictment, gave a false story to agents and, later, to a grand jury, even though he knew investigators had his notes, and presumably knew that several of his White House colleagues had already provided testimony and documentary evidence that would undercut his own story. And his interviews with the FBI in October and two appearances before the grand jury in March 2004 came at a time when there were increasingly clear signs that some of the reporters with whom Libby discussed Plame could soon be freed to testify -- and provide starkly different and damning accounts to the prosecutor.

To critics, the timing suggests an attempt to obscure Cheney's role, and possibly his legal culpability. The vice president is shown by the indictment to be aware of and interested in Plame and her CIA status long before her cover was blown. Even some White House aides privately wonder whether Libby was seeking to protect Cheney from political embarrassment. One of them noted with resignation, "Obviously, the indictment speaks for itself."

In addition, Cheney also advised Libby on a media strategy to counter Plame's husband, former ambassador Wilson, according to a person familiar with the case......

WashingtonPost.com

President Cheney Keeps War Memo from Moron. American Troops Die. And Worse.

2005-11-13T06:48:00.000-05:00

Ex-Powell Aide Suggests Pre-War Memo Was Kept From Bush

A former top official in the Bush administration is suggesting that a White House memo outlining the need for hundreds of thousands of troops for the Iraq invasion was kept from the president. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to then-secretary of state Colin Powell during President Bush's first term, said in a November 7 speech that the National Security Council had prepared a pre-war memo recommending that hundreds of thousands of troops and other security personnel were needed. “I don't know if the president saw it,” Wilkerson told the audience...

...he believed that then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice or her deputy, Stephen Hadley, had blocked the memo...

...about 135,000 U.S. troops were sent - a decision that critics said has hurt America's ability to defeat the insurgency in Iraq and has led to increased American casualties.

In July 2003, USA Today reported the existence of the NSC memo, which examined the level of troops in peacekeeping operations and concluded that some 500,000 troops would need to be deployed to Iraq. USA Today raised doubts as to whether the president saw the memo. However, Wilkerson's assertion seemed to take the matter a step further, suggesting that aides who supported the war intentionally kept the president in the dark.

Wilkerson drew national attention last month, when, during a speech at the Washington-based New America Foundation, he accused Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of forming a “cabal” to hijack American foreign policy.

“The reason I suspect it got stopped is simply that they knew [Cheney] and [Rumsfeld] dissented strongly and did not want to reopen that box of worms.”

In his speech this week at West Point, Wilkerson said that officials in the Pentagon and in Cheney's office “really pushed the envelope” on permitting harsh interrogations and treatment of prisoners. Wilkerson recounted how military lawyers who opposed a series of guidelines allowing harsh interrogation techniques were silenced, and how he found out instances of two detainees who died in American facilities in Afghanistan as early as December 2002.

Wilkerson told the audience that while he disagreed with many of the administration's foreign policy moves, what most “got [his] attention” and made him “very anxious” was the treatment of detainees advocated by other officials. Just before the infamous pictures from Abu Ghraib were made public, Wilkerson recounted, he was ordered by Powell to assemble a comprehensive paper trail because “this would be big.” Wilkerson said that when the president outlined in a memorandum that prisoners should be treated humanely in accordance with the spirit of the Geneva conventions and in conformity with U.S. values, he and others in government and the military took it to mean that U.S. troops were told to treat detainees in a decent manner. “But this is not what I saw in the paper trail with regards to the office of the vice president and the Pentagon,” Wilkerson said, adding that he had returned the documents to the State Department upon his retirement earlier this year. “They really pushed the envelope.” Turning to Iraq, he blamed Bush, for whom he voted twice, for failing to assert himself in the intra-cabinet feuding over the preparations for the war. “We went in with a plan that was so inept that it was impossible for me to believe [the president] had been briefed about it and approved it,” he said, expressing his conviction that the decisions were made by the top officials at the Pentagon and by Cheney, whom he described as “the most powerful vice president” in history. “If you want to change my opinion, Mr. President, please come out and say you took the decision yourself,” Wilkerson said. Wilkerson praised his former boss at the State Department, but acknowledged that his recent criticisms had estranged him from Powell, who is known for preferring to work behind the scenes. In the spring of 2004, Wilkerson said, he was writing resignation letters “twice a week” but, out of loyalty to Powell, decided to stayed on. “Some nights, I wish I had [resigned],” he added. Of Powell, Wilkerson said, “The way they treated him in the end was humiliating, I think he wanted to leave.”

Forward.com

Osama Bin Laden Killed! Al Qaeda Disbands!! We Won!!!

2005-11-11T20:41:00.000-05:00

VICTORY DAY!!! Mark your calendar: November 11, 2005 -- the day we won The War On Terror!! Remember where you were when you heard! Tell your children to remember this day in history!!!

I guess we won, since Traitor-Dick-Cheney ain't got nothing better to do than go huntin' then go immediately on.... to... MORE VACATION!!!!!!

11/11/2005
Dick Cheney Wraps Up SD Hunting Trip

Vice President Dick Cheney left South Dakota Thursday after his annual pheasant hunting trip. He arrived at the Pierre airport in a 12-vehicle procession, waved to a small crowd as he entered the plane and took off about 12:45 this afternoon.

It is the fifth year Cheney has gone pheasant hunting in South Dakota as vice president. He arrived Monday and stayed at a private hunting lodge near Gettysburg.

keloland.com

American-Taliban Nut Job Invites God to Kill Americans!

2005-11-11T00:54:00.000-05:00

Nutjob: If you don't vote the way I think God wants you to, you should be killed!

Robertson warns Pennsylvania voters of God's wrath
Eight 'intelligent design' school board members lost election

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Conservative Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson told citizens of a Pennsylvania town that they had rejected God by voting their school board out of office for supporting "intelligent design" and warned them Thursday not to be surprised if disaster struck.

Robertson, a former Republican presidential candidate and founder of the influential Christian Broadcasting Network and Christian Coalition, has made similar apocalyptic warnings and provocative statements before.

Last summer, he hit the headlines by calling for the assassination of leftist Venezuelan Present Hugo Chavez, one of President George W. Bush's most vocal international critics.

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city," Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, "The 700 Club."

"And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there," he said.

The 700 Club claims a daily audience of around one million. It is also broadcast around the world translated into more than 70 languages.

In voting on Tuesday, eight Dover, Pennsylvania, school board members up for re-election lost their seats after trying to introduce a statement on "intelligent design" to high school biology students.....

CNN

Right Wing Nut Job Invites Bin Laden to Kill Americans!

2005-11-11T00:51:00.000-05:00

Right wing, warmonger, draft-dodger Bill O'Reilly says it is OK with him if Al Qaeda comes to America and kills people.

"...if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead..."

MediaMatters.org

The American People Come Through!

2005-11-11T00:43:00.000-05:00

Well, it took some time, but finally the American people wholheartedly reject the President and the Lying Torturing Republican Anti-American Party!

11/10/05 FOX Poll: President Bush's Ratings Continue to Suffer

NEW YORK — As investigations and accusations surround the White House, the latest FOX News poll finds President George W. Bush's approval rating at a record low for the second time in as many months.

Today, 36 percent of Americans approve and 53 percent disapprove of the job Bush is doing as president. For comparison, two weeks ago 41 percent said they approved and 51 percent disapproved, and at the beginning of his second term 50 percent approved and 40 percent disapproved (January 25-26)....

Fox-WhiteHouse-Propoganda-Channel

Republican Senators Hate the US Supreme Court.

2005-11-10T20:41:00.000-05:00

Senate Votes No Terror Suspects in Courts

WASHINGTON - The Senate voted Thursday to bar foreign terror suspects at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, from challenging their detentions in American courts, despite a Supreme Court ruling last year that granted access.

In a 49-42 vote, senators added the provision by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., to a sweeping defense policy bill....

Yahoo!

Bush's Texas Criminal Enron Buddies Re-Indicted.

2005-11-10T20:38:00.000-05:00

Five former Enron execs reindicted
They were tried together earlier only to have case end in a mistrial
By MARY FLOOD
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle

Three streamlined indictments against five former executives of Enron's Internet business were issued by a special Enron grand jury Wednesday.

The five were tried together earlier this year for more than three months only to have the case end largely in a mistrial. The jury failed to either fully exonerate any one defendant or to find anyone guilty of anything.

U.S. District Judge Vanessa Gilmore already set 2006 dates for the expected trio of retrials for the five now accused of fewer charges in these superseding indictments...

Houston Chronicle

Republicans Draft-Dodging Criminals Hate Our Veterans.

2005-11-10T20:36:00.000-05:00

Veterans Day Outrage: Conservatives End 55-Year-Old Practice of Hearings for Vet Groups

On Tuesday — three days before Veterans Day — House Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Steve Buyer (R-IN) announced that for the first time in at least 55 years, “veterans service organizations will no longer have the opportunity to present testimony before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committees.”

Remember that Buyer was handpicked by criminally-indicted Rep. Tom DeLay (R-TX) to replace former veterans committee chairman Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), who had been extremely vocal about the consistent underfunding of veterans causes.

The Disabled American Veterans, the “official voice of America’s service-connected disabled veterans,” just issued a scathing release calling the move “an insult to all who have fought, sacrificed and died to defend the Constitution.” The timing, they said, “could not have been worse.”

ThinkProgress.org

Torturing People is OK. Talking About it is a Crime!

2005-11-10T20:29:00.000-05:00

Almost unbelievable! The Senate Majority Leader doesn't know and doesn't want to know anything about any torture or anything!

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says he is more concerned about the leak of information regarding secret CIA detention centers than activity in the prisons themselves.

Frist told reporters Thursday that while he believed illegal activity should not take place at detention centers, he believes the leak itself poses a greater threat to national security and is "not concerned about what goes on" behind the prison walls.

"My concern is with leaks of information that jeopardize your safety and security — period," Frist said.

Yahoo!

PROOF THE US USES ILLEGAL CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN IRAQ.

2005-11-09T23:54:00.000-05:00

That's right. Not from Al Jazheera, or Al Arabiya, but the US fucking Army, in their very own publication, from the March edition of Field Artillery Magazine in an article entitled "The Fight for Fallujah":

DailyKOS.com

1984 Comes to Life. For Real.

2005-11-09T23:46:00.000-05:00

From a summary of the novel, 1984:

Winston Smith, the protagonist of Orwell's novel, becomes a Thought Criminal. A minor bureaucrat (an "Outer Party" member) his job is to actually rewrite the archives of the London Times so that they are consistent with current Ingsoc policy. When Ingsoc changes its political alliance with another superpower and begins waging war on a former ally, Winston's job is to rewrite all the prior information to show that the old alliance never existed. So addled are the minds of the people he meets that they don't even realize that these changes have been made. A sad, lonely man, Winston is also smart enough to understand the insidious manipulation being perpetrated on the society.

Newspeak.com

From what actually happened in the real White House on November 8, 2005:

Congressional Quarterly and FNS both transcribed Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s answer as “That’s accurate.” The White House transcript lists McClellan’s answer as “I don’t think that’s accurate.”

ThinkProgress.org

64 Year Old Republican Family Values: Abuse Your 29 Year Old Mistress!

2005-11-09T23:41:00.000-05:00

Rep. Don Sherwood reached a settlement Tuesday with a former mistress who accused him of abuse in a $5.5 million lawsuit, according to his lawyer.

Terms of the settlement between Sherwood, R-Pa., and Cynthia Ore, with whom he acknowledged a five-year affair, will remain confidential, said Paul Clark, a spokesman for Sherwood's attorney, Bobby Burchfield.

"Attorneys for Cynthia Ore and Congressman Don Sherwood announced today that their clients have resolved their differences, and the lawsuit will be dismissed," Clark said, reading from a statement.

Sherwood, 64, and Ore, 29 when the suit was filed in June, do not plan further comment, the statement said.

Ore's attorney, Patrick Regan, did not immediately return a message left at his office Tuesday evening.

The settlement was filed in federal court, Clark said.

Sherwood, a fourth-term congressman, is married with three daughters. He issued a statement this summer apologizing for the affair but denying he physically hurt Ore. He also said she never lived with him, which she had claimed in her lawsuit.

Ore filed suit after it became public that she called police from his Capitol Hill apartment on Sept. 15, 2004. According to the police report, Ore called 911 on her cell phone from the bathroom and reported that Sherwood had "choked her for no apparent reason."

Both parties said he was giving her a back rub, but he said she "jumped up" and ran to the bathroom.

Yahoo!

Torture. Why All The Fuss?

2005-11-09T23:37:00.000-05:00

Almost unbelievable. Fox-GOP-Propoganda-Channel actually says,

"WHY THE FUSS ABOUT TORTURING PEOPLE WHO WANT US DEAD?"

Think Progress

It's Not Fascism, When We Do It.

2005-11-09T13:24:00.000-05:00

Repressive regimes throughout history have all used the same tactics. Saying it can't happen here is required to allow it to happen here.

Use of chemical weapons? Check.
Secret prison camps? Check.
Torture? Check.
Domestic thuggery? Check.
Domestic spying? Check.
Massive push for government secrecy? Check.
Rigged elections? Check.
Atrocities? Check.

Blue Meme

Old American Century

Bush War Criminals using Chemical WMDs against Iraq.

2005-11-08T10:59:00.000-05:00

Italian state TV, Rai, has broadcast a documentary accusing the US military of using white phosphorus bombs against civilians in the Iraqi city of Falluja.

Rai says this amounts to the illegal use of chemical arms...

Eyewitnesses and ex-US soldiers say the weapon was used in built-up areas in the insurgent-held city...

The documentary begins with formerly classified footage of the Americans using napalm bombs during the Vietnam war.

It then shows a series of photographs from Falluja of corpses with the flesh burnt off but clothes still intact - which it says is consistent with the effects of white phosphorus on humans...

Jeff Englehart, described as a former US soldier who served in Falluja, tells of how he heard orders for white phosphorus to be deployed over military radio - and saw the results...

"Burned bodies, burned women, burned children; white phosphorus kills indiscriminately... When it makes contact with skin, then it's absolutely irreversible damage, burning flesh to the bone," he says...

BBC

Quagmire Defined

2005-11-08T10:44:00.000-05:00

Do you remember when the administration LIED us into war? Here is an awesome reminder:

Rumsfeld: It Would Be A Short War

"The idea that it's going to be a long, long, long battle of some kind I think is belied by the fact of what happened in 1990"...

"Five days or five weeks or five months, but it certainly isn't going to last any longer than that," he said...

Rumsfeld also told radio listeners it is impossible Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction. "What it would prove is that the inspections process had been successfully defeated by the Iraqis if they find nothing."

The conflict with Iraq is about weapons of mass destruction, Rumsfeld insisted...

"People say 'Where's the smoking gun?' Well, we don't want to see a smoking gun from a weapon of mass destruction," he said. "With a weapon of mass destruction you're not talking about 300 people or 3,000 people being killed, but 30,000 or a hundred thousand..."

Rumsfeld said the U.S. military at present is capable "to do the job and finish it fast"....

CBS News

Killing our Children, and our Children's Children.

2005-11-07T14:18:00.000-05:00

Read this very carefully! Because of the Republican Criminal misadventures in Iraq, the threat of terrorism around the world has DOUBLED. We will be paying for the mistakes of this administration for years. For generations.

U.S.: Zarqawi's Connections Grow Globally

U.S. intelligence officials say Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has expanded his terrorism campaign in Iraq to extremists in two dozen terror groups scattered across almost 40 countries, creating a network that rivals Osama bin Laden's.

In interviews, U.S. government officials said the threat to U.S. interests from al-Zarqawi compared with that from bin Laden, whom al-Zarqawi pledged his loyalty to one year ago.....

In figures not made public before, counterterrorism officials say that Zarqawi's network of contacts has grown dramatically since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and now includes associates in nearly 40 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe....

Current and former government officials say he moves as often as every four hours. They say he relies on an extensive ``early warning system'' of associates who use Iraq's cellular network, high-power cordless phones, computers and other means to let him know when U.S. and Iraqi forces are moving toward his location.

All these officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the information's sensitive nature.

Al-Zarqawi keeps a low profile and does not talk on cell phones, intelligence officials said. He is thought to be protected by various tribes, which, like all Muslims, follow a Quranic code requiring them to shelter one another.

He also is helped, said one U.S. intelligence official, by the fact that there is not a large, constant American military presence in Anbar, but rather pockets of forces that are bolstered during operations. Iraq's largely Shiite security forces do not want to go to the Sunni-dominated area, either.

His network remains somewhat of a puzzle. The U.S. officials say precise figures on its size are hard to come by, as are details about how his associates coordinate with the native Iraqi insurgency, largely made up of Sunnis.

Al-Zarqawi has 2,000 to 5,000 hard-core fighters, while the larger Iraqi insurgency easily numbers over 20,000, with over 100,000 broadly defined supporters.

The persistence of their attacks and subsequent media exposure have made al-Zarqawi the public face of al-Qaida and the broader insurgency. He has become so central to al-Qaida's operations that some evidence suggests he is providing money to bin Laden.

Al-Zawahri sees Iraq as the beginning of a campaign to set up an Islamic society in the Middle East and wants al-Zarqawi to think outside of Iraq.

Guardian

Criminally Negligent: Blair Buckles Before Bush.

2005-11-07T09:19:00.000-05:00

Meeting of the midget-minds

Blair's litany of failures on Iraq - ambassador's damning verdict
Meyer says PM failed to exert any leverage on Bush and was seduced by US power

Tony Blair repeatedly passed up opportunities to put a brake on the rush to war in Iraq, a failure that may have contributed to the country's present anarchy, according to Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain's ambassador to Washington at the time, in his book DC Confidential, serialised in the Guardian from today......

Guardian

"Wall of Shame" -- Bush admin officials guilty of criminal negelct.

2005-11-07T09:13:00.000-05:00

Tomgram: Failing upward, Bush-style

Wall of Shame (and perhaps an adjoining Wall of Cronyism) for an administration which has heaped favor, position, and honors on those who have blundered, lied, manipulated, and broken the law (not to say, cracked open the Constitution and the republic). Here is just a sampling of the band of culprits who might appear on such a wall and but a few of the things for which they might be held accountable......

tomdispatch.com

Cheney actually gets a hard-on just thinking about TORTURE!

2005-11-07T01:52:00.000-05:00

Cheney Fights for Detainee Policy
As Pressure Mounts to Limit Handling Of Terror Suspects, He Holds Hard Line

Over the past year, Vice President Cheney has waged an intense and largely unpublicized campaign to stop Congress, the Pentagon and the State Department from imposing more restrictive rules on the handling of terrorist suspects, according to defense, state, intelligence and congressional officials.

Last winter, when Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, began pushing to have the full committee briefed on the CIA's interrogation practices, Cheney called him to the White House to urge that he drop the matter, said three U.S. officials.

In recent months, Cheney has been the force against adding safeguards to the Defense Department's rules on treatment of military prisoners, putting him at odds with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and acting Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon R. England. On a trip to Canada last month, Rice interrupted a packed itinerary to hold a secure video-teleconference with Cheney on detainee policy to make sure no decisions were made without her input.

Just last week, Cheney showed up at a Republican senatorial luncheon to lobby lawmakers for a CIA exemption to an amendment by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) that would ban torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners. The exemption would cover the CIA's covert "black sites" in several Eastern European democracies and other countries where key al Qaeda captives are being kept......

WashingtonPost.com

Why to they hate us so much? Oh ya... because we TORTURE people!

2005-11-07T01:42:00.000-05:00

Ask any American soldier in Iraq when the general population really turned against the United States and he will say, "Abu Ghraib."

As President Bush's approval ratings sink at home, the glee across the globe rises. He remains the most unpopular political figure in the world, and newspapers from Europe to Asia are delighting in his troubles. Last week's protests in Mar del Plata were happily replayed on televisions everywhere. So what is the leader of the free world to do? Well, I have a suggestion that might improve Bush's image abroad—and it doesn't require that Karen Hughes go anywhere. It would actually help Bush at home as well, and it has the additional virtue of being the right thing to do. It's simple: end the administration's disastrous experiment with officially sanctioned torture......

MSNBC

White House full of criminals needs class on Treason 101.

2005-11-06T23:46:00.000-05:00

Bush Orders Staff to Attend Ethics Briefings
White House Counsel to Give 'Refresher' Course

President Bush has ordered White House staff to attend mandatory briefings beginning next week on ethical behavior and the handling of classified material after the indictment last week of a senior administration official in the CIA leak probe.

According to a memo sent to aides yesterday, Bush expects all White House staff to adhere to the "spirit as well as the letter" of all ethics laws and rules. As a result, "the White House counsel's office will conduct a series of presentations next week that will provide refresher lectures on general ethics rules, including the rules of governing the protection of classified information," according to the memo, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post by a senior White House aide.......

WashingtonPost.com

Republican draft-dodging criminals HATE OUR TROOPS!

2005-11-06T23:44:00.000-05:00

Guardsman re-enlists, Pentagon kills bonus
Officers from state try to restore $15,000 benefit

A Department of Defense decision to renege on war-time promises to pay bonuses to more than a dozen re-enlisting Washington National Guardsmen has sparked outrage from prominent elected officials and state National Guard officers working to rectify the situation.

According to a state Guard spokesman, Maj. Phil Osterli, at least 15 Washington National Guardsmen and women signed re-enlistment forms promising them a tax-free $15,000 bonus in return. Many of them were stationed in Iraq at the time, he said......

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER

The one Republican who is NOT a draft dodging criminal opposes torture.

2005-11-06T23:40:00.000-05:00

McCain vows to add torture ban to all major Senate legislation

....Speaking from the Senate floor, McCain said, "If necessary - and I sincerely hope it is not - I and the co-sponsors of this amendment will seek to add it to every piece of important legislation voted on in the Senate until the will of a substantial bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress prevails. Let no one doubt our determination...."

azcentral.com

Lying: another Republican Criminal Value!

2005-11-06T17:03:00.000-05:00

Click for larger picture

Daily Kos has a great post on how Kilgore (the Republican Criminal running for governor of Virginia) is distributing FALSE advertisements, to try to get Democrats to vote for a Republican whackjob (Potts, running as an Independent), to pull votes away from the real Democrat: Tim Kaine. Amazing! Liars! KKKArl Rove taught them well!!

Kos rain out of bandwidth, so we put a high-res image with the money-shot, above...

Now that we've got Al Qaeda licked, time to go after the BOOB criminals!!

2005-11-05T19:09:00.000-05:00

If Topless, They'll Be Busted
Peace group's members are told to keep shirts on at Capitol or they might be deemed sex offenders.
By Evan Halper
Times Staff Writer
Published November 5, 2005

SACRAMENTO — Topless women holding a protest may be ho-hum in San Francisco, but at the state Capitol, police say such a display could corrupt children, prompt drivers to veer off the road and cause sex offenders to run amok.

The California Highway Patrol has warned members of an organization called Breasts Not Bombs that if they dare to take their shirts off during a protest scheduled at the Capitol on Monday, they will be arrested and possibly forced to register with the state as sex offenders.

A federal judge on Friday said the state has every right to arrest them.

All of this was a shock to the leaders of the Mendocino-based group, which, according to its website, uses public breast-baring as a "forum to speak about the vulnerability of humanity and the earth." Bay Area protests by Breasts Not Bombs have yet to trigger even a disorderly conduct charge....

Chicago Tribune

Even John Dean, a Watergate criminal, thinks there are more criminals in the White House!

2005-11-05T19:05:00.000-05:00

A Cheney-Libby Conspiracy, Or Worse? Reading Between the Lines of the Libby Indictment

Having read the indictment against Libby, I am inclined to believe more will be issued. In fact, I will be stunned if no one else is indicted....

Indeed, when one studies the indictment, and carefully reads the transcript of the press conference, it appears Libby's saga may be only Act Two in a three-act play. And in my view, the person who should be tossing and turning at night, in anticipation of the last act, is the Vice President of the United States, Richard B. Cheney.....

FindLaw

If American is a Torture Nation, how is it different from Saddam, Hitler, or any other thug in history?

2005-11-05T18:58:00.000-05:00

Excellent summary in the LA Times.

Chalabi helped con us into war, right-wing draft-dodger think tank lets him speak

2005-11-05T18:56:00.000-05:00

The American Enterprise Institute is planning to host Ahmed Chalabi, Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister, for his first American speech in 2 1/2 years at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 9.

Chalabi should be in jail for the combination of espionage, lies, and deceit that he used to help seduce America into an invasion of Iraq that has left our nation's military and economic portfolio in tatters....

Washington Note

Bush steals land, makes $14.3 million

2005-11-05T18:53:00.000-05:00

Bush Condemned Property Via Eminent Domain to Build Rangers Stadium - And Made $14 Million Off the Deal

...The president may have a hard time keeping a straight face when he signs the bill, however. In his past life as a baseball team owner, Mr. Bush profited from exactly this sort of eminent domain eviction - to the tune of $14.3 million....

Pensito Review

[[update]]

Criminal Rumsfeld: Lies about Guantanamo prisoners

2005-11-05T18:38:00.000-05:00

....Since August 8, the number of detainees refusing to eat has risen from several dozen to about 128, about a quarter of the prison population, according to the Pentagon....

The doctor's statement also is at odds with Rumsfeld's report on Tuesday that 27 detainees were participating in hunger strike....

Many of the facility's roughly 500 prisoners have been held for more than three years without being charged or having access to a lawyer....

U.N. investigators recently were invited to visit the facility but were not granted the same access to the detainees as the International Committee of the Red Cross. Red Cross reports on detainees are confidential, while the United Nations makes its findings public....

CNN

Criminal! Republicans increase number of hungry Americans

2005-11-05T18:22:00.000-05:00

Hunger In America Rises By 43 Percent Over Last Five Years

Hunger in American households has risen by 43 percent over the last five years, according to an analysis of US Department of Agriculture (USDA) data released today. The analysis, completed by the Center on Hunger and Poverty at Brandeis University, shows that more than 7 million people have joined the ranks of the hungry since 1999.

The USDA report, Household Food Security in the United States, 2004, says that 38.2 million Americans live in households that suffer directly from hunger and food insecurity, including nearly 14 million children. That figure is up from 31 million Americans in 1999....

Science Daily

Oh, and big surprise, most of the rich in this country really are getting richer. Rich get richer, the poor starve to death...

Information Clearing House, Daily KOS, Truth About George, Food First, NYTimes.

Cheney: Stealing from the people of Iraq!

2005-11-05T02:02:00.000-05:00

U.S. Should Repay Millions to Iraq, a U.N. Audit Finds
An auditing board sponsored by the United Nations recommended yesterday that the United States repay as much as $208 million to the Iraqi government for contracting work in 2003 and 2004 assigned to Kellogg, Brown & Root, the Halliburton subsidiary. [Cheney-the-traitor is the former CEO of Halliburton]

NY Times

Republican criminals desperate to kill Big Bird!

2005-11-04T21:53:00.000-05:00

Is the only way a Republican can get anything done is by breaking the law?

Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, the head of the federal agency that oversees most government broadcasts to foreign countries, including the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, is the subject of an inquiry into accusations of misuse of federal money and the use of phantom or unqualified employees, officials involved in that examination said Friday, the New York Times' Stephen Labaton is set to splash on Saturday's page one, RAW STORY has learned. Tomlinson was ousted from CPB Thursday.

RawStory

More in the NY Times

Criminal Republican Congressman Bob Ney gets subpoenaed

2005-11-04T21:48:00.000-05:00

Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio has been subpoenaed by the Justice Department to provide documents related to the government's investigation of indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff [the Republican super-criminal, see prior post], Ney's office said Friday....

Yahoo!

Tom "Crimewave" Delay's REAL troubles

2005-11-04T21:35:00.000-05:00

Delay is probably going to be convicted of money laundering in violation of Texas law. But even more damning is the evidence of his entanglement with the indicted super-criminal Jack Abramoff:

Representative Tom DeLay asked the lobbyist Jack Abramoff to raise money for him through a private charity controlled by Mr. Abramoff, an unusual request that led the lobbyist to try to gather at least $150,000 from his Indian tribe clients and their gambling operations, according to newly disclosed e-mail from the lobbyist's files.

The electronic messages from 2002, which refer to "Tom" and "Tom's requests," appear to be the clearest evidence to date of an effort by Mr. DeLay, a Texas Republican, to pressure Mr. Abramoff and his lobbying partners to raise money for him. The e-mail messages do not specify why Mr. DeLay wanted the money, how it was to be used or why he would want money raised through the auspices of a private charity.

"Did you get the message from the guys that Tom wants us to raise some bucks from Capital Athletic Foundation?" Mr. Abramoff asked a colleague in a message on June 6, 2002, referring to the charity. "I have six clients in for $25K. I recommend we hit everyone who cares about Tom's requests. I have another few to hit still."

The e-mail was addressed to Tony Rudy, who had been Mr. DeLay's chief of staff in the House before joining Mr. Abramoff's lobbying firm. Mr. Abramoff said it would be good "if we can do $200K" for Mr. DeLay.

The e-mail traffic was released this week by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, which has conducted a yearlong investigation into whether Mr. Abramoff and a business partner, Michael Scanlon, Mr. DeLay's former House press secretary, defrauded Indian tribe clients and their gambling operations out of tens of millions of dollars. There was no immediate comment on the e-mail from spokesmen for Mr. Abramoff or Mr. DeLay, who has stepped down as House majority leader because of an unrelated criminal indictment in his home state.

The Justice Department signaled last month that it was investigating the propriety of Mr. DeLay's ties to Mr. Abramoff, including trips that the lobbyist organized for Mr. DeLay and his wife. Mr. Abramoff is under indictment in a separate federal fraud investigation in Florida....

NYTimes

Finally! Real support to impeach the Republican Criminals!

2005-11-04T21:26:00.000-05:00

New Poll Shows Majority of Americans Support Impeachment;

By a margin of 53% to 42%, Americans want Congress to impeach President Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

The poll was conducted by Zogby International, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,200 U.S. adults from October 29 through November 2.

The poll found that 53% agreed with the statement:

"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."

"These results are stunning," said AfterDowningStreet.org co-founder Bob Fertik. "A clear majority of Americans now supports President Bush's impeachment if he lied about the war. This should send shock waves through the White House - and a wake-up call to Democrats and Republicans in Congress, who have sole power under the Constitution to impeach President Bush."

ImpeachPAC

Criminal House Republican leadership endorses torture!

2005-11-04T21:23:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON, Nov. 3 - The House Republican [criminal] leadership has delayed a vote on a proposed ban against cruel and degrading treatment of prisoners in American custody, and Democrats say the move is an effort to spare Vice President Dick Cheney [criminal] an embarrassing defeat.

House Democrats, led by Representative John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, had planned to offer a motion this week to endorse language in a military spending bill, written by Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, that would prohibit abusive treatment of terror suspects. The motion would instruct House negotiators to adopt Mr. McCain's precise language, which the Senate approved last month, 90 to 9. The White House has threatened to veto any bill containing the provision, saying it would restrict the president's ability to fight terrorism and protect the country.

NYTimes

Criminal Republican Gov. of Illinois hears damning testimony at his trial

2005-11-04T21:18:00.000-05:00

"The only way you can do that is if you can write four checks out, one to me, one to my wife, one to my son and one to my daughter-in-law, for $500 each..."

Chicago Tribune

Is Saddam Hussein Cheney's Role Model?

2005-11-04T21:05:00.000-05:00

"The United States doesn't engage in torture," but Dick Cheney sure wants to!

Vice President Dick Cheney made an unusual personal appeal to Republican senators this week to allow CIA exemptions to a proposed ban on the torture of terror suspects in U.S. custody, according to participants in a closed-door session.

Cheney told his audience the United States doesn't engage in torture, these participants added, even though he said the administration needed an exemption from any legislation banning "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment in case the president decided one was necessary to prevent a terrorist attack.

Cheney's decision to speak at the meeting underscored both his role as White House point man on the contentious issue and the importance the administration attaches to it.

Cheney's appeal came two days before a former senior State Department official claimed in an interview with National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" that he had traced paperwork back to Cheney's office that he believes led to U.S. troops abusing prisoners in Iraq.

"It was clear to me there that there was a visible audit trail from the vice president's office through the secretary of defense down to the commanders in the field," Lawrence Wilkerson, a former colonel who was Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff during President Bush's first term, said Thursday.

Yahoo!

President Retard

2005-11-04T21:00:00.000-05:00

Gratuitous I know, but what else would you call him?

Yahoo

Criminal Republican Governor of Ohio: has a Libby problem!

2005-11-04T20:57:00.000-05:00

A second former high-ranking aide to Gov. Bob Taft may face criminal charges for accepting a loan and free meals from GOP fund-raiser Tom Noe.

The state Ethics Commission has referred its investigation of Douglas Moormann, who served as the governor’s executive assistant for business and industry, to prosecutors for review, said Lara Baker, chief legal counsel for the Columbus prosecutor’s office.

Yesterday, Ms. Baker said no decision had been made on whether to file charges against Mr. Moormann, who received a $5,000 loan from Mr. Noe in 2004, after he had left the governor’s office....

Toledo Blade

Republican American Values: TORTURE

2005-11-03T11:23:00.000-05:00

Republican American Values: Torture, secret prisons, people caused to "disappear," "Enhanced Interrogation Techniques," and "rendition."

Secret "Black" CIA Torture Prisons

"The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe..."

"The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago..."

"The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions."

"Virtually nothing is known about who is kept in the facilities, what interrogation methods are employed with them, or how decisions are made about whether they should be detained or for how long."

"...the CIA has not even acknowledged the existence of its black sites."

"It is illegal for the government to hold prisoners in such isolation in secret prisons in the United States, which is why the CIA placed them overseas...

Washington Post

More Torture Photos

Torture Photos on Fli ckr

Col. Janis Karpinski: Blame "Goes All the Way to The Top"

How the military hid "ghost detainees" from the International Red Cross in violation of international law;
Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller calling for the Gitmoization of Abu Ghraib and for prisoners to be "treated like dogs";
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's secret memos on interrogation policies that hung on the prison’s walls;
The military’s use of private (and possibly Israeli) interrogators;
Her dealings with the International Red Cross;
Why she feels, as a female general, she has been scapegoated for a scandal that has left the military and political leadership unscathed; and
Calls for Donald Rumsfeld, Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, Alberto Gonzalez and Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller to be held accountable for what happened.

includes rush transcript....

Democracy Now!

Donald Rumsfeld has LIED TO CONGRESS about Torture

Army Capt. Ian Fishback is plainly a very brave man. Not only has the 26-year-old West Pointer done a tour in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, he has had the guts to suggest publicly that his boss, Donald Rumsfeld, lied to Congress. After making headlines a month ago for alleging that systematic interrogation abuses occurred in Iraq—and that the Pentagon was not forthright about it...

...a growing critical mass of soldiers is coming forward with allegations of abuse...

There were freaking horrible things people were doing. I saw [detainees] who had feet smashed with hammers. One detainee told me he had been forced by Marines to sit on an exhaust pipe, and he had a softball-sized blister to prove it.

Fishback has also won a devoted and powerful ally in Sen. John McCain, who says that the captain's tale "is what I view as the tip of the iceberg in the military today."

MSNBC

When Saddam does torture it is bad. But it is OK for me to torture people!

"Iraq is free of rape rooms and torture chambers."

"We know about the rape rooms and the torture chambers of Saddam Hussein's regime. We welcome their decision to move forward on a tribunal to hold people accountable for those atrocities."

"One thing is for certain: There won't be any more mass graves and torture rooms and rape rooms."

"Iraqi men and women are no longer carried to torture chambers and rape rooms"

"Every woman in Iraq is better off because the rape rooms and torture chambers of Saddam Hussein are forever closed."

"They could torture people and have rape rooms, and the world would turn their head from that and let it happen. But they can't do that anymore."

"There are no more rape rooms and torture chambers in Iraq."

"Iraq was a unique situation because Saddam Hussein had constantly defied the world and had threatened his neighbors, had used weapons of mass destruction, had terrorist ties, had torture chambers"

-- Bush and the other Republican Criminals in his administration

Slate: Rape Rooms

Bush is serious: he REALLY wants to torture people!

The Bush administration pledged yesterday to veto legislation banning the torture of prisoners by US troops after an overwhelming and almost unprecedented revolt by loyalist congressmen.

The late-night Senate vote saw the measure forbidding torture passed by 90 to nine, with most Republicans backing the measure. Most senators said the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal and similar allegations at the Guantanamo Bay prison rendered the result a foregone conclusion.

The administration's extraordinary isolation was underlined when the Senate Republican majority leader, Bill Frist, supported the amendment.

The man behind the legislation, Republican Senator John McCain, who was tortured as a prisoner in Vietnam, said the move was backed by American soldiers. His amendment would prohibit the "cruel, inhumane or degrading" treatment of prisoners in the custody of America's defence department.

Telegraph

"Become like an animal"

The story that broke the story on “extraordinary rendition,” also known as outsourcing torture:

On January 27th, President Bush, in an interview with the Times, assured the world that “torture is never acceptable, nor do we hand over people to countries that do torture.” Maher Arar, a Canadian engineer who was born in Syria, was surprised to learn of Bush’s statement. Two and a half years ago, American officials, suspecting Arar of being a terrorist, apprehended him in New York and sent him back to Syria, where he endured months of brutal interrogation, including torture....

New Yorker

Oh by the way, torture does NOT work!

Forget, for a moment, the legal and moral questions surrounding government-sanctioned torture and consider the practical one: Does it produce useful information?

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who was tortured repeatedly during his 5½ years of solitary confinement in North Vietnam, answers no: The tortured will say anything to stop the pain.

McCain's insight offers lessons for U.S. conduct in the war on terror: Abusing prisoners elicits intelligence of questionable worth. It also unquestionably undercuts American values and produces international revulsion.

McCain and a majority of senators from both parties understand this. The Bush administration still doesn't get it....

USA Today

Yet another Republican Sex Criminal goes to jail

2005-11-02T13:14:00.000-05:00

State Rep. Galen Fox abruptly announced yesterday he will resign after being convicted of a federal misdemeanor for fondling a woman on a flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles last December.

Fox, a Republican who represents Waikiki, Ala Moana and Kaka'ako in the state House of Representatives, was convicted last month in federal court in Los Angeles. A misdemeanor carries a penalty of up to a year in jail...
Honolulu Advertiser

FEMA, DHS, NRC show how prepared they are to stop Nukes

2005-11-01T18:31:00.000-05:00

Condi Rice made it clear: one of the important justifications for going to war with Iraq, even though they didn't attack us, was they might have nukes. Unfortunately now that she and Bush and all the criminals are in charge of our homeland security, the terrorists can come to the US and get their hands on highly-enriched, bomb-grade nuclear materials -- right out of our unguarded reactors!

Gaping Lapses in Security at Nuclear Reactors

A four-month ABC News investigation found gaping security holes at many of the little-known nuclear research reactors operating on 25 college campuses across the country. Among the findings: unmanned guard booths, a guard who appeared to be asleep, unlocked building doors and, in a number of cases, guided tours that provided easy access to control rooms and reactor pools that hold radioactive fuel.

ABC News found none of the college reactors had metal detectors, and only two appear to have armed guards. Many of the schools permit vehicles in close proximity to the reactor buildings without inspection for explosives.

ABC News

Condoleezza Rice on the importance of going to war over Nukes

"We know that he has the infrastructure, nuclear scientists to make a nuclear weapon," she told me. "And we know that when the inspectors assessed this after the Gulf War, he was far, far closer to a crude nuclear device than anybody thought -- maybe six months from a crude nuclear device."

Dr. Rice then said something that was ominous and made headlines around the world.

"The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."

CNN

Why is Bin Laden still alive and planning to KILL you? MORE Bush lies!

2005-11-01T18:11:00.000-05:00

Exclusive: CIA Commander: U.S. Let bin Laden Slip Away

Newsweek

Aug. 15, 2005 issue - During the 2004 presidential campaign, George W. Bush and John Kerry battled about whether Osama bin Laden had escaped from Tora Bora in the final days of the war in Afghanistan. Bush, Kerry charged, "didn't choose to use American forces to hunt down and kill" the leader of Al Qaeda. The president called his opponent's allegation "the worst kind of Monday-morning quarterbacking." Bush asserted that U.S. commanders on the ground did not know if bin Laden was at the mountain hideaway along the Afghan border.

But in a forthcoming book, the CIA field commander for the agency's Jawbreaker team at Tora Bora, Gary Berntsen, says he and other U.S. commanders did know that bin Laden was among the hundreds of fleeing Qaeda and Taliban members. Berntsen says he had definitive intelligence that bin Laden was holed up at Tora Bora—intelligence operatives had tracked him—and could have been caught. "He was there," Berntsen tells NEWSWEEK. Asked to comment on Berntsen's remarks, National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones passed on 2004 statements from former CENTCOM commander Gen. Tommy Franks. "We don't know to this day whether Mr. bin Laden was at Tora Bora in December 2001," Franks wrote in an Oct. 19 New York Times op-ed. "Bin Laden was never within our grasp." Berntsen says Franks is "a great American. But he was not on the ground out there. I was."

Newsweek

Jawbreaker' Author Struggles to Break His Story

Updated: Friday, Oct. 14, 2005 - 3:53 PM

J.J. Green, FederalNewsRadio

WASHINGTON -- A "highly decorated" former CIA operative has run into what he calls "resistance" from the agency as he seeks to publish an eye-opening book about the U.S. attempt to capture Osama bin Laden in the months after September 11, 2001.

In an exclusive interview, author Gary Bernsten says the "Jawbreaker" manuscript was submitted to the agency on May 17, 2005.

He says after 98 days and a lawsuit to force the agency to move on it, the manuscript was returned to him on August 23 with 22 pages of redactions. He says he made the changes within two weeks and returned the manuscript to the CIA for further review. And there it sits.

An agency spokeswoman says it is their policy to vet "manuscripts and return them within 30 days except when they contain excessive amounts of classified information."

"Jawbreaker" contains previously unreleased, sensitive details about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden and CIA operations in Afghanistan. Much of the story takes place in the rugged terrain of Tora Bora, Afghanistan in December of 2001.

"Osama was there, we were aware he was there, and we were doing everything in our power to capture, kill him, and destroy his forces," says Bernsten, who was the leader of a secret CIA paramilitary unit pursuing bin Laden.

n the battle on the Shomali Plains leading up to Tora Bora, he says U.S forces and Northern Alliance allies were surrounded and outnumbered.

Bernsten says, "I was commanding a unit of about 50 men and the Northern Alliance had six to eight thousand men there, the Taliban and Al Qaida had over 12,000. And they had a desire to engulf our people where they were."

His story details the valiant fight his CIA team put up to survive and win.

"Our special forces fought like Lions. "I lost no one. I had none of my men killed or captured."

Bernsten's story talks in explicit detail about the chase after bin Laden including, "My command of teams that were in Talaquan, Shomali Plains which was the battle for Kabul and those events that led us into Tora Bora."

And the book details how bin Laden escaped.

Bernsten, who retired from the Agency in June 2005 says he's taken great pride in serving the CIA and his country, and wrote the book to set the record straight about what happened in the run up to, and the showdown at, Tora Bora.

That's where the rub is.

He says the CIA, after Michael Scheuer's explosive book "Imperial Hubris," is "concerned" about information getting out that could paint it in a bad light. But his attorney Roy Kreiger says the agency has had more than ample time to review the book.
Federal News Radio

Former President George Bush endorses the DEATH PENALTY for Libby and other traitors!

2005-11-01T15:01:00.000-05:00

Former President Bush:

What do we need intelligence for? My answer to that is we have plenty of enemies. Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism. These and more. Many more. To combat them we need more intelligence, not less. We need more human intelligence. That means we need more protection for the methods we use to gather intelligence and more protection for our sources, particularly our human sources, people that are risking their lives for their country.

I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious, of traitors.

Remarks By George Bush
41st President of the United States
26 April 1999
CIA Headquarters

Special Counsel PATRICK J. FITZGERALD

f. Joseph Wilson was married to Valerie Plame Wilson (“Valerie Wilson”). At all relevant times from January 1, 2002 through July 2003, Valerie Wilson was employed by the CIA, and her employment status was classified. Prior to July 14, 2003, Valerie Wilson’s affiliation with the CIA was not common knowledge outside the intelligence community.
Office of Special Counsel
October 28, 2005 Indictment: US v Libby

George Bush is LOSING the War on Terror

2005-11-01T14:42:00.000-05:00

Bush critics say US is losing war on terror

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. terrorism experts Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon have reached a stark conclusion about the war on terrorism: the United States is losing.

...President George W. Bush's policies have created a new haven for terrorism in Iraq that escalates the potential for Islamic violence against Europe and the United States.

America's badly damaged image in the Muslim world could take more than a generation to set right. [that can be read: Expect terrorist attacks on the US for at least the next 20 years] And Bush's mounting political woes at home have undermined the chance for any bold U.S. initiatives to address the grim social realities that feed Islamic radicalism, they say.

"It's been fairly disastrous," said Benjamin, who worked as a director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council from 1994 to 1999.

"We have had some very important successes getting individual terrorists. But I think the broader story is really quite awful. We have done a lot to fuel the fires, and we have done a lot to encourage people to hate us," he added in an interview.

Yahoo!