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FBI Intimidation By Barry @ 8:40 pm -- CST (12-30-06) They don't like social movements. They work for the establishment and the corporations and the politicos to keep things as they are. And they want to frighten and chill the people who are trying to change things. So the best defense against them and resistance against them is simply to keep on fighting back, to keep on exposing them. That's all I have to say.| -------------------------------------------------- Pentagon Seeks Nearly $100 Billion for Iraq By Barry @ 1:40 pm -- CST (12-30-06) 2007 looks to be another banner year for Haliburton. | -------------------------------------------------- Saddam Hussein Executed By Barry @ 8:20 am -- CST (12-30-06) While few can argue Saddam had it coming, the real Iraqi criminals are those who collaborated with the Americans and plunged Iraq into chaos and mayhem. If those responsible for war crimes in Iraq are to be executed, the list of deserving candidates does not begin and end with Saddam Hussein. | -------------------------------------------------- Air Force Vet Who Viewed Bin Laden as a "Hero" Has Conviction Affirmed By Barry @ 3:00 pm -- CST (12-29-06) This defendant, who had access to sensitive military data, arguably failed to disclose his prior disciplinary issues when applying as a federal baggage screener. When reading the case, I was struck how open the defendant was in proclaiming his allegiance to Bin Laden while on active duty for the Air Force. | -------------------------------------------------- Saddam's Execution "Imminent" By Barry @ 7:50 am -- CST (12-29-06) In Bush's twisted world view, bringing "freedom" to Iraq begins with executing its previous leader. A wonderful example for all Iraqis to follow. | -------------------------------------------------- Ford: Invasion/Occupation of Iraq a Mistake By Barry @ 2:50 pm -- CST (12-28-06) Ford expressed his opinions on the war to Bob Woodward in a four-hour taped interview. Interestingly, Ford conditioned release of the interview so that it would only be available after his death. | -------------------------------------------------- Ex-Interior Secretary Norton to Join Shell as Counsel By Steve @ 9:25 am -- CST (12-28-06) Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA) Wednesday said it hired Gale Norton to serve as a counsel for the oil giant. The move comes amid rising scrutiny on Capitol Hill of Norton's former agency's dealings with the oil industry. | -------------------------------------------------- Waxman Sets Sights on 'Very Long List' By Steve @ 9:25 am -- CST (12-28-06) He has been called "the Eliot Ness of the Democrats" by Nation magazine, and aims to go after the Republican administration with zeal over the coming two years. "The most difficult thing will be to pick and choose" what to investigate, Waxman told reporters after the November elections. | -------------------------------------------------- FBI Says Files In Leak Cases Are 'Missing' By Steve @ 9:15 am -- CST (12-28-06) The FBI is missing nearly a quarter of its files relating to investigations of recent leaks of classified information, according to a court filing the bureau made last week. In response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the FBI said it identified 94 leak investigations since 2001, but that the investigative files in 22 of those case "are missing" and cannot be located. | -------------------------------------------------- British Soldiers Storm Iraqi Jail By Steve @ 9:00 am -- CST (12-28-06) Hundreds of British and Iraqi soldiers assaulted a police station in the southern city of Basra, killing seven gunmen, rescuing 127 prisoners from what the British said was almost certain execution and ultimately reducing the facility to rubble. They found "appalling" detainee conditions. "More than 100 men were crowded into a single cell, 30 feet by 40 feet, he said, with two open toilets...A significant number showed signs of torture. Some had crushed hands and feet, while others had cigarette and electrical burns and a significant number had gunshot wounds to their legs and knees." | -------------------------------------------------- Court Sides with NSA, Refuses Disclosure By Barry @ 8:20 am -- CST (12-27-06) "It short-circuits the adversary system, and it prevents the issues from being litigated," a lawyer who has filed a motion for disclosure regarding the NSA program, Malick Ghachem, said. "I haven't found a single judge so far who has been willing to take a serious look at this or at least let the defendants know they are taking a serious look at it." | -------------------------------------------------- Chris Christie Named New Jersey Lawyer of the Year By Barry @ 8:10 am -- CST (12-27-06) Heading the same US attorney office that burdened the nation with Samuel Alito and Michael Chertoff, Christie hopes to be the "next big thing" to come out of New Jersey. Like his predecessors, Christie's specialty is pursuing low value, high publicity cases which do little for the public, but guarantee big headlines and assist his climb up the judicial-corporate ladder. | -------------------------------------------------- Biden Wants Rice Under Oath By Barry @ 10:20 pm -- CST (12-26-06) Rice fought until the end to resist a previous appearance before Congress and figures to employ all available tactics to avoid Biden's new invitation. | -------------------------------------------------- End of The Line for RICO? By Barry @ 12:20 pm -- CST (12-26-06) Juries appear to be increasingly hesitant to buy into creative theories of prosecution which jail people for decades. Some recent high-profile set-backs for the prosecution suggest RICO cases are becoming hard to sell to juries. | -------------------------------------------------- Bush Continues to Ignore Electorate By Barry @ 8:30 am -- CST (12-26-06) "I've seen very few tea leaves in the mix that would give you any sense of hope or confidence that he is getting it so far," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, who supports the study group's advice that the administration seek help from Iran and Syria in Iraq. "The bottom line is this president can't afford not to change course. The time is up." | -------------------------------------------------- Man Accused After 9/11 Speaks Out By Barry @ 8:10 am -- CST (12-25-06) "It was unbelievable, like a movie or something," Awadallah said. "I couldn't believe that was happening." | -------------------------------------------------- Ten Years in Jail for Selling Light Bulbs By Barry @ 8:00 am -- CST (12-25-06) The regime continues to claim the "terrorists" are coming, but endless resources continue to be wasted on meaningless prosecutions. | -------------------------------------------------- Exxon Valdez Damage Award Halved By Barry @ 7:20 am -- CST (12-24-06) Great story to bury on a Saturday. | -------------------------------------------------- U.S. Military Officials: Bush Trying To Bribe Us To Support Iraq Escalation By Steve @ 8:30 am -- CST (12-23-06) Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski said that many military officials are "suspicious" of President Bush's announcement that he plans to increase the size of the armed forces. They believe that "he's dangling that offer out there in an effort to buy the military support for the option to surge additional American troops into Iraq as if it's some kind of tradeoff." Miklaszewski added that military leaders are opposed to an increase in U.S. troops in Iraq, believing it would "be like throwing kerosene on a fire." | -------------------------------------------------- Poll: Bush Not Trustworthy, Doesn't Share Values, no Longer Inspires Confidence By Steve @ 8:20 am -- CST (12-23-06) President Bush faces some discouraging poll numbers as the year many have called the most challenging of his presidency comes to an end. A majority of the American people, 55 percent, no longer believe Bush shares their values. They also are not sure if he is honest and trustworthy or if he understands complex issues, a CNN poll released Thursday reports. | -------------------------------------------------- Homeland Security Forced To Admit They Violated Privacy Law By Steve @ 8:10 am -- CST (12-23-06) Secure Flight, the U.S. government's stalled program to screen domestic air passengers against terrorism watch lists, violated federal law during a crucial test phase, according to a report to be issued today by the Homeland Security Department's privacy office. The agency found that by gathering passenger data from commercial brokers in 2004 without notifying the passengers, the program violated a 1974 Privacy Act requirement that the public be made aware of any changes in a federal program that affects the privacy of U.S. citizens. | -------------------------------------------------- Rice: Iraq Sacrifices Worthwhile By Barry @ 2:10 pm -- CST (12-22-06) This insane assertion barely warrants a response, but its mere utterance is admittedly newsworthy. No sane person could possibly believe this, so it appears Ms. Rice is likely either insane or blatantly lying. Considering some of her previous statements ("I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center."), it is also possible that Ms. Rice is just another career government bureaucrat who has no idea of what they are doing and is in way over her head. Whatever the cause of her ignorance, it is shocking to hear such a statement when it is clear to almost all observers that the Iraq mis-adventure is arguably the greatest military blunder in the last 2000 years of recorded history. And getting worse every day. | -------------------------------------------------- Incarceration Nation By Barry @ 2:00 pm -- CST (12-22-06) The United States has now become the world leader in its rate of incarceration, locking up its citizens at 5-8 times the rate of other industrialized nations. In other words, one must look to nations like Iran and Saudi Arabia to find "justice" systems as offensive as the US. | -------------------------------------------------- Thoughts on a Punk President By Barry @ 1:50 pm -- CST (12-22-06) "Behind his smile and his smirk...he was a very insecure, cunning and vengeful guy." "He was just badly brought up, with no discipline, and no compassion." [Ibid] In conservative Lebanon, Pennsylvania, where I grew up during the 1950s and 1960s, such people were called "punks." | -------------------------------------------------- CIA Censored Op-Ed Because It Was Forced To 'Bow To The White House' By Steve @ 11:40 am -- CST (12-22-06) Middle East analyst Flynt Leverett, who served under President Bush on the National Security Council and is now a fellow at the New America Foundation, revealed last week that the White House has been blocking the publication of an op-ed he wrote for the New York Times. The column is critical of the administration's refusal to engage Iran. The Op-Ed article we wrote for The Times, was blacked out by the Central Intelligence Agency's Publication Review Board after the White House intervened in the normal prepublication review process and demanded substantial deletions. Agency officials told us that they had concluded on their own that the original draft included no classified material, but that they had to bow to the White House. | -------------------------------------------------- Wrongful Conviction Reversed, Almost By Barry @ 10:50 am -- CST (12-22-06) The freedom of the man, Joshua Rivera, who has been in prison for 13 years and began the day facing at least an additional 24, came at a high legal cost. After saying that the murder conviction should be overturned, Queens prosecutors then insisted that Mr. Rivera plead guilty to manslaughter before his release. To date, prosecutors have taken no public action to pursue the man identified by the new witnesses as being the killer of Mr. Aquino. | -------------------------------------------------- Bush Delusional By Barry @ 1:10 pm -- CST (12-21-06) While this may be news for some, it merely confirms what most people have long suspected. | -------------------------------------------------- FBI Kept Extensive Tabs on John Lennon By Barry @ 1:00 pm -- CST (12-21-06) While it is no surprise that the government amassed files on John Lennon, the extent of the effort borders on the absurd. Then again, it is important to keep in mind that the person orchestrating the government's effort was none other than J. Edgar Hoover, an absurd being if there ever was one. | -------------------------------------------------- Bush Cracks Down on Gitmo Detainees, Despite Overwhelming Evidence Most are Not Terrorists By Steve @ 8:20 am -- CST (12-21-06) The U.S. is holding hundreds of innocent people at its detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Military authorities at Guantanamo have decided to tighten the screws on detainees because it has been determined that the U.S. has been too kind and accommodating to them. | -------------------------------------------------- Right-Wing Radio Host Wants Dissenters Rounded up And Put in Detention Camps By Steve @ 8:20 am -- CST (12-21-06) Yesterday on Fox News, talk radio host Mike Gallagher said the U.S. government should "round up" actor Matt Damon, Joy Behar, and MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann and "put them in a detention camp until this war is over because they're a bunch of traitors." And earlier this year, Gallagher was one of five conservative talk radio hosts invited to the White House to meet with President Bush. 
| -------------------------------------------------- Warning of Police State By Barry @ 9:50 am -- CST (12-20-06) The theme of "Government vs. the People" used to be found primarily in Third World literature, but has now become an issue facing all Americans. Contrary to those buying into the phony "War on Terror," the greatest threat facing ordinary citizens is a government out of control and vested with powers reminiscent of Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany. | -------------------------------------------------- American Whistleblower Detained And Tortured in Iraq By Barry @ 11:10 am -- CST (12-19-06) America is no longer content with illegally detaining and denying due process to non-citizens. Now the same illegal tactics are routinely being used against American citizens. The complete lack of accountability we are witnessing can only lead to more of the same. There must be a downside to flagrant violations of constitutionally guaranteed rights. | -------------------------------------------------- Bush Threatens CIA Critic With Prosecution By Barry @ 11:00 am -- CST (12-19-06) "The claim [that the article contains classified information] is false, if not fraudulent," said Mr Leverett. "The people making this claim know it is not true ... This is an abuse of the pre-publication review policy to silence an opponent of their policies." | -------------------------------------------------- NYC Police Attack Journalists, Steal Camera By Barry @ 10:50 am -- CST (12-19-06) This is the ultimate result of zero police accountability. Rather than temper their acts and conform with the law, the police simply beat reporters and steal incriminating images. The Bush Crime Family's contempt for the law is filtering down to local police departments with deadly results. | -------------------------------------------------- Pentagon: Iraq Violence Currently at Highest Levels By Barry @ 10:40 am -- CST (12-19-06) In other words, it's getting worse every day. | -------------------------------------------------- Active Duty Soldiers Call for Iraq Withdrawal By Barry @ 10:30 am -- CST (12-19-06) "I joined up two weeks after I turned 17 because I wanted to save American lives. I wanted to be a hero like any American child. I supported the war when I joined because I thought it was justified. Only after my own research and the truth coming out did I learn how wrong I was, how--for lack of a better word--how brainwashed I was. Now I know the war is illegal, unjustified and that our troops have no reason for being there. When I saw an article about the Appeal in the Air Force Times I went online right away and signed it and have encouraged others to do the same." | -------------------------------------------------- Bush Admin Won't Release Iraq Attack Numbers By Steve @ 11:00 am -- CST (12-18-06) Sometimes numbers tell a story better than any amount of words can. But that's only if the public gets to see them. The GAO put together a chart of attacks in Iraq for every month, from May of 2003 to August of 2006. Then it suddenly stops at August, and they refuse to release the numbers for September, October, and November. For some unknown reason the military has decided to classify those numbers and will not release them. | -------------------------------------------------- California And Florida Suspend Executions By Steve @ 10:30 am -- CST (12-18-06) Faced with grim testimony of poorly trained executioners operating in cramped, dimly lit quarters, a federal judge declared California's execution procedure unconstitutional. The decision is the latest in a nationwide challenge to lethal injection - the preferred execution method in 37 states - and came as Florida Gov. Jeb Bush suspended all executions there after a bungled execution this week. | -------------------------------------------------- Three Possible Outcomes for America's Worst Presidency By Barry @ 10:55 am -- CST (12-17-06) "The old European and Ottoman empires would often breed entirely within royal families. This would from time to time produce a mentally handicapped heir to the throne. None of them have ever made a mistake as large as the one Bush would make if he attacked Iran without a legitimate military provocation." | -------------------------------------------------- Retrial Likely for Medical Marijuana Grower By Barry @ 10:30 am -- CST (12-17-06) Federal prosecutors claim to need additional tools to fight "terra," but have limitless resources for nonsensical cases like this. | -------------------------------------------------- Disorder Results in Acquittal By Barry @ 9:30 am -- CST (12-16-06) "(Federal prosecutors) win about 98 percent of their cases. This is like the lamb slaughtering the butcher. The little guy won," Stobbs said. "This is a huge victory. This guy got exactly what he deserved, which was acquittal." | -------------------------------------------------- Some Gitmo Detainees Freed Elsewhere By Steve @ 7:30 am -- CST (12-16-06) The Pentagon called them "among the most dangerous, best-trained, vicious killers on the face of the earth," sweeping them up after Sept. 11 and hauling them in chains to a U.S. military prison in southeastern Cuba. Since then, hundreds of the men have been transferred from Guantanamo Bay to other countries, many of them for "continued detention." And then set free. Once the detainees arrived in other countries, 205 of the 245 were either freed without being charged or were cleared of charges related to their detention at Guantanamo. Only forty either stand charged with crimes or continue to be detained. | -------------------------------------------------- UK: Diplomat's Suppressed Document Lays Bare The Lies Behind Iraq War By Steve @ 11:30 am -- CST (12-15-06) The Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. A devastating attack on Mr Blair's justification for military action by Carne Ross, Britain's key negotiator at the UN, has been kept under wraps until now because he was threatened with being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act. | -------------------------------------------------- The War Criminal By Barry @ 10:30 am -- CST (12-15-06) George W. Bush's invasion of a sovereign nation that posed no immediate threat to the health, welfare or security of the United States was, and remains today, an overt criminal act. | -------------------------------------------------- Boston Air Traffic Controller Says 9/11 an Inside Job By Barry @ 9:30 pm -- CST (12-14-06) A former Boston Center air traffic controller has gone public on his assertion that 9/11 was an inside job and that Donald Rumsfeld and the Pentagon tracked three of the four flights from the point of their hijacking to hitting their targets. In an astounding telephone interview, Robin Hordon claims air traffic controllers have been ignored or silenced to protect the true perpetrators of 9/11. | -------------------------------------------------- US "Justice" Run Amok By Barry @ 2:50 pm -- CST (12-14-06) The US has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prisoners. How is this possible in the supposed land of the free? Prosecutors have lost sight of innocence and guilt. What we have today is a conveyor belt that convicts almost everyone who is charged. Every defense attorney knows that today prosecutors can purchase testimony against a defendant by paying a "witness" with money, dropped charges, or reduced time to testify against the defendant. Many prosecutors become highly annoyed at any disruption of the plea bargain conviction process. A defendant that incurs the prosecutor's ire is certain to be framed on far more serious charges than a negotiated plea. | -------------------------------------------------- Soldier Gets 30 Days for Going AWOL By Barry @ 12:10 pm -- CST (12-14-06) Army Spc. Suzanne Swift, a Fort Lewis military police officer who went AWOL and refused to return to Iraq with her unit, alleging sexual crimes by several supervisors, received a 30-day sentence and was reduced in rank to private Wednesday. | -------------------------------------------------- Timoney's Son Gets 18 Months By Barry @ 12:00 pm -- CST (12-14-06) The son of former Philadelphia Police Commissioner John F. Timoney was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in federal prison on charges of trying to buy 400 pounds of marijuana last year from an undercover agent. | -------------------------------------------------- Federal Agents Raid Medical Marijuana Center By Barry @ 7:30 pm -- CST (12-13-06) While red alerts and the phony war on terror drones on, seemingly limitless resources are wasted prosecuting non-violent victimless crimes. | -------------------------------------------------- Incoming Intelligence Chair Ill-Informed By Barry @ 8:30 am -- CST (12-13-06) Incoming House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes failed to answer any of a slew of relevant questions correctly. He could not differentiate between a Shia and a Sunni, could not describe Hezbollah and was unaware that Al Qaeda members are predominantly Sunni Muslims. Removing the Congressional Republican leadership may have been a step in the right direction, but apparently not a very big step. | -------------------------------------------------- Who has the Power to Arrest the President? By Barry @ 8:20 am -- CST (12-13-06) An especially timely piece. | -------------------------------------------------- "Fourth Man" Likely Another Police Story By Barry @ 1:20 pm -- CST (12-12-06) The NYC police continue to justify their brutal slaying of an unarmed man guilty of nothing more than celebrating his last night as a bachelor. The police maintain that there was a mystery "fourth man" who was allegedly armed. The police's story continues to unravel as records of that night's radio calls reveal that there was not a single report of a fourth man fleeing the scene. There was no 'escaped perp' alert radioed by the cops involved and no Level 1 mobilization by NYPD afterward to find a man with a gun, a law enforcement source who reviewed the radio transmissions told the Daily News. The NYC police have a 48 hour rule which dictates that an officer cannot be subjected to questioning following a shooting until after 48 hours elapses. This allows the police-perps 48 hours to get their stories straight. There is no other legal situation in which the accused are allowed a two day window in which to hone their perjurious tales to perfection. | -------------------------------------------------- Anthrax Attack on US Congress Made by Scientists And Covered up by FBI By Steve @ 8:20 am -- CST (12-12-06) The terrorists who perpetrated the 2001 anthrax attack on Congress likely were US government scientists at the army's Ft. Detrick, MD., bioterrorism lab having access to "moonsuits" that enabled them to safely process and manufacture super-weapons-grade anthrax, an eminent authority on the subject says. Boyle, who drafted the US Biological Weapons Convention of 1989 enacted by Congress, said destruction of the Ames anthrax "appears to be a cover-up orchestrated by the FBI." | -------------------------------------------------- Federal Prosecutor Probed for Withholding Evidence By Barry @ 7:10 am -- CST (12-12-06) The chief federal judge in Boston is urging the US Justice Department to find out and tell him what happened to an internal investigation of a federal prosecutor accused of withholding evidence in a high-profile Mafia case. | -------------------------------------------------- Disgruntled Client Shoots Toilet-Stealing Lawyer By Barry @ 7:00 am -- CST (12-12-06) "He was an excellent teacher and he was an excellent dresser," Keim said. "Very neat, tall and slim." Great story. | -------------------------------------------------- The Top 10 Conservative Idiots, No. 271 By Steve @ 8:55 am -- CST (12-11-06) George W. Bush and Bill O'Reilly have a lot of things in common, and they are both on this list a lot. | -------------------------------------------------- Frank Rich Hits Iraq Study Group and Its 'Bogus' Proposals By Steve @ 8:45 am -- CST (12-11-06) Don't count New York Times columnist Frank Rich among those hailing the work of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which produced its long-awaited report this week. Among other problems: Their much-needed policy proposals for Iraq were "bogus," he writes in his Sunday column. | -------------------------------------------------- Waxman: Halliburton Violated Multibillion Dollar Iraq Contract By Steve @ 8:30 am -- CST (12-11-06) Halliburton Corp., the oil field services company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, breached the terms of its multibillion dollar contract to provide US soldiers logistical support in Iraq when one of its subcontractors outsourced security work to Blackwater USA, according to new documents released Friday by Congressman Henry Waxman. | -------------------------------------------------- Tough Times for Bush By Barry @ 4:30 pm -- CST (12-10-06) Those close to the president claim the period following the mid-term repudiation has been about as tough as it gets. Tell that to the kids dying for nothing on a daily basis in Baghdad, Tikrit, Anbar, etc. | -------------------------------------------------- Republican Senator Recognizes Iraq policy as a "Crime" By Barry @ 7:00 am -- CST (12-10-06) Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR), a long-time supporter of the war, has turned on Bush's Iraq war policy and now openly asks if it's "criminal." | -------------------------------------------------- L.A. Police Officer Arrested For Attack on Teen By Steve @ 9:40 am -- CST (12-9-06) A Los Angeles police officer was arrested for assault after he was caught on videotape applying a chokehold to a handcuffed 16-year-old boy inside the Central Division station. The officer's actions were recorded by a hidden camera that had been installed after some chairs at the station had been vandalized. "It is just mind-boggling that we have a situation where a kid is arrested and handcuffed and sitting in a room posing no threat to anyone, and this officer just comes in and beats the hell out of him," said John Mack, president of the Los Angeles Police Commission. "It's unacceptable." | -------------------------------------------------- Bush Job Approval Hits All Time Low of 30 Percent By Steve @ 9:00 am -- CST (12-9-06) The national job approval rating of President Bush has plummeted to 30%, an all-time low in the latest Zogby International telephone poll, sinking below the 31% approval rating he dropped to in early June. And it's even worse on his handling of Iraq, only 27% approve, while 71% disapprove. | -------------------------------------------------- Federal Prosecutors Draw Fresh Fire By Barry @ 8:00 am -- CST (12-9-06) A new prosecutorial tool requires corporate defendants to waive attorney-client privilege to avoid indictment. "A company's willingness to cooperate is crucial as his prosecutors weigh whether to indict." Once again, we see further evidence that the underlying "crime" pales by comparison with the offense of "failure to cooperate." | -------------------------------------------------- TV Footage Indicates Government Foreknowledge of First Trade Center Attack By Barry @ 7:50 am -- CST (12-9-06) The parade of unanswered questions continues. | -------------------------------------------------- 7,000 Die Annually in American Gulags By Barry @ 7:30 am -- CST (12-8-06) America frequently cites prisoner abuse in countries like China and North Korea while engaging in strikingly similar behavior. The abhorrent quality of correctional health care not only violates prisoners' constitutional rights, it costs taxpayers millions of dollars and threatens the general health of communities surrounding these facilities. | -------------------------------------------------- Iraq Study Group Settles Debate Over 'Negative' War Coverage By Steve @ 2:45 pm -- CST (12-7-06) For years now, the debate has raged: Does the press overstate the level of violence in Iraq and ignore the overall positive aspect of the U.S. involvment? The Iraq Study Group report today, in its main claim that the situation in Iraq is now "grave" and "deteriorating" would seem to offer a clue to the answer. There we learn, bluntly, that "there is significant underreporting of the violence in Iraq" by the U.S. military. "The standard for recording attacks acts as a filter to keep events out of reports and databases," the report continues. Looking at one day, the report found undercounting of violent attacks by more than 1000 percent. | -------------------------------------------------- Truth, Justice, and the Un-American Way By Steve @ 12:00 pm -- CST (12-7-06) The Institute for Policy Studies, gave its annual human rights award this fall to Maher Arar, an innocent man the Bush administration falsely accused of being linked to Al Qaeda. His chilling case represents an opportunity for the new Democratic leadership in Congress to show the world that America has not entirely forgotten its proud history on human rights. The general outline of Mr. Arar's story has been widely publicized. He is the joint Canadian-Syrian citizen who was detained at New York's JFK Airport in 2002 and "rendered" to Syria, a country the United States State Department accuses of routinely using torture. Syrian intelligence agents brutally tortured Arar - a fact confirmed by a Canadian inquiry - before releasing him nearly a year later without charging him. | -------------------------------------------------- Supreme Court Has Taken 40% Fewer Cases Compared To Last Term By Steve @ 11:00 am -- CST (12-7-06) On the Supreme Court's color-coded master calendar, which was distributed months before the term began on the first Monday in October, Dec. 6 is marked in red to signify a day when the justices are scheduled to be on the bench, hearing arguments. The courtroom, however, was empty on Wednesday, and for a simple reason: The court was out of cases. The question is, where have all the cases gone? | -------------------------------------------------- Homeland Security Reports Massive Abuse by Government Employees By Steve @ 10:00 am -- CST (12-7-06) A semi-annual report filed this week by Homeland Security Inspector General Richard L. Skinner showed a marked increase in arrests of department and other government employees, but contained no recommendations for security improvements. | -------------------------------------------------- Legislators May Reconsider Suspending Habeas Corpus For Detainees By Steve @ 9:45 am -- CST (12-7-06) President Bush's victory in getting the rules he wanted to try suspected terrorists could be diminished. The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee signaled this week that he'll join prominent Democrats in seeking to restore legal rights to hundreds of suspected terrorists confined at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and elsewhere. While the measure to restore the right of habeas corpus has almost no chance of passing before Congress adjourns later this week, the message is clear: When Democrats take over in early January, the issue could resurface. | -------------------------------------------------- Ten Reasons for Impeachment By Barry @ 7:15 pm -- CST (12-6-06) Only ten? | -------------------------------------------------- Court to FBI - No Spying on In-car Computers By Steve @ 7:05 pm -- CST (12-6-06) The FBI and other police agencies may not eavesdrop on conversations inside automobiles equipped with OnStar or similar dashboard computing systems, a federal appeals court ruled. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said that the FBI is not legally entitled to remotely activate the system and secretly use it to snoop on passengers, because doing so would render it inoperable during an emergency. | -------------------------------------------------- DEA Implicated in Murder Cover-up By Steve @ 9:15 am -- CST (12-6-06) When 12 bodies were found buried in the garden of a Mexican house, it seemed like a case of drug-linked killings. But the trail led to Washington and a cover-up that went right to the top. As a result of documents disclosed in three separate court cases, it is becoming clear that the murder of Luis Padilla, along with at least 11 further brutal killings, is part of a gruesome scandal, a web of connivance and cover-up stretching from the wild Texas borderland to top Washington officials close to President Bush. Padilla had no connection with the drugs trade; he seems to have been the victim of a case of mistaken identity. | -------------------------------------------------- Italy Prosecutors Want Kidnap Trial For CIA Agents By Steve @ 8:45 am -- CST (12-5-06) Italian prosecutors on Tuesday asked a judge to order CIA agents and Italian spies to stand trial on charges of kidnapping a terrorism suspect and flying him to Egypt, where he says he was tortured, a court source said. After a more than two-year investigation that has embarrassed Washington and Rome, prosecutors said they were ready to go to court over the 2003 "rendition" of a Muslim cleric in Milan. Suspects include 26 Americans, most believed to be CIA agents, as well as six Italians. | -------------------------------------------------- Federal Court to Hear 'Landmark Torture Case' Against Donald Rumsfeld By Steve @ 8:30 am -- CST (12-5-06) In a press release issued yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union announces that a "landmark" case against Donald Rumsfeld will be heard in federal court this week. The ACLU and another legal rights organization, Human Rights First, are to appear in court here on Friday "to argue that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is directly responsible for the torture and abuse of detainees in U.S. military custody," said the release. | -------------------------------------------------- FBI Taps Cell Phone Mic as Eavesdropping Tool By Steve @ 8:00 am -- CST (12-5-06) The FBI is now using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations. The surveillance technique came to light in an opinion published this week by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He ruled that the "roving bug" was legal because federal wiretapping law is broad enough to permit eavesdropping even of conversations that take place near a suspect's cell phone. They can also tap into your in car onstar phone, without you knowing it. | -------------------------------------------------- Disturbing Photos of Jose Padilla Released By Barry @ 7:00 am -- CST (12-5-06)
Who needs to waste time fearing "terrorists" when the government is engaging in sick, twisted and depraved acts such as this? | -------------------------------------------------- Detail of Jose Padilla's Confinement Emerge By Barry @ 8:30 am -- CST (12-4-06) The Padilla matter displays many of the serious flaws in the so called "War on Terror." His unprecedented pretrial detention is arguably unparalleled considering his status as an American citizen. Philip D. Cave, a former judge advocate general for the Navy and now a lawyer specializing in military law, said, "There's nothing comparable in terms of severity of confinement, in terms of how Padilla was held, especially considering that this was pretrial confinement." | -------------------------------------------------- U.S. Trained Afghan Police Corrupt And Incapable of Routine Law Enforcement By Steve @ 8:10 am -- CST (12-4-06) Five years after the fall of the Taliban, a joint report by the Pentagon and the State Department has found that the American-trained police force in Afghanistan is largely incapable of carrying out routine law enforcement work, and that managers of the $1.1 billion training program cannot say how many officers are actually on duty or where thousands of trucks and other equipment issued to police units have gone. | -------------------------------------------------- How Arlen Specter Helped Kill Habeas Corpus By Steve @ 8:00 am -- CST (12-4-06) Arlen Specter was an unlikely steward of the demise of habeas corpus. He wrote, a "fetish for facts," and faith in proceedings like habeas corpus to protect individual rights. Yet it was Specter who, as chairman of the Judiciary Committee, after leading the fight to preserve habeas corpus, at the last moment voted for the Administration's plan restricting it. | -------------------------------------------------- Two More Years? By Barry @ 7:50 am -- CST (12-4-06) As the BCF carries out unimaginable war crimes on a vast scale, it becomes increasingly clear that the nation may have to endure another two years of utter madness. Unfortunately, the Democrats are complicit to a great deal in this affair and cannot be counted on to end it anytime soon. | -------------------------------------------------- Mideast in Uproar Over Bush Failures By Barry @ 7:20 am -- CST (12-4-06) War is threatening to break out across the region, but Bush still smirks and says "we're gonna complete the mission." | -------------------------------------------------- NYC Police Harass Alleged Mystery Witness By Barry @ 9:30 am -- CST (12-3-06) Pinning their hopes on an alleged fourth man with a gun, NYC police defied his lawyer's direction to question him only with counsel present. Rather than accept responsibility for their criminal acts, the police continue to insist their victims possessed a gun. According to the police, this alleged fourth man must have had a gun because none of the shooting victims possessed one. | -------------------------------------------------- Thoughts on Police Culture By Barry @ 6:30 pm -- CST (12-2-06) Police continue to make numerous errors with deadly results. This article correctly lays the blame on a wholesale lack of accountability. The police appear to have little incentive to get it right. | -------------------------------------------------- Bush's Handlers in Denial By Barry @ 12:40 pm -- CST (12-2-06) The Regime's fantasy continues unabated as Iraq's civil war rages and Americans continue to die for Halliburton billables. Any real solution must be preceded by a realistic acknowledgement of the current disaster. That appears to be nowhere in sight. | -------------------------------------------------- Police Crimes Rampant Across America By Barry @ 12:30 pm -- CST (12-2-06) Law enforcement's failure to properly punish rogue officers has tarnished the image of police nationwide. Prosecuting criminals disguised as police officers has somehow become akin to being soft on crime. | -------------------------------------------------- Keith Olbermann Proves That Dissent Has an Audience By Steve @ 8:00 am -- CST (12-2-06) Olbermann, who decried the new law that George W. Bush signed as a shameful moment in American history, went on to proclaim that the Military Commissions Act will be the American embarrassment of our time, akin to the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 or the 1942 executive order interning Japanese-Americans. | -------------------------------------------------- Dissent is Terror? By Barry @ 6:10 pm -- CST (12-1-06) Efforts are afoot to further criminalize dissent in all forms. Lawfulness may soon require blind adherence to the Regime and all of its misguided policies. | -------------------------------------------------- Congress vs. Cheney/Bush Showdown Looming By Barry @ 6:00 pm -- CST (12-1-06) This article outlines the likely scenario of Cheney/Bush refusing an order by Congress to be sworn and give testimony. Congress would be left with the choice of allowing Cheney/Bush to thumb their nose at the law or have them imprisoned for contempt. Cheney has already publicly stated he would refuse to honor a subpoena. | -------------------------------------------------- Bush Crime Family vs. Civil Liberties By Barry @ 5:50 pm -- CST (12-1-06) "Mark my words, the future of civil liberty in the US depends on the impeachment and conviction of Bush, Cheney, and Gonzales." | -------------------------------------------------- Killer Cops Seek Mystery Witness By Barry @ 9:40 am -- CST (12-1-06) Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, NYC police are kicking-in doors looking for a supposed "fourth man" whom they allege possessed a firearm on the night of the police massacre. Whether or not he exists, this will likely be the lynchpin of the defense's argument. The police will maintain that even though none of the victims possessed a firearm, there was actually another individual who did in fact have a gun. Here lies the beginning of the police's ploy to plant the seeds of reasonable doubt. | -------------------------------------------------- Judge's Outrageous Conduct Draws 30 Day Suspension By Barry @ 9:30 am -- CST (12-1-06) After this slap on the wrist, the judge will resume his position and likely continue with his unprofessional and possibly illegal antics. Those reviewing this matter found "indisputable proof of repeated and unremorseful instances of petulance, sarcasm, anger and arrogance." | -------------------------------------------------- |
