In Case I Disappear

I have been told a thousand times at least, in the years I have spent reporting on the astonishing and repugnant abuses, lies and failures of the Bush administration, to watch my back. "Be careful," people always tell me. "These people are capable of anything. Stay off small planes, make sure you aren't being followed." A running joke between my mother and me is that she has a "safe room" set up for me in her cabin in the woods, in the event I have to flee because of something I wrote or said.

I always laughed and shook my head whenever I heard this stuff. Extreme paranoia wrapped in the tinfoil of conspiracy, I thought. This is still America, and these Bush fools will soon pass into history, I thought. I am a citizen, and the First Amendment hasn't yet been red-lined, I thought.

Matters are different now.

Larry Johnson: The Facts Behind the NIE

Although the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) regarding Iraq and terrorism is still classified (UPDATE: The Key Judgments are now declassified and can be found at this link), the data behind the findings is not and has been publicly available for three years. I have written repeatedly on this fact and it has been, I am told, the judgment of the intelligence community for at least two years. The statistics on terrorist activity, until this year, were published in the State Department's annual report on terrorism (Patterns of Global Terrorism). The Bush Administration tried to not publish the report last year because the data showed an unprecedented surge in international terrorist attacks. The following chart shows the bad news (it is based on the statistics collected by the CIA and supplied to the Department of State)

This Week on Left Turn with Cecily Friday

Sidney Blumenthal joins me on the program this evening. He is a former assistant and senior advisor to President Bill Clinton. In the past he has written for the Washington Post and the New Yorker. Currently he writes for the Guardian and Salon in addition to his work as a senior fellow at the New York University centre on law and security. We’ll be discussing his latest book, "How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime". Tune in for the discussion, Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM CST.

2001 memo to Rice contradicts statements about Clinton, Pakistan

Rawstory:
A memo received by United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shortly after becoming National Security Advisor in 2001 directly contradicts statements she made to reporters yesterday, RAW STORY has learned.

Video: Major General John Batiste opening at the Hearing on Rummy

"[Donald Rumsfeld] violated fundamental principles of war... set the conditions for Abu Ghraib and other atrocities that further ignited the insurgency..."

To watch the video Click Here

Keith Olbermann's Comments on Clinton Fox Interview

Alternet:
"After defending Clinton's indignation on Fox [VIDEO], Olbermann continues to lacerate the Bush administration and its "minions" in this latest commentary."

To watch the video Click Here

US Spy Agencies: The War in Iraq Has Fueled Terrorism Across the Globe

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 — Democratic lawmakers, responding to an intelligence report that found that the Iraq war has invigorated Islamic radicalism and worsened the global terrorist threat, said the assessment by American spy agencies demonstrated that the Bush administration needed to devise a new strategy for its handling of the war.

Report: Geneva Convention Already Violated

A Special Forces team in Afghanistan failed to alert its superiors. Witnesses tell of torture.

Will The Next Election Be Hacked?

Rolling Stone:
Fresh disasters at the polls -- and new evidence from an industry insider -- prove that electronic voting machines can't be trusted

Top Ten Ways We Got Jacked by Conservatives

Alternet:
If you ever wanted to see how badly 'conservatives' have been shaking the silver out of our pockets in the past six years, this list is it.

Frist Blames Democrats for "Do Nothing Congress", Then Gets His Ass Handed to Him

How did Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) commemorate Constitution and Citizenship Day, when he returned to the Senate floor on Monday? In an odd twist of logic, he blamed the minority party for how little work has been done in the 109th Congress.

September 17, which fell on Sunday, celebrated the ratification of the United States Constitution and Frist used that occasion to announce that Senate Democrats are actually the reason that the last 20 legislative months have been proclaimed the "Do-Nothing Congress."

CIA ‘refused to operate’ secret jails

The Bush administration had to empty its secret prisons and transfer terror suspects to the military-run detention centre at Guantánamo this month in part because CIA interrogators had refused to carry out further interrogations and run the secret facilities, according to former CIA officials and people close to the programme.

Salon: Where torture got him

"Bush's effort to gut the Geneva Conventions has antagonized the military, split Republicans, and undercut his war on terror."

Sept. 21, 2006 | President Bush's torture policy has provoked perhaps the greatest schism between a president and the military in American history, deeper, broader and more fundamental than those of previous presidents with individual generals. Seen from the outside, this battle royal over his abrogation of the Geneva Conventions appears as a shadow war. But since the Supreme Court's ruling in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld in June, which decided that Bush's kangaroo court commissions for detainees "violate both the UCMJ [Uniform Code of Military Justice] and the four Geneva Conventions," especially Article 3 forbidding torture, the struggle has been forced more into the open.

This Week on Left Turn with Cecily Friday

Joining me on the program this evening is Shane Kadidal. He is an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights who has worked on cases involving detainees at Guantanamo and Bush's warrantless wiretapping program. He'll be with me to discuss the latest on the Bush administrations push for torture legislation in addition to how it may potentially impact suspects still being held at Guantanamo Bay. Tune in for the discussion this evening at 7:00 CST.

To learn more about the Center for Constitutional Rights Click Here

Colbert on Bush's twisted torture logic

Stephen Colbert:
"Everyone knows that President Bush is one of the world's great clear thinkers…. Torture is illegal. The US obeys the law. Therefore, the US does not torture. So… we need to make it legal."

To watch the video Click Here
(hat tip Alternet)

Rawstory Video: U.S. Deported Wrong Man to Syria and Tortured Him

"A new Canadian report clears the reputation of a Canadian man who was deported by the United States to a Syrian prison where he was tortured for 10 months. In 2002, Maher Arar was mistakenly marked as a major terrorist suspect by the Canadian governemnt. The U.S. secretly deported Arar to Syria after recieve he flawed terrorist allegations from Canada."

To watch the video Click Here

Sources: August terror plot is a 'fiction' underscoring police failures

British Army expert casts doubt on 'liquid explosives' threat, Al Qaeda network in UK Identified

Lieutenant-Colonel (ret.) Nigel Wylde, a former senior British Army Intelligence Officer, has suggested that the police and government story about the "terror plot" revealed on 10th August was part of a "pattern of lies and deceit."

WP: Major Problems At Polls Feared

Be prepared for the worst election of our lifetime...

An overhaul in how states and localities record votes and administer elections since the Florida recount battle six years ago has created conditions that could trigger a repeat -- this time on a national scale -- of last week's Election Day debacle in the Maryland suburbs, election experts said.

In the Nov. 7 election, more than 80 percent of voters will use electronic voting machines, and a third of all precincts this year are using the technology for the first time. The changes are part of a national wave, prompted by the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 and numerous revisions of state laws, that led to the replacement of outdated voting machines with computer-based electronic machines, along with centralized databases of registered voters and other steps to refine the administration of elections.

WP: Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration

AP: U.S. war prisons legal vacuum for 14,000

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisons, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.

Salon: Why we can't win the "war on terror"

A provocative new book from an expert on terrorism argues that Bush's tough-guy stance is making things much worse -- and that we should negotiate with al-Qaida.

HP: Call It What It Is- Bush Wants to Torture People

It's so annoying to read mainstream press articles where they dance around what the real issue is on "terror suspect interrogations." They use every euphemism in the book. Bush seeks "clarity" on interrogations. Bush wants "wider leeway" in interrogations. Bush wants "tougher interrogations."

Tougher interrogations, my ass. Bush wants to torture people.

IAEA: U.S. report on Iran 'dishonest'

AP VIENNA, Austria - A recent House of Representatives committee report on Iran's nuclear capability is "outrageous and dishonest" in trying to make a case that Tehran's program is geared toward making weapons, a senior official of the U.N. nuclear watchdog has said.

Sen. Graham: White House Held Military Lawyers In 5 Hour Meeting and ‘Tried To Force Them To Sign A Prepared Statement’

From ThinkProgress:
This morning, President Bush was questioned about Gen. Colin Powell’s letter criticizing White House legislation that would authorize torture. Bush tried to downplay Powell’s letter by pointing to another letter signed by the military’s top uniformed lawyers saying they supported Bush’s plan:

BUSH: There’s all kinds of letters coming out — and today, by the way, active duty personnel in the Pentagon, the JAG, supported the concept that I have just outlined to you.

But during today’s White House press conference, a reporter cited comments by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — a former JAG and an opponent of the Bush’s detainee policies — claiming that the White House had placed extreme pressure on the military lawyers to sign a statement, and that the lawyers had refused to sign the initial statement crafted for them by the White House:

REPORTER: Sen. Graham is telling reporters on Capitol Hill that the White House had them in a meeting for five hours last night and tried to force them to sign a prepared statement and he said reading this JAG letter they ended up writing leaves total ambiguity on interpretation, this is Sen. Lindsey Graham. What’s your response to that?

Snow acknowledged “they were asked to write a letter” but said, “if you start going into who asked whom to write letters, I don’t know.”

Conservative Chris Buckley: "What have they done to my party?"

From the son of the father of conservatism:
Who knew, in 2000, that “compassionate conservatism” meant bigger government, unrestricted government spending, government intrusion in personal matters, government ineptitude, and cronyism in disaster relief? Who knew, in 2000, that the only bill the president would veto, six years later, would be one on funding stem-cell research?

Democratic Effort to Limit Surveillance Bill Is Blocked

NY Times:
WASHINGTON, Sept. 13 — The Senate Judiciary Committee today endorsed a bill backed by the White House to have a secret court review the constitutionality of the Bush administration’s eavesdropping program.

This Week on Left Turn with Cecily Friday

David Corn joins me on the program this evening. He is a New York Times best selling author and the Washington editor of The Nation, a weekly political magazine. In addition he has written for the New York Times, The Washington Post and the Boston Globe among others. We’ll be discussing his latest book, he co-authored with Michael Isikoff, titled Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War. Tune in for the discussion tonight at 7:00 PM CST

To learn more about David Corn click here

Ratcheting Up the Fear

A new ad set to be placed in key markets by a neoconservative think tank will tell Americans that their lives literally depend on their votes in the upcoming midterm election, RAW STORY has learned.

September 11 Anniversary

Wage Earners

Pentagon Spends Billions to Outsource Torture

Bush administration hawks are getting profit-hungry companies like CACI to do their dirty work in the war zones of the New American Empire. And we're footing the bill. Plus: links to related articles, including AlterNet's recent war profiteering coverage.

Meet Up Tonight for Independent Candidate Ginny Welsch

WHO: Ginny Welsch for Congress
WHAT: Meet-Up
WHEN: Wednesday, September 13, 7-8pm
WHERE: Bongo Java, Belmont Boulevard
WHY: To give you a chance to meet Ginny, ask questions and find out how
you can help the campaign. They'll be having meet-ups weekly between now and election day at various coffee shops and pubs around town.

You can learn more about Ginny Welsch and her campaign by clicking here

Corn: What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA

In the spring of 2002 Dick Cheney made one of his periodic trips to CIA headquarters. Officers and analysts were summoned to brief him on Iraq. Paramilitary specialists updated the Vice President on an extensive covert action program in motion that was designed to pave the way to a US invasion. Cheney questioned analysts about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. How could they be used against US troops? Which Iraqi units had chemical and biological weapons? He was not seeking information on whether Saddam posed a threat because he possessed such weapons. His queries, according to a CIA officer at the briefing, were pegged to the assumptions that Iraq had these weapons and would be invaded-as if a decision had been made.

Though Cheney was already looking toward war, the officers of the agency's Joint Task Force on Iraq-part of the Counterproliferation Division of the agency's clandestine Directorate of Operations - were frantically toiling away in the basement, mounting espionage operations to gather information on the WMD programs Iraq might have. The JTFI was trying to find evidence that would back up the White House's assertion that Iraq was a WMD danger. Its chief of operations was a career undercover officer named Valerie Wilson.

The 10 Most Brazen War Profiteers

Alternet: Halliburton has become synonymous with war profiteering, but there are lots of other greedy fingers in the pie. We name names on 10 of the worst.

White House: Rumsfeld Replacement 'Not Going to Happen'

WHITE HOUSE (AP) - While the White House says it's made significant progress in the war on terror, Democrats are demanding that the architect of the war strategy step down.

Sunday Funny