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CORRUPTION UPDATES 31 January 12th to January 31st, 2007 The CORRUPTION UPDATES reviews corruption in the news. News Stories from California, the Nation and the World are abstracted below, and followed by commentary and references. |
CORRUPTION UPDATES 31
Previous Corruption Updates: Page 30
Next Corruption Updates: Page 32
1) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE AP, 1-17-07:
AG criticizes judges for terror rulings
By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer
Last Updated 7:56 am PST Wednesday, January 17, 2007
http://dwb.sacbee.com/24hour/politics/story/3474804p-12708159c.html
“WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says federal judges are unqualified to make rulings affecting national security policy, ramping up his criticism of how they handle terrorism cases.”
“In remarks prepared for delivery Wednesday, Gonzales says judges generally should defer to the will of the president and Congress when deciding national security cases. He also raps jurists who "apply an activist philosophy that stretches the law to suit policy preferences." ”
“ "We want to determine whether he understands the inherent limits that make an unelected judiciary inferior to Congress or the president in making policy judgments," Gonzales says in the prepared speech. "That, for example, a judge will never be in the best position to know what is in the national security interests of our country." ”
“The Justice Department is appealing an August decision by U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit, who ruled the government's warrantless surveillance program unconstitutional and ordered it stopped immediately.”
“The Justice Department appealed her decision and the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati has ruled that the administration can keep the program in place during the appeal.”
“Attorneys representing terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay are challenging the legality of a law, signed by President Bush in October, that authorizes military trials. Those challenges raise the possibility that trials will be struck down by a federal appeals court or the Supreme Court.”
GONZALES ATTACKS CONSTITUTION, JUDICIARY, AND HUMAN RIGHTS SIMULTANOUSLY
Gonzales' remarks reflect this Administration's unprecedented attack on our Judiciary, who's duty is to enforce Constitutional restraints on Presidential power. The President is laying the foundation for disobeying court orders to obey the Constitution. He has already claimed exemption from Congressional law or oversight, and Gonzales' remarks indicate they will resist, if not disobey, our Judiciary.
What Gonzales is proposing is a radical, unconstitutional change to the balance of powers in our government.
Gonzales is demanding that Judges abdicate their duty to strike down illegal laws by Congress, and stand idle while the President shreds the Constitution.
It is precisely because they are unelected that the judges are entrusted to make Constitutional decisions involving laws made by Representatives who may be inflamed by popular passions. Or Presidents who think themselves above the law.
The AG is demanding that the decisions of Congress and the President pass a popularity test, rather than live up to Constitutional scrutiny.
The courts would be neglecting their duty if they “defer to the will of the president and Congress” when the actions, or laws, of either of these co-equal branches of government exceed their Constitutional limits.
The following article describes another front of the government's attack on the integrity of our legal system:
Corruption Updates 21, 7th article on page, “Ex-judges: Detainee law unconstitutional”
NEW LINK LIST THE UNLIMITED PRESIDENT
Read a full list of incidents of Unconstitutional Presidential Power
Search the Corruption Database under
Unconstitutional Presidential Powers
2) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE WASHINGTON POST, 1-23-07:
Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Indefensible
By Richard Cohen
Tuesday,
January 23, 2007; A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/22/AR2007012201087_pf.html
“Just this month, an official in the Bush administration, a deputy assistant secretary of defense named Charles D. Stimson, suggested that lawyers who defend terrorism suspects being held at Guantanamo not only should not do so but that their firms ought to be blackballed as a result.”
“ "I think, quite honestly, when corporate CEOs see that those firms are representing the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in 2001, those CEOs are going to make those law firms choose between representing terrorists or representing reputable firms," he said in a radio interview. You may want to read that again.”
“More to the point, what sort of lawyer -- and Stimson is one -- not only thinks that a terrorism suspect does not deserve counsel but that the counsel ought to be punished as a result? It's hard to fathom a lawyer saying such a thing -- even hard to fathom it from a mere citizen.”
“I, for one, do not accept Stimson's apology. I think it is insincerely offered and beside the point. What matters most is that he retains his job, which means he retains the confidence of his superiors in the government. How anyone can have confidence in such a man is beyond me. There are only two explanations, one inexcusable, the other chilling. The first is that his bosses don't care. The second is that they agree with him.”
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
BUSH APPOINTEE ATTACKS AMERICAN RIGHT TO TRIAL, AND COUNSEL
CULLY STIMSON SUGGESTS RETRABUTION FOR DEFENDING UNPOPULAR CASES
Stimson's remarks are another element in the Administration's attack on either Judicial or Congressional restraints on Presidential Power. The President makes up new words, such as “detainee,” and “enemy combatant” to avoid having to obey the law governing criminal suspects or prisoners of war. Thus Bush has created a legal status of “limbo,” where suspicion is sufficient reason for torture and open ended detention. Bush's minions are defending these illegal acts by attacking anyone who defends the rule of law, our sense of justice, or our Constitutional system.
Gonzales, while working in the White House, assisted in writing the legal fluff which granted the President the power to secretly define, kidnap, and torture “detainees.” As we saw in the preceding article, Gonzales is attacking Judicial Review. Stimson, from the Pentagon, is attacking the Bar. These traitorous acts, from the highest offices in the land, show us how seriously political corruption is threatening the Constitutional Basis of our freedoms.
Gonzales is using his power as AG to further the White House attack on the Constitutional role and duties of the Judiciary. In the meantime, Congress gave a hand in the destruction of our rights by abolishing Habius Corpus. Good job of protecting our rights.
Stimson, meanwhile, is espousing the Administration's view, on the radio, that not only do “detainees” have no rights at all, but any attorney that provides representation is some kind of traitor. If anyone today is a traitor to our country, it is the people who have cast our Constitution aside in their quest for power and wealth.
Bush and his criminal crew are not alone: the Republicans and Democrats both have thrown democracy aside in their quest for Lobbyist Bribes. Both parties share the same Big Money Special Interest Masters. Both parties basis of power is Corporate Bribery, and neither party has the honor or honesty necessary to either win a democratic election, or to govern democratically.
Both the Democrats and Republicans have sold our Republic to the highest bidder, and are earmarking the payoffs as our treasure, Blood, and Freedoms slip away.
So, we have two cabals of corrupt plotters who's goal is to suck up as much bribery, luxury, and power as possible. Neither is capable of fixing itself, or holding the other within the bounds of democracy, let alone our Constitution.
Both groups are committing high crimes and misdemeanors against our Constitution, and crimes against humanity in the Arab lands.
This group does not include the lawyers who are representing the victims of our government's crimes.
Also See:
NEW LINK LIST THE UNLIMITED PRESIDENT
Corruption Updates 21, 7th article on page, “Ex-judges: Detainee law unconstitutional”
Corruption Updates 16, 1st article on page, “BUSH TRAINING CONGRESS TO OBEDIENCE: PROBLEM TEACHING THEM TO ROLL OVER WHEN THEY ARE ASLEEP”
Corruption Updates 22, 7th article on page, “Reid Threatens Bush with Oversight”
Corruption Updates 23, 4th article on page, “Bush Claims to Unlimited Power Contested”
Corruption Updates 23, 8th article on page, “Harmon Calls Wiretapping Illegal”
Corruption Updates 23, 9th article on page, “Times Soft pedals Presidential War Crimes and Domestic Crimes”
Corruption Updates 25, 7th article on page, “Italy Indites 25 CIA Operatives”
Corruption Updates 25, 8th article on page, “FBI Chief Defies Oversight”
Corruption Updates 29, 2nd article on page, “White House Claims Secret Policy Power”
Corruption Updates 30, 4th article on page, “White House Vows Cooperation in Probes”
Corruption Updates 31, 1st article on page, 1-17-07, “AG criticizes judges for terror rulings”
Corruption Updates 31, 2nd and 3rd articles on page, “Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Indefensible,” and “A Bush appointee's crude gambit on detainees' legal rights”
Corruption Updates 31, 6th article on page, 1-17-07, “Secret Court to Govern Warrantless Taps”
Corruption Updates 31, 7th article on page, 1-19-07, “Pentagon Revises Its Rules on Prosecution of Terrorists”
Corruption Updates 31, 8th article on page, 1-19-07, “Pentagon sets rules for detainee trials”
Corruption Updates 34, 4th article on page, “BUSH KIDNAPPING ON TRIAL IN GERMANY: WHY IS GERMANY HOLDING US TO THE RULE OF LAW?”
NEW LINK LIST THE UNLIMITED PRESIDENT
See above, Article One on this page, for a list of links to related articles that refer to the Bush Administration's attacks on the Constitution.
3) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE WP, 1-12-07:
Unveiled
Threats
A Bush
appointee's crude gambit on detainees' legal rights
Friday, January 12, 2007; A18
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/11/AR2007011101698_pf.html
“MOST AMERICANS understand that legal representation for the accused is one of the core principles of the American way. Not, it seems, Cully Stimson, deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs. In a repellent interview yesterday with Federal News Radio, Mr. Stimson brought up, unprompted, the number of major U.S. law firms that have helped represent detainees at Guantanamo Bay.”
“It might be only laughable that Mr. Stimson, during the interview, called Guantanamo "certainly, probably, the most transparent and open location in the world." ”
“But it's offensive -- shocking, to use his word -- that Mr. Stimson, a lawyer, would argue that law firms are doing anything other than upholding the highest ethical traditions of the bar by taking on the most unpopular of defendants.”
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
TRIALS? WHY? GOVERNMENT HAS MADE A FARCE OF RIGHTS, JUSTICE, OUR DEMOCRACY AND CONSTITUTION
IT IS A FARCE OF JUSTICE TO HAVE “TRIALS” FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE ALREADY BEEN KIDNAPPED, TORTURED, AND INDEFINETLY IMPRISIONED
This article accurately portrays the nature and character of Mr. Stimson's remarks. The problem is that this type of reporting is so rare, especially considering how many politicians in higher offices than Mr. Stimson, are violating even more fundamental principals of the “American Way.”
The nature and character of our political leadership is described through Mr. Stimson's remarks, and it is not a democratic character, and its behavior is not in line with our Constitutional principals.
It is time to completely change the political mechanism that has brought such a dishonorable crew of politicians, Democrat and Republican, to Washington.
Let's make this a democracy again.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 21, 7th article on page, “Ex-judges: Detainee law unconstitutional”
See above, Article One on this page, for a list of links to related articles that refer to the Bush Administration's attacks on the Constitution.
NEW LINK LIST THE UNLIMITED PRESIDENT
4) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE AP 1-17-07:
Senate considers tougher ethics rules
By JIM ABRAMS, Associated Press Writer
Last Updated 7:56 am PST Wednesday, January 17, 2007
http://dwb.sacbee.com/24hour/politics/story/3474806p-12708165c.html
“WASHINGTON (AP) - Trying to dispel the image of a corrupt Congress, the Senate has made it easier to spot special-interest items in legislation and is considering tougher ethics rules for lawmakers.”
“Majority Democrats and minority Republicans lauded a 98-0 vote Tuesday to require lawmakers to disclose the special projects, or "earmarks," they tuck into spending bills. The change was added to ethics and lobbying legislation.”
“The Senate voted Tuesday to advance debate on a Reid amendment that would end the practice of senators paying the equivalent of a first-class ticket when they catch rides on corporate jets. Instead, they would have to pay the considerably more costly rate to hire a charter plane”
“Several senators, including possible presidential candidates John McCain, R-Ariz., and Barack Obama, D-Ill., are pushing for creation of an independent office of public integrity that would relieve the Senate ethics committee of some of its investigative duties.”
“There's also expected to be a fight over an effort to strike from the bill language requiring more disclosure on grassroots lobbying, or paid efforts to influence the general public on an issue.”
“Many conservative groups are opposed to the provision, saying it would place onerous reporting duties on advocacy groups.”
“The unanimous vote on the earmarks issue came just days after Reid unsuccessfully tried to defeat DeMint's effort to broaden the definition of earmark.”
“...Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.,... pushed for comprehensive changes in how the Senate deals with earmarks.”
“(under DeMint's definition)...earmarks subject to public disclosure would include special projects tucked in federal agency budgets, such as a Pentagon contract, as well as non federal projects such as state parks and municipal museums.”
“The definition in the original Senate bill would have applied only to non federal entities.”
“Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. said the Democratic approach would catch less than 5 percent of the almost 13,000 earmarks that made it into legislation last year.”
“Lawmakers would also be required to post their earmarks on the Internet 48 hours before a vote.”
“The Senate on Tuesday also approved, by voice vote, an amendment that would bar lawmakers from including earmarks in the classified parts of a bill or a conference report.”
“Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, R-Calif., now serving an eight-year prison term for accepting bribes from defense contractors, over a five-year period used classified reports to gain some $70 million to $80 million in earmarks that helped his friends.”
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
FAKE EARMARK REFORM IN SENATE CONTINUES: EARMARKS NOT RECOGNIZED AS CORRUPTION ITSELF
What are “earmarks,” and what role do they play in the legislative process? Earmarks are the key element in a system of secret, undebated budget “dibs” that Congress has substituted for the hard work of crafting honest legislation. Earmark secrecy signals that Congress has abdicated its responsibility to protect the peoples' money, let alone our rights. The system of earmarks is designed to steal from the people, using our money to payoff the insiders, special interests, friends and families of the greediest people in our country.
Apparently, it is too difficult for Congress to actually craft an honest budget that openly addresses the legitimate needs of our country. It is especially difficult when our representatives are dependent on Big Oil, Big Pharm, Abramoff, and the Unions to get elected.
Earmarks allow Congress and the Senate to divide up the budget among themselves, like pirates, fighting over who controls, and awards, the largest chunks of our money to their bribers, thus assuring the coffers of their PACs will be full for the next election. Earmarks only exist to maintain political corruption.
Real reform requires that earmarks be eliminated. Real earmark reform requires that there be no secret changes or additions to Bills, that all amendments be openly added to bills, prior to the final vote, and be openly debated.
Reform merely requires that Congress do its job, and do it in the open. All funding bills must be openly introduced, and debated, in Congress. The Fake Reforms of the Democrats preserve, rather than end, earmarks.
The Democrats claim to be “reformers” is laughable: Harry Reid and the Democrats are doing their best to craft fake, superficial reforms in both houses that the Corporate Media can proudly report, while maintaining their system of secret earmarks. Reid freaked out when DeMint made earmark disclosure, not their elimination, effective.
This tells us that the Democrats have no intention of ending, let alone exposing earmarks to public scrutiny.
Ending earmarks by requiring open debate will not stop Congressional Corruption, or legislative irresponsibility. Congress will be forced to find other ways to pay back their bribers, and they have many ways of enriching their friends and sponsors.
Earmark Reform only addresses the payoff, not the political bribery that triggers the payoff.
Ending earmarks is necessary, but to strike at the source of the corruption, we must end the legal bribery that triggers the earmark payoff.
The source of corruption is the river of money flowing from the big money special interests to our politicians. To end the bribery payoffs, be it through an earmark, or a tax break, we must stop the bribes.
Restricting political contributions, all political contributions, to qualified voters, under strict contribution limits, will end corporate, union, and special interest bribery. Ending the bribery is the only way we will relieve our politicians from the need to steal from the voters to payoff the bribes, to collect more bribes, to stay in office.
The earmark is a rotting sore of corruption on our body politic. We must heal the sore, as well as the sickness that produced it.
The Corruption Updates cited below prove the Democrats started feeding deeply at the table of Big Money Special Interests, bribery, well before the last election. Garnering the greatest share of special interest bribery is their goal, not eliminating corruption. Our goal is to cut off the flow of bribery that has choked our democracy.
Since the election the Democrats have consistently increased their uptake of Bribery Money, with Big Oil, Big Pharm, and Business interests all buying political influence from the Democrats to maintain their Corporate Welfare and irresponsible profits. And the Democrats are fine with that.
For more on the Democrats selling themselves like prostitutes, see:
Corruption Updates 3, “Media Reports: Both Parties Corrupt”
Corruption Updates 5, 1st article on page, “Corruption fails as Campaign issue...”
Corruption Updates 14, 10th article down on page. “Murtha trades his vote, and ethics, for pork”
Pelosi does earmarks well and often, LA Times, 11-13-06, “Speaker-to-be is no stranger to earmarking,” (abstract at LA Times archive, #52 under Richard Simon search)
Corruption Updates 19, 1st article on page, “TOP RECIPEINTS OF LOBBYISTS BRIBES ARE LEADERSHIP OF BOTH PARTIES”
Corruption Updates 19, 3rd article on page, “PARTIES AND THEIR BRIBERS WORK TO CIRCUMNAVIGATE CAMPAIGN FINANCE RESTRICTION”
Corruption Updates 20, 1st article on page, 10-25-06, “PELOSI FUNRAISING FRENZY ASSURES SPECIAL INTEREST DOMINATION OF GOVERNMENT INDEPENDENT OF WHICH SIDE WINS IN NOV”
Corruption Updates 20, 6th article on page, 10-27-06, “DEMS RECEIVE SPECIAL INTEREST BRIBES ANTICIPATING VICTORY IN NOV VOTERS ASSURED ONLY CHANGE AFTER NOVEMBER WILL BE WHICH PARTY GETS 60% OF THE SPECIAL INTEREST BRIBES, AND WHICH PARTY GETS 40% OF THE BRIBES”
Corruption Updates 21, 2nd article on page, 10-30-06: “SHADOW PARTIES (527S) INFUSE MILLIONS IN BRIBE MONEY INTO ELECTION SPECIAL INTERESTS SKIRT CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAWS TO MAINTAIN THEIR ILLIGIMATE AUTHORITY THROUGH POLITICAL BRIBERY”
Corruption Updates 21, 8fh article on page, 11-1-06: “DEMS BIG CHANCE TO REAP THE REWARDS OF CORRUPTION POLITICAL VICTORY OPENS DOORS OF LOBBYING FIRMS TO DEMO INSIDERS: IT'S THE DEMS TURN TO ROB THE PUBLIC BLIND, AND BETRAY OUR DEMOCRACY”
Corruption Updates 22, 6th article on page, “MONEY WINS IN ALMOST EVERY POLITICAL RACE”
Corruption Updates 24, 6th article on page, 12-4-06, “POLITICIANS WHO BRIBE POLITICIANS ARE LEADERS UNCONTESTED CANDIDATES REDISTRIBUTE BRIBE MONEY TO BUY PLUM COMMITTEES AND CHAIRMANSHIPS”
Corruption Updates 26, 1st article on page, 12-8-06, “LOBBYISTS SEE NO CHANGE UNDER DEMS CORRUPTION PRESENTED AS FORCE OF NATURE, DEM CORRUPTION NATURAL”
Corruption Updates 27, 2nd article on page, “DEM LEADERS TO REFORM CONGRESS?”
Corruption Updates 28, 1st article on page, 1-2-07: “LOBBYISTS HIRING-BRIBING DEMS SHIFTING FUNDS AND PERSONELL TO DEMS ASSURES NO REAL CHANGES
Corruption Updates 28, 4th article on page, “Bush and Dems Fight Over Earmarks”
Corruption Updates 30, 2nd article on page, “Democrats set back on earmarks” (REID TRIES TO KILL REAL EARMARK REFORMS)
Corruption Updates 33, 4th article on page, “Lobbyists find new Congress is open for business”
The Dems really started sucking up special interests bribes, once the special interests figured out who would win the election. Now they are paying the special interests back.
Read more articles about the Lack of Ethics Committee
5) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE NY TIMES, 1-17-07:
Oil Lease Chief Knew of Error, Report Asserts
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
NYTimes 1-17-07
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/washington/17royalty.html?_r=1&oref
=slogin&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print
“WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 — A top Interior Department official was told nearly three years ago about a legal blunder that allowed drilling companies to avoid billions of dollars in payments for oil and gas pumped from publicly owned waters, a report by the department’s chief independent investigator has found.”
“The report contradicts statements by the official, Johnnie M. Burton, the director of the department’s Minerals Management Service, who told a House hearing last September that she first learned about the royalties problem in January 2006.”
“Investigators calculated that the government could have collected an additional $865 million in the last three years alone if officials had told companies drilling in the Gulf of Mexico that they owed all the royalties required on oil and coal extracted from federal waters.”
“In
a written statement Tuesday night, the Minerals Management Service
said Ms. Burton did not deny but could not remember being told about
the mistake three years ago.”
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
ANOTHER “Insider” lobbyist in Interior Gives Away the House:
800 Million to Big Oil
Are you surprised that politicians appoint lobbyists and special interests to oversee our national resources? Are you surprised that our politician's political careers, their elections, and “contributions,” are funded by special interests money? Are you surprised that special interest appointees steal and give away billions of dollars of our national resources? If this surprises you, you are stupid. Or you are a liar. Or possibly you have put personal profit before your duty to your country.
The continued persistent corruption in Executive Branch Departments, not to mention Congress, is the direct product of our system of political bribery and payoff. The Lobbyists, Special Interests, and assorted Carpetbaggers get what they pay for, and Citizens get screwed.
Special interests “contribute” to politicians to get appointees, industry representatives like Ms. Burton, in positions where they can deliver massive payoffs, in this case $865 million.
Trust that Ms. Burton will have a fine, well-paying job in the Big Oil industry to cushion her fall from political grace and honor. Incompetence that brings greater profit to Big Oil is esteemed and rewarded by Big Oil.
You should not surprised that Bush, Rice, and Cheney are all children of Big Oil, and are willing to pursue domestic profits for Big Oil at the cost of our democracy and our natural resources. Globally, these people will squander as many lives as are required to maintain Big Oil's control of world oil markets.
Trust me, giving away our money was no accident, nor mistake. It is part of a pattern of corrupt bribes, and payoffs, that both parties participate in.
OTHER ARTICLE ON BRIBERY AND PAYOFFS:
Corruption Updates 1, 11th article on page, “BIG OIL OWNS OUR POLITICIANS”
Corruption Updates 2, 6th article down, “Contribute to Win, Big Contribs try to Trump State Safety Laws”
Corruption Updates 3, 2nd article on page, “Big Business Spends Lawmakers into Compliance”
Corruption Updates 4, 1st article on page, “Checks in, Laws Out, It's that Simple”
Corruption Updates 5, 3rd article on page, “Politics in Alaska Under Investigation”
Corruption Updates 10, 5th article down, “Do Bribed Politicians Provide Safe Regulation of Pipelines, or Anything else?”
Corruption Updates 11, 5th article on page; “Norquest and Reed, and a Rogues Gallery of Thieves, Consulting at White House while All Parties Worked for Abramoff”
Corruption Update 12, 1st article on page; “Political Corruption Infiltrates Interior Dept”
Corruption Update 15, 6th article on page; “Interior Department Web Porn and Shopping Spree”
Corruption Updates 16, 4th article on page, “EPA STANDARDS WILL KILL YOU; SPECIAL INTEREST BRIBERY BRINGS AMERICA DEATH”
Corruption Updates 24, 4th article on page, "BIG OIL OWNS INTERIOR DEPARTMENT"
Corruption Updates 24, 5th article on page, “LOBBYING BY TRUCKING INDUSTRY BRINGS DEATH TO NATION'S HIGHWAYS”
Corruption
Updates 25, 5th article on page, “BATTERY LOBBY BRIBES
ENDANGER HEALTH: BUSH REPAYS BRIBES WITH OUR HEALTH AND
WELFARE BY ATTEMPTING TO KILL LEAD STANDARDS”
Corruption Updates 25, 6th article on page, “FARM LOBBY BRIBES ENDANGER HEALTH: GRASSLEY (R-IOWA) REPAYS BRIBES BY KILLING EPA REGULATION OF FARMS”
A little more about Ms.Burton:
“She also held a leadership role in various energy exploration and service companies.” The fact that Ms .Burton was an industry insider was not widely reported. I found this fact thanks to an obscure group of right wing radicals that really seem to like Ms. Burton.
We do not care if she is “right” or “wrong.” Burton owes her position to the undemocratic political manipulations of Big Oil, and she has misused her office, our democracy, and the people through her corruption.
6) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE AP, 1-17-07:
Secret Court to Govern Warrantless Taps
By Associated Press
10:33 AM PST, January 17, 2007
“WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department says the warrantless wiretapping program will be put under the authority of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.”
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
SECRET COURTS, ILLEGAL WARRANTS DEFINE THE BASIS OF ILLIGITIMACY AND CORRUPTION
Gonzales Hints of General Warrants by NSA, Secret Court
The lead article on this page, #1, above, concerns the Attorney General's attack on the role of the Judiciary in determining the Constitutionality of Presidential acts. Now we know why:
On Wendsday, the day before the AG was to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the NSA warrantless search program was put under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
The reason for this sudden compliance with the Fourth Amendment? The Bush Administration is switching gears, from searches that are illegal on their face, without proven cause, nor warrant, to another more pernicious illegality.
Gonzales' testimony before the Senate indicated that the President has modified his insistence that he is above the law, and will seek warrants for his continuing illegal searching of communications. Apparently FISA has caved-in, and issued secret warrants for illegal searches.
The problem with all this is not just issuing secret warrants involving American citizens, but they are General Warrants based on no probable cause, with no particular description of the criminal act.
The President has gotten warrants for fishing expeditions, which means that general search warrants, a common tool of dictators, are back in circulation.
General search warrants are prohibited by our Constitution.
The Administration is trying to appear lawful by changing tactics, not its commitment to ignoring the Constitution, breaking the law, and violating the rights of our citizens.
NEW LINK LIST THE UNLIMITED PRESIDENT
Corruption Updates 16, 1st article on page, “BUSH TRAINING CONGRESS TO OBEDIENCE: PROBLEM TEACHING THEM TO ROLL OVER WHEN THEY ARE ASLEEP”
Corruption Updates 22, 7th article on page, “Reid Threatens Bush with Oversight”
Corruption Updates 23, 4th article on page, “Bush Claims to Unlimited Power Contested”
Corruption Updates 23, 8th article on page, “Harmon Calls Wiretapping Illegal”
Corruption Updates 23, 9th article on page, “Times Soft pedals Presidential War Crimes and Domestic Crimes”
Corruption Updates 25, 7th article on page, “Italy Indites 25 CIA Operatives”
Corruption Updates 25, 8th article on page, “FBI Chief Defies Oversight”
Corruption Updates 29, 2nd article on page, “White House Claims Secret Policy Power”
Corruption Updates 30, 4th article on page, “White House Vows Cooperation in Probes”
Corruption Updates 31, 1st article on page, 1-17-07, “AG criticizes judges for terror rulings”
Corruption Updates 31, 2nd and 3rd articles on page, “Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Indefensible,” and “A Bush appointee's crude gambit on detainees' legal rights”
Corruption Updates 31, 6th article on page, 1-17-07, “Secret Court to Govern Warrantless Taps”
Corruption Updates 31, 7th article on page, 1-19-07, “Pentagon Revises Its Rules on Prosecution of Terrorists”
Corruption Updates 31, 8th article on page, 1-19-07, “Pentagon sets rules for detainee trials”
Corruption Updates 32, 3rd article on page, “Wiretap review plan is still unclear”
Corruption Updates 34, 4th article on page, “BUSH KIDNAPPING ON TRIAL IN GERMANY: WHY IS GERMANY HOLDING US TO THE RULE OF LAW?
NEW LINK LIST THE UNLIMITED PRESIDENT
7) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE NY TIMES, 1-19-07:
Pentagon Revises Its Rules on Prosecution of Terrorists
By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: January 19, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/19/washington/19gitmo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
“WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 — The Pentagon on Thursday unveiled its new courtroom rules for prosecuting prisoners held as terrorists, allowing military tribunals to consider hearsay evidence and testimony obtained through coercion, but not torture.”
“Pentagon officials said military prosecutors had determined there was sufficient evidence to bring war crimes charges against 60 to 80 of the 395 prisoners detained at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.”
“The new manual explicitly forbids military prosecutors from using evidence obtained through torture. At the same time, it makes a distinction between torture and coercion, allowing testimony that came as the result of coercive techniques used by military and intelligence officials until late 2005, when Congress passed a law banning cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners.”
“The prisoners detained at those sites, including Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the accused mastermind of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are believed to have been subjected to particularly harsh interrogation methods like “water boarding,” which induces a feeling of drowning.”
“ “Those cases are going to have to be developed carefully, and it’s going to take some time, because they are extraordinarily complex,” said Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Hemingway, a Pentagon official who helped draft the new guidelines.”
“The Bush administration established the military commissions in the months after the Sept. 11 attacks to prosecute “unlawful combatants” captured during counter terrorism operations around the globe, many of them in Afghanistan.”
“Last summer, the Supreme Court struck down the commissions as unconstitutional, forcing the White House and Congress to develop new guidelines.”
“ “Classified sources and methods are protected,” said Jennifer Daskal, a lawyer at Human Rights Watch. “This creates the possibility that the defense will not learn the ways in which the evidence was obtained, which could have been through coercive techniques like water boarding and sleep deprivation.” ”
“There are currently 395 detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, but it is likely that only a fraction of those will be prosecuted before military commissions. Even if prisoners are not charged, officials said, the United States still has the right to detain them indefinitely or hand them over to their native governments. “
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
“DETANIEE” TORTURE, HEARSAY, AND NO HABIUS CORPUS:
THE CRIMINALS ARE RUNNING THE COURTS
The Pentagon unveiled new “rules” for conducting trials for “detainees,” which allow the judges wide latitude to allow both hearsay, and testimony forced by torture.
The press has reported this widely, but does not explain why the President is pushing hard for these illegal and unconstitutional judicial practices.
One person explains it all: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. Captured in Pakistan in 2003, he was whisked away into our system of secret prisons and torture chambers. It was widely reported that he was tortured, with psychological means, as well as waterboarding.
The President wants to have his cake and eat it too; he wants to kidnap, illegally hold, and torture “detainees,” AND be able to parade them through a kangaroo court that will convict them without exposing the crimes committed in pursuit of his war on terror.
Khalid Shaikh Mohammed may or may not be the mastermind behind 911. Now we will never know the truth, as the crimes committed during his capture and illegal detention have compromised the case against him. His acts may have been criminal, but his treatment by our government is clearly criminal.
The President's criminal acts in pursuit of “terrorists” have made legal prosecution of “detainees” impossible.
Unless you change the rules to allow kidnapping, long non-judicial detentions, and torture. Then you can capture, hold and torture anyone you want. And when you feel you are done, you march them into a court that will convict them without due process, or respect for our most fundamental laws.
Look forward to a series of show trials of 911 “detainees” that will show the world we have lost our respect for our own rule of law, and the human rights of the rest of the world.
NEW LINK LIST THE UNLIMITED PRESIDENT
Corruption Updates 16, 1st article on page, “BUSH TRAINING CONGRESS TO OBEDIENCE: PROBLEM TEACHING THEM TO ROLL OVER WHEN THEY ARE ASLEEP”
Corruption Updates 22, 7th article on page, “Reid Threatens Bush with Oversight”
Corruption Updates 23, 4th article on page, “Bush Claims to Unlimited Power Contested”
Corruption Updates 23, 8th article on page, “Harmon Calls Wiretapping Illegal”
Corruption Updates 23, 9th article on page, “Times Soft pedals Presidential War Crimes and Domestic Crimes”
Corruption Updates 25, 2nd article on page, “US REPUB SENATOR FEARS WAR ILLEGAL: WHY DID IT TAKE THREE YEARS TO CONFRONT THE LIES?”
Corruption Updates 25, 7th article on page, “Italy Indites 25 CIA Operatives”
Corruption Updates 25, 8th article on page, “FBI Chief Defies Oversight”
Corruption Updates 29, 2nd article on page, “White House Claims Secret Policy Power”
Corruption Updates 30, 4th article on page, “White House Vows Cooperation in Probes”
Corruption Updates 31, 1st article on page, 1-17-07, “AG criticizes judges for terror rulings”
Corruption Updates 31, 2nd and 3rd articles on page, “Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Indefensible,” and “A Bush appointee's crude gambit on detainees' legal rights”
Corruption Updates 31, 6th article on page, 1-17-07, “Secret Court to Govern Warrantless Taps”
Corruption Updates 31, 7th article on page, 1-19-07, “Pentagon Revises Its Rules on Prosecution of Terrorists”
Corruption Updates 31, 8th article on page, 1-19-07, “Pentagon sets rules for detainee trials”
Corruption Updates 32, 3rd article on page, “Wiretap review plan is still unclear”
Corruption Updates 34, 4th article on page, “BUSH KIDNAPPING ON TRIAL IN GERMANY: WHY IS GERMANY HOLDING US TO THE RULE OF LAW?”
NEW LINK LIST THE UNLIMITED PRESIDENT
Also See Links above for more on crimes by the President
8) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE AP, 1-19-07:
Pentagon sets rules for detainee trials
By ANNE FLAHERTY, Associated Press Writer
Last Updated 9:02 am PST Friday, January 19, 2007
http://dwb.sacbee.com/24hour/politics/story/3476213p-12712117c.html
WASHINGTON (AP) -
“Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said he is working alongside Democratic Sens. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Russ Feingold of Wisconsin on a bill addressing flaws in the manual "that are impediments to the effective and credible prosecution of suspected terrorists." ”
“But the Bush administration and GOP members say the tough standards are needed to ensure dangerous terrorists are convicted.”
“Under the law, the president can convene military commissions to prosecute terror suspects so long as he follows certain guidelines, such as granting defendants legal counsel and access to evidence used against them.”
“It also for the first time provided specific definitions of abusive treatment of prisoners, prohibiting some of the worst abuses like mutilation and rape but granting the president leeway to decide which specific interrogation techniques are permissible.”
“The new regulations lack some protections used in civilian and military courtrooms, such as against coerced or hearsay evidence. They are intended to track a law passed last fall by Congress restoring President Bush's plans to have special military commissions try terror-war prisoners. Those commissions had been struck down earlier in the year by the Supreme Court.”
“At least one Republican - Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania - said he would join Democrats in changing the law to allow detainees to protest their detention in court. Under the bill signed into law last fall, only detainees selected for trial by the military are able to confront charges against them. This leaves a vast majority of the thousands of military detainees in custody in Iraq and elsewhere without a chance to plead their case.”
NEW LINK LIST THE UNLIMITED PRESIDENT
CONVICTION, NOT JUSTICE, IS THE STATED GOAL OF GUANTAMAMO TRIAL RULES
The Administration said it itself: “to ensure dangerous terrorists are convicted.” This assurance of conviction stems from a predetermination of guilt, which is the most basic definition of arbitrary authority. The President is claiming the power to declare people guilty, kidnap them, bring them to a secret prison and torture them for as long as he likes.
Then, when he feels like it, he will bring them before a kangaroo court, and convict them. I assume he will then kill them in a grand display of American Democracy and Justice. This makes me wonder who really started this bullshit. Do you wonder how long we have been doing, and supporting these kind of actions in the middle-east? Looks like fifty years for US, and Ninety for the English and French.
From the beginning, Bush has resisted fair and open hearings for all of these people, most of whom have eventually been released without charges, after years of torture and imprisonment. Apparently, Bush was wrong about most of these men.
Open courts would bring embarrassment, as well as criminal charges, against Bush and his band of criminal incompetents.
But under these rules, his errors do not matter, as those not charged have a new legal status that Bush finally codified: “limbo.”
If Bush is so sure of their guilt, then have honest, open trials. We are outraged by courts which “ensure” conviction and place the uncharged people into an official status of limbo. These actions are UNAMERICAN.
Maybe the pain we suffered on 911 was preceded by decades of pain other people suffered.
NEW LINK LIST THE UNLIMITED PRESIDENT
Also see related links at bottom of Article 6 , above.
9) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY ABC, 2-27-06:
From Cash to Yachts: Congressman's Bribe Menu
Court Documents Show Randall 'Duke' Cunningham Set Bribery Rates
By BRIAN ROSS
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/print?id=1667009
“Feb. 27, 2006 — - Prosecutors call it a corruption case with no parallel in the long history of the U.S. Congress. And it keeps getting worse. Convicted Rep. Randall "Duke" Cunningham actually priced the illegal services he provided.”
“Prices came in the form of a "bribe menu" that detailed how much it would cost contractors to essentially order multi million-dollar government contracts, according to documents submitted by federal prosecutors for Cunningham's sentencing hearing this Friday.”
“...the California Republican's "bribery menu" on one of his congressional note cards, "starkly framed" under the seal of the United States Congress.”
“The card shows an escalating scale for bribes, starting at $140,000 and a luxury yacht for a $16 million Defense Department contract. Each additional $1 million in contract value required a $50,000 bribe.”
“The rate dropped to $25,000 per additional million once the contract went above $20 million.”
“Cunningham was a member of the House Appropriations Committee from 1998 to 2005 and served on the subcommittee that provides funding for the Defense Department.”
“One of the defense contractors, Mitchell Wade, pleaded guilty Friday to giving Cunningham more than $1 million in bribes of cash, cars and antiques over four years in exchange for more than $150 million in government.”
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
DUKE BRIBERY MENU USES CONGRESSIONAL SEAL AS SALES TOOL
DUKE ARRAGANCE OF POWER HONESTLY EXPRESSED CONGRESSIONAL SPIRIT
Will the Duke Case continue? Bush is firing the Federal Attorney who was pursuing the tangled web of corruption, bribery, lies and earmarks that Duke lived in. We call it Congress.
For a bit more of Duke in the News:
Corruption Updates 1, 1st article on page, “Wilkes Tells All”
Corruption Updates 2, "Duke Inqiry Cites Breakdowns" (Congress Corrupted by Bribery. That's the breakdown)
Corruption Updates 2, 8th article, “Duke wife though he was just “normally corrupt”
Corruption Updates 2, 11th article on page, “Duke Inquiry Cites Breakdowns,” Widespread Corruption of Committee Processes”
Corruption Updates 17, 8th article on page, “Duke lashes out from Prison”
Corruption Updates 30, 5th article on page, “DUKE BRIBER FINED”
Corruption Updates 31, 9th article on page, “DUKE MENU OF BRIBERY PAYOFFS W/CONGRESS SEAL”
10) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY AL-AHRAM, Jan. 18 through 24, 2007:
Pakistan's old new year
The army ruled the roost in 2006, and it will be the same in 2007, predicts Graham Usher in Islamabad
Al-Ahram 18-24 Jan 07
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/828/in1.htm
“There are two things that can be said with some certainty about Pakistan's next election, due in 2007. The first is that General Pervez Musharraf will be returned as president. The second is that the suffrage will probably be rigged, adding one more fracture to a nation already disabled by several others.”
“Pakistan's supreme leader entered the new year with an insurgency simmering in one province, the spread of a "Pakistani" Taliban in another and a political society united in opposition to him and his "military-guided democracy". If, seven years on from the coup that brought him to power, Musharraf remains unassailable, it is because of the support of the army and the backing of the US, still Pakistan's indispensable patron. But he is steadily losing whatever popular legitimacy he once had.”
“Discontent in Balochistan is as old as partition.”
“For the last three years it has also hosted a low- intensity war, waged by tribal lords wary of Islamabad's neo-colonial designs on their estates but backed by a Baloch middle-class hungry for greater political autonomy. It is a call supported by every major political party in Pakistan, including Musharraf's ruling Muslim League.”
“But not by the army. It went after the most charismatic of the tribal rebels, Nawab Akbar Bugti, in January in an assault on his tribal heartland and then, in August, killed him...”
“Unlike Balochistan...where the resistance was nationalist...(in the tribal areas bordering Afganastan the army faces)... young Islamist tribesmen, allied to the Afghan Taliban. (Pakistani in origin and citizenship)”
“In 2002, under extreme American duress, Musharraf sent troops into the tribal areas to take out Taliban and Al-Qaeda fugitives...”
“The result was disastrous. Seven-hundred soldiers were killed and the tribes were radicalised, with pro- government tribal leaders being removed (politically and physically) by young, Taliban-inspired mullahs.”
“Ominously for Musharraf there was friction in the army's ranks at the new anti-Taliban line.”
“The mood was summed up by a young army recruit. "I am a soldier. I must and will do my duty but I didn't join the army to kill my own people." ”
“In exchange for solely verbal pledges to end attacks on the army and prevent infiltration into Afghanistan, Pakistan agreed to release prisoners, return confiscated arms and retire its troops to barracks. Four months on tribal areas like Waziristan have become enthralled by the Taliban while NATO monitors have registered a 300 per cent increase in cross-border infiltration.”
“...rumours blew that a "power-sharing" deal was being negotiated between Musharraf and Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party (PPP). Mediated by British and American diplomats, the trade appears to be one where the General will keep the presidency and "transitionally" his army uniform for relatively free elections and the return of Bhutto sometime in the post-election future.”
“It is clear why Washington and London would be so zealous for such a rapprochement: it would keep the army as the seat of power in Pakistan while recasting the regime as a "transitional" democracy rather than an Islamist rogue.”
“Whatever the colour of the next Pakistani government its people know the army will remain in power. And so does Musharraf. In his first electoral moves he has addressed neither his own party nor the PPP, but rather his "main constituency". And his subliminal message to the barracks, parade grounds and mess halls is that to preserve the army's pre-eminence in Pakistan's political and economic life it will have to toe the line in the US "war on terror", pursue the peace process with India and perhaps share office (though not power) with the PPP. “
US SUPPORT OF DIRTY DICTATORSHIPS CONTINUES TO FUEL “TERRORISM”
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Next Corruption Updates: Page 32
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