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CORRUPTION UPDATES 91 July 18, 2007 The CORRUPTION UPDATES posts corruption news stories from California, the Nation and the World, and gives you the straight story. |
CORRUPTION UPDATES 91
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1) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the cited source. Following the Abstract, you will find analysis and commentary, references to related articles, and a link to the database with suggested search terms.
Senators Seek Update to Iraq Authorization
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 16, 2007; A08
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/15/AR2007071500878_pf.html
Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) said yesterday that the congressional resolution approved in October 2002 that gave President Bush authority to use force in Iraq needs to be changed because it no longer covers what U.S. forces are doing or will do in the future.
The former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee recalled during an appearance on ABC's "This Week" that Bush was given authority to protect the United States from Saddam Hussein and enforce United Nations resolutions involving Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
Their proposal, which they want to attach as an amendment to the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill, is nonbinding but resembles a proposal put forward by Democratic Sens. Robert C. Byrd (W.Va.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.). The Byrd-Clinton proposal would repeal the 2002 authorization and require Congress to pass a new authorization to keep troops in Iraq.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Bush's war illegal from start:
Saddam neither threatened US, nor had WMD
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July 20, 2007
Hans Blix had eliminated the possibility that Iraq had Nuclear Weapons, and had almost verified that the Chemical Weapons program was extinct when Bush forced the UN Teams out of Iraq before his illegal invasion.
It was obvious, despite the torrent of lies from the NY Times and our corrupted politicians, that Saddam neither had WMD and presented no threat to America, or our legitimate interests in the middle east.
Quite the contrary was true; Saddam blocked the aspirations of both Sunni radicals, as well as Iranian aspirations for regional leadership. Our invasion of Iraq has advanced the position and prestige of both Iran, and the radical Sunni islamist groups.
The "war authorization" was and is a thin cover for the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. There is no adjustment Congress can make that would make the Iraq war legal or just.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 25, 2nd article on page, December 8, 2006, “GOP senator says war may be 'criminal'”
Corruption Updates 45 , 1st article on page, "McCaffrey Paints Gloomy Picture of Iraq"
Corruption Updates 49 , 1st article on page, "3 Generals Spurn the Position of War 'Czar'"
Corruption Updates 67, 1st article on the page, "'03 Iraq reports warned Bush: Bush is an Irresponsible Idiot"
Search the Corruption Database under
Iraq (43 Abstracts)
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2) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Bush Leans On Petraeus as War Dissent Deepens
General Set Up as Scapegoat, Some Say
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 15, 2007; A07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/14/AR2007071401140_pf.html
Almost every time President Bush has defended his new strategy in Iraq this year, he has invoked the name of the top commander, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus.
With opposition to Bush's Iraq strategy escalating on Capitol Hill, the president has sought, at least rhetorically, to transfer some of the burden of an unpopular war to his top general in Baghdad, wielding Petraeus as a shield against a growing number of congressional doubters.
Petraeus, a marathon runner with a doctorate from Princeton, is the fourth general to command U.S. military operations in Iraq, but he is the first with whom Bush has forged such a close relationship. Every Monday, the two men confer via a secure video link without the standard retinue of deputies and aides.
Some of Petraeus's military comrades worry that the general is being set up by the Bush administration as a scapegoat if conditions in Iraq fail to improve. "The danger is that Petraeus will now be painted as failing to live up to expectations and become the fall guy for the administration," one retired four-star officer said.
"It seems to me almost an act of desperation, the administration turning to the one most prominent official who cannot act politically and whose credibility is so far unsullied, someone who is or should be purely driven by the facts of the situation," said Richard Kohn, a specialist in U.S. military history at the University of North Carolina.
Retired Marine Lt. Gen. Wallace Gregson, a skilled strategist, concluded that the president is sending the message that Iraq is "a purely military problem."
When Bush and his aides shift military strategy, they seem to turn on the generals on whom they once relied publicly, said Lawrence Korb, a former Pentagon official. During the run-up to the war, when Gen. Eric Shinseki, the former Army chief of staff, told Congress that more troops were needed to secure Iraq, he was publicly rebuked by then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz.
More recently, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., Petraeus's predecessor, was blamed for not doing more to improve security for Iraqi civilians, and Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was effectively fired last month by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.
"This is an administration that wants to blame the generals," Korb said.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Bush Setting Up Petraeus to take fall for Failure of Bush's Criminal Iraqi War
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July 20, 2007
Bush's criminal incompetence cannot be covered by Petraeus nor the line of fired generals who proceeded him. Petraeus reminds us of another historically doomed general: Rommel.
Like Rommel with Hitler, Petraeus is unable to use his military brilliance to rescue the doomed plans of a criminally insane leader. As Rommel was sacrificed by Hitler to cover his incompetent leadership, Petraeus will be sacrificed by Bush to cover his strikingly similar incompetence.
Like Hitler's Germany, America has been betrayed by its own leadership, and the silence of our corrupted Congress and press.
Also See:
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Shinseki fired as Chief for honest analysis of Iraq war plans
Corruption Updates 25, 4th article on the page, "ENGLISH LORD COMPARES HITLER'S INVASION OF POLAND WITH IRAQ WAR"
Corruption Updates 23, 9th article on page, NYTIMES, 12-3-06: “TIMES SOFTPEDALS PRESIDENTIAL WAR CRIMES AND DOMESTIC CRIMES. LEAVE IT TO THE TIMES TO PUT LIPSTICK ON PIGS”
Corruption Updates 58, 6th article on page, "War-torn Iraq 'facing collapse'"
Corruption Updates 79, 1st article on page, "Iraq Ranks No. 2 of Failed States"
Corruption Updates 84, 4th article on page, "General’s Iraq Progress Report: Bush lining up his next set of Excuses for Failed War"
Search the Corruption Database under
Generals (13 Abstracts)
Iraq War
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CIA dissenters aided secret prisons report: author
By Marcin Grajewski
Reuters
Tuesday, July 17, 2007; 9:17 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/17/AR2007071700535_pf.html
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Dissident U.S. intelligence officers angry at former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld helped a European probe uncover details of secret CIA prisons in Europe, the top investigator said on Tuesday.
Swiss Senator Dick Marty, author of a Council of Europe report on the jails, said senior CIA officials disapproved of Rumsfeld's methods in hunting down terrorist suspects, and had agreed to talk to him on condition of anonymity.
"There were huge conflicts between the CIA and Rumsfeld. Many leading figures in the CIA did not accept these methods at all," Marty told European Parliament committees, defending his work against complaints it was based on unnamed sources.
The report issued last month said the Central Intelligence Agency ran secret jails in Poland and Romania, with the complicity of those governments, and transported terrorist suspects across Europe in secret flights.
"People in the CIA felt these things were not consonant with the sort of intelligence work they normally do," Marty said.
He said he had based his findings largely on conversations with "high officials of the CIA (and) highly placed European office-holders, who for different reasons, often honorable reasons, were ready to explain what had happened."
"ADMISSIONS"
"The Americans themselves admitted there were secret prisons, that they abducted people from the streets, that people were handed over to countries like Syria, Yemen, Egypt where they were tortured," he said.
U.S. President George W. Bush acknowledged last year that the CIA had held top al Qaeda suspects in secret overseas detention centers but did not say in which countries.
"The president of United States made a very important statement..., I think we can all expect ... in the near future further admissions," said Marty.
He also said he would not remove name of former Polish and Romanian government officials from the report, although they threatened on Tuesday to take legal action against the senator.
The report said former Polish national security adviser Marek Siwiec and former Romanian Defense Minister Ioan Pascu knew their countries had hosted secret CIA detention centers.
"I have no reason to withdraw his name. I would certainly not be prepared to apologies. He knew exactly what was happening as did his president," Marty told a news conference, referring to Siwiec and former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski.
"I am not shaking in my shoes," he said of the libel suit that Siwiec vowed to launch in a Polish court unless Marty removed his name from the report within seven days.
Pascu challenged Marty in the hearing to substantiate his allegations or withdraw them, but the Swiss legislator did not respond directly.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
CIA Patriots Rebel at Bush Program of Kidnapping, Torture, Secret Prisons
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July 20, 2007
It is slightly reassuring that there are members of the CIA who reject Bush's assumption of dictatorial powers. Why these people have not quit, and publicly revealed the crimes of the Bush Administration is beyond my understanding of patriotism.
When the President breaks domestic and international law by ordering secret kidnapping and torture, it is time for patriots to step forward and reject the President and his crimes. When the President establishes Secret Prisons where victims have no hope of release or independent review, it is the duty of every American to refuse to participate in these crimes.
When the President seizes the power to search every citizen, every true citizen must rise in anger against the tyrant.
We are in a situation where patriotism requires that every citizen put the welfare and safety of their Constitution and country before their duty to party or position.
Yeah, sure. Our CONSUMERS will only rise up when their luxury and gross consumption are slapped out of their indolent hands.
Citizens of the United States? I can count them on the fingers of one hand. The revolution is on, but we are too stupid, too fat, and too corrupt to see what we've lost, or to do anything about it.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 25, 7th article on the page, "ITALY CHIEF OF INTELLIGENCE, 25 CIA OPERATIVES INDICTED FOR KIDNAPPING"
Corruption Updates 34, 4th article on the page, "Germany issues CIA arrest orders"
Corruption Updates 71, 1st article on the page, "CIA rejects secret jails report"
Search the Corruption Database under
Central Intelligence Agency (12 Abstracts)
Kidnapping (25 Abstracts)
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In Intelligence World, A Mute Watchdog
Panel Reported No Violations for Five Years
By John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 15, 2007; A03
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/14/AR2007071400862_pf.html
An independent oversight board created to identify intelligence abuses after the CIA scandals of the 1970s did not send any reports to the attorney general of legal violations during the first 5 1/2 years of the Bush administration's counterterrorism effort, the Justice Department has told Congress.
Although the FBI told the board of a few hundred legal or rules violations by its agents after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the board did not identify which of them were indeed legal violations. This spring, it forwarded reports of violations in 2006, officials said.
The President's Intelligence Oversight Board -- the principal civilian watchdog of the intelligence community -- is obligated under a 26-year-old executive order to tell the attorney general and the president about any intelligence activities it believes "may be unlawful." The board was vacant for the first two years of the Bush administration.
The FBI sent copies of its violation reports directly to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. But the board's mandate is to provide independent oversight, so the absence of such communications has prompted critics to question whether the board was doing its job.
"It's now apparent that the IOB was not actively employed in the early part of the administration. And it was a crucial period when its counsel would seem to have been needed the most," said Anthony Harrington, who served as the board's chairman for most of the Clinton administration.
"The White House counsel's office and the attorney general should have known and been concerned if they did not detect an active and effective IOB," Harrington said.
Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) added: "It is deeply disturbing that this administration seems to spend so much of its energy and resources trying to find ways to ignore any check and balance on its authority and avoid accountability to Congress and the American public."
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Friday that "the president expects every single person working in counterterrorism and intelligence strictly to follow the law -- and if there are instances where that has not occurred, either intentionally or non-intentionally, he expects it promptly to be corrected."
Through five previous administrations, members of the board -- all civilians not employed by the government -- have been privy to some of America's most secret intelligence operations and have served as a private watchdog against unpublicized abuses. The subjects of their investigations and the resulting reports are nearly all classified.
The Bush administration first appointed board members in 2003. Since then, the CIA and the National Security Agency have been caught up in controversy over interrogation tactics at secret prisons, the transfer of prisoners to countries that use torture, and domestic wiretapping not reviewed by federal courts.
Until recently, the board had not told the attorney general about any wrongdoing. "The Attorney General has no record of receiving reports from the IOB regarding intelligence activities alleged to be potentially unlawful or contrary to Executive Order or Presidential directive," the Justice Department told the House Judiciary Committee in a May 9 letter.
White House officials said the board began forwarding reports of problems shortly thereafter. The officials declined to discuss the board's interactions with President Bush and said its members could not be interviewed for this report.
President Gerald R. Ford created the board in the mid-1970s after the Church Committee identified numerous abuses by U.S. intelligence agencies. President Ronald Reagan made the board permanent with an executive order in 1981 and gave it the mission to identify legal violations.
Separately, Gonzales wrote the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), on Friday to defend his 2005 testimony that there had been no verified civil liberties abuses during the first three years of the efforts against terrorism. The Washington Post reported last week that the FBI had sent Gonzales a half-dozen reports of violations of civil liberties and privacy safeguards before his testimony.
Gonzales wrote that he did not consider the conduct in those reports to be abuses because the violations involved mistakes, not deliberate misconduct. "My testimony was completely truthful, and I stand by that testimony," he wrote.
Leahy scoffed at Gonzales's explanation. "The American people deserve an attorney general who will fully and accurately inform the Senate and the public about violations of civil liberties. Instead, they have one who misleads Congress and then hides behind dictionary definitions," he said.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Bush Above the Law
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July 21, 2007
The Bush administration has conveniently omitted appointing inspector generals in the Pentagon and the CIA.
In every other executive branch agency corrupt industry insiders have been put into oversight positions. Professional auditors and inspectors have been marginalized or forced out.
This is the immediate and direct cost of political bribery on every aspect of our government, economy, and environment.
Until we remove the bribery, and replace it with the legitimate support of the voters, we will continue to have our political and economic rights ripped off, and our environment raped by these criminals.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 25, 9th article on the page, "PENTAGON WITHOUT FRAUD WATCHDOG FOR 2ND YEAR AS IRAQ WAR FRAUD SPIRALS OUT OF CONTROL"
Corruption Updates 33, 8th article on the page, "GSA HEAD CHEATS LIKE THE THIEVES SHE IS SUPPOSED TO REGULATE"
Corruption Updates 46, 7th article on the page, "Lawmakers Urge Bush To Fire NASA Official: Gonzales's Aide now Delivers Injustice at NASA"
Search the Corruption Database under
Misuse of Office (49 Abstracts)
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CIA Said Instability Seemed 'Irreversible'
By Bob Woodward
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 12, 2007; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/11/AR2007071102451_pf.html
Early on the morning of Nov. 13, 2006, members of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group gathered around a dark wooden conference table in the windowless Roosevelt Room of the White House.
For more than an hour, they listened to President Bush give what one panel member called a "Churchillian" vision of "victory" in Iraq and defend the country's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. "A constitutional order is emerging," he said.
Later that morning, around the same conference table, CIA Director Michael V. Hayden painted a starkly different picture for members of the study group. Hayden said "the inability of the government to govern seems irreversible," adding that he could not "point to any milestone or checkpoint where we can turn this thing around," according to written records of his briefing and the recollections of six participants.
"The government is unable to govern," Hayden concluded. "We have spent a lot of energy and treasure creating a government that is balanced, and it cannot function."
Later in the interview, he qualified the statement somewhat: "A government that can govern, sustain and defend itself is not achievable," he said, "in the short term."
In the eight months since the interview, neither Hayden nor any other high-ranking administration official has publicly described the Iraqi government in the uniformly negative terms that the CIA director used in his closed-door briefing.
In effect, the report from the bipartisan group...was an urgent message from the old Washington establishment to the Bush administration to change the direction of its Iraq policy. But Bush did not initially embrace any of the key recommendations, although bipartisan groups in the House and Senate have recently introduced legislation that would make them official U.S. policy.
Instead, the president in January announced that he was sending more troops to Iraq as part of a "surge," which he said would lead to the victory that had so far eluded U.S. forces.
. Since 2003, the CIA, which has more than 500 personnel in Iraq to assist in providing intelligence and analysis, has offered the most pessimistic view of any intelligence agency of both the Iraqi government's performance and the situation on the ground there.
Arriving at the White House on the morning of Nov. 13, members of the study group spent the day interviewing almost every key figure involved in Iraq policy. In addition to Hayden, Bush and Rice, they also questioned Rumsfeld; Gen. Peter Pace, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Zalmay Khalilzad, then U.S. ambassador to Iraq; and, by videoconference from Baghdad, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., then the top U.S. commander in Iraq.
Bush was joined in the interview by Vice President Cheney, White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and Hadley, but they did not speak. "We thought with that whole group there, we were going to get briefings, we were going to get discussions," said Perry. "Instead the president held forth on his views on how important the war was, and how it was tough."
"Our leaving Iraq would make the situation worse," Hayden said. "Our staying in Iraq may not make it better. Our current approach without modification will not make it better."
"The levers of power are not connected to anything," he said, adding: "We have placed all of our energies in creating the center, and the center cannot accomplish anything."
Hayden catalogued what he saw as the main sources of violence in this order: the insurgency, sectarian strife, criminality, general anarchy and, lastly, al-Qaeda. Though Hayden had listed al-Qaeda as the fifth most pressing threat in Iraq, Bush regularly lists al-Qaeda first.
(A Senior CIA Official in Iraq)...held an equally unenthusiastic view.
the CIA official said. "The Ministry of Interior is uniformed death squads, overseers of jails and torture facilities," he said. "Their funds are constantly misappropriated."
(Hayden:) "It's a legitimate question whether strengthening the Iraqi security forces helps or hurts when they are viewed as a predatory element," he said. "Strengthening Iraqi security forces is not unalloyed good. Without qualification, this judgment applies to the police."
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
The Middle East had more Stability and Security with Iraq under Saddam than Bush:
Conditions will deteriorate if we stay, or if we go
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July 20, 2007
(Commentary below written for CU45_2 on March 29, 2007)
The Saudi, Jordanian, and Egyptian regimes must put themselves at the head of the post-colonial, anti-American movements in their countries, or be swept aside.
Their political authority, up to now, has been based on Western military, political, and economic power, not the support of their people. The Iraqi war is accelerating the termination of The Age of Western Imperial domination over the middle east.
The "American Century" is coming to a close around the world, and coming to a very bloody ending in the Arabic lands.
A new balance of power is forming in every hemisphere of the planet. And it is rising to fight us.
A fundamental tenet of the rising powers around the world is the rejection of American military and political domination. These revolutions of local control and independence can no longer be held back in the Middle-East by our Saudi, Jordanian and Egyptian proxies. They have seen the handwriting on the wall, and can only continue to ignore the will of their people at the risk of their lives and property.
King Faud's speech acknowledges the seriousness, and the depth of damage Bush's middle eastern "policy" has inflicted on our regional allies.
When the Saudi King calls Bush a criminal, it signals that the Saudi government is accelerating the shifting of their regional policies and global alliances in a direction independent of American interests and control.
The Middle-East is using bloody Iraq as a fulcrum to free itself from our domination. Our Saudi allies are merely making the moves necessary to keep their crowns, and their heads, as the "Uma," the unified will of the Islamic community in the middle east, begins to assert itself, and demands that American political and military influence be ejected from their lands.
If the King said it, it must be true.
See article one, above.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 25, 2nd article on page, December 8, 2006, “GOP senator says war may be 'criminal'”
Corruption Updates 45 , 1st article on page, "McCaffrey Paints Gloomy Picture of Iraq"
Corruption Updates 45 , 2nd article on page, "U.S. Iraq Role Is Called Illegal by Saudi King"
Corruption Updates 49 , 1st article on page, "3 Generals Spurn the Position of War 'Czar'
Corruption Updates 58, 6th article on page, "War-torn Iraq 'facing collapse'"
Corruption Updates 67, 1st article on the page, "'03 Iraq reports warned Bush: Bush is an Irresponsible Idiot"
Corruption Updates 79, 1st article on page, "Iraq Ranks No. 2 of Failed States"
Search the Corruption Database under
Iraq
Generals
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Ex-Surgeon General Says White House Hushed Him
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 11, 2007; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/10/AR2007071001422_pf.html
Former surgeon general Richard H. Carmona yesterday accused the Bush administration of muzzling him on sensitive public health issues, becoming the most prominent voice among several current and former federal science officials who have complained of political interference.
Carmona, a Bush nominee who served from 2002 to 2006, told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that political appointees in the administration routinely scrubbed his speeches for politically sensitive content and blocked him from speaking out on public health matters such as stem cell research, abstinence-only sex education and the emergency contraceptive Plan B.
"Anything that doesn't fit into the political appointees' ideological, theological or political agenda is often ignored, marginalized or simply buried," he said. "The problem with this approach is that in public health, as in a democracy, there is nothing worse than ignoring science or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds."
In one such case, Carmona, a former professor of surgery and public health at the University of Arizona, said he was told not to speak out during the national debate over whether the federal government should fund embryonic stem cell research, which President Bush opposes.
"Much of the discussion was being driven by theology, ideology, [and] preconceived beliefs that were scientifically incorrect," said Carmona, one of three former surgeons general who testified at yesterday's hearing. "I thought, 'This is a perfect example of the surgeon general being able to step forward, educate the American public.' . . . I was blocked at every turn. I was told the decision had already been made -- 'Stand down. Don't talk about it.' That information was removed from my speeches."
Last year, NASA scientist James E. Hansen and other federal climate researchers said the Bush administration had made it hard for them to speak in a forthright manner about global warming. In 2005, Susan F. Wood, an assistant FDA commissioner and director of the agency's Office of Women's Health, resigned her post, citing her frustration with political interference that was delaying approval of over-the-counter sales of Plan B.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
The Last American Freedoms:
You have the Freedom to Obey and Consume
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July 21, 2007
Our system has devolved to the point where dishonesty, dishonor, and bribery now characterize our democracy. This is no longer a democracy, it is an auction of our governmental powers to the highest bidder. It is corporate fascism.
The highest bidders control the parties, select the candidates, and determine the outcomes of our elections. No candidate is viable without their assent and support. No honest, independent candidates can be elected under our present system.
The end result is here: virtually every office in the executive and legislative branches are run by industry insiders and lobbyists, rather than honest citizens and disinterested professionals.
Science, Safety Regulation, and every aspect of public policy are now subordinated to the control of the highest bidder. Our democracy is no more than thin cover for control of our government by wealth and power. It is a tyranny.
We have lost the wisdom democracy brings to legislation when it blends and compromises the divergent perspectives of our people. American democracy today has disenfranchised the voters, replacing our bottom-up DEMOCRACY with a top-down exercise of wealth, power and bribery.
Our present system excludes the views and ignores the needs of the voters it is supposed to represent. Our present system is fundamentally dishonest, and this is reflected across every branch of our government.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 21, 9th article on page, “Scientists say White House muzzled them”
Corruption Updates 32, 2nd article on the page, "BUSH TRIES TO KILL CHEMICAL RULES, SCIENCE, AND INTEGRITY IN ONE FELL SWOOP: INTEGERTY FALLS, RULES AND SCIENCE DAMAGED, BUT STILL STANDING"
Corruption Updates 33, 10th article on the page, "Bush Suppressing Science and Truth:climate scientists censored, science suppressed"
Corruption Updates 38, 9th article on the page, "CLIMATE SCIENCE SILENCED YET AGAIN AT INTERIOR"
Corruption Updates 41, 2nd article on the page, "SCIENCE CLAIMS BUSH A NAZI"
Corruption Updates 41, 3rd article on the page, "REPUBLICANS DEMAND SCIENCE SAYS WHAT THEY WANT IT TO SAY"
Corruption Updates 42, 2nd article on the page, "Tobacco prosecutor says administration interfered"
Search the Corruption Database under
Censorship
Environment
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7) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the cited source. Following the Abstract, you will find analysis and commentary, references to related articles, and a link to the database with suggested search terms.
Gonzales Knew About Violations, Officials Say
By John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 11, 2007; A03
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/10/AR2007071001992_pf.html
Two senior Justice Department officials said yesterday that they kept Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales apprised of FBI violations of civil liberties and privacy safeguards in recent years.
The two officials spoke in a telephone call arranged by press officials at the Justice Department after The Washington Post disclosed yesterday that the FBI sent reports to Gonzales of legal and procedural violations shortly before he told senators in April 2005: "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse" after 2001.
"I have discussed and informed attorneys general, including this one, about mistakes the FBI has made or problems or violations or compliance incidents, however you want to refer to them," said James A. Baker, a career official who heads the Justice Department's Office of Intelligence Policy and Review.
"I've discussed a number of times oversight concerns and, underlying those oversight concerns, the potential for violations. And I'm sure we've discussed violations that have occurred in the past," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security Kenneth L. Wainstein.
"That is why I cited the definition of 'abuse,' which in Webster's . . . implies some sort of intentional conduct. And I think that is sort of the common understanding of the word 'abuse,' " Wainstein said.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) noted that Gonzales said in a written statement last week that he first became aware of problems with the FBI's use of a tool known as a "national security letter" earlier this year. Copies of the FBI reports sent to Gonzales in 2005 and 2006 described several problems with the letters, which allow agents to secretly collect Americans' phone, computer and bank records without a court order or grand jury subpoena.
"This inconsistency is a disturbing addition to a growing list of misleading answers by the attorney general to questions from the Judiciary Committee, and it is unacceptable," Leahy said.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on civil liberties, said Gonzales should resign and a special prosecutor should be appointed. "Attorney General Gonzales has shown an apparent reckless disregard for the rule of law and a fundamental lack of respect for the oversight responsibilities of Congress," Nadler said.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
US Attorney General a Confirmed Habitual Liar
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July 21, 2007
Gonzales should get some kind of reward. NOBODY in our recent political history has lied so repeatedly to Congress and the people as Gonzales has. How about a nice necktie?
Gonzales' lies are just the beginning: Gonzales is lying to protect and preserve the ongoing crimes of the President. Beneath the President's crimes is the true corruption: The President's Open Claims to be Above the Constitution and the Law.
The Lies, Deceptions, and Crimes committed by Gonzales and Bush would trigger outrage and impeachment, if Congress was not complicit in Bush's crimes. Congress passed the illegal and unconstitutional "Patriot" Act upon which Bush and Gonzales are basing their criminal claims.
By passing the "Patriot" Act Congress provided Bush the precedent he needed to justify suspending our Constitution and Laws: Through the device of the Patriot Act, Congress itself suspended the Constitution by legislative act, and Bush is only claiming this same authority for the office of the president.
Bush and Gonzales have merely st reached Congress' dangerous precedent to include the President. Bush and Gonzales are only claiming the same power to suspend the Constitution as Congress exercised through the "Patriot" Act. Bush has merely transferred this same illegitimate power Congress exercised to the office of the president: the power to suspend the law and Constitution by Presidential Order.
Thus the complicity of Congress explains their silence in the face of the President's monumental crimes against humanity, our Constitution, and our laws. Congress granted the President illegal powers, and now they can't take them back. Gonzales lies openly and repeatedly to Congress, and they just sit there and take it.
Congress opened Pandora's Box and are now incapable of closing the box they themselves opened.
It is up to us. Let's buy Gonzales a necktie.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 43, 2nd article on the page, "GONALES CAUGHT IN OPEN LIES TO CONGRESS"
Corruption Updates 43, 4th article on the page, "Gonzales Met With Top Aides On Firings: GONALES CAUGHT IN OPEN LIES TO CONGRESS"
Corruption Updates 46, 1st article on the page, "Gonzales Caught Lying, AGAIN: Gonzales, Miers Approved Firings, Ex-Aide Says"
Corruption Updates 48, 9th article on the page, "Gonzales a Liar: Ex-Justice Official's Statements Contradict Gonzales on Firings"
Search the Corruption Database under
Gonzales
US Attorney (60 Abstracts)
Unconstitutional Presidential Powers
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Gonzales Was Told of FBI Violations
After Bureau Sent Reports, Attorney General Said He Knew of No Wrongdoing
By John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 10, 2007; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/09/AR2007070902065_pf.html
As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.
Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.
The acts recounted in the FBI reports included unauthorized surveillance, an illegal property search and a case in which an Internet firm improperly turned over a compact disc with data that the FBI was not entitled to collect, the documents show. Gonzales was copied on each report that said administrative rules or laws protecting civil liberties and privacy had been violated.
The reports also alerted Gonzales in 2005 to problems with the FBI's use of an anti-terrorism tool known as a national security letter (NSL), well before the Justice Department's inspector general brought widespread abuse of the letters in 2004 and 2005 to light in a stinging report this past March.
Each of the violations cited in the reports copied to Gonzales was serious enough to require notification of the President's Intelligence Oversight Board, which helps police the government's surveillance activities. The format of each memo was similar, and none minced words.
"This enclosure sets forth details of investigative activity which the FBI has determined was conducted contrary to the attorney general's guidelines for FBI National Security Investigations and Foreign Intelligence Collection and/or laws, executive orders and presidential directives," said the April 21, 2005, letter to the Intelligence Oversight Board.
The oversight board, staffed with intelligence experts from inside and outside government, was established to report to the attorney general and president about civil liberties abuses or intelligence lapses. But Roehrkasse said the fact that a violation is reported to the board "does not mean that a USA Patriot violation exists or that an individual's civil liberties have been abused."
The report sent to Gonzales on April 21, 2005, concerned a violation of the rules governing NSLs, which allow agents in counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations to secretly gather Americans' phone, bank and Internet records without a court order or a grand jury subpoena.
At least two other reports of NSL-related violations were sent to Gonzales, according to the new documents. In letters copied to him on Dec. 11, 2006, and Feb. 26, 2007, the FBI reported to the oversight board that agents had requested and obtained phone data on the wrong people.
Nonetheless, Gonzales reacted with surprise when the Justice Department inspector general reported this March that there were pervasive problems with the FBI's handling of NSLs and another investigative tool known as an exigent circumstances letter.
"I was upset when I learned this, as was Director Mueller. To say that I am concerned about what has been revealed in this report would be an enormous understatement," Gonzales said in a speech March 9, referring to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller. The attorney general added that he believed back in 2005, before the Patriot Act was renewed, that there were no problems with NSLs. "I've come to learn that I was wrong," he said, making no mention of the FBI reports sent to him.
Marcia Hofmann, a lawyer for the nonpartisan Electronic Frontier Foundation, said, "I think these documents raise some very serious questions about how much the attorney general knew about the FBI's misuse of surveillance powers and when he knew it."
Caroline Fredrickson, a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the new documents raise questions about whether Gonzales misled Congress at a moment when lawmakers were poised to renew the Patriot Act and keenly sought assurances that there were no abuses. "It was extremely important," she said of Gonzales's 2005 testimony. "The attorney general said there are no problems with the Patriot Act, and there was no counterevidence at the time."
The memos also detail instances in which the FBI wrote out new NSLs to cover evidence that had been mistakenly collected.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July , 2007
Also See:
Corruption Updates 23, 9th article on the page, "TIMES SOFTPEDALS PRESIDENTIAL WAR CRIMES AND DOMESTIC CRIMES"
Corruption Updates 25, 8th article on the page, "FBI CHIEF DEFYS CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT REFUSAL TO DISCLOSE ILLEGAL PROGRAM"
Corruption Updates 31, 1st article on the page, "GONZALES ATTACKS CONSTITUTION, JUDICIARY, AND HUMAN RIGHTS SIMULTANOUSLY"
Corruption Updates 32, 3rd article on the page, "PRESIDENT TRIES END RUN AROUND CONSTITUTION:CLAIMS ACTIONS ARE SECRET, AND ABOVE LAW"
Corruption Updates 34, 7th article on the page, "ALBERTO FIGHTS FOR UNCONSTITUTIONAL PRESIDENTIAL POWERS"
Corruption Updates 38, 6th article on the page, "FBI USING UNLIMITED SEARCH POWERS:Bush Pledges Swift Action on FBI Reform(LIAR)"
Corruption Updates 41, 5th article on the page, "FBI Violations May Number 3,000, Official Says:HOW DO YOU SAY ILLEGAL SEARCH? “National Security Letter"
Corruption Updates 51, 9th article on the page, "Administration Seeks to Expand Surveillance Law"
Corruption Updates 84, 1st article on the page, "Pelosi: Impeachment 'off the table"
Search the Corruption Database under
Illegal Searches (27 Abstracts)
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9) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the cited source. Following the Abstract, you will find analysis and commentary, references to related articles, and a link to the database with suggested search terms.
Lobbyists Try to Quell Frenzy Over Private-Equity Fund Tax
By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 10, 2007; D01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/09/AR2007070901763_pf.html
Soon after Rep. Eric Cantor called a meeting of lobbyists two weeks ago, his aides had to find a larger room. Instead of the couple dozen they had expected, 75 showed up.
Cantor, a Virginia Republican, convened the gathering to discuss how to defeat a set of fast-moving proposals that would vastly increase taxes on private-equity firms and hedge funds, the new money bags of Wall Street.
The high-stakes bills emerged in a rush last month as Blackstone Group, a major private-equity firm, prepared to go public and its principals stood to reap billion-dollar profits. Top congressional tax-writers moved to block the windfall and, in response, the funds mobilized some of Washington's most heavy-hitting lobbyists.
Dozens of lawyers, tax experts and public relations executives have been retained and together have begun to plot the defeat of the tax-increase measures. Their chief tactic: to persuade lawmakers that average citizens and run-of-the-mill businesses, and not just Wall Street fat cats, would be harmed by the legislation.
"This is a tax increase not only on those working on Wall Street, but also on all blue-jean-wearing Americans because of its effect on their retirement funds," Cantor said.In addition, businesses that are organized as partnerships like private-equity firms, especially oil-and-gas and real estate ventures, have joined in to say the legislation unfairly targets them and would harm their industries.
At least three coalitions have been formed to spread these views, including Cantor's Coalition for the Freedom of American Investors and Retirees. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the anti-tax Americans for Tax Reform, which is headed by conservative activist Grover G. Norquist, are also holding regular planning sessions.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Private Hedge Funds Holding Pensions Hostage for Tax Break
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July 21, 2007
Supply-Side economics is running our economy ass-backwards, both as a method of capitalizing investments, and in how supply-side economics reduce the political and economic influence of middle-class citizens. Supply Side economics is fiscally and socially irresponsible, and undemocratic.
All investment must be routed through the middle and lower classes to allow their political and economic preferences to influence investment and development policy. All upper class tax breaks must be completely transferred to the middle and lower classes, and all capital gains taxes must be reinstated at the 90% level.
Practically speaking, this will make our economic elites work for us, and work to pool capital, rather letting the government just give them our money.
Reinstating the capital gains taxes at a heavy rate will give the equities markets a rest. Allowing big investors to sell off a company's stock without capital gains taxes encourages short term profits at the expense of the company's long term health.
Capital gains taxes prevented the big investors from investing for the sole purpose of draining companies of their wealth. Investments were made for medium and long term stable profits, allowing CEOs and corporate executives to chart long and medium-term strategies of growth. Those days ended when capital gains taxes were cut, causing a focus on short-term profits rather than long term stability.
After reducing capital gains taxes big investors began demanding constant, irresponsible profits at the expense of the long term health of the company. Restoring capital gains taxes will force investors to build the long term profitability of the companies they invest in, rather than allowing the big investors to make profits by stripping down and destroying companies. Capital gains taxes preserved market stability by keeping money in the market, and encouraged responsible investment plans.
All upper-class tax breaks must be transferred to the middle and lower classes to give our democratic base the economic and political clout to affect economic and political policy decisions. When companies or our corporate elite want to make large capital investments, they should come, hat in hand, to ask the middle class for the funds to pursue their goals.
Our ability to save and bank money, to pool and control pension funds, and influence development policies has been stolen from the middle class by supply side economics, the impoverishment of labor through massive immigration, and the irresponsible tax policies that suspended capital gains taxes.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 19, 1st article on the page, "TOP RECIPEINTS OF LOBBYISTS BRIBES ARE LEADERSHIP OF BOTH PARTIES"
Corruption Updates 26, 1st article on the page, "LOBBYISTS SEE NO CHANGE UNDER DEMS:CORRUPTION PRESENTED AS FORCE OF NATURE, DEM CORRUPTION NATURAL"
Corruption Updates 81, 8th article on the page, "Bear Stearns Staves Off Collapse of 2 Hedge Funds: Billions in Worthless Loans Ready to Hit Market"
Corruption Updates 83, 8th article on the page, "Report on Amaranth Collapse Is to Be Made Public"
Corruption Updates 84, 6th article on the page, "Hedge Fund:$3.2 Billion Move by Bear Stearns to Rescue Fund"
Search the Corruption Database under
Hedge Funds (3 Abstracts)
Lobbyists (95 Abstracts)
Norquist (2 Abstracts)
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Grand Jury Indicts Ex-Mayor of Newark
By Janet Frankston Lorin
Associated Press
Friday, July 13, 2007; A02
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/12/AR2007071202276_pf.html
NEWARK, July 12 -- A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted former Newark mayor Sharpe James on corruption charges involving land sales and the extravagant use of city-issued credit cards for himself and several women.
The 33-count indictment charges James with fraud for allegedly facilitating and approving the cut-rate sales of city-owned land to a female companion.
It also charges James, 71, with using city-issued credit cards for himself and eight women during trips to destinations including Rio de Janeiro, Puerto Rico and Martha's Vineyard, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie and state Attorney General Anne Milgram announced.
Minutes after the indictment was announced, James was seen walking into the FBI headquarters in Newark, where he was expected to turn himself in. The woman accused of buying the bargain-priced city land, Tamika Riley, was expected to appear in court with him. Riley, 38, is a publicist and former clothing store operator in Newark.
Ethical questions have long surrounded James, who has a home on the Jersey shore, a yacht and a Rolls-Royce. He has been a state senator since 1999, while also serving as Newark's mayor until last year, when he decided not to seek reelection.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July 21, 2007
Also See:
POV ran an excellent documentary, "Street Fight," concerning James' reign of Corruption in Newark, N.J.
DiversityinBusiness.Com, Review of "Street Fight."
PBS.Org, "Streetfight" Page.
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