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CORRUPTION UPDATES 94

July 21, 2007

The CORRUPTION UPDATES posts corruption news stories from California, the Nation and the World, and gives you the straight story.

 

CORRUPTION UPDATES 94

 

Previous Corruption Updates: Page 93

Next Corruption Updates: Page 95

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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.

A White House Warning on Contempt Charges

By NEIL A. LEWIS and DAVID JOHNSTON

 

NYT, July 21, 2007

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/washington/21attorneys.html?pagewanted=print

WASHINGTON, July 20 — The Justice Department would be likely to block any efforts by Congressional Democrats to seek contempt charges against present and former White House officials for refusing to give information to Congress, a White House spokesman said Friday.

A White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, said Congressional threats to have presidential aides charged with criminal contempt would probably end in failure. “It has been the Justice Department’s long-held view that the law does not permit Congress to require a U.S. attorney to convene a grand jury or otherwise pursue a prosecution” when someone refuses on the basis of executive privilege to testify or turn over documents, Mr. Fratto said.

(Dems)...have insisted on transcribing the interviews and they want wider access to documents than the White House has been willing to give.

Administration officials have cited a 1984 internal legal memorandum written by the Justice Department when Congress sought to charge a Reagan administration official with contempt. The memorandum concluded that a United States attorney was not required to bring a contempt charge if requested to do so by Congress. In addition, the memorandum said that contempt of Congress would not apply to an executive branch official “who asserts the president’s claim of executive privilege.”

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said any effort by the White House to block the federal prosecutor from bringing a contempt citation on behalf of Congress would demonstrate the very problem Congress was seeking to investigate: whether federal prosecutors have been subjected to political influence.

“This administration has consistently chosen to stonewall Congressional oversight attempts, and this latest decision to interfere with those checks and balances is deeply disturbing,” Mr. Leahy said.

Congress has another route to enforce its will, an inherent power of contempt. But that has not been used since early in the 20th century. It has long been deemed unwieldy in the modern era as it entails Congress stopping all work to hold its own trial and imprisoning any offenders in the basement of the Capitol.

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Justice Department Defys Law-Constitution to Hide President's Crimes

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July 23, 2007

Gonzales is putting the President before the law and Constitution. Gonzales is not defending a lofty idea, he is defending the President's misuse of his Office to pursue prosecutions of political enemies, and suppress the prosecution of friends.

In pursuit of this illegal goal the Administration and the Department of Justice conspired to politicize career hiring in the Department of Justice, and manipulated the firings of US Attorneys to punish those who would not pursue political prosecutions, and replace them with unethical attorneys who would.

Gonzales is a prime suspect in politicizing both the US Attorney selection process, and influencing prosecutions by US Attorneys.

Now the President has informed us the the Attorney General works for him personally, and neither will fulfill their oaths of office.

The President and his men have abandoned even the pretence of obeying the law and Constitution. The President and his Attorney General have withdrawn from our Constitutional framework.

There is only one answer to Bush's claim of unlimited independent authority: Take it away.

If Gonzales persists in defying Congress, de fund his office, cite him for congressional contempt, and lock his traitorous ass up until he agrees to do his job. The same must be done with Miers and Taylor, and every other administration official who defies Congressional Oversight.

Congress must immediately act firmly to restore its power to oversee and limit the President, or their power of oversight will be lost forever. Future Presidents will claim these same illegal powers if this President is not stripped of these powers, and punished for his crimes.

Congress must immediately de fund the FBI, NSA, and CIA until each of these agencies fully submit to the laws and oversight of Congress.

The President must be impeached for leading this rebellion against the laws, and usurping the powers of Congress. After removing him from office he must be held criminally accountable for every act of kidnapping, every illegal detention, and every warrant less search he authorized.

If we want to preserve even a shred of our Constitution, Bush's next term must be served in a Federal Prison.

A brief list of Gonzales' recent lies

Corruption Updates 35, 11th article on the page, DOMENICI FINALLY ADMITS TO UNETHICAL, IF NOT CRIMINAL, CONTACT WITH FEDERAL PROSECUTORS

Corruption Updates 37, 5th article on the page, Fed Attorneys Silent on Pressure/Threats Until Fired

Corruption Updates 39, 5th article on the page, GOP official urged Rove to fire prosecutor: Rove-REPUBLICAN PLOT TO POLITICIZE US Attorney Prosecutions

Corruption Updates 40, 5th article on the page, SMOKING GUN EMAILS DETAIL POLITICAL FIRING OF LAM: Duke gets Revenge from Prison

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, 5th article on the page, Justice Department In New Fight Over Papers on Firings: Gonzales a Liar

Corruption Updates 48, 9th article on the page, Gonzales a Liar:Ex-Justice Official's Statements Contradict Gonzales on Firings

Corruption Updates 51, 3rd article on the page, Gonzales Aide Floated Replacements Early On

Corruption Updates 54, 1st article on the page, A Root and Branch Survey: Gonzales allowed aides some hiring power, records show

Corruption Updates 90, 1st article on the page, White House says it won't hand over documents on attorney firings: BUSH REFUSES OVERSIGHT

Corruption Updates 91, 7th article on the page, Gonzales Knew About Violations, Officials Say: US Attorney General a Liar

Corruption Updates 94, 1st article on the page, White House Warning on Contempt Charges: We Break the Law

Corruption Updates 95, 4th article on the page, Gonzales testifies in firings row: And Lied to Congress about the hospital assault

Corruption Updates 96, 1st article on the page, FBI director contradicts Gonzales on wiretaps: Noose of Lies Tightening around Gonzales Neck

 

Search the Corruption Database under

US Attorney

Gonzales (74 Abstracts)

Unconstitutional Presidential Power

 

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2) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :

Bush signs new CIA interrogation rules

The long-awaited order prohibits some widely protested techniques used on terror suspects, but gives the agency special leeway.

By Greg Miller
Times Staff Writer

July 21, 2007

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-detainees21jul21,0,7731289.story?coll=la-home-nation

From the Los Angeles Times


WASHINGTON — President Bush signed an order Friday that clears the way for the CIA to resume some of the harsh interrogation methods it has used against terrorism suspects, but the order prohibits techniques that had caused an international outcry, including sexual humiliation and the denigration of religious symbols.

The executive order ends months of legal skirmishing in the government over how to comply with laws barring mistreatment of detainees and a Supreme Court ruling last year that the government was required to treat terrorism prisoners in accordance with the Geneva Convention.

In practical terms, the document places significant new limits on the CIA while making it clear that the agency will continue to operate under special rules that set it apart from the rest of the government.


The order places no restriction on employing coercive methods — such as sleep deprivation and the use of so-called stress positions — that are expressly off-limits for the military and domestic law enforcement agencies.

The agency says it suspended its use of harsh methods three years ago, as the Bush administration's legal justifications for them began to crumble and CIA operatives working in secret detention facilities abroad became worried that they might face lawsuits or even criminal prosecution for the techniques they were being told to use.

In a telephone briefing with reporters, an administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing the internal development of the policy, refused to elaborate on what the order would allow CIA interrogators to do, saying: "That will only enable Al Qaeda to train against those [methods] they know are on or off."


Critics called Bush's order frustratingly vague and said its most specific language addressed abuses that occurred at Abu Ghraib and other military facilities that were never part of the CIA's interrogation program.

"The stuff they rule out is stuff they've always been willing to rule out," said Tom Malinowski, Washington director of Human Rights Watch.

U.S. officials said the executive order was accompanied by a separate document prepared by the Justice Department that spelled out the specific interrogation methods and procedures that the CIA would be allowed to use in the secret detention program. That document is classified and will not be released to the public, officials said.

"The White House is basically saying: 'Trust us. Everything in that other document we're not showing you is legal,' " Malinowski said. "But the people in charge of interpreting this document don't have a particularly good track record of reasonable legal analysis."

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Bush Rules He Can Torture Anyone He Wants: The world will follow his example

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July 23, 2007

The corporate media has bought the Administration's retention of torture Hook, Line, and Sinker, yet again. This is hauntingly reminiscent of the lead up to the war on Iraq, where lies and half-truths were reported as fact. Let's look at the facts again.

Fact: Bush claims the right to exceed his own findings and orders defining and employing torture. Bush claims the "right" to authorize any level of torture he wants, with no legal or judicial check on his personal power.

These claims render all of the previous rules, laws, and judicial decisions on torture, including the "rules for torture" he just issued, worthless.

Fact: The painful arguments of the Administration to render the word "torture" meaningless, and the clear signals the Administration has sent to both interrogators and "judges" who handle "detainees" indicates that this Administration has no intention whatsoever to limit its ability to secretly kidnap, endlessly detain, torture and finally "convict" their victims.

Fact: Bush is hiding his crimes behind a veil of secrecy. Rather than being crimes, kidnapping, torture, illegal searches and detentions are "state secrets."

Fact: Bush's actions during his ongoing terror war consist of war crimes, crimes against humanity, crimes against American law, and our Constitution.

Fact: Congress has tolerated this Administration's claim to, and use of, criminal powers that constitute a clear and present danger to our democratic republic. Congress has continued to provide funding for all of Bush's crimes, and by failing to withdraw funding and prosecute these offences have become party to them.

 

Key Reference: Secret findings by White House and Justice authorized torture despite their denials in 2004, at the time, and the laws of the land.

White House issues "waiver," exempting itself from torture laws, 1-4-06

Also See:

Corruption Updates 31, 7st article on the page, "“DETANIEE” TORTURE, HEARSAY, AND NO HABIUS CORPUS: CRIMINALS ARE RUNNING THE COURTS"

Corruption Updates 80, 1st article on the page, "Nominee for C.I.A. Counsel Offers Few Details in His Senate Confirmation Hearing"

Corruption Updates 83, 1st article on the page, "Cheney the Torture mastermind"

Corruption Updates 91, 4th article on the page, "In Intelligence World, A Mute Watchdog: Bush Above the Law"

Corruption Updates 94, 2nd article on the page, "Bush signs new CIA interrogation: Rules He Can Torture Anyone"

Corruption Updates 99, 5th article on the page, "Bush could bypass new torture ban"

Corruption Updates 101, 7th article on the page, ABA Clear: Bush Policy allows Torture

Search the Corruption Database under

Torture

Illegal Trials

Illegal Detentions

 

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3) 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.

Court Tells U.S. to Reveal Data on Detainees at Guantánamo

By WILLIAM GLABERSON

July 21, 2007

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/us/21gitmo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=todayspaper&

pagewanted=print

A federal appeals court ordered the government yesterday to turn over virtually all its information on Guantánamo detainees who are challenging their detention, rejecting an effort by the Justice Department to limit disclosures and setting the stage for new legal battles over the government’s reasons for holding the men indefinitely.

It was the latest of a series of stinging legal challenges to the administration’s detention policies that have amplified pressure on the Bush administration to find some alternative to Guantánamo, where about 360 men are now being held.

A three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Washington unanimously rejected a government effort to limit the information it must turn over to the court and lawyers for the detainees.

The court said meaningful review of the military tribunals would not be possible “without seeing all the evidence, any more than one can tell whether a fraction is more or less than half by looking only at the numerator and not the denominator.”

Advocates for detainees have criticized the tribunals since they were instituted in 2004 because the terror suspects held at Guantánamo have not been permitted lawyers during the proceedings and have not been allowed to see much of the evidence against them.

P. Sabin Willett, a Boston lawyer who argued the case for detainees, called the ruling “a resounding rejection of the government’s effort to hide the truth.”

Then, later last month, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from detainees claiming a right to challenge their detentions in federal courts through habeas corpus cases, a contention the administration has fought with some success in the courts and Congress.

The cases in the appeals court and the Supreme Court are both efforts by lawyers for the detainees to challenge the military’s decisions to hold the men.

The lawyers are pursuing habeas corpus rights because such cases would give federal judges far more power to review Pentagon decisions than the appeals court has to review the military tribunal actions. The lawyers have argued that in a 2005 law, Congress so limited the review permitted by the federal appeals court that the detainees need access to federal courts through habeas cases to get a fair review of their detentions.

When the Supreme Court said it would hear the Guantánamo case last month, its order made clear the justices would be carefully watching the appeals court decision as they consider broader Guantánamo issues. In an unusual comment, the Supreme Court’s order in June said, “it would be of material assistance” for the justices to receive arguments from the lawyers that take into account the appeals court ruling setting the rules for the review process.

The ruling also included significant victories for the government, including a decision allowing the Pentagon to limit the subjects that the lawyers can discuss with detainees and authorizing special Pentagon teams to read the lawyers’ mail and remove unauthorized comments.

The decision noted that Congress said the appeals court’s review of the combatant status hearings was limited to determining whether the Pentagon followed its own procedures, and whether an enemy-combatant finding was supported by a preponderance of the evidence.

But it rejected the Justice Department assertion that the court should be able to examine only the information included in the combatant status hearing, not the more expansive information the government might have collected on a detainee.

“In order to review compliance with those procedures,” Judge Ginsburg wrote, “the court must be able to view the government information.”

The decision allowed the government to file its information with the court for review if the government argues the contents are too sensitive to be released.

Wells Dixon, a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York who represents detainees, said that pattern was likely to be repeated. “Once again,” Mr. Dixon said, “we are left to rely on the government to produce all of the information that it says exists.”


THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Criminal Bush Tribunals Ordered to Reveal Charges and Evidence

Bush Outraged

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July 23, 2007

All Americans should be outraged that any court that claims to operate by the Constitution would allow legal procedures that so clearly and deeply violate our most fundamental legal principals.

Without these principals, we have no basis to claim we offer justice to the world.

Make no mistake about it, the case above was no real victory for justice in America. Within the scope of the 2005 detainee law, the Court merely ruled that the government must provide the court with the detainee's full record, to review only the rulings in the detention proceedings. No "detainee" will be released as a product of this ruling, or any rulings the court makes on detention proceedings.

Bush's Gitmo, and Congress' detainee law have completely denied even the appearance of justice to the poor souls rotting in Gitmo.

The real hope for the "detainees" is that Bush's continual incompetence will result in a complete breakdown of the Kangaroo Courts that are railroading them. By that time the next Administration will be settling into the White House, and they may not share the hunger Bush has for kidnapping and torture.

Or they may pick up where Bush left off, as Congress has not prosecuted Bush's crimes, nor his unconstitutional claims to arbitrary authority

Also See:

Corruption Updates 21, 7th article on page, “Ex-judges: Detainee law unconstitutional

 

Corruption Updates 23, 9th article on page, "TIMES SOFTPEDALS PRESIDENTIAL WAR AND DOMESTIC CRIMES"

 

Corruption Updates 25, 7th article on page, 12-6-06, “Italy Seeks Indictments of C.I.A. Operatives in Egyptian’s Abduction

 

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, 7th article on page, ““DETANIEE” TORTURE, HEARSAY, AND NO HABIUS CORPUS:CRIMINALS ARE RUNNING THE COURTS

 

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?”

 

Corruption Updates 34, 8th article on the page, "HABIUS AND JUDICIAL REVIEW CURBED, JUDICIAL REVIEW DENIED TO “DETAINEES:” KIDNAPP VICTIMS HAVE NO RECOURSE

Corruption Updates 38, 2nd article on page,Legal experts rap media ban at Gitmo"
Corruption Updates 52, 10th article on the page,
U.S. Wants to Limit Guantanamo Detainees' Access to Lawyers

Corruption Updates 53, 6th article on the page, Ex-prosecutors urge access for detainees

Corruption Updates 67, 2nd article on the page, Illegal Trials:Tribunals are dealt another legal setback

Corruption Updates 71, 3rd article on the page, Detentions:U.S. Review of Decision on Detainees: Bush Pushes Criminal Tribunals

AP, June 11, 2007: Appeals court rules against Bush's enemy combatant policy: Bush cannot "say" a person is guilty, and put them in jail without legal process.

 


Corruption Updates 94, 3rd article on the page, Gitmo: Court Tells U.S. to Reveal Data on Detainees

 

Corruption Updates 94, 4th article on the page, Illegal Trials: Unlikely Adversary

 

Corruption Updates 96, 8th article on the page, Trial of David Hicks 'a charade:' Bush Nazi Powers reviled by Australian Bar Association

 

Corruption Updates 119, 5th article on the page, Guantanamo Prosecutor Quits Post, Pentagon Says

 

Book: Torture Taxi reveals us system of kidnapping, secret prisons, and torture, Toward Freedom, 9-6-07

 

Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Torture Appeal, nyt, 10-10-07

 

Washington Post, October 18, 2007; Mukasey Endorses Expansive Presidential Authority: Who Will Defend the President's Crimes Now? Mukasey and the Dems.

 

Los Angeles Times, October 21, 2007; FBI working to bolster Al Qaeda cases: Bush-CIA Torture threatens Legitimacy of US "Terror" Cases

 

SF Chron, October 14, 2007; Groups on left, right ask candidates to reject Bush's wider powers: Criminal Powers rejected by Political Opponents

 

Harmon the Traitor sponsors police state act outlawing our revolutionary forefathers, Status: Passed House (Bipartisan support.) Oct 23, 2007

 

Dems confirm unitary president, torture, and and all of Bush's crimes through Mukasey Confirmation, Washington Post, November 9, 2007

 

Govt agent promotes "terror," man gets 30 years, AP, November 6, 2007

Govt agent promotes "Terror," man gets 15 years, AP, November 7, 2007

 

Government criminals untrustworthy: lies presented in court to pervert law and justice, AP, November 20, 2007

 

Association a crime in the US, especially if you oppose the last western colony, israel, AP, November 21, 2007

 

US continues to back Paki dictator after arrest of supreme court, closing media, and arresting moderate opponents, Christian Science Monitor, Nov 6, 2007

Our Paki Dictator Releases Militants, Arrests Democratic Opposition to fight "Terror," Dawn, Pakistan, 11-5-07

 

CIA destroyed video of 'waterboarding' al-Qaida detainees, The Guardian, December 7, 2007

 

ABC allows accomplice to torture air time, soft questions, and excuses, abc news, 12- 10-07 essay: ABC propaganda defends torture

Egypt hides torture behind fight against "Terror," BBC NEWS, 12-11-07

 

Brit Govt seeks 42 day detention without proof, ap, December 7, 2007

Pakistan Govt releasing kidnap-torture victims captured in bush terror war, NYT, December 19, 2007

 

Mukasey asserts Federal Courts have no Jurisdiction over torture evidence presented and witheld from their courts, ap, December 18, 2007

 

"Amnesty" for thousands held in iraq without charges, BBC, 26 December 2007

 

CIA destroyed evidence of torute and war crimes to subvert justice: torture tapes, lat, December 23, 2007

 

Israel runs bush-style military tribunals which assure conviction, ap, 2008-01-06

 

Bush renominates bradbury, author of torture memos, for office of legal counsel, nyt, January 24, 2008

 

Padilla sentenced: the real criminals are in the white house, nyt, January 22, 2008

 

Reprise 2006: Bush seeks retroactive war crime protection, ap, August 10, 2006

 

American Gitmo victim lawyers claim extensive torture, mcclatchy, December 8, 2007

mukasey: chief lawman of US finds no crime in torture, reuters, 1-30-08

 

FBI trying to cover cia crimes against humanity, rule of law

Scumbag Scalia supports torture

 

Department of Justice investigates its own criminal torture program: Expect no Justice from the Department of Injustice

 

Bush justice in Pakistan: Musharraf's secret prisons full, bbc, 2-25-08

 

Egypt detains Brotherhood members, bbc, march 4, 2008

 

bush veto preserves torture as us tool of state, Mar. 8, 2008 (Reuters)

another torture victim emerges out of CIA secret prison-torture system, reuters, 3-14-08

Yemeni describes disappearance, secret imprisonment, torture at hands of US, bbc, 3-14-08

 

Waterboarding torture ban fails in house, nyt, March 12, 2008

 

US takes china's police state off list of rights violators, AFP, Mar 13, 2008

 

California prison disgrace continues, bee, March 6, 2008

 

Pentagon Cites Tapes Showing Interrogations (torture in plainspeak), nyt, 3-13-08

 

Italy judge clears way for CIA "rendition" trial, Mar. 19, 2008 (Reuters)

 

Canadian says U.S. interrogators threatened rape, Mar. 20, 2008 (Reuters)

6) Can. Supreme court agrees to consider Khadr's claim that he's been unfairly treated, toronto star, March 20, 2008

 

US leads world in prison population, reuters, 2-28-08

 

2002 military torture memo proves president guilty of domestic and war crimes, NYT, April 2, 2008

 

US "rendered" 14 to jordan for torture, metimes, April 08, 2008

 

White house approved, DIRECTLY participated in REAL-TIME torture, abc, April 9, 2008

 

Gitmo torture victims refuse to attend kangaroo courts, lat, 4-10-08

Bush's criminal Gitmo kangaroo courts in disarray, nyt, 4-10-08

Afghanistan has no problem convicting bush victims, nyt, 4-10-08

 

justice department an accessory before and after crime of torture; justice still argues torture is legal, nyt, 4-27-08

also see: Top Bush Advisors Approved torture, ABC, 4-9-08

 

new '03 Yoo memo authorizing US Army lawlessness and torture revealed, NYT, April 2, 2008

 

German sues for CIA extradition, bbc, 6-9-08

 

Omar Khadr: Guantánamo Bay: Interrogators told to destroy torture notes, US military lawyer claims, guardian, 6-9-08

Can. Supreme court agrees to consider Khadr's claim that he's been unfairly treated, toronto star, March 20, 2008

ABA condemns ongoing use of torture by bush, ap, 8-10-07

Khadr charges a pack of lies, ap, 3- 14-08

 

Supreme Court Rules against Bush: kidnap victims have rights. at least part of our Constitution is still in force, wp, 6-12-08

Court Voids Finding on Guantánamo Detainee, nyt, 6-24-08

 

Search the Corruption Database under

Gitmo (11 Abstracts)

Illegal Trials

Illegal Detentions

 

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Unlikely Adversary Arises to Criticize Detainee Hearings

By WILLIAM GLABERSON

NYT, July 23, 2007

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/us/23gitmo.html?_r=1&oref

=slogin&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. — Stephen E. Abraham’s assignment to the Pentagon unit that runs the hearings at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, seemed a perfect fit.

...he had been decorated for counterespionage and counterterrorism work during 22 years as a reserve Army intelligence officer in which he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. His posting, just as the Guantánamo hearings were accelerating in 2004, gave him a close-up view of the government’s detention policies.

In June, Colonel Abraham became the first military insider to criticize publicly the Guantánamo hearings, which determine whether detainees should be held indefinitely as enemy combatants. Just days after detainees’ lawyers submitted an affidavit containing his criticisms, the United States Supreme Court reversed itself and agreed to hear an appeal arguing that the hearings are unjust and that detainees have a right to contest their detentions in federal court.

Most detainees, he said, have no realistic way to contest charges often based not on solid information, but on generalizations, incomplete intelligence reports and hints of terrorism ties.

“What disturbed me most was the willingness to use very small fragments of information,” he said, recounting how, over his six-month tour, he grew increasingly uneasy at what he saw.

Often, he said, intelligence reports relied only on accusations that a detainee had been found in a suspect area or was associated with a suspect organization. Some, he said, described detainees as jihadist without detail.

As an intelligence officer responsible for running the central computer depository of evidence for the hearings, he said, he saw many of the documents in hundreds of the 558 cases. He also worked as a liaison with intelligence agencies and served on one three-member hearing panel.

He has been called a whistleblower and a traitor. On July 26, he is to testify before a House committee.

Colonel Abraham arrived at the Office for the Administrative Review of the Detention of Enemy Combatants during a chaotic period in September 2004.

The plan for the hearings had come from the highest levels of the Pentagon after two Supreme Court rulings on June 28, 2004, put the Bush administration on the defensive over its detainee policies.

One ruling suggested that detainees would be entitled to hearings “before a neutral decision maker.” The other said detainees could have federal courts review their detentions. Nine days later, Paul D. Wolfowitz, then deputy defense secretary, issued an order creating the C.S.R.T.’s.

It was obvious, Colonel Abraham said, that officials were under intense pressure to show quick results. Quickly, he said, he grew concerned about the quality of the reports being used as evidence. The unclassified evidence, he said, lacked the kind of solid corroboration he had relied on throughout his intelligence career. “The classified information,” he added, “was stripped down, watered down, removed of context, incomplete and missing essential information.”

Many detainees implicated other detainees, he said, and there was often no way to test whether they had provided false information to win favor with interrogators.

At another hearing, later reviewed by a federal judge, a Turkish detainee, Murat Kurnaz, was said to have been associated with an Islamic missionary group. He had also traveled with a man who had become a suicide bomber.

“It would appear,” Judge Joyce Hens Green wrote in 2005, “that the government is indefinitely holding the detainee — possibly for life — solely because of his contacts with individuals or organizations tied to terrorism and not because of any terrorist activities that the detainee aided, abetted or undertook himself.”

In a third hearing, an Afghan detainee said he had indeed been a jihadist — during the 1980s war against the Soviet Union, when a lot of Afghans were jihadists. Was that what the accusation against him meant, he asked, or was it referring to later, during the American war?

“We don’t know what that time frame was, either,” the tribunal’s lead officer replied.

Colonel Abraham said that in meetings with top officials of the office, it was clear that such findings were discouraged. “Anything that resulted in a ‘not enemy combatant’ would just send ripples through the entire process,” he said. “The interpretation is, ‘You got the wrong result. Do it again.’ ”

He said his concerns about the fairness of the hearings had grown as time passed. “The hearings amounted to a superficial summary of information, the quality of which would not have withstood scrutiny in any serious law-enforcement or intelligence investigation,” he said.

Soon, Colonel Abraham said in one of the conversations, he began to worry that involvement in the process might be improper for a lawyer because there were so many shortcuts. “There were too many assumptions. Too many presumptions,” he said. He said he had expressed his concerns to supervising officers.

On Dec. 10, he wrote a letter to Rear Adm. James M. McGarrah, who was running the hearings operation. In the letter, a copy of which he provided to The New York Times, Colonel Abraham asked to be released from his assignment, saying participation “may be in conflict with my obligations as an attorney.” He said he had never received an official response.

He finished his tour, which ended in March.

Last month, one of the lawyers, Matthew J. MacLean, a former Army lawyer, called Colonel Abraham and asked him to look at an affidavit filed in May by Admiral McGarrah.

Colonel Abraham said the admiral’s affidavit, describing the hearing process as orderly and considered, had convinced him that he had to step forward. He began to describe his experience.

“This was it,” Mr. MacLean said last week, “the first evidence of how these tribunals operated from the inside.”

Mr. MacLean called Colonel Abraham for the first time on June 8. The detainees’ lawyers filed his seven-page affidavit in court on June 22. It was sharply critical of the hearings and the evidence they used, saying “what purported to be specific statements of fact lacked even the most fundamental earmarks of objectively credible evidence.” On June 29, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear the detainees’ case.

One of the tribunals the lawyers have learned more about since then was the one on which Colonel Abraham sat. Documents they have gathered show that he was assigned to the panel in November 2004. The detainee was a Libyan, captured in Afghanistan, who was said to have visited terrorist training camps and belonged to a Libyan terrorist organization.

By a vote of 3 to 0, the panel found that “the detainee is not properly classified as an enemy combatant and is not associated with Al Qaeda or Taliban.”

Two months later, apparently after Pentagon officials rejected the first decision, the detainee’s case was heard by a second panel. The conclusion, again by a vote of 3 to 0, was quite different: “The detainee is properly classified as an enemy combatant and is a member of or associated with Al Qaeda.”

Colonel Abraham was never assigned to another panel.

 

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Bush Kangaroo Court Practices Revealed by Military Lawyer

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July 31, 2007

The destruction of Justice in the US parallels the corruption of politics. After 20 years of sustained, intense political corruption, our political class has lost all respect for the rule of law and our Constitution.

The replacement of democracy with corporate wealth led us to this Oil War, this Quest for Global Domination, and all the crimes our politicians have employed to achieve their dirty goal. As corruption has replaced democracy in politics, so to has this corrupted our foreign policy.

Now our foreign policy depends on naked violence and torture to achieve our corporate goals.

Thus our domestic political corruption has given birth to "preemptive war," boundless detentions of anyone, and torture.

If we want to clean this mess up, we must start at the root of the corruption: The destruction of our democratic practices by the parties and their corporate sponsors must be replaced by direct control of our politicians by the local voters.

Until we address the roots of our corruption, the current efforts to "reform" corruption and end the president's global reign of terror will be as effective as a cat chasing its own tail.

Also See:

Corruption Updates 38, 2nd article on the page, "Gitmo:THE KANGAROO COURT IS OPEN: ENTER AND BE CONVICTED"

Corruption Updates 67, 2nd article on the page,"Navy Captain Calls Bush Designations "Illegitimate:"Bush is so Incompetent he cannot even run a Kangaroo Court"

Complete link list follows Article Above

Search the Corruption Database under

Illegal Trials

Illegal Detentions

 

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Oil Law Stalls in Iraq

By ALISSA J. RUBIN

NYT, July 23, 2007

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/world/middleeast/23iraq.html?pagewanted=print

BAGHDAD, July 22 — Efforts to achieve national reconciliation in Iraq received a double blow on Sunday.

Lawmakers acknowledged that there were still many differences on a proposed law to manage oil revenue, the country’s most lucrative resource, making it unlikely they would approve a law before September, when the Bush administration must report to Congress on Iraq’s progress toward meeting certain legislative benchmarks. The report is expected to have an impact on whether Congress continues to support the Iraq war.

In Parliament, several lawmakers outlined aspects of the oil law on which lawmakers have yet to reach consensus. The law is one of a package of measures aimed at bringing together Iraqis from different sects and ethnicities by sharing political power and income. The lawmakers indicated that it would be difficult to complete work before Parliament left for its monthlong summer break at the beginning of August.

The oil law, which would set up a system for managing and developing Iraq’s oil resources and would have a companion revenue-sharing law that would apportion oil income among the various groups, had been considered the most likely to be passed before the September report to Congress. But by the time the Iraqis return to Parliament in September, it is highly unlikely that they could meet the midmonth deadline in the United States.

“The fact is that the political blocs haven’t reached an agreement,” said Ayad al-Samarrai, one of the leaders of Tawafiq, the largest of the Sunni Arab blocs in Parliament. “What the government is doing can be described as dodging — the governmental bodies have not agreed among themselves,” he said, referring to differences within the Iraqi leadership, which includes Shiites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds, about aspects of the law.

However, there is a growing sense among a number of Iraqi leaders that all of the measures that constitute reconciliation should be handled as a package so that tradeoffs can be made among the political groups. “The Kurds want to approve a certain group of laws, like a national revenue-sharing law” and other provisions, said Haider al-Abadi, a Shiite member of Parliament.

The Sunni Arabs are also interested in addressing the laws as a package, Mr. Samarrai said. “Today we made a suggestion to invite the political blocs to discuss this with the presidency,” he said. They would discuss several laws as a political package and make a deal on all of them once. They include the oil and revenue sharing measure, a new “de-Baathification” law widening access to government jobs to members of Saddam Hussein’s former ruling party, which was dominated by Sunni Arabs, and a law scheduling provincial elections to choose representative governments so that Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds would be equitably represented.

Violent attacks on Iraqis working for the United States government and its contractors have prompted the American Embassy in Baghdad to make a strong effort to find a way to help those people immigrate to the United States.

As first reported in The Washington Post, Mr. Crocker has pressed the State Department to work on a legislative solution to the problem as well as to expand some regulations to make it easier for people to immigrate.

“The overriding effort is to be sure there’s a way to accommodate anybody who wants to immigrate,” said a Western diplomat in Baghdad, speaking on the customary diplomatic condition of anonymity.

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Iraqi Legislature Stalling on Denationalizing their Oil and Gifting it to Big Oil

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July 31, 2007

Democrats have spoken often about the need for Iraq to pass the "Oil Law." This makes clear why the Dems supported the illegal invasion of Iraq: The Dems are in the pocket of Big Oil and Israel.

Our democracy was designed to prevent top-down control of government by wealth and power. Our Constitutional bottom-up democracy has been completely replaced with a top-down system of bribery and payoff.

Thus we find the politicians of both parties demanding that Iraq give up ownership of its oil to Big Oil. Thus we find ourselves in the same position as Israel: whining because the Arabs will not accept the terms of our military "victories," in "Israel" and Iraq.

And "our" Iraqi government is stonewalling our oil law that sanctions the thievery of their oil.

Arabs across the middle east are continuing to give up their lives to dispute the thievery of their lands and countries by Israel, America, and our gang of dictators and despots.

Also See:

Corruption Updates 100, 3rd article on the page, Bush Loses Guns, and Losing Chance to Steal Iraq's Oil

Search the Corruption Database under

Iraq War

Cheney

 

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Bribery Network to Bloat War Costs Is Alleged

By JAMES GLANZ

NYT, July 21, 2007

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/washington/21contract.html?pagewanted=print

Federal investigators have uncovered what they describe as a sweeping network of kickbacks, bribes and fraud involving at least eight employees and subcontractors of KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary, in a scheme to inflate charges for flying freight into Iraq in support of the war, according to court papers unsealed yesterday.

The latest conviction in the cases related to the scheme came yesterday, when a former Houston-based executive for an air-freight carrier hired by KBR pleaded guilty in federal district court to dispensing bribes and then lying to federal investigators. The executive, Kevin Andre Smoot, 43, of The Woodlands, Tex., served as a managing director for Eagle Global Logistics Incorporated, a carrier that received a subcontract from KBR to ship the freight.

The guilty plea by Mr. Smoot is the second by an Eagle executive in the case. But the papers describing his plea indicate that investigators believe at least one more Eagle employee and five KBR employees, all so far unnamed, were also involved. Mr. Smoot alone admitted to delivering bribes, called gratuities in the legalistic language of the court papers, to the employees of KBR on some 90 occasions between 2002 and 2005.

At the core of the case is a contract that KBR, previously known as Kellogg, Brown & Root, won before the war to supply the American military with food, fuel, housing and other necessities. The value of the contract soared with the Iraq invasion, and has so far paid KBR some $20 billion.

The company hired Eagle in a subcontract to fulfill part of that mission, carrying military goods from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to Baghdad. But the scheme by the Eagle executives began in November 2003 when a plane operated by a rival carrier, DHL, was struck by a missile and landed in Baghdad with its left wing in flames. The Eagle executives used that incident to charge a fraudulent “war-risk surcharge” of 50 cents for every kilogram (2.2 pounds) of freight on its own flights, the papers say.

Between November 2003 and July 2004, Eagle made 379 flights as part of the subcontract, charging some $13.3 million — an amount that included $1.1 million in overcharges. It is not clear whether KBR knew of the overcharging scheme, but the papers say that Mr. Smoot and an Eagle subordinate delivered nearly $34,000 in gratuities to KBR employees “to obtain or reward favorable treatment” in connection with the contract.

According to the papers, the gratuities included “meals, drinks, golf outings, tickets to rodeo events, baseball and football games and other entertainment items.”

 

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

KBR, Cheney, Halliburton, Bush, Enron and Friends Robbing the US:

Money, Rights, Reputation, and Honor MIA

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July 31, 2007

The Pentagon has been without an Inspector General for the duration of the Iraqi War. Cheney's company has been robbing us blind the whole time. Coincidence or part of a larger pattern of corruption?

Bush appointed industry corrupted incompetents to run the GSA, FDA, EPA, NASA, and the Justice and Interior Departments. Each has served the interests of private profit before public good. Each appointment reflects, and pays off, the bribes Bush collected to finance his runs for the Presidency.

Thus we have engaged in war not for security, but to serve greed. Thus we administer our greed war with greed and corruption.

The apple does not fall far from the tree.

Also See:

Corruption Updates 13, 3rd article on the page, "U.S. firm botching jobs..."

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 86, 6th article on the page, "Pentagon Splits War Contracts Three Ways..."

Search the Corruption Database under

Pentagon

Oversight

 

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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.

Veteran House Democrat Guards Turf on Energy

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS

NYT, July 21, 2007

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/washington/21dingell.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

John D. Dingell...chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, first elected to Congress in 1955 when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president...

...House Democratic leaders, hoping to pass an “energy independence” bill this month, have had to delay taking the measure to the floor for weeks. Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her allies want a hefty increase in fuel-economy requirements for cars, light trucks and S.U.V.’s, but they are finding that it is not easy to maneuver around Mr. Dingell, who wants a smaller increase that would be less painful for Detroit automakers.

When Ms. Pelosi, of California, created a new committee on energy independence and global warming in January, Mr. Dingell attacked it as a potential encroachment on his turf. Though she assured him the new panel would have no legislative authority, he remarked that it would be an “embarassment” and “as useful as feathers on a fish.”

The first big showdown will be the pending energy bill, which House leaders originally hoped to pass soon after July 4. Mr. Dingell’s committee has approved a measure that omits any change in fuel-economy requirements.

...House Democrats figure they can adopt the Senate (fuel standards) measure during a House-Senate conference. But even that is dicey: Mr. Dingell is likely to be the senior House Democrat in that conference.

Last month, Mr. Dingell infuriated Ms. Pelosi and many Democrats on his own committee by drafting an energy bill that would have blocked California and other states from passing their own restrictions on carbon-dioxide emissions from automobiles.

After an outcry from many Democrats and a sharp no from Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Dingell postponed what he called the “more controversial” issues until his committee took up a global warming bill in the fall.

In a nod to his environmental critics, Mr. Dingell vowed to come up with a major bill in the fall to reduce heat-trapping gases 60 percent to 80 percent over the next four decades. But a few days later, he declared that his legislation would include a steep “carbon tax” on fuels that emit carbon dioxide — an approach that many Democratic leaders view as political suicide — in part to highlight the unpopular cost of slowing global warming.

But where Ms. Pelosi says global warming is her top domestic priority, Mr. Dingell as recently as December expressed doubt about the scientific consensus on global warming.

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Dem Whores Encourage Massive Growth, avoid Paying Growth Costs:

Environment, Schools, Hospitals, American Welfare Suffers

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July , 2007

Dingbat is just the tip of the iceberg of corporate prostitution that makes it impossible for the Dems to address any of the symptoms of our pressing problems, let alone deal with the sources of the problem.

Dingbat is in the Auto Manufacturers Pocket. The rest of the Dems are in the pockets of the various big Corporate Special Interests, starting with Pelosi and her earmark king, Murtha.

Don't expect the Dems to upset the Corporate Applecart that feeds their campaigns, fills their PACs, and gives them and their families plush jobs.

Also 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”

Search the Corruption Database under

Democrats

 

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8) 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.

Climate Change Debate Hinges On Economics
Lawmakers Doubt Voters Would Fund Big Carbon Cuts

By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 15, 2007; A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/14/AR2007071401246_pf.html

Here's the good news about climate change: Energy and climate experts say the world already possesses the technological know-how for trimming greenhouse gas emissions enough to slow the perilous rise in the Earth's temperatures.

Here's the bad news: Because of the enormous cost of addressing global warming, the energy legislation considered by Congress so far will make barely a dent in the problem, while farther-reaching climate proposals stand a remote chance of passage.

"I don't think there's any question that what is being talked about now would, over the long term, be insufficient," said Philip Sharp, president of the think tank Resources for the Future and a former House member.

The potential economic impact of meaningful climate legislation -- enough to reduce U.S. emissions by at least 60 percent -- is vast. Automobiles would have to get double their current miles to the gallon. Building codes would have to be tougher, requiring use of more energy-efficient materials. To stimulate and pay for new technologies, U.S. electricity bills could rise by 25 to 33 percent, some experts estimate; others say the increase could be greater.

In the Senate, five climate change bills have been introduced recently -- with sponsors from both parties. They do not tax carbon but use variations on Europe's cap-and-trade system. Europe modeled its system on the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which the Senate rejected and President Bush later dismissed, saying it would cause the U.S. economy "serious harm."

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Congress will be incapable of Responsible Legislation until We Throw out The Corporations

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July , 2007

Our environment is crashing out of control, and a whole Congress full of Neros is fiddling away, stuffing their bloated PACs with Corporate Bribes while pretending to be doing the people's business.

How great will the fires, droughts, hurricanes and crop failures have to be before these fools act? Their corporate masters will not allow them to deal with climate change until the change actually inhibits profits.

Until then they will watch while our mountain snows melt, our last forests dry out and burn, and they have built more houses, and put more people into our country than our diminishing resources can support.

Then they will try to profit off the shortages of water, energy, and food to drain our wallets like they've drained our environment.

Also See:

Corruption Updates 21, 9th article on the page, "Scientists say White House muzzled them"

Corruption Updates 38, 9th article on the page, "CLIMATE SCIENCE SILENCED YET AGAIN AT INTERIOR"

Corruption Updates 47, 9th article on the page, "Earth faces a grim future if global warming isn't slowed, U.N. report says"

Corruption Updates 48, 3rd article on the page, "U.S., China Got Climate Warnings Toned Down: Corporate Media Whitewashes American Suppression of Climate Data"

Corruption Updates 65, 7th article on the page, "China puts economy before climate"

Search the Corruption Database under

Environment (55 Abstracts)

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A parched West bears the scars of wildfires

Crews make progress in Inyo County. Elsewhere, a copter crashes, homes are evacuated — and weather could worsen.

By Julie Cart, Jack Leonard and Jeffrey L. Rabin
Times Staff Writers

July 9, 2007

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-fires9jul09,0,7153783.story?coll=la-home-local

From the Los Angeles Times



BISHOP, CALIF. — Crews stayed on the offensive against major blazes around California and other Western states Sunday, a day marked by an epic fire in Utah and evacuations of hundreds of homes in Washington, as well as a helicopter crash that hurt two firefighters in Santa Barbara County.

But firefighters' efforts also yielded progress in California that permitted the return home of 75 to 100 evacuated Inyo County residents, as well as travelers who had been stranded earlier in the weekend by fires that arced across U.S. Highway 395, a key thoroughfare to resort spots in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.

The dozens of fires across the West included Utah's largest-ever wildfire, at 283,000 acres, as well as a brush fire near Wenatchee, Wash., that led to the evacuation of 250 to 270 homes.

Other Western blazes — vindicating widespread predictions that the summer heat and parched landscapes would yield a ferocious fire season through the region — scorched parts of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Oregon.

In
Nevada, about 1,500 evacuees from Winnemucca were allowed home hours after a wildfire shut down Interstate 80, destroyed an electrical substation, delayed trains and killed livestock.

A tragic lightning-sparked blaze also struck the
Great Plains. Flames raced out of a canyon in South Dakota's Black Hills, leading to the death of a homeowner who was overcome while trying retrieve personal belongings, and also destroying 27 homes and charring nine square miles.

In his 20 years working in the Inyo National Forest, Louth said he has never seen such dry conditions. Before the fire started Friday, he said he was walking outside and "the pine needles were crunching under me rather than bending and giving way to my weight."

Fire officials said today's weather could spell trouble, with possible thunderstorms and erratic wind conditions forecast.

"We always know that, a heartbeat away, that fire can change from a tame fire to a roaring juggernaut coming down the hill at 60 mph," said Jim Wilkins, an
Inyo National Forest spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

Elsewhere in California, Santa Barbara County's 6,500-acre Zaca fire that began on the Fourth of July was still burning in the Los Padres National Forest northeast of the Santa Ynez Valley and was 30% contained.

An army of 1,918 firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and local crews from as far away as Los Angeles County were battling the blaze, which was only 30% contained Sunday morning.

U.S. Forest Service officials said the moisture level in the vegetation is extremely low, at levels not usually seen until late summer.

In Northern California, the Wheeler fire was burning in the Plumas National Forest west of Highway 395.

Authorities said that as of
6 p.m. it had charred nearly 18,100 acres of pine forest and grassland on the east side of the Sierra Nevada and was 21% contained.

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

This is Just the Beginning:

Every Year it Will get Hotter and Dryer in California

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July , 2007

Also See:

Corruption Updates 39, 10th article on the page, "Top Scientists Warn of Water Shortages and Disease Linked to Global Warming"

Corruption Updates 47, 10th article on the page, "Permanent drought predicted for Southwest:Climate Already Changed, People and Sc..."

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Environment

 

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Toll rises in China rain storms

At least 31 people have been killed and 171 injured in eastern China as heavy rain continues to sweep across large parts of the country.

 

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/6905945.stm

The most recent deaths were in Jinan, capital of coastal Shandong province, which was hit by 180mm (seven inches) of rain in three hours on Wednesday.

At least 37 people died in south-west China on Tuesday in some of the heaviest rainfall since records began.

More than 400 people have died in floods and landslides in recent weeks.

Meteorologists warn that more rain is expected and the rainy season has months left to run.

Electricity and water supplies were also knocked out and traffic brought to a stand-still during the heavy three-hour downpour.

A day earlier, the south-western city of Chongqing and neighbouring Sichuan province were hit by a 16-hour thunderstorm that included 40,000 lightning strikes.

Chongqing received more than 26cm (10 inches) of rain, the most in a 24-hour period since records began more than a century ago.

The weeks of bad weather have not only claimed lives, but also caused many millions of dollars worth of damage and forced thousands of people to flee their homes.

Last year some 2,704 people died in flooding and typhoons in China, according to the country's Meteorological Administration.

 

THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Ancient Records for Heat, Drought, and Rainfall Falling around the World

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., July , 2007

Also See:

Also See:

Corruption Updates 36, 6th article on the page, "AMERICAN GREED-CONSUMPTION FUELS MANUFACTURING (POLLUTION) IN CHINA"

Corruption Updates 39, 10th article on the page, "Top Scientists Warn of Water Shortages and Disease Linked to Global Warming"

Corruption Updates 47, 9th article on the page, "Earth Faces a Grim Future: UN Report"

Corruption Updates 53, 2nd article on the page, "Arctic Sea Ice Melting Faster, a Study Finds:Climate Change has already happened"

Corruption Updates 65, 1st article on the page, "BEES: Honey, I'm Gone"

Corruption Updates 65, 7th article on the page, "China puts economy before climate"

Corruption Updates 71, 9th article on the page, "Only 50 years left' for sea fish"

Corruption Updates 76, 7th article on the page, "Study finds huge decreases in bird populations"

Corruption Updates 80, 2nd article on the page, "China building more power plants to supply American Consumption"

Corruption Updates 86, 7th article on the page, "Study Sees Climate Change Impact on Alaska"

Corruption Updates 93, 3rd article on the page, "Record Gulf of Mexico ‘Dead Zone’ Is Predicted"

Corruption Updates 94, 8th article on the page, "Climate Change Debate Hinges On Economics"

Corruption Updates 95, 9th article on the page, "Romania: Heat Wave Kills 18"

Corruption Updates 95, 10th article on the page, "Humans 'affect global rainfall'"

 

Search the Corruption Database under

Environment (63 Abstracts)

 

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