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CORRUPTION UPDATES 129

Posted: November 5, 2007, Draft edition

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1) The Articles linked below were Abstracted from the sources cited. After the abstract there's analysis and commentary, links to related articles, and a link to the database with suggested search terms.

Police Raid Homes, Arrest Hundreds of Opposition Party Leaders and Activists

 

By Griff Witte

Washington Post Foreign Service

Sunday, November 4, 2007; 1:23 PM

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/04/AR2007110400581.html?hpid=topnews

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 4 -- Pakistan's government on Sunday continued a nationwide crackdown on the political opposition, the media and the courts, one day after President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule and suspended the constitution in a bid to save his job.

Police throughout the country raided the homes of opposition party leaders and activists, arresting hundreds. Top lawyers were also taken into custody, and at the offices of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan in the eastern city of Lahore, 70 activists were detained. Journalists covering the raid had their equipment confiscated by police, and were ordered off the premises.

The international advocacy group Human Rights Watch issued a statement condemning the move as "an appalling attack on human rights defenders."

Up to 500 opposition activists had been arrested in the last 24 hours, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said Sunday.

Aziz said the extraordinary measures would remain in place "as long as it is necessary." Aziz said parliamentary elections could be postponed up to a year, but no decision has been made regarding a delay.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that the United States would review its $150 million a month assistance program to Pakistan in response to Musharraf's declaration of emergency rule.

Asma Jahangir, a leading human rights attorney, reported in an e-mail that she had been ordered to stay confined to her home for 90 days. She called it ironic that that Musharraf "had to clamp down on the press and the judiciary to curb terrorism. Those he has arrested are progressive, secular minded people while the terrorists are offered negotiations and ceasefires."

"Lawyers and civil society will challenge the government," Jahangir wrote, "and the scene is likely to get uglier."

Independent television stations remained off the air Sunday, and Pakistani journalists said they were unsure when their broadcasts would be restored. One prominent news anchor, Kashif Abbasi, said the government was pressuring the stations to sign a new code of conduct that would impose severe restrictions on what the stations could report.

While Musharraf cast the emergency-rule decision as necessary to restore order and stop the spread of extremism after a bloody period over the summer and fall, even Musharraf aides conceded that the move was tied directly to a pending Supreme Court case.

At the residence of the former chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammed Chaudhry, hundreds of security officers kept visitors away. Chaudhry was fired by Musharraf on Saturday, along with at least six others Supreme Court judges.

Out of 17 judges on the bench, five agreed to take an oath to uphold Musharraf's new provisional constitution. The government pressured several others Sunday to sign the oath, or lose their jobs.

Ahsan Iqbal, spokesman for an opposition party led by former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, said up to 1,000 activists from his party had been arrested, including top leaders. Iqbal said Musharraf was "guilty of treason" for suspending the constitution.

 

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What's Really Going on Here?

Basis of US Backed Dictatorship in Pakistan is, was, and will be Raw Military Power

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2) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

Govt frees 25 militants in exchange for 213 hostages

 

By Alamgir Bhittani

Dawn, Pakistan, 11-5-07

 

http://www.dawn.com/2007/11/05/top4.htm

TANK, Nov 4: The government on Sunday freed 25 militants in exchange for the release of 213 army personnel who were held hostage in South Waziristan for more than two months.

Military spokesperson Maj-Gen Waheed Arshad confirmed that 211 soldiers had been released and said that 25 militants who had been arrested under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) were also freed. Some of the freed militants had been convicted by an anti-terrorism court.

Mr Mirajuddin, who brokered the deal, said that issue had been resolved amicably and the two sides agreed to implement the Sararogha peace accord in letter and spirit.

Sources in Peshawar told Dawn that the NWFP government had also withdrawn seven terrorism cases pending before the anti-terrorism court in Dera Ismail Khan against some of the arrested militants.

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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Catch and Release for Islamic Militants, Arbitrary arrest for Democratic Opposition

Will US broker a Musharraf-Bhutto alignment between Army and Secular Corruption?

Alex, Berkeley, August 25, 2007

(originally written for CU104_2)

Musharraf's position as the Army's "candidate" for the upcoming presidential contest received the backing of the Army when they assaulted the Red Mosque.

The Army demonstrated they were still behind Musharraf, and would continue to use military force to back the Army's seizure of power under Musharraf in 1999.

Musharraf's legitimacy is nakedly based on army bayonets and American dollars. Bush has responded to the collapse of even the appearance of legitimacy in Pakistan's military dictatorship by encouraging Musharraf to cut political deals with the opposition he had banished to maintain military control of the government.

Bush's plan is to replicate General Zia's "rump" style civilian government, created in 1988. Zia's rump was supposed to put a civilian face on the Army's control of real power in Pakistan. Bush's plan will prove to be as unworkable as Zia's.

Bush's plan is to create a political frankenstein, stitching together tyranny and democracy into a political abomination which is doomed to destroy itself.

The problem is going to be that Neither Bhutto's People's Party, nor Shariff's Pakistan Muslim League are going to allow the military to maintain political control when they resume political participation in Pakistan. Bush's plan is leading to chaos, if not civil war, in Pakistan.

Bush has funded and armed Musharraf's dictatorship, and is continuing to do so. Bush is pressuring Musharraf to allow the appearance of democracy, while supporting his military dictatorship. Rather than withdrawing support for Musharraf, and dealing with the ensuing administration, Bush has decided to put our chips on tyranny rather than democracy. This will cost us differently.

Here's how it will go down: Bhutto and Sharif will win the elections, forcing the Army to assert martial law, kill the protesters, and arrest the political opposition. The Army will reimpose a dictator, possibly forcing Musharraf out in the process.

(11-5-07 Note: I was wrong. Musharraf declared martial law before, rather than after the election.)

The alternative scenario is just as grim. If Bush can force a deal between the Army and the parties, a Bhutto-Sharif government will be elected, and Musharraf will remain as president. Within six months the civilian government will be driven from office by the army. The army will assert martial law, kill the protesters, and arrest the political opposition.

Bush's support and accommodation of Pakistan's military dictatorship is a huge source of the political instability in Pakistan. Our only hope of having a stable long-term relationship with Pakistan is to demand the military step out of politics, and allow the people of Pakistan to run their own affairs. If we were a democracy, we would find and develop long term friendship with democratic players around the world. Instead, we align ourselves with dictators, kings, and petty tyrants.

Bush's plan bet all of our chips on Musharraf and the Pakistani Military, and that relationship has weakened both the US and Pakistan. Our participation in propping up Musharraf's dictatorship has destabilized Pakistan, and our continued support for Musharraf and military authority will only bring a bigger blowup when Pakistan finally rejects foreign supported military dictators.

Bush's new plan involves continuing the political ascendancy of the Pakistani military, which will only continue and deepen Pakistani political instability. It's kind of funny that Bush is only reaching for democracy in desperation, to save his military dictatorship in Pakistan.

If America actually stood for democracy and freedom, we would not be facing any of the dangers we now face in the Middle-East. American greed and aggression is conditioning the middle east to reject American "democracy" as nothing more than a cover for imposing dictators, suppressing the cultural and political voice of Muslims, and controlling the region's vast energy resources.

The whole world is coming to the clear conclusion that America does not stand for democracy or freedom. This will not change until Americans come to the same conclusion, and get off our asses and do something about our broken democracy.

Until then, our corporate fascist government will continue to rob us, and the world, of its rights and resources.

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Also See:

BBC, Nov 4, 2007, two article:

 

Elections delayed for a year

Planned elections in Pakistan could be delayed by up to a year after President Pervez Musharraf's imposition of emergency rule, the country's PM says.

Shaukat Aziz told a news conference that the government remained committed to the democratic process.

Rights have been suspended, media has been restricted and hundreds of people arrested under the emergency decree.

 

Musharraf against the Judges

The proclamation of emergency in Pakistan has made one big difference. All the nearly 30 TV news channels have gone off the air. And with them has gone all the cacophony about the political, judicial and military crisis in the country.

Pakistan's military ruler, Gen Pervez Musharraf, suspended the constitution and proclaimed emergency rule in a televised address on Saturday evening.

Meanwhile, resentment is brewing among the judges of the higher judiciary. More than 60 judges, out of a total of 97, have declined to take oath under the new Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO).

Their homes have been placed under strict security, presumably to prevent them from going to the courts on Monday, as some of them plan to do.

 

Corruption Updates 44 , 3rd article on page, American backed Dictator Attempting to Crush Pakistan's Judiciary

Corruption Updates 96, 4th article on the page, New Violence at Reopened Pakistan Mosque: Army backs Dictator with FULL FORCE: Provokes Widespread Violence

Corruption Updates 109, August 29, 2007, Musharraf strikes deal with Bhutto: Bhutto sells out to American Dictatorship

CNN, 9-10-07; Sharif arrives in Pakistan

Beatings, mass arrests, shootings, and Sharif "deported" (9-10-07, 12:32 AM PST)

Recent Paki News Abstracts

Search the Corruption Database under

Pakistan

Supporting Dictators

 

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3) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

Thousands flee tense northwest Pakistani town

Reuters, Sun Oct 28, 2007

 

By Junaid Khan

 

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USISL34240820071028

 

MINGORA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Thousands of Pakistanis are fleeing a northwestern town and outlying villages because they fear a showdown between the security forces and an Islamist militant Taliban-style movement, residents said.

The Swat valley in the North West Frontier Province has been the scene of fierce fighting between security forces and followers of a radical Muslim cleric on Friday after authorities sent more than 2,000 soldiers to counter growing militancy.

EXODUS

"People are leaving their homes. All shops and markets are closed," a scared resident of the town told Reuters by telephone, asking to remain anonymous for security reasons.

"The police and (paramilitary) Frontier Corps troops have taken positions in high buildings," he added.

Another resident, also asking to remain unnamed, said police were making announcements through loudspeakers urging residents to move to safer places while the militants were sending reinforcements to the town.

Swat, a scenic valley close to Pakistan's lawless tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, has seen a surge in militant activity since Maulana Fazlullah, a pro-Taliban cleric, reportedly launched an illegal FM radio station and urged a holy war.

Fazlullah, known as "Mullah Radio", is de facto head of a pro-Taliban group, Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM) or Movement for the Implementation of Mohammad's Sharia Law, which was banned by in January 2002.

Violence has escalated across Pakistan since July, when militants scrapped a peace deal and the army stormed a radical mosque in the capital, Islamabad.

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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Islamic Radicalism Spreading Off-Mountain in Pakistan

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., November, 2007

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Corruption Updates , th article on the page,

Search the Corruption Database under

 

 

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4) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

Pakistan premier 'broke the law'

Pakistan's top judge has accused Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz of violating a Supreme Court judgement.

 

Story from BBC NEWS, 2007/10/30

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7069780.stm

 

 

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry criticised Mr Aziz while hearing a contempt case against him and several senior government officials.

He said Mr Aziz had arranged for the immediate deportation of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif upon his return to the country in September.

Earlier the court said Mr Sharif had an inalienable right to return from exile.

Mr Chaudhry has in recent years passed several judgements against the government.

President Pervez Musharraf tried to sack him last March, provoking a storm of protests from Pakistan's legal community and opposition parties.

Nawaz Sharif was deposed by Gen Musharraf in a 1999 coup and went into exile the following year.

He flew into Islamabad on 10 September, after the Supreme Court ruled in August that he was entitled to return.

But hours after landing he was flown back to exile in Saudi Arabia.

It is not clear if Prime Minister Aziz would be immune from prosecution for contempt.

The offence can carry up to six months imprisonment, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Judge Chaudhry said that his August ruling on Mr Sharif's "inalienable right" to return to Pakistan "is very much intact... and is required to be implemented in letter and spirit".

The case has been adjourned until 8 November.

Mr Sharif says he will return again to Pakistan before parliamentary elections expected to take place in January.

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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., November, 2007

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Corruption Updates , th article on the page,

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5) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

Is Feinstein the Democrats' Next Lieberman?

 

NYT, 11-4-07

 

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/?hpid=sec-politics

 

For the second time in recent months, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.) on Friday confirmed that she will break ranks with a majority of her Democratic colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, in this case to confirm President Bush's nominee for attorney general.

Sen. Feinstein's support for the Mukasey nomination is a big victory for the White House.

Feinstein, along with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), announced that she will support Michael B. Mukasey's nomination, virtually assuring his confirmation despite the nominee's controversial refusal to declare an interrogation technique called waterboarding to be an illegal form of torture.

Norman Ornstein, a congressional scholar at the American Enterprise Institute..: "The next Joe Lieberman for them is going to be Feinstein," Ornstein told Capitol Briefing, referring to Connecticut's Joe Lieberman, who has been effectively chased from the party for his strong support for the Iraq war.

With all nine Republicans on Judiciary likely to support the nominee, just one of the 10 Democrats needed to flip in order for him to be approved by the panel. Once the nomination is sent to the full Senate, it's virtually a sure thing, since all 49 Republicans and Lieberman -- Mukasey's law school classmate -- are likely votes in favor.

In early August Feinstein played the role of "Lone Democratic Ranger" when she supported U.S. Judge Leslie Southwick's confirmation to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans. She rejected allegations that he was racially insensitive in previous judicial rulings involving a racial slur, giving Southwick a 10-9 vote out of Judiciary.



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What's Really going on Here?

The Torture Continues:

Who Will Defend the President's Crimes Now?

Fiendstien!

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., August 28, 2007

Bush has real problems now. He must find a new AG who will sign off on, well, what will he have to sign off on? Not much.

Congress just passed an illegal and unconstitutional law that gives the President the power to conduct unlimited, warrantless searches on Americans. So that issue is settled. Congress covered Bush's illegal searches with a criminal law of its own, so the new AG is off the hook for illegal domestic searches.

Then we come to the President's use of kidnapping, unlimited secret detentions, and torture. I'm sure there are a set of super-secret findings somewhere in the Justice Department that contend the President has the power to secretly kidnap, detain, and torture anyone he wants.

The new AG has a real hot potato here. Italy and Germany are prosecuting CIA agents in absentia for our kidnappings on their soil, moving them to secret detention facilities, and torturing them. Will our next AG have a problem with defending kidnapping?

It depends on if the next AG agrees with John Yoo and Gonzales' contentions that the President Can do Anything He Wants.

This outrage was confirmed by Congress in the Military Commissions Act of 2006. This unconstitutional "law" grants the Presidential the right to kidnap, secretly detain, and torture anyone he wants, including American Citizens.

The next AG will have no problem defending American kidnapping, secret detentions, and torture as Congress passed a law authorizing these crimes here. But that will not cover our international crimes, but that responsibility will fall into the capable hand of Rice at State.

The next AG should have it easy. Congress, besides laying the legal groundwork for an unchecked, Unconstitutional President, is currently fully funding all of the President's crimes. It has been rather easy for Gonzales to defend the President's crimes, as Congress has been a willing partner under both parties.

The same will be true for the next AG.

If we had a real Constitutional Democracy, a real Attorney General would review all of the unconstitutional findings of Gonzales and Yoo, and throw them into the dustbin of Fascist History, where they belong.

A real AG would identify, investigate and immediately charge all of the criminals who have searched without warrants, kidnapped, tortured, or secretly detained anyone anywhere. A real AG would immediately turn over all the CIA participants in the European kidnappings to Italy and Germany for trial.

The next AG, if they have any sense of Justice and duty to our Constitutional rule of law, would begin a parallel investigation in the executive branch to determine who in the CIA, Pentagon, Justice Department, FBI, and White House approved of these crimes, and charge them accordingly.

These are high crimes and misdemeanors against domestic and international law.

A real Congress would demand this of the next AG. But this Congress already indeminified the President's crimes before getting elected, when Pelosi "took impeachment off the table,"  and, after getting elected passing their bogus Spy "law," so don't get your hopes up.

In fact, Gonzales' resignation came on the heels of passage of the repugnant Spy "law."

I smell a big, nasty, stinking secret deal between Congress and Bush: Congress gave Bush Criminal Search Powers, and Bush, after a short delay, gave Congress the Head of Gonzales. Thus Congress assured Bush that giving up Gonzales would not result in his immediate prosecution for illegal searches.

With Congress signing off on virtually all of Bush's crimes, and approving them with unconstitutional "laws," Bush has almost nothing to worry about, and Pelosi has finally and completely taken impeachment off the table.

Unless I'm completely wrong, and I hope I am, the next AG is going to be acclaimed by both parties, and is not going to challenge any of the President's illegal claims to royal authority to search, kidnap, detain, torture, and then run kangaroo courts on anyone he wants.

As the use of these criminal powers is being supported by Congress, rather than being taken away and repudiated, these criminal powers will continue to be used by future presidents against our people, our rights, and our Constitution. Congress' affirmation of these crimes has made them permanent presidential powers.

Since we have already lost control of our democracy, we face a future where, like now, the richest corporate factions will elect presidents. But unlike the past, our future Presidents will have unlimited, unchecked power to pay back their bribes, harass their political enemies with perpetual surveillance and fake prosecutions, and use the full power of the government to do the will of their corporate masters.

This, my friends, is the face of Corporate Fascism.

Although Gonzales is gone, the attack on our civil rights is only now beginning to get really ugly. Establishing the foundation for unlimited illegal surveillance is just the start. Once they figure out how to use a complete record of everyone's communications, their power will be complete.

The first set of links below deals with Gonzales' lies to Congress about the Administration's attempts to railroad their illegal search program through an ill, but determined Ashcroft.

The second, longer set of links cover the wide range of governmental crimes Gonzales participated in, excluding the US Attorney Scandal.  A link following that list leads to the US Attorney Scandal Abstracts.

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Also See:

Sf Chron, june 13, 2006; Feinstein say Gay Rights are State Issue

Corruption Updates 100, August 4th '07, Feinstein draws fire over vote for rascist, homophobic judge

Washington Post, Nov 4, 2007; Is Feinstein the Democrats' Next Lieberman?

Corruption Updates , th article on the page,

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6) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

$43.5 Billion Spying Budget for Year, Not Including Military

By MARK MAZZETTI

NYT, October 31, 2007

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/

washington/31intel.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print

 

WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 — Congress authorized spending of $43.5 billion over the past year to operate spy satellites, remote surveillance stations and C.I.A. outposts overseas, according to a budget figure released Tuesday by Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence.

Government officials have refused for years to disclose the intelligence budget, citing risks to national security if the United States’ adversaries learned what it spent annually on spy services.

But lawmakers, acting on a recommendation by the Sept. 11 commission, pushed a law through Congress this summer requiring that the director of national intelligence reveal the spending authorization figure within 30 days after the close of the fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30.

 The total spying budget for the last fiscal year, including this Pentagon spending, is said to have been in excess of $50 billion.

The figure Mr. McConnell released, known as the National Intelligence Program, covers some of the most expensive spy programs, including the fleet of satellites run by the National Reconnaissance Office. It also includes the budgets for the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, charged with electronic eavesdropping.

Last year, John D. Negroponte, then the director of national intelligence, revealed another secret of the spy world that was once closely guarded: he announced that the work force in the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies numbered nearly 100,000.

In late 2005, a senior intelligence official attending a public conference in San Antonio revealed, apparently by accident, that the intelligence budget for that year was $44 billion.


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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., November, 2007

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Corruption Updates , th article on the page,

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Big Tobacco Has Big Influence in California: Effective Anti-Smoking Advertising, Research, and Legislation All Blunted by Campaign Contributions and Lawsuits

 

• Report Criticizes Schwarzenegger and His Predecessors

• 95% of Contributions to Parties and Candidates Went to Republicans in Last Election Cycle

 

By Frank D. Russo

 

http://www.californiaprogressreport.com/2007/11/big_tobacco_has.html

A new report documents how the tobacco industry has influenced California politics with increased campaign contributions and thwarted effective anti-smoking advertising and legislation that would diminish tobacco sales in California including research on tobacco illnesses. This, despite the passage of ballot propositions by the voters setting aside money for such purposes and the heralded Master Settlement Agreement of major litigation by the states which produced billions of dollars for California and other states.

The Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine released on Friday a 151 page report Tobacco Control in California 2003-2007: Missed Opportunities that starts out with the passage by voters in 1988 of Proposition 99, the California Tobacco Tax and Health Protection Act brings us to the present, focusing on the last 5 years. The study concludes that successes in tobacco control in California now are started by local activism and voter initiatives with statewide legislation only following this lead and that local activism is still the key source of movement on this front in California.

In 1988 Proposition 99 was passed by the voters, imposing an additional 50 cents per pack to support early childhood education. Ten years later, in 1998, Proposition 10 raised taxes on cigarettes in California by an additional 50 cents per pack to support early childhood education.

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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., November, 2007

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Corruption Updates , th article on the page,

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8) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.

Poll Finds Americans Pessimistic, Want Change

War, Economy, Politics Sour Views of Nation's Direction

 

By Dan Balz and Jon Cohen

Washington Post Staff Writers

Sunday, November 4, 2007; A01

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110301306.html?nav=hcmodule

 

One year out from the 2008 election, Americans are deeply pessimistic and eager for a change in direction from the agenda and priorities of President Bush, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Overwhelmingly, Democrats want a new direction, but so do three-quarters of independents and even half of Republicans. Sixty percent of all Americans said they feel strongly that such a change is needed after two terms of the Bush presidency.

More than six in 10 called the war not worth fighting, and nearly two-thirds gave the national economy negative marks. The outlook going forward is also bleak: About seven in 10 see a recession as likely over the next year.

The overall landscape tilts in the direction of the Democrats, but there is evidence in the new poll -- matched in conversations with political strategists in both parties and follow-up interviews with survey participants -- that the coming battle for the White House is shaping up to be another hard-fought, highly negative and closely decided contest.

At this point, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), the Democratic front-runner, holds the edge in hypothetical match-ups with four of the top contenders for the Republican nomination. But against the two best-known GOP candidates, former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), her margins are far from comfortable. Not one of the leading candidates in either party has a favorable rating above 51 percent in the new poll.

And while Clinton finds herself atop all candidates in terms of strong favorability -- in the poll, 28 percent said they feel strongly favorable toward her -- she also outpaces any other candidate on strong unfavorables. More than a third, 35 percent, have strongly negative views of her, more than 10 points higher than any other contender.

Bush's approval rating remains at a career low. Thirty-three percent said they approve of the job he is doing, and 64 percent disapprove. Majorities have disapproved of Bush's job performance for more than 2 1/2 years.

Democrats can take little comfort in Bush's numbers, however. A year after voters turned Republicans out of power in the House and the Senate, approval of the Democratic-controlled Congress's performance is lower than the president's rating, registering just 28 percent.

Whatever their dissatisfaction with the Democrats, however, a majority of Americans, 54 percent, said they want the party to emerge from the 2008 election in control of Congress; 40 percent would prefer the GOP to retake power.

At this stage, three issues dominate the electoral landscape, with the war in Iraq at the top of the list. Nearly half of all adults, 45 percent, cited Iraq as the most or second-most important issue in their choice for president. About three in 10 cited the economy and jobs (29 percent) or health care (27 percent). All other issues are in the single digits.

While 12 percent of Republicans and 10 percent of independents cited immigration as one of the top two issues, it was highlighted by 3 percent of Democrats. Terrorism is also a more prominent concern among Republicans; 17 percent put it in their top two, while 3 percent of Democrats did the same.

In the new poll, support for allowing same-sex civil unions is up significantly from 2004. A majority of respondents, 55 percent, now support giving homosexual couples some of the legal rights of married heterosexuals.

There is a more even divide on another hot-button issue: Fifty-one percent would support a program giving illegal immigrants now living in the United States the right to live here legally if they pay a fine and meet other requirements; 44 percent would oppose that.

Much will happen in the coming months that could reshape the political climate. But at this point, in a matchup of current front-runners, Clinton and Giuliani are tightly paired: 50 percent of respondents would support Clinton, 46 percent Giuliani. Against McCain, Clinton has a clearer edge, 52 percent to 43 percent.

Independents, who fueled the Democratic takeover of Congress last November, are evenly divided, 47 percent for Clinton, 46 percent for Giuliani. The split is one indicator that, despite current Democratic advantages and an electorate strongly oriented toward change, the 2008 election is likely to be closely and hotly contested.

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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., November, 2007

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Corruption Updates , th article on the page,

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Choosing a Future From Tainted Pasts

Both Presidential Candidates In Today's Vote in Guatemala Have Links to Some of the Nation's Most Painful Wounds

 

By Manuel Roig-Franzia

Washington Post Foreign Service

Sunday, November 4, 2007; A18

 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/03/AR2007110301212.html?hpid=moreheadlines

 

GUATEMALA CITY, Nov. 3 -- Guatemalans vote Sunday in a presidential runoff election shaped as much by the candidates' pasts as their visions for the future.

The campaigns of retired army Gen. Otto Pérez Molina and three-time presidential contender Álvaro Colom have been hampered by persistent accusations of misdeeds that have reopened wounds from this country's 1960-96 civil war and highlighted its struggle with endemic corruption.

Pérez Molina, a former head of Guatemala's army intelligence unit who is promising to rule with an "iron fist," has been linked by international human rights groups to civil war-era death squads. Colom has faced a campaign finance scandal and accusations that he escaped prosecution through influence-peddling.

The race is an apparent dead heat, with polls showing one or the other candidate with a tiny lead.

"Your hands shouldn't quiver to vote for the iron fist," Pérez Molina told a crowd in the mountain village of Nahuala.

The questions swirling around Pérez Molina date to the early and mid-1990s, when he was a top military official and for a time ran the intelligence unit. A report by the nonprofit Washington Office on Latin America cites an investigation by the human rights office of Guatemala's Catholic archdiocese that links the intelligence unit to the 1994 assassination of Edgar Ramiro Elías Ogaldez, a prominent judge. The report also says Pérez Molina was implicated in the murder of guerrilla leader Efraín Bámarca Velasquez.

In the final days of the campaign, the Collective of Social Organizations, a Guatemalan human rights group, picked up on the accusations and pounded Pérez Molina in full-page newspaper ads featuring harrowing photographs of cadavers found in civil war-era mass graves. The headline read, "No more iron fist." The group also printed posters with drawings of skeletons wearing army helmets and the message: "Don't vote for military officials."

In a March interview, Pérez Molina said his enemies accused him of being involved in death squads to deflect attention from death squads still operating at the highest levels of government. He accused then-Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann of condoning death squads that may have played a role in the murder of three Salvadoran politicians found shot and burned in Guatemala.

"He knew what was happening, and he did nothing," Pérez Molina said of Vielmann, who resigned March 26 while still proclaiming his innocence.

. In 2004, Colom -- then president of the National Union for Hope party -- was entangled in an investigation of at least $65,000 in government money that was supposedly transferred illegally to his party's accounts and to a group supporting his presidential bid. In March of that year, a crowd chanted, "Corrupt, shameful," when Colom returned to Guatemala from a trip abroad.

When the scandal broke, Colom said no money had been illegally transferred to the party's accounts or his campaign. Later, he acknowledged that a "check had been found." Still later, he returned the money and said he had not known about the transfer.

Guatemala's controller general, Óscar Dubón Palma, was imprisoned in the incident. But the case against Colom was dropped, provoking accusations that he used his political influence to escape justice.

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THE COMMITTEE SAYS:

Corruption and Tyranny fight for votes in Guatamala: The iron fist in the golden pocket

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., November, 2007

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Also See:

Guatemala: Deal With U.S. for $2.3 Million to Fight Drugs, AP, Sept 21, 2007

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