FLAG BANNER
Help Remove BRIBERY FROM THE CENTER OF CALIFORNIA POLITICS
Home The Website    Corruption Updates    The Database    The Archives    Link Clusters    Why    How to Help     Contact
 
Fight Corporate Media Liars

CORRUPTION UPDATES 137

Posted: December 12, 2007, Draft edition

Previous Page: Page 136         All Archives               Next page: Page 138

Contact Us: Committeefordemocracy.org

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.

Clinton rolls a sizable pork barrel

LAT, 12-10-07

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-earmarks10dec10,0,2423981.story?coll=la-home-nation

 

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — It's a real estate developer's sugar-plum dream: a mega-shopping mall complete with 10 Broadway-style theaters, an indoor river, a Tuscan village and a 39-story luxury hotel sheathed in green solar panels shaped like giant blades of grass. Plus as much as $1 billion in government-backed financing, thanks in part to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

In the case of Destiny, she teamed up with other New York lawmakers to secure federal backing for the private investment project. And she collected tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from the developer and others associated with the project.

Nor does the Syracuse project stand alone. From the beginning of her Senate career, Clinton saw earmarks -- which enable lawmakers to bypass the normal budget process and insert narrowly drafted spending provisions directly into legislation -- as a key to funneling aid to a depressed area and building political power among normally Republican-leaning voters.

Since taking office in 2001, Clinton has delivered $500 million worth of earmarks that have specifically benefited 59 corporations. About 64% of those corporations provided funds to her campaigns through donations made by employees, executives, board members or lobbyists, a review by the Los Angeles Times shows.

All told, Clinton has earmarked more than $2.3 billion in federal appropriations for projects in her state since her election to the Senate, much of it for public works projects funded in conjunction with fellow Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer and others in the New York congressional delegation.

Top of Page

What's Really Going on Here?

Fake Reforms of Democrats: No Change in Who Runs Washington

The article above, and those referenced below, prove that our culture of political corruption has successfully passed the baton from Repub to Dem hands, without losing a dollar of bribery money.

The superficial reforms of the Dems did their job. The Dems have spewed a fog of "happy talk" and fake reform measures to obscure the fact that nothing has changed in how political power and influence is auctioned off in Washington

It's business as usual, all over again.

 

Everybody Hates Billery, LAT, 6-17-07, Commentary

Top of Page

Also See:

The Clinton's Corporate Democracy:


Corruption Updates 33, th article on the page,
Corporate Democrats of the Democratic Leadership Council Laughs at democracy

See Right Web for an interesting profile of the DLC and its Corporate backers


Corruption Updates 59, 2nd article on the page,
At Wal-Mart, Clinton didn't upset any carts


Corruption Updates 62, 6th article on the page,
Suit Sheds Light on Clintons’ Ties to a Benefactor

Corruption Updates 62, 10th article on the page, Clinton: Pakistani businessman, donor to Dems, returns to U.S. to face charges


Corruption Updates 76, 4th article on the page,
Clinton: Fundraiser allegedly demanded stock


Corruption Updates 78, 6th article on the page,
Poll: Dem Voters Hate Canididates

Corruption Updates 93, 7th article on the page, He backs Clinton; her backers help him

Corruption Updates 97, 2nd article on the page, Executive privilege touchy for presidential hopefuls: Just a Reminder of why Bush is out of Control

Corruption Updates 109, 8th article on the page, Clinton: Yet Another Criminal Foreign Donor

Corruption Updates 113, 3rd article on the page, Clinton to Hsu: Your Money is hot now. Please take it back

Corruption Updates 113, 4th article on the page, FBI looks into disgraced donor's business: Investigating a pyrmid scheme from within a pyrmid scheme. The House of Mirrors.

Clinton rolls a sizable pork barrel, LAT, 12-12-07

Democrats Love Earmarks

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) Reference is linked at CU30, 2nd article on page.

Corruption Updates 27, 2nd article on page, “Leaders Want Lobbying Changes Enacted” (fake, superficial reforms)

Corruption Updates 28
, 4th article on page, “Bush and Dems Fight Over Earmarks”

Corruption Updates 30, 2nd article on page,REID TRIES TO KILL REAL EARMARK REFORMS: RENEGADE SENATORS EXPOSE DEMS FAKE EARMARK REFORM BY GIVING IT REAL TEETH, DEMS FIGHT TO KILL REFORM, AND PRESERVE EARMARK CORRUPTION Fake earmark reforms of dems rejected!

Corruption Updates 31, 4th article on page, FAKE EARMARK REFORM IN SENATE CONTINUES:
EARMARKS NOT RECOGNIZED AS CORRUPTION ITSELF

Clinton Links

Democrat Links

 

Search the Corruption Database under

Clinton

Democrats

Earmarks

Speak your Mind here! Send your Comments about the Topic Above for Posting!

Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words, unless you write really well! Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

 

Home

All Archives

Top of Page

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

Putin anoints ally as presidential frontrunner

 

by Sebastian Smith

AFP, 12-10-07

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071210/wl_afp/russiavote

 

President Vladimir Putin endorsed technocrat ally Dmitry Medvedev as his successor on Monday in a surprise announcement that could clear the way for the Kremlin leader to retain power behind the throne.

Putin, whose support is seen as virtually guaranteeing victory in a March 2, 2008, presidential election, threw his weight behind Medvedev, a longtime ally who chairs gas behemoth Gazprom and serves as first deputy prime minister.

The choice surprised observers because Medvedev is a relative liberal in the Kremlin and unlike most of Putin's allies is not known to have served in the Soviet KGB. Although touted in the media as a possible successor he has never suggested he wanted the job.

"I have known him for more than 17 years, I have worked with him closely all these years, and I completely and fully support this candidacy," Putin said on state-run Channel One after four political parties nominated Medvedev.

In Washington the White House shrugged off questions about the appointment, with spokeswoman Dana Perino telling reporters it was an "internal" matter.

The nomination followed months of intrigue over who would succeed 55-year-old Putin when he steps down next year after two consecutive terms at the head of the nuclear power and leading global energy exporter.

"On March 2, 2008, Medvedev will become the third president of Russia," news site www.gazeta.ru wrote.

Analysts said the choice of the baby-faced Medvedev, 42, would help Putin keep his options open in retaining authority.

Options considered most likely for Putin include becoming prime minister, heading the Kremlin Security Council, or even taking over as chief of a new state combining Russia and ex-Soviet republic Belarus -- which Putin is due to visit Thursday and Friday.

Heading a programme of government social projects, Medvedev is outside the circle of hawkish officials dominating the Kremlin and he owes his entire career to Putin.

"Medvedev is incapable of forming his own clan and he will always need Putin," Yury Korgunyuk, at the Indem Foundation, said.

Vladimir Pribylovsky, at the Panorama think tank, said Medvedev was loyal and "guarantees Putin the status quo."

The Moscow stock market's RTS index rose 1.62 percent to 2,323.37 points on the news, while shares in state-owned Gazprom, the world's biggest gas company, shot up three percent.

Alexei Sidorenko, at the Moscow Carnegie Centre, said that Putin could still allow a rival candidate to emerge. "It's not the last surprise of this presidential campaign."

However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such a development was "unlikely. (Putin) quite openly gave his support to one candidate."

Boris Nemtsov, one of the leaders of Russia's enfeebled liberal opposition, attacked Medvedev's nomination as "humiliating for the people, when the authorities determine who needs to be supported," Interfax reported.

Most observers had been expecting Putin to give his choice next Monday when his United Russia party, which swept to a controversial landslide in elections last weekend.

Putin took pains to emphasise the support from Medvedev from four parties -- United Russia, A Just Russia, the Agrarians and Civic Force.

"This gives a chance to create the conditions for carrying out the course that has brought results all these last eight years," Putin said.

A lawyer by training, Medvedev was hired by Putin in the early 1990s to work on his staff at the Saint Petersburg local government.

After serving as Putin's campaign manager for his successful 2000 election run, Medvedev was appointed presidential chief of staff in the Kremlin and later chairman of Gazprom, the jewel in Russia's energy crown.

Top of Page

What's Really Going on Here?

Russia Rejected Western Style Corporate dominated State:

What's Next?

It's Putin's Choice

April 16, 2007

America stood by, applauding, while Mikhail Khodorkovsky stole Russia's Oil Industry, and tried to leverage his stolen Big Oil money into Political Dominance, Just like his Big Oil pals had done in the United States. The takeover failed, and Kornhead will spend the rest of his life in Russian Prison.

We have exactly the same kind of people as Kornhead here in the US, except their plan to takeover our country in a flood of Corruption and Bribery Succeeded.

Bush, Cheney, and Ken Lay represent what happens when people like Khodorkovsky, the failed Russian Rockefeller, are able to leverage wealth into political power, and ultimately, into control of the whole political system.

The "oligarchs" failed attempt to impose the rule of wealth on Russia, and really pissed-off the Russian People with their efforts. Average Russians cheered wildly when this greedy bastard was jailed, and his fellow cockroaches fled for the West.

The rest of his gang of thieves, such as Boris Berezovsky and Vladimir Gusinsky, fled Russia with as much money as they could steal from the Russian people. They are not welcome in Russia, unless they are willing to put their heads into a noose.

Putin's crushing of Khodorkovsky and his gang of criminals raised his approval rating to 80%, and it has not fallen significantly since.

Khodorkovsky represented American-Style business and political practices in Russia, and these practices were firmly rejected.

Our Support for these thieves squandered the our "political capitol" in Russia, and marked the end of hopes that a Corporate Elite would rise to rule Russia as it Rules the United States.

Our attempts to finance Corporate Politics and Parties in the Ukraine and Georgia are suffering similar fates, and raising the hostility of average Russians towards our interference in their, and their neighbors, domestic politics.

Now, largely due to our misguided interference in Russia's Domestic Politics, Non-Corporate Western Democratic Ideals are as dead in Russia as Corporate Democracy is. And so is the Conventional Arms treaty in Europe.

Our brilliant strategy offers us no room to criticize or pressure Russia from a moral high ground. Putin is Clubbing Dissenters in the streets of St. Petersburg with the approval and blessing of the Russian people, and there is not a thing we can do about it.

Putin will soon hand-pick his replacement as President, and the people will elect his chosen successor, or he will keep the Presidency.

Putin's choice depends on how he perceives the maturity and stability of his political Mafia: If Putin feels his party can maintain its strange balance between Commie-Style Authoritarianism within an economic system of modified open-market capitalism, he will step down.

If Putin believes his departure will allow the Market to Control Politics, or if he believes that post-Putin Authoritarianism will shut down their modified open-market capitalism, he will keep the Presidency.

It's Putin's Choice.

In either case, it's sure that the greed and dishonesty that dominates our government's Corporate Foreign Policy, combined with our military and political aggression along the soft, insecure underbelly of Russia's Southern Frontier, has rekindled the fires of paranoid anti-American nationalism in Russia.

Good work, America; your greed and ego has exceeded our principals, and blown our post-cold war chance to lead Russia, and the rest of the world, into a truly democratic age.

It was a pipe dream at best; how could we lead the world into something that we do not ourselves possess?

(First printed in 52_2)

Putin speaks on "state capitalism" tass, 12-12-007

When-How Will Putin Seize Power? dec 3 07

Putin's designating his sucessor tells us that Putin has decided, for now, to place Medvedev on the throne.

Pravda reports Medvedev may be elected only to resign, causing new elections that Putin would be eligible to run in, as he would have skipped the term required by Russian term limits.

Top of Page

Also See:

 

Answers.com on Dmitry Medvedev

Russia suspends Arms Treaty, bbc 12-12-07. Also see below

Putin to become "National Leader," Financial Times (UK), November 7 2007

Putin collects 30 mil signatures supporting his takeover of government, bbc, 11-15-07

Putin claims "Moral Right" to takeover government, Time, 11-13-07

Patriach lauds Putin for service to Fatherland, tass, 12-13-07

Russia to stop pricing oil in dollars? pravda, 12-14-07

 

Russia Links

Search the Corruption Database under

Russia

 

Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words, unless you write really well! Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

 

Home

All Archives

Top of Page

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

Medvedev backs Putin to become PM

People's Daily, China

12-12-07

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90853/6319601.html


Dmitry Medvedev, named by Russian President Vladimir Putin as his preferred successor, said yesterday he wanted Putin to become prime minister under him, mapping out a route for the outgoing leader to retain influence.

But Putin did not say if he would take his long-time ally up on the job offer and some analysts said they believed the powerful Russian leader had still not finally decided what role he will take when he steps down next year.

Medvedev is front-runner to win a March 2 presidential election after Putin endorsed him for the top Kremlin job on Monday. In his first public broadcast since then, the 42-year-old was quick to declare his loyalty to his mentor.

"Expressing my readiness to stand as a candidate in the presidential election, I ask him (Putin) to agree to head the government of Russia after the election of the new president," Medvedev said in a brief televised address carried on all Russia's state-run channels.

Medvedev is one of Putin's most loyal lieutenants who has no political powerbase of his own. Choosing him as the Kremlin's candidate seemed calculated to allow Putin to continue to mould policy after he steps down.

In a country where most power is concentrated in the presidency, with the prime minister taking a junior role, some commentators say that dividing power between the two posts could create a risk of conflicts and instability.

"It seems to me that Putin still hasn't decided on his next job," said Yevgeny Minchenko, director of the International Institute of Political Analysis in Moscow.

"Plan A - Putin really becomes prime minister. Plan B - this is pre-election technology that will allow Medvedev to win in the first round with Putin's support."

Fellow First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov - who had been tipped as a presidential contender - gave his backing, as did Alexiy II, patriarch of the Russian Orthodox church.

Top of Page

What's Really Going on Here?

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., December, 2007

Top of Page

Also See:

Answers.com on Dmitry Medvedev

Putin to become "National Leader," Financial Times (UK), November 7 2007

Putin claims "Moral Right" to takeover government, Time, 11-13-07

Putin collects 30 mil signatures supporting his takeover of government, bbc, 11-15-07

Russia suspends Arms Treaty, bbc 12-12-07. Also see below

Many more Russia Links

 

Search the Corruption Database under

Russia

 

Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words, unless you write really well! Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

 

Home

All Archives

Top of Page

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

Russia begins arms treaty freeze
BBC, 12-12-07

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/europe/7139889.stm

Russia has formally suspended its participation in a key arms control agreement dating from the Cold War.

The Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty sets limits on troops and weaponry across Europe.

The suspension means Russia can move troops without notifying Nato. The bloc voiced "deep regret" over the move.

Russia is unhappy with Nato expansion and US plans for missile defences in central Europe and says the treaty no longer serves its interests.

The CFE treaty was signed by Western and former Warsaw Pact states in 1990, but was revised in 1999 to take account of former Soviet satellites joining Nato.

However the alliance - unlike Russia - has refused to approve the updates until Moscow pulls its remaining troops out of Georgia and Moldova.

CFE TREATY
Cornerstone of European security
Limits amount of key military equipment in designated area
Negotiated by Nato and ex-Warsaw Pact states
Signed in 1990
Came into force in 1992
Nato never ratified revised 1999 version

The foreign ministry in Moscow said Russia had stopped exchanging information stipulated by the treaty and had stopped receiving foreign inspectors.

"At the same time we do not have plans in the current circumstances for a massive build-up or concentration of forces of the borders with neighbours," it said in a statement.

Nato expressed it "deep regret" over Moscow's move, but stressed that the military alliance would not take any retaliatory action.

"Nato allies... want to resolve the current impasse and preserve the benefits of this landmark treaty," a Nato statement said.

"They have therefore chosen not to respond in kind at this stage," it said.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the continent's main security watchdog, criticised Moscow for undermining "a cornerstone" of efforts to reduce tensions in Europe.

"The suspension... is not good news," Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, whose country holds the rotating chairmanship in the OSCE, said in a statement.

In practical terms the Russian move means that a whole range of inspections and transparency measures intended to bolster mutual military trust will be suspended, the BBC's diplomatic correspondent Jonathan Marcus says.

That, arms control experts argue, will be a loss.

 

Top of Page

What's Really Going on Here?

RUSSIA RESPONDS STRONGLY TO AMERICAN AGGRESSION

3-5-07

With our victory in the Cold War came an arrogance that has undermined our “victory.” Rather than be cool, we have moved political, military and economic assets right up to Russia's borders. Remember our response when Russia moved missiles to Cuba?

These unwise moves were practical if Russia was to remain in a permanent weakened state. This was a stupid assumption. The rebuilding of Russia has taken on a character of hostility in response to our aggressions.

Russia has been moving to counter, if not eliminate, our intrusions into the Ukraine, Georgia, the “stans,” and Belarus. Russia has determined our militarism requires they rebuild their military forces, and counter our aggressive actions. Russia has interpreted our actions as an invitation to join an arms race. A race for global political influence is sure to follow.

Rebuilding their military forces, and developing a new strategic plan, signals that Russia has sufficiently consolidated its internal affairs to respond vigorously to our aggressions. Russia has consolidated sufficient internal stability to take advantage of the chaos we have plunged the world, and especially Arabic Islam, into.

This is our fault. Our middle eastern foreign policy is based on supporting Arabic dictators hated by their own people. Rather than seeing the writing on the wall, and moving to encourage these regimes to reflect the will of their people, we went in the opposite direction.

Hosni of Egypt is an excellent example. Egypt is where Bush should have started his “spread of democracy across the middle east.” Instead, we are encouraging Hosni to move from an unofficial to a formal police state.

When the Egyptian people overthrow their western supported dictator, Hosni, they will be labeled enemies of “freedom,” and we do our best to kidnap, torture, imprison and kill them. If they live quietly under our dictators, they are friends of “freedom,”

These hypocritical contradictions have created a huge maneuvering area for Russian and Chinese foreign policy, as well as offering a big, fat, juicy American enemy to draw the various Arabic independence groups together.

Putting our military in the middle east has been poison to our dictators. Bush's invasion has reduced the weight of our influence to the size of our guns and wallets. We better not run out of bucks and bullets, or we are in real trouble. We have nothing else to rely on.

All Russia needs to do is offer honest support to the Arabs and Persians who seek freedom from our dictators. If Russia befriends those countries who want to control their own affairs, we are in big trouble.

Arabic lands under Arab control is unacceptable to us. This will create increasing political and military chaos until the Arabs actually seize control of their governments, and force their colonial ruling elites to flee back to their source of power, the United States. Once here, they can join the refugees from the toppled dictatorships of Somoza, Batista, the Shah, Chiang Kai Schreck, to name just a few.

Soon, American Globalism will fall before a new, multi-lateral, shared balance of world power. Democracy will be victorious, not America. The right of locals to select their own governments will be established, and it will mark the end of American Globalism.

This will signal the end of our control of the world's oil markets, and those that gain control will hate us. Soon, we will live in a world where Russia, China, and India find it advantageous to block our military, political and economic adventures. Soon, the world will stop funding our gluttony, and demand we pay them back.

Soon.

Top of Page

Also See:

Russia prepares to revise military doctrine in response to USA's missile defense plans, pravda, 3-5-07

Russia to Suspend Compliance With Key European Pact, wp, 4-27-07

Leading Russian Official Dismisses U.S. Treaty and Missile Shield, ap, 5-24-07

Putin warns Europe in missile row, (will re-target Euro capitals with nukes), bbc, june 3, 07

Many more links concerning our incompentent Russian diplomacy and their increasingly fierce responses.

Search the Corruption Database under

Russia

 

Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words, unless you write really well! Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

 

Home

All Archives

Top of Page

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

Bankers Face Grim Truth: Worst Is Yet to Come
By MICHAEL J. de la MERCED

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/12/business/

12place.html?_r=1&ref=business&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

AS the credit crisis sweeps wildly through Wall Street, major investment banks face a grim truth about their already-slumping profits: the worst is yet to come.

Beginning with Lehman Brothers on Thursday, major investment banks and securities firms will begin reporting what are likely to be their weakest quarterly earnings in years.

The results will show how hard the recent turmoil in the financial markets continues to hit the even the mightiest Wall Street banks, and could cast doubt over the future of several chief executives. Multibillion-dollar write-offs have already prompted Merrill Lynch and Citigroup to replace their chief executives.

Some Wall Street stock analysts — many of whom rarely say sell — in recent weeks have turned bearish on their own industry. One analyst after another has cut earnings estimates for Wall Street banks, citing continued concern about the widening mortgage crisis. Some have placed sell recommendations on the shares of Bear Stearns, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.

 

Top of Page

What's Really Going on Here?

 

Latest Essay: Housing-credit crisis exposing the rotten core of American Markets and Economy

next essay in series: The rotten core of the American Economy: Our Corrupted Democracy

previous essay: Markets will not settle until all assets are revalued, and housing reestablishes price and volume, August 17, 2007

the beginning of the crisis: Markets about to kill economy, Aug 4, 2007

10 Econ instability links dec 11

 

Search the Corruption Database under

Economics


Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words, unless you write really well! Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

 

Home

All Archives

Top of Page

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

Senate widens probe of destroyed tapes

CIA director's testimony leaves questions about interrogation recordings unanswered, lawmakers say. More witnesses will be called.
By Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 12, 2007

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-cia12dec12,1,1896211.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers leading the Senate investigation of the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes said there were gaps in the testimony of CIA Director Michael V. Hayden on Tuesday and outlined plans to call a series of witnesses as part of an expanding probe.

"We had a useful and not yet complete hearing," said Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in comments after the 90-minute, closed-door session with the CIA director.

Among those expected to testify in the coming weeks are the CIA's acting General Counsel John Rizzo, as well as the former head of the agency's operations branch, Jose A. Rodriguez, Jr., who authorized the destruction of the tapes in 2005.

Rodriguez's decision is a focus of the Senate Intelligence Committee probe, as well as an internal investigation launched by the CIA and an inquiry by the Justice Department.

Atty. Gen. Michael B. Mukasey, addressing the destruction of the tapes Tuesday for the first time, resisted calls for an independent prosecutor.

"I think the Justice Department is capable of doing whatever it appears needs to be done" to determine whether the CIA broke any laws, Mukasey said during his first news conference since he was sworn in as attorney general on Nov. 9.

The tapes depicted CIA officials' use of harsh methods during the 2002 interrogations of Al Qaeda suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer involved in the capture of Zubaydah, said in a series of television interviews this week that Zubaydah had been uncooperative under questioning, but relented after 35 seconds of exposure to the waterboarding technique.

In a statement sent to the CIA workforce last week, Hayden said that the agency destroyed the tapes only after it was determined that they were "no longer of intelligence value and not relevant to any internal, legislative, or judicial inquiries."

But the disclosure prompted questions of whether the agency had illegally destroyed evidence. And new details have surfaced suggesting significant disagreements among top agency officials over a two-year period before the tapes were destroyed.

Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.) on Tuesday became the first lawmaker to formally request that Mukasey immediately appoint an independent counsel.

Neither the CIA's inspector general nor the Justice Department can fairly and independently investigate the matter, according to Holt, a member of the House Intelligence Committee and the chairman of its oversight subcommittee. He said the CIA has misrepresented the facts surrounding the existence and subsequent destruction of the videotapes.

He said the misrepresentations included what the CIA provided to a federal court and an appeals court that were handling the prosecution of terrorism suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in 2005 and was sentenced to life in prison.

In addition, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel has been directly involved in writing a series of often controversial legal opinions supporting the administration's aggressive detainee interrogation policies, Holt noted in his letter to Mukasey.

Mukasey, a federal judge for more than two decades, drew widespread criticism during his confirmation hearing when he refused to say whether he considered waterboarding a form of torture.

Now that he is the attorney general, he said Tuesday, he is reviewing the legal opinions on interrogation to see whether they are "sustainable" and whether the CIA conforms to them.

 

Top of Page

What's Really Going on Here?

Bush is kidnapping, secretely detaining, (otherwise know as "dissappearing"), and finally torturing these unfortunate victims. Despite the focus on waterboarding as torture, these people are put through many degress of torture before they are drowned.

It appears only the victims able to resist cold, torture-tying, punching, slapping, and other physical abuses, are finally drowned.

The press, the congress, and bush have all argued if waterboarding is torture. Not only is waterboarding clearly a severe form of torture, but all of the technics used prior to waterboarding are also torture.

There goes "no cruel and unusual punishments."

All of these acts from kidnapping to torture, are carried out on the basis of unverified suspicion alone, and none of these victims have ever been found guilty of anything. Pity the innocents caught in this secret web of american criminality.

Innocent until proven guilty? Not under this government, as run by the corporate parties that have stolen our government.

After bush has committed the crimes of kidnapping, illegally detaining, and torturing these people, bush then has constructed a series of secret prisons and alliances with dictatorial states, to permenantly hide his criminal victims beyond the rule of law.

For a select few, they will be run through kangaroo courts that bush constructed out of whole cloth based on his "unitairy authority," where their pre-determined guilt will be confirmed without the encumberences of the rule of law or justice to get in the way.

So much for "American Justice."

Top of Page

Also See:

Bush Could Bypass new Torture Ban, Globe, 1-4-06

Secret Torture continued after 2004 denials, NY Times, October 4, 2007

Bush signs new CIA Torture authorization, LAT, July 21, 2007

Torture Links

Search the Corruption Database under

Torture

 

Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words, unless you write really well! Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

 

Home

All Archives

Top of Page

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

Coming in From the Cold: CIA Spy Calls Waterboarding Necessary But Torture
Former Agent Says the Enhanced Technique Was Used on Al Qaeda Chief Abu Zubaydah

ABC News, 12-10-07

R Esposito and B Ross

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=3978231&page=1

A leader of the CIA team that captured the first major al Qaeda figure, Abu Zubaydah, says subjecting him to waterboarding was torture but necessary.

In the first public comment by any CIA officer involved in handling high-value al Qaeda targets, John Kiriakou, now retired, said the technique broke Zubaydah in less than 35 seconds.

Kiriakou said the feeling in the months after the 9/11 attacks was that interrogators did not have the time to delve into the agency's bag of other interrogation tricks.

"Those tricks of the trade require a great deal of time -- much of the time -- and we didn't have that luxury. We were afraid that there was another major attack coming," he said.

Now retired, Kiriakou, who declined to use the enhanced interrogation techniques, says he has come to believe that water boarding is torture but that perhaps the circumstances warranted it.

"What happens if we don't waterboard a person, and we don't get that nugget of information, and there's an attack," Kiriakou said. "I would have trouble forgiving myself."

The former intelligence officer says the interrogators' activities were carefully directed from Langley, Va., each step of the way.

"It wasn't up to individual interrogators to decide, 'Well, I'm gonna slap him.' Or, 'I'm going to shake him.' Or, 'I'm gonna make him stay up for 48 hours.'

"Each one of these steps, even though they're minor steps, like the intention shake, or the open-handed belly slap, each one of these had to have the approval of the deputy director for operations," Kiriakou told ABC News.

(And langley insisted on white house approval for each act of torture-committee)

"At the time, I felt that waterboarding was something that we needed to do. And as time has passed, and as September 11th has, you know, has moved farther and farther back into history, I think I've changed my mind," he told ABC News.

In a statement, the CIA reiterated its long standing position that "the United States does not conduct or condone torture. The CIA's terrorist interrogation effort has always been small, carefully run, lawful and highly productive."

Top of Page

What's Really Going on Here?

ABC Propaganda defends Torture

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., December, 2007

(edited for clarity, (but not much!) when 170_1 came out)

This is an example of the corporate media, in this case ABC, acting as a direct mouthpiece for the administration without the burden of closely examining the Administration spokesman's claims, nor testing his statements against international law or human rights experts.

What we are left with is a set of self-serving justifications for the extreme form of torture known as waterboarding without even exploring the many steps of criminality and torture that preceeds waterboarding. Shaking, belly-slapping, sleep depravation, dogs, washed down with cold water, sexual humilation, loud noises and bright lights, hog-tying and, finally, if you are really stubborn or we are really impatient, waterboarding.

ABC failed to objectively define waterboarding as torture, instead taking the word of Kiriakou, who explained how professional, calculated, and in control of torture technics the CIA and the Administration were.

Condemnations of torture from the torturers themselves is a press trick, and does not qualify as accurate reporting.

ABC's report rehashed the justifications for the series of already known justifiations for the torture crimes committed by the bush (and clinton) administration, with the neat twist of having one of the torturers tell us about it. Wow, an inside story. What a scoop.

Rather than presenting a breath-taking story that revealed the shocking secret crimes against american law, international law and crimes against humanity committed by our government, ABC's report does nothing but repacakage and spruce up the administration's weak justifications for seizing unlimited power in terms that justity their crimes.

But this time, ABC gives it to us out of the mouth of a war criminal, and an abettor of torture.

As you should be aware, if you participate in a group crime or any kind of gang activity, it is conspiracy, and if another member of your criminal gang hurts anyone else, you are as guilty of hurting that person as if you did it yourself.

This means that we are responsible for the domestic and foreign crimes of our government, no matter how we felt or acted when our government committed them.

 

That makes us all guilty.

 

Top of Page

Also See:

 

white house directly participated in torture described by John Kiriakou (above), abc, 12-10-07

The other bookend: when Kiriakou called Langley to approve torture, the national security council (the white house) picked up the phone, and approved of real-time tortures, ABC, 4-9-08

 

Apparently, George bush is king and pope wrapped into one

 

Torture Links

 

Search the Corruption Database under

Torture

 

Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words, unless you write really well! Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

 

Home

All Archives

Top of Page

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

Researchers say summer sea ice could soon vanish

'The Arctic is screaming,' says Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center.

From the Associated Press

December 12, 2007

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-arctic12dec12,1,1095974.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

WASHINGTON -- The steady melting of Arctic ice greatly accelerated this summer, a warning sign that some scientists worry could mean global warming has passed a tipping point. One even speculated that summer sea ice would be gone in five years.

Greenland's ice sheet melted nearly 19 billion tons more than the previous high mark, and the volume of Arctic sea ice at summer's end was half what it had been four years earlier, according to new NASA satellite data obtained by the Associated Press.

"The Arctic is screaming," said Mark Serreze, senior scientist at the federal government's National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colo.

Last year, two top scientists surprised their colleagues by projecting that the Arctic sea ice was melting so rapidly that it could disappear entirely by the summer of 2040.

This week, after reviewing his own new data, NASA climate scientist H. Jay Zwally said: "At this rate, the Arctic Ocean could be nearly ice-free at the end of summer by 2012, much faster than previous predictions.

"The Arctic is often cited as the canary in the coal mine for climate warming," said Zwally, who as a teenager hauled coal. "Now as a sign of climate warming, the canary has died. It is time to start getting out of the coal mines."

Top of Page

What's Really Going on Here?

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., December 14, 2007

The changes in the seasons have already occured. Our Climatologists, press, politicians, and people have been too blind, bought, corrupt, greedy and stupid to respond.

Our time to consider and act is over. Now, the already disasterous change in the character of the seasons


Previous essay:

Climate Change has already happened Glad the Scientists Took their Heads out of their Asses, opened the Window, and Looked outside

Al, 4-6-07

Those of you who know me, and have talked to me for the last decade, are not surprised.

Six years ago I predicted the rate of global climate change would break all the climatologists' models, regaling scientists to the role of merely reporting. rather than predicting, climate change.

This prediction has proven itself.

Hear that chainsaw in the distance? That's the sound of nature coming to return all the favors we have bestowed on it.

Climate Already Changed, People and Scientists Too Stupid to SEE IT

(first printed in 47-10)

For about 10 years I have been telling my buddies that the heat of summer was not retreating southward during winter. This has been increasing each year, diminishing the polar chilling, changing the timing of the onset and end of the seasons. Most important in my view is the radical changes in the direction of the winter winds.

Winter Winds in the Bay Area have traditionally come from the NW. For the past 8 years the Winter winds have been shifting, coming from the West and the South West. These winds are dry in mid-winter, and keep the wet Northern Storms at bay. Then, in Spring, these Southern Winds have brought tropical-style downpours, barely offsetting our drying Winters.

This year the freakish Southern Spring storms did not come and bail us out.

Every Winter has become drier and warmer for the past 10 years. Fall now regularly extends into December, and spring try's to start in February. For the majority of you who are from someplace else, and don't have a clue as to what was normal for the Bay Area, this is very abnormal weather.

Watching the Sierra Bears in November and December is sad. Instead of enjoying a cold sleep, they are hungrily patrolling dead, dry meadows that have no berries, grubs, or food to sustain them until the uncertain advent of Winter snows and hibernation.

Watching the lowland trees this winter was disturbing: deciduous trees were dropping leaves all winter long. There was no "fall" to speak of, as in a temperature fall triggering a massive leave drop.

I suspect that the increasing incidents of mountain lion attacks reflects the lions response to decreasing late-fall food supplies. In any case, these seasonal changes have had a cascading effect in ecosystems. Budding times in Spring are off, affecting birth and survival rates of all interrelated species. Increasing Summer temperature are killing off high altitude plants. Lack of Winter snowfall is drying out the land early in the Spring, affecting budding timing and density. And the cycles of life continue to decline in the thrall of our ignorance.

Expect large declines in crop productions, if not outright crop failures, across the United States, and the world this year.

The Climatologists will catch up with the changes, but it will be too late to preserve our predictable seasons. We do not need science to tell us we have severely damaged our climate, we needed wisdom to fundamentally change our values and the direction our country is going.

Wisdom would have prevented us from blinding ourselves to the early warnings of nature, and the subsequent warnings of science. Wisdom would have prevented us from overburdening our land with people, our water with dams, and our skies with endlessly expanding pollution. The oceans contain a thin shadow of the life they held in 1600. And we desperately need wisdom now that our science cannot keep up with reporting on the damage our industrial-strength ignorance is perpetuating.

We seem to have traded, or maybe sold, our wisdom for luxury, prestige, greed and power.

It was a bad trade. The latter commodities are short-lived, unless balanced with wisdom. But Wisdom cannot be comodified and put on the market, so it has little contemporary value, and was let go of cheaply.

I have a wise plan: Let's double California's population by 2050. Let's give everybody in the state a driver's licence and a car or two. lets put another 30 million cars on our State's streets. Let's double our water and electricity consumption. That should fix things right up. I'm glad we have such wise leaders, who represent our best interests so well.

Top of Page

Also See:

Arctic Sea Ice Melting Faster, a Study Finds, NY Times, May 1, 2007

Earth Faces a Grim Future: UN Report, LAT, 4-6-07

Top Scientists Warn of Water Shortages and Disease Linked to Global Warming, AP, 3-12-07

Environment Links

 

Search the Corruption Database under

Environment (71 Abstracts)

Water


Submit Comments Here

Please limit comments to 400 words, unless you write really well! Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number on the page. Example: (82_1.)

Home

All Archives

Top of Page

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

Study finds White House manipulation on climate science
The White House has misled the public on climate science, a congressional report says.
By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1212/p03s03-uspo.html

At least since 2003, and especially after hurricane Katrina hit, the White House has broadly attempted to control which climate scientists could speak with reporters, as well as editing scientists' congressional testimony on climate science and key legal opinions, according to a new report by a House committee.

"The Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policy makers and the public about the dangers of global warming," said the report, which is the result of a 16-month probe by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "The White House exerted unusual control over the public statements of federal scientists on climate change issues."

To some observers, the House investigation, which drew on 27,000 documents gathered from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and the US Department of Commerce, is notable as the most comprehensive assessment so far of alleged manipulation of climate science by this White House. It includes previously unknown elements – such as a 2003 incident in which it says top presidential environment adviser James Connaughton personally helped edit the Environmental Protection Agency's draft legal opinion that denied the agency had authority to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions. (That EPA position was reversed by the US Supreme Court in a ruling this spring.)

Yet much of the material in the House committee report, which was released Monday, corroborates press accounts and congressional testimony that has dribbled out over the past few years.

The report also concluded that the White House:

•Was "particularly active in stifling [scientists'] discussions of the link between increased hurricane intensity and global warming."

•Sought "to minimize the significance and certainty of climate change by extensively editing government climate change reports."

•Edited "EPA legal opinions as well as newspaper opinion articles on climate change."

"We think this report is a thinly veiled attempt to distract attention from the administration's efforts to advance its commitment to the pursuit of sound environment, energy, and economic policy at the Bali summit," says Emily Lawrimore, a White House spokeswoman.

Mr. Piltz sees it differently. He served under the Bush administration until spring 2005, when he resigned and exposed White House editing of the national climate assessment. As a senior staffer with the US Climate Change Science Program, he also served under President Clinton and saw marked contrasts between the two. "It's true that every administration has its own policy, and there's always a tendency to shade your communications," Piltz says. "But the difference here is that the White House science office under previous administrations was not at war with the mainstream science community."

The report adds other details. For example, while changes to the testimony of Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, were widely reported, it was less known that other comments to Congress by Thomas Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Center, were also heavily edited, the report says.

Dr. Karl, it says, "was not allowed to comment in his written testimony that 'modern climate change is dominated by human influences,' that 'we are venturing into the unknown territory with changes in climate,' or that 'it is very likely (>95 percent probability) that humans are largely responsible for many of the observed changes in climate.' "

Instead of saying that global warming "is playing" a role in increased hurricane intensity, his comment became "may play" a role.

 

Top of Page

What's Really Going on Here?

Bush Suppressing Science and Truth:

climate scientists censored, science suppressed

Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., December, 2007

The Bribery that funds our Politicians and Parties has made every branch of government a tool of the Special Interests.

The politicization of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the FBI are only the tip of an iceberg of effluent. Below the surface, every branch of government has been put into the hands of lobbyists, or industry itself.

If we want to get good information on intelligence, war, crime, the climate, highway safety, drug safety, education, or on any topic, then we must stop the BRIBERY.

Until we break the root of the corruption, Special Interest Bribery, the government cannot be depended on to do its job.

Top of Page

Also See:

WHITE HOUSE UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR CENSORING SCIENCE: INSPECTORS FOR NASA AND COMMERECE DEPT, AP, 11-1-06

Bush Suppressing Science and Truth: climate scientists censored, science suppressed, CNN, 1-30-07

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

Scientist accuses White House of 'Nazi' tactics, LAT, 3-19-07

Corruption Updates 41, 3rd article on the page, "REPUBLICANS DEMAND SCIENCE SAYS WHAT THEY WANT IT TO SAY"

Climate Change Testimony Was Edited by White House: Politicians keep Suppressing Climate Science, buying Scientists, LAT, October 25, 2007

Study finds White House manipulation on climate science, CSM, 12-12-07

 

Search the Corruption Database under

censoring science (6 abstracts)

Environment

 

 

Submit Your Comments Here

Please limit comments or essay to 400 words, unless you write really well! Remember to include the Corruption Updates page number, and the article number that you are referring to. Example: (82_1.)

Home

All Archives

 

Top of Page

 

Previous page: Page 136                 Next page: Page 138

Contact Us: Committeefordemocracy.org



Home

All Archives

Top of Page


Today's Headlines

1) Billery the Porker

2) Putin's method of maintaining power: The Puppet

3) Medvedev backs Putin to become PM

4) Russia begins arms treaty freeze

5) Bank crisis to deepen

6) Senate: Rocky on the Job against Torture Tape destruction

7) ABC Promotes Torture

8) Radical Artic heating accelerating

9) White House Manipulation of Climate Science Proven