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Posted August 12, 2007: Draft News Stories from August 8 to 12 |
CORRUPTION UPDATES 101
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Abuses Belie China Pledge on Rights, Critics Say
By JIM YARDLEY
NY Times, August 8, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/08/world/asia/08china.html?pagewanted=print
BEIJING, Aug. 7 — Human rights groups on Tuesday accused China of failing to improve its record on civil liberties, and of harassing lawyers, dissidents and journalists, despite official promises to make human rights a centerpiece of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
The criticism came from groups like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, and journalism advocacy organizations, and foreshadowed how China’s human rights record is likely to come under growing scrutiny as the Olympics approach.
“Unless the Chinese authorities take urgent measures to stop human rights violations over the coming year, they risk tarnishing the image of China and the legacy of the Beijing Olympics,” said Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International.
Amnesty International said several political advocates in Beijing were under threat of close surveillance or house arrest. At the same time, authorities are persecuting Chinese journalists, the group said. And the police are sweeping up vagrants and other Beijing residents under a controversial policy that allows officers to detain people for up to four years without trial, it said.
Last week, Human Rights Watch released a broad critique of China’s record on civil liberties, accusing authorities of clamping down more tightly on dissent and blaming Olympic preparations for exacerbating longstanding problems like evictions and abuses of labor rights.
On Tuesday, the Committee to Protect Journalists called for the release of 29 domestic reporters imprisoned in China, as well as greater press freedom for foreign and Chinese journalists.
Under a regulation enacted Jan. 1, accredited foreign journalists may travel freely throughout China and conduct interviews without official permission. But a recent survey of Beijing-based foreign correspondents found that harassment and numerous obstacles still existed.
On Tuesday, advocates were arrested after they unfurled a banner on the Great Wall of China that read: “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008.”
China Police State Prospers with Western Trade, Technology
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., August , 2007
Written for 92_4 on June 22, 2007:
It sounds like China has its own Alberto Gonzales in Charge of their Justice Department. The Chinese Commie Alberto says something like this: The Party is Never Wrong. Here, our Alberto says The President is Above The Law.
In China, they have brick kilns where people disappear. Bush has Gitmo, and its secret sisters.
In China, they have lax prosecutions of party officials. Bush has Alberto and the Captive US Attorneys. And if that fails, Clemency.
In China, they monitor the internet. Bush has the NSA.
In China, they abuse migrants. Bush has Crimigrants.
In China, everything is a state secret. Everything Bush does is a secret.
In China, the state owns the media. A few corporations own the media here.
China actually has one small advantage: they rule by group decision, while Bush rules by his word alone.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 41, 9th article on the Page, "China jails editor for subversion"
Corruption Updates 59, 7th article on page, "Chinese Police Arrest 28 in Riots Against Family Planning Laws"
Search the Corruption Database under
China
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In China, a High-Tech Plan to Track People
NY Times, August 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/business/worldbusiness/12security.html?ref=todayspaper&page
SHENZHEN, China, Aug. 9 — At least 20,000 police surveillance cameras are being installed along streets here in southern China and will soon be guided by sophisticated computer software from an American-financed company to recognize automatically the faces of police suspects and detect unusual activity.
Starting this month in a port neighborhood and then spreading across Shenzhen, a city of 12.4 million people, residency cards fitted with powerful computer chips programmed by the same company will be issued to most citizens.
Data on the chip will include not just the citizen’s name and address but also work history, educational background, religion, ethnicity, police record, medical insurance status and landlord’s phone number. Even personal reproductive history will be included, for enforcement of China’s controversial “one child” policy. Plans are being studied to add credit histories, subway travel payments and small purchases charged to the card.
Security experts describe China’s plans as the world’s largest effort to meld cutting-edge computer technology with police work to track the activities of a population...
"If they do not get the permanent card, they cannot live here, they cannot get government benefits, and that is a way for the government to control the population in the future," said Michael Lin, the vice president for investor relations at China Public Security Technology, the company providing the technology. Incorporated in Florida, China Public Security has raised much of the money to develop its technology from two investment funds in Plano, Tex., Pinnacle Fund and Pinnacle China Fund. Three investment banks--Roth Capital Partners in Newport Beach, Calif.; Oppenheimer & Company in New York; and First Asia Finance Group of Hong Kong--helped raise the money.
China Catches up with West: It's 1984 in China
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., August 12, 2007
The NY Times dropped the ball on this one. Their report makes it sound like American technology and funding are naturally and normally used to enhance the power of a commie police state to dominate its people as a normal event.
Equipping China with police state technology is not acceptable. This sale is repugnant to American Values.
Well, it's not repugnant to the paper that ran us into a criminal war. The Times is the same paper that has soft-sold the Bush Police State apparatus to the public, and constantly presents our Corporate Congress and Government as some type of legitimate democratic institution.
The Times has no respect for our Constitution, and therefore is incapable of recognizing, or measuring the depth of corruption we swim in, nor is it able to locate the source or the solution to our political corruption.
And in the meantime, the Times reports our sales of police state tools to tyrannies around the world as if it is normal.
This is repugnant to the values of a democratic republic, but is acceptable to our corporate government and its lapdog corporate press.
Our Chinese "Friends" are Autocratic Dictators who we are Empowering With Trillions of Dollars of Irresponsible Manufacturing and Trade Profits
Alex, May 24, 2007, CU 59_7
The Chinese are using the profits from our trade to build missiles, fleets, and armies. The Chinese are expanding their global reach, using the profits from our trade to finance development in Venezuela and Sudan.
And the Chinese are also using these profits to build a high-tech domestic police state.
Funding, equipping, generally empowering China's Evil Government is not a problem to the leaders of either party. Why?
Because profits are more important to our globalized corporate politicians than the welfare of our country. While the China trade has empowered China, and swelled the profits of our corporations, it has impoverished our middle class, and made America dependent on offshore sources for our most basic needs.
The China Trade, in combination with illegal immigration, has impoverished Workers Here, pushing all the money, and political power, to the American Corporate Aristocracy.
Couldn't have done it without the cooperation of the Chinese.
A similar phenomena has occurred in China. A big chunk of the Chinese Peasantry has moved to the big city, and is being screwed over worse than any illegal in Los Angeles. Moving American manufactures to China has concentrated a massive amount of Wealth into the hands of a very small group, giving birth to a nascent Chinese corporate aristocracy.
Our Corporate Aristocracy has no problem financing and arming dictators around the world. Providing the tools for authoritarian governments to impose police state powers on people around the world seems to offend none in our corporate press or our corporate government.
Until we stop the corporations from buying our elections and politicians, our Corporate Aristocracy and its government will continue to have more in common with the Chinese "Commie" leadership, and other petty dictators around the world, than with our own people. Well, what's left of them.
I am amazed that our capitalists are not freaked out by the Chinese government's power to seize anything they want. I'm doubly surprised that they are funding a serious threat to their own domination of the world's resources. An even greater problem is that China has no reliable rule of law to define or defend corporate property.
On the other hand, China does have one thing our corporations seem to be angling for here: a centralization of political and economic power in the hands of a small elite that controls the political, economic, and religious affairs of the whole country.
It is obvious that China's tyrannical government does not offend either our government or press's definitions of freedom or human rights. This is amazing considering their range of civil and human rights abuses.
I am really amazed that China's forced abortion policy has not attracted more attention from our President and his evangelical allies. I'm surprised that China's forced abortions are not a hot topic among the presidential candidates, considering what a political weapon abortion has been inside our country.
It seems the Dems and Repugs will both tolerate forced abortions for the profits of the China trade. The Dems tolerate the human rights abuse, while the Repugnants prove themselves hypocrites before both god and man.
To all you Christians dealing with China: China Forces Women to have Abortions. Get your mind around that one, then keep cheering for, and participating in, the China Trade.
This is a rare moment when Human Rights and the Christian Right could actually fit together: they could both demand that China back away from imposing abortions, among other abominations, on its people.
But apparently our Christian President, and all the zealots who want to deny Abortions to women who want one here, have no problem making money in a country that imposes Abortions on unwilling women.
Maybe the Christians and Chinese would agree that the power to compel people is more important than what you compel them to do. Or not to do.
To all you hippies, who see globalism as a way to hold hands with the world: China took Tibet, raped it, and calls it "China," and is flooding it with Chinese nationals. Yeah, let's all hold hands...
To the environmentalists: China is finishing off the destruction of the Climate that the United States started.
In brief, China is one of the most unfree, greedy, and dirty countries on the face of the planet. And our relationship with Chins is accelerating and empowering all of these characteristics.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 36, 6th article on the Page, "China about to pass U.S. as world's top generator of greenhouse gases"
Corruption Updates 41, 9th article on the Page, "China jails editor for subversion"
Corruption Updates 59, 7th article on page, "Chinese Police Arrest 28 in Riots Against Family Planning Laws"
Corruption Updates 101, 2nd article on the Page, In China, a High-Tech Plan to Track People
Corruption Updates 105, 10th article on the Page, US Provides Police State Technology to Mexican Police State
Corruption Updates 113, 9th article on the Page, An Opportunity for Wall St. in China’s Surveillance Boom
Search the Corruption Database under
China (51 Abstracts)
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Central Banks Intervene to Calm Volatile Markets
By VIKAS BAJAJ
NY Times, August 11, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/business/worldbusiness/11markets.html?fta=y&pagewanted=print
Central banks around the world acted in unison yesterday to calm nervous financial markets by providing an infusion of cash to the system. But stocks still fell sharply in Asia and Europe, and in early trading in New York, before they recovered and closed essentially flat for the day on Wall Street.
Hoping to provide some comfort that there is ample cash available, the Federal Reserve made its largest intervention since the markets reopened Sept. 19, 2001, in the wake of the terrorist attacks. The central bank injected $38 billion into the financial system on top of the $24 billion it put in on Thursday.
The intervention steadied the markets — at least for the day.
Investor anxiety has been so heightened in recent weeks that days of stability have been shattered by the first sign of trouble tied to the debt markets.
“You can’t invest into a market that does that,” Mr. Bove said. “You have a better chance at making money on the craps table than in this market.”
Earlier, stocks in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia dropped by more than 2.5 percent. The benchmark Kospi in South Korea fell 4.3 percent, the biggest decline since June 2004. Most major European indexes plunged by 3 percent or more.
In both Asia and Europe, fears about the American housing market prompted investors to sell assets and forced commercial banks to reel in credit lines.
The Bank of Japan added liquidity for the first time since the market problems began.
The European Central Bank injected money into the system for a second day, adding another 61 billion euros ($84 billion), after providing 95 billion euros the day before. The Federal Reserve yesterday added $19 billion to the system through the purchase of mortgage-backed securities, then another $19 billion in three-day repurchase agreements.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Irresponsible Politicians allowed Markets to Eat the Middle Class
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., August 12, 2007
Krauts taking a Beating in Morgage Securities Market: Where will it end?
(First published on June 25, 2007, for CU 83_8)
The problem is not just unregulated markets, it's why they're unregulated.
The problem is that we are allowing markets to lead, rather than follow, the will of the people. This boils down to democracy Vs. Profits. Supply-Side economics says if you give the rich all the money, they will rain down a golden shower upon all us lesser folk.
That, my friends, is a political policy decision that must be made by the people, not the representatives of the Corporations who now sit in Congress.
In pursuit of the goal of profits, taxes have been lifted from our corporations, and the personal income of our super-rich has been made tax-exempt.
I believe a democratically elected Congress would tax the rich, instead of serving them like Mexicans serve the Boss.
Allowing our corporate elite to control politics, policy, and law, besides the economy, has now concentrated the greatest amount of American wealth into the smallest number of hands ever.
Now we are going to have hell to pay for giving the greedy control of politics and business. They set up a pyramid scheme that has reached the final extent of its expansion. Expect a strong, and sustained downturn in the markets and the economy.
Instead of using law to concentrate wealth in the hands of the rich, god bless them, we should have required the rich to earn their wealth, and form concentrations of capital by drawing citizen spending to their endeavor.
The hedge funds represent just the opposite. Rather than earning wealth responsibly, and being restrained by drawing funds from the middle class, the hedge funds appeared, and grew larger as taxation and regulation on wealth receded, and our social institutions collapsed.
Once you allow Supply side economics to run out its first stage, concentrating wealth at the top of society, the second stage begins. Vast pools of concentrated capital are guided to create, and profit from, the market effects of their own movements.
It was Clinton who ushered in this latest era of irresponsible speculation in 1992, when he betrayed American labor with NAFTA, and allowed multi-national corporations to abandon all responsibilities to the countries they do business in.
In the case of Amaranth, they fell into a hole of their own creation, similar to the Silver hole the Hunts created, and fell into, during the early '80s.
You must understand that when a big market player makes a monopolistic move on a position, be it a stock or commodity, at a certain point their purchases create a shortage of that position in the market, driving up the price.
In theory, in a "perfect" market, the price drop when they unload the position will equal out with the price rise when they bought in. But we do not live in a perfect world, and perfect markets do not exist.
The big moves of the Big Market Players creates not just a shortage of the position, but has the potential to create a psychological momentum in the market that drives up the price enough to cover the dumping, the offloading of a big chunk of the original speculator's position, at a vast profit, before the price tanks completely.
Amaranth, like the Hunts, failed to pull the trigger at the proper moment, and got caught in their own trap.
To avoid this type of financial bullshit, we must revert to citizen-side economics, maintaining the majority of the wealth of this country in the middle and lower classes. Rather than just giving the rich all the money, tax free, we should loan it to them on responsible terms.
Concentrations of wealth and capital must emanate from, and be responsible to, the middle class for the highest degree of economic security and stability.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 81, 8th article on the page, "Bear Stearns Staves Off Collapse of 2 Hedge Funds: Billions in Worthless Loans Ready to Hit Market"
Corruption Updates 83, 8th article on the page, "Report on Amaranth Collapse Is to Be Made Public"
Corruption Updates 84, 6th article on the page, "Hedge Fund:$3.2 Billion Move by Bear Stearns to Rescue Fund"
Corruption Updates 93, 1st article on the page, "Bear Stearns Says Battered Hedge Funds Are Worth Little"
Our battered State:
Corruption Updates 41, 1st article on the page, "Study: Schools need billions"
Corruption Updates 34, 3rd article on the page, "State prisons in 'tailspin,' panel says"
Broader National Problems:
Corruption Updates 36, 7th article on the page, "More in U.S. plunge deeper into poverty"
Corruption Updates 45, 8th article on the page, "Income Gap Is Widening, Data Shows"
Huffington Press, "Auto Sales Plummet"
Corruption Updates 61, 8th article on the page, "Home Sales Climb, but Prices Plummet"
Search the Corruption Database under
Economics (23 Abstracts)
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Fed Injects Reserves Into System
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NYT, Friday, August 10, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/business/apee-fed.html?pagewanted=print
WASHINGTON, Aug. 10 (AP) — The Federal Reserve, trying to calm turmoil on Wall Street, announced today that it will pump as much money as needed into the financial system to help overcome the ill effects of a spreading credit crunch.
The Fed, in a short statement, said it will provide “reserves as necessary” to help the markets safely make their way. The central bank did not provide details but said it would do all it can to “facilitate the orderly functioning of financial markets.”
The Fed pushed $35 billion in temporary reserves into the system this morning, on top of a similar move the day before.
Financial markets in the United States and around the globe have been shaken by fears about spreading credit problems that started with home mortgages for those with tarnished credit histories. Investors are worried that these problems will infect the larger financial system and possibly hurt the American economy.
The Fed’s action comes one day after a financial panic about a credit crunch swept through Europe. That prompted the Europeans to pump $130 billion into their financial system. The Fed moved Thursday to add an extra $24 billion in temporary reserves to the American banking system. But that wasn’t enough to comfort Wall Street, which suffered its second-worst decline of the year that day.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which carries out the central bank’s market operation, moved to add $19 billion in temporary reserves this morning. A couple of hours later, it added another $16 billion in reserves.
The current meltdown in the housing and mortgage markets has caused new home foreclosures to climb to record highs and has forced some lenders out of business.
Fed Subsidizes Irresponsible Growth
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., August 12, 2007
Also See:
References and Commentary, Article 3, Above.
5) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited. After the abstract there's analysis and commentary, links to related articles, and a link to the database with suggested search terms.
Mortgage Losses Echo in Europe and on Wall Street
By VIKAS BAJAJ and MARK LANDLER
NY Times, August 10, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/10/business/10markets.html?
Turmoil in the home loan market ricocheted from the United States to Europe and back again yesterday as stocks on Wall Street suffered their biggest one-day decline since February, reflecting growing concerns about tightening credit worldwide.
Big losses on packages of American home loan securities sold to investors turned up unexpectedly in French and Dutch banks yesterday, adding to worries at hedge funds and financial institutions around the globe. With trillions of dollars of securities outstanding, those announcements raised expectations that more problems may soon emerge in other unlikely places as well.
The spreading fears forced the European Central Bank and, later, the Federal Reserve to inject billions of dollars into the financial system to help prevent borrowing and lending in credit markets from freezing up.
Japan’s central bank followed suit, injecting more than $8 billion into money markets as stocks there plummeted Friday morning. Indexes fell more than 2 percent across Asia in early trading Friday, and the Morgan Stanley Capital International Asia Pacific index, a key regional index, was down 2.9 percent by midmorning in Tokyo.
In a statement that could further fuel the selloff, Countrywide Financial, the nation’s largest mortgage lender, said after the United States market closed that the debt markets were “experiencing unprecedented disruptions” that could hurt its profits and financial health.
Yesterday’s sell-off started in France, after BNP Paribas, the largest publicly traded bank there, suspended investors’ ability to remove money from three funds that had invested in American mortgage securities. The bank said it had become temporarily unable to place a value on the funds...
“Trust was shaken today,” said Thomas Mayer, the chief European economist at Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt. “Credit depends on trust. If trust disappears, then credit disappears, and you have a systemic issue.”
BNP became the latest European lender to announce problems linked to American home loans. Late last month, a group of German government-backed banks agreed to bail out a bank based in Düsseldorf, IKB Deutsche Industriebank, that invested in riskier American mortgage securities. And yesterday, in the Netherlands, NIBC Holdings reported that it lost at least $188 million on investments in the American mortgage market for subprime loans. Problems have also cropped up at hedge funds and banks in Australia.
Citing “tensions in the euro money market,” the European Central Bank in Frankfurt lent more than $130 billion overnight at a rate of 4 percent to tamp down a surge in the rates banks charge each other for very short-term loans.
...the European bank’s extraordinary response — its first since Sept. 12, 2001, the day after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington — deepened investors’ anxiety.
Democrats argued that the administration should raise limits on the investment activities of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the big purchasers of mortgages created by the federal government.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Bush rebuffed the idea of letting Fannie and Freddie sidestep agreements both companies signed with their regulator to limit their portfolios while they address accounting problems.
The problems that are plaguing the mortgage market appear to be loosely connected to Fannie and Freddie, however. Most of the loans that are starting to go bad were made by lenders that emerged in the last 10 years with the help of financing from Wall Street.
Banks and brokerage firms provided the money to both mortgage companies that made home loans and the hedge funds and other investors that bought securities backed by mortgages. Now as defaults on those loans are rising, trading in the securities that are underpinned by them has seized up.
Hedge fund managers are being told by their lenders to pony up more money or collateral to back up their falling investments. And some rich individuals, pension funds and endowments that invested in hedge funds are clamoring to redeem their shares in the funds.
“It’s like popcorn in a kettle,” said James Melcher, president of Balestra Capital, a hedge fund in New York. “First you have one or two pops, then it turns into a cacophony. I think we are about halfway through.”
Many experts say the nation’s mortgage problems are likely to worsen in the coming months as hundreds of billions in adjustable-rate loans reset to higher rates in the next 12 to 18 months. At the end of March, nearly one in five subprime home loans were either past due or in foreclosure.Irresponsible Politicians and Corporations have stolen all the money: Global Pyramid Crashing Down
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., August 12, 2007
Also See:
References and Commentary, Article 3, Above.
Speak your Mind here! Send your Comments about the Topic Above for Posting!
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How the Fight for Vast New Spying Powers Was Won
By Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, August 12, 2007; A01
For three days, Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, had haggled with congressional leaders over amendments to a federal surveillance law...
McConnell viscerally objected to a Democratic proposal to limit warrantless surveillance of foreigners' communications with Americans to instances in which one party was a terrorism suspect.
"All foreign intelligence" targets in touch with Americans on any topic of interest should be fair game for U.S. spying, he said, according to two participants in the Aug. 2 conversation.
McConnell won the fight, extracting a key concession despite the misgivings of Democratic negotiators. Shortly after that exchange, the Bush administration leveraged Democratic acquiescence into a broader victory: congressional approval of a Republican bill that would expand surveillance powers far beyond what Democratic leaders had initially been willing to accept.
Yet both sides acknowledge that the administration's resurrection of virtually unchecked Cold War-era power to surveil foreign targets without warrants may be only temporary. The law expires in 180 days, and Democrats, smarting from their political defeat, have promised to alter it with new legislation to be prepared next month, when Congress returns from its recess.the new law will enable the high-tech collection of foreign communications without judicial scrutiny on a vastly larger scale than previously possible, allowing billions of phone calls and e-mails inside as well as outside the United States to be routinely screened for possible links to terrorism and other security threats.
"We had a forcing function," a senior administration official said, referring to the intelligence community's public report last month that said al-Qaeda poses a growing threat to the United States and to lawmakers' desire to leave town in August. "The situation was key to making it work," the official said, adding that the report's conclusions were "fortuitous" rather than engineered.
What McConnell wanted most from Congress was to be able to intercept, without a warrant, purely foreign-to-foreign communications that pass through fiber-optic cables and switching stations on U.S. soil.
...the National Security Agency...worked hard to monitor the (fiber optic) traffic with U.S.-based taps and concluded it was doing so legally.
But in a secret ruling in March, a judge on a special court empowered to review the government's electronic snooping challenged for the first time the government's ability to collect data from such wires even when they came from foreign terrorist targets. In May, a judge on the same court went further, telling the administration flatly that the law's wording required the government to get a warrant whenever a fixed wire is involved.
The rulings -- which were not disclosed publicly until the congressional debate this month -- represented an unusual rift between the court and the U.S. intelligence community. They led top intelligence officials to conclude, a senior official said, that "you can't tell what this court is going to do" and helped provoke the White House to insist that Congress essentially strip the court of any jurisdiction over U.S. surveillance of communications between foreigners.
...a bill sent to Capitol Hill on April 27;...had been in the works since a public controversy erupted in late 2005 over the administration's "Terrorist Surveillance Program" involving warrantless surveillance of communications between Americans and terrorism suspects overseas.
The administration's 66-page measure was put together by an interagency group of lawyers headed by Benjamin A. Powell, the general counsel for the director of national intelligence (DNI).
Powell, who had once worked in electronic surveillance programs for the FBI and the Air Force, ...(helped) shape the administration's intelligence policy as a White House associate counsel and special adviser to the president.
. Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), the intelligence committee chairman, who had received some of the first detailed briefings on the surveillance program, called Vice President Cheney in late June to explore options.
"I want to move forward," he said. But Democratic leaders wanted something in return: the release of long-sought administration documents describing the controversial warrantless wiretapping program Bush had authorized in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The administration declined to release the documents, which include Bush's presidential order allowing the wiretaps, as well as the administration's legal opinions justifying the action. Administration officials described a particular showdown with key Democratic leaders -- including Rockefeller and Carl M. Levin (Mich.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in which Democrats proposed a trade of sorts.
While the exchange was not a quid pro quo, the senators essentially said, "You give us the documents we want, and we'll give you the legislation," according to an administration official present, who said the response was "no." McConnell argued that the Democrats were "looking backwards" and that he was the "forward-looking guy," a witness said.
But McConnell consistently sought authority for warrantless surveillance not only of terrorist suspects outside the country, but of all foreign intelligence targets.
Where the matter became sticky -- and ultimately developed into tense exchanges between the Democrats and McConnell, with each side later accusing the other of misrepresenting their conversations -- was on the question of how to deal with surveillance of communications involving citizens and foreigners inside the country.
The Democrats were reluctant to give the NSA blanket permission to capture such data without a warrant unless independent oversight was provided, either by the court or by the Justice Department's inspector general. They also worried that providing warrantless authority to spy on targets other than foreign terrorism suspects would lead to potentially abusive monitoring of Americans innocently in contact with foreign targets.
Other provisions in the White House-backed bill added to the Democrats' discomfort. For instance, a Democratic bill would have authorized warrantless surveillance "directed" at individuals reasonably believed to be outside the United States. But the administration's draft -- and the one passed into law -- permitted collecting data "concerning" people reasonably believed to be outside the country. Democrats said the difference between collection efforts "concerning" foreigners and "directed" at foreigners could be enormous, allowing intelligence officials far greater leeway.
in the end, it was the Republican bill, a near-copy of McConnell's proposal, that passed both chambers of Congress. It drew support not only from most Republicans but also from 16 Senate Democrats and 41 House Democrats.
Dems-Repug Traitors Pass Illegal Spy Bill in Defiance of Constitution
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., August 12, 2007
Warrants are our most fundamental check on Bush's claims to have Police State Powers. The issuing of warrants by an independent judiciary have traditionally keep the Police out of our lives, and police state powers out of the government's reach. The Constitution puts it like this:
“...and No warrant shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Today, the wisdom our Constitutional forefathers demonstrated by requiring warranted searches has become crystal clear as the President has overreached his office to threaten our country with a wide range of police state powers.
Our Crisis deepens as Congress and the Corporate Press assist Bush's concentration of these dangerous powers.
The Times and the rest of the corporate press have been actively assisting Congress and the President to claim and use police state powers since 2002.
The corporate press and our corporate Congress speak of finding the balance between security and rights. I speak of the rights defined in our Constitution, and will accept no less. The only true security comes with the protection of our rights.
Our parties, candidates and our elections are funded by corporate special interests. Elections funded by corporations produce politicians who represent corporations, rather than the values of their constituents.
Our political institutions have been hijacked with corporate bribery. Our Assemblymen and State Senators, like our Congressmen and federal Senators, owe their offices to the massive bribes of their corporate sponsors. As our democracy continues to decline, all of our rights are growing more insecure.
By passing this repugnant law, Congress has given its blessing to the President's illegal and unconstitutional claim to have the power to search Americans without warrants.
Congress cannot legitimately give, nor can the President legitimately use, powers that are denied to them by the Constitution. But Congress has defied the Constitution and granted the President illegal powers. Now all Americans are denied security in their homes and possessions. Our present government has proven itself incompetent to govern under the rules of our Constitution, and must be removed.
As we do not have a democracy here, and we fund, arm, and support dictators around the world, it is hard to understand what Bush is saying about spreading democracy around the world. Our allies are any governments, of any character, which will play ball with our multi-national corporations. This is typified by our main trading partners, China and Mexico.
And now the corporate elite that runs our government is squeezing out the last little bit of Fourth Amendment protections that was barely hiding our naked tyranny. Our Corporate politicians have drunk down our political, economic, and civil rights like Dracula drained blood from peasants.
The Times, besides soft-pedaling the fact that the President committed serious crimes when he began using warrantless searches, is also obscuring the fact that the NSA and FBI have been completely unleashed to spy on citizens within the US. to spy on our own citizens.
The Times seems strangely blinded to the that Bush's claims to unitary authority are a greater threat to American Freedom and the American way of life than a hundred Osamas and a thousand 9-11s. They can only threaten our material lives and possessions, while Bush is threatening the existence of our values themselves. is a an abomination, clearly unconstitutional, and an affront to every patriotic American.
But this jaded article hides the real loss of American privacy rights by blurring the distinction between "foreigner to foreigner" with "foreigner to American" communications.
The Times fails to mention that this "law" completely degrades the distinction between "foreign" and "American," communication into meaninglessness, and effectively eliminating warrants for either.
The most important obscured fact is that the NSA was completely banned from all domestic surveillance to defend citizen's rights against overbearing governmental power. Bush has claimed the powers of a dictator, and the Times is silent.
Before Bush, all domestic surveillance, either local or federal, required a warrant. No question about it. Until the FBI was made warrant-free by the "Patriot" act.
But now, under this new "law," neither the FBI nor the NSA will be required to obtain warrants for domestic searches. This is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment, and yet another example of the President's dangerous expansion of unchecked governmental power being confirmed, rather than prosecuted, by both Democrap and Repugnant Congresses.
The implications are disturbing. It is apparent that neither the Dems nor the Repugs have any clear understanding about why the Constitution specifies clear limits on police state powers.
The Dems have joined the Repugs in helping uncheck the President. Rather than fulfill their Constitutional obligation by checking the President's claims to illegal powers,Congress has instead neutered itself by approving the criminal acts of the president with a moot law: Congress has no power to suspend the Constitution with legislation.
The Democraps have undone what political history itself had evolved: the political power of the assembled people, Congress in our case, to defend their most fundamental rights against a tyrannical executive. The Democraps have at the same time united what the Constitution had torn apart: The direct hold on Police State Powers by the King.
With this illegal law, the Democraps have not just stripped the people of one of their most fundamental Constitutional rights, but they have upheld Bush's claim to be above the law. And by doing so they have stripped themselves of what little legitimacy they had left.
The Dems have confirmed the President's illegal and unprecedented claims to have and use the same domestic police powers claimed by the tyrants, kings and dictators our government arms, funds, and politically supports around the world.
The shoe we have forced onto the feet of the world is now being sized for us, by our own government. And we are too stupid, fat, and corrupted to object.
The Dems can add this illegal spying bill to their ever lengthening list of vile legislation they have passed in support of Bush's crimes. The Dems have accepted and continue to fund Bush's kidnappings, his secret prisons, and his torture chambers. Our perpetual war crime, Gitmo, remains open and fully funded by Congress.
The Dems can add this to their list of legislative precedents, along with accepting the loss of habius corpus, accepting "signing statements," and their complacency as Bush Contemptuously rejects Congress' power of oversight, and continues to defy both law and Constitution.
And the Dems are now parroting Bush's "endless war" rhetoric.
Before we can retrieve our rights, we must reclaim democratic elections, throw these bums out, and return our government to the constraints of our Constitution.
If we did that, our corporations would have little power to steal our rights and treasure, torture the world, impose dictators, steal global resources, and trigger another 9-11 against us.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 23, 9th article on the page, "TIMES SOFTPEDALS PRESIDENTIAL WAR CRIMES AND DOMESTIC CRIMES"
Corruption Updates 25, 8th article on the page, "FBI CHIEF DEFYS CONGRESSIONAL OVERSIGHT REFUSAL TO DISCLOSE ILLEGAL PROGRAM"
Corruption Updates 32, 3rd article on the page, "PRESIDENT TRIES END RUN AROUND CONSTITUTION: CLAIMS ACTIONS ARE SECRET, AND ABOVE THE LAW"
Corruption Updates 36, 5th article on the page, "White House Confirms Americans Have No Constitutional Protections"
Corruption Updates 41, 5th article on the page, "FBI Violations May Number 3,000, Official Says:HOW DO YOU SAY ILLEGAL SEARCH? “National Security Letter"
Corruption Updates 51, 9th article on the page, "Administration Seeks to Expand Surveillance Law"
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Illegal Searches (21 Abstracts)
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7) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited. After the abstract there's analysis and commentary, links to related articles, and a link to the database with suggested search terms.
ABA criticizes Bush order reviving CIA interrogation of suspects
Friday, August 10, 2007
(08-10) 14:25 PDT San Francisco (AP)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2007/08/10/state/n142523D10.DTL&type=printable
President Bush's recent order on CIA interrogations of terror suspects should be overturned because it still allows harsh treatment in violation of international treaties, two American Bar Association committees say.
ABA Clear: Bush Policy allows Torture
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., August 12, 2007
Congratulations to the ABA for taking a stand defending our Constitution and Rights against the crimes of Congress and the President.
(The below was originally written for CU 38_2 on March 7, 2007.)
THE KANGAROO COURT IS OPEN: ENTER BE Tortured and CONVICTED
BUSH WAS GUILTY WHEN HE KIDNAPPED AND TORTURED THESE PEOPLE. DISGRACE FALLS ON AMERICAN JUSTICE SYSTEM
Bush is confused. The American Constitution was not made to give rights to foreigners. The American Constitution was designed to set the terms of our government's legitimacy by limiting the power of each branch.
By dividing power between the branches, and restraining and checking the use of power by each branch, our forefathers believed they could prevent despots like Bush from rising.
These divisions protect not just American rights, but even more importantly define and protect American Values as well.
Bush is an affront to both.
The President has illegally consolidated powers the Constitution wisely divided.
One of the Constitution's most important checks on arbitrary power is the division of wartime authority between the President and Congress.
The Constitution requires that Congress declare war, sets the objectives of the war, and establishes the rules for the war.
The President then gets to lead the country within the rules established by Congress.
Congressional restraints are inherent in the grant of war powers, and do not end at our borders.
Congress has failed miserably. Congress has not declared war, set the objectives, means, nor rules for this “war.” Except for their hideous and unconstitutional revocation of habius corpus.
This President has pushed Congress aside, and made rules for captures that authorize kidnapping, indefinite detentions, and torture. These are criminal acts prohibited by long standing law.
Now the President has created a secret military “justice” system that will convict the victims of these crimes, in secret, with none of the judicial safeguards an honest process would require. Virtually all of the President's Actions, in Iraq, and the “war on terror” are crimes against our Constitution and laws.
These crimes began in Congress, when they abused their war powers by not declaring war. Congress granted the President vague “war powers,” but Congress has no power to grant the President Unconstitutional powers. The President has no right to interpret any law as absolving him of his Constitutional restraints and duty to obey the law.
Yet the The President has twisted these “war powers” into a declaration of endless war unbounded by borders, or the rule of law. The President's acts are a declaration of war against the Constitution. Congress has confirmed each of these illegal powers, when they were unable to avoid crossing Bush.
Congress joined the President in his crimes when they passed a bill which removed the President's prisoners from judicial review, and stripped them of Habeas Corpus
The Constitution is clear:
The Privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.
Our government, and our President, are restrained by the Constitution anywhere they use the power of their office, be it inside or outside the country. Both Congress and the President have broken the law, and violated the specific words of our Constitution.
If Bush is confused or not, he is a criminal. He is purposely using the pretext of “foreigners,” “terrorism,” and fears of foreign threats, to manufacture Presidential Powers the Constitution specifically prohibits.
As far as our Constitutional limits assigns “rights” to foreigners, these “rights” reflect our political values, not theirs. This is what made us different from the rest of the world. Rather than being unique in our rights, what distinguishes us today is that we are the most powerful opponent of democratic and human rights in the world.
Without Constitutional limits we would have a President capable of searching, arresting, detaining, torturing, and killing people, at will, anywhere in the world. A tyrant.
How about this: The Constitution is the Club, Bush, Congress, the “free” press, and the Corporations are the baby seals, and hunting season is opening soon.
Pick up a club: The Initiative
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"
links: illegal trials/kidnapping/torture.
Links: torture/kidnapping links
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Torture (45 Abstracts)
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Democrats Say Leaving Iraq May Take Years
By JEFF ZELENY And MARC SANTORA
NY Times, August 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/us/politics/12dems.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=
DES MOINES, Aug. 11 — Even as they call for an end to the war and pledge to bring the troops home, the Democratic presidential candidates are setting out positions that could leave the United States engaged in Iraq for years.Dems Still Voting for Iraq War:
The True Reasons our Corporate Empire is Waging War in the Middle-East
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., August 12, 2007
The Dems are still rushing towards war, like a moth flying towards the flame for five long years.
The origins of the war are lies, spit into the Dem mouth by their Big Oil and Zionist bribe masters, and dutifully swallowed. As each act of destruction and degradation spirals the situation downward, closer and closer to a regional conflict, the Dems force themselves down lower and lower on bended knee to a failed policy.
What lay below the wreckage of our foreign policy? The desire to perpetuate our Domination of the middle east, its governments, and maintenance of our control over the greatest prize of all, the world's oil market. "Our oil," as Jimmy Carter put it.
The Democraps are as married to stealing Middle Eastern oil as are the Repugnants. Both parties have rejected that notion that either Iran or Iraq be independent, and control its own resources. Both parties would prefer to impose American-backed dictators in the mode of Musharraf or Mubarak on both Iran and Iraq, than ever see either as a democracy.
Below the geopolitics of maintaining America's dominance of energy markets are important domestic economic and demographic considerations. The Dems and Repugs know that US "prosperity" is based on rapid population growth. The US is in the midst of the greatest expansion of its population in its whole history.
The American population doubled during the last forty years. This incredible growth has changed America, harshly separating the wealth of our nation from the middle and lower classes, then concentrating it in the hands of a very few people.
If we lose control of the countries that sit above the oil, we will be unable to maintain control of the world's oil markets, and we will not have access to the energy required to increase, let alone maintain, our current rate of growth and consumption.
The plan of our Corporate Politicians is to double our population again during the next forty years. Both the Dems and Repugnants know that to do this, to maintain our massive rate of growth, we must have unlimited access to resources, primarily consisting of oil and an endless supply of cheap labor/consumers.
As things are set up now, if our population stops growing, growth in consumption will stop, and the great bubble in our economy will pop. The value of all assets will have to be based on their present value, not on the promise of future growth in value. Changing to an economy based on balanced, responsible growth would radically shock our markets.
If we continue on as we are now, continuing to grow at an alarmingly irresponsible rate, we are still going to run head on into the natural limits of population growth. Water, electrical, sewage and almost every piece of California's natural and social infrastructures are running past capacity, and are ready to break.
The corporate policy of endless growth that our corporate politicians have been pursuing for the last forty years is facing its most serious domestic and foreign challenges yet.
They are pursuing endless growth knowing full well that even if we dam every river, we will still be short of water. They know that even if they drill everywhere there is any energy at all, we will still come up short on our energy needs. They know our schools, roads, and prisons are falling apart.
Both parties are corporate slaves, and have mutually crafted a foreign policy designed to ensure corporate access to the global energy and resources required to maintain our domestic growth, whatever the cost to our principals, and regardless of the consequences to the foreign and domestic victims of this insane policy.
Thus the Democraps, like the Repugnants, will continue to support this criminal war to its inevitable, bitter, failure.
Without "our oil," (as Jimmy Carter so eloquently phrased it) the American Economic Model will come crashing down. Unfortunately for the Dems, they have been as big a part of the creation and maintenance of our global empire as have the Repugnants, and the Democraps are just as responsible for the mess we are in as are the Repugnants. Our only hope is to restore our democracy.
The corporate takeover of our democratic government has brought us to our present precarious position, both domestically and internationally.
During the last forty years both parties have become completely dependent on the massive bribes of their corporate sponsors to maintain their hold on power. This has resulted in generations of incompetent political leaders dedicated to immoral and undemocratic policies which are doomed to fail. That's the real reason we are in, and cannot get out of, Iraq.
Changing the trajectory of our Middle-Eastern foreign policy requires we change our country back into a democracy. Domestically, we must break the relationship between corporate wealth and political power that has substituted Corporate Fascism in place of our democracy.
This requires that we change the way candidates are selected and elections are decided in the US, from corporate funded affairs to being almost completely funded by the local citizens.
This will require that we completely cut off the massive flow of corporate bribery to our politicians, and insist they sink or swim based on the contributions they get from their own constituents.
To do this we just need to restrict political contributions exclusively to citizens qualified to vote in the elections they contribute to. As for political parties, we will only allow them to contribute no more than 30% of the total amount of contributions given to a candidate by their local voters.
These simple steps will change our present system of political corruption and bribery back into a democracy, as our forefathers intended, and as our Constitution requires.
Let the corporations and special interests assemble, talk, lobby, and do about anything they want, except bribe our politicians. If a corporation or special interest gives a dime to a politician, put them both in prison for a long time.
This will return political power to the local voters, change our political leadership, and give our people a chance to change the disastrous course our bribed corporate politicians have led us down.
Also See:
Corruption Updates , th article on the page,
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(Bush Press Conference: Gonzales and Musharraf embraced)
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 10, 2007; A03
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/09/AR2007080902334_pf.html
Addressing the matter at a White House news conference shortly before leaving town for his summer break, Bush...offered a passionate argument for his strategy in Iraq and a forceful defense of his embattled friend, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales. He condemned Iran and stood behind Pakistan. And he acknowledged that he might not close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before leaving office as he once said he hoped to do.
Bush was especially agitated about calls for Gonzales to resign over his handling of the firings of U.S. attorneys and other matters.
Foreign policy absorbed much of the conference, with Bush denouncing Iran as a "destabilizing influence" in the Middle East even as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was in Tehran meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Bush continued to embrace Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, despite deep doubts in Washington about his commitment to restoring democracy and fighting terrorists in his nation's lawless border regions. The president said that he expects Musharraf to take "swift action" if intelligence agencies can locate al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan, saying he believes the general "shares the same concern about radicals and extremists as I do."
Although Bush said last year that he wants to shut down the Guantanamo prison, he said doing so has proved more difficult than it had appeared.
Bush said that he could not predict whether Guantanamo would still be open when he leaves office in January 2009.
Asked about a New Yorker report that an investigation by the International Committee of the Red Cross found that treatment of detainees in other CIA facilities was tantamount to torture, Bush said, "I haven't seen it. We don't torture."
Bush Confirms, Defends his policy of Criminal Incompetence: Press Swallows like a Porn Star
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., August , 2007
The criminal war will continue, the criminal Attorney General will continue in office, our criminal torture prison, Gitmo, will remain open, our criminal dictators will continue to receive support for obedience, Iran continues to be set up for an American Sneak Attack, and Bush will not maintain the public infrastructure.
Just another business as usual press conference for the corporate media and president.
The following article sheds considerable light on the system of torturous secret prisons, and the torture conducted within them.
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