CORRUPTION UPDATES 119
Posted October 11, 2007
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1) 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.
Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Torture Appeal
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
NYT, October 10, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/washington/10scotus.
html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 — The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to hear an appeal filed on behalf of a German citizen of Lebanese descent who claims he was abducted by United States agents and then tortured by them while imprisoned in Afghanistan.
Without comment, the justices let stand an appeals court ruling that the state secrets privilege, a judicially created doctrine that the Bush administration has invoked to win dismissal of lawsuits that touch on issues of national security, protected the government’s actions from court review. In refusing to take up the case, the justices declined a chance to elaborate on the privilege for the first time in more than 50 years.
The case involved Khaled el-Masri, who says he was detained while on vacation in Macedonia in late 2003, transported by the United States to Afghanistan and held there for five months in a secret prison before being taken to Albania and set free, evidently having been mistaken for a terrorism suspect with a similar name.
Mr. Masri says he was tortured while in the prison. After prosecutors in Germany investigated the case, a court there issued arrest warrants in January for 13 agents of the Central Intelligence Agency. The German Parliament is continuing to investigate the episode, which has become a very public example of the United States government’s program of “extraordinary rendition.”
Supreme Court Declares Kidnapping and Torture of Innocents a State Secret
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., October 11, 2007
The Supreme Court has made itself a party to the Administration's crimes, and have abdicated their responsibility to hold our govenment within the bounds of the Constitution, the rule of law, or international conventions on human rights and the war.
Corruption Updates 21, 7th article on the page, Ex-judges: Detainee law unconstitutional
Corruption Updates 25, 7th article on page, “ITALY CHIEF OF INTELLIGENCE, 25 CIA OPERATIVES INDICTED FOR KIDNAPPING”
Corruption Updates 34, 4th article on the page, Germany issues CIA arrest orders: BUSH KIDNAPPING ON TRIAL IN GERMANY WHY IS GERMANY HOLDING US TO THE RULE OF LAW?
Corruption Updates 36, 11th article on the page, DETAINEES” ARE BARKING UP THE WRONG TREE:AMERICA IS THE HOME OF RENDITIONS, NOT
New Torture Link Lists
The Unitary Executive: Torture
Search the Corruption Database under
Kidnapping
Illegal Detentions
Speak your Mind here! Send your Comments about the Topic Above for Posting!
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2) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations
By SCOTT SHANE, DAVID JOHNSTON and JAMES RISEN
NY Times, October 4, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/04/washington/04interrogate.html
WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.
But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.
The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.
Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on “combined effects” over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion’s overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be “ashamed” when the world eventually learned of it.
Later that year, as Congress moved toward outlawing “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret opinion, one most lawmakers did not know existed, current and former officials said. The Justice Department document declared that none of the C.I.A. interrogation methods violated that standard.
The classified opinions, never previously disclosed, are a hidden legacy of President Bush’s second term and Mr. Gonzales’s tenure at the Justice Department, where he moved quickly to align it with the White House after a 2004 rebellion by staff lawyers that had thrown policies on surveillance and detention into turmoil.
Bush's Signing Statements on McCain's Anti-Torture Law in 2005 have been know to All
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., September , 2007
These secret memos should be no surprise to anyone who watched Bush deal with McCain's anti-torture law. Despite previous law, International law, and McCain's anti-torture law of 2005, Bush continued to use torture on whoever Bush determines is a "bad person."
Bush's response to McCain's Law was to use one crime, "signing statements," to attempt to cover his criminal torture. Bush is mistaken. Signing statements have no role in the process of lawmaking, nor can the President change or modify a bill passed by Congress; he may sign or not sign the law, and return it to Congress.
Despite our Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment, despite previous domestic laws outlawing torture, and despite clear international conventions prohibiting torture, Bush's signing statement on McCain's law in 2005 clearly signaled that Bush decided he was above the law and obiviously continued to use torture as a matter of policy.
So these new secret torture memos should be no surprize to anyone who has been reading the Corruption Updates. The "free" press, Congress, and the Courts have continued to aid and abett Bush's regime of torture.
Our press has, like the Presidency, Congress, and the Supreme Court, been captured by the wealth, power, and bribes of our corporate elite. The branches of our government are no longer checking each other as required by the Constitution.
Instead, they are aidding and abetting each other to commit perpetual financial and political crimes against our country, our Constitution, and our laws. This chain of corruption, crime, and the criminal combination of wealth and political power cannot be broken until we seize our government back from the corporate fascists who have stolen it.
Bush Crimes of Kidnapping, Secret Prisons, Torture Detailed by Red Cross
Originally written on August 5, 2007
I want to help the Washington Post's readers understand that this is not "harsh Methods," as the Post, and the rest of the corporate press so euphemistically describe Bush's Torture. (The above article of Oct. 4, by the NY Times uses the term "severe interrogations" to mask official torture)
Bush's methods are clearly torture. Bush has authorized torture based on nothing more than vague, unsubstantiated accusations. By law and US custom, torture is unacceptable in any situation.
The Post, the NY and LA Times, and the whole of the Corporate Media continue to describe American Kidnapping, Torture, Secret Prisons, and Disappearances in terms that mitigate or justify the seriousness of these fundamental crimes.
More ominiously, by using inaccurate terms to describe torture, the press is not just hiding the crimes themselves, but is failing to reveal and confront the crimes of an unchecked, out of control President.
Rather than having the right to remain silent, which presumes innocence before fair trial, and protected against cruel and unusual punishment, our press, President, and Congress find it acceptable to apply cruel and unusual punishments to people prior to being tried or found guilty of anything.
Our government now kidnaps, secretly detains, tortures, and tries people beyond the rule of law, and out of the sight of the press, the people, and legitimate courts.
Congress has codified these crimes into a repugnant law who's violations of the Constitution make it void on its face. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 (pdf) approved of endless "detentions" without independent hearings, revoking habius corpus, removed these "detainees" from federal courts jurisdiction and, and indemnified the perpetuators of these crimes from prosecution.
The press actually looks the other way, coming up with mushy words like "harsh," or "stress" or "loud" to neuter the meaning of American torture.
The world is not being attacked by "terror." Rather, Bush and the American Government have declared a war of lawless terror against the rights and liberties of the whole world.
But this is nothing new. We have been "harsh" for quite some time.
American politics were captured by the forerunners of the corporations, the Robber Barons, since the 1880s, and this illegitimate power has been evolving its control of economics, politics and society for over a century.
During our generation the power of wealth and bribery has defeated the last vestiges of democracy in our political institutions. The completeness the victory of wealth over democracy has stripped our government of legitimacy.
Every American, like every German during and after WWII, is responsible for the crimes our government is committing.
Every American who does not resist these illegal powers and the criminal government that wields them is not only an accessory before, during and after the crimes, but is also failing to rise to the greatest challenge of our generation, the restoration of a democratic republic in the United States.
Corruption Updates 84, 1st article on page, ""Pelosi: Impeachment 'off the table" (Pelosi and the Dems are aiding and abetting war crimes, and crimes against humanity)
Corruption Updates 99, 5th article on the page, Bush could bypass new torture ban: Bush Traitor against Duty to Constitution and Country, Threat to World
About Bush's kidnapping, also see:
Corruption Updates 21, 7th article on page, “Ex-judges: Detainee law unconstitutional”
Corruption Updates 25, 7th article on the page, "ITALY CHIEF OF INTELLIGENCE, 25 CIA OPERATIVES INDICTED FOR KIDNAPPING"
Corruption Updates 34, 4th article on the page, "Germany issues CIA arrest orders"
Corruption Updates 38, 2nd article on the page, "Gitmo:THE KANGAROO COURT IS OPEN: ENTER AND BE CONVICTED"
Corruption Updates 69, 1st article on the page, "Rights Groups Call for End to Secret Detentions"
Corruption Updates 70, 3rd article on the page, "First CIA rendition trial opens"
Corruption Updates 71, 1st article on the page, "CIA rejects secret jails report"
Corruption Updates 91, 3rd article on the page, "CIA dissenters aided secret prisons report"
These links deal mostly with Bush's use of torture:
Corruption Updates 36, 4th article on the page, "IRAQI GOV FOLLOWS AMERICAN EXAMPLE: KIDNAPPING-TORTURE"
Corruption Updates 37, 8th article on the page, "Corporate Media Humiliates itself, Again: War,WMD,Kidnapping,Torture,and Plame..."
Corruption Updates 37, 4th article on the page, "Public Recognition of Criminal President Rising"
Corruption Updates 38, 2nd article on the page, "Gitmo: THE KANGAROO COURT IS OPEN: ENTER AND BE CONVICTED"
Corruption Updates 41, 6th article on the page, "BUSH LAWLESSNESS SPREADS TO KENYA: Kenya defends transfers, absolves U.S."
Corruption Updates 57, 9th article on the page, "GOP candidates divided on detainees' treatment"
Corruption Updates 69, 1st article on the page, "Rights Groups Call for End to Secret Detentions"
Corruption Updates 70, 3rd article on the page, "First CIA rendition trial opens"
Corruption Updates 71, 1st article on the page, "CIA rejects secret jails report"
Corruption Updates 80, 1st article on the page, "CIA Lawyer who Justifies Toture-Kidnapping-Endless Detention Appears before Congress"
Corruption Updates 80, 4th article on the page, "Abu Ghraib: Taguba fired for Probing too Deeply"
Corruption Updates 82, 3rd article on the page, "CIA Crimes Revealed"
Corruption Updates 83, 1st article on the page, "Cheney the Torture mastermind"
Corruption Updates 84, 1st article on the page,"Pelosi: Impeachment 'off the table"
Corruption Updates 43, 6th article on the page, "Hagel: Bush impeachment on the table"
Corruption Updates 85, 1st article on the page, "Cheney: Angler, A Catalog of Cheney Crimes"
Corruption Updates 91, 4th article on the page, "In Intelligence World, A Mute Watchdog: Bush Above the Law"
Corruption Updates 99, 5th article on the page, "Bush Could Bypass new Torture Ban"
Corruption Updates 101, 10th article on the page, Report: Harsh Methods Used On 9/11 Suspect
Corruption Updates 119, 1st article on the page, Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Torture Appeal
Corruption Updates 119, 2nd article on the page, Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations
New Torture Link Lists
The Unitary Executive: Torture
Search the Corruption Database under
Torture
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3) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
Dems demand Justice Dept. memos that OKd use of harsh interrogations
Bush administration refuses, says tactics it authorized didn't violate anti-torture laws
Dan Eggen,Michael Abramowitz, Washington Post
Friday, October 5, 2007
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/05/MN2BSKDDI.DTL
(10-05) 04:00 PDT Washington -- Democratic lawmakers assailed the Justice Department on Thursday for issuing secret memos that authorized harsh CIA interrogation techniques, demanding that the Bush administration turn over the documents.
Administration officials refused and said the tactics did not violate anti-torture laws.
One opinion issued by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel in May 2005 authorized a combination of painful physical and psychological interrogation tactics, including head-slapping, frigid temperatures and simulated drowning, according to current and former officials familiar with the issue.
A second document issued by the same Justice Department office in the summer of 2005 asserted that interrogation practices approved for the CIA did not violate legislation to prohibit "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment, current and former officials said. The existence of the two classified memos was reported Thursday by the New York Times.
White House and Justice Department officials said the legal opinion on interrogation techniques did not conflict with Bush administration promises not to torture suspects, including a memo released publicly in December 2004 that declared torture "abhorrent." The officials said the newly revealed memo focused on "specific applications" under the parameters of the earlier document.
"It is a policy of the United States that we do not torture, and we do not," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
The memos create an unwelcome complication for President Bush as he tries to win confirmation of former federal Judge Michael Mukasey as the next attorney general. He would replace Alberto Gonzales, who resigned last month after months of conflict with Congress over his credibility and management. Gonzales led the Justice Department at the time the newly disclosed memos were written.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pledged to question Mukasey closely about his views on interrogation policies during confirmation hearings this month.
"After telling us and the world that torture is abhorrent ... it appears that under Attorney General Gonzales, they reversed themselves and reinstated a secret regime by, in essence, reinterpreting the law in secret," Leahy said.
The House Judiciary Committee demanded copies of the documents from the Justice Department and promised to hold hearings on the issue.
"Both the alleged content of these opinions and the fact that they have been kept secret from Congress are extremely troubling," committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., and Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., wrote in a letter to acting Attorney General Peter Keisler.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Dems Pretend Surprize at Bush's Continued Regime of Kidnapping, Dissappearences, Torture, and Kangaroo Courts
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., October 11, 2007
See the Articles above
See the Link List Above
New Torture Link Lists
The Unitary Executive: Torture
Search the Corruption Database under
Torture
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4) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
Bush Defends Interrogations
Democrats Demand Documents Justifying Tactics' Legality
By Michael Abramowitz and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, October 6, 2007; A07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/05/AR2007100500443_pf.html
President Bush yesterday vigorously defended the government's efforts to detain and interrogate terrorism suspects, and he clashed with Democratic lawmakers over whether he has properly disclosed information about the classified program.
Bush used a brief photo opportunity in the Oval Office yesterday morning to renew his assertions that the United States "does not torture people" and sticks to U.S. law and its international obligations. The comments followed the disclosure by the New York Times of secret Justice Department memos authorizing harsh CIA interrogation techniques, such as head slapping, frigid temperatures and simulated drowning. The memos said such tactics do not violate U.S. or international law.
"The techniques that we use have been fully disclosed to appropriate members of the United States Congress," Bush told reporters. "The American people expect their government to take action to protect them from further attack. And that's exactly what this government is doing, and that's exactly what we'll continue to do."
CIA Director Michael V. Hayden, responding to the Times article in a memo to agency employees yesterday, disputed the suggestion that the Justice Department opinion opened the door to harsher interrogation practices. He described the CIA's interrogation program as "small, carefully run and highly productive."
"Fewer than 100 hardened terrorists have gone through the program since it began in 2002, and, of those, less than a third have required any special methods of questioning," Hayden wrote. A copy of the memo was obtained by The Washington Post.
Bush's statement that Congress has been briefed on the interrogation tactics drew a swift and angry reaction from Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate intelligence committee.
"The administration can't have it both ways," Rockefeller said in a statement. "I'm tired of these games. They can't say that Congress has been fully briefed while refusing to turn over key documents used to justify the legality of the program."
Rockefeller sent a letter Thursday to acting Attorney General Peter D. Keisler demanding copies of all Justice Department opinions analyzing the legality of the CIA's interrogation program. Another Senate leader, Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.), demanded a copy of a separate Justice Department memo, a 2003 document offering a legal justification for the military interrogation of unlawful combatants outside the United States.
The Bush administration has refused to turn over the documents, contending that their disclosure would give terrorist groups too much information about U.S. interrogation tactics. One exception came in December 2004, when the Justice Department released a memo decrying torture as "abhorrent" and defining it as acts that "inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering."
Bush Defends Torture, Kidnapping, Secret Prisons, Illegal Searches, Kangaroo Courts, Political Prosecutions, "shock and awe" blitzkrieg invasions, first use of nukes, breaking treaties, and massive corporate bribery,
The Corporate Press and Politicians have said almost nothing
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., September , 2007
New Torture Link Lists
The Unitary Executive: Torture
Search the Corruption Database under
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5) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
Guantanamo Prosecutor Quits Post, Pentagon Says
By Andrew Gray
Reuters
Friday, October 5, 2007; 2:04 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/05/AR2007100501375_pf.html
WASHINGTON - The U.S. military's chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo war crimes trials has resigned, the Pentagon said on Friday.
Air Force Col. Moe Davis asked to be moved to another post after the Pentagon rejected his complaint that another official should not be supervising his work, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.
Davis had complained to the Defense Department that Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann, the legal adviser to the Convening Authority -- a body responsible for running the trials -- should not be supervising his work, Whitman said.
A team of military legal experts ordered by the Pentagon to look into the complaint found that Hartmann did have the authority to supervise the chief prosecutor's work.
Davis asked to leave his post after receiving the team's findings on Thursday, Whitman said.
Prosecutor Quits Tainted Gitmo Courts
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., September , 2007
Corruption Updates 38, 2nd article on the page, Gitmo: THE KANGAROO COURT IS OPEN: ENTER AND BE CONVICTED
Corruption Updates 67, 2nd article on the page, Navy Captain Calls Bush Designations Illegitimate
Corruption Updates 94, 4th article on the page, Illegal Trials: Unlikely Adversary
Corruption Updates 96, 8th article on the page, Trial of David Hicks 'a charade'
Excellent list of linked articles on Bush's Illegal Trials.
New Unlimited President Link Lists
The Unitary Executive: Torture
The Unitary Executive: Illegal Searches
Failure of Oversight: The Corporate Press
Search the Corruption Database under
Illegal Trials (24 Abstracts)
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6) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
Senate Approves Intelligence Bill
By PAMELA HESS
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 3, 2007; 2:22 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/03/AR2007100301315_pf.html
WASHINGTON -- The Senate has scrapped its bid to obtain the archive of daily intelligence briefings given to the president on Iraq prior to the 2003 invasion.
That request was among several controversial provisions dropped from an intelligence bill, leading to the measure's unanimous Senate passage Wednesday.
The overall legislation would give Congress' approval for the whole range of intelligence programs over the coming year, including spy satellites and eavesdropping, human spying and battlefield collection, along with recommended spending levels. Most of the bill is secret.
The House approved its own version of the bill in May, and the two chambers now must work out differences between the two versions.
Senate Funds Bush War Crimes, Kidnapping, Secret Prisons, and Torture without a Problem
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., September , 2007
New Torture Link Lists
The Unitary Executive: Torture
The Unitary Executive: Illegal Searches
Failure of Oversight: The Corporate Press
Search the Corruption Database under
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7) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
Bush Threatens Veto of Eavesdropping Bill
By JENNIFER LOVEN
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 10, 2007; 12:42 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/10/AR2007101001047_pf.html
WASHINGTON -- President Bush said Wednesday that he will not sign a new eavesdropping bill if it does not grant retroactive immunity to U.S. telecommunications companies that helped conduct electronic surveillance without court orders.
A proposed bill unveiled by Democrats on Tuesday does not include such a provision. Bush, appearing on the South Lawn as that measure was taken up in two House committees, said the measure is unacceptable for that and other reasons.
Bush wants legislation that extends and strengthens a temporary bill passed in August. Democrats want a bill that rolls back some of the new powers it granted the government to eavesdrop without warrants on suspected foreign terrorists.
A top Democratic leader opened the door on Tuesday to allowing an immunity provision. But House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said the Bush administration must first detail what the companies did. About 40 pending lawsuits name telecommunications companies for alleged violations of wiretapping laws.
Bush detailed criteria that the bill must meet before he would sign it, including the immunity provision and the broad requirement that it "ensure that protections intended for the American people are not extended to terrorists overseas who are plotting to harm us."
Bush Presses for Permenant Illegal Searching Powers
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., September , 2007
Corruption Updates 99, 2nd article on the page, Senate Passes Bush Spy Bill: Illegal Bush Search Bill ok with Senate Dems
Corruption Updates 99, 3rd article on the page, House Approves Wiretap Measure: Pelosi, Dems, Betray Constitution Again
Excellent Link List on illegal Searches by Bush
New Torture Link Lists
The Unitary Executive: Torture
The Unitary Executive: Illegal Searches
Failure of Oversight: The Corporate Press
Search the Corruption Database under
Illegal Searches
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8) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
White House Secrecy On Wiretaps Described
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 3, 2007; A05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/02/AR2007100201083_pf.html
No more than four Justice Department officials had access to details of the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program when the department deemed portions of it illegal, following a pattern of poor consultation that helped create a "legal mess," a former Justice official told Congress yesterday.
Jack L. Goldsmith, former head of the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the White House so tightly restricted access to the National Security Agency's program that even the attorney general and the NSA's general counsel were partly in the dark.
When the Justice Department began a formal review of the program's legal underpinnings in late 2003, the White House initially resisted allowing then-Deputy Attorney General James B. Comey to be briefed on it, Goldsmith said.
Goldsmith's testimony provided further details about the fierce legal debate and intense secrecy surrounding the NSA surveillance program within the Bush administration in early 2004. The fight culminated in a threat by Goldsmith, Comey and others to resign en masse if the program were allowed to continue without changes.
The full contours of the program have not been officially disclosed. In part, it allowed the NSA to monitor communications between the United States and overseas without court oversight if one of the parties was believed to be linked to al-Qaeda or a related group. That activity is now authorized under legislation passed by Congress earlier this year.
Goldsmith, who led an internal Justice Department review of the surveillance effort completed more than two years after the surveillance began, said he "could not find a legal basis for some aspects of the program."
"It was the biggest legal mess I had ever encountered," Goldsmith said.
His legal opinion declaring the program llegal in early 2004 was supported by Comey and then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft but drew strong resistance at the White House, which wanted to continue the program without change. Then-White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales and then-White House chief of staff Andrew H. Card Jr. tried to bypass Comey and gain Ashcroft's approval while Ashcroft was in a hospital intensive care unit, recovering from gallbladder surgery.
Goldsmith also appeared to challenge previous testimony from Gonzales, who repeatedly told lawmakers that there had been no serious disagreement within the administration over the Terrorist Surveillance Program, the public name for the NSA's warrantless surveillance efforts. Gonzales left office last month.
Dissray Reigns in Criminalized Department of Justice
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., September , 2007
ABC News Report, Sept 7, 2007, on Goldsmith and his new book, The Terror Presidency
Corruption Updates 99, 2nd article on the page, Senate Passes Bush Spy Bill: Illegal Bush Search Bill ok with Senate Dems
Corruption Updates 99, 3rd article on the page, House Approves Wiretap Measure: Pelosi, Dems, Betray Constitution Again
Corruption Updates , th article on the page,
Excellent Link List on illegal Searches by Bush
New Torture Link Lists
The Unitary Executive: Torture
The Unitary Executive: Illegal Searches
Search the Corruption Database under
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9) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
U.S. spy chief calls wiretapping debate a threat
J. Michael McConnell asserts that congressional questioning could cost U.S. lives; Rep. Eshoo voices skepticism.
By Peter Spiegel
LAT, September 21, 2007
WASHINGTON — -- The nation's top spy told Congress on Thursday that the public debate over the Bush administration's controversial warrantless wiretapping program would lead to American deaths by revealing sensitive surveillance methods to potential terrorists.
J. Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, testified that congressional examination of laws that govern the program, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, ran counter to established precedents. Under these, he said, "intelligence business is conducted in secret."
Asked by Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Menlo Park) if he thought that congressional questioning of the administration's intelligence program would lead to the killing of Americans, McConnell said, "Yes, ma'am, I do."
Eshoo called his assessment "a stretch."
It was not the first time the Bush administration and its allies had charged that Democratic opposition to White House policies would compromise national security.
McConnell's remarks came as Congress again was considering modifications to the surveillance law. The Democratic leadership rushed through temporary revisions of the law last month after McConnell warned that a secret court's ruling had made some parts of Bush's surveillance program illegal.
But those revisions expire after six months, and Democrats charge that McConnell strong-armed them into approving changes that threaten privacy protections for U.S. citizens.
The national intelligence director has also angered members of Congress in both parties by revealing once-classified portions of the intelligence program. They include the fact that about 100 people inside the U.S. are under surveillance by intelligence agencies. McConnell divulged that in an interview with a small Texas newspaper last month, even as he told members of Congress that the information could not be shared publicly.
LA Times Characterizes Congressional Oversight as the Democrat Party playing Politics
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., September , 2007
McConnell and the Politicians of Both Parties have been using practices better suited to protect Nazi Germany than the United States.
The dangers presented by our freedoms are far preferable to the dangers presented by this criminal government and its "terrorist" enemies.
Between Osama and Bush, Bush is by far the biggest danger to the United States, and a far bigger criminal against humanity and the laws of war than Osama.
It is amazing that the President is even suggesting that Congressional Oversight, as dictated by our Constitution, is akin to revealing our secrets to "terrorists." What the President is really worried about is having his crimes exposed to the public. He should not worry.
The Dems have proven themselves amenable to all of Bush's crimes so far, and there is nothing to indicate that will change anytime soon.
The Supreme Court has just weighed in with its august opinion that the President can committ any crimes he wants, as long as he labels them "Secret."
The Democratic Congress just passed "laws" approving illegal searches, and will likely bow down before Bush once again.
So Bush is home free, for now. As long as the corporations and corporate bribery control both parties, Bush will be able to continue to use our Constitution as toilet paper, and the wealth and power of our country to advance their agenda of domination of global resources.
And the Democrats will assist.
Link List: Democrats are Bribed to the Hilt!
Excellent Link List on illegal Searches by Bush
New Torture Link Lists
The Unitary Executive: Torture
The Unitary Executive: Illegal Searches
Search the Corruption Database under
Illegal Searches
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10) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited.
2 Patriot Act Provisions Ruled Unlawful
By WILLIAM McCALL
Associated Press Writer
7:26 PM PDT, September 26, 2007
PORTLAND, Ore. — Two provisions of the USA Patriot Act are unconstitutional because they allow search warrants to be issued without a showing of probable cause, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken ruled that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as amended by the Patriot Act, "now permits the executive branch of government to conduct surveillance and searches of American citizens without satisfying the probable cause requirements of the Fourth Amendment."
Portland attorney Brandon Mayfield sought the ruling in a lawsuit against the federal government after he was mistakenly linked by the FBI to the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people in 2004.
Mayfield claimed that secret searches of his house and office under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act violated the Fourth Amendment's guarantee against unreasonable search and seizure. Aiken agreed with Mayfield, repeatedly criticizing the government.
"For over 200 years, this Nation has adhered to the rule of law -- with unparalleled success. A shift to a Nation based on extra-constitutional authority is prohibited, as well as ill-advised," she wrote.
By asking her to dismiss Mayfield's lawsuit, the judge said, the U.S. attorney general's office was "asking this court to, in essence, amend the Bill of Rights, by giving it an interpretation that would deprive it of any real meaning. This court declines to do so."
Elden Rosenthal, an attorney for Mayfield, issued a statement on his behalf praising the judge, saying she "has upheld both the tradition of judicial independence, and our nation's most cherished principle of the right to be secure in one's own home."
Garrett Epps, a constitutional law expert at the University of Oregon, said the ruling adds to the poor record that the Bush administration has piled up in defending the Patriot Act.
"It's embarrassing," Epps said. "It represents another judicial repudiation of this administration's terrorist surveillance policies."
A federal judge in New York this month handed the ACLU a victory in a challenge to the Patriot Act on behalf of an Internet service provider that was issued a "national security letter" demanding customer phone and computer records. The judge in that case ruled the FBI must justify to a court the need for secrecy for more than a brief and reasonable period of time.
The Mayfield case has been an embarrassment for the federal government. Last year, the Justice Department's internal watchdog faulted the FBI for sloppy work in mistakenly linking Mayfield to the Madrid bombings. That report said federal prosecutors and FBI agents had made inaccurate and ambiguous statements to a federal judge to get arrest and criminal search warrants against Mayfield.
Congress passed the Patriot Act with little debate shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to help counter terrorist activities. It gave federal law enforcers the authority to search telephone and e-mail communications and expanded the Treasury Department's regulation of financial transactions involving foreign nationals. The law was renewed in 2005.
In early August, the Bush administration persuaded lawmakers to expand the government's power to listen in on any foreign communication it deemed of interest without a court order, even if an American was a party. The expanded surveillance authority expires early next year. As Congress takes a closer look at the law, many Democrats want to rein in language that many consider overly broad.
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1) Supreme Court Affirms Bush's kidnapping, disappearing, and torturing random foreign nationals
2) Gonzales authorized illegal torture in memos
3) Congress demands Gonzales torture memos
4) Bush, again, says torture is not torture, and he cannot inform Congress as that would be akin to revealing it to terrorists
5) Prosecutor Quits Tainted Gitmo Courts
6) Senate Funds Criminal CIA Activities
7) Bush Threatens Veto for Bills Defending American Rights
8) White House Illegal Search Program tore Justice Department apart
9) Intellingence Chief Calls American Rights a Threat
10) Federal Judge rules "Patriot" Act (Traitor Act) Unconstitutional