FBI Blows Smoke on Gitmo

Just ne Day before the swearing in of the new Democratic Congress, the FBI has released a report on detainee treatment at Guantanemo Bay that alleges numerous instances of abuse - but also that none of these instances were performed by FBI personnel.

The FBI Office of General Counsel in September 2004 ordered the "special inquiry" into any FBI participation or observations of a series of alleged incidents at the prison camp for suspected terrorists and al Qaeda sympathizers, but the results were not made public.

The FBI released the documents in response to a Freedom of Information request by the American Civil Liberties Union, but stressed that most of the findings had already been reported elsewhere.

"Note these documents have been vetted by both DoD [Department of Defense] and FBI, and that FBI believes this or substantially similar information has already been released in this litigation," the FBI said.

Here are some excerpts ("W" indicates a Witness, "d" indicate detainee):

on several occasions, witness ("W") saw detainees ("ds") in interrogation rooms chained hand and foot in fetal position to floor w/no chair/ food/water; most urinated or defecated on selves, and were left there 18, 24 hrs or more. Once, the air conditioning was so low that the barefoot d was shaking with cold. Another time, it was off so the unventilated room was over 100 degrees, d was almost unconscious on floor with a pile of hair next to him (he had apparently been pulling it out throughout the night). Another time, it was sweltering hot and loud rap music played - d's hand and foot was chanined and he was in a fetal position on the floor. Upon inquiry, W was told that interrogators [military contractors] ordered this treatment. Took place in Delta Camp

d was kept in darkened cell in Naval Brig at GTMO, then transferred to Camp Delta where he gave no info. Then taken to Camp X-Ray and put in plywood hut. Interrogators yelled and screamed at him. One interrogator squatted over the Koran. Another day a German Shepherd was commended to growl, bark and show his teeth to the prisoner. Subsequently someone laughingly told the W "you have to see this" and took him to an interrogation room where W saw a d with a full beard whose head was wrapped in duct tape

civilian contractor asked W (an FBI SA) to come see something. There was an unknown bearded longhaired d gagged w/duct tape that covered much of his head. SA asked if he had spit at interrogators, and the contractor laughingly replied that d had been chanting the Koran nonstop. No answer to how they planned to remove the duct tape.

Rumors that interrogator bragged about doing lap dance on d, another about making d listen to satanic black metal music for hours then dressing as a Priest and baptizing d to save him - handwritten note says "yes"

W walked into Camp Delta observation room and saw d rubbing his leg due to possibly being in stress position. D was wearing leg irons and handcuffed w/cuffs chained to waist. W was advised the chains were adjusted to force D to stand in "baseball catcher" position. D was being questioned by 2 military officers. D was previously held in brig and questioned for 2 months w/no results. Permission had been granted to use "special interrogation techniques"

After hearing what sounded like "thunder," W saw 2 individuals dressed in BDUs standing and an inmate kneeling on a bloody floor with his forehead on the ground, holding his nose and crying. They said d become upset and threw himself on floor. W heard previously that a female military personnel would wet her hands and touch the ds face as part of their psych-ops to make them feel unclean and upset them. W heard that in an effort to disrupt ds who were praying during interrogation, female intelligence personnel would do this

A detainee brought into interview shack at Camp x-ray appeared to have broken fingers and facial injuries. W was told that d exhibited noncompliance w/prison guard and rapid reaction team was brought in to bring d into compliance. He was in a plywood shack adjacent to "dog cages". D had black eye, facial cuts around nose, and taped fingers. He motioned to guards and said "they"
handwritten note "yes - Do interview so we will have a formal record. I think I know what all he saw."

D says he was beaten unconscious at Camp x-ray. Guards entered cell unprovoked and spat and cursed at him, called him SOB, bastard and crazy. D rolled on stomach to protect self due to recent stomach surgery. Soldier jumped on his back, beat him in the face, then choked him till he passed out. Said he was beating him because he was a Muslim. Female guard also beat him and grabbed his head and beat it into the cell floor. D taken to hospital after.

W heard of technique (not allowed by FBI agents) where a difficult d who would not cooperate would be left in shackles for extended time (12 hrs or more) and the AC turned way low or off. hw notes "environment down - doesn't seem excessive given DoD policy"

Although many of these allegations seem quite serious, the manner in which this information has been released remains extremely questionable. First of all, if you review the pdf of this data, most of the observations made by various FBI personnel were not first hand, and some were merely rumors they had heard (such as the lapdance incident).

The other issue is the timing of this release, it seems more of an effort to distance the FBI from any wrong-doing rather than an effort to truly identify and build a case against any potential criminal activity. In many cases FBI agents were themselves unfamiliar with DoD protocols, therefore their ability to act as informed witnesses to criminal acts extremely diminished. The truth is that many of these type of interrogation techniques were indeed authorized by Donald Rumsfeld.

In December of 2002 SecDef Rumsfeld allows for ""stress positions," hooding, 20-hour interrogations, removal of clothing, exploiting phobias to induce stress (e.g., fear of dogs), prolonged isolation, sensory deprivation, and forced grooming. These techniques soon spread to Afghanistan and later to Iraq." according to documents obtain by the ACLU.

However, this doesn't make these action legal under the War Crimes Act which prohibits all 'grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions." It could be argued that the WCA did not apply at this point in time since the President, under advice of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, had declared that enemy combatant detainees were not covered under Geneva - but this view was later reversed by the Hamdan decision.

The question remains - why hasn't the FBI fully investigated these allegations and rumors? Was it because of the direction of the President, Attorney General and SecDef - which condoned these activities? Was it because of the Bybee Memo which maintained that activities such as these were not torture - as long as the subject didn't lose a limb, suffer organ failure or die?

Well - what about the detainees who have died in custody?

From Amnesty International:

It is now known that at least 34 detainees who died in US custody have had their deaths listed by the army as confirmed or suspected criminal homicides. The true number of such deaths may be higher as there is evidence that delays, cover-ups and deficiencies in investigations have hampered the collection of evidence.(5) In several cases, however, substantial evidence has emerged that detainees were tortured to death while under interrogation (revealed, for example, in military autopsy reports, investigation records and recent court testimony). What is even more disturbing is that standard practices as well as interrogation techniques believed to have fallen within officially sanctioned parameters, appear to have played a role in the ill-treatment, as the following cases illustrate.

• Two Afghan detainees, Dilwar and Habibullah died from multiple blunt force injuries inflicted while they were held in an isolation section of Bagram US airbase in December 2002. Army investigative reports later revealed that both men were kept hooded and chained to a ceiling while being kicked and beaten during sustained assaults by military personnel. A soldier who acknowledged inflicting more than 30 consecutive knee strikes to Dilawar (a slight, 22 year old taxi driver) as he stood in shackles, told investigators that the blows were standard operating procedure for uncooperative detainees. An army criminal investigation report said both deaths were caused primarily by severe trauma to the men’s legs, adding that "sleep deprivation at the direction of military intelligence soldiers" was also a "direct contributing factor" in Dilwar’s death.(6) Army medical examiners found the prolonged shackling had also contributed to his death.(7) 7 low-ranking soldiers, charged variously with assault, maltreatment, dereliction of duty and making false statements eventually received sentences ranging from five months’ imprisonment to reprimand, loss of pay and reduction in rank.
  
  
• Abdul Jaleel died in January 2004 in the US Forward Operating Rifles Base in Al Asad, Iraq, after being kicked and beaten during interrogation. He was tied by his hands to the top of a door frame and gagged when he died. The autopsy report recorded death from "blunt force injuries and asphyxia". A senior army official admitted Jameel had been "lifted to his feet by a baton held to his throat" causing a throat injury that "contributed to his death". (8) Military commanders rejected a recommendation by army investigators to prosecute soldiers involved, on the ground that his death had been the "result of a series of lawful applications of force in response to repeated aggression and misconduct by the detainee".(9)

• Major-General Abed Hamad Mowhoush, formerly of the Iraqi army, died during interrogation in the US detention facility in Al Qaim, Baghdad, in November 2003. An autopsy recorded cause of death as asphyxia and smothering due to chest compression. Mowhoush died after being rolled back and forth in a sleeping bag, which was placed over his head and bound with wire, while one of his interrogators sat on his chest. According to testimony in a subsequent court case, use of the sleeping bag was part of an approved "stress position" designed to play upon a detainee’s claustrophobia. It was also reportedly interpreted by officers as falling within the "fear up harsh" tactics that may still be found in military operational manuals. There is evidence that abusive interrogation techniques at the Al Qaim facility were routine and authorized.(10)
  
  The US military initially reported that Mowhoush had died from natural causes. However, several months later, in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal, four US soldiers were charged in the death. Only one went to trial and was sentenced to a reprimand, $6,000 forfeiture of pay plus 60 days’ restriction of movement. There is evidence that Mowhoush was subjected to a brutal beating two days before his death by personnel from other agencies, including the CIA, none of whom has been charged.
  
  
• A 27-year-old Iraqi male died while being interrogated by US Navy Seals in April 2004 in Mosul, Iraq. During his confinement he was hooded, flex-cuffed, deprived of sleep and subjected to extreme cold conditions, including the use of cold water on his body and hood. The exact cause of death was "undetermined" although the autopsy stated that hypothermia from wet and cold conditions may have contributed to his death.(11) His treatment included various techniques similar to those authorized by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld in his April 2003 memorandum including "environmental manipuation (e.g. adjusting temperature)", hooding and sleep deprivation.

It is fair to note that most of these deaths occured either in Afghanistan or Iraq, not Gitmo - but does again make one wonder - where was the FBI investigation of these cases?

It's my feeling that this info-dump by the FBI is not a boon to the War Crimes case against the Bush Administration, it is a red-herring designed to cover the FBI's ass while distracting attention away from extradinary rendition, outsourced torture and how detainees have been treated world-wide under U.S. direction - in direct violation of the War Crimes Act.

Vyan

Gitmo's Combatant Kangaroo Court

Under both the Geneva Conventions and the newly passed Military Commissions Act, hearings are required for each detainee to determine if they are in fact an "Enemy Combatant" or not. With the virtual revokation of Habaes Corpus under the MCA these Status Tribunals are currently the only measure of justice that these detainee's are likely to see. But a university review of 390 of such hearings has found that they are little more than a "Sham".

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - The U.S. military called no witnesses, withheld evidence from detainees and usually reached a decision within a day as it determined that hundreds of men detained at Guantanamo Bay were "enemy combatants," according to a new report.

Their report, based on an analysis of records of military hearings of 393 detainees, comes as the U.S. government seeks to severely restrict detainee access to civilian courts, arguing that the Combatant Status Review Tribunals should be their main legal recourse.

We've already found that the U.S. Government is far from infallable when it comes to identifying who may be an "Enemy" and who may not especially in regards not just those held in Gitmo, but to the estimated 14,000 detainees currently being held in Bush's Secret Prisons (or rendered) all around the globe.

We have the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian national who was detained at Kennedy Airport when his name was mistaken on a watchlist, before the mistake was corrected he had been transported to Syria and tortured.

There is Abu Omar, an innocent man who was mistakenly kidnapped by CIA agents in Italy, transported to Egypt and also tortured.

Even being a member of the media is no protection, as Pulitzer Prize winning AP Photographer Bilal Hussein has discovered during the seven months that he's been held by the U.S. Military on suspicion of aiding insurgents in Iraq - and has not yet been granted his Status Review hearing. (Disturbingly the original AP Story on Hussein has also disappeared, not that the story can't still be found as various Newspaper editorial boards have begun to speak out).

The ban on Habeas is quite far reaching and includes even immigrants living legally in the U.S.

WASHINGTON - Immigrants arrested in the United States may be held indefinitely on suspicion of terrorism and may not challenge their imprisonment in civilian courts, the Bush administration said Monday, opening a new legal front in the fight over the rights of detainees.

In court documents filed with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., the Justice Department said a new anti-terrorism law being used to hold detainees in Guantanamo Bay also applies to foreigners captured and held in the United States.

Ali Saleh Kahlah Al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar, was arrested in 2001 while studying in the United States. He has been labeled an "enemy combatant," a designation that, under a law signed last month, strips foreigners of the right to challenge their detention in federal courts.

That law is being used to argue the Guantanamo Bay cases, but Al-Marri represents the first detainee inside the United States to come under the new law. Aliens normally have the right to contest their imprisonment, such as when they are arrested on immigration violations or for other crimes.

Now the only method for persons such as Al-Marri to question his detainment is before the Combat Status Review - and that process is basically rigged.

The one peice of good news is that although Habeas for Non-U.S. Citizens is now none existent under the MCA and the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 the findings of the Combatant Status Review Tribunal can be appealed to the DC Circuit. However one must temper this encouraging news for the wrongly accused by considering the reality that before he was even allowed access to his attorney Hamdan had to frist plead guilty, and that even after winning his case before the Supreme Court Lt. Cmd. Swift was passed up for promition and effectively drummed out of the military. So Hamdan's isn't exactly a course we can expect to be readily followed by other defendants or attorney's which is troubling since there may indeed be fertile grounds for the reversal of many of the findings of this court.

The military held Combatant Status Review Tribunals for 558 detainees at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay in southeast Cuba between July 2004 and January 2005 and found all but 38 were enemy combatants. Handcuffed detainees appeared before a panel of three officers with no defense attorney, only a military "personal representative."

According to the report, the representatives said nothing in the hearings 14 percent of the time and made no "substantive" comments in 30 percent. In some cases, the representative even appeared to advocate the government's position, the report said.

The report is based on transcripts of tribunals that the government first released earlier this year in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by The Associated Press as well additional records provided by lawyers for 102 Guantanamo detainees.

Among their findings:

* The government did not produce any witnesses in any hearing.
* The military denied all detainee requests to inspect the classified evidence against them.
* The military refused all requests for defense witnesses who were not detained at Guantanamo.
* In 74 percent of the cases, the government denied requests to call witnesses who were detained at the prison.
* In 91 percent of the hearings, the detainees did not present any evidence.
* In three cases, the panel found that the detainee was "no longer an enemy combatant," but the military convened new tribunals that later found them to be enemy combatants.

"No American would ever consider this to be hearing," Denbeaux said. "This is a show trial."

Showing that the light at the end of this long dark tunnel really isn't an oncoming train. Yesterday Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) introduced legislation "that would amend the existing law governing military tribunals of detainees. Among other things, the bill "seeks to give habeas corpus protections to military detainees" and narrow the definition of "unlawful enemy combatant" to individuals who directly participate in hostilities against the United States."

Dodd's bill, which currently has no co-sponsors, seeks to give habeas corpus protections to military detainees; bar information that was gained through coercion from being used in trials and empower military judges to exclude hearsay evidence they deem to be unreliable.

Dodd's bill also narrows the definition of "unlawful enemy combatant" to individuals who directly participate in hostilities against the United States who are not lawful combatants. The legislation would also authorize the U.S. Court of Appeals for the armed forces to review decisions made by the military commissions.

Moreover, Dodd seeks to have an expedited judicial review of the new law to determine the constitutionality of its provisions.

Make no mistake, this move by Dodd is a risky one. He will be swiftboated, accused of "coddling our enemies" and being "Soft on terrorism" for simply requiring that Justice be Served.

We seem to have forgotten that this nation is built on a foundation that the innocent be protected, that those who are accused of crimes by the government be given the benefit of the doubt and considered innocent until proven guilty. The Military Commissions Act of 2006 is a travesty that has violated our core principles, but regaining what was lost will most certainly be an uphill battle. Dodd is simply attempted to correct our mistake.

Yes or course, we all want to fight terrorism - we just want to make sure it's against the right terrorists. We wouldn't want to go off half-cocked and invade the wrong country based on false confessions we gained through use of torture now would we?

Ooops. Never mind.

Vyan

Bush's War on Fact (and NYT) Escalates to DefCon 3

As reported by Glenn Greenwald, the Bush Administration is threatening legal action against the NY Times for exposing Dick Cheney's lies about Iraq.

While speaking with Rush Limbaugh

They're off to a good start. It is difficult, no question about it, but we've now got over 300,000 Iraqis trained and equipped as part of their security forces. They've had three national elections with higher turnout than we have here in the United States. If you look at the general overall situation, they're doing remarkably well.

The NY Times on the other hand has release a classified Pentagon Report indicating that Iraq is Slipping Toward Chaos.

Guess who the Bush Administration wants to put in the penalty box?

But of course - according to Fox News - it's the New York Times.

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is looking into how classified information indicating Iraq is moving closer to chaos wound up on the front page of Wednesday's New York Times, and is not ruling out an investigation that could lead to criminal charges.

A spokesman for U.S. Central Command, which has responsibility for operations in Iraq, confirmed to FOX News that a chart published in The Times is a real reflection of the thinking of military intelligence on the situation in Iraq as of Oct. 18, adding that an effort is underway to find out who leaked the chart and if the breach of operational security constitutes a crime.

So Fox News has confirmed that the Chart reflects the Truth - and the Pentagon response is "Who leaked it?"

The shrill call for heads to roll has already begun to ricochet around the wingnut-o-sphere.

Michelle Malkin -

Meant to get to this earlier, but the newspaper of wreckage is at it again--publishing illegally leaked classified information about the war in yet another transparent effort to sway the election.

The article title: "Military Charts Movement of Conflict in Iraq Toward Chaos."

After blabbing about the classified info revelaed in the article for 11 paragraphs, the Times notes:

A spokesman for the Central Command declined to comment on the index or other information in the slide. "We don't comment on secret material," the spokesman said.

The article then continues to blab about the illegally leaked info for another seven paragraphs.

Mario Loyola (National Review) has some questions:

I want to know whether there is any level of national secret the Times is not willing to betray for the political advantage of its pet causes.

There is nothing the blabbermouths won't blab if it hurts the Bush administration.

And I would like to know what else they may have doctored on the slide.

Hello, Justice Department?

And while we're at it, I would love to understand why the law doesn't prohibit the propagation of strategic national secrets in wartime -- which has always been understood as treason.

So let see, the New York Times prints the truth - and they know it's the truth - and as a result it's assumed they only did it because they're just a bunch of "Bush Haters", are accused of making shit up and of being traitors?

The question of why Dick Cheney has repeated lied to the American public doesn't even enter the equation. How about this one: Why was the chart in question - which has merely verified what has been obvious since the bombing of the Golden Mosque in February - classified in the first place?

This isn't strategic or tactical data. It doesn't tell us anything about how U.S. or Iraqi Forces plan to respond - it simply gives an assessment of where things are, and where they is not Disneyland.

Sharing that information doesn't hurt the War on Terra &tm, it simply hurts the Bush Administration's ability to lie with impunity.

BushGov was pretty pissed about Banking Leak, the NSA Eavesdropping Leak, and the Secret Prisons leak, never mind that most of these actions on the part of the Administration violated both U.S. and International law. Oh... and they were all true.

But leaking classified information about Valerie Plame-Wilson and destroying our ability to detect and fight weapons proliferation in Iraq and Iran? No problem. How about Republican Senator Pat Robertson leaking classified info which hampered our efforts to capture Saddam Hussein? No biggie.

Glenn sums it up:

This is what the ideal world of the Bush follower looks like: If the Government is waging a war and things are going horribly, the Government has the right to lie to its citizens and claim that things are going remarkably well. If a newspaper is furnished with documents prepared by the military that shows that the Government is lying and that things are actually going very poorly, the newspaper should then be barred from informing their readers about that truth -- and ought to criminally prosecuted, perhaps even executed, if they do so.

It truly takes an authoritarian mind of the most irredeemable proportions to watch our political leaders have their lies exposed about a war and have as their first reaction the desire that those who exposed the lies be prosecuted and imprisoned. But it isn't just Bush followers here who are demanding that, but the Bush administration itself, through the military, that is threatening to do so.

This threat is quite real IMO, especially with Alberto Gonzales already on record as threating to prosecute journalists.

Over the weekend, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales made a Draconian threat to prosecute journalists for writing about the National Security Agency's clandestine and illegal monitoring of U.S.-overseas telephone calls. That threat shows what an Orwellian farce the government's classified information system has become.

Gonzales is threatening to prosecute reporters under the 1917 Espionage Act. This anachronistic act was passed during World War I to make it illegal for unauthorized personnel to receive and transmit national defense information. The law is also currently being used to prosecute two lobbyists from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee for obtaining and transmitting classified information they received from a U.S. Defense Department employee. The lobbyists' lawyers have filed a motion in court arguing that the law is an unconstitutional breach of the First Amendment right to free speech.

Gonzales threats are bad enough, but if the Pentagon gets involved, all bets are off the table after the passage of the Military Commissions Act and the obliteration of Habeas Corpus for non-U.S. Citizens. Reporters could literally just - Disappear.

Think it couldn't happen? It already has to a Pulizer Prize Wining AP Photographer whose been in U.S. Custody for six months now without a hearing.

Military officials said Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen, was being held for "imperative reasons of security" under United Nations resolutions. AP executives said the news cooperative's review of Hussein's work did not find anything to indicate inappropriate contact with insurgents, and any evidence against him should be brought to the Iraqi criminal justice system.

Hussein, 35, is a native of Fallujah who began work for the AP in September 2004. He photographed events in Fallujah and Ramadi until he was detained on April 12 of this year.

Hussein is one of an estimated 14,000 people detained by the U.S. military worldwide - 13,000 of them in Iraq. They are held in limbo where few are ever charged with a specific crime or given a chance before any court or tribunal to argue for their freedom.

In Hussein's case, the military has not provided any concrete evidence to back up the vague allegations they have raised about him, Curley and other AP executives said.

This is not something that we can idly stand-by and let pass. This creeping totalitarianism is a real threat and most certainly will affect U.S. Citizens as we've already seen in cases such as Jose Padilla, Yasar Hamdi or the Liberty Seven. It has to be fought tooth and nail - stopped in it's tracks.

Hopefully November 7th will be a turning point. It must.

Vyan

Through the Looking Glass...

I had a dream the other night - nightmare actually. It was absolutely horrible. Terrifying.

Everything seemed normal. People went to work. Lived their daily lives. They seemed oblivious, but something was deeply, sickly wrong. It hung like a thick invisible cloud over me, my friends, family - over the country. I looked around to see what it was, but I could only see glimpses. Awful images in the corner of my eye that were far too devastating to face directly. An awful tragedy. The screaming of jets overhead followed by thousands dead in thunderous column of smoke, fire and dust. Bodies crushed into powder.

I turn away, but everywhere I look - it's worse.

The sounds of machines, tanks, explosions, far over the hill - out of sight - out of mind. Cordite burns my nose. Blood trickling into the gutters. Getting thicker every hour. Not too quickly so that the people walking by notice. They still shop, and dine alfresco - they still laugh - but they can smell it. I know they can.

I can see a TV. The News doesn't explain the blood. They speak of weapons not found. Urgent Memos ignored. Meetings not held. Desperate requests for assistance and a change in strategy unheeded. The President talks about our enemies and their relentlessness. He says that we are in the midst of a great stuggle of civilizations, one we can not afford to lose. He rails at those who disagree with him, even within his own party and says it's "Unimaginable to think"...anything other than what he tells us to think. He says that the opposing party has grown weak, would "appease" that enemy. His Secretary of Defense warns of their "Moral Confusion". The Speaker of House says they want to coddle terrorists.

War heroes are accused of being cowards if they dare criticize the President and his policies. Diligent CIA operatives working to uncover the missing weapons have their covers blown for the sake of political expediency. Jobs to help the public and reconstruct the destruction of war are doled out based on someones political leanings, not their qualifications.

A young woman walks into a shopping center, opens her jacket to reveal blocks of some substance taped to her body and then disappears in a flash of light and smoke. The screams are deafening. It happens again. And again... and again.

Through the thickening smoke I see children being raped by soldiers with our flag on their shoulder.

I see innocent men, women and children being rounded up - hooded, freezing, doused in cold water, nearly drown while held upside-down, buffetted by loud noises - unable to sleep for days, weeks even - some are sexually assaulted, but no one hears their cries. No one can move to aid them.

No judge will take their case. No trial is scheduled. No charges filed. No relief is possible. Habeaus Corpus is obliterated, like in the country of some third-world tin-pot dictator. But that country is now our home.

The sound becomes background noise against the sound of the traffic, everyone is too busy... in too much of a hurry to worry about that nagging inch on the back on their ear. So they shove the earphones of an IPOD into them. 2000 songs in your pocket - more than enough to cover up the smoke, the stench, the blood. It's too much trouble to scratch that inch, too dangerous. And when the IPOD stops working they keep themselves too busy to be concerned by watching the unfolding mystery and saga of a latest lone single missing blonde teacher/cheerleader/bride/debutante/pagentress/ex-model/stripper.

Shocking Bread. Aweful Circuses.

Our leaders bleat about a "Culture of Life" yet hundreds of thousands are slaughtered by warring tribes in Africa and our government does nothing, then vows to stay the course on that plan of inaction.

A massive storm approches and leaves a devastated American city in it's wake. Those who promised to protect us, to shelter us from such storms - stand by and withhold supplies while the city drowns in it's own sewage. More thousands die. Some claim the survivors are better off living as homeless "refugees" than in poverty. Only a few are offended by the crassness of the remark.

I feel like I'm being watched. I want to call someone, but I'm afriad. The phones are tapped. All of them. No warrants are issued, none are needed the President claims. Our emails are being tracked. Our libraries are being monitored.

We have to be afraid of what we say, who we talk too, how we think. I refuse, knowing that it puts everyone I love at risk. But the real truth is - no one is listening. Not anyone that counts. Not the public, they've gone voluntarily deaf and blind to the carnage.

One lone broadcaster dares to speak up, only to become the target of a mock domestic terrorist attack.

Allegations of voter fraud abound, but aren't taken seriously. We try to fence ourselves off from the world, but the real dangers are from inside the walls, not outside.

Yet -- at the same time, a male prostitute pretending to be a reporter can walk in and out of the White House a hundred times and no one notices. Congressmen are taking bribes from one of the White Houses best friends, Cavorting with hookers, even soliciting from the male teenage pages who attend them. No one in Congress asks what happened to the armor our troops were supposed to receive, no one asks why their water is contaminated, no one asks why civilian contractors receiving 5-times their pay for doing the same job, while the red-ink side of the ledger is starting to cover the entire page and flow directly into the torrent of blood filling the gutters. American blood and Iraqi blood. Our blood. Our treasure. Wasted.

It seems there's no way to staunch the flow. No way to end the suffering. Even with the ruling party now in complete, total disgrace and failure it still seems that they just might retain control, barely - How is that even possible? How is that even conceivable?

And still from the people there is no outcry - oh, surely in some corners I can hear the frustration, the rage building - but only on the so-called "lunatic" fringes. The average person, living the Walmart-life, feeling safe and secure in their ignorant bliss - I hear nothing, until I wake up screaming.

At which point I realize, as of course you well know if you've read this far, it was no dream.

But it is indeed, a nightmare.

Vyan

The Great Red-Blue Divide

This country has long had a large diversity of social and political views, but more and more this divide seems to have become a yawning chasm - a split between not just Left and Right, but Reality and Faith, Science and Fantasy, Compassion and Profit.

Those on the Right complain that Liberals are brainless "moonbats" who've let their pathological hatred of President Bush grow so rabid that they lost all ability to reason, and blindly accept any "Known Fact^tm" that criticizes the President. According to Charles Krathhammer, their suffering from a psychological disoder which he called "Bush Derangment Syndrome".

Maybe it's little surprise that I disagree with that assessment.

I counter that this is merely another excellent example of what the Self-Righteous Wing of the Republican Party has become excellent at accomplishing -- self-deception. Since the last Presidential Election, in fact since the beginning of this Presidency, the entire Republican Party, -not just Bush - have been faced with increasing challenges, challenges of Reality vs their ideology theories, and they have repeated failed.

Moonbats and BDS aside, and I do not deny that there may indeed people people of this type - some who may believe that "No plane ever hit the Pentagon" or "the levee's were blown up" for example, but there are so many many Genuine Facts ^tm that I think when listed back to back and in chronological order, the truth will make itself clear even to many of those who doggedly resist it. The following is humble, and far from perfect, attempt at assembling these facts into a Chronology of Right-Wing Corruption and Deception in the Bush Era

2000

The first issue that widened the divide was clearly the 2000 election and it's long messy aftermath of hanging chads and Superme Court Intervention which cost Al Gore the election despite the fact that he had won the popular vote. Not even everyone on the left automatically believed the allegations of voter intimidation and disenfrachisement that were circulated at the time. Not everyone believed that this election was "stolen" -- or agreed with Michael Moore's assertion that "Gore won Florida" but it did make many people begin to take notice of this President and his actions.


Many people began almost immediately to distrust him - much of Europe was greatly concerned by his record 163 executions while Texas Governor - but only a few thought that the contentiousness of the 2000 election would become "standard-operating procudure" for the entire nation over the next 4 or more years.


(Since the 2000 election several studies of the ballots have occured, most have indicated that Gore had a slim numerical advantage if both undervotes and overvotes had been included in the count -- but that Gore would have lost if his vote challenge, which focused only on undervotes in certain counties, had his original request been allowed to go forward by the Supreme Court. A more recent study of overvotes with right-in preferences indicates that Gore may actually have won Florida by as many 30,000 votes. One of the Bush foot soldiers who helped stop the Florida Recount was John Bolton.)

2001

• In January the Bush Administration ignored warnings that their greatest challenge would be "dealing with Osama Bin Ladin and al Qaeda", refusing to have a briefing or meeting on the issue for 8 months and instead chose to spend their entire first NSA briefing discussing Iraq and how to oust Saddam.
• Vice-President Cheney participates in a Energy Task Force, whose attendies are shrouded in Secrecy, and which according to subsequent reports included a discussion of carving up Iraqi Oil Fields for American Companies after the removal of Saddam.
  
• When the "California Energy Crisis" occured as a result of corrupt practices by companies such as Enron - the Bush Administration refused to consider caps to prevent prince gauging, a decision which ultimately cost California $50 Billion. Money which still hasn't been paid back.
  
• In order to boost the flagging post DotCom/Enron economy, Bush implements the first round of tax cuts (which inordinately benefits those who don't need them), almost immediately this results in a dramatic reversal of the Federal Budget surplus which had existed sinced 1998, and a return to defecit spending.
  
• Bush ignored the August 6th, 2001 PDB warning that "Bin Laden Determined to Attack within the U.S." He took no action. Shook no trees, connected no dots.
  
• 9-11 Attack occurs while Bush reads "My Pet Goat" to school children in Florida.
  
• On Sept 12th Bush asks NSC Counter-Terrorism Chief Richard Clark about 9-11 "See if Saddam did this. See if he's linked in any way..." Clark does look into it, and finds nothing. Cheney concurs on Meet the Press that there is no evidence that Saddam had anything to do with 9-11.
  
• Bush submits the U.S. Patriot Act to Congress which significantly enhances the powers of the government to conduct domestic surveillance and intelligence gathering... but still unsatisfied by the additional powers granted by the act Bush secretly authorizes NSA wiretaps of U.S Citizens without requesting warrants from the FISA Court. The CIA also begin it's Rendition program which allows for terrorist detainees to be held in Secret Foreign U.S. Prisons, without access to legal council or protection from human rights abuses.
  
• Less than two months after the 9-11 attack, while Bush claims to want "Osama bin Laden Dead or Alive", he began redeploying vital assests and troops from Afghanistan to Iraq (despite there beingl no evidence of a link to Saddam). This shift ultimately allowed Bin Laden to escape Tora Bora.

2002

• By Feb of 2002 the Defense Intelligence Agency had determined that the one person who had made claims linking 9-11 and Al-Qaeda to Saddam Hussein was a fabricator and couldn't be trusted, yet President Bush continued to make claims linking Saddam to al-Qaeda & 9-11 for the next 2 years (More recently he has said he "never made any such claim").
• President Bush signs a Feb 2002 Memo stating that the Geneva Conventions did not apply to al-Qaeda or Taliban detainees, and that their humane treatment should be contigent upon "Military Neccesity", not the Constitution, U.S. Law or even the Uniform Code of Military Justice which strictly forebids the "maltreatment" of prisoners.
  
• March 2002, Ambassador Joe Wilson returns from African at the request of the CIA and reports that claims that Iraq had attempted to by processed Uranium Ore (Yellowcake) were false. After several months of inaction by the Bush Administration, he eventually writes an Op-Ed on his trip, his veracity and credibility were attacked by the Bush Administration, his wife's status as a CIA Employee was leaked to the press and reported by Robert Novak. The CIA refers the matter to the Justice Dept for Investigation. Meanwhile Under Secretary of State John Bolton arranges to have Jose Bustani, a Brazillian diplomat fired because he insisted on sending weapons inspectors to Iraq.
  
• President Bush says "He's not that concerned with Osama bin Laden", and opposes formation of the 9-11 Commision to investigate the attack.
  
• In Mid 2002, George Tenet and Condoleeza Rice meet with their British Counterparts who reported back to Tony Blair that the "that U.S. was determined to go to war with Iraq, and that the "[wmd intelligence] facts were being fixed around [that] policy".
• Information that Iraq continued to maintain WMD's and/or weapons programs were being provided by a single source - an expatriate Iraqi being held by German Intelligence code-named "Curveball", who had been determined to be "unreliable" by the Defense Intellegence Agency, yet his claims were heavily relied upon in the National Intelligence Estimate that was provided to Congress prior to their vote on the Iraq War Resolution.
• Even without the doubts concerning Curveball, the complete Classified NIE contained significant dispute from the State Department and Department of Energy concerning the continuing of Iraq Nuclear programs involving the suspicion by the State Deparment's Intelligence Division (INR) that the Niger purchase documents were forged (a view reached independantly from Joe Wilson's claims), and that the aluminum tubes were not intended to be used for centerfuges - however these concerns were not included in the unclassified version of the report that was provided to full membership Congress
  
• By late 2002, President Bush with Tony Blair's support had begun pushing the UN to take action on Iraq and managed to get Resolution 1441 passed which authorized the UNSOM Weapons Inspectors to return.
• October 2002 Guantanamo officials "request that additional techniques beyond those in the field manual be approved for use." against terrorist suspects who have been captured in Afghanistan.
  
• Bush submits the Iraq Force Resolution (HJ 141) to Congress which deviates significantly from the Constitutional Process which grants Congress the sole authority to declare war and instead shifts the power to be made based on a "Presidential Determination" of Saddam Hussein's full disclosure of his weapons and compliance to all relevant UN Resolutions. The resolution passes, but requires that the President must first ensure that all diplomatic means have been exhausted before using force - a point that is thoroughly hammered home by Sen John Kerry.
  
• December 2002 Rumsfeld - in accordance with the memo previously signed by President Bush suspending the Geneva Conventions- prescribes new interrogation policy for Guantanamo, authorizing "stress positions," hooding, 20-hour interrogations, removal of clothing, exploiting phobias to induce stress (e.g., fear of dogs), prolonged isolation, sensory deprivation, and forced grooming. These techniques soon spread to Afghanistan and later to Iraq. Later that month FBI officials begin to complain to Defense Department of abuses at Guantanamo and of Afghan detainees killed during interrogation in U.S. custody at Bagram Air Force Base, Afghanistan.

2003

• During his State of the Union Address, President Bush utters the infamous 16-words claiming that Iraq had attempted to purchase Uranium from Africa in order to build nuclear weapons although this language had previously been removed from the speech at the repeated request of George Tenet - the information remained Unconfirmed and was based on a document already suspected as being a forgery. The claim was reportedly removed, then placed back in the speech by National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley.
• January 2003 Rumsfeld rescinds blanket approval of some techniques but indicates techniques may continue based on his individual case approval. Rumsfeld designates a "Working Group" to assess legal, policy and operational issues for detainee interrogation in the "war on terrorism."
  
• Dept. Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz tells Congress "To assume we're going to pay for [The Iraq Conflict and Reconstruction] all is just wrong." He says that estimates of $95 Billion are "too high".
  
• Bush Adminstration Officials such as Secretary of State Powell and Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley continue to claim that Iraq has developed and retains Chemical and Biological weapons, quoting interviews with an Iraqi defector, General Hussein Kamel, but fail to mention that during these interviews Kamel also stated that he had personally ordered the Iraqi Stockpiles of chemical weapons destroyed way back in 1991 following the first Gulf War.
  
• After four months of searching in February of 2003 the UNSCOM and IAEA inspectors had found absolutely nothing - no mobile biological labs, (only a set of al-samoud missles which they promptly destroyed) - supporting the claim that Saddam either possessed WMD's, WMD programs or a Nuclear program. They called the US provided intelligence information - "garbage".
• Iraq provides a full disclosure document of their current weapons programs, which indicates that they "Have No wmd's" - the Bush Administration flatly rejects it.
• Although the Bush Administration has repeatedly claimed that "everyone had the same information" concerning Iraq's WMD programs, including France, Germany and Russia - President Bush decides not to seek a second authorization from the UN for further action against Iraq due to the opposition of France, China and Russia. He begins to form the "Coalition of the Willing" (CPA). (Germany also opposes military action, a position which is quite telling since Curveball, the primary source for allegations of Iraq WMD's, remained in German custody - if they didn't believe him, why did we?)
  
• April 2003 Rumsfeld approves 24 of the recommended techniques for use at Guantanamo, including dietary and environmental manipulation, sleep adjustment, false flag and isolation.
• Secret No-Bid Reconstruction Contracts offered to Kellog-Brown & Root (KBR), a Haliburton Subsidiary (Dick Cheney's former company), in preparation for a post-Saddam Iraq.
  
• March 2003, Bush makes a determination that "Saddam can't be trusted" and although the UN inspectors haven't yet finished their job he orders them out of Iraq and on the 19th begins the invasion. Bush and Rumsfeld ignore requests for 500,000 troops by Paul Bremer, and advise from Gen Shinseki that more troops will be needd to "Keep the peace" once the fighting has ended - later claiming that he received "no such requests".
  
• Shock And Awe - estimates vary from 15,000 to 20,000 Iraqis killed in the first few days by U.S. Bombs. The U.S. Attempts many "Decapitation Strikes" against Saddam - all of which fail. Troops who do find 380 tons of explosives at al-Qaqaa - but these were not connected to Chemical Weapons and subsequently left unguarded and looted.
  
• Private Jessica Lynch captured, the news reports that she "fought valiantly" until captured and that her rescue was a "heroic effort" - but subsequent reports show that this story is exaggerated and false.
  
• On May 1st Bush declares Mission Accomplished aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier "Major Combat Operations in Iraq have ended" which was followed by widespread looting in Iraq. Gradually an anti-American Insurgency begins to form and spread from disaffected former members of the Iraqi Military and foreign fighters who in all likelyhood may have been trained by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and had escaped as U.S. forces were prematurely committed to Iraq.
  
• August 2003 Rumsfeld sends Guantanamo commander (General Sanchez) to Iraq to "gitmo-ize" Iraqi detention facilities, promoting wide-scale deployment of more aggressive interrogation methods in Iraq in order to gain better intelligence information on the insurgency.
  
• Bush tells the growing Iraqi insurgency to "Bring 'em On". They do. Saddam Hussein is captured in a spider-hole, Osama bin Laden isn't.
  
• September 2003 Lt. Gen. Sanchez authorizes 29 interrogation techniques for use in Iraq, including the use of dogs, stress positions, sensory deprivation, loud music and light control, based on Rumsfeld's April 16 techniques and suggestions from captain of military unit formerly in Afghanistan.
• October - December, Torture and serious abuses of detainees take place at Abu Ghraib in a special unit which remains under direct Command of Gen Sanchez. Gen Karpinski, the overall Abu Ghraib commander, is kept "out of the loop". Reporter Sy Hersh in his book "Chain of Command" reveals that the original idea behind the sexually humiliating photos taken at Abu Ghraib, was to use them as blackmail so that the newly released prisoners -- many of whom were ordinary Iraqi thieves or even civilian bystanders rounded up in dragnets -- could be convinced to act as informants against the insurgency. "We operate on guilt, [Muslims] operate on shame," Hersh explained. "
• Rather than being greated as "Liberators" as claimed by VP Cheney, the Iraq invasion "galvanizes al-Qaeda" and begins to "swell their ranks".
  
• The Federal Debt reaches over $6 Trillion.
  

2004

• January 2004 Spc Joseph Darby gives Army criminal investigators a CD containing the Abu Ghraib photographs depicting detainee torture and abuses. Rumsfeld informed.
• The Medicare Prescription Drug Plan passes in the middle of the night after extensive strong-arm tactics by House Majority Leader Tom Delay. Claims are that the plan will only cost $80 Billion, but that estimate quickly inflates.
  
• February 2004 Maj. Gen. Taguba completes investigation; reports of "systematic" and "sadistic,blatant and wanton criminal abuses" at Abu Ghraib.
• April 2004, 60 Minutes II airs segment showing Abu Ghraib photos. The insurgency intensifies. President Bush delays the scheduled Iraqi election to select an interim Parliament.
• June, Transfer of Sovereignty from Coalition Provisional Authority to Interim Iraqi Government is completeed although $20 Billion in Oil Revenues under control of the CPA disappears. Bush is interviewed by Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald concerning the Plame-CIA Lead investigation "The leaking of classified information is a very serious matter."
  
• Rep Tom DeLay is admonished three times by the House Ethics Committee for 1) offering a bribes to get votes on the Medicare Bill, 2) misusing Homeland Security resources in order to get a quorum of vote on Texas Redistricting (which alone gained the Republicans 5 additional seats), and 3) accepting inappropriate gifts from lobbyist such as Jack Abramoff.
  
• August 2004, Rumsfeld-appointed panel reports Rumsfeld interrogation policy led to confusion in the field as to what techniques were authorized; also reports that civilian Defense Department leaders failed in their interrogation and detention duties.
• Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld offers his resignation in the wake of Abu Ghraib, President Bush rejects it.
• The New York Times delays reporting the NSA Wiretap Story after the Publisher and Editor are called to the Oval Office by President Bush.
  
• The FDA finds and notes contamination problems with the creation of the 2004 flu vaccine. Yet, consistent with a general Bush policy to back-down on regulatory enforcement, they choose to ask that company to volantarily resolve the problem. They didn't. It eventually requirse the intervention of British authorities, who oversaw the flu manufacturing plant, to do something to protect the public and the result was aflu vaccination crisis.
• Bush debates Presidential Challanger John Kerry and claims that he never said he "Doesn't think about Osama bin Laden". Kerry is accused of being a "flip-flopper" and fails to respond to the "Swift Boat Vets" who accuse him of falsifying the after-action report which led to his medal awards in Vietnam, and making false claims to Congress concerning "atrocities" which occured during the War, even though all available documentation and transcripts of testimony support Kerry's account he' s defeated in a close contest after exit polls initially indicate a Kerry victory and there are yet again, rampant allegations of voter disenfranchizement and tabulation errors in both Florida and Ohio. As a result Senator Barbara Boxer pratically stages a revolt in Congress.
  
• November, CIA's full investigation of Iraq WMD's (The Dulfer Report) is completed and indicates that Saddam Hussein did not have chemical weapons, nuclear weapons or any current programs to reconstitute these weapons. Bush claims that it doesn't matter, that the War was justified even without the WMD's because "Hussein was still a threat".
• U.S. Forces take back the city of Fallajah from insurgents in a violent battle, during the fight White Phosphorous is used on the civilian populace, including children, resulting chemical reaction that burns the flesh off of people.
  
• December, the First Iraqi Election Occurs with massive turnout, although exactly what and who is being voted on remains unclear. Iraq War Price tag tops over $100 Billion. Donald Rumsfeld is asked "Why are we forced to scavenge for Armor" while visiting the troops in Kuwait.
  
• The Federal Debt reaches $7 billion.
  

2005

• An Audit indicates that Iraq CPA "lost" another $8.8 Billion in funds.
• Using documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU sues Donald Rumsfeld (and others) for their involvment in Prisoner Abuse at Guantanemo and Abu Ghraib.
  
• President Bush after "winning" re-election decides he now has "political capital, and he's going to spend it" - on turning Social Security into a Privatized/Personallized investment system. His plan dies on the vein - just like nomination of Harriet Meyers to the Supreme Court, which is knocked down by the far-right wing of his own party. Bush is Official a Lame-duck, and things really start to go sour.
  
• Prepacked News Reports designed to support Bush Administration agenda items are found to have been provided by the Goverment and presented on local news stations as genuine.
  
• The Terry Schiavo Controversy explodes and halts the functioning of Government. President Bush dramatically flies back to Washington in the dead of night to sign emergency legislation designed to allow a Federal Judicial Review of the case. Heart Surgeon and apparently closet Neurologist Bill Frist claims "she seems to be conscious and reacting to the light" after reviewing a few minutes of video tape. Talking points are circulated on the Senate Floor about how this is a "Bad issue" for democrats. Eventually the ruling that Schavio is indeed in a "permanent vegitative state" is upheld and she is permitted to die as per her own requests (as noted by three witnesses) - the autopsy shows that significant portions of her brain had atrophied and that she was completely blind due to brain damage. President Bush trumpets the "Culture of Life" despite the fact that he had signed the Texas Futile Care Act into Law while Governor of Texas - a Law that takes the decision to maintain the life of patient out of the hands of the family and gives it to the Doctors and Hospital when that patients is unable to pay the bill.
  
• John Bolton is nominated by President Bush as the new Ambassador to the UN. He is reported as a "tough guy" who will "clean up the UN" following the overblown Oil-for-food Scandal, but his nomination hits a snag when it is discovered that he attempted to have a State Department Analyst fired for trying to keep exaggerated claims of Cuban WMD'S from one of his speeches. His nomination is permanently derailed when it's discovered that he attempted to access NSA Intercepts in order to spy on other members of the government. President Bush eventually grants him a recess appointment which expires at the end of the current Congress. Congress never discovers exactly who Bolton was trying to spy on, or why.
  
• Amnesty International, the Worlds Leading Human Rights Organization, calls for the investigation and if found warranted the indictment, prosecution and imprisonment of George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Douglas Feith, George Tenet and Lt. General Sanchez for International War Crimes for Torture at Guantanemo, Bagram AFB in Afghanistan and Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq.
• New York Times reporter Judith Miller is jailed from refusing to reveal her sources on the Plame-leak, after a personal visit releasing her from promise of confidentiality fromVice President Chief of Staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby she is released and Libby is indicted for Obstruction of Justice, and Perjury. Presidential Dept Chief of Staff Karl Rove remains under investigation.
• Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist calls for an investigation of the Secret Prison Leaks, and even threatens to have the Security Clearance of the two top Democrats in the Senate revoked.
  
• Category 5 Hurricane Katrina hits the Gulf Coast - unlike his dramatic cross-country late night flight in response to Terry Schiavo - President Bush goes to play guitar with a Country Singer. But not to worry, he left Fema Director Michael "you're doing a heck of a job" Brown(ie) in charge. With little to zero Federal help, New Orleans Mayor Nagin manages to evacuate 80% of his resident before the levee failes- still thousands remain trapped by flood in their homes and at the Superdome without food or water. The Department of Homeland Securitytells the RedCross to Stand-down, and FEMA blocked aid to Jefferson Parish - while the one lone FEMA person in New Orleans is practically screaming for help via his Blackberry, and Brownie goes out to dinner. Brown is eventually forced to retire, but not after blaming the problem on everyone else. Gas prices skyrocketed to $3.40/gallon and Bush's approval ratings drop down to 36%.
  
• Bill Frist is investigated for SEC violations.
  
• Republican House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is indicted for money laundering in Texas.
  
• Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham pleads guilting for accepting $2.1 million in bribes from Defense Contractors, and reportedly wore a wire during the investigation.

2006

• Republican Lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleads guilty for providing bribes to members of Congress, Rep Tom Delay permenently steps down from his leadership post.
  
• After extensive negotiation with Sen John McCain, Bush signs the Torture Ban into law - and then immediately releases a "Signing Statement" that claims that the President isn't required to abide by the law he just signed.
  
• The death toll of U.S. Soldiers in Iraq passes the 2200 mark, and reports indicate that approx 80% of U.S. Casualties could have been prevent with proper armor.
  
• The Federal Debt Tops $8 Trillion, and our future - the future of our children continues to be mortgaged.
  
• New Revelations on the NSA Wiretap story indicate that Defense Attorneys and the Justice Dept are worried that "fruit of the poison tree" arguments may completely scuttile pending and Federal Prosecutions or overturn existing convictions of Terrorist Suspects. (Which IMO would make us considerably less safe than we were previously!!) Meanwhile in a replay of the COINTELPRO Scandal of the 50-70's, the FBI and Pentagon have been domestically spying on U.S. Citizens, including anti-War Protestors, members of PETA, Poverty Relief Agencies, Greenpeace, Gay Military Personnel, and possibly even CNN Reporter Christian Amanpour..and that illegally gathered NSA Wiretap information (aka Poisoned Fruit!) may have been used by these agencies in this spying.
  

Now many of those on the Far Right-wing would have you believe that all of the above is either bad luck, coincidence or a collection of Left-wing smears. And certainly resonable people may certainly disagree with one or more specific points, but I think that if you look at the totality of it all, the ongoing pattern of disregard, negligence, greed and power-mongering not just by Bush, but by his political appointees and many of the major players in the Republican party, it becomes difficult to escape the reality.

This Presidency has been a total disaster of historic proportions, with repercussions which will continue for decades.<>Sadly, escape it many will - by burying deeper and deeper into denial and obfuscation. And so, the divide continues to widen further and further. I fear there is literally nothing that could possibly happen to snap us all back into the same reality once more, if what we've already seen isn't enough.

Vyan

Frist: Gov Leaks must Stop

Yes, that's right Sen Majority Leader Bill Frist has finally got Religion on the leaking of classified information by government sources. Writing a letter to Senate Intelligence Committe Frist stated the following:

Dear Chairman Hoekstra and Chairman Roberts:

We request that you immediately initiate a joint investigation into the possible release of classified information to the media..

The purpose of your investigation will be to determine the following: was the information provided to the media classified and accurate?; who leaked this information and under what authority?;

Not only does he want to know who did it, but how much it may have hurt the U.S.

what is the actual and potential damage done to the national security of the United States and our partners in the Global War on Terror.

what is the actual and potential damage done to the national security of the United States and our partners in the Global War on Terror?

He goes further to point out how such releases of information are dangerous to our own troops.

The leaking of classified information by employees of the United States government appears to have increased in recent years, establishing a dangerous trend that, if not addressed swiftly and firmly, likely will worsen. The unauthorized release of classified information is serious and threatens our nation's security. It also puts the lives of many Americans and the security of our nation at risk.

It's good to see he's returned from the Dark side, except for the fact that the leak he wants to investigate isn't the outing of classified CIA Operative Valerie Plame, nor are they requesting this investigation to find out who outed a Pakistani Double Agent by the name of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan in 2004.

Khan had been secretly apprehended by ISI in mid-July and persuaded to become a double agent. He was actively helping investigators penetrate further into Al Qaeda cells and activities via computer, and was still cooperating when the “senior Bush administration” figure told New York Times’ Douglas Jehl about him. ISI told Reuters, “He sent encoded e-mails and received encoded replies. He’s a great hacker and even the US agents said he was a computer whiz … He was cooperating with interrogators on Sunday and Monday and sent e-mails on both days.” This proves that the Bush administration just blew the cover of one of the most important assets inside Al Qaeda that the US has ever had.

But no, that's not it. Frist wants to know who spilled the beans on the U.S. Secret Torture Centers around the world, because clearly - we can't let anyone know about that. We have to keep torturing people, we got such great and wonderful information from Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi (except for everything he said about Al-Qaeda working with Saddam Hussein being a lie).

But oh wait, the President just said this weekend -- "We don't Torture" while Dick Cheney is running around Congress doing his best to make sure we still can just in case we want to.

From the Washington Post: "Q Mr. President, there has been a bit of an international outcry over reports of secret U.S. prisons in Europe for terrorism suspects. Will you let the Red Cross have access to them? And do you agree with Vice President Cheney that the CIA should be exempt from legislation to ban torture?

"PRESIDENT BUSH: Our country is at war, and our government has the obligation to protect the American people. The executive branch has the obligation to protect the American people; the legislative branch has the obligation to protect the American people. And we are aggressively doing that. We are finding terrorists and bringing them to justice. We are gathering information about where the terrorists may be hiding. We are trying to disrupt their plots and plans. Anything we do to that effort, to that end, in this effort, any activity we conduct, is within the law. We do not torture.

The absurdity of this is obvious to nearly everyone - except the White House

Republican Columnist Andrew Sullivan writes: "If that's the case, why threaten to veto a law that would simply codify what Bush alleges is already the current policy? If 'we do not torture,' how to account for the hundreds and hundreds of cases of abuse and torture by U.S. troops, documented by the government itself? If 'we do not torture,' why the memos that expanded exponentially the lee-way given to the military to abuse detainees in order to get intelligence? The president's only defense against being a liar is that he is defining 'torture' in such a way that no other reasonable person on the planet, apart from Bush's own torture apologists (and they are now down to one who will say so publicly), would agree. The press must now ask the president: does he regard the repeated, forcible near-drowning of detainees to be torture? Does he believe that tying naked detainees up and leaving them outside all night to die of hypothermia is 'torture'? Does he believe that beating the legs of a detainee until they are pulp and he dies is torture? Does he believe that beating detainees till they die is torture? Does he believe that using someone's religious faith against them in interrogations is 'cruel, inhumane and degrading' treatment and thereby illegal? What is his definition of torture?"

Frist has even gone so far as trying to have the Security Clearance for the Senates top two Democrats revoked in response to a Democratic attempt to have the clearances removed for any White House personnel who have shared it improperly (like Karl Rove who spoke both to Matt Cooper and Robert Novak about Valerie Plame). A measure which failed 64 to 33 when 20 Republicans joined all present Democrats in voting against it.

Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) acknowledged the blatantly political tone of the debate. "This is a sad and a disappointing afternoon here in the United States Senate," he said.

But wait, this story gets even worse... Guess who it looks like leaked the information about the Secret Detention Centers we don't really have, and where people don't really get tortured? Apparently according to Trent Lott - it must have been a Republican Senator, since the information we don't really have seems to have come from a closed door Republicans only session.

But Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., told reporters the information in the Post story was the same as that given to Republican senators in a closed-door briefing by Vice President Dick Cheney last week. "Every word that was said in there went right to the newspaper," he said, and added, "We can't keep our mouths shut." (Posted 5:04 p.m.)

So apparently 1) The of Secret Detention Centers Story is True (the CIA has already referred the leak to the Justice Deparment) and 2) yet another set of Republicans has apparently leaked Classified information after hearing directly from the Horses Ass...er, I mean Dick Cheney.

Oh and apparently Senator and sometimes Dr. Bill I-can-diagnose-that-disease-with-only-30-seconds-of-videotape-for-$149.95 Frist is livid. Good things do happen to patient people, don't they?

But then again on the subject of patience, while the Senate Intelligence Commitee is busy investigating other members of the Senate Intelligence Committee -- they probably won't have any time to deal with other big issue they were gonna work on -- what was that -- oh, yeah, just who cooked the Iraq WMD and Terrorism Intelligence and sent us into a misguided, unneccesary and illegal War?

Vyan