IMPEACH BUSH

January 03, 2006

Bush Appointments Averts Senate Consent

President Bush yesterday made a raft of controversial recess appointments, including Julie L. Myers to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau at the Department of Homeland Security, in a maneuver circumventing the need for approval by the Senate.

January 05, 2006

Three GOP senators blast Bush bid to bypass torture ban

WASHINGTON -- Three key Republican senators yesterday condemned President Bush's assertion that his powers as commander in chief give him the authority to bypass a new law restricting the use of torture when interrogating detainees.

January 04, 2006

Justices Order Padilla Terror Case Moved to Civilian Court

The order marked a major step in the odyssey of Padilla, whose arrest in Chicago in 2002 triggered a legal and philosophical battle over the government's power to detain Americans captured in this country. He was introduced to the public as a shadowy former gang member who converted to Islam and stood accused by top federal officials of plotting to detonate a radiological "dirty bomb." He was locked in the brig for more than three years. For much of that time, Padilla had no access to a lawyer, and he has never appeared in court to fight his detention.

January 04, 2006

Bush could bypass new torture ban

After approving the bill last Friday, Bush issued a "signing statement" -- an official document in which a president lays out his interpretation of a new law -- declaring that he will view the interrogation limits in the context of his broader powers to protect national security. This means Bush believes he can waive the restrictions, the White House and legal specialists said.

January 04, 2006

NSA Spied on Americans Without Presidential Authority

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 - The National Security Agency acted on its own authority, without a formal directive from President Bush, to expand its domestic surveillance operations in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to declassified documents released Tuesday.

January 4, 2006

White House Told NSA Briefings Broke Law

WASHINGTON - The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee told President Bush Wednesday that the White House broke the law by withholding information from the full congressional oversight committees about a new domestic surveillance program.

January 5, 2006

Levin Protests Move to Dismiss Habeas Corpus Petitions

Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said yesterday that the Bush administration cannot use recent legislation he helped craft to seek the dismissal of habeas corpus petitions filed on behalf of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, contending that the law applies only to new cases.

January 03, 2006

Bush Appointments Averts Senate Consent

President Bush yesterday made a raft of controversial recess appointments, including Julie L. Myers to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau at the Department of Homeland Security, in a maneuver circumventing the need for approval by the Senate.

January 18, 2006

2002 Memo Doubted Uranium Sale Claim

WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 - A high-level intelligence assessment by the Bush administration concluded in early 2002 that the sale of uranium from Niger to Iraq was "unlikely" because of a host of economic, diplomatic and logistical obstacles, according to a secret memo that was recently declassified by the State Department.

January 17, 2006

Whose Fault Is 'Curveball' Mess?

Jan. 16, 2006 - The Bush administration's reliance on a secret source, code-named Curveball, to make its case that Iraq was harboring weapons of mass destruction is one of the great embarrassments of the run-up to the Iraq war. Curveball, the primary source for Secretary of State Colin Powell's prewar assertion to the United Nations that Saddam Hussein was hiding mobile germ-warfare labs, was later discredited. By why was the United States fooled to begin with?

January 19, 2006

Bush administration violated the National Security Act

The Bush administration appears to have violated the National Security Act by limiting its briefings about a warrantless domestic eavesdropping program to congressional leaders, according to a memo from Congress's research arm released yesterday.

Janauary 18, 2006

Human Rights Watch: torture and mistreatment have been a deliberate part of the Bush administration

Roth said the illegal tactics were fueling terrorist recruitment, discouraging public assistance of counterterrorism efforts and creating a pool of unprosecutable detainees.

January 16, 2006

Gore Says Bush Wiretapping Could be Impeachable Offense

Asked by ABC News following his speech whether President Bush's domestic spying program constituted an impeachable offense, Gore said it might be and pointed to one of the three Articles of Impeachment that the House Judiciary Committee approved against President Nixon on July 27, 1974.

January 16, 2006

Justice Department Isn't Enforcing Lobbyist Law Violations

The Justice Department has imposed only three fines over the past two years in cases involving inaccurate or unfiled lobbying reports.

January 14, 2006

Pakistanis Condemn CIA Attack

Counterterrorism officials in Washington declined to comment on U.S. media reports that CIA-operated drone aircraft fired missiles Friday at a residential compound in Damadola trying to hit Ayman al-Zawahri, Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant whose videos have made him the face and voice of al-Qaida.

January 12, 2006

Records Show Army Ended Abuse Probe Early

The documents include numerous references to investigators being blocked from a thorough investigation, yet the matter was closed a final time on June 17, 2005, by the Army Criminal Investigation Command.

January 12, 2006

Ex-official warned against testifying on NSA programs

The National Security Agency has warned a former intelligence officer that he should not testify to Congress about accusations of illegal activity at NSA because of the secrecy of the programs involved.

January 6, 2006

Homeland Security opening private mail

Last month Goodman, an 81-year-old retired University of Kansas history professor, received a letter from his friend in the Philippines that had been opened and resealed with a strip of dark green tape bearing the words "by Border Protection and carrying the official Homeland Security seal.

January 9, 2006

US military opposed Bremer call for more Iraq troops

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Paul Bremer, the former top civilian administrator in Iraq, called for more US troops in 2004, but the US military opposed him, the Pentagon said.

January 6, 2006

Bush using a little-noticed strategy to alter the balance of power

WASHINGTON - President Bush agreed with great fanfare last month to accept a ban on torture, but he later quietly reserved the right to ignore it, even as he signed it into law.

January 8, 2006

Alito Memo: President's can break the law

His words appeared to turn a legislative defeat into a White House victory. Bush said he would follow the torture ban so long as it did not conflict with his "constitutional authority ... as commander in chief" and his need to "protect the American people from further terrorist attacks."

January 7, 2006

IRS tracked taxpayers' political affiliation

According to Murray's office, the 20 states in which the IRS collected party affiliation information were Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.

January 4, 2006

White House Told NSA Briefings Broke Law

WASHINGTON - The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee told President Bush Wednesday that the White House broke the law by withholding information from the full congressional oversight committees about a new domestic surveillance program.

January 5, 2006

Levin Protests Move to Dismiss Habeas Corpus Petitions

Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said yesterday that the Bush administration cannot use recent legislation he helped craft to seek the dismissal of habeas corpus petitions filed on behalf of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, contending that the law applies only to new cases.

December 30, 2005

The CIA's role in breaking our laws

GST includes programs allowing the CIA to capture al Qaeda suspects with help from foreign intelligence services, to maintain secret prisons abroad, to use interrogation techniques that some lawyers say violate international treaties, and to maintain a fleet of aircraft to move detainees around the globe. Other compartments within GST give the CIA enhanced ability to mine international financial records and eavesdrop on suspects anywhere in the world.

July 4, 2002
Posted December 30, 2005

Receipt of intelligence obtained by torture

Dissident bloggers in coordinated exposé of UK government lies over torture.

1. We receive intelligence obtained under torture from the Uzbek intelligence services, via the US. We should stop. It is bad information anyway. Tortured dupes are forced to sign up to confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the US and UK to believe, that they and we are fighting the same war against terror.

December 30, 2005

84 Guantanamo detainees on hunger strike

In addition, another federal judge ruled earlier this month that it was illegal for the Bush administration to continue imprisoning several Chinese Muslims at the base, although the judge also said he was powerless to order the military to let the men go.

August 23, 2002
Posted December 30, 2005

FISA Court Chided Justice Dept. On Misinformation

The secretive federal court that approves spying on terror suspects in the United States has refused to give the Justice Department broad new powers, saying the government had misused the law and misled the court dozens of times, according to an extraordinary legal ruling released yesterday.

December 12, 2005
Mistake? or Impeachable?

NSA uses computer cookies to track visitors

Those that are not deleted immediately are banned for the most part; the NSA's persistent cookies were not set to expire until 2035.

December 28, 2005

U.S. Asks Supreme Court to Transfer Terror Suspect

Mr. Padilla, a convert to Islam, traveled through the Middle East and was arrested in May 2002 upon his return to the United States. The Bush administration, in declaring him an enemy combatant and jailing him in a military brig without access to a lawyer, initially accused him of plotting with Al Qaeda to detonate a radiological "dirty bomb" on American streets and plotting other attacks within the United States.

December 27, 2005

NSA Sends Out Spyware

The BetaDot article quoted Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) co-founder John Gilmore as saying, "The clues are piling up that vacuum-cleaner style dragnets are what's at issue, perhaps they've pointed the NSA vacuum cleaner straight into all U.S.-based international telecommunications."

December 27, 2005

Rice authorized National Security Agency to spy on UN Security Council

Two former NSA officials familiar with the agency's campaign to spy on U.N. members say then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice authorized the plan at the request of President Bush, who wanted to know how delegates were going to vote. Rice did not immediately return a call for comment.

December 27, 2005

NSA just one of many federal agencies spying on Americans

Besides the NSA, the Pentagon, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security and dozens of private contractors are spying on millions of Americans 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

December 27, 2005

NSA Spied on U.N. Diplomats in Push for Invasion of Iraq

That spying had nothing to do with protecting the United States from a terrorist attack. The entire purpose of the NSA surveillance was to help the White House gain leverage, by whatever means possible, for a resolution in the U.N. Security Council to green light an invasion. When that surveillance was exposed nearly three years ago, the mainstream U.S. media winked at Bush's illegal use of the NSA for his Iraq invasion agenda.

December 25, 2005

Why Bush decided to bypass court in ordering wiretaps

Washington -- Government records show that the Bush administration was encountering unprecedented second-guessing by the secret federal surveillance court when President Bush decided to bypass the panel and order surveillance of U.S.-based terror suspects without the court's approval.

December 23, 2005

Wiretaps said to sift all overseas contacts

WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency, in carrying out President Bush's order to intercept the international phone calls and e-mails of Americans suspected of links to Al Qaeda, has probably been using computers to monitor all other Americans' international communications as well, according to specialists familiar with the workings of the NSA.

December 22, 2005

Nuclear Monitoring of Muslim Americans Done Without Search Warrants

In search of a terrorist nuclear bomb, the federal government since 9/11 has run a far-reaching, top secret program to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities, U.S. News has learned.

July 4, 2002
Posted December 30, 2005

Receipt of intelligence obtained by torture

Dissident bloggers in coordinated exposé of UK government lies over torture.

1. We receive intelligence obtained under torture from the Uzbek intelligence services, via the US. We should stop. It is bad information anyway. Tortured dupes are forced to sign up to confessions showing what the Uzbek government wants the US and UK to believe, that they and we are fighting the same war against terror.

December 30, 2005

84 Guantanamo detainees on hunger strike

In addition, another federal judge ruled earlier this month that it was illegal for the Bush administration to continue imprisoning several Chinese Muslims at the base, although the judge also said he was powerless to order the military to let the men go.

August 23, 2002
Posted December 30, 2005

FISA Court Chided Justice Dept. On Misinformation

The secretive federal court that approves spying on terror suspects in the United States has refused to give the Justice Department broad new powers, saying the government had misused the law and misled the court dozens of times, according to an extraordinary legal ruling released yesterday.

December 28, 2005

U.S. Asks Supreme Court to Transfer Terror Suspect

Mr. Padilla, a convert to Islam, traveled through the Middle East and was arrested in May 2002 upon his return to the United States. The Bush administration, in declaring him an enemy combatant and jailing him in a military brig without access to a lawyer, initially accused him of plotting with Al Qaeda to detonate a radiological "dirty bomb" on American streets and plotting other attacks within the United States.

December 27, 2005

Rice authorized National Security Agency to spy on UN Security Council

Two former NSA officials familiar with the agency's campaign to spy on U.N. members say then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice authorized the plan at the request of President Bush, who wanted to know how delegates were going to vote. Rice did not immediately return a call for comment.

December 27, 2005

NSA just one of many federal agencies spying on Americans

Besides the NSA, the Pentagon, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security and dozens of private contractors are spying on millions of Americans 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

December 27, 2005

NSA Spied on U.N. Diplomats in Push for Invasion of Iraq

That spying had nothing to do with protecting the United States from a terrorist attack. The entire purpose of the NSA surveillance was to help the White House gain leverage, by whatever means possible, for a resolution in the U.N. Security Council to green light an invasion. When that surveillance was exposed nearly three years ago, the mainstream U.S. media winked at Bush's illegal use of the NSA for his Iraq invasion agenda.

December 25, 2005

Why Bush decided to bypass court in ordering wiretaps

Washington -- Government records show that the Bush administration was encountering unprecedented second-guessing by the secret federal surveillance court when President Bush decided to bypass the panel and order surveillance of U.S.-based terror suspects without the court's approval.

December 23, 2005

Wiretaps said to sift all overseas contacts

WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency, in carrying out President Bush's order to intercept the international phone calls and e-mails of Americans suspected of links to Al Qaeda, has probably been using computers to monitor all other Americans' international communications as well, according to specialists familiar with the workings of the NSA.

December 22, 2005

Nuclear Monitoring of Muslim Americans Done Without Search Warrants

In search of a terrorist nuclear bomb, the federal government since 9/11 has run a far-reaching, top secret program to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities, U.S. News has learned.

December 21, 2005

Spy Briefings Failed to Meet Legal Test, Lawmakers Say

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 - The limited oral briefings provided by the White House to a handful of lawmakers about the domestic eavesdropping program may not have fulfilled a legal requirement under the National Security Act that calls for such reports to be in written form, Congressional officials from both parties said on Tuesday.

December 20, 2005

Conservative Scholars Argue Bush's Wiretapping Is An Impeachable Offense

NORM ORNSTEIN, AEI scholar: I think if we're going to be intellectually honest here, this really is the kind of thing that Alexander Hamilton was referring to when impeachment was discussed.

December 19, 2005

ACLU accuses FBI of 'spying' on activists

On the same day that the FBI warned a Congressional committee about the danger of "domestic terrorism," the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Wednesday accused the FBI of using terrorism as a pretext to spy on activists who "oppose the war in Iraq, the USA Patriot Act, and other government policies."

December 16, 2005
A lie

Bush lie: Now says he never connected 911 with Iraq War

"There was no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the attack of 9/11," Bush said. "I've never said that and never made that case prior to going into Iraq."

December 16, 2005
Five Page Series

Bush Spies on America

Some officials familiar with it say they consider warrantless eavesdropping inside the United States to be unlawful and possibly unconstitutional, amounting to an improper search. One government official involved in the operation said he privately complained to a Congressional official about his doubts about the program's legality. But nothing came of his inquiry. "People just looked the other way because they didn't want to know what was going on," he said.

December 16, 2005
A lie

Bush lie: Now says he never connected 911 with Iraq War

"There was no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the attack of 9/11," Bush said. "I've never said that and never made that case prior to going into Iraq."

December 16, 2005
Five Page Series

Bush Spies on America

Some officials familiar with it say they consider warrantless eavesdropping inside the United States to be unlawful and possibly unconstitutional, amounting to an improper search. One government official involved in the operation said he privately complained to a Congressional official about his doubts about the program's legality. But nothing came of his inquiry. "People just looked the other way because they didn't want to know what was going on," he said.

December 14, 2005
A Lie

Report: Bush Had More Prewar Intelligence Than Congress

A congressional report made public yesterday concluded that President Bush and his inner circle had access to more intelligence and reviewed more sensitive material than what was shared with Congress when it gave Bush the authority to wage war against Iraq.

December 16, 2005

Bush Gave U.S. Agency Authorization To Spy On Americans

Months after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, President Bush signed an order giving the National Security Agency authorization to eavesdrop on Americans and other people in the United States to look for evidence of potential terrorist activity without first obtaining search warrants.

December 14, 2005

Bush withholds names of 900,000 new government employees

The Bush administration has without explanation withheld the names and work locations of about 900,000 of its civilian workers, according to a lawsuit filed last week. The lawsuit said that, in violation of the FOIA, OPM did not even mention that another 150,000 names and workplaces had been deleted or why, and that OPM has not responded to requests for an explanation of its new policy.

December 14, 2005

The Pentagon is spying on Americans

WASHINGTON - A year ago, at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Fla., a small group of activists met to plan a protest of military recruiting at local high schools. What they didn't know was that their meeting had come to the attention of the U.S. military. A secret 400-page Defense Department document obtained by NBC News lists the Lake Worth meeting as a "threat" and one of more than 1,500 "suspicious incidents" across the country over a recent 10-month period.

December 12, 2005

Fact Checking Bush Q&A from Philadelphia

And so we gave Saddam Hussein the chance to disclose or disarm, and he refused. And I made a tough decision. And knowing what I know today, I'd make the decision again. Removing Saddam Hussein makes this world a better place and America a safer country.
[Note: Saddam was disarmed and the UN inspectors couldn't verify a single piece of Bush's intelligence, ergo, Bush was the problem, not Saddam, not the UN, not the CIA.]

December 13, 2005

CIA (POW) Prisons Moved To North Africa

Swiss senator Dick Marty told a news conference that he believed the United States was no longer holding prisoners clandestinely in Europe. He believes they were moved to North Africa in early November, when reports about the secret detention centers appeared in The Washington Post.

December 13, 2005

Council of Europe probe backs claims of CIA prison flights

PARIS (AFX) - The CIA appears to have abducted suspects in Europe and illegally transferred them to other countries, according to the preliminary results of a Council of Europe investigation released today.

December 12, 2005
A lie

Most Iraqis Oppose Troops' Presence

More than two-thirds of those surveyed oppose the presence of troops from the United States and its coalition partners and less than half, 44 percent, say their country is better off now than it was before the war, according to an ABC News poll conducted with Time magazine and other media partners.

December 11, 2005
A lie

Death of an American City

We said this wouldn't happen. President Bush said it wouldn't happen. He stood in Jackson Square and said, "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans." But it has been over three months since Hurricane Katrina struck and the city is in complete shambles.

December 9, 2005

Red Cross in talks with US over detainees

GENEVA (Reuters) - The Red Cross said on Friday it was pressing the United States to give it access to prisoners held in secret jails as part of the U.S. war on terror.

December 8, 2005

Anti-War Congressman Still Making News

"There is something absurd about the secretary of state making a statement so cryptic that journalists, lawyers, and, I suppose, diplomats are spending the day picking through the linguistic entrails to find the hidden message."

December 7, 2005

Wolfowitz suggests knowing Iraq had no WMD might have put off invasion

"If you could have given us a guarantee that they wouldn't have been used, there would have been policy options available probably," he said.
(Note to wingnut: the US invaded Iraq in 1991 after it invaded Kuwait. Iraq had WMD in 1991 and didn't use them against the coalition. What made YOU think he'd use them in 2002?)

December 8, 2005

Claim of al-Qaida ties to Iraq called coerced

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration based a crucial prewar assertion about ties between Iraq and al-Qaida on detailed statements made by a prisoner in Egyptian custody who later said he had fabricated them to escape harsh treatment, according to current and former government officials.

December 6, 2005

Rumsfeld Asks Commanders for Clear Rules on Torture

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has ordered military commanders to come up with clear rules for how U.S. troops around the world should respond if they witness mistreatment of detainees by other forces outside the United States, a senior defense official said yesterday.

December 5, 2005

Political appointees overruled voting rights lawyers

But The Washington Post's Dan Eggen reported last week that the Justice Department has been suppressing for nearly two years a 73-page memo in which six lawyers and two analysts in the voting rights section, including the group's chief lawyer, unanimously concluded that the Texas redistricting plan of 2003 illegally diluted the votes of blacks and Hispanics in order to ensure a Republican majority in the state's Congressional delegation.

December 5, 2005
A Lie

Iraq VP Disputes Bush on Training of Forces

DUBAI (AP) The training of Iraqi security forces has suffered a big "setback" in the last six months, with the army and other forces being increasingly used to settle scores and make other political gains, Iraqi Vice President Ghazi al-Yawer said Monday. Al-Yawer disputed contentions by U.S. officials, including President Bush, that the training of security forces was gathering speed, resulting in more professional troops.

December 5, 2005

Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake

Ambassador Daniel R. Coats informed the German minister that the CIA had wrongfully imprisoned one of its citizens, Khaled Masri, for five months, and would soon release him, the sources said. There was also a request: that the German government not disclose what it had been told even if Masri went public.

December 5, 2005
A Lie

9/11 Panel Gives Bush and Congress "more F's than A's"

Meeting for the last time since being appointed by Congress in 2002, commission members gave the government "more F's than A's" among the 41 grades measuring progress on security recommendations they issued last year.

December 4, 2005

Report Accuses EPA of Slanting Analysis

The Bush administration skewed its analysis of pending legislation on air pollution to favor its bill over two competing proposals, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service.

December 1, 2005

Bush: 'Terrorist are a minority in Iraqi war'

And Bush acknowledged yesterday what U.S. military and intelligence experts have said for months, that terrorists make up the smallest group opposing coalition forces and that "ordinary Iraqis, mostly Sunni Arabs" represent "by far the largest group."

December 1, 2005

TIME Reporter: Bush Lied About Iraqi Security Forces

TIME Magazine reporter Michael Ware, who is embedded with the U.S. troops in Iraq who participated in the Tal Afar battle, appeared on Anderson Cooper yesterday. He said Bush's description was completely untrue.

November 30, 2005

Lincoln Group Pushes US Propaganda as News in Iraq

U.S. law forbids the military from carrying out psychological operations or planting propaganda through American media outlets. Yet several officials said that given the globalization of media driven by the Internet and the 24-hour news cycle, the Pentagon's efforts were carried out with the knowledge that coverage in the foreign press inevitably "bleeds" into the Western media and influences coverage in U.S. news outlets. "There is no longer any way to separate foreign media from domestic media. Those neat lines don't exist anymore."

In 2002, the Pentagon was forced to shut down its Office of Strategic Influence, which had been created the previous year, after reports surfaced that it intended to plant false news stories in the international media.

November 30, 2005

US paying Iraqi press to run favourable stories

As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.

November 29, 2005

US Acknowledges Secret Prisons

WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Under German pressure, the United States acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that allegations of secret CIA prisons in Europe have raised widespread concern in the region.

November 29, 2005

Two Britons Face Charges For Exposing Bush's Planned Attack on Civilian Targets

Two Britons have appeared in a London court to answer charges of leaking a sensitive government memo on reported comments by President Bush about bombing the headquarters of the Arab satellite TV channel Al-Jazeera.

November 27, 2005

'Trophy' video exposes private security contractors shooting Iraqi civilians

A "trophy" video appearing to show security guards in Baghdad randomly shooting Iraqi civilians has sparked two investigations after it was posted on the internet, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

November 28, 2005

EU says no assurances from U.S. on secret prisons

BERLIN (Reuters) - The United States has told the European Union it needs more time to respond formally to reports that the CIA has run secret prisons for terrorist suspects in Eastern Europe, an EU commissioner said on Monday.

November 26, 2005

Troops Who Burned Taliban Face Discipline

The U.S.-led coalition's operational commander, Maj. Gen. Jason Kamiya, said two junior officers who ordered the bodies burned would be reprimanded for showing a lack of cultural and religious understanding, but that the men had been unaware at the time of doing anything wrong.

November 25, 2005

CIA flew terror suspects via US bases in Germany

The Handelsblatt report also claimed that the CIA was flying terrorist suspects through U.S. airbases in Germany without informing German authorities. The report, quoting a source described as a "high-ranking" intelligence official, mentioned the Ramstein base, the largest U.S. military base in Europe, and the Rhein-Main airbase near Frankfurt.

November 22, 2005

Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel

Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

November 23, 2005
Possible Impeachable Offense

Bush wanted to bomb Al Jazeera

The Times of London reports that the attorney general of Britain has warned British papers that they will be prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act if they publish details of a conversation between Tony Blair and George Bush in which Mr. Bush is alleged to have suggested bombing Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite TV channel based in Qatar.

November 17, 2005

Meet John Rendon, Bush's general in the propaganda war

Finally, in early 2004, more than two years after he made the dramatic allegations to Miller and Moran about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, al-Haideri was taken back to Iraq by the CIA's Iraq Survey Group. On a wide-ranging trip through Baghdad and other key locations, al-Haideri was given the opportunity to point out exactly where Saddam's stockpiles were hidden, confirming the charges that had helped to start a war. In the end, he could not identify a single site where illegal weapons were buried.

November 20, 2005 13 Part Series

How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of 'Curveball

BERLIN — The German intelligence officials responsible for one of the most important informants on Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction say that the Bush administration and the CIA repeatedly exaggerated his claims during the run-up to the war in Iraq.

November 20, 2005

"National security letters" demonstrate hypocrisy in the Bush administration

Without even knowing, virtually any American could have their phones tapped into at any time, their e-mail account traced, their house searched, as well as their financial information disseminated to various agencies across the U.S..

November 19, 2005

CIA Torture Described

According to CIA sources, Ibn al Shaykh al Libbi, after two weeks of enhanced interrogation, made statements that were designed to tell the interrogators what they wanted to hear. Sources say Al Libbi had been subjected to each of the progressively harsher techniques in turn and finally broke after being water boarded and then left to stand naked in his cold cell overnight where he was doused with cold water at regular intervals.

November 17, 2005

Former CIA director accuses Cheney of overseeing torture

LONDON (AFP) - Admiral Stansfield Turner, a former CIA director, accused US Vice President Dick Cheney of overseeing policies of torturing terrorist suspects and damaging the nation's reputation, in a television interview

November 18, 2005

UN Commission on Human Rights Condemns US

LONDON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- The United States government was roundly condemned by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights Friday for refusing to allow it full access to its detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "The writ of international human rights does not stop at the gates of Guantanamo Bay," said the U.N. special rapporteur on the right to health, Paul Hunt, announcing a full investigation into the human rights of detainees at the Cuban camp.

November 16, 2005

Pentagon Used White Phosphorous in Iraq

WASHINGTON -- Pentagon officials say white phosphorous was used as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah last November, but deny an Italian television news report that it was used against civilians.

November 15, 2005

Some Apparently Tortured Detainees Found

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's prime minister said Tuesday that 173 Iraqi detainees — malnourished and showing signs of torture — were found at an Interior Ministry basement lockup seized by U.S. forces in Baghdad. The discovery appeared to validate Sunni complaints of abuse by the Shiite-controlled ministry.

November 15, 2005

GAO Report: FDA yielded to political pressure, not science

WASHINGTON — Federal drug regulators compromised their usual science-based decision-making process when they ruled in 2004 against letting the "morning-after" birth control pill be sold without a prescription, congressional investigators said Monday.

November 15, 2005

Report Says Ex-Chief of Public TV Violated Federal Law

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 - Investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting concluded today that its former chairman repeatedly broke federal law and its own regulations in a campaign to combat what he saw as liberal bias.

November 15, 2005

Report Says Ex-Chief of Public TV Violated Federal Law

WASHINGTON, Nov. 15 - Investigators at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting concluded today that its former chairman repeatedly broke federal law and its own regulations in a campaign to combat what he saw as liberal bias.

November 13, 2005

US tortured Khalid Shaikh Mohammed

Republican Senator Kit Bond, a member of the Senate Intelligence  Committee, told Newsweek magazine that "enhanced interrogation techniques" had worked with at least one captured high-level Al-Qaeda operative, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, to thwart an unspecified plot.

March 25, 2006
This case was previously listed as impeachable offense. The military prosecutors in this case say the trial is rigged.
Two Prosecutors Say Terror Trials are Rigged

Bush's Powers Again Under Review by Court

WASHINGTON - His wartime powers undercut once before by the Supreme Court, President Bush could take a second hit in a case in which Osama bin Laden's former driver is seeking to head off a trial before military officers.

March 3, 2006
An Impeachable Offense - violation of Geneva Conventions

US Will Release POW Names

The US defence department has said it will release the names of inmates detained at its Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba later on Friday.

However, the names will not appear as a simple list - they will be buried within 6,000 pages of documents to be posted on the Pentagon website.

March 1, 2006
An Impeachable Offense - another violation of Geneva Conventions

Guantanamo interview of POW

I am much lighter than I was. I am now about 120 pounds, down from about 150 pounds when I came here. I have become an old man here. I'm only 29, but I have been here four years in isolation and have got old and much weaker.

February 28, 2006
It's called the writ of habeas corpus. An Impeachable Offense

US settles suit by 9/11 detainee

The US government has agreed to pay $300,000 (£172,000) to settle a lawsuit brought by an Egyptian arrested after the 11 September attacks, reports say.

February 23, 2006

Military interrogators forced POW's to watch gay porn

WASHINGTON - Military interrogators posing as FBI agents at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, wrapped terrorism suspects in an Israeli flag and forced them to watch homosexual pornography under strobe lights during interrogation sessions that lasted as long as 18 hours, according to one of a batch of FBI memos released Thursday.

February 19, 2006
Opinion

Mainstream arguments for impeachment

As a result of his continuing abuse of power, the impeachment option is making its way from the margin to the mainstream. Legal scholars on the left and the right argue that Bush may have committed "high crimes and misdemeanor," as stated in Article II, Section 4, of the Constitution.

February 21, 2006
A Bush lie

WH Chief of Staff nixed congressional domestic spying briefing

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top intelligence official was prepared to brief the House of Representatives intelligence committee about President George W. Bush's domestic spying program last December but was stopped by White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, a leading House Democrat said on Tuesday.

February 22, 2006
Does Bush have one lawyer who can think or are they all conservatives?

Dubai Port Deal Was Illegal

A 1993 amendment to the law stipulates that such an investigation is mandatory when the acquiring company is controlled by or acting on behalf of a foreign government. Administration officials said they conducted additional inquires because of the ties to the United Arab Emirates, but they could not say why a 45-day investigation did not occur.

February 22, 2006

Nearly 100 dead in US custody in Iraq, Afghanistan

At least 98 deaths occurred, with at least 34 of them suspected or confirmed homicides -- deliberate or reckless killing -- the group of US lawyers told BBC television Tuesday.

February 17, 2006

Rockefeller Questions NSA's Authority

WASHINGTON - The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee wants the panel to look into whether the National Security Agency was eavesdropping without proper authority in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks

Bush has seen Republican congressional support for his eavesdropping program erode in the last two months, but Republican leaders have managed — for now — to stave off full-scale investigations.

February 17, 2006
The entire government will have to be fumigated after Bush is impeached
Fire Griffin's sorry ass.

Calls for Openness at NASA

Top political appointees in the NASA press office exerted strong pressure during the 2004 presidential campaign to cut the flow of news releases on glaciers, climate, pollution and other earth sciences, public affairs officers at the agency say.

February 13, 2006

AMA slams Bush on eavesdropping

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The American Bar Association told President George W. Bush on Monday to either stop domestic eavesdropping without a warrant or get the law changed to make it legal.

February 13, 2006
McCain writes anti torture legislation, Bush ignores it.
McCain shows himself to be utterly worthless.

U.N. report alleges torture

A draft U.N. report on the detainees at Guantanamo Bay concludes that U.S. treatment of them violates their right to physical and mental health, and, in some cases, constitutes torture.

February 13, 2006
How do you get away with cold-blooded murder? Join the military.

Years After 2 Afghans Died, Abuse Case Falters

The two Afghans were found dead within days of each other, hanging by their shackled wrists in isolation cells at the prison in Bagram, north of Kabul. An Army investigation showed they were treated harshly by interrogators, deprived of sleep for days, and struck so often in the legs by guards that a coroner compared the injuries to being run over by a bus.

February 12, 2006
Bush lie: "We don't torture."

Revealed: the terror prison US is helping build in Morocco

THE United States is helping Morocco to build a new interrogation and detention facility for Al-Qaeda suspects near its capital, Rabat, according to western intelligence sources.

February 12, 2006
Bush Ignores SCOTUS ruling on the "Pentagon Papers"

Inquiry Into Wiretapping Article Widens

WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 — Federal agents have interviewed officials at several of the country's law enforcement and national security agencies in a rapidly expanding criminal investigation into the circumstances surrounding a New York Times article published in December that disclosed the existence of a highly classified domestic eavesdropping program, according to government officials.

February 10, 2006

Ex-CIA Official: Intelligence 'Misused' to Justify War

"Official intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs was flawed, but even with its flaws, it was not what led to the war," Pillar wrote in the upcoming issue of the journal Foreign Affairs. Instead, he asserted, the administration "went to war without requesting -- and evidently without being influenced by -- any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect of Iraq."

February 9, 2006

Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information

Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.

February 1, 2006

Bush and Blair discussed using American Spyplane in UN colours to lure Saddam into war

President Bush said: "The US was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours. If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach."

February 3, 2006

Cheney, Libby were informed uranium claim was false

Vice President Cheney and his then-Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were personally informed in June 2003 that the CIA no longer considered credible the allegations that Saddam Hussein had attempted to procure uranium from the African nation of Niger, according to government records and interviews with current and former officials. The new CIA assessment came just as Libby and other senior administration officials were embarking on an effort to discredit an administration critic who had also been saying that the allegations were untrue.

February 3, 2006

Memo: Bush/Blair wanted war in January 2003

(Who needs proof)A memo of a two-hour meeting between the two leaders at the White House on January 31 2003 - nearly two months before the invasion - reveals that Mr Bush made it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second UN resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons programme.

February 3, 2006

Judge Slams Ex-EPA Chief Over Sept. 11

NEW YORK - A federal judge blasted former Environmental Protection Agency chief Christine Todd Whitman on Thursday for reassuring New Yorkers soon after the Sept. 11 attacks that it was safe to return to their homes and offices while toxic dust was polluting the neighborhood.

February 1, 2006
Homeland Defense Lie

White House, Chertoff Faulted Over Katrina

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke called the report misleading because federal officials and supplies were already at the Gulf Coast before Katrina hit. He said Chertoff did not activate a government plan for dealing with catastrophes because it is used only to respond to unexpected disasters.

Homeland Defense Website: "In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility on March 1st for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation."

January 30, 2006

Press Misses Bush's Blatant Attempt to Obstruct the Abramoff Investigation

At the same time that Mr. Hillman was conducting a grand jury and submitting evidence aimed at Bush's allies and perhaps Bush himself, he was meeting with Bush, who was, in effect, offering him a bribe.

January 29, 2006
Involuntary Servitude

Army forces 50,000 soldiers into extended duty

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Army has forced about 50,000 soldiers to continue serving after their voluntary stints ended under a policy called "stop-loss," but while some dispute its fairness, court challenges have fallen flat.

January 29, 2006

Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him

The fight between Dr. Hansen and administration officials echoes other recent disputes. At climate laboratories of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, for example, many scientists who routinely took calls from reporters five years ago can now do so only if the interview is approved by administration officials in Washington, and then only if a public affairs officer is present or on the phone.

January 25, 2006 issue
More evidence of torture

EU nations knew of secret CIA flights

Marty, a former public prosecutor and member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (CoE), earlier this week said it was highly unlikely that European governments, or at least their intelligence services, were unaware of the "rendition" of more than 100 allegedly illegally detained terror suspects on their territories.

January 24, 2006 issue
A lie

White House Was Told Hurricane Posed Danger

Other documents to be released Tuesday show that the weekend before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Homeland Security Department officials predicted that its impact would be worse than a doomsday-like emergency planning exercise conducted in Louisiana in July 2004.

January 24, 2006 issue

White House Stalls Katrina Probe

In some cases, staff at the White House and other federal agencies have refused to be interviewed by congressional investigators, said the top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In addition, agency officials won't answer seemingly innocuous questions about times and dates of meetings and telephone calls with the White House, the senators said.

January 22, 2006 issue

Halliburton Cited in Iraq Contamination

"The level of contamination was roughly 2x the normal contamination of untreated water from the Euphrates River," Granger wrote in one of several documents. The Associated Press obtained the documents from Senate Democrats who are holding a public inquiry into the allegations Monday.