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Impeach Bush--Index 6
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October 05,
2004 Paul Bremer: Not Enough Troops on the Ground Former Iraq viceroy L. Paul Bremer, President Bush's close pal, sure kicked up a bit of a fuss Monday when he talked about how "we never had enough troops on the ground" to effectively occupy Iraq. October 08, 2004 Foreign Governments, Investors Keep US Government Afloat Foreign governments lent the Treasury $3.5 billion in 2001 and $7.1 billion in 2002. Last year, the figure soared fifteenfold, to $109 billion. Japanese reserves of U.S. Treasuries climbed from $317 billion when Bush came to office to $695 billion in July. During the president's term, China surpassed Britain as the United States' second largest foreign lender, with its holdings more than tripling from $50 billion in December 2000 to $166 billion in July. August 2004 Bush: God Speaks Through Me At the end of the session, Bush reportedly told the group, "I trust God speaks through me. Without that, I couldn't do my job.' October 07, 2004 Iraq Receives 27 Cents out of Every Dollar Spent on Reconstruction Washington — As little as 27 cents of every dollar spent on Iraq's reconstruction has actually filtered down to projects benefiting Iraqis, a statistic that is prompting the State Department to fundamentally rethink the Bush administration's troubled reconstruction effort. October 08, 2004 Saddam Misled US and UN to Stop Iran from Invading But the new portrait, one that was not available before last year's invasion, also shows that while the United States was obsessed with Saddam, Saddam was usually more concerned about neighboring Iran than his more distant adversary. October 04, 2004 Bush Cuts Department of Veterans Affairs President Bush's budget for 2005 calls for cutting the Department of Veterans Affairs staff that handles benefits claims, and some veterans report long waits for benefits and confusing claims decisions. Through the end of April, the most recent accounting the VA could provide, 166,334 veterans of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan had separated from military service, and 26,633 — 16 percent — had filed benefits claims with the VA for service-connected disabilities. Less than two-thirds of those claims had been processed, leaving more than 9,750 recent veterans waiting. October 04, 2004 Bush and Reality John Kerry got the better of President Bush in last Thursday's debate in Coral Gables, Fla. The president seemed listless, defensive and not particularly well prepared. His facial expressions and body language at times were odd. Some of his strongest supporters were dismayed by his performance, and polls are showing they had reason to be concerned. During the debate, this was most clearly displayed when, in response to a question about the war in Iraq, Mr. Bush told the moderator, Jim Lehrer, "The enemy attacked us, Jim, and I have a solemn duty to protect the American people, to do everything I can to protect us. Moments later Senator Kerry clarified, for the audience and the president, just who had attacked the United States. "Saddam Hussein didn't attack us," said Mr. Kerry. "Osama bin Laden attacked us. Al Qaeda attacked us." October 03, 2004 How the White House Used Disputed Intelligence In 2002, at a crucial juncture on the path to war, senior members of the Bush administration gave a series of speeches and interviews in which they asserted that Saddam Hussein was rebuilding his nuclear weapons program. Speaking to a group of Wyoming Republicans in September, Vice President Dick Cheney said the United States now had "irrefutable evidence" - thousands of tubes made of high-strength aluminum, tubes that the Bush administration said were destined for clandestine Iraqi uranium centrifuges, before some were seized at the behest of the United States. October 02, 2004 Iraqi's Blame US for Massacure BAGHDAD, Iraq Oct. 2, 2004— Families of the 35 children who died in a string of bombings in Baghdad blamed American troops for the tragedy, accusing them of attracting insurgents to a ceremony where the attacks occurred. By Friday, tents had sprung up in the el-Amel neighborhood in Baghdad to accommodate mourners who gathered to share their grief from the Thursday attack. In the carnage, several explosions ripped into a crowd gathered to celebrate the inauguration of a new, much needed sewage plant. September 29, 2004 Zobgy Poll: Youth Blame Bush for Nation's Problems 60% of Young Male Voters Say War in Iraq, "Not the Right Decision'; 59% Say President Bush Misled America and Executive Branch- Highly Responsible for the Problems that US faces Today, New Zogby/Williams Identity Poll Reveals60% of Young Male Voters Say War in Iraq, "Not the Right Decision'; 59% Say President Bush Misled America and Executive Branch- Highly Responsible for the Problems that US faces Today, New Zogby/Williams Identity Poll Reveals September 28, 2004 Soldier in Iraq: Why We Cannot Win the War So long as there is support for the guerilla, for every one you kill two more rise up to take his place. More importantly, when your tools for killing him are precision guided munitions, raids and other acts that create casualties among the innocent populace, you raise the support for the guerillas and undermine the support for yourself. (A 500-pound precision bomb has a casualty-producing radius of 400 meters minimum; do the math.) September 28, 2004 Eisenhower: A vote for Kerry As son of a Republican President, Dwight D. Eisenhower, it is automatically expected by many that I am a Republican. For 50 years, through the election of 2000, I was. With the current administration's decision to invade Iraq unilaterally, however, I changed my voter registration to independent, and barring some utterly unforeseen development, I intend to vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry. The fact is that today's "Republican' Party is one with which I am totally unfamiliar. To me, the word "Republican' has always been synonymous with the word "responsibility,' which has meant limiting our governmental obligations to those we can afford in human and financial terms. Today's whopping budget deficit of some $440 billion does not meet that criterion. September 27, 2004 Bush's Guard Record Fades to Mystery Air Force Times ; "The policies — determining who would be drafted and who would be deferred, who would serve and who would escape, who would die and who would live — were an antidemocratic disgrace,' Powell wrote. "I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well placed … managed to wangle slots in reserve and National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country.' Two months earlier, on June 30, Bush signed a statement promising that if he left his Texas Ready Reserve unit, "it is my responsibility to locate and be assigned to another Reserve Forces unit or mobilization augmentation position. If I fail to do so, I am subject to involuntary order to active duty for up to 24 months.' There is no record of Bush ever having signed on with a Massachusetts Reserve unit. In 1999, Dan Bartlett, working for the Bush campaign, told The Washington Post that Bush had completed his six-year commitment with a Boston unit. That didn't happen, Bartlett recently told The Boston Globe. "I must have misspoke,' he said. The following March, Bush was redesignated as an "executive support officer.' In May, he was placed on inactive status. On Nov. 21 — apparently at Bush's written request, according to an undated letter sent from Massachusetts and released by the White House in which he requests "to discharge from the standby reserve' — he received an honorable discharge "from all appointments in the United States Air Force.' September 25, 2004 Representation without Taxation--The Bush Debt Last week Congress gave taxpayers a hefty present — $146 billion in tax cuts. Instead of financing the tax cuts with equal cuts in spending or offsetting revenue increases, Congress just put the tax cuts on the nation's credit card. September 24, 2004 GOP Outsources Voter Data Base to India PC World has recently learned that the major development work on the Voter Vault was done in India. Though the RNC began work on a national database of voters in the mid-1990s, the Voter Vault wasn't ready to be put into the field until the 2002 elections. Two years prior to the 2002 elections, the RNC hired Advanced Custom Software (ACS) of Seattle to build a Web-based database to help campaign workers target likely Republican voters. According to information posted on Elance.com, an online directory of outsourcing firms, ACS subcontracted development of the database to Compulink Systems of Maharashtra, India. It's not necessarily risky to ship your data overseas, but Compulink Systems did suffer a security incident in May 2001. During the period when Compulink was working on the Voter Vault project, its Web site was compromised. On May 10, 2001, a Russian hacker using the handle RyDen defaced the Compulink site, as shown on a page maintained by Attrition.org. September 20, 2004 Republican Senator Says He May Not Vote for Bush WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee (news, bio, voting record), a Republican moderate from Rhode Island, said on Monday he might not vote for President Bush (news - web sites) in the Nov. 2 election. Chafee stressed, however, that he has no plans to bolt his party, and that if he does not back Bush he will write in the name of another Republican. September 20, 2004 Bush Lifts Embargo Against Lybia's Gaddafi Bush formally revoked the four underlying executive orders that had barred most trade with Libya, restricted U.S.-Libyan aviation, froze Libyan government assets in the United States and prevented the importation of Libyan oil. U.S. oil companies have beaten a path to Libya's door since Bush suspended most commercial sanctions on April 23. One airline, Texas-based Continental Airlines Inc., applied on Monday for permission to provide air service to Tripoli by selling tickets under its name on Dutch airline KLM, a part of Air France-KLM that would fly the flights. September 17, 2004 Judge Orders Pentagon to Release All Bush Guard Records A federal judge has ordered the Pentagon to find and make public by next week any unreleased files about President Bush's Vietnam-era Air National Guard service to resolve a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by The Associated Press. U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. handed down the order late Wednesday in New York. The AP lawsuit already has led to the disclosure of previously unreleased flight logs from Bush's days piloting F-102A fighters and other jets. Pentagon officials told Baer they plan to have their search complete by Monday. Baer ordered the Pentagon to hand over the records to the AP by Sept. 24 and provide a written statement by Sept. 29 detailing the search for more records. September 16, 2004 An Impeachable Offense UN Leaders says Iraq War was Illegal WASHINGTON -- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said for the first time Thursday that the Iraq war was "illegal" because the United States and its allies failed to win explicit authorization from the Security Council before invading Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein's government last year. Annan's opinion was quickly rejected by the United States and two of its key allies, Britain and Australia. But it nevertheless roiled the debate about President Bush's justification for the war on a day when the White House was stung by the leak of a bleak intelligence outlook for Iraq's near-term future. September 15, 2004 Detroit terrorism case reversed In a dramatic reversal, Federal Court Judge Gerald E. Rosen earlier this month threw out the terrorism convictions of two Detroit Arab immigrants. In June 2003 Abdel-Illah Elmardoudi and Karim Koubriti were convicted on terror and document fraud charges. A third man, Ahmed Hannan, was convicted of document fraud and a fourth was acquitted. Last year John Ashcroft's Justice Department had hailed the arrests as its successful breakup of a major sleeper cell and the convictions as its first major courtroom victory in the war on terror. The case was repeatedly cited in Bush Administration claims that it was winning the war on terrorism. The Justice Department prosecutors lied and misled and withheld evidence. As Judge Rosen said, they developed early on a theory about what happened "and then simply ignored or avoided any evidence or information which contradicted or undermined that view.' September 14, 2004 Arrested and Suspended for Hating Bush CHARLESTON, WV – The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a
lawsuit against the United States Secret Service and Greg Jenkins, Deputy
Assistant to the President and Director of White House Advance, on behalf of a
West Virginia couple who were arrested at a Fourth of July presidential
appearance at the state Capitol because they were wearing t-shirts critical of
the president. September 14, 2004 NIE provides bleak assessment of Iraq security Senate Republicans and Democrats on Wednesday denounced the Bush administration's slow progress in rebuilding Iraq, saying the risks of failure are great if it doesn't act with greater urgency. But Hagel said the shift in funds ''does not add up in my opinion to a pretty picture, to a picture that shows that we're winning. But it does add up to this: an acknowledgment that we are in deep trouble.'' Hagel, Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and other committee members have long argued even before the war that administration plans for rebuilding Iraq were inadequate and based on overly optimistic assumptions that Americans would be greeted as liberators. September 14, 2004 A medical cause for 'Bushisms'? In a letter to be published in The Atlantic's October issue, Price calls presenile dementia "a fairly typical Alzheimer's situation that develops significantly earlier in life. . . . President Bush's `mangled' words are a demonstration of what physicians call `confabulation' and are almost specific to the diagnosis of a true dementia." He adds that Bush should be "started on drugs that offer the possibility of retarding the slow but inexorable course of the disease." September 09, 2004 Bushism; Too many OB-GYNs? But then he added, "We've got an issue in America. Too many good docs are getting out of business. Too many OB-GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country. September 09, 2004 32 felony indictments returned in DeLay case AUSTIN - A Travis County grand jury returned 32 indictments in the 2002 Republican fund-raising investigation Tuesday, alleging felony election code violations against a top aide to U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, the head of a political group DeLay founded and eight corporations that provided money for their activities. Among the companies indicted on grounds that corporate money was illegally funneled into the 2002 legislative elections were Sears and Roebuck, Westar Energy Inc., Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and Bacardi USA. Three people were indicted: John Colyandro, former executive director of Texans for a Republican Majority, a group DeLay founded; Warren RoBold, a DeLay fund-raiser; and Jim Ellis, a top DeLay political aide. September 09, 2004 An Impeachable Offense GAO: Former Medicare Chief's Pay was Illegal The Department of Health and Human Services should have withheld former Medicare chief Thomas A. Scully's salary last year because Scully wrongly kept a subordinate from giving Congress higher cost estimates on the Medicare prescription drug law, the Government Accountability Office said yesterday. In a 13-page legal opinion, Anthony H. Gamboa, the GAO's general counsel, said that a 1998 federal law prohibits an agency from paying a federal official who prevents another employee from communicating with Congress. September 08, 2004 An impeachable offense CBO: $8.5 trillion of debt last year By the CBO's reckoning, the federal government's true debt last year was $8.5 trillion — more than twice the debt held by the public, which we generally think of as the national debt. That figure came to $4 trillion, only slightly more than the $3.9 trillion in future benefits owed to government employees and veterans. September 09, 2004 Bush's Guard Record But last week the controversy reared up once again, as several news outlets, including U.S. News, disclosed new information casting doubt on White House claims. A review of the regulations governing Bush's Guard service during the Vietnam War shows that the White House used an inappropriate--and less stringent--Air Force standard in determining that he had fulfilled his duty. Because Bush signed a six-year "military service obligation," he was required to attend at least 44 inactive-duty training drills each fiscal year beginning July 1. But Bush's own records show that he fell short of that requirement, attending only 36 drills in the 1972-73 period, and only 12 in the 1973-74 period. The White House has said that Bush's service should be calculated using 12-month periods beginning on his induction date in May 1968. Using this time frame, however, Bush still fails the Air Force obligation standard. September 02, 2004 Oops, I can win war: Dubya A DAY after telling Americans the war on terrorism could not be won, George W. Bush has reversed himself with a claim he had been inarticulate and that victory was assured. The U-turn from the US President, who regularly attacks his Democrat rival Senator John Kerry for changing his position, followed accusations by Democrats he had thrown in the towel just three years after the September 11 attacks. Among the companies indicted on grounds that corporate money was illegally funneled into the 2002 legislative elections were Sears and Roebuck, Westar Energy Inc., Cracker Barrel Old Country Store and Bacardi USA. Three people were indicted: John Colyandro, former executive director of Texans for a Republican Majority, a group DeLay founded; Warren RoBold, a DeLay fund-raiser; and Jim Ellis, a top DeLay political aide. September 02, 2004 An impeachable offense WH Official Probed for Israeli Intelligence Leak The counterintelligence probe, which is different from a criminal investigation, focuses on a possible transfer of intelligence more extensive than whether Franklin passed on a draft presidential directive on U.S. policy toward Iran, the sources said. The FBI is examining whether highly classified material from the National Security Agency, which conducts electronic intercepts of communications, was also forwarded to Israel, they said. September 03, 2004 Media's picture of Kerry based on RNC distortions One of the few reporters to take a serious look at the RNC's list—on which 10 of the 13 items refer to the single 1991 vote on an appropriations bill—was Slate's Fred Kaplan (2/25/04). Kaplan noted that 16 senators, including five Republicans, voted against the bill, and concluded that the claim against Kerry "reeks of rank dishonesty." Kaplan also pointed out that at the time of the 1991 vote, deeper cuts in military spending were being advocated by some prominent Republicans—including then-President George H.W. Bush and Dick Cheney, who was secretary of defense at the time. September 03, 2004 Bush Distorts Kerry's Voting Record Kerry did not cast a series of votes against individual weapons systems, as Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) suggested in a slashing convention speech in New York late Wednesday, but instead Kerry voted against a Pentagon spending package in 1990 as part of deliberations over restructuring and downsizing the military in the post-Cold War era. September 02, 2004 CNN Refuses to Carry Anti Bush Ad Washington, DC)—CNN has informed the Log Cabin Republicans that it will not air their new television advertising campaign, which is a response to the politics of fear and intolerance. Unlike CNN, other broadcast outlets are airing the ad. The network claims that images in the ad are "too controversial." "We are deeply disappointed that CNN has refused our voices the opportunity to be heard. Last week we told the Republican Party that you cannot sugarcoat the vicious and mean-spirited platform, today we want CNN to know that you cannot sugarcoat the politics of fear and intolerance that lead to hate," said Log Cabin Executive Director Patrick Guerriero. October 15, 2004 Teachers' Tshirts Bring Boot from Bush Speech The women said they were angered by reports of peaceful protesters being thrown out of previous Bush-Cheney events. They said they chose the phrase, "Protect Our Civil Liberties," because it was unconfrontational. "We chose this phrase specifically because we didn't think it would be offensive or degrading or obscene," said Tania Tong, 34, a special education teacher. August 20, 2004 Military Brass Knew of Abuse But Janis Karpinski, the Army Reserve brigadier general in command of detention facilities in Iraq when the abuses occurred, said top officers in Iraq were aware of the interrogations and had knowledge of the techniques that were used. Specifically, she said Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the commander of the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, visited Abu Ghraib in September 2003 and, shortly afterward, began to receive daily reports on interrogations at Abu Ghraib. August 20, 2004 Swift Boat Lies Sinking in Sea of Lies That gurgling sound you hear is the ever-increasing number of leaks in the credibility of the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. Yes, the Swift Boats are sinking in their own sea of lies, sunk by a fusillade of reality that exposed the bitter old Vietnam Veterans as just another Republican led and funded shill operation for the Presidential campaign of George W. Bush. Those who know how politics really work in Washington saw SBVT for what they really were but that didn't stop them from getting gobs of play from the right-wing ring of the media circus and the ultra-conservative bulletin boards where lonely Midwestern housewives and gullible retirees post hate-filled screeds against anything that doesn't fit into their narrow view of the world. August 20, 2004 Doctors Implicated in Prison Abuse Scandal The Lancet--Now, a damning picture is emerging about what role medical staff played in the abuse. The US military medical system "failed to protect detainees' human rights, sometimes collaborated with interrogators or abusive guards, and failed to properly report injuries or deaths caused by beatings," writes Steven Miles, a physician at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, US, in The Lancet. Miles, along with the journal's editors, is calling for a full investigation of the role of medical staff after he scoured news reports and available government documents on the abuse. August 15, 2004 Kerry's War Record A group funded by the biggest Republican campaign donor in Texas began running an attack ad Aug. 5 in which former Swift Boat veterans claim Kerry lied to get one of his two decorations for bravery and two of his three purple hearts. August 15, 2004 About That Iraq Vote Mr. Kerry, as almost everyone now knows, voted to give President Bush the authority to invade Iraq, in a post-9/11 climate of fear and widespread conviction that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that might be used against the United States or its allies in the near future. Now that we know differently, some senators have said they regret their vote. Not Mr. Kerry. He affirmed once again last week that he believes he did the right thing. It was Mr. Bush who erred, he continued, by misusing the power he had been given. August 13, 2004 Middle Class Taxes Go Up WASHINGTON — Since 2001, President Bush's tax cuts have shifted a greater percentage of federal tax payments to middle-class families, the Congressional Budget Office has found. The CBO study, to be released today, likely will stoke an already burning debate about the fairness and efficacy of Bush's $1.7 trillion in tax cuts and is likely to roil the presidential election campaign. August 16, 2004 Are Media Covering Their Errors or Covering Them Up? NEW YORK, August 16, 2004 -- As more mainstream media outlets admit to failures in covering the Iraq War, a question must be asked: Are we seeing a real coming to grips by a media that helped "sell the war" to the American public? Or could the recent mea culpas be something more insidious, more like what the CIA used to call a "limited hang out?" That phrase translates as "you concede a little to hide a lot." It does give media critics some faith in the capacity of media outlets to acknowledge wrong doing, correct mistakes and admit they drank the White House Kool-Aid. Bear in mind that many of these same outlets were often arrogant and self-righteous at the time, impervious to war critics who they treated as lepers in denial about real threats and the need for a preemptive strike. August 2004 Junk Journalism, The Case Against Sean Hannity Last month he challenged John Podesta to find one example of a lie he told. Within one day, Podesta's site, The Center for American Progress, had found 15 examples. Instead of rehashing them here, you can find them at this link: American Progress.ort Aug 06, 2004 An impeachable offense Jurists Condemn Bush Administration's Torture Memos WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug 6 (OneWorld) - Nearly 130 influential U.S. jurists, including twelve former federal judges and a former director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation have signed a statement denouncing Bush administration memoranda regarding the treatment of Iraqi and other detainees and accusing their authors of unprofessional conduct. August 03, 2004 Reading the Script--How the media lies Commentators worked hard to spin scenes that didn't fit the script. Some simply saw what they wanted to see. On Fox, Michael Barone asserted that conventioneers cheered when Mr. Kerry criticized President Bush but were silent when he called for military strength. Check out the video clips at Media Matters; there was tumultuous cheering when Mr. Kerry talked about a strong America. Another technique, pervasive on both Fox and CNN, was to echo Republican claims of an "extreme makeover" - the assertion that what viewers were seeing wasn't the true face of the party. (Apparently all those admirals, generals and decorated veterans were ringers.) Aug 08, 2004 Beheading Hoax Fools Media The faked beheading story broadcast on two Arab language television stations and sent out on international news services early Saturday was based on a grainy video that was made by three Bay Area residents as an experiment to find out how quickly erroneous information could be spread by the Internet. The experiment had a delayed reaction, but when it came, it did so more dramatically than the people who made the video ever dreamed. Aug 09, 2004 Cheney Lie: Kerry Named Numer One Liberal (Daily Howlder.com) That was the end of Cheney's appearance. All the voters applauded the veep. Cheney had praised the president's values. And then he had lied in their faces. What had Cheney told these voters? He told them that Kerry is the most liberal member of the Senate. That's based on National Journal ratings, he said. And it isn't based on just one year—it's based on twenty years of service! But Kerry isn't the most liberal senator, as the Journal made expressly clear in March, when other people—people like Cheney—began using their data to mislead the voters. As we noted last week, Journal rankings show that ten current senators have more liberal lifetime records than Kerry. And yes, Ted Kennedy is one of the ten. Every claim that Cheney made was blatantly, baldly untrue. Aug 09, 2004 White House asked to explain terror leak An Impeachable Offense WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. senator has asked the White House to explain how and why the name of an al Qaeda informant was leaked to the press, amid concerns it had hurt the war on terror, a letter from the lawmaker shows. August 06, 2004 Senator Shelby Accused of Intelligence Leak WASHINGTON — Sen. Richard Shelby yesterday accused federal law-enforcement officials of abuse after a newspaper reported that federal investigators had concluded he leaked to the media classified messages from the eve of the Sept. 11 attacks. The Washington Post, citing sources familiar with the investigation, reported that the Alabama Republican's role had been confirmed to FBI investigators by Fox News Channel chief political correspondent Carl Cameron. Cameron denied the charge. Aug 04, 2004 An impeachable offense Ridge: No New Surveilance (The Jersey Journal/AP) Ridge acknowledged, however, that "there's no evidence of recent surveillance" on the five targeted financial institutions. Ridge also said the government had no evidence to suggest that the detailed information gleaned by al-Qaida about the buildings had been obtained from operatives who had once worked in the buildings. Aug 04, 2004 How politics of terror pushed a nation to the edge (New Zealand Herald) To describe America's latest terror alert as a silly season folly, filling the airwaves and newspaper pages in the usual high summer absence of real news, would be uncharitable. But, in the space of 48 hours, what sounded on Sunday like an imminent threat to financial targets in New York, New Jersey and Washington has metamorphosed into an imbroglio of disarray and confusion, with a dash of farce thrown in. Aug 03, 2004 An Impeachable Offense Terrorist Alert based on very old intelligence (Washington Post) Most of the al Qaeda surveillance of five financial institutions that led to a new terrorism alert Sunday was conducted before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and authorities are not sure whether the casing of the buildings has continued, numerous intelligence and law enforcement officials said yesterday. July 23, 2004 Welcome Mat For Linda Ronstadt (CBS/AP) Imagine "Fahrenheit 9/11" filmmaker Michael Moore and singer Linda Ronstadt onstage in Las Vegas, singing "America the Beautiful" at the very same casino resort where she was booed and told not to come back, because of remarks praising Moore. It could happen - as early as September. That's when the Aladdin is expected to change hands, to a new consortium of owners including Planet Hollywood CEO Robert Earl, in a deal that is mostly done but is awaiting a gambling license. June 9, 2004 Reagan: Media Myth and Reality "Ronald Reagan was the most popular president ever to leave office," explained ABC anchor Elizabeth Vargas (6/6/04). "His approval ratings were higher than any other at the end of his second term." Though the claim was repeated by many news outlets, it is not true; Bill Clinton's approval ratings when he left office were actually higher than Reagan's, at 66 percent versus Reagan's 63 percent (Gallup, 1/10-14-01). Franklin Delano Roosevelt also topped Reagan with a 66 percent approval rating at the time of his death in office after three and a half terms. July 13, 2004 An impeachable offense Army Announces 94 Allegations of Abuse, including 20 cases of MURDER. WASHINGTON July 23, 2004 — The images were vivid: A U.S. Army sergeant who told his troops to "rough up" two prisoners; a platoon that agreed to make prisoners jump off a bridge into the Tigris River; an interrogator who hit a prisoner in the head. Those were among the new details of abuses by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan reported by the Army Inspector General's office. The review found 94 cases of confirmed or alleged abuses and 39 deaths, 20 of which were ruled homicides or remain under investigation. July 13, 2004 An Intelligence Debacle...and Worse By RAY McGOVERN, Former CIA analyst Although it was clear to us that much of the intelligence on Iraq had been cooked to the recipe of policy, not until the Senate report did we know that the skewing included outright lies. We had heard of "Joe," the nuclear weapons analyst in CIA's Center for Weapons Intelligence and Arms Control, and it was abundantly clear that his agenda was to "prove" that the infamous aluminum tubes sought by Iraq were to be used for developing a nuclear weapon. We did not know that he and his CIA associates falsified the data-including rotor testing ironically called "spin tests.". July 23, 2004 Calling Bush a liar Indeed, there's some evidence that Bush carefully avoids the most blatant lies -- witness his meticulous descriptions of the periods in which he did not use illegal drugs.True, Bush boasted that he doesn't normally read newspaper articles, when his wife said he does. And Bush wrongly claimed that he was watching on television on the morning of 9/11 as the first airplane hit the World Trade Center. But considering the odd things the President often says ("I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family"), Bush always has available a prima facie defense of confusion. Jul. 12, 2004 Editorials on CIA intelligence report The CIA and Tenet, who is leaving the agency, should not be used as all-purpose scapegoats for the "group think'' on Iraq that took place among President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and their other top advisers. They, too, had a responsibility to question their assumptions. July 14, 2004 Red ink more severe in first three quarters The US government's deficit ballooned to $326.6 billion in the first nine months of the 2004 budget year, according to a snapshot of US balance sheets released Tuesday. That's more than 20 per cent larger than the $269.7-billion shortfall for the corresponding period last year. For the current budget year, which began Oct 1, this spending has totalled $1.73 trillion, 6.4 per cent more than the same period a year ago. Revenues came to $1.40 trillion, 3.5 per cent more than the previous year. August 2004 Special Report leans right, white, Republican & male FAIR's latest study of Fox's Special Report with Brit Hume finds the network's flagship news show still listing right—heavily favoring conservative and Republican guests in its one-on-one interviews. And, according to the study, Special Report rarely features women or non-white guests in these prominent newsmaker inter-view spots. June 10, 2004 Fox spins 9/11 report The Bush administration's long-running attempts to link Iraq and Al Qaeda were dealt a serious blow when the September 11 commission's June 16 interim report indicated that there did not appear to be a "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and Osama bin Laden, and that there was no evidence that Iraq was involved in the September 11 attacks. But if you were watching the Fox News Channel, you saw something very different, as the conservative cable network eagerly defended the Bush administration and criticized the rest of the media for mishandling the story. June 10, 2004 NY Times pushes White House spin--abuse, not torture New York Times public editor Daniel Okrent posted a response to FAIR's May 14 Action Alert that criticized the paper's May 14 report about CIA and Justice Department interrogation methods of Al Qaeda suspects. Though the techniques described in the article clearly seem to meet the legal definition of torture, the Times presented administration denials that these methods constituted torture, appeared to accept in its own reporters' voice that they were not torture, and failed to include and legal or human rights experts who might disagree with official claims that these practices merely "simulate torture." June 22, 2004 White House Disavows Torture---(Yeah right!) "It was harmful to this country in terms of the notion that we may be engaged in torture," said White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales "That's contrary to the values of this president and this administration." The 2002 memo the Justice Department spoke of, signed by former Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee, included lengthy sections that appeared to justify the use of torture in the war on terrorism and contended that U.S. personnel could be immune from prosecution for torture. The memo also argued that the president's powers as commander in chief allow him to override U.S. anti-torture laws and international treaties banning the practice. June 28, 2004 Military Lawyers Pleased with Court Ruling Military lawyers assigned by the Pentagon to represent defendants in the tribunals welcomed the ruling. They argued that the justices' decision gives prisoners the right to come before U.S. civilian courts not only to seek their freedom but also to attack the legality of the tribunals. "One of the things that we would certainly want to test in federal court would be the lawfulness of the military commissions themselves, whether the president has authority to establish these commissions or whether Congress's approval is required -- or whether even the president and Congress together can authorize these commissions," Bridges told Reuters. June 28, 2004 An impeachable offense Supreme Court Rules Against Bush Terror Tactics "Clearly the administration is now on notice that the historical deference given to the commander in chief in times of war will not apply in this current war on terrorism," said Scott Silliman, a Duke University law professor. The court said U.S. judges may review appeals on behalf of about 600 detainees from 42 countries being held in Cuba, and that a U.S. citizen being held in the United States can also pursue an appeal and meet with a lawyer. June 25, 2004 Cheney: Go Fuck Yourself WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney declared Friday that he "probably" used the F-word on the Senate floor shortly after a greeting from a Democratic senator descended into a big-time verbal brawl. But Cheney's concession, given late Friday exclusively to Fox News, came only after an explanation of sorts of Tuesday's confrontation during the taking of the normally festive annual Senate photograph. June 25, 2004 Special Prosecutor Questions Rice and CIA Chief SHANNON, Ireland (Reuters) - U.S. national security adviser Condoleezza Rice was interviewed as part of an investigation into whether an administration official leaked a covert CIA officer's identity to retaliate for her husband's criticism of the Iraq war, a U.S. official said Friday. June 25, 2004 Special Prosecutor Questions Bush on CIA Leak WASHINGTON -- A special prosecutor interviewed President George W. Bush for more than an hour in the Oval Office yesterday morning in the probe of who leaked the identity of a covert CIA operative to the news media, a White House spokesman said. Bush was questioned for about 70 minutes by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney from Chicago appointed to conduct the investigation, and members of his investigative team, said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. June 24, 2004 Oh, that $8 trillion national debt ... The Treasury will bump up against the $7.3 trillion debt limit later this summer. The White House has told congressional Republicans that Bush's Treasury secretary, John Snow, could stall for time, and maybe even get past the November election without lifting the cap, by juggling some government accounts and borrowing from others. But there's a problem: When President Clinton's Treasury secretary Robert Rubin did that, these same congressional Republicans threatened to impeach him. It's so true in Washington: What goes around, comes around. June 23, 2004 US Drops Effort Granting Immunity to Troops at the UN UNITED NATIONS, June 23 — The United States bowed to broad opposition on the Security Council today and announced that it was dropping its effort to gain immunity for its troops from prosecution by the International Criminal Court. "The United States has decided not to proceed further with consideration and action on the draft at this time in order to avoid a prolonged and divisive debate," the deputy American ambassador, James B. Cunningham, said on emerging from the council. June 17, 2004 Diplomats Against Bush WASHINGTON — The call for President Bush's defeat in a statement released Wednesday by a group of former diplomats and military officials highlighted the stark divide that has opened among foreign policy experts over the administration's national security strategy. "Today, we see that structure crumbling under an administration blinded by ideology and a callous indifference to the realities of the world around it," said Phyllis Oakley, a former State Department official in the Reagan and Clinton administrations and a group member. June 17, 2004 New York Times Calls on Bush to Apologize It's hard to imagine how the commission investigating the 2001 terrorist attacks could have put it more clearly yesterday: there was never any evidence of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda, between Saddam Hussein and Sept. 11. Now President Bush should apologize to the American people, who were led to believe something different. There are two unpleasant alternatives: either Mr. Bush knew he was not telling the truth, or he has a capacity for politically motivated self-deception that is terrifying in the post-9/11 world. June 20, 2004 9/11 Commission Asks Cheney to Prove Claims WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is inviting Vice President Dick Cheney to provide any evidence he has showing links between Al Qaeda and Iraq under Saddam Hussein, panel member Richard Ben-Veniste said Saturday. The commission said last week it found no evidence of collaboration between Hussein's Iraq and Al Qaeda, but the White House has kept saying there were significant links. Cheney told the CNBC network there probably were things about Iraq's ties to terrorists that the commission did not learn during its 14-month investigation. After hearing that, panel members said they would like to see intelligence reports to which Cheney referred. "We would certainly welcome any information bearing on the issue," Ben-Veniste said Saturday. June 01, 2004 President Flip FLop Center For American Progress BUSH SPOKESMAN DENIES NEED FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDS FOR THE REST OF 2004 "We do not anticipate requesting supplemental funding for '04" [White House Budget Director Joshua Bolton, 2/2/04 BUSH REQUESTS ADDITIONAL FUNDS FOR IRAQ FOR 2004 "I am requesting that Congress establish a $25 billion contingency reserve fund for the coming fiscal year to meet all commitments to our troops.' [President Bush, Statement by President, 5/5/04] June 16, 2004 The Document Sean Hannity Doesn't Want You to Read Center For American Progress HANNITY: "You want to refer to some liberal activist judge..., that's fine, but I'm going to go directly to the source. The author of the Bill of Rights [James Madison] hired the first chaplain in 1789, and I gotta' tell ya' somethin', I think the author of the Bill of Rights knows more about the original intent--no offense to you and your liberal atheist activism--knows more about it than you do." (9/4/02) TRUTH: The first congressional chaplains weren't hired by James Madison--they were appointed by a committee of the Senate and House in, respectively, April and May, 1789, before the First Amendment even existed. James Madison's view: "Is the appointment of Chaplains to the two Houses of Congress consistent with the Constitution, and with the pure principle of religious freedom? In strictness the answer on both points must be in the negative." (James Madison) May 13, 2004 An impeachable offense CIA Torture Violates US Law The coercive interrogation techniques occur under secret legal opinions written by CIA and Justice Department lawyers. After Sept. 11, the White House issued secret rules for the covert war on terrorism, but it is not clear if President Bush has approved the interrogation methods used on high-level detainees, The Times reports. Separately, the United Nations convention on torture, which the United States has signed, says torture consists of "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession … " In U.S. law, torture is defined as "an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control." May 08, 2004 An impeachable offense Iraqi Scandal Involves RAPE and MURDER Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said after an appearance by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld before the committee the scandal would worsen. "We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience. We're talking about rape and murder and some very serious charges." May 07, 2004 Powell Wasn't Told of $25 billion Iraq Request After word of the $25 billion Iraq funding request broke Wednesday, Powell called Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., to assure him he hadn't deliberately misled the caucus. Powell explained he hadn't been informed of the funding request because it was for the military, Cummings said: "Apparently the decision was held closely between the Pentagon and the budget offices." Feb 02, 2002 An impeachable offense Bush Caused Violations of the Geneva Convention WASHINGTON, Feb. 7, 2002 -- President Bush said the United States would regard the Geneva Conventions as applying to Taliban detainees under U.S. control -- but not Al Qaeda detainees. May 06, 2004 An impeachable offense Rumsfeld Caused Violations of the Geneva Convention His Pentagon ruled that the United States would no longer be bound by the Geneva Conventions; that Army regulations on the interrogation of prisoners would not be observed; and that many detainees would be held incommunicado and without any independent mechanism of review. May 12, 2004 Beheaded American's Father Blames Military The father of Nick Berg, the American civilian beheaded in Iraq, has criticized the U.S. military for detaining his son and preventing him from leaving the country as planned at the end of March, before a recent escalation of violence that included the kidnapping of foreigners. Feb. 2002 US Pundits Support(ed) Torture. Alter's column did say that legalizing physical torture wouldn't work in the U.S. Instead, he suggested we consider using "legal" forms of psychological torture at home, while "transferring some suspects to our less squeamish allies." In other words, send them overseas for the real thing. In the November 8 Los Angeles Times, legal scholar and columnist Alan Dershowitz suggested that torture is not unconstitutional--as long as "the fruits of such techniques" are not used against the subject in a criminal trial, since that would violate the subject's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. o pretensions to legal scholarship attended the pro-torture shoutfest that took place on the McLaughlin Group's November 9 show, where four out of five of the panelists endorsed torture. The Washington Times' Tony Blankley and MSNBC's Laurence O'Donnell joined host John McLaughlin and National Review editor Rich Lowry in approval of torture. Only Newsweek's Eleanor Clift objected. (When Clift asked her co-panelists where they would send suspects for torture, McLaughlin shouted, "The Filipinos!" while Lowry barked, "The Turks!") May 10, 2004 Red Cross: Powell, Rice, Wolfowitz told of abuse in January. The international Red Cross saw U.S. military intelligence officers routinely mistreating prisoners under interrogation during a visit to Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in October, according to a report by the agency disclosed today. ICRC chief spokeswoman Antonella Notari said Kellenberger spoke about prison conditions in January with Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. "He raised concerns regarding detention in Iraq, along with Guantanamo and other locations," Notari told The Associated Press in Geneva. April 22, 2004 An impeachable offense US deports Canadian to Syria to be tortured. The Canadian who was deported from the U.S. to Syria, where he says he was tortured as a suspected terrorist, is looking for compensation. Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen with dual citizenship, was detained by U.S. officials in September 2002 during a stopover in New York. He was on his way home to Canada from a trip to Tunisia. On Oct. 8, he was flown to Jordan and then transported to Syria, where he says he spent close to 10 months being tortured. Arar, who has denied being a terrorist and has not been charged with a crime, was eventually released and later returned to Canada. May 10, 2004 Army Times: Rumsfeld Should Be Fired Army Times, May 10 — On the battlefield, Myers' and Rumsfeld's errors would be called a lack of situational awareness — a failure that amounts to professional negligence. This was not just a failure of leadership at the local command level. This was a failure that ran straight to the top. Accountability here is essential — even if that means relieving top leaders from duty in a time of war. May 04, 2004 An impeachable offense Thomas Scully--Withholding information from Congress violated court rulings WASHINGTON, May 3 — In a report on Monday, the research service said that Congress's "right to receive truthful information from federal agencies to assist in its legislative functions is clear and unassailable." Since 1912, it said, federal laws have protected the rights of federal employees to communicate with Congress, and recent laws have "reaffirmed and strengthened" those protections. August 2004 Bush Team on Defensive Over al-Qaeda Leak One of the greatest coups in Washington's nearly three-year war against al-Qaeda has suddenly turned sour with reports the White House prematurely exposed the identity of a key source whose contacts and communication with the terrorist group's operational masterminds had yet to be fully exploited. The source, 25-year-old computer wizard Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan, had been cooperating with Pakistani police and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since he was quietly detained in Lahore on July 12, until the New York Times published his name last Monday after receiving a "background" briefing by the White House. August 27, 2004 Ranks of Poor, Uninsured Rose in 2003 WASHINGTON Aug. 27, 2004 — Democrats took aim at President Bush's economic record after release of a Census Bureau report showing the ranks of the uninsured and the impoverished grew in 2003 for the third consecutive year while incomes stayed level. August 21, 2004 GOP Plans to Gut CIA and Pentagon Intelligence WASHINGTON - The Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence committee unveiled a proposal Sunday to remove most of the nation's major intelligence-gathering operations from the CIA and Pentagon and place them directly under the control of a new national intelligence director. The proposal came as a shock to Senate Democrats and the White House, which had not been told about the plan's details by Roberts and seven other GOP committee members. But the senior intelligence official said that little would be left at the CIA under the plan. "That's exactly what it would do: demolish the agency," the official said. "This goes way beyond anything reasonable." August 21, 2004 Abu Ghraib: its legacy for military medicine Abu Ghraib will leave a substantial legacy. Medical personnel prescribed anti-depressants to and addressed alcohol abuse and sexual misconduct in US soldiers in the psychologically destructive prison milieu.44 The reputation of military medicine, the US Armed Forces, and the USA was damaged. The eroded status of international law has increased the risk to individuals who become detainees of war since Abu Ghraib because it has decreased the credibility of international appeals on their behalf. Although the US Armed Forces' medical services are mainly staffed by humane and skilled personnel, the described offences do not merely fall short of medical ideals; some constitute grave breaches of international or US law. Various voices call for courts martial, a special prosecutor, or compensation. Such measures will be inadequate if unaccompanied by even more ardently pursued reform. August 21, 2004 How Complicit Are Doctors in Abuse? Even more disturbing is the emerging evidence that doctors and other medical personnel have helped, covered up, or stood by silently when humiliation, degrading treatment, and physical abuses have taken place. As Steven Miles describes in this week's issue of The Lancet, there are now reports of medical personnel in Afghanistan and Iraq allegedly abusing detainees, falsifying and delaying death certificates, and covering up homicides. No unprompted reports of abuses were initiated by medical personnel before the official investigation into practices at Abu Ghraib. At Guantanamo Bay, medical records were routinely shared with interrogators in a clear breach of confidentiality and with the knowledge that such information can be misused despite objections by the medical team of the International Committee of the Red Cross, who in protest suspended their medical visits. August 10, 2004 Leak Allowed Terrorist To Escape "Let me say that this intelligence leak jeopardized our plan and some al-Qaida suspects ran away," one of the Pakistani officials said on condition of anonymity. |