The Scallion

Disclaimer: this online political & social satire webzine is not suitable for the decerebrate (translation: our illustrious bonehead, his benighted administration, neo-ultraconservative Republicans, rabid Catholics, sheep, or their sympathizers) or for readers under age 18. As satirists, we take no responsibility if what we say is dangerously close to the truth. If you're under 18, stop reading this NOW & go turn yourself in to your Mommy for a well-deserved spanking, you no-good little whelp.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Greetings, fellow Freedom Fighters™ and Defenders of Democracy™!

Well, gentle Readers, we’ve survived yet another media orgy of 9/11 along with its Mickey Mouse pro-Bush, Clinton-bashing mockumentary propaganda and other toxic TV. The staff of The Scallion sailed past the politicization of one of America’s worst tragedies by tuning in to WPFW, Pacifica Radio, which is available at 89.3 on your FM dial in our nation’s capitol or online at www.wpfw.org/. “Democracy Now!” hosted a brisk debate between Loose Change, which encourages Americans to question the official story of 9/11, and Popular Mechanics, which claims to debunk 9/11 myths (DN! daily brief and link below in our information clearinghouse). It was empowering and uplifting to hear an all-day extravaganza of accurate, in-depth information as opposed to the fascist propaganda and misinformation that congeals the mainstream media. The moral of the story: support your favorite independent media NOW!

Today, we bring you a goodly assortment of recommended links, news from our clearinghouse, and more … including a wee bit of satire for good measure. Be sure to read Greg Palast’s “Charged with Journalism in the First Degree” -- yes, being a journalist is illegal if you happen to be photographing Exxon toxic spewage in the background! -- in our information clearinghouse. You also won’t want to Richard Cohen’s article on bin Laden’s victory in WaPo.

Keep the faith and keep fighting; together; we WILL win our nation back!

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Our raisin debtor: original satire from The Scallion (woo hoo!)

Seeking security, Americans report to prison to sacrifice their liberty

September 11, 2006. In a stunning development earlier today, millions of America’s rank-and-file Republicans turned themselves in at prisons all over the country on the basis that security really is more important than liberty.

Pundits theorize that the mass move was in response to a nationwide campaign being conducted by progressive grassroots and organizers. However, since the campaign was intended merely as a satirical socio-political commentary, organizers are astonished at the outcome. Lead organizer Dr. Zoe Owens, Ph.D. philosopher and author of such introspectively religious books as “Jesus Holy Christ Almighty,” expressed her disbelief. “I’ve long known that Americans can be mind-bogglingly stupid, but this defies all logic. There is a certain irony in the fact that the most criminally stupid segment of Americans is depriving itself of further opportunity to do mischief by delivering itself into the hands of its executioners,” she remarked. “This campaign was rooted in American ideals, and it was intended to remind us all that, as Ben Franklin once pointed out, we do not have to sacrifice liberty for security because those who do deserve neither. But millions of Republicans seem to have taken us literally. Perhaps that’s what happens to people who interpret mythical literature as literal truth and who force their children and their elected officials to replace science with religion.”

“I like it in here -- it’s cozy,” countered new prison inmate Alfie Dimster. “My loony liberal sister got all fussy with me, saying that, since I live in Florida, I am giving up the right to vote for the rest of my life. That’s OK because we Republicans will eventually crown George W. Bush lifelong king and living Constitution. When that happens, Americans will realize that voting is just as quaint and outdated as civil rights and the Geneva Conventions.

“Truth is, I’ve never felt so safe in my life,” he added. “There are some strapping big fellas in here, and they all want to be my friend. I was never so popular in all my life!”

Representatives of the American prison-industrial complex are thrilled with the sudden and massive financial windfall brought in by the burgeoning prison population. “These guys are paying us to incarcerate them,” commented a spokesman in an awed hush, “and that’s on top of what we’re already getting to put them up at Uncle Sam’s expense. Maybe we can start letting the harmless non-violent offenders and druggies go free because, heck, these Republicans pay better.”

Campaign organizers are cautiously optimistic about the political opportunity given to them by the growing population of newly jailed Republicans. “Think of it,” commented Dr. Owens. “Millions of Republicans are willingly giving up their right to vote because they think that living in prison makes them safer from terrorism. Their own stupidity may yet let us save them from their own stupidity: we stand a good chance of electing leaders who will work in the interests of all the people, unlike the fascists who took over by coup in 2000. But we’ll have to act fast: unless we can pull off a rigged-vote-resistant landslide soon, the neocons will doctor the laws yet again in their favor, perhaps by legislating that prisoners can indeed vote. That would be child’s play for Bush and the other war monkeys and fascists, who have no qualms about legalizing their own crimes by dismantling the Constitution.”

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Recommended links

BoingBoing reports: discarding all the political posing and hot-air rhetoric, what’s really being done in our names to “win” the war on terror? Secret CIA prisons? We got ‘em! Geneva Convention-defying Torture? Mr. Bush delivers that, too.

Sample findings: in the twelve months immediately after 9/11, the prosecution of individuals the government classified as international terrorists surged sharply higher than in the previous year. But timely data show that five years later, in the latest available period, the total number of these prosecutions has returned to roughly what they were just before the attacks. Given the widely accepted belief that the threat of terrorism in all parts of the world is much larger today than it was six or seven years ago, the extent of the recent decline in prosecutions is unexpected. See Figure 1 and supporting table. …[T]imely data show that in the first eight months of FY 2006 the assistant U.S. Attorneys rejected slightly more than nine out of ten of the referrals. Given the assumption that the investigation of international terrorism must be the single most important target area for the FBI and other agencies, the turn-down rate is hard to understand. See Figure 2 and supporting table. The typical sentences recently imposed on individuals considered to be international terrorists are not impressive. For all those convicted as a result of cases initiated in the two years after 9//11, for example, the median sentence -- half got more and half got less-- was 28 days.

BoingBoing has the complete scorecard right here:
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/06/scorecard_for_the_wa.html

Please read the 7 September Center for American Progress progress report in our information clearinghouse post below -- it’s chock full of pithy headlines and articles that you won’t want to miss. Here’s a sample:

U.S. lags world in college education
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=71878

Ex-Ill. Gov. Ryan (R) gets 6.5 years for graft, corruption (this shameful scandal after his mitzvah of emptying Illinois’s infamous death row by not executing the prisoners)
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2401644

VA Senator George Allen (R) tries to steal a bill written by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), thinking that he can fool everyone into thinking the bill was his own by changing one itty bitty teeny weeny little word
http://www.raisingkaine.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4286

Our North Carolina contingent exhorts Readers of The Scallion to support the Multiple Sclerosis Bike-a-thon. New Bern-area cyclist Dave Wallace will be participating in the ride; please visit his website and arrange to make a donation via his e-mail:
http://www.always-online.com/dave/nbcc.htm

Impeach Bush NOW!!!
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/id16.html

Even conservatives say that ABC’s “The Path to 9/11” has “zero basis in fact”!
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/09/07/miniter-911/

Here’s some factual information on 9/11
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/trinitite.html
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/911_terror_timeline_by_paul_thompson.jsp
http://www.buzzflash.com/store/reviews/333 -- “Wake-Up Call: The Political Education of a 9/11 Widow,” an eye-opening book by Kristen Breitweiser

Our soldiers might still be alive if our fascist administration had not lied
http://www.tvnewslies.org/html/they_might_still_be_alive.html

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Good for a giggle

Funnies from The Onion
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/52333
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/52279

A counter-script for those of us who have nothing better to do than toy with the tiny little minds of telemarketers
http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Eegbg/counterscript.html

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Yes, we CAN and SHOULD pull our troops out of Iraq -- it’s the ONLY way toward PEACE
From http://www.kucinich.us/

Iraq and the Basic Principles of Conflict Resolution

A Paper by Richard E. Rubenstein

Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution
George Mason University

Aug 18, 2006

Congressman Kucinich would like to call your attention to a recent article by Richard E. Rubenstein, Professor of Conflict Resolution and Public Affairs at George Mason University. Rubenstein starts by saying,

"Iraq is not 'on the verge of' a civil war. Three thousand Iraqis have died in civil strife in the past month alone. Iraqi society is disintegrating, a tragedy for which our nation’s current policies bear major responsibility. The urgent question is how this bloodbath can be ended. To answer it we must make the U.S. government aware of some of the basic principles of conflict analysis and resolution -- principles that have proven highly effective in addressing violent conflicts between bitterly opposed ethic, religious, and national groups around the world."

Rubenstein continues, "Conflict resolvers understand that the deep-rooted problems generating destructive political, economic, ethnic, and religious conflicts can rarely be solved by violence or the threat of violence ... Today, many government officials and political commentators maintain that a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq would produce unlimited civil war. We answer that only the end of the occupation and the initiation of genuine, autonomous conflict resolution processes can help to end that war ...

"Even within the Bush administration, elements of the government have begun to realize that coercive intervention cannot resolve deep-rooted social conflicts, and that violence in fact makes conflict-generating problems worse."

Rubenstein then suggests five principles of conflict resolution that, he says, "Experts in conflict resolution deem essential to the construction of a peaceful, autonomous, developing Iraq."

Concluding this brief, two-page paper, Rubenstein writes, "With sentiment growing in the U.S. Congress for an end to American and Iraqi losses in that war-torn land, this seems a good time to make them known to U.S. policymakers."

We urge you to read the full article, made available here (http://www.kucinich.us/downloads/Iraq_Conflict_Res.pdf) by permission of the author.

Permalink to this article (http://www.kucinich.us/archive/home/display.php?src=k_20060818_ehorafgrva.cuc)

Kucinich.us features a later post describing the immolation of Qana in Lebanon … despite the unfamiliar-to-Americans spelling, this is the same Cana where Jesus Christ purportedly turned water into wine at the wedding feast. The Scallion wonders why the Christian fundamentalists aren’t up in arms over the destruction of the famous biblical site.

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Bin Laden's Victory

by Richard Cohen

Tuesday, September 12, 2006; A23

NEW YORK -- I hear Osama bin Laden laughing. I heard him all day on Sunday and Monday as the mass murder of Sept. 11, 2001, was memorialized at the Pentagon and in that field in Pennsylvania and especially here, where the most people died and where countless cameras recorded it all for posterity and an abiding, everlasting anger. He laughs, the madman does, whenever George Bush says, as he has over and over, that America is "winning this war on terror." Bin Laden knows better. He has already won.

It is not merely that bin Laden has not been captured or killed and that videotapes keep coming out of his hideout like taunts. It is, rather, that his initial strategy has borne fruit. It was always his intention to draw the Americans into Afghanistan, where, as had been done to the Soviets, they could be mauled by the fierce mujaheddin. He tried and failed when he blew up the USS Cole off Aden at 11:15 a.m. on Oct. 12, 2000, killing 17 sailors and crippling the ship. But he succeeded beyond his wildest expectations when the United States responded to the Sept. 11 attacks by invading Afghanistan and, in a beat, then going to war in Iraq. It remains mired in both countries to this day.

From bin Laden's standpoint, this has been a glorious victory, made possible, it has to be said, by the totally unforeseen incompetence of the Bush administration. It was so intent on going to war in Iraq that it would not finish the job in Afghanistan. So, to bin Laden's absolute amazement -- I am guessing here -- the United States took on his enemy, the secular and ungodly Saddam Hussein, whom bin Laden himself would gladly have murdered. It has to be a wonderful thing when your enemy vanquishes your enemy.

On "Meet the Press" on Sunday, Dick Cheney said that if he had it to do all over again, he would still go to war in Iraq -- "we'd do exactly the same thing," he said. Why? Is the man incapable of learning from experience? We now know from umpteen reports that there was no link between bin Laden and Hussein. We now know, the Weekly Standard notwithstanding, that Mohamed Atta did not meet in Prague with someone from Iraqi intelligence. We now know that Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and that the Iraq war -- which has cost America more than 2,500 lives, 20,000 casualties, the respect of the world and billions of dollars -- is for naught. Talleyrand said of the Bourbons that they forgot nothing and learned nothing. It will be said of Cheney that he forgot everything and learned nothing.

How did bin Laden get so lucky? How did he get so fortunate in his choice of enemies? The Bush administration not only validated his wildest dreams -- dreams that even some of his aides thought were unrealistic -- but went even further. By using torture, by the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, by employing "extraordinary renditions" of suspects to countries where they could be tortured, by insisting on going it almost alone in Iraq, by telling the international community to shove it, by declaring a war for an idée fixe -- this fierce obsession with Hussein goes back a long way -- the United States has made itself reviled in much of the world.

And here at home, here in the United States of America, it will be a long time before lots of people trust their government again. Little wonder that 16 percent of respondents said in a recent poll that it was "very likely" that the government played some role in the Sept. 11 attacks to justify a war in the Middle East. This is a shocking figure, a measure not just of irrational thinking but of the cost of the Bush administration's mauling of the truth in its mad march to war. Bush has damaged his country more than bin Laden ever could on his own.

I was here on Sept. 11, 2001 -- downtown when the twin towers collapsed. My instantaneous reaction -- the thought that came to my mind as I heard the sound of the buildings coming down -- was for revenge. I would, to this day, kill Osama bin Laden with my own hands. But as much as I hate the man, I have to recognize that from his vantage point, from his mountain fastness somewhere on the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier, he has won. What he had set out to do, he has done. That is more than we can say.

cohenr@washpost.com

© 2006 The Washington Post Company

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We found this circulating around the web, claiming to have been authored by an anonymous Independent and recycled a bit ...

Things you have to believe to be a Republican today:

Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.

Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.

Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is Communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.

A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches, while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.

If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.

A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.

Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy, but providing health care to all Americans is socialism.

HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.

Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.

A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense, but a president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.

Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.

The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.

Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you are a conservative radio host. Then it is an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.

Pass this on. If you don't send this to 10 other people, we're going to be stuck with more Republicans in '06 and '08.

Friends don't let friends vote Republican.

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From our information clearinghouse

These are items we receive from the countless mailing lists to which The Scallion collectively subscribes. They are worth the effort of at least a good skim.

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From AlterNet

Olbermann rips Bush: 'Have you no sense of decency, sir?'
It's time for another classic Keith Olbermann special commentary.

Blogs
More 9/11 lies
Post by Laura Barcella
Updated: Protesting 'Path to 9/11,' ABC's conservative-penned, six-hour 'docudrama' set to air on the five-year anniversary.

Take less liberty, and give me more
Post by Melissa McEwan
It isn't the terrorists who hate us for our freedom

Lieberman given Millions by Republicans?
Post by Evan Derkacz
Secret strategy to buy a senator smells of Rove

September 7th, 2006

America's Next Media Mogul
By Amy Alexander, The Nation
Tavis Smiley has a bestselling book, a popular website and successful talk shows. What's next for this "modern-day cross between Marcus Garvey and Martin Luther King Jr."?

Pentagon Spends Billions to Outsource Torture
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Bush administration hawks are getting profit-hungry companies like CACI to do their dirty work in the war zones of the New American Empire. And we're footing the bill.

Bush's Tactics Aid the Terrorists
By Matthew Stannard, San Francisco Chronicle
Since 9/11, the White House has relentlessly manipulated public opinion by hyping the war on terror. But the main result is a terrified public -- which may have been the point all along.

The Last Defenders of Marriage
By Allison Hantschel, Sirens Magazine
The institution of marriage isn't under attack by gay couples -- despite what conservatives would have you believe.

What's a Diploma Worth, Anyway?
By Tamara Draut, TomPaine.com
Young people are enrolling in college in record numbers, working longer hours and trying to save for retirement. But in this grim economic situation, a degree doesn't guarantee a good life.

High on Opium, Not Democracy
By Robert Scheer, AlterNet
In Bush-liberated Afghanistan -- which has just harvested its biggest opium crop ever -- billions in drug profits are financing the Taliban.

Back to the Railroad Yard
By Sean Gonsalves, AlterNet
While defense CEOs are reaping a post-9/11 windfall, real wages for most people stagnate.

Women Expose Street Harassment
By Elana Fiske, Ms. Magazine
Women who are cat-called on the street can put their harassers to shame with the help of a New York-based website.

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Google Blocking Privacy Technology
Post by Lindsay Beyerstein
Search engine refuses proxies.

September 8th, 2006

Torture Won't Stop Terror
By Larry C. Johnson, AlterNet
Bush says secret prisons are keeping us safe, but the CIA has learned the hard way that torture leads to faulty intelligence.

For U.S. Workers, Vacation Is Vanishing
By Mark Ames, Comment Is Free
More than a quarter of working Americans won't take time off, while Europeans enjoy two months of holiday. Did the Reagan revolution make us forget how to relax?

The High Cost of Manliness
By Robert Jensen, AlterNet
Society's toxic view of masculinity isn't just harmful to men. Everyone pays the price.

Iraq: The Doctor Is In
By Chuleenan Svetvilas, AlterNet
A new documentary offers a glimpse of the U.S. occupation through the eyes of an Iraqi doctor.

Sick to Death of Trusting Bush
By Terry J. Allen, In These Times
Bush lied about Iraq's WMDs, his tactics in the 'war on terror' and his domestic spying program. Now he wants us to trust him that it's safe to make weapons out of the world's deadliest diseases.

Controversy Over ABC's 9/11 'Docudrama' Hits Fever Pitch
Editor & Publisher
ABC's 9/11 film featuring made up events, faces harsh criticism from real-life characters such as former president Bill Clinton.

Can a Movie Fuel a Democratic Return to Power?
By Arianna Huffington, AlterNet
If it's Robert Greenwald's new documentary 'Iraq For Sale,' it just might.

When Will Joe Biden Become Fair Game?
By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com
Senator Joe Biden is the ultimate creep Democrat -- happy to attack Rumsfeld when Iraq is polling badly, and arch defender of the credit industries that have put thousands of US troops abroad in bankruptcy.

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What If 9/11 Never Happened? | Zinn: USA Terrorizes the World | Best of Week

UPDATED: Arnie Porn (video is Rated 'R')
Governor says 'black blood' makes Latinas 'hot.'

Blogs
Top historians press ABC for cancellation of 'Dangerous' 9/11 drama
Post by Evan Derkacz
'Fraudulent' film falsifies history

September 9th, 2006

Imagine the Twin Towers Hadn't Fallen on 9/11
By Tom Engelhardt, The Nation and TomDispatch.com
What if there had been no giant cloud of destruction capable of bringing to mind the look of "the day after," no images of crumbling towers worthy of Independence Day?

Slow Food Nation
By Alice Waters, The Nation
In this forum edited by Chez Panisse chef Alice Waters, experts discuss the politics of food, and how it may be poisoning our bodies and our planet.

War-Mongering America Terrorizes the World
By Howard Zinn, AlterNet
The USA's massive military campaigns are both strategically ineffective and morally indefensible.

Wind Power Is Energy for Optimists
By Komanoff Charles, Orion Magazine
Is fossil fuels for pessimists? Acceptance of wind farms could be our generation's way of avowing our love for the next.

When Will Joe Biden Become Fair Game?
By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com
Senator Joe Biden is the ultimate creep Democrat -- happy to attack Rumsfeld when Iraq is polling badly, and arch defender of the credit industries that have put thousands of US troops abroad in bankruptcy.

Best of the Week Stories:
The 10 Most Brazen War Profiteers
By Charlie Cray, AlterNet
Halliburton has become synonymous with war profiteering, but there are lots of other greedy fingers in the pie. We name names on 10 of the worst.

The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right
By Rob Lanham, AlterNet
A hilarious new book provides instructions on how to argue the big issues with ultra-conservative fundamentalists.

Women Expose Street Harassment
By Elana Fiske, Ms. Magazine
Women who are cat-called on the street can put their harassers to shame with the help of a New York-based website.

The Clash of Civilizations Doesn't Exist... Yet
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
The neocons who are pushing a Clash of Civilizations are mirror-images of the terrorists that inspire their hyperbolic fear -- they are just as irrational and just as great a threat to our security.

Snakes on, Arabs off the Plane
By Naeem Mohaiemen, AlterNet
In these times of hyperparanoia, passengers are more likely to accept snakes on a plane than Arab-looking men.

Linda Hirshman's Manifesto For Women
By Mindy Farabee, LA CityBeat
The political philosopher discusses why men don't stay home and why having Ph.D.s wiping butts is immoral.

Gasp! I Married a Career Woman
By Caryl Rivers, Rosalind Barnett, Women's eNews
Forbes.com is just the latest media outlet to say working women have terrible marriages. Will this myth ever die?

The Undeclared War on America's Middle Class
By Thom Hartmann, AlterNet
Under the guise of free market capitalism, conservative policies have made 80-hour work weeks the norm. Working harder for less money means middle class families are getting screwed.

Photo Posed with Racist Group Haunts George Allen
By Max Blumenthal, TheNation.com
The Virginia senator claimed his 'macaca' comment was a mistake. But George Allen has a long and cozy history with white supremacists.

The Slow Death of the Middle Class
By Laura Barcella, AlterNet
Conservatives are working hard to dismantle almost every policy that protects average American workers. Air America host Thom Hartmann speaks up about how we can fight back.

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Couric interviews the 9/11 Jersey Girls
Katie Couric visits with the 9/11 widows that teamed up to push for an investigation into the attacks and continue to fight for reforms.

Blogs
ABC's edited Path to 9/11 still a path to B.S.
Post by Evan Derkacz
Before & After: Watch a scene from the ORIGINAL and the re-edit

Sherrod Brown's Response to Bush's Radio Address
Post by Bob Geiger
Brown counters Bush's comments

September 11th, 2006

Why Rudy Giuliani Can't Stop Cashing in on 9/11
By Dan Collins, Wayne Barrett, The Nation
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has made millions from his Sept. 11 grandstanding and has positioned himself for a presidential run based on his 9/11 persona. How much longer will he get away with it?

Terrorism: We're in Desperate Need of Perspective
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
The threat posed by terrorists - like that of the Soviet menace during the Cold War - has been massively exaggerated, and the public is understandably terrified. It's time for Americans to get a grip.

Bush Fears War Crimes Prosecution and Impeachment
By Marjorie Cohn, AlterNet
As the election season rolls around, Bush is doing everything he can to avoid a Dem sweep in the House of Congress - or else he might be impeached.

A Completely Different College Ranking Guide
By The Editors, Washington Monthly
Contrary to the U.S. News & World Report list, these colleges not only teach young people well, but their faculties and students alike are working to create a better world.

A Feminist Home on the Web
By Gary Moskowitz, Pop and Politics
Feministing, the popular blog site, aims to reignite the women's movement. But are we really witnessing a new wave of feminism? And can a blog -- no matter how fiery -- move meatspace toward gender equality?

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From Democracy Now!

DN!: Mexico Court Declares Calderon Victory//A Father's Reaction to
Losing Son in Iraq//Robert Fisk on Lebanon

DEMOCRACY NOW! DAILY EMAIL DIGEST
September 6, 2006

= = = = = = = = =

Democracy Now! 10th Anniversary Tour and launch of Amy and
David Goodman's second book STATIC: Government Liars, Media
Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back.

09/08 Minneapolis / St Paul, MN
09/09 Milwaukee, WI
09/09 Baraboo, WI
09/11 New York, NY

For more tour details and dates, visit http://tour.democracynow.org

= = = = = = = = =

TODAY'S DEMOCRACY NOW!:

* Mexico Court Declares Calderon Winner of Disputed Election, Lopez Obrador
Vows to Form Parallel Gov't *

On Tuesday, Mexico's top electoral court declared conservative candidate
Felipe Calderon the winner of the disputed presidential elections. This
ruling comes two months after voters first cast their ballots in Mexico's
closest race ever. Rival candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has said he
will never recognize Calderon's victory and has vowed to form a parallel
government. We go to Mexico City for a report.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/06/1359233


* Father Recounts Burning Marine Van and Himself After Learning of Son's
Death in Iraq *

When Marines came to Carlos Arredondo's home two years ago to inform him
that his son had been killed in Iraq, he destroyed their van in a frenzy and
accidentally set it, as well as himself, on fire, burning 30% of his body.
Carlos Arredondo is now heading to Washington DC to join protesters at "Camp
Democracy." We speak with Carlos Arredondo and his wife, Melida.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/06/1359237


* Robert Fisk on Lebanon: "The Ceasefire Can't Work" *

We speak with Robert Fisk, the chief Middle East correspondent for the
London Independent about the UN-brokered ceasefire in Lebanon. Fisk says,
"The cease-fire can't work for all kinds of reasons...The UN are not going
to block the Syrian border, the Lebanese army has to do it and they're not
going to be able to - you can't - Syria is too big a country."

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/06/1359240


* Headlines for September 6, 2006 *

- Mexico's Electoral Court Declares Calderon To Be President-Elect
- President Bush Likens Bin Laden to Hitler
- Pakistan Reaches Peace Deal With Pro-Taliban Fighters
- Book: Valerie Plame Worked on CIA's Covert Iraq WMD Program
- Study: 70 Percent of 9/11 Responders Suffer Lung Ailments
- Israeli PM Olmert Faces War Crimes Suit in Spain
- Detroit Teacher Strike Enters Ninth Day
- Justice Department Investigates Tom Delay's Wife

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/06/1359223

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DN!: Bush Acknowledges Secret Prisons//9/11 Health Effects//Darfur
Violence Intensifies

DEMOCRACY NOW! DAILY EMAIL DIGEST
September 7, 2006

= = = = = = = = =

Democracy Now! 10th Anniversary Tour and launch of Amy and
David Goodman's second book STATIC: Government Liars, Media
Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back.

09/08 Minneapolis / St Paul, MN
09/09 Milwaukee, WI
09/09 Baraboo, WI
09/11 New York, NY

For more tour details and dates, visit http://tour.democracynow.org

= = = = = = = = =

TODAY'S DEMOCRACY NOW!:

* Court Hearing on Suit Filed by Iraq Veterans Contaminated with Depleted
Uranium Against U.S. Military *

A U.S. District court in Manhattan held a hearing Wednesday on a lawsuit
brought by soldiers from the New York National Guard who have been sick
since being exposed to depleted uranium while serving in Iraq. Democracy
Now! co-host Juan Gonzalez first broke the story in the New York Daily News.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/07/1643226


* As CIA Detainees Transferred to Guantanamo, President Bush Acknowledges
Secret Prisons *

President Bush has acknowledged for the first time the CIA has been
operating a secret network of overseas prisons. Bush made the admission as
he ordered 14 prisoners previously held by the CIA to be transferred to
Guantanamo Bay where they could be tried by a military tribunal. Bush said
the CIA is no longer holding any detainees but that the secret prisons may
be re-opened. We get analysis from Center for Constitutional Rights attorney
Barbara Olshansky.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/07/1350230


* Study: 70 Percent of 9/11 Responders Suffer Lung Ailments *

A major new study of 9/11 health effects finds that nearly seven out of
every ten first responders at Ground Zero suffer from chronic lung ailments.
For the past five years city, state and federal officials have downplayed
the health dangers of the toxic dust that was released when the World Trade
Center collapsed. We speak with co-author of the Mount Sinai study.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/07/1350234


* Darfur Violence Intensifies as Deadline for Withdrawal of AU Peacekeepers
Looms *

The Sudanese government is increasing its attacks in Darfur as the African
Union confirms it will withdraw peacekeeping troops by the end of the month.
We speak with Alex de Waal, an advisor to the African Union and author of
"Darfur: A Short History of a Long War."


Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/07/1350238


* Headlines for September 7, 2006 *

- Bush Acknowledges Secret CIA Prisons For First Time
- Pentagon Adopts Intl. Standards on Detainee Treatment
- Senate Rejects Cluster Ban
- Senate Blocks Democrat Attempt To Dismiss Rumsfeld
- Israel To Lift Lebanon Blockade
- Poll: 58% Oppose Bush Foreign Policy
- Ex-Illinois Gov. Sentenced To 6.5 Year Term

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/07/1350218

-----
DN!: New Yorkers Demand Govt Stop Ignoring 9/11 Health Effects//Families of 9/11 Victims Call for Peace//Satyagraha 100 Years Later

DEMOCRACY NOW! DAILY EMAIL DIGEST
September 8, 2006

= = = = = = = = =

Democracy Now! 10th Anniversary Tour and launch of Amy and
David Goodman's second book STATIC: Government Liars, Media
Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back.

09/08 Minneapolis / St Paul, MN
09/09 Milwaukee, WI
09/09 Baraboo, WI
09/11 New York, NY

For more tour details and dates, visit http://tour.democracynow.org

= = = = = = = = =

TODAY'S DEMOCRACY NOW!:

* New Yorkers Tell Federal Officials To Stop Ignoring 9/11's Health Effects
*

Hundreds of residents gathered last night at New York's St. Paul's Chapel -
across the street from the former World Trade Center site -- to demand the
federal government stop ignoring the health effects from 9/11. We hear some
of their voices.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/08/1349248


* Civilian Casualties, Civilian Solutions: Family Members of 9/11 Victims
Spearhead Movement Against War and Violence *

David Potorti lost his brother, James, at the World Trade Center on
September 11th. Shortly after the attacks, David joined with other family
members of those killed to form a group that called for peace. As President
Bush announced his war on terror, they advocated for non-violence.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/08/1349253


* Satyagraha 100 Years Later: Gandhi Launches Modern Non-Violent Resistance
Movement on Sept. 11, 2006 *

September 11th 2006 has a special significance. It not only marks the fifth
anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington, it also marks 100
years to the day that Mahatma Gandhi launched the modern nonviolent
resistance movement. We speak with Gandhi's grandson, Arun, about
"Satyagraha."

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/08/1349257


* Headlines for September 8, 2006 *

- Bush Asks Congress To Authorize Spy Program
- Calls Grow For Scrutiny of CIA Activities in Europe
- Suicide Attack Kills 18 in Afghanistan
- Video Shows Bin Laden With 9/11 Highjackers
- Baghdad Morgue Triples August Death Count
- Pentagon: Roadside Bombings at Record Levels
- Israel Lifts Air Blockade But Maintains Naval Seige
- New Hurdles For Bolton Confirmation Effort
- Armitage Confirms Plame Disclosure
- 5,000 Rally in DC for Immigrant Rights

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/08/1349238

-----
DN!: 9/11 Debate: Loose Change vs. Popular Mechanics

DEMOCRACY NOW! DAILY EMAIL DIGEST
September 11, 2006

= = = = = = = = =

Democracy Now! 10th Anniversary Tour and launch of Amy and
David Goodman's second book STATIC: Government Liars, Media
Cheerleaders, and the People Who Fight Back.

09/11 New York, NY
09/12 Washington, DC
09/12 Washington, DC
09/13 Philadelphia, PA
09/13 Houston, TX
09/14 Oakland, CA
09/14 Oakland, CA
09/15 Los Angeles, CA
09/15 Los Angeles, CA

For more tour details and dates, visit http://tour.democracynow.org

= = = = = = = = =

TODAY'S DEMOCRACY NOW!:

* Sept. 11, 2001 at the Firehouse: Democracy Now! Broadcasts Blocks From
Ground Zero on 9/11 *

Five years ago today, nearly three thousand people were killed in the
attacks of September 11, 2001. On this fifth anniversary we begin our
coverage by going back to 9/11 to replay an excerpt of Democracy Now!'s
radio broadcast from the firehouse studio on the morning of the attacks.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/11/1344256


* EXCLUSIVE...9/11 Debate: Loose Change Filmmakers vs. Popular Mechanics
Editors of "Debunking 9/11 Myths" *

September 11, 2001 - five years after the attacks many people are asking
questions about what happened on that day in New York, Washington and
Pennsylvania. Websites, articles, books and documentaries have put forward a
variety of alternate theories to the government's account of what happened.
The most popular of these is a documentary called "Loose Change." Now, a
book dealing with many of these theories has just been published by the
magazine Popular Mechanics, it's called "Debunking 9/11 Myths: Why
Conspiracy Theories Can't Stand Up to the Facts." In a Democracy Now!
national broadcast exclusive, we host a debate between the filmmakers of
Loose Change and the editors of Popular Mechanics on 9/11.


Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/11/1345203


* Headlines for September 11, 2006 *

- Memorials Mark Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks
- Report: Hunt For Bin Laden Gone Stone Cold
- Afghan Provincial Governor Assassinated By Car Bombing
- Marine Report Admits U.S. Has Been Defeated in Anbar, Iraq
- U.S. Military Accused of Downplaying Level Of Violence in Iraq
- Senate: No Link Between Saddam & Al Qaeda
- Senate: Iraqi National Congress Fed U.S. Gov't Misinformation
- "Gaza is Dying" : Humanitarian Situation Worsens In Region
- 10 Florida Journalists Caught Taking Payment From U.S. Gov't
- Fearing Lawsuits, CIA Agents Sign Up For Insurance Plans
- U.S. Accused of Being Involved in Mercenary Ops in Somalia

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/11/1344246

-----
From the Center for American Progress

GOOD NEWS

"A new three-in-one pill to treat heart disease could save millions worldwide, said experts Monday at the World Congress of Cardiology."

STATE WATCH

OKLAHOMA: State Supreme Court throws out TABOR.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Male bass have been found to be bearing eggs in the Potomac River, "raising alarms that the river is tainted by pollution that drives hormone systems haywire."

CALIFORNIA: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) plans to veto the state's universal health care bill

BLOG WATCH

THINK PROGRESS: Top Bush Counterterrorism Official: ABC s Path to 9/11 Is Shameful, Straight Out of Disney and Fantasyland

CLIMATE PROGRESS: Debunking a story that claimed scientists have "downgraded" global warming fears.

BOLTON WATCH: Opponents of Bolton have votes to uphold filibuster?

POLLSTER.COM: Major new site for polling information launches.

DAILY GRILL

"Mr. President [Musharraf] and I reaffirmed our shared commitment to a broad and lasting strategic partnership. And that partnership begins with close cooperation in the war on terror. ... We'll fight this war and we will win this war together."
-- President Bush, 3/4/06

VERSUS

"If he is in Pakistan, bin Laden 'would not be taken into custody,' [Pakistani] Major General Shaukat Sultan Khan told ABC News in a telephone interview, 'as long as [he] is being like a peaceful citizen.'"
-- ABC News, 9/6/0

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by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney
Amanda Terkel and Payson Schwin

September 6, 2006
ABC Docudrama Blames President Clinton For 9/11
Go Beyond The Headlines
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MEDIA
ABC Docudrama Blames President Clinton For 9/11

Next week, Americans will commemorate the five-year anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. ABC Television is marking this important moment with a miniseries called "The Path to 9/11." Promos for the movie say it is "based on the 9/11 Commission Report." The miniseries' writer, Cyrus Nowrasteh, claims he wanted to match the just-the-facts tone of the report, and describes the project as an objective telling of the events of 9/11. In fact, the film is an inaccurate and deeply-biased account that blames President Clinton for the 9/11 attacks while whitewashing the Bush administration's approach to terrorism. The events leading up to September 11, 2001 are too important to play politics with the facts. Act now. Tell ABC to tell the truth about 9/11.

KEY SCENE SAYS CLINTON ADMINISTRATION BLEW SUREFIRE CHANCE TO KILL BIN LADEN: A key scene in "The Path to 9/11" involves President Clinton's national security adviser Samuel Berger, "who freezes in dithering apprehension" when a CIA agent radios in from Afghanistan to say that he and a group of local tribesmen "have Osama bin Laden within sight." The CIA character "begs for the green light to capture or kill the al Qaeda chieftain, but the line goes dead, suggesting that Berger and his colleagues, including Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and Defense Secretary William S. Cohen, frozen in indecision, had hung up on the CIA man." According to Richard Clarke -- former counterterrorism czar under Bush I, Clinton, and Bush II, and now counterterrorism adviser to ABC -- this depiction is "utterly invented" and "180 degrees from what happened." In a statement posted on ThinkProgress, Clarke stated that there were no U.S. military or CIA personnel on the ground in Afghanistan who ever saw bin Laden, and that contrary to the movie, "the CIA Director actually said that he could not recommend a strike on the camp because the information was single sourced and we would have no way to know if bin Laden was in the target area by the time a cruise missile hit it." In fact, as 9/11 Commission member Richard Ben-Veniste pointed out yesterday, the commission actually found that President Clinton had given the green light to every "operation that had been cleared by the C.I.A. to kill bin Laden." In other words, ABC invented from whole cloth a scene which makes the incendiary claim that the Clinton administration passed on a surefire chance to kill or catch bin Laden.

INACCURACIES AND BIAS RIFE IN FILM: There are other falsehoods and misrepresentations in "The Path to 9/11." In one scene, a CIA character complains that "ever since the Washington Post disclosed that we intercepted his calls, [Osama bin Laden] stopped using phones altogether." In fact, the 9/11 Commission found that the Washington Times -- "the capital s unabashedly conservative newspaper" -- actually published the story about bin Laden's phone, not the Washington Post. More importantly, that story has since been discredited, though it is still cited by conservative politicians and pundits (including President Bush) "seeking to impose greater restrictions on the news media." The heavy political slant in "The Path to 9/11" is also clear from the reviews. Radio host Rush Limbaugh cheerily relayed that "the film really zeros in on the shortcomings of the Clinton administration in doing anything about militant Islamofascism or terrorism during its administration." A Salon.com review found the film portrayed the Bush administration in a strongly positive light, while painting Clinton as a buffoon more interested in blow jobs than terrorists.

MINISERIES WRITER IS AVOWED CONSERVATIVE: The writer of "The Path to 9/11" is an unabashed conservative named Cyrus Nowrasteh. Last year, Nowrasteh spoke on a panel titled, Rebels With a Cause: How Conservatives Can Lead Hollywood s Next Paradigm Shift. He has described Michael Moore as an out of control socialist weasel, and conducted interviews with right-wing websites like FrontPageMag. Though he claims the film is an "objective" historical presentation, Nowrasteh also said it shows how Clinton had frequent opportunities in the 90s to stop Bin Laden in his tracks but lacked the will to do so. He has referenced Clinton s lack of response to Al Qaeda and how this emboldened Bin Laden to keep attacking American interests.

ABC FEELING THE PRESSURE: Complaints about the film began last week and "only grew louder over the Labor Day weekend, filling a blog site that ABC had set up as a forum for debate," CQ reported. "On Sunday ABC pulled down the blog without explanation, and then re-established it Tuesday, also without explanation." Also yesterday, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) called on ABC to "come clean" about the miniseries and run a disclaimer stating that it "does not represent an official account of the facts surrounding the September 11th attacks." ABC released a statement saying that the miniseries was a dramatization, not a documentary, drawn from a variety of sources," and said it "planned to run a disclaimer with the broadcast, reminding viewers that the movie was not a documentary." But major problems remain. For instance, ABC is sending letters to 100,000 high school teachers urging them to tell their students how they can view the program. Most American high school students weren t even teenagers when the 9/11 attacks occured -- now ABC is trying to present those students with its slanted and inaccurate version of history. This is wrong, and you can fight back. Tell ABC to tell the truth about 9/11.

Under the Radar

IRAQ -- WHITE HOUSE SPOKESPERSON SAYS HE'S 'NOT GOING TO HOLD DONALD RUMSFELD ACCOUNTABLE': Today, Senate Democrats will "present a no-confidence measure on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to the full Senate." "Let's get a fresh face over at the Pentagon," Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) said. The call for Rumsfeld's replacement has engendered bipartisan support. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow was forced to take to the airwaves and defend the administration's mistakes in the conduct of the Iraq war. Snow falsely claimed yesterday that a pre-war recommendation by former Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki for "several hundred thousand troops" was meant simply to prevail in the initial campaign to take over Baghdad. In truth, Shinseki suggested more troops would be needed for what he termed "post-hostilities control," in order to deal with the "kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems." While mischaracterizing Shinseki, Snow added, "I'm not going to hold Donald Rumsfeld accountable." White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten wrote a letter to members of the Democratic leadership yesterday, stating President Bush "strongly disagrees" with calls to replace Rumsfeld and that the Secretary of Defense "retains the full confidence of the President."

TERRORISM -- PAKISTAN GIVES SAFE HAVEN TO TALIBAN AND AL QAEDA MILITANTS: Less than two weeks after the head of U.S. Central Command Gen. John Abizaid said the Pakistani government is not conspiring with the Taliban, a new peace agreement between the two groups has emerged. The deal will "allow militants to operate freely in one of Pakistan's most restive" areas bordering Afghanistan, North Waziristan. The agreement, "widely viewed as a face-saving retreat for the Pakistani Army," gives sanctuary to Taliban and al Qaeda militants operating in the region "in return for a pledge to halt attacks and infiltration into Afghanistan." But ABC's Brian Ross notes,"Pakistan signed a similar deal two years ago with militants in Southern Waziristan, who broke their word to refrain from violence almost immediately." The most egregious aspect of the deal, however, centers around Osama bin Laden. In an interview with ABC, Pakistani Major General Shaukat Sultan Khan said that if bin Laden, who is believed to be "hiding somewhere in the tribal areas of Pakistan near the Afghanistan border," is in Pakistan, he "would not be taken into custody" as long as he was "being like a peaceful citizen." The Pakistani government has since denied it would not capture bin Laden if given the opportunity. The announcement of this deal comes just two months after the CIA "closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants."

HUMAN RIGHTS -- NEW ARMY FIELD MANUAL EXTENDS GENEVA PROTECTIONS TO ALL DETAINEES: The Pentagon's new Army field manual "provides Geneva Convention protections for all detainees and eliminates a secret list of interrogation tactics." The manual bans several controversial techniques: "forcing prisoners to endure long periods of solitary confinement, using military dogs to threaten prisoners, putting hoods over inmates' heads" and waterboarding. It "also reverses an earlier decision to maintain two interrogation standards -- one for traditional prisoners of war and another for 'unlawful combatants' captured during a conflict but not affiliated with a nation's military force." "All detainees will be treated consistent with Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention," said one military officer. The White House at one time claimed in an executive order that "common Article 3 of Geneva does not apply to either al-Qaida or Taliban detainees." Official military policy now holds this is not the case. The new rules follows a memo by Defense Deputy Secretary Gordon England that said Article 3 of the Geneva Convention "applies as a matter of law to the conflict with al Qaeda.




Think Fast

"On the eve of his first trip to Washington, former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami warned that U.S. military action in the Middle East has backfired, producing greater terrorism, imperiling the future of Iraq and damaging America's long-term interests."

A digital divide still separates whites and minorities. Sixty-seven percent of white students use the Internet, compared with just 44 percent of black students and 47 percent of Hispanic students.

Iraqis are changing their names to protect themselves. "The country's Sunni-Shiite bloodletting is driving many Iraqis to bury the very essence of their identity: their names. ... [W]ith sectarian violence surging, Iraqis fear that the name on an identification card, passport or other document could become an instant death sentence if seen by the wrong people."

Iraq's parliament yesterday voted to extend by a month a nationwide state of emergency. "The state of emergency has been extended several times since it was first imposed in 2004" and there "has been no serious move to roll it back."

Despite an effort by House and Senate Republicans "to focus congressional attention almost exclusively on national security" ahead of the November elections, they are "splintering" over possible legislation to officially sanction the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program.

Outsourcing military recruiting: The Army is increasingly hiring private companies to recruit enlistees. "The use of contractors for this sensitive purpose, dealing with the lives of young people, is troublesome," said Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky (D-IL).

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) has reinstated his hold on the Senate's porkbusting database bill, which would create an easily-accessible Google-like database of all federal spending, which totaled $2.5 trillion last year.

Senate makes time for the Paris Hilton Tax Cut. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) said he may bring up the "trifecta" bill, which ties a minimum wage hike to tax cuts for millionaires, before the end of the month.

And finally: Lynn Swann doesn't take trash talk from clowns. At an Allentown Fair dunk tank, the former Pittsburgh Steelers star -- and candidate for Pennsylvania governor -- failed to send a "mouthy" clown into the water. "I hope you do better at the polls, buddy," the clown joked. "That did it. Swann, who had turned to leave, went back to the tank, throwing ball after ball until he hit the target. As the clown dropped into the water, Swann stuck his fists in the air, beaming in triumph."

-----
GOOD NEWS

"About 75 million doses of flu vaccine will be distributed by the end of October, a near-record amount that should prevent the shot rationing seen in previous flu seasons."

STATE WATCH

ARIZONA: "After a decade of growth, recycling rates have leveled off across Arizona, putting the state at risk for not meeting target goals of the Environmental Protection Agency."

ILLINOIS: Former Gov. George Ryan (R) is sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison for corruption.

EDUCATION: American colleges are losing ground to foreign universities.

BLOG WATCH

THINK PROGRESS: Tom DeLay's new cause: Conservative takeover of "Dancing With The Stars."

FROM THE FRONTLINES: What dropoff? August death total in Baghdad morgue triples.

TPM MUCKRAKER: Unknown Senate Democrat still secretly holding up federal pork database bill.

RAISING KAINE: Sen. George Allen (R-VA) reportedly "steals" amendment text from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL).

DAILY GRILL

"The idea that somehow we're staying the course is just wrong. It is absolutely wrong."
-- White House spokesman Tony Snow, 9/5/06

VERSUS

"The President is determined to stay the course."

-- Tony Snow, 8/16/06

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September 7, 2006
Headline1
Go Beyond The Headlines
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SCANDAL OVER ABC 9/11 MINISERIES GROWS: Check ThinkProgress.org throughout the day for coverage of the uproar over ABC's biased and inaccurate miniseries "The Path to 9/11."

NATIONAL SECURITY
Ignoring the Military, Sanctioning Torture

It's been five years since 9/11 and the Bush administration has still failed to create a system to prosecute terrorists in U.S. custody. The administration's previous efforts have been soundly rejected by U.S. courts and the U.S. Congress. Yesterday, President Bush took another bite at the apple. He announced that 14 terrorist suspects would be transferred from secret CIA prisons to Guantanamo Bay, where they would face trial under a new set of procedures. As a concept, it's a positive step "toward cleaning up the mess his administration has made of the detention, interrogation and prosecution of those captured in the war on terrorism." But the proposal is still problematic. Bush would "permit the use of evidence obtained through coercion, along with hearsay evidence, and evidence that is kept secret from the accused," all provisions that have been "publicly opposed" by "the military's top lawyers." It would also "rewrite American law to create a glaring exception to the Geneva Conventions, to give ex post facto approval to abusive interrogation methods, and to bar legal challenges to the new system." It is already drawing bipartisan skepticism. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said of the new proposal, "I do not think we can afford to again cut legal corners that will result in federal court rejection of our work."

SANCTIONING TORTURE: Bush's proposal, which he is urging Congress to rubberstamp without meaningful debate, would "authorize the CIA to engage in...'enhanced' interrogation techniques -- e.g., hypothermia, threats of violence to the detainee and his family, prolonged sleep deprivation, 'stress positions' and waterboarding" which the new Army Field Manual expressly forbids. These methods violate common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which outlaws "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment." In the Hamdan opinion, the Supreme Court held that common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions applies as a matter of treaty obligation to the conflict against al Qaeda. That being the case, interrogation tactics that violate common Article 3 are presumptively illegal. Moreover, by doing so little to address the Court's concerns about due process, the President's proposed new trial procedures can invite only further protracted litigation and uncertainty, not the "closure" he claims to be seeking for the families of 9/11 victims.

IGNORING THE MILITARY: On the same day Bush sought to legally authorize the CIA to conduct torture, the military flatly stated that such coercive practices were counterproductive. In a briefing, Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence John Kimmons argued, "I am absolutely convinced [that] no good intelligence is going to come from abusive practices. I think history tells us that. I think the empirical evidence of the last five years, hard years, tell us that." As a result, the military has released a new field manual banning such practices. Kimmons added, "Our most significant successes on the battlefield have been -- in fact, I would say all of them, almost categorically all of them, have accrued from expert interrogators using mixtures of authorized humane interrogation practices." He concluded, "We don't need abusive practices in there. Nothing good will come from them."

BUSH'S KEY SUCCESS STORY IS SUSPECT: In his speech, Bush defended the use of coercive interrogation by reporting that the interrogation prompted suspected al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah to reveal that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a key figure in the 9/11 attacks, used the alias "Mukhtar." This information, according to Bush, "was a vital piece of the puzzle that helped our intelligence community pursue KSM." According to a fact sheet released by the Director of National Intelligence, Zubaydah was captured in March 2002. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, however, the CIA learned that Mohammed used the alias Mukhtar in August 2001. From page 277: "The final piece of the puzzle arrived at the CIA's Bin Ladin unit on August 28 [2001] in a cable reporting that KSM's nickname was Mukhtar."

EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN: The new procedures for military commissions "largely hew to those that the Supreme Court rejected in June." The main difference is that this time, the administration is seeking congressional approval. Powerful conservatives in Congress may not play along. The New York Times reports, "Senate Republicans, who have been working on their own bill, said they were wary of the provisions on hearsay and classified evidence and questioned whether the administration had resolved the problems that the court raised." Nevertheless, there is pressure to approve the administration's proposal before the November elections in order to score political points.

Under the Radar

MEDIA -- ABC REFUSES TO PROVIDE COPIES OF BIASED 9/11 MINISERIES TO CLINTON, BERGER, ALBRIGHT: ABC has been aggressively advancing its inaccurate and politically slanted miniseries, "The Path to 9/11," to the right wing. Rush Limbaugh has been provided an advanced copy of the film, as have obscure right-wing bloggers like Patterico. But ABC has refused to provide a copy to President Clinton. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former National Security Adviser Samuel Berger have also requested copies of the film from ABC, but both have been denied. Berger and Albright are harshly criticized in the film in scenes that, according to former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke, are "180 degrees from what happened." In her letter to Disney President and CEO Robert Iger, Albright writes, "While I have requested a copy of the broadcast, I have yet to receive one. I have been informed by some who had been given the right to view the broadcast that the drama...asserts as fact things that are not fact." In addition to advance screenings, an unnamed ABC official provided right-wing blogger Hugh Hewitt with details about potential edits to the miniseries, including the note that "The message of the Clinton Admin failures remains fully intact." Fight back -- tell ABC to tell the truth about 9/11.

BUDGET -- BOEHNER STALLS PROMISED EARMARK REFORMS: "The push for a change in House rules to expose the authors of earmarks appears to have lost some urgency," CQ reports. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said a rule change to force earmark authors to reveal themselves "would be made this month, but he did not commit to a timetable." Yet in July, Boehner issued a joint statement with House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) promising to "immediately adopt and implement a comprehensive earmark reform rules change" when they returned from August recess. "The American people want meaningful change in the way in which Congress spends their money," the two said. Now, Boehner claims "he had never promised to take up the resolution immediately upon Congress' return." The practice of earmarking has exploded recently. Last year alone, Congress passed 15,584 earmarks totaling $32.7 billion in taxpayer dollars, compared to only 2,000 earmarks in 1996.

MILITARY -- VITAL WEAPONS SYSTEM DELAYED FOR YEARS AFTER PENTAGON BOWS TO RAYTHEON: Last year, "commanders in Iraq began asking the Pentagon for a new system to counter" what is quickly becoming the weapon of choice for insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan: rocket-propelled grenades, or RPGs. Instead of employing an already well-established defense system, the Pentagon chose to award the contract to "one of its favored defense contractors," Raytheon. Indeed, the "Trophy" system, designed by an Israeli company, is "designed to fit on top of tanks and other armored vehicles like the Stryker now in use in Iraq" and protect against RPGs using radar and interceptor missiles. When the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation (OFT) tested the Trophy system in March, they "found it at least 98 percent effective against RPGs in near-battlefield conditions." Despite the OFT's initial plan to buy several system, the Army rejected the idea. Instead, the $70 million contract was granted to Raytheon, a company which, "at almost every turn...was given a significant competitive advantage over other defense contractors," according to an NBC News investigation. For example, of the 21-person team chosen by the army to evaluate competing systems, nine were from Raytheon. Unlike the Trophy system, which is nearing use in Israel, the Raytheon system must be developed from scratch and "will not be fielded before 2011 at the earliest." Asks one senior Pentagon official, "what are our troops in the field supposed to do for the next five or six years?




Think Fast

A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report finds that "the U.S. isn't prepared to handle disasters and lacks an effective way to track $88 billion doled out to help rebuild the Gulf Coast after last year's killer hurricanes."

NATO's top commander, Gen. James Jones, said more troops are needed to in southern Afghanistan where Taliban militants are inflicting heavy casualties on foreign forces. "[The violence is] something akin to poking the bee hive and the bees are swarming," he said.

39: The percentage of Americans who feel less safe now than they did five years ago. Only 14 percent say the feel safer, and 46 percent feel the same.

"President Bush's once-solid relationship with Southern women is on the rocks," the AP reports, thanks to "anger over the Iraq war and frustration with the country's direction."

Newest tool in the war on terror: renewable energy. Without renewable power, US forces "will remain unnecessarily exposed" and will "continue to accrue preventable...serious and grave casualties," according to Marine Corps Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer.

Congress is "giving up" on comprehensive immigration reform. "I think it would be next to impossible to pass a comprehensive bill that includes dealing with the diversity of 12 million people here in the next three weeks," Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) said yesterday.

A new poll found that on a 100-point "thermometer" scale, with 100 being the friendliest feeling, "Turkish attitudes toward the United States fell to 20 degrees, from 28 degrees, in the past two years. Over the same period, feelings toward Iran increased to 43 degrees, from 34 degrees."

Global warming "may be triggering a self-perpetuating climate time bomb trapped in once-frozen permafrost." Greenhouse gases "once stuck in the long-frozen soil are bubbling into the atmosphere" at a rate five times faster than originally measured.

And finally: The U.S. Office of Special Counsel becomes the fashion police. In last month's employee newsletter, the agency issued a list of "do's and don'ts" for "Business Casual" dress. The agency, "whose job includes fighting workplace sex discrimination," advised women to "avoid tight pants and, 'before choosing a skirt to wear, sit down in it facing a mirror.'"

-----
GOOD NEWS

"Volunteers come to the aid of parks hurt by cutbacks."

STATE WATCH

ARIZONA: New voter ID law may result in thousands of voters turned away from the polls in Tuesday's primary election.

KANSAS: Six-year water study reveals three state streams are polluted with nutrients, bacteria, and pharmaceuticals.

NEW MEXICO: Poll: New Mexicans prefer train rides over rocket blasts.

BLOG WATCH

THINK PROGRESS: Report: Saddam and al Qaeda enemies, not collaborators.

E&P: ABC airs 9/11 film -- contested scenes remain.

TALKING POINTS MEMO: Political operative "with experience in dirty tricks and campaign-related criminal conduct" returns to the spotlight.

POLITICAL ANIMAL: Rumsfeld threatened to fire anyone who talked about post-war planning.

DAILY GRILL

"You've got Iraq and al Qaeda: testimony from the Director of CIA that there was, indeed, a relationship; Zarqawi in Baghdad, et cetera."
-- Vice President Dick Cheney, 9/10/06, falsely asserting a prewar link between Iraq and al Qaeda

VERSUS

"Postwar information indicates that Saddam Hussein attempted, unsuccessfully, to locate and capture al-Zarqawi and that the regime did not have a relationship with, harbor, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi."
-- Senate Intelligence Committee Report on postwar findings about Iraq's links to terrorism, 9/8/06, p. 109

ARCHIVES

Progress Report

STUDENTS

Politics with an Attitude: Everyone from Barack Obama to Stephen Colbert talks to Campus Progress. Right-wingers seem scared of us. Find out why here.

by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney
Amanda Terkel and Payson Schwin

September 11, 2006
We Remember
Go Beyond The Headlines
Coffee and Donuts Not Included
For news and updates throughout the day, check out our blog at ThinkProgress.org.
Sign up | Contact us | Permalinks/Archive | Mobile | RSS | Print

TERRORISM
We Remember

Today is a day of remembrance. As a nation, we remember where we were when terrorists struck the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. People around the country are gathering to remember the thousands of people killed. On Dec. 11, 2001, Bush stated, "In time, this war will end. But our remembrance never will." But today, we are also reminded that President Bush has failed to fulfill his promise to make the world safer. Five years later, global terrorist attacks have increased, Osama bin Laden is still on the loose, and 86 percent of national security and terrorism experts believe the "global war on terror" has made the world more dangerous for the American people. Today, we remember not only the brutal tragedy of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but also how much more the nation needs to do to be secure. As the New York Times notes, when the nation's leaders stop and reflect on 9/11 today, it "would be miraculous if the best of our leaders did something larger -- expressed grief and responsibility for the bad path down which we've gone, and promised to work together to turn us in a better direction."

THE PROMISE OF A SAFER AMERICA: In his weekend radio address, Bush again stated that we are "safer today" than we were before 9/11. But national security and terrorism experts dispute that claim. A recent survey by the Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy magazine found not only that 86 percent believe the world is now more dangerous, but that 84 percent believe the United States is losing the war on terror. Seventy-nine percent of the experts anticipate a terror attack on the scale of 9/11 will occur inside the United States by the end of 2011. "Even the most sanguine optimist cannot yet conclude we are winning," John F. Lehman Jr., a former Navy secretary under President Reagan, warned in a recent article for the U.S. Naval Institute. Just 14 percent of Americans feel more safe now than they did five years ago, the same amount who believe the threat of terrorism has decreased since 9/11. Terrorism continues to kill more than 2,300 people each year since 2001, and in 2005, civilian deaths from terrorism swelled to more than 10,000. Al-Qaeda -- "the initial focus of the 'global war on terror'" -- still remains strong; a 2005 U.N. report warned that the terrorist organization "continues to evolve and adapt to the pressures and opportunities of the world around it."

THE PROMISE OF A FREE AFGHANISTAN: Nearly five years after the Taliban was overthrown, "the fighting in Afghanistan is the bloodiest since" the beginning of the war. A violent Taliban resurgence has killed more than 1,600 people over the past four months, including many American and NATO soldiers. In July, a senior British military commander in Afghanistan described the country's situation as "close to anarchy." Opium production is up 60 percent from last year. In his recent speeches, Bush has glossed over Afghanistan's violence and the Taliban's vicious resurgence, simply stating, "Five years later, Taliban and al Qaeda remnants are desperately trying to retake control of that country. They will fail. ... They will fail because they are no match for the military forces of a free Afghanistan, a NATO Alliance, and the United States of America." But his speeches haven't laid out a plan for resurrecting the flailing country. "The international community far too soon decided that this was a success story, perhaps because we wanted to contrast it with far more glaring failures elsewhere," said Francesc Vendrell, special representative of the European Union in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden remains at large and the trail on him has gone "stone cold," nearly five years after Bush said he wanted him "dead or alive" and more than a year since Vice President Cheney said he had a "pretty good idea" where bin Laden was hiding. The Senate recently reinstated a special CIA unit dedicated to hunting Osama bin Laden after the agency closed it in late 2005.

THE PROMISE OF A FREE IRAQ: Bush repeatedly states that Iraq is the "central front in the war on terror." But what he fails to admit is that the U.S. invasion of Iraq made it so. Recent studies by the Saudi Arabian government and by an Israeli think tank found that foreign fighters in Iraq "are not former terrorists and became radicalized by the war itself." A 2005 report by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA director's think tank, concluded that Iraq had replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for "professionalized" terrorists. In addition to foreign terrorist attacks, brutal sectarian warfare threatens to rip the country apart. Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, recently told Congress that "the sectarian violence is probably is as bad as I've seen it" and unless rampant violence in Baghdad is "stopped," a civil war could be imminent. According to Iraqi officials, there were 1,536 violent deaths in August in Baghdad alone. Today, the Washington Post reports that a secret assessment by the chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq concludes "the prospects for securing that country's western Anbar province are dim and that there is almost nothing the U.S. military can do to improve the political and social situation there." Just 36 percent of the American public now approve of Bush's handling of the war in Iraq. (American Progress has a comprehensive plan for the redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq.)

THE PROMISE OF AN AL-QAEDA-IRAQ LINK: On Dec. 9, 2001, Cheney said it was "pretty well confirmed" that the 9/11 hijackers had contact with Iraqi officials before the attack. In March 2003, a month before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice stated Iraq had "a very strong link to training Al Qaeda in chemical and biological techniques," and in Oct. 2002, Bush said, "We've learned that Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb-making, in poisons, and deadly gases." This link has been repeatedly discredited, but Bush administration officials continue to assert it. The 9/11 Commission Report found that there was "no evidence" Iraq and al Qaeda ever developed a "collaborative operational relationship" and a Defense Intelligence Agency report from 2002 concluded, "Iraq is unlikely to have provided bin Ladin any useful CB [chemical or biological] knowledge or assistance." A new Senate Intelligence Committee report notes that not only did Iraq and al-Qaeda not collaborate, but their leaders were enemies: "Saddam did not trust al-Qa'ida or any other radical Islamist group and did not want to cooperate with them." Despite these pre- and post-war findings, both Rice and Cheney yesterday continued to assert "there were ties going on between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime."

THE PROMISE OF WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION: In 2002, Bush promised the nation that war was necessary because "Iraq has stockpiled biological and chemical weapons, and is rebuilding the facilities used to make more of those weapons." That was a lie. Bush now states, "The greatest threat before humanity today is the possibility of secret and sudden attack with chemical or biological or radiological or nuclear weapons." National security experts agree with the President, but Bush hasn't backed up his rhetoric with action. Of the three countries that Bush declared to be part of the "axis of evil" -- Iraq, Iran, and North Korea -- Iraq, the country the United States chose to invade, is the one country that had no weapons of mass destruction. "While the U.S. has been playing poker in the region, Iran has been playing chess," says Nadim Shehadi of the British think tank Chatham House, which has issued a report stating there is "little doubt that Iran has been the chief beneficiary of the war on terror in the Middle East." Iran recently ignored a U.N. deadline to suspend aspects of its nuclear fuel program. On North Korea, the Bush administration's policy has largely been a failure. Diplomatic efforts have broken down, missiles have been test fired, and plutonium production has resumed. North Korea now has enough plutonium to produce as many as ten additional nuclear weapons.

THE PROMISE OF INTERNATIONAL LEADERSHIP: After the 9/11 attacks, Bush promised that the United States would lead the world in the war on terror. Leadership takes more than unilateral shows of power, but Bush's strategy hasn't gone much beyond that tactic. Seventy-seven percent of Europeans in a recent German Marshall Fund survey disapproved of Bush's handling of international affairs, compared with 65 percent in 2002. According to a Pew Global Attitudes poll, just 12 percent of people in Turkey have a favorable opinion of the United States, down from 52 percent in 1999-2000. The U.S. public also acknowledges that Bush hasn't failed as an international leader. Six in 10 Americans believe Bush is not respected as a world leader and 65 percent of Americans think the United States less respected by other countries than it was in the past. (Just seven percent think it is more respected.) This global unpopularity continues to hurt U.S. efforts to fight terrorism. A U.S. counterterrorism official acknowledged that "the unpopularity of the U.S. had made it harder for allied governments -- like Pakistan and India -- to cooperate with U.S. counterterrorism efforts."

Under the Radar

CRIME -- JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SHOWS ALARMING SPIKE IN GUN VIOLENCE: According to a new Justice Department report, the rates of violence and firearm violence jumped in 2005, ending a decadelong decline. "The National Crime Victimization Survey, released Sunday, found that nationwide, homicides increased 4.8 percent, from 16,140 in 2004 to 16,910 last year. The biggest increases were reported in the Midwest and the South." According to the report released Sunday, the 2005 overall homicide rate was 5.7 per 100,000 individuals. A preliminary FBI report in June on crimes reported to police showed a 4.8 percent increase in the number of murders and 4.5 percent increase in the number of robberies in 2005. "This report tells us the more serious events -- robbery and gun crimes -- increased, and the FBI already told us homicides increased," said James Alan Fox, a criminal justice professor at Boston's Northeastern University. One of the reasons for the spike, according to some experts, is that financial resources have been increasingly channeled to the war on terror at the expense of local crime enforcement. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales recently told reporters that mayors and police chiefs will have to work harder but should not count on more federal money because of the fight against terrorism.

SOCIAL SECURITY -- BUSH PLANS TO RENEW PRIVATIZATION PUSH NEXT YEAR: In an interview Saturday with the Wall Street Journal's Paul Gigot, President Bush said "he hoped to revisit Social Security reform next year, when he 'will be able to drain the politics out of the issue.'" "Bush was forced to abandon his 2005 push to add private accounts to the retirement program" after an overwhelming majority of Americans soured to his plan to sharply cut guaranteed benefits. Supporters of private accounts have repeatedly promised to put privatization back on the agenda. Bush said in July, "If we can't get it done this year, I'm going to try next year. And if we can't get it done next year, I'm going to try the year after that, because it is the right thing to do." "If I'm around in a leadership role come January," House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said recently, "We're going to get serious about [Social Security reform]." House Ways and Means Social Security Chairman Jim McCrery (R-LA) also said earlier this summer that "Congress should make Social Security overhaul its top priority next year."

GENOCIDE -- 'THREE WEEKS TO SAVE DARFUR': Two years ago on Saturday, the Bush administration declared that the mass rapes and killings in the Darfur region of Sudan constituted genocide. Violence has not abated since then, and the situation may reach a breaking point soon. "At the end of this month, African Union forces, the only peacekeepers in Darfur, are scheduled to go home," the New York Times notes. That will leave the field open for the Sudanese government and its rebel allies "to resume the killing, which they have given every indication of doing. That gives the rest of the world only three weeks to avoid a worsening tragedy." The U.N. Security Council recently "endorsed a plan for U.N. peacekeepers to replace a beleaguered force of African Union soldiers in enforcing a peace agreement signed last year. But the Sudanese government has rejected the deployment, which would be bigger and better-equipped than the African Union force." Now, observers across the political spectrum -- from activists to columnist Nicholas Kristof to conservatives Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Bob Dole -- have called on the Bush administration to sharply increase its diplomatic pressure on Sudan and take steps to prevent a large-scale slaughter if African Union forces leave the region. ("You can see how your member of Congress does on Darfur at www.darfurscores.org. Information about Darfur rallies next Sunday in New York and other cities worldwide is at www.savedarfur.org.")


Think Fast

The clandestine U.S. commandos whose job is to capture or kill Osama bin Laden have not received a credible lead in more than two years, the Washington Post reports. Nothing from the vast U.S. intelligence world has led them anywhere near the al-Qaeda leader.

The chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq recently filed an unusual secret report concluding that the prospects for securing that country s western Anbar province are dim and that there is almost nothing the U.S. military can do to improve the political and social situation there.

A Miami Herald investigation found that at least 10 South Florida journalists received regular payments total[ing] thousands of dollars from the Bush administration to appear on U.S. government-run stations aimed at undermining Cuba s communist government.

Iran is ready to consider complying at least temporarily with a U.N. Security Council demand that it freeze uranium enrichment, which can be used in developing atomic weapons, diplomats told The Associated Press on Sunday.

A coalition of religious leaders, environmentalists, and businesses are screening a new documentary about climate change to evangelical groups across the country. Their aim is to turn the large and powerful conservative Christian constituency into a voting block united behind making the reduction of greenhouse gases a top priority among politicians.

Al Qaeda s second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri released a videotape to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, underscoring the fact that he still has not been caught. Addressing the West, Zawahiri said, Your leaders are hiding from you the true extent of the disaster.

Afghanistan s ambassador to the U.S., Said Jawad, called yesterday for more military and economic help from the West, citing a spike in terrorist activity in the past six months and fears that it could spread.

A growing number of CIA counterterrorism officers are insuring themselves against possible civil lawsuits. The new enrollments reflect heightened anxiety at the CIA that officers may be vulnerable to accusations they were involved in abuse, torture, human rights violations and other misconduct.

And finally: The New York Times interviews families of victims of 9/11 and finds that, while they were at markedly different stages in the healing process, many have found constructive ways of embracing life without forgetting. Read their stories here.

-----
From Greg Palast ... while he's still free

Palast Charged with Journalism in the First Degree

September 11, 2006
by Greg Palast

It's true. It's weird. It's nuts. The Department of Homeland Security, after a five-year hunt for Osama, has finally brought charges against Greg Palast. I kid you not. Send your cakes with files to the Air America wing at Guantanamo.

Though not just yet. Fatherland Security has informed me that television producer Matt Pascarella and I have been charged with unauthorized filming of a "critical national security structure" in Louisiana.

On August 22, for LinkTV and Democracy Now! we videotaped the thousands of Katrina evacuees still held behind a barbed wire in a trailer park encampment a hundred miles from New Orleans. It's been a year since the hurricane and 73,000 POW's (Prisoners of W) are still in this aluminum ghetto in the middle of nowhere. One resident, Pamela Lewis said, It is a prison set-up" -- except there are no home furloughs for these inmates because they no longer have homes.

To give a sense of the full flavor and smell of the place, we wanted to show that this human parking lot, with kids and elderly, is nearly adjacent to the Exxon Oil refinery, the nation's second largest, a chemical-belching behemoth.

So we filmed it. Without Big Brother's authorization. Uh, oh. Apparently, the broadcast of these stinking smokestacks tipped off Osama that, if his assassins pose as poor Black folk, they can get a cramped Airstream right next to a "critical infrastructure" asset.

So now Matt and I have a "criminal complaint" lodged against us with the feds.

The positive side for me as a journalist is that I get to see our terror-busters in action. I should note that it took the Maxwell Smarts at Homeland Security a full two weeks to hunt us down.

Frankly, we were a bit scared that, given the charges, we wouldn't be allowed on a plane into New York last night. But what scared us more is that we were allowed on the plane.

Once I was traced, I had a bit of an other-worldly conversation with my would-be captors. Detective Frank Pananepinto of Homeland Security told us, "This is a 'Critical Infrastructure' and they get nervous about unauthorized filming of their property.

Well, me too, Detective. In fact, I'm very nervous that this potential chemical blast-site can be mapped in extreme detail at this Google Map location

What also makes me nervous is that the Bush Terror Terriers have kindly indicated on the Internet that this unprotected critical infrastructure can be targeted -- I mean located -- at 30 degrees, 29 minutes, 11 seconds N latitude and 91 degrees, 11 minutes, 39 seconds W longitude.

After I assured Detective Pananepinto, "I can swear to you that I'm not part of Al Qaeda," he confirmed that, "Louisiana is still part of the United States," subject to the first amendment and he was therefore required to divulge my accuser.

Not surprisingly, it was Exxon Corporation, one of a handful of companies not in love with my investigations. [See "A Well-Designed Disaster: the Untold Story of the Exxon Valdez."]

So I rang America's top petroleum pusher-men and asked their media relations honcho in Houston, Marc Boudreaux, a simple question. "Do you want us to go to jail or not? Is it Exxon's position that reporters should go to jail?" Because, all my dumb-ass jokes aside, that is what's at stake. And Exxon knew we were journalists because we showed our press credential to the Exxon guards at the refinery entrance.

The Exxon man was coy: "Well, we'll see what we can find out . Obviously it's important to national security that we have supplies from that refinery in the event of an emergency."

Really? According to the documents our team uncovered from the offices of Exxon's lawyer, Mr. James Baker, the oil industry is more than happy to see a limit on worldwide crude production. Indeed, the current squeeze has jacked the price of oil from $24 a barrel to $64 and refined products have jumped yet higher -- resulting in a record-busting profit for Exxon of nearly $1 billion per week.

So this silly "criminal complaint" has nothing to do with stopping Al Qaeda or keeping the oil flowing. It has everything to do with obstructing news reports in a way that no one would have dared attempt before the September 11 attack.

Dectective Pananepinto, in justifying our impending bust, said, "If you remember, a lot of people were killed on 9/11."

Yes, Detective, I remember that very well: my office was in the World Trade Center. Lucky for me, I was out of town that day. It was not a lucky day for 3,000 others.

Yes, I remember "a lot" of people were killed. So I have this suggestion, Detective -- and you can pass it on to Mr. Bush: Go and find the people who killed them.

It's been five years and the Bush regime has not done that. Instead, the War on Terror is reduced to taking off our shoes in airports, hoping we can bomb Muslims into loving America and chasing journalists around the bayou. Meanwhile, King Abdullah, the Gambino of oil, whose princelings funded the murderers, gets a free ride in the President's golf cart at the Crawford ranch.

I guess I shouldn't complain. After all, Matt and I look pretty good in orange.


*******

A personal request to readers. Many have written to ask what can be done to protect Matt and me from becoming unwilling guests of the State.

First, this ain't no foolin' around: Matt and I are facing these nutty charges. So spread the info. We believe that getting the word out is the best defense.

Second, call Homeland Security and turn us in. They seem to have trouble finding us. If you get a reward, you may choose to donate it to the Palast Investigative Fund, a 501(c)(3) educational foundation which supports our work and pays our legal fees.

Third, ask your local library to order our book, Armed Madhouse: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf? Homeland Security now reserves the right to read over your shoulder at the library; therefore, the more our agents are forced to read this subversive material, the more likely we can convince them to come in out of the cold. All kidding aside, we do ask you to request your library order the book: not everyone can afford to purchase this hardbound edition.

Our thanks to Amy Goodman at Democracy Now! and the folks at LinkTV for broadcasting our report from New Orleans and the Exxon refinery. And to Gil Noble, host of the ABC Television's Like It Is, our Courage in Journalism award for broadcasting our report on his network's New York affiliate. Catch Gil on WABC every Sunday at noon.

In response to a deluge of requests for a copy of the New Orleans documentary, we are preparing a DVD which you may order at http://www.gregpalast.com/premiums.htm

-----
From HuffPo

"Fatal blow" to Blair: 7 British MPs resign

AP

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's long tenure may have been dealt a "fatal blow" yesterday with the resignation of seven members of his Government, according to The Telegraph.

The seven resignations came on the heels of a confidential letter to Mr. Blair, signed by seventeen MPs, which urged the Prime Minister to declare a date for his departure. A May 31 date was reported in the newspaper The Sun, but Blair refused to go public with a date, for fear his power would ebb in his final months as Prime Minister. But as senior MPs begin to lose trust in him, and others express doubt that he will last even until May, most would now agree with longtime Blair supporter Tom Watson, who wrote upon resigning: "I share the view of the overwhelming majority of the party and the country that the only way the party and the Government can renew itself in office is urgently to renew its leadership."
Click here to read the whole story.

Click here to discuss it on HuffPost.

On AOL News... Time For Him To Step Down? Tell Us If Rumsfeld Should Resign

ON THE BLOG TODAY

Arianna Huffington: Iraq For Sale: Will a Movie Fuel a Democratic
Return to Power?

Bill Maher: Taking a Number Two

Kristin Breitweiser: A Letter to Ann Coulter

Hooman Majd: You Tell 'em, Gov!

-----
Bush: "The safety of America depends upon the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad"

From news.yahoo.com

President Bush used about one-fifth of his Sept. 11 anniversary speech to "make the case" that the safety of the United States depends on the "success" of the war in Iraq, according to The New York Times.

The much-anticipated prime-time speech was broadcast on all three networks, and included a return to some of the "tougher talk" that Bush claimed to have given up earlier this year. The President tried to frame the war in Iraq, with the Sept. 11 attacks, as part of an epic battle, even as he implicitly acknowledged a total lack of connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.
Click here to read the whole story.

Click here to discuss it on HuffPost.

On AOL News... What's Changed In Five Years? See Photos From Then and Now

ON THE BLOG TODAY

Arianna Huffington: Memo to Democrats: Stop Buying into the GOP Framing on Iraq

Simon Jenkins: Giving Terrorism what it Craves

Bob Cesca: Five Years Without Another Attack

Paul Hipp: Two Thousand Six Hundred Souls

-----
From the Hightower Lowdown

Dear Hightower E-Blasters,

Check out Jeff Cohen's new book with foreward by Jim Hightower, "Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media," which takes you inside TV news and the conservative biases, timidity and tabloidism that dominate it. Few media critics have been afforded an intimate, on-the-job view of the outlets they condemn, but Cohen-- who founded the media watch group FAIR -- spent years at CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. He was a senior producer during the run-up to the Iraq war, and witnessed war-enabling bias and censorship firsthand. He tells all in a biting, humorous paperback taking aim at the entire rightwing hot-air brigade that Cohen saw up close: O'Reilly, Hannity, Buchanan, Novak, Falwell, Coulter, etc. The book includes a foreword by Jim Hightower.

Order from Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/097606216X/sr=8-1/qid=1155998369/ref=pd_bbs
_1/103-5555251-3591055?ie=UTF8

Order from an independent store.
http://www.bankstreetbooks.com/product_info.php?cPath=188&products_id=1177&o
sCsid=bd5f76d6796db9171e0fa540e261229a [Or we'lll link to Powell's]

MOLLY IVINS says: "Jeff Cohen's dissection of cable TV news is both
irresistibly funny and civically painful. It goes from uproarious anecdotes
to those that make you wince."

To unsubscribe from this e-mail list, send a blank email to announce-unsubscribe@lists.jimhightower.com. Make sure that you send the message from the email account that you want to remove. You can also visit the mailing list management center at www.jimhightower.com/mlm.

FRAN'S TRAVELS

Thursday, August 31, 2006
Posted by Jim Hightower

Where's Fran? Let's see, if it's Thursday, Fran must be in Yosemite... or is it the Everglades?

Fran Mainella has been the director of the National Park Service since 2001, when George W brought... [read more]

PROFESSOR BUSH'S ECONOMIC NOSTRUM

Friday, September 1, 2006
Posted by Jim Hightower

On this Labor Day, when working families all across America are struggling, it's fitting for us to reflect on the profound insight of that prominent economic theorist, George W. Bush. In 2000, explaining his approach to economic policy, W... [read more]

"THE BUSH BOOM"

Monday, September 4, 2006
Posted by Jim Hightower

It's Labor Day! How ya doin'?

To hear George W tell it, these are boom times - worker productivitty is way up, corporate profits are zooming, new jobs are being created, and the economy is... [read more]

SAVE US FROM OUR "PROTECTORS"

Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Posted by Jim Hightower

Excuse me for a moment while I break away from the herd.

Conventional wisdom - as put forth by the Bushites - says that the st stringent new security regimen being imposed on us in America's airports... [read more]

BUSH'S MAGIC ACT IN IRAQ

Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Posted by Jim Hightower

George W is an amazing magician - the "Amazing Kreeskin" of global foreign policy!

With a flash of his magic wand, he has turned Iraq from a nation that had no connection with al Qaeda terrorism... [read more]

-----
From Senator Robert Byrd

Dear Friend,

Last month a federal judge ruled that the Administration's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program was unconstitutional. The court acted to safeguard our Constitutionally-protected liberties and to restore our government's separation of powers. I commend the court's decision.

Today, Republicans are considering legislation to retroactively authorize the Administration's lawbreaking. As the Washington Post wrote yesterday, Republican leaders have planned to produce legislation by month's end that would give the administration as much latitude as possible to continue the program. [WP, 9/6/2006]

But before this Congress is rushed into voting on a proposal that would set aside its Constitutional responsibility to provide a check and balance on Presidential power we must first know more about this secretive assault on our liberties.

Congress should not give rubber-stamp approval to this spying program before we know how it may have reached into the lives of innocent Americans -- Americans like you and me.

That is why in February I introduced legislation to establish an independent, nonpartisan commission to investigate the secret spying on law-abiding American citizens.

You agreed and endorsed my proposal by signing the petition to investigate the secret spying. The American people need to know if the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or any other U.S. law has been broken, and whether the constitutional rights of the American people have been violated.

That's why I am asking you to tell a friend that the Administration's secret spying must be investigated and to urge them to sign the petition. Republicans in Washington must know that the people care about liberty and the Constitution.

Thousands of you already have let your voices be heard. But we need thousands more to send a loud message that the Constitution still matters, and its checks and balances are essential to our Republic.

Thank you for your support for checks and balances -- and for our Constitution.

Sincerely,


Robert C. Byrd
United States Senator

-----
From People for the American Way

Help us give a voice to so many who have been shut out of the electoral process.

Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution of $45, $60 or more to ensure full civic participation this November.

With so much at stake, and where a few hundred votes can decide even national elections, ensuring strong civic participation in communities that are targeted for disenfranchisement has never been more important. Were just 30 days out from voter registration deadlines in crucial states like Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania, and PFAW Foundation needs your help to meet our goal to register 200,000 voters in time for Novembers elections.

Our comprehensive voter registration plan includes:
  • 240 on-the-ground canvassers registering first-time voters in 17 critical states
  • Radio Public Service Announcements educating people about their voting rights in English and Spanish reaching millions of voters in historically underrepresented and disenfranchised communities
  • Registering 25,000 college students on 10 campuses through our Young People For network of student leaders

And thats just a glimpse. Your past support of our efforts to protect voting rights and fight voter suppression has been critical. Right now, the most important action you can take is to make an immediate donation to support our voter registration programs.

Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution of $45, $60 or more to register 200,000 first-time voters before this years registration deadlines.

PFAW Foundation staff and volunteers have already registered tens of thousands of new voters, and September is our big push! In the key state of Ohio, PFAW Foundation is moving ahead full speed after scoring a huge court victory against Secretary of State Ken Blackwells vote-suppressing registration guidelines. With your help, well meet or surpass our goals!

Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution of $45, $60 or more to register 200,000 first-time voters before this years registration deadlines.

Help us give a voice to so many who have been shut out of the electoral process. True democracy only works when all our communities can exercise their right to vote.

Sincerely,

Sharon J. Lettman
Vice President for External Affairs and Director of Election Protection 365
People For the American Way Foundation

P.S. Remember ensuring strong civic participation in communities that are targeted for disenfranchisement has never been more important. Make a contribution today and PFAW Foundation will be able to put your tax deductible contribution to work immediately, registering new voters in communities that the Right has targeted for voter suppression. Click here to contribute $45, $60 or more today.

-----
From Jim Webb

Yesterday, Senator George Allen embarrassed Virginians again.

This time Allen didn't say anything stupid. In fact, what he had to say was good. Too good, in fact. It was so good that it turned out it was stolen.

Asking to speak before Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), Allen introduced an amendment to the Department of Defense appropriations bill that would provide $19 million in additional funding for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center program, which provides treatment care and research for veterans suffering from traumatic brain injuries.

Sadly, Allen's amendment was identical in language to one that Senator Durbin was going to introduce immediately after Allen spoke with the exception of one word -- the word "will" was changed in Allen's amendment and replaced with the word "shall." Other than that, the amendments were identical -- Durbin's amendment had been printed and set to be formally introduced, Allen's bill had not been written or been placed on the docket to be introduced on the Senate floor.

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So, what are the odds that George Allen had the exact same idea as Durbin, the exact same dollar figure as Durbin, the exact same language as Durbin (save one word)? And why did Allen seek special permission to speak before Durbin unless Allen was seeking to take credit for an amendment to which Durbin had already prepared and written?

Geez, Senator, has it really come to this? Are you so bankrupt of ideas that you have to steal another Senator's amendments and call them your own? It is clear you stole Dick Durbin's language. There are no odds that you could have written an exactly identical amendment to Durbin's, save one word -- I guess you thought this would allow you to call the amendment your own -- that it would have the exact dollar figure and that you would have to run down to the Senate floor and cut in front of Durbin (talk about cut and run, Senator) and introduce a virtually identical amendment. Did you think no one would notice?

And, what happened to the Senate working at the pace of a "wounded sea slug?" Apparently, when you are seeking to score political points, even if it means stealing another Senator's bill, that ole sea slug heals up right quick. George Allen's using government for his own personal and political gain is wearing very thin. This whole episode is shameful and not worthy of a sitting U.S. Senator.

posted by The Scallion @ 8:18 PM