Obituary backs 'removal of Bush'
Woman 'thought he was a liar'

When Sally Baron's family wrote her obituary, they described a northern Wisconsin woman who raised six children and took care of her husband after he was crushed in a mining accident.
She had moved to Stoughton seven years ago to be closer to her children and was 71 when she died Monday after struggling to recuperate from heart surgery. Her family had come to the question of what might be a fitting tribute to her.
" My uncle asked if there was a cause," her youngest son, Pete Baron, said.
Almost in unison, what her children decided to include in the obituary was this: "Memorials in her honor can be made to any organization working for the removal of President Bush."
" She thought he was a liar," Baron's daughter, Maureen Bettilyon, said. "I think his personality, just standing there with that smirk on his face, and acting like he's this holy Christian, that's what really got her." READ

Study of Bush's psyche touches a nerve

A study funded by the US government has concluded that conservatism can be explained psychologically as a set of neuroses rooted in "fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity".
As if that was not enough to get Republican blood boiling, the report's four authors linked Hitler, Mussolini, Ronald Reagan and the rightwing talkshow host, Rush Limbaugh, arguing they all suffered from the same affliction.
All of them "preached a return to an idealised past and condoned inequality". READ

We Report, You Get It Wrong

The more commercial television news you watch, the more wrong you are likely to be about key elements of the Iraq War and its aftermath, according to a major new study released in Washington on Thursday.
And the more you watch the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News channel, in particular, the more likely it is that your perceptions about the war are wrong, adds the report by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA).
Based on several nationwide surveys it conducted with California-based Knowledge Networks since June, as well as the results of other polls, PIPA found that 48 percent of the public believe US troops found evidence of close pre-war links between Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist group; 22 percent thought troops found weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq; and 25 percent believed that world public opinion favored Washington's going to war with Iraq. All three are misperceptions. READ

Survey shows Fox led in misleading public

Fox News Channel, like the White House, got a ratings boost from the aftermath of 9-11. The tactics were remarkably similar.
Network executives gauged the nation's anger and panic and recognized war in Iraq as a rallying point, provided they gave viewers the sort of firm leadership unsullied by second-guessing. It was a smart call.
Once war arrived, of course, Fox wasn't alone in the media campaign to win audience hearts. Other cable channels and networks made self-promotional hay from dashing correspondents, surrendering Iraqi soldiers and masterful bombardment set to music.
What great TV we got. Too bad a lot of us were knuckleheads about the facts.
A just-released report by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy (PIPA) finds a majority of respondents have misperceptions about the war.*
The results show 48 percent incorrectly believed that evidence of links between al-Qaida and Iraq has been found; 22 percent that weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq; and 25 percent that world opinion favored the United States going to war with Iraq. READ

Amanpour: CNN practiced self-censorship

CNN's top war correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, says that the press muzzled itself during the Iraq war. And, she says CNN "was intimidated" by the Bush administration and Fox News, which "put a climate of fear and self-censorship."
As criticism of the war and its aftermath intensifies, Amanpour joins a chorus of journalists and pundits who charge that the media largely toed the Bush administrationline in covering the war and, by doing so, failed to aggressively question the motives behind the invasion. READ

Hussein Link to 9/11 Lingers in Many Minds

Nearing the second anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, seven in 10 Americans continue to believe that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had a role in the attacks, even though the Bush administration and congressional investigators say they have no evidence of this.
Sixty-nine percent of Americans said they thought it at least likely that Hussein was involved in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, according to the latest Washington Post poll. That impression, which exists despite the fact that the hijackers were mostly Saudi nationals acting for al Qaeda, is broadly shared by Democrats, Republicans and independents.
The main reason for the endurance of the apparently groundless belief, experts in public opinion say, is a deep and enduring distrust of Hussein that makes him a likely suspect in anything related to Middle East violence. "It's very easy to picture Saddam as a demon," said John Mueller, a political scientist at Ohio State University and an expert on public opinion and war. "You get a general fuzz going around: People know they don't like al Qaeda, they are horrified by September 11th, they know this guy is a bad guy, and it's not hard to put those things together." READ

Rumsfeld: Criticism at Home, Abroad Harms War on Terrorism

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, concluding a four-day trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, said today that critics of the Bush administration's Iraq policy are encouraging terrorists and complicating the ongoing U.S. war on terrorism.
"We know for a fact . . . that terrorists studied Somalia and they studied instances where the United States was dealt a blow and tucked in and persuaded themselves they could, in fact, cause us to acquiesce in whatever it is they wanted us to do," he told reporters aboard his plane.
"The United States is not going to do that. President Bush is not going to do that. Now, to the extent terrorists are given reason to believe he might, or if he is not willing to, the opponents might prevail in some way . . . and they take heart in that, and that leads to more recruiting . . . that leads to more encouragement, or that leads to more staying power. Obviously that does make it more difficult."
Rumsfeld made clear that he was talking about both the international press, such as reports on the Arab al Jazeera television network, and critics in the United States.
The comments followed a very similar expression last night by President Bush in his address to the nation about the situation in Iraq. "In the past, the terrorists have cited the examples of Beirut and Somalia, claiming that if you inflict harm on Americans, we will run from a challenge," Bush said in a nationally televised speech. "In this, they are mistaken." READ

Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2002-2003 from projectcensored.org

#1: The Neoconservative Plan for Global Dominance
#2: Homeland Security Threatens Civil Liberty
#3: US Illegally Removes Pages from Iraq U.N. Report READ

U.S. Court Blocks Plan to Ease Rule on Media Owners

A federal appeals court issued a surprise order today blocking the Federal Communications Commission from imposing new rules that would make it easier for the nation's largest media conglomerates to add new markets and areas of business.
The decision came a day before the new rules, considered among the most significant efforts at deregulation adopted during the Bush administration, were scheduled to take effect. It followed two hours of oral arguments at an emergency hearing this morning by a three-judge panel in Philadelphia and was a sharp setback for the largest media companies and for the commission's chairman, Michael K. Powell.
...The new rules have been opposed by a broad coalition of groups, ranging from Consumers Union and the National Organization for Women to the National Rifle Association and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Both the House and the Senate have begun the process to repeal at least one of the new rules, the one that makes it possible for the largest television networks to buy enough stations to reach 45 percent of the nation's viewers, up from 35 percent. READ

PHONY LETTERS FROM OUR SOLDIERS IN IRAQ?:

This is one of the most disgusting things I've seen in a while. I was tipped off by the folks at American Politics Journal about the appalling possibility that someone wrote a letter about how wonderful things are in Iraq, near Kirkuk, and signed several soldiers' names to the letter without them approving it, or their knowledge.
Turns out the astroturf letter part, at least, is true. Someone is sending the exact same letter to different newspapers across the country...only each letter is "signed" by a different soldier living in that paper's area of circulation. A blatant propaganda ploy. To see for yourself, do the following:
1) Do a google search for the phrase: "I have been serving in Iraq for over five months now"
2) This unit is serving near Kirkuk...the heart of Kurdish territory in Iraq. It would be unsurprising if the local population were very pleased to have U.S. troops there. Ironically, however, at least one of the soldiers who "signed" the letter [See him listed below] was injured in a booby-trap bomb explosion just recently. READ

Many soldiers, same letter
Newspapers around U.S. get identical missives from Iraq

Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers across the country as U.S. public opinion on the mission sours. And all the letters are the same.
A Gannett News Service search found identical letters from different soldiers with the 2nd Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, also known as "The Rock," in 11 newspapers, including Snohomish, Wash.
The Olympian received two identical letters signed by different hometown soldiers: Spc. Joshua Ackler and Spc. Alex Marois, who is now a sergeant. The paper declined to run either because of a policy not to publish form letters. READ

Al Gore in Talks to Buy TV News Channel

Former Vice President Al Gore and a group of investors are close to buying a small cable news channel from Vivendi Universal for $70 million, a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday."Vivendi is near a deal, but the deal is not done yet," said the source, referring to the sale of the news channel. Neither Gore's spokeswoman nor Vivendi executives would comment.
If Gore succeeds, the channel, Newsworld International, could potentially emerge as a competitor with Fox News Channel, which has unseated CNN as the most widely watched cable news outlet in the United States. READ

Transcript of Al Gore's August 7th speech on Iraq

Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thank you for your investment of time and energy in gathering here today. I would especially like to thank Moveon.org for sponsoring this event, and the NYU College Democrats for co-sponsoring the speech and for hosting us.
Some of you may remember that my last formal public address on these topics was delivered in San Francisco, a little less than a year ago, when I argued that the President?s case for urgent, unilateral, pre-emptive war in Iraq was less than convincing and needed to be challenged more effectively by the Congress. READ

The fault, dear voters, is in the president's stars

Out in the political world, the chances for President Bush's re-election look good. But celestial bodies suggest trouble.
Many astrologers insist that Bush will not be re-elected, never mind all the common-sense facts that pundits and politicos and experts and authorities point out: He's an incumbent president with good popularity ratings and a massive campaign war chest.
The question of a second term "is an ongoing conversation all over the place" within the astrological community, said Washington-area astrologer Caroline Casey.
...Until now the president "has had nothing but what's called Jupiter transits to his chart," said Casey, a Brown University graduate and writer with her own radio show. "He gets anything he wants. But this month Jupiter leaves and here comes Saturn. The free ride is over."
Saturn brings a jolt of reality, reckoning and responsibility, astrologers say. Because it appears near the sun, it illuminates long-held secrets. This is the first time in 30 years that Saturn has been so close to the sun; the last time was during Watergate.
" Most of us are not very fond of Saturn," said Jim Shawvan, an astrologer in San Diego.
Or, as New York astrologer Michael Lutin put it, Bush is "about to have a major Saturn experience. It's like how you feel after your frappuccino wears off." READ

Boycott KB Toys For Misleading the Public About Bush's Military Record

To: KB Toys
We, the undersigned, vow to boycott KB Toys until and unless the toy marketed as "Elite Force Aviator: George W. Bush - U.S. President and Naval Aviator - 12" Action Figure" is removed from their inventory.
With REAL military personnel dying almost daily in Iraq, we find it disgraceful that KB Toys would seek to capitalize on the very real human toll caused by Bush's war, while promoting the very false notion that George W. Bush is or ever was a fighter pilot.
We find this toy as disgraceful as Bush's performance on the aircraft carrier on May 1, 2003, when he wore a uniform he hadn't earned, claimed a victory he hadn't won, and delayed the return home of troops whose respect he doesn't deserve.
We are, in short, thoroughly disgusted. SIGN PETITION
Notes: the 'toy' in question is currently displayed on the KB Toys website:HERE
More information about Bush's dubious stint in the Texas National Guard can be found at these fine websites:
awolbush.com
talion.com/georgebush.html
tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/3671

GEORGE W. BUSH RESUME:

I attacked and took over two countries.
I spent the US surplus and bankrupted the US Treasury.
I shattered the record for the biggest annual deficit in history (not easy!).
I set an economic record for the most personal bankruptcies filed in any 12 month period.
I set all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the stock market. READ

Poll Shows Increased Doubts About Iraq War, Bush October 2, 2003

Most Americans now believe the Iraq war was not worth it, according to CBS News/New York Times poll released on Thursday which showed a sharp fall in public confidence in President Bush's ability to handle foreign and economic policy issues. The poll found new lows for Bush's foreign policy performance, which garnered just a 44 percent approval rating. Among respondents, 50 percent lacked confidence in his ability to handle an international crisis and 53 percent said they now believed the Iraq war was not worth it.
Bush's overall job approval rating was just above 50 percent, almost back to the level before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and down sharply from his 89 percent approval rating after the attacks, the poll said. READ

Poll: Bush Iraq Rating At New Low Sept. 17, 2003

President Bush's approval rating on handling Iraq has fallen to its lowest level ever, and his overall approval rating is the lowest it has been since the 2001 terrorist attacks, according to a CBS News poll.
The poll also finds that a declining number of Americans think the U.S. is in control of the situation in Iraq, and only 22% think the Bush administration has a clear plan for rebuilding the former dictatorship.
Americans also question whether a successful rebuilding of Iraq would ultimately pay dividends for them back at home: most do not think the United States will be any safer from terrorism even if Iraq does become a stable democracy. But many Americans do believe the rebuilding process in Iraq will force tough financial tradeoffs back at home - tradeoffs they would be unwilling to make. READ

Bush Job Approval Falls in Two U.S. Polls (September 06)

President Bush's job approval rating dropped in two polls released on Saturday amid concern about the economy and instability in Iraq.
Bush, who faces a re-election fight in just over a year, saw his rating fell sharply from last month in a Zogby America poll of likely voters. Forty-five percent gave Bush positive marks for job performance in the new survey, down from 52 percent in August and the lowest since January 2001, the month he took office.
In a Time magazine/CNN poll of registered voters, the president's approval slid to 52 percent. The same poll recorded 63 percent approval for Bush back in May. READ

Tangled Up in His Flight Suit
For Bush, war equals good politics—so long as the war’s going well, that is

George W. Bush was raising money last week in the Pacific Northwest, where there are too many greens, Democrats and anti-everything activists to suit him. “Do you have all those protesters lined up to see me?” he jokingly asked Republican Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon.  
...When the president landed on the USS Abraham Lincoln four months ago and declared victory in Iraq’s “major combat operations,” he dressed in the manner of a conquering hero. But after the U.N. bombing in Baghdad, the question is whether that flight suit could become a political straitjacket. In a NEWSWEEK Poll, voters still think the president is doing a good job overall and still believe—by a 2-1 margin—that invading Iraq was the right thing to do. But there is soggy ground beneath those numbers. Voters are growing antsy about the war’s financial costs (and see it weakening the American economy), are dubious about its value in reducing terrorism and are eager for the United Nations to take over. For the first time since 9/11, people say they’d rather elect someone other than Bush in 2004. READ

Bush's Reelection Liabilities Mount

WITH LABOR DAY 2003, the race to November 2004 is on. Seemingly, President Bush will be seriously on the defensive on the issues, but with a big advantage on the politics. However, voters are likely to be energized in 2004 as they have rarely been in recent years. And voter mobilization will ultimately determine whether Bush gets a second term. First, the issues. Bush's foreign policy is a shambles. The architects of the Iraq war have been proven wrong on every contention they made -- the imminent weapons of mass destruction, the alleged Saddam-Al Qaeda connection, the supposed ease of occupation and reconstruction. Thumbing America's nose at "old Europe" proved a major blunder. Bush now needs the United Nations to clean up his mess, but he is insisting on US control. France and Germany, not to mention Russia and China, aren't exactly lining up to donate money and troops to bail Bush out. The administration line -- that the Iraq mess proves that the place is a magnet for terrorism -- just isn't selling. This is a hornets' nest that Bush's policy stirred up. GIs are still getting killed for a war that the American public is turning against. READ

Security May Not Be Safe Issue for Bush in '04

The wave of violent death this week in Iraq, Israel, Gaza and Afghanistan brought to the fore a reality that President Bush has been reluctant to discuss: Peace is not at hand.
A confident Bush stood in the Rose Garden less than a month ago, saying, "Conditions in most of Iraq are growing more peaceful," boasting of "dismantling the al Qaeda operation" and pronouncing "pretty good progress" toward Middle East peace and a Palestinian state within two years.
Those sunny characterizations may yet prove true, but Bush allies and foes alike are coming to the conclusion that the progress may not be noticeable by the time Bush faces the voters again in 15 months. For a president who has staked his reputation on making "a tough decision to make the world more peaceful," this could be a big problem.
Both Republican and Democratic strategists have begun adjusting their plans for what they once viewed as unthinkable: that Bush's handling of national security in general, and the war in Iraq in particular, could become a vulnerability rather than an asset in his reelection race. READ

Bush aims to be out of reach by time Dems pick candidate

President Bush is building the earliest, most aggressive campaign organization by an incumbent president since Ronald Reagan won re-election in 1984. Bush is aiming to have such a strong head start that Democrats will have trouble catching up after they choose their nominee.
By the time the first votes are cast in the Democratic primary election season, on Jan. 19 at Iowa's caucuses, the Bush campaign plans to have a well-established national organization of chairmen and other staffers in every county in key states, and a leader in every crucial precinct.
Bush has no opponent for the Republican nomination. He raised $34 million through the end of June, and at least $6 million since then. He is on target to collect more than $250 million before the Republican convention next August. After the conventions, both presidential campaigns will be run on $74.4 million in federal funds. READ

Visit from Bush? Send the bill to the GOP
SECURITY, CROWD CONTROL, STREET CLOSINGS ADD UP

Starved for cash and faced with political fund-raising visits by President Bush -- with the usual demands for security, crowd control and street closings -- a few cities are starting to tally up their expenses and send a bill to Republican organizers.
Will Lexington follow suit?
Bush is scheduled to visit downtown Lexington at rush hour Thursday to raise money for the Kentucky Republican Party and its nominee for governor, Ernie Fletcher.
The event should be lucrative for Republicans -- who suggest donations of $500 to $10,000 on invitations -- but not for Lexington taxpayers. They will supply extra police protection at Blue Grass Airport and the Lexington Center, and a rolling traffic block along Versailles Road for the presidential motorcade.
These costs add up: Having played host to Bush twice and to Vice President Dick Cheney once, for fund-raisers, the city of Portland, Ore., wants $145,000 in reimbursement, mostly for police overtime. READ

The City Politic: Anything Goes

With two years of hindsight, we can now look back and say that September 11 didn’t quite change everything. We still like irony. The culture wars are still being fought, and now with the fragrant and very unlikely twist that a legacy-minded Sandra Day O’Connor seems to have come over to our side. Pop culture is still frivolous in most of the ways it was frivolous on September 10, 2001, and even in a few new ones.But it sure has changed our politics. Remember, shortly after the tragedy, and then again during the New York gubernatorial election last year, how the refrain went that the events of September 11 must not be politicized? I agreed. Who didn’t? But it seems to be turning out that when Republicans said September 11 should not be politicized, what they really meant was that Democrats should not politicize it. READ

Democrats Unlikely To Retake House
Redistricting Is Biggest Obstacle

Numerous Democratic strategists have become convinced in recent months that their party is unlikely to pick up the dozen seats it needs to retake the House, even in the face of a sluggish economy and mounting questions about Iraq that could be issues to use against the Republican-dominated administration.
Analysts who have been following the early battle for control of the 435-member House say a relative lack of public anger to fuel anti-incumbent voting and a strong GOP fundraising effort underway will be difficult for Democrats to surmount.
The biggest factor, however, is one that has thwarted Democratic hopes before and, if anything, is growing worse: Congressional redistricting has produced a remarkably small number of competitive districts nationwide. As a result, Democrats must win a huge percentage of the toss-up races to regain the House majority they lost a decade ago. READ

Supreme Court rules against Republicans
Democrats file lawsuit in Laredo

The all-Republican Texas Supreme Court today dealt a body blow to the GOP-led drive to redraw the state's congressional boundaries by rejecting a plea from Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst that the justices order the 11 Democratic senators to end their holdout in New Mexico.
The state's highest civil court denied the motion filed Thursday by the state's top two Republicans that would have compelled the absent Democrats to return to Austin so the Legislature could take up redistricting.The 11 Democrats fled two weeks ago, and their action tied in knots the Texas Senate, because the state Constitution requires that two-thirds, or 21 of the 31-member body be present for any business to be conducted.An attorney for the Democrats hailed the court's ruling as a victory for the quorum-busting senators who have vowed to remain holed up in Albuquerque, N.M., until the 30-special session Perry called on July 28 expires in a little over two weeks. READ

Texas Redistricting E-mail Exposes Right-Wing Coup

Republicans claim they are redistricting Texas Congressional districts to make it fairer. But House Republican staffer Joby Fortson exposed the REAL agenda in a secret memo to his Republican colleagues. "Subject: R's will pick up 6-7 seats now in Texas. The maps are now official. I have studied them and this is the most agressive [sic] map I have ever seen. This has a real national impact that should assure that Republicans keep the House no matter the national mood." The top priority was to defeat Rep. Lloyd Doggett, and here is Fortson's analysis: "ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha - The district goes from North central Austin (NOT liberal Hyde Park but more north conservative Plugerville area) and stretches to Katy Texas outside of Houston. Robert called this the 290 district. It is very Republican and will be where my friend Brian Walters will be likely running. Littelfield already is a consultant. (sweitches [sic] to R)" Defeat ALL Republicans! READ

Republicans unveil Texas redistricting map that shortchanges Democrats

After months of gridlock and infighting, Republican leaders unveiled a redistricting map Thursday that would dramatically boost their numbers in Congress, empower GOP-leaning suburbs and shake up rural Texas.
At least seven incumbent Democrats, including U.S. Rep. Martin Frost of Arlington, would see their Washington careers threatened if the map passes the Legislature and survives legal challenges.READ

N.Y. Activists Prep for GOP Convention

Adding the Internet and e-mail to traditional organizing techniques, protest groups say they are getting an early start in attracting tens of thousands of demonstrators to New York for next year's Republican convention.
Opponents of the Iraq war, welfare reform -- even those angered by the selection of New York City -- say they will seek protest permits and arrange travel for the four-day convention that begins Aug. 30, 2004.
Protests are an expected sideshow to any political convention, but Steve Ault, a veteran activist helping organize a massive anti-war demonstration, said the events taking shape for next year are unprecedented.
"There's a rather profound and unique opposition to (President) Bush developing, and we see that in the early interest in these actions," said Ault, who helped plan a 1982 nuclear disarmament rally in Central Park that drew 750,000 people. "We haven't seen anything like this." READ

Protest Groups Planning for Republican Convention

One night last week, dozens of young people - anarchists, environmentalists, pacifists, and just about every other ist out there - crammed together in a Brooklyn storefront to brainstorm how they would take advantage of a unique opportunity a year away.
The man they view as their arch nemesis, President Bush, will visit their turf next summer for the 2004 Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden, a springboard for Mr. Bush's re-election campaign and for what dissenters say will be protests on a scale not seen in the city in dozens of years.
Those at the meeting discussed everything from where protesters could stay to proposed rally themes. One woman suggested, "How Bush stole the election in Florida," and another offered, "The politicization of 9/11." Perhaps most important, they promised to bring together their divergent voices in the name of tarnishing what is planned to be a shining moment for the president. READ

Jolted Over Electronic Voting
Report's Security Warning Shakes Some States' Trust

The Virginia State Board of Elections had a seemingly simple task before it: Certify an upgrade to the state's electronic voting machines. But with a recent report by Johns Hopkins University computer scientists warning that the system's software could easily be hacked into and election results tampered with, the once perfunctory vote now seemed to carry the weight of democracy and the people's trust along with it.
...Maryland officials, who signed a $55.6 million agreement with Diebold for 11,000 touch-screen voting machines just days before the Hopkins report came out, have asked an international computer security firm to review the system's security. If they don't like what they find, officials have said, the sale will be off.
The report has brought square into the mainstream an obscure but increasingly nasty debate between about 900 computer scientists, who warn that these machines are untrustworthy, and state and local election officials and machine manufacturers, who insist that they are reliable. READ

THE SECRETIVE WORLD OF VOTING MACHINES

Over the last 100 years Americans have slowly but surely surrendered our public voting process to private corporations and their voting machines... in violation of our constitutional right to fair, open, and observable elections. The price paid has been the legitimacy of our democracy. And countries around the world are following our lead.
Today, two Republican dominated corporations, Election Systems and Software (ES&S) and Diebold Voting Systems, control about 80% of the vote count in the U.S.. Meanwhile, the long history of election upsets due to voting machine "glitches", that overwhelmingly favor Republican candidates, continues to grow. Where is the outrage? READ

Will Your Vote Count in the Next Election?

Maybe not! How will we even know?A growing concern over the inadequacies of election equipment in the United States has recently been heightened by the problems of the 2000 Presidential election. Added to the mix is the election reform mandated by recent federal legislation attempting to address the concerns. The result is that many states are scurrying to replace their older equipment with new electronic voting computers.
Unfortunately, election technology has not advanced to the point where it can provide us with electronic systems that are reliable enough to trust with our democracy. In other words, we just aren’t there yet. READ

Voting machine controversy

The head of a company vying to sell voting machines in Ohio told Republicans in a recent fund-raising letter that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
The Aug. 14 letter from Walden O'Dell, chief executive of Diebold Inc. - who has become active in the re-election effort of President Bush - prompted Democrats this week to question the propriety of allowing O'Dell's company to calculate votes in the 2004 presidential election.
O'Dell attended a strategy pow-wow with wealthy Bush benefactors - known as Rangers and Pioneers - at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch earlier this month. The next week, he penned invitations to a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser to benefit the Ohio Republican Party's federal campaign fund - partially benefiting Bush - at his mansion in the Columbus suburb of Upper Arlington. READ

Diebold Internal Mail Confirms U.S. Vote Count Vulnerabilities "A Very American Coup"

Scoop has obtained internal mail messages from Diebold Election Systems which clearly and explicitly confirm security problems in the GEMS vote counting software that were highlighted in reports published on Scoop.co.nz and widely elsewhere in July.
In the internal mail Diebold Election Systems principal engineer R&D Ken Clark - then working for Global Election Systems before Diebold took the company over - responded to an internal query over a security problem. The official certification laboratory responsible for assessing the voting technology company software's robustness had noticed a problem, and a staff member was seeking Clark's advice. READ

ON ELECTION DAY 2004, HOW WILL YOU KNOW IF YOUR VOTE IS PROPERLY COUNTED? 
ANSWER: YOU WON’T

Rep. Rush Holt Introduces Legislation to Require All Voting Machines To Produce A Voter-Verified Paper Trail  

Washington, DC – Rep. Rush Holt today responded to the growing chorus of concern from election reform specialists and computer security experts about the integrity of future elections by introducing reform legislation, The Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act of 2003. The measure would require all voting machines to produce an actual paper record by 2004 that voters can view to check the accuracy of their votes and that election officials can use to verify votes in the event of a computer malfunction, hacking, or other irregularity. Experts often refer to this paper record as a “voter-verified paper trail.” READ

Vanishing Act "Disappearing" the Republic at the Push of a Button

It's a shell game, with money, companies and corporate brands switching in a blur of buy-outs and bogus fronts. It's a sinkhole, where mobbed-up operators, paid-off public servants, crazed Christian fascists, CIA shadow-jobbers, war-pimping arms dealers--and presidential family members--lie down together in the slime. It's a hacker's dream, with pork-funded, half-finished, secretly-programmed computer systems installed without basic security standards by politically-partisan private firms, and protected by law from public scrutiny.
It's how America, the "world's greatest democracy," casts its votes. And it's why George W. Bush will almost certainly be the next president of the United States--no matter what the people of the United States might want. READ

Did E-Vote Firm Patch Election? 

Diebold Election Systems has had a tumultuous year, and it doesn't look like it's getting any better.
Last January the electronic voting machine maker faced public embarrassment when voting activists revealed the company's insecure FTP server was making its software source code available for everyone to see.Then researchers and auditors who examined code for the company's touch-screen voting system released two separate reports stating that the software was full of serious security flaws.
Now a former worker in Diebold's Georgia warehouse says the company installed patches on its machines before the state's 2002 gubernatorial election that were never certified by independent testing authorities or cleared with Georgia election officials.
If the charges are true, Diebold could be in violation of federal and state election-certification rules. The charges also raise questions about the integrity of the Georgia election results and any other election that uses patched Diebold systems that have not been re-certified. READ

Novak Leak Column Has Familiar Sound

Let's review: Syndicated columnist Robert D. Novak gets a leak of classified information from foreign-policy hardliners. The column he writes causes a huge embarrassment for the Republican White House and moderates throughout the administration. Capitol Hill erupts with protests about the leak.
Sound familiar? Actually, this occurred in December 1975. Novak, with his late partner Rowland Evans, got the classified leak -- that President Gerald R. Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were ready to make concessions to the Soviet Union to save the SALT II treaty. Donald H. Rumsfeld, then, as now, the secretary of defense, intervened to block Kissinger.
The main leak suspect: Richard Perle, then an influential aide to Sen. Henry "Scoop" Jackson (D-Wash.) and now a member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board and a confidant of neoconservatives in the Bush administration. The account was described in a 1977 article in The Washington Post, noting Perle's "special access" to Evans and Novak.
...the history of Novak's columns, many of them with juicy bits of presumably classified information, provides clues about his sources. Novak has often relied on foreign policy hardliners -- neoconservatives, in the current parlance -- for leaks that prove damaging to moderates. Novak himself is sometimes at odds with the neocons, particularly in his criticism of Israel, but has formed a longtime alliance. READ

Dems blast White House on leak probe
Senators reiterate call for special prosecutor to investigate

Four leading Democratic senators accused the White House on Thursday of bungling a probe into the leak of an undercover CIA officer's name in what the outed operative's husband calls an attempt at political intimidation.
In a letter to President Bush, Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and three others said the White House has made "at least five serious missteps" in the leak probe so far.
The biggest is leaving Attorney General John Ashcroft in charge of the probe rather than naming a special prosecutor to handle it, as they have called for previously, they said.
" We are at risk of seeing this investigation so compromised that those responsible for this national security breach will never be identified and prosecuted," the senators wrote. READ

Who exposed whistleblower's wife?

The FBI may launch an inquiry into whether the White House revealed the identity of a covert CIA official to punish her husband for blowing the whistle on President Bush for making misleading claims about the Iraqi nuclear programme, officials in Washington said yesterday.
Joseph Wilson, a former US ambassador and the last American official to meet Saddam Hussein, triggered a scandal on July 6 when he published an article saying that the White House knew in advance that the president's public statements about Iraqi attempts to buy uranium in Africa were not credible.
Mr Wilson had been sent to Niger in 2002 by the CIA to investigate claims of attempted uranium purchases there, and reported back that they were "highly doubtful". Despite his report, President Bush said in his State of the Union address in January: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
Mr Wilson said: "We spend billions of dollars on intelligence. But we end up putting something in the State of the Union address, something we got from another intelligence agency, something we cannot independently verify, in an area of Africa where the British have no on-the-ground presence."
After Mr Wilson blew the whistle, the White House admitted the mistake but alleged that his report had never reached senior administration officials - a claim Mr Wilson said was false. READ

Iraq Arms Critic Reacts to Report on Wife

Joseph C. Wilson IV, a retired ambassador who was a secret envoy of the Bush administration to Africa and who publicly voiced doubts about a reported Iraqi weapons program, says he has become a target of a campaign to discourage others like him from going public.
In the prewar effort to uncover information about weapons in Iraq, Mr. Wilson made a fact-finding trip to Niger in February 2002 at the request of the Central Intelligence Agency. His findings challenged contentions in an unsubstantiated document that Iraq was trying to obtain nuclear-weapons material from the West African country.
But it was not until after Mr. Wilson made his account public last month in an op-ed article in The New York Times, to the intense discomfort of President Bush's aides, that the White House acknowledged that it had erred in including the disputed accusations in Mr. Bush's State of the Union address in January.
Days after the column, another chapter opened. Mr. Wilson's wife was identified by name as a covert C.I.A. operative in a column by the conservative columnist Robert Novak, a disclosure that Mr. Novak has attributed to senior administration officials.
Officials are barred by law from disclosing the identities of Americans who work undercover for the C.I.A. That provision is intended to protect the security of operatives whose lives might be jeopardized if their identities are known. READ

The Bush Administration Adopts a Worse-than-Nixonian Tactic:
The Deadly Serious Crime Of Naming CIA Operatives

On July 14, in his syndicated column, Chicago Sun-Times journalist Robert Novak reported that Valerie Plame Wilson - the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, and mother of three-year-old twins - was a covert CIA agent. (She had been known to her friends as an "energy analyst at a private firm.")
Why was Novak able to learn this highly secret information? It turns out that he didn't have to dig for it. Rather, he has said, the "two senior Administration officials" he had cited as sources sought him out, eager to let him know. And in journalism, that phrase is a term of art reserved for a vice president, cabinet officers, and top White House officials.
On July 17, Time magazine published the same story, attributing it to "government officials." And on July 22, Newsday's Washington Bureau confirmed "that Valerie Plame ... works at the agency [CIA] on weapons of mass destruction issues in an undercover capacity." More specifically, according to a "senior intelligence official," Newsday reported, she worked in the "Directorate of Operations [as an] undercover officer." READ

The Ambassador Wilson Affair: The End of Karl Rove – And George Bush?

Ambassador Joseph Wilson has been turning up the heat in this situation. He revealed on Friday August 29 in a symposium in Washington the person in the Bush administration, who had leaked it out to the Washington Post that Wilson’s wife is a CIA agent of 26 years. As a consequence of this leak, her entire team of overseas assets were liquidated.
The leaker, it turns out, was none other than the notorious Karl H. Rove, Bush’s so-called White House advisor. Ambassador Wilson identified him as Karl Roverer, with the umlaut over the “o.”
According to reliable sources, as well as our own Al Martin Raw.com investigation, Karl Rove is, in fact, the grandson of Karl Heinz Roverer, the gauleiter of Mecklenburg, who was also a partner and senior engineer of Roverer Sud-Deutche Ingenieurbüro AG. They built Birchenau, the concentration camp in Nazi Germany.
So Karl Rove has been identified as the leaker responsible for the deaths of more than 70 CIA assets overseas (See previous story “Will the Real Chemical Ali Please Stand Up? The Curious Case of Ambassador Joseph Wilson)
When Ambassador Wilson was asked how he knew it was Rove, he had documents in his possession identifying Rove as the leaker from a secret investigation of the State Department’s Internal; Security Unit. It was a from a small clique, four Clinton holdovers in that department of the State Department that were sympathetic to what had happened to Wilson. READ

CIA seeks probe of White House

The CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate allegations that the White House broke federal laws by revealing the identity of one of its undercover employees in retaliation against the woman's husband, a former ambassador who publicly criticized President Bush's since-discredited claim that Iraq had sought weapons-grade uranium from Africa, NBC News has learned.
THE FORMER ENVOY, Joseph Wilson, who was acting ambassador to Iraq before the first Gulf War, was dispatched to Niger in 2002 to investigate a British intelligence report that Iraq sought to buy uranium there. Although Wilson discredited the report, Bush cited it in his State of the Union address in January among the evidence he said justified military action in Iraq. The administration has since had to repudiate the claim. CIA Director George Tenet said the 16-word sentence should not have been included in Bush's Jan. 28 speech and publicly accepted responsibility for allowing it to remain in the president's text. READ

Leak of Agent's Name Causes Exposure of CIA Front Firm

The leak of a CIA operative's name has also exposed the identity of a CIA front company, potentially expanding the damage caused by the original disclosure, Bush administration officials said yesterday.
The company's identity, Brewster-Jennings & Associates, became public because it appeared in Federal Election Commission records on a form filled out in 1999 by Valerie Plame, the case officer at the center of the controversy, when she contributed $1,000 to Al Gore's presidential primary campaign.
After the name of the company was broadcast yesterday, administration officials confirmed that it was a CIA front. They said the obscure and possibly defunct firm was listed as Plame's employer on her W-2 tax forms in 1999 when she was working undercover for the CIA. Plame's name was first published July 14 in a newspaper column by Robert D. Novak that quoted two senior administration officials. They were critical of her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, for his handling of a CIA mission that undercut President Bush's claim that Iraq had sought uranium from the African nation of Niger for possible use in developing nuclear weapons. READ

Bremer: Iraq Effort to Cost Tens of Billions For Iraq

Iraq will need "several tens of billions" of dollars from abroad in the next year to rebuild its rickety infrastructure and revive its moribund economy, and American taxpayers and foreign governments will be asked to contribute substantial sums, U.S. occupation coordinator L. Paul Bremer said yesterday.
 Bremer said Iraqi revenue will not nearly cover the bill for economic needs "almost impossible to exaggerate." Just to meet current electrical demand will cost $2 billion, Bremer said, while a national system to deliver clean water will cost an estimated $16 billion over four years.
...Bremer's comments, in an interview with Washington Post reporters and editors, came on a day when the Congressional Budget Office said the federal government will post a record deficit next year of $480 billion. Wary of revealing specifics, neither Bremer nor President Bush -- who referred to "substantial" new costs in a St. Louis speech -- would give details. READ

US role in Iraq could cost $60b more

The US government will need to spend as much as $60 billion to support its military role in Iraq next year, according to government officials as well as analysts and economists.
The funding would come on top of $62.6 billion that Congress approved in March. That installment, which analysts say should last until October, was intended to cover the cost of deploying and supplying about 140,000 troops in Iraq, as well as supporting a much smaller US force in Afghanistan. Included in those costs were all the expenses of waging war to topple Saddam Hussein's regime.
The Pentagon has not provided details about anticipated spending to continue the occupation in 2004. The overall estimates of $50 billion to $60 billion -- the first to be made public -- come from private institutes that specialize in defense-related issues. READ

Bush Aides Admit Iraq Missteps
Aides say estimates on oil revenue, damage off

One day after President Bush gave the nation a cautious view of rebuilding efforts in Iraq, senior administration officials for the first time acknowledged that they vastly underestimated the damage to the country's infrastructure and greatly overestimated the amount of oil revenue that could be used to help rebuild the war-torn country.
Yesterday's sobering assessments came as members of Congress are contemplating Bush's request for $87 billion to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan -- and call into question earlier pronouncements by administration officials about the size and cost of the job.
The disclosures, coming on the heels of Bush's prime-time address, mark the administration's strongest acknowledgment to date that it failed to fully comprehend the complexities of rebuilding Iraq. READ

Bush Seeks $87 Billion for Iraq and Terror Fight, Cautions the Struggle Will 'Require Sacrifice'

President Bush, facing doubts about his handling of Iraq amid rising casualties, is asking Congress for $87 billion to fight terrorism and cautioning Americans that the struggle "will take time and require sacrifice."
Bush's money request surpassing earlier unofficial estimates would come on top of the $79 billion that Congress approved in April for the initial costs of the war and its aftermath and for worldwide efforts against terrorism. READ
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20030908_758.html

Additional Money for Iraq Not Needed Until Spring, According to New Study

As Congress is preparing to vote on the administration's emergency $87 billion request, a new study is challenging the immediate need for the funding.
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld asserted two weeks ago that "the funds the president requested are vital to our success in the global war on terror and to our ability to finish the job in Iraq."1 But that position is being undermined by a Congressional Research Service (CRS) study that has found that Iraq military operations have sufficient funds until May of next year. READ

Study of Iraq Bill Reveals Overcharging

The Bush administration's Iraq reconstruction plan appears to overcharge taxpayers some $200 million for the purchase and importation of petroleum products, according to a congressional report obtained Thursday.
The legislation seeks $900.6 million for specified amounts of liquefied petroleum gas (propane), gasoline, kerosene and diesel fuel during the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. The products could be bought and delivered for $704 million, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service reported. READ

Less Than Meets the Eye?
U.S. Government Sting Operation Criticized as Setup

Administration officials are leaving out key facts and exaggerating the significance of the alleged plot to smuggle a shoulder-launched missile into the United States, law enforcement officials told ABCNEWS. They say there's a lot less than meets the eye.
The accused ringleader, British national Hemant Lakhani, appeared today in federal court in Newark, N.J., and was ordered held without bond on charges of attempting to provide material support and material resources to terrorists and acting as an arms broker without a license.
Outside the courtroom, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie called Lakhani an ally of terrorists who want to kill Americans.
" He, on many occasions, in recorded conversations, referred to Americans as 'bastards' [and] Osama bin Laden as a hero," said Christie.
But what he did not say was just how much of the alleged missile plot was a government setup from start to finish.
For example, Lakhani had no contacts in Russia to buy the missiles before the sting and had no known criminal record for arms dealing, officials told ABCNEWS. READ
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/World/missile030813_sting.html

Post-War Iraq Quiz

1. Though there are more than 100 chemical plants where a single terrorist attack could potentially expose more than a million people to toxic gas, there are no mandatory security regulations applying to chemical plants. Tough legislation in this regard was blocked by industry lobbying and lack of support from the Bush administration.
A. It was not until 18 months after 9/11 that the Nuclear Regulatory Agency revised its policy stating that nuclear power plants needed to be secure only from an attack by three or fewer individuals armed with no more than rifles; the revisions were worked out in closed-door meetings with the nuclear industry and excluded public interest organizations. The new policy is secret, but NRC officials are on record as saying it is not necessary to be able to protect against a 9/11-scale attack.
B. The Bush administration has ordered the elimination of 11% of airport baggage screener jobs.
C. All of the above.
READ

GOP-controlled Congress Has Stifled Partisan Inquiries
Bush unscathed by investigations

Here's why Special counsels are now a thing of the past, and GOP-controlled Congress has stifled partisan inquiries
 WASHINGTON -- The urge to investigate defined the capital during the Clinton years. But no more.
 For nearly a decade, special counsel inquiries and adversarial congressional hearings dominated the headlines, etched bitter partisan lines, led to the impeachment of a president and made the nation's political debates resemble hand-to-hand combat.
 Now, some things have changed. The law that provided for special counsels has expired. President Bush's fellow Republicans control both houses of Congress. The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, has stepped back from challenging the White House after losing a court case that sought to open the records of Vice President Cheney's energy task force.
 The result: The White House is better able to control information and prevent a nagging controversy from becoming a full-blown crisis. It's harder for Democrats to demand answers and easier for administration officials to dismiss their charges as political posturing. Fairly or not, Bush faces less of the daily barrage that prompted President Clinton to set up a parallel press operation for investigative inquiries and made Clinton's White House seem at times like an embattled enclave. READ

Citizens' Indictment Of Bush, Cheney, Et Al.

This is to invite you to join us in a citizens' movement to indict members of the Bush administration now and George W. Bush when he leaves office. We ask you to consider and sign, and ask any organization you deem appropriate to endorse, the Citizens' Indictment and Draft True Bill against George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and eleven other administration officials.
" Just won't happen!" you say.
Impeachment of Bush is what won't happen while the radical Republicans control the House. But indictment is different. Grand juries can indict officials of the federal government, except the President, whom they conclude should be tried for crimes such as those enumerated here. The Citizens' Indictment can lead to the full investigation, arrest and prosecution of officials in the Bush/Cheney government from Dick Cheney on down.
...Now or at any point, a real grand jury can do with the Citizens' Indictment, or variations or parts of it, whatever they have the courage, democratic convictions, and patriotism to do. For instance, if a grand jury agrees that members of the Bush/Cheney government have broken laws, they can launch an investigation into the seriousness of those crimes for the purpose of determining the proper charges under which to indict the perpetrators. District attorneys must proceed to prosecute officials charged by a grand jury with one or more crimes. READ

Today We Face Another 'Watergate'

Thirty years ago the Senate of the United States prevented President Richard Nixon from destroying constitutional democracy in our country. Watergate was a wrenching turning point in our history and its lessons must be learned and re-learned.
Now our lives as a free people are also being threatened by an administration bent on grabbing unprecedented power, a timid Congress and an uninformed electorate. That is why the Watergate experience remains so relevant to our republic today.
...The most serious horror was that Nixon and his aides believed that Nixon as president had the absolute power and right to order these crimes to be committed. Nixon told an interviewer, "When the president does it, it can't be wrong."
Mitchell testified before the Senate Watergate Committee that he would have "done anything" to get Richard Nixon re-elected. "Anything?" asked a senator. "Would that include murder?" Mitchell puffed on his pipe and replied, "That's a tough question, Senator." READ

Impeachable Offenses

This week as President Bush and his closest advisors altered stories in an ongoing effort to deflect blame about "intelligence failures," I am reminded of a quote by Oliver North from his Iran-Contra testimony, "I was provided with additional input that was radically different from the truth. I assisted in furthering that version."
One cannot help but ask if these false and terrifying depictions of Iraq's destructive capabilities were really the products of intelligence failures, or if they were part of an ongoing and systematic policy on the part of those at the very head of government.
Thirty years ago during the Watergate hearings, investigators asked the simple question: "What did the president know and when did he know it?" A more appropriate question to ask today might be "Why didn't the president know before going to war what common people marching in streets all over the world knew?" READ

Iran-Contra, Amplified

As Karl Marx might have said, "A spectre is haunting Washington - the spectre of Iran-Contra".
 Even some of the people and countries are the same. And the methods -- particularly the pursuit by a network of well-placed individuals of a covert, parallel foreign policy that is at odds with official policy -- are definitely the same.
 Boiled down to its essentials, the Iran-Contra affair was about a small group of officials based in the National Security Agency (NSC) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that ran an "off-the-books" operation to secretly sell arms to Iran in exchange for hostages.
... The picture emerging from the latest reports about the manipulation of intelligence in the drive to war with Iraq, as well as efforts by administration hawks to deliberately aggravate tensions with Syria, Iran, and North Korea in defiance of official State Department and U.S. policy, suggest a similar but much more ambitious scheme at work. READ

Meetings With Iran-Contra Arms Dealer Confirmed

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld acknowledged yesterday that Pentagon officials met secretly with a discredited expatriate Iranian arms merchant who figured prominently in the Iran-contra scandal of the mid-1980s, characterizing the contact as an unexceptional effort to gain possibly useful information.
While Rumsfeld said that the contact occurred more than a year ago and that nothing came of it, his aides scrambled during the day to piece together more details amid other reports that Rumsfeld's account may have been incomplete.
Last night, a senior defense official disclosed that another meeting with the Iranian arms dealer, Manucher Ghorbanifar, occurred in June in Paris. The official said that, while the first contact, in late 2001, had been formally sanctioned by the U.S. government in response to an Iranian government offer to provide information relevant to the war on terrorism, the second one resulted from "an unplanned, unscheduled encounter." READ 

War Critics Zero In on Pentagon Office

 ...Kwiatkowski went on to charge that the operations she witnessed during her tenure in Feith's office, and particularly those of an ad hoc group known as the Office of Special Plans (OSP), constituted "a subversion of constitutional limits on executive power and a co-optation through deceit of a large segment of the Congress".
...According to Kwiatkowski, the same operation that allegedly cooked the intelligence also was responsible for the administration's failure to anticipate the problems that now dog the U.S. occupation in Iraq, or, in her more colourful words, that have placed 150,000 U.S. troops in "the world's nastiest rat's nest, without a nation-building plan, without significant international support and without an exit plan".
 Kwiatkowski's comments echo the worst fears of some lawmakers, who have begun looking into the OSP's role in the administration's mistaken assumptions in Iraq. Some are even comparing it to the off-the-books operation run from the National Security Council (NSC) during Reagan administration that later resulted in the "Iran-Contra" scandal.
...Actually, little is known about OSP, which was originally created by Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld and his top deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, to investigate possible links between Hussein and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist group. READ

Britain and U.S. Will Back Down Over WMDs

Britain and the US have combined to come up with entirely new explanations of why they went to war in Iraq as inspectors on the ground prepare to report that there are no weapons of mass destruction there.
The "current and serious" threat of Iraq's WMD was the reason Tony Blair gave for going to war, but last week the Prime Minister delivered a justification which did not mention the weapons at all. On the same day John Bolton, US Under-Secretary of State for arms control, said that whether Saddam Hussein's regime actually possessed WMD "isn't really the issue".
The 1,400-strong Iraq Survey Group, sent out in May to begin an intensive hunt for the elusive weapons, is expected to report this week that it has found no WMD hardware, nor even any sign of active programmes. The inspectors, headed by David Kay, a close associate of President George Bush, are likely to say the only evidence it has found is that the Iraqi government had retained a group of scientists who had the expertise to restart the weapons programme at any time.
Foreshadowing the report, Mr Bolton said the issue was not weapons, or actual programmes, but "the capability that Iraq sought to have ... WMD programmes". Saddam, he claimed, kept "a coterie" of scientists he was preserving for the day when he could build nuclear weapons unhindered by international constraints. "Whether he possessed them today or four years ago isn't really the issue," he said. "As long as that regime was in power, it was determined to get nuclear, chemical and biological weapons one way or another. Until that regime was removed from power, that threat remained - that was the purpose of the military action." READ

U.S. Suspects It Received False Iraq Arms Tips

Frustrated at the failure to find Saddam Hussein's suspected stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, U.S. and allied intelligence agencies have launched a major effort to determine if they were victims of bogus Iraqi defectors who planted disinformation to mislead the West before the war.
The goal, according to a senior U.S. intelligence official, "is to see if false information was put out there and got into legitimate channels and we were totally duped on it." He added, "We're reinterviewing all our sources of information on this. This is the entire intelligence community, not just the U.S."
The far-reaching review was started after a political firestorm erupted this summer over revelations that President Bush's claim in his State of the Union speech that Iraq had sought to import uranium from Niger was based on forged documents.
Although senior CIA officials insist that defectors were only partly responsible for the intelligence that triggered the decision to invade Iraq in March, other intelligence officials now fear that key portions of the prewar information may have been flawed. The issue raises fresh doubts as to whether illicit weapons will be found in Iraq. READ

Depiction of Threat Outgrew Supporting Evidence

His name was Joe, from the U.S. government. He carried 40 classified slides and a message from the Bush administration.
An engineer-turned-CIA analyst, Joe had helped build the U.S. government case that Iraq posed a nuclear threat. He landed in Vienna on Jan. 22 and drove to the U.S. diplomatic mission downtown. In a conference room 32 floors above the Danube River, he told United Nations nuclear inspectors they were making a serious mistake.
At issue was Iraq's efforts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes. The U.S. government said those tubes were for centrifuges to enrich uranium for a nuclear bomb. But the IAEA, the world's nuclear watchdog, had uncovered strong evidence that Iraq was using them for conventional rockets.
Joe described the rocket story as a transparent Iraqi lie. According to people familiar with his presentation, which circulated before and afterward among government and outside specialists, Joe said the specialized aluminum in the tubes was "overspecified," "inappropriate" and "excessively strong." No one, he told the inspectors, would waste the costly alloy on a rocket. READ

Blair's Office "Substantially" Altered Iraq Dossier, British Probe Hears

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's office authorized a "substantial rewrite" of the government's controversial dossier on Iraq, an inquiry into the apparent suicide of weapons expert David Kelly.
 Kelly's death is the subject of a parliamentary inquiry, amid allegations -- reportedly based on the weapons scientist's evidence -- that the Blair administration exaggerated the case for war on Iraq.
... Documents released to the inquiry Monday showed that the dossier should be altered "as per TB's discussion" -- an apparent reference to Tony Blair.
 It said: "Re dossier, substantial rewrite with JS and Julian M in charge, which JS will take to US next Friday, and be in shape Monday thereafter. "Structure as per TB's discussion. Agreement that there has to be real intelligence material in their presentation." READ

Blair's Communications Chief to Resign
Aide Was Central Figure in Iraq Controversy

Tony Blair's top aide and pugnacious communications chief Alastair Campbell announced his resignation Friday in a surprise decision that comes amid the worst crisis of the British premier's six-year rule.
Former Labor Party spokesman David Hill will succeed Alastair Campbell as chief of communications for British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Blair's office said Friday after Campbell announced his resignation.
The premier's Downing Street office said Hill, who works in public relations, would "operate within a new structure" Blair is establishing for government communications.
Campbell had been expected to quit later this year, but the timing of his announcement -- while both he and Blair are enmeshed in a high-stakes inquiry into whether Britain hyped the case for war in Iraq -- caught political observers off-guard. READ

Europe vs. Bush

Say this for European critics of President Bush's invasion of Iraq: Shocked and awed they are not.
The guerrilla campaign in Iraq's Sunni Triangle is spawning political insurgencies in the United States and abroad. Many of those who lost the long, contentious debate about going to war have shifted to small-scale harrying actions aimed at crippling a presidential behemoth over time.
The steady attacks on American troops and growing challenges to Bush at home have encouraged many of the war's critics abroad to conclude that they can outlast the Bush administration's emphasis on military preemption and perhaps the administration itself.
Bush should be under no illusion: As things stand now, he will not receive the benefit of the doubt that incumbent presidents seeking reelection are usually given by foreign governments and publics, which are generally reluctant to see "the devil they know" replaced by a devil they don't know.
Talk to German, French, British and Russian think-tank experts and officials under London's Chatham House rules -- the speaker can't be identified by name -- and the sense you get is that many Europeans are waiting for the Americans to give up on Iraq and come back to their senses, so U.S.-European relations can get back to the intimacy of Cold War days.
" The main lesson to be learned from the Iraq war is to be learned in Washington: You have to plan and cooperate with others under established rules," says a German academic. His country's strong and understandable Cold War fear of being left alone is alive and well. READ

Iraq: Why Bush Now Wants the UN

In accepting that the UN should have a security role in Iraq, President Bush has accepted reality.
Despite a recent claim by chief US administrator Paul Bremer that Iraq is "not a country in chaos and Baghdad is not a city in chaos", events suggest otherwise. Mr Bush does not want to get bogged down there.
The presidential election next year is a powerful incentive for the Bush team to consider any proposal that prevents Iraq from becoming a determining campaign issue.
And the influential Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which carries out independent policy studies, has provided a practical reason for Mr Bush to change his policy.
It says basically that the United States does not have enough troops to do the job, especially if it needs to keep a substantial force free for potential action elsewhere. And the Korean peninsula is on everyone's mind these days. READ

Poindexter Resigns but Defends Programs
Anti-Terrorism, Data Scanning Efforts at Pentagon Called Victims of Ignorance

 John M. Poindexter took issue yesterday with critics of his Pentagon efforts to develop new data scanning systems and an online futures market for flushing out terrorists and predicting Middle East developments, saying the programs had fallen victim to ignorance, distortion and Washington's "highly-charged political environment."
 In a letter of resignation ending a controversial 20-month Pentagon tenure, Poindexter pressed his case for employing new technologies to discern terrorists' plans in such everyday transactions as credit card purchases, travel reservations and e-mail. He said innovative approaches are needed to overcome the historic barriers among U.S. intelligence agencies and gain access to stores of information not available to the government. READ

Government's Hobbled Giant
Homeland Security Is Struggling

Six months after it was established to protect the nation from terrorism, the Department of Homeland Security is hobbled by money woes, disorganization, turf battles and unsteady support from the White House, and has made only halting progress toward its goals, according to administration officials and independent experts.
The top two officials under Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge are stepping down amid criticism from some White House officials and elsewhere in the administration. So few people want to work at the department that more than 15 people declined requests to apply for the top post in its intelligence unit -- and many others turned down offers to run several other key offices, government officials said.
...Efforts to organize the government's 10 or so disparate lists of potential terrorism suspects, secure airline cargo against terrorist plots and advise local police and firefighters on training and equipment have all foundered, the officials said.
" Not a lot is getting done at the top of the department, and nobody's making them focus on it," said a White House official who handles homeland security issues and who asked not to be identified. "Nobody's got the fortitude to say, 'Sit down and shut up.' . . . It's sad." READ

America Two Years After 9/11: 25 Things We Now Know

 Last year, close to the time of the first anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks, I wrote "Twenty Things We've Learned One Year After 9/11." Now we're approaching the second anniversary, and it's time for an update.
 Things we could only speculate about a year ago have taken place -- to name just three: an invasion and occupation of Iraq (based on misleading intelligence and outright lies), an administration that may have committed the treasonous act of deliberately revealing the identity of a CIA agent, and shocking revelations about the computer-screen voting system now being put into place around the country for the 2004 election. READ

Moms Battle Bush on 9/11 Inquiry

In mid-June, F.B.I. director Robert Mueller III and several senior agents in the bureau received a group of about 20 visitors in a briefing room of the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington, D.C. The director himself narrated a PowerPoint presentation that summarized the numbers of agents and leads and evidence he and his people had collected in the 18-month course of their ongoing investigation of Penttbom, the clever neologism the bureau had invented to reduce the sites of devastation on 9/11 to one word: Pent for Pentagon, Pen for Pennsylvania, tt for the Twin Towers and bom for the four planes that the government had been forewarned could be used as weapons—even bombs—but chose to ignore.
After the formal meeting, senior agents in the room faced a grilling by Kristen Breitweiser, a 9/11 widow whose cohorts are three other widowed moms from New Jersey.
" I don’t understand, with all the warnings about the possibilities of Al Qaeda using planes as weapons, and the Phoenix Memo from one of your own agents warning that Osama bin Laden was sending operatives to this country for flight-school training, why didn’t you check out flight schools before Sept. 11?" READ

German Firm Probes Final World Trade Center Deals 

German computer experts are working round the clock to unlock the truth behind an unexplained surge in financial transactions made just before two hijacked planes crashed into New York's World Trade Center on September 11.
Were criminals responsible for the sharp rise in credit card transactions that moved through some computer systems at the WTC shortly before the planes hit the twin towers?
Or was it coincidence that unusually large sums of money, perhaps more than $100 million, were rushed through the computers as the disaster unfolded?
..." The suspicion is that inside information about the attack was used to send financial transaction commands and authorizations in the belief that amid all the chaos the criminals would have, at the very least, a good head start," said Convar director Peter Henschel. READ

U.S. Faces Challenges at German 9/11 Trial
Defense May Call Secretly Held Witnesses and Invoke Conspiracy Theories

Germany opened its second trial of an alleged member of the Hamburg terror cell that investigators say led the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a proceeding that promises to be more politicized and protracted than the country's first, successful prosecution of an al Qaeda functionary.
Abdelghani Mzoudi, a 30-year-old Moroccan student, is charged with 3,066 counts of accessory to murder and membership in a terrorist organization for allegedly providing critical logistical support to cell members who carried out the suicide hijackings.
Defense attorneys signaled today that they have planned an aggressive defense that will demand that the United States turn over key witnesses who are in secret custody, and will force prosecutors to prove through physical or other explicit evidence what the state calls basic accepted facts, such as the presence of cell member Mohamed Atta on the first plane that hit the World Trade Center.
The defense said further that it might attempt to explore theories that the hijackings served the foreign policy goals of U.S. conservatives by creating a pretext to transform the U.S. military posture in the world. "It appears the U.S.A. was aware of the political advantages of the attack on the World Trade Center, as an idea, in advance," defense attorney Michael Rosenthal said. READ

" The Clinton Wars" Excerpts: How the GOP Undercut Clinton's Efforts to Fight Terrorism
BUZZFLASH SPECIAL GUEST COMMENTARY by Sidney Blumenthal, author of "The Clinton Wars"

This week, BuzzFlash.com, is pleased to post two excerpts of Sidney Blumenthal's 822-page book on "The Clinton Wars."
With permission of the author and his publisher (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux), BuzzFlash is first offering a section (beginning on page 656 of the book) that details how the Republican Congress and former FBI Director Louis Freeh (who allied himself with the anti-Clinton forces) undercut Clinton's efforts to fight terrorism. The excerpt also touches upon how after the impeachment trial, pseudo-scandal mongering by the media -- including the New York Times -- helped deflect public attention from President Clinton's struggle with terrorism. READ

They Tried To Warn Us

The Congressional Joint Inquiry into 9-11 is now finished, but the findings that have been released fail to mention any warnings from foreign governments. The US mainstream media also has paid little attention to warnings from foreign governments.
Yet there were so many warnings - from both our friends and enemies alike - often specifically suggesting the targets or method of attack. In at least one case, the warnings actually mentioned hijackers by name. This type of communication between intelligence agencies normally occurs in secret, so one can only wonder what additional warnings or details were provided to us that have never been made public. READ

Bush's 9-11 Secrets
The Government Received Warnings of Bin Laden's Plans to Attack New York and D.C.

Even though Bush has refused to make parts of the 9-11 report public, one thing is startlingly clear: The U.S. government had received repeated warnings of impending attacks—and attacks using planes directed at New York and Washington—for several years. The government never told us about what it knew was coming.
 See for yourself. The report lists 36 different summaries of warnings dating back to 1997. Among them:
 "In September 1998, the [Intelligence Community] obtained information that Bin Laden's next operation might involve flying an explosive-laden aircraft into a U.S. airport and detonating it."
 "In the fall of 1998, the [Intelligence Community] obtained information concerning a Bin Laden plot involving aircraft in the New York and Washington, D.C. areas."
 "In March 2000, the [Intelligence Community] obtained information regarding the types of targets that operatives of Bin Laden's network might strike. The Statue of Liberty was specifically mentioned, as were skyscrapers, ports, airports, and nuclear power plans." READ

Deutsch, Wexler seek probe into Saudi flights

Two Democratic House members from South Florida, Peter Deutsch and Robert Wexler, are calling for an investigation into how Bush administration officials allowed about 140 Saudi nationals to leave the country in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
At a time when all private aviation was grounded, top officials allowed charter flights to pick up Saudis around the country and then leave for Saudi Arabia, according to reports in Vanity Fair and The Tampa Tribune.
The group included some members of the royal family and some relatives of Osama bin Laden. The departures occurred as investigators learned that 15 of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks were from Saudi Arabia, and some Saudi officials said they feared a backlash against their citizens. READ

White House Approved Departure of Saudis After Sept. 11, Ex-Aide Says

Top White House officials personally approved the evacuation of dozens of influential Saudis, including relatives of Osama bin Laden, from the United States in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks when most flights were still grounded, a former White House adviser said today.
The adviser, Richard Clarke, who ran the White House crisis team after the attacks but has since left the Bush administration, said he agreed to the extraordinary plan because the Federal Bureau of Investigation assured him that the departing Saudis were not linked to terrorism. The White House feared that the Saudis could face "retribution" for the hijackings if they remained in the United States, Mr. Clarke said.
The fact that relatives of Mr. bin Laden and other Saudis had been rushed out of the country became public soon after the Sept. 11 attacks. But questions have lingered about the circumstances of their departure, and Mr. Clarke's statements provided the first acknowledgment that the White House had any direct involvement in the plan and that senior administration officials personally signed off on it. READ

Bush made Osama deal with Musharraf

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has struck a deal with the US not to capture Osama Bin Laden, fearing this could lead to unrest in Pakistan, according to a special investigation by The Guardian.
...an agreement was reached between Musharraf and US authorities shortly after Bin Laden's flight from his stronghold Tora Bora in Afghanistan in December 2001.
The Pakistanis feared that to capture or kill Bin Laden so soon after a deeply unpopular war in Afghanistan would incite civil unrest in Pakistan and trigger a spate of revenge al-Qaida attacks on Western targets across the world. READ

Taliban Finds New Strength in Pakistan

A revitalized Taliban army is drawing recruits from militant groups in Pakistan, including Al Qaeda loyalists, as it fights an escalating guerrilla war against U.S. forces and their allies across the border in Afghanistan.
These fighters are answering the call from Muslim clerics to wage jihad, or holy war, against U.S.-led forces, according to Taliban members and supporters as well as Pakistani militants interviewed on both sides of the border. The Taliban is also exploiting the alienation felt by ethnic Pushtuns in Afghanistan because of continued insecurity, a scarcity of development projects and ongoing U.S. military operations.
But even as fighting increases, a relatively moderate element of the Taliban is said to be interested in participating in national elections next June, and discussing a replacement for Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Taliban's fugitive leader. He is believed to still be in Afghanistan despite a $10-million reward for his capture. READ

America's hidden battlefield toll
New figures reveal the true number of GIs wounded in Iraq

The true scale of American casualties in Iraq is revealed today by new figures obtained by The Observer, which show that more than 6,000 American servicemen have been evacuated for medical reasons since the beginning of the war, including more than 1,500 American soldiers who have been wounded, many seriously. READ

FBI bypasses First Amendment to nail a hacker

Citing a provision of the Patriot Act, the FBI is sending letters to journalists telling them to s