http://prisonplanet.com/articles/october2005/251005Karpinski.htm

--------

COL. JANIS KARPINSKI, THE FORMER HEAD OF ABU GHRAIB, ADMITS SHE BROKE THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS BUT SAYS THE BLAME "GOES ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP²

Democracy Now!
Wednesday, October 26, 2005

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/26/1423248


Informant: NHNE

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Head of Abu Ghraib: Blame "Goes All the Way to The Top”
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=94845;show_parent=1
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=94849;show_parent=1

The New York Times is reporting Vice President Dick Cheney and CIA Director Porter Goss met with Senator John McCain last week to urge him to back exempting CIA officers from a proposed Senate ban on torture. Three weeks ago the Senate voted 90 to 9 to ban the use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of any detainee held by the government. Cheney reportedly said the CIA needed to be exempt because the president needs maximum flexibility in fighting the so-called war on terrorism. Tom Malinowski, of Human Rights Watch, responded to the news by saying "They are explicitly saying, for the first time, that the intelligence community should have the ability to treat prisoners inhumanely." Meanwhile the American Civil Liberties Union announced Monday at least 21 detainees have died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan. The ACLU reached that number based on released Pentagon documents.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/25/1412234


Informant: John Calvert

by Mike Whitney

Can Bush survive in a post-Rove world? Not likely. The Bush persona is mainly the invention of its author, Karl Rove: a careful stitching together of religious and western imagery, of pious moralizing and cowboy “straight-talk”. Originally, Bush was nothing more than a formless glob of clay that ber-advisor Rove tenderly sculpted and brought to life. In many ways Bush is nothing more than the political vehicle for the aspirations, ambitions, and objectives of his constituents. He wasn’t chosen as a presidential nominee for his abilities, but for his for his willingness to follow orders and carry out the corporate agenda without question. His utter lack of curiosity about anything beyond the range of his immediate experience has proved to be a real godsend in his new assignment. In fact, Bush may be the perfect candidate: a self-absorbed malingerer who flawlessly reflects the identity of the person whispering through his hidden earpiece...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Whitney1025.htm

by Leilla Matsui and Stella La Chance

The catastrophic success of Hurricane Katrina in carrying out the Bush administration's second term agenda in only a few short days should have been cheering news for the beleaguered war prez. Even though he is being forced to lick his wounds publicly while the key players of “Operation Hurrah Katrina” celebrate “Mardi Graft” behind closed doors, the president should have had plenty of reason to rejoice along with them, if he hadn't already outlived his usefulness both publicly and within his own party. Having secured New Orleans as ground zero for a long awaited ethnic cleansing, while laying out the blueprint for a police state nationwide, Bush is now in the awkward position of having to appear penitent while signaling “Mission Accomplished” to his dwindling base. Already we can see the damage he's inflicted on his trademark smirk, as he snorts and wheezes through his openly scripted public appearances. Not even his renewed hard line stance against Syria can re-ignite his fizzling approval ratings. Funny how the plight of homeless Somalis swimming around in your own backyard tends to put a damper on even the heartiest appetites for destruction. Add a grieving Gold Star mother left to bake outside your Texas ranch and you've got yourself a public relations nightmare. And that's not even counting Tom Delay's recent arrest for money laundering, Bill Frist's SEC woes, and Karl Rove's impending indictment in the Valerie Plame affair. Clearly, Bush is living off the chump change left over from his much vaunted and mostly illusory “political capital.”...

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Oct05/Matsui-LaChance1025.htm

Europäisches Patentamt: Greenpeace warnt vor verfaulendem Saatgut (25.10.05)

Nach Darstellung der Umweltschutzorganisation Greenpeace hat das Europäische Patentamt in München hat einem Patentantrag zur Sterilisierung von Saatgut durch die so genannte "Terminator"-Technologie stattgegeben. Das Patent EP 775212 B vom 5. Oktober 2005 umfasse alle Pflanzen, die gentechnisch so manipuliert worden seien, dass ihre Samen nicht mehr keimen könnten. Offenbar wurde auch ein "Verfahren zur Herstellung eines nicht lebensfähigen Samens" angemeldet. Einmal geerntete und wieder ausgesäte Samen könnten nach diesem Verfahren keine neuen Pflanzen produzieren: "sie verfaulen in der Erde", so Greenpeace. "Wird mit der 'Terminator'-Technologie zum Beispiel Soja, Weizen, Raps oder Baumwolle sterilisiert, sind die Landwirte gezwungen, Saatgut jedes Jahr neu zu kaufen", kritisiert die Organisation. Die Landwirte sollten sich darüber im Klaren sein, dass "weltweit die Firmen in den Startlöchern stehen, um die Kontrolle über ihr Saatgut durch Genmanipulation zu erlangen."

Die ganze Nachricht im Internet:
http://www.ngo-online.de/ganze_nachricht.php?Nr=12127

As we mark the sad milestone of the 2000th service member killed in Iraq, t r u t h o u t would like to remind everyone that they are not just numbers. They are real people who leave behind families and loved ones. Over the next week, we will present to you interviews from both the families of the fallen and families of those still deployed in Iraq who live with the fear that their loved one will be next.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102505Y.shtml

Growing Trend
http://growingtrend.com/

URGE FITZGERALD TO EXPAND INVESTIGATION TO INCLUDE 9/11

New York Congressman Nadler has called on the CIA-leak prosecutor to expand his investigation to include deception regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Now is a great time to urge Nadler to also request an investigation into 9/11. Below is a suggested letter -- feel free to customize it to make it your own! We invite you to fax it to Congressman Nadler so that it gets his attention. Find additional Congressional fax numbers here: http://www.aspb.org/publicaffairs/state_fax_nmbrs.cfm

To reach a congress member by telephone, call the congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121. (Fitzgerald himself is hunkered down and may not be listening to input from anyone other than Congress, so we strongly recommend that you focus your efforts on Congress at this time. However, if you feel drawn to contact Fitzgerald himself, his fax number is (312) 353-2067.) Via Facsimile (212) 367-7356 Hon. Congressman Jerry Nadler 2334 Rayburn House Office Building Washington, DC 20515 Dear Representative Nadler: I am writing to support your call that Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald expand his investigation to include a criminal investigation.

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/ny08_nadler/FitzgeraldwarMemo102005.html

However, I URGE you to also call for an examination into the President and Vice President's role in allowing – actually, causing – the September 11th tragedy.

As a New York representative, you must take note that a poll by Zogby International, the well-known polling organization, found that HALF of New Yorkers believe that U.S. leaders "had foreknowledge of impending 9-11 attacks and 'Consciously Failed' to act" and that 66% called for a new probe of unanswered questions concerning 9/11. See http://www.zogby.com/search/ReadNews.dbm?ID=855

Indeed, the following high-ranking current and former U.S. Government officials have also called for the truth about 9/11 to be disclosed: A current U.S. congresswoman; Former chief economist for the Department of Labor under George W. Bush, who was also director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis; Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under President Reagan, listed by Who's Who in America as one of the 1,000 most influential political thinkers in the world; Former director of the U.S. "Star Wars" space defense program in both Republican and Democratic administrations, who was a senior air force colonel who flew 101 combat missions (who is also a Catholic Archbishop); Former senior CIA analyst, who prepared and presented Presidential Daily Briefs and served as a high-level analyst for several presidents; Former Deputy Secretary for Intelligence and Warning under Nixon, Ford, and Carter; Former US Ambassador and Chief of Mission to Iraq; Former Deputy Director to the White House Task Force on Terrorism; Former US Department of State Foreign Service Officer; and Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg (as well as a who's who of liberals and independents). See http://911proof.com/ And the following religious leaders have called for the truth regarding 9/11: Renowned theologian and professor emeritus, Dr. David Ray Griffin; Rev. George Pixley, retired Baptist minister and Professor of Biblical Studies (Ph.D. University of Chicago); Rev. David E. Roy, Ph.D.; Rosemary Radford Ruether, Carpenter Professor of Theology, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA; Kent Mayfield, Unitarian Minister; Amir Salih Erschen, Madison Muslim Dawa Circle; and Dr. James Goulding, Adjunct Member of Religious Studies Faculty at Edgewood College and Professor of Religion Emeritus at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois. See http://mujca.com/endorsers.htm .

Clearly, 9/11 is a story of national significance and importance, and of even greater interest and concern to your constituents in New York. And yet, it is now unambiguous that neither Congress nor the 9/11 Commission got to the bottom of what really happened. Thank you for your call for a greater investigation. We urge you to also call for an investigation into the most important event in modern American history: 9/11.

Thank You in Advance,
{Your name here}


"Growing Trend", "The Trend Behind the Headline", and "Positive Trends Behind the Headline" are Trademarks (TM) of GrowingTrend.com. All rights reserved.


Informant: Mofmars3

This only takes a few clicks -- the letter is already written for our local newspapers. Let's do it!! Nancy

Dear Operation Truth Supporter,

More than 2000 American Troops have now been killed in Iraq. As we pass this grim milestone, the media has briefly turned their attention away from celebrity gossip and fad diets, and on to the human cost of the war.

But for over two years, the media have failed to adequately honor the sacrifice of America’s Servicemembers. Putting the names of the fallen on Page A-10 is an insult to America’s Troops and to the families of the fallen, and is yet another example of poor media coverage of the war.

As Veterans of this war, we are asking you to please write to your local newspaper now , and urge them to honor the sacrifice of America’s Troops by publishing daily casualty reports on Page One. It takes only three clicks to send a letter with our easy-to-use tool. You can do it in less than a minute.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=47825693&url_num=1&url=http://operationtruth.com/honorthefallen

Your email will do more than just help sway newspaper editors. The “Letters to the Editor” are one of the most widely-read sections of the newspaper, and are often watched by elected officials. Politicians need to hear that you consider the war a priority issue.

Every email makes a difference. Once you send your letter, forward this email to your friends. It’s is an easy way to make a concrete change in war coverage in your community, and to honor the sacrifice of the American Troops that have died in Iraq.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=47825693&url_num=2&url=http://www.operationtruth.com/honorthefallen

Thank you for REALLY supporting the Troops,

Paul

Paul Rieckhoff, OIF Veteran Executive Director Operation Truth http://www.operationtruth.com


Informant: Andrea Ball

Stand by for 911 press release...Sending email addies for you to use...be sure to add your own comments

The people are moving and their voice is loud...Please join efforts and ready yourselves to join in all the activism

We each can help and live to see the needed change, our children so need for the future

Keep this site... Click here: All media, newspapers, television news networks, magazines and elected officials

http://websearch.cs.com/wm/boomframe.jsp?query=media+and+elected+officials&page=1&offset=0&result_url=redir%3Fsrc%3Dwebsearch%26requestId%3D8bfefceec8e33d5a%26clickedItemRank%3D2%26userQuery%3Dmedia%2Band%2Belected%2Bofficials%26clickedItemURN%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.congress.org%252Fcongressorg%252Fstate%252Fmain%252F%253Fstate%253DGA%26invocationType%3D-%26fromPage%3Dwmtsearchsearch%26amp%3BampTest%3D1&remove_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.congress.org%2Fcongressorg%2Fstate%2Fmain%2F%253Fstate%253DGA
http://tinyurl.com/9lbtg

Look around and get to know it...Shoot bullets of truth to all those who work for "US" in your own locality...Then if you will...get a zip code list>>> Click here: Results for "zip code"

http://websearch.cs.com/wm/search?fromPage=wmtsearchsearch&query=zip+code&x=9&y=10
http://tinyurl.com/bew35

...and cover as much of the USA as you can

We can make them all, finally, listen...They know we're watching and wide awake.

Tell them in your own words, concerning this urgent issue of 911, as well as all other important issues to our people, that we are coming for them and demanding truth and justice on all fronts

"We The People United Movement" We are many Political and Patriot Groups joining together, to help right the wrongs in America..."United We Will Stand"


Informant: Mofmars3

http://www.freemarketnews.com/WorldNews.asp?nid=1460


Informant: Neo Mulder

Erstmals verlangt die US-Regierung damit explizit eine Foltergenehmigung - Bis Morgen hat das Pentagon noch Zeit, einem Gerichtsurteil nach Freigabe weiterer Folterbilder von Abu Ghraib nachzukommen.

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21207/1.html

We're off to an amazing start, confronting the religious right on several fronts, from a courthouse in Dover, PA to the Supreme Court in Washington, DC.

Over 9,000 Americans have already joined the DefCon community. Thanks to your help, we have sent nearly 6,000 emails to governors and senators, urging them to uphold the First Amendment's guarantee of separation of church and state.

And we've seen a lively and varied discussion on the DefCon blog,

http://ga3.org/ct/J7_o9Yd1VRdf/

where many of you have posted your concerns and thoughts. In the upcoming weeks, look for more guest blog appearances from the author of The Republican War on Science, Chris Mooney, Chip Berlet and others.

With lots of issues brewing, we'll keep you posted with breaking news and ways that you can speak out for America's true traditional values: freedom, democracy and the rule of law. Feature of the Month: End Times Theology Every month, we'll take an in-depth look at some aspect of the threat to American democracy posed by the religious right. This month we're focused on Dispensationalism,

http://ga3.org/ct/-p_o9Yd1VRdX/

an ideology based on the belief that god's faithful will be raptured to heaven in a single instant, leaving the earth and non-believers behind to suffer death and destruction. While the theory sounds outlandish, 55% of Americans believe it will occur.

Do you know what the Rapture is?

Did you know that Tim LaHaye's series based off this ideology is the most popular adult fiction series in literary history?

Are you aware of the impact LaHaye and his followers have had on U.S. policy - from the environment, to the Middle East and beyond?

If not, check out this feature on our web site.

http://ga3.org/ct/-p_o9Yd1VRdX/

Intelligent Design
The nation's attention may have moved on from the intelligent design trial in Pennsylvania, but it is still taking place. Thousands of you took action already, telling your governors to make sure that science curricula in your states are based on scientific fact, not religious ideology (for those who missed it, you can still take action here!)

http://ga3.org/campaign/teachscience/ws867xx4z5tdwmn?

Stay tuned to our newsroom

http://ga3.org/ct/J1_o9Yd1VRd4/

and blog for updates regarding this landmark trial.

http://ga3.org/ct/J7_o9Yd1VRdf/

Judicial Nomination of Harriet Miers
Last Wednesday, President Bush came to his Supreme Court nominee's defense, saying: "People are interested to know why I picked Harriet Miers. ...They want to know as much as they possibly can before they form opinions. And part of Harriet Miers' life is her religion."

And, in recent days, reports have made it clear that Karl Rove gave special notice to James Dobson and possibly to other leaders of the religious right in advance of the Miers announcement.

Bush's words, presenting Miers' religion as a primary credential to serve on the bench, come dangerously close to violating a fundamental principle of our Constitution: "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." And, the Rove/Dobson closed-door meeting reminds us how insidious the religious right is and what incredible access to power they have.

If you haven't already, take 60 seconds to demand that President Bush talk about Harriet Miers' legal credentials, not her religious beliefs.

http://ga3.org/campaign/miers/ws867xx4z5tdwmn?

It's been a fantastic first two weeks. We are excited and encouraged by the success achieved in this short period. Keep the feedback and comments coming. This campaign is crucial to all of us.

More to come,

Your friends at DefCon

© 2005 DefCon: Campaign to Defend the Constitution. info@defconamerica.org


Informant: Anna Ball

My Way News
by Donna Cassata

10/22/05

"It's a nightmare prospect that Republicans have trouble fathoming: legal problems that could drive some of the president's most powerful aides from office. A special prosecutor and grand jury are closing in on a deadline to decide whether to lodge criminal complaints against presidential adviser Karl Rove and White House aide I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby in the outing of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, the wife of Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson. If it comes to pass, administration officials and GOP consultants expect President Bush to turn to a few individuals to fill any void in his inner circle. ... And what if the unthinkable happens and Cheney is indicted? Cheney has said he is not interested in pursuing the Republican nomination for president in 2008. So Bush's choice to replace his running mate would tip the president's hand on his preference for 2008. Florida governor and first brother, Jeb Bush?

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20051022/D8DD4I8G0.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire
by Taegan Goddard

10/24/05

As our insider source told us over the weekend, Republican senators on the Judiciary committee do not want to confirm Harriet Miers to the U.S. Supreme Court. Today, President Bush gave them their way out. The Los Angeles Times reports that Republican senators have joined Democrats in asking for the White House 'to release documents relating to' Miers' 'service as White House counsel, with some warning that she might not win confirmation otherwise.' One of them, Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) is a consistent Bush ally. This afternoon, CNN notes President Bush refused the Senate request, saying 'It's a red line I'm not willing to cross.' Bush insisted that complying with such requests 'would make it impossible for me and other presidents to be able to make sound decisions.' Now, our sources say, the White House can withdraw the nomination over principle and not out of political necessity. They may still wait to see if the circumstances change in the coming days, but they've given themselves a way to at least partially save face...

http://tinyurl.com/c8zut


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Washington Times
by Nat Hentoff

10/24/05

The rebellion by prominent conservatives against the president's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court has included charges of 'cronyism' and a now clearly mistaken desire to avoid a blistering confirmation fight in the Senate. Also at issue are not her qualifications as a lawyer but her track record, if any, of constitutional expertise. ... But syndicated columnist George Will, an independent conservative -- in his scathing column, 'Can This Nomination Be Justified?' -- cut to the core of the president's misjudgment: 'He has neither the inclination nor the ability to make sophisticated judgments about competing approaches to construing the Constitution. Few presidents acquire such abilities in the course of their pre-presidential careers, and this president particularly is not disposed to such reflections.' On the basis of the Bush administration's revisions of the Bill of Rights in the Patriot Act ... I think it is fair to say the president is not an engaged student of the Constitution...

http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20051023-103413-7733r.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

The American Prospect
by Michael Tomasky

10/24/05

Last Wednesday, October 19, was the day that Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, the former chief of staff to Colin Powell at the State Department, decided he couldn’t take it anymore. In a lunchtime talk to the New America Foundation moderated by Steve Clemons, Wilkerson ripped into the Bush administration 'cabal' that was guilty of 'aberrations, bastardizations, perturbations' in a decision-making process that shocked him. Then, a few days later, Jeffrey Goldberg's New Yorker profile of Brent Scowcroft hit the news cycle right between the eyes. Scowcroft, like Wilkerson, was known already to be an opponent of the neocon way of doing things. But neither had ever spoken for the record as they did last week, and the cumulative effect was nuclear. But it occurs to me that there are still others who need to speak out -- which takes us back to October 19...

http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=10493


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Washington Times
by Richard W. Rahn

10/24/05

The president's tax reform panel's report is due at the end of this month, but don't hold your breath if you were looking for the reform that is really needed. Preliminary signs are the panel will recommend relatively modest (but several desirable) changes to the federal tax system. For decades the present income tax system, with its tens of thousands of rules and regulations, has been widely recognized as so complex no one human, no matter how talented, can understand it. The present system puts even those who fully intend to comply with the code at risk of being convicted as tax felons because it is impossible to know with certainty when one is or is not in compliance (even federal tax courts rulings sometimes rule contradict other federal tax courts). The short, but correct, word for such a system is tyranny. It is also extraordinarily expensive to administer, both by the government and the private sector...

http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20051023-103416-6188r.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Boston Globe
by Hiawatha Bray

10/24/05

"You've got to love black-and-white laser printers. You can get a good one for $150 or so, and each toner cartridge cranks out thousands of pages before you need a refill. Best of all, they don't spy on you. You can't say the same about color laser printers, as we learned last week. Actually, we should have learned it nearly a year ago. That's when PC World magazine reported that makers of color laser printers, in cooperation with law enforcement agencies, have programmed their machines to print tiny yellow dots on every printed document. These dots are almost invisible under normal conditions, but can be spotted by anyone with a magnifier and the right sort of lighting. Most of us ignored the news, but not the civil libertarians at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco...

http://tinyurl.com/e3ywf


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

AlterNet
by Bill McKibben

10/25/05

It's about time for denial to come to an end. We're no longer talking about theory, about computer models of what might happen. We're talking about what is happening, all around the world, with almost unimaginable speed. Other countries have at least begun to try to deal with the problem, implementing small first steps like the Kyoto Protocol. But here in the United States, there's only a scattering of state and local measures. Washington is governed by a bipartisan consensus that somehow the laws of physics and chemistry don't apply to us. But they do...

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/27034/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

National Review
by Rich Lowry

10/25/05

When New York Times reporter Judith Miller went to jail in July in the CIA leak case, the Times editorialized about her brave sacrifice: 'She is surrendering her liberty in defense of a greater liberty, granted to a free press by the founding fathers so journalists can work on behalf of the public without fear of regulation or retaliation from any branch of government.' But a funny thing happened on the way to this stirring vindication of freedom -- Miller got tired of being in jail. The special-prosecutor investigation into the leak of the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame -- wife of President Bush critic Joe Wilson -- might yet be the undoing of high Bush officials. But it should already have been the undoing of the media's high self-regard. A cause that had been hyped relentlessly as synonymous with freedom and good journalism -- Miller and Time reporter Matt Cooper protecting their sources -- has collapsed into farce...

http://www.nationalreview.com/lowry/lowry200510250825.asp


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/10/25/hackett/


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Institute for Liberal Values
by Jim Peron

10/24/05

At the core of liberal principles is the idea that each individual has a right, the theologically minded call it a 'God-given' right, to make his own decisions. We may cajole and persuade and argue. But we can't force and take control of their life. We can't strip them of the dignity that they deserve as a fellow human being. And that means they will sometimes make mistakes. Perhaps they won't be nice to people when we think they should be. They may not help the sick, the lame and the halt. They may not say kind words to the widow or feed the hungry. They may even be unpleasant and cruel though I strongly suspect that means they are miserable and unhappy individuals. But none of us have a right to the gentle touch of a caring hand or the soothing words of friendship...

http://tinyurl.com/a9qpr


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Independent Institute
by Ivan Eland

10/24/05

With the continued quagmire in Iraq and the likely indictments of senior Bush administration officials for trying to shore up the shaky rationale for the invasion, one would think that things couldn't get much worse for the administration. But where success has a thousand architects, failure leads to much finger pointing. The administration's latest headache comes from Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, former Secretary of State Colin Powell's chief of staff. In a well-publicized recent speech before the New America Foundation, which I attended, Wilkerson lambasted the 'Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal' that got control of U.S. foreign policy from a president 'not versed in international relations and not too much interested either.' Wilkerson's scathing remarks were designed to deflect criticism from his former boss. As one anti-war Republican Senate staff member told me, Wilkerson 'summoned his courage about three years too late.' The typically politically correct, inside-the-beltway audience was too polite to ask why Powell and Wilkerson didn't resign over the invasion of a foreign nation that they privately opposed...

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1593


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Liberty For All
by George Phillies

10/25/05

I shall not go on at incredible length. On one hand, we have incredible opportunities. The Republicans have made themselves the party of huge bloated government, expanding the budget faster than any recent President including LBJ. The Republicans have used the Bill of Rights for scrap paper. The Republican War ON Iraq was based on lies about Iraq, made-up tales invented to justify a war already decided upon. The War ON Iraq has included a significant War Crimes Campaign, including torture, hostage taking by senior military officers, bombing of protected places, devastation of entire cities and other hideous acts...

http://www.libertyforall.net/2005/oct30/forward.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Independent [UK]

10/25/05

Scotland Yard's 'shoot to kill' strategy has been widened to include other offences such as kidnapping, stalking and domestic violence, The Independent has learned. However, the decision to shoot a suspect in the head without the marksman giving a warning would only be used under exceptional circumstances, one of the country's most senior police chiefs said yesterday. The Operation Kratos shoot-to-kill policy was adopted to deal with suicide bombers but a review has identified other types of crimes in which a firearms officer could shoot to kill without issuing any challenge...

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article322021.ece


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

CNN

10/24/05

A Senate report presented evidence Monday that it says links illegal oil money from deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime to the political campaign of a British lawmaker and to the accounts of his Jordanian wife. The report accused British Member of Parliament George Galloway of lying under oath about the payments. The 65-page report by the U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations accuses Galloway of perjury and obstruction of congressional proceedings... [editor's note: In English, this story translates to "Galloway made the Senators look like idiots on the war, so they're going to smear him some more" - TLK]

http://tinyurl.com/b75gq


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Houston Chronicle

10/24/05

With a decision expected this week on possible indictments in the CIA leak case, allies of the White House suggested Sunday that they intended to pursue a strategy of attacking any criminal charges as a disagreement about legal technicalities or the product of an overzealous prosecutor. Patrick Fitzgerald, the special counsel in the case, is expected to announce no later than the end of the week whether he will seek indictments against White House officials in a decision that is likely to be a defining moment of President Bush's second term...

http://tinyurl.com/8pejv


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Fox News

10/24/05

Previously classified documents being released Monday show numerous misuses of FBI surveillance, including improper searches and seizures of e-mails and bank records, The Washington Post reported in Monday's editions. The documents, which were turned over under a Freedom of Information Act (search) lawsuit filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, show that FBI auditors have investigated hundreds of potential violations related to the agency's domestic surveillance since Sept. 11, 2001, the Post said...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,173172,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

As soon as Fitzgerald announces his decision in a press conference, a walk from the grand jury room to the magistrate's office in US District Court, or a posting on his web site, the political détente will end. The knives will come out. It will be an all-out rhetorical war.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102505O.shtml

The analysis, released Monday, looked at 44 deaths described in records obtained by the ACLU. Of those, the group characterized 21 as homicides, and said at least eight resulted from abusive techniques by military or intelligence officers, such as strangulation or "blunt force injuries," as noted in the autopsy reports.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102505N.shtml

Fitzgerald is probing allegations that senior Bush administration officials committed a crime by blowing the cover of CIA operative Valerie Plame.... The affair cuts to the heart of the allegedly dubious intelligence used to drive the United States into a conflict which has now cost nearly 2,000 US lives.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102505M.shtml

Lawrence B. Wilkerson writes that in President Bush's first term, some of the most important decisions about US national security - including vital decisions about postwar Iraq - were made by a secretive, little-known cabal. It was made up of a very small group of people led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102505L.shtml

Plucked from New York in 2001 to run the Chicago office of the Justice Department, Patrick Fitzgerald, the Brooklyn-born son of Irish immigrants, has a reputation as an incorruptible prosecutor in the mold of Chicago crime-fighter Eliot Ness, who took on Al Capone's criminal empire.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102505K.shtml

The Bush administration has proposed exempting employees of the Central Intelligence Agency from a legislative measure endorsed earlier this month by 90 members of the Senate that would bar cruel and degrading treatment of any prisoners in US custody.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102505J.shtml

Ban Terminator Campaign – Breaking News October 25, 2005

New Patents on Terminator Granted in Europe and Canada!

Corporations move closer to bringing Terminator to market. The need for a successful Ban Terminator Campaign is clearer than ever.

Delta & Pine Land and the United States Department of Agriculture have been granted new patents on the Terminator technology that they jointly own. On October 11 the Canadian Patent Office granted patent CA 2196410 and on October 5 the European Patent Office granted patent EP 775212B. Applications for similar patents have been filed in Australia, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Turkey and South Africa.

Take Action: A sample letter to write to your government is posted under Take Action at www.banterminator.org – More specific actions and contacts are coming soon. Please stay tuned.

Please see below two press releases with the details:

1. International Press Release: Corporates gain control over nature's seeds as the Terminator patent is granted, October 25, 2005

2. Canadian Press Release: Canada Grants New Controversial Terminator Patent To US Company: Patent on “Suicide seeds” allowed, October 25, 2005

1. Corporates gain control over nature's seeds as the Terminator patent is granted

Amsterdam, 25 October 2005 - Greenpeace today exposed details that the patent for the controversial "Terminator technology" was granted in Europe on 5 October 2005. The Terminator patent (1) has been approved for all plants that are genetically engineered so that their seeds will not germinate. Further research by the "Ban Terminator Campaign", a network of farmers' unions and environmental organisations revealed that a patent was also granted in Canada on 11 October 2005.

Plants created using Terminator technology will produce sterile seeds, creating a monopoly and unnatural control of the seeds. Farmers will not be able to use seeds from such plants for the following season's cultivation. The seeds will rot \in the soil without producing new plants. If this technology is introduced in crops such as soya, wheat, canola and cotton it will force farmers to buy new seeds every year from the same company.

"Farmers should be aware that corporations all over the world are ready to take control of their seeds with genetic engineering (GE). These corporations will control the entire food chain with the help of monopoly patents and Terminator technology," said Christoph Then, Greenpeace International GE campaigner. "We need a global ban on this technology and on any patents on seeds. These corporate instruments will disrupt the backbone of global food supply, making it impossible for the farmers to reuse their own harvest for planting."

So far, the market introduction of the Terminator technology-which was already developed about ten years ago-was successfully prevented through worldwide protest of several groups and stakeholders. But many observers believe that the GE industry will drive towards the legalisation of this technology at the meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in March next year. The grant of the patent could push even harder for market introduction.

"These new patents confirm that corporations are once again actively pursuing Terminator technology and an international ban on the technology is urgently needed," said Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator of the new global Ban Terminator Campaign, which involves farmers unions, environmental and Indigenous peoples organisations (2).

Although the GE industry claims that Terminator technology will help contain the spread of GE contamination, Greenpeace believes otherwise. "GE technology can not be controlled by Terminator seeds. On the contrary, it is likely that farmers will find their harvest being contaminated with this Terminator technology, if introduced. This is a real threat for estimated 80% of the farmers all over the world who save their seeds for cultivation."

Greenpeace is an independent campaigning organisation that uses non-violent creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems to force solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.

For further information, contact:

Christoph Then, Greenpeace International GE Campaign, +49 171 8780832

Judit Kalovits, Greenpeace International Communications, +31 621 296914

Lucy Sharratt, Ban Terminator Campaign, +1 613 2412267

Notes to Editors:

(1) The Terminator patent, EP 775212B, was granted to US-based Delta &Pine and the United States of America, represented by the Secretary of Agriculture. According to further data bank research the patent was already granted in similar versions in USA, further applications were filed in Australia, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Turkey and South Africa.

(2) http://www.banterminator.org


2. Canada Grants New Controversial Terminator Patent To US Company

Patent on “Suicide seeds” allowed

Ottawa, October 25, 2005 – Today Greenpeace and the Ban Terminator Campaign revealed that new patents have been granted in both Canada and Europe for a Terminator technology owned jointly by US seed corporation Delta & Pine Land and the United States Department of Agriculture. The patents were granted on October 11 and 5 respectively. The move confirms the greatest fears of farmers’, Indigenous peoples groups and social movements across the world that Terminator technology is once again being pushed towards commercialization.

Terminator seeds are genetically engineered to be sterile after first harvest so farmers cannot use the seed in the next season. It would force farmers to buy seed every year and concentrate even more power in the hands of major biotechnology and seed corporations. Intensive global uproar has kept the technology from being field-tested or commercialized but companies are now pushing for acceptance.

“These new patents confirm that corporations are once again actively pursuing Terminator seeds and an international ban on Terminator is urgently needed,” said Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator of the new global Ban Terminator Campaign.

New fears that governments and corporations are working together to push Terminator were first confirmed in February 2005 when the Canadian government shocked the world by trying to overturn the international de facto moratorium on Terminator that exists at the United Nations under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Uproar from Canadian and international groups kept the moratorium alive. To address this crisis, the National Farmers Union and other Canadian-based groups including ETC Group, Inter Pares and USC Canada initiated a global Ban Terminator Campaign
http://www.banterminator.org .

“The Canadian government must immediately stop promoting corporate Terminator seeds and protect the rights of farmers by banning the technology,” said Terry Boehm, Vice President of the National Farmers Union, “Terminator is a great threat to farmers in developed and developing countries. The Canadian government should be ashamed to be associated with this technology. Terminator is an attempt to achieve biologically what the government has been unable to do legislatively.”

“Corporate control of seeds is the only goal of Terminator. The corporate attempt to greenwash Terminator by saying it can help prevent genetic contamination is false as the technology itself is not 100% reliable and it can nevertheless contaminate the environment and threaten biodiversity’. This is an outrageous strategy to commercialize a dangerous, anti-farmer and non-ecological technology, ” said Eric Darier, Greenpeace Canada campaigner, “Patents on Terminator can and must be denied for the public good.”

The Ban Terminator Campaign is urging governments around the world to establish national bans on Terminator and to ban Terminator at the major meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity March 20-31 2006 in Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil.

For more information: Terry Boehm, Vice President, National Farmers Union, Saskatchewan 306 255 2880; Eric Darier, Greenpeace Canada Campaigner, Montreal 514 933 0021 x15 Cell: 514 605 6497; Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator, Ban Terminator Campaign, Ottawa 613 241 2267 Cell: 613 222 6214

If Americans knew how Republicans are trying to starve popular programs of funding this week, they would protest. At least you can.

http://tompaine.com/uncommonsense/index.php#6535

by Jonathan Tasini, TomPaine.com

The Delphi bankruptcy and GM deal are symptoms of a national malaise that only universal health care can cure.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051025/diagnosis_for_america.php

by Bill Moyers, TomPaine.com

The challenge of philanthropy today is to place resources in the hands of those 'on the growing edge' of social justice.

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20051025/finding_justice_in_charity.php

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051025/ts_afp/iraq_051025110145


Informant: John Johnson

Doug Haddix wrote:

A recent GAO report found the White House used taxpayer funds to create “covert propaganda.” This administration has set aside a quarter billion in taxpayer dollars to push its political agenda.

Join me in urging Congress and the Justice Department to find out what’s being done in our name and with our money. Demand full prosecution of all White House propaganda crimes at:

http://www.freepress.net/action/stopprop

For more information visit the Free Press propaganda campaign at:

http://www.freepress.net/propaganda

I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, first learned about the CIA officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102505Z.shtml

Oct 25 2005

By Nick Capehorn

SIX months after successfully fighting plans for an 11.7m phone mast near their Forest Park homes, two mothers have once again helped keep the unwanted aerial at bay.

Jo Gosling, 29, and Claire Bradbury, 33, fought off the last T-Mobile application for a mast on the Savernake roundabout by organising a 241-signature petition to be handed to Bracknell Forest Borough Council.

And they once again joined forces to alert neighbours to the plans and managed to get 201 objectors to sign up which, along with opposition through on the borough council's website, was enough to see the plans thrown out.

Mrs Gosling, of Upavon Gardens, said: "We are absolutely thrilled to see this rejected. The mast is huge and until we know the health and safety risks we can't believe they put the plans in again.

"When we found out the plans had been resubmitted both mine and Claire's phones were engaged - we were ringing each other!"

Mrs Bradbury added: "I think it is ridiculous that they are allowed to apply again but it is fantastic news for everyone who campaigned to see it rejected.

"It was hard work but all worthwhile. We have just got to keep an eye out."

Despite the victory, both campaigners found the second time round had new challenges - thanks to the fact their children are now much older and Mrs Gosling is back at Cable and Wireless part-time.

She said: "The main problems were that I am back to work part-time after maternity leave and both our children are 10-months. They didn't take too kindly to being wheeled round the streets, but they were well behaved."

T-Mobile spokeswoman Sophia Parviez said on Monday that the company was reviewing its position and considering what options are available. She would not say whether that meant it would make another application.

http://icberkshire.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0400bracknell/tm_objectid=16290919&method=full&siteid=50102&headline=joy-as-battling-mums-see-off-new-mast-plan-name_page.html

Eager to demonstrate success in Iraq, the US military has abandoned its previous refusal to publicize enemy body counts and now cites such numbers periodically to show the impact of some counterinsurgency operations. The revival of body counts, a practice discredited during the Vietnam War, has apparently come without formal guidance from the Pentagon's leadership.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102405C.shtml

Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH) has introduced a Resolution of Inquiry to demand the White House turn over all white papers, minutes, notes, emails or other communications kept by the White House Iraq Group (WHIG).

"This group, comprised of the President and Vice President's top aides, was critical in selling the Administration's case for war," Kucinich said. "We now know that the Administration hyped intelligence and misled the American public and Congress in their effort to 'sell' the war."

This Resolution must be voted on in the House International Relations Committee by November 9th, 2005. The same committee, on September 14, came within one vote of passing a Resolution of Inquiry into the Downing Street Memo (H. Res. 375).

That near victory came after a great deal of citizen activism. This time we need to persuade all of the Democrats on the Committee to push a little bit harder and a few more Republicans to do the right thing. Co-Sponsorship of the Resolution by members not on the committee helps this effort.

Email Your Congress Member:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/72

More Information and How to Get Involved:
http://www.AfterDowningStreet.org/whig



MARK THE DEATH OF THE 2,000TH U.S. SOLDIER IN IRAQ

The day is coming very soon when the 2,000th U.S. soldier will have died in Iraq. (As of Monday night, the total was 1,997.) After Downing Street supports United for Peace and Justice, American Friends Service Committee, Gold Star Families for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, CODEPINK, and Global Exchange in calling for actions on that day.

These events will be at 7 p.m. local time the day after the 2,000th death is announced:

http://www.afsc.org/2000/all_locations.php

These events will be at 6:30 p.m. local time the day after the 2,000th death is announced, unless the announcement is after 3 p.m. ET, in which case it will be two days after:
http://political.moveon.org/event/events/index.html?action_id=29

If there's no event near you, we encourage you to organize one.

Not one more US service member or Iraqi should have to give their lives before our government finally admits that the war against Iraq was wrong and it's time to bring our troops home now.


CINDY LEADS WHITE HOUSE VIGILS TO MARK 2,000th DEATH

Cindy Sheehan is in Washington, DC, and along with a coalition of peace groups and local activists, will be holding vigils at the White House for the rest of the week from 12 noon to 8 PM. For more information, see this statement from Cindy:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3990


ON THE DEMOCRATS.COM BLOG

First Shoe Drops: Cheney Outed Plame http://www.democrats.com/node/6586

US History Quiz http://www.democrats.com/node/6584

In Praise of Senator Frank Lautenberg http://www.democrats.com/node/6582

Pardon Me http://www.democrats.com/node/6578

Corrupt, Incompetent and 'Off Center' http://www.democrats.com/node/6570

Pre-Emptive Pardons? http://www.democrats.com/node/6561

Republicans Screw Elderly, Poor Again on LIHEAP
http://www.democrats.com/node/6559

The Blue and Red State Minimum Wage Divide
http://www.democrats.com/node/6552

See a pattern here? http://www.democrats.com/node/6550

"Analysts Were Wrong"...No, Judith Miller IS Wrong...
http://www.democrats.com/node/6544

Özgür Politika: Schily verbietet Zeitung

Bundesverwaltungsgericht hebt Verbot der PKK-Zeitung »Özgür Politika« auf BVerwG: Kein öffentliches Interesse daran, Erscheinen der Zeitung zu untersagen

„Das Bundesverwaltungsgericht hat das von Bundesinnenminister Otto Schily am 30.8.2005 erlassene Vebot der türkisch-sprachigen PKK-Zeitung »Özgür Politika« mit Beschluss vom 18.10.2005 (Az.: 6 A 4.05) aufgehoben. Einer Pressemitteilung der dpa vom 21.10.2005 zufolge besteht nach Ansicht des sechsten Senats kein öffentliches Interesse daran, das Erscheinen der Zeitung weiter zu untersagen…“ Meldung vom 24.10.2005 beim Institut für Urheber- und Medienrecht

http://www.urheberrecht.org/news/2416/


Aus: LabourNet, 25. Oktober 2005

Democracy Now! 10/24/05
http://www.democracynow.org

Headlines for October 24, 2005

White House Prepares for Possible Indictments

Reuters is reporting White House officials will learn today whether special prosecutor Patrick FItzgerald will seek indictments over the Bush administration's outing of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame. Reports indicate that the grand jury could indict both President Bush's chief advisor Karl Rove and VIce President Dick Cheney's chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby for perjury or conspiracy. Both Rove and Libby failed to disclose key information about their role in the leak to the grand jury. Late last week Fitzgerald launched a website prompting speculation that he set it up to post the indictments. Fitzgerald has already posted documents that reveal the Justice Department gave him authority two years ago to expand his inquiry to include any criminal attempts to interfere with the investigation.



White House Faces Criticism Over CIA Leak, Miers & Iraq

The possible indictments over the CIA leak come at a time that the White House is facing intense pressure on a number of fronts. In Iraq, the U.S. death toll will soon pass 2,000. In Washington, calls are increasing for Bush to withdraw his nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. And a series of high profile Republicans have publicly criticized Bush's handling of the country.



Brent Scowcroft Slams Bush Administration

Last week, Colin Powell's former chief of staff Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson accused Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld of running a cabal that is undermining the country's democracy. And now former national security advisor Brent Scowcroft has slammed the Bush administration in an interview with the New Yorker magazine. He directed much of his criticism to the neoconservatives and their handling of Iraq. He said, "This was said to be part of the war on terror, but Iraq feeds terrorism." Scowcroft, who is close friends with George H.W. Bush, admitted it was difficult to criticize the sitting president. When New Yorker reporter Jeffrey Goldberg asked Scowcroft if the son was different from the father, he said, "I don't want to go there." When Goldberg asked him to name issues on which he agrees with the younger Bush, Scowcroft said, "Afghanistan." He then paused for twelve seconds. Finally, he said, "I think we're doing well on Europe." Scowcroft went on to say "The real anomaly in the Administration is Cheney. I consider Cheney a good friend - I've known him for thirty years. But Dick Cheney I don't know anymore."



U.S. Death Toll In Iraq Nears 2,000

In Iraq, the U.S. death toll has reached 1,996. Anti-war groups, including the American Friends Service Committee and Peace Action, have called for demonstrations to be held across the country to mark the 2000th American killed in Iraq. The number of Iraqis killed since the invasion is unknown but estimates put the total over 100,000.



82% Of Iraqis Oppose Foreign Troops

Meanwhile a new poll commissioned by the British military has found that 82 percent of Iraqis strongly oppose the continued presence of foreign troops. Less than 1 percent of the population feels foreign troops have helped improve security in Iraq. The poll also found 45 percent of Iraqis feel attacks against US troops are justified.


Informant: John Calvert

http://www.organicconsumers.org/Politics/ecolabels102405.cfm


Informant: binstock

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7564.shtml


Informant: Sasha Karlik

--------

(If you doubt the below story check out a similar one at the Washington Post)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html


BUSH UNRAVELING AS SCANDALS MOUNT (25 paragraphs)

http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_7564.shtml

A White House 'Hip-Deep' in Plame Scandal and Cover Up
By DOUG THOMPSON
Capitol Hill Blue Oct 24, 2005, 04:20

Senior White House officials over the weekend warned President George W. Bush to "prepare for the worst" in the ever-deepening Valerie Plame scandal, laying out a scenario that includes indictments of top officials and detailing a direct involvement by the Administration in a concentrated effort to destroy the credibility of Ambassador Joseph Wilson and then conceal the actions from investigators.

Chief of Staff Andrew Card cancelled a weekend schedule of appearances and events to spend the weekend with Bush at Camp David and deliver the bad news personally, White House insiders tell Capitol Hill Blue.

With indictments expected against Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Richard Cheney's chief of staff, and possibly White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, Card told Bush that both will have to resign if the administration is to salvage any chance of recovering from the scandal.

"We're hip deep in this and the sharks are circling," Card told the President.

According to multiple White House sources, Card laid out a detailed scenario of White House involvement in a staff-directed campaign to destroy administration critic Wilson. That scenario includes:
* A concentrated effort directed by Libby to monitor Wilson's travel, speeches and activities and develop talking points to attack his credibility and plant false stories about the Ambassador's activities, statements and motives. Libby's plan included "outing" Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, a covert CIA operative. Card told Bush he believes Vice President Cheney was aware of Libby's activities.
* Approval of the program by Rove who helped spread the information to "administration-friendly" reporters, including conservative columnist Robert Novak and New York Times reporter Judith Miller who has since publicly admitted helping spread false administration-based information claiming the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a claim now discredited.
* Attempts by White House personnel to cover up administration involvement in the Plame affair, including Rove-directed public statements by press spokesman Scott McClellan claiming "no White House official is involved" in the leaking of Plame's name.

"As usual, it's not the act itself but the cover up that brings someone down," says retired political science professor George Harleigh, who worked in the Nixon administration. "It's a sad lesson that those in power never learn."

Indeed, indictments the grand jury convened by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald are expected to hand down focus more on the cover-up than the actual leaking of Plame's name to the press, sources close to the investigation say.

With pressure mounting against the White House, even Republicans are looking for ways to distance themselves from the growing scandals surrounding the Bush administration. GOP campaign consultants are advising elected officials and candidates for public office to call for resignation of anyone indicted in the scandal.

Virginia GOP Sen. George Allen, a Bush loyalist, told NBC's Meet the Press Sunday that any administration official indicted in the scandal should resign.

"I think they will step down if they're indicted," Allen said.

In another development, New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller admits his newspaper aided and abetted the Bush administration's false claims of existence of weapons of mass destructions in Iraq.

"I wish we had dealt with the controversy over our coverage of WMD as soon as I became executive editor," Keller said in a memo to Times reporters and editors. "By waiting a year to own up to our mistakes, we allowed the anger inside and outside the paper to festerŠ If we had lanced the WMD boil earlier, we might have damped any suspicion that THIS time, the paper was putting the defense of a reporter above the duty to its readers."

Keller admitted reporter Judith Miller has been an administration pawn in the Plame affair.

"Until Fitzgerald came after her, I didn't know that Judy had been one of the reporters on the receiving end of the anti-Wilson whisper campaign," he said. "But in this case I missed what should have been significant alarm bells."

Criag Pyes, a reporter who worked with Miller on other stories, told Times editors in an internal memo that she should not be trusted.

"I do not trust her work, her judgment, or her conduct," Pyes wrote. "She is an advocate, and her actions threaten the integrity of the enterprise, and of everyone who works with her." In the memo, Pyes said Miller took "dictation from government sources" and tried to "stampede it into the paper."

"That charge resonates today, of course, because that's exactly what people suspect Miller did with her inaccurate WMD reporting in the run up to the Iraq war," says Douglas McCollam, a lawyer, former Washington correspondent for American Lawyer, and contributing editor to Columbia Journalism Review. "Miller's sources weren't just wrong, they spun her dizzy and in the process badly damaged the credibility of America's best and most important newspaper."

Times columnist Maureen Dowd says Miller was a stooge for those who wanted to sell the Iraq war to a gullible public.

"Judy's stories about WMD fit too perfectly with the White House's case for war," Dowd wrote in her Times column Saturday. "She was close to Ahmad Chalabi, the con man who was conning the neocons to knock out Saddam so he could get his hands on Iraq, and I worried that she was playing a leading role in the dangerous echo chamber that former Senator Bob Graham dubbed 'incestuous amplification.' Using Iraqi defectors and exiles, Mr. Chalabi planted bogus stories with Judy and other credulous journalists."

Concludes Dowd on Miller: "She never knew when to quit. That was her talent and her flaw. Sorely in need of a tight editorial leash, she was kept on no leash at all, and that has hurt this paper and its trust with readers. She more than earned her sobriquet 'Miss Run Amok.'"

In another ominous sign, special prosecutor Fitzgerald set up a web site for the investigation just a week before his investigation is slated to end.

"You don't open up a Web site if you're ready to shut down an investigation," former attorney general Richard Thornburgh said on CNN's Late Edition.

Thornburgh also said indictments that deal with a cover up are "serious business."

"If there is false testimony given or there's an attempt to corrupt any of the witnesses or evidence that is presented to the grand jury, that's a very serious offense because it undermines the integrity of the whole rule of law and investigatory process," he said.


UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545


Informant: Bob Reuschlein

From ufpj-news

"The worlds richest economy is also its biggest carbon dioxide emitter, pushing out 5.8 billion metric tons in 2003...China, in second place, emitted 3.5 billion, with all of Western Europe at 3.9 billion...US emissions are projected to keep rising, despite plans to lower carbon intensity, or use per unit of economic growth...The White House wants cuts to be voluntary and resists measures that would impose restrictions on output of such gases as carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, seen as culprits behind global warming, saying this would hurt economic growth...

* Anti-Science George Bush Opposed to Kyoto

"With the aid of a new supercomputer model, Inez Fung says she can see the future, and according to her study released last week, it isnt pretty...After decades of collaboration with researchers throughout the country, the director of the Berkeley Atmospheric Sciences Center finally saw the fruits of her labor: a glimpse of what the Earth might be like in the 21st century if current levels of fossil fuel production continue unabatedhotter, drier and teeming with carbon."

* Consequences of Ignoring Global Warming

Global Warming

A Secret Pentagon report on global warming said it was worst than we thought. And Bush lied. He opposed Kyoto and he has been a pro-energy company, anti-global warming president and lied about doing anything positive about global warming because he never believed in it.

continued:
http://www.g0lem.net/PhpWiki/index.php/AbruptClimateChange


Informant: Hank Roth

FYI - This article appeared in the Andover Advertiser on 21 October. Local campaigners might like to quote this to their councils and get them to do the same!

Jenny

PLEA OVER MOBILE PHONE MAST SITES

Two long serving members of Kennet District Council are calling on the Government to take more note of community health concerns over mobile telephone masts.

Council leader Chris Humphries and Ludgershall councillor Ken Beard have submitted a notice of motion to the council calling on the Government to end the 'apparent presumption in favour of the erection of masts and base stations in areas of high population density.'

The motion adds that concerns are particularlarly acute when the masts are erected near to schools, homes and health care facilities.
The erection of a mobile mast for the police has been a particular matter of concern to some on the southern side of Ludgershall and a group of people got together to fight the erection of a mast for the 'airwave' system.

Councillors Beard and Humphries want district council officers to prepare a policy in local development documents to resist the erection of masts and base operations near homes, hospital and schools.

Ends

Vera Stein's recent victory at the European Court of Human Rights is a cause of jubilation for many with EHS who have suffered similar fates at the hands of psychiatrists and their ilk. Please note below relevant postings on EHS being misdiagnosed as mental illness and the ensuing abuses of Human Rights that such misdiagnosis brings in its trail.

15/9/02 (Citizens' Initiative Omega -- via Google) "Another tragic misdiagnosis of an EHS sufferer who have been locked up and forcibly medicated"
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/grn/omega20.htm

19/09/02 (Citizens' Initiative Omega--via Google) "EMF & Schizophrenia"
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/grn/omega25.htm

5/7/03 (Citizens' Initiative Omega--via Google) "Human Rights violations applicable to EHS misdiagnosis"
http://www.grn.es/electropolucio/00omega5_12_03.htm
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/grn/omega234.htm

13/12/03 (Citizens' Initiative Omega--via Google) "Open letter to Amnesty on EHS Human Rights abuses"
http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/grn/omega131203.htm

21/05/2005 "Everyone of us is part of a vast radiation experiment - result unknown"
(The author suggests in # 5 that "many EHS sufferers
(possibly as high as 50%) are believed to have been misdiagnosed as suffering from schizophrenia.")
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/697613/

21/05/2005 John Manweiler: Vindication for Human Rights Abuses in Mental Health (John was misdiagnosed, sectioned and involuntarily medicated)
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/668071/


Best, Imelda, Cork, Ireland


Critical Psychiatry Critical comment and debate about psychiatry
[ Critical Psychiatry Website's Message Board ]

Sensational verdict of the European Court of Human Rights IP: 84.59.40.59 Posted on June 19, 2005 at 08:03:36 AM by rene

http://www.boards2go.com/boards/board.cgi?action=read&id=1119186216&user=DBDouble


Dear Friends,

We are happy to announce that on thursday, June 16, the European Court of Human Rights arrived at the sensational verdict that Vera Stein, who in her youth was psychiatrically imprisoned and slandered as being "hebephrenic" [see note at end. I O'Connor], finally after more than 20 years of legal battle, was a victim of the crime of an illegal deprivation of her liberty in the psychiatric prison in Bremen!

This is an historic event because it is a victory on a European level at the highest court in Europe and therefore being influential for the judicial system in the whole of Europe.

For all German speaking readers, there is a livestream report here:
http://demand.radiobremen.de/bb/redirect.lsc?stream=radiobremen/tv/bubi/video/donnerstag.wmv&content=content&media=ms

The part about the verdict beginns 3:30 minutes after the start of the video. In January 2000 our group helped to promote Vera Stein's case by leading the producers of a legal advice program in the First German TV channel, "ARD Ratgeber Recht" to her, which gave her case a lot of publicity in TV for the first time. You can see the report, which is still published by the channel as a live-stream:
http://www.ratgeberrecht.de/sendung/beitrag/rs2000013005.html

(Please click on "Video zum Beitrag". After the film begins, it takes 1 minute until you can see Vera Stein speaking and her drawings, showing how she was tortured in psychiatry.)

Please snowball this important message on your privat e-mail lists and newsgroups!

The verdict is published by the International Association Against Psychiatric Assault ( http://www.iaapa.ch ) in English here:
http://www.iaapa.de/CASE_OF_ST_|0v_GERMANY.pdf

Rene Talbot Irren-Offensive (lunatic offensive) Berlin, Germany

[note: hebephrenia is defined as "A type of schizophrenia characterized by foolish mannerisms, senseless laughter, delusions, hallucinations, and regressive behavior." Also note that the writer, Rene Talbot, considers Vera Stein to have been "slandered" by being erronously defined/misdiagnosed as a hebephrenic. I also insisted in my written submissions that it was a most severe form of slander to wrongly diagnose a patient to be a person of unsound mind]


And below is a BBC news online report:

26 September 2005: 'Years locked in mental institution' Vera Stein, a German woman, describes a harrowing ordeal of being falsely imprisoned in a mental institution, tied to beds and given injections. She emerged from hospital a physical wreck, and will never recover fully from the effects of the drugs she was forced to take.

Forty-seven-year-old Vera Stein clambers into her electric wheelchair and drives into her spartanly decorated lounge.

Her disability is just one of the effects of mental health drugs that were pumped into her against her will.

This year Vera won compensation from the European Court of Human Rights, after it ruled that she had been illegally detained for years in clinics, despite being mentally healthy.

"I was nearly 19 years old, so I was an adult, when my father had me committed to a clinic in Bremen," she told me.

"I was put straight in a locked ward. The necessary court order was not obtained for this. I was given double measures of drugs to pacify me. They used physical force to inject me with 17 different types of drugs."

Under German law, to commit someone to a clinic they must either sign their consent, or a court order must be obtained. But in this case her father simply won the agreement of the health authorities to lock up his daughter.

In total, she spent nearly 20 years in institutions as a result of this. Worse still, her case is not unique.

"The mere possibility of withdrawing a person from legal life in co-operation with a psycho-medical system will always lead to abuse - and there we do have some problems," says psychiatrist Helmut Pollaehne.

He says the control mechanisms to prevent cases like Vera Stein's are not sufficient.

For example, he argues that so-called "visiting commissions" always announce their visits beforehand, weakening their control function - and warns that privatisation in the health sector makes it all the more important for the state to defend the rights of people who are in mental health institutions.

"Within the German legal system, this is a rare case because the victims of psychiatric power are not very successful in taking their case to the court," Dr Pollaehne said.

"But in terms of being a victim - I mean being a victim of the abuse of psychiatry - it was not a rare case in the 1970s and it's not a rare case nowadays."

Ms Stein is now a crusader against the use of psychiatry to lock people up.

"The association of German judges has also complained that forced incarceration, forced treatments, and violations of personal freedoms take place in a legal grey zone," she says.

She adds that a recent study at Goettingen University showed the number of people held in psychiatric clinics against their will has trebled in the last decade.

Country: Germany Organisation:
Source: BBC News Online, 23/09/2005




Excerpt below from "Another tragic misdiagnosis of an EHS sufferer who have been locked up and forcibly medicated" posted at Citizens Initiative Omega

http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/grn/omega20.htm

15/9/02 (Citizens' Initiative Omega -- via Google) Another tragic misdiagnosis of an EHS sufferer who have been locked up and forcibly medicated Von: Imelda O'Connor ehsisreal@yahoo.co.uk

The EHS letter-writer lives in England.

" I had to move out of my flat (due to equipment the neighbour in the flat above me was using . . .It is this equipment which has triggered all my serious hypersensitivity problems. I found it increasingly hard to procure temporary accommodation . . . whilst I reached for suitable longer term accommodation. I therefore, eventually, reminded "my" G.P., the local authority housing departments (where I had been living)--and where I was then living temporarily, and social services that they had a legal obligation to assist anyone "homeless" for medical reasons. I was told (by social services and a doctor) that I could use a room at the hospital from which I would be free to come and go as I searched for long term accommodation. I pointed out that hospitals were not appropriate places for electrosensitive people (fluorescent lights, smoke sensors and other sensors, . . . ) and was told this was a "special" room in a "special part" of the hospital without the devices I was concerned about . .

.. However, I found that the room and ward in question were an ordinary hospital room and ward &, on my very first visit, I began to feel very unwell. I therefore thanked the "hospital" but explained that I would not be able to take up the offer of a room. Thereupon, seven thuggish members of staff were ordered to grab me and drag me down a corridor into a secure psychiatric unit (the "thugs" had been waiting for me in a room into which I had been asked to step). My arms were badly twisted (despite my shouting out that I have osteoporosis), my shoes were dragged off my feet (one shoe was broken in the process). I was covered in bruises & red marks on my skin. I was put on a __[this may be 9.2 but more likely, it is 5.2]. During this, a psychiatrist spent some four minutes with me in a courtyard & declared that because I could not use a phone I must be mentally ill, & put me on a section 2 (28 days). I was force medicated for a while (again very brutally). The psychiatrist in charge of my case saw me twice only (and only during a "review", with students and other people present), & "spoke" to me for some 5 minutes only on both occasions ( & did not in fact enter into any real conversation with me). The mental health reviews tribunal did nothing to help me, and simply endorsed the section (!) Whilst ___[avoiding] (as did, by now, the hospital) that I was electrosensitive the psychiatrist in question then wanted to put me onto a section 3 (up to 6 months & -- [repeatable] for life),--but needed agreement from an independent psychiatrist. When the first one failed to agree with her, a second one was dispatched---- [she] too, however, did not think that I should be placed on any section. By this time, the psychiatrist in que tion ran out of time (the 28 days had been served)--& I was released. Surviving under the numerous fluorescent light units, the smoke __sensors has been very difficult. . . .

Is there any way I can protect myself legally from any repeat of my appalling experiences re. sectioning?"


And to turn to current "reforms" in Ireland of psychiatry and making some amends for long decades of psychiatric abuse. Despite John Manweiler's wonderful legal win some months ago(an Irish jury awarded him the highest monetary award ever), the report in last Thursday's THE IRISH TIMES (see below) paints a gloomy picture of obstructions and general lack of cooperation among Irish psychiatrists to engage in reforms. While this profession has destroyed many people's lives it is now showing no great willingness to make amends and join the Irish tribunals newly set up to review involuntary detention and forced medication. Even Tim O'Malley, the Irish minister of State with responsibility for mental health has found their lack of coperation appalling: "People who are detained against their will for psychiatric care and treatment are among the most vulnerable in our society in terms of their human rights. It is completely unacceptable that those who should be the guardians of those rights, their treating consultants, are the ones who are obstructing reform."


THE IRISH TIMES, THU, OCT 20, 05

"NEGOTIATIONS ON MENTAL HEALTH PANELS FOUNDER [by] Carl O'Brien, Social Affairs Correspondent

The Mental Health Commission, independent watchdog for the mental health sector, will seek to recruit consultant psychiatrists from abroad to take part in review panels for involuntarily detained patients after talks with the main representative body for Irish consultants broke down yesterday.

Negotiations have been taking place for almost a year between health authorities, the commission and the Irish Hospital Consultants Association (IHCA) on plans to set up mental health tribunals to help safeguard the rights of thousands of patients detained against their will in psychiatric institutions.

More than 3,000 psychiatric patients are involuntarily detained in psychiatric hospitals each year. Ireland has one of the highest rates of involuntary detention in Europe - a source of concern for human rights campaigners and patient support groups.

These tribunals, which will review all decisions by consultants to involuntarily detain patients, will consist of three members: a chairperson, who must be a lawyer, a consultant psychiatrist and a lay member.

While lawyers and lay people have been recruited, the IHCA has instructed members not to apply for the positions.

The IHCA says consultants need greater staffing back-up to be able to adhere to very strict timescales accompanying the new tribunals. Failure to adhere to the codes may leave consultants or clinical directors liable to fines of up to €1,500 or two years in jail.

Following the expiry of a deadline set for agreement on staffing the tribunals yesterday, the commission's chief executive, Brid Clarke, yesterday told The Irish Times that the delays were undermining the rights of almost 3,000 psychiatric patients involuntarily detained in hospitals each year.

As a result, she said it intended to re-advertise for consultant psychiatrists to the mental health tribunals.

"We will be advertising within Ireland and internationally and will be providing applicants with the opportunity of full-time/part-time appointments and engagement on a sessional and case-by-case basis," she said.

Minister of State with responsibility for mental health Tim O'Malley expressed his "deep frustration" at the actions of consultants who were "obstructing reform".

"People who are detained against their will for psychiatric care and treatment are among the most vulnerable in our society in terms of their human rights," he said. "It is completely unacceptable that those who should be the guardians of those rights, their treating consultants, are the ones who are obstructing reform."

He said offers of greater resources had been made to consultants, but their stance was "baffling" and cast doubt on their willingness to co-operate with the proposed reforms.

The IHCA and other consultant representative bodies say the mental health sector is understaffed and that not enough clinical back up is available for them to participate in the tribunals.

They point to the recent Inspector of Mental Health Services report, which recommended establishing the equivalent of up to 27 consultants posts, according to estimates by consultants.

It is understood that in talks on tribunals, the Health Service Executive proposed 13 new consultant posts, with the support of junior medical staff and other professionals, at an estimated cost of €6-€10 million."


© The Irish Times

--------

Vera Stein: Als Wrack aus der Psychiatrie entlassen

Der am Donnerstag 17.1. 08 in der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung auf Seite 9 erschienene Bericht über Waltraud Storck, alias "Vera Stein" und deren Fortsetzung des Prozesses, nachdem sie beim Europäischen Gerichtshof für Menschenrechte Recht bekommen hat, wurde inzwischen von der FAZ vollständig hier veröffentlicht: http://www.faz.net/s/Rub8E1390D3396F422B869A49268EE3F15C/Doc~EEC4A6ED506504567B210DA48C31C1ADC~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html

Außerdem sind uns folgende Berichte bekannt geworden: http://www.giessener-anzeiger.de/sixcms/detail.php?id=3369576&template=d_artikel_import&_adtag=localnews&_zeitungstitel=1133842&_dpa= und: http://www.fr-online.de/frankfurt_und_hessen/nachrichten/hessen/?sid=27623141cd9961284b7b03d4b235826f&em_cnt=1272405 http://www.spiegel.de/panorama/justiz/0,1518,528786,00.html


Eine Mitteilung des Werner-Fuß-Zentrum
im Haus der Demokratie und Menschenrechte
Greifswalder Str. 4
10405 Berlin
http://www.psychiatrie-erfahrene.de

The Forest Service's decision to suspend more than 1,500 permits for activities in national forests - including weddings, mushroom-picking and hunting expeditions for the disabled - should lead to more questions about the real motives of the agency that allegedly protects the nation's forests.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/102405EC.shtml

How will the world cope with drastically less oil and other fossil fuels? Some cities have begun planning now. If we, as citizens, spur our own local leaders to similar action, we may be able to transition to a more ecologically-sustainable, socially just, and spiritually fulfilling future, rather than suffer through systemic breakdown for lack of cheap energy.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/102405EA.shtml

President Bush said Monday he would not release any records of his conversations with Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers that could threaten the confidentiality of advice that presidents get from their lawyers.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/102405S.shtml

Former UN Weapons Inspector: Don't Rule Out Staged Government Terror Ritter says Neo-Cons are embattled, surrounded, could resort to desperate measures to further global domination

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones | October 24 2005

Former United Nations weapons inspector and Marine Scott Ritter appeared on The Alex Jones Show and stated that he wouldn't rule out the possibility of the Bush administration staging a terror attack in order to jolt a wavering foreign policy agenda back on track.

Ritter compared the atmosphere within the administration to that during the time of Watergate, where Nixon considered utilizing America's nuclear arsenal to create a devastating diversion from domestic calamity.

"Nothing this administration would do would surprise me, they're desperate right now."

"If you go back and take a look at the Nixon administration during the height of Watergate Nixon was talking about using nuclear weapons against the Soviets in the Middle East, insanity of this nature."

"When you have an irresponsible administration like the Nixon administration, like this current administration, and they start to feel embattled, surrounded, they take on a fortress like mentality where everybody becomes the enemy."

Asked if he thought a staged terror attack was possible, a scenario previously considered by former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, Ritter responded, "Yeah, you have people who have no regard for the rule of law. These aren't people who appreciate the Constitution, to them the Constitution is an impediment, it's an obstacle, it's something in the way, it's something to be avoided. They are married to an ideology of global domination, of global imperialism and they're not going to deviate from this."

Regarding the issue of imminent indictments of top Bush administration officials, Ritter stated, "I think the President should be investigated to determine whether he's committed a crime and if a crime has been committed then the President must be held accountable, fully accountable, to the rule of law."

Ritter dispelled any potential charges of partisanship by stating, "If we're going to go after Bush then we have to go after Clinton."

"We've got to make sure that we set the record straight that this isn't about partisan bashing, Bush bashing. This is about reasserting the rule of law as set forth by the Constitution and reasserting the power of the people."

On the subject of which country will be subject to the next Neo-Con invasion, Ritter commented, "There are elements within the Bush administration, especially Donald Rumsfeld's associates, Doug Fife, Wolfowitz and others whose long goal crossed the line of serving America and they started serving another country out there, Israel."

"This administration wants to go to Syria, wants to go to Iran. Iran has turned into a little more difficult of a proposition both diplomatically and militarily, and financially. So Iran may be pushed to the back-burner right now, doesn't mean it's going away, we should never forget that."

"We're going to go small first and I think that with Syria the feeling in the Bush administration is that this is a very easy target, it's one that would make Israel very happy if we took out this regime."

"I'm not sure it's going to be as easy as they think it's going to be."

Ritter's claims have continually been proven to be accurate even in the face of numerous establishment media and government attempts to defame his character.

Ritter is the latest of a rash of credible people both inside and outside of government to voice concerns that a staged terror attack blamed on Iran or Syria could be used as the pretext to instigate pre-planned invasions and further entrench a police state in the US.

Former CIA analyst and Bush 41 staffer Ray McGovern gave similar sentiments as well as British Member or Parliament George Galloway.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/october2005/241005weaponsinspector.htm


Informant: Scott Munson

Larisa Alexandrovna and Jason Leopold
Originally published in RAW STORY on Tuesday October 18, 2005.

A senior aide to Vice President Dick Cheney is cooperating with special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, sources close to the investigation say.

Individuals familiar with Fitzgerald’s case tell RAW STORY that John Hannah, a senior national security aide on loan to Vice President Dick Cheney from the offices of then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, John Bolton, was named as a target of Fitzgerald’s probe. They say he was told in recent weeks that he could face imminent indictment for his role in leaking Plame-Wilson’s name to reporters unless he cooperated with the investigation. [...] Read it all at RAW STORY http://tinyurl.com/8s9xk


© Virginia Metze

American Progress Action Fund
Talking Points
October 20, 2005

Make no mistake, the importance of the Fitzgerald investigation isn't about who said what to whom – it is about Iraq. It is about the administration manipulating intelligence to lead the country into war and then lying to cover it up. And the responsibility for this misleading of the American public lies with President Bush. [...] Read about it at http://tinyurl.com/9uwrv

See also "Leak Scandal Goes to the Top" in the Progress Report the same day: http://tinyurl.com/9uwrv


© Virginia Metze

Think Progress web site
October 21, 2005

Tom DeLay’s attorney, Dick DeGuerin, claims that the judge presiding over DeLay’s criminal case in Texas, Bob Perkins, should be disqualified. A central part of his claim is that an organization that Perkins has donated to in the past, MoveOn, is selling t-shirts with Tom DeLay’s mug shot: Watch in streaming Quicktime

According to MoveOn’s Washington director Tom Mattzie, this claim is false. Mattzie told ThinkProgress this morning that MoveOn has “never sold any t-shirts with Tom DeLay’s mug shot” on their website or otherwise. You can go to their website and see that he’s right. [...] http://tinyurl.com/b6gma


© Virginia Metze

Dangerous New Conventional Wisdom Forming Off the East Coast
Arianna Huffington
Posted October 20, 2005 at 3:25 p.m. EDT
Huffington Post

Here's a newly minted bit of MSM groupthink that needs to be stamped out before it congeals into conventional wisdom: that only people on the left are upset about the way the White House used lies and deception to lead us into a reckless and unnecessary war. A sub-version of this is that the only people upset about Judy Miller and Plamegate are anti-war types who care about the role Miller and the neocons played in helping the Bush White House market the war.
This nugget first hit my radar screen Tuesday night. I was on CNN being interviewed by Aaron Brown (in my experience, one of the best interviewers in the business), when, to my surprise, he suddenly suggested that "a lot of the animosity that's being directed towards Ms. Miller, a lot of the hits she's taken...are just simply coming from the left, people opposed to the war...[and] what was clearly flawed reporting leading up to the war."

I thought it was an isolated incident. But there I was this morning, still on my first venti latte, reading Howard Kurtz's column , when I came upon the nugget again. After quoting Miller's assertion that people are "upset about the war in Iraq, about the Bush administration; they want to know whether they were misled into this war," Kurtz wrote: "She's right... the passion, especially on the left, is driven by the war." [...] What about we First Amendment folks? Or we social security/health care types? Or the balanced budget types? Or the global warming types? Or the business regulation types? Or the FCC types? Or the anti-outsourcing types? Or the "don't tax the poor to give tax breaks to the rich" types? Or the anti-oil-profiteering types? ... See http://tinyurl.com/avwae for the rest of her post.


© Virginia Metze

Speaking of web sites, there are lots of pictures related to DeLay's indictment saga at http://tinyurl.com/ajemx I especially liked the last one in the series (thumbnails on left, picture comes up on the right): http://tinyurl.com/eysvn

I've seen several death lists lately; one of them had to do with the people who worked with electronic voting, on either side of the issues, and the other is a general list. Are you aware of how the Republicans dug up every possible death that could have any relationship to the Clinton White House? If I find the reference to the voting movement deaths, I will post it. In the meantime, here is the Bush Death List: http://rinf.com/news/oct05/bushdeathlist.html


© Virginia Metze


http://www.georgewalkerbush.net/bushdeathlist.htm

Breaking: A Message from Bill Keller
from Crooks and Liars, John Amato's new On-Line, Virtual Magazine. C&L is averaging more than 135,000 hits a day via Blogads.

Friday, October 21

Check out this memo from Bill Keller at The NY Times to his staff in it's entirety that I have verified from three sources. He touches on many subjects and especially Judy Miller. He rails against her behavior and his own sloppiness in investigating her. Keller also discusses shield laws within the confines of newspapers and their reporters. The NY Times reporting on WMD's is addressed and hasn't that been the real story behind all of this?

Keller: excerpt : "As you can imagine, I've done a lot of thinking -- and a lot of listening -- on the subject of what I should have done differently in handling our reporter's entanglement in the White House leak investigation. Jill and John and I have talked a great deal among ourselves and with many of you, and while this is a discussion that will continue, we thought it would be worth taking a first cut at the lessons we have learned.

I wish that when I learned Judy Miller had been subpoenaed as a witness in the leak investigation, I had sat her down for a thorough debriefing, and followed up with some reporting of my own. It is a natural and proper instinct to defend reporters when the government seeks to interfere in our work. And under other circumstances it might have been fine to entrust the details -- the substance of the confidential interviews, the notes -- to lawyers who would be handling the case. But in this case I missed what should have been significant alarm bells. Until Fitzgerald came after her, I didn't know that Judy had been one of the reporters on the receiving end of the anti-Wilson whisper campaign. I should have wondered why I was learning this from the special counsel, a year after the fact. (In November of 2003 Phil Taubman tried to ascertain whether any of our correspondents had been offered similar leaks. As we reported last Sunday, Judy seems to have misled Phil Taubman about the extent of her involvement.) This alone should have been enough to make me probe deeper. [...] The Keller message to NY Times staff is reprinted at http://tinyurl.com/awrl7 The URL for the web site that has this story, see http://tinyurl.com/am5uu


© Virginia Metze

Ron Nessen
Think Tank Town "Reports from the idea industry"
Washington Post
Posted at 05:00 AM ET, 10/21/2005

It’s no longer news when a conservative Republican publicly criticizes President Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court. But it is news when the critic is a conservative Republican who was once nominated to the Supreme Court himself, and was rejected by the Senate.

Yes, the latest critic is Robert Bork, now a Distinguished Fellow at the Hudson Institute.

What also makes Bork's comments worth noting is that he uses unusually harsh language in his criticisms of both Miers and Bush.

First Miers. Bork says flatly that she’s not qualified to serve on the Supreme Court. [...] Read the rest and applaud his slams of Bush and the nominee at http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/thinktanktown/ or http://tinyurl.com/cksen Scroll down; the blog has latest on top.

© Virginia Metze



Slap them silly

San Francisco Chronicle
by Debra J. Saunders

10/25/05

Now Republicans are 'borking' one of their own. Robert Bork himself, the Reagan Supreme Court nominee who was rejected after the Dems barraged him with highly personal attacks, has attacked Bush's nomination of Harriet Miers to the Big Bench as 'a disaster on every level.' Conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan told CNN that Bush 'gave conservatives a wet mitten across the face with this nomination.' I think these two are miffed because Bush didn't select a member of their in-crowd. Bork was rather bald-faced about it, when he explained to CNN that Miers' nomination was 'a slap in the face to the conservatives who have been building a legal movement'...

http://tinyurl.com/bp9xk


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

By DOUG THOMPSON
Oct 21, 2005, 08:12
Capitol Hill Blue

For all practical purposes, governing the nation has stopped at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as aides deal with an increasingly despondent President, mounting scandals and defecting dissidents from the Ship of State.

White House insiders say George W. Bush’s mood swings have increased to the point where meetings with the President must be cancelled, schedules shifted and plans changed to keep a bitter, distracted leader from the public eye.

“He’s like a zombie some days, walking around in a trance,” says one aide who, for obvious reasons, asks not to be identified. “Other times he launches into angry outbursts, cussing out anybody who gets near him.”

Aides say gallows humor has descended on the White House, where the West Wing is now referred to as “death row” and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, along with Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, are known as “dead men walking,” a reference to the last walk death row inmates take to the execution chamber. [...] Read the rest of Thompson's column, "The Rant" at Capitol Hill Blue: http://tinyurl.com/7maz8 I love what he has on the "mast head" of the web site: "because nobody's life, liberty or property are safe while Congress is in session or the White House is occupied"

If you like Thompson's style, there are other recent "rants" listed at the right hand side of the page.

© Virginia Metze

Toledo Blade Op-Ed column
Dan Simpson, retired diplomat
member of editorial board
October 19, 2005

AS I suspected six months ago, and U.S. military and Bush Administration civilian officials confirmed, U.S. forces have invaded Syria and engaged in combat with Syrian forces.

An unknown number of Syrians are acknowledged to have been killed; the number of Americans - if any - who have died so far has not yet been revealed by the U.S. sources, who, by the way, insist on remaining faceless and nameless.

The parallel with the Vietnam War, where a Nixon administration deeply involved in a losing war expanded the conflict - fruitlessly - to neighboring Cambodia, is obvious. The result was not changed in Vietnam; Cambodia itself was plunged into dangerous chaos which climaxed in the killing fields, where an estimated 1 million Cambodians died as a result of internal conflict. [...] Read about it at http://tinyurl.com/cfj7c


© Virginia Metze

http://fairnessbybeckerman.blogspot.com/2005/10/gao-report-concludes-that-integrity-of.html
http://www.bradblog.com/Docs/GAOReport_ElectionSecurity_102105.pdf


Informant: NHNE

America has been lied too and betrayed
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495;article=94592;show_parent=1

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0543,lombardiqa,69280,2.html

Informant: NHNE



Cindy Sheehan
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Sheehan

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1023-25.htm


Informant: Lew Rockwell

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051025/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cia_leak_investigation


Informant: mr_tjsmith

From ufpj-news

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3532/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

Ich schicke Ihnen einen Artikel aus dem Südkurier von letzter Woche, mit der Bitte um Veröffentlichung im Newsletter. Das macht vielleicht vielen Initiativen Mut.

Viele Grüße,

Wolfgang Blüher


Südkurier, 20.10.2005

Bodensee bald im Funkschatten?

Widerstand gegen Mobilfunk-Antennen in der Region besonders stark - Netzbetreiber erwägen Abzug der Investitionsmittel

Von Peter Ludäscher

Konstanz - Beim Mobilfunk könnte die Bodenseeregion bald den Anschluss an die technische Entwicklung verlieren. Diese Befürchtung äußerten Sprecher der Marktführer T-Mobile und Vodafone in einem Gespräch mit dieser Zeitung. Hintergrund ist der Widerstand aus Teilen der Bevölkerung und der Kommunen gegen den Bau neuer Antennen. Die Mobilfunkbetreiber bauen gerade die Netze für den neuen UMTS - Standard auf. Damit lassen sich Daten in hoher Geschwindigkeit auf Handys übertragen.

„Vodafone hat in der Bodenseeregion bisher erst ein Drittel des für 2005 geplanten Netzes installieren können“, berichtet Vodafone Pressesprecherin Margarete Steinhart. Auch T-Mobile liege deutlich hinter der Planung zurück, ergänzt Andreas Fuchs, Pressesprecher von T-Mobile. In 13 Gemeinden komme der Netzausbau nur sehr zögerlich oder gar nicht voran. Steinhart: „Es gibt hier im Bodenseeraum eine Blockadehaltung mit der Absicht, Mobilfunk am liebsten ganz zu verhindern“.

Die Netzbetreiber haben nach Angaben der beiden Sprecher die See-Umgebung als eine wichtige UMTS-Region definiert, weil es hier zahlreiche innovative Unternehmen gibt, die Wert legen auf gute Netzabdeckung, Sprachqualität und hohe Daten-Übertragungsraten. Zudem sei der Bodensee als Touristenmagnet von Bedeutung. Daher liege das Bodensee-Umland auf der Prioritätenliste der Netzbetreiber weit oben. Der Schwarzwald hingegen wird noch einige Zeit auf UMTS verzichten müssen. Hier konzentrieren sich die Betreiber auf größere Städte wie Freiburg oder Villingen-Schwenningen.

Wegen des Widerstandes gegen neue Antennen drohe am See nun die Gefahr, dass die budgetieren Ausgaben in andere Regionen umgeleitet werden, sagte Steinhart. „Dann würde sich die ganze Region vom technischen Fortschritt abkoppeln.“ Die Betreiber sehen auch Gefahr für das bestehende GSM-Netz, denn die zunehmend ablehnende Haltung gegen Mobilfunkantennen gefährde die Verlängerung der Mietverträge für bereits installierte Anlagen.

Die Pressesprecher betonen, dass ihre Unternehmen bei der Installation neuer Antennenanlagen stets zur Lösungssuche bereit sind. „Wir suchen Alternativ-Standorte, wenn Bedenken gegen den ursprünglich geplanten bestehen.“ Allerdings gebe es beim UMTS-Netz technische Zwänge, die bei der Standortsuche berücksichtigt werden müssten. So werden mehr Antennen benötigt, und sie müssen sich „sehen“ können. Die Zellgröße ist geringer als beim bestehenden GSM-Netz. Zudem muss das Netz regelmäßig sein. Fuchs: „Wenn ein wichtiger Standort nicht realisiert werden kann, leidet das ganze Netz in der Umgebung.“

Es fällt den Pressesprechern schwer, den Widerstand einiger Kommunen zu verstehen. Die Unbedenklichkeit der Antennen sei nachgewiesen und die Grenzwerte würden strikt eingehalten. In Norddeutschland gebe es kaum Widerstand gegen die Antennen.

Omega die Unbedenklichkeit der Antennen ist keineswegs nachgewiesen. Siehe „Ärzteappelle gegen ungezügelten Mobilfunk“ unter:
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1064751/ und „Grenzwerte werden strikt eingehalten“ unter: http://omega.twoday.net/stories/1087994/

Nach Süden zu, besonders in Bayern und Baden-Württemberg, werde die Abneigung größer. Am Bodensee haben die Netzbetreiber eine Hochburg der Gegner ausgemacht. Dabei handle es sich aber um „eine lautstarke Minderheit“, die gegen den Mobilfunk zu Felde zieht.

Beunruhigt stellen die Netzbetreiber fest, dass manche Gemeinde nicht bereit ist, sich an die vor vier Jahren zwischen Mobilfunk-Unternehmen und Kommunen geschlossene Verbändevereinbarung zu halten. Darin ist der Aufbau des Netzaufbaus geregelt: Die Netzbetreiber informieren die Gemeinden frühzeitig über geplante Erweiterungen. Daraufhin haben die Kommunen Gelegenheit, zum geplanten Standort Stellung zu nehmen oder Alternativen vorzuschlagen. Am Bodensee gingen aber einige Kommunen dazu über, mit baurechtlichen Erschwernissen die Installation nach Möglichkeit ganz zu verhindern. Dies führe dazu, dass die Betreiber Standorte auf privaten Gebäuden suchten. „Aber es gibt immer Verzögerungen, Kosten oder ein schlechteres Mobilfunknetz“, so Fuchs.