What would happen today if a swarthy Middle Eastern man without wealth or political connections suddenly appeared in front of the White House proclaiming such a radical doctrine of mercy, forgiveness, charity, self-abnegation and love – love even for the "evildoers" who "want to destroy our way of life"?

http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=362&Itemid=1


From Information Clearing House

President George Bush faced a rare challenge from the judiciary yesterday when two courts questioned the legality of his expansion of presidential powers in the war on terror.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1673196,00.html


From Information Clearing House

An Italian judge has issued European arrest warrants for 22 purported CIA operatives wanted for the alleged kidnapping of an Egyptian cleric, a prosecutor said Friday.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5500374,00.html


From Information Clearing House

"I'll say this for Vice President Dick Cheney: he puts it right out there, whether it is trying to ensure legal protection for those torturing prisoners, or insisting-as he did on Tuesday-that a wartime president "needs to have his powers unimpaired."

http://www.counterpunch.com/mcgovern12232005.html


From Information Clearing House

While most media treatment of the McCain torture “ban” is repeating politicians’ spin, civil libertarians see compromise legislation has rendered it largely toothless and possibly added to the problem.

http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2702


From Information Clearing House

By Robert Parry

The choice is clear to American citizens. Either they accept the Imperial Presidency that gives Bush the authority to do whatever he wants in the name of fighting terrorism – from imprisonments without trial to detainee abuse to spying on anyone deemed a security threat – or they act now.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11365.htm

By David E. Kaplan

In search of a terrorist nuclear bomb, the federal government since 9/11 has run a far-reaching, top secret program to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities, U.S. News has learned. In numerous cases, the monitoring required investigators to go on to the property under surveillance, although no search warrants or court orders were ever obtained, according to those with knowledge of the program. Some participants were threatened with loss of their jobs when they questioned the legality of the operation, according to these accounts.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11369.htm

After reporting on America's spying operations for 25 years, James Bamford is speaking out against Bush's FISA runaround. He says the wiretapping is illegal.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/122305M.shtml

Congress rejected the Bush administration's request for war-making authority "in the United States," in negotiations over the joint resolution passed days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, according to Daschle.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/122305L.shtml

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

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/122305K.shtml