President Bush has declared himself free to ignore any law that he thinks limits his ability to fight terrorism. This is an extraordinary claim for any president in a country that prides itself on a rule of law binding government officials as well as ordinary citizens.

http://tinyurl.com/8mg9s


From Information Clearing House

When President Bush signed the new law, sponsored by Senator McCain, restricting the use of torture when interrogating detainees, he also issued a Presidential signing statement. That statement asserted that his power as Commander-in-Chief gives him the authority to bypass the very law he had just signed.

http://www.counterpunch.org/vanbergen01122006.html


From Information Clearing House

Omar Khadr was a tall, subdued and polite presence Wednesday at a U.S. military tribunal where his lawyers berated prosecutors for saying the Canadian teen is a dangerous terrorist who murdered an American medic.

http://www.brandonsun.com/story.php?story_id=15527


From Information Clearing House

The yes man and the thug:

In his disturbing new book, Times reporter James Risen reveals how George Tenet's gutless surrender to war-obsessed Donald Rumsfeld led to the total breakdown of U.S. intelligence.

http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/salon78.html


From Information Clearing House

The well-spring of sentiment against the war that he tapped into when he first spoke out in November is still very much alive. He hit a nerve, one that strikes at the heart of the administration's signature policy initiative: the invasion of Iraq.

http://tinyurl.com/buowz


From Information Clearing House

By Chris Floyd

This week's revelation of how U.S. doctors are force-feeding captives on hunger strike in Bush's concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay still has the power to shock and sicken -- not just from the savage act itself, but also for the wider moral defeat it represents: another open embrace of raw brutality, another step in America's accelerating plunge into vicious despotism.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11547.htm

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/3931/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

Two small but growing campaigns - led by airline workers - are using North West Airline's strike and bankruptcy debacle as a springboard for what may be the opening moves of an industry-wide fightback. Galvanized by the mechanics' strike at NWA, members of other NWA work-groups (flight attendants and ground workers), union members at other airlines (United and American), and other labor activists have created a new industry-focused organization: Airline Workers United (AWU).

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/011206LB.shtml

Tonight is the first of a seven-part series, "Sierra Club Chronicles," a partnership between Sierra Club Productions, LinkTV and Brave New Films. Tonight's episode is about the tens of thousands of people who were left physically and mentally wounded by the World Trade Towers' collapse. Sierra Club spokesperson Orli Cotel added that the series is intended to give hope to environmental activists across the country.

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/011206EB.shtml

In the parlance of Washington they call it K Street, almost as if it were a separate branch of government. Sixteen big lobbying firms have more lobbyists than the Senate's 100 members; this white-collar industry takes in more than $2 billion a year. But now, K Street is at the center of a scandal that some Washington observers feel could be to the lobbying business what Watergate was to campaign finance and Enron was to corporate oversight.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011206Q.shtml