It seems the more secrets the Bush Administration tries to keep, the more it comes back to bite them in their collective butts. Here are a couple examples of the president’s secret fantasy justice in the name of the ‘global war on terror’ that are blowing the lid off the illicit ways this presidential adminstration has operated as no other.
The New York Times is reporting that a federal judge recently warned that if the government did not allow lawyers to review classified materials on possible wiretapping of one ‘terrorist’, she might order a new trial for him and MSNBC News is reporting that 5 news organizations are complaining they’ve been denied access to a Guantanamo case where a trial was held in secret closed sessions via e-mail.
One of the latest legal problems involves the legality of the National Security Agency (NSA) wiretapping program. Ali Al-Timimi, an islamic scholar in Northern Virginia was sentenced to life in prison in 2005 for inciting followers to commit acts of terrorism. Al-Timimi claims he was illegally wiretapped by the NSA as part of its eavesdropping without warrants that was approved by President Bush after 9/11 (although it’s now public knowledge that the illegal wiretapping started long before then).
Four months after the NSA program was disclosed, an appellate court directed the trial judge in Mr. Timimi’s case to reconsider it in light of his lawyers’ accusations.
Intelligence officials have made a series of classified appearances before Leonie M. Brinkema, the judge, to explain the government’s position while lawyers and trial prosecutors have not been allowed to hear the closed-door discussions. Obviously, the defense’s lack of access to crucial evidence has made it virtually impossible to litigate the case.
Judge Runs Out of Patience
At a recent open hearing in her courtroom, Judge Brinkema, who also handled the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, expressed frustration over the recent disclosure that the government had misled her at the Moussaoui trial by denying the existence of any tape recording of high-value al Qaeda detainees. A November 9, 2007 filing with the court by the government acknowledged that three such tapes did exist but said the prosecutors at the Moussaoui trial had not known of them.
Judge Brinkema told federal prosecutors at the Timimi hearing that she wanted the government to find a way to give trial prosecutors, defense lawyers and her own clerk the clearance needed to review classified material relevant to the case. Since president Bush has personally handled decisions regarding clearances for the NSA eavesdropping program, direct intervention of the White House is probably inevitable.
According to defense lawyers and others present at the hearing, Judge Brinkema made it clear she was prepared to order a new trial for Mr. Timimi if the problem was not resolved.
Secret Canadian Terror Trial Kept Secret
A report from MSNBC News says The Associated Press, The New York Times Co., Dow Jones & Company Inc., The Hearst Corp. and The McClatchy Company complained that they were being denied access to much of the military commission proceedings against a Canadian terror suspect.
Various arguments in a Guantanamo Bay, Cuba case appear to be made by e-mail — communications to which the public has no access — and issues are being raised in closed sessions for which no transcripts or summaries are being made available according to the filing which also states that the public is not being permitted access to motions and other documents submitted by the parties.
While the press recognizes the potential for national security issues and questions of personal safety, none of the findings in the case requires the wholesale denial of access to the pretrial proceedings in this case.
Military Commissions Court May Cause Delays
Navy Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, a Defense Department Spokesman reportedly said “the review procedures by the military commissions court and trial parties may result in some reasonable delays in making the documents available to the general public.” In usual convenient fashion the Pentagon pointed to national security concerns.
Khadr, now 21 years of age has been in prison since he was 16. He is reportedly accused of having committed crimes as a minor. Several Nations and human rights groups, including the United Nations, have raised concerns about the creation of an international precedent where an individual is being tried for war crimes with regard to alleged acts committed when he was a minor. The view in the international law community is that the act of trying a minor as a war criminal is itself a war crime. Not that it makes any difference to the Bush Administration.
Khadr is one of three Guantanamo detainees that is facing charges under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. According to MSNBC the military plans to prosecute as many as 80 of the 305 men at Guantanamo. Army Colonel Peter Brownback, the presiding judge, has postponed a decision as to whether or not Khadr can be tried by the military as an unlawful enemy combatant. No plea has been entered and there is no trial date set.
The military commissions, the first to be conducted since World War II, will be conducted at Guantanamo Bay.
Proceedings Need To Be Fair
The news organizations say that it’s important for the proceedings in the Khadr case to be fair, and perceived as fair, and that cannot happen unless the public is able to follow and understand events as they transpire.
The filing also stated that The Military Commissions Act and its regulations make it clear that the public’s right to access extends to all proceedings, not just the actual trial. The news organizations also argued that the First Amendment protects the press and the public from blocking their rights of access to information pertaining to the operation of their government.
According to MSNBC, there is a challenge to the military commission system pending in the U.S. Supreme Court. If past rulings from the highly politicized supreme court are any indication, don’t be surprised if an apparent dubious ruling favors the administration. Lawyers for the detainees at Guantanamo Bay have asked the ‘justices’ to guarantee that they can challenge their indefinite confinement in U.S. civilian courts.
In a declaration accompanying the filing (as well as motion papers and orders in cases) to the office of military commissions, an attorney for the news companies said a letter to the pentagon stressing the need for media access to a docket of military commission proceedings had received no response.
This is just personal conjecture, but it seems pathetically clear that the administration can’t prosecute ‘suspects’ through normal legal, civil and ethical means. Instead they have to resort to illegal activity, force a confession or purposely frame suspects by planting or falsifying information to ‘convict’ them.
Links To More Information
I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. Due to the holiday and being out of state for the past few days, there are a few more links than usual regarding all kinds of information. Links to the above information and more can be found below:
Wiretap Issue Leads Judge to Warn of Retrial in Terror Case article from The New York Times
Canadian terror trial kept secret, group says article from MSNBC News and The Associated Press
Khadr trial could set precedent for prosecution of minors: UN representative article from The Jurist Legal News & Research
Resurrecting the Star Chamber article from Harper’s Magazine
Military Commissions Act of 2006 from The Library of Congress
A Murder Conviction Torn Apart by a Bullet article from The Washington Post:
“Former Baltimore police sergeant James A. Kulbicki stared silently from the defense table as the prosecutor held up his off-duty .38-caliber revolver and assured jurors that science proved the gun had been used to kill Kulbicki’s mistress.
“I wonder what it felt like, Mr. Kulbicki, to have taken this gun, pressed it to the skull of that young woman and pulled the trigger, that cold steel,” the prosecutor said during closing arguments.
Prosecutors had linked the weapon to Kulbicki through forensic science. Maryland’s top firearms expert said that the gun had been cleaned and that its bullets were consistent in size with the one that killed the victim. The state expert could not match the markings on the bullets to Kulbicki’s gun. But an FBI expert took the stand to say that a science that matches bullets by their lead content had linked the fatal bullet to Kulbicki.”
Ethanol Bust Makes Losers of Bush, Gates, D.E. Shaw (Update 2) article from Bloomberg.com:
“Nov. 19 (Bloomberg) — Ethanol, the centerpiece of President George W. Bush’s plan to wean the U.S. from oil, is 2007’s worst energy investment.
The corn-based fuel tumbled 57 percent from last year’s record of $4.33 a gallon and drove crop prices to a 10-year high. Production in the U.S. tripled after Morgan Stanley, hedge fund firm D.E. Shaw & Co. and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla helped finance a building boom.
Even worse for investors and the Bush administration, energy experts contend ethanol isn’t reducing oil demand. Scientists at Cornell University say making the fuel uses more energy than it creates, while the National Research Council warns ethanol production threatens scarce water supplies.”
Whistleblowers claim contractor fraud ignored article from MySanAntonio.com:
“Barrington “Barry” Godfrey of Houston tried to get mega-contractor KBR to quit overcharging the government for thousands of troops he said the company never fed.
He alleges he was forced out for raising the issue, and that the Justice Department tried unsuccessfully to keep his allegations secret and then refused to join him in a whistleblower suit.
Iowa businesswoman Beth A. Hanken says she sounded the alarm more than a year ago about the military’s principal food distributor in Kuwait, Public Warehousing Co., over allegations it was taking kickbacks from a subcontractor that helped it inflate prices of food for U.S. troops.
A Defense Department official, she claims, responded by forwarding her allegations to Public Warehousing, touching off legal threats that she believes were meant to silence her. The Justice Department this year declined to join a whistleblower lawsuit she filed.”
US plans case against AP photographer article from Yahoo! News and The Associated Press:
Another example of the weak attempts of the justice department trying to justify all the illegal activities in the “war on terror” that keep failing miserably:
“NEW YORK – The U.S. military plans to seek a criminal case in an Iraqi court against an award-winning Associated Press photographer but is refusing to disclose what evidence or accusations would be presented.
An AP attorney on Monday strongly protested the decision, calling the U.S. military plans a “sham of due process.” The journalist, Bilal Hussein, has already been imprisoned without charges for more than 19 months.
A public affairs officer notified the AP on Sunday that the military intends to submit a written complaint against Hussein that would bring the case into the Iraqi justice system as early as Nov. 29. Under Iraqi codes, an investigative magistrate will decide whether there are grounds to try Hussein, 36, who was seized in the western Iraqi city of Ramadi on April 12, 2006.
Dave Tomlin, associate general counsel for the AP, said the defense for Hussein is being forced to work “totally in the dark.”
The military has not yet defined the specific charges against Hussein. Previously, the military has pointed to a range of suspicions that attempt to link him to insurgent activity.”
Think You Know America? If you rely on the mainstream media, you don’t article from ThisIsBy.us:
Sad but true…
“The United States is committed to the world-wide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example. I call on all governments to join with the United States and the community of law-abiding nations in prohibiting, investigating, and prosecuting all acts of torture and in undertaking to prevent other cruel and unusual punishment. I call on all nations to speak out against torture in all its forms and to make ending torture an essential part of their diplomacy. I further urge governments to join America and others in supporting torture victims’ treatment centers, contributing to the UN Fund for the Victims of Torture, and supporting the efforts of non-governmental organizations to end torture and assist its victims.
–George W. Bush, Statement by the President, United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, 2003
This is one of the things that gets me about torture apologists. They’re nearly all Bush supporters, yet their rhetoric isn’t anything like the president’s. Bush tortures, Bush should be allowed to torture, and, when Bush says he doesn’t torture, Bush isn’t telling the truth. By arguing in favor of things like waterboarding, these people are arguing that President Bush is a liar. When President Clinton was a liar, it was the worst thing that ever happened in human history and Clinton had to be impeached. But, now that Bush is a liar, they’re cool with it.
So, the rule is lie about a blowjob, get impeached. But lie about freakin’ torture and you’re golden. Apparently, Bill should’ve tortured Monica before, during, or after — then he’d be all right. Leather gear, whips, and chains optional.”
Freedom’s Watch Focus Groups War with Iran article from Mother Jones:
“Washington Dispatch: The hawkish advocacy group recently rolled out a multi-million dollar ad blitz in support of the troop surge in Iraq. It’s now test marketing language that could be used to sell a war with Iran.
Laura Sonnenmark is a focus group regular. “I’ve been asked to talk about orange juice, cell phone service, furniture,” the Fairfax County, Virginia-based children’s book author and Democratic Party volunteer says. But when she was called by a focus group organizer for a prospective assignment earlier this month, she was told the questions this time would be about something “political.”
On the appointed day, she drove to the offices of Martin Focus Groups in Alexandria, Virginia, knowing she would be paid $150 for two hours of her time. After joining a half dozen other women in a conference room, she found, to her surprise, that she had been called in to help some of the country’s most prominent hawks test-market language that could be used to sell a war against Iran to the American public. “The whole basis of the whole thing was, ‘we’re going to go into Iran and what do we have to do to get you guys to along with it,'” Sonnenmark, 49, tells Mother Jones.
The client paying for the focus group session, according to Sonnemark, was Freedom’s Watch, a high-powered, well-connected advocacy group that launched a $15 million ad campaign this summer in support of the surge of American troops in Iraq. Among the group’s leadership: former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer and Bradley A. Blakeman, a former deputy assistant to President Bush. The focus group session suggests that Freedom’s Watch may be looking beyond Iraq and expanding its mission to building support for military action against Iran.”
Video of Donald Rumsfeld saying the plane over Pennsylvania (Flight 93) was shot down from LiveLeak
Fox host ‘for Tasing anyone in Code Pink’ after Hillary heckled article from Raw Story:
“A Fox News morning host has a novel idea to handle those pesky Code Pink protesters who disrupt political events and Congressional hearings: 50,000 volts of electricity.
Brian Kilmead shared his ever-so-evolved views on crowd control Monday morning in a Fox & Friends discussion of a Code Pink-disrupted Hillary Clinton speech. His answer to annoying anti-war types? Tasers or Billy clubs.
“They should Tase this guy,” Kilmead says. “At one point with security so high and tensions on edge, don’t you think they’re going to get at the very least Tased or beaten to a pulp by somebody? These people look threatening.”
Kilmead’s Taser-lust came one day after a 20-year-old Maryland man died after being shocked by police.”
A Blueprint for Impeachment: The Constitution Still in Crisis article from AfterDowningStreet.org:
“This pattern of immunity for presidents must stop. Impeaching George Bush for lying to get us into war will not only protect us from him, but also send an unmistakable message to future presidents: Never again. Elizabeth Holtzman, former Congresswoman in the forward to: Constitution in Crisis by Congressman John Conyers, Jr. and Staff.
I was recently given an award by the Cranbrook Peace Institute and the ceremonies were held in Detroit, the hometown of Rep. John Conyers. I was pretty surprised that he agreed to introduce me at the event considering that the last time I saw him I was being hauled out of his office in DC in handcuffs and I have been very outspoken about the Democrats failure to hold BushCo accountable. I must give the Congressman a lot of credit to always show up to events where he knows he is going to be harassed about impeachment and he gave me a nice introduction reading part of my testimony in Congress regarding the Downing Street Minutes that Rep. Conyers conducted in a cramped room in the basement of Congress on June 16, 2005. In the intro he called me the “mother of the modern peace movement.”
A brief recount of the reasons Conyers lists for impeachment in his book is: Deception (lies that led to war), manipulation (of intelligence and the tragic events of 9-11), torture (our new AG is not so sure about torture), retribution (against “enemies” i.e.: Valerie Plame and Bunnatine Greenhouse: Halliburton whistleblower), illegal surveillance (which Congress recently approved) and cover-ups. All of the charges are brilliantly documented and proved by John Conyers’ brilliant staff, that has also inexplicably become anti-impeachment along with most of the rest of the failed and failing 110th Congress.”
Why Human Rights are More Important than National Security article from The Huffington Post
When AWOL Is the Only Escape — A Patriot’s Story article from AlterNet:
“What makes a soldier go AWOL — and later turn himself in?
James Circello sat on the edge of his bed staring at the floral pattern on a generic hotel comforter, contemplating what life would be like in prison. It was early August, and his parents had given him a one-way bus ticket to Lawton, Okla., and told him he was welcome home once he got his life together. U.S. Army Sergeant Circello had been AWOL since April, and with just a few dollars left in his wallet and a dying cell phone battery, he saw two options: turn himself in to military authorities at Ft. Sill, or get the next bus out of town and join hundreds of anti-war veterans convening in St. Louis, Mo.
James was a patriot, and after Sept. 11, joined the Army to defend his country. By 2002 James was in Italy, assigned to the 173rd Airborne Infantry Brigade. The 173rd deployed to Iraq between March 2003 and 2004. Facing redeployment last April, this time to Afghanistan, James asked himself if he could tolerate replicating the disaster he’d been part of in Iraq. When he answered no, a friend drove him to the airport, he flew to the United States and has been AWOL ever since.
Contemplating life in his Oklahoma hotel room, James realized he didn’t go AWOL to avoid a second tour of duty. He wanted to help stop the war, and how better to do that than join with the hundreds of other veterans now opposing the Iraq war? So James grabbed his Army-issued green duffle bag and headed for the Greyhound station. He boarded a bus to take him south to the banks of the Mississippi River and joined an international community of veterans working to put an end to war.
James joins a growing number of disillusioned and newly politicized Iraq War veterans. According to an Associated Press report released last week, the number of AWOL Army soldiers has increased 80 percent since March of 2003. The Army says 4,698 soldiers deserted their posts in fiscal year 2007 — an increase of over 2,000 soldiers from the year before. GI rights advocates say the number is far higher. Soldiers go AWOL for many reasons, and the majority of them don’t denounce the Iraq war. However, an increasing number publicly oppose the war, even though this could mean harsh punishments or jail time.”
The GOP Has Become the Party of Moral Depravity article from AlterNet
Gloria Borger: CIA Leak a Technicality ‘Nobody Cares Anymore’ Wait for Bush’s Memoir for the Truth article and video from Crooks and Liars
Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request article from The Washington Post:
“Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.
In some cases, judges have granted the requests without requiring the government to demonstrate that there is probable cause to believe that a crime is taking place or that the inquiry will yield evidence of a crime. Privacy advocates fear such a practice may expose average Americans to a new level of government scrutiny of their daily lives.”
Judge: CIA Can No Longer Be Trusted In Terror Trials article from Crooks and Liars:
“AP Via Yahoo:
A federal judge expressed frustration Tuesday that the government provided incorrect information about evidence in the prosecution of Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and raised the possibility of ordering a new trial in another high-profile terrorism case.
At a post-trial hearing Tuesday for Ali al-Timimi, a Muslim cleric from Virginia sentenced to life in prison in 2004 for soliciting treason, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said she can no longer trust the CIA and other government agencies on how they represent classified evidence in terror cases.
At least we still have a few activist judges who cling to the Constitution and the rule of law.”
Bush Administration finds another way to prevent new Americans from voting article from AmericaBlog
9/13/01: How Could 9/11 Hijackers Obtain Secret Service Codes video from Google Video:
An ABC news interview with then Attorney General John Ashcroft worth watching.
Off-the-Record Messaging: Useful Security and Privacy for IM video from The University of Waterloo Computer Science Club:
How to protect your IM from snoopers, such as The NSA:
“In this talk, I will discuss “Off-the-Record Messaging” (OTR), a widely used software tool for secure and private instant messaging. I will outline the properties of Useful Security and Privacy Technologies that motivated OTR’s design, compare it to other IM security mechanisms, and talk about its ongoing development directions.”
US knew Musharraf planned to institute emergency rule: report article from The Raw Story
Bush pressman: we lied, and lied, and lied article from The First Post
20,000 vets’ brain injuries not listed in Pentagon tally article from USA Today:
“At least 20,000 U.S. troops who were not classified as wounded during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been found with signs of brain injuries, according to military and veterans records compiled by USA TODAY.
The data, provided by the Army, Navy and Department of Veterans Affairs, show that about five times as many troops sustained brain trauma as the 4,471 officially listed by the Pentagon through Sept. 30. These cases also are not reflected in the Pentagon’s official tally of wounded, which stands at 30,327.”
Preventing the Impending War on Iran article from The Huffington Post:
“Rhetoric flowing out of the White House indicates the Bush administration is planning a military attack on Iran. Officials in Saudi Arabia, a close Bush ally, think the handwriting is on the wall. “George Bush’s tone makes us think he has decided what he is going to do,” according to Rihab Massoud, Prince Bandar ben Sultan’s right-hand man. Saudi Social Affairs Minister Abdel Mohsen Hakas told Le Figaro, “We are getting closer and closer to a confrontation.”
As Bush and Cheney try to whip us into a frenzy about the dangers Iran poses, their argument comes up short. They say Iran is developing nuclear weapons, but Mohamed ElBaradei, director of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), says there is “no evidence” of this. They say Iran is sending deadly weapons into Iraq to kill U.S. troops, but those devices can be manufactured in any Iraqi machine shop. Now the New York Times reports most of the foreign fighters in Iraq come, not from Iran, but from two Bush allies – Saudi Arabia and Libya. An estimated 90 percent of suicide bombings are carried out by foreign fighters. And senior U.S. military officials believe the financial support for Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia comes primarily from Saudi Arabia.
Yet the Bush/Cheney polemics about Iran continue to escalate. In light of the lack of evidence Iran is actually developing nukes, Bush equated Iranian “knowledge” to make nuclear weapons with World War III. “If you’re interested in avoiding World War III,” he said recently, “it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.” This substantially lowers the bar for a U.S. attack on Iran.”
NYT: ‘Just when it seemed safe’ in Baghdad article and video from The Raw Story
Former Prosecutor: DOJ breaking rules for cell phone spying article from The Raw Story:
“‘Unusual’ cell phone tracking a ‘slippery slope’ to Fourth Amendment desecration
A newly revealed program that lets the government turn individuals’ cell phones into pocket-sized tracking devices seems to violate Justice Department policies and is a “slippery slope” to further degrading Americans’ Fourth Amendment privacy guarantees, a former government official said Friday.
“I think it’s a slippery slope,” former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin, a CNN legal analyst, said on American Morning Friday. “You should be following policy and that policy protects US citizens by the Fourth Amendment and our persons, our places, our homes.”
Our Lady of the Law article from Firedoglake
(Worth the read.)
Rove Re-Writes History. Again. article and video from Crooks and Liars:
“I truly don’t think the man is capable of a single honest thought or statement. But this is so transparently dishonest that it’s laughable. Who does this guy think he’s fooling…other than Charlie Rose?”
Is Treason an Impeachable Offense, Senator Reid? article from The Smirking Chimp
Time Magazine’s FISA Fiasco shows how Beltway reporters mislead the country article from Salon News:
How one sleazy ‘reporter’ — with ties to the White House — intentionally misled 4 million readers of Time Magazine into believing, for purely
political reasons, to make people think more false information about Democrats.
“On Wednesday, I documented that Joe Klein’s column in this week’s Time Magazine contained multiple false statements about the new FISA bill — The RESTORE Act — passed by House Democrats last week. The most obvious and harmful inaccuracy was his claim that that bill “would require the surveillance of every foreign-terrorist target’s calls to be approved by the FISA court” and that it therefore “would give terrorists the same legal protections as Americans.” Based on those outright falsehoods, Klein called the House Democrats’ bill “well beyond stupid.”
That day, Klein responded on his blog to what I wrote without acknowledging that he was doing so and without even telling his readers what the criticisms were. He insisted that everything he wrote was accurate (“as I reported, [the bill] obliquely gives foreign terrorists the same procedures as American citizens, if not the same rights”). He also said that the RESTORE Act was just “a partisan waste of time, fodder for lawyers and civil liberties extremists.”
What I want to do is examine Klein’s conduct here to illustrate how so many Beltway reporters (though not all) function. This is not a matter of some obscure error involving details. Because of what Klein did, Time Magazine told its 4 million readers that the bill passed by the House Democrats “would give terrorists the same legal protections as Americans” and thus shows how Democrats still can’t be trusted on national security. The whole column was built on complete, transparent falsehoods about the key provisions of that bill.
Yet look at Klein’s first statement in his “correction”:
I may have made a mistake in my column this week about the FISA legislation passed by the House, although it’s difficult to tell for sure given the technical nature of the bill’s language and fierce disagreements between even moderate Republicans and Democrats on the Committee about what the bill actually does contain.”
Late Night: Wingnut Crap of the Week article from FireDogLake:
“Via Roy, the very prestigious New York Post, as well as Citizen Journalists across the land, are horrified, just horrified, by the results of this poll:
Nearly two-thirds of Americans think it is possible that some federal officials had specific warnings of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, but chose to ignore those warnings, according to a Scripps Howard News Service/Ohio University poll.
The Post reports on these findings in its distinctive idiom:
‘BLAME U.S. FOR 9/11’ IDIOTS IN MAJORITY ‘PLOTS’ THICKEN IN SHOCKING POLL”
George Bush, Al Capone, and Wiseguy Government article from OpEdNews:
“It was in Chicago, that city made notorious by gangster Al Capone, where President Bush at an impromptu news conference in 2004 said if somebody in his crime family broke the law, “that person will be taken care of.” (Ha ha. Actually, Bush said “Administration,” not “crime family.”)
Even so, truer words were never spoken. Bush “took care” of White House consigliere I. Lewis (“Scooter”) Libby by commuting his sentence after Libby’s conviction for lying to a grand jury, didn’t he? And if former White House press secretary Scott McClellan is right that Bush was behind Libby’s bid to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, we’ve got a criminal don-in-chief that can keep his accomplices out of the slammer.
When Capone ran Chicago, owners of 20,000 speakeasies poured his beer, and thousands of cops got paid to help him roll out the barrels. Chicago was so lawless New York Mafioso Lucky Luciano called it “a real goddamn crazy place! Nobody’s safe in the streets!” What might Luciano have said upon visiting don Bush’s Baghdad?
Bush’s power far exceeds anything Al Capone wielded. Bush reached half way around the world to execute enemy Saddam Hussein for his alleged role in 9/11. At least, when mobster Joe (“Joe Cargo”) Valachi made a mistake he confessed, “You can imagine my embarrassment when I killed the wrong guy.” Bush thinks no apology is due for invading Iraq and lynching a fellow wiseguy.
Despite his crimes, Bush may never make the deserved journey from the White House to the Big House. The cowardly Congress allows him and his consiglieres to remain at large. They live well and dine well. When goodfellow Senator John McCain, an ardent Iraq war backer, spotted the dubious fare spread out for him at one campaign stop, he said, “I’d love some spaghetti.” McCain can eat for the many that are going hungry in Iraq tonight, thanks to his votes. Apparently, spaghetti sauce doesn’t remind McCain of you-know-what.”
Flight logs reveal secret rendition article from The Times Online UK
The New Inquisition Against 9/11 Truth article from TruthNews.us
The Bush Rules of Evidence article from The Smirking Chimp
Bush’s ‘Sixteenth Century Concept of Judical Conduct’ article from Crooks and Liars:
“Reports have begun to circulate that the Administration has put together a group of scholars headed by a right-wing activist judge to craft legislation to introduce a new court of Star Chamber, perhaps to be floated in the coming year. As we see in the public pronouncements of the Bush Administration, accusations leveled at detainees in the war on terror are leveled for political effect, and often to parallel partisan political campaigns. If those accusations are rejected by a court, it therefore undermines confidence in the Administration and the Party. Which is why, in the Bush view of justice, a failure to convict is unacceptable. And which is why the Bush view of justice is no justice at all. …”
Napolitano: A Nation Of Sheep video from YouTube:
As unethical and corrupt as FOX news is, it’s hard to believe they actually aired something that makes sense and is true.
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