Remember that a serious attempt at accountability is a tremendous deterrent to future crimes and abuses even if it fails. And remember that they will not tell us we are succeeding until we already have. This is the moment for action. This is the time to pressure your representatives, to work the media, to be the media, to organize your groups and friends and neighbors. This is the moment to punch a hole through the wall that has separated those of us who are subject to laws from those who have not been.
Army units returning from Iraq will go on active duty in the United States, preparing to deal with civil unrest, natural disasters and terrorists attacks. They will field the Army’s “first ever nonlethal package” including tasers.
WASHINGTON (AFP) — US Department of the Interior employees who handled billions of dollars in oil contracts improperly engaged in sex with energy company employees, a report released Wednesday said.
The report drafted by the department’s inspector general Earl Devaney deplored “a culture of ethical failure” in which regulators received gifts including ski junkets and golf outings.
The investigation uncovered a “culture of substance abuse and promiscuity,” Devaney said in a memo to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.
The alleged misconduct involved at least 13 current and former employees of the department’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) accused of rigging contracts and accepting gifts and engaging in “illicit sexual encounters” with subordinates and industry representatives, Devaney said….
Thirteen Nepali men were recruited and held against their will for thirteen months in a human trafficking scheme engineered and perpetrated by Halliburton and its Jordanian contractor, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday in California federal court.
The U.S. military continues its long, steady draw down of troops from Iraq — just yesterday, Marine Corps Commandant announced he’s handing over responsibility for Anbar province to Iraqi forces. Meanwhile, “the United States is spending more money than ever on private security contractors in Iraq,” USA Today reports. “This year, spending on contractors, who protect diplomats, civilian facilities and supply convoys, is projected to exceed $1.2 billion… Most of that bill — about $1 billion — is State Department spending, which is up 13 percent over 2007.”
The origin of the Patriot Act can be traced to the Golden Times of the Nixon Era.
From Wikipedia:
“The Huston plan was an American domestic spying program which originated in the Nixon administration. The plan, named for Nixon advisor Tom Huston who drafted it[1], specifically ordered American intelligence agencies to spy on American civilians - in particular, Anti-Vietnam War activities and civil rights activists.
“J. Edgar Hoover had been doing that stuff for years without any express order. And he didn’t want an express order, and he certainly didn’t want a document floating around with his signature on it saying that he was pledging to do it. But Huston had persuaded Nixon to insist upon this because Nixon felt that the intelligence agencies were dragging their feet. Well, the document was staffed around, and Hoover wrote all these disclaimers, and footnotes which he attached to it, and so did the Army. The Army said, “We can’t do this sort of thing. We have no security. We’re all over the newspapers.” And they were, because my agents were coming out about once every two weeks with a news story. All around the country Army intelligence agents were telling what they knew to TV stations, to print reporters in Chicago sometimes, various newspapers, and the Army was leaking like a sieve. Very embarrassing.”[2]
HERSH: There was a dozen ideas proffered about how to trigger a war. The one that interested me the most was why don’t we build — we in our shipyard — build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats. Put Navy seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up.
Might cost some lives. And it was rejected because you can’t have Americans killing Americans. That’s the kind of — that’s the level of stuff we’re talking about. Provocation. But that was rejected. “
Mukasey has offered a multi-part plan to violate the Constitution. He demanded that Congress declare a new “armed conflict” (which is Bush-speak for a new declaration of war) that would give a president worldwide power to declare anyone a terrorist and hold the person forever - without ever charging anyone with a crime. Mukasey also asked Congress to enact the Bush Administration’s scheme for undermining the recent Supreme Court decision restoring constitutional habeas corpus protections to the detainees at Guantanamo. The main goal of the proposed new Bush rules restricting habeas rights is to try to block federal judges from ever learning the truth about the deliberate and widespread use of torture and abuse inflicted on detainees. Judges would not be allowed to see evidence of torture and abuse and would instead simply have to trust that a president is holding the right people as terrorists.
“Photo of a detainee held by the United States, with his face wired, lips sewn, red eyes and torso sacked. According to digital camera metadata the image was taken on Feb 9, 2003 03:49:25. The 6 Aug 2004 is also mentioned in relation to this photo. The facial wiring is clearly non-medical. The location of the detainee is unknown, possibly the US Bagram Theater Internment Facility in Afghanistan.”
