Friday, March 30, 2007
Politicizing The DoJ
Jason Leopold: DOJ Emails Illustrate Plan to Mislead Congress
"Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his closest advisers have stated repeatedly over the past two months that the selective firings of eight United States attorneys last year were justified because President Bush has the authority to purge federal prosecutors at will, a fact that is not under dispute.
However, the common thread in the thousands of pages of documents released by the Department of Justice in conjunction with a Congressional probe into the US attorney dismissals is that top officials in the DOJ who worked behind the scenes believed that they were doing something improper in selectively dismissing the attorneys and acted with a clear intent to deceive lawmakers if any questions into reasons for the firings arose.
Instead of pointing to the president's broad discretion to fire the prosecutors, Justice officials conceived a plan that they would execute on a specific date and time, and then cooked up a story that they all agreed upon in the event that their actions were scrutinized. Simply put, some former US attorneys argue, the emails and other documents released last week demonstrate that prior to the day the firings took place, officials in the Justice Department appeared to be acting under a guilty state of mind.
The state of mind of officials involved in the firings is part of the reason the US attorney purge has turned into a full-blown political scandal and has led to Congressional hearings.
There 'seems to be an awareness that the various officials involved in the process knew they were putting out misinformation in large measure; that is, this is evidence of an intent to deceive,' said Michael E. Clark, a former US attorney for the Southern District of Texas. 'It may not be criminally actionable, but arguably there could be a civil remedy available to those who were on the receiving end - such as for defamation of character. This episode has gained traction in my eyes for the same reason that spelled the fate of former President Nixon during Watergate. The deception is inexcusable, and particularly so when it wasn't necessary; instead, had Gonzales and others been more forthright, then this could have been a tempest in a teapot,'..."
Who Deserves Foreign Aid?
Military dictatorships who engage in nuclear proliferation, apparently...
The Center for Public Integrity: Pakistan's $4.2 Billion "Blank Check" for US Military Aid
"In the three years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, U.S. military aid to Pakistan soared to $4.2 billion, compared to $9.1 million in the three years before the attacks - a 45,000 percent increase - boosting Pakistan to the top tier of countries receiving this type of funding.
More than half of the new money was provided through a post-9/11 Defense Department program - Coalition Support Funds - not closely tracked by Congress.
This is a key finding of an investigative study by the Center for Public Integrity, using data assembled through Freedom of Information Act requests. Pakistan received $2.3 billion of post-9/11 aid from CSF money in fiscal years 2002 through 2004, a total that surpassed $3 billion in 2005. Not only did this earn it the No. 1 rank among nations receiving CSF money, but Pakistan's take was nearly four times as much as all other countries combined received by 2005.
'With the possible exception of Iraq reconstruction funds, I've never seen a larger blank check for any country than for the Pakistan CSF program,' Tim Rieser, the majority clerk on the Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, told the Center.
CSF money has continued to flow despite growing U.S. concerns over Pakistan's assistance in the global war on terror, and the Congressional Research Service estimates Pakistan's total take of CSF through August 2006 at $4.75 billion.
The administration has requested an additional $1 billion in CSF funding for coalition partners as part of the Defense Department's 2007 emergency budget supplemental request. Congress is currently debating the proposal.
CSF's official purpose is to reimburse allied countries for costs incurred in supporting the U.S. global war on terror. The Center's analysis of CSF and other military aid programs since 9/11 will be detailed in an upcoming investigative series, 'Collateral Damage.'
Pakistan's flood of CSF money made it the third largest recipient of all U.S. military aid and assistance in the three years after 9/11; it trailed only Israel and Egypt. Before 9/11, the South Asian nation received less military aid and assistance from the U.S. than Estonia or Panama, largely because of U.S. sanctions imposed as punishment for Pakistan's covert pursuit of a nuclear weapons program revealed in 1998.
A recent study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates the total value of all American aid, including military, economic, and development assistance, to Pakistan since 9/11 at more than $10 billion..."
Jason Leopold: DOJ Emails Illustrate Plan to Mislead Congress
"Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his closest advisers have stated repeatedly over the past two months that the selective firings of eight United States attorneys last year were justified because President Bush has the authority to purge federal prosecutors at will, a fact that is not under dispute.
However, the common thread in the thousands of pages of documents released by the Department of Justice in conjunction with a Congressional probe into the US attorney dismissals is that top officials in the DOJ who worked behind the scenes believed that they were doing something improper in selectively dismissing the attorneys and acted with a clear intent to deceive lawmakers if any questions into reasons for the firings arose.
Instead of pointing to the president's broad discretion to fire the prosecutors, Justice officials conceived a plan that they would execute on a specific date and time, and then cooked up a story that they all agreed upon in the event that their actions were scrutinized. Simply put, some former US attorneys argue, the emails and other documents released last week demonstrate that prior to the day the firings took place, officials in the Justice Department appeared to be acting under a guilty state of mind.
The state of mind of officials involved in the firings is part of the reason the US attorney purge has turned into a full-blown political scandal and has led to Congressional hearings.
There 'seems to be an awareness that the various officials involved in the process knew they were putting out misinformation in large measure; that is, this is evidence of an intent to deceive,' said Michael E. Clark, a former US attorney for the Southern District of Texas. 'It may not be criminally actionable, but arguably there could be a civil remedy available to those who were on the receiving end - such as for defamation of character. This episode has gained traction in my eyes for the same reason that spelled the fate of former President Nixon during Watergate. The deception is inexcusable, and particularly so when it wasn't necessary; instead, had Gonzales and others been more forthright, then this could have been a tempest in a teapot,'..."
Who Deserves Foreign Aid?
Military dictatorships who engage in nuclear proliferation, apparently...
The Center for Public Integrity: Pakistan's $4.2 Billion "Blank Check" for US Military Aid
"In the three years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, U.S. military aid to Pakistan soared to $4.2 billion, compared to $9.1 million in the three years before the attacks - a 45,000 percent increase - boosting Pakistan to the top tier of countries receiving this type of funding.
More than half of the new money was provided through a post-9/11 Defense Department program - Coalition Support Funds - not closely tracked by Congress.
This is a key finding of an investigative study by the Center for Public Integrity, using data assembled through Freedom of Information Act requests. Pakistan received $2.3 billion of post-9/11 aid from CSF money in fiscal years 2002 through 2004, a total that surpassed $3 billion in 2005. Not only did this earn it the No. 1 rank among nations receiving CSF money, but Pakistan's take was nearly four times as much as all other countries combined received by 2005.
'With the possible exception of Iraq reconstruction funds, I've never seen a larger blank check for any country than for the Pakistan CSF program,' Tim Rieser, the majority clerk on the Senate Appropriations Committee's Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, told the Center.
CSF money has continued to flow despite growing U.S. concerns over Pakistan's assistance in the global war on terror, and the Congressional Research Service estimates Pakistan's total take of CSF through August 2006 at $4.75 billion.
The administration has requested an additional $1 billion in CSF funding for coalition partners as part of the Defense Department's 2007 emergency budget supplemental request. Congress is currently debating the proposal.
CSF's official purpose is to reimburse allied countries for costs incurred in supporting the U.S. global war on terror. The Center's analysis of CSF and other military aid programs since 9/11 will be detailed in an upcoming investigative series, 'Collateral Damage.'
Pakistan's flood of CSF money made it the third largest recipient of all U.S. military aid and assistance in the three years after 9/11; it trailed only Israel and Egypt. Before 9/11, the South Asian nation received less military aid and assistance from the U.S. than Estonia or Panama, largely because of U.S. sanctions imposed as punishment for Pakistan's covert pursuit of a nuclear weapons program revealed in 1998.
A recent study by the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates the total value of all American aid, including military, economic, and development assistance, to Pakistan since 9/11 at more than $10 billion..."
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
The So-Called War On Terror:
When is the government going hold people misusing their list to account? Not having the technology to do so is not an excuse in this day and age...
Democracy Now! - Headlines for March 28, 2007
"Report: Business Use of Terror-Watch List Shutting Out Innocent Customers
A civil rights group is reporting an increasing number of innocent people are being denied transactions by businesses checking their names against the Treasury Department’s terrorist watch list. The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights says credit bureaus, health insurers, car dealerships, employers and landlords have denied business to customers bearing similar names to those on the six-thousand plus list. In one case, a California man was denied a home loan after his credit report flagged his middle name, Hassan, as an alias for one of Saddam Hussein’s sons..."
When is the government going hold people misusing their list to account? Not having the technology to do so is not an excuse in this day and age...
Democracy Now! - Headlines for March 28, 2007
"Report: Business Use of Terror-Watch List Shutting Out Innocent Customers
A civil rights group is reporting an increasing number of innocent people are being denied transactions by businesses checking their names against the Treasury Department’s terrorist watch list. The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights says credit bureaus, health insurers, car dealerships, employers and landlords have denied business to customers bearing similar names to those on the six-thousand plus list. In one case, a California man was denied a home loan after his credit report flagged his middle name, Hassan, as an alias for one of Saddam Hussein’s sons..."
Who Deserves Foreign Aid?
Not countries who value individuals like Gen. Montoya.
Democracy Now! - Headlines for March 27, 2007
"CIA Links Colombian Army Chief to Paramilitaries, Traffickers
In news from Colombia, the CIA has reportedly obtained evidence linking the head of the Colombian army to right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers. According to the Los Angeles Times, a CIA report has concluded General Mario Montoya collaborated with the groups during a military operation on a rebel-controlled shantytown in 2002. At least fourteen people were killed and another forty-six went missing. General Montoya has worked with the Pentagon on military training and on a new hemispheric task force on drug trafficking..."
The Rule Of Law:
Jason Leopold and Matt Renner: White House Use of Outside Email Accounts Questioned
"Emails released by the Department of Justice over the past two weeks in conjunction with a Congressional investigation into the firings of eight US attorneys show that White House officials have communicated with DOJ staffers about the attorney purge, using email accounts maintained by the Republican National Committee in possible violation of the Presidential Records Act.
Using alternative email accounts also creates the appearance of impropriety, lawmakers charged Monday, because it allows White House officials to avoid the usual archival process and the automatic paper trail that is established when they use White House email servers to conduct business. Emails sent through the RNC server can be destroyed.
The Presidential Records Act of 1978 states that the records of a president, his immediate staff, and specific areas of the Executive Office of the President belong to the United States, not to the individual president or his staff. The act further states that the president must 'take all such steps as may be necessary to assure that the activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance of his constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties are adequately documented and that such records are maintained as presidential records pursuant to the requirements of this section and other provisions of law.'
In letters sent Monday to the RNC and the Bush/Cheney 2004 Campaign, Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, urged the two groups to preserve all emails sent by White House officials from their servers because of their relevance to Congressional probes, including the US attorney scandal..."
Washington Post: Ex-Reagan Budget Director Charged
"Federal prosecutors announced conspiracy and securities and bank fraud charges this morning against Reagan-era budget director David A. Stockman, accusing the former Republican lawmaker of misleading investors about the finances of a troubled Michigan auto parts company.
Stockman, 60, surrendered to authorities early today and appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Manhattan this afternoon. He entered a plea of not guilty to the charges and was released on a $1 million bond.
The grand jury indictment includes allegations that Stockman engaged in securities fraud and made overly optimistic statements to investors about his company's financial prospects. The charges are conspiracy, securities fraud, bank fraud, and obstruction of the SEC investigation..."
Killing The Messenger:
BBC News: Iraqi deaths survey 'was robust'
"The British government was advised against publicly criticising a report estimating that 655,000 Iraqis had died due to the war, the BBC has learnt.
Iraqi Health Ministry figures put the toll at less than 10% of the total in the survey, published in the Lancet.
But the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific adviser said the survey's methods were 'close to best practice' and the study design was 'robust'.
Another expert agreed the method was 'tried and tested,'..."
Not countries who value individuals like Gen. Montoya.
Democracy Now! - Headlines for March 27, 2007
"CIA Links Colombian Army Chief to Paramilitaries, Traffickers
In news from Colombia, the CIA has reportedly obtained evidence linking the head of the Colombian army to right-wing paramilitaries and drug traffickers. According to the Los Angeles Times, a CIA report has concluded General Mario Montoya collaborated with the groups during a military operation on a rebel-controlled shantytown in 2002. At least fourteen people were killed and another forty-six went missing. General Montoya has worked with the Pentagon on military training and on a new hemispheric task force on drug trafficking..."
The Rule Of Law:
Jason Leopold and Matt Renner: White House Use of Outside Email Accounts Questioned
"Emails released by the Department of Justice over the past two weeks in conjunction with a Congressional investigation into the firings of eight US attorneys show that White House officials have communicated with DOJ staffers about the attorney purge, using email accounts maintained by the Republican National Committee in possible violation of the Presidential Records Act.
Using alternative email accounts also creates the appearance of impropriety, lawmakers charged Monday, because it allows White House officials to avoid the usual archival process and the automatic paper trail that is established when they use White House email servers to conduct business. Emails sent through the RNC server can be destroyed.
The Presidential Records Act of 1978 states that the records of a president, his immediate staff, and specific areas of the Executive Office of the President belong to the United States, not to the individual president or his staff. The act further states that the president must 'take all such steps as may be necessary to assure that the activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance of his constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties are adequately documented and that such records are maintained as presidential records pursuant to the requirements of this section and other provisions of law.'
In letters sent Monday to the RNC and the Bush/Cheney 2004 Campaign, Congressman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, urged the two groups to preserve all emails sent by White House officials from their servers because of their relevance to Congressional probes, including the US attorney scandal..."
Washington Post: Ex-Reagan Budget Director Charged
"Federal prosecutors announced conspiracy and securities and bank fraud charges this morning against Reagan-era budget director David A. Stockman, accusing the former Republican lawmaker of misleading investors about the finances of a troubled Michigan auto parts company.
Stockman, 60, surrendered to authorities early today and appeared before a federal magistrate judge in Manhattan this afternoon. He entered a plea of not guilty to the charges and was released on a $1 million bond.
The grand jury indictment includes allegations that Stockman engaged in securities fraud and made overly optimistic statements to investors about his company's financial prospects. The charges are conspiracy, securities fraud, bank fraud, and obstruction of the SEC investigation..."
Killing The Messenger:
BBC News: Iraqi deaths survey 'was robust'
"The British government was advised against publicly criticising a report estimating that 655,000 Iraqis had died due to the war, the BBC has learnt.
Iraqi Health Ministry figures put the toll at less than 10% of the total in the survey, published in the Lancet.
But the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific adviser said the survey's methods were 'close to best practice' and the study design was 'robust'.
Another expert agreed the method was 'tried and tested,'..."
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
What Happens When You Don't Treat The 9/11 WTC Crime Scene Like A Crime Scene:
This is profoundly disturbing and I hope enough questions are asked to find out what these people were thinking...
Keith Olbermann: 'Worst' 9/11 memorial
"Every night at 8 p.m. on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann awards his daily pick for 'Worst Person in the World,'...
...our winner [sic] the government of the city of New York, Rudy W. Giuliani, then-mayor. A city contractor and a retired Sanitation Department official say in court papers they witnessed the city putting a rush order on the sifting of the debris from the World Trade Center in October of 2001. Thus, not only were body parts of the victims, some at least, lost, but that some of that debris wound up in the pile of junk used to fill pot holes on the streets of the city. And if you were wondering where New York City’s memorial to the victims of 9/11 was, now you know."
This is profoundly disturbing and I hope enough questions are asked to find out what these people were thinking...
Keith Olbermann: 'Worst' 9/11 memorial
"Every night at 8 p.m. on MSNBC, Keith Olbermann awards his daily pick for 'Worst Person in the World,'...
...our winner [sic] the government of the city of New York, Rudy W. Giuliani, then-mayor. A city contractor and a retired Sanitation Department official say in court papers they witnessed the city putting a rush order on the sifting of the debris from the World Trade Center in October of 2001. Thus, not only were body parts of the victims, some at least, lost, but that some of that debris wound up in the pile of junk used to fill pot holes on the streets of the city. And if you were wondering where New York City’s memorial to the victims of 9/11 was, now you know."
Monday, March 26, 2007
The 4th Estate:
Why cover bad news, when you can cover what you'd like to see instead?
Huffington Post: Time Joins Newsweek In Thinking That Americans Really, Really Don't Care About Afghanistan
"Interesting. This week, Time's cover story is an essay arguing in favor of teaching the Bible in schools, which can be boiled down to this: 'Of course the Bible should be taught in schools. Duh. It's religion that shouldn't be.' On the cover of its international edition is a story that is less easily boiled down: 'The Truth About Talibanistan,' about the resurgence of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan (and also, Pakistan), and how it's 'the next battleground of the war on terrorism.' The story is in the U.S. edition of the magazine but not on the American cover, presumably because Rick Stengel & co. think the Bible will do better newsstand (even though it is a singularly unattractive cover)..."
Why cover bad news, when you can cover what you'd like to see instead?
Huffington Post: Time Joins Newsweek In Thinking That Americans Really, Really Don't Care About Afghanistan
"Interesting. This week, Time's cover story is an essay arguing in favor of teaching the Bible in schools, which can be boiled down to this: 'Of course the Bible should be taught in schools. Duh. It's religion that shouldn't be.' On the cover of its international edition is a story that is less easily boiled down: 'The Truth About Talibanistan,' about the resurgence of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan (and also, Pakistan), and how it's 'the next battleground of the war on terrorism.' The story is in the U.S. edition of the magazine but not on the American cover, presumably because Rick Stengel & co. think the Bible will do better newsstand (even though it is a singularly unattractive cover)..."
Politicizing The DoJ:
Frank Rich: When Will Fredo Get Whacked?
Domestic Surveillance:
City Police Spied Broadly Before G.O.P. Convention
"For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and interviews.
From Albuquerque to Montreal, San Francisco to Miami, undercover New York police officers attended meetings of political groups, posing as sympathizers or fellow activists, the records show.
They made friends, shared meals, swapped e-mail messages and then filed daily reports with the department’s Intelligence Division. Other investigators mined Internet sites and chat rooms..."
Frank Rich: When Will Fredo Get Whacked?
Domestic Surveillance:
City Police Spied Broadly Before G.O.P. Convention
"For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and interviews.
From Albuquerque to Montreal, San Francisco to Miami, undercover New York police officers attended meetings of political groups, posing as sympathizers or fellow activists, the records show.
They made friends, shared meals, swapped e-mail messages and then filed daily reports with the department’s Intelligence Division. Other investigators mined Internet sites and chat rooms..."
Friday, March 23, 2007
What A Humanitarian!
Democracy Now! - Headlines for March 23, 2007
"John Bolton Admits U.S. Resisted Calls for Ceasefire During Lebanon War
John Bolton, the former top US diplomat, has revealed that the Bush administration deliberately resisted calls for an immediate ceasefire during Israel's invasion of Lebanon last summer because it wanted to give Israel more time to carry out military strikes. Bolton – who at the time was the US ambassador to the United Nations -- said the US decided to join efforts to end the conflict only when it was clear Israel's campaign wasn't working. Bolton told the BBC he was 'damned proud of what we did' to prevent an early ceasefire. Bolton also said the US was deeply disappointed at Israel's failure to remove the threat from Hezbollah. More than 1,000 Lebanese civilians and 43 Israeli civilians died in the war. Israel also lost 116 soldiers. The total number of Hezbollah fighters killed is unknown..."
The Environment:
ABC News: : "A federal judge, who served on the appellate court panel that ruled Exxon Mobil's penalty for the Valdez oil spill should be reduced, had taken trips with an organization that is sponsored in part by the oil company.
Watchdog groups are calling for Judge Andrew Kleinfeld to cut his ties with the Law and Economics Center at George Mason University, a non-profit group that gets funding from Exxon Mobil and other large corporations and has hosted the judge on trips for conferences in Washington, Connecticut and California. The LEC paid for travel, lodging, meals and drinks.
Exxon Mobil has donated $215,000 to the LEC since 1998, according to Exxon Mobil annual reports..."
Democracy Now! - Headlines for March 23, 2007
"John Bolton Admits U.S. Resisted Calls for Ceasefire During Lebanon War
John Bolton, the former top US diplomat, has revealed that the Bush administration deliberately resisted calls for an immediate ceasefire during Israel's invasion of Lebanon last summer because it wanted to give Israel more time to carry out military strikes. Bolton – who at the time was the US ambassador to the United Nations -- said the US decided to join efforts to end the conflict only when it was clear Israel's campaign wasn't working. Bolton told the BBC he was 'damned proud of what we did' to prevent an early ceasefire. Bolton also said the US was deeply disappointed at Israel's failure to remove the threat from Hezbollah. More than 1,000 Lebanese civilians and 43 Israeli civilians died in the war. Israel also lost 116 soldiers. The total number of Hezbollah fighters killed is unknown..."
The Environment:
ABC News: : "A federal judge, who served on the appellate court panel that ruled Exxon Mobil's penalty for the Valdez oil spill should be reduced, had taken trips with an organization that is sponsored in part by the oil company.
Watchdog groups are calling for Judge Andrew Kleinfeld to cut his ties with the Law and Economics Center at George Mason University, a non-profit group that gets funding from Exxon Mobil and other large corporations and has hosted the judge on trips for conferences in Washington, Connecticut and California. The LEC paid for travel, lodging, meals and drinks.
Exxon Mobil has donated $215,000 to the LEC since 1998, according to Exxon Mobil annual reports..."
Thursday, March 22, 2007
The So-Called War On Terror:
Democracy Now! - Headlines for March 22, 2007
"U.S. Gives Pakistani Gov't Sophisticated Spy Technology
Meanwhile the Guardian newspaper reports Guardian newspaper reports the Bush administration has been providing the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, with sophisticated new spy technology to trace mobile phones, bug houses and telephone calls, and monitor large volumes of email traffic. The Guardian reports the Bush administration gave Pakistan the technology to help track members of Al Qaeda but the government has also used the technology to track political dissidents. Since 9/11, hundreds of Pakistanis with no ties to Al Qaeda have disappeared after being seized by the ISI. One former CIA official said the Pakistani government now has the ability drive vans down streets and monitor phone conversations taking place in every house they pass..."
Politicizing The DoJ:
...and then refusing to come clean about it.
CNN: Investigation Finds Gap in Justice-White House Emails
"A 16-day gap in e-mail records between the Justice Department and the White House concerning the firing of U.S. attorneys last year has attracted the attention of congressional investigators.
In an investigation into whether seven U.S. attorneys were fired for political rather than professional reasons, the Justice Department on Monday handed over 3,000 pages of documents to the House and Senate Judiciary committees.
But the documents included no correspondence about the firings in the critical time period between November 15, 2006, and December 2, 2006, right before the attorneys were asked for their resignations..."
Democracy Now! - Headlines for March 22, 2007
"U.S. Gives Pakistani Gov't Sophisticated Spy Technology
Meanwhile the Guardian newspaper reports Guardian newspaper reports the Bush administration has been providing the Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, with sophisticated new spy technology to trace mobile phones, bug houses and telephone calls, and monitor large volumes of email traffic. The Guardian reports the Bush administration gave Pakistan the technology to help track members of Al Qaeda but the government has also used the technology to track political dissidents. Since 9/11, hundreds of Pakistanis with no ties to Al Qaeda have disappeared after being seized by the ISI. One former CIA official said the Pakistani government now has the ability drive vans down streets and monitor phone conversations taking place in every house they pass..."
Politicizing The DoJ:
...and then refusing to come clean about it.
CNN: Investigation Finds Gap in Justice-White House Emails
"A 16-day gap in e-mail records between the Justice Department and the White House concerning the firing of U.S. attorneys last year has attracted the attention of congressional investigators.
In an investigation into whether seven U.S. attorneys were fired for political rather than professional reasons, the Justice Department on Monday handed over 3,000 pages of documents to the House and Senate Judiciary committees.
But the documents included no correspondence about the firings in the critical time period between November 15, 2006, and December 2, 2006, right before the attorneys were asked for their resignations..."
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
(Lack Of) Due Process At The FBI:
Oh, you say it's an emergency, so never mind the rules...
Washington Post:FBI Issues New Rules For Getting Phone Records
"The FBI, which has been criticized for improperly gathering telephone records in terrorism cases, has told its agents they may still ask phone companies to voluntarily hand over toll records in emergencies by using a new set of procedures, officials said yesterday. In the most dire emergencies, requests can be submitted to the companies verbally, officials said.
This month, the bureau sent field agents a new 'emergency letter' template for seeking the records, shortly before the public release of a report by the Justice Department's inspector general that documented abuses of emergency phone-records collection by counterterrorism agents, officials said. That report created a furor on Capitol Hill and prompted FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to take personal responsibility...
...Under past procedures, agents sent 'exigent circumstances letters' to phone companies, seeking toll records by asserting there was an emergency. Then they were expected to issue a grand jury subpoena or a 'national security letter,' which legally authorized the collection after the fact. Agents often did not follow up with that paperwork, the inspector general's investigation found.
The new instructions tell agents there is no need to follow up with national security letters or subpoenas. The agents are also told that the new letter template is the preferred method in emergencies but that they may make requests orally, with no paperwork sent to phone companies. Such oral requests have been made over the years in terrorism and kidnapping cases, officials said..."
A Conflict Of Interest:
New York Times: Doctors’ Ties to Drug Makers Are Put on Close View
"Dr. Allan Collins may be the most influential kidney specialist in the country. He is president of the National Kidney Foundation and director of a government-financed research center on kidney disease.
In 2004, the year he was chosen as president-elect of the kidney foundation, the pharmaceutical company Amgen, which makes the most expensive drugs used in the treatment of kidney disease, underwrote more than $1.9 million worth of research and education programs led by Dr. Collins, according to records examined by The New York Times. In 2005, Amgen paid Dr. Collins at least $25,800, mostly in consulting and speaking fees, the records show.
The payments to Dr. Collins and the research center appear in an unusual set of records. They come from Minnesota, the first of a handful of states to pass a law requiring drug makers to disclose payments to doctors. The Minnesota records are a window on the widespread financial ties between pharmaceutical companies and the doctors who prescribe and recommend their products. Patient advocacy groups and many doctors themselves have long complained that drug companies exert undue influence on doctors, but the extent of such payments has been hard to quantify..."
Politicizing The DoJ:
David C. Iglesias: Why I Was Fired
"...United States attorneys have a long history of being insulated from politics. Although we receive our appointments through the political process (I am a Republican who was recommended by Senator Pete Domenici), we are expected to be apolitical once we are in office. I will never forget John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, telling me during the summer of 2001 that politics should play no role during my tenure. I took that message to heart. Little did I know that I could be fired for not being political..."
Think Progress: Former Clinton Chief Of Staff Rebuts Rove Claim That Clinton Purged Prosecutors Too
"At a speech in Little Rock today, Karl Rove described the Bush administration’s purge of federal prosecutors as 'normal and ordinary,' claiming that Clinton did the same thing. 'Clinton, when he came in, replaced all 93 U.S. attorneys,' Rove said. 'When we came in, we ultimately replace most all 93 U.S. attorneys — there are some still left from the Clinton era in place,'...
...Clinton’s former chief of staff John Podesta told ThinkProgress that Rove’s claim is 'pure fiction.' The Clinton administration never fired federal prosecutors as political retribution:
Mr. Rove’s claims today that the Bush administration’s purge of qualified and capable U.S. attorneys is 'normal and ordinary' is pure fiction. Replacing most U.S. attorneys when a new administration comes in — as we did in 1993 and the Bush administration did in 2001 — is not unusual. But the Clinton administration never fired federal prosecutors as pure political retribution. These U.S. attorneys received positive performance reviews from the Justice Department and were then given no reason for their firings.
Earlier this week, Mary Jo White, who was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1993-2002, also stated that the Bush administration’s prosecutor purge is unprecedented in 'modern history':
As White noted, attorneys need to serve 'without fear or favor and in an absolutely apolitical way.' By firing well-respected federal prosecutors and replacing them with Republican loyalists, the Bush administration has politicized the judicial system..."
Oh, you say it's an emergency, so never mind the rules...
Washington Post:FBI Issues New Rules For Getting Phone Records
"The FBI, which has been criticized for improperly gathering telephone records in terrorism cases, has told its agents they may still ask phone companies to voluntarily hand over toll records in emergencies by using a new set of procedures, officials said yesterday. In the most dire emergencies, requests can be submitted to the companies verbally, officials said.
This month, the bureau sent field agents a new 'emergency letter' template for seeking the records, shortly before the public release of a report by the Justice Department's inspector general that documented abuses of emergency phone-records collection by counterterrorism agents, officials said. That report created a furor on Capitol Hill and prompted FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III to take personal responsibility...
...Under past procedures, agents sent 'exigent circumstances letters' to phone companies, seeking toll records by asserting there was an emergency. Then they were expected to issue a grand jury subpoena or a 'national security letter,' which legally authorized the collection after the fact. Agents often did not follow up with that paperwork, the inspector general's investigation found.
The new instructions tell agents there is no need to follow up with national security letters or subpoenas. The agents are also told that the new letter template is the preferred method in emergencies but that they may make requests orally, with no paperwork sent to phone companies. Such oral requests have been made over the years in terrorism and kidnapping cases, officials said..."
A Conflict Of Interest:
New York Times: Doctors’ Ties to Drug Makers Are Put on Close View
"Dr. Allan Collins may be the most influential kidney specialist in the country. He is president of the National Kidney Foundation and director of a government-financed research center on kidney disease.
In 2004, the year he was chosen as president-elect of the kidney foundation, the pharmaceutical company Amgen, which makes the most expensive drugs used in the treatment of kidney disease, underwrote more than $1.9 million worth of research and education programs led by Dr. Collins, according to records examined by The New York Times. In 2005, Amgen paid Dr. Collins at least $25,800, mostly in consulting and speaking fees, the records show.
The payments to Dr. Collins and the research center appear in an unusual set of records. They come from Minnesota, the first of a handful of states to pass a law requiring drug makers to disclose payments to doctors. The Minnesota records are a window on the widespread financial ties between pharmaceutical companies and the doctors who prescribe and recommend their products. Patient advocacy groups and many doctors themselves have long complained that drug companies exert undue influence on doctors, but the extent of such payments has been hard to quantify..."
Politicizing The DoJ:
David C. Iglesias: Why I Was Fired
"...United States attorneys have a long history of being insulated from politics. Although we receive our appointments through the political process (I am a Republican who was recommended by Senator Pete Domenici), we are expected to be apolitical once we are in office. I will never forget John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, telling me during the summer of 2001 that politics should play no role during my tenure. I took that message to heart. Little did I know that I could be fired for not being political..."
Think Progress: Former Clinton Chief Of Staff Rebuts Rove Claim That Clinton Purged Prosecutors Too
"At a speech in Little Rock today, Karl Rove described the Bush administration’s purge of federal prosecutors as 'normal and ordinary,' claiming that Clinton did the same thing. 'Clinton, when he came in, replaced all 93 U.S. attorneys,' Rove said. 'When we came in, we ultimately replace most all 93 U.S. attorneys — there are some still left from the Clinton era in place,'...
...Clinton’s former chief of staff John Podesta told ThinkProgress that Rove’s claim is 'pure fiction.' The Clinton administration never fired federal prosecutors as political retribution:
Mr. Rove’s claims today that the Bush administration’s purge of qualified and capable U.S. attorneys is 'normal and ordinary' is pure fiction. Replacing most U.S. attorneys when a new administration comes in — as we did in 1993 and the Bush administration did in 2001 — is not unusual. But the Clinton administration never fired federal prosecutors as pure political retribution. These U.S. attorneys received positive performance reviews from the Justice Department and were then given no reason for their firings.
We’re used to this White House distorting the facts to blame the Clinton administration for its failures. Apparently, it’s also willing to distort the facts and invoke the Clinton administration to try to justify its bad behavior.
Earlier this week, Mary Jo White, who was U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1993-2002, also stated that the Bush administration’s prosecutor purge is unprecedented in 'modern history':
You serve at the president’s pleasure, no question about that. … However, throughout modern history, my understanding is, you did not change the U.S. attorney during an administration, unless there was some evidence of misconduct or other really quite significant cause to do so. And the expectation was, so long as that was absent, that you would serve out your full four years or eight years as U.S. attorney.
As White noted, attorneys need to serve 'without fear or favor and in an absolutely apolitical way.' By firing well-respected federal prosecutors and replacing them with Republican loyalists, the Bush administration has politicized the judicial system..."
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Setting A Bad Example That Some Can't Resist Following:
Paul Krugman: Don't Cry for Reagan
"As the Bush administration sinks deeper into its multiple quagmires, the personality cult the G.O.P. once built around President Bush has given way to nostalgia for the good old days. The current cover of Time magazine shows a weeping Ronald Reagan, and declares that Republicans 'need to reclaim the Reagan legacy.'
But Republicans shouldn't cry for Ronald Reagan; the truth is, he never left them. There's no need to reclaim the Reagan legacy: Mr. Bush is what Mr. Reagan would have been given the opportunity....
...Why is there such a strong family resemblance between the Reagan years and recent events? Mr. Reagan's administration, like Mr. Bush's, was run by movement conservatives - people who built their careers by serving the alliance of wealthy individuals, corporate interests and the religious right that took shape in the 1960s and 1970s. And both cronyism and abuse of power are part of the movement conservative package.
In part this is because people whose ideology says that government is always the problem, never the solution, see no point in governing well. So they use political power to reward their friends, rather than find people who will actually do their jobs.
If expertise is irrelevant, who gets the jobs? No problem: the interlocking, lavishly financed institutions of movement conservatism, which range from K Street to Fox News, create a vast class of apparatchiks who can be counted on to be 'loyal Bushies.'
The movement's apparatchik culture, in turn, explains much of its contempt for the rule of law. Someone who has risen through the ranks of a movement that prizes political loyalty above all isn't likely to balk at, say, using bogus claims of voter fraud to disenfranchise Democrats, or suppressing potentially damaging investigations of Republicans. As Franklin Foer of The New Republic has pointed out, in College Republican elections, dirty tricks and double crosses are considered acceptable, even praiseworthy..."
Paul Krugman: Don't Cry for Reagan
"As the Bush administration sinks deeper into its multiple quagmires, the personality cult the G.O.P. once built around President Bush has given way to nostalgia for the good old days. The current cover of Time magazine shows a weeping Ronald Reagan, and declares that Republicans 'need to reclaim the Reagan legacy.'
But Republicans shouldn't cry for Ronald Reagan; the truth is, he never left them. There's no need to reclaim the Reagan legacy: Mr. Bush is what Mr. Reagan would have been given the opportunity....
...Why is there such a strong family resemblance between the Reagan years and recent events? Mr. Reagan's administration, like Mr. Bush's, was run by movement conservatives - people who built their careers by serving the alliance of wealthy individuals, corporate interests and the religious right that took shape in the 1960s and 1970s. And both cronyism and abuse of power are part of the movement conservative package.
In part this is because people whose ideology says that government is always the problem, never the solution, see no point in governing well. So they use political power to reward their friends, rather than find people who will actually do their jobs.
If expertise is irrelevant, who gets the jobs? No problem: the interlocking, lavishly financed institutions of movement conservatism, which range from K Street to Fox News, create a vast class of apparatchiks who can be counted on to be 'loyal Bushies.'
The movement's apparatchik culture, in turn, explains much of its contempt for the rule of law. Someone who has risen through the ranks of a movement that prizes political loyalty above all isn't likely to balk at, say, using bogus claims of voter fraud to disenfranchise Democrats, or suppressing potentially damaging investigations of Republicans. As Franklin Foer of The New Republic has pointed out, in College Republican elections, dirty tricks and double crosses are considered acceptable, even praiseworthy..."
Monday, March 19, 2007
The So-Called War On Terror:
Jeremy Scahill:Bush's Shadow Army
"On September 10, 2001, before most Americans had heard of Al Qaeda or imagined the possibility of a 'war on terror,' Donald Rumsfeld stepped to the podium at the Pentagon to deliver one of his first major addresses as Defense Secretary under President George W. Bush. Standing before the former corporate executives he had tapped as his top deputies overseeing the high-stakes business of military contracting--many of them from firms like Enron, General Dynamics and Aerospace Corporation--Rumsfeld issued a declaration of war..."
Greg Palast: It’s STILL The Oil:Secret Condi Meeting on Oil Before Invasion
"Four years ago this week, the tanks rolled for what President Bush originally called, 'Operation Iraqi Liberation' — O.I.L.
I kid you not.
And it was four years ago that, from the White House, George Bush, declaring war, said, 'I want to talk to the Iraqi people.' That Dick Cheney didn’t tell Bush that Iraqis speak Arabic ... well, never mind. I expected the President to say something like, 'Our troops are coming to liberate you, so don’t shoot them.' Instead, Mr. Bush told, the Iraqis, 'Do not destroy oil wells,'..."
Jeremy Scahill:Bush's Shadow Army
"On September 10, 2001, before most Americans had heard of Al Qaeda or imagined the possibility of a 'war on terror,' Donald Rumsfeld stepped to the podium at the Pentagon to deliver one of his first major addresses as Defense Secretary under President George W. Bush. Standing before the former corporate executives he had tapped as his top deputies overseeing the high-stakes business of military contracting--many of them from firms like Enron, General Dynamics and Aerospace Corporation--Rumsfeld issued a declaration of war..."
Greg Palast: It’s STILL The Oil:Secret Condi Meeting on Oil Before Invasion
"Four years ago this week, the tanks rolled for what President Bush originally called, 'Operation Iraqi Liberation' — O.I.L.
I kid you not.
And it was four years ago that, from the White House, George Bush, declaring war, said, 'I want to talk to the Iraqi people.' That Dick Cheney didn’t tell Bush that Iraqis speak Arabic ... well, never mind. I expected the President to say something like, 'Our troops are coming to liberate you, so don’t shoot them.' Instead, Mr. Bush told, the Iraqis, 'Do not destroy oil wells,'..."
Thursday, March 15, 2007
The Unspoken Casus Belli:
Antonia Juhasz: Whose Oil Is It, Anyway?
"Today more than three-quarters of the world’s oil is owned and controlled by governments. It wasn’t always this way.
Until about 35 years ago, the world’s oil was largely in the hands of seven corporations based in the United States and Europe. Those seven have since merged into four: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP. They are among the world’s largest and most powerful financial empires. But ever since they lost their exclusive control of the oil to the governments, the companies have been trying to get it back.
Iraq’s oil reserves — thought to be the second largest in the world — have always been high on the corporate wish list. In 1998, Kenneth Derr, then chief executive of Chevron, told a San Francisco audience, 'Iraq possesses huge reserves of oil and gas — reserves I’d love Chevron to have access to.'
A new oil law set to go before the Iraqi Parliament this month would, if passed, go a long way toward helping the oil companies achieve their goal..."
Antonia Juhasz: Whose Oil Is It, Anyway?
"Today more than three-quarters of the world’s oil is owned and controlled by governments. It wasn’t always this way.
Until about 35 years ago, the world’s oil was largely in the hands of seven corporations based in the United States and Europe. Those seven have since merged into four: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP. They are among the world’s largest and most powerful financial empires. But ever since they lost their exclusive control of the oil to the governments, the companies have been trying to get it back.
Iraq’s oil reserves — thought to be the second largest in the world — have always been high on the corporate wish list. In 1998, Kenneth Derr, then chief executive of Chevron, told a San Francisco audience, 'Iraq possesses huge reserves of oil and gas — reserves I’d love Chevron to have access to.'
A new oil law set to go before the Iraqi Parliament this month would, if passed, go a long way toward helping the oil companies achieve their goal..."
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
The Rule Of Law:
Tom Engelhardt: The Seymour Hersh Mystery
"Let me see if I've got this straight. Perhaps two years ago, an 'informal' meeting of 'veterans' of the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal - holding positions in the Bush administration - was convened by Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams. Discussed were the 'lessons learned' from that labyrinthine, secret, and illegal arms-for-money-for-arms deal involving the Israelis, the Iranians, the Saudis, and the Contras of Nicaragua, among others - and meant to evade the Boland Amendment, a congressionally passed attempt to outlaw Reagan administration assistance to the anti-communist Contras. In terms of getting around Congress, the Iran-Contra vets concluded, the complex operation had been a success - and would have worked far better if the CIA and the military had been kept out of the loop and the whole thing had been run out of the Vice President's office..."
Democracy Now! - It Can Happen Here: Journalist Joe Conason on "Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush"
"AMY GOODMAN: Why did you choose that title?
JOE CONASON: That’s the title -- well, there was a book in 1935 written by Sinclair Lewis called It Can't Happen Here, which was kind of a satirical novel about the rise of fascism in the United States, which doesn’t sound like a very funny subject, but he managed to bring some humor to a very grim subject, which was our descent into an authoritarian state after the 1936 election.
Sinclair Lewis was married at the time to a foreign correspondent named Dorothy Thompson, who was one of the greatest of her time and maybe of all time, who had been kicked out of Nazi Germany in 1934 and had come home -- for telling the truth about Hitler -- and had come home and basically spent a lot of time telling her husband that the world was on the verge of a potential fascist takeover and he ought to try to do something about it. And this is why he wrote this novel.
I read that book at the urging of my editor at St. Martin's Press, and it occurred to me that there were many striking parallels, actually, between what Sinclair Lewis had imagined as the kind of authoritarianism that could come to America and some of the things that we had been seeing in the last several years here..."
Tom Engelhardt: The Seymour Hersh Mystery
"Let me see if I've got this straight. Perhaps two years ago, an 'informal' meeting of 'veterans' of the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal - holding positions in the Bush administration - was convened by Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams. Discussed were the 'lessons learned' from that labyrinthine, secret, and illegal arms-for-money-for-arms deal involving the Israelis, the Iranians, the Saudis, and the Contras of Nicaragua, among others - and meant to evade the Boland Amendment, a congressionally passed attempt to outlaw Reagan administration assistance to the anti-communist Contras. In terms of getting around Congress, the Iran-Contra vets concluded, the complex operation had been a success - and would have worked far better if the CIA and the military had been kept out of the loop and the whole thing had been run out of the Vice President's office..."
Democracy Now! - It Can Happen Here: Journalist Joe Conason on "Authoritarian Peril in the Age of Bush"
"AMY GOODMAN: Why did you choose that title?
JOE CONASON: That’s the title -- well, there was a book in 1935 written by Sinclair Lewis called It Can't Happen Here, which was kind of a satirical novel about the rise of fascism in the United States, which doesn’t sound like a very funny subject, but he managed to bring some humor to a very grim subject, which was our descent into an authoritarian state after the 1936 election.
Sinclair Lewis was married at the time to a foreign correspondent named Dorothy Thompson, who was one of the greatest of her time and maybe of all time, who had been kicked out of Nazi Germany in 1934 and had come home -- for telling the truth about Hitler -- and had come home and basically spent a lot of time telling her husband that the world was on the verge of a potential fascist takeover and he ought to try to do something about it. And this is why he wrote this novel.
I read that book at the urging of my editor at St. Martin's Press, and it occurred to me that there were many striking parallels, actually, between what Sinclair Lewis had imagined as the kind of authoritarianism that could come to America and some of the things that we had been seeing in the last several years here..."
Friday, March 09, 2007
The Retaliatory Leak:
Ray McGovern: Why Cheney Lost It When Joe Wilson Spoke Out
"Testimony at the Libby trial showed a vice president obsessed with retaliating against former ambassador Joseph Wilson for writing, in the New York Times op-ed section on July 6, 2003, that intelligence had been 'twisted' to justify attacking Iraq. How to explain why the normally stoic, phlegmatic Cheney went off the deep end?..."
Politicizing the DoJ:
Raw Story: Krugman: Bigger scandal involves US attorneys still in office
"In a column on 'the growing scandal over the firing of federal prosecutors,' New York Times columnist Paul Krugman argues that 'it is becoming clear that the politicization of the Justice Department was a key component of the Bush administration's attempt to create a permanent Republican lock on power.'
'For now, the nation's focus is on the eight federal prosecutors fired by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales,' Krugman writes. 'In January, Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee, under oath, that he 'would never, ever make a change in a United States attorney for political reasons.' But it is already clear that he did indeed dismiss all eight prosecutors for political reasons -- some because they would not use their offices to provide electoral help to the GOP, and the others probably because they refused to soft-pedal investigations of corrupt Republicans,'..."
Raw Story: Top Republican aide implicated in attorney firing probe: "A senior aide to Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) has been implicated in the controversial firing of eight U.S. attorneys by the Bush administration, which Democrats believe may have been politically motivated, The Hill reports..."
The Rule of Law:
ABC News: The Blotter
"The FBI repeatedly failed to follow the strict guidelines of the Patriot Act when its agents took advantage of a new provision allowing the FBI to obtain phone and financial records without a court order, according to a report to be made public Friday by the Justice Department's Inspector General.
The report, in classified and unclassified versions, remains closely held, but Washington officials who have seen it tell ABC News it documents 'numerous lapses' and describe it as 'scathing' and 'not a pretty picture for the FBI.'
FBI Director Robert Mueller is scheduled to brief Congress on the report at noon."
Iran:
Noam Chomsky: A predator becomes more dangerous when wounded
"For the US, the primary issue in the Middle East has been, and remains, effective control of its unparalleled energy resources. Access is a secondary matter. Once the oil is on the seas it goes anywhere. Control is understood to be an instrument of global dominance. Iranian influence in the 'crescent' challenges US control. By an accident of geography, the world's major oil resources are in largely Shia areas of the Middle East: southern Iraq, adjacent regions of Saudi Arabia and Iran, with some of the major reserves of natural gas as well. Washington's worst nightmare would be a loose Shia alliance controlling most of the world's oil and independent of the US.
Such a bloc, if it emerges, might even join the Asian Energy Security Grid based in China. Iran could be a lynchpin. If the Bush planners bring that about, they will have seriously undermined the US position of power in the world.
To Washington, Tehran's principal offence has been its defiance, going back to the overthrow of the Shah in 1979 and the hostage crisis at the US embassy. In retribution, Washington turned to support Saddam Hussein's aggression against Iran, which left hundreds of thousands dead. Then came murderous sanctions and, under Bush, rejection of Iranian diplomatic efforts...
...The US invasion of Iraq virtually instructed Iran to develop a nuclear deterrent. The message was that the US attacks at will, as long as the target is defenceless. Now Iran is ringed by US forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and the Persian Gulf, and close by are nuclear-armed Pakistan and Israel, the regional superpower, thanks to US support..."
Ray McGovern: Why Cheney Lost It When Joe Wilson Spoke Out
"Testimony at the Libby trial showed a vice president obsessed with retaliating against former ambassador Joseph Wilson for writing, in the New York Times op-ed section on July 6, 2003, that intelligence had been 'twisted' to justify attacking Iraq. How to explain why the normally stoic, phlegmatic Cheney went off the deep end?..."
Politicizing the DoJ:
Raw Story: Krugman: Bigger scandal involves US attorneys still in office
"In a column on 'the growing scandal over the firing of federal prosecutors,' New York Times columnist Paul Krugman argues that 'it is becoming clear that the politicization of the Justice Department was a key component of the Bush administration's attempt to create a permanent Republican lock on power.'
'For now, the nation's focus is on the eight federal prosecutors fired by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales,' Krugman writes. 'In January, Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee, under oath, that he 'would never, ever make a change in a United States attorney for political reasons.' But it is already clear that he did indeed dismiss all eight prosecutors for political reasons -- some because they would not use their offices to provide electoral help to the GOP, and the others probably because they refused to soft-pedal investigations of corrupt Republicans,'..."
Raw Story: Top Republican aide implicated in attorney firing probe: "A senior aide to Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA) has been implicated in the controversial firing of eight U.S. attorneys by the Bush administration, which Democrats believe may have been politically motivated, The Hill reports..."
The Rule of Law:
ABC News: The Blotter
"The FBI repeatedly failed to follow the strict guidelines of the Patriot Act when its agents took advantage of a new provision allowing the FBI to obtain phone and financial records without a court order, according to a report to be made public Friday by the Justice Department's Inspector General.
The report, in classified and unclassified versions, remains closely held, but Washington officials who have seen it tell ABC News it documents 'numerous lapses' and describe it as 'scathing' and 'not a pretty picture for the FBI.'
FBI Director Robert Mueller is scheduled to brief Congress on the report at noon."
Iran:
Noam Chomsky: A predator becomes more dangerous when wounded
"For the US, the primary issue in the Middle East has been, and remains, effective control of its unparalleled energy resources. Access is a secondary matter. Once the oil is on the seas it goes anywhere. Control is understood to be an instrument of global dominance. Iranian influence in the 'crescent' challenges US control. By an accident of geography, the world's major oil resources are in largely Shia areas of the Middle East: southern Iraq, adjacent regions of Saudi Arabia and Iran, with some of the major reserves of natural gas as well. Washington's worst nightmare would be a loose Shia alliance controlling most of the world's oil and independent of the US.
Such a bloc, if it emerges, might even join the Asian Energy Security Grid based in China. Iran could be a lynchpin. If the Bush planners bring that about, they will have seriously undermined the US position of power in the world.
To Washington, Tehran's principal offence has been its defiance, going back to the overthrow of the Shah in 1979 and the hostage crisis at the US embassy. In retribution, Washington turned to support Saddam Hussein's aggression against Iran, which left hundreds of thousands dead. Then came murderous sanctions and, under Bush, rejection of Iranian diplomatic efforts...
...The US invasion of Iraq virtually instructed Iran to develop a nuclear deterrent. The message was that the US attacks at will, as long as the target is defenceless. Now Iran is ringed by US forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkey and the Persian Gulf, and close by are nuclear-armed Pakistan and Israel, the regional superpower, thanks to US support..."
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Voter Disenfranchisement:
Greg Palast: Bush’s New US Attorney a Criminal?
"There’s only one thing worse than sacking an honest prosecutor. That’s replacing an honest prosecutor with a criminal.
There was one big hoohah in Washington yesterday as House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers pulled down the pants on George Bush’s firing of US Attorneys to expose a scheme to punish prosecutors who wouldn’t bend to political pressure.
But the Committee missed a big one: Timothy Griffin, Karl Rove’s assistant, the President’s pick as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Griffin, according to BBC Television, was the hidden hand behind a scheme to wipe out the voting rights of 70,000 citizens prior to the 2004 election.
Key voters on Griffin’s hit list: Black soldiers and homeless men and women. Nice guy, eh? Naughty or nice, however, is not the issue. Targeting voters where race is a factor is a felony crime under the Voting Rights Act of 1965..."
Energy:
NY Times: Venture Capitalists Want to Put Some Algae in Your Tank
"The idea of replacing crude oil with algae may seem like a harebrained way to clean up the planet and bolster national security..."
Greg Palast: Bush’s New US Attorney a Criminal?
"There’s only one thing worse than sacking an honest prosecutor. That’s replacing an honest prosecutor with a criminal.
There was one big hoohah in Washington yesterday as House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers pulled down the pants on George Bush’s firing of US Attorneys to expose a scheme to punish prosecutors who wouldn’t bend to political pressure.
But the Committee missed a big one: Timothy Griffin, Karl Rove’s assistant, the President’s pick as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Griffin, according to BBC Television, was the hidden hand behind a scheme to wipe out the voting rights of 70,000 citizens prior to the 2004 election.
Key voters on Griffin’s hit list: Black soldiers and homeless men and women. Nice guy, eh? Naughty or nice, however, is not the issue. Targeting voters where race is a factor is a felony crime under the Voting Rights Act of 1965..."
Energy:
NY Times: Venture Capitalists Want to Put Some Algae in Your Tank
"The idea of replacing crude oil with algae may seem like a harebrained way to clean up the planet and bolster national security..."
Monday, March 05, 2007
Religion, Politics & Education:
Glenn Smith: Warren 'Anti-CopernicaChisum'
"It's not surprising that the earth doesn't move for Warren Chisum, and maybe it's not surprising that he blames a Jewish conspiracy for it.
Still, it's enough to set the world a-spinning that the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, the most powerful committee in the House, distributed to legislators a memo pitching crazed wingers who believe the earth stands still -- doesn't spin on its axis or revolve around the Sun -- that Copernicus was part of a Jewish conspiracy to undermine the Old Testament. That would be the same Old Testament that was written by the folks Chisum's friends say are conspiring to undermine it.
Chisum has no problem believing that GOP interests revolve around the pocketbooks of its wealthy contributors. And that's why he wants to take dollars stolen from middle class Texans in higher tuition, double-taxed highways, underpaid teachers, sick kids and teachers and cut property taxes for those who own a lot of property -- businesses and the very, very wealthy..."
The National Surveillance State:
Wired: Top Secret: We're Wiretapping You
"It could be a scene from Kafka or Brazil. Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked 'top secret.' And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls.
You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means. Then, two months later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and orders you to forget you ever saw it.
By all accounts, that's what happened to Washington D.C. attorney Wendell Belew in August 2004. And it happened at a time when no one outside a small group of high-ranking officials and workaday spooks knew the National Security Agency was listening in on Americans' phone calls without warrants. Belew didn't know what to make of the episode. But now, thanks to that government gaffe, he and a colleague have the distinction of being the only Americans who can prove they were specifically eavesdropped upon by the NSA's surveillance program..."
Glenn Smith: Warren 'Anti-CopernicaChisum'
"It's not surprising that the earth doesn't move for Warren Chisum, and maybe it's not surprising that he blames a Jewish conspiracy for it.
Still, it's enough to set the world a-spinning that the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, the most powerful committee in the House, distributed to legislators a memo pitching crazed wingers who believe the earth stands still -- doesn't spin on its axis or revolve around the Sun -- that Copernicus was part of a Jewish conspiracy to undermine the Old Testament. That would be the same Old Testament that was written by the folks Chisum's friends say are conspiring to undermine it.
Chisum has no problem believing that GOP interests revolve around the pocketbooks of its wealthy contributors. And that's why he wants to take dollars stolen from middle class Texans in higher tuition, double-taxed highways, underpaid teachers, sick kids and teachers and cut property taxes for those who own a lot of property -- businesses and the very, very wealthy..."
The National Surveillance State:
Wired: Top Secret: We're Wiretapping You
"It could be a scene from Kafka or Brazil. Imagine a government agency, in a bureaucratic foul-up, accidentally gives you a copy of a document marked 'top secret.' And it contains a log of some of your private phone calls.
You read it and ponder it and wonder what it all means. Then, two months later, the FBI shows up at your door, demands the document back and orders you to forget you ever saw it.
By all accounts, that's what happened to Washington D.C. attorney Wendell Belew in August 2004. And it happened at a time when no one outside a small group of high-ranking officials and workaday spooks knew the National Security Agency was listening in on Americans' phone calls without warrants. Belew didn't know what to make of the episode. But now, thanks to that government gaffe, he and a colleague have the distinction of being the only Americans who can prove they were specifically eavesdropped upon by the NSA's surveillance program..."
How Not To Treat Consumers:
George Gombossy: Best Buy Confirms It Has Secret Website
"Under pressure from state investigators, Best Buy is now confirming my reporting that its stores have a secret intranet site that has been used to block some consumers from getting cheaper prices advertised on BestBuy.com.
Company spokesman Justin Barber, who in early February denied the existence of the internal website that could be accessed only by employees, says his company is 'cooperating fully' with the state attorney general's investigation..."
Our (Fleeting) Constitutional Rights:
NY Times Editorial: The Must-Do List
"The Bush administration’s assault on some of the founding principles of American democracy marches onward despite the Democratic victory in the 2006 elections. The new Democratic majorities in Congress can block the sort of noxious measures that the Republican majority rubber-stamped. But preventing new assaults on civil liberties is not nearly enough...
...Our list starts with three fundamental tasks:
...Restore Habeas Corpus
...Stop Illegal Spying
...Ban Torture, Really
...Close the C.I.A. Prisons
...Account for ‘Ghost Prisoners’
...Ban Extraordinary Rendition
...Tighten the Definition of Combatant
...Screen Prisoners Fairly and Effectively
...Ban Tainted Evidence
...Ban Secret Evidence
...Better Define ‘Classified’ Evidence
...Respect the Right to Counsel...
...Beyond all these huge tasks, Congress should halt the federal government’s race to classify documents to avoid public scrutiny — 15.6 million in 2005, nearly double the 2001 number. It should also reverse the grievous harm this administration has done to the Freedom of Information Act by encouraging agencies to reject requests for documents whenever possible. Congress should curtail F.B.I. spying on nonviolent antiwar groups and revisit parts of the Patriot Act that allow this practice.
The United States should apologize to a Canadian citizen and a German citizen, both innocent, who were kidnapped and tortured by American agents.
Oh yes, and it is time to close the Guantánamo camp. It is a despicable symbol of the abuses committed by this administration (with Congress’s complicity) in the name of fighting terrorism."
WIRED Blog: The Pentagon Wants TiVo (to Watch You)
"I always love how the Pentagon, after spending billions of dollars on Rube Goldberg contraptions, suddenly discovers that useful things might actually exist in the commercial sector. And so yet another Pentagon advisory panel has picked up on this fact.
Reuters yesterday reported on a recently issued study on future technologies written by the Pentagon's Defense Science Board. More than anything, it seems these outside advisers want a surveillance system that would put Big Brother to shame, and they're looking at the commercial sector to provide it:
William Schneider, the board's chairman, said a key finding was a need to track individuals, objects and activities -- much smaller targets than the Cold War's regiments, battalions and naval battle groups.
'It's really an appeal to capture and put into military systems the know-how that's already available in the market place,' Schneider said in a telephone interview.
So, after reviewing the available technology, what specific types of things do they suggest the military needs? Well, one example, is the Pentagon wants TiVo, according the report (available as a PDF here): To counter these new threats, technology exists, or could be developed, to provide new levels of spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution and diversity. Furthermore, the ability to record terabyte and larger databases will provide an omnipresent knowledge of the present and the past that can be used to rewind battle space observations in TiVo-like fashion and to run recorded time backwards to help identify and locate even low-level enemy forces. For example, after a car bomb detonates, one would have the ability to play high-resolution data backward in time to follows the vehicle back to the source, and then use that knowledge to focus collection and gain additional information by organizing and searching through archived data.
Much of the report comes as little surprise: the science advisers want to move away from Cold War-era weapons and toward technologies that can be used in urban conflicts. Small sensors, finding better ways to use data, and an emphasis on increasingly popular 'influence operations' all figure big."
George Gombossy: Best Buy Confirms It Has Secret Website
"Under pressure from state investigators, Best Buy is now confirming my reporting that its stores have a secret intranet site that has been used to block some consumers from getting cheaper prices advertised on BestBuy.com.
Company spokesman Justin Barber, who in early February denied the existence of the internal website that could be accessed only by employees, says his company is 'cooperating fully' with the state attorney general's investigation..."
Our (Fleeting) Constitutional Rights:
NY Times Editorial: The Must-Do List
"The Bush administration’s assault on some of the founding principles of American democracy marches onward despite the Democratic victory in the 2006 elections. The new Democratic majorities in Congress can block the sort of noxious measures that the Republican majority rubber-stamped. But preventing new assaults on civil liberties is not nearly enough...
...Our list starts with three fundamental tasks:
...Restore Habeas Corpus
...Stop Illegal Spying
...Ban Torture, Really
...Close the C.I.A. Prisons
...Account for ‘Ghost Prisoners’
...Ban Extraordinary Rendition
...Tighten the Definition of Combatant
...Screen Prisoners Fairly and Effectively
...Ban Tainted Evidence
...Ban Secret Evidence
...Better Define ‘Classified’ Evidence
...Respect the Right to Counsel...
...Beyond all these huge tasks, Congress should halt the federal government’s race to classify documents to avoid public scrutiny — 15.6 million in 2005, nearly double the 2001 number. It should also reverse the grievous harm this administration has done to the Freedom of Information Act by encouraging agencies to reject requests for documents whenever possible. Congress should curtail F.B.I. spying on nonviolent antiwar groups and revisit parts of the Patriot Act that allow this practice.
The United States should apologize to a Canadian citizen and a German citizen, both innocent, who were kidnapped and tortured by American agents.
Oh yes, and it is time to close the Guantánamo camp. It is a despicable symbol of the abuses committed by this administration (with Congress’s complicity) in the name of fighting terrorism."
WIRED Blog: The Pentagon Wants TiVo (to Watch You)
"I always love how the Pentagon, after spending billions of dollars on Rube Goldberg contraptions, suddenly discovers that useful things might actually exist in the commercial sector. And so yet another Pentagon advisory panel has picked up on this fact.
Reuters yesterday reported on a recently issued study on future technologies written by the Pentagon's Defense Science Board. More than anything, it seems these outside advisers want a surveillance system that would put Big Brother to shame, and they're looking at the commercial sector to provide it:
William Schneider, the board's chairman, said a key finding was a need to track individuals, objects and activities -- much smaller targets than the Cold War's regiments, battalions and naval battle groups.
'It's really an appeal to capture and put into military systems the know-how that's already available in the market place,' Schneider said in a telephone interview.
So, after reviewing the available technology, what specific types of things do they suggest the military needs? Well, one example, is the Pentagon wants TiVo, according the report (available as a PDF here): To counter these new threats, technology exists, or could be developed, to provide new levels of spatial, temporal, and spectral resolution and diversity. Furthermore, the ability to record terabyte and larger databases will provide an omnipresent knowledge of the present and the past that can be used to rewind battle space observations in TiVo-like fashion and to run recorded time backwards to help identify and locate even low-level enemy forces. For example, after a car bomb detonates, one would have the ability to play high-resolution data backward in time to follows the vehicle back to the source, and then use that knowledge to focus collection and gain additional information by organizing and searching through archived data.
Much of the report comes as little surprise: the science advisers want to move away from Cold War-era weapons and toward technologies that can be used in urban conflicts. Small sensors, finding better ways to use data, and an emphasis on increasingly popular 'influence operations' all figure big."
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Nukes:
Harvey Wasserman: The Sham of Nuke Power & Patrick Moore
"Vermont was recently disgraced by an industry-sponsored visit from Patrick Moore, who claims to be a 'founder' of Greenpeace, and who is out selling nuclear power as a 'green' technology.
The two claims are roughly equal in the baldness of their falsehood.
But the impacts of the lies about Vermont Yankee are far more serious. Vermont is now at a crossroads in its energy and environmental future. The reactor is old and infirm. Every day it operates heightens the odds on a major accident.
In a world beset by terror, there is no more vulnerable target than an aged reactor like Vermont Yankee. Its core is laden with built-up radiation accumulated over the decades. Its environs are burdened with supremely radioactive spent fuel. Its elderly core and containment are among the most fragile that exist.
Despite industry claims, VY's high-level nuke waste is going nowhere. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Edward McGaffigan has told the New York Times he believes the Yucca Mountain waste repository cannot open for at least another 17-20 years, if ever. At current production levels, it will by then require yet another repository at least that size to handle the spent fuel that will by then be stacked at reactors like VY. In short: the dry casks stacked at Vermont Yankee could comprise what amounts to a permanent high level nuke dump, on the shores of the Connecticut River.
The Better Business Bureau recently recommended that the Nuclear Energy Institute pull its advertising that claims atomic reactors are clean and nonpolluting. The NEI is an industry front group. The BBB says that reactors cause thermal pollution in their outtake pipes and cooling towers, and also create substantial amounts of greenhouse gases in uranium production. In short, the Better Business Bureau has punctured the industry's claim the Vermont Yankee and other reactors are any kind of solution for climate chaos. The idea that VY is a 'green' facility is utter nonsense..."
Iran:
Ray McGovern: Iran's Very Bad N-Word
"...While Cheney was abroad, others persuaded the president to send representatives next month to a conference in Baghdad, in which representatives of Syria and Iran also are expected to participate to discuss the situation in Iraq. In addition, foreign ministers of the same countries plan to meet in early April.
If Cheney does not sabotage such talks when he gets home, they could lead to direct negotiations with Iran on the nuclear question. It makes no sense at all to refuse to talk with Iran, which has as many historical grievances against the U.S. as vice versa. (Someone please tell the president.) With Cheney playing the heavy, it has not been possible to penetrate the praetorian guard for candid discussions with the president. The sooner that can be done the better. Hurry! Before Cheney gets home.
The ultimate aim, in my view, should be a Middle East free of nuclear weapons. That, I am confident, would stop whatever plans the Iranians have to develop nuclear weapons. And please do not tell me that, because Israel would not agree, we cannot move in this direction. The U.S. and others can provide the necessary guarantees of the security of Israel. And Israeli intransigence on this issue is not a viable middle- or long-term strategy that serves Israel’s interest or the interest of justice and peace."
Harvey Wasserman: The Sham of Nuke Power & Patrick Moore
"Vermont was recently disgraced by an industry-sponsored visit from Patrick Moore, who claims to be a 'founder' of Greenpeace, and who is out selling nuclear power as a 'green' technology.
The two claims are roughly equal in the baldness of their falsehood.
But the impacts of the lies about Vermont Yankee are far more serious. Vermont is now at a crossroads in its energy and environmental future. The reactor is old and infirm. Every day it operates heightens the odds on a major accident.
In a world beset by terror, there is no more vulnerable target than an aged reactor like Vermont Yankee. Its core is laden with built-up radiation accumulated over the decades. Its environs are burdened with supremely radioactive spent fuel. Its elderly core and containment are among the most fragile that exist.
Despite industry claims, VY's high-level nuke waste is going nowhere. Nuclear Regulatory Commissioner Edward McGaffigan has told the New York Times he believes the Yucca Mountain waste repository cannot open for at least another 17-20 years, if ever. At current production levels, it will by then require yet another repository at least that size to handle the spent fuel that will by then be stacked at reactors like VY. In short: the dry casks stacked at Vermont Yankee could comprise what amounts to a permanent high level nuke dump, on the shores of the Connecticut River.
The Better Business Bureau recently recommended that the Nuclear Energy Institute pull its advertising that claims atomic reactors are clean and nonpolluting. The NEI is an industry front group. The BBB says that reactors cause thermal pollution in their outtake pipes and cooling towers, and also create substantial amounts of greenhouse gases in uranium production. In short, the Better Business Bureau has punctured the industry's claim the Vermont Yankee and other reactors are any kind of solution for climate chaos. The idea that VY is a 'green' facility is utter nonsense..."
Iran:
Ray McGovern: Iran's Very Bad N-Word
"...While Cheney was abroad, others persuaded the president to send representatives next month to a conference in Baghdad, in which representatives of Syria and Iran also are expected to participate to discuss the situation in Iraq. In addition, foreign ministers of the same countries plan to meet in early April.
If Cheney does not sabotage such talks when he gets home, they could lead to direct negotiations with Iran on the nuclear question. It makes no sense at all to refuse to talk with Iran, which has as many historical grievances against the U.S. as vice versa. (Someone please tell the president.) With Cheney playing the heavy, it has not been possible to penetrate the praetorian guard for candid discussions with the president. The sooner that can be done the better. Hurry! Before Cheney gets home.
The ultimate aim, in my view, should be a Middle East free of nuclear weapons. That, I am confident, would stop whatever plans the Iranians have to develop nuclear weapons. And please do not tell me that, because Israel would not agree, we cannot move in this direction. The U.S. and others can provide the necessary guarantees of the security of Israel. And Israeli intransigence on this issue is not a viable middle- or long-term strategy that serves Israel’s interest or the interest of justice and peace."
$ 125 Million Ought To Buy Better Software:
Engadget: F-22 Raptors' systems crash mid-flight over Pacific "Lockheed's shiny new F-22 Raptor stealth fighters may have owned a few war games, but crossing the International Date Line left them as helpless as a carrot in a rabbit trap, with multiple system crashes causing an emergency detour en route from Hawaii to Okinawa, Japan. Communication, fuel subsystems, and navigation systems were rendered useless and repeated 'reboots' were of no help. Luckily, the fleet had clear skies and refueling tankers to guide them back to Hawaii..."
On The Oxymoron of Imperial Democracy:
Democracy Now! - Chalmers Johnson: “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic"
"...AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the signs of the breakdown of constitutional government and how it links?
CHALMERS JOHNSON: Well, yes. Militarism is the -- what the social side has called the 'intervening variable,' the causative connection. That is to say, to maintain an empire requires a very large standing army, huge expenditures on arms that leads to a military-industrial complex, and generally speaking, a vicious cycle sets up of interests that lead to perpetual series of wars.
It goes back to probably the earliest warning ever delivered to us by our first president, George Washington, in his famous farewell address. It’s read at the opening of every new session of Congress. Washington said that the great enemy of the republic is standing armies; it is a particular enemy of republican liberty. What he meant by it is that it breaks down the separation of powers into an executive, legislative, and judicial branches that are intended to check each other -- this is our most fundamental bulwark against dictatorship and tyranny -- it causes it to break down, because standing armies, militarism, military establishment, military-industrial complex all draw power away from the rest of the country to Washington, including taxes, that within Washington they draw it to the presidency, and they begin to create an imperial presidency, who then implements the military's desire for secrecy, making oversight of the government almost impossible for a member of Congress, even, much less for a citizen.
It seems to me that this is also the same warning that Dwight Eisenhower gave in his famous farewell address of 1961, in which he, in quite vituperative language, quite undiplomatic language -- one ought to go back and read Eisenhower. He was truly alarmed when he spoke of the rise of a large arms industry that was beyond supervision, that was not under effective control of the interests of the military-industrial complex, a phrase that he coined. We know from his writings that he intended to say a military-industrial-congressional complex. He was warned off from going that far. But it's in that sense that I believe the nexus -- or, that is, the incompatibility between domestic democracy and foreign imperialism comes into being..."
Engadget: F-22 Raptors' systems crash mid-flight over Pacific "Lockheed's shiny new F-22 Raptor stealth fighters may have owned a few war games, but crossing the International Date Line left them as helpless as a carrot in a rabbit trap, with multiple system crashes causing an emergency detour en route from Hawaii to Okinawa, Japan. Communication, fuel subsystems, and navigation systems were rendered useless and repeated 'reboots' were of no help. Luckily, the fleet had clear skies and refueling tankers to guide them back to Hawaii..."
On The Oxymoron of Imperial Democracy:
Democracy Now! - Chalmers Johnson: “Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic"
"...AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about the signs of the breakdown of constitutional government and how it links?
CHALMERS JOHNSON: Well, yes. Militarism is the -- what the social side has called the 'intervening variable,' the causative connection. That is to say, to maintain an empire requires a very large standing army, huge expenditures on arms that leads to a military-industrial complex, and generally speaking, a vicious cycle sets up of interests that lead to perpetual series of wars.
It goes back to probably the earliest warning ever delivered to us by our first president, George Washington, in his famous farewell address. It’s read at the opening of every new session of Congress. Washington said that the great enemy of the republic is standing armies; it is a particular enemy of republican liberty. What he meant by it is that it breaks down the separation of powers into an executive, legislative, and judicial branches that are intended to check each other -- this is our most fundamental bulwark against dictatorship and tyranny -- it causes it to break down, because standing armies, militarism, military establishment, military-industrial complex all draw power away from the rest of the country to Washington, including taxes, that within Washington they draw it to the presidency, and they begin to create an imperial presidency, who then implements the military's desire for secrecy, making oversight of the government almost impossible for a member of Congress, even, much less for a citizen.
It seems to me that this is also the same warning that Dwight Eisenhower gave in his famous farewell address of 1961, in which he, in quite vituperative language, quite undiplomatic language -- one ought to go back and read Eisenhower. He was truly alarmed when he spoke of the rise of a large arms industry that was beyond supervision, that was not under effective control of the interests of the military-industrial complex, a phrase that he coined. We know from his writings that he intended to say a military-industrial-congressional complex. He was warned off from going that far. But it's in that sense that I believe the nexus -- or, that is, the incompatibility between domestic democracy and foreign imperialism comes into being..."
