Reflections on the "New American" Revolution
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Pampered Bush Meets a Real Reporter: "accountability is not a concept that resonates with our president. The chief executive who gleefully declares that he does not read newspapers cannot begin to grasp the notion that journalists might have an important role to play in a democracy. And, if anything, the hands-off approach of the White House press corps has reinforced Bush's conceits.
Bush would be well served by tougher questioning from American journalists, especially those who work for the television networks. And it goes without saying that more and better journalism would be a healthy corrective for our ailing democracy. "
Narrow Victory for the US Constitution: "The entire basis of our system of law rests on the right of an accused person, no matter how heinous the alleged crime, to rebut those accusations before an impartial judge. Strip that away, and you have a dictatorship.
It is shocking to have to say so, but it is also fortunate that an earlier generation of Americans had the foresight to commit the United States to international conventions on the treatment of prisoners. When the United States signs and ratifies a treaty, the provisions become a binding part of domestic law.
When the United States signed the Third Geneva Convention, the understood purpose was to protect future American prisoners of war from brutal treatment by lawless foreign nations. How ironic that the convention on the treatment of prisoners has become a principal bulwark restraining the lawlessness of an American administration. "
Father of Iraq Beheading Victim Rips Bush: "The father of an American beheaded in Iraq said Tuesday the handover of sovereignty there was a sham and accused President Bush of causing immense pain to thousands of people by going to war. "
Republican Senator Rips Bush on Iraq Strategy: "Chuck Hagel, an influential moderate Republican from Nebraska, sharply criticized the Bush administration in an interview here Tuesday, saying that the war in Iraq appears to have hurt America in its battle against terrorism.
Hagel, a politician sometimes mentioned as a future presidential contender, also said the United States is going to have to consider restarting the draft to maintain its many military commitments abroad.
In a sharp critique of the leader of his own party, Hagel said he believes the occupation of Iraq by the American military was poorly planned and has spread terrorist cells more widely around the world.
'This put in motion a new geographic dispersion' of the terrorists, said Hagel, 58, in an interview before delivering a speech to the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles. 'It's harder to deal with them because they're not as contained. Iraq has become a training ground.'
He added that although it is too soon to judge how the war in Iraq will ultimately influence the war on terror, in the short term it has created more terrorists and given them more targets -- American soldiers. "
Bremer and CPA Leave Financial Mess Behind: "for the entire year that the CPA oversaw Iraq's finances, it was impossible to determine with any accuracy precisely what it has done with the US$20 billion of Iraq's own money, including its oil revenue and funds deposited in the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI).
'We still do not know exactly how Iraq's money has been earned, which companies have won the contracts that it has been spent, or whether this spending was in the interests of the Iraqi people,' said Helen Collinson, head of policy at Christian Aid, who added that the CPA is in 'flagrant breach of the UN Security Council resolution that gave the CPA control over the DFI on condition that its operations be independently audited. "
Tuesday, June 29, 2004
Supreme Rebuke (washingtonpost.com): "Americans cannot just disappear at the hands of their government"
Thank God for that! If the supreme court had supported Bush in his claim to be able to lock up anyone he called an enemy combatant, we could have said good-bye to the American republic and any pretension to democracy.
US Fails to Deliver in Promises in Rebuilding of Iraq: "More than a year into an aid effort that American officials likened to the Marshall Plan, occupation authorities acknowledge that fewer than 140 of 2,300 promised construction projects are under way. Only three months after L. Paul Bremer III, the American administrator who departed Monday, pledged that 50,000 Iraqis would find jobs at construction sites before the formal transfer of sovereignty, fewer than 20,000 local workers are employed."
Army to Recall Retired, Discharged Soldiers (washingtonpost.com): "The Army is preparing to notify about 5,600 retired and discharged soldiers who are not members of the National Guard or Reserve that they will be involuntarily recalled to active duty for possible service in Iraq or Afghanistan, Army officials said Tuesday. "
The Michael Moore Whirlwind (8 Letters): "'Fahrenheit 9/11' is a disturbing film. If by attacking Michael Moore, David Brooks is saying the political dialogue in this country needs less sarcasm and more substance, I agree with him. Mr. Brooks can lead the way! "
The New York Times > Opinion > A Secretive Transfer in Iraq: "Today, the primary military responsibility for fighting the insurgency remains as much in American hands as it did yesterday. It is thus ludicrous for administration officials to suggest that America's occupation of Iraq has now somehow ended. It has merely moved to a new stage."
Hersh: You haven't begun to see evil until you've seen some of these pictures that haven't come out,': "There are still prisons the public doesn't know about, he says. Secret prisons. 'I would guess -- I don't have it pure -- but we're basically in the disappearing business,' he tells his U. of C. audience.
Hersh is worried that America doesn't have good intelligence within the Iraqi insurgency. 'We don't know what's going to happen next,' he says. 'We have no endgame.'
Whether you agree with him or not, this kind of frankness makes Hersh an anomaly among his tightly buttoned investigative peers.
'The fragility of our government is terrifying,' he tells his U. of C. audience. A handful of neoconservatives took control of the levers of government 'without a peep from the bureaucracy, the Congress, the press,' he says. 'It was so easy. . . . What is it about us that made us so vulnerable to these people?'"
foreign journalist interrupts Bush and demands real answers: "the White House is furious over the interview that Carole Coleman did with George Bush on Irish TV Friday night. In fact, they're so furious about the fact that Coleman dared to follow up with critical questions that they've withdrawn a planned interview with Laura Bush.
But here's the kicker: all the questions were submitted in advance. Bush knew exactly what she was going to ask.
It's unbelievable. We have a president who apparently feels uncomfortable doing an interview with a foreign journalist unless he knows beforehand what she's going to ask, and then behaves childishly when she actually follows up and insists on genuine answers to the prescripted questions instead of the usual talking point pabulum that the American press laps up. How dare she interrupt the president of the United States and demand real answers!"
Court defies White House with Camp Delta ruling: "'This is a stinging rebuke for the lawless policies of the Bush administration,' said Clive Stafford Smith, a US-based lawyer representing four British citizens and two British residents held at the prison in southeast Cuba.
'The court was unwilling to find that Guantanamo Bay is a law-free zone, as the military had demanded. The court was unwilling to rule that British nationals should not be recognised as human beings, and should not be allowed human rights,' he said.
... Not everyone believes the ruling was a breakthrough. Louise Christian, a London-based lawyer who represents two of the four British citizens held at Guantanamo Bay, said all it had done was address the issue of the courts' jurisdiction. She pointed out that while the court had ruled that Yaser Hamdi should have access to a lawyer, Mr Bush still had the legal authority to hold him without trial.
'I think the Hamdi ruling is very depressing,' she said. 'If they can condone indefinite imprisonment without trial for a US citizen it is hard to think they are going to do any more for a foreigner held at Guantanamo.'"
Iraq Regime Change a Sham, Say Mideast Experts: "The United States will keep at least 138,000 troops in Iraq (augmented by about 20,000 from other countries) for the forseeable future, he said. Fourteen permanent or semi-permanent military bases have been and are being constructed to house them, said Mahajan, who returned recently from a trip to Iraq.
'Those forces have, by an eleventh hour edict of Paul Bremer (head of the former U.S.-run Coalition Provisional Authority), complete immunity from Iraqi law and Iraqi courts,' he added.
The role of the new interim government in Baghdad has been reduced to 'advice' and 'consultation'. 'This is, and remains, a direct military occupation,' Mahajan told IPS.
He said the level of control that the United States retains 'is just short of full colonial administration'. "
Militant group murders soldier hostage: "Iraqi militants executed an American soldier they had taken hostage because the United States refused to withdraw from Iraq, al-Jazeera television reported yesterday. "
Bush ignored Pentagon lawyers over tactics in war on terror: "President George Bush's military order of November 13 2001, which denies prisoner-of-war status to captives from Afghanistan and allows their detention without charge or access to a lawyer at Guantanamo, was issued without any consultations with Pentagon lawyers, a former Pentagon official said.
... The military order issued by Mr Bush in November 2001 was the first such directive since the second world war, and the administration's failure to seek the Pentagon's advice on what would emerge as the entire system of detention at Guant�namo surprised Pentagon officials.
'That came like a bolt from the blue,' the official said. 'Neither I nor anyone I knew had any insight, any advance knowledge, or any opportunity to comment on the president's military order.'
The Pentagon general counsel, William James Haynes, was also left out of the loop, another official said.
Meanwhile, the Bush administration fought off allegations that it had manipulated the law to justify torture of detainees at Guantanamo, with the attorney general, John Ashcroft, pressed repeatedly at Senate committee hearings yesterday to say whether Mr Bush had ever intervened on the treatment of detainees."
Bush's Rating Falls to Its Lowest Point, New Survey Finds: "President Bush's job approval rating has fallen to the lowest level of his presidency [at 42 percent], according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. The poll found Americans stiffening their opposition to the Iraq war, worried that the invasion could invite domestic terrorist attacks and skeptical about whether the White House has been fully truthful about the war or about abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison.
A majority of respondents in the poll, conducted before yesterday's transfer of power to an interim Iraqi government, said that the war was not worth its cost in American lives and that the Bush administration did not have a clear plan to restore order to Iraq."
Executive Branch Reined In (washingtonpost.com): "The court roundly rejected the president's assertion that, in time of war, he can order the 'potentially indefinite detention of individuals who claim to be wholly innocent of wrongdoing,' to quote the court's opinion in the case of foreign prisoners held at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In fact, the administration's claim to such power over U.S. citizens produced an opinion signed by perhaps the court's most conservative justice, Antonin Scalia, and possibly its most liberal, John Paul Stevens.
'The very core of liberty secured by our Anglo-Saxon system of separated powers has been freedom from indefinite imprisonment at the will of the Executive,' Scalia wrote, with Stevens's support. "
Monday, June 28, 2004
Bush Gets Chilly Reception on Eve of Meeting in Ireland: "Bush's arrival in Ireland was in striking contrast to the jubilant welcomes accorded here to Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy.
Mr. Bush's reception was frosty, if not outright hostile, as widespread opposition to the Iraq war and revulsion at the Abu Ghraib prison scandal have turned a large portion of Irish popular opinion against him.
In Dublin on Friday, the police estimated that 10,000 protesters marched through the heart of the city, among them the deputy lord mayor, Andrew Montague."
Bush's policies falling apart: "This morning's muted handover of political authority to an interim Iraqi government may be President Bush's best shot at reestablishing his foreign policy credentials abroad and bolstering them at home.
Will it be enough? Recent news reports and analyses describe Bush's foreign policy as discredited and his display of diplomatic strength as mostly limited to grip-and-grins with world leaders.
His visit to Europe is sparking protests in the streets and defensiveness from the White House, which reprimanded an Irish television reporter for being disrespectful in her interview with the president last week.
Meanwhile, it turns out that several senior aides to Bush and Vice President Cheney had input into the crafting of the torture memo that the White House repudiated under intense pressure last week.
And as Dean Goodman of Reuters, writing about the record-breaking opening weekend for 'Fahrenheit 9/11', put it: 'Bush-bashing became the nation's favorite spectator sport over the weekend.'
Also today: The F-word update."
Polls: U.S. Skeptical; Iraqis Pessimistic: "By a 2-1 margin, Americans say the turnover of political control to Iraqis now is not a sign of success but of failure because the nation's stability remains in question, according to a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll. Still, three-fourths in the poll approved of the U.S. handover of authority.
... A separate poll of Iraqis found that 56 percent expect life to be better a year from now, down from 71 percent who felt that way in February. Results of the poll, conducted by Oxford Research International, were posted on the BBC Web site Monday."
Democracy's chance: "what Bush has done:
He has created a parallel justice system in which suspects can be picked up in secret and interrogated without restraint. Their defence counsels are appointed by the Pentagon and can refuse to keep confidential instructions confidential. Their prosecutors, also appointed by the Pentagon, can keep evidence from them even if it proves their innocence. Their judges at the military tribunals, who once again are Pentagon appointees, can change the rules of the court at any time, order that their trials be held in secret and refuse to compel the attendance of witnesses who might clear their names. At the end of the hearing, they can be executed if found guilty.
An acquittal isn't unalloyed good news. The innocent can continue to be detained for as long as the war on terrorism continues, and there is nothing anyone can do about it. No check on the parallel justice system is allowed from the world outside Guantanamo. No appeal to the civilian courts is permitted. "
Supreme Court Affirms Detainees' Right to Use Courts: "The Supreme Court ruled today that people being held by the United States as enemy combatants can challenge their detention in American courts - the court's most important statement in decades on the balance between personal liberties and national security.
The justices declared their findings in three rulings, two of them involving American citizens and the other addressing the status of foreigners being held at the Guant�namo Bay Naval Base in Cuba. Taken together, they were a significant setback for the Bush administration's approach to the campaign against terrorism that began on Sept. 11, 2001.
'Due process demands that a citizen held in the United States as an enemy combatant be given a meaningful opportunity to contest the factual basis for that detention before a neutral decisionmaker,' an 8-to-1 majority held in the case of Yaser Esam Hamdi, a Saudi-born United States citizen seized in Afghanistan in 2001. Only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented from the basic outlines of the decision.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote that the campaign against terrorism notwithstanding, 'a state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens.'
In the Guantanamo case, the court ruled, 6 to 3, that federal courts have the jurisdiction to consider challenges to the custody of foreigners. The finding repudiated a central argument of the administration.
"Aliens at the base, like American citizens, are entitled to invoke the federal courts' authority," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority. "United States courts have traditionally been open to nonresident aliens."
... "At stake in this case is nothing less than the essence of a free society," Justice Stevens wrote. "For if this nation is to remain true to the ideals symbolized by its flag, it must not wield the tools of tyrants even to resist an assault by the forces of tyranny.""
U.S. Hands Power to Iraqis Two Days Early: "On paper, the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority granted power to Iraq's interim government at 10:26 a.m., 467 days after the U.S. invasion began. The reality is more complicated: Some 145,000 foreign forces - most of them American - remain in charge of keeping rebellion at bay.
The U.S. civilian authority, which rode in on a swift military victory that swept away Saddam's generation-long regime, withdrew quietly. Its leader, L. Paul Bremer, left Iraq aboard a military plane two hours after the transfer and was swiftly succeeded by U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte.
Hours later, NATO leaders agreed to help train Iraq's armed forces - a decision that fell short of U.S. hopes that the security alliance would take a larger role in Iraq. "
Sunday, June 27, 2004
Billions of revenue from oil 'missing': "A Christian charity has accused the coalition authority in Iraq of failing to account for up to $20bn of oil revenues which should have been spent on relief and reconstruction projects.
At the same time, the Liberal Democrats are demanding an investigation into the way the US-led administration in Baghdad has handled Iraq's oil revenues. The coalition is obliged to pay all oil revenues into the Development Fund for Iraq, but according to Liberal Democrat figures, the fund could be short by as much as $3.7bn. "
Iraq Occupation Erodes Bush Doctrine (washingtonpost.com): "In going to war 15 months ago, the president's Iraq policy rested on four broad principles: The United States should act preemptively to prevent strikes on U.S. targets. Washington should be willing to act unilaterally, alone or with a select coalition, when the United Nations or allies balk. Iraq was the next cornerstone in the global war on terrorism. And Baghdad's transformation into a new democracy would spark regionwide change.
But these central planks of Bush doctrine have been tainted by spiraling violence, limited reconstruction, failure to find weapons of mass destruction or prove Iraq's ties to al Qaeda, and mounting Arab disillusionment with U.S. leadership.
'Of the four principles, three have failed, and the fourth -- democracy promotion -- is hanging by a sliver,' said Geoffrey Kemp, a National Security Council staff member in the Reagan administration and now director of regional strategic programs at the Nixon Center.
The president has 'walked away from unilateralism. We're not going to do another preemptive strike anytime soon, certainly not in Iran or North Korea. And it looks like terrorism is getting worse, not better, especially in critical countries like Saudi Arabia,' Kemp said. "
U.S. Is Seen Losing Its Edge: "international skepticism and domestic pressure from Americans seeking a more collaborative role with the world had prompted the administration to adjust its tone. But it may be too late, he said. 'I don't think you can turn around three years of U.S. foreign policy with some midnight initiatives,' he said. 'The image of this president in the public's and the world's eyes is pretty much established.'
... Last week, the United Nations moved to clip American wings by refusing to extend to United States troops immunity from prosecution by the International Criminal Court.
Despite a heavy lobbying campaign within NATO, administration officials concede that the president is likely to win only token help in the form of military trainers. And on North Korea, American negotiators have been compelled by Asian allies to forsake a hard-line stance forbidding incentives to North Korea so that it will abandon its nuclear program. China, the host of the six-nation negotiations, urged the change; when South Korea and Japan signed on, the administration had to act to keep its partners from going their own way."
USATODAY.com - Iraq war casualties mounting for U.S. citizen soldiers: "The Iraq war is taking a growing toll on soldiers of the National Guard and Reserve, which have suffered more deaths since April 1 than in the previous seven months combined.
... Part-time soldiers of the National Guard and Reserve have played a role in virtually every U.S. conflict, including the 1991 war against Iraq. But rarely have they suffered so many casualties. Some states are reporting their first Guard combat deaths since World War II.
The Guard and Reserve are on active duty by presidential order."
Insurgency Leaves U.S. Forces Baffled (washingtonpost.com): "'When we returned to camp that afternoon, me and my gunners were all shaking,' Silk said. 'It was the first time we'd ever seen what our guns were doing to them.'
Capt. Geoff Wright, who commands a tank company, was in the fight with Silk that day in Kufa. And he, too, was taken aback after seeing the faces of his enemy, much younger than he had imagined, up close.
To Wright, known for his wry sense of humor, the daylight fighting also clarified in a disappointing way the halting progress the Americans had made with Iraqis during the occupation.
In this case, it seemed to Wright, the Shiite Muslim majority that had largely welcomed the U.S. invasion after suffering under ousted president Saddam Hussein's Sunni-led government had turned.
'It was interesting to think about,' said Wright, 31, of Emmaus, Pa. 'These were the same people that all year you have been trying to cultivate, and now they are either sitting on the fence and quietly hoping you succeed or working against you.' "
Insurgency Leaves U.S. Forces Baffled (washingtonpost.com): "Their time here has left many soldiers, from veteran tank drivers to young company commanders, with a confused picture of the Iraqis who never took up arms against them. Many share tales of intimate kindnesses by individual Iraqis. But they also acknowledge that the tactics they used against an elusive insurgency, while killing many enemy fighters, created new adversaries among civilians caught in the crossfire. "
Dick Cheney's Civility: 'Go F___ Yourself': "NOW:
Go F___ Yourself''
- Dick Cheney to US Senator Patrick Leahy, 6/23/04
THEN:
'Governor Bush and I are also absolutely determined that [we] will restore a tone of civility and decency to the debate in Washington.'
- Dick Cheney, 8/4/00
THEN:
'I look forward to working with you, Governor, to change the tone in Washington, to restore a spirit of civility and respect and cooperation.'
- Dick Cheney, 7/25/00
THEN:
'My administration pledged to bring civility and high standards to Washington.'
- George W. Bush, 8/3/01"
Defining Torture: Russian Roulette, Yes. Mind-Altering Drugs, Maybe.: "The memo starts by explaining that some acts may be 'cruel, inhuman or degrading' but not constitute torture under Section 2340, the federal law criminalizing torture. To rise to the level of torture, it argues, the acts must be of an extreme nature, specifically intended to inflict severe pain or suffering, mental or physical. But the statute is vague on the meaning of 'severe,' so the authors try to construct one."
Disgusting! This is disgraceful, degrading to all of us, and a profound insight into the Bush response to terrorism: destruction of civilized and human values, let alone the civil rights that form the foundation of the freedom that they are supposed to be defending.
Saturday, June 26, 2004
Audiences roar for Moore as US right declares war - [Sunday Herald]: "THE American right has declared war on Michael Moore as his incendiary documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 opened to record-breaking audiences and standing ovations across the US.
Moore'hs film, which tramples over the George W Bush presidency and attacks its conduct in pursuing the war on terror and the war against Iraq, broke single-day records on its opening in New York."
Europe Takes Charge: "Bush is now so conspicuously unpopular abroad that even in fervently pro-American Ireland, his presence creates chaos. Thousands of protesters took to the streets. Holed up in remote and romantic Dromoland Castle Hotel outside Shannon, the visiting president was defended by the largest security operation in Irish history. (Quite a distinction in a country that has faced decades of domestic terrorism.) Half the 500 members of the presidential entourage were U.S. Secret Service agents, armed with high-powered weapons, armor-piercing munitions and bombproof cars. All this security for only a couple of hours of actual meetings with EU leaders."
Ashcroft, as well as Cheney's and Bush's counsel approved memo on Torture: "Although the White House repudiated the memo Tuesday as the work of a small group of lawyers at the Justice Department, administration officials now confirm it was vetted by a larger number of officials, including lawyers at the National Security Council, the White House counsel's office and Vice President Cheney's office.
The memorandum was drafted by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel to help the CIA determine how aggressive its interrogators could be during sessions with suspected al Qaeda members. The legal opinion was signed by Jay S. Bybee, then head of the office and now a federal judge. The office consists mainly of political appointees and is considered the executive branch agencies' legal adviser. Memos signed by the head of the office are given the weight of a binding legal opinion.
A Justice Department official said Tuesday at a briefing that the office went 'beyond what was asked for,' but other lawyers and administration officials said the memo was approved by the department's criminal division and by the office of Attorney General John D. Ashcroft. "
CIA Puts Harsh Tactics On Hold: "'Everything's on hold,' said a former senior CIA official aware of the agency's decision. 'The whole thing has been stopped until we sort out whether we are sure we're on legal ground.' A CIA spokesman declined to comment on the issue.
CIA interrogations will continue but without the suspended techniques, which include feigning suffocation, 'stress positions,' light and noise bombardment, sleep deprivation, and making captives think they are being interrogated by another government."
U.S. Edicts Curb Power Of Iraq's Leadership (washingtonpost.com): "Some of the orders signed by Bremer, which will remain in effect unless overturned by Iraq's interim government, restrict the power of the interim government and impose U.S.-crafted rules for the country's democratic transition. Among the most controversial orders is the enactment of an elections law that gives a seven-member commission the power to disqualify political parties and any of the candidates they support.
... 'They have established a system to meddle in our affairs,' said Mahmoud Othman, a member of the Governing Council, a recently dissolved body that advised Bremer for the past year. 'Iraqis should decide many of these issues.' "
EU President Ahern raises issue of prisoner treatment with Bush: "The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern today raised the issue of the treatment of prisoners in Iraq with US President George W Bush at an hour-long meeting.
After bilateral talks with Mr Bush this morning, Mr Ahern said in a statement: 'President Bush is very much aware of the abhorrence that the people of Ireland and of Europe felt at the abuse of Iraqi prisoners by coalition forces.'
I was sick with what happened in those prisons, as were the American people
US President George W Bush
Mr Ahern said he had also reiterated the issue of the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay with the US president. He said: 'This is an area in which our views are well known to the US government.' "
Hitler Image Used in Bush Campaign Web Ad: "The Bush Internet video, which was sent electronically to 6 million supporters, intersperses clips of speeches by Democrats John Kerry, Al Gore and Howard Dean with the footage of Hitler.
Democrats want the video pulled from the site. Campaign aides said it would remain. "
Officials 'knew of beatings at Guantanamo': "The UK government knew about beatings and abuses at Guantanamo Bay because Britons held there complained to UK interrogators and consular officials on numerous occasions, a lawyer for remaining detainees alleged yesterday.
Louise Christian, who represents several men held at the US military base in Cuba, said that two of the Britons released in March - Tarek Dergoul and Jamal Udeen - told her they had repeatedly protested about their treatment. Mr Dergoul alone made five separate complaints.
... The US military has insisted that the kind of abuses against prisoners documented at the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq did not take place at Guantanamo Bay.
But Mr Rasul and Mr Iqbal wrote: 'We were deliberately humiliated and degraded by the use of methods that we now read US officials denying.'"
Guardian | Oil chief: my fears for planet: "The head of one of the world's biggest oil companies has admitted that the threat of climate change makes him 'really very worried for the planet'.
In an interview in today's Guardian Life section, Ron Oxburgh, chairman of Shell, says we urgently need to capture emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, which scientists think contribute to global warming, and store them underground - a technique called carbon sequestration.
... His words follow those of the government's chief science adviser, David King, who said in January that climate change posed a bigger threat to the world than terrorism. "
Bush told he is playing into Bin Laden's hands: "A senior US intelligence official is about to publish a bitter condemnation of America's counter-terrorism policy, arguing that the west is losing the war against al-Qaida and that an 'avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked' war in Iraq has played into Osama bin Laden's hands.
Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror, due out next month, dismisses two of the most frequent boasts of the Bush administration: that Bin Laden and al-Qaida are 'on the run' and that the Iraq invasion has made America safer.
In an interview with the Guardian the official, who writes as 'Anonymous', described al-Qaida as a much more proficient and focused organisation than it was in 2001, and predicted that it would 'inevitably' acquire weapons of mass destruction and try to use them. "
Cheney Defends Use Of Four-Letter Word (washingtonpost.com): "Cheney said he 'probably' used an obscenity in an argument Tuesday on the Senate floor with Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and added that he had no regrets. 'I expressed myself rather forcefully, felt better after I had done it,' Cheney told Neil Cavuto of Fox News. The vice president said those who heard the putdown agreed with him. 'I think that a lot of my colleagues felt that what I had said badly needed to be said, that it was long overdue.'
... Cheney said yesterday he was in no mood to exchange pleasantries with Leahy because Leahy had 'challenged my integrity' by making charges of cronyism between Cheney and his former firm, Halliburton Co. Leahy on Monday had a conference call to kick off the Democratic National Committee's 'Halliburton Week' focusing on Cheney, the company, 'and the millions of dollars they've cost taxpayers,' the party said.
'I didn't like the fact that after he had done so, then he wanted to act like, you know, everything's peaches and cream,' Cheney said. 'And I informed him of my view of his conduct in no uncertain terms. And as I say, I felt better afterwards.'"
And, if you want my unvarnished opinion, I would feel a lot better if you were not Vice President any more, Dick.
The New York Times > Business > Crimes of Others Wrecked Enron, Ex-Chief Says: "Lay remained steadfast in his expressions of innocence, even as he acknowledged, as head of the company, accountability for the debacle rests rightfully with him. ``I take full responsibility for what happened at Enron,'' said Mr. Lay, 62. ``But saying that, I know in my mind that I did nothing criminal.''
... He says that both he and the board were misled by Mr. Fastow about the activities and true nature of a series of off-the-books partnerships that played the decisive role in the company's collapse.
Yet, Mr. Lay still argues that some of the company's most controversial decisions - including some that set up financial conflicts of interest for Mr. Fastow that could well be unprecedented in corporate America - had good reasons to be done, and can only be seen as mistakes in hindsight."
ABCNEWS.com : CIA Official Blasts U.S. Terror Policy: "Still an employee of the CIA, the author was only allowed to write the book, Imperial Hubris, and talk to the media on condition that he not reveal his identity.
'I wrote it because I think America is in trouble,' he said. 'We have not yet appreciated the dimensions of the problem or the size of the problem.'
He also slams the war in Iraq, calling it 'an avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked war against a foe who posed no immediate threat.'
'Anonymous' was formerly in charge of the CIA's efforts to track down Osama bin Laden. The war in Iraq played into bin Laden's hands, he writes, by fostering further hatred of America. "
Iraq Insurgency Showing Signs of Momentum: "As this week's coordinated violence demonstrates, Iraq's insurgent movement is increasingly potent, riding a wave of anti-U.S. nationalism and religious extremism. Just days before an Iraqi government takes control of the country, experts and some commanders fear it may be too late to turn back the militant tide.
The much-anticipated wave of strikes preceding Wednesday's scheduled hand-over could intensify under the new interim government as Sunni Muslim insurgents seek to undermine it, U.S. and Iraqi officials say.
'I think we're going to continue to see sensational attacks,' said Army Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the 101st Airborne Division commander who will oversee the reshaping of Iraq's fledgling security forces. "
White House Tries to Rein In Scientists: "The Bush administration has ordered that government scientists must be approved by a senior political appointee before they can participate in meetings convened by the World Health Organization, the leading international health and science agency.
A top official from the Health and Human Services Department in April asked the WHO to begin routing requests for participation in its meetings to the department's secretary for review, rather than directly invite individual scientists, as has long been the case.
Officials at the WHO, based in Geneva, Switzerland, have refused to implement the request, saying it could compromise the independence of international scientific deliberations. Denis G. Aitken, WHO assistant director-general, said Friday that he had been negotiating with Washington in an effort to reach a compromise.
The request is the latest instance in which the Bush administration has been accused of allowing politics to intrude into once-sacrosanct areas of scientific deliberation. It has been criticized for replacing highly regarded scientists with industry and political allies on advisory panels. A biologist who was at odds with the administration's position on stem-cell research was dismissed from a presidential advisory commission. This year, 60 prominent scientists accused the administration of 'misrepresenting and suppressing scientific knowledge for political purposes.' "
Friday, June 25, 2004
U.S. Must Exit Iraq Now, Ex-Inspector Says: "The United States must pull out of Iraq immediately and leave that country's future up to its people, a former U.N. weapons inspector said Thursday.
Scott Ritter, an outspoken critic of the war who served as a weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998, said the United States will not be able to create a stable government there because its involvement is questionable.
'We got into this war on a lie, and the foundation of our involvement is corrupt,' he said. 'Therefore, whatever we try to build in Iraq is doomed to collapse.'
Ritter said that while he was an inspector, the United Nations found about 90 percent to 95 percent of the weapons of mass destruction Iraq had. The inspectors were removed from the country before completing their inquiry, but he said 'there is no evidence that Iraq retained these weapons.' "
105 Killed in Attacks Across Iraq: "Iraqis are bracing for more violence. Many have fled the country, crossing into Syria and Jordan. "
Irish Times Article - Bush claims most of Europe backed him on Iraq: "President Bush suggested last night that there were not major differences between the US and Europe over Iraq, but just with France.
France had opposed the US position but 'most of Europe supported the decision on Iraq. Most European countries are very supportive and are participating in the reconstruction of Iraq'.
... Some 4,000 [Irish Police--a quarter of the entire national police force] and 2,000 troops were deployed around Shannon Airport and Dromoland Castle last night, along with a range of military equipment and vehicles including Scorpion tanks. Anti-war campaigners said the tanks were entirely inappropriate for the task of dealing with protesters, and demanded that they be withdrawn."
Iraqis, Seeking Foes of Saudis, Contacted bin Laden, File Says: "The Americans confirmed that they had obtained the document from the Iraqi National Congress, as part of a trove that the group gathered after the fall of Saddam Hussein's government last year. The Defense Intelligence Agency paid the Iraqi National Congress for documents and other information until recently, when the group and its leader, Ahmad Chalabi, fell out of favor in Washington.
Some of the intelligence provided by the group is now wholly discredited, although officials have called some of the documents it helped to obtain useful.
A translation of the new Iraqi document was reviewed by a Pentagon working group in the spring, officials said. It included senior analysts from the military's Joint Staff, the Defense Intelligence Agency and a joint intelligence task force that specialized in counterterrorism issues, they said.
The task force concluded that the document 'appeared authentic,' and that it 'corroborates and expands on previous reporting' about contacts between Iraqi intelligence and Mr. bin Laden in Sudan, according to the task force's analysis.
It is not known whether some on the task force held dissenting opinions about the document's veracity. "
This sounds very suspicious to me, given it's timing, the administrations reaction to the 9/11 commission findings and also the connection with the Iraqi national Congress--which provided much of the bogus intelligence that Bush and Cheney pointed to to justify their invasion of Iraq. And it certainly does not document any involvement in attacks on America, and does nothing to connect Saddam to 9/11, which is what Bush is claiming.
U.S. Soldier's Lawyer Says Iraq Abuse Widespread: "Senior military officers were aware of widespread abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers, and lower-ranking troops should not be made scapegoats, the lawyer for an accused female soldier said Friday. "
Irish batten down hatches for Bush: "this weekend's visit by George Bush, the US president, has turned tradition on its head. Irish lawyers have signed a petition against Mr Bush and suggested he should be arrested as soon as he arrives. Clerics have questioned the president's morals and the leader of the Irish senate has boycotted a US embassy dinner to mark his visit. Anti-war protesters say they are being censored by a government desperate to keep a lid on demonstrations. The terrorism risk has resulted in the biggest security operation in the country's history. "
'No compromise' on Guantanamo trials: "The transatlantic rift over Guantanamo Bay deepened today, as UK politicians and human rights activists seized on the attorney general's admission that George Bush's plans for military tribunals were 'unacceptable'.
After months of behind the scenes negotiations between London and Washington, Lord Goldsmith, in a speech in Paris, declared that the US plans were contrary to the principles of a fair trial.
... [Goldsmith said] "While we must be flexible and be prepared to countenance some limitation of fundamental rights if properly justified and proportionate, there are certain principles on which there can be no compromise.
"Fair trial is one of those - which is the reason we in the UK have been unable to accept that the US military tribunals proposed for those detained at Guantánamo Bay offer sufficient guarantees of a fair trial in accordance with international standards." "
Thursday, June 24, 2004
Errors in the government's annual report on 'Patterns of Global Terrorism.': "The latest report, released in April, claimed to document a sharp fall in terrorism. 'You will find in these pages clear evidence that we are prevailing in the fight,' Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage declared. But this week the government admitted making major errors. In fact, in 2003 the number of significant terrorist attacks reached a 20-year peak.
How could they get it so wrong? The answer tells you a lot about the state of the 'war on terror.'
... Mr. Bush isn't really serious about this terrorism thing. He talks about terror a lot, and invokes it to justify unrelated wars he feels like fighting. But when it comes to devoting resources to the unglamorous work of protecting the nation from attack - well, never mind."
Praised by Bush, Woman Said Still in Debt: "A former bookkeeper praised by President Bush for turning around her life with help from a social-services agency still owes at least $300,000 to the company she was convicted of stealing from, according to court records and the business owner."
Did Ashcroft Brush Off Terror Warnings? FBI Officials Contradict Ashcroft Testimony: "did Ashcroft dismiss threats of an al-Qaida attack in this country?
At issue is a July 5, 2001, meeting between Ashcroft and acting FBI Director Tom Pickard. That month, the threat of an al-Qaida attack was so high, the White House summoned the FBI and domestic agencies, and warned them to be on alert.
Yet, Pickard testified to the 9/11 commission that when he tried to brief Ashcroft just a week later, on July 12, about the terror threat inside the United States, he got the brush-off.
'Mr. Ashcroft told you that he did not want to hear about this anymore,' Democratic commission member Richard Ben-Veniste asked on April 13. 'Is that correct?'
'That is correct,' Pickard replied.
Testifying under oath the same day, Ashcroft categorically denied the allegation, saying, 'I did never speak to him saying that I didn't want to hear about terrorism.'
However, another senior FBI official tells NBC News he vividly recalls Pickard returning from the meeting that day furious that Ashcroft had cut short the terrorism briefing. This official, now retired, has talked to the 9/11 commission. "
Another Rationale for War is Gone: "The administration did everything it could to conflate Iraq and Sept. 11, including in its treatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib. It sought to persuade Americans that Saddam was linked to Sept. 11, though it knew, as Clarke testified, he was not.
For the administration to contradict the commission today and assert it never linked Iraq to Sept. 11 is a lie"
Bush's Unwelcome Visit to Ireland: You, Sir, Are No Kennedy, Reagan or Clinton: "How can there be so little enthusiasm for welcoming Bush in as pro-American a country as exists on the face of the earth?
... We Irish, in our quarrel with Britain, have relied on American power, and that implicates us in how that power is exercised. The images from the Abu Ghraib prison were especially shocking here.
We took the British Army to the European Court of Human Rights for using techniques of interrogation in Northern Ireland much less extreme than were used in Abu Ghraib. The British techniques were ruled inhuman and degrading.
And Iraq is only the most lurid in a sequence of isolationist initiatives - the abrupt rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, the hostility to any international court of justice and, above all, the disrespect this administration has shown to the United Nations. "
A Partial Disclosure (washingtonpost.com): "A statement Tuesday by White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales appeared to diminish Mr. Bush's broad assurance on torture: Mr. Gonzales said that the administration considers torture to be 'a specific intent to inflict severe physical or mental harm or suffering.' That narrow definition, according to the administration's previous reasoning, would allow the infliction of pain short of death or organ failure, and even this would be acceptable if the pain were not the interrogator's primary purpose. If Mr. Bush's pledge is to have credibility around the world, more detailed and restrictive guidelines on torture should be adopted and made public -- or legislated by Congress. "
Adversary's Tactics Leave Troops Surprised, Exhausted (washingtonpost.com): "In dawn-to-dusk fighting, more than 100 armed insurgents overran neighborhoods and occupied downtown buildings, using techniques that U.S. commanders said resembled those once employed by the Iraqi army. Well-equipped and highly coordinated, the insurgents demonstrated a new level of strength and tactical skill that alarmed the soldiers facing them.
.... Coming less than a week before the U.S. occupation formally ends, the attacks brought into sharp focus the threat the lies ahead for Iraq's interim government and the challenge that remains for U.S. forces who will remain here to defend it. The U.S.-trained Iraqi police were routed or abandoned their posts rather than face a more capable foe, and military commanders here said the battle for this city 35 miles northeast of Baghdad was far from over. "
The Other Reagan Legacy: Outspoken Son Ron (washingtonpost.com): "'Dad was also a deeply, unabashedly religious man,' Ron Reagan told mourners. 'But he never made the fatal mistake of so many politicians -- wearing his faith on his sleeve to gain political advantage.'
Since then, in a series of nationally televised interviews, his comments about Bush have become less oblique and much harsher.
Appearing on CNN's 'Larry King Live' Wednesday evening, Reagan denounced Bush's opposition to broadening embryonic stem cell research, calling it 'shameful.' He called Bush's decision to invade Iraq a 'terrible mistake' and said, 'We lied our way into the war.' Then he said he was eager to see Bush defeated in November.
Two nights earlier, he appeared on MSNBC's 'Hardball With Chris Matthews' and scoffed at the new Republican rallying cry that Bush is positively Reaganesque.
'My father never felt the need to wrap himself in anybody's mantle. He never felt the need to pretend to be anybody else,' Reagan said. 'This is their administration. This is their war. If they can't stand on their own two feet, well, they're no Ronald Reagans, that's for sure.' "
Cheney Dismisses Critic With Obscenity (washingtonpost.com): "On Tuesday, Cheney, serving in his ceremonial role as president of the Senate, appeared in the chamber for a photo session. A chance meeting with Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, became an argument about Cheney's ties to Halliburton Co., an international energy services corporation, and President Bush's judicial nominees. The exchange ended when Cheney offered some crass advice.
'Fuck yourself,' said the man who is a heartbeat from the presidency.
Leahy's spokesman, David Carle, yesterday confirmed the brief but fierce exchange. 'The vice president seemed to be taking personally the criticism that Senator Leahy and others have leveled against Halliburton's sole-source contracts in Iraq,' Carle said.
As it happens, the exchange occurred on the same day the Senate passed legislation described as the 'Defense of Decency Act' by 99 to 1.
Cheney's office did not deny that the phrase was uttered."
Bush Memos Show Disgusting Policies Approved and Proposed by Bush, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft: "Bush staked out a hard-line position less than four months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Siding with the Justice Department, Bush in a February 2002 order declared that suspected Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners are not protected under the Geneva Conventions.
Bush ordered that all prisoners be treated humanely and, 'to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity,' in line with the 'principles' of the Geneva Conventions. But at the same time he reserved the right to suspend the conventions 'in this or future conflicts.' Bush said publicly this week that he never ordered torture.
Previous U.S. policy, from Vietnam to the Gulf War, has been to give war prisoners all Geneva Convention protections regardless of whether the conventions applied to them.
... Critics say the idea that a president can suspend the Geneva Conventions and other international and domestic laws implies that the United States can do whatever it wants.
'They're taking the position that summary execution, drawing and quartering, rape and torture are permissible and the only reason we're not doing these things is a discretional, policy judgment by the president that we won't,' said Hurst Hannum, an international law professor at Tufts University in Boston.
Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) wrote to Bush a week before the president issued the February 2002 order, urging Bush to determine that the Geneva Conventions do not apply at all in Afghanistan (news - web sites). That, Ashcroft wrote, 'would provide the highest assurance that no court would subsequently entertain charges that American military officers, intelligence officials or law enforcement officials violated Geneva Convention rules relating to field conduct, detention conduct or interrogation of detainees.'
... Tenet asked Rumsfeld not to give the prisoner a number and to hide him from international Red Cross officials. He became lost in the system for seven months and was not interrogated by CIA or military officials during that time.
In his investigation into the abuse of detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba had criticized the CIA practice of maintaining such 'ghost detainees' and called the practice 'deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine and in violation of international law.'
Rumsfeld was asked at a news conference last week, 'How is this case different from what Taguba was talking about, the ghost detainees?'
'It is just different, that's all,' Rumsfeld replied.
'But can you explain how and why?"
"I can't."
Sen. Leahy Says Cheney Cursed at Him: "Vice President Cheney cursed at Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy during a confrontation on the Senate floor while members were having their annual group picture taken earlier this week, Leahy and Senate sources said Thursday.
Senate aides with knowledge of the encounter Tuesday said the vice president confronted Leahy about some of the Democrat's criticism about alleged improprieties in Iraq military contracts awarded to Halliburton Co. Cheney, who as vice president is president of the Senate, is a former CEO of Halliburton.
Leahy responded by criticizing the White House for standing by allies who had accused Democrats of being anti-Catholic last year in opposing one of President Bush's judicial nominees, said one Senate aide, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Cheney then responded, 'F--- off' or 'F--- you,' the aide said.
That account was backed by another aide, also speaking on condition of anonymity. "
U.S. Struggled Over How Far to Push Tactics: "Rumsfeld, for example, approved in December 2002 a range of severe methods including the stripping of prisoners at Guantanamo, and using dogs to frighten them. He later rescinded those tactics and signed off on a shorter list of 'exceptional techniques' suggested by a Pentagon working group in 2003, even though the panel pointed out that, historically, the U.S. military had rejected the use of force in interrogations. 'Army interrogation experts view the use of force as an inferior technique that yields information of questionable quality,' and distorts the behavior of those being questioned, the group report noted.
Although the White House this week repudiated a Justice Department (news - web sites) opinion that torture might be legally defensible, Pentagon general counsel William J. Haynes II in 2003 forced the Pentagon working group to use it as its legal guidepost. He did so over objections from the top lawyers of every military service, who found the legal judgments to be extreme and wrong-headed, according to several military lawyers and memos outlining the debate that were summarized for The Washington Post.
In Iraq, where White House and Pentagon lawyers say all prisoners are protected by the Geneva Conventions, Rumsfeld agreed to hide an Iraqi captive from the International Committee of the Red Cross because, he said, CIA (news - web sites) Director George J. Tenet asked him to. Legal experts call it a clear violation of the conventions. 'A request was made to do that, and we did,' Rumsfeld said last week, even as his deputy general counsel, Daniel J. Dell'Orto, acknowledged from the same podium that 'we should have registered him much sooner than we did.'
Rumsfeld played a direct role in setting policies for detainee treatment in Afghanistan and Guantanamo, according to a list of Defense Department memos related to Guantanamo Bay obtained by The Post. He signed seven orders from January 2002 to January 2003 establishing the interrogation center, placing the Army in charge, allowing access by the Red Cross and foreign intelligence officials, and even deciding how detainee mail would be handled.""
Yahoo! News - Iacocca Changes Support From Bush to Kerry: "Four years after former Chrysler Corp. chairman Lee Iacocca cut ads supporting George W. Bush's election, he's switching alliances to presidential challenger John Kerry
... Kerry said Thursday that the United States is losing its technological edge under President Bush (news - web sites)'s leadership, with the disappearance of 800,000 high-tech jobs and falling from 4th to 10th in the use of broadband. He said countries such as South Korea (news - web sites) and Japan are deploying networks that are 20-50 times faster than what is available in the United States."
Gore Says Bush Lied About Iraq to Push for War: "'Beginning very soon after the attacks of 9/11, President Bush made a decision to start mentioning Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in the same breath in a cynical mantra designed to fuse them together as one in the public's mind,' Gore said in a speech at Georgetown University Law Center.
Gore, a Democrat who lost to Bush in a White House race ultimately decided by the Supreme Court despite winning the popular vote in 2000, cited the recent report by the Sept. 11 commission saying no credible evidence existed of a link between the Iraqi leader and bin Laden.
... Gore said. "Indeed, Bush's consistent and careful artifice is itself evidence that he knew full well that he was telling an artful and important lie -- visibly circumnavigating the truth over and over again as if he had practiced how to avoid encountering the truth." "
Iraq War Analysis Paints Grim Picture: "not only have U.S. taxpayers paid a "very high price for the war," they have also become "less secure at home and in the world."
Citing a number of recent studies, the report, 'Paying the Price: The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War,' also notes that the 151.1 billion dollars that will have been spent through this fiscal year could have paid for comprehensive health care for 82 million U.S. children or the salaries of nearly three million elementary school teachers. According to one study cited in the 54-page report, the war and occupation will cost the average U.S. household at least 3,415 dollars through the end of this year.
If spent on international programs, the same sum could have cut world hunger in half and covered HIV/AIDS medicine, childhood immunization, and clean water and sanitation needs of all developing countries for more than two years. "
Supreme Court Refuses to Order Cheney to Release Energy Papers: "The Supreme Court handed a major political victory to the Bush administration today, ruling 7 to 2 that Vice President Dick Cheney is not obligated, at least for now, to release secret details of his energy task force.
The majority of the justices agreed with the administration's arguments that private deliberations among a president, vice president and their close advisers are indeed entitled to special treatment - arising from the constitutional principle known as executive privilege - although they said the administration must still prove the specifics of its case in the lower courts."
Bush Is Interviewed in Inquiry on Leak of Operative's Name: "Bush was questioned for 70 minutes in the Oval Office by United States Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, who is heading the Justice Department's inquiry into the episode, and assistant prosecutors. Jim Sharp, a Washington trial lawyer who was retained recently by Mr. Bush, was also present.
The White House spokesman, Scott McClellan, said the president was happy to cooperate with the investigators. 'The leaking of classified information is a very serious matter,' Mr. McClellan told reporters. 'No one wants to get to the bottom of this matter more than the president of the United States.'"
Details of Cover-Up in Detainee's Death Emerge (washingtonpost.com): "Capt. Donald J. Reese, commander of the 372nd Military Police Company, said he was summoned to a shower room in a cellblock at the prison one night in November, where he discovered a group of intelligence personnel standing around the body of a bloodied detainee discussing what to do. He said Col. Thomas M. Pappas, commander of military intelligence at the prison, was among those who were there.
Reese testified that he heard Pappas say, 'I'm not going down for this alone.' Reese said an Army colonel named Jordan sent a soldier to the mess hall for ice to preserve the body overnight. (It is not clear whether Reese was referring to Lt. Col. Steven L. Jordan, head of the interrogation center at the prison.) Reese said no medics were called, and the detainee's identification was never logged. An autopsy the next day determined that the man had died of a blood clot resulting from a blow to the head, Reese said, and the body was hooked up to an intravenous drip and taken out of the prison. "
Wednesday, June 23, 2004
Lawyer Unable to Meet Guantanamo Client: "A U.S. military lawyer representing a terror suspect at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba said he hasn't met with his client for two months because of delays getting security clearance for an interpreter.
The attorney, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Philip Sundel, said Tuesday there are few qualified candidates, and that the approval process for his choice - a German woman fluent in Arabic - is moving at 'a glacial pace.'
'It's a disservice to justice, and it's clearly a disservice to our client,' said Sundel, a lawyer for Ali Hamza Ahmed Sulayman al Bahlul.
Al Bahlul is charged with conspiracy to commit war crimes and could face life in prison if convicted by a tribunal. The United States says he was a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden and an al-Qaida propagandist who produced videos glorifying the killing of Americans. "
Bush and his aides paid too little attention to warnings in the summer of 2001: "instead of focusing on Al Qaeda, the president spent 42 percent of his first eight months in office on vacation"
USATODAY.com - White House responds to critics with policy disclosure: "'The values of this country are such that torture is not a part of our soul and our being,' Bush said Tuesday. 'Unlike a society run by a tyrant, the world will see an open, fair trial for those accused of breaking U.S. military law.'"
Really? We'll see Rumsfeld on trial?
Rumsfeld OK'd harsh treatment: "Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld approved interrogation techniques that included 'removal of clothing' and 'inducing stress by use of detainee's fears (e.g. dogs).'
Rumsfeld also approved placing detainees in 'stress positions,' such as standing for up to 4 hours, though he apparently found this approach unimpressive. Rumsfeld, who works at a stand-up desk, scrawled on the memo, 'I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to four hours? D.R.'"
General promised quick results if Gitmo plan used at Abu Ghraib: "Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller promised that 'a significant improvement in actionable intelligence will be realized within 30 days.' His strategy involved having military police acting as prison guards 'setting the conditions to exploit internees to respond to questions.'
The recommendations in Miller's 12-page report were based on the interrogation operation he supervised at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where suspected members of al-Qaeda are held. The report lists a roster of the 17-person team culled entirely from the Guantanamo operation. The team spent 10 days at Abu Ghraib with Miller in late summer, before he submitted the plan. Several interrogation teams from Guantanamo subsequently trained those at Abu Ghraib.
By Oct. 12, the Army moved ahead with Miller's strategy to team guards and interrogators, an approach at odds with long-established military doctrine."
White House Says Prisoner Policy Set Humane Tone: "In a February 2002 directive that set new rules for handling prisoners captured in Afghanistan, President Bush broadly cited the need for 'new thinking in the law of war.' He ordered that all people detained as part of the fight against terrorism should be treated humanely even if the United States considered them not to be protected by the Geneva Conventions, the White House said Tuesday.
That statement of principle, which has been described publicly but never before released in its entirety, came at a time of intense debate within the Bush administration over how far the military and the intelligence agencies could and should go in using coercive interrogations and torture to extract information from detainees, administration officials said as they released hundreds of pages of previously classified documents related to the development of a policy on the detainees."
What is humane about the use of dogs, putting people in pain positions for 4 hours at a time, depriving people of sleep, beatings, and other coercive tactics?
The truth is that Rumsfeld did authorize the use of methods that constitute torture for a short time, and even now, the policies in use are very inhumane: they deliberately "ratchet up the pain". The White House is dissembling, pretending they are in favor of "humane" treatment.
Ashcroft Sued Over FBI Whistleblower Case: "A watchdog group sued Attorney General John Ashcroft on Wednesday for classifying previously public documents pertaining to a whistleblower's claims of security lapses in the FBI's translator program.
Citing national security, Ashcroft recently classified documents related to the case of Sibel Edmonds, a former linguist at the FBI. The lawsuit charged that reclassifying materials that had previously been in the public domain is illegal and unconstitutional. "
US abandons bid to renew war crimes immunity for its troops: "The United States abandoned its bid to renew the immunity of US troops from war crimes prosecution by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, in the face of opposition on the UN Security Council, deputy US ambassador James Cunningham said.
He said the decision was taken 'in order to avoid a prolonged and divisive debate' on the council, where the United States was unable to get support for the measure in the wake of the prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq."
This shows that Bush has wasted his political capital on Iraq. I think the US should be subject to prosecution for war crimes, but his inability to push through his demand for immunity speaks volumes about the squandering of US prestige and power on his crusade. He is emasculated.
We are isolated: A major power that is seen as a war criminal, without the power to defeat its enemies or to win the support of its friends.
Bush's Accurate Case for War: "here is the ultimate truth that so many of my un-American, unpatriotic critics overlook: You won't care. You'll still like me and support me, no matter how badly things turn out. That's because you have short memories, and you'll believe just about anything I tell you, even if it contradicts what I've told you before. "
Tuesday, June 22, 2004
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | 'They said this is America . . . if a soldier orders you to take off your clothes, you must obey': "Bagram and the network of 19 US detention centres and 'fire bases' around Afghanistan have largely avoided scrutiny.
... "In some ways, the abuses in Afghanistan are more troubling than those reported in Iraq," said John Sifton, the Human Rights Watch representative in the area. "While it is true that abuses in Afghanistan often lacked the sexually abusive content of the abuses in Iraq, they were in many ways worse. Detainees were severely beaten, exposed to cold and deprived of sleep and water.
"Moreover, it should be noted that the detention system in Afghanistan, unlike the system in Iraq, is not operated even nominally in compliance with the Geneva conventions. The detainees are never given an opportunity to see any independent tribunal. There is no legal process whatsoever and not even an attempt at one. The entire system operates outside the rule of law. At least in Iraq, the US is trying to run a system that meets Geneva standards. In Afghanistan, they are not."
"
US tortured Afghanistan detainees: "Detainees held in Afghanistan by US troops have been routinely tortured and humiliated as part of the interrogation process in the same way as those in Iraq, a Guardian investigation has found.
Five detainees have died in custody, three of them in suspicious circumstances, and survivors have told stories of beatings, strippings, hoodings and sleep deprivation.
The nature of the alleged abuse indicates that what happened at Abu Ghraib was part of a pattern of interrogation that has been common practice since the invasion of Afghanistan.
'The abuses in Afghanistan were no less egregious than at Abu Ghraib, but because there were no photographs - at least to our present knowledge - they have not received enough attention,' Senator Patrick Leahy, the Democratic member of the Senate subcommittee on foreign operations, told the Guardian.
'Prisoners in Afghanistan were subjected to cruel and degrading treatment, and some died from it. These abuses were part of a wider pattern stemming from a White House attitude that 'anything goes' in the war against terrorism, even if it crosses the line of illegality.' "
State Department Reports Increased Acts of Terror (washingtonpost.com): "Correcting an inaccurate report, the State Department announced Tuesday that acts of terror worldwide increased slightly last year and the number of people wounded rose dramatically.
The department also reported a decline in the number of people killed -- to 625 from 725 during 2002. But in April, the department reported 307 people had been killed last year -- a much bigger decline.
The findings had been used by senior Bush administration officials to bolster President Bush's claim of success in countering terrorism.
... Initially, 190 acts of terror were reported in 2003, a slight decrease from the 198 attacks reported for 2002. On Tuesday, the State Department said there were 208 acts of terror last year, a slight increase from 2002. Thirty-five U.S. citizens died in international terror attacks last year. The deadliest incident was a suicide bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in May in which nine Americans were killed.
The report did not include U.S. troops killed or wounded in Iraq, or the incidents there, in its report 'because they were directed at combatants.' Attacks against civilians and unarmed military personnel were included.
A total of 3,646 people were wounded worldwide in terror attacks last year, the report said. This represented a sharp increase from the 2,013 wounded in 2002.
In April, the department had said that 1,593 people were wounded in 2003, a sharp decline from the previous year."
Wolfowitz Sees G.I.'s in Iraq for Years: "The United States may have to keep troops in Iraq for years to come despite the 'enormous progress' in bringing peace to that country, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz said today.
Mr. Wolfowitz's prediction, coupled with a high-ranking general's warning that 'we should expect more violence, not less,' in the near future, highlighted a sometimes contentious hearing of the House Armed Services Committee."
Monday, June 21, 2004
Democrat shrink takes unflattering look into depths of Bush: "Justin Frank, a clinical professor of psychiatry at George Washington University, argues that the president's inclination to see the world in black-and-white, good-versus-evil terms, and his tendency to repeat favourite words and phrases under pressure, are not simply politics as usual, but classic symptoms of untreated alcoholism. "
Lawyer says Bush could be quizzed here over Iraqi torture: "President Bush should be arrested by garda [Irish police] when he lands on Irish soil if it emerges in the coming days that he had knowledge of the torture of prisoners in Iraq, according to a leading senior counsel.
Mr Fergal Kavanagh SC, who was defence counsel for a Rwandan government minister accused of war crimes in the UN War Crimes Tribunal, is one of 20 SCs who have signed a statement appealing to people to demonstrate their opposition to President Bush's policy in Iraq.
... There are documents in the United States which apparently tell President Bush he could authorise acts in breach of the Geneva Convention,' he said.
'Should a complaint be received by a member of the [police] steps must be taken to arrest the person responsible [for these acts] in this jurisdiction. Steps must be taken to ensure the perpetrators of torture, or those who conspired in torture, are arrested.'"
Ashcroft's blind-eye to terrorism when its white supremecist: "Writing about John Ashcroft poses the same difficulties as writing about the Bush administration in general, only more so: the truth about his malfeasance is so extreme that it's hard to avoid sounding shrill.
In this case, it sounds over the top to accuse Mr. Ashcroft of trying to bury news about terrorists who don't fit his preferred story line. Yet it's hard to believe that William Krar wouldn't have become a household name if he had been a Muslim, or even a leftist. Was Mr. Ashcroft, who once gave an interview with Southern Partisan magazine in which he praised 'Southern patriots' like Jefferson Davis, reluctant to publicize the case of a terrorist who happened to be a white supremacist?
More important, is Mr. Ashcroft neglecting real threats to the public because of his ideological biases? "
9/11: myths exploded: "'There's an invisible wound in my heart that can only be closed with truth and by someone accepting responsibility,' said April Gallop, who survived being buried in the rubble of the Pentagon.
... though a Senate report recommended the setting up of a 'National Homeland Security Agency' and warned 'mass casualty terrorism directed against the US homeland was of serious and growing concern', the Bush administration was more focused on a planned missile shield and Iraq. Incoming officials thought the departing 'Clintonites' were terrorism-obsessed. Contact with the Taliban, aimed at forcing them to give up bin Laden, dropped away. On 8 May, 2001, Bush announced a task force headed by Vice-President Dick Cheney to develop action on counter-terrorism. It never met.
...
Myth number one
A strong relationship existed between Baghdad and Osama bin Laden.
Colin Powell, US Secretary of State, said in a speech to the United Nations in February 2003: 'Iraqis continued to visit bin Laden in his new home in Afghanistan. A senior defector says Saddam sent his agents to Afghanistan some time in the mid-1990s to provide training to al-Qaeda members.'
Commission: 'In 1994 bin Laden is said to have requested [help] but Iraq never responded... There have been reports that contacts also occurred [in Afghanistan after 1996] but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship.'
Myth number two
Mohammed Atta, the leader of the hijackers, met an Iraqi agent in Prague on 9 April, 2001.
James Woolsey, the former CIA director (and a close friend of many neoconservatives), said in October 2001: 'The Czech confirmation [of the Prague meeting] seems to me very important... It is yet another lead that points toward Iraqi involvement in some sort of terrorism against the United States that ought to be followed up vigorously.'
Commission: 'Based on the evidence available - including investigations by Czech and US authorities plus detainee reporting - we do not believe that such a meeting occurred... We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al-Qaeda co-operated on attacks against the United States.'
Myth number three
Al-Qaeda was involved in drugs trafficking.
'[Al-Qaeda] activity includes substantial exploitation of the illegal drugs trade' - a press statement issued by the British government in October 2001
Commission: 'No persuasive evidence exists that al-Qaeda relied on the drug trade as an important source of revenue.'
Minute by minute: How the 21st century's Pearl Harbor unfolded
07.58 American Airlines Flight 11 takes off from Logan airport, Boston, for LA.
08.13 After a routine instruction for Flight 11 to turn right, communication is lost.
08.14 United Airlines Flight 175 leaves Boston and begins acting erratically. This is not picked up by air traffic controllers because the controller responsible for that flight was also handling Flight 11.
08.20 American Airlines Flight 77 leaves Dulles International Airport, Washington.
08.24 The voice of Mohamed Atta confirms the flight has been hijacked.
08.37 Norad, responsible for defending North East American airspace, finally receives word of the hijacking.
08.45 American Airlines Flight 11 crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Centre.
08.53 Two F-15 fighter jets scrambled from Otis Air Force base, 150 miles from New York.
09.00 Aviation officials realise that a second hijacked plane is heading for New York. The Federal Aviation Administration reports: 'Heads up, man, it looks like another one is coming in.'
09.03 United Airlines Flight 175 hits the south tower of the World Trade Centre.
09.05 George Bush is visiting a school in Sarasota, Florida, when he is told a second plane has hit, but he stays sitting for five minutes. He later tells the commission investigating 9/11: '[My] instinct was to project calm, not to have the country see an excited reaction at a moment of crisis'.
09.15 Bush moves to a holding room where he is briefed. Both he and his aides have no idea that other planes have been hijacked.
09.21 Aviation officials realise that American Airlines Flight 77 is missing.
09.32 US military air defence officials realise Flight 77 is only six miles - little more than a minute - from the White House. An unarmed National Guard C-130H cargo plane is scrambled.
09.42 All flights are halted by the Federal Aviation Administration.
09.43 American Airlines Flight 77 hits the Pentagon.
09.57 Fighter escorts for Air Force One leave their Florida base.
10.03 Another hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 93, en route from New Jersey to San Francisco, crashes in rural Pennsylvania after passengers attack hijackers.
10.05 The south tower of the World Trade Centre collapses.
10.10 F-16 fighter jets arrive over Washington, but are not cleared to fire on airliners.
10.17 Tele-conference call under way between senior aviation and administration officals.
10.20 F-15s receive authorisation to shoot down any threatening airliner. But order never passed on to the pilots.
10.28 The World Trade Centre's north tower collapses.
10.38 US pilots receive orders from General David Wherley that they can shoot down any hijacked planes.
13.44 The Pentagon deploys five warships and two aircraft carriers to protect the East Coast from further attack. Two carriers and three frigates, armed with guided missile destroyers capable of shooting down aircraft, head for the New York coast.
23.30 Before going to sleep, President Bush writes in his diary:
'The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today... We think it's Osama bin Laden.' "
Bush and Bin Ladin: Help mates: "there is a curious coincidence between what is good for Bin Laden and what is good for George Bush. The President's strategists probably consider another attack on the US as beneficial to his chances. Equally, capturing or killing Bin Laden might be perceived as ending the 'War on Terror' and allowing for a change in domestic political preferences."
RT� News - Lawyer in warning to Bush & Rumsfeld: "A lawyer defending a US soldier charged with abusing prisoners in Iraq has said he will seek to put the US President, George W Bush, and the US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, on the witness stand.
Paul Bergrin has accused Bush and Rumsfeld of side-stepping the Geneva Convention in their 'war on terror'
He added that his client was instructed on a daily basis to soften up Iraqi prisoners to obtain intelligence."
This is the Fight of Our Lives: "Two weeks ago, the House of Representatives, the body of Congress owned and operated by the corporate, political, and religious right, approved new tax credits for children. Not for poor children, mind you. But for families earning as much as $309,000 a year -- families that already enjoy significant benefits from earlier tax cuts. The editorial page of The Washington Post called this 'bad social policy, bad tax policy, and bad fiscal policy. You'd think they'd be embarrassed,' said the Post, 'but they're not.' "
Rumsfeld & Torture: This Won't Hurt Much: "The March 6 memo, prepared for Mr Rumsfeld explained that what may look like torture is not really torture at all. It states that: if someone 'knows that severe pain will result from his actions, if causing such harm is not his objective, he lacks the requisite specific intent even though the defendant did not act in good faith'. "
Bad Apples at the Top: Bush Team's Stand on Torture looks Worse than Ever: "We now know that the president misled his questioner and the public. There is no comfort, and little respect for existing law, in the August 2002 memorandum on 'standards of conduct for interrogation' prepared by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel. The memo, which Attorney General John Ashcroft refused to release last week, was published Monday in the Washington Post. "
Bush: "plainly dishonest": "Of all the ways Mr. Bush persuaded Americans to back the invasion of Iraq last year, the most plainly dishonest was his effort to link his war of choice with the battle against terrorists worldwide. While it's possible that Mr. Bush and his top advisers really believed that there were chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in Iraq, they should have known all along that there was no link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. No serious intelligence analyst believed the connection existed; Richard Clarke, the former antiterrorism chief, wrote in his book that Mr. Bush had been told just that.
Nevertheless, the Bush administration convinced a substantial majority of Americans before the war that Saddam Hussein was somehow linked to 9/11. And since the invasion, administration officials, especially Vice President Dick Cheney, have continued to declare such a connection. Last September, Mr. Bush had to grudgingly correct Mr. Cheney for going too far in spinning a Hussein-bin Laden conspiracy. But the claim has crept back into view as the president has made the war on terror a centerpiece of his re-election campaign.
On Monday, Mr. Cheney said Mr. Hussein 'had long-established ties with Al Qaeda.' Mr. Bush later backed up Mr. Cheney, claiming that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a terrorist who may be operating in Baghdad, is 'the best evidence' of a Qaeda link. This was particularly astonishing because the director of central intelligence, George Tenet, told the Senate earlier this year that Mr. Zarqawi did not work with the Hussein regime. "
Iraqis See U.S. Sham as Abuse Trials Open: "many Iraqis doubt punishment will be directed where they think it belongs - much higher in the chain of command than the low-ranking soldiers charged in the beating and abuse of detainees.
'The Americans have lied about everything - about helping Iraq,' said Jaleel Atwan, 44, covered in sweat as he arranged fruit at his market in Baghdad. 'We know now that Americans are not people who tell the truth. Tell me, why should Iraqis believe anything the Americans say?'"
Torture Policy (cont'd) (washingtonpost.com): "SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Donald H. Rumsfeld expressed dismay on Thursday about editorials in which 'the implication is that the United States government has, in one way or another, ordered, authorized, permitted, tolerated torture.' Such reports, he said, raised questions among U.S. troops in Iraq, reduced the willingness of people in Iraq and Afghanistan to cooperate with the United States, and could be used by others as an excuse to torture U.S. soldiers or civilians. This was wrong, he said, because 'I have not seen anything that suggests that a senior civilian or military official of the United States of America . . . could be characterized as ordering or authorizing or permitting torture or acts that are inconsistent with our international treaty obligations or our laws or our values as a country.'
... What might lead us to describe Mr. Rumsfeld or some other 'senior civilian or military official' as 'ordering or authorizing or permitting' torture or violation of international treaties and U.S. law? We could start with Mr. Rumsfeld's own admission during the same news conference that he had personally approved the detention of several prisoners in Iraq without registering them with the International Committee of the Red Cross. This creation of 'ghost prisoners' was described by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, who investigated abuses at Abu Ghraib prison, as 'deceptive, contrary to Army doctrine and in violation of international law.' Failure to promptly register detainees with the Red Cross is an unambiguous breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention; Mr. Rumsfeld said that he approved such action on several occasions, at the request of another senior official, CIA Director George J. Tenet.
Did senior officials order torture? We know of two relevant cases so far. One was Mr. Rumsfeld's December 2002 authorization of the use of techniques including hooding, nudity, stress positions, 'fear of dogs' and physical contact with prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay base. A second was the distribution in September 2003 by the office of the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez..."
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
Climate Change Experts Despair Over US Attitude: "If completely melted, the Greenland ice sheet would add 25 feet to overall sea level and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet would raise it by 16 feet.
This would be enough to swamp most of Florida, Bangladesh and Manhattan, he said.
'The sea level rise over the past century appears greater than what the model says it should be,' Oppenheimer said. 'The ice sheets may be contributing more than the models predict.' "
Bush's USDA: Frozen Fries Are 'Fresh' Veggies: "The USDA quietly changed the regulations last year at the behest of the French fry industry, which has spent decades pushing for a revision to the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. "
Torture Policy (washingtonpost.com): "SLOWLY, AND IN spite of systematic stonewalling by the Bush administration, it is becoming clearer why a group of military guards at Abu Ghraib prison tortured Iraqis in the ways depicted in those infamous photographs. President Bush and his spokesmen shamefully cling to the myth that the guards were rogues acting on their own. Yet over the past month we have learned that much of what the guards did -- from threatening prisoners with dogs, to stripping them naked, to forcing them to wear women's underwear -- had been practiced at U.S. military prisons elsewhere in the world. Moreover, most of these techniques were sanctioned by senior U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the Iraqi theater command under Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez. Many were imported to Iraq by another senior officer, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller. "
So Torture Is Legal? (washingtonpost.com): "connect the dots: They lead from the White House to the Pentagon to Abu Ghraib, and from Abu Ghraib back to military intelligence and thus to the Pentagon and the White House."
Anne Applebaum makes the point that neither the White House or Congress have an interest in investigating torture policies. So we are faced with the fact that our government has approved and implemented a policy of using torture on the grounds that under their new, twisted definition of the word and the law, what they are doing is not torture. And no one in power is standing up against it.
This is surely the triumph of evil, Mr. Bush, and it's you who are responsible. The deepest shame on you.
House Again Passes GOP Energy Measures (washingtonpost.com): "The House voted 244 to 178 to approve the same GOP-drafted energy policy that it sent to the Senate last fall, only to see it languish. A key sticking point is the House provision that would grant liability protection to makers of MTBE, a gasoline additive that has contaminated some groundwater and is thought to cause cancer.
Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) said a bipartisan group of senators will continue to block the House measure because of the MTBE provision. House leaders, he said, 'continue to hold compromise hostage to ideology.' "
9/11 Panel Finds No Collaboration Between Iraq, Al Qaeda (washingtonpost.com): "There is 'no credible evidence' that Saddam Hussein's government in Iraq collaborated with the al Qaeda terrorist network on any attacks on the United States, including the Sept. 11, 2001 hijackings, according to a new staff report released this morning by the commission investigating the hijacking plot.
... The findings come in the wake of statements Monday by Vice President Cheney that Iraq had 'long-established ties' with al Qaeda, and comments by President Bush yesterday backing up that assertion.
The Sept. 11 panel, which opened its last two-day round of hearings this morning, said in a report on al Qaeda's history that the government of Sudan, which gave sanctuary to al Qaeda from 1991 to 1996, persuaded bin Laden to cease supporting anti-Hussein forces and 'arranged for contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda.' But the contacts did not result in any cooperation, the panel said.
'There have been reports that contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda also occurred after bin Laden had returned to Afghanistan [in 1996], but they do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship,' the report says. 'Two senior bin Laden associates have adamantly denied that any ties existed between al Qaeda and Iraq. We have no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against the United States.'
The conclusions provide the latest example of how the Sept. 11 commission has become a political irritant for the Bush administration. The 10-member bipartisan commission, initially opposed by the White House, has frequently feuded with the government over access to documents and witnesses and has issued findings sharply critical of the Bush administration's focus on terrorism prior to the Sept. 11 attacks."
Complaint Against DeLay; 'bribery, extortion, fraud, money laundering and the abuse of power': "The complaint makes three specific accusations, that Mr. DeLay traded contributions from the largest electric utility in Kansas, Westar Energy of Topeka, for help on measures that would save it billions of dollars; that Mr. DeLay funneled contributions from one of his political action committees to the Republican National Committee 'in an apparent money-laundering scheme'; and that Mr. DeLay improperly exhorted federal agencies, including the Justice Department, to search for Texas state legislators when they fled to Oklahoma to avoid a debate on redistricting.
Mr. DeLay said the charges were 'all based on press clippings.' Of Mr. Bell, he said, 'Evidently he is very bitter about his losing the primary, and he's using the ethics committee to express his bitterness.'
Mr. Bell, who called Mr. DeLay 'the most corrupt politician in America today,' said that he had been preparing the complaint for months and that his defeat at the polls had nothing to do with it.
'Tom DeLay,'' Mr. Bell said, 'has created a climate of fear and retribution inside the people's House, and it must come to an end.'"
