Obama Re-Constitutes

There's more: "Obama Re-Constitutes" >>

The Citizens Petition: Special Prosecutor for Bush War Crimes..... Premiere

Please go to Democrats.com and sign the petition!

With the recent admissions by Vice President Cheney and the release of the Senate Armed Services Committee Report on detainee treatment, what we have known in the blogosphere for years has now....finally....made it into the mainstream. The Bush Administration planned, developed and carried out an organized torture program stretching from Gitmo to Iraq, Afghanistan and secret prisons around the world.

Despite their protestations and attempts to cover themselves with highly questionable legal opinions, this was and is a War Crime. Their politicization and corruption of the Department of Justice has stymied any investigation and left all efforts at accountability and justice to the new Obama Administrations DOJ, and specifically to AG Designate Holder.

Now, even the New York Times is....again, finally...calling for a Special Prosecutor to investigate these crimes.

However, as we also know well in the Blogosphere, this is far more than an issue of crime, punishment and justice as it should be. It is a political issue. A 'hot potato' political issue considering that any and all attempts at investigation and prosecution will undoubtedly (and erroneously) be described by the Republicans, the Right Wing press and pundits, and even some (complicit?) Democrats as a 'partisan witch hunt' and as 'criminalizing politics.' in other words, there are huge political costs at stake here. It would be much, much easier to 'move on' or 'not play the blame game' or point fingers to the past.'

The Obama Administration will face incredible pressure to sweep these War Crimes under the rug of history. We in the Blogosphere need to provide the counter-pressure. We do that by making our voices heard, and one way to do that is by each and everyone of us, the thousands if not millions of blog readers, adding our names to a petition. The petition will ultimately be submitted to AG Holder, as well as to Change.gov. However it can make a great impact on the 'public conversation' just by being everywhere in the Blogosphere as well.

To that end, Docudharma and Democrats.com have teamed up to create, host, and distribute the following petition. The petition calls for Attorney General Designate Holder to, immediately upon being confirmed, appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all officials of the Bush Administration for Torture and War Crimes.

The petition:

Dear Attorney General Designate Holder,

We the undersigned citizens of the United States hereby formally petition you to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in War Crimes.

These crimes are being euphemistically referred to as "abusive interrogation techniques" by such respected figures as Senator John McCain. These are euphemisms for torture. Torture is a War Crime. Waterboarding is a War Crime. The CIA has admitted waterboarding detainees. Recently, Vice President Cheney has brazenly admitted authorizing the program that lead to waterboarding, other forms of torture too numerous to list, and ultimately, the deaths by homicide of detainees.

As Major General Antonio Taguba, the Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison has stated:

"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

The Washington Post recently summarized the Senate Armed Services Committee Report on detainee treatment thusly:

A bipartisan panel of senators has concluded that former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials bear direct responsibility for the harsh treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and that their decisions led to more serious abuses in Iraq and elsewhere.

We the undersigned citizens demand a full and thorough investigation immediately upon your taking office. This investigation should be pursued no matter where it may lead and no matter what the political implications may be. To this end, we remind you that you work not on behalf of or for the President or the Congress, but for the People of the United States of America and for Justice itself.

The United States is a representative democracy. The actions of our government officials are done in the name of its citizens. War Crimes have been committed in our name. Torture has been done in our name. The only way to clear our name of War Crimes is to repudiate them through the aggressive prosecution of each and every person involved to the full extent of the law through the appointment of a Special Prosecutor.

We are urging everyone in the Blogosphere and beyond to get involved in this project...not just to sign the petition, but also to write diaries and blog posts in support of the effort. And also to display the linked badge (created by Edger) in your posts or on your sites. The easy to embed code for posting the badge can be found here.

Please feel free to contact us at admin@docudharma.com for more information or any technical assistance you may need.

And of course......Please go to Democrats.com and sign the petition!]

..........................

If you wish to post this essay, or just the petition, on any site or your own blog, please mail us at admin@docudharma.com and we will send you the entire essay, complete with HTML code, to post wherever you wish. Please feel free to edit, within the parameters of keeping the original spirit and intent. We enthusiastically give full permission for such use!

Or you can download a .txt file of the html code for this essay here.

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BushCo hates bloggers in the name of national security

The Bush Administration strenuously opposes Sen. Arlen Specter’s media shield law. Why?

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the bill would erect roadblocks to gathering information “from anyone who can claim to be a journalist, including bloggers.”

The legislation gives an overly broad definition of journalists that “can include those linked to terrorists and criminals,” wrote Attorney General Michael Mukasey and National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the nation would be more vulnerable to “adversaries’ counterintelligence efforts to recruit” those shielded by the bill.

Bullshit, bullshit, and bullshit.

We know the real reason they’re saying this is the same reason Mukasey took top blog Talking Points Memo off the AG’s daily e-mail news summary mailing.

They hate bloggers.

Why?

TPM got former AG Alberto Gonzales canned over partisan firings of district attorneys.

Bloggers got House Democrats to stiffen up and pass a FISA bill without telco immunity.

Bloggers took Bush, Uncle Fester Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld et al to task on Iraq long before the mainstream media had a clue.

George W. Bush, for the remaining nine and a half months of his term (not starring Mickey Rourke as Bush) wants to spy on bloggers.

It’s that simple.

There's more: "BushCo hates bloggers in the name of national security" >>

At the end of the day

SC Democratic debate liveblogging by Josh Marshall with a video clip, too.

Who won the debate? "John Edwards seemed to stay above the fray and that may inure to his benefit." The Trail

Obama in SC, Hillary goes elsewhere: "South Carolina has become a must-win state for Obama since Clinton prevailed in New Hampshire and Nevada. He was expected to campaign here all week." AP

Wingnut Repub Rep. John Shadegg (AZ-03) has been accused of "using his political-action committee to skirt laws that limit the amount of money donors can give a candidate." Plus, Shadegg ignored the serious drinking water "problems of his constituents in Paradise Valley." He was too busy campaigning for John McCain in NH and SC.

Avedon spoke well of Obama's MLK speech and then noted, "That might go some way to making up for that nasty little business of letting a virulently anti-gay creep speak up against gays when campaigning on behalf of Obama... maybe." Pam Spaulding offers more insights.

GA campaign organizer Johnson leaves Fred for Mitt saying, “[C]learly Fred Thompson is not going to be the nominee.”

Also in GA, "Gov. Sonny Perdue has made a major list of mentionables in the underground Republican contest for vice president." AJC Political Insider

McCain leaps ahead of Rudy by 12% in... drum roll, please... New York! Stick a fork in Rudy...

Someone, please, make him stop -- Ralph Nader eyes another run at the WH in 2008.

MLK unremembered: McCain voted against making MLK a national holiday in 1983. He's "spending today at the inauguration of Alabama Governor Bob Riley who is a member of an organization that has been criticized for excluding African Americans."

Rick Perlstein -- "Conservatives still don't get Martin Luther King."

Cheney's emails -- "Waxman’s report said 'Vice President Cheney’s office showed no electronic messages on 16 occasions from September 2003 to May 2005.' Among the sixteen days for which email are missing from Vice President Cheney’s office 'is Sept. 30, 2003, the same day the day the Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced they were investigating who outed former CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson.' " TP

Pentagon ponders Gen. David Petraeus for top NATO command. NYT

Inside Iraq -- Photos from the Army of Dude.

Bad news for the R-Noise Machine -- A new Pew study shows that "the number of people getting election news online has more than doubled since Bush first stole his way into the White House." Details at Down With Tyranny!

[That's all...no more after the jump.]

There's more: "At the end of the day" >>

Impeach Cheney ad buy

Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL) of wexlerwantshearings.com just sent out an appeal to contribute to blog advertising (see example at the left) and a Google ad buy for folks who search for Dick Cheney. He has already invested in advertising with the objective of expanding the effort over the next two weeks.

In his email update, he states:

It is time to reach beyond those that are regular readers of the political blogs, and expand the number of people mobilized to help push for impeachment hearings. The truth is that the number of Americans who support our efforts is immense and we need to do everything possible to reach out to them and maximize our strength.

When Congress reconvenes on January 15th I will deliver the hundreds of thousands of names we have collected to my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee and I will do everything I can do to convince them to support immediate impeachment hearings. I will also be entering all of the collected names into the Congressional Record and present them to the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

The mainstream media has not done enough to cover this effort but with your help we will force the issue into the national dialogue.

I can't argue with his reasoning especially the Google ad buy, which would "reach beyond" the Netroots. He has collected nearly 180,000 signatures at the time of this posting with a goal of 250,000 with less than two weeks left.

How many of us will contribute to Wexler's advertising push? I dunno. But if you're so inclined, click this link.

If you haven't signed the letter in support of Cheney impeachment hearings, sign here. And spread the word.

[That's all. No more after the jump.]

There's more: "Impeach Cheney ad buy" >>

"A*ses of Evil"

Ordinarily I don't pay too much attention to campaign junk. I couldn't tell you where my Gary Hart button ended up. Occasionally, however, I am introduced to a bit of campaign paraphernalia so perfect that even I am tempted to drive to an event in Iowa. The Hill is reporting that campaign entrepreneur Jeremy Beggun is hawking campaign buttons picturing George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld with the caption "Asses of Evil." The Hill reports that even Beggun draws the line somewhere. He isn't selling "Asses for Evil" T-Shirts. Yet.

Could one of our Iowa folks pick up a button. I will be happy to pay you for it including postage. Thanks to Rawstory for the photo.

There's more: ""A*ses of Evil"" >>

Scooter Drops Appeal

Scooter has skated so he has decided to drop his appeal. That means there is no pending criminal litigation in the Plame case. That means the White House personnel can't use the "pending criminal litigation" no comment excuse any longer. I guess the information will start flowing as Democrats ramp up their investigations for the impeachment of Dead Eye Dick Cheney.

On second thought the only thing the inside the beltway Democratic leadership piss on more than rank and file Democrats demanding justice is the Constitution. My guess is somebody is going to write a stern letter. The entire affair will die before Christmas. You can't expect Nancy and Harry not to do what George tells them, can you?

There's more: "Scooter Drops Appeal" >>

First Iraq and now Iran

I'll never forget watching U.S. weapons inspector David Kay testify that his team had found no WMDs in Iraq.

The latest NIE on Iran's lack of nuclear capability reminded me of Kay's poignant admission, "It turns out that we were all wrong." Thankfully, adults with conscience from 16 agencies dared to contradict the wrong-headed warmongering of the WH with their NIE findings about Iran.

And, once again, the IAEA and its director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, were right.

Rewind to Aug. 23, 2006, when the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) then chaired by loyal Bushie Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI) issued a report, Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States [PDF].

[Keep reading...]

Responding to the House committee brief, U.N. inspectors denounced portions of the report as "outrageous and dishonest." The Washington Post, Sept. 14, 2006:

Officials of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency said in a letter that the report contained some "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated statements." The letter, signed by a senior director at the agency, was addressed to Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chairman of the House intelligence committee, which issued the report. A copy was hand-delivered to Gregory L. Schulte, the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA in Vienna.

The IAEA openly clashed with the Bush administration on pre-war assessments of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Relations all but collapsed when the agency revealed that the White House had based some allegations about an Iraqi nuclear program on forged documents.

You remember the Niger yellow cake uranium forgeries that led to the 16 words in Bush's 2003 SOTU, right? We still don't know who forged those docs and for what reason... although one can speculate that a nuclear threat would thwart opposition to preemptive military action against Iraq. Sound familiar?

After no such weapons were found in Iraq, the IAEA came under additional criticism for taking a cautious approach on Iran, which the White House says is trying to build nuclear weapons in secret. At one point, the administration orchestrated a campaign to remove the IAEA's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei. It failed, and he won the Nobel Peace Prize last year.

Yesterday's letter, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post, was the first time the IAEA has publicly disputed U.S. allegations about its Iran investigation. The agency noted five major errors in the committee's 29-page report, which said Iran's nuclear capabilities are more advanced than either the IAEA or U.S. intelligence has shown.

Among the committee's assertions is that Iran is producing weapons-grade uranium at its facility in the town of Natanz. The IAEA called that "incorrect," noting that weapons-grade uranium is enriched to a level of 90 percent or more. Iran has enriched uranium to 3.5 percent under IAEA monitoring.

When the congressional report was released last month, Hoekstra said his intent was "to help increase the American public's understanding of Iran as a threat." Spokesman Jamal Ware said yesterday that Hoekstra will respond to the IAEA letter.

Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.), a committee member, said the report was "clearly not prepared in a manner that we can rely on." He agreed to send it to the full committee for review, but the Republicans decided to make it public before then, he said in an interview.

The report was never voted on or discussed by the full committee. Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.), the vice chairman, told Democratic colleagues in a private e-mail that the report "took a number of analytical shortcuts that present the Iran threat as more dire -- and the Intelligence Community's assessments as more certain -- than they are."

Privately, several intelligence officials said the committee report included at least a dozen claims that were either demonstrably wrong or impossible to substantiate. Hoekstra's office said the report was reviewed by the office of John D. Negroponte, the director of national intelligence.

Negroponte's spokesman, John Callahan, said in a statement that his office "reviewed the report and provided its response to the committee on July 24, '06." He did not say whether it had approved or challenged any of the claims about Iran's capabilities.

"This is like prewar Iraq all over again," said David Albright, a former nuclear inspector who is president of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. "You have an Iranian nuclear threat that is spun up, using bad information that's cherry-picked and a report that trashes the inspectors."

The committee report, written by a single Republican staffer with a hard-line position on Iran, chastised the CIA and other agencies for not providing evidence to back assertions that Iran is building nuclear weapons.

What? How dare our intel agencies refuse to fabricate a slam dunk on Iran for the preznut and the veep. They will never get a Presidential Medal of Freedom with that attitude.

It concluded that the lack of intelligence made it impossible to support talks with Tehran. Democrats on the committee saw it as an attempt from within conservative Republican circles to undermine Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who has agreed to talk with the Iranians under certain conditions.

The report's author, Fredrick Fleitz, is a onetime CIA officer and special assistant to John R. Bolton, the administration's former point man on Iran at the State Department. Bolton, who is now ambassador to the United Nations, had been highly influential during President Bush's first term in drawing up a tough policy that rejected talks with Tehran.

Among the allegations in Fleitz's Iran report is that ElBaradei removed a senior inspector from the Iran investigation because he raised "concerns about Iranian deception regarding its nuclear program." The agency said the inspector has not been removed.

A suggestion that ElBaradei had an "unstated" policy that prevented inspectors from telling the truth about Iran's program was particularly "outrageous and dishonest," according to the IAEA letter, which was signed by Vilmos Cserveny, the IAEA's director for external affairs and a former Hungarian ambassador.

A copy of the 2006 IAEA letter as a PDF is here.

To describe the 2006 committee report as flawed would be a gross understatement. The trumped-up handiwork of the Administration's neocon handmaidens served to bolster the WH case to use military force against another member of the "axis of evil." Cheney had already boasted about Iran's "fairly robust new nuclear program" on Imus in the Morning just hours before Bush's inaugural in January 2005. And we know how Bushies work -- the WH claims thus, and then magically... Presto! Documents (and media reports) appear to lend credence to their pronouncements. Before Democrats won majority control over congressional committees, Hoekstra in the House and Pat Roberts (R-KS) in the Senate "vetted" intel for WH lies assertions like the strategic threat that Iran posed to U.S. interests.

What's available to remedy the damage done to U.S. foreign affairs and get back on track? Unfortunately, our rotting press corpse has to cooperate. Today, John Bolton appeared as CNN's NIE contrarian spreading his wacky neocon scaremongering throughout the afternoon. Laughing John Bolton out of D.C. and never permitting him access to a government job or official would be a good step, but don't hold your breath against the neocon revolving door. Impeaching Cheney would be a giant leap for mankind, but too many door-stoppers would halt a Senate indictment or trial if H.R. 799 miraculously revived and passed. Michigan and Kansas voters ought to kick servile Hoekstra and coverup Roberts out on their asses in '08 -- a possibility for Roberts; Hoestra, I dunno. Fleitz can flip burgers; he knows how to take orders. Negroponte, now deputy secretary at State, has already been contained via lecondel. And Iran? Bush remains... undaunted by the NIE to put it politely.

Our best remedy is electing a Democratic president who knows how to use diplomacy, sending a positive signal to Tehran in persuading Iranians to relinquish development of nuclear weapons. You don't think Mitt, Rudy, Huck or Fred can do that, do you?

Repubs have proven they know nuthin' about diplomacy. Or conducting war, which Iraq has revealed so miserably. The neocon dream articulated in the Bush Doctrine has shattered American foreign policy -- our goodwill, blood, and treasure spent. When have the neocons been right?

It's a very useful rule of thumb in foreign affairs to simply assume that the neocons are wrong no matter what, because they are always wrong about everything. That is not to say that all conservatives are wrong about everything, and neocons merge with the more traditional hard line hawk faction just often enough that it gets confusing.

I suspect we will hearing a lot more confusing rhetoric about the worth of the NIE. What's clear to me is Bush's and Cheney's bellicosity towards Iran's non-existent nuclear weapons program has been, to refrain David Kay, all wrong.

And for goodness sake, when the ElBaradei speaks, dammit, listen! He was right about Iraq and he's right about Iran. Bush, Cheney and their loyal rubber-stamp Repubs... Not so much.

There's more: "First Iraq and now Iran" >>

None Dare Call It Art

Tonight I thought we might all benefit by visiting an art gallery. If you are in New York any time soon you should visit the New York Public Library's main Fifth Ave. branch. It has put up mugshots of several well known administration figures. The Daily News has a slide show. In the alternative, the AP has a video story.



UnitedOffensiveIII's "liner" notes after the break.

Mug shots' of Bush, Cheney featured in library exhibit

The New York Public Library is displaying an unusual set of photographs: images of Bush administration officials doctored to make them look like police mug shots.

The half dozen pictures were created by two Brooklyn artists, Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, as part of a privately financed exhibit called "Line Up" in the landmarked public space on Fifth Avenue.

Also in the mug shot gallery are images of Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Bush adviser Karl Rove, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The dates on each image match days when each official spoke about Iraq in ways the artists consider criminal - with sound clips of them speaking, along with a camera flash going off and a prison door closing.

Some have criticized the library for displaying political satire in an institution that receives public funding.

Matthew Walter, spokesman for the New York Republican State Committee, said: "It is simply inappropriate to have political attack in the form of egregious doctored photographs of the president and other high-ranking officials who have dedicated their lives to public service in a taxpayer-funded building frequented by schoolchildren and the general public."

The library said the exhibition "has no political agenda."

The photographs are part of a larger exhibit called "Multiple Interpretations: Contemporary Prints in Portfolio at the New York Public Library," which will be up through Jan. 27.

The library has a long tradition of collecting political satire and caricature, library spokesman Herb Shaer said Friday.

"It's the mission of the library to document what's happening in the culture, and this is an artist's response to what's happening to the world around them," he said.

There's more: "None Dare Call It Art" >>

Prince Bandar lawyers up — with Louie Freeh

The long-term Saudi Arabian ambassador to Washington has taken the former FBI director as his lawyer as the Justice Dept. investigation of British defense giant BAE ramps up . You know it’s serious if Bandar is reaching for that level of legal firepower.

BAE, which had a similar investigation in the UK fizzle out earlier this year under covert political pressure, gets about half its revenue from U.S. subsidiaries. It is accused of paying out Billions with a B of dollars of “lubrication money” to Bandar and other Saudi royals to lock up defense contracts.

The BAE tentacles reach all the way to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Saudi King Abdullah, who didn’t make the first state trip to the UK by a Saudi king in 20 years just to see London fog, or London Fog.

Bandar got $2bil himself, reportedly. That must have paid for an awful lot of sideline space with Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys.

The DOJ is investigating under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits bribes of foreign nationals even if they don’t occur on U.S. soil. Any company with an American connection, such as a listing on an American stock exchange or the use of an American bank account to transfer suspect payments, opens the door for prosecution under the F.C.P.A.

In addition to fines or prison sentences, an FCPA conviction can also bar a company from doing business in the U.S.

Meanwhile, the British High Court has ordered an official investigation into why his government let pursuit of BAE drop. From all that’s spilling out about BAE and its numerous tentacles, it certainly sounds like Bush’s lapdog committed obstruction of justice.

And, in what is indeed poetic justice, albeit delayed, Halliburton is under an FCPA investigation into activities in Nigeria; the timespan of the investigation includes the period when Dick Cheney was CEO.

“Snarl real pretty for the court cameras, Dick. You, too, Tony.”

There's more: "Prince Bandar lawyers up — with Louie Freeh" >>

Democrats Protect Cheney

On November 6, 2007, Democrats in the House of Representatives showed America what they are made of--again. Headzup.

There's more: "Democrats Protect Cheney" >>

Angry Dick -- The Ointment

This morning I wrote a grim post about Dick Cheney's Sunday speech in which he said "Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions. . . . We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon."

Tonight Steve Tatham jokes about Cheney's comments proving that if you can't laugh about WWIII what can you laugh about.

There's more: "Angry Dick -- The Ointment" >>

Administration Continues Its Iran War Roll Out--Cheney Uses Media To Send A Message

The Iran war roll out continues uninterrupted. Last week President Bush talked about World War III, yesterday Vice President Cheney gave a speech announcing that the United States would not allow Iran to obtain a bomb. The AP reported that Cheney told an audience at the Washington Institute for Near East Studies

"Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions. . . .
We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon."

The New York Times quoted

David Makovsky, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute who moderated a panel discussion before and after Mr. Cheney’s speech, said the vice president also seemed to draw a new red line when, instead of saying it is “not acceptable” for Iran to have a nuclear weapon, he said the world “will not allow” it.

“The first is a condition,” Mr. Makovsky said. “The second is a commitment.”

More after the break.



Caren Bohan of Reuters reported on Cheney's use of the phrase "serious consequences"

Analysts who attended the think-tank forum where Cheney spoke were struck by his tough line toward Iran, especially in light of Bush's recent comments.

"The language on Iran is quite significant," said Dennis Ross, a peace mediator under former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton. "That's very strong words and it does have implications," referring to Cheney's warnings of serious consequences for Iran.

The BBC further reported

Given the nature of Iran's rulers and the trouble it is causing in the Middle East, Mr Cheney said, the US and other nations could not "stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfils its most aggressive ambitions".

"The Iranian regime needs to know that if it stays on its present course, the international community is prepared to impose serious consequences," he added.

"The United States joins other nations in sending a clear message - we will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon."

There has been an escalation of criticism of Iran by the US administration over the past few weeks, the BBC's Sarah Morris in Washington says.

Last week, President George W Bush warned that a nuclear Iran could lead to another world war.

Mr Cheney's speech comes a day after the resignation of top Iran nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.

Correspondents say his departure is a sign that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's tougher stance towards the West may be gaining influence within Iran.

You are probably wondering why I included extensive but complimentary quotes from four of the most important news organizations. The quotes are intended to illustrate something interesting. Although they were clearly written by four different writers, the four stories are pretty much interchangeable. Yesterday the AP, Times, Rueters, and BBC were in full stenographer mode. The White House must have been delighted with the coverage. There is very little chance that a foreign observer could misinterpret Cheney's threat.

I have to admit that the AP story does end

The Bush administration's intentions toward Iran have been the subject of debate in Congress.

Last month the Senate approved a resolution urging the State Department to label Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., said he feared the measure could be interpreted as authorizing a military strike in Iran, calling it Cheney's "fondest pipe dream."

Of course, that ending merely emphasizes that some Democrats think Cheney is obsessed with Iran.

There's more: "Administration Continues Its Iran War Roll Out--Cheney Uses Media To Send A Message" >>

Dick Cheney and Barack Obama Cousins--Will Dick Invite Barack To Thanksgiving Dinner?

The AP's CHRISTINE SIMMONS is reporting that Lynn Cheney has uncovered an "inconvenient truth" -- Dick Cheney and Barack Obama are both descendants of Richard Cheney, who immigrated to Maryland from England in the late 1650's. Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded to the news, saying "every family has a black sheep."

I guess the "is Barack black enough" crowd now has more to talk about.

There's more: "Dick Cheney and Barack Obama Cousins--Will Dick Invite Barack To Thanksgiving Dinner?" >>

Cheney Torture Toady, And CIA Director, General Michael Hayden Puts A Horse's Head In The Bed Of The CIA Inspector General

From today's New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 — The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gen. Michael V. Hayden, has ordered an unusual internal inquiry into the work of the agency’s inspector general, whose aggressive investigations of the C.I.A.’s detention and interrogation programs and other matters have created resentment among agency operatives.

A small team working for General Hayden is looking into the conduct of the agency’s watchdog office, which is led by Inspector General John L. Helgerson. Current and former government officials said the review had caused anxiety and anger in Mr. Helgerson’s office and aroused concern on Capitol Hill that it posed a conflict of interest.

The review is particularly focused on complaints that Mr. Helgerson’s office has not acted as a fair and impartial judge of agency operations but instead has begun a crusade against those who have participated in controversial detention programs.

Any move by the agency’s director to examine the work of the inspector general would be unusual, if not unprecedented, and would threaten to undermine the independence of the office, some current and former officials say.

Frederick P. Hitz, who served as C.I.A. inspector general from 1990 to 1998, said he had no first-hand information about current conflicts inside the agency. But Mr. Hitz said any move by the agency’s director to examine the work of the inspector general would “not be proper.

“I think it’s a terrible idea,” said Mr. Hitz, who now teaches at the University of Virginia. “Under the statute, the inspector general has the right to investigate the director. How can you do that and have the director turn around and investigate the IG?” ...

Ok, lets start off with the admission that I can actually envision a situation where CIA Director Michael Hayden's argument could have some validity. I would think covert foreign intel operations are a very difficult thing to apply standard Inspector General protocols to. But I don't see any validity whatsoever in the situation described here. In the first place, the detention and interrogation (torture) programs are not transitory spy v. spy James Bond deals. They are static programs and locations, really no different than military prisons and interrogations, or FBI work and Federal Prisons, in general character. Tailor made for an independent Inspector General. Secondly, who in the world doesn't believe that seriously malevolent and criminal activity hasn't been the rule, not the exception, in the detention and interrogation programs. The United States Supreme Court has even said so on several aspects; not to mention every monitoring body in the world.

The crux of the issue here though is, even if there was a legitimate argument (again, that just doesn't hold water here), this is an outrageously wrong, improper, unethical, immoral and illegal way to go about addressing it. There are no provisions that permit a subject agency to investigate it's own Inspector General; moreover, the very concept is completely antithetical to the nature and purpose of an IG. The Times article says it is unprecedented; that is probably an understatement. This action by Hayden, undoubtedly undertaken under the direct authority of Vice-President Dick Cheney, is malicious and beyond the pale. With no attempt to use the designated avenues of recourse provided for agencies against their IGs, it is nothing short of putting a severed horse's head in Inspector General Helgerson's bed to let him know the score. A pure attempt to chill, obstruct and threaten the IG's work at the behest and direction of the subjects being investigated.

General Michael Hayden self servingly says not to worry, this is perfectly proper and above board, “His only goal is to help this office, like any office at the agency, do its vital work even better,” For the foregoing reasons, that is a laughable pile of horse manure. One other thought; since when did the jurisdiction of the CIA get expanded to investigation of domestic governmental agencies and officers? Is that part of another secret Bush/Cheney executive order we don't know about? It seems like a new concept, and a pretty malevolent one at that. There is simply no limit to the outrageous, unprecedented and unethical extremes the Bush/Cheney Administration will go to to obstruct and avoid accountability and responsibility for their immoral and illegal conduct. It is time for this to stop.

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Is Cheney Really Shifting Targets?

For those just getting up, Bill Clinton appeared on some of the Sunday shows this morning. You might want to find his appearances on the web. This morning's must read, however, is Seymour Hersh's article in the New Yorker entitled Shifting Targets.

If you think Hillary Clinton and the Beltway Democrats didn't make a mistake by signing on to the Lieberman/Kyl Let's Bomb Iran Resolution, reading Hersh's article will change your mind. It is obvious that the Resolution was just part of the Bush/Cheney roll out of their shiny new war in Iran.

I can hear Hillary's excuse after the bombing starts. "We were merely authorizing the President to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization. Nobody ever told us that the Revolutionary Guard is part of the Iranian government. Nobody imagined that Bush/Cheney would consider the resolution an authorization to go after Iran." If she really believes that America has become a great colonial empire and stealing oil from the Middle East is what colonial empires are all about, she really ought to come right out and tell us. If that isn't what she believes she ought to bring her actions in line with her beliefs.

More after the break.

Hillary is nothing more than an enabler. Hersh confirms that the real driving force behind an Iranian attack is Dick Cheney. Oddly, if you believe Hersh, while the Israel, Britain, France and the US have focused on the Iranian nuclear program, Cheney is said to be pitching an attack to counter Iranian involvement in Iraq.

If he thinks the Iranians are going to be shocked and awed into submission it is probable that, as usual, he is badly mistaken. Hersh interviewed a former "State Department Advisor on Iran."

The adviser said that he had heard from a source in Iran that the Revolutionary Guards have been telling religious leaders that they can stand up to an American attack. “The Guards are claiming that they can infiltrate American security,” the adviser said. “They are bragging that they have spray-painted an American warship—to signal the Americans that they can get close to them.” (I was told by the former senior intelligence official that there was an unexplained incident, this spring, in which an American warship was spray-painted with a bull’s-eye while docked in Qatar, which may have been the source of the boasts.)

“Do you think those crazies in Tehran are going to say, ‘Uncle Sam is here! We’d better stand down’? ” the former senior intelligence official said. “The reality is an attack will make things ten times warmer.”

What does all this mean? That is hard to say. I guess, at the very least, "Bomb, bomb,bomb, bomb Iran" is a catchy jingle for the new product from Bushco that has apparently been endorsed by Hillary Clinton.

There's more: "Is Cheney Really Shifting Targets?" >>

Racist "Senior White House Official" Says Obama Too Lazy To Be President--RNC Says The Boss Is Right, Obama Is all "Razzle Dazzle."

Wurlitzer Prize winning wingnut Bill Sammon of the Examiner.com reports

President Bush, for the first time, is predicting that Hillary Rodham Clinton will defeat Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential primaries. "She's got a national presence and this is becoming a national primary," Bush said in an interview for the new book, The Evangelical President. "And therefore the person with the national presence, who has got the ability to raise enough money to sustain an effort in a multiplicity of sites, has got a good chance to be nominated."

But Bush is convinced the junior senator from New York will then be defeated in the general election by the Republican nominee.

He goes on to quote Karl Rove and Dick Cheney's belief that the election will be very, very tight. Then Sammon does something not all that remarkable for White House Stenographers protecting important officials who say things that they wouldn't want to say in public, he goes off the record to quote a "senior White House official's" critiques of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. What is said by the "senior White House official" about Barack Obama is so racist and so remarkable Sammon should have insisted it be on the record. According to the "senior White House official"

the freshman senator from Illinois was "capable" of the intellectual rigor needed to win the presidency but instead relies too heavily on his easy charm.

"It's sort of like, 'that's all I need to get by,' which bespeaks sort of a condescending attitude towards the voters," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "And a laziness, an intellectual laziness."

Give me a break, I guess the unnamed senior White House official (Bush is the only current Senior White House official mentioned in Sammon's hit job) thinks Barack Obama, former President of the Harvard Law Review, would do well as a black preacher, preaching a little gospel on Sunday and selling sunshine the rest of the week, but he lacks the willingness to work hard needed to be President. When I read Sammon's piece the wretched memory of "steppen fetchit" came to mind.

More after the break.


As for Hillary, well

paradoxically, she may have too much experience, according to White House aides. They suggested that voters would be weary of her by November 2008. After all, by then Clinton will have eight years under her belt as an unusually high-profile senator, plus another eight as an unusually high-profile first lady.

"This process is not going to serve her well," a senior White House official told The Examiner. "Think about it. She's going to be essentially saying: 'Elect me president after I've spent the last 16 years in your face. And you didn't like me much when I was there last. Give me eight more years so I can be a presence in your life for 24 years. And Bill will be back in.' So no, I think this is not a helpful process for her."

Obviously the Hillary criticism is pretty routine and probably wrong.

According to Josh Marshall the RNC has confirmed that the attack on Obama as a light weight is part of a deliberate strategy

The RNC just shot off an email building on the slur. With the headline "Razzle Dazzle", the email continues the theme that Obama is just another black fancy-pants with a slick smile and nice turn of phrase but either without the candle-power or stick-to-it-iveness to actually get things done.

"Chicago Star Obama Continues His All Show, No Substance Campaign With Event On Broadway," the email begins.

Democrats and Republicans alike should be enraged by the Obama part of the story. Basically the claim is that Obama is just another "lazy, no account 'negro'" with nothing more than a ready smile and easy charm. That kind of crap has no place in 21st century politics. By refusing to identify the official who made the comment (Rove, Cheney or Bush are the three candidates although technically Bush is the only one who is a current "Senior White House Official") Sammon is protecting racism at the highest levels of government. That this racist crap is being embraced by the NRC proves just how determined they are to become a permanent minority regional party.

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Special K: Dick's Breakfast of Champions?

"Special K" - A perfect name for Tommy Kontogiannis; he is indeed special. In case you don't know who Tommy Kontogiannis is, he is a serial criminal that never gets punished for his crimes because he snitches for the government. So far, he has brought down a former war hero turned powerful Congressman (Duke Cunningham) who took bribes, 2 high level defense contractors who bribed the Congressman, the no 3 man at the CIA (Dusty Foggo), the former head of the CIA and former Republican chair of the House Intelligence Committee (Porter Goss), and the nephew of of a Greek immigrant who bribed Congressmen (John Michael), laundered money from the defense contractors, screwed his nephew, defrauded a public school district, wrote $50 million in fraudulent mortgages, bribed an embassy official, stole numerous people's identity and built a lot houses (from the proceeds of the mortgage fraud and identity theft) that not only violated the applicable codes and regulations, but were not even the same houses depicted on the plans he submitted. Kontogiannis was also investigated for involvement in undisclosed illegal campaign financing in a Congressional race. A guy like this is in prison for life right? Eh, no. He is constantly ferried around by the government and protected by a herd of upper level DOJ officials. In fact, the government appears to have knowingly let Kontogiannis commit many of his crimes while he was on probation and working directly for them.

Who knows exactly why Kontogiannis is so special; but clearly he is for some reason, or reasons, in the Bush Administration's eyes. Is he a compulsive snitch, a serial cooperator that can't stop yakking to the Feds and gets off on it? That appears to be a good possibility; but it doesn't explain the bizarre nature and substance of his cooperation. From all appearances, Kontogiannis is a working asset for the FBI, the CIA and the Department of Defense all at the same time. And that is the problem, Special K has got his fingers in to many Fed pies, and they have a first rate clusterfunk going on.

Experienced and ethical prosecutors and case agents have a severe aversion to sharing their confidential informants (CIs) and other assets with other agencies. There is nothing but trouble when one asset is being run by multiple concerns; the interests never line up well, the asset usually starts playing one against another, and often ends up using this interplay to serve himself and sometimes to give himself cover for the ongoing or new commission of crimes. If you want a prime example of this, check out the sordid story of Sammy the Bull; a tale that played out it's convoluted conclusion (unless Gravano acquires a cat's tenth life, which should not put past him) in Arizona.

The thing that is so striking is that no one person or entity seems to have a full bead on what Kontogiannis is up to. The local AUSAs in California handling a series of cases related to him sure didn't. When District Court Judge Larry Burns asked for specifics on their request to seal transcripts, they couldn't explain why they had been told by DOJ Main to do so. They then bring in the supposed answer men in the form of high level AUSAs from New York that have been working a different Kontogiannis case, and they obfuscated even more and clearly were not really positive of the big picture either. No court that Kontogiannis has been in front of has gotten the full story and they have all complained at the bizarre way the government protects this criminal. Kontogiannis' lawyer doesn't even know exactly what his client has been up to with the different Federal agencies (or he is faking very convincingly, which does not appear to be the case).

The best guess at this point is that it started off as a routine criminal trying to reduce his sentence and got more convoluted by the day from there. As it stands today, Special K looks like he is being run by at least three agencies; the FBI, CIA and DOD. Now if this mess had started off as an important CIA/DOD matter, Kontogiannis would never have been prosecuted for the various smaller things that he was initially; they would have been slid under the carpet. But now, even the pros from New York and Washington DOJ Main don't seem to really know the full extent of what Kontogiannis is conspiring with the Government on. The last time there was this big of a high level mess involving a slick criminal pitting one agency against another, it was Ahmad Chalabi and the buck stopped with Dick Cheney. Could it be that Special K has evidence of someone big's involvement in this hairbrained mess and managed to secure enough proof, and in such a manner, that he has them over a barrel? Someone Big Time? Is that you Dick?

There's more: "Special K: Dick's Breakfast of Champions?" >>

Scott Ritter Nails Rove, Cheney and the Dems

Scott Ritter, chief United Nations weapons inspector in Iraq 1991-1998 and later critic of the Iraq war, cuts through the confusion, propaganda and misdirection to nail the distinct roles in our current catastrophe played by Karl Rove, Dick Cheney and Congressional Democrats.

On Rove:

Being the Brain of the most vapid, intellectually shallow president ever creates an apt epitaph for Rove's tenure at the White House.

On Cheney:

The vice president is the single greatest threat to American and international security in the world today.

On the Democrats:

These Democrats ... have mastered the art of compromise to the point that they stand for nothing at all-this at a time in American history when the policies of the administration, derived from the dark abyss of Bush's soul, Cheney, provide the most concrete example of what we as Americans should be standing against.

And in conclusion:

If there is any case for impeachment to be made against any member of the Bush administration today, it can be made against a vice president who has shamed our nation, destroyed our moral standing and broken our laws.

Read the whole thing for the full fog-dispersing effect.

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Cheney once had a far different take on Iraq

Over at the AntiWar site, they have a 1994 video where he warns about the “quagmire” of invading Iraq, along with fears of the splintering of the country.

There's more: "Cheney once had a far different take on Iraq" >>