By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
June 30, 2006
A Supreme Court ruling striking down military commissions seriously weakens the foundation of the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program, critics said Friday.
A congressional resolution President Bush relied on in creating commissions is a key rationale for the National Security Agency to listen in on phone calls without first obtaining a judge's permission.
The court "reinforces our view that the NSA operation was unlawful," said George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley. "The Supreme Court cut away the administration's principal legal argument for the NSA operation — the congressional resolution following Sept. 11."
Enacted a week after the Sept. 11 attacks, the congressional Authorization for Use of Military Force resolution cannot be seen as authorization for military commissions, the court ruled.
In January, the Justice Department invoked the resolution 92 times in a 42-page paper designed to quell the outcry that the White House had broken the law with its program of warrantless surveillance. A centerpiece in the administration's counter-attack against its critics, the DOJ entitled the white paper "Legal Authorities Supporting the Activities of the National Security Agency Described By the President."
Asked about the NSA program, a Justice Department official said after the ruling that "I don't think the court had before it any other broader issues concerning the scope of the Authorization for Use of Military Force, except it clearly did recognize that it activated the president's war powers."
The official said the implications of the decision beyond military commissions is "something that we are studying and will be studying." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the matter is under review.
In the aftermath of the high court's ruling, lawyers for the Bush administration asked a federal appeals court in Washington to order more briefing on the decision's effect on civil lawsuits filed on behalf of hundreds of detainees held at the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The NSA program faces a court challenge and the Supreme Court ruling "gives new vigor to arguments that the administration does not have the power it says it has," said Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Romero said the language in Justice Anthony Kennedy's concurring opinion against military commissions "almost could have been speaking about the NSA litigation," providing useful material for the ACLU's lawsuit against the warrantless surveillance.
In the military commission case, the Supreme Court said the congressional resolution was insufficient.
The Authorization for Use of Military Force resolution says that "the president is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force" to prevent future acts of international terrorism against the United States.
In Thursday's ruling Justice Kennedy wrote that "trial by military commission raises separation-of-powers concerns of the highest order."
"Located within a single branch, these courts carry the risk that offenses will be defined, prosecuted, and adjudicated by executive officials without independent review," Kennedy added.
It was the absence of any review that fueled the outrage against the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance.
The White House decided not to obtain orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court before eavesdropping on phone calls.
The Supreme Court setback for the White House comes amid a full frontal assault by the administration against The New York Times for revealing the existence of the NSA program as well as another secret government initiative accessing a huge databank of bank records.
The American Society of Newspaper Editors, responding to such criticism, said Friday that the Bush administration and some in Congress "are threatening America's bedrock values of free speech and free press with their attempts to demonize newspapers for fulfilling their constitutional role in our democratic society."
The ASNE said newspaper editors don't claim to be infallible. "However, the First Amendment makes it clear no person or branch of government has the prerogative to usurp any American's right to speak or print what he or she believes is important and relevant truth. We believe honorable debate would focus on the issues raised by the reporting, not on attacks on the truth-tellers," it said.
___
On the Net:
Supreme Court: http://www.supremecourtus.gov/
Justice Department white paper:
http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/whitepaperonnsalegalauthorities.pdf
ASNE: http://www.asne.org/
Diabetes and Depleted Uranium
Italian Embassy Refuses Visa
By Bob Nichols, www.sfbayview.com
(San Francisco Bay View) June 29, 2006 - "You are not being truthful about the purpose of your visit to Italy. What is your interest in Diabetes and Depleted Uranium?" the Italian Consul in Bombay demanded to know.
"I am just traveling to Italy to meet with Leuren Moret," the famous Indian doctor answered.
Leuren Moret recounted the episode in an interview June 29th, 2006. She said "The doctor had never mentioned either diabetes or depleted uranium."
The Italian government official was grilling one of the leading doctors in India. This "interview" at the Italian Embassy took place June 27, 2006 in Bombay, India. The doctor had traveled to Italy several times before and did not expect such outrageous treatment. The Consul Denied the doctor permission to travel to Italy to meet with Luren Moret.
The doctor had said nothing about Diabetes and nothing about Depleted Uranium. The Embassy official had just let the cat out of the bag and confirmed the link between the global epidemic of diabetes and the use of Depleted Uranium by the US/UK Expeditionary Forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia.
The official could only have known about the Diabetes link to Depleted Uranium from the American State Department and the source of it all: the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, "managed" for 61 years by the University of California. The University of California Nuclear Weapons Labs are the core of the nuclear weapons program in the US, the only remaining Super Power.
The clumsy intervention by a Super Power in the travel plans of a private individual to confer with a scientific colleague about global public health concerns highlights the explosive significance that the US attaches to uncontrolled information about the global epidemic of diabetes.
On May 29th Moret charged the University of California, the Los Alamos and Livermore Nuclear Weapons Labs with engineering the largest global increase of diabetes in history and trying to cover it up.
Fine uranium dust, vaporized into a poison radioactive gas by exploding uranium bombs, missiles and bullets hitches a ride on dry desert winds to circle the globe in days.
Dr Chris Busby, a leading British radiation expert, got data from a nuclear weapons air monitoring facility at Aldemaston, England which identified depleted uranium in the British atmosphere only nine days after the Shock and Awe carpet bombing of Baghdad started in March of 2003.
[End]
Bob Nichols is a Project Censored Award Winner. He is a correspondent for the San Francisco Bay View newspaper and a frequent contributor to various on line publications. Nichols is completing a book based on 15 years of nuclear war in Central Asia. Nichols is a former employee of the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. Nichols can be reached by email. You are encouraged to write at DUweapons@gmail.com
From post at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/12643
By Bob Nichols, www.sfbayview.com
(San Francisco Bay View) June 29, 2006 - "You are not being truthful about the purpose of your visit to Italy. What is your interest in Diabetes and Depleted Uranium?" the Italian Consul in Bombay demanded to know.
"I am just traveling to Italy to meet with Leuren Moret," the famous Indian doctor answered.
Leuren Moret recounted the episode in an interview June 29th, 2006. She said "The doctor had never mentioned either diabetes or depleted uranium."
The Italian government official was grilling one of the leading doctors in India. This "interview" at the Italian Embassy took place June 27, 2006 in Bombay, India. The doctor had traveled to Italy several times before and did not expect such outrageous treatment. The Consul Denied the doctor permission to travel to Italy to meet with Luren Moret.
The doctor had said nothing about Diabetes and nothing about Depleted Uranium. The Embassy official had just let the cat out of the bag and confirmed the link between the global epidemic of diabetes and the use of Depleted Uranium by the US/UK Expeditionary Forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and the former Yugoslavia.
The official could only have known about the Diabetes link to Depleted Uranium from the American State Department and the source of it all: the Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab, "managed" for 61 years by the University of California. The University of California Nuclear Weapons Labs are the core of the nuclear weapons program in the US, the only remaining Super Power.
The clumsy intervention by a Super Power in the travel plans of a private individual to confer with a scientific colleague about global public health concerns highlights the explosive significance that the US attaches to uncontrolled information about the global epidemic of diabetes.
On May 29th Moret charged the University of California, the Los Alamos and Livermore Nuclear Weapons Labs with engineering the largest global increase of diabetes in history and trying to cover it up.
Fine uranium dust, vaporized into a poison radioactive gas by exploding uranium bombs, missiles and bullets hitches a ride on dry desert winds to circle the globe in days.
Dr Chris Busby, a leading British radiation expert, got data from a nuclear weapons air monitoring facility at Aldemaston, England which identified depleted uranium in the British atmosphere only nine days after the Shock and Awe carpet bombing of Baghdad started in March of 2003.
[End]
Bob Nichols is a Project Censored Award Winner. He is a correspondent for the San Francisco Bay View newspaper and a frequent contributor to various on line publications. Nichols is completing a book based on 15 years of nuclear war in Central Asia. Nichols is a former employee of the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. Nichols can be reached by email. You are encouraged to write at DUweapons@gmail.com
From post at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/12643
Ky., N.C. to send National Guard to border
June 30, 2006
Associated Press
Kentucky and North Carolina announced Friday they were sending 950 National Guard soldiers to assist security efforts along the U.S. border with Mexico.
North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley said 300 troops had been deployed from his state Friday, and he urged fellow governors to follow his lead.
"Federal efforts to secure our borders do not just benefit the border states," the Democrat wrote in a letter to his colleagues. "These security measures affect our entire country."
Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a Republican, said the 650 Kentucky soldiers could be deployed by July under a memorandum of agreement with several other states. The troops are to perform support duties, rather than law enforcement, allowing federal authorities to focus on border security.
The move comes a month after President Bush announced in May that he would ask states to provide up to 6,000 National Guard troops to help secure the border with Mexico. Bush didn't nationalize the guard, so governors are free to assist or not.
As of Thursday, fewer than 1,000 troops were in place at the border, according to military officials in Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona. Bush's plan called for 2,500 troops to be on the border in support roles by June 30, and 6,000 by the end of July. The National Guard Bureau said Thursday that the goal would be met.
Associated Press
Kentucky and North Carolina announced Friday they were sending 950 National Guard soldiers to assist security efforts along the U.S. border with Mexico.
North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley said 300 troops had been deployed from his state Friday, and he urged fellow governors to follow his lead.
"Federal efforts to secure our borders do not just benefit the border states," the Democrat wrote in a letter to his colleagues. "These security measures affect our entire country."
Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher, a Republican, said the 650 Kentucky soldiers could be deployed by July under a memorandum of agreement with several other states. The troops are to perform support duties, rather than law enforcement, allowing federal authorities to focus on border security.
The move comes a month after President Bush announced in May that he would ask states to provide up to 6,000 National Guard troops to help secure the border with Mexico. Bush didn't nationalize the guard, so governors are free to assist or not.
As of Thursday, fewer than 1,000 troops were in place at the border, according to military officials in Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona. Bush's plan called for 2,500 troops to be on the border in support roles by June 30, and 6,000 by the end of July. The National Guard Bureau said Thursday that the goal would be met.
Stop the All Out Israeli Assualt on Gaza
United for Peace and Justice Condemns Israeli Attacks on Gaza, Calls for an End to U.S. Support of the Israeli Occupation
Ten months ago Israeli military forces withdrew from the Gaza Strip, part of the Palestinian lands long occupied by Israel. On Tuesday, June 27th, the Israeli military launched an all-out assault on the people of Gaza, and there seems to be no end in sight.
The destruction of vital bridges and power stations, which led to the cut off of electricity and water for well over 1 million people, is nothing short of collective punishment imposed on a civilian population. Israel has also taken nearly 100 elected officials and leaders of the Hamas party as prisoners in the last few days.
Israel’s massive military assault on Gaza is clear evidence that Israel remains the occupying power of the Gaza Strip, despite its unilateral withdrawal of settlements last year. Israel has been seeking to bring down the Palestinian government by bringing pressure to bear on the civilian Palestinian population, and is using the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier as a pretext to do that. (More background information below.)
United for Peace and Justice condemns this brutal attack and calls for an end to U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip.
UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE CALLS FOR:
1) An immediate end to the assault on Gaza by the Israeli military forces.
2) Cut off of U.S. financial and military aid to Israel that makes it possible for such assaults to be carried out, as well as U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
3) Immediate shipments by the U.S. government of humanitarian aid (especially food and medicines) for the people of Gaza.
YOU CAN TAKE ACTION TODAY:
1) Call the White House (202-456-1111) and the U.S. State Department (202-647-4000) to demand that the U.S. take immediate action to end.
2) Send a letter to your local paper and speak out against the latest assaults by the Israeli government on the people of Gaza.
3) You can help get much-needed medical supplies to Gaza -- click here for more information and to make a donation.
BACKGROUND
During the month of June the Israeli military forces carried out several deadly attacks in Gaza. On June 9th, 8 Palestinians were killed and 32 injured when a beach was shelled (see report from Human Rights Watch for more information on this incident); on June 13th a missile attack on a highway in Gaza killed 11 people and wounded another 30; and on June 20th another missile attack from Israeli forces killed 3 children and wounded 15 more people.
In retaliation, Palestinian militants raided Israeli military positions near Gaza on June 25th, during which 2 soldiers were killed and Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit was captured. Israel then threatened an attack if he was not freed and began deploying tanks along the border. Their attack began after Israel rejected Shalit's captors' demand for the release of all Palestinian women and Palestinians younger than eighteen in Israeli prisons. (There are some 9,800 Palestinians being held: 335 of them are children and several dozen are women.)
Just before midnight on June 27th a large scale military assault on Gaza was launched by Israel. Fighter planes hit three bridges along the main north-south highway in Gaza. Another strike hit Gaza's main power plant and knocked out the electricity in densely populated Gaza City. This power plant provided 42% of the power to Gaza's 1.3 million residents, and now Gaza is completely dependent on Israel for power. It could take as long as a year to get the plant operational again.
Israel’s deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure is a violation of its obligations under the Geneva Conventions and a war crime. Israel’s use of U.S. taxpayer-supplied weapons to target civilian infrastructure is also a violation of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act; UFPJ calls upon the White House and Congress to investigate these violations of U.S. law and take appropriate action to shut off future weapons transfers to Israel as a result.
At about 2:30 in the morning the Israeli military forces started to move into Gaza and take control of areas east of the city of Rafah. A little after 5am fighter plans flew low over Gaza, causing intentional sonic booms which reportedly shattered windows. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said their goal was "not to mete out punishment but rather to apply pressure so that the abducted soldier will be freed. We want to create a new equation -- freeing the abducted soldier in return for lessening the pressure on the Palestinians." Such deliberate collective punishment of a civilian population is also a violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime.
According to the June 29th edition of the NY Times, the Israeli forces have expanded their assault: "In the West Bank city of Ramallah this morning, Israeli forces detained 20 lawmakers and 8 ministers in the 24-member cabinet, including Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer and Labor Minister Mohammed Barghouti, security officials said. Today, an Israeli warplane fired a missile in Gaza City that an Israeli spokeswoman said hit a soccer field near the pro-Hamas Islamic University. Reuters reported that the missile hit inside the university .... The Israelis also detained about 20 Hamas members of the Palestinian parliament as they made arrests in Ramallah, Jenin, East Jerusalem and elsewhere." And the shelling and sonic booming has continued over these past few days.
The Times went on to say, "On Wednesday, the crisis seemed to be tipping toward escalation as Israeli tanks hunkered down inside southern Gaza at the airport after warplanes had knocked out half of Gaza's electricity and pounded sonic booms over houses. Also on Wednesday, Israel battered northern Gazan towns with artillery and sent warplanes over the house of the Syrian president [in northwest Syria], who is influential with the Palestinian leader believed to have ordered the kidnapping."
According to reports in the Syrian press, the 4 Israeli fighter planes were forced out of the airspace by Syria's military. As bad as the situation is, things could get even worse if Israel does not stop its assaults. But the Israeli government is taking an extremely hard line: Prime Minister Olmert, as quoted in the NY Times, said, "We won't hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family."
All of this comes in the midst of a severe economic, humanitarian crisis throughout Gaza and the West Bank. In January of this year international aid to the Palestinians was cut off after the Hamas party won the elections, leading to extreme shortages of food and medicine, as well as other supplies and necessities. Last week, the Senate passed its version of the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act, which proposes additional economic and diplomatic sanctions against the Palestinian people for exercising their right to vote. The Senate bill, which was approved by unanimous consent, comes on the heels of the House passing its version of the bill last month. UFPJ has signed a statement to Congress, organized by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, calling on it not to impose sanctions on the Palestinian people for voting.
Ten months ago Israeli military forces withdrew from the Gaza Strip, part of the Palestinian lands long occupied by Israel. On Tuesday, June 27th, the Israeli military launched an all-out assault on the people of Gaza, and there seems to be no end in sight.
The destruction of vital bridges and power stations, which led to the cut off of electricity and water for well over 1 million people, is nothing short of collective punishment imposed on a civilian population. Israel has also taken nearly 100 elected officials and leaders of the Hamas party as prisoners in the last few days.
Israel’s massive military assault on Gaza is clear evidence that Israel remains the occupying power of the Gaza Strip, despite its unilateral withdrawal of settlements last year. Israel has been seeking to bring down the Palestinian government by bringing pressure to bear on the civilian Palestinian population, and is using the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier as a pretext to do that. (More background information below.)
United for Peace and Justice condemns this brutal attack and calls for an end to U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, including the Gaza Strip.
UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE CALLS FOR:
1) An immediate end to the assault on Gaza by the Israeli military forces.
2) Cut off of U.S. financial and military aid to Israel that makes it possible for such assaults to be carried out, as well as U.S. support for the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
3) Immediate shipments by the U.S. government of humanitarian aid (especially food and medicines) for the people of Gaza.
YOU CAN TAKE ACTION TODAY:
1) Call the White House (202-456-1111) and the U.S. State Department (202-647-4000) to demand that the U.S. take immediate action to end.
2) Send a letter to your local paper and speak out against the latest assaults by the Israeli government on the people of Gaza.
3) You can help get much-needed medical supplies to Gaza -- click here for more information and to make a donation.
BACKGROUND
During the month of June the Israeli military forces carried out several deadly attacks in Gaza. On June 9th, 8 Palestinians were killed and 32 injured when a beach was shelled (see report from Human Rights Watch for more information on this incident); on June 13th a missile attack on a highway in Gaza killed 11 people and wounded another 30; and on June 20th another missile attack from Israeli forces killed 3 children and wounded 15 more people.
In retaliation, Palestinian militants raided Israeli military positions near Gaza on June 25th, during which 2 soldiers were killed and Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit was captured. Israel then threatened an attack if he was not freed and began deploying tanks along the border. Their attack began after Israel rejected Shalit's captors' demand for the release of all Palestinian women and Palestinians younger than eighteen in Israeli prisons. (There are some 9,800 Palestinians being held: 335 of them are children and several dozen are women.)
Just before midnight on June 27th a large scale military assault on Gaza was launched by Israel. Fighter planes hit three bridges along the main north-south highway in Gaza. Another strike hit Gaza's main power plant and knocked out the electricity in densely populated Gaza City. This power plant provided 42% of the power to Gaza's 1.3 million residents, and now Gaza is completely dependent on Israel for power. It could take as long as a year to get the plant operational again.
Israel’s deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure is a violation of its obligations under the Geneva Conventions and a war crime. Israel’s use of U.S. taxpayer-supplied weapons to target civilian infrastructure is also a violation of the U.S. Arms Export Control Act; UFPJ calls upon the White House and Congress to investigate these violations of U.S. law and take appropriate action to shut off future weapons transfers to Israel as a result.
At about 2:30 in the morning the Israeli military forces started to move into Gaza and take control of areas east of the city of Rafah. A little after 5am fighter plans flew low over Gaza, causing intentional sonic booms which reportedly shattered windows. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said their goal was "not to mete out punishment but rather to apply pressure so that the abducted soldier will be freed. We want to create a new equation -- freeing the abducted soldier in return for lessening the pressure on the Palestinians." Such deliberate collective punishment of a civilian population is also a violation of the Geneva Conventions and a war crime.
According to the June 29th edition of the NY Times, the Israeli forces have expanded their assault: "In the West Bank city of Ramallah this morning, Israeli forces detained 20 lawmakers and 8 ministers in the 24-member cabinet, including Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer and Labor Minister Mohammed Barghouti, security officials said. Today, an Israeli warplane fired a missile in Gaza City that an Israeli spokeswoman said hit a soccer field near the pro-Hamas Islamic University. Reuters reported that the missile hit inside the university .... The Israelis also detained about 20 Hamas members of the Palestinian parliament as they made arrests in Ramallah, Jenin, East Jerusalem and elsewhere." And the shelling and sonic booming has continued over these past few days.
The Times went on to say, "On Wednesday, the crisis seemed to be tipping toward escalation as Israeli tanks hunkered down inside southern Gaza at the airport after warplanes had knocked out half of Gaza's electricity and pounded sonic booms over houses. Also on Wednesday, Israel battered northern Gazan towns with artillery and sent warplanes over the house of the Syrian president [in northwest Syria], who is influential with the Palestinian leader believed to have ordered the kidnapping."
According to reports in the Syrian press, the 4 Israeli fighter planes were forced out of the airspace by Syria's military. As bad as the situation is, things could get even worse if Israel does not stop its assaults. But the Israeli government is taking an extremely hard line: Prime Minister Olmert, as quoted in the NY Times, said, "We won't hesitate to carry out extreme action to bring Gilad back to his family."
All of this comes in the midst of a severe economic, humanitarian crisis throughout Gaza and the West Bank. In January of this year international aid to the Palestinians was cut off after the Hamas party won the elections, leading to extreme shortages of food and medicine, as well as other supplies and necessities. Last week, the Senate passed its version of the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act, which proposes additional economic and diplomatic sanctions against the Palestinian people for exercising their right to vote. The Senate bill, which was approved by unanimous consent, comes on the heels of the House passing its version of the bill last month. UFPJ has signed a statement to Congress, organized by the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, calling on it not to impose sanctions on the Palestinian people for voting.
July 4 Troops Home Fast
In Charlotte:
Independence Park, 7th St & Hawthorne Ln Charlotte North Carolina
When: 12 noon into the evening
Cindy Sheehan, Diane Wilson, Dick Gregory, and CODEPINK Co-Founders Medea Benjamin, Jodie Evans, and Gael Murphy are calling on people around the country to join the Troops Home Fast. (List of fasters http://troopshomefast.org/article.php?id=1030). This open-ended hunger strike aims to galvanize public attention, invigorate the peace movement, build pressure on elected officials, and get our troops back home FAST! The ongoing fast will generate a lot of attention in Washington, DC, but our fast will only be a success with your local participation. Through local legislative pressure, we hope that a major victory of this fast will be a significant increase in the number of Congresspeople who sign onto legislation calling for a troop withdrawal by the end of the year, and increased local visibility for the anti-war movement.
In Charlotte, join members of Char-Meck CODEPINK, Action Center For Justice, Charlotte Area Green Party, Operation Impeachment & others in the Charlotte area participating in the Troops Home Fast. All day and into the evening when people gather to watch the annual fireworks. Hand out literature, gather signatures for petitions, make a peace ribbon, or just stop by and show your support.
Contact:
Maggie Davis
Maggierose72253@aol.com
704-333-4154
Sponsored By:
Char-Meck CODEPINK, Action Center For Justice
http://www.CharlotteAction.org
National info: www.TroopsHomeFast.org
Independence Park, 7th St & Hawthorne Ln Charlotte North Carolina
When: 12 noon into the evening
Cindy Sheehan, Diane Wilson, Dick Gregory, and CODEPINK Co-Founders Medea Benjamin, Jodie Evans, and Gael Murphy are calling on people around the country to join the Troops Home Fast. (List of fasters http://troopshomefast.org/article.php?id=1030). This open-ended hunger strike aims to galvanize public attention, invigorate the peace movement, build pressure on elected officials, and get our troops back home FAST! The ongoing fast will generate a lot of attention in Washington, DC, but our fast will only be a success with your local participation. Through local legislative pressure, we hope that a major victory of this fast will be a significant increase in the number of Congresspeople who sign onto legislation calling for a troop withdrawal by the end of the year, and increased local visibility for the anti-war movement.
In Charlotte, join members of Char-Meck CODEPINK, Action Center For Justice, Charlotte Area Green Party, Operation Impeachment & others in the Charlotte area participating in the Troops Home Fast. All day and into the evening when people gather to watch the annual fireworks. Hand out literature, gather signatures for petitions, make a peace ribbon, or just stop by and show your support.
Contact:
Maggie Davis
Maggierose72253@aol.com
704-333-4154
Sponsored By:
Char-Meck CODEPINK, Action Center For Justice
http://www.CharlotteAction.org
National info: www.TroopsHomeFast.org
Bush Coming to Ft Bragg July 4
From: http://www.fayettevilleobserver.com/article?id=236319
“President Bush is expected to visit Fort Bragg for the Fourth of July, according to Republican activist Robert C. Anderson and several people who spoke on the condition that their names not be used. The visit will be in the morning, said one source. The president is expected to visit with the troops and their families as part of the holiday activities, the source said. The president is not expected to venture away from Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base during his visit.”
Interested in taking part in an action: vigil, protest, banner drop, radio show call-in, etc…? Email july4@ncpeacejustice.org
If you are interested in carpooling from the Charlotte area to protest Bush at Ft Bragg, contact David Dixon at 704-492-8527 or operationimpeachment@yahoo.com. Details will be posted at www.OperationImpeachment.org.
“President Bush is expected to visit Fort Bragg for the Fourth of July, according to Republican activist Robert C. Anderson and several people who spoke on the condition that their names not be used. The visit will be in the morning, said one source. The president is expected to visit with the troops and their families as part of the holiday activities, the source said. The president is not expected to venture away from Fort Bragg and Pope Air Force Base during his visit.”
Interested in taking part in an action: vigil, protest, banner drop, radio show call-in, etc…? Email july4@ncpeacejustice.org
If you are interested in carpooling from the Charlotte area to protest Bush at Ft Bragg, contact David Dixon at 704-492-8527 or operationimpeachment@yahoo.com. Details will be posted at www.OperationImpeachment.org.
U.S. troops accused of killing Iraq family
By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press Writer
June 30, 2006 posted on Yahoo! News
Five U.S. Army soldiers are being investigated for allegedly raping a young woman, then killing her and three members of her family in Iraq, a U.S. military official told The Associated Press on Friday.
The soldiers also allegedly burned the body of the woman they are accused of raping.
Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of coalition troops in Baghdad, had ordered a criminal investigation into the alleged killing of a family of four in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, the U.S. command said. It did not elaborate.
"The entire investigation will encompass everything that could have happened that evening. We're not releasing any specifics of an ongoing investigation," said military spokesman Maj. Todd Breasseale.
"There is no indication what led soldiers to this home. The investigation just cracked open. We're just beginning to dig into the details."
However, a U.S. official close to the investigation said at least one of the soldiers, all assigned to the 502nd Infantry Regiment, has admitted his role and has been arrested. Two soldiers from the same regiment were slain this month when they were kidnapped at a checkpoint near Youssifiyah.
At least four other soldiers have had their weapons taken away and are confined to Forward Operating Base Mahmoudiyah south of Baghdad. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
The official said the killings appear to be unrelated to the kidnappings but that a soldier felt compelled to report the killings after his fellow soldiers' bodies were found.
The killings appeared to have been a "crime of opportunity," the official said. The soldiers had not been attacked by insurgents but had noticed the woman on previous patrols.
___
AP correspondent Ryan Lenz is embedded with the 101st Airborne Division in Beiji, Iraq. He was previously embedded with the 502nd Infantry Regiment in Mahmoudiyah.
June 30, 2006 posted on Yahoo! News
Five U.S. Army soldiers are being investigated for allegedly raping a young woman, then killing her and three members of her family in Iraq, a U.S. military official told The Associated Press on Friday.
The soldiers also allegedly burned the body of the woman they are accused of raping.
Maj. Gen. James D. Thurman, commander of coalition troops in Baghdad, had ordered a criminal investigation into the alleged killing of a family of four in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, the U.S. command said. It did not elaborate.
"The entire investigation will encompass everything that could have happened that evening. We're not releasing any specifics of an ongoing investigation," said military spokesman Maj. Todd Breasseale.
"There is no indication what led soldiers to this home. The investigation just cracked open. We're just beginning to dig into the details."
However, a U.S. official close to the investigation said at least one of the soldiers, all assigned to the 502nd Infantry Regiment, has admitted his role and has been arrested. Two soldiers from the same regiment were slain this month when they were kidnapped at a checkpoint near Youssifiyah.
At least four other soldiers have had their weapons taken away and are confined to Forward Operating Base Mahmoudiyah south of Baghdad. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
The official said the killings appear to be unrelated to the kidnappings but that a soldier felt compelled to report the killings after his fellow soldiers' bodies were found.
The killings appeared to have been a "crime of opportunity," the official said. The soldiers had not been attacked by insurgents but had noticed the woman on previous patrols.
___
AP correspondent Ryan Lenz is embedded with the 101st Airborne Division in Beiji, Iraq. He was previously embedded with the 502nd Infantry Regiment in Mahmoudiyah.
Charlotte citizens take part in national day to support Lt Ehren Watada
On June 27, some 25 people got together in Charlotte in support of Lt Ehren Watada. Lt. Watada is the first commissioned US officer to refuse deployment to Iraq. The Lieutenant says the Iraq War is an “illegal war”, in violation of international and domestic law. (Full information at www.ThankYouLt.org). Over three dozen cities took part in the action, click here for full list.
The film “Sir! No Sir!”, the suppressed story of the G.I. Resistance movement to end the Vietnam war, was shown at the Public Library in downtown Charlotte. Ahmad Daniels, a Vietnam-era military resister who is mentioned in the film, gave an introduction and facilitated a discussion afterwards. Daniels spent two and half years in prison for refusing to deploy to Vietnam while in the Marines.
Many of those in attendance seemed eager for a large, mass movement against the Iraq War similar to the one opposing the Vietnam War. Lt Watada’s courageous stand may just be the spark that ignites such a movement.
Those participating in the event included members of Action Center For Justice, Char-Meck CODEPINK, Creative Interchange, Charlotte Area Greens, The Freedom Group, the newly reformed Students For A Democratic Society (SDS) and others. A few people in the library joined as well after an announcement was made on the PA about the film.
The 24 hour cable channel News 14 covered the event.
Charlotte area activists will continue to build support for Lt Watada and other brave military resisters. There will be a demonstration held in his support if he is court-martialed. The G.I. Resisters Support Center has been launched to provide support locally and coordinate activities with the national movement.
For more information see www.SupportResisters.org or call (704) 492-8527.
The film “Sir! No Sir!”, the suppressed story of the G.I. Resistance movement to end the Vietnam war, was shown at the Public Library in downtown Charlotte. Ahmad Daniels, a Vietnam-era military resister who is mentioned in the film, gave an introduction and facilitated a discussion afterwards. Daniels spent two and half years in prison for refusing to deploy to Vietnam while in the Marines.
Many of those in attendance seemed eager for a large, mass movement against the Iraq War similar to the one opposing the Vietnam War. Lt Watada’s courageous stand may just be the spark that ignites such a movement.
Those participating in the event included members of Action Center For Justice, Char-Meck CODEPINK, Creative Interchange, Charlotte Area Greens, The Freedom Group, the newly reformed Students For A Democratic Society (SDS) and others. A few people in the library joined as well after an announcement was made on the PA about the film.
The 24 hour cable channel News 14 covered the event.
Charlotte area activists will continue to build support for Lt Watada and other brave military resisters. There will be a demonstration held in his support if he is court-martialed. The G.I. Resisters Support Center has been launched to provide support locally and coordinate activities with the national movement.
For more information see www.SupportResisters.org or call (704) 492-8527.
Bush ignores laws he inks, vexing Congress
Bush ignores laws he inks, vexing Congress
By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press posted on Yahoo! News
Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) thought he had a deal when President Bush, faced with a veto-proof margin in Congress, agreed to sign a bill banning the torture of detainees. Not quite. While Bush signed the new law, he also quietly approved another document: a signing statement reserving his right to ignore the law. McCain was furious, and so were other lawmakers.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is opening hearings this week into what has become the White House's favorite tool for overriding Congress in the name of wartime national security.
"It's a challenge to the plain language of the Constitution," the committee's chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'm interested to hear from the administration just what research they've done to lead them to the conclusion that they can cherry-pick."
Apparently, enough to challenge more than 750 statutes passed by Congress, far more than any other president, Specter's committee says. The White House does not dispute that number, but points out that Bush is far from the nation's first chief executive to issue them.
"Signing statements have long been issued by presidents, dating back to Andrew Jackson all the way through President Clinton," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday.
Specter's first hearing Tuesday is about more than the statements. He's been keeping a laundry list of White House practices he bluntly says could amount to abuses of executive power — from warrantless domestic wiretapping program to sending up officials who refuse on national security grounds to answer questions at hearings.
But the hearing also is about countering any influence Bush's signing statements may have on court decisions regarding the new laws. Courts can be expected to look to the legislature for intent, not the executive, said Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas., a former state judge.
"There's less here than meets the eye," Cornyn said. "The president is entitled to express his opinion. It's the courts that determine what the law is."
But Specter and his allies maintain that Bush, in practical terms, is doing an end-run around the veto process in the name of national security. In the sixth year of his presidency, Bush has yet to issue a single veto.
Rather than give Congress the opportunity to override a veto with a two-thirds majority in each house, he has issued hundreds of signing statements invoking his right to interpret the law on everything from whistleblower protections to how Congress oversees the USA Patriot Act.
"It means that the administration does not feel bound to enforce many new laws which Congress has passed," said David Golove, a law professor at New York University who specializes in executive power issues. "This raises profound rule of law concerns. Do we have a functioning code of federal laws?"
Signing statements don't carry the force of law, and other presidents have issued them for administrative reasons — such as instructing an agency how to put a certain law into effect. When a president issues such a document, it's usually inserted quietly into the federal record.
Bush's signing statement in March on Congress's renewal of the Patriot Act particularly riled Specter and others who labored for months to craft a compromise between Senate and House versions, and what the White House wanted. Reluctantly, the administration gave in on its objections to new congressional oversight of the way the FBI searches for terrorists.
Bush signed the bill with much flag-waving fanfare. Then he issued a signing statement asserting his right to bypass the oversight provisions in certain circumstances.
Specter isn't sure how much Congress can do check the practice. "We may figure out a way to tie it to the confirmation process or budgetary matters," he said.
By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press posted on Yahoo! News
Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) thought he had a deal when President Bush, faced with a veto-proof margin in Congress, agreed to sign a bill banning the torture of detainees. Not quite. While Bush signed the new law, he also quietly approved another document: a signing statement reserving his right to ignore the law. McCain was furious, and so were other lawmakers.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is opening hearings this week into what has become the White House's favorite tool for overriding Congress in the name of wartime national security.
"It's a challenge to the plain language of the Constitution," the committee's chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), R-Pa, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'm interested to hear from the administration just what research they've done to lead them to the conclusion that they can cherry-pick."
Apparently, enough to challenge more than 750 statutes passed by Congress, far more than any other president, Specter's committee says. The White House does not dispute that number, but points out that Bush is far from the nation's first chief executive to issue them.
"Signing statements have long been issued by presidents, dating back to Andrew Jackson all the way through President Clinton," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Monday.
Specter's first hearing Tuesday is about more than the statements. He's been keeping a laundry list of White House practices he bluntly says could amount to abuses of executive power — from warrantless domestic wiretapping program to sending up officials who refuse on national security grounds to answer questions at hearings.
But the hearing also is about countering any influence Bush's signing statements may have on court decisions regarding the new laws. Courts can be expected to look to the legislature for intent, not the executive, said Sen. John Cornyn (news, bio, voting record), R-Texas., a former state judge.
"There's less here than meets the eye," Cornyn said. "The president is entitled to express his opinion. It's the courts that determine what the law is."
But Specter and his allies maintain that Bush, in practical terms, is doing an end-run around the veto process in the name of national security. In the sixth year of his presidency, Bush has yet to issue a single veto.
Rather than give Congress the opportunity to override a veto with a two-thirds majority in each house, he has issued hundreds of signing statements invoking his right to interpret the law on everything from whistleblower protections to how Congress oversees the USA Patriot Act.
"It means that the administration does not feel bound to enforce many new laws which Congress has passed," said David Golove, a law professor at New York University who specializes in executive power issues. "This raises profound rule of law concerns. Do we have a functioning code of federal laws?"
Signing statements don't carry the force of law, and other presidents have issued them for administrative reasons — such as instructing an agency how to put a certain law into effect. When a president issues such a document, it's usually inserted quietly into the federal record.
Bush's signing statement in March on Congress's renewal of the Patriot Act particularly riled Specter and others who labored for months to craft a compromise between Senate and House versions, and what the White House wanted. Reluctantly, the administration gave in on its objections to new congressional oversight of the way the FBI searches for terrorists.
Bush signed the bill with much flag-waving fanfare. Then he issued a signing statement asserting his right to bypass the oversight provisions in certain circumstances.
Specter isn't sure how much Congress can do check the practice. "We may figure out a way to tie it to the confirmation process or budgetary matters," he said.
More Than One-Third of Iraq Troops Suffering Migraines
By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter posted Thu Jun 22, 7:12 PM ET on Yahoo! News
THURSDAY, June 22 (HealthDay News) -- An unexpectedly high number of troops serving in Iraq are suffering from migraine headaches, researchers report.
The debilitating headaches are affecting more than one-third of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, or about twice that in the general U.S. population, according to a study being presented at the annual American Headache Society (AHS) meeting now underway in Los Angeles.
Factors like heat, stress and exhaustion can all raise risks for migraine, experts say, and could be to blame for the high incidence reported.
"Migraines are common among U.S. military personnel in a combat zone -- up to 37 percent of those in Iraq," said study lead author Dr. Brett Theeler, a neurology resident at Madigan Army Medical Center, Fort Lewis, Washington, at a Thursday news conference. "This greatly exceeds the prevalence expected for the same age and gender."
These migraines were also underdiagnosed and undertreated and significantly impaired the soldiers' ability to do their jobs, experts added.
Migraines are particularly debilitating headaches that plague about 28 million Americans. The condition costs the economy more than $13 billion each year in lost work.
"The World Health Organization ranked migraine attacks as one of the most disabling conditions known to mankind," said Dr. Stephen Silberstein, director of the Jefferson Headache Center at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, at the same news conference. "It is equivalent to acute psychosis and quadriplegia. People have attacks all the time, and they have significant disability."
Many factors that can contribute to migraines are present in Iraq, Theeler said.
"We hypothesized that migraines would be common among soldiers in Iraq because they can be linked with physical exhaustion, dehydration, abnormal meal patterns, exposure to fumes and extreme heat, among other things," he said.
Theeler's study is the first to look at migraines among active-duty soldiers, although there have been case reports and articles from previous conflicts.
Headache questionnaires were completed by 2,697 U.S. soldiers from Fort Lewis, Washington. The questionnaires included questions about symptoms experienced during the last three months of deployment.
Nineteen percent of the soldiers surveyed reported headaches meeting the criteria for migraine, 18 percent reported headaches meeting the criteria for probably migraine and 11 percent reported having non-migraine headaches. Only 5 percent had previously been diagnosed with migraine.
The majority of the respondents (95 percent) were men.
Soldiers with definite migraines had an average of 3.5 attacks every month, lasting an average of five hours per attack, and made a total of 477 sick call visits, Theeler said. Only 2 percent of these soldiers were using one of the family of triptan medications, deemed the most effective for this condition.
Although no one knows precisely why the incidence of migraine would be elevated in this group, the reason probably has to do with different stressors, the authors said.
The researchers contacted the soldiers again three months after they had returned home. "The migraines tended to persist after they got home and, in many cases, became more severe," Theeler said.
Health officials are now trying to intervene before men and women are deployed. "We have started educating soldiers about migraine headaches and are developing a migraine-screening program to identify people prior to deployment, so that appropriate treatments can be prescribed," Theeler said.
More information
For more on migraines, visit the National Migraine Association.
Copyright © 2006 HealthDay.
Wars force Army equipment costs to triple
By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
The annual cost of replacing, repairing and upgrading Army equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan is expected to more than triple next year to more than $17 billion, according to Army documents obtained by the Associated Press.
From 2002 to 2006, the Army spent an average of $4 billion a year in annual equipment costs. But as the war takes a harder toll on the military, that number is projected to balloon to more than $12 billion for the federal budget year that starts next Oct. 1, the documents show.
The $17 billion also includes an additional $5 billion in equipment expenses that the Army requested in previous years but has not yet been provided.
The latest costs include the transfer of more than 1,200 2 1/2-ton trucks, nearly 1,100 Humvees and $8.8 million in other equipment from the U.S. Army to the Iraqi security forces.
Army and Marine Corps leaders are expected to testify before Congress Tuesday and outline the growing costs of the war — with estimates that it will cost between $12 billion and $13 billion a year for equipment repairs, upgrades and replacements from now on.
The Marine Corps has said in recent testimony before Congress that it would need nearly $12 billion to replace and repair all the equipment worn out or lost to combat in the past four years. So far, the Marines have received $1.6 billion toward those costs to replace and repair the equipment.
According to the Army, the $17 billion includes:
_$2.1 billion in equipment that must be replaced because of battle losses.
_About $6.5 billion for repairs.
_About $8.4 billion to rebuild or upgrade equipment.
One of the growing costs is the replacement of Humvees, which are wearing out more quickly because of the added armor they are carrying to protect soldiers from roadside bombs. The added weight is causing them to wear out faster, decreasing the life of the vehicles.
Congress has provided about $21 billion for equipment costs in emergency supplemental budget bills from 2002-06. All the war equipment expenses have been funded through those emergency bills, and not in the regular fiscal-year budgets.
Pentagon officials have estimated that such emergency bills would have to continue two years beyond the time the U.S. pulls out of Iraq in order to fully replace, repair and rebuild all of the needed equipment.
The push for additional equipment funding comes after the House last week passed a $427 billion defense spending bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, which includes $50 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. A separate $66 billion emergency funding bill for the two wars was approved earlier in the month.
War-related costs since 2001 are approaching half a trillion dollars.
___
On the Net:
Defense Department: http://www.defenselink.mil
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press.
Iraq conflict leaves at least 130,000 displaced
By Hiba Moussa and Michael Georgy
Mon Jun 26, 8:26 AM ET on http://news.yahoo.com
Mon Jun 26, 8:26 AM ET on http://news.yahoo.com
Iraq's sectarian violence of the past four months has pushed the number of displaced people to above 130,000, parliament heard on Monday as members urged ministers to give more aid and security to contain the crisis.
"There should be more field visits to understand their plight," Sunni Arab parliamentarian Dhafir al-Ani told the assembly. "The government should take direct steps and provide security for displaced families, including at their camps."
Iraq's Ministry of Displaced and Migration now puts the number of internal refugees at 130,386, or 21,731 families, its spokesman Sattar Nowruz said.
The number of registered displaced has climbed by as much as 30,000 in the last month, according to ministry statistics.
The actual figure must be higher as many thousands go uncounted, quietly seeking refuge with relatives or heading abroad. It seems hardly no-one in Baghdad does not have a friend, relative or neighbor who has had to move in fear.
Already a problem due to the violence and anarchy of recent years, the crisis deepened after the February 22 bombing of a major Shi'ite shrine in the town of Samarra set off reprisals and pushed Iraq to the brink of sectarian civil war.
The problem has been likened to the "ethnic cleansing" of the Balkans in the 1990s and few expect a quick solution.
Sectarian violence, which kills dozens of people a day in Baghdad alone, has started to force demographic shifts, with Shi'ites and Sunnis fleeing for safer areas made up of their own sect.
Mixed neighborhoods are breaking apart.
Some fear the Tigris river, between mainly Shi'ite east and Sunni west Baghdad, could become a front-line akin to Beirut's 1980s "Green Line" if new Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki fails to stop the sectarian killings.
RECONCILIATION PLAN
He presented a national reconciliation plan to parliament on Sunday which was long on promises but short on details of exactly how he would tackle sectarian violence.
Baghdad, a melting pot for Iraqis of all sects and ethnic groups, has started to witness an exodus, especially among Sunnis fleeing north and Shi'ites escaping south.
Iraqis from other areas are also heading to Baghdad to escape sectarian violence which rages as Sunni Arab insurgents wage a bloody campaign against the Shi'ite-led government.
Haidar al-Ibadi, head of a parliamentary committee on the displaced, said the panel was weighing several measures to ensure that people don't flee their districts.
"In order not to change the demographics, the government should keep people in their same areas and provide security so they don't leave," he said.
Ibadi said 70 percent of the displaced are Shi'ites and most of the rest Sunni. But he did note that the conflict had also hit others, with 800 Kurdish and 90 Christian families joining the internally displaced in the last four months.
Christian groups say many tens of thousands from a community estimated at several hundred thousand have fled the country as a result of violence and growing Muslim antipathy since the war.
(Additional reporting by Aseel Kami)
Copyright © 2006 Reuters Limited.
State Dept Memo Details Reality In Iraq
State Dept Memo Details Reality In Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/graphics/iraqdocs_061606.pdf
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/graphics/iraqdocs_061606.pdf
US blasts Council of Europe report on secret CIA flights
Wed Jun 7, 3:06 PM ET
The United States criticized a Council of Europe report on secret CIA flights for "war on terror" suspects, dismissing it as heavy on charges but thin on hard facts.
"We're certainly disappointed in the tone and the content of it," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told a press briefing.
"This would appear to be a rehash of the previous efforts by this group. I don't see any new solid facts in it. There seem to be a lot of allegations but no real facts behind it."
According to the report, 14 European countries colluded in or tolerated the secret transfer of terrorist suspects by the United States, and two of them -- Poland and Romania -- may have harboured CIA detention centers.
Drawn up by Swiss parliamentarian Dick Marty, the report identified a "spider's web" of landing points around the world used by the US authorities for the practice of "extraordinary rendition" -- the undercover transfer of security suspects to third countries or US-run detention centres.
"It is now clear -- although we are still far from establishing the whole truth -- that authorities in several European countries actively participated with the CIA in these unlawful activities. Other countries ignored them knowingly, or did not want to know," the report said.
McCormack said that renditions "are an internationally recognized legal practice. (Venezuelan terrorist) Carlos the Jackal wouldn't be in jail today without the practice of rendition."
McCormack also decried the "tone in the report and some of the discussion that there's something inherently bad or illegal about intelligence activities."
Intelligence cooperation "between the United States and Europe and between the United States and other countries around the world saves lives in the war on terror," he said.
The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, which is a separate body from the European Union, was set up after World War II to promote democracy and human rights across the continent. It has 46 member states.
Copyright © 2006 Agence France Presse. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AFP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Agence France Presse.
CIA Ties With Ex-Nazis Shown
Anti-Communist Effort Is Detailed In Agency Records
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 7, 2006; A21
The CIA organized Cold War spy networks that included former Nazis and failed to act on a 1958 report that fugitive Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was living in Argentina, newly released CIA records show.
The records were among 27,000 pages of documents made public yesterday at the National Archives. They shed new light on the secret protection and support given to former Nazi officials and Nazi collaborators by U.S. intelligence agencies as fighting communism became the central aim of American foreign policy in the years after World War II.
"It was not U.S. policy to track Nazi war criminals once the Cold War began," said historian Timothy Naftali of the University of Virginia, a Cold War expert who has studied the new documents.
"The CIA based its decisions about using former SS men or unreconstructed Nazis solely on operational considerations. . . . Hiring these tainted individuals brought little other than operational problems and moral confusion to our government's intelligence community," he added.
The subject of postwar collaboration between U.S. intelligence and former Nazis that the government sought to use in the struggle against the Soviet Union has been documented, but historians said the previously inaccessible documents have enabled them to fill in many blanks in the historical narrative.
About 60,000 pages of CIA records had already been released since 1999, after a 1998 federal law opened up secret government files relating to war crimes by the German and Japanese governments during World War II.
Historians reviewing the records for the government published a 2004 book, "U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis," based on 240,000 pages of FBI records, 419 CIA files and 3,000 pages of U.S. Army information. It detailed the Army's postwar relationship with former officers of the German Wehrmacht's intelligence service, which are available at the National Archives.
The materials released yesterday include operational documents detailing the activities of the CIA and its contacts abroad, historians and other officials said during a news conference at the National Archives.
"It's a rare release of operational files," said Allen Weinstein, head of the National Archives and chairman of the interagency working group overseeing the declassification of records about World War II crimes and criminals. "The files are also more inclusive than any other CIA files made public before. . . . This time, the documents are nearly all without redactions, providing researchers and historians the clearest view yet of the postwar intelligence world."
The release of the records stalled last year with the deadline for the interagency project approaching when the CIA balked at declassifying more detailed documents about the agency's postwar ties to Nazis. But the CIA caved in under pressure from Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), an author of the original legislation, and other prominent backers of that law. Congress passed a new law extending the life of the interagency panel by two years, to early 2007.
Some of the newly released documents show that between 1949 and 1955, the CIA organized "stay-behind" networks of German agents to provide intelligence from behind enemy lines, should the Soviet Union invade western Germany.
One network included at least two former Nazi SS members -- Staff Sgt. Heinrich Hoffman and Lt. Col. Hans Rues -- and one was run by Lt. Col. Walter Kopp, a former German army officer referred to by the CIA as an "unreconstructed Nazi." The network was disbanded in 1953 amid political concerns that some members' neo-Nazi sympathies would be exposed in the West German press.
In a March 1958 memo to the CIA, the West German foreign intelligence services (BND) wrote that Eichmann, a top Gestapo official who helped orchestrate the mass murder of Jews, "is reported to have lived in Argentina under the alias CLEMENS since 1952." The memo also mentioned a rumor that Eichmann lived in Jerusalem.
In fact, Eichmann was in Argentina and was using the name Ricardo Klement -- but apparently neither the CIA nor the West Germans acted on the information, Naftali said.
"Tragically, at the moment the CIA and the BND had this information the Israelis were temporarily giving up their search for Eichmann in Argentina because they could not figure out his alias," Naftali wrote in an analysis of the documents.
Eventually, Israeli Mossad agents abducted Eichmann in Buenos Aires on May 11, 1960. He was tried in Jerusalem, sentenced to death and hanged on May 31, 1962.
Robert Wolfe, a former federal archivist and an expert on captured German records, said the new CIA documents illustrate the "sorry results" of recruiting former Nazi intelligence personnel to U.S. efforts to keep the Soviet Union in check.
"The alleged intelligence those recruits peddled was mostly hearsay and gossip designed to tell their American interrogators what they wanted to hear, in the hope of escaping retribution for past crimes, or for mercenary gain, or for political agendas not necessarily compatible with American national interests," Wolfe said.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
U.S. Funds & Supports "Iranian" Groups
Rice wants funds for democracy initiative in Iran
By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | February 16, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asked Congress yesterday to fund a sweeping initiative to promote democracy inside Iran that would expand satellite broadcasts to enable Washington to ''engage" directly with the Iranian people. The initiative also would lift US restrictions to allow US funding for Iranian trade unions, political dissidents, and nongovernmental organizations.
The new request, which was made yesterday at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Bush's foreign affairs budget, would increase spending on democracy programs for Iran this year from $10 million to $85 million.
Rice announced the initiative as Washington steps up pressure on the hard-line regime in Tehran over its nuclear program, which Washington suspects is geared toward producing a nuclear weapon.
''We find it in our interest now . . . to see if we can't engage the Iranian population," Rice told the senators. ''In some ways, you could argue that they need it even more now because they are being isolated by their own regime."
Senators did not respond to the request, but both Republicans and Democrats peppered Rice with tough questions about the administration's policy of supporting democracy at a time when Islamic hardliners have won elections across the Middle East.
The initiative could be a boon to a New Haven human rights group, the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, which last year received about one-third of the $3.5 million that the State Department spent on promoting democracy in Iran.
Yesterday, a senior State Department official briefing the press on the new effort acknowledged that it will be dangerous for Iranian groups to accept funding from the United States and that activists could be killed or imprisoned for doing so.
The official said the lion's share of the democracy money would therefore go to groups outside Iran that maintain discreet contacts inside the country, but that the State Department was prepared to have direct contact and funding links with eligible groups inside Iran. She said much of the work would go on in secret to protect the identities of Iranian activists.
''We don't have blinders on," she said. ''We don't want to hurt the people we are trying to help."
State Department officials at yesterday's briefing stopped short of calling for regime change in Iran, but talked of a desire to foment internal drives for massive political change, similar to movements in Ukraine and the former Soviet republic of Georgia, where US funds paid for media and civil society outreach. But they said they would not support opposition groups, a limitation that would disqualify many Iranian exile organizations.
Ramesh Setehrrad, president of the National Committee of Women for a Democratic Iran, an advocacy group in Washington, said the administration would have a hard time finding organizations to fund if it rejected the political opposition in exile, most of which is associated with the Mujaheddeen Khalq, which the State Department considers a terrorist organization, or with monarchists associated with the late shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.
''There is nothing left as far as the opposition is concerned," Setehrrad said. She called the move a ''step in the right direction," but said it would be inadequate until Washington decided to openly support the political opposition. Rice's initiative by itself ''will not bring the regime down and will not weaken the regime's grip on power," she said.
Rice's initiative also met skepticism from regional specialists who said that the US democracy initiative could cause some in Iran to feel the United States is meddling in its internal affairs, and inflame nationalist feelings that are already bolstering popular support for Tehran's nuclear program.
''I don't think it will help democracy, and I don't think it will solve the Iran issue," said Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Rice's package for democracy would provide an extra $50 million to broadcast programming into Iran in the hopes that a significant number of Iranians will be able to get it via satellite dishes, which are common despite being banned.
Some of the money would go to expand the Persian-language service of Radio Farda, a joint venture between Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Liberty, which now runs only four hours per day.
State Department officials have traveled to Los Angeles, home to a large Iranian community and nearly two dozen Persian-language television stations, to vet other groups that could broadcast in Persian, officials said yesterday.
An additional $15 million in funds would go to US organizations that would support Iranian labor unions and civic activities, and to fund Iranian groups.
Another $5 million would expand educational exchanges with Iranian students, and $5 million more would expand efforts to reach out to Iranians with the Internet and instant messaging.
The money represents a significant jump from last year, when the State Department set aside only $3.5 million for democracy promotion in Iran, a small portion of the $48 million that the administration earmarked for its democracy fund. Of that, $1 million went to support the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center.
That center was formed to help create a historical record of human rights abuses in Iran since the 1979 revolution. The group's board of directors includes Owen Fiss, a Yale University professor, and Reza Afshari, a history professor at Pace University in New York.
The new proposal for Iran is far more ambitious, but its impact may be unclear.
Alireza Morovati, CEO of KRSI, a Persian-language radio station, said it is impossible to know how many listeners he has in Iran.
Morovati also said that many of the Persian-language television and radio stations are being jammed by the Iranian regime. He said his station has never received, and has never asked for, US funding in its 17 years of existence.
Yesterday, both Republican and Democratic senators alike grilled Rice on the administration's track record of promoting democracy in the Middle East, after the election of Islamic extremists in Egypt, Iran, and the Palestinian territories.
Barbara Boxer, a Democrat from California, had a testy exchange with Rice in which she asked:
''Do you agree that nations throughout the world are electing more negative candidates who run against America?"
''I don't see, Madame Secretary, how things are getting better," said Senator Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican.
''I think things are getting worse. I think they're getting worse in Iraq. I think they're getting worse in Iran."
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company.
Bush and Blair meet Iranian opposition
Financial Times, May 31, 2006
US President George W. Bush and Tony Blair, the UK prime minister, have received separate background briefings from Iranian opposition activists, including one visitor to the White House on Tuesday who caused a storm earlier this month by reporting Iran had passed a law requiring Jews to wear special identification.
Contacts at such a high level with Iranian opposition activists are likely to raise concerns in Tehran while the US and UK lead diplomatic efforts to get Iran to abandon its nuclear fuel programme.
White House officials said Amir Taheri, a London-based former editor, was among a group of experts invited to discuss Iraq and the region with Mr Bush.
Mr Taheri is well known for his support of the war in Iraq and regime change in Iran.
Full article at www.ft.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)