Filed under: Ahmadinejad, airstrikes, ban ki-moon, Chris Wallace, Coup, Ephraim Sneh, False Flag, Fox News, GOP, Iran, Israel, lindsey graham, Military Industrial Complex, military strike, Mohammad Khazaee, neocons, Nuke, Preemptive Strike, preemptive war, Saber Rattling, Sanctions, Senate, Shock and Awe, Tehran, UN, united nations, War On Terror, WW3, ww4, Zionism
GOP Senators: U.S., not Israel, should attack Iran ‘if necessary’
David Edwards
Raw Story
October 5, 2009
Two senior Republican senators say the United States, and not Israel, should attack Iran if military action becomes “necessary.”
They also say a simple strike at the country’s nuclear capability wouldn’t be enough — the US would have to launch an “all-or-nothing” war against Iran with the aim of crippling the country’s military capabilities.
“I think an Israeli attack on Iran is a nightmare for the world, because it will rally the Arab world around Iran and they’re not aligned now. It’s too much pressure to put on Israel,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) told Fox News’ Chris Wallace.
He continued: “If the sanctions fail, and Iran’s going down the road to get a nuclear weapon, any Sunni Arab state that could, would want a nuclear weapon. Israel will be more imperiled. The world will change dramatically for the worst. Military action should be the last resort anyone looks at, and I would rather our allies and us take military action if it’s necessary.”
But Graham doesn’t think an attack should be limited to airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. “If we use military action against Iran, we should not only go after their nuclear facilities. We should destroy their ability to make conventional war. They should have no planes that can fly and no ships that can float,” said Graham.
Sen. , Republican of Georgia, agrees.
“The problem with military action also is that you’re probably not going to be able to stop the production of uranium by just a simple airstrike,” Chambliss said on Fox News Sunday. “Lindsey’s right. It’s an all or nothing deal. And is it worth that at this point in time, when we know they have the capability? We can slow them down, but a full-out military strike is what it would take,” said Chambliss.
This video is from Fox’s Fox News Sunday, broadcast Oct. 4, 2009.
Israel will ‘attack Iran if sanctions not in place by Christmas’
Dudi Cohen
Y Net News
October 10, 2009
Iran’s ambassador to UN demands Security Council take steps against comments made by Ephraim Sneh, who said Israel would attack Iran if sanctions weren’t in place by Christmas.
Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Mohammad Khazaee, sent a letter of protest to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in which he wrote that “there is no explanation for Israel’s continuing threats against Tehran”.
He was referring to an interview given by former Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh to the Sunday Times in which he said that if Iran were not further sanctioned by this Christmas Israel would attack the country.
Sneh told the paper that if Israel were forced to attack the Islamic Republic on its own it would do so, remarks the Iranian ambassador deemed “irresponsible”.
Filed under: 2008 Election, federal crime, georgia, Globalism, Joe Lieberman, John McCain, lindsey graham, lobbyists, logan act, Mikheil Saakashvili, moscow, putin, Randy Scheunemann, Russia
John McCain Facing Felony Charges for Violating the Logan Act
Nation Builder
August 16, 2008
Apparently the President of Georgia has been paying John McCain for months via a lobbyist. McCain’s chief foreign policy advisor, Randy Scheunemann, has received hundreds of thousands from the President of Georgia.
And McCain’s declaration back in April that Russia was undermining Georgia’s sovereignty gave the President of Georgia a false sense of security. Now he probably wants his money back.
This seems like US Ambassador April Glaspie telling Saddam that oh we don’t care if you invade Kuwait right before we invaded him.
The McCain campaign says Randy Scheunermann hasn’t taken a dime from Georgia since May 15th, 2008 but between January 1, 2008 and May 15, 2008 Georgia paid him $290,000 for lobbying.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/20/what-about-the-russia-lob_n_120123.html
McCain Aggressively Defends Scheunemann’s Work For Georgia
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo…ain_aggressively_defends_sc.php
http://tpmelectioncentra../mccain_announces_that_lieberma.php
Filed under: Abu Ghraib, ACLU, Afghanistan, CIA, civil liberties, civil rights, Detainee, Extraordinary Rendition, federal crime, flip flop, flip flopping, Geneva Convention, George Bush, Guantanamo, Habeas Corpus, human rights, interrogations, Iraq, John McCain, lindsey graham, Military, nation building, neocons, occupation, rendition, Torture, Troops, US Constitution, veto, War Crimes, War On Terror, waterboarding | Tags: Detainee Treatment Act, gitmo
Forgetting His Vote To Allow Waterboarding, McCain Says ‘We Could Never Torture Anyone’
Think Progress
July 28, 2008
In February, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) voted against a bill banning the CIA from waterboarding and using other torture tactics in their interrogations. When the bill passed, McCain urged Bush to veto it, which he did.
In an interview with Newsweek published today, McCain defended his position, insisting that the CIA plays “a special role” in defending the U.S. and thus should be allowed to use harsh interrogation tactics such as waterboarding:
NEWSWEEK: On torture, why should the CIA be treated differently from the armed services regarding the use of harsh interrogation tactics?
MCCAIN: Because they play a special role in the United States of America and our ability to combat terrorists. But we have made it very clear that there is nothing they can do that would violate the Geneva Conventions, the Detainee Treatment Act, which prohibits torture. We could never torture anyone, but some people misconstrue that who don’t understand what the Detainee Treatment Act and the Geneva Conventions are all about.
McCain’s vote against the waterboarding ban did make one thing clear: that he condones torture. With Bush’s veto, waterboarding remains a distinct option for the CIA:
Still, waterboarding remains in the CIA’s tool kit. The technique can be used, but it requires the consent of the attorney general and president on a case-by-case basis. Bush wants to keep that option open.
“I cannot sign into law a bill that would prevent me, and future presidents, from authorizing the CIA to conduct a separate, lawful intelligence program, and from taking all lawful actions necessary to protect Americans from attack,” Bush said in a statement.
McCain is either clueless or ignorant about the fact that his vote allows the CIA to waterboard detainees. And as Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of McCain’s chief surrogates, has said about waterboarding, “I don’t think you have to have a lot of knowledge about the law to understand this technique violates Geneva Convention common article three, the War Crimes statutes, and many other statutes that are in place.”
Filed under: 5th Amendment, Abu Ghraib, Afghanistan, army, civil liberties, civil rights, Colin Powell, deaths, Detainees, enemy combatant, Extraordinary Rendition, Geneva Convention, George Bush, Guantanamo, Habeas Corpus, Iraq, John McCain, john yoo, lindsey graham, Military, nation building, neocons, occupation, red cross, rendition, Seymour Hersh, supreme court, Torture, Troops, US Constitution, War Crimes, War On Terror, White House | Tags: Jerrold Nadler, Lawrence Wilkerson
2-star General Accuses WH of War Crimes
Washington Post
June 18, 2008
The two-star general who led an Army investigation into the horrific detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib has accused the Bush administration of war crimes and is calling for accountability.
In his 2004 report on Abu Ghraib, then-Major General Anthony Taguba concluded that “numerous incidents of sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses were inflicted on several detainees.” He called the abuse “systemic and illegal.” And, as Seymour M. Hersh reported in the New Yorker, he was rewarded for his honesty by being forced into retirement.
Now, in a preface to a Physicians for Human Rights report based on medical examinations of former detainees, Taguba adds an epilogue to his own investigation.
The new report, he writes, “tells the largely untold human story of what happened to detainees in our custody when the Commander-in-Chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture. This story is not only written in words: It is scrawled for the rest of these individual’s lives on their bodies and minds. Our national honor is stained by the indignity and inhumane treatment these men received from their captors.
“The profiles of these eleven former detainees, none of whom were ever charged with a crime or told why they were detained, are tragic and brutal rebuttals to those who claim that torture is ever justified. Through the experiences of these men in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo Bay, we can see the full-scope of the damage this illegal and unsound policy has inflicted –both on America’s institutions and our nation’s founding values, which the military, intelligence services, and our justice system are duty-bound to defend.
“In order for these individuals to suffer the wanton cruelty to which they were subjected, a government policy was promulgated to the field whereby the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice were disregarded. The UN Convention Against Torture was indiscriminately ignored. . . .
“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.”
Pamela Hess of the Associated Press has more on the report, which resulted from “the most extensive medical study of former U.S. detainees published so far” and “found evidence of torture and other abuse that resulted in serious injuries and mental disorders.”
At Least 25 Detainees Murdered In U.S. Custody
Think Progress
June 20, 2008
At today’s House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil Rights hearing on torture, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, told Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) that over 100 detainees have died in U.S. custody, with up to 27 of these declared homicides:
NADLER: Your testimony said 100 detainees have died in detention; do you believe the 25 of those were in effect murdered?
WILKERSON: Mr. Chairman, I think the number’s actually higher than that now. Last time I checked it was 108.
A February 2006 Human Rights First report found that although hundreds of people in U.S. custody had died and eight people were tortured to death, only 12 deaths had “resulted in punishment of any kind for any U.S. official.”
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/n..etainee_dies_youre_doing_i.html
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2008/200608_b_mccain.htm
Documents confirm U.S. hid detainees from Red Cross
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/41394.html
John Yoo’s ongoing falsehoods in service of limitless government power
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/06/17/yoo/index.html
Filed under: 2008 Election, 9/11, Afghanistan, Ahmadinejad, airstrikes, al-qaeda, Britain, China, Coup, Dick Cheney, False Flag, France, George Bush, Iran, Iraq, Iraqnam, Israel, Jordan, joseph lieberman, lindsey graham, military strike, nation building, occupation, Propaganda, rothschild, Russia, Saber Rattling, Shiite, Shock and Awe, sunni, Tehran, Troops, Vietnam, War Crimes, War On Terror, White House, ww4
McCain: It’s “Common Knowledge” That Iran Is Training Al Qaeda
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
March 18, 2008
http://youtube.com/watch?v=kmXaEeuHmig
During another photo-op flying visit to Iraq, John McCain told reporters that it is well known that Iran is training Al Qaeda terrorists, a patently ludicrous claim that had to be immediately corrected by his traveling circus.
Speaking to reporters in Amman, the Jordanian capital, McCain said he and two Senate colleagues traveling with him continue to be concerned about Iranian operatives “taking al-Qaeda into Iran, training them and sending them back.”
The Washington Post reports:
Pressed to elaborate, McCain said it was “common knowledge and has been reported in the media that al-Qaeda is going back into Iran and receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran, that’s well known. And it’s unfortunate.” A few moments later, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, standing just behind McCain, stepped forward and whispered in the presidential candidate’s ear. McCain then said: “I’m sorry, the Iranians are training extremists, not al-Qaeda.”
As anyone with a rudimentary understanding of the conflict in Iraq and middle eastern politics knows, the insurgents now endlessly referred to as “Al-Qaeda in Iraq” are composed of mostly Sunni militants pitched in violent battle against Shi’ites and, by proxy, U.S. forces.
The reigning leaders in Iran are Shi’ite and have welcomed the emergence of a Shi’ite-led government in Iraq. To suggest they would also somehow train Sunni militants is totally backwards.
Indeed, Al Qaeda affiliated right wing terror groups in Iran are very much allied against the Ahmadinejad government and routinely carry out attacks aimed at Iranian soldiers and state figures.
Furthermore, the Bush administration has long asserted that elements of the Iranian security forces have been training and supplying weapons to Iraq’s Shi’ite militias, a claim Iran vigorously denies.
McCain: Don’t Pull Troops From Iraq
Associated Press
March 18, 2008
Sen. John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting, said Tuesday that any hasty pullout from Iraq would be a mistake that would favor Iran and al-Qaida.
McCain, who has linked his political future to U.S. success in Iraq, was in the wartorn country on Monday for meetings with Iraqi and U.S. diplomatic and military officials.
“We were very encouraged by the success of the surge and the reduction in U.S. casualties,” McCain told reporters in Jordan, where he stopped on the next leg of a congressional visit that will also take him to Israel, Britain and France.
It was the senator’s eighth visit to Iraq, and his first since emerging as the presumed Republican candidate. He is accompanied by Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, an independent, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., two of his top supporters in the race for president.
“We are succeeding, but we still have a long way to go,” McCain said, pointing at what he described as al-Qaida’s residual power in Iraq and at Iran’s growing influence, as the major remaining threats.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=47232§ionid=3510203
McCain, Cheney US in Iraq long-term
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080317/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
John ’I’m a War Criminal’ McCain
http://www.lewrockwell.com/gaddy/gaddy34.html
McCain says al Qaeda might try to tip U.S. election
http://www.reuters.com/article/p..eedName=politicsNews&rpc=22&sp=true
McCain More Hawkish Than Bush on Russia, China, Iraq
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bloomberg/20080312/pl_bloomberg/axq0v7kuajq8
Lord Rothschild Supports McCain
http://www.washingtonpost.com..1403897.html?sid=ST2008031404122
‘Why Are You So Angry?’: McCain Gets Testy Over NYT Reporter’s Inquiry
http://youtube.com/watch?v=9_UFnOUJjRE
Bush offers to lie for McCain: ’If he wants me to say, ’You know, I’m not for him,’ I will. Whatever he wants me to do, I want him to win’
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/07/
Filed under: 9/11, 9/11 Truth, Afghanistan, al-qaeda, Alberto Gonzales, Alex Jones, army, catastrophic event, Child Abuse, child sex slavery, Concentration Camps, Congress, daniel ellsberg, Detainee, DHS, Dictatorship, Dyncorp, enemy combatant, False Flag, Fascism, FBI, FEMA, Fema Camps, George Bush, Guantanamo, Homeland Security, Illegal Immigration, Iraq, KBR, KBR detention center, lindsey graham, Martial Law, Mexico, Military, Naomi Wolf, Nazi, Nuke, Pentagon, PNAC, Rex 84, State Sponsored Terrorism, Torture, Troops, War On Terror, World Trade Center
Former Congressman Warns Of Martial Law Camps In America
San Francisco Chronicle article outlines Homeland Security ENDGAME
Steve Watson
Infowars.net
February 21, 2008
An article co-written by a former Congressman and carried by the San Francisco Chronicle has gained much attention recently as it shines light on a coordinated federal government program to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States.
“Since 9/11, and seemingly without the notice of most Americans, the federal government has assumed the authority to institute martial law, arrest a wide swath of dissidents (citizen and noncitizen alike), and detain people without legal or constitutional recourse in the event of an emergency influx of immigrants in the U.S., or to support the rapid development of new programs.” write Lewis Seiler and former Congressman Dan Hamburg of the watchdog group Voice of the Environment, Inc.
Voice of the Environment’s mission is to educate the public regarding the transfer of public trust assets into private, mostly corporate, hands.
The article continues:
Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees.
According to diplomat and author Peter Dale Scott, the KBR contract is part of a Homeland Security plan titled ENDGAME, which sets as its goal the removal of “all removable aliens” and “potential terrorists.”
Seiler and Hamburg also warn of the alarming and numerous freedom killing pieces of legislation that have been passed recently, dovetailing with the build up of infrastructure of tyranny inside the US.
We have previously highlighted the shocking details behind this shining example of modern day corporate fascism.
The issue gained national attention two years ago when it was announced that Kellogg, Brown and Root had been awarded a $385 million dollar contract by Homeland Security to construct detention and processing facilities in the event of a national emergency.
The language of the preamble to the agreement veils the program with talk of temporary migrant holding centers, but it is made clear that the camps will also be used “as the development of a plan to react to a national emergency.”
Following the story, first given wide attention by Prisonplanet.com, the Alternet website put together an alarming report that collated all the latest information on plans to initiate internment of political subversives and Muslims after the next major terror attack in the US.
The article highlighted the disturbing comments of Sen. Lindsey Graham, who encouraged torture supporting then Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to target, “Fifth Columnists” Americans who show disloyalty and sympathize with “the enemy,” whoever that enemy may be.
It is important to stress that the historical precedent mirrors exactly what the Halliburton camp deal outlines. Oliver North’s Reagan era Rex 84 plan proposed rounding up 400,000 refugees, under FEMA, in the event of “uncontrolled population movements” over the Mexican border into the United States.
The real agenda, just as it is with Halliburton’s gulags, was to use the cover of rounding up immigrants and illegal aliens as a smokescreen for targeting political dissidents. From 1967 to 1971 the FBI kept a list of persons to be rounded up as subversive, dubbed the “ADEX” list.
According to author Naomi Wolf, the National Counterterrorism Center today holds the names of roughly 775,000 “terror suspects” with the number increasing by 20,000 per month.
Discussions of federal concentration camps are no longer the rhetoric of paranoid Internet conspiracy theorists, they are mainstream news.
Halliburton, through their KBR subsidiary, is the same company that built most of the major new detention camps in Iraq and Afghanistan. KBR have been embroiled in a human sex slave trade that their representatives have lobbied to continue.
We have a company that has been handed a contract to build prison camps in America that is engaged in trafficking young girls and women. Can this horror movie get any more frightening? Sadly, yes.
A much discussed and circulated report, the Pentagon’s Civilian Inmate Labor Program, has recently been updated and the revision details a “template for developing agreements” between the Army and corrections facilities for the use of civilian inmate labor on Army installations.”
The plan is clearly to swallow up disenfranchised groups like prisoners, immigrants and Muslims at first and then extend the policy to include ‘Fifth Columnists,’ otherwise known as anyone who disagrees with the government or exercises their Constitutional rights.
Respected author Peter Dale Scott speculated that the “detention centers could be used to detain American citizens if the Bush administration were to declare martial law.”
Daniel Ellsberg, former Special Assistant to Assistant Secretary of Defense, called the plan, “preparation for a roundup after the next 9/11 for Mid-Easterners, Muslims and possibly dissenters. They’ve already done this on a smaller scale, with the ‘special registration’ detentions of immigrant men from Muslim countries, and with Guantanamo.”
Ex-Congressman: U.S. Government Created Al-Qaeda, Involved In 9/11
Author of San Francisco Chronicle piece warning of internment camps says government bombed its own citizens
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
February 22, 2008
A former Congressman says that the U.S. government created Al-Qaeda and was involved in bombing its own citizens on 9/11, telling a national radio show that elements of the Bush administration assisted the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon.
Daniel Hamburg is a former Democratic Congressman who was elected to the 1st Congressional District of California in 1992 and also subsequently ran for Governor of California, finishing in 3rd place.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O3bdCpIFAo
Hamburg co-wrote a well-received recent article carried by the San Francisco Chronicle in which he outlined the program to incarcerate American citizens in internment camps, which have already been publicly built, during a time of declared national emergency.
Appearing today on the Alex Jones Show, Hamburg said he was working on an article about missing nuclear bombs in relation to the Minot nuclear warheads mishap and agreed that it was possible the story could be used as a cover for the staged detonation of a nuke to be blamed on Al-Qaeda.
“Any government that could bomb its own citizens in the major city of the country could do anything….you can’t put anything past them,” said Hamburg, clarifying that he was referring to 9/11.
“I’m in the assisted it to happen camp – I think there was a lot of help from the inside, this whole thing was not engineered from a cave in Afghanistan,” he added.
“The evidence that Al-Qaeda is actually an arm of the U.S. government is voluminous….I know that’s true,” concluded Hamburg, citing the PNAC group’s call for a new Pearl Harbor shortly before the 2001 terror attacks.
“it’s hard for people to believe that their government could be as insidious as this one is but the evidence is there,” concluded Hamburg.
Filed under: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, California, CIA, GOP, Iowa, iowa caucus, lindsey graham, Media, moneybomb, Neolibs, New Hampshire, republican caucus, Ron Paul, ron paul blimp, Texas
New Year’s Eve Money Bomb
Ron Paul campaign sends out plea for more money. And it may just get it.
Nolan Chart
December 30, 2007
Being a previous Ron Paul donor, I’m on his email list. I received an email yesterday (12/29/07) with the subject “The time is now.” It’s also displayed on the campaign website here.
I have to give Kent Snyder praise for creativity. He’s come up with a plan to spend $23 million dollars, in addition to what’s in the bank so far. That’s more coin than I have in my couch. But there are a lot of couches out there.
The email talks about the contests of Iowa and New Hampshire in the first few days of January, followed by Wyoming, Michigan, Nevada, South Carolina, Florida and Maine.
Feb. 5 will have nearly 20 other states. In the email, the money will be used “to run radio and television ads in 20 states simultaneously”, voter mailings, and other projects.
The email urges supporters to “triple” their efforts.
A few months ago, the Ron Paul campaign was thankful for getting $5 million for the third quarter. Everyone was amazed by the $4 million raised on November 5th and $6 million raised on December 16th. The fourth quarter will probably finish close to $20 million. I expect there will a slight end of year push Monday.
I can send another couple hundred dollars, but I’m getting to my limit. Another $23 million in one month will be a stretch, but not impossible. For the month of January (31 days), that’s about $742,000 per day. I made that same sort of calculation in October when the campaign asked for $12 million in three months. They got way more than that–by nearly $7 million! I think there will have to be some thermonuclear money bombs, something like in Dune. The Nov. 5 and Dec. 16 money bombs made up for the slow start in October. There would have to be four of those $6 million days to reach the $23 million goal. That’s a lot to ask. But it may happen.
If this race goes much beyond Feb. 5, it will become a war of attrition. Romney and Giuliani have the cash to keep going, but they’re the only ones. Romney is polling well in Iowa and New Hampshire, so I believe he will finish in the top three in both. Giuliani is putting his eggs in the Feb. 5 basket, because it doesn’t look like he will get a state until Nevada, or maybe Florida. If it’s a close race, perhaps the top three will be able to rally the troops one last time. It’ll be a slugfest in every neglected state through the summer. And that will take more money.
Iowa and New Hampshire will affect the fundraising of those candidates remaining. After Michigan (Jan. 15), I bet this will be a four-man race. No matter who I say will stay or go, I’ll get a stream of hate comments below. The names don’t matter. May the best man win!
On the one hand, I’m thankful the campaign is putting out there the need and being open what it will spend it on. But on the other, the “we” have been the grassroots support, not the central campaign. Even if only $10 million or $5 million are raised in January, I’m sure the campaign will put it to good use. Regardless, it will be greater than any of the other Republicans. They will be crying with their pollsters.
I’ve been reading Sun Tzu lately. The best way to win wars is to fight them quickly with overwhelming force. The chieftains across the internet are making their calculations and the warriors are provisioning sufficiently before battle commences. That’s if they can stop playing World of Warcraft for a day, and start overturning cushions.
I don’t know when those money bombs will start dropping. I can see the third Monday in January (this year Jan. 21), Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, as one battle day. Dr. Paul’s non-violence message would fit nicely then. I’m sure Mr. Lyman has an event or two in mind.
Lindsey Graham Mentions the Ron Paul Movement
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62UiKr_YAmI
Obama: “They Don’t Poll Ron Paul”
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/12/30/539516.aspx
Flying billboard takes Paul campaign to the sky
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5410952.html
Paul, Texas may be factors in GOP race
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/5409849.html
Ron Paul on Special Edition
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mJrtgxBNJw
Paul Most Searched GOP Hopeful
http://seattletimes.nwsou…_aponthe2008trail28.html
Ron Paul supporters marching down the Santa Monica
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeU926cfbio
Ron Paul Could Do Well in New Hampshire
http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2007/12/ron_paul_could_do_well_in_new.html
Put Up or Shut Up, Time for the Anti-Paul Crowd to Offer Alternatives
http://www.opedn…8_put_up_or_shut_up_2c_t.htm
British Newspaper Group Supports Ron Paul’s Financial Policy
http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20071229/bs_prweb/prweb593502_3
The Media Hounds Unleashed on Ron Paul — How the CIA Will Use Liberals to Destroy the Anti-Empire Candidate
http://www.opednews.c…25_the_media_hounds_unl.htm
Filed under: Abu Zubaydah, al-qaeda, Alberto Gonzales, CIA, Congress, Detainee, Geneva Convention, George Bush, Guantanamo, Iran, larry johnson, lindsey graham, michael hayden, neocons, obstruction of justice, rockefeller, Senate, Torture, waterboarding, White House
The White House and Congress Knew about the CIA Interrogation Videotapes
George Washington’s Blog
December 12, 2007
According to a former “senior intelligence official”, the White House knew of the existence of the CIA interrogation tapes since 2003, at the very latest, and tacitly approved the destruction of the tapes in 2005.
Indeed, former CIA agent and State Department counterterrorism official Larry Johnson said that it was “highly likely” that President Bush himself had viewed the videotapes of the 2002 interrogations that were later destroyed. Is that why the White House has instructed its spokesperson not to answer any questions on the subject?
And according to the Director of the CIA, Congress was also informed about the existence of the tapes, and — later — of the CIA’s intention to destroy them.
Indeed, Senator Rockefeller has confirmed that the Senate Intelligence Committee knew of the existence of the videotapes in 2003. And Congresswoman Harman has confirmed that the House Intelligence Committee also learned of the existence of the videotapes in 2003. Is that why Senator Rockefeller opposes any real investigation into the destruction of the tapes, saying “I don’t think there’s a need for a special counsel, and I don’t think there’s a need for a special commission”?
The obstruction of justice regarding the tapes appears to have been orchestrated by the very highest levels of the U.S. Government.
Guantanamo Legal Adviser Refuses To Say Iranians Waterboarding Americans Would Be Torture
Think Progress
December 12, 2007
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on “The Legal Rights of Guantanamo Detainees” this morning, Brigadier General Thomas W. Hartmann, the legal adviser at Guantanamo Bay, repeatedly refused to call the hypothetical waterboarding of an American pilot by the Iranian military torture. “I’m not equipped to answer that question,” said Hartmann.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who asked the hypothetical, pushed Hartmann on his answer, asking him directly if it would be a “violation of the Geneva Convention”:
GRAHAM: You mean you’re not equipped to give a legal opinion as to whether or not Iranian military waterboarding, secret security agents waterboarding downed airmen is a violation of the Geneva Convention?
HARTMANN: I am not prepared to answer that question, Senator.
After Hartmann twice refused to answer, Graham dismissed him in disgust, saying he had “no further questions.” Watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89cYbggdGVQ
Longer Version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jbcWzSVcco
Hartmann’s non-answer is reminiscent of State Department Legal Adviser John Bellinger’s refusal in October to condemn “the use of water boarding on an American national by a foreign intelligence service.”
But not every lawyer who’s worked for the Bush administration has been so hesitant to call waterboarding torture.
In 2004, after then-acting assistant attorney general Daniel Levin had himself waterboarded, he concluded that the interrogation technique “could be illegal torture.” For his efforts, “Levin was forced out of the Justice Department when Alberto Gonzales became Attorney General.”
Sen. Graham, a former military judge advocate, has said before that someone doesn’t “have to have a lot of knowledge about the law to understand this technique violates Geneva Convention Common Article Three.”
Let’s (Not) Go to the Videotape!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX_1Qsq0DTM
Related News:
Ex-CIA Larry Johnson: ‘Highly likely’ Bush saw torture tapes
http://billpressmedia.com/highlylikely.mp3
Ex-CIA agent: Waterboarding approved at top levels
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20…co/cia_videotapes
White House Was Ordered Not To Destroy Torture Evidence
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/2007…eotapes_courts
CIA may have more interrogation tapes, detainee’s lawyer suggests
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/White_H…on_of_1211.html
CIA Failed To Inform Congress About Tapes
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2…ecrypt/main3611381.shtml
White House goes ‘no comment’ on CIA video case
http://rawstory.com/news/afp/W…video_c_12102007.html
Former CIA: Waterboarding Useful But Torture
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews…0938320071211
CIA Director To Testify About Destroyed Tapes
http://www.reuters.com/articl…654798320071210?sp=true
Secretly briefed, Pelosi did not object to waterboarding in 2002
http://rawstory.com/news/200…t_to_waterboarding_1209.html
Destroyed CIA torture tapes said to implicate Pakistan and Saudi Royal Family in 9/11 attacks
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ge….destroyed-inter_b_75850.html
Photos Show UK Gitmo Detainee Was Tortured
Man Held By CIA Says He Was Tortured
McCain: No Investigation Needed
Congress Looks Into C.I.A. Obstruction As Calls for Justice Inquiry Rise
‘Well-Informed’ Source Tells CBS That Tapes Were Destroyed To Prevent Prosecution
Lee Hamilton Says the CIA Obstructed the 9/11 Commission
Inquiry into CIA interrogation tapes’ destruction begins
CIA destroyed video of ‘waterboarding’ al-Qaida detainees
C.I.A. Destroyed Tapes of Interrogations
C.I.A. Destroyed 2 Tapes Showing Interrogations
CIA admits destroying interrogation tapes
noworldsystem.com 