Americans Get a Small Taste Occupation and War

British could quit Iraq sooner than expected

Thomas Harding
London Telegraph
Wednesday June 13, 2007

Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, hinted yesterday that there could be an accelerated withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

He said the Armed Forces were in danger of being significantly "damaged" if they continued to fight in the same numbers abroad.

After returning from a trip accompanying Gordon Brown to Iraq, Mr Browne appeared to pave the way for further substantial reductions of troops in Basra.

It has been suggested that a significant withdrawal from southern Iraq in the next year would be politically advantageous in a forthcoming election campaign.

The Delinquent Congress

by Ernest Partridge
OpEdNews
June 13, 2007 at 08:23:59

The Administration of George Bush has, in effect, suspended the Constitution of the United States. At Guantánamo in Cuba, in military prisons in the United States, and in secret detention facilities abroad, American citizens and non-citizens are being held without charge, without counsel, without prospect of a jury trial, in violation of the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth articles of the Bill of Rights. These rights apply to all persons under United States jurisdiction. The word "citizen" appears nowhere in the Bill of Rights.

The same Administration has conducted warrantless surveillance of American citizens in violation of the Fourth Amendment of the Bill of Rights, and despite an explicit order of the Supreme Court to cease and desist.

And the Administration, in violation of ratified treaties which have the force of law (Article Six of the Constitution), is engaged in an undeclared war against a non-threatening nation, and is torturing prisoners. The treaties are, respectively, the Nuremberg Accords and the Geneva Conventions.

The President, upon signing Congressional legislation, issues "signing statements" which state, in effect, that he can, at his discretion, ignore the legislation above his signature. And he has issued a "directive" that, in event of some unspecified "emergency" so designated by himself, he can assume dictatorial powers.

Nor is this the end of it. As most readers are well aware, there have been numerous additional illegal acts by the Bush Administration, including the "outing" of a covert intelligence officer, obstruction of justice, and lying to the Congress and the American people.

The institution best situated to put an end to these crimes and to hold the criminals accountable to the rule of law is the Congress of the United States, each member of which has taken an oath to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Five months into its new term, the Congress now in control of the Democratic party has done essentially nothing to restore the rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution. The initial decisive act leading to that end might be as simple as the passage of this two sentence resolution:

"The Congress of the United States hereby affirms that the Constitution is the supreme law of the United States. Accordingly, any and all legislation and executive orders in violation of the Constitution are null and void."

The word "affirms" is crucial, for it states that at no time was the Constitution legally "in suspension," and thus any legislation or acts by the Bush administration in violation thereof were at all times illegal and invalid. Accordingly, the word "restoration" must be avoided in such a resolution.

The Democrats should bring this resolution to a vote, and dare the Republicans to vote against it. The GOP would doubtless resist by calling it a "meaningless political stunt," and would struggle to prevent an open vote. But if it were to be brought to a vote, who would dare go on record with a denial that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land?

And if such a resolution were to pass both houses of Congress, it should be immediately followed by other resolutions specifying the implications of that first resolution. Namely,

** It is affirmed that all US citizens and other individuals under US jurisdiction enjoy the protection of Habeas Corpus, as specified in Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution.

**Therefore, all persons in custody at Guantánamo and other prisons must either be charged with a crime and given a fair trial, or released. Following that, the Guantánamo facility must be closed and all "renditions" of prisoners to other countries cease.

**All torture of so-called "enemy combatants" must cease immediately.

**All provisions of the Patriot Act and the Military Provisions Act in violation of the protections of the Constitution must be declared null and void.

**Acts of Congress signed by the President have the status of law, and signing statements have no legal status whatever.

The Neocon Threat to American Freedom

Paul Craig Roberts
Counterpunch
Wednesday June 13, 2007

The Bush/Cheney White House, which told the American people in 2003 that the Iraqi invasion would be a three to six week affair, now tells us that the US occupation is permanent. Forever.

Attentive Americans of which, alas, there are so few, had already concluded that the occupation was permanent. Permanence is the obvious message from the massive and fortified US embassy under construction in Iraq and from the large permanent military bases that the Bush regime is building in Iraq.

Bush regime propagandists have created a false analogy with "the Korean model" in their effort to sell the permanent occupation of Iraq as necessary for Iraq's security. More than one half century after the close of the Korean war, US troops continue to be based in Korea, as they are in Germany more than six decades after the end of World War II.

The rationale for the US troops in S. Korea is to remind N. Korea that an attack on S. Korea is an attack on the US itself. The rationale for US troops in Germany disappeared when Reagan and Gorbachev brought the cold war to an end.

Joe Lieberman Is At It Again

Gen. Wesley Clark
Huffington Post
Posted June 12, 2007 | 02:42 PM (EST)

After wrongly supporting George W. Bush's strategic blunder of attacking Iraq, and continuing to support Bush's failed policies after the invasion, Senator Joe Lieberman made irresponsible comments this weekend regarding military action against Iran.

On CBS's Face the Nation, Lieberman said, "If [the Iranians] don't play by the rules, we've got to use our force, and to me, that would include taking military action to stop them from doing what they're doing."

This type of "tough-talk" by the Bush Administration and folks like Senator Joe Lieberman is why VoteVets.org and I collaborated to create StopIranWar.com, calling for heavy diplomatic, economic, and political action to discourage the acquisition of nuclear capabilities by the Iranian government.

Senator Lieberman's saber rattling does nothing to help dissuade Iran from aiding Shia militias in Iraq, or trying to obtain nuclear capabilities. In fact, it's highly irresponsible and counter-productive, and I urge him to stop.

This kind of rhetoric is irresponsible and only plays into the hands of President Ahmadinejad, and those who seek an excuse for military action. What we need now is full-fledged engagement with Iran. We should be striving to bridge the gulf of almost 30 years of hostility and only when all else fails should there be any consideration of other options. The Iranians are very much aware of US military capabilities. They don't need Joe Lieberman to remind them that we are the militarily dominant power in the world today.

Only someone who never wore the uniform or thought seriously about national security would make threats at this point. What our soldiers need is responsible strategy, not a further escalation of tensions in the region. Senator Lieberman must act more responsibly and tone down his threat machine.

Visit StopIranWar.com, and sign the petition to President Bush today!

We cannot let people like Joe Lieberman dictate the terms of this debate.

Dems Push Monday Vote on Gonzales

LAURIE KELLMAN
AP
June 11, 2007 03:05 PM EST

WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday he will vote for a no-confidence resolution against Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said he's concerned like others in his party that the resolution, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and up for a test vote later in the day, was a Democratic effort to embarrass Bush and push Gonzales to resign.

But Specter has long said that Gonzales has exercised poor leadership on a host of issues, from the firings of eight federal prosecutors to the Justice Department's handling of wiretapping authority under the USA Patriot Act.

"If you ask Arlen Specter, do I have confidence in Attorney General Gonzales, the answer is a resounding no," Specter said during a news conference in Philadelphia. "I'm going to vote that I have no confidence in Attorney General Gonzales."

Lieberman U.S. Should Take Aggressive Military Action Against Iran

AP
Monday June 11, 2007

Sen. Joseph Lieberman said Sunday the United States should consider a military strike against Iran because of Tehran's involvement in Iraq.

"I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq," Lieberman said. "And to me, that would include a strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers."

The U.S. accuses Iran of fostering terrorism and Tehran's nuclear ambitions have brought about international reproach.

Lieberman, the Democratic nominee for vice president in 2000 who now represents Connecticut as an independent, spoke of Iranians' role in the continued violence in Iraq.

"We've said so publicly that the Iranians have a base in Iran at which they are training Iraqis who are coming in and killing Americans. By some estimates, they have killed as many as 200 American soldiers," Lieberman said. "Well, we can tell them we want them to stop that. But if there's any hope of the Iranians living according to the international rule of law and stopping, for instance, their nuclear weapons development, we can't just talk to them."

'Military plan against Iran is ready'
Predicting that Iran will obtain a nuclear weapon within three years and claiming to have a strike plan in place, senior American military officers have told The Jerusalem Post they support President George W. Bush's stance to do everything necessary to stop the Islamic Republic's race for nuclear power.

Iran 'to retaliate if attacked from US bases in Gulf'

And here's a little music to cheer all you war lovers up!

Dilemma for Brown as Blair plans EU deal

Patrick Hennessy and Melissa Kite
London Telegraph
Sunday June 10, 2007

Labour has been plunged into a bruising referendum row after Tony Blair secretly agreed the blueprint for a new European treaty - presenting Gordon Brown, the prime minister-in-waiting, with his first big dilemma.

Less than three weeks before he relinquishes power, Mr Blair held talks on the framework for the treaty, an updated version of the failed European Union constitution, with Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president.

The controversial manoeuvre, at the G8 summit in Germany, came despite a promise to MPs by Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, that "nothing you could really call negotiations" had taken place.

As MPs protested that the new treaty would include many measures contained in the EU constitution that was shelved after being voted down by the French and Dutch electorates in 2005, David Cameron led calls for a fresh referendum.

Does Brown have a doctrine for Britain?
Philip Johnston analyses the thinking of Britain's next Prime Minister.
The road to Number 10
Brown urged to close 'terror flights' loophole
Chancellor orders 2012 cost check
Brown under pressure over EU treaty

Was General Pace Fired Because He Balked at Iran

Levey MG
OpEdNews
June 9, 2007 at 12:53:08

This isn't good news.

THIS IS EXTREMELY OMINOUS

I’ve been writing for over a year now that the Joint Chiefs have been blocking the White House’s efforts to expand the war to Iran. No matter what you might think of Gen. Pete Pace, this really is TERRIFYING news, unless you crave a wider war in the Persian Gulf and South Asia.

Pace has been the most visible symbol of the push-back within the military against the Long War.

George W. Bush, in effect, just fired the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, USMC. This is unprecedented, as it is the first time the JCS Chair has not been reappointed.

Pace's replacement will be Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Mullen, if the Senate approves his nomination.

The Admiral appears to be a much more convinced true-believer than Pace. Mullen was quoted in an address earlier this month to naval personnel: http://starbulletin.com/...

"The enemy now is basically evil and fundamentally hates everything we are -- the democratic principles for which we stand ... This war is going to go on for a long time. It's a generational war."

Read that again. Mullen says he thinks we're in a Long War with Evil. Who does that sound like? Click the link above and take a look at Admiral Mullen. That man, if confirmed by the Senate, will have all of our lives in his hands. Is he the man you want to have that responsibility? You do have a say in that - let your Senator know what you think.

Bush's Gift to the Military Industry: A New Cold War Arms Race with Russia

Ron Fullwood
OpEdNews
June 9, 2007 at 09:20:02

"My message will be 'Vladimir - I call him Vladimir - that you shouldn't fear a missile-defense system." Bush, Tuesday June 5, 2007

Dick Cheney in Sydney earlier in the year, took it upon himself to complain about China's 'military buildup' and their shooting down of an old weather satellite. Cheney wasn't really concerned with any actual threat from China. He was just carrying water for his military industry benefactors, like Lockheed and Boeing who are shopping around Europe for governments willing to buy into their 'missile defense' protection scheme they've mapped out with the military industry executives who've infected the Bush regime even before his ascendance to office.

"Last month's anti-satellite test, China's continued fast-paced military buildup, are less constructive and are not consistent with China's stated goal of a peaceful rise," he said.

Cheney was well aware of efforts reported underway for years to sell missile defense systems in Central Europe which accelerated this year, including a deal with Britain's lame-duck, Blair, to take his country's defence dollars in return for the false security of hunkering his citizens underneath a U.S. missile 'umbrella', hiding from anticipated reprisals from Bush's continuing and increasing militarism.

Alex Jones Featured in National UK News Piece On 7/7 Conspiracy

Darshna Soni
Channel Four News
Saturday June 9, 2007



There are a number of apparent inconsistencies in the official version of events surrounding the July bombings which have led to questions, rumours and conspiracy theories.

Many of these can be found on the web. Some call themselves truth campaigners, other are the same people who believe 9/11 and the assassination of JFK were all ordered by the American government.

They list evidence which apparently doesn't add up. For example, the official Home Office report into the bombings stated that the four bombers caught the 7.40am train from Luton to London. However, there was no 7.40 that morning, it had been cancelled. The Home Secretary, John Reid, apologized for the error in parliament, blaming erroneous first-hand witness accounts.

Leahy readies subpoenas on warrantless wiretapping

Michael Roston
therawstory
Published: Friday June 8, 2007

The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee strongly criticized the Justice Department for obstructing an investigation of the Bush administration's warrantless spying program. The statement came after the committee scheduled a hearing next week to authorize subpoenas related to the shadowy government program.

"The warrantless wiretapping program has operated for over five years outside of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and without the approval of the FISA Court. The Committee has continued to ask for the legal justification for this sweeping and secret program, and has continually been rebuffed by inadequate and at times, misleading, responses from this Justice Department," said Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a statement sent to RAW STORY. "The information we have requested has been specific to the legal justification for this program and is firmly within the Committee’s oversight jurisdiction."

Leahy's statement came after his committee had announced earlier in the day that it planned to "authorize subpoenas in connection with investigation of legal basis for warrantless wiretap program," according to the committee's website. The meeting will occur on Thursday, June 14.

Dinosaurs Died Agonizing Deaths

therawstory
Sat Jun 9, 10:15 AM ET

Fossilized dinosaurs often have wide-open mouths, heads thrown back and tails that curve toward the head. Paleontologists have long assumed the dinosaurs died in water and the currents drifted the bones into that position, or that rigor mortis or drying muscles, tendons and ligaments contorted the limbs.

"I'm reading this in the literature and thinking, 'This doesn't make any sense to me as a veterinarian,'" said Cynthia Marshall Faux, a veterinarian-turned-paleontologist at the Museum of the Rockies.

Faux and a colleague say brain damage and asphyxiation are the more likely culprits.

A classic example of the posture, which has puzzled paleontologists for ages, is the 150-million-year-old Archaeopteryx, the first-known example of a feathered dinosaur and the proposed link between dinosaurs and present-day birds.

"Virtually all articulated specimens of Archaeopteryx are in this posture, exhibiting a classic pose of head thrown back, jaws open, back and tail reflexed backward and limbs contracted," said Kevin Padian, professor of integrative biology and curator in the Museum of Paleontology at the University of California, Berkeley. He Faux (pronounced "Fox") published their findings this week in the journal Paleobiology.

Some animals found in this posture may have suffocated in ash during a volcanic eruption, consistent with the fact that many fossils are found in ash deposits, Faux and Padian said. But many other possibilities exist, including disease, brain trauma, severe bleeding, thiamine deficiency or poisoning.

"This puts a whole new light on the mode of death of these animals, and interpretation of the places they died in," Padian said. "This explanation gives us clues to interpreting a great many fossil horizons we didn't understand before and tells us something dinosaurs experienced while dying, not after dying."

Also, because the posture has been seen only in dinosaurs, pterosaurs and mammals, which are known or suspected to have had high metabolic rates, it appears to be a good indicator that the animal was warm blooded, as other research has suggested. Animals with lower metabolic rates, such as crocodiles and lizards, use less oxygen and so might have been less traumatically affected by hypoxia during death throes, Padian said.

Padian acknowledged that many dinosaur fossils show signs that the animal died in water and the current tugged the body into an arched position, but currents cannot explain all the characteristics of an opisthotonic pose.

TWILIGHT OF OUR DEMOCRACY

by Allen L Roland
OpEdNews
June 8, 2007 at 16:38:53

As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances, there's a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such twilight that we all must be aware of change in the air, however slight, lest we become victims of the darkness." Justice William O. Douglas

I feel the erie twilight of oppression descending on America because we are just one "Major incident" away from Martial law and Bush assuming legal dictatorial rule over our Republic.

It is also seen in Dick Cheney's speech to the West Point graduating class on May 25th when Cheney said ~ " your first day of Army life, each of you raised your right hand and took and oath. And you will swear again today to defend the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. That is your vow, that is the business you're in "

However, Dick ' the natural state of man is war ' Cheney once again got it wrong ~ for the Military vow is the same as the presidential vow and reads as such ~ I will support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

A constitution that both Bush and Cheney have openly ridiculed as being irrelevant in their ongoing War on Terror which is, in reality, a War of Terror.

And that is the important change in the air ~ which may well lead to the darkness of oppression. We have been systematically untethered from our Constitution by the Cheney/Bush administration and are in dire danger of falling into the abyss of Oppression.

The similarities with Germany in the late 1930's are freightening and ominous and we may be beyond the point of no return ~ particularly in light of Congress's recent blank check to Bush's illegal occupation of Iraq and recent surge.

James Rothenberg and Otto Hinckelmann take this a step further and make the case " that the invasion of Iraq took place without UN authorization (illegally according to Kofi Annan) and therefore was an outright act of aggression, the “supreme international crime,” the crime for which the Nazi defendants were condemned."

Excerpt: "The difference between the totalitarian ruler and the democratic ruler is that the totalitarian can dispense with legal pretense. The similarity is that both can always find legal experts who will inevitably determine that the law permits the Leader to do what he thinks he needs to do."

Olbermann guest: Suspending habeas corpus has made us less safe

David Edwards and Muriel Kane
therawstory
Published: Friday June 8, 2007

Keith Olbermann reported Thursday on the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007, calling it "a historical restoration project, the reconstruction of one of the cornerstones of American democracy."

The Military Commissions Act, passed last year by the Republican Congress, stripped away the fundamental Constitutional right of habeas corpus. Now the Senate Judiciary Committee, in voting for the Restoration Act, has taken the first step in restoring it. Olbermann asked constitutional law scholar Jonathan Turley about the argument by supporters of the Military Commissions Act that habeas corpus has been suspended before in times of war without destroying the Republic.

Turley responded to that argument in three different ways, saying first that the nation's survival of previous suspensions of habeas corpus "says more about the Republic than the actions of the earlier presidents. This is a system of government that was designed to be idiot-proof -- and God knows we've tested that through the years. ... This was one of the most disgraceful moments of the last Congress, and it will be equally disgraceful to see many Republicans vote to fight the effort to bring back the Great Writ."

Turley went on to explain that habeas corpus is not a dangerous luxury or some sort of lawyer's trick to get crooks out of jail, but "is actually the foundation for all other rights. When the government throws you into a dungeon for what you say or who you pray to, it's habeas corpus that's the right that allows you to see the enforcement of the other rights."

Finally, Turley emphasized that suspending habeas corpus has actually made us less safe: "The greatest irony of the Bush administration is that his legacy will be to show the dangers of walking away from those rights that define us. We're very much alone today. ... We're viewed as a rogue nation. And it is a dangerous world to live in when you're alone."

The following video is from MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, broadcast on June 7.

Countdown to War on Iran

ALAIN GRESH
Counterpunch
Thursday June 7, 2007

Silently, stealthily, unseen by cameras, the war on Iran has already begun. Many sources confirm that the United States, bent on destabilising the Islamic Republic, has increased its aid to armed movements among the Azeri, Baluchi, Arab and Kurdish ethnic minorities that make up about 40% of the Iranian population. ABC News reported in April that the US had secretly assisted the Baluchi group Jund al-Islam (Soldiers of Islam), responsible for a recent attack in which some 20 members of the Revolutionary Guard were killed. According to an American Foundation report (1), US commandos have operated inside Iran since 2004.

President George Bush categorised Iran, along with North Korea and Iraq, as the "axis of evil" in his State of the Union address in January 2002. Then in June 2003 he said the US and its allies should make it clear that they "would not tolerate" the construction of a nuclear weapon in Iran.

Ron Paul On Tucker Carlson (06/06/07)

You Tube
Thursday June 7, 2007

Official: Cheney Urged Wiretaps

Dan Eggen
Washington Post
Thursday June 7, 2007

Vice President Cheney told Justice Department officials that he disagreed with their objections to a secret surveillance program during a high-level White House meeting in March 2004, a former senior Justice official told senators yesterday.

The meeting came one day before White House officials tried to get approval for the same program from then-Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, who lay recovering from surgery in a hospital, according to former deputy attorney general James B. Comey.

Comey's disclosures, made in response to written questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, indicate that Cheney and his aides were more closely involved than previously known in a fierce internal battle over the legality of the warrantless surveillance program. The program allowed the National Security Agency to monitor phone calls and e-mails between the United States and overseas.

Comey said that Cheney's office later blocked the promotion of a senior Justice Department lawyer, Patrick Philbin, because of his role in raising concerns about the surveillance.

Ron Paul Wins ABC Debate Poll

ABC
Thursday June 7, 2007

PNAC Newspaper Reports AP Reporter Thinks Bush Behind 9/11

9/11 Blogger
Thursday June 7, 2007

No, not the PNAC (A Project For A New American Citizen), the evil nasty PNAC (Project For The New American Century).

For those who don't know, the PNAC's (the evil nasty one) founder is Bill Kristol, who is also the Founder and Editor for the Weekly Standard.

"One of the AP reporters says he believes 9/11 was a Bush administration conspiracy hung on al Qaeda."