11/5 update ... you can't make this stuff up: israel proposes work camps for illegal migrants from haaretz: The government is considering establishing work camps in the south of the country, where illegal migrant workers will receive shelter, food and medical care, Army Radio reported Wednesday. In exchange, illegal migrants would perform manual labor outside the camps, but would not earn a salary... "I fear how far we have fallen," said MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) in reaction to the work camp proposal, adding that he thinks the plan would encourage many more asylum seekers to try to enter Israel.
torture evidence 'hidden from obama' from guardian: US defence officials are preventing Barack Obama from seeing evidence that a former British resident held in Guantánamo Bay has been tortured, the prisoner's lawyer said last night, as campaigners and the Foreign Office prepared for the man's release in as little as a week. Clive Stafford Smith, the director of the legal charity Reprieve, which represents Ethiopian-born Binyam Mohamed, sent Obama evidence of what he called "truly mediaeval" abuse but substantial parts were blanked out so the president could not read it. In the letter to the president [292kb PDF], Stafford Smith urges him to order the disclosure of the evidence.
progressives surprised by obama non-surprises from chris floyd: There is certainly a great deal of slack-jawed shock going around these days, especially in progressive circles, where pundits, commentators, analysts and kibitzers continually find themselves reeling from yet another "inexplicable" move by the Obama Administration to uphold the core principles of their predecessors: enriching the rich, extending the empire, and enhancing the authoritarian power of a thoroughly militarized state. For example, Glenn Greenwald and Scott Horton at Harper's (among many others) are deeply shocked by Team Obama's draconian maneuvers to quash a court case based on clear, abundant and credible evidence that American security forces - and their corporate accomplices - colluded to inflict horrendous tortures on a gulag captive (whose only "crime," it turns out, was reading a satirical magazine article). While Horton struggles to find some small justification for what he sees as an unwise decision, Greenwald is scathing and detailed in denouncing Obama's action, in which the new president seeks to uphold - and to seize for himself - some of the most egregious claims of arbitrary, tyrannical power once advanced by George "Unitary Executive" Bush. It is good to see these worthy gentlemen - lawyers both -- give us chapter and verse on this act of evil, yet one still must ask: why all the surprise?
video: leahy says truth commission may be only way to get truth from raw replay: Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, wants to put together a commission to investigate possible Bush-era abuses. Leahy joined MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow to talk about his proposal. After speaking with Leahy, Maddow concludes that most Democratic leaders in Congress support conditional prosecution of officials for crimes committed during the Bush administration. This video is from MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast Feb 10, 2009.
video: turley pleads for prosecution of bush crimes from raw replay: Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has suggested a bipartisan panel to seek the truth about accusations of criminal wrongdoing by the Bush administration. Constitutional Law Professor Jonathan Turley discusses why Leahy wants this panel to have the power to grant immunity and serve subpoenas. This video is from MSNBC’s Countdown, broadcast Feb 10, 2009.
time for a civilian afghanisurge? from danger room: Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has a message for the State Department and other civilian agencies: It's time to step up to the plate in Afghanistan. Yesterday, the Obama administration kicked off a 60-day policy review of Afghanistan and Pakistan strategy; options may include reinforcing the Afghanistan mission by sending as many as 20,000 to 30,000 more troops. Speaking Monday to soldiers at Fort Drum, N.Y., Mullen said it was time for a "commensurate surge" of diplomats and U.S. government civilians to reinforce stability operations and reconstruction. "It is not possible to win this or succeed in Afghanistan militarily alone," Mullen said, according to a Pentagon news item.
obama’s change: expanding the power of the nsc & shadow govt from kurt nimmo: On February 8, Karen DeYoung, writing for the CIA’s favorite newspaper, the Washington Post, reported that “President Obama plans to order a sweeping overhaul of the National Security Council, expanding its membership and increasing its authority to set strategy across a wide spectrum of international and domestic issues.” According to national security adviser and former Marine commandant James L. Jones, the “world that we live in has changed so dramatically in this decade that organizations that were created to meet a certain set of criteria no longer are terribly useful.” Obama will issue a presidential directive that will “expand the NSC’s reach far beyond the range of traditional foreign policy issues and turn it into a much more elastic body.” So dangerous is the world now, according to the argument offered by Jones, the NSC will apparently encompass “the Energy Department, Commerce Department and Treasury, all the law enforcement agencies, the Drug Enforcement Administration, all of those things.” After Obama issues his directive, the NSC will strive to “embrace a broader membership” and roll these government agencies into the National Security State, initially created in 1947 when Congress passed the National Security Act. In addition to the NSC, this legislation created the CIA and institutionalized under the rubric of “national security” the justification for new weapons systems, huge military expenditures, and military interventions in the third world.
obama to meet victims & relatives of 9/11 attacks from washington post: President Obama will gather tomorrow with victims and families of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and U.S.S. Cole bombing for a face-to-face meeting as his administration struggles to decide how to handle detainees at Guatanamo Bay, Cuba, several of those invited said. The previously undisclosed meeting at the White House tomorrow afternoon will give the new president a chance to explain his decision to close the controversial prison facility where the U.S. has placed many suspected terrorists since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Obama has been assailed by conservative critics who say the decision to close the facility within a year will lead to putting many of those terrorists back on the street. In a recent interview, former vice president Dick Cheney, an architect of the Bush administration's war on terror, criticized the decision as reckless. In an interview with Politico.com, Cheney accused the Obama administration of following "campaign rhetoric" on Guantanamo and warned that the new president's policies could put the country at greater risk of a new attack... One 9/11 activist, who declined to be identified talking about the meeting, said "fireworks" are likely at the gathering because it will include both relatives who oppose and those who support Obama's plan to close Guantanamo Bay. "There's been some noise that some families don't like the idea and others do, so this is a chance to discuss that," the activist said.
'hope is flickering' says aclu from raw story: The American Civil Liberties Union, which has generally been harshly critical of President George W. Bush and praiseworthy of President Barack Obama, has fired a torpedo across the Obama bow... "Hope is flickering," Romero said in a statement. "The Obama administration's position is not change. It is more of the same. This represents a complete turn-around and undermining of the restoration of the rule of law. The new American administration shouldn't be complicit in hiding the abuses of its predecessors."
obama says US can't send protectionist trade message from reuters: President Barack Obama said on Tuesday he did not want to send a protectionist message on world trade and would look at altering "Buy American" language in an economic stimulus bill coming out of Congress. "I think it would be a mistake ... at a time when worldwide trade is declining for us to start sending a message that somehow we're just looking after ourselves and not concerned with world trade," Obama said on the Fox television network.
obama to bring nuke labs to the pentagon? from danger room: The Albuquerque Journal has a real nuke scoop: The Obama administration is considering a plan to fold the U.S. nuclear weapons complex into the Department of Defense.
obama preserved rendition two days after taking office from raw story: Two days after taking the helm of a country ready for change after eight years of George W. Bush, President Obama has allowed one controversial "War on Terror" tactic to remain in place: rendition. Despite frequent condemnation of the practice around the world, rendition - the secret capture, transportation and detention of suspected terrorists to foreign prisons in countries that cooperate with the U.S. - remains in the CIA's playbook, thanks to a Jan. 22 executive order issued by President Obama.
obama abandons ‘war on terror’ catchphrase from thinkprogress: The AP notes that only once since taking office on Jan. 20 has President Obama used the phrase “war on terror,” which was always on the lips of President Bush. Obama has instead more broadly referenced the “enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism.” CSIS national security analyst Anthony Cordesman notes that Bush’s phrase “became associated in the minds of many people outside the Unites States and particularly in places where the countries are largely Islamic and Arab, as being anti-Islam and anti-Arab.” Indeed, a Pentagon-funded study last year recommended that the U.S. do away with the terminology as the strategy behind it was “not successful in undermining al Qai’da’s capabilities.”
video: rahm says if you're on no-fly list, no gun! from youtube: Congressman Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) speaking at DC’s annual Stand Up For a Safe America event sponsored by the Brady Center says if your name is on the terrorist no fly list you should not be allowed to own a gun.
mexico drug plane used for US 'rendition' flights from afp: A private jet that crash-landed almost one year ago in eastern Mexico carrying 3.3 tons of cocaine had previously been used for CIA "rendition" flights, a newspaper report said here Thursday, citing documents from the United States and the European Parliament. The plane was carrying Colombian drugs for the fugitive leader of Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, when it crash-landed in the Yucatan peninsula on September 24, El Universal reported. The daily said it had obtained documents from the United States and the European Parliament which "show that that plane flew several times to Guantanamo, Cuba, presumably to transfer terrorism suspects."
meet me in mena from brasscheck tv: It's almost impossible to understand the last 28 years of American history without understanding Mena, Arkansas... Why Bush Sr. and Clinton are such great friends? In 1992, an obscure governor from an economically backward state became president of the United States. How did Clinton ever become a candidate let alone make it into the White House? To be sure, he was intelligent, charismatic, and had a well organized campaign. He promised "change" from the disastrous fours year of the Bush Sr. administration. In fact, he and George Bush Sr. were friends and colleagues long before they ran against each other, a fact obscured by the media.
from guardian: The United States is operating "floating prisons" to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees. Details of ships where detainees have been held and sites allegedly being used in countries across the world have been compiled as the debate over detention without trial intensifies on both sides of the Atlantic. The US government was yesterday urged to list the names and whereabouts of all those detained...
CIA "black sites" are also believed to have operated in Thailand, Afghanistan, Poland and Romania. In addition, numerous prisoners have been "extraordinarily rendered" to US allies and are alleged to have been tortured in secret prisons in countries such as Syria, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt.
from ap: A city police chief who led an investigation into charges that Britain cooperated with secret CIA flights to transport terrorism suspects without formal proceedings has been found dead, his deputy said Tuesday. Manchester Chief Constable Michael Todd, 50, was found dead in Snowdonia, about 240 miles northwest of London, Deputy Chief Constable Dave Whatton said. He had been missing since going out for a walk Monday during his day off.
cia agents to stand trial for kidnapping from reuters: A Milan judge on Friday ordered 26 Americans, most of them thought to be CIA agents, to stand trial with Italian spies for the 2003 kidnapping of a Muslim cleric, who says he was flown to Egypt and tortured there... The trial, set to begin on June 8, will be the first criminal case over "renditions" - one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. President George W. Bush's war on terrorism.
'doomsday' vault design unveiled from bbc: The final design for a "doomsday" vault that will house seeds from all known varieties of food crops has been unveiled by the Norwegian government. The Svalbard International Seed Vault will be built into a mountainside on a remote island near the North Pole. The vault aims to safeguard the world's agriculture from future catastrophes, such as nuclear war, asteroid strikes and climate change... armed US police could be on london streets from telegraph: Armed foreign police could patrol the streets of London during the 2012 Olympics under an unprecedented scenario outlined by one of Scotland Yard’s most senior officers... Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, the man in charge of security preparations for the Games and Britain’s most senior Muslim police officer, also raised the prospect of British troops being drafted in to help with the huge security challenges... “I don’t think we should shy away from that. In a global environment, a capital city, international policing is a global family.”
empire of oil: the hidden history of 9/11
from google video: Learn the secret history behind the events leading up to the September 11 attacks, seldom revealed to the public and who actually may have benefited the most from the attacks and why.
fbi caught running top nazi group from orlando sentinel/total411: A paid FBI informant was the man behind a neo-Nazi march through the streets of Parramore that stirred up anxiety in Orlando's black community and fears of racial unrest that triggered a major police mobilization. That revelation came Wednesday in an unrelated federal court hearing and has prompted outrage from black leaders, some of whom demanded an investigation into whether the February 2006 march was, itself, an event staged by law-enforcement agencies.
from reuters: Prime Minister Romano Prodi and his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi will not be called to testify on behalf of Italy's former spy chief, who is accused of helping the CIA kidnap a terrorism suspect, a judge ruled on Tuesday.
Prosecutors want to try 26 Americans, most believed to be CIA agents, for grabbing Muslim clericHassan Mustafa Osama Nasr off a Milan street in 2003 and flying him to Egypt, where he says he was tortured.
Italy's former spy chief Nicolo Pollari, who risks indictment on suspicion of aiding the CIA mission, wanted Prodi and Berlusconi to defend him at a preliminary hearing since he says information proving his innocence is classified.
But Judge Caterina Interlandi ruled that the men's testimony was not relevant to her decision on whether there is enough evidence to warrant a trial, legal sources said.
She further ruled that state secrecy rules did not apply to the kidnapping case, despite Pollari's claims to the contrary.
If she orders a trial, as looks increasingly likely after Tuesday's ruling, it would be the first criminal procedure over renditions - one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. President George W. Bush's global war on terrorism.
The case is being closely watched all over Europe, where judicial authorities in several countries are investigating accusations of CIA secret prisons and secret transfers of U.S. terrorism suspects. A judge in Germany last week ordered the arrest of 13 people linked to the abduction of a German national who says he was kidnapped and tortured by the CIA.
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video: webster tarpley says italy has turned the table on the cia*
