Friday, July 23, 2004

9/11 Report on Patriot Act FEATURED ARTICLES - Presidential Daily Briefing, August 6, 2001,"Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US." - Sept. 11 Panel: Intelligence Boost Should Follow Attacks, USA Today - 9/11 Commission Report Takes on Patriot Act, Government Secrecy, ACLU Press Release - Engaging Candidates on Issues Related to the Bill of Rights, Bill of Rights Defense Committee - The "1984+20" Project, The National Council of Teachers of English - The Pakistan Connection, by Michael Meacher, The UK Guardian QUOTE OF THE DAY "The greater part of what my neighbors call good, I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well?" - - Henry David Thoreau KNOW YOUR HISTORY - JULY 23rd 1846 -- US: Protesting slavery & US involvement in the Mexican War, Henry David Thoreau refuses to pay his $1 poll tax & is tossed into jail by his friend the Concord, Massachusetts town constable - an experience that moves him to write "Civil Disobedience." Ralph Waldo Emerson happened by & asked him what he was doing in jail; Henry David's response was to ask Ralph Waldo what he was doing out there. RHINO HERE: Well, the 9/11 Committee's Report, which the shrub gang did everything they could to prevent;  is now available in your local bookstore. The never bashful Democrats.com website calls it, "an almost obscene miscarriage of fairness" for its claim that neither shrub nor Clinton were to blame, ignoring the facts that Clinton pursued Osama with an obsessive intensity while the shrub gang called the FBI off his trail 2 months before 9/11.  The report also makes the absurd claim that the success of the 9/11 attacks was due to a "lack of imagination."  Rhino wonders, How much imagination would it take given the infamous document: Presidential Daily Briefing, August 6, 2001,"Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US." http://www.newsaic.com/respdb080601.html Sept. 11 Panel: Intelligence Boost Should Follow Attacks By Mimi Hall, USA Today, 7/22/2004 http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-07-22-attacks-report_x.htm On the other hand, the ACLU is praising the 9/11 Commission Report for Challenging the Patriot Act & the Secrecy which the shrub gang has used in so many of their Neo-Robber Baron misdeeds. 9/11 Commission Report Takes on Patriot Act, Government Secrecy; ACLU Outlines Civil Liberties Problems With Cabinet-Level Spymaster ACLU Press Release, July 22, 2004 WASHINGTON - The official 9/11 Commission report, released today, takes aim at the USA Patriot Act and the excessive amount of official secrecy in the Bush administration."'Regarding civil liberties, the 9/11 Commission report essentially says that the Justice Department and White House have not made a compelling case for either the administration's obsession with secrecy or its Patriot Act,' said Anthony D. Romero, ACLU Executive Director. 'This bipartisan report should serve as a wake-up call for Congress that it must maintain the sunsets in the Patriot Act.' As the report states on page 394, 'The burden of proof for retaining a particular governmental power should be on the executive, to explain (a) that the power actually materially enhances security and (b) that there is adequate supervision of the executive's use of the powers to ensure protection of civil liberties. If the power is granted, there must be adequate guidelines and oversight to properly confine its use.'... The report also cites both excessive government secrecy and overclassification as threats to open government and, more notably, as threats to national security." READ THE RELEASE: 9/11 Commission Report Takes on Patriot Act Speaking of the Patriot Act, as previously reported here on Rhino's Blog, on July 8, the House defeated the Sanders-Paul-Conyers-Otter-Nadler amendment to the Commerce, Justice, State & Judiciary Appropriations Bill of 2005. The amendment to deny funding for using Section 215 investigations of libraries and bookstores, was headed toward victory, when House Republican leaders outrageously & illegally held the vote open for an additional 23 minutes & persuaded 10 members to change their votes, ending in a 210-210 tie. I previously reported that California Democrat Brad Sherman was one who voted last minute with the repubs. That was reported by the NY Times but turned out to be wrong. See How Did Your Representative Vote on the 'Freedom to Read Amendment? Final Vote Results If you'd like to push your representatives to make civil liberties more of an issue in the upcoming election, Rhino suggests checking out the Bill of Rights Defense Committee's website where they've gathered resources on just how to do that. Engaging Candidates on Issues Related to the Bill of Rights Bill of Rights Defense Committee Take advantage of the election year and ask the candidates where they stand with regard to threatened rights and liberties. Suggestions: * Engage your local candidates as well as the statewide and national candidates. To help with this process, we have put together a voter education packet that includes tips on how to contact the candidates, sample questions, a timeline for following-up and publicizing the results, and resources for more information. For additional questions, see our library of sample questions. * Ask your local candidates for office or re-election to commit to supporting a resolution in your town creating a Civil Liberties Safe Zone. * Find out where the candidates stand on Free Speech Zones. * Learn more about the candidates' stances " using BORDC's excellent links. http://www.bordc.org/Candidates In a related effort, The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is sponsoring a nationwide reading & discussion of George Orwell's classic novel 1984 this October. Educators & students, citizens in libraries, community organizations & book discussion groups are urged to read the book & discuss its prophetic nature & what it can teach about life in the contemporary US of A. They call it the "1984+20" project. Check it out at: The National Council of Teachers of English Sponsor "1984+20" Project http://www.ncte.org/announce/116449.htm Today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE is by British MP Michael Meacher who calls the world's attention to one  Omar Sheikh, a British-born Islamist militant currently awaiting a hangman's noose in Pakistan for the alleged murder of NY Times reporter, Daniel Pearl. As the piece reveals, Sheikh is a former Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operative who on orders from his ISI boss, wired $100,000 before the 9/11 attacks to Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker. Meacher asks some important questions about why the recently released 9/11 Report doesn't take a serious look at the ISI's involvement in the 9/11 attacks. 6:41:31 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - The Pakistan Connection "SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!" RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE The Pakistan Connection By Michael Meacher, The Guardian, July 22, 2004 Omar Sheikh, a British-born Islamist militant, is waiting to be hanged in Pakistan for a murder he almost certainly didn't commit - of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002. Both the US government and Pearl's wife have since acknowledged that Sheikh was not responsible. Yet the Pakistani government is refusing to try other suspects newly implicated in Pearl's kidnap and murder for fear the evidence they produce in court might acquit Sheikh and reveal too much.  Significantly, Sheikh is also the man who, on the instructions of General Mahmoud Ahmed, the then head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), wired $100,000 before the 9/11 attacks to Mohammed Atta, the lead hijacker. It is extraordinary that neither Ahmed nor Sheikh have been charged and brought to trial on this count. Why not? Ahmed, the paymaster for the hijackers, was actually in Washington on 9/11, and had a series of pre-9/11 top-level meetings in the White House, the Pentagon, the national security council, and with George Tenet, then head of the CIA, and Marc Grossman, the under-secretary of state for political affairs. When Ahmed was exposed by the Wall Street Journal as having sent the money to the hijackers, he was forced to "retire" by President Pervez Musharraf. Why hasn't the US demanded that he be questioned and tried in court?... READ THE REST: http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1266317,00.html "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 6:25:35 AM    comment

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