Monday, September 13, 2004

Patriotic Whistleblowing Help Rhino Help ACT (Americans Coming Together) Please join me in supporting America Coming Together. With over 1500 paid canvassers knocking on doors in battleground states since February, ACT has built the largest voter mobilization effort in history. With the election just some 50 days away, your support is needed now more than ever. The clock is ticking, Rhino sez, "Visit swing states to canvass & register voters, or... Please contribute financially to their efforts AT: http://acthere.com/seeUser.php?memberID=4995 FEATURED ARTICLES - Ellsberg Urges Insiders to Leak Iraq Info, AP - Rumsfeld mixes up US foes Saddam and Bin Laden, New Zealand Herald - The Service Question; A Review of President Bush's Guard Years, US News - A Call to Patriotic Whistleblowing, The Truth-Telling Project QUOTE OF THE DAY "And I said on my program, if, if the Americans go in and overthrow Saddam Hussein and it's clean, he has nothing, I will apologize to the nation, and I will not trust the Bush administration again." - - Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly (on Good Morning America, March 18, 2003) KNOW YOUR HISTORY - September 13th 1961 -- Bertrand Russell, aged 89, & 32 others arrested for demonstrating against nuclear weapons in Trafalgar Square, London. RHINO HERE: Last week, former Defense Department official, Daniel Ellsberg, of Pentagon Papers fame (or infamy, depending on your world view) joined other former employees of The United States Government's Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, Department of State, Department of Defense & Department of Labor, in issuing a letter urging current government insiders to provide classified documents about the invasion of Iraq.  Ellsberg said at a news conference Thursday that "claims of government deception and lies have little credibility' unless supported by documentary evidence, which often is available only in classified materials."  In the letter, which is today's RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE, Ellsberg & the other signatories said federal insiders owe a higher allegiance to the Constitution, the public & American soldiers in Iraq than to their government bosses.  For more on what Daniel Ellsberg is up to these days, check out the Truth-Telling Project which encourages whistleblowing in the national interest, aims to change the norms and practices that sustain the cult of secrecy, and seeks de-legitimize silence that costs lives. http://www.truthtellingproject.org Ellsberg Urges Insiders to Leak Iraq Info By Kata Kertesz , AP, September 9, 2004 http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4484619,00.html Rhino sez, "The thing about telling lies & trying to keep them secret is that you need to remember all the lies you've told, & the lies you told to cover up the original lies. It can get very confusing as witnessed by Don Rumsfeld's speech to the National Press Club last week. Rumsfeld mixes up US foes Saddam and Bin Laden New Zealand Herald, Nov. 9, 2004 (Reuters) US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld mixed up al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein twice in a speech about the war against terrorism...  In a speech to the National Press Club on the eve of the third anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Rumsfeld began by saying the world just before the attacks was not as serene as some people now suggest. "The leader of the opposition Northern Alliance, Masood, lay dead, his murder ordered by Saddam Hussein, by Osama bin Laden, Taleban's co-conspirator," Rumsfeld said. He was referring to Ahmad Shah Masood who was in opposition to the ruling Taleban in Afghanistan and was killed by al Qaeda two days before the Sept. 11 attacks. Later in responding to a question, Rumsfeld again confused Saddam and bin Laden in a discourse about how US and coalition actions had made it more difficult for terrorists to operate. "It's harder for them to travel between countries, it's harder for them to communicate with each other, it's harder for them to raise money, it's harder for them to transfer money, it's harder for them to buy weapons, it's harder for them to do everything," Rumsfeld said.  "Saddam Hussein, if he's alive, is spending a whale of a lot of time trying to not get caught. And we've not seen him on a video since 2001," Rumsfeld said.  "Now, he's got to be busy. Why is he busy? It's because of the pressure that's being put on him," he added. The moderator later asked Rumsfeld if he had meant bin Laden, and the Defence secretary replied: "I did. I meant we haven't seen Osama bin Laden." Rumsfeld Mixes Up Foes And speaking of lies & trying to keep them secret, shrub gang apologists are having to work overtime right now to keep the facts about Dubya's military records. After Dan Rather's 60 minutes piece last week revealing new documentary evidence of his less than honorable service, now comes the conservative weekly US News challenging the validity of shrub's service. "Some experts say they remain mystified as to how Bush obtained an honorable discharge. Lawrence Korb, a former top Defense Department official in the Reagan administration, says the military records clearly show that Bush 'had not fulfilled his obligation' and 'should have been called to active duty.'... The regulations must be followed, adds James Currie, a retired colonel and author of an official history of the Army Reserve. 'Clearly, if you were the average poor boy who got drafted and sent into the active force,' he says, 'they weren't going to let you out before you had completed your obligation.'" Coming from US News, this is an important development. "SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!" The service question A review of President Bush's Guard years raises issues about the time he served By Kit R. Roane, US News, 9/20/04 Last February, White House spokesman Scott McClellan held aloft sections of President Bush's military record, declaring to the waiting press that the files "clearly document the president fulfilling his duties in the National Guard." Case closed, he said.  But last week the controversy reared up once again, as several news outlets, including U.S. News, disclosed new information casting doubt on White House claims. MORE: http://www.usnews.com/usnews/issue/040920/usnews/20guard.htm 8:11:12 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - A Call to Patriotic Whistleblowing "SEND THIS ARTICLE TO A REPUBLICAN!" A Call to Patriotic Whistleblowing Washington, DC September 9, 2004 It is time for unauthorized truth-telling. Citizens cannot make informed choices if they do not have the facts-for example, the facts that have been wrongly concealed about the ongoing war in Iraq:  the real reasons behind it, the prospective costs in blood and treasure, and the setback it has dealt to efforts to stem terrorism.  Administration deception and cover-up on these vital matters has so far been all too successful in misleading the public. Many Americans are too young to remember Vietnam.  Then, as now, senior government officials did not tell the American people the truth.  Now, as then, insiders who know better have kept their silence, as the country was misled into the most serious foreign policy disaster since Vietnam. Some of you have documentation of wrongly concealed facts and analyses that-if brought to light-would impact heavily on public debate regarding crucial matters of national security, both foreign and domestic.  We urge you to provide that information now, both to Congress and, through the media, to the public. Thanks to our First Amendment, there is in America no broad Officials Secrets Act, nor even a statutory basis for the classification system. Only very rarely would it be appropriate to reveal information of the three types whose disclosure has been expressly criminalized by Congress: communications intelligence, nuclear data, and the identity of US intelligence operatives. However, this administration has stretched existing criminal laws to cover other disclosures in ways never contemplated by Congress. There is a growing network of support for whistleblowers. In particular, for anyone who wishes to know the legal implications of disclosures they may be contemplating, the ACLU stands ready to provide pro bono legal counsel, with lawyer-client privilege. The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) will offer advice on whistleblowing, dissemination and relations with the media. Needless to say, any unauthorized disclosure that exposes your superiors to embarrassment entails personal risk.  Should you be identified as the source, the price could be considerable, including loss of career and possibly even prosecution.  Some of us know from experience how difficult it is to countenance such costs.  But continued silence brings an even more terrible cost, as our leaders persist in a disastrous course and young Americans come home in coffins or with missing limbs. This is precisely what happened at this comparable stage in the Vietnam War.  Some of us live with profound regret that we did not at that point expose the administration's dishonesty and perhaps prevent the needless slaughter of 50,000 more American troops and some 2 to 3 million Vietnamese over the next ten years.  We know how misplaced loyalty to bosses, agencies, and careers can obscure the higher allegiance all government officials owe the Constitution, the sovereign public, and the young men and women put in harm's way. We urge you to act on those higher loyalties. A hundred forty thousand young Americans are risking their lives every day in Iraq for dubious purpose.  Our country has urgent need of comparable moral courage from its public officials. Truth-telling is a patriotic and effective way to serve the nation. The time for speaking out is now. POSTED AT: http://www.truthtellingproject.org "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 6:49:44 AM    comment

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