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Friday, November 18, 2005 |
UPI: "Republican Sen. John McCain Tuesday said the massive Pentagon budget for the war in Iraq can't be sustained because of the need to replace weapons."
ICH: "Senate Democrats have dug up additional explosive evidence over the past week that they say will help prove the Bush administration deliberately manipulated pre-war Iraq intelligence that was used to convince Congress and the public to support a pre-emptive strike against the Middle East country in March of 2003."
"The Bush Crimes Commission aims to both frame and fuel a society-wide discussion of whether, or not, the administration of George W. Bush is guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other high crimes. It will do this by bringing the truth to light, and by applying exacting standards, to determine if unpardonable crimes have been committed. With a deep sense of responsibility to the people of the world, we have to seize this moment - a time to change how people see and think about the Bush administration and its actions."
11:18:09 AM 
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When governments engage in illegal acts they are heavily involved in keeping their crimes secret.
BBC: "Two men have been charged under the Official Secrets Act following the leak of a secret government memo."
The BBC article does not give any further comment on this attempt by the Blair government to hide the truth and intimidate whistle-blowers.
Worse is the BBC misinformation about the legality of the 'phosphorus weapons'.
TheCat'sBlog: "The comment [by the BBC] 'Washington is not a signatory to an international treaty restricting the use of the substance [WP] against civilians.' assumes that therefore civilians may be targeted by WP weapons. This is an outrageous assumption because civilians may NEVER be the target of military operations - whether using bows and arrows or white phosphorous, or any other weapon. This rule is not dependent on specific treaties but is a fundamental part of the laws and customs of war. Protocol III relating to incendiary weapons (of the Convention on Prohibitions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons Which May Be Deemed to Be Excessively Injurious or to Have Indiscriminate Effects (1983)) makes all this clear by reinforcing this. While this treaty mainly sets out rules relating to WP in regards to combatants, it also reinforces the rule against targeting civilians.
There seems to be some controversy about whether WP might be a chemical weapon or a poisonous gas weapon and hence prohibited by treaties ratified by the US relating to these types of weapons. While a technically interesting question, it deflects attention from the fact that the US forces targeted civilians with WP and other weapons, both illegal and legal in Falluja. The debate about what category of weapons WP weapons are is irrelevant to THAT issue. What is important is to focus on the deliberate targeting of civilians or using weapons against a legal military target when there is a substantial likelihood of serious and numerous civilian casualties. Such targeting is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, especially due to the nature of the weapons such as those containing WP used against them."
11:09:36 AM
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TheRegister: "Revisions to the so-called 'Patriot' Act now circulating on Capitol Hill will give Congress some limited oversight on the use of national security letters, by requiring the FBI to report periodically on their use.
Now the bad news. The gag rules have been enhanced on these letters, which allow surveillance without a judge's approval or even a reasonable suspicion that the target is a criminal. According to a recent article in the Washington Post, their use has gone up a hundredfold since 'Patriot', with something like 30,000 per year now being sent. They are, essentially, fishing licenses that the FBI gets to issue to itself, without judicial oversight. Only now there will be real penalties for resisting them, and for disclosing their receipt - in perpetuity. And this power might become permanent, to boot.
Other offensive provisions, especially related to electronic eavesdropping and data mining on a mass scale, originally scheduled to sunset at the end of this year, will either become permanent, or be extended for seven years."
The Patriot Act is not about fighting terror, but controlling and intimidating the population. Checking on your reading habits and library records has nothing to do with stopping terrorism.
Guardian: "A bipartisan group of senators told congressional leaders Thursday they will try to block reauthorization of the Patriot Act to protest the elimination of Senate-pushed protections against 'unnecessary and intrusive government surveillance' in a House-Senate compromise.
'Sneak and peek' search warrants allow police to conduct secret searches of people's homes or businesses and inform them later."
The situation becomes extremely dangerous when the government ordering the 'sneak and peek' is itself a rogue administration that does not want anyone to 'sneak and peek' into its own illegal dealings.
10:54:05 AM
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© Copyright 2008.
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