Exercise Your Mind - 11/08/06

Election 2006

• You have your marching orders…. — Nicole Belle @ Crooks and Liars reminds us of the Republican’s “Contract with America” when they took control of Congress in 1994.
  

  This year’s election offers the chance, after four decades of one-party control, to bring to the House a new majority that will transform the way Congress works. That historic change would be the end of government that is too big, too intrusive, and too easy with the public’s money. It can be the beginning of a Congress that respects the values and shares the faith of the American family.

  Like Lincoln, our first Republican president, we intend to act “with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right.” To restore accountability to Congress. To end its cycle of scandal and disgrace. To make us all proud again of the way free people govern themselves.
  

  Let’s hope that the Democrats learn from the Republicans’ mistakes.

• A Remedy for Negative Political Ads — Paul Silver @ Donklephant has a remedy for all of those negative, deceitful ads since there’s not likely to be any law regulating truth in political advertising anytime soon.
  

  Perhaps the solution lies in changing the geometry of the question. Instead of trying to regulate the content of ads, we use public funds (or funds from the Parties) to run a frequent public service message that corrects the inaccuracies of any recent ads - perhaps produced by the Factcheck.org folks. Since a candidate would not want to have the airwaves filled with objective criticism they would be inclined to stay as reasonable and civil as possible.

• A Remedy for Election Tampering– Paul Silver @ Donklephant also thinks there should be a reward for information leading to a conviction in crimes related to election tampering.

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Tags: 2006 election, Republicans, Contract with America, Contress, ethics, scandal, Democrats, negative political ads, election tampering, politics, factcheck.org, DHS, TSA, passports, Hasan Elahi, FBI, mental illness, anxiety, depression

Work Your Brain — 11/1/06

Tales of the Detainee Kind

• The Case Of Bilal Hussein — Justin Gardner @ Donklephant reports on Bilal Hussein, an AP war photographer, accused by the U.S. military of helping some insurgents kidnap a couple journalists. Only those journalists have been rescued and they say Hussein is a hero. The AP wants to know why he’s been detained since April with no charges having been filed against him while right-wing bloggers call for his head.
  

  Six months is more than enough time to get some facts together and make a case against Hussein. The military hasn’t done that, and they should…or else they should release Hussein without charge.

  As Gardner points out, Hussein isn’t the first journalist to be treated as such.

  More

  Tags: detainees, Bilal Hussein, Abdul Rahim Al Ginco, Afghanistan, Iraq, Guantanamo, al-Qaeda, Insurrection Act, FEMA, Lynne Cheney, Bill O'Reilly, liberals, rightwingers, patriotism, pragmatism, American soldiers, Republicans, Democrats, GOP, Georgia, Genital Cutting, abortion, pro-choice, pro-life, TSA, airport security, bomb-making materials, Christopher Soghoian, Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, Indiana University, fake boarding passes, Ed Markey, FBI, Police State

  comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, Natural Disasters, Women's Rights, The Middle East

Work Your Brain — 09/20/06

• Thank a Democrat for Lower Gas Prices — Richard Cranium @ The All Spin Zone reminds us that it was Democratic Party Congressional candidate Larry Kissell who held a campaign rally at a gas station in Biscoe, NC on August 3rd to remind voters that the price of gasoline was $1.22/gallon when the GOP incumbent in his district took office. Ever since then, the price of gas has been dropping nationwide.
  

  With third quarter oil industry profit statements due out just before the upcoming elections, it’s pretty easy to assume that the Gouging Oil Party boys in the backroom figured that something had to be done, even if (for the oil companies) it meant taking a bit of a hit on the bottom line for a few months. Ergo, gasoline prices have dropped by nearly 30% in the space of a couple of weeks, even as BP’s shutdown of their Alaskan pipeline continues, and middle east tensions continue apace, and (strangely) the cost of a barrel of crude has dropped by maybe 10%. The good news is that, based on my own water cooler conversation, even the most hard core neocons in our midst understand the play.

  So, the next time you fill up your tank and you don’t have to sign over a second mortgage on house to do it, remember that Democratic Party congressional candidate Larry Kissell from NC-8, is more responsible for the drop in prices than anyone else on the planet. Here’s an idea on how to thank Larry: take $10 of that gas savings, and drop it in Larry’s campaign bucket.

• Gas Prices a Republican Dirty Trick — Becky @ Preemptive Karma takes a different look at how the Republicans are using their Big Oil friends to lower gas prices before the 2006 election.

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Tags: gas prices, oil industry, privacy, CIA, CIA Interrogation Program, George W. Bush, Article 3, Geneva Convention, Congress, John Warner, Colin Powell, Jack Vessey, Lindsay Graham, John McCain, POW, torture, detainees, terrorism, White House, politics, anthrax, 9/11, phobic nation, J. Edgar Hoover, FBI, Martin Luther King Jr., Iraq, International Red Cross, Maher Arar, Canada, Syria, JFK Airport

comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, The Middle East

Recommended Reading - 08/25/06

• ‘Liquid Bombers’ - The Impossible Bomb — A lot of websites have been linking to this explanation as to why the most recent terror plot from the UK could not have worked and why all of the fearmongering and passenger harrassment by the UK and American governments in the airports is unnecessary. I say, read it for yourself and decide for yourself.
• Homeland insecurity 2.0 — Pam @ Pam’s House Blend wrote one of the best reports of what travelling immediately after the latest terrorist plot scare was like that I’ve read.
  

  Again, the PA came on, this time it was for another flight — on Continental — that was boarding. This announcer, I’m not kidding you, went on for about 2-3 minutes warning people about taking on liquids and gels (”liquid” chapstick is a no-no, solid is OK), no coffee or soda will make it on board. Random checks at the gate would be performed. If they find contraband on you, you will be asked to give it up. If you don’t give it up, you’ll not be able to board, he boomed, and you would have to go on a later flight. “Not later today,” he warned, “maybe not even this week…maybe not for a couple of weeks.” OK, at this point, people are laughing, including the two of us. This is ludicrous.

  Our flight is finally called and we board. The plane is about to close up and a couple of late arrivals get on. This time we have a woman taking her sweet time, coming down the aisle with a steaming hot cup of Cinnabon coffee, which she proceeds to balance on an armrest as she casually loads her bag in the overhead bin, blocking the aisle as a couple of people wait behind her.

  Clearly, my friends, US Airways has let on the Cinnabomber.

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Tags: liquid bombers, airport security, Continental, U.S. Airways, crime rate, terrorism, morning-after pill, women soldiers, American soldiers, pharmacists, JonBenet Ramsey, Abeer al-Janabi, Jessica Lynch, Jim Bensman, Army Corps of Engineers, FBI, Duarris Perez, Guantanamo Bay, Gitmo, Cuba, Homeland Security, Bosnia, Algeria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Hamas, al-Qaeda, Hurricane Katrina, pink food coloring, food industry

1 comments See also in Politics & Causes, In the News, Geekery, Blogging & Other Blogs, The World, Featured, 9-11 & Terrorism, Iraq & Afghanistan, Hurricane Katrina, Natural Disasters, The Middle East

Innocent Man Detained For 5 Years Without Apology From U.S.

There are some Americans who would have you believe that everyone picked up on suspicion of terrorism should forfeit their rights as a human being. Some Americans will tell you that the fact that we are “at war” means that we have the right “to do what we have to do” in order to protect ourselves without apology and without conscience. There are Americans who don’t understand that when we deny other human beings the simple rights that we expect from each other, we stop being human beings ourselves.

The veiled accusations and vehement denials would continue for nearly five years - despite official findings in 2001 that he had no terrorist links and in 2003 that authorities had violated his rights by colluding to keep him in custody.

Of the estimated 1,200 mostly Arab and Muslim men detained nationwide as potential suspects or witnesses in the Sept. 11 investigation, Benatta would earn a dubious distinction: Human rights groups say the former Algerian air force lieutenant was locked up the longest.

His Kafkaesque journey through the American justice system concluded July 20 when a deal was finalized for his return to Canada. In the words of his lawyer, the idea was to “turn back the clock” to when he first crossed the border.

But time did not stand still for Benatta: The clock ran for 1,780 days. The man detained at 27 was now 32.

“I say to myself from time to time, maybe what happened … it was some kind of dream,” he said. “I never believed things like that could happen in the United States.”

Benemar “Ben” Benatta, a former Algerian air force lieutenant, arrived in Canada on September 5, 2001 seeking political assylum. A week later, he was escorted back across to the U.S. and turned over to U.S. immigration. Benemar Benatta didn’t learn about the the 9-11 terrorist attacks until September 12th when FBI agents paid him a visit. He was sent to a federal prison in Brooklyn and when he insisted he wasn’t involved in the attacks, they threatened to send him back to Algeria — a certain torture and death sentence for his desertion. The interrogations continued.

Prison guards, he said, dispensed humiliation in steady doses - rapping on his cell door every half hour to interrupt his sleep, stepping on his leg shackles hard enough to scar his ankles, locking him in an outdoor exercise cage despite freezing temperatures, conducting arbitrary strip searches.

Benemar Benatta was never charged of any crime during this time and in November 2001, the FBI prepared a report clearing him of any involvement in the 9/11 attacks. However, no one bothered to tell Benatta and in fact they didn’t bother to set him free or allow him access to the outside world.

Finally, in April, he was transfered to Buffalo to face federal charges of carrying a phony ID when he was first detained. Benatta was denied bail while he fought the case. However, at least he was allowed into the general population of federal defendants housed at an immigration detention center. It was also the first time he was allowed access to the news and the first time he was allowed access to scenes of what had happened at the World Trade Center and he was shocked.

It wasn’t until the second anniversary of the attacks that U.S. Magistrate H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr., in a bluntly worded ruling, found that Benatta’s detainment for a deportation hearing was “a charade.”

Though terrible, the Sept. 11 attacks “do not constitute an acceptable basis for abandoning our constitutional principles and rule of law by adopting an ‘end justifies the means’ philosophy,” Schroeder wrote. Based on that decision, another judge tossed out the case on Oct. 3, 2003.

“That gave me so much hope,” Benatta said. “For me, it’s like (the judge) had so much nerves. He gave me some kind of hope in the judicial system all over again.”

However, Benatta demanded asylum but the U.S. Immigration authorities wanted him deported for overstaying his visa. (Brilliant, isn’t it? We lock him up for no reason and then want to deport him because we locked im up? Punish the victim! The United States Way!)

An immigration court first set bail at $25,000, then ruled he should stay behind bars indefinitely - a situation a United Nations human rights group decried as a “de facto prison sentence.” Most asylum seekers are released pending the outcome of their cases.

It took another two years before a Manhattan attorney, Catherine M. Amirfar, found a solution: She convinced Canadian authorities to let her client apply for asylum there without jailing him.

“Canada was willing to take him back and turn back the clock five years,” she said. “Of course, Benemar will never get those five years back.”

The last detainee was deported in his prison smock without an apology. He remembers cold stares when he ate his first meal at Wendy’s and went to a mall to buy clothes.

Today, there’s no more soul-numbing confinement. But he’s still caught in waiting game, this time to see whether Canada will grant him asylum - a decision at least six months away. He also wonders if he can regain enough spirit to start a new life.

“Now I’m not the same person,” he said. “When I came to the United States, I was optimistic. I had so much energy. That’s not the case now.”

Source: 9/11 Detainee Released After Nearly Five Years

Imagine five years of your life gone because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Imagine that you had been seeking help from countries that were supposed to be the good guys and instead you ended up tortured and imprisoned for 5 years.

And Benatta isn’t the only one. The U.S. has a history of playing games with detainees since 9/11. How many of the Guantanamo Bay detainees were cleared and weren’t told?

Tags: 9/11, Benemar Benatta, Algeria, detainees, FBI, political assylum, U.S. Immigration

More From the Department Of Child Predators

Well, in case you thought that sexual perversion in government officials was isolated to Homeland Security…

A high-ranking Defense Department IT official has been arrested and indicted on child pornography charges.

Charles Lynch, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Internet Protocol version 6 transition program, was arrested March 8 and indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia the next day on one count of possessing child pornography.

According to a statement by the DOD Inspector General’s Office, court documents allege that Lynch had been operating a peer-to-peer file-sharing program on a computer in his office at DISA. Agents confiscated several computers and more than 1,000 CDs from Lynch’s office. Agents found child pornography in computer file folders, the IG’s statement said.

Lynch, 44, is on leave without pay from DISA. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.

The investigation is being conducted by the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the DISA OIG. Officials with those agencies, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office, declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.

In apparently unrelated cases, a Homeland Security Department official was arrested earlier this week for soliciting sex over the Internet with a minor. And last week, federal agents seized computer equipment from the desk of a NASA official March 29, based on information developed during a U.S. Postal Inspection Service undercover investigation of Internet trafficking in child pornography. [“DOD IPv6 director arrested for possession of child porn” (GNC)]

Remember when the Rebublicans thought a President having a blowjob in the White House was the most immoral thing a man could do? Why aren’t we hearing as much of a fuss from the same right that launched a witch hunt for that same President about all of these government officials who are preying on innocent children on government time and government equipment and taxpayer money?

Hat Tip to Suburban Guerrilla.

Tags: Bill Clinton, NASA, Homeland Security, FBI, Defense Department, child predators, Charles Lynch

Do Terrorists Hand Out Leaflets?

More Spying on Americans just for exercising their American rights…

PITTSBURGH (Reuters) -FBI anti-terrorism agents spied on a peace group simply because it opposed the
Iraq war, part of an “unprecedented campaign” to spy on innocent citizens, the American Civil Liberties Union said on Tuesday.

FBI documents acquired under the Freedom of Information Act and provided to reporters show the FBI conducted surveillance of the Pittsburgh-based Thomas Merton Center for Peace & Justice at anti-war demonstrations and leaflet distributions in 2002 and 2003.

One of the FBI documents, unveiled at a news conference by the two groups, carried the headline “International Terrorism Matters” and referred to the FBI’s work with an anti-terrorism task force that includes several agencies.

Another FBI document said the Pittsburgh Joint Terrorism Task Force had learned that “The Thomas Merton Center … has been determined to be an organization which is opposed to the United States’ war with Iraq.” [“FBI spied on Pittsburgh pacifists, papers show” (Yahoo!News)]

I like lambert’s response on Corrente:

They’ve been calling us traitors for years, so why not take them at their word? Although the logic is a little odd: There aren’t a lot of committed pacifists who turn into terrorists, and most terrorists I’ve heard of don’t want to draw attention to themselves by handing out leaflets. Still, who expects logic from these guys?

Tags: FBI, politics, anti-war, protest, spying on Americans, Freedom of Information Act, Thomas Merton Center

Spying on Americans

“The president does not get to pick and choose which laws he wants to follow.”
– Senator Russell Feingold, Democrat [“Bush stands by right to order spying inside US (FT.com)]

Traditionally, US law forbids the NSA and the CIA from spying inside the US. That sort of thing usually falls into the FBI’s realm of operations and then only with a court order for setting up wire taps and the like.

Yet shortly after 9/11, President Bush ordered the NSA to tap telephone conversations inside the US, supposedly targeting persons (yes, including American citizens — especially American citizens) suspected of “connections with terrorists”. Mind you, among those targeted were the ACLU, a vegan group, and Americans involved in anti-war protests — Americans exercising their freedom to disagree with the government.

Sounds a little like Nixon to me.

We all remember Nixon, right? Well, those of us who are too young to have followed it closely at the time got a full helping of it in American History classes anyway. One of the things Nixon got in trouble for was abusing his Presidential power by authorizing the illegal wiretapping of Americans. He used wiretaps on all sorts of groups, people, politicians…anyone who didn’t agree with him…

Since 1979, 19,000 requests for eavesdropping the Federal Intelligence Security Court has received from the Executive Branch since 1979, only five have ever been refused.[“A TIME TO IMPEACH”] While President Bush claimed that his authorization of wiretaps without warants was necessary because action has to be taken quickly against the “terrorists”, reportedly, the secret FISA court can grant approval for wiretaps “within hours”.

If that’s the case, then why wouldn’t our President want to do everything by the book? If FISA’s court has a tradition of handing out warants at the drop of the hat, why wouldn’t he want those wiretap on some sort of official and legal record? Why wouldn’t our President want anyone backing him up officially?

Obviously, if he’s trying to circumvent the law, he must have something to hide, right? I mean, it just seems so suspicious…and he seems awfully defensive of the whole thing. Why did he choose the NSA for this task rather than the FBI if it was all legal and proper? Who didn’t he want to know and why? If it were all on the up-and-up, why is he worried?

Tags: politics, George W. Bush, warrantless wiretapping, NSA, spying on Americans, FBI, Russ Feingold, FISA, ACLU, CIA, Conspiracy Theories

Missing the Big Picture…

So Molly Ivins wrote a brilliant editorial at freepress.org about how Americans seem to be missing the point with this whole Karl Rove thing. We’re focusing on who the leak was and whether or not it was a criminal act and losing site of the fact that it was done as political payback to a man who disagreed with President Bush’s so-called evidence of WMD in Iraq.

Actually, we are missing the point here. The point being that Joseph Wilson is merely one of the many people who provided one of the by now innumerable pieces of evidence that this administration lied about why we went to war in Iraq. When former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill wrote that Bush planned to invade Iraq from the day he took office, the administration went after O’Neill. When Richard Clarke disclosed that the Bushies wanted to use Sept. 11 to go after Saddam Hussein from Sept. 12 on, they went after Clarke. They went after Gen. Zinni, they went after Gen. Shinseki and everyone else who opposed the folly or told the truth about it. After they got done lying about weapons of mass destruction and about connections to Al Qaeda, they switched to the stomach-churning pretense that we had done it all for democracy. Urp.

She also talks about how the Bush administration has set the FBI on the ACLU:

The ACLU works solely through the legal system: It does not advocate violence, terrorism or any other damn thing except the Bill of Rights. Since when is that extremist? Why in the name of heaven are we wasting the FBI’s time on this idiocy? I don’t pretend to be an expert on counter-terrorism, but if it were up to me, I wouldn’t start looking for the violence-prone in pacifist groups either…

…We are living in a time when our government is investigating an organization that stands for the highest and best American ideals. And claiming the mantle of patriotism while they are about it. This is cuckoo — and such an idiotic waste of the FBI’s time and the taxpayers’ money that whoever thought up this idiocy should be fired yesterday.

And I love this line:

If you support someone politically, you are not required to believe they are perfect.

I wish all of those people who voted for Bush or even Kerry would take a moment and really think about that one. Your candidate is not God. Take a step back and really look hard at what’s happing in American and the world. I don’t understand how two groups of people can hear the same news and only hear what they want even if what they want completely conflicts with the facts presented.

Tags: Molly Ivins, Karl Rove, Joe Wilson, Iraq, FBI, ACLU, George W. Bush, politics

CIA looking to recruit early

Man, I worked my ass off in high school to save money so I could go to Space Camp, which was infinitely better than all the Chrisitan Summer Camps my parents packed me off to in my elementary years. Still, my dreams of becoming an astronaut were pretty futile with my poor health.

I’d also dreamt of working at the FBI, CIA, or NSA, not as a field agent — obviously that sort of thing isn’t right for me. I mean, I might have had to -er- run for my life or point a gun at someone or something. I did, however, dream of becoming an analyst, but finding out what they were searching for back then was like trying to get the truth about the War in Iraq out of the Bush Administration.

Luckily for kids these days, with the expanding Homeland Security, the CIA at least is doing some proactive recruiting, focusing on high schoolers who may be assets later. I’m jealous.

NPR : A Spooky Summer Camp, Run by the CIA
A Spooky Summer Camp, Run by the CIA

All Things Considered, July 15, 2005 · The intelligence services of the U.S. are looking for a few good men and women and are taking steps to make sure they can find them in the future. Trinity College is running a “spy camp” for high-school kids this summer. The kids will learn about intelligence work and spy craft in weeklong sessions. The camp is free, but you can’t tell anyone what you learn.

Oh, and while I was searching for information on the above program, I discovered that there are a number of summer camps like this one in Pennsylvania focusing on children of all ages. Get them while they’re young before they’ve had a chance to form opinions of their own, right?

I’m still jealous. I so would have rather gone to spy camp than space camp — which by the way was nothing like the movie.

Tags: CIA, FBI, NSA, spy camp, NPR

Why isn’t America talking about Cyrus Kar?

I first heard about Cyrus Kar last week while listening to NPR. Since then, I’ve kept an eye open for stories on such media sites as CNN.com. Most of the information I’ve found about the strange case has been from foreign media and blogs.

Any American media references appear to be mostly after this past weekend and I’m amazed to note that while CNN.com has no searchable references, the right-wing biased Fox News does. This North Carolina paper’s site only had a sentence on the subject.

And yet, this is the tale of an ex-Navy Seal who was arrested in Iraq simply for being in the wrong cab at the wrong time. This is a right-winger American film-maker on a personal journey to research a former Persian king who supported civil rights who was arrested simply because the trunk of the taxi he was in had washer timers, commonly used for bomb-making in the Middle East. He was held in a 5′x7′ cell without due process even after the FBI informed his family that he had been cleared of suspicion after passing a polygraph test.

“Saddam Hussein has had more due process than Cyrus Kar. This is a detention policy that was drafted by Kafka.”

I just don’t understand why a bigger deal isn’t being made of this. I thought we were supposed to be fighting for freedom and liberty and all of that. I thought we were supposed to be bringing freedom to these other countries. Not only are we out of control in treating the citizens of other countries like non-entities, we have begun stripping the rights of Americans.

What kills me is the argument so many people give that if you haven’t done anything, the FBI or the CIA or whoever is enforcing the Patriot Act, won’t be knocking down your door to haul you away to some prison where they’ll be able to hold you without telling you why and without letting you talk to lawyers, family, or friends indefinitely. Cyrus Kar didn’t do anything wrong. He was just taking a taxi, the wrong taxi…

Who’s next? Your neighbor? You? Me?

Why aren’t we talking about this? Why are we letting it slip into the back pages of the paper to be forgotten by the time we read the comic pages?

Tags: Cyrus Kar, NPR, Fox News, detainees, Iraq, FBI, innocent, Civil Rights