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Recent Appearances... Rantburg

Caribbean-Latin America
Two police officers killed in attack on the Colombian border with Venezuela
2019-02-19
[ELUNIVERSAL] On Monday two uniformed dead were the result of an attack on a police post on the border of Colombia and Venezuela, according to authorities the action was perpetrated by two gunnies who entered Venezuelan territory.

The assailants rubbed out Customs coppers and maimed a vigilante , according to AFP.

The attack took place in a border bridge that joins the city of Arauca with Venezuelan territory.

The police said the attackers "crossed the river on foot" bordering to commit the attack, which cost the life of the patrolman Jeison Bejarano, 26, and Oscar Alberto Gonzalez, 28.

Until now they have not blamed any gang as responsible, however the governor of the department of Arauca, Ricardo Alvarado, pointed out that they would be members of organizations operating from Venezuela.

"There are groups (armed) that do not operate within the territory (Colombian) and I can not go out to cross the river," the president told Blu Radio.

In Arauca, commandos of the National Liberation Army (ELN) operate, the last active guerrilla group recognized in Colombia, as well as dissidents of the now defunct rebel organization FARC.

Supported by military intelligence reports, the Colombian government denounced that the ELN takes refuge on the Venezuelan side of a border punished by smuggling and drug trafficking.
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Caribbean-Latin America
Authorities find 7 dead in Durango
2011-11-10
For a map, click here. For a map of Durango, click here
The remains of seven individuals were found at a soccer field near Durango, Durango Tuesday, according to Mexican news accounts.

The bodies were found in El Pino, which is a village about 20 kilometers from the state capital of Durango state.

Reports say ages of the victims ranges from 16 to 40 years old. All had been tortured before being shot to death.

So far five of the victims have been identified including Luis Alberto Gonzalez Valenzuela, Antonio Bustamante, his wife Cecilia Zuniga Vazquez, Franscio Bustamante Bustamante and Reyes Garcia Rios. The five identified had been kidnapped Monday night by armed suspects.

Two other victims were identified as police officers in Durango city.

Also, the office of the Durango state Fiscalia General de Estado, or attorney general's office reported Tuesday that the remains of at least one individual was found dead about eight kilometers from the village of Labor de Guadalupe in Durango municipality.

The remains had been scattered in a five meter radius.

Durango was the state where 260 dead were found in eight mass gravesites in and around Durango city between April and June 2011. Many of those victims were from murders committed since four years ago, and many have either not been identified or were not claimed by relatives.
To read the Rantburg report on the Durango state mass grave, click here and follow the links.
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Home Front: WoT
Project Gunwalker: CBS Begins the "Blame Bush"
2011-10-05
The ATF, the agency that's supposed to stop gun smuggling, turned a blind eye for years, as hundreds of guns "walked" across the Mexican border, CBS News has learned.

In a report on "The Early Show," CBS News investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson said a confidential informant has come forward "with a fascinating story of how U.S. agents began letting guns 'walk' across the Mexican border - more than four years ago."

Gun enthusiast and licensed dealer Mike Detty said he was working a Tucson, Ariz., gun show in early 2006 when a young Hispanic man bought a half-dozen semi-automatic rifles. He paid $1,600 cash.

Detty recalled, "But then he asked if I had more, and I told him that later in the month I would have another 20 from my supplier. And he said, 'I'll take 'em all.'"

Detty said he suspected the buyer was trafficking for a drug cartel. Tucson is just an hour from the Mexican border and a popular shopping center for smugglers.

Detty notified ATF - the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. To his surprise, ATF told him to go ahead with the big sale and sent an undercover agent to watch. Then, a local ATF manager made an unusual and dangerous proposition: He asked Detty to be a confidential informant.

Detty told CBS News, "He said, 'Mike, I think we've got a real chance at taking out a powerful cartel. Can you help us?' I made that commitment. And I really thought I was doing something good."

Detty said he even signed an informant contract. As he understood it, he'd sell to suspected traffickers. Agents would track the weapons, expose the cartel's inner workings, and then interdict the guns before they could ever get loose on the street - or so Detty thought.

Detty said his business, "Mad Dawg," catered to this dangerous clientele in his living-room showroom. ATF agents watched and listened outside.

Detty said ATF would have a small audio recording device. Sometimes it was hidden in a box of Kleenex," he said. One of the biggest cases was code-named: "Operation Wide Receiver."

Attkisson asked Detty, "Do you know about how many guns we're talking about?"

Detty said, "It's right around 450."

Detty came forward after things didn't work out as Detty had thought they would. Detty says he realized ATF was letting guns "walk" and instead of helping to take down cartels, he'd helped ATF arm them.

Attkisson asked, "When you look back and think in hindsight knowing what we know now - that all those guns were going on the street - what do you think about?"

Detty said, "It really makes me sick."

Attkisson noted that all this happened under the Bush administration - three years before the start of "Fast and Furious," the better-known ATF operation under the Obama administration that has come under scrutiny . "Fast and Furious" allegedly let thousands of weapons fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, and is now the subject of two investigations.

Attkisson said efforts to reach former Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, who was in office when "Wide Receiver" started under the Bush administration, were unsuccessful. Meanwhile, his successor is under fire. Republicans are calling for a special prosecutor to investigate whether Attorney General Eric Holder told the truth when he testified earlier this year to Congress about when he first knew about 'Fast and Furious.'"

According to Atkisson, "gunwalking" may not be limited to border towns.

She said, "We have found allegations of gunwalking in at least 10 cities in five states, so this apparently was not isolated to Arizona."
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Caribbean-Latin America
More Mexican Mayhem
2010-07-11
Seventeen Die in Northern Mexican Violence

Seventeen individuals were murdered in ongoing gang and drug related violence,which included two Nuevo Leonn state police agents abducted at gunpoint Friday night.
  • Three people were shot to death in the southern Chihuahua community of Parral Thursday, according to the Mexican daily El Sol de Parral. Martin Perea was driving a concrete contractor's van along with two others when he was shot by three unidentified armed suspects near the intersection of calles San Uriel and Villas del Real Thursday morning.

    Gunman accosted the trio, telling the two passengers not to get in the van. The gunman then shot Perea with a .45 caliber pistol, killing him, but one of the passengers was hit as well.

    Two young men in their 20s were shot to death near the Santa Rosales dam Thursday afternoon. One of the victims was identified as Jorge Urbina Sandoval, 21, of Juarez while the other remains unidentified. Investigators at the scene found .45 and .223 shell casings.

    An unidentified person was abducted near Calle Del Cerro by suspects riding in a green van. The suspects apparently beat the victim before forcing him into the vehicle and driving away. Although authorities were quickly alerted they were unable to find the van tied to the abduction.

  • A man was shot to death in Agua Prieta, Sonora Thursday, according to Mexican press accounts. Oscar Mccormick Velazquez, 37, was shot to death by armed suspects riding a Dodge Durango near the intersection of Calle 22nd and Avenida First Industrial in the Ejido district. One of the armed suspects used an AK-47 assault rifle.

  • An unidentified assailant threw a disabled hand grenade into the offices of a Monterrey, Nuevo Leon radio station late Friday night, according to Mexican press reports. At about 2230 hrs. an armed suspect riding aboard a white Pontiac sedan threw a hand grenade through the front door of the Multimedios Radio radio station near the intersection of calles Paricutin and 2 de Abril in the Roma district.

    Explosives experts at the scene determined that the grenade fuse was not in place and would not detonate.

  • Two unidentified Nuevo Leon state police agents were abducted at gunpoint late Friday night in southern Monterrey, say Mexican press reports. The abduction took place near the intersection of calles Rio Nazas and Rio Aguanaval in the Las Retamas and Mexico district. Witnesses report hearing gunshots near the Tots hamburger stand, and seeing the patrol vehicle with flat tires. Investigators at the scene recovered several spent cartridge casings for an AR-15 assault rifle.

  • Three men were shot to death late Friday night in Tijuana, according to Mexican news reports. Carlos Alfonso Alvarado Manzano, 32, Eleazar Meza Velasquez, 30 and Lucio Alberto Gonzalez Tovar, 22, were working outside a home at 2300 hrs. on Avenida Adolfo Lopez Mateos painting when armed suspects riding a vehicle attacked the trio. Apparently one of the three attempted to flee the attack but was hunted down and shot to death.

    Police say that Alfonso Alvarado had a criminal record in California relating to drug trafficking. They also said his two partners were until a few weeks ago truck drivers before they began work on the residence. Police think the three may have failed to pay a tribute to their attackers and were gunned down in retribution.

    Investigators at the scene found 12 9mm spent cartridges casings at the scene.

  • A man and a woman were shot to death in an SUV at an intersection in Juarez Saturday afternoon, according to Mexican news reports. Eladio Jäuregui, 24, and Sandra Escobedo, 32, died when the Lincoln luxury SUV they were riding in was assaulted by armed suspects at the intersection of calles Gomez Morin and Ejercito Nacional. The car had Texas licence. plates. The driver, identified only as Mark, escaped the initial assault but was hit several times by bullets.

  • Four unidentified young men were found shot to death on a highway in Chihuahua, say Mexican press reports. The four were reported abducted Friday on calles Hidroeléctrica de Chicoasén in the Los Arcos district in northern Chihuahua city.

    The victims were found on Km. Marker 197 on the Chihuahua city to Delicias highway shot multiple times with high powered weapons.

  • An employee of the Chihuahua Comisión Estatal de Derechos Humanos (CEDH) was shot to death Saturday in Chihuahua,according to Mexican media reports. Guillermo Alcaraz, who previously worked as a cameraman in local media, was shot aboard his Volkswagen Jetta in front of the offices of a local digital newspaper near the intersection of calles Blas Cano de los Rios and Alvarez de Arcila.

  • Three unidentified men were shot to death in a sudden attack in Juarez Saturday afternoon, according to Mexican press reports. The attack took place as the three were conversing with two other men on calle Alvaro Obrego in the calle Alvaro Obrego dsitrict when they were attacked by armed suspects. The two other men were wounded in the attack and treated at a local medical facility.
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Home Front: WoT
Mossad orchestrated Christmas Day bomb plot
2010-01-29
The Nigerian terrorist suspect accused of attempting to blow up a US airliner on Christmas Day had been arranged by the Israeli-owned 'International Consultants on Targeted Security' to perform a "walk around" without a passport in Amsterdam.

Despite tighter screening processes since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Northwest Airlines Flight 253 experienced no delays in takeoff. According to the Mathaba News Agency "It is evident that clearing the terrorist with higher-ups took a matter of a minute or so and the Indian man, who had arranged the boarding, obviously had a high-level security pass.

Then, during the flight, onlookers noted that another passenger spent a great deal of time filming the 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab with his camcorder. Even stranger, once the suspect tried to ignite his "crotch bomb," throughout the incident, the man continued filming the terrorist, calmly and without interruption.

Next, after the plane landed, another Indian man was led away in handcuffs after the bomb-sniffing dogs detected explosives in his luggage. Officials, however, have refused to release the Schiphol CCTV airport footage from Amsterdam, the air-bound "video passenger" film, or the identity of the man arrested in Detroit.

The Indian link doesn't seem surprising since Israel and India are very close business partners, especially via their military contracts. Also, the Indian intelligence agency works hand-in-hand with Israel.

Abdulmutallab's home country, Nigeria, is also clandestinely controlled by the Israeli army and Mossad.

Mossad's reach extends even further, directly into Yemen. On Oct. 7, 2008, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh said that security forces had arrested a group of militants linked to the Israeli intelligence agency.

Abdulmutallab has at times denied any association with the militant al-Qaeda group and claimed that he was trained in Yemen. Washington, however, accuses him of being instructed in the Arab country, which US authorities claim is infested with al-Qaeda militants.

According to military analyst and counterinsurgency specialist Gordon Duff, "There is no al-Qaeda in Yemen. George Bush released a couple of phony operatives from Guantanamo, and after traveling to the Middle East, they hooked up with the Mossad. The only reason Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez released them is because they're assets."

Abdulmutallab's story is intended to keep ratcheting up Orwellian-style trauma and project Yemen, as well as the African continent, are the brand-new focus of the American so-called 'war on terror.'
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Home Front: WoT
Northwest flight terror attack staged?
2010-01-29
[Iran Press TV Latest] Accounts from passengers of the Flight 253, aboard which Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to detonate explosives, suggest that the attack was staged.

According to American Free Press, the security firm in charge of Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport is the Israeli-owned International Consultants on Targeted Security (ICTS) -- the same security firm at the airports where the 9/11 terrorists hijacked the three planes.

Despite tight security screening procedures performed after the 9/11 attacks, passengers who boarded Northwest Airlines Flight 253 said they found security at Amsterdam's airport to be surprisingly lax.

Richelle Keepman, who was one of the passengers onboard Flight 253, told CNN that security did not have them remove their shoes as they walked through the scanners and metal detectors.

Keepman also said that her mother was allowed to take a large bottle of water onboard the plane.

Another passenger onboard flight 253, Detroit attorney Kurt Haskell, told CNN that he saw a polished Indian man escort Abdulmutallab to the ticket agent, and tried to convince the agent to allow Abdulmutallab board the plane without a passport.

"This man needs to board the plane, but he doesn't have a passport." Haskell quoted the Indian as telling the agent.

When the agent refused to let him board the plane, the Indian man responded, "He is from Sudan. We do this all the time."

The ticket agent, then, took them down a hallway to meet with a supervisor.

Haskell said the next time he saw Abdulmutallab was when he tried to ignite the explosives hidden inside his underwear.

Keepman told CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 show that when she first boarded the plane, she noticed a man with a camcorder filming the goings-on inside the plane.

After the incident took place, Keepman said the man with the camcorder was the only one standing as he continued to film the scene.

Haskell said that after the plane landed, another Indian man was led away in handcuffs after bomb-sniffing dogs detected explosives in his carry-on luggage.

To date, FBI officials have refused to acknowledge the arrest of the Indian man.

Abdulmutallab has at times denied any association with the militant al-Qaeda group and claimed that he was trained in Yemen.

Washington, however, alleges he was instructed in the Arab country, which US officials claim is infested with al-Qaeda militants.

According to military analyst and counterinsurgency specialist Gordon Duff, "There is no al-Qaeda in Yemen. George Bush released a couple of phony operatives from Guantanamo, and after traveling to the Middle East, they hooked up with the Mossad. The only reason Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez released them is because they're assets."
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Fifth Column
"Let the Conversation Begin” Theme of CAIR-SV Fifth Annual Dhimmi Banquet
2007-12-27
THE COUNCIL ON American-Islamic Relations, Sacramento Valley (CAIR-SV), held its fifth annual banquet at Sacramento’s Radisson Hotel on Sept. 8. “Let the Conversions Conversation Begin” was the theme of the fundraising event which drew more than 500 guests.
This is the same chapter that Boxer sent the money back to
Following welcoming remarks by master of ceremonies Omar Dajani, CAIR-SV president Dr. Hamza El-Nakhal and CAIR-CA chairman Fouad Khatib, executive director Basim Elkarra presided over the awards presentations.

The Outstanding Community Service Award was given to Farouk Fakira for his services to foster harmony among diverse communities. Elkarra presented the Distinguished Service Award to the Interfaith Service Bureau for the group’s work to promote justice.

In his keynote address to the CAIR banquet audience, Prof. David Cole shared his thoughts on President George W. Bush’s approach to the war on terror, dubbed the “paradigm of prevention” by then-Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Read Cole's Bio. He's not just a Dhimmi but a true Fifth Column fanatic.
“The strategy the Bush administration has adopted has not only made us less free and compromised basic fundamental principals of the rule of law, but has ultimately made us less safe from the very threat that the Bush administration claims it is fighting,” Cole argued.
Cole, an activist attorney who has challenged the USA Patriot Act in court.
The co-author of Less Free, Less Safe, Why America is Losing the War on Terror applauded CAIR for “standing up for the principles that this country stands for and creating a culture that caused the Bush administration to feel the need—not the desire—to back down.”

“Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez—who resigned so he could spend more time trying to remember what he did as attorney general,” Cole quipped, “said it’s okay to use what he called ‘alternative interrogation tactics,’ but what the rest of the world knows as torture, to get information from people.”
I keep searching for another word but traitor will do
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Home Front: Politix
Tancredo goes over the edge
2006-11-23
PALM BEACH, Fla. – President Bush believes America should be more of an idea than an actual place, a Republican congressman told WND in an exclusive interview.

"People have to understand what we're talking about here. The president of the United States is an internationalist," said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. "He is going to do what he can to create a place where the idea of America is just that – it's an idea. It's not an actual place defined by borders. I mean this is where this guy is really going." . . .

"I know this is dramatic – or maybe somebody would say overly dramatic – but I'm telling you, that everything I see leads me to believe that this whole idea of the North American Union, it's not something that just is written about by right-wing fringe kooks. It is something in the head of the president of the United States, the president of Mexico, I think the prime minister of Canada buys into it. . . ."

"And that's just for starters. Think of what'll happen when they flouridate the water! . . ."

Other conservative commentators, including many who favor stricter immigration restrictions, think he's gone bat-looney. John Podhoretz at National Review:

I speculate in my book, Can She Be Stopped?, that Tancredo will run as a third-party candidate in 2008. Sounds like he'd be perfect to top Lyndon LaRouche's ticket. If you are serious about the importance of immigration restriction, you'd best be looking for a leader who hasn't chosen to place himself beyond the political fringe.

Allahpundit, posting at Michelle Malkin's "Hot Air" blog:

I’d hoped never to have to serenade TT with our official conspiracy-theory theme song. But I fear the hour has arrived.

"Captain Ed" Morissey:

George Bush may not have responded very well to immigration concerns from his base, but he's done more than his father, Bill Clinton, and even Ronald Reagan in bolstering border security. Tancredo is engaging in mindless demagoguery with these doomsday descriptions, and moving closer to the realms of paranoia.

The immigration problem needs attention. It doesn't need more conspiracy theories about supposed New World Orders. Tancredo should know better than to fan these flames just to garner attention to the issue of immigration, but apparently he's most concerned about attracting attention to himself.

Here's my $0.02:

1. Immigration is not a hot button for me the way it is for a lot of others here in the 'Burg. If this were one of my causes, I'd be damned upset at Tancredo for flying off into Lyndon LaRouche territory in a black helicopter, because he's one of the "leaders" of the restrictionist position, and this sort of nonsense discredits the whole movement by association. If there's a rational case to be made for stricter border control (and I think there is, mind you), one might reasonably ask why Tancredo has to resort to wild-ass conspiracy theories.

2. On a more basic level, Tancredo is making the same fundamental mistake as Pat Buchanan. The United States is not, and never has been, a blood and soil nation. It is founded on a set of shared ideas, not on ethnicity. I'm not ethnically Japanese, so even if I were to relocate to Osaka, become fluent in the language, drink tea, eat sushi, admire the cherry blossoms, and become a naturalized citizen of Japan, I'd still be a gaijin. On the other hand, any Japanese person who subscribes to the American idea can move here, become a naturalized citizen, and he and his kid will be just as "American" as the rest of us. Indeed, the world is full of "Americans born in the wrong place." George Bush understands this. Tom Tancredo appears not to.

Michelle Malkin, Bobby Jindal, Michael Steele, Alberto Gonzalez, Rick Santorum, Garo Ypremian, Lance Cpl. Noe Mezarodriguez, the Hmong girl running the cash register at Rainbow's, the naturalized Mexican guy up on the roof with a nail gun--they're just as American as you, me, and Tom Tancredo.
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Home Front: Politix
The Fitzgerald Legacy: Shutting Down Leaks
2006-05-23
EFL. Jack Kelly. Heh.

Being liberal requires flexibility of principle, but it's been fascinating to watch the contortions of journalists who argue that revealing Ms. Plame's identity was a serious breach of national security which must be prosecuted, but the other leaks are boons to the republic which should be applauded.

The Bush administration disagrees. Investigations into the NSA and "secret prisons" leaks are nearing completion. A senior CIA official has been fired for leaking, and, reportedly, is singing like a canary to avoid prosecution. The FBI knows who's been talking to journalists, ABC's Brian Ross said a source told him.

Journalists can be prosecuted for publishing classified information, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez said on ABC's "This Week" program Sunday.

I doubt journalists will be charged under the Espionage Act, but I do expect vigorous application of the precedent Mr. Fitzgerald set when he jailed Ms. Miller. Reporters who have published or broadcast classified information can expect subpoenas, and can expect to cool their heels in the pokey until they disclose who leaked to them.

That precedent may be Mr. Fitzgerald's lasting legacy. The case against Mr. Libby is weak, and he is disappointingly small potatoes for liberals who have their hearts set on bigger game. At a conference at Princeton University last week, Retired Admiral Bobby Ray Inman told several Web loggers the actual target of Mr. Fitzgerald's apparently endless investigation is Richard Armitage.

Mr. Armitage, who was deputy secretary of state, is thought to be Mr. Novak's source, and the source also for Washington Post editor Bob Woodward. He is a logical target, but a most unsatisfying one for Bush haters.

After all the cheerleading journalists have done for Mr. Fitzgerald, it would be ironic if he were remembered most for handing prosecutors the weapon they used against journalists to shut down the leaks on which journalists depend.
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Home Front: Politix
Feingold Says Bush Is Acting Like 'King George'
2005-12-19
Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., believes President Bush is acting more like a sovereign monarch than an elected leader by authorizing the National Security Agency to listen in on Americans' phone calls. "We have a system of law," Feingold said. "He just can't make up the law 
 It would turn George Bush not into President George Bush, but King George Bush."
If Bush hadn't been monitoring enemy communications, both into and out of the country — and within it — he'd be an idiot. And when we got attacked again, it would be people like Feingold who'd be screaming for his head for incompetence.
The issue lies in the interpretation of the Afghanistan resolution passed by Congress following the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11. The eavesdropping issue came to the forefront when The New York Times reported Friday that the NSA has been listening to domestic phone calls to foreign countries since 2002. In a televised radio address Saturday, Bush said he has reauthorized the NSA's new powers over 30 times since 9/11, and "intend(s) to do so for as long as our nation faces a continuing threat from al Qaeda and related groups." The president, and members of his staff including Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and White House counsel Harriet Miers, reevaluate the spying every 45 days. Bush said the surveillance helps catch terrorists and is within the scope of his Constitutional powers.
If you don't believe, or don't want to believe that there are terrs working in the country, then you can make lots of political hay out of that. If you've been paying any attention for the past four years you know the terrs are there. Only if you can't conceive of the terrs winning or — and this is what I think is probably the case — you think the fight can be put off until your party's the one in power in the Sweet By and By can you feel comfortable playing fast and loose with national security. I don't think goofs like Feingold take the War on Terror seriously because it's far, far away. The WTC bodies are cold and the attention span has long since run out. Pfeh.
Indeed, the only way the Dems reaction to this non-affair make any sense is if you assume they don't believe there is really a War on Terror. Their response, particularly people like Pelosi and Feingold, displays the usual liberal attitude: the WoT should be a law-enforcement affair only, with lawyers, prosecutors, and judges, all carefully circumscribed and careful. We wouldn't want to violate someone's civil rights, after all. The WoT is much more than simple law enforcement, of course, and that's one reason why you listen in on what the bad guys are doing. It's about stopping them BEFORE they strike, figuring out their chain of command and organizational chart, learning the players, and finding weaknesses you can exploit with new operations. Once you get that, you understand why the NSA wants to listen in. They don't get it.
Since the Watergate scandal during the Nixon administration, the executive branch's power has been significantly restrained, Bush administration officials say. It has been the mission of White House officials such as Vice President Dick Cheney to reassert executive power. Bush claims the eavesdropping was done with Congress's blessing. "Leaders in Congress have been briefed more than a dozen times on this authorization and the activities conducted under it," he said in Saturday's address.
Which is what makes me consider this entire hoorah nothing but politix as usual, and politix at its smelliest.
According to the Risen article in the NYT on Friday, Sen. Rockefeller expressed 'concerns' at some point in one of these briefings early on. The response of the Bush administration? They temporarily suspended the program and adjusted some of the procedures. Ditto when the Foreign Intelligence Service Court Judge expressed concerns: procedures were re-worked. When DoJ career attorneys expressed concerns about linking NSA intel to criminal prosecution, the AG stepped in and ensured that proper procedures were followed. That doesn't sound like a runaway operation, now does it?
Nonetheless, ABC News chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos sees the controversy shaping up as a "full-scale political war."
Which is, of course, much more important than the war on the turbans.
"War on the Turbans" has a nice ring to it, dontcha think? Gets right to the point.
Democratic leaders like Representative Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., have sent letters to the president to protest the eavesdropping revelation, Stephanopoulos said.
Rockefeller is a full-fledged hypocrite: he is on the Senate Intel Committee. He knew about this from day one. The Risen article notes his previous concerns. If he thought this was illegal, why didn't he say so?
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Home Front: Politix
Specter to Hold Hearings on 'Gulag'
2005-06-05
Prompted by Amnesty International's complaint that the U.S. terrorist detention facility at Guantanamo Bay is a "gulag," Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter plans to hold hearings this month to clarify the rights of terrorist suspects. Specter's investigation will focus on the detention of enemy combatants at both Guantanamo and inside the United States, according to the Associated Press. One of the key questions on the Pennsylvania Republican's agenda: whether trying accused terrorists before military tribunals provides them adequate due process.
Are they being provided with fluffy pillows?
Critics of U.S. policy have also complained that techniques such as waterboarding, which was used at Guantanamo against Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant Khalid Sheik Mohammed, constitutes torture.
Bedtime mint?
Mohammed was al Qaeda's operations chief for the 9/11 attacks.
Which means they could have slowly ground him into hamburger and I wouldn't have cared a bit...
Because of the alleged mistreatment of detainees like Mohammed, Amnesty International's 2005 human rights report labels Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld "architects of torture."
It is kind of a classic of hyperbole, isn't it?
Specter has begun drafting a bill to establish procedures for accused terrorists, which could include the creation of a process where detainees could contest their incarcerations, the AP said. Amnesty International applauded the Pennsylvania Republican for his decision to hold gulag hearings. "Any kind of sunshine would be a good antiseptic for this situation," the group's advocacy director, Jumana Musa, told the AP.
Spectar once again proves his RINO credentials.
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Fifth Column
GMU Faculty Decries Patriot Act
2005-04-14
George Mason University's faculty senate passed a resolution yesterday critical of the broad investigative powers granted to law enforcement agencies after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying they could have a chilling effect on academic freedom.
"Damn, Bob! It's cold in here!"
"It's the Patriot Act, Herb. It has that chilling effect!"
In a statement that mirrors those supported by scholars at institutions including Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley, the professors said the wide latitude government agencies have in secretly reading e-mail or reviewing a person's library selections could mute debate and research at all institutions of higher education. "The preservation of civil rights and liberties is essential to the well-being of a democratic society and an academic environment," the resolution reads. The governmental powers, particularly those set out in the USA Patriot Act, "threaten fundamental rights and liberties."
"Bad Guyz have civil rights and liberties, too, y'know. And nobody's ever flown an airliner into a university..."
In the 2 1/2-page resolution, the faculty senate, joined by the local chapter of the American Association of University Professors, calls on university administrators to inform students if authorities seek their school records and to make sure students know that authorities can secretly view their library records, bookstore purchases and electronic communication. The resolution, which the professors asked to be forwarded to President Bush, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzalez and other federal and state officials, comes as Congress is considering whether to renew the Patriot Act fully. The act was passed overwhelmingly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon but has been criticized by liberal and conservative groups. Several of the act's provisions are set to expire at the end of the year.
The further in the past the WTC becomes, the louder becomes the bitching and moaning...
James T. Bennett, faculty senate chairman and an economics professor, said all but one of more than 30 members who attended the meeting voted for the resolution. "The Patriot Act runs against the grain of the typical academic," Bennett said. "The whole idea of the academy is to look at all different points of view. This is the kind of thing that takes place in a dictatorship."
"We need to hear the Islamic point of view, even if it's delivered by an airliner full of screaming people. Not that we'd see it here, of course."
Clifton D. Sutton, a statistics professor, cast the sole vote against the resolution. He said the possibility of government intrusion is a small price to pay if it means that more people will be safe from terrorist attacks. "I think it's just something we have to live with," Sutton said. "I think most of us don't have anything to hide, and I'm comfortable the FBI and other agencies will do the right thing."
"I'm not sure what part of 'wartime measure' these beauzeaux don't understand..."
In addition to criticizing the powers for library searches, the resolution speaks out against the government's authority to search medical and financial records "with little if any judicial oversight." It also is critical of the authority to deny enemy combatants access to the courts. David L. Kuebrich, an associate professor of English who is secretary of the faculty senate, said he thinks the danger in the Patriot Act "is that we will curtail speech or research that would be quite critical of foreign policy at a time when we really need a broad review and to be open to dissenting voices."
"Except for those fascist Nazi conservative bastards who should be thrown in prison for spouting their anti-progressive hate and not parroting what their tenured faculty tell them."
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