WHY?

'Peace Takes Courage' New Animation
2/02/2006

Why?

2/01/2005
Help PTC Win the Huffington Post Contagious Festival

View The 'Peace Takes Courage' Entry's

'FLASHBACKS'

Wartime PTSD; With Mutiple In-Theater Tours This Country Better Be There For These Iraq/Afgan Vets, This Time!! As a Society who Sends others into Senseless/Illegal Conflicts They Weren't There Before!!!!

Peter Dudar | Camp Casey Flashback
Peter Dudar tells the story of how a Veterans For Peace Medic at Camp Casey experienced a "flashback" when a Secret Service helicopter circled down. It took an hour and four strong Vets to hold and calm him. This episode, triggered by the sound of a low flying helicopter, illustrates that for many soldiers, the war still lives within.

Camp Casey Flashback

By Peter Dudar
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Friday 03 February 2006

The Texas heat was blistering in a Crawford roadside ditch at "Camp Casey." 800 people had just arrived from all over America to support Cindy Sheehan, mother of fallen Iraq War hero Casey Sheehan, who died saving his buddies. During the President's five-week vacation in time of war, he could not find the time to meet with Cindy, who waited daily down in the ditch for a month.

The 100-degree heat was just beginning to loosen its vice-grip on Prairie Chapel Road, a few miles from the Commander in Chief's plantation. At about 5:00 p.m., one of our Veterans For Peace, a Medic, was responding to comments coming from the pro-war supporters across the street when, suddenly, a Secret Service helicopter circled down to only 90 feet above us. For the next hour, this honored Medic experienced a "flashback" triggered by the whirling chopper blades. It took four strong Vets to hold and calm him.

The Medic couldn't see us, although his eyes were open. He looked past us as if he were watching a horror movie in his mind. He felt he was back in the war, disconnected from us in a journey into the Twilight Zone. In his mind, he had returned to a helicopter with a Red Cross emblem and a name his buddies had painted on the chopper, "WHY?" The Medic's mouth foamed, his head tossed wildly. He wept and moaned:

"How can they shout and yell out lies with such venom? The Liars never go to war! Oh, how is it that the Liars never go? They're accusing me of being 'Un-Patriotic?!' 'Un-American?!' But they weren't in war! I saw the death, man, I saw the killing!! The Liars convince us to have a war but they never go to war! Man, I can see the dead soldiers all around me! I can see them! They're here with us!"

His eyes widened, as he looked right through us in great pain and sorrow.

"We tried to save our young men's lives ... we flew in for them but again and again we lost them. Oh, but the ones sending them to war never see the dying, man. I was there, and the people across the street in support of the war are calling me a 'Traitor?!' The Liars never go! I can feel all the pain of our dying soldiers ..."

His head was tossing to and fro. His mouth foamed even more. Then, a Veteran urgently tried to calm him as four of us held the Medic's hands and shoulders and supplied ice and water.

The Veteran must have had experience with this before. He kept calmly telling the people crowding around to "give him some room, give him breathing room, and let's keep the ice coming ..." The Medic continued: "The Liars are the most dangerous! Where were they when I saw the suicides? There were so many young guys that just couldn't take what they'd seen and done, man. Where were the Liars when I walked into my buddy's tent and he had a gun to his head, man, a rifle. This huge gun. He held it right here like this between his eyes and before I could say anything ... he pulled the trigger!!"

"Some sound, man! I'll never forget that sound ... like a cannon. Oh, it blew out the whole back of his head!" Full of sorrow, the Medic gestured with his shaking hands to show how much of his friend's head was missing - all behind the ears ... gone.

"I saw his brains go flying ... I was covered with blood, man, his brains were on my hands!!" The Medic wiped his hands nervously. "Oh, who are these people across the street who cheer for war and never see it, never smell it?!"

The Medic's eyes would roll up occasionally. The Veteran gently, fervently, wiped the Medic's face, clearing away the foam from his mouth. The Veteran kept the ice moving quickly around the top and sides of the Medic's head, neck, and chest, saying, "Stay with us now, c'mon man, c'mon now, we're here for you bro, look at me, open your eyes, stay with us, we need you, man."

The Veteran kept circling the ice around the Medic's face. A number of times, the Veteran almost burst into tears over the condition of this Medic breaking down. Somehow, the Veteran held back. The Medic began crying,

"I wish my Mama were here!! I wish my Mama were here! Oh Mama, why can't I see you? Where are you? Mama!!" We got goose bumps.

The Veteran drew a very serious expression of concern like, "Uh, oh. Now we're in deep," and he quickly stepped up the dispersion of the ice pack around the Medic's face, chest, and shoulders, trickling more ice water on his head. The Medic's mind was on the precipice between life and death. Many soldiers cry "Mama!" before they die. But this could be a "mental death" from which the mind of the Medic didn't return. Working in field medicine, how often had the Medic heard these cries for "Mama?" The Veteran urgently said,

"Let it out bro! Come on, we're here for you; let it all out, man, it's okay. Dude, we're all here with you!"

The Medic kept swinging his head back and forth. The attending Veteran knew he had to try to engage the Medic's mind (although his own eyes were brimming with tears). He held the Medic's hand and said, "Bro, you've got 3 or 4 Purple Hearts, man, and a Silver Star. Hey bro, maybe if you shared some of your medals with ALL those guys across the street, you'd still have two Purple Hearts and a Silver Star left!"

The Medic sobbed, "Oh man, do you know I've been through 25 therapists? 25 therapists, Man! Oh, when's it gonna end? Where's Mama? I can see all of the dead soldiers around me! The dead soldiers are here with us."

The Veteran held the Medic's face in his hands and looked deep into his eyes,

You gave your all to save your men, you did EVERYTHING you could and beyond, man ... you were there for them! You were in the Battle Zone for your boys, and we're here for you now ... stay with us, you've got a lot more to do HERE before you go, bro ... stay with us and tell us all about it, let it all out.
The Medic slowly opened his eyes filled with tears and looked at the Veteran.

"You're a 'southern boy' aren't ya? You're so kind to me!" He cried, "Thank you, man!" He looked all around, "You're all too kind to me, I thank you all for being here."

The Medic's mind, like a journey through time, had slowly returned to him from the flashback. He continued with calm recollection,

"We had a young soldier who'd been hit by a bullet in the stomach. He was a young black soldier, and I'll never forget him. Never. He was hanging onto life when we began to Medi-Vac him out. We had to wait for him to stabilize before we could transport him. Finally, we got flying. We were in the air en route to the field hospital when his condition took a turn for the worse. The hospital was too far, so we quickly flew back to try and stabilize him. But on the way back ... we lost him. He died in the chopper. 19, he was just 19 years old. I'll never forget him ... I'll never forget him ..."


The whole episode had been triggered by the sound of a low flying helicopter ...


-------

Repug Senate Fails To Support The Troops

REPUBLICAN SENATE DEFEATS AMENDMENT PROVIDING FUNDING FOR VETERANS

KENNEDY, DODD OFFER AMENDMENT TO PROVIDE RELIEF TO VETERANS DEFEATED

Veterans go without for tax breaks for the wealthy
*********

Feb 3, 2:47 PM EST
Americans Forced to Supply Iraqi Military
By ANTONIO CASTANEDA
Associated Press Writer

KHALDIYAH, Iraq (AP) -- The troops on patrol in this city west of Baghdad are Iraqi, part of the U.S. strategy to hand over more responsibility to the new Iraqi military. But the ammo in their weapons and the fuel in their vehicles were delivered by the Americans.
****************

IAVA PAC
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans political movement is on the march, thanks to you! Last week, we put out a call to action - raise $25,000 in one week to help Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans running for Congress, and you responded. With hours to go, we passed our goal last evening!
We're not resting, though. IAVA PAC has come out swinging in its inaugural week - holding President Bush accountable for his proposal to cut the National Guard and Reserves, delivering our own State of the Military , and slamming Congressman Bob Beauprez for daring to wear a military uniform at a public event when he pleaded with the government to excuse him from serving in Vietnam, and has consistently voted against our nation's Veterans.
We've sent out our candidate endorsement packages to the Iraq and Afghanistan vets running for Congress, and today we announced that former President of the Council on Foreign Relations Leslie H. Gelb and Iraq and Afghanistan Veteran and best-selling author Nathaniel Fick have joined Wesley Clark and Paul Rieckhoff on our Board of Advisors.
We have big plans for the election cycle, but we need your help. If you haven't already, please tell your friends to sign up at IAVA PAC's website, and consider making a contribution today .
Support the Troops - Send them to Congress!
Best,
Jon Soltz
Iraq War Veteran and
Executive Director
IAVA PAC
***********

Peter Dudar | Camp Casey Flashback
Peter Dudar tells the story of how a Veterans For Peace Medic at Camp Casey experienced a "flashback" when a Secret Service helicopter circled down. It took an hour and four strong Vets to hold and calm him. This episode, triggered by the sound of a low flying helicopter, illustrates that for many soldiers, the war still lives within.

A Must See

While this first video paints the right picture it's not the Must See, that comes below!

This video makes one
Want To Go To Iraq, dancing Calypso the entire way. Actually, no it doesn't.



Who said this about George W. Bush in December 2001?
"This is not a monarchy...We've got a dictatorial president and a Justice Department that does not want Congress involved. ... Your guy's acting like he's king.''
I'll give you a hint: it wasn't a liberal, a Democrat, a peace activist, an anti-war protester or Fidel Castro.
Give up? It was actually Republican Congressman Dan Burton . And he wasn't alone. Republican Congressman LaTourette called Bush's actions a bunch of crap.
You can read the Rest at links or here: This Daily KOS Diary

MUST SEE!!! Downing Street Memo II BBC Video News Report

Many have seen the Blair-Bush deal before Iraq war revealed in secret memo print report.
However, the Video Report is there as well.

You can read the rest at: This Daily KOS Diary



Mental Health Policy Neglects, Endangers Public, Patients
In all, 22 states have put mentally impaired people to death – many of them from abusive and violent backgrounds, including war veterans and others suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD).



'Marlboro Man' turns against war he symbolised
Mr Miller told Knight Ridder Newspapers: "I want people to know that PTSD is not something people come down with because they are crazy. It's an anxiety disorder, where you've experienced something so traumatic that you're close to death."



"The Long War"?
Katrina vanden Heuvel
So, now, the Bush Administration has given an official name to the war on terrorism. "Long War." Who knows if this term will stick? Last August, Bush reached for his dictionary and decided that GWOT ("The Global War on Terror") should become the "Global Struggle against violent extremism." That term lasted all of two days.

The Killing Has Got to Stop

Written By A Vet and GoldStar Father - Trolls/Freepers/Repug Sheep/Young-Old Repug ChickenHawks Will Have A FieldDay Slandering Joe!!!! A TwoFer!!!!


Thursday, February 2, 2006

The killing has got to stop

JOE COLGAN

I write as a veteran who has a special love for our troops and their families, and as the father of Lt. Benjamin Colgan, who was killed in action in Baghdad on Nov. 1, 2003. I also write on behalf of those who joined me in meeting with Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell last December about this senseless war in Iraq.
How many more Americans and Iraqis must perish or be maimed until the "stay-the-course" approach is discredited?

Never Coming Home

THE BATTLE FOR AMERICA
As Eric, over at Bush Flash puts it so Simply:

THE BATTLE FOR AMERICA

Encore feature- you should watch this, every day.

A Widening US Corruption Scandal in Iraq

A Widening US Corruption Scandal in Iraq
A former American occupation official in Iraq is expected to plead guilty to bribery, conspiracy, money laundering and other charges in federal court on Thursday for his actions in a scheme to use sexual favors, jewelry and millions of dollars in cash to steer reconstruction work to a corrupt contractor, according to papers filed with the court.





Out of Jail, into the Army
Facing an enlistment crisis, the Army is granting "waivers" to an increasingly high percentage of recruits with criminal records - and trying to hide it.





Cheney, Libby Knew Niger Yellow-Cake Allegations Were Bogus...




Never Coming Home

Arlington West

Light A Candle For
Peace, Tolerance, Understanding
and For The Children - Innocence Lost!



Dave at AfterDowningStreet on His Visit
Arlington West
Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2006-01-31 09:20. Media
By David Swanson
Every Sunday on Santa Monica Beach, as on four other beaches in California, crosses (and a few stars and crescents) are set up, one for every US soldier who has died in Iraq. I went out to see Arlington West in Santa Monica on Sunday. Here's My Photo Album.





Iraq says treating 12 possible human bird flu cases
SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) - Officials in northern Iraq said on Tuesday they were treating 12 patients suspected of having bird flu as a World Health Organization (WHO) team prepared to travel to the area to give urgent assistance




How The Party Of Strong[?] Defense [Extremely Bloated Defense Budgets=Corruption] SUPPORTS THE TROOPS!!
Veterans' health costs could soar
"They said they'd take care of us if we served our time, and now instead of taking care of us they are trying to charge us," Everson, of Appleton, president and interim treasurer of the Fox Valley Vietnam Veterans Association, said Sunday

Military Officers Association of America

The Retired Enlisted Association

Association of the United States Army





Opinion:Adam McKay: False Patriotism [Another Vet the Freeper/Sheep/Trolls Can Verbally Spit On, as They SUPPORT The Troops{?}!!!]
Adam, putting Truth to Reality!!
Adam McKay: Adam McKay: False Patriotism

"served with plenty of troops who are pro-Bush and pro-Iraq war. For the most part they were the majority. I had respect for them despite our disagreements because those troops put their money where their mouth is. They have definitely earned their right to an opinion. Just as I have earned mine.
About a year ago I contacted an old friend of mine who belongs to the Philadelphia Young Republicans. I asked him how many in his group had served. He replied that he thinks that one of them served in Kosovo back in the late 90s. It seems like there is a lot of "false patriotism" going around these days. The hefty amount of "flag waving" and "chest beating" is not balancing out the low recruitment levels."
Adam McKay: False Patriotism






Baghdad Burning - Riverbend
... I'll meet you 'round the bend my friend, where hearts can heal and souls can mend...
Thursday, February 02, 2006

Election Results...
Iraqi election results were officially announced nearly two weeks ago, but it was apparent from the day of elections which political parties would come out on top. I’m not even going to bother listing the different types of election fraud witnessed all over Iraq- it’s a tedious subject and one we’ve been discussing for well over a month.

Velvet Revolution - Rolling BillBoard

Velvet Revolution's rolling billboards rolled out tonight.

Please help the effort to keep rolling, and with more banners, by donating here...

To see what was on the other side of the billboard, click here...

We can report that the truck was pulled over by Capitol Police at least 3 times in the first hour it was rolling. Turns out, they've got no good reason to ticket it however. Freedom of speech wins...for a few hours anyway...


Blogged by BradBlog on 1/31/2006 @ 8:12pm PT...

AMEN Fellow Vet and VFP Brother Stephen, AMEN!!!

From VFP Group Board: Letter to the Editor


The following Letter to the Editor was

Printed in the Courier-News, Central New Jersey, 11 Jan 2006

Printed in the Home-News-Tribune, Central New Jersey, 16 Jan 2006

Printed in the Trenton Times, 16 January 2006

Printed in the Herald News, North Jersey, 14 Jan 2006

Thought you'd like to see up to what I have been lately.
Stephen J Spiro

=============


There have been a number of letters recently, here and in other newspapers, from people who assert that we are at war, the enemy is relentless, and we must use every means in our power to protect ourselves. In particular, they say, it is worthwhile to allow “illegal” wiretaps and other abridgements of our so-called civil liberties in order to protect ourselves. These same people are enthusiastic supporters of sending off our young men and women to kill and to die in order to protect us against “enemies of freedom”. Why is it all right for these brave young people to sacrifice their lives, their health, their youth for our freedoms, while others want to give up those very freedoms to save their own lives? These people are cowards and traitors, and deserve the utter contempt of their neighbors and of every decent American.

Stephen J Spiro

Edison

John Edwards: The America We Believe In, and....

The America We Believe In

by John Edwards, TomPaine.com
The former vice-presidential nominee sketches a vision of a nation that works for all of us.



William Rivers Pitt |

The State of the Union

William Rivers Pitt: In the interests of truth, the actual state of this union deserves to be displayed for all to see. This is the deal. This is how it is.



Georgia Stillwell |

Veteran's Mother's State of Our Family Address

George Bush is going to give us his state of the union, well this is the state of my family. People say to me he volunteered, he knew what he was getting into. My son was still a teenager, he had no idea what he was getting into. Can anyone really comprehend war unless they've been there? The war has come home ... it is coming home with each soldier. My son's body survived Iraq ... nothing else.

Join and Support

Prosthetics come in many shapes, sizes, and levels of sophistication. Click below to see a collection of photographs of survivors and their prosthetics from around the world.
Full Story




Ma'moon Abu Hudaib was walking on his family farm in July of 1994 when he stepped on a landmine. Now Ma'moon works for LSN, determined to help other amputees live full lives.
Full story.




LSN offices world wide held events for survivors and other people with disabilities to celebrate the International Day of People with Disabilities on December 3rd.
Full story.

Landmine Survivors Network:

Video Presentation - Reality

Never Coming Home

Listen Closely!!!

Tuesday night, President George W. Bush will lay out his 2006 agenda in his State of the Union speech, and working families will be listening closely. Time and again we have seen the president dress up anti-worker proposals with friendly sounding titles—but when his congressional allies adopt them, the results are disastrous for working families.
So when you’re listening to President Bush speak, think about what his previous proposals have really meant to working people like us:


*When Bush talks about health insurance, remember the disastrous Medicare drug prescription scam his team in Congress pushed through. It has stranded tens of thousands of seniors without needed medications and forced some 20 states to declare public health emergencies because President Bush put the interest of drug companies ahead of the interests of seniors.


*When the president talks about health care costs, remember that he and his allies in Congress refused to allow Medicare to negotiate with drug companies, costing taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.


*When Bush talks about taxes, remember the huge tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans he and congressional leaders already passed and the ever-growing debt they are leaving to our children and grandchildren.


*When Bush talks about opportunity, remember how the income disparity is growing as wages fall and the cost of living rises for working families.
When Bush talks about education, remember that he and leaders in Congress have pushed higher education out of reach for many by cutting student loans.


*When Bush talks about keeping America safe, remember his administration’s utter failure to rescue desperate victims of Hurricane Katrina.


The State of the Union address always dominates headlines the next day and generates plenty of water cooler conversations. When you’re talking to friends and family about President Bush’s 2006 agenda and the congressional leadership that will carry it forward, remind them how the agendas of the past five years have turned out for working families.


In Solidarity,
Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO

NAACP on Filibuster

Senate Urged to Reject Judge Alito Nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court

NAACP President says filibuster should not be ruled out to block the nomination

January 27, 2006

Bruce S. Gordon, President & CEO, the NAACP, today said that every parliamentary means available to the U.S. Senate, including the filibuster, should be used to defeat the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito.
“Judge Alito has a track record that is clear and consistent. He does not support the underlying principles of the civil rights movement. I genuinely believe that the people represented by the NAACP are at risk if he becomes an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.”

Gordon said: “There are people who claim to support civil rights and social justice in this country. Shame on them if they are unwilling to match their words with their deeds. Shame on them if they are unwilling to take the right steps when we need them the most. Shame on those who pass on the opportunity to demonstrate courage and commitment instead of comfort and convenience. Through their actions they make themselves eligible to receive the NAACP Badge of Shame that our members will deliver to them in the next 24 hours.“

Spies, Lies and Wiretaps

January 29, 2006
Editorial

Spies, Lies and Wiretaps

A bit over a week ago, President Bush and his men promised to provide the legal, constitutional and moral justifications for the sort of warrantless spying on Americans that has been illegal for nearly 30 years. Instead, we got the familiar mix of political spin, clumsy historical misinformation, contemptuous dismissals of civil liberties concerns, cynical attempts to paint dissents as anti-American and pro-terrorist, and a couple of big, dangerous lies.

The first was that the domestic spying program is carefully aimed only at people who are actively working with Al Qaeda, when actually it has violated the rights of countless innocent Americans. And the second was that the Bush team could have prevented the 9/11 attacks if only they had thought of eavesdropping without a warrant.

•

Sept. 11 could have been prevented.

This is breathtakingly cynical. The nation's guardians did not miss the 9/11 plot because it takes a few hours to get a warrant to eavesdrop on phone calls and e-mail messages. They missed the plot because they were not looking. The same officials who now say 9/11 could have been prevented said at the time that no one could possibly have foreseen the attacks. We keep hoping that Mr. Bush will finally lay down the bloody banner of 9/11, but Karl Rove, who emerged from hiding recently to talk about domestic spying, made it clear that will not happen — because the White House thinks it can make Democrats look as though they do not want to defend America. "President Bush believes if Al Qaeda is calling somebody in America, it is in our national security interest to know who they're calling and why," he told Republican officials. "Some important Democrats clearly disagree."

Mr. Rove knows perfectly well that no Democrat has ever said any such thing — and that nothing prevented American intelligence from listening to a call from Al Qaeda to the United States, or a call from the United States to Al Qaeda, before Sept. 11, 2001, or since. The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act simply required the government to obey the Constitution in doing so. And FISA was amended after 9/11 to make the job much easier.

Only bad guys are spied on.

Bush officials have said the surveillance is tightly focused only on contacts between people in this country and Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Vice President Dick Cheney claimed it saved thousands of lives by preventing attacks. But reporting in this paper has shown that the National Security Agency swept up vast quantities of e-mail messages and telephone calls and used computer searches to generate thousands of leads. F.B.I. officials said virtually all of these led to dead ends or to innocent Americans. The biggest fish the administration has claimed so far has been a crackpot who wanted to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge with a blowtorch — a case that F.B.I. officials said was not connected to the spying operation anyway.

The spying is legal.

The secret program violates the law as currently written. It's that simple. In fact, FISA was enacted in 1978 to avoid just this sort of abuse. It said that the government could not spy on Americans by reading their mail (or now their e-mail) or listening to their telephone conversations without obtaining a warrant from a special court created for this purpose. The court has approved tens of thousands of warrants over the years and rejected a handful.

As amended after 9/11, the law says the government needs probable cause, the constitutional gold standard, to believe the subject of the surveillance works for a foreign power or a terrorist group, or is a lone-wolf terrorist. The attorney general can authorize electronic snooping on his own for 72 hours and seek a warrant later. But that was not good enough for Mr. Bush, who lowered the standard for spying on Americans from "probable cause" to "reasonable belief" and then cast aside the bedrock democratic principle of judicial review.

Just trust us.

Mr. Bush made himself the judge of the proper balance between national security and Americans' rights, between the law and presidential power. He wants Americans to accept, on faith, that he is doing it right. But even if the United States had a government based on the good character of elected officials rather than law, Mr. Bush would not have earned that kind of trust. The domestic spying program is part of a well-established pattern: when Mr. Bush doesn't like the rules, he just changes them, as he has done for the detention and treatment of prisoners and has threatened to do in other areas, like the confirmation of his judicial nominees. He has consistently shown a lack of regard for privacy, civil liberties and judicial due process in claiming his sweeping powers. The founders of our country created the system of checks and balances to avert just this sort of imperial arrogance.

The rules needed to be changed.

In 2002, a Republican senator — Mike DeWine of Ohio — introduced a bill that would have done just that, by lowering the standard for issuing a warrant from probable cause to "reasonable suspicion" for a "non-United States person." But the Justice Department opposed it, saying the change raised "both significant legal and practical issues" and may have been unconstitutional. Now, the president and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales are telling Americans that reasonable suspicion is a perfectly fine standard for spying on Americans as well as non-Americans — and they are the sole judges of what is reasonable.

So why oppose the DeWine bill? Perhaps because Mr. Bush had already secretly lowered the standard of proof — and dispensed with judges and warrants — for Americans and non-Americans alike, and did not want anyone to know.

War changes everything.

Mr. Bush says Congress gave him the authority to do anything he wanted when it authorized the invasion of Afghanistan. There is simply nothing in the record to support this ridiculous argument.

The administration also says that the vote was the start of a war against terrorism and that the spying operation is what Mr. Cheney calls a "wartime measure." That just doesn't hold up. The Constitution does suggest expanded presidential powers in a time of war. But the men who wrote it had in mind wars with a beginning and an end. The war Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney keep trying to sell to Americans goes on forever and excuses everything.

Other presidents did it.

Mr. Gonzales, who had the incredible bad taste to begin his defense of the spying operation by talking of those who plunged to their deaths from the flaming twin towers, claimed historic precedent for a president to authorize warrantless surveillance. He mentioned George Washington, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. These precedents have no bearing on the current situation, and Mr. Gonzales's timeline conveniently ended with F.D.R., rather than including Richard Nixon, whose surveillance of antiwar groups and other political opponents inspired FISA in the first place. Like Mr. Nixon, Mr. Bush is waging an unpopular war, and his administration has abused its powers against antiwar groups and even those that are just anti-Republican.

•

The Senate Judiciary Committee is about to start hearings on the domestic spying. Congress has failed, tragically, on several occasions in the last five years to rein in Mr. Bush and restore the checks and balances that are the genius of American constitutional democracy. It is critical that it not betray the public once again on this score.

Tyrant in the White House

British intelligence 'in the dark' on London bombings: Times

29/01/2006 03h42
LONDON (AFP) - British security services have admitted they know almost nothing about why the London bomings happened or if Al-Qaeda was involved, according to a leaked intelligence report in The Sunday Times.





Tyrant in the White House
Bush Crosses the Rubicon
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
Prior to the New Deal, legislation was tightly written to minimize any executive branch interpretation. Only in this way can law be accountable to the people. If the executive branch that enforces the law also writes the law, "all legislative powers" are no longer vested in elected representatives in Congress.





US Propaganda Aimed at Foreigners Reaches US Public: Pentagon Document
Published on Friday, January 27, 2006 by Agence France Presse
The Pentagon acknowledged in a newly declassified document that the US public is increasingly exposed to propaganda disseminated overseas in psychological operations.





Remaking USAID for a Permanent War on Terror?
by Bill Berkowitz
Published on Saturday, January 28, 2006 by the lnter Press Service
OAKLAND, California - In a series of developments -- some more publicized than others -- the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID, has been undergoing a transformation that will more closely align its activities with the State Department and the Pentagon.
These changes could threaten the agency's original emphasis of concentrating on long-term social and economic assistance projects, and steer it toward greater involvement in more immediate political and military concerns, such as Pres. George W. Bush's war on terror.