tagged w/ Bush Corruption
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The Centre for Constitutional Rights filed papers encouraging Judge Eloy Velasco and the Spanish national court to do what the United States will not: prosecute the “Bush Six”. These are the former senior administration legal advisors, headed by then US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales,The Centre for Constitutional Rights filed papers encouraging Judge Eloy Velasco and... more
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http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/189/547/724/
Target: U.S. Congress
Sponsored by: United for a Fair Economy, UFE
"Let the Bush tax cuts that affect only the richest 2% of Americans expire on schedule at the end of the year. Congress needs to step up to the plate and make sure we don't continue one of the biggest economic injustices of the Bush era."
By the end of 2010, these tax cuts will cost our nation $2.5 trillion.
There is very little that so clearly demonstrates the callous venality of some members of Congress than the simultaneous demand to give Paris Hilton a tax cut while pushing benefit cuts to Social Security.
Tell Congress: Don't extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
There is simply no excuse for Congress to plead poverty when it comes to helping those in need while literally giving it away to those who don't need it.
Congress needs step up to the plate and make sure we don't continue one of the biggest economic injustices of the Bush era. Tell Congress: Don't extend the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy.
Make the wealthy pull their weight. Tell Congress to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy in 2010.http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/189/547/724/
Target: U.S. Congress... more
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Although the agency received numerous complaints and tips about Mr. Madoff’s activities over a 16-year period, and conducted five major investigations and examinations of Mr. Madoff, the SEC still failed to detect his colossal fraud.
http://www.citizensforethics.org/node/43795Although the agency received numerous complaints and tips about Mr. Madoff’s... more
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Some, who once dreamed of a better future, have simply given up. Others espouse a bitter maxim: unless you relearn you won't earn. The French intelligentsia, which had from the Enlightenment onwards made Paris the political workshop of the world, today leads the way with retreats on every front. Renegades occupy posts in every west European government defending exploitation, wars, state terror and neocolonial occupations; others now retired from the academy specialise in producing reactionary dross on the blogosphere, displaying the same zeal with which they once excoriated factional rivals on the far left. This, too, is nothing new. Shelley's rebuke to Wordsworth who, after welcoming the French Revolution, retreated to a pastoral conservatism, expressed it well:
In honoured poverty thy voice did weave
Songs consecrate to truth and liberty,
Deserting these, thou leavest me to grieve,
Thus having been, that thou shouldst cease to be.
Most of this article is about the very politicized bunch of people around the world that protested and wanted to see changes in the world. What I'm asking and wondering now is why the hell has the people of our society stopped caring that the government and everyone else running this world has stopped caring about their interests?!?!?!?! The recession has hit and there should be an uprise in the working class...but there's only been a few and these few have faced a lot of resistance from the government but even from the people who they are fighting for. The bailouts go to the businesses (not to the people who are living in tent cities in the USA), this war in Iraq is still going on (I can;t help but ask WHY?!), the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer, and Obama says that the time for change is now, why isn't anyone doing anything?! Why do we no longer care about the inequality that we live in?!?!?!
We have to do something! If we don't the rich are just going to continue exploiting our poor asses and then they'll just have so much economic power that they'll make things even worse than they are now!Some, who once dreamed of a better future, have simply given up. Others espouse a... more
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A woman named Cheryl Stewart has a sign in front of her house in Brooklyn that counts the days since the 9/11 incident. Today it says "7 years, 97 days since 9-11-01" and asks the burning question of "Where is Osama Bin Laden?" She maintains this sign everyday and changes the numbers everyday, except for when her partner had passed away. Her neighbour changed the numbers during the days that Cheryl was busy with the emergencies.
This is a very interesting way of asking why the hell we're actually at war with the middle east since the guy that supposedly set off this war is still not found, but also that the Americans and their allies are attacking a completely different country now...Iraq. What did Iraq have anything to do with Osama?
What do you think?A woman named Cheryl Stewart has a sign in front of her house in Brooklyn that counts... more
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The commissioner of the FDA, Dr. Andrew C. con Eschenbach said that he will be resignin on the inaugeration day of January 20th. Apparently, there are a lot of expected resignations at the FDA. The New York Times reports that the Bush administration allowed politics to play an dunsually forceful role in science policy. The Obama administration is expected to clean these public agencies--a good start!
Other people who have resigned include Dr. Elias Zerhouni from the National Institutes of Health and Dr. Julie Gerberding who is the director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention...Gerberding apparently wrote an email that said she's leaving "after the administration changes." Dr. John Niederhuber who is the director of the National Cancer Institue is also leaving his post as the director but may work in other areas of the National Cancer Institute.
The article talks about all of the changes that are made extensively, but these resignations go to show how corrupt the Bush administration actually was. It scares me to think what they were hiding or plotting.
Although these changes are going to be hard to deal with, I think that they are going to allow Obama to start a fresh and new America--the Obama administration will be like a renaissance for the United States.
more at the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/health/17FDA.htmlThe commissioner of the FDA, Dr. Andrew C. con Eschenbach said that he will be... more
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Climate Progress » Blog Archive »
Some people just don’t think President Bush has done a terribly good job on climate change...
But, just because he single-handedly stopped any international action on climate and reneged on his 2000 campaign pledge to regulate CO2 and stopped California from regulating tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions and muzzled climate scientists and forced Congress to drop almost all non-oil-related provisions to cut GHGs from the 2007 energy bill
— that’s no reason to think the FHA (Future Historians of America), having previously named Bush the Worst President in American History will award him one of their rare Worst Leaders of All Time Awards, alongside such notables as Neville Chamberlain and Nero.Climate Progress » Blog Archive »
Some people just don’t think... more
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November 23, 2008
Hunt for Rashid Rauf that ended with hellfire
A British terror suspect was killed by US forces in Pakistan yesterday. MPs want to know: did they tell Britain first?
At 10pm on Friday night the tribesmen in the villages of North Waziristan heard a sound they have learnt to fear. The hum of American reconnaissance planes high above the lawless tribal lands that span the Pakistan-Afghan border usually presages an imminent strike by Predator drones, targeting the Taliban and Al-Qaeda fighters who shelter in their midst.
There have been more than 20 such attacks since August, but this time it appeared to be a false alarm. The locals were relieved when the sound faded at midnight.
Three hours later, however, they were woken by explosions in Khaisoor, as three Hellfire missiles from a Predator destroyed a mud-built bungalow in the village.
Inside, among the five people killed and six injured, were Rashid Rauf, the British militant alleged to have masterminded a plot to blow up transatlantic airliners in 2006, and two senior Al-Qaeda comrades, Abu Nasr Al-Misri and Abu Zubair Al-Masri, according to Pakistani intelligence sources.November 23, 2008
Hunt for Rashid Rauf that ended with hellfire
A British terror... more
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WASHINGTON – Two main quarries are supplying the building blocks for President-elect Barack Obama's new administration.
Longtime, deeply loyal associates will dominate the White House inner sanctum. And veterans of Bill Clinton's presidency will hold vital jobs throughout the government, although a bit farther from the Oval Office.
The structure suggests Obama is confident enough to hand top posts to former rivals whose loyalty is not guaranteed, a strategy many presidents have avoided. But most of those on Obama's team who will have his ear everyday will be old friends and experienced advisers who are seen as having no ambitions beyond his success.
Obama raised eyebrows this month when he tapped some of Clinton's closest allies for important jobs.
John Podesta, Clinton's former White House chief of staff, is heading the transition effort. Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a former top Clinton adviser, is Obama's chief of staff. Former Clinton appointees Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano appear in line for Cabinet posts.
Even more startling to many, Obama has signaled plans to name former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state.
Some Obama supporters have praised him for reaching out to his toughest primary opponent. But others question why they worked so hard to defeat Clinton only to see her, and many close to her, grab prizes in the new administration. They note that Obama repeatedly campaigned against "the politics of the past" and Washington "dramas," thinly veiled jabs at the Clinton presidency as well as President George W. Bush's tenure.
Stephen Hess, a George Washington University authority on presidential transitions, said Obama is playing it smart.
"It's easy to make a leap that this is going to be a repeat of the Clinton administration and there's no way that's going to happen," said Hess, who first worked for the Eisenhower administration.
Obama needs a core of Democrats with federal government experience, Hess said, and veterans of Bill Clinton's administration are virtually the only source. "The old-timers are exceedingly valuable to him now," he said, but Obama "also has his own group of advisers and he will merge the two groups."WASHINGTON – Two main quarries are supplying the building blocks for... more
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Mr. Clooney, an actor and director, and Mr. Pressman, a human-rights lawyer, are co-founders of the international advocacy organization Not On Our Watch. Mr. Prendergast co-chairs the Enough Project (www.enoughproject.org).
Given the daunting challenges before him, it would be unsurprising if bringing peace to Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo was not at the top of Barack Obama's list of early priorities. But it should be. Not only because Sudan and Congo are the two deadliest wars in the world, but because they are wars that the Obama administration could actually help end.
[Commentary] AP
A Congolese army tank in Kirumba, eastern Congo.
The war in Congo alone has led to more deaths than any war, anywhere, since the Holocaust. Five million people have died there in the last decade. The wars in Sudan over the last two decades -- both in the south and in Darfur -- have cost the lives of more than 2.5 million people. The number of those driven from their homes is in the millions. Two of Africa's richest countries in natural resources have reduced most of their citizens to abject poverty.
Unlike Afghanistan and Iraq, Sudan and Congo garner only occasional attention and sporadic diplomatic action. When the bodies start to pile up, diplomats from around the world descend upon Khartoum and Kinshasa. But this type of emergency diplomacy has left the root causes of conflict unaddressed and has allowed them to fester.
In both wars, government soldiers, militias and rebels ruthlessly deploy rape as a weapon of war. We have met with Congolese women who have been gang-raped, had their lips cut off to prevent them from speaking, and who were then set on fire. Sudanese women tell similar stories.
Rahm Emanuel, the newly minted White House chief of staff, recently reminded us that in the midst of crisis, there is great opportunity. For Congo and Sudan, we see three big reasons for hope.
The first is China. Because of China's nearly $9 billion investment in the oil sector in Sudan, and recent $5 billion deal for Congolese minerals, China increasingly has a vested interest in peace and stability in these two countries. President Obama could send a powerful message and take a meaningful step by sending a high-level envoy to Beijing, early in his first 100 days, to explore ways to work together to help bring peace to these African countries. With all that divides the U.S. and China, these are issues we can and should unite on.
1, 2 cont...Mr. Clooney, an actor and director, and Mr. Pressman, a human-rights lawyer, are... more
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November 21, 2008, 22:45
(picture on site...)
Thousands of protestors against the U.S. presence in Iraq have burned an effigy of President George Bush in the same square where they toppled a statue of Saddam Hussein five years ago.
Most of the protestors were followers of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who view the American military as occupiers.
The demonstration comes after two days of heated protest in parliament by al-Sadr loyalists and other small parties arguing that the new security pact, which would ensure a U.S. presence in Iraq for three more years, was a "surrender to U.S. interests".
In a remarkable turn of events, the effigy, with a banner standing next to it reading "shame and humiliation", was placed on the very site where fallen dictator Saddam Hussein's statue stood. It was torn down by U.S. marines and Iraqis in one of the most iconic moments of the Iraq war.
Protestors stoned the effigy with water bottles and sandals. One man used his shoe to strike Bush's face. Eventually the image fell and was stamped on before being set alight. Crowds chanted and waved flags while the effigy burned.
Security was extremely tight, with Army snipers present and al-Sadr loyalists all around as well.
Al-Sadr's representative read a sermon calling the US "an enemy of Islam" and urging parliament not to pass the new security pact.
"The government must know that it is the people who help it in the good and the bad times. If it throws the occupier out, all the Iraqi people will stand by it," read the sermon.
Among the crowds were protestors holding banners reading "No, no to the agreement of humiliation".
If the pact passes through parliament it will go to the president and his two deputies for ratification.November 21, 2008, 22:45
(picture on site...)
Thousands of protestors against the... more
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This Friday Russian newspapers argue with Freedom House, describe the ‘Russian Avalanche’ in Cuba, explain why Warsaw is ready to let Russian military inspectors on the U.S. missile defense facility, publish secret documents of the Georgian army and explore how the U.S. media hint at the ‘devilish’ nature of Barack Obama.
NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA cont...
VREMYA NOVOSTEI reports that a ‘Russian Avalanche’ is expected on the island of Cuba. Correspondent Alexandr Aksenov writes from Havana that the year 2008 has become ‘the Russian year’ for Cuba. He presents an impressive list of bilateral events in politics, economic and business cooperation and culture that portrays a real renaissance of Russo-Cuban relations. A visit by President Medvedev expected later this month is seen in Cuba as Russia’s way of announcing to the World that bilateral relations with Cuba are receiving a new impulse and that Russia is going to strengthen its position on the island to a level unknown since Soviet times, writes Aksenov. He adds: this is only the beginning. The most interesting events in Russo-Cuban relations are still to come.
ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA explains that Poland’s unexpected readiness to accept Russian inspections of future U.S. missile defence facilities has been caused by direct pressure from Washington. In America, writes the paper, an understanding that missile defence is, first of all, a matter to be discussed with Russia, is winning over hearts and minds of the prospective members of the new administration. The paper also says that there is no way to predict now, in the middle of the world financial crisis, if the state budget can bear the expenses, and on top of that President Barack Obama himself is so far not convinced that the system would really work.
KOMSOMOLSKAYA PRAVDA has acquired top secret Georgian military documents – a series of orders to the 4th Rifle Brigade, the main unit of the Georgian army involved in the brutal attack on Tskhinval in August. cont..
IZVESTIA publishes an article by its veteran correspondent Malor Sturua who now lives in Minneapolis. Sturua writes that the growing online media campaign portraying Barack Obama as the Antichrist may look funny to the Russian eye but it isn’t as lightheartedly dismissed in the United States. When a man who lives in the state that Obama represents in the Senate comes forward with a winning state lottery ticket numbered 666, the number of the Beast, many see it as a revelation. Sturua says – what else to expect if apart from amateur Judgment Day and Antichrist watchers the Catholic Church itself, through Cardinal Stafford, bemoans Obama’s ‘post-modernist, aggressive, ruinous apocalyptic rhetoric.’ The Cardinal means, says Sturua, that Obama supports abortion rights, stem sell research and gay/lesbian marriages.This Friday Russian newspapers argue with Freedom House, describe the ‘Russian... more
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5:17AM GMT 21 Nov 2008
Associate attorney general Kevin O'Connor said Mr Mukasey, 67, began shaking during a speech to the Federalist Society at a Washington hotel and collapsed. He did not immediately regain consciousness.
"He just started shaking and he collapsed," Mr O'Connor said. "They're very concerned."
Mr Mukasey was taken to George Washington University Hospital.
He was later said to be "alert".
"His vital statistics are strong and he is in good spirits," department spokesman Peter Carr said in a statement. "The doctors will keep him overnight for further observations."
Mr Mukasey was 10 minutes into his speech about the Bush administration's successes in combatting terrorism when he began slurring his words.
An FBI official said Mr Mukasey got stuck on a word during his speech to the conservative legal group, repeated it several times and then "went down hard."
He collapsed shortly before 10:20pm (0320 GMT).
He was attended to by his FBI detail before paramedics arrived, according to a Justice Department official at the scene.5:17AM GMT 21 Nov 2008
Associate attorney general Kevin O'Connor said Mr... more
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by: William Glaberson, The New York Times
A federal judge ruled Thursday that five Algerian men were held unlawfully for nearly seven years at Guantánamo Bay, and ordered their release. (Photo: Linsley / AP)
In the first hearing on the government's justification for holding detainees at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, a federal judge ruled Thursday that five Algerian men were held unlawfully for nearly seven years and ordered their release.
The judge, Richard J. Leon of Federal District Court in Washington, also ruled that a sixth Algerian man was being lawfully detained because he had provided support to the terrorist group Al Qaeda.
The case was an important test of the Bush administration's detention policies, which critics have long argued swept up innocent men and low-level foot soldiers along with high-level and hardened terrorists.
The six men are among a group of Guantánamo inmates who won a Supreme Court ruling that the detainees have constitutional rights and can seek release in federal court. The 5-4 decision said a 2006 law unconstitutionally stripped the prisoners of their right to contest their imprisonment in habeas corpus lawsuits.
The hearings for the Algerian men, in which all of the evidence was heard in proceedings that were closed to the public, were the first in which the Justice Department presented its full justification for holding specific detainees since the Supreme Court ruling in June.
Judge Leon, in a ruling from the bench, said that the information gathered on the men had been sufficient to hold them for intelligence purposes, but was not strong enough in court.
"To rest on so thin a reed would be inconsistent with this court's obligation," he said. He directed that the five men be released "forthwith" and urged the government not to appeal.
Judge Leon, who was appointed by President Bush, had been expected to be sympathetic to the government. In 2005, he ruled that the men had no habeas corpus rights.
Lawyers said the decision was likely to be seen as a repudiation of the Bush administration's effort to use the detention center at the American naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, as a way to avoid scrutiny by American judges. President-elect Barack Obama has promised to close the prison.»
by: William Glaberson, The New York Times
A federal judge ruled... more
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16. The Moscow apartment bombings
Former GRU officer Aleksey Galkin and former FSB officer the late Alexander Litvinenko (who was killed with Polonium-210 in London in November 2006) and other whistle-blowers from the Russian government and security services have asserted that the 1999 Russian apartment bombings were operations perpetrated by the FSB, the successor to the KGB, to justify the second Russian war against Chechnya.
17. Black or unmarked helicopters
The concept became popular in the American militia movement, and in associated political circles, in the 1990s as an alleged symbol and warning sign of a military takeover of part or all of the United States. Rumours would circulate that, for instance, the United Nations patrolled the US with black helicopters, or that federal agents used black helicopters to enforce wildlife laws.
19. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion
Despite being utterly discredited for at least 100 years, belief in this document has proved remarkably resilient on the internet.
20. The peak oil conspiracy
The peak oil conspiracy theorists believe that peak oil is a fraud concocted by the oil industries to increase prices amid concerns about future supplies. The oil industry is aware of vast reserves of untapped oil, but does not utilise them in order to maintain the illusion of scarcity, they claim.
21. Pearl Harbor was allowed to happen
Theorists believe that President Franklin Roosevelt provoked the Japanese attack on the US naval base in Hawaii in December 1942, knew about it in advance and covered up his failure to warn his fleet commanders.
23. Pan Am Flight 103
24. Fluoridation
Fluoride is commonly added to drinking water as a way to reduce tooth decay. However, there has been some evidence that there could be some harmful side effects from fluoride and conspiracy theorists believe that this information is known and recognised by those responsible for adding the fluoride, but that they continue the practice regardless.
25. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
A popular theory in the Muslim world is that the tsunami could have been caused by an Indian nuclear experiment in which Israeli and American nuclear experts participated.
26. Plastic coffins and concentration camps
Just outside Atlanta, Georgia, beside a major road are approximately 500,000 plastic coffins. Stacked neatly and in full view, the coffins are allegedly owned by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).
27. HAARP
28. The Aids virus was created in a laboratory
29. Global warming is a hoax
30. Chemtrails
read full article for details...16. The Moscow apartment bombings
Former GRU officer Aleksey Galkin and former FSB... more
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1. September 11, 2001/ 9-11
Thanks to the power of the web and live broadcasts on television, the conspiracy theories surrounding the events of 9/11 - when terrorists attacked the World Trade Centre in New York
and the Pentagon in Washington - have surpassed those of Roswell and JFK in traction. Despite repeated claims by al-Qaeda that it planned, organised and orchestrated the attacks, several official and unofficial investigations into the collapse of the Twin Towers which concluded that structural failure was responsible and footage of the events themselves, the conspiracy theories continue to grow in strength.
At the milder end of the spectrum are the theorists who believe that the US government had prior warning of the attacks but did not do enough to stop them. Others believe that the Bush administration deliberately turned a blind eye to those warnings because it wanted a pretext to launch wars in the Middle East to usher in another century of American hegemony.
2. The assassination of John F Kennedy
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3. A flying saucer crashed at Roswell in 1947
The event that kick-started more than a half century of conspiracy theories surrounding unidentified flying objects (UFOs). Something did crash at Roswell, New Mexico, sometime before July 7, 1947 and - at first - the US authorities stated explicitly that this was a flying saucer or disk -
4. Nasa faked the moon landings
People who think that the Apollo moon landings were not all that they seemed at the time but belief in them - particularly on the web - persists.
5. The Illuminati and the New World Order
A conspiracy in which powerful and secretive groups (the Illuminati, the Bilderberg Group and other shadowy cabals) are plotting to rule mankind with a single world government.
6. The Jesus conspiracy
The theory that launched a blockbusting novel (The Da Vinci Code), a film of the same name and a plagiarism battle in the courts (with the authors of the Holy Blood and holy grail). Those who believe in this - and they seem to number in their millions -
8. Elvis Presley faked his own death
What can we say? A persistent belief is that "the King" did not die in 1977.
9. Operation Northwoods
A genuine conspiracy involving a plan by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to launch a fake Cuban terror campaign on American soil to persuade the US public to support an invasion against Castro.
10. MK-ULTRA
The code name for a covert mind-control and chemical interrogation research programme, run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence. , to be a test site for MK-ULTRA medical experiments.
11. North American Union
The North American Union (NAU) is a theoretical regional union of Canada, Mexico and the United States similar in structure to the European Union, sometimes including a common currency called the amero.
12. Shakespeare was somebody else
Theorists believe there is a lack of evidence proving that the actor and businessman sometimes known as Shaksper of Stratford was responsible for the body of works that bear his name. Very little biographical information exists about Shakespeare.
13. The disappearance of Shergar
On February 8, 1983, a group of men wearing balaclavas and armed with guns turned up at the Ballymany Stud Farm in Co Kildare, Ireland and took a hostage – Jim Fitzgerald, the stud's head groom.
14. Paul is dead
“Paul is dead” is an urban legend alleging that Paul McCartney died in a car crash 1966 and was replaced by a look-alike and sound-alike.
15. The July 7, 2005 Tube bombings
One of the supposed mysteries surrounding the 7/7 attacks is this image, used by several news outlets, of the bombers entering Luton station on their way to London at around 7.20am on July 7.
cont. to read full story1. September 11, 2001/ 9-11
Thanks to the power of the web and live broadcasts on... more
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Dick Cheney and former attorney general Alberto Gonzales have been indicted by a Texas jury Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES
A grand jury in south Texas indicted Mr Cheney and Alberto Gonzales, the former Attorney General, on state charges that they blocked an investigation into the mistreatment of prisoners.
The indictment cites a "money trail" relating to Mr Cheney's financial stake in prison-related businesses, including the Vanguard Group, which has an interest in privately-run federal jails in the region.
According to a grand jury in Willacy County, Mr Cheney is "is "profiteering from depriving human beings of their liberty".
It also accuses him of a conflict of interest and of "at least misdemeanour assaults" on inmates because of his links to the prison companies.
Mr Gonzales is accused of using his position to "stop the investigations as to the wrong doings" in county prisons.
The grand jury wrote that it made its decision "with great sadness" but said it had no other choice but to indict the pair "because we love our country".
The indictment – which is being overseen by Juan Guerra, the local district attorney – has not been seen by a judge, who could dismiss it.
Juan Guerra has a history of launching eccentric court and political battles, and critics accused him of trying to settle old scores in his final weeks in office.
However, he insisted the decision to bring charges was made by the grand jury not by him.
He said the prison-related charges against the pair were a national issue and experts from across the US testified to the grand jury.
cont...
..............................................................Dick Cheney and former attorney general Alberto Gonzales have been indicted by a Texas... more
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November 19, 2008
A grand jury in Texas indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Does this mean America will finally have justice.....or if they screw this up can he legally be indicted for the same stuff again?November 19, 2008
A grand jury in Texas indicted Vice President Dick Cheney and... more
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