-
-
Political Crimes In A Venn Diagram
Ever wonder which members of the Bush administration could be spending time in the slammer? This nifty chart clears up your questions.
-
McCain Aide Scheunemann Linked to Bush Library 'Cash for Access' Scandal
We all know the names of professional athletes and actors that have little to do with our lives. Now it is time for us to get to know the corrupt men who have a lot to do with the way this country operates. Let me introduce you to:
Earlier this month, the Sunday Times caught longtime Bush associate Stephen Payne on tape offering access to top Bush administration officials in exchange for “six-figure donations to the private library being set up to commemorate Bush’s presidency.” Payne, who is now being investigated by the Homeland Security Department and the House Oversight Committee, made the offer to Kazakh politician Yerzhan Dosmukhamedov, who is also known as Eric Dos.
The Times reported that Dos had previously worked with Payne to arrange a 2006 visit by Vice President Dick Cheney to Kazakhstan. Dos claims that in exchange for arranging Cheney’s trip, “a payment of $2m was passed, via a Kazakh oil and gas company, to Payne’s firm.” Payne denies that any such arrangement existed.
But the Times reports today that Payne may be lying about his business dealings and that the money may have been funneled through a sister company to Payne’s lobbying firm:
The Sunday Times, however, has discovered the existence of a channel through which funds from the Kazakh government could have been readily transferred.
A sister company to WSP, Worldwide Strategic Energy (WSE), of which Payne is also president, has a subsidiary, Caspian Alliance, which is the sole US representative for KMG.
The Times reports that a top adviser to Sen. John McCain, lobbyist Randy Scheunemann, has direct ties to the company that is alleged to have funneled the funds:
Randy Scheunemann, chief foreign policy and national security adviser to John McCain, the Republican presidential candidate, was listed in the WSE brochure as part of its executive team. Scheunemann and Associates, his lobbying firm, is reported as having represented the Caspian Alliance in 2005. We all know the names of professional athletes and actors that have little to do with our lives. Now it is time for us to get to know... more -
White House Faces Foreclosure
The housing crisis hits home in our nation's capital. [more] -- TheRepublicant.org
-
Iraqi PM backs Obama troop plan? White House accidentally emails story to reporter...
The White House this afternoon accidentally sent to its extensive distribution list a Reuters story headlined "Iraqi PM backs Obama troop exit plan - magazine."
The story relayed how Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told the German magazine Der Spiegel that "he supported prospective U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's proposal that U.S. troops should leave Iraq within 16 months … ‘U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about 16 months. That, we think, would be the right timeframe for a withdrawal, with the possibility of slight changes,'" the prime minister said.
Latest: McCain advisor on Iraqi PM's Obama endorsement - "We're f*cked":
http://current.com/items/89119614_mccain_adviser_on_ira...
Fox plays down al-Maliki's endorsement:
http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/07/20/iraq-pm-not-end... The White House this afternoon accidentally sent to its extensive distribution list a Reuters story headlined "Iraqi PM backs Obama tr... more -
White House Refused Email, Sends Mixed Messages
More details are emerging about the maneuvers that blocked the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that greenhouse gases were a threat to public health and welfare and should be regulated.
[ you can read the article that broke the story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/25/washington/25epa.html... ]
White House officials initially blessed the agency’s efforts to create a basis for restricting emissions of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas produced by human activities, but reversed course after passage of an energy bill last December, a former agency official has told a Congressional committee. He said the White House was won over by the argument, pushed by oil companies and others, that such regulation should not be part of the Bush legacy,
The official, Jason K. Burnett, once a Bush appointee and now an Obama supporter, told the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming that the argument for putting off any carbon dioxide limits was made by “individuals working for particular oil companies, Exxon Mobil,” as well as oil industry trade associations.
He also told the committee that the electric power industry, particularly the Edison Electric Institute, “thought their members would be better served by getting out in front and actively engaging” regulators trying to shape future controls, “rather than trying to fight what they judge to be inevitable.”
A transcript of his statement will be made public by the committee Friday morning. A copy was seen by The New York Times Thursday night. In much of it, Mr. Burnett elaborated on information that has already been made public.
The E.P.A.’s effort to create a framework for regulating greenhouse gases was begun in response to a Supreme Court decision in the spring of 2007. That decision required the agency either to regulate the pollutants or explain why it was not doing so.
The White House’s wishes, Mr. Burnett said, were conveyed to Stephen Johnson by Joel Kaplan, the deputy chief of staff. In mid-November, Mr. Kaplan gave a go-ahead for the E.P.A. to proceed with its plan to propose that greenhouse gases could and should be regulated; on Dec. 5, after the regulatory document doing that had been sent to the Office of Management and Budget for review, he told Mr. Johnson to retract it.
According to Mr. Burnett, Mr. Johnson refused. The O.M.B. subsequently refused to open the e-mail to which the document was attached.
– Felicity Barringer
// NYT DotEarth Blog More details are emerging about the maneuvers that blocked the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that greenhouse gases wer... more -
Climate change to affect health care?
We know about the rising temperatures. The floods and hurricanes, the diseases and the droughts. Now a new EPA studies is released that reiterates all of that, but it also makes the claim that the poor, elderly, and the young will suffer the most in terms of health care.
They won't have access to it, to treatment for climate-change related illness. And that, is another effect of global warming, the EPA says. So it is now, finally, a consideration amongst our policy-makers that the change occurring around the globe is going to affect who gets medical treatment and how. Katrina, anyone? We know about the rising temperatures. The floods and hurricanes, the diseases and the droughts. Now a new EPA studies is released tha... more -
Why Impeachment was "Off the Table"
In December of last year, The Washington Post revealed:
Four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA’s overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.
Among the techniques described, said two officials present, was waterboarding, a practice that years later would be condemned as torture by Democrats and some Republicans on Capitol Hill. But on that day, no objections were raised. Instead, at least two lawmakers in the room asked the CIA to push harder, two U.S. officials said.
Identically, numerous key Democrats in Congress were told that Bush had ordered the NSA to spy on American without warrants and outside of FISA. None of them did anything to stop it.
In light of this sordid history of active complicity, is it really any wonder that these leading Democrats are desperate to quash any investigations or judicial adjudications of Bush administration actions that they knew about and did nothing to stop, in some cases even actively supporting?
In December of last year, The Washington Post revealed: ... more -
President Bush Holds News Conference
President Bush said Tuesday the nation's troubled financial system is ``basically sound'' and urged lawmakers to quickly enact legislation to prop up mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. President Bush said Tuesday the nation's troubled financial system is ``basically sound'' and urged lawmakers to quickly enact legisla... more
-
First Guantánamo interrogation video released
The first footage showing an interrogation at Guantánamo Bay was released today by the lawyers of Omar Khadr, a Canadian teenager detained by US forces.
The video shows Khadr, at the time aged 16, interviewed by intelligence agents in 2003. During the footage he sobs uncontrollably, removes his shirt to complain about his medical treatment and tells the agents: "You don't care about me."
Left alone in the interrogation room, Khadr cries, holds his head and rocks back and forth. The audio is not clear, but he reportedly repeats the phrase "help me".
The video, at times distressing, is the first footage from inside an interrogation room at the controversial US detention camp to be made public.
Khadr, the son of Ahmed Said Khadr, who had ties to al-Qaida's elite, was captured in July 2002 in Afghanistan when he was just 15. Now 21, he remains in Guantánamo Bay along with around 270 so-called "enemy combatants".
The Pentagon forbids public release of photographs or recordings of the US detention camp and the Canadian government had declined requests by Khadr's lawyers, Nathan Whitling and Dennis Edney, to view the video footage.
But in May, Khadr's legal team won a US supreme court ruling for disclosure of footage - in total lasting several hours - as well as previously classified documents relating to his case.
The edited clip video released today shows Khadr interrogated by a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) agent, a Canadian foreign affairs official Jim Gould, and an unidentified female CIA official - their faces have been blacked out.
The full-length videos, understood to have been recorded from a camera hidden in a ventilation shaft, is expected to be posted online later today.
The video clip opens with Khadr removing the top half of his orange jumpsuit to show his interrogators his injuries resulting from two bullet wounds. He says: "You say this is healthy? I can't move my arm."
The CSIS agent replies: "They look like they're healing well to me. You know, I'm not a doctor but I think you're getting good medical care." Khadr replies: "No I'm not. You're not here."
After Khadr complains further, the agent states: "I understand this is stressful, but by using this as a strategy to talk to us - it's not going to be any more helpful. I mean we've got a limited about of time and, you know, we've heard this story before."
Responding to complaints from Khadr that his interrogators "don't care" about him, the CSIS agent replies: "Well, I do care about you, but I want to talk to the honest Omar I talked to yesterday."
At times Khadr appears confused and despondent, and repeatedly breaks down. In another exchange, the agent says: "You want to go back to Canada? Well, there's not anything I can do about that."
Dennis Edney told the Toronto Star: "I hope Canadians will be outraged to see the callous and disgraceful treatment of a Canadian youth. Canadians should demand to know why they've been lied to."
The video follows documents released last week that revealed senior Canadian officials were aware that Khadr had been subjected to weeks of sleep deprivation, even though they stated publicly that the teenager had been treated humanely. For three weeks, Khadr had been made to move to a new cell every three hours, the documents revealed.
Gould, who has said he was only present during the interrogation to assess Khadr' s wellbeing, reported to Canada's foreign affairs department that Khadr was "a thoroughly screwed up young man".
"All those persons who have been in positions of authority over him have abused him and his trust, for their own purposes," Gould said.
Khadr, who the US accuses of killing a soldier with a grenade, is set to face a military trial later this year for five war crimes. Amnesty International has described him as the first person to be put on trial anywhere in the world for war crimes allegedly committed when he was a juvenile.
The first footage showing an interrogation at Guantánamo Bay was released today by the lawyers of Omar Khadr, a Canadian teenager deta... more -
Bush Backs Israel Strike Plans on Iran
The Sunday Times of London reported this weekend that "President George W. Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepared to approve a future military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities if negotiations with Tehran break down." The Times report quoted a senior Pentagon official as its source.
With increased resistance from the Pentagon and the November elections closing in, the White House may be choosing its next best option in dealing with Tehran: to have Israel launch strikes on Iran's nuclear weapons facilities.
The paper said Bush has told Israel it has an "amber light" to proceed.
“Amber means get on with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us when you’re ready,” the paper quoted a U.S. official as saying.
Military experts are not sure that Israel's military forces can do the job. Iran has dispersed its nuclear program sites around the country, and some weapons facilities are said to be deep within the earth. The U.S. has special bunker-busting bombs that could destroy such underground laboratories, but Israel does not.
Iran has made clear it will retaliate against Israel and the U.S. if either nation attacks it. Last week, Iran's military demonstrated its reach by firing nine long- and medium-range missiles -- including the modified Shahab-3 ballistic missile, which can easily strike Israel from western Iran.
Political factors may be playing a role in strike plans for both Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Bush is in lame-duck status, and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, the front-runner to win the presidency in November, says he favors the use of diplomacy over force when dealing with Iran.
Olmert is facing a political crisis as corruption charges threaten his hold on office. Some Israeli political analysts say Olmert may order an attack on Iran to bolster his political standing in Jerusalem.
The Times cited one of Olmert's closest friends as quoting the prime minister: "In three months’ time it will be a different Middle East.”
The Sunday Times of London reported this weekend that "President George W. Bush has told the Israeli government that he may be prepare... more -
Tillman Investigation Hampered by 'Near Universal Lack of Recall'
"White House officials interviewed as part of an investigation into the misleading information given to the public and the Tillman family in the weeks after the death of Corporal Pat Tillman have said they do not recall when they first learned that Tillman was killed as a result of friendly fire, according to a proposed report released today by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform."
How bloody convenient... "White House officials interviewed as part of an investigation into the misleading information given to the public and the Tillman fam... more -
Bush lifts offshore drilling ban
White House: President Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling.
In another push to deal with soaring gas prices, President Bush on Monday will lift an executive ban on offshore drilling that his stood since his father was president. But the move, by itself, will do nothing unless Congress acts as well.
The president plans to officially lift the ban and explain his actions in a Rose Garden statement, White House press secretary Dana Perino said.
There are two prohibitions on offshore drilling, one imposed by Congress and another by executive order signed by former President George H.W. Bush in 1990. The current president, trying to ease market tensions and boost supply, called last month for Congress to lift its prohibition before he did so himself.
The president, in his final months of office, has responded to record gas-prices with a series of proposals, including more oil exploration. None would have immediate impact on prices at the pump, according to White House officials, who say there is no quick fix. But starting action now would help, they say.
White House: President Bush lifts executive ban on offshore drilling. ... more -
Provoking Iran into war
Stumbling towards disaster - again
Bush asked for - and received - $400,000,000 to conduct covert military operation against Iran.
A quote from the recent Sy Hersch article in the New Yorker
"Operations outside the knowledge and control of commanders have eroded “the coherence of military strategy,†one general says."
Further, it seems the only people in the government (or military) who favor an attack on Iran are Bush and Cheney:
Americans, help wake up your country! It is not the country we used to know anymore. We need new leadership now.
Stumbling towards disaster - again ... more -
US will not hesitate to defend Israel, Rice warns Tehran
The US vowed to defend Israel and its other allies in the Gulf, as Iran carried out its second ballistic missile test in two days yesterday.
As the situation worsened in the Gulf, the French oil company Total said it would pull out of a large-scale investment in an Iranian gas field - a serious blow to Tehran, which is keen to exploit its gas reserves, and a victory for the Bush administration, which has been seeking to isolate the Iranian government.
A spokeswoman for the company said it was too risky to invest in Iran at present.
Oil prices resumed climbing yesterday as Opec said it would not be able to replace any shortfalls if Iran were attacked and took its crude supplies off the market.
The second volley of missiles was launched by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, a politicised militia parallel to the regular army. The Pentagon, whose surveillance satellites and other technology track such launches, yesterday confirmed the second batch of missile tests, which were carried out at night.
Israel responded to the tests with a show of strength of its own, putting on display at the country's international Ben-Gurion airport its new spy and early warning plane, which can reach Iran. Israel also hinted that it would not hesitate to attack Iran's nuclear facilities.
According to official Iranian reports, the weapons tested included long-range Shahab-3 missiles, capable of reaching Israel and US bases in the region. The reports said the missiles had undisclosed special features. But the Pentagon insisted they were only short-range ones.
The Revolutionary Guard commander, Ali Jafari, referring to the second tests, was quoted as saying: "The manoeuvre brings power to the Islamic republic of Iran and is a lesson for its enemies."
Iran has threatened to shut the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for Gulf oil exports, if it is attacked. Iran's state media said exercises yesterday involved divers and speedboats, as well as the launch of a high-speed torpedo called Hout. The missile tests and sea operations were an explicit response to Israeli manoeuvres last month, in which war planes were reported to be rehearsing air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities.
The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, made it clear yesterday that the US would step in if Israel were attacked.
"We take very, very strongly our obligation to help our allies defend themselves and no one should be confused about that," Rice said during a visit to Georgia.
The Israeli defence minister, Ehud Barak, speaking at a Labour party meeting, said the country had not balked before "when its vital security interests" were at stake, an apparent allusion to its 1981 air strike that destroyed Iraq's nuclear plant. But he softened his remarks, noting that "the reactions of enemies ... need to be taken into consideration as well".
If Israel did attack Iran, Tehran could create upheaval in the Middle East, with its ally Hizbullah creating trouble on Israel's northern border and Iranian proteges in Iraq and Afghanistan also going on the offensive against US troops.
The US chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, visited Israel earlier this month for talks with Israeli commanders, and warned publicly on his return to Washington that an Israeli attack would destabilise the region.
Anthony Cordesman, of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, has said Mullen's remarks were a clear sign that Israel does not have a "green light" from Washington to launch an attack.
The US vowed to defend Israel and its other allies in the Gulf, as Iran carried out its second ballistic missile test in two days yest... more -
EFF vows FISA/TelCo fight only beginning.
The EFF released a statement on Friday concerning the recent FISA update, specifically concerning the retroactive immunity for 4th Amendment violations committed by telephone companies that cooperated with the Bush Administration during and before 9/11.
"Our long war against warrantless wiretapping has only just begun, and we will not stop until we get that legal ruling we’ve been fighting for. Wednesday we only lost a battle, not the war, and EFF’s struggle to hold the White House and the telecoms accountable for their lawbreaking will continue on multiple fronts — starting with a constitutional challenge to the immunity provisions...
While duking it out over immunity in the courts, EFF will also continue its fight in Washington, working in the next session of Congress — a Congress likely to be much different in its composition than today’s, and working with a different president — to wipe the stain of the FAA’s immunity provisions off the books." The EFF released a statement on Friday concerning the recent FISA update, specifically concerning the retroactive immunity for 4th Ame... more -
Mr. Whitehouse, are you listening?
This video seeks to start a dialogue about our current crisis in America. Additionally, for 99 you can help American soldiers, flood victims in crisis, Katrina victims, and foreclosed home victims. This video seeks to start a dialogue about our current crisis in America. Additionally, for 99 you can help American soldiers, flood ... more
-
China and Russia veto Zimbabwe sanctions
British and US efforts to apply punitive pressure on Robert Mugabe were abruptly undermined last night when Russia and China vetoed a UN security council resolution seeking sanctions against Zimbabwe.
The resolution, calling for an arms embargo, and financial and travel restrictions on Mugabe and 13 other regime leaders, was backed by nine nations but foundered on the vetoes of the two permanent members. The arms embargo would have affected Russian and Chinese weapons exporters.
The outcome at UN headquarters in New York will raise questions about the international community's ability to act decisively against Mugabe and his Zanu-PF ringleaders who orchestrated the violence that disfigured Zimbabwe's election run-off last month. Mugabe was declared the victor after his opponent, Morgan Tsvangirai, pulled out citing the absurdity of holding a vote while dozens of opposition members were being beaten, arrested and killed.
Britain's ambassador to the UN, Sir John Sawers, said the security council "failed to shoulder its responsibility to do what it can to prevent a national tragedy deepening and spreading its effects across southern Africa".
He said the Chinese followed the Russian lead and that neither had made any effort to discuss the resolution.
"They simply opposed what was on the table."
David Miliband, the foreign secretary, expressed disappointment at the outcome, and added that the diplomatic stalemate would be "incomprehensible" to the people of Zimbabwe. He added that Russia's veto was particularly hard to understand because Moscow appeared earlier this week to back action against Zimbabwe at the G8 summit in Japan.
"In particular, it will appear incomprehensible to the people of Zimbabwe that Russia, which committed itself at the G8 only a few days ago to take further steps including introducing financial and other sanctions, should today stand in the way of timely and decisive security council action."
Gordon Brown persuaded his G8 counterparts to adopt a tough stance, and thought he had prevailed when the summit issued a statement calling for urgent mediation and the appointment of a UN special envoy, and threatening "financial and other measures against those individuals responsible for violence".
But security council unanimity was a tougher ask. South Africa, Mugabe's leading regional patron, has argued that its neighbour is not a threat to world peace. China has resisted measures it sees as meddling in Zimbabwe's internal affairs.
Russia's UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said there was no mandate to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe because there was no threat to international peace and security.
"The development of the situation in Zimbabwe until now has not exceeded the context of domestic affairs," said China's UN ambassador, Wang Guangya. "It will unavoidably interfere with the negotiation process."
They were joined by Libya and Vietnam in vetoing the resolution. The US, France, Britain, Belgium, Burkino Faso, Costa Rica, Croatia, Italy and Panama voted in favour. Indonesia abstained.
The US insisted that Zimbabwe was a threat to regional security. "There should be no doubt that what is happening in Zimbabwe affects peace and security in the region," said a state department spokesman, Robert McInturff.
British and US efforts to apply punitive pressure on Robert Mugabe were abruptly undermined last night when Russia and China vetoed a ... more -
Obama Says We Only Need One Dr.Phil !!!!
Senator Obama's response to Phil Gramm's remarks that the United States is only in a "Psychological Recession" and that Americans are "Whiners". Senator Obama's response to Phil Gramm's remarks that the United States is only in a "Psychological Recession" and that Americans are ... more
-
McCain is a Jokester....
McCain blesses us with his fiery humor. This video shows McCain joking around about war with Iran.
-
related topics
White House
Contributors (500)
White House
