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Bush Extends 9/11 National Emergency Yet Again by Peter Dale Scott
by Peter Dale Scott
Global Research, September 4, 2008
Though few Americans realize it, Cheney and Rumsfeld worked through the 1980s and 1990s on emergency nuclear-response plans which allegedly suspended the American constitution and also Congress.[1] (Through these decades Rumsfeld was CEO of a major pharmaceutical firm, and in the later 1990s Cheney was CEO of Halliburton; but their private status did not deter them from continuing to exercise a supra-constitutional planning power conferred on them by Ronald Reagan.)
Even fewer Americans know that these rules, originally dealing with a nuclear attack on America, were extended by Reagan Executive Order 12656 to cover “any occurrence, including natural disaster, military attack, technological emergency, or other emergency, that seriously degrades or seriously threatens the national security of the United States.”[2] And few Americans realize that at least some of these rules, known technically as Continuity of Government or COG rules, were invoked before 10:00 AM on September 11, 2001.[3]
As he did in 2007, President Bush has again, on August 28, 2008, continued for another year the national emergency first officially proclaimed on September 14, 2001, along with “the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency:”
[...]
see also:
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2007/10/19/the-real...
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2007/08/12/bush-dec...
http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/national... by Peter Dale Scott Global Research, September 4, 2008 ... more -
Tomato Pulp looks so thick.
A reveller swims in tomato pulp during the annual tomatina (tomato fight) in the Mediterranean village of Buñol, Spain, on August 27, 2008. The origin of the tomato fight is disputed — everyone in Buñol seems to have a favorite story — but most agree it started around 1940, in the early years of the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco. A reveller swims in tomato pulp during the annual tomatina (tomato fight) in the Mediterranean village of Buñol, Spain, on August 27, ... more
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How music brought down a dictatorship
Historians tend to focus on wars and extreme violence as agents of change. Here in this video you can see how music and non-violence brought freedom to a long oppressed people. Historians tend to focus on wars and extreme violence as agents of change. Here in this video you can see how music and non-violence ... more
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Burma: "If we had guns we would fight back"
The Guardian: From inside Burma plans for new uprising against military.
Clancy Chassay reports from inside Burma on plans for a new uprising against the military regime, and hears some monks calling for more western intervention and an armed insurrection. The Guardian: From inside Burma plans for new uprising against military. ... more -
Chavez calls for Russia alliance
Hugo Chavez has called for a strategic alliance with Russia to protect Venezuela from the US.
The Venezuelan president's call came as Moscow and Caracas agreed to extend bilateral co-operation on energy.
Speaking during a two-day visit to Russia, Mr Chavez said oil and military cooperation were vital to guarantee Venezuela's sovereignty.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said three Russian energy companies are to be allowed to operate in Venezuela.
He gave no details of an anticipated arms deal between the two countries. But Mr Chavez seemed upbeat about the prospect of military co-operation.
"If Russia's armed forces want to be present in Venezuela, they will be given a warm welcome," he told a news conference after the meeting.
He said Venezuela would pursue new Russian arms deals "because the North American empire... has plans to invade Venezuela, to disarm Venezuela". Hugo Chavez has called for a strategic alliance with Russia to protect Venezuela from the US. ... more -
Chavez party seeks changes for 3rd term
Venezuela's ruling party pledged Thursday to seek to reform the nation's constitution to let President Hugo Chavez seek indefinite re-election.
Proposed changes to end the two-term limit for presidents will be presented to Congress or the National Electoral Council and ultimately to voters after state and municipal elections now scheduled for November, said Freddy Bernal, a leader of Chavez's United Socialist Party.
"The purpose of this amendment is to ask the country if they want or don't want the re-election of President Hugo Chavez," Bernal said in a televised interview. "If we want peace, tranquility and development in the country, Hugo Chavez must continue being president."
Chavez, who was first elected in 1998, is barred from running again when his term expires in 2013. Venezuela's ruling party pledged Thursday to seek to reform the nation's constitution to let President Hugo Chavez seek inde... more -
One out of every four working Americans says workplace is a dictatorship
One out of every four working Americans (25%) describes their workplace as a dictatorship, while just 34% of bosses in the American workplace react well to valid criticism, according to a new Workplace Democracy Association/Zogby Interactive survey.
The survey also found that less than half of working Americans - 46% - said their workplace promotes creative or inventive ideas, while barely half - 51% - said their co-workers often feel motivated or are mostly motivated at work.
Asher Adelman, Founder and President of the Workplace Democracy Association, said that "As we prepare to commemorate our nation's independence and celebrate the freedoms that we often take for granted, it is unfortunate and ironic that so many Americans work at organizations that are managed like mini-dictatorships." Just 52% of respondents in the nationwide survey said their boss treats subordinates well, the survey revealed.
"Traditionally-managed companies, by inadvertently draining the motivation levels of their employees, are stifling productivity, innovation, and creativity. Companies cannot expect to remain competitive when such large numbers of employees do not feel like they are treated like responsible adults nor when they feel like their input has little or no impact on the company's decision-making process," said Adelman. One out of every four working Americans (25%) describes their workplace as a dictatorship, while just 34% of bosses in the American wo... more -
Britain plans anti-Mugabe pressure tactics
Britain is gathering allies to put pressure on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe if he steals the upcoming election, sources told The Times of London.
The newspaper, citing unnamed diplomatic sources, reported Monday that Britain is drawing up plans to urge South Africa to cut off electricity supplies to Zimbabwe and would try to ban the country's elite from sending their children to European schools should Mugabe win the June 27 presidential runoff through intimidation and tampering.
Mugabe's ZANU-PF party has been blamed for instigating the deaths of 66 supporters of the rival Movement for Democratic Change and its presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, after the MDC won an initial round of balloting in March. The Times reported Mugabe vowed over the weekend that Zimbabwe would never be ruled by the MDC, which he called "a puppet" of European powers.
The newspaper cited unnamed diplomatic aides saying that the run-up to the presidential election might become so bloody that the election cannot be conducted but also expressing hope that the anti-Mugabe vote will be so overwhelming that the president wouldn't be able to disguise its outcome. Britain is gathering allies to put pressure on Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe if he steals the upcoming election, sources told The T... more -
Chávez decree tightens hold on intelligence
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez has used his decree powers to carry out a major overhaul of this country’s intelligence agencies, provoking a fierce backlash here from human rights groups and legal scholars who say the measures will force citizens to inform on one another to avoid prison terms.
Under the new intelligence law, which took effect last week, Venezuela’s two main intelligence services, the DISIP secret police and the DIM military intelligence agency, will be replaced with new agencies, the General Intelligence Office and General Counterintelligence Office, under the control of Mr. Chávez.
The new law requires people in the country to comply with requests to assist the agencies, secret police or community activist groups loyal to Mr. Chávez. Refusal can result in prison terms of two to four years for most people and four to six years for government employees.
“We are before a set of measures that are a threat to all of us,” said Blanca Rosa Mármol de León, a justice on Venezuela’s top court, in a rare public judicial dissent. “I have an obligation to say this, as a citizen and a judge. This is a step toward the creation of a society of informers.”
The sweeping intelligence changes reflect an effort by Mr. Chávez to assert greater control over public institutions in the face of political challenges following a stinging defeat in December of a package of constitutional changes that would have expanded his powers.
Mr. Chávez, who has insisted the defeat will not dampen his ambitions to transform Venezuela into a Socialist state, said the new law was intended to guarantee “national security” and shield against “imperialist attacks.”
He lashed out at its critics as being agents of the “empire,” meaning the United States....
On Sunday, Mr. Chávez referred to critics of the intelligence law as de facto supporters of the Bush administration and of the Patriot Act, the American antiterrorism law that enhances the ability of security agencies to monitor personal telephone and e-mail communications.
Mr. Chávez’s new intelligence law has similar flourishes. For instance, it authorizes his new intelligence agencies to use “any special or technically designed method” to intercept and obtain information.
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“This is purely Cuban-style policy,” Juan José Molina, a legislator with Podemos, a leftist party that broke from Mr. Chávez’s coalition last year, said of the new intelligence law. “Our rulers want to impose old models upon us.”...
The drafting and passage of the law behind closed doors, without exposing it to the public debate it would have had if Mr. Chávez had submitted it to the Assembly, also contributed to the public uproar and suspicion.
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“Even within the Bolivarian movement, this would officialize Soviet- and Cuban-style purges, accusing dissidents of being spies, traitors or agents of the imperialist enemy,” El Nacional, a normally staid opposition newspaper, said in an editorial that ended, “This is revolting.”...
“This is the most scandalous effort to intimidate the population in the 10 years this government has been in power,” said Rocío San Miguel, a prominent legal scholar who heads a nongovernmental organization that monitors Venezuelan security and defense issues.
Ms. San Miguel said information her group had collected could be deemed illegal under the new law. The group has data from military sources showing that Mr. Chávez’s efforts to create a force of one million reservists had fallen far short.
“Under the new law, this information could be considered a threat to national security and I could be sent immediately to jail,” she said. “Effectively this is a way to instill fear in NGOs and news organizations and parts of society that remain outside the government’s reach.” CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chávez has used his decree powers to carry out a major overhaul of this country’s intelligence age... more -
America tore out 8,000 pages of Iraq dossier on Iraq's weapons
The United States edited out more than 8000 crucial pages of Iraq's 11,800-page dossier on weapons, before passing on a sanitized version to the 10 non-permanent members of the United Nations security council.
The full extent of Washington's complete control over who sees what in the crucial Iraqi dossier calls into question the allegations made by US Secretary of State Colin Powell that 'omissions' in the document constituted a 'material breach' of the latest UN resolution on Iraq.
Last week, Secretary General of the UN Kofi Annan accepted that it was 'unfortunate' that his organization had allowed the US to take the only complete dossier and edit it. He admitted 'the approach and style were wrong' and Norway, a member of the security council, says it is being treated like a 'second-class country'.
Although Powell called the Iraqi dossier a 'catalogue of recycled information and flagrant omissions', the non-permanent members of the security council will have no way of testing the US claims for themselves. This will be crucial if the US and the UK go back to the security council seeking explicit authorization for war on Iraq if breaches of resolution 1441 are confirmed when the weapons inspectors -- this weekend investigating 10 sites in Iraq, including an oil refinery south of Baghdad -- deliver their report to the UN next month.
A UN source in New York said: 'The questions being asked are valid. What did the US take out? And if weapons inspectors are supposed to be checking against the dossier's content, how can any future claim be verified. In effect the US is saying trust us, and there are many who just will not.'
Current and former UN diplomats are said to be livid at what some have called the 'theft' of the Iraqi document by the US. Hans von Sponeck, the former assistant general secretary of the UN and the UN's humanitarian co- ordinator in Iraq until 2000, said: 'This is an outrageous attempt by the US to mislead.' The United States edited out more than 8000 crucial pages of Iraq's 11,800-page dossier on weapons, before passing on a sanitized... more -
Bush claims more powers than King George III
The Bush administration has arrogated powers to itself that the British people even refused to grant King George III at the time of the Revolutionary War, an eminent political scientist says.
“No executive in the history of the Anglo-American world since the Civil War in England in the 17th century has laid claim to such broad power,” said David Adler, a prolific author of articles on the U.S. Constitution. “George Bush has exceeded the claims of Oliver Cromwell who anointed himself Lord Protector of England.”
Adler, a professor of political science at Idaho State University at Pocatello, is the author of “The Constitution and the Termination of Treaties”(Taylor & Francis), among other books, and some 100 scholarly articles in his field. Adler made his comments comparing the powers of President Bush and King George III at a conference on “Presidential Power in America” at the Massachusetts School of Law, Andover, April 26th.
Adler said, Bush has “claimed the authority to suspend the Geneva Convention, to terminate treaties, to seize American citizens from the streets to detain them indefinitely without benefit of legal counseling, without benefit of judicial review. He has ordered a domestic surveillance program which violates the statutory law of the United States as well as the Fourth Amendment.”
Adler said the authors of the U.S. Constitution wrote that the president “shall take care to faithfully execute the laws of the land” because “the king of England possessed a suspending power” to set aside laws with which he disagreed, “the very same kind of power that the Bush Administration has claimed.” The Bush administration has arrogated powers to itself that the British people even refused to grant King George III at the time of th... more -
McCain's Lobbying Pals
From Veracifier's TPMtv:
John McCain's got so much experience in dealing with rogue regimes that he's got the rogue regimes' lobbyists running his campaign.
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Veracifier is a Next New Networks property.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ From Veracifier's TPMtv: ... more -
Call for aid to Myanmar regions hit by Cyclone Nargis
On Saturday May 3rd, Cyclone Nargis hit Burma with wind speeds of up to 120 mph, devastating the costal and inland regions. As of Tuesday May 6th, state officials have estimated the death toll at possibly 100,000. Over 40,000 people are missing and millions more are homeless. Priority emergency relief needs are shelter, food, water, medicines and electricity. Washed-out roads have left many people in more remote areas completely inaccessible. In seven of the worst affected deltas, communities are reporting 90-95% damage. Food is available, but costs have risen 50%. The cost of fuel has risen 100%.
Follow the link to see the different groups and their relative level of access to different regions.
The risk of cholera outbreak is apparently high. Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) is on my shortlist. On Saturday May 3rd, Cyclone Nargis hit Burma with wind speeds of up to 120 mph, devastating the costal and inland regions. As of Tues... more -
Pakistani Blues
I talked about this last time, now I am just wondering what will happen since basically nothing has in the last week.
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Political Crisis in Georgia
The BBC has a good FAQ on how things are right now. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7085740.stm
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Talk by Naomi Wolf - The End of America
Talk by Naomi Wolf, author of "The End of America: Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot", given on October 11, 2007, at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus.
48 minutes of a talk by a highly intelligent and lucid young woman, a talk which should be listened to with attention. What she is saying is what I and many people I know noticed from the gitgo. My mother lived in Germany for some years in the twenties, and we had relatives there who went through that whole period - some of whom died in Hitler's camps (matrilineally speaking, I am a Jew, descended from the Blok ,a.k.a. Bloch, family, and lost many relatives to the Holocaust). After WWII, my mother was one of the translators-interpreters at the Nuremberg Trials, and had many horrific stories to tell. Perhaps this is why I was able to detect the signs that Naomi Wolf is talking about right from the beginning, back in 2001. So, take heed of Naomi Wolf's words, she is speaking the truth. Hopefully, her warnings are not too late, and people will understand and act accordingly. Talk by Naomi Wolf, author of "The End of America: Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot", given on October 11, 2007, at Kane... more
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Dictatorship
