February 2, 2004
February 9, 2004
February 16, 2004
February 23, 2004
Founding Fathers would be ashamed of `free' speech policy
It was the second time around when last October Brett Bursey was arrested while protesting a president's arrival at Columbia airport in South Carolina. Thirty-three years ago, at the same airport, Bursey was seized by Secret Service agents protesting the Vietnam War as he held a placard denouncing President Richard Nixon's visit to the state. On that occasion, he was fortunate when a state court judge ruled that a protester could not be charged with trespassing on public property.
This time, the state court also dropped charges, but that was not the end of the matter. The U.S. attorney in South Carolina, J. Strom Thurmond Jr., son of the late Sen. Thurmond, stepped in and charged Bursey with "threatening the president." The charge was filed under an obscure statute that permits the Secret Service to restrict access to areas visited by a president. The statute has only been used 12 times by the courts since 1992.
On Jan. 6, a federal judge dismissed Bursey's defense that he was entitled to free speech and ruled that he had broken a law designed to shield President Bush. Bursey was fined $500 and immediately announced he would appeal.
"We are appealing because this establishes the bad legal precedent that the Secret Service has no limits on the size of restricted zones they establish around the president. We believe that it is important that we appeal, because the ever increasing size of the sanitized areas around the president makes a mockery of the First Amendment," declared Bursey.
According to Bursey, his most recent ordeal began on October 24 while he was waiting for President Bush's plane to land. He was with other protesters, holding a sign condemning Bush administration policies but was the only protester arrested. Law enforcement officials made no attempt to detain or bother pro-Bush supporters gathered nearby.
Bursey claims he was not arrested because he was a threat to the president's physical security, but because the White House has a policy of keeping protesters out of sight of the president and media. The restricted zone where he was arrested was over 70 acres and stretched for a mile.
Bursey is no stranger to the law. In 1970 he was jailed for 18 months for vandalizing a military draft office in Columbia in protest at the Vietnam War.
The son of a Navy dentist, he grew up on the military base at Parris Island, S.C. Nowadays, he is executive director of the South Carolina Progressive Network, a coalition of more than 50 organizations.
His experience has a resonance in other protest cases. On Labor Day 2002, retired steelworker Bill Neel, 65, found himself on the wrong side of the law during a Bush visit. Local police, at the Secret Service's behest, set up a "designated free-speech zone" on a baseball field surrounded by a chain-link fence, a third of a mile from the location where the president was to give a speech.
Neel was carrying a placard proclaiming, "The Bush family must surely love the poor; they made so many of us." When police cleared the path of the presidential motorcade of protesters with signs, Neel refused to go to the designated area. His placard was confiscated, and he was arrested for "disorderly conduct." No effort was made by law enforcement to interfere with pro-Bush supporters.
"As far as I'm concerned, the whole country is a free speech zone. If the Bush administration has its way, anyone who criticizes them will be out of sight and out of mind," he later declared.
District Judge Shirley Rowe Trkula threw out the charge against him. "I believe this is America. I don't agree with you, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it," she told him.
There have also been allegations that the government repressed protests during several Bush visits to the St. Louis area, especially on Jan. 22, 2003, when 150 people carrying signs were shunted far away from the main action and effectively quarantined.
A spokeswoman for the ACLU of Eastern Missouri commented: "No
one could see them from the street. In addition, the media was
not allowed to talk to them. The police would not allow any media
inside the protest area and wouldn't allow any of the protesters
out of the `protest zone' to talk to the media."
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Blackout on real body count in Iraq an affront to servicemen
Even as President Bush was boasting of the war in Iraq, veterans, military families and other peace groups were outside the Capitol protesting the war and demanding an immediate end to hostilities.
Each of the hundreds of protesters bore the name of one of the 500 Americans killed in Iraq and held a candle "to symbolize the light of that person's life," they explained. Others bore the names of Iraqi civilians who were killed during the invasion and occupation.
As Bush began his address, a banner with the "16 words" was displayed and carried on a "death march" down the line of lights formed by the human chain. As it moved, a drum sounded and demonstrators called out the name of each fallen soldier, stating the full name, rank, branch of service and age at death.
They braved wind and 24-degree weather. Doug Nelson of McLean, Va., a Vietnam war veteran, read the name of a fallen soldier he had never met. "Brendon C. Reiss. Twenty-three years old. U.S. Marine Corps." He read from a card given him by organizers. Then he blew out his candle, indicating the end of life. "May he rest in peace."
Many outside the Capitol described themselves the same as Nelson: a military veteran who remembers past wars and disagrees with invading Iraq.
"I go to the Vietnam Memorial at least once a week, and I always come back crying," Nelson said. "We didn't learn anything from that."
The "16 words" were quotes from the president's 2003 State of the Union address, in which he said: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." This suggested Saddam was trying to develop nuclear weapons. Reporters and independent investigators have unearthed documents indicating that the U.S. government knew those reports were false long before Bush uttered those words.
"Soldiers were sent to war on the basis of this lie and
others told about weapons of mass destruction," said Military
Families Speak Out, which spearheaded the demonstration, in a
prepared statement.
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President Busy is paying a high price for his effort to reward criminal aliens with amnesty as angry Republican colleagues withhold campaign cash and threaten to stay home in the November election. He also faces an insurrection over big spending.
Several world-be contributors to a Jan. 15 bush fund-raiser in Atlanta told Phil Kent, a member of the host committee, they would not attend the $2,000 per-person event because of his amnesty plan.
"I was soliciting checks right after the announcement of the amnesty plan and I lost two checks from people who had wanted to come but wouldn't," Kent told the Washington Times. "They specifically said this is just rewarding lawbreakers. "They specifically said this is just rewarding lawbreakers. That was the constant theme. And even among some people who wrote checks, there's grumbling."
"The vast majority of Georgians - black and white, I might add - don't like this because it's perceived as amnesty for illegal immigrants," Kent said shortly before greeting the president for the dinner. ‘And I intend to tell him so, not just because it doesn't help him with money, but because it's wrong-headed policy."
What would he tell Bush? "I think you're a great president, but, boy, I think you're wrong on amnesty for illegals," Kent replied.
Congress must make certain that whatever legislation, if any, emerges from the Bush proposal provides no amnesty or otherwise rewards illegal aliens, said Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.)
Any such legislation must not create opportunities for amnesty for confer U.S. citizenship to those who have violated U.S. laws," Kyl said. "Without a clear, firm intent to enforce existing laws, what would discourage more illegal immigrants from entering the country in hopes of yet another ‘guest worker' of amnesty bill in the future?"
Rep. John Isakson (R-Ga.), who is considered a front-runner in the campaign to succeed retiring Sen. Zell Miller (D-Ga.) Expressed "great respect" for Bush but said "I have serious concerns, however, over recent policy announcements with regard to undocumented workers and illegal aliens."
In Washington, national leaders of six organizations that identify themselves as "conservative" and reflect the party base castigated Republicans for spending "like drunken sailors."
"The republican Congress is spending at twice the rate as under Bill Clinton and President bush has yet to issue a single veto," Paul Weyrich, national chairman of Coalitions for America, said at a briefing with five other leaders. "I complained about profligate spending during the Clinton years but never thought I'd have to do so with a Republican in the White House and Republicans controlling Congress."
The leaders warned of adverse consequences in the November election and said the Senate must reject the House-passed omnibus spending bil or Bush should veto the measure.
"The whole purpose of having a Republican president is to lead the Republican Congress," said Paul Beckner, president of Citizens for a Sound Economy of which former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Tex.) Is co-chairman. "The Constitution gives the president the power to veto legislation, and if Congress won't act in a fiscally responsible way, the president has to step in - but he hasn't done that"
If the Senate approves the omnibus spending bill and the president fails to veto it, "in all probability the party's conservative-activist core voters aren't going to work to help win the election for Bush and the Republicans, and they may well not even vote," Weyrich said.
"Congress's continued fiscal irresponsibility is clearly
exhibited in the thousands of pork projects contained in the bill,"
said a Heritage Foundation report.
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Portions Struck Down by Los Angeles Judge
A provision of the Patriot Act that forbids providing assistance to groups loosely defined by the government as terrorist organizations has been ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge.
In the first ruling to strike down part of the Patriot Act, U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins in Los Angeles said the provision is too vague to enforce and violates the Constitution's First and Fifth Amendments, which protect freedom of speech and defendants from self-incrimination, respectively.
"The USA Patriot Act places no limitation on the type of expert advice and assistance which is prohibited and instead bans all expert advice and assistance regardless of its nature," said the ruling released Jan. 26.
The Justice Department said the ruling is being reviewed.
The court challenge was brought by the Humanitarian Law Project on behalf of five groups and two U.S. citizens who sought to assist Kurdish refugees in Turkey. The Kurdistan Workers Party was designated as a terrorist organization in 1997 by Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Plaintiffs said they wanted to give lawful and non-violent support to the Kurds, but were threatened with 15 years in prison. The ruling rejected the Patriot Act provision because it did not allow for peaceful assistance or advice.
Congress is expected to "fix" some of the controversial portions of the Patriot Act, which expire Dec. 31, 2005. Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, plans to hold oversight hearings this session and hearings on actual revisions of the Patriot Act in 2005, presuming he is still chairman.
The Justice Department investigated itself and found no civil rights or civil liberties abuse under the Patriot Act, Inspector General Glenn Fine reported Jan. 27. Of 1,266 complaints, only 17 were marked for further investigation. Most of those, Fine said, dealt with excessive force or verbal abuse by Bureau of Prison officials, denial of library and phone privileges, unreasonable cell searches and issues involving solitary confinement.
See AFP's June 23, 2003, issue for key excerpts from this report.
Meanwhile, the Los Angles City Council passed a resolution
Jan. 21 urging Congress to repeal portions of the Patriot Act
that give federal officials access to library and bookstore records
and other personal information.
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China's economic boom could be an economic bomb for the United States.
Over 50 percent of low-interest bonds that Washington has floated to finance the federal government's huge deficit, the tax cuts and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq is held by china and other Asian countries. But that is only part of a troubling story.
By exporting cheap products primarily to U.S. consumers, China has been able to buy more than $100 billion in low interest U.S. Treasury bonds, thereby funneling much needed cash - in the form of credit - back into the overextended American economy.
In the event of a serious foreign relations dispute with China, such as over Taiwan, some economists now believe that the Chinese could explode the equivalent of an economic bomb in the United States simply by dumping its bond holdings, knowing all Asian nations would follow suit. In such a scenario, the collar would plummet in value beyond its present decline and send the U.S. economy into free-fall.
As it stands, the Bush administration could be walking into an economic minefield by promoting dollar devaluation and promoting increased trade with China.
For, example, the Chinese are beginning construction of massive auto Plants at a time when U.S. car dealers are selling cars at zero interest because the supply has outpaced consumer demand.
In a few years, analysts are predicting that as soon as china floods the U.S. market with cheaper cars, the nation's auto industry could go into serious decline.
That possibility has led some economists to conclude that when Bush talks about creating more jobs, what he really means is that those jobs will be in countries like China.
The U.S. and Chinese economies are now more entangled than ever.
By buying massive quantities of Chinese goods, the United States is, in effect, financing China's trade based economy. Likewise china's purchase of U.S. bonds is propping up the U.S. economy. Should Americans stop buying Chinese products, the economic bubble could burst in China, which could force the Chinese to retaliate by selling the bond holdings. Both economies would suffer, leading to a possible global economic collapse.
The Federal Deficit
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently described the U.S. federal deficit as a "perilous" strategy that could have a negative global impact. What most concerns the IME; is not only Washington's $500 billion deficit, but the fact that it is likely to increase. With growing concern over the $47 trillion that will be needed to fund future commitments to Medicare and Social Security and the fact that many American states are borrowing heavily, IMF economists are forecasting that deficit spending is likely to snowball.
If steps are not taken to deal with U.S. economic trends, the IMF warns that within a few years the external debts of the United States will be 40 percent of the nation's gross domestic product - an unheard of figure for a major industrial nation.
In simple terms, if one thinks of the United States as a bank account, it is deeply in the red. Bankruptcy is only being averted because China and the rest of Asia are loaning money so that the United States can pay the interest on its massive debt. If the Chinese withdraw their support and the Federal Reserve is required to honor the 50 percent of bonds held by Asian nations, the United States and the world could go broke.
Martin Dillon is a best-selling author. His books include The
Dirty War, Shankill Butchers and The Trigger Men. He
is widely regarded as one of the foremost experts on terrorism
and intelligence maters. His expertise in this field has been
acknowledged in recent years by ABC and CNN, among other media
outlets. He lives in New York. See www.martindillon.net.
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Congress hopes to fix the Patriot Act, which expires in 2005, unless reauthorized. Numerous hearings are expected to turn out crtics from across the political spectrum who argue that certain provisions do violence to the Constitution.
Would Congress simply rubber-stamp the existing Patriot Act, which was rushed into law in the wake of the 9-11 terrorist attacks?
"Over my dead body," said House Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) The issue arose while Sensenbrenner was receiving the National Rifle Association's Defender of the Constitution Award.
Congress will consider restrictions on powers granted to federal authorities under the current Patriot Act. Critics say these include the power to search your home or office without a warrant or without telling you, to order libraries to reveal what books you check out and to arbitrarily infiltrate and designate organizations as terrorist groups.
President Bush called on Congress to increase spending on terrorism prevention efforts by nearly 10 percent. White House officials said the largest portion of the extra funds would include a 19 percent increase in Justice Department counter-terrorism programs, to $2.6 billion. This is so that the FBI can assign more agents to investigate suspected terrorists and increase its intelligence-gathering capability. Bush has urged congress to renew the Patriot Act "as is."
"The greatest responsibility of the federal government, and my first responsibility as your president, is to defend and protect America," Bush said in a speech at Roswell, N.M., a city best known for purported UFO sightings.
"My job as your president is to be realistic, to be open-eyed,
to understand there are still terrorists who are plotting against
us."
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A federal court has finally deigned to hear imprisoned former Rep. Jim Traficant's appeal of his conviction on corruption charges that Traficant - and his many supporters nationwide - continue to insist were trumped-up charges designed to discredit and destroy the outspoken Ohio populist.
During a recent hearing in federal court in Ohio, Traficant's lawyers asked a three-member panel of judges for the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Traficant's conviction to be overturned. A final ruling is not expected for at least several months.
In Traficant's case - unlike in the cases of most other public figures who have been convicted of crimes and allowed to remain free until their appeals are exhausted - a hostile federal judge, Lesley Wells, ordered that Traficant immediately be taken into custody at the time she handed down his nine-year prison sentence. As a consequence, traficant has been behind bars since July 30, 2002.
Since that time. Traficant has given only one prison interview to any newspaper anywhere, namely American Free Press, which interviewed Traficant on Aug. 2 from his holding cell in an Ohio jail, prior to his transfer to the federal facility at Allenwood, Pa.
"Yours is the only paper I've agreed to talk to," said Traficant who recognized that AFP was the only media voice in the United States to provide a full and accurate account of his defense against the corruption charges.
In contrast, the major media hyped the position of the FBI and the Justice department which deployed at least 60 - and perhaps as many as 100 - of its functionaries in a lengthy effort to "get" Traficant, spending millions of tax dollars in the process.
However, despite his imprisonment, Traficant still ran for re-election in 2002 as an independent, having bolted his lifelong home in the Democratic Party and won a respectable 15 percent of the vote.
Today, however, as Traficant remains in custody at Allenwood, federal authorities continue to badger the imprisoned former congressman who was known, during his years in Congress, as an outspoken critic of abuses of the citizenry by federal authorities.
"The federal Bureau of Prisons originally announced that Traficant's expected release date - assuming his conviction ws not overturned - was July 17, 2009. Now, for reasons which the bureau will not explain, Traficant's new release date has been extended by 24 days, to Aug. 10, 2009.
Traficant's attorney, Richard Kerger, said that he is unaware of the reasons for the change in Traficant's release date.
Traficant told AFP, in a letter written shortly after he was jailed, that he had been consigned to the prison "hole" for refusing to accept special "plum" prison work assignments ahead of other prisoners on waiting lists for those jobs.
The Justice Department is seizing $770.50 each month from Traficant's congressional pension, not to mention an additional $50 monthly in funds from Traficant's prison work earnings. The money being seized is being applied by the federal authorities to the $15,000 fine levied against Traficant upon his conviction.
During his years in congress, Traficant racked up a classic record as a no-holds-barred populist who pulled no punches in taking on many sacred cows:
* Criticizing the Internal Revenue Service and calling for expanded protections for the rights of taxpayers under fire from the IRS;
* Taking a hard-line stand against NAFTA, the World Trade Organization and "free" trade;
* Urging protectionist measures to preserve American jobs and defend domestic industry from predatory global speculators;
* Tackling not only corruption inside the FBI and the Justice Department, but also personally assailing the integrity of former Attorney General Janet Reno;
* Attacking Wall Street wheeling and dealing and raising questions about the enrichment of high-level financial interests through the lending practices of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund;
* Accusing then-Vice President Al Gore of "trying to steal the election" in the midst of the long-and-drawn-out post election debacle in 2000;
* Calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from trouble-spots around the globe and questioning constant U.S. meddling in the affairs of other nations.
* Charging American policy-makers with treason for having given top-secret U.S. defense and nuclear technology to the butchers in Peking;
* Coming to the defense of Ukraine-born Cleveland autoworker John Demjanuk who was falsely charged by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Justice Department's Office of Special Investigations of being a "Nazi war criminal." Demjanjuk was cleared ironically by an Israeli court.
* Demanding that U.S. troops be sent to guard the Mexican border and prevent continuing hordes of illegal aliens - and potential terrorists - from entering into the United States; and
* Challenging one-sided U.S. aid and support for Israel to
the detriment of America's security and Middle East interests.
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The untold story of the thousands of injured U.S. military personnel now being treated for wounds in German hospitals can finally be revealed . . .
LANDSTUHL, Germany_While thousands of American military personnel have been seriously injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, accurate and timely information about the number of U.S. casualties is not being provided by the mass media or the Pentagon. Unlike the war in Vietnam, images of wounded U.S. soldiers from Iraq are rarely seen.
The Pentagon first released U.S. casualty figures from Iraq on July 9, 2003_four months into the conflict. Today, current Pentagon figures do not include casualties from the worldwide war on terror, or the conflict in Afghanistan.
Atop a densely wooded hill overlooking this small town near the French border lies the sprawling Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC), where some 12,000 U.S. service men and women have been brought to receive primary medical treatment before being flown to military hospitals in the United States.
LRMC with its numerous wings and annexes is the medical center for 60,000 U.S. military personnel in the Kaiserslautern area and provides tertiary level care for 300,000 Americans in the European Command area, according to Marie Shaw, spokeswoman for the hospital. Tertiary care is hospital care requiring highly specialized skills, technology or support services.
Landstuhl handles wounded soldiers for all coalition member countries and has treated injured personnel from 40 nations. Built in 1938 as the campus of the Adolf Hitler School for Youth, the hospital is now the largest American hospital outside the United States and serves as the primary medical treatment center for casualties of U.S. operations within Europe, Southwest Asia and the Middle East.
U.S. bases in this area, which is known as the Pfalz, include Ramstein Air Base and Landstuhl. These were built in the early 1950s after an agreement was signed between the French High Commissioner - in the French occupied area - and the U.S. government.
Local officials and historians are unaware of the Franco-American agreement that originally provided the legal basis for U.S. bases in this southwest region of Germany.
"Nobody really knew what was going on," commented the director of Ramstein's museum on the agreement that preceded the construction of the U.S. bases in the area.
LRMC and Ramstein Air Base pay no taxes and make no direct contribution to the local government although they have large populations and occupy huge tracts of land.
According to spokesperson Marie Shaw, most of the U.S. casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan pass through Landstuhl. The most common injuries are from shrapnel. But an unknown number of casualties are flown directly to the United States.
Wounded U.S. personnel are airlifted from combat support hospitals in Baghdad for an 8-hour ride to Ramstein on C-141 aircraft and then bussed three miles to Landstuhl.
During the first Gulf War, from 1990-1991, LRMC treated 4,000 American casualties. The invasion and occupation of Iraq, called Operation Iraqi Freedom, and the worldwide "war on terror" begun in Afghanistan, or Operation Enduring Freedom, have resulted in three times as many - some 12,000 service members - being evacuated to Landstuhl and repatriated for medical treatment.
Lt. Col. Richard Jordan, a physician, who directs the Deployed Warrior Medical Management Center at Landstuhl, oversees the coordination of all medical evacuations from the Middle East. I interviewed him in his hospital office on Feb. 5 and he told me the following:
"Since the first plane arrived from Iraq on March 16, 2003, we have evacuated 11,400. We've been very busy. The most we had in one day was 168 [wounded]. We have had 60-hour weeks. We're saving lives."
Asked about the most common kind of injuries among the wounded-in-action soldiers, he replied that, "blast injuries are far and away the most common."
He pointed out that Kevlar vests worn by U.S. troops in the field protected the torso and soldiers, who would otherwise have been killed in previous conflicts in which body armor was not available, had survived. Nonetheless, they were still left with serious limb and face wounds.
He also revealed that about 30 percent of the evacuated military personnel were currently being returned to duty and of the 30-40 service members currently being evacuated to Landstuhl every day, about 10 to 12 percent had been wounded-in-action.
Slobodan Jazarevic, a trauma and vascular surgeon, is a member of the Florida National Guard who has served in Iraq and is currently working at LRMC. He told me that injuries were devastating.
He left his practice in Palm Beach to serve what he calls the "just cause" in Iraq and Landstuhl.
For Maj. David A. Johnson, administrative director at RMC, it is not only traumatic but "our new steady state."
February statistics from the Deployed Warrior Medical Management Center show that 11,652 soldiers from Iraq and Operation Enduring Freedom have been treated at Landstuhl. Of these, only 1,232_roughly one in 10 - returned to duty; 10,420 required further medical treatment.
Ms. Shaw, the Belgian-born civilian spokeswoman for LRMC, confirmed that 90 percent of the U.S. personnel evacuated from Iraq and Afghanistan had been sent to the United States for further treatment.
When I asked her about the number of casualties caused by hostile action, she responded that LRMC did not keep records of the cause of the casualties.
She told me that LRMC currently has between 160 and 320 beds and a staff of 1,700 but has the space and personnel available to quickly increase its capacity.
"We had 1,000 beds set up during the first Gulf War. In 1988 when we had the Ramstein air show disaster we handled 580 casualties in one night," she added.
On the issue of LRMC provided psychological counseling for the seriously wounded soldiers and amputees, she pointed out that " time is very short" and most of the wounded are moved on to the United States in a matter of days. She admitted that amputees are still in a state of shock.
Casualty figures released on Feb. 3 by the Department of Defense from the invasion and occupation of Iraq indicate a significant gap with the figures I was given at the hospital.
Lt. Col. Jordan said Landstuhl had received 11,400 from Iraq, while the Pentagon has only reported a total of 2,996 U.S. wounded in the occupation of Iraq.
Jordan's figure of 11,400, however, represents service members "requiring medical care" from all causes, hostile and non-hostile. Reportedly, some soldiers wounded in action have been classified as non-hostile injured, e.g. when a truck rolls over or some other type of accident occurs.
For Operation Enduring Freedom, which includes all the countries other than Iraq where the "war on terror" is being waged - from Arabia and Uzbekistan to the Philippines - the Pentagon has released a figure of 107 dead. These Pentagon statistics did not include the wounded.
However, the government gives a figure of 522 killed in Iraq since President Bush unleashed his "shock and awe" devastation on that nation.
When AFP asked Pentagon spokesman Jim Turner why the Pentagon did not provide current statistics on the number of wounded in the global war on terror, he replied: "You are the first reporter who has ever asked."
Turner dismissed the claim that political directives from the Pentagon are being imposed to minimize casualty figures from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Regarding the discrepancy of some 8,000 casualties, Ms. Shaw told AFP that one should compare the hospitalization rates of a population the size of the deployment "downstream" with a city of similar size in the United States.
Asked about the seeming scarcity of images of wounded U.S. military personnel in the mass media, she said there were "plenty of them."
She denied there were Pentagon directives to prevent images of injured servicemen from reaching the public.
A recent straw poll done by National Public Radio found that
the American public had no idea how many U.S. military personnel
had been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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In the wake of President Bush's proposed "temporary" amnesty for illegal immigrants, Border Patrol agents have already reported a 15 percent increase in the use of fraudulent documents at the world's busiest land border crossing point at San Ysidro, near San Diego.
According to The San Diego Union-Tribune the bush administration is ignoring lessons that it should have learned from 1986, when Congress granted amnesty to millions of illegal aliens, hoping it would ease the problem. Instead, it became worse, and the number if illegal aliens entering the country grew significantly.
An editorial in the paper read as follows:
"It is disingenuous to think ‘temporary' foreign workers to Mexico or whatever country they are from after so many years of work. There has never been a temporary worker program in the United States, Europe or anywhere else under which all of the workers returned to their native countries. Indeed, many illegals who have crossed this nation's borders didn't do so to spend a mere matter of years in the United States before returning home. They planned to be here permanently."
The Los Angeles City Journal reports that in that city "95 percent of all outstanding warrant for homicide, which total 1,200 to 1,500, target illegal aliens. Up to two-thirds of all fugitive felony warrants (17,000) are for illegal aliens"
As far back as 1995, a confidential California Department of Justice report showed that 60 percent of the 20,000-strong 18th Street Gang in Southern California consisted of illegals. According to police, the proportion was actually much larger, and the situation has worsened.
Some reports suggest that the gang now works with Mexican organized crime on complex drug-distribution schemes, extortion and drive-by killings. Over the past two decades, its membership, comprised mostly of young illegals from Central America and Mexico, has increased enormously.
Newspapers and other journals published in other states along the Mexican vorder are also knocking the Bush immigration proposals.
Newspapers in Arizona are reporting that thousands of illegals from Central and South America are being released into U.S. towns and cities almost immediately after being picked up by the Border Patrol because it is incapable of dealing with them for extended periods.
Border Patrol officers told AFP that they have been given orders to release captured illegals from countries other than Mexico, because most Central and South American countries have refused to take them back.
Often, the border Patrol releases them after giving them written instructions to appear at deportation hearing. Border Patrol officers say that the effort is futile and about 86 percent of the illegals simply never show up at hearings.
According to Border Watch, the newsletter of the American Immigration Control Foundation, 5 to 6 million illegal aliens in the United States commit serious crimes, costing taxpayers an estimated $1.3 billion annually to keep them in local and federal prisons.
In a 1994 report, Donald L. Huddle, professor emeritus of economics at Rice University in Houston, said that immigration problems were costing the U.S. taxpayer more than $45 billion. He predicted that from 1993 to 2002 the "net cost to taxpayers of all immigrants will total over $450 billion."
According to Leon bouvier, a Talane University demographer,
Huddle's prediction was conservative. Bouvier had predicted a
yearly influx for the 1990s of 1.5 million legal and illegal immigrants.
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Mrs Ellen Mariani is that rare individual of principle who is not afraid to stand up for truth and justice, even if doing so means to take on the might and power of the federal government and some of its most powerful officials.
A resident of Derry, N.H., Mrs. Mariani lost her husband Neil on Sept. 11, 2001, when he was killed aboard Boston-to-California United Airlines flight 175, as it crashed into one of the world Trade Center towers. It was the second "hijacked" plane to crash into the WTC.
The federal government's "September 11 Victim Compensation Fund" offered settlements, ranging from $250,000 to 6.6 million to the victims; survivors, including Mrs Mariani, but she refused it. She certainly could have used such a settlement, because Neil, a retired salesman, carried no life insurance and had meager savings.
If she had taken a settlement, however, she would have lost both her right to sue the government and her ability to force federal officials to answer serious and troubling questions she had about the attacks on the WTC.
Mrs. Mariani, like American Free Press, has called for an independent investigation of 9-11. In its special investigative report AFP asks 50 important questions about the cover up of 9-11. This 20-page report is must reading for a better understanding of the events of Sept.11.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed the Roberts Commission 11 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, and President Johnson appointed the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy seven days later. But President Bus took some three years to appoint a 9-11 investigating commission.
On Nov. 26, 2003, Mrs. Mariani filed a RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.) Lawsuit against President Bush and key members of his government.
Mrs. Mariani's present attorney, Philip J. Berg said, "I addition to President Bush, Mariani's lawsuit also names Vice President Cheney, Attorney General John Ashcroft, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the Department of Defense and the CIA, The National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the Council on Foreign Relations."
In a lengthy and detailed open letter to President Bush, Mrs. Mariani tells the president that he "should be held responsible and liable for any and all acts that were committed to aid in any ‘cover-up' of the tragic events of September 11, 2001."
She asserts that Bush failed to have his staff issue an emergency warning on an impending attack. He was over a period of months, advised of the coming attack by daily intelligence briefings. By not informing the public, he violated his oath of office to uphold and defend the Constitution. After being informed of the actual attack, he continued on with business as usual.
And she concludes that the families of 9-11 victims need to have the answers to the following questions:
* Why were 29 pages of the 9-11 committee report personally censored at your request?
* Where are the "black boxes" from flight 11 and flight 175? Where are the "voice recorders" from flight 11 and flight 175?
* Why can't we gain access to the complete air traffic control records for flight 11 and flight 175?
* Where are the airport surveillance tapes that show the passengers boarding the doomed flights?
* Why did your brother Jeb, the governor of Florida, go to the offices of the Hoffman Aviation School and order that flight records and files be removed? These files were then put on a C130 government cargo plane and flown out of the country. Where were they taken, and who ordered it done?
* As if to prove its corruption, the so-called major media of America has been silent on the causes of 9-11 and on Mrs. Mariani's plight. Her story is important and significant. Although her story is skillfully told by the Dover Democrat and was picked up by the Associated Press, it has apparently been completely neglected by the mainstream press.
This is a story with national impact similar to other stories such as those on the annual secret meeting of the Bilderberg group. The big news about Bilderberg meetings and Mrs. Mariani's suit is carried locally because local townspeople know about the events and they assume that the rest of the American media reports on it, too. However, all national and international news of bilderberg meeting is routinely spiked by the subversive forces that control the press.
For even more insight into 9-11, purchase AFP's special 20
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Former high officials of the CIA and State Department and a former congressman have called on Congress to censure President George W. Bush for misleading the nation into war. Such an action would be the harshest punishment possible, short of impeachment.
"This is not about a failure in intelligence_it's a failure of integrity," Tom Andrews, national director of Win Without War and a former congressman from Maine, said during a Washington press conference Feb. 10.
Andrews was joined by a former CIA analyst and a State Department terrorism expert.
"Each day new evidence dribbles out that the president knew," Andrews said. "He knew the evidence wasn't sufficient to support his claims that Iraq posed an `imminent threat' to the American people."
The White House said Bush never said Iraq "was" an imminent threat but action was necessary to "prevent" Iraq from becoming an "imminent threat."
However, during the 2003 State of the Union address to Congress, Bush all but said so: "If this threat is permitted to fully and suddenly emerge, all actions, all words, and all recriminations would come too late . . . Trusting in the sanity and restraint of Saddam Hussein is not a strategy, and it is not an option."
Bush "knew that the intelligence community's assessment of Iraq's arms programs did not support the administration's pre-conceived notion that Iraq had chemical and nuclear weapons," Andrews said. "He knew better but he chose to mislead us."
"The president has created the worst intelligence scandal in history, falsely creating a case to go to war when no national interests were at stake," said Mel Goodman, who served at both the CIA and State Department under Republican and Democratic administrations.
"The reasons we were given for going to war were false," said Larry Johnson, who served as deputy director of the State Department's Office of Counter Terrorism and, earlier, for the CIA. He worked under Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. He contributed money and voted for Bush in 2000.
"The Bush administration engaged in a deliberate campaign of information warfare, which employed erroneous and misleading information as part of a broader strategy to build public opinion for an invasion," Johnson said.
Adam Ruben, of the grassroots organization MoveOn.org, said it collected more than 450,000 signatures in a week urging Congress to begin a process leading to censure.
"There should be consequences when the president of the United States misleads the people and the Congress," Ruben said. "Congress devoted considerable attention and, eventually, voted to impeach President Clinton for misleading the public about a sexual relationship. It isn't unreasonable to think that misleading the nation about the necessity of going to war constitutes an abuse of power of much greater significance."
Two parents of casualties also appeared.
"I want to know there was a good reason for what happened to my daughter and to all the others killed in Iraq," said Adele Kubein of Corvalis, Or., whose daughter was injured by a mortar round while serving with her National Guard unit.
"It's very difficult to accept the reality that my son
died in a war that was not at all necessary," said Fernando
Suarez of San Diego. His son, a Marine, was killed in combat.
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The secret society that ties Bush and Kerry
If Sen. John Forbes Kerry (D-Mass.) succeeds in winning his party's nomination, the resulting presidential contest between Kerry and President George W. Bush would be the first in U.S. history in which both candidates are members of the Yale University secret society known as the Order of Skull and Bones.
While the junior senator from Massachusetts has been the Democratic front-runner since his political comeback in the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary in January, little has been discussed about a tie that links bush and Kerry their membership in "Bones."
Although the media may occasionally mention Skull and bones, there has been little discussion of the allegation that its members, historically, have wielded a great deal of influence in U.S. politics. However, a recent article in Britain's highly regarded Telegraph calls Skull and Bones "America's most elite and elusive secret society."
The Telegraph article by Charles Laurence was entitled: "The secret society that ties Bush and Kerry.' However, the first significant book to analyze history of the group's sway on American society is America's Secret Establishment by the late Antony C. Sutton.
Sutton's book is unique in its analysis of the political influence of "the Order," as it is sometimes referred to and provides the names of the organization's members from its creation at Yale in 1833 until 1985.
No fewer than six members of the Bush family, none from the Cheney clan, and 15 from the Walkers (a family related to the Bushes) have belonged to this most secretive of Yale's senior societies.
Unlike other college fraternities, Yale's senior societies are geared to post-collegiate life.
CONSIDERABLE INFLUENCE
According to Sutton, the Order has held considerable influence at Yale University for over 100 years, and there are Shill and bones alumni who sit on the Council on Foreign Relations, Bilderberg group, and the Trilateral Commission. "A secret society within a secret society" is how Sutton described the role of Skull and Bones. And, in a New Yorker article, Joe Klein referred to Skull and Bones as "Yale's not-so-secret society."
And then there is the question of the secret society's links to the CIA. Gaddis smith, professor of history at Yale, notes that "Yale has influenced the CIA more than any other university, giving the CIA the atmosphere of a class reunion."
Skull and Bones, she claims, is "influential among the spooks" at Langley.
President George H.W. Bush, the director of central intelligence from 1976 to 1977, is one of many "Bonesmen" who held senior positions at the CIA.
In September, American Free Press asked Alexandra Robbins, author of a recent book about Skull and Bones, Secrets of the Tomb, If she thought the Order exercised influence within the U.S. government and the intelligence agencies. She had this to say:
"Four out of the nine current presidential candidates are Yalies. Three of them are Yale secret society men. I think that says a lot. It is staggering that so many of the candidates are from Yale, and even more so that we are looking at a presidential face-off between to members of the Skull and Bones. It is a tiny club, with only 800 living members, and 15 new members a year. But there has always been a sentiment at Yale to push students into public service - an ethos of the elite making their way through the corridors of power - and the sole purpose of the Bones is power."
She added that the elevation of a Bonesman creates opportunities for his fellow members. President Bush, a member of Dkull and Bones since 1968, has appointed 10 members to his administration, including the head of the Securities and Exchange commission. The elder Bush is also a Bonesman since 1948, as was his father, Prescott Sheldon bush since 1917. Among Bonesmen George H.W. bush is known by the codename "Magog."
"You both were members of the Skull and Bones; what does that tell us? Kerry was asked during a recent television interview.
"Yup. Not much." he replied.
AVOID THE ISSUE
A number of mainstream media outlets have avoided the issue of Skull and Bones and a recent cover story in Time magazine, entitled "What Kind of President Would John Kerry Be?" carefully avoided mentioning the secret society by name.
"Which Kerry will America come to see," Times asked, "the one in preppie duck boots, shaped by a Swiss boarding school and a Yale secret society? Or the one in sweats and khaki, baptized in the Mekong Delta?"
However, it's not that the writers at Time are unaware of Skull and Bones. Time and Life magazines were both founded by Henry R. Luce, a Bonesman from the class of 1920.
Although Kerry has said very little about is membership in Skull and Bones, it has played a very significant role in his life. During his final year at Yale in 1966, he was tapped to join the Order and, along with two Bonesmen in his class, Richard W. Pershing and David Hoadley Thorne, later fought in Vietnam. Pershing, whose grandfather was World War I Gen. John Pershing, died in the Tet offensive.
In 1970, Kerry married Thorn's twin sister, Julia Stimson Thorne, with whom he has two daughters. Julia Stimson Thorn, with whom he has two daughters. Julia suffered from' severe depression," and in 1982 the couple separated and divorced. In 1995, he married Maria Teresa Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira, widow of Henry John Heinz III. Heinz, a U.S. senator (R;CFR) from Pennsylvania and heir to the ketchup fortune, was killed in an aviation accident in 1991. Henry J. Heinz II, the senator's father, became a Bonesman in 1931.
Christopher Bollyn is a much-traveled international journalist
currently based in Berlin, serving as European bureau chief for
American Free Press. He has written extensively on a wide variety
of subjects including the controversy surrounding computerized
voting systems. The Arab-Israeli conflict and the many unanswered
questions surrounding the 9-11 terrorist attacks.
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HR 3439 IH
108th CONGRESS
To promote the sharing of personnel between federal law enforcement agencies and other public law enforcement agencies and for other purposes.
SEC. 4. DETAIL PROGRAM FOR STATE AND LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT PERSONNEL TO THE CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY.
The Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 (50 U.S.C. 403a et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following new section:
DETAIL OF EMPLOYEES WITH STATE AND LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
Sec. 23. (a) DETAIL-Notwithstanding any other provision of law-
(1) upon request of the head of state or local law enforcement agency, the director of Central Intelligence may detail any employee within the Central Intelligence Agency to that state or local law enforcement agency on a nonreimbursable basis; and
(2) subject to the approval of the director of Central Intelligence, the head of a state or local law enforcement agency may detail any employee of that state or local law enforcement agency to the Central Intelligence Agency on a reimbursable basis.
(b) PERIOD OF DETAIL- Details shall be for much periods as are agreed to between the director and the head of the state or local agency.
(c) BENEFITS, ALLOWANCES, TRAVEL, INCENTIVES- An employee detailed under subsection (a) may be authorized any benefit, allowance, travel, or incentive otherwise provided to enhance staffing by the organization from which the employee is detailed.
(d) APPROPRIATIONS- (1) There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this section.
(2) Details under subsection (a) are subject to the availability
of appropriations for such purpose.
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