Mainstream Media, MoveOn, Ignored Iraq Veterans’ ‘Winter Soldier’ Investigation
Source: Irag Veterans Against the War, March 13, 2008
Kelly Dougherty, the former sergeant who is the executive director of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), announced on March 13th the start of the group’s three-day Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan investigation into the United States’ conduct of its wars, featuring testimony of scores of anti-war veterans. Dougherty promised that “No longer will public debate on the Global War on Terror be framed solely by politicians and pundits. IVAW will use the ongoing Winter Soldier project to … broaden and strengthen our strategy to end the Iraq occupation.” The Winter Soldiers at IVAW held a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington to kickoff their hearings, and luckily were not relying on the mainstream media who attended the news conference but then almost entirely ignored the three days of testimony. “Every minute of testimony will be broadcast live and will be available to watch in an online on-demand library.” The pro-war lobby, including Eagles Up, the Gathering of Eagles, Move America Forward, Free Republic and commentator Michelle Malkin condemned and protested the event. With the exception of Dennis Kucinich, politicians did not attend, and the major Democratic Party-aligned peace groups with multi-million dollar budgets, such as MoveOn and Americans Against Escalation in Iraq also completely ignored the riveting Winter Soldier testimony and failed to publicize it to the millions of people on their email lists.
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National Security Archive Update, March 19, 2008
Treasury Wins 2008 “Rosemary Award” as Worst FOIA Agency
National Security Archive Annual Award Cites Shredded Letters, Decade-Long Delays, and Sub-Prime Performance
For more information contact the National Security Archive staff:
Thomas Blanton, Meredith Fuchs, Kristin Adair, Catherine Nielsen
202/994-7000
http://www.nsarchive.org
Washington D.C., March 19, 2008 – As if the sub-prime credit crisis was not enough, the U.S. Treasury Department today won the fourth annual Rosemary Award for the worst performance by a federal agency under the Freedom of Information Act.
Given annually by the Emmy- and George Polk Award-winning National Security Archive at George Washington University, the Rosemary recognizes outstandingly bad responsiveness to the public that flouts the letter and spirit of the Freedom of Information Act. The Award is named after President Nixon’s secretary Rose Mary Woods and the backwards-leaning stretch with which she erased an eighteen-and-a-half minute section of a key Watergate conversation on the White House tapes.
“The Treasury Department has brought new meaning to the notion of sub-prime performance,” remarked the Archive’s director Tom Blanton.
”Instead of answering Freedom of Information requests, Treasury puts the burden on requesters to repeatedly confirm interest in their requests and actually destroys the original request letters the way Rose Mary Woods erased the tapes.”
On one Archive request filed in 1997 about the Clinton administration’s certification of Mexican efforts against drug trafficking, Treasury:
(1) repeatedly asked the Archive (in 2001, 2004 and 2007) if we were still interested (Treasury has sent the Archive 74 such letters for 42 different requests in the past seven years),
(2) asked for another copy of the request since the original had been “destroyed,” (Treasury has asked for similar replacement letters for other Archive requests 42 times),
(3) finally closed the request without ever processing a document, claiming so much time had elapsed that the records had been retired to the National Archives (Treasury has asserted such claims in at least 10 of the Archive’s FOIA cases).
Air Force was the recipient of the 2007 Rosemary for its status as an “E-Delinquent” in the 2007 National Security Archive audit of agency compliance with the Electronic FOIA, which found 139 broken links on the Air Force FOIA Web sites. In its latest Audit, ‘Mixed Signals, Mixed Results: How President Bush’s Executive Order on FOIA Failed to Deliver,’ the National Security Archive found that the Air Force has since made significant strides in improving its FOIA Web site and developing it into an effective tool for FOIA requesters.
The Archive presented the 2006 Rosemary Award to the Central Intelligence Agency for “the most dramatic one-year drop-off in professionalism and responsiveness to the public we have seen in 20 years of monitoring federal government compliance with the freedom of information law.” After this poor performance, however, the CIA received high marks for its E-FOIA performance in the Archive’s audit, ‘File Not Found: 10 Years After E-FOIA, Most Federal Agencies Are Delinquent,’ and for its handling of backlogged FOIA requests in the Archive’s latest audit ‘Mixed Signals, Mixed Results: How President Bush’s Executive Order on FOIA Failed to Deliver.’
Visit the Web site of the National Security Archive for more information about today’s posting.
http://www.nsarchive.org
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A war of utter folly
Responsibility for this spectacular tragedy must lie with those who ignored the facts five years ago
Hans Blix The Guardian, Thursday March 20 2008
The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a tragedy – for Iraq, for the US, for the UN, for truth and human dignity. I can only see one gain: the end of Saddam Hussein, a murderous tyrant. Had the war not finished him he would, in all likelihood, have become another Gadafy or Castro; an oppressor of his own people but no longer a threat to the world. Iraq was on its knees after a decade of sanctions.
The elimination of weapons of mass destruction was the declared main aim of the war. It is improbable that the governments of the alliance could have sold the war to their parliaments on any other grounds. That they believed in the weapons’ existence in the autumn of 2002 is understandable. Why had the Iraqis stopped UN inspectors during the 90s if they had nothing to hide? Responsibility for the war must rest, though, on what those launching it knew by March 2003.
By then, Unmovic inspectors had carried out some 700 inspections at 500 sites without finding prohibited weapons. The contract that George Bush held up before Congress to show that Iraq was purchasing uranium oxide was proved to be a forgery. The allied powers were on thin ice, but they preferred to replace question marks with exclamation marks.
They could not succeed in eliminating WMDs because they did not exist. Nor could they succeed in the declared aim to eliminate al-Qaida operators, because they were not in Iraq. They came later, attracted by the occupants. A third declared aim was to bring democracy to Iraq, hopefully becoming an example for the region. Let us hope for the future; but five years of occupation has clearly brought more anarchy than democracy.
…
Complete article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/20/iraq.usa
Hans Blix was head of UN inspections in Iraq in 2003 secretariat@wmdcommission.org
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IRAQ: ‘SURGE’ SETTING UP MORE VIOLENCE
By Dahr Jamail, Foreign Policy in Focus
The U.S. is arming all sides of the conflict in Iraq.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/80012/
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THE IRAQ WAR IS KILLING OUR ECONOMY
By Robert Pollin, Heidi Garrett-Peltier, The Nation
Recognizing the costs of the Iraq War is even more crucial now that the economy is facing recession.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/79988/
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WILL RUSH LIMBAUGH BE INDICTED FOR VOTER FRAUD?
By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet
As Ohio election officials investigate illegal crossover voting in the 2008 primary, questions arise on Limbaugh’s role.
http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/80392/
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The Political Context Behind Successful Revolutionary Movements, Three Case Studies: Vietnam (1955-63), Algeria (1945-62), and Nicaragua (1967-79).
Authored by LTC Raymond A. Millen.
http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pubs/display.cfm?pubID=851
The author examines the extent to which some states create the conditions for revolutionary movements to flourish. He explores how the governments in Vietnam (1955-63), Algeria (1945-62), and Nicaragua (1967-79) unintentionally empowered revolutionary movements, resulting in these governments’ demise.
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Foreign Affairs Committee to Investigate Passport Snooping Case
Foreign Affairs Committee to Investigate Passport Snooping Case
Berman Notes Abuse of Government Power for Any Reason is Unacceptable
Van Nuys, CA – Congressman Howard L. Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today issued the following statement about the revelation that State Department employees had improperly accessed the passport files of current presidential candidates:\
“It is unacceptable for a government employee to invade the privacy of any individual. We must guard against government abuse of power, whether for political or other purposes.
“The disciplinary action that the State Department has taken in this case thus far seems to be appropriate. The Department has affirmed that a senior, non-political, career staff member in the Inspector General’s office is now investigating.
“However, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which oversees the State Department, will also investigate this matter.
“The circumstances in this case may be different from the George H.W. Bush Administration’s snooping into Bill Clinton’s passport records during the 1992 presidential campaign. But it is worth noting that that earlier situation also was characterized as isolated and non-political when the news initially emerged. This time, as then, Congress will pay close attention to the depth of Executive Branch involvement in the rifling of presidential candidates’ passport files.”
Berman chaired the International Operations Subcommittee during the congressional investigation into the 1992 passport snooping case. The current chairman of the International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight Subcommittee is Bill Delahunt (D-MA).
www.HCFA.house.gov Foreign Affairs Committee
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Gravy Train Chugs Along – by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
As taxpayers calculate what they owe Uncle Sam this tax filing season, federal lawmakers calculated the tax and spending guidelines on a $3 trillion budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
This budget blueprint sets the stage for congressional committees to divvy out tax dollars that finance national defense, health care, transportation, education, criminal justice, foreign aid, agriculture and other programs.
The annual debate surrounding tax and spend policies typically result in plenty of disagreement among lawmakers. Likewise plenty of interest groups scout every opportunity to hop aboard the budget train making its way out of Washington .
Taxpayers deserve to know where their tax dollars end up once they reach the Federal Treasury. Voters count on their elected representatives to use hard-earned tax dollars wisely. That’s why I’ve worked to bring transparency and accountability to the federal budgeting process.
Last year I supported new disclosure requirements that would apply to congressionally directed spending, widely known as “earmarks.” Senators now are required to submit in writing the details of projects from which they seek federal funding and certify they would receive no personal financial benefit.
Once Congress appropriates tax dollars to fund roads, schools, medical research or food safety, I closely track the money trail. History teaches us that wrongdoers have long viewed the federal budget as a gravy train. Unscrupulous government contractors and subcontractors devise complicated schemes that fleece taxpayers and rob the public from receiving the full benefit of a fully funded program.
During debate on the 2009 federal budget, I put the U.S. Senate on record that overseas government contracts should be held to the same standards as domestic contracts. A proposal regulating government contractors would exempt federal overseas contractors from reporting contract abuse. It’s outright negligent to allow tax dollars spent overseas to evade the reporting requirements that could help deter fraud. My amendment leaves the door open for Congress to take action if this loophole isn’t fixed.
When I was first elected to the U.S. Senate, I launched a crusade to expose and eliminate fraud from government programs. Just as a sheriff depends on deputies to help enforce the rule of law, I champion the efforts of private citizens to blow the whistle on wrongdoers bent on looting the gravy train.
My updates to the False Claims Act in 1986 have allowed individuals to bring lawsuits against those who defraud the federal government and to keep a portion of recovered funds. Beefing up the Civil War-era law created the government’s most effective anti-fraud tool, credited by the U.S. Justice Department for helping recoup more than $20 billon to the Federal Treasury that would otherwise have been lost to fraud.
Riding herd on Uncle Sam’s money trail also has exposed banditry within the federal bureaucracy. My oversight has uncovered outrageous spending sprees by government employees abusing government-issued credit cards and the misuse of first class and business class air travel air travel charged to taxpayers by government workers.
Employees of the federal government are responsible for carrying out the people’s business. When tax dollars are lost to fraud or wasteful spending, a breach of trust occurs between hard-working taxpayers and the federal government. The same goes for the nonprofit sector which enjoys significant tax-advantaged incentives to perform good works.
Charities receive billions of dollars in tax breaks subsidized by U.S. taxpayers and may qualify for billions more in government grants, contracts and payments. Charitable organizations represent nearly 10 percent of the economy and the workforce.
Tracking the money trail within the nonprofit sector has uncovered examples of abusive spending that derail basic rules of good governance and fiscal integrity.
Since 2001 my investigation of tax-favored charitable organizations has sought to ensure these organizations uphold their charitable mission to the public and don’t take advantage of tax-advantaged status for the personal gain of their executives. My efforts to protect taxpayers’ hard-earned money and the intent of donors have included oversight work of nonprofit hospitals, university endowments and media-based ministries.
From my platform in the U.S. Senate, I will continue to conduct oversight to help derail raids on the federal budget that rob hard-working taxpayers and take the American public for a ride.
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Borowitz Report – Lewinsky White House Schedule Shocker
Lewinsky Releases White House Schedule
Heavily Redacted Document Raises Questions
Under pressure to reveal her precise contributions to the Clinton presidency, former White House intern Monica Lewinsky released her official White House schedule today.
Ms. Lewinsky hoped that in releasing the schedule she would put to rest nagging questions about her role in the Northern Ireland peace talks and the controversial NAFTA trade agreement.
But shortly after the heavily redacted schedule was released to the press, it became clear that the document was raising more questions than it answered.
“There’s no question that Ms. Lewinsky spent hours in the Oval Office, but it’s unclear what she was working on,” said Democratic operative Carol Foyler. “If she was in there supporting NAFTA, that could be very damaging to her politically.”
On the campaign trail, Sen. Hillary Clinton defended the many redactions in her own White House schedule, calling the alterations “changes you can believe in.”
Ms. Clinton said that if elected, “I will start redacting my new White House schedule on Day One.”
Elsewhere, CIA analysts said they doubted the authenticity of a new instant message from Osama bin Laden, noting that the al-Qaeda leader has never before signed off with “LOL.”
Andy in Montreal – April 8
Andy makes his first-ever appearance in Canada on Tuesday, April 8 at the Jewish Public Library in Montreal. 7:30 PM, 5151 Côte Ste-Catherine; admission free.
Andy’s Only West Coast Appearance – April 24
Andy makes his only scheduled West Coast appearance Thursday, April 24 at University of California, Santa Barbara. 8 PM at Campbell Hall. Tickets available at https://artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu
Andy with Susie Essman and Jonathan Alter – May 13
Andy hosts “Countdown to ’08″ on Tuesday, May 13 at 8 PM at the 92nd St. Y with his special guests Susie Essman (HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm) and Jonathan Alter (Newsweek, MSNBC). The Y is located at 92nd St. and Lexington Avenue. For tickets, go to www.92y.org .
http://www.borowitzreport.com/
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three thousand words
Tom Tomorrow: Pick a side Sparky!
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Steve Benson: gosh, It alomost looks alive
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Tom the Dancing Bug: the presidential mod squad
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