By special request.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/07/31/iran/

July 31, 2008 | Pundits and diplomats nearly got whiplash from the double take they did when George W. Bush sent the No. 3 man in the State Department to sit at a table on July 19 across from an Iranian negotiator, without any preconditions. When Bush had addressed the Israeli Knesset in May, he made headlines by denouncing any negotiation with "terrorists and radicals" as "the false comfort of appeasement." What drove W. to undermine John McCain by suddenly adopting Barack Obama's foreign policy prescription on Iran?

Soooo... they're going to talk about some of the bad things this administration has done (clearly not all), and do... nothing? Unacceptable. - Jon

Source: rawstory.com

7/17/2008

In a release Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) announced he will hold a hearing July 25 examining "the imperial presidency of George W. Bush and possible legal responses."

The word "impeachment" was not mentioned in the announcement, but it appears the hearing is going to examine issues raised by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) in his resolution to impeach Bush. A Judiciary Committee spokesman tells RAW STORY Kucinich will testify at the hearing.

Frank Rich is getting closer to the truth . . . I look forward to the day when he discovers and writes about the "war on terror" being a lie, a fraud, a hoax . . . and then REALLY connects the dots . . . And, Frank, the (9/11) crime is WORSE than the cover-up. --Betsy

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/13/opinion/13rich.html?th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print

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July 13, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
The Real-Life ‘24’ of Summer 2008
By FRANK RICH

WE know what a criminal White House looks like from “The Final Days,” Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s classic account of Richard Nixon’s unraveling. The cauldron of lies, paranoia and illegal surveillance boiled over, until it was finally every man for himself as desperate courtiers scrambled to save their reputations and, in a few patriotic instances, their country.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080709/ap_on_bi_ge/terrorist_surveillance

Senate bows to Bush, approves surveillance bill

By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 9, 4:38 PM ET

Bowing to President Bush's demands, the Senate sent the White House a bill Wednesday overhauling bitterly disputed rules on secret government eavesdropping and shielding telecommunications companies from lawsuits complaining they helped the U.S. spy on Americans.

The relatively one-sided vote, 69-28, came only after a lengthy and heated debate that pitted privacy and civil liberties concerns against the desire to prevent terrorist attacks. It ended almost a year of wrangling over surveillance rules and the president's warrantless wiretapping program that was initiated after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The House passed the same bill last month, and Bush said he would sign it soon.

Opponents assailed the eavesdropping program, asserting that it imperiled citizens' rights of privacy from government intrusion. But Bush said the legislation protects those rights as well as Americans' security.

At what point does "criminal negligence" become so extreme that it can be considered "complicity" beyond a reasonable doubt? Shenon attempts to put the "incompetence", "ignorance", "failure to imagine", "system failure" and "covering up incompetence" spin on what he reports while essentially supporting the theory that Al Qaeda outwitted the dimwitted and incompetent US intelligence and defense establishments, but even what he does say seems like grounds for impeachment hearings to me.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/they-knew-but-did-nothing/2008/03/07/1204780065676.html?page=fullpage

visit the link above for the whole excerpt, choice cuts:

"The warnings were going straight to President Bush each morning in his briefings by the CIA director, George Tenet, and in the presidential daily briefings. It would later be revealed by the 9/11 commission into the September 11 attacks that more than 40 presidential briefings presented to Bush from January 2001 through to September 10, 2001, included references to bin Laden.

posting this in full to preserve it for posterity. Counterpunch should be ashamed; they knew all this in June 2002 (presents a strong "LIHOP" perspective), and since then they've posted numerous hit pieces instead of doing the obviously sorely needed investigative reporting- although they have published stories on Sibel Edmonds, and one on the high-fivers.

http://www.counterpunch.org/weiner0601.html

The Bush 9/11 Scandal for Dummies by Bernard Weiner

Don't know about you, but all this who-knew-what-when pre-9/11 stuff is mighty confusing. So once again, I head to that all-purpose reference series for some comprehensible answers.

Q. I've heard all these reports about the government knowing weeks and months in advance of 9/11 that airliners were going to be hijacked and flown into buildings, and yet the Bush Administration apparently did nothing and denied they did anything wrong. They claimed the fault lay in the intelligence agencies "not connecting the dots," or that it was the "FBI culture" that failed. Can you explain?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2008/06/20080626-4.html

Executive Order: Continuing Certain Restrictions with Respect to North Korea and North Korean Nationals

White House News
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,

182 comments so far at ThinkProgress(sic)

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/25/hatch-compares-fisa-critics-to-those-who-wear-tin-foil-hats-and-think-911-was-an-insid...

Hatch compares FISA critics to those ‘who wear tin foil hats and think 9/11 was an inside job.’»
Speaking today on the Senate floor in favor of the Foreign Service Intelligence Act legislation, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) compared critics of the bill — which include Sens. Harry Reid (D-NV), Chris Dodd (D-CT), and Barbara Boxer (D-CA), among others — to deluded conspiracy theorists. Hatch mocked the what he called “onerous oversight provisions” included in the bill, and said those who raise the specter of unchecked executive wiretapping power “feed the delusions of those who wear tin foil hats around their house and think that 9/11 was an inside job.” Watch it:

Those “onerous” oversight provisions Hatch maligns? A ban on “reverse targeting” of Americans and a new requirement of probable cause for surveillance of Americans abroad.

Bush phone call Giuliani & Pataki, ABC, 10:59, 9/13

Bush press conference, ABC, 11:06, 9/13

"First let me condition the press this way. Any sources and methods of intelligence will remain guarded in secret. My administration will not talk about how we gather intelligence, if we gather intelligence and what the intelligence says. That's for the protection of the American people. It is important as we battle this enemy"

Excellent 8 minute video starting with Brian Haw and contrasting Bush & Brown smiling for the cameras at Downing Street while protestors get battered:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz9TpHbQGAM

Anti-war protest leaders have accused the police of unprovoked brutality during protests in London to mark a visit by US President George Bush. Prominent campaigners said scenes of violence in Westminster reflected a growing authoritarian clampdown on the right to peaceful protest.

Members of the Stop the War Coalition criticised the Government for apparently allowing the president's security detail to enforce a protest-free "green zone" around his Downing Street visit.

They said protesters suffered injuries including head wounds, cuts and heavy bruising as they were beaten by police with batons at barricades between Whitehall and Parliament Square.
VIA

""We must try to hold Bush administration leaders accountable in courts of justice," Velvel said. "And we must insist on appropriate punishments, including, if guilt is found, the hangings visited upon top German and Japanese war-criminals in the 1940s."

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/34171

LAW SCHOOL TO ORGANIZE BUSH WAR CRIMES TRIAL

By Sherwood Ross

A conference to plan the prosecution of President Bush and other high administration officials for war crimes will be held September 13-14 at the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover .

"This is not intended to be a mere discussion of violations of law that have occurred," said convener Lawrence Velvel, dean and cofounder of the school. "It is, rather, intended to be a planning conference at which plans will be laid and necessary organizational structures set up, to pursue the guilty as long as necessary and, if need be, to the ends of the Earth."

"We must try to hold Bush administration leaders accountable in courts of justice," Velvel said. "And we must insist on appropriate punishments, including, if guilt is found, the hangings visited upon top German and Japanese war-criminals in the 1940s."

The Bush story about 9/11 takes a hit from their ally the Washington Times- exposure of Saudi involvement in 9/11 is exposure of Bush family/administration involvement in 9/11.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jun/17/foes-not-friends/

Foes, Not Friends
By Frank J. Gaffney Jr.
The Washington Times | Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The United States is in mortal period from a false friend: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The peril emanates from the totalitarian legal-religious-military-political code the Saudis call Shariah and their assiduous efforts to impose it worldwide. The danger is enormously exacerbated by the almost-complete failure of American officials at every level of government to acknowledge, let alone act to prevent, the Saudis' true agenda.

Three examples are instructive:

Gravel: Cheney and Bush should be tried for war crimes
Supports NYC initiative for new 9-11 probe

By Peter Duveen

PETER'S NEW YORK, June 17, 2008--President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney should be tried for war crimes, former U.S. senator Mike Gravel said today. Gravel also said he supports a new investigation into the events of 9-11.

"He deserves to be prosecuted," Gravel said of Bush. "He and Cheney need to go to the Hague and stand in the dock." Gravel made the statements during an interview with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, a nationally syndicated radio program. The interview was aired today on radio station WBAI, based in New York City.

The Hague refers to the Dutch city selected by international treaty as the venue to prosecute war crimes. The dock is the place in the courtroom where defendants are seated in full public view while their trial is being conducted.

Bush and Cheney should be tried for their actions leading up to, and in the aftermath of, the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, Gravel implied. "What they did is criminal," he said. "Four thousand Americans have died as a result of their fraud on the American people."