CREW Files Complaint Against Rep. John Boehner For Possible Leak Of Classified Information

by- Suzie-Q @ 7:10 PM MST

Via CREW:

Today, CREW filed a complaint with the Department of Justice asking that the Counterespionage Section of the National Security Division initiate an investigation into whether House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-OH) violated the law by leaking classified information. Our complaint can be found here.

In a July 31, 2007 interview with Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto, Rep. Boehner disclosed an aspect of a Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court’s decision regarding warrantless wiretapping:

There’s been a ruling, over the last four or five months, that prohibits the ability of our intelligence services and our counterintelligence people from listening in to two terrorists in other parts of the world where the communication could come through the United States.

By telling a reporter that a FISA court has restricted the U.S. intelligence community’s surveillance of suspected terrorists overseas, Rep. Boehner appears to have transmitted information relating to the national defense in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 793(d). Read more…

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Democrats Introduce Bush, Cheney, Gonzales Censure Resolutions In House And Senate

by- Suzie-Q @ 3:40 PM MST

Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced resolutions calling for the censure of President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

Sen. Russ Feingold sponsored two resolutions in his chamber calling for the legislative action against the administration officials because of they misled the country in pursuing war with Iraq and have undermined the rule of law, he said.

“These censure resolutions will let future generations know that Congress stood up to the destructive policies of this administration that have weakened our national security, cost more than 3,600 American lives, and undermined the principles on which our country was founded,” Feingold said in a prepared statement.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) introduced companion legislation in the House.

“From misleading this country into invading Iraq to establishing a warrantless domestic spy program, this White House has continuously misled and deceived the American people while disregarding the rule of law that guides our democracy,” Hinchey said in a prepared statement. “The Bush administration has placed an extraordinary burden on this and future generations to recover from the damage done to our Constitution and national security.”

The nonbinding resolutions, which simply express the formal displeasure of the House and Senate, were viewed as not good enough by some Bush administration critics.

Brad Friedman, writing on his blog, said Congress should instead work to impeach Bush and Cheney. He noted that the charges outlined in the censure resolution “read like a swell description of Impeachable High Crimes and Misdemeanors” and said it was the “constitutional duty” of members of Congress to work to oust the pair from the White House.

“Then again, courage of conviction is not something Democrats are too often accused of,” Friedman wrote.

One set of resolutions, aimed at Bush and Cheney, condemn the pair for misleading Americans about threats posed by Saddam Hussein’s regime and the dictator’s links to al Qaeda and 9/11. The resolution also claims the president and vice president inadequately prepared for the invasion and its aftermath, stretching military forces thin.

Another set of resolutions says Bush and Gonzales should be censured because of their authorization of a warrantless wiretapping program, improper treatment of foreign detainees and their obstruction of investigations into the firing of US Attorneys.

The censure resolutions have 19 co-sponsors in the House. Both are co-sponsored by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA) in that chamber, and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) has signed on to the resolution regarding Iraq.

Developing…

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President Bush Wants Power To Immunize Telecoms That Aid In Spying On Americans

by- Suzie-Q @ 2:07 PM MST

Via The Raw Story:

The day after President George W. Bush marshaled political forces in Congress to grant him greater authority to engage in counter terrorism-related spying, the president stated that he would seek greater changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act when the legislative branch returns to work in September.

“While I appreciate the leadership it took to pass this bill, we must remember that our work is not done,” the President said in his Sunday statement. “This bill is a temporary, narrowly focused statute to deal with the most immediate shortcomings in the law.”

The President said next month he would focus on further immunizing private companies that cooperate with government wiretapping. However, he used complicated language to describe these activities.

“When Congress returns in September the Intelligence committees and leaders in both parties will need to complete work on the comprehensive reforms requested by Director McConnell, including the important issue of providing meaningful liability protection to those who are alleged to have assisted our Nation following the attacks of September 11, 2001,” he said.

One constitutional scholar derided Bush’s reasoning, particularly the tortuous language in his statement. Read more…

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid must find a way to corral rogue Democrats in Congress and stand together for the civil liberties of all Americans.

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All Options On The Table – Sixty-Two Years Later

by- Mentarch … 15:27 EDT

On August 6, 1945, the nuclear bomb Little Boy was dropped on Hiroshima, thus marking the first time a nuclear weapon was used in the exercise of warfare.

Since that day, we have gone through the frightening decades of the Cold War, whereby the Mutually Assured Destruction (M.A.D.) doctrine constituted the sole deterrent which stood between the world and nuclear Armageddon.

Nonetheless, sixty-two years later, the possibility of usage of nuclear weaponry has become higher than it has ever been – incredibly enough.

It is as if the words “9/11″, “WMDs” and “terrorism”, when weaved together, act as a twisted incantation which magically conjures up the materialization of “sound” justifications supporting the use of nuclear weapons – for wizard apprentices on both the right and the left.

And with the MSM embracing it all – almost gleefully.

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British Farming in Deep Doo Doo…Again!

Anthony @ 13:17

British Farming is in deep doo doo…again!

In 1995, some British cows contracted mad cow disease, which, allegedly, can be passed on to humans in the form of CJD, although it is fantastically rare. At the behest of the European Union, an organization we joined when it was a Common Market and before it had morphed into a European super-state and stepping stone, along with North American Union, to the New World Order, cows were slaughtered up and down the country and burnt in huge funeral pyres, and British beef was banned the wide world over. I, and many others, chose to support our farmers by continuing to eat British beef. Scare stories of an epidemic of CJD have yet to come to pass.

Then, six years ago, we had an outbreak of foot and mouth disease. The husband of one of my colleagues is married to a farmer, and I well remember her worries as, during a weekend conference we attended together, she was constantly phoning him to find out whether their farm had been affected. It wasn’t, but they are no longer in farming.

What is especially worrying about the current outbreak is that it may have been caused by a virus from a lab. I’ve posted two articles on the subject, one on the outbreak and its possible source, another on the whole issue of diseases being bred in our labs which is as pertinent to people living in North America as it is to people living here in the UK.

Of course, this is all happening on the other side of the Atlantic, but remember, next time it could be you!

(The picture above, BTW, is of Coke of Norfolk, a wealthy country gent who was a great fan of George Washington and who, along with many other Brits at that time (and since), supported the American Revolution. What a pity that everything the Patriots fought for is being destroyed.)

Cutbacks at Government lab could be responsible for foot and mouth outbreak

Farmers’ fury as the world slaps a ban on food from Britain

Daily Mail
Last updated at 11:57am on 6th August 2007

Cutbacks at the research lab at the centre of the foot and mouth outbreak could be responsible for the spread of the disease, it has emerged.

Conservative leader David Cameron has raised questions about the funding of the government laboratory and said farmers had “every right to be angry if they were suffering as a result of mistakes by others”.

According to a 2002 report by the government-funded Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, the Pirbright complex is in urgent need of investment.“

Some of the laboratories and other areas of the Pirbright estate are not close to the standard expected of a modern biomedical facility and are well below that expected of a facility of such importance,” the report said.

Mr Cameron said: “If it turns out that the virus was released either from the Institute for Animal Health in Pirbright or from the next-door lab at Merial – which, by the way, is inspected and licensed by the Government – it will be astonishing news, because the organisations responsible for stopping things like foot and mouth will effectively be responsible for starting it.“

I think the Government will have some serious questions to answer about the report which came out in 2002 that said the facilities were shabby and not up to standard.”

Mr Cameron added: “Farmers up and down the country are going to be quite angry because they have done masses to improve their own biosecurity and they are all suffering at the moment, apparently because of mistakes made at a laboratory which is meant to stop foot and mouth.”

Read More

The timebomb diseases that scientists are breeding in our labs

By MICHAEL HANLON
Daily Mail
Last updated at 23:07pm on 5th August 2007

The fact that a biological research laboratory was probably the source of the foot and mouth outbreak is, paradoxically, both hugely reassuring and at first sight very worrying. Reassuring because if the multinational firm Merial Animal Health Labs was responsible for the outbreak, then scientists will know exactly which strain of the virus is responsible and will have a vaccine readily available – indeed, the cause of the outbreak would have been the very foot and mouth vaccines that the scientists are producing in huge quantities.

What’s more, it will be known exactly where the outbreak began, and when.

Thanks to the prompt action by Surrey organic beef farmer Roger Pride (who should receive a medal for his vigilance), the source of the outbreak has been pinpointed immediately, reducing massively the chance of a nationwide epidemic. We might yet avoid a repeat of the terrible scenes of six years ago.

But the news is also worrying because it highlights the fact that huge quantities of viruses and bacteria are held in laboratories all over Britain which we have been led to believe are safe. They include germs which have the potential to cause economic devastation and much worse.

Read MorePorton Down: Many claims of ‘escapes’ by deadly pathogens

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In Bush we trust – or else

Sudhan@11:15 CET

BY John Diaz
Sunday, August 5, 2007

THE FIFTH AMENDMENT WAS WRITTEN FOR GOOD REASON: It’s dangerous to give the government unchecked authority to seize private property without judicial review.
The founding fathers knew that people in power were not always going to be reasonable or ethical – or competent.

It doesn’t require a subpoena of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or a brave whistle-blower to find President Bush’s latest affront to the U.S. Constitution. It’s in plain view on the White House Web site: “Executive Order: Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq.”

This far-reaching order of July 17 may be Bush’s most brazen defiance of the Constitution, which is no small feat for an administration that thinks it can set its own rules on electronic surveillance, torture, kidnapping, rendition, and the designation of “enemy combatants” who can be arrested on U.S. soil and held indefinitely without judicial review.

This one is a frontal assault on the Fifth Amendment, which decrees that the government cannot seize an individual’s property without due process.

Read the full story >>

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