Frontline/World
Extraordinary Rendition

Tuesday, November 6, 10:00pm
CHANNEL 6 (KVIE)

The Season 7 opener examines the CIA's use of "rendition," in which suspected terrorists are interrogated in foreign countries where torture is common. Extraordinary Rendition, an investigation into one of the darkest corners of the Bush Administration's war on terror -- the CIA's controversial rendition and interrogation program.

Also: Ayurveda, a form of holistic medicine in India, is explored.
Time: Tuesday, November 6, 2007 - 10:00pm PST

From the Desk of Donald Rumsfeld ...
By Robin Wright | The Washington Post | Thursday 01 November 2007

In sometimes-brusque "snowflakes," he shared worldview, shaped policy.

In a series of internal musings and memos to his staff, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld argued that Muslims avoid "physical labor" and wrote of the need to "keep elevating the threat," "link Iraq to Iran" and develop "bumper sticker statements" to rally public support for an increasingly unpopular war.

The memos, often referred to as "snowflakes," shed light on Rumsfeld's brusque management style and on his efforts to address key challenges during his tenure as Pentagon chief. Spanning from 2002 to shortly after his resignation following the 2006 congressional elections, a sampling of his trademark missives obtained yesterday reveals a defense secretary disdainful of media criticism and driven to reshape public opinion of the Iraq war.

Rumsfeld, whose sometimes abrasive approach often alienated other Cabinet members and White House staff members, produced 20 to 60 snowflakes a day and regularly poured out his thoughts in writing as the basis for developing policy, aides said. The memos are not classified but are marked "for official use only."

Cheney Visits Hunting Lodge That Hangs The Confederate Flag

Last week, the Poughkeepsie Journal reported that Vice President Dick Cheney was planning to go hunting in upstate New York over the weekend. The paper reported that Cheney would “head to the Clove Valley Rod & Gun Club in LaGrangeville” on Monday morning.

Yesterday, Cheney spent eight hours hunting at the “secluded Hudson Valley gun club where well-heeled enthusiasts shoot ducks and pheasants.” It was his second visit to the club; the previous trip was in fall 2001.

Although Cheney did not shoot anyone on this hunting excursion, the New York Daily News reports that the trip still managed to stir up problems for the Vice President:

Nobody got shot, but Vice President Cheney still fired up controversy Monday when he went hunting at a private club that hangs the Confederate flag.

A Daily News photographer captured the 3-by-5 foot Dixie flag affixed to a door in the garage of the Clove Valley Gun and Rod Club in upstate Union Vale, N.Y.

Here's the Mp3 of Colonel Ann Wright's address to Sacramento City College from 12-1pm on 10/16/07.

AWright10-16-07.mp3 link here. (55:30)

AWright10-16-07.ra link here. (55:30)

Jacqueline Cabasso & Andrew Lichterman Will Discuss "U.S. Weapons of Terror"

(Sacramento) Is Iran a nuclear threat? Who is threatening whom? Two speakers will discuss these questions at a program, "U.S. Weapons of Terror, the Global Proliferation Crisis, and Paths to Peace," at 10 AM, Saturday, Nov. 3, at the Hart Senior Center, 915 27th St. in Sacramento.

Jacqueline Cabasso and Andrew Lichterman of Western States Legal Foundation, contributing authors of the new book, “Nuclear Disorder or Cooperative Security?,” have participated in United Nations disarmament and nonproliferation deliberations, including reviews of implementation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The event is free and open to the public; donations to WSLF are requested. The foundation, now celebrating its 25th year, seeks to abolish nuclear weapons as an essential step in making possible a more secure, just, and environmentally sustainable world.
Time: Saturday, November 3, 2007 - 11:00am PST

Blackwater: Not in Our Backyards
Schwarzenegger should never turn over the state’s security to mercenaries, even after an emergency.
by Patt Morrison | Published on Thursday, October 4, 2007 by the Los Angeles Times

If you turned on C-SPAN on Tuesday and thought for a moment that you’d punched in some all-action-movie channel by mistake, I can’t blame you.

What was coming out of the television? Talk of Christmas Eve gunplay in Baghdad. An Iraqi vice president’s security guard killed by a drunken off-duty private security contractor. The shooter was fired and quickly hustled out of Iraq. And live from the Beltway, a set-piece battle of wits between a glowering congressman and a resplendently barbered former Navy SEAL who started a business called Blackwater USA.

What? No Chuck Norris?

Blackwater founder Erik Prince at the hearing proudly defended his employees as “Americans working for America protecting Americans.” But a congressional staff report, drawn from Blackwater and State Department internal reports and e-mails, recounts derring-don’t stories of shootings and reckless road smashups. A brigadier general in Iraq, Karl Horst, has complained that security contractors “run loose in this country” and that the Army has “no authority” to rein them in.

Thursday, Oct 4, 8:30am, Mobilize Workers to Stop Police Attacks and the "War on Terror". ILWU Local 10 longshoremen were attacked by West Sacrmento police on the docks; a mass protest rally is planned at the court hearing, Yolo County Superior Court, 213 Third St., Woodland. Info: laborstopwar@gmail.com

Read more about this issue here: http://sacramentofordemocracy.org/?q=node/view/10450
Time: Thursday, October 4, 2007 - 9:30am PST

Interview With Investigative Journalist Seymour Hersh: "The President Has Accepted Ethnic Cleansing"
By Charles Hawley and David Gordon Smith | Der Spiegel | Friday 28 September 2007

Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has consistently led the way in telling the story of what's really going on in Iraq and Iran. SPIEGEL ONLINE spoke to him about America's Hitler, Bush's Vietnam, and how the US press failed the First Amendment.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was just in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. Once again, he said that he is only interested in civilian nuclear power instead of atomic weapons. How much does the West really know about the nuclear program in Iran?

Seymour Hersh: A lot. And it's been underestimated how much the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) knows. If you follow what (IAEA head Mohamed) ElBaradei and the various reports have been saying, the Iranians have claimed to be enriching uranium to higher than a 4 percent purity, which is the amount you need to run a peaceful nuclear reactor. But the IAEA's best guess is that they are at 3.67 percent or something. The Iranians are not even doing what they claim to be doing. The IAEA has been saying all along that they've been making progress but basically, Iran is nowhere. Of course the US and Israel are going to say you have to look at the worst case scenario, but there isn't enough evidence to justify a bombing raid.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is this just another case of exaggerating the danger in preparation for an invasion like we saw in 2002 and 2003 prior to the Iraq War?

Olbermann: Bush Used Bogus Terror Threat to Scare Votes for FISA Bill
By Logan Murphy | Crooks and Liars | Tuesday 25 September 2007

Playing the fear card
Click picture to watch video

Keith Olbermann has been tracking the Bush Administration's use of trumped up terror alerts to manipulate the American people for the past two years, but in this latest Nexus of Politics & Terror report on Countdown, it appears the president stooped to a new low by using a bogus terror threat that specifically targeted Capitol Hill to manipulate members of Congress just hours before a crucial vote on the FISA bill last August.

(Updated 2:20 pm with latest Senate vote count)

Senate Votes (76-22) for Lieberman Iran War Amendment -Feinstein Yes, Boxer No

I noticed that both Obama and McCain conveniently did not vote on this amendment. It's very disappointing that Obama did not vote NO on this amendment. We all know that Lieberman would love to bomb Iran and it looks like Feinstein wants her husband to make more money off another war, so she voted for it as well. Dodd & Biden voted against it, but Clinton, as you might imagine, voted for it. We can thank Boxer, Feingold, Byrd & Sanders for continuing to vote the right way. Click Read More below for full Senate vote. The full marked up amendment is HERE.

Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) called the amendment "Cheney’s fondest pipe dream" and said it could "read as a backdoor method of gaining Congressional validation for military action."

Feel free to call Feinstein's and Clinton's offices and let them know how you feel about them authorizing another war!
Feinstein - SF Phone: (415) 393-0707 | DC Phone: (202) 224-3841
Clinton Campaign office SF Phone: 415-255-7431 | Clinton - DC Phone: (202) 224-4451

The only slightly positive thing out of this is that the two worst paragraphs were taken out of the amendment. However, Bush (or the next Prez) will still use this as authorization to start WW III.
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/27197
--Bill

From Mike Hersh of PDA ...

Unfortunately, despite calls like the letter below and common sense, the US Senate today voted overwhelmingly to take a first clear step toward war with Iran. The Kyl-Lieberman Amendment is exactly as described in the letter from 25 organizations. Note Tim is there representing PDA!

76 to 22. It wasn't even close!

What are we going to do about it?

Will the US attack Iran? Why not a sense of Congress vote against it? Why not a public outcry against the next horrendous, illegal, immoral, self-defeating war?

How can anyone vote for a Senate resolution seeking international doom? This story isn't covered at all. That's why the neocons feel (know?) they can act with impunity. I'm tired of playing defense and I'm tired of arguing about how best to protest / end a war that should never have started. I don't want to spend the next five or ten years protesting against another war we should work together to prevent. What are we doing about it now?

Code Pink, the encampment against war in DC and others are already working on projects, but we have to come together and break through into the general public. It's up to us to galvanize opposition to war with Iran NOW before the drum beat drowns out all opposition. We're already hearing the demonization of Iran. The media are ready to pick up their pompoms and start cheerleading us into yet another war. It's impossible to play "catch up" after the "shock and awe" begins. By then it's way too late. What are you and I doing today to prevent war tomorrow?

We need to call our Senators, write letters to the editors, and get active. It's time for all sane Americans to join the call: NO WAR WITH IRAN! Let's get on with it.

Columbia University Shows True American Values
by Thom Hartmann

Columbia University, by inviting Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak, has shown confidence in the wisdom and adultness of their students and our republic.

Ahmadinejad is the president of a major nation in a vital part of the world, and we should have enough self-assurance and belief in our own system of government, and in the intelligence of our college students, that we can let them (and our larger public) evaluate his words, whatever they may be.

To be terrified of his speaking there (or, for that matter, laying a wreath at Ground Zero) is behavior one would have expected from a fragile régime like Khrushchev's USSR or Burma's military junta, not the bold, brave, and fearless USA.

"Screening of 'In Lies We Trust'"
World Premiere – First Screening! IN LIES WE TRUST: The CIA, Hollywood and Bioterrorism

Crest Theatre - 1013 K St., Sacramento - Downtown
When: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. film showing
Post-screening discussion with author/producer Dr. Horowitz to immediately follow.
Cost: All seats $10 at the door only

In this just released documentary, Dr. Horowitz brilliantly responds to the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services' and Homeland Security’s new feature documentary, The History of Bioterrorism, now broadcasting several times daily over the Dish Network. What Dr. Horowitz calls 'menacing propaganda,' and 'reckless irresponsibility,' is the film’s so-called history of America's involvement in the biological weapons race and conclusions of impending doom. In Lies We Trust details Dr. Horowitz’ piece-by-piece challenge to the misleading contentions and historical inaccuracies presented in this film. In Lies We Trust should be seen by everyone to better understand the revolving doors between government, industry, and academia, prior to consenting to forced vaccinations, injections and mass quarantines.
Time: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - 7:30pm PST

Chatter about an "incident" on West Coast at all time high
By Wayne Madsen | Editor, Wayne Madsen Report | Aug 23, 2007, 01:14

Chatter picked up by WMR's sources in the nation's capital and in California point to unusual events that could be a prelude to a 9/11-like false flag "incident" during the Labor Day weekend, possibly one focused on the San Francisco Bay Area.

The FBI in Seattle, as well as the Washington Joint Analytical Center (WJAC), have asked for the public's help in identifying two men spotted aboard Washington state ferries exhibiting unusual behavior. A number of ferry passengers have reported the two men showing strange behavior.

Two photos have been circulated showing two young "Middle East" looking men on board a ferry. The reluctance of the FBI to provide more details is reminiscent of the 2000 and 2001 closely-held government reports that a number of teams of between two and five to six young male and female Israelis, all veteran or reserve Israeli Defense Force members, were spotted casing federal facilities, oil refineries, harbor areas, homes of federal law enforcement officials, office buildings -- including the World Trade Center, bridges, tunnels, and military bases and airfields prior to and subsequent to the 9/11 attacks.

Sacto TSA confiscates pudding

Ah, the dangerous liquids ban. We're all so much safer because of it.

Reader Porter says he accidentally left his Swiss Army knife in his backpack as he went through the TSA check point, an all too common mistake.

Thankfully, the TSA agent spotted his package of pudding and confiscated it, missing the knife completely.

45480

For over five years, the United States has detained nearly 400 men in Guantánamo Bay without charge or trial. Conditions in this facility have declined precipitously in the last year; four men have already died of apparent suicides since its opening. It is time to close this facility and either charge or release the detainees.

To end the flagrant abuses of due process and human rights —it’s time to Tear it Down!

Habeas Corpus—an individual’s right to be heard in court—is the most basic and fundamental protection against arbitrary detention and other human rights abuses. Congress has taken it away from any non-US citizen or lawful permanent resident alien designated by the President as an "enemy combatant." For more than five years, men have languished in Guantánamo, unable to get any substantive review of their detention.

I ask you to become one of hundreds of thousands of Americans who will take the pledge to Tear it Down, to move toward ensuring that the United States reclaims our place as a moral leader for human rights worldwide, and to restore Habeas Corpus.

The U.S. has abandoned this rule of law. We have become a country that can hold people without charge, without hope and without end. I know this is not the America you believe in.

Please, sign the pledge and tear a pixel down: forward it to friends and family and have them tear a pixel down. Let’s “Tear it Down” and restore freedom and human rights today!

In solidarity,

Kevin Spidel

Saturday, Aug 11, 11a - 1p, continuing seminar on foreign policy and nuclear weapons, Hart Center, 915 27th St., Sac. All welcome. Info: 916-482-4627.
Time: Saturday, August 11, 2007 - 12:00pm PST

Thanks for the plug Norman!

From the Grave, a Senator Exposes Bloody Hands on Capitol Hill
by Norman Solomon | Published on Thursday, July 19, 2007 by CommonDreams.org

It was a chilling moment on a split-screen of history. While the Senate debated the Iraq war on Tuesday night, a long-dead senator again renounced a chronic lie about congressional options and presidential power.The Senate was in the final hours of another failure to impede the momentum of war. As the New York Times was to report, President Bush “essentially won the added time he said he needed to demonstrate that his troop buildup was succeeding.”

Meanwhile, inside a movie theater on the opposite coast, the thunderous voice of Senator Wayne Morse spoke to 140 people at an event organized by the activist group Sacramento for Democracy. The extraordinary senator was speaking in May 1964 — and in July 2007.

A typical dash of media conventional wisdom had set him off. The moderator of the CBS program “Face the Nation,” journalist Peter Lisagor, told the guest: “Senator, the Constitution gives to the president of the United States the sole responsibility for the conduct of foreign policy.”

Bush vs. the whales

One of the reasons to pay attention to the Bush administration's towering mendacity in its ongoing attempts to reconfigure the American political system -- particularly in its attempts to claim nearly illimitable executive-branch powers -- is that it doesn't just manifest itself in the prominent, well-noted ways. These include the ongoing claims of executive privilege in shielding itself from congressional investigations, or the White House's assertion of immunity from judicial review in such matters as military tribunals.

No, this madness infects everything this administration does, including its environmental policy. Witness, for example, what is going on this very moment in the administration's intent to deploy new high-tech sonar devices along the Pacific Coast as part of the ongoing "war on terror".

Special Operations Prepared for Domestic Missions

By William M. Arkin | June 22, 2007; 7:32 AM ET
Washington Post

The U.S. Northern Command, the military command responsible for "homeland defense," has asked the Pentagon if it can establish its own special operations command for domestic missions. The request, reported in the Washington Examiner, would establish a permanent sub-command for responses to incidents of domestic terrorism as well as other occasions where special operators may be necessary on American soil.

The establishment of a domestic special operations mission, and the preparation of contingency plans to employ commandos in the United States, would upend decades of tradition. Military actions within the United States are the responsibility of state militias (the National Guard), and federal law enforcement is a function of the FBI.

Unfortunately for all of those who want to see the School of the Assassins closed, Congress defeated the McGovern/Lewis amendment to cut the funding for the SOA/WHINSEC by a margin of six votes.

School of the Americas Watch
http://www.SOAW.org | 202-234-3440
SOA/WHINSEC Vote in Congress

203:214 = SOA/WHINSEC Survives Vote in Congress by a 6 Vote Margin

Last night at 11:52 PM, Congress defeated the McGovern/Lewis amendment to cut the funding for the SOA/WHINSEC by a margin of six votes.

The grassroots mobilizing effort was tremendous: Tens of thousands of emails, faxes and calls flooded the halls of Congress over the past three days. Students, clergy, union members and veterans travelled to DC and visited with hundreds of Congressional offices to communicate clearly that there is no room for institutions like the SOA/WHINSEC in our future. Despite this, 214 Members of Congress missed the chance to stand up for human rights, justice and democracy, and voted to keep the funding for the SOA/WHINSEC flowing.