https://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Threat of world war builds, Israel warns 19 Apr 2006
Israel has warned the United Nations that a new “axis of terror” – Iran, Syria and the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority – is sowing the seeds of a new world war. [The actual “axis of terror:” Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld.]
Carl Bernstein calls for probe of Bush –Journalist urges Watergate-style investigation in Senate 17 Apr 2006
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Carl Bernstein, who with Bob Woodward helped expose President Nixon’s role in the Watergate scandal, Monday called for the U.S. Senate to open a full-scale probe of President [sic] Bush’s conduct in office.
Chavez Begins Training Civilian Militia 18 Apr 2006
President Hugo Chavez constantly warns Venezuelans a U.S. invasion is imminent. Now he’s begun training a civilian militia as well as the Venezuelan army to resist in the only way possible against a much better-equipped force: by taking to the hills and fighting a guerrilla war. Supporters of the president, a former paratroop commander, are increasingly taking up his call. [Of course! *Everyone* can’t wait to sign up!]
Bush: ‘All Options on the Table’ With Iran 19 Apr 2006
Dictator Bush said Tuesday that “all options are on the table” to prevent Iran from developing atomic weapons, but said he will continue to focus on the international diplomatic option to persuade Tehran to drop its nuclear ambitions.
Lock him away to stop the next war –With his presidency reduced to a mess, George W. Bush may just decide to lash out wildly at Iran By Phillip Adams 18 Apr 2006
“We cannot wait any longer for the impeachment of George W. Bush. Far more efficient to have Bush certified. There is no need for further debate on his mental state. The US President is bonkers. Having turned the White House into a madhouse, having taken more lunatic positions on more issues than any head of state since GeorgeIII (are they, perchance, related?). GWB needs a long rest and a change of medication. And it shouldn’t be too hard to guide him into a padded cell.”
U.S. Envoy: Iran Sanctions Discussed 18 Apr 2006
A U.S. diplomat said Tuesday that envoys from the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany discussed sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program, but failed to agree on how to proceed.
Attorney Pursues Iraq Contractor Fraud –Lawyer uses Civil War-era law to go after firms for corruption, but Administration won’t help 19 Apr 2006
Lawyer Alan Grayson is waging a one-man war against contractor fraud in Iraq. Mr. Grayson has filed dozens of lawsuits against Iraq contractors on behalf of corporate whistle-blowers. He won a huge victory last month when a federal jury in Virginia ordered a security firm called Custer Battles LLC to return $10 million in ill-gotten funds to the government… There are an estimated 50 such cases pending against Iraq contractors, including large firms like Halliburton Co.’s Kellogg Brown and Root subsidiary. A technicality in the statute, however, has allowed the Bush administration to prevent the other lawsuits from moving forward.
U.S. Contractor Admits Bribery For Jobs in Iraq –Occupation Officials Got Cash and Gifts for Deals 19 Apr 2006 An American businessman [Philip H. Bloom] who is at the heart of one of the biggest corruption cases to emerge from the reconstruction of Iraq has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, bribery and money-laundering charges, according to documents unsealed yesterday in federal court in Washington.
Baghdad street battle smacks of open civil war 18 Apr 2006 Snipers held rooftop positions as masked Sunni Arab insurgents said they were gearing up for another open street battle with pro-government Shi’ite militiamen in Baghdad’s Adhamiya district on Tuesday. The Arab Sunni stronghold is still feeling ripples from overnight clashes on Monday that appeared to be the closest yet to all-out sectarian fighting.
On the ground, it’s a civil war 14 Apr 2006 The conflict in Iraq is not marked by front lines or raging battles between warring Iraqi factions. There is no Green Line separating sectarian militias, as in Beirut in the 1970s and 1980s, nor are there clearly defined armies and commanders. But by any measure, Iraqis will tell you that their country is embroiled in what amounts to civil war.
Iraqi Resistance Report for events of 17 April 2006. Translated and/or compiled by Muhammad Abu Nasr, member, editorial board, the Free Arab Voice.
Ministry copes with rising numbers of orphaned children 18 Apr 2006 Orphans in Iraq, who often lack protection, food supplies and medical assistance, require urgent assistance, according to officials at the Orphans Houses Department at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs. [Hopefully, the GOPedophiles at the Department of Homeland Suckyourity and TSA don’t find them.]
Aid agencies focus on children detainees 18 Apr 2006 The Iraqi juvenile justice system has suffered from neglect and disruption caused by 25 years of crises, according to officials at the UN’s Children’s Agency, UNICEF.
UN torture panel presses US on detainees 18 Apr 2006 The United Nations committee against torture has demanded that the United States provide more information about its treatment of prisoners at home and foreign terrorism suspects held in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.
Top Officer Ordered to Testify on Abuse –Use of Dogs to Scare Detainees at Issue 19 Apr 2006 A military judge in Washington yesterday ordered prosecutors to produce Army Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller as a defense witness in the trial of a military dog handler accused of abusing detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the first time a general officer will be compelled to testify in court about controversial [illegal] U.S. interrogation and detention policies.
The ‘American Inquisition’ By James Reston Jr. 17 Apr 2006 “Through the mist of time, the Spanish Inquisition has come down to us as one of the most barbarous periods in all of history… Clandestine trials, secret prisons, rampant eavesdropping, torture, desecration of Islam’s holy books, and gruesome public executions created an atmosphere of pervasive terror. Suspects were assumed to be guilty, with no recourse to a defense, to a jury, or to a legitimate court. In the chaos now roiling the Western world, does any of this sound familiar? It is time to ask whether the United States, with some of these same touchstones, is entering a period of its own peculiar Inquisition.”
ACLU Challenges Ohio Patriot Act’s Oath Requirement 15 Apr 2006 On Friday, the day the Ohio Patriot Act went into effect, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a writ in the Ohio Supreme Court challenging unnecessary and potentially dangerous requirements of the Act. The section of the Ohio Patriot Act in question requires anyone doing business with the state to sign an oath stating they are not terrorists, do not employ terrorists and has never materially supported terrorist groups. If the person refuses to sign the oath, they may not conduct business with the state. The ACLU’s challenge to this provision involves court-appointed attorneys directly, but the oath could be required of social workers, building contractors and vendors, among others. The suit was filed on behalf of lawyer Marc Triplett who objected to the Bellefontaine Municipal Court requiring him to sign a form declaring that he has not assisted or supported a terrorist-related organization as a condition of him receiving court appointments to represent indigent defendants.
F.B.I. Is Seeking to Search Papers of Dead Reporter 19 Apr 2006 The F.B.I. is seeking to go through the files of the late newspaper columnist Jack Anderson to remove classified material he may have accumulated in four decades of muckraking Washington journalism.
CIA mines ‘rich’ content from blogs 19 Apr 2006 President [sic] Bush and U.S. policy-makers are receiving more intelligence from open sources such as Internet blogs and foreign newspapers than they previously did, senior intelligence officials said. The new Open Source Center (OSC) at CIA headquarters recently stepped up data collection and analysis based on bloggers worldwide and is developing new methods to gauge the reliability of the content, said OSC Director Douglas J. Naquin.
Big Brother is watching closer in NYC 18 Apr 2006 The New York Police Department has started installing the first of 500 security cameras in the city’s streets and buildings as part of a plan modeled on London’s video surveillance system.
Chertoff: U.S. Still Plans Passport Rule 18 Apr 2006 The Bush administration said Tuesday it still plans to require passports from all foreigners entering the United States by the end of next year, despite calls for a delay by some Republicans worried about strained relations with Canada.
Foreign group taking over Indiana Toll Road 16 Apr 2006 In the biggest highway privatization deal in U.S. history, state officials last week signed an agreement to turn the 157-mile Indiana Toll Road over to a foreign consortium [Spanish-Australian consortium Cintra-Macquarie] that will operate it for a profit for the next 75 years.
Senate Hearings on Bush, Now By Carl Bernstein May 2006 “The ostensible subject: whether Bush should be censured for unconstitutional conduct in ordering electronic surveillance of Americans without a warrant. Raising the worse-than-Watergate question and demanding unequivocally that Congress seek to answer it is, in fact, overdue and more than justified by ample evidence stacked up from Baghdad back to New Orleans and, of increasing relevance, inside a special prosecutor’s office in downtown Washington… [I]t is essential that the Senate vote—hopefully before the November elections, and with overwhelming support from both parties—to undertake a full investigation of the conduct of the presidency of George W. Bush, along the lines of the Senate Watergate Committee’s investigation during the presidency of Richard M. Nixon.”
Bush death threat tied to Purdue University student 18 Apr 2006 A Purdue University graduate student was arrested and charged with threatening to kill Dictator George W. Bush, Laura Bush, Vice pResident Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense [war criminal] Donald Rumsfeld. Vikram Buddhi allegedly posted his messages on a Yahoo finance board. A ‘concerned citizen’ [Reichwing maggot] contacted the Secret Service office in Dallas to report that a subject was posting threatening messages about Bush, according to the criminal complaint filed in Hammond’s federal court and unsealed Monday.
Bush Defector to Demolish 911 Lies On May 6 (rense.com) 18 Apr 2006 “The former top economist in Bush’s Department of Labor, Morgan Reynolds, will speak out on the 9/11 inside job at the State Historical Society, University of Wisconsin-Madison on Saturday, May 6th… Dr. Reynolds, who holds three U.W.-Madison degrees, and who is currently Professor of Economics at Texas A&M University, will present evidence that top Bush Administration officials orchestrated the controlled demolition of the World Trade Center, and the murder of almost 2,500 Americans, as a pretext for initiating their pre-planned ‘long war’ in the Middle East.”
Cheney Tax Return Shows Katrina Tax Benefits for Non-Katrina Charitable Contributions By Michael Kirsch 17 Apr 2006 “It appears that the VP [sic] is a major beneficiary of the Hurricane Katrina tax relief act. In particular, he claimed $6.8 million of charitable deductions, which is 77% of his AGI — well in excess of the 50% limitation that would have applied absent the Katrina legislation. The press release indicates that the charitable contribution reflects the amount of net proceeds from an independent administrator’s exercise of the VP’s Halliburton options — apparently, the VP had agreed back in 2001 that he would donate the net proceeds from the options to charities once they were exercised.”
Democrats sue Alaska for election records 18 Apr 2006 The Alaska Democratic Party sued state elections officials Tuesday, asking the court to order the release of electronic voting records from the 2004 statewide election. In the 2004 presidential ‘election,’ district-by-district counts show 292,268 votes cast for George Bush, but the statewide summary shows 190,889 votes. A total of the district tallies showed U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski receiving 226,992 votes, while the statewide summary showed her getting 149,446 votes.
Sen. Santorum Banks $9M for Pa. Race 17 Apr 2006 Republican Sen. Rick Santorum, considered one of the most vulnerable incumbents, raised more than $3 million in the first three months of the year and has a 2-to-1 cash advantage over his leading Democratic opponent.
‘No Child’ Law Raises Segregation Fear 18 Apr 2006 (Hartford, CT) The oldest public school in one of the nation’s oldest cities, Henry C. Dwight Elementary School finds itself at the center of a growing national debate over whether the nation’s newest education experiment is – unexpectedly – encouraging school segregation. That’s because the No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to demonstrate that students in specific racial, social and economic groups are making annual progress.
PHEAA’s secrets / The aid agency spurns the public on disclosure (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) 18 Apr 2006 “Meet PHEAA [Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency] — student-aid source, recipient of $420 million a year in public dollars, agency with 16 Pennsylvania legislators on its 21-member board and, oh yes, withholder of public documents… The Patriot-News of Harrisburg reported last year that PHEAA had spent $885,000 on trips to resorts in California’s Napa Valley, Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Virginia and West Virginia. A trip last June to Nemacolin Woodlands Resort in Fayette County cost $135,000 to treat [?!?] 70 people, including 10 legislators on the PHEAA board.”
Panel to Propose Exceptions to Governance Rules 19 Apr 2006 An influential advisory committee appointed by the Securities and Exchange Commission is about to formally propose that thousands of smaller companies be exempted from significant parts of the four-year-old law that imposed significant new auditing rules on corporate America.
Crude touches Nymex high at $70.55 a barrel 18 Apr 2006 Crude-oil futures rose to their highest-ever level on the New York Mercantile Exchange early Tuesday amid ‘continued concerns about the nuclear standoff between Iran and the west’ [corpora-terrorists’ greed]. [See: Exxon Chairman Gets $400 Million Retirement Package Amid Soaring Gas Prices –Exxon Made Record Profits in 2005 14 Apr 2006]
Energy stocks soar on $71 oil 18 Apr 2006 Oil and gas stocks set a blistering pace Tuesday, extending their rally into a second session as crude oil futures topped $71 a barrel for the first time.
As oil prices soar, Exxon defends Raymond’s $400m farewell 18 Apr 2006 Exxon was forced to defend a near $400m (£230m) retirement package for its outgoing chairman Lee Raymond yesterday as rumours of a shareholder backlash grew. The oil giant made record profits of $36bn last year…
Democrats blast Bush for runaway gasoline prices 18 Apr 2006 Democrats on Tuesday accused President [sic] George W. Bush of an “absence of leadership” for failing to slow the rapid rise of US gasoline (petrol) prices, which now have breached the three dollars per gallon mark in parts of the country.
Scientists condemn US as emissions of greenhouse gases hit record level 19 Apr 2006 The United States emitted more greenhouse gases in 2004 than at any time in history, confirming its status as the world’s biggest polluter.
Gore movie puts heat on Bush By Richard Cohen “‘An Inconvenient Truth’ is a cinematic version of the lecture that [Al] Gore has given for years warning of the dangers of global warming. The case Gore makes is worthy of sleepless nights: Our Earth is in extremis. It’s not just that polar bears are drowning because they cannot reach receding ice floes or that ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro’ will exist someday only as a Hemingway short story. It’s rather that Hurricane Katrina is not past, but prologue.”
[18 Apr lead stories:] Sunni District in Baghdad Is Sealed Off 18 Apr 2006 American and Iraqi troops sealed off one of Baghdad’s most prominent Sunni Arab neighborhoods on Monday after a night of raging gun battles that left homes and storefronts riddled with bullets and at least one civilian dead, Iraqi officials and witnesses said. A leading Sunni Arab political group, the Iraqi Islamic Party, released a statement on Monday calling for calm and saying that a “human disaster might occur.”
Iraqi women’s plight worsens By Bonnie Erbe 17 Apr 2006 “A new poll of leaders of Iraqi women’s-rights groups finds that women were treated better and their civil rights were more secure under deposed President Saddam Hussein than under the faltering and increasingly sectarian U.S.-installed government… The report says more men are ordering women to ‘take the veil’ (wear coverings from head to toe), and fewer women are working in professional jobs than when Saddam was in power.”
Supreme Court rejects appeal from Guantanamo detainees 17 Apr 2006 The Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday from two Chinese Muslims who were mistakenly captured as ‘enemy combatants’ more than four years ago and are still being held at the U.S. prison in Cuba… Previously, a federal judge said the detention of the ethnic Uighurs in Guantanamo Bay is unlawful, but that there was nothing federal courts could do.