Unlikely Terrorists On No-Fly List, Steve Kroft Reports List Includes President Of Bolivia, Dead 9/11 Hijackers

The former FBI agent, Jack Cloonan, knew the list that was hastily assembled after 9/11, would be bungled. "When we heard the name list or no-fly list … the eyes rolled back in my head, because we knew what was going to happen," he says. "They basically did a massive data dump and said, 'Okay, anybody that's got a nexus to terrorism, let's make sure they get on the list,'" he tells Kroft.

The "data dump" of names from the files of several government agencies, including the CIA, fed into the computer compiling the list contained many unlikely terrorists. These include Saddam Hussein, who is under arrest, Nabih Berri, Lebanon's parliamentary speaker, and Evo Morales, the president of Bolivia. It also includes the names of 14 of the 19 dead 9/11 hijackers.

But the names of some of the most dangerous living terrorists or suspects are kept off the list.

And yet 5 of the dead 9/11 hijackers are still allowed to fly?

- rob 10:09 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush - always taking the easy way out.

"it would be much easier if this was a dictatorship, as long as I get to be the dictator"
- George W. Bush

Bush signings called effort to expand power
Report sees broad strategy

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's frequent use of signing statements to assert that he has the power to disobey newly enacted laws is ``an integral part" of his ``comprehensive strategy to strengthen and expand executive power" at the expense of the legislative branch, according to a report by the non partisan Congressional Research Service.

In a 27-page report written for lawmakers, the research service said the Bush administration is using signing statements as a means to slowly condition Congress into accepting the White House's broad conception of presidential power, which includes a presidential right to ignore laws he believes are unconstitutional.
...
Under most interpretations of the Constitution, the report said, some of the legal assertions in Bush's signing statements are dubious. For example, it said, the administration has suggested repeatedly that the president has exclusive authority over foreign affairs and has an absolute right to withhold information from Congress. Such assertions are ``generally unsupported by established legal principles," the report said.

Let's be honest - Bush just doesn't believe that Congress has the right to do anything.

The Congress is annoyance.

The rule of law an annoyance.

Even the idea that Bush is only using signing statements on laws he views as unconstitutional (and if he views in unconstitutional isn't he oath bound to defend the constitution by vetoing it), is a lie.

Bush simply believes he can rewrite laws at will.

Such as this relatively innocuous example:

Bush's signing statement Wednesday challenges several other provisions in the Homeland Security spending bill.

Bush, for example, said he'd disregard a requirement that the director of the
Federal Emergency Management Agency must have at least five years experience and "demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management and homeland security."

His rationale was that it "rules out a large portion of those persons best qualified by experience and knowledge to fill the office."

From The Daily Kos Diary: Bush just did WHAT? You won't believe this....

Even if you think that is a bad part of the law - if you signed the law it is the law. If you think it is bad, then don't sign it.

Bush is using signing statements as a line item veto - and thus he's using the constitution to blow his nose on.

For the Bush administration the separation of powers only comes in handy when you want to avoid a question:

Q Well, what about the question about whether or not the President thinks that this issue has been handled properly?

MR. SNOW: Again, we're not getting into telling the House how to do its business. The most important thing to do right now, from our standpoint, is to talk about the important issues, and that's what the President is doing.

Q The President, he's the leader of the Republican Party --

MR. SNOW: I believe you were there for the briefing on separate but co-equal branches of government. The President understands --

Q I don't --

MR. SNOW: Well, it was sixth grade, maybe you skipped that day. (Laughter.) But in any event -- you know, it's where they did the "how laws are made," and all that kind of stuff.

Of course I guess Bush missed that day too.

- rob 10:07 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Time for another Olbermann comment. Make sure you go to MSNBC to read the whole thing (and make sure to rate it highly).

A special comment about lying - Countdown with Keith Olbermann

The president of the United States — unbowed, undeterred and unconnected to reality — has continued his extraordinary trek through our country rooting out the enemies of freedom: the Democrats.

Yesterday at a fundraiser for an Arizona congressman, Mr. Bush claimed, quote, “177 of the opposition party said, ‘You know, we don’t think we ought to be listening to the conversations of terrorists.’”

The hell they did.

One hundred seventy-seven Democrats opposed the president’s seizure of another part of the Constitution.

Not even the White House press office could actually name a single Democrat who had ever said the government shouldn’t be listening to the conversations of terrorists.

President Bush hears what he wants.
...
Just 25 days ago, on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, this same man spoke to this nation and insisted, “We must put aside our differences and work together to meet the test that history has given us.”

Mr. Bush, this is a test you have already failed.

If your commitment to “put aside differences and work together” is replaced in the span of just three weeks by claiming your political opponents prefer to wait to see this country attacked again, and by spewing fabrications about what they’ve said, then the questions your critics need to be asking are no longer about your policies.

They are, instead, solemn and even terrible questions, about your fitness to fulfill the responsibilities of your office.
...
And amid his quaint defenses of the then-nagging absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or the continuing freedom of Osama bin Laden, General Franks said some of the most profound words of this generation.

He spoke of “the worst thing that can happen” to this country:

First, quoting, a “massive casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western World — it may be in the United States of America.”

Then, the general continued, “the Western World, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we’ve seen for a couple of hundred years, in this grand experiment that we call democracy.”

It was this super-patriotic warrior’s fear that we would lose that most cherished liberty, because of another attack, one — again quoting General Franks — “that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass-casualty-producing event. Which, in fact, then begins to potentially unravel the fabric of our Constitution.”

And here we are, the fabric of our Constitution being unraveled, anyway.

Habeus corpus neutered; the rights of self-defense now as malleable and impermanent as clay; a president stifling all critics by every means available and, when he runs out of those, by simply lying about what they said or felt.

And all this, even without the dreaded attack.
...
Mr. President, these new lies go to the heart of what it is that you truly wish to preserve.

It is not our freedom, nor our country—your actions against the Constitution give irrefutable proof of that.

You want to preserve a political party’s power. And obviously you’ll sell this country out, to do it.

These are lies about the Democrats -- piled atop lies about Iraq -- which were piled atop lies about your preparations for al Qaida.
...
But if you stop -- if you stop fabricating quotes, and building straw-men, and inspiring those around you to do the same -- you may yet liberate yourself and this nation.

Please, sir, do not throw this country’s principles away because your lies have made it such that you can no longer differentiate between the terrorists and the critics.

- rob 9:57 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Hey - I've been offline much of the week.

Anything happen?

- rob 9:53 AM - [PermaLink] -

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image from boing boing (thanks)

See when we do it - its called a "technique" it still starts with a "t" but the next letter is completely different.

Waterboarding Historically Controversial - washingtonpost.com

Key senators say Congress has outlawed one of the most notorious detainee interrogation techniques -- "waterboarding," in which a prisoner feels near drowning. But the White House will not go that far, saying it would be wrong to tell terrorists which practices they might face.

Inside the CIA, waterboarding is cited as the technique that got Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the prime plotter of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, to begin to talk and provide information -- though "not all of it reliable," a former senior intelligence official said.

Maybe because waterboarding like other torture methods are used to extract "confessions" not the truth - that's why despotic nations love torture so.

Twenty-one years earlier, in 1947, the United States charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for carrying out another form of waterboarding on a U.S. civilian. The subject was strapped on a stretcher that was tilted so that his feet were in the air and head near the floor, and small amounts of water were poured over his face, leaving him gasping for air until he agreed to talk.

"Asano was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor," Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) told his colleagues last Thursday during the debate on military commissions legislation. "We punished people with 15 years of hard labor when waterboarding was used against Americans in World War II," he said.

Meanwhile Cheney has decided its probably best the Bush still thinks waterboarding is something the kids do in California.

- rob 9:46 AM - [PermaLink] -

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It is all a question of priorities:

Making sure you have a plan for Iraq after you win - nah!

Making sure you give the heads up to your lobbiest friends - check!

Abramoff Knew US Would Invade Iraq in March, 2002

From the newly disclosed Jack Abramoff emails.

From: Jack Abramoff
To: 'octagon1'
Monday, March 18, 2002 8:31 AM
Subject: RE: Sunday

I was sitting yesterday with Karl Rove, Bush's top advisor, at the NCAA basketball game, discussing Israel when this email came in. I showed it to him. It seems that the President was very sad to have to come out negatively regarding Israel, but that they needed to mollify the Arabs for the upcoming war on Iraq.

Read the post. A lot there - and a lot to be angry about.

- rob 5:55 PM - [PermaLink] -

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9/11 Panel Members Weren't Told of Meeting

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 — Members of the Sept. 11 commission said today that they were alarmed that they were told nothing about a White House meeting in July 2001 at which George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, is reported to have warned Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, about an imminent Al Qaeda attack and failed to persuade her to take action.

"Like one day, oh my god, some kind of short greasy guy was warning my that al qaeda was coming to america, and I was all like oh my god, like is that a european shoe designer, 'cause like you know that one time I was trying to buy shoes and everyone was like 'people are dying in New Orleans,' and I was like these shoes are to die for, so like you know I love shoes, so I was like oh my god al quaeda shoes are coming to america, but like then they told me they weren't a shoe designer so like I forgot the whole deal, like get real."

Rice: No Memory of CIA Warning of Attack

SHANNON, Ireland (AP) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she cannot recall then-CIA chief George Tenet warning her of an impending al-Qaida attack in the United States, as a new book claims he did two months before the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

- rob 4:47 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Okay, I'm not going to post again today about Foley, as there are more important things to discuss (such as lying into a war that killed thousands of Americans and tens of thousands Iraqis or not telling the 9/11 commission about the extent to which you were warned about the possibility of a terrorist attack), but I wanted to share this with you because it is so amazing that the culture in Congress is such that this all seemed okay to everyone:

AMERICAblog: GOP Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL) let Foley spend "a lot of time" with pages, including private dinner with one, after GOP knew Foley was a problem

Shimkus then introduces Foley. Read what Foley has to say to the pages of the 2001-2002 class in his speech wishing them goodbye.

FOLEY: John [one of the pages] was the highest bidder on lunch with Mark Foley. Maybe you all do not know this story, but John had paid considerable sums to dine with me. I had offered to take the winning bidder to lunch in the Members' dining room. Then I heard how much John Eunice paid. And I said, ``John, there is no way in the world after you committed so much money to have lunch with me that I would dare take you downstairs to eat in the Members' dining room.'' I said, ``Where do you want to go?'' He says, without reservation, ``Morton's.'' I said, ``Morton's? Like in Morton's Steakhouse?'' He said, ``Oh, would that be too much?'' I said, ``Oh, no, we'll go.'' I said, ``Call your mother, get permission, make sure she notifies the Clerk and we will go to Morton's.'' And so we proceeded to cruise down in my BMW to Morton's.

Putting aside the creepy notion of children bidding on dinner with an already-suspected child sex predator, what in God's name were Shimkus and the Clerk doing approving of Foley taking a kid in his BMW to a private dinner in downtown Washington? The GOP staff already knew that Foley was trouble. They had already warned the kids. Yet Shimkus let Foley spend lots of time with the kids, by Shimkus' own admission. And then they let Foley cruise the kid to dinner in his beamer.

- rob 4:41 PM - [PermaLink] -

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It is about protecting power
It is about getting the campaign money
It is about punishing whistle blowers

It is not about governing
It is now about America
It is not about Family Values

Today's GOP: It's about power. Nothing more and nothing less.

Review of Messages Sent by Congressman Begins

At the same time, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert asked the Justice Department on Sunday not only to investigate Mr. Foley, a Florida Republican who resigned on Friday after ABC News confronted him with the e-mail messages, but also to determine who possessed the messages that have touched off a furor weeks before the November elections.

Â?Since the communications appear to have existed for three years, there should be an investigation into the extent there are persons who knew or had possession of these messages but did not report them to the appropriate authorities,Â? the letter from Mr. Hastert to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said.

Of course the fact that he and many others in the Republican leadership know about these emails for months if not years is not the issue.

For Dennis the issue to be investigated is who finally embarrassed him and the rest of the GOP. This isn't an outrage anabusese of power - but it is a big political annoyance.

See Foley had a seat that was an easy win. Foley gave the GOP lots o' money. So he liked to abuse his seat and freak out (and maybe more) 16 year olds with sexually explicit instant messages - as long as he brings in a seat on the R side - who cares. Shameful.

Reynolds Knew, But Gave?

Reynolds's personal PAC, TOMPAC, wrote Foley a check for $5,000 on May 10, 2006. (You can see the filing here.)

According to the AP, Reynolds was told of the allegations against Foley "sometime this spring."

I put in a request to NRCC spokesman Carl Forti for a more precise date.

UPDATE: Also: On July 27, 2006, the NRCC, which Reynolds chairs, accepted an unusually large contribution of $100,000 from Foley. Hard to imagine something of that size just slipping past the chairman.

UPDATE UPDATE: It sure looks like Reynolds was aware of the issue by May.

- rob 4:33 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Simply Naughty e-mails

This is how entitled the GOP think they are. They are the ruling party. This would be a horrible terrible scandal if a Democratic Congressman did this - but it is a republican and well "republican boys will be republican boys."

This is a 54 year old man in a position of power to a 16 year old (in this case a boy but the gender isn't the issue).

Snow on Foley Scandal: 'Simply Naughty Emails'

SNOW: Yes, look, I hate to tell you, but it’s not always pretty up there on Capitol Hill. And there have been other scandals, as you know, that have been more than simply naughty e-mails.

The White House and the GOP in general are playing on the fact that "family newspapers" and broadcast stations won't really give you the seedy details on the communications going on. The irony is if the broadcast stations did have all the details discussed; there might be an issue with the FCC.

But they forget there is the web - and the web don't care about standards.

So here are some excerpts of some of the "simply naughty" communicatons between Rep. Foley (as Maf54) and the young page (in this case the communication is via Instant Messages):

Maf54 (7:46:33 PM): did any girl give you a haand job this weekend

Xxxxxxxxx (7:46:38 PM): lol no
...
Maf54 (7:47:11 PM): good so your getting horny

Xxxxxxxxx (7:47:29 PM): lol...a bit

Maf54 (7:48:00 PM): did you spank it this weekend yourself

Xxxxxxxxx (7:48:04 PM): no

Xxxxxxxxx (7:48:16 PM): been too tired and too busy

Maf54 (7:48:33 PM): wow...

Maf54 (7:48:34 PM): i am never to busy haha
...
Maf54 (7:53:54 PM): do you really do it face down

Xxxxxxxxx (7:54:03 PM): ya

Maf54 (7:54:13 PM): kneeling

Xxxxxxxxx (7:54:31 PM): well i dont use my hand...i use the bed itself

Maf54 (7:54:31 PM): where do you unload it

Xxxxxxxxx (7:54:36 PM): towel

Maf54 (7:54:43 PM): really

Maf54 (7:55:02 PM): completely naked?

Xxxxxxxxx (7:55:12 PM): well ya

Maf54 (7:55:21 PM): very nice

Xxxxxxxxx (7:55:24 PM): lol

Maf54 (7:55:51 PM): cute butt bouncing in the air
...
Maf54 (8:01:21 PM): i am hard as a rock..so tell me when your reaches rock
...
Maf54 (8:04:58 PM): love to slip them off of you

Xxxxxxxxx (8:05:08 PM): haha

Maf54 (8:05:53 PM): and gram the one eyed snake

Maf54 (8:06:13 PM): grab

You get the idea. These aren't just "naughty."

These are emails from a 54 year old to an underage page who may well worry that this 54 year old man in a position of power over him could ruin any future he has in politics (which he obviously has interest in, or else why even be a page) if he were to complain or alert the authorities.

And the GOP power structure did nothing.

GOP boys will be GOP boys.

- rob 12:42 PM - [PermaLink] -

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