Can We Pursue Terrorists Without Becoming Like Them?

clipped from www.alternet.org From torture to warrantless wiretapping, the Bush administration's approach to terrorism has defied legal standards at all levels. Maher Arar's story illustrates the key problems with the Bush administration's approach to terrorism and how it has defied legal standards at all levels. In the United States, the administration suspended key civil liberties. It imprisoned over 5,000 foreign nationals, subjected 80,000 Arab and Muslim immigrants to fingerprinting and registration, sent 30,000 "national security letters "every year to U.S. businesses demanding information about their customers, and justified the large-scale, warrantless wiretapping of citizens. It denied the right of habeas corpus to both American and non-American detainees and plans to continue to restrict the legal rights of terrorism suspects by trying them in military tribunals rather than civilian courts. At the international level, the administration rationalized the use of torture and rendition.

Israel: Time has come to demand Pollard's release; US envoy's foolish words

clipped from digg.com Nearly true. Tenet's supposed threatened resignation was a concoction dreamt up by Clinton and Tenet so Bill could appear to get out of the pickle over Pollard's release. Pollard's release was not as exchange for Palestine prisoner release. Pollard's release deal was as the result of another Israeli spy's 'accomplishments' in blowing out a US president and blackmailing him. Pollard was responsible for the death of MANY MANY CIA agents, nearly all, from behind the Iron Curtain. Virtually the entire network was rolled up. More than a decade of very pains taken work by the CIA was wiped out based on the information supplied from Pollard. But not from him, DIRECTLY. He had NO knowledge or part in supplying the Soviets. The State of ISRAEL was directly responsible for the CIA agents' deaths. Or its agent Mossad. But Pollard is the fall guy. So what is new when it involves the state of Israel? You wer not expecting justice or fair play, were you?

"The declaration submitted to the court by former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, who claimed that the Israeli spy gravely undermined America's national security. President Clinton promised Prime Minister Netanyahu to release Pollard in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The former US president changed his mind after CIA Director George Tenet threatened to resign should the president proceed with the plan. Meanwhile, almost 10 years have passed and Pollard is still imprisoned."...YnetNews
"Ambassador Jones said that Pollard was spared execution. Those are foolish words."...Ynetnet

Pollard only Indirectly responsible for 100s CIA agents deaths. Who's fully?

clipped from digg.com Yes, Pollard was responsible for the deaths of a GREAT MANY CIA agents -all- behind the Iron Curtain. BUT, he was not responsible DIRECTLY! Direct responsibility lay with the State of Israel, which knowingly traded the information of the agents names to the USSR in return for Russian Jewish emigree to bring to Israel. They were needed to counter the Arab population increases. Many turned out to have no Jewish pedigree , but proven criminal backgrounds.

http://www.sefer-torah.com/blog/2007/05/02/i-prevented-pollard-deal-excerpt-from-ex-cia-chief-tenets

Recently, the former CIA supremo, Tenet claimed that he vetoed the release of Pollard. Again, there is some truth in his version but it is not the full or all the truth as he knows it. I suspect that this is a concoction dreamed up by both Tenet and Clinton to explain Clinton's about face on the release of Pollard. The idea of the president being countermanded by the CIA chief is not plausible. So, how did it come about that a real smart cookie like Bill Clinton needed to have a plausible deniable excuse not to release Pollard as he had previously agreed with Israel. How did he agree the release in the first place for him to need Tenet to take the blame?

He was being BLACKMAILED in effect by little sweet Monica and her sidekick working for Mossad!

bring "Em Home

clipped from youtube.com

That voice and these images cut right to your heart, if you have one! Awful, but brilliant!

Pipe Dreams: U.S. checking possibility of pumping oil from northern Iraq to Haifa, via Jordan

clipped from www.haaretz.com The United States has asked Israel to check the possibility of pumping oil from Iraq to the oil refineries in Haifa. The request came in a telegram last week from a senior Pentagon official to a top Foreign Ministry official in Jerusalem. The Prime Minister's Office, which views the pipeline to Haifa as a "bonus" the U.S. could give to Israel in return for its unequivocal support for the American-led campaign in Iraq, had asked the Americans for the official telegram. The new pipeline would take oil from the Kirkuk area, where some 40 percent of Iraqi oil is produced, and transport it via Mosul, and then across Jordan to Israel. The U.S. telegram included a request for a cost estimate for repairing the Mosul-Haifa pipeline that was in use prior to 1948. During the War of Independence, the Iraqis stopped the flow of oil to Haifa and the pipeline fell into disrepair over the years.

I always held the view that the war in Iraq is about more than oil, its really about Empire, but darnit, the oil makes for a nice bonus!

No, Jimmy, tell us what you REALLY think about Bush

clipped from www.cbsnews.com (AP) Former President Carter says President Bush's administration is "the worst in history" in international relations, taking aim at the White House's policy of pre-emptive war and its Middle East diplomacy. "I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history," Carter told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette "We now have endorsed the concept of pre-emptive war where we go to war with another nation militarily, even though our own security is not directly threatened, if we want to change the regime there or if we fear that some time in the future our security might be endangered," he said. "But that's been a radical departure from all previous administration policies." Douglas Brinkley, a Tulane University presidential historian and Carter biographer, described Carter's comments as unprecedented. "When you call somebody the worst president, that's volatile. Those are fighting words."

Not exactly a courteous endorsement of the Bush Legacy.

Oh, wait, it is.

Slavery and JP Morgan Chase

clipped from academic.udayton.edu Many insurance companies practiced the writing of slave life insurance policies in 19th Century United States. The effect of this practice was to provide the financial backing necessary to give potential slave owners motivation to purchase human chattel – a very expensive investment. The policies gave slave owners the security necessary to employ enslaved Africans in ultra-hazardous capacities. If there is no connection between JP Morgan Chase and slavery, what do we make of the circular from Aetna’s archives? What about the $2.5 million capital investment advertised in the 1852 circular – what became of that? Also, would fifty-five bankers, doctors, insurers, shippers, and others advertise a venture that was never launched?

You inherit what your ancestors experienced, both the rich and the poor. If people enslave your family, you inherit the aftermath. Why not apologize for being the beneficiary of slavery, even if the benefit may be diluted through the generations?