From today’s Presidential Radio Address:

Where do we start?  Read more 

The comments on this post are what make it most interesting, but in general it’s the kind of post that many of us have written, or read, or understood, many times in the past. It’s late and I need to go to bed, but I just have to share this one thought, one that always comes to mind when silly people who don’t understand how the drug trade works are talking.

Simply: who owns planes, big rig trucks, and large boats, in this country? Whatever your answer, if you’re reality-based, it’s not “cholos from the barrio” and “thugs in the hood.” No matter what propaganda you may believe about the overarching all-powerful nature of “gangs,” the simple truth is that without some kind of government help, there would be no illicit/illegal drug trade in this country. The Barrio isn’t filled with people who own planes that fly back and forth from Columbia; the military is. And the military leadership is mostly white. Same when it comes to fleets of boats and trucks- yes, there are black people who work on/with them, but not so many who own fleets of them, certainly not when compared to white people. White people in the Republican party, to be exact.

If you don’t like illicit drug use, or people who are addicted when you think they shouldn’t be, please don’t blame us (gay, brown, or poor people). We may be ’street level’ dealers and peddlers, but without rich, MIC/prison industrial complex types, there would be no illicit drugs in the United States. This is a matter of common sense, and I’d like to see more people accept this as they speak of these issues.

In apparrent response to the Senate’s passing of Senate Amendment 3017, for which 22 Democrats should be ashamed, Iran has responded:

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran’s parliament voted Saturday to designate the CIA and the U.S. Army as “terrorist organizations,” a largely symbolic response to a U.S. Senate resolution seeking a similar designation for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

It would be funny if it were not so scary.  Read more 

Executive Order 12333 is a Reagan [genuflects]-era order written to make sure the next Ollie North never gets prosecuted, to permit assassinations (in the jargon, “targeted killings”), and to permit domestic surveillance by the NSA.

One wonders what expanded powers Our Betters could possibly need. But need them they do, or so they tell us:

[Mike McConnell,] the national intelligence director, has won White House approval to begin revising an executive order that lays out each spy agency’s responsibilities and the government’s protections against spying on Americans.

Unlike the surveillance law, the White House can change an executive order without congressional or judicial approval.

I think it’s great that the administration is going to do this now, and I’m sure that the Regent [cough] lawyers down in the basement of Cheney’s bunker have already formed a prayer group on it. And I absolutely trust the Bush administration to do the right thing on this. Wouldn’t you?

[Reach me that bucket, wouldja hon?]

Some officials familiar with Intelligence Director Mike McConnell’s plans, speaking only on condition of anonymity because the deliberations remain internal, said his intent is solely to update the policy to reflect changes in the intelligence community since Sept. 11, 2001, including the creation of his own office.

But other officials, who also spoke on condition they not be identified, said opening the order to changes could lead well beyond that. They said the exercise could threaten civil liberties protections approved by President Reagan following intelligence abuses in the 1970s, and that intelligence agencies will be tempted to expand their powers.

In a recent interview, Vice Adm. Robert Murrett, director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, characterized the effort as an “overhaul” aimed at helping all 16 spy agencies work more closely together. He said the discussions about the order — known by its number, 12333 — are still in the early stages.

McConnell himself has said the authorities of his office need to be adjusted. “We don’t have it right yet,” he told an audience in April.

Well, gosh. How about we good citizens help McConnell out? Here’s a copy of the order. And after careful, thoughtful, prayerful considerations, I’ve come up with the following changes to the Preamble:  Read more 

Today’s report from the Council of Europe’s investigator, former Swiss prosecutor Dick Marty, can be found here, along with a timeline of the investigation, and supporting documentation in the form of flight logs for the “extraordinary renditions” to and from the prisons.

Here are some excerpts from the report, which is long, detailed, and cries out for the kind of analysis we’re doing on Justice Department email:

What was previously just a set of allegations is now proven: large numbers of people have been abducted from various locations across the world and transferred to countries where they have been persecuted and where it is known that torture is common practice. Others have been held in arbitrary detention, without any precise charges levelled against them and without any judicial oversight – denied the possibility of defending themselves. Still others have simply disappeared for indefinite periods and have been held in secret prisons, including in member states of the Council of Europe, the existence and operations of which have been concealed ever since.

Estimates of the numbers held range from 8,000 to 35,000, with Colin Powell’s chief-of-staff Lawrence Wilkerson’s estimate at the high end.

Some individuals were kept in secret detention centres for periods of several years, where they were subjected to degrading treatment and so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” (essentially a euphemism for a kind of torture), in the name of gathering information, however unsound, which the United States claims has protected our common security. Elsewhere, others have been transferred thousands of miles into prisons whose locations they may never know, interrogated ceaselessly, physically and psychologically abused, before being released because they were plainly not the people being sought.

And the European governments are resisting accountability just as much as Bush does, what a surprise:

Some European governments have obstructed the search for the truth and are continuing to do so by invoking the concept of “state secrets”. Secrecy is invoked so as not to provide explanations to parliamentary bodies or to prevent judicial authorities from establishing the facts and prosecuting those guilty of offences [Sound familiar?]. This criticism applies to Germany and Italy, in particular. It is striking to note
that state secrets are invoked on grounds almost identical to those advanced by the authorities in the Russian Federation in its crackdown on scientists, journalists and lawyers, many of whom have been prosecuted and sentenced for alleged acts of espionage.

And now we know for sure the countries where the torture camps were:  Read more 

YABL used to be one of our favorite acronyms here. “Yet Another Bush Lie!” our headlines would proclaim again and again until, really, it became redundant. “Bush Opens Mouth” we might as well have said. But this particular topic seemed to call for a YABL revival as it is particularly blatant.

For graphic starters, take a look at this lovely Map of Routes of CIA Torture Transports. A larger version can be found here at Le Monde, and even non-Francophiles will have no trouble understanding the breakdown of which flights were by the big C-130 and which by the little Gulfstream. It’s nice to have various vehicles handy for different uses, don’t you think?

But the particular lie in question comes from this story which only a couple of papers appear to have picked up. Those who watched the recent PBS/Bill Moyers story about Pressure on the Press will understand why.

The announcement that Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi was transferred to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility from CIA custody raises worrying questions about how long he has been detained by the CIA, where he was held, what kind of treatment he endured, and whether other prisoners still remain in CIA detention. The CIA has previously detained numerous detainees for months and even years. [snip]

Now here comes the lie:

On September 6, 2006, President George W. Bush publicly revealed the existence of the CIA’s secret detention and interrogation program. Although he stated that, as of that moment, there were no prisoners in CIA custody, he did not promise that the program was closing permanently.

Horseshit. He knew it wasn’t closed even as he was speaking. But to continue…  Read more 

GWBushCo loves him some torture. Acccording to ABC News, though, the military is now prohibited from:

—Interrogators may not force a detainee to be naked, perform sexual acts or pose in a sexual manner.

—They cannot use hoods or place sacks over a detainee’s head or use duct tape over his eyes.  Read more 

Woody’s right to point out that the timing of this stinks almost as much as the sentiment. Even though I harbor serious foil-induced ideas about the man and his role in 9-11, I have never been able to understand the…words fail me here…incompetent, unconcerned, bumbling, hypocritical “pursuit” of the most wanted man in modern American history:

By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: July 4, 2006
WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed Monday.

The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.

The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice “dead or alive.”  Read more