European Parliament (EP) members have urged European governments to reveal the locations of secret CIA camps in their countries after U.S. President George Bush admitted the CIA had secret interrogation centers.

Sarah Ludford, an EP member of a committee set up to probe secret CIA camps and suspected flights, urged the E.U. governments to take measures against these practices. “By his admission that the CIA has indeed practiced illegal kidnapping and detention, Bush exposes not only his own previous lies. He also exposes to ridicule those government leaders in Europe who dismissed as unfounded our fears about extraordinary rendition.”European Parliament (EP) members have urged European governments to reveal the locations of secret CIA camps in their countries after U.S. President George Bush admitted the CIA had secret interrogation centers.

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By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - Five years after September 11, 2001, Americans are considerably less enthusiastic about projecting military power abroad, according to a major new survey, the first of a spate of polls that are likely to be released in the run-up to Monday’s fifth anniversary of the attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

The survey, conducted by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press in Washington, found that Republicans remained substantially more supportive of military deployments overseas than either Democrats or independents, who also believe by 3-1 - that the United States has lost respect in the world over the past few years.

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OpentheGovernment.org’s third annual Secrecy Report card has some interesting information and figures. Go here to download the report and see the charts.

By The Numbers

The Courts
2,072 Orders of the Secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court
While the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court does not reveal much about its activities, the
Department of Justice reported that the FISC approved 2,072 orders - rejecting none - in 2005
but does not identify the activities being investigated or provide basic information about how the
orders are used.
National Security Letters
9,254 National Security Letters Issued
A Justice Department report on secret wiretap warrants indicated that the government issued 9,254
National Security Letters during 2005. These letters can be used to obtain information about individuals
without the government applying for a court-reviewed warrant.
Private Enterprise
106 New Patents Kept Secret, 4,915 “Secrecy Orders” in Effect
In 2005, the federal government closed the lid on 106 patents. Overall, that brings the total number
of inventions kept under “secrecy orders” to 4,915.
Classified Documents
$134 Spent Creating New Secrets for Every $1 Spent Releasing Old Secrets
For every $1 the federal government spent in 2005 releasing old secrets, it spent $134 creating new
secrets. The good news is that is a $14 drop from 2004. To put this slight drop in context-from
1997 to 2001, the government spent less than $20 per year keeping secrets for every dollar spent
declassifying them.
17% of DOD FY 2006 Budget Is Classified or “Black”
“Black” programs accounted for 17 percent of the (FY) 2006 Department of Defense (DoD)
budget of $315.5 billion, requested in 2005. Classified acquisition funding has nearly doubled
in real terms since FY 1995, when funding for these programs reached its post-Cold War low.
Freedom of Information Act
FOIA Requests Continue to Rise; Agencies Can-t Keep Up
Adjusted for an abnormal increase in Social Security Administration numbers, the number of FOIA
requests has increased by 65,543 requests since 2004. Agencies overall have been unable to keep up
with the number of requests, with 43 percent more pending requests this year than in 2002.
Used Rarely in Cold War, “State Secrets” Privilege Used At Least 22 Times Since 2001
Reported Invocations Continue to Rise
The “state secrets” privilege allows the sitting U.S. president to nearly unilaterally withhold documents
from the courts, Congress and the public. At the height of the Cold War, the administration
used the privilege only 6 times between 1953 and 1976. Since 2001, it has been invoked a reported 22
times-an average in 5.5 years (4) that is close to twice as high as the previous 24 years (2.46).
Presidential Signing Statements
132 Signing Statements Challenging Over 810 Federal Laws in George W. Bush’s Presidency
In the 211 years of our Republic to 2000, Presidents had issued fewer than 600 signing statements
that took issue with the bills they signed. Among recent Presidents, President Reagan issued 71
statements challenging provisions of the laws before him, and President George Herbert Walker
Bush issued 146. President Clinton issued 105. George W. Bush has issued at least 132 to date.

Having no plan for the post war period was Donald Rumsfeld’s plan. And our secretary of defense threatened to can anyone who dared draw up contingencies for nation building.

Via Kevin Drum, you have got to read this extraordinary interview with the outgoing commander of the Army Transportation Corps, Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid:

Rumsfeld was “telling us we were going to war in Afghanistan and to start building the war plan. We were going to go fast.

Read more at Rolling Stone

But she’s gonna win….. just ask her, she’ll tell ya!!!

Associated Press
Posted September 9 2006, 5:37 PM EDT

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris’ former campaign manager has been interviewed by federal investigators as part of an inquiry into her relationship with a convicted defense contractor, a newspaper reported Saturday. Jim Dornan spoke to FBI and Defense Department investigators in Washington for about 90 minutes Thursday, the St. Petersburg Times reported.

Dornan, who left Harris’ Senate campaign in November, declined to comment to the paper, and messages left Saturday for Dornan by The Associated Press were not immediately returned. The Department of Justice has said previously it does not comment on pending investigations.

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From Media Matters 

Making sure Nancy Pelosi doesn’t become House Speaker “is worth…dying for.”

audio & text here

Jascha Heifetz, Melodie

 

(Until youtube gets its act together, go here to listen to this beautiful music)

As the anniversary of 9/11 approaches, remember this:

From Rick Perlstein:

“Historians’ Open Letter to ABC” here

From Daily Kos:

“Just back From The PT9-11 Protest At Disney HQ” here

Spoof from Assimilated Press:

“ABC Feeds Off The Bones Of Dead & Distains History” here

From HuffPo:

“Bush Asks ABC To Interrupt…” here

“Discover The Secret Right-Wing Network Behind ABC’s 9/11 Deception” here

This from Bob Geiger:

Democratic Congressman Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who is running to replace Mike DeWine (R-OH) in the United States Senate, delivered the Democratic response to George W. Bush’s national radio address today, marking the fifth anniversary of September 11.

An excerpt:

We ask our grandmothers to take their shoes off at airports, yet only 6 percent of the cargo entering our ports is inspected. Our borders remain open. Our chemical and nuclear plants remain vulnerable. Our courageous first responders lack the right equipment and sufficient resources, and not enough has been done to protect our rails, and our roads, and our metro systems.

 

audio of Brown’s response here

full text here

Municipal authorities in the Saudi Arabian cities of Mecca and Jeddah have banned the sale of cats and dogs as un-Islamic.

Saudi’s religious police, the Muttawa, have been instructed to prevent the sale of cats and dogs in order to prevent the spread of Western ideas into the highly Islamic country, Saudi media reported on Friday.

“Some youths have been buying them and parading them in public,” said a memo sent from the Municipal Affairs Ministry to Jeddah’s city government to explain the ban.

article here

Turns out that Kansas is more tolerant of ‘furiners’ when their pockets are stuffed with money.

Thousands of students from Saudi Arabia are enroling on college campuses across the United States this semester under a new educational exchange programme.

The programme will increase manifold the number of Saudi students and scholars by the academic year’s end. And big, public universities from Florida to the Kansas plains are in a fierce competition for their tuition dollars…

…Kansas State has boosted efforts to court Saudi officials in the last year, flying administrators and department heads to the Saudi embassy in Washington. It’s paid off: last month about 150 Saudi students started classes there, each funded to the tune of about $31,000…

…So, as Kansas State students enjoy a string of home football games this month, they also are preparing for the campus’ first celebration of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.

“We really want to make this special. We’re going to truck in halal food from Kansas City.”

article here

“Sometimes people ask me if I ride a camel to campus. They don’t even realize how many cities we have in Saudi Arabia.”

Marwan al-Kadi, Saudi student

By ELIZABETH ROBERTS
Associated Press
Posted September 8 2006, 11:44 PM EDT

HAMILTON, Bermuda — HAMILTON, Bermuda–Tropical Storm Florence intensified Friday night as it continued moving through the open Atlantic on a path toward Bermuda.

Florence was expected to reach hurricane strength by the time it hits the tiny British territory Monday, according to forecasters at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami, though it was too early to tell whether it will make a direct hit.

“Even if the center misses Bermuda by a couple hundred miles, this is a very large storm so there’s likely to be some effect,” said Mark Willis, a meteorologist at the center. “If not the strong winds, there will definitely be some rough surf.”

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