Sunday, July 31, 2005



KKKARL AT DISNEYLAND ABOUT TO GET ON THE "IT'S A SMALL WORLD" RIDE. (But why is the chain gang guard from Cool Hand Luke there?)

From this weeks TIME MAGAZINE:

Posted Sunday, Jul. 31, 2005

As the investigation tightens into the leak of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame, sources tell TIME some White House officials may have learned she was married to former ambassador Joseph Wilson weeks before his July 6, 2003, Op-Ed piece criticizing the Administration. That prospect increases the chances that White House official Karl Rove and others learned about Plame from within the Administration rather than from media contacts. Rove has told investigators he believes he learned of her directly or indirectly from reporters, according to his lawyer... http://tinyurl.com/7qbf7

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Rick Santorum is one crazy-ass mo'fo'. Here's a choice quote or two from today's THIS WEEK:

"I mean, you’re talking about giving children the same — that children have rights equal to adults. I mean, that is not a nurturing atmosphere..."

"When the culture is sick, every element in it becomes infected... it is no surprise that Boston, a seat of academic, political and cultural liberalism in America, lies at the center of the storm."

"Respect for stay-at-home mothers has been poisoned by a toxic combination of the village elders’ war on the traditional family and radical feminism’s mysogynistic crusade..."

Geo. Stephanopoulos: "Let’s get specific here. Name one or two of these radical feminists who are on this crusade."

Santorum: "Well, I mean, you know, you have — you go back to, what’s her name, well, Gloria Steinem, but I’m trying to remember — I can’t remember the woman’s name. It’s terrible. Anyway… "

Full transcript of Rick's fabulous performance here: http://tinyurl.com/bv7nq

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WOW! A leader of the opposition party acting like, well, a leader of the oppostion party. What could be next? A movement to make the US a democratic republic again maybe. A boy can dream, can't he?:

"In an interview with BuzzFlash.com to be posted on Aug. 1, Sen. Harry Reid, Democratic minority leader of the Senate, blasted the pending recess appointment of John Bolton to become U.S. ambassador to the
United Nations, "John Bolton is a person who, in his personal relationship with government employees, has been abominable, mean, unreasonable and bizarre," Sen. Reid told BuzzFlash. "His not producing the papers we have requested only underscores the importance of why we need those papers. There must be something he's trying to hide."

BuzzFlash: Why does the Bush Administration have such difficulty in leveling with the American people?
Sen. Reid: "Arrogance, abuse of power. This Administration is drunk with power. They control the House and Senate and seven of nine members of the Supreme Court, and therefore, they feel they need not compromise. They need not communicate with the minority."
BuzzFlash: (In regards to the outing of Valerie Plame) What's the role of the President of the United States in holding such treachery accountable, whatever the legal outcome might be?
Sen. Reid: "What it shows me is that the President is not a person of his word. He said almost two years ago that if anyone in his Administration was caught being involved in this, they would be fired. There is no question Karl Rove is involved in it. Evidence is heavy. The President, after finding that Rove's involved, changes his standard from 'being involved' in it to having committed a crime. Well, crimes are hard to prove, and then you go through the appellate process. What does this mean? It means the President is not a credible person." http://tinyurl.com/8x48e
Murat Nemet -Nejat is a Poet, essayist and translator of modern Turkish poetry. His recent publications include Steps (Mirage, 2003), The Peripheral Space of Photography (Green Integer, 2003) and Eda: An Anthology of Contemporary Turkish Poetry (Talisman, 2004). He is well-known for his translations of poet Orhan Veli in, I, Orhan Veli, (Hanging Loose Press, 1989).He was born in Istanbul, Turkey, and has lived in the United States since 1959.

At the courtyard of the Blue Mosque, a secret ritual. The muezzin is turning the pages of the sultan's private book woven with naked slaves, whipping time to shreds.

In a division of labor, bushy commanders and dreamy slaves join, tearing to pieces during the riotous orgies, the pages of the Koran, revealing their reveries.

A mistiness after the rain, hammered with pain.

He dreams a crooked spell, a diagonal, so so paradise.

Found out, the commander's tunic is ripped off, his gold epaulets are ripped off. His slaves escape giggling.

Now, a bag man, accosting and being teased by foundlings.
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I found this poem at Woodland Pattern: http://tinyurl.com/cnut4

There's a very interesting essay by Nemen-Nejat at Muse-Apprentice-Guild : http://tinyurl.com/ayg52
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Exclusive: Secret Memo—Send to Be Tortured
Newsweek
Aug. 8, 2005 issue - An FBI agent warned superiors in a memo three years ago that U.S. officials who discussed plans to ship terror suspects to foreign nations that practice torture could be prosecuted for conspiring to violate U.S. law, according to a copy of the memo obtained by NEWSWEEK. The strongly worded memo, written by an FBI supervisor then assigned to Guantanamo, is the latest in a series of documents that have recently surfaced reflecting unease among some government lawyers and FBI agents over tactics being used in the war on terror. This memo appears to be the first that directly questions the legal premises of the Bush administration policy of "extraordinary rendition"—a secret program under which terror suspects are transferred to foreign countries that have been widely criticized for practicing torture...http://tinyurl.com/djxzg
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And on a related front:
News: For nearly three years, U.S. military authorities have been investigating evidence of torture at American prisons in Afghanistan. But instead of disciplining those involved, the Pentagon sent them to Iraq.

By Emily Bazelon

HUSSAIN YOUSSOUF MUSTAFA stepped off the bus outside a law office on a busy street in Amman, Jordan, on a bright day in November. The 51-year-old wore a white kaffiyeh and a white robe with square-rimmed glasses and a salt-and-pepper beard. Inside, he sat down at a table that faced a map of the Middle East, and over eight hours and two days answered questions about his two years in American captivity...
http://tinyurl.com/6tocs
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July 27, 2005
Doomsday Approaches
The End of the Housing Bubble
By MIKE WHITNEY
I sold my home three weeks ago anticipating what I believe will be "Economic Armageddon" in the United States. It wasn't an easy thing to do. My wife and I have lived in the same home for 25 years, raised both of our children there, and owned the property outright without any loans or mortgage. The house was paid for in "sweat-equity", that is, by wielding a shovel day-in and day-out in my one-man landscape business. I don't say that for sympathy, but to illustrate that we played by the rules, worked hard, paid our taxes, and took advantage of the American dream of home-ownership.
All that has changed.
I sold my home for one reason; George W. Bush. He and his protégé at the Federal Reserve have submerged the country into a morass of "unsustainable" debt, disrupted the nation's economic equilibrium and thrust us towards fiscal disaster. They've also generated a humongous housing bubble through their irresponsible and self-serving manipulation of interest rates.
The facts are astonishing... http://tinyurl.com/7b5oj
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Saturday, July 30, 2005

July 30, 2005
A Costly Education for America
Watching neocons spin the collapse of "the Bush doctrine"
by Chris Moore

In a desperate 11th-hour bid to save face and salvage credibility amid the violent collapse of their predictions of a "cakewalk" victory over Iraq, neoconservative opinion makers appear to be preparing to spin America's likely troop drawdown as just another stage in the fulfillment of their larger plans for the region.

"In Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and elsewhere in the Arab world, the forces of democratic liberalization have emerged on the political stage in a way that was unimaginable just two years ago," Washington Post syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, perhaps the most widely read neocon pundit, recently wrote on The Wall Street Journal editorial page. "They have been energized and emboldened by the Iraqi example and by American resolve." ...

...Backing their claims of victory with few relevant facts, Zinsmeister, Krauthammer, and other neoconservative pundits appear to be attempting to use their platforms to counter reporting that indicates the situation in Iraq is deteriorating for the American occupiers. One such article published July 27 by United Press International was titled "U.S. Plans Iraq Troop Cuts as Revolt Rages."
"The struggle against the Iraq insurgency passed a crucial tipping point Wednesday with the current prime minister calling for major U.S. troop withdrawals and the U.S. ground commander there acknowledging they will probably come next year. The commander, however, made clear he did not expect the insurgency to have dropped by then significantly below its current level," the report said.
"In Washington, well-placed military sources told UPI that 'as many as' '20,000 or 30,000' U.S. troops might be withdrawn from Iraq next year. That would bring the current force levels of around 140,000 – which many U.S. military officers privately, and most counterinsurgency experts publicly agree are already far too low to deal with the insurgency – down to only 120,000 or 110,000 troops.".... http://tinyurl.com/cqt6p
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I AM FOR PEACE...BUT AS OF LATE,...
http://tinyurl.com/9mdrr
A pwoermd (see note):

puerjugatory

Note:pwoermd [coined by Geof Huth 1987]; =interweaving of poem + word, a one-word poem, often a neologism, presented without a separate title .
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US War Crimes and the Legal Case for Military Resistance
by Paul Rockwell

"Whensoever the general Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force." Thomas Jefferson http://tinyurl.com/a6pg9
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July 30, 2005
The Roots of Prisoner Abuse

This week, the White House blocked a Senate vote on a measure sponsored by a half-dozen Republicans, including Senator John McCain, that would prohibit cruel, degrading or inhumane treatment of prisoners. Besides being outrageous on its face, that action served as a reminder of how the Bush administration ducks for cover behind the men and women in uniform when challenged on military policy, but ignores their advice when it seems inconvenient...
... Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld violated American and international law and undermined the standards of civilized treatment embedded in the American military tradition.
In February 2003, Maj. Gen. Jack Rives, the deputy judge advocate general of the Air Force, reminded his civilian bosses that American rules on the treatment of prisoners had grown out of Vietnam, where captured Americans, like Mr. McCain, were tortured. "We have taken the legal and moral 'high road' in the conduct of our military operations regardless of how others may operate," he wrote. Abandoning those rules, he said, endangered every American soldier.
General Rives and the other military lawyers argued strongly against declaring that Mr. Bush was above the law when it came to antiterrorism operations. But the president's team ignored them, offering up a pretzel logic ...
...General Rives said that if the White House permitted abusive interrogations at Guantánamo Bay, it would not be able to restrict them to that single prison ...
... The White House ignored these military lawyers' advice two years ago. Now it is trying to kill the measure that would define the term "illegal combatants," set rules for interrogations and prohibit cruel and inhumane treatment of prisoners. The president considers this an undue restriction of his powers. It's not only due; it's way overdue.... http://tinyurl.com/bwbpj
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On Wednesday, the former warden of Abu Ghraib, Maj. David DiNenna, testified that the use of dogs for interrogation was recommended by Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, the former commander of the Guantanamo Bay prison who was dispatched by the Pentagon to Abu Ghraib in August 2003 to review the handling and interrogation of prisoners. On Tuesday, a military interrogator testified that he had been trained in using dogs by a team sent to Iraq by Gen. Miller ...
... carried out under rules approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Dec. 2, 2002.
The White House and Pentagon have gotten away with their stonewalling largely because of Republican control of Congress...
The nation would be better served if President Bush instead accepted, at last, the truth about Abu Ghraib. http://tinyurl.com/d9gl7
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Friday, July 29, 2005




"HELP! CECIL HELP!"

"I'M COMIN' BEANIE BOY!"


Early on the morning of July 23, a fisherman from Ningbo City in east China's Zhejiang Province was shocked by the sight of a huge creature lying dead beside the seawall near his home.

Liu, who lives in Yangshashan of Chunxiao Town in Beilun District and who has been a fisherman for over ten years, said “I have never seen such a monster; it was larger than a whale.” http://tinyurl.com/8w9po

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Friday :: July 29, 2005
36 Senators Sign Letter to Bush on Bolton
36 Senate Democrats including all leadership just signed this letter:

Dear Mr. President:

In light of the fact that John Bolton was not truthful to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the questionnaire he swore was truthful, we ask that you do not make a recess appointment of Mr. Bolton to be the Ambassador to the United Nations and instead submit a new nomination to the Senate.

Mr. Bolton’s excuse that he “didn’t recall being interviewed by the State Department’s Inspector General” is simply not believable. How can you forget an interview about an issue so important that the United States Senate unanimously passed an amendment stating that Congress supports “the thorough and expeditious investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of State and the Inspector General of the Central Intelligence Agency into the documents . . . that the President relied on to conclude that Iraq had attempted to obtain uranium from Africa”? The amendment was cosponsored by the Chairmen of both the Foreign Relations Committee and the Intelligence Committee.

Mr. President, we know you are engaged in an effort to strengthen our relationships throughout the world. Sending someone to the United Nations who has not been confirmed by the United States Senate and now who has admitted to not being truthful on a document so important that it requires a sworn affidavit is going to set our efforts back in many ways."
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Coulter on Helen Thomas: "What is it with these Arabs and suicide?"
On her personal website, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter linked to a Drudge Report item on Hearst Newspapers columnist Helen Thomas's alleged vow to "kill herself" should Vice President Dick Cheney run for president. Thomas, a former White House correspondent for United Press International, is of Lebanese descent. The link, listed on the website's front page under the heading "Quotations from Chairman Ann," was accompanied by the statement: "What is it with these Arabs and suicide?"
http://mediamatters.org/items/200507290005
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The alternative to the one party Republicrat/Democan model:http://www.actblue.com/list/hackett .Politics underwritten by people rather than 'legal fictions' (corporations). Like Gandhi said regarding Western Civilization: "it sounds like a good idea".
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THE EYES OF GEORGES BATAILLE... http://tinyurl.com/a8853

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MAP OF THE MIDDLE EAST (circa 1920) Note that both ancient and modern place-names are given in many instances. Gives you some idea of how much of humankind's heritage is being sacrificed to "project American hegemony" as the BUSH(nee WOLFOWITZ) DOCTRINE has it. "Forget about it"; isn't that what they say in Sopranos-land?
Disgusting.
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Re: Bolton's selective memory:
Dave Meyer at THE WASHINGTON NOTE ( http://tinyurl.com/7wlhl ) suggests "Perhaps Bolton blacked out in an angry tirade and bumped his head? "
Poll: Fewer Americans Believe Islam Inspires Terrorism
Recent Bombings May Not Have Had Noticeable Impact On Public View
POSTED: 5:30 pm PDT July 26, 2005
UPDATED: 3:54 am PDT July 27, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The percentage of Americans who believe Islam is more likely to inspire violence than other religions has declined in the past two years, according to a poll taken after the London bombings.
The Pew Research Center poll found that 36 percent of Americans now say Islam is more likely to inspire violence compared to 44 percent in July 2003.
The poll suggests that recent terrorist bombings in London haven't had any noticeable impact on the public's view of Muslim-Americans or of Islam.
The 55 percent who now say they have a positive view of Muslim-Americans is roughly equal to the 57 percent who have a favorable view of evangelical Christians.
Three-fourths say they have favorable views of Jews and Catholics.
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Thursday, July 28, 2005

LIAR:

State Dept admits Bolton gave inaccurate answers

By Vicki Allen and Saul Hudson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) The State Department reversed itself on Thursday night and acknowledged that President Bush's U.N. ambassador nominee gave Congress inaccurate information about an investigation he was involved in.
The acknowledgment came after the State Department had earlier insisted nominee John Bolton's "answer was truthful" when he said he had not been questioned or provided information to jury or government investigations in the past five years.
"When Mr. Bolton completed his form during the Senate confirmation process he did not recall being interviewed by the State Department inspector general. Therefore his form as submitted was inaccurate in this regard and he will correct the form," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Earlier, Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record) of Delaware said he had information Bolton was interviewed as part of a State Department-CIA joint investigation on intelligence lapses that led to the Bush administration's pre-Iraq war claim that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger.
Biden, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said that should have been noted on the questionnaire, for which nominees swear out affidavits stating the information is true and accurate.
"It now appears that Mr. Bolton's answers may not meet that standard," Biden wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
McCormack also said Bolton was not interviewed in special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into who leaked the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Earlier in the day, reporters questioned McCormack on whether Bolton testified before the federal grand jury investigating the case, as MSNBC reported last week.
'TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE'
In a letter to Bush, California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record) said Bolton's admission was "too little, too late" and urged Bush to withdraw the nomination.
"A recess appointment of a man who did not tell the truth to the (Senate Foreign Relations) committee and only admitted the truth when he was caught would send a horrible message," Boxer wrote.
"It seems unusual that Mr. Bolton would not remember his involvement in such a serious matter. In my mind, this raises more questions that need to be answered. I hope President Bush will not make the mistake of recess appointing Mr. Bolton," Biden said in response to the admission that Bolton's information was inaccurate.
The nomination of Bolton, a favorite of conservatives, has been held up by accusations he tried to manipulate intelligence and intimidated intelligence analysts to support his hawkish views in his position as the top U.S. diplomat for arms control.
Lacking votes in the Senate to confirm Bolton, the White House has left open the possibility it might appoint him while Congress takes its monthlong summer recess that starts this weekend. A recess appointment would expire in January 2007 when the new Congress convenes.
Rice, appearing on the PBS News Hour, said that "the president will make that decision" on a recess appointment. "What we can't be is without leadership at the United Nations. ... I'm spending an awful lot of time these days preparing for the high-level meetings that are going to take place in September" on U.N. reforms.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, confirmed the Senate would not act on Bolton's nomination in the remaining hours before the recess, "and therefore we will address it after the recess."
In procedural votes in May and June, Democrats denied Republicans the 60 votes needed from the 100-member Senate to close debate on Bolton and move to a confirmation vote, which would require a simple majority.
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New York Times playing a little catchup to the Washington Post re: Pincus

July 28, 2005
Case of C.I.A. Officer's Leaked Identity Takes New Turn
By Douglas Jehl

WASHINGTON, July 26 - In the same week in July 2003 in which Bush administration officials told a syndicated columnist and a Time magazine reporter that a C.I.A. officer had initiated her husband's mission to Niger, an administration official provided a Washington Post reporter with a similar account.
The first two episodes, involving the columnist Robert D. Novak and the reporter Matthew Cooper, have become the subjects of intense scrutiny in recent weeks. But little attention has been paid to what The Post reporter, Walter Pincus, has recently described as a separate exchange on July 12, 2003.
In that exchange, Mr. Pincus says, "an administration official, who was talking to me confidentially about a matter involving alleged Iraqi nuclear activities, veered off the precise matter we were discussing and told me that the White House had not paid attention" to the trip to Niger by Joseph C. Wilson IV "because it was a boondoggle arranged by his wife, an analyst with the agency who was working on weapons of mass destruction."... http://tinyurl.com/8453e
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Man oh man: We have nuts to spare.

"Deliberate childlessness=moral rebellion"
(I guess there were a few apostles who needed to get out more.)
http://tinyurl.com/bavvf
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How nuts are the neocons?

Well, this might be one answer.


Secret Proposals: Fighting Terror by Attacking ... South America?

"Days after 9/11, a senior Pentagon official lamented the lack of good targets in Afghanistan and proposed instead U.S. military attacks in South America or Southeast Asia as "a surprise to the terrorists," according to a footnote in the recent 9/11 Commission Report. The unsigned top-secret memo, which the panel's report said appears to have been written by Defense Under Secretary Douglas Feith, is one of several Pentagon documents uncovered by the commission which advance unorthodox ideas for the war on terror. The memo suggested "hitting targets outside the Middle East in the initial offensive" or a "non-Al Qaeda target like Iraq," the panel's report states. U.S. attacks in Latin America and Southeast Asia were portrayed as a way to catch the terrorists off guard when they were expecting an assault on Afghanistan." http://tinyurl.com/dnvgf

Oh, by the way, Doug Feith was Israeli mole Larry Franklin's boss at the Pentagon.

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New developments in the Franklin spy investigation:The Israeli mole at the Pentagon. One of them anyway. The one that's been caught so far.
(and by the way It's July and it's hot.)


FBI seeks to probe senior Israeli diplomat in Pentagon spy case
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is demanding that Naor Gilon, head of the political department at the Israeli embassy in Washington, be interrogated in connection to the Pentagon spy case.

It is possible the FBI will also want to interrogate other Israeli diplomats in connection with Pentagon analyst Lawrence Franklin, an Iran expert under investigation for allegedly passing classified documents to Israel via the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) .... http://tinyurl.com/9jumz
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Background on Franklin Spy Investigation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_Franklin
At the bottom of this article there's several links to other material.
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There's so much happening. I hear the 24/7 cable news stations are emphasizing that it's July and it's hot. How could anyone that's paying attention think there's a 'liberal' bias in media?
Here's an example. It's a story that could be big. Should be big. But it's not. It's about Tom Delay and absolute clear-cut corruption. With Delay one gets a choice of many such stories and almost none of them have been covered over the years. I guess because it's July and it's hot.
Here's a link to the story as reported at THINK PROGRESS: http://tinyurl.com/ce4oc .
Don't you think a 1.5 billion dollar give-away should be a big story whereas that it's July and it's hot should not?
Me? I want to know who 'the third man' is in the CIA leak case. I want the next set Abu Ghraib photos and videos to be released. I want people to care. We ARE the government. We're the boss. That's the big deal about being a citizen of the USA, not two-ply toilet paper in multiple colors and patterns. Do we really need to be told it's hot in July?
The price of freedom is constant vigilance is how Thomas Jefferson put it.
The media isn't biased to left or right. It's just not doing it's job. And neither are way too many American citizens. We need to inform ourselves and start firing some of the crooked and incompetent working for us in government. They're supposed to be protecting us from predators not facilitating the predation.
And certainly not fighting phony wars who's only winners are the industrial-military complex. A victory paid for with blood and human degradation.
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Pentagon civilians (read neocons) like torture, real soldiers don't:
So..it's the old story of twisted freaks vs. pros. Could we just send 9/10ths of The Bush administration to Fantasy Island, let them dress up as whatever they want:cowboys, soldiers, evil Arabs, journalists (hello FOX NEWS), whatever and let them fight one another and leave the real world to the rest of us, some of whom are in touch with reality and not their own personal sick, twisted fantasies?

July 28, 2005
Military's Opposition to Harsh Interrogation Is Outlined


WASHINGTON, July 27 - Senior military lawyers lodged vigorous and detailed dissents in early 2003 as an administration legal task force concluded that President Bush had authority as commander in chief to order harsh interrogations of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, newly disclosed documents show.

Despite the military lawyers' warnings, the task force concluded that military interrogators and their commanders would be immune from prosecution for torture under federal and international law because of the special character of the fight against terrorism.

In memorandums written by several senior uniformed lawyers in each of the military services as the legal review was under way, they had urged a sharply different view and also warned that the position eventually adopted by the task force could endanger American service members.

The memorandums were declassified and released last week in response to a request from Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. Mr. Graham made the request after hearings in which officers representing the military's judge advocates general acknowledged having expressed concerns over interrogation policies... http://tinyurl.com/cwhdo
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AGENCY FEARS THE REAL STORY OF OSAMA'S "ESCAPE"
(He probably paid the same war-lords to look the other way that we paid to capture him. Dah. Who knew the corrupt were corruptable?):

Ex-CIA agent sues to publish Tora Bora account
Officer who helped lead mission says CIA is blocking publication of his book

The Associated Press
Updated: 3:40 a.m. ET July 28, 2005

WASHINGTON - The CIA is squelching publication of a new book detailing events leading up to Osama bin Laden’s escape from his Tora Bora mountain stronghold during the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, says a former CIA officer who led much of the fighting.

In a story he says he resigned from the agency to tell, Gary Berntsen recounts the attacks he coordinated at the peak of the fighting in eastern Afghanistan in late 2001, including how U.S. commanders knew bin Laden was in the rugged mountains near the Pakistani border and the al-Qaida leader’s much-discussed getaway....

...CIA officer: 'Completely incorrect' debate
During the 2004 election, President Bush and other senior administration officials repeatedly said that commanders did not know whether bin Laden was at Tora Bora when U.S. and allied Afghan forces attacked there in 2001.

They rejected allegations by Sen. John Kerry, then the Democratic presidential nominee, that the United States had missed an opportunity to capture or kill bin Laden because they had “outsourced” the fighting to Afghan warlords... http://tinyurl.com/7vbhx
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Wednesday, July 27, 2005


BE THE LEAST YOU CAN BE:

Years of writing about public relations and propaganda has probably made me a bit jaded, but I was amazed nevertheless when I visited America's Army, an online video game website sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense. In its quest to find recruits, the military has literally turned war into entertainment.
http://www.prwatch.org/node/3865
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BUSH CRIME FAMILY 'LITMUS TEST' FOR SCOTUS:
What have you done for us lately?

Roberts Gave GOP Advice in 2000 Recount

John G. Roberts, President Bush's nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, played a role in the chaotic, 36-day period following the disputed 2000 presidential election.

From MIAMI HERALD
by Gary Fineout and Mary Ellen Klas

TALLAHASSEE -- U.S. Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts provided legal advice to Gov. Jeb Bush in the weeks following the November 2000 election as part of the effort to make sure the governor's brother won the disputed presidential vote.
Roberts, at the time a private attorney in Washington, D.C., came to Tallahassee to advise the state's Republican administration as it was trying to prevent a Democratic end-run that the GOP feared might give the election to Al Gore, sources told The Herald.
Judge Roberts worked to ensure that George Bush would become president -- regardless of what the courts might decide. And now he is being rewarded for that partisan service by being appointed to the nation's highest court.
US Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Florida)The maneuver, which the Democrats never attempted, might have kept the state from sending its list of official ''electors'' -- the Electoral College members who actually cast the votes that count -- to Congress and the National Archives... http://tinyurl.com/cf7h9
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Let me do this FOX NEWS style:
Good News from Iraq! The Iraqis are Taking Over the Torturing!

Iraq police accused of torture

By Richard Galpin BBC News, Baghdad

Iraq's new police force is facing mounting allegations of systematic abuse and torture of people in detention, as well as allegations of extra-judicial killings. The minority Sunni community in particular claims it is being targeted by the Shia-dominated police force.

The traumatised face of Dhai Adnan Saleh stares from the podium at the journalists and cameramen in front of him at a hastily convened news conference in Baghdad.

Surrounded by a forest of microphones, this tall, thin, awkward man begins mumbling a statement from notes scribbled on a sheet of paper.

No-one can hear him.

He tries to compose himself and starts again.

"We were left from 5.30 that evening inside a kind of container that had no air vents. After one hour, we lost consciousness and some people began to die, the others were dead by one o'clock in the morning"- Dhai Adnan Saleh, Iraqi Sunni.

This time, he describes the horror of the past 24 hours from memory - a memory which is certain to haunt him for the rest of his life... http://tinyurl.com/8w2m2
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Report: CIA officials involved in Iraqi beatings
By The Associated Press

DENVER (AP) -- Classified U.S. personnel used a sledgehammer handle to beat prisoners in Iraq, according to a National Guard soldier who testified during a closed military hearing involving four Colorado-based soldiers in March.
Sgt. 1st Class Gerold Pratt of the Utah National Guard said he saw the unidentified personnel use a 15-inch wooden handle to hit prisoners.
"They'd ask you a question, and if they didn't like it, they'd hit you," he said, according to a transcript of the hearing obtained this week by The Denver Post... http://tinyurl.com/9e7u6
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I wonder if after the next set of Abu Ghraib photos and videos come out some effort will be made to figure out who's who. Who among the torturers is CIA, military, Halliburton contractors, etc.
Since we're paying for all this human degradation it would be nice to know who to thank. Or where to make the arrests.
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From today's TELEGRAPH UK:
Rumsfeld warns against Iranian influence
(Filed: 27/07/2005)

Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, has urged Iraqi leaders to resist interference by the country's neighbours Iran and Syria.

Washington has accused Syria of allowing militants to enter Iraq, and says Iran is trying to gain political influence in Baghdad.

Mr Rumsfeld was speaking during an unannounced visit to Baghdad, in which he also urged Iraqis to finish their draft constitution.


He said: "It's important for them (the Iraqis) to work with their neighbours to see that the behaviour of particularly Iran and Syria improves. It has been harmful.

"They need to be aggressively communicating with their neighbours to see that foreign terrorists stop trying to cross those borders and their neighbours do not harbour insurgents." http://tinyurl.com/b4838
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I know. Let's project America's seeming powerlessness on two more fronts. More useless death seems like a good idea.
At what point is GWB going to start calling it the Wolfowitz Doctrine again instead of the Bush Doctrine to deflect the blame and responsibility for the awful Iraq invasion fiasco?
Meanwhile death and destruction is the forecast.
It's time to recognize that if you cut off the head the body will die. It's time to impeach GWB. Later the world community can bring the neoconservative imperial dreamers to account for war crimes.
Or maybe just investigate the election 'irregularities' and find out Gore and Kerry have been POTUS all along.
"Sorry dead people it was all a mistake."
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Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Prosecutor In CIA Leak Case Casting A Wide NetWhite House Effort To Discredit Critic Examined in Detail

By Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, July 27, 2005; A01

The special prosecutor in the CIA leak probe has interviewed a wider range of administration officials than was previously known, part of an effort to determine whether anyone broke laws during a White House effort two years ago to discredit allegations that President Bush used faulty intelligence to justify the Iraq war, according to several officials familiar with the case.

Prosecutors have questioned former CIA director George J. Tenet and deputy director John E. McLaughlin, former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, State Department officials, and even a stranger who approached columnist Robert D. Novak on the street.

In doing so, special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has asked not only about how CIA operative Valerie Plame's name was leaked but also how the administration went about shifting responsibility from the White House to the CIA for having included 16 words in the 2003 State of the Union address about Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium from Africa, an assertion that was later disputed... http://tinyurl.com/9qpdp
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FLIP-FLOP:"Now folks, hit your flip flops together (like a buncha 'tards)":
Rove's Backers Use 'CounterSpy Defense'
By Robert ParryJuly 26, 2005
In defending White House political adviser Karl Rove, American conservatives have adopted an argument used by U.S. leftists three decades ago to rebut accusations that CounterSpy magazine's naming of CIA station chief Richard Welch in Greece contributed to his murder.
The argument – used then to defend CounterSpy and now to protect Rove for outing CIA officer Valerie Plame – was that the covers for the two CIA officers had previously been blown and that the CIA hadn’t done enough to maintain the secrecy...http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/072605.html
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CAN YOU HOLD A LUNATIC RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS LIES?
(Hey! That could be the title of John Bolton's bio.)

July 26, 2005
"John Bolton and the State Department Inspector General: SMOKING GUN?
There is an ongoing skirmish about whether John Bolton did or did not testify before or meet with investigators from the Valerie Plame case grand jury."....

"BUT WOULDN'T THAT BE EMBARRASSING?! Could Bolton really state -- after an IG investigation of his office and his role -- that he was uninvolved with an IG investigation over the last five years"... http://tinyurl.com/a6den


"This is the question that Karen Hughes recently responded to in the affirmative. It is also the question to which John Bolton responded, definitely, "NO".

From the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Disclosure Form:

Interviews -- Have you been interviewed or asked to supply any information in connection with any administrative (including an inspector general), Congressional or grand jury investigation within the past 5 years, except routine Congressional testimony? If so, provide details."
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A COUPLE OF STORIES FROM WAYNE MADSEN'S SITE
Brief Bio/Biblio for Wayne Madsen: http://tinyurl.com/b6e8r
Wayne Madsen Report:http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

July 26, 2005 -- Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) intends to interfere in Fitzgerald probe. Senator Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, announced that his commitee will be "reviewing" the criminal probe by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald of the White House leak of the identities of covert CIA agents. If Roberts is serious and not just grandstanding, this may indicate that the White House is looking to give Fitzgerald's targets (Karl Rove, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and others) congressional general immunity from prosecution in return for their testimony before Roberts' committee. This was the method by which John Poindexter and Oliver North were able to avoid jail time for their roles in Iran-contra, their convictions being overturned by a federal appeals court because of their previously granted congressional immunity. There is also a bit of Watergate redux in Roberts' statement. Pressure by the GOP on Fitzgerald is reminiscent of the Nixon administration's decision to fire Watergate prosecutor Archibald Cox. That prompted the resignations of Nixon's Attorney and Deputy Attorney General...

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July 26, 2005 -- CIA agents concerned about counter-intelligence "hits" masked as terrorist attacks. In the aftermath of the outing by the White House of the identities of covert CIA agents, CIA professionals are concerned about past and future terrorist bombings being used by foreign counter-intelligence agencies and terrorist organizations to selectively assassinate CIA agents and assets identified as being involved in America's counter-WMD proliferation operations...
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Oh really, O'Reilly: "ACLU and the judges who side with them are terror allies"

We need an FCC 'Fairness doctrine'.
You know? So that everytime an insane person says something it's required that there be an equal amount of sanity to balance the negative effect. Or maybe Falafel boy should just pour himself a big cup of shut the f__k up.

From the July 25 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:

O'REILLY: "The ACLU is also demanding that more pictures of the abuse at Abu Ghraib be released. The Defense Department is fighting that. Everybody knows those pictures incite violence against Americans. So why should more of them be fed to the press? We already know what happened at Abu Ghraib, and people are going to prison because of it. Clearly, more pictures of Abu Ghraib help the terrorists, as do Geneva Convention protections and civilian lawyers. So there is no question the ACLU and the judges who side with them are terror allies."
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GESTICH (for Faux News)

I miss the terror alerts.
Where'd they go?
We had them every few days or so
during the lead-up to the election.
Why none since?
I miss all the pretty colors.
I miss the fake fear.
Now all that's left is the real fear.
The fear my internet use and library records
will be monitored
and I'll be arrested
for not being stupid enough.
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WP article on Patrick Fitzgerald from February. It might be good to read before the Rovian attacks on him begin in earnest.

The Prosecutor Never Rests
Whether Probing a Leak or Trying Terrorists, Patrick Fitzgerald Is Relentless...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A55560-2005Feb1
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Bush on the Start of the Iraq War: "I feel good!"
Video:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/feel_good.html
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AN ANARCHIST WHO BELIEVES IN INCREMENTAL CHANGE:

That's my answer to those I can trust when I'm asked what I am politically. It is of course more complex than that but this is my quick 'flippant' answer.
But since you can't get there from here, for the time being I'm a Social Democrat. And since there is no currently effective political party in this country that represents this tendency I end up voting Democratic for the most part. When the Dem candidate in a particular race doesn't need my vote I have voted Socialist or Green. I voted for Kucinich in the '04 primary and Kerry in the general election.
I never get to vote for who I really want in major elections. There either isn't anyone, or it's a wasted vote or it's a vote for the 'other' side.
That's way backward. The US needs proportional representation in the legislative body and 'instant' runoffs for the executive. Most of the 'Western democracies' have some version of this.
Gore Vidal's quip, "There's only one political party in this country: The Money Party. It has a reactionary wing called Republican and a conservative wing called Democratic" resonates with me.
The people who really run this country are the four or five hundred 'households' that have annual incomes of two hundred million dollars or more.
As long as these people exist the US is a failed experiment. As big a failure as the state socialism of the USSR.
Che Guevara's writings on the 'new' man, socialist man, resonate with me. I think progress socially really does require a different way of thinking. A new consciousness. The good news is this way of thinking has existed since the beginning of humankind on earth. It's found among the primal peoples of the world.
'Western civilizations 'gift' to the world has been it's fall from an original eden of individual liberty and collective plenty.
Our genetic inheritance equips us to live in such a world. Our social existence thwarts us at every turn.
Somethings gotta give,I know that for sure.
Like everyone who gives it any thought I've learned to live with contradictions and 'making do' with things as they are now.
Before anything can be done it has to be imagined first. One of the great casualties of the way we live now is imagination. The constant litany of conformist consumerism has done a pretty good job of killing it off in many people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democrat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Kucinich
http://www.primitivism.com/
http://www.primitivism.com/nature-madness.htm
http://www.marxists.org/archive/guevara/1965/03/man-socialism.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism
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WAR IS A RACKET--by Major General Smedley Butler, USMC (ret)

"WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes....."


WHERE DOES ALL THE FREAKIN' MONEY GO?
SWISS BANK ACCOUNTS MAYBE? DICK CHENEY'S BACK POCKET ? THE WINNERS ARE CORPORATIONS(and their 'little Eichmanns')AND THE RULING/OWNING/INVESTING CLASS... THE LOSERS ARE EVERYBODY ELSE. WE NEED TO GET OUT OF IRAQ NOW.

"Despite $2 billion spent, residents say Baghdad is crumbling

By Leila Fadel, Knight Ridder Newspapers


Talib Abu Younes put his lips to a glass of tap water recently and watched worms swimming in the bottom.

Electricity flickers on and off for two hours in Muthana Naim's south Baghdad home then shuts off for four in boiling July heat that shoots above 120 degrees.

Fadhel Hussein boils buckets of sewage-contaminated water from the Tigris River to wash the family's clothes.

The capital is crumbling around angry Baghdadis. Narrow concrete sewage pipes decay underground and water pipes leak out more than half the drinking water before it ever reaches a home, according to the U.S. military.

Over 18 months, American officials spent almost $2 billion to revive the capital............ "

Read the rest of the story at Yahoo news and rate it high so it stays on the front page. Why aren't more people 'getting' this. The money is disappearing. War profiteering is illegal. Tax cuts for the ultra wealthy during a war? It's never happened before. Why now? There's a war alright, but it's a class war.

Read Maj. General Smedley Butler's WAR IS A RACKET here:
http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm
A law had to be passed in the lead up to WWII to stop GWB's Grandfather from doing business with Nazi Germany. It's a family thing.
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*
Shots to the Heart of Iraq

Innocent civilians, including people who are considered vital to building democracy, are increasingly being killed by U.S. troops

by Richard Paddock

BAGHDAD - Three men in an unmarked sedan pulled up near the headquarters of the national police major crimes unit. The two passengers, wearing traditional Arab dishdasha gowns, stepped from the car.

At the same moment, a U.S. military convoy emerged from an underpass. Apparently believing the men were staging an ambush, the Americans fired, killing one passenger and wounding the other. The sedan's driver was hit in the head by two bullet fragments.

The soldiers drove on without stopping.

This kind of shooting is far from rare in Baghdad, but the driver of the car was no ordinary casualty. He was Iraqi police Brig. Gen. Majeed Farraji, chief of the major crimes unit. His passengers were unarmed hitchhikers whom he was dropping off on his way to work...
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0725-01.htm

Monday, July 25, 2005


THE GUY UNDER THE SEATS: "I seeee you."


Slowly it approaches. The other. The truth. The whole truth. Nothing but...:

"You can run, but you can't hide."-Anon

Defense Department Refuses to Turn Over Abuse Photographs; Asks to File Secret Brief Justifying Refusal
July 22, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: media@aclu.org
NEW YORK -- Today was the day the government was supposed to process and redact photographs and videos relating to the abuse and torture of prisoners held abroad. Raising new arguments on the eve of its deadline, the United States government refused to release the materials to the public. The photographs and videos were to be processed for eventual release as a result of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and other organizations...
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=18811&c=206

http://action.aclu.org/torturefoia/

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IT'S ALL STARTING TO COME TOGETHER:
Gonzales didn't get the SCOTUS nomination 'cause he's involved in TraitorGate
Bolton? Yeah him too. He was developing an 'enemies list'. That's what they're hiding from the Senate.
And let's face it, it all ties into the massive lies the Bush Admin. told to the American people to sell the invasion of Iraq.
And later this week or the next or the next the next set of Abu Ghraib pictures and videos will be released. The ones depicting the rapes and murders of children. Remember the look on Lindsey Graham's face when he came out from seeing them? Ashen. He was furious and disgusted.
Oh yeah... Bush and Co. are the 'values' bunch. But what values?



http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/25/gonzales-excuse/
CHAVEZ: ELECTRONIC WAR WITH US
25.7.2005. 10:30:38

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has instigated what amounts to an "electronic war" with the United States.
Telesur, the 24-hour television network created by Mr Chavez to counter what he has called the "hegemony" of international networks like CNN, has hit the airwaves for the first time...
http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=116646&region=4
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Venezuela's Chavez Says Egypt Attack Likely Spurred by U.S. Actions in Iraq
By Jorge Rueda Associated Press Writer Published: Jul 24, 2005

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez criticized the American occupation of Iraq as a threat to world peace, saying the U.S. actions appear to be spurring more terrorist attacks, including the bombings at an Egyptian Red Sea resort....
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBUQZH3KBE.html
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$700 BILLION WORTH OF WAR. SO FAR:
REMEMBER WHEN 'THE WAR WAS GOING TO PAY FOR ITSELF'
WITH IRAQI OIL REVENUES:
It seems like an awful lot to pay for Abu Ghraib torture porn for Jeff Gannon and whoever he spent so much time with in the White House.
Ooops. I forgot. Halliburton is the winner in this 'war'. The torture porn for the freak brigade is gravy (so to speak.)
Why does Karl Rove always look a little 'moist' in photographs?
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Conflicts' costs may exceed $700 billion

War in Iraq, Afghanistan saddles U.S. taxpayers with enormous debt, critics say; deficit spending blamed.

By James Sterngold / San Francisco Chronicle

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have already cost taxpayers $314 billion, and the Congressional Budget Office projects additional expenses of perhaps $450 billion over the next 10 years.
That could make the combined campaigns, especially the war in Iraq, the most expensive military effort in the last 60 years, causing even some conservative experts to criticize the open-ended commitment to an elusive goal. The concern is that the soaring costs, given little weight before now, could play a growing role in U.S. strategic decisions because of the fiscal impact...
http://www.detnews.com/2005/nation/0507/25/A05-257768.htm
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Where Is Your Money Going? Support-the-troops rhetoric masks massive waste by Rep. Ron Paul

Remember the optimistic claims about how the Iraq War would pay for itself? The liberated Iraqis would exploit the country's oil resources and gratefully write a check to Uncle Sam, so the story went...
http://www.antiwar.com/paul/?articleid=5285
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Sunday, July 24, 2005

GONZALES GAVE WH 12 HOURS TO SHRED DOCUMENTS:


Gonzales Says He Told Card About CIA Probe
Sunday July 24, 2005 9:16 PM

By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday that he notified White House chief of staff Andy Card after the Justice Department opened an investigation into who revealed a covert CIA officer's identity, but waited 12 hours to tell anyone else in the executive mansion.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions Sunday about whether Card passed that information to top Bush aide Karl Rove or anyone else, giving them advance notice to prepare for the investigation.
Gonzales was White House counsel on Sept. 29, 2003, and got the first official word inside the White House when the Justice Department opened its inquiry. Earlier that day, White House press secretary Scott McClellan had said the leak was a serious matter the Justice Department should pursue ``to the fullest extent.'' McClellan also said it was ``ridiculous'' to suggest Rove, Bush's top political operative, was involved...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5163889,00.html?gusrc=ticker-103704
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Bush Aide Learned Early of Leaks Probe

By Dafna LinzerWashington Post Staff Writer
Monday, July 25, 2005; Page A02

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said yesterday that he spoke with White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. immediately after learning that the Justice Department had launched a criminal investigation into the leak of a CIA operative's identity. But Gonzales, who was White House counsel at the time, waited 12 hours before officially notifying the rest of the staff of the inquiry...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/24/AR2005072401058.html
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From Yesterday's FACE THE NATION:

SCHIEFFER: Let me just ask you the obvious question, Mr. Attorney General. Did you tell anybody at the White House, get ready for this, here it comes?
GONZALES: I, I told one person, ah, in, in the White House of, of the notification, and, and —
SCHIEFFER: Who?
GONZALES: and immediately — ah, I told the chief of staff. And immediately the next morning, I told the President and, shortly thereafter, there was a notification sent out to all the members of the White House staff.
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Saturday, July 23, 2005

Pentagon Blocks Release of Abu Ghraib Images: Here's Why
By Greg Mitchell
Published: July 23, 2005 6:00 PM ET

"’The American public needs to understand we're talking about rape and murder here. We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience,’ Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters after Rumsfeld testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. ’We're talking about rape and murder -- and some very serious charges.’ ...
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000990590
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TOUGH GUY, HUH?
"Meantime, got to admire the cojones of those Brit cops to go after him like that. All of this trumps any of my other complaints that the Brits weren't making the right noises about fighting terror. They like to go about things a bit more quietly than us. Not my style, but okay, fine — as long as they get the five in the noggin of the right bomber boy. They do that and I'm fine. "...
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,163420,00.html
PS:doesn't he look like something that might poke it's head out of a hole in your garden? A mole or vole or gopher? Except with glasses.
THIS PROVES THE INSURGENTS ARE NOT WATCHING FOX NEWS:

Defying U.S. Efforts, Guerrillas In Iraq Refocus and Strengthen

By DEXTER FILKINS and DAVID S. CLOUD
Published: July 24, 2005

BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 23 - They just keep getting stronger.
Despite months of assurances that their forces were on the wane, the guerrillas and terrorists battling the American-backed enterprise here appear to be growing more violent, more resilient and more sophisticated than ever.
A string of recent attacks, including the execution of moderate Sunni leaders and the kidnapping of foreign diplomats, has brought home for many Iraqis that the democratic process that has been unfolding since the Americans restored Iraqi sovereignty in June 2004 has failed to isolate the insurgents and, indeed, has become the target itself.
After concentrating their efforts for two and a half years on driving out the 138,000-plus American troops, the insurgents appear to be shifting their focus to the political and sectarian polarization of the country - apparently hoping to ignite a civil war - and to the isolation of the Iraqi government abroad.....
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/24/international/middleeast/24insurgents.html?hp&ex=1122177600&en=aba81522790293ac&ei=5094&partner=homepage
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Now I'm not that big on pieing, but isn't it pretty funny that 'chickenhawk' William Kristol got pied at a Quaker University(Earlham)?

No?

Well, how about that Ave Maria University established a scholarship named after brain-dead Terri Schiavo?

I wonder if it teaches 'creationism' and therefore isn't accredited. I guess you'd be brain-dead if you went there and then wanted to transfer to a real school. SOL at least.
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SOME TASTIES FROM EDOUARD GLISSANT:
(b. Martinique 1928. Poet, Novelist, Essayist)

"What I call Creolization is the encounter, the interference, the clash, the harmonies and disharmonies between cultures in the accomplished totality of the earth-world."

"The poet chooses, elects in the world mass what he needs to preserve, what his song accords with. And the rhythm is ritual force, lever of consciousness. It leads to these powers: prosodic richness (rigor), guarantor of choice, guardian of conquests; the knowledge of the world in its thickness and its spread, the enlightning obverse of History. That is to say poetry rebegins in the domains of the epic." (from 'Earth', trans. by Pierre Joris)

"In Relation the whole is not the finality of its parts: for multiplicity in totality is totally diversity."

Glissant on Haitian Painting:
http://www.webster.edu/~corbetre/haiti/art/glissant.htm

Promenoir de la mort seule/Promenade of Solitary Death:

http://www.chairetmetal.com/glissant2/poem.htm

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LA TIMES TODAY:
CIA Leak Investigation Turns to Possible Perjury, Obstruction
By Douglas Frantz, Sonni Efron and Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON — The special prosecutor in the CIA leak investigation has shifted his focus from determining whether White House officials violated a law against exposing undercover agents to determining whether evidence exists to bring perjury or obstruction of justice charges, according to people briefed in recent days on the inquiry's status.....
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-leak23jul23,0,3075904.story?coll=la-home-headlines
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LOOK UP THE WORD 'NUT' IN THE OED AND YOU FIND THIS GUY:

"‘I’m with the Bush-Cheney team, and I’m here to stop the vote’.”-John Bolton
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/bolton/bolton.php
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ANOTHER TRAITOR-GATE CASUALTY:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster_Jennings_&_Associates
"It was just a desk job."-RNC talking point
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THE TRIUMPH OF FUNDAMENTALISM--By Sue Coe
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Democratic Radio Address-7/23/05

Washington, DC - This week, Larry Johnson, who worked previously with the Central Intelligence Agency and U.S. State Department's Office of Counter Terrorism, delivered the Democratic Radio Address.

To listen to the audio version, click here.

The transcript is below.

"Good morning. I'm Larry Johnson, an American, a registered Republican, a former intelligence official at the CIA, and a friend of Valerie Plame.
I entered on duty at the CIA in September 1985 with Valerie. We were members of the Career Trainee Program. Senator Orin Hatch wrote the letter of recommendation for me which I believe that helped open the doors to me at the CIA.
From the first day we walked into the building, all members of my training class were undercover, including Valerie. In other words, we had to lie to our family and friends about where we worked. We could only tell those who had an absolute need to know where we worked. In my case, I told my wife.
I knew the wife of Ambassador Wilson, Valerie, as Valerie P. Even though all of us in the training class held Top Secret Clearances, we were asked to limit our knowledge of our other classmates to the first initial of their last name.
So, Larry J. knew Val P. rather than Valerie Plame. I really didnt realize what her last name was until her cover was betrayed by the Government officials who gave columnist Robert Novak her true name.
I am stunned that government officials at the highest level have such ignorance about a matter so basic to the national security structure of this nation.
Robert Novaks compromise of Valerie led to scrutiny of CIA officers that worked with her. This not only compromised her cover company but potentially every individual overseas who had been in contact with that company or with her.
We must put to bed the lie that she was not undercover. For starters, if she had not been undercover then the CIA would not have referred the matter to the Justice Department.
Val only told those with a need to know about her status in order to safeguard her cover, not compromise it. She was content with being known as an energy consultant married to Ambassador Joe Wilson and the mother of twins.
I voted for George Bush in November of 2000 because I was promised a President who would bring a new tone and a new ethical standard to Washington.
So where are we? The President has flip-flopped on his promise to fire anyone at the White House implicated in a leak. We now know from press reports that at least Karl Rove and Scooter Libby are implicated in these leaks and may have lied during the investigation.
Instead of a President concerned first and foremost with protecting this country and the intelligence officers who serve it, we are confronted with a President who is willing to sit by while political operatives savage the reputations of good Americans like Valerie and Joe Wilson.
This is wrong and this is shameful.
We deserve people who work in the White House who are committed to protecting classified information, telling the truth to the American people, and living by example the idea that a country at war with Islamic extremists cannot focus its efforts on attacking other American citizens who simply tried to tell the truth.
I am Larry Johnson.
Thank you for listening.
http://www.democrats.org/a/2005/07/former_cia_offi.php
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NEOCONS; LEOCONS: interview with Shadia Drury on Leo Strauss philosophical 'godfather' of the Neocons.

In Brief: Since his death in 1973, Leo Strauss has become arguably the most important political philosopher of our age. Shadia Drury discusses how his ideas of promoting fear, elitism, secrecy, and lying have helped to undermine democracy and build a world where violent pre-emption is becoming the norm.
http://globalpublicmedia.com/transcripts/396
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WHAT A DIFFERENCE A COOL DRAUGHT OF KOOL-AID MAKES:

“You can support the troops but not the president”-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

“[The] President…is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation’s armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy.”-Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)

“American foreign policy is now one huge big mystery. Simply put, the administration is trying to lead the world with a feel-good foreign policy.”-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

“If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy.”-Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of George W. Bush

“I had doubts about the bombing campaign from the beginning…I didn’t think we had done enough in the diplomatic area.”-Senator Trent Lott (R-MS)

“Well, I just think it’s a bad idea. What’s going to happen is they’re going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years”-Joe Scarborough (R-FL)

“I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now. The President began this mission with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered questions. A month later, these questions are still unanswered. There are no clarified rules of engagement. There is no timetable. There is no legitimate definition of victory. There is no contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our overextended military. There is no explanation defining what vital national interests are at stake. There was no strategic plan for war when the President started this thing, and there still is no plan today”-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

“Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?”-Sean Hannity, Fox News, 4/6/99

“Victory means exit strategy, and it’s important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is.”-Governor George W. Bush (R-TX)
“This is President Clinton’s war, and when he falls flat on his face, that’s his problem.”-Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN)

“Bombing a sovereign nation for ill-defined reasons with vague objectives undermines the American stature in the world. The international respect and trust for America has diminished every time we casually let the bombs fly.”-Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)
*

Friday, July 22, 2005


This is supposedly in the current print edition of Patrick Buchanan's magazine AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE. I haven't access to it but I thought I'd pass it along anyway. It doesn't sound far-fetched to me. If I was casting the role of insane right-wing nuclear mass-murderer Cheney'd be the guy.
Here's the link to the online AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE. Use caution:
http://www.amconmag.com/.
"The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney's office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing--that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack--but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections. "--written by Philip Giraldi (Fmr. CIA w/ extensive Mideast experience.)
Apologies if this turns out to be bunk.
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Here's the dirty freakin' hippie peacenik fmr. CIA officers who are dissin' the Prez. And there's the Prez hiz own self out there accomplishing missions and stuff.


AP story out on the wires:

"WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former U.S. intelligence officers criticized President Bush on Friday for not disciplining Karl Rove in connection with the leak of the name of a CIA officer, saying Bush's lack of action has jeopardized national security.
In a hearing held by Senate and House Democrats examining the implications of exposing Valerie Plame's identity, the former intelligence officers said Bush's silence has hampered efforts to recruit informants to help the United States fight the war on terror. Federal law forbids government officials from revealing the identity of an undercover intelligence officer..."

You can read or hear the rest all over the place. If you can't your media outlet, print or broadcast, is not doing their job. Or you're watching FOX who have a whole different job which bears little or no relationship to journalism. Currently FOX is specializing in aiding and abetting high crimes and misdemeanors.
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Traitors in the White House timeline from NY Times: Too bad they left out their role of publishing Judith Miller's wacky columns that were sourced in neocon favorite Chalabi's self serving fantasies. Click it, print it, put it in your wallet or on the fridge. Can't tell your players without a program. Play ball!

Also see this timeline at NPR:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4764919
BO DIETL ON FOREIGN POLICY:Fair & Balanced to the Max:


.."You got a bunch of people over there about 9000 what they call royal family. They're all inbreds they marry each other"... "This is how we have to interfere, they can't police their own if they can't stop the terrorism that they are exporting we have to go in there"....
"They are not doing any of that at all and I tell you the honest truth, they got oil, we need oil, we should go over there and take the oil. Everyone hates us anyway in these muslim countries and for some reason it's not working the holy site of mecca there.""You know what I talk about Blackjack Pershing", the general, Everyone laughs at me about dipping blood ah pig's blood on the bullets because if they get shot with it and they get killed they can't go to this never never land with the seventy two virgins well I say to the troops out there buy a couple of pigs put your bullets in there and start letting the word be known that you're going to shoot em and when you shootem they are not going to make never never land and get the seventy two virgins or whatever they think they are going to get".
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DRINKING THE KOOL-AID
Great article by a guy that spoke at the Dorgan/Waxman forum today:

Drinking the Kool-Aid-- by W. Patrick Lang
(Col. Lang is president of Global Resources, Inc. and former defense intelligence officer at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). )

Throughout my long service life in the Department of Defense, first as an army officer and then as a member of the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service, there was a phrase in common usage: "I will fall on my sword over that." It meant that the speaker had reached a point of internal commitment with regard to something that his superiors wanted him to do and that he intended to refuse even though this would be career suicide. The speaker preferred career death to the loss of personal honor.This phrase is no longer widely in use. What has taken its place is far more sinister in its meaning and implications. "I drank the Kool-Aid" is what is now said. Those old enough to remember the Jonestown tragedy know this phrase all too well. Jim Jones, a self-styled "messiah" from the United States, lured hundreds of innocent and believing followers to Guyana, where he built a village, isolated from the world, in which his Utopian view of the universe would be played out. He controlled all news, regulated all discourse and expression of opinion, and shaped behavior to his taste. After a time, his paranoia grew unmanageable and he "foresaw" that "evil" forces were coming to threaten his "paradise." He decided that these forces were unstoppable and that death would be preferable to living under their control. He called together his followers in the town square and explained the situation to them. There were a few survivors, who all said afterward that within the context of the "group-think" prevailing in the village, it sounded quite reasonable. Jim Jones then invited all present to drink from vats of Kool-Aid containing lethal doses of poison. Nearly all did so, without physical coercion. Parents gave their children the poison and then drank it themselves. Finally Jones drank. Many hundreds died with him.What does drinking the Kool-Aid mean today? It signifies that the person in question has given up personal integrity and has succumbed to the prevailing group-think that typifies policymaking today. This person has become "part of the problem, not part of the solution." ...
http://www.mepc.org/public_asp/journal_vol11/0406_lang.asp
Distributed to newspapers by Knight-Ridder/Tribune Information Services
Published on Friday, July 22, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
Rove Scandal Could Stick
by Mark Weisbrot
The Bush Administration has ploughed through so many scandals that it is easy to cynically dismiss the current controversy over White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove as just another inside-the-beltway, partisan tussle that will soon be as forgotten as all those Bush Administration officials with ties to Enron. Or the Harken Energy Corporation and Halliburton scandals (to which the President and Vice President were personally linked). The 9/11 intelligence failures, the missing weapons of mass destruction, Abu Ghraib - nothing sticks to these guys. So why should this scandal be any different?

Most importantly, this one has a federal special prosecutor (Patrick Fitzgerald) working on it. And Fitzgerald seems serious -- he probably wouldn't have sent a New York Times reporter to jail for refusing to testify, if he were about to announce that nobody broke the law....http://www.commondreams.org/
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"I think I'll piss off CIA.
That'll show Daddy"













Justice, perhaps not blind, but starting to look a bit cross-eyed.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

FRIDAY IS SHAPING UP TO BE A BIG DAY:
Forum on C-Span 3 @ 10:00am edt
Dorgan/Waxman and a host of PO'd spies
...and whither Karen Hughes. Can that bitch be linked to this too?
Crookedest WH ever on the verge of exposure. Let it be so!

Thursday, July 21, 2005
Oh man, BIG New York Times article on Rove, and it's got lots of new stuff-- by John in DC - 7/21/2005 11:12:00 PM

"Wow. New article, lots of good stuff.First, we've got the new fact that Scooter and Rove were working closely together on how to fight back against Wilson and the uproar over the 16 words. That suggests that the special prosecutor might be interested if they conspired, I mean, worked together on preparing their testimony?" :
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/07/oh-man-big-new-york-times-article-on.html
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NOT IF INDICTMENTS IT'S WHEN INDICTMENTS:
This from the Bloomberg wire Thursday evening. Scooter now saying Tim Russert told him. Waiting for Mary Matalin's name to surface. She's testified before the GJ and is incapable of telling the truth so must have perjured herself. "Fitz" seems to have plenty of indictments to go around. He's hit a goldmine of real corruption here. He's no closet pervert like Ken Starr. He's got real crimes to investigate and prosecute. Very, very cool...

Rove, Libby Accounts in CIA Case Differ With Those of Reporters
By Richard Keil
July 22 (Bloomberg) — Two top White House aides have given accounts to the special prosecutor about how reporters told them the identity of a CIA agent that are at odds with what the reporters have said, according to persons familiar with the case.
Lewis “Scooter'’ Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, told special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he first learned from NBC News reporter Tim Russert of the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame, the wife of former ambassador and Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson. Russert has testified before a federal grand jury that he didn’t tell Libby of Plame’s identity.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove told Fitzgerald that he first learned the identity of the CIA agent from syndicated columnist Robert Novak, who was first to report Plame’s name and connection to Wilson. Novak, according to a source familiar with the matter, has given a somewhat different version to the special prosecutor...
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/21/breaking-bloomberg-reporting-that-rove-libby-may-be-subject-to-perjury-charges

Also see:http://www.davidcorn.com/2005/07/rove_scandal_a.php
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Two stranded Reptilians await the rescue ship from the home planet.
Athanasius Kircher's MAP OF THE SUN
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Essay on Rikki Ducornet by M.E. Warlick, who's also the author of MAX ERNST AND ALCHEMY from the University of Texas Surrealist Revolution series:
http://www.utexas.edu/utpress/subjects/surreal.html


"Western alchemy arose in Hellenistic Egypt a land of the Black Earth-within a rich melange of classical philosophy, Eastern rebirth myths, and the dualistic heresies of Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism and Manicheanism. Unraveling alchemy's origins and sources within this intellectual alembic is a difficult process. There are hints of its first stirrings when classical philosophers describe the world's creation as a metallic transformation or when religious prophets suggest that God was boiling and evaporating the cosmos. Likewise, it is a difficult task to unwind the glittering threads of dreams, magic, legends, alchemy, Gnostic philosophy and children's fairy tales woven within the novels, short fiction, essays and poetry of Rikki Ducornet. Yet alchemy is there like a deep oceanic current that tugs and sways at the lucid surface of her writing"...
http://www.fantasticmetropolis.com/i/rikki-ducornet/
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Cyrano de Bergerac's (the actual writer, not Rostand's character) 'hermetic' classic THE OTHER WORLD:The Society and Government of the Moon is online here:
http://www.bewilderingstories.com/special/tow.html
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SEATTLE PI WEIGHS IN ON THE TRAITOR ROVE:

Thursday, July 21, 2005
Leaking Standard: No pal left behind
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

President Bush likes to talk about high standards, accountability and personal responsibility. While Bush expects students, school systems and future retirees to toe the line, his friends get an easier deal...
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/233352_karlxed.asp
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'KNOWING' DISCLOSURE=10 years. NOOSE TIGHTENS.


Plame's Identity Marked As Secret Memo Central to Probe Of Leak Was
Written By State Dept. Analyst

By Walter Pincus and Jim VandeHeiWashington Post Staff WritersThursday, July 21, 2005; A01

A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials.
Plame -- who is referred to by her married name, Valerie Wilson, in the memo -- is mentioned in the second paragraph of the three-page document, which was written on June 10, 2003, by an analyst in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), according to a source who described the memo to The Washington Post.
The paragraph identifying her as the wife of former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV was clearly marked to show that it contained classified material at the "secret" level, two sources said. The CIA classifies as "secret" the names of officers whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials.
Anyone reading that paragraph should have been aware that it contained secret information...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/20/AR2005072002517_pf.html