VIDEO: Continuity of the US government … TOP SECRET!

Continuity of the US government … TOP SECRET!

Rep. Peter DeFazio gives a speech on the house floor to fellow members discussing the fact that Bush Administration has denied the entire Dept of Homeland Security Committee access to the so called detailed plans that the White House has drafted to ensure the continuity of government in case of a major terrorist attack.

Transcript

Article:

DeFazio Asks, But He’s Denied Access
Classified info - The congressman wanted to see government plans for after a terror attack

360 Post-9/11 Workers Have Died, Including 80 Of Cancer, Says State

“Given the scope of the tragedy from last week, I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C. that their air is safe to breath and their water is safe to drink.”

- Christine Todd Whitman

nydailynews.com / Jon Gold’s Blog: 360 Post-9/11 Workers Have Died, Including 80 Of Cancer, Says State

More than 360 workers who dealt with the aftermath of the World Trade Center disaster have died, state health officials said Wednesday.

Officials have determined the cause of death of 154 of the responders and volunteers who toiled at Ground Zero, the blocks nearby and at the Fresh Kills landfill, where debris from the site was taken.

Of those, 80 died of cancer.

“It’s the tip of the iceberg,” said David Worby, who is representing 10,000 workers - 600 with cancer - who say they got sick after working on rescue and recovery efforts. . . .

Jason Leopold: Lost E-Mails Obscure ‘Plame-gate’

Jason Leopold, Consortiumnews: Lost E-Mails Obscure ‘Plame-gate’

Earlier this week, the White House disclosed that it could not recover lost e-mails from emergency backup tapes for the period covering the invasion of Iraq and the U.S. failure to find Iraq’s alleged WMD.

This new gap – from March 1, 2003, to May 23, 2003 – also may have wiped out evidence of how George W. Bush and his top aides reacted to the emerging criticism from former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson that the White House had sold the war using false claims about Iraq seeking uranium from Niger in Africa. . . .

Amy Goodman: America’s War on Journalists

Forsøker Goodman å fortelle mer enn det åpenbare? Les mellom linjene og hint-hint?

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Amy Goodman, Alternet: America’s War on Journalists

The Bush administration has engaged in assault, intimidation, and imprisonment to limit the ability of journalists to do their jobs.

Christopher Ketcham: The Last Roundup

Christopher Ketcham: The Last Roundup

RED: This is an incredibly important article–one of the most important we’ve posted. It’s long, thorough, historical, and frightening… Several links for other, related reading are at the end. . . .

For decades the federal government has been developing a highly classified plan that would override the Constitution in the event of a terrorist attack. Is it also compiling a secret enemies list of citizens who could face detention under martial law?

In the spring of 2007, a retired senior official in the U.S. Justice Department sat before Congress and told a story so odd and ominous, it could have sprung from the pages of a pulp political thriller. It was about a principled bureaucrat struggling to protect his country from a highly classified program with sinister implications. Rife with high drama, it included a car chase through the streets of Washington, D.C., and a tense meeting at the White House, where the president’s henchmen made the bureaucrat so nervous that he demanded a neutral witness be present.

(…)

http://911truth.org/article.php?story=20080430182318128

House chairman threatens subpoenas on torture policy

AP News / Wiredispatch.com: House Judiciary chairman threatens White House with subpoenas on torture policy

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee on Monday threatened to serve subpoenas on former Attorney General John Ashcroft and two others associated with the Bush administration’s interrogation policies if they don’t agree to testify.

If the three — including John C. Yoo, the former assistant deputy attorney general, and David Addington, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff — do not reply by Friday, “I will have no choice but to consider the use of compulsory process,” Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., wrote in letters to them. . . .

Litt gammel, men: US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq

Interrogations American Style: Først skal du si det vi vil. Så skal du holde kjeft. For alltid.

Fredsnasjonen Norges krigskamerater …

Godt vi tilhører “den siviliserte delen av verden”. Godt vi tar avstand fra overgripere og folk som forbryter seg på internasjonal lov og menneskerettigheter. Godt våre politikere ikke er noen tvetungede hyklere.

Godt det norske folk er så ansvarlige.

Og engasjerte.

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Project Censored: US Operatives Torture Detainees to Death in Afghanistan and Iraq

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) released documents of forty-four autopsies held in Afghanistan and Iraq October 25, 2005. Twenty-one of those deaths were listed as homicides. The documents show that detainees died during and after interrogations by Navy SEALs, Military Intelligence, and Other Government Agency (OGA).

“These documents present irrefutable evidence that U.S. operatives tortured detainees to death during interrogation,” said Amrit Singh, an attorney with the ACLU. “The public has a right to know who authorized the use of torture techniques and why these deaths have been covered up.” . . .

Torturers in the White House: Why Is This Story Being Ignored?

Ruth Conniff, The Progressive / Alternet: Torturers in the White House: Why Is This Story Being Ignored?

We now have confirmation that the President of the United States gave the OK to torture. Where is the media? Where are the Democrats?

Jeremy Scahill’s book BLACKWATER

http://www.blackwaterbook.com/news/

“If the Republicans lose in 2008, they will leave office armed and dangerous. Blackwater is the utterly gripping and explosive story of how the Bush Administration has spent hundreds of millions of public dollars building a parallel corporate army, an army so loyal to far right causes it constitutes nothing less than a Republican Guard. The most important and chilling book about the death throes of U.S. democracy you will read in years and a triumph of investigative reporting.”

–Naomi Klein, author No Logo

“Of all the insane Bush privatization efforts, none is more frightening than the corporatizing of military combat forces. Jeremy Scahill admirably exposes a devastating example of this sinister scheme.”

–Michael Moore, Academy Award Winning Director

“This engrossing investigative piece exposing, in shocking detail, a U.S. government-outsourced Frankenstein replete with helicopter gun ships may leave you incredulous. But you better believe it, for it poses a grave and gathering danger to the future of our Republic.”

–Ray McGovern, CIA veteran and former intelligence briefer for George H. W. Bush

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Articles by Jeremy Scahill (The Nation).

Flashpoints: Interview with Valerie Plame

Outed covert CIA officer Valerie Plame in an in-depth interview on her new tell-all memoir, Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House; and Plame’s co-author, Laura Rozen, fills in the blanks after CIA censors leave half the pages redacted.

Listen

Pentagon Propaganda: So Much Worse Than We Thought

John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton, PR Watch / Alternet: Pentagon Propaganda: So Much Worse Than We Thought

The Bush Administration has spent millions on deceptive PR to sell the war, as recently documented in the New York Times. Where’s the fallout?

Jason Leopold: Torture Questions Hover Over Chertoff

Jason Leopold, Consortiumnews.com: Torture Questions Hover Over Chertoff

John Yoo and some other Bush administration lawyers who built the legal framework for torture are now out of the U.S. government, but one still holds a Cabinet-level rank – Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

In the summer of 2002, Chertoff, then head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, offered assurances to the CIA that its interrogators would not face prosecution under anti-torture laws if they followed guidelines on aggressive techniques approved by the Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, where Yoo worked.

(…)

“Those techniques were implemented under the supervision and guidance of Secretary Rumsfeld and the commander of Guantánamo, Major General Geoffrey Miller. These methods included, but were not limited to, 48 days of severe sleep deprivation and 20-hour interrogations, forced nudity, sexual humiliation, religious humiliation, physical force, prolonged stress positions and prolonged sensory over-stimulation, and threats with military dogs.”

(…)

Ray McGovern: What About the War, Benedict?

Ray McGovern, Consortiumnews.com: What About the War, Benedict?

Pope Benedict XVI arrived in the United States last week against a macabre backdrop featuring reports of torture, execution and war. He chose not to notice.

Torture: Fresh reporting by ABC from inside sources depicted George W. Bush’s most senior aides (Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Rice and Tenet) meeting dozens of times in the White House during 2002/03 to sort out the most efficient mix of torture techniques for captured “terrorists.”

When initially ABC attempted to insulate the president from this sordid activity, Bush abruptly bragged that he knew all about it and approved. That comment and the action memorandum Bush signed on Feb. 7, 2002, dispelled any lingering doubt regarding his personal responsibility for authorizing torture.

(…)

Investigation into Whether America is Still a Constitutional Government

Investigation into Whether America is Still a Constitutional Government

George Washington’s Blog: Are We ALREADY Living in a Non-Constitutional COG America?

George Washington’s Blog: Are We ALREADY Living in a Non-Constitutional COG America?

One of the top investigative journalists in the country, Larisa Alexandrovna (the lead journalist at Raw Story), says the following concerning her attempts to determine whether or not the U.S. is still officially in a state of emergency, such as would justify the continuition of Continuity of Government (COG) Plans implemented on 9/11:

“Well, I have called around… believe it or not, no seems to have an answer as to this simple question: ‘are we in a state of emergency?’ “

Keep in mind that Alexandrovna has broken many top stories, later picked up by the New York Times and other mainstream publications, and has developed a broad network of contacts. And yet she couldn’t find an answer. (…)

Litt gammel: DeFazio Asks, But He’s Denied Access

The Oregonian / CommonDreams.org: Classified info - The congressman wanted to see government plans for after a terror attack

“Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right,” DeFazio said.

Bush: “I Was Aware” of Harsh Tactics

ABC News / Truthout.org: Bush: “I Was Aware” of Harsh Tactics

President says he knew his senior advisors approved tough interrogation methods.

(…)

“Well, we started to connect the dots, in order to protect the American people.” Bush told ABC New s White House correspondent Martha Raddatz. “And, yes, I’m aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved.”

(…)

George Washington’s Blog: DICK CHENEY - Key Player in a COG America?

George Washington’s Blog: DICK CHENEY - Key Player in a COG America?

(…)

According to many sources, it was Cheney – and not Bush – who authorized the shootdown of planes on 9/11. See, for example, this Washington Post story. Perhaps the reason that Cheney, and not Bush, authorized the shootdown was that Cheney became the head of the “shadow” government instituted on 9/11 under Continuity of Government measures. In other words, he became the real Commander-in-Chief of the COG government.

(…)

Sidney Blumenthal / Salon.com: The long march of Dick Cheney

Litt gammel, men vel verdt en gjennomlesning. En slags Hvem er?-artikkel …

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Sidney Blumenthal, Salon.com: The long march of Dick Cheney

For his entire career, he sought untrammeled power. The Bush presidency and 9/11 finally gave it to him — and he’s not about to give it up.

The hallmark of the Dick Cheney administration is its illegitimacy. Its essential method is bypassing established lines of authority; its goal is the concentration of unaccountable presidential power. When it matters, the regular operations of the CIA, Defense Department and State Department have been sidelined.

(…)

Within the White House, the office of the vice president is the strategic center. . . . Those who attempt to fulfill their duties in the old ways have been humiliated when necessary, fired, retired early or shunted aside. In their place, acolytes and careerists indistinguishable from true believers in their eagerness have been elevated.

(…)

Jon Gold: The Environmental Impact Of 9/11

Samling av viktige artikler.

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Jon Gold: The Environmental Impact Of 9/11

This is an issue that needs to be promoted at every opportunity. Period. This destroys the argument that they would never kill 2973+ people because they were MORE than willing to let the heroes of 9/11 become sick and die.

If you want to help, please go to the FealGood Foundation, and donate whatever you can.

Thank you.

(…)

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Les også:

Et vanlig arguments bortgang: BushCo hedrer 9/11-helter med død og alvorlige helseproblemer, samt FOR LITE MINUS 77%

The Very Annoying Washington Post

Robert Parry, Consortiumnews.com: The Very Annoying Washington Post

One of the many annoyances about living in George W. Bush’s Washington is to read the commentaries about the Iraq War on the editorial pages of the Washington Post. Possibly never in modern times has a major newspaper been more wrong, more consistently with more arrogance than has the Post on this vital issue.

Beyond getting almost nothing right – from the Post’s certitude over Iraq’s WMD to its reverence for Colin Powell’s U.N. testimony to its excitement over the purple-ink elections to its enthusiasm over whatever latest corner has been turned – the Post also has this obnoxious tendency to mock Americans who don’t share the paper’s wisdom.

(…)

Ray McGovern: Yoo’s on First?

Ray McGovern, Consortiumnews.com: Yoo’s on First?

Is it because John Yoo, the former Justice Department’s hired hand, is such an easy target? Is it because of the cheeky, in-your-face way in which Yoo argues that the president has the authority to have your eyes poked out and your sons’ testicles crushed, because we are “at war” and he is commander in chief?

(…)

In his Feb. 7, 2002, memorandum, Bush wrote: “I determine that common Article 3 of Geneva does not apply to either al Qaeda or Taliban detainees.” (Common Article 3 bans “torture [and] outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.”)

(…)

Cheney authorized ‘harsh interrogations’

Alle er enige: Underkastet tortur vil nær på hvem som helst innrømme hva som helst. Hvilket forsåvidt er ønsket effekt:

tortur; mishandling i den hensikt å fremtvinge tilståelse e.l.

Sikkert nyttig for BushCo når de skal skaffe “bevis”.

Med nordmenns hjelp - by the way … Stikkord: Camp X-Ray, Aker Kværner. Fredsnasjonen Norges store stolthet. Ved siden av operahuset.

Godt vi er villige til å ta i et tak når det “virkelig gjelder”, om ikke annet.

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Associated Press / The Raw Story: Cheney authorized ‘harsh interrogations’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Bush administration officials from Vice President Dick Cheney on down signed off on using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality, The Associated Press has learned.

The officials also took care to insulate President Bush from a series of meetings where CIA interrogation methods, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were discussed and ultimately approved.

(…)

The meetings were held in the White House Situation Room in the years immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks. Attending the sessions were Cheney, then-Bush aides Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

(…)

Gammel, men …: OSAMAGATE

“Now the Taliban will pay a price” vowed President George W. Bush, as American and British fighter planes unleashed missile attacks against major cities in Afghanistan. The US Administration claims that Osama bin Laden is behind the tragic events of the 11th of September. A major war supposedly “against international terrorism” has been launched, yet the evidence amply confirms that agencies of the US government have since the Cold War harbored the “Islamic Militant Network” as part of Washington’s foreign policy agenda. In a bitter irony, the US Air Force is targeting the training camps established in the 1980s by the CIA.

The main justification for waging this war has been totally fabricated. The American people have been deliberately and consciously misled by their government into supporting a major military adventure which affects our collective future.

“OSAMAGATE“

by Michel Chossudovsky
Professor of Economics, University of Ottawa

Centre for Research on Globalisation (CRG), Montréal
Posted at globalresearch.ca 9 October 2001

Confronted with mounting evidence, the US Administration can no longer deny its links to Osama. While the CIA admits that Osama bin Laden was an “intelligence asset” during the Cold War, the relationship is said to “go way back”. Most news reports consider that these Osama-CIA links belong to the “bygone era” of the Soviet-Afghan war. They are invariably viewed as “irrelevant” to an understanding of present events. Lost in the barrage of recent history, the role of the CIA in supporting and developing international terrorist organisations during the Cold war and its aftermath is casually ignored or downplayed by the Western media.

Yes, We did support Him, but “He Went Against Us”

A blatant example of media distortion is the so-called “blowback” thesis: “intelligence assets” are said to “have gone against their sponsors”; “what we’ve created blows back in our face.”[1] In a twisted logic, the US government and the CIA are portrayed as the ill-fated victims:

The sophisticated methods taught to the Mujahideen, and the thousands of tons of arms supplied to them by the US - and Britain - are now tormenting the West in the phenomenon known as `blowback’, whereby a policy strategy rebounds on its own devisers.[2]

The US media, nonetheless, concedes that “the Taliban’s coming to power [in 1995] is partly the outcome of the U.S. support of the Mujahideen, the radical Islamic group, in the 1980s in the war against the Soviet Union”.[3] But it also readily dismisses its own factual statements and concludes in chorus, that the CIA had been tricked by a deceitful Osama. It’s like “a son going against his father”.

The “blowback” thesis is a fabrication. The evidence amply confirms that the CIA never severed its ties to the “Islamic Militant Network”. Since the end of the Cold War, these covert intelligence links have not only been maintained, they have in become increasingly sophisticated.

Peter Dale Scott: Congress, the Bush Administration and Continuity of Government Planning

Peter Dale Scott, CounterPunch.org: Congress, the Bush Administration and Continuity of Government Planning - The Showdown

In August 2007, Congressman Peter DeFazio, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, told the House that he and the rest of his Committee had been barred from reviewing parts of National Security Presidential Directive 51, the White House supersecret plans to implement so-called “Continuity of Government” in the event of a mass terror attack or natural disaster. (1)

Norm Ornstein, of the conservative American Enterprise Institute, commented, “I cannot think of one good reason” for denial. Ornstein added, “I find it inexplicable and probably reflective of the usual, knee-jerk overextension of executive power that we see from this White House.” (2)

(…)

There is nothing wrong with disaster planning per se. Like all governments, the U.S. government must develop plans for the worst contingencies. But Congress has a right to be concerned about Continuity of Government (COG) plans refined by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld over the past quarter century, which journalists have described as involving suspension of the constitution. (3)

(…)

URL: http://www.counterpunch.org/scott03312008.html

Documents prove FBI has national eavesdropping program that tracks IMs, emails and cell phones

The Raw Story: Documents prove FBI has national eavesdropping program that tracks IMs, emails and cell phones

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been routinely monitoring the e-mails, instant messages and cell phone calls of suspects across the United States — and has done so, in many cases, without the approval of a court.