Shame.

I don't know if this is good or bad news. The New York Times reports that the United States has settled a civil rights law suit filed by Ehab Elmaghraby by agreeing to pay him $300,000.

Mr. Elmaghraby was 'detained' for almost a year following the 9/11 attack. He was "an Egyptian who was among dozens of Muslim men swept up in the New York area after 9/11, held for months in a federal detention center in Brooklyn and deported after being cleared of links to terrorism."

The settlement came after the government had argued that the lawsuits should be dismissed without testimony because the extraordinary circumstances of the terror attacks justified extraordinary measures to confine noncitizens who fell under suspicion, and because top officials need governmental immunity to combat future threats to national security without fear of being sued. However U.S. District Judge John Gleeson said "Our nation's unique and complex law enforcement and security challenges in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks do not warrant the elimination of remedies for the constitutional violations alleged here."

See this Link for the whole story.

It is shameful when we arrest and detain people based on race or religion out of fear. I suppose it is good that we agreed to pay this man a settlement. However, we should be outraged that here in our country, someone can be locked up for A YEAR, held in relative isolation, and abused the way this man was. This case alone merits a congressional investigation and removal from office for those who flaunted the Constitution and allowed these abuses to occur.

Signs of King George's foolishness abound...

I would love to be wrong about this. However, there are continuing signs that King George has embroiled us in two no-win wars.

Iraq appears to teeter on the verge of civil war among various Muslim sects. Hundreds died this week after a holy shrine was blown up. NPR quotes one Iraqi businessman as saying America was behind the sectarian violence. Even assuming that this is untrue, it is more proof that we are losing the battle for hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. See THIS LINK.

In Afghanistan, there is a massive prison uprising, as well as continued failure to catch Bin Laden. Violence has slowly escalated there as well, although no where near the level in Iraq. See THIS LINK.

All of this U.S. imperialism is directly contrary to Bush's campaign rant against U.S. nation building. During a debate with then-Vice President Al Gore on Oct. 11, 2000, in Winston-Salem, N.C., Bush said: "I don't think our troops ought to be used for what's called nation-building. . . . I think what we need to do is convince people who live in the lands they live in to build the nations. Maybe I'm missing something here. I mean, we're going to have a kind of nation-building corps from America? Absolutely not."

I know that after 9/11/01, Bush's worldview changed. However, this merely shows the problems with his shallowness. He has gone from one extreme to the other. We need to realize we cannot isolate ourselves, yet we need to pull back from trying to fix everything wrong in the world. Balance is the key.

Repubs consider dumping Cheney

We will see if this goes anywhere, but long time Republican speechwriter Peggy Noonan is writing about other Repubs starting to think how nice it would be to dump Deadeye Dick...See THIS LINK.

Cheney and Libby's outing of agent caused grave damage

New reports indicate that the outing of Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent (See next post) caused grave damage to our program of finding out about Iran's nuclear program. One source estimated the leak could set the program back ten years. See THIS LINK.

Cheney's going down....(And I don't mean cause he shot a guy)

There was a big development this week that in my opinion could lead to the downfall of V.P. Dick Cheney. It is all connected to the investigation by a special prosecutor of who leaked the identity of CIA Agent Valerie Plame to the press.

The background gets a little complex. In the 2003 State of the Union address, King George claimed that Sadam Hussein was trying to get uranium from Africa. Based on this and other WMD claims, we invaded and 'conquered' Iraq a few months later. As we now know, there were no WMD found.

The administration sent Joe Wilson, a former ambassador, to Africa to investigate these claims of uranium to Iraq. He found nothing to support the claims, and he started talking publicly. First he 'leaked' the info to the press, then he went public and went on talk shows. At the same time info was leaking that the CIA had warned that WMD claims were probably not true. This made Bush & Co. look bad.

A decision was made by SOMEONE to leak the fact that Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, was a CIA agent, to try to discredit him by showing his bias and a connection between the two stories. The story appeared in the NY TImes, and people were outraged that a covert CIA agent's identity had been leaked. A special prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, was named to find out who leaked the info. Judy Miller, the NY Times reporter who got the story, spent months in jail refusing to divulge her source.

Finally, her source, Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, released her from her promise of confidentiality. She testified. Libby has now been indicted by the prosecutor for Obstruction, Perjury, etc.

Now the Libby defense team is apparently planning on raising the defense that he had been "authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq. See THIS link.

So we have the VP and the White House compromising the identity of a covert CIA agent for politcal gain. Agent Plame's contacts and associates, still undercover, were also put at risk. Then they lie, cover up, and even e-mail records are missing that could implicate them. This administration is ruthless, dangerous, and should be impeached.

George Washington and Honest Abe wiretapping?

Today, United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales claimed as follows during his Congressional testimony:

"I gave in my opening statement several examples where President Washington, President Lincoln, President Wilson, and President Roosevelt, have all authorized electronic suveilance on a FAR broader scale, FAR borader, without any probable cause." Alberto Gonzales, February 6, 2006 testimony.

Good thing for Alberto that he was not required to give his testimony under oath. ;)

Special Prosecutor for warrantless wiretaps

MoveOn.org, a political action committee that started up during the Clinton impeachent, is going to start running ads calling for a special prosecutor to investigate the Bush wiretapping program.
See https://political.moveon.org/donate/notillegal.html This site contains an excellent explanation of why the program is felonious, and why King George's arguments are empty.

MoveOn also has a cool Quicktime version of their ad available online at https://political.moveon.org/donate/notillegal-QT.html This ad shows King George and Richard Nixon morphing into each other. Hmmmm...sounds like a point I made a couple days ago.

While some of us might prefer to skip the investigation and go straight to impeachment, this is a reasonable, moderate compromise. We should make this a political issue by asking EVERY congressional and senatorial candidate if they will support a special prosecutor to look into these wiretap activities.

Whatever happened to free speech?

Last night, right before the State of the Union speech, peace activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested for unzipping her coat and wearing a t-shirt which says "2,245 Dead. How many more?"

This is an outrage. What is this country coming to? Tell everyone. Here is a summary of the story including Cindy's own note. http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/7330

Update: Double standard. Beverly Young, wife of Rep Bill Young of Florida, was also removed from the gallery because she was wearing a T-shirt. Hers read, "Support the Troops — Defending Our Freedom." However, she was merely told to leave the building and was not arrested. See http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,183392,00.html

Cindy Sheehan, for the same act, was handcuffed, marched out of the Capitol, and charged with a crime. (Which I predict will soon be dropped).

One standard for pro-war t-shirts, another for anti-war shirts. Hmmmm.

Update #2. Capitol Police have apologized to Sheehan and Young. As I predicted above, they are asking to drop charges against Sheehan. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/01/AR2006020100348.html