Bad Deeds for 10-9-2007

White House Security Breach Tips-Off al-Qaeda – A small private intelligence company that monitors Islamic terrorist groups obtained a new Osama bin Laden video ahead of its official release last month, and around 10 a.m. on Sept. 7, it notified the Bush administration of its secret acquisition. It gave two senior officials access on the condition that the officials not reveal they had it until the al-Qaeda release. Within 20 minutes, a range of intelligence agencies had begun downloading it from the company’s Web site. By midafternoon that day, the video and a transcript of its audio track had been leaked from within the Bush administration to cable television news and broadcast worldwide. The founder of the company, the SITE Intelligence Group, says this premature disclosure tipped al-Qaeda to a security breach and destroyed a years-long surveillance operation that the company has used to intercept and pass along secret messages, videos and advance warnings of suicide bombings from the terrorist group’s communications network.

Conservative Bloggers Attack 12-Year Old Boy Over SCHIP – With debate raging in Washington over children’s health insurance, congressional Democrats found a new way to make their case for an expansion last weekend: Rather than have a senator or a congressman respond to President Bush’s weekly radio address about the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), they decided to have a child who was helped by the program speak directly to the public. Now conservative bloggers have attacked the 12-year old boy. Some bloggers have made repeated phone calls to the home of Graeme Frost, demanding information about his family’s private life. The conservative bloggers have tried to portray the Frost family as well-to-do freeloaders taking advantage of the program. One example: A blogger on FreeRepublic.com discovered that Frost and his sister, Gemma, attend a private school where tuition costs $20,000 a year. However, conservative bloggers didn’t dig deep enough. It turns out that the Frost children attend Baltimore’s Park School on near-full scholarships; they pay roughly only $500 per child per year in tuition and they need the special education because of their health problems. FreeRepublic.com also posted the Frosts’ home address to assure the family got plenty of personal harassment from other conservatives.

Army Denies Education Benefits To National Guard Troops Who Served 22 Months In Iraq – Approximately 2,600 members of the Minnesota National Guard recently returned home after serving multiple tours of duty in Iraq. They served 22 months — longer than any other ground combat unit — received nine fatalities, and were awarded dozens of Purple Hearts. But the Army wrote the orders for 1,162 of these soldiers for 729 days, making them ineligible for full educational benefits under the GI Bill, which requires written orders saying they were deployed for 730 days or more. These soldiers were shorted more than $200 per month for college.

Democrats Seem Ready to Extend Wiretap Powers – Two months after insisting that they would roll back broad eavesdropping powers won by the Bush administration, Democrats in Congress appear ready to make concessions that could extend some crucial powers given to the National Security Agency. Administration officials say they are confident they will win approval of the broadened authority that they secured temporarily in August as Congress rushed toward recess. Some Democratic officials concede that they may not come up with enough votes to stop approval. A Democratic bill to be proposed on Tuesday in the House would maintain for several years the type of broad, blanket authority for N.S.A. eavesdropping that the administration secured in August for six months.

They’re so afraid of being labeled “weak [on terrorism],” that they can’t stand up for what’s right. [We not only have ‘lame duck president, we have a lamb congress, Andy]

Conservative TV Host Unloads on “Iraqi losers” for Complaining about Blackwater for Blowing Away So Many Iraqi Civilians – On 10-8-2007, MSNBC morning show host Joe Scarborough unloaded on “Iraqi losers” for complaining about Blackwater for blowing away so many Iraqi civilians.

American Peace Activists Stalled at Canada-U.S. Border – Two high-profile American peace activists on Thursday accused the Canadian government of denying them entry into Canada solely because of past arrests in the U.S. for peaceful protests against the war in Iraq. Medea Benjamin, founder of the women’s peace movement CodePink, and former U.S. diplomat Ann Wright were detained for several hours by Canadian authorities at the border crossing between Buffalo, N.Y. and Niagara Falls, Ont., then turned back because their names appeared on an FBI database detailing their misdemeanour convictions. “We believe the Canadian government should not be doing the dirty political intimidation work for the Bush administration by using that database,” Wright, a former U.S. army colonel and deputy ambassador, said at a news conference outside the Canadian embassy in Washington. In Benjamin’s case, border agents cited a past misdemeanour trespassing conviction for a sit-in at the U.S. mission at the United Nations. She was fined $50 in that incident.

Regards,

Jim