Bad Deeds for 2-15-07

Cheney’s 2002 phone call set the stage for CIA leak probe – A story in Vice-President Dick Cheney’s morning newspaper reported that telephone calls intercepted by the National Security Agency on September 10, 2001, apparently warned that Al Qaeda was about to launch a major attack against the United States, possibly the next day. But the intercepts were not translated until September 12, 2001, the story said, the day after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Because someone had leaked the highly classified information from the NSA intercepts, Cheney warned Graham, the Bush administration was considering ending all cooperation with the joint inquiry by the Senate and House Intelligence committees on the government’s failure to predict and prevent the September 11 attacks. Classified records would no longer be turned over to the Hill, the vice president threatened, and administration witnesses would not be available for interviews or testimony. On that morning in June 2002, Cheney could not have known that his complaints to Graham about the leaking of classified information would help set events in motion that eventually would lead to the prosecution of his own chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, as the result of a separate leak investigation. Much more at the web link…

Bush killed talks with Iran according to Ex-Bush administration official – Former Bush National Security Council official Flynt Leverett, speaking on Wednesday at a forum held by the New America Foundation, told a crowd in a Senate office building that in 2003 then-Secretary of State Colin Powell received a “grand bargain” offer from Iran and was rebuffed by the White House. In [Secretary Powell’s] words, he ‘couldn’t sell it at the White House.’ A former Bush National Security Council official also says Condoleezza Rice likely lied to Congress about not seeing document.

Right-Wingers Go Nuts Over Yale Singers Getting Beat Up; Say it Was Because They Sang Star-Spangled Banner in San Francisco – Last month the wingnuts were outraged when the Baker’s Dozen, a Yale singing group, was attacked in San Francisco. Wingnut blogger Gateway Pundit had a post title that says it all…Yale Group Gets Beaten for Performing “Star Spangled Banner.”

More jumped on the band wagon giving insights such as this from the conservative Bullwinkle Blog:

“The ever-tolerant left of Pelosiville attacked a group of college students for singing the Star-Spangled Banner…

Liberalism at its best, San Francisco style. Show any patriotism and suffer the consequences. Of course the Left will disavow the culprits and say that since the leader is from a prominient family they must be conservatives all the while ignoring that the prominent family tag applies to Nancy Pelosi and every other limosine liberal in the U.S..”

Fox News’ Sean Hannity got in on the outrage when he had on his program, Sharyar Aziz, one of the singers assaulted. Aziz didn’t know why they were assaulted but Hannity tried to steer him on that. From News Hounds…..

Aziz: “Truth be told, I couldn’t tell you what was going through their minds, what it was that made them feel, you know, that a call needed to be made,” Aziz answered. ” … I couldn’t tell you what was the trigger, the initial trigger, what it was …”

Hannity jumped in to say “It seems related to the Anthem. Do you think it is?”

Then Hannity offered a $10,000 reward for the apparent anti-American lefty dirty hippies….

“And you know, I want to get these people that did this to you, and I hope – working with your attorney and the detectives out there that we’re able to find them. I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. I’m going to offer a $10,000 reward for anybody that will come and testify that as a witness to this, to help get these people – you know, America is still a country where you can sing the national anthem and not be attacked viciously like this, and cruelly like this.”

On Feb. 13, the San Francisco Gate reports that “as many as three U.S. Marines were involved” in the alleged attack. There have been no arrests in the matter so the attorney for the victims has written the Marine Corps who do not appear to have been all that helpful thus far. It appears that this may been a hate crime against gays by red-blooded,”patriotic” Americans rather than an act by liberal, anti-American, Star Spangled-Banner-hating, Pelosiville liberals. What will Hannity do with his $10,000?

CIA Approached Italy About Kidnapping terrorism Suspects in 2001 – The CIA spoke with Italy’s spy chief about kidnapping terrorism suspects in Italy and flying them abroad days after the September 11 attacks, according to testimony from a former Italian intelligence official in the kidnapping trial of several U.S. and Italian agents. A Milan judge is expected to decide on Friday whether to indict 26 Americans, most of them believed to be CIA agents, in the case. So in reality habeas corpus has been out the window for the last six years.

Secret CIA flights forcibly removed terror suspects in Europe – The European parliament has approved a damning report on secret CIA flights, condemning member states which colluded in the operations. The UK, Germany and Italy were among 14 states which allowed the US to forcibly remove terror suspects, lawmakers said. The EU parliament voted to accept a resolution condemning member states which accepted or ignored the practice. The EU report said the CIA had operated 1,245 flights, some taking suspects to states where they could face torture.

U.S. Trade Deficit Hits Another High – The U.S. trade deficit climbed to a record high for the fifth straight year, with 2006 imports exceeding exports by $764 billion, the Commerce Department reported yesterday, prompting some analysts to cut their economic growth projections.

SEC Seeks to Curtail Investor’s Lawsuits Against Corporate Fraud – Last Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a little-noticed brief in the Supreme Court urging the adoption of a legal standard that would make it harder for shareholders to prevail in fraud lawsuits against publicly traded companies and their executives. Meanwhile, the agency is said to be considering ways to protect accounting firms from large damage awards in cases brought by investors and companies.

Fox News Channel Bombs with Comedy Show – The Fox News Channel debuts “The 1/2 Hour News Hour” at 10 p.m. Sunday and repeats it at 10 p.m. Feb. 25. This show was meant to be a conservative version of “The Daily Show.” It is a botch. Fox News Channel does not know how to do slashing comical commentary. “The 1/2 Hour News Hour” does not comment on what is happening [as “The Daily Show” does]; it simply takes swipes at people. These people include Howard Dean, Hillary Clinton, Dennis Kucinich, Barack Obama and Ed Begley Jr. Other joke topics are the ACLU, Time magazine, children’s books and global warming. Laughter, of an awfully canned variety, greets all the gags. Nothing happening on screen justifies these outbursts.

“The 1/2 Hour News Hour” was developed by Joel Surnow, who is also producer of “24,” the show where torture works. [“The 1/2 Hour News Hour” sounds like another form of torture. – JLV]

Regards,

Jim