Bad Deeds for 4-26-07

U.S. Prison Chief in Iraq Charged with ‘Aiding Enemy’ – A U.S. Army officer who was commander of a military prison in Iraq has been charged with giving a cell phone to suspected insurgents who were detained there, a charge described as “aiding the enemy,” according to the U.S. military. Lt. Col. William H. Steele, who was commander of the U.S. Army’s Camp Cropper, also was charged with having an improper relationship with a detainee’s daughter and an interpreter and possessing pornography. The four charges also accuse Steele of possessing and mishandling classified information, disobeying an order, and not doing his duty in the approval of funds.

White House Held Multiple GOP Election Briefings at Gov’t Agencies – White House officials conducted 20 private briefings on Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election for senior officials in at least 15 government agencies covered by federal restrictions on partisan political activity, a White House spokesman and other administration officials said yesterday. A nearly identical briefing given at the General Services Administration last January – attended by GSA chief Lurita Doan – has triggered an investigation by the Office of Special Counsel to determine whether it violated the federal law barring the use of taxpayer-funded resources for partisan purposes.

US Officials Exclude Car Bombs in Touting Drop in Iraq Violence – Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the Bush administration doesn’t include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of additional U.S. forces is beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims. Overall, statistics indicate that the number of violent deaths has declined significantly since December; nearly all of that decline, however, can be attributed to a drop in executions, most of which were blamed on Shiite Muslim militias aligned with the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which have since been ordered by Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to stand down. Meanwhile, the number of people killed in explosive attacks is rising, the same statistics show – up from 323 in March, the first full month of the security plan, to 365 through April 24.

US Wants Tighter Limits on Guantanamo Lawyers’ Access to Clients and Evidence – Claiming that visits by civilian lawyers have caused unrest among the prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp and have improperly served as a conduit to the news media, a Justice Department filing proposes imposing new, even stricter limits on the lawyers’ contact with their clients and access to evidence. The proposed changes would, among other things, limit lawyers to only three visits with their client (there is currently no limit), and allow U.S. intelligence officers to read any and all attorney-client communications. The proposal would also reverse existing rules to permit government officials, on their own, to deny the lawyers access to secret evidence used by military panels to determine that their clients were enemy combatants.

Iraq Refuses to Give Casualty Figures to UN – The Iraqi government has refused to provide the United Nations with civilian casualty figures for its latest report on the hardships facing Iraqis, the U.N. said Wednesday, but numbers from various ministries indicate that more than 5,500 people died in the Baghdad area alone in the first three months of this year, apparently indicating an increase in Baghdad civilian deaths in recent weeks after an ebb when a new security plan was launched in February.

Dirty Air for Washington, D. C., Courtesy of Congress – The U.S. Capitol Power Plant, operated by Congress, is the only coal-burning plant in the District of Columbia and is a major source of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and soot in a city that has repeatedly been found in violation of the Clean Air Act. In 2002, the most recent year for which figures were available from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, the Capitol Power Plant was the second-largest fixed source of sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide in the District. Sulfur dioxide is a primary component of acid rain and an ingredient in smog. Carbon monoxide, a factor in smog and global warming, can cause breathing problems and damage plants. But any efforts to eliminate coal have been thwarted by two of the most powerful figures in the Senate, who just happen to represent coal-producing states: Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Resurrects Cold-War Language: Calls Russians “Soviets” – There’s nothing like a diplomat being un-diplomatic. Does our Secretary of State, who allegedly holds a PhD in International Studies, think that the Soviet Union still exists?

Hannity and Colmes Make False Statements About PBS’ Bill Moyers – On Fox News, 4/24/07, Hannity and Colmes went after Bill Moyers over his upcoming documentary on PBS, Buying The War, about the role of the media in the run-up to the Iraq war. During the introduction, Alan Colmes said, “The fact is, (Moyers’) work is done on the taxpayers’ dime.” Hannity said, “It’s the fact that tax dollars are gonna be used here, Brent Bozell. So he can selectively edit to make his left-wing case, to support his left-wing agenda and we’re paying for it.” In concert with the conservatives, the chyron that ran at the bottom of the screen intermittently throughout the discussion read, “Tax payers pay up as Bill Moyers returns to PBS.” Moyers has said he takes no public money to do his show. Hannity & Colmes have not made a retraction. You can contact them at hannity@foxnews.com, colmes@foxnews.com, comments@foxnewscom.

How the Mainstream Media Helped Bush Sell the Invasion of Iraq

On Fox News, neocon Bill Krystol Says Our Soldiers in Iraq Are Fighting Al Qaeda, Not Sunnis and Shias – On Fox and Friends, host Brian Kilmeade said of Iraq, “Al Qaeda is there and they are there by the thousands.” Guest Bill Krystol went on to make the point that our soldiers were not getting shot by Sunnis and Shias, we were fighting Al Qaeda over there. (Where do they get their figures from? The State Department has said that the foreign fighters in Iraq were only around 5 to 7%.)

2004 Election Tampering – There is more than ample documentation to show that on Election Night 2004, Ohio’s “official” Secretary of State website – which gave the world the presidential election results – was redirected from an Ohio government server to a group of servers that contain scores of Republican web sites, including the secret White House e-mail accounts that have emerged in the scandal surrounding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s firing of eight federal prosecutors.

Bush Nominates Anti-Consumer Pro-Industry Lobbyist to Head the Consumer Products Safety Commission – The Consumer Products Safety Commission was supposed to protect you and me and our families (and our pets) from dangerous, unsafe products. Now, President Bush has nominated Michael Baroody – one of Corporate America’s leading anti-consumer henchmen – to head the Consumer Products Safety Commission.

Rudy Giuliani’s Fear mongering
Hear what Keith Olbermann says about Rudy Giuliani’s statement that the election of any Democrat would mean the country would be back on defense.     Quicktime     Windows Media Player

Bush Distorted George Tenet’s ‘Slam Dunk’ Comment – Ex-CIA director George Tenet has lashed out against the Bush administration, accusing it of distorting his pre-Iraq War claim that the existence of weapons of mass destruction was a “slam dunk.” “The phrase ‘slam dunk’ didn’t refer to whether Saddam Hussein actually had WMDs,” Tenet said. “He says he was talking about what information could be used to make that case when he uttered those words. ‘We can put a better case together for a public case. That’s what I meant,'” Tenet explained. “It’s the most despicable thing that ever happened to me,” the former CIA director is quoted as saying. “You don’t do this. You don’t throw somebody overboard just because it’s a deflection. Is that honorable? It’s not honorable to me.”

Utah County GOP Delegate Links Illegal Immigration to Satan – Don Larsen, a Republican district chairman, has submitted a resolution equating illegal immigration to “Satan’s plan to destroy the U.S. by stealth invasion” for debate at Saturday’s Utah County Republican Party Convention. The resolution refers to a plan by the devil for a “New World Order … as predicted in the Scriptures.”

Regards,

Jim