Bad Deeds for 5-23-2007

Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran – The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert “black” operation to destabilize the Iranian government, according to current and former officials in the intelligence community. The sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, say President Bush has signed a “nonlethal presidential finding” that puts into motion a CIA plan that reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran’s currency and international financial transactions.

Bush Outsources the Task of Catching bin Laden – The Bush administration pays the Pakistani government $1 billion a year to hunt down Osama bin Laden, and demands zero accountability as to how that money is spent. We are paying Musharraf $1 billion a year to strike immunity deals with the warlords thought to be harboring this man we’re paying him to catch?

• Quicktime
• Windows Media Player

Former aide Goodling says Alberto Gonzales Gave Erroneous Testimony – In questioning with Rep. Artur Davis (D-GA), Goodling was asked if the Attorney General had given incomplete testimony with regard to his knowledge of the list of US Attorneys who were set to be fired and her attorney attempted to intervene. Asked if it was accurate that Gonzales “never saw the US Attorneys list,” Goodling responded, “I believe he saw a list,” and then affirmed that “it would be inaccurate testimony.” She also said Gonzales’s testimony that he had not been briefed on the firings was not accurate, and that Gonzales was present at a Nov. 27 meeting.

Liberty University Student Caught Carrying Explosives He Planned to Use to Stop Protesters at Jerry Falwell’s Funeral – Campbell County authorities arrested a Liberty University student for having several homemade bombs in his car. The student, 19-year-old Mark D. Uhl of Amissville, Va., reportedly told authorities that he was making the bombs to stop protesters from disrupting the funeral service

Former Rove aide pleads the Fifth on White House contacts with convicted lobbyist Abramoff – Susan Ralston, the former executive assistant to top White House adviser Karl Rove, invoked her rights against self-incrimination while she was being asked to answer questions by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The deposition for which she sat concerned contacts between convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff and Rove, as well as the White House more broadly.

Republican Senator Blocks Honors for Rachel Carson, Author of Silent Spring – A Republican Senator known for his criticism of various environmental causes is single-handedly holding up two bills in the US Senate that would honor the life of Rachel Carson, author of the well-known book Silent Spring. The bills were introduced by a bipartisan group of Senators from Carson’s home-states of Pennsylvania and Maryland on the occasion of the centennial of her birthday on May 27.

Giuliani made falling adoptions seem to rise using cherry-picked statistics – Rudy Giuliani said adoptions went up 65 to 70 percent when he was mayor, when in fact adoptions at the end of his tenure were only 17 percent higher than at the start, and falling.

Veterans Claims Court Denied Over 18,000 Claims in 2006 – The U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims is facing its highest caseload ever as the government receives an increasing number of benefit claims, the court’s chief judge said Tuesday. The U.S. is also rejecting a record number of those claims; denial of benefits jumped to 13,033 in the 2005 fiscal year, from 9,299 in 2004. Last year, the number of denials reached 18,107.

George Bush insists that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. – So why, six years ago, did the CIA give the Iranians blueprints to build a bomb?

Regards,

Jim