Bad Deeds for 2-11-2008

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page Lies About Our Surveillance Laws – There are very few opinion venues — if there are any — more brazenly fact-free than the Editorial Page of the Wall St. Journal. They have an Editorial this morning warning of all the grave dangers posed by efforts from the “anti-antiterror left” to limit the Leader’s warrantless eavesdropping powers — the most dangerous of which, they warn, is the campaign “to deny legal immunity to telephone companies that cooperated with the government on these wiretaps after 9/11.” The Editorial is filled with one demonstrable factual falsehood after the next.

Bad FISA Bill Comes Up For Vote Tomorrow; Take Action Now – Tuesday, February 12 is a critical day in our fight to stand up for American values and preserve our freedoms while protecting our national security. The Senate is voting on amendments to FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law governing the use of wiretaps and other means to conduct surveillance of foreign threats. Unfortunately, the new FISA bill we’ll be voting on still has many problems. Pat Leahey and Chris Dodd may filibuster. Please tell Congress that any new FISA bill must both protect our national security and preserve our civil liberties!

US Transport Security Administration Wants Information on Family Members of Flyers – The US Transport Security Administration is demanding that European airlines provide personal data on non-travelers, such as family members who are allowed beyond departure barriers to help the elderly or infirm board jets embarking for America. Some diplomats have called the proposal blackmail. The US has threatened to require west Europeans and Britons to have US visas to enter if their governments won’t sign on.

John McCain Says He Will Be Glad to Get Help From Karl Rove; Lies and Dirty Ticks Not Important – On Friday, a day after Karl Rove donated $2300 to John McCain’s campaign, McCain (R-AZ) put aside a longstanding grudge over Rove’s famously bold tactics in securing George Bush the 2000 GOP nomination, and said that Rove’s advice would be welcome in his campaign.

A transcript of McCain’s remarks:

QUESTION: Karl Rove?
MCCAIN: Oh I, listen, he ah. Nobody denies he’s one of the smartest political minds in America. I’d be glad to get his advice. I get advice from a lot of people. I’d be happy to have his advice.

QUESTION: I was wondering about that, right….
MCCAIN: He beat me. (referring to McCain’s defeat in the 2000 Republican primary, where Rove used dirty tactics against McCain) I certainly would be glad to get his advice. I don’t think I’d want to revisit how he did it. And I mean that. Not about South Carolina. I mean I don’t feel like reliving my defeat.

QUESTION: Are you worried about, he uses very aggressive tactics is that something that–
MCCAIN: I’ve always respected Karl Rove as one of the smart great political minds I think in American politics. I’ve always respected him. We never had any ill will after the initial South Carolina thing. After we had the meeting with President Bush we moved on. I’ve seen Karl Rove many times when I’ve been over at the White House. We’ve always had pleasant conversations.

QUESTION: His tactics don’t, you don’t disapprove of them? They don’t make you nervous?
MCCAIN: It’s not so much whether I approve of his tactics or not. It’s that he has a very good, great political mind. Any information or advice and council he can give us, I’d be glad to have. I don’t think anybody denies his talents. So I’d be glad to get any advice and council. We would obviously decide whether to accept it or not.

Army Buried Study Faulting Iraq Planning – The Army is accustomed to protecting classified information. But when it comes to the planning for the Iraq war, even an unclassified assessment can acquire the status of a state secret.

That is what happened to a detailed study of the planning for postwar Iraq prepared for the Army by the RAND Corporation, a federally financed center that conducts research for the military.

After 18 months of research, RAND submitted a report in the summer of 2005 called “Rebuilding Iraq.” RAND researchers provided an unclassified version of the report along with a secret one, hoping that its publication would contribute to the public debate on how to prepare for future conflicts.

But the study’s wide-ranging critique of the White House, the Defense Department and other government agencies was a concern for Army generals, and the Army has sought to keep the report under lock and key.

A review of the lengthy report — a draft of which was obtained by The New York Times — shows that it identified problems with nearly every organization that had a role in planning the war. That assessment parallels the verdicts of numerous former officials and independent analysts.

The study chided President Bush — and by implication Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who served as national security adviser when the war was planned — as having failed to resolve differences among rival agencies. “Throughout the planning process, tensions between the Defense Department and the State Department were never mediated by the president or his staff,” it said.

The Defense Department led by Donald H. Rumsfeld was given the lead in overseeing the postwar period in Iraq despite its “lack of capacity for civilian reconstruction planning and execution.”

Soldier, Undergoing Bipolar Treatment and After Suicides Attempts, Sent Back to War Zone – A Fort Carson soldier who says he was in treatment at Cedar Springs Hospital for bipolar disorder and alcohol abuse was released early and ordered to deploy to the Middle East with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team.

The 28-year-old specialist spent 31 days in Kuwait and was returned to Fort Carson on Dec. 31 after health care professionals in Kuwait concurred that his symptoms met criteria for bipolar disorder and “some paranoia and possible homicidal tendencies,” according to e-mails obtained by a Denver newspaper.

The soldier said he checked himself into Cedar Springs on Nov. 9 or Nov. 10 after he attempted suicide while under the influence of alcohol. He said his treatment was supposed to end Dec. 10, but his commanding officers showed up at the hospital Nov. 29 and ordered him to leave.

“I was pulled out to deploy,” said the soldier, who has three years in the Army and has served a tour in Iraq.

Soldiers from Fort Carson and across the country have complained they were sent to combat zones despite medical conditions that should have prevented their deployment.

Bush Claims Obama Would “Attack Pakistan” and “Embrace” Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – On Fox News Sunday (Feb. 10, 2008), President Bush laid into Sen. Barack Obama, claiming he would “attack Pakistan” and “embrace” Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Transcript:

WALLACE: Do you think there’s a rush to judgment about Barack Obama. Do you think voters know enough about him?
BUSH: I certainly don’t know what he believes in. The only foreign policy thing I remember he said was he’s going to attack Pakistan and embrace Ahmadinejad. I think I commented that in a press conference when I was asked about that.

WALLACE: I hope not. But so you don’t think that we know enough about him or what he stands…
BUSH: It doesn’t seem like it to me, but this campaign is plenty of time for candidates to get defined. He is yet his party’s nominee.

WALLACE: So why do you think he’s gotten this far if people don’t know what he stands for?
BUSH: You’re the pundit. I’m just a simple president.

In fact, Obama has not advocated either for attacking Pakistan or embracing Ahmadinejad. Obama has said that the U.S. should be willing to strike against al Qaeda targets in Pakistan if the country’s president Pervez Musharraf refuses. Obama also said during a debate last year that he was willing to meet with leaders of Iran and other U.S. rivals without preconditions, although he did not commit to doing so. However, Bush is correct when he describes himself as “simple.”

Bill O’Reilly Wants Us to Be Terrorists – In an opinion piece in the Boston Herald titled “Sorry, Candidates: Waterboarding Works”, Bill O’Reilly says:

John McCain, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama all say “waterboarding” is torture and should be outlawed. So let’s assume it will be after President Bush leaves office. Let’s also assume that most captured terrorists will not give up their comrades under standard Geneva Convention interrogation methods.

Who wins under that scenario? Well, it looks like the terrorists do, right? With “waterboarding” out and chatting in, the bad guys have one less thing to worry about. Do you feel safer knowing name, rank and jihad number are all that’s required of a captured al-Qaeda terrorist?

What Bill O’Reilly doesn’t seem to realize is that waterboarding induces terror into the person undergoing it, so those who use waterboarding are terrorists. And by the way, if you want to get the truth from the person being interrogated, waterboarding usually doesn’t work.

Company That Provided Substandard Helment to Troops Given Contract to Make More – A North Dakota manufacturer has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a suit saying it had repeatedly shortchanged the armor in up to 2.2 million helmets for the military, including those for the first troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. Twelve days before the settlement with the Justice Department was announced, the company, Sioux Manufacturing of Fort Totten, was given a new contract of up to $74 million to make more armor for helmets to replace the old ones, which were made from the late 1980s to last year.

Our Tax Dollars Are Funding a Russian Nuclear Lab That is Working With the Iranians – The U.S. Department of Energy is funding two Russian institutes with about $4 million and those institutes help Iran with their nuclear program in Bushehr. Evidence is found in Russian documents obtained by the General Accountability Office. The rationale for the Department of Energy program was to pay the salaries of Russian scientists who were left without incomes after the Cold War. The thinking was to keep them on the payroll so they wouldn’t peddle their nuclear expertise to rogue nations like Iran.

Regards,

Jim