Saturday Morning Confusion #46
I have been surfing the Internet this past week to get it straight in my head what the real poop is with Georgie W Bush.
(The reason for this article is at the very bottom!)
Here's some of the stuff I've come up with.
The mark of a good President is someone who is "Pro-active" to events. Bush and his buddies have proven since 9/11 that they are totally "Re-active" to situations and this is a sign of gross incompetence.
Since the failure to act on information about plans for 9/11 here is some of the mistakes this Administration has made.
Lying about the Threat from Iraq.
-Bush and his team deliberately misled Congress and the American public about the rationale for invading Iraq.
-Bush convinced a majority of Americans that Iraq was involved with Al-Qaeda and responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Yet the evidence shows that Iraq was not involved.
-Bush said in his State of the Union Address that "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa" to build nuclear weapons. But, he had already been told by the CIA that the evidence was forged.
-Bush claimed to have hard evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. But, the UN investigators could not verify any of these claims and searches of Iraq revealed no such weapons.
The real reason they invaded Iraq may have more to do with the fact that Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world, and sits strategically in the center of the Middle East.
Illegal Wiretapping of American Citizens
-George Bush authorized the NSA to conduct illegal wiretaps on American citizens. Bush claimed that these were justified on the basis of national security. But, there is a legal mechanism for conducting emergency wiretaps followed by court approval within 72 hours. Bush ignored that mechanism and exceeded his executive authority.
Bush claims he has authority to wiretap anyone he wishes but a federal judge ruled that his actions are unconstitutional.
Torture of Prisoners
Bush and his team have set up a system of prisons around the world where prisoners can be tortured.
They have fought hard to build a legal case for torture but the fact remains that torture is highly illegal.
It is also considered an ineffective means of getting reliable information from a prisoner.
Bush is guilty of violating of the Federal Torture Act, the UN Torture Convention and the Geneva Convention.
Violation of International Law
According to the U.S. Constitution, International Treaties are part of the "supreme Law of the Land." They are not something that can be ignored when they are inconvenient.
Bush's violations of the UN Charter and the Nuremberg Charter are, therefore, impeachable offenses.
Let's look at some of the lies in greater detail.
Lie #1 - Uranium from Niger - Bush said "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." in his State of the Union Address. The documents supporting that statement were forged.
Lie #2 - Iraq and 9/11 - Bush led people to believe that Iraq was involved with 9/11 by repeatedly linking them in his speeches. This was so effective that at one point 70% of Americans actually believed Saddam was behind 9/11. Bush has since admitted that this was not true.
Lie #3 - Congress Knew - Bush has stated that Congress had access to all the same information that the White House had. Thus he should not be blamed for making the mistake of going to war. But Bush was briefed many times about the falsehood of various stories and this information never reached Congress.
Lie #4 - Aluminum Tubes - Bush, Cheney, Rice and Powell said that some aluminum tubes Iraq attempted to buy were intended for use in a uranium centrifuge to create nuclear weapons. These were the only physical evidence he had against Iraq. But it turns out this evidence had been rejected by the Department of Energy and other intelligence agencies long before Bush used them in his speeches.
Lie #5 - Iraq and Al Qaeda - Bush still insists that there was a "relationship" between Iraq and Al Qaeda. But the 9/11 Commission released a report saying, among other things, that there was no "collaborative relationship" between Al Qaeda and Iraq. The nature of the relationship seems to be that Al Qaeda asked for help and Iraq refused. Al Qaeda was opposed to Saddam Hussein because Saddam led a secular government instead of an Islamic government. On 9/8/06 a Senate panel reported there was no relationship.
Lie #6 - Weapons of Mass Destruction - Bush insisted that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction but his "evidence" consisted mostly of forged documents, plagiarized student papers, and vague satellite photos. The United Nations was on the ground in Iraq and could find nothing. After extensive searches Bush was finally forced to admit that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.
Lie #7 - Mobile Weapons Labs - Bush and his team repeatedly claimed that Iraq possessed mobile weapons labs capable of producing anthrax. Colin Powell showed diagrams of them at his speech before the UN to justify invading Iraq. These claims originated from Curveball, a discredited Iraqi informer who fed Bush many of the stories related to WMD.
On May 29, 2003, two small trailers matching the description were found in Iraq. A team of bio-weapons experts examined the trailers and concluded they were simply designed to produce hydrogen for weather balloons. But, for over a year, Bush claimed these were part of Iraq's bio-weapons program. The expert's report was suppressed and only recently made public.
Bush wanted so much to convince people of the need to invade Iraq that the White House set up a secret team in the Pentagon to create evidence.
The Office of Special Plans routinely rewrote the CIA's intelligence estimates on Iraq's weapons programs, removing caveats such as "likely," "probably" and "may" as a way of depicting the country as an imminent threat. They also used unreliable sources to create reports that ultimately proved to be false. By lying to Congress, Bush violated US Laws related to Fraud and False Statements.
The evidence below shows that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Gonzales are guilty of violating "Federal Torture Act" the UN Torture Convention and the Geneva Convention by ordering and condoning the use of torture. Many prisoners have died as a result.
1/25/02 - White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales wrote a memo advising the President of "the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act," a federal statute, for torturing prisoners. He advised Bush to invent a legal technicality --declaring detainees in the "war on terror" to be outside the Geneva Conventions --which, he said, "substantially reduces" the chance of prosecution.
Gonzales was later promoted to US Attorney General.
2/7/02 - Bush took Gonzales' advice and signed an order declaring that members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban are not covered by the Geneva Convention.
The memo requires that "detainees be treated humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of Geneva." While seeming to call for humane treatment, it is carefully worded to allow for violations of the Geneva Convention when necessary.
Bush moves prisoners to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and holds them for years without charges, trials, or access to lawyers. This is ruled illegal by a Federal Judge on Jan 31, 2005.
Bush sets up secret prisons run by the CIA in foreign countries to escape US laws against torture.
Rice claims European countries supported this plan.
9/26/02 - Canadian Maher Arar was arrested at JFK airport and sent to secret prison in Syria for torture under "extraordinary rendition" program. He was released a year later without charges. He sued the US government but the suit was dismissed by a federal judge David Trager on 2/17/06 citing the need for secrecy.
He wrote, "One need not have much imagination to contemplate the negative effect on our relations with Canada if discovery were to proceed in this case and were it to turn out that certain high Canadian officials had, despite public denials, acquiesced in Arar's removal to Syria." Thus the reason for the secrecy is not for national security but simply to avoid embarrassing guilty parties in government.
This sets a dangerous precedent that may allow Bush to kidnap and torture anyone he pleases.
On 1/26/07 the Canadian government apologized and awarded Arar compensation.
Dec '02 - Alberto J. Mora, the general counsel of the United States Navy, tried to halt what he saw as a disastrous and unlawful policy of authorizing cruelty toward terror suspects.
His 2004 memo details his unsuccessful struggle with the White House to stop the torture.
12/31/03 - German national Khaled al-Masri says he was abducted by the CIA arrested in Macedonia and flown to Afghanistan. He was then tortured for five months and released.
The CIA has admitted making a mistake in this case.
April 2004, photos of prisoners being tortured at Abu Ghraib prison make headlines around the world.
Low ranking soldiers are convicted of torture charges, falling on their swords for the White House.
5/24/04 - Seymour Hersh releases article detailing how Rumsfeld's program encouraged torture.
"President Bush was informed of the existence of the program, the former intelligence official said."
October 2005, Senator McCain adds an amendment to a defense bill that would outlaw torture by the United States. Bush and Cheney fight this tooth and nail to block this amendment but eventually give in after the McCain amendment is weakened by the Graham-Levin amendment.
When Bush signs the bill he adds a signing statement that basically says he can ignore the prohibition against torture under his powers as "unitary executive" and "Commander in Chief ."
6/29/06 - Supreme Court rules in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that the Geneva Convention applies to prisoners at Guantanamo. The Bush wiretaps violated US law because he was required to get approval from FISA.
He can start a wiretap of a suspected terrorist at any time but must then seek approval to continue within 72 hours.
Attorney General Gonzales claims HJR114 gave Bush authority to conduct the wiretaps. But HJR114 only grants use of the "Armed Forces". HJR114 does not explicitly suspend the Constitution. Also HJR114 requires "The President shall, at least once every 60 days, submit to the Congress a report on matters relevant to this joint resolution, including actions taken pursuant to the exercise of authority granted in section 3".
Congress was not notified of these wiretaps.
Bush may have bypassed FISA because he wanted to listen to and analyze all international signals, not just those of suspected terrorists. He knew this was blatantly illegal so he hid it.
-Bush lied to Congress and the American public about the reasons for invading Iraq.
-Bush conducted illegal wiretaps of American citizens.
-Bush violated the Geneva Convention by torturing prisoners of war.
-Bush violated International Law by invading a sovereign country for illegal purposes.
-Bush held prisoners without formal charges and without legal representation.
This brings me to my state of Saturday Morning Confusion............. why is this asshole still in office? Why hasn't he been impeached?
Your "wondering" scribe;
Allan W Jansen
Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at http://www.god-101.com/ and the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com
(The reason for this article is at the very bottom!)
Here's some of the stuff I've come up with.The mark of a good President is someone who is "Pro-active" to events. Bush and his buddies have proven since 9/11 that they are totally "Re-active" to situations and this is a sign of gross incompetence.
Since the failure to act on information about plans for 9/11 here is some of the mistakes this Administration has made.
Lying about the Threat from Iraq.
-Bush and his team deliberately misled Congress and the American public about the rationale for invading Iraq.
-Bush convinced a majority of Americans that Iraq was involved with Al-Qaeda and responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Yet the evidence shows that Iraq was not involved.
-Bush said in his State of the Union Address that "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa" to build nuclear weapons. But, he had already been told by the CIA that the evidence was forged.
-Bush claimed to have hard evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. But, the UN investigators could not verify any of these claims and searches of Iraq revealed no such weapons.The real reason they invaded Iraq may have more to do with the fact that Iraq has the second largest oil reserves in the world, and sits strategically in the center of the Middle East.
Illegal Wiretapping of American Citizens
-George Bush authorized the NSA to conduct illegal wiretaps on American citizens. Bush claimed that these were justified on the basis of national security. But, there is a legal mechanism for conducting emergency wiretaps followed by court approval within 72 hours. Bush ignored that mechanism and exceeded his executive authority.
Bush claims he has authority to wiretap anyone he wishes but a federal judge ruled that his actions are unconstitutional.
Torture of Prisoners
Bush and his team have set up a system of prisons around the world where prisoners can be tortured.They have fought hard to build a legal case for torture but the fact remains that torture is highly illegal.
It is also considered an ineffective means of getting reliable information from a prisoner.
Bush is guilty of violating of the Federal Torture Act, the UN Torture Convention and the Geneva Convention.
Violation of International Law
According to the U.S. Constitution, International Treaties are part of the "supreme Law of the Land." They are not something that can be ignored when they are inconvenient.
Bush's violations of the UN Charter and the Nuremberg Charter are, therefore, impeachable offenses.
Let's look at some of the lies in greater detail.
Lie #1 - Uranium from Niger - Bush said "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." in his State of the Union Address. The documents supporting that statement were forged.
Lie #2 - Iraq and 9/11 - Bush led people to believe that Iraq was involved with 9/11 by repeatedly linking them in his speeches. This was so effective that at one point 70% of Americans actually believed Saddam was behind 9/11. Bush has since admitted that this was not true.
Lie #3 - Congress Knew - Bush has stated that Congress had access to all the same information that the White House had. Thus he should not be blamed for making the mistake of going to war. But Bush was briefed many times about the falsehood of various stories and this information never reached Congress.
Lie #4 - Aluminum Tubes - Bush, Cheney, Rice and Powell said that some aluminum tubes Iraq attempted to buy were intended for use in a uranium centrifuge to create nuclear weapons. These were the only physical evidence he had against Iraq. But it turns out this evidence had been rejected by the Department of Energy and other intelligence agencies long before Bush used them in his speeches.
Lie #5 - Iraq and Al Qaeda - Bush still insists that there was a "relationship" between Iraq and Al Qaeda. But the 9/11 Commission released a report saying, among other things, that there was no "collaborative relationship" between Al Qaeda and Iraq. The nature of the relationship seems to be that Al Qaeda asked for help and Iraq refused. Al Qaeda was opposed to Saddam Hussein because Saddam led a secular government instead of an Islamic government. On 9/8/06 a Senate panel reported there was no relationship.
Lie #6 - Weapons of Mass Destruction - Bush insisted that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction but his "evidence" consisted mostly of forged documents, plagiarized student papers, and vague satellite photos. The United Nations was on the ground in Iraq and could find nothing. After extensive searches Bush was finally forced to admit that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction.
Lie #7 - Mobile Weapons Labs - Bush and his team repeatedly claimed that Iraq possessed mobile weapons labs capable of producing anthrax. Colin Powell showed diagrams of them at his speech before the UN to justify invading Iraq. These claims originated from Curveball, a discredited Iraqi informer who fed Bush many of the stories related to WMD.
On May 29, 2003, two small trailers matching the description were found in Iraq. A team of bio-weapons experts examined the trailers and concluded they were simply designed to produce hydrogen for weather balloons. But, for over a year, Bush claimed these were part of Iraq's bio-weapons program. The expert's report was suppressed and only recently made public.
Bush wanted so much to convince people of the need to invade Iraq that the White House set up a secret team in the Pentagon to create evidence.
The Office of Special Plans routinely rewrote the CIA's intelligence estimates on Iraq's weapons programs, removing caveats such as "likely," "probably" and "may" as a way of depicting the country as an imminent threat. They also used unreliable sources to create reports that ultimately proved to be false. By lying to Congress, Bush violated US Laws related to Fraud and False Statements.
The evidence below shows that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Gonzales are guilty of violating "Federal Torture Act" the UN Torture Convention and the Geneva Convention by ordering and condoning the use of torture. Many prisoners have died as a result.
1/25/02 - White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales wrote a memo advising the President of "the threat of domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act," a federal statute, for torturing prisoners. He advised Bush to invent a legal technicality --declaring detainees in the "war on terror" to be outside the Geneva Conventions --which, he said, "substantially reduces" the chance of prosecution.
Gonzales was later promoted to US Attorney General.
2/7/02 - Bush took Gonzales' advice and signed an order declaring that members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban are not covered by the Geneva Convention.
The memo requires that "detainees be treated humanely and, to the extent appropriate and consistent with military necessity, in a manner consistent with the principles of Geneva." While seeming to call for humane treatment, it is carefully worded to allow for violations of the Geneva Convention when necessary.
Bush moves prisoners to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and holds them for years without charges, trials, or access to lawyers. This is ruled illegal by a Federal Judge on Jan 31, 2005.
Bush sets up secret prisons run by the CIA in foreign countries to escape US laws against torture.
Rice claims European countries supported this plan.
9/26/02 - Canadian Maher Arar was arrested at JFK airport and sent to secret prison in Syria for torture under "extraordinary rendition" program. He was released a year later without charges. He sued the US government but the suit was dismissed by a federal judge David Trager on 2/17/06 citing the need for secrecy.
He wrote, "One need not have much imagination to contemplate the negative effect on our relations with Canada if discovery were to proceed in this case and were it to turn out that certain high Canadian officials had, despite public denials, acquiesced in Arar's removal to Syria." Thus the reason for the secrecy is not for national security but simply to avoid embarrassing guilty parties in government.
This sets a dangerous precedent that may allow Bush to kidnap and torture anyone he pleases.
On 1/26/07 the Canadian government apologized and awarded Arar compensation.
Dec '02 - Alberto J. Mora, the general counsel of the United States Navy, tried to halt what he saw as a disastrous and unlawful policy of authorizing cruelty toward terror suspects.
His 2004 memo details his unsuccessful struggle with the White House to stop the torture.
12/31/03 - German national Khaled al-Masri says he was abducted by the CIA arrested in Macedonia and flown to Afghanistan. He was then tortured for five months and released.
The CIA has admitted making a mistake in this case.
April 2004, photos of prisoners being tortured at Abu Ghraib prison make headlines around the world.
Low ranking soldiers are convicted of torture charges, falling on their swords for the White House.
5/24/04 - Seymour Hersh releases article detailing how Rumsfeld's program encouraged torture.
"President Bush was informed of the existence of the program, the former intelligence official said."
October 2005, Senator McCain adds an amendment to a defense bill that would outlaw torture by the United States. Bush and Cheney fight this tooth and nail to block this amendment but eventually give in after the McCain amendment is weakened by the Graham-Levin amendment.
When Bush signs the bill he adds a signing statement that basically says he can ignore the prohibition against torture under his powers as "unitary executive" and "Commander in Chief ."
6/29/06 - Supreme Court rules in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that the Geneva Convention applies to prisoners at Guantanamo. The Bush wiretaps violated US law because he was required to get approval from FISA.
He can start a wiretap of a suspected terrorist at any time but must then seek approval to continue within 72 hours.
Attorney General Gonzales claims HJR114 gave Bush authority to conduct the wiretaps. But HJR114 only grants use of the "Armed Forces". HJR114 does not explicitly suspend the Constitution. Also HJR114 requires "The President shall, at least once every 60 days, submit to the Congress a report on matters relevant to this joint resolution, including actions taken pursuant to the exercise of authority granted in section 3".
Congress was not notified of these wiretaps.
Bush may have bypassed FISA because he wanted to listen to and analyze all international signals, not just those of suspected terrorists. He knew this was blatantly illegal so he hid it.
So, in a nutshell here is what we have:Bush says "We use FISA still. But FISAs is for long-term monitoring. What is needed in order to protect the American people is the ability to move quickly..... to detect."
Then later "There is a difference between detecting, so we can prevent, and monitoring. And it's important to note the distinction between the two."
The distinction is that "detecting" requires listening to lots of calls with a computer to see if someone says certain keywords like "bomb" in Arabic, or maybe even "impeach Bush" in English.
Monitoring is listening to a specific suspected terrorist. The problem with detection is that you have to listen to all calls, including yours and mine.
More evidence that Bush wants to listen to all signals is in Bob Woodward's book
"Bush at War," on page 303. " Bush summarized his strategy: 'Listen to every
phone call and close them down and protect the innocents.'James B. Comey, acting Attorney General, refused to sign an authorization for the NSA program because it "did not comply with the law".
On March 10th, 2004, Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card tried to bypass Comey be getting a disoriented John Ashcroft to sign an authorization from his hospital bed. Comey rushed to the hospital to stop them. On March 11th, Bush intervened personally to get the Justice Department to authorize the program.
Investigators may have found that Bush applied for an expansion of wiretap capability from FISA, was rejected, and then went ahead and did it anyway.
Bush claims going through FISA is too slow but legal emergency wiretaps helped capture terrorist Mosquera.
According to a report in USA Today, the NSA is collecting the phone records of tens of millions of Americans - most of whom aren't suspected of any crime.
The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders. The stated goal is to be able to identify who is involved in a network of terrorists. But this same technique can be used to determine who is involved in
a network of political activists who might, for example, oppose the Bush administration.Under Section 222 of the Communications Act, first passed in 1934, telephone companies are prohibited from giving out information regarding their customers' calling habits. All of the major telecommunications companies cooperated with this program except for Qwest.
Joe Nacchio, CEO of Qwest, was troubled by the fact that there was no FISA approval and that the program was so pervasive.
8/18/06 - In response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU, US District
Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled that the wiretaps are unconstitutional.
-Bush lied to Congress and the American public about the reasons for invading Iraq.
-Bush conducted illegal wiretaps of American citizens.
-Bush violated the Geneva Convention by torturing prisoners of war.
-Bush violated International Law by invading a sovereign country for illegal purposes.
-Bush held prisoners without formal charges and without legal representation.
This brings me to my state of Saturday Morning Confusion............. why is this asshole still in office? Why hasn't he been impeached?
Your "wondering" scribe;
Allan W Jansen
Allan W Janssen is the author of The Plain Truth About God at http://www.god-101.com/ and the blog "Perspective" at http://God-101.blogspot.com
Labels: bush, illegal wiretaps, impeach, lying to congress
posted by Allan W Janssen | 10:17 a.m.
3 Comments:
AJ
Caustic attitude and thin arguments.
Look at the outcomes.
Forget the President -I dare you to find goodness in what is happening in Iraq.
It is too easy to conduct summarizing internet searches for 'bad stuff.'
Do the hard work - look for good.
You always refer to 'head in the sand' - NO - heads up. Now look for goodness.
Brad
Sorry Brad but this is not a "pie in the sky" blog. Remember, (quote) "On this blog we piss off everybody at one time or another!"
Besides that, the fuck-ups are a lot more fun to write about.
Allan
True.
Easy is fun. Fun is easy.
...and thanks for your perspective - really!
Brad
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