*Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens For Legitimate Government*
02 July 2009
*http://www.legitgov.org/* <http://www.legitgov.org/>
All items are here:
*http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news*<http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news>
*Court Filing Shows Evidence Cheney Swayed White House Response to CIA
Leak*<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR200...>
* --Discussions of CIA Agent Listed in Filing* 03 Jul 2009 A document filed
in federal court this week by the Justice Department offers new evidence
that former vice president [sic] Richard B. Cheney helped steer the Bush
administration's public response to the disclosure of Valerie Plame Wilson's
employment by the CIA and that he was at the center of many related
administration deliberations. A list of at least seven related conversations
involving Cheney appears in a new court filing approved by Obama appointees
at the Justice Department. In the filing, the *officials argue that the
substance of what Cheney told special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in
2004 must remain secret*.
*Obama pushes to delay release of CIA
report<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31715303/ns/us_news-security/>--Agency's
secret detention, torture program under scrutiny
* 02 Jul 2009 The Obama administration said Thursday that it needs two more
months to review an internal CIA report on the agency's secret detention and
interrogation program before making it public. The Justice Department had
originally said it intended to release the report in June as part of a
lawsuit, but department officials now say they 'need' until the *end of
August*. [See: U.S. again [third time] delays releasing CIA torture
report<http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/02/content_11636678.htm>02
Jul 2009; US
wants to [again] delay release of CIA
report<http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hXpJ92oIG1vhQLz2TS1...>26
Jun 2009; Delay
in Releasing CIA Report Is
Sought<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/19/AR200...>20
Jun 2009.]
***Heads up! The Obusha pre-holiday Friday night environmental/human rights
bad news dump is starting to dump a day early! **Obama Administration to
Involve NSA in Screening Civilian Agency
Networks<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR200...>
* 02 Jul 2009* The Obama administration will proceed with a Bush-era plan to
use National Security Agency assistance in screening government computer
traffic on private-sector networks, with AT&T as the likely test site*,
according to three current and former government officials. President Obama
said in May that government efforts to protect computer systems from attack
would not involve *"monitoring private sector networks or Internet traffic."
* Under a classified pilot program approved during the Bush regime, NSA data
and hardware would be used to 'protect' the networks of some civilian
government agencies. Part of an initiative known as Einstein 3, the pilot
called for telecommunications companies to route the Internet traffic of
civilian government agencies through a monitoring box that would search for
and block malicious computer codes... The pilot was to have been launched in
February. "To be clear, Einstein 3 development is proceeding," DHS
spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said.
*Al-Sadr demands full U.S. withdrawal from
Iraq<http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/07/01/iraq.kirkuk.bombing/>--About
131,000 US troops remain in Iraq, on bases and in outposts outside
of population centers*. 01 Jul 2009 The ongoing presence of U.S. troops in
Iraq "shows that *the (Iraqi) government and the occupation are not serious
about the withdrawal*," a key Shiite cleric in the country said Wednesday.
Muqtada al-Sadr made the statement on his Web site a day after U.S. forces
withdrew from Iraqi cities and towns in accordance with the security
agreement between the United States and Iraq.
*Saddam Hussein 'lied about WMDs to protect Iraq from
Iran'<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/5727868/Sad...>
* 03 Jul 2009 Saddam Hussein told the FBI that he misled the world into
believing Iraq still possessed weapons of mass destruction because he feared
revealing his weakness to Iran, according to declassified interview
transcripts. The late Iraqi president also told his interrogators that he
regarded Osama in Laden as a "zealot" and had no contact with the al-Qaeda
[al-CIAduh] leader or his organisation. Despite defeat in the Gulf War at
the hands of the American-led coalition, Saddam still regarded Iran, with
which Iraq fought a bloody war from 1980-88, as a greater threat than the
US, the documents show.
*Lawsuit accuses Xe contractors of murder, kidnapping, child
prostitution<http://hamptonroads.com/2009/07/lawsuit-now-accuses-xe-contractors-mu...>
*02 Jul 2009 A just-amended lawsuit alleges six additional instances of
unprovoked attacks on Iraqi civilians by Blackwater mercenaries. Three
people, including a 9-year-old boy, are said to have died. Also added to the
suit is a racketeering count accusing *Blackwater founder Erik Prince of
running an ongoing criminal enterprise involved in, among other
things, kidnapping
and child prostitution*. The latest charges, filed this week in U.S.
District Court in Alexandria, bring to more than 60 the number of Iraqis
allegedly killed or wounded since 2005 by armed Blackwater mercenaries
guarding U.S. diplomatic personnel in Iraq. The Moyock, N.C.-based security
company, since renamed Xe, earned more than $1 billion under that contract
before the State Department, under pressure from the Iraqi government, let
it lapse in May.
*Senate Investigates Blackwater
Subsidiary<http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/01/cbsnews_investigates/main51...>
*01 Jul 2009 The Senate Armed Services Committee is investigating the
mercenary firm Paravant LLC which provides contracted services to the U.S.
Army in Afghanistan and Iraq. Paravant is a subsidiary of Xe, formerly known
as Blackwater, owned by Erik D. Prince, president of The Prince Group.
Steven McClain and Justin Cannon, two former Paravant security personnel
stationed in Afghanistan, were involved in a fatal shooting incident that
left one Afghan civilian dead and two others wounded in Kabul on May 5,
2009.
*Guantanamo suspect to be tried in U.S. court in
2010<http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE5614D720090702>
* 02 Jul 2009 The first detainee transferred from Guantanamo Bay to a U.S.
civilian court will go on trial on September 13, 2010, a Manhattan federal
court judge said on Thursday. Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian national,
has been charged with conspiring in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in
Tanzania and Kenya that killed 224 people.
*'I have to refer you to the Government of Israel.' **U.S. Department of
State Middle East Digest<http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/mideastdigest/125541.htm>
* 01 Jul 2009 QUESTION: Erin Connors from Press TV. Former congresswoman
Cynthia McKinney and members of the Free Gaza Movement were intercepted by
the Israeli army when they were on a humanitarian mission over there. What’s
being done about that? Are they on their way home? Will they be deported?
What’s the next step there, and will their supplies ever get to where
they’re going? IAN KELLY: On that last question, I don’t know the answer,
actually. *I think I have to refer you to the Government of Israel*. We can
confirm that the Israeli navy did arrest those on board this – the ship
which is known as Spirit. *We can't comment* on any of the individuals or
the number of individual American citizens on board because of Privacy Act
concern. [*OH, but you would comment from here to Armageddon if Ahmadinejad
sneezed or you heard there were missing ballots in Tehran, right? Can you
*imagine* what would happen if Iran or Venezuela intercepted a vessel and/or
incarcerated a former congressperson and Nobel Prize winner? Instead of
covering Neverland 24/7, Faux would be covering the US shock &
awe bombardment of the offending nation. --LRP*]
*Activists Held by Israel for Trying to Break Gaza
Blockade<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/03/world/middleeast/03gaza.html>
* 03 Jul 2009 Nineteen foreign activists of the pro-Palestinian Free Gaza
Movement were being held in Israel awaiting deportation on Thursday, two
days after the Israeli Navy seized control of their boat off Gaza. A former
United States Representative, Cynthia McKinney, and an Irish peace activist
and Nobel laureate, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, were among those being held.
Two additional Israeli activists were released without being charged on
Wednesday, according to the group.
*CLG News and Action Alert: IDF Seizes Gaza Aid
Ship<http://www.legitgov.org/action_idf_seizes_gaza_ship_010709.html>
* Posted by Lori Price 01 Jul 2009 Israeli forces have boarded a ship trying
to carry aid and pro-Palestinian activists to the Gaza Strip in defiance of
Israel's blockade of the territory. The 20 passengers include former US
congresswoman Cynthia McKinney and Nobel Prize winner Mairead Maguire. [*
Updated!*]
*U.S. re-approves Israel loan guarantees
program*<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1096755.html>30 Jun 2009
The United States has re-approved its Israel loan guarantees
program, subject to meeting fiscal targets, the Finance Ministry in
Jerusalem said Tuesday. The move comes amid tensions between Israel and the
Obama administration over Jerusalem's settlement policy in the West Bank. In
2002, the U.S. provided a package of $9 billion in loan guarantees, where
Israel could sell bonds internationally with the backing of the United
States.
*Merkel urges immediate halt to WB
settlements<http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=99638§ionid=351020604>
* 02 Jul 2009 German Chancellor Angela Merkel says the ongoing construction
of Israeli settlements in the West Bank hampers efforts for a two-state
solution with Palestinians. "I think it is now important to get commitments
from all sides and that includes the issue of settlement building. I am
convinced that there must be a stop to this. Otherwise we will not come to
the two-state solution that is urgently needed," Merkel said in an address
to the Bundestag lower house of parliament.
*Britain fails on deadline for withdrawal of ambassadors from
Tehran*<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/5724210/Bri...>03
Jul 2009 Britain was rebuffed last night in its attempt to secure an
EU
deadline for the withdrawal of the bloc's 27 ambassadors from Tehran if a
local embassy employee in Iranian custody was not released. Representatives
of the EU's foreign ministries offered a pledge of solidarity with the UK
but officials said it was unlikely that more discussions today (FRI) would
produce an ultimatum.
*U.S. declares Iraq-based group foreign terrorist
organization<http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE56165320090702>
* 02 Jul 2009 The U.S. government on Thursday said it has declared Kata'ib
Hizballah a foreign terrorist organization, saying the group is linked to
Lebanon's Hezbollah and has posed a threat to stability in Iraq. The
designation means the Iraq-based militant group's assets will be frozen and
Americans will be prohibited from providing it with any resources, the State
Department said in a statement.
*US soldier is snatched by same Afghan group who kidnapped
reporters<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article66...>
* 03 Jul 2009 An American soldier who wandered off his remote position in
eastern Afghanistan is believed to have been captured by the same
'insurgents' responsible for the kidnap last year of a *New York
Times*reporter. [Xe?] Military officials said that the soldier
disappeared from
his base in Paktika province on Tuesday and was listed as "duty status
whereabouts unknown" after he was found to be missing in a routine check.
*US allied forces march into Taliban
territory<http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=514267>
* 02 Jul 2009 Taliban strongholds in southern Afghanistan have been
infiltrated by US Marines who are part of a major operation under the
imprimatur of President Barack Obama. As part of the president’s strategy to
stabilise the country 4,000 marines have been sent in to destroy Taliban
lairs.
*Jones: U.S. plans coordinated response if North Korea fires
missile<http://www.kansascity.com/444/story/1303294.html>
* 02 Jul 2009 If North Korea fires a missile at Hawaii on or around the July
Fourth holiday, as Japanese reports have warned, the U.S. plans a measured
response in coordination with Russia, China, Japan and South Korea. In an
exclusive interview with McClatchy Newspapers, White House national security
adviser James L. Jones said of North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Il: "Our
reaction will be dependent on what it is they do over the next few days, few
weeks, whatever it is."
*North Korean rockets fired out to
sea<http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=514265>
* 02 Jul 2009 North Korea has test-fired two short-range missiles. The
missiles were shot from an east coast base near the eastern port of Wonsan.
Tensions have been recently been high in the region, due to North Korea
remaining defiant after the UN condemned its long-range rocket launch on
April 5th and its May 25th nuclear test.
*Honduran coup leader a two-time SOA
graduate<http://ncronline.org/news/global/honduran-coup-leader-two-time-soa-gr...>
* 29 Jun 2009 The general who overthrew the democratically elected president
of Honduras is a two-time graduate of the U.S. Army School of the Americas,
an institution that has trained hundreds of coup leaders and human rights
abusers in Latin America. Gen. Romeo Orlando Vásquez Velásquez toppled
President Manuel Zelaya in a pre-dawn coup on Sunday, surrounding the
presidential palace with more than 200 soldiers and tanks and tear-gassing a
crowd outside. The president was abducted and taken to an Air Force base
before being flown to Costa Rica.
*Britain braces for 100,000 swine flu cases a
day<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/07/02/internati...>
* 02 Jul 2009 Britain faces a projected 100,000 new swine flu cases a day by
the end of August and must revamp its flu strategy to cope, the nation's
health minister said Thursday. Britain has officially reported 7,447 swine
flu cases and three deaths, but officials acknowledge the real number of
cases is far higher, since many with the virus have not been tested.
*UK bans tell-all book on
counter-terrorism<http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=99642§ionid=351020601>
* 02 Jul 2009 UK government has banned a tell-all book about Metropolitan
Police crackdown on terrorist written by former anti-terror chief. "The
Terrorist Hunters" which is a memoir by retired assistant commissioner of
the Metropolitan Police Andy Hayman banned the night before it was due to
hit the shelves on Thursday. The attorney general's office announced the
injunction just before midnight on Wednesday.
*Blast hits Canadian gas
pipeline<http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=99654§ionid=351020701>--Police:
5th act of sabotage in region over past year
* 02 Jul 2009 A gas leak, at a pipeline in Canada's western British Columbia
province, has been caused by a blast that police say is the fifth act of
sabotage in the region over the past year. The oil and natural gas company
informed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) on Wednesday, after
company employees noticed a loss in pressure in the pipeline close to Dawson
Creek, in the northeast of the province.
*Should linking be
illegal?<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jul/01/richar...>In
a misguided attempt to aid newspapers, one of America's most
influential
judges is suggesting a new copyright law* 01 Jul 2009 Those who wish to keep
the internet free and open had best dust off their legal arguments. One of
America's most influential conservative judges, Richard Posner, has proposed
a ban on linking<http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/archives/2009/06/the_future_of_n.html>to
online content without permission. The idea, he said in a blog post
last
week, is to prevent aggregators and bloggers from linking to newspaper
websites without paying.
*Oops! The PentaPost -- facilitators of the 2000 and 2004 GOP coups and
enablers of Bush/Cheney's war crimes and treason -- is caught with its
grubby little paws in the cookie jar! **Amid Criticism, Post Drops
"Appalling" Plan to Sell Access<http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7987328>
** --Paper Reportedly Offered Lobbyists Private Meetings with Reporters,
Editors for $25,000* 02 Jul 2009 The Washington Post is nixing a reported
plan to sell access to its newsroom staff and Obama administration officials
to lobbyists and corporate interests, a spokeswoman for the paper said
Thursday.
*** <http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7987328>**WaPo cancels lobbyist
event amid uproar* <http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24441.html> 02
Jul 2009 Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was
canceling plans for an exclusive "salon" at her home where for as much as
$250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives
off-the-record access to "those powerful few" -- Obama administration
officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and
editors. The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday
to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter.
*Jobless rate at 9.5% - worst since
1983<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/02/BUHL18I5U...>
* 02 Jul 2009 The U.S. unemployment rate rose to 9.5 percent in June, a
26-year high, as employers continued to slash payrolls, according to a Labor
Department report today that estimates 14.7 million Americans were out of
work last month. Employers cut 467,000 jobs in June, as construction and
manufacturing continued to suffer big losses.
*Goldman Sachs Is A Vampire Squid, Rolling Stone
Says<http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/blog/archives/2009/07/goldman_sachs_...>
* 02 Jul 2009 In a riveting article in its July 9-23 issue, "Goldman Sachs:
The Great American Bubble
Machine<http://bigpicture.posterous.com/goldman-sachs-the-great-american-bubb...>,"
Rolling Stone describes the investment bank as a "great vampire squid
wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel
into anything that smells like money." The author, Matt Taibbi, makes a
strong case for why Goldman Sachs is partially, if not wholly, to blame for
the Great Depression, the .com bubble, the subprime crisis, and last year's
oil price spikes, through questionable practices such as laddering. He
suggests that Goldman is poised to create a new bubble out of the nascent
cap-and-trade markets.
*US credit card companies jack up
rates<http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jul2009/citi-j02.shtml>
* By Andre Damon 02 Jul 2009 Credit card companies have in recent months
sharply raised the rates they charge customers, as credit card defaults have
risen to record levels. Citigroup, the recipient of a $25 billion government
bailout, has increased rates for millions of credit card customers by around
one fourth. JPMorgan Chase & Co., the largest issuer of credit cards, also
said it would raise its minimum payment rate from 2 to 5 percent for
customers behind on payments. The hikes come amid news that default rates
for personal credit cards have hit record high levels.
*SC governor silent as clamor grows for
resignation<http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jVGOp2bl5_prbLYsoPO...>
* 02 Jul 2009 After days of soul-baring and often odd confessions and
apologies about an adulterous affair, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R)
went silent as the clamor for his resignation grew. Sanford, who has said he
won't resign, made no public appearances Wednesday, as he figures out how to
salvage the last 18 months of his second and last term and his 20-year
marriage.
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Previous lead stories: *ACLU Says Government Used False
Confessions<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/01/AR200...>
* 02 Jul 2009 The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday accused the Obama
administration of using statements elicited through torture to justify the
confinement of a detainee it represents at the U.S. military prison in
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The ACLU is asking a federal judge to throw out those
statements and others made by Mohammed Jawad, an Afghan who *may have been
as young as 12 when he was captured*. His attorney argued that Jawad was
abused in U.S. custody, threatened and subjected to intense sleep
deprivation. "The government's continued reliance on evidence gained by
torture and other abuse violates centuries of U.S. law and suggests the
current administration is not really serious about breaking with the past,"
said ACLU lawyer Jonathan Hafetz, who is representing Jawad in a lawsuit
challenging his detention.
*U.S. spy says just followed orders in Italy
kidnap<http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE55T3H420090630>
* 30 Jun 2009 A former U.S. spy at the center of a kidnapping trial in Italy
appeared to acknowledge a role in the abduction of a Muslim cleric but said
he was only following orders, according to a rare interview published on
Tuesday. Robert Seldon Lady is one of 26 Americans, almost all believed to
have been working for the CIA, who are accused along with Italian spies of
grabbing a terrorism suspect off the streets of Milan in 2003 and flying him
to Egypt. There, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr says he was tortured and held for
years without charge.
*Army faces 20 more torture and abuse claims from Iraqi
civilians<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/army-faces-20-more-abu...>--High
Court to hear cases against soldiers accused of shootings and
beatings* 01 Jul 2009 The British Army faces 20 fresh claims of torture and
abuse of Iraqi civilians in a series of damaging cases being prepared by
human rights lawyers in the High Court in London. These new claims lend
support to the accusation that the ill-treatment of scores of detainees in
Iraq in the first four years after the invasion was systemic rather than the
work of a few "rotten apple" soldiers.
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CLG Managing Editor: Lori Price. Copyright © 2009, Citizens For Legitimate
Government ® All rights reserved.
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