9 posts tagged “bush”
Powerful Video
From UPI (United Press International):
U.S. to renew Blackwater contract
April 5, 2008 at 9:48 AM
WASHINGTON, April 5 (UPI) -- The U.S. State Department will renew its contract with Blackwater to provide security for American diplomats in Iraq, an official said.
Blackwater Worldwide -- based in Moyock, N.C. – was thrust into the international spotlight in September after its guards shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians, including women and children...
...Greg Starr, acting assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, said while no provisions have been added to the government's contract with Blackwater, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered several procedural changes after the September incident...
...Private security contractors, such as Blackwater, have immunity from Iraqi law under a provision instituted shortly after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq...
...Blackwater has received more than $1 billion in federal business since 2000...
Apparently it's not such a good idea
2 hours later, also from UPI (Untied Press International):
Official: Blackwater extension 'bad news'
April 5, 2008 at 11:46 AM
BAGHDAD, April 5 (UPI) -- An adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said the U.S. State Department's renewal of Blackwater's contract to provide security in Iraq is unfortunate...
...The Iraqi government urged the State Department to sever ties with North Carolina-based Blackwater after some of its guards killed17 people, including women and children, last September.
"This is bad news," Maliki adviser Sami al-Askari told CNN Saturday...
...The Iraqi government might contest Blackwater's contract renewal...
Another Maliki adviser, Sadeq al-Rikabi, said the Blackwater contract would be essentially temporary since the United Nations mandate under which the U.S. government operates in Iraq will expire at the end of 2008 and be replaced by a bilateral agreement now under negotiation.
[this is reality] Wonder why nobody knows who they are?
Bodies of two missing hostages recovered in Iraq.
From: McClatchy Washington DC Burea
Monday March 24, 2008
WASHINGTON — The FBI confirmed Monday that the bodies of two Americans who were taken hostage more than a year ago in Iraq have been found there.
The dead were identified as Ronald Withrow of Roaring Springs, Texas, and John Roy Young, of Kansas City, Mo.
Young was one of five security guards working for Crescent Security Group who were taken hostage Nov. 16, 2006 when the convoy they were guarding was stopped at a fake checkpoint in southern Iraq.
Withrow was working for JPI Worldwide as a computer analyst when he was kidnapped on Jan. 5, 2007, also at a fake checkpoint.
Withrow's finger was one of five recently delivered to U.S. officials in Iraq, but Young's was not, authorities said then.
The fingers of the four other Crescent Security guards seized with Young also were delivered to U.S authorities earlier this year. Those guards are Jonathan Cote, of Gainesville, Fla.; Joshua Munns, of Redding, Calif.; Paul Johnson Reuben, of Buffalo, Minn.; and Bert Nussbaumer of Vienna, Austria.
There was no immediate information on where Withrow's and Young's bodies were found or the fate of the other missing hostages.
The FBI said it had notified the two men's families that their bodies had been recovered.
The Pentagon has canceled plans for broad public release of a study that found no pre-Iraq war link between late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the al Qaida terrorist network. Thank God for McClatchy Washington Bureau
Pentagon cancels release of controversial Iraq report
By Warren P. Strobel - McClatchy Newspapers - Wednesday, March 12, 2008
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon on Wednesday canceled plans for broad public release of a study that found no pre-Iraq war link between late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the al Qaida terrorist network.
Rather than posting the report online and making officials available to discuss it, as had been planned, the U.S. Joint Forces Command said it would mail copies of the document to reporters — if they asked for it. The report won't be posted on the Internet.
The reversal highlighted the politically sensitive nature of its conclusions, which were first reported Monday by McClatchy.
In making their case for invading Iraq in 2002 and 2003, President Bush and his top national security aides claimed that Saddam's regime had ties to Osama bin Laden's al Qaida terrorist network.
But the study, based on more than 600,000 captured documents, including audio and video files, found that while Saddam sponsored terrorism, particularly against opponents of his regime and against Israel, there was no evidence of an al Qaida link.
"What Bush did to McCain in the 2000 S. C. primary"
FACT SHEET:
Bush Waged Nasty Smear Campaign Against McCain in 2000
Bush Supporters Called McCain “The Fag Candidate.” In South Carolina, Bush supporters circulated church fliers that labeled McCain “the fag candidate.” Columnist Frank Rich noted that the fliers were distributed “even as Bush subtly reinforced that message by indicating he wouldn’t hire openly gay people for his administration.”
McCain Slurs Included Illegitimate Children, Homosexuality And A Drug-Addict Wife.
Among the rumors circulated against McCain in 2000 in South Carolina was that his adopted Bangladeshi daughter was actually black, that McCain was both gay and cheated on his wife, and that his wife Cindy was a drug addict.”
Bush Campaign Used Code Words to Question McCain’s Temper.
“A smear campaign of the ugliest sort is now coursing through the contest for the presidency in 2000. Using the code word "temper," a group of Senate Republicans, and at least some outriders of the George W. Bush campaign, are spreading the word that John McCain is unstable. The subtext, also suggested in this whispering campaign, is that he returned from 5 1/2 years as a POW in North Vietnam with a loose screw. And it is bruited about that he shouldn't be entrusted with nuclear weapons.”
Bush Supporters Questioned McCain’s Sanity.
“Some of George W. Bush's supporters have questioned Republican presidential candidate John McCain's fitness for the White House, suggesting that his five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam drove him insane at the time.”
Bush Supporters Spread Racist Rumors About McCain’s Daughter.
Bush supporters in South Carolina made race-baiting phone calls saying that McCain had a “black child.” The McCains’ daughter, Bridget, was adopted from Mother Teresa’s orphanage in Bangladesh. In August 2000, columnist Maureen Dowd wrote that the McCains “are still seething about Bush supporters in South Carolina spreading word of their dark-skinned adopted daughter.”
Rove Suggests Former POW McCain Committed Treason and Fathered Child With Black Prostitute.
In 2000, McCain operatives in SC accused Rove of spreading rumors against McCain, such as “suggestions that McCain had committed treason while a prisoner of war, and had fathered a child by a black prostitute,” according to the New Yorker.
After Rove Denied Role In McCain Whisper Campaign, Reporters Concluded He Was Behind It.
A December 1999 Dallas Morning News linked Rove to a series of campaign dirty tricks, including his College Republican efforts, allegedly starting a whisper campaign about Ann Richard being too gay-friendly, spreading stories about Jim Hightower’s involvement in a kickback scheme and leaking the educational history of Lena Guerrero. The article also outlined current dirty tricks and whisper campaigns against McCain in South Carolina, including that “McCain may be unstable as a result of being tortured while a prisoner of war in North Vietnam.” (DMN, 12/2/99) After the article was published, Rove blasted Slater in the Manchester, NH airport, “nose to nose” according to one witness, with Rove claiming Slater had “harmed his reputation,” Slater later noted. But according to one witness, “What was interesting then is that everyone on the campaign charter concluded that Rove was responsible for rumors about McCain.”
Bush Campaign Accused of Using Push Polls Against McCain.
College of Charleston student Suzette Latsko said she received a telephone call from a woman who identified herself as an employee of Voter/Consumer Research, and that the caller misrepresented McCain’s positions and asked if Latsko knew McCain had been reprimanded for interfering with federal regulators in the savings and loan scandal. Voter/Consumer Research is listed as a polling contractor on Bush’s Federal Election Commission filings; the Bush campaign has paid Voter/Consumer Research $93,000 through December 31, 1999. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer denied the call was a push poll, but said it was important that the Republican Party remember McCain’s role in the S&L crisis.
Bush Campaign Acknowledged Making Phone Calls.
Tucker Eskew, Bush’s South Carolina spokesman, acknowledged the Bush campaign made such calls, but claimed they were not “push polls.” Eskew added, “Show me a baseless comment in those questions.”
Bush Used Fringe Veterans Group to Attack McCain as “Manchurian Candidate.”
Ted Sampley, the guy who did Bush's dirty work in going after Sen. John McCain. Sampley dared compare McCain, who spent five years as a Vietnam POW, with ‘the Manchurian Candidate.’”
Sampley Called McCain a “Coward” and a Traitor.
“Sampley… accused McCain of being a weak-minded coward who had escaped death by collaborating with the enemy. Sampley claimed that McCain had first been compromised by the Vietnamese, then recruited by the Soviets.”
The Bush administration has
just eliminated federal protections for hundreds of endangered wolves
in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies.
Please join me in protesting this decision now - it will only take a minute to send your message in support of protecting these wolves! Send your message here: http://go.care2.com/13792952
This decision leaves wolves in Greater Yellowstone and the Northern Rockies at the mercy of outrageous state management plans that allow for the killing of as many as 70% of all the region's wild wolves!I just sent my message to protest this decision - please send your message here: http://go.care2.com/13792952
Thanks!
Well those crazy Republicans are at it again!!! This time a Bush appointed federal bankruptcy judge resigns after pleading guilty to D.U.I. in New Hampshire. He was appointed to the bench by President Bush in December 2004. By the way, he was wearing a cocktail dress and heels which isn't illegal but it's another example of the Republican Party hypocrisy.
The part of the story that caught my eye is when the arresting officer is quoted as saying that Judge Robert Somma retrieved his drivers license from his purse, as reported in The Union Leader a New Hampshire newspaper.
"Somma fumbled in his purse for his driver's license before handing it to the officer who later arrested him, according to a police report." The police report also said he was wearing a cocktail dress. Talk about specifics.
Here are some highlights and the link to the full story:
Massachusetts Judge Involved in D.W.I. Case Resigns
The Union Leader - New Hampshire
By Staff Reporters
Saturday, February, 16, 200
Boston U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Somma, 63, of Newbury, Mass., resigned yesterday. He will remain on leave until the resignation is effective.
Somma's Mercedes-Benz E320 sedan hit a pickup truck from behind about 11:29 p.m. on Feb. 6, the police report said. No one was hurt.
Somma fumbled in his purse for his driver's license before handing it to the officer who later arrested him, according to a police report.
The arresting officer reported Somma smelled of alcohol, slurred his speech and fell backward against the doorframe while getting out of his car.
The judge failed the field sobriety test and, after taking a breath test at the police station, was arrested on alternative charges of driving while under the influence of alcohol and driving with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 or more, according to the police report and court records. Somma also was charged with following another vehicle too closely and causing an accident, a violation.
Somma told police he had been at the Breezeway Pub where he had one gin and tonic about two hours earlier, the police report reveals. He later said he drank two gin and tonics.
The Breezeway Pub, at 14 Pearl St., bills itself as "New Hampshire's favorite gay and alternative bar," according to its Web site.
