Friday 10 July 2009
by: Agence France-Presse | Visit article original @ Agence France-Presse
Washington - Suicides in the US Army are on the rise with 88 suspected cases in the first six months of the year, compared to 67 in the same period in 2008, according to Pentagon figures issued.
The latest figures confirmed warnings from top US military officers that the number of suicides among active-duty soldiers this year was on track to surpass a record level set in 2008.
Last year 128 soldiers took their lives, up from 115 in 2007, amid increasing strain on Army troops serving repeated combat tours.
The 2008 suicide rate among active duty soldiers rose to 20.2 per 100,000, surpassing a demographically adjusted national suicide rate of 19.5 per 100,000 in 2005, the latest year on record.
Of the 88 reported suicides this year, 54 have been confirmed and 34 are pending investigation, the Defense Department said in a statement.
In about 90 percent of previous cases, suspected suicides have been confirmed, officials say.
"Every soldier suicide is different and tragic in its own way," said Brigadier General Colleen McGuire, director of the Army's suicide prevention task force.
"Although suicide can impact anyone, we're finding that male soldiers, in combat-arms occupational specialties, between ages 18 and 27 are more vulnerable," McGuire said.
The army has responded to the growing problem with more suicide prevention programs, efforts to screen soldiers for mental health problems and campaigns to reduce the stigma that prevents soldiers from seeking treatment.
The trauma of combat combined with the effect of repeated tours has led to a record rise in suicides across the armed services and particularly the US Army -- which has carried the heaviest burden in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
http://www.truthout.org/071109F?n
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Stop Insider Trading on Capitol Hill!! Support the S.T.O.C.K. Act!
We need you to take action today to close an absurd legal loophole that allows "insider trading" by government officials.
"Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge"
Believe it or not, members of Congress, high-ranking appointees in the executive branch, and other federal employees who have access to non-public information about publicly traded companies can use that information to buy or sell securities or commodities for personal gain.
Lobbyists--and "political intelligence consultants" paid specifically to haunt the halls of Congress for insider tips--can also get away with this crooked and potentially corrupt practice.
This kind of insider trading is already illegal for corporate executives, Wall Street brokers, and ordinary citizens. This kind of insider trading should be illegal for people who work in and around the government, too.
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, introduced by Representatives Brian Baird (D-Wash.), Louise McIntosh Slaughter (D-N.Y.), and Tim Walz (D-Minn.), would close this loophole and prohibit insider trading by federal employees and others who try to cash in on non-public knowledge gleaned from public officials.
This is a no-brainer. The people entrusted to monitor the financial services industry on our behalf must not be tempted to exploit their privileged status for personal gain.
An important hearing on this bill is taking place next week. Click on title above to use our simple online form and urge your representative to support the STOCK Act today!
Thank you for all you do!
Angela, Eric, Glenn & Maureen
Your Action Team at Public Citizen's Congress Watch Division
action@citizen.org
To learn more about real financial accountability and security, visit http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2834.
If this message was forwarded to you, sign up to receive action alerts from Public Citizen at http://action.citizen.org/signUp.jsp.
Support our work: https://secure.citizen.org/p/10076/?track=w9CWinstrad0710.
Sign up for the Public Citizen Action Network or other online announcements.
Join the Public Citizen Action Network | Support Us | Take Action | Copyright 2009 Public Citizen
"Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge"
Believe it or not, members of Congress, high-ranking appointees in the executive branch, and other federal employees who have access to non-public information about publicly traded companies can use that information to buy or sell securities or commodities for personal gain.
Lobbyists--and "political intelligence consultants" paid specifically to haunt the halls of Congress for insider tips--can also get away with this crooked and potentially corrupt practice.
This kind of insider trading is already illegal for corporate executives, Wall Street brokers, and ordinary citizens. This kind of insider trading should be illegal for people who work in and around the government, too.
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, introduced by Representatives Brian Baird (D-Wash.), Louise McIntosh Slaughter (D-N.Y.), and Tim Walz (D-Minn.), would close this loophole and prohibit insider trading by federal employees and others who try to cash in on non-public knowledge gleaned from public officials.
This is a no-brainer. The people entrusted to monitor the financial services industry on our behalf must not be tempted to exploit their privileged status for personal gain.
An important hearing on this bill is taking place next week. Click on title above to use our simple online form and urge your representative to support the STOCK Act today!
Thank you for all you do!
Angela, Eric, Glenn & Maureen
Your Action Team at Public Citizen's Congress Watch Division
action@citizen.org
To learn more about real financial accountability and security, visit http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=2834.
If this message was forwarded to you, sign up to receive action alerts from Public Citizen at http://action.citizen.org/signUp.jsp.
Support our work: https://secure.citizen.org/p/10076/?track=w9CWinstrad0710.
Sign up for the Public Citizen Action Network or other online announcements.
Join the Public Citizen Action Network | Support Us | Take Action | Copyright 2009 Public Citizen
General of US Intelligence says No Plane Hit The Pentagon
It would appear that the truth is not only "out there", it's beginning
to leak out of the dam!
Click on title above to see video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0iry3fiHU4&feature=sdig&et=1246800377.38
Major General Albert "Bert" N. Stubblebine III, head of all intelligence
says:
Pentagon was NOT hit by a plane, WTC 7 brought down by explosives, Media
in America is controlled.
A terrible pilot hits pentagon accounting office holding records of
missing 3 trillion in oil for money scheme & missing 2.3 trillion in DOD
expenses, Pentagon debris a single 3 foot engine Proven not related to
757,FBI took all recordings & refuses to show, The FCC had all records
on criminals like Paulson, Geithner, Ruben, Summers & others engaging in
that illegal activity. But all the records of those illegal trades were
destroyed when WTC 7 was brought down by thermite on 9/11!
911 was used to the public and enact the end of the Bill of Rights &
invasion of oil bearing countries, & make money for private companies
like Halliburton, (stock from 10 to 50 a share)!By destroying the WTC,
they were able to cover up theft of gold bullion & destroy illegal
financial transaction records performed just prior to the attacks,
Silverstein spends 140 million to make 7 billion almost over night;
Silverstein said it was demolished by explosives, (pull it)
Mon Jul 6, 2009 12:46 pm
to leak out of the dam!
Click on title above to see video;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0iry3fiHU4&feature=sdig&et=1246800377.38
Major General Albert "Bert" N. Stubblebine III, head of all intelligence
says:
Pentagon was NOT hit by a plane, WTC 7 brought down by explosives, Media
in America is controlled.
A terrible pilot hits pentagon accounting office holding records of
missing 3 trillion in oil for money scheme & missing 2.3 trillion in DOD
expenses, Pentagon debris a single 3 foot engine Proven not related to
757,FBI took all recordings & refuses to show, The FCC had all records
on criminals like Paulson, Geithner, Ruben, Summers & others engaging in
that illegal activity. But all the records of those illegal trades were
destroyed when WTC 7 was brought down by thermite on 9/11!
911 was used to the public and enact the end of the Bill of Rights &
invasion of oil bearing countries, & make money for private companies
like Halliburton, (stock from 10 to 50 a share)!By destroying the WTC,
they were able to cover up theft of gold bullion & destroy illegal
financial transaction records performed just prior to the attacks,
Silverstein spends 140 million to make 7 billion almost over night;
Silverstein said it was demolished by explosives, (pull it)
Mon Jul 6, 2009 12:46 pm
More Truth about 9/11 Leaks Out
NSA Security running amok to plug leaks about 9/11 ------------
Thu Jul 9, 2009 10:08 pm (PDT)
NSA Security running amok to plug leaks about 9/11
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Jul 7, 2009, 00:17
(WMR) -- WMR has learned that the National Security
Group, responsible for security, has grown to an immense security and
counter-intelligence force, with an estimated one thousand government
employees, contractors, and paid informants. NSAs Security
force is reportedly primarily tasked with plugging any leaks of
classified or other information that points to U.S. governments
involvement with the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
NSA Security has doggedly pursued a number of NSA employees, some in
sting operations, others in frequent polygraphs and
repeated security interviews where threats are made by thuggish NSA
security agents with and without the presence of FBI agents, and others
in constant surveillance operations at their homes, churches, and
other locations away from the Fort Meade, Maryland, headquarters of the
agency.
The most egregious NSA Security operation against an NSA employee was
the 2004 arrest of NSA analyst Ken Ford, Jr. Ford became a target of
opportunity for NSA Security and the FBI after Vice President Dick
Cheney noted his name on an NSA signals intelligence report on Saddam
Husseins government that stated that there was no proof from
interceptions of Iraqi communications that Saddam Hussein possessed
weapons of mass destruction.
Cheney and other neocons in the Bush White House arranged for a
“sting†operation to be mounted as retribution against
Ford. Ford was charged with taking classified papers home from NSA
headquarters, something that is quite impossible considering the
stringent security in place at one of the most-secured complexes in the
world.
Ford was convicted by a tainted jury and sentenced to seven years in
federal prison. Ford, who is African-American, originally had an
African-American federal trial judge. However, the judge was replaced by
a pro-Iraq war Jewish U.S. judge, Peter Messitte, who set out to
ensure a guilty conviction of Ford in cahoots with Jewish U.S.
Attorney for Maryland Rod Rosenstein, and Jewish Assistant U.S.
Attorney for Southern Maryland David Salem, both Bush appointees.
Nothing was done by the judge or prosecutors to dismiss from the jury
a contractor whose company had major contracts with NSA. The trio of
Messitte, Rosenstein, and Salem have also
rocket-docketed a number of cases, resulting in
slam-dunk convictions, against Arab- and Iranian-Americans in the
southern district of Maryland.
NSAs Security chief is Kemp Ensor III. Ensor has built up what
amounts to a massive law enforcement and intelligence agency in Maryland
that operates as a virtual independent operation that answers to no one.
Marylands congressional delegation has shown little interest in
oversight over the security operation.
In fact, WMR has learned that many NSA employees, aware of the political
and other misuse of their agency by the Bush-Cheney administration,
avidly backed Barack Obama for president hoping that the past era when
NSA complied with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and
the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution would be restored. However,
many NSA employees are bitterly disappointed that Obama has done nothing
to curtail not only the widespread surveillance of the communications of
law-abiding Americans but the constant Stasi-like
harassment and surveillance conducted by Ensors team of agents
and confidential informants.
WMR has also learned that NSA Security has been authorized to work
directly with Washington area local police department intelligence
divisions to carry out its surveillance of not only NSA employees and
contractors, but journalists who report on the activities of NSA. Two
police departments mentioned in this respect are the Alexandria,
Virginia, and Anne Arundel County, Maryland, sheriff departments.
One senior level NSA official recently found himself sitting in front of
NSA Security questioners asking why he gave his NSA business cards to
some students at a university. It turns out the official was trying to
recruit students for NSA employment. When the official asked why there
was a problem in his handing out his business cards, the answer by NSA
Security was that some of them, all American citizens, had
Russian last names.
Even former NSA employees and contractors are being subjected to
continual NSA Security surveillance and harassment at their work places
and other locations, according to WMRs sources. Some have lost
their jobs as a result of pressure from NSA Security.
WMR has in the past reported on NSA surveillance of journalists. On
December 28, 2005, we reported: WMR has learned that the
National Security Agency (NSA), on the orders of the Bush
administration, eavesdropped on the private conversations and e-mail of
its own employees, employees of other U.S. intelligence agencies --
including the CIA and DIA -- and their contacts in the media, Congress,
and oversight agencies and offices. The journalist surveillance program,
code named ˜FIRSTFRUITS, was part of a Director of
Central Intelligence (DCI) program that was maintained at least until
October 2004 and was authorized by then-DCI Porter Goss. FIRSTFRUITS was
authorized as part of a DCI Countering Denial and
Deception program responsible to an entity known as the Foreign
Denial and Deception Committee (FDDC). Since the intelligence
communitys reorganization, the DCI has been replaced by the
Director of National Intelligence headed by John Negroponte and his
deputy, former NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden.
Since the revelation of the NSA journalist monitoring database, which
later added communications intercepts of journalists phone
calls, emails, and faxes to its database, NSA Security has, according to
information received by WMR, conducted physical surveillance of
journalists it deems to be threats to the operations of the agency. The
top targeted journalists, who make up a virtual rogues
gallery at NSA Security, complete with photographs and other
personal information, are: former Baltimore Sun and current Wall Street
Journal reporter Siobhan Gorman, Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz,
former Baltimore Sun and current New York Times reporter Scott Shane,
Baltimore Sun reporter Phil McGowan, author James Bamford, New York
Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, and this editor, Wayne
Madsen.
In addition to the aforementioned, FIRSTFRUITS also contained the
names of former Washington Post reporter Vernon Loeb, New Yorker
journalist Seymour Hersh, and UPIs John C.. K. Daly.
Ironically, NSA Security allegedly has its own connections in the news
media. A Washington Times source revealed that the papers
writer of the Inside the Beltway column, John
McCaslin, has a relative inside NSA Security -- Robert McCaslin, the
chief of NSA Security counter-intelligence and the chief
sting agent against Ford. Robert McCaslin, according
to the Times source, is the brother of the papers columnist.
NSA Security is also able to utilize the agencys most
sophisticated electronic surveillance systems to monitor the activities
of journalists. The cell phones of journalists are routinely used as
listening devices, even when turned off. And what was considered a
sure-fire method of avoiding having a cell phone used as a transmitter,
removing the batteries in what has become known as batteries
out conversations, is no longer safe. Even when the batteries
are removed, the global positioning system (GPS) chip in cell phones
continues to have enough residual power that two to three pings from
satellites can give away a persons location and what other
uniquely identifiable cell phones are at the same location.
The bottom line is that a number of NSA personnel who were on duty in
the months leading up to 9/11, the day of the attacks, and subsequent
weeks and months, are aware of undeniable facts that point to a massive
cover-up by the Bush-Cheney administration of the circumstances
surrounding 9/11, including what actually befell United Airlines flight
93 and who was issuing direct military orders from the White House.
The Obama administration, rather than lessen the pressure on the NSA
personnel, has turned up the heat and is resorting to even more
draconian methods to ensure silence. The word from inside NSA is that a
state of fear exists and the mission of the agency, to conduct
surveillance of foreign communications to provide threat indications and
warnings to U..S. troops and policy makers and protect sensitive U.S.
government communications from unauthorized eavesdropping is suffering
as a result.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2009 WayneMadenReport.comWayne Madsen is a Washington,
DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist.
He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription
required).
Thu Jul 9, 2009 10:08 pm (PDT)
NSA Security running amok to plug leaks about 9/11
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Jul 7, 2009, 00:17
(WMR) -- WMR has learned that the National Security
Group, responsible for security, has grown to an immense security and
counter-intelligence force, with an estimated one thousand government
employees, contractors, and paid informants. NSAs Security
force is reportedly primarily tasked with plugging any leaks of
classified or other information that points to U.S. governments
involvement with the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.
NSA Security has doggedly pursued a number of NSA employees, some in
sting operations, others in frequent polygraphs and
repeated security interviews where threats are made by thuggish NSA
security agents with and without the presence of FBI agents, and others
in constant surveillance operations at their homes, churches, and
other locations away from the Fort Meade, Maryland, headquarters of the
agency.
The most egregious NSA Security operation against an NSA employee was
the 2004 arrest of NSA analyst Ken Ford, Jr. Ford became a target of
opportunity for NSA Security and the FBI after Vice President Dick
Cheney noted his name on an NSA signals intelligence report on Saddam
Husseins government that stated that there was no proof from
interceptions of Iraqi communications that Saddam Hussein possessed
weapons of mass destruction.
Cheney and other neocons in the Bush White House arranged for a
“sting†operation to be mounted as retribution against
Ford. Ford was charged with taking classified papers home from NSA
headquarters, something that is quite impossible considering the
stringent security in place at one of the most-secured complexes in the
world.
Ford was convicted by a tainted jury and sentenced to seven years in
federal prison. Ford, who is African-American, originally had an
African-American federal trial judge. However, the judge was replaced by
a pro-Iraq war Jewish U.S. judge, Peter Messitte, who set out to
ensure a guilty conviction of Ford in cahoots with Jewish U.S.
Attorney for Maryland Rod Rosenstein, and Jewish Assistant U.S.
Attorney for Southern Maryland David Salem, both Bush appointees.
Nothing was done by the judge or prosecutors to dismiss from the jury
a contractor whose company had major contracts with NSA. The trio of
Messitte, Rosenstein, and Salem have also
rocket-docketed a number of cases, resulting in
slam-dunk convictions, against Arab- and Iranian-Americans in the
southern district of Maryland.
NSAs Security chief is Kemp Ensor III. Ensor has built up what
amounts to a massive law enforcement and intelligence agency in Maryland
that operates as a virtual independent operation that answers to no one.
Marylands congressional delegation has shown little interest in
oversight over the security operation.
In fact, WMR has learned that many NSA employees, aware of the political
and other misuse of their agency by the Bush-Cheney administration,
avidly backed Barack Obama for president hoping that the past era when
NSA complied with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and
the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution would be restored. However,
many NSA employees are bitterly disappointed that Obama has done nothing
to curtail not only the widespread surveillance of the communications of
law-abiding Americans but the constant Stasi-like
harassment and surveillance conducted by Ensors team of agents
and confidential informants.
WMR has also learned that NSA Security has been authorized to work
directly with Washington area local police department intelligence
divisions to carry out its surveillance of not only NSA employees and
contractors, but journalists who report on the activities of NSA. Two
police departments mentioned in this respect are the Alexandria,
Virginia, and Anne Arundel County, Maryland, sheriff departments.
One senior level NSA official recently found himself sitting in front of
NSA Security questioners asking why he gave his NSA business cards to
some students at a university. It turns out the official was trying to
recruit students for NSA employment. When the official asked why there
was a problem in his handing out his business cards, the answer by NSA
Security was that some of them, all American citizens, had
Russian last names.
Even former NSA employees and contractors are being subjected to
continual NSA Security surveillance and harassment at their work places
and other locations, according to WMRs sources. Some have lost
their jobs as a result of pressure from NSA Security.
WMR has in the past reported on NSA surveillance of journalists. On
December 28, 2005, we reported: WMR has learned that the
National Security Agency (NSA), on the orders of the Bush
administration, eavesdropped on the private conversations and e-mail of
its own employees, employees of other U.S. intelligence agencies --
including the CIA and DIA -- and their contacts in the media, Congress,
and oversight agencies and offices. The journalist surveillance program,
code named ˜FIRSTFRUITS, was part of a Director of
Central Intelligence (DCI) program that was maintained at least until
October 2004 and was authorized by then-DCI Porter Goss. FIRSTFRUITS was
authorized as part of a DCI Countering Denial and
Deception program responsible to an entity known as the Foreign
Denial and Deception Committee (FDDC). Since the intelligence
communitys reorganization, the DCI has been replaced by the
Director of National Intelligence headed by John Negroponte and his
deputy, former NSA director Gen. Michael Hayden.
Since the revelation of the NSA journalist monitoring database, which
later added communications intercepts of journalists phone
calls, emails, and faxes to its database, NSA Security has, according to
information received by WMR, conducted physical surveillance of
journalists it deems to be threats to the operations of the agency. The
top targeted journalists, who make up a virtual rogues
gallery at NSA Security, complete with photographs and other
personal information, are: former Baltimore Sun and current Wall Street
Journal reporter Siobhan Gorman, Washington Times reporter Bill Gertz,
former Baltimore Sun and current New York Times reporter Scott Shane,
Baltimore Sun reporter Phil McGowan, author James Bamford, New York
Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, and this editor, Wayne
Madsen.
In addition to the aforementioned, FIRSTFRUITS also contained the
names of former Washington Post reporter Vernon Loeb, New Yorker
journalist Seymour Hersh, and UPIs John C.. K. Daly.
Ironically, NSA Security allegedly has its own connections in the news
media. A Washington Times source revealed that the papers
writer of the Inside the Beltway column, John
McCaslin, has a relative inside NSA Security -- Robert McCaslin, the
chief of NSA Security counter-intelligence and the chief
sting agent against Ford. Robert McCaslin, according
to the Times source, is the brother of the papers columnist.
NSA Security is also able to utilize the agencys most
sophisticated electronic surveillance systems to monitor the activities
of journalists. The cell phones of journalists are routinely used as
listening devices, even when turned off. And what was considered a
sure-fire method of avoiding having a cell phone used as a transmitter,
removing the batteries in what has become known as batteries
out conversations, is no longer safe. Even when the batteries
are removed, the global positioning system (GPS) chip in cell phones
continues to have enough residual power that two to three pings from
satellites can give away a persons location and what other
uniquely identifiable cell phones are at the same location.
The bottom line is that a number of NSA personnel who were on duty in
the months leading up to 9/11, the day of the attacks, and subsequent
weeks and months, are aware of undeniable facts that point to a massive
cover-up by the Bush-Cheney administration of the circumstances
surrounding 9/11, including what actually befell United Airlines flight
93 and who was issuing direct military orders from the White House.
The Obama administration, rather than lessen the pressure on the NSA
personnel, has turned up the heat and is resorting to even more
draconian methods to ensure silence. The word from inside NSA is that a
state of fear exists and the mission of the agency, to conduct
surveillance of foreign communications to provide threat indications and
warnings to U..S. troops and policy makers and protect sensitive U.S.
government communications from unauthorized eavesdropping is suffering
as a result.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2009 WayneMadenReport.comWayne Madsen is a Washington,
DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist.
He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription
required).
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Ex-Monsanto VP hired as FDA adviser
This is exactly the type of "Revolving Door" Special Interests / Croniesm Politics that Obomba promiced he would not allow in his administration! So much for RealChange.Com
Article;
Bizjournals - A former lawyer with Monsanto Co. has been hired as an adviser at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Michael Taylor, who worked as Monsanto’s former vice president for public policy for two years until 2000, will advise Commissioner of Food and Drugs Margaret Hamburg, the FDA said Tuesday.
Full article w/ comments;
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2009/07/06/daily47.html
Article;
Bizjournals - A former lawyer with Monsanto Co. has been hired as an adviser at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Michael Taylor, who worked as Monsanto’s former vice president for public policy for two years until 2000, will advise Commissioner of Food and Drugs Margaret Hamburg, the FDA said Tuesday.
Full article w/ comments;
http://www.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2009/07/06/daily47.html
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Dems Block Efforts to Audit the Fed
July 6, 2009
Dear Friend of Liberty,
Earlier today, the first shot in our battle to pass Audit the Fed through the U.S. Senate was fired on the Senate floor by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
Senator DeMint, who has a well-deserved reputation for taking the battle to the other side in the Senate, once again proved why he is such a valuable ally in our fight to bring transparency and accountability to the Federal Reserve.
A little while ago, the Senate voted to pass HR 2918, the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act. This $3 billion bill contains, among many other things, provisions for GAO audits on certain agencies.
Seizing on a chance to take quick action to bring Audit the Fed up for a vote, and with the GAO provisions in mind, Senator DeMint attached the full text of S 604, the Senate version of Ron Paul's Audit the Fed bill, to HR 2918 as Senate Amendment 1367 before it was considered for final passage.
However, Senate Democrats refused to even allow a vote on the amendment! That's right. The internationalist, Fed-loving elite in the Senate used a parliamentary tactic to shut down DeMint's amendment.
After Senator DeMint brought Audit the Fed to the floor, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska raised a "point of order" to prevent a vote, claiming that the amendment violated Senate Rule 16 by "legislating" on an appropriations bill. The Senate president agreed, and the amendment was shot down.
Senator DeMint did not back down, though, and directly challenged Senate leadership by pointing out the other GAO audits contained in the bill. As Senator DeMint listed them off, the Senate president was forced to agree with Senator DeMint that each one he described, all of which would be left in for final passage, also violated Senate Rule 16.
Which tells us at least one thing: the problem wasn't with "legislating" on the bill or violating Senate Rules (which is commonly done). Shooting down the amendment was about preventing a thorough audit of the Federal Reserve for the first time in its history!
Senate leadership is hoping this issue will just fade away so they can get on to what they deem to be more "important" business, like dictating what kind of healthcare plan you and I can carry or passing destructive Cap-and-Tax legislation.
But the American people deserve answers on what the Fed has done with trillions of our tax dollars and what they are committing us and future generations to as part of their secret deals with foreign central banks and governments.
The leadership decided today to turn their backs on transparency, but our fight is just beginning.
As Senator DeMint made clear on the floor, the Audit the Fed bill has wide bipartisan support. He rightly warned the Senate that even if they delay today, they WILL have to deal with the issue on the floor.
It is up to you and me to back up Senator DeMint's words by making sure the momentum continues to build and the bill comes up for a final vote.
The rejection of the Audit amendment is just the first battle in our war. Now is the time to really put the pressure on the U.S. Senate to Audit the Fed!
Senator DeMint fired the opening salvo and showcased the hypocrisy of the Senate for allowing other GAO audits to be included in the bill while refusing to even allow a vote on Fed transparency.
Again, we're just getting started. Senator DeMint will keep fighting to pass Audit the Fed on its own or as an amendment, and we need to continue putting pressure on our senators to do everything in their power to achieve a floor vote!
Click on title above to sign our online petition;
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/campaigns/s604petition.php?projid=61
And visit our Audit the Fed action page for contact information to call, write, and fax your senators and urge them to support S 604 and to push for a final vote;
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/campaigns/hr1207home.php
Together, we will finish this fight to Audit the Fed!
In Liberty,
John Tate
President
Dear Friend of Liberty,
Earlier today, the first shot in our battle to pass Audit the Fed through the U.S. Senate was fired on the Senate floor by Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina.
Senator DeMint, who has a well-deserved reputation for taking the battle to the other side in the Senate, once again proved why he is such a valuable ally in our fight to bring transparency and accountability to the Federal Reserve.
A little while ago, the Senate voted to pass HR 2918, the Legislative Branch Appropriations Act. This $3 billion bill contains, among many other things, provisions for GAO audits on certain agencies.
Seizing on a chance to take quick action to bring Audit the Fed up for a vote, and with the GAO provisions in mind, Senator DeMint attached the full text of S 604, the Senate version of Ron Paul's Audit the Fed bill, to HR 2918 as Senate Amendment 1367 before it was considered for final passage.
However, Senate Democrats refused to even allow a vote on the amendment! That's right. The internationalist, Fed-loving elite in the Senate used a parliamentary tactic to shut down DeMint's amendment.
After Senator DeMint brought Audit the Fed to the floor, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska raised a "point of order" to prevent a vote, claiming that the amendment violated Senate Rule 16 by "legislating" on an appropriations bill. The Senate president agreed, and the amendment was shot down.
Senator DeMint did not back down, though, and directly challenged Senate leadership by pointing out the other GAO audits contained in the bill. As Senator DeMint listed them off, the Senate president was forced to agree with Senator DeMint that each one he described, all of which would be left in for final passage, also violated Senate Rule 16.
Which tells us at least one thing: the problem wasn't with "legislating" on the bill or violating Senate Rules (which is commonly done). Shooting down the amendment was about preventing a thorough audit of the Federal Reserve for the first time in its history!
Senate leadership is hoping this issue will just fade away so they can get on to what they deem to be more "important" business, like dictating what kind of healthcare plan you and I can carry or passing destructive Cap-and-Tax legislation.
But the American people deserve answers on what the Fed has done with trillions of our tax dollars and what they are committing us and future generations to as part of their secret deals with foreign central banks and governments.
The leadership decided today to turn their backs on transparency, but our fight is just beginning.
As Senator DeMint made clear on the floor, the Audit the Fed bill has wide bipartisan support. He rightly warned the Senate that even if they delay today, they WILL have to deal with the issue on the floor.
It is up to you and me to back up Senator DeMint's words by making sure the momentum continues to build and the bill comes up for a final vote.
The rejection of the Audit amendment is just the first battle in our war. Now is the time to really put the pressure on the U.S. Senate to Audit the Fed!
Senator DeMint fired the opening salvo and showcased the hypocrisy of the Senate for allowing other GAO audits to be included in the bill while refusing to even allow a vote on Fed transparency.
Again, we're just getting started. Senator DeMint will keep fighting to pass Audit the Fed on its own or as an amendment, and we need to continue putting pressure on our senators to do everything in their power to achieve a floor vote!
Click on title above to sign our online petition;
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/campaigns/s604petition.php?projid=61
And visit our Audit the Fed action page for contact information to call, write, and fax your senators and urge them to support S 604 and to push for a final vote;
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/campaigns/hr1207home.php
Together, we will finish this fight to Audit the Fed!
In Liberty,
John Tate
President
Friday, July 3, 2009
Top CIA Officials Appear Before Jury Over Destruction of al-Qaida Tapes
Friday 03 July 2009
by: Chris McGreal | Visit article original @ The Guardian UK
Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, at a news conference in December 2007, was asked about the CIA's destruction of videotapes that recorded harsh interrogation techniques. (Photo: Reuters)
92 video tapes may have been illegally destroyed. London station chief included in inquiry.
Senior Central Intelligence Agency officials, including the London station chief, have been brought before a grand jury in Virginia investigating the potentially illegal destruction of 92 video tapes recording the torture and interrogation of al-Qaida detainees.
A special prosecutor, John Durham, has called the CIA officials as part of an 18-month-long criminal probe in to the destruction of evidence of the agency's interrogators using waterboarding and other forms of torture against Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al Nashiri who are described by the Americans as "high value" detainees now held at Guantanamo Bay.
Those ordered to testify include the former CIA chief, Porter J Gross. Another is a woman who is not publicly named who heads the agency's London station. She previously worked as the chief of staff for the head of the CIA's clandestine branch, Jose Rodriguez, who is the focus of the investigation.
The New York Times reports that former CIA officers have identified the woman as having helped carry out Rodriguez's order to destroy the tapes which had been kept in a safe in at the agency's station in Thailand where the torture and interrogations were carried out.
Rodriquez is reported to have been concerned that agents might have been identified and endangered if the tapes leaked.
But the CIA will also have been concerned that some of its agents may have been open to prosecution under domestic and international laws against torture besides the enormous damage to its already battered reputation if video were made public of the extended torture and brutal techniques used against the captives. The impact is likely to have been much greater than the outcry caused by the pictures of abuse by US soldiers at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison.
President Obama has since pledged not to prosecute individual agents for their part in torture and interrogations because they were assured by the Bush administration that their actions were legal.
The investigation was launched because the destruction of the tapes may amount to a criminal offense because it was evidence that could have been used in any prosecutions for torture. Robriquez has told colleagues that he received legal guidance from CIA lawyers who told him he had the authority to order the destruction of the tapes.
However it remains open to question whether anyone will be brought to trial for that or other alleged offenses given the Obama administration's desire to reassure CIA agents that they will not be pursued over past crimes.
The existence of the tapes was only made public after they were destroyed.
On Thursday, the Obama administration said it will delay until the end of next month the release of a 2004 CIA report detailing the torture and other abuse of prisoners held in clandestine prisons oversees.
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http://www.truthout.org/070309S?n
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