Spy-in-the-sky drone sets sights on Miami

By Tom Brown

MIAMI (Reuters) - Miami police could soon be the first in the United States to use cutting-edge, spy-in-the-sky technology to beef up their fight against crime.

A small pilotless drone manufactured by Honeywell International, capable of hovering and "staring" using electro-optic or infrared sensors, is expected to make its debut soon in the skies over the Florida Everglades.

If use of the drone wins Federal Aviation Administration approval after tests, the Miami-Dade Police Department will start flying the 14-pound (6.3 kg) drone over urban areas with an eye toward full-fledged employment in crime fighting.

"Our intentions are to use it only in tactical situations as an extra set of eyes," said police department spokesman Juan Villalba.

"We intend to use this to benefit us in carrying out our mission," he added, saying the wingless Honeywell aircraft, which fits into a backpack and is capable of vertical takeoff and landing, seems ideally suited for use by SWAT teams in hostage situations or dealing with "barricaded subjects."

Miami-Dade police are not alone, however.

Taking their lead from the U.S. military, which has used drones in Iraq and Afghanistan for years, law enforcement agencies across the country have voiced a growing interest in using drones for domestic crime-fighting missions.

Known in the aerospace industry as UAVs, for unmanned aerial vehicles, drones have been under development for decades in the United States.

The CIA acknowledges that it developed a dragonfly-sized UAV known as the "Insectohopter" for laser-guided spy operations as long ago as the 1970s.

And other advanced work on robotic flyers has clearly been under way for quite some time.

"The FBI is experimenting with a variety of unmanned aerial vehicles," said Marcus Thomas, an assistant director of the bureau's Operational Technology Division.

"At this point they have been used mainly for search and rescue missions," he added. "It certainly is an up-and-coming technology and the FBI is researching additional uses for UAVs."

SAFETY, PRIVACY CONCERNS

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has been flying drones over the Arizona desert and southwest border with Mexico since 2006 and will soon deploy one in North Dakota to patrol the Canadian border as well.

This month, Customs and Border Protection spokesman Juan Munoz Torres said the agency would also begin test flights of a modified version of its large Predator B drones, built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, over the Gulf of Mexico.

Citing numerous safety concerns, the FAA -- the government agency responsible for regulating civil aviation -- has been slow in developing procedures for the use of UAVs by police departments.

"You don't want one of these coming down on grandma's windshield when she's on her way to the grocery store," said Doug Davis, the FAA's program manager for unmanned aerial systems.

He acknowledged strong interest from law enforcement agencies in getting UAVs up and running, however, and said the smaller aircraft particularly were likely to have a "huge economic impact" over the next 10 years.

Getting clearance for police and other civilian agencies to fly can't come soon enough for Billy Robinson, chief executive of Cyber Defense Systems Inc, a small start-up company in St. Petersburg, Florida. His company makes an 8-pound (3.6 kg) kite-sized UAV that was flown for a time by police in Palm Bay, Florida, and in other towns, before the FAA stepped in.

"We've had interest from dozens of law enforcement agencies," said Robinson. "They (the FAA) are preventing a bunch of small companies such as ours from becoming profitable," he said.

Some privacy advocates, however, say rules and ordinances need to be drafted to protect civil liberties during surveillance operations.

"There's been controversies all around about putting up surveillance cameras in public areas," said Howard Simon, Florida director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"Technological developments can be used by law enforcement in a way that enhances public safety," he said.

"But every enhanced technology also contains a threat of further erosion of privacy."

The Honeywell Micro Air Vehicle or "Honeywell MAV" is seen during a flight test in this undated photograph taken at an undisclosed location. The MAV weighs 16 pounds when empty (dry) and 18 1/2 pounds when fully loaded with fuel (wet). It is 14 inches in diameter and 22 inches from the feet to the top of the MAV structure. Miami police could soon be the first in the United States to use cutting-edge, spy-in-the-sky technology to beef up their fight against crime.

REUTERS/Honeywell/Handout

Stockwell Day admits the deal he made for Canada

I posted about the following back in DECEMBER, when I saw it get inked, in an item in the Jerusalem Post.

Since when can a Canadian official ink a deal like this without it going to Parliament and will Parliament at long last finally SPEAK up about the neocon agenda for Canada?

PUBLIC SAFETY? My ass ..

Security and Prosperity for WHOM??

Canada and Israel Sign Declaration to Cooperate on Public Safety

Global Research, March 23, 2008

vivelecanada.ca/

ISRAEL, March 23, 2008 – Today, the Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety Canada and Avi Dicter, Minister of Public Security of the Government of the State of Israel, signed a Declaration of Intent to enhance cooperation in the area of public safety. “The Government of Canada is committed to enhancing the security of Canadians – both through our actions at home and with our international partners.” said Minister Day. “Today’s declaration demonstrates the longstanding cooperation between Canada and Israel on public safety issues, and we welcome this increased cooperation in order to improve our countries’ capacity to protect our citizens.” This declaration will allow Canada and Israel to better enhance cooperation in the areas of organized crime, emergency management, crime prevention, and other related public safety concerns. The declaration seeks to establish a more structured framework for the continued cooperation on public safety issues between Canada and Israel. “The Declaration of Intent is an opportunity for Canada and Israel to strengthen their commitment to safeguarding their citizens and respective national interests from common threats,” said Minister Dicter. agreement here: http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/media/nr/2008/nr20080323-1-eng.aspx http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/media/nr/2008/nr20080323-eng.aspx

2007: The Year in Evidence - David Swanson

By David Swanson

The past year has seen the public exposure of enough evidence of old, ongoing, and new crimes, abuses of power, and impeachable offenses by George Bush and Dick Cheney that in any remotely representative democracy, these two thugs would be out of office and behind bars. The chief reason this does not shock us is that the same could be said, and was said, of each of the previous six years. It's been quite a millennium so far for Washington, D.C.

Some of us began this year expecting something different. We had worked to elect Democratic majorities in Congress so that we might move in the direction of impeachment. If we didn't get to impeachment right away, we thought, at least real investigations with the power of subpoena would push a reluctant Congress in the right direction. With House committees having come within a vote of starting investigations, with the Democrats having shut down the Senate to try to force an investigation, with Chairman-to-be John Conyers having published a book on Bush and Cheney's crimes and held unofficial hearings in the basement, we had reason to be hopeful.

We are, alas, forced to place our hopes in 2008. Some of the 2007 evidence below was exposed by Congress, but most of it was unearthed by book authors, bloggers, independent reporters, federal prosecutors, and the corporate media. With the Democratic majorities came a complete ban on congressional investigations of war lies (not to mention an end to serious efforts to end the occupation of Iraq). Other investigations proceeded cautiously and at a glacial pace - and with no ultimate objective, Speaker Nancy Pelosi having declared impeachment "off the table." It took over 4 months for the opposition party to issue its first subpoena. In June there was a minor burst of subpoenas. But it was quickly established that Bush, Cheney, Condi, and their underlings, would never comply with subpoenas, and that Bush would even (feloniously) order former staffers not to comply. The Democrats let it go at that and largely stopped trying to compel incriminating testimony. That the House Judiciary Committee had, a single generation back, passed an article of impeachment against a president for refusing a subpoena was buried in our national amnesia.

In 2007 we saw the departure of Karl Rove, Alberto Gonzales, Doug Feith, and other Bush cronies, but without public accountability or criminal punishment, and without accountability for their bosses. Having unilaterally disarmed by stripping impeachment from the Constitution, the Democrats in 2007 could only play at oversight on television, which left them subject to the owners of the television networks. This was a replay of the Democrats' restraint in the rigged Iran-Contra hearings. The goal of that unconstitutional restraint had been electoral victories, but the result had been losses and the creation of the Bush dynasty.

The result in 2007 was a lot of smoke, but no fire. In fact, the new Congress passed new legislation further stripping us of our Constitutional rights, and every now and then let slip a hint at the depth of bipartisan complicity. The year began with Senator Dick Durbin explaining that he had known before the Iraq invasion that the White House was lying to the public, but that he had not dared to say so for fear of disclosing classified information. The year closed with the revelation that Nancy Pelosi was one of a group of leading Congress Members informed of U.S. torture policies five years ago. She, too, dared not say anything, and still has said nothing. Maybe 2008 will be the year in which she finds her voice.

As you read through the following evidence, please bear in mind a couple of key points.

1. We didn't need any of it, or any of the previous year's evidence. We've had enough solid evidence for a 5-minute slam-dunk (than you, George) impeachment for years now. Here are the highlights: http://afterdowningstreet.org/keydocuments

2. While none of this is about sex, and all good impeachments simply must be about sex, we have learned in recent years of CIA prostitute parties and Halliburton gang rapes. And if that's not enough to convince you that something is rotten in the state of the Homeland, we learned in 2007 that (quick, cover your children's eyes) . . . "Bush Promised to Kiss Blair's Ass."
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/24493

SECRECY AND COVERUPS

Here is a collection of the outstanding subpoenas yet to be obeyed:
http://democrats.com/subpoenas

Here are a few choice related headlines with links to the articles you'll want to savor as you look back across the past year of not having a clue what your government was up to:

A National Archives official reveals what the veep wanted to keep classified--and how he tried to challenge the rules
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29579

Cheney Won't Even Say Who Works in His Office
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/17866

Bush Won't Say Where His Prisons Are
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/21434

Vice President Exempts His Office from the Requirements for Protecting Classified Information
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23834

Bush Claims Oversight Exemption Too
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23932

Bush Orders Miers Not to Testify
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/24568

Justice Dept. to White House officials: Ignore Congress
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/24585

Whistle-blowers Face Punishment in Iraq; Contractors Say U.S. Military Jailed, Tortured Them for Reporting Fraud
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/26094

SIGNING STATEMENTS AND ASSERTIONS OF DICTATORIAL POWER

2007 was the year of the unitary executive, as Congress and the courts largely stepped out of the picture. And the unitary executive had a lot of executivizing to do:

New Report Shows Bush's Presidential Signing Statements Have Been Used to Nullify Laws
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23764

New Index of Presidential Signing Statements
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/26476

Cheney Exempts His Office from Requirement to Protect Classified Information
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23834

Cheney Destroys Visitor Logs
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23085

A New Dick Cheney-Alberto Gonzales Mystery
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23979

Bush Anoints Himself as the Insurer of Constitutional Government in Emergency
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/22710

Bush Uses Signing Statement to Announce Refusal to Obey New Military Appropriations Law
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29071

TURNING GOVERNMENT AGENCIES INTO REPUBLICAN PARTY MACHINE

This was the big new story of 2007, and Congress does get some credit for stirring the dirt on this one. It turns out that most of the executive branch of the government now works for the Republican party. U.S. attorneys who had failed to grasp that fact were fired. Emails that exposed it were destroyed. State governors who got in the way became political prisoners. And an intellectually challenged Attorney General who could take orders but not remember what he'd had for breakfast was scared out of town after committing perjury on television. His bosses laughed and replaced him with a clone. Congress complied.

Not that Congress wasn't very, very concerned. In fact, Rep. Henry Waxman alone destroyed a forest writing letters to the White House and publishing reports like this one:
http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20070618105243.pdf

By the end of 2007 I saw an editorial cartoon in the paper with holiday lights on the White House spelling out: "No Comment: Ongoing Investigation." A man in the cartoon commented: "They just leave them up all year now." These were some of the choice headlines from 2007 on the your-tax-dollars-pay-for-the-Republican-Party theme:

Administration Withheld Emails About Rove
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/22360

GSA Chief Is Accused of Playing Politics
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/20480

DOJ Made Immigration Judgeships Political
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/22965

New Justice Department documents show White House involvement in Attorneys firings
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23628

Legal Memo Confirms White House Led Effort To Target And Remove U.S. Attorneys
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/24124

Politicization of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/24781

Conyers' Staff Documents More Crimes and Abuses, But He Still Won't Impeach
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/25054

Emails Detail RNC Voter Suppression in Five States
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/25135

Commerce, Treasury Funds Helped Boost GOP Campaigns
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/25929

State Department Agents Say Jobs Were Threatened
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/27292

The United States Attorneys Scandal Comes to Mississippi
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/27631

Daughter of jailed governor sees White House hand in her father's fall
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/28972

Bush Tries to Seize Control of Military Lawyers
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29429

(Here's Why) Meet Tom Fiscus
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29041

White House Illegally Deleted Over TEN MILLION Emails
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29258

ELECTION FRAUD

Of course, the point is to continue stealing elections. But some of the past crimes of that nature continued to bubble up unnoticed in 2007:

Former DoJ Attorneys Accuse Bush Admin of Restricting African American Vote
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/21712

Ohio Secretary of State confirms 2004 election could have been stolen
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29380

NH Phone jamming scheme
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/12/20/rnc-phone-jamming-doj/

SPYING

What would a 21st century year be without further shredding of the Fourth Amendment? Bush opened it with a bang by seizing a power Hitler too had seized early on: the power to open your mail.

http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/16946

It was all downhill without resistance from there.

NY Times: "Dick Cheney sent Mr. Gonzales and another official to Mr. Ashcroft’s hospital room to get him to approve the wiretapping."
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/25214

Unimpeachably Impeachable
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/24216

Cheney Urged Illegal Wiretaps
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23408

Ashcroft's ex-no. 2 says Gonzales, Cheney tried to take advantage of sick Attorney General.
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/22509

Two FBI Whistleblowers Confirm Illegal Wiretapping of Government Officials and Misuse of FISA
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/19269

Bush Decides to Continue FISA Violations After All
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/22086

Bush Dodges Comey’s Accusations That He Personally Arranged Ashcroft Hospital Visit
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/22623

FBI Finds It Frequently Overstepped in Collecting Data
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23655

New NSA Whistleblower Speaks
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/24183

IRS tracked taxpayers’ political affiliation
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/24415

Cheney On Whether He Ordered Hospital Visit To Ashcroft: I Have ‘No Recollection’
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/25295

Bush "Authorized" Illegal Spying Programs
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/25344

Collecting of Details on Travelers Documented
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/27060

White House Spy Docs Show Surveillance Was Illegal, Senator Feingold Charges
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/27848

GLOBAL WARMING

Now, admittedly there's no clause in the Constitution banning the warming of the planet, but 2007 was chock full of headlines like this one, that weren't really news, but were louder than they'd been before:

Over 4.5 Billion people could die from Global Warming-related causes by 2012
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/17148

It's that sort of thing that makes these headlines fit into the crime section:

Cheney Bypassed Environmentally ‘Clueless’ Bush To Craft Administration’s Climate Change Agenda
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/23/cheney-climate-clueless/

Scientists 'pressured on climate findings'
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/17993

Ex-Bush Official: I Fixed The (Climate) Facts Around The Policy
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/20207

The Secret Campaign of President Bush's Administration to Deny Global Warming
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23938

Not an environment scare story
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/28262

CALIFORNIA ENERGY CRISIS: NEW EVIDENCE

Here's an oldie but goodie that came back for a cameo:

Cheney Suppressed Evidence in California Energy Crisis
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/24875

ONGOING INTENTIONAL DESTRUCTION OF NEW ORLEANS

2007 closed out with the use of tazers and brutal crowd repression in New Orleans as people protested the ongoing intentional destruction of good housing. There was also this:

Two Years After Katrina, Billions in Relief Funds Are Missing
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/26123

LYING TO CONGRESS AND PUBLIC IN STATE OF THE UNION - AN ANNUAL RITUAL

Bush began 2007 with a claim in a State of the Union Address that he had thwarted a number of terrorist plots. They all turned out to be fictional:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/17806

When no corporate media other than Keith Olbermann called Bush on his lies, he must have felt empowered to tell more:

Transcripts show evidence against Muslim charity fabricated
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/18982

Bush-Cheney Blocked and Falsified Reports on Health and Medicine
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/24538

Your Tax Dollars Are Used to Tell You Lies
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/25828

Bush Used Bogus Terror Threat To Scare Votes For FISA Bill
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/27129

Oh, and you know that one about "America does not torture"? It looks like Bush watched the missing torture tapes before saying that:

http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29596

And this one just won't go away:

France (and CIA) knew in 2001 al-Qaida had a plot
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/21327

THREATENING A WAR OF AGGRESSION IN IRAN

This violation of the U.N. Charter and U.S. Constitution has been well documented by Congressman Dennis Kucinich:

http://kucinich.house.gov/SpotlightIssues/documents.htm

We also learned in 2007 that Bush and Cheney were doing more in Iran than threatening it:

"Explosive" new Hersh scoop: Bush funneling money to Al Qaeda-related groups [VIDEO]
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/18963

Report: U.S. Sponsoring Kurdish Guerilla Attacks Inside Iran
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/20561

IRAN LIES

And we heard lots of lies about Iranian roadside bombs in Iraq or Iranian activities in Iraq or Iranian nuclear weapons. As each lie failed to stick, it was forgotten and replaced with a new one. But who will hold our so-called elected leaders accountable for the ones we were smart enough not to believe?

More Cheney War Lies Exposed - And This Time Pre-War
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23528

Cheney Tried to Stifle Dissent in Iran NIE
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/28544

IRAQ LIES: NEW EVIDENCE

This is such fertile ground that although no more evidence is needed, it just keeps piling up. In fact, some of the old evidence is being buried In 2007 the White House deleted from its website the old claims by Cheney that Iraqis would welcome an occupation "as liberators" and so forth.

http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/18991

But deleting old Cheney lies only goes so far, when he keeps repeating them. In 2007, Cheney was still claiming that Iraq was to blame for 9-11.

http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/19629

The closest Congress came to touching the topic was a brief Senate committee hearing on a report on the Pentagon written by... the Pentagon. Even that report was fairly damning:

http://dodig.mil/IGInformation/archives/Unclass%20%20Executive%20Summary...

It dealt with the Feith Based Intelligence work of Doug Feith:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/18368

Pentagon Report Corroborates the Downing Street Memo, Intelligence and Facts Fixed Around the Policy!

http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/20958Also in 2007, all pretense was abandoned that the invasion of Iraq was not driven by oil, as the Bush Administration and Congress pressured the puppet Iraqi government to pass a new law turning over much of the oil to foreign corporations:

http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/22838

Here's the text of the law:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/19017

And, of course, the original lies continued to be documented:

Two Explosive Books Tell the Inside Story of the Forged Iraq-Niger Docs That Helped Build the Case for War

http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/21092

Tenet's Book of Lies Leads to New Revelations
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/22110

Senior CIA Analyst Believed Iraq Had No WMD
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/22977

Two former CIA officers say the president squelched top-secret intelligence, and a briefing by George Tenet, months before invading Iraq.

http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/26521

Bush-Aznar Smoking Gun
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/27199

Faulty Intel Source "Curve Ball" Revealed
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/28355

U.S. Plan Envisioned Nuking Iran, Syria, Libya
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/28438

PLAME

With the I Lewis Scooter Libby trial finally held in 2007, there was good growth in the Plame industry. Perhaps the biggest news came late in the year when former White House Press Secretary Scotty McClellan implicated Bush and Cheney

http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/28856

But evidence in the trial had already done that as well:

Cheney's Handwritten Notes Implicate Bush in Plame Affair
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/17987

FBI Agent Testifies Libby Learned About Plame from Cheney
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/18045

Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's comments to the press at the end of the trial suggested that he and they (the media) expected Congress to pursue the matter further. Congress never has. Late in the year, Fitzgerald again pointed his finger at Cheney:

http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23081

Also coming out of the Libby trial came this insight, yet to be fully developed:

Bush Admin Targeted Wilson's Wife Long Before Wilson's Article Appeared
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/18952

LIBBY COMMUTATION

James Madison and George Mason wanted impeachment in the Constitution in case a president ever pardoned someone for a crime that he himself was associated with. They did get impeachment into the Constitution. Nancy Pelosi removed it in 2007.

ONGOING AND WORSENING OCCUPATION OF IRAQ

Lost in the surge hype and the media's endless demand that we cease caring about Iraq is the worsening crisis that was more heavily reported in early and mid 2007:

ACLU Releases Files on Civilian Casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/21207

More Iraqis Flee As Figure Tops Four Million: UNHCR
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/26221

Ignorance of Iraqi death toll no longer an option
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/27066

Report says war on terror is fueling al Qaeda
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/27539

2007 Oct 7 Towards Sustainable Security: Oxford Research Group International Security Report 2007
http://oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/publications/books/ar07.php

UN Report on Iraq Details an "Ever-Deepening" Crisis
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/27657

Bush, Maliki Break Iraqi Law to Renew UN Mandate for Occupation
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29502

WAR CRIMES

This is one of the harder topics for Americans to discuss by name, yet 2007 yielded a bumper crop of evidence of war crimes:

2007 May 4 Army Surgeon General's pentagon report on declining morale and war crimes
http://armymedicine.army.mil/news/mhat/mhat.html

US Attack on Iraqi Peace Parliamentarian
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/16887

US Electromagnetic Weapons and Human Rights
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/17011

'Shocking' video: Shi'a Iraqi soldiers beat Sunnis as US trainers watch
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/17779

Death Squads, American Style
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/17862

Fifth Marine Pleads Guilty in Murder of Innocent Man
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/18557

Jailed Two Years, Iraqi Tells of Abuse by Americans
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/18690

Bush Family War Profiteering
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/21215

Coerced Labor Building Baghdad Embassy?
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23182

Illegal Bases in Iraq Openly Constructed, Used, Announced
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23272

Marine Told to Destroy Haditha Photos
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23473

The Other War: Iraq Veterans Speak Out on Shocking Accounts of Attacks on Iraqi Civilians
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/24605

Marine says beatings urged in Iraq
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/24762

Video: Marine on Hamdania Shooting
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/25661

U.S. soldier convicted of beating Iraqi detainee with baseball bat
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/25824

Marine tells of order to execute Haditha women and children
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/26350

Documents Show Troops Disregarding Rules
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/26439

U.S. Aims To Lure Insurgents With ‘Bait’
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/27114

Soldier: Sergeant from N.C. ordered me to shoot unarmed Iraqi man
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/27233

US Violating Chemical Weapons Convention in Iraq
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/28563

And still we do not end the supreme war crime, the crime that contains the accumulated evil of the whole: the war of aggression.

MERCENARIES

2007 broke the corporate media ban on acknowledging the role of mercenaries in the occupation of Iraq. And when that dam burst, blood gushed out:

2007 Oct 11 UN report on Blackwater and other mercenaries killing indiscriminately
http://uniraq.org/FileLib/misc/HR%20Report%20Apr%20Jun%202007%20EN.pdf

Blackwater security shot Iraqi man
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/18363

CIA Mercenary Gets 8 Years for Beating a Prisoner to Death
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/18556

Blackwater guards killed 16 as U.S. touted progress
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/27244

FBI Admits Blackwater Mercenaries Murdered at Least 14 People
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/28704

Krongard Confirms ‘Ugly Rumor’: Brother Attended Blackwater Advisory Board Meeting Yesterday
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/11/14/krongard-blacwater-brother/

TORTURE AND ILLEGAL PRISONS

Yes, torture is illegal. Yes, torture is unconstitutional. Yes, the U.S. tortures. And, yes, the Congress just approved a new Attorney General who protects torturers.

ACLU Announces Publication of Administration of Torture, a Groundbreaking Account of Prisoner Abuse in U.S. Custody Abroad

http://aclu.org/about/staff/administrationoftorture.html

FBI Details Possible Detainee Abuse
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/16890

Cheney's Leading Role in Torture
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/cheney

Uninvestigated Crimes: CIA Torture Flights Out of North Carolina
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/17997

Abu Ghraib: "Man In the Hood" provides testimony at War Crimes Conference
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/18337

New Light Shed on CIA's "Black Site" Prisons
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/19084

Aspects of Padilla's Treatment Confirmed
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/19085

What happened to the Padilla interrogation videos?
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/19632

'We Were Torturing People For No Reason' -- A Soldier's Tale
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/20720

'Outsourced Guantanamo' - FBI & CIA Interrogating Detainees in Secret Ethiopian Jails, U.S. Citizen Among Those Held
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/20977

CIA Tortured Me in Iraq, Claims Freed Iranian Diplomat
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/20992

Photos of 'tortured' Iraqi's corpse released
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/21391

Former Guantanamo inmate describes interrogations
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23719

Rumsfeld, Perjury, and Shoving Things Up Rectums
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/23721

Guantánamo Man’s Family Release ‘Torture’ Dossier
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/25717

CIA detention program remains active: U.S. official
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/27486

Torture Victim Tells His Story to Congress
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/27876

Guantanamo Military Lawyer Breaks Ranks to Condemn "Unconscionable" Detention
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/28147

Dozens of 'Ghost Prisoners' Not Publicly Accounted For
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/28211

Torture Orders Came from Bush
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/28347

Flight Logs Reveal Secret Rendition
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/28955

Jordan's Spy Agency: Holding Cell for the CIA
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29065

Former chief prosecutor for the Office of Military Commissions resigned his post
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29300

Kiriakou: White House Approved Abuzabaydah's WaterBoarding
http://afterdowningstreet.org/node/29335

And then, of course, there are the missing torture tapes. If they were destroyed, please keep in mind the following points:

1. They are not needed to document the torture. The evidence is overwhelming.

2. The destruction of tapes is not the major crime here.

3. The major crime is the American people's failure to force our representatives in Congress to impeach these fascist bastards.

• davidswanson's blog

Bush's Spying Hits Americans Abroad

By Robert Parry
October 19, 2007

In August after the Democratic-controlled Congress caved in to George W. Bush’s demands for broader surveillance powers, I noted that the new authority went far beyond what was advertised and that the President could obtain year-long spying orders on Americans who ventured outside the United States,

My analysis, which was based on a reading of the law’s language, wasn’t shared by commentators in the major U.S. news media and even drew some reader criticism as alarmist for failing to take into account secret “minimization” provisions that supposedly would protect American citizens.

However, the Bush administration’s hostile reaction to a seemingly innocuous amendment added to a new surveillance bill by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, suggests that targeting Americans who travel abroad was a key goal of Bush’s “Protect America Act of 2007.”

Wyden told the New York Times that his amendment would require the government to get a warrant whenever it wants to wiretap an American outside the country, such as a U.S. soldier serving overseas or an American on a business trip.

“The individual freedom of an American shouldn’t depend on their physical geography,” Wyden told the Times. He said his amendment passed on a 9-6 vote in a closed Senate Intelligence Committee meeting on Oct. 18. [NYT, Oct. 19, 2007]

After the committee vote, the Bush administration and a key Senate Republican took direct aim at Wyden’s provision.

“We have strong concerns about that amendment,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto. “We certainly could not accept it.”

Sen. Christopher Bond of Missouri, the ranking committee Republican, said Wyden’s amendment was “problematic” and could scuttle the entire bill if not changed.

In other words, the seemingly loose phrasing of the Protect America Act wasn’t just an oversight or something that would be cleaned up with some internal technical adjustments. Rather, it was an important feature of the legislation that was slipped past the Democratic leadership and most of the Washington press corps in August.

The law states: “Notwithstanding any other law, the Director of National Intelligence and the Attorney General may for periods of up to one year authorize the acquisition of foreign intelligence information concerning persons reasonably believed to be outside the United States.”

The law’s advocates claimed that this provision was intended to intercept communications when at least one party was linked to a terrorist group or a terrorist affiliate and was outside the United States.

No Terrorist Wording

But the law’s language didn’t limit the surveillance to “terrorists” or “enemy combatants” – indeed those words were not mentioned in the legislation.

Nor does the Protect America Act, which was drafted by the Bush administration’s national security team, specify what happens to a one-year surveillance order against a target if the person then enters – or returns – to the United States.

In the rush to wrap up legislative business before the August recess – and to avoid “soft on terror” accusations – Democratic congressional leaders offered only cursory attention to what this provision meant and what new abuses might become possible.

For instance, could a one-year surveillance order be issued against an American attorney who was representing a Guantanamo detainee and who traveled to Europe for a legal conference? Could the surveillance order follow that person back home? How about an outspoken peace activist who visited a friend in Canada, or a senator meeting with a foreign leader, or a journalist filing stories from overseas?

The only limitation on the administration’s authority is the need to be seeking “foreign intelligence information.” Though the term does cover information about possible hostile acts by a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power, such as terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities, the phrase can be interpreted in a far looser way.

The term can be defined broadly as information about a foreign power that relates to U.S. national defense, national security or the conduct of foreign affairs. In today’s world, those categories could mean pretty much anything.

Other supposed safeguards in the Protect America Act might not be reassuring to its targets, either.

While the targets are kept in the dark about the surveillance, their communications providers – such as phone companies or e-mail services – can challenge the government’s order if they’re willing to absorb the expense and offend the Executive Branch, which often has giant contracts with the same providers.

Even then, the service providers, which aren't told the classified basis for the surveillance order, can only contest the surveillance on procedural grounds through the secret channels of the court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, with appeals of adverse rulings allowed by either side up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lawsuit Immunity

But service providers get a strong incentive not to challenge the government’s order. While a legal challenge on behalf of an unsuspecting client could be expensive – especially if the Bush administration retaliates by shifting contracts to a competitor – the legislation grants immunity from liability to any service provider who complies.

“Notwithstanding any other law, no cause of action shall lie in any court against any person for providing any information, facilities, or assistance in accordance with a directive under this section,” the law states.

In other words, if spying targets later discover that their service providers gave the government access to their phone calls and e-mails, they have no grounds to sue, regardless of how unjustified the surveillance may have been.

Initially, administration officials said their goal in pushing through the new law was to address a glitch related to cases in which two terror suspects, both abroad, have their communication routed through a U.S. switching point and thus might require a warrant.

Citing this vulnerability, President Bush demanded that Democrats revise FISA before leaving for the August recess. Democrats thought they had reached a compromise that would address the administration’s narrow concern, but the White House and the congressional Republicans then demanded more sweeping changes.

The Senate caved in first, voting 60-28 to authorize Bush’s broader spying powers, with many centrist Democrats joining a solid phalanx of Republicans. (Presidential contenders – Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden – voted no.)

On Aug. 4, Bush then turned up the heat on the House. He called the spying powers contained in the bill crucial weapons in the fight against terrorism and declared that “protecting America is our most solemn obligation.”

Many Americans would disagree, arguing that the most solemn obligation is to protect the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But the Democratic congressional leaders acted as if their highest priorities were getting away for the August recess and avoiding ugly attacks on their patriotism from Fox News and the right-wing media.

Instead of canceling the recess – and using the month of August to fight over both Bush’s extraordinary expansion of presidential powers and the Iraq War – House Democratic leaders brought the Senate-approved Protect America Act to the floor. It carried, 227-183, with 41 Democrats backing Bush’s bill.

Trying to put the best spin on their defeat, Democratic leaders pointed to their one concession: a sunset provision that required Bush to seek renewal of his powers in six months. Still, the Democratic “base” and many other Americans were furious at the latest cave-in, sending House Speaker Nancy Pelosi more than 200,000 angry e-mails.

Stung by the reaction, Democratic leaders promised that the spying law would be revisited immediately after the August recess, rather than waiting around for a required reauthorization in February 2008.

New Concessions

Now, however, the Senate Democrats appear headed toward another major concession to Bush, making retroactive the legal immunity for telecommunications companies that collaborated with the administration’s warrantless surveillance over the past six years.

Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, shepherded this new concession through his panel, which approved a revised version of the Protect America Act on a 13-2 vote with Wyden and Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, voting no.

The bill now goes to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which also has jurisdiction. Sen. Dodd, D-Connecticut, has vowed to put a hold on the bill to block the retroactive immunity provision.

But the Democrats will face the same dilemma that has stymied their attempts to end the Iraq War. The Republicans are in the driver’s seat because they can filibuster in the Senate, forcing the Democrats to round up 60 votes on anything that restricts the President’s powers, such as Wyden’s amendment.

The GOP also has used parliamentary maneuvers in the House to delay its consideration of a different surveillance bill that includes more constraints on Bush and leaves out the amnesty for telecommunications companies.

Even if a new bill not to Bush’s liking can clear those hurdles, he can veto it, requiring two-thirds majorities in both houses to override.

An impasse would leave the Democrats back where they started. Then, with the law set to expire in February 2008, Bush and his political allies would taunt them as “soft on terror” – and there’s little reason to believe that congressional Democrats will show more backbone in an election year.

[For more on Bush’s assault on American liberties, see our new book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush.]

Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, was written with two of his sons, Sam and Nat, and can be ordered at neckdeepbook.com.