Diary: SENATE INTEL COMMITTEE BLOODIES BUSH'S NOSE

DIANE'S NEWS CLIPS begins here :)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> FOR FULL ARTICLE, PASTE ARTICLE LINK(S) INTO YOUR BROWSER - OR GO TO: http://www.truthout.org Larry C. Johnson | Senate Intel Committee Bloodies Bush's Nose http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/0090806x.shtml >> or go to: http://www.truthout.org @ t r u t h o u t | Perspective Larry Johnson takes a hard look at Friday's Senate Intel Committee report: "The Senate Intelligence committee Friday released 'Postwar Findings About Iraq's WMD Programs and Links to Terrorism and How They Compare With Prewar Assessments and the Use by the Intelligence Community of Information Provided by the Iraqi National Congress' as part of its long awaited and long promised Phase II report about the accuracy of the intelligence and it is ugly for the Bushies." ----- Senate Panel: No Saddam, al Qaeda Connection http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/0090806y.shtml The theory that a connection between Hussein and bin Laden ever existed - widely viewed as government propaganda on the left - has now been debunked. In a harsh rebuke of Vice President Cheney, and other high ranking Bush administration officials, the Senate Intelligence Committee today released a report denying any connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda organization. ----- Jason Leopold | Armitage Shmarmitage http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806r.shtml "Perhaps mainstream journalists have declared war on Fitzgerald over the past few weeks because so many of the country's top reporters have been hauled into court against their will by the special counsel to testify before a grand jury about their conversations with White House officials in the leak matter," writes Jason Leopold regarding the CIA leak case. ----- FOCUS | Bush Tribunal Plan Ignores Supreme Court Ruling http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806z.shtml Under the measure that President Bush proposed on Wednesday, Khalid Shaik Mohammed and other major terrorism suspects would face trials at Guantanamo Bay in military tribunals that would allow evidence obtained by coercive interrogation and hearsay and deny suspects and their lawyers the right to see classified evidence used against them. ----- Amid Wide Criticism, Bush Pushes for Greater Wiretap Authority http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806o.shtml President Bush urged Congress Thursday to give him "additional authority" to continue his administration's warrantless eavesdropping program. The speech was his latest effort in several days to mark the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks by framing the election-year national security debate to political and policy advantage. ----- US Paid Miami Journalists to Publish Anti-Castro News http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806d.shtml At least 10 Florida journalists received regular payments from a US government program aimed at undermining the Cuban government of Fidel Castro, the Miami Herald reported on Friday. ----- Senate Panel to Issue Iraq Intel Report http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806b.shtml The Senate Intelligence Committee will release a report Friday on pre-war Iraq intelligence that will confirm that "the Bush administration's case for war in Iraq was fundamentally misleading." ----- Baghdad Death Toll Over 1,500 in August http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806m.shtml Baghdad's morgue almost tripled its count for violent deaths in Iraq's capital during August - from 550 to 1,536 - authorities said Thursday, appearing to erase most of what US generals and Iraqi leaders had touted as evidence of progress in a major security operation to restore order in the capital. ----- Suicide Bomber Kills 16 in Kabul; 2 US Soldiers http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806s.shtml A suicide car bomber rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into a US military convoy near the American Embassy in Kabul today, killing at least 16 people - including two US soldiers - in the deadliest suicide attack claimed to date by Afghanistan's resurgent Taliban movement. ----- Paul Harris | The Myth of Fair Elections in America http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806l.shtml ----- European Watchdog Calls for Clampdown on CIA http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806n.shtml The head of Europe's human rights watchdog yesterday called for monitoring of CIA agents operating in Britain and other European countries, after President George Bush's admission that the US had detained terrorist suspects in secret prisons. European lawmakers demanded on Thursday that their governments reveal the location of secret CIA prisons. ----- William Fisher | What Should We Know and When Should We Know It? http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806a.shtml or go to: http://www.truthout.org @ t r u t h o u t | Perspective ----- Norman Solomon | As Others See US - The "War on Terror" http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806c.shtml or go to: http://www.truthout.org @ t r u t h o u t | Perspective ----- Court Ruling Blocks Alaska Oil Lease Sale http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806e.shtml A federal judge issued a preliminary ruling on Thursday that temporarily blocks the US administration's plan to allow oil development in the sensitive wetlands near vast Teshekpuk Lake in Arctic Alaska. ----- US Expects Iran Sanctions Within Weeks http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806f.shtml ----- Ohio Judge Orders '04 Ballots Be Preserved for Legal Examination http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806g.shtml A federal judge ordered Ohio's county elections boards on Thursday to preserve ballots from the 2004 presidential election, a move activists hope will help prove accusations of fraud. ----- Environmental Catastrophe Provokes Ivory Coast Political Crisis http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/090806h.shtml The Ivory Coast government resigns after tons of toxic waste from Europe are discharged into the capital's public dumps. Three are dead from toxic fumes, but how the waste came to be discharged remains murky. ----- Tidwell and Glick | Remembering and Learning From Katrina http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/090806ea.shtml "How's this for poetic justice? In future years, the White House and all those federal agencies that acted so slowly after Hurricane Katrina last August will probably find their own DC offices threatened by catastrophic flooding from monster storms. Because one year after the great catastrophe in Louisiana, this much is clear: it's coming to many more US cities," write Mike Tidwell and Ted Glick. ----- Wal-Mart Finds an Ally in Conservatives http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/090806lb.shtml ----- VIDEO | Congress Comes to Camp Democracy A Report by Geoffrey Millard and Scott Galindez ((( Paste link into your browser )))> http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm The second day of Camp Democracy was sponsored by Progressive Democrats of America and was marked by visits to the camp by several members of Congress. One of those members was Congressman Jim McGovern, who has proposed legislation to cut off funding for the war in Iraq. Geoffrey Millard spoke with him and other members of Congress about that legislation. _________________________________ from: http://jblankfort@earthlink.net : "In this most perverse of all cease fire resolutions, the aggressor (Israel) retains its arms, its occupation of Lebanese land, sea and air space, and increases its purchase of offensive weapons. The Lobby pushes the US/UN to encircle Hezbollah, control Lebanon's border with Syria (thus losing sovereignty) and stop the flow of any defensive weapons to replenish the supply depleted defending the country from Israeli invaders. " Jeff >> ISRAELI-US STRATEGY: LEBANON AND IRAN by James Petras James Petras, a former Professor of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York, co-author of Globalization Unmasked (Zed Books). His latest book is, The Power of Israel in the United States (Clarity Press, 2006). He can be reached at: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://jpetras@binghamton.edu. September 7, 2006 The War Debate on Iran www.dissidentvoice.org/Sept06/Petrras07.htm EXCERPT: Even as the bricks were still smoldering from 9/11, Israeli ideological point men, Senator Lieberman and Undersecretary for Defense Wolfowitz urged Washington to attack Iran by launching either simultaneous or sequential wars. In pursuit of Israel's regional priorities, its representatives in the US Government, in the Pentagon (Wolfowitz, Feith and Shulsky), in the National Security Council (Abrams), in the Vice President's Office (Libby) and in the President's Office (Speech writer Frum) falsified intelligence, designed the propaganda (War Against Terror, Axis of Evil) and planned the War against Iraq, and with the Lobby secured near unanimous Congressional acquiescence. They then successfully secured a US boycott of Syria and support for Israel's expropriation, annexation and settlement of Palestinian land in the West Bank and the destruction of Gaza. Even as the US invasion failed to secure control of Iraq, Israel's representatives in the US Government did destroy Iraqi society and state, and its capacity to support the Palestinian resistance, increasing Israel's regional power (at a very high cost to the United States). [snip] Full article: www.dissidentvoice.org/Sept06/Petrras07.htm ----- SPAIN TO SEND 1,100 TROOPS TO LEBANON European governments are willing to spend their public's tax money as well as risking their soldiers' lives defending Israel despite the widespread evidence of its sadistic destruction of Lebanon and its murderous assaults on the Palestinians while holding Gaza under siege, is incomprehensible. Is this last stinking vestige of racist European settler colonialism going to be ultimately responsible for the death of life on the planet? Only if we let it. Jeff >> SPAIN TO SEND 1,100 TROOPS TO LEBANON - Breaking News - World - Breaking News http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/spain-to-send-1100-troops-to-lebanon/2006/09/08/1157222306815.html# _________________________________ Excerpted from: http://mediamatters.org ABC's Path to 9/11 partly based on information from Bush administration PR official http://mediamatters.org/items/200609070004?src=other ----- Media reports fail to probe 9-11 Commission chairman Kean's role with ABC's factually flawed Path to 9/11 miniseries. ... while both articles noted that Kean has defended the miniseries from those who have criticized its reported falsehoods, neither addressed whether Kean has been paid in his role as a consultant and promoter of the film. http://mediamatters.org/items/200609070007?src=other ----- Scholastic pulls Path to 9/11 "Discussion Guide," saying, "[T]he materials did not meet our high standards" http://mediamatters.org/items/200609070009?src=other ----- ABC statement on The Path to 9/11 claimed film not final, called attacks "premature and irresponsible" -- despite prior National Press Club screening, copies to conservatives. ... ABC reportedly screened the film at the National Press Club and provided preview copies to conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh and a number of right-wing bloggers. http://mediamatters.org/items/200609080001?src=other ----- Carlson criticized defenders of 2003 Reagan movie for decrying "censorship" but now uses same term to attack critics of ABC film http://mediamatters.org/items/200609080003?src=other ----- The (Disney) mouse doesn't scare the (GOP) elephant http://mediamatters.org/items/200609070008?src=other ----- Scarborough hosted Brent Bozell, but no progressive to talk about ABC "docudrama" http://mediamatters.org/items/200609070003?src=other ----- Beck again warned that if Muslims don't "act now" by "step[ping] to the plate" to condemn terrorism, they "will be looking through a razor wire fence at the West" http://mediamatters.org/items/200609070002?src=other ----- In coverage of Bush speech, CBS, NBC, and Fox News ignored apparent gap between key Bush claim and events in Pakistan http://mediamatters.org/items/200609070005?src=other ----- Media overlook crucial questions raised by Suskind's new book ... news outlets have largely ignored the compelling and relevant questions raised by Suskind's disclosures. http://mediamatters.org/items/200609070006?src=other ----- CBS gave Limbaugh a platform to attack nameless "critics" who are "not interested in victory," offer his definition of "patriotism" http://mediamatters.org/items/200609080002?src=other _________________________________ PLUTO PETITION: Got an opinion about Pluto? Sign the Pluto Petition: http://plutopetition.com A SPOT OF FOLKLORE: September's full Moon is usually called the Harvest Moon, but not this year. By definition, the Harvest Moon is the full Moon closest to the autumnal equinox. This year's equinox falls on Sept. 23rd and the full Moon closest to that comes on October 7th. The 2006 Harvest Moon will have to wait until October. _________________________________ Weekly Grist LEBANON SEQUITUR Lebanese oil spill continues to spread Seven weeks after Israel bombed a Lebanese power plant, spilling 10,000 to 15,000 tons of heavy fuel oil into the Mediterranean Sea, the disaster continues to be disastrous. The slick has traveled an estimated 90 miles north, affecting every one of Lebanon's approximately 200 beaches, and may reach Syria and Turkey. [SNIP] http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/08/28/mnghdkqhk31.dtl _________________________________ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PRODUCT SAFETY RECALLS Each year, hundreds of products of all sizes are recalled by manufacturers due to defects and safety risks. Search our Recalls index for products you own that may have been recalled, and for links to government agencies announcing the latest recalls. http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/consumer-protection/recalls/index.htm _________________________________ http://rawstory.com/ ^ http://www.drudge.com/ ^ http://www.truthdig.com/ _________________________________ GOOGLE NEEDS YOUR HELP! If you've used Google's image feature, you know the results can be inaccurate. That's because they get labeled inaccurately. Or, maybe their labels are taken out of context. Well, you can help label pictures in Google's search index. That sounds like a large undertaking. And it probably would be, if Google had to do it all. So, it wants you to help. This could be fun. Visit Google Image Labeler and click Begin. Google will match you up with a partner. Then, you'll be shown images. For each, type an appropriate label. When your label matches your partner's, you'll move on to the next picture. It's kind of like a game. So what's your prize? Google awards you points. That's not very exciting. But when you're done, you can click on the pictures to view the site that posted them. TO VISIT TODAY'S COOL SITE, GO HERE: images.google.com Be sure to listen to me Monday through Friday. Use to find me near you http://www.komando.com/listen/index.aspx _________________________________ eHEALTHY NEWS OBESITY, POLLUTION ELEVATE YOUR HEART ATTACK RISKS Health problems related to obesity and pollution exposure synergistically combine to make each other even worse. http://www.mercola.com/2006/feb/16/obesity_pollution_elevate_your_heart_attack_ risks.htm ----- VEGETABLE OIL FATS CAN ACCELERATE CANCER GROWTH The potentially dangerous polyunsaturated fats found in many vegetable oils cause prostate tumors to grow twice as quickly. http://www.mercola.com/2006/feb/16/vegetable_oil_fats_accelerate_cancer_growth.htm _________________________________ THE HALF OF IT 15:14 http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=b42f06c220d3d3a65d477b843ffc306e.613495 Is it a love story? A mob saga? In his debut short Eamonn Walsh shows why one should never jump to conclusions on first impre... _________________________________ NationalGeographic.com http://lava.nationalgeographic.com/pod/ _________________________________ NASA Astronomy picture of the day http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html _________________________________ We say we love flowers, yet we pluck them. We say we love trees, yet we cut them down. And people still wonder why some are afraid when told they are loved. ~ Author Unknown