Poll: US Third Most Hated Country on Earth

March 5, 2007
Poll: US Third Most Hated Country on Earth

The BBC has been tracking opinions about countries' influence in the world over three years (2005 – 2007). During that time most ratings have remained relatively stable. There has been improvement in ratings of India, a slight decline in views about Britain and a significant fall in positive evaluations of the United States. Russia, China, and France also lost ground over the period, mainly between 2005 and 2006.

"It appears that people around the world tend to look negatively on countries whose profile is marked by the use or pursuit of military power," said Steven Kull, director of PIPA. This includes Israel and the US, who have recently used military force, and North Korea and Iran, who are perceived as trying to develop nuclear weapons."

Former Navy Sailor Charged With Passing Secrets to Al Qaeda

March 7, 2007
Former Navy Sailor Charged With Passing Secrets to Al Qaeda

March 7, 2007 — A former U.S. Navy sailor has been charged with allegedly passing military secrets about U.S. Navy movements through waters in the Middle East to al Qaeda-related Web sites during the spring of 2001, just months after the USS Cole was attacked in Yemen.

Hassan Abujihaad, formerly known as Paul R. Hall, allegedly passed information about U.S. Navy warship movements in the Straits of Hormuz in April 2001 while he was a member of the Navy. The information passed along contained details about vulnerabilites of U.S. vessels — including susceptibility to small boat attacks by terrorists.

U.S. commander sees Baghdad backlash

March 8, 2007
U.S. commander sees Baghdad backlash

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The new U.S. commander in Iraq said on Thursday military force would not end violence unless talks were held with some militant groups and warned of more "sensational attacks" during the current crackdown in Baghdad.

General David Petraeus, at his first news conference since he took command last month, also said he saw no immediate need for more U.S. troops, but reinforcements already requested would likely stay "well beyond the summer".

Historians Fight Bush on Access to Papers

March 8, 2007
Historians Fight Bush on Access to Papers

President George W. Bush's 2001 executive order restricted the release of presidential records by giving sitting presidents the power to delay the release of papers indefinitely, while extending the control of former presidents, vice presidents and their families. It also changed the system from one that automatically released documents 30 days after a current or former president is notified to one that withholds papers until a president specifically permits their release.

Today the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is scheduled to discuss a new bill that would overturn Mr. Bush's order, said a committee spokeswoman, Karen Lightfoot. The sponsors, who include the committee chairman, Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, hope to bring the bill to the floor of the House next week.

Andrew Sullivan: Faggot

March 6, 2007
Andrew Sullivan: Faggot

And for the slur to work, it must logically accept the premise that gay men are weak, effeminate, wusses, sissies, and the rest. A sane gay man has two responses to this, I think. The first is that there is nothing wrong with effeminacy or effeminate gay men - and certainly nothing weak about many of them. In the plague years, I saw countless nelly sissies face HIV and AIDS with as much courage and steel as any warrior on earth. You want to meet someone with balls? Find a drag queen. The courage of many gay men every day in facing down hatred and scorn and derision to live lives of dignity and integrity is not a sign of being a wuss or somehow weak. We have as much and maybe more courage than many - because we have had to acquire it to survive. And that is especially true of gay men whose effeminacy may not make them able to pass as straight - the very people Coulter seeks to demonize. The conflation of effeminacy with weakness, and of gayness with weakness, is what Coulter calculatedly asserted. This was not a joke. It was an attack.

Fired Prosecutor Says He Was Warned to Keep Quiet

March 6, 2007
Fired Prosecutor Says He Was Warned to Keep Quiet

March 6 (Bloomberg) -- A prosecutor dismissed by the Bush administration last year said he and other former U.S. attorneys were warned to keep quiet about their firings by a senior Justice Department official.

H.E. "Bud" Cummins told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Mike Elston, the deputy attorney general's top aide, threatened him with retaliation in a phone call last month if he went public. Cummins said he passed the warning on to five U.S. attorneys who were ousted last December, believing that was what Elston wanted.

Dozens of Companies Backdated Stocks After 9/11 and Broke the Law

March 5, 2007
Dozens of Companies Backdated Stocks After 9/11 and Broke the Law

Dozens of companies are being investigated for backdating stock options to the days that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and profiting on the back of the equity-market slump that resulted, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The latest development is only part of a wider backdating scandal that implicates more than 140 companies and has caused more than 70 firings or resignations of corporate officials, the Journal reported.

The options paid to top executives or other employees were arranged weeks after the attacks and took advantage of the relatively low value of company´s stock, the paper said. Normally options reflect the closing price of the share on the day it is granted, if the stock rises after the day of issue then the individual can exercise the option (buy the stock) and benefit from the premium generated.

Pentagon Closes Door on Terror Hearings

March 6, 2007
Pentagon Closes Door on Terror Hearings

Reporters will be barred from hearings that begin Friday in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the 14 suspected terrorists who were transferred last year from secret CIA prisons, officials said Tuesday.

Interest in the 14 is high because of their alleged links to al-Qaida. Among them is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. He was captured in Pakistan in March 2003.

A New York-based human rights group that represents one of the 14 men accused the Pentagon of designing "sham tribunals." The organization contended that its client, Majid Khan, has been denied access to his lawyers since October 2006 "solely to prevent his torture and abuse from becoming public" and to protect complicit foreign governments.

Conservatives Honor Gay Porn Star

March 7, 2007
Conservatives Honor Gay Porn Star

I don't know if David Horowitz knew Cpl. Matt Sanchez was once a gay porn star and male prostitute when he introduced him to me at last weekend's CPAC. But he did know that Sanchez was an eager yes-man, and a supposed victim of the campus PC thuggery Horowitz has made a career out of decrying.

For his supposed courage in the face of liberal cruelty, Cpl. Sanchez was presented with the Jeanne Kirpatrick Academic Freedom Award at this year's CPAC. Sanchez was the perfect vehicle for the conservative movement's ongoing attempt to wrap itself in the uniform, and to heap resentment on liberals for their supposed anti-military bias.

As several gay blogs revealed late yesterday, Corporal Sanchez was known during his halcyon days as Rod Majors, a majorly well-endowed gay porn star. (Photos of Corp. Sanchez aka Rod Majors in action can be viewed here. I warn you, this link is NOT to be clicked on if you have minors around or if you're in a crowded workplace). According to Tom Bacchus, Sanchez was also a $200-an-hour male prostitute who advertised himself (here) as an "excellent top."

Two More Newspapers Drop Ann Coulter's Column

March 7, 2007
Two More Newspapers Drop Ann Coulter's Column

NEW YORK At least two more daily newspapers -- The Oakland Press of Michigan and The Mountain Press of Sevierville, Tenn. -- have dropped Ann Coulter's column. A daily in Pennsylvania had dropped the column two days ago.

Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign gay-rights organization announced a campaign late this afternoon to get other Coulter newspaper clients to drop the columnist. This comes a day after HRC started a letter-writing effort that resulted in what it said were more than 20,000 messages urging Universal Press Syndicate to stop distributing Coulter.

Lancaster (Pa.) New Era drops Coulter

March 56, 2007
Lancaster (Pa.) New Era drops Coulter

NEW YORK At least one newspaper has canceled Ann Coulter's column after she implied that Democratic politician John Edwards is a "faggot."

The daily Lancaster (Pa.) New Era, in a note to readers, said it "halted publication of Ann Coulter's syndicated column following her crude characterization of presidential candidate John Edwards as a homosexual at a public appearance on Friday. Coulter's use of name-calling, sarcasm, and overstatement in her columns too often detracts from the arguments she seeks to make. ...

BBC survey claims Israel has least positive image of any country

March 6, 2007
BBC survey claims Israel has least positive image of any country

Israel, Iran and the United States are the countries with the most negative image in a globe-spanning survey of attitudes toward 12 major nations. Canada and Japan came out best in the poll, released on Monday.

The survey for the British Broadcasting Corp.'s World Service asked more than 28,000 people to rate 12 countries - Britain, Canada, China, France, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Russia, the United States and Venezuela  as having a positive or negative influence on the world.

Confessions of a Torturer: The story of Army interrogator Tony Lagouranis

March 2007
Confessions of a Torturer: The story of Army interrogator Tony Lagouranis

Lagouranis says his own interrogations there were just talking, "right out of the army field manual." Some of the older interrogators, however, were still using harsher methods. Some detainees judged to be uncooperative were stripped of their mattress, blankets, and extra clothing to expose them to the cold in their cells. Others were kept in isolation for months at a time and hooded when they were taken to the interrogation booths, so that they'd see no one but their interrogators. Nevertheless, it seemed to Lagouranis that the administration of Abu Ghraib was getting progressively cleaner. Also, it was common knowledge that the CIA was torturing prisoners, he says, so anything the army did paled by comparison.

IN APRIL 2004 the New Yorker and 60 Minutes II broke the story of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib. Not long after those infamous photos were published, Lagouranis was transferred from Mosul back to Abu Ghraib. CNN broadcasts played constantly in the area where the interrogators wrote their reports, and it was there, while watching congressional hearings, that Lagouranis heard Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld say that the detainees in Iraq were being treated according to the Geneva Conventions. "I also heard [Lieutenant General Ricardo] Sanchez say that dogs were never authorized to be used in Iraq." This testimony flatly contradicted guidelines for interrogations that Sanchez, the military commander in Iraq, had issued in September and October of 2003.

"That's when I got really pissed," Lagouranis says. "I was like, 'Shit, these guys are fucking us over.'"

Vermont Votes to Impeach Bush/Cheney

March 7, 2007
Vermont Votes to Impeach Bush/Cheney

The Nation -- When Vermont Governor Jim Douglas, a Republican with reasonably close ties to
President Bush, asked if there was any additional business to be considered at the town meeting he was running in Middlebury, Ellen McKay popped up and proposed the impeachment of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

The governor was not amused. As moderator of the annual meeting, he tried to suggest that the proposal to impeach -- along with another proposal to withdraw U.S. troops from
Iraq -- could not be voted on.

But McKay, a program coordinator at Middlebury College, pressed her case. And it soon became evident that the crowd at the annual meeting shared her desire to hold the president to account.

So Douglas backed down.

Libby Found Guilty in CIA Leak Trial

March 6, 2007
Libby Found Guilty in CIA Leak Trial

Once the closest adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted Tuesday of lying and obstructing a leak investigation that shook the top levels of the Bush administration.

He is the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since National Security Adviser John Poindexter in the Iran-Contra affair two decades ago.

In the end, jurors said did not believe Libby's main defense: that he hadn't lied but merely had a bad memory.

Fox News Devoted 12 Times More Coverage To Anna Nicole Than Walter Reed

March 3, 2007
Fox News Devoted 12 Times More Coverage To Anna Nicole Than Walter Reed

NETWORK	ANNA NICOLE	WALTER REED
FOX NEWS	121	10
MSNBC	96	84
CNN	40	53

CNN & MSNBC Covering Walter Reed More Than Twice As Much As Fox

March 5, 2007
CNN & MSNBC Covering Walter Reed More Than Twice As Much As Fox

"Look at the differences in cable news coverage of Walter Reed," a prominent veteran's spokesperson told TVNewser on Friday. After completing a search of cable transcripts using TVEyes, it's clear that CNN and MSNBC have each covered the Walter Reed scandal more than twice as much as Fox News.

Between Feb. 18 and March 5, FNC has mentioned "Walter Reed" 93 times -- about six mentions per day. CNN has covered the story 224 times, and MSNBC has covered it 257 times.

As of 2pm today, the trend has continued. FNC has mentioned it 23 times; CNN has mentioned it 56 times; and MSNBC has mentioned it 42 times...

Verizon, Sallie Mae and NetBank Pull Ads from Coulter's Site

March 5, 2007
Verizon, Sallie Mae and NetBank Pull Ads from Coulter's Site

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- At least three major companies want their ads pulled from Ann Coulter's Web site, following customer complaints about the right-wing commentator referring to Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards as a "faggot."

Verizon, Sallie Mae and Georgia-based NetBank each said they didn't know their ads were on AnnCoulter.com until they received the complaints.

The Must-Do List

March 4, 2007
The Must-Do List

Today we're offering a list — which, sadly, is hardly exhaustive — of things that need to be done to reverse the unwise and lawless policies of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Many will require a rewrite of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, an atrocious measure pushed through Congress with the help of three Republican senators, Arlen Specter, Lindsey Graham and John McCain; Senator McCain lent his moral authority to improving one part of the bill and thus obscured its many other problems.

Two FBI Whistleblowers Confirm Illegal Wiretapping of Government Officials and Misuse of FISA

March 5, 2007
Two FBI Whistleblowers Confirm Illegal Wiretapping of Government Officials and Misuse of FISA

State Secrets Privilege Was Used to Cover Up Corruption and Silence Whistleblowers

The National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC) has obtained a copy of an official complaint filed by a veteran FBI Special Agent, Gilbert Graham, with the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General (DOJ-OIG). SA Graham's protected disclosures report the violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in conducting electronic surveillance of high-profile U.S. public officials.

Before his retirement in 2002, SA Gilbert Graham worked for the FBI Washington Field Office (WFO) Squad NS-24. One of the main areas of Mr. Graham's counterintelligence investigations involved espionage activities by Turkish officials and agents in the United States. On April 2, 2002, Graham filed with the DOJ-OIG a classified protected disclosure, which provided a detailed account of FISA violations involving misuse of FISA warrants to engage in domestic surveillance. In his unclassified report SA Graham states: "It is the complainant's reasonable belief that the request for ELSUR [electronic surveillance] coverage was a subterfuge to collect evidentiary information concerning public corruption matters." Graham blew the whistle on this illegal behavior, but the actions were covered up by the Department of Justice and the Attorney General's office.

U.S. Military Defends Erasing Images from Afghanistan

March 5, 2007
U.S. Military Defends Erasing Images from Afghanistan

A media spokesman for the US-led coalition admitted some pictures of the scene may have been erased. "Some of those facts may be accurate but there is some context that is due," Mitchell told AFP.

The journalists had gone beyond a security perimeter and had been asked to remove their images to "protect the integrity of the investigation," he said, adding that the scene may have been altered before they arrived.

The concern had been that the "photographers would not accurately represent what the scene looked like immediately after the ambush," Mitchell said.

US has no case for redefining torture

March 5, 2007
US has no case for redefining torture

The researchers also reported that the torture victims rated some techniques such as stress positions, isolation, sleep deprivation and blindfolding as distressing as most physical torture methods.

"Ill treatment during captivity, such as psychological manipulations, humiliating treatment, and forced stress positions, does not seem to be substantially different from physical torture in terms of the severity of mental suffering they cause," the study's authors wrote.

"Thus, these procedures do amount to torture, thereby lending support to their prohibition by international law," they wrote in the journal of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Justice Department besieged by charges of cronyism

March 5, 2007
Justice Department besieged by charges of cronyism

The administration has said eight prosecutors were told to leave, all but one for performance-related reasons. However, Democrats have suggested ever more pointedly that politics was behind many of the dismissals, and the Domenici revelation fueled that idea.

Six of those fired, meanwhile, issued a stiff defense of their conduct and implied that they had had differences with Justice Department officials in Washington.

The Justice Department, besieged by charges of cronyism, acknowledged that lawmakers — both Republican and Democratic — had complained about several of the eight.

One, David Iglesias of New Mexico, was the subject of four phone calls from Domenici to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his deputy questioning whether the prosecutor was "up to the job," department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said.

Free Market System Promotes Bad Journalism

January 2, 2007
Free Market System Promotes Bad Journalism

The market doesn't work -- not when it comes to conservative commentators.

Before the Iraq war, rightwing (and middle-of-the-road) pundits claimed Saddam Hussein was a dire WMD threat, that he was in cahoots with al Qaeda, that the war was necessary. The neoconservative cheerleaders for war also argued that an invasion of Iraq would bring democracy to that nation and throughout the region. They were wrong. But they have paid no price for their errors. They did not have to serve in Iraq. None, as far as I can tell, have had sons or daughters harmed or killed in the fighting there. They did not have to bear higher taxes, because George W. Bush has charged the costs of this military enterprise to the national credit card. Though they miscalled the number-one issue of the post-9/11 period, they did not lose their influential perches in the commentariat. Charles Krauthammer, Richard Perle, Robert Kagan, Gary Schmitt, Danielle Pletka and others (including non-neocon Thomas Friedman) who blew it on Iraq still regularly appear on op-ed pages and television news shows, pitching their latest notions about Iraq, Iran or other matters.

Army vet at Walter Reed: 'I want to leave this place'

March 5, 2007
Army vet at Walter Reed: 'I want to leave this place'

With a US Army veteran declaring "I want to leave this place," a House committee began a hearing this morning at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center on the difficulties that casualties from the Iraq war have experienced in receiving medical care.

In the special hearing's first panel, two veterans and the wife of a third alleged that senior Army officials failed to heed the warnings that they had heard for years about the state of care at the Army's Walter Reed Medical Center. The committee's chair, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), suggested that the problems at the Army Medical Center might be "the tip of the iceberg."

The committee's ranking Republican member, Tom Davis of Virginia, agreed that the problems at Walter Reed were severe.

Mass Firing Puts Justice on the Hot Seat

March 12, 2007 issue
Mass Firing Puts Justice on the Hot Seat

March 12, 2007 issue - The firings of eight U.S. attorneys has put the heat on top Justice Department officials—and some GOP members of Congress. The unusual mass dismissals took place late last year, but the controversy escalated last week when David Iglesias, the former U.S. attorney in New Mexico, went public with a dramatic charge: that he had gotten phone calls from two unidentified GOP lawmakers in D.C. last October, pressing him to bring indictments in a high-profile corruption case involving a prominent local Democrat before the November election.

Iraqi Intelligence Agency Tortures Prisoners

March 5, 2007
Iraqi Intelligence Agency Tortures Prisoners

BAGHDAD, Monday, March 5 — Iraqi special forces and British troops stormed the offices of an Iraqi government intelligence agency in the southern city of Basra on Sunday, and British officials said they discovered about 30 prisoners, some showing signs of torture.

The raid appeared to catch Iraq's central government by surprise and raised new questions about the rule of law in the Shiite-dominated south, where less than two weeks ago Britain announced plans for a significant reduction in its forces because of improved stability.

U.S. Troops Deleted Journalist's Images

March 4, 2007
U.S. Troops Deleted Journalist's Images

A freelance photographer working for The Associated Press and a cameraman working for AP Television News said a U.S. soldier deleted their photos and video showing a four-wheel drive vehicle in which three people were shot to death about 100 yards from the suicide bombing. The AP plans to lodge a protest with the American military.

Gul said the U.S. troops took his camera, deleted his photos and returned it to him. The journalists came across another American, showed their identification cards, and he agreed that they could take pictures.

CREW FILES ETHICS COMPLAINT AGAINST SEN. DOMENICI

March 5, 2007
CREW FILES ETHICS COMPLAINT AGAINST SEN. DOMENICI

Washington, DC – Today Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) asked the Senate Select Committee on Ethics to investigate whether Sen. Pete V. Domenici (R-NM) violated Senate Rules by contacting the U.S. Attorney in Albuquerque, New Mexico, David C. Iglesias, and pressuring him about an ongoing corruption probe.

Sen. Domenici has acknowledged that he contacted Mr. Iglesias to inquire about an ongoing corruption probe of Democrats. Mr. Iglesias previously stated that in mid-October, he was pressured about the pace of the investigation by two New Mexico lawmakers. Initially, when asked about Mr. Iglesias's allegations, Sen. Domenici stated, "I have no idea what he's talking about." Sen. Domenici has now admitted that he called Mr. Iglesias, stating, "I asked Mr. Iglesias if he could tell me what was going on in that investigation and give me an idea of what time frame we were looking at."

Inspectors review documents dumped at VA clinic

March 3, 2007
Inspectors review documents dumped at VA clinic

LAS VEGAS — Federal inspectors are reviewing a whistleblower's report about unshredded files found in the trash behind a veterans health clinic in Las Vegas last month, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said.

"We are now investigating that case, and the IG is out there," Nicholson said Thursday, referring to the VA's inspector general.

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., requested the review after a security guard from the West Clinic in Las Vegas came forward with a sample of discarded records the guard said he found Feb. 6 in trash bins behind the building.

Preston M. "Pete" Geren named acting Army Secretary: Walter Reed

March 5, 2007
Preston M. "Pete" Geren named acting Army Secretary: Walter Reed

But Preston M. "Pete" Geren may find the role somewhat familiar. It is the second time he has been tapped to be the interim top civilian leader of a service during turbulent times.

Geren was elevated to the temporary post from Army undersecretary by Defense Secretary Robert Gates after Army Secretary Francis Harvey resigned amid revelations that wounded troops were treated poorly at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

In 2005, Geren served as acting Air Force secretary from July to November, the fourth in a series of interim leaders appointed after James Roche resigned in January 2005. That string came to an end when Geren's successor, Michael Wynne, took office.

Walter Reed Shortcomings Are Systemic, Lawmaker Says

March 5, 2007
Walter Reed Shortcomings Are Systemic, Lawmaker Says

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- The shortcomings in the housing and treatment of wounded U.S. soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington exist throughout the military health-care system, Representative John Tierney said during a hearing at the center.

"These problems go well beyond the walls of Walter Reed," Tierney, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of a House oversight subcommittee, said today. "As we send more and more troops into Iraq and Afghanistan, these problems are only going to get worse."