12/10/05 — — WASHINGTON, Dec 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. government, in an unusual retreat, urged a federal appeals court on Friday to set aside its ruling that allowed the United States to hold an American citizen as an enemy combatant without being charged.

In a filing to the U.S. Appeals Court in Richmond, Virginia, Justice Department lawyers said that since Jose Padilla — who was held by the U.S. military for more than three years as an enemy combatant — has been indicted by a civilian court in Florida, the case regarding his military custody was moot.

As a result, the government said the court should go ahead and set aside its Sept. 9 ruling that allowed Padilla to be held by the military without charge.

That ruling had been seen as a significant victory and a legal precedent for the administration in its war on terrorism and its controversial policy of holding enemy combatants in prison for long periods without charges.

In the filing on Friday, the Justice Department lawyers also urged the court to approve the request to transfer Padilla to civilian custody so he can face trial in Florida. They said Padilla once lived in Florida and became involved with the other people named in his indictment there.

The appeals court had delayed Padilla’s transfer to civilian custody until the government explained why it used different facts to justify Padilla’s military detention from those included in last month’s indictment that charged Padilla with conspiracy to murder and aiding terrorists abroad.

The government’s filing said prosecutors had the right to limit charges in the indictment, particularly if that would allow them to avoid “sensitive evidentiary issues” that could implicate national security.
informationclearinghouse.info

The media center in Fayetteville, N.C., would be the envy of any global communications company.

In state of the art studios, producers prepare the daily mix of music and news for the group’s radio stations or spots for friendly television outlets. Writers putting out newspapers and magazines in Baghdad and Kabul converse via teleconferences. Mobile trailers with high-tech gear are parked outside, ready for the next crisis.

The center is not part of a news organization, but a military operation, and those writers and producers are soldiers. The 1,200-strong psychological operations unit based at Fort Bragg turns out what its officers call “truthful messages” to support the United States government’s objectives, though its commander acknowledges that those stories are one-sided and their American sponsorship is hidden.

“We call our stuff information and the enemy’s propaganda,” said Col. Jack N. Summe, then the commander of the Fourth Psychological Operations Group, during a tour in June. Even in the Pentagon, “some public affairs professionals see us unfavorably,” and inaccurately, he said, as “lying, dirty tricksters.”
nytimes.com

A DECADE ago Newt Gingrich’s Republican revolutionaries seized control of Congress after 40 years of Democrat rule by promising to end the culture of graft and corruption on Capitol Hill.

Today, after a string of indictments, scandals and a criminal investigation that threatens to implicate dozens of politicians next year, the tables have turned full circle. It is now President Bush’s Republicans who are seen as the party of sleaze.

…Since the summer, leading Republicans have been hit by a steady stream of scandals.

In September Tom DeLay, one of the most powerful politicians in America, had to step down as leader of the House of Representatives after being indicted for violating election finance laws. He is vigorously contesting the charges.

Bill Frist, the Republican leader of the Senate, is also under investigation over insider trading allegations involving the sale of his stock in a healthcare company. Mr Frist has denied any wrongdoing.

How the Bush Administration led the country into the Iraq war, and Democrat accusations that the White House manipulated prewar intelligence, then dominated much of October and November after the indictment of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, for his role in the Valerie Plame CIA-leak affair. Mr Libby was charged with perjury and obstruction of justice, and he too has pleaded not guilty.

This week Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor leading the CIA-leak investigation, convened a new grand jury to investigate further the role of Karl Rove, Mr Bush’s chief political adviser, in the Plame affair. The move suggests that Mr Fitzgerald may yet bring charges against Mr Rove.

Meanwhile, Randy “Duke” Cunningham resigned from the House of Representatives two weeks ago in one of the most spectacular cases of political corruption in recent years.

Mr Cunningham, a Republican congressman since 1991 and member of the House Defence Appropriations committee, admitted accepting $2.4 million (£1.4 million) in bribes from defence contractors, including a Rolls-Royce and a $7,200 antique Louis-Philippe commode.

But of greatest concern to White House strategists is a criminal investigation by the Department of Justice into a Republican lobbyist named Jack Abramoff that could lead to the indictment of several politicians — mostly Republican — next year.
timesonline.co.uk

House Democrats Redouble Wooing of K Street

A House Democratic project designed to dip into deep K Street wallets entered its second phase of the 2006 cycle Tuesday, as a group of prominent moderate Members enlisted business donors to shell out thousands of dollars to help the party’s top-tier candidates.

Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter charged Monday that the reason Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi stepped down earlier this month was the growing scandal surrounding the use of uranium munitions in the Iraq War.

Writing in Preventive Psychiatry E-Newsletter No. 169, Arthur N. Bernklau, executive director of Veterans for Constitutional Law in New York, stated, “The real reason for Mr. Principi’s departure was really never given, however a special report published by eminent scientist Leuren Moret naming depleted uranium as the definitive cause of the ‘Gulf War Syndrome’ has fed a growing scandal about the continued use of uranium munitions by the US Military.”

Bernklau continued, “This malady (from uranium munitions), that thousands of our military have suffered and died from, has finally been identified as the cause of this sickness, eliminating the guessing. The terrible truth is now being revealed.”

He added, “Out of the 580,400 soldiers who served in GW1 (the first Gulf War), of them, 11,000 are now dead! By the year 2000, there were 325,000 on Permanent Medical Disability. This astounding number of ‘Disabled Vets’ means that a decade later, 56% of those soldiers who served have some form of permanent medical problems!” The disability rate for the wars of the last century was 5 percent; it was higher, 10 percent, in Viet Nam.
sfbayview.com

…Mental health practitioners say they regularly confront extreme forms of racism, homophobia and other prejudice in the course of therapy, and that some patients are disabled by these beliefs. As doctors increasingly weigh the effects of race and culture on mental illness, some are asking whether pathological bias ought to be an official psychiatric diagnosis.

Advocates have circulated draft guidelines and have begun to conduct systematic studies. While the proposal is gaining traction, it is still in the early stages of being considered by the professionals who decide on new diagnoses.

If it succeeds, it could have huge ramifications on clinical practice, employment disputes and the criminal justice system. Perpetrators of hate crimes could become candidates for treatment, and physicians would become arbiters of how to distinguish “ordinary prejudice” from pathological bias.
washingtonpost.com

…
The premise is that two families live under the same roof in the Los Angeles suburb of Tarzana and essentially swap racial identities. The Sparks family of Atlanta undergo three to five hours of make-up every day to morph from black to white, while the Wurgels of Santa Monica emerge from their own heavy treatment by one of Hollywood’s top make-up artists looking plausibly black.

The series has more serious credentials than most: its producers include an award-winning reality documentarian called RJ Cutler and the actor and rapper Ice Cube. Their intent, it seems, is less sensationalist than it is deeply political. “The loud message of the show is that we are a divided nation,” Mr Cutler told reporters recently. “But we can come together if we’re willing to talk about our differences and work to see the world through the eyes of other people.”
independent.co.uk

Still reeling from the devastating earthquake in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, miserable survivors huddle in crowded quarters, preparing for the onset of a Himalayan winter. In some Kashmiri villages, a new calamity is unfolding, with nearly half of them suffering skin diseases, respiratory problems or other cold-related illnesses, health officials say.
independent.co.uk

STOCKHOLM (AFP) – A watchlist of possible terror suspects distributed by the US government to airlines for pre-flight checks is now 80,000 names long, a Swedish newspaper reported, citing European air industry sources.

The classified list, which carried just 16 names before the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington had grown to 1,000 by the end of 2001, to 40,000 a year later and now stands at 80,000, Svenska Dagbladet reported.

Airlines must check each passenger flying to a US destination against the list, and contact the US Department of Homeland Security for further investigation if there is a matching name.
news.yahoo.com

IN the week when Israel successfully test-fired its latest Arrow rocket, Ariel Sharon hinted that military action could halt Iran’s nuclear programme.

“Such a capability exists,” the Israeli prime minister said.

Sharon added that Israel would not sit idly by if diplomacy fails.

“Israel, and not just Israel, cannot accept a situation in which Iran has nuclear weapons,” he said.

“Israel is not helpless and is taking all the steps it needs to be taking.”

Foreign experts speculate that Israel, which bombed Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak in 1981, could take similar action against Iran if it believes the Islamic republic is on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons.

Former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week joined the clamour for a pre-emptive strike on Iran.

“I will continue the tradition established by Menachem Begin, who did not allow Iraq to develop such a nuclear threat against Israel, and by a daring and courageous act gave us two decades of tranquillity,” Netanyahu said. “I believe that this is what Israel has to do.”
jewishtelegraph.co.uk

…Beneath this rhetoric lies a theology declared heretical in the early centuries of Christianity: Manichaeism from a third century teacher, Mani. Manichaens of every age divide the world simply and starkly between the forces of good and the forces of evil, and urge the former to stamp out the latter. Appealing in its simplicity, Manichaeism is disastrous in reality. Early Christians regarded Manichaeism as heretical precisely because it blinded people to their own capacity for evil and encouraged gross self-deception.

After the Soviet Union imploded (in part due to its own military excesses), and 9/11 stunned Americans, these same politically active religious conservatives were quick to substitute Islam for communism. Falwell and Robertson recycled old lines with a new infidel. Franklin Graham, son of Billy, denounced Islam as “a very evil and wicked religion.” Southern Baptist President Jack Graham declared, “Satan is the ultimate terrorist” and “this is a war between Christians and the forces of evil, by whatever name they choose to use.” A crusade theory of warfare marched on, giving sanction to a new stratagem, “preventive war.”
seattlepi.nwsource.com

The Iron Fist of Jesus

One of the rationalizations for the illegal occupation of Iraq (and the murders of over one hundred thousand innocent Iraqi civilians) is that the United States is engaged in a struggle of “good versus evil”. In spite of repeated heinous acts committed for years by the United States in the Middle East, including state terrorism resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, installation and/or support of ruthless dictators (i.e. Saddam Hussein, the Shah of Iran), and enabling the Israelis to commit genocide against the Palestinians, these pseudo-Christians have managed to convince many Americans that the US is “good” and the “terrorists” (i.e. the Resistance to US occupation in Iraq) are “evil”. As the US government continues to rape the Middle East, Christo-Fascists slap “God Bless America” bumper stickers on their gas-guzzling SUV’s actually believing that the Father, the Son, and/or the Holy Spirit would bless a nation governed by murderers, thieves and thugs.

Yes, I can visualize a Christian God sitting on his throne in the kingdom of heaven gazing down upon humankind. As he surveys humanity, he “wisely and judiciously” decides to answer Jane Morgan’s prayer for a 2005 Hummer to replace her two year old Navigator. After all, he can’t have Jane driving a “jalopy” to worship him on Sundays, now can he? Spying eight year old Mahmoud, a Palestinian in Gaza, God decides to let him die of malnutrition because he is not a Christian, and in fact is an “evil” Muslim who could become “terrorist” someday. Jerry Falwell, who does not appear to be struggling with malnutrition, would be most pleased with his Maker.