"Mueller was unfazed by the student chants to 'free all political prisoners' and 'close Guantanamo, stop the lies,' and instead commended the protest, saying they were a testament to freedom of expression."Four students arrested for heckling FBI director - News
"The Senate's No. 2 Democrat says he knew that the American public was being misled into the Iraq war but remained silent because he was sworn to secrecy as a member of the intelligence committee."Durbin kept silent on prewar knowledge-Nation/Politics-The Washington Times, America's Newspaper
"Thus, he lets the United States fly further and further into trouble, squandering its influence, money, and blood, facilitating the gains of our enemies. The Congress is the only mechanism we have to fill this vacuum in command judgment."The Raw Story | Retired Lt. General declares Bush 'seems to have gone AWOL'
"'I find it ironic that the flags were flown at half-staff for the young men and women who were killed at VT, yet it is never lowered for the death of a U.S. service member,' Wilt wrote."Soldier: Honor troops like Va. Tech dead - Yahoo! News
"Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said a possible US attack on Iran would be a "terrible mistake" and incur dire consequences."Press TV
"U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she has already answered the questions she has been subpoenaed to answer before a U.S. congressional committee and suggested she is not inclined to comply with the order."FOXNews.com - Rice Signals She Will Not Testify in Response to Congressional Subpoena - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum
"Billions of Russian petrodollars are set to be invested in shares of international companies for the first time, boosting Russia’s presence in financial markets."FT.com / World - Russia to invest oil revenues in shares
"The military instead released a "manufactured narrative" detailing how Pat Tillman died leading a courageous counterattack in an Afghan mountain pass, Kevin Tillman told the committee."Soldier: Army ordered me not to tell truth about Tillman - CNN.com
U.S. soldier hailed for bravery in Iraq says Pentagon spin doctors made it all up | the Daily Mail"Official versions of the rescue of prisoner of war Jessica Lynch and the death of former US football star Pat Tillman turned both into national heroes.
But the propaganda was dismissed as "utter fiction" at a Capitol Hill hearing to expose the false battlefield stories peddled by the Pentagon."
"Jerry Miller was exonerated yesterday in Chicago after serving 24 years in prison. He becomes the 200th person to be exonerated by DNA evidence."The Innocence Project - Home
"The increased prosecutions are meant, in effect, to serve as a deterrent to a growing number of soldiers who might be looking for a way to avoid heading - or heading back - to Iraq, several U.S. Army lawyers said during interviews. The use of courts-martial for these violations, which before 2002 were treated mostly as unpunished nuisances, is a sign that active-duty forces are being stretched to
their limits, said military lawyers and mental health experts."They are scraping to get people to go back, and people are worn out," said Thomas Grieger, a senior Navy psychiatrist."
"Campaigning in 2000, Texas Gov. George W. Bush would repeatedly raise his right hand as if taking an oath and vow to "restore honor and integrity" to the White House. He pledged to usher in a new era of bipartisanship."Bush Administration Awash in Scandals - Forbes.com
"Military planners have abandoned the idea that standing up Iraqi troops will enable American soldiers to start coming home soon and now believe that U.S. troops will have to defeat the insurgents and secure control of troubled provinces."McClatchy Washington Bureau | 04/19/2007 | Training Iraqi troops no longer driving force in U.S. policy
``I think it was Osama bin Laden's,'' Rove replied.
"There was a time when the United States seemed to bully Latin Americans into opening their doors to U.S. capitalism...What a colossal irony that, at the beginning of the 21st century, one of Latin America's problems is persuading American politicians to ratify free trade agreements that would boost U.S. exports to the region.
TCS Daily - Pleading for Trade"A secret FBI intelligence unit helped detain a group of war protesters in a downtown Washington parking garage in April 2002 and interrogated some of them on videotape about their political and religious beliefs, newly uncovered documents and interviews show...The probable cause to arrest the protesters as they retrieved food from their parked van? They were wearing black..." (underline added)
"FBI agents dressed in street clothes separated members to question them one by one about protests they attended, whom they had spent time with recently, what political views they espoused and the significance of their tattoos and slogans, according to interviews and court records.
The revelations, combined with protester accounts, provide the first public evidence that Washington-based FBI personnel used their intelligence-gathering powers in the District to collect purely political intelligence. Ultimately, the protesters were not prosecuted because there wasn't sufficient evidence of trespassing, and their arrest records were expunged.
Similar intelligence-gathering operations have been reported in New York, where a local police intelligence unit tried to infiltrate groups planning to protest at the Republican National Convention in 2004, and in Colorado, where records surfaced showing that the FBI collected names and license plates of people protesting timber industry practices at a 2002 industry convention.
Several federal courts have ruled that intelligence agencies can monitor domestic groups only when there is reason to believe the group is engaged in criminal activity. Experts in police conduct say it is hard to imagine how asking questions about a person's political views would
be appropriate in a trespassing case."
The trouble is, new research suggests that it hasn't worked. At all."
$1bn 'don't have sex' campaign a flop as research shows teenagers ignore lessons | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited"I was denied a boarding pass because I was on the Terrorist Watch list," he said.
When inquiring with a clerk why he was on the list, Murphy was asked if he had participated in any peace marches.
"We ban a lot of people from flying because of that," a clerk said.
Murphy then explained that he had not marched, but had "in
September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the
Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the
Constitution."
The clerk responded, "That'll do it."
Over the faculty’s opposition, the school will now have “to erect ‘suitable markers‘ noting the college’s new name and include the revised name in all university documents, including catalogues and brochures.” The lawmakers acknowledge they “came up with the idea as an answer” to the faculty’s denial of Bush’s honorary degree." link
Those days are over, said Lt. Gen. Jack Stultz, the Army Reserve's top officer." USA Today link
Yet another reason why this war has hurt our national defenses, not improved them. An illegal, unpopular war hurts the Armed Forces credibility, therefore, damaging recruitment.
