Cheney Says He Can Declassify Info { but not hunting accidents!}

~~~ However it seems Dick Cheney is not empowered to
publicly report when he shoots someone.
So at least there is some check on his power.~~ TP
-----------------------

Cheney Says He Can Declassify Info WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2006 "(AP) == "Vice President Dick Cheney says he has the power to declassify government secrets, raising the possibility that he authorized his former chief of staff to pass along sensitive prewar data on Iraq to reporters"

US plans to 'fight the net' revealed . BBC NEWS | Americas

~~~ This is well worth the read. ~~ ~ TP
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-------------

BBC NEWS | Americas | US plans to 'fight the net' revealed:
By Adam Brookes
BBC Pentagon correspondent

"A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military's plans for 'information operations' - from psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks."

The declassified document is called "Information Operations Roadmap". It was obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University using the Freedom of Information Act.

"Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him" " NYTimes

~~ Typical of the Bushies. ~~~ TP

"Climate Expert Says NASA Tried to Silence Him"
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: January 29, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com

"In several interviews with The New York Times in recent days, Dr. Hansen said it would be irresponsible not to speak out, particularly because NASA's mission statement includes the phrase 'to understand and protect our home planet.'

He said he was particularly incensed that the directives had come through telephone conversations and not through formal channels, leaving no significant trails of documents.

Dr. Hansen's supervisor, Franco Einaudi, said there had been no official 'order or pressure to say shut Jim up.' But Dr. Einaudi added, 'That doesn't mean I like this kind of pressure being applied.'

The fresh efforts to quiet him, Dr. Hansen said, began in a series of calls after a lecture he gave on Dec. 6 at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco. In the talk, he said that significant emission cuts could be achieved with existing technologies, particularly in the case of motor vehicles, and that without leadership by the United States, climate change would eventually leave the earth 'a different planet.'

The administration's policy is to use voluntary measures to slow, but not reverse, the growth of emissions.

------------------

"China Reportedly Shuts Down Blog" -Thu Nov 3, 8:17 AM ET

To ban the Internet completely is impractical for dictatorships if they want their oppressed citizenship to be able to compete in the globalized world economy. So for dictatorships the only authoritarian option is to attempt control and stifle political cyber-dialogues the best they can without curtailing economic activity.

Or in other words to use their powers of E-Governance in order to constrain the citizen use of Cyber-Activism.

~~So, REMEMBER CHINA ,, I'M WATCHING YOU!!

Be careful how you treat those nice and

well meaning bloggers .

Don't make me come over there !!

-----------------------------

China Reportedly Shuts Down Blog

Thu Nov 3, 8:17 AM ET

"BEIJING - Chinese authorities have blocked a pro-democracy Web log after it was nominated for a freedom of expression award by a German radio station, a press freedom group said Thursday.

The blog, titled Wang Yi's Microphone, dealt with 'sensitive subjects' and was maintained by a teacher from Sichuan province, Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said in a statement"China Reportedly Shuts Down Blog - Yahoo! News:

----------------------------

, "The role of Novak. "By William F. Buckley Jr.

~~ I am sort of curious about this myself. ~` tp

--------------

By William F. Buckley Jr. Tue Nov 1, 8:11 PM ET

---

The hot-blooded search for criminality in the matter of Cheney/Libby/Rove has not truly satisfied those in search of first-degree venality. Very soon after the indictment of Mr. Libby, the tricoteuses glumly conceded that no conspiracy has been uncovered. It is not alleged that Mr. Cheney whispered to Mr. Libby that he should conceal the truth from the grand jury or the special prosecutor. The great blast of publicity came from the technical exposure of Mr. Libby to (in his case, at his age) a life term in jail, plus a million-odd-dollar fine. If John Jones is hauled in and word is given out that if found guilty he will be hanged and his severance pay confiscated, the public's attention will be drawn to his crime even if it was to double park.

"The great question here is Robert Novak. It was he who published, in his column, that Mrs. Joseph Wilson was a secret agent of the CIA.

I am too close a friend to pursue the matter with Novak, and his loyalty is a postulate. What was going on? If there are mysteries in town, that surely is one of them, the role of Novak."

"The first sitting White House staffer to be indicted in 135 years"

~~ Even the Dems are right sometime.

This Libby thing -- dare I say "Liggy-gate" --- is very serious stuff.

On the scale of Iran-Contra , if not well beyond. The Bush Team must now confront a

Libby-gate judical trial OR a guilty plea by Libby.

Either way ,, as the Carpenter's sang

"We've only just begun ......". This thing is gonna get a lot bigger before it gets smaller. ~`

~ ` technopolitical
--------------------------------------------------------

The Democratic Party: "Washington, D.C. -- Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid delivered the following statement on the floor of the U.S. Senate calling for a secret session of the Senate.

Remarks as prepared:

'This past weekend, we witnessed the indictment of I. Lewis Libby, the Vice President's Chief of Staff and a senior Advisor to President Bush. Libby is the first sitting White House staffer to be indicted in 135 years."

Confused about the CIA leak case? Start here. Christian Science Monitor

~~Nice article here below , for those who have not followed Plame-gate from its start.

Looks like 'Libby' -- the Vice Presidential Chief of Staff-- will be indicted for lying during the investigation.

At least Bill Clinton only lied about haveing sex.

Libby may have lied to obstruct the truth on matters of national-- and even global --- security.

Why ? To protect a calculated lie the President G.W. Bush made during the 2003 State of the Union address. Read below for more.~~ ~ ` TP

--------------------------

The Christian Science Monitor, Fri Oct 28:

"Confused about the CIA leak case? Start here."

By Linda Feldmann, Staff writer of The Christian Science MonitorFri Oct 28, 4:00 AM ET

For almost two years, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has led an investigation to determine whether anyone acted illegally when the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame was made public. After hearing testimony from some of Washington's most powerful figures, a grand jury is expected to issue indictments as soon as Friday. The Monitor's White House correspondent, Linda Feldmann, answers key questions about the case.

Q. How did this affair begin?

At its heart lie questions about the Bush administration's case for war against Iraq. On Jan. 28, 2003, in his State of the Union address, President Bush included these 16 words: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

The implication was that Iraq was developing a nuclear-weapons program. But US intelligence officials had by then - and have since - expressed doubts about that claim. In July 2003, Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador to two African countries and Iraq, wrote an op-ed in The New York Times disputing Mr. Bush's statement.

The CIA, he wrote, sent him to Niger in 2002 to determine if Iraq had tried to buy uranium from Africa. He concluded no. One week after Mr. Wilson's op-ed, syndicated columnist Robert Novak reported that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, worked as "an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction."

At issue is whether Mr. Novak's government sources blew her cover as a CIA agent, in violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act of 1982..............
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20051028/ts_csm/aplame;_ylt=AuS0tA5sKD5c2CDnGXU16Wys0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3b2NibDltBHNlYwM3MTY-

Copyright © 2005 The Christian Science Monitor

Explaining the Charges

Explaining the Charges: "Explaining the Charges

By Fred Barbash
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 28, 2005; 3:12 PM

Lying about a crime, the accusation against I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, has itself been a crime since the time of Hammurabi."

Yahoo, Chinese police, and a jailed journalist | csmonitor.com

~` We in American tend to forget what a blessing a politically free internet is. ~tp

Yahoo, Chinese police, and a jailed journalist | csmonitor.com: "police, and a jailed journalist
By Robert Marquand | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
HONG KONG – The role of the US Internet firm Yahoo in helping Chinese security officials to finger a journalist sentenced to 10 years for e-mailing 'state secrets' is filtering into mainland China. The revelation reinforces a conviction among many Chinese 'netizens' that there is no place security forces can't find them.

Yet if netizen reaction in China is resignation, the story of Yahoo's complicity in the arrest of Shi Tao, a journalist with the Contemporary Trade News in Hunan, brought a spontaneous uproar among Western human rights and business watchdogs."

Internet satellite imagery under fire over security - Yahoo! News

Internet satellite imagery under fire over security - Yahoo! News: "South Korean government officials have said they will contact officials in Washington to express their security concerns about the Google Earth product.

Among the buildings that can be seen on Google Earth, with a high-resolution package, are the South Korean president's residence, military bases and the defense security command. The government restricts information about the location of these facilities and their construction."
TECHNOLOGY UNSTOPPABLE

Sri Lanka's military spokesman, Brigadier Daya Ratnayake, said it was a serious concern if anyone could get detailed images of sensitive installations and buildings. "But this is a new trend, we will first have to see whether, in this day and age, if this a considerable threat to national security."

"In this era of technology -- you have to live with the fact that almost everything is on the Internet -- from bomb-making instructions to assembling aircraft. So it's something the military has to learn to live with and adapt," Ratnayake said.

A security official in India said the issue of satellite imagery had been discussed at the highest level but the government had concluded that "technology cannot be stopped."

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Breaking down the Great Firewall

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Breaking down the Great Firewall

Breaking down the Great Firewall
By Kevin Anderson
BBC News

The complex system that the Chinese government uses to control the flow of information - known as the Great Firewall - has holes.

And these holes became more evident during the recent anti-Japan protests as a complex system of text messages, blogs, online instant messages, e-mail and bulletin board systems spread word about the marches.

The Chinese government and the Chinese people constantly play a cat and mouse game over the flow of information.

For every new restriction and technical door that the government slams shut, the Chinese people find a hack, a workaround or an entirely new way of communicating.

Hallmark of Bush presidency: control over information flow | csmonitor.com

Hallmark of Bush presidency: control over information flow | csmonitor.com: "September 01, 2005 edition

Hallmark of Bush presidency: control over information flow
By Pat M. Holt
WASHINGTON – Disagreements with President Johnson over the Vietnam War drove Congress to circumscribe the powers of the presidency so much that when Johnson left the White House in 1969, it was said it would take until the end of the century to restore those lost powers. Thanks to a succession of weak presidents, the end of the century arrived without much having been done in this respect.

Richard Nixon, impeached by the House over Watergate, resigned to avoid trial by the Senate. Gerald Ford was unable to deal with the mess Nixon left. Despite the considerable accomplishment of the Camp David accord making peace between Egypt and Israel, Jimmy Carter was weakened by the hostage crisis in Iran and the botched rescue attempt. Ronald Reagan and his vice president, George H.W. Bush, had the Iran-contra scandal. For Bill Clinton, it was Monica Lewinsky and an impeachment trial (he was acquitted)."

Google Anything, so Long as It's Not Google - New York Times

~~ You know Google is getting a little weird lately.
Well, absolute power does corrupt absolutely ~` TP

----------------------------

Google Anything, so Long as It's Not Google - New York Times: "August 28, 2005
Google Anything, so Long as It's Not Google
By RANDALL STROSS

IF you were Google's C.E.O., wouldn't you Google yourself? At least once? Would you be surprised to discover that your recent stock sales, net worth, hobbies and contributions to various political candidates are online and easily reached with a click or two?

That your home address pops up so readily - O.K., that may have come as a surprise - shows that a person can no longer designate which piece of personal information becomes public and which remains private.

So why, if you're Eric E. Schmidt, the chairman and chief executive of Google, a soft-spoken person without a history of intemperate action, do you furiously strike at the poor messenger who delivers the news that your company's search service works very well indeed?

Last month, Elinor Mills, a writer for CNET News, a technology news Web site, set out to explore the power of search engines to penetrate the personal realm: she gave herself 30 minutes to see how much she could unearth about Mr. Schmidt by using his company's own service. The resulting article, published online at CNET's News.com under the sedate headline 'Google Balances Privacy, Reach,' was anything but sensationalist. It mentioned the types of information about Mr."

"Bush Denies U.S. Plans to Attack Iran " By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer

Do you believe him? ~~~TP

Bush Denies U.S. Plans to Attack Iran
By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer
BRUSSELS, Belgium - President Bush said Tuesday that it is "simply ridiculous" to assume that the United States has plans to attack Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program after discussing the issue with European allies.
-------------------------------------------------

Reporter's shield bill introduced in House , © 2005 The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

~ ~ ~ The Court ruling that reporters
can be compelled to reveal their
sources is bad news. Luckily,
Congress can fix the situation
A Republican and a Democrat
co-sponsoring a much need

piece of legislation. ~~ TP

Reporter's shield bill introduced in House
© 2005 The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

Journalists would be shielded from
being forced to reveal confidential
sources under the
"Free Flow of Information Act."
Reporters must testify in CIA leak probe

BY TOM BRUNEWASHINGTON BUREAU

February 16, 2005

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday that two reporters must testify before a federal grand jury about their confidential sources in a probe trying to determine who in the Bush administration leaked the identity of a covert CIA officer.

In an expected ruling, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower court ruling that held in contempt Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Judith Miller of The New York Times for refusing to testify.

Time and the Times Tuesday said ---- { what an intereresting pharse, almost poetic ~~tp ] ---- they would appeal the decision to the full circuit and possibly the Supreme Court, and would seek a stay to keep the reporters out of jail.

The publications had tried to quash the subpoenas based on the First Amendment and reporters' privilege to protect confidential sources under federal common law, which is based on practice than on statutes.

In October, District Judge Thomas Hogan ruled against them.The decision prompted calls from Floyd Abrams, attorney for both reporters, and groups such as Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, for Congress to enact a federal shield law to permit reporters to protect confidential sources.

Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc.
----------------------------------

Senate Remarks by Robert C. Byrd

Senate Remarks by Robert C. Byrd
	March 19, 2003 http://byrd.senate.gov/
	"The Arrogance of Power"
	I believe in this beautiful country. I have studied its roots and gloried in the wisdom of its magnificent Constitution. I have marveled at the wisdom of its founders and framers. Generation after generation of Americans has understood the lofty ideals that underlie our great Republic. I have been inspired by the story of their sacrifice and their strength. But, today I weep for my country. I have watched the events of recent months with a heavy, heavy heart. No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. The image of America has changed. Around the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned. Instead of reasoning with those with whom we disagree, we demand obedience or threaten recrimination. Instead of isolating Saddam Hussein, we seem to have isolated ourselves. We proclaim a new doctrine of preemption which is understood by few and feared by many. We say that the United States has the right to turn its firepower on any corner of the globe which might be suspect in the war on terrorism. We assert that right without the sanction of any international body. As a result, the world has become a much more dangerous place. We flaunt our superpower status with arrogance. We treat UN Security Council members like ingrates who offend our princely dignity by lifting their heads from the carpet. Valuable alliances are split. After war has ended, the United States will have to rebuild much more than the country of Iraq. We will have to rebuild America's image around the globe. The case this Administration tries to make to justify its fixation with war is tainted by charges of falsified documents and circumstantial evidence. We cannot convince the world of the necessity of this war for one simple reason. This is a war of choice. There is no credible information to connect Saddam Hussein to 9/11. The twin towers fell because a world-wide terrorist group, Al Qaeda, with cells in over 60 nations, struck at our wealth and our influence by turning our own planes into missiles, one of which would likely have slammed into the dome of this beautiful Capitol except for the brave sacrifice of the passengers on board. The brutality seen on September 11th and in other terrorist attacks we have witnessed around the globe are the violent and desperate efforts by extremists to stop the daily encroachment of western values upon their cultures. That is what we fight. It is a force not confined to borders. It is a shadowy entity with many faces, many names, and many addresses. But, this Administration has directed all of the anger, fear, and grief which emerged from the ashes of the twin towers and the twisted metal of the Pentagon towards a tangible villain, one we can see and hate and attack. And villain he is. But, he is the wrong villain. And this is the wrong war. If we attack Saddam Hussein, we will probably drive him from power. But, the zeal of our friends to assist our global war on terrorism may have already taken flight. The general unease surrounding this war is not just due to "orange alert." There is a pervasive sense of rush and risk and too many questions unanswered. How long will we be in Iraq? What will be the cost? What is the ultimate mission? How great is the danger at home? A pall has fallen over the Senate Chamber. We avoid our solemn duty to debate the one topic on the minds of all Americans, even while scores of thousands of our sons and daughters faithfully do their duty in Iraq. What is happening to this country? When did we become a nation which ignores and berates our friends? When did we decide to risk undermining international order by adopting a radical and doctrinaire approach to using our awesome military might? How can we abandon diplomatic efforts when the turmoil in the world cries out for diplomacy? Why can this President not seem to see that America's true power lies not in its will to intimidate, but in its ability to inspire? War appears inevitable. But, I continue to hope that the cloud will lift. Perhaps Saddam will yet turn tail and run. Perhaps reason will somehow still prevail. I along with millions of Americans will pray for the safety of our troops, for the innocent civilians in Iraq, and for the security of our homeland. May God continue to bless the United States of America in the troubled days ahead, and may we somehow recapture the vision which for the present eludes us. ###