Countdown: Wiretapping, Torture and Rove Subpoena + Ghost Detainees

Dandelion Salad

Updated: 1.27.09 added video

heathr456

Keith talks to Jonathan Turley about whether there will be any convictions for illegal wiretapping and torture and whether Karl Rove will honor his subpoena to appear before Congress.

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Bush Admin Kept Almost No Records On GITMO Detainees! (Ghost Detainees)

VOTERSTHINKdotORG

http://cspanjunkie.org/

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Updated

Countdown: Rove’s possible HJC testimony and executive privilege

firedoglake

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Conyers Subpoenas Karl Rove: “It’s Time to Talk”

Obama Sides With Bush in Spy Case

Torture on Dandelion Salad

Domestic Spying on Dandelion Salad

Turley-Jonathan

Conyers Subpoenas Karl Rove: “It’s Time to Talk”

Dandelion Salad

Conyers Subpoenas Karl Rove: “It’s Time to Talk”

For Immediate Release
January 26, 2009
Contact: Jonathan Godfrey
Lillian German

(Washington, D.C.) — Today, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. issued a subpoena to Karl Rove requiring him to testify regarding his role in the Bush administration’s politicization of the Department of Justice, including the U.S. attorney firings and the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. The subpoena was issued pursuant to authority granted in H.R. 5 (111th Congress), and calls for Mr. Rove to appear at deposition on Monday, February 2, 2009. Mr. Rove has previously refused to appear in response to a Judiciary Committee subpoena, claiming that even former presidential advisers cannot be compelled to testify before Congress. That “absolute immunity” position was supported by then-President Bush, but it has been rejected by U.S. District Judge John Bates and President Obama has previously dismissed the claim as “completely misguided.”

“I have said many times that I will carry this investigation forward to its conclusion, whether in Congress or in court, and today’s action is an important step along the way,” said Mr. Conyers. Noting that the change in administration may impact the legal arguments available to Mr. Rove in this long-running dispute, Mr. Conyers added “Change has come to Washington, and I hope Karl Rove is ready for it. After two years of stonewalling, it’s time for him to talk.”

A copy of the subpoena is linked here.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Biden vows more strikes inside Pakistan

Dandelion Salad

Press TV
Mon, 26 Jan 2009 22:29:10 GMT

US Vice President Joe Biden emphasizes that Pentagon would not hesitate to launch strikes inside Pakistani territories near the Afghan border.

“I can say that the President of the United States said during his campaign and in the debates that if there is an actionable target, of a high-level al-Qaeda personnel, that he would not hesitate to use action to deal with that,” Pakistani media quoted him on Monday.

The remarks come after 22 people were killed in two separate US missile strikes in the Waziristan region, on Friday.

US commanders said they had consulted President Barack Obama before launching recent drone attacks on Pakistan’s tribal belt bordering Afghanistan.

[…]

via Press TV – Biden vows more strikes inside Pakistan.

see

Obama Allows Air Strikes In Pakistan! 17 Killed + Obama ordered Waziristan airstrikes

“Same as it ever was” Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime

“Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”

Barack Obama on Dandelion Salad

Dennis Kucinich States His Intention To Put The Federal Reserve Under Government Control

Dandelion Salad

CSPANJUNKIEdotORG

http://cspanjunkie.org/

January 26, 2009 C-SPAN

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Kucinich: Save America’s Homes

Kucinich Challenges Banks on Hoarding Bailout Funds

Kucinich Ready To Go After The Federal Reserve!

The Economy Sucks and or Collapse 2

In America, Speaking the Truth Is a Career-ending Event, By Paul Craig Roberts

Dandelion Salad

By Paul Craig Roberts

January 26, 2009 “Information Clearinghouse”

“The evidence is sitting on the table. There is no avoiding the fact that this was torture.”

These are the words of Manfred Nowak, the UN official appointed by the Commission on Human Rights to examine cases of torture. Nowak has concluded that President Obama is legally obligated to prosecute former President George W. Bush and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

If President Obama’s bankster economic team finishes off what remains of the US economy, Obama, to deflect the public’s attention from his own failures and Americans’ growing hardships, might fulfill his responsibility to prosecute Bush and Rumsfeld. But for now the interesting question is why did the US military succumb to illegal orders?

In the December 2008 issue of CounterPunch, Alexander Cockburn, in his report on an inglorious chapter in the history of the Harvard Law School, provides the answer. Two brothers, Jonathan and David Lubell, both Harvard law students, were politically active against the Korean War. It was the McCarthy era, and the brothers were subpoenaed. They refused to cooperate on the grounds that the subpoena was a violation of the First Amendment.

Harvard Law School immediately began pressuring the students to cooperate with Congress. The other students ostracized them. Pressures from the Dean and faculty turned into threats. Although the Lubells graduated magna cum laude, they were kept off the Harvard Law Review. Their scholarships were terminated. A majority of the Harvard Law faculty voted for their expulsion (expulsion required a two-thirds vote).

Banned from the BBC – Gaza Aid Appeal Video + George Galloway at Protest for Gaza

Dandelion Salad

DEC Gaza Crisis Appeal

wotdoesitmatter

Donations can be made via the DEC website http://www.dec.org.uk ,
24 hour credit card line 0370 60 60 900

cheques made payable to
“DEC Gaza Crisis”

send to:
DEC Gaza Crisis Appeal
PO Box 999,
London EC3A 3AA.

Donations can also be made at high street banks and post offices.

[CC] Closed Captions

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[Same video at original source:]

Banned from the BBC – Gaza Aid Appeal Video

Video: Gaza aid appeal | Media | guardian.co.uk

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George Galloway MP | Protest for Gaza Stop the BBC blocking Gaza Aid Appeal | 24th January 2009

Hindukushpictures

1.24.09

London Demonstration on 24/01/2009 against BBC’s refusal of televising Aid Appeal for Palestine and ending Arms sales to Israel

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Gaza: The Facts Are Insufficiently Impartial + Tony Benn DEC appeal on News 24

Jewish Peace News: Henry Siegman: “Israel’s Lies”

Unseen Gaza (must-see)

A Gaza story by WDA (poem)

Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Gaza Crisis Appeal

Jewish Peace News: Henry Siegman: “Israel’s Lies”

Dandelion Salad

Crossposted with permission from Jewish Peace News

Jewish Peace News
1.26.09

The London Review of Books published a new essay in which Henry Siegman thoroughly dismantles each of Israel’s stated justifications for its assault on Gaza and Hamas. Siegman says “Western governments and most of the Western media have accepted a number of Israeli claims justifying the military assault on Gaza: that Hamas consistently violated the six-month truce that Israel observed and then refused to extend it; that Israel therefore had no choice but to destroy Hamas’s capacity to launch missiles into Israeli towns; that Hamas is a terrorist organisation, part of a global jihadi network; and that Israel has acted not only in its own defence but on behalf of an international struggle by Western democracies against this network….let me state bluntly that each of these claims is a lie.”

Siegman, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and former Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee, is also a rabbi and a Holocaust survivor from Germany. He’s written extensively about the peace process, stating that no agreement can be made without the inclusion of Hamas and referring to his own experience of fleeing the Nazis to identify with Palestinian refugees and Palestinian suffering. In an article by Chris Hedges, formerly of the New York Times, Siegman discusses his disappointment in American Jewish leadership over Israel as well as the family strife that his speaking out on Israel and Palestine has caused (http://query.nytimes.com…). Siegman’s wisdom, insight and willingness to say unpopular things is always instructive and helps illuminate a path for those seeking justice and security for both Israelis and Palestinians. Of his many insights, one in particular that I want to emphasize is that “if [Israel] succeeds in dismantling Hamas, the movement will in time be replaced by a far more radical Palestinian opposition.”

Sarah Anne Minkin

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n02/sieg01_.html

Israel’s Lies

Henry Siegman

Western governments and most of the Western media have accepted a number of Israeli claims justifying the military assault on Gaza: that Hamas consistently violated the six-month truce that Israel observed and then refused to extend it; that Israel therefore had no choice but to destroy Hamas’s capacity to launch missiles into Israeli towns; that Hamas is a terrorist organisation, part of a global jihadi network; and that Israel has acted not only in its own defence but on behalf of an international struggle by Western democracies against this network.

Move to End “Internet Neutrality”: Blow to Bloggers. “Ten Pin Strike against Political Freedom”

Dandelion Salad

by Sherwood Ross
Global Research, January 26, 2009

If the cable and phone companies that transmit Internet data are allowed to charge higher rates to some producers for faster service the result will be “a ten pin strike against political freedom,” a prominent legal authority warns.

That’s because the change will enable the wealthy to “quickly take over the high speed transmissions (for their trash commercial content) just as they completely monopolize radio and TV, and just as their incredibly greedy profit-seeking has had a very deleterious effect on print journalism,” writes Lawrence Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover.

Velvel’s plea for “internet neutrality” comes in his new book “An Enemy of The People,” subtitled “The Unending Battle Against Conventional Wisdom (Doukathsan).” Essentially, he writes, the proposed change is an “attempt by the wealthy to make the internet into yet another repository of their power…”

Under the new scheme sought by transmission firms, Velvel writes, “large companies would pay more, no doubt a lot more, in order to have their messages, videos, audios, and any other content transmitted rapidly. The rest of us peasants, who could not afford to have our content move fast, would pay less and have it move more slowly.”

On The Wrong Side, by Uri Avnery

Dandelion Salad

by Uri Avnery
Gush Shalom
24/01/09

OF ALL the beautiful phrases in Barack Obama’s inauguration speech, these are the words that stuck in my mind: “You are on the wrong side of history.”

He was talking about the tyrannical regimes of the world. But we, too, should ponder these words.

In the last few days I have heard a lot of declarations from Ehud Barak, Tzipi Livni, Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Olmert. And every time, these eight words came back to haunt me: “You are on the wrong side of history!”

Obama was speaking as a man of the 21st century. Our leaders speak the language of the 19th century. They resemble the dinosaurs which once terrorized their neighborhood and were quite unaware of the fact that their time had already passed.

[…]

via On The Wrong Side – Gush Shalom – Israeli Peace Bloc.

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

see

Chomsky: No change coming with Obama

President Obama’s Weekly Address 01.24.09

Unseen Gaza (must-see)

Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Gaza Crisis Appeal

Barack Obama on Dandelion Salad (new tag)

Inside Story – Can Israel be held accountable?

Dandelion Salad

AlJazeeraEnglish

The International Criminal Court has been discussing the possibility of war crimes tribunals and the UN are calling for a full investigation into Israel’s treatment of civilians in their war on Gaza. Can Israel be held accountable? And who would be able to do it? Inside Story discusses

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Iranian Defence Minister: Israeli will attack Gaza again in coming months

Breaking Gaza’s Will: Israel’s Enduring Fantasy, By Ramzy Baroud

Unseen Gaza (must-see)

chemical weapons-white phosphorus-DU

Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Gaza Crisis Appeal

Is military spending crippling US?

Dandelion Salad

RussiaToday

The United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars each year on its military. Part of the budget funds a worldwide network of bases, including sites in former Soviet republics.

Our Common Cause: Climate change — the danger is now

Dandelion Salad

Posted with permission from Green Left Weekly

Green Left
24 January 2009

The fate of advanced human civilisation — and perhaps of our species itself — hangs in the balance. Fuelled by human-induced greenhouse gas emissions, global warming is advancing at a pace inconceivable to scientists just a few years ago.

The complete melting in late summers of Arctic sea ice — something that scientists used to predict for the final decades of this century — is now widely expected by 2013-15. As the highly reflective ice is replaced by dark water, much more of the sun’s heat is captured. Mean Arctic temperatures in recent years have been as much as 3°C above their long-term averages.

A band of increased warmth 1500km wide stretches south from the Arctic Ocean to cover the main regions of Arctic permafrost. The permafrost is now melting. As it does so, ever-growing volumes of methane gas are bubbling from lakes and swamps.

Given off when plant matter decays in an oxygen-poor environment, methane has a potent greenhouse effect. Though relatively short-lived in the atmosphere the gas, while present, traps heat at around 72 times the rate of carbon dioxide.

Global warming threatens to become self-accelerating as natural “tipping points” are passed, triggering “positive feedbacks” that pour additional carbon from soils and forests into the atmosphere.

David Smick, Author of “The World Is Curved” on The Alcove

Dandelion Salad

MarkMolaro

Renowned economic and financial strategist David Smick sits down for an informative discussion of his new book The World Is Curved. Smick gives a highly informative and thoughtful explanation on how we got into the present global economic crisis, and how we and hopefully the new President Barack Obama and other world leaders can pull us out of this dire situation.

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Obama Inauguration: Slide on Wall Street. Where have all the Creditors Gone?… “When Will We Ever Learn?” by Michel Chossudovsky

The Global Financial Crisis — Michel Chossudovsky

The Economy Sucks and or Collapse 2

Obama-Barack

Iranian Defence Minister: Israeli will attack Gaza again in coming months

compiled by Cem Ertür
featured writer
Dandelion Salad
25 January, 2009

http://www5.irna.ir/En/View/FullStory/?NewsId=314326&idLanguage=3

excerpts from Israeli will attack Gaza again in coming months, says Najjar

IRNA, 21 January 2009

Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said Wednesday that Israel will attack Gaza again in the coming months

“Certain reports indicate that Israel will in the coming months launch an attack on Gaza again. Israel’s rejection of the UN Security Council resolution can be an indication of this,” Najjar told reporters […]

Najjar said that he was confident that Palestinian resistance movement will be fully alert and careful and meet its long-term objectives. “The victory promises a yet bigger victory, that is liberation of holy Qods and the occupied territories,” he added.

“… After 22-day war, we’ve been witnessing that Israel failed to meet all its pre-announced military and political objectives. Israel wanted to topple the Palestinian popular government, remove resistance and reverse the security equation within Gaza but to no avail. Rather, legitimacy and power of resistance on both domestic and international scales increased as a result. We see that besides public opinion in Muslim states, the international public opinion are supporting Palestinian resistance.”

FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

see

Unseen Gaza (must-see)

Gaza: The Facts Are Insufficiently Impartial + Tony Benn DEC appeal on News 24

Israel-Palestine-Gaza-Occupation

Gaza Crisis Appeal