Former Vice President Al Gore made headlines with his criticisms on Sunday of the Bush administration's implementation of the USA PATRIOT Act and the post-9/11 consolidation of federal law enforcement. But. . .Gore proposed a very similar program 10 years earlier.. . .

"Where civil liberties are concerned, they have taken us much farther down the road toward an intrusive, 'Big Brother'-style government, toward the dangers prophesized by George Orwell in his book 1984, than anyone ever thought would be possible in the United States of America," Gore added. . . .

many of the very changes he criticized are strikingly similar to a plan he proposed in 1993 as part of the Clinton-Gore "Partnership for Reinventing Government."

The Clinton administration's recommendations were listed as number 312 on a list of 1,498 suggestions, bearing the summary "The DLE should reinvent federal law enforcement to ensure activities are coordinated and critical resources are shared."

DLE was the Clinton administration acronym for the Directorate of Central Law Enforcement.

The Scripps-Howard News Service reported on August 11, 1993, that Gore had "drafted a proposal to transfer all federal law enforcement activities to the Justice Department. The new 'Directorate of Central Law Enforcement,' headed by the attorney general, would oversee the FBI, the DEA, Secret Service, Customs Service, Internal Revenue Service, Postal Service and BATF.'"

It's just a coincidence that George W. Bush gave a speech announcing that the U.S. was leading a "global democratic revolution" on the eve of Leon Trotsky's birthday, but it is one that neatly illustrates the militant revolutionism at the core of American foreign policy in the post-9/11 era.

The proximity to Trotsky's birthday was fortuitous, but the venue of this revolutionary proclamation was not: it was a speech commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the brainchild of neoconservative ideologues, many of whom have their roots on the Trotskyite Left. Having given up the dream of revolutionary socialism for the more practical project of global "democracy," the troublesome little sect of neoconservatives, not so affectionately known as "neocons," is at last having its moment in the sun. . . .

The first President of [NED], Carl Gershman, was a longtime member of the Social Democrats, USA, formerly the Socialist Party, a group dominated by the legendary Max Shachtman - the founder of "third camp" neo-Trotskyism. . . .

Like the Commie leaders of the past, who . . . were conscious enemies of tradition, Bush sees himself as the instrument of History. All progress is measured by the speed of his victories.

Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. yesterday announced a new partnership between homeland security. . . professionals in Maryland and Israel after meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. . . The Maryland/Israel Partnership in Homeland Security will allow professionals from both communities to explore and share the “best practices” each community employs in responding to terrorism threats.. . .

[Ehrlich said,] "By combining our knowledge and expertise with the technology being developed in many Maryland companies, particularly in bio-defense and emergency medical preparedness, we hope to strengthen the security of both communities and their citizens." . . .

[The Partnership will] Incorporate procedures used by the Israelis at the Port of Baltimore and the Baltimore Washington International Airport . . .

The Homeland Security Partnership will include conferences, seminars and exchange visits to examine issues such as risk analysis; response planning and training; technology development; "first responder" technology and training; security of community assets; hospital emergency preparedness; and community preparedness through public information and public policy techniques.

The court-ordered probe into the breakdown of 10 new touch-screen voting machines in Fairfax County on Election Day. . .

[A lawsuit] was filed yesterday by the Campaign for Verifiable Voting in Maryland, which wants state election officials to reconsider a $55 million contract with [AVS].

Maryland election officials . . . said they will go forward with plans to install 11,000 new touch-screen electronic voting machines in time for the March presidential primary.

Fairfax County earlier this year bought 1,000 new laptop touch-screen computer voting machines from Texas-based Advanced Voting Solutions (AVS). . . vote returns came in slower, machines broke down in nine precincts and Republicans filed a lawsuit that challenges the results.

[S]tate and local governments are spending tens of millions of dollars to overhaul their systems for recording votes. Under the federal Help America Vote Act, [b]localities must upgrade manual voting machines by 2006[/b].

Citing concerns that Diebold Election Systems installed uncertified software on some electronic voting systems in a California county without the state's knowledge, officials are forcing the company to pay for an audit of all the company's voting machines used in the state in order to win certification for a new model. . . .

The software was installed in Alameda County . . .

[State] certification is contingent on Diebold paying for an independent audit of all its hardware and software used in 13 other California counties to determine if uncertified components have been installed elsewhere.

Diebold must also cooperate fully with the independent auditors and with the secretary of state's office during its investigation of the certification violation . . . Three have already signed contracts with Diebold for TSx machines. . . A fourth county, San Diego, is negotiating with Diebold to purchase over 10,000 TSx units.

Starting in 2004, the state will also conduct random audits of voting systems to ensure that all software and hardware is certified. And in the future, the state will require CEOs of vendors to affirm under penalty of perjury that the company will not change systems without obtaining written approval from the secretary of state. Failure to do so may result in de-certification and possible criminal charges

Representatives Edward Whitfield (R-KY) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ) are pushing H.R. 3015 -- the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting Act of 2003 -- that has been referred to the Energy and Commerce Committee.

The states have historically maintained the records of prescriptions and their recipients. Now, that is threatened by the Whitfield-Pallone bill which would have the drug usage of honest, law-abiding American citizens in a Federal Government database, on call to help usher our country toward a national health ID program.

The legislation actually calls for establishing a national database to track the use of controlled substances that "have a useful and legitimate medical purpose" but hold the potential for misuse. . .

Information to be collected include the "patient identifier" which includes the drug user's full name; address, including zip code; date of birth; and Social Security number.

The Feds will be collecting information regarding the exact drug that has been dispensed, what quantity, the number of refills, the practitioner and dispenser of the drug.

Practitioners and law enforcement officials at any level, including medical researchers and Federal and State health care bureaucrats, will be able to access the information on the database. . . .

The new federal medical privacy rule is preventing clergy from learning who among their parishioners are hospitalized. The use of the medical privacy rule to block clergy from learning this information prevents clergy from ministering to their hospitalized parishioners. . . .

The same rule that "protects" Americans from the dangers of hospital visits by priests, ministers, and rabbis, gives government bureaucrats, Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), insurance companies, and other government-favored special interests an almost unfettered right to view Americans' private medical records without patient consent!

In order to protect medical privacy and bring common sense back into the debate over who should see medical records, we are sponsoring the Patient Privacy Act (HR 1699). HR 1699 repeals the misguided and misnamed medical privacy rule as well as the scheme to assign every American a "unique health care identifier." . . .

Please help advance real medical privacy! Call Norm at 202-225-2831 [Rep. Ron Paul's office] and cosponsor the Patient Privacy Act today!

Sincerely,
Rep. Ron Paul
Rep. Dan Burton

Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble conducted a secret RFID trial involving Oklahoma consumers earlier this year, the Chicago Sun Times revealed on Sunday. Customers who purchased P&G's Lipfinity brand lipstick at the Broken Arrow Wal-Mart store between late March and mid-July unknowingly left the store with live RFID tracking devices embedded in the packaging. Wal-Mart had previously denied any consumer-level RFID testing in the United States. . . .

A live video camera trained on the shelf allowed Procter & Gamble employees, sometimes hundreds of miles away, to observe the Lipfinity display and consumers interacting with it.

Auto-ID Center documents suggest that other products, including Huggies baby wipes, Pantene shampoo, Caress soap, Purina Dog Chow and Right Guard deodorant were also slated for live RFID field trials. Coca Cola, Kraft, Kodak and Johnson & Johnson products are also implicated. . . .

Reading between the lines of the ICRC statement and the various press reports, there are indications, although no official evidence, that Red Cross vehicles were targeted by Coalition forces. As mentioned earlier, Iraqi forces had no reason to target ambulances which were collaborating with Iraqi health officials.

The ICRC was careful not to openly accuse US forces:

" The ICRC said it was not known whether the convoy had been deliberately attacked or had been caught up in crossfire between American and Iraqi forces." (Independent, 10 April 2003)

According to Roland Huguenin-Benjamin, of the Red Cross mission in Baghdad:

'Casualties have been seen on the roads, on some bridges and there was no immediate possibility of evacuating them, for the reason that there was immediate fire as soon as anybody was trying to approach. The problem is the lack of respect for ambulances and respect for casualties - to give allow a minimum of security for people to be evacuated.'" (Ibid, emphasis added)

. . . By reducing the ICRC's presence, it also undermined the implementation of the ICRC's mandate in Iraq under the Geneva Convention. . .

Under its mandate, the ICRC "visits to prisoners are aimed at preventing or putting an end to disappearances, extra-judicial killings, torture and ill-treatment, and improving conditions of detention," in accordance with the Geneva Convention

In light of an "eighteen-fold increase" in TWA 800 documents released by the FBI during settlement negotiations, the 1st circuit Appeals Court in Boston vacated a recent Springfield District Court ruling that favored the FBI. The case has been remanded back to the lower court to "resolve the FOIA issues raised by Sephton."

Graeme Sephton, an Engineer at U-Mass Amherst, filed the suit in 1998 as FOIA officer for [FIRO]. He requested from the FBI, data from forensic analyses of "foreign bodies" found during autopsy examinations of victims of the 1996 crash of TWA Flight 800.

Some of the documents unearthed by Sephton describe pellets consistent with those used in missile warheads. No less than twenty such pellets were recovered during victim autopsy exams. The FBI report describing the pellets was classified "Secret" and dated after the FBI officially suspended its investigation into the crash.

FBI whistleblower Frederick Whitehurst submitted a supporting affidavit, which named two FBI laboratory databases where responsive records would most likely be stored. None of three affidavits submitted by the FBI describing its search method mention searching any FBI Laboratory database.

Sure enough, Pfc Lynch has selective amnesia and cannot remember the events of her capture and rescue . . .

When the Department of Defense insisted on keeping up their official version of the rescue, I knew that inevitably some of Lynch's rescuers would be hushed. After all, here is a woman who endured a few broken limbs from a vehicle accident and is rewarded with a million bucks, while her rescuers continue to live without toilets and running water in a Depleted Uranium wasteland. . . .

Four of Pfc. Lynch's rescuers and colleagues have met an early demise.

Petty Officer First Class David M. Tapper died of wounds received in Afghanistan. He took part in the rescue.

Lance Cpl. Sok Khak Ung was killed [in a backyard by an unknown assailant]. He was also part of the rescue team.

Spc Josh Daniel Speer died when his car crashed into some trees for no apparent reason. He was part of the rescue team.

Kyle Edward Williams, who worked in the same company as Lynch, died of "suicide". [left no note]

JESSICA LYNCH DISPUTES ARMY ACCOUNT OF DRAMATIC RESCUE!

Jessica Lynch criticized military for exaggerating accounts of her rescue and recasting her ordeal as patriotic fable... MORE.. Asked by ABCNEWS anchor Diane Sawyer if military's portrayal of rescue bothered her, Lynch said: 'Yeah, it does. It does that they used me as a way to symbolize all this stuff. Yeah, it's wrong'... Asked how she felt about reports of her heroism: 'It hurt in a way that people would make up stories that they had no truth about. Only I would have been able to know that, because the other four people on my vehicle aren't here to tell the story. So I would have been the only one able to say, Yeah, I went down shooting. But I didn't'... Asked about claims the military exaggerated danger of the rescue mission: 'Yeah, I don't think it happened quite like that'...