"Are you Saddam Hussein?" an Iraqi judge asked the defendant, according to the military official. Saddam, 66, apparently in good health and shorn of the long hair and gray beard he had when he was arrested in December in a bunker

On a blazing hot morning last week, 75 men and women of the highway — bus drivers, truckers and van operators — convened at a nondescript office building in Little Rock, Ark., to be trained as terrorist hunters. The Department of Homeland Security this year gave $19.3 million to the American Trucking Associations, which is based in Alexandria, Va., to recruit a volunteer "army" called Highway Watch. So far, 10,000 truckers have signed on to become amateur sleuths. Over the next year, the goal is to add tollbooth workers, rest-stop employees and construction crews, creating a corps of 400,000 people drawn from every state.

[...]

Highway Watch, which will receive an additional $22 million next year, preserves the part of TIPS concerned with monitoring behavior in public space. The Department of Homeland Security has also launched Port Watch, River Watch and Transit Watch. Then there are the familiar Neighborhood Watch groups, many of which have expanded their missions to include homeland security. In New York City, government outsourcing of surveillance has even trickled down to doormen and building superintendents, thousands of whom are being trained to watch out for strange trucks parked near buildings and tenants who move in without furniture.

In a speech to business leaders in India, Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., gave credence to a rumor that the U.S. has captured Osama bin Laden and for political reasons is waiting for the right moment to reveal it, according to the Indo-Asian News Service.

"There are already rumours circulating that Osama bin Laden is being held somewhere already and it's only that they are trying to decide what day they should bring him out," McDermott told Confederation of Indian Industry representatives at a luncheon in New Delhi on Thursday.

The remarks came as McDermott told his audience that the loss of jobs during the Bush administration and the Iraq war will cause Americans to pick a new president in the fall.

The government needs to establish guidelines for canceling or rescheduling elections if terrorists strike the United States again, says the chairman of a new federal voting commission.

Such guidelines do not currently exist, said DeForest B. Soaries, head of the voting panel.

Soaries was appointed to the federal Election Assistance Commission last year by President Bush. Soaries said he wrote to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge in April to raise the concerns.

[...]

"The states control elections, but on the national scale where every state has its own election laws and its own election chief, who's in charge?" he said.

President Bush, seeking to mobilize religious conservatives for his reelection campaign, has asked church-going volunteers to turn over church membership directories, campaign officials said on Thursday.

In a move sharply criticized both by religious leaders and civil libertarians, the Bush-Cheney campaign has issued a guide listing about two-dozen "duties" and a series of deadlines for organizing support among conservative church congregations.

A copy of the guide obtained by Reuters directs religious volunteers to send church directories to state campaign committees, identify new churches that can be organized by the Bush campaign and talk to clergy about holding voter registration drives.

The document, distributed to campaign coordinators across the country earlier this year, also recommends that volunteers distribute voter guides in church and use Sunday service programs for get-out-the-vote drives.

"We expect this election to be potentially as close as 2000, so every vote counts and it's important to reach out to every single supporter of President Bush," campaign spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

In an interview with NPR, researcher and cyber-terrorism expert Gabriel Weimann has confirmed that the recent terror websites that have posted beheading videos and pictures have been uploading their files from London and Texas. This interview confirms the information that JackBlood.com has been reporting since the Nick Berg beheading video was posted on the Al-Ansar 'Islamic' websites last May of 2004.

Mr. Weimann, however, says that the web hosting companies could have been 'hijacked' by Al-Qaeda without the web hosting technical personnel knowing about it. Further in the interview, he doesn't discard the possibility that some of the 'terror' websites may be actually created and controlled by the CIA or the Mossad in order to "provoke or send false information to the terrorists." As a solution for the 'abuse of free speech,' he calls for giving up civil liberties, such as freedom of speech, in order for the government to monitor and track websites more efficiently.

Christopher Deliso interviews Sibel Edmonds

CD: What are they so afraid of?

SE: They're afraid of information, of the truth coming out, and accountability – the whole accountability issue that will arise. But it's not as complicated as it might seem. If they were to allow the whole picture to emerge, it would just boil down to a whole lot of money and illegal activities.

CD: Hmm, well I know you can't name names, but can you tell me if any specific officials will suffer if your testimony comes out?

SE: Yes. Certain elected officials will stand trial and go to prison.

LARKEN ROSE HAS LONG TAUNTED AND DARED THE IRS to prosecute him on tax charges. A year ago, the IRS seized his computers but still hasn't found any "tax crimes" to charge him with. Recently, Rose began distributing a well-produced, lucid anti-tax CD -- spreading that puppy around by the tens of thousands and making it available on the Web to anybody with a broadband connection and a Flash player. Now -- suddenly -- IRS agents fortuitously find kiddie porn on Rose's computers. Why do I rather doubt this?

It seems bitterly ironic that for more than half a century, the fedgov used "tax crimes" to get gangsters whose real crimes they couldn't prove. Now it appears the IRS may be stooping to use that instantly demonizing accusation -- pedophile -- to strike back at people whose "tax crimes" they dare not prosecute. Agree with Larken Rose or not, he's an articulate, fearless opponent.

The active U.S. intelligence officer known only as "Anonymous," who has gained world renown this month as author of an upcoming book called "Imperial Hubris," is actually named Michael Scheuer, according to an article in the Boston Phoenix today by Jason Vest.

Speculation about his identity has run rampant since a June 23 article in The New York Times discussed the book and the background of the author. The book, "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror," asserts, among other things, that Osama bin Laden is not on the run and that the invasion of Iraq has not made the United States safer.

[...]

One luggage screener said he bought nearly $700 in gasoline with a credit card taken from a passenger's bag. Another said he paid off his cell phone bill with cash he took from a suitcase.

Their conversations were recorded, and on Tuesday, four Transportation Security Administration screeners at Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport were charged with stealing valuables from luggage and profiting from the pilfered goods, investigators said.

[...]

TSA has received numerous complaints from passengers who claim they had goods stolen from their bags while passing through Fort Lauderdale, the complaint said. TSA has screened checked-in luggage for explosives nationwide since Jan. 1, 2003 and has advised passengers not to lock their bags in case screeners need to look inside. People who lock their bags risk having the locks broken.

Saying the Patriot Act has helped prevent further terrorist attacks on America, Attorney General John Ashcroft yesterday called for even tougher law-enforcement tools.

In Tampa, Fla., Ashcroft reissued a warning that terrorists intend to attack the U.S. and that the upcoming Fourth of July holiday and political conventions should be considered prime targets.

"We are a nation at war," Ashcroft said. "There are times when 9-11 may seem like a distant memory, but it is not. Al-Qaida wants to hit us and hit us hard."

[...]

Ashcroft argued that law enforcement needs more powers, not fewer. Among those he called for are the power for investigators to subpoena business records in terrorism investigations on their own rather than through a grand jury and a federal death penalty for some terrorism attacks in which people are killed.

Ashcroft is also asking Congress to allow judges to impose the death penalty for those convicted of terrorist activities that do not now have death penalty specifications.

The U.S. Supreme Court placed the first limits on President Bush's war on terrorism on Monday and ruled that terror suspects can use the American judicial system to challenge their confinement.

The historic moves on the day before the end of the high court's term marked a bitter defeat for Bush's assertion of sweeping presidential powers to indefinitely hold "enemy combatants" after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It was the court's first rulings on Bush's terrorism policies.

In one ruling, the court said the nearly 600 foreign terror suspects held for two years at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba could turn to American courts to challenge their confinement. In another ruling, it said an American terror suspect held in his nation is entitled to a chance to contest the government's decision.

"Today's historic rulings are a strong repudiation of the administration's argument that its actions in the war on terrorism are beyond the rule of law and unreviewable by American courts," Steven Shapiro of the American Civil Liberties Union said.

By a 6-3 vote, the justices ruled American courts can consider the claims of Guantanamo Bay prisoners -- suspected al Qaeda members or Taliban fighters -- who said in their lawsuits they were being held illegally in violation of their rights.

"What is presently at stake is only whether the federal courts have jurisdiction to determine the legality of the executive's potentially indefinite detention of individuals who claim to be wholly innocent of wrongdoing," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority.

[...]

In the second ruling, the court divided by a 5-4 vote to rule that Bush has the power to detain American citizen Yaser Hamdi, who was captured in Afghanistan as a suspected Taliban fighter and who has been held in a U.S. military jail. It said the U.S. Congress authorized the detention of combatants in the narrow circumstances alleged in the case.

But in the more important part of the ruling, the justices by an 8-1 vote ruled he should get a fair opportunity to rebut the government's case for detaining him.

The U.S. Army is planning an involuntary mobilization of thousands of reserve troops to maintain adequate force levels in Iraq and Afghanistan, defense officials said on Monday.

The move -- involving the seldom-tapped Individual Ready Reserve -- represents the latest evidence of the strain being placed on the U.S. military, particularly the Army, by operations in those two countries.

[...]

The defense official said that while soldiers in the Individual Ready Reserve have served their voluntary obligation in the Army they still can be mobilized involuntarily for several years after returning to civilian life.

"Sometimes there's a misperception by some of the individuals ... that 'I've done my obligation, I've been in the Army, thank you very much, and I'm done'. But you're not done," the official said.

The Pentagon had originally planned to reduce the number of American troops in Iraq to approximately 110,000 by now, but continuing security problems compelled officials to maintain a level of about 138,000 troops. Officials have said they planned to maintain that number through the end of 2005.

[...] Moore focuses on the business links between Bush and Saudi Arabia, Carlyle and the Bin Laden family. He accurately assesses several aspects of the Afghanistan/Unocal pipeline deal. Nothing he said regarding this was false, per se. However, Mr. Moore unequivocally states that "the hijackers" we're mostly Saudi. He states that "Al Qaeda" perpetrated the events.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Simple physics will show:

A) WTC7 and the two towers were controlled demolitions.

B) No Boeing hit the Pentagon.

Moore makes no mention of these obvious facts, while toeing the official line that hijackers with boxcutters were responsible, even though they couldn't fly planes. This is beyond duplicitous, it is an outright lie of omission. What analysis of the events of that day could be considered true while maintaining this absurd conspiracy theory that muslim terrorists managed to do what is physically impossible?
[...]
F911 attempts to blame Bush, Bin Laden, and Saudi Arabia for everything that happened that day, and completely omits vast evidence that refutes the claim. There is no mention of dancing Israelis, the Odigo warnings, NORAD's unprecedented stand-down, or the impossible cell-phone calls. He fails to mention that FEMA's explaination for WTC7's collapse was "we don't know why it fell"... [or Atta et al's] astoundingly patsy-like behaviour leading up to September 11th. He references OKC without noting the bombs in the basement that McVeigh had no opportunity to install, or why the BATF were not in their offices that morning... He references WTC93 without mentioning that the FBI provided the explosives.
[...]
Mr. Moore's job is to provide yet another patsy to hang the blame on. That the patsy is "the most powerful man in the world" only shows that the American President is really quite expendable...

See the movie. Bring your family and friends who are as yet unexposed to the facts Mr. Moore does cover, albeit belatedly and after others did all the research. Make it look like this disinfo campaign is working. Then go get "9-11, The Road To Tyranny" by Alex Jones.

Senator Richard Lugar, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee... is trying to speed another treaty through his committee.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on June 17 to examine the Council of Europe's Convention on Cybercrime and several other treaties. "Examine" is not really the proper word. It was a cheerleading session in which... testimony all came from treaty proponents representing government agencies including the State Department whose personnel are notorious for hawking such agreements with no serious regard for American sovereignty.

Senator Lugar argued that "prompt ratification" was indeed needed to ensure that the United States would be able to advance "security" and be safe from cybercrime. The representatives who testified before the committee last Thursday made a great point of mentioning the information that we could obtain from other countries, ignoring the obvious downside that other countries could manipulate this law to obtain vital information from our country.

In Senator Lugar's rush to have the Senate Foreign Relations Committee speed the treaties to the Senate floor in the hope that they would then be rushed to the desk of President Bush, some very important concerns were not voiced in debate.

Here’s one. If the United States Senate ratified the treaty, our law
enforcement agencies would be obliged to assist foreign law enforcement in
investigating activities that may not constitute a crime in our country. There is a clause permitting exemptions for "political offenses" which are undefined, but the Bush Administration has failed to define what they will be and the fact is that the next administration could have a very different definition.

This treaty should be of great concern to pro-family organizations, particularly given the interest that Europeans have in prosecuting so-called "hate" crimes and the fact that virtually all political organizations use the Internet. Is it unreasonable to think that our law enforcement officials may be called to monitor the e-mail communications between American and European pro-family groups in order to help gather evidence for European law officials? After all, because YAHOO USA ad made its site available in France -- as it does to many other countries too -- it found itself facing prosecution from French authorities because one of the sites it offered had Nazi memorabilia for sale.
[...]
Article 14 of the Convention on Cybercrime would require countries to place law into effect that would require disclosure of decryption keys. This requirement runs afoul of the Bill of Rights with its provision protecting the right of individuals to avoid self-incrimination. Moreover, it is troubling from the standpoint of national security because it might assist foreign governments in obtaining sensitive information.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center in a statement submitted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee stated the Convention on Cybercrime contains "A significant number of provisions [that] grant sweeping investigative powers of computer search and seizure and government surveillance of voice, e-mail, and data communications in the interests of law enforcement agencies, but are not counterbalanced by accompanying protections of individual rights or limit on government's use of these powers."

The Manhattan Libertarian Party announces an "unauthorized" RNC protest in Central Park on August 29th. New York, claiming that the only permit they need to peaceably assemble is the First Amendment. Members of the Manhattan Libertarian Party announced today that they will gather on the Great Lawn on Central Park on the eve of the Republican National Convention to protest the Iraqi war and occupation and the PATRIOT Act.

"If you ask the government for permission to protest it, you deserve to be told no," said Manhattan Libertarian Party chair Jim Lesczynski, referring to the city's denial of United for Peace and Justice's request for a permit for a massive protest on the Great Lawn on August 29th.

"Organizers will not be available to negotiate with the NYPD, because we don't have any organizers," said Lesczynski.
[...]
Lesczynski expects word of the unauthorized protest, which will unofficially begin on Sunday, August 29th at 12:00 p.m., to spread through the Internet and other grass roots communications channels.
[...]