Undercover investigators bought radioactive ingredients needed to make a dirty bomb and drove them into the USA past border security agents, a government report said Monday.
The report by the Government Accountability Office, the watchdog arm of Congress, said that investigators put radioactive material in the trunks of cars and drove to Canadian and Mexican border checkpoints on Dec. 14, 2005. When Homeland Security radiation detectors went off, the investigators gave Customs and Border Protection agents fake government licenses and receipts…
…The reality is that it is easier to buy low-grade radioactive material for a dirty bomb than it is to buy cold medicine that has been restricted because of the meth epidemic,” Coleman said.
Why am I not surprised? Of course, it’s more important to spy on citizens and peace activists, cause they’re the real threat to dictatorsh…I mean democracy.
The United States is faring poorly in its effort to counter ideological support for terrorism, in part because the government does not communicate effectively, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday.
Rumsfeld made the remark in response to a question from a member of his audience at the Army War College, where he delivered a speech on the challenges facing the country in fighting a global war on terrorism.
“If I were grading I would say we probably deserve a ‘D’ or a ‘D-plus’ as a country as to how well we’re doing in the battle of ideas that’s taking place in the world today,” he told his questioner. “
What is with this garbage about “communicating effectively”, and “failing to sell the war to the public” we keep hearing lately? This is not a marketing and ad campaign for the latest product you want people to buy, it’s an illegal and immoral war where you killing thousands of people and destroying the US economy singlehandedly! No wonder you aren’t winning points for your “ideas”! </mini-rant>
BAGHDAD, March 27 (Reuters) – U.S. commanders in Iraq on Monday accused powerful Shi’ite groups of moving the corpses of gunmen killed in battle to encourage accusations that U.S.-led troops massacred unarmed worshippers in a mosque.
“After the fact, someone went in and made the scene look different from what it was. There’s been huge misinformation,” Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, the second-ranking U.S. commander in Iraq, said.
He rejected the accusations of a massacre that prompted the Shi’ite-led government to demand U.S. forces cede control of security but declined to spell out which group he believed moved the bodies.
BASRA, Iraq – In just two days, at least 150 people have died in the violence threatening to tear apart
Iraq. One of them, Hussein Fadhil, was just 13.
The teenager was in front of his school in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, getting ready to walk into the building when a bomb exploded Sunday, the start of the school week in Iraq.
“He was so happy that morning, as usual,” said Hussein’s brother, Mohammed. “As I turned my back, I heard a huge explosion and found my brother on the ground screaming.”
Hussein suffered serious neck wounds, and was put in a car and sent off to the hospital. He died on the way.
Schools and children have increasingly become targets in a bloody conflict pitting Shiite and Sunni Muslims against each other as Iraq teeters on the verge of civil war. The violence has reached immense proportions in recent weeks, with dozens dying every day and overwhelmed Iraqi authorities seemingly incapable of stopping attacks.
With kidnappings of children and attacks at schools on the rise, some parents are just keeping their kids at home.
Bombs, rockets, mortar and machine-gun fire killed 64 school children from the end of October to the end of February, according to a report by the Education Ministry. At least 169 teachers and 84 other employees died during the same period.
And still we have to listen to BushCo lie and whine…”There is no civil war in Iraq” and “The mean old news media just won’t tell any of the happy stories from Iraq”.
I can’t even imagine how it must feel to be risking your kids’ lives by simply sending them to school. And some think the answer to this is better marketing of the war? pfft.
It is horrible.
The piece also is relevant in view of Lara Logan’s comments on CNN’s Reliable Sources last Sunday. That they cannot cover the ‘good news’ because it would expose rehabbed schools or plants to attack and sabotage.
If you missed it, do yourself the favor to see the clip from Crooksandliars.
She was a most excellent and passionate spokesman. The media today suffer from the notion that there must always be a balancing counterpoint; that things must be equal on both sides. If there are stories about children being blown up and IEDs maiming dozens of people a day, there must always be an equal number of feel-good stories.
Things are not always equal. The good that is going on in Iraq does not balance out the horror.
White House Chief of Staff Card to Resign — “White House chief of staff Andy Card has resigned and will be replaced by budget director Josh Bolten, an administration official said Tuesday.”
It may seem as though it’s been moving along at a snail’s pace, but the second part of the federal investigation into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson is nearly complete, with attorneys and government officials who have remained close to the probe saying that a grand jury will likely return an indictment against one or two senior Bush administration officials.[..]
In lengthy interviews over the weekend and on Monday, they said that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has started to prepare the paperwork to present to the grand jury seeking an indictment against White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove or National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.[..]
Fitzgerald’s investigation has turned up additional evidence over the past few months that convinced him that Luskin’s eleventh-hour revelation about the chain of events that led to the discovery of the email is not credible. Fitzgerald believes that Rove changed his story once it became clear that Cooper would be compelled to testify about the source – Rove – who revealed Plame Wilson’s CIA status to him, sources close to the case said.
Ya know, I’ve spent these long winter months knitting an orange suit, just large enough …(in my imagination). Almost completed. So where do I send it in wish form?
Ultrasound And Algae Team Up To Clean Mercury From Sediments
Ultrasound and algae can be used together as tools to clean mercury from contaminated sediment, according to an Ohio State University study. This research could one day lead to a ship-borne device that cleans toxic metals from waterways without harming fish or other wildlife, said Linda K. Weavers, the John C. Geupel Chair in Civil Engineering at Ohio State.
They use the ultrasound to remove the mercury from the sediment and get it into the water. Then they use the algae to remove the mercury from the water. Nifty!
Great minds work alike – I’ve got this in the Science Headlines today (I left it in ’cause I put a link in with it). Glad to see I’m not the only one that gets excited by this kind of thing. 🙂
Mexican leader urges Canada to open doors to ‘guest workers’ — “Mexican President Vicente Fox has proposed that Canada open its doors to growing numbers of unskilled Mexican “guest workers” to deal with a looming labour shortage brought on by an aging Canadian population. In an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail on the eve of this week’s Cancun summit with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President George W. Bush, Mr. Fox said Canada should greatly expand its current temporary work program for agricultural workers from Mexico. (…)”
I don’t know if anyone outside of North Carolina is following the story of the woman who was gang-raped by several members of Duke University’s lacrosse team, but it is blowing up here, and rightly so.
In the past three years, about a third of the members of the Duke lacrosse team, under investigation in a reported gang rape, have been charged with misdemeanors stemming from drunken and disruptive behavior, court records show.
Of the team’s 47 members, 15 faced charges including underage alcohol possession, having open containers of alcohol, loud noise and public urination.
Most of those charges were resolved in deals with prosecutors that allowed the players to escape criminal convictions.
On Monday, details continued to emerge in the March 13 incident in which a woman who was hired as an exotic dancer for a lacrosse team party said she was held down, beaten, strangled, raped and sodomized. When the woman and another dancer began their routines, the woman said, one of the men watching held up a broomstick and threatened to sexually assault the women, according to court documents released Monday.
The woman making the allegations is 22 years old, black, with two children, who works as an exotic dancer at an escort service to pay her way through college where she is taking a full load of classes.
The lacrosse team members are mainly or all white. The woman was told she would be dancing for a bachelor party and only 5 or 6 men would be there. When she got to the house she was surrounded by over 40 men who mocked her, shouted racial slurs at her, prevented her from leaving, and ultimately, she alleges, gang-raped her.
Team members have refused to name those involved. Police have collected DNA samples from all 46 team members. The lacrosse team has forfeited their games. People are “shocked” because they’re normally such “good guys.”
Vigils have been held in support of the victim. Local columnists are calling for the men to quit protecting those involved.
Members of the Duke men’s lacrosse team: You know.
We know you know.
Whatever happened in the bathroom at the stripper party gone terribly terribly bad, you know who was involved. Every one of you does.
And one of you needs to come forward and tell the police.
Do not be afraid of retribution on the team. Do not be persuaded that somehow this “happened” to one or more “good guys.”
If what the strippers say is true — that one of them was raped, sodomized, beaten and strangled — the guys responsible are not “good.”
This seems an elementary statement, I know.
But I can see loyal team members sitting around convincing themselves that it would be disloyal to turn on their teammates — why, the guys who were involved were just a little “over the top.” In real life, they’re funny. They call their mothers once a week. They share class notes with friends. They attend church.
On this night, they were just a little too drunk, a little too “worked up.” It was a scene straight out of “I am Charlotte Simmons” by Tom Wolfe. Indicative of the times.
The alleged racial epithets slung at the strippers, who were black? Those were just … jokes. Ditto for the ugly remarks overheard by a neighbor: “Thank your grandpa for my cotton shirt.” Har, har.
After all, these guys are not just Duke students, but student athletes. The collegiate dream.
And the women? They were… strippers, for Pete’s sake.
I can see the team going down this path, justifying its silence. And it makes me sick.
Unfotunately it is far too easy to paint this woman as a whore and these men as victims of a party that got out of hand. Just good boys that went too far.
But what I can’t get out of my head is this woman, my daughter’s age, with two children, paying her way through college they only way she felt she could make more than eight-dollars an hour.
And these pampered, spoiled jocks who have gone through life with special privileges and people looking the other way at their indiscretions.
NASA officials announced Monday that the agency has decided to reinstate the Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres, a robotic exploration of two major asteroids that had been canceled earlier this month because of technical problems and cost overruns.
A single nutrient found in soy products elicits changes in gene behavior that permanently reduce an embryo’s risk of becoming obese later in life. While these lab findings have not been replicated in humans, it may explain why Asians have lower rates of obesity and cancer.
The current status and future plans of the Chinese space program are in flux and shrouded in mystery, but there is a chance they may be planning a lunar landing, possibly sooner than we think. Details here. Speaking of the moon, a special celestial event to watch is coming up on Saturday evening, April 1, 2006, for anyone who lives in the eastern or central part of North America. That evening, if the sky is clear, you can watch the waxing Moon eclipse, or “occult,” a number of stars in the Pleiades star cluster in the western sky during and after dusk. Which reminds me of your trivia item for the day: The Japanese word “Subaru” is their name for the Pleiades star cluster (hence the logo with the stars in it). And our final moon-related item: There is going to be a total solar eclipse over parts of Africa, Turkey, and Eastern Europe tomorrow. NASA is blogging it, and will offer a live webcast of the eclipse itself. Listed times are from 5 AM to 6:12 AM EST tomorrow morning. The next total eclipse visible from the United States will not occur Aug. 21, 2017.
One threat with global warming is the spread of tropical diseases into the US. Here is one example: Environmental change and viral mutations are fueling outbreaks of Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE), a mosquito-borne disease that has plagued humans, horses, donkeys and mules in South and Central America for 100 years. Researchers discovered a single common genetic mutation can turn a harmless virus circulating among rodents in New World tropical forests into a strain of the deadly VEE. The key viral mutation causes a small change in one virus protein, but that’s enough to turn the largely benign virus into a fast-moving killer if enough horses, donkeys and mules and mosquitoes are available, the scientists said. The mutated virus multiplies very rapidly in equine species, spreading quickly via mosquitoes to other equines and humans.
New knowledge generated by the sequencing of the genome of rice is allowing scientists to both develop new rice varieties faster and with the specific characteristics needed to deal with climate change, such as tolerance of higher temperatures. However, scientists are calling for more research to fully understand the impact of climate change — especially the extreme weather it may cause — on international efforts to reduce poverty and ensure food security.
From the Emily Latella School of Public Health and bullet dodging: Having observed the H5N1 virus for many years in Asia, Dr. Jeremy Farrar thinks it is unlikely that the virus is poised to jump species, becoming readily transmissible to humans or among them, today’s NY Times reports. It’s still a potential threat we should address, and a “very nasty virus,” he said. And if you’re a chicken, the sky is still falling. <snark>The administration responded that they will announce a new reason to be afraid, very afraid, by week’s end.</snark>
Proposals to close off small areas of the North Sea as marine reserves to allow regeneration of fish stocks may not work for wide-ranging species such as cod and haddock; much larger areas may be required, leading to more intensive fishing in areas still open, British researchers say. Unfortunately, the only solution they propose for this is “more study…”
Today’s “Picture is worth a thousand words” item of the day: We hear from time to time that an asteroid is passing by earth, but it’s nothing to worry about, but someday one might be headed straight for us. How big an issue is this problem? Is it just a ploy by astronomers to get more grants? Go here and decide for yourself. The animation presents a view of earth making its way in its orbit during two months in 2002, with various asteroids swooping by.
What a frat-boy dunderhead. He says at one point that it sends a message that “America isn’t what it used to be.” Duh, who the fuck do you think did that, huh Pierce?
And am I am the only one who thinks his name is a bit, um, sexually suggestive? What the heck was his mother thinking? Oh yeah, she’s a Bush.
ABUJA, Nigeria (ABC/AP) March 28 — Former Liberian President Charles Taylor disappeared from his Nigerian haven, days after his hosts agreed to transfer him to a war crimes tribunal for the murder, rape and maiming of more than a half-million Africans.
The announcement of Taylor’s disappearance came the day before Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo was to meet with President Bush at the White House. That visit was supposed to occur on a high note after Obasanjo resolved two issues of concern to his U.S. allies’ release of kidnapped American oil workers and last week’s deal to hand over Africa’s most infamous warlord.
But Taylor vanished last night from his villa in the southern town of Calabar, the government said. A presidential spokeswoman said members of Taylor’s Nigerian security detail had been arrested.
Liberia’s exiled former leader Charles Taylor has been caught on the Cameroon border in north-eastern Nigeria, a Nigerian police official has said. Mr Taylor’s disappearance from his villa in Calabar in southern Nigeria came after Nigeria said Liberia was free to “take Taylor into custody”.
Mr Taylor was indicted on 17 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, for backing Sierra Leone’s rebels.
Top U.S. court being asked to curb Bush’s powers — “The Supreme Court of the United States was set to hear oral arguments Tuesday in a case that may determine what limits, if any, should be placed on the wartime powers of an American president. (…)”
The case pending in the high court will determine the legality of those military commissions, and will decide whether Hamdan and other Guantánamo detainees can challenge their detention in US federal courts. {snip}
Hamdan’s brief challenges the Supreme Court to stop “this unprecedented arrogation of power.” It warns that “if in the interest of ‘national security,’ this Court concludes that the President has such authority, it will be hard pressed to limit, in any principled manner, the President’s assertion of similarly unprecedented powers in other areas of civil society, so long as they purport to serve the same objective. Indeed, it is not hard to imagine a future President invoking this case as precedent, and asserting the need to subject American citizens to military commissions for any offense somehow connected to the ‘war on terror.'”
“In the end,” the Hamdan brief says, “the President cannot claim that the criminal offenses of the laws of war apply to the war on terror, and at the same time deny the accused the right to invoke any of the protections of the laws of war [the Geneva Conventions].”
Yesterday, a group of retired US generals and admirals filed an amicus brief to asking Scalia to recuse himself after his remarks in Germany last week appeared to pre-judge the issues. “. . . on the grounds that denying Geneva Conventions protections to detainees at Guantanamo Bay could result in their denial to U.S. troops by their captors abroad.” They join the Center for Constitutional Rights & John Conyers in asking for Scalia to step aside in the case.
Roberts ruled on this when he was still on the lower Appeals Court, & has already recused. If the final decision is 4-4, the lower court ruling holds. More interestingly, because of the Detainee Act passed in Dec, they need to first rule as to whether or not they even have jurisdiction in the case; it’s uncertain what a tie would mean in this instance. Scotusblog had some interesting speculations about it the other day.
I feel safer now, how about you? USA Today
Why am I not surprised? Of course, it’s more important to spy on citizens and peace activists, cause they’re the real threat to dictatorsh…I mean democracy.
Here’s the NY Times version.
Shouldn’t that be “Warren Terror?” (He’s just an Excitable Boy, LOL.)
Thanks, Knox.
I was really going for the “Waron-rhymes-with-moron” thing…guess that didn’t work too well.
This time from Rumsfeld: CBS Spews
What is with this garbage about “communicating effectively”, and “failing to sell the war to the public” we keep hearing lately? This is not a marketing and ad campaign for the latest product you want people to buy, it’s an illegal and immoral war where you killing thousands of people and destroying the US economy singlehandedly! No wonder you aren’t winning points for your “ideas”! </mini-rant>
Interesting development. Denial.
U.S. troops defend raid, say Iraqis faked “massacre”
Schools, Kids Becoming Targets in Iraq
And still we have to listen to BushCo lie and whine…”There is no civil war in Iraq” and “The mean old news media just won’t tell any of the happy stories from Iraq”.
I can’t even imagine how it must feel to be risking your kids’ lives by simply sending them to school. And some think the answer to this is better marketing of the war? pfft.
It is horrible.
The piece also is relevant in view of Lara Logan’s comments on CNN’s Reliable Sources last Sunday. That they cannot cover the ‘good news’ because it would expose rehabbed schools or plants to attack and sabotage.
If you missed it, do yourself the favor to see the clip from Crooksandliars.
She was a most excellent and passionate spokesman. The media today suffer from the notion that there must always be a balancing counterpoint; that things must be equal on both sides. If there are stories about children being blown up and IEDs maiming dozens of people a day, there must always be an equal number of feel-good stories.
Things are not always equal. The good that is going on in Iraq does not balance out the horror.
Just heard on CNN — no link yet. I’ll look for one.
White House Chief of Staff Card to Resign — “White House chief of staff Andy Card has resigned and will be replaced by budget director Josh Bolten, an administration official said Tuesday.”
The chimp is making a statement now.
Saw that too. Did a little jig coming out of the shower.
Replaced by Josh Bolton.
Truthout.org posted this AM a Jason Leopold piece, a very, vereery long article on
Fitzgerald Will Seek New White House Indictments
Is it to be Rove or Hadley Or Both!!!
Ya know, I’ve spent these long winter months knitting an orange suit, just large enough …(in my imagination). Almost completed. So where do I send it in wish form?
link
Ultrasound and algae can be used together as tools to clean mercury from contaminated sediment, according to an Ohio State University study. This research could one day lead to a ship-borne device that cleans toxic metals from waterways without harming fish or other wildlife, said Linda K. Weavers, the John C. Geupel Chair in Civil Engineering at Ohio State.
They use the ultrasound to remove the mercury from the sediment and get it into the water. Then they use the algae to remove the mercury from the water. Nifty!
Great minds work alike – I’ve got this in the Science Headlines today (I left it in ’cause I put a link in with it). Glad to see I’m not the only one that gets excited by this kind of thing. 🙂
This is known as bioremediation.
Mexican leader urges Canada to open doors to ‘guest workers’ — “Mexican President Vicente Fox has proposed that Canada open its doors to growing numbers of unskilled Mexican “guest workers” to deal with a looming labour shortage brought on by an aging Canadian population. In an exclusive interview with The Globe and Mail on the eve of this week’s Cancun summit with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President George W. Bush, Mr. Fox said Canada should greatly expand its current temporary work program for agricultural workers from Mexico. (…)”
I don’t know if anyone outside of North Carolina is following the story of the woman who was gang-raped by several members of Duke University’s lacrosse team, but it is blowing up here, and rightly so.
The woman making the allegations is 22 years old, black, with two children, who works as an exotic dancer at an escort service to pay her way through college where she is taking a full load of classes.
The lacrosse team members are mainly or all white. The woman was told she would be dancing for a bachelor party and only 5 or 6 men would be there. When she got to the house she was surrounded by over 40 men who mocked her, shouted racial slurs at her, prevented her from leaving, and ultimately, she alleges, gang-raped her.
Team members have refused to name those involved. Police have collected DNA samples from all 46 team members. The lacrosse team has forfeited their games. People are “shocked” because they’re normally such “good guys.”
Vigils have been held in support of the victim. Local columnists are calling for the men to quit protecting those involved.
Unfotunately it is far too easy to paint this woman as a whore and these men as victims of a party that got out of hand. Just good boys that went too far.
But what I can’t get out of my head is this woman, my daughter’s age, with two children, paying her way through college they only way she felt she could make more than eight-dollars an hour.
And these pampered, spoiled jocks who have gone through life with special privileges and people looking the other way at their indiscretions.
That is awful SN.
NASA officials announced Monday that the agency has decided to reinstate the Dawn mission to Vesta and Ceres, a robotic exploration of two major asteroids that had been canceled earlier this month because of technical problems and cost overruns.
A single nutrient found in soy products elicits changes in gene behavior that permanently reduce an embryo’s risk of becoming obese later in life. While these lab findings have not been replicated in humans, it may explain why Asians have lower rates of obesity and cancer.
Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva has criticized richer countries for not providing enough money to help preserve the variety of life on Earth. President Lula made his comments while opening the ministerial meeting of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.
The current status and future plans of the Chinese space program are in flux and shrouded in mystery, but there is a chance they may be planning a lunar landing, possibly sooner than we think. Details here. Speaking of the moon, a special celestial event to watch is coming up on Saturday evening, April 1, 2006, for anyone who lives in the eastern or central part of North America. That evening, if the sky is clear, you can watch the waxing Moon eclipse, or “occult,” a number of stars in the Pleiades star cluster in the western sky during and after dusk. Which reminds me of your trivia item for the day: The Japanese word “Subaru” is their name for the Pleiades star cluster (hence the logo with the stars in it). And our final moon-related item: There is going to be a total solar eclipse over parts of Africa, Turkey, and Eastern Europe tomorrow. NASA is blogging it, and will offer a live webcast of the eclipse itself. Listed times are from 5 AM to 6:12 AM EST tomorrow morning. The next total eclipse visible from the United States will not occur Aug. 21, 2017.
One threat with global warming is the spread of tropical diseases into the US. Here is one example: Environmental change and viral mutations are fueling outbreaks of Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE), a mosquito-borne disease that has plagued humans, horses, donkeys and mules in South and Central America for 100 years. Researchers discovered a single common genetic mutation can turn a harmless virus circulating among rodents in New World tropical forests into a strain of the deadly VEE. The key viral mutation causes a small change in one virus protein, but that’s enough to turn the largely benign virus into a fast-moving killer if enough horses, donkeys and mules and mosquitoes are available, the scientists said. The mutated virus multiplies very rapidly in equine species, spreading quickly via mosquitoes to other equines and humans.
New knowledge generated by the sequencing of the genome of rice is allowing scientists to both develop new rice varieties faster and with the specific characteristics needed to deal with climate change, such as tolerance of higher temperatures. However, scientists are calling for more research to fully understand the impact of climate change — especially the extreme weather it may cause — on international efforts to reduce poverty and ensure food security.
From the Emily Latella School of Public Health and bullet dodging: Having observed the H5N1 virus for many years in Asia, Dr. Jeremy Farrar thinks it is unlikely that the virus is poised to jump species, becoming readily transmissible to humans or among them, today’s NY Times reports. It’s still a potential threat we should address, and a “very nasty virus,” he said. And if you’re a chicken, the sky is still falling. <snark>The administration responded that they will announce a new reason to be afraid, very afraid, by week’s end.</snark>
Grape seed extract shows promising results in reducing high blood pressure in a new study at the University of California – Davis. And who in California might have an interest in finding new uses for grape seeds? You guessed right: Polyphenolics, a division of Constellation Wines U.S., Inc., funded and supplied the grape seed extract for the study. But hey, if it works, more power to them…
Proposals to close off small areas of the North Sea as marine reserves to allow regeneration of fish stocks may not work for wide-ranging species such as cod and haddock; much larger areas may be required, leading to more intensive fishing in areas still open, British researchers say. Unfortunately, the only solution they propose for this is “more study…”
Today’s “Picture is worth a thousand words” item of the day: We hear from time to time that an asteroid is passing by earth, but it’s nothing to worry about, but someday one might be headed straight for us. How big an issue is this problem? Is it just a ploy by astronomers to get more grants? Go here and decide for yourself. The animation presents a view of earth making its way in its orbit during two months in 2002, with various asteroids swooping by.
Ultrasound and algae can be used together as tools to clean mercury from contaminated underwater sediment, according to an Ohio State University study. This research could one day lead to a ship-borne device that cleans toxic metals from waterways without harming fish or other wildlife, said Linda K. Weavers, the John C. Geupel Chair in Civil Engineering at Ohio State.
The next generation of the Bush dynasty, GW’s nephew Pierce Bush, speaks out elequently (not) in defense of his uncle’s DP World ports deal.
Video link
What a frat-boy dunderhead. He says at one point that it sends a message that “America isn’t what it used to be.” Duh, who the fuck do you think did that, huh Pierce?
And am I am the only one who thinks his name is a bit, um, sexually suggestive? What the heck was his mother thinking? Oh yeah, she’s a Bush.
.
ABUJA, Nigeria (ABC/AP) March 28 — Former Liberian President Charles Taylor disappeared from his Nigerian haven, days after his hosts agreed to transfer him to a war crimes tribunal for the murder, rape and maiming of more than a half-million Africans.
The announcement of Taylor’s disappearance came the day before Nigerian leader Olusegun Obasanjo was to meet with President Bush at the White House. That visit was supposed to occur on a high note after Obasanjo resolved two issues of concern to his U.S. allies’ release of kidnapped American oil workers and last week’s deal to hand over Africa’s most infamous warlord.
But Taylor vanished last night from his villa in the southern town of Calabar, the government said. A presidential spokeswoman said members of Taylor’s Nigerian security detail had been arrested.
W.J. Jefferson (D-La) Connected to Bribery Charge ¶ FBI Sting Operation
● Liberia Great Victory For Democracy – Ms Sirleaf 1st Female President In Africa
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
.
Liberia’s exiled former leader Charles Taylor has been caught on the Cameroon border in north-eastern Nigeria, a Nigerian police official has said. Mr Taylor’s disappearance from his villa in Calabar in southern Nigeria came after Nigeria said Liberia was free to “take Taylor into custody”.
Mr Taylor was indicted on 17 charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, for backing Sierra Leone’s rebels.
“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Top U.S. court being asked to curb Bush’s powers — “The Supreme Court of the United States was set to hear oral arguments Tuesday in a case that may determine what limits, if any, should be placed on the wartime powers of an American president. (…)”
Marjorie Cohn has a good wrap-up of the issues in the case (Hamdan) in her article, Supremes Consider Kangaroo Courts
Yesterday, a group of retired US generals and admirals filed an amicus brief to asking Scalia to recuse himself after his remarks in Germany last week appeared to pre-judge the issues. “. . . on the grounds that denying Geneva Conventions protections to detainees at Guantanamo Bay could result in their denial to U.S. troops by their captors abroad.” They join the Center for Constitutional Rights & John Conyers in asking for Scalia to step aside in the case.
Roberts ruled on this when he was still on the lower Appeals Court, & has already recused. If the final decision is 4-4, the lower court ruling holds. More interestingly, because of the Detainee Act passed in Dec, they need to first rule as to whether or not they even have jurisdiction in the case; it’s uncertain what a tie would mean in this instance. Scotusblog had some interesting speculations about it the other day.
.
Weinberger known as "Cap" to colleagues“But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.”
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY