The Talk Show American

THE TALK SHOW AMERICAN: 01/08/2006 - 01/15/2006

Saturday, January 14, 2006

Documents show Saddam trained terrorists

Millions of pieces of evidence slowly being translated by U.S.

Documents from Saddam Hussein's regime that are slowly being translated show Iraq trained thousands of Islamic terrorists at camps inside the country before the war.

The evidence � affirmed in interviews by U.S. government interrogators with Iraqi regime officials and military leaders � contradicts the claims of anti-war critics who charge Iraq became a magnet for Islamic terrorists only after the U.S. invasion.

Steve Hayes of the Weekly Standard reports that from 1999 through 2002, "elite Iraqi military units" trained about 8,000 terrorists at three different camps, including Salman Pak, where American forces found an airliner fuselage that possibly was used to practice hijackings.

Hayes, who claims more than a dozen corroborating sources, says many of the trainees were from North African-based terrorist groups with ties to al-Qaida.

The U.S. has collected more than 2 million documents, audio and videotapes and computer hard drives, but only about 50,000 of these of these items have been examined so far by a skelton crew with limited resources.

Along with Salmon Pak, the military units trained terrorists at camps in Samarra and Ramadi who, some intelligence officials believe, are responsible for attacks against Americans and Iraqis.

Along with Salmon Pak, the military units trained terrorists at camps in Samarra and Ramadi who, some intelligence officials believe, are responsible for attacks against Americans and Iraqis.

Hayes says that according to three officials with knowledge of the intelligence on Iraqi training camps, White House and National Security Council officials were briefed on these findings in May 2005.

Later, senior Defense Department officials received the same briefing.

A former military intelligence officer who worked on the documents told Hayes there were "boxloads of Iraqi Intelligence records � their names, their jobs, all sorts of detailed information."

"In an insurgency, wouldn't that have been helpful?" he asked.

At least a few lawmakers on Capitol Hill think so.

In November, Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, asked the director of national intelligence, John Negroponte, to see a list of 40 mostly unclassified documents recovered in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan.

But by Jan. 5, Hoekstra still had no reply when he spoke with Hayes by telephone.


"I can tell you that I'm reaching the point of extreme frustration," he said. "It's just an indication that rather than having a nimble, quick intelligence community that can respond quickly, it's still a lumbering bureaucracy that can't give the chairman of the intelligence committee answers relatively quickly. Forget quickly, they can't even give me answers slowly."

On Jan. 6, however, Negroponte finally told Hoekstra he is committed to expediting the exploitation and release of the Iraqi documents.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., and Republican Sens. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Pat Roberts of Kansas also have demanded more information on the vast collection of documents.

Santorum and Hoekstra have raised the issue personally with President Bush, Hayes says.

Hayes says Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is pushing aggressively for a massive dump of the documents, but Pentagon spokesman Larry DiRita says the main worry is that the mainstream press might cherry-pick documents and mischaracterize their meaning.

Bush: Iran Intends to Nuke Israel

In his sharpest comments to date on the Iranian nuclear crisis, President Bush warned Friday that Iran is seeking to produce nuclear weapons and intends to use them to destroy Israel.

Speaking at a joint press conference in Washington, D.C. with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bush warned:

"I want to remind you that the current president of Iran has announced that the destruction of Israel is an important part of their agenda. And that's unacceptable. And the development of a nuclear weapon, it seems like to me, would make them a step closer to achieving that objective."

The president said that Iran's nuclear ambitions pose a threat, not just to the Jewish state, but to the world.

"Iran armed with a nuclear weapon poses a great threat to the security of the world. Countries such as ours have a great obligation to step up, working together to send a message to the Iranians that their behavior, trying to clandestinely develop a nuclear weapon, or using the guise of a civilian nuclear program to attain a nuclear weapon, is unacceptable."
For her part Chancellor Merkel added, "To Germany, it is totally unacceptable, what Iran said recently, especially regarding Israel and the Holocaust."

Last month, Iranian president Mamoud Ahmadinejad said that historical coverage of the Holocaust had been "exaggerated." In October he urged that Israel be "wiped off the map."

Al Qaeda No.2 away during attack: Pakistan official

A U.S. airstrike in Pakistan targeted al Qaeda's number two, U.S. sources said, but Ayman al-Zawahri was away at the time, according to a senior Pakistani official on Saturday.

CIA-operated unmanned drones were believed to have been used in the attack on Damadola village, across the border from Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan, the U.S. sources said.

A high-ranking Pakistani official said Zawahri, the deputy of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, was not in the village. The United States has offered a reward of $25 million for Zawahri or bin Laden.

"Al-Zawahri was not there at the time of the attack," the Pakistani official told Reuters.

Pakistani intelligence sources said Zawahri was believed to have made visits to the Bajaur area, though on Friday he was not in Damadola, 200 km (125 miles) northwest of Islamabad.

A military spokesman at U.S. Central Command in Florida said there had been no official report of an attack in Pakistan.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Major U.S. attack may have killed Zawahri

Al-Qaida�s top operating officer believed to be at target site in Pakistan

U.S. officials told NBC News on Friday that American airstrikes in Pakistan overnight Thursday were aimed at the No. 2 man in the al-Qaida terror organization � Ayman al-Zawahri.

One official said intelligence indicated a strong possibility that Zawahri was in the Pakistani village at the time of the airstrike, but there is no confirmation that he was killed.

Pakistani officials say U.S. aircraft, apparently CIA Predator drones, fired as many as 10 missiles at the residential compound.

The attack came in the Bajur region of Northwest Pakistan, along the Afghanistan border.

The CIA Predators carry as many as four Hellfire missiles. Only last month, the CIA used a Predator to kill the No. 3 man in al-Qaida in a similar Hellfire strike in Pakistan.

Israel's new confidence in attack on Iran nukes

Air force has workable war plan with high probability of success

Israeli military planners have more confidence in the success of an attack on Iran's nuclear weapons facilities and have already begun sending signals to Tehran that it will not be permitted to threatened the Jewish state with annihilation, reports Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin today.

The new government of acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also wants the mullah government in the Islamic republic to understand that the incapacitation of Ariel Sharon will not leave Israel in any less state of military readiness, G2 Bulletin sources say.

Yesterday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed strong U.S. support for a European move to take the issue of Iran's nuclear program to the U.N. Security Council. The secretary accused Iran of deliberately escalating the confrontation over the issue, but said the United States still hopes for a diplomatic solution.

The secretary of state endorsed the European decision in a statement to reporters, saying "provocative" Iranian actions in recent days had shattered the basis for further talks between Iran and three European nations.

The U.S. is certain that Iran's "civilian" nuclear program conceals an ambitious secret weapons effort.

The secretary said it was premature to talk about possible U.N. sanctions or whether permanent Security Council members Russia and China, which have extensive commercial dealings with Iran, could be persuaded to support them.

She plans to speak with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing as part of a far-reaching U.S. diplomatic push on the Iran issue.

The secretary said since he came to power last year, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has done nothing but confront the international system on the nuclear issue with outrageous statements, the likes of which, she said, "have not been made in polite company" in many years.

Ahmadinejad has called for Israel to be wiped off the face of the earth and suggested that the Jewish state be moved to Europe. He also denied the Holocaust ever happened.

Israel has no illusions about the U.N. solving the crisis.

G2 Bulletin sources say a recent statement by the Israeli military chief of intelligence, Gen. Aharon Zeevi-Farkash, that March 1 would be the time limit for diplomatic means to deter Iran's plans was actually an implied warning to Iran.

Sources in Tel Aviv and in several European capitals, say Zeevi's remarks were based on a military-planned timetable and a possible D-Day to take the Iranian military nuclear plant out of the picture.

Gen. Dan Halutz, Israel's chief of staff and former air force commander, intentionally selected to be the first chief of staff to come from the air force, last week said there are several military means to deal with the problem.

Although his statement was somewhat vague, Halutz is known for his verbal restraint. Sources say he is certain the Israeli military machine would be as effective against the Iranian project as it was in 1981 against the Iraqi Ossiraq nuclear site.

Sources in Israel also believe public disclosures about the Israeli air force's "anti-aircraft imaging unit" are significant. The Israel air force magazine re-published a story in December 2005 under the title: "Know Thy Enemy." It dealt specifically with the anti-aircraft missile threat, which could be the major obstacle in taking out the Iranian system. The special unit's existence was until recently classified as top secret.

Iran Threatens to Block Nuke Inspections

Iran threatened on Friday to block inspections of its nuclear sites if confronted by the U.N. Security Council over its atomic activities. The hard-line president reaffirmed his country's intention to produce nuclear energy.

France, Britain and Germany quickly responded that they were not demanding sanctions against Tehran just yet.

On Thursday the three countries, backed by the United States, said that nuclear talks with Iran had reached a dead end after more than two years of acrimonious negotiations and the issue should be referred to the Security Council.

However, they refrained from calling on the 15-nation council to impose sanctions and said they remained open to more talks.

For her part, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a "strong message" had to be sent to Tehran but said she was not ready to talk about what action should be taken to curtail Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Iran responded Friday by saying that if it were confronted by the council, it would have to stop cooperating with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

That would be, among other things, the end of random inspections, said Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

Ted Kennedy's Club Discriminated

When Ted Kennedy tried to chastise Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito for his one-time membership in a group opposed to admitting more woman and minorities to Princeton, the pot was calling the kettle black:

Sen. Kennedy still belongs to a social club for Harvard students and alumni that was thrown off campus nearly 20 years ago after refusing to allow female members, an investigation by the Washington Times reveals.

According to the membership directory of the Owl Club, Kennedy updated his personal information as recently as September 7. Ironically, the Owl Club, long reviled at Harvard as "sexist,� was evicted from the campus in 1984 for violating federal anti-discrimination laws authored by Kennedy.

At Alito�s confirmation hearings, Kennedy brought up the nominee�s alleged membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP), and said the nominee�s "affiliation with an organization that fought the admission of women into Princeton calls into question his appreciation for the needs for full equality in this country.�

When asked about the senator�s membership in the Owl Club, Kennedy spokeswoman Laura Capps told the Times there was "absolutely no comparison between the Owl Club and an effort to exclude women from Princeton.

"It�s a social club. It�s like a fraternity.�

But according to the Times, Harvard views organizations such as the Owl Club quite differently from fraternities and sororities, which are considered a form of housing and therefore are not coeducational.

N.Y. Times: Alito Can't Be Stopped

"After Alito�s testimony, Democrats still dislike him but can�t stop him.�

That�s the Friday morning headline in the New York Times as even the liberal Gray Lady concedes that Samuel Alito will be confirmed as the newest member of the Supreme Court.

While Democrats signaled on Thursday that they would not support Alito, "they saw little chance of blocking his confirmation, even with a filibuster,� the Times reports.

Senate aides said they expected the Judiciary Committee to split along party lines when it votes on Alito�s confirmation, according to the Times. The committee has 10 Republicans and eight Democrats.

Democrats believe it is unlikely they could muster enough support for a filibuster, which according to an earlier agreement between Democrats and the GOP, is allowable only under "extraordinary circumstances.�

After Alito�s testimony, President Bush was confident enough regarding his confirmation to call him from Air Force One and congratulate him. Bush told Alito that during the questioning the nominee had "showed great class.�

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Joe Biden, Ted Kennedy Had Racial Covenants

It's particularly ironic that Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee would try to smear Samuel Alito as racist for his 1980s membership in a Princeton organization that was against affirmative action - especially given the backgrounds of Alito's leading critics on the Committee.

In fact, Senators Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden have some significant exposure of their own on the racial sensitivity front, given the fact that both their families owned homes that were restricted by "racial covenants" from being sold to blacks, Jews or other minorities.

The startling news emerged in 1986, during confirmation hearings for the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Back then, Democrats were in the midst of skewering Rehnquist as a racist because a deed on a home he once owned had a racial covenant.

But the tables were turned when Republicans on the Committee learned that both Kennedy and Biden's families owned property with the same kind of racial restrictions.

United Press International picked up the story, reporting at the time: "The parents of Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., own a home in Wilmington, Del., that has an old deed prohibiting sale or occupancy by blacks."
Biden insisted that neither he nor his parents knew about the racist restriction. The Delaware Democrat announced that when his family found out they took immediate legal action to reverse what he called the "morally repugnant" agreement.

Sen. Kennedy's racial skeletons came tumbling out of the closet shortly thereafter, when news surfaced that his brother, the late President John F. Kennedy, had a racially restrictive covenant on the deed to his Georgetown home.

Kennedy, who was leading the charge against Justice Rehnquist, insisted his brother couldn't have possibly known about the racist agreement, which he called "deplorable."

NY Times: 'Illegal' Spying OK Under Clinton

Last month, when the New York Times revealed to the world that the Bush administration had a top secret National Security Agency program that monitored communications between al Qaeda terrorists and their U.S.-based agents, it strongly condemned the operation as a dangerous and possibly illegal invasion of privacy.

However, the Old Gray Lady wasn't nearly as upset over a much broader surveillance program under the Clinton administration, which routinely monitored millions of phone calls between U.S. citizens without a court ordered warrant.

In fact, the paper called the blanket invasion of privacy a "necessity" - even though it was carried out without the justification provided by the 9/11 attacks.

The American Thinker web site has unearthed Times quotes from 1999, when the paper was reacting to reports on the NSA's Echelon project under Bill Clinton, which randomly trolled U.S. telecommunications looking for trouble.

"Few dispute the necessity of a system like Echelon to apprehend foreign spies, drug traffickers and terrorists," the Times explained helpfully.
The same report quoted an NSA official assuring Times readers "that all Agency activities are conducted in accordance with the highest constitutional, legal and ethical standards.�

These days, however, the Old Gray Lady doesn't like to talk about Echelon. In the dozens of stories on the Bush NSA operation since reporter James Risen "broke" the story on December 16, the Times has mentioned the older NSA program only once.

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Soldier continues fight not to serve under U.N.


Michael New claims U.S. Constitution forbids military from donning blue beret

A U.S. soldier court-martialed for refusing to wear the insignia and blue beret of the United Nations and serve under the world body's command is now appealing his case to a federal appeals court.

Michael New was among several hundred troops sent to Macedonia by President Clinton in 1995 on a U.N. peacekeeping mission. But New refused to obey the order, calling it illegal for him to serve under a foreign power.

New's attorney, Henry L. Hamilton, argued both Clinton's order to deploy troops to Macedonia and his order for soldiers to wear the U.N. uniform were illegal, because deployment required congressional approval, and the U.N. uniform is not authorized by either the Department of Defense or the U.S. Army.

Now the former Army specialist is preparing for oral hearings Feb. 16 in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

His attorneys says the issue is whether an American soldier, having taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, may be forced instead to serve under the military command of a foreign power.

Military courts ruled this was a political question, outside their jurisdiction. New argues he has been denied the right to have the legality of the order addressed by a jury.

U.S. District Court Judge Friedman, who ruled against New, conceded Clinton may have broken the law, but contended it's the duty of Congress to challenge the president, not a soldier.

New's lead attorney, Herbert W. Titus, of Virginia, says the case has "serious implications for every American who ever wears a uniform."

Report: Israel Accelerates Iran Strike Plan

A preemptive airstrike by Israel against suspected nuclear weapons facilities in Iran could come as early as March, a report in the Glasgow Herald claimed Tuesday.

"The Israeli raids would be carried out by long-range F-15E bombers and cruise missiles against a dozen key sites and are designed to set Tehran's weapons program back by up to two years," the paper said.

"Pilots at the Israeli air force's elite 69 squadron have been briefed on the plan and have conducted rehearsals for their missions."

One of the primary targets would be the enrichment plant at Natanz - where Iranian scientists removed seals on Tuesday that had kept one of the country's largest uranium stockpiles under wraps since 2004.

According to an Iranian defector's account published in the Australian on Wednesday, Tehran has 5,000 centrifuges ready to install at the Natanz facility.
The same defector said Iran has also been building underground centrifuge cascade installation platforms at Natanz which could process enough enriched uranium to produce a nuclear bomb.

Other nuclear sites said to be among Israel's primary targets include a heavy-water production site at Arak, 120 miles southwest of Tehran, and a site near Isfahan in central Iran that produces uranium hexafluoride gas.

Plans for a preemptive strike were accelerated, the Herald said, after Russia agreed last month to sell Tehran advanced SA-15 Gauntlet mobile missile systems with an eye towards foiling an Israeli attack.

The paper quoted an unnamed Israeli source who warned: "We believe Iran will have useable nuclear weapons by 2007 unless something is done to prevent it. If Tehran is allowed to start enrichment of uranium, it will be too late."

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Iran has 5000 centrifuges

IRAN has secretly built thousands of centrifuge machines for its nuclear plant at Natanz, an exiled opposition figure alleged overnight.

The claims by opposition figure Alireza Jafarzadeh could not be independently verified, but if confirmed, they would likely enflame the worsening standoff over Iran's nuclear program.

The new allegations came hours after Iran resumed sensitive nuclear research after a two-year suspension, triggering fierce Western condemnation and risking censure by the UN Security Council.

Mr Jafarzadeh, citing what he said was intelligence from the Iranian opposition and sources within the Iranian nuclear program, said Tehran had already committed serious violations before the latest move.

"Iran has already manufactured as many as 5000 centrifuge machines ready to be installed in Natanz, which is a clear breach of its agreements with the IAEA and the EU," Mr Jafarzadeh, former spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said.

He said Iran had been continually building underground centrifuge cascade installation platforms at Natanz which could be used in the process of enriching uranium on a large scale suitable for a nuclear bomb.

Mr Jafarzadeh released information in 2002 which amounted to the first outside glimpse into the Iranian nuclear program and which triggered International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) scrutiny.

NSA Whistleblower Alleges Illegal Spying

Former Employee Admits to Being a New York Times Source

Russell Tice, a longtime insider at the National Security Agency, is now a whistleblower the agency would like to keep quiet.

For 20 years, Tice worked in the shadows as he helped the United States spy on other people's conversations around the world.

"I specialized in what's called special access programs," Tice said of his job. "We called them 'black world' programs and operations."

But now, Tice tells ABC News that some of those secret "black world" operations run by the NSA were operated in ways that he believes violated the law. He is prepared to tell Congress all he knows about the alleged wrongdoing in these programs run by the Defense Department and the National Security Agency in the post-9/11 efforts to go after terrorists.

"The mentality was we need to get these guys, and we're going to do whatever it takes to get them," he said.

Tice says the technology exists to track and sort through every domestic and international phone call as they are switched through centers, such as one in New York, and to search for key words or phrases that a terrorist might use.

"If you picked the word 'jihad' out of a conversation," Tice said, "the technology exists that you focus in on that conversation, and you pull it out of the system for processing."

According to Tice, intelligence analysts use the information to develop graphs that resemble spiderwebs linking one suspect's phone number to hundreds or even thousands more.

Conservatives call for return to core Republican principles

With Republicans embroiled in an influence-peddling scandal that could threaten their control of Congress, the biggest pressure for reform is coming from lawmakers who charge that the party�s woes have come from abandoning its core conservative principles.


Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican congressman who co-led the petition drive that helped oust Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, said in an interview yesterday: �We don�t just need a new majority leader, we need a course correction.

�A lobbyist can�t be corrupt unless he has somebody to bribe, and we�ve created a culture that just breeds corruption,� he charged.

While the Republicans captured the House of Representatives in 1994 following a popular backlash against perceived corruption in the Democratic party, the party�s conservative critics say it has now fallen prey to the same Washington culture. A group of more than 100 members organised as the Republican Study Committee is hoping to use the leadership race to rein in what they see as runaway government spending championed by Mr DeLay and his allies.

At the top of the conservative reform agenda is an end to the practice of earmarking, in which members can secretly insert into huge spending bills billions of dollars in projects for favoured companies or other constituents � many of whom in turn donate to the lawmakers� re-election funds. While the practice is not new, it has mushroomed since Republicans captured Congress. Last year 15,000 earmarks were added into various spending bills.

Legislators are facing growing pressure over the practice. Jerry Lewis, the Republican who chairs the House appropriations committee, is under fire after the San Diego Union-Tribune reported he had earmarked hundreds of millions of dollars to clients of a former colleague and lobbyist, Bill Lowery.

Mr Flake predicted the fallout over earmarking �would be ugly, and if we haven�t addressed it prospectively, we�re in deeper trouble than we know�.

The conservatives are also hoping to reform the congressional budgeting process by sharply reducing the use of �emergency� spending bills, such as those that have paid for the war in Iraq and rebuilding following Hurricane Katrina. They would also reform House rules to allow more challenges to spending bills that exceed agreed budget targets, and to ensure that such bills can be carefully reviewed by lawmakers before votes are held.

Mr Flake and other conservatives have yet to find a leadership candidate who stands clearly for their cause, however. Mike Pence, who chairs the Republican Study Committee, has said he will not seek the leadership. Conservatives are hoping to draft John Shadegg, another Arizona Republican.

La. Gov. Blanco Faces Recall Effort

A Republican who says she has never worked on a political campaign filed documents Tuesday launching a drive to oust Gov. Kathleen Blanco, who was harshly criticized for her response to hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Kat Landry, who filed a recall petition with state elections officials, said Louisiana needs new leadership to recover from the storms' back-to-back blows.

"What we have seen in the past few months is a lack of leadership, a lack of communication, a lack of understanding of how to get things done," Landry said.

In Louisiana, getting a recall on the ballot requires petition signatures from at least one-third of the state's registered voters, or about 900,000 people, in 180 days, according to Jennifer Marusak of the secretary of state's office.

The 180-day period for gathering signatures began Tuesday, when the petition was filed, Marusak said.
If the proper signatures are gathered, a majority of voters in a recall election would have to vote to get rid of Blanco, a Democrat, before she would be forced out of office.

Landry said she's received a tremendous amount of traffic on a recall Web site she set up, and noted 676,000 people voted against Blanco for governor in the first place. Blanco was elected in 2003 with 52 percent of the vote; the number cited by Landry was the total who voted for her opponent, Bobby Jindal.

Poll: Most Americans Can't Name Court Justice

In spite of broad, high-profile news coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court in the past year, 57 percent of Americans can't name any current U.S. Supreme Court justices.

According to a new national survey conducted by FindLaw.com, a legal issues Web site, only 43 percent of American adults can name at least one justice who is currently serving on the nation's highest court.

Still, the FindLaw.com survey finds a majority of Americans cannot name even one U.S. Supreme Court justice.

The survey results represent a slight improvement over an identical survey conducted in 2003 that found only 35 percent of Americans could name any of the Supreme Court justices who were

The percentages of Americans who could name each current justice were as follows:


27% Sandra Day O'Connor
21% Clarence Thomas
16% John Roberts
13% Antonin Scalia
12% Ruth Bader Ginsburg
7% Anthony Kennedy
5% David Souter
3% Stephen Breyer
3% John Paul Stevens

Additional results:

More men than women (46% to 39%) can name at least one Supreme Court justice.

The ability to correctly name Supreme Court justices rises with increases in age, education and household income.

Five percent of Americans believe William Rehnquist still serves on the Supreme Court. The former chief justice died in September 2005.

Two percent of Americans believe Samuel Alito is a Supreme Court justice. Alito was nominated for a seat on the Supreme Court by President Bush in October 2005, but has not yet been confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

The percentage of Americans who can name all nine current Supreme Court justices, statistically speaking, is zero.

The percentage of Americans who can name eight or more of the nine current Supreme Court justices also statistically rounds to zero.

The publicity surrounding the appointment of new Chief Justice John Roberts appears to have made an impression. Sixteen percent of those surveyed identified Roberts as a current member of the Court. In the 2003 survey, only 10 percent of those surveyed identified then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist as a member of the Supreme Court.

Incorrect responses from those surveyed as to who is currently serving on the U.S. Supreme Court included George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, Thurgood Marshall and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Secret Memo: Smugglers Plan To Kill U.S. Border Agents

Federal officials have warned U.S. Border Patrol agents that they could be the targets of assassins hired by immigrant smugglers, according to a confidential memo.

"Unidentified Mexican alien smugglers are angry about the increased security along the U.S./Mexico border and have agreed that the best way to deal with U.S. Border Patrol agents is to hire a group of contract killers," the Department of Homeland Security said in a Dec. 21 Officer Safety Alert.

The alert states that the smugglers intend to bring members of the Mara Salvatrucha street gang - known as MS-13 - into the country to perform the killings. Federal officials consider MS-13, with an estimated 30,000 members in 33 states, to be one of the most dangerous gangs in the country. It was formed in Los Angeles by immigrants from El Salvador.

The safety alert was based on an FBI report. An FBI spokesman in Washington said he could not comment on that report.

Michael Friel, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said he could not comment directly on the confidential memo but said agents' lives have been threatened before.

United Nations Council Warns Iran on Nukes

Each of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council has told Iran to drop plans for new nuclear activities or risk being hauled before the body for possible sanctions, the Bush administration said Monday.

Although the United States and European allies have been sending that message for weeks, China and Russia are now doing the same, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

"We are working very closely with Russia, China and France and Britain on sending a clear message to the Iranians," McCormack said.

Those nations plus the U.S. are the five permanent Security Council members. All are nuclear powers themselves and could individually veto any punishment the body might try to impose on Iran for pursuing what the United States claims is a fraudulent and dangerous drive for nuclear technology.

"Ultimately, given Iran's track record on seeking nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian program, defying the international community, bobbing and weaving, obfuscating, that we're ultimately all going to end up in the Security Council on this issue," McCormack said.

There has been no single unified communication from Security Council members to Iran, such as a formal letter of warning, U.S. officials said.

"I think that the Chinese are perfectly capable of delivering their own messages," McCormack said. "What we have been doing, have done and will continue to do, is to continue to work with them, work with the Russians and others so that Iran receives a clear, consistent, unmistakable message from the rest of the world."

Excerpts: Senators' Opening Statements

Excerpts from opening statements during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to be an associate justice on the Supreme Court:

Committee Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa.:

"As chairman, I am committed to conducting a full, fair and dignified hearing. Hearings for a Supreme Court nominee should not have a political tilt for either Republicans or Democrats. They should, in substantive fact and in perception, be for all Americans. ...While I personally consider it inappropriate to ask a nominee how he would vote on a specific matter likely to come before the court, senators may ask whatever they choose and the nominee is similarly free to respond as he chooses. It has been my experience that the hearings are a subtle minuet with nominees answering as many questions as they think they have to in order to be confirmed."

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.:

"The challenge for Judge Alito in the course of these hearings is to demonstrate that he will protect the rights and liberties of all Americans and serve as an effective check on government overreaching. The president has not helped his cause by withdrawing his earlier nomination of Harriet Miers in the face of criticism from an extreme faction of his own party."

Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas:

"Groups are trying to defeat your nomination because you will not support their liberal agenda. And the reason they oppose you is precisely why I support you. I want judges on the Supreme Court who will not use their position to impose a political agenda on the American people. I want judges on the Supreme Court who will respect the words and meaning of the Constitution, the laws enacted by Congress, and the laws enacted by state legislatures. ... the meanings of the Constitution and other laws should not change unless the people change them. A Supreme Court appointment is not a free ticket to rewrite our laws however you and your colleagues see fit."

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.:

"While every Supreme Court nominee has a great burden, yours, Judge Alito, is triply high. First, because you have been named to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the pivotal swing vote on a divided court; second, because you have been picked to placate the extreme right wing after the hasty withdrawal of Harriet Miers; and, finally, because your record of opinions and statements on a number of critical Constitutional questions seems quite extreme.

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah:

"I know that there is a pitched battle going on outside the Senate, with dueling press conferences, television ads, e-mail petition drives, and stacks of reports and press releases. The Senate can rise above that battle if we remember the proper role for the Senate and the proper role for judges. We can rise above that battle if we respect that judicial nominees are limited in what they may discuss, take each part of Judge Alito's record on its own terms, consider Judge Alito's entire record, and apply a judicial rather than a political standard.

Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill.:

"Time and again the vacancy you seek to fill was the most important vote on the court for civil rights, human rights, women's rights, workers' rights, and restraining an overreaching president... The person who fills the O'Connor vacancy will truly tip the balance of the scales of justice in America.

Judge Alito, millions of Americans are very concerned about your nomination. They are worried that you would be a judicial activist who would restrict our rights and freedoms."

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa:

Judge Alito has an impressive and extensive legal and judicial record, certainly one worthy of a Supreme Court justice ... .equal to any Supreme Court nominee I've considered over the 25 years I've been on this committee. ... Yet, some liberal interest groups have come out in full force, and have attempted to paint Judge Alito to be an extremist and an activist. ... I don't like to see facts twisted or untruths fabricated to give the nominee a black eye, even before he sets foot in front of the judiciary committee. So, Judge Alito, now you have an opportunity to set everyone straight on your record and your approach to deciding cases."

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.:

"In an era when the White House is abusing power, is excusing and authorizing torture, and is spying on American citizens, I find Judge Alito's support for an all-powerful executive branch to be genuinely troubling. Under the presidents spying program, there are no checks and no balances. There is no outside review of the legality of this brazen infringement on the civil rights and liberties of the American people. Undeterred by the public outcry, the president vows to continue spying on American citizens.

Ultimately, the courts will make the final judgment whether the White House has gone too far. Independent and impartial judges must assess the proper balance between protecting our liberties and protecting our national security."

Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio:

"Your decisions are usually brief and to the point. You write with clarity and common sense. And, in most cases, you defer to the decision-making of those closest to the problem at hand. I don't expect to agree with every case you decide. But, your modest approach to judging seems to bode well for our democracy."

Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis.:

"Before we give you the keys to the car, we would like to know where you plan to take us. ... We will need to examine whether _ as your critics contend _ you will consistently side against the individual or whether your supporters are correct that you are a mainstream conservative who will fairly decide all cases."

Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.:

"It appears to me that you easily fit into the mold of what this nation has come to expect from its Supreme Court justices. A first-rate intellect. Demonstrated academic excellence. A life of engagement with serious constitutional analysis. And a reputation for fair-mindedness and modesty. These are the standards for a Supreme Court Justice, and you plainly meet those expectations. As a consequence, I view your nomination with a heavy presumption in favor of confirmation."

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.:

"We need judges who will stand up and tell the executive branch it is wrong when it ignores or distorts the laws passed by Congress. We need judges who see themselves as custodians of the rights and freedoms that the Constitution guarantees, even when the president of the United States is telling the country that he should be able to decide unilaterally how far those freedoms go.

To win my support, Judge Alito will have to show that he is up to this challenge."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.:

"I think it's fair for us to try to determine whether your legal reasoning is within the mainstream of American legal thought and whether you're going to follow the law regardless of your personal views about the law. And since you have provided personal and legal opinions in the past, I very much hope that you will be straightforward with us, share your thinking and share your legal reasoning."

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.:

"You have a record as a brilliant but modest jurist, one who follows the law, who exercises restraint and does not use the bench as an opportunity to promote any personal or political agenda. This is exactly what I believe the American people want in a justice to the Supreme Court. It's exactly what President Bush promised to nominate."

Five issues foes will try to use to torpedo Alito

Confirmation looks likely unless Democrats resort to a filibuster

After a round of opening statements on Monday, the formal interrogation of Samuel Alito by the Senate Judiciary Committee begins Tuesday at 9:30 a.m.

Barring a disastrous performance in front of the committee, Alito will likely have at least the 51 votes he�ll need for Senate confirmation as justice of the Supreme Court to replace Sandra Day O�Connor. Even some of Alito�s opponents concede that the opposition will likely need to resort to a filibuster if they are to keep him off the court.

Are there analogous issues that Alito�s enemies will use to try to defeat his confirmation? Here are five:

1) Alito's application for the job of deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department, submitted on Nov. 18, 1985.

Even though that job application was written more than 20 years ago, Alito�s adversaries argue it is a crucially important window into his current thinking.

In it, Alito, then working in the Solicitor General�s office preparing cases for argument for the Supreme Court, said, �I am particularly proud of my contributions in recent cases in which the government has argued in the Supreme Court that racial and ethnic quotas should not allowed and that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion.�

These positions, he said, are ones �in which I personally believe very strongly.�

2) The strip search of a mother and daughter.
In a 2004 case, called Doe v. Groody, Alito dissented from a ruling by then-Judge Michael Chertoff and Judge Thomas Ambro that four police officers should not have immunity from a damages lawsuit after a female officer conducted a physical search of a suspected methamphetamine dealer�s wife and daughter at the suspect�s house.

The family filed suit claiming the wife and daughter had been illegally searched because the search warrant only specified the suspected meth dealer, not his wife and daughter.

Alito said �a reasonable officer certainly could have believed� that the search was permissible, because the affidavit accompanying the search warrant specified searching everyone on the premises. The officers �did not exhibit incompetence or a willingness to flout the law.�

�Judge Alito says it is OK for the police to strip search a mother and her ten-year old daughter even though they�re not named in the search warrant�. That�s one I think people can relate to,� said Mincberg.

3) Shooting a boy in the back.
While serving in the Justice Department in 1984, Alito wrote a memo suggesting the Reagan administration not take part in a Supreme Court case concerning the constitutionality of Tennessee�s fleeing felon statute which permitted the use of deadly force to prevent the escape of a felony suspect.

The case involved a 15-year old boy who broke into a house at night. Police arrived at the scene and ordered the burglar to halt. When he didn�t, an officer shot him to prevent his escape.

Alito said the issue was one better suited for legislatures than for judges to decide, arguing that is �no single principle that can be used to judge when it is justified to use deadly force to stop a fleeing suspect. Instead, all such rules are based upon difficult moral and philosophical choices and a balancing of values that is peculiarly suited for legislative rather than judicial resolution.�

4) No federal ban on machine gun ownership?
In a 1996 case called United States v. Rybar, Alito dissented from two of his colleagues who upheld a federal law banning possession of machine guns.

Relying on the Lopez decision handed down by the Supreme Court one year earlier, Alito said the law �might be sustainable� if Congress found that �purely intrastate possession of machine guns has a substantial effect on interstate commerce.� But, he said, Congress hadn�t done so.

The Supreme Court�s 1995 Lopez decision had emphasized that the Constitution only gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce, not the power to regulate all the things that go on within a state.

5) Domestic eavesdropping by the federal government
In 1984, while serving in the Justice Department, Alito wrote a memo supporting the position held by the Carter administration and by the Reagan administration that former Attorney General John Mitchell should have immunity from lawsuits stemming from domestic national security wiretapping that he ordered in 1970.

The Supreme Court later rejected this position.

Poll: Majority of Americans Support Alito

Americans support the nomination of Judge Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court by a 2 to 1 margin.

According to the latest Washington Post�ABC News poll, 53 percent of Americans say Alito should be confirmed by the Senate. Only 27 percent say he should be rejected. Twenty percent remains undecided.

The poll reveals self-identified Democrats are not energized in opposition to the nomination.

Self-identified Democrats were more likely to support than oppose the Alito nomination. Forty percent of that subgroup said he should be confirmed. Thirty-nine percent said he should not.

The numbers were similar for self-identified liberals, with 38 percent supporting the nomination and only 44 percent opposing it.
Not surprisingly, self-identified Republicans were overwhelmingly supportive. Seventy-six percent supported confirmation.

The poll sampled 1,001 randomly selected Americans for interview between January 5 and January 8. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Al-Qaeda's plot to infect troops with AIDS virus

AL-QAEDA is recruiting suicide bombers who are infected with the AIDS virus, according to documents revealed to the Sunday Mirror.

Terror chiefs are also targeting fanatics who suffer other lethal blood diseases such as hepatitis and dengue fever in order to increase their "kill rate" from an explosion. The chilling new threat is revealed in papers distributed to British military camps in Iraq and across Europe.

Under the heading "HIV/Hepatitis" the document states: "There is evidence that terrorists might be deliberately recruiting volunteers with diseases that are spread by blood transference."

Experts have found that bones and other blood-spattered fragments from a suicide bomber could penetrate the skin of a victim 50 metres away and infect them.

In the papers (part of which is summarised above) soldiers are warned to wear special protective clothing when on guard duty or if they have to deal with casualties in the event of an attack.

All bases must also have snipers hidden behind blast-proof defences ready to take out would-be suicide bombers. The guidelines were issued following the 7/7 London bombings which left 52 dead and injured hundreds more.

Spy chiefs have also examined other attacks, including a car-bombing on the Black Watch in central Iraq which killed three soldiers a year ago.


Last night an MoD spokesman confirmed that bases had been made aware of the new threat.


He added: "The Army go to great lengths to prepare our soldiers for every eventuality."

Howard Dean in Abramoff Cash Fib

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean denied on Sunday that any Democrats had taken money from lobbyist Jack Abramoff, even though several top Dems - including Sen. Hillary Clinton - have already announced they were giving their tainted Abramoff cash to charity.

That little detail didn't faze Dean, however - who insisted with a straight face to CNN's Wolf Blitzer:

"There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, not one, not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican. Every person under investigation is a Republican. Every person indicted is a Republican.

Dean continued: "This is a Republican finance scandal. There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money. And we've looked through all of those FEC reports to make sure that's true."

Last week, Sen. Clinton's office announced that she would be donating $2,000 of her Abramoff jackpot to charity. The Republican National Committee says she took a total of $12,900 in Abramoff-linked cash.
Other Democrats who have pledged to return tainted donations include Sens. Tim Johnson and Barbara Mikulski - as well as leading House Democrat Charles Rangel.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Congress, Surveillance Poll Oversampled Dems

GOP critics are hailing an Associated Press-Ipsos poll purporting to show that the public opposes both continued GOP control of Congress and the Bush administration's terrorist wiretapping program.

But it turns out that the AP-Ipsos sample used to answer both questions included far more Democrats than Republicans.

On Friday, a widely circulated AP report announced that a large plurality of Americans now favor a Democrat takeover of Congress [49 to 36 percent].

A follow-up AP story claimed that by a margin of 56 to 42 percent, Americans think it was wrong for President Bush to wiretap U.S.-based terrorists without a court warrant.

Readers howled when both AP reports turned up on NewsMax, pointing out links that show the poll was heavily stacked with Democrats. A quick check of the Ipsos web site turned up the telltale evidence in the poll's second question.
Asked if they lean either "strongly" or "moderately" to either the Democrat or Republican Party, 52 percent of Ipsos respondents identified themselves as Democrats. Just 40 percent called themselves Republican.

The Ipsos survey numbers, including those revealing that the sample was heavily biased against Republicans, can be viewed at: http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/client/act_dsp_pdf.cfm?name=mr060106-3topline.pdf&id=2928