The New York Times > Washington > Pre-9/11 Files Show Warnings Were More Dire and Persistent:
"Early this year, the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks played four minutes of a call from Betty Ong, a crew member on American Airlines Flight 11. The power of her call could not have been plainer: in a calm voice, Ms. Ong told her supervisors about the hijacking, the weapons the attackers had used, the locations of their seats.
At first, however, Ms. Ong's reports were greeted skeptically by some officials on the ground. "They did not believe her," said Bob Kerrey, a commission member. "They said, `Are you sure?' They asked her to confirm that it wasn't air-rage. Our people on the ground were not prepared for a hijacking."
For most Americans, the disbelief was the same. The attacks of Sept. 11 seemed to come in a stunning burst from nowhere. But now, after three weeks of extraordinary public hearings and a dozen detailed reports, the lengthy documentary record makes clear that predictions of an attack by Al Qaeda had been communicated directly to the highest levels of the government."
The threat reports were more clear, urgent and persistent than was previously known. Some focused on Al Qaeda's plans to use commercial aircraft as weapons. Others stated that Osama bin Laden was intent on striking on United States soil. Many were passed to the Federal Aviation Administration.
While some of the intelligence went back years, other warnings — including one that Al Qaeda seemed interested in hijacking a plane inside this country — had been delivered to the president on Aug. 6, 2001, just a month before the attacks.
The new information produced by the commission so far has led 6 of its 10 members to say or suggest that the attacks could have been prevented, though there is no consensus on when, how or by whom. The commission's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, a Republican, has described failures at every level of government, any of which, if avoided, could have altered the outcome. Mr. Kerrey, a Democrat, said, "My conclusion is that it could have been prevented. That was not my conclusion when I went on the commission."
While the commission was created to diagnose mistakes and to recommend reforms, its examination has powerful political resonance. The panel has reviewed the records of two presidents, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.
Mr. Bush, who is in the midst of a campaign for re-election, said last Sunday that none of the warnings gave any hint of the time, place or date of an assault. "Had I known there was going to be an attack on America I would have moved mountains to stop the attack," he said.
In an intense stretch this month, the commission pried open some of the most closely guarded compartments of government, revealing the flow and details of previously classified information given to two presidents and their senior advisers, and the performance of intelligence and law enforcement officials.
The inquiry has gone beyond the report of a joint panel of the House and Senate intelligence committee in 2002, which chronicled missteps at the mid-level of bureaucracies. Urged on by a number of families of people killed in the attacks, the Kean commission has used a mix of moral and political leverage to extract presidential communications and testimony. Among the new themes that have fundamentally reshaped the story of the Sept. 11 attacks are:
¶Al Qaeda and its leader, Mr. bin Laden, did not blindside the United States, but were a threat recognized and discussed regularly at the highest levels of government for nearly five years before the attacks, in thousands of reports, often accompanied by urgent warnings from lower-level experts.
¶Presidents Clinton and Bush received regular information about the threat of Al Qaeda and the intention of the bin Laden network to strike inside the United States. Each president made terrorism a stated priority, failed to find a diplomatic solution and viewed military force as a last resort. At the same time, neither grappled with the structural flaws and paralyzing dysfunction that undermined the C.I.A. and the F.B.I., the two agencies on which the nation depended for protection from terrorists. By the end of his second term, Mr. Clinton and the director of the F.B.I., Louis J. Freeh, were barely speaking.
¶Even when the two agencies cooperated, the results were unimpressive. Mr. Kean said that he viewed the reports on the two agencies as indictments. In late August 2001, George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, learned that the F.B.I. had arrested Zacarias Moussaoui after he had enrolled in a flight school. Mr. Tenet was given a memorandum titled "Islamic Extremist Learns to Fly." But he testified that he took no action and did not tell President Bush about the case.
During the Clinton years, particularly at the National Security Council, the commission has found, there was uncertainty about whether the threat posed by Al Qaeda and Mr. bin Laden justified military action. Much of the debate was provoked by Richard A. Clarke, who led antiterrorism efforts under both Mr. Clinton and Mr. Bush and argued for aggressive action.
"Former officials, including an N.S.C. staffer working for Mr. Clarke, told us the threat was seen as one that could cause hundreds of casualties, not thousands," according to one interim commission report. "Such differences affect calculations about whether or how to go to war. Even officials who acknowledge a vital threat intellectually may not be ready to act upon such beliefs at great cost or at high risk."
In the first eight months of the Bush administration, the commission found, the president and his advisers received far more information, much of it dire in tone and detailed in content, than had been generally understood.
The most striking came in the Aug. 6 memorandum presented in an intelligence briefing the White House says Mr. Bush requested. Titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.," the memorandum was declassified this month under pressure from the commission. After referring to a British tip in 1998 that Islamic fundamentalists wanted to hijack a plane, it went on to warn: "Nevertheless, F.B.I. information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks." Mr. Bush has said the briefing did not provide specific details of when and where an attack might take place.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/politics/18SEPT.html?pagewanted=all&position=
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Saturday, April 17, 2004
The New York Times > Arts > An Israeli Who's Got Everybody Outraged:
"Benny Morris is used to making enemies. When his first groundbreaking book appeared in 1988, marshaling evidence that Israel's founders had deliberately — and often violently — forced Arabs to flee during the war for independence, Mr. Morris was reviled and called an anti-Zionist. For years he was unable to find work as a professor in Israel; when he finally landed a job at Ben-Gurion University, named for Israel's first prime minister, Ben-Gurion's son tried to have the radical young historian fired. "
Sixteen years later, Mr. Morris is again being denounced, only this time for defending Israel's attempts to rid the country of its Arabs in 1948, arguing that "ethnic cleansing" was justified because Israel's existence was threatened.
His comments, in a new book published earlier this year as well as in Israeli newspapers and interviews, have not only provoked outrage but have also put Mr. Morris at the center of a bitter controversy over Israeli history and the future of the peace process.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/17/arts/17MORR.html?pagewanted=all&position=
"Benny Morris is used to making enemies. When his first groundbreaking book appeared in 1988, marshaling evidence that Israel's founders had deliberately — and often violently — forced Arabs to flee during the war for independence, Mr. Morris was reviled and called an anti-Zionist. For years he was unable to find work as a professor in Israel; when he finally landed a job at Ben-Gurion University, named for Israel's first prime minister, Ben-Gurion's son tried to have the radical young historian fired. "
Sixteen years later, Mr. Morris is again being denounced, only this time for defending Israel's attempts to rid the country of its Arabs in 1948, arguing that "ethnic cleansing" was justified because Israel's existence was threatened.
His comments, in a new book published earlier this year as well as in Israeli newspapers and interviews, have not only provoked outrage but have also put Mr. Morris at the center of a bitter controversy over Israeli history and the future of the peace process.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/17/arts/17MORR.html?pagewanted=all&position=
Friday, April 16, 2004
The New York Times > Washington > Expert Kept From Speaking at Antidepressant Hearing:
"Top Food and Drug Administration officials admitted yesterday that they barred the agency's top expert from testifying at a public hearing about his conclusion that antidepressants cause children to become suicidal because they viewed his findings as alarmist and premature"…
Recent studies have shown that children given antidepressants are more likely to become suicidal than those given placebos. But the studies have lead to different interpretations by psychiatrists. The refusal by drug companies to publish the studies has worsened the confusion. Internal agency documents obtained by The New York Times show that federal health officials are divided, too.
Dr. Andrew D. Mosholder, an agency epidemiologist, was the man charged with analyzing 22 studies involving 4,250 children and seven drugs. In a carefully argued, 33-page memorandum, he concluded that children given antidepressants were almost twice as likely as those given placebos to become suicidal.
He urged the agency to discourage doctors from prescribing to children all antidepressants except Prozac. Prozac is the only antidepressant proven effective in treating depressed children, and its studies showed no link with suicide, Dr. Mosholder wrote. Dr. Mosholder's conclusions mirrored those made by British health authorities.
But Dr. Mosholder's supervisors, Drs. Mark Avigan and Anne Trontell, wrote memorandums disagreeing, according to the documents.
"In particular, we disagree that the data are sufficiently robust to advocate preferential use" of Prozac in children, Dr. Trontell wrote.
Health officials convened a special advisory committee on Feb. 2 to offer guidance on how the agency should respond to the studies. As the agency's principal reviewer, Dr. Mosholder was scheduled to speak. He was removed from the agenda, Dr. Temple said.
Senator Charles E. Grassley, a Republican from Iowa and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he was investigating whether the agency inappropriately suppressed crucial findings. Representative Joe L. Barton, a Republican from Texas who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he was also investigating.
"It would have been very wrong for the F.D.A. to withhold any information it had about unintended consequences that might result from the use of antidepressants, especially for children and adolescents," Mr. Grassley said.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/politics/16DEPR.html
"Top Food and Drug Administration officials admitted yesterday that they barred the agency's top expert from testifying at a public hearing about his conclusion that antidepressants cause children to become suicidal because they viewed his findings as alarmist and premature"…
Recent studies have shown that children given antidepressants are more likely to become suicidal than those given placebos. But the studies have lead to different interpretations by psychiatrists. The refusal by drug companies to publish the studies has worsened the confusion. Internal agency documents obtained by The New York Times show that federal health officials are divided, too.
Dr. Andrew D. Mosholder, an agency epidemiologist, was the man charged with analyzing 22 studies involving 4,250 children and seven drugs. In a carefully argued, 33-page memorandum, he concluded that children given antidepressants were almost twice as likely as those given placebos to become suicidal.
He urged the agency to discourage doctors from prescribing to children all antidepressants except Prozac. Prozac is the only antidepressant proven effective in treating depressed children, and its studies showed no link with suicide, Dr. Mosholder wrote. Dr. Mosholder's conclusions mirrored those made by British health authorities.
But Dr. Mosholder's supervisors, Drs. Mark Avigan and Anne Trontell, wrote memorandums disagreeing, according to the documents.
"In particular, we disagree that the data are sufficiently robust to advocate preferential use" of Prozac in children, Dr. Trontell wrote.
Health officials convened a special advisory committee on Feb. 2 to offer guidance on how the agency should respond to the studies. As the agency's principal reviewer, Dr. Mosholder was scheduled to speak. He was removed from the agenda, Dr. Temple said.
Senator Charles E. Grassley, a Republican from Iowa and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said he was investigating whether the agency inappropriately suppressed crucial findings. Representative Joe L. Barton, a Republican from Texas who is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he was also investigating.
"It would have been very wrong for the F.D.A. to withhold any information it had about unintended consequences that might result from the use of antidepressants, especially for children and adolescents," Mr. Grassley said.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/politics/16DEPR.html
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: The Vietnam Analogy:
"Iraq isn't Vietnam. The most important difference is the death toll, which is only a small fraction of the carnage in Indochina. But there are also real parallels, and in some ways Iraq looks worse.
It's true that the current American force in Iraq is much smaller than the Army we sent to Vietnam. But the U.S. military as a whole, and the Army in particular, is also much smaller than it was in 1968. Measured by the share of our military strength it ties down, Iraq is a Vietnam-size conflict.
And the stress Iraq places on our military is, if anything, worse. In Vietnam, American forces consisted mainly of short-term draftees, who returned to civilian life after their tours of duty. Our Iraq force consists of long-term volunteers, including reservists who never expected to be called up for extended missions overseas. The training of these volunteers, their morale and their willingness to re-enlist will suffer severely if they are called upon to spend years fighting a guerrilla war."
Some hawks say this proves that we need a bigger Army. But President Bush hasn't called for larger forces. In fact, he seems unwilling to pay for the forces we have.
A fiscal comparison of George Bush's and Lyndon Johnson's policies makes the Vietnam era seem like a golden age of personal responsibility. At first, Johnson was reluctant to face up to the cost of the war. But in 1968 he bit the bullet, raising taxes and cutting spending; he turned a large deficit into a surplus the next year. A comparable program today — the budget went from a deficit of 3.2 percent of G.D.P. to a 0.3 percent surplus in just one year — would eliminate most of our budget deficit.
By contrast, Mr. Bush, for all his talk about staying the course, hasn't been willing to strike anything off his domestic wish list. On the contrary, he used the initial glow of apparent success in Iraq to ram through yet another tax cut, waiting until later to tell us about the extra $87 billion he needed. And he's still at it: in his press conference on Tuesday he said nothing about the $50 billion-to-$70 billion extra that everyone knows will be needed to pay for continuing operations.
This fiscal chicanery is part of a larger pattern. Vietnam shook the nation's confidence not just because we lost, but because our leaders didn't tell us the truth. Last September Gen. Anthony Zinni spoke of "Vietnam, where we heard the garbage and the lies," and asked his audience of military officers, "Is it happening again?" Sure enough, the parallels are proliferating. Gulf of Tonkin attack, meet nonexistent W.M.D. and Al Qaeda links. "Hearts and minds," meet "welcome us as liberators." "Light at the end of the tunnel," meet "turned the corner." Vietnamization, meet the new Iraqi Army.
Some say that Iraq isn't Vietnam because we've come to bring democracy, not to support a corrupt regime. But idealistic talk is cheap. In Vietnam, U.S. officials never said, "We're supporting a corrupt regime." They said they were defending democracy. The rest of the world, and the Iraqis themselves, will believe in America's idealistic intentions if and when they see a legitimate, noncorrupt Iraqi government — as opposed to, say, a rigged election that puts Ahmad Chalabi in charge.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/opinion/16KRUG.html
"Iraq isn't Vietnam. The most important difference is the death toll, which is only a small fraction of the carnage in Indochina. But there are also real parallels, and in some ways Iraq looks worse.
It's true that the current American force in Iraq is much smaller than the Army we sent to Vietnam. But the U.S. military as a whole, and the Army in particular, is also much smaller than it was in 1968. Measured by the share of our military strength it ties down, Iraq is a Vietnam-size conflict.
And the stress Iraq places on our military is, if anything, worse. In Vietnam, American forces consisted mainly of short-term draftees, who returned to civilian life after their tours of duty. Our Iraq force consists of long-term volunteers, including reservists who never expected to be called up for extended missions overseas. The training of these volunteers, their morale and their willingness to re-enlist will suffer severely if they are called upon to spend years fighting a guerrilla war."
Some hawks say this proves that we need a bigger Army. But President Bush hasn't called for larger forces. In fact, he seems unwilling to pay for the forces we have.
A fiscal comparison of George Bush's and Lyndon Johnson's policies makes the Vietnam era seem like a golden age of personal responsibility. At first, Johnson was reluctant to face up to the cost of the war. But in 1968 he bit the bullet, raising taxes and cutting spending; he turned a large deficit into a surplus the next year. A comparable program today — the budget went from a deficit of 3.2 percent of G.D.P. to a 0.3 percent surplus in just one year — would eliminate most of our budget deficit.
By contrast, Mr. Bush, for all his talk about staying the course, hasn't been willing to strike anything off his domestic wish list. On the contrary, he used the initial glow of apparent success in Iraq to ram through yet another tax cut, waiting until later to tell us about the extra $87 billion he needed. And he's still at it: in his press conference on Tuesday he said nothing about the $50 billion-to-$70 billion extra that everyone knows will be needed to pay for continuing operations.
This fiscal chicanery is part of a larger pattern. Vietnam shook the nation's confidence not just because we lost, but because our leaders didn't tell us the truth. Last September Gen. Anthony Zinni spoke of "Vietnam, where we heard the garbage and the lies," and asked his audience of military officers, "Is it happening again?" Sure enough, the parallels are proliferating. Gulf of Tonkin attack, meet nonexistent W.M.D. and Al Qaeda links. "Hearts and minds," meet "welcome us as liberators." "Light at the end of the tunnel," meet "turned the corner." Vietnamization, meet the new Iraqi Army.
Some say that Iraq isn't Vietnam because we've come to bring democracy, not to support a corrupt regime. But idealistic talk is cheap. In Vietnam, U.S. officials never said, "We're supporting a corrupt regime." They said they were defending democracy. The rest of the world, and the Iraqis themselves, will believe in America's idealistic intentions if and when they see a legitimate, noncorrupt Iraqi government — as opposed to, say, a rigged election that puts Ahmad Chalabi in charge.…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/16/opinion/16KRUG.html
Chicago Tribune | AP: Book Alleges Secret Iraq War Plan:
"President Bush secretly ordered a war plan drawn up against Iraq less than two months after U.S. forces attacked Afghanistan and was so worried the decision would cause a furor he did not tell everyone on his national security team, says a new book on his Iraq policy.
Bush feared that if news got out about the Iraq plan as U.S. forces were fighting another conflict, people would think he was too eager for war, journalist Bob Woodward writes in 'Plan of Attack,' a behind-the-scenes account of the 16 months leading to the Iraq invasion."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-iraq-woodward-book,1,7458922.story
"President Bush secretly ordered a war plan drawn up against Iraq less than two months after U.S. forces attacked Afghanistan and was so worried the decision would cause a furor he did not tell everyone on his national security team, says a new book on his Iraq policy.
Bush feared that if news got out about the Iraq plan as U.S. forces were fighting another conflict, people would think he was too eager for war, journalist Bob Woodward writes in 'Plan of Attack,' a behind-the-scenes account of the 16 months leading to the Iraq invasion."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-iraq-woodward-book,1,7458922.story
Thursday, April 15, 2004
Fallujah
Six hundred dead,
mostly women and children,
but we mourn our young,
well-armed combatants,
and declare special ops
trained "contractors"
security guards.
People,
have been dying
in Fallujah,
under questionable
circumstance.
Yet,
no questions come.
The rage has built
and kept on building
as our well-armed
combatants
left trails of bodies
and excuses.
They've killed
demonstrators.
They said
they were
shot at, but,
they must
have been using
blanks.
They've killed
policemen.
They claim
they were
shot at, but,
all the brass
came from
our weapons,
from the
policemen's
guns
none.
So the rage
keeps
building,
creating unity
between sunni
and shia.
We
keep on killing.
Perhaps, we'll
continue, until
we enrage
the Kurds
Six hundred dead,
mostly women and children,
but we mourn our young,
well-armed combatants,
and declare special ops
trained "contractors"
security guards.
People,
have been dying
in Fallujah,
under questionable
circumstance.
Yet,
no questions come.
The rage has built
and kept on building
as our well-armed
combatants
left trails of bodies
and excuses.
They've killed
demonstrators.
They said
they were
shot at, but,
they must
have been using
blanks.
They've killed
policemen.
They claim
they were
shot at, but,
all the brass
came from
our weapons,
from the
policemen's
guns
none.
So the rage
keeps
building,
creating unity
between sunni
and shia.
We
keep on killing.
Perhaps, we'll
continue, until
we enrage
the Kurds
The New York Times > International > Europe > Bin Laden Tape Offering Europe a Truce Is Called Authentic:
"'The truce will begin when the last soldier leaves our countries,' the man on the tape, speaking in Arabic, added."
he C.I.A. said today that an audiotape of a man identifying himself as Osama bin Laden, who offered to stop terrorist actions in European countries that ended military action in Muslim nations, was probably authentic.
"After conducting a technical analysis, the C.I.A. assesses that the voice is likely that of Osama bin Laden," an agency official said.
The official described it as "an attempt by bin Laden to drive a message between Europe and the United States. This would fall into the category of other bin Laden tapes as a propaganda ploy to bolster morale of Al Qaeda's rank and file. "
The official, who did not want to be named, said the tape was probably recorded during the past several weeks because it referred to the killing by Israel last month of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas.…
Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain quickly rejected the offer, with a British Foreign Ministry spokeswoman telling Reuters: "We cannot negotiate with Al Qadea. Their attacks are against the very idea of co-existence."
The speaker on the tape vows revenge against the United States for the killing.
The tape, broadcast today by two Arab satellite televison stations, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, said "the door to a truce is open for three months," but that it could be extended.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/15/international/europe/15CND-TAPE.html?8bl
"'The truce will begin when the last soldier leaves our countries,' the man on the tape, speaking in Arabic, added."
he C.I.A. said today that an audiotape of a man identifying himself as Osama bin Laden, who offered to stop terrorist actions in European countries that ended military action in Muslim nations, was probably authentic.
"After conducting a technical analysis, the C.I.A. assesses that the voice is likely that of Osama bin Laden," an agency official said.
The official described it as "an attempt by bin Laden to drive a message between Europe and the United States. This would fall into the category of other bin Laden tapes as a propaganda ploy to bolster morale of Al Qaeda's rank and file. "
The official, who did not want to be named, said the tape was probably recorded during the past several weeks because it referred to the killing by Israel last month of Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas.…
Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain quickly rejected the offer, with a British Foreign Ministry spokeswoman telling Reuters: "We cannot negotiate with Al Qadea. Their attacks are against the very idea of co-existence."
The speaker on the tape vows revenge against the United States for the killing.
The tape, broadcast today by two Arab satellite televison stations, Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya, said "the door to a truce is open for three months," but that it could be extended.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/15/international/europe/15CND-TAPE.html?8bl
The New York Times > International > U.S. Funding for Foes Enrages Venezuela's Chavez:
"Documents showing U.S. funding for Venezuelan opposition groups have prompted an increase in personal attacks by President Hugo Chavez against President Bush, according to a U.S. lawyer who helped unearth the evidence.
Eva Golinger, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based attorney who supports Chavez, said documents obtained through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act showed that around $4 million in U.S. Congress-allocated funds had been channeled to the groups before and after a 2002 coup that briefly toppled Chavez.
``These groups are being financed by a foreign government, a U.S. government that has taken an open stance against the Chavez administration, that supported the coup ... it's major meddling,'' Golinger told Reuters in an interview Wednesday.…"
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-venezuela-usa-documents.html
"Documents showing U.S. funding for Venezuelan opposition groups have prompted an increase in personal attacks by President Hugo Chavez against President Bush, according to a U.S. lawyer who helped unearth the evidence.
Eva Golinger, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based attorney who supports Chavez, said documents obtained through the U.S. Freedom of Information Act showed that around $4 million in U.S. Congress-allocated funds had been channeled to the groups before and after a 2002 coup that briefly toppled Chavez.
``These groups are being financed by a foreign government, a U.S. government that has taken an open stance against the Chavez administration, that supported the coup ... it's major meddling,'' Golinger told Reuters in an interview Wednesday.…"
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-venezuela-usa-documents.html
Saturday, April 10, 2004
The New York Times > Washington > Transcript: Testimony of Condoleezza Rice Before 9/11 Commission:
"A transcript of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's testimony before the September 11 Commission on Thursday, April 8, as recorded by The New York Times: "
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/politics/08RICE-TEXT.html?pagewanted=all&position=
"A transcript of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice's testimony before the September 11 Commission on Thursday, April 8, as recorded by The New York Times: "
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/politics/08RICE-TEXT.html?pagewanted=all&position=
Friday, April 09, 2004
Authorama - Public Domain Books:
"Authorama.com, featuring completely free books from a variety of different authors, collected here for you to read online or offline. The books may have been published before, but not in this form, which I hope you find enjoyable to read and print."
http://www.authorama.com/
"Authorama.com, featuring completely free books from a variety of different authors, collected here for you to read online or offline. The books may have been published before, but not in this form, which I hope you find enjoyable to read and print."
http://www.authorama.com/
Thursday, April 08, 2004
Claim vs. Fact: Rice's Q&A Testimony Before the 9/11 Commission - Center for American Progress:
"Planes as Weapons
CLAIM: 'I do not remember any reports to us, a kind of strategic warning, that planes might be used as weapons.' [responding to Kean]
FACT: Condoleezza Rice was the top National Security official with President Bush at the July 2001 G-8 summit in Genoa. There, 'U.S. officials were warned that Islamic terrorists might attempt to crash an airliner' into the summit, prompting officials to 'close the airspace over Genoa and station antiaircraft guns at the city's airport.' [Sources: Los Angeles Times, 9/27/01; White House release, 7/22/01]…"
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=44918
"Planes as Weapons
CLAIM: 'I do not remember any reports to us, a kind of strategic warning, that planes might be used as weapons.' [responding to Kean]
FACT: Condoleezza Rice was the top National Security official with President Bush at the July 2001 G-8 summit in Genoa. There, 'U.S. officials were warned that Islamic terrorists might attempt to crash an airliner' into the summit, prompting officials to 'close the airspace over Genoa and station antiaircraft guns at the city's airport.' [Sources: Los Angeles Times, 9/27/01; White House release, 7/22/01]…"
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=44918
Claim vs. Fact: Condoleezza Rice's Opening Statement - Center for American Progress:
"CLAIM: 'We decided immediately to continue pursuing the Clinton Administration's covert action authorities and other efforts to fight the network.'
FACT: Newsweek reported that 'In the months before 9/11, the U.S. Justice Department curtailed a highly classified program called 'Catcher's Mitt' to monitor al-Qaida suspects in the United States.' Additionally, AP reported 'though Predator drones spotted Osama bin Laden as many as three times in late 2000, the Bush administration did not fly the unmanned planes over Afghanistan during its first eight months,' thus terminating the reconnaissance missions started during the Clinton Administration. [Sources: Newsweek, 3/21/04; AP, 6/25/03]…"
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=44887
"CLAIM: 'We decided immediately to continue pursuing the Clinton Administration's covert action authorities and other efforts to fight the network.'
FACT: Newsweek reported that 'In the months before 9/11, the U.S. Justice Department curtailed a highly classified program called 'Catcher's Mitt' to monitor al-Qaida suspects in the United States.' Additionally, AP reported 'though Predator drones spotted Osama bin Laden as many as three times in late 2000, the Bush administration did not fly the unmanned planes over Afghanistan during its first eight months,' thus terminating the reconnaissance missions started during the Clinton Administration. [Sources: Newsweek, 3/21/04; AP, 6/25/03]…"
http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=44887
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Downloaded History:
"While the country may be divided over the testimony before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, it is less divided when it comes to which testimony to listen to on the iPod.
Audible.com, one of the Internet's best-known providers of spoken-word content, has made the hearings available for listeners to download - for free - and play on computers and portable audio players."
http://audible.com/adbl/store/welcome.jsp
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/05/business/05audible.html
"While the country may be divided over the testimony before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, it is less divided when it comes to which testimony to listen to on the iPod.
Audible.com, one of the Internet's best-known providers of spoken-word content, has made the hearings available for listeners to download - for free - and play on computers and portable audio players."
http://audible.com/adbl/store/welcome.jsp
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/05/business/05audible.html
An Army of Debt | Anne-Marie Cusac | April 2004 Issue:
"Poor pay and economic strife are conditions the Reserves and National Guard share with others in the regular military. 'Lower-ranking enlisted people qualify for food stamps. It's not how we're used to thinking about government employees, but there it is,' says Kathleen Gilberd, co-chair of the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild. 'Active duty pay has traditionally not been enough to help people get by.' Extreme financial crises set in when service people are deployed because they then have no opportunity to get a second job to supplement their income.
But Reservists and National Guard members are especially hard hit. 'The ones who do experience income loss, it's usually a significant income loss,' says Shirley Calhoun, spokeswoman for the National Military Family Association. Many have good-paying jobs in the civilian world. But in the military ranks, the same people may not yet have made officer, 'so they are at a lower pay level,' says Calhoun."
http://www.progressive.org/april04/cusac0404.html
"Poor pay and economic strife are conditions the Reserves and National Guard share with others in the regular military. 'Lower-ranking enlisted people qualify for food stamps. It's not how we're used to thinking about government employees, but there it is,' says Kathleen Gilberd, co-chair of the Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild. 'Active duty pay has traditionally not been enough to help people get by.' Extreme financial crises set in when service people are deployed because they then have no opportunity to get a second job to supplement their income.
But Reservists and National Guard members are especially hard hit. 'The ones who do experience income loss, it's usually a significant income loss,' says Shirley Calhoun, spokeswoman for the National Military Family Association. Many have good-paying jobs in the civilian world. But in the military ranks, the same people may not yet have made officer, 'so they are at a lower pay level,' says Calhoun."
http://www.progressive.org/april04/cusac0404.html
Bush's Odd Warfare State | Barbara Ehrenreich | April 2004 Issue:
"Here's one way our President proposes to 'support our troops': According to his 2005 budget, the extra pay our soldiers receive for serving in combat zones--about $150 a month--will no longer count against their food stamp eligibility. This budget provision, if approved, should bring true peace of mind to our men and women on the front lines. From now on, they can dodge bullets in Iraq with the happy assurance that their loved ones will not starve as a result of their bravery."
http://www.progressive.org/april04/ehren0404.html
"Here's one way our President proposes to 'support our troops': According to his 2005 budget, the extra pay our soldiers receive for serving in combat zones--about $150 a month--will no longer count against their food stamp eligibility. This budget provision, if approved, should bring true peace of mind to our men and women on the front lines. From now on, they can dodge bullets in Iraq with the happy assurance that their loved ones will not starve as a result of their bravery."
http://www.progressive.org/april04/ehren0404.html
The Damage Done:
"Alan Jermaine Lewis
AGE 23; MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN
Machine gunner in the Army's 3rd Infantry Division. Wounded July 16, 2003, in Baghdad, when the Humvee he was driving hit a land mine.
I remember every detail about my legs. Every detail from the scars to the ingrown toenails to the birthmarks to the burn marks. I made it a habit, even before I joined the military, to cherish every part of my body, because I would always look at it like, 'What if this finger was gone, would I be able to function without it?' I don't know why. Maybe it was God's way of preparing me for what was going to happen."
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/03/03_100-7.html
"Alan Jermaine Lewis
AGE 23; MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN
Machine gunner in the Army's 3rd Infantry Division. Wounded July 16, 2003, in Baghdad, when the Humvee he was driving hit a land mine.
I remember every detail about my legs. Every detail from the scars to the ingrown toenails to the birthmarks to the burn marks. I made it a habit, even before I joined the military, to cherish every part of my body, because I would always look at it like, 'What if this finger was gone, would I be able to function without it?' I don't know why. Maybe it was God's way of preparing me for what was going to happen."
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/03/03_100-7.html
Tuesday, April 06, 2004
HOAXBUSTERS Home Page:
"Interspersed among the junk mail and spam that fills our Internet e-mail boxes are dire warnings about devastating new viruses, Trojans that eat the heart out of your system, and malicious software that can steal the computer right off your desk. Added to that are messages about free money, children in trouble, and other items designed to grab you and get you to forward the message to everyone you know. Most all of these messages are hoaxes or chain letters. While hoaxes do not automatically infect systems like a virus or Trojan, they are still time consuming and costly to remove from all the systems where they exist. At CIAC, we find that we spend much more time de-bunking hoaxes than handling real virus and Trojan incidents. These pages describe some of the warnings, offers, and pleas for help that are filling our mailboxes, clogging our mailservers, and that generally do not have any basis in fact.…"
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
"Interspersed among the junk mail and spam that fills our Internet e-mail boxes are dire warnings about devastating new viruses, Trojans that eat the heart out of your system, and malicious software that can steal the computer right off your desk. Added to that are messages about free money, children in trouble, and other items designed to grab you and get you to forward the message to everyone you know. Most all of these messages are hoaxes or chain letters. While hoaxes do not automatically infect systems like a virus or Trojan, they are still time consuming and costly to remove from all the systems where they exist. At CIAC, we find that we spend much more time de-bunking hoaxes than handling real virus and Trojan incidents. These pages describe some of the warnings, offers, and pleas for help that are filling our mailboxes, clogging our mailservers, and that generally do not have any basis in fact.…"
http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/
Monday, April 05, 2004
A Heretical View of File Sharing:
"But what if the industry is wrong, and file sharing is not hurting record sales?
It might seem counterintuitive, but that is the conclusion reached by two economists who released a draft last week of the first study that makes a rigorous economic comparison of directly observed activity on file-sharing networks and music buying.
'Downloads have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from zero, despite rather precise estimates,' write its authors, Felix Oberholzer-Gee of the Harvard Business School and Koleman S. Strumpf of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.… "
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/05/technology/05music.html
"But what if the industry is wrong, and file sharing is not hurting record sales?
It might seem counterintuitive, but that is the conclusion reached by two economists who released a draft last week of the first study that makes a rigorous economic comparison of directly observed activity on file-sharing networks and music buying.
'Downloads have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from zero, despite rather precise estimates,' write its authors, Felix Oberholzer-Gee of the Harvard Business School and Koleman S. Strumpf of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.… "
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/05/technology/05music.html
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