Twenty-Three Intel Experts Say LA Terror Plot a Sham

February 10 2006-- Yesterday, AWOL Bush stated that there was an
attack planned to fly a plane into the LA Library Tower in 2002 ,
but it was prevented only with the help of NSA surveillance of
communications.

No fewer than 23 intelligence experts told Capitol Hill Blue that
President Bush was "politicizing their work" and using them for
political points scoring. This is an attempt to shut up critics of
the spying scandal and to help pass in Congress that is soon to
expire Patriot Act.

If the government has really thwarted an attack on LA you can bet
your bottom dollar that they would have waved it in front of the
anti-war crowd's face before invading Iraq in March 2003.

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2006/100206terrorcard.ht
m

Background:

13 terrorist threat reports all directly followed bad political news
for Bush

October 12, 2005 - The the last three years there had been about 13
similar coincidences - a political downturn for the administration,
followed by a "terror event" - a change in alert status, an arrest,
a warning.

On the same day the news of the possible indictment of Karl Rove in
the Plame case, there was leaked news of a terrorist threat - the
reported bomb plot against the New York City subway system.

see: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9665308

Ridge Warns of 'Credible' al-Qaida Plot
July 8, 2004 – The United States is tightening security in the face
of a steady stream of intelligence indicating al-Qaida might seek to
mount an attack... This is sobering information about those who wish
to do us harm," Ridge said

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/7/8/140438.shtml
Jul 08, 2004 --The United States is tightening security in the face
of a steady stream of intelligence indicating al-Qaida may seek to
mount an attack aimed at disrupting elections, the White House said
earlier.
The Department of Homeland Security is addressing the threat and has
efforts under way to "ramp up security," White House press secretary
Scott McClellan. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-
news/1167573/posts

July 09, 2004 -- House Republicans, under strong pressure from the
White House, narrowly defeated an effort yesterday to water down the
Bush administration's signature law to combat domestic terrorism.

By a 210 to 210 tie vote that GOP leaders prolonged for 23
tumultuous minutes while they corralled dissident members, the House
rejected a proposed change to the USA Patriot Act that would have
barred the Justice Department from searching bookstore and library
records.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A37480-2004Jul8.html

The laugh of the day:
Unknown by-line date: Gen. Jack Singlaub says, "Every American
needs to get and read (the book) Catastrophe. It reveals Bill
Clinton's role in 9-11 and what America must do to prevent future
attacks."
Comment Former Gen. Singlaub (fired by Pres. Carter) was/is a member
of the Enterprise, the drug trafficking group under Bush Sr and
North.

http://www.newsmaxstore.com/nms/showdetl.cfm?
&DID=6&Product_ID=876&CATID=1&GroupID=1

Sept 11 thru 24, 2002: Threat level raised to orange for the first
time: Aschcroft said, "Al Qaeda cells in several South Asian
countries have been accumulating explosives since January and may be
planning car bomb or other attacks on US facilities". ," President
Bush said at the Afghanistan Embassy in Washington. "We have no
specific threat to America, but we're taking everything seriously,"
he said.

Senators Back President Bush on Iraq Resolution (S. J. Res. 46),
October 2, 2002:

Comment: If no specific threat then why raise the threat level?
(Did) Bush turned public anxiety into Republican votes (Nov 2002
elections) by arguing that the then-Democratic Senate was "not
interested in the security of the American people."

http://www.eriposte.com/war_peace/911/911.htm

------

Ex-CIA Official Faults Use of Data on Iraq

February 10, 2006 -- The former CIA official who coordinated U.S.
intelligence on the Middle East until last year has accused the Bush
administration of "cherry-picking" intelligence on Iraq to justify a
decision it had already reached to go to war, and of ignoring
warnings that the country could easily fall into violence and chaos
after an invasion to overthrow Saddam Hussein.
Paul R. Pillar, who was the national intelligence officer for the
Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005. He asserted, the
administration "went to war without requesting -- and evidently
without being influenced by -- any strategic-level intelligence
assessments on any aspect of Iraq."

This is also the first time that such a senior intelligence officer
has so directly and publicly condemned the administration's handling
of intelligence. Pillar, retired after 28 years at the CIA, was an
influential behind-the-scenes player and was considered the agency's
leading counterterrorism analyst. By the end of his career, he was
responsible for coordinating assessments on Iraq from all 15
agencies in the intelligence community.

Pillar describes for the first time that the intelligence community
did assessments before the invasion that, he wrote, indicated a
postwar Iraq "would not provide fertile ground for democracy" and
would need "a Marshall Plan-type effort" to restore its economy
despite its oil revenue. It also foresaw Sunnis and Shiites fighting
for power.

Pillar wrote that the intelligence community "anticipated that a
foreign occupying force would itself be the target of resentment and
attacks -- including guerrilla warfare.

That assessment, completed in August 2004, warned that the
insurgency in Iraq could evolve into a guerrilla war or civil war.
It was leaked to the media in September in the midst of the
presidential campaign, and Bush, who had told voters that the
mission in Iraq was going well, described the assessment to
reporters as "just guessing."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2006/02/09/AR2006020902418.html

Cheney Spearheaded Effort to Discredit Wilson


09 February 2006 -- Vice President Dick Cheney and then-Deputy
National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley led a campaign beginning in
March 2003 to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson for publicly
criticizing the Bush administration's intelligence on Iraq,
according to current and former administration officials.

The officials work or had worked in the State Department, the
CIA and the National Security Council in a senior capacity and had
direct knowledge of the Vice President's campaign to discredit
Wilson.

They said their roles, along with several others at the CIA and
State Department, included digging up or "inventing" embarrassing
information on the former Ambassador that could be used against him,
preparing memos and classified material on Wilson for Cheney and the
National Security Council. Cheney wanted us to do everything in our
power to destroy his reputation and he wanted to be kept up to date
about the progress."

During the same CNN segment in which Wilson was interviewed, former
United Nations weapons inspector David Albright made similar
comments about the rationale for the Iraq war and added that he
believed UN weapons inspectors should be given more time to search
the country for weapons of mass destruction.

"Vice President Cheney was more concerned with Mr. Albright," the
CIA official said. "The international community had been saying that
inspectors should have more time, that the US should not set a
deadline. The Vice President felt Mr. Albright's remarks would fuel
the debate."

The National Security Council and CIA officials said Cheney had
visited CIA headquarters and asked several CIA officials to dig up
dirt on Albright, and to put together a dossier that would discredit
his work that could be distributed to the media.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020906J.shtml

Total Information Awareness program back and running

09 February 2006 -- The US government is developing a massive
computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by
linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government
records and intelligence reports

The core of this effort is a little-known system called Analysis,
Dissemination, Visualization, Insight, and Semantic Enhancement
(ADVISE).

At least a few pieces of ADVISE are already operational. Consider
Starlight, which along with other "visualization" software tools can
give human analysts a graphical view of data. Viewing data in this
way could reveal patterns not obvious in text or number form.
Understanding the relationships among people, organizations, places,
and things - using social-behavior analysis and other techniques -
is essential to going beyond mere data-mining to
comprehensive "knowledge discovery in databases," Dr. Kielman wrote
in his November report.

While privacy laws do place some restriction on government use of
private data - such as medical records - they don't prevent
intelligence agencies from buying information from commercial data
collectors. Congress has done little so far to regulate the practice
or even require basic notification from agencies, privacy experts
say.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020906M.shtml

Top science adviser sounds death knell for theory that insists
growth is good.
06 February 2006 -- The old economics is dead. Its death knell
was sounded last week, not by a practitioner of the dismal science
but by Tony Blair's chief scientific adviser. Sir David King said
concentrations of greenhouse gases were already at a level where the
warning signs were flashing red: a comment that starkly illustrates
the impending clash between economic orthodoxy and environmental
sustainability.


Peet Osta, the author of The Winds of Change: Climate, Weather
and the Destruction of Civilisations, puts it this way: "Once
government at all levels commits to purchasing clean technologies,
making efficiency improvements, and using alternative energy where
possible, this massive spending would provide economies of scale
that would help speed the commercialisation of new technologies as
well as prepare society for the shift away from fossil fuels. Such
proposals have been on the table since the early 1960s. By not
taking action on greenhouse emissions, we are betting our wellbeing
that climate change poses little threat. If we are wrong, we will
meet our fate."

But think about it for a minute. Concerns are frequently being
raised about the fact that many developed countries are about to
see - or are already seeing - a decline in their populations. This
will have an impact on their trend rate of growth, which is a
function of population and productivity. Stories about falling
population are always couched in terms of demographic time bombs,
suggesting that they are clearly a bad thing. But fewer people in
Germany, Italy or Japan will mean more space, less pressure on
resources and a more pleasant life.

Sir David thinks it is unrealistic to limit concentrations to the
levels that scientists say would be safe. He thinks about 550 ppm is
the limit and, sadly, given the current configuration of politics -
domestically and globally - he is probably right about that too.
Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are around 380 parts
per million, compared with around 220 ppm during the last ice age.
Climatologists estimate that 400ppm - of thereabouts - is the
tipping point and if we push concentrations much above that the
process of climate change could become irreversible

http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/020606EA.shtml

US Trade Deficit Hits All-Time High

The US trade deficit soared to an all-time high of $725.8 billion in
2005, pushed upward by record imports of oil, food, cars and other
consumer goods. The deficit with China hit an all-time high, as did
America's
deficits with Japan, Europe, OPEC, Canada, Mexico and South and
Central
America.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021006C.shtml

Russ Feingold | Congress Has Lost Its Way

Senator Feingold delivered a statement yesterday on the senate floor
in
response to the President's warrantless wiretapping program: The
President was blunt, so I will be blunt: This program is breaking
the law,
and this President is breaking the law. Not only that, he is
misleading
the American people in his efforts to justify this program. How is
that
worthy of applause?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/020806A.shtml

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit for research and educational purposes. MY
NEWSLETTER has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this
article nor is MY NEWSLETTER endorsed or sponsored by the
originator.)
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NewsViewsnolose

or the best of N&V at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/newsviewsnolose2

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunningOnEmptyDemocratCaucusWA/

and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunningOnEmptyCaucusDemocratsUSA