The Reaction in review (April 24, 2009)

A Week's Reactions that deserve a second look: (I cross-post to this site on a regular basis)

Today's round-up features the three outstanding posts of The Reaction's new co-blogger, Boatboy:

• "Iraqi liberation and (un)intended consequences" -- This post is about the alleged torture of gays by Iraqi militia members. (4/22/09)


• "As bad as they are" -- This fine essay takes on Christopher Buckley, saying "Buckley's article speaks loudly of two double standards: that of calling terrorists out as monsters whilst employing their own methods against them, and that of the assumption that torture of detainees is productive for US intelligence services but indoctrinating and corrupting for US citizens subjected to the same treatment." (4/22/09)


• "(Misplaced) expectations of decency and honor" -- Editor Michael J.W. Stickings says, "Boatboy has done some fantastic work recently covering the torture issue, including the Bush memos and the ethics of torture generally. Make sure to check out his blog for more. This post, below, is quite long, but it's an excellent examination of Bush's torture regime. -- MJWS) (4/23/09)

Friday

By Creature: "87, 215" -- Creature is the best I know at a succinct and searing paragraph about the cost of the war in Iraq.


Thursday

By Carl: "The rest of the iceberg" -- Carl's post is the best explanation around of the current credit card debt issue -- should be required reading for every card holder. See more wonderful writing: Earth Day and Miss USA vs. gay marriage and Columbine's lessons.

By Carol Gee: "On accountability: the chains that bind" -- A news digest on the latest revelations in the torture scandal lays out the debate about how much accountability to demand.

By Peter S. Henne: "The lessons of Sri Lanka" -- This week's guest poster from the Truman Project writes a very useful essay on the parallel realities of Sri Lanka and our own counterinsurgency struggles, and what we can learn about what succeeds and why.

By Michael J.W. Stickings: "Barack Obama and American strength" -- Michael concludes his examination to the Obama/Chavez handshake with, "America is strong again, and we all better for it."


Wednesday

By Michael J.W. Stickings: "Did the torture work?" -- Michael's important post takes on a very difficult question for progressives: What was Admiral Blair thinking?


Tuesday

By Capt Fogg: "Dishonesty is strength" -- Fogg writes a superb essay on the Ex-Veep, beginning with "Dick Cheney . . . packs a lot of venom and mendacity into each [of his short declarative sentences]." See also, "Tough guy Ed Rollins."


Monday

By J. Thomas Duffy: "Suspicious mind" -- Duffy's wonderfully edgy post reports on the Rep. Jane Harman story of wiretapping; includes a great set of links to others. See also, "Cirque de Military Analysts ... Pulitzer Prize Winner!"

By Mustang Bobby: "Every cow that farts" -- Bobby's experience on a dairy farm enables him to take on Rep. John Boehner's carbon dioxide lunacy.

By Michael J.W. Stickings: "Canada vs. the pirates" -- No not baseball, real pirates, and the Canadians were heroic!

See also Behind the Links, for further info on this subject.

Carol Gee - Online Universe is the all-in-one home page for all my websites.

Technorati tags: The Reaction blogging news

Intelligence -- the next phase

President-elect Barack Obama got his first in-depth regular intelligence briefing from DNI Mike McConnell, according to Joby Warrick at the Washington Post. Obama was asked about this at his first news conference yesterday, but he declined to discuss it in any depth. To quote the article (Post's links):

For nearly an hour yesterday, President-elect Barack Obama met with two of the country's top intelligence officers for an important rite of passage: his first full-blown classified briefing on national security.

. . . The Obama camp has offered no hints of how it plans to fill top intelligence posts, including the positions of director of national intelligence, now held by Mike McConnell, and CIA director, held by Michael V. Hayden. The decision is particularly complicated, because the rules and traditions for selecting intelligence officials are somewhat different from those for other administration appointees.

Unlike the directorship of the FBI, the top posts at the CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence do not come with a set term that transcends presidential administrations. And, while both officials are appointed by the president and serve at his pleasure, the White House has broader discretion in filling intelligence posts and can elect to keep the current leadership in place.

We did hear a bit, however. P-E Obama said that intelligence gathering can always improve, adding that he believes there has been improvement already. Already in the national security groove, he declined to tell MSNBC's Candy Crowley whether anything he heard "gave him pause."

President-elect Obama now has an official transition website, "Change.gov." Here is what the "agenda/homeland security" section has to say about Intel and civil liberties. To quote:

Improve Intelligence Capacity and Protect Civil Liberties

• Improve Information Sharing and Analysis: Barack Obama will improve our intelligence system by creating a senior position to coordinate domestic intelligence gathering; establishing a grant program to support thousands more state and local level intelligence analysts and increasing our capacity to share intelligence across all levels of government.

• Give Real Authority to the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board: Created by Congress and recommended by the 9/11 Commission, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board needs to be substantially reformed and empowered to safeguard against an erosion in American civil liberties. As president, Barack Obama will support efforts to strengthen the Board with subpoena powers and reporting responsibilities, will give the Board a robust mandate designed to protect American civil liberties and will demand transparency from the Board to ensure accountability.

• Strengthen Institutions to Fight Terrorism: Overseas, Barack Obama will establish a Shared Security Partnership Program to invest $5 billion over three years to improve cooperation between U.S. and foreign intelligence and law enforcement agencies. This program will include information sharing, as well as funding for training, operations, border security, anti-corruption programs, technology, and the targeting of terrorist financing.

Warrick's WaPo article speculated about heads of Intelligence Services replacements and revealed that McConnell expects to be replaced as DNI, but that General Hayden might be willing to continue to head the CIA, stating that,

Within intelligence circles the speculation is centering on former intelligence officials who are close to the Obama team, including John O. Brennan, the former interim director of the National Counterterrorism Center, and Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.), former ranking minority member of the House intelligence committee. . .

Both men [Haden & McConnell] assumed their current jobs in Bush's second term and were not directly tainted by the controversies over faulty intelligence about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, or the decision to use waterboarding and other harsh techniques on suspected terrorists in secret CIA prisons.

When the new Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act bill was passed in June 2008, I was very disappointed that (then) Senator Obama voted for it. We now know that his vote was clearly a manifestation of his Pragmatist self, intended to reinforce his national security credentials for the election. My post written at the time includes his statement about what drove his decision. My hope today is that his Constitutional Law professor self will kick in and make changes that will reinstate our lost civil liberties. Time will tell.

The Obama transition website, Change.gov, has a section titled "American Moment," where readers are invited to "share your story" or "share your vision." Transparency and participation being the hallmarks of an Obama presidency, I am thinking of sending our next president (ONP, as opposed to OCP, our current president) some thoughts from my Civil Libertarian self. Any suggestions?

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics national security obama domestic intelligence mike mcconnell mike hayden

Must we abandon everything we do to survive?

Quote of the day: "Every organization must be prepared to abandon everything it does to survive in the future." ~ Peter Drucker

We as a nation must be willing to abandon the old ways that do not work. We will be required to learn how to get along with our adversaries, to find common ground. New governing solutions will be required to deal with the crashing waves of problems in the wake of 8 years of Republican rule. And the Republican Party will have to abandon what they have recently been doing in order to survive.

McCain can only stand by helplessly blustering as tensions rise and Palin splits the nation and the party. Writing a guest opinion piece for the BBC News, former Bush deputy assistant, Peter Wehner, has already conceded that Republicans will lose on November 4. The bulk of his article is a scathing indictment of Obama; the concession came as his conclusion. To quote:

And even if you were inclined to believe that Senator Obama will govern as a centrist - a questionable claim, given his record - the Democratic Party will hold a commanding position in the House and Senate.

Speaker Pelosi and majority leader Reid and their committee chairmen - many of them partisan, ideological, and ruthless - will exert enormous pressure on Obama to move left.

From all we know about him, Senator Obama will not resist it or defy them. And that, in turn, will lead to overreach.

Which is why even though next Tuesday will be a difficult day for Republicans and conservatives, the wise ones will understand that our moment will come again, and perhaps sooner than we think.

Our task is to be ready.

After World War II a group of disparate nations in Europe had to abandon insularity and unhealthy competition in order to unite, forming the European Union. An anchor nation, Great Britain is our closest ally. What do they think of our political races? The Financial Times did a survey of influential people in the United Kingdom about the upcoming U.S. presidential election. These are a couple of the results (see linked charts, also):

• Who would you like to see win the election? Obama: 74%, McCain: 16%, Don't know: 10%
• Who do you believe will win the election? Obama: 72%, McCain: 13%, Don't know: 15%

America has always had to change in order to survive, leaving the old ways that were not working behind. Jurek Martin writes in the London Financial Times that America has a staggering capacity for change. That is good to hear because we are about to "do a 180" after 8 horrendous years with the failing Bush administration. William Drodziak says in Germany's Deutche Welle that Obama will go down in history. To quote:

Many pundits ask indeed why anybody would want a job so fraught with peril.

An advised transition: Obama has approached this staggering task with cool methodology. He has appointed two experienced advisors to head the executive transition teams that will put together his new government.

. . . In short, America and the world will probably wake up on the morning of Nov. 5 to a dramatically different government taking over in the United States. If Obama can fulfill the hopes and ambitions of the millions of American voters yearning for change, he will go down in history books as a transformational leader who brought the United States back from the precipice of decline as a world power and restored its original sense of purpose as a stalwart defender of democratic values and human rights.

In recent times we have not voted for President wisely, twice. In 2008 we hope that enough voter gullibility will be abandoned that wise choices of our leaders can prevail. Some of us think that Barack Obama has the capacity to be a good Servant-Leader. The Senate must abandon gridlock; the House must abandon Minority walk-outs. The president, the voters, the Congress, the courts -- we must unite and refine the art of follower-ship to survive as a nation. The whole world is watching.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics 2008 elections obama republicans bush leadership

Watching National Security

The invasion of Iraq in early 2003 was sold to us as a matter of national security. It is now 2008 and the government of Irag is demanding that the U.S. set a timetable for withdrawal of our forces.

What a switch this "national security" development is for the candidates running for the presidency. There is a good analysis of this question from the (8/22/08) Democratic Strategist: Titled, "Tide Turning In, and On, Iraq, it is by Ed Kilgore. To quote a couple of Kilgore's ideas:

The political figure most threatened by it is John McCain, who has violently and consistently opposed any sort of withdrawal timetable on grounds that it would fatally endanger an impending U.S. military "victory" in Iraq.

Barack Obama's reaction to the new deal in Iraq is obviously a big deal in terms of framing his position vis-a-vis McCain's. Here's part of what he said about it:

I am glad that the Administration has finally shifted to accepting a timetable for the removal of our combat troops from Iraq. Success in Iraq depends on an Iraqi government that is reconciling its differences and taking responsibility for its future, and a timetable is the best way to press the Iraqis to do just that. I welcome the growing convergence around this pragmatic and responsible position....

Senator McCain has stubbornly focused on maintaining an indefinite U.S presence in Iraq, but events have made his bluster and record increasingly out of touch with reality. While Senator McCain continues to offer unconditional military and economic support for Iraq, I strongly believe that we need to use our leverage with the Iraqi government to ensure a political settlement. In addition to a timetable, we should only train Iraqi Security Forces if Iraq's leaders reconcile their differences, and we must insist that Iraq invests its $79 billion surplus on rebuilding its own country. It's time to succeed in Iraq and to honor the sacrifice of our servicemen and women by leaving Iraq to a sovereign Iraqi government.

The Iraqis do not need our money; we do. Watching it be spent at the current rate is very demoralizing. Eric Umansky is a great investigator for ProPublica. Here is his (8/21/08) story on why withdrawal from Iraq is so incredibly complicated: "Iraq Fibs on Reconstruction Spending." To quote:

It seems the U.S. and Iraq are nearing a deal for American forces in Iraq. Whether the GIs are staying or going home ($) in the next few years isn't clear (and anyway, these are "aspirational timetables," as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put it). But security agreements aside, one thing that's increasingly clear is that Iraq isn't exactly mustering its full financial resources to reconstruct the country.

A GAO report released earlier this month concluded that Iraq was basically rolling in the dough. Benefitting from record oil prices, Iraq's budget surplus is estimated to reach near $80 billion by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, Iraq's spending on reconstruction projects, the report concluded, has been miserly by comparison. In 2007, the report said, Iraq only actually spent 28 percent of its $12 billion reconstruction budget.

Who is to watch Blackwater? Investigative journalist Matthew Schwarzfeld also writes for ProPublica. He tells us that, as of(8/15/08), "Security Contractors in Iraq Remain Outside the Law." To quote:

Nearing the one-year anniversary of the shooting incident involving Blackwater guards at Baghdad's Nisour Square, State Department security contractors in Iraq continue to operate in a legal vacuum.

Iraqi leaders have continually pushed to revoke the controversial Order 17, passed in the final days of the Coalition Provisional Authority to immunize contractors from Iraqi law. Recent news reports about Iraqi-U.S. negotiations indicate that the Iraqis may prevail. But because of inaction by Congress, the loophole for State Department contractors remains in U.S. law.

Closing the legal loophole that makes prosecuting the Blackwater guards so unlikely -- as illustrated by the Justice Department's public difficulties in finding the legal authority to prosecute guards for last September's Nisour Square shooting -- has proven extremely difficult. Blackwater has said its guards acted only after coming under fire.

Follow the money -- these little tidbits come from my daily newsletter, CQ Behind the Lines. The date is 8/13/08. Quoting a couple of items:

Security-related concerns about Sharia-compliant banking may stem from a lack of understanding, stereotyping and/or a “conflation” of Islamic finance with hawala money transfers, CRS suggests —

. . . An accused North African terror cell rolled up in Italy last weekend allegedly financed ops with collections from phony car accident insurance claims, BBC News relates.

Watching in the name of national security -- For many Americans the best metaphor for what is wrong with the Bush administration's misguided efforts to "keep us safe" is the Terror Watch list. If you remember that is the list from which Teddy Kennedy could not extract himself. An e-mail from Anthony Romero at ACLU weighs on the mess: "Who's next on the watch list?" It includes this interesting opportunity: Take our national security quiz to learn about other frightening national security tools. To quote Romero's letter:

Why is 7-year-old John Anderson from Minneapolis on the national Terrorist Watch List?

1. He pushed Tommy too hard on the playground.
2. His July 4th birthday means he distracts other Americans from celebrating their country.
3. John didn’t pick up the blocks during playtime.

The truth is that we don’t know how he got on the Terrorist Watch List. Or if he can get off it. It took an Act of Congress to get Nelson Mandela, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, off the list.

The watch list is the perfect metaphor because, according to Eric Umansky of ProPublica (8/22/08), the "Terror Watch List [is] Technologically Troubled" To quote:

According to the Wall Street Journal, which details the investigators' findings ($), the current watch list database was built in a rush after 9/11 and uses seriously limited software. For instance, the list can't be searched for keywords. Investigators also concluded that the database doesn't include "potentially vital" messages from the Central Intelligence Agency.

The government is building a new database. But apparently it's not shaping up to be a crackerjack system either. . . . The new database, called "Railhead," was supposed to be completed by the end of the year, but it's hitting delays. Citing a "congressional aide," the Journal says the "government has fired most of the 862 private contractors from dozens of companies working on the Railhead project, and only a skeleton crew remains."

References on national security from my regular contributors:

• from Jon -- and NYTimes.com (8/30/08):"Bush Seeks to Affirm a Continuing War on Terror."


• from Jon; it is at NewsWithViews: "Government By Traitors and Cowards" (8/29/08) by Andrew C. Wallace


• from Jon 8/26/08: Looking Back at Five Years of Bush's Wreckage in Iraq -- Bush's supporters see the global war on terrorism as a "clash of civilizations" -- yet the civilization we are destroying in Iraq is part of our own.


• From "betmo," another reference: "CIA Likely Let Contractors Perform Waterboarding" (2/8/08) Wall Street Journal.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics national security iraq watch lists homeland security status of forces agreement

Surveillance News Digest

Surveillance News Alerts
Today’s Date: Saturday, August 23, 2008

Regular Resources – This week's stories:

• Glenn Greenwald @ Salon.com: Doubts over the anthrax case intensify -- except among much of the media


• Firedoglake: Anti-Regulation Crusader Shortlisted for Regulatory Post at DOE


• Emptywheel: The Gitmo Shrinks Find Their Super Ego And Cowboy Up


• TPM Muckraker: Senate Judiciary Pressures WH for Torture Documents


• Wired: Threat Level: EFF and Feds Battle Over Dormant Spy Lawsuit as Immunity Battle Awaits


• Civil Liberties @ About.com: Your Guide to Civil Liberties News and Issues


• ACLU Blog: CIA in Contempt Soon?

Running up the bill a bit -- *CBS News reports this, "Homeland Security Phones Hacked -- Hacker Racks Up $12,000 In Calls To Middle East, Asia," (8/21/08); betmo comments, "ooh- kinda embarrassing . . . feelin' real safe here in the homeland." To quote:

A hacker broke into a Homeland Security Department telephone system over the weekend and racked up about $12,000 in calls to the Middle East and Asia.

The hacker made more than 400 calls on a Federal Emergency Management Agency voicemail system in Emmitsburg, Md., on Saturday and Sunday, according to FEMA spokesman Tom Olshanski.

This type of hacking is very low-tech and "old school," said John Jackson, a St. Louis-based security consultant. It was popular 10 to 15 years ago. . .

"In this case it's sort of embarrassing that it happened to FEMA themselves - FEMA being a child of DHS, with calls going to the Middle East," Johnson said.

We have met the enemy, and it is us? *A link to " police state news," at SurvivalAcres, (8/20/08), includes the comment, "add into the mix- the curfews and the ice raids- and the increased surveillance- sigh." That blog includes a long block-quote and concludes pungently,

Exactly how useful is information like this in real life instead of the make-believe fantasy these fools are spinning?

Let’s see, a so-called terrorist act occurs and they check their records. Yep, their suspect “crossed the border” in 1993. BFD, doesn’t mean diddly squat. Either these guys think we are all very stupid, or they’re all very stupid.

It’s clear that YOU are the terrorist here, just for being an American in one of the worst growing police states on the planet. But hey, you still got your Best Buy stores and LCD T.V.’s, so it can’t be all bad.

Senator Leahy fights back -- HT to ProPublica for this from (8/18/08) USA Today. "Senators seek to delay new rules in terror probes." To quote:

New rules on FBI investigations of U.S. national security cases should be delayed, top Senate Judiciary Committee members said Monday, raising concerns that ethnic or racial groups could be targeted despite no evidence of wrongdoing.

In a letter to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the senators called for congressional hearings on the rules before they are finalized. They suggested delaying the rules — known as the attorney general guidelines — until FBI Director Robert Mueller appears before the panel Sept. 17.

Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, and Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the panel's top Republican, called the guidelines a "laudatory effort to ensure that front-line agents are given clear rules to follow in pursuit of their investigations."

What Leahy's fight is about -- *from Common Dreams: "US May Ease Police Spy Rules" by Spencer S. Hsu and Carrie Johnson. To quote the intro:

The Justice Department has proposed a new domestic spying measure that would make it easier for state and local police to collect intelligence about Americans, share the sensitive data with federal agencies and retain it for at least 10 years.

The proposed changes would revise the federal government’s rules for police intelligence-gathering for the first time since 1993 and would apply to any of the nation’s 18,000 state and local police agencies that receive roughly $1.6 billion each year in federal grants.

Quietly unveiled late last month, the proposal is part of a flurry of domestic intelligence changes issued and planned by the Bush administration in its waning months. They include a recent executive order that guides the reorganization of federal spy agencies and a pending Justice Department overhaul of FBI procedures for gathering intelligence and investigating terrorism cases within U.S. borders.

There is much criticism, however. To quote from the conclusion:

Taken together, critics in Congress and elsewhere say, the moves are intended to lock in policies for Bush’s successor and to enshrine controversial post-Sept. 11 approaches that some say have fed the greatest expansion of executive authority since the Watergate era.

. . . Michael German, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the proposed rule may be misunderstood as permitting police to collect intelligence even when no underlying crime is suspected, such as when a person gives money to a charity that independently gives money to a group later designated a terrorist organization.

. . . Critics say preemptive law enforcement in the absence of a crime can violate the Constitution and due process. They cite the administration’s long-running warrantless-surveillance program, which was set up outside the courts, and the FBI’s acknowledgment that it abused its intelligence-gathering privileges in hundreds of cases by using inadequately documented administrative orders to obtain telephone, e-mail, financial and other personal records of U.S. citizens without warrants.

Former Justice Department official Jamie S. Gorelick said the new FBI guidelines on their own do not raise alarms. But she cited the recent disclosure that undercover Maryland State Police agents spied on death penalty opponents and antiwar groups in 2005 and 2006 to emphasize that the policies would require close oversight.

“If properly implemented, this should assure the public that people are not being investigated by agencies who are not trained in how to protect constitutional rights,” said the former deputy attorney general. “The FBI will need to be vigilant — both in its policies and its practices — to live up to that promise.”

German, an FBI agent for 16 years, said easing established limits on intelligence-gathering would lead to abuses against peaceful political dissenters. In addition to the Maryland case, he pointed to reports in the past six years that undercover New York police officers infiltrated protest groups before the 2004 Republican National Convention; that California state agents eavesdropped on peace, animal rights and labor activists; and that Denver police spied on Amnesty International and others before being discovered.

. . . Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that updating police intelligence rules is a move “in the right direction. However, the vagueness of the provisions giving broad access to criminal intelligence to undefined agencies . . . is very troubling.”

Surveillance news from -- CQ Behind the Lines e-mail newsletter of 8/15/08:

Bugs ‘n bombs: “The cyberattacks in Georgia are re-energizing a debate over whether the laws of war apply in cyberspace. Among the biggest questions: When is a cyberattack an act of war?” The Wall Street Journal leads — as InformationWeek finds the Air Force putting a hold on its pending new cyber command.

Courts and rights: A U.S. appeals court will reconsider its decision to toss out a Canadian engineer’s lawsuit over torture he says he endured after being mistaken for an Islamic extremist, The Vancouver Sun says — while The Philadelphia Inquirer has that same court rejecting consideration of lawsuits brought by 9/11 victims against Saudi Arabia and four of its princes for allegedly helping foster al Qaeda and other Islamist groups. A military judge yesterday barred a U.S. general from further involvement in a Guantanamo war crimes trial, the legal advisor’s second banishment from a case, Reuters reports.

Over there: Chinese leaders warn of a “life and death struggle” against Muslim separatist terror in Xinjiang province, Reuters recounts.

*Hat tip to "betmo," who writes life's journey, for these links.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news civil liberties [domestic surviellance congress

On Big Brothers -- U.S. Intelligence/Security

Internal Big Brothers inside government: Homeland Security is implementing a program within the department for all employees to watch each other carefully for signs of being spies or terrorists. To quote a couple of articles:

• Types of behaviors that could be foreign espionage -- (from the CQ Behind the Lines newsletter, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press’ Eileen Sullivan.) AP: Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff . . said employees should suspect espionage if, for one example::

"A department employee has a personal relationship with a foreigner that seems suspicious."



• "Homeland Security setting up counterspy unit" from USA Today (8/12/08) via ProPublica. To quote:
  

  Concerns about foreign spies and terrorists have prompted the Homeland Security Department to set up its own counterintelligence division and require strict
  reporting from employees about foreign travel, according to a memo obtained by
  The Associated Press.
  
  The new directive comes as the federal government increases its counterspy efforts across all agencies and raises the awareness of intelligence vulnerabilities in the private industry as well as in protecting government secrets.
  
  The Homeland Security Department "is vulnerable to adversaries who seek information about our nation's homeland defense programs,classified or unclassified," Secretary Michael Chertoff wrote in the Aug. 4 memo to employees obtained by AP.

Homeland Security AS your Big Brother when you travel -- To quote a recent e-mail from Carolyn Frederickson of ACLU:

Planning a vacation? Thinking about traveling outside the country? If you travel outside the United States, you can kiss your right to privacy, and perhaps your laptop, digital camera and cell phone, goodbye.

With no suspicion and no explanation, the U.S. government can seize your laptop, cell phone, or PDA as you enter the United States and download all your private information -- including your personal and business documents, emails, phone calls, and web history. The Department of Homeland Security confirms that this is the official policy.

What happens if you refuse to let the agents download your personal photos? Or if you have encrypted your private information? Then Border Patrol -- which is now an agency of the Department of Homeland Security -- can simply copy your entire hard drive or even take your device and hang on to it indefinitely.

Unfortunately, seizing laptops and cameras at the border isn’t the only travel security measure that infringes on our civil liberties. Just last month, the U.S. government's "terrorist watch list" surpassed one million names and is growing by over twenty-thousand names per month. The watch list includes the names of prominent people, like Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA), plus hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans -- many of them with common names like Robert Johnson and James Robinson. Your name might be on the list, but there's no way to know for sure until you are delayed -- or even detained for hours in a back room. If you discover your name is on the list, it's nearly impossible to get off. It actually took an Act of Congress to get Nelson Mandela off the list. No joke. An Act of Congress.

These abuses have something in common: They make all of us into suspects, with no rule of law and no accountability. . . Traveling shouldn’t mean checking your rights when you’re checking your luggage. It’s time for some sanity when it comes to security. Please, speak out now.

Tell Congress: it’s time to rein in travel abuses by the Department of Homeland Security.

Related to this is a possible travel remedy from my 8/13/08 CQ Behind the Lines newsletter: “Congress needs to set the rules for how border agents can delve into travelers’ laptops,” the Post opines.

State and local Big Brothers -- These items come from my 8/11/08 CQ Behind the Lines newsletter:

• "Some $4.5 million in federal funding for the Maryland State Police is imperiled by a probe into its use of a criminal database to track peaceful activists, The Washington Times tells. . ." Quoting further:
  

  The undercover infiltration of the protest groups appears legal under state law, legal analysts said. But entering a Baltimore activist's name in the drug-trafficking and terror suspect database without apparent justification could violate 1970s-era regulations stemming from revelations of domestic spying by national intelligence agencies. It also could breach Maryland privacy laws . .
  



• The local Institute for Security Studies has put together a DVD, “The Seven Signs of Terror,” for people such as school police who could help spot terrorist activity, Las Vegas’s CBS 4 News notes. To quote:
  
  

  The DVD, which serves the entire state of Nevada, illustrates the “Seven Signs of Terrorism” and explains how to report such signs. The “Seven Signs of Terrorism” are:
  
  • Surveillance
  • Information Gathering
  • Testing Security
  • Planning
  • Suspicious Behavior
  • Rehearsal
  • Getting Into Position
  
  According to the DVD, if a potential terrorist act is interrupted during any of the “Seven Signs” the planned act can be stopped. Ordinary citizens reporting suspicious activities they have witnessed is an important tool for law enforcement working to stop terrorist acts

Business Big Brothers -- from The Washington Post (8/12/08) comes this headline, "Some Web Firms Say They Track Behavior Without Explicit Consent," by Ellen Nakashima. To quote:

Several Internet and broadband companies have acknowledged using targeted-advertising technology without explicitly informing customers, according to letters released yesterday by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

. . . The revelations came in response to a bipartisan inquiry of how more than 30 Internet companies might have gathered data to target customers. Some privacy advocates and lawmakers said the disclosures help build a case for an overarching online-privacy law.

. . . Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), [ ] created the Privacy Caucus 12 years ago. "Our responsibility is to make sure that we create a law that, regardless of the technology, includes a set of legal guarantees that consumers have with respect to their information."

Markey said he and his colleagues plan to introduce legislation next year, a sort of online-privacy Bill of Rights, that would require that consumers must opt in to the tracking of their online behavior and the collection and sharing of their personal data.

Previous S/SW posts on this subject:

1. Like An Ubiquitous Spook (Sept. 2007) Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV
2. Bigger and Bigger Brothers (Jan. 2008)
3. Ubiquitous Big Brothers (Feb. 2008)
4. The State of the Surveillance State (April, 2008)
5. Understanding Your FBI (May, 2008)
   

Technorati tags: intelligence news national security domestic surveillance

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

CIVIL is as civil does.

Please be civil -- Civil rights, civil liberties, civil society, civil vs. criminal, civil service, civil disobedience, all of these phrases have something to do with behaving oneself. For the past few days I have been reading a great deal of Internet material on "civil" issues, including the Hamdan trial at Guantanamo. It has been a fascinating exercise in maintaining my equilibrium despite what I have learned that is further evidence of the Bush administration's lack of ethics and frontal assault on the U.S. Constitution.

Google, move over -- In the process a happy accident happened. I discovered a very interesting new search engine named "Cuil," pronounced "cool." It returned very useful results in a brand new form. I used the search terms, "Domestic Spying," "search laptops" and got 1,538,151 results for the term "DNI Mike McConnell." One day I am sure my concentration on writing about the DNI will put me under suspicion in the NSA, but the number of "hits" make it clear that I am not the only one fascinated with the man.

In addition to Civil, "C" also stands for Contempt. This is the headline that reports an amazing administration defiance of recent court rulings about executive privilege vs. congressional oversight powers. "Defying Subpoena, DoD Orders Sexual Assault Program Chief Not To Testify Before Congress" by Andrew Tilghman - August 1, 2008 at TPM Muckraker. To quote from the post:

The Pentagon defied a Congressional subpoena yesterday by refusing to let the head of its sexual assault program testify at an oversight hearing about sexual assault in the military.

The House panel had issued a subpoena for Dr. Kaye Whitley, the director of the Defense Department's Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office.

But Pentagon officials ordered her not to testify and instead sent her supervisor, Michael Dominguez, a principal deputy undersecretary for defense, in her place.

American Civil Liberties Union -- Blog of Rights. It is clear to me that the new FISA law will be challenged over and over again in court, perhaps for years. It is far too crucial to let it stand. A related headline says that the "Administration wants to block ACLU from wiretapping law litigation" by Andrew Tilghman (7/30/08) from TPM Muckraker. To quote:

The Department of Justice filed court papers yesterday seeking to block the ACLU -- and any other third party -- from submitting briefs to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the classified forums that will be primarily responsible for translating the federal law signed last month into practice.

. . . Peter Swire, a law professor at Ohio State University and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, supports the ACLU's position. He wrote a paper in 2004 calling for greater participation in the FISA court.

"The DOJ is taking an expansive view of executive power and narrow view of judicial power, Swire told TPMmuckraker in an interview today. "Under the government's view, the judges seem required to uphold an unconstitutional system because the judges are forbidden from getting briefing from anyone other than the executive branch."

While there is limited precedent for third-party involvement in the typically classified proceedings under the 1978 FISA law, the new technologies that prompted lawmakers to update the law law may also warrant new procedures, Swire said.

"The 1978 version of FISA targeted one individual at a time or sometime one terrorist organization. The new approach sweeps far more broadly and it looks more like an administrative system than a traditional judicial wiretap order."

Closed FISA Court? Ryan Singel at Wired: Threat Level, has another take on the same story. "Only government can argue in secret spy court, Feds say". To quote:

On July 10, the ACLU asked the secret court to let it participate when the Court was considering questions about the "scope, meaning and constitutionality" of this blanket surveillance program. The ACLU wanted to make the government file public versions of its legal briefs, allow the ACLU to file a brief and argue orally, and that the court issue public opinions (with classified info redacted). The ACLU made the request (.pdf) the same day it challenged the constitutionality of the newly passed FISA Amendments Act in federal district court.

The Bush Administration argues that the court's review of spying orders is far too secret to allow any outside party.

"The benefits of open proceedings are greatly outweighed by the potential harm that public access would cause to the national security and integrity of the FISC process," the brief (.pdf) argued. "Allowing third parties to use this Court as a general forum to present facial challenges to the Government's surveillance activities could cause a flood of litigation that would distract this Court from its important national security functions."

S/SW References -- Recently I have blogged about several of the most important civil liberties issues in the news. Links follow:

• "Why were they surprised?" -- Republicans walk out on DNI briefing
• "The kind of government we want" -- includes a segment on the recent Bush order for a national intelligence overhaul
• "Be careful what you ask for" -- The role of psychologists in the government's torture program
• "I pledge allegiance" -- Daniel Ellsberg interview on the Fourth Amendment
• "What about The Mikes?" -- Regarding news about DNI Mike McConnell and AG Mike Mukasey
• "FISA bill signing post mortem" -- a rant about the consequences of Congress caving in on FISA
• "Examining an obsession with civil liberties" -- mine!
  

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news national security civil liberties law

"I pledge allegiance

. . . to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stood,"

said Daniel Ellsberg, July 25, 2008, on Glenn Greenwald's Salon Radio program debut. Ellsberg stated that this is the way he would have to say the Pledge of Allegiance today, given the recent passage by Congress and signing by the President, of the new Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Congress fails to uphold the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution -- Greenwald and Ellsberg both feel that the Senators and Representatives who voted for this legislation failed to uphold their basic oaths of congressional office. Though Ellsberg said he will vote for Senator Barack Obama, he does not feel that any president, including Obama, will willingly cede presidential powers once they have been conferred. Salon's debut podcast yesterday did not disappoint. I recommend this a fascinating half hour plus conversation on history joined with the current sorry state of Constitutional protections in the USA.Ellsberg believes that the republic is no more; Greenwald's term for the current definition of our form of government is "empire." To quote from Greenwald's post:

Knowing that he was risking life imprisonment, Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times in an attempt to alert the public to what the Government was doing . . .

For his efforts, Ellsberg was subjected to extensive warrantless eavesdropping by the Nixon White House, had his psychoanalyst's office invaded and searched at Nixon's behest in an attempt to obtain incriminating information about him, and was arrested and then brought to trial where he faced life imprisonment for having leaked the report (though the charges were ultimately dropped as a result of the Nixon administration's misconduct towards him).

In countless ways, Ellsberg embodies exactly what our political system has been so conspicuously and tragically lacking, and he has become one of the most insightful analysts of our current political crisis. My discussion with Ellsberg can be heard here by clicking PLAY below [Glenn has the link]:

Congressional leaders fail to uphold ethical standards -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. John Boehner will jointly appoint former House Member and head of the CIA, Porter Goss, to the new House ethics board. (HT to "emptywheel.") To quote from The Hill's story:

The appointment of Goss, a prickly personality who left the CIA after a short, turbulent tenure, surprised even some Republican members of Congress. Several shook their heads in disbelief when told he was named to the board.

While he was chairman of the House intelligence committee, Goss opposed launching an investigation into the Valerie Plame CIA leak case.

Goss is close to Boehner and served with Pelosi on the intelligence and ethics panels. . .


Republican Conference Chairman Adam Putnam (Fla.) said he supported Goss’s appointment, although he didn’t know why the former senior GOP member would want to come out of retirement to take it.

“[Goss] is a man of impeccable character, integrity and conviction and I can’t imagine why he wanted to take this job,” Putnam said.

Congress fails in its oversight responsibilities -- The House Judiciary Committee has been holding hearings on Presidential power, and on the Bush administration's use of torture against its enemies. It has not yet taken up the remedy of impeachment, and in all likelihood will not do so during its current term. Dandelion Salad posted about last night's pertinent episode of "Bill Moyer’s Journal: Torture Hearings + Jane Mayer + Fritz Hollings." It offers video links to the committee's torture hearings, and to Moyers' interview with Jane Mayer, author of a recent book, THE DARK SIDE: THE INSIDE STORY OF HOW THE WAR ON TERROR TURNED INTO A WAR ON AMERICAN IDEALS. The third video link is to Moyers' program-concluding interview with former Senator Fritz Hollings on the place of money raising in the lives of people in Congress. His book is MAKING GOVERNMENT WORK.

Additional references from Dandelion Salad:

• ACLU Obtains Key Memos Authorizing CIA Torture Methods


• Tell Congress: Reject Endless War and a Torture Cover-Up + video


• Terror, Torture, and the Dark Side + Bush officials could be charged with war crimes


• Bill Moyers Journal: Philippe Sands

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics fisa torture congress constitution

What about The Mikes?

Just catching up with the three Mikes who have put their signature on the Bush administration --

The Director of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell, should be sitting pretty right now. He and the Bush Administration got the FISA revamped in a way that compromised civil liberties. Robert Davey at The Huffington Post says it was "for nothing." To quote:

Now President Bush has the law he and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell set out, more than a year ago, to manipulate Congress and the media into giving them, perhaps it's time to consider once again the role played by Spc. Alex Jimenez. Jimenez was abducted by Iraqi insurgents in mid-May 2007 and probably killed very soon after.

But he provided a convenient peg on which McConnell and the rest could hang their specious claims about the flaws in FISA, claims that were believed by the Senate Intelligence Committee and by the New York Times. On May 1 last year McConnell, speaking at a session of the Senate Intelligence Committee, asserted four or five times that intelligence officials wanting to intercept communications between two foreign terrorist suspects outside the United States in some circumstances needed to get a warrant from the FISA court. This requirement, never envisaged by the authors of FISA, was apparently slowing down intelligence collection at a time when the United States needed to be on constant alert lest a new terrorist attack should escape detection.

Within two weeks came the abduction of Jimenez, and some time after that we learned the awful truth -- that FISA requirements had delayed surveillance on his captors, wasting precious hours while National Security Agency lawyers worked their way through a bureaucratic maze to ensure that foreign terrorists' Fourth Amendment rights were respected! How that must have gone over with talk radio audiences! But it was never true. The FISA never required a warrant before intercepting communications between two non-U.S. persons (meaning those who are neither U.S. citizens nor permanent residents) in a foreign country.

Mike Hayden, Director of the CIA -- The Washington Post wrote this piece on Michael V. Hayden, CIA Director, not long ago. To quote:

Soon after accepting the post of CIA director two years ago, Michael V. Hayden set an unusual goal for his scandal-beset agency: virtual invisibility.

"CIA needs to get out of the news as source or subject," he said in an internal memo to his staff in 2006.

Two years later, that goal is far from met, as Hayden has tacitly acknowledged. In a retirement
ceremony last month marking the end of his military career, the Air Force general stressed the need for the agency to "stay in the shadows" while ignoring what he called the "sometimes shrill and uninformed voices of criticism."

The comment reflected the difficulties that Hayden's CIA faces in trying to turn the corner on six years of controversy at the same time that it attempts sweeping internal changes. While the agency's leadership has sought a return to normal and has launched initiatives intended to improve ties with lawmakers and foreign allies, it finds itself in the cross hairs of a Congress determined to force a reckoning over the agency's past intelligence failures and its conduct in the fight against terrorism.

Mike Mukasey, Attorney General -- The Washington Post wrote this on Michael Mukasey, Attorney General, who "rejected calls to appoint a special counsel to investigate Bush administration officials who approved the use of coercive interrogation techniques against terrorism suspects." To quote further,

In a letter sent yesterday to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.), Mukasey said opening a criminal investigation would be "unfair" and "seriously short-sighted."

"I am aware of no basis for appointing a special counsel to investigate the policymakers who approved the CIA interrogation program or the national security lawyers who concluded that the program was lawful," he wrote to Conyers and nearly five dozen other Democrats.

Critics of the administration's policy have likened the questioning tactics to torture and have called for senior policymakers to be held accountable. Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility, which probes ethics complaints against department lawyers, is conducting its own investigation of Justice memos that blessed controversial techniques including simulated drowning and sleep deprivation.

The people to replace these people cannot come too soon for my taste.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

FISA bill signing post mortem --

How did the courage of Congressional Democrats die, when it comes to protecting our citizens' civil liberties? What happened to their oaths of office in the face of OCP's (our current president's) massive assault on Fourth Amendment privacy protection. First look at WaPo transcript of what OCP said as he signed the new FISA bill: Bush remarks on on signing of FISA bill. Here is an excellent article headlined, "Bush Signs Spy Bill, ACLU Sues" by Ryan Singel at Wired:Threat Level. To quote:

The American Civil Liberties Union filed suit Thursday over a controversial wiretapping law, challenging the constitutionality of the expanded spy powers Congress granted to the president on Wednesday.

The federal lawsuit was filed with the court just hours after Bush signed the bill into law.

Civil liberties advocates have not laid down and died, however. Read this excellent piece regarding what one of the key longtime advocate organizations thinks about the current moribund situation, etc.: "Interview with ACLU re: constitutional challenge to new FISA law," by Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com. To quote:

. . . the extraordinary fact that the surveillance program implemented by Congress yesterday does not merely authorize most of the President's so-called "Terrorist Surveillance Program" that gave rise to this scandal in the first place, but is actually much broader in scope even than that lawless program, because there is not even any requirement in the new FISA law that the "target" of the surveillance have any connection whatsoever to Terrorism, nor is there any requirement that the Government believe the "target" is an agent of a foreign power or terrorist organization, or even guilty of any wrongdoing at all.

. . . Sen. Chris Dodd -- whose stalwart, relentless efforts to stop this law were nothing short of heroic, as those efforts often provoked substantial hostility among many of his colleagues -- sent around the following email today to his mailing list highlighting the positive aspects of the battle:

Yesterday was a sad day for the United States Senate.

It is my hope that the courts will undo the damage done to the Constitution.

But let us stand tall, knowing that by working together we were able to make wiretapping and retroactive immunity part of the national discourse these last number of months.

We came together – all of you, Senator Feingold, bloggers like Jane Hamsher and Glenn Greenwald, organizations like the EFF and ACLU, and untold hundreds of thousands of Americans who simply wanted to make sure that this one, last insult did not happen with ease.

I'm sorry we weren't successful.

I just hope I'm lucky enough to have you by my side in the next fight, whatever that may be.

Thanks for all you've done.

Chris Dodd

. . . the only people outside the Executive Branch who have any real knowledge at all of how these illegal spying powers were exercised are a small number of Senators on the Intelligence Committee who have been briefed by Bush officials, but they are barred by law from saying what they know. Nonetheless, here is what one of those members -- Sen. Russ Feingold -- said during his remarks on the Senate floor regarding the new FISA bill, as highlighted by Howie Klein. In a minimally rational world, these revelations from Sen. Feingold would be major, major news:

I sit on the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, and I am one of the few members of this body who has been fully briefed on the warrantless wiretapping program. And, based on what I know, I can promise that if more information is declassified about the program in the future, as is likely to happen either due to the Inspector General report, the election of a new President, or simply the passage of time, members of this body will regret that we passed this legislation. I am also familiar with the collection activities that have been conducted under the Protect America Act and will continue under this bill. I invite any of my colleagues who wish to know more about those activities to come speak to me in a classified setting. Publicly, all I can say is that I have serious concerns about how those activities may have impacted the civil liberties of Americans. If we grant these new powers to the government and the effects become known to the American people, we will realize what a mistake it was, of that I am sure.

Important details about the lawsuits just filed: Blogger emptywheel at Firedoglake discussed a number of and ideas about what might happen next to revive the question. To quote:

. . . one of the article's most intriguing elements: we have worked single mindedly under the assumption that, while many parts of the FAA might could be reversed or minimized through subsequent legislation with a new Congress, the retroactive immunity portion was irrevocable and final. That may, and I emphasize this is a tentative and weak may, not necessarily be the case.

[JimWhite's comment] Yesterday, on his later of two threads, I asked Glenn about the lawsuits in front of Vaughn, wondering if they are gone forever if they get dismissed. . . .

If Congress could not do its job of checking an out of control executive, then there is only one branch left to do it, the judical. I have not permanently given up hope, but it will be a long tough fight to revive it. The USA is a very sick patient now. We still need to work to save it.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politicsfisa civil liberties congress

Independence Day and the Numbers

Independence Day, 2008 was marked across the nation by flags flying, parades proceeding, picnics unpacking, and patriotism playing out, ad infinitum. Today's post is about some important numbers that are associated with yesterday, July 4, 2008, the day we celebrated our nation's birthday. The highlight of my own celebration was watching a long parade in the town of my birth, some 71 years ago in May. There were too many homemade floats to count. There was one marching drum corps, one Native American in war paint skillfully riding bareback on a spirited horse, and there were several church congregations represented by members riding on the backs of flatbed trucks. There was a whole herd of old and new Beattles (the VW automotive type), sporting special paint jobs, umbrellas or flags. Onlookers were two and three deep the entire length of Main Street, the parade route. There are additional numbers, of a more serious nature, I want to highlight in the remainder of this post.

July 4, 1776 - July 4, 2008 = 232 years. Recent S/SW posts have closed with a sentence about what was happening on the same date in 1787, the year of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Today's blurb below focuses on an important accomplishment of the men at the convention. They figured out how to balance power between the two branches of Congress.

Official days left in office for George W. Bush = 198. Finally! It is below 200. We can see the coming end of this disastrous administration.

U.S. confirmed deaths in the war in Iraq = 4113. Members of the U.S. military died for our country during the Revolutionary War. The total number is unknown, but Wikipedia carries an estimate of 25,000.

And there is another war death. The "soldier made famous in Iraq photo," according to Myrtle Beach Online, died of an apparent drug overdose. He had called a taxi to take him to the hospital, but it was too late. To quote the facts of the story:

A former Army medic made famous by a photograph that showed him carrying an injured Iraqi boy during the first week of the war has died of an apparent overdose, police said.

Joseph Patrick Dwyer died last week at a hospital in Pinehurst, according to the Boles Funeral Home. He was 31.

Last week, Dwyer called a local taxi service to take him to the hospital after an apparent overdose, Capt. Floyd Thomas of the Pinehurst Police Department told the Fayetteville Observer. When the driver arrived, Dwyer said he couldn't get to the door, according to a police report.

Police kicked in the door at Dwyer's request, and he was taken by ambulance to a Pinehurst hospital. Thomas said bottles of prescription pills were found near Dwyer when police arrived. The former medic died later the night of June 28, according to authorities.

Dwyer served with the 3rd Squadron of the 7th Cavalry Regiment of Fort Stewart, Ga. He earned the Combat Medical Badge and other military awards.

It is hard to find out how many members of the military have committed suicide over these recent years. The VA is studying Guard and Reserve suicides among veterans returned from Iraq or Afghanistan. They make up more than half that total. The director of the National Institute of Mental Health believes that suicides among vets returned from Iraq and Afghanistan may exceed the number of combat deaths. The year 2006 marked the highest rate of military suicides in 26 years. A well respected source, Science News, reported that, to quote the headline "One In Five Iraq And Afghanistan Veterans Suffer From PTSD Or Major Depression":

Nearly 20 percent of military service members who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan -- 300,000 in all -- report symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder or major depression, yet only slight more than half have sought treatment, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

. . . The RAND study estimates the societal costs of PTSD and major depression for two years after deployment range from about $6,000 to more than $25,000 per case. Depending whether the economic cost of suicide is included, the RAND study estimates the total society costs of the conditions for two years range from $4 billion to $6.2 billion.

Mental Health Issues -- Before my retirement I worked as a mental health counselor. Over those 12 years I worked with many clients who were diagnosed with Major Depression or PTSD. Those suffering from these conditions are often at risk of dying. These can be truly life threatening mental health conditions. I often worried over the weekend whether one or more of my clients would be able to show up for their appointments the following week. Fortunately all those many clients who thought of suicide made it back. Those few who almost attempted suicide were able to make an outcry in time to save their own lives, because they were in treatment, which was the key. According to the stories highlighted today, far too few in the military are getting the kind of treatment needed to save their lives. Members of the military get the finest treatment in history for their physical wounds. Unfortunately effective treatment for mental wounds is another matter . . . a tragically serious matter for the military and for the nation.

This day in history: Constitution Convention, July 5, 1787. 11-member committee proposed representation by state in Senate and population in House.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics war mental health military suicide independence day bush

Intel tell-all

Biometrics -- There is no part of me that the government does not want to document, inspect, surveille, spy on, control, or dominate. This from Alternet reports that "Bush wants your eyeballs" (6/16/08)*

George Bush just issued a directive to expand the acquisition of biometric information, and to ensure that agencies across the executive branch share it.

. . . All this according to National Security Presidential Directive Number 59, also known as Homeland Security Presidential Directive Number 24, which George W. Bush signed on June 5.

. . . The directive does not say how these other persons who "may pose a threat" are to be defined. And the directive is so broadly worded that it appears to cover anyone the government has biometric or other personal data on.

. . . Give the Bush Administration's demonstrated disdain for applicable law and international obligations, and given its record of violating people's privacy rights, this is not reassuring.

*from betmo

Always Good Intel Resources:

• Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com
  
• Christy Harding Smith at Firedoglake.
• Ryan Singel at Wired: Threat Level
• Emptywheel at Firedoglake.
• Paul Kiel at Propublica
• TPM Muckraker at Talking Points Memo
  

I am visiting my family of origin in Wyoming. Therefore blog posting may be much more sporadic. But I will be tuned in to the web as much as possible, given technology and circumstances.

A day in history: June 28, 1787: Constitutional Convention. Franklin suggested that chaplains bless the convention's deliberations each morning.

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics domestic surveillance

Ode to the Fourth Amendment

"A Sad Day for the Fourth Amendment" was the title of my (8/5/07) S/SW post about the passage of the Protect America Act. This week was an even sadder day for Amendment IV. I have been unable to write much this week about the sorry state of affairs of civil liberties in this nation. Therefore, I turn to poetry as I often do when struck with such paralyzing writer's block. This post is --

A writing on right's might. . .


The Might of Right -- The Rule of Law as opposed to Injustice.
Right as opposed to Wrong.
Wronged as opposed to Righteous.
Righteous as opposed to Immoral.
Moral as opposed to Political.
Political as opposed to Right.
Right as opposed to Left.
Left wing as opposed to Right wing.
Rights upheld as opposed to Injustice.

The Might of Write -- Freedom of Speech as opposed to No Rule of Law.
Write as opposed to Speak.
Speak as opposed to Right.
Write as opposed to Phone.
Phone as opposed to Letter.
Write as opposed to Print.
Print as opposed to Digital.
Write as opposed to Talk.
Talk as opposed to Shout.

The Might of Rite -- The Rule of Law as opposed to Lawlessness.
Rite as opposed to Consent.
Consent as opposed to Rebellious.
Rite as opposed to Chaos.
Chaos as opposed to Organized.
Rite as opposed to Informal.
Informal as opposed to Formal.
Rite as opposed to Secular.
Secular as opposed to Righteous.

Reference: The Late Fourth Amendment

• Amendment 4 - Search and Seizure. Ratified 12/15/1791.
  
  

  The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Technorati tags: news politics poetry writing law government

View my current slide show about the Bush years -- "Millennium" -- at the bottom of this column.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)