Union of Concerned Scientists: The EPA Closes Its Libraries, Destroys Documents

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun closing its nationwide network of scientific libraries, effectively preventing EPA scientists and the public from accessing vast amounts of data and information on issues from toxicology to pollution. Several libraries have already been dismantled, with their contents either destroyed or shipped to repositories where they are uncataloged and inaccessible.
Members of Congress have asked the EPA to cease and desist. Please call EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson at (202) 564-4700 and tell him that scientists and the public should retain access to this information. Urge him to immediately halt the dismantling of the library system until Congress approves the EPA budget and all materials are readily available online.
Please Note: We've received reports that some EPA receptionists are denying closing the libraries and destroying documents, telling UCS supporters that UCS is spreading misinformation, and claiming that they are simply restructuring and modernizing the system. They're also saying that it is more effective to call Congress about this issue. Click here for evidence of why these arguments don’t hold water.
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Strategies and Solutions Conference

AUDIO: Hear Kent talking about the Conference on Air America Phoenix, Truth to Power Hour
http://www.apfn.net/pogo/A004I070113AM-RADIO4.MP3

Crown Plaza San MarcosChandler, Arizona - February 23-25, 2007

http://www.apfn.org/APFN/WTC.HTM

YOUGUBE: Secret Evil Of 911 Part 1 of 2 09:599/11/01 Anomalies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47j6X_NOFrA

YOUTUBE: Secret Evil Of 911 Part 2 of 2 09:579/11/01 Anomalies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8LenoT5hXY

APFN YOUTUBE VIDEO'S...

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=apfnorg

Philip J. Berg: Arrest Bush and Cheney

For Further Information, contact:
Philip J. Berg, Esquire706 Ridge PikeLafayette Hill, PA 19444(610) 825-3134(800) 933-PHILFax: (610) 834-7659E-mail: philjberg@aol.com or pjblaw@aol.com
Philip J. Berg, Esq. Seeking the “Truth of 9/11”Calls on World CommunityTo Arrest and Try Bush & Cheney forGlobal Crimes of 9/11(Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania – 01/04/07) - Philip J. Berg, Esquire, [Berg is a former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania; former candidate for Governor and U.S. Senate; an attorney with offices in Montgomery County, PA and an active practice in Philadelphia, PA, who prior hereto has filed a RICO lawsuit against Bush and others for the events of 9/11 and plans to re-file shortly] announced today that he was issuing a call for world leaders to arrest and try Bush and Cheney for the global crimes of 9/11/01.Philip J. Berg, Esquire stated in a letter to the nations throughout the world:
“It is time for the nations of the world to come forth and take the leadership because of the failure of the United States Government and the States where crimes were committed on 09/11/01, where no thorough investigation and indictments occurred, to investigate, arrest and prosecute the people responsible for the murders on 9/11/01, specifically including George W. Bush and Richard Cheney.”
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Lt. Watada Speech at Oahu's Church of the Crossroads

Lt. Watada, now undergoing court-martial for being the first US Commissioned Officer to refuse to deploy to Iraq, recently gave a talk at Oahu's Church of the Crossroads. Here are some excerpts.
Watch

Burlington Free Press: 9/11 ballot question meets signature quota

The Burlington 9/11 group gathering signatures
for a ballot question asking whether a new investigation into
the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon have met their quota.

Director of Elections Jo Lamarche said the group on Friday
submitted the last of the 1,348 signatures of registered voters
necessary to put the question before voters on Town Meeting
Day.

The number is 5 percent of the 26,966 registered voters in
the city. Lamarche said supporters of the question submitted
a few more signatures than were required.

The question asks whether Vermont’s congressional delegation
should be advised “to demand a new, thorough and truly
independent forensic investigation” of the events of Sept.
11.

Marc Estrin, spokesman for the group which circulated the petition,
said that so far as he knows the Burlington ballot question
will be the first of its sort in the country. He and other supporters
of the question say the official 9/11 Commission Report, released
in 2004, failed to address numerous questions raised by members
of the intelligence community, victims’ families, law enforcement
and fire officials and others.

E-mails about the ballot question have flowed into the Free
Press from around the country since late December. Virtually
all of the e-mails have supported reopening the investigation.

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Full page Impeach Bush ad in today's New York Times!

Explosion at U.S. Embassy in Athens; No Injuries

MSNBC Updated: 11:13 p.m. MT Jan 11, 2007
ATHENS - Attackers caused an explosion at the U.S. embassy in Athens on Friday, but it was uncertain if they used a rocket or a bomb, police said."The blast was caused by an attack from the outside of the embassy. We are not in a position to say what kind of device was used," a senior police official told Reuters. A U.S. embassy spokesman said no one was hurt in the explosion. Authorities searched nearby apartment buildings and a hospital amid reports that an rocket may have been fired at the building.
The blast smashed glass in the front of the building, near the U.S. emblem of the embassy. "I heard a loud bang I didn't realize what was going on," said Giorgos Yiannoulis, who runs a kiosk near the embassy. Police did not report any injuries and embassy officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Dozens of police cars surrounded the embassy and police cordoned off all roads in the area, including a major boulevard in front of the mission. "Police have cut off all traffic. I am standing right here but there does not seem to be any damage. Greece's anti-terror squad are now investigating inside the embassy," a U.S. embassy employee at the scene told Reuters.
Police officials at the scene said that whatever caused the explosion damaged the official embassy sign outside the mission, but there was little other indication of the extent of damage inside. The tightly guarded building is surrounded by a 9-feet-high steel fence. Guards are posted at every entrance and at street corners around it. Local residents called in to state television saying they had felt the explosion, which shattered some windows. Traffic came to a standstill across parts of central Athens, as police and emergency services scrambled to the embassy building. The U.S. Embassy -- a heavily guarded building -- is a frequent destination for protest groups but American officials have not been targeted in more than a decade. Greece's biggest domestic security threat, the leftist November 17 guerrilla group, which had in the past killed U.S. and other foreign diplomats in Greece, was dismantled in 2002. This developing story will be updated as details become available.

Did the President Declare "Secret War" Against Syria and Iran?

January 11, 2007: Washington intelligence, military and foreign policy circles are abuzz today with speculation that the President, yesterday or in recent days, sent a secret Executive Order to the Secretary of Defense and to the Director of the CIA to launch military operations against Syria and Iran.
The President may have started a new secret, informal war against Syria and Iran without the consent of Congress or any broad discussion with the country.
The bare outlines of that order may have appeared in President Bush's Address to the Nation last night outlining his new course on Iraq:

-Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity and stabilizing the region in the face of extremist challenges. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops.
-We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We'll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq.
-We're also taking other steps to bolster the security of Iraq and protect American interests in the Middle East. I recently ordered the deployment of an additional carrier strike group to the region.
-We will expand intelligence-sharing and deploy Patriot air defense systems to reassure our friends and allies. We will work with the governments of Turkey and Iraq to help them resolve problems along their border. And we will work with others to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons and dominating the region.
Adding fuel to the speculation is that U.S. forces today raided an Iranian Consulate in Arbil, Iraq and detained five Iranian staff members. Given that Iran showed little deference to the political sanctity of the US Embassy in Tehran 29 years ago, it would be ironic for Iran to hyperventilate much about the raid. But what is disconcerting is that some are speculating that Bush has decided to heat up military engagement with Iran and Syria -- taking possible action within their borders, not just within Iraq. Some are suggesting that the Consulate raid may have been designed to try and prompt a military response from Iran -- to generate a casus belli for further American action.

If this is the case, the debate about adding four brigades to Iraq is pathetic. The situation will get even hotter than it now is, worsening the American position and exposing the fact that to fight Iran both within the borders of Iraq and into Iranian territory, there are not enough troops in the theatre. Bush may really have pushed the escalation pedal more than any of us realize. By: Steve Clemons

UPDATE: This exchange today in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee between Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden and Senator Chuck Hagel with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is full of non-denial denials and evasive answers to Biden's query about the President's ability to authorize military operations against forces within Iran and Syria: Click Here For Heated Exchange Between Biden, Hagel, and Rice

US forces Storm Iranian consulate

11 Jan 2007 US forces have stormed a building in the northern Iraqi town of Irbil and seized six people said to be Iranians, prompting a diplomatic incident. Iranian and Iraqi officials said the building was an Iranian consulate and the detainees its employees. The US military said it was still investigating, but that the building did not have diplomatic status. The troops raided the building at about 0300 (0001GMT), taking away computers and papers, according to local media. AFP news agency quoted Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman as saying he did not know the nationality of the six but said they were "suspected of being closely tied to activities targeting Iraq and coalition forces". "I can confirm for you through our forces there that this is not a consulate or a government building," he said. However, Tehran said the attack violated all international conventions. It has summoned ambassadors from Switzerland, representing US interests, and Iraq. A spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry described the raid as an attempt to sabotage Tehran's relations with Iraq. One Iranian MP said it showed America's cruelty and meanness.

Troop Surge Under Way Before Bush's Speech

10 Jan 2007 President [sic] Bush's speech may be scheduled for tonight, but the troop surge in Iraq is already under way. ABC News has learned that the "surge" Bush is expected to announce in a prime time speech tonight has already begun. Ninety advance troops from the 82nd Airborne Division arrived in Baghdad Wednesday.
ABC News has learned that the "surge" Bush is expected to announce in a prime time speech tonight has already begun. Ninety advance troops from the 82nd Airborne Division arrived in Baghdad Wednesday.
An additional battalion of roughly 800 troops from the same division are expected to arrive in Baghdad Thursday. Eighty percent of the sectarian violence occurs within a 30-mile radius of Baghdad, so that is where most of the additional troops will be concentrated.
It is the first small wave of troops in a new White House strategy that is expected to put more than 20,000 additional U.S. troops on the ground in Iraq and likely require new call-ups of the National Guard.
The president is expected to deliver his announcement about the troop increase, a plan that has already met with stiff criticism from many members of Congress, in a speech tonight from the White House.
The arrival of additional forces in Iraq comes a day after leading Democrats said they would back legislation that would block funding to pay for additional military forces.
A spokeswoman for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., who, Tuesday, urgently called for Congress to vote on — and reject — the proposed surge, told ABC News that the arrival of additional soldiers "underscores Sen. Kennedy's point that Congress must act immediately."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-N.M., also responded to the report, calling the troops' arrival "deeply disappointing."
Reid has said that Americans don't want to see additional forces in Iraq, and that he has been considering plans offered by his congressional colleagues.

Alfons of Veterans for 9/11 Truth to speak at the 9/11 Accountability: Strategies and Solutions

Eric Williams, an organizer of 9/11 Accountability Conference, saw/heard me speak in NYC during the 9/11 events just prior to 9/11/2006 said he was very impressed with the fiery enthusiasm that I exuded in that speech. (I was yelling, "arrest them" at the top of my lungs.) I am not afraid to get a little excited about 9/11 and what has ensued since. The guy who invited me to speak in NYC, Les Jamison of NY 9/11 Truth put in the good word for me as well, thanks Les.

I am very excited, and honored to be speaking along with such great patriots and truth tellers as, Dr. Robert Bowman, Jim Marrs, Dr. Steven Jones, Dr. Kevin Barrett, and many many others. See the list of speakers, and the tentative schedule here:
http://911accountability.org/accountability/index.php?page=program_schedule

Thanks to the support of the v911t group and 9/11 Truth in general we are making great strides toward a better country and a safer world. Thanks,
Alfons v911t
PS: I ask for your help in the form of small donations for food and other items I will need for this trip to Phoenix, travel and lodging will be paid for. Also I remind you that the v911t.org site fees are coming due and I need your help with that as well. http://www.v911t.org/ Hit the donate button.

The Hill: VA using soldiers as guinea pigs

A secretly recorded meeting of researchers working for the Department of Veterans Affairs indicates that the department did not take seriously congressional requests intended to safeguard the personal and medical information of veterans.
The recording, obtained by The Hill from a researcher who attended the meeting, sheds light on a behind-the-scenes struggle between lawmakers and Veterans Affairs officials over the handling of veterans’ personal information.
“If you want to know what’s the real purpose of the data call, read Machiavelli. It’s about power, it’s about Congress saying, ‘VA, you’re accountable to us,’” one Veterans Affairs official, Dr. Joseph Francis, says on the tape. “We’re not asking people to do an A-plus job on this report.”
Questions on the security of the information rose to prominence last May when a Veterans Affairs employee lost to theft a laptop computer containing the personal information of 26.5 million veterans and military personnel. Although authorities eventually recovered the laptop, the incident sounded alarms on Capitol Hill.
Since then, the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee has held eight hearings on the department’s information technology. The panel also has asked the department repeatedly to report on the security of its information systems, a task that entails providing information about who had access to sensitive information and how it was stored.
The Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee also asked for reports on what sensitive information is accessible to government contractors.
“We’ve had multiple requests on where they are and what they’re doing,” a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee source said, adding that department officials failed to provide adequate answers when Congress demanded them. “We’ve asked that for multiple times, who had access to what, and they still could not tell us at the time.”
The source said the department has responded to bipartisan congressional requests very slowly. The source predicted that there would be additional hearings in coming weeks.
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Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007 (S. 185) Introduced by Leahy & Spector

Congressional Record: January 4, 2007 (Senate), Page S179-S181 Excerpts:
Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I seek recognition today to introduce the ``Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007.'' Last September, during debate on the Military Commissions Act, I introduced an amendment to strike section 7 of the Act and thereby preserve the constitutional right of habeas corpus for the approximately 450 individuals detained at Guantanamo Bay. Because my amendment was not agreed to, by a narrow vote of 48-51, the right to the writ of habeas corpus was denied to those detainees. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus has therefore been suspended. On December 5, with my colleague Senator Leahy, I introduced the ``Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2006'' to restore the writ of habeas corpus and bring this country back into compliance with the United States Constitution. After all, the United States Constitution is unambiguous in Article 1, Section 9, Clause 2, where it states: ``The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.'' Today, along with Senator Leahy, I am reintroducing this important legislation. The Framers explicitly extended to extend habeas protections to all, absent a case of rebellion, invasion, or the interest of public safety. This principle was ratified by the Supreme Court in the case of Hamdi v. Rumsfeld, where Justice O'Connor stated ``[a]ll agree that absent suspension, the writ of habeas corpus remains available to every individual detained within the United States.''
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, on the first day of this new Congress, I join Senator Specter to reintroduce a bill to restore the Great Writ of habeas corpus, a cornerstone of American liberty since the founding of this Nation. The Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007 bill continues our efforts to amend last year's Military Commissions Act, to right a wrong and to restore a basic protection to American law. This is an issue on which we continue to work together and urge Senators on both sides of the aisle to join with us. As Justice Scalia wrote in the Hamdi case: ``The very core of liberty secured by our Anglo-Saxon system of separated powers has been freedom from indefinite imprisonment at the will of the Executive.'' The remedy that secures that most basic of freedoms is habeas corpus. It provides a check against arbitrary detentions and constitutional violations. It guarantees an opportunity to go to court, with the aid of a lawyer, to prove one's innocence. This fundamental protection was rolled back in an unprecedented and unnecessary way in the run up to last fall's election by passage of the Military Commissions Act. I deeply regret that Senator Specter and I were unsuccessful in our efforts to stop this injustice when the President and the Republican leadership insisted on rushing the Military Commissions Act through Congress in the weeks before the recent elections. We proposed an amendment that would have removed the habeas-stripping provision from the Military Commissions Act. We fell just three votes short in those political charged days. It is my hope that the new Senate and new Congress will reconsider this matter, restore this fundamental protection and revitalize our tradition of checks and balances. Giving Government such raw, unfettered power as this law does should concern every American. More on website.

US Global Genocide Officially Adds Somalia

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Many people were killed in Somalia in a U.S. air strike targeting al Qaeda suspects among fleeing Islamist fighters, Somali officials said on Tuesday. The U.S. strike, part of a wide offensive also involving Ethiopian planes, was apparently aimed at an al Qaeda cell said to include suspects in bombings of U.S. embassies in east Africa and a hotel on the Kenyan coast.
A Somali elder or traditional leader reported a second U.S. air attack on Tuesday that killed up to 27 people but that could not be confirmed by other sources. A Somali government spokesman said there were "a lot" of casualties but exact numbers aren't known. He said most of the victims were Islamic fighters. But witnesses said civilians were killed. Unverified accounts by witnesses said 31 people have been killed, including a newlywed couple. One man told The Associated Press that his 4-year-old son was among them.
A Pentagon spokesman confirmed one air attack on Sunday against the top al Qaeda leadership in east Africa. He would not comment on whether the raid was successful but said it was based on "credible intelligence". Spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to state categorically whether the U.S. military had mounted other air strikes but indicated he had mentioned all U.S. operations. The attack was Washington's first overt military intervention in Somalia since a disastrous peacekeeping mission that ended in 1994.
More U.S. ships are moving into the waters off Somalia to reinforce the military effort there. The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet has dispatched the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower to join four other U.S. ships in the region."Due to rapidly developing events in Somalia, U.S. Central Command has tasked USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to join USS Bunker Hill, USS Ramage, USS Anzio and USS Ashland to support ongoing maritime security operations off the coast of Somalia," said Navy Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown, a spokesman for 5th Fleet in Bahrain.
A senior Somali official said an AC-130 plane, a formidable weapon armed with rapid-firing cannons, rained gunfire on the remote village of Hayo but said the attack was late on Monday. "There are so many dead bodies and animals in the village," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.The Somali elder, from the southern town of Afmadow, said a second strike killed between 22 and 27 people in the same area. "U.S. planes struck at Bankajirow this morning between 10 a.m. and noon (0700-0900 GMT)," the elder, who did not want to be identified, said by telephone. A U.S. official, who declined to be named, suggested any air operations on Tuesday were not carried out by American forces. Both Hayo and Bankajirow are near the Kenyan border, where hundreds of Islamists fled after their defeat by Ethiopian and transitional government forces in a lightning war in late December that ended six months of Islamic rule. Somalia's defence and information ministers told Reuters air strikes had taken place south of Hayo, near Ras Kamboni and Badmadow at Somalia's southernmost tip. Neither would say if the United States or Ethiopia, which has jets and helicopters in the area, carried them out, or precisely when they occurred. U.S. intelligence believes Abu Talha al-Sudani, named in grand jury testimony against Osama bin Laden as a Sudanese explosives expert, is al Qaeda's east African boss and is hiding among the fleeing Islamist troops. Before Ethiopian intervention, the Islamists seemed set to drive the weak interim government out of its only base in the small southern town of Baidoa.
The European Union, which has frequently differed with Washington over Somalia, criticised the U.S. air raid. "Any incident of this kind is not helpful in the long term," a spokesman for the European Commission said, adding that only a political solution would bring peace. After the disastrous 1992-94 U.S. mission, chronicled in the film "Black Hawk Down," Washington had kept clear of intervention in Somalia for a decade. But the CIA was widely reported to have been bankrolling warlords who controlled Mogadishu before being ousted by the Islamists last June.
Related: Official: New U.S. Airstrikes Launched In Somalia

Kennedy Says Hill Must Act; May Spark Constitutional Debate

09 Jan 2007 A first wave of additional U.S. troops will go into Iraq before the end of the month under President [sic] Bush's new 'plan,' a senior defense official said Tuesday. Up to 20,000 troops will be put on alert and be prepared to deploy under the president's plan, but the increase in forces on the ground will be gradual, said the official, who requested anonymity because the plans have not yet been announced.
Constitutional crisis?
The move seemed destined to touch off constitutional debate about the role of Congress and whether it can stop specific orders by the President -- who is the commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces -- once it has authorized the use of force.
"There can be no doubt that the Constitution gives Congress the authority to decide whether to fund military action, and Congress can demand a justification from the president for such action before it appropriates the funds to carry it out," Kennedy said. Congress in October 2002 passed a resolution authorizing the Iraq war. Since then the war has taken the lives of over 3,000 members of the U.S. military, and Democrats rode the growing public unhappiness with the conflict to majorities in both houses of Congress in November.
Possible restrictions on money
Kennedy said Bush's speech on Wednesday must serve as "the beginning, not the end of of a new national discussion of our policy in Iraq." It was not immediately clear whether or when Kennedy's proposal could face a vote.
Some Democrats including House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada have urged Bush to soon begin bringing U.S. troops home. But others, such as incoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden of Delaware, have expressed doubt that Congress can actually block an increase in troops. Biden, a Democrat, says he will introduce a resolution that would express the Senate's sense of disapproval of any White House moves to "escalate" the war.
Kennedy, who opposed the war from the beginning, said he opposed cutting funding for troops that were already in Iraq. But he said the mission in Iraq had changed so markedly from the one authorized by Congress that Bush should not be allowed to step up the conflict by sending additional troops, without a new authorization from Congress.
Kennedy called Iraq a "quagmire" and drew repeated comparisons to Vietnam, a tactic that Democrats are likely to repeat in the coming months. "In Vietnam, the White House grew increasingly obsessed with victory, and increasingly divorced from the will of the people and any rational policy. The Department of Defense kept assuring us that each new escalation in Vietnam would be the last. Instead, each one led only to the next. There was no military solution to that war," Kennedy said. "Echoes of that disaster are all around us today. Iraq is George Bush's Vietnam."
"My bill will say that no additional troops can be sent and no additional dollars can be spent on such an escalation, unless and until Congress approves the President's plan," he said.
Another possibility would be for Congress to attach restrictions to some $100 billion for the war that Bush is expected to request soon, said House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer. "That's a possibility for us. There has been some discussion about that," Hoyer of Maryland told reporters.
Kennedy's Speech
Kennedy Calls Iraq Bush's 'Vietnam'
Kennedy: Congress Must Act to Stop Troop Rise
Blair refuses to match US troop 'surge' in Iraq
Britain TV puts Blair on trial

Vidoes and Quotes of Note

"It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error."United States Supreme Court, American Communications Association v. Douds, 339 US 382 (1950)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WohURF13efU&mode=related&search

If a Nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. If we are to guard against ignorance and remain free, it is the responsibility of every American to be informed.~ President Thomas Jefferson

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKKnp6XsCo4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX7lcQVOKnw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9QmJSvVlF0&NR

Criminal Money Laundering Legislation in the 109th Congress

Money laundering is an auxiliary federal crime, established to accentuate the seriousness of other specific federal, state, and foreign crimes (predicate offenses). It is designed to cut off the flow of money and other resources to and from those predicate offenses. Each of the racketeer influenced and corrupt organization (RICO) predicate
offenses, including any of the federal crimes of terrorism, is automatically included on the money laundering predicate offense list. Money launderers face lengthy prison terms, heavy fines, and the confiscation of property associated with the laundering offense.
This is an identification of bills in the 109th Congress that amend the money laundering provisions of 18 U.S.C. 1956, 1957, or use those offenses as the predicates for other federal crimes, or add new offenses to the money laundering predicate offense list either directly or indirectly.
Principal among these is P.L. 109-177 (H.R. 3199), the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act.
Related reports include CRS Report RL33315, Money Laundering: An Overview of 18 U.S.C. 1956 and Related Federal Criminal Law (available in a shorter, abridged version as CRS Report RS22401, Money Laundering: An Abridged Overview of 18 U.S.C. 1956 and Related Federal Criminal Law, both by Charles Doyle.
P.L. 109-177 (H.R. 3199): The USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act of 2005, P.L. 109-177, contains several money laundering amendments. Some add to the money laundering predicate offense list, either directly or as a consequence of being added to the RICO predicate offense list or to the definition of federal crimes of terrorism
and thus to the RICO predicate offense list.
For RICO, Money Laundering, Federal Crimes, and Relevant Patriot Act Provisions Click Here

Leahy Introduces Bills To Combat War Profiteering, Public Corruption

U.S. SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY,CONTACT: Office of Senator Leahy, 202-224-4242, VERMONT

Incoming Judiciary Chairman Leahy Targets Corruption In First Bills Of 110th Congress
Leahy Introduces Bills To Combat War Profiteering, Public Corruption
WASHINGTON (Thursday, January 4) – Signaling a renewed emphasis on combating corruption at home and abroad, incoming Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), introduced a package of bills Thursday targeting corrupt officials and private companies seeking to defraud American taxpayers and troops.
"Americans want the culture of corruption to end. From war profiteers and corrupt officials in Iraq, to convicted Administration officials, to influence-peddling lobbyists and, regrettably, even members of Congress, too many supposed public servants have been serving their own interests, rather than the public interest," said Leahy.
Many Democratic Senators joined Leahy in reintroducing a bill creating criminal penalties for war profiteers and cheats who would exploit taxpayer-funded efforts in Iraq and elsewhere around the world. The War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007 builds on earlier efforts by Leahy, who is also a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, to crack down on this type of rampant fraud and abuse. It is similar to legislation Leahy introduced in 2003, that was subsequently passed by the Senate as part of an appropriations bill but later torpedoed by the White House and the House Republican leadership, which stripped out the Leahy provision.
Also on Thursday, Leahy joined with Senator Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), on another anti-corruption measure aimed at strengthening the tools available to federal prosecutors in combating public corruption. This bill gives investigators and prosecutors the statutory tools and the resources that they need to ensure that serious and insidious public corruption is detected and punished, including extending the statute of limitations on some of the worst crimes.
"The American people staged an intervention during the November elections and made it clear that they would not stand for it any longer. They expect the Congress to take action, and these bills are a good first step toward meeting that call," Leahy said. "We need to restore the people's trust by acting to clean up the people's government."
Below are Senator Leahy's statements on the War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007 and the Effective Corruption Prosecutions Act of 2007 and, as well as summaries of the two bills and background information detailing a few examples of the fraud and war profiteering that have already occurred in Iraq and elsewhere.
Full Report/ Website Here
Related: Scared Mr. Bush Hunts For New Lawyer
Related: Democrats Vow Intense Scrutiny of Bush Iraq Plan 07 Jan 2007 House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday vowed aggressive scrutiny of President [sic] George W. Bush's expected plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq, but stopped short of saying Congress would block funding for the White House strategy.