---------------------------- Original Message ---------------------------- Subject: Administration will continue to conduct surveillance without warrants 02 May 2007 From: "CLG News"
Date: Wed, May 2, 2007 4:44 pm
To: "CLG News"
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Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government 02 May 2007
http://www.legitgov.org/
All links to articles as summarized below are available here:
http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Administration will continue to conduct surveillance without warrants --Administration Pulls Back on Surveillance Agreement 02 May 2007 Senior Bush administration officials told Congress on Tuesday that they could not pledge that the administration would continue to seek warrants from a secret court for a domestic wiretapping program, as it agreed to do in January. Rather, they argued that the president [sic] had the constitutional authority to decide for himself whether to conduct surveillance without warrants.
Leahy issues subpoena for Rove e-mails 02 May 2007 Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy issued a subpoena Wednesday for all e-mails from White House adviser Karl Rove that relate to the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. The senator had requested the information from Gonzales when the attorney general testilied before the committee and in a follow-up letter. However, Leahy said that Gonzales did not respond.
House fails to override Bush's veto of Iraq bill --222-203 vote falls far short of the two-thirds majority Democrats sought 02 May 2007 The Democratic-controlled House failed Wednesday to override President [sic] Bush's veto of an Iraqi war spending bill with timetables for troop withdrawals.
Bush Vetoes Bill Tying Iraq Funds to Exit 02 May 2007 President [sic] Bush vetoed a $124 billion war spending bill on Tuesday, setting up a second round in his long battle with Congressional Democrats who are determined to use the financing measure to force the White House to shift course in Iraq.
Bush vetoes Iraq war funding bill 01 May 2007 Dictator Bush 'used his veto pen for only the second time' [No, what about the 750+ signing statements that Bush has signed?] Tuesday after Congress sent him a war spending bill that would impose timelines to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq.
Four years later, mission (passage and implementation of the oil law in Iraq) *not* accomplished! But, alas alak, columns of smoke are rising from the Green Zone, so... it's time to announce that an 'al Qaeda leader in Iraq' might be dead (LOL!) and it's an even better time to bring back the Natalee Holloway story! See: New developments could heat up in Natalee Holloway case. They're going to search Joran van der Sloot's yard! --Lori Price]
Downer can't confirm al-Qaeda chief's death 02 May 2007 Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says reports the leader of 'al-Qaeda' in Iraq has been killed have not being confirmed. Iraqi interior minister Jawad al-Bolani said yesterday highly reliable information indicated Abu Ayyub al-Masri, leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, had been killed north of Iraq. An al-Qaeda linked group denied the report, however, and US officials said it could not be confirmed. [Al-Masri can be used to die again, on the next big US casualty day.]
U.S. toll in Iraq for April is 104 --More troops facing more danger in streets 01 May 2007 Five U.S. troops died in weekend attacks, pushing the April death toll past 100 in the deadliest month for American forces since December, the military said Monday as a wave of [US] violence killed 102 Iraqi civilians, including more than 30 in a suicide bombing at a Shiite funeral.
Gunmen Kill 14 Travelers on Iraq Highway 01 May 2007 Gunmen ambushed travelers on a highway leading from Baghdad to Shiite areas to the south on Tuesday, killing 14 people, while mortar rounds slammed into an area near the Iraqi prime minister's office in the U.S.-controlled Green Zone in the capital, a government official said. [That's the US piling on the pressure to get the oil law passed for Exxon Mobil, ASAP.]
43% of Iraqis live in absolute poverty government report 02 May 2007 Poverty is rampant throughout Iraq with more than half the population lacking basic means to survive, a government survey shows. The survey by the Central Statistical Bureau says that 43 percent of Iraqis suffer from 'absolute poverty' and another 11 percent of them live in 'abject poverty'.
Afghan students burn Bush effigy in protest 01 May 2007 Afghan students burned an effigy of US Dictator George W Bush on Tuesday as they rallied in a third day of protests against civilians alleged to have been killed by occupation troops. A crowd of about 500 blocked a highway in the eastern province of Nangarhar, where six people were killed on Sunday. Agriculture student Esmatullah, 20, said the US raid was "barbaric" [i.e., a war crime].
Army Squeezes Soldier Blogs, Maybe to Death 02 May 2007 The U.S. Army has ordered soldiers to stop posting to blogs or sending personal e-mail messages, without first clearing the content with a superior officer, Wired News has learned. The directive, issued April 19, is the sharpest restriction on troops' online activities since the start of the Iraq war. And it could mean the end of military blogs, observers say. Military officials have been wrestling for years with how to handle troops who publish blogs. The new rules obtained by Wired News require a commander be consulted before every blog update.
U.S. Army clamping down on soldiers' blogs 02 May 2007 The U.S. Army is tightening restrictions on soldiers' blogs and other Web site postings to ensure 'sensitive information about military operations' [the truth] does not make it onto public forums. Soldiers in war zones are already subject to restrictions on blogging and public posts. But the Army's new regulation could affect service members who have returned from war zones and started blogs about their combat experiences.
Hoon admits fatal errors in planning for postwar Iraq 02 May 2007 A catalogue of errors over planning for Iraq after the invasion, and an inability to influence key figures in the US administration, led to anarchy in Iraq from which the country has not recovered, the British defence secretary during the invasion admits today.
Army Begins to Move Nerve Gas 20 Apr 2007 The Army early Monday morning began shipping VX nerve agent hydrolysate out of its Newport, Ind., Chemical Agent Disposal Facility, according to a spokesman for the Chemical Materials Agency. The liquid waste will be incinerated at the Veolia Environmental Services plant in Port Arthur, Texas. Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, said his organization and other community and environmental groups in Indiana and Texas were still working to halt the program.
Prime Minister orders review of MI5 intelligence on bombers 02 May 2007 Pressure on MI5 intensified yesterday as Tony Blair ordered a review into its handling of intelligence about two of the July 7 bombers while demand for a public inquiry increased. The Prime Minister asked the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) to examine the Security Service's actions after it emerged that links between the London bombers and the fertiliser plotters had been missed.
Big Brother microphones could be next step 02 May 2007 Hidden mini-cameras and microphones that can eavesdrop on conversations in the street are the next step in the march towards a "Big Brother" society, MPs were warned yesterday. Richard Thomas, the Information Commissioner, said a debate had begun about whether listening devices should be set up alongside Britain's 4.5 million CCTV cameras.
Record Number of Secret Warrants in 2006 01 May 2007 A secret court approved all but one of the government's requests last year to search or eavesdrop on suspected terrorists and spies, according to Justice Department data released Tuesday. In all, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court signed off on 2,176 warrants targeting people in the United States believed to be linked to international terror organizations or spies.
States Wiretap Far More Often Than Feds 01 May 2007 State investigators listened in on more than 3 million phone conversations last year as local prosecutors sought a record number of wiretaps, mostly to investigate drug crimes. As the federal government has focused its resources on national security investigations, the responsibility for drug investigations the focus of 80 percent of wiretaps has fallen to state and local authorities.
Venezuela Seizes Last Private Oil Fields 01 May 2007 President Hugo Chavez's government took over Venezuela's last privately run oil fields Tuesday... Using the country's burgeoning revenues from high oil prices, he is financing widespread programs for the poor. He has built new clinics, refurbished state hospitals and sent thousands of doctors to live in poor neighborhoods and provide free medical care.
Former World Bank ethics body chief says Wolfowitz lied at hearing 02 May 2007 World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz lied at a hearing on Monday when he said a bank ethics panel had advised him to give his girlfriend a promotion, the Dutch news agency ANP reported Wednesday. Ad Melkert, chairman of the ethics committee at the World Bank at the time, told a Dutch TV program Tuesday that Wolfowitz "certainly did not tell the truth," ANP said.
Rupert Murdoch Offers $5 Billion Bid for Dow Jones 02 May 2007 In a bold move to expand his global media empire, Rupert Murdoch, the head of the News Corporation, has made an unsolicited $5 billion offer to buy Dow Jones & Company, the venerable publisher of The Wall Street Journal, which he has long coveted.
Circuit City's Job Cuts Backfiring, Analysts Say 02 May 2007 Circuit City fired 3,400 of its highest-paid store employees in March, saying it needed to hire cheaper workers to shore up its bottom line. Now, the Richmond electronics retailer says it expects to post a first-quarter loss next month, and analysts are blaming the job cuts.
Embattled Interior official resigns post 01 May 2007 An Interior Department official accused of pressuring government scientists to make their research fit her policy goals has resigned. Julie MacDonald, deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, submitted her resignation letter to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, a department spokesman said Tuesday. MacDonald resigned a week before a House congressional oversight committee was to hold a hearing on accusations that she violated the Endangered Species Act, censored science and mistreated staff of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
US official tells Australia bird flu pandemic inevitable 30 Apr 2007 Australia must brace itself for an influenza which can't be prevented, a visiting US official has warned. [Right, that's because the US is starting it.] Eric Hargan, the US Acting Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services, said during a speech in Sydney that the world was overdue for a flu pandemic, and Australia must take heed. Such an event probably could not be prevented, no nation would be spared, and any community that was relying on a national-level government to offer a life line "will be tragically wrong", Mr Hargan told the conservative think tank The Sydney Institute on Monday night. [See: Killer flu recreated in the lab 07 Oct 2004 UK Scientists have shown that tiny changes to modern flu viruses could render them as deadly as the 1918 strain which killed millions. A US team added two genes from a sample of the 1918 virus to a modern strain known to have no effect on mice. Animals exposed to this composite were dying within days of symptoms similar to those found in human victims of the 1918 pandemic.]
FDA: Millions of Chickens Fed Contaminated Pet Food 01 May 2007 Up to 3 million broiler chickens were fed melamine-tainted pet food and then sold on the U.S. market beginning in early February, U.S. health officials said in a press conference held late Tuesday. The contaminated pet product made its way into poultry feed at 38 Indiana farms, 30 of which produced broiler chickens destined for restaurants and supermarkets, said officials at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture [Agribusiness].
FDA pet food probe checks 4,000 pet deaths 01 May 2007 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating reports by American households of at least 4,000 pet deaths to determine if any are linked to pet food contaminated with melamine from China, the agency said on Tuesday.
Deserted beehives, starving young stun scientists 01 May 2007 "The bees were gone," David Hackenberg says. "The honey was still there. There's young brood (eggs) still in the hive. Bees just don't do that." On that November night last year in the Florida field where he wintered his bees, Hackenberg found 400 hives empty... The discovery by Hackenberg, a beekeeper from Lewisburg, Pa., was the first buzz about a plague that now afflicts 27 states, from the East Coast to the West. Beekeepers report losses of 30% to 90% of their honeybee hives, according to a Congressional Research Service study in March. Some report total losses.
Arctic ice cap melting 30 years ahead of forecast 01 May 2007 The Arctic ice cap is melting much faster than expected and is now about 30 years ahead of predictions made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a U.S. ice expert said Tuesday. This means the ocean at the top of the world could be free or nearly free of summer ice by 2020, three decades sooner than the global panel's gloomiest forecast of 2050.
Knut to fight global warming 02 May 2007 Baby polar bear Knut, the celebrity cub being hand-raised in a German zoo, is taking on a new role with his own Web site and book to be used in the campaign against global warming. New York-based Turtle Pond Publications and the Berlin Zoo on Monday said they had signed a deal for the publishing rights to Knut, who has drawn attention to the plight of polar bears amid worries that global warming is melting their habitat.
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[Previous lead stories:] U.S. Cites 91 Percent Rise In Terrorist Acts in Iraq 01 May 2007 The number of [US] terrorist incidents in Iraq -- and resulting deaths, injuries and kidnappings -- skyrocketed from 2005 to 2006, according to statistics released by U.S. counterterrorism officials yesterday. Of the 14,338 reported terrorist attacks worldwide last year, 45 percent took place in Iraq, and 65 percent of the global fatalities stemming from terrorism occurred in Iraq.
April death toll for U.S. troops in Iraq surpasses 100 30 Apr 2007 At least 104 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq in April, capping the deadliest six-month period for U.S. forces since the war began more than four years ago. The military announced on Monday the deaths of five soldiers over the weekend. That made April the deadliest month so far this year and the sixth deadliest of the war.
Loud explosions rock Baghdad - witnesses 30 Apr 2007 Up to a dozen loud explosions rocked central Baghdad after nightfall on Monday and smoke was seen rising from the Green Zone government compound, Reuters witnesses said.
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CLG Newsletter editor: Lori Price, Manager. Copyright © 2007, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved. CLG Founder and Chair is Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D.
