Friday, July 21, 2006

Operation Northwoods (Part 2)

I know this has gone around the net a couple of times, but I think it's relevant to America today, and we shouldn't forget what almost happened back in the '60's: the Joint Chiefs of Staff drafted a plan to wage a war of terror inside the US to pursuade America that Cuba was an imminent threat. Our goverment was planning to attack American targets inside and outside the country. Scary and real. Did the plan finally get off the ground on 9/11? Watch 'Loose Change' to learn more about what might have happened on that fateful day.

Here's an excerpt from Operation Northwoods:

7. Hijacking attempts against civil air and surface craft should appear to continue as harassing measures condoned by the government of Cuba. Concurrently, genuine defections of Cuban civil and military air and surface craft should be encouraged.

8. It is possible to create an incident which will demonstrate convincingly that a Cuban aircraft has attacked and shot down a chartered civil airliner enroute from the United States to Jamaica, Guatemala, Panama or Venezuela. The destination would be chosen only to cause the flight plan route to cross Cuba. The passengers could be a group of college students off on a holiday or any grouping of persons with a common interest to support chartering a non-scheduled flight.

a. An aircraft at Eglin AFB would be painted and numbered as an exact duplicate for a civil registered aircraft belonging to a CIA proprietary organization in the Miami area. At a designated time the duplicate would be substituted for the actual civil aircraft and would be loaded with the selected passengers, all boarded under carefully prepared aliases. The actual registered aircraft would be converted to a drone.

b. Take off times of the drone aircraft and the actual aircraft will be scheduled to allow a rendezvous south of Florida. From the rendezvous point the passenger-carrying aircraft will descend to minimum altitude and go directly into an auxiliary field at Eglin AFB where arrangements will have been made to evacuate the passengers and return the aircraft to its original status. The drone aircraft meanwhile will continue to fly the filed flight plan.

Molten Carbon

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Victory for Civil Liberties (for now)

The Judge in the NSA spying trial Hepting v. AT&T Inc., 06-0672 dismissed the Bush administration claim that to proceed with the case would be a detriment to national security.

The Judge determined that since so much about the NSA spying is in the public domain, the state secret claim doesn't hold water.

It will be interesting to see how the Bush camp spins this. Watch for a legislative spectacle or some other bid to end the trial.

Follow the link to read the AP article on MSNBC:
Judge rules against Bush in spying lawsuit

Congressman Barney Frank

Congressman Barney Frank delivered an insightful and much needed speech on July 13, 2006 regarding the power grab under way by the Bush administration and a constitutionally negligent Congress.

"I believe we have seen an overreaching by the President. I believe we have seen a seizing of power that should not have been seized by the executive branch. But executive overreaching could not have succeeded as much as it has without congressional dereliction of duty. I hope that some of the signs I am now seeing of resistance finally in Congress to that will take seed. But I do not see that yet".


Go here for the complete article

Lou Dobbs Commentary

CNN correspondant Lou Dobbs wrote an engaging commentary on the crisis in the Middle East and duplicity of American middle-east foreign policy.
Go Here

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

General Election November 7, 2006

Last day to register to vote: October 10

2006 Congressional Primary Election Dates

State by State 2006 Congressional Primary Election Dates

State Congressional Primary Date
Alabama June 6, 2006
Alaska August 22, 2006
American Samoa November 7, 2006
Arizona September 12, 2006
Arkansas May 23, 2006
California June 6, 2006
Colorado August 8, 2006
Connecticut August 8, 2006
Delaware September 12, 2006
District of Columbia September 9, 2006
Florida September 5, 2006
Georgia July 18, 2006
Guam September 2, 2006
Hawaii September 23, 2006
Idaho May 23, 2006
Illinois March 21, 2006
Indiana May 2, 2006
Iowa June 6, 2006
Kansas August 1, 2006
Kentucky May 16, 2006
Louisiana* September 30, 2006
Maine June 13, 2006
Maryland September 12, 2006
Massachusetts September 19, 2006
Michigan August 8, 2006
Minnesota September 12, 2006
Mississippi June 6, 2006
Missouri August 8, 2006
Montana June 6, 2006
Nebraska May 9, 2006
Nevada August 15, 2006
New Hampshire September 12, 2006
New Jersey June 6, 2006
New Mexico June 6, 2006
New York September 12, 2006
North Carolina May 2, 2006
North Dakota June 13, 2006
Ohio May 2, 2006
Oklahoma July 25, 2006
Oregon May 16, 2006
Pennsylvania May 16, 2006
Puerto Rico n/a
Rhode Island September 12, 2006
South Carolina June 13, 2006
South Dakota June 6, 2006
Tennessee August 3, 2006
Texas March 7, 2006
Utah June 27, 2006
Vermont September 12, 2006
Virgin Islands September 9, 2006
Virginia June 13, 2006
Washington September 19, 2006
West Virginia May 9, 2006
Wisconsin September 12, 2006
Wyoming August 22, 2006

From League of Women Voters

Saturday Night Massacre (Part 2)

AG Gonzalez let slip during Congressional testimony that President Bush personally blocked an investigation into the NSA domestic spying scandal. President Bush gave the order that the investigating DOJ attorneys be denied the required security clearance, effectively ending the investigation. Note the previous post 'Over, Above & Beyond' where I explain that we are closer and closer to an Elective Dictatorship with a Republican controlled Congress rubber-stamping every move, switch and bait.

How many major newspapers reported this on the front page? At last count: 0.