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Announcing
TBR Ebooks!
Starting
with a new publication concerning the background behind the 9/11
attacks, TBR News will be presenting a series of interesting,
informative and definitive works for our readers. Future titles will
include the complete Voice of the White House with much more added
material that was considered too controversial to post, the
heavily-censored Armenian Holocaust of 1916, the Bush-Lay private
correspondence, the Assassination of JFK,Pearl Harbor intrigues and
rare documents, Malaparte’s inside study of the making of
revolution, sensational selected articles from the German Rudolf
historical revision files, unpublished before Rudolf’s arrest and
forced deportation to Germany, World War II studies of holocaust
history, taken from secret German files and much more. Please see
the title page for more information.
The
Editors
Descending
Into Darkness: The Harring Report
A
well-researched study into the background of the 9/11 attack: Who
knew what and when did they know it. Russian and German intelligence
material, not published before show that the U.S. had ample
warning...and did nothing about it.
THE
VOICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE
The
full collection of the twice-weekly commentary of what is really
going on inside the corrupt Bush White House. The spectrum includes
the Gannon scandal, the planned invasion of Iran, many stories of
stupidity and corruption coupled with biting sarcasm. Interesting to
note that many, if not most, of the predictions have come true.
REGICIDE
The Official Assassination of John F. Kennedy
A
landmark book that sold very well in hardback, this work contains
actual intelligence documents concerning the inside U.S. plans to
kill Kennedy; the reasons, the methods and the results.
The
Final Reckoning: An Analysis of Demographics in Holocaust Literature
By
Harold Kreig, Lt.Col, AUS ret.
This
is the first rational, heavily documented work on the subject of the
Holocaust. Colonel Krieg has taken thousands of documents, including
the official SS concentration camp records from 1935 through 1945
and official U.S. government postwar analysis of the system and the
casualties and causes of death and produced a book that is highly
informative and readable. Heavily footnoted and annotated,
‘The Final Reckoning’ is logical and compelling and is an
historical work that should be read through by any student of the
period and subject.
Coup
D’Etat: The Technique Of Revolution
By
Curzio Malaparte
First
published in Italy by Curzio Malaparte in 1928, this is a seminal
work on historical seizures of power from Napoleon through Hitler.
Gestapo-Chief:
The CIA & Heinrich Müller by Gregory Douglas
In 1948, the former head of Hitelr’s Gestapo was
interviewed by senior officials of the CIA in Switzerland where Müller
had been in hiding since the end of the Second World War. His
interview, for Colonel James Critchfield of the CIA’s Gehlen
Organization, runs to nearly a thousand pages and for years was
hidden in the CIA’s files.
This is a translation of a part of the interview, which was
initially conducted in German and then translated into English for
CIA use.
It is a fascinating series of historical episodes covering
both the Axis and Allied sides with comments on Hitler, Stalin,
Roosevelt, Henry Wallace, Winston Churchill, the 20th of
July bomb plot against Hitler, Bishop von Galen’s heroic, and
successful, attacks on the Nazis and their euthanasia program, the
concentration camps, the Duke of Windsor, the Roger Casement diaries
and many more fascinating and insightful views of a man who ran the
most effective counter-intelligence agency in modern times.
There is also extensive information on the attempts on the
part of the CIA to silence or discredit the fact that the Gestapo
Chief worked for the United States and eventually came to live in
Washington, D.C. as part of the notorious “Operation Paperclip.”
Fascinating inside views of many top
Nazis and CIA officials.
The
CIA COvenant: Nazis in Washington
by Gregory Douglas
* From the end of
World War II, the American CIA imported thousands of Nazis into the
United States to work for them, many on the list of wanted war
criminals
*One of the most
important of these was Heinrich Mueller, once head of Hitler's
Gestapo. Mueller was recruited by Colonel James Critchfield who ran
the CIA's "Gehnel Organization' in Munich.
* Mueller kept
journals and this book is a translation of three years (1948-1951)
of notes and observations made of top CIA officials, President
Truman, top U.S. government officials, plans for murder, thefts,
kidnappings, wholesale thefts of public money and a terrifying
pattern of uncontrolled ambition, unchecked by any person or agency.
* Also included are
CIA and other agency's activities that have never been revealed.
*Mueller's deals in
stolen Nazi art for the CIA are covered in detail.
*Also to be found are
the steps the frightened CIA have taken to prevent the publication,
sales or distribution of this work.
An
Essay on the Principle of Population
by
Thomas Malthus
The
1798 classic study of how supplies of food do not keep up with an
expanding population
Malthus'
theory is that population growth is geometric while the food supply
increase is arithmetic.
A
very literate and current study that clearly highlights present and
current population problems
With
the world's population higher than ever before, this is a work of
great and current interest
CONSPIRACIES
for Fun and Profit
Contents
The Evil Catholics Murdered Abraham Lincoln
TWA Flight 800: The Gathering of the Nuts
The Real Truth About the Kennedy Assassination!
The Great 9-11 Plot
Who is Sorcha Faal?
The Bush Indictments
Faked Conspiracy photos
The Sinking of the MV Estonia
The German Guy and the Destruction of Houston
The Great Contrail Conspiracy
Planet X
Remote Viewing unveiled
The Voice of the
White House
Washington
,
D.C.
,
April 30, 2008
: “ I have been listening
to various friends and children of friends about the growing home
repossession crisis. It seems that many young, first time home
buyers, were deliberately mislead by crooked mortgage brokers into
buying their new home with very little down and small monthly
payments. Most of these buyers were really unaware of the fact that
after a period of time had elapsed, the mortgage holder could, and
would, triple the monthly payments.
The
banks who bought these crooked mortgages, crooked in that many of
the buyers were known to the brokers as being unable to meet higher
payments, quickly “bundled” them and sold them off at a good
profit.
Now,
we have some interesting facts. Most of the people being told to pay
up or vacate do not know that it is virtually impossible to locate
the actual mortgage holder and the law requires that said mortgage
holder alone can repossess a home with delinquent payments.
Many
judges ignore this but more than a few are requiring the actual
holder of the mortgage to appear. This is impossible to do in most
cases so young couples and poorer people should have their lawyers,
assuming they can afford them, look into this.
Also,
many infuriated home owners, upon being tossed out on the street,
have taken to doing damage to their homes. I am going to discuss
this aspect of the crisis here. I will, as an exercise in black
humor, explain methods for teaching the banks a badly needed lesson.
Smashing
up the house is stupid and futile. People who take tools and smash
windows and rip out drywall could be prosecuted by the mortgage
holder.
Better
to consider some of these small advices instead.
Perhaps
one could get a screwdriver, six or seven bottles of crazy glue,
several bottles of Metamucil, a six pound hammer, a quantity of
fresh or frozen crab meat and several dozens of large, cooked shrimp
or prawns. That’s all you need to leave nothing behind. Oh yes,
you can also get a large sack of rocksalt, available in any
supermarket for use in water softeners, and fifty pounds of plaster
of Paris. And a brace and bit too. That’s all you need. First,
remove all the light switch and electric outlet plates in every
room. Put some crab meat or a large prawn or two into the cavity and
put the plates back on. When the shellfish goes off, the stench
would kill a maggot. The meat will not only rot and give an unholy
odor, it will eventually liquefy and vanish.
Having
done that, pour a gallon of hot Ritz dye into the middle of the
largest wall to wall carpet in the house. A puddle that looks like
an accident. The carpet is ruined and it all has to be ripped out.
If
there are wood floors or other horizontal wood surfaces, pour some
acetone onto them and the finish is ruined and has to be redone. If
the kitchen or entrance hall has ceramic tile, take a hammer and
crack one or two of the tiles. If you have a tile kitchen sink
cover, knock out one or two tiles or knock off one of the edge
pieces.
You
can pour the Metamucil down the drains in the kitchen. It will plug
up the pipes for yards. You can also mix
the big bag of plaster of Paris and pour it into all the
toilets and down the bathtub and shower drains. After the toilets
are firmly plugged, take nice dump on top of it. Then, when a
disgusted bank representative comes to visit, and overcomes the
vomit-inducing stench of rotting shellfish, they will lift the
toilet lid, make a face and pull the handle. This will result in a
flood of water and turds onto the floor.
You
can take the brace and bit, climb up on a chair and drill a hole in
the top of your hollow core room doors and drop shrimp or crab down
into the cavity. The stench will be matched by the staining of the
wood at the bottom, stains that will smell for decades.
Fishing
leader let down into the garbage disposal will ruin it and if you
keep the power on, you will burn out the bearings. If you can’t
get the stove out, piss into a large, ovenproof bowl, turn on the
heat and put the bowl inside the oven.
Also,
if you plug up the shower or bathtub drains, you can always turn on
the taps, very gently, before you leave. If this is on an upper
floor, the water will eventually spill over, spread out all over the
floor, ruining the carpets and the floors before it leaks through
and causes the plasterboard ceiling below to cave in.
If
you want to be really bad, rip the electric cord off of an old lamp
and put alligator clamps on each wire. Then, remove the cable box
back or the telephone line cover and hook the clamps to each
terminal and plug it into the household current. Five minutes of
this and all the phone and cable lines are permanently fried. Put
the cover back on again so as not to alert the bank people.
When
you have done all of the above, take the crazy glue in hand and seal
up every door in the house. Close the door first. Then note that the
doorknob has a part that is fixed to the door itself and another
part, the knob, that turns. Pour crazy glue over this junction. It
will quickly settle in, effectively sealing the door.
You can also take out
all the window blinds and curtains. If they won’t fit in your new
apartment, put them into a dumpster. And be sure to leave the front
door lock untouched.
Outside,
locate the gas meter and pour a large circle of the salt around it
with a trail leading in a straight line to the street. Either turn
on the sprinklers for a while, allowing the salt to penetrate into
the ground and kill the grass, or wait for a rain to hopefully
arrive before the bank. In either case, wait for about a week, then
call the gas company and complain of a leak. When the service people
come out, they will see the dead grass and just know that there must
be a leak. What will they do? If it looks like the line into the
house is somehow leaking, they will get a backhoe and make the yard
look like the battle of the
Marne
was fought there.
And
you can dump the rest of the salt into the flower gardens and
scatter the bits of it all over the lawn.
All
of this may take some time and cost a few dollars, but believe me,
the results are worth it. Vomiting bank visitors and huge bills for
refinishing the floors, replacing the carpets, and if you use crazy
glue on the sliding windows, much trouble there.
All
it all, not a sound to annoy the neighbors and you leave little bits
of joy behind. Trust me, children, the bank will have to spend many
dollars to put the place back in service for the market and when the
new owners try to install a telephone or put in cable, there will be
even more delightful surprises.
My
motto? Don’t get mad, get even.”
US
Troop Death
Toll Hits A 7-Month High in
Iraq
April 30, 2008
by
Slobodan Lekic
AP
BAGHDAD
- The killings of three
U.S.
soldiers in separate
attacks in
Baghdad
pushed the American death
toll for April up to 47, making it the deadliest month since
September, the military said Wednesday.
One
soldier died when his vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb. The
other died of wounds sustained when he was attacked by small-arms
fire, the military said. Both incidents occurred Tuesday in
northwestern
Baghdad
.
A
third soldier died in a roadside bombing Tuesday night in the east
of the capital, the military said.
The
statement did not give a more specific location. But the eastern
half of
Baghdad
includes embattled
Sadr
City
and other neighborhoods
that have been the focus of intense combat between Shiite militants
and U.S.-Iraqi troops for more than a month.
In
all, at least 4,059 members of the
U.S.
military have died since
the
Iraq
war started in March 2003,
according to an Associated Press count.
“We
have said all along that this will be a tough fight and there will
be periods where we see these extremists, these criminal groups and
al-Qaida terrorists seek to reassert themselves,”
U.S.
military spokesman Maj.
Gen. Kevin Bergner told reporters in
Baghdad
.
“So,
the sacrifice of our troopers, the sacrifice of Iraqi forces and
Iraqi citizens reflects this challenge,” Bergner said in response
to a question about what’s behind the increase in American troop
deaths.
The
latest fighting erupted at the end of March after Prime Minister
Nouri al-Maliki launched a crackdown against Shiite militias in the
southern port city of
Basra
. But it quickly spread to
Baghdad
’s
Sadr
City
, a sprawling slum with
about 2.5 million people that is a stronghold of the Mahdi Army
militia of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.
The
militiamen have used the district as a base to fire barrages of
missiles and mortar rounds at the U.S.-protected Green Zone which
houses much of the Iraqi government and Western diplomatic missions,
including the
U.S.
and British embassies.
They
also have fought running street battles in which hundreds have died.
The
U.S.
military says those killed
have been mainly gunmen. But police and medical authorities in
Sadr
City
say innocent civilians
have frequently gotten caught up in the fighting.
Such
street battles — in tight confines and amid frightened civilians
— are increasingly becoming a hallmark of the drive into Sadr City
and recall the type of head-on clashes last seen in large numbers
during last year’s U.S. troop buildup in Baghdad and surrounding
areas.
The
Sadr
City
violence continued
overnight with the destruction of a school in the district. AP
Television News footage showed that parts of the two-floor Baghdad
Girls’ School had pancaked as the result of an explosion. Desks
were hanging down from the slanting classrooms where the outer walls
were blown out by the blast.
Local
officials said the school was the target of an airstrike on Tuesday
evening.
An
official at the local hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because he was not authorized to release the information, said two
people were killed and 16 wounded overnight in
Sadr
City
. He said this brought the
death toll in the district since Tuesday to 31, with 107 wounded.
The
U.S.
military had no comment
about the school but said an Abrams tank fired at gunmen shooting at
U.S.
troops in
Sadr
City
, killing all three. In
another part of
Sadr
City
, an unmanned drone fired a
missile at a group of men planting a roadside bomb and killed one,
the military said.
On
Wednesday, al-Maliki accused the Mahdi Army of using civilians as
human shields, and vowed to continue the crackdown against militias.
“We
can’t build a state along with militias,” he told reporters at a
news conference. “We want to build a single national army.”
Al-Maliki
also said that militants had killed the nephew of an Interior
Ministry spokesman and hanged the body from an electric pole in
Baghdad
. The attack Tuesday was in
apparent retaliation for the spokesman’s role in a government
crackdown against Shiite militias.
Maj.
Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf was in charge of the crackdown on the Mahdi
Army that began in
Basra
in late March and has
survived past assassination attempts. His nephew was killed in
Sadr
City
district, al-Maliki said.
Associated
Press writers Sinan Salaheddin and Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to
this report.
April 29, 2008
Soldier Spc. David P. McCormick, 26, of
Fresno
,
Texas
, died April 28 in
Baghdad
,
Iraq
, of wounds suffered when
his forward operating base came under rocket attack.
April 25,
2008
Soldier Staff Sgt. Shaun J. Whitehead, 24, of
Commerce,
Ga.
, died April
24 in
Iskandariyah
,
Iraq
, of wounds
suffered when he encountered an improvised explosive device while on
a dismounted patrol. Soldier
Staff Sgt. Ronald C. Blystone, 34, of
Springfield
,
Mo.
, died April
23 in
Baghdad
,
Iraq
, from wounds
suffered when he encountered small arms fire during a dismounted
patrol.
Two
Marines died April 22 from wounds suffered while conducting combat
operations in Al Anbar province,
Iraq
:
Lance Cpl. Jordan C. Haerter, 19, of
Sag Harbor
,
N.Y.
, Cpl.
Jonathan T. Yale, 21, of
Burkeville
,
Va.
Two soldiers
died April 23 in
Golden Hills
,
Iraq
, of injuries
suffered in a vehicle incident: Pfc. John T. Bishop, 22, of
Gaylord
,
Mich.
, 1st
Lt. Timothy W. Cunningham, 26, of
College
Station
,
Texas
. Soldier Sgt.
Guadalupe Cervantes Ramirez, 26, of
Fort Irwin
,
Calif.
, died April
23 at
Camp Arifjan
,
Kuwait
, of injuries
suffered in a vehicle incident.
April 24,
2008
Marine 1st Lt. Matthew R. Vandergrift, 28 of
Littleton
,
Colo.
, died April
21 from wounds he suffered while conducting combat operations in
Basrah
,
Iraq
.
April 23,
2008
Soldier Pvt. Ronald R. Harrison, 25, of
Morris
Plains
, N.J., died
April 22 at Forward Operating Base Falcon near
Baghdad
,
Iraq
, of a
non-combat related injury. Two soldiers died April 21 in
Bayji
,
Iraq
, of wounds
suffered when their vehicle encountered an improvised explosive
device.: Spc. Steven J. Christofferson, 20, of
Cudahy
,
Wis.
,
Sgt. Adam J. Kohlhaas, 26, of
Perryville
, Mo.
April 22,
2008
Sailor Petty Officer 1st Class Cherie L. Morton, 40,
of
Bakersfield
,
Calif.
, died April
20 in Galali,
Muharraq
,
Bahrain
. The
cause of death is under investigation. Sailor Airman Apprentice
Adrian M. Campos, 22, of
El Paso
,
Texas
, was found
dead in
Dubai
on April 21
due to a non-combat related incident.
April 21,
2008
Soldier Spc. Lance O. Eakes, 25, of Apex, N.C., died
April 18 in
Baghdad
,
Iraq
, of wounds
suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive
device. Soldier Spc. Benjamin K. Brosh, 22, of
Colorado
Springs
,
Colo.
, died April
18 at Forward Operating Base Anaconda in
Balad
,
Iraq
, of wounds
suffered in
Paliwoda
,
Iraq
, when his
vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.
April
19, 2008
Soldier Staff Sgt. Jason L. Brown, 29, of Magnolia,
Texas, died April 17 in Sama Village, Iraq, of wounds suffered when
enemy forces attacked using small arms fire and grenades.
April 18,
2008
Two Marines died April 15 while conducting combat operations
in
Kandahar
province,
Afghanistan
: 1st Sgt.
Luke J. Mercardante, 35, of
Athens
,
Ga.
,,Cpl.
Kyle W. Wilks, 24, of
Rogers
,
Ark.
April 15,
2008
Soldier Sgt.
Joseph A. Richard III, 27, of
Lafayette
,
La.
, died April
14 in
Baghdad
,
Iraq
, of wounds
sustained when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive
device. Soldier Spc. Arturo Huerta-Cruz, 23, of
Clearwater
,
Fla.
, died April
14 in
Tuz
,
Iraq
, of wounds
sustained when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive
device. Two
Marines died April 14 while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar
province,
Iraq
: Cpl.
Richard J. Nelson, 23, of
Racine
,
Wis
, Lance
Cpl. Dean D. Opicka, 29, of
Waukesha
,
Wis.
April 14,
2008
Soldier Spc. William E. Allmon, 25, of
Ardmore
,
Okla.
, died April
12 in
Baghdad
,
Iraq
, of wounds
suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive
device.
April 11,
2008
Soldier Spc. Jacob J. Fairbanks, 22, of
Saint Paul
,
Minn.
, died April
9 in
Baghdad
,
Iraq
, of injuries
suffered in a non-combat related incident. Soldier Sgt. Jesse A.
Ault, 28, of
Dublin
,
Va.
, died April
9 in
Baghdad
,
Iraq
, from wounds
suffered in
Tunnis
,
Iraq
, when his
vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.
April 10,
2008
Soldier Sgt.
Shaun P. Tousha, 30, of
Hull
,
Texas
, died April
9 in
Baghdad
,
Iraq
, from wounds
suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive
device. Airman Tech. Sgt Anthony L. Capra, 31, of
Hanford
,
Calif.
, died April
9 near
Golden Hills
,
Iraq
, of wounds
suffered when he encountered an improvised explosive device. Soldier
Spc. Jeremiah C. Hughes, 26, of
Jacksonville
,
Fla.
, died April
9 in Balad
Iraq
, of injuries
sustained in a non-combat related incident in
Abu Gharab
,
Iraq
.
Soldier Staff Sgt. Jeffery L. Hartley, 25, of
Hempstead
,
Texas
, died April
8 in
Kharguliah
,
Iraq
, of wounds
suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive
device.
April 9,
2008
Soldier Maj. Mark E. Rosenberg, 32, of
Miami Lakes
,
Fla.
, died April
8 in
Baghdad
,
Iraq
of wounds
suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive
device. Two soldiers died April 7 in
Sadr City
,
Iraq
, when enemy
forces attacked using a rocket propelled grenade: Spc. Jason C.
Kazarick, 30, of
Oakmont
,
Pa
,. Sgt.
Michael T. Lilly, 23, of
Boise
,
Idaho
. Soldier Sgt.
Timothy M. Smith, 25, of
South Lake
Tahoe
,
Calif.
, died April
7 in
Baghdad
,
Iraq
of wounds
suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive
device.
April 8,
2008
Soldier Staff
Sgt. Jeremiah E. McNeal, 23, of
Norfolk
,
Va.
, died April
6 in
Baghdad
,
Iraq
, of wounds
suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive
device. Soldier Sgt. Richard A. Vaughn, 22, of
San Diego
,
Calif.
, died April
7 in
Baghdad
,
Iraq
from wounds
suffered when enemy forces attacked using a rocket propelled
grenade, improvised explosive device and small arms fire. Two
soldiers died April 6 in
Baghdad
, of wounds
suffered when insurgents attacked their unit with indirect fire: Col.
Stephen K. Scott, 54, of New Market,
Ala.
, Maj.
Stuart A. Wolfer, 36, of
Coral Springs
,
Fla.
Soldier Staff Sgt. Emanuel Pickett, 34, of
Teachey
,
N.C.
, died April
6 in
Baghdad
,
Iraq
, of wounds
suffered when enemy forces attacked with indirect fire.
April 7,
2008
Soldier Pfc. Shane D. Penley, 19, of
Sauk Village
,
Ill.
, died April
6 at Patrol Base Copper,
Iraq
, from wounds
suffered while on duty at a guard post. The incident is under
investigation. Two soldiers died April 6 in
Balad
,
Iraq
, when their
vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device:. Capt. Ulises
Burgos-Cruz, 29, of
Puerto Rico
. , Spc.
Matthew T. Morris, 23, of
Cedar Park
,
Texas
.
April
5, 2008
Soldier Sgt. Nicholas A. Robertson, 27, of Old Town,
Maine, died April 3 at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in
Landstuhl, Germany, of wounds suffered April 2 while conducting
dismounted combat operations in the Zahn Khan District, Afghanistan.
April 4,
2008
Soldier Spc.
Charles A. Jankowski, 24, of
Panama City
,
Fla.
, died March
28, in Arab Jabour,
Iraq
, of wounds
suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his
vehicle. Airman Staff Sgt. Travis L. Griffin, 28, of
Dover
,
Del.
, died April
3 near
Baghdad
,
Iraq
, of wounds
suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive
device.
April 3,
2008
Soldier Sgt.
Dayne D. Dhanoolal, 26, of
Brooklyn
, died March
31 in
Baghdad
, of wounds
suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his
vehicle.
April 2,
2008
Soldier Sgt.
Jevon K. Jordan, 32, of
Norfolk
,
Va.
, died Mar.
29 at
Landstuhl
Regional
Medical
Center
,
Landstuhl
,
Germany
, from wounds
suffered Mar. 23 in
Abu Jassim
,
Iraq
, when his
vehicle encountered an improvised explosive. Maj. William
G. Hall, 38, of
Seattle
, died March
30 from wounds he suffered while conducting combat operations in Al
Anbar province,
Iraq
, on March
29.
April 1,
2008
Soldier Cpl.
Steven I. Candelo, 20, of
Houston
, died March
26 in
Baghdad
, when his
vehicle was struck by a rocket propelled grenade. Soldier Sgt.
Terrell W. Gilmore, 38, of
Baton Rouge
,
La.
, died March
30 in
Baghdad
, when an
improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle. Two soldiers
died March 29 in
Baghdad
from wounds
suffered when they encountered an improvised explosive device and
small arms fire: Spc. Durrell L. Bennett, 22, of
Spanaway
,
Wash.
, and Pfc.
Patrick J. Miller, 23, of New Port Richey,
Fla.
Cheney Lawyer Claims
Congress Has No Authority Over Vice-President
April
29, 2008
by
Elana Schor
The
Guardian
The
lawyer for
US
vice-president Dick Cheney claimed today that the Congress lacks any
authority to examine his behaviour on the job.
The
exception claimed by Cheney’s counsel came in response to requests
from congressional Democrats that David Addington, the
vice-president’s chief of staff, testify about his involvement in
the approval of interrogation tactics used at
Guantanamo
Bay
.
Ruling
out voluntary cooperation by Addington, Cheney lawyer Kathryn
Wheelbarger said Cheney’s conduct is “not within the
[congressional] committee’s power of inquiry”.
“Congress
lacks the constitutional power to regulate by law what a
vice-president communicates in the performance of the vice
president’s official duties, or what a vice president recommends
that a president communicate,” Wheelbarger wrote to senior aides
on Capitol Hill.
The
exception claimed by Cheney’s office recalls his attempt last year
to evade rules for classified documents by deeming the
vice-president’s office a hybrid branch of government - both
executive and legislative.
The
Democratic congressman who is investigating the legal framework for
the violent interrogation of terrorist suspects, John Conyers, has
asked Addington and several other top Bush administration lawyers to
testify. Thus far all have claimed their deliberations are
privileged.
However,
Philippe Sands QC, law professor at
University
College
,
London
, has agreed
to appear in
Washington
and discuss
the revelations in Torture Team, his new book on the consequences of
the brutal tactics used at
Guantanamo
.
Excerpts
from Torture Team were previewed exclusively by the Guardian earlier
this month.
Two
witnesses sought by Conyers, former
US
attorney
general John Ashcroft and former
US
justice
department lawyer John Yoo, claimed that their involvement in civil
lawsuits related to harsh interrogations allows them to avoid
appearing before Congress.
In
letters to attorneys representing Ashcroft and Yoo, Conyers shot
down their arguments and indicated he would pursue subpoenas if
their clients did not testify at his May 6 hearing.
“I
am aware of no basis for the remarkable claim that pending civil
litigation somehow immunises an individual from testifying before
Congress,” Conyers wrote.
Conyers,
who chairs the House of Representatives judiciary committee, also
questioned the reasoning of Cheney’s lawyer in a letter to
Addington.
“It
is hard to know what aspect of the invitation [to you] has given
rise to concern that the committee might seek to regulate the vice
president’s recommendations to the president,” Conyers wrote.
“Especially
since far more obvious potential subjects of legislation are
plentiful,” he added, mentioning several:
US
laws on the
use of torture on terrorist suspects, the 15-year-old War Crimes
Act, and the rules that allowed the Bush White House to receive
legal advice from a specialised office within the justice
department.
Letters to the Editor
From:
cfowles@comcast.net
To:
tbrnews@hotmail.com
Subject:
Libraries
Date:
Tue, 29 Apr 2008
10:42:01
-0700
Dear
TBR News:
I'm an assistant city librarian
in a small town in the NW United States. This statement:
'You might have relatives in a
nursing home, send money by
Western Union
or use Google or check out books from
the local library.' is false.
It
is Library policy to protect patrons' privacy from even the
local police. The idea of libraries transferring records to
some databank in
Bethesda
,
Maryland
is ludicrous. We do not keep local lists of what patrons have
read. Patrons ask us all the time because they don't emember
what they've already checked out. We can't help them because we
don't keep records of that. Even when we phone to let patrons
know books are available that they've placed on hold, we
are instructed to not tell spouses or any other person the title of
the item. Librarians are at the forefront protecting privacy rights
and if you had read the news sometime back, you'd know that when the
Patriot Act was passed, Librarians flat out told the Feds they would
not comply. Period.
Name
and location withheld.
Response:
Dear
Name Withheld:
Very sorry to inform
you but you are dead wrong.
The Department of
Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are
mandated to use library records to check on the reading habits of
'suspect persons.'
This has received
considerable authoritative attention in the American media in the
past. Perhaps if your personal reading transcended the 'Weekly
Reader' you might have noticed this.
I would suggest that
you consult an information service, excluding Wikipedia which is a
mass of errors, and study this subject further. And you will also
find that
Western Union
records have been and are being monitored for money transfers to
foreign countries. If you believe that this does not happen, I feel
sorry for you. Next, you will be telling me that there is an Easter
Bunny or actually was a Jesus Christ.
I would also doubt if
a 'small town in the NW
United States' would harbor anything more dangerous than furtive
cross-dressers so it is more than likely that you have not become
acquainted with the realities of life in more populated areas.
I have lived in very
small and remote towns before and there, the big news is when a
stray cow wandered into a
Baptist
Church
on a Sunday and was accidentally baptized.
WS
Response:
From:
C. Fowles (cfowles@comcast.net
Sent:
Wed 4/30/
08 12:53 PM
To:
walter storch (tbrnews@hotmail.com
I think you may not have understood that there are no
library records maintained about who has read what. Let me repeat,
there are no records maintained of who has read what. The only
records we potentially could "share" are only what a
patron currently has checked out. I'm not kidding when I tell you we
are expressly forbidden to give out that information. We
have to refer the police to the Library Director, who will explain
why they will not be given out without a court order or subpoena.
The Library Director then has the FBI talk to the City Counsel. And
then the FBI is invited to sue in court for the records.
Link to case in
Connecticut
that finally ended when the FBI dropped
the demand for records after a court battle:
http://www.bespacific.com/mt/archives/011619.html#011619
Bottom line, the FBI is not
getting the records because of some stinking NSL. They will have a
legal fight on their hands if they try. Your article implied that
library records were somehow routinely being captured and
stored in a database in
Bethesda
,
Maryland
.
Wire transfers of money are a
different animal altogether and are being tracked and have been
tracked even prior to 911 as part of the so-called "war on
drugs" and other anti-organized crime law enforcement. We know
how effective that was in stopping the terrorists! On
principle, tracking money illegally obtained is an
entirely different thing from policing thoughts. The
courts recognize the right of privacy to think what one will! The
FBI is having a hell of a time convincing the courts there's
probable cause of a crime being committed by someone
for merely reading publicly available information at a
public library.
Having said that, I do feel
along with you and many people that our privacy is being invaded all
the time. I had my picture taken by the State Patrol for
standing on a street corner waving an anti-war sign. It really made
me uncomfortable and ticked off when I became aware that the
uniformed guy across the street was photographing me. So I looked
straight into the camera held my sign up so he could get a good view
and posed for him. He looked more than a little annoyed.
I don't know how this spying is
going to play out and if we will ever have out Constitution
restored. I too am very scared. I was slightly heartened to
learn that Congress quietly revoked Bush's mandate to declare
martial law. The appointment of Alito and Roberts to the Supreme
Court however will be a slow motion disaster for years.
Response:
I understand you but in
some areas, librarians and their employers do fully cooperate with
government snoops. I am sure that in your area, it is as you say. If
you stand up to them, they back off.
While the DHS has the legal
right to get into a private lock box at the bank, the only areas in
which they do so are, as I am constantly told, is in California
where the eager Bank of America, like SBC, AT&T and, of course,
AOL, welcome investigators and in the case of the telephone and
other communications systems, actually allow agents unlimited access
to all their facilities without any specific court order.
This means that I nor any of my
acquaintance use any of the services of willing cooperators in such
illegal activities. AOL has basically vanished from the scene and
recent reports indicate that BoA is in very deep trouble because of
its frenzy to acquire faulty mortgages.
I believe small, local banks
are the best place for banking as most, if not all, of the larger
banking firms are teetering on the brink of collapse.
You speak of an anti-war
demonstration.
At
this moment, the befuddled American population is watching the
sleazy FOX network's 'American Idol' or the endless coverage of the
mindless political warfare. The death tolls in both
Afghanistan
and
Iraq
are rising, we have
lost the official assistance of
Pakistan
, oil has soared
beyond belief and the worthless Bush is holding press conferences
that are embarrassing to watch. WS
Microsoft
device helps police pluck evidence from cyberscene of crime
April
28, 2008
by
Benjamin
J. Romano
Seattle
Times
Microsoft has developed a small plug-in
device that investigators can use to quickly extract forensic data
from computers that may have been used in crimes.
The COFEE, which stands for Computer Online
Forensic Evidence Extractor, is a USB "thumb drive" that
was quietly distributed to a handful of law-enforcement agencies
last June. Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith described its use to
the 350 law-enforcement experts attending a company conference
Monday.
The device contains 150 commands that can
dramatically cut the time it takes to gather digital evidence, which
is becoming more important in real-world crime, as well as
cybercrime. It can decrypt passwords and analyze a computer's
Internet activity, as well as data stored in the computer. |