Happy Holidays

Rice defends unlimited detention of suspected terrorists
(AFP)
29 November 2005
Khaleej Times Online
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2005/November/theworld_November769.xml§ion=theworld&col=

WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended the unlimited detention of suspected terrorists saying, ...
“You can’t allow somebody to commit the crime before you detain them...


Rice defends detainee tactics before trip to Europe
By Saul Hudson
12/5/05
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051205/ts_nm/europe_rice_dc

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Maryland (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday defended U.S. treatment of terrorism suspects, telling European allies they should trust Washington and cooperate to prevent new attacks...


Bush seeking compromise on CIA torture ban -aide
04 Dec 2005 18:21:22 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Mohammad Zargham

WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - The White House is seeking a compromise with a leading Senate Republican over its efforts to exempt the CIA from a proposed ban on torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners, President George W. Bush's national security adviser said on Sunday...


If It Can Happen to Padilla, It Can Happen to You
by Cenk Uygur
11.22.2005
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cenk-uygur/if-it-can-happen-to-padil_b_11075.html

Jose Padilla is a United States citizen. He was arrested over three years ago and he was finally indicted today. In the meantime, the government kept him in a Navy brig in South Carolina. They stripped him of all of his constitutional rights. No speedy trial, no access to a lawyer, no evidence presented against him, not even any formal charges.

They said they could strip him of his rights as a citizen because the President had labeled him an "enemy combatant."

Jose Padilla is a United States citizen. For three years, Padilla could not challenge why he was being held or even know what he was being held for. He could not take his case to court. He did not even know what his case was...

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It's not going to be long before we start seeing large numbers of "the disappeared" in this country if we don't start taking steps to reclaim our country from the fascist corporatistas and the corrupt bushistas.
The laws and precedent allowing this to happen are on the books, passed by a craven congress and signed by an equally craven president.

While the bloggers and internet commentators were reporting this extreme loss of our Bill of Rights, the situation was ignored by the US media. Ignored. While this and countless other stories important to our country and our well-being were unfolding, we got untold hours, and untold hours of ink, about M. Jackson, the Luci Peterson case, some missing white girl in Aruba.

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The Grave Threat of the Bush Administration
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
November 28, 2005
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts11282005.html

[...]
Americans need to understand that a police state has to produce results in order to justify its budget and its powers. It doesn't really care who it catches. Stalin's police state caught the wife of Stalin's foreign minister in one of its street sweeps.

The Bush administration justifies torture and threatens to veto congressional attempts to restrain its use. The Bush administration justifies indefinite detention of American citizens without charges.
It asserts the power of indefinite detention based on its subjective judgment about who is a threat. An American government that preaches "freedom and democracy" to the world claims the powers of tyrants as its own.

Americans need to wake up. The only danger to Americans in Iraq is the one Bush created by invading the country. The grave threat that Americans face is the Bush administration's police state mentality.
[...]

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A note to Bill O'Reilly. That's some pretty lame-ass enemies list you published at your site. But then, you're pretty lame-ass yourself.


Well, anyhow, I'd like to wish you all a happy, and healthy, Holiday Season.