Undernews For March 23, 2009

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22 May 2009

WORD

Play is the highest form of research. -Albert Einstein

PAGE ONE MUST

OBAMA ASSUMES THE RIGHTS OF A DICTATOR

Sam Smith, Progressive Review - With his comments on preventive detention, President Obama has assumed the privileges of a dictator. There are no constitutional grounds for what he intends to do and nothing therefore to prevent him from expanding the language to include, for example, preventive detention for journalists who oppose the first three country conflict America has been in since World War II.

The claim by both Bush and Obama that they can exercise unconstitutional powers because we are in a war is supported neither by the document itself nor by reality, inasmuch as Congress has yet to declare war on anyone we are currently fighting. Further, all the unconstitutional measures used or proposed - from torture to preventive detention - have gained prominence without a single significant effort on the part of the United States to lessen the chances that someone in the countries concerned might wish to harm us. We have not only jettisoned the Constitution but common sense as well.

Andy Worthington, Counterpunch - Frankly, to even entertain the prospect that a third category of justice (beyond guilt and innocence) can be conjured out of thin air without fatally undermining the principles on which the United States was founded is to enter perilous territory indeed. Fundamentally, Guantanamo is a prison that was founded on the presumption that the Bush administration's "new paradigm" justified "preventive detention" for life, and although Obama stepped up his assurances at this point in his speech -- talking about "clear, defensible and lawful standards," "fair procedures," and "a thorough process of periodic review" -- it is simply unacceptable that "preventive detention" (which he referred to, euphemistically, as "prolonged detention") should be considered as an option, however much he tried to legitimize it by stating, "If and when we determine that the United States must hold individuals to keep them from carrying out an act of war, we will do so within a system that involves judicial and congressional oversight."

Look at the sentence, "Hold[ing] individuals to keep them from carrying out an act of war," replace "an act of war" with "a crime, any crime," and you will, I hope, realize why the proposed policy is so terrifying and so thoroughly unacceptable. If a President came to power promising to "hold individuals to keep them from committing a crime, any crime," I'd be very worried indeed. . .

I'm almost speechless with despair about [the proposal], and would urge anyone who believes in the fundamental right of human beings, in countries that purport to wear the cloak of civilization with pride, to live as free men and women unless arrested, charged, tried and convicted of a crime, to resist the notion that a form of "preventive detention" is anything other than the most fundamental betrayal of our core values.

Andy Worthington is a British historian, and the author of 'The Guantanamo Files

Clip of Obama Speech: That's why my administration has begun to reshape the standards that apply to ensure that they are in line with the rule of law. We must have clear, defensible, and lawful standards for those who fall into this category. . . We must have a thorough process of periodic review, so that any prolonged detention is carefully evaluated and justified. . . . our goal is to construct a legitimate legal framework for the remaining Guantanamo detainees that cannot be transferred. Our goal is not to avoid a legitimate legal framework. In our constitutional system, prolonged detention should not be the decision of any one man. If and when we determine that the United States must hold individuals to keep them from carrying out an act of war, we will do so within a system that involves judicial and congressional oversight. And so, going forward, my administration will work with Congress to develop an appropriate legal regime so that our efforts are consistent with our values and our Constitution.

Rachel Maddow: You'll construct a legal regime to make indefinite detention legal. . . Develop an appropriate legal regime so you can construct a whole new system outside the courts even outside the military commissions so you can indefinitely imprison people without charges. And you will build that system from scratch. What's that somebody said about ad hoc legal strategies?

Just for context here in the United Kingdom where there isn't even a bill of rights, there has been a major debate about whether people can be held in preventive detention. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair wanted three months to be the outer limit for how long anyone could be held. There was a big political fight about it. Parliament ended up limiting that power to 28 days. 28 days is still the longest period of preventive detention that's allowed under law in any comparable democracy anywhere in the world

How long would President Obama's proposed indefinite detention last? He's not saying yet, but here is how he's defining the threat he says makes indefinite detention necessary.

Clip of Obama's speech: Right now, in distant training camps and in crowded cities, there are people plotting to take American lives. That will be the case a year from now, five years from now, and -- in all probability -- 10 years from now.

Maddow: Ten years from now? So you could get arrested today and locked up without a trial without being convicted without being sentenced for say ten years until the threat of your future criminal behavior passes? Prolonged detention he's calling it.

This was a beautiful speech from President Obama today with patriotic even moving language about the rule of law and the constitution and one of the most radical proposals for defying the constitution we have ever heard made to the American people.

Professor Diane Marie Amann, University of California - In word and tone, the President made clear that he will end "the mess at Guantanamo." At the center of that mess are detainees who cannot be prosecuted, many because U.S. agents coerced statements from them, but who are presumed too dangerous to release.

He signaled a plan by which they - and perhaps other detainees yet to be arrested? - could remain in custody forever without charge. There is no precedent in the American legal tradition for this kind of preventive detention. That is not quite right: precedents do exist, among them the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 and the Japanese internment of the 1940s, but they are widely seen as low points in America's history under the Constitution.

President Obama promised that his "new legal regime" - words identical to those Bush Administration official John Yoo used in 2002 –- will provide an array of "fair procedures." That ought to be a given, for the Constitution requires due process before liberty may be deprived. But no amount of procedures can justify deprivations that, because of their very nature violate the Constitution's core guarantee of liberty.

CRASH TALK

David Cay Johnson, Nation - The Cayman Islands are well known to those seeking sun, sand and sea--and for their hospitality to US corporations seeking to escape taxes, launder money and use other discreet financial services. The islands' tax dodgers help multinational corporations move jobs offshore; they also give aid and comfort to terrorists, drug dealers and divorcing spouses trying to hide money. . .

The Caymans are not really a country; they are a law firm posing as one. More than 12,000 "companies" operate out of a single building known as Ugland House, home to the law firm Maples & Calder. . . There is $1.9 trillion in bank deposits in the Caymans--money actually invested in the United States and other countries but invisible to the IRS.

Wall Street Journal - In the 12 months ended March 31, U.S. malls collectively posted a 6.5% decline in tenants' same-store sales, according to Green Street Advisors Inc., a real-estate research firm. . . The industry's woes are worsening. Thinning customer traffic, and subsequent hits to tenants' sales and profits, prompted Standard & Poor's Corp. last month to lower the credit ratings of the department-store sector. That knocked Macy's Inc. and J.C. Penney Co. into junk territory and pushed others deeper into junk. Sears Holdings Corp., a cornerstone tenant at many malls, is expected to close 23 stores this month and next

FCC CLAIMS RIGHT TO SEARCH YOUR HOUSE WITHOUT WARRANT

Wired - If you have a wireless router, a cordless phone, remote car-door opener, baby monitor or cellphone in your house, the FCC claims the right to enter your home without a warrant at any time of the day or night in order to inspect it.

That's the upshot of the rules the agency has followed for years to monitor licensed television and radio stations, and to crack down on pirate radio broadcasters. And the commission maintains the same policy applies to any licensed or unlicensed radio-frequency device.

"Anything using RF energy - we have the right to inspect it to make sure it is not causing interference," says FCC spokesman David Fiske. That includes devices like Wi-Fi routers that use unlicensed spectrum, Fiske says.

The FCC claims it derives its warrantless search power from the Communications Act of 1934, though the constitutionality of the claim has gone untested in the courts. That's largely because the FCC had little to do with average citizens for most of the last 75 years, when home transmitters were largely reserved to ham-radio operators and CB-radio aficionados. But in 2009, nearly every household in the United States has multiple devices that use radio waves and fall under the FCC's purview, making the commission's claimed authority ripe for a court challenge.

"It is a major stretch beyond case law to assert that authority with respect to a private home, which is at the heart of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable search and seizure," says Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyer Lee Tien. "When it is a private home and when you are talking about an over-powered Wi-Fi antenna - the idea they could just go in is honestly quite bizarre."

George Washington University professor Orin Kerr, a constitutional law expert, also questions the legality of the policy.

"The Supreme Court has said that the government can't make warrantless entries into homes for administrative inspections," Kerr said via e-mail, refering to a 1967 Supreme Court ruling that housing inspectors needed warrants to force their way into private residences. The FCC's online FAQ doesn't explain how the agency gets around that ruling, Kerr adds.

The rules came to attention this month when an FCC agent investigating a pirate radio station in Boulder, Colorado, left a copy of a 2005 FCC inspection policy on the door of a residence hosting the unlicensed 100-watt transmitter. "Whether you operate an amateur station or any other radio device, your authorization from the Commission comes with the obligation to allow inspection," the statement says.

The notice spooked those running "Boulder Free Radio," who thought it was just tough talk intended to scare them into shutting down, according to one of the station's leaders, who spoke to Wired.com on condition of anonymity. "This is an intimidation thing," he said. "Most people aren't that dedicated to the cause. I'm not going to let them into my house."

But refusing the FCC admittance can carry a harsh financial penalty. In a 2007 case, a Corpus Christi, Texas, man got a visit from the FCC's direction-finders after rebroadcasting an AM radio station through a CB radio in his home. An FCC agent tracked the signal to his house and asked to see the equipment; Donald Winton refused to let him in, but did turn off the radio. Winton was later fined $7,000 for refusing entry to the officer. The fine was reduced to $225 after he proved he had little income.

Administrative search powers are not rare, at least as directed against businesses - fire-safety, food and workplace-safety regulators generally don't need warrants to enter a business. And despite the broad power, the FCC agents aren't cops, says Fiske. "The only right they have is to inspect the equipment," Fiske says. "If they want to seize, they have to work with the U.S. Attorney's office."

But if inspectors should notice evidence of unrelated criminal behavior - say, a marijuana plant or stolen property - a Supreme Court decision suggests the search can be used against the resident. In the 1987 case New York v. Burger, two police officers performed a warrantless, administrative search of one Joseph Burger's automobile junkyard. When he couldn't produce the proper paperwork, the officers searched the grounds and found stolen vehicles, which they used to prosecute him. The Supreme Court held the search to be legal.

TODAY IN HISTORY

1884 -- US: One-armed baseball pitcher Hugh Daily fans 13 hitters

1856 -- Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina visits the floor of the U.S. Senate and beats Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts unconscious with a gutta-percha cane, as two Georgia senators stand idly by. Sumner is incapacitated for three and a half years.

THE DANGERS OF PRIVATIZING CITY PROGRAMS

John Petro, DMI Blog - Facing budget shortfalls, many cities are considering privatizing valuable pieces of their infrastructure or outsourcing government services to private contractors. These deals are meant to give cities a large infusion of cash or to reduce municipal costs. However, privatization is a bad deal, for city governments, for the public they're meant to serve, and for labor standards.

When we speak of municipal privatization, we're talking about two different things. The first is the leasing of infrastructure to private companies. These types of deals involve the private company paying a large sum up front to the municipal government. In return, the private company is responsible for maintaining that piece of infrastructure, such as a toll road or parking meters, and in return the company collects any revenue. Chicago did this with its parking infrastructure, leasing its parking meters and garages to a private company for a one-time payment of $1.2 billion. In return, the company controls the parking rates and collects the revenue for 75 years.

The other type of municipal privatization involves contracting private companies to perform city services. For example, practically the entire child welfare system in Florida is privatized, meaning that services such as foster care were outsourced to the private sector.

Cities pursue these types of arrangements in order to cut costs. The thinking is that competition drives down the cost of providing these services.

However, the reason that outsourcing these services is often less expensive is because private contractors do not have the same type of labor standards that municipal governments often do. A story in the Miami Herald explains how some South Florida municipalities are privatizing city services.

"Leaders in Weston and Southwest Ranches, who also rely heavily on contractors, extol the benefits. They say because contractors perform tasks as needed, they are cheaper to use than full-time workers. And contractors' benefits are often less generous than those of their counterparts in the public sector, allowing governments to hold down costs."

By privatizing these services municipal governments are pushing down wages and benefits for all workers. As benefits such as health insurance are available to fewer and fewer workers, cities may see the demand for social services increase, possibly erasing any cost reductions that were gained by the privatization.

Another problem with privatization is that the quality of services may suffer. After all, private companies are interested in one thing: profit. These companies have incentives to cut costs by cutting corners. Compounding the problem is a lack of accountability on the part of elected officials. It is all too easy for city officials, when trash goes uncollected or a child in the child welfare system is put in unnecessary danger, to point their fingers at the contractor. This was what happened in Chicago after the city leased out its parking infrastructure. According to the Chicago Tribune, the company
"relied heavily on mall security guards and workers from a temporary job-placement agency -- all with no experience in the parking industry -- to reprogram the city's approximately 36,000 meters and change over the decals that provide drivers with rates and rules."

The result has been "outdated fee and violation-enforcement information still posted on many meters, meters that charged the wrong hourly rates, a surge in broken meters, and stepped-up ticket writing for violations." And elected officials have responded by blaming the private contractor.

The privatization of city infrastructure and city services obscures the fact that governments exist in order to provide public goods. Public goods exist not because of a profit motive, but because providing these services creates a better quality of life for all of those in our society.

PERSONAL TO PBS, FOX & CNN: RALPH PETERS WANTS TO KILL YOU

Ralph Peters is a military blowhard who has appeared frequently on such TV networks as PBS, Fox and CNN. Writing for the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, he offers this thought:

"Future wars may require censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media. Perceiving themselves as superior beings, journalists have positioned themselves as protected-species combatants. But freedom of the press stops when its abuse kills our soldiers and strengthens our enemies. Such a view arouses disdain today, but a media establishment that has forgotten any sense of sober patriotism may find that it has become tomorrow's conventional wisdom."

So in the next war, if Peters has his way, there may be Air Force drone attacks on MSNBC.

SIX WAYS WE'RE EXPANDING THE AF-PAK WAR

Tom Engelhardt, Anti-War - The early moves of the Obama administration, when combined with the momentum of the situation it inherited, have resulted in the expansion of the Af-Pak War in at least six areas, which only presage further expansion in the months to come:

1. Expanding Troop Commitment: In February, President Obama ordered a "surge" of 17,000 extra troops into Afghanistan, increasing U.S. forces there by 50 percent. (Then-commander McKiernan had called for 30,000 new troops.) In March, another 4,000 American military advisers and trainers were promised. . .

2. Expanding CIA Drone War: The CIA is running an escalating secret drone war in the skies over the Pakistani borderlands with Afghanistan, a "targeted" assassination program of the sort that McChrystal specialized in while in Iraq. Since last September, more than three dozen drone attacks -the Los Angeles Times put the number at 55 - have been launched, as opposed to 10 in 2006-2007. . .

3. Expanding Air Force Drone War: The U.S. Air Force now seems to be getting into the act as well. There are conflicting reports about just what it is trying to do, but it has evidently brought its own set of Predator and Reaper drones into play in Pakistani skies, in conjunction, it seems, with a somewhat reluctant Pakistani military. Though the outlines of this program are foggy at best, this nonetheless represents an expansion of the war.

4. Expanding Political Interference: Quite a different kind of escalation is also underway. Washington is evidently attempting to insert yet another figure from the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld era into the Afghan mix. Not so long ago, Zalmay Khalilzad, the neocon former American viceroy in Kabul and then Baghdad, was considering making a run for the Afghan presidency against Hamid Karzai, the leader the Obama administration is desperate to ditch. In March, reports - hotly denied by Holbrooke and others - broke in the British press of a U.S./British plan to "undermine President Karzai of Afghanistan by forcing him to install a powerful chief of staff to run the government." Karzai, so the rumors went, would be reduced to "figurehead" status, while a "chief executive with prime ministerial-style powers" not provided for in the Afghan constitution would essentially take over the running of the weak and corrupt government.

This week, Helene Cooper reported on the front page of the New York Times that Khalilzad would be that man. He "could assume a powerful, unelected position inside the Afghan government under a plan he is discussing with Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, according to senior American and Afghan officials." He would then be "the chief executive officer of Afghanistan.". . .

5. Expanding War in Pakistan: Meanwhile, in Pakistan itself, mayhem has ensued, again in significant part thanks to Washington, whose disastrous Afghan war and escalating drone attacks have helped to destabilize the Pashtun regions of the country. Now, the Pakistani military pushed and threatened by Washington (with the loss of military aid, among other things) - has smashed full force into the districts of Buner and Swat, which had, in recent months, been largely taken over by the Islamic fundamentalist guerrillas we call “the Pakistani Taliban.”. .

With nearly 1.5 million Pakistanis turned into refugees just since the latest offensive began, UN officials are suggesting that this could be the worst refugee crisis since the Rwandan genocide in 1994. Talk about the destabilization of a country. . .

6. Expanding Civilian Death Toll and Blowback: As Taliban attacks in Afghanistan rise and that loose guerrilla force (more like a coalition of various Islamist, tribal, warlord, and criminal groups) spreads into new areas, the American air war in Afghanistan continues to take a heavy toll on Afghan civilians, while manufacturing ever more enemies as well as deep resentment and protest in that country. . .

NEW TWIST IN THE MEDICAL RECORDS SCAM

Washington Post - A health technology trade association has asked the Obama administration to require that any electronic health-record equipment receiving stimulus funding be certified by a group the association helped to start and run, documents show.

The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, which represents 350 technology vendors and 20,000 members, was a key force behind the decision to include $36.5 billion in the stimulus package to create a nationwide network for medical records.
A Washington Post review last week showed that the group, known as HIMSS, worked closely with vendors, health-care researchers and others to create nonprofit advocacy groups and generate research data to convince policymakers that such a system could save tens of billions of dollars, and that the government needed to subsidize Medicare and Medicaid providers to buy the equipment.

The government estimates that adoption of electronic health records will yield perhaps $17 billion in savings over the next decade.

Now the health information group is urging officials at the Department of Health and Human Services to give an organization called the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology, or CCHIT, responsibility for deciding what health records systems are eligible to receive stimulus spending. . .

Critics in the health-care industry have expressed concern that the certification commission is too close to information technology and health-care companies to be the best judge of what equipment doctors and hospitals ought to buy. Although the group is funded through a contract with Health and Human Services, it is run by a former HIMSS executive and one trustee also is the president of the trade group. Several board members work for technology vendors. . .

WHY DRONES DON'T WORK

Greg Grant, DOD Buzz - The foreign policy community's favorite counterinsurgency adviser, or at least their favorite Australian one, David Kilcullen, told lawmakers that the drone strikes targeting Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters in Pakistan are creating enemies at a far faster rate than its killing them. According to statistics he provided, the success rate of the drone bombing campaign is extremely low: just 2 percent of bombs dropped have hit targeted militants. The other 98 percent? Those killed noncombatant Pakistani civilians, he said.

Since the drone strikes began in earnest in 2006, the U.S. has killed 14 mid-level Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders. In the same time frame, the strikes have killed 700 Pakistani civilians, Kilcullen said May 7, speaking before the House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats. The strikes themselves are not particularly unpopular in the tribal areas, the FATA, that border Afghanistan, as many of the people there are weary of the militants operating in their midst. Where the strikes are extremely unpopular, he said, is in the more populated areas of Punjab and Sind, areas where there has been a big jump in militancy since the bombing campaign began. .

The issue of civilian casualties caused by U.S. bombing is not simply a humanitarian matter, but is a major factor influencing the political and ideological battles being waged in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, says CSIS's Anthony Cordesman in an email. "Civilian casualty estimates have effectively become an extension of war by other means," he says. "Tactics that physically defeat elements of the enemy and lose the population lose the war."

AFGHANISTAN AND THE MARCH OF FOLLY

Norman Solomon, Counterpunch - To understand what's up with President Obama as he escalates the war in Afghanistan, there may be no better place to look than a book published 25 years ago. "The March of Folly," by historian Barbara Tuchman, is a chilling assessment of how very smart people in power can do very stupid things -- how a war effort, ordered from on high, goes from tic to repetition compulsion to obsession -- and how we, with undue deference and lethal restraint, pay our respects to the dominant moral torpor to such an extent that mass slaughter becomes normalized in our names.

What happens among policymakers is a "process of self-hypnosis," Tuchman writes. After recounting examples from the Trojan War to the British moves against rebellious American colonists, she devotes the closing chapters of "The March of Folly" to the long arc of the U.S. war in Vietnam. The parallels with the current escalation of the war in Afghanistan are more than uncanny; they speak of deeply rooted patterns. . .

The dynamic that Tuchman describes as operative in the first years of the 1960s, while the Vietnam War gained momentum, is no less relevant today: "For the ruler it is easier, once he has entered a policy box, to stay inside. For the lesser official it is better, for the sake of his position, not to make waves, not to press evidence that the chief will find painful to accept. Psychologists call the process of screening out discordant information 'cognitive dissonance,' an academic disguise for 'Don't confuse me with the facts.'" Along the way, cognitive dissonance "causes alternatives to be 'deselected since even thinking about them entails conflicts.'". . .

During the mid-1960s, while American troops poured into Vietnam, "enormity of the stakes was the new self-hypnosis," Tuchman comments. She quotes the wisdom -- conventional and self-evident -- of New York Times military correspondent Hanson Baldwin, who wrote in 1966 that U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam would bring "political, psychological and military catastrophe," signaling that the United States "had decided to abdicate as a great power."

Many Americans are eager to think of our nation as supremely civilized even in warfare; the conceits of noble self-restraint have been trumpeted by many a president even while the Pentagon's carnage apparatus kept spinning into overdrive. "Limited war is not nicer or kinder or more just than all-out war, as its proponents would have it," Tuchman notes. "It kills with the same finality.". . .

"The American mentality counted on superior might," Tuchman commented, "but a tank cannot disperse wasps." In Vietnam, the independent journalist Michael Herr wrote, the U.S. military's violent capacities were awesome: "Our machine was devastating. And versatile. It could do everything but stop."

THE HAZARDS OF A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR FOR BUSH WAR CRIMES

Former Prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega - There is no doubt that sometime in 2002 - if not before - Bush administration officials and their lawyers began orchestrating a torture campaign, which they calculatedly attempted to justify through specious legal memos. They continued to abuse prisoners, and to conceal that mistreatment from Congress and the public, through at least 2008. In all of this conduct, they have committed grave crimes for which they must be held accountable. I believe this to be a national imperative of the highest order. I have pored over every available book and report about torture, disturbing as they are, and I have read the lurid facts and twisted legal reasoning laid out in the Office of Legal Counsel torture memos just released by the White House. I am increasingly outraged by the day, disgusted by years of inaction, and impatient for results. Consequently, I would like nothing more than to join with so many friends and associates whom I respect in calling for immediate appointment of a special prosecutor.

Unfortunately, however, I can't do it. Not yet. We must have a prosecution eventually, but we are not legally required to publicly initiate it now and we should not, as justifiable as it is. I'm not concerned about political fallout. What's good or bad for either party has no legitimate place in this calculus. My sole consideration is litigation strategy: I want us to succeed. . .

From the perspective of anyone who wants Bush and Cheney and their top aides to be held accountable for their crimes, the designation of some sort of independent prosecutor right now would be the worst possible eventuality. It's a move that has so many downsides - and holds so few real benefits - that I would be more inclined to question President Obama's motives if he appointed a special prosecutor than if he did not. There is a reason why former prosecutor Arlen Specter - a Republican senator from Pennsylvania - has voiced support for a special prosecutor, while former prosecutors Patrick Leahy and Sheldon Whitehouse - Democratic senators from Vermont and Rhode Island, respectively - would prefer a public inquiry.

What is it? Well, for starters, there is - under currently available US law - no such thing as a truly independent prosecutor. There has not been since 1999, when the independent counsel statute expired. Accordingly, regardless of the title given this individual - and whether she were tapped from inside or outside the Justice Department - this appointee would, at a minimum, be required to follow internal DOJ policies and her delegated authority could be revoked at any time. . .

Under existing federal law, in other words, the notion of a special prosecutor who would be entirely free from political and institutional influence is illusory. Given that fact - and that it is ordinarily an extremely dumb, not to mention unethical, idea to announce investigations - when an administration does announce that it is naming a "special counsel" of any sort, it is largely a public-relations maneuver. The president thereby appears to be committed to the rule of law, but is, in fact, parking an extremely inconvenient problem in a remote and inaccessible lot.

Once this happens, all who wish to avoid the issue have a ready excuse. The president can refuse to comment because there is an ongoing criminal investigation. And members of Congress from either party can look the other way, because - again - there is an ongoing criminal investigation. It's a perfect dodge. . .

If a special prosecutor were appointed today, what we would have tomorrow would be the very public initiation of a federal grand jury investigation. But that is all we would have. At the same time, however, we will have likely ensured that there will be no public congressional hearings for years to come. Potential targets or subjects who might previously have felt comfortable enough to speak publicly and further incriminate themselves will clam up. Because of the stringent secrecy rules that govern grand jury proceedings - and prosecutors' justifiable concern about violating them - information that was previously public may be transformed into secret grand jury material. (It sounds crazy, but it's true.) Victims and witnesses will be interviewed behind closed doors. And most will gladly heed the prosecution's suggestion that, while they have no obligation to keep their testimony secret, there are very good reasons to do so. So there will be no public narrative, no official opportunity for victims to describe what was done to them by the US government. . .

What we continue to need, in sum, are unwavering spotlights, even more civic education, and, most importantly, an irrefutable and cohesive factual narrative - comprised of direct and circumstantial evidence - that links the highest-level officials and advisers of the Bush administration, ineluctably, to specific instances and victims of torture. What we will surely have, however, if a special prosecutor is named, will be precisely the opposite:

GREAT MOMENTS IN ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Grist - According to a report in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the president at Washington State University canceled a "common-reading" for all incoming freshman of Michael Pollan's Omnivore's Dilemma due to political pressure budgetary constraints.

"An explanation on the university's Web site is vague and implies the withdrawal of the book was due to budget constraints. But some people on the campus say that the university, which has a prominent agriculture college, bowed to pressure from agribusiness interests. They also question the budget argument, noting that the university has already purchased more than 4,000 copies of the book. . . Many people connected with the common-reading program were evasive; either they did not return calls or insisted that they could not talk about the issue. . .

"In an e-mail message to The Chronicle, Patricia Freitag Ericsson, an assistant professor of rhetoric and professional writing who also sits on the implementation committee, said that in a meeting on May 4, an administrator told panel members that the common-reading program would be canceled, in large part because of political pressure arising from this year's book choice. Members of the committee were upset. She says the committee was also told that potential books for next year's common-reading program would be sent to the provost, who would make the selection."

PRIVATE CONTRACTOR ACCUSED OF NOT PROVIDING ADEQUATE WATER FOR TROOPS

CBS affiliate KHOU-TV in Houston has discovered that some soldiers were forced to ration water, perhaps as little as 2-3 liters per day, because there was never enough. It is less than the one gallon minimum a day that an Army manual says is necessary just to survive in a desert environment. In fact, an Army training document on preventing heat casualties states that water losses in the desert can reach 15 liters (about four gallons) a day per soldier.

Army Staff Sgt. Dustin Robey told KHOU correspondent Jeremy Rogalski that soldiers would throw up or pass out from dehydration.

Chronic dehydration can lead to such problems as kidney stones, urinary infection, rectal afflictions and skin problems, and can have long-term health problems, including kidney injury.

Robey said in 2003 his company would run out of water on missions, forcing them to improvise, like drinking water from whatever taps they found.

Unfortunately, the often-untreated Iraqi water can cause intestinal illnesses. Robey said 50 to 60 members of his company got dysentery.

Desperate, Robey said he and his commander were reduced to stealing water from supplies stored at Baghdad International Airport.

They found plenty, in the hands of civilian contractors who Robey claims were supposed to be distributing it to soldiers.

"You just had pallets upon pallets upon pallets of (bottled) water," Robey said.

According to Private Bryan Hannah, in 2007 his lieutenant said that they didn't have enough water and he was told, "Go find some."

Hannah and his fellow soldiers did just that, finding it once again at a civilian contractor facility.

While many soldiers have said they had adequate access to water, and even Gatorade, KHOU found that the differing experiences seemed to have a great deal to do with when and where a soldier was deployed in Iraq, and their assignment.

In 2008 at Camp Taji, Sgt. Casey J. Porter videotaped the water - yellow and filthy - that came out of pipes in the soldier's showers and bathroom sinks. Yet the camp itself looked more like a mall, fitted with franchises and shops, than a war zone.

"You can eat Subway, Burger King, you can buy a $1,200 Oakley watch, but you can't have clean water to brush your teeth with? What's the real priority here?" Sgt. Porter told KHOU.

The water was supposed to be processed by Houston-based company KBR.

KHOU's Rogalski says that an internal KBR report reveals "massive programmatic issues" with water for personal hygiene at its Iraq facilities dating back to 2005, and outlines how there was no formalized training for anyone involved with water operations.
Former KBR employee and whistleblower Ben Carter told KHOU that he discovered that soldiers' sinks at Camp Ar Ramadi were pouring out untreated wastewater. He described showers as "essentially a sauna of microorganisms. Your eyes, ears, anyplace there's a cut, a person would be at risk of containing a pathogen," Carter said.

Carter says he received a verbal lashing from KBR supervisors when he raised his concerns. . .

KBR told KHOU that a Department of Defense Inspector General's report has concluded "KBR has (since) satisfied applicable water standards," adding that "the DoD has not found any illness which it attributes to water in Iraq."

Staff Sgt. Dustin Robey disagrees. He says he's passed hundreds of kidney stones since returning form Iraq, and because of his condition the Army forced him to retire. His family is now facing foreclosure.

KUCINICH ACCUSES OF CHRYSLER OF LYING ABOUT CLOSINGS

Cleveland Plain Dealer - Congressman Dennis Kucinich says he wants to know why lawmakers were misled when they were told on April 30 that Chrysler's just-announced Chapter 11 bankruptcy would not result in permanent plant closings or job losses.

Congress members including Kucinich, a Cleveland Democrat, and Steve LaTourette, a Bainbridge Township Republican, were surprised to learn the next day that Chrysler in fact planned to permanently close five plants, including the 1,250-worker Twinsburg Stamping Plant.

In a letter today to CEO Robert Nardelli, Kucinich wrote to request "all external communications, including transcripts of conference calls, that conveyed information relating to the future status of Chrysler company plants in Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Ohio between December 2008 and the present."

His letter mentions "a conference call on April 30, 2009" in which "members of Congress were assured that there would be no permanent Chrysler plant closings or job losses under the terms of Chrysler's pending bankruptcy. When the terms of the bankruptcy were released on May 1, 2009, plants in Michigan, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Ohio were targeted for closure.". . .

Chrysler has since apologized, and it and the White House say that the company had privately had the plant closings under consideration months before the bankruptcy announcement. Chrysler has said it did not publicly disclose that fact because it would have been presumptuous, considering that it and the United Autoworkers Union were in negotiations for new contracts that might have played a role. . .

LOCAL HEROES: BIPARTISAN EFFORT TO RESTORE OREGON'S CONTROL OVER NATIONAL GUARD

Paul Fattig Mail Tribune, OR - A bipartisan effort led by a Southern Oregon Republican and a Portland Democrat could give the state more power in governing whether its National Guard is deployed to wars. State Reps. Dennis Richardson, R-Central Point, and Chip Shields, D-Portland, have co-sponsored [legislation] that clarifies that future deployments by the U.S. president of state-organized militia, including the Oregon Guard, must adhere to existing law and the U.S. constitution.

The bill calls on Oregon's governor to ensure the Guard is only used in the presence of a "valid congressional enactment consistent with the Constitution of the United States of America."

"The Constitution gives only Congress the authority to declare war," said Richardson, who served as an Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam.

"If the new president, a constitutional scholar, wants to use Oregon's National Guard, he should only do so pursuant to a valid congressional resolution," he added. "The Oregon National Guard should not be treated like the private army of any U.S. president."

"This is the most important issue of our time: how and when to send our National Guard members into war," Shields said.

The legislation would not affect the Guard's current deployment, which includes 605 citizen-soldiers of the 1st Battalion of the 186th Infantry, headquartered in Ashland. . .

Roughly 60 percent of those deploying already have done a tour in Iraq or Afghanistan after being deployed by the previous administration, according to the National Guard.

Oregon is one of 23 states where efforts are under way to clarify that governors have the authority to inspect federal orders to ensure they are lawful before releasing their state militias to federal service. Of those, a dozen have introduced legislation similar to the one being debated in Oregon. . .

85% OF WORLD'S OYSTER REEFS HAVE DISAPPEARED

Tree Hugger - The first-ever comprehensive review of the state of the world's shellfish has just been released by the Nature Conservancy and the prognosis (as you may expect) really isn't good. . . Globally, about 85% of the world's oyster reefs have vanished and in many areas oyster reefs are functionally extinct.

The report says that the main factors in the decline of oyster reefs are destructive fishing practices, coastal over-development, the effects of upstream activities such as altered river flows, dams, poorly managed agriculture, and poor water quality.

Oyster reefs act as natural water filters and improve water quality, food and habitat for fish, crabs and birds. And perhaps of increasing importance is the fact that they also as natural coastal buffers, helping to protect shorelines and keep coastal wetlands intact, thereby protecting coastal communities against storm surges and sea-level rise.

BREVITAS

LITTLE KNOWN BENEFITS OF GITMO

ABC News - At a news conference on Capitol Hill, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., argued the 240 detainees being held at a U.S. military detention center in Guantanamo Bay are being treated well. "Anyone, any detainee over 55 has an opportunity to have a colonoscopy," Inhofe told reporters, "Now none of them take 'em up on it because once they explain what it is none of them want to do it. but nonetheless its an opportunity that they have."

FREEDOM & JUSTICE

Electronic Freedom Foundation - It's not often that you get former presidential candidates from the Green Party and the Libertarian Party to agree on legislation, but Bob Barr and Ralph Nader have done just that -- jointly supporting the Right-To-Repair Act of 2009. This aptly named bill would allow independent repair shops to compete for the business now guaranteed only to dealer-controlled establishments. This is important because car manufacturers now severely limit the number of repair shops that are allowed to have the tools, diagnostic codes and updated repair information essential to being able to repair late-model cars (which are heavily dependent on computers for performance and repair). By thus unfairly limiting the universe of repair shops able to diagnose and repair late-model cars to only those repair shops that are connected with their dealers, the manufacturers dramatically limit consumer choice and significantly increase the costs to those car owners (by some 34 percent, according to a study preformed for the Automotive After Market Industry Association by Lang Research).

WAR DEPARTMENT

If you can't trust graduates of the Naval Academy, whom can you trust? According to the Washington Times, "Graduating midshipmen of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis are being told in writing to leave at home or in their vehicles all ceremonial swords and anything else "that might be considered a weapon or a threat by screeners" for Friday's outdoor commencement ceremonies featuring an address by President Barack Obama."

MID EAST

Reuters - The U.S. administration of President Barack Obama will not force Israel to state publicly whether it has nuclear weapons, an Israeli official said. He said Washington would stick to a decades-old U.S. policy of "don't ask, don't tell". Obama's bid to curb Iran's nuclear programme through diplomacy has stirred speculation that, as part of a regional disarmament regimen, Israel could be asked to come clean on its own secret capabilities. But a senior Israeli diplomat, speaking after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held his first summit with Obama in Washington this week, said: "This has never happened, nor will it happen with this administration."

STUPID SCHOOL OFFICIAL TRICKS

WPXI - A Linton Middle School teenager has been expelled after a random search turned up an eyebrow shaver in her handbag. Officials at the Penn Hills school recommended at a Wednesday disciplinary hearing that 15-year-old Taylor Ray Jetter be expelled for the rest of this year and 45 days next year.Jetter said she doesn't consider the eyebrow trimmer a weapon. She fears expulsion will hurt her chances of becoming a nurse-anesthetist. She's a Girl Scout and a member of the school's basketball team, choir and leadership team." I don't consider it a weapon. . . A district spokesperson released a statement that said, "We had been asked strongly by the community to have a standard disciplinary policy that addresses all students equally and applies a standard disciplinary code and that is what we have in place."

POLICE BLOTTER

FDL Reporter - Someone donning an ape costume entered Kwik Trip at 1123 W. Johnson St. late Wednesday or early Thursday and took the banana display, said Fond du Lac Police Department Capt. Steve Klein. Two similar attempts, one early Wednesday at the Kwik Trip on North Park Avenue and one Tuesday night at the Johnson Street store, were unsuccessful. "We got a couple of calls last night that he was out and about again," Klein said. "We still haven't corralled the ape man." A witness told police the costumed crook got into an older white vehicle driven by a woman. Another man was in the backseat, Klein said. The witness said the man and woman were white and about 24 years old. Klein said police are not sure what the "ape" is up to. It could be someone pulling a prank or making a video for the Internet. While the crime may seem harmless, police are concerned about what people who witness this may do and about the perpetrator's true intentions.

FURTHERMORE. . .

Smoking Gun - In an opinion peppered with golf references and a quote from "Caddyshack" star Bill Murray, a federal magistrate has recommended the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Rudolph Giuliani's son over his booting from Duke University's varsity golf team. In a lawsuit filed last year, Andrew Giuliani, 23, claimed that the North Carolina school breached a contract when it dropped him from the golf team in early-2008. The school (and coach Orrin Daniel Vincent III) countered by saying that Giuliani was bounced for a variety of boorish acts, including assaulting a teammate, defying coaches, and violating "both the rules and the spirit of the game of golf." In an opinion issued yesterday, Magistrate Judge Wallace W. Dixon sided with Duke in its bid for a judgment against Giuliani.

Zarko Vujovic - I am an engineer, so I admire the way Ikea consistently uses a small set of fastening systems, all suitable for untrained labor. Ikea has even invented this tiny plastic device to protect customers from smashing their fingers with tack hammers. A pinch opens a small crevice in this utensil, and it neatly grips any small nail. Place it against a wall, tap the nailhead, and the nail goes in quite straight. Remove it and you are ready to safely hang a picture. The ergonomics are brilliant, the understanding of process is good, the operative results are excellent, and many innocent fingers go unsmashed. A real triumph of Swedish design. Best of all, this plastic utensil is so cheap that it's as free as hotel matches. In fact, if you venture into Ikea and talk knowledgeably about Ikea things you have built, and then ask for them for fasteners, they will commonly hand them over for free.

Sun, UK - While computer nerds are obviously good at IT, what we didn't realise is that they're good at "it" too. An anonymous study of 2,000 British men and women concluded that out of all jobs, computer geeks make the best lovers. They were found to be the most selfless in the sack, the most adventurous and more likely to use love gadgets. Seventy-eight per cent of techies that were questioned also claimed that sex toys were part of their love life. . . Eighty-two per cent of IT workers also claimed to consider their partners sexual needs above there own, the highest result from all of those asked. . . Those participants who worked in the fitness industry were found to be least likely to use sex toys, with just three in ten using them regularly. And they were also found to be the most selfish lovers too. When asked whether they considered their partner's needs above their own, only 41 per cent said yes, the lowest score of all.

TOP INTERESTING ACRONYMS COMMONLY USED ON THE INTERNET AND IN TEXT MESSAGES.

READER COMMENTS

Excerpts from reader comments

THE NEW MILITARY PERVERSION: REMOTE WARFARE

This is a perfectly natural extension of our remote-control political systems. If we spent as much time and effort ensuring our representatives were as well-trained and prepared to follow our orders as our soldiers are, we wouldn't be embroiled in all these wars in the first place. Instead, we place control of an increasingly capable and competent military in the hands of amateur, inexperienced, self-serving, politicians.

GREAT MOMENTS IN DISCRETIONARY PROSECUTION

I'm thinking the mainstream media must have also comprised a significant portion of Palfrey's customers. Shows how careful you need to be when deciding whom to lie down with . . .

WHY WASHNGTON DOESN'T WORK

I worked for the Feds as a semi-grunt analyst for 32 years and that was enough. For putting up with a lot of BS, I received a decent Civil Service retirement and fairly good Blue Cross health insurance.

However, the first chance I got to leave the DC metro area, I grabbed it. Luckily, I unloaded a town home in Northern VA before the real estate bubble burst.

Now I'm living a quieter life in Delaware and the only things I miss about the DC area are the museums, the zoo, and the restaurants. The last time I was there for Xmas 2008 I broke out into a skin rash probably from freaking out with all that traffic. Needless to say I don't miss the morass. Anyhow, that was a great essay.

GPS SATELLITES COULD START TO FAIL NEXT YEAR

You mean I have to learn how to read a map again?

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