--- Begin Message ---
___DEMOCRATS.COM____The Aggressive Progressives__________________
Democrats.com is the largest independent community of Democrats.
We publish the only Democratic daily news service - and it's free!
Our members make it possible through generous contributions.
Please help by clicking below!
http://democrats.com/donate
___.COMPOSITION______In This Issue_______________________________
Way to Go! Student Protests Force Cancellation of Assembly for Chief InJustice
Rehnquist at his Alma Mater
Democrats are Waking Up to Ashcroft's Cover-up of the Stolen Election
Democrats.com Expose' about Pentagon Airplane Crash Exercise Makes the Papers - in
England
Bush & Co. Sued in Federal Court for 911 Negligence
Bush Ignored Warning from Osama to His Mom
Fortune Magazine Summarizes the Phoenix Memo
Minneapolis FBI Office Tried Desperately to Prevent 911 - But DC Bureaucrats Stopped
Them Cold
FBI Warned the CIA Twice About Moussaoui
French Intelligence Told the FBI in August that Al-Qaeda Trained Moussaoui -- but the
Bush-Ashcroft Axis of Incompetence Did Nothing
Brits Warned US of Al Qaeda Hijackings Starting in 1999 - Right up to August 2001
NY Post Reports FAA Withheld 911 Warning
Bush Missed 911 Warnings Because He Has ADD!
House Republicans Spit on the Graves of Gay 911 Victims
Incompetence and Right-Wing Ideology Blinded Ashcroft & Rumsfeld to Terrorism
Ashcroft Knew - His Sweeping Anti-Terror Measures Are a Fig Leaf to Cover His Naked
Incompetence
Cheney's Winning Formula -- Secrecy Plus Fear Equals A Pliant Public
GOP Caught in Outrageous Dirty Tricks in Michigan
Texas Governor's 15-Year-Old Daughter is Supporting the Family
Rev. Sun Myung Moon Throws a 20th Anniversary Party of his Washington Times, Complete
with an Hour-Long Messianic Rant
__Way to Go! Student Protests Force Cancellation of Assembly for Chief InJustice
Rehnquist at his Alma Mater
AP writes, "An assembly to honor Chief Justice William Rehnquist at his high school
alma mater was canceled Friday because of a student protest. 'We did not feel it would
be appropriate to invite him to receive an honor and then embarrass him here... We did
not want to subject him to that sort of treatment,' Shorewood High School principal
Rick Monroe said. Congratulations to the outstanding high school students who stood up
for Democracy and the Rule of Law!
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/Politics/ap20020524_1164.html
__Democrats are Waking Up to Ashcroft's Cover-up of the Stolen Election
On the "morning after" the Justice Dept announced vague plans to maybe someday sue 3
Florida counties for election 2000 voter disenfranchisement, Democrats woke up feeling
used. According to Salon, "Florida Democratic Party spokesman Ryan Banfill warned that
the lawsuits may be little more than 'window dressing to provide some political cover
for the president and his brother,' Jeb, who is running for reelection as Florida
governor this year... 'I saw yesterday they mentioned voter purges. Well, that means
they should be looking at [Secretary of State] Katherine Harris. But the fact that her
office is not part of this suit makes us think this may not go as far as it should. If
they're talking about voter purges, they should be talking about a lot more than three
counties,' Banfill said." EXACTLY - and they should be talking about CRIMINAL
PROSECUTION of Jeb, Katherine, and Clay Roberts.
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2002/05/23/florida_suits/index.html
__Democrats.com Expose' about Pentagon Airplane Crash Exercise Makes the Papers - in
England
The Mirror of London reports, "Military chiefs were so convinced terrorists could fly
a plane into the Pentagon that they planned for an attack. Almost 11 months before the
September 11 suicide mission killed 189 people at America's defence headquarters, they
carried out a detailed emergency exercise. US authorities have consistently claimed
they had no idea al-Qaeda was thinking of crashing planes into buildings. President
[sic] Bush insists no one ever had considered such a devastating attack. But a report
reveals that between October 24 and 26 2000, military planners held an exercise to
prepare for 'incidents including a passenger plane crashing into the Pentagon.'" So
far, Democrats.com is the only US publication to report this expose. When will the US
media expose this Bush lie - and all of the others???
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=11897568&method=full&siteid=50143
__Bush & Co. Sued in Federal Court for 911 Negligence
"A San Francisco lawyer filed an ambitious federal lawsuit today on behalf of all
American citizens against President [sic] Bush and six other officials for alleged
dereliction of duty in failing to stop the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Stanley G.
Hilton, a solo practitioner, filed the would-be class action lawsuit in U.S. District
Court in San Francisco. The suit claims that Bush, VP Dick Cheney, Attorney General
John Ashcroft, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others failed to carry out their
constitutional duties to act on intelligence information that allegedly showed the
threat of terrorist hijackings. The lawsuit is based on two claims: violation of
citizens' constitutional rights and negligence in the discharge of the officials'
duties. Other defendants are National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, FBI Director
Robert Mueller and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. The suit asks for an
injunction against the officials and $7 billion in damages" reports Bayinsider.com.
http://www.bayinsider.com/news/2002/05/23/23_911_lawsuit.html
__Bush Ignored Warning from Osama to His Mom
On 10-2-01, Reuters reported that "Bin Laden contacted his adoptive mother, Al Kalifa
bin Laden, on Sept. 9, telling her: 'In two days you're going to hear big news, and
you're not going to hear from me for a while,' NBC's Web site reported, citing
undisclosed sources." Those sources were undoubtedly the National Security Agency,
which intercepts all electronic communications around the world. Who saw this warning
on September 9? Did it get to W, Dick, Condi, Rummy, Mueller, and the rest of Team
Bush? We demand a Blue Ribbon Commission!
http://www.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=7495
__Fortune Magazine Summarizes the Phoenix Memo
Fortune's Richard Behar writes, "I had a chance to read the memo - apparently the
first journalist to have done so... What I learned... is chilling. The memo raises
questions about what federal law enforcement officers knew and what they did or didn't
do to protect the U.S. from terror attacks in the months before 911. After reviewing
the memo, one cannot help but conclude that the FBI dropped the ball - perhaps
ignoring the alert altogether... Williams warns in his July 10 memo of a possible
'effort by Usama bin Laden to send students to the U.S. to attend civil aviation
universities and colleges.' He also refers to a 'fatwa by Al-Muhjiroun, spiritual
leader Sheikh Omar Bakri Mohammed Fostok.'... The Williams memo included the names of
several Middle Eastern students, one identified as a 'Saudi national,' who were
apparently students at Embry-Riddle at the time... The memo should be released
immediately, names blacked-out if necessary, so we can all learn what Agent Williams
knew."
http://www.fortune.com/articles/phoenix_memo.html
__Minneapolis FBI Office Tried Desperately to Prevent 911 - But DC Bureaucrats Stopped
Them Cold
"An FBI agent has accused Washington headquarters of mounting a 'roadblock' to the
pre-Sept. 11 investigation of terrorism defendant Zacarias Moussaoui. The rare letter
immediately prompted an internal investigation. Agent Coleen Rowley, a lawyer in the
Minnesota office that arrested Moussaoui last August, divulged in her letter that
local agents became so frustrated with FBI headquarters that they sought to break
their chain of command and notify the CIA. The local agents were reprimanded for
trying, she alleged... FBI HQ personnel chastised the Minneapolis agents for making
the direct notification without their approval,'' she wrote in the 13-page letter,
excerpts of which were obtained by Associated Press… Rowley sent her letter Tuesday to
FBI Director Robert Mueller and members of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
divulging internal discord within the FBI that is rarely aired in public. Mueller
referred the matter for investigation by the Justice Department inspector general."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uslatest/story/0,1282,-1757642,00.html
__FBI Warned the CIA Twice About Moussaoui
It has been widely reported that FBI Agents in Minnesota attempted to contact the CIA
after FBI headquarters blocked their efforts to investigate suspected 20th hijacker
Zacarias Moussaoui. What has not been widely mentioned, is the fact that Minnesota
agents were indeed successful in tipping off the CIA pre-911! In mid-August, the FBI
conveyed to the CIA their concerns that Moussaoui might be a terrorist, and the CIA
checked its own files but found nothing on him. The CIA also made a routine request
from foreign governments that yielded intelligence from France that Moussaoui was a
known Islamic extremist. The second contact came in late August when FBI agents in
Minnesota told CIA officers they were seeking a warrant on Moussaoui. Are we supposed
to believe that neither agency warned the Bush administration? Impeach Bush NOW!
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAYJ7EAM1D.html
__French Intelligence Told the FBI in August that Al-Qaeda Trained Moussaoui -- but
the Bush-Ashcroft Axis of Incompetence Did Nothing
Salon swings the big timber! Damien Cave writes of the two French authors, who say
"that the FBI bungled more than the Phoenix memo. In 'Bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth,"
[Brisard and Dasquie] alleged that the Clinton and Bush administrations went easy on
al-Qaida before Sept. 11 to maintain good relations with Saudi Arabia and to continue
to bargain with the Taliban over a Central Asian oil pipeline. They also assert that
then negotiations broke off after the U.S. threatened to attack the Taliban unless it
agreed to U.S. demands, perhaps precipitating the 9/11 attacks. [The U.S. edition will
come] out in July, with an explosive new chapter... In it, Brisard asserts that French
intelligence officials warned their U.S. counterparts in considerable detail about
al-Qaida's ties to Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged 20th hijacker, but the U.S. failed
to act on the information." Impeach Bush NOW!!!
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/05/23/warning/index.html
__Brits Warned US of Al Qaeda Hijackings Starting in 1999 - Right up to August 2001
The Sunday Herald reports, "In August 1999, British and American airlines went on red
alert after intelligence warnings that bin Laden supporters were planning a
Lockerbie-style bomb attack in the West. At the time, US forces [under President
Clinton] were reported to be preparing to snatch bin Laden from Taliban-controlled
Afghanistan and put him on trial for his involvement in two US embassy explosions in
Africa which killed 250 people." This warning "was based on 1998 intelligence data
drawn from a single British source." British intelligence continued to warn the US
about Al Qaeda hijackings - "the British warning of al-Qaeda plans to hijack US
airliners was contained in a crucial briefing sent to Bush on August 6... After the
September 11 attacks, it emerged the UK was the nerve centre for al-Qaeda operations
in the west."
http://www.sundayherald.com/24822
__NY Post Reports FAA Withheld 911 Warning
"The Federal Aviation Administration admitted yesterday it had decided not to order a
security alert at the nation's airports despite being warned a week before Sept. 11
that the man now accused as the '20th hijacker' was in custody. FAA spokesman Scott
Brenner confirmed that the FBI tipped off his agency on Sept. 4 that Zacarias
Moussaoui, who was arrested Aug. 17 after a Minnesota flight school reported he was
behaving suspiciously, was being investigated as a likely terrorist who had a special
interest in flying Boeing 747 jetliners. But Brenner said there was no reason to think
he was part of a larger conspiracy, and the FAA decided not to issue a security alert
to the airports." Who was in charge at the FAA? Let's put him/her under oath and get
the whole story, not just the leaks.
http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/48435.htm
__Bush Missed 911 Warnings Because He Has ADD!
"Under President Bill Clinton, the President's Daily Brief (PDB) ran around 12 pages
and often included detailed analyses as well as new information that Clinton generally
read before the briefing... Under Bush, the PDB has become shorter, a seven-to-10-page
document containing 'more targeted hard intelligence' items, with few longer than a
page... It is written with the understanding that the president is a 'multi-modality
learner' who processes information better through questions and answers while reading
along." In other words, Bush's Attention Deficit Disorder makes him incapable of
reading and understanding the most important document produced by our intelligence
agencies each day. No wonder he spent 911 reading children's stories! Why did the
media cover up his ADD during the 2000 campaign - and why does the cover-up continue?
Impeach Bush Now!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2130-2002May23.html
__House Republicans Spit on the Graves of Gay 911 Victims
The NY Post reports, "House Republicans yesterday yanked a bill providing death
benefits to survivors of firefighter chaplain Mychal Judge and nine other Sept. 11
heroes after critics raised objections... If the bill had passed, any beneficiaries
named by the 10 victims in their wills or life insurance policies, including siblings
and gay or straight domestic partners, would have been eligible to collect the federal
money. The measure was named after Judge, who was gay. The other nine Sept. 11 workers
who would be affected were not identified. The bill had been passed unanimously by the
Senate and was endorsed by a variety of organized labor and public-safety groups. It
cleared the House Judiciary Committee, but just hours before it was slated for a floor
vote, House Majority Leader Dick Armey pulled it." What contemptible politicization of
911 - we are outraged!!!
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/48630.htm
__Incompetence and Right-Wing Ideology Blinded Ashcroft & Rumsfeld to Terrorism
Joe Conason writes, "No official of cabinet rank made counterterrorism a top
priority... Ashcroft was preoccupied with "traditional" law enforcement against drug
abusers and pornographers. He allegedly turned down a request from the F.B.I. to hire
"hundreds" of additional counterintelligence agents... Rumsfeld was obsessed with the
construction of a "national missile defense" whose irrelevance was proved on that
tragic day last September. (The nukes we now rightly fear are not expected to arrive
on an antique rocket from North Korea.) Mr. Rumsfeld also reportedly killed a request
to shift $800 million from the missile-defense budget to counterterrorism—and ordered
the grounding of the innovative Predator drone sent up by "the Clintonites" to track
and possibly kill Osama bin Laden. In fact, it was two [Clinton] officials -
counterterror chief Richard Clarke and C.I.A. director George Tenet - who tried to
direct the government’s attention to the looming threat from Al Qaeda."
http://www.observer.com/pages/conason.asp
__Ashcroft Knew - His Sweeping Anti-Terror Measures Are a Fig Leaf to Cover His Naked
Incompetence
Bruce Shapiro writes in Salon, "Why won't the questions go away? Why does the
Watergate question -- 'What did the president know and when did he know it' --
resonate with such persistence?... Who knew? Ashcroft knew. Each time the attorney
general went to Congress, insisting that only broader domestic spying and detention
laws could make the country safer, he knew the truth: that in the weeks before Sept.
11, the White House and FBI, already well-equipped with intelligence and investigative
tools, dropped the ball. But for months after the attacks Ashcroft helped cover up the
government's embarrassing lapses while aggressively pursuing a dubious domestic
security agenda which courts are only now beginning to question. If the performance of
Ashcroft's agencies before Sept. 11 has shaken public confidence in our national
security apparatus, the attorney general's actions since then have done more to damage
the rule of law than to protect us from further terrorism."
http://www.salon.com/politics/feature/2002/05/23/nationalsecurity/index.html
__Cheney's Winning Formula -- Secrecy Plus Fear Equals A Pliant Public
Jill Rachel Jacobs writes, "We can say this much about the White House: they certainly
know how to respond to a real threat when the danger is assessing their job
performance... Cheney resurfaces from his underground bunker to voice strong
opposition to anything the public might want to know about the way the White House
conducts business... The Bush crew obviously loves secrecy more than credibility. This
is an administration that seems to relish doing business behind closed doors... If the
Veep has his way, the White House would never have to respond to a critic through the
end of W.'s second term... Perhaps these latest threats are new and legitimate. Maybe
it's just a coincidence that they've surfaced at a time when the administration is
feeling some political heat. It's my guess that Americans will be on alert for a long
time, at least for another six years."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5683
__GOP Caught in Outrageous Dirty Tricks in Michigan
Eric "Visger, 18, of Cedar Creek Township [Michigan], claims he was tricked into
filing as a Democratic candidate for the 34th District State Senate seat by a group of
Republicans he did not know. He said they contacted him by telephone, then met him in
Muskegon County and convinced him to fill out forms to run for the office. Visger, who
has volunteered for local Republican campaigns, said he was led to believe he would be
running as a Republican. He said the people took his forms and filed them in Lansing
on his behalf. He said he was stunned when he later opened a newspaper and found his
name listed as a Democratic candidate." Visger's papers were forged by Republican
staffers Michael Severino (a notary) and someone named "Pete" - both PUBLIC
employees. It's time for some lawyers to file a RICO suit against the Republican
organized crime family!
http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/xml/story.ssf/html_standard.xsl?/base/news/1022166904195440.xml
__Texas Governor's 15-Year-Old Daughter is Supporting the Family
Here is another wonderful example of Republican Family Values. Texas Gov. Rick Perry
(known to all loyal Molly Ivins fans as "Goodhair") obtained a special "hardship"
driver's license for his 15-year-old daughter. That means Ms. Perry is either in
vocational school - a fact not mentioned in the article - or she is supporting her
family, despite her dad's $115,345 annual salary. Is that because Enron's bankruptcy
left Gov. Perry without a source of bribes? Or does Gov. Perry have some very
expensive "habits" that his conservative supporters might not find as appealing as his
hair?
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/05/21/governors.daughter/index.html
__Rev. Sun Myung Moon Throws a 20th Anniversary Party of his Washington Times,
Complete with an Hour-Long Messianic Rant
Joke time! "What do you call a gathering of 3,000 people, a self-aggrandizing lecture
by Dr. Laura Schlessinger and an hour-long sermon from the Rev. Sun Myung Moon? The
Washington Times 20th-anniversary bash." (Washington Post) "What do Dr. Laura, the
Washington Times, Enron, the Republican Party, and George Bush have in common? They've
have all been keep artificially alive by regular huge infusions of corporate cash!"
(Dems.com) "What does the Washington Times call a speech entitled 'The Life of Jesus
as Seen From God's Will, and God's Warning to the Present Age, the Period of the Last
Days'? A nonreligious editorial stance." (Unknown News). Biggest joke of the year:
"The Washington Times" self-description as a "successful, unbiased" newspaper when it
has only survived through billions in "religious aid."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54247-2002May22.html
Copyright (c) 2002 Democrats.com and/or its suppliers. All rights
reserved.
Democrats.com is a member-supported online community. If you appreciate the news,
commentary, activist alerts, cartoons, discussions and other features we offer, please
show your support by making contribution at http://democrats.com/donate. Help keep
our community growing, expanding and fighting back at every opportunity!
To subscribe, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To switch to the weekly edition, unsubscribe from this list and send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To switch to the occasional activist alerts, unsubscribe from this list and send an
email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
--- End Message ---
