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Sunday, December 28, 2008

Cheney 'Signed Off' on Waterboarding at Gitmo

Author's note: The statements Cheney made this week during an interview with the Washington Times about his role in approving the waterboarding of three Guantanamo detainees and the so-called "enhanced interrogation" of 33 prisoners was, disturbingly, not covered at all by the mainstream media.

Also published at my web magazine, The Public Record.

Vice President Dick Cheney, in another stunning admission during his campaign to burnish the Bush administration’s legacy, said he personally authorized the “enhanced interrogations” of 33 suspected terrorist detainees and approved the waterboarding of three so-called “high-value” prisoners.

“I signed off on it; others did, as well, too,” Cheney said about the waterboarding, a practice of simulated drowning done by strapping a person to a board, covering the face with a cloth and then pouring water over it, a torture technique dating back at least to the Spanish Inquisition. The victim feels as if he is drowning.

Cheney identified the three waterboarded detainees as al-Qaeda figures Abu Zubaydah, Khalid Sheik Mohammed and al Nashiri. “That's it, those three guys,” Cheney said in an interview with the right-wing Washington Times.

Other detainees at secret CIA prisons and at Guantanamo Bay were subjected to harsh treatment, including being stripped naked, forced into painful stress positions, placed in extremes of heat or cold and prevented from sleeping – actions that international human rights organizations, and previously the U.S. government, have denounced as torture and illegal abuse.

“I thought that it was absolutely the right thing to do,” Cheney said of what he called the “enhanced interrogation” of the detainees. “I thought the [administration’s] legal opinions that were rendered [endorsing the harsh treatment] were sound. I think the techniques were reasonable in terms of what they [the CIA interrogators] were asking to be able to do. And I think it produced the desired result.”

Cheney also took issue with the notion that waterboarding was torture.

“Was it torture? I don't believe it was torture,” Cheney said. “The CIA handled itself, I think, very appropriately. They came to us in the administration, talked to me, talked to others in the administration, about what they felt they needed to do in order to obtain the intelligence that we believe these people were in possession of.”

Other experts, including some military and intelligence interrogators, have disputed Cheney’s claims of success in extracting reliable information through waterboarding and other harsh techniques. Much of the confessed information turned out to be dubious or incorrect.

The First Case

Zubaydah was the first “war on terror” detainee to be subjected to the Bush administration’s waterboarding, according to Pentagon and Justice Department documents, news reports and several books written about the Bush administration’s interrogation methods.

However, according to author Ron Suskind who interviewed CIA and other insiders, Abu Zubaydah was not the "high-value detainee" that the Bush administration had claimed. Rather, Zubaydah was a minor player in the al-Qaeda organization, handling travel for associates and their families, Suskind wrote in his book The One Percent Doctrine.

Nevertheless, Suskind said President George W. Bush became obsessed with Zubaydah and the information he might have about pending terrorist plots against the United States.

"Bush was fixated on how to get Zubaydah to tell us the truth," Suskind wrote. Bush questioned one CIA briefer, "Do some of these harsh methods really work?"

Abu Zubaydah's captors soon discovered that their prisoner was mentally ill and knew nothing about terrorist operations or impending plots. That realization was "echoed at the top of CIA and was, of course, briefed to the President and Vice President," Suskind wrote.

But Bush did not want to "lose face" because he had stated Zubaydah’s importance publicly, according to Suskind.

WARONYOU

Friday, July 25, 2008

We Have Only Begun To Fight . . .

Doesn't it just make you just can't wait to see him at the Rally for the Republic in Minneapolis!

Please rate the Utube as well.

AND...

Digg It!

And while you're at it, why not throw some cash over to the good folks at the DVD's for Delegates project who made this great video.

Thanks

Monday, July 14, 2008

Victory in Iowa!!! One delegate's story.

I thought I would brag a little about one of the alternate delegates to the RNC who won her spot the hard way, my wife.

For months now my wife has been calling delegates from our district. We designed, printed, and sent out two mailers (have you ever stuffed, sealed, addressed, and stamped 1600 envelopes?). She was actually getting some pretty good feedback and we both thought she had a chance.

Being amateurs, I guess we did not understand GOP politics in Iowa.

Oregon Delegates Update!

Just wanted everyone to know that in Oregon we elected 3 delegates and 4 alternates to the national convention (out of 27). We were to have 4 of each, but the GOP put out a competing slate and one of their "Ron Paul" delegates got through. Fortunately, we did get the other three.

Congratulations Oregonians for Ron Paul!

For Liberty!

Feds Trying to Prevent Bank Run After Indy Mac Collapse

Bush tells Israel to go ahead and bomb Iran? Gives "Amber Light"

Amber means get on with your preparations, stand by for immediate attack and tell us when youre ready, the official said.

Ron Pauls entire speech at the R3volution March in DC on July 12th

Part 1 http://www.youtube.com/wa... Ron Paul
Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/wa... Ron Paul
Part 3 http://www.youtube.com/wa... Ron Paul
Part 4 http://www.youtube.com/wa... Aimee allen
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12

The rest will be posted over the next 12 hours....

Please enjoy...and pass around to all those who enjoy RON PAUL.....

Saturday, July 12, 2008

MP3 | Ron Paul vs. Secretary Treasurer Paulson

July 10, 2008 -
Ron Paul House Finance Committee questions Secretary Treasurer Paulson (8 min)
www.ronpaulaudio.com
July 09, 2008 - Ron Paul House Floor On Blockade/Iranian Missile Tests (6 min)
July 09, 2008 - Ron Paul Foreign Affairs Committee Iran Policy Hearing and Q&A (11 min)

Thursday, May 22, 2008

The Ron Paul Reagan and Goldwater Platform Video

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Ron Paul on Cavuto

http://www.youtube.com/wa...

Monday, May 5, 2008

The Coming Recession

In the June issue of Reason, Rep. Ron Paul and six othercommentators discuss the (sorry) state of the economy. Read it here http://reason.com/news/show/126021.html

As this issue of reason goes to press, the dollar is at a record low against the euro, oil is more than $100 a barrel, consumer prices are up 4 percent from a year ago, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is cutting interest rates so often that the guys at the office have taken to calling him Edward Scissorhands. The subprime mortgage fallout has yet to finish wreaking its havoc, Bear Stearns is holding on by the skin of its teeth, and the government’s bucket may not be big enough for all the bailouts under way. Gloomy faces dominate CNBC and the Fox Business Channel, muttering long-forgotten terms like inflation and recession.

President George W. Bush, by contrast, is relatively cheery, conceding that we are in “challenging times” but arguing that “our financial institutions are strong” and the capital markets “functioning efficiently and effectively.” “In the long run,” Bush said in a March 17 White House address, “our economy is going to be fine.” And some statistics back up the sunny view: Unemployment is still at a low 5.1 percent, and productivity remains high.

Read More...

Saturday, April 26, 2008

WHO REALLY RUNS AMERICA? -CRIMINAL CORPORATE ELITE

Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winning financial expert who predicted two years ago the crash of the American economy due to the THREE TRILLION DOLLAR WAR, is interviewed by Alex Jones. He reveals many secrets about the global economy.

Read More...

[Source: War On You

Big surprise from politico.com: Ron Paul is Down But Not Out

Two candidates not named John McCain got a combined 219,913 votes in the Pennsylvania Republican primary Tuesday, and one of them is still in the race...

http://www.politico.com/n...

Judicial Watch Calls on FEC to Investigate McCain Presidential Fundraising

Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that it filed a formal complaint, dated April 22, 2008, with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) related to a fundraising luncheon held at Londons Spencer House to benefit Senator John McCains presidential campaign. The venue for the event was apparently [...]

Read More...

[Source: War On You -

Thursday, April 24, 2008

The NWO Script

The FED (banksters) didn't create this entire boom/bust cycle by accident, they scripted the entire thing years earlier and planned for its aftermath.

You think it's just a coincidence that they pushed through a change in the bankruptcy laws at the very peak of the housing/credit bubble - while simultaneously building new forced labor (debtors) prison camps across the country?
http://en.wikipedia.org/w...

[Source: Ron Paul for President 2008 - Ron Paul Revolution - Ron Paul Wins! -

This is the BillBoard We're putting up in Watertown and Brookings South Dakota!!!

WE have this board going up in Yankton, Sioux Falls, Sturgis, Aberdeen, and now Watertown, and Brookings!
http://files.meetup.com/6...

We are very close to having a billboard up in every major city in South Dakota.

Then Every $650 buys a new BillBoard for a month in another strategic decent sized town.
http://sdronpaul.chipin.c...
We need a BillBoard in Pierre (The CApital)

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Supreme Court says police may search even if arrest invalid

The Supreme Court affirmed Wednesday that police have the power to conduct searches and seize evidence, even when done during an arrest that turns out to have violated state law.The unanimous decision comes in a case from Portsmouth, Va., where city detectives seized crack cocaine from a motorist after arresting him for a traffic ticket [...]

Read More...

[Source: War On You

??954,512+ TRULY AMAZING RESULTS IN PENNSYLVANIA! MOST VOTES IN ONE STATE, BEST PRIMARY, RESULTS DOUBLE THE NEXT BEST!!!??

954,512 and counting!

With the addition of 127,000 new votes in Pennsylvania today, the number of raw votes for Ron Paul comes to over 954,000!!!

Pennsylvania has been Ron's most successful primary!!! He got 16% of the vote AND the most votes in one state here!!!!!! Plus, his percentage of the vote was DOUBLE that of his 2nd best primaries where he received 8%. CONGRATULATIONS PENNSYLVANIA!

(Data counted from CNN)

Primaries: 911,876 votes

Caucuses: 42,636 delegates/votes

Hillary Hates Freedom

Maybe that’s a bit strong. Let’s just say, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton operates with reckless disregard for individual freedom and the limited government that protects and sustains it.

In her latest salvo, she dismisses the great promises of the Declaration of Independence, the founding principles of the United States, as rhetorical flourishes, mere garnishes on the real stuff of life. “We can talk all we want about freedom and opportunity, about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but what does all that mean to a mother or father who can’t take a sick child to the doctor?” she asked.

In her senatorial activities and her presidential campaign, Clinton has tended to propose modest, moderate programs. Even her new health care proposal is being hailed as more modest than her 1993 plan (though it would in fact impose a new government mandate on every person in the United States). But at her core, Hillary Clinton rejects the fundamental values of liberalism, values like individual autonomy, individual rights, pluralism, choice, and yes, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. She seems to see no area of life that should be free from the heavy hand of government. And to her the world of free people seems a vast nothingness. When a few Republicans proposed to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts, which spends about $125 million of the $63 billion spent on arts in the United States, she declaimed that such a move “not only threatens irrevocable damage to our cultural institutions but also to our sense of ourselves and what we stand for as a people.”

After her first attempt at nationalizing and bureaucratizing American health care, she told the New York Times that her next project would be “redefining who we are as human beings in the post-modern age.” I’d say 300 million Americans can do that for themselves.

Her hostility to freedom is not just a left-wing attitude. In the Senate, she’s been adding the paternalistic agenda of the religious right to her old-fashioned liberal paternalism. Clinton has called for federal legislation to prohibit the sale of “inappropriate” video games to children and teens. She’s introduced a bill to study the impact of media on children, a likely prelude to restrictions on television content, and she touts the V-Chip regulation that President Bill Clinton signed. She supports federal legislation to outlaw flag desecration (though not a constitutional amendment).

In her book It Takes a Village, she insisted that 300 million free people could somehow come to “a consensus of values and a common vision of what we can do today, individually and collectively, to build strong families and communities.” She told Newsweek, “There is no such thing as other people’s children,” a claim that ought to frighten any parent. She promised to inflict on free citizens government videos running constantly in every gathering place, telling people “how to burp an infant, what to do when soap gets in his eyes, how to make a baby with an earache comfortable”—all the things that no one knew how to do until the federal government came along.

Hillary Clinton is no socialist. But when she makes her rejection of liberal values as explicit as she did on Monday – dismissing “freedom and opportunity [and] life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as irrelevant to people’s real lives–she is far too reminiscent of some of the most authoritarian figures of the 20th century. Lenin, for instance, wrote, “Bourgeois democracy is democracy of pompous phrases, solemn words, exuberant promises and the high-sounding slogans of freedom and equality.”

And maybe it’s no surprise that Clinton cosponsored her videogame ban with Sen. Rick Santorum, who is also an articulate and determined opponent of individualism. In his book It Takes a Family and in various media appearances, he denounced “this whole idea of personal autonomy.” At least once he rejected “the pursuit of happiness” explicitly, saying, “This is the mantra of the left: I have a right to do what I want to do” and “We have a whole culture that is focused on immediate gratification and the pursuit of happiness . . . and it is harming America.” Not the mantra of the Hillary Clinton left, obviously.

We know that societies that reject bourgeois freedom – the freedom of individualism, civil society, the rule of law, and yes, you guessed it, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness – in favor of collectivism and economic goods end up with neither freedom nor prosperity. The United States has the most advanced medical care in the world — The rate of death from heart disease in the U.S. was cut in half between 1980 and 2000, for instance – because we have a mostly free and capitalist economy. Mandates and regulations make medical care more costly than it needs to be, and Hillary Clinton now proposes to pile on yet more mandates and regulations. But the really scary prospect of another Clinton presidency is not what she would do to our medical care but what she would do to the “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” that is the foundation of our free society.