[prez_usa_exile] White House told to provide e-mail info 09 Jan 2008
 
Resent-Date: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 01:35:59 -0600 (CST)

Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens For Legitimate Government
09 Jan 2008 http://www.legitgov.org/ All items are here:

http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news Clinton edges Obama in N.H.
primary 08 Jan 2008 Armies of women voters who came out in force
to support Hillary Rodham Clinton stopped the predicted tidal wave
for Barack Obama cold in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday - a
stunning upset that defied the polls and made her the Democratic
"comeback kid" of the 2008 presidential race.

Clinton, McCain score stunning wins in New Hampshire --Clinton edges
out Obama in down-to-wire race, McCain stages comeback 08 Jan 2008
Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain scored dramatic
victories in Tuesday's New Hampshire primaries, besting rivals in
hard-fought races that shook up the campaign for the presidential
nominations.

White House told to provide e-mail info 08 Jan 2008 A federal
magistrate ordered the White House on Tuesday to reveal whether
copies of possibly millions of missing e-mails are stored on computer
backup tapes. The order by U.S. Magistrate Judge John Facciola comes
amid an effort by the White House to scuttle two lawsuits that could
force the Executive Office of the President to recover any e-mail
that has disappeared from computer servers where electronic documents
are automatically archived. Two federal laws require the White House
to preserve all records including e-mail.

Report reveals 1964 Gulf of Tonkin attack 'never happened' --NSA
report reveals Vietnam War hoaxes, faked attacks 07 Jan 2008 North
Vietnamese made hoax calls to get the US military to bomb its own
units during the Vietnam War, according to declassified information
that also confirmed US officials faked an incident to escalate the
war. Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American
Scientists (FAS) project on government secrecy, told AFP that
probably the "most historically significant feature" of the
declassified NSA report was the retelling of the 1964 Gulf of Tonkin
incident.

That was a reported North Vietnamese attack on American destroyers
that helped lead to president Lyndon Johnson's sharp escalation of
American forces in Vietnam. The author of the report "demonstrates
that not only is it not true, as (then US) secretary of defense
Robert McNamara told Congress, that the evidence of an attack was
'unimpeachable,' but that to the contrary, a review of the classified
signals intelligence proves that 'no attack happened that night,'"
FAS said in a statement. [Wait till the documents on 9/11 are someday
revealed, and the world wakes up to the fact that the terrorist
attacks were an inside job, six ways from Sunday.]

Speaking of the non-existent Gulf of Tonkin incident: Bush Castigates
Iran, Calling Naval Confrontation 'Provocative Act' 09 Jan 2008
President [sic] Bush chastised Iran on Tuesday for committing a
"provocative act" by confronting United States Navy warships in the
Persian Gulf [Iran's waters] over the weekend. The Pentagon released
video showing Iranian speedboats maneuvering around the American
convoy. [Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat
it. --George Santayana]

Bush to press allies on Iran during Mideast trip 08 Jan 2008 President
George W. Bush said on Saturday he would use part of a weeklong
Middle East trip next week to press allies to help keep Iran's
"aggressive ambitions" in check.

[What about Bush's 'aggressive ambitions?']

Ex-Marine: Civilians died unnecessarily in Afghanistan shooting 08
Jan 2008 A former Marine Corps intelligence sergeant testified
Tuesday that up to 19 Afghan civilians died unnecessarily as his
special operations unit responded to a car bomb attack on its convoy.
"I really felt there were a lot of people who died who didn't need
to," Nathanial Travers said. "They were just driving their cars."

Pentagon Won't Probe KBR Rape Charges 08 Jan 2008 The Defense
Department's top watchdog has declined to investigate allegations
that an American woman working under an Army contract in Iraq was
raped by her co-workers. The case of former Halliburton/KBR employee
Jamie Leigh Jones gained national attention last month. An ABC News
investigation revealed how an earlier investigation into Jones'
alleged gang-rape in 2005 had not resulted in any prosecution, and
that neither Jones nor Democratic and Republican lawmakers have
been able to get answers from the Bush administration on the state
of her case.

U.S. marine corps forms panel to probe killing of Afghans 08 Jan
2008 Ten months after the killing of 19 Afghan civilians by a U.S.
marine corps company, the marine corps set up a special panel Monday
to investigate the incident war crime. The panel's job is to find
out in the next two weeks whether Maj. Fred C. Galvin, commander
of the 120-person unit, and platoon leader Capt. Vincent J. Noble,
obstructed the law during the U.S. military's investigation of the
case.

(Mis)Handling of Interrogation Recordings Leads to a Defense Request
in Padilla Case 08 Jan 2008 Citing disclosures that the federal
government had concealed, and in some cases destroyed, videotaped
interrogations torture of Al Qaeda operatives, a defense lawyer in
the case of Jose Padilla, who was 'convicted' as a terrorism
conspirator, asked a federal judge on Monday to disclose any
recordings that might bear on Mr. Padillas recruitment into the
terrorist organization. The judge rejected the request, saying she
had reviewed relevant material and concluded that the government
had handed over all the required evidence.

U.S. wants life in prison for 3 in terrorism case 08 Jan 2008 U.S.
former "enemy combatant" Jose Padilla and two other men 'convicted'
last year of conspiring to aid terrorists abroad returned to a Miami
court on Tuesday for a hearing to decide whether they will spend
the rest of their lives behind bars.

Padilla never was charged in any bomb plot. He was implicated by
two suspected 'al Qaeda' operatives now held without charge at the
U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. One claimed he falsely
implicated Padilla under torture at a Moroccan prison. The CIA
destroyed interrogation videotapes of the other, Abu Zubaydah, whom
news reports said was subjected to a form of simulated drowning
known as "waterboarding" and widely condemned as torture. Padilla's
lawyers have asked the judge to order the government to turn over
any remaining evidence from those interrogations in hopes of
overturning his conviction.

US, Iraq Launch 'Anti'-Extremist Operation 08 Jan 2008 The U.S.
military launched a countrywide offensive Tuesday against al-Qaida
[al-CIAduh] in Iraq's efforts to regroup and intensify suicide
strikes on civilians who have sided with the Americans against the
terror group.

Iraqi Awakening Council members kidnapped, killed 08 Jan 2008
'Insurgents' have kidnapped eight Awakening Council members and
killed 14 other people in Baghdad attacks, said an Iraqi Interior
Ministry official on Tuesday.

US diplomats critical of Bush Iraq policy-survey 08 Jan 2008 Nearly
half of U.S. diplomats who do not want to serve in Iraq say a key
reason is because they do not support the Bush administration's
policies there, according to a union survey released on Tuesday.

Diplomats Give Rice Low Marks 08 Jan 2008 Only 18 percent of the
U.S. Foreign Service think Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is
doing a good job protecting their profession, according to a recent
survey conducted by the service's union. Forty-four percent rated
her performance "poor" or "very poor," the same percentage of
respondents who said that "developments of the last few years" had
made it less likely they would complete their careers in the Foreign
Service.

Bhutto's Son Asks for U.N.-Backed Investigation of Assassination
08 Jan 2008 The son of slain Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto
on Tuesday called for a U.N.-backed investigation of his mother's
death, saying that Pakistani authorities failed to provide her with
adequate security and he did not trust them to solve her murder.

New Hampshire Turnout 'Absolutely Huge' 08 Jan 2008 ABC News' Karen
Travers Reports: New Hampshire Deputy Secretary of State Dave Scanlan
told ABC News that turnout among primary voters today is "absolutely
huge" -- and there are concerns about running out of ballots in
towns like Portsmouth, Keene, Hudson and Pelham. According to
Scanlan, the ballot strain seems to be on Democratic ballots, which
suggests that the undeclared voters are breaking for the Democratic
primary. New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner predicted
that 90,000 undeclared voters would vote in the Democratic primary
compared to 60,000 voting in the Republican primary.

Chamber of Commerce vows to punish anti-business candidates --The
group indicates it will spend in excess of the approximately $60
million it put out in the last presidential cycle coup. 08 Jan 2008
Alarmed at the increasingly populist tone of the 2008 political
campaign, the president of the U.S.

Chamber of Commerce is set to issue a fiery promise to spend millions
of dollars to defeat candidates deemed to be anti-business. "We
plan to build a grass-roots business organization so strong that
when it bites you in the butt, you bleed," chamber President Tom
Donohue said.

Oil $200 Options Rise 10-Fold in Bet on Higher Crude 07 Jan 2008
The fastest-growing bet in the oil market these days is that the
price of crude will double to $200 a barrel by the end of the year.
Options to buy oil for $200 on the New York Mercantile Exchange
rose 10-fold in the past two months to 5,533 contracts, a record
increase for any similar period.

Drivers face $3.50 gasoline this spring 08 Jan 2008 U.S. consumers
will pay record prices for gasoline this spring, with national
monthly pump costs peaking near $3.50 per gallon when the busy
driving season begins, the government's top energy forecasting
agency said Tuesday. [See: Exxon Mobil is world's most profitable
company --Royal Dutch Shell is second; BP is fourth 03 Jan 2008.]

Nikkei falls to 18-month low on U.S. fears, yen rise 08 Jan 2008
Japanese stocks fell 1.3 percent to an 18-month low on Wednesday
as pessimism about the health of the U.S. economy increased and the
yen rose, hitting exporters such as Toyota Motor Co.

Nearly 5% of poultry in Vietnam bear bird flu viruses 09 Jan 2008
Nearly five percent of 15,000 samples from healthy poultry in
different cities and provinces in Vietnam have been tested positive
to bird flu viruses, local newspaper People reported Wednesday.

Groups cite oil leases in U.S. delay on rating polar bear's status
08 Jan 2008 Environmental groups fear that political meddling and
a rush to sell oil leases in Arctic waters are behind the Bush
administration's announcement Monday that it will miss a legal
deadline to determine whether to list the polar bear under the
Endangered Species Act. Climate scientists predict that floating
polar ice will disappear by midcentury, leaving the bear without
food and habitat.

WWF Disappointed by U.S. Delay in Listing Polar Bears 07 Jan 2008
World Wildlife Fund (WWF) expressed disappointment over the
announcement by the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on January 7 that it will delay
by up to one month a final decision on whether to list the polar
bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Experts believe
that two-thirds of polar bear populations could be lost by 2050.
The scientific evidence is clear that polar bears are threatened
by climate change-induced loss of sea ice.

New! No Offshore Drilling in Polar Bear Habitat (Defenders of
Wildlife Action Fund) 08 Jan 2008 Sign our petition to urge Interior
Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to delay the planned February 6th sale
of oil and gas drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea until the impact
on the area's polar bears can be adequately determined.

Polar bear mother a danger to her cub 08 Jan 2008 A polar bear cub
has been removed from its mother's care out of fear that it might
be in danger of being eaten. The Nuremberg zoo, Germany, has announced
that it would be bottle-feeding the newborn, who has yet to be
named, after another bear in its compound apparently ate her two
cubs.

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[Previous lead stories:] Bagram detention centre now twice the size
of Guantanamo 08 Jan 2008 The United States has quietly expanded
the number of "enemy combatants" being held in judicial limbo at
its Bagram military base in Afghanistan, a facility which has now
grown to more than twice the size of the controversial and much
more widely discussed military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Bagram has received just a fraction of the world attention paid to
Guantanamo, but the two facilities have prompted very similar
complaints about prisoners held incommunicado for weeks or months,
the lack of recourse to any system of legal redress, and persistent
reports of prisoner mistreatment that many human rights campaigners
have characterised as torture.

"His blood rose and he asked the occupying soldiers to stop beating
the woman," they said in the statement. "Their answer through the
translator was:

'We will do what we want.' So he opened fire on them." Killer of
U.S. Soldiers Becomes a Hero By Ali al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail 07
Jan 2008 On Dec. 26, an Iraqi soldier opened fire on U.S. soldiers
accompanying him during a joint military patrol in the northern
Iraqi city Mosul. He killed the U.S. captain and another sergeant,
and wounded three others, including an Iraqi interpreter. Conflicting
versions of the killing have arisen. Col. Hazim al-Juboory, uncle
of the attacker Kaissar Saady al-Juboory, told IPS that his nephew
at first watched the U.S. soldiers beat up an Iraqi woman. When he
asked them to stop, they refused, so he opened fire.

US almost opened fire on Iranian boats, Pentagon says 08 Jan 2008
The US and Iran have engaged in their most serious military
confrontation in recent times, with American warships on the verge
of opening fire on gunboats of the Revolutionary Guards which had
threatened to blow them up.

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CLG Newsletter editor: Lori Price, Manager. Copyright ) 2008,
Citizens For Legitimate Government . All rights reserved. CLG Founder
and Chair is Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D.