Administration Set to Use New Spy Program in U.S. 12 Apr 2008 
 
Resent-Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 00:13:37 -0500 (CDT)


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

http://www.legitgov.org/#breaking_news Administration Set to Use
New Spy Program in U.S. --DHS has not stated what federal laws
govern new National Applications Office, whose funding and size are
classified. 12 Apr 2008 The Bush regime said yesterday that it plans
to start using the nation's most advanced spy technology for domestic
purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the
idea's legal authority.

The administration in May 2007 gave DHS authority to coordinate
requests for satellite imagery, radar, electronic-signal information,
chemical detection and other monitoring capabilities that have been
used for decades within U.S.

borders for mapping and disaster response. But Congress delayed
launch of the new office last October. Critics cited its potential
to expand the role of military assets in domestic law enforcement,
to turn new or as-yet-undeveloped technologies against Americans
without adequate public debate, and to divert the existing civilian
and scientific focus of some satellite work to security uses.

Iran Top Threat to Iraq, U.S. Says --Focus on 'Al-Qaeda' Now
Diminishing 12 Apr 2008 Last week's violence in Basra and Baghdad
has convinced the Bush regime that actions by Iran, and not al-Qaeda
[al-CIAduh], are the primary threat inside Iraq, and has sparked a
broad reassessment of policy in the region, according to senior
U.S. officials. The intensified focus on Iran coincides with
diminished emphasis on al-Qaeda in Iraq as the leading justification
for an ongoing U.S. military presence in Iraq.

Report: Several killed in Iran bomb blast --At least 8 killed, 50
injured in mosque blast, state media reports 12 Apr 2008 At least
8 people were killed and 50 injured when a bomb exploded in a mosque
in southern Iran on Saturday, the semi-official Fars news agency
reported. "The death toll is expected to rise above eight because
some of the injured people are in critical condition," Fars said,
without giving a source. [Blackwater is a busy little bee!]

Deadly blast hits mosque in Iran 12 Apr 2008 Several people have
been killed and dozens injured in a bomb blast at a mosque in
southern Iran today, according to reports. State media initially
reported scores had been killed in Shiraz, about 550 miles south
of the capital Tehran, but later revised the total to several.

John McCain 'would confront Russia and China' 12 Apr 2008 A John
McCain presidency would take to a more forceful approach to Russia
and China, according to senior foreign policy advisers to the
Republican candidate. The Arizona senator has already signalled
that he intends to confront Russian president Vladimir Putin more
directly than George W Bush if he 'wins' the White House in November.

Chevron, Total seek oil deal in Iraq 12 Apr 2008 Oil giants Chevron
Corp. and Total have confirmed that they are in discussions with
the Iraqi Oil Ministry to increase production in an important oil
field in southern Iraq. The discussions are aimed at finalizing a
two-year deal, or technical support agreement, to boost production
at the West Qurna Stage 1 oil field near Iraq's second-largest city
of Basra.

Senior al-Sadr Aide Assassinated in Iraq 12 Apr 2008 A senior aide
to anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr was assassinated in the
holy city of Najaf on Friday, raising fears that the incident could
worsen clashes between Sadr's followers and government troops. The
killing of Shiite cleric Riyadh al-Nouri prompted Iraqi officials
to declare a curfew in Najaf and send thousands of security personnel
into the streets to 'maintain order.'

Roadside bombing caps bloodiest week this year for US troops in
Iraq --19 US troops killed in Iraq since Sunday. 12 Apr 2008 The
death of an American soldier in Baghdad has made it the bloodiest
week for U.S. troops in Iraq this year. The U.S. military says the
American soldier was killed by a roadside bomb this morning in
northwestern Baghdad. The death raises the number of American troops
killed in Iraq since last Sunday to at least 19.

Suicide car bomb kills three policemen in west Iraq 11 Apr 2008 A
suicide bomber killed three Iraqi policemen as he slammed his
explosives-filled car into a police checkpoint near the western
city of Ramadi on Friday, the local police chief said. Major General
Tareq al-Youssef, police chief of Ramadi, said five policemen were
also wounded in the attack which struck north of the city in Anbar
province at around 5:00 pm (1400 GMT).

US soldier killed by roadside bomb in Baghdad, military says 11 Apr
2008 The U.S. military says an American soldier has been killed in
a roadside bombing in Baghdad. A statement says Saturday's attack
that killed the Multi-National Division -- Baghdad soldier occurred
about 10:30 a.m. in northwestern Baghdad.

13 killed as fighting rages in Baghdad 12 Apr 2008 US and Iraqi
forces killed 13 people in firefights and airstrikes overnight in
eastern Baghdad where security forces have been battling Shiite
militiamen for a week, the military said Saturday.

'I don't believe anyone could get an acquittal in Guantanamo Bay.'
Guantanamo trial process unjust: defense attorney 11 Apr 2008 The
lawyer of a Guantanamo prisoner captured by US forces when he was
15 said Friday that the trial process at the US prison was inherently
unjust and probably no detainee could be acquitted in a trial.
Attorney William Kuebler, a Navy lieutenant commander, railed against
the tactics of government prosecutors and the military commissions
for withholding secret evidence not available to the defense, and
for their access to virtually unlimited resources as well as to
documents pertaining to his clients' cases.

Friendly fire may have killed soldier: Khadr lawyer 11 Apr 2008 The
military defence lawyer for Omar Khadr says newly-released information
suggests that the U.S. soldier the imprisoned Canadian is accused
of killing with a grenade, may have been a friendly-fire victim.
Lt. Cmdr William Kuebler told CTV Newsnet that during the discovery
process of Khadr's legal proceedings, the U.S. government released
interviews from American soldiers who said they were lobbing grenades
into the compound where army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer was
killed in July 2002.

'It's not beyond the realm of possibility that Sgt. Speer was killed
by friendly fire.' Guantanamo lawyer questions how U.S. soldier
died 11 Apr 2008 A grenade that killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan
in July 2002 could have been thrown by American forces rather than
a young Canadian charged in a Guantanamo war crimes court with
murder, a military defense lawyer said on Friday. Prosecutors charge
that the Canadian captive, 21-year-old Omar Khadr, threw the grenade
that fatally wounded Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Speer during
a firefight at a suspected al Qaeda compound in Afghanistan. Khadr
was 15 at the time. Khadr's lawyer, Navy Lt. Cmdr. William Kuebler,
said at a hearing on Friday that U.S. troops he questioned in
preparation for trial had told him they threw grenades into the
compound while other U.S. soldiers were inside.

Double suicide attack kills two Indians in Afghanistan: governor
11 Apr 2008 A double suicide attack targeted a convoy of Indian
roadworkers on Saturday in southwestern Afghanistan, killing two
engineers and injuring several people, a local governor said. The
bombers struck simultaneously and authorities said a third suspected
attacker was captured with an explosive-filled jacket.

Defective military equipment 'is a breach of human rights' 12 Apr
2008 The Government suffered a landmark legal defeat yesterday when
a High Court judge ruled that sending soldiers to war with defective
equipment could be a breach of their human rights. Mr Justice Collins
dismissed the Ministry of Defence argument that it was "impossible"
to extend the tenets of the Human Rights Act to troops on active
duty.

U.S. Army Set to Recruit Ugandan Citizens 07 Apr 2008 Ugandans who
want a career in the United States military, can sign up at the
annual convention of the Uganda North American Association, organisers
say. American military recruiters will set up a booth at this year's
UNAA convention in Orlando, Florida, and seek out professional
Ugandans, said Lt. Frank Musisi, himself an officer in the US Army.

U.S. Air Force Drones Wash Ashore On Ala. Beaches --Portion of Beach
Closed After Discovery 11 Apr 2008 Several unmanned military drones
with U.S. Air Force markings washed ashore in Alabama and forced
the closure of a portion of at least one beach. Two men found the
first 20-foot-long drone on the shore near Fort Morgan. An official
said the drone was a target that was apparently shot down in the
Gulf of Mexico as part of a weapons system evaluation program, WKRG
reported.

Jury deadlocked in Sears Tower terrorism case 11 Apr 2008 A federal
jury considering charges against six South Florida men accused of
plotting to blow up the Chicago Sears Tower and the Miami FBI
headquarters reported Friday it has been unable to reach verdicts
for any of the defendants. U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard instructed
the jury to continue trying to reach agreement.

However, news that the panel is at an impasse after 10 days of
deliberations raises the possibility that the high profile case
could be poised for a second mistrial.

Accidents at Disease Lab Acknowledged --Lab uses private security
company 11 Apr 2008 The only U.S. facility allowed to research the
highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease experienced several accidents
with the feared virus, the Bush administration acknowledged Friday.
A 1978 release of the virus into cattle holding pens on Plum Island,
N.Y.; the Homeland Security Department told a House committee there
were other accidents inside the government's laboratory. Two
Democratic lawmakers from New York, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and
Rep. Timothy Bishop, expressed concerns in letters they wrote last
year about the Homeland Security Department's ability to protect
the existing lab at Plum Island, which relies for security on a
private security company and local police rather than federal agents.

New anti-terror weapon: Hand-held lie detector 09 Apr 2008 U.S.
troops in Afghanistan first to get new device; 'red' means you're
lying 09 Apr 2008 The Pentagon will issue hand-held lie detectors
this month to U.S. Army soldiers in Afghanistan. The Defense
Department says the portable device screen local police officers,
interpreters and allied forces for access to U.S. military bases,
and help narrow the list of suspects after a roadside bombing. The
device has already been tried in Iraq and is expected to be deployed
there as well.

Met Police officers to be 'microchipped' by top brass in Big Brother
style tracking scheme 10 Apr 2008 Every single Metropolitan police
officer will be 'microchipped' so top brass can monitor their
movements on a Big Brother style tracking scheme, it can be revealed
today. According to respected industry magazine Police Review, the
plan - which affects all 31,000 serving officers in the Met, including
Sir Ian Blair - is set to replace the unreliable Airwave radio
system currently used to help monitor officer's movements.

Oakland cops: Mind if we search your house for guns? [Uh, yeah, we
do.] 09 Apr 2008 A six-month pilot program where Oakland police
officers would knock on doors and ask permission to search homes
for guns got the green light from the City Council's public safety
committee Tuesday night. It goes to the full council Tuesday, when
the council will meet. The consent-to-search program, as it is
called, is based closely on a similar effort launched in St. Louis
in 1994 and on ongoing programs in Boston and Washington, D.C.

Court rules against landowner on border fence 11 Apr 2008 A U.S.
District Court judge has ordered a Texas woman to let the government
survey her land for a border security fence, the latest round in a
series of skirmishes to arise from the 'immigration-control' measure.

Dems fault Bush on executive privilege 11 Apr 2008 President [sic]
Bush's refusal to let two confidants provide information to Congress
about fired federal prosecutors represents the most expansive view
of executive privilege since Watergate, the House Judiciary Committee
told a federal judge Thursday.

Lawyers for the Democratic-led panel argued in court documents that
Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, and former White House counsel
Harriet Miers are not protected from subpoenas last year that sought
information about the dismissals.

U.S. Presidential Election Can Be Hacked 10 Apr 2008 This year, the
U.S. GOP will pick a new president using electronic voting machines
that can be hacked, security experts said Thursday at the RSA
Conference in San Francisco. As the November election approaches,
the question before officials is not how to fix known bugs in their
e-voting systems, but rather, how best to check them for fraud,
said David Wagner, an associate professor with the University of
California, Berkeley's computer science department. [Right, we're
getting stuck with Insane McCain and four more years of Blackwater.
The discord between Clinton and Obama is a GOP-owned media weapon
of mass distraction for the third coup d'etat.]

Bush Raises $3.5 Million For Republican Party 11 Apr 2008 President
[sic] Bush held court at a barbeque at the Broken Spoke Ranch in
Crawford, Texas, today, raising $3.5 million for his party, the
Associated Press reports. 500 GOP donors showed up for the festivities,
as well as a number of the president's relatives, among them his
parents and brother Jeb.

Obama Says He Used Wrong Words to Describe Small-Town America 12
Apr 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he
used the wrong words earlier this week to describe the plight of
rural, impoverished Americans, remarks that rivals Hillary Clinton
and Insane McCain assailed as condescending.

Barack Obama campaign launches Hebrew blog in Israel 04 Apr 2008
Barack Obama has launched a Hebrew blog in Israel, which an aide
Eric Lynn says Obama hopes will help strengthen his ties with the
Israeli public. The blog that opened Friday includes Obama's speech
to a pro-Israel lobby in March.

Schwarzenegger: No to marriage amendment 12 Apr 2008 Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger said Friday that he would fight an initiative to
amend the California Constitution to ban same-sex marriage if it
qualifies for the November ballot.

Global crisis grows as food prices soar --What's considered largely
an irritation in the U.S. threatens social upheaval in dozens of
poor nations unable to cope. 12 Apr 2008 Worldwide, food prices
have soared 45 percent over the past year as surging oil prices
make growing and transporting food more expensive and as economic
growth in emerging giants such as China and India corpora-terrorists'
greed leads to rising demand for food, according to the United
Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization.

EU president to get jet... So Tony might finally get his 'Blair
Force One' 11 Apr 2008 The proposed full-time EU president is to
be given a lavish private jet and his own palatial official residence,
it emerged today. The new leader will also be able to appoint a
"cabinet" of 22 advisers, under expensive new plans being considered
in Brussels.

Thousands of lost Terminal 5 bags 'will be burnt if owners cannot
be traced' 12 Apr 2008 Thousands of bags that went missing during
the chaotic opening of Terminal 5 will be burned if their owners
cannot be traced, it has been claimed. The luggage belongs to
customers of British Airways, which has repeatedly denied the
allegation. Yet an executive in Milan, where the 5,000 bags are
being sorted, admitted that incineration was an option.

Oil hunt could include blasting in Calif. national monument 11 Apr
2008 A subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum seeking to explore for
oil and gas under one of the country's newest national monuments
has outlined plans for its search that are likely to disturb the
kangaroo rat, an endangered species whose prime habitat is precisely
where the operations would take place.

Fishery Council Bans Commercial Salmon Fishing In OR, CA 10 Apr
2008 West Coast fisheries managers have voted to cancel all commercial
salmon fishing off the California and Oregon coasts this year.
Scientists and government officials are expecting this year's West
Coast salmon season to be one of the worst in history.

'When you are taking 80 percent losses you are talking about these
critters being decimated.' Connecticut Bats Are Dying From Mysterious
Ailment 03 Apr 2008 Alarm spread among wildlife biologists this
week when white nose syndrome (WNS) was found in a second bat
population in Connecticut. The state Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP) first announced the presence in Connecticut of
bats affected with WNS last Friday and the second location was
discovered Tuesday.

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[Previous lead stories:] Top Bush aides oversaw torture sessions
11 Apr 2008 According to an ABC report, top Bush aides, including
Condi Rice, micromanaged the torture of terrorist suspects from the
White House basement. Discussions on torture were so detailed, that
some interrogation sessions were virtually choreographed by a White
House advisory group, The torture advisory group included then-national
security adviser Condoleezza Rice, then-defense secretary Donald
Rumsfeld, then-secretary of state Colin Powell, then-CIA director
George Tenet and then-attorney general John Ashcroft and Vice
President [sic] Dick Cheney ABC's sources said.

Guantanamo defendant calls trial a 'sham' 10 Apr 2008 A Saudi
prisoner Wednesday denounced the war crimes case against him as a
politically motivated "sham" and had himself removed from the
courtroom in symbolic protest. Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza Al-Darbi,
whose brother-in-law was among the Sept. 11 hijackers [What
hijackers?], informed the military judge hearing his terrorism
conspiracy case that he wanted neither legal representation nor to
be present at his trial. [See: At Least 7 of the 9/11 Hijackers are
Still Alive.]

Al-Maliki Against Proposal to Delay U.S. Troop Withdrawals 10 Apr
2008 Even though there has been no respite to violence in Iraq in
recent months, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki disagreed with General
David Petraeus' proposal to delay further U.S. troop withdrawals,
citing the growing capabilities of Iraq's own security forces.
Petraeus, the top commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, wants the U.S.
to leave about 140,000 troops in the country... and a 45-day
evaluation period to be followed by an indefinite period of assessment
before any further pullouts. Al-Maliki, however, reportedly told
President [sic] Bush that he disagrees with that suggestion. CNN
quoted a senior Iraqi government adviser as saying that al-Maliki
told Bush that American forecast can be drawn down, as there doesn't
need to be such a big number in a support role. Al-Maliki reportedly
made the comments in a 20-minute telephone conversation with Bush
on Wednesday.

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Citizens For Legitimate Government . All rights reserved. CLG Founder
and Chair is Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D.