Undoing Karl: "Rove's Prosecutors" Must Go, Governor Siegelman Demands

Press Release
23 September 2009 16:01

The Fight is Not Over, Not for Me, Not for Karl Rove
by Governor Don Siegelman

Will you help me in my fight against Karl Rove? This fight is not over; not for me, not for Karl Rove!

Many of the people who did Rove's dirty work are still U. S. Attorneys. Only a handful of the Bush appointees have been replaced: At last count, just five of 93! That means Rove's clones are still calling the shots! They are a cancer on our system of justice and must be removed before our democracy can be healed.

George W. Bush fired Bill Clinton's U.S. Attorneys the day after he took office. But eight months after President Obama took office, my prosecution is still being led by the same Rove/Bush prosecutor, who is married to one of Rove's closest political allies who ran my opponent's campaign while his wife, the U S Attorney, indicted me during my campaign for re-election!

Quite an effective campaign weapon Mr. Rove!

Every day Rove's attack dogs remain in power is another day our nation fails to move past the crimes perpetrated under the Bush Administration.

That's why, I launched a new campaign,wwwFireRovesProsecutors.com, dedicated to calling on the White house to remove those Rove-vetted U.S. Attorneys who are still poisoning the Department of Justice.

My case is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. For the first time in history First Amendment Law Professors and former state Attorneys General, 91 of them, both Democrats and Republicans have filed briefs saying in essence that I should not have been prosecuted! If you are interested in the important First Amendment issue at stake here, (click this link to read the briefs)

This fight is about more then my personal freedom...it's about making sure this kind of abuse does not happen to anyone one else. To get this corrected, Rove must be held accountable and his prosecutors must be replaced...now!

This fight is not over; not for me, not for Karl Rove, and not for our democracy.
Please donate….. we desperately need financial help to continue in this battle.

Because my legal fight is in the here and now, and is so expensive, I am asking that you please send a contribution to my Legal Defense Fund : Donate

Or mail your contribution to me at:
3963 River View Drive
Birmingham, Al 35243

Please send your message to the President by going to:wwwFireRovesProsecutors.com.

Thank you so much for all you've done to get us this far!
Sincerely,

Don Siegelman
Governor of Alabama 1999-2003

http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/4765-undoing-karl-qroves-prosecutorsq-must-go-governor-siegelman-demands.html

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Judge’s Ruling Confirms Innocent Gitmo Detainee Tortured To Make False Confessions

By Andy Worthington
The Public Record
Sep 30th, 2009

In four years of researching and writing about Guantánamo, I have become used to uncovering shocking information. But for sheer cynicism, I am struggling to think of anything that compares to the revelations contained in the unclassified ruling in the habeas corpus petition of Fouad al-Rabiah, a Kuwaiti prisoner whose release was ordered last week by U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.

In the ruling, to put it bluntly, it was revealed that the US government tortured an innocent man to extract false confessions and then threatened him until he obligingly repeated those lies as though they were the truth. ...

Continued: http://pubrecord.org/torture/5645/judges-ruling-confirms-innocent-gitmo/

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Federal Appeals Court Upholds Mandatory Anthrax Vaccinations for Military

Also see: "PROJECT ANTHRAX & THE COVER-UP"

Ximena Marinero
Jurist
September 30, 2009

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday upheld [opinion, PDF] a mandatory anthrax vaccination program [official website] for some members of the military. The appeals court affirmed a February 2008 district court ruling that dismissed [opinion, PDF; JURIST report] a lawsuit brought by members of the US Department of Defense (DOD) [official website] seeking to make an anthrax vaccine optional rather than mandatory. The lawsuit challenged the determination of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that there was sufficient evidence of the vaccine's effectiveness since it had been based on a single study conducted in the 1950s with an earlier generation of the anthrax vaccine. The appeals court deferred to the FDA's determination, finding that it was:

a scientific judgment within its "area of expertise," the kind of judgment to which this court gives a "high level of deference." Moreover, as the plaintiffs themselves concede, there is no scientific evidence in the administrative record to contradict that judgment. In the absence of such evidence, we must defer to the FDA's judgment that [the anthrax vaccine] is effective.

The appeals court also ruled that the plaintiffs in the suit lacked standing to claim that they have suffered damages due to an allegedly unapproved DOD schedule of inoculations caused by a shortage in the vaccine from 2000 to 2002.

In 2005, the same appeals court ruled in favor of the government, which had asked the court to reinstate [JURIST report] the program. The ruling came after a federal district court ruled [JURIST report] that the DOD could administer anthrax vaccinations only on a voluntary basis. In October 2004, the district court had ordered the DOD to suspend its mandatory vaccination program [JURIST report] because the vaccine had not received proper approval by the FDA. The anthrax was labeled for use by individuals who were at high risk for exposure to the disease, but the Bush administration argued that that definition was broad enough to include military personnel.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2009/09/federal-appeals-court-upholds-mandatory.php

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SCAM: "Bioterrorism awareness tops former Sen. Jim Talent’s agenda"

" ... Talent’s primary paying job is as a consultant with the public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard [The linked page details Fleishman-Hilliard's place in the 9/11 covert operation]. He is a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation, with a specialty in military readiness. He also sits on an advisory panel for the chief of naval operations. ... "

Associated Press
Sep. 13, 2009

ST. LOUIS | Former U.S. Sen. Jim Talent, who has kept active politically since losing his re-election race in 2006, is helping lead a panel that says the country could face another terrorist attack by the end of 2013 — possibly involving a biological agent.

The Republican from Missouri, who was defeated by Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, is working in particular on issues such as national security and military preparedness, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported last week.

He supports legislation introduced last week to better prepare for a terrorist attack, an issue he has worked on extensively. He also is vice chairman of the Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism, which grew out of the 9/11 Commission.

The panel said in December that unless the world acts with great urgency, “it is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world before the end of 2013.” The commission said the weapon most likely to be used would be a virus, a bacterium or a disease-causing toxin.

Talent and the commission’s Democratic chairman, former Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, recently joined Sen. Joseph Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, to show support for Lieberman’s proposed bill to prepare for a possible biological attack.

Talent supports the new bill to mandate security standards at American labs that house the world’s most dangerous germs. The proposed legislation also requires a strategy to dispense medicine to combat a biological attack, including using the Postal Service to distribute medicine if necessary.

The bill calls for providing new medical kits to emergency responders.

Talent says families might also want to keep certain medications on hand.

“I think a big part of preparation is for Americans to better understand the threat and take steps to prepare,” he said.

Talent’s primary paying job is as a consultant with the public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard. He is a distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation, with a specialty in military readiness. He also sits on an advisory panel for the chief of naval operations.

http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics/story/1443662.html

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NY Governor Responds to Concerns of Health Workers Over Swine Flu Vaccine

Eileen Buckley (2009-10-01)
www.publicbroadcasting.net/

BUFFALO, NY (WBFO) - State health care workers are outraged over a regulation requiring them to get a swine flu shot or risk losing their jobs. While in Buffalo Wednesday, Governor David Paterson said he would be willing to meet with those workers to discuss the matter.
Some health care workers across the state say the new swine flu vaccine has not been fully tested. They staged a protest in Albany earlier this week. The health care workers believe the new rule requiring the shots would make them guinea pigs.

Paterson says he is not totally informed on the health care workers position. But he believes the workers concerned the regulation would take away their freedoms are worried over potential side effects. He's willing to open talks with them.

Paterson says he doesn't have enough information on the new vaccine's side effects and would like to learn more.

Under the state regulation, health care workers must receive the swine flu shot by November 30 or they will be fired. © Copyright 2009, WBFO

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wbfo/news.newsmain/article/0/0/1560945/WBFO.News/Governor.Responds.to.Concerns.of.Health.Workers.Over.Swine.Flu.Vaccine

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NY Judge: CIA can Keep 9/11 Videotape Info Secret

By LARRY NEUMEISTER (AP)

NEW YORK — A judge cited national security concerns in ruling Wednesday that the CIA does not have to release hundreds of documents related to the destruction of videotapes of Sept. 11 detainee interrogations that used harsh methods.

U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein said he believed he had an obligation to let the CIA director decide what should be released when it pertains to methods used to make uncooperative detainees divulge information.

"The need to keep confidential just how the CIA and other government agencies obtained their information is manifest, and that has to do with the identities of the people who gave information and who were questioned to obtain information," the judge said from the bench.

He ruled after reviewing in private 65 of roughly 580 documents sought by the American Civil Liberties Union, including 53 field reports to CIA headquarters about interrogations.

An ACLU lawsuit already has forced the release of legal memos authorizing harsh methods, including waterboarding, a type of simulated drowning, and slamming suspects into walls, techniques described by critics as torture.

The judge said he expects to order the release of six pages of written notes from a CIA field officer who spoke about the interrogation videotapes with a CIA lawyer, but he gave the government two weeks to submit new arguments opposing the release.

He said it was only important that he decide whether the issue before him was a fit subject for intelligence gathering, not whether it was legal.

"If so, my job is to defer to the extent appropriate — and that is substantial — to the decision of the director of the CIA," he said.

CIA Director Leon Panetta had told the judge in court papers that releasing documents about the agency's terror interrogations would gravely damage national security.

The judge said he believes he would have used the same rationale to rule against public disclosure of the videotapes documenting new harsh questioning techniques if the CIA had not destroyed them in 2005. A criminal investigation into why the videotapes were destroyed continues.

The judge, who presides over thousands of lawsuits filed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, said he reached his conclusions in the CIA case after more "agony of decision-making" than any other area he has ruled upon. He said he studied earlier judicial rulings and concluded "there has been a reluctance on the part of the courts to interfere with the discretion conferred by the mandate of the statutes on the CIA."

The judge, though, said that the CIA has to obey laws, and he cautioned: "We have to square what we do in the gathering of intelligence with who we are as a people."

ACLU lawyer Alex Abdo, who argued in the Freedom of Information Act case, said he was disappointed.

"We were surprised at the level of deference to continue to maintain the secrecy of a program the president himself has declassified," Abdo said. "This is a new level of deference to the CIA's decision to withhold information about an interrogation program the whole world knows about."

He said the ACLU would review its options before deciding whether to appeal.

Government lawyer Sean Lane declined to comment.

The government has said 92 videotapes were destroyed, including interrogations of al-Qaida lieutenant Abu Zubaydah and another al-Qaida leader. The destruction was revealed nearly two years ago.

The administration of President George W. Bush had said some tapes were destroyed to protect the identities of the government questioners while the Department of Justice was debating whether the interrogation tactics were legal.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5igLwH3H_n2SwJ5vUKRPmX24Vip8AD9B1V7180

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Who Ran the CIA Anti-Castro Kill Teams in the '50s?

Before they shot John Kennedy ...

" ... [Iran-contra was] only one episode in a much longer and more convoluted tale. An earlier "Contra" war had been mounted against Cuba under the direction of Richard Nixon, then vice president, beginning in the late 50s. With the cooperation of Mafia don Santo Trafficante, a private "sub-operation" had been developed to assassinate Cuban leaders. Members of the "shooter team" included Rafael "Chi Chi" Quintero, who later coordinated arms shipments to the Contras with Secord; Felix Rodriguez, a CIA operative who headed the Ilopango operation during the 80s and met several times with Bush; and several of the future Watergate burglars. The Cuban operation was supervised by Secord associates Shackley and Clines. ... "

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15441

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