negroponte + iraq = deathsquads II.
Top News Article | Reuters.com: "NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Pentagon is debating whether to set up elite hit-squads to target leaders of the Iraq insurgency in a new strategy based on tactics used against leftist guerrillas in Central America 20 years ago, Newsweek magazine reported on Saturday.
One proposal would send U.S. Special Forces teams to advise, support and possibly train Iraqi squads of hand-picked Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and Shiite militiamen to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers, Newsweek said, citing military insiders familiar with the discussions.
The squads may operate across the border in Syria, Newsweek said on its web site, but added it was unclear whether they would assassinate leaders or be involved in 'snatch' operations.
The magazine said the plan is being called 'the Salvador option' after strategy instigated during the Reagan administration's battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s."
Saturday, January 08, 2005
Chicago Tribune | Mysterious jet tied to torture flights: "PORTLAND, Ore. -- The first question is: Where is Leonard T. Bayard? The next question is: Who is Leonard T. Bayard? But the most important question may be: Does Leonard T. Bayard even exist?
The questions arise because the signature of a Leonard Thomas Bayard appears on the annual report of a Portland-based company, Bayard Foreign Marketing LLC, that was filed in August with the Oregon secretary of state.
According to federal records, Bayard Foreign Marketing is the newest owner of a U.S.-registered Gulfstream V executive jet reportedly used since Sept. 11, 2001, to transport suspected Al Qaeda operatives to countries such as Egypt and Syria, where some of them claim to have later been tortured.
The Central Intelligence Agency has declined to discuss the plane. But one retired CIA officer said that he understood the Gulfstream had been operated by the Joint Special Operations Command, an interagency unit that organizes counterterrorist operations in conjunction with the CIA and military special forces.
A search of commercial databases turned up no information on Leonard Thomas Bayard: no residence address, no telephone number, no Social Security number, no credit history, no automobile or property ownership records--in short, none of the information commonly associated with real people.
And yet, someone signed the name Leonard T. Bayard to Bayard Foreign Marketing's annual report.
The report, which describes the company as an "international marketing firm," lists Bayard's principal place of business as a suite in a historic downtown Portland office building known as the Pittock Block. But a visitor to the suite who asked to see Bayard was told by a receptionist only that "Mr. Bayard doesn't work here."
The telephone number on Bayard's annual report is listed to a private residence in a rundown section of northeast Portland whose doorbell went unanswered earlier this week. Calls to that number, however, appear to be answered by a bank of operators.
An initial call was answered as "Baynard Foreign Marketing" by an operator who insisted she never had heard of Leonard Bayard. A second call two minutes later was answered as "Bayard Foreign Marketing" by a different operator, who said that "Mr. Bayard is away from his desk."
A message left by a reporter went unanswered. The CIA has long had a well-known practice of "backstopping" local telephone numbers for its proprietary companies around the world, whose calls are forwarded to operators at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.
Scott Caplan, an attorney whose offices occupy the same Portland suite as the one listed by Bayard Foreign Marketing, identified Bayard as "a client" but declined to say more. Public documents show it was Caplan who filed the incorporation papers for Bayard Foreign Marketing when the company was created in August 2003.
Ann Martens, a spokeswoman for Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, said that knowingly filing a false corporate document in Oregon is punishable by up to 6 months in prison and a $1,000 fine.
November sale
Leonard T. Bayard--whoever he may or may not be--became the sole owner of the mysterious Gulfstream jet on Nov. 16, according to public records compiled by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The records show that Bayard Foreign Marketing purchased the plane, for an undisclosed sum, from Premier Executive Transport Services, whose address is the same as that of a Dedham, Mass., law firm that incorporated Premier Executive in January 1994.
The Massachusetts law firm's address is shared by a second company, Crowell Aviation Technologies Inc., which according to Dun & Bradstreet claims to have only a single employee and $65,000 in annual revenue.
Government records show, however, that Crowell is one of only nine companies, along with Premier Executive, that has Pentagon permission to land aircraft at military bases worldwide.
The same day it transferred ownership of the Gulfstream to Bayard, Premier Executive sold an unmarked, 3-year-old Boeing 737 to Keeler and Tate Management LLC of Reno. That company's address is the same as that of the Reno law firm that incorporated it in October 2003, records show.
Like Leonard T. Bayard, the only named principal in Keeler and Tate, one Tyler Edward Tate, also appears not to exist in any public records accessible by the Tribune.
Premier Executive's only listed executive is its president, Bryan P. Dyess. A person with that name does appear in commercial databases, but his only addresses are two post office boxes in Arlington, Va., not far from CIA headquarters.
Premier Executive purchased or leased the new Gulfstream V in 1999, FAA records show. The plane's original registration number, N581GA, would later be changed by the FAA to N379P, and again to 8068V.
The first public mention of the Gulfstream appeared six weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, when a Pakistani newspaper reported that Jamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed, a 27-year-old microbiology student at Karachi University, had been spirited aboard the plane at Karachi's airport by Pakistani security officers in the early hours of Oct. 23, 2001.
There is no information about where Mohammed was taken. But Pakistani officials said later that Mohammed, a Yemeni national, was believed by the U.S. to belong to Al Qaeda and to have information about the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.
Since Sept. 11, unnamed U.S. officials have been quoted in several publications discussing the U.S. practice of "rendition," which involves sending suspected terrorists or Al Qaeda supporters captured abroad for interrogation to countries where human rights are not traditionally respected.
Well-documented case
One well-documented rendition occurred in December 2001, when two Egyptian nationals, Ahmed Agiza and Muhammed al-Zery, were flown aboard the Gulfstream from Sweden's Bromma airport to Cairo. A Swedish television broadcaster, TV4, reported last year that a check of the plane's registration number, N379P, showed it belonged to Premier Executive.
The Swedish ambassador to Cairo later said Agiza and al-Zery both told him they had been tortured by Egyptian police. Al-Zery was released in October 2003 without charges. Agiza was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his alleged membership in an Egyptian terrorist group.
The Swedish government has called on Egypt to agree to an international investigation into the torture charges. The government has said it had been assured by Egypt that the two men would not be mistreated.
Another widely reported rendition to Egypt occurred in January 2002, when the Gulfstream arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia, to pick up a 24-year-old Al Qaeda suspect and dual Egyptian-Pakistani citizen, Muhammad Saad Iqbal, and transport him to Cairo.
German intelligence sources later said Indonesia refused to permit subsequent renditions to Cairo after learning that Iqbal had been tortured.
An international network of "plane spotters," hobbyists who log the comings and goings of specific aircraft around the world, have posted on the Internet photographs of the Gulfstream in various locations.
The Sunday Times of London, which claimed to have obtained the plane's flight logs, reported in November that the plane was based at Dulles International Airport outside Washington. The newspaper said it had flown to at least 49 destinations outside the U.S., including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, other U.S. military bases, as well as airports in Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Afghanistan, Libya and Uzbekistan.
Two days after the Sunday Times report, Premier Executive Transport sold the Gulfstream to Bayard Foreign Marketing. On Dec. 1, records show, the FAA assigned the plane yet another tail number, N44982."
The questions arise because the signature of a Leonard Thomas Bayard appears on the annual report of a Portland-based company, Bayard Foreign Marketing LLC, that was filed in August with the Oregon secretary of state.
According to federal records, Bayard Foreign Marketing is the newest owner of a U.S.-registered Gulfstream V executive jet reportedly used since Sept. 11, 2001, to transport suspected Al Qaeda operatives to countries such as Egypt and Syria, where some of them claim to have later been tortured.
The Central Intelligence Agency has declined to discuss the plane. But one retired CIA officer said that he understood the Gulfstream had been operated by the Joint Special Operations Command, an interagency unit that organizes counterterrorist operations in conjunction with the CIA and military special forces.
A search of commercial databases turned up no information on Leonard Thomas Bayard: no residence address, no telephone number, no Social Security number, no credit history, no automobile or property ownership records--in short, none of the information commonly associated with real people.
And yet, someone signed the name Leonard T. Bayard to Bayard Foreign Marketing's annual report.
The report, which describes the company as an "international marketing firm," lists Bayard's principal place of business as a suite in a historic downtown Portland office building known as the Pittock Block. But a visitor to the suite who asked to see Bayard was told by a receptionist only that "Mr. Bayard doesn't work here."
The telephone number on Bayard's annual report is listed to a private residence in a rundown section of northeast Portland whose doorbell went unanswered earlier this week. Calls to that number, however, appear to be answered by a bank of operators.
An initial call was answered as "Baynard Foreign Marketing" by an operator who insisted she never had heard of Leonard Bayard. A second call two minutes later was answered as "Bayard Foreign Marketing" by a different operator, who said that "Mr. Bayard is away from his desk."
A message left by a reporter went unanswered. The CIA has long had a well-known practice of "backstopping" local telephone numbers for its proprietary companies around the world, whose calls are forwarded to operators at CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.
Scott Caplan, an attorney whose offices occupy the same Portland suite as the one listed by Bayard Foreign Marketing, identified Bayard as "a client" but declined to say more. Public documents show it was Caplan who filed the incorporation papers for Bayard Foreign Marketing when the company was created in August 2003.
Ann Martens, a spokeswoman for Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, said that knowingly filing a false corporate document in Oregon is punishable by up to 6 months in prison and a $1,000 fine.
November sale
Leonard T. Bayard--whoever he may or may not be--became the sole owner of the mysterious Gulfstream jet on Nov. 16, according to public records compiled by the Federal Aviation Administration.
The records show that Bayard Foreign Marketing purchased the plane, for an undisclosed sum, from Premier Executive Transport Services, whose address is the same as that of a Dedham, Mass., law firm that incorporated Premier Executive in January 1994.
The Massachusetts law firm's address is shared by a second company, Crowell Aviation Technologies Inc., which according to Dun & Bradstreet claims to have only a single employee and $65,000 in annual revenue.
Government records show, however, that Crowell is one of only nine companies, along with Premier Executive, that has Pentagon permission to land aircraft at military bases worldwide.
The same day it transferred ownership of the Gulfstream to Bayard, Premier Executive sold an unmarked, 3-year-old Boeing 737 to Keeler and Tate Management LLC of Reno. That company's address is the same as that of the Reno law firm that incorporated it in October 2003, records show.
Like Leonard T. Bayard, the only named principal in Keeler and Tate, one Tyler Edward Tate, also appears not to exist in any public records accessible by the Tribune.
Premier Executive's only listed executive is its president, Bryan P. Dyess. A person with that name does appear in commercial databases, but his only addresses are two post office boxes in Arlington, Va., not far from CIA headquarters.
Premier Executive purchased or leased the new Gulfstream V in 1999, FAA records show. The plane's original registration number, N581GA, would later be changed by the FAA to N379P, and again to 8068V.
The first public mention of the Gulfstream appeared six weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, when a Pakistani newspaper reported that Jamil Qasim Saeed Mohammed, a 27-year-old microbiology student at Karachi University, had been spirited aboard the plane at Karachi's airport by Pakistani security officers in the early hours of Oct. 23, 2001.
There is no information about where Mohammed was taken. But Pakistani officials said later that Mohammed, a Yemeni national, was believed by the U.S. to belong to Al Qaeda and to have information about the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.
Since Sept. 11, unnamed U.S. officials have been quoted in several publications discussing the U.S. practice of "rendition," which involves sending suspected terrorists or Al Qaeda supporters captured abroad for interrogation to countries where human rights are not traditionally respected.
Well-documented case
One well-documented rendition occurred in December 2001, when two Egyptian nationals, Ahmed Agiza and Muhammed al-Zery, were flown aboard the Gulfstream from Sweden's Bromma airport to Cairo. A Swedish television broadcaster, TV4, reported last year that a check of the plane's registration number, N379P, showed it belonged to Premier Executive.
The Swedish ambassador to Cairo later said Agiza and al-Zery both told him they had been tortured by Egyptian police. Al-Zery was released in October 2003 without charges. Agiza was sentenced to 25 years in prison for his alleged membership in an Egyptian terrorist group.
The Swedish government has called on Egypt to agree to an international investigation into the torture charges. The government has said it had been assured by Egypt that the two men would not be mistreated.
Another widely reported rendition to Egypt occurred in January 2002, when the Gulfstream arrived in Jakarta, Indonesia, to pick up a 24-year-old Al Qaeda suspect and dual Egyptian-Pakistani citizen, Muhammad Saad Iqbal, and transport him to Cairo.
German intelligence sources later said Indonesia refused to permit subsequent renditions to Cairo after learning that Iqbal had been tortured.
An international network of "plane spotters," hobbyists who log the comings and goings of specific aircraft around the world, have posted on the Internet photographs of the Gulfstream in various locations.
The Sunday Times of London, which claimed to have obtained the plane's flight logs, reported in November that the plane was based at Dulles International Airport outside Washington. The newspaper said it had flown to at least 49 destinations outside the U.S., including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, other U.S. military bases, as well as airports in Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Morocco, Afghanistan, Libya and Uzbekistan.
Two days after the Sunday Times report, Premier Executive Transport sold the Gulfstream to Bayard Foreign Marketing. On Dec. 1, records show, the FAA assigned the plane yet another tail number, N44982."
it's the last line that's the kicker.
Tax-Funded White House PR Effort Questioned: "WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers called for an investigation Friday into whether the Bush administration misused taxpayer funds by paying a prominent media pundit $240,000 to promote the president's controversial new education policy.
The Education Department on Friday defended its payments to conservative commentator Armstrong Williams as part of a million-dollar contract with the Ketchum public relations firm to promote the No Child Left Behind Act with minority groups.
Williams, who is African American, was hired by Ketchum in late 2003 to build support among minorities for the president's education plan. He praised the program in columns and on television without disclosing the payments.
His case is the latest and perhaps most striking example of the Bush administration using government funds to market its agenda to the American public under the guise of journalism. It is also a fresh blow for the media following recent scandals that have raised questions about credibility.
Williams is the host of a syndicated television show and a frequent guest on CNN, NBC and other media outlets, and writes a syndicated opinion column. His website describes him as a "principled voice for conservatives and Christian values in America's public debates" who brings "an independent view with a refreshing twist to the central issues of our day."
In a column in May, for example, he sharply criticized the National Education Assn., saying the teachers union was "fundamentally opposed to any education reform — like vouchers or the No Child Left Behind Act — that seeks to hold public schools accountable for their failures."
Williams said Friday that he had "made an error of judgment" in accepting the payment, which was disclosed by USA Today.
Tribune Media Services, a subsidiary of the Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times, announced it would stop syndicating Williams' column in response to the revelations.
Democrats said Friday that the payments to Williams amounted to using tax money to fund Republican propaganda. They were joined in their call for an inspector general inquiry by at least one Republican, Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
"We believe that the act of bribing journalists to bias their news in favor of government policies undermines the integrity of our democracy," said Democratic Sens. Harry Reid of Nevada, Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts in a letter to the president. They wrote that such actions "were common in the Soviet Union, but until now, thought to be long extinguished in our country."
Public relations contracts to promote government goals and services have been around for decades. Under Republican and Democratic administrations, the number and size of these contracts have grown, along with the use of deceptive tactics, according to PR industry officials.
In two cases last year, the Government Accountability Office, Congress' nonpartisan investigative arm, declared that departments under Bush had engaged in illegal "covert propaganda."
The GAO issued a legal opinion criticizing video segments produced by PR firms under contract with the Health and Human Services Department and the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The segments were designed to be inserted into television station newscasts, but did not indicate that the origin of the information was the U.S. government. A third investigation into videos produced by the Education Department is pending.
The Education Department defended its practices in a three-paragraph statement, contending that officials had a duty to reach out to as many parents as possible to explain No Child Left Behind, which Bush signed three years ago.
The law, one of Bush's signature domestic policy achievements, requires states to hold schools accountable for teaching reading and mathematics in elementary and middle schools in exchange for more federal education aid.
Concerns about public reaction to the law mounted in Republican circles. Democrats attacked the administration for failing to provide enough funding for the new policy. Teachers complained about the complex testing requirements.
To help promote and explain the new law, the department retained Ketchum. The Ketchum contract came under criticism last fall when it emerged that some money was spent to help the department assess how the media was portraying the law, and other money was spent to develop controversial "video news releases."
Another part of the contract turned out to be the deal with Williams. The department acknowledged that a firm headed by Williams had been awarded a subcontract worth $240,000. The term of the subcontract was about a year, starting in December 2003.
In the contract, department officials said, Williams agreed to produce and air two 60-second television spots and two radio spots featuring Education Secretary Rod Paige explaining the law. The spots, officials said, ran frequently on Williams' cable TV and syndicated radio shows over the last year and included a standard disclaimer that identified the government as its sponsor.
But the subcontract also included several unorthodox provisions, according to a copy of the contract released under the Freedom of Information Act.
First, it stipulated that Ketchum "shall arrange for Mr. Williams to regularly comment" on the law during his broadcasts. It also called for Williams to use his influence with "America's Black Forum," a public affairs television program aimed at African Americans, to encourage producers to "periodically address"' the law.
Second, the contract gave Paige and other department officials the right to appear from "time to time" as guests on Williams' programs. Paige apparently exercised this option at least once in a one-hour interview on a show called "On Point," education officials said.
The contract praised the "unique and diverse" viewership of one of Williams' shows, called "The Right Side." The show's audience is 30% African American, 21% Latino and 40% white, according to the contract.
"We're interested in getting our message out to the audience that watches his show," said a senior Education Department official. The official added that the agency would cooperate with the congressional request for a review.
But many education experts cringed at the revelation.
"You don't pay money to a reporter to tell him that as part of that payment he's going to allow the secretary of Education so many appearances on TV," said Jack Jennings, director of the Center on Education Policy in Washington and a former top Democratic education aide on Capitol Hill. "That's buying news coverage."
Public relations firms are increasingly used by government, according to PR experts, who said that Washington firms received millions in contracts from federal agencies each year.
"The government has been pushing the envelope more in recent years," following the practice of private industry, said Paul Holmes, who produces a newsletter, the Holmes Report, monitoring the PR industry. "The problem, it seems to me, is what a company does with its own funds and what a government does with public funds requires two very different standards."
The use of government funds to covertly influence public opinion surfaced as an issue in the 1980s, when the Reagan administration paid consultants to send op-ed pieces and letters to newspapers in support of its policies in Central America without disclosing the payments.
Controversy has also surrounded the use of the video news releases, which are typically produced by PR firms to disseminate to local TV stations.
The releases included short segments on government programs and policies designed to be inserted into nightly news reports. They included instructions to news anchors for suggested lead-ins to the segments and voice-over from actors who claimed to be "reporting" on a subject. The news segments do not identify the source of the information as the U.S. government.
For instance, a recent anti-drug ad produced by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy was titled "Urging parents to get the facts straight on teen marijuana use."
The news release ran for two minutes, and featured a voiceless reporter identified as Mike Morris introducing such officials as drug czar John P. Walters warning parents about the dangers of marijuana.
The GAO said such releases violated laws against the use of tax dollars to fund propaganda without explicit congressional approval and without disclosing the government's role.
"The crucial issue here is the covert aspect of it. The target audience does not know that this is information prepared by the government," said Susan Poling, the GAO's managing associate general counsel. "If this is prepared with tax dollars, then legally it should be acknowledged as such.''
During the Clinton era, Health and Human Services said it used actors to portray reporters in fake news segments designed to be distributed to television stations.
The GAO found that the same principles forbidding covert propaganda would have been applicable to the Clinton-era news packages, which were produced in October 1999. The GAO did not criticize the packages at the time because they "were not brought to our attention," according to the legal opinion.
Rep. George Miller, a Democrat from Martinez, Calif., who co-wrote the No Child Left Behind Act, led calls to investigate the Williams matter. He said in an interview that he thought the Department of Education had "become distracted by the Bush administration's questionable political agenda."
Said Miller: "The administration ought to obey the law."'"
Tax-Funded White House PR Effort Questioned: "WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers called for an investigation Friday into whether the Bush administration misused taxpayer funds by paying a prominent media pundit $240,000 to promote the president's controversial new education policy.
The Education Department on Friday defended its payments to conservative commentator Armstrong Williams as part of a million-dollar contract with the Ketchum public relations firm to promote the No Child Left Behind Act with minority groups.
Williams, who is African American, was hired by Ketchum in late 2003 to build support among minorities for the president's education plan. He praised the program in columns and on television without disclosing the payments.
His case is the latest and perhaps most striking example of the Bush administration using government funds to market its agenda to the American public under the guise of journalism. It is also a fresh blow for the media following recent scandals that have raised questions about credibility.
Williams is the host of a syndicated television show and a frequent guest on CNN, NBC and other media outlets, and writes a syndicated opinion column. His website describes him as a "principled voice for conservatives and Christian values in America's public debates" who brings "an independent view with a refreshing twist to the central issues of our day."
In a column in May, for example, he sharply criticized the National Education Assn., saying the teachers union was "fundamentally opposed to any education reform — like vouchers or the No Child Left Behind Act — that seeks to hold public schools accountable for their failures."
Williams said Friday that he had "made an error of judgment" in accepting the payment, which was disclosed by USA Today.
Tribune Media Services, a subsidiary of the Tribune Co., which owns the Los Angeles Times, announced it would stop syndicating Williams' column in response to the revelations.
Democrats said Friday that the payments to Williams amounted to using tax money to fund Republican propaganda. They were joined in their call for an inspector general inquiry by at least one Republican, Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio, chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.
"We believe that the act of bribing journalists to bias their news in favor of government policies undermines the integrity of our democracy," said Democratic Sens. Harry Reid of Nevada, Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts in a letter to the president. They wrote that such actions "were common in the Soviet Union, but until now, thought to be long extinguished in our country."
Public relations contracts to promote government goals and services have been around for decades. Under Republican and Democratic administrations, the number and size of these contracts have grown, along with the use of deceptive tactics, according to PR industry officials.
In two cases last year, the Government Accountability Office, Congress' nonpartisan investigative arm, declared that departments under Bush had engaged in illegal "covert propaganda."
The GAO issued a legal opinion criticizing video segments produced by PR firms under contract with the Health and Human Services Department and the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The segments were designed to be inserted into television station newscasts, but did not indicate that the origin of the information was the U.S. government. A third investigation into videos produced by the Education Department is pending.
The Education Department defended its practices in a three-paragraph statement, contending that officials had a duty to reach out to as many parents as possible to explain No Child Left Behind, which Bush signed three years ago.
The law, one of Bush's signature domestic policy achievements, requires states to hold schools accountable for teaching reading and mathematics in elementary and middle schools in exchange for more federal education aid.
Concerns about public reaction to the law mounted in Republican circles. Democrats attacked the administration for failing to provide enough funding for the new policy. Teachers complained about the complex testing requirements.
To help promote and explain the new law, the department retained Ketchum. The Ketchum contract came under criticism last fall when it emerged that some money was spent to help the department assess how the media was portraying the law, and other money was spent to develop controversial "video news releases."
Another part of the contract turned out to be the deal with Williams. The department acknowledged that a firm headed by Williams had been awarded a subcontract worth $240,000. The term of the subcontract was about a year, starting in December 2003.
In the contract, department officials said, Williams agreed to produce and air two 60-second television spots and two radio spots featuring Education Secretary Rod Paige explaining the law. The spots, officials said, ran frequently on Williams' cable TV and syndicated radio shows over the last year and included a standard disclaimer that identified the government as its sponsor.
But the subcontract also included several unorthodox provisions, according to a copy of the contract released under the Freedom of Information Act.
First, it stipulated that Ketchum "shall arrange for Mr. Williams to regularly comment" on the law during his broadcasts. It also called for Williams to use his influence with "America's Black Forum," a public affairs television program aimed at African Americans, to encourage producers to "periodically address"' the law.
Second, the contract gave Paige and other department officials the right to appear from "time to time" as guests on Williams' programs. Paige apparently exercised this option at least once in a one-hour interview on a show called "On Point," education officials said.
The contract praised the "unique and diverse" viewership of one of Williams' shows, called "The Right Side." The show's audience is 30% African American, 21% Latino and 40% white, according to the contract.
"We're interested in getting our message out to the audience that watches his show," said a senior Education Department official. The official added that the agency would cooperate with the congressional request for a review.
But many education experts cringed at the revelation.
"You don't pay money to a reporter to tell him that as part of that payment he's going to allow the secretary of Education so many appearances on TV," said Jack Jennings, director of the Center on Education Policy in Washington and a former top Democratic education aide on Capitol Hill. "That's buying news coverage."
Public relations firms are increasingly used by government, according to PR experts, who said that Washington firms received millions in contracts from federal agencies each year.
"The government has been pushing the envelope more in recent years," following the practice of private industry, said Paul Holmes, who produces a newsletter, the Holmes Report, monitoring the PR industry. "The problem, it seems to me, is what a company does with its own funds and what a government does with public funds requires two very different standards."
The use of government funds to covertly influence public opinion surfaced as an issue in the 1980s, when the Reagan administration paid consultants to send op-ed pieces and letters to newspapers in support of its policies in Central America without disclosing the payments.
Controversy has also surrounded the use of the video news releases, which are typically produced by PR firms to disseminate to local TV stations.
The releases included short segments on government programs and policies designed to be inserted into nightly news reports. They included instructions to news anchors for suggested lead-ins to the segments and voice-over from actors who claimed to be "reporting" on a subject. The news segments do not identify the source of the information as the U.S. government.
For instance, a recent anti-drug ad produced by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy was titled "Urging parents to get the facts straight on teen marijuana use."
The news release ran for two minutes, and featured a voiceless reporter identified as Mike Morris introducing such officials as drug czar John P. Walters warning parents about the dangers of marijuana.
The GAO said such releases violated laws against the use of tax dollars to fund propaganda without explicit congressional approval and without disclosing the government's role.
"The crucial issue here is the covert aspect of it. The target audience does not know that this is information prepared by the government," said Susan Poling, the GAO's managing associate general counsel. "If this is prepared with tax dollars, then legally it should be acknowledged as such.''
During the Clinton era, Health and Human Services said it used actors to portray reporters in fake news segments designed to be distributed to television stations.
The GAO found that the same principles forbidding covert propaganda would have been applicable to the Clinton-era news packages, which were produced in October 1999. The GAO did not criticize the packages at the time because they "were not brought to our attention," according to the legal opinion.
Rep. George Miller, a Democrat from Martinez, Calif., who co-wrote the No Child Left Behind Act, led calls to investigate the Williams matter. He said in an interview that he thought the Department of Education had "become distracted by the Bush administration's questionable political agenda."
Said Miller: "The administration ought to obey the law."'"
on the irony. plus the fact that this president is sitting at 49% approval, a week before inauguration ... is just more proof that this election was not won by this man.
InsideTrack1: "NEW YORK CITY (Jan. 7, 2005, GoldDerby.com) -- George W. Bush may have been the American people's choice for President in 2004, but the People's Choice Award for the Favorite Film of 2004 will go to his political nemesis this Sunday night, GoldDerby.com has learned.
At the ceremony to be telecast Jan. 9, at 9 p.m. (EST) on CBS, director/writer Michael Moore will accept the prize bestowed upon 'Fahrenheit 9/11' by TV 'President' Martin Sheen, star of 'The West Wing.'
GoldDerby has learned that Moore was tipped off ahead of time that his film beat other nominees 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,' 'The Incredibles,' 'Shrek 2' and 'Spiderman 2.' Apparently, that's why Moore mysteriously chose to ditch his earlier plan to attend this Sunday's gala dinner of the New York Film Critics Circle, which had planned to give him their award for Best Documentary, a victory announced on Dec. 13. Now rumor has it that Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein -- who organized 'Fahrenheit 9/11's' indie patchwork distribution -- will attend the Roosevelt Hotel gala to accept on Moore's behalf.
Even though People's Choice Award winners usually pretend to be surprised when their names are announced as champs, the fact that CBS really tips them off early has always been a poorly kept secret in the media world and, strangely, has never become controversial. In 1968, the Golden Globes were kicked off NBC when the FCC accused the Hollywood Foreign Press Association of tipping off winners ahead of time and thus 'misleading the public about the integrity of the awards process.' The Globes' banishment lasted a long time: it was 9 years before its kudos gala returned to live TV.
This year the tip-off at the People's Choice Awards could become scandalous because it enables CBS and Michael Moore to stage a r"
InsideTrack1: "NEW YORK CITY (Jan. 7, 2005, GoldDerby.com) -- George W. Bush may have been the American people's choice for President in 2004, but the People's Choice Award for the Favorite Film of 2004 will go to his political nemesis this Sunday night, GoldDerby.com has learned.
At the ceremony to be telecast Jan. 9, at 9 p.m. (EST) on CBS, director/writer Michael Moore will accept the prize bestowed upon 'Fahrenheit 9/11' by TV 'President' Martin Sheen, star of 'The West Wing.'
GoldDerby has learned that Moore was tipped off ahead of time that his film beat other nominees 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,' 'The Incredibles,' 'Shrek 2' and 'Spiderman 2.' Apparently, that's why Moore mysteriously chose to ditch his earlier plan to attend this Sunday's gala dinner of the New York Film Critics Circle, which had planned to give him their award for Best Documentary, a victory announced on Dec. 13. Now rumor has it that Miramax chief Harvey Weinstein -- who organized 'Fahrenheit 9/11's' indie patchwork distribution -- will attend the Roosevelt Hotel gala to accept on Moore's behalf.
Even though People's Choice Award winners usually pretend to be surprised when their names are announced as champs, the fact that CBS really tips them off early has always been a poorly kept secret in the media world and, strangely, has never become controversial. In 1968, the Golden Globes were kicked off NBC when the FCC accused the Hollywood Foreign Press Association of tipping off winners ahead of time and thus 'misleading the public about the integrity of the awards process.' The Globes' banishment lasted a long time: it was 9 years before its kudos gala returned to live TV.
This year the tip-off at the People's Choice Awards could become scandalous because it enables CBS and Michael Moore to stage a r"
Friday, January 07, 2005
BELLEVUE, Wash. - Republican Dino Rossi and the state Republican Party announced Friday that they would contest the governor’s election that gave his Democratic opponent, Christine Gregoire, a 129-vote victory.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6793577
Republicans have been building a case over the past few weeks, gathering evidence of voting irregularities, including illegal provisional ballots and a handful of votes cast by dead people. They are pushing for a revote, an unprecedented step in a statewide election.
They have a problem with King County and they filed their challenge in ultra-red Chelan. The usual judge shopping.
meanwhile, we got irregularities up the yingyang, and repukes reFUSE to even look at it.
Richard Conglianese, Ohio assistant attorney general, is seeking a court order to protect Blackwell from testifying under oath about how the election was run. Blackwell, who administered Ohio’s Nov. 2 balloting, served as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign.http://www.berkeleydaily.org/text/article.cfm?issue=01-03-05&storyID=20433
James R. Dicks, Miami County assistant prosecuting attorney, filed a motion to block a subpoena in his county while Conglianese filed to block subpoenas in 10 key Ohio counties.
President George Bush, Vice-President Richard Cheney and White House Political Advisor Karl Rove received notice that they will be deposed Tuesday and Wednesday, Dec. 28 and 29. The trio’s Ohio attorney, Kurt Tunnell, so far claims his clients have not been properly served. Under Ohio law, the Republican-dominated Ohio Supreme Court is responsible for serving the three.
Meanwhile, the Election Protection legal team has collected new statements under oath describing more voting and vote-counting problems on Nov. 2.
Voters in Trumbull County have testified that on election day they received punch-card ballots where holes were already punched for Bush. Meanwhile, a notarized affidavit signed by Angela Greene, who voted at Whitehall Yearling High School in central Ohio’s Franklin County, stated that one of the malfunctioning electronic voting machines at her polling place was delivered without a cartridge—meaning votes cast might have gone uncounted.
In Miami County, Blackwell certified a 98.6 percent turnout in the Concord Southwest precinct, comprised of 520 votes for Bush and 157 for Kerry. This statistically improbable turnout has all but 10 of the 689 registered voters casting their ballots on election day. A preliminary canvas by The Free Press of less than half the precinct found 25 registered voters admitting they had not voted, meaning the official tally was almost certainly fraudulent.
The nearby Concord South precinct certified a 94.27 percent voter turnout, with 468 alleged votes for Bush versus 182 for Kerry. Miami County is included in the election challenge since it somehow reported nearly 19,000 additional votes after 100 percent of the precincts had reported on election day.
In Madison County, where public records requests were filed to obtain voting records, the voting results provided by the Madison County Board of Elections came directly from a private company, Triad Governmental Systems, Inc. An email dated Nov. 29, 2004 from Brandon Sandlin of Triad reads as follows: “Hello to all in Madison County! Attached you will find the cumulative report (oh49unov.pdf) with over and under votes reported as well as the official abstract (oh49abs.pdf). These reports may be printed for your records and then mailed to the state along with your other certification reports.” Coming from a private corporation, Triad’ s letter underscores the barriers to making a reliable independent public assessment and recount of Ohio’s presidential tally.
In Mahoning County, the Washington Post reported new affidavits documenting electronic “vote hopping” from Kerry to Bush. This means voting machines highlighted the choice for Bush before the voter recorded a choice of his or her own. The legal team has been told by a computer expert that this may mean the machines were pre-set on a Bush vote as a default. The Free Press has obtained dozens of such sworn statements of vote hopping.
The legal team is also exploring new evidence that in Coshocton, Ohio, write-in votes wrongly defaulted to Bush when run through the voting machine.
all the while cryin and moanin about how those evil democrats can't take losing.
these are the protectors of our democracy??????
gotta make you wonder who else is on the payroll.
USATODAY.com - Education Dept. paid commentator to promote law: "Seeking to build support among black families for its education reform law, the Bush administration paid a prominent black pundit $240,000 to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same.
The campaign, part of an effort to promote No Child Left Behind (NCLB), required commentator Armstrong Williams "to regularly comment on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts," and to interview Education Secretary Rod Paige for TV and radio spots that aired during the show in 2004.
Williams said Thursday he understands that critics could find the arrangement unethical, but "I wanted to do it because it's something I believe in."
The top Democrat on the House Education Committee, Rep. George Miller of California, called the contract "a very questionable use of taxpayers' money" that is "probably illegal." He said he will ask his Republican counterpart to join him in requesting an investigation."
USATODAY.com - Education Dept. paid commentator to promote law: "Seeking to build support among black families for its education reform law, the Bush administration paid a prominent black pundit $240,000 to promote the law on his nationally syndicated television show and to urge other black journalists to do the same.
The campaign, part of an effort to promote No Child Left Behind (NCLB), required commentator Armstrong Williams "to regularly comment on NCLB during the course of his broadcasts," and to interview Education Secretary Rod Paige for TV and radio spots that aired during the show in 2004.
Williams said Thursday he understands that critics could find the arrangement unethical, but "I wanted to do it because it's something I believe in."
The top Democrat on the House Education Committee, Rep. George Miller of California, called the contract "a very questionable use of taxpayers' money" that is "probably illegal." He said he will ask his Republican counterpart to join him in requesting an investigation."
the guy gets the nation's highest honor, for being a miserable failure. this isn't America. this is Bushisitastan.
The New York Times > National > C.I.A. Report Finds Its Officials Failed in Pre-9/11 Efforts: "ASHINGTON, Jan. 6 - An internal investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that officials who served at the highest levels of the agency should be held accountable for failing to allocate adequate resources to combating terrorism before the Sept. 11 attacks, according to current and former intelligence officials.
The conclusion is spelled out in a near-final version of a report by John Helgerson, the agency's inspector general, who reports to Congress as well as to the C.I.A. Among those most sharply criticized in the report, the officials said, are George J. Tenet, the former intelligence chief, and James L. Pavitt, the former deputy director of operations. Both Mr. Tenet and Mr. Pavitt stepped down from their posts last summer.
The findings, which are still classified, pose a quandary for the C.I.A. and the administration, particularly since President Bush awarded a Medal of Freedom to Mr. Tenet last month. It is not clear whether either the agency or the White House has the appetite to reprimand Mr. Tenet, Mr. Pavitt or others. "
The New York Times > National > C.I.A. Report Finds Its Officials Failed in Pre-9/11 Efforts: "ASHINGTON, Jan. 6 - An internal investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that officials who served at the highest levels of the agency should be held accountable for failing to allocate adequate resources to combating terrorism before the Sept. 11 attacks, according to current and former intelligence officials.
The conclusion is spelled out in a near-final version of a report by John Helgerson, the agency's inspector general, who reports to Congress as well as to the C.I.A. Among those most sharply criticized in the report, the officials said, are George J. Tenet, the former intelligence chief, and James L. Pavitt, the former deputy director of operations. Both Mr. Tenet and Mr. Pavitt stepped down from their posts last summer.
The findings, which are still classified, pose a quandary for the C.I.A. and the administration, particularly since President Bush awarded a Medal of Freedom to Mr. Tenet last month. It is not clear whether either the agency or the White House has the appetite to reprimand Mr. Tenet, Mr. Pavitt or others. "
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
once again, we have enronomics in full play, where the administration again is playin funny with the munny.
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: January 02, 2005 - January 08, 2005 Archives: "Boy, is Atrios right about this. Contrary to what this AP report (and many other articles) says, the emerging Bush proposal doesn't allow younger worker to 'invest up to 4 percent of their payroll taxes in private accounts.' It allows them, as Atrios says, to divert 4 percentage points of their contribution to their own private account.
Even this, though, while accurate, leaves a misleading impression.
The Social Security portion of the payroll tax amounts to 12.4% of your salary up to about $87,000 annually. The employee kicks in 6.2% and the employer contributes 6.2% as well.
What the president is proposing is that individuals can divert roughly 4 of those 6.2 percentage points into their private investment account.
What percentage would that be of the annual contribution to the Social Security for the given worker? About 30%.
Saying that individual workers are merely taking 2% or now 4% out of their contribution makes it sound like a nominal amount. Just enough to give a trial run to private accounts. The more accurate description -- 30% of their contribution to Social Security -- makes it sound like a much bigger deal.
It's understandable that the White House would prefer the misleading description. But why does the AP and most of the rest of the national press?
Late Update: Here's a follow-up question I wish one of the elect would ask the designated White House leakers. I assume that the employer is still obligated to contribute their 6.2% however much the employee might choose to divert. But is that the case?"
and speaking of iraq..... insurgents now outnumber u.s. forces, and i'm sure the allied camps included. and who do we need to tell us? a paper in a foreign country.
Times Online - World: "IRAQ?S rapidly swelling insurgency numbers 200,000 fighters and active supporters and outnumbers the United States-led coalition forces, the head of the country?s intelligence service said yesterday.
The number is far higher than the US military has so far admitted and paints a much grimmer picture of the challenge facing the Iraqi authorities and their British and American backers as elections loom in four weeks.
?I think the resistance is bigger than the US military in Iraq. I think the resistance is more than 200,000 people,? General Muhammad Abdullah Shahwani, director of Iraq?s new intelligence services, said.
Bomb attacks killed another 18 people yesterday, almost all of them members of the security services, and the head of the Baghdad division of the Iraqi National Guard admitted that his paramilitary police force had been infiltrated by people who are leaking information to the guerrillas.
General Shahwani said that there were at least 40,000 hardcore fighters attacking US and Iraqi troops, with the bulk made up of part-time guerrillas and volunteers providing logistical support, information, shelter and money.
?People are fed up after two years without improvement,? he said. ?People are fed up with no security, no electricity, people feel they have to do something. The army (dissolved by the American occupation authority) was hundreds of thousands. You?d expect some veterans would join with their relatives, each one has sons and brothers.?
With elections less than a month away, the guerrillas have launched a massive campaign of attacks against anyone linked with the coalition or the Iraqi authorities.
Yesterday, at least ten National Guardsmen were killed in the northern Sunni towns of Tikrit and Balad, and another six policemen and a civilian died"
Times Online - World: "IRAQ?S rapidly swelling insurgency numbers 200,000 fighters and active supporters and outnumbers the United States-led coalition forces, the head of the country?s intelligence service said yesterday.
The number is far higher than the US military has so far admitted and paints a much grimmer picture of the challenge facing the Iraqi authorities and their British and American backers as elections loom in four weeks.
?I think the resistance is bigger than the US military in Iraq. I think the resistance is more than 200,000 people,? General Muhammad Abdullah Shahwani, director of Iraq?s new intelligence services, said.
Bomb attacks killed another 18 people yesterday, almost all of them members of the security services, and the head of the Baghdad division of the Iraqi National Guard admitted that his paramilitary police force had been infiltrated by people who are leaking information to the guerrillas.
General Shahwani said that there were at least 40,000 hardcore fighters attacking US and Iraqi troops, with the bulk made up of part-time guerrillas and volunteers providing logistical support, information, shelter and money.
?People are fed up after two years without improvement,? he said. ?People are fed up with no security, no electricity, people feel they have to do something. The army (dissolved by the American occupation authority) was hundreds of thousands. You?d expect some veterans would join with their relatives, each one has sons and brothers.?
With elections less than a month away, the guerrillas have launched a massive campaign of attacks against anyone linked with the coalition or the Iraqi authorities.
Yesterday, at least ten National Guardsmen were killed in the northern Sunni towns of Tikrit and Balad, and another six policemen and a civilian died"
so it's 'our catastrophe' now? what changed?
Baghdad Governor Slain by Insurgents (washingtonpost.com): "'The war's worse, the insurgency's worse,' said a senior U.S. Embassy official in Baghdad, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to talk candidly. 'This is not going to be a short fight. Nobody should think it is.'
---snip---
More than three months ago, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi asserted during a visit to Washington that 15 of Iraq's 18 provinces were stable and largely peaceful. Now, in interviews, he routinely refers to the situation as "our catastrophe.""
Baghdad Governor Slain by Insurgents (washingtonpost.com): "'The war's worse, the insurgency's worse,' said a senior U.S. Embassy official in Baghdad, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to talk candidly. 'This is not going to be a short fight. Nobody should think it is.'
---snip---
More than three months ago, interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi asserted during a visit to Washington that 15 of Iraq's 18 provinces were stable and largely peaceful. Now, in interviews, he routinely refers to the situation as "our catastrophe.""
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
give that guy a cigar... or is it a woman?
DesMoinesRegister.com: "This would really impress me - and the world: President Bush gives the allotted $40 million for his inauguration to the Asian countries suffering the tsunamis, and has a televised inauguration in the Oval Office with family and dignitaries.
-Jan Fleming,
West Des Moines."
DesMoinesRegister.com: "This would really impress me - and the world: President Bush gives the allotted $40 million for his inauguration to the Asian countries suffering the tsunamis, and has a televised inauguration in the Oval Office with family and dignitaries.
-Jan Fleming,
West Des Moines."
Monday, January 03, 2005
The Washington Post: has a follow up on the new bush push for detention policies.
The New York Times > Obituaries > Representative Robert T. Matsui, 63, Dies: "A third-generation Japanese-American, Mr. Matsui was less than a year old when he and his family were taken from Sacramento and interned. He stayed in camps until he was almost 4. In one camp, his pregnant mother contracted German measles and, as a result, gave birth to a blind daughter, Barbara. Mr. Matsui's wife, Doris, was also born in an internment camp.
When he got to Congress, Mr. Matsui helped lead the fight for compensation for the 120,000 people sent to the camps. In August 1988, President Ronald Reagan, saying he was moving to 'right a grave wrong,' signed an act that apologized for the forced relocation and established a $1.25 billion trust fund to pay reparations to those who were placed in camps and to their families."
A leading Republican senator yesterday condemned as "a bad idea" a reported U.S. plan to keep some suspected terrorists imprisoned for a lifetime even if the government lacks evidence to charge them.imagine that. lack of evidence, so what in God's name are they using to hold them in the first place? and anybody who tries to muster up the gall to pass off the excuse that 'back during world war twooooo, they did it to the japanese? remind them of Rep. Matsui. God rest his soul.
The Pentagon and the CIA have asked the White House to decide on a more permanent approach for those it is unwilling to set free or turn over to U.S. or foreign courts, The Washington Post said in a report yesterday that cited intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials.
Some detentions could potentially last a lifetime, the report said.
Influential senators denounced the idea as probably unconstitutional.
"It's a bad idea. So we ought to get over it and we ought to have a very careful, constitutional look at this," Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday."
Sen. Carl M. Levin (Mich.), senior Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, cited earlier U.S. Supreme Court decisions. "There must be some modicum, some semblance of due process . . . if you're going to detain people, whether it's for life or whether it's for years," Levin said, also on Fox.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The State Department declined to comment, and a Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke of the Air Force, had no information on the reported plan.
As part of a solution, the Defense Department, which holds 500 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, plans to ask Congress for $25 million to build a 200-bed prison to hold detainees who are unlikely to ever go through a military tribunal for lack of evidence, defense officials told The Post.
The New York Times > Obituaries > Representative Robert T. Matsui, 63, Dies: "A third-generation Japanese-American, Mr. Matsui was less than a year old when he and his family were taken from Sacramento and interned. He stayed in camps until he was almost 4. In one camp, his pregnant mother contracted German measles and, as a result, gave birth to a blind daughter, Barbara. Mr. Matsui's wife, Doris, was also born in an internment camp.
When he got to Congress, Mr. Matsui helped lead the fight for compensation for the 120,000 people sent to the camps. In August 1988, President Ronald Reagan, saying he was moving to 'right a grave wrong,' signed an act that apologized for the forced relocation and established a $1.25 billion trust fund to pay reparations to those who were placed in camps and to their families."
Sunday, January 02, 2005
this just makes me sick. coronation? mandate? one would think they're talking about Jesus.
Holding the Keys to Power, Tuxes if Needed (washingtonpost.com): "Second inaugurations tend to be relatively low-key affairs compared with the first go-round, but the most experienced concierge in Washington feels certain this one will be a blowout to rival its predecessor.
'We're not calling it an inauguration,' said Jack Nargil, head concierge at the Hay-Adams Hotel, as he gazed across the street at the White House last week. 'Because the president's supporters believe he has a mandate, there's going to be, in effect, a coronation.' "
Holding the Keys to Power, Tuxes if Needed (washingtonpost.com): "Second inaugurations tend to be relatively low-key affairs compared with the first go-round, but the most experienced concierge in Washington feels certain this one will be a blowout to rival its predecessor.
'We're not calling it an inauguration,' said Jack Nargil, head concierge at the Hay-Adams Hotel, as he gazed across the street at the White House last week. 'Because the president's supporters believe he has a mandate, there's going to be, in effect, a coronation.' "
enronomics strikes again!!
The New York Times > Washington > In Plan to Reduce Deficit, White House Turns to Old Projections: "WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 - To show that President Bush can fulfill his campaign promise to cut the deficit in half by 2009, White House officials are preparing a budget that will assume a significant jump in revenues and omit the cost of major initiatives like overhauling Social Security.
Advertisement
To make Mr. Bush's goal easier to reach, administration officials have decided to measure their progress against a $521 billion deficit they predicted last February rather than last year's actual shortfall of $413 billion.
By starting with the outdated projection, Mr. Bush can say he has already reduced the shortfall by about $100 billion and claim victory if the deficit falls to just $260 billion.
But White House budget planners are not stopping there. Administration officials are also invoking optimistic assumptions about rising tax revenue while excluding costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as trillions of dollars in costs that lie just outside Mr. Bush's five-year budget window.
The five-year plan, due in February, is likely to reaffirm previous predictions of a $217 billion surge in tax revenues in 2005, the biggest one-year jump on record, and almost $800 billion a year by 2009.
'We still believe we will see new economic growth, with revenues increasing as a share of G.D.P.,' said Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget, referring to the gross domestic product. 'I think our numbers are very realistic because they are consistent with the best estimates of Wall Street and of the Congressional Budget Office.'
As in past years, the budget will exclude costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which could reach $100 billion in 2005 a"
The New York Times > Washington > In Plan to Reduce Deficit, White House Turns to Old Projections: "WASHINGTON, Jan. 1 - To show that President Bush can fulfill his campaign promise to cut the deficit in half by 2009, White House officials are preparing a budget that will assume a significant jump in revenues and omit the cost of major initiatives like overhauling Social Security.
Advertisement
To make Mr. Bush's goal easier to reach, administration officials have decided to measure their progress against a $521 billion deficit they predicted last February rather than last year's actual shortfall of $413 billion.
By starting with the outdated projection, Mr. Bush can say he has already reduced the shortfall by about $100 billion and claim victory if the deficit falls to just $260 billion.
But White House budget planners are not stopping there. Administration officials are also invoking optimistic assumptions about rising tax revenue while excluding costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as trillions of dollars in costs that lie just outside Mr. Bush's five-year budget window.
The five-year plan, due in February, is likely to reaffirm previous predictions of a $217 billion surge in tax revenues in 2005, the biggest one-year jump on record, and almost $800 billion a year by 2009.
'We still believe we will see new economic growth, with revenues increasing as a share of G.D.P.,' said Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget, referring to the gross domestic product. 'I think our numbers are very realistic because they are consistent with the best estimates of Wall Street and of the Congressional Budget Office.'
As in past years, the budget will exclude costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which could reach $100 billion in 2005 a"
if this isn't a sign of the end, i don't know what else could be. the very fact that we have kept people, and then let them go years later, provides enough evidence that without due process, we haved turned into the very ones we fight.
Long-Term Plan Sought For Terror Suspects (washingtonpost.com): "Administration officials are preparing long-range plans for indefinitely imprisoning suspected terrorists whom they do not want to set free or turn over to courts in the United States or other countries, according to intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials.
The Pentagon and the CIA have asked the White House to decide on a more permanent approach for potentially lifetime detentions, including for hundreds of people now in military and CIA custody whom the government does not have enough evidence to charge in courts. The outcome of the review, which also involves the State Department, would also affect those expected to be captured in the course of future counterterrorism operations. "
Long-Term Plan Sought For Terror Suspects (washingtonpost.com): "Administration officials are preparing long-range plans for indefinitely imprisoning suspected terrorists whom they do not want to set free or turn over to courts in the United States or other countries, according to intelligence, defense and diplomatic officials.
The Pentagon and the CIA have asked the White House to decide on a more permanent approach for potentially lifetime detentions, including for hundreds of people now in military and CIA custody whom the government does not have enough evidence to charge in courts. The outcome of the review, which also involves the State Department, would also affect those expected to be captured in the course of future counterterrorism operations. "
for future reference. amazing how things that aren't true, become true by virtue of popularity.
DesMoinesRegister.com: "Flag facts
I read William Petroski's Dec. 12 article, 'Inmates at the Mitchellville Women's Prison Assemble Flags That Wave Over the Land of the Free,' with interest, because my book on the history of the American flag will be published June 1 by Thomas Dunne Books at St. Martin's Press.
May I offer a correction? The article says: 'More than 200 years ago, Betsy Ross helped to sew the first American flag for the Revolutionary Army.'
First, there is no credible evidence that Betsy Ross either helped to sew or that she sewed the first American flag. The Betsy Ross story is a myth, first promulgated in 1870 by a grandson and is based solely on family stories - although she was a seamstress in Philadelphia and did make flags.
Second, the Stars and Stripes was not flown by the Revolutionary Army. Aside from regimental flags, the American Army during the Revolutionary War occasionally flew the Continental Colors, also known as the Grand Union flag, a flag with 13 stripes and the British Union Jack in the canton. All of the paintings that show the Army flying the Stars and Stripes, including 'Washington Crossing the Delaware,' are incorrect. The U.S. Army did not adopt the Stars and Stripes until the Mexican War.
-Marc Leepson,
Middleburg, Va."
DesMoinesRegister.com: "Flag facts
I read William Petroski's Dec. 12 article, 'Inmates at the Mitchellville Women's Prison Assemble Flags That Wave Over the Land of the Free,' with interest, because my book on the history of the American flag will be published June 1 by Thomas Dunne Books at St. Martin's Press.
May I offer a correction? The article says: 'More than 200 years ago, Betsy Ross helped to sew the first American flag for the Revolutionary Army.'
First, there is no credible evidence that Betsy Ross either helped to sew or that she sewed the first American flag. The Betsy Ross story is a myth, first promulgated in 1870 by a grandson and is based solely on family stories - although she was a seamstress in Philadelphia and did make flags.
Second, the Stars and Stripes was not flown by the Revolutionary Army. Aside from regimental flags, the American Army during the Revolutionary War occasionally flew the Continental Colors, also known as the Grand Union flag, a flag with 13 stripes and the British Union Jack in the canton. All of the paintings that show the Army flying the Stars and Stripes, including 'Washington Crossing the Delaware,' are incorrect. The U.S. Army did not adopt the Stars and Stripes until the Mexican War.
-Marc Leepson,
Middleburg, Va."
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