The FBI secretly sought information last year on 3,501 U.S. citizens and legal residents from their banks and credit card, telephone and Internet companies without a court's approval, the Justice Department said Friday.

That's one out of every 85,000 people in the US (roughly). Now it wouldn't surprise me if there are 3500 people who should be checked out, but that's the whole point of FISA and the fact that they can RETROACTIVELY approve searches. National Security Letters have already been discussed here but as also discussed here they get used in areas that have nothing to do with National Security.

AOL News - FBI Investigated 3,501 People Without Warrants

The CIA has conducted more than 1,000 clandestine flights in Europe since 2001, and some of them secretly took away terror suspects to countries where they could face torture, European Union lawmakers said Wednesday.

Sixty years ago we were hanging Germans and Japanese for doing things like this. Now we give them Presidential Medals of Freedom. In the words of Walt Kelly, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

EU Lawmakers Allege Numerous CIA Flights - Yahoo! News

These former officials contrasted the Roberts case with last week's firing of CIA officer Mary O. McCarthy, as examples of how rank and file intelligence professionals now have much to fear from legitimate and even inadvertent contacts with journalists, while senior executive branch officials and members of Congress are almost never held accountable when they seriously breach national security through leaks of information.

"On a scale of one to ten, if Mary McCarthy did what she is accused of doing, it would be at best a six or seven," said one former senior intelligence official, whose position required involvement in numerous leak investigations. "What Pat Roberts did, from a legal and national security point of view, was an eleven."

Here's your next installment in the War of Terror. If it's good for the administration but bad for the country, it's ok. If it's bad for the administration but good for the country, you get fired.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Is There A Double Standard On Leak Probes? (04/25/06)

Sadly, one has to wonder whether in fact such suspicions may not be partially justified. How else to explain the current U.S. "negotiating" stance: the United States is refusing to participate in the on-going negotiations with Iran but insists on dealing only through proxies. That stands in sharp contrast with the simultaneous negotiations with North Korea, in which the United States is actively engaged.

At the same time, the United States is allocating funds for the destabilization of the Iranian regime and is reportedly injecting Special Forces teams into Iran to stir up non-Iranian ethnic minorities in order to fragment the Iranian state (in the name of democratization!). And there are people in the Bush administration who do not wish any negotiated solution, abetted by outside drum-beaters for military action and egged on by full-page ads hyping the Iranian threat.

This is from Zbigniew Brzezinski, who will now be shouted down by the right as some sort of appeasenik. Very little could be farther from the truth. This is the son of a Polish diplomat who was present for Stalin's purges and Hitler's rise to power and was lucky enough to have been in Canada with the Polish mission when World War II broke out, and has as good an understanding of foreign affairs as anyone in this country. When he says "bad idea," take it to the bank.

Do not attack Iran - International Herald Tribune

President Bush on Tuesday ordered a temporary suspension of environmental rules for gasoline, making it easier for refiners to meet demand and possibly dampen prices at the pump.

Great, so the price stays the same and Exxon makes MORE??? George, you're insane.

Bush Eases Environmental Rules on Gasoline - Yahoo! News

"If you prevent countries from using generic drugs," said Pedro Chequer, the head of Brazil's national AIDS program, "you are creating a concrete obstacle to providing access to drugs. You are promoting genocide, because you're killing people."

Maybe if the drug companies spent money on R&D anywhere near the amount they spend on advertising or lining their pockets, they'd already have the next generation of drugs ready to make money with.

U.S. pushes to limit generic-drug rights in trade pacts - Business - International Herald Tribune

While the Defense Department has produced volumes of public reports and testimony about its detention practices and rules after the abuse scandals at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison and at Guantanamo Bay, the CIA has not even acknowledged the existence of its black sites. To do so, say officials familiar with the program, could open the U.S. government to legal challenges, particularly in foreign courts, and increase the risk of political condemnation at home and abroad.

Here you go. Here's your "War on Terror." I'd like to thank the current administration for lowering the human rights standards of the United States into the area of such towering 20th century figures as the Somozas, and Hideki Tojo.

How many people have been killed in Guantanamo, Abu Gharib, Bagram and the black prisons being operated? Hell, how many people are even IN them? This is AMERICA. When we say something about "the rule of law" it's supposed to mean something. It does not mean, "Hey, we caught this guy skulking around over there, let's beat the shit out of him until he says what he was doing, and if he croaks well too bad." It does not mean making the middle east once again safe for forced protitution and slavery.

When this country fought World War II it was to stop the agression of Germany and along the way it became about genocide. When this country fought in Korea it was to stop the commies who were doing this kind of thing in Russia under Stalin and in China under Mao. When this country fought in Vietnam it was ostensibly for the same reasons and when we realized the people we were supporting were no better and it was turning us into the same kind of people we were fighting, we got the hell out. We stopped propping up the Somozas. We stopped supporting the Shah. We stopped supporting the Duvaliers. We stopped supporting Augusto Pinochet. We stopped supporting Ferdinand Marcos. We fought against Slobodan Milosovic. We stopped supporting Saddam Hussain and fought to remove him from Kuwait.

The people who acted at Bagram and Abu Gharib bear direct responsibilty for their actions, and those actions are called war crimes. They have done what John Demjanjuk was accused of. The people who oversaw and approved those actions are no different from the people who ran POW camps for Japan in World War II or the people who ran the camps where John McCain and ... [ Read More (0.2k in body) ]

CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons

The veteran rocker hired the luxury Royal Suite at the five-star Imperial Hotel in Vienna, Austria, for June when the Stones are due to play a gig in the city.

Bush’s aides then tried to book it to tie in with a summit meeting.

But Mick put his foot down and insisted he was keeping the booking.

Sorry W, they're just looking out for their future interests.

The Sun Online - News: Mick beats George to suite

HJ0125 - 2 - LRB094 20306 RLC 58347 r

1 to fully investigate these charges to date; therefore, be it

2 RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
3 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE
4 SENATE CONCURRING HEREIN, that the General Assembly of the
5 State of Illinois has good cause to submit charges to the U. S.
6 House of Representatives under Section 603 that the President
7 of the United States has willfully violated his Oath of Office
8 to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United
9 States; and be it further

10 RESOLVED, That George W. Bush, if found guilty of the
11 charges contained herein, should be removed from office and
12 disqualified to hold any other office in the United States.

Will wonders never cease.

Bush Impeachment - The Illinois State Legislature is Preparing to Drop a Bombshell

A sharp disagreement ensued between the FBI and senior Justice Department officials overseeing the case, according to federal law enforcement officials. The FBI was convinced not only that Shelby leaked the information regarding the intercepts, but also that the senator might have misled the FBI when he was interviewed about his actions, according to sources. They advocated that Shelby be prosecuted.

Here's something I hadn't seen before. It seems the FBI wanted to go get this guy, but he appears to have been bailed out to keep the Republicans from looking even worse, and they may have done the exact same thing on the leaking of the Abu Gharib mess.

Still more in a VERY long list of at best unethical moves from our friends at the GOP. With friends like these, who needs enemies?

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Senate Ethics Committee Clears Shelby (11/13/2005)