U.S. Africa Command Brings New Concerns 29 May 2007 Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 13:24:53 -0500 (CDT) Breaking News and Commentary from Citizens for Legitimate Government 29 May 2007 http://www.legitgov.org/ All links to articles as summarized below are available here: http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news U.S. Africa Command Brings New Concerns --Fears of Militarization on Continent Cited 28 May 2007 The creation of the Defense Department Africa Command has heightened concerns among African countries and in the U.S. government over the militarization of U.S. foreign policy, according to a newly released study by the Congressional Research Service. US warns Iran over arming Iraqis [Apparently, only foreign invaders - US terrorists - are allowed to arm Iraqis. The arms must be purchased from a US defense contractor.] 28 May 2007 The US has called on Iran to stop arming militants in Iraq at the first bilateral public talks between the two countries in almost 30 years. US envoy Ryan Crocker said his Iranian counterpart had rejected the charges at the four-hour talks in Baghdad, which focused exclusively on Iraq's security. Human rights in Iraq: a case to answer --Revealed: How Lord Goldsmith advised Army chiefs to deny detainees 'full' legal protection 29 May 2007 The Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, is facing accusations that he told the Army its soldiers were not bound by the Human Rights Act when arresting, detaining and interrogating Iraqi prisoners. Previously confidential emails, seen by The Independent, between London and British military head-quarters in Iraq soon after the start of the war suggest Lord Goldsmith's advice was to adopt a "pragmatic" approach when handling prisoners and it was not necessary to follow the "higher standards" of the protection of the Human Rights Act. That, according to human rights lawyers, was tantamount to the Attorney General advising the military to ignore the Human Rights Act and to simply observe the Geneva Conventions. Car bombings kill 40 in Baghdad --Men in police uniforms abduct five Britons 29 May 2007 Car bombings killed at least 40 people in Baghdad on Tuesday, while five Britons were kidnapped in the capital by gunmen in police uniforms. Iraq car bomb kills at least 20 28 May 2007 A car bomb in the Iraqi capital Baghdad near one of the city's most revered Sunni mosques killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens more, police said. The bomb went off at 1400 (1000 GMT) in the Sinak commercial district on the eastern bank of the Tigris River. Leading Muslim calligrapher shot 27 May 2007 One of the Muslim world's leading calligraphers has been shot dead by [US] gunmen in Baghdad. Khalil al-Zahawi was the most famous practitioner in Iraq of the art of writing classical Arabic script. He was outside his house in the New Baghdad district of the city on Saturday when he was ambushed by gunmen and killed. Several Western civilians abducted from Baghdad ministry 29 May 2007 [US] Gunmen wearing police commando uniforms abducted several western civilians from a Finance Ministry compound in Baghdad on Tuesday, Iraqi and American officials said, renewing questions about whether elements of Iraq's government are playing an active role in the spread of violence. Four Germans kidnapped in Baghdad 29 May 2007 Four Germans working for the Iraqi finance ministry were kidnapped in Baghdad on Tuesday by men wearing national police uniforms, a security official said. The economists had just left one of the ministry's departments when they were stopped by a police checkpoint on Palestine street, taken out of their cars at gunpoint and driven off. Five Britons seized in central Baghdad 29 May 2007 The Foreign Office today confirmed the kidnapping of five Britons in Iraq, as the government's top-level emergency committee, Cobra, met to discuss the incident. Gunmen wearing police uniforms abducted the group from a finance ministry building in central Baghdad. May deadliest month for U.S. in Iraq this year 29 May 2007 Two U.S. military personnel were killed when their helicopter came down under enemy fire north of Baghdad and six more died when a column of vehicles heading to the crash site was ambushed, the U.S. military said on Tuesday. The deaths on Monday brought the U.S. military death toll in Iraq to [at least] 112 this month, making May the deadliest for 2007 and equalling the record set in December 2006. U.S.: 10 Memorial Day Deaths in Iraq 29 May 2007 Ten American soldiers were killed in roadside bombings and a helicopter crash on Memorial Day, the military reported Tuesday, making May the deadliest month of the year for U.S. troops in Iraq. 'On this day, let us hold our government accountable.' Decorated war hero compares war in Iraq with Vietnam 28 May 2007 (Bristol, CT) U. S. Army Capt. Paul W. Bucha, a highly decorated Vietnam War veteran, delivered an impassioned speech to the attendees of the Memorial Day Armed Forces Tribute on Memorial Boulevard Sunday, comparing the current war in Iraq with the Vietnam conflict. Sheehan quits as face of US anti-war fight 29 May 2007 Cindy Sheehan, whose soldier son was killed in Iraq three years ago, said yesterday she was stepping down from her role as the figurehead of the US campaign against the war. British soldier killed in southern Afghanistan 29 May 2007 A British soldier was killed Monday by "enemy action" in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence reported in London. Mondays death brings the total number of British soldiers killed since being deployed to Afghanistan in November 2001 to 56. Bush okayed 'soft revolution' in Iran 26 May 2007 The US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) received presidential approval for a covert operation in Iran aimed at destabilizing the Islamic Republic by "non-lethal" means, ABC news reported early Saturday morning. [I'm waiting for someone to okay a soft (or hard) revolution in the US.] 3 Iranian-Americans charged with spying 29 May 2007 U.S. 'academic' Haleh Esfandiari and two other Iranian-Americans have been charged with endangering national security and espionage, Iran's judiciary spokesman said Tuesday. U.S. missile shield turns Europe into powder keg: Putin 29 May 2007 Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday warned that deploying a U.S. missile shield in Europe would turn the continent into "a powder keg," Itar-Tass news agency reported. Russia tests missile able to 'penetrate' defences 29 May 2007 Russia on Tuesday said it had successfully tested a new multiple warhead ballistic missile designed to overcome air-defence systems such as the US shield planned for deployment in central Europe. CNN Accused of Lying about Venezuela 28 May 2007 The Venezuelan Government accused CNN on Monday of lying about Venezuela and producing political propaganda, and requested an investigation into local Globovision channel for possible incitement to assassination. Communication and Information Minister William Lara made the denunciation after presenting the Attorney General's Office with a demand to investigate Globovision. Guantanamo prisoner urges release of BBC reporter 28 May 2007 A TV cameraman held prisoner for years at the U.S. Navy base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, has issued an impassioned plea for the release of a BBC journalist kidnapped in Gaza. "While the United States has kidnapped me and held me for years on end, this is not a lesson that Muslims should copy," said Guantanamo detainee Sami al-Hajj of the al-Jazeera satellite television network. Hain: Danger of 'domestic Guatanamo Bay' 29 May 2007 Peter Hain, minister for Northern Ireland and a front-runner for the post of Labour deputy leader, has voiced concern over plans to extend police search-and-question powers. Speaking on the BBC's Sunday AM programme, Mr Hain said: "We've got to be very careful that we don't create circumstances that are the domestic equivalent of Guantanamo Bay. And Guantanamo Bay, which was an international abuse of human rights, acted as a recruiting sergeant for dissidents and alienated Muslims, and alienated many other people across the world." Lord Carlile: Judges should not intervene on control orders 29 May 2007 The courts should re-examine their approach to the Government's controversial control orders so that tougher restrictions can be imposed on suspects, the terrorism watchdog has said. Lord Carlile of Berriew QC dismissed suggestions that Britain may need to opt out of part of the European Convention on Human Rights to introduce a new type of tougher control order. In a speech in central London, he said such a move would be "extremely unwise" and "unnecessary". Blair accuses courts of putting rights of terrorist suspects first 28 May 2007 Tony Blair has hit out at judges and opposition MPs for putting the human rights of terrorist suspects above the protection of citizens. He spoke out as the Government prepares to set out fresh proposals for antiterrorist legislation after three men on control orders went on the run. Providers move to postcode terrorism cover 28 May 2007 US life assurers are adopting a more aggressive model to reflect the greater likelihood that certain neighbourhoods will fall victim to terrorist attacks or catastrophes. The move, in which the industry has implemented the kind of risk management tools previously restricted to property and casualty insurance, means that life assurers could start to charge clients according to which city or even which neighbourhood they live in. 'Maybe the smartest thing to do is to pull it.' Lucky Larry makes another killing on Bush bin Laden's terrorist attacks: Insurers Agree to Pay Billions at Ground Zero 24 May 2007 The Spitzer administration announced the settlement of all insurance claims at ground zero yesterday, ensuring that $4.55 billion will be available for rebuilding the World Trade Center site. The agreement, which the insurers described as the largest single insurance settlement ever undertaken by the industry, ended a protracted legal battle with insurers over payouts related to the terrorist attack. Democrats in Washington want to keep impeachment off the table 28 May 2007 The push to impeach President [sic] Bush and Vice President [sic] Dick Cheney is gaining a hearing in some parts of the country, but not in Washington. More than 70 cities and 14 state Democratic parties have urged impeachment or investigations that could lead to impeachment. The most common charge is that Bush manipulated intelligence to lead the country into the Iraq war. Other charges include spying on Americans and torturing suspected terrorists in violation of U.S. and international law. Protesters, Visitors Flock to Creation 'Museum' 28 May 2007 Adam and Eve fall from grace and Noah survives an epic flood at a new 'museum' that tells the Bible's version of history on a theme-park scale. But it's the life-sized scene near the Creation Museum's front lobby that might stop a puzzled paleontologist in his tracks. There, next to a gurgling waterfall, a pair of ancient children frolic just a few feet away from a group of friendly dinosaurs [!]. As the doors opened, about 100 protesters were outside the front gates, News 5's Brian Hamrick said. Mega barf alert! Massive Creation 'Museum' Pairs Bible With Dinosaurs 28 May 2007 A new theme park that features the Bible as a literal story, albeit one in which children cavort with dinosaurs, has opened in Ohio. The non-profit group [Answers in Genesis Ministry] created the US$27 million Creation 'Museum' near Cincinnati. Lawmakers Push for Big Subsidies for Coal Process 29 May 2007 Even as Congressional leaders draft legislation to reduce greenhouse gases linked to global warming, a powerful roster of Democrats and Republicans is pushing to subsidize coal as the king of alternative fuels. Prodded by intense lobbying from the coal industry, lawmakers from coal states are proposing that taxpayers guarantee billions of dollars in construction loans for coal-to-liquid production plants, guarantee minimum prices for the new fuel, and guarantee big government purchases for the next 25 years. Net taxes could arrive by this fall 23 May 2007 State and local governments this week resumed a push to lobby Congress for far-reaching changes on two different fronts: gaining the ability to impose sales taxes on Net shopping, and being able to levy new monthly taxes on DSL and other connections. One senator is even predicting taxes on e-mail. Supreme Court limits gender pay discrimination lawsuits 29 May 2007 The US Supreme [Corporate Whore] Court ruled Tuesday that an employee cannot bring a lawsuit for pay discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for allegedly discriminatory actions that occurred outside the statutory limitations period even when a paycheck is received during the statutory limitations period. US 'to reject' climate change proposals 27 May 2007 The United States is preparing to reject new targets on climate change at a Group of Eight summit next month, dashing German and British hopes for a new global pact on carbon emissions, according to comments on a document released by the environmental group Greenpeace. Polar bears lose their grip as the ice below melts 29 May 2007 Time may be running out for polar bears as global warming melts the ice beneath their paws. Restrictions or bans on hunting in recent decades have helped protect populations, but many experts say the long-term outlook is bleak. [See: Polar Bear SOS.] WWF and Canon Europe launch 'Save the Polar Bear' website for children 28 May 2007 WWF and Canon Europe have launched a 'Save the Polar Bear' website as an educational tool to teach children about the environmental impacts of climate change. CLGers, we need your support. http://www.legitgov.org/#contribute Or, please mail a check or money order to the CLG: Citizens for Legitimate Government (CLG) P.O. Box 1142 Bristol, CT 06011-1142 Contributions to CLG are not tax deductible. [Previous lead stories:] Bush endorses CIA plans for regime change in Iran 28 May 2007 President [sic] George W Bush has given the CIA approval to launch covert 'black' operations to achieve regime change in Iran, intelligence sources have revealed. Bush has signed an official document endorsing CIA plans for a propaganda and disinformation campaign intended to destabilise, and eventually topple, the theocratic rule of the mullahs. Under the plan, pressure will be brought to bear on the Iranian economy by manipulating the country's currency and international financial transactions. Details have also emerged of a covert scheme to sabotage the Iranian nuclear programme, which United Nations nuclear watchdogs said last week could lead to a bomb within three years. Iran says it has uncovered several U.S. spy networks 26 May 2007 Iran is claiming to have uncovered a number of spy rings it says have been organized by the United States and its Western allies. In a statement carried on state[as opposed to corporate]-run television, the Intelligence Ministry says that the espionage networks were made up of "infiltrating elements from the Iraqi occupiers." Iran uses the phrase "Iraqi occupiers" as shorthand for the US and its allies. [Everyone does.] U.S. Security Contractors Open Fire in Baghdad --Blackwater Mercenaries Were Involved in Two Shooting Incidents in Past Week 27 May 2007 Mercenaries of Blackwater USA, a private security firm under contract to the State Department, opened fire on the streets of Baghdad twice in two days last week, and one of the incidents provoked a standoff between the mercenaries and Iraqi forces, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. A Blackwater guard shot and killed an Iraqi driver Thursday near the Interior Ministry, according to three U.S. officials and one Iraqi official who were briefed on the incident but spoke on condition of anonymity because of a pending investigation [cover-up]. Please forward this newsletter to anyone you think might be interested. Those who'd like to be added to the Newsletter list can sign up: http://www.legitgov.org/#subscribe_clg. Please write to: signup@legitgov.org for inquiries. CLG Newsletter editor: Lori Price, Manager. Copyright ) 2007, Citizens For Legitimate Government . All rights reserved. CLG Founder and Chair is Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D. Fox's Baier reported book's claim of a Clinton "pact," but not key Date: Tue, 29 May 2007 15:08:06 -0400

Fox's Baier reported book's claim of a Clinton "pact," but not key figure's rebuttal of claim

http://mediamatters.org/items/200705290005

On the May 25 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, guest host and Fox News chief White House correspondent Bret Baier reported the allegation in the forthcoming book Her Way: The Hopes and Ambitions of Hillary Rodham Clinton (Little, Brown), by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr., that Clinton and her husband, in Baier's words, "made a pact in 1992 that Mrs. Clinton would run for the presidency after her husband left office." Although Baier cited a May 25 Washington Post article that reported the book's claim, he did not mention that historian Taylor Branch, a key figure in the book's description of the Clintons' purported "secret pact of ambition," was quoted in the Post article, calling the story "preposterous," as Media Matters for America noted.

From the May 25 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:

BAIER: And now, some fresh pickings from the "Political Grapevine." Two new books about Hillary Clinton will hit the stores next month, both written by long-established writers and marketed by major publishers.

The Washington Post reports Carl Bernstein's 640-page book asserts that Mrs. Clinton was convinced that she would be indicted for perjury or obstruction of justice in the Whitewater investigation. He also says Mrs. Clinton considered a run for the Arkansas governor's seat in 1989 out of what Bernstein calls, quote, "anger and hurt" over Bill Clinton's infidelity. And, he writes, Mrs. Clinton told a friend that Bill Clinton's winning the presidency, quote, "would be good for the marriage because her husband's sexual compulsions would be tempered by the White House and the ever-present press corps."

The other book, written by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr., says the Clintons made a pact in 1992 that Mrs. Clinton would run for the presidency after her husband left office. It states that Senator Clinton did not read the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq before voting to authorize the war. The Clinton camp acknowledges several of the points raised in the second book and says both efforts mainly rehash old news.

From the May 25 Washington Post article:

According to Gerth and Van Natta, even before the Clintons were married they formulated a "secret pact of ambition" aimed at reinventing the Democratic Party and getting to the White House. The authors cite a former Bill Clinton girlfriend, Marla Crider, who said she saw a letter on his desk written by Hillary Clinton, outlining the couple's long-term ambitions, which they called their "twenty-year project."

Crider was first quoted about the letter in a book by a former National Enquirer reporter in 2000, at the time describing it as more about Bill Clinton's infidelities and the "little girls" he had. Gerth and Van Natta, however, report that they re-interviewed Crider and that she said the earlier book's account was "not totally accurate." In this telling, Crider described the note as being more about the couple's political plans, with little discussion of their personal relationship.

The authors report that the Clintons updated their plan after the 1992 election, determining that Hillary would run when Bill left office. They cite two people, Ann Crittenden and John Henry, who said Taylor Branch, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and close Clinton friend, told them that the Clintons "still planned two terms in the White House for Bill and, later, two for Hillary." Contacted last night, Branch said that "the story is preposterous" and that "I never heard either Clinton talk about a 'plan' for them both to become president."

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