Washington, D.C.,: “Tomorrow is the Day of Wrath and the Day of Mourning (for those of you who know the Catholic Mass) Many voters (the ones the Republican tricksters have credited with voting) believe that if the Congress changes hands, all will be well. I am sorry to disappoint their dreams but it will not.

It is well known here in the White House that both Bush and Cheney will pay absolutely no attention to a Democrat-controlled House or Senate. They both firmly believe they have a Mandate from God to run this country they way they want. Cheney is far more powerful, and certainly more intelligent, than Bush but in his own way, he is crazier.

Bush has severe sexual identity problems (as witness Gannon, the eight inch male whore) running around the White House at night on fourteen unsupervised occasions, which manifested themselves while he was a precious cheerleader at Yale, and he will never yield to any demands by anyone because he has achieved his current manhood by fiat and will do nothing to lose it.

If a Democratic Congress refuses to pass a bill, for instance, to arrest all the Quakers as subversive, Bush will simply ignore this and have his worthless, butt-sucking AG send out the FBI to round them up.

Or, and more to the point, he will issue some weird orders to the Pentagon, and since they would be physically impossible to implement, then try to fire any senior officer who dared to defy him.

In any case, we will then be approaching a serious, or even critical, constitutional crisis that might well result in our Beloved-of-God President being defied and physically removed from the Oval Office, the White House living quarters and probably the district itself.

It is interesting to read a CIA report prepared for Bush concerning Vladimir Putin. Bush hates him with a passion, partially because Putin is a man and partially because Putin grabbed up all the oil and gas and kicked out the Jewish Mafia that had taken control of it.

The plan was to sell their interest in the privatized resources to American and British firms (BP and Mobil/Exxon) but Putin beat them to it after both companies had invested many, many millions in new oil and gas field equipment and they lost every penny of it.

Bush wants Putin, who is supposed to be out of office in 2008, replaced with a U.S. stooge who will promptly “privatize” Russian resources and sell them out again.

The CIA/White House have a candidate all set up and a budget that will supply their puppet with 20 million dollars in CIA cash to push his candidacy.

A pity if the Russians got this most informative and detailed report, which, I hasten to inform you, I do not have a copy of. I understand, however, that others do.

Remember, the Republicans should vote early and vote often. Bush is so inspiring and so obviously Sent by God, that I have no doubt even the dead will vote a straight (sorry about the choice of words, no offense, George) Republican ticket!”  

DoD Domestic Spying
Thou, God, Seest Me: A Current History of Rumsfeld’s Gestapo
November 6th 2006
by Brian Harring
 

The Pentagon is currently conducting a highly secret surveillance of protest activities, anti-war organizations and groups an individuals opposed to current military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq as well as military recruitment policies within the United States. (see Appendix for excerpts of the founding official document).The Pentagon shares the information it gains from illegal telephone intercepts, in conjunction with the NSA, with other government agencies through the Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON) database.

The TALON database was intended to track groups or individuals with links to terrorism, but in truth the Pentagon gathers information on anti-war protesters using sources from the Department of Homeland Security, local police departments and FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces.

As an example, anti-Bush and anti-Iraqi war protest activities across the country organized or supported by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker peace group are under constant surveillance The source for the information is identified as "a special agent of the federal protective service, U.S. Department of Homeland Security," who is apparently on the AFSC e-mail list.

The Defense Department cites acts of civil disobedience and vandalism as cause to label anti-war protests as "radical" and potential terrorist threats in some of the TALON reports. In a confidential TALON document citing the Department of Homeland Security as its source, listed Atlanta. Georgia, area protests by the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition, the Pentagon - - and states that the Students for Peace and Justice network poses a threat to DOD personnel.

To support that claim, the TALON report cites previous acts of civil disobedience in California and Texas, including sit-ins, disruptions at recruitment offices and street theater. Describing one protest in Austin, Texas, the document notes: "The protesters blocked the entrance to the recruitment office with two coffins, one draped with an American flag and the other covered with an Iraqi flag, taped posters on the window of the office and chanted, ‘No more war and occupation. You don’t have to die for an education.’"

The U.S. Department of Defense under the direction of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld at the request of President Bush, directed a little known agency, Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, to establish and “maintain a domestic law enforcement database that includes information related to potential terrorist threats directed against the Department of Defense.” Then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz also established a new reporting mechanism known as a TALON or Threat and Local Observation Notice report. TALONs now provide “non-validated domestic threat information” from military units throughout the United States that are collected and retained in a CIFA database. The reports include details on potential surveillance of military bases, stolen vehicles, bomb threats and planned anti-war protests. In the program’s first year, the agency received more than 5,000 TALON reports.

CIFA has become the superpower of data mining within the U.S. national security community. Its “operational and analytical records” include “reports of investigation, collection reports, statements of individuals, affidavits, correspondence, and other documentation pertaining to investigative or analytical efforts” by the DOD and other U.S. government agencies to identify terrorist and other threats. Since March 2004, CIFA has awarded at least $33 million in contracts to corporate giants Lockheed Martin, Unisys Corporation, Computer Sciences Corporation and Northrop Grumman to develop databases that comb through classified and unclassified government data, commercial information and Internet chatter to help sniff out terrorists, saboteurs and spies.

The Defense Department document is the first inside look at how the U.S. military has stepped up intelligence collection inside this country since 9/11, which now includes the monitoring of peaceful anti-war and counter-military recruitment groups.

The military has always had a legitimate “force protection” mission inside the U.S. to protect its personnel and facilities from potential violence. But the Pentagon now collects domestic intelligence that goes beyond legitimate concerns about terrorism or protecting U.S. military installations. As well as to “fully investigate any American citizen who expresses a negative attitude towards the U.S., its policies or its government employees”

Herewith for your information is a general overview of the means by which the Pentagon has established a powerful internal surveillance system directed against any individual or group deemed to be hostile to American interests. In this matter, “American interests” is equated with the policies of the Bush Administration.

We will start out with an overview of the 902nd Military Intelligence Group that is directly responsible for this domestic surveillance and spying activities along with their TO&E, methods of technical and personal surveillance and an Appendix that contains the official background of this program.

Subsequent articles will cover additional organizations and methods and will conclude with a listing of individuals and organizations deemed to be subversive. BH

The 902nd Military Intelligence Group

Name: 902nd Military Intelligence Group. (‘The Duce”)

Address: Nathan Hale Hall, 4554 Llewellyn Ave. Fort George G. Meade, MD

Commanding Officer: Colonel Christopher L. Winne as of July, 2006 Serial Number 051201

CV of CO : July 20, 2003 as Lt Col Cmd 205th Military Intelligence Battalion, 500th MI Group

Col.Christopher L. Winne. Schofield Barracks Hawaii

No of employees, 1097

Email address: (Now removed from the internet as are all such official U.S. MI sites)  www.inscom.army.mil/902nd/pao/overview/index.htm

The main purpose of the 902nd Military Intelligence Group is to infiltrate any domestic American group deemed to be “potentially hostile” to U.S. “geo-political aims and goals.” The 902nd Military Intelligence Group conducts counterintelligence activities to “protect the U.S. Army, selected Department of Defense forces and agencies, classified information and technologies by detecting, identifying, neutralizing and exploiting foreign intelligence services and transnational terrorist threats.”

The 902nd MI Group headquarters and subordinate battalion activity headquarters are located at Fort George G. Meade, Md. The 902nd MI Group has company headquarters detachments and resident or field offices in more than 50 locations inside and outside the continental U.S.

The 902nd MI Group consists of the Headquarters and Headquarters Detachment, 310th MI Battalion, 0th MI Battalion and the U.S. Army Foreign Counterintelligence Activity.

The HHD provides personnel administration, training, and logistical support to the 3 02nd MI Group’s headquarters, as well as to subordinate units located at Fort George G. Meade.

In addition, the HHD Special Security Office serves not only the 902nd MI Group, but the entire installation. Without deviating from its core mission, the detachment prepares its Soldiers and civilians to execute their duties in an ever-changing military intelligence environment.

The 310th MI Battalion conducts counterintelligence operations throughout the continental United States to detect, identify, neutralize and defeat the foreign intelligence services and international terrorism threats to U.S. Army and selected Defense Department forces, technologies, information and infrastructure.

The 310th MI Battalion conducts worldwide counterespionage and counter-intelligence investigations, counterintelligence operations and multidiscipline counterintelligence technical operations in support of the Army and defense agencies in peace and war.

FCA is a multi-function, strategic counterintelligence activity that supports U. S.

Army and national counterintelligence and counterterrorist objectives by detecting, identifying and providing a unique operational “window” into foreign intelligence organizations worldwide.

Organizational Structure and Regional Offices of the 902nd Military Intelligence Group.
902d Military Intelligence Group
Building 4554 Llewellyn Avenue
Fort George G. Meade, MD 20755-5910
Ft Meade DSN: 622-8103
COMM: 301-677-5050
902d MI Group Operations
4665/2049
308th MI BN Operations
7885/7887
(General CI Support)
310th MI BN Operations
6717/2445
(Technical CI Support)
Foreign CI Activity
308th MI BN
Geographic Offices
DSN / COMM
A CO Aberdeen, MD
298-7799 / 410-278-7799
APG, MD
298-2913 / 410-278-2913
Detroit, MI
786-7842 / 586-574-7842
Ft Monmouth, NJ
992-4173 / 732-532-4173
Ft Monroe, VA
680-2030 / 757-788-2030
National Capital Region
655-3008 / 703-805-3008
New England
256-3735 / 978-796-3735
Rock Island, IL
793-5042 / 309-782-5042
B CO Redstone, AL
788-7618 / 256-876-7746
Ft Benning, GA
835-2828 / 706-545-2828
Ft Bragg, NC
236-4809 / 910-396-4809
Ft Campbell, KY
635-0952 / 270-798-0952
Ft Gordon, GA
780-9409 / 706-791-9409
Ft Knox, KY
464-7647 / 502-624-7647
Miami, FL
567-1286 / 305-437-1286
Orlando, FL
791-4088 / 407-646-4088
Redstone MID, AL
897-5186 / 256-313-5186
C CO Leavenworth, KS
552-7869 / 913-684-7869
Ft Bliss, TX
978-2697 / 915-568-2697
Ft Carson, CO
691-4815 / 719-526-4815
Ft Hood, TX
737-2507 / 254-287-2507
Ft Huachuca, AZ
821-2214 / 520-533-2214
Ft Leavenworth, KS
552-7876 / 913-684-7876
Ft Leonard Wood, MO
581-0598 / 573-596-0598
Ft Lewis, WA
357-2501 / 253-967-2501
Ft Sill, OK
639-2720 / 580-442-2720
Los Alamitos, CA
972-1316 / 562-795-1316
White Sands, NM
258-5022 / 505-678-5022
310 Bn

Excerpts from official 902 policy guides as of 12 Oct 06

“Information for persons expressing interest in our domestic surveillance programs:

Report to us immediately the following activity that could be an indicator of terrorist, anti-government or espionage activity:

- Surveillance -- Someone recording or monitoring military activities, including the use of cameras, note taking, drawing diagrams, writing maps, or using binoculars or other vision enhancing devices.

- Elicitation -- Anyone or any organization attempting to gain information by mail, fax, telephone, or in person, about military operations, facilities, technology or personnel.

- Tests of Security -- Any attempts to measure reaction times to security breaches or to penetrate physical security barriers or procedures.

- Acquiring Supplies -- Purchasing or stealing explosives, weapons, ammunition, uniforms, base decals, military manuals, passes or badges (or the equipment to manufacture them), or other military controlled items.

- Suspicious Persons Out of Place -- People who don't seem to belong in the workplace, neighborhood, business establishment, or anywhere else. This also includes suspicious border crossings, stowaways aboard vessels or people jumping ship in port.

- Dry Runs -- Putting people into position and moving them around without actually committing a terrorist act such as a kidnapping or bombing. An element of this activity could also include mapping out routes and determining the timing of traffic lights and flow.

- Deploying Assets -- People and supplies getting into position to commit an act of terrorism. This is the last opportunity to alert authorities before an act of terrorism occurs.”

There are three main ways to intercept communications from domestic suspected parties:

Material Branching:

This is a way of intercepting communications in which there is material connection by the means of communication such as wires or optometric cables or telephone transformers. This is why it is considered a technologically weak way when compared with the abilities of modern communications technology. It is carried out either by secret branching or branch lines provided by the telephone companies. With the passage of time, the Echelon spies depended on the branch lines provided by the telephone companies. An official in the British court, for example, said the officials of British Telecom (BT) have supplied the spies at Menwith Hill Station in England with links connected to high capacity optometric cables with a capacity of 100,000 telephone calls conducted at the same time.

Intercepting Space Satellite Signals:

In the world of modern communications, telephone calls go from city to city through space satellites. The communication signal is sent to a communications space satellite, which sends the signal to the nearest ground station to the intended recipient so that it can be directed to the recipient. It is possible to receive the signals returning to earth across vast areas of (thousands of kilometers), so any ground aerial directed toward the communications satellite can pick up the signal of the call. Depending on this fact, the Echelon system has ground stations directed toward any communications space satellite in any orbit around the earth.

Intercepting Microwaves:

Most regional communications occur from and to towers that have aerials for transmission and reception, which we see while traveling within a distance of (usually 25 miles) between one tower and another. Although the signal is transferred directly from one aerial to another, that does not mean that 100% of the signal is transferred to the receiving aerial. Less than 1% is received by the receiving aerial, while the remainder continues in a straight line. A space satellite can receive the remaining waves if it intercepts it, instead of its loss in space. If commercial satellites have the ability to intercept the waves, even when it detects at an 8-degree angle, the highly sensitive espionage satellites can observe hundreds of microwave towers at the same time and pick up the incoming and outgoing signals from these towers.

Translation:

As soon as a signal is picked up, computers will break it down according to its type (sound, fax, etc.) and it will be directed to its relevant system. The digital statements like those of the Internet are directly sent to the analysis stage, while faxes and sounds need a translation process and to be transferred into digital signals first.

Fax Statements:

Fax messages, after being separated from other signals, pass through computers, which are high-speed scanners with “OCR” Optical Character Recognition able to analyze lines in all languages and in all fonts. Then it is transferred into digital signals. Although there are no programs for analyzing handwriting, handwritten fax messages, this does not mean that they are neglected or that there are no programs that can - even partially - analyze handwriting.

Sound:

Voice calls pass through high-speed computers that can identify voices by using a program called “Oratory,” in which sound communications are digitalized and sent to the analyzing computers. Some leaked news indicates that the voice identifying computer has a partial ability to analyze, and it is sensitive to some spoken words according to each language or dialect in the world.

Analysis:

After transferring all picked up messages into digital statements, they are sent to the analyzing computers, which look for the presence of some words by using Echelon’s special dictionary. Naturally, sensitivity is high for some words that represent the nerves of that dictionary regarding espionage concerns. That is in addition to some emerging or temporary words that concern certain topics. We repeat that the analyzing computers are able to identify any word in any language or dialect on earth. With the advance of technologies, the analyzing process has become a process of “Objective Analysis.” Some of these computers were able to identify - after spying on a competitor for some inventions and finding the subject of the invention - from a summary - a sentence on “a project to put a descriptive title for a document that contains some words that do not appear in the text.”

When cellular telephones spread after 1990, it was commonly believed that they could not be subjected to observation or eavesdropping because they were using the “GSM” system. Faced with this difficulty, the CIA asked for small chips to be inserted inside the phones so that the CIA could observe the conversations conducted. While that was being discussed and its legality questioned, a German company called “Rohde & Schwarz" developed a system called the "IMSI catcher," which is an abbreviation for "International Mobile Subscriber Identity." The system overcame that difficulty by collecting all the signals issued by those telephones and transferring them into words that can be heard.

In addition to infiltrating the calls made by mobile telephones, the German Intelligence Service could know where the callers were, and they have developed an electronic device by which they can use the mike inside the mobile phone to transmit all the voices and conversations surrounding it. This electronic system was quickly used by the NSA and the CIA. And that marvelous technological progress was a reason behind the assassination of a number of Mujahideen leaders like Yahya Ayyash and the Chechen President Dudayev. Ocalan made the same deadly mistake when he made a telephone call to the conference of Kurdish Parliamentarians in Europe, and the place where he made the call from was identified.

After that, Pangolos, who is the former Greek Foreign Minister, angrily said, "How many times did we tell that fool not to use his mobile phone." Indeed, the reason why all American Intelligence Services failed to find the Somali General Idid is because he never used any electronic devices during the crisis. (And this is one of the shortcomings of the technological progress).

Because incoming calls are in the millions, they cannot all be monitored. It is possible to identify selected words so that the surveillance devices can sort them out whether they are in writing or in voice by selecting words like (Jihad, Operation, Martyrdom, or names like: Usama bin Laden, Mulla Umar, the Sheikh, etc.) or the surveillance may be for a certain language like Arabic in non-Arab countries.

On the other hand, the surveillance may be for a certain number or for detecting a certain voice fingerprint for a wanted person. When a person's number is detected the recorded calls can be retrieved whether it was incoming or outgoing on that number; for those who are afraid of surveillance, if they use a mobile phone, it is better to use the chips that are sold without documents or with fake documents and to periodically change them. When using a second chip, it should not be used on his old device, which he must sell somewhere or to a person whom he does not know.

Electronic Eavesdropping Devices:

1- Laser Microphone:

One of the devices revealed in an Internet site is the "Laser Microphone," which is used in eavesdropping on conversations taking place in closed rooms. Laser rays are directed at a window in the room and when they bounce back, they carry with them the frequencies occurring on the glass of that window resulting from the conversations currently taking place. The frequencies are recorded and easily transferred into a clear voice representing the voices of the speakers in that room. The laser microphone, in addition to recording the voices, can also pick up any signal from any electronic device in the room.

2- A Device Called "TX":

Once this device had been invented, there was no need for planting a small transmitter inside the telephone that is going to be eavesdropped on. It became possible by using this device to remotely access the telephone line without anyone being aware of it. This device can also transfer the telephone in the room into a transmitter that can transmit all calls and conversations made inside the room; even when the telephone is off, the device can magnify the weak frequencies sent by the telephone in its normal state "when not in use." And the device records all the conversations carried out in the room. For this device to have access to any telephone line, all that is needed is to dial the telephone number and when the receiver is picked up to apologize that it is a wrong number, then everything will happen.

3- A Docket recorder that operates as soon as the pen is drawn from it:

If you sit with a lawyer and find that he is drawing a pen from his pocket and putting it back, then drawing it out again, etc... then be watchful because he may be armed with this strange device, which records every word you say. It is a small, sensitive recording device put inside a shirt or a jacket pocket. Inside the device is an ordinary pen; when the pen is drawn from the device, it starts recording without emanating any sound. If you put the pen back, the recording stops. The device is sensitive and can pick up every word. It contains two speeds that you can control.

4- Small Video Camera the Size of a Lentil that Can Be Hidden Anvwhere:

This small video camera can be hidden anywhere. The camera is the black dot on this page, its size is no bigger than a single lentil, and it is connected to two wires that can be connected to a recorder and a television. The power and clarity of the camera is equal to an ordinary video camera and it can be put inside a clock or fan or any piece of furniture because it does not look like a camera, and it is very difficult to discover. It can be planted in houses, offices, or stores. And according to the manufacturers, the person who looks directly at this camera will not know that it is a video camera with all its accessories. The price of this device, including shipping to any city in the world, is only 500 dollars.

5- Watch. Listen and Record the Farawav by Using Electronic Binoculars:

This is the newest eavesdropping device on the market. It is binoculars that bring faraway scenes close to you. Then they give you the ability to record the picture and the sound in any recorder. This device conveys to you in picture and sound events that occur far away.

6- A Small Video Camera in a Wristwatch:

This is the epitome of camera technology in the world, a camera in a watch. It is used by lawyers, investigators, secret agents and private investigators. It is an ordinary watch, which you put on your hand. The person who is talking to you or sitting with you will not know that your watch is a camera. Its memory stores a hundred photos and it can be connected to a computer for transferring and printing the photos and emailing them. The watch is powered by a battery and it is an ordinary watch with five alarms. It is used by journalists to take photos in places where cameras are not permitted or when there is a business meeting that your partner wants to be secret, without knowing that you have a camera that is taking his picture. You can print the date, name and time on the photo. "Arab Times" presents the new watch camera and transmits them in color to your personal computer.

7- Digital Camera the Size of a Pen:

This camera is the size of a pen, and it is a regular camera and a video camera that can be connected to a computer for transferring the pictures. This is used by reporters, lawyers and investigators to take digital color pictures that can immediately be sent via the Internet. It can also record video and sound, despite its small size.

The camera uses a small battery that is available in all markets and lasts for many years. It comes with a small connection cable for the computer in order to transfer photos. The size of its memory is 16 megabytes, and it can store 80 photos. It is supplied with software for use with the computer and a clip to be put in a shirt pocket, like a pen.

8- Magnetic Resonance (Device for Lie Detection):

It is an infra-red device that reads thoughts and a magnetic resonant that detects changes in the brain.

The United States Defense Department has used the traditional lie detector in more than 11 thousand tests, and three quarters of these tests were used to check spies and Mujahideen.

Britton Chance, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, used rays close to the infrared rays to learn about the lies that are "lurking" in the brains of his volunteer students. He hoped his research would lead to the development of a device to replace the current polygraph, which is not accurate, and which has been for decades the device preferred by the American authorities to use for spies and saboteurs.

Professor Chance is one of dozens of researchers in the United States who are exploring new ways to detect lies in order to observe "saboteurs," especially after the attacks of September 11, 2001. The scientists are working on using devices to check the activity of the brain, and other devices to learn about the reasons for mental retardation in learning, and this is instead of using the traditional lie detector, which detects signs of worry. Even the strongest supporters of the traditional lie detector have started to doubt the abilities of this old device, which was invented in 1915. It uses wires to measure changes in breathing, sweating and heartbeat, but the problem is that such changes may happen as a result of tension and not because of lying. Evidence obtained by using the lie detector is not accepted in any courts except the courts of the State of New Mexico.

The Lie Detecting Institute of the United States Defense Department at Fort Jackson is North Carolina is financing at least 20 projects to produce a better lie detector. The Defense Research Agency of the Defense Department is conducting research to use the magnetic resonance, which precisely scans the human body, including the brain, and other devices also for the purpose of lie detecting. This is sheer nonsense, of course, similar to the ‘Remote Viewing’ program developed by the CIA and proven to be utterly useless.

While researchers are waiting for results, the traditional lie detector continues to be in use. The Defense Department and other government agencies used it in 11,566 tests in 2002, according to a report issued by the Institute. Three quarters of the tests were aimed at detecting spies and Mujahideen, and only 20 individuals passed the test among those who were tested.

These statistics do not include the number of tests conducted by the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the National Security Agency, because such information is kept secret.

In his laboratory, Professor Chance is studying the brain's reaction to tension, exhaustion or what he calls "damage because of deceit." He depends on a device called the "cognoscope," (a device to measure "cognition" as the English word indicates), which is used to measure infrared rays. It is put on the head to measure blood and oxygen flow in the brains of the volunteers when they are asked to lie!

Professor Chance has claimed he found that the formation of a lie “leads to a burst of activity in the flow of blood which lasts for a few milliseconds (a millisecond is one thousandth of a second) and that happens in a certain part of the brain which is responsible for decision making. “The researcher says, "You can read the idea before the idea is expressed." The Lie Detection Institute has tested the "cognoscope" on 42 volunteer soldiers; the device detected the liars, but it also detected a "fake liar" in the case of a soldier who was telling the truth, but the infrared picture shown by the device confirmed that he was lying. Professor Chance hopes to develop an accurate device, but he is worried that his work may interfere with the privacy of individuals, because the device is dangerous since it can "read the idea before its owner can express it." In other laboratories, Daniel Langleben, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, is working on using the magnetic resonance to discover deception in parts of the brain. His studies depend on research of the brain activity of addicted people and students who have difficulties in learning. Theoretically, he says that lies require the brain to perform two operations: one is to suppress the truth, and the second is to arrange the lies. That is why detecting evidence for any of the two operations, or both of them, will lead to detecting the deceivers

Pentagon "force protection," CIFA and 902nd analysts (and their contractor proxies) are mostly engaged in culling through intelligence and law enforcement reports and databases looking for "dots". As part of this work, they surf the web looking for upcoming protests, they follow threads of conversations on newsgroups, join list servers to receive announcements, even join organizations under false pretenses to attend meetings and receive materials.

The objective is to look for patterns or tip-offs that might be the next big one. And if not the next big one, maybe just an anti-war protest at the gate of the local National Guard armory.

The Pentagon's own force protection documents associated with the suspicious activity database reveal that CIFA and 902nd MI Group analysts are looking at whether the same license plates show up at different protests or meetings or whether the same individuals appear at different venues.

The 310th Military Intelligence Battalion, a subordinate unit of the 902nd Military Intelligence Group, is in current charge of the Cyber Counterintelligence Activity (, the CCA known as the Information Warfare Branch of the 310th MI Battalion,) and is located at Fort George G. Meade, Maryland.

Its mission is to conduct signals intelligence (SIGINT) operations in support of National, joint, combined, Allied and U.S. Army requirements as part of a regional SIGINT Operations center (RSOC)

The CCA is comprised of a combination of U.S. Army Counterintelligence (CI) Special Agents, both military and civilian, and technical support personnel who offer a wide range of technical expertise.

They conduct computer forensic media analysis in support of CI investigations.

The CCA also conducts investigations of network intrusion into Army Information Systems; they support CI surveys by providing technical advice and assistance to the command concerning computer security posture. The CCA can also conduct mobile training at customer sites regarding network intrusion and seizing computer evidence for forensic analysis , 310th MI Battalion, conducts counterintelligence scope polygraph screening examinations in support of Department of Defense Special Access Programs, the Department of the Army Cryptographic Access Program and the National Security Agency on a routine basis. In addition, operational examinations are conducted in support of Offensive Counterintelligence Operations, Counterintelligence/ Counterespionage Investigations and Counterintelligence Force Protection Source Operations.

With the current Global War on Terrorism and other significant events occurring throughout the world, the mission continues to increase. During the last fiscal year, the branch conducted 1137 counterintelligence scope polygraph screening examinations and 68 operational examinations. These numbers are expected to increase dramatically in the near future.

The Army continues to lead the way when utilizing polygraph in the tactical arena. US Army examiners were the first polygraph personnel to go to Guantanimo Bay, Cuba and Kandahar and Bagram, Afghanistan pursuant to the GWOT and the search for Osama Bin Laden. While other agencies waited to see if polygraph would yield favorable results in such an environment, Army examiners proved it could, conducting sensitive examinations to determine the veracity of information reported by known/suspected Taliban/al Qaeda members. In one instance polygraph nullified a significant biological weapons threat while in another it aided the State Department by clearing one of our allies of direct involvement with al Qaeda.

It has also cleared some individuals of direct involvement with al Qaeda and allowed commanders to better utilize assets available. As an investigative aid, polygraph has helped investigators in closing numerous investigations. Incases where a polygraph was requested, numerous allegations have either been proven or nullified due to the polygraph. This has led to a significant increase in the number of requests received. In the screening environment, polygraph has identified numerous security concerns and identified possible threats on a continuous basis. However, on several occasions, examinees have admitted to having classified/sensitive information outside of government control.

The polygraph has identified these possible threats and recovered the information.

The Department of Defense continues to expand the use of polygraph because of its proven benefit. The 902ndMI Group polygraph examiner strength may increase from the current ten examiners to twenty-five over the next five to ten years. This includes adding various programs and requiring even more polygraphs in those areas where intelligence is susceptible. The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence recently concluded that the polygraph was one of the best tools available to safeguard intelligence information. It is another tool which commanders can use to safeguard information. This has many looking to expand its uses to other jobs where leaks can occur.

Unfortunately for the huge sums of taxpayer’s money spent on all of this mind reading, remote viewing and other idiot projects are utterly useless. Further, it is more than possible to totally disrupt the results of any polygraph testing (which cannot be admitted as evidence because of its total unreliability) and in subsequent articles, I will show how easy it is to disrupt a polygraph test and give entirely false readings.

We should hope that instead of pursuing science fiction nonsense, our protectors would rely on facts and not fantasies.

Technical counterintelligence (CI) capabilities have proven to be invaluable assets in the Global War on Terrorism. Within the mission of Homeland Security (HLS) is the inherent task of reducing incidents by enhancing preparedness, protection, and response capabilities within the United States. The 310th Military Intelligence Battalion is responsible for conducting worldwide technical operations and investigations in support of CI and counterespionage activities. By design, it plays a crucial role in detecting, neutralizing, and exploiting foreign intelligence services. As part of the 902d MI Group, the 310th MI Battalion provides unique capabilities to aid HLS and supply needed technical security vital to the U.S. Army and Department of Defense (DOD) assets.

Technical HLS Assets

To accomplish its HLS mission, the military intelligence community needs to leverage the following technical assets:

* Information warfare operations.

* Polygraph operations.

* Technical surveillance and countermeasures force protection (FP) operations.

Each unique program covers a specific area to reduce vulnerabilities within the United States and worldwide.

The Information Warfare Branch (IWB) conducts diverse CI operations and investigations. The IWB leads computer forensic operations and investigations of electronic media to detect computer intrusions. It works closely with other federal agencies in conducting forensic analysis. Successes in the area have been recognized at the national level for our timely and thorough electronic forensic analysis and network intrusion detection investigations. IWB provides superior capabilities in support of the 902d MI Group's CI mission for HLS.

The Polygraph Detachment provides worldwide support to CI and counterespionage operations for the U.S. Army. Their specific missions include:

* Conducting counterintelligence scope polygraph (CSP) examinations to support several DOD agencies.

* Conducting polygraph examinations to support the Department of the Army Cryptographic Access Program (DACAP).

* Standard polygraph missions.

Basic polygraph activities consist of support to contingency operations, FP operations, contractor linguist screening, and counterespionage investigations.

Finally, the Technical Operations Branch (TOB) is the technical surveillance and countermeasures (TSCM) section of the 31 0thMI Battalion. The mission of the TOB is to provide a quick response and comprehensive security solutions to enhance commanders' FP and physical security postures. The first priority of a TSCM investigation is to detect and neutralize technical penetrations and hazards.

The 310th MI Battalion provides specific technologically oriented assets that are critical for Homeland Security. The advantage of these assets is that they leverage technology to arm the United States with another layer of protection against terrorist incidents in the United States or other U.S. interests, as well as against the traditional threat of foreign intelligence and security services' activities. The 310th MI Battalion is on the forefront of technology and strives to advance the use of technical counterintelligence in all CI operations.

Appendix

Department of Defense Directive

NUMBER 5105.67

February 19, 2002

SUBJECT: Department of Defense Counterintelligence Field Activity (DoD CIFA)

References: (a) Title 10, United States Code

1. PURPOSE

Pursuant to the authority vested in the Secretary of Defense by reference (a), this Directive establishes the Department of Defense Counterintelligence Field Activity with the mission, responsibilities, functions, relationships, and authorities, as prescribed herein.

2. APPLICABILITY

This Directive applies to the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), the Military Departments, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Combatant Commands, the Office of the Inspector General of the Department of Defense, the Defense Agencies, and the DoD Field Activities, as well as all other organizational entities within the Department of Defense (hereafter referred to collectively as "the DoD Components").

3. MISSION

The mission of the DoD CIFA is to develop and manage DoD Counterintelligence (CI) programs and functions that support the protection of the Department, including CI support to protect DoD personnel, resources, critical information, research and development programs, technology, critical infrastructure, economic security, and U.S. interests, against foreign influence and manipulation, as well as to detect and neutralize espionage against the Department.

It is DoD policy that:

The Department shall fully support the National Counterintelligence Program, as embodied in Presidential Decision Directive/National Security Council-75 (PDD/NSC-75) (reference (b)), and the National Counterintelligence Executive (NCIX).

The Department will make full use of advanced technology to create and maintain a collaborative CI analytic environment to protect critical DoD and national assets.

The DoD CIFA is hereby established as a Field Activity within the Department of Defense, under the authority, direction, and control of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence) (ASD(C3I)).

For certain functions as specified in this Directive or separately by the Secretary of Defense, the DoD CIFA shall be treated as a Combat Support Agency. It shall consist of:

· A Director appointed by, and reporting to, the ASD(C3I).

· The Joint Counterintelligence Evaluation Office(JCEO), the Joint CI Analysis Group (JCAG), the Defense CI Information System (DCIIS) Program Office, the Joint CI Training Academy (JCITA), and the Defense CI Force Protection Response Group (FPRG). In carrying out the mission of these elements, the Director of the DoD CIFA may employ law enforcement personnel, in whole or in part, as appropriate, to carry out the DoD CIFA's law enforcement functions as stated in paragraph of this Directive.

Such additional subordinate organizational elements as are established by the Director, DoD CIFA, within authorized resources.

The Assistant Secretary of Defense (Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence), shall:

· Exercise authority, direction, and control over he Director, DoD CIFA.

· Serve as the Principal Staff Assistant and advisor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of Defense regarding all CI policies and related matters.

· Represent the Secretary of Defense in all matters with the NCIX.

· Oversee the Defense CI Program.

The Director of the Department of Defense Counterintelligence Field Activity, under the authority, direction, and control of the ASD(C3I), shall:

· Organize, direct, and manage the DoD CIFA and all assigned resources.

· Serve as the principal advisor on DoD CI operational matters and policy-implementation activities to the OSD Principal Staff Assistants and other DoD Component officials and manage the execution of DoD CI policy issued by the ASD(C3I), pursuant to DoD Directive 5137.1 (reference (g)).

· Develop a DoD CI implementation strategy and an implementation plan consistent with the national CI strategy, national guidance, and DoD CI strategy; the implementation plan shall include appropriate performance-measurement standards and resource metrics consistent with these aforementioned strategies.

· Represent the Department with other Government and non-government agencies, including the NCIX staff, regarding the implementation of all DoD CI matters, and shall:

· Oversee DoD implementation support to the NCIX organization.

· Serve as the single coordination focal point within the Department for DoD CI program implementation, DoD CI resource planning, and DoD CI implementation liaison with the NCIX staff, to include coordination regarding NCIX decisions and functions regarding national CI resource allocations.

Note: In subsequent articles I will cover the development of the hilarious ‘Remote Viewing’ nonsense by the Army, as well as other U.S. Army CI units involved in domestic spying. And as a conclusion, I will discuss proven methods to thwart or block illegal surveillance. BH  

Neocons turn on Bush for incompetence over Iraq war
November 4th 2006
by Julian Borger in Washington
The Guardian

Several prominent neoconservatives have turned on George Bush days before critical midterm elections, lambasting his administration for incompetence in the handling of the Iraq war and questioning the wisdom of the 2003 invasion they were instrumental in promoting.

Richard Perle and Kenneth Adelman, who were both Pentagon advisers before the war, Michael Rubin, a former senior official in the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, and David Frum, a former Bush speechwriter, were among the neoconservatives who recanted to Vanity Fair magazine in an article that could influence Tuesday's battle for the control of Congress. The Iraq war has been the dominant issue in the election.

"I think the influence will be on morale [among Republicans]," said Steven Clemons, the head of the American Strategy Programme at the New America Foundation. "I think they are confusing the right. What this is yielding is ambivalence, and people will stay at home."

Mr Perle, a member of the influential Defence Policy Board that advised the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, in the run-up to the war, is as outspoken in denouncing the conduct of the war as he was once bullish on the invasion. He blamed "dysfunction" in the Bush administration for the present quagmire.

"The decisions did not get made that should have been. They didn't get made in a timely fashion, and the differences were argued out endlessly," Mr Perle told Vanity Fair, according to early excerpts of the article. "At the end of the day, you have to hold the president responsible."

Asked if he would still have pushed for war knowing what he knows now, Mr Perle, a leading hawk in the Reagan administration, said: "I think if I had been delphic, and had seen where we are today, and people had said, 'Should we go into Iraq?', I think now I probably would have said, 'No, let's consider other strategies for dealing with the thing that concerns us most, which is Saddam supplying weapons of mass destruction to terrorists'." The Bush administration admits it was mistaken in believing that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, but the president and other top officials maintain that Iraq is better off as a result of his removal.

An overwhelming majority of Americans, however, now believe the war was not worth the cost in blood and resources. The public rethink by top neocons comes at a time of rising violence, with the US death toll climbing steadily towards 3,000 and the United Nations estimating that many Iraqis may be being killed by the conflict each month.

Kenneth Adelman, another Reagan era hawk who sat on the Defense Policy Board until last year, drew attention with a 2002 commentary in the Washington Post predicting that liberating Iraq would be a "cakewalk".

He now says he hugely overestimated the abilities of the Bush team. "I just presumed that what I considered to be the most competent national security team since Truman was indeed going to be competent," Mr Adelman said.

"They turned out to be among the most incompetent teams in the postwar era. Not only did each of them, individually, have enormous flaws, but together they were deadly, dysfunctional."

He too takes back his public urging for military action, in light of the administration's performance. "I guess that's what I would have said: that Bush's arguments are absolutely right, but you know what, you just have to put them in the drawer marked 'can't do'. And that's very different from 'let's go'."

Mr Adelman, a senior Reagan adviser at cold war summits with Mikhail Gorbachev, expressed particular disappointment in Mr Rumsfeld, who he described as a particular friend. "I'm crushed by his performance," he said. "Did he change, or were we wrong in the past? Or is it that he was never really challenged before? I don't know. He certainly fooled me."

Mr Adelman said the guiding principle behind neoconservatism, "the idea of using our power for moral good in the world", had been killed off for a generation at least. After Iraq, he told Vanity Fair, "it's not going to sell".

Michael Rubin, who worked on the staff of the Pentagon's office of special plans and the coalition provisional authority in Baghdad, accused Mr Bush of betraying Iraqi reformers.

The president's actions, Mr Rubin said, had been "not much different from what his father did on February 15 1991, when he called the Iraqi people to rise up and then had second thoughts and didn't do anything once they did".

Mr Frum, who as a White House speechwriter helped coin the phrase "axis of evil" in 2002, said failure in Iraq might be inescapable, because "the insurgency has proven it can kill anyone who cooperates, and the United States and its friends have failed to prove that it can protect them". The blame, Mr Frum said, lies with "failure at the centre", beginning with the president.  

Disillusioned America set to turn its back on Bush
Democrats are hoping to have victories to celebrate after Tuesday's mid-term elections as the Republicans flounder in a tide of scandals and setbacks in Iraq. But the fight back is underway
November 5th 2006
by Paul Harris in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
The Observer

Senator Rick Santorum stood on Main Street in the small town of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and spoke of the dangers facing America. He decried illegal immigration and defended 'family values'. His voice rose with fervour as he praised the fighting men and women in Iraq.

A small gathering of supporters cheered and Santorum beamed. He happily accepted the endorsement of Chris Simcox, head of the anti-immigrant vigilante group the Minutemen. 'This is about the future of our country,' Santorum declared. Dressed casually in a black jacket and orange shirt, the senator looked every inch a confident winner.

But the opinion polls tell a different story. Santorum, one of the most right-wing Republicans in America and the devout spearhead of Christian right politics, is almost certain to lose his seat. The Republican party is in deep crisis. As Americans go to the polls in vital midterm elections on Tuesday, the country is bracing itself for a Democratic wave that could sweep the party into control of both houses of Congress.

For men like Santorum, these are the worst of times. Six years ago, as George Bush took the White House, it was powerful Christian figures such as Santorum - blending right-wing politics with extremist religion - who looked like America's future. Now, it seems, the high-water mark of that sort of radical Republicanism has been reached. Top Republican strategists have written off Santorum's chances of holding his seat.

A survey by the Cook Political Report last week had Democrats leading Republicans by 52 per cent to 39 per cent. Studies in individual races show support for Democratic candidates surging. They need just 15 new seats in the 435-member House of Representatives and six in the 100-member Senate to wrest control of Congress from the Republicans. Most experts believe the House is a Democratic certainty and the Senate too close to call. 'The last two months have seen a remarkable turnaround in Democrat fortunes,' said Larry Haas, a political commentator and former aide in the Clinton White House.

Republicans have been buried by a wave of bad news from Iraq and the cumulative effect of scandal after scandal, from Hurricane Katrina to the gay sex difficulties that hit Republican congressman Mark Foley. It has all catastrophically damaged the Republican self-image of being the party of both defense and moral values. It is an image that has served the Republicans well since the 1994 congressional elections ushered in the conservative revolution of which Bush's second presidential win was the climax. Yet now the Democrats are poised to put a stop to it. This week could mark the end of their long political wilderness and the beginning of blue-state America's fight back.

Some Republicans hold the faith. Among them is Ann Marie Banks, 57. The former Democrat is a staunch Santorum supporter. As the senator walked down a sunny street in Wilkes-Barre, she grasped his hand. His blood-and-thunder views on security and faith are what inspires her. 'He's an all-out good man,' she said, before confiding: 'Democrats scare me. They are soft on terrorism, they don't like family values. They think gay marriage is fine.'

People such as Banks are Santorum's base. He shot to fame on the back of his extreme views. He has advocated teaching intelligent design in schools, spoken out against homosexuality and believes states should be allowed to outlaw all birth control, even for married couples. Campaigning in Wilkes-Barre - 'a hardscrabble' town in the Pennsylvania hills - he has not lost his fire. Addressing the issue of negotiating with Iran, Santorum is hyper-aggressive: 'Iran's leader does not respect people who talk to him. He respects people who fight him.'

But that talk is not working any more. In a country growing ever more horrified by its involvement in Iraq, no one wants to hear blood-curdling rhetoric about another war. That sort of muscularity belongs to an era before Katrina, before spiralling deficits, and when culture wars were the conflicts being fought, not real ones with a rising body count. Iraq now dominates the American public psyche - more specifically, how to get out as quickly as possible.

The answer does not seem to lie in voting Republican. Polls in the past two weeks showed approval of Bush's handling of Iraq was at an all-time low of 29 per cent. And more than 75 per cent of Americans believe US troops will leave Iraq more quickly under a Democrat-controlled Congress.

Iraq, and the fact that more than 100 US troops died there in October, has laid waste Republican plans for fighting the election on terrorism and defence. 'It is the daily drumbeat from Iraq which just got to people after a while,' said Haas. Bush's political guru, Karl Rove, had planned to bang the national security drum, just as he did in the 2004 presidential race and the 2002 midterms, but the carnage in Iraq derailed that idea.

Suddenly the Democrats are keen to talk about the war and the Republicans are desperate to change the subject. Not that they have had much positive to change it to. Second to Iraq has been a wave of scandal, national and local, that crashed over the party. In fact, 15 of its congressional seats - the exact number needed by Democrats - have been made vulnerable due simply to Republican scandals. Four involve Republicans linked to the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, five involve links to the Foley affair and the others are local issues ranging from tax dodging to sexual misconduct to suspect land deals.

That has all left the Republicans with few cards to play. They have resorted to trotting out the tried and tested cultural issues of gay marriage and abortion. At the same time they have tried to paint Democrats as tax-and-spend liberals, led by San Francisco Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who will become the most powerful figure in a Democrat-controlled House. But few Americans are listening to those issues; even less have heard of Pelosi.

Things have been so bad that Bush himself has joined the campaign trail, though many strategists are unsure if he is a help or a hindrance. Certainly some of his campaign stops betray the seriousness of the Republican situation. He stopped last week in a vulnerable seat in Nebraska, which voted for Bush by 71 and 75 per cent in the last two White House elections. Republicans have held it for 48 years. Bill Clinton came only third there in the 1992 presidential race. It is red-state America. Yet now it is a battleground that needs the intervention of a President to try to save it.

Zenia Simonson says she has been a 'non-active Democrat' for the past few years. She is not making that mistake again. 'I didn't vote last time. I am paying the price for it now,' she said, as she waited at a downtown Philadelphia campaign stop for Santorum's Democratic opponent, Bob Casey.

Simonson believes she has suffered through Republican incompetence. She recently lost her military husband, killed in what she will only say was 'the line of duty'. Now she is angry about Iraq and keen to see Republicans punished at the polls. 'I want change. I want change in the White House,' she said.

Certainly the Democratic mood at the rally was triumphant. Scores of people packed into the plush Public House bar waiting for Casey to show up. When he did, the candidate had to push through a crowd of madly cheering fans. He theatrically took off his jacket and rolled up his shirtsleeves. 'I'm going to keep campaigning to the very end!' he said.

The Democrats are taking no chances. They are not used to the idea of expecting to win, at least not since John Kerry was painfully defeated in the 2004 presidential race. Kerry had been scheduled to appear with Casey, but had botched a joke about Iraq and insulted America's soldiers as uneducated. In a rare display of ruthlessness, his own party forced him into the political wilderness. His appearance with Casey was abruptly cancelled and he was not mentioned once. Casey's staff were determined to keep up the mood of upbeat victory.

That was a wise strategy. For the Democrats have not really won this campaign. It is the Republicans who appear to have striven hard to lose it. In truth, the Democrats are no more united over Iraq than they have ever been. Anti-war Democrats are not doing better than pro-war ones. The party is deeply split over a host of issues between its liberal and centrist wings. But as the Democrats squabbled, the Republican party simply started to fall apart. Many people warn that a Democrat victory should not be seen as a historic upheaval in the body politic. 'In terms of long-term trends, people should not read so much into this. This country is still a predominantly conservative one,' said Haas.

That may be true, but most would agree that the type of conservatism central to US politics is changing. That was the view at Casey's ecstatic rally. As he slammed Bush on Iraq and other issues, the crowd chanted his name. Casey lapped it up. 'We are going to fight for a new direction for America,' he declared. The crowd cheered louder.

Republican hopes now rest on their 'last 72-hours' party machine. This is the network of committed activists and organizations set up by Rove nationwide to maximize turnout on election day. It was field-tested in 2002 and proved its worth again in 2004. It is the last best hope of Republicans hoping to cling on to control of both houses of Congress.

They could do it. Though the vast majority of experts believe the Democrats will take at least the House of Representatives, it would be folly to write off Rove's Republicans just yet. What is at stake is Rove's dream of a 'permanent Republican majority' setting the political agenda for decades. He is unlikely to let go of that without a fight. An army of activists is manning phone banks, organizing car pools and canvassing homes to ensure every single one of their supporters gets to the polls.

The stakes are high. If the Democrats gain control of at least one of the houses of Congress they will have a measure of real political power again. At the very least they will appoint Democrat-led committees to look into the past six years of Republican rule, investigating the response to Hurricane Katrina and pre-Iraq war intelligence. If they find enough damaging information, it could pave the way for a Democratic White House in 2008. They will also try to get rid of some of Bush's tax cuts and boost spending on healthcare and the environment.

But on Iraq there is likely to be little change in policy, especially as the White House itself increasingly looks for a way to disengage. The one step the Democrats could take would be to try to starve the war of funding, but that extreme option is not being talked about by any mainstream party figures. Americans look as if they may be willing to vote Democrat in the hope of change in Iraq, but their chances of getting that change do not seem likely.

For the moment, however, the Democrats are enjoying their prospects of victory, even if the Senate remains beyond their reach. In Philadelphia, the mayor, John Street, spoke to the crowds cheering Casey on. He talked of increasing poverty and troops dying in Iraq and returned again and again to the same phrase. 'We need a change,' he said. 'We need a change.' Casey promised it: 'On 7 November, that change is coming!'

It was in marked contrast to Santorum's rally in Wilkes-Barre earlier that morning. As Santorum had talked of immigration and family values before a small turnout, he stood opposite Tony's Deli on Main Street. The tidy little diner - looking as quintessentially American as apple pie - was decked out in Casey banners and a poster of Santorum entitled 'Ricky the Rat'.  

When you've lost the diner on Main Street, you have really got trouble.
Limiting the Damage
November 6th 2006
by Paul Krugman
New York Times

President Bush isn’t on the ballot tomorrow. But this election is, nonetheless, all about him. The question is whether voters will pry his fingers loose from at least some of the levers of power, thereby limiting the damage he can inflict in his two remaining years in office.

There are still some people urging Mr. Bush to change course. For example, a scathing editorial published today by The Military Times, which calls on Mr. Bush to fire Donald Rumsfeld, declares that “this is not about the midterm elections.” But the editorial’s authors surely know better than that. Mr. Bush won’t fire Mr. Rumsfeld; he won’t change strategy in Iraq; he won’t change course at all, unless Congress forces him to.

At this point, nobody should have any illusions about Mr. Bush’s character. To put it bluntly, he’s an insecure bully who believes that owning up to a mistake, any mistake, would undermine his manhood — and who therefore lives in a dream world in which all of his policies are succeeding and all of his officials are doing a heckuva job. Just last week he declared himself “pleased with the progress we’re making” in Iraq.

In other words, he’s the sort of man who should never have been put in a position of authority, let alone been given the kind of unquestioned power, free from normal checks and balances, that he was granted after 9/11. But he was, alas, given that power, as well as a prolonged free ride from much of the news media.

The results have been predictably disastrous. The nightmare in Iraq is only part of the story. In time, the degradation of the federal government by rampant cronyism — almost every part of the executive branch I know anything about, from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been FEMAfied — may come to be seen as an equally serious blow to America’s future.

And it should be a matter of intense national shame that Mr. Bush has quietly abandoned his fine promises to New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast.

The public, which rallied around Mr. Bush after 9/11 and was still prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt two years ago, seems to have figured most of this out. It’s too late to vote Mr. Bush out of office, but most Americans seem prepared to punish Mr. Bush’s party for his personal failings. This is in spite of a vicious campaign in which Mr. Bush has gone further than any previous president — even Richard Nixon — in attacking the patriotism of anyone who criticizes him or his policies.

That said, it’s still possible that the Republicans will hold on to both houses of Congress. The feeding frenzy over John Kerry’s botched joke showed that many people in the news media are still willing to be played like a fiddle. And if you think the timing of the Saddam verdict was coincidental, I’ve got a terrorist plot against the Brooklyn Bridge to sell you.

Moreover, the potential for vote suppression and/or outright electoral fraud remains substantial. And it will be very hard for the Democrats to take the Senate for the very simple reason that only one-third of Senate seats are on this ballot.

What if the Democrats do win? That doesn’t guarantee a change in policy.

The Constitution says that Congress and the White House are co-equal branches of government, but Mr. Bush and his people aren’t big on constitutional niceties. Even with a docile Republican majority controlling Congress, Mr. Bush has been in the habit of declaring that he has the right to disobey the law he has just signed, whether it’s a law prohibiting torture or a law requiring that he hire qualified people to run FEMA.

Just imagine, then, what he’ll do if faced with demands for information from, say, Congressional Democrats investigating war profiteering, which seems to have been rampant. Actually, we don’t have to imagine: a White House strategist has already told Time magazine that the administration plans a “cataclysmic fight to the death” if Democrats in Congress try to exercise their right to issue subpoenas — which is one heck of a metaphor, given Mr. Bush’s history of getting American service members trapped in cataclysmic fights where the deaths are anything but metaphors.

But here’s the thing: no matter how hard the Bush administration may try to ignore the constitutional division of power, Mr. Bush’s ability to make deadly mistakes has rested in part on G.O.P. control of Congress. That’s why many Americans, myself included, will breathe a lot easier if one-party rule ends tomorrow.  

Silencing the Enemy: Republican censorship
 

Pat Buchanan's magazine The American Conservative has blasted Bush on the eve of the election, and the magazine's website has - Surprise, Surprise! - just crashed. You cannot access it right now. However, I found the article reprinted on Raw Story, and here it is below.It is quite obvious that Republican hackers have disabled the magazine's website. What is significant about THAT is that if they can do so, it means they can hack into and subvert the electronic voting machines in key districts with the greatest of ease. Brian Harring  

Conservative magazine pillories Bush
November 5th 2006

“Falsehood is an amorphous monster, conceived in the brain of knaves and brought forth by the breath of fools. It's a mortal pestilence, a miasmic vapor that passes, like a blast from hell, over the face of the world and is gone forever. It may leave death in its wake and disaster dire; it may place on the brow of purity the brand of the courtesan and cover the hero with the stigma of the coward; it may wreck hopes and ruin homes, cause blood to flow and hearts to break; it may pollute the altar and disgrace the throne, corrupt the courts and curse the land, but the lie cannot live forever, and when it's dead and damned there's none so poor as to do it reverence.” ~William Cowper Brann

And all the sons of Congressmen! And the two adorable 100 Proof Bush daughters! (Ginna and Tonic)

"As democracy is perfected, the office of  president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron." ~H.L. Mencken

“That we are to stand by the president, right or wrong is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” ~Theodore Roosevelt

"Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them.  There is almost no kind of outrage, torture, imprisonment without trial, assassination, and bombing of civilians, which does not change its moral color when it is committed by our side.  The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, he has remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." ~George Orwell

"Under the Bush administration, openness and accountability have been replaced by secrecy and evasion of responsibility. They abuse their power, conceal their actions from the American people, and refuse to hold officials accountable." ~Senator Edward M. Kennedy

“George W.Bush is deeply interested in Deep Space Exploration. His next project will be to circle Uranus and search for Kingons…..”
~Dallas Herald

“A government official is a man who has risen from obscurity to something worse.” ~Pat Robertson

"The voters decide nothing.  Those that count the votes decide everything." ~J.V. Stalin

“The Senior White House staff is living proof that Pentecostal mongoloids regularly cohabit with chimpanzees, frogs and Norway rats”
~Dr. Myron Kalbfuss, Biology Department, Stanford University
 

America’s Enemies!

There are four entities who represent the most dangerous enemies to American liberties since George III.

They are:

1.The Neocons or Likudists who owe their personal allegiance to another country and now completely control our foreign policy. They lied and deceived us into the Iraq war and are demanding that more and more American soldiers die to preserve their own country and ideals.

2.The Christian Evangelical right who is trying to force the United States into becoming a theocracy under their rule. They know in their hearts that they alone can restructure a secular humanist America into their idea of Heaven on Earth.

3. An element of American society that call themselves Patriots and are obsessively militaristic and great admirers of the corporate or fascistic state. Many of these have been very minor members of the American military and as a counterbalance to their reserve or rear area tours of duty, are rabidly in favor of draconian military action, the bloodier the better. Usually these drumbeaters are too old or too fat to fight and have no sons of draft age.

4. George W. Bush, who is the worst president in the history of the United States and directly responsible for the huge death tolls in Iraq, is determined to rule the United States until God puts a stop to him and is even more determined to force the American people into becoming obedient, Christian and self-sacrificing lemmings who worship at his shrine and march in step.

We gather information, on a daily basis, from many websites. There are a number of publications that are well worth viewing for their intelligent reporting of national and international news. All of those sources, listed below, are daily newspapers with the exception of the Asia Times. The latter is a very well written site with in-depth articles that are worth reading.

The New York Times:  www.nytimes.com
The Washington Post: www.washingtonpost.com
The Christian Science Monitor: www.csmonitor.com
The Guardian: www.guardian.co.uk
Seattle Post-Intelligencer:  www.seattlepi.nwsource.com
Asia Times www.atimes.com

Note: Very little of the information in this edition of TBR news has come from the mainline American media. It is just not there. Most of it has come from foreign sources and the Internet. Most of our sources can be seen on the main page.

 "People whose lives are barren and insecure seem to show a greater willingness to obey than people who are self-sufficient and self-confident. To the frustrated, freedom from responsibility is more attractive than freedom from restraint. They are eager to barter their independence for relief of the burdens of willing, deciding and being responsible for inevitable failure. They willingly abdicate the directing of their lives to those who want to plan, command and shoulder all responsibility  ~Eric Hoffer “The True Believer”