contributions

German spa became a forbidden village where Gestapo-like techniques were used
by Ian Cobain
Despite the six years of bitter fighting which lay behind him, James Morgan-Jones, a major in the Royal Artillery, could not have been more specific about the spectacle in front of him. "It was," he reported, "one of the most disgusting sights of my life."
Curled up on a bed in a hospital in Rotenburg, near Bremen, was a cadaverous shadow of a human being. "The man literally had no flesh on him, (…)

Another day, yet another new and wholly different explanation from the Bush administration about its illegal domestic spying operation.
In just the last 5 days, we’ve seen 3 separate explanations rolled out from the White House. First they claimed it was legal all along, then when that didn’t fly, they said they had to do it because of a need for speed.
Now that that has been debunked, they are actually claiming they were just too lazy to do "the paperwork." On top of this, they also (…)

Uh-oh. Excuse me. I’m so sorry, but we are having a constitutional crisis. I know the timing couldn’t be worse. Right in the middle of the wrapping paper, the gingerbread and the whole shebang, a tiny honest-to-goodness constitutional crisis.
Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country: Damn the inconvenience, full speed ahead. On his own, without consulting the Congress, the courts or the people, the president decided to use secret branches of government to spy on (…)

Did you know that New York state Governor Pataki, New York City Mayor Bloomberg and MTA President Kalikow provoked the strike by throwing a “stick of dynamite” into the negotiations in the last few hours on Monday? By adding a dramatic demand at the last minute and without warning-a demand they knew the union could not accept-Pataki, Bloomberg and Kalikow made a strike inevitable. They wanted the strike. They want to blame the union, bankrupt the union, and destroy the possibility of decent (…)

By Chris Marsden
Attempts by European governments to deny knowledge their airports were used by the CIA to fly detainees to facilities where they could be tortured has unravelled. A document obtained by the civil rights group Statewatch confirms that the European Union (EU) agreed to such flights as part of a wider programme of joint security operations with the Bush administration in 2003.
Minutes of confidential talks held in Athens on January 22, 2003, prove that EU officials agreed (…)

by Brian McAfee
Chile’s Socialist Party candidate, Michelle Bachelet, soundly defeated her right wing opponents in the December 11 presidential vote but failed to obtain the 50% to become president. Chilean law requires a candidate receive at least 50% of the vote to obtain the presidency. The breakdown was Bachelet 45.95%, Sebastian Pinera of the National Renovation party 25.41%, Joaquin Lavin of the Independent Democratic Union party 23.22%, and Tomas Hirsch of the Humanist party and (…)

By H. JOSEF HEBERT
WASHINGTON - A quarter-century long fight over the nation’s most divisive environmental issue rages on after the Senate on Wednesday rejected opening an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling - even though that provision was included in a must-pass bill that funds U.S. troops overseas and hurricane victims.
It was a stinging defeat for Sen. Ted Stevens (news, bio, voting record), R-Alaska, one of the Senate’s most powerful members, who had hoped to garner more votes by (…)

by Larisa Alexandrovna
Ranking House Judiciary Democrat Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has introduced a motion to censure President Bush and Vice President Cheney for providing misleading information to Congress in advance of the Iraq war, failing to respond to written questions and potential violations of international law, RAW STORY has learned.
The resolutions were quietly introduced Sunday evening along with a third resolution (HR 635) to create a Select Committee to investigate the (…)

by US Senator Robert C. Byrd
Floor Speech
Senator Byrd on Monday expressed his strong concerns about possible violations of the Constitution in the Bush Administration’s admitted practice of spying on American citizens:
Americans have been stunned at the recent news of the abuses of power by an overzealous President. It has become apparent that this Administration has engaged in a consistent and unrelenting pattern of abuse against our Country’s law-abiding citizens, and against our (…)

by From Terry Frieden
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A government watchdog is calling on the Senate Judiciary Committee to investigate at least 13 occasions of alleged improper use of FBI surveillance, including searches and seizures of e-mail and bank records.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) released 93 pages of internal FBI documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. The documents previously were classified, The Associated Press reported.
The center told (…)