Every year, the State Department issues reports on individual rights in other countries, monitoring the passage of restrictive laws and regulations around the world. Iran, for example, has been criticized for denying fair public trials and limiting privacy, while Russia has been taken to task for undermining due process. Other countries have been condemned for the use of secret evidence and torture.

Even as we pass judgment on countries we consider unfree, Americans remain confident that any definition of a free nation must include their own — the land of free. Yet, the laws and practices of the land should shake that confidence. In the decade since Sept. 11, 2001, this country has comprehensively reduced civil liberties in the name of an expanded security state. The most recent example of this was the National Defense Authorization Act, signed Dec. 31, which allows for the indefinite detention of citizens. At what point does the reduction of individual rights in our country change how we define ourselves?

http://www.sfexaminer.com/politics/ap/ap-exclusive-to-keep-program-secret-cia-whisked-911-figures-from-gitmo-before-court-...
CIA whisked detainees from Gitmo
By: MATT APUZZO and ADAM GOLDMAN
Associated Press
08/06/10 1:10 PM PDT

WASHINGTON — A white, unmarked Boeing 737 landed in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, before dawn on a CIA mission so secretive, many in the nation's war on terrorism were kept in the dark.

Four of the nation's most highly valued terrorist prisoners were aboard.

They arrived at Guantanamo on Sept. 24, 2003, years earlier than the U.S. has ever disclosed. Then, months later, they were just as quietly whisked away before the Supreme Court could give them access to lawyers.

The transfer allowed the U.S. to interrogate the detainees in CIA "black sites" for two more years without allowing them to speak with attorneys or human rights observers or challenge their detention in U.S. courts. Had they remained at the Guantanamo Bay prison for just three more months, they would have been afforded those rights.

INN World Report’s Tom Kiely to host ground breaking author Hank Albarelli next Friday at historic Walker Stage, one half mile north of Ground Zero.

INN’s ongoing lecture series continues with “An Evening with Hank Albarelli". Albarelli will discuss his new book “A Terrible Mistake, The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA’s Cold War Experiments” A book signing will follow.

Mark Crispin Miller, professor of media studies at New York University and author of the book 'Fooled Again, How the Right Stole the 2004 Elections' will be participating in the discussion of the roots of today’s torture programs and their origins in the CIA’s mind control experimentation in the 1950’s and 60’s, including the use of LSD to break down the individual. He is known for his writing on American media and for his activism on behalf of democratic media reform. His books include Boxed In: The Culture of TV, Seeing Through Movies, and Mad Scientists, a study of war propaganda.

Many hyperlinks at the original - loose nuke

http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2009/12/have-we-learned-anything-from-bush.html
Have We Learned Anything from the Bush Years? by George Washington

Fear makes people stupid.

It makes us unable to think straight. And it makes us give up our power to tough-talking authoritarians.

War Is Stupid

And since the "war on terror" is now being expanded to Yemen, it is worth remembering that experts state that the "war on terror" has been counterproductive for keeping us safe. For example, a leading advisor to the U.S. military, the hawkish Rand Corporation, released a study in 2008 called "How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa'ida".

The report confirms what experts have been saying for years: the war on terror is actually weakening national security (see this, this and this).

As a press release about the study states:

"Terrorists should be perceived and described as criminals, not holy warriors, and our analysis suggests that there is no battlefield solution to terrorism."
And see this.

The name of the CIA officer who ran Alec Station, the agency’s bin Laden unit, in the run-up to 9/11 can be revealed. Known by a variety of aliases in the media until now, such as “Rich” in Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars, “Richard” in the 9/11 Commission report and “Rich B” in George Tenet’s At the Center of the Storm, his real name is Richard Blee.

Blee was a key figure in the pre-9/11 intelligence failures, the CIA station chief in Afghanistan when Osama bin Laden escaped from Tora Bora and instrumental in setting up the Bush administration’s rendition and torture policies.

I confirmed Blee’s identity in this document, notes drafted by a 9/11 Commission staffer, apparently in preparation of the drafting of the final report. The notes were found along with thousands of other 9/11 Commission files at the National Archives by History Commons contributor Erik Larson, who uploaded them to the 9/11 Document Archive at Scribd. I previously blogged other interesting aspects of the notes here and here.

Blee is mentioned several times in the 9/11 Commission’s files, but his name is always redacted, as it has been in the media until now. However, in one case the people doing the redactions let it slip past them.

An emerging progressive consensus on Obama's executive power and secrecy abuses - Glenn Greenwald
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/04/13/obama/index.html

Intro excerpt:

"In the last week alone, the Obama DOJ (a) attempted to shield Bush's illegal spying programs from judicial review by (yet again) invoking the very "state secrets" argument that Democrats spent years condemning and by inventing a brand new "sovereign immunity" claim that not even the Bush administration espoused, and (b) argued that individuals abducted outside of Afghanistan by the U.S. and then "rendered" to and imprisoned in Bagram have no rights of any kind -- not even to have a hearing to contest the accusations against them -- even if they are not Afghans and were captured far away from any "battlefield." These were merely the latest -- and among the most disturbing -- in a string of episodes in which the Obama administration has explicitly claimed to possess the very presidential powers that Bush critics spent years condemning as radical, lawless and authoritarian.

Click Here To Listen -- http://noliesradio.org
Coming up LIVE Thursday, Jan 15th at 6am Pacific - 9am Eastern - 14:00 GMT
Live Broadcast: Eric Holder Senate Confirmation Hearing for Attorney General

Will be archived here after the broadcast.

Click Here To Listen -- http://noliesradio.org
Saturday & Sunday, Sept 13-14th at 6am Pacific - 9am Eastern - 13:00 GMT
Will be archived HERE after the broadcast.
LIVE 2 DAY CONFERENCE direct from Andover, Mass.

A two-day conference on obtaining prosecutions of high level American war criminals will open September 13th, in Andover, Mass. The conference will explore the legal grounds for, and plan for, obtaining prosecutions of President Bush and top officials of his Administration for war crimes.

this one suffers from overkill and i still didn't say everything that needed to be said; let me know what i left out, how to improve, if you have ideas

9/11 Truth, Part 8 of 11: 9/11 Aftermath and Anthrax; Subverted Rights, Endless War, People's Victories
http://911reports.wordpress.com/2008/08/31/911-truth-part-8-of-11-911-aftermath-and-anthrax-subverted-rights-endless-war/

This article is an overview of some of the ways in which 9/11 and the Anthrax attacks have been used; manipulating public fears and understanding, increasing military budgets and private contracts, reducing oversight and accountability, launching imperialist wars, and implementing repressive police state measures- as well as victories for the People and the Constitution.

Post 9/11 Attacks on Freedom, People, Human Rights & Nations

Click Here To Listen -- http://noliesradio.org
Coming Up Friday, July 4th at: 10am Pacific - 1pm Eastern - 17:00 GMT
Repeated Saturday, July 5th at 11am Pacific - 2pm Eastern - 18:00 GMT
Impeachment Could Be Our Last Chance for 9/11 Truth, Stopping the Iran War and Martial Law!!
Listen to the gripping testimony of these 3 released Gitmo detainees carefully! Then Act!

Read Rep. Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment. Call the Judiciary Committee and your Representative and Demand Impeachment Hearings Now. Be sure to mention Article 17 (illegal detention), Article 18 (Torture), Article 19 (Rendition) and Articles 33-35 regarding 9/11 Truth. Call 6 friends to do this also and ask them to call 6 friends...and this will go viral!!!

Landmark Aviation plans on divesting its FBO (fixed base operation) "Landmark Aviation Airport Services" and upon consultation with Merrill Lynch has placed the "Airport Services" division in a management trust operated and overseen by trustee's James Schlesinger, the former Secretary of Defense, Energy and CIA Director; former Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska (9/11 Commission); and Dov Zakheim, the former Pentagon comptroller.

(Background: Landmark Aviation was recently sold by the Carlyle Group to (DAE) Dubai Aerospace Enterprise Ltd.) Landmark Aviation and its "Airport Services" have also been suspected of running rendition flights out of Dulles Airport. (Links Below)

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"DAE has placed Airport Services in a management trust. The FBO division is separated from the rest of DAE, and has its own infrastructure and support network. The trustees were selected in consultation with Merrill Lynch and include: James Schlesinger, the former Secretary of Defense; former Sen. Bob Kerrey of Nebraska; and Dov Zakheim, the former Pentagon comptroller."