Security as a blanket presumption of guilt

No one will be permitted to board an aircraft or a marine vessel leaving or bound for the United States until cleared by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), under proposed regulations.

Under current regs, the US requires airlines to transmit their manifests no later than fifteen minutes after a plane is in the air, wheels up. This, according to DHS, allows known terrorists to board, then hijack or blow up, commercial planes during the deadly window of opportunity provided between boarding time and when the aircraft is finally diverted or shot down by fighter planes scrambled to “escort” it. (more…)

The display of Iran’s military capabilities is intended to deter US war plans

On November 2, Iran tested three new types of land-to-sea and sea-to-sea missiles in the context of its “Great Prophet II” military exercises carried out on land in the desert (See images below), in the Persian Gulf waters, the Sea of Oman and 14 of Iran’s provinces.

Western and Israeli military analysts were taken by surprise. According to Debka, the Israeli intelligence publication (5 November), several features of Iran’s military capabilities were unknown to the Pentagon:

“The spectacular swarm of sophisticated missiles fired in Iran’s surprise military exercise stuns military planners in the US, Israel and Europe” (more…)

Col. Dr. Robert Bowman, running for Congress in Florida’s 15th district, told World Crisis Radio on Saturday that he has a shot at winning the election. Bowman said that internal polls by his oppponent, incumbent Dave Weldon, indicated the race was a dead heat, triggering a burst of campaign spending. Bowman has called for a new investigation of 9/11 as poart of his campaign platform. (more…)

Somewhat ironically, I have received a deluge of emails since last night from Democrats complaining about the flood of last-minute phone calls Republicans are making to voters in an effort drive down the Democratic vote tomorrow.

The e-mailers are upset about “robocalls”—pre-recorded, automated phone calls containing anti-Democratic political messages.

The calls initially sound like they’re coming from the Democratic candidates since they mention the Democrat’s name right off the bat.

But they’re actually being made by Republican organizations like the National Republican Congressional Committee.

Because the calls come in repeatedly to the same voters, Democrats fear the annoyed recipients of the calls, who often hang up before it becomes apparent that the calls are being made by Republicans, will be turned off to their candidates, blaming Democrats for interrupting their dinner or sleep. Philadelphia Daily News columnist Jill Porter has a column today describing her personal experience with the calls. (more…)

A number of readers have written in to ask what if any effective response there is to these robocalls we’ve been writing about.

First, let’s address our definitions. Automated political campaign calls are a staple of modern politics. Both sides put in millions of them every election year. That’s because they’re very cheap, fairly effective and they get less scrutiny than ‘public’ ads on tv and radio.

To the extent that’s what we’re talking about, there’s nothing ‘to do’ about them any more than there is anything to do about nasty or unfair 30 second tv spots.

What we’re talking about is something a bit different. What we’re seeing is an apparent coordinated effort from the NRCC — the House GOP committee — to place calls that appear to be from the local Democratic candidate and then automatically call the same number back as many as seven or eight times each time the caller hang-ups. If the caller listens to the whole message it goes on to bash the Democratic candidate. But if the caller hangs up prematurely, the computer calls right back. Hang-ups are the achilles heal of robo-calls. So this seems to be an attempt to cover for that weakness by making those who hang up think the Democratic candidate is basically harassing them with phone calls. The GOP wins either way. (more…)

Yesterday, the Supreme Iraqi Criminal Tribunal announced that Saddam Hussein had been found guilty and would be sentenced to death. But it didn’t release the official verdict. NBC News has the story:

The full verdict, a document of several hundred pages, explaining how and why today’s judgment was reached was not released. U.S. officials said it should be ready by Thursday. So why issue the verdict today? U.S. court advisors told reporters today it was delayed mainly for technical reasons.

The court was created by the administration-controlled Coalition Provisional Authority and the administration still exercises considerable control over the court. (more…)

If the last-minute polling trends showing a powerful Republican comeback carry through the Nov. 7 elections, the end of America as we have known it for more than two centuries will be at hand.

In a political version of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” the country might look the same – people driving their SUVs to the mall or eating at fast-food restaurants – but it will have internally changed. Election 2006 will have been the ratification of George W. Bush’s grim vision of endless war abroad and the end of a constitutional Republic at home.

Though not understanding the full import of their actions, the American voters will have endorsed the elimination of the “unalienable” rights handed down to them by the Founders, instead allowing “plenary” – or unlimited – power to be invested in the President. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights will have been turned into irrelevant pieces of paper. (more…)

Early voting in five states showed that voters’ choice are being flipped to the opposite candidate on all four major e-voting machines — Diebold TSx, Sequoia Edge, ES&S iVotronic, and Hart InterCivic eSlate.

Three counties in Texas report vote-flipping on the Diebold and ES&S machines. Three counties in Florida report vote-flipping on the ES&S and Sequoia machines. One county in Illinois, on the Sequioa Edge, and one county in Arkansas, on the ES&S iVotronic.

In some cases, when the voter selects one candidate, the machine shows an opponent is selected instead. (more…)

In a shocking revelation, it now appears that Sen. Pat Roberts and Rep. Peter Hoekstra were behind (with Bush approval) the releasing of step-by-step instructions on how to build a nuclear bomb, as well as biological/chemical weapons, to the public in hopes it would back up the claims that Iraq had WMDs. By releasing these sensitive documents, the Congressmen hoped that the public would be able to analyze the documents and help give intelligence agencies an idea as to how far along Iraq was in developing WMDs. All this against the advice of Director of National Intelligence, John Negroponte.

In other words, Hoekstra and Roberts released nuclear secrets for political gain, unconcerned that it undermined national security by dropping these nuclear secrets in the lap of anyone with an internet connection.

More from Keith Olbermann:

US Customs and Border Protection issued a notice in the Federal Register yesterday which detailed the agency’s massive database that keeps risk assessments on every traveler entering or leaving the country. Citizens who are concerned that their information is inaccurate are all but out of luck: the system “may not be accessed under the Privacy Act for the purpose of contesting the content of the record.”

The system in question is the Automated Targeting System, which is associated with the previously-existing Treasury Enforcement Communications System. TECS was built to screen people and assets that moved in and out of the US, and its database contains more than one billion records that are accessible by more than 30,000 users at 1,800 sites around the country. Customs has adapted parts of the TECS system to its own use and now plans to screen all passengers, inbound and outbound cargo, and ships. (more…)

When you enter the voting booth tomorrow, don’t be another sucker voting down a party line. You know all too well that there are plenty of bad apples in both (major) parties, and that they’ll only work to protect their fellow criminals in Congress (regardless of party affiliation) and further perpetuate crimes upon the American people.

On November 7th, it is time to send a clear message: It is no longer politically advantageous to be pro-war. It is no longer acceptable to send our soldiers to war, to put their lives on the line with the sole mission of protecting private/foreign interests. The mass-murder of the Iraqi people (650,000 and counting) must end, NOW.

But who are the anti-war candidates? The media sure isn’t going to tell you. Thankfully Michael Rivero has compiled a state-by-state list for us:

Here is a list of some of the many candidates running this fall who are opposed to the US wars. They come from all parties and varied backgrounds, but the one common factor that brings them to this list is that they publicly speak out against the war.

The defeat of Joseph Lieberman has proven that this next election will be a referendum about the war, and the manner in which Republicans are funding Lieberman’s campaign even against a GOP opponent proves that the old Republican versus Democrat model is no longer a meaningful factor, if indeed it ever really was. The election is the pro-war and pro-Israel crowd against the rest of us.

So, here is the list. Please feel free to suggest that other candidates be added. Please do NOT send me emails complaining about how these candidates stand on unrelated issues. It is a trick of the political machine to divide up the voters with manufactured issues to prevent a concensus of opinion forming on anything critical. If you are tricked into screaming about gay marriage, or flag burning, or immigration, then you won’t be able to get together in a united voice to demand the war be ended and our children brought home to us safely.

There is only one real issue this November, ending the war. Here are the people who say they will do it, sorted by state.

VOTE ANTI-WAR/PRO-PEACE

A cabal of Pakistani military officials with access to President Pervez Musharraf’s innermost security circle has been arrested after trying to assassinate him in a rocket attack.

The strike, aimed at the president’s high-security personal residence-office in Rawalpindi, took place shortly after he returned from Britain and the US in late September.

Although the president was not hurt, the attempt demonstrates the political instability engulfing his nation, which was heightened last week by his government’s bombing of a madrassa in north-west Pakistan killing 80 suspected militants. (more…)

North Korea denounced South Korea Sunday for sending a government delegation to US-led sea drills aimed at stopping cargo carrying weapons of mass destruction in the Gulf.
“This is an outright perfidy to the North,” Rodong Sinmun, the North’s ruling Communist Party paper, said in protest to the South’s sending of three observers to the drills off Bahrain late last month.

“Their behavior of blindly toeing US policy to ignite a war on this land at any cost would only bring catastrophic consequences.” (more…)

Race watchdogs are to investigate the national DNA database over revelations that up to three quarters of young black men will soon have their profiles stored.

Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE), vowed to examine whether the database breached race relations laws following the findings by The Sunday Telegraph. “This is tantamount to criminalising a generation of young black men,” he said.

An estimated 135,000 black males aged 15 to 34 will be entered in the crime-fighting- database by April, equivalent to as many as 77 per cent of the young black male population in England and Wales. By contrast, only 22 per cent of young white males, and six per cent of the general population, will be on the database. (more…)

WACO, Texas — The White House said Sunday that President Bush is confident the Iraqi government and U.S.-led forces are prepared to deal with a spike in violence following the Saddam Hussein verdict.

Bush recognizes that extremists and other Saddam loyalists might react violently, but the president believes Iraqi leaders and American and Iraqi security forces can keep contain any outbreaks, presidential counselor Dan Bartlett said. (more…)