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WORLD News:
20080630
 John
McCain -  Bud
Day - 2004
Election - Ads
-  Military
-  History
- Vietnam
- US
-  Arizona
-  Massachusetts
- 2008
Election
"McCain
Uses Swift Boat Vet Bud Day To Rebut Wesley Clark."
... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator]
Sen. John McCain's campaign on Monday launched the McCain "Truth Squad"
- a group of political and Vietnam contemporaries who would counter attacks
on the Senator's military record." ... "In hopes of nipping any criticism
in the bud, the campaign brought on board a man quite familiar with how
these types of attacks gain legs: Bud Day, a fellow POW who was part of
the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that worked so hard to defame [2004 Election
Presidential Candidate and Massachusetts Democratic Senator] Sen. John
Kerry's own Vietnam record." ... "On the conference call, Day - in addition
to the other participants - decried comments made by [General] Gen. Wesley
Clark over the weekend, in which he questioned whether McCain's war experience
really qualified him to be commander-in-chief. Defending McCain's service,
Day was quick to personalize his remarks, attacking Clark's military record
in the process." ... "That Day would politicize Vietnam in his defense
of McCain is not surprising. During the 2004 campaign, he said of Kerry:
"My view is he basically will go down in history sometime as the Benedict
Arnold of 1971." And after appearing in a national advertisement for the
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign, Day formed the Vietnam Veterans
Legacy Foundation, an extension of the Swift Boat effort." ... "Not willing
to let the irony go unnoticed, Kerry
lashed out at McCain, on Monday, for using the same smear merchant
he once decried." ... ""Colonel Day's comments today only further highlight
the McCain campaign's disregard for a new kind of politics," said Kerry.
"John McCain condemned these kinds of attacks in 2004 when he called the
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth 'dishonest and dishonorable.' Senator McCain
should condemn these remarks and cut ties with the Colonel and anyone else
connected to SBVT. Day's comments only serve to disparage all those who
served on swift boats in Vietnam."" -By
Sam
Stein -HuffingtonPost.com
John
McCain - Bud
Day -  Politics
- 2004
Election - Ads
-Military
- History
- Vietnam
- Belgium
- US
- Massachusetts
-  Texas
-  Missouri
- 2008
Election
"Price
of Power: McCain accepts ex-Swift Boaters' donations."
... "Republican [2008 Election Presidential Candidate] John McCain, who
four years ago condemned independent ads challenging Democrat[ic Senator
from Massachusetts and 2004 Election Presidential Candidate] John Kerry's
military record, has accepted nearly $70,000 for his presidential campaign
from the top donors of the group behind the attack ads and their relatives,
a USA TODAY analysis shows." ... "In 2004, the Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth (later called SwiftVets and POWS for Truth) bankrolled ads charging
that Kerry had lied about the incidents in Vietnam that led to his military
decorations. The group included former members of the Navy who served in
the same kind of river patrol boats as Kerry. McCain, a former Vietnam
prisoner of war, called the group's advertising "dishonest and dishonorable.""
... "Bob Perry, a Texas builder who gave nearly $4.5 million to Swift Boat
Vets, and his wife, Doylene, each have given $4,400 to McCain's presidential
campaign, some of which went to an account for legal and accounting expenses,
records show." ... "Other donors include Sam Fox, a St. Louis [Missouri]
businessman who was named [United States] U.S. ambassador to Belgium last
year by President Bush." ... "On Monday, Kerry and national Democratic
Party officials sharply criticized McCain for including retired Air Force
colonel Bud Day in a conference call with reporters to defend McCain's
military service. Day had appeared in Swift Boat ads." -By
Fredreka Schouten -USATODAY
John
McCain -  Tom
Loeffler -  Susan
E Nelson -  Gordon
England -  EADS
- European
- Military
-  Aircraft
-  Manufacturing
- Politics
-  Government
-  Auditors
- US
- 2008
Election
"McCain’s
Boeing Battle Boomerangs." ... "Government auditors
ruled that the Air Force made "significant errors" when it rebid the [aerial
refueling tanker] contract and awarded the $35 billion project to Boeing's
chief rival, partners European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. [Company]
(or EADS) and Northrop Grumman. It's likely the Air Force will have to
redo the bid yet again, which analysts say will delay the replacement of
the fleet's 1950s-era refueling tankers. The auditors' ruling has also
cast light on an overlooked aspect of [2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate John] McCain's crusade: five of his campaign's top advisers and
fund-raisers—including Tom Loeffler, who resigned last month as his finance
co-chairman, and Susan Nelson, his finance director—were registered lobbyists
for EADS." ... "Critics, including some at the Pentagon, cite in particular
two tough letters McCain wrote to Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England
in 2006 and another to Robert Gates, just prior to his confirmation as
Defense secretary. In the first letter, dated [September] Sept. 8, 2006,
McCain wrote of hearing from "third parties" that the Air Force was about
to redo the tanker competition by factoring in European government subsidies
to EADS—a condition that could have seriously hurt the EADS bid. McCain
urged that the Pentagon drop the subsidy factor and posed a series of technical
questions about the Air Force's process. "He was trying to jam us and bully
us to make sure there was competition by giving EADS an advantage," said
one senior Pentagon official, who asked for anonymity when discussing a
politically sensitive matter. The assumption within the Pentagon, the official
added, was that McCain's letters were drafted by EADS lobbyists. "There
was no one else that would have had that level of detail," the official
said." -By Michael Isikoff
-Newsweek
20080625
McCain
- Bin
Laden -  Chris
Shays -  Charlie
Black -  Terrorism
- Politics
- History
- 2004
Election - 2008
Election -  Connecticut
- US
- Pakistan
"McCain
In 2004: "Bin Laden May Have Just Given Us A Little Boost"."
... "Back in 2004['s election], as [2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate John] McCain was stumping in Connecticut on behalf of GOP [GOP=Grand
Old Party=Republican Connecticut Representative] Rep. Chris Shays, McCain
said flatly that the recent release of an Osama Bin Laden tape had likely
given the GOP a "little boost."" ... "This is courtesy
of The Hour, a daily paper in Norwalk, Connecticut, in November of that
year [2004] (also verified in Nexis)..."
"But
as McCain greets two breakfast-eating business partners, one from Stamford
[Connecticut] and the other from Bridgeport [Connecticut], the topic turns
to the presidential race. The two men tell the senator they support [Republican]
President George W. Bush, and to that end, McCain says, "(Osama) Bin Laden
may have just given us a little boost. Amazing, huh?".... " ... "The two
men, who requested anonymity, nod their heads in agreement. Later, while
riding with Shays on an RV to a rally at the Stamford Government Center,
McCain further explains, "(The video) is helpful to President Bush because
it puts the focus on the war on terrorism.""
"The
reference was to a tape of Bin Laden that had emerged a few days earlier.
The McCain camp didn't immediately return an email." ... "[McCain's top
adviser Charlie] Black also said that the assassination of [Pakistan's
Presidential Candidate] Benazir Bhutto had also helped McCain, something
the McCain camp also disavowed. But back in December [2007], when the assassination
happened, he [McCain] said
it could "serve to enhance" his "credentials."" -By
Greg Sargent -TPMElectionCentral
.TalkingPointsMemo
20080624
McCain
-  Charles
R Black Jr - Foreign
-  Money
- Politics
- Human
Rights - 2008
Election - Arizona
- US
- Pakistan
- Angola
- Philippines
- Zaire
now: Democratic Republic of the Congo - Nigeria
- Somalia
- Kenya
"Terror
Strike Would Help McCain, Top Adviser Says." ...
"A top adviser to [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and
Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain said that a terrorist attack in the United
States would be a political benefit to the presumptive Republican presidential
nominee, a comment that was immediately disputed by the candidate and denounced
by his Democratic rival." ... "Charles R. Black Jr., one of McCain's most
senior political advisers, said in an interview with Fortune magazine that
a fresh terrorist attack "certainly would be a big advantage to him." He
also said that the December assassination of former Pakistani prime minister
Benazir Bhutto, while "unfortunate," helped McCain win the Republican primary
by focusing attention on national security." ... "The comment reinjected
the fear of terrorism into the campaign as both candidates had been shifting
their conversation to the economy and $4-per-gallon gasoline." ... "The
comments also returned the political spotlight to McCain's advisers and,
in particular, to Black, who has drawn criticism for his long lobbying
career and his representation of controversial foreign governments. McCain
has been criticized for surrounding himself with top advisers who were
lobbyists." ... "Black and his lobbying partners were at times registered
foreign agents for a collection of U.S.-backed foreign leaders whose human
rights records were sometimes harshly criticized, even as American conservatives
embraced their opposition to communism. They included Angolan guerrilla
leader Jonas Savimbi, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Mobutu Sese
Seko of Zaire, Nigerian [General] Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Somali President
Mohamed Siad Barre, and the countries of Kenya and Equatorial Guinea, among
others." (1, 2)
-By Michael D. Shear with contributions by Karl Vick
and Alice Crites -WashingtonPost
 Tom
Ridge - John
McCain - Money
- Politics
- Albania
- US
-  Pennsylvania
- 2008
Election
"Ridge
lobbies for Albania, but doesn't report it." ...
"[Republican President Bush's] Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge
registered with the Department of Justice as a lobbyist for the government
of Albania nearly two years after winning an almost half-million dollar
lobbying contract, Roll
Call reports this morning." ... ""I didn't think it was [necessary]
to register," the Capitol Hill newspaper quotes the former [Republican]
Pennsylvania governor and national co-chair of [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate] John McCain's presidential campaign as saying."
-By Brett Lieberman -PennLive.com
20080623
McCain
- Charlie
Black - Terrorism
- 2008
Election - Ariz
- US
- Pakistan
"McCain
Adviser: Terrorist Attack Would Help McCain in Election."
... "McCain
adviser Charlie Black told Fortune Magazine that national security
events help [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona
Senator] Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. [Republican-Arizona.]" ... ""The assassination
of [Pakistani Presidential Candidate] Benazir Bhutto in December was an
'unfortunate event,' says Black. 'But his knowledge and ability to talk
about it reemphasized that this is the guy who's ready to be Commander-in-Chief.
And it helped us.' As would, Black concedes with startling candor after
we raise the issue, another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. 'Certainly it
would be a big advantage to him,' says Black."" -By
Jake Tapper -ABCNEWS.com
20080622
US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Military
- Terrorism
-  Media
- Politics
- McCain
- 2008
Election
"Now
That We’ve ‘Won,’ Let’s Come Home." ... "The Iraq
war’s defenders like to bash the press for pushing the bad news and ignoring
the good. Maybe they’ll be happy to hear that the bad news doesn’t rate
anymore. When a bomb killed at
least 51 Iraqis at a Baghdad market on Tuesday, ending an extended
run of relative calm, only one of the three network newscasts (NBC’s)
even bothered to mention it." ... "The only problem is that no news from
Iraq isn’t good news — it’s no news. The night of the Baghdad bombing the
CBS war correspondent Lara Logan appeared
as Jon Stewart’s guest on “The Daily Show” to lament the vanishing television
coverage and the even steeper falloff in viewer interest. “Tell me the
last time you saw the body of a dead American soldier,” she said. After
pointing out that more soldiers died in Afghanistan than Iraq last month,
she asked, “Who’s paying attention to that?”" ... "Should voters tune in,
they’ll also discover that the [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate
John] McCain policy is nonsensical on its face. If “we are winning” and
the surge is a “success,” then what is the rationale for keeping American
forces bogged down there while the Taliban regroups
ominously in Afghanistan? Why, if this is victory, does Mr. McCain
keep threatening that “chaos and genocide” will follow our departure? And
why should we take the word of a prophet who failed
to anticipate the chaos and ethnic cleansing that would greet our occupation?"
... "Vanished into the memory hole are such earlier
examples of the McCain Iraq wisdom as “the end is very much in sight”
(April 9, 2003) and “there’s not a history of clashes that are violent
between Sunnis and Shiites” (later that same month)." -By
Frank
Rich -NYTimes
[Note: there is a very long history
of violent clashes between the Sunnis and Shiites.]
20080621
China
- Hackers
- US
- GOV
-  Lawmakers
- Human
Rights - Politics
- Military
- Intelligence
-  Investigation
-  Va
-  NJ
-  Ill
"More
congressional computers hacked from China." ... "More
Members of Congress have had their computers infiltrated by hackers within
China than initially suspected, a lawmaker has revealed." ... "[Representatives]
Reps. Frank Wolf (R-Va. [Republican-Virginia), Chris Smith (R-N.J. [Republican-New
Jersey), and Mark Kirk (R-Ill. [Republican-Illinois]) admitted to having
data removed from their Capitol Hill computers last week, but Wolf says
there are more." ... "“I would suspect that the Foreign Affairs, Armed
Services, Intelligence, (and) Appropriations committees would all be top
targets,” Kirk said." ... "Wolf and Smith said they believe the hackers
focused on them because of their continued objections to China’s human
rights violations, and suspected that the hackers were looking for information
on dissidents." ... "The FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] asked the
lawmakers not to speak publicly, fearing that if they did, they would be
unable to track the IP addresses of the hackers, Kirk said." ... "“When
you’re in the middle of a criminal investigation, you try not to alert
the criminal of what’s happened so you can track it down,” he said." -By
Jordy Yager -TheHill.com
20080619
Military
-  Tech
-  Safety
- Investigation
- Government
- Accounting
- Politics
- US
- Taiwan
"US
N-weapons parts missing, Pentagon says." ... "The
US military cannot locate hundreds of sensitive nuclear missile components,
according to several government officials familiar with a Pentagon report
on nuclear safeguards." ... "Robert Gates, US [Republican President Bush's]
defence secretary, recently fired both the US Air Force chief of staff
and air force secretary after an investigation blamed the air force for
the inadvertent shipment of nuclear missile nose cones to Taiwan." ...
"According to previously undisclosed details obtained by the FT, the investigation
also concluded that the air force could not account for many sensitive
components previously included in its nuclear inventory." ... "One official
said the number of missing components was more than 1,000." ... "The disclosure
is the latest embarrassing episode for the air force, which last year had
to explain how a bomber mistakenly carried six nuclear missiles across
the US." -By Demetri Sevastopulos
-FT.com
20080618
War
Crimes - Criminal
- Politicians
- US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Guantanamo
Bay - Cuba
- Military
- Intelligence
- Prison
- Torture
-  Human
- Human
Rights - Law
-  Medical
-  Psychological
- Science
"General
who probed Abu Ghraib says [Republican President] Bush officials committed
war crimes." ... "The Army general who led the investigation
into prisoner abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison accused the [Republican
President] Bush administration Wednesday of committing "war crimes" and
called for those responsible to be held to account." ... "The remarks by
[Major General] Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, who's now retired, came in a
new report that found that [United States] U.S. personnel tortured and
abused detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, using beatings,
electrical shocks, sexual humiliation and other cruel practices." ... ""After
years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports
from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether
the current administration has committed war crimes," Taguba wrote. "The
only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered
the use of torture will be held to account."" ... "Taguba, whose 2004 investigation
documented chilling abuses at Abu Ghraib, is thought to be the most senior
official to have accused the administration of war crimes. "The commander
in chief and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture,"
he wrote." ... "The group Physicians for Human Rights, which compiled the
new report, described it as the most in-depth medical and psychological
examination of former detainees to date." ... "Also this week, a probe
by the Senate Armed Services Committee revealed how senior Pentagon officials
pushed for harsher interrogation methods over the objections of top military
lawyers. Those methods later surfaced in Afghanistan and Iraq." -By
Warren
P. Strobel -McClatchyDC.com
Special
Report - Noteworthy
- US
- Guantanamo
Bay - Cuba
- Military
- Intelligence
- Torture
- War
Crimes - Prison
- Investigation
- Legal
- Rights
- Religious
- Terrorism
-  School
- Politics
"Guantanamo
Bay detainees investigation." ... "An eight-month
McClatchy investigation of the detention system created after the [September]
Sept. 11 terrorist attacks has found that the [United States] U.S. imprisoned
innocent men, subjected them to abuse, stripped them of their legal rights
and allowed Islamic militants to turn the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay,
Cuba into a school for jihad."
"
-McClatchyDC.com
Torture
- Crimes
- Unlawful
- US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Guantanamo
Bay - Cuba
- Military
- Intelligence
- Prison
- Terrorism
- War
Crimes - Politics
- Human
- Rights
- Medical
- Psychological
- Science
"Broken
Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by
the US." ... "About: Broken Laws, Broken Lives shows the
human consequences of harsh and unlawful US interrogation practices. This
landmark report reveals the excruciating pain and continued suffering of
men who, never charged with any crime, endured torture at US detention
facilities in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay [Cuba]. Based
on internationally accepted standards for clinical assessment of torture
claims, the report documents practices used to bring about long-lasting
pain, terror, humiliation, and shame for months on end." -Physicians
for Human Rights -BrokenLives.info
20080613
 Tim
Russert -  Barack
Obama - John
McCain -  Internet
-  EMail
- Media
- 
- Politics
- Religion
-  Indiana
- Illinois
- US
- Iraq
- Iran
- Military
- Money
-  Social
Security - 2008
Election
[NOTE:
On the day MSNBC's Meet
the Press television political journalist Tim Russert died, MSNBC published
this interview with Tim Russert:]
"Vigilance
needed on campaign claims: Big issues, not smears,
need to be the focus." ... "Msnbc: Tim, www.fightthesmears.com
is a web site launched by the [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate]
Barack Obama campaign to combat potentially damaging rumor about the candidate
and his wife, Michelle. Is this necessary? How big of a problem is
this really?" ... "Tim Russert: It’s amazing how much the Internet
has changed our lives. People get emails that make accusations without
foundation and they are circulated around the country within seconds and
suddenly become topics of conversations around water coolers or in lunchrooms."
... "I remember being in Indianapolis [Indiana's capital] covering the
Indiana primary and a man came up to me and said he wasn’t going to vote
for [Illinois] Senator Obama because he was very concerned about the comments
made by Jeremiah Wright, Obama’s pastor. I said, “That’s interesting.
As a reporter, I’m curious what comments particularly bothered you?”
He said, “Well, I can’t think of any that come to mind, but I also read
on the Internet that he’s a Muslim.” And I said, “Now wait a minute.
You can’t have both. You can’t be offended by his Christian minister
and then say he’s a Muslim. You’ve got to pick one.”" ... "But that
just underscores what we’re dealing with in this modern era." ... "Now
I’m told there’s a counter organization with a very similar name that is
going to be positioned and posted to spread the rumors, so that people
that go to the Internet to get clarification will go to the wrong web site
and get confused." ... "It’s a virus. You have bloggers on both sides,
liberals and conservatives, Republicans and Democrats all trying to utilize
this vehicle without any kind of fact checking and without any kind of
editorial control." ... "Msnbc: Given the way people use the
Internet, do you wonder if there are going to be some things said or done
during the course of this campaign that will be very unsettling?" ... "Russert:
That’s what we have to be conscious of and vigilant against, particularly
at the end of the campaign as things are put out there. We’ve already
had a few fake videos with different words dubbed in and people say, “This
must be true because I saw it on the Internet.”" ... "What we hope to do
in this campaign is recognize there are big differences on big issues between
John McCain and Barack Obama – the war in Iraq, Iran, Social Security,
taxes. You don’t need to get into this other stuff. If it does
surface, then I think the mainstream media has an obligation not to just
instinctively put it out there without vetting it. Or, if it is something
that is manufactured as a virus, report on that – who did it and why.
But sometimes it’s very hard to trace it back to its original source."
-MSNBC
John
McCain -  Rick
Davis - Foreign
- Money
- Politician
- Law
- Ukraine
- Russia
- US
- 2008
Election
"Alleged
Russia Ties Entangle McCain Campaign Manager." ...
"[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain's presidential
campaign is blasting a New
York Times report suggesting that the candidate may have known since
2005 that his campaign manager's [lobbying] firm worked for a Kremlin[citadel
in Moscow, Russia's capital]-backed politician." ... "The McCain campaign
is strongly denying the paper's reporting that in 2005, a White House National
Security Council staffer called John McCain's Senate office to complain
that Rick Davis' lobbying firm was "undercutting American policy on Ukraine"
by representing a Kremlin-backed politician [Ukrainian politician Viktor
Yanukovich]." .. |
