Cheney "fears being tried as a war criminal": Colin Powell's Chief of Staff

War Criminal Cheney is getting nervous.  Chimpy Bush, Rove, Powell, Rice, Rumsfeld, Feith, Franks, and Wolfowitz, among others,  had better watch out too.  There is no place to hide for them.  They will be brought to justice.

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's Chief of Staff when he was Secretary of State, told ABC News yesterday that Dick Cheney's aggressive defense of his policies in his book and on his current tour is an effort driven by "fear that somebody will Pinochet him." Augusto Pinochet was the Chilean dictator who was arrested in 1998 in London on a warrant from Spain for multiple crimes committed during his brutal, bloody reign.  We will pursue Cheney with tenacity wherever he goes.

"I think he's just trying to, one, assert himself so he's not in some subsequent time period tried for war crimes," Wilkerson said. "He's developed an angst and almost a protective cover, and now he fears being tried as a war criminal so he uses such terminology as 'exploding heads all over Washington' because that's the way someone who's decided he's not going to be prosecuted acts boldly, let's get out in front of everybody, let's act like we are not concerned and so forth when in fact they are covering up their own fear that somebody will Pinochet him."

Cheney should be worried. Millions of Americans are demanding prosecution and will be staging protests wherever Cheney shows up to sell books. Wilkerson believes that the prosecution of criminal acts by Bush-era officials is justified and important.

Pinochet’s arrest is a chilling precedent for a criminal like Cheney. It is a historical marker for our movement to demand justice and accountability.

Pinochet was arrested years after leaving office because of the determined and dogged effort of Chilean activists—and a network of international activists—who demanded accountability through prosecution. They never gave up, and neither will the IndictBushNow movement that was initiated by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark.

The high-profile talk of Cheney’s potential prosecution for war crimes underscores the critical nature of our work, along with our success. The movement to indict Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and other top administration officials is gaining momentum. We are truly breaking through. Mass media outlets are hearing our voices and the word is getting out.

This latest headline comes directly on the heels of last week’s New York Times editorial supporting a federal court of appeals decision allowing two U.S. citizens tortured by U.S. military forces in Iraq to sue former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and others.

The threat of indictment and prosecution for Cheney, Rumsfeld and even George W. Bush is becoming a reality thanks to the the work of dedicated people throughout the country.

It is widely known that former Vice President Cheney was a key architect of the Bush administration’s torture policies. Cheney himself bragged about this starting in 2008. These admissions are also in his new disgusting memoir, “In My Time.”

Well, Dickhead Cyborg, your time is fast approaching.  There is no place on this Earth for you to hide.


Republished from Indict Bush Now.

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Libyan intelligence documents show ties to CIA

BEN HUBBARD - Associated Press


TRIPOLI, Libya (AP) — The CIA worked closely with Moammar Gadhafi's intelligence services in the rendition of terror suspects to Libya for interrogation, according to documents seen Saturday by the AP, cooperation that could spark tensions between Washington and Libya's new rulers.

Khadaffy and War Criminal Tony Blair

The CIA was among a number of foreign intelligence services that worked with Libya's agencies, according to documents found at a Libyan security agency building in Tripoli.

The discovery came as the Libyan rebels said they would surround pro-Gadhafi cities until the Sept. 10 deadline for their surrender.

Trying to "to avoid bloodshed and to avoid more destruction to public properties and national institutions, we have given an ultimatum of one week to the areas of Sirte, Bani Walid, Jufra and Sabha," the head of the rebels' National Transitional Council, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, told reporters in Benghazi.

"It is an opportunity for these cities to peacefully join the revolution," he said, adding the rebels were providing humanitarian aid to the besieged areas along with water and electricity services.

The intelligence documents found in Tripoli, meanwhile, provided new details on the ties between Western countries and Gadhafi's regime. Many of those same countries backed the NATO attacks that helped Libya's rebels force Gadhafi from power.

One notable case is that of Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, commander of the anti-Gadhafi rebel force that now controls Tripoli. Belhaj is the former leader of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, a now-dissolved militant group with links to al-Qaida. Belhaj says he was tortured by CIA agents at a secret prison, then returned to Libya.

Two documents from March 2004 appear to be American correspondence to Libyan officials to arrange Belhaj's rendition.

Referring to him by his nom de guerre, Abdullah al-Sadiq, the documents say he will be flown from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Libya and asks for Libyan government agents to accompany him.

It also requests American "access to al-Sadiq for debriefing purposes once he is in your custody."

"Please be advised that we must be assured that al-Sadiq will be treated humanely and that his human rights will be respected," the document says.

Peter Bouckaert of Human Rights Watch, which found the documents, called the ties between Washington and Gadhafi's regime "a very dark chapter in American intelligence history, and it remains a stain on the record of the American intelligence services that they cooperated with these very abusive intelligence services."

In Washington, CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Youngblood declined to comment Saturday on any specific allegation related to the documents.

"It can't come as a surprise that the Central Intelligence Agency works with foreign governments to help protect our country from terrorism and other deadly threats," Youngblood said. "That is exactly what we are expected to do."

Rami al-Shaheibi contributed from Benghazi, Libya.

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.  We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.

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'Swine flu' detected in Indiana boy

RARE VIRUS IS NO CAUSE FOR ALARM, STATE HEALTH OFFICIAL SAYS

From:  INDYSTAR.COM

A new strain of "swine flu" has shown up in two young children in Pennsylvania and Indiana who had direct or indirect contact with pigs.

Colorized transmission electron micrograph of Avian influenza A H5N1 viruses (seen in gold) grown in MDCK cells(seen in green). Avian influenza A viruses do not usually infect humans; however, several instances of human infections and outbreaks have been reported since 1997. When such infections occur, public health authorities monitor these situations closely.

So far, there's no sign the virus has spread beyond the two cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday.

"We wanted to provide some information without being alarmist," because people have contact with pigs at fairs this time of year and doctors should watch for possible flu cases, said Lyn Finelli, the CDC's flu surveillance chief. "We're always concerned when we see transmission of animal viruses to humans."

People rarely get flu from pigs -- only 21 cases have been documented in the past five years -- and it's too soon to know how infectious this virus will be, Finelli said.

This particular virus has only been seen eight times in the past five years -- the Indiana case was the ninth and the Pennsylvania case the 10th, according to the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Friday.

In Indiana, the virus was picked up as part of routine flu surveillance, said Shawn Richards, respiratory epidemiologist for the Indiana State Department of Health.

A boy younger than 5, who had chronic health problems, went to the hospital with flu symptoms on July 23. Richards declined to say where the case occurred.

When the boy's flu test came back positive, the state's virology lab requested the specimen, as it's unusual to see the disease at this time of year, Richards said. The lab found the flu strain to be nonhuman and sent it to the CDC.

The boy had had no contact with pigs, but a caretaker did in the weeks before he fell ill. She was asymptomatic, Richards said. No other family members appear ill.

In the Pennsylvania case, a girl, also younger than 5, had contact with pigs at an agricultural fair last month. She, too, has recovered, and health officials are investigating reports of illness in other people who went to the fair. No additional cases have been confirmed so far.

The viruses in the two children were similar but not identical, and Richards said there was no indication of a connection between the two cases.

Despite the rarity of such cases, there's no reason for alarm, health officials say.

"It's more of an intriguing, interesting thing," Richard said. "What it has told us is that our surveillance systems are working very well."

Studies showed that the virus includes a gene from the 2009 pandemic strain that might let it spread more easily than pig viruses normally do.

The new strain is a hybrid of viruses that have infected pigs over the past decade and a gene from the H1N1 strain that caused the pandemic two years ago. It is the first combination virus to turn up in people since the pandemic, said Michael Shaw, a lab chief at the CDC. It's classified as an  H3N2 virus.

The gene from the 2009 pandemic is one of the things that makes this new strain worrisome, said Dr. John Treanor, a flu specialist at the University of Rochester School of Medicine.

"There is some evidence that that gene is particularly important for transmission from person to person," he said.

This year's vaccine, which is the same as last year's, likely would not protect against the new swine strain, Treanor and Finelli said. However, they are encouraged that so far it does not appear to have spread easily between people, and that local health officials detected and reported the novel strain so quickly.


Star reporter Shari Rudavsky and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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September 1-2, 2011 -- Wayne Madsen: Reporting resumes from Washington

WMR resumes its Washington, DC dateline today after a month of reporting from Asia, mainly from Jakarta.

The rare photograph from August 1961 of Presidents John F. Kennedy and Sukarno, taken at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland after Sukarno's arrival for a state visit, did not escape the curious attention of a Transportation Security Administration screener and a United Airlines baggage handler at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. After the photograph arrived unscathed from Jakarta via Tokyo, the hazardous part of the journey turned out to be from Chicago to Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The Eastern European-accented "frick and frack" team of Mr. TSA and Mr. United Baggage at O'Hare were very interested in the carefully wrapped and secured framed photograph when the TSA man decided to pop the plastic wrap to insert some sort of sniffing strip. When the photograph arrived in Baltimore, the glass was shattered and, more interesting, the worst damage was a gash to President Kennedy's right front above the temple. Maybe its me, but the exact spot of the damage to Kennedy's photograph in the limousine sort of reminded me of something.


     
     Before TSA


     
     After TSA


One thing is for certain. Based on the cavalier attitude of the United baggage attendant over the fact that the photograph was tossed down the luggage carousel along with heavy baggage and broken glass could be heard (unlike ANA airline personnel who hand-carried the photograph from the plane to the luggage claim at O'Hare), I will not be flying United or its sister airline Continental at any time in the near or distant future. The old Soviet Aeroflot and East Germany's Interflug were luxury airlines compared to the revolting nature of the U.S. airline industry today.

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