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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 5 November 2001 | Vol II, No. 78 | ||
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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 5 November 2001 | Vol II, No. 78 | ||
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". . . (T)he new signs of military resolution will stiffen the home front. . . . The American people are not afraid of war, as we read them. But on the basis of long experience, they do fear irresolution. Both abroad and at home, the new signs of seriousness are precisely what the moment demands." [ Wall Street Journal ]
Reinterpretation of Presidential Records Act of 1978 Creates New Layers of Secrecy
Public Has A Right To Access
Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government abuse and corruption, expressed grave disappointment in President Bush' decision to issue an executive order allowing the White House or former presidents to veto the release of presidential papers.
President Bush's new reinterpretation of the Presidential Records Act allows the incumbent president, a former president, or in some cases, the family of a deceased president to withhold documents from their regular release to the public. President Bush's new executive order provides that if a former president says that certain records are "privileged," they will remain secret, even if the sitting president disagrees. The order also covers the records of former vice presidents.
White House Counsel Alberto R. Gonzalez cited concerns for "national security" as being a factor in deciding to issue the new executive order, adding that the order did not create any new privileges, but "simply implemented an orderly process to deal with this information."
Many analysts believe the order was designed to shield records dealing with the Reagan Administration, when President George W. Bush's father was Vice President. Recently, 68,000 pages of Reagan records, the first former president whose records are subject to the 1978 law, were subject to release.
"The public clearly has a right to obtain information about their government. This is crucial even more so today, given government incompetence in protecting the American people from terrorism on U.S. soil. Judicial Watch will therefore challenge this overly broad executive order," stated Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.
"The Clinton Administration improperly used executive orders to thwart the people's rights. We expected more from President Bush. He should now retract this executive order to avoid a legal fight," added Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
[ Judicial Watch ]
Regarding bio-terrorism, let's look at the anthrax cases by the numbers: There have been 16 cases of pulmonary anthrax, and four of those were not caught early enough to treat. The 6 cutaneous anthrax cases have all been treated successfully. Twenty BILLION pieces of mail have been delivered since the first anthrax case was discovered.
Washington Times editor Wes Pruden notes, "The real news, hidden beneath the palaver, is that the public has so far not indulged in the panic of the press and the politicians." While The Federalist does not publish, as a matter of policy, political polls, it is worth noting as anecdotal rebuttal that public opinion polls indicate that 92% of Americans think the mail is safe and 60% think the media is overreacting.
[ The Federalist ]
The Taliban keep saying they're waiting for the Americans. Let 'em wait. For weeks, for months, till the last broadcast tower in their part of Afghanistan crumbles and the last ammunition dump explodes. Till a crow flying across Taliban lines would have to carry his own provisions. And the last poor starving beggar of a conscripted Taliban fighter lays down his AK-47 and walks across to peace and a warm meal.
In the meantime, let's keep sending our message from the unfriendly skies. Why should American boys -- and girls -- be put in harm's way before air power has had every chance to award the Taliban the martyrdom they seek?
Take your time, men and women of the United States Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Time is on our side, if we will but use it. Lots of it. Why rush? Why fight mad when we can fight smart?
Ever since Sept. 11, our own impatience has been a far greater danger than any weapon of the enemy's.
The Taliban have been itching for the arrival of American troops, preferably hunkered down in cities and garrisons like so many stationary targets. The Taliban would love to refight the last great war in Afghanistan, the one against the Russians, poor devils. Listen to this bluster from the Taliban's leader, the mullah Mohammed Omar:
"To those who are fighting and bombarding us, they should understand that the Afghan man is a fighter willing to die for jihad."
OK. That can be arranged.
By air power at first. And at last. And in between. Week after week, month after month. As long as it takes.
A massive invasion of Afghanistan could mean massive casualties if the ground isn't carefully prepared first, crater by crater.
Remember what an American general named Patton told his troops as they approached occupied France in 1944. No war was ever won, he said, by dying for one's country. The object of war, he pointed out, is to make the other fellow die for his.
The words George S. Patton used may have been more colorful than my expurgated version of them, but his point remains relevant.
Let the Taliban seek martyrdom and, bless their hearts, find it. Our object should be to seek victory.
[ Paul Greenberg. Townhall.com ]
Congressman Robert Wexler, D-Fla., who represents the Florida district where at least seven of the 19 suspected 9/11 hijackers lived last year, has blasted the FBI's decision not to test hijacker Mohamed Atta's rental car and apartment for the presence of anthrax, calling the move "almost unfathomable."
"This is the first I've learned of this," Wexler told the Palm Beach Post Friday. "My first call will be to ask [the FBI] what the reasoning is, what's the justification," he said.
"I hate to second-guess law enforcement experts, but it seems any logical analysis would require that everything that was a part of the hijackers' life, particularly their home, ought to be tested for anthrax," the congressman complained. "It's almost unfathomable."
The Florida Democrat's district includes Boca Raton, where the U.S. anthrax attack first surfaced on Oct. 4 at the headquarters of American Media Inc.
Wexler said he was so flabbergasted by the FBI's failure to probe all possible links between the hijackers and recent anthrax attacks that he was considering spending his own money to commission private tests. He said the bureau's decision called into question its entire 9/11 investigation.
"What else has the FBI not done in terms of its investigation of the hijackers and their relationship to South Florida?" he told the paper. Twelve of the 19 kamikaze terrorists lived or stayed in South Florida at some point last year.
The FBI did test for anthrax in two cars owned by the hijackers. But investigators did not test a rental car that Atta returned on Sept. 9 that was later discovered to have white powder in its. Neither did 9/11 probers test any of the hijackers' residences.
"Our investigation has been completed there," FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela told the Post. "We searched for evidence, but we did not test for anthrax."
The Florida congressman said he was also concerned about a Delray Beach pharmacist's apparent encounter with hijacker Atta, who visited his store this summer with irritated hands - a symptom some say could have indicated he had skin anthrax.
Eric Croddy, senior research associate at the private Monterey Institute of International Studies, said the decision not to test the hijackers' apartments and rental cars for anthrax "seemed odd," even if the chances of finding anthrax were slim.
"They could probably do a quick swab and come to a conclusion pretty quickly," he told the Post. "It would seem to be due diligence you would go ahead and do it anyway."
At some of the places where the hijackers lived in Broward and Palm Beach counties, building managers said they had not received, been alerted to, or asked for anthrax tests.
At the Homing Inn, where three of the hijackers stayed for a month, owner Kirit Shah told the paper no one tested the rooms, which were rented out to others as soon as the hijackers cleared out on July 26.
A spokesman for Florida Senator Bob Graham said that the FBI's decision not to fully probe all possible links between the 9/11 hijackers and the anthrax attacks will likely be reviewed in intelligence committee oversight hearings.
[ NewsMax ]
The FBI's theory that U.S.-based "right-wing hate groups" are the source of the recent wave of anthrax attacks suffered a serious blow Friday when a Pakistani government spokesman confirmed that the country's leading newspaper and a Karachi computer factory had been targeted by anthrax terrorism. The Daily Jang revealed the anthrax attacks in a report posted to the English language version of its website.
"We received a press release envelope which contained white powder ... and it has tested positive for containing anthrax spores," the paper said.
The letter arrived on Oct. 23 and was sent to Aga Khan University Hospital, where the anthrax tests were performed.
A day after the Daily Jang received its anthrax letter, another Pakistani paper, The News, reported that a Pakistan-based U.S. bank and an unnamed local computer company had received anthrax-tainted mail. Five bank workers were put on antibiotics and the bank was closed for disinfection, but Pakistani officials later said the mail tested negative for anthrax.
The new confirmation of anthrax attacks on Pakistan - a key U.S. ally in the war on Afghanistan's Taliban government - comes less than a week after anonymous FBI sources told the New York Post and the Washington Post that there was no evidence linking the anthrax attacks to international terrorists.
"Ultra-right-wing organizations - including a particular West Coast group - have become a key focus of a massive federal investigation into the murderous anthrax attacks," the New York Post reported last Thursday.
"Everything seems to lean toward a domestic source," a senior FBI official told the D.C. paper two days later, adding, "Nothing seems to fit with an overseas terrorist-type operation."
[ NewsMax ]
While the U.S. war effort is focused on the terrorists hiding out in Afghan caves, a terrorist supporter regularly flies his planes over U.S. territory, unimpeded.
The Federal Aviation Administration told NewsMax.com that in 1998, on ex-President Bill Clinton's watch, the "commercial" flights of the communist Cuban regime of Fidel Castro were finally given the green light to operate over U.S. territory.
Heretofore, Castro had bitterly complained that the decades-long ban against flying over U.S. airspace while going to and from Canada had forced his state-owned Cubana de Aviacion to spend huge amounts of money on fuel.
FAA spokesman Hank Price confirmed Friday to NewsMax.com that the Cuban planes are now permitted to fly two paths, one over land on the U.S. East Coast, and the other offshore over the Atlantic Ocean near the U.S. coastline.
Price could not name the states in whose skies the Cuban planes fly. He referred us to the Cuban Interests Section in Washington. Repeated efforts to reach the Cuban office through two separate phone numbers resulted in incessant ringing during business hours. No one answered.
At the time the Cuban government was granted permission to fly over U.S. airspace, Clinton was thought to be moving toward a normalizing of relations with Castro's dictatorship. The Clinton administration's later effort to please Castro by sending in armed agents to kidnap the young Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez was widely viewed as another move toward closer U.S.-Cuban ties. Ironically, the bad publicity over forcefully sending the boy back to Cuba's police state may have slowed down the drive to resume diplomatic relations, which had been severed in the Eisenhower and Kennedy years.
Cuban planes now fly over American communities notwithstanding Castro's ties to the world's deadliest terrorist groups and biotechnology manufacturing plants, his strong ties to Iran, and his well-documented hatred of the United States.
The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks against this country have caused security-minded specialists to revisit their concerns over the Cuban threat.
Just this week, Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that exposes and prosecutes government corruption, warned, "the United States government continues to ignore that Cuba is an eminent threat to this country."
At a recent congressional hearing, Rep. Robert Menendez D-N.J., presented facts regarding the following developments:
Three suspected Afghans were arrested in the Cayman Island with fake passports after transit to Cuba.
Cuban spy Ana Belen, only recently arrested after working at the Pentagon for years, provided classified information to Cuba.
Cuban spies recently convicted in Florida provided Castro with detailed information about the U.S. mail system. (This could cause raised eyebrows, given the recent anthrax problems at postal facilities and mailrooms in and out of government.)
Castro recently visited Iran, following interchanges that have for years existed between scientists in Cuba and Iran and the documented cases of terrorists who have sought and achieved safe harbor on the island just 90 miles from U.S. shores.
When presented with the above examples of Castro's hate-America drive, all Secretary of State Colin Powell could say was that he was "not familiar" with most of them. The fact that Powell was unaware of what Cuba was doing strikes Judicial Watch as "scary," especially in light of his earlier announcement that he wanted to soften the embargo against Cuba.
Judicial Watch Chairman Larry Klayman is critical of the U.S. government for contacting Cuba for support only days after the terrorist attack in New York "even though the Communist regime is on the U.S. terrorist nation watch list." That list is issued each year by Powell's own State Department. Assuming the secretary is not "unaware" of that, asking Castro to help combat terrorism ranks as "a blatant display of denial and chutzpah," in Klayman's view.
A Cuba-watcher who had been informed that Castro's planes were flying over peaceful American communities reacted by saying that the flights are undoubtedly "used also for military surveillance purposes to photograph targets while overflying the U.S. They could drop biological material."
Some of the strongest backers of President Bush's action in this war against terrorism believe he can best advance the cause by reversing the Clinton approval of the Cuban overflights. Castro, they point out, recently proclaimed "Iran and Cuba, in coopeation with each other, can bring America to its knees."
Because that aim is also number one on bin Laden's agenda, terrorism experts have difficulty figuring out
how Castro can be of any help in the U.S. fight against the Taliban.
[ NewsMax ]
**Judicial Watch Had Complained In September to IRS About "Charities" Linked to Terrorist Groups
**But Asset Seizure is Next Needed Step
Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, continued to raise concerns today about the operation of certain Islamic non-profit organizations in the U.S. which have been linked in press reports to Middle East terrorist groups, including Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network. On September 20, 2001, Judicial Watch complained to the IRS about 16 non-profit entities and 4 for-profit entities which were reportedly linked financially to the bin Laden network and/or the vicious terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Reports in recent days indicate the Bush Administration may finally be paying attention to concerns about these groups. Last Friday, the Administration added Hamas and Hezbollah to the list of terrorist groups whose assets can be easily frozen and U.S. News & World Report and The Los Angeles Times reported this weekend that two of the alleged "front" groups Judicial Watch complained about are under investigation by the Treasury Department.
One of the groups about which Judicial Watch complained, the Islamic African Relief Agency, reportedly has ties to the terrorist government of Sudan and to an individual who supplied the cell phone Osama bin Laden used to orchestrate the bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998. Judicial Watch has also learned that the Islamic African Relief Agency reportedly transferred money to Mercy International, another "front" non-profit group. It was Mercy International which reportedly purchased the vehicles used by bin Laden to bomb U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on August 8, 1998. Though now under investigation by the Treasury Department, the organization, based in Columbia Missouri, still operates freely.
"It is quite apparent that U.S. charitable dollars have been misused to finance international terrorism and the likes of Osama bin Laden. Given the numerous ties of the Islamic African Relief Agency and other non-profit front groups to terrorism, Judicial Watch does not understand what is holding up law enforcement action against them. Asset seizures must begin immediately, before it is too late," state Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel Larry Klayman.
[ Judicial Watch ]
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