Our Highest Law Enforcement Officials are Criminals

Our Highest Law Enforcement Officials are Criminals

Crime Blotter: 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
CounterPunch March 19, 2007

While serving as President Bush's White House lawyer, Alberto Gonzales advised Bush that the president's war time powers permitted Bush to ignore the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and to use the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on US citizens without obtaining warrants from the FISA court as required by law. Under an order signed by Bush in 2002, NSA illegally spied on Americans without warrants.

By spying on Americans without obtaining warrants, Bush committed felonies under FISA. Moreover, there is strong, indeed overwhelming, evidence that justice was obstructed when Bush and Gonzales blocked a 2006 Justice Department investigation into whether Gonzales acted properly as Attorney General in approving and overseeing the Bush administration's program of spying on US citizens. Also at issue is whether Gonzales acted properly in advising Bush to kill an investigation of Gonzales' professional actions with regard to the NSA spy program.

We are faced with the almost certain fact that the two highest law enforcement officials of the United States are criminals.

The evidence that Bush and Gonzales have obstructed justice comes from internal Justice Department memos and exchanges of letters between the Justice Department's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR), an investigative office, and members of Congress. The documents were leaked to the National Journal, and the story was reported in the March 15, 2007, issue by Murray Waas, who also relied on interviews with both current and former high ranking DOJ officials. Ten months previously on May 25, 2006, Waas broke the story in the National Journal about the derailing of the OPR investigation.

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http://counterpunch.org/roberts03192007.html

CIA covered up Nazi war crimes, documents show

Updated Tue. Jun. 6 2006 11:35 PM ET
Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The CIA kept quiet about the whereabouts of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in the 1950s for fear he might expose undercover anti-communist efforts in West Germany, U.S. documents released Tuesday show.

The 27,000 pages released by the National Archives are among the largest post-Second World War declassifications by the CIA. They offer a window into the shadowy world of U.S. intelligence -- and the efforts to use Nazi war criminals as spies, sometimes to detrimental effect.

The war criminals "peddled hearsay and gossip, whether to escape retribution for past crimes, or for mercenary gain, or for political agendas not necessarily compatible with American national interests,'' Robert Wolfe, an expert on German history and former archivist at the National Archives, said at a news briefing announcing the document release.

In a March 19, 1958, memo to the CIA, West German intelligence officials wrote they knew where Eichmann was hiding. Eichmann played a key role in transporting Jews to death camps during the Second World War.

"He is reported to have lived in Argentina under the alias `Clemens' since 1952,'' authorities wrote.

SNIP...

Among the other findings:

* Former Nazi officers such as Heinz Felfe, who served in the "Gehlen organization'' -- the West German intelligence service which in its early years was sponsored by the U.S. army and then the CIA -- were typically hired by the Soviet Union to be double agents.
* The CIA routinely misled U.S. immigration officials in the mid-1970s about the role of CIA agent Tscherim Soobzokov and his connection to Nazi war crimes.
* The documents were among the latest released under a 1999 law -- resisted by the CIA -- that called for disclosure of government records related to war crimes committed by the Nazi and Japanese governments.

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http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060606/cia_nazis_060606/20060606?hub=CTVNewsAt11

TRUST OR HUSTLE: The Bush Record

David E. Scheim

BACKGROUND ON THE S&L BAILOUT. The failure of hundreds of U.S. Savings and Loans during the 1980s, as detailed in such sources as Stephen Pizzo’s Inside Job1 and Pete Brewton’s Untold Story,2 cost U.S. taxpayers an estimated $500 billion.3 A U.S. House committee concluded that over three-quarters of all S&L insolvencies appeared to be linked to serious misconduct by senior insiders or outsiders.4 In 1988, the comptroller of the currency found that less than 10 percent of recent bank failures had been caused solely by economic factors.5

One indication of the role of criminal conduct in S&L losses was the workings of just one New York figure, Mario Renda, who worked in conjunction with the Mob, according to a sworn federal deposition.6 Renda brokered as much as $5 billion per year in deposits into 130 S&Ls across the county, all of which failed.7 As Kwitny noted, “many of these deposits were made on the specific condition that the S&Ls would lend money out to borrowers Renda would recommend, who turned out to be local Mafia people or strangers from out-of-state.”8

The Bush family’s dealings illustrate some of the ways this S&L loot was extracted. In some loan transactions, money was simply siphoned out fraudulently to outsiders under lucrative arrangements with bank directors; Neil Bush’s record illustrates these type of transactions. In other instances, as exemplified by Jeb’s S&L dealings, loans were made for speculative investments or ventures without attempts to secure repayment if they were not profitable. Political connections often helped protect S&L misconduct;9 in the Bush’s case, George senior’s record demonstrated laxity toward the perpetrators, several of whom were in his own social circles.

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http://www.campaignwatch.org/more1.htm

Leaving All Children Behind: Bush's Policy on Education Earns a Failing Grade

The National Board of Governors voted to label Bush's education program as an "unfunded mandate"

By Daniel X
Takeaways

Bush seems to want to cut funding for education to finance his war in Iraq.

Bush promised to raise Pell Grants to $5,100, but now he wants to cut the Pell Grants. In 2000, amidst the multitude of campaign promises, slogans, and other memorable one-liners that usually accompany a presidential campaign, Governor George W. Bush made a promise to the people of this country, by saying that he would increase funding for educational programs, so that he would “Leave No Child Behind”. As soon as he came into office, he made sure only to leave no millionaire behind, by delivering trillions in tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans. As for the children of America, who looked to him to make good on his word to enhance their education, and make their futures look brighter, the president decided to raise the testing standards for students, but never gave them the ability to meet those standards.

In his recent budget, he outlined hundreds of programs that would have their funding slashed or cut altogether, including social service programs, senior care, and education. He started with the Head Start programs, by freezing all new enrollment, so that over 40% of eligible students will never be able to attend Head Start programs. He even cut his own “No Child Left Behind” programs by more than $33 Billion. Bush also cut a program that gave education to children belonging to military families. His audacious cuts in education have angered so many states, that the National Board of Governors voted unanimously to label “No Child Left Behind” as an “unfunded mandate”. 22 states are even considering enacting laws to challenge Bush’s education policies.

Bush’s cuts in education programs alone account for more than one-third of his overall cuts in domestic programs. He has proposed getting rid of Perkins Loans, and failed to raise the maximum PELL Grant award to $5,100 as he promised to do during his campaign. This is typical of the agenda he has pursued for more than four years- one that neglects the disadvantaged in this country, only to give major tax breaks to the wealthy. Title I programs, which are education programs that help poor communities across the country, are facing hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts by the Bush Administration. Almost all higher education funding will be severely cut, as will most adult literacy programs in the country.

The hardest hit by these cuts are college students. While the loan and grant programs are being destroyed, since Bush became president, tuition has risen over 35% in community colleges alone. Students, especially those who are in the middle and lower classes, are forced to pay hundreds of dollars a year in more tuition, with money they don’t have. Many students have dropped out of school because they cannot afford to continue paying for their education. Even those who are receiving education loans are in danger, as the Republicans are considering making the interest rates on student loans variable rates, as opposed to fixed rates. Today, with interest rates on the rise, that would make students pay millions more in interest alone, and also create unnecessary concern in students during times of economic uncertainty, like during the current market situation.

The Bush Administration seems to live for today, without concern about tomorrow. While wasting away billions of dollars committing war crimes across the world, Bush finds himself unable to play War for too much longer, so decides to cut other programs to fund his lust for war. Meanwhile, the children of America are losing this war, as they find themselves out of schools they belong in- from Head Start to College. While funding a war may be fun at times, President Bush has shown his inability to see the bigger picture, and demonstrate a commitment to America’s long-term health. By cutting education, he is robbing not only the student, but America, from having a brighter future. Tomorrow’s leaders are being taught in broken down schools, and with bleak prospects for success in their futures. The president may not care what this country looks like in 20 years, because he’ll be living off an executive salary paid for by the oil companies who receive their funding from the taxpayers. So today, while he whittles away his time in office enjoying himself, he cares very little about his broken promises, or what tomorrow may bring for American and the world.

SOURCE...

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/4698/leaving_all_children_behind_bushs_policy.html