Tag: Scandals

Katrina-ization of terror: A report released on Monday by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a thinktank based at Syracuse University in New York, details the types of immigration cases filed by the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS) since 2004. The results are startling:

[Out] of [814,073] cases filed in federal courts by the Department of Homeland Security since 2004, only 12 were related to terrorism. Another 112 cases were filed using national security charges…

[The] report found that 86.5 percent of all cases involved some sort of immigration violation, such as entering the United States without inspection, not having a valid immigrant visa or overstaying a student visa.

If this is true, DHS officials and the Bush administration have been lying to Congress and the public about what DHS has been up to:

[TRAC co-director David Burnham] said the agency continually sells itself as a central player in the war on terrorism.

“Despite the repeated statement by the DHS that stopping terrorism and preventing serious crime are its core missions, the record shows that since the DHS was established in the wake of 9/11/2001, most of the agency’s actual work recorded in the Immigration Courts has focused on traditional immigration matters,” concluded the report.

According to calculations by another source, the 12 terror cases filed since 2004 show that only 0.0015 percent of DHS cases have been terror-related. Is it really the best use of precious resources to have routine immigration cases being filed by DHS?

This smacks of the sort of gross incompetence (and lying about it) we have come to expect from this administration, but much more alarming is the fact that DHS turned up missing in the investigations that thwarted a pair of high-profile terror attacks in this country over the past few weeks. The department’s glaring absence from these investigations appears to stem from the Bush administration’s other persistent bad habit: politicization.

In April, a rightwing terrorist was caught before he blew up a woman’s health clinic in Texas. Last week, a planned bomb attack on ultra-rightwing protesters at the funeral of Republican political agitator Rev. Jerry Falwell was uncovered and a militant rightwing student at Falwell’s Christian college was arrested. Both cases were handled primarily by local and state law enforcement, with minor assists by non-DHS feds.

What has politics got to do with DHS being AWOL in these investigations? It is in the interest of the Bush adminstration, whose base is dominated by Christian extremists, not to give the public the opportunity to connect the Islamic fundamentalist terrorists Bush uses as his bogeymen — and whom DHS was ostensibly set up to fight — with the domestic Christian fundamentalist terrorists in our midst, even though both Islamicists and Christianists have the same ultimate goal: the establishment of theocratic states.

In fact, the only high-profile arrest that has involved DHS to date was the capture last August in Thailand of John Mark Karr, the emotionally disturbed man who falsely claimed to have killed child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey. DNA tests later excluded Karr as a suspect in the murder.

Capturing child predators is important work, but it’s hard to see how it falls under the purview of the agency tasked with protecting U.S. terrority from terror attacks.

It isn’t surprising that an administration that retooled the Dept. of Justice into a wholly owned subsidiary of the Republican National Committee would also play politics with homeland security. After all, Bush appointed a prime political hack, Michael Chertoff — whose previous high-profile gig was as a Clinton-hating talking head in the 1990s — as its cabnet-level leader. So, unfortunately, it won’t be any less surprising if we find out the hard way that no one in the administration gave any thought to the downside of politicizing DHS.

If the unthinkable were to happen, and terrorists, foreign or domestic, successfully attacked the homeland while DHS was busy filing routine immigration cases or tracking pedophiles overseas, this situation could be transformed in an instant from a typical bureaucratic boondoggle into a tragedy of historic proportions.

It’s not just George Bush who has never made a mistake.

Neocon Paul Wolfowitz has the same gift. You see, it wasn’t his fault that the World Bank wanted to can him as its president for promoting and upping the salary of his employee girlfriend. Whose fault is it then, you ask?

Give yourself a gold star if you answered, “the media.”

“I think it tells us more about the media than about the bank and I’ll leave it at that,” he told the British Broadcasting Corp…

“I accept the fact that by the time we got around to that, emotions here were so overheated that I don’t think I could have accomplished what I wanted to accomplish for the people I really care about,” he said.

It tells us more about the media than the bank? Nobody was asking about those two institutions, Wolfie. This is about you, you Iraq-losing, twisted, Dumbo-earred freak.

Good Lord. So he wanted to accomplish even more for the people he really cares about? Like what? Hummers and Rolexes on the house, everybody!

Political terror: Five years ago, in the wake of the 2001 terror attacks, Pres. George W. Bush had considerable success terrifying the public into supporting him. Today, however, the vast majority of Americans have come to regard George Bush as — at best — a serial prevaricator.

With his credibility is in tatters, and his approval rating mired in the low 30s, all he has left is his base — conservative Americans who are apparently addicted to, and easily manipulated by, fear.

Desperate to keep them in goose-bumps, he has dredged up the scarifying rhetoric from the bad old days. There is no better example of this than the president’s commencement address to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy on Wednesday, when he used deployed the bogeyman of al Qaeda no fewer than 39 times.

The transcript follows, picking up the narrative 15 paragraphs in:

[…]

What homeland security: The case of Mark Uhl, the young rightwing insurrectionist caught with a bomb intended for protesters* at the funeral of rightwing political agitator Jerry Falwell, has been transferred from local jurisdictions to the U.S. Attorney’s office for prosecution.

Uhl, 19, a student at Liberty University in Virginia, the college founded by the recently deceased evangelist and professional homophobe, was arrested Monday night. Uhl told authorities the bomb was intended for protesters at Falwell’s funeral on Tuesday.

Investigators say they believe Uhl may not have acted alone — and one member of the terror cell has apparently infiltrated the U.S. military:

Three other suspects are being sought, one of whom is a soldier from Fort Benning, Ga., and another is a high school student. No information was available on the third suspect.

Agencies involved in thwarting the terror attack included the federal ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms), Virginia State Police, the FBI and the Campbell County, Va., Sheriff’s Office. Notably absent from the investigation was the U.S. Dept. Homeland Security.

Similarly, late last month, we pointed out that DHS was absent from the investigation that led to the capture of a homegrown terrorist who attempted to plant a bomb at a Texas women’s health center. And yet, DHS facilitated the capture in Thailand of John Mark Karr, the mentally disturbed man who falsely claimed to have killed JonBenet Ramsey.

Overall, the federal agency tasked with protecting the homeland against terrorism has been AWOL in the pursuit of what appears to be an uptick in rightwing terrorism:

– Late in April, 150 federal, state, and local law enforcement officers carried out simultaneous raids in four Alabama counties in a sweep that yielded 130 grenades, a rocket launcher, and 2,500 rounds of ammunition.. In the town of Trussville, it took a U-haul truck to cart away all the materiel. At the Collinsville camper belonging to militia “major” Taymond Dillard, agents first had to defuse trip-wires rigged to explode hand grenades to kill intruders.

– Right-wing vigilantes arrested in a scuffle at one of the May 1 immigration marches, in Washington D.C., [were] found to have a stash of automatic weapons and explosives in his home.

Not only was the nation’s top anti-terror agency involved in the Uhl case, a search of news stories on the Internet three days after his capture found that no law enforcement spokesperson had referred to him as a “terrorist” — nor had any version of the word “terror” been used to describe the case by any mainstream — and therefore purportedly liberal — news outlet.

Conversely, the federal government has labeled animal rights activist Jonathan Paul a terrorist, and may add “terrorism enhancements” to his sentence. Paul pleaded guilty to burning down a slaughterhouse for horse in Oregon in the 1990s. He and other members of the Animal Liberation Front are facing from three to 14 years in prison.

The surge in rightwing terrorism may be a response to the country’s leftward drift away from the authoritarianism of Pres. Bush and the Republican Party. If the trend away from the GOP continues, as Digby says, terror attacks from rightwing extremists are likely to ramp up:

I predict that we are going to see a remarkable resurgence of rightwing violence if the Democrats take full control of the government. These people are always surprisingly cooperative when the government is run by Republicans and then rediscover their “anti-government” beliefs when Democrats share or dominate the government. I can’t imagine why that would be.

Oh, and here’s the kicker about Mark Uhl: Falwell gave him a scholarship to attend Liberty U.

*UPDATE: The Associated Press has updated the story. The protesters Uhl and his compatriots intended to bomb were not liberals. They were members of the bizarre Fred Phelps “God Hates Fags” cult based at the Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas. The Phelps said they were protesting Falwell’s funeral because he was a friend to gays. These folks are seriously off their meds.

It is a disturbing pattern of behavior among senior officials in the Bush administration. Top officials leave the administration after becoming alarmed over malfeasant behavior by the president and his minions. But instead of speaking out, they keep quiet — until they write a book or find themselves testifying at a congressional hearing.

Bush’s former secretary of state, attorney general, CIA director and their top aides are among those who left in silence.

The most recent example is the former CIA director George Tenet. In his new book, “At the Center of the Storm,” he says was used as a scapegoat in the misinformation campaign the Bush team created to take the country. Now, four years into the war, and with $4 million in his pocket from the book, he’s coming forward with the truth, As Arianna Huffington put it:

[He is] about four years too late. Tenet seems to believe there’s a major distinction between lying and standing by silently while others lie, and then proudly receiving a Medal of Freedom from the liars.

He could have simply resigned and freed himself to “tell the truth.” Tenet acts as if resignation were not an option. But it was. And the passion and anger he displays now in the service of book sales could have been used then in the service of his country

Last week we learned that John Ashcroft resigned as attorney general three years ago at least in part because he and others at the Dept. of Justice believed that the warrantless eavesdropping program was illegal. The fact that someone — the president refuses to say who — sent two of Bush’s top goons, then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales and Bush’s chief of staff, Andy Card, to Ashcroft’s hospital bed to try to strong-arm him into changing his mind may have also been a factor:

The sickbed visit was the start of a dramatic showdown between the White House and the Justice Department in early 2004 that, according to [congressional testimony by former DOJ official James] Comey, was resolved only when Bush overruled Gonzales and Card. But that was not before Ashcroft, Comey, [FBI director Robert] Mueller and their aides prepared a mass resignation, Comey said. The domestic spying by the National Security Agency continued for several weeks without Justice approval, he said.

The wiretapping and the hospital visit were too much for Comey:

[…]

At a news conference today, Pres. George Bush refused to say who sent two of his most senior officials to then-Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft’s hospital room to twist his arm on warrantless wiretapping. Via Think Progress:

KELLY O’DONNELL, NBC NEWS: Sir, did you send your then chief of staff and White House counsel to the bedside of John Ashcroft while he was ill to get him to approve that program, and do you believe that kind of conduct from White House officials is appropriate?

BUSH: Kelly, there’s a lot of speculation about what happened and what didn’t happen. I’m not going to talk about it. It’s a very sensitive program. I will tell you that one, the program was necessary to protect the American people and it’s still necessary, because there’s still an enemy that wants to do us harm, and therefore I have an obligation to put in place programs that honor the civil liberties of the American people — a program that was, in this case, constantly reviewed, and briefed to the United States Congress. And the program, as I say, is an essential part of protecting this country, and so there will be all kinds of talk about it. As i say, I’m not going to move the issue forward by talking about something as highly classified subject. I will tell you, however, that the program was necessary.

O’DONNELL: Was it on your order, sir?

BUSH: As I said, the program is a necessary program that was constantly reviewed and constantly briefed to the Congress. It’s an important part of protecting the United States, and it’s still an important part of our protection, because there’s still an enemy that would like to attack us, no matter how calm it may seem in America, an enemy lurks and they would like to strike. They would like to do harm to the American people, because they have an agenda. They want to impose an ideology. They want us to retreat from the world. They want to find safe haven, and these just aren’t empty words. These are the words of al Qaeda themselves, and so we will put in place programs to protect the American people that honor the civil liberties of our people and programs that we constantly brief to Congres

Can you imagine this scenario if Bill Clinton had dodged a question this way? Atrios can:

Back in those happy days in the 90s, if Clinton had refused to answer a question like this a shitstorm would’ve erupted. Ted Koppel would’ve put up a “17 days and still no answer” clock. Tweety would have had 37 blond conservative lawyers on every night to demand “accountability.” etc… etc…

But Bush answered the question by not answering it, says Digby:

Bush was deeply involved. He met with both Comey and Mueller on the issue after they all said they’d resign. The spinners are trying to say that their Dear Leader finally overruled others who had nefarious intentions , but his refusal to answer the question today should put that to rest. There’s no reason for him to launch into such outdated 2003 gibberish about enemies lurking who “would like to strike” if he didn’t order it. It’s obvious that he did.

CNN is reporting that Paul Wolfowitz is resigning as head of the World Bank, effective June 30. Wolfowitz demanded and got a statement from the bank’s board of director’s absolving him of all wrongdoing, and admitting that the bank was also at fault.

ABC News, which always seems to get these little scoops right, is reporting that Paul Wolfowitz is toast.

World Bank officials say the bank’s board is completing an “exit strategy” that will allow World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz to resign this afternoon and “still save some face” over the issue of his efforts to seek a promotion and pay raise for his girlfriend at the bank.

The officials say the bank’s board will accept Wolfowitz’s resignation but will also acknowledge that the World Bank’s Ethics Committee bears “some responsibility” for giving him bad advice on the issue of his girlfriend.

The decision is likely today, officials say, because Wolfowitz had been scheduled to leave tonight for a European trip.