AfterDowningStreet.org

Leaked memo reveals strategy to deny knowledge of detention centres
By Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian (UK)
The government is secretly trying to stifle attempts by MPs to find out what it knows about CIA "torture flights" and privately admits that people captured by British forces could have been sent illegally to interrogation centres, the Guardian can reveal. A hidden strategy aimed at suppressing a debate about rendition - the US practice of transporting detainees to secret centres where they are at risk of being tortured - is revealed in a briefing paper sent by the Foreign Office to No 10.

By Patrick Doherty, www.tompaine.com
The first time I met Richard Clarke, I was role-playing the president of the United States during a weekend war game hosted by the Security Studies Program at the Fletcher School. That game, held annually and dubbed "SIMULEX," is staffed by members of the nation's military graduate schools, such as the National War College and the Arm War College. This particular year, 1997, Clarke was observing the progress of the game, as he had a special interest in the scenario.

By the Institute for Policy Studies, http://www.ips-dc.org
mp3 (Right click and select Save to disk to download in Windows. Warning- 55 meg file)
Listen Now! With Windows Media Player

On Wednesday, January 18 th, Cindy Sheehan was hosted by the Rome Province in their Sala della Pace. Sheehan is on tour in Italy with her organization, Gold Star Families for Peace, calling for the removal of troops from Iraq. At the same time, she is sharing her personal story about the loss of her son Casey in the war and her subsequent efforts to speak with President George W. Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas in August 2005. READ MORE

By Dan Eggen, The Washington Post
The Bush administration appears to have violated the National Security Act by limiting its briefings about a warrantless domestic eavesdropping program to congressional leaders, according to a memo from Congress's research arm released yesterday.

Larry Wilkerson Attacked the Iraq War. In the Process, He Lost the Friendship of Colin Powell.
By Richard Leiby, Washington Post
In an overheated old schoolroom in Washington, Larry Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel, is doing his best to impose military discipline on 25 pupils as they prepare to attack a mountain of pizza, cupcakes and cookies. It is the year-end party for Macfarland Middle School's Colin L. Powell Leadership Club, a tutoring and mentoring program that Wilkerson oversees as a volunteer. Striding before his charges in smart burgundy suspenders, the colonel -- everybody here calls him the colonel -- makes a point about duty:

By BBC
Tony Blair is facing calls to make a full statement on how much he knew about the US using UK airports to transport terror suspects.
Downing Street says all such cases have now been made public after a leaked memo said "there could be more".

By Max Obuszewski
Some twenty antiwar activists held a demonstration on a rainy Wednesday morning outside U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia at 3rd & Constitution Ave. The demonstration preceded the third trial resulting from more than 370 arrests at the White House on September 26, 2005, when activists gathered to seek a meeting to discuss an end to the war in Iraq.

January 19 - 21, 2006
REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE in Washington, DC: The RNC will hold its
annual winter meeting. [ABCNews.com, 1/18/06]
Thursday, January 19, 2006
NEW* BUSH in Sterling, VA: President Bush will give a speech on the

By Ray McGovern, t r u t h o u t | www.truthout.org
Individually, the new "dots" supplied by revelations about the Iraq war in James Risen's State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration are not very surprising. Collectively, though, they provide valuable insight into the peculiar way in which President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair prepared to launch an unprovoked war - shades of Germany and Quisling Austria two generations ago. Needed: power-intoxicated leaders, court functionaries to serve them, and obedient military leaders able to subordinate conscience to career requirements.

By John Nichols, www.thenation.com
It sounds as if Al Gore is about to deliver what could be not just one of the more significant speeches of his political career but an essential challenge to the embattled presidency of George W. Bush.

Call for action to save Iraq's Academics
http://new.petitiononline.com/Iraqacad/petition.html
To: special rapporteur on summary executions at UNHCHR in Geneva and international Human Rights & Law organisations

By BBC
A Swiss senator carrying out an inquiry into claims the CIA has run illegal secret detention centres in Europe has said he has no doubt they exist.
Dick Marty accused the US of violating human rights and attacked European nations for their "shocking" passivity in the face of such violations.

McDermott
Inslee

By William Thomas
Never before have so many been so motivated to make known their revulsion to war and all who advocate it. Before and throughout the ferocious American assault on Iraq, millions of ordinary people have repeatedly assembled to promote peace and condemn state-organized torture and mass murder as totally unacceptable in this, the “Last Chance Century” to get together and get it right.READ MORE

Translation by Stephanie Westbrook, U.S. Citizens for Peace & Justice - Rome
http://www.peaceandjustice.it
On December 22, a group of peace activists from Pordenone, Italy, filed a complaint against the U.S. Government. The complaint, presented to the Civil Court of Pordenone, solicits the judge to declare the presence of nuclear weapons on the Aviano Air Base illegal and harmful and, therefore, to declare that the United State is ordered to remove all nuclear weapons from the base at Aviano as well as from all of Italy.

By DAVE LINDORFF, www.counterpunch.org
Many readers have responded to my last article about the media blackout of Rep. John Conyers' (D-Mich.) introduction of two bills to censure George Bush and Dick Cheney, and a third bill that would create a Select Committee to investigate impeachable crimes by the administration, saying I should let people know who the other seven members of Congress are who have agreed to co-sponsor the call.

By MIKE WHITNEY, www.counterpunch.org
Iran will defend itself if it is attacked by the United States or Israel.
Defending one's country against unprovoked aggression is sanctioned under international law and is a requirement of true leadership. We would expect no different if either the United States or Israel was attacked.

They fabricated the case against Iraq – now they're moving on Iran
By Justin Raimondo, www.antiwar.com
As the U.S. gets ready to move on Iran, under the pretext of a gathering Iranian nuclear threat, the news that the War Party got creative when WMD were nowhere to be found in Iraq should give us pause. According to a report in Raw Story by Larisa Alexandrovna, the Office of Special Plans (OSP) – a parallel intelligence agency set up by the neoconservatives to do an end run around the mainline U.S. agencies – was sent into Iraq in 2003 in order to cook up phony "evidence" of "weapons of mass destruction." As Alexandrovna relates:

By Bob Fertik, www.democrats.com
It looks like my idea of spying on the Busheviks has terrified them, so they sent Brit Hume out to attack me personally on FOX last night. Hey Brit - I'll debate you on Big Brother Bush any time, any place!