AfterDowningStreet.org

Democrats plan sharp rebuke of pre-war intelligence, Iraq war in massive new congressional report
By Larisa Alexandrovna and John Byrne, www.RawStory.com
House Judiciary Committee Democrats, spearheaded by Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), are set to release possibly the sharpest congressional critique to date surrounding Iraq, RAW STORY has learned.
The report, titled "The Constitution in Crisis: The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution and Coverups in the Iraq War," is slotted to be made available to the public Tuesday. RAW STORY acquired a copy of the book’s cover and some additional information about the document today.
According to Democratic aides, the report will focus on alleged manipulation of pre-war intelligence by the White House, specifically covering such topics as the Downing Street Minutes as well as the White House position on the Geneva Conventions and international law as regards its policies toward prisoners of war.

By David Sirota, HuffingtonPost
In his news conference today, President Bush invoked the need for speed in the War on Terror as the reason he is illegally ordering the National Security Agency to conduct domestic surveillance without search warrants. Sounds like a compelling argument, right? In the fast-moving world of information age technology, we can't really afford to make our law enforcers take the time to go get a warrant, right?

By John Prados, www.TomPaine.com
John Prados is a senior fellow of the National Security Archive in Washington, DC, and author of Hoodwinked: The Documents that Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War (The New Press).

By Aziz Huq, www.TomPaine.com
Aziz Huq is associate counsel in the Liberty and National Security project of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. He is co-writing with Fritz Schwarz a book on the separation of powers and national security to be published by the New Press in late 2006.

By Walter Pincus, The Washington Post
Fact sheet details secretive agency's growth from focus on policy to counterterrorism.
The Pentagon's newest counterterrorism agency, charged with protecting military facilities and personnel wherever they are, is carrying out intelligence collection, analysis and operations within the United States and abroad, according to a Pentagon fact sheet on the Counterintelligence Field Activity, or CIFA, provided to The Washington Post.

WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush vowed on Monday to authorize more eavesdropping on Americans suspected of ties to terrorists and said he believed a probe was underway into who committed "the shameful act" of revealing the covert program.

By Larry Johnson
George W. Bush may have been a mediocre student in college, but he clearly mastered Orwell's works, especially 1984 and Animal Farm. How else to explain his reliance on repeating catch phrases that are misleading and, at times, outright false, while trying to shape and mold American public opinion to support his policies?

By Dave Lindorff, www.thiscantbehappening.net
In an interview last week, George McGovern, former US Senator from South Dakota, outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War and 1972 Democratic candidate for President, told me that President Bush’s announced new policy of pre-emptive war--his justification for invading Iraq--puts America in the same camp as Imperial Japan in 1942.

DEMOCRACY NOW!
* An Impeachable Offense? Bush Admits Authorizing NSA to Eavesdrop on Americans Without Court Approval *
President Bush has admitted he secretly ordered the National Security Agency

Protesters outside the White House fence last night made enough noise to disrupt the network anchors' parroting of Bush's talking points. Let's remember this and do it every time!

Eli Stephens Left I on the News http://lefti.blogspot.com
On Wednesday, George Bush gave a speech. The media described the speech as one in which Bush "took responsibility for the faulty intelligence.

By Greg Rollins, CPT
As this kidnapping draws out I am reminded of the Tom Petty and the Heart Breakers song that says "the waiting is the hardest part." We fill our days with work - important work - but work that helps us avoid the waiting. If we stop and wait we grow restless, even edgy.

Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
Monday, December 19, 2005 1:19 AM
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
By Sabah Ali
The Bush Administration uses double barrel propaganda today, with Mr. Bush using a prime time television address to say things like "My fellow citizens: Not only can we win the war in Iraq - we are winning the war in Iraq," and responding to negative news by saying "It does not mean that we are losing." Meanwhile, Mr. Cheney, while on a heavily guarded tour of the "Green Zone" and other locales in Iraq said today, "I think the vast majority of them think of us as liberators."

An Interview with Tony Benn, Written by Kevin Zeese
http://democracyrising.us/content/view/391/164/
Tony Benn, was born in London on April 3rd 1925, the son, grandson and father of Members of Parliament. He entered Parliament in 1950 at the age of 25 and retired from the House of Commons in May 2001. He is the longest serving Labor MP in the history of the party. He was a Cabinet minister in the Wilson and Callaghan governments from 1964 - 79 and President of the Council of European Energy ministers in 1977.

http://www.traprockpeace.org
Traprock is continuing to add to its audio coverage of virtually the entire London International Peace Conference, held on December 10th, with new audio mp3's, photo albums and video.

Kucinich Introduces Bipartisan Legislation To Allow Iraqi Parliament - Not US House of Representatives - To Vote On The Future Of US Occupation
Kucinich/Paul Legislation Would Have Sovereign Iraq Vote On The Future Of US Occupation

This Saturday Night at 6:00 pm...An official DAWN (DC Anti-War Network) Endorsed Action!
Everybody is invited! Join Us!
These favorites will warm your heart! Sing along to:
"I'm Dreaming of a White Christian"

Eli Stephens
Left I on the News
http://lefti.blogspot.com
So Bush is going to sign a bill prohibiting "cruel, inhuman, and degrading" treatment. I'll still wait to see the actual wording. For example, just what is a "prisoner"? Does it have to be someone who is officially "arrested" or "captured"? That would rule out all sorts of people who are simply kidnapped off the streets and spirited off to secret prisons. Do they have to have made it into "the system" to count? That would rule out people like Nazem Baji, executed by U.S. forces in the field while handcuffed. Or the prisoner who was executed in the mosque because a soldier claimed he was "f**king faking he's dead."

Published on Wednesday, December 14, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
By David Michael Green
The Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky once said, “While you may not be interested in war, war is interested in you”.

By David Michael Green
http://www.opednews.com
Text of President Bush’s speech at the U.S. Naval Academy, Wednesday, Nov. 30, as transcribed by CQ Transcriptions:
Thank you. Thank you. Please be seated. Thanks for the warm welcome.