Unearthed: News of the Week the Mainstream Media Forgot to Report

Bush Administration Has Secret Plan to Keep Iraq Under U.S. Control
Reporter Patrick Cockburn with The Independent (U.K.) revealed the Bush administration's "secret plan" to keep the U.S. military in Iraq "indefinitely" after the U.N. security mandate authorizing the U.S. military presence in Iraq expires in December.

According to Cockburn, the U.S. is "holding hostage some $50 billion of Iraq's money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pressure the Iraqi government into signing" the plan, under which U.S. troops "would occupy permanent bases, conduct military operations, arrest Iraqis and enjoy immunity from Iraqi law" for years to come.

The Washington Post reported that the Iraqi government may request an extension on the U.N. security mandate in order to delay action until the next U.S. president takes office. The Post reports that "Iraqis across the political spectrum have objected to Bush administration proposals for unilateral authority over U.S. military operations in Iraq and the detention of Iraqi citizens, immunity for civilian security contractors, and continuing control over Iraqi borders and airspace."

Bush Met with Jack Abramoff At Least Six Times, Contrary to White House Claims
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee disclosed in a report this week that President Bush met with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff on at least six occasions. The White House previously stated that Bush only met Abramoff twice, at White House Hanukkah receptions. But documents and photos obtained by the committee prove that Bush and Abramoff had stronger ties than previously known, although the extent of Abramoff's reach within the Administration still remains a mystery. The committee's investigation met resistance from at least three former Administration officials who invoked the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination to avoid answering some or all of the investigators' questions. The same committee reported in September 2006 that Abramoff and his associates had billed clients for 485 contacts with the White House, although investigators could not corroborate roughly 400 of the 485 contacts reported in Abramoff's billing records. But the new investigation uncovered 70 additional contacts between Abramoff's associates and White House officials, none of which was previously disclosed.

Federal Court Upholds EPA's Refusal to Protect Americans from Toxic Chemical Plant Emissions
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2006 EPA determination that current emission controls on synthetic organic chemical manufacturing plants are adequate to protect the public, despite deficiencies in the standards identified in prior court rulings. Last year, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Louisiana Environmental Action Network challenged the EPA's decision not to require any reductions in toxic air pollution from the synthetic chemical plants, which are among the nation's leading sources of toxic cancer-causing pollution. Studies suggest that 100 out of 1 million people living near these facilities could develop cancer during their lifetimes. The Circuit Court called the agency's actions a "rather unusual bit of rulemaking," but sided with the Bush administration anyway.

NRDC noted that the EPA's legal maneuvering to avoid updating the regulations was "not compelled by law, but rather the result of a policy choice by the Bush administration to side with the interests of the chemical industry and other big polluters." NRDC now plans to launch a campaign to force EPA to strengthen all toxic air pollution regulations that violate the Clean Air Act and are currently inadequate to protect public health.

CO2 Emissions Set to Double by 2050 Unless Governments Act
The International Energy Agency released a report this week predicting that carbon dioxide emissions could double by 2050 unless governments around the world engage in a "global energy technology revolution" to curb global warming emissions. The IEA called for a massive investment of up to $45 trillion - equal to 1.1 percent of average annual global gross domestic product - to spark research and development efforts in order to halve emissions by 2050. The report called on the Group of Eight and emerging countries such as China and India to quickly agree on a plan to meet the emissions target.

Southern Baptists launch skeptic campaign to derail climate legislation
Right-wing evangelicals launched a new campaign to attack urgently needed legislation to tackle climate change, calling for "a more biblical, fact-based approach" and urging lawmakers to remain "cautious of claims that our planet is in peril from speculative dangers like man-made global warming." The campaign, spearheaded by the Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation and endorsed by Focus on the Family's James Dobson and Republican Senators Tom Coburn and James Inhofe, is another attempt to sully the legitimate concern among signatories of the Evangelical Climate Initiative, which calls for urgent federal action on climate change.

Senate Intelligence Committee Report Failed to Look at "White House Iraq Group"
A Senate Intelligence Committee report released last week corroborates assertions that the Bush Administration exaggerated pre-war intelligence and ignored dissenting views among spy agencies over Iraq's weapons programs and Saddam Hussein's links to Al Qaeda.

But the committee admits that it failed to review "less formal communications between intelligence agencies and other parts of the Executive Branch." In doing so, the committee failed to investigate the role of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), a group established in August 2002 by then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card. The group included Karl Rove, Condoleezza Rice, Scooter Libby, Karen Hughes and others who attended the group's weekly meetings in the White House Situation Room. According to former White House press secretary Scott McLellan, the group's mission was "to coordinate the marketing of the war to the public," and "campaign to convince Americans that war with Iraq was inevitable and necessary."

Pentagon Instructed Guantanamo Interrogators to Destroy Evidence
A military defense lawyer says the Pentagon distributed a manual urging interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to destroy handwritten notes in case they were called to testify. According to the attorney, the manual emphasized the importance of "keeping the number of documents with interrogation information to a minimum" in order to "minimize certain legal issues" in the event that interrogators were called to testify in trials regarding the treatment of Gitmo detainees.

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that Guantanamo detainees have rights under the U.S. Constitution to challenge their detention in U.S. courts. The justices ruled 5-4 that the government is violating the rights of prisoners by holding them indefinitely and without charges, some for more than six years. The four dissenting justices were Chief Justice John Roberts (who wrote that the Bush administration's handling of Guantanamo detainees represented "the most generous set of procedural protections ever afforded aliens detained by this country as enemy combatants"); Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia (who wrote that the court's decision would "almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed.")

Human Rights Watch Reports that Guantanamo Inmates Suffer Mental Damage
Human Rights Watch reported this week that over two-thirds of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay suffer from or at risk of mental problems due to their confinement and lack of light and fresh air. Many suffer from anxiety, depression, and delusion. The group says 185 of the 270 detainees at Guantanamo are housed in facilities similar to "supermax" prisons in the U.S. Many of the detainees have never been charged with crimes and some have already been cleared for release or transfer, but they spend 22 hours alone in cramped cells, have very limited contact with other human beings and are given little more than the Koran to occupy themselves, said the report, which is based on interviews with government officials and attorneys.

Human Rights Group Claims U.S. Holding Terror Suspects on Prison Ships
Human rights group Reprieve claims that the U.S. military is operating "floating prisons" in an attempt to hide the numbers and location of detainees arrested in the war on terror. Reprieve also claims to have documented more than 200 new cases of rendition since 2006, contradicting President Bush's statement that the practice was discontinued following news reports that detainees were allegedly tortured in secret prisons in countries such as Syria, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt.

"They choose ships to try to keep their misconduct as far as possible from the prying eyes of the media and lawyers," according to Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve's legal director, who added "By its own admission, the US government is currently detaining at least 26,000 people without trial in secret prisons."

Send tips about other stories the mainstream media forgot to report: [e-mail]

Comments

[elbzee]

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE this quote: "a more biblical, fact-based approach." This is, perhaps, the most moronic oxymoron I have ever had the pleasure (or horror) to read. Wow! .Maybe this is how evangelicals get their reputation. Sure proves my theory!!!!

[AngelHair]

The Cornwall Alliance (under its earlier name Interfiath Stewardship Alliance) was funded to the tune of $50,000 by ExxonMobile). A member, the late Jerry Falwell, then preached a sermon parroting the Exxon Mobile line, as other ministers are encouraged to do by the Cornwall Alliance. Exxon Mobile now denies that it denies anthropogenic Global Warming -- in fact I saw a TV ad yesterday in which it claims it is working on alternative energy (although recently resisting requests by Rockefeller descendants to do so at the annual stockholders' meeting).
So I've some questions 1) Who is funding the Cornwall Alliance in this now? 2) Did ExxonMobile get to take a charitable tax deduction for its 'donation'?
Also, it should be noted that the National Council of Evangelical churches passed a resolution urging action to reduce global warming. As did the National
Council of Churches. This group is out of the religious mainstream.

[kfdan]

"Reporter Patrick Cockburn with The Independent (U.K.) revealed the Bush administration's "secret plan" to keep the U.S. military in Iraq "indefinitely" after the U.N. security mandate authorizing the U.S. military presence in Iraq expires in December."

It's good to see that some journalist are keeping tabs on the illegal activities of this administration! It's clear that Bush and his neo-conmen cronies will do anything to continue their war! They need to be brought before a court of law to determine the extent of their crimes!

[vet64]

Thanks to the deliberate deregulation and manipulation of all the conglomerates by the Republicans, control of these conglomerates has slipped into the Neo Cons hands.. A win win situation where the Neo Cons slip the Conflict of Interest and Collusion challenged Republican, Democrat and Independent legislators a few thousand dollars in bribes disguised as campaign contributions, in exchange for prostituted votes for laws and regulations designed to enrich the legislators and the Neo Con owned Conglomerates and to legally shield both.
Collusion and Conflict of Interest designed to Gut, Usurp and Crap on the same United States Constitution the Founding Fathers fought and died for.
Treason!!
Manipulated News is Propaganda!!

[darker]

Yes, Mainstream Media is OWNED BY REPUBLICAN CORPORATIONS. They pay for the ads to hawk their products, including their own candidates.

There is no freedom of the press and there is no objective Media.
Both ideas are MYTHS.

[elbzee]

gone the way of Santa and the Easter Bunny.

[outnow]

Bobby and Brendan,

Thanks for the real news that the MSN thought was so irrelevant that their corporate offices "forgot" to cover. The Lisbon Treaty went down to defeat in Ireland. That's news also. A referendum was placed before the people - imagine that!

Ghost planes have been used for "extraordinary renditions" and now ghost ships - a floating torture chamber. This is no pleasure cruise to be sure. The torture takes place right on the ship.

Speaking of ships - doesn't the Bible tell of Noah and his ark. Yes, when the waters rose, in order to preserve biodiversity, Noah placed breading pairs aboard of every species. The Southern Baptists should read the Bible - maybe if they took it literally they would see that God really does know something. Buckminster Fuller spoke of Spaceship Earth. Maybe the time is ripe to leave the planet. Eden was screwed up also by the greedy and wicked.

Finally, the Supreme Court shows that there are still a majority who believe in the Great Writ after King John was forced to grant that right at Runnymead a thousand years ago. This shows the great progress we are making during our quest for oil in the ME.

Richard Lionheart took four thousand prisoners in the Second Crusade and he just killed them because he knew that he couldn't feed them.or release them. That's what happens when you mix religion and politics. But he didn't torture them. Again. progress is very slow.

[heal57]

Until we get power with morality in the highest offices, we are doomed to the likes of Bush/Cheney. Where is the outrage when the American people do find out the truth? I just don't understand how these horrible things can go on, and Congress does nothing about anything. I am totally disgusted with our nazi politics.

[outnow]

When you see and hear the fans at a football game or soccer game scream and yell and riot, you wonder why they are so unconcerned ABOUT REAL EVENTS IN THE BIG WORLD. Only 3% resisted the British during the revolution. The other 97% were good little Bushies.

[darthdarcy]

All stories among so many others Tim Russert would never have covered along with the Speculators running up our gas prices in criminal dark markets...using the Enron loophole..!

[sheila]

not to nitpick, but the prison ship story was in the Guardian, one of the biggest UK papers, so it is, once again, only the brain-dead US MSM failing to report this stuff...

i'm wondering when the story of the complete obliteration of over a million acres in the Mojave for (ahem) "renewable" energy will make this column? especially the creepy sell-out by major environmental organizations who, rather than insisting that local, point of use generation and conservation be GENUINELY committed to and maxed out before fragile, pristine wilderness is permanently destroyed, they are barreling forward with permanent, wide-scale and devastating habitat destruction. there is not even any "deal" in place that for every solar "plant" which goes online, any coal or nuclear plants will be de-commissioned, so homeowners lose, businesses lose, taxpayers lose, ratepayers lose, the planet loses and only Big Energy wins.

The story is, of course, that several prominent environmental orgs are lending their names and endorsement to this wholesale environmental meltdown (dynamiting, blading, boring, bulldozing, poisoning, laying roads, introducing non-native grasses and fire hazards, sucking all the groundwater, and otherwise permanently destroying huge important ecosystems), to profit Big Energy at enormous cost to taxpayers, ratepayers and the planet, rather than insisting on the WINNING solution of local renewable generation - so that would make a great story, wouldn't it?

[Fightnmad]

Both of you are doing a great and noble service to all who have a computer. Ever think of going into print or getting a weekly news hour show? America needs patriots like you.

I find myself unable to respond, because reading the truth in this format is nearly paralyzing- like a deer-in-the-headlights reaction.

http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/category/y-2008/

Thanks, again.

[demfriend]

One would think with all of the 24/7 news cable channels that someone, one of them would actually report the news and not the relentless regurgitation of the very same things over and over again with just different talking head anchors and different "panels". I watch for a time on cable and am always wondering why it is that so very much has gone on around us with the Iraq war and and US and world events and yet the junk garbage trash "news" is rehashed like it is so much more important than the soldiers who died, the administration who lied to us and who and why the oil prices have spiked. I think with so many of the same people who own multiple news sources who are GOP supporters how much does this affect what "news" we get. I find the BBC shows me more news of the US than the cables often do and the daily show is much more accurate in their coverage than say Fox news.

[JRandomPoster]

Keep up the good work. Sometimes it may seem like shouting in an empty wilderness, but you are being heard.

[KELLI2L]

< With all that the Bush administration has done - why hasn't something been done about it long ago?
< Even when the Democratic controlled congress was elected - they chose to do nothing.
< Why? Since it seems that if any president was in need of impeachment it would be this one!
< All the more reason to NOT elect a democrat for President. . . . . . . . . .

[KELLI2L]

Our world is so messed up anymore - if someone told me the extra-terrestials were running our government - I would have to believe it. . . . . that's how crazy it all is - contrary decisions are everywhere and nothing makes sense. . .

[appleknocker]

Secret?

[Gidster]

There is no such thing as a biblical "fact"
Fact -noun
1. something that actually exists; reality; truth.
2. something known to exist or to have happened.

Biblical fact once stated that the universe revolved around the Earth.
Just because you believe it does not make it a fact!
Many early peoples had faith that the Earth was a flat disk, see how that turned out?
Faith does not equal fact. If only people could differentiate the two.