Whistleblowers In Peril. What We Can Do About It...

By truthista
05/11/2008 12:42:32 PM EST

[Posted with permission from Deep Harm at ePluribus Media/Daily Kos]

As the Bush administration enters its final six months, truthtellers in government positions should take care: government officials will be tempted to sweep their agencies clean of evidence and whistleblowers before a new administration takes over.

Already, the Bush administration has issued a new executive memo allowing government agencies to conjure up their own penalties for disclosing information covered by a new, broad and poorly defined controls on information (thanks, smintheus). It's a bad portent of things to come.
Saving truthtellers and restoring government integrity depends on proposed legislation that would give whistleblowers badly-needed protections; legislation that is now stalled.

Next week, whistleblowers from around the country will meet for a conference in Washington, D.C., to describe the perils of exposing corruption, waste and abuses of power, hopefully to convince Congress to pass legislation that would save others from suffering similar fates. But, their success will depend heavily on public support - a good turnout of citizens attending the conference events or calling their representatives to urge stronger whistleblower protections.

Even the best laws demanding integrity and transparency are useless if insiders fear reporting abuses. As the speakers at next week's conference will describe, whistleblowers are critical to exposing negligence and corruption that threaten public safety, national security and fiscal soundness.

The International Assembly of Whistleblowers invites the public, members of Congress and journalists to attend the workshops, forums and other events scheduled for May 12-18, in Washington, D.C. There is no charge to attend, but please register if you can.

Monday, May 12

Monday's schedule include the following events sponsored by the Government Accountability Project. [Note: Information from GAP publications used with permission.]

"Secret Domestic Surveillance,"
(9:00 - 9:50 am, Stewart Mott House, 122 Maryland Avenue, NE).

This workshop will discuss the implications of the National Security Agency (NSA) eavesdropping program on the First Amendment. It will also address warrant-less wiretapping in the context of attorney-client communications, terrorism investigations, the "state secrets privilege," and consider the implications for pending congressional showdowns such as telecom immunity in FISA legislation. (GAP news release)

Jesselyn Radack, a frequent diarist on Daily Kos and now GAP Homeland Security Director (congratulations, Jess!), will moderate a panel that also includes:

o Eric Lichtblau, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist who broke the government's secret surveillance program.
o Michelle Richardson, Legislative Counsel, ACLU
o Babak Pasdar, telecommunications whistleblower whose disclosure is credited with turning the tide in the House of Representatives denying corporate immunity in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). (GAP news release)

(I am also a panelist, and will describe USDA training that urged employees to spy on members of citizen organizations at their offices and homes.)

"Are We Safe When We Fly?: Issues of Aviation Safety & Security"
(10:00 - 10:55 am, Stewart Mott House, 122 Maryland Avenue, NE).

This panel focuses on the federal government's dangerous and deceptive policy of shielding the industry from liability; failing to execute genuine protections against terrorism while fostering a false pretense of safety; and retaliating against federal and aviation industry employees who witness and report threats to aviation safety and security.(Government Accountability Project)

Panelists include:

o Ingrid Drake (Moderator), Fellow, Project on Government Oversight
o Bogdan Dzakovic, Transportation Security Administration, FAA Red Team Whistleblower
o Gabe Bruno, Former FAA Manager
o Shawn McCullers, Former Federal Air Marshal (FAMS), TSA/DHS (GAP news release)

"Scientific Freedom & the Public Good"
(11:30 am - 12:25 pm, Stewart Mott House, 122 Maryland Avenue, NE).

This panel, co-sponsored by the Union of Concerned Scientists, addresses the effects of scientific censorship across a wide range of issues, including prescription drug safety, climate change, and mercury emission levels. (Government Accountability Project)

Panelists include:

o Celia Wexler (Facilitator), Washington Representative, Union of Concerned Scientists
o Rick Piltz, Former Senior Associate, U.S. Climate Change Science Program and Director of GAP's Climate Science Watch Program
o David Ross, FDA drug safety whistleblower
o Tim Donaghy, Researcher/Analyst, Union of Concerned Scientists (Government Accountability Project)

The public can also support whistleblowers (and learn a lot about how the system really works) by purchasing books by whistleblowing authors.

Book Signing
(6 pm, The Warehouse Arts Center, 1017-1021 7th St., NW)

Buy a whistleblower's book and have it autographed at the Warehouse Arts Center, one block from the Mt. Vernon Square metro stop. The event is sponsored by the VA Whistleblower Coalition (www.VAWBC.org). [Information from VAWBC flyer]

Authors tentatively scheduled to appear include:

Darlene Fitzgerald
Mike German, Rosemary Dew
Arthuretta Martin
Scott Harrington
Tom Devine

Here's your chance to assemble a library of whistleblower books that (tentatively) includes:

Col. (ret) Ann Wright's "Dissent: Voices of Conscience,"
German's "Thinking Like a Terrorist"
Fitzgerald's "BorderGate"
Jesselyn Radack's "Canary in the Coalmine"
Martin's "Speaking on Success"
Harrington's "Nursing Process"
Kohn, Kohn and Colapinto's "Whistleblower Law"
Dew's "My Life as Female Special Agent"
Devine's "The Art of Anonymous Activism.

While you're at the Warehouse, have some refreshments, enjoy the guitar music of "The Senior Lifeguards," and mingle with some great folks.

IF YOU CAN ATTEND ONLY ONE EVENT

I strongly recommend the following as an opportunity to learn about whistleblower legislation and issues, and to let Congress know of your support for whistleblower protections.

Joint Congressional Forum: Congress at the Crossroads for Your Rights (1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., Dirksen Senate Office Building, Room 342)

Several members of Congress or their staff members have been invited to attend. This forum includes a panel that will describe the pending legislation.

A speaker from Public Citizen will offer introductory remarks. Beth Slavet, former Chair of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, will moderate the discussion, which will include the following NGO's (with specialized expertise on specific issues):

o National Employment Lawyers Association (Corporate Whistleblower Protection)
o Government Accountability Project (Jury Trial Rights)
o National Whistleblower Center (FBI/Intelligence Agency WPA Coverage)
o OMB Watch (Hybrid Secrecy Categories, State Secrets Privilege)
o Project on Government Oversight (Contractor Whistleblower Rights)
o Semmelweis Society: Alliance for Patient Safety (Medical Whistleblower Rights)
o Union of Concerned Scientists (Scientific Freedom)
American Federation of Government Employees (TSA/Screener whistleblower rights) (Government Accountability Project)

With healthcare so much in the news, the patient safety discussion is timely. Ditto for protecting FBI whistleblowers in the wake of the FBI's raid on the Office of Special Counsel. Global warming reminds us daily of the importance of scientific freedom.

Conclusion

We depend on many government agencies to watch out for our health, safety, rights and pocketbooks. But, who is watching the agencies? Their employees - the ones who face career-ending retaliation if they report wrongdoing. Without insiders to stand up for integrity, Congress cannot exercise its oversight responsibilities. And, as the White House imposes more layers of secrecy on the workings of government, those insiders need to be braver than ever.

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Congressional Wool-gathering

Can't say I can really disagree with any of this:


I would like to have 10 percent of the monetary value of the man hours expended by members of the House, the Senate, and their respective staffs that was piled atop the redolent heap of history's wasted gestures in the recent exercise in futility that was the fight over the Iraq supplemental appropriations bill.

Republicans joined with Democrats in making a spectacle of themselves as ineffectual windbags without a cause, proving publicly, once again, that most of them have no respect for this republic, it's people or the business they are paid so handsomely to conduct.

Knowing that the eminently hardheaded little man who occupies the big house on Pennsylvania Avenue would veto any bill which included deadlines for troop withdrawals, and knowing that the same cynical little man would use the pork content of the bill against them, they made him a gift of a bill that he could veto and look "presidential" while doing it. They gave Bush exactly what he wanted.

Have these people so little respect for the people's business that they believe they can fritter away all this expensive hot air drafting bills that they know full well will never pass? The votes on this were counted weeks ago, the Emperor's objections were well known, there was no doubt about the outcome from the beginning.

In my humble opinion the 110th congress is not greatly improved over the 109th version of Zen and the art of doing nothing. While I appreciate that the Democrats now have a measure of control, I would like to see them begin to use whatever power they have for something more substantive than assigning themselves better offices and furniture, climbing in bed with their corporate sponsors and lobbyists and playing silly and futile power games with the executive department.

This war needs to end. Ending the war and bringing the troops out will take courage, infinitely more courage than the unthinking, flag waving, lemming-like mad dash that got us embroiled in Iraq four long, painful years ago.

Courage has never been a strong suit in American politics, which I suppose, is why it shines so brightly when it occasionally emerges from the dark alleys of the cover your ass opportunism that passes for leadership in Washington these days.

We are sacrificing our children and grandchildren on an altar of corporate greed, imperial megalomania and rabid religiosity and the people who enabled this national crime with their cowardice in the face of power and public opinion, those who can make it end by refusing to fund it, by withdrawing the authorization for it, by simply telling the truth, these same people will allow the slaughter to continue month after month, year after year, because they lack the spine to take a solid stand against what can only be seen as a completely rogue executive department.

All measures must be taken now to stop funding for anything other than a fighting redeployment or withdrawal from this madness. The time for the Iraqi Army to stand up is now, the time for an Iraqi political solution is now, not twenty months and two or three thousand dead Americans from now.

It is said that the Iraqi Parliament will begin a two month recess at the end of June, a fact which tells me that they are not overly committed to solving their own crises. How many of our troops will die while Iraq's parliament vacations?

Yes, we, the administration broke Iraq, and now we must pay for the repair of much of what they have brought to ruin. Make no mistake though, Iraq was broken long before our arrival, it was broken when western colonial powers drew it's borders ninety some years ago and again when it's people allowed themselves to fall under the control of despots.

The people of Iraq must bear the ultimate responsibility for what they suffered under Saddam during the four decades since his ascendancy.

The sectarian hatreds and ancient animosities so central to the myriad impediments to stability and national cohesion in that "country" are not American or Western creations and will not be solved by Americans or Westerners.

Can anyone tell me whose side we should take in this madness? Shiites? Help them gain national control and possibly create a Shiite super state with Iran that continues to threaten the stability of the greater Middle East?

Should we bring the minority Sunnis back to power and let them continue to molest their Shia and Kurdish neighbors with the help of oil money donated by our Saudi "allies"? Do we ignore Turkey and back the Kurds?

No, Iraqis, all of them, Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, every hare brained sect and faction, every clan and family are going to have their little "free for all" with or without our presence. They will engage in civil war, a great cleansing of thousand year old grievances and in the end will have to sort out their own problems. It will not be pretty, it will be yet another horrible tragedy of history, a continuation and likely an amplification of the current bloodbath, but with help of the United Nations and the more rational of the neighboring states, they may be able to achieve some sort of national equilibrium over the next couple of years.

Success or failure will be up to the people of Iraq, all of them.

Iraqi security, stability, equilibrium, peace, whatever, is no longer possible while we stand in the middle of the flames and fan them with our own hated presence.

We need to bring our troops home and we need to stop the bleeding, both literal and figurative. We need to come home and do some housecleaning of our own and we need to do it this calendar year.

The people of this country showed their rejection of the Cheney/Bush neo-conservative megalomania last November and the number of Americans that no longer support their empty headed neo-colonial aspirations are growing as the subpoenas are answered and the facts are revealed.

Impeachment and criminal sanctions of those who were central to creating this quagmire and deceiving the American people and the congress into this criminal nightmare must not only be "on the table" they must be a centerpiece of our public policy in the immediate future in order to prove to ourselves and to the world that America has regained her sanity and is once again capable and deserving of a leadership position among nations.

And, perhaps, in September, when the Iraqi leadership returns from Damascus, Paris, London or wherever they spend their holiday, they will find the time to run their country and we can begin to repair ours.

Bob Higgins
Worldwide Sawdust


(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)


The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

The American People Have A Moral Duty to Hold The Liars Accountable

The American People Must Never Dismiss the Lies that Led to the Iraq War

A. Alexander, February 19th, 2007

"Regardless of how we got into Iraq," Mister Bush's apologists and supporters say, "we have an obligation now, to stay until the 'job is done'."

That is a false argument designed to prevent an honest and rational analysis and debate regarding the war. It is like a father saying to his daughter, "Regardless of how you became pregnant, you are now with child and must marry your rapist."

Of course, George W. Bush and the Republicans would prefer the American people forgive the rapist, so to speak, because it absolves them of any responsibility for the dishonest and deceitful manner in which they led the nation to war. It releases Mister Bush and Cheney of any guilt in the death -- according to scientifically sound analysis -- of some 650,000 Iraqis and 30,000 dead and wounded US military personnel.

Mostly, however, the false argument allows the President and Republicans to continue their failed war forever.

In March, the United States will begin the fifth year of the Iraq War.

Four years on and there isn't a person alive who can explain what "victory" looks like or means.

Four years on and, when trying to define success, Mister Bush and Republicans can only offer vague terms and phrases (i.e. "When they stand up, we'll stand down" etc.)

Four years on and the reasons for continuing the war change as frequently as the reasons had for having invaded Iraq in the first place.

Simply forgetting how George W. Bush and a compliant Republican Congress got us into the war would be a gross miscarriage of justice. If Mister Bush and Dick Cheney aren't made to pay a heavy price -- politically and possibly criminally -- for their actions, what will prevent it from happening again?

If this war isn't ended and those responsible held to full account, how long will it be before the American people find themselves sending their kids off to die for another set of lies? When would the excuses and lies for wars end?

It is vital that the American people disregard the President and Republicans' false argument that the how and the why of the war be forgotten. Those responsible for the lies told that led to the senseless slaughter of tens of thousands of human beings, must be made to pay their debt.

The American people have a moral responsibility to the Iraqi people, the world, and America's dead soldiers to ensure justice is served - to make certain those responsible are held to account.

We have a moral responsibility to ourselves, as well!



(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. I.U. has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is I.U endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

Exposing Exxon-Mobil, by R.F.K, Jr.

These bastards are worse than the Tobacco Companies, and that is saying alot.

I have no idea how the energy companies, like Exxon-Mobil, can be punished, but they must be.

Accountability is our favorite buzzword, as of late.

In a quarter-page advertorial in Thursday's New York Times, ExxonMobil launched a new greenwashing campaign to salvage its earned reputation as Earth's number one global warming villain. For over a decade the giant oil company has waged a successful multi-million dollar propaganda campaign to deceive the public about global warming. Using phony think tanks like the Competitive Enterprise Institute, scientists-for-hire called biostitutes, slick public relations firms, and their indentured servants in the political process, they have intentionally defrauded the public by promoting the notion that global warming is a hoax or a sketchy theory that requires more study.

The company now asserts that its position on global warming has been "misunderstood," but its decade of mischief is well documented.

Exxon has dished out at least $19 million dollars since the negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol (1997) to fund an elaborate network including over 75 industry front groups mobilized in a misleading campaign to cloud the public's understanding of global warming. Their objective has been to counter balance the overwhelming scientific evidence of man-induced climate change with pseudo scientific denials to derail reforms that might effect corporate profits. In 2005, ExxonMobil paid over $3.5 million to 49 different front groups, according to the company's own records, which are collected each year by ExxonSecrets.org and the ExxposeExxon coalition. A report released earlier this month by the Union of Concerned Scientists traces the roots of this fraudulent propaganda broadside - and many of its prime actors - back to the tobacco industry's tactical war on science.

Exxon has also used vast political contributions to guide the Bush administration's posturing on climate change. ExxonMobil successfully arranged the ousting of the world's top climate scientist Robert Watson as chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). An Exxon memo to President Bush's top staffers obtained by NRDC through the Freedom of Information Act asks bluntly, "Can Watson be replaced now at the request of the U.S.?" The White House's carbon cronies obligingly complied, arranging for Watson's dismissal. He was replaced by a little known scientist from New Delhi who would not be regularly available for Congressional hearings.

A 2002 Exxon memo recently obtained by Greenpeace through FOIA coaches one of the President's top environmental advisers Philip Cooney, chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality on how to "improve" administration research on climate change by emphasizing "significant uncertainties" in the science. The New York Times later revealed that Cooney, a former lobbyist for the American Petroleum Institute which is generously funded by Exxon, made myriad changes to government climate studies designed to weaken their strong conclusions about the need to act on global warming. Typically Cooney would insert the words "significant and fundamental" before "uncertainties" in the reports. Cooney, a non scientist, helped suppress or alter several major taxpayer funded scientific studies on global warming including a decade-long study commissioned by this President's father. Cooney resigned two days after the Times broke the story. But don't feel badly. Within a week ExxonMobil announced it had hired him.

Exxon has responded to roars of recent outrage over its anti-social antics by announcing that it has stopped funding the Competitive Enterprise Institute which has collected over $2 million from the oil giant since 1998 to weave lies about climate change - and 4-5 other groups that Exxon refused to name. Exxon's new contrition is hardly sincere. The company still continues to fund 40 other groups in its unrelenting campaign of deception. Two weeks ago, the ExxposeExxon coalition - composed of America's most respected environmental groups, including NRDC, the Sierra Club and U.S. PIRG - asked Exxon to disclose the names of all the other groups the company funded this year and the nature of the work they are doing for ExxonMobil. Exxon did not respond to the request.

As further evidence of the company's insincerity, Exxon's chief executive and CEO Rex Tillerson, on Friday told world leaders in Davos that oil companies should not be held responsible for global warming. The blame, he argued, rests instead with the very consumers and government officials his company has spent millions of dollars manipulating and defrauding.
America is a decade late in addressing the serious threat from global warming largely due to ExxonMobil's campaign of deliberate deception. ExxonMobil's conduct amounts to a war on civilization. The company can't simply sweep this legacy of fraud and villainy under the rug with a paid op-ed campaign in the New York Times, or with oily statements shifting the blame to consumers. The company needs to cease its campaign of deception completely if it is to genuinely atone for its crimes against humanity.

ExxonMobil might also apply some of its record profits - estimated at $37 billion last year - toward meaningful solutions to global warming as other U.S. companies have done. For starters ExxonMobil might consider joining a coalition of ten major companies - including industry giants like DuPont, Dow and Alcoa - and leading environmental groups which last week launched the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, calling for firm limits on carbon dioxide emissions to aggressively combat climate change.

stopglobalwarming.org

The Nazis, Fascists and Communists were political parties before they became enemies of liberty and mass murderers.

An Open Letter To Congress

This week will go down in history, for a number of reasons. Mainly, it will be seen, in retorspect, as the week that determined whether or not our political system will work or if, we, the people, must step in and make it work.

This week will mark the first time that any Congress has said or done anything official about the debacle in Iraq since October, 2002, when another Congress voted to give this president authority to wage war, as a last resort, which he then misused and abused. The only official action of Congress, since then, has been to keep authorizing one war supplemental after another with no real oversight, resulting in a depleted treasury, huge debt, as far as the eye can see, war-profiteering, eye-popping mismanagement and fraud, run amok.

Since that fateful vote in 2002, much has happened and much has changed. Just to recap a little:

• Let us recall, while Bush was making public statements that war would be a last resort, the decision to go to war had long since been made. (Ref.; the Downing Street Minutes, Against All Enemies by Richard Clarke, The Price of Loyalty, Paul O'Neil with Ron Suskind, just to name a few sources) Intelligence was being fixed around the intention to invade Iraq. U.N. Arms inspectors were allowed into Iraq (though Bush has stated on three different occasions that they were not) and were getting some cooperation, before they had to leave or get their butts blown off by "shock and awe." Furthermore, we have it on good authority (Paul O'Neil) that regime change in Iraq was on the table in the first NSC meeting in February, 2001, long before 9/11/01.
• A plan for re-drawing of the middle-east and surrounding areas, to favor U.S. corporate interests were included in a document put out by PNAC and shopped to President Bill Clinton. He turned it down.
• The whole world now knows that the case for war was built on deception of a particularly egregious sort. The lies that members of this administration told the American people were specifically designed to do two things: 1) T0 cause fear in an already vulnerable population 2) To stir the hateful desire for vengeance in those so prone and, what's worse, against a people who had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11.. Visions of mushroom clouds, rising over American cities, were painted, along with fairy tales told about Iraqi drones spraying the eastern seaboard with one plague or the other. Dick Cheney convinced an astonishingly huge number of Americans that Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were in cahoots; about as likely as Pat Robertson and Madonna teaming up for a music video.
• This administration has brought out so many whistle blowers, they have had to form their own support group. We should get to hear from some of these people before Mr. Bush gets one more life or dime for his war, other than the monies necessary to keep the troops, already there, from being the last man or woman to die for a lie. (Don't make the error in thinking that the debacle in Iraq was a mistake. A mistake is something I make regularly while balancing my checkbook. What has transpired under this administration is far more serious than a mistake and everyone with a grain of sense knows it.)
• There are documented cases of wide-spread war-profiteering, fraud and abuse in Iraq, not to mention billions in tax-payers' money simply lost.
• This administration, it is clear, has deceived this nation into the mother of all war crimes, a war of aggression, which has led to crimes against humanity; torture, extraordinary renditions, rape, religious and sexual humiliation, just to name a few horrors, committed in our name and with our blood and treasure.
• This administration has cost this country in ways that cannot be assessed in dollars and cents; the blood of our young people in uniform as well as civil service employees and contract workers. Many thousands have suffered life-altering physical injuries and thousands will never be the same in a psycho-emotional sense. Its actions have alienated friends and cost us our credibility the world over, making Americans less safe at home and abroad.
• What moral authority we enjoyed before the bombing, invasion and occupation of Iraq is now gone. It may take generations to regain it, if ever.
• A very unique American City was left to literally drown by this administration and very little has been done to restore it. What has been done, once again, involves total incompetence or out-right callousness and disaster profiteering.
• Our regular military and National Guard are stretched to the breaking point, families are disintegrating as a result of long and repeated deployments, and no one has ever been given a reasonable explanation, though we have been given a litany of false excuses.

These are but a few of the revelations and happenings since this insane war began.

So, we, the people, ask you, our elected officials of a new Congress and a new majority, what are you going to do about it?

Last November, we voted for change. Need we remind you that you work for us?

We have waited patiently through the holidays, the swearing in of the newly elected Congress and, now, the SOTUS. We have waited long enough.

Now is the time. There will be no other.

You are being tested by the bullies in the administration, with this perfectly useless surge, escalation, augmentation, whatever the buzzword of the day is. If you allow this foolishness to go forward, you are signalling the White House that you will do nothing of any consequence if the escalation becomes an expansion, which could easily lead to WWIII, the nuclear edition.

Are you paying attention to the Libby trial? You should be. We are.

There are criminals in the White House.

Do you understand that we are facing a national, constitutional crisis unlike anything we have seen in our lifetimes, including Watergate? Are you going to accept your responsibility, as members of the Legislative Branch, and carry out your duty of holding the Executive accountable for their actions? We ask because we know that this nation, this union, cannot surive more forgiveness without accountability. Not this time. Too much harm has been done.

That is what we elected you to do. We acted, in historic numbers, in a Democratic, legal way to stop the insanity. It appears that we are going to have to demand, now, that the people we voted for, to have the courage of our convictions, as the administration has not heard us.

Now, you must act, or we will, for the good of our country and our progeny. We will have no choice, if we want our children and grandchildren to grow up in a country, even vaguely resembling the country of our youth.

We pray you, our public servants and fellow citizens, do our bidding with all due haste and wisdom. Our nation is in peril. We will come to its aid if we must.

Time has run out.

Bush Re-writes History, Again!

Here's the thing about this:

There is a definite pattern of behavior on the part of the Bush administration from, at least, the first days of the "Iraq war roll-out." It is a pattern of out-right lies, exaggerations, constant re-writes of history, refusal to answer questions by members of Congress and/or refusal to submit to over-sight, and therefore, to be accountable to the American people. (We are not forgetting GOP congressional complicity, either.)

Actually, come to think of it, the pattern of lying and stone-walling began with 9/11.

Now, they are doing it again. They are re-writing history; creating a false flow of events, trying to make their "surge" seem more reasonable to unsuspecting Americans, who haven't been paying close attention to time frames.

How many more times will Congress allow this behavior?

I wouldn't put up with it from a 5 year old!

WASHIGNTON : President Bush and his aides, explaining their reasons for sending more American troops to Iraq, are offering an incomplete, oversimplified and possibly untrue version of events there that raises new questions about the accuracy of the administration's statements about Iraq.

President Bush unveiled the new version on Wednesday during his nationally televised speech announcing his new Iraq policy.

When I addressed you just over a year ago, nearly 12 million Iraqis had
cast their ballots for a unified and democratic nation," he said. "We thought
that these elections would bring Iraqis together - and that as we trained Iraqi
security forces, we could accomplish our mission with fewer American troops.

"But in 2006, the opposite happened. The violence in Iraq -
particularly in Baghdad - overwhelmed the political gains Iraqis had made.
Al-Qaida terrorists and Sunni insurgents recognized the mortal danger that
Iraq's election posed for their cause. And they responded with outrageous acts
of murder aimed at innocent Iraqis. "They blew up one of the holiest shrines in
Shia Islam - the Golden Mosque of Samarra - in a calculated effort to provoke
Iraq's Shia population to retaliate.

"Their strategy worked. Radical Shia elements, some supported by Iran,
formed death squads. And the result was a vicious cycle of sectarian violence
that continues today."

That version of events helps to justify Bush's "new way forward" in Iraq, in which U.S. forces will largely target Sunni insurgents and leave it to Iraq's U.S.-backed Shiite government to - perhaps - disarm its allies in Shiite militias and death squads. But the president's account understates by at least 15 months when Shiite death squads began targeting Sunni politicians and clerics. It also ignores the role that Iranian-backed Shiite groups had in death squad activities prior to the Samarra bombing.

Blaming the start of sectarian violence in Iraq on the Golden Dome bombing risks policy errors because it underestimates the depth of sectarian hatred in Iraq and overlooks the conflict's root causes.

The Bush account also fails to acknowledge that Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite groups stoked the conflict. Bush's national security adviser Stephen Hadley used the same version of events in an appearance Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Much like the administration's pre-war claims about Saddam's alleged ties to al-Qaida and purported nuclear weapons program, the claims about the bombing of the Shiite mosque in Samarra ignore inconvenient facts and highlight questionable but politically useful assumptions.

No one disagrees that the February bombing of the Golden Dome shrine was a pivotal moment. In the days following the attack, armed Shiites stormed Sunni mosques and neighborhoods, killing hundreds. Baghdad's Sunni residents responded by arming themselves, and Sunni insurgents set off car bombs in Shiite neighborhoods. By October, the monthly death toll was reaching into the thousands. U.S. diplomats, reporters and military and intelligence officers began reporting that Shiite death squads were targeting Sunni clerics and former officials of Saddam Hussein's Sunni regime at least 15 months before the Samarra bombing.

Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell urged a U.S. offensive against radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in 2004. But he was overruled by then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, then-defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney. They argued against fighting a two-front war against Sunni insurgents and Shiite militants.

The concerns about Shiite militias grew after the Jan. 30, 2005, elections that brought the Shiite-led government of then-Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari to power. Journalists in Iraq, the CIA station, the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. military all reported throughout 2005 that evidence was mounting that Jaafari's government was incorporating Shiite militias and death squads into the Iraqi army and police. A year before the Samarra bombing, Hannah Allam, writing for what was then Knight Ridder Newspapers, reported that Iraq could be headed toward civil war. Knight Ridder was purchased by The McClatchy Co. last June.

"Shiite Muslim assassins are killing former members of Saddam Hussein's mostly Sunni Muslim regime with impunity in a wave of violence that, combined with the ongoing Sunni insurgency, threatens to escalate into civil war," Allam, then the news organization's Baghdad bureau chief, wrote on Feb. 27, 2005. "The war between Shiite vigilantes and former Baath Party members is seldom investigated and largely overshadowed by the insurgency." She added, "Iraq's new Shiite leaders have little interest in prosecuting those who kill their former oppressors or their enemies in the insurgency."

The story quoted the then-spokesman for the Iraqi Interior Ministry, Sabah Kadhim: "It's the beginning, and we could go down the slippery slope very quickly. ... Both sides are sharpening their knives."

By the summer, the tortured bodies of kidnapped Sunni clerics had begun turning up regularly on Baghdad's streets, and on Aug. 10, 2005, Knight Ridder correspondent Tom Lasseter wrote: "A militant Shiite Muslim group with close ties to Iran has gained enormous power since Iraq's January elections and now is accused of conducting a terror campaign against Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority that includes kidnappings, threats and murders." Lasseter identified the group as the Badr Organization and reported that Iraq's interior minister was associated with it.

On Nov. 15, 2005, U.S. troops raided an Interior Ministry building in Baghdad and found 169 malnourished prisoners, many of whom had been tortured. The vast majority of the victims, if not all of them, were Sunnis.

By December, Badr's involvement in death squads was widely known. "The Iranian-backed militia the Badr Organization has taken over many of the Iraqi Interior Ministry's intelligence activities and infiltrated its elite commando units," Lasseter wrote, on Dec. 12, 2005, citing U.S. and Iraqi officials. "That's enabled the Shiite Muslim militia to use Interior Ministry vehicles and equipment - much of it bought with American money - to carry out revenge attacks against the minority Sunni Muslims, who persecuted the Shiites under Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein," he added.

Beginning in 2002, the administration's case for a pre-emptive war in Iraq was plagued by similar oversights, oversimplifications, misjudgments and misinformation. Unlike the administration's claims about the Samarra bombing, however, much of that information was peddled by Iraqi exiles and defectors and accepted by some eager officials and journalists.

The best known of those pre-war claims was that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction and had reconstituted his nuclear weapons program - Bush's primary stated reason for invading Iraq. Administration officials and their allies also claimed that Saddam had trained terrorists to hijack airplanes; that a Saddam emissary had met with lead Sept. 11 hijacker Mohammed Atta in Prague; that Iraq had purchased aluminum tubes that could be used only to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons; that Iraq had attempted to buy uranium from the African country of Niger; that Iraqis would greet American troops as liberators; and that Iraqi oil revenues would cover most of the cost of the war.

The administration has continued to offer inaccurate information to Congress, the American people and sometimes to itself.

The Iraq Study Group, in its December report, concluded, for example, that the U.S. military was systematically under-reporting the violence in Iraq in an effort to disguise policy failings. The group recommended that the military change its reporting system.

Whether many of the administration's statements about Iraq for nearly five years have been deliberately misleading or honest but gullible mistakes hasn't been determined. The Senate Intelligence Committee has yet to complete an investigation into the issue that was begun but stalled when Republicans controlled the committee.

On Thursday, frustration over the accuracy of administration statements on Iraq boiled over during Rice's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. "Madam Secretary," said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., "I have supported you and the administration on the war, and I cannot continue to support the administration's position. I have not been told the truth over and over again by administration witnesses, and the American people have not been told the truth."