If you believe has I do that to every action is a reaction, then you will probably agree that when heroes are punished rather that rewarded, we get less Heroes. For a couple years now I have been waiting, praying for some Patriot to step forward with that all important Smoking Gun that would bring down Bush and Cheney. You can pick the issue of your choice, there are so many. The one in the news today is the Domestic Wire Tapping of Americans Without a Warrant. The Court has said since those who sued can't prove they they were being spied on, they have no standing before the Court. It would only take one Patriot/Whistleblower to make this case have standing, yet none have come forward. There are many reasons for silence and this story is about one of them.

Federal investigations found Barlow was unfairly fired, winning him sympathy from dozens of Democratic and Republican lawmakers and public interest groups. But for 17 years, he has fought without success to gain a federal pension, blocked at every turn by legal and political obstacles also faced by other federal intelligence whistle-blowers.

More on the flip.

Richard Barlow is a Patriot, a Hero, and a Whistleblower. His case is just one of many out that we never hear about. Richard was fired for trying to tell Congress the truth. There were people that didn't want Congress to hear the truth. Sound familiar ? It's even worse when you read a little farther and notice the names of those involved. Not that it will surprise any of us, but those names include Stephen J. Hadley, Paul D. Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney .

Gallucci has known Barlow since the late 1980s, when Barlow was tracking the work of A.Q. Khan, the Pakistani scientist amassing materials to produce nuclear weapons. Some of the men setting policy at the Defense Department at the time of Barlow's firing -- Stephen J. Hadley, Paul D. Wolfowitz and Dick Cheney -- resurfaced in the current Bush administration, which Democrats and others have accused of shaping intelligence on the Iraq war to fit political goals.

Barlow's intelligence work began at the CIA, where he analyzed nuclear programs in other countries. He contributed to the National Intelligence Estimates and presented findings to national security agencies, the White House and congressional committees. He received the CIA's Exceptional Accomplishment Award in 1988. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...

Barlow worked for the Sec. of Defense Dick Cheney. While doing his job it appears it wrote a report that the Dick didn't like or agree with. That report had to do with Afghanistan and plans to sell them some planes. The problem is that sale was illegal. Since we know how the Dick feels about the laws that stand in his way of getting what he wants you shouldn't be surprised when I tell you someone changed that report.

When Barlow tried to warn people that his report had been changed and that Congress was being fed lies, he was fired. The rest of his story is about the trials and tribulations he has gone through trying to collect his pension for his years of service, a pension he earned. It's also about so much more when you read between the lines.Why is Richards story important ?

Brian and Gallucci believe that had Barlow's alarms been heeded in 1989, Khan might have been deterred from building the world's largest atomic black market -- a network that has since supplied nuclear weapons technology to Libya, Iran and North Korea.

Fighting for 17 years to get his pension Barlow has made some waves, won some supporters, and you can sure his story has served as a warning to others. When the pension you have spent your life earning can be stripped away for doing the right thing, how many others will step forward ? When this Chilling effect makes the rounds human nature and fear has to run it's natural course. That course is making others keep their keep their mouths shut.

The next time you think about why there have been no Smoking Guns, no new Pentagon Papers, no Nixon Tapes, remember Richard. His story is only one of many we have never heard about, but have been used to stop the truth from seeing daylight. It's time we put teeth in a law to protect these Heroes that step forward if we ever want to control the Shadow Gov. that works to do their will instead of our. Let's make sure Richard gets his pension, he sure as hell earned it. Our Heros deserve better.

Yesterday wasn't a great day for Rudy, now it's Mitts turn in the barrel. This should liven things up a bit, but for how long is the question and will the MSM even pickup the story? This comes from "The Hill".

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars through the fundraising efforts of a supporter targeted by several lawsuits alleging child abuse.

In a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, 133 plaintiffs have alleged that Robert Lichfield, co-chairman of Romney’s Utah finance committee owned or operated residential boarding schools for troubled teenagers where students were “subjected to physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse.”

It's all down hill from there.

My biggest problem with this story is that it has been in the News since at least August of last year. That would seem to mean Mitt or some of his people had to be aware of this problem and did nothing about it.

This lawsuit makes the Abu Graib Prison Torturers look like wimps compared to what these kids were put thru. From a Press Release on the suit:

The facts of the case are clear. Chase’s parents entrusted their child to the control and direction of Defendants because Defendants advertised, promoted, and marketed their boarding school as a place where children with problems could get an education while they received direction in behavior modification for emotional growth and personal development.

Instead their son was severely abused for nearly two years while he was in their programs, Cross Creek and High Impact. Some of the allegations of abuse include:

• Unsanitary living conditions;

• Denial of adequate food;

• Denial of proper medical care and treatment;

• Denial of a minimally sufficient education;

• Exposure to cold temperatures for long periods of time;

• Forced physical exercise beyond his physical capacity;

• Placement in isolation for long periods of time, and at times, locked up in basements and put into uncomfortable positions;

• He was kicked, beaten, thrown and slammed to the ground, restrained, and humiliated;

• He was chained and locked in dog cages and, at times, tied by the writs and ankles;

• He was forced to clean and scrub toilets and floors with his toothbrush and then use the toothbrush afterwards;

• He was forced to carry heavy bags of sand around his neck throughout the day over many days;

• He was forced to wash dishes by using his hands and sand to scrub pots;

• He was forced to eat his own vomit;

• He endured sexual abuse;

• He endured emotional abuse when Defendants subjected him to near-total parental and societal isolation;

• In an effort to control his mind, he was prevented from having regular contact with his parents;

• Personal visits, correspondence, and telephone calls were either forbidden or discouraged; and

• He was forced to work without compensation.

Chase repeatedly witnessed other children being kicked, beaten, thrown to the ground, and humiliated by teachers, supervisors, and/or staff.

Because he was subjected to near-total isolation from the outside world, Chase was totally unequipped to enter outside society, which has made earning a living, forming and maintaining relationships, and adapting to society difficult at best. He will need extended therapy. press release

This release is only part of the story for sure. Another Lawsuit go back even farther,back to 2004 at least.

Over the years WWASPS has been involved in multiple lawsuits. In August 2004 WWASPS was defeated in a jury trial in Federal Court by Sue Scheff and P.U.R.E. WWASPS appealed, and lost again in June 2006.

From the same release it should be pretty clear that this has not been a silent story, just that nobody connected the dots. The kudos for that go to The Hill and Alexander Bolton.

Former students alleged they were forced to eat their own vomit, were beaten, thrown, and slammed to the ground, chained to dog cages, locked in small boxes, locked in basements, denied adequate food, deprived of sleep, hog tied, and more, during their stay in WWASPS programs.

Not only is it hard to ignore the countless children and parents who have come forward with allegations of abuse, neglect, and fraud, but it is hard to ignore the countless news articles and segments on Dateline NBC, Primetime, 48 Hours, Inside Edition, Fox News, alleging abuse and neglect in these programs. http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel....

Just to top it all off and really make things harder for Mitt is this tidbit form the end of the Hill article. It should make pleading ignorance a bit rough on Mitt.

One of the lawyers making allegations against Lichfield is Thomas M. Burton, by his own account, a relative of Romney through marriage and a one-time friend of the ex-governor’s late father, George Romney.

For more on the story about the kids and abuse in these kinds of private "schools" here is a link to the COALITION AGAINST INSTITUTIONALIZED CHILD ABUSE aka CAICA. We are very lucky to have a organization with this Mission Statement, all the Mitt stuff aside.I would hope all of us feel a kinship for these folks.

We seek to expose and rectify the abuse and distress of children and teens placed in private residential facilities, behavior modification programs, positive peer culture programs, Christian programs, mental health facilities, boot camps, wilderness programs, boarding schools, and juvenile justice systems. We believe that no child should be abducted, incarcerated, abused, neglected, or stripped of their basic human rights for the sake of profit.

It is our goal to be a voice for all children who are abused, neglected, and who have died in residential treatment settings. Please help us to be that voice, for together, we can make a difference.

P.S. Did anyone else catch the irony of the name WWASPS ? I'm just asking ya know...

It had to play out this way sooner or later. If you cut enough benefits and Food Stamps people starve, or go without their Medicines. If a Mother-to-be can't afford to eat or take her prenatal meds, these babys are born weakened.

HOLLANDALE, Miss. — For decades, Mississippi and neighboring states with large black populations and expanses of enduring poverty made steady progress in reducing infant death. But, in what health experts call an ominous portent, progress has stalled and in recent years the death rate has risen in Mississippi and several other states.

The setbacks have raised questions about the impact of cuts in welfare and Medicaid and of poor access to doctors, and, many doctors say, the growing epidemics of obesity, diabetes and hypertension

Gov. Haley Barbour should accept some of the blame for this. His need to pinch pennys away from those that could least afford the loss has caused much of this according to the article.

As a result, the number of non-elderly people, mainly children, covered by the Medicaid and CHIP programs declined by 54,000 in the 2005 and 2006 fiscal years. According to the Mississippi Health Advocacy Program in Jackson, some eligible pregnant women were deterred by the new procedures from enrolling.

One former Medicaid official, Maria Morris, who resigned last year as head of an office that informed the public about eligibility, said that under the Barbour administration, her program was severely curtailed.

“The philosophy was to reduce the rolls and our activities (to help people) were contrary to that policy,” she said.

Mississippi is only the first to report these numbers, I believe it's worse than we know. We should not be surpised that Dr. Robert Robinson, Mississippi’s Medicaid director called it “pure conjecture.” What public official that has anything to do with admin. would admit to killing babys to save a buck or 2 ?

The plain truth is being spoken by some. It's not a complicated idea if you care about people at all, you knew it already.

Oleta Fitzgerald, southern regional director for the Children’s Defense Fund, said: “When you see drops in the welfare rolls, when you see drops in Medicaid and children’s insurance, you see a recipe for disaster. Somebody’s not eating, somebody’s not going to the doctor and unborn children suffer.”

This is a 3 pg article online, and parts of it begin to sound like the blaming of the victim we have become all to used to, but I won't go there right. You can judge that for yourself. It should wake all of us up to fact that this is just the first place it has been made public. Mississippi being the poorest state in the nation, and therefore the most vulnerable is just the beginning of our slide into being that Third World Country we have seen predicted for a while now. With the news that is in this final quote you may recognize your own community and what is happening to those that live in it.

The state Health Department has cut back its system of clinics, in part because of budget shortfalls and a shortage of nurses. Some clinics that used to be open several days a week are now open once a week and some offer no prenatal care.

Here's the link , I hope you have a strong stomach and a even stronger will to stop this crap now. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/he...

$500, that is what the US Army paid the boys Uncle for "accidentially" killing this young man. According to figures release to the ACLU by the Army because of a Freedom of Information Request, We have paid out over 32 Million dollars to the familys of those who have fallen victim, yes victim, to the US Army. Reading this made me wonder how the hell they came up with the number $500. Is life really that cheap ? I doubt that little boy thought so, but we will never be able to ask him. If someone offered me that for one of my kids, I would probably do something I might come to regret.

So just what is a human life worth?? A couple hundred thousand ? A Million, or maybe only 10 grand ? Wrong.

The Foreign Claims Act, which governs such compensation, does not deal with combat-related cases. For those cases, including the boy’s, the Army may offer a condolence payment as a gesture of regret with no admission of fault, of usually no higher than $2,500 per person killed.

Yes, I guess life is cheap in Iraq. We should of know that the way Bush just shuttles our own children over there to die. Seeing life reduced to such a small number in black and white shocks the mind, or it should.

The papers released are said to only be a fraction of the same kind of info yet to be given to the public. Out of all the ways we insulted the people of Iraq over the last 4 years, this has to be close to the top in offensive

In another incident while the Army admited to killing a Fisherman they refused to pay for his death, yet the did pay for the Boat, cell phone and and net that had drifted away and was stolen. Those items were worth more than the little boy. The Army paid out 3500 dollars. Yes, life is cheap to the US Gov. Still in it's efficiency the Army is prepared for things like this.

"Soldiers hand out instruction cards after mistakes are made, so Iraqis know where to file claims."

How big of us.Anyone remember Haditha ? That is the town where our Soldier attacked and killed 24 men, women and children, then tried to cover it up. You would think we might just step up to the plate and try a little hard to do the right thing right ? Not hardly, unless you think appox $1600 a person is fair.

In Haditha, one of the most notorious incidents involving American troops in Iraq, the Marines paid residents $38,000 after troops killed two dozen people, including women and children, in November 2005.

It seems that those in charge of deciding how much money to pay out have been reading the Republican Playbook, You know the one that teaches them how to not take responsibility and to blame someone else?

“The Army does not target civilians,” said Maj. Anne D. Edgecomb, an Army spokeswoman. “Sadly, however, the enemy’s tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan unnecessarily endanger innocent civilians.”

I don't want to get into blaming the the troops, though they have their share of the blame to live with, this is a problem of Leadership. When you send troops to a strange land, where they don't speak the language, where both the civilians and the enemy dress alike, and give them orders like " shoot first, and ask questions latter", something is going to blowup.

Ok, so some accidents are going to happen. This has to be just a few isolated cases. The officers would rein in the troops after just a few of these thing right ? I wish.

In one incident, in Feb. 18, 2006, a taxi approached a checkpoint east of Baquba that was not properly marked with signs to slow down, one Army claim evaluation said. Soldiers fired on the taxi, killing a woman and severely wounding her daughter and son. The Army approved an unusually large condolence payment of $7,500, the documents show.

In September 2005, soldiers killed a man and his sister by firing 200 rounds into their car as it approached a checkpoint, apparently too quickly, near Mussayib. The Army lieutenant colonel who handled the claim awarded relatives a $10,000 compensation payment, finding that the soldiers had overstepped the rules of engagement.

Yeah well no shit. Before I turn you loose to go get as mad as I am, let me warn you that out of the 500 cases we know about, 40% received not a dime. Yeah , life is really cheap. Oh the little boys crime that got him killed ? He carried a bookbag to school, someone thought it looked like a bomb.

Life is cheap

Todays Washington Post has a OpEd they chose not to put the authors name to to protect him/her. A Rare thing. They did this because of a Federal Gag Order, not on the WaPo, but on the author. This should shake up the discussion on the NSLs that has gone quiet because on the Gonzale affair. WaPos own disclaimer should tickle your mind.

It is the policy of The Washington Post not to publish anonymous pieces. In this case, an exception has been made because the author -- who would have preferred to be named -- is legally prohibited from disclosing his or her identity in connection with receipt of a national security letter. The Post confirmed the legitimacy of this submission by verifying it with the author's attorney and by reviewing publicly available court documents.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/22/AR2007032201882.html

What follows is the story of someone who did the right thing. Something that seems rare in the age of Fear we live in. The fear of being called unpatriotic has ruled this country for a few years. The good thing is it has lost it's secret power now from wrongheaded over-use.

Three years ago, I received a national security letter (NSL) in my capacity as the president of a small Internet access and consulting business. The letter ordered me to provide sensitive information about one of my clients. There was no indication that a judge had reviewed or approved the letter, and it turned out that none had. The letter came with a gag provision that prohibited me from telling anyone, including my client, that the FBI was seeking this information. Based on the context of the demand -- a context that the FBI still won't let me discuss publicly -- I suspected that the FBI was abusing its power and that the letter sought information to which the FBI was not entitled

What follows is the story of the journey through a maze of govermental abuses, secrecy, heavyhanded practices, and plain old abuse of Authority. Everyone should read this and rejoice that soon Bush will be out of office and we will have a chance to reverse all this. We should not wait till to start the process. With hearings on the NSLs still fresh in the minds of people in Washington, it's time to dig even deeper. This is much more important than the scandal at the DOJ. It does have it's spidery webs connected to the DOJ, and the FBI, so of course Gonzales, Rove and Bush have their finger in it. Imagine living for 3 yrs under the control of this bunch. How would you feel ?

"I resent being conscripted as a secret informer for the government and being made to mislead those who are close to me, especially because I have doubts about the legitimacy of the underlying investigation."

Not only are we guilty of torturing our prisoners of war, we are making our own Citizens spy against their Countrymen against their will. Forcing them to break the law even when they know better. When faced with being exposed, they drag the Citizen before the Courts and stuff a gag in the leak.

It's time to fire up the process, the faxes, phones, and emails. This is the kind smoking gun that cannot be allowed to be hidden away.

They are being called "The Next Jihadists". That strikes me as a death sentence, not a future. It's not GenX, or "The Next Generation". What it is, is our fault, not ours alone, but we bear much of the blame. NewsWeek has a new piece on this topic.

Iraq is a young country: nearly half the population is under the age of 18. And those children have had a particularly turbulent upbringing. Kids like Ammar were born in the aftermath of one debilitating war, against neighboring Iran, then suffered two others and years of impoverishing sanctions in between. They are especially vulnerable to the demons that now grip Iraq. Hassan Ali, a sociologist at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, estimates that at least 1 million Iraqi kids have seen their lives damaged by the war—they've lost parents and homes, watched as their communities have been torn apart by sectarian furies. "These children will come to believe in the principles of force and violence," says Ali. "There's no question that society as a whole is going to feel the effects in the future"—and not only Iraqi society. From the Middle East to Europe to America, violence may well beget violence around the world for years to come.

We are waging war on children. Argue not directly, and I will asked you if you think a 5 yr. old knows the difference ? The 10 yr old that carrys a rifle and grenades to protect his Mother and Sisters can't be thinking of nuances. The 15 yr. old looking for a safe bed and food to eat, living only in survival mood. To be sure we aren't the ones teaching them the finer points of War.

"Jonathan Powers, a former U.S. Army captain who served in Iraq in 2003 and now directs a nonprofit working with kids there,"...."Instead of training them to rebuild their country, they are being trained to use weapons to destroy it,"

A little deeper in the article we find more insight into the lives of these children. Trust me when I say it is nothing like growing up in suburbia, and we are to blame. Bush is to blame. He will never wash this from his hands.

World Health Organization, found that 30 percent of the 1,090 children surveyed at schools in Mosul were suffering from post traumatic stress disorder......"Some children wake up in the middle of the night and can't go back to sleep, [worried about] how they're going to school in the morning," says Nail Subhi, who works with an American aid group called Generation Iraq Organization. "Is there going to be someone in the street waiting to kill or kidnap them?" In a February 2006 study published by the Association of Psychologists of Iraq, 92 percent of the kids surveyed showed signs of learning impediments.

George Bush has made numerous claims about the schools we have built or rebuilt. That would appear to be a great thing right ? It might be if the children went to school. A empty school is nothing more than a empty promise, like many of the promises we have heard.

The Ministry of Education estimates that only 30 percent of the 3.5 million Iraqi elementary-age kids are attending school now,

Ok, if these kids aren't in school where are they, and what are they doing ? If I quoted every story you wouldn't need to read Newsweek. We have heard of them carrying rifles so many times we are probably semi-numb to the shock value. I hope that last sentence bothers you as much as it does me. Our troops can't afford the same numbness. They have become the Invader/Occupier, and hated, the target. As proof of that...

After revealing in 2004 that it was holding 107 suspected insurgents under the age of 16 in detention camps in Iraq, the United States has refused to release any figures about the number of Iraqi kids in custody.

I hate to even think about if there is a Abu G. for kids. We do know at one time in Gitmo there were kids of the age of 14. Children housed in the same place as the " Worse of the Worse ".

The article trys to end on a note of hope. It suggest there still may be a chance for some to learn a deeper and more fulfilling life. Fat chance. Maybe a few will come out uncorrupted, the sheltered, richer children, but some how I doubt even they can escape the rape of their childhoods. The innocence lost to the ego of a few Neocons and a few bags of gold. We must put the face of the children on this war. They do not have the power to make themselves heard, it falls to you and me. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16610767...

I have failed to even mention the children that have died or been wounded, the lost limbs. We call them the quaint name of " Collateral Damage ". I will leave that to another day. That horror is worth a couple hundred diarys of it's own.

At first glance one would think this is a bad thing considering how many times the Feds have used the " States Secrets Act" to stop from going to trial. Not so this time, not yet anyway. All 17 cases have been given to the one Judge that thinks they are no longer a secret. Hot Damn !

The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transferred the cases to U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker, who last month declined to dismiss one of the lawsuits brought against the federal government and AT&T Inc., according to an order released Thursday.

This should give everyone some hope of at least a fair hearing. Too many times in recent history has our goverment tried to get around the law by hiding the facts behind some excuse. It's time we got our day in court. http://biz.yahoo.com/...This is really great news because not only the 17 cases tranfered to Judge Walker are involved, but possibly another 26 case could be tranfered to Walker. Gonzales must be very unhappy about all this. If it comes out that the Telcos have been breaking the law at the request of Bush, Cheney and Gonzales it's going to make a even better case for Impeachment and even a huge financial judgement.

Walker ruled July 20 the warrantless eavesdropping has been so widely reported there's no danger of exposing secrets. No hearing has been set, and the Justice Department has asked Walker to halt the case pending appeal.

The lawsuits challenge President Bush's assertion that he can use his wartime powers to eavesdrop on Americans without a warrant. The suits accuse the companies of illegally making communications on their networks available to the National Security Agency without warrants.

This will finally be a real test of Inherent Authority, and a chance recoop some of our basic civil rights.
Some of these cases will undoubtably include the cases Arlan has been trying to provide cover for the president by passing laws to make legal things we don't even know about. Hopefully this will stop that kind of bullshit.

"Is the president doing anything wrong?" Specter asked. "We don't know, because we don't know what the program is."

There's no doubt that the program is going on in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, a 1978 law that requires a secret court to approve investigative wiretapping before it occurs, Specter said. What remains murky, he added, is whether the president's constitutional powers as commander-in-chief would justify the program's existence without a court order.

"Here you have a lot of taps going on in America, in violation of a statute," Specter said.

We can be sure Gonzales is not done. He is certain to try and block this court and go over their head. Personally since enough Judges have looked at this and decided Walkers court is the right place to hear these cases, I believe we may have a fighting chance. It's about time the truth started to find it's way to the suface. Cross posted at DailyKos.