Saturday, July 21
"24-Font" Democrat War Anger at Senate PJ- Party
Not only did the Senate Democrats fail again this week to advance proposals for a pullout, they show in much broader ways that they have not changed course at all. They may want to end the war bungled by Republicans, but they refuse to end the escalation of the American war machine.--Boston Globe, 21 July 2007
Comedy Central's Jon Stewart gives "pussy" Democrat Senators a well-earned skewering for their Capitol Hill dog-and-pony show that casts them as oppositional characters of those "Do Nothing" GOP war-mongers who handed America its U.S. Treasury-busting Iraq War.
Lest we forget, the Democrats are considering a $648.8 billion Defense budget laden with their porkish earmarks (remember their promished "earmark" reform?) that will top anything previous GOP-controlled Congresses managed to sneak past the American public.
An analysis last month of 309 Senate defense earmarks by the nonpartisan budget watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense found that "four of the top five 'earmarkers' were not Republican hawks but centrist and liberal Democrats."
Watch Stewart roast Senators for their floor show. Dear American Democracy, RIP.
Comedy Central's Jon Stewart gives "pussy" Democrat Senators a well-earned skewering for their Capitol Hill dog-and-pony show that casts them as oppositional characters of those "Do Nothing" GOP war-mongers who handed America its U.S. Treasury-busting Iraq War.
Lest we forget, the Democrats are considering a $648.8 billion Defense budget laden with their porkish earmarks (remember their promished "earmark" reform?) that will top anything previous GOP-controlled Congresses managed to sneak past the American public.
An analysis last month of 309 Senate defense earmarks by the nonpartisan budget watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense found that "four of the top five 'earmarkers' were not Republican hawks but centrist and liberal Democrats."
[Michigan's Carl] Levin led the way with 44 earmarks. [New York's Hilliary] Clinton was second with 26. [Senator Leader Harry] Reed was fourth with 23, one behind Republican John Warner of Virginia. In fifth place was Charles Schumer of New York with 21. When asked if she saw any change in defense earmark behavior since the Democrats took back the House and the Senate, senior analyst Laura Peterson of the Taxpayers for Common Sense said over the telephone, “No.”But Senate Democrats nonetheless cooked up a gimmick for their showy anti-war posturing: Feign faux-anger at Repubs during their pajama-party faux-vote on the Iraq War using large-print signs crafted by overworked staffers.
Watch Stewart roast Senators for their floor show. Dear American Democracy, RIP.
White House Denies Homeland Security Access to Homeland Security Post-Attack Emergency Docs
This week was a veritable watershed for post-9/11 White House suppression of American dissent and informational access.
Besides Bush's 17 July executive order stipulating asset seizure for dissent (the weasel words are "threaten stablization efforts") against the Iraq War, the White House also denied Oregon Democrat Congressman Peter DeFazio, a member of the House's Homeland Security Committee, access to emergency plans for another terrorist attack.
The White House's refusal occasioned DeFazio to suggest budding allegiance to post-9/11 conspiracy theories.
Editor: Moose Kateer
==
DeFazio asks, but he's denied access
Classified info - The congressman wanted to see government plans for after a
terror attack
Friday, July 20, 2007
JEFF KOSSEFF
The Oregonian Staff
WASHINGTON -- Oregonians called Peter DeFazio's office, worried there was a
conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for
operating the government after a terrorist attack.
As a member of the U.S. House on the Homeland Security Committee, DeFazio,
D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure "bubble-room" in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents.
On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED
"I just can't believe they're going to deny a member of Congress the right of reviewing how they plan to conduct the government of the United States after a significant terrorist attack," DeFazio says.
Homeland Security Committee staffers told his office that the White House initially approved his request, but it was later quashed. DeFazio doesn't know who did it or why.
"We're talking about the continuity of the government of the United States of America," DeFazio says. "I would think that would be relevant to any member of Congress, let alone a member of the Homeland Security Committee."
Bush administration spokesman Trey Bohn declined to say why DeFazio was denied access: "We do not comment through the press on the process that this access entails. It is important to keep in mind that much of the information related to the continuity of government is highly sensitive."
Norm Ornstein, a legal scholar who studies government continuity at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he "cannot think of one good reason" to deny access to a member of Congress who serves on the Homeland Security Committee.
"I find it inexplicable and probably reflective of the usual, knee-jerk overextension of executive power that we see from this White House," Ornstein said.
This is the first time DeFazio has been denied access to documents. DeFazio has asked Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., to help him access the documents.
"Maybe the people who think there's a conspiracy out there are right," DeFazio said.
Jeff Kosseff: 202-383-7814 jeff.kosseff@newhouse.com
Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/11848965405891
0.xml
&coll=7
Besides Bush's 17 July executive order stipulating asset seizure for dissent (the weasel words are "threaten stablization efforts") against the Iraq War, the White House also denied Oregon Democrat Congressman Peter DeFazio, a member of the House's Homeland Security Committee, access to emergency plans for another terrorist attack.
The White House's refusal occasioned DeFazio to suggest budding allegiance to post-9/11 conspiracy theories.
Editor: Moose Kateer
==
DeFazio asks, but he's denied access
Classified info - The congressman wanted to see government plans for after a
terror attack
Friday, July 20, 2007
JEFF KOSSEFF
The Oregonian Staff
WASHINGTON -- Oregonians called Peter DeFazio's office, worried there was a
conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for
operating the government after a terrorist attack.
As a member of the U.S. House on the Homeland Security Committee, DeFazio,
D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure "bubble-room" in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents.
On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED
"I just can't believe they're going to deny a member of Congress the right of reviewing how they plan to conduct the government of the United States after a significant terrorist attack," DeFazio says.
Homeland Security Committee staffers told his office that the White House initially approved his request, but it was later quashed. DeFazio doesn't know who did it or why.
"We're talking about the continuity of the government of the United States of America," DeFazio says. "I would think that would be relevant to any member of Congress, let alone a member of the Homeland Security Committee."
Bush administration spokesman Trey Bohn declined to say why DeFazio was denied access: "We do not comment through the press on the process that this access entails. It is important to keep in mind that much of the information related to the continuity of government is highly sensitive."
Norm Ornstein, a legal scholar who studies government continuity at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said he "cannot think of one good reason" to deny access to a member of Congress who serves on the Homeland Security Committee.
"I find it inexplicable and probably reflective of the usual, knee-jerk overextension of executive power that we see from this White House," Ornstein said.
This is the first time DeFazio has been denied access to documents. DeFazio has asked Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., to help him access the documents.
"Maybe the people who think there's a conspiracy out there are right," DeFazio said.
Jeff Kosseff: 202-383-7814 jeff.kosseff@newhouse.com
Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/11848965405891
0.xml
Thursday, July 19
How to Create an Angry American
Today 911Blogger.com posted below a video-taped recipe for manufacturing an angry American: Let them watch unspun truth of how US officials lied and contrived the nation into the Iraq quagmire.
America certainly is overdue its post-9/11 pandemic of righteous anger. The expert juxtaposition of newsy sound bytes in the clip might just precipitate a nationwide cure if enough brainwashed Americans saw it--and risked asking--and honestly answering--the difficult questions that arose.
Hope springs eternal.
Link
America certainly is overdue its post-9/11 pandemic of righteous anger. The expert juxtaposition of newsy sound bytes in the clip might just precipitate a nationwide cure if enough brainwashed Americans saw it--and risked asking--and honestly answering--the difficult questions that arose.
Hope springs eternal.
Link
Congressional Research Service Reports on Iraq
CRS REPORTS ON IRAQ
The Congressional Research Service has produced several newly updated
reports on Iraq for congressional consumption. CRS does not make its
publications freely available to the public, but the following reports
were obtained by Secrecy News.
"Iraq: Post-Saddam Governance and Security," updated July 13, 2007:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL31339.pdf
"Iraq: U.S. Military Operations," updated July 15, 2007:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL31701.pdf
"Iraq: Reconstruction Assistance," updated June 25, 2007:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL31833.pdf
"Post-War Iraq: Foreign Contributions to Training, Peacekeeping, and
Reconstruction," updated June 18, 2007:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RL32105.pdf
"Iraq: Summary of U.S. Casualties," updated July 12, 2007:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS21578.pdf
"U.S. Embassy in Iraq," updated July 13, 2007:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS21867.pdf
"Iraq: Milestones Since the Ouster of Saddam Hussein," updated June 19,
2007:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS22598.pdf
"The Kurds in Post-Saddam Iraq," updated June 12, 2007:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS22079.pdf
"Iraq: Government Formation and Benchmarks," updated July 13, 2007:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mideast/RS21968.pdf
"The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror
Operations Since 9/11," updated June 28, 2007:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf
Saturday, July 7
Only One Democrat Prez Hopeful Dangerous for Dumbed Down Minds
Three months after the New York Times published in June 1971 The Pentagon Papers leaked by Defense Department whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, Democrat Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska quoted English novelist H.G. Well in the introduction to Gravel's released version of the classified documents:
The true strength of rulers and empires lies not in armies or emotions, but in the belief of men that they are inflexibly open and truthful and legal. As soon as a government departs from that standard, it ceases to be anything more than “the gang in possession,” and its days are numbered.
Now a 2008 Democrat presidential candidate, Gravel, like his GOP populist counterpart Ron Paul, is espousing ideas problematic to the plans of American globalists--those members in Rockefeller family-sponsored groups like the Council on Foreign Relations and Trilateral Commission--seeking a continued "trickle up" corporate welfare program and an European version of a North American Union.
That's why the corporate media--CNN, Fox News Network, Houston Chronicle--are eager to muzzle the message Gravel (and Paul) raise during presidential debates.
In the short clip below, Gravel reveals some officially camouflaged truths essential to continuance of the wars in Vietnam and Iraq to a representative of Student Scholars for 9/11 Truth. The senator says Democrat leadership inthe 110th Congress, empowered last November on an anti-Iraq War platform, have dragged their feet in keeping their campaign promise of ending U.S. occupation of Iraq.
The true strength of rulers and empires lies not in armies or emotions, but in the belief of men that they are inflexibly open and truthful and legal. As soon as a government departs from that standard, it ceases to be anything more than “the gang in possession,” and its days are numbered.
Now a 2008 Democrat presidential candidate, Gravel, like his GOP populist counterpart Ron Paul, is espousing ideas problematic to the plans of American globalists--those members in Rockefeller family-sponsored groups like the Council on Foreign Relations and Trilateral Commission--seeking a continued "trickle up" corporate welfare program and an European version of a North American Union.
That's why the corporate media--CNN, Fox News Network, Houston Chronicle--are eager to muzzle the message Gravel (and Paul) raise during presidential debates.
In the short clip below, Gravel reveals some officially camouflaged truths essential to continuance of the wars in Vietnam and Iraq to a representative of Student Scholars for 9/11 Truth. The senator says Democrat leadership inthe 110th Congress, empowered last November on an anti-Iraq War platform, have dragged their feet in keeping their campaign promise of ending U.S. occupation of Iraq.
UK Condom King Enlists Down Under Lovers to Test New Shaft Sheaths
British managers of the Durex condom factory in Bangkok, Thailand, not only have outsourced production of its new "revolutionary" CSD500 Viagra-aided condom, but in an affront to American international sexual prowess, has outsourced "couple testing" to sunbaked Aussies. Perhaps you didn't hear about the deleterious effect the 9-11-2001 terrorist attacks on America's sexual appetite.
But at least one TV cable news network thought the topic worthy of discussion by a panel of terrorist "experts" a year after the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.
Citing a November 2002 international poll of 50,000 respondents in 22 countries, CNN reported the U.S. had dropped from its pre-9/11 perch of first to 11th among nationals having sex most frequently.
You don't believe me? Here's an excerpt from CNN's 26 November 2002 transcript of "Talkback Live" hosted by Arthel Neville. Joining him for this illuminating discussion on 9/11--that's right; the topic was 9/11 terrorism--was trial lawyer Jeffrey Jacobovitz and radio talk hosts/personalities Peter Noel, Debra Schlussel and author Paul McGuire, host of "The Paul McGuire Show" on KBRT Radio in Los Angeles.
While the panel opened on Saudi Arabia's link to 9/11 terrorism, the topic of sex arose near the end of the segment, demonstrating the expert discussants' appetite for delving in yet another topic on which they seemingly knew next to little or nothing.
[...]
NOEL: Arthel, they have not surveyed the West Indians. You know that Europeans flock to Jamaica and (UNINTELLIGIBLE) and Barbados? They have not surveyed the West Indians.
NEVILLE: Debbie.
SCHLUSSEL: Only a condom company would judge or country, the greatest on earth, by this doubtful standard.
NEVILLE: Paul.
MCGUIRE: The French are lying, everybody knows married Americans have the best sex. [The international poll found the French ranked #1 for most frequent sex in 2002--editor.]
NEVILLE: All right. And Pat (ph).
PAT: Well, I think we've had a difficult year. So who cares?
I won't speak for you, but I found the derivative comments representative of American TV's level of intelligence in analyzing post-9/11 terrorism.
But, Pat, as the 6 July AP article below indicates, Durex does cares, regardless the impact on American libido. Perhaps the panel's cavalier attitude toward America's flaccid post-9/11 sexual performance in some way contributed to Durex's decision to forgo testing its new product in the US.
(And we know the historical legacy of loathing the prim Brits harbor for those free-loving French, oui?)
So, 200 Aussies, issued free condoms to stake out new claims along those thousands of miles of barren coastline will test drive Durex's condom during the coldest part of the Australian year.
Go figure.
Company Advertises For Condom Testers
(AP) A major condom brand said Friday it expected thousands of applicants for a new unpaid job on offer _ condom tester.
Durex said 200 adult Australians _ men and women _ are wanted to test a range of its condoms.
While the successful applicants will not be paid, each will receive a pack of Durex sex products, a chance to win 1,000 Australian dollars ($857 U.S.), plus professional prestige, the company said in a statement.
"Who wouldn't want to have a chance with an actual authorized professional?" Durex marketing manager Sam White asked.
"Durex is expecting thousands of applicants," the statement said.
Hopefuls must explain in their applications why they would make "expert" condom testers.
How they test the condoms is not specified, but testers must provide honest feedback about how they find the products.
No deadline is set for evaluating a range of four condoms and other sex products.
==
"Other sex products?" Oh, my. As my current House of Bush dictator has been heard to quip, "Bring' em on."
Wednesday, July 4
Independence Day Stories Out of Iraq
But you and I, we've been through that, and this is not our fate,
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.
--Bob Dylan, "All Along the Watchtower"
Here are some recent news items from along the Empire's outer Iraqi edges to commemorate another fictive birthday for Amerikanesque liberty at home and abroad.
Troop Scoop
In a provocative story, the Los Angeles Times cites figures provided by the U.S. Central Command that demonstrate private contractors now outnumber American troops in Iraq, a country George Bush where graciously committed US resources so Iraqis could gain an appreciation of his American sense of freedom and liberty. Click on the Times graphic below for some summarizing figures, to include total of U.S. companies you may never realized were in Iraq.
Americanizing the Sex
Before Sahar al-Haideri, a female Iraqi journalist, was killed in her native land, she completed a story on the burgeoning sex slavery introduced into her country with the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. Two years to the month after the invasion, Rep. Christine McKinney (D-GA) grilled former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on, among other embarrassments to the U.S. military, why Dyncorps was approved as an contractor in Iraq after it was implicated with promoting child prostitution and international sex slavery.
McKinney's unshakable efforts at meaningful congressional oversight even saw her falling afoul of Democrat leadership, e.g., Nancy Polosi and the Black Caucus. Her insistence to hold appointed White House officials accountable during the ever 12-year congressinal tenure during the GOP's Rubber Stamp U.S. House occasioned Republicans to stage a campaign hit to defeat her in Atlanta's predominately Black 5th Congressional District Democrat primary in August 2006.
Our Oil
Yesterday, the AP ended a putative U.S. media silence on an impending oil bill pending in the Iraqi parliament. (Oddly, this AP version of that bill reported from Baghad is quiet different from this AP version by the same reporter. That should be a clue for you.)
Don't bother reading either version unless you (1) can't find subject matter for that Mass Media 101 paper soon due, or (2) you just refuse to know U.S. oil companies are pillage Iraqi oil and the nation's future.
For sticklers for truth in the printed word, may I instead recommend more reliable accounts of that pending Iraqi bill afforded British readers in the UK Independent in January--just before U.S. congressional Democrat leaders publicly announced their party would sell-out American voters who ended their 12-year status GOP kiss-assess to return them to power.
Milkhouse Mouse covered this sordid story on the quiet greed of U.S. oil companies too long ignored now in the American media, first on 8 January and again on the 16th:
....
Milkhouse Mouse fingered the Dems' sordid sell-out, first on January 8 ("DC Dems' 'Sell-Out' of U.S. Voters Mandated by Iraqi Petro $Billions") and again on January 16 ("Oil and War Profiteering Driving Democratic Betrayal of Anti-War Mandate").
Record windfall profits for 100,000 [sic] American contractors--27,000 who owe the U.S. Treasury billions in back taxes for their Iraq contracts--will need continued protection by taxpayer-supported U.S. troops to conduct business, all campaign promises and criminal investigations be damned.
But to fully appreciate why Dick Cheney repeatedly has claimed U.S. troops will remain indefinitely in Iraq, you must read London's The Independent's January 7 story on the Iraqi parliament's impending passage of a lucrative oil deal for the American oil industry. Now in the works for over a year, the legislation will give "big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972."
So until 2037, U.S. oil companies--afforded billions in illegal tax windfalls--need the White House to contrive another faux-crisis to justify sending grandchildren of currently deployed soldiers in Iraq to protect American pipelines and investments from "insurgents" or the enemy de jure. But sufficient funding for troops' medical care by then is unlikely. Why? The unprecedented 25% troop disability rate--more than 200,000 soldiers deployed in the "war on terrorism" since November 2001--resulting from the U.S. military's use of radioactive depleted uranium munitions already has tripled Veterans Administration cost projections for Iraq War medical care.
That's enough happy thoughts of freedom and liberty today. Now I need to go outside and set off a couple of 88 howitzer cannon shots in my 'hood in celebration of our national independence.
So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.
--Bob Dylan, "All Along the Watchtower"
Here are some recent news items from along the Empire's outer Iraqi edges to commemorate another fictive birthday for Amerikanesque liberty at home and abroad.
Troop Scoop
In a provocative story, the Los Angeles Times cites figures provided by the U.S. Central Command that demonstrate private contractors now outnumber American troops in Iraq, a country George Bush where graciously committed US resources so Iraqis could gain an appreciation of his American sense of freedom and liberty. Click on the Times graphic below for some summarizing figures, to include total of U.S. companies you may never realized were in Iraq.
Americanizing the Sex
Before Sahar al-Haideri, a female Iraqi journalist, was killed in her native land, she completed a story on the burgeoning sex slavery introduced into her country with the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. Two years to the month after the invasion, Rep. Christine McKinney (D-GA) grilled former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on, among other embarrassments to the U.S. military, why Dyncorps was approved as an contractor in Iraq after it was implicated with promoting child prostitution and international sex slavery.
McKinney's unshakable efforts at meaningful congressional oversight even saw her falling afoul of Democrat leadership, e.g., Nancy Polosi and the Black Caucus. Her insistence to hold appointed White House officials accountable during the ever 12-year congressinal tenure during the GOP's Rubber Stamp U.S. House occasioned Republicans to stage a campaign hit to defeat her in Atlanta's predominately Black 5th Congressional District Democrat primary in August 2006.
Our Oil
Yesterday, the AP ended a putative U.S. media silence on an impending oil bill pending in the Iraqi parliament. (Oddly, this AP version of that bill reported from Baghad is quiet different from this AP version by the same reporter. That should be a clue for you.)
Don't bother reading either version unless you (1) can't find subject matter for that Mass Media 101 paper soon due, or (2) you just refuse to know U.S. oil companies are pillage Iraqi oil and the nation's future.
For sticklers for truth in the printed word, may I instead recommend more reliable accounts of that pending Iraqi bill afforded British readers in the UK Independent in January--just before U.S. congressional Democrat leaders publicly announced their party would sell-out American voters who ended their 12-year status GOP kiss-assess to return them to power.
Milkhouse Mouse covered this sordid story on the quiet greed of U.S. oil companies too long ignored now in the American media, first on 8 January and again on the 16th:
....
Milkhouse Mouse fingered the Dems' sordid sell-out, first on January 8 ("DC Dems' 'Sell-Out' of U.S. Voters Mandated by Iraqi Petro $Billions") and again on January 16 ("Oil and War Profiteering Driving Democratic Betrayal of Anti-War Mandate").
Record windfall profits for 100,000 [sic] American contractors--27,000 who owe the U.S. Treasury billions in back taxes for their Iraq contracts--will need continued protection by taxpayer-supported U.S. troops to conduct business, all campaign promises and criminal investigations be damned.
But to fully appreciate why Dick Cheney repeatedly has claimed U.S. troops will remain indefinitely in Iraq, you must read London's The Independent's January 7 story on the Iraqi parliament's impending passage of a lucrative oil deal for the American oil industry. Now in the works for over a year, the legislation will give "big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972."
So until 2037, U.S. oil companies--afforded billions in illegal tax windfalls--need the White House to contrive another faux-crisis to justify sending grandchildren of currently deployed soldiers in Iraq to protect American pipelines and investments from "insurgents" or the enemy de jure. But sufficient funding for troops' medical care by then is unlikely. Why? The unprecedented 25% troop disability rate--more than 200,000 soldiers deployed in the "war on terrorism" since November 2001--resulting from the U.S. military's use of radioactive depleted uranium munitions already has tripled Veterans Administration cost projections for Iraq War medical care.
That's enough happy thoughts of freedom and liberty today. Now I need to go outside and set off a couple of 88 howitzer cannon shots in my 'hood in celebration of our national independence.
Monday, July 2
Travel Polygraph Mass Line-Ups a Set-Up for Dissidents
Rumor control has it that Draper Laboratory of Massachusetts is the leading bidder on a government contract for implementing a "credibility assessment" travel screening program so inaccurate that the officials will have latitude to political dissidents will be caught in via screening technology accurate as flipping a coin.
Yesterday (Sunday, 1 July) AntiPolograph.org posted a sobering news item that suggests our authoritarian federal handlers will soon add a flawed screening procedure to the Amerikan Security State's growing arsenal of surveillance tools.
The U.S. Government is soliciting bids for a project that, if implemented, could see travelers facing lie detector testing at airports, border crossings, and other high traffic venues. The project is sponsored by the Defense Academy for Credibility Assessment (DACA), which until recently was known as the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute (DoDPI). “Credibility assessment” is the U.S. Government’s latest buzzword for “lie detection” and supplants the now démodé “detection of deception.”
....
But our fascism lovers at the Pentagon and Homeland Security are oblivious to this overwhelming evidence. When the federal government implemented polygraph screening as a precondition for post-9/11 federal employment, the National Academy of Sciences reviewed existing literature on the procedure in 2002, concluding its "accuracy in distinguishing actual or potential security violators from innocent test takers is insufficient to justify reliance on its use in employee security screening in federal agencies.”
Though the NAS also determined that reliance on polygraph testing could be "dangerous to national security," the program nonetheless was implemented. But additional political mischief is evident in polygraph employee screening. Officially sanctioning such a clearly flawed screening protocol undermines all objective hiring standards by fostering more creative latitude to deny anyone suspected of exhibiting "dishonesty" in their support of the "constitution" and loyalty to the Bush White House.
AntiPolygraph cites some disturbing details suggesting that America's enemies will exploit the flawed technology while many innocent travelers will be sweep up in America's post-9/11 surveillance machinery:
[A]lthough the U.S. Government pretends that it already has a working lie detector (in the form of the polygraph), it is deceiving only itself. Al-Qaeda and other Islamic insurgents know full well that the lie detector is a sham. Moreover, even if a 90% accurate, countermeasure-proof lie detector were developed (something this project has virtually no prospect of achieving), it would be worthless for such a task as screening travelers for terrorists. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that as many as 1 in 100,000 travelers is a terrorist. With a 90% accurate lie detector test, for every 1 terrorist correctly flagged as deceptive, some 10,000 innocent travelers will wrongly be so flagged. One remains stuck with the hopeless task of finding the needle in the proverbial haystack.
The security net continually tightens around freedom-loving Americans. If ever there was a time for those who love the freedom of mobility and oppose the Bush administration to have concern of being caught up in its post-9/11 fascist police state launched with it bogus "war on terrorism," it would be now.
Raise hell.
Yesterday (Sunday, 1 July) AntiPolograph.org posted a sobering news item that suggests our authoritarian federal handlers will soon add a flawed screening procedure to the Amerikan Security State's growing arsenal of surveillance tools.
The U.S. Government is soliciting bids for a project that, if implemented, could see travelers facing lie detector testing at airports, border crossings, and other high traffic venues. The project is sponsored by the Defense Academy for Credibility Assessment (DACA), which until recently was known as the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute (DoDPI). “Credibility assessment” is the U.S. Government’s latest buzzword for “lie detection” and supplants the now démodé “detection of deception.”
....
According to the amended solicitation, the scope of the project is:
Did you catch that buzzphrase "applicable in multicultural environments"? That is double-speak to soften the hard fact that polygraphs are racially biased; innocent blacks are more susceptible to a false-positive test than innocent whites. In addition, statistical tests demonstrate coin tosses are as reliable as polygraph testing in determining if a person is lying (more here). Motivated individuals also can be taught how to beat a polygraph test. So there should be no wonder that results of a polygraph now are excluded from court hearings, though police departments still widely use them.To identify, implement, empirically evaluate, and validate optimal procedures for speedy accurate credibility assessment of humans passing through a security checkpoint in high volume environments (e.g., airports, border crossings, building entry). The effort shall specifically address physiological and behavioral assessment using instrumental and/or non-instrumental procedures applicable in multi-cultural environments with emphasis on the identification and reduction of factors affecting assessment accuracy and variability. It is anticipated that the scope of the project will be broad enough to justify a multi-disciplinary investigatory team and multi-site data collection.
But our fascism lovers at the Pentagon and Homeland Security are oblivious to this overwhelming evidence. When the federal government implemented polygraph screening as a precondition for post-9/11 federal employment, the National Academy of Sciences reviewed existing literature on the procedure in 2002, concluding its "accuracy in distinguishing actual or potential security violators from innocent test takers is insufficient to justify reliance on its use in employee security screening in federal agencies.”
Though the NAS also determined that reliance on polygraph testing could be "dangerous to national security," the program nonetheless was implemented. But additional political mischief is evident in polygraph employee screening. Officially sanctioning such a clearly flawed screening protocol undermines all objective hiring standards by fostering more creative latitude to deny anyone suspected of exhibiting "dishonesty" in their support of the "constitution" and loyalty to the Bush White House.
AntiPolygraph cites some disturbing details suggesting that America's enemies will exploit the flawed technology while many innocent travelers will be sweep up in America's post-9/11 surveillance machinery:
[A]lthough the U.S. Government pretends that it already has a working lie detector (in the form of the polygraph), it is deceiving only itself. Al-Qaeda and other Islamic insurgents know full well that the lie detector is a sham. Moreover, even if a 90% accurate, countermeasure-proof lie detector were developed (something this project has virtually no prospect of achieving), it would be worthless for such a task as screening travelers for terrorists. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that as many as 1 in 100,000 travelers is a terrorist. With a 90% accurate lie detector test, for every 1 terrorist correctly flagged as deceptive, some 10,000 innocent travelers will wrongly be so flagged. One remains stuck with the hopeless task of finding the needle in the proverbial haystack.
The security net continually tightens around freedom-loving Americans. If ever there was a time for those who love the freedom of mobility and oppose the Bush administration to have concern of being caught up in its post-9/11 fascist police state launched with it bogus "war on terrorism," it would be now.
Raise hell.
