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Date Posted: 12:29:50 11/07/07 Wed
Author: part 1
Subject: November 7, 2007

ICLC BRIEFING INTERNATIONAL VERSION

[A7-45-3/BFG001]:BFG:L: [07/11/06][06:1 ]AM BRIEFING, ENGLISH
STAND:[1.1.00/ ][0.1.00/ ][ . . / ] [ : ]
SUBJT:[5.0.00/ ][4.0.00/ ][3.0.00/ ] [ : ]
TOPIC:[060.000 :AM BRIEFING ]
SUB-T:[061.000 :AM BRIEFING, ENGLISH ]
TITLE:[AM BRIEFING WEDNESDAY NOV 7 2007 ] 1 of Pages

SYNOPSIS:
TO:ALL POINTS BY: WILLIAM F. WERTZ/SSU
RE:MORNING BRIEFING WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2007

+---------------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| |
| MORNING BRIEFING |
| |
| Wednesday, November 7, 2007 |
| |
| |
+---------------------------------------------------------------+

LAROUCHE: CHENEY IMPEACHMENT VOTE
AUGURS DOWNFALL OF NANCY PELOSI

Nov. 6, 2007 (LPAC)--Today, as promised, Rep. Dennis Kucinich
(D-Oh) defied the ghost of Nancy Pelosi by introducing a
privileged resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney on
the floor of the House. Lyndon LaRouche, who has campaigned for
the impeachment of Cheney and has called for Pelosi's ouster as
Speaker of the House for her conscious obstruction of Cheney's
impeachment, said afterwards that today's developments augur the
early downfall of Nancy Pelosi. As is well known, LaRouche has
called for her downfall on this very issue. LaRouche said that
today's result pleases him much. It is a good thing. We created
the situation in which not only Democrats, but also the
Republicans, who were decisive in today's developments, could
act.

Kucinich has explained that he decided to bring the resolution
now, because of the danger that Cheney, who got the U.S. into
Iraq through lies, is now using similar lies to justify a
preemptive war against Iran. He read the full text of the
resolution on the House floor. The resolution is similar to HR
333, which Kucinich introduced in April, but has languished in
the Judiciary Committee, headed by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) until
now. The HR333 now has 22 cosponsors, the latest Rep. Danny Davis
(D-ILL). The resolution introduced today by Kucinich indicts
Cheney for having lied that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction,
and that the Iraq government worked closely with Al Qaeda, both
of which accusations he knew to be false. The resolution also
accuses Cheney of violating the Constitution by threatening to
use force against Iran, when Iran poses no threat to the U.S.

Although Nancy Pelosi was not visibly present on the floor of the
House during the entire procedure, once the resolution was
introduced, House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md) made a
motion at her behest to table, i.e., kill the resolution. Echoing
Pelosi, who has repeatedly said that impeachment is "off the
table" Hoyer told Fox News: "Impeachment is not on our agenda, We
have some major priorities. We need to focus on those."

Initially it looked as if the motion to table would easily
succeed. At one point in the voting it had 290 votes. However,
a decision was made by the Republican leadership to instruct
party members to change their votes and vote against tabling the
measure. The final vote was 251 against tabling to 162 in favor
of tabling. 165 Republicans voted against tabling, as did 86
Democrats, with at least 17 Democrats also changing their votes
at the very end to also vote against tabling the motion in clear
defiance of Pelosi.

With this vote, the impeachment of Dick Cheney is clearly no
longer "off the table" as Nancy Pelosi has insisted. Her
protection of Cheney's war policy has been thoroughly unmasked.

Next, Hoyer moved to refer the resolution to the Judiciary
Committee. The procedural vote as to whether to vote on the
motion to refer to committee succeeded by a margin of 218 to 194,
with the Republicans once again voting against Hoyer in order to
force a quick one-hour debate on the house floor.

The actual motion to refer to committee won by the same margin
218 to 194.

As Lyndon LaRouche emphasized, the resolution to impeach Cheney
is now "a live bomb sitting in the middle of the process. Instead
of being killed, it has been kept alive: mirror, mirror, on the
wall, who is now the fairest of them all?"


NEWS SUMMARY

LAROUCHE

THE LAROUCHE SHOW from Nov. 3, "Get Off MySpace and Facebook
Before Your Brain Turns To Mush." (See documentation)

RESOLUTIONS SUPPORTING LYNDON LAROUCHE'S HBPA PASSED both
the City Council of Jackson, Mississippi and the City Council of
Pomona, California. (See slugs)

ECO-FIN

BRITAIN USES BANK COLLAPSES AGAINST US. (see slug)

CITY OF LONDON WORRIED ABOUT ITS BANKS. (see slug)

CALIFORNIA BUDGET CRISIS EXPLODES. (see slug)

HOMEOWNERS ROBBED WHILE THEY ARE FORECLOSED. (see slug)

CITI USES LTCM VET to try to work out rotten assets. (see
slug)

CITI LOANS $10 BILLION TO SIVS. (see slug)

SCHUMER, FRANK BILLS GO NOWHERE. (see slug)

THE HOUSE, BY A VOTE OF 361 TO 54, OVERRODE BUSH'S VETO of
the water bill today. Rep. John Mica (R-Fl) hailed the vote
saying he supports many of Bush's policies but he "respectfully
disagrees with his veto of this bipartisan measure to improve the
nation's water resources infrastructure..." Mica is the GOP
ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee. The Senate is scheduled to take an override vote on
Wednesday Nov. 7. [mjf]

UNITED STATES

COMPUTER GAMES LEAD TO SUICIDE. (see slug)

FACEBOOK ADDICTION SWEEPS AUSTRALIA. (see slug)

VETERANS OPPOSE MUKASEY. (see slug)

MUKASEY NOMINATION PASSES COMMITTEE. (see slug)

GATES SAYS CHINA NO MILITARY THREAT TO US. (see slug)

IBERO AMERICA

GUTTING OF INFRASTRUCTURE, NOT CLIMATE CHANGE, caused flood
disaster in Mexico's Tabasco state (see slug)

WESTERN EUROPE

SARKOZY VISITS BUSH, bargains on NATO participation.
(see slug)

NO PROGRESS IN KOSOVO TALKS. (see slug)

RUSSIA

RUSSIA WILL AID CHINA IN REPROCESSING. (see slug)

RUSSIA BUILDS UP NUCLEAR INDUSTRY. (see slug)


AFRICA

MBEKI EXPLAINS HIS VIEW ON AIDS IN AFRICA. (see slug)

SOUTHWEST ASIA

MASHAAL SAYS ANNAPOLIS MEETING A DIVERSION from planned Iran
attach. (see slug)

BILL CLINTON COMMEMORATES RABIN. (see slug)

EGYPT SPELLS OUT NUCLEAR PROGRAM. (see slug)

OTHER ASIA

90 KILLED IN AFGHAN SUICIDE BOMBING. (see slug)

IN DEPTH

LEADING DEVELOPMENTS

RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI URGING THE
UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO IMPLEMENT THE HOMEOWNERS AND BANK
PROTECTION ACT OF 2007.

WHEREAS, the onrushing financial crisis engulfing home
mortgages, debt instruments of all types and the banking system
of the United States, threatens to set off an economic depression
worse than the 1930s; and

WHEREAS, millions of American citizens are threatened with
foreclosure and loss of their homes over the upcoming months,
according to studies released by Realty Trac and Moodys Economy
com; and

WHEREAS, this financial crisis is now threatening the
integrity of both state and federally chartered banks, as
typified by the run on deposits of Countrywide Financial in
California during the month of August; and such a banking
collapse would wipe out the life savings of American citizens,
and drastically undermine the economic stability of our states
and cities; and

WHEREAS, in a similar financial crisis in the 1930s,
President Franklin D. Roosevelt intervened to protect banks and
homeowners; for example in April 1933, he introduced legislation
as a declaration of national policy that the broad interests of
the Nation require that special safeguards should be thrown
around home ownership as a guarantee of social and economic
stability,and therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED, that the City Council of Jackson,
Mississippi hereby endorses the Homeowners and Bank Protection
Act of 2007, as initiated by economist Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
This crisis is such that it requires emergency action that only
the United States Congress has the capability to enact. Congress
must move quickly to keep people in their homes and avert social
chaos.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City Council
of Jackson, Mississippi urges the Congress of the United States
to make all foreclosures frozen, allowing American families to
retain their homes.

(Passed Sept 25, 2007)

Nov. 6, 2007 (LPAC)--SUICIDE "MAKES SENSE" AFTER PLAYING HALO 3:
Pathetic Wired Magazine Writer Promotes Terrorism and Suicide
Bombing
A commentary article by "Wired" Magazine degenerate Clive
Thompson gives clinical evidence to the recent statement of
Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. that the intended end-game of computer
game playing is {suicide}. In the enraged rant, Thompson says,
"I used to find it hard to fully imagine the mindset of a
terrorist. That is, until I played Halo 3 online...." The
freakish Thompson whines that he "sucks" at Halo 3, since he has
a wife and kid and therefore only gets "maybe an hour with Halo
on a good day," but, therefore, he has learned to kill superior
opponents by charging them while being shot and then throwing a
grenade at them at the last moment, to kill "from beyond the
grave." "It's not just that I'm willing to sacrifice my life to
kill someone else. It's that I'm exploiting the psychology of
assymetrical warfare," Thompson pleads.
"For me," the disgruntled family man continues, "dying will
not penalize me in the way it penalizes them, because I have
almost no chance of improving my state. I might as well take
people down with me." He then compares this cyber world to the
real world, where the "have-nots" are willing to kill the
"haves," since there's nothing better to do. He concludes, on
the subject of suicide, that "something about playing the game
gave me an 'aha' moment that I'd never had before: an ability to
{feel}, in whatever tiny fashion, the strategic logic and
emotional calculus behind the act."
And how many of our American youth are playing these games?
(new)

Concern Voiced Over Growing Myspace Addiction

Nov. 6, 2007 (LPAC)--A growing number of young Australians are
becoming addicted to online social networks, according to a new
study. Researcher Julian Cole focussed especially on "social"
networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace. His findings were
based on an in-depth survey of 20 participants, chosen from a
larger survey of 300.
"For many moderate to heavy users, checking their MySpace or
Facebook account has become an automatic and compulsive behavior,
with some participants reporting they log on up to twenty times a
day," Mr. Cole told the Sidney Morning Herald of Nov. 5. He
found that many openly admitted to their addiction and, in an
ironic twist, contribute to online confession groups. "It's very
bizarre. With a lot of other addictions people tend to hide it,
but because it's such a common thing, it's not hidden and people
talk about it more," Cole said.
He believes one of the key reasons behind the addictive
nature of social networking is it's "sticky nature", as he put
it. "People lose track of time. The thing that makes social
networking so sticky is that there are so many paths you can
take. You'll be on one friend's profile and then you click on
their friends, and their friend's friends. It's never ending."
According to Cole, warning signs of possible social
networking addiction include frequently visiting the site for
longer than intended, experiencing negative psychological or
physical effects when the activity isn't available, and
scheduling other activities around your time online. "The point
where it crosses over to an addiction is when people go there
without a goal; it becomes part of their habit," Mr. Cole added.
The one good news item in the survey is that it reveals a
divide between blue and white collar workers, with the later more
likely to be addicted. He said typical addicts are more likely
to be university students or people new to the workforce, people
who have ready access to computers. (rap)

Unbrave New World: May tt thecSreen Always Be With You.

Nov. 6 (LPAC)--As the news daily Sydney Morning Herald reported
on Nov. 2, the amount of time that Australians spend watching
television programs, videos, and even films is at present rates
set to double within a decade as mobile phones become our
constant companion, a "media futurist" predicts. Australians
could be watching up to 70 hours a week of "screen-based" media
with up to half of that on mobile phone handsets within the next
five to 10 years, says Jeffrey Cole, the director of the Centre
for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California.
Twenty-five years ago, people spent 16 hours a week in front of
the only screen in our homes -- the television. Today we spend 34
hours a week watching TV. But that figure is set to rise
dramatically as our viewing moves seamlessly from the television
screen to the personal computer, the digital music player and the
mobile phone.
Leigh Monti of Axis Media Communications, a company that
specializes in adapting media and advertising for mobile phones,
said Professor Cole's predictions were ambitious but not
implausible. Monti said that within five years mobile phone
handsets would have doubled in size, the quality of the video
would have improved and the duration of the average program
watched on a handset would increase from two to 25 minutes. It
would also move from news and information to more
entertainment-based programs. Users might even be able to watch
movies in 20-minute bursts, he said. And the bigger the screen
the greater the likelihood two people could watch the screen at
once. (rap)

65 Percent of British Youth Involved in MySpace

Nov. 6 (LPAC)--As the Guardian daily reported yesterday, a survey
carried out by the leading British polling institute MORI found
that 65 percent of the age group 16-18 are regularly users of
MySpace and Facebook and the like. (rap)

ECONOMICS AND FINANCE

California Budget Crisis Explodes

Nov. 6 (LPAC)--Just as LaRouchePAC has warned, repeatedly, the
State of California is facing a gigantic hole in its budget, as
the effects of the blowout of the housing bubble are rippling
through the state's economy. The {Los Angeles Times} reports
today that Gov. Schwarzenegger's finance department has ordered
agency directors to put together plans for a 10% cut in spending
for next year, as revenues are plunging while the 2008-09 budget
shortfall has exploded to more than $10 billion. These cuts will
be substantial, with all areas targeted, including those with
chronic shortfalls, especially education, health care and
transportation.
Last August, when Schwarzenegger imposed his will on the
legislature -- with support from key Democrats, who owe loyalty
to the Rohatyn/Wall Street wing of the party -- to pass his
already austere budget for 2007-08, he said that this would put
the state on a course toward zero budget deficit, even as most
economists were forecasting a deficit of $2 to $4 billion. At
that time, LaRouchePAC estimated there would be a $10-15 billion
shortfall, due to the blowout of the hyper-inflated bubble in
housing in the state, and that the Governator would come back
with drastic cuts for the following year. Once again, LaRouche
was right, and his detractors among those who were providing a
cover for Schwarzenegger proved to be minimally incompetent, if
not downright dangerous, in their disregard for the general
welfare of Californians (see EIR, Aug. 11, 2007, "Arnie's Fascist
Budget Hits Poor, Children").
The deficit will worsen, as there is no bottom to this
crisis. It never was a "housing crisis," but one of an
underlying collapse of the physical economy. For those
legislators who continue to insist that there is nothing they can
do, as it is a "federal" problem, we say they should drop their
bullshit, and join with legislators in Pennsylvania, Michigan,
Missouri, Illinois, Florida, and other states, and demand that
the Congress back LaRouche's Homeowner and Bank Protection Act of
2007. Resolutions in support of this legislation have been heard
in city councils throughout the state, and will be taken up by
the Los Angeles County Democratic Central Committee in their
November meeting. (hcs)

Unworkable Schumer-Frank Bill To `Take Fannie and Freddie
Subprime' Runs into Reality

Nov. 6 (LPAC)--Opposition in Congress to the proposal to immerse
the huge Federal mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
into the subprime mortgage market--as supposedly a way of slowing
down the mass home foreclosure wave--now includes the number-two
Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Paul
Kanjorski (D-Penn.). The chairman of that committee, Rep. Barney
Frank (D-Mass.) has been pushing the proposal, which came from
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY).
The opposition to it does not come from a lack of desire to
help millions of American households stay in their homes. But the
idea will not work in a collapsing mortgage bubble, as already
shown in the acknowledged failure of plans in Ohio and New York
State to issue $100 million state bonds and help homeowners
refinance their mortgages. That it will not work, is underlined
again in a letter to Kanjorski from the head of the Office of
Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), which regulates
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Neither Schumer's bill S. 2169, nor
Frank's House version H.R. 3838, has gotten any cosponsors.
The Schumer and Frank bills would authorize Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac (known as government-sponsored housing enterprises,
or GSEs) to raise $150 billion in new capital, between
them--expanding their capital by a 10% annual rate--and mandate
that they use $125 billion of it, within six months, buying up
and refinancing subprime mortgage loans which are at risk of
foreclosure. OFHEO director James Lockhart, III wrote to
Representative Kanjorski that the two GSEs could do this right
now, without any legislative authorizing, but that, instead, they
are both {shrinking} their mortgage portfolios, because "they
have growing exposures to credit risk," and "growing credit
losses due in part to shrinking house prices"--just like all
other banks and big mortgage lenders hit by the bubble's
collapse. Freddie Mac, for example, had its second-quarter
earnings cut by 60%, and its portfolio shrank by $19 billion.
Kanjorski, at a press conference Nov. 5, said that
Lockhart's "advice confirms my own suspicions.... I will follow
it. We don't want a simplistic remedy in which Fannie Mae and
Freddie Mac will infect themselves" with the losses of the
mortgage bubble collapse. [pbg]

Citigroup Extends Emergency Loans to its Disintegrating SIVs

Nov. 6 (LPAC)--Citigroup has provided $7.6 billion of emergency
financing to the seven Structured Investment Vehicles (SIVs),
which it directs, which have found themselves unable to pay their
maturing debt. The seven vehicles, four of which are registered
and steered from the British Crown's Cayman Islands, have a
combined $83 billion in assets. Much of the paper that these SIVs
hold, is contaminated mortgage-related and other non-performing
paper.
Citigroup has extended a so-called committed credit line of
$10 billion to these seven deeply troubled SIVs, and so far, they
have drawn down more than three-quarters of it, according to
Citigroup filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) Nov 4. Due to the sharp real fall in the value
of the SIVs' assets, it appears that some of the SIVs are close
to, or have reached the point that, by law, they would have to
begin folding up their several operations. This would require
massive write-downs by Citigroup, on top of its announced
projected write-down of between $7 to $11 billion for the fourth
quarter. In this setting, in reality, Citigroup's fourth-quarter
write-downs would total tens of billions of dollars. [ref]

Citigroup Taps LTCM Workout Veteran To Handle Subprime Problems

Nov. 6 (LPAC)--Citigroup chairman Robert Rubin and Interim CEO
Sir Winifred Bischoff have tapped Citi executive Richard Stuckey
to run the restructuring of the bank's subprime mortgage-related
assets. Stuckey was part of the bankers' committee team that ran
the workout of LTCM, the hedge fund which blew up in September,
1998, and was subsequently rescued by the Fed and the big
derivatives banks. He had formerly been co-head of the
derivatives unit at Salomon Brothers, sharing the job with Myron
Scholes who, along with Robert Merton, won the Nobel Prize in
Economics for nearly blowing up the world while at LTCM. It is
expected that Stuckey will preside over major writeoffs. Citi has
announced that its subprime mortgage-related assets have lost as
much as $11 billion in nominal value, and that it faces a hit of
between $5 billion and $7 billion after taxes on those losses.
[jph]

Homeowners Robbed Once Again While Being Evicted

Nov. 6, 2007 (LPAC)--Lost mortgage payments, overstated loan
amounts, questionable fees -- these are some of the ways in which
mortgage lenders and servicers are looting people who are losing
their houses to foreclosure, according to a study by Katherine
Porter of the University of Iowa, who found questionable fees in
almost half of the loans she examined. The Dept. of Justice's
Office of the United States Trustee last month announced plans to
move against mortgage servicing companies that engage in such
tactics, and on Oct. 9, the Chapter 13 Trustee in Pittsburgh
asked the court to sanction Countrywide, saying the company had
lost or destroyed more than $500,000 in checks paid by homeowners
in foreclosure from Dec. 2005 to April 2007. Late fees on
mortgage payments are a big business, with the New York Times
reporting that such fees made up 11.5 percent of servicing
revenues in 2006 at Ocwen Financial, a big servicing company,
while Countryside saw its late fees jump 20 percent to 7.5
percent of servicing revenue the same year.
"We're talking about millions and millions of dollars that
mortgage servicers are extracting from debtors that I think are
totally unlawful and illegal," O. Max Gardner III, a lawyer in
Shelby, N.C., specializing in consumer bankruptcies, said to the
Times. "Somebody files a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, they make all
their payments, get their discharge and then three months later,
they get a statement from their servicer for $7,000 in fees and
charges incurred in bankruptcy but that were never applied for in
court and never approved." [jph]

British Using Financial Crisis To Move Against America

Nov. 6, 2007 (LPAC)--"The decision makers at Citi, Merrill Lynch,
Bear Stearns and the rest will adopt an `America first' attitude
when defending their turf," and if they do, London will suffer,
complained London Telegraph City Editor Damian Reece, who argues
that "This is the moment for Citi to take all the pain it needs
to take." Elsewhere in the same rag, imperial mouthpiece Ambrose
Evans-Pritchard argues that some $2 trillion of subprime and
Alt-A debt is "worth far less than book value" and "a cascade of
defaults will inevitably follow," and that America must now pay a
price for "mortgaging the nation." The Bank of England's Mervyn
King warns that it will be "several more months ... before the
banks have revealed all the losses." George Soros says the U.S.
is "on the verge of a very serious economic correction ... the
bill is coming due." These statements are all basically true,
and yet also reflect the duplicity that earned the British Empire
the sobriquet Perfidious Albion, as they occur within the context
of an all-out British assault on the very concept of American
nationalism.
Reece pointedly identifies three banks, two of whom (Citi
and Merrill) have just had their chairmen removed and the third
(Bear) whose chairman was just blatantly attacked by British
agent Rupert Murdoch. Chuck Prince was deposed at Citigroup in
part due to a report by Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce and
Fox News analyst Meredith Whitney, whom the {Telegraph} promotes
as Citigroup's "arch critic". The CIBC/Fox mouthpiece is
demanding that Citigroup be dismantled and sold in parts. Her
call was amplified by Reece, who said that Citigroup's
conglomerate model was definitely not working, and that its
record "justifies a breakup, regardless of this year's crisis."
Citigroup "strayed into areas it simply didn't understand," and
"it is a reasonable guess that more bankers will lose their jobs
and reputations before this tale is over," added the London
Guardian.
The Brits are attempting to have the United States go down
with its bankrupt banking system, leaving the British Empire free
to rule the world. They figure we are too dumb to let go of our
illusions of wealth, and thus will go down with our ship. The
only effective alternative to this is the restoration of American
national sovereignty, beginning with the passage of LaRouche's
Homeowners and Bank Protection Act. As it has been from our
founding, it's the United States versus Perfidious Albion. [jph]

City of London Worried about the Health of its Banks

Nov. 6, 2007, (LPAC)-- Le Monde's London correspondent reports
wild rumors haunting the City's banking establishment on the real
impact of the "subprime" crisis, i.e., the current financial
meltdown.

1) "Barclays appears the most fragile" because of the extent of
the losses of its subsidiary BarCap. On November 2nd, Barclays
had to deny it had gone to the Bank of England's special discount
window for help. At the same time, it started buying its own
stock in large quantities. Bob Diamond, the CEO of BarCap,
"underestimated the exposure of his firm to the current subprime
difficulties."

2) Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is also suffering major
difficulties and could sell its brokerage firm Hoare Govett.

3) HSBC is shaky. It was forced to close Decision One Mortgage,
its US subsidiary specializing in subprime mortgages, and "the
build-up of large provisions (against defaults) underlines the
crisis of confidence." HSBC's CEO Stephen Green is facing a
revolt of stockholders.

4) Lloyds TSB is keeping quiet about its plan to buy Northern
Rock, since "nothing seems to stem the bleeding" of that failed
London bank. Northern Rock has borrowed 23 billion pounds ($46
billion) to try to cover the pullouts of its panicked depositors.
Any bank rescue will be "more painful and longer than predicted,"
writes Le Monde. (kav)

UNITED STATES

Over Military Opposition, Committee Sends Mukasey Nomination to
Senate Floor

Nov. 6 (LPAC)--Ignoring the pleas of retired military flag
officers and intelligence officials, a majority of the Senate
Judiciary Committee today voted to approve the nomination of
Michael Mukasey for U.S. Attorney General, and to send it to the
Senate floor.
Among those voting for Mukasey were two Democrats, Senators
Chuck Grassley and Diane Feinstein, who offered sophistical
arguments to justify their votes, including that Mukasey had
assured them that if Congress passed a law outlawing
waterboarding, he would obey it. But other outraged Senators
pointed out correctly that waterboarding, a technique which dates
back to the Spanish Inquisition, is {already} illegal under U.S.
laws and treaty obligations, and that the United States has
prosecuted it as a war crime for over 100 years.
Four retired military flag officers--Marine Corps Brig. Gen.
David M. Brahms, Army Maj. Gen. John Fugh, and Navy Rear Admirals
Donald Guter and John Hutson--sent a letter to Judiciary
Committee chairman Patrick Leady yesterday, saying that any
reluctance to denounce waterboarding as torture "represents both
an affront to our law and to the core values of our nation." They
also state that the law is clear: "Waterboarding detainees
amounts to illegal torture in {all} circumstances."
Additionally, another group of retired intelligence,
military, diplomatic and law-enforcement officers sent an urgent
letter to chairman Leahy yesterday, calling for him to put a hold
on Mukasey's nomination until the nominee takes a clear position
on the legality of waterboarding. The group endorses the view of
former JAGs that waterboarding "is inhumane, is torture, is
illegal." They also note that it is a notoriously unreliable way
to obtain accurate information. Signers include: Ray Close,
Philip Giraldi, Larry Johnson, Pat and Charlotte Lang, Mary
McCarthy, and Joe and Valerie Wilson. [ews]

Military Officers, Diplomats, Law Enforcement Veterans Call on
Leahy/Specter to Hold Back Confirmation of Mukasey

Nov. 6 (LPAC)--Retired CIA analyst Larry C. Johnson has posted an
urgent message to hold back the confirmation of Judge Mukasey as
Attorney General. The message was delivered yesterday by a number
of leading veterans of the military, diplomatic service, and
federal law enforcement to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen
Specter (R-PA), the ranking members of the Senate Judiciary
Committee. Found on Johnson's website, No Quarter, the preface
explains: A group of distinguished intelligence and military
officers, diplomats, and law enforcement professionals have
called on Leahy and Specter to hold the nomination of Judge
Michael Mukasey until he takes a clear position on the legality
of waterboarding.
Their message strongly endorses the view of former judge
advocates general that waterboarding "is inhumane, is torture,
is illegal [and] it is also a notoriously unreliable way to
acquire accurate information."
Mukasey could easily remove the obstacle to taking a stand
that he is not well enough informed by receiving a briefing on
waterboarding and on C.I.A. interrogation methods. The
intelligence veterans noted that during their careers they
frequently had to walk a thin line between morality and
expediency, all the while doing their best to abide by the values
the majority of Americans have held in common over the years.
The signers listed are:

Brent Cavan Intelligence Analyst, Directorate of Intelligence,
CIA

Ray Close Directorate of Operations, CIA for 26 years, 22 of them
overseas; former Chief of Station, Saudi Arabia

Ed Costello Counter-espionage, FBI

Michael Dennehy Supervisory Special Agent for 32 years, FBI; U.S.
Marine Corps for three years

Rosemary Dew Supervisory Special Agent, Counterterrorism, FBI

Philip Giraldi Operations officer and counter-terrorist
specialist, Directorate of Operations, CIA

Michael Grimaldi Intelligence Analyst, Directorate of
Intelligence, CIA; Federal law enforcement officer

Mel Goodman Division Chief, Directorate of Intelligence, CIA;
Professor, National Defense University; Senior Fellow, Center for
International Policy

Larry Johnson Intelligence analysis and operations officer, CIA;
Deputy Director, Office of Counter Terrorism, Department of State

Richard Kovar Executive Assistant to the Deputy Director for
Intelligence, CIA: Editor, Studies In Intelligence

Charlotte Lang Supervisory Special Agent, FBI

W. Patrick Lang U.S. Army Colonel, Special Forces, Vietnam;
Professor, U.S. Military Academy, West Point; Defense
Intelligence Officer for Middle East, Defense Intelligence Agency
(DIA); founding director, Defense HUMINT Service

Lynne Larkin Operations Officer, Directorate of Operations, CIA;
counterintelligence; coordination among intelligence and crime
prevention agencies; CIA policy coordination staff ensuring
adherence to law in operations

Steve Lee Intelligence Analyst for terrorism, Directorate of
Intelligence, CIA

Jon S. Lipsky Supervisory Special Agent, FBI

David MacMichael Senior Estimates Officer, National Intelligence
Council, CIA; History professor; Veteran, U.S. Marines (Korea)

Tom Maertens Foreign Service Officer and Intelligence Analyst,
Department of State; Deputy Coordinator for Counter-terrorism,
Department of State; National Security Council (NSC) Director for
Non-Proliferation

James Marcinkowski Operations Officer, Directorate of Operations,
CIA by way of U.S. Navy

Mary McCarthy National Intelligence Officer for Warning; Senior
Director for Intelligence Programs, National Security Council

Ray McGovern Intelligence Analyst, Directorate of Intelligence,
CIA; morning briefer, The President's Daily Brief; chair of
National Intelligence Estimates; Co-founder, Veteran Intelligence
Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

Sam Provance U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst, Germany and Iraq
(Abu Ghraib); Whistleblower

Coleen Rowley Special Agent and attorney, FBI; Whistleblower on
the negligence that facilitated the attacks of 9/11.

Joseph Wilson Foreign Service Officer, U.S. Ambassador and
Director of Africa, National Security Council.

Valerie Plame Wilson Operations Officer, Directorate of
Operations

IBERO AMERICA

Gutting of Infrastructure, not Climate Change, Caused Mexican
Flood Catastrophe

Nov. 6, 2007 (LPAC)--The flooding that has devastated the Mexican
Gulf state of Tabasco, affecting one million of its two million
inhabitants, is the result of years of disinvestment in
infrastructure, Governor Andres Granier charged Nov. 2.
The Governor made these statements during a visit to the
state by free-marketeer President Felipe Calderon, who had the
audacity to say that "the origin and the cause of this
catastrophe is found in the enormous climate change which,
whether you recognize it or not ...has produced the largest
precipitation ever registered in our history."
Granier quickly disabused Calderon of this lie by pointing
out that water projects that were supposed to have been finished
in May are still not done, adding that "if we had had those
projects, there would have been damage, yes, but not the
catastrophe we are now suffering." Instead of isolated and
unfinished works, the Governor underscored, the state needs an
integrated water management plan, that would assure the state's
residents that they would never have to live through another
disaster like the current one, where 90% of the state, and of the
capital city, are under water. This would require, minimally, 6
billion pesos, Granier said; yet the federal budget has allocated
only a pathetic 387 million.
The situation in the state capital, Villahermosa, is so dire
that the state's Government Secretary Humberto Mayans has warned
Calderon that there is "a very high risk" of social crisis in the
city. There are 100,000 homeless people "wandering around," not
knowing where to go or what to do, because they have lost
everything, Mayans said. This could lead "to a riot like the
1999 one," that occurred after similar flooding. As of Nov. 3,
35 people had been arrested in the city for looting stores or
looking for food in abandoned homes. Media sources report that
the poorly-funded Army lacks the necessary equipment to respond
adequately to the disaster.
For all his bombastic calls for Mexicans to respond with
compassion and "patriotism," by donating food and clothing,
Calderon has yet to meet with any flood victims, instead
arranging for himself to be photographed unloading food from a
truck! [crr]

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