Calls from WTC to 911 on 9/11/01 released

This week, the City of New York released recordings of phone calls made to 911 from the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001. Today, the New York Times published MP3s of several of the recordings, as well as transcripts. [New York Times]

The voices of the callers are edited out of three of the calls, while Christopher Hanley's voice was left in, with his family's permission. [New York Times] I don't know what is more tragic - hearing the 911 responders tell Hanley to "sit tight" because the firefighters were on their way (the standard procedure for fires in high-rise buildings), or thinking about all the firefighters who died trying to make it up there to save people.

MP3 of Christopher Hanley's 911 call [New York Times]
"Calls for Help" [New York Times]
BitTorrent file with four of the 911 calls and transcripts [Torrent; Prodigem Details Page]

Journalist Jill Carroll released

"After being held hostage for nearly three months, Jill Carroll is free." [Christian Science Monitor]

Updated 4/1/06: "Jill Carroll forced to make propoganda video as price of freedom" [Christian Science Monitor]

Moussaoui says he was supposed to hit White House on 9/11

In a shocking twist, Zacarius Moussaoui testified today that he and Richard Reid (the "shoe bomber") were supposed to hijack a fifth airplane on 9/11 and crash it into the White House. [CNN] The admission contradicts much of what Moussaoui has said during the course of the trial, which has been marked by the dozens of bizarre hand-written legal motions he has submitted, often referring to the federal judge as "Death Judge," and to himself as "Slave to Allah."

For example, in the document shown below, "Motion by Defendant to Force Ashcroft to Show His Ultimate Fantasie Theory or to Through Out Ahscroft Case," submitted on April 22, 2003, Moussaoui wrote that "Nothing in the indictment suggest even remotely the existence of a 5th Plane stricking the Dark House (Are we still talking about 9/11)." [FindLaw]



"Moussaoui: White House was my 9/11 target" [CNN]
PDF: "Motion by Defendant to Force Ashcroft to Show His Ultimate Fantasie Theory or to Through Out Ahscroft Case" (Apr. 22, 2003) [FindLaw]
Index of documents from the Moussaoui trial [FindLaw]

Delta Force Founder: Bush may have started WWIII

The Raw Story is reporting that the Los Angeles Daily News will run a story tomorrow featuring quotes from a founding member of the Delta Force counter-terrorist unit on the current state of American foreign policy. In the article, Retired Command Sergeant Major Eric Haney discusses the Iraq war, and the Bush administration's use of torture, saying that "[y]ou don't gain intelligence that way. Everyone in the world knows that."

"Q: What's your assessment of the war in Iraq?

A: Utter debacle. But it had to be from the very first. The reasons were wrong. The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war were not what they stated. (Army Gen.) Tommy Franks was brow-beaten and ... pursued warfare that he knew strategically was wrong in the long term. That's why he retired immediately afterward. His own staff could tell him what was going to happen afterward.

We have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies." [The Raw Story]

"Delta Force founder: Bush may have started World War III." [The Raw Story]

"Red America" blogger resigns over plagarism charges

Recently, the Washington Post hired Ben Domenech, from the conservative blog RedState.org, to write a blog for newspaper's website. After three days, Domenech resigned from his position as the author of the Post's "Red America" blog, when numerous examples of undeniable plagarism surfaced. Even Michelle Malkin - the ultra-conservative Asian-American blogger who supports the internment of Asian-Americans during World War II - admits that Domenech is a plagarist.

The Domenech debacle is just the latest example of a high-profile conservative getting caught doing something completely unethcial. And yet, most of the conservative people I know aren't compulsive liars - they're normal, decent people. What I want to know is when conservatives will say that enough is enough, and start reshaping their movement in the mold of Lindsey Graham - a conservative who cares about honesty and the rule of law - instead of the mold of Richard Nixon and Dick Cheney.

" 'Red America' Blogger Resigns" [Washington Post]

Specter: unchecked domestic spying is "just plain wrong"

Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter has written a bill which would require the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to "provide a broad constitutional review of the surveillance activities every 45 days and evaluate whether the government has followed previous authorizations that are issued."

Describing the White House's approach to domestic spying, Specter said that "[t]hey want to do just as they please, for as long as they can get away with it . . . I think what is going on now without congressional intervention or judicial intervention is just plain wrong."

"Specter Takes Senate Lead on Eavesdropping" [AP]
Sen. Arlen Specter's bill [Thomas.loc.gov]
Sen. Mike DeWine's bill [Thomas.loc.gov]
Sen. Robert Byrd's bill [Thomas.loc.gov]

(Edited on 3/24/06 to include links to the three competing Senate bills dealing with domestic spying.)

CIA paid Iraqi diplomat $100K for WMD intel, then ignored him

According to NBC, the CIA made secret contact with Iraqi diplomat Naji Sabri during his September 2002 trip to UN, in an attempt to get insider information on Iraq's WMD capabilities. CIA officers allegedly met in a New York City hotel room with an intermediary who represented the diplomat, and paid $100,000 in "good faith" money. Sabri reported that Iraq had no significant, active biological capabilites, and that Saddam was not close to having a nuclear bomb.

Obviously, given Saddam Hussein's track record, a representative of his regime is not someone the rest of the world should blindly trust. But if the CIA thought that it was worth paying Sabri $100,000 for insider information, why didn't the agency include the information in its October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate?

"Iraqi diplomat gave U.S. prewar WMD details" [MSNBC]
CIA's October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate [National Security Archive]

"Some say" whatever you want them to say

A few days ago, the Associated Press published the article "Bush Using Straw-Man Arguments in Speeches," which provides some of the best analysis I've read of the Bush administration's rhetorical approach. [AP]

"When the president starts a sentence with 'some say' or offers up what 'some in Washington' believe, as he is doing more often these days, a rhetorical retort almost assuredly follows. The device usually is code for Democrats or other White House opponents. In describing what they advocate, Bush often omits an important nuance or substitutes an extreme stance that bears little resemblance to their actual position. He typically then says he 'strongly disagrees' - conveniently knocking down a straw man of his own making." [AP]

Today, the Vice President continued the administration's trend of attributing vague comments to a shadowy "some"-one. In a speech to American troops, VP Cheney complained that the media had underreported evidence of improvement in Iraq. Then, in the same speech in which he claimed the situation in Iraq was improving, Cheney said that "some in Washington" are "yielding to the temptation to downplay the threat" from al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. [AP]

In other news, the President was asked to respond to a real quote in his press conference today - former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's statement that Iraq had already fallen into civil war. Bush claimed that Iraqis had already decided not to engage in civil war: "Listen, we all recognize that there is violence, that there's sectarian violence. But the way I look at the situation is that the Iraqis took a look and decided not to go to civil war." [WhiteHouse.gov]

During the same press conference, another reporter asked Bush why he really wanted to go to war, noting that "[e]very reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true." The President responded that "I didn't want to go to war. To assume I wanted to go to war is just flat wrong." [WhiteHouse.gov] Think Progress has compiled a list of documents and other evidence, including Stephen Cambone's 9/11 notes, which contradict Bush's statement. [Think Progress]

DoD releases documents seized in Iraq

This week, the U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office released a number of documents seized during Operation Iraqi Freedom. [Foreign Military Studies Office] The Boston Globe's article on the documents does an excellent job of explaining how the American intelligence community can harness the power of the internet by releasing information:

"Goaded by Congress, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte has begun to release millions of pages of captured files online in an unprecedented effort to harness the Internet to disseminate raw intelligence material. There, anybody with a knowledge of Arabic can download the files and translate them for the world.

It's the same 'open source' principle that drove the successful development of the Internet and of powerful free software like the Linux operating system. Instead of hiring a team of brilliant professionals to analyze Iraqi documents in secret, the open source systems will use hundreds of clever amateurs, who'll publish their work for anyone to analyze and improve upon.

'Workers control the means of production, but without all that tedious communism,' said Glenn Reynolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee and author of An Army of Davids, a book that shows how the Internet encourages public activism. US intelligence officials say nearly all the documents released have been given at least a cursory reading by Arabic experts. Beth Marple, Negroponte's deputy press secretary, said amateur translators won't find any major surprises, such as proof Hussein hid stockpiles of chemical weapons." [Boston Globe]

Operation Iraqi Freedom Documents [Foreign Military Studies Office]
ABC News has also provided analysis of a few of the documents: "New Documents from Saddam Hussein's Archives Discuss Bin Laden, WMDs" [ABC News]

The Memory Hole releases 1249 pages of prewar planning docs

Two and a half years after filing the initial FOIA request, The Memory Hole has obtained 1249 pages of documents from the State Department's "Future of Iraq Project." Background information from Russ Kick of The Memory Hole:

"Starting in October 2001, about a year and a half before the US and its allies invaded Iraq, the State Department spearheaded an effort called the Future of Iraq Project. Dozens of Iraqi exiles and international experts were brought together to figure out how to create a new Iraq should Saddam Hussein somehow be taken out of power.

Within the project, seventeen working groups covered such areas as the justice system, local government, agriculture, media, education, and oil. The various working groups began meeting in July 2002 and continued through March/April 2003. Twelve of the groups released reports. The project cost $5 million.

The project's observations and recommendations were almost wholly ignored by the administration during its pre-war planning for the occupation. Soon after the invasion, though, CD-ROMs of the reports were sent to the staff of the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Among other things, the working groups foresaw the widespread looting in the aftermath of invasion and warned against quickly disbanding the Iraqi Army." [The Memory Hole]



"Reports From the Future of Iraq Project" [The Memory Hole]

ACLU releases evidence of FBI spying on political groups

Today, the ACLU released the first concrete evidence showing that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting investigations into political organizations based solely on their anti-war views. The documents show that the FBI investigated a Pittsburgh group called the Thomas Merton Center for Peace & Justice, which regularly handed out flyers arguing against the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Ironically, recent polls show that as much as 70% of the country believes that the result of the Iraq war has not been worth the costs [PollingReport.com], but the larger point is that the FBI has no authority to investigate groups solely based on their holding a constitutionally protected political view, no matter how popular or unpopular it may be at the time.



Flickr photo set of the FBI documents [Flickr]
ACLU press release [ACLU]
Articles from other sources: [The Raw Story; Reuters; Washington Post]

Sunshine Week

This week marks the second annual Sunshine Week initiative, which promotes open government and the Freedom of Information Act. The Sunshine Week website has links to information about open government and FOIA, ads newspapers can run, podcasts, and buttons like this one for bloggers who want to help raise awareness.

Sunshine Week website [SunshineWeek.org]

Sunshine Week in the news [Google News]

National Archives' FOIA Guide [NARA.gov]

Support Senator Feingold's call for censure

Yesterday, Senator Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) announced that he plans to introduce a resolution this week calling for President Bush to be censured for his domestic wiretapping program.

" 'It's an unusual step,' he said. 'It's a big step, but what the president did by consciously and intentionally violating the Constitution and laws of this country with this illegal wiretapping has to be answered. There can be debate about whether the law should be changed. There can be debate about how best to fight terrorism. We all believe that there should be wiretapping in appropriate cases -- but the idea that the president can just make up a law, in violation of his oath of office, has to be answered.' " [CNN]

The Portgate victory shows not only that the American people have realized that they cannot trust the Bush administration, but also that Congress is listening to them. Please consider contacting your Senators and Congressional Representatives and telling them how you feel about warrantless wiretapping and electronic surveillance of American citizens.

Email addresses:

Senate contact page [Senate.gov]
House of Representatives contact page [House.gov]

Articles/Interviews:

"Wiretaps said to sift all overseas contacts" [Boston Globe]
"US plans massive data sweep" [Christian Science Monitor]
Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) on NSA spying [Think Progress]
"On NSA Spying: A Letter to Congress" (from Con Law scholars) [NY Review of Books]

Resources:

Electronic Privacy Information Center [EPIC.org]
American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU.org]
National Security Archive [nsarchive.org]

Video PSA calling for Jill Carroll's release

Committee to Protect Bloggers, a group which campaigns on behalf of bloggers and citizen journalists worldwide, has released a video, filmed in Arabic, calling for the release of an American journalist:

"Jill Carroll, a freelance reporter working for the Christian Science Monitor newspaper, was kidnapped in Baghdad over two months ago. All indications are that she is still alive. The Monitor has started a campaign, using Iraqi television, to distribute a video asking for Iraqis to help find and free Jill."

Information on the campaign [Committee to Protect Bloggers]
Video [Christian Science Monitor]; Transcript in English [Christian Science Monitor]
"Bloggers distribute 'net video calling for Jill Carroll's release" [Boing Boing]

Bush learns that "values" aren't just a campaign gimmick

The same President who once used the word "crusade" to describe America's war on terror, and who still claims that the Iraq fiasco is somehow part of the war on terror, is worried by the "broader message" that the failure of the White House's Dubai Ports World deal sends to moderate Arab nations. [CNN] In a similar vein, Washington's Post writer David Ignatius laments "America's traumatized post-Sept. 11 politics." [Washington Post]

But anyone who thinks this is about race, religion, or national origin is deeply mistaken. While racism certainly still exists in our society, it doesn't explain why eighty-three percent of the country opposed the DP World deal. The message Congress really sent by blocking the DP World deal is that most of us don't think the way the Bush crowd does: for a vast majority of Americans, money doesn't trump every other value we have.

We don't think that marginal economic efficiencies should trump national security concerns. We don't turn a blind eye to the U.A.E.'s ties to terrorism just because the non-democratic country's state-owned companies have had extensive business dealings with some American companies during the last decade. And in light of the security questions, we can't understand why the White House made a secret agreement with DP World, which would have released the company from routine obligations such as maintaining business records on U.S. soil.

If the President is just now realizing that "values" are not merely a campaign gimmick, his final two years in office are going to be long ones.

(For more information on Portgate, see yesterday's post Portgate by the numbers).

DP World to transfer ports to a U.S. entity

"Because of the strong relationship between the United Arab Emirates and the United States and to preserve that relationship ... DP World will transfer fully the U.S. operations of P&O Operations North America to a United States entity," Edward H. Bilkey, DP World's chief operating officer, said in a statement."

"UAE firm to transfer port operations to U.S. 'entity' " [CNN]; DP World statement [PDF]

Portgate by the numbers

Miscellaneous facts and figures about Dubai and Portgate:

7: The number of emirates, including Dubai, which make up the United Arab Emirates (or UAE). The President and Premiership are hereditary positions. [Nation Master]
300: The number of islands in the newly constructed "The World Islands" real estate development. [The World] Rod Stewart reportedly owns "Britain." [Fox News]
13: The number out of the nineteen 9/11 hijackers who entered the US through Dubai. [USA Today; 9/11 Commission]
$125,000: The approximate amount wired to the 9/11 hijackers through Dubai banks (constituting roughly half the funds spent on the 9/11 attacks). [AP; 9/11 Commission]
6: The number of U.S. ports involved in the Dubai Ports World deal, according to initial media reports. [AP]
22: The number of U.S. ports actually involved in the DP World deal. [AP]
$6.8 billion: The amount DP World paid to purchase London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. [AP]
8: The number of deals the Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States (CFIUS) investigated out of the 470 deals reviewed it between 1997 and 2005, according to the GAO. The GAO report noted that "according to Justice, Homeland Security, and Defense officials, vulnerabilities can result from foreign control of critical infrastructure." [Media Matters; GAO.gov]
"Almost never": Regularity with which the CFIUS met, according to Richard Perle, former Defense Policy Board member. "The committee almost never met, and when it deliberated it was usually at a fairly low bureaucratic level . . . I think it's a bit of a joke." [CBS News]
0: The number of copies of business records DP World would be required to keep on U.S. soil under the White House's secret agreement with the firm. [AP]
2: The number of Bush administration appointees who have ties to DP World. Treasury Secretary John Snow was chairman of CSX, which was sold to DP World one year after he joined the administration. New U.S. Maritime Administration head David Sanborn used to be a DP World executive. [NY Daily News; CNN; Video - Lou Dobbs Show]
$8 billion: The amount the UAE invested in the Carlyle Group, where former President George H. W. Bush once served as senior advisor, during last year. [CNN; Video - Lou Dobbs show]
2: The number of Senators whose ex-politician husbands are advising the UAE on how to handle the portgate scandal: Sen. Dole (R-N.C.) [News & Observer]; Sen. Clinton (D-N.Y.). [Newsday]
$9.7 billion: The total cost of the 42 Boeing 777 aircraft the Dubai royal family purchased last fall. Boeing is reportedly lobbying on behalf of the Ports World deal. [The Hill]
1: The number of sentences in the letter Rep. Sue Myrick (R-N.C.) sent to Pres. Bush: "In regards to selling American ports to the United Arab Emirates, not just NO -- but HELL NO!" [Charlotte Observer]
17%: The percentage of Americans who support the DP World deal. [Bloomberg]
62-2: The results of the House Appropriations Committee's vote to amend a $91 billion bill for military and hurricane relief to include a provision blocking the DP World deal. [CNN]
5%: The percentage of cargo containers entering the U.S. which are inspected (believe it or not, that's up from only 2% prior to 9/11). [Economist]

Clarke: Iran sending weapons into Iraq

Earlier this week, John Murtha said that Iran and al-Qaeda are "the only people who want us in Iraq." This report illustrates what Murtha meant:

" 'I think the evidence is strong that the Iranian government is making these IEDs, and the Iranian government is sending them across the border and they are killing U.S. troops once they get there,' says Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism chief and an ABC News consultant."

"Iraq Weapons -- Made in Iran?" [ABC News]

Conservative blogs reprint Wal-Mart's PR emails

More evidence that conservative bloggers get an email every morning telling them exactly what to write that day:

"Brian Pickrell, a blogger, recently posted a note on his Web site attacking state legislation that would force Wal-Mart Stores to spend more on employee health insurance. 'All across the country, newspaper editorial boards — no great friends of business — are ripping the bills,' he wrote.

It was the kind of pro-Wal-Mart comment the giant retailer might write itself. And, in fact, it did.

Several sentences in Mr. Pickrell's Jan. 20 posting — and others from different days — are identical to those written by an employee at one of Wal-Mart's public relations firms and distributed by e-mail to bloggers."

"Wal-Mart Enlists Bloggers in P.R. Campaign" [New York Times]

Murtha: Iran, al-Qaeda are "the only people who want us in Iraq"

Leave it to John Murtha to explain the Iraq problem the way America needs to hear it:

"The public is way ahead of what’s going on in Washington. They no longer believe it. The troops themselves, 70 percent of the troops said we want to come home within a year. The only solution to this is to redeploy. Let me tell you, the only people who want us in Iraq is Iran and al-Qaeda. I've talked to a top-level commander the other day, it was about two weeks ago, and he said China wants us there also. Why? Because we’re depleting our resources, our troop resources and our fiscal resources."

Video clips of Murtha's "Face the Nation" appearance [CrooksandLiars]

White House will attempt to prosecute leaks

The Washington Post is reporting that the Bush administration has ramped up efforts to prevent leaks like the ones that disclosed the existence of the NSA domestic spying program. Today's article "White House Trains Efforts on Media Leaks" reports that:

"In recent weeks, dozens of employees at the CIA, the National Security Agency and other intelligence agencies have been interviewed by agents from the FBI's Washington field office, who are investigating possible leaks that led to reports about secret CIA prisons and the NSA's warrantless domestic surveillance program, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials familiar with the two cases . . .

. . . At Langley, the CIA's security office has been conducting numerous interviews and polygraph examinations of employees in an effort to discover whether any of them have had unauthorized contact with journalists. CIA Director Porter J. Goss has spoken about the issue at an 'all hands' meeting of employees, and sent a recent cable to the field aimed at discouraging media contacts and reminding employees of the penalties for disclosing classified information, according to intelligence sources and people in touch with agency officials. 'It is my aim, and it is my hope, that we will witness a grand jury investigation with reporters present being asked to reveal who is leaking this information,' Goss told a Senate committee." [Washington Post]

The Bush administration's legal actions may bring to a head the current legal debate over the reporter's qualified privilege. While some leaks are harmful - such the leaking of confidential information about nuclear weapons systems, or the identity of a clandestine government agent - leaks also led to the disclosure of the use of torture techniques at Abu Ghraib and the existence of the NSA's practice of spying on American citizens without warrants.

Whether the courts should protect the confidentiality of reporters' sources in certain kinds of leaks was a key issue in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia's denial of the appeal by Cooper and Judith Miller in the Valerie Plame case [PDF]. In his concurrence (which begins on page 43 of the PDF), Judge Tatel emphasized the public interest value derived from reporters' confidential communications with government officials, whose insider information takes on particular significance in news stories of paramount First Amendment importance, such as reports about government corruption or wrongdoing. Tatel cited New York Times articles about an expensive military satellite system which had been criticized by Senators from both major parties as unnecessary, and pre-9/11 articles about the threat posed by Al Qaeda, as examples of reporting based on productive leaks from confidential sources.

For another good discussion of the role of leaks in newsgathering, see Jack Nelson's January 2003 Los Angeles Times column "Government Secrecy: What Leaks are Good Leaks?"

Attempted murder charges in UNC hit-and-run

Yesterday, a recent UNC graduate drove an SUV into "the Pit" - a popular outdoor common area on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus - injuring six people. The suspect, Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar, 22, of Chapel Hill, told police "it was retribution for the treatment of Muslims around the world." Police said he would be charged with nine counts of attempted murder. [ABC11TV.com; News & Observer; WRAL.com]

The Pit is a recessed brick courtyard situated between a couple of libraries, the student bookstore, and a dining hall. It is the rectangular open area, with several shade trees, pictured about 1/3 of the way from the left side of this satellite photo. [Google Maps] In the photo, you can see students sitting on the stairs around the edge of the Pit, where generations of UNC students have sat and chatted between classes. There's no way anyone could accidentally drive an SUV into the area. One also has to wonder about the timing of the attack: in North Carolina, the Duke-Carolina game (tonight at 9 PM) is at least as big as the Superbowl.

Update (3/5/06): Congrats to the Tar Heels! [ESPN]
Update (3/6/06): Suspect plans to represent self (w/ mp3 of 911 call) [News & Observer]

DoD Releases Names of Gitmo Detainees Under FOIA

As the result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the Associated Press, the Department of Defense has released more than 5,000 pages of unredacted documents from tribunals at Guantanamo. The documents provide the names of some of the 490 detainees being held at the military base in Cuba. [BBC; Washington Post] The documents are available online at the DoD's FOIA website. [DefenseLink.mil] I am in the process of sorting out what is new from what has previously been released, but I believe this page contains most of the new documents. The Washington Post's compilation of names is a good resource for comparison. [Washington Post]

The release of Guantanamo detainees' names is a significant step towards restoring the credibility of the DoD's counterterrorism interrogation process, which has a crucial role in the prevention of future terror attacks against the United States.

What Bush Was Told About Iraq

The National Journal article "What Bush Was Told About Iraq" discusses the one-page summaries of the National Intelligence Estimate which were given to President Bush in October 2002 and January 2003. "The disclosure that Bush was informed of the DOE and State dissents is the first evidence that the president himself knew of the sharp debate within the government over the aluminum tubes during the time that he, Cheney, and other members of the Cabinet were citing the tubes as clear evidence of an Iraqi nuclear program. Neither the president nor the vice president told the public about the disagreement among the agencies." [National Journal]

More information on the National Intelligence Estimate, and redacted versions of the report, are available at the National Security Archive [nsarchive.org]; the Senate Intelligence Committee's Report on prewar intelligence regarding Iraq, also discussed in the article, is available at the Committee's site. [Senate.gov]

In a related story, a new Zogby poll of American troops currently serving in Iraq found that 85% believe that the U.S. mission is mainly "to retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9-11 attacks." Seventy-seven per cent of troops surveyed said they also believe the main or a major reason for the war was "to stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq." Surprisingly, 93% said that removing weapons of mass destruction was not a reason for U.S. troops being there. [Zogby International]