THE TRAGEDIES HAVE STARTED: INVESTOR LOSES IN MARKET, KILLS HIMSELF AND HIS FAMILY

CIA AGENT SAYS PENTAGON BOTCHED CHANCE TO WIPE OUT AL QAEDA IN IRAQ

By Jeff Stein, Congressional Quarterly:

Charles “Sam” Faddis, who led a CIA team into northern Iraq following the 9/11 attacks, says the Pentagon’s “endless planning and delays” foiled a chance to wipe out a band of al Qaeda leaders who were fleeing American bombs in Afghanistan.

Faddis says the delays, beginning in 2002, also facilitated the escape of some “key” al Qaeda figures, including terrorist scientists who were working on chemical and biological weapons.

“Some died, some are still on the run,” Faddis said in a telephone interview Tuesday, following his appearance on NPR’s Diane Rehm Show to promote a new book, Operation Hotel California: The Clandestine War Inside Iraq.

“The site was physically destroyed … but certainly the research wasn’t destroyed.”

Coming on the heels of similar revelations by a former Delta Force operative about scuttled missions to kill Osama Bin Laden, broadcast on 60 Minutes on Sunday, Faddis’ accusations add form to a hardening portrait of the Pentagon’s post-9/11 leadership as inept and overly cautious

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How did Obama’s and McCain’s comments on Pakistan play in Pakistan? I spoke to a friend there:

VIEW FROM PAKISTAN: I think people know that election grandstanding is one thing and presidential reality another. Saudis ditto face the same two-faced situation and everyone tows the line with King Abdullah once in. I think Asians and (American) blacks don’t have a direct empathy, just being frank. I think his blackness is not a big positive in these parts and the racial history of the US is alien to most Pakistanis etc. Most are conservative by nature, but post 9-11, weary of the US in general, black, white, Republican, Democrat. Clinton is still the hero figure in these

BRAD BLOG

Faced With a Lawsuit by State Dems, the Republicans Wave White Flag of Surrender…

Last Friday, we told you about 6,000 bogus challenges to voters in Democratic-leaning counties in Montana, based on nothing more than the fact that they had moved within the last 18 months. The chaos caused — including at least one Army Reservist on his way to Iraq, who’d be disenfranchised — has led to a lawsuit by the Dems (happy to see them step up for a change!)

In the bargain, it looks like the Republicans have now decided to cut and run!

Yesterday, we’re happy to announce, faced with a party actually willing to push back by taking them to court, the Montana GOP “waved the white flag of surrender” and backed off their phony challenges, announcing they will be withdrawing them…

AGAINST ELECTION FRAUD

Speaking Out From Across the Nation: Former Illinois Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, Maryland Lt. Gov. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and Oregon Gov. Barbara Roberts Call For Action; NoVoterLeftBehind.net Seeks Volunteers, Support to Keep GOP From Stealing the 2008 Election

WASHINGTON, D.C.///October 8, 2008///Three leading former elected officials from Maryland, Illinois and Oregon today called on every state attorney general and every state election head to come out publicly against any “lose your home, lose your vote” strategy that might be used to keep home foreclosure victims from exercising their right to vote. Organized by NoVoterLeftBehind.net (NVLB), the outreach effort is being undertaken by: Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, former lieutenant governor of the state of Maryland; Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, former U.S. Senator from the state of Illinois and a 2004 presidential candidate; and Barbara Roberts, former governor of Oregon and also a onetime Oregon Secretary of State.

STOP VOTER SUPPRESSION

A new website aiming to stop voter suppression is available at http://votersuppressionwiki.wetpaint.com/ . More than a dozen incidents of voter suppression are already documented in the incident tracker, covering states including PA, OH, NC, GA, FL, AL, VA, MI and WI. Read all about them, visit the action center to find out what specific groups are doing and visit the planning and strategy section to get involved. And if you disagree, start your own site at Wetpaint.com.

THE ATTACK ON ACCORN IN LAS VEGAS

Earlier this week, Nevada State Police raided the offfices of ACORN alleging voter registration fraud. This is ACORN’s Statement. Repubs are blaming Democrats for voter fraud.

Over the past year, ACORN has worked hard to help over 80,000 people in Clark County register to vote.

Hundreds of canvassers and volunteers have worked for months talking to citizens from Nevada’s most disenfranchised communities and encouraging them to exercise their right to participate in our democracy. Their work has been tireless-they deserve a great deal of credit for spending days in the hot sun at public places from parks to community centers to shopping centers helping citizens complete voter registration applications. Most of the 80,000 registrations they have collected and turned in to election officials come from young people, low income people and minorities-the very people whose voices are too often left out of our electorate.

As part of our nonpartisan voter registration program, ACORN staff reviews every single application submitted by our canvassers. Special, dedicated staff makes up to three phone calls attempting to reach the voter listed on EVERY SINGLE CARD before they are turned in to verify the information. Our callers verify the information on the cards before turning them in to election officials to make sure that as many new voters as possible get on the rolls and to make sure that all of our voter registration workers are doing the high quality work they are trained to do.

While the vast majority of our voter registration canvassers do a great job, there have been several times over the past ten months that our Las Vegas Quality Control program has identified a canvasser who appears to have knowingly submitted a fake or duplicate application in order to pad his or her hours.

Anytime ACORN quality control staff has identified a suspicious application, we have separated that application out and flagged it for election officials. We turn any suspicious applications to election officials separately, along with a cover sheet identifying the nature of the problem and an offer to provide election officials with the information they would need to pursue an investigation or prosecution of the individual. (Note that civic organizations are required by law to turn over ANY signed voter registration applications even when they are known to have problems). We immediately dismiss any employees we suspect of submitting fraudulent registrations.

It was surprising that law enforcement officials appeared suddenly at our Las Vegas offices yesterday, because ACORN and its attorneys have already been proactive in providing information about problematic cards and any employee suspected of misconduct. In July, ACORN staff and our attorney set up a meeting with Clark County elections officials and a representative of the Secretary of State’s office to urge them to take action on information ACORN had provided. Since then, and as recently as September 29th, ACORN has provided officials with copies and-in some cases-second copies of many of the personnel records and the “problem card packages” and cover sheets with which we originally indentified the problem cards.

ACORN is a community organization dedicated to making everyone’s voice count in the vital public policy debates in our country. Helping citizens become active voters is a crucial part of our work to help build a fairer and more inclusive democracy. We will continue with this important work by encouraging every eligible voter to the polls this November.

LINK TV ELECTION PROTECTION SPECIAL: ANNOUNCEMENT

A Link TV Election Special: Murder, Spies & Voting Lies

Hosted by Danny Schechter with special guest attorney, Bob Fitrakis

Sunday October 12, 11pm EST & 8pm PST

Link TV on DirecTV 375 & Dish Network 9410 and many local channels

FOR OTHER DATES AND TIMES

LinkTV presents Patty Sharaf’s, Murder, Spies, and Voting Lies exposing election fraud and the risks that electronic voting machines pose to our democratic system. Join veteran journalist, Danny Schechter and guest Bob Fitrakis, the leading Ohio election fraud attorney, as they discuss why we need election protection in America today.

In Murder, Spies, and Voting Lies: The Clint Curtis Story, journalist/blogger Brad Friedman pokes at the seamy side of our democracy. Mr. Curtis was an everyday computer programmer in Florida until he was asked to create vote-rigging software for electronic voting machines. Hear Curtis’s story about being asked by Florida Republican Congressman Tom Feeney to manipulate voting machine software. While Curtis made these charges in a sworn affidavit, and in sworn testimony to a congressional committee, mainstream media have given scant attention to his story. You’ve got to see it to believe it.

TOM BROKAW OPINES AND IS OPINED UPON

DEAN BAKER: “If Social Security Was a Private Corporation Then it Would Sue Tom Brokaw for Every Penny He Has

If a news reporter deliberately makes a false statement claiming that a private company like Boeing or Microsoft is going broke, the company has the right to sue the reporter and the news agency. That is why reporters rarely make statements like Microsoft or Boeing (or Lehman Brothers, AIG, or Goldman Sachs) are going broke.

However, reporters can freely impugn the financial health of a government program like Social Security because a government program cannot sue for libel. That is why Brokaw knew that he could imply that Social Security is going broke, even though it is not true. Social Security cannot sue Brokaw even if he deliberately tells explicit lies about its financial health.

Those who are interesting in learning about the true state of Social Security’s financial health can find out by looking at the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office’s website.”

THREATS TO THE INTERNET

Steve Watson writes on Infowars:

Amazing revelations have emerged concerning already existing government plans to overhaul the way the internet functions in order to apply much greater restrictions and control over the web.

Lawrence Lessig, a respected Law Professor from Stanford University told an audience at this years Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Half Moon Bay, California, that “There’s going to be an i-9/11 event” which will act as a catalyst for a radical reworking of the law pertaining to the internet.S

Lessig also revealed that he had learned, during a dinner with former government Counter Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke, that there is already in existence a cyber equivalent of the Patriot Act, an “i-Patriot Act” if you will, and that the Justice Department is waiting for a cyber terrorism event in order to implement its provisions.

During a group panel segment titled “2018: Life on the Net”, Lessig stated:

There’s going to be an i-9/11 event. Which doesn’t necessarily mean an Al Qaeda attack, it means an event where the instability or the insecurity of the internet becomes manifest during a malicious event which then inspires the government into a response. You’ve got to remember that after 9/11 the government drew up the Patriot Act within 20 days and it was passed.

MEDIA

UK: Subeditors fired and journalists given 31-point job descriptions

Newsquest has announced plans to fire all subeditors and replace them with “multi-skilled, cross-platform journalists”.

According to the Press Gazette, the changes will take places at the following papers, Epping Forest Guardian, the Waltham Forest Guardian, Wanstead and Woodford Guardian, the Enfield Independent and the Borehamwood Times as well as the free Bishop Stortford Citizen and Waltham Forest Independent.

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