Exclusive Video: Benazir Bhutto (click here for interview while placed under house arrest). "There is a great danger to nuclear armed Pakistan. There is a great danger of implosion... Any arrest of Presidential Candidates were more oppression by Musharraf in an attempt to muscle them into silence and discredit their character.
US Senator Hillary Clinton, seen here 27 December 2007, called for an independent, international probe into Benazir Bhutto's murder, saying Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's government had no credibility. (AFP/File)
Call for Bhutto inquiry (click here)
Ellen Wulfhorst Story City, Iowa
December 30, 2007
US DEMOCRATIC presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has called for an international investigation into the assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto as presidential candidates from the Democrat and Republican parties sparred over foreign policy six days before the 2008 election race begins in Iowa.
Mrs Clinton, in a three-way battle with Barack Obama and John Edwards for the lead in Iowa - the first of the primaries that launch the race - questioned the credibility of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
And she said Ms Bhutto's murder cast a harsh light on US President George Bush's approach in the region. Nuclear-armed Pakistan is a vital ally in the US war on terrorism.
"It is clear the Bush policy of giving Musharraf a blank cheque has failed," the New York senator said in north-central Iowa....
Poll boycott … Imran Khan speaks out against Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf.
Photo: AP (click at title to entry. thank you.)
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Posted on Thu, Dec. 27, 2007
Impeach Cheney now
The allegations that he abused power are credible.
U.S. Reps. Robert Wexler (D., Fla.), Luis Gutierrez (D., Ill.) and Tammy Baldwin (D., Wis.)
are members of the Judiciary Committee
Last month, the House of Representatives voted to send a resolution of impeachment of Vice President Cheney to the Judiciary Committee. As members of the House Judiciary Committee, we strongly believe these important hearings should begin.
The issues at hand are too serious to ignore, including credible allegations of abuse of power that, if proven, may well constitute high crimes and misdemeanors under the Constitution. The allegations against Cheney relate to his deceptive actions leading up to the Iraq war, the revelation of the identity of a covert agent for political retaliation, and the illegal wiretapping of American citizens.
Now that former White House press secretary Scott McClellan has indicated that the vice president and his staff purposely gave him false information about the outing of Valerie Plame Wilson as a covert agent to report to the American people, it is even more important for Congress to investigate what may have been an intentional obstruction of justice. Congress should call McClellan to testify about what he described as being asked to "unknowingly [pass] along false information." In addition, recent revelations have shown that the administration, including the vice president, may have again manipulated and exaggerated evidence about weapons of mass destruction - this time about Iran's nuclear capabilities.
Some of us were in Congress during the impeachment hearings of President Bill Clinton. We spent a year and a half listening to testimony about Clinton's personal relations. This must not be the model for impeachment inquiries. A Democratic Congress can show that it takes its constitutional authority seriously and hold a sober investigation, which will stand in stark contrast to the kangaroo court convened by Republicans for Clinton. In fact, the worst legacy of the Clinton impeachment - where the GOP pursued trumped-up and insignificant allegations - would be if it discourages future Congresses from examining credible and significant allegations of a constitutional nature when they arise.
The charges against Cheney are not personal. They go to the core of the actions of this administration, and deserve consideration in a way the Clinton scandal never did. The American people understand this, and a majority supports hearings, according to a Nov. 13 poll by the American Research Group. In fact, 70 percent of voters say the vice president has abused his powers, and 43 percent say he should be removed from office right now. The American people understand the magnitude of what has been done and what is at stake if we fail to act. It is time for Congress to catch up.
Some people argue that the Judiciary Committee cannot proceed with impeachment hearings because it would distract Congress from passing important legislative initiatives. We disagree. First, hearings need not tie up Congress for a year and shut down the nation. Second, hearings will not prevent Congress from completing its other business. These hearings involve the possible impeachment of the vice president - not of our commander in chief - and the resulting impact on the nation's business and attention would be significantly less than the Clinton presidential impeachment hearings. Also, even though President Bush has thwarted moderate Democratic policies that are supported by a vast majority of Americans - including children's health care, stem-cell research, and bringing our troops home from Iraq - the Democratic Congress has already managed to deliver a minimum-wage increase, an energy bill to address the climate crisis and bring us closer to energy independence, assistance for college tuition, and other legislative successes. We can continue to deliver on more of our agenda in the coming year while simultaneously fulfilling our constitutional duty by investigating and publicly revealing whether Cheney has committed high crimes and misdemeanors.
Holding hearings would put the evidence on the table, and the evidence - not politics - should determine the outcome. Even if the hearings do not lead to removal from office, putting these grievous abuses on the record is important for the sake of history. For an administration that has consistently skirted the Constitution and asserted that it is above the law, it is imperative for Congress to make clear that we do not accept this dangerous precedent. Our Founding Fathers provided Congress the power of impeachment for just this reason, and we must now at least consider using it.
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20071227_Impeach_Cheney_now.html
'War Criminals'
"This petition is as radical as the Declaration of Independence..." -- Kurt Daims
December 29th, 2007 3:45 am
Vermont town seeks Bush, Cheney arrests
By Dave Gram / Associated Press
MONTPELIER, Vt. - President Bush may soon have a new reason to avoid left-leaning Vermont: In one town, activists want him subject to arrest for war crimes.
A group in Brattleboro is petitioning to put an item on a town meeting agenda in March that would make Bush and Vice President Cheney subject to arrest and indictment if they visit the southeastern Vermont community.
"This petition is as radical as the Declaration of Independence, and it draws on that tradition in claiming a universal jurisdiction when governments fail to do what they're supposed to do," said Kurt Daims, 54, a retired machinist leading the drive.
As president, Bush has visited every state except Vermont.
The town meeting, an annual exercise in which residents gather to vote on everything from fire department budgets to municipal policy, requires about 1,000 signatures to place a binding item on the agenda.
The measure asks: "Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictment for consideration by other municipalities?"
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10614
Monday, December 24th, 2007
Will Brattleboro Indict Bush? ...by Dan DeWalt
Brattleboro Vermont resident Kurt Daims has drafted a ballot question petition calling for the town to indict George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for crimes against the Constitution, and making it the law that if either man comes to town, he would be liable to arrest.
Some will say that this is just another unenforceable ordinance at best, and an absurdity at worst. Others worry that it will detract from the gravity of the impeachment movement as it stands today, on the cusp of forcing hearings in the House Judiciary Committee. The argument will be made that such "extreme" rhetorical proclamations only serve to divide us further from each other, marginalizing the demand for accountability, rather than promoting it.
Upon reflection, these arguments can be answered and laid to rest.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=949
December 27th, 2007 5:25 pm
Professor Cites Bible in Faulting Tax Policies
By David Cay Johnston / New York Times
At a time when some voters are asking how the religious views of candidates will shape their policies, a professor’s discovery of how little tax the biggest landowners in her state paid to finance the government has prompted some other legal scholars to scour religious texts to explore the moral basis of tax and spending policies.
The professor, Susan Pace Hamill, is an expert at tax avoidance for small businesses and teaches at the University of Alabama Law School. She also holds a degree in divinity from a conservative evangelical seminary, where her master’s thesis explored how Alabama’s tax-and-spend policies comport with the Bible.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10606
December 27th, 2007 5:59 pm
State Democrats renew Bush impeachment effort
By Brad Shannon / The Olympian
The prime backer of a state resolution urging Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney plans to return to the state Capitol in January with a slightly revised proposal.
Meanwhile, a South Sound group calling itself Citizens Movement to Impeach Bush/Cheney is gearing up for an "impeachment party" Friday in Olympia.
State Sen. Eric Oemig, D-Kirkland, said Wednesday he is amending his Senate Joint Memorial 8016 to make its intent clearer.
Democratic Sen. Darlene Fairley, who chairs the Senate committee that will hear the bill, expects to give it a hearing and bring it up for a vote in the legislative session that begins Jan. 14.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10607
December 27th, 2007 6:13 pm
A Walking Call to Impeach Bush Arrives in the East Village
By Julie Bolcer / Village Voice
John Nirenberg would walk 500 miles. And it sounds like he would walk 500 more. But unlike the persistent pop tune by The Proclaimers, he refuses to be the man who falls down at Nancy Pelosi’s door.
Nirenberg, a hearty New York City native and current resident of Brattelboro, Vermont, intends to be standing when he reaches Washington, D.C. around January 10, at the conclusion of a scheduled 40-day walk that began in Boston on December 1. This fall, the 60-year-old professor of organizational behavior and Air Force veteran decided to traverse Route 1 on foot to implore House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to begin impeachment proceedings against President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.
“It was about a whole collection of issues around the Constitution and the behavior of this administration,” explains Nirenberg, who finds that his sense of outrage and jogging background help him complete 15 miles per day. “Especially the torture issue, the spying, and an illegal war. All of this, at some point, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I decided that I needed to do something different.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10608
December 26th, 2007 4:45 pm
In Kentucky’s Teeth, Toll of Poverty and Neglect
By Ian Urbina / New York Times
BARBOURVILLE, Ky. — In the 18 years he has been visiting nursing homes, seeing patients in his private practice and, more recently, driving his mobile dental clinic through Appalachian hills and hollows, Dr. Edwin E. Smith has seen the extremes of neglect.
He has seen the shame of a 14-year-old girl who would not lift her head because she had lost most of her teeth from malnutrition, and the do-it-yourself pride of an elderly mountain man who, unable to afford a dentist, pulled his own infected teeth with a pair of pliers.
He has seen the brutal result of angry husbands hitting their wives and the end game of pill-poppers who crack healthy teeth, one by one, to get dentists to prescribe pain medications.
But mostly he has seen everyday people who are too busy putting food on the table to worry about oral hygiene. Many of them savor their sweets, drink well water without fluoride and long ago started ruining their teeth by chewing tobacco and smoking.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10603
December 25th, 2007 5:12 pm
Congressman calls for Cheney's impeachment
By Lesley Clark / McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Robert Wexler is taking on the Bush administration -- in cyberspace.
The Boca Raton Democrat has launched a website -- wexlerwantshearings.com -- and is gathering signatures calling for impeachment hearings against Vice President Dick Cheney.
''Our Constitution mandates that the House of Representatives hold presidents and vice presidents accountable when they commit high crimes,'' Wexler says in a video on the site, which suggests, among other things, that Cheney manipulated intelligence to boost the case for war against Iraq and was involved in the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.
Within two days of posting, Wexler said he had surpassed his goal of 50,000 signatures and is aiming for 250,000. He's written an op-ed article with two fellow members of the House Judiciary committee, calling for hearings into whether Cheney violated the Constitution.
Though the push is, as Wexler acknowledges, a ''huge uphill battle,'' because House leadership has not been interested, the quest has made him a favorite of left-leaning activists.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10599
Imagine Peace
http://www.imaginepeace.com/news.html
Pakistan police left posts prior to attack
Pakistan interior ministry
"It is the most unstable country in the world that has nuclear weapons."
December 28th, 2007 1:17 pm
Police absent as Bhutto's supporters riot
Witness tells of chaos after slaying
By Saeed Shah / McClatchy Newspapers
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan — It was on the drive out of the downtown park that the assassin fired the fatal bullets at Benazir Bhutto.
The election rally had been long and lackluster, but on viewing the crowd gathered at the gates of Liaquat Bagh park, Bhutto turned to her deputy, Amin Fahim, and said she wanted to wave, Fahim recounted. The sunroof was opened and she stood up.
Three to five shots were fired at her, witnesses said. She was hit in the neck and slumped back in the vehicle. Blood poured from her head, and she never regained consciousness. Moments after the shooting, there was a huge explosion to the left of the vehicle.
Witnesses said that Bhutto's bodyguards pounced on the assassin, who then blew himself up, shredding those around him. The road turned red with pools of blood.
Police abandoned posts
"I was standing near the rally stage, about 30 to 40 yards away from the scene of the shooting. There was pandemonium. On hearing the shots, I started running toward the scene. Then came the explosion. I ran back a bit. I didn't see the killer, and by the time I got to the gates, Bhutto's SUV was driving to a Rawalpindi hospital. She didn't have a chance," Fahim said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10609
December 28th, 2007 1:37 pm
Pakistani government pins Bhutto death on al-Qaeda
By Randy Lilleston / USA Today
Al-Qaeda is to blame for Thursday's assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, a government spokesman just said at a news conference.
The government has intercepted an e-mail between al-Qaeda operatives, congratulating one for successfully executing the attack, Interior Ministry spokesman Jared Iqbal Cheema just told reporters.
Cheema also said Bhutto had "no foreign element in her body" when she was brought to a hospital, raising questions about what killed her.
Various reports have said she was struck by bomb shrapnel or shot; CNN reports that no autopsy was performed on Bhutto before she was buried earlier today.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10610
December 28th, 2007 2:16 pm
Bhutto 'died after hitting head on car roof', Pakistan government claims
By Jenny Booth / Times of London
The Pakistan Government tonight claimed that Benazir Bhutto did not die from bullet wounds, as previously thought, but from hitting the sunroof of her campaign vehicle.
The dramatic statement came as the murdered political leader's funeral drew to a close and the violence that has convulsed the country since her death intensified.
The interior ministry said at a press conference that video of Ms Bhutto's last moments and an examination by doctors had shown that Ms Bhutto died apparently accidentally, as a suicide bomb blast went off at her political rally in Rawalpindi last night, killing around 20 people. No full post mortem examination had been carried out at the request of Ms Bhutto's husband, it was reported.
Brigadier Javed Cheema, a ministry spokesman, said Ms Bhutto had died from a head wound after smashing against the sunroof’s lever as she tried to shelter inside her car. "There is no evidence of any foreign element in her body," Brigadier Cheema said. "No bullet hit her, nor any splinters hit her. Unfortunately, it was to be that way.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10612
December 28th, 2007 1:42 pm
"Failed state" Pakistan raises nuclear threat
By Luke Baker / Reuters
LONDON - Security experts fear Pakistan's nuclear materials could fall into the hands of Islamic militants as the country's instability deepens in the wake of Benazir Bhutto's assassination.
In early 2005, a joint security assessment by the CIA and the U.S. National Intelligence Council predicted Pakistan would become "a failed state, ripe with civil war, bloodshed, inter-provincial rivalries and a struggle for control of its nuclear weapons and complete Talibanisation" by 2015.
Following Bhutto's death in Rawalpindi on Thursday, some experts believe the timeframe on that assessment may now have been brought forward, with political upheaval pitching Pakistan, a nuclear-armed power since 1998, towards breakdown.
"It's a very, very valid risk," said M.J. Gohel, the head of the Asia-Pacific Foundation, a London-based security and intelligence think-tank, describing the possibility that parts of Pakistan's nuclear technology could fall into militant hands.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10611
"We repeatedly informed the government to provide her proper security and appropriate equipment including jammers, but they paid no heed to our requests." -- Bhutto security adviser Rehman Malik
Bhutto party complained of faulty jammers at least three times
International
PPP claims govt provided faulty jammers to Bhutto
Islamabad (PTI): Former Pakistan Premier Benazir Bhutto-led PPP on Tuesday alleged that the jammers provided to her by the government to protect her from bomb attacks during the election campaign were faulty and exposed her to a "high risk."
Rehman Malik, a Pakistan People's Party (PPP) leader and Security Advisor to Bhutto, asked the Interior Ministry to provide "fault-free jammers along with a technician to ensure full protection" to her from any attempted attack.
This is the third time that the PPP has complained to the Interior Ministry about jammers provided to Bhutto being faulty. Bhutto survived a suicide bomb attack on her homecoming rally in Karachi on October 18 that killed 140 people.
In his letter to the Interior Secretary, Malik, a former Federal Investigation Agency chief, said: "I regret to inform that the jammers provided by Sindh Police to cover the movements of Benazir Bhutto on 23-12-2007 did not work, which is a serious lapse in the light of the serious security threat already conveyed to us by Brig Javed Iqbal Cheema, Director General, National Crisis Management Cell, Ministry of Interior."
"Similarly, the jammers provided for the protection of Benazir Bhutto during her trip to Rahimyar Khan on 24-12-2007 also failed to work, exposing (her) to a high risk."
Malik said the PPP had "made repeated requests for provision of proper fault-free jammers for the protection of Benazir Bhutto but in every trip the jammers have failed to work."
Bhutto is currently busy campaigning for her party for the January 8 general election in the country.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/003200712251923.htm
Bhutto Adviser
Bhutto Adviser: Musharraf Is To Blame
By Spencer Ackerman - December 27, 2007, 10:32AM
A longtime adviser and close friend of assassinated Pakistani ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto places blame for Bhutto's death squarely on the shoulders of U.S.-supported dictator Pervez Musharraf.
After an October attack on Bhutto's life in Karachi, the ex-prime minister warned "certain individuals in the security establishment [about the threat] and nothing was done," says Husain Haqqani, a confidante of Bhutto's for decades. "There is only one possibility: the security establishment and Musharraf are complicit, either by negligence or design. That is the most important thing. She's not the first political leader killed, since Musharraf took power, by the security forces."
Haqqani notes that Bhutto died of a gunshot wound to the neck. "It's like a hit, not a regular suicide bombing," he says. "It's quite clear that someone who considers himself Pakistan's Godfather has a very different attitude toward human life than you and I do."
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004985.php
December 27th, 2007 11:10 am
Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto killed in suicide attack, about 20 killed
By Sadaqat Jan and Zarar Khan / Associated Press
RAWALPINDI, Pakistan - Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was killed Thursday in a suicide attack as she drove away from a campaign rally just minutes after addressing thousands of supporters, aides said.
The death of the charismatic former prime minister threw the campaign for the Jan. 8 election into chaos and created fears of mass protests and an eruption of violence across the volatile south Asian nation.
It left a void at the top of her Pakistan People's Party, the largest political group in the country. It also threw into turmoil U.S. President George W. Bush's plan to bring stability to this key U.S. ally by reconciling her and President Pervez Musharraf.
Shortly after Bhutto's death, Musharraf convened an emergency meeting with his senior staff, where they were expected to discuss whether to postpone the election, an official at the Interior Ministry said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10604
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