Bush Administration Running Scared

The Bush administration, seeking to limit leaks of classified information, has launched initiatives targeting journalists and their possible government sources. The efforts include several FBI probes, a polygraph investigation inside the CIA and a warning from the Justice Department that reporters could be prosecuted under espionage laws.

Greta Didnn't Ask The Hard Question of Joran

I will give it to Joran he was smooth as silk given he was an 18 yo anwsering questions
but that also raised some flags for me.

Most 18yo would not be that smooth. I heard his parents din't want him to do the interview. If that is true, that fact raised serious issues with me.
A 18yo overrules his parents objections. So who runs the household? Why wouldn't Joran's parents want him to clear the record? Since they were objecting, why weren't they a part of the interview? Joran had control over that as well? So who controls the Van Der Sloot's household?

Although I love Greta, she asked soft questions that Joran readily had answers. So where were the hard questions.

1 If all he did was leave Natalee on the beach why lie on the 2 innocent black men? Did Aruba clear their names?
2 Did he apologized to them?
3 Will the Vander sloots share some of that money(Joran's father is suing the Aruban governement which helped to botch this case and let his son free) to help the two black men clear their names of the lie Joran told on them?
4 Who said "something bad happened" and leading to the body? Early in the case, Dompig announced this and then retracted it?
5Why did Paulus call Deepak and Satish to their home and tell the three how to answer questions if all Joran did was leave Natalee on the Beach alive? Understand this, Paulus wouldn't call the three if Deepak was the guilty one.

6 Since Natalee is shy or whatever, why would she want to stay on a beach alone and not knowing anyone and not having any transportation back?

7 Keep ing with is though for a moment...Is aruba so dangerous a woman cant stay on the beach but yet disappear without a trace? does that sound reasonable and /or feasible to any sane and credible person??

8 why did Paulus tell them how to set up their computers to establish a time line or alibi??

9Why didnt Joran call his father instead of his friend's to take him home?

10Why would Joran say he wanted to go to school the next day to hell with Satish going to school the next day. Does Satish and Deepak march to Joran's every word like Paulus? Deepak was home and Deepak is a fanatic about his car, so why would Satish be chuffeuring Joran around? Why didnt Joran call a cab or his father
10 Understand this if Deepak went back AFTER Joran, why wasn't his father or stepfather called and put in jail like Paulus? Joran was the last one to see Natalee alive.
11 Joran said there were other folks on the beach, so were those people called to verify that?

Those folks had to know this was HOT case and if they were on the beach shouldnt they be able to substantiate Joran's claim

12Joran has watch many shows and read many blogs so he is following the case closely
he even knows the LAWS of USA. Does he really know or did his father fill him in on what to say
13 Joran is pointing away from himself to Deepak

Until Deepak tells his side...or they both are together on tv in separate rooms..different questions.

14 Who was the bartender that night and does the bartender slipp drugs in the drinks

15what a 17 yo doing drinking 151 rum in a club?

16 Joran said his father doesnt go to clubs when we know differntly
17 He took off his shoes so did he take off his socks as well or he walked through the sand in socks?
his father rmakes so much money Joran can leave a pair of shoes on the beach? Who runs the Vander Sloot's household?

18 Horan said he didn't have a condom, so he didnt have sex with Natalee/ Does anyone beleive this from a kid who drinks 151 Rum? No 17 Yo boy going to stop because he has no condom.

19 Was the headmaster of Aruba International School questioned? If so what was said? If not, why not? Were the student of the school questioned again why not?

Notice this also, some of the little information that came out in the early going of this case are being revelaed even by Joran himself

Lets say Joran left her on the beach, so where was Paulus?
Joran is still lying as well as his father.
Until I hear from Deepak and Satish, my gut says Joran and his father is guilty of Natalee being missing
Joran is still guilty to me. Maybe not of murder perhaps manslaughter. The guilty still lies with Joran.

Hillary Clinton 'unaware' of Bill's Dubai ties

Hillary Clinton, a leading opponent of DP World's takeover of some US port operations, was this week forced to admit that she did not know her husband had advised Dubai leaders on how to handle the growing dispute.

But former President Bill Clinton's ties to Dubai and the United Arab Emirates should not have come as a surprise to his New York senator wife.
Mrs Clinton's own senatorial financial disclosure forms reveal that her husband earned $450,000 giving speeches in Dubai in 2002.
Officials from the UAE also donated between $500,000 and $1m to fund Mr Clinton's presidential library in Arkansas.
It was part of an effort by the emirates, said a person close to UAE officials, to forge a close relationship with a former US president who is influential and highly regarded in the region.
Mr Clinton's admiration for the UAE was last on display in November, when he made his fourth visit to the American University in Dubai and met students participating in the Clinton scholarship programme.
The UAE has also contributed $100m to Hurricane Katrina relief funds – which Mr Clinton had a leading role in raising.
Mrs Clinton's tough stance that the deal represented an "unacceptable risk" to national security has caused UAE officials some consternation.
Regarded as the leading Democratic candidate for the 2008 presidential elections, she has used the deal – which polls show is disliked by most Americans – and the anti-Arab sentiment it sparked to attack the Bush administration on national security, an issue that has been seen as a weak point for Democrats.
Although Mrs Clinton has been careful not to criticise the UAE directly, her stance has put her in the same camp as legislators who openly accuse Dubai of helping to finance the September 11 terrorist attacks and deem the UAE untrustworthy.
Privately, some Democrats see the revelations about his ties to the UAE as a classic Clinton dilemma. Mrs Clinton told the New York Post on Thursday that she did not know her husband had been contacted by Dubai officials two weeks ago and offered them advice on the deal. Although both Hillary and Bill Clinton say he stands behind her on the issue and there is no direct conflict, his relationship to the UAE has complicated her political stance on the transaction.
Meanwhile, the UAE has sought to quell the backlash against the takeover by hiring some Clinton officials - and Republicans - to lobby on Dubai's behalf.

Iran Softens Tone, but Talks With Europeans on Nuclear Program End in Bitterness

VIENNA, March 3 — If diplomacy were a courtship, the rendezvous between Iran and Europe in a Viennese mansion on Friday could be called a failed seduction.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, had asked for urgent talks with his former European negotiating partners, promising new ideas aimed at both restarting the negotiations and keeping Iran's nuclear case out of the United Nations Security Council.
But in nearly two hours of early morning talks, the Iranians rejected the Europeans' key demand for resuming the relationship: a return to an indefinite freeze on making enriched uranium, which can be used either to produce electricity or to make bombs.
The Europeans made their disappointment clear. "We were unable to reach agreement," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany announced tersely to reporters. Mr. Steinmeier, the host of the meeting at his ambassador's residence, offered Iran a stark ultimatum: either stop enriching uranium and "return to the table of negotiations," or face judgment before the Security Council.
Javier Solana, the European Union's foreign policy chief, who had canceled a trip to Kiev, Ukraine, to attend, was just as blunt, calling the failure to reach agreement "unfortunate."
So were the other two European officials, the French foreign minister, Philippe Douste-Blazy, and John Sawers, the political director of the British foreign office, who had taken the place of the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, who was ill.
The Iranians, according to participants in the talks, were visibly rattled. Mr. Larijani had come in with a new conciliatory tone. Gone was the combative talk about Iran's sovereign right to enrich uranium as a signer of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Rather, Mr. Larijani expressed sympathy for the European approach and support for the need to build confidence on all sides, so talks could continue under a November 2004 agreement with France, Germany and Britain. That agreement froze Iran's enrichment-related activities in exchange for potential political and economic rewards.
To that end, he said that Iran would be willing to implement a two-year moratorium on industrial-scale uranium enrichment and recommit itself to a more thorough inspection of its facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
However, continuation of the small-scale uranium enrichment operation that Iran restarted last month at its vast Natanz facility, and which Iran says is for research purposes, was nonnegotiable.
The Europeans, who spoke on condition of anonymity under diplomatic rules, said they were not surprised. But they responded with a quiet ferocity that has been unusual in their dealings with Iran.
Mr. Steinmeier rejected Mr. Larijani's request that the two sides announce publicly that "progress" had been made. He also brushed off Mr. Larijani's objection to public statements by the Europeans that no agreement had been reached.
The German foreign minister even said that since there was no progress to report, it made no sense for Mr. Larijani to join in the brief encounter with the news media on the steps of the ambassador's residence.
In an apparent protest, the Iranian delegation, which had pitched its flag next to those of Britain, France, Germany and the European Union, carried it away before the Europeans made their statements.
The dispute moves next to the session of the 35-country board of the International Atomic Energy Agency that will open in Vienna on Monday. In early February, the board overwhelmingly voted to report Iran's case to the Security Council, a move that reflected increasing suspicion that Iran was determined to develop nuclear weapons. The resolution allows Security Council action against Iran after a delay of at least a month.
It is not yet certain whether the board will try to pass another resolution next week, or whether one would be needed before the Security Council acts.
While the Europeans, together with the United States and a number of other countries, seem to be eager to have the Security Council take up the Iran issue, Russia is extremely reluctant.
Like the Europeans, the Russians had demanded that Iran stop uranium enrichment at Natanz. When Mr. Larijani was in Russia on Thursday, the Russians rejected the same offer he later presented to the Europeans, participants in Friday's meeting said.
But Russia does not support sending the matter to the Security Council, for fear that it would set off an irrevocable march toward punitive measures.
Russia's foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said Friday there was still time before the nuclear agency's board meeting to reach an agreement, one that would keep the agency at the center of efforts to resolve the confrontation.
"If the issues are sent to the Security Council, we are concerned that this would lead to escalation of the situation," Mr. Lavrov said, speaking in English, in an interview with American news organizations in Moscow. "I know how the Security Council works: you start with a soft reminder, then you call upon, then you require, then you demand, then you threaten. It will become a self-propelling function."
The Russians are negotiating with Iran on a possible face-saving joint venture, in which Russia would enrich Iran's uranium on Russian soil, under Russian control.
That procedure would allow Iran to continue to operate its Isfahan plant, which converts raw uranium into a form that is ready to be enriched, but not to master enrichment technology.
Contradicting Mr. Steinmeier, who said in Vienna that "time is running out," Mr. Lavrov said there was still time to resolve the crisis. But he acknowledged that he had no clear idea of how to proceed if Iran insisted on defying the agency's demands.
"I am very frank with you," he said. "I don't have an answer. I don't think anybody else has an answer."

Ex-Congressman Gets 8-Year Term in Bribery Case

SAN DIEGO, March 3 — After acknowledging that he had "made a very wrong turn," former Representative Randy Cunningham was sentenced in federal court here on Friday to eight years and four months in prison for taking $2.4 million in bribes from military contractors in return for smoothing the way for government contracts.

The government, which called the misconduct unprecedented for its "depth, breadth and length," said the sentence was the longest ever handed down for a member or former member of Congress in a federal corruption case.
In a halting, cracking voice before journalists, friends, political associates and others, Mr. Cunningham, 64, stood before the judge and largely read from a statement as he pleaded for leniency and, turning to prosecutors, apologized for his crime.
"I rationalized decisions I knew were wrong," said Mr. Cunningham, a Naval pilot ace in the Vietnam War and "Top Gun" instructor who parlayed those experiences into a powerful political career. "Before there must be forgiveness, there must be redemption. No man has ever been more sorry."
Judge Larry Alan Burns of Federal District Court said the former congressman's conduct, which prosecutors said included keeping a "bribe menu" with the prices of influence, undermined faith in government and wasted tax dollars. In addition to some cash payments, Mr. Cunningham bargained for gifts like a sport utility vehicle, a Tiffany statue, Bijar rugs and candelabras.
Judge Burns said Mr. Cunningham, an eight-term Republican from Rancho Santa Fe who represented the northern suburbs of San Diego, could have retired to business long ago if he wanted to make copious money but instead engaged in bid rigging and badgering officials and other witnesses to help cover his tracks.
"You made a wrong turn and continued for three to five years," Judge Burns said, referring to what prosecutors documented as the period of misconduct. "I wonder how far you would have gone.
"You undermined the opportunity and option for honest politicians to do a good job."
The judge rejected Mr. Cunningham's request to delay his arrival in prison so he could visit his 91-year-old mother, saying Mr. Cunningham had had months to say his goodbyes.
Judge Burns, in recognition of what Mr. Cunningham's lawyers have described as his failing health, recommended sending him first to a prison medical center for evaluation. He also voiced admiration for Mr. Cunningham's war heroism.
Mr. Cunningham's lawyers had asked the judge for a six-year sentence, citing his military service and what they called health so failing that he may have seven years to live. Prosecutors urged the judge to abide by the 10-year sentence that Mr. Cunningham had agreed to after he pleaded guilty in November and resigned from Congress. Judge Burns noted that the sentence could be reduced by 15 months if Mr. Cunningham behaved well in prison.
Prosecutors said they might also seek a reduction if they are satisfied that he was cooperating with their investigation.
Mr. Cunningham was ordered to pay $1,804,031.50 in restitution for back taxes, penalties and interest owed to the government and was ordered to forfeit an additional $1,851,508, based on cash he received in his crimes.
The extent of corruption stunned his constituents and Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill and, along with the scandal centering on the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, sparked calls to change lobbying rules. The two investigations and others involving lawmakers and senior aides have emerged as major election themes.
Given Mr. Cunningham's focus on funneling federal money to specific projects in exchange for lobbyists' payoffs, his case put particular scrutiny on "earmarking," using measures to direct money to favored projects.
Proposals are circulating in the House and Senate to require more disclosure of the projects and their sponsors and to open opportunities to strip the earmarks slipped into bills at the last minute.
In the weeks leading up to the sentencing, sharper details of Mr. Cunningham's crimes emerged. In court papers, the government said he had behaved like an old ward boss, sketching out a "bribe menu" on a note card with the Congressional seal. One column offered $16 million in contracts in exchange for the title to a boat the contractor had bought for $140,000. The card further detailed how much more contract work could be bought for every additional $50,000 paid to Mr. Cunningham.
The papers document lavish travel on chartered jets paid by contractors with catered meals of lobster, wine and "other extravagances." Bribers put him up at top-of-the-line resorts like the Royal Hawaiian on Oahu, Hawaii and in the Greenbriar Resort in West Virginia.
Mr. Cunningham, the government said, "bullied and hectored" officials standing in his way and tampered with witnesses to have them play down or distort his misdeeds.
The principal co-conspirator in the case, Mitchell Wade, a military contractor who is the founder and former president of MZM Inc. in Washington, pleaded guilty last week in federal court to several charges, including giving Mr. Cunningham $1 million in bribes.
Mr. Cunningham's lawyers in court filings, including a psychiatric report, portrayed his life as disintegrating, saying ailments had left him with perhaps seven years to live.
The psychiatric report, by Dr. Saul J. Faerstein of Beverly Hills, Calif., said Mr. Cunningham suffered depression and suicidal thoughts, in addition to a history of prostate cancer and other ailments.
Searching for an explanation for Mr. Cunningham's conduct, Dr. Faerstein said: "Society needs heroes and wants them to be superheroes. The normal sense of mortality is suppressed in order to fulfill this role."
After the sentencing, two marshals approached Mr. Cunningham and escorted him without handcuffs from the courtroom, one of them guiding him by the waist, patting him on the back and whispering in his ear. Mr. Cunningham will spend perhaps a week or so in a jail across the street before moving to prison, said an assistant United States attorney, Phillip L. B. Halpern, who helped prosecute the case.
On March 23, the government plans to auction some of the antiques that Mr. Cunningham forfeited after pleading guilty, including French armoires, candlesticks, nightstands and a glass buffet.

http://www.juiceenewsdaily.com/index.php/2006/01/09/vice-president-dick-cheney-hospitalized-after-breathing-trouble/

Vice President Dick Cheney was hospitalized when he complained of breathing trouble. The Vice President has now been released from hospital.
Cheney’s long history of cardiovascular disease and periodic need for urgent health care have several times raised the question of whether he is medically fit to serve as Vice President. Cheney sustained the first of four myocardial infarctions (heart attacks) in 1978, at age 37. Subsequent infarcts in 1984, 1988, and 2001 have resulted in moderate contractile dysfunction of his left ventricle. He underwent four-vessel coronary artery bypass grafting in 1988, coronary artery stenting in November 2000, and urgent coronary balloon angioplasty in March 2001.
In 2001 a Holter monitor disclosed brief episodes of (asymptomatic) ectopy. An electrophysiologic study was performed, at which Cheney was found to be inducible. A cardiac defibrillator was therefore implanted in his left upper anterior chest. As of 2004, it has never discharged.
On September 24, 2005, Cheney had an endo-vascular procedure to repair popliteal artery aneurysms bilaterally. (In other words, a catheter treatment technique was used in the artery behind each knee.) The condition was discovered at a regular physical in July, and, while not life-threatening itself, is likely an indicator that Cheney’s atherosclerotic disease is progressing despite aggressive treatment.
Cheney occassionaly requires the use of a cane for walking. This is due to a pre-existing foot condition and is unrelated to his cardiovascular disease, according to Cheney.