NewsTrust - Bush Administration - Most Trusted Stories: News

Winter Soldier on the Hill: War Vets Testify Before Congress

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By American veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan - Nov. 28 (News Report) - War veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan came to Capitol Hill this month to testify before Congress and give an eyewitness account about the horrors of war. Like the Winter Soldier hearings in March, when more than 200 service members gathered for four days in Silver Spring, Maryland to give their eyewitness accounts of the injustices occurring in Iraq and Afghanistan, Winter Soldier on the Hill was designed to drive home the human cost of war and occupation, this time to the very people in charge of doing something about it.

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Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

The Nation - By Jeremy Scahill - Aug. 04 (News) - Sworn statements filed in Federal Court allege that Blackwater founder Erik Prince launched a "crusade" to eliminate Muslims and Islam and that the company may have been involved in murders to suppress information from federal investigators.

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An Oral History of the Bush White House

Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Vanity Fair - By Cullen Murphy, Todd S. Purdum - Dec. 31 (News Analysis) - January 20, 2001 After a disputed election and bitter recount battle in Florida whose outcome is effectively decided by the Supreme Court, George W. Bush is sworn in as the 43rd president of the United States. In foreign affairs he promises an approach that will depart from the perceived adventurism of his predecessor, Bill Clinton, in places such as Kosovo and Somalia. (“I think the United States must be humble,” Bush said in a debate with his opponent, Al Gore.) In domestic affairs Bush pledges to cut taxes and improve education. He promises to govern as a “compassionate conservative” and to be “a uniter, not a divider.” He comes into office with a $237 billion budget surplus.

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What the new Jim Comey torture emails actually reveal

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Salon - By Glenn Greenwald - Jun. 07 (News Analysis) - The primary argument against prosecutions for Bush officials who ordered torture is that DOJ lawyers told the White House that these tactics were legal, and White House officials therefore had the right to rely on those legal opinions. The premise is that White House officials inquired in good faith with the DOJ about what they could and could not do under the law, and only ordered those tactics which the DOJ lawyers told them were legal. As these Comey emails prove, that simply is not what happened.

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NSA Spied on Journalists? Whistleblower Reveals Surveillance Target

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Common Dreams - By Olbermann, Russell Tice - Jan. 22 (News Report) - In an exclusive interview tonight on MSNBC's "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," former NSA analyst Russell Tice says that the agency under the Bush administration secretly collected communications data on civilians, including journalists.

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Pentagon Pro-Troop Group Misspent Millions, Report Says

Sat, 13 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Wired - By Noah Shachtman - Dec. 13 (News Report) - Barber used the Stars & Stripes newspaper as a kind of money-laundering service, to pay Davis and Semel. The paper is partially financed by the Pentagon, and was part of Barber's American Forces Information Service. But Stripes has a decades-long tradition of fierce independence. Editors were galled to discover that Barber's office was pouring money into the paper's coffers — and then paying Davis and Semel out of accounts with less congressional oversight and fewer spending restrictions than typical Defense Department funds.

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Flying Shoes Create a Hero In Arab World

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Washington Post - By Sudarsan Raghavan - Dec. 16 (News Report) - In hurling footwear and insults at President Bush, Muntadar al-Zaidi expressed what relatives said were his own frustrations with American policy in Iraq and made himself into an overnight celebrity in the Arab world.

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DOJ Report Reaches "Damning" Conclusions for Bybee and Yoo

Wed, 06 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Jason Leopold, - May. 06 (News Analysis) - News reports published on Tuesday, describing details of Jarrett's report, said it specifically states that neither Yoo nor Bybee, should be prosecuted for drafting the legal memoranda that sanctioned torture. But it would be unusual for an ethics report to make a definitive statement against prosecutions as that is usually left to the attorney general. Indeed, according to OPR policies and procedures, "If OPR determines that professional misconduct or poor judgment occurred, it prepares a report containing its findings and conclusions, and provides that report to the Deputy Attorney General as well as the appropriate Assistant Attorney General, the Director of [Executive Office of US Attorneys], or other appropriate component head.

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The legacy of George W. Bush

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The Guardian - By Jonathan Freedland, Suzanne Goldenberg, Simon Tisdall, Julian Borger, Gary Younge - Dec. 26 (Special Report) - A half-hour audio podcast looking back on the legacy of America's forty-third president. Taking in the Florida recount; the September 11 attacks and the subsequent war on terror; Hurricane Katrina; and the near-collapse of the economy - we ask, as most would have it, is Bush the worst president of all time? Or have we all mis-underestimated Dubya's legacy?

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The Woman Who Could Nail Bush: Are the Worst of the Torture Memos Still to Come?

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

AlterNet - By Scott Horton - Mar. 30 (News Analysis) - The real reason for their vehement opposition is that Johnsen is committed to overturning the Bush administration’s policies on torture and warrantless surveillance, which would clip the wings of the imperial presidency. Even more menacingly (from their perspective), she is committed to shining a light on some of the darkest skeletons of the Bush years. Already, publication of OLC memoranda authorizing torture, approving warrantless surveillance, and pronouncing the First and Fourth Amendments a dead letter in connection with domestic military operations has rocked the public. More memos, potentially even more disturbing, I have learned, are about to be made public soon. Yet these are difficult issues on which to attack Johnsen, other than through vague suggestions that she is “weak on national security.” Hence the steady stream of accusations linked to her largely irrelevant views about abortion rights.

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Seymour Hersh: "Executive Assassination Ring" Answered to Cheney, Had No Congressional Oversight

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0700

minnpost.com - By Eric Black - Mar. 13 (News Report) - "Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us.

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The Bush Legacy - Afghans rue Bush's 'war on terror'

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Aljazeera - By Aunohita Mojumdar - Dec. 24 (Special Report) - On the day George Bush, the US president, ends his period in office, millions of Afghans will be battling the bitter cold of winter and possible starvation. Eight years after Bush launched his 'war on terror' in response to the September 11 attacks, much of the human cost of this war remains under-reported. Increased fighting in the country has gradually decreased the ability of the UN, humanitarian agencies and NGOs to deliver basic services to the most vulnerable Afghans. The UN now categorises 79 of the 364 districts of the country as areas of "extreme risk", and international staff almost never travel by road. This lack of access is likely to increase in the short term, further debilitating the delivery of basic services like food, health and education.

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WPost Columnist Excuses Torture

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By David Swanson - Jan. 04 (News Analysis) - According to Albert Camus, "It is the job of thinking people not to be on the side of the executioners." But Washington Post editorial writer Ruth Marcus has joined the side of the executioners and provided a clear example of how that is respectably done in our time and place.

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Fence Affects Border Town Culture, Relationships

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

All Things Considered - By Jason Beaubien - Dec. 05 (Special Report) - The federal government is rushing to finish building 670 miles of fence along the southern border before President Bush leaves office — a project which the Department of Homeland Security says is on track to complete in the coming weeks.

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A National Security Legacy of Failure: Executive Summary

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

National Security Network - Jan. 09 (Investigative Report) - The sorry national security legacy of the Bush administration can be measured in in the President’s failure to meet his own rhetorical objectives: “victory” in Iraq, an Afghanistan cleansed of terrorists, a Middle East transformed and democratic, a US military strengthened, a global economy rejuvenated and a world in which democracy and freedom are “on the march.” It can also be charted in the renewal of terrorism, religious extremism and violence emanating from Central and South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia about which the administration can or will do little; the disintegration of our closest alliances and the rise of states openly hostile to us in our own hemisphere. Perhaps most starkly it is marked in domestic and world public opinion, where President Bush plummeted from the highest – to lowest-ranked President in the history of public opinion research, and took global regard for the US to uncharted lows. This dramatic decline, the largest in history, can be attributed first and foremost to the President’s failed national security policies. While economic failure will undoubtedly mar the Bush’s legacy, it is his foreign policy which will define George W. Bush as one of the worst presidents in American history.

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Report Says Wiretaps Got Too Little Legal Review

Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New York Times - By Eric Lichtbau, James Risen - Jul. 11 (News Report) - The federal report also says that the effectiveness of the warrantless surveillance program approved by President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks was unclear.

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The Republican War Against ACORN

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Jason Leopold - Sep. 27 (News Report) - In recent days, The Washington Post, The New York Times and other major news outlets have recounted the "troubled" history of the poor people's advocacy group ACORN, but left out the five-year anti-ACORN campaign led by White House adviser Karl Rove and other Republican operatives.

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Cheney Still Manipulating People -- Now In Public

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Dan Froomkin - Aug. 31 (News Analysis) - When he was vice president, Dick Cheney got his way by secretly wielding the instruments of power. Now that he's no longer in government, Cheney is still pulling levers and pushing buttons - he's just doing it in plain view. And it's the media that he's manipulating.

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Rulings of Wrongful Detentions at Guantánamo

Mon, 19 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By William Glaberson - Jan. 19 (News Report) - The decision was part of a pattern that has emerged in the closing chapter of the administration. In the last three months, at least 24 detainees have been declared improperly held by courts or a tribunal — or nearly 10 percent of the population at the detention camp in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, where about 245 men remain

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Was the 'Credit Crunch' a Myth Used to Sell a Trillion-Dollar Scam?

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

AlterNet - By Joshua Holland - Dec. 30 (Special Report) - For the most part, the press has continued to echo Bush's central assertion that there's a "credit crunch" preventing even qualified borrowers -- that's the key point -- from getting loans, and it's now part of the conventional wisdom. But a number of economists are questionioning the factual basis of the credit crunch narrative.

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Cheney Admits Detainee-Abuse Role

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Consortium News - By Jason Leopold - Dec. 16 (News Report) - Vice President Dick Cheney said for the first time Monday that he helped get the “process cleared” for the brutal interrogation program of suspected terrorists. In an interview with ABC News, Cheney was matter-of-fact and unapologetic about the harsh techniques used against the detainees — including waterboarding

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U.S. Rejected Aid for Israeli Raid on Iranian Nuclear Site

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

New York Times - By David Sanger - Jan. 11 (Investigative Report) - President Bush deflected a secret request by Israel last year for specialized bunker-busting bombs it wanted for an attack on Iran’s main nuclear complex and told the Israelis that he had authorized new covert action intended to sabotage Iran’s suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons, according to senior American and foreign officials. White House officials never conclusively determined whether Israel had decided to go ahead with the strike before the United States protested, or whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel was trying to goad the White House into more decisive action before Mr. Bush left office. But the Bush administration was particularly alarmed by an Israeli request to fly over Iraq to reach Iran’s major nuclear complex at Natanz, where the country’s only known uranium enrichment plant is located. The White House denied that request outright, American officials said, and the Israelis backed off their plans, at least temporarily. But the tense exchanges also prompted the White House to step up intelligence-sharing with Israel and brief Israeli officials on new American efforts to subtly sabotage Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, a major covert program that Mr. Bush is about to hand off to President-elect Barack Obama. They said he told the Israelis he had authorised new covert action intended to sabotage Iran's suspected effort to develop nuclear weapons. The Bush Administration was particularly alarmed by an Israeli request to fly over Iraq to reach Iran's major nuclear complex at Natanz, where the country's only known uranium enrichment plant is located. The White House denied the request outright, US officials said. But the tense exchanges also prompted the White House to brief Israeli officials on new US efforts to sabotage Iran's nuclear infrastructure, a major covert program that Mr Bush is about to hand over to President-elect Barack Obama.

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Californians to Bush: the feeling's mutual

Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

San Francisco Chronicle - By Carla Marinucci - Jan. 05 (Special Report) - With just 15 days remaining for the Bush administration, political observers note that the Republican president's chilly relationship with the decidedly blue state - a relationship that is poised to undergo a revolution with Democratic President-elect Barack Obama - means that many here will define the Bush legacy in California as forgettable at best.

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We Arm the World

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:00:00 -0800

In These Times - By Frida Berrigan - Jan. 04 (Special Report) - In 2007, U.S. foreign military sales agreements totaled more than $32 billion — nearly triple the amount during President Bush’s first full year in office. The Pentagon routinely justifies weapons sales as “promoting regional stability,” but many of these arms end up in the world’s war zones. In 2006 and 2007, the five biggest recipients of U.S. weapons were Pakistan ($3.5 billion), Iraq ($2.2 billion), Israel ($2.2 billion), Afghanistan ($1.9 billion) and Colombia ($580 million) — all countries where conflict rages.

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On the U.S. Duty to Prosecute War Crimes (Part I)

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0800

valtinsblog.blogspot.com - By Valtin - Feb. 18 (News Analysis) - If you read for awhile the various blog and mainstream press opinion pieces on the issue of prosecuting American officials, you will come across a good deal of pessimism and ignorance. Some of the critics of prosecuting are well-informed, but present one-sided views of the difficulties involved in making such a prosecution. But UN officials seem to find the issue quite straightforward.

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