Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SirRealist who wrote (52855)	10/18/2002 9:24:54 AM
From: SirRealist	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Will this impact energy? For Immediate Release Oct 17, 2002 Contact: Press Office 202-646-5172 COURT ORDERS VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY TO TURN OVER DOCUMENTS IN ENERGY TASK FORCE CASE CHENEY LAWYER ADMITS VICE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE HAS NOT SEARCHED FOR DOCUMENTS DESPITE MONTHS OF LITIGATION – JUDGE CALLS REVELATION “STARTLING” (Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, reported today that a federal court ruled that Vice President Cheney and The Bush White House must produce documents about his Energy Task Force. The Honorable Emmet G. Sullivan had ruled that the Vice President was required to produce information concerning the identities of Task Force participants, how it operated, and the role of the Vice President in the Task Force. Non-privileged documents must be made public by November 5, 2002. Judge Sullivan this morning rejected motions by the government lawyers for the Vice President requesting that his office be exempted from discovery. In doing so, the Court ruled that Vice President Cheney must comply with the law “like everyone has to do.” Judicial Watch has accused the Bush Administration of delaying the release of these documents for “delay’s sake,” and indeed Vice President Cheney’s government lawyers were forced to admit they would seek an appeal of the court’s ruling, which would push off the release of the disputed documents until after the November elections. Judicial Watch was forced to file a lawsuit last year under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (open meetings law) after it was rebuffed in its requests for information on the Task Force by Vice President Cheney. Several months later, the Energy Task Force was also sued by the Sierra Club, which is now a co-plaintiff in Judicial Watch’s lawsuit. And in what Judge Sullivan called a “startling revelation,” Justice Department attorney Shannen Coffin today admitted, after well over a year of litigating that the documents were too sensitive to be released, that no one had actually reviewed documents in the Vice President’s office concerning the Task Force. Coffin later tried to back away from his statement, yet confessed at the end of this morning’s court hearing that the review had not been completed. “The Court’s ruling is a victory for openness in government. And for the Vice President to cite executive privilege and ‘constitutional’ concerns over documents no one has yet examined shows that the arrogance and bad faith stonewalling of the Bush Administration has risen to new heights. Their gamesmanship must end,” stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. judicialwatch.org

To: SirRealist who wrote (52855)	10/18/2002 10:28:29 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 281500

U.S. hypocrisy revealed By Medea Benjamin Op/Ed - USA TODAY 10/18/02 The recent revelation that North Korea (news - web sites) has violated agreements with both the United States and South Korea (news - web sites) by failing to end its nuclear program is being interpreted by some as strengthening the hand of the Bush administration to attack Iraq. These rogue, erratic states that comprise the infamous ''axis of evil'' obviously cannot be trusted, some say, so let's stop pussyfooting around and just knock 'em out. But rather than strengthen the argument for military solutions, the new complication in North Korea actually points out the absurdity of seeking military solutions. The U.S. military is well aware of the horrendous costs of a war with North Korea, and this has, in the past, tempered the military option. Perhaps this is also why the immediate U.S. response has been measured and reasoned, seeking help from our allies in the region to find a peaceful resolution. But what sense does it make to have a foreign policy that says we'll negotiate with North Korea, a state that is conceivably more of a threat because it already has such weapons, but we'll pre-emptively strike Iraq because we think it might be developing these weapons? Unfortunately, many countries around the world have or are developing weapons of mass destruction. We can't possibly go around the world waging selective pre-emptive strikes against them. That would indeed not only signal perpetual war, but also global destruction as attacked nations unleash their deadly weapons on our allies and on us. We must also remember that our goal right now should be to break up the terrorist network that attacked us on Sept. 11, not be the unilateral global vigilante. The only solution to dealing with Iraq and North Korea is to use diplomacy, regional pressure and the United Nations (news - web sites) as ways to press for disarmament. Moreover, we cannot ask countries to selectively disarm. In areas of intense conflict, such as the Middle East and East Asia, there must be regional disarmament. Finally, we can't continue to say that other countries must not develop weapons of mass destruction while we, by far the mightiest military power in the world, continue to refine these deadly weapons. In fact, we are now developing more ''usable'' nuclear weapons and have outlined a scenario for their use against Iraq. To make the world safe from weapons of mass destruction, the United States must begin to live by the same set of rules we would like to impose on others and seriously embark on a course that will truly lead us to a nuclear weapons-free world. _______________________________________________________ Medea Benjamin is founding director of the human-rights group Global Exchange, based in San Francisco. story.news.yahoo.com