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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (28720)	6/5/2004 3:18:48 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 81568

Rightwingers need to start respecting truth and quit adopting Soviet style propaganda techniques. This has been going on for too long, where the right has absolutely no conscience about lying, cheating, fabricating and slandering, even our most courageous war heros like McCain, Kerry and Cleland. Callingf them "traitors" and so forth when their only leaders never even served in combat. The rightwing also needs to drop the idea of trying to indoctrinate everyone, intimidate anyone who disagrees with them and refuse to admit mistakes. Free respectful debate is very important in our society but when one side starts with the lying, loud-mouthing and name-calling, the whole thing disintegrates. Perhaps that is what the rightwing wants and needs, because they cannot run on their issues, and therefore they don't want a real debate, but all the same it is un-American, un-ethical and sometimes downright evil.

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (28720)	6/5/2004 3:38:00 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

another fine mess of the bush administration.... having ONE OUT OF SIX PEOPLE IN IRAQ being mercenaries and contract workers is TEN TIMES THE LEVEL OF THE FIRST GULF WAR....and is making the cost of this war OUT OF CONTROL and with LITTLE ABILITY TO CONTROL POLICY AND ACTION Why Did U.S. Hire These 4 Guys? By Delvin Barrett CBS Friday 04 June 2004 Four former state prison officials hired by the Justice Department to help set up Iraq's prison system have backgrounds that should have precluded them from the private contracting jobs, a senator said Wednesday. Each had lawsuits or other problems linked to their tenures in state government, Sen. Charles Schumer said. He called for the Justice Department's inspector general to investigate the "slipshod" hiring process that allowed them to work as private contractors. "These are not the four people you would want to run any prison system," said Schumer, D-N.Y. Three of them visited various Iraqi prisons over a period of about four months in 2003 and worked to get them operating. A fourth was given a supervisory position in the newly reconstituted prison system. The four officials were part of a 25-member team. One of the four, Terry Stewart, was sued by the Justice Department in 1997, when he ran Arizona's Corrections Department. The lawsuit charged that at least 14 female inmates were repeatedly raped, sexually assaulted and watched by corrections workers as they dressed, showered and used the bathroom. At the time, officials also charged prison authorities had denied investigators access to staff and prisoners to examine abuse complaints. After the state agreed to provide more stringent oversight of employees handling female inmates, the suit was dropped. Neither Stewart nor any other state officials admitted any wrongdoing. Stewart was out of the country Wednesday and could not be reached. A Justice Department spokesman declined comment. Schumer also cited John Armstrong, who left as Corrections Department chief in Connecticut last year after the agency was sued by female guards who alleged they were sexually harassed. Armstrong denied his departure had anything to do with the lawsuit. Also named by Schumer: O.L. "Lane" McCotter, who resigned under fire as head of the Utah Corrections Department after a mentally ill inmate died after spending 16 hours strapped to a restraining chair. McCotter's predecessor, Gary DeLand, who headed the agency in the late 1980s, when civil rights lawyers charged his department denied appropriate medical care to inmates. DeLand has denied the charge. A jury awarded nearly half a million dollars to an inmate incarcerated in 1989 when he suffered renal failure. The jury found DeLand and other officials violated the inmate's constitutional rights be delaying medical care. Go to Original Accused U.S. Soldier Wants Cheney, Rumsfeld Evidence Reuters Friday 04 June 2004 Denver - An American woman soldier at the center of the Iraqi prison abuse scandal has asked that Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld testify on her behalf, her attorneys said on Thursday. The soldier, Pfc. Lynndie England, 21, is due to appear at a preliminary hearing in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where she is based, on June 22. England appeared in at least two notorious photographs taken at Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, in one of which she holds a leash attached to the neck of a prostrate, naked Iraqi man. The photographs sparked a storm of outrage, particularly in the Arab world, and President Bush issued an apology for the abuse of prisoners. England's lawyer Rose Mary Zapor told a news conference that Cheney and Rumsfeld were on a list of more than 130 people that the defense would like to call as witnesses. Zapor said England's defense that she was only following orders could be bolstered by evidence from Rumsfeld and Cheney. The vice president would have knowledge of "intelligence tactics" due to his service as secretary of defense in the presidency of Bush's father, she said. Zapor and England's other lawyers acknowledged that they have no power to compel witnesses to testify at the article 32 hearing. Such hearings are similar to a preliminary hearing in civilian courts. A single investigating officer recommends whether there is enough evidence for a case to proceed to a court martial. Another of England's lawyers, Carl McGuire, said he expected the case would be bound over for a court martial. "At these hearings, what you hope for is to get some discovery material and that some of the counts are dismissed," he said. Six other U.S. Army reservists have also been charged with abusing detainees at Abu Ghraib. One of them, Spec. Jeremy Sivits, pleaded guilty last month and was sentenced to one year in prison. There was no immediate comment from Cheney or Rumsfeld on the request that they testify. GEE...WHAT A SURPRISE! -------