Bush administration

U.S. settles suit with Muslims in post-9/11 abuse
Tue Nov 3, 2009 3:13pm EST

By Christine Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. government will pay $1.26 million to five Muslim men detained for months without charges after the September 11 attacks who sued for unlawful imprisonment and abuse, their lawyers said on Tuesday.

The men claimed they suffered inhumane and degrading treatment in a Brooklyn detention center, including solitary confinement, severe beatings, incessant verbal abuse and a blackout on communications with their families and attorneys.

What exactly are they monitoring?

According to Wiki http://en.wikipedia....
The NSA warrantless surveillance controversy concerns surveillance of persons within the United States incident to the collection of foreign intelligence by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the war on terror. Under this program, referred to by the Bush administration as the "terrorist surveillance program",[1] part of the broader President's Surveillance Program, the NSA is authorized by executive order to monitor, without warrants, phone calls, e-mails, Internet activity, and text messaging, and other communication involving any party believed by the NSA to be outside the U.S., even if the other end of the communication lies within the U.S.

U.S. President Barack Obama acknowledged Tuesday that officials in the administration of his predecessor, George W. Bush, could potentially face prosecution for writing legal memos authorizing the CIA to use harsh interrogation methods on terrorism suspects.

Speaking for the first time since ordering the release of the secret legal briefs last week, Obama said the United States lost its "moral bearings" with use of the controversial tactics, which have been widely condemned by human rights groups and legal observers as torture.

With the release of the memos, the president ruled out prosecuting CIA officials who performed the harsh interrogations, provided they followed the guidelines set by government superiors who held that such practices were legal at the time.

President Bush has the legal power to order the indefinite military detentions of civilians captured in the United States, the federal appeals court in Richmond, Va., ruled on Tuesday in a fractured 5-to-4 decision.

Good read for our Arab friends--
if you care about west-middle east relations or at least politics in general, that is..

http://www.time.com/...

Excerpt from Time's Articles
["People want to fall in love with him, they want to believe in him, they want to embrace him," says Shibley Telhami, principal investigator for the 2009 Annual Arab Public Opinion Survey]

It seems after the Fear of Terror, the Bush Administration leftover were about to use the fear of Germ War. Many Conspiracy theories have been popping around the Swine Flu outbreak. But my theory could answer the following questions :

1 - Is it a coincidence that the outbreak took place in Mexico, who have the 2nd largest border with the US and the first provider of illegal immigrants?

Knowing that the Bush's administration was planning to build the ''Great Wall of Mexico'' for its protection from the illigal immigrants, it is certain that the Swine Flu will limit the incoming flights and people from Mexico, as well, it will Justify the construction of the Wall and increase the anti-mexican movement in the US.

The newly-published Bush administration memos show a chilling, Orwellian abuse of language to justify torture

David Cole

"Those methods, read on a bright, sunny, safe day in April 2009, appear graphic and disturbing." So Dennis Blair, President Obama's director of national intelligence, stated as he sought to minimize the significance of four previously secret Justice Department memos that employed tortured legal reasoning to authorise CIA agents to use cruel and abusive tactics to interrogate suspects inside secret prisons.

Some aspects of Qatars economy can be found in this article.

The Ugly Truth: America's Economy is Not Coming Back
http://www.thiscantb...

President Barack Obama and his economic team are being careful to couch all their talk about economic stimulus programs and bank bailout programs in warnings that the economic downturn is serious and that it will take considerable time to bounce back.

January 22, 2009
NEWS ANALYSIS
Scientists Welcome Obama’s Words

By GARDINER HARRIS and WILLIAM J. BROAD
WASHINGTON — When he vowed in his Inaugural Address to “restore science to its rightful place,” President Obama signaled an end to eight years of stark tension between science and government.

But many of the Bush administration’s restrictions on science, like those governing stem cell research, will take time to be removed. And whether the Obama administration entirely reverses its predecessor’s strict controls over the government’s main scientific agencies remains to be seen.

Still, many scientists were exuberant. Staff members throughout the government’s scientific agencies held inaugural parties on Tuesday, and many reported being teary-eyed with joy.

January 22, 2009
Obama to Shut Guantánamo Site and C.I.A. Prisons

By MARK MAZZETTI and WILLIAM GLABERSON
WASHINGTON — President Obama is expected to sign executive orders Thursday directing the Central Intelligence Agency to shut what remains of its network of secret prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year, government officials said.

The orders, which would be the first steps in undoing detention policies of former President George W. Bush, would rewrite American rules for the detention of terrorism suspects. They would require an immediate review of the 245 detainees still held at the naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to determine if they should be transferred, released or prosecuted.