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Talkleft describes some key passages
in the PATRIOT II: Revenge of the Patriot act:

Some of the key provision of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of
2003 include:

Section 201, “Prohibition of Disclosure of Terrorism Investigation Detainee Information”:
Safeguarding the dissemination of information related to national security has been a hallmark
of Ashcroft’s first two years in office, and the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003
follows in the footsteps of his October 2001 directive to carefully consider such interest when
granting Freedom of Information Act requests. While the October memo simply encouraged FOIA
officers to take national security, “protecting sensitive business information and, not least,
preserving personal privacy” into account while deciding on requests, the proposed legislation
would enhance the department’s ability to deny releasing material on suspected terrorists in
government custody through FOIA.

Section 202, “Distribution of ‘Worst Case Scenario’ Information”: This would introduce
new FOIA restrictions with regard to the Environmental Protection Agency. As provided for in the
Clean Air Act, the EPA requires private companies that use potentially dangerous chemicals must
produce a ?worst case scenario? report detailing the effect that the release of these
controlled substances would have on the surrounding community. Section 202 of this Act would,
however, restrict FOIA requests to these reports, which the bill’s drafters refer to as “a
roadmap for terrorists.” By reducing public access to “read-only” methods for only those
persons “who live and work in the geographical area likely to be affected by a worst-case scenario,”
this subtitle would obfuscate an established level of transparency between private industry and
the public.

Everything old is new again:

did Powell’s tape of Iraqi officers date back to before 1998?

So the following e-mail I got from the leftist trainspotter mailing list claims:

An Iraqui refugee in Norway, Former nuclear
scientist,52 years old Jamil Aziz Slewa, says
that Powells recording of two Iraqui officers
discussing the movement of wheapons is
probably pre 1998, if it is not false.

Slewa came as a refugee 4 years ago and
works as a serviceman for x-ray equipment
at the central Hospital of Rogaland.

In 1998 he was interviewed by UN
weapon inspectors for 3 days in
Stavanger.

Slewa confirms that before the Golf War, Iraq was in the
process of producing a Hiroshima-size nuclea bomb. The
Golf War led to the destruction of this program.
Up to then the Iraqis had help from the US,
France, Germany and the UK, who supported
Iraq in its war against Iran.

Iraq wanted a nuclear bomb because Israel
had one.

The cat-and-mouse play that Powell described
in the UN security council was only going on during the first years after the war. At that time Saddam believed that the situation would soon normalize, says Slewa.

Slewa claims that Iraq’s nuclear program was buried in
1995, and has not been restarted since.

Source: Stavanger Aftenblad, a big, highly respected
serious center-right paper in Stavanger.

Quoted in the internet paper NETTAVISEN
www.nettavisen.no owned by the nr. 2 Norwegian (private) TV channel, TV2, at http://www.nettavisen.no/servlets/page?section=309&item=253952

you are welcome to copy and quote this text as much as you like.

(I cleaned up some of the spelling errors.)

New to the left

Each day I list the blogs new to the linklist. Want to be added? Use the
form, Luke.
Entry does not guarantee winning. No purchase necessary. Offer void where
prohibited. You must either be a fiery liberal spirit or in the vanguard of
the workers revolution to participate. At a pinch we’ll take dedicated left
anarchists and the like as well. No wishy washy centrists need apply.
The decision of the judges is final.

Polygon, the Dancing Bear

Occasional notes on politics, history, architecture, and life. By Lawrence Kestenbaum.

The Hauser Report

By Jeff Hauser.

John Quiggin on
the scam that is private finance intiative (aka making private profits from public money):

Another PFI (private finance initiative) project in the UK (in Australia these are called Public
Private Partnerships) has run into strife. It’s a tramway in the London suburb of Croydon. The
problem has arisen with a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) which is not, as you might think a new
kind of tram. The SPV is a financial entity set up to make it appear that the risks of the project
have been transferred from the public to the private sector, which is crucial in justifying the
high rates of return paid to private investors in these deals. Unfortunately, it appears that this
particular SPV doesn’t have any assets with which to meet the costs of something going wrong so, in
all probability, the public will have to pick up the tab. The story is reported
here. What’s really
striking though is the comment of one of the financiers

Mr Rawlinson did not see the Croydon difficulties as a problem for SPVs generally. “Most are perfectly
safe because they refer to schools or hospitals where the source of income is guaranteed and if they
run into trouble they are supported by local or central government.”

In other words, the supposed risk transfer in these schemes is a fraud, which is what the critics
have been saying all along.

Pandagon on the state of the economy
after two years of Bush:

Two-plus years of being promised nothing but tax cuts is doing nothing to restore faith or activity
in the economy. A year and a half of a war on terror with much bluster but no significant victory
since late 2001 isn’t doing anything. An impending war with Iraq that can only be justified by building
up a piddling two-bit dictatorship into a greater threat than the mass murderers we’ve lost track of
isn’t doing anything. Constant promises of increasing supply in an overproducing economy isn’t doing
anything.

And the best part? We get to run deficits for the foreseeable future to finance all this uselessness,
and the serially poor handling of domestic affairs will be glossed over by the media and ineffectually
attacked by the only other alternative we have.

Not true.

There are alternatives to the Democrats, (Greens, socialist parties like the SWP, others) and there’s
also the possibility of rebuilding the Democratic Party into a true liberal party again. Thing is, all these
options take time and time is not something we have enough off at the moment. Still, better to die fighting
then to despair. Even if we’re not able now to stop the Republicans from fucking up the US, it is
worthwhile to get involved. If every leftwing, (liberal, socialist or otherwise blogger is as active in (local)
politics as we are blogging, we can move mountains. But it doesn’t happen if we just sit here complaining on
our blogs and think that’s enough. So fax your senators, send that rice to Bush and get involved!