Confirmation very likely

WASHINGTON, September 15 – John Roberts finished his testimony before the Senate-committee with a catchy one-liner, “I am not an ideologue”. It is expected that he will be confirmed for the Chief Justice position in the Supreme Court without problems, the confirmation could come soon as the Senate is implied to keep to Bush’s recommendation to do so before the 3rd of October, as the new term for the Supreme Court begins. He will become the 17th Chief Justice on the Supreme Court in the history of the United States.

The Democrats tried to lure Roberts into daring statements but he was wise enough to keep it to a minimum and only say what the committee wanted to hear. They brought up hot issue like civil rights and abortion but he didn’t bite, he sufficed to say he respects the law and will interpret the Constitution without any political influence. He tried to get the Democratic Senators away from the thought that he is extremely conservative, stating that the memos they are so upset about are from twenty years ago, when he was still a young man. “I think if you’ve looked at what I’ve done since I took the judicial oath, that should convince you that I’m not an ideologue,” Roberts said.

“If the Constitution says that the little guy should win, the little guy’s going to win in court before me. But if the Constitution says that the big guy should win, well, then the big guy’s going to win, because my obligation is to the Constitution. That’s the oath,” he said.

Many are still anxiously awaiting Bush’s second nominee for the associate judge position on the Supreme Court. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has announced her retirement and Bush still has to find a replacement after he bumped the first nominee, Roberts, up to the Chief Justice position.

By Jason Leopold
Kenyon International, a subsidiary of Service Corporation International (SCI), a Houston-based funeral conglomerate headed by Robert Waltrip—a close friend of the Bush family, is negotiating a lucrative contract with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to remove dead bodies in areas ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.
SCI paid $200,000 to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that sought to expose that two members of the Texas funeral commission, the agency which regulates the funeral industry, were actually employees of the company they were supposed to monitor–an obvious conflict-of-interest.

In the civil matter, which took place at two Jewish cemeteries in Florida, the plaintiff’s attorney said that SCI secretly broke into and opened burial vaults and dumped remains in a wooded area where the remains may have been consumed by wild animals.

Additionally, SCI buried “remains in locations other than those purchased by plaintiffs; crushing burial vaults in order to make room for other vaults; burying remains on top of the other rather than side-by-side; secretly digging up and removing remains; secretly burying remains head-to-foot rather than side-by-side; secretly mixing body parts and remains from different individuals; secretly allowing plots owned by one part to be occupied by a different person; secretly selling plots in rows where there were more graves assigned than the rows could accommodate; secretly allowed graves to encroach on other plots; secretly sold plots so narrow that the plots could not accommodate standard burial vaults; secretly participated in the desecration of gravesites and markers and failed to exercise reasonable care in handling the plaintiff’s loved ones remains.”

Kenyon International. a unit of SCI, is presently in charge of the delicate task of collecting the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dead bodies in the aftermath of the hurricane. The fact that a subsidiary of SCI is in talks with the federal government, largely due to its close ties to the White House, to remove bodies in New Orleans is ghastly.

The whistleblower suit dates back to 1999 and alleges that while he was governor of Texas, George W. Bush’s office interfered with an aggressive state investigation into the embalming practices by Service Corporation International, a Houston-based funeral conglomerate headed by Robert Waltrip—a close friend of the Bush family who also contributed heavily to then Gov. Bush’s gubernatorial campaigns, and donated $100,000 to former President George Bush’s presidential library.

An attorney for Eliza May, a former whistleblower who served as executive director of the Texas Funeral Services Commission, the state agency that regulates the funeral business, claimed that she was fired from her state job because she raised questions about SCI’s embalming practices and sought to expose the company’s misdeeds. She filed a whistleblower suit in 1999 alleging “she was the victim of “political” retaliation because she was threatening the interests of a well-connected political patron of the governor,” Newsweek reported in an April 21, 2001, story.

May claimed that current White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales was also complicit in the matter and even helped SCI in a cover-up. Gonzales, who was also Bush’s gubernatorial counsel, reportedly received a memo on April 22, 1996, suggesting possible improprieties by two funeral commissioners with ties to SCI.

“Bush and his top aides have heatedly denied the charges and suggested the entire matter was drummed up by Democratic lawyers with political motives, Newsweek reported.

The memo, written by Marc Allen Connelly, who was general counsel to the funeral services commission at the time, and sent to Dick McNeil, the Bush-appointed chairman of the funeral commission, stated that Connelly “received information” from Texas state officials that two of the funeral commissioners charged with regulating the state funeral business actually worked for SCI-the largest funeral firm in the state. Although one of the commissioners was openly an SCI officer (the one appointed by Bush), Connelly stated that state banking records he inspected showed that another of the commissioners,” Newsweek reported.

The revelation represented a “a possible statutory conflict.” Texas law prohibited any two commissioners from having ties “directly or indirectly “to the same funeral company.

In the memo, Connelly told McNeil that he should “immediately inform the Governor of this apparent conflict and also recommend that the Governor take action to remove both (the two SCI-related commissioners) from the commission because both individuals knew or should have known of this conflict yet failed to notify the governor’s office.”

McNeil stated in a deposition that after he received the Connelly memo, he faxed it to Polly Sowell, who then served as Bush’s appointments secretary. “When she was questioned, Sowell was asked what she did with the memo. “I sent it to the General Counsel’s Office,” she said. But Sowell said she did not remember what happened after that and, in his interview with NEWSWEEK, Gonzales said such a memo was merely one of many that might have crossed his desk and was otherwise not memorable. In any case, Bush never acted on the memo’s recommendations that the SCI affiliated commissioners be removed.”

www.jasonleopold.com

Insurgents retaliate

BAGHDAD, September 14 – As dawn arose Baghdad had a rude awakening as the gathering place of day workers was targeted by a huge suicide-bomber. The mass of people gathered there to look for work were struck by a devastating bomb killing at least 88 people instantly and wounding another 227. The havoc then continued to around 4PM, blasts shocked the city and at the end of the afternoon a total of 152 deaths had been confirmed with over 542 wounded.

These attacks have been rated the second-worst since the start of the war in Iraq. U.S. officials immediately assessed that this was a retaliatory strike for the clean-sweep of Tal Afar, an insurgent stronghold and an important point to smuggle in terrorists from Syria. Last week this town was swept completely and thus severely injured the operations that normally took place from this strategic point.

Al Qaeda claimed the bombings not long afterwards, confirming the assessment by the U.S. officials that this was payback for the Tal Afar breakdown. The night before 17 men had been executed in a small village just north of Baghdad.

Talk of withdrawals at end of year

BAGHDAD, September 14 – President Bush and Iraqi President Talabani released a statement today that they will not back away from fighting the insurgents. They also agreed that no timetable will be set for withdrawals although there were a few interesting remarks. President Talabani stated that he expects U.S. Forces might even be able to withdraw 50,000 troops by the end of this year because the Iraqi capacity of troops is sufficient.

The mood of these unexpected remarks were terribly friendly, Talabani urged that he is commited to the alliance with the United States. He also agreed with Bush that Iraq should be a democratic state from now on, ensuring safety and freedom for the citizens of the for decades terrorized country. Talabani expects that the U.S. troops may even be able to fully withdraw by 2006 but urges that there will be no deadline and everything will be discussed before any definitive decisions will be made. Bush seemed less happy with these remarks but tried to cover his feelings by adding that the U.S. troops will stay as long as they will be needed.

Meanwhile President Bush also re-emphasized the warning to Syria, urging that they should not shelter any terrorists and also not aid the insurgents in Iraq. Many insurgents enter the country through Syria and other neighboring countries but they do nothing about it.

Spreading fear is still their best weapon

U.S., September 12 – Yesterday a new terrorist tape emerged from nowhere, being delivered to the ABC News Network in Pakistan. On the tape the converted American Adam Yahiye Gadahn threatens to hit Los Angeles and Melbourne next, “Allah willing” he added. The 11-minute tape was delivered on the fourth anniversary of the terrorist attack that started it al, 9/11.

Is this tape anymore than just another way to spread fear on an already sad day? Of course Madrid and even more recent London still play in our heads as these masked cowards announce to continue to wreak death and destruction, but in all honesty those attack were no where near the enormous attack of 9/11, not to denounce their importance. The true question is whether Al Qaeda is still able to repeat a devastating attack as 9/11, especially in these times where security is immense high and everyone walks on the tip of their toes.

The authorities in LA immediately responded to share that there are no known credible threats to the city, they also urged that we shouldn’t let fear lead our lives, a very smart remark. Time will tell what will happen, I know what I’ll be praying for tonight.

Today is exactly 4 years after the disastrous day that shook the world. It hasn’t been the same ever since and never will be. There have been several critical reports, investigations and even conspiracy theories. I’m not here to contribute to this, I’m sharing with you a few proven facts investigated by two internationally respected politicians and well-documented. Draw your own conclusions, do with it as you please, the ones responsible for this sad day will get their fair share.

- In Sept. 2000 the PNAC committee drafted a document called “Rebuilding America’s Defenses”. In this document a neoconservative think tank looks back on the cold war and agrees that after the Soviet Union has gone there are areas in Central Asia and the Middle East that are not under some sort of US control. It also concludes that there are several things they have to gain control over to guarantee world leadership, one of these things are the oil supplies in the Middle East. More soldiers and a defense budget increase are impossible to sell to the citizens because there is no lead for it.
They speak of a “Pearl Harbor” effect, which could steamroll these developments and make it possible to establish new US bases overseas.

- The leader of the terrorist cell, Mohammed Atta, is on the Pentagon’s watchlist, yet the Ministry of Defense knowingly keeps this information from other intelligence services.

- Mossad, Israel’s secret service tries to warn the US in August 2001, giving the intelligence services a list of 200 terrorist suspects. Four of the names on that list are actual hijackers on 9/11. Nothing was ever done with that list.

- On August 6, 2001 Condoleezza Rice gets a memo on her desk with the headline “Bin Laden is determined to strike on American soil”. Plane hijackings are discussed in this memo. Apparently nothing comes from it.

- On 10/07 2001 the Phoenix department of the FBI sends a memo to the HQ with the message that multiple Muslim men are taking flying lessons and shooting lessons, they urge this should be investigated. Nothing happens.

- The twentieth hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui is arrested in Paris, his laptop gets confiscated by the FBI yet the big chiefs at the Feds deny the agents to investigate the laptop until the 11th of September. All the information regarding 9/11, the hijackers and the entire terrorist operation is found on the laptop.

- During the hijackings, which occur the latest at 8:20AM, no fighter planes hit the air. For 100 minutes no military planes take off while it is usual for fighters to control airplanes that change course during flight. In the nine months before 9/11 this occurs 67 times, yet on this so important day no jets take off for a full 100 minutes!

In my mind there is no doubt that Bush, if not abused, at least used the information they had to ensure any attack would go through so he had his leverage to start overseas military action. Many believe these facts can only be blamed on incompetence, of course an easy argument and hard to disagree with. Yet it strikes me as odd that a government that is able to do about anything, control anyone, detain anyone, use satellites to monitor any movement and even manage to get men on the moon (well the NASA did but you get my point) cannot even prevent this situation when so much information has been delivered beforehand.

Draw your own conclusions, maybe someday the truth will be exposed.