DemocracyNow.org Tuesday - expanded Patriot Act, Nader on recount...

[realFedUp]

http://www.democracynow.org

Tuesday, December 14th, 2004
9/11 Intel Bill Expands Powers of Patriot Act and "Politicizes Intelligence"

snip-

ROBERT DREYFUSS: Yeah. I'm not as charitable as Tim Edgar towards the Democrats. In fact, you can make the case that the Democrats are chiefly to blame for this bill, because they pushed for the creation of this 9/11 commission in the first place. They joined with these wives of the victims of 9/11 to accelerate its work and to demand the conclusions that resulted. The Democrats then pressed for the legislation, and were really the main cheerleaders in Congress for the bill in the first place. And the fact that they managed to head off some of the crazy right-wing proposals that some of the Republicans wanted to include in it doesn't take away from the fact that the Democrats have been really totally unable since 9/11 to come up with a strategy to neutralize Bush on the so-called war on terrorism. I mean, I could speak at length about why I think the Bush administration is wildly exaggerating both the threat from terrorism, which I think is you know, significant, but not at all requiring a -- even the creation of a Homeland Security department. I think that was an extreme overreach in terms of what's necessary in this country. So, I think the Democrats have completely and utterly failed to grapple with the issue of the war on terrorism, and you have leading Democrats like Senator Schumer and Clinton from New York, Joe Lieberman and others, becoming almost rabid attackers of Bush for being too soft on the war on terrorism. So, perversely, the Democrats have become sort of, you know, table-pounders, demanding that the Bush administration be more extreme than it already is in the war on terrorism. I think that this is a political issue that certainly resonated during the 2004 election when Senator Kerry, kind of flailing around for some way to grapple with this, started demanding that the 9/11 commission recommendations be implemented, and all of the political pressure to pass this bill, you know, came on the White House from the Democrats. Initially, the White House resisted because of military pressure, the idea of centralization of intelligence. I cannot stress enough how important that is, because what you are going to have now with this National Intelligence Director, is a central figure, a highly political position, effectively under the control of the President directly, who is now going to be supervising the entire $40 billion-plus intelligence community for political purposes. One of the good things about intelligence is it's grounded in reality. That's why the CIA, for all of its flaws, resisted the war in Iraq. Because they were more aware than the political people that the terrorism links to 9/11 from Iraq were non-existent and even questioned some of the WMD charges that the Pentagon was pushing. So, when you have an intelligence system grounded in reality that's now being subverted by political purposes, I think really, all bets are off.

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[G_j]

1. good show

Nader had some interesting things to say about the election and the recount also.

www.democracynow.org

Dec. 14


Ralph Nader on the Ohio Recount, Bush's Cabinet Reshuffle and the White House "Lowballing" of U.S. Casualties in Iraq

As the Ohio delegation to the Electoral College cast its votes for President Bush despite calls for a review of voting irregularities, we speak with independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader about the Ohio recount, the future of the Democratic Party, the reshuffling of Bush's cabinet, the occupation of Iraq and much more.

..also..

Pinochet Indicted on Charges of Murder and Kidnapping

Former Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet was placed under house arrest on human rights charges after a judge in Santiago ruled he was mentally fit to stand trial for the abuses committed during his brutal 17-year regime. We speak with Chilean-American professor Ariel Dorfman of Duke University.