I spent over 28 years as an intelligence officer with the US Army, much of which was in the Middle East. I also supported Special Operations on numerous occasions.

Your examples of why Special Operations needs more transparancy were Abu Graibe (ex) were all regular Army operations with Regular Army intelligence operators in the prison, and with CIA operations. None of the examples were Special Operations. They are a special breed of people and are, for the most part, more higher qualified and knowledgable of the requirements of the need for keeping information secret than most of their counterparts in the Regular Army. +

n0UBhCGc36D X7jIgpGRn99MR kvmtdZcIyUqVZY

In regards to Osama Bin Laden and Pakistan. I hope this answers some of your questions.

SOG not used in Pakistan because Bush government did not want to catch the ones they have been supporting, financing, supplying, training and using as world wide mercenaries since the 80's.

If Bush catches or kills his buddy Osama.

Then Osama's friends have threatened to expose documents and evidence that proves Bush was behind the 9/11 attacks such as the fact that all 19 alleged terrorists were trained by the U.S. Government at a place called the "School of the America's" down south here in the U.S.A..

School of the America's

United States Army School of the Americas ,Fort Benning in Columbus, Ga.

http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usamhi/usarsa/main.htm

Check CBS 60 minutes report from the 80's and their follow up report in early 90's.
See the place first hand for yourselves.

CBS had some real good footage.

School currently has a sister camp/training compound in Texas which is also run by the CIA.

Which by the way is a school owned, financed and operated by the CIA.

And the fact that 15 of the 19 alleged terrorists were from Bush's friends in Saudi Arabia. The other 4 were from two smaller countries in Africa. And that NONE of the 19 alleged terrorists of 9/11 had ever been to Iraq and or Afghanistan and or Iran.

Also that G.W. Bush and his daddy have personally had meetings with Osama Bin Laden in the past and that there are press photos to prove this from the 80's and the 90's.

Just like there are press photos showing Ollie North and Collin Powel shaking hands with the Sandinistas (recently reprinted in the "Nation" magazine by William F. Buckley.

I was an instructor at the School of the America's. I know. I know who signed my paycheck.

Payback is a b----.
Because I am going to rat out everybody in the government who has participated in screwing me in the past.

I have knowledge of most all their crimes from the 70's to present.

Yes I have a personal agenda, that being that I will see ALL the CRIMINALS in the U.S. government in prison at minimum for the rest of their lives.

To; zz zilled,
Independent is fine.
But filling the BLOG with stuff/info that is Irrelevant to and not directly related the Blog original topic is SPAMMING and an obvious attempt to disrupt the BLOG.

We all can read for ourselves the news in other publications or see it on TV with out you or someone else taking up space on the Washington Post Blogs like you have by posting info/news/false statements(such as the alledged Senator from Kansas Pat Roberson).

These actions of yours which deters and disrupts people from being able to read the comments that do relate to the original articles.

Hey Patriot WTF? Horrible revenge for a plane crash? A plane crash is an accident, deliberate murder of thousands is terrorism. You can thank your terrorist-sympathizing ass that the US did not exact horrible revenge, if it did Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, pakistan, and Syria would now be a toxic waste dump.

I think you "abused" yourself, because you show classic signs of having your head shoved up your ass.

Anyone able to help here:

1) Any idea what the 12th Special Forces Group--which supposedly hasn't existed for more than a decade--is doing at the Mann Hall Army Reserve Center in Spokane, Washington. Specifically I am referring to Detachment B4 and B5 Co B 3rd BN 12th Special Forces Group?

2) Any idea why Ciber, Inc. is at the same Mann Hall Army Reserve Center in Spokanee the Army Reserve Center in Spokane, Washington? Ciber, you may know, is the same folks involved in, among many other things, in the electronic vote fraud scandal.

School of the America's

Check CBS 60 minutes report from the 80's and their follow up report in early 90's.
See the place first hand for yourselves.
CBS had some real good footage.
School currently has a sister camp/training compound in Texas which is also run by the CIA.

SOG not used in Pakistan because Bush government did not want to catch the ones they have been supporting, financing, supplying, training and using as world wide mercenaries since the 80's.
If Bush catches or kills his buddy Osama then Osama's friends have threatened to expose documents and evidence that proves Bush was behind the 9/11 attacks such as the fact that all 19 alleged terrorists were trained by the U.S. Government at a place called the "School of the America's" down south here in the U.S.A..
Which by the way is a school owned, financed and operated by the CIA.
And the fact that 15 of the 19 alleged terrorists were from Bush's friends in Saudi Arabia. The other 4 were from two smaller countries in Africa. And that NONE of the 19 alleged terrorists of 9/11 had ever been to Iraq and or Afghanistan and or Iran. Also that G.W. Bush and his daddy have personally had meetings with Osama Bin Laden and that there are press photos to prove this from the 80's and the 90's.
Just like there are press photos showing Ollie North and Collin Powel shaking hands with the Sandinistas.
I was an instructor at the School of the America's. I know. I know who signed my paycheck.
Payback is a b----.
Because I am going to rat out everybody in the government who has participated in screwing me in the past.
I have knowledge of most all their crimes from the 70's to present.

Mr. Arkin, I get your point. But I would remind some of the commentators above to reflect some on history. It has been said that a dictatorship is the most efficient form of government. (A benevolent dictatorship is ideal.) Just look at the Nazi war machine for a lesson on efficiency. The question remains, are the American people willing to sacrifice their democracy in the pursuit of efficiency. History is full of the rise and fall of nations under unchecked rule of the military. It is wise to read their histories.

Crazy yanks...You speak english, but different english from what I learned at school. "Abusing" means shoving things up peoples rectums and raping them. (if you are told your child is abusing classmates is that what you expect the child is doing?). "Patriotism" means "national-socialism", "europe" is a nation...

Your soldiers go around raping and looting in a drug-crazed frenzy (yes, I used to live near one of your bases), your politicians go around shooting people (literally), You've had an action-hero for a president and another for a governor, most of those who promote America as the greatest nation on the face of the earth can't find it on a map, you abandon your own when they are drowning in their own city yet you take horrible revenge on whole countries for a plane-crash...

If I hadn't seen it happen I'd think you guys were made-up.

Lets stop the politically correct nonsense, Islam as a religion is no better or worse than the rest, but it creates and drives a backwards culture that is a blight on the planet. Its primitive repressive thinking belong in centuries past, and adds nothing to modern society. It cruelly represses and at best marginalizes half its population, since women have to real value or place under Islamic culture. Islamic culture brings nothing to the rest of the world; what was the last great Islamic art work, play, piece of literature, invention, etc? Its a culture mired in the 8th century, which would be fine, except that they insist the rest of us join them. Islamic culture is a clear threat to modern society, and the sooner we come to that realization the better we'll be.

Lets stop the politically correct nonsense, Islam as a religion is no better or worse than the rest, but it creates and drives a backwards culture that is a blight on the planet. Its primitive repressive thinking belong in centuries past, and adds nothing to modern society. It cruelly represses and at best marginalizes half its population, since women have to real value or place under Islamic culture. Islamic culture brings nothing to the rest of the world; what was the last great Islamic art work, play, piece of literature, invention, etc? Its a culture mired in the 8th century, which would be fine, except that they insist the rest of us join them. Islamic culture is a clear threat to modern society, and the sooner we come to that realization the better we'll be.

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http://blogs.philly.com/blinq/2006/02/was_there_beer_.html

The Missing Beer Or Two(Cheney)

Thought nothing of Lawrence O'Donnell's pickle-barrel musings in the Huffington Post yesterday, which carried the headline, "Was Cheney Drunk?"

But now Raw Story has made the question more interesting.

O'Donnell, the former West Wing exec producer who was chief of staff, for the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, wrote:

The L.A. Times is edging closer to the most likely reason for the 18 hour delay in reporting that the Vice President of the United States shot someone:

"This was a hunting accident," said Gilbert San Miguel, chief deputy of the Kennedy County Sheriff's Office. "There was no alcohol or misconduct."

How do we know there was no alcohol? Cheney refused to talk to local authorities until the next day. No point in giving him a breathalyzer then. Every lawyer I've talked to assumes Cheney was too drunk to talk to the cops after the shooting. The next question for the White House should be: Was Cheney drunk?

Among his evidence? The observation that rich Republicans sometimes drink riotously at Ivy League tailgate parties.

The Raw Story reports that an MSNBC Website post on the vice president's accidental shooting of a hunting buddy was edited to remove a reference to the alcohol that might have been available at a pre-quailing picnic.

Several lefty bloggers noted the change, starting with JohnnyCougar, who was commenting on Democratic Underground. Raw Story reported:

In the article, credited to Aram Roston and the NBC Investigative Unit, Katherine Armstrong, a member of the family who own the ranch, revealed new details about her lobbying for the Bush Administration, and about circumstances surrounding the incident itself, which wasn't reported to the media until the following morning. Armstrong was the one who reported the news to a local news reporter, and she said that Cheney agreed with the decision.

This was the missing paragraph:

Armstrong also told NBC News that she does not believe alcohol was involved in the accident. She says she believes no one that day was drinking, although she says there may have been beer available during a picnic lunch that preceded the incident. "There may be a beer or two in there," she said, "but remember not everyone in the party was shooting."

It might have been good journalism to remove this speculation, since the quote is messy. There may have been a beer or two "in there," she says. But she also says no one that day was drinking. I suppose someone could do an accounting. Interview some people. Maybe the vice president will address the matter some time.

An MSNBC.com spokeswoman is on the case. Will update.

Update: MSNBC this afternoon re-posted the article, amplifying the once-removed section after further reporting. The piece now states:

At a news conference Wednesday outside Whittington's hospital in Corpus Christi, reporters asked hospital officials whether Whittington's blood-alcohol level had been tested. The officials responded with a "no comment."

In a recorded, on-the-record phone call with NBC News, Armstrong said that beer may have been available at lunch that day. "If someone wants to help themselves to a beer," she said, "they may, but I did not see anyone do that," Armstrong says. She says she was not sure if there were beers in the coolers but wasn't ready to rule it out: "There may be a beer or two in there, but remember not everyone in the party was shooting," she told NBC News.

Armstrong added that she did not believe that Cheney or anyone else shooting in the hunting party had alcohol on Saturday before the hunting accident.

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Cheney Shotgun Ballistics Don't Match Up

What we had deducted almost immediately after Cheney machine began rolling on this shooting is now finally starting to filter out into the rest of the media: It is not only unlikely that Whittington was injured in the way he reportedly was if Cheney had shot him from 30 yards it is impossible.

After reviewing the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife report on the shooting, there is no doubt that this is a cover-up.

The pattern of the birdshot depicted in the diagram on the report indicates about a foot spread from cheek to chest.

As we previously reported, birdshot is not like a traditional bullet. Birdshot is composed of hundreds of tiny lead BB's with very low mass which are designed to spread out and slow down very quickly. The idea is basically to shoot out a bunch of tiny pellets to catch a bird that may be taking wing at the instant it recognizes the shot has been fired. Many points ensure greater likelyhood of hitting the target.

These pellets are incredibly tiny and the further they get away from the gun, the slower and less forceful they become. So at a distance of about 90 feet (or 30 yards as reported by the White House) the pellets would have hit Whittington with the force equivilent to a gentle shove and have left maybe some tiny surface marks on any exposed skin.

The only way to account for the pattern indicated on the TDPW report is if Cheney was about 10 feet away from Whittington when he shot him.

Click to Enlarge

Reports and press releases that followed the event explained that some of the pellets had become lodged in his heart tissue. The only way this is possible, the only way that the tiny pellets designed to spread over distance could have maintained the force necessary to penetrate Whittington's hunting vest, clothing, skin, muscle, bone and finally into his rock-hard heart would have been if they came from a much shorter distance than the White House is claiming.

The initial reports have Whittington making jokes and feeling fine after the shooting, but doctors would have been able to diagnose with a simple x-ray that there was a chunk of metal in his heart tissue immediately upon receiving him. Now that he has taken a turn for the worse, they are in scramble-mode to cover-up what really happened in case he dies.

Related: Secret Service stalls and delays for Cheney

OUCHY!!!OUCH!!!OUCH!!!

Special Operator See Stars
After Being
JSOC (pronounced "jay-sock") -ed
in Congressional Testimony by their own WHISTLEBLOWING SPOOKS!
---------------------------------
February 15, 2006 --

"National security whistleblowers testify to planted classified documents and other abuses. Testifying before the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations chaired by Connecticut Republican Rep. Chris Shays, five national security whistleblowers testified yesterday about malfeasance involving senior Bush administration officials.

The most stunning testimony came from Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer, a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer who was involved in a Top Secret data mining operation called Able Danger. Prior to 911, Able Danger identified Mohammed Atta and other members of his hijacking team but were prevented from informing the FBI and other agencies. Pennsylvania Republican Curt Weldon, who is not a member of Shays's subcommittee but was invited to participate in the hearings, said that Shaffer had been the victim of extreme retaliation by DIA and the Pentagon.

Two incidents Shaffer testified about point to malfeasance involving 911 Commission Executive Director Phil Zelikow, a colleague and friend of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

While Shaffer was stationed under cover and using an assumed name in Bagram, Afghanistan in October 2003, he was interviewed by Zelikow about Able Danger. After returning to the United States, Shaffer attempted to talk to Zelikow again. There were no further meetings and Zelikow stated he never met with Shaffer in the past. However, in testimony before Weldon and the House Armed Services Committee today, Shaffer said he is prepared to produce a business card given him by Zelikow in Afghanistan.

housecte.JPG (267180 bytes)

The Shays subcommittee saw bipartisan concern for the testimony of five national security whistleblowers. Left to right are Democrats Carolyn Maloney (NY), Dennis Kucinich (OH), Henry Waxman (CA), Republican Chairman Shays and the subcommittee Counsel. Not pictured but present were Democrats Chris Van Hollen (MD) and Dutch Ruppersberger (MD) and Republicans John Duncan (TN) and Charlie Dent (PA). Pennsylvania's Republican Rep. Curt Weldon, not a subcommittee member, was also present.

After Shaffer and Able Danger became public, Wolf Blitzer blindsided Shaffer during his appearance on Blitzer's "Situation Room." Blitzer told Shaffer that he had "information" that Shaffer was having an affair with a member of Weldon's congressional staff. In a direct answer to Weldon's question and under oath, Shaffer said he had no such relationship with a member of Weldon's staff, female or male.

Shaffer also testified about the planting of classified documents in a package sent by DIA to Shaffer's home. Shaffer said the package contained five classified documents that he was not authorized to receive. In addition to the five documents, the package contained a bag of 20 U.S. government "Skilcraft" pens. The DIA also said that Shaffer was untrustworthy because of an accusation that he took home government pens from the U.S. embassy where his father worked. Shaffer was 13 years old at the time of the alleged "pen theft."

The planting of classified documents in the homes of whistleblowing national security personnel is a pattern with the neocons in the Bush administration. WMR has reported on the case of former NSA analyst Ken Ford, Jr., who was wrongfully convicted of taking home two boxes of NSA classified documents, which Assistant US Attorney (AUSA) David I. Salem alleged that he was prepared to sell to an unknown foreign diplomat during a rendezvous at Dulles Airport. In fact, the FBI and NSA Security planted one classified document on an FBI confidential informant that was planted in Ford's Waldorf, Maryland home. The government never took photos of the boxes alleged to be in Ford's home nor did they produce security videos of the parking lot and loading dock of the NSA building where Ford worked. Ford faces up to 15 years in prison and a half million dollar fine in sentencing on March 1. Salem has been linked to the same Washington-based neocon networks that include Zelikow and Blitzer.

In August 2001, one month prior to 911, a wrongfully terminated National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) analyst in Charlottesville, Virginia arranged to have some of his NGIC paperwork sent to him at home by NGIC security. However, when a clasped and taped enveloped arrived at his home, there were clear indications that sometime during the passage of the documents through four levels of NGIC management, including NGIC security, something was inserted into the files: a SECRET NOFORN WINTEL document [NOFORN is "no foreign dissemination" and WINTEL is "Warning - Intelligence Sources and Methods Revealed']. The analyst dutifully informed the FBI and the Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) at Fort Monroe, Virginia about the incident. However, the analyst was never asked to sign his statement about the incident and there was no follow up by the government.

Army Sergeant Samuel Provance (since demoted to Specialist) testified about the use of torture and sexual abuse on Iraqi prisoners, including minors, at Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad. Provance was "gagged" by the Pentagon but he testified that there was a cover-up of Abu Ghraib and that children were abused, including the 16-year old son of an imprisoned Iraqi general. The boy was splashed with cold water and then driven around in an open Humvee with his father as a witness. The general, who had not been accused of any crimes, had his will broken as a result of the incident.

Provance's written testimony was redacted by the Department of Defense just prior to his appearance before the Shays subcommittee. The testimony [first page] [second page] refers to the presence in Abu Ghraib of "Middle Eastern" contractors who were not Iraqi but spoke Arabic who were involved in prisoner hooding, placing of women's' underwear on the heads of prisoners, and abuse and sexual humiliation of prisoners, including children. "Middle Eastern" is U.S. government code for Israeli and the presence of Israelis at Abu Ghraib has been confirmed by a number of U.S. military personnel who spoke on the condition of anonymity to WMR.

Tennessee Republican John Duncan said he was particularly concerned about the $44 billion "lost" by the Pentagon in Iraq.

Former NSA intelligence officer Russ Tice, in response to a question from Maryland's Chris Van Hollen, said there was "scuttlebutt" at NSA before the 2004 election that if John Kerry was elected president, there would be consequences as a result of the illegality of some of NSA's surveillance programs authorized by the Bush administration. Dutch Ruppersberger, whose district includes NSA and who serves on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said he doubted the justification for the NSA domestic surveillance programs.

Former FBI Special Agent Michael German testified that the Tampa Division of the FBI compromised a sensitive counterterrorism investigation. A January 2002 meeting between the leader of a "domestic terrorist organization" and a supporter of an "international terrorist organization," recorded by an FBI "Cooperating Witness." Part of the recorded evidence was later found to have been recorded illegally in violation of Title III wiretap regulations, thereby making it inadmissible in court. German specialized in tracking and infiltrating extreme right-wing, white supremacist/Christian identity movements in the United States.

A list of the members of the current members of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition lists other members of the intelligence community who were retaliated against. These include John M. Cole, an intelligence operations specialist for the FBI with 18 years in the FBI's Counterintelligence Division. In 1999, Cole discovered "serious issues of mismanagement, gross negligence, waste of government funds, security breaches, cover-ups, and intentional blocking of intelligence that had national security implications." His informed all levels of management, including Director Robert Mueller, of the problems but was ignored. Cole left the FBI in March 2004.

Daniel Hirsch, an FS-01 (GS-15) Foreign Service officer with 26 years of experience with the CIA and State Department, where he served in the Diplomatic Security Service and at the UN, had his security clearance suspended in March 2003. Hirsch was never told why his clearance was suspended.

Michael Levine, a retired supervisory agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) ran afoul of CIA drug smuggling and money laundering during the time of Iran-Contra. WMR has reported that Porter Goss has renewed CIA drug smuggling operations using unsavory agency operatives active in the 1980s. Levine's short biography states, "as an international undercover operative [Levine] witnessed the intentional destruction of undercover investigations targeting major international heroin and cocaine trafficking organizations whom also happened to be CIA assets. Among the actions reported was blowing the cover of an undercover operation -- Operation Trifecta -- that had penetrated the top of a corrupt Mexican government, by Edwin Meese, the then U.S. Attorney General." [Meese is now a top operative of the "Christian" Fellowship Foundation and a fellow traveler of various neo-confederates active in the Bush administration, some of whom are ardent admirers of Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth].

Shaffer concluded his testimony by stating, "I became a whistleblower not out of choice, but out of necessity. Many of us have a personal commitment to the truth -- and a commitment to defend the country, not simply by stating our loyalty, but by action; by going forward into combat if called upon to do so; by going forward to expose the truth and wrongdoing of government officials who before and after the 9/11 attacks failed to do their job."

[Source: http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/]

Which is likely to be more effective in doing in an al quada cell in the muslim world by a raid - a special op unit from the US who can not blend into the local pop, doesn't speak the language, doesn't know the terrain ....

... or locals who don't like al quada, do blend in, do speak the language ....

who will convince the fence-sitters in the muslim world that the US set of values is compelling ... special ops from US, or locals who are immersed in the culture

the idea that we can send our technology or highly trained people to do anything anywhere is a persistent delusion ... throwing more military stars at the problem doesn't change the basics ... people who live there have to reject the islamic terrorists, we can't do it from afar ....

special ops or conventional force, it really is a political problem, one that we can't impose as cultural outsiders, and certainly not by military force

Arkin--you dope

Abu Ghraib--not SOF

"The shift of the American military towards special operations forces inherently makes it less accessible and accountable, while also increasing the number of secret operations."

Noted.

stay close to his dialysis machine, eh?

come on, really try to think...

doesn't any of this seem staged?

president's getting pressured and a tape from O.B.ladin appears....

background looks like burbank california...

do you even know anyone in operations?

not like it's a big deal in DC, but just because someone has a title doesn't make them gawd....

and frankly, think about it:

could you be president if you were

an alcoholic, former cokehead, business failure, marginal student, illiterate, ill-spoken, draft dodger?

I don't think so....so why is the president all of the above?

Why did Kerry let him win?

connections, deals.....

kingdoms trading favors....only your royalty also has government positions...and they really only serve each other.

"To be a columnist with the Washington Post - wow, you can put out whatever lies you want and are never held accountable..."

Wow! You're absolutely correct. William writes whatever lies or distortions he wants because he works for the liberal media and he's most likey a commie lover to boot.

well you're not really a fan of information either....

take this one:

bagdhad is surrounded by troops, saddams group has our operatives infiltrated into it, there are flying drone reconnaisance, telephones tapped, radios scanning all frequencies, satellite reconnaisance that can tell you what you ate for dinner last night in Georgetowne....and they're not watching Georgetown, AWACS, civilian operatives.....what have you...

and saddam hussein escapes with 9 billion cash in 3 tractor trailers....

ludicrous?

you sound like a believer...

in bullshit...piss off

look up noriega and bush sr....

get back to me.

Gosh, I'm embarrassed.

I misspelled rescind, I think twice, in 2 different postings.

RESCIND THE PRESIDENT'S WAR POWERS!

Geez---are you guys for real?

"If there were some one in Pakistan that we really wanted then we would have had him
(Osama Bin Laden) by now."

The Afghanistan/Pakistan border is an incredibly porous area. There are regular reports of Pakistani soldiers attacking US troops in Afghanistan. While we may be officially on good terms with the Pakistani gov't, Musharraf is having to walk a tight rope. Lots of Pakistanis are sympathetic to al Qaeda.
It's not a simple "us vs. them" issue where we can just sweep in, collect OBL, hop back on the helicopter and fly home to put him on trial.
Suppose, just suppose, OBL is in Pakistan (I happen to think he is) and perhaps he's hiding in a major city in an area where he enjoys the support of the locals. They're not likely to give him up. He certainly has a strong security force surrounding him at all times.
How do you suggest we go get him? By sending a special operations team in where they will almost certainly all be killed by armed civilians or by OBL's guards? Our guys are good, but they're not bullet proof.
Or maybe you'd prefer that we just drop some bombs where we think he is ---killing hundreds, if not thousands, of civilians in the process --that's not likely to win us any Arab friends.
Cut the military and the adminstration a little slack. Maybe they know exactly where OBL is and they know that he is so guarded and fearful that he's not of a threat. Maybe they're waiting for the right moment.
If the conspiracy-loving far left would put half as much energy into actually supporting our nation's war on terror that they put into posting tenuous links so-called facts that are just plain wrong --maybe our politicians would feel secure enough to make decisions that will actually help us win --and end --- this war.

Boy thing get nasty fast.

To Efren and the Christian Zealot:

Terrorism was not invented on 9/11/2001. Some of the countries that did not join us in this nation-building effort did so because they've had a lot more experience dealing with terrorists than us. They all went through this, "Let's go get and learn 'em what for!" phase that we're still in and it does not work.

We're not being original here. History has spoken and history says we will be out of a still chaotic Iraq in the next couple of years. Not because our "resolve" wasn't strong enough but because remaking a nation that isn't begging to be remade is a fool's errand.

Terrorism is a word that has been defined in a way that denotes total, utter absence of morals and of being bereft of civility. It can also be thought of as the sole weapon of the poor. If they had an army we'd fight them on a battlefield. If they had a navy we'd fight them at sea. They have a little money and their witts. Unfortunately peaceful protests get ignored (as they have been in China for the past 25 years or so. Eventually disgruntled Chinese will turn to force and their government will call them terrorists).

My point is, don't get caught up in the propaganda. When we threw out the rules of war while throwing out the Brits they called us barbarians and thugs. Just cause we have names and hatred for the terrorists doesn't mean we can't be more creative and less violent and much, much more effective. We should've focused on loose nukes and intelligence more than whatever it is we're doing in Iraq.

Good luck. Please notice my lack of hatred for you both.

RECIND THE PRESIDENT'S WAR POWERS!

Well posted by: hello....

I am glad to see that you figured it out.

If there were some one in Pakistan that we really wanted then we would have had him
(Osama Bin Laden) by now.

The fact is we the U.S. government financed and trained and backs him and his men all through the 1980 when Afghanistan was waging war in self-defense against the U.S.S.R. (Russia). We supplied Osama Bin Laden and his men with more then 100,000 Stinger Missiles and a whole lot of other weapons and billions of dollars back then.

My educated guess is that Osama Bin Laden has been financed, backed and hidden by President George Walker Bush and his Klan,
(V.P. Cheney, Rumsfeld, the Congressional Committee of 8, A.G. Alberto Gonzalles est.)

And that Osama Bin Laden and his people were used by Bush and his Klan to create this GOD awful war and give Bush the power he so desperately thrives on.

"then why didn't we use an sog in pakistan?

unless the mission was to create a war, where only a military intervention exists at this point that is being fraudulently billed as a war...

huh?

Posted by: hello.... | Feb 15, 2006 6:35:41 PM | Permalink """"""""""""""""""

was in the seals.

he said the last words most people said when they died were some form of "mommy"

you know that's important...

it's important because men aren't that smart or tough when it comes to telling the truth....

is oil really worth dying for, especially when someone else is spending your cut?

as well as cutting your VA benefits?

you know....

General Motors had the GNP of all of Europe during most of the 60's

what did they do with their profits?

my cousin said that they were still using the same frame off of the '50 chevy 20 years later...the only thing that made them change was unibody....

our factories place the burden of paying for change upon the civilians.....they don't plan, they don't support and they don't give a *uck about civilians...

well, technically we're not at war with Iraq....

we're in there to insure that we retain control over an important resource as well as reinforcing our committment to piping oil across afghanistan from the caspian sea, right?

that way, people that depend upon oil.....like people that own the companies can reliably predict that China, India or some other country won't come in their and corner the market....

since we haven't actually done anything towards moving away from being oil dependent...

we could raise the price to $4.00 a gallon

give commercial transporters a break

and invest in infrastructure improvement and making city-living an attractive investment....

I know driving from Tysons Corner to Leesburg everyday must be hard for you...

then why didn't we use an sog in pakistan?

unless the mission was to create a war, where only a military intervention exists at this point that is being fraudulently billed as a war...

huh?

The SOG must be controlled and regulated so a third star does not cause me any alarm.
You must only use such a force when it is absolutely necessary.
It should not be used with out first being involved a real war.
In 79 and 80 we were being used a search and destoy hit squad by Presidential Order.
We worked in conjunction with CIA and MI and NSA on a 24/7/365 basis.

then why didn't the use sog's in Pakistan?

are they trying to piss the muslim world off? or is that too obvious?

Special Operations will always be needed and required by our military and our government and our country.
Why you ask?
Easy answer.
The majority of our troops are only trained just barely good enough to stay alive in battle.
They are trained in one or maybe two specific skills (MOS's).
Special Operations Groups are trained in not less then five MOS's to ensure that a 5 man teem can do the same job as an entire company of regular soldiers.
A 5 man team can slip in on an enemy position without being noticed until it is too late for the enemy.
A whole company of soldiers can not do that.
A properly trained 5 man team can cause more death and destruction upon the enemy with less loss of life of our own soldiers then an entire company of regular U.S. Soldiers.
Special Operations Groups are trained to kill, destroy and demolish anything in their path as long as they obtain their target goal. They are taught to kill expeditiously and silently. They are taught to blow up perfectly good buildings, bridges, aircraft and vehicles.
They are taught to win by attrition.
I was trained as a soldier, Military Police, field medic, small arms weapons expert (qualifying expert with nine different weapons), Nuclear Biological Chemical, Basic Sanitation, Explosive Ordinance and Demolition, Unarmed Self Defense, BNOC, Communications, languages, Interrogations, Investigations, Sniper and yes even more.
We were taught that "Pain is something GOD gave us to let us know that we were still alive".
The Special Operations Group Soldier is a true super soldier who has received and endured the utmost training.
This was and always will be the future of Special Operations Groups.
The SOG lives where and when no one else could ever survive.
They accomplish the impossible for all.

Aren't you glad I'm a U.S. Army Veteran and a Proud Citizen of the United States of America.
Be glad your & our enemies are not trained this well.

Yeah, keep tooting your own horn, that'll get things better.
Posted by: Ime | Feb 15, 2006 2:46:22 PM, about Special Operations, "[..] But a lack of education and cultural understanding is definitely not high on the list, if on the list at all." My comb of articles and posts, always, as in every time reveals the egos whom won't learn because they are to busy being smart. If it is someone who's been there, I remember brass so tired of the ignorance (asked if anyone had read Mill's "Underground Empire" -- large white shirt class, the only hand up was my own) a little mission was commissioned to prove his point. The smarts in this country, has always been the problem, and I assure you, that the amendment to rank, WILL relate to a change of attitude, i.e when the officers in Iraq don't know d*ck of whom, is whom preaching what to whom. Ime and anyone else claiming intimacy with that unconventional affair better take notice, or invest in KY.

Clinton a liar?

he was a paen of virtue....you're a fraud.

who cares where he stuck his cigar, pansy?

as I said earlier.....Jesus would be writing pretty much like I am....asking that they be thrown from the temple and scourged with thorns....

don't you think?

and stop with the, somebody else did it first......maybe it worked with your mom stealing cookies but here

shut the *uck up.

More pointless talking points and mindless propaganda....

Those who feel that Special Ops need "a much greater degree of transparency as well as American popular support and consent" really need to, at the very least do some basic historical research.

The whole idea that we "need more" is a concept being pushed to detract from the fact that the current administration (including the current military administration)are inept and can't function.... No matter how much "more" they are given.
Every attempt has been made to undermine the facts. The truth is; We have a substantial Special Ops force and an effective command. This has been the case for over 30 years.

As a reporter don't you think you should investigate the facts. Relaying other articles written is not investigating and referencing a military publication to 'support' your assertions for this article is extremely weak minded.

It's time to put down the talking points and propaganda and start dealing with the truth and the facts.....

there is no war.

there is a containment of scarce resources so that the international affluent remain that way....

deals are between internationals, internationals invest in the US stockmarket and in land in the United States...

we get most of our oil from Canada, and sell most of our Alaskan oil to Japan....

we also enjoy gas prices markedly lower than in Europe....

the intervention in Iraq, has nothing to do with patriotism....it has everything to do with business as usual for the wealthy....

there are no congress people's children overseas in an "intervention zone."

your president is an alcoholic, cokehead, draft dodger, and business failure, his brother Neil was involved in the Silverado Savings and Loan Fiasco, his father headed the CIA, and the family is invested in the OIL BUSINESS, they have had SAUDI ROYALTY out to the ranches....the BIN LADIN FAMILY WAS airlifted out of the UNITED STATES immediately after 9/11 when all of the airports were closed because of a "fear of terrorism."

you my friend are either myopic, a fool, or a shill.....

I suggest you value your citizenship and tell it like it is, instead of like you wish it was....

VA BENEFITS HAVE BEEN CUT since the inception of this operation in IRAQ....

SS medical benefits have been cut by $30 a month for elderly people on fixed income, while taxes have been reduced for the richest of the riche....

Social Security if funded from the General Fund, that's where this fraud of a "war" is being funded from....

read up on:

"Remember the Maine"
"Remember the Alamo"

BUSH CIA NORIEGA

BUSH CIA SADDAM Madelaine Albright

and go somewhere you'll be wanted like the men's room over by Mount Vernon.

To PJ Casey:
There are many problems with Special Operations, just like there are in every organization, be it military or civilian. But a lack of education and cultural understanding is definitely not high on the list, if on the list at all.
I don't know your background, but I'll assume that you're not military (my apologies if you are). Under the Special Operations umbrella there are several military units, among these are Army Rangers, Army Special Forces, Delta Force (which is actually now called CAG) Navy SEALS, Army Psychological Operations, Air Force Pararescue. Hope I'm not forgetting anyone there. Rangers usually are sent in to seize airfields and provide perimeter security for CAG. CAG is almost always sent in on hostage rescue missions --they're the best trained unit in the world for that - and on some missions aimed at catching and killing high value targets. SEALS are used for missions that involve water and for some land-based missions, and --to finally get to my point --- Special Forces are used for long term missions in other countries. Special Forces soldiers extensively study a specific area of the world. They learn the language, the culture, the traditions - all prior to ever setting foot in country. They grow beards if need be to fit in with the locals better. I don't think many Americans truly understand the years of training these guys go through and the extent of their abilities.
Further (and contrary to Hollywood) officers have very little to do with actual Special Operations missions. The vast majority of troops in Special Operations are enlisted. The enlisted guys plan the missions and the officers simply approve them. The officers mostly just stay in offices ---so it wouldn't really do any good for West Point to add classes.

In theory, I have nothing against Special Operations. But, I don't think the civilians in the Pentagon have a clue, and we are looking at people who will micromanage failure.
Further, no matter how many stars they have, Special Operations leaders need a good background in the history, culture, politics, and language of the countries in which they operate.
In deed, I think West Point needs to have a good history department, along with languages, and regional studies. A Public Administration program would also be good for Civil Affairs units. All graduates should be required to take a courses in Constitutional history. and international law with regard to warfare.
Regardless of his rank, I do not think the officer corp is properly prepared for special operations. There are politcal as well as military problems when operating in other countries and cultures.
Intelligence operations would be more useful.

It is amazing the HATE that Sr Bojangles has for our President. He is such a blow hard that he would fundamently cripple the Greatest Nation this world has ever seen, by turning it over to mob rule by removing his and future Presidents ability to fight all threats (be they foreign or domestic). It is just nice to know that his type do not have any real political power

God Bless America!!!!!!!

From:
A Right Wing Fundamentalist Christian Zealot

I don't care what you call them or what you pay them as long as they are competent. Do you really think that Democrats are trying to make it easier to attack the US? That fails the sanity test. Do you really think that Republicans are sitting around hoping that they can convince voters that Democrats are trying to make it easier to attack the US? That fails the patriotism test. The fact is that we went into Afghanistan and subsequently Iraq with nothing resembling a plan worthy of the name. And we HAVE NOT RECOVERED from that initial failure. If giving a JSOC two star a third star can get this war on track, capture or kill its leaders without creating one hundred more to take there place (and I fear the genie is already out of that bottle), I'm all for it. But may I suggest, rather than yelling at each other over our philosophical positions, that we all yell at the administration for a complete and total lack of competence. Perhaps that will accomplish something meaningful.

The issue with Abu Ghraib is that our interogators are not allowed to do their job. These are suspected terrorists and are therefore do not fall under the protection of the Geneva rules regarding prisoners of war.

What a completely lazy, poorly researched piece of journalism. Arkin blames Abu Ghraib, secret prisons, torture, aerial assassinations (whatever that is) on Special Operations. As the wife of a Spec. Ops soldier, I'd like to clear a few things up: Soldiers convicted and accused for the Abu Ghraib abuses were privates and specialists in the National Guard --about as far as you can get from Spec. Ops. There's been some whispering that the CIA might have been involved, but there again, not Spec. Ops. As for torture, Jack Idema was convicted in Afghanistan ---he was a private contractor. David Passaro is also accused--and also a private contractor. Torture is not a Spec. Ops issue. Secret Prisons? Again, that would be the CIA. As for aerial assassinations ---I seriously have no idea what that means. I talk to guys in the Spec Ops community literally every day and have never even heard that phrase. Is that an airstrike? Do we think airstrikes are a problem? Isn't this a war?
The Washington Post is a good paper and has a great reputation. I expect more from it's writers.

your argument about all republicans seem to lose their patriotism whenever they pass a recruiting office is very ill informed. again, this issue is not a partisan issue, this is a life and death issue.

terrorism is terrorism is terrorism. it matters not whether it is American-born or imported from our weak borders. the belief that we are NOT at war and are in some way taking it out on the "weak" is a fool's dream.

we live in a country of miopic people.

we are at war whether we choose to believe it or not. whether we choose to accept it or not.

we are at war.

and if you think that this administration is one of disinformation, then you should look back at Clinton's presidency and rethink all of the "truth" he told us as well.

oh no, but wait. if i talk about him then i'm the one who can't get over it.

get over it, dems lost BOTH elections.

Blaming special ops for the prison mess in Iraq. Give me a break. You really should try to see the good that our guys in the Special Ops have done for your freedom to write nonsense. I served at Ft. Bragg and knew the quality of servicemembers that compose our Special Operations groups. You really need to spend some more time in the trenches of the real world and less time in the "blog" world of disinformation.

All these republicans ever do is run their mouth. Their patriotism evaporates whenever they pass by a recruiting office. The reason they are loosing, and they are loosing, is because the blowhards that support the war don't have the Ba*ls to fight it. In the Marines we call people like that *ussys.

Thanks for a very informative post. I've linked to it at The Counterterrorism Blog at http://counterterror.typepad.com.

And now you know why we don't allow comments on CTB.

I mispelled PISSANT...

check it closer if you want...

It seems to me that there's an awful lot of anger around here--it's sad really. Well, the anger and the terrible use of the English language. People: spellcheck. Come on.

you mean like wayne gacy...

the killer clown, is that you wayne?

are a fabrication of the corrupt government, that has overthrown democracy in the united states, that they, and YOU are trying to foist on to the American PUBLIC....as the enemy...

when the enemy is this corrupt administration and their backers in congress....it's an inside job...

and you're their paid disinformationist...

give it up toad...

if there is a terrorist strike in the US it'll probably come from your home state and three of your friends will be in it...

Why would anyone advocate stripping war powers from the President in the midst of a war?

It seems many on the left would rather hug a tree than fight terrorists.

what bothers me most is that everyone agrees that islamafascists, you know, the terrorists we're fighting against, are hell bent on our total destruction. But most democrats are STILL riling on about how Bush never won the 2000 election.

give it up.

concentrate. look into my eyes and repeat after me: "we are fighting a war against TERRORISTS who gladly kill their own children, women and neighbors"

image what they want to do to us "infedels" from the west.

so stop this madness, finish what THEY started and no previous president since Truman has done what it takes to defend this country from ALL threats, foreign AND domestic!

we are at war and it's not over geo-political issues, but religion! this is a religious war and they, the terrorists, HATE US!

grow some balls and let's get the job done. leave partisan politics aside and fight for what we believe in most: freedom!!

Years of Service
GRADE <2 2 3 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26
COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
O-10 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 13365.00 13430.40 13709.70 14196.30
O-9 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 11689.50 11857.50 12101.10 12525.60
O-8 8271.00 8541.90 8721.60 8772.00 8996.10 9371.10 9458.10 9814.20 9916.20 10222.80 10666.20 11075.40 11348.70 11348.70 11348.70

07=1 star
08=2 stars
09=3 stars
10=4 stars
But all are capped at 12666.60/per month by federal law. note the 666 is that indicative of anything?????

Tim, pull you head out of your cammies, before you correct others.

So, if we want to end this administration's ability to affect these secret ops, etc. and since impeachment and congressional investigations seem to be out of the question from a Republican Congress, maybe we should push to repeal the President's war powers!

REPEAL THE PRESIDENT'S WAR POWERS!
Write your representatives in congress!

Unless I'm mistaken they're currently given to him for quite a while longer still. It seems there's enough blowback from domestic surveillance to get the very few swing votes the House and Senate need.

If I'm wrong, or if someone can clarify when his powers will expire, please someone correct me.

I love how many people love to lambast the Washington Post. You boys come all the way over here just for this, don't you?

Fattening up of JSOC really doesn't surprise me given the current aversion to oversight the current administration and top military officials have. First off we have illegal wiretaps and now we have the enhancement of our military to do things on the sly. I'm ex-military and trust anybody below O-6 in rank (the people who actually do work) to include special ops guys, but above that it's all political CYA and "let's see what we can get away with"...

tim, FYI: according to the DOD the monthly pay difference between an O8 (2 star) and 09 (3 star)is $500 - $1200, depending on years of service.

http://www.dod.mil/dfas/money/milpay/pay/

We're conducting a secret war so the bad guys, y'know, the ones we're fighting, won't know what we are going to do to them. This is not a battlefield you can see on a map and know where the enemy is coming from. Maybe you can surrender just a bit of "transparency" for not letting us get killed.

fyi, there is no difference in take home pay between a two star and a three star. try using google before you spout next time--you make us all look knee-jerk, unsophisticated and uninformed.

I wonder why you see Special Operations as an evil thing that should be more open to the public? There are some things the public need not know, such as infomation that is vital to national security.

We must thank providence for ensuring that the media during WW2 was not like the media of today.

These comments are crazy. Great piece of research...I wonder if there is a comperable analysis of actual SO troopers out there?

IF you want to hire a man to do a job that you don't want him to think about....

you ask him to do the job and give him a raise.....he'll defend your position with the vehemence of a pit bull....

even if your position is fraudulent and his actions treasonous by following them knowingly....

I wonder what the pay-scale difference is between a two star and three star general?

Is it enough to justify treason?

OTHERSIDE123.BLOGSPOT.COM
WWW.ONLINEJOURNAL.COM
WWW.TAKINGAIM.INFO

New snaps from Abu Ghraib:

http://smh.com.au/ftimages/2006/02/15/1139890768716.html

HAVE FUN!!!!!!!!!!!

OTHERSIDE123.BLOGSPOT.COM
WWW.ONLINEJOURNAL.COM
WWW.TAKINGAIM.INFO

WWW.ANTIWAR.COM

(IT IS ONLY FOR YOUR OWN PROTECTION!!!)
325,000 Names on Terrorism List
Rights Groups Say Database May Include Innocent People

By Walter Pincus and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 15, 2006; A01

The National Counterterrorism Center maintains a central repository of 325,000 names of international terrorism suspects or people who allegedly aid them, a number that has more than quadrupled since the fall of 2003, according to counterterrorism officials.

The list kept by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) -- created in 2004 to be the primary U.S. terrorism intelligence agency -- contains a far greater number of international terrorism suspects and associated names in a single government database than has previously been disclosed. Because the same person may appear under different spellings or aliases, the true number of people is estimated to be more than 200,000, according to NCTC officials.

U.S. citizens make up "only a very, very small fraction" of that number, said an administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of his agency's policies. "The vast majority are non-U.S. persons and do not live in the U.S.," he added. An NCTC official refused to say how many on the list -- put together from reports supplied by the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency (NSA) and other agencies -- are U.S. citizens.

The NSA is a key provider of information for the NCTC database, although officials refused to say how many names on the list are linked to the agency's controversial domestic eavesdropping effort. Under the program, the NSA has conducted wiretaps on an unknown number of U.S. citizens without warrants.

The government has been trying to streamline what counterterrorism officials say are more than 26 terrorism-related databases compiled by agencies throughout the intelligence and law enforcement communities. Names from the NCTC list are provided to the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), which in turn provides names for watch lists maintained by the Transportation Security Administration and other agencies.

Civil liberties advocates and privacy experts said they were troubled by the size of the NCTC database, and they said it further heightens their concerns that such government terrorism lists include the names of large numbers of innocent people. Timothy Sparapani, legislative counsel for privacy rights at the American Civil Liberties Union, called the numbers "shocking but, unfortunately, not surprising."

"We have lists that are having baby lists at this point; they're spawning faster than rabbits," Sparapani said. "If we have over 300,000 known terrorists who want to do this country harm, we've got a much bigger problem than deciding which names go on which list. But I highly doubt that is the case."

Asked whether the names in the repository were collected through the NSA's domestic intelligence intercept program, the NCTC official said, "Our database includes names of known and suspected international terrorists provided by all intelligence community organizations, including NSA."

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee last week that he could not discuss specifics but said: "Information is collected, information is retained and information disseminated in a way to protect the privacy interests of all Americans."

The NCTC name repository began under its predecessor agency in 2003 with 75,000 names, and it continues to grow. The center was created as part of a broad reorganization of U.S. intelligence agencies after the failure to disrupt the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. It is the main agency for analyzing and integrating terrorism intelligence and is under direction of Director of National Intelligence John D. Negroponte.

Its central database is the hub of an elaborate network of terrorism-related databases throughout the federal bureaucracy. Terrorism-related names and other data are sent to the NCTC under standards set by Homeland Security Presidential Directive 6, signed by President Bush in September 2003, according to a senior NCTC official. The directive calls upon agencies to supply data only about people who are "known or appropriately suspected to be . . . engaged in conduct constituting, in preparation for, in aid of, or related to terrorism."

"We work on the basis that information reported to us has been collected in accordance with those guidelines," Vice Adm. John Scott Redd, the center's director, said in a statement.

Analysts at the NCTC review all incoming names and can reject them if they do not have an apparent link to international terrorists, officials said. "That is not common, but it does happen," an NCTC official said, citing as examples a domestic or foreign drug dealer or a member of a U.S.-based extremist group, when neither has any sign of international terrorist connections.

The NCTC then sends a subset of the repository list to the FBI's screening center, and each entry includes a reference "to how the individual is associated with international terrorism," according to a June 2005 report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine. This reference is assigned one of 25 codes such as "Member of a Foreign Terrorist Organization," "Hijacker" or "Has Engaged in Terrorism," according to the report. The report also notes that the codes are split in two categories: "Individuals who are considered armed and dangerous and those who are not."

Fine's office criticized the TSC for including nearly 32,000 records of people in the "armed and dangerous" category but giving them the lowest handling code, which means that no report needs to be sent back to the FBI if they are encountered in the United States by law enforcement officers.

The TSC consolidates NCTC data on individuals associated with foreign terrorism with the FBI's purely domestic terrorism data to create a unified, unclassified terrorist watch list. The TSC, in turn, provides, for official use only, a version giving each person's name, country, date of birth, photos and other data to the Transportation Security Agency for its no-fly list, the State Department for its visa program, the Department of Homeland Security for border crossings, and the National Crime Information Center for distribution to police.

Shannon Moran, a spokeswoman for the FBI screening center, declined to answer detailed questions about the center's work, including how many names are on its list, how many U.S. citizens are included and whether the FBI database includes names linked to the NSA program. Fine's office reported last year that the FBI database contained more than 270,000 names, including a large number of people associated with domestic terrorist movements such as radical environmentalists and neo-Nazi white supremacists.

"If being placed on a list means in practice that you will be denied a visa, barred entry, put on the no-fly list, targeted for pretextual prosecutions, etc., then the sweep of the list and the apparent absence of any way to clear oneself certainly raises problems," said David D. Cole, a Georgetown University law professor who has been sharply critical of the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies.

The growth of terrorist-related data networks within the U.S. intelligence community has greatly accelerated since Sept. 11, 2001. Before the al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, there were databases containing terrorist identities at the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI and State Department. In addition there were 13 independent watch lists, but the lists or databases were not interoperable.

Currently, according to an NCTC official, there are 26 classified data networks carrying terrorism material. In a December 2005 interview on Federal News Radio, Redd said his agency "is really the only place in government and certainly in the intelligence community where all counterterrorism intelligence comes together." He also said that analyses of terrorism issues from all 15 intelligence agencies come into the NCTC, which then puts them on its Web site.

"What that means," Redd said, "is about 5,000 analysts around the counterterrorist intelligence community can pull up that Web site and see . . . what every other agency has as well, assuming they have the clearances."

Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said the size of the NCTC list and other terrorism-related databases underscores the severity of the "false positive" problem, in which innocent people -- including members of Congress -- have been stopped for questioning or halted from flying because their names are wrongly included or are similar to suspects' names.

"One of the seemingly unsolvable problems is what do you do when someone is wrongly put on this watch list," Rotenberg said. "If there are that many people on the list, a lot of them probably shouldn't be there. But how are they ever going to get off?"

speaking of lies, you're packing them in awfull early...

administration diss functional at work trying to keep the peasants from finding out the king doesn't give a holy *uck about his peasants...

boy, you'd do good to try and find out how to make something good happen for your people and quit trying to make your king look like what he isn't.....a kind, compassionate, thoughtfull personality...

he's the moron driving the getaway car on the heist of the century where democracy is taken for a ride and dumped in the east river to be replaced by plutocracy...

an "intervention to make sure that the riche don't have to sweat what will happen to middle eastern oil in a few years."

so called 3 star patriots backing this economic intervention in the name of keeping their MASTERS free from having to work an honest day's work for the first time in their lives need to help them lose their position and power, go straight to the bottome and find a job working at burger king if they can still get a job....

your president fraudulently obtained "war powers."

take them back and attach his and his families estates to repay his war crimes....allow him to retain his citizenship but revoke his voting privileges.....do this to Bush Sr., Tom Delay, Cunning-Ham, Jeb the stalwart defender of the braindead, and Neil the Silverado desperado, and anyone working with this administration as well as the 67 senators that voted against the Tom Coburn amendment to spend the funds allocated to the Alaskan Bridge to NOWhere to rebuilding a bridge that was destroyed in New Orleans during Katrina...

destroy complicity by destroying the affluent that compromise your freedome for their pocket books...

take their estates and sell them...

Don't blame the prison *scandal* on Special Ops - good grief! To be a columnist with the Washington Post - wow, you can put out whatever lies you want and are never held accountable...