Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters

Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters: "'The first official studio auction of memorabilia from all five 'Star Trek' television series and 10 movie spinoffs, to be held from October 5 to 7 in conjunction with the 40th anniversary of the original 'Star Trek' series, was announced by Christie's on Thursday. CBS Paramount Television Studios is cleaning out its vaults for the sale, comprising more than 1,000 lots totaling some 4,000 items. Items to hit the block include props, weapons, prosthetics and set dressings unearthed from five Paramount warehouses, as well as many special and spectacular items highlighted in the various shows.'"

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

New Video Game for Evangelicals -- Sure, but does it have total control?

The Purpose Driven Life Takers:
"This game immerses children in present-day New York City -- 500 square blocks, stretching from Wall Street to Chinatown, Greenwich Village, the United Nations headquarters, and Harlem. The game rewards children for how effectively they role play the killing of those who resist becoming a born again Christian. The game also offers players the opportunity to switch sides and fight for the army of the AntiChrist, releasing cloven-hoofed demons who feast on conservative Christians and their panicked proselytes (who taste a lot like Christian)."

The dialogue includes people saying, "Praise the Lord," as they blow infidels away.

"The designers intend this game to become the first dominionist warrior game to break through in the popular culture due to its violent scenarios and realistic graphics, lighting, and sound effects. Its creators expect it to earn a rating of T for Teen. How violent is that? That's the rating shared by Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell - Chaos Theory, a top selling game in which high-tech gadgets and high-powered weapons - frag grenades, shotguns, assault rifles, and submachine guns -- are used to terminate enemies with extreme prejudice."

Friday, May 26, 2006

Gonzales directly linked to Obstruction of Justice Department Probe?

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Justice Department Probe Foiled (5/25/2006):
"An internal Justice Department inquiry into whether department officials -- including Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft -- acted properly in approving and overseeing the Bush administration's domestic eavesdropping program was stymied because investigators were denied security clearances to do their work. The investigators, however, were only seeking information and documents relating to the National Security Agency's surveillance program that were already in the Justice Department's possession, two senior government officials said in interviews."

[snip]

The only classified information that OPR investigators were seeking about the NSA's eavesdropping program was what had already been given to Ashcroft, Gonzales and other department attorneys in their original approval and advice on the program, the two senior government officials said. And, by nature, OPR's request was limited to documents such as internal Justice Department communications and legal opinions, and didn't extend to secrets that are the sole domain of other agencies, the two officials said."

Thursday, May 25, 2006

A Second Rove-Novak Call to Discuss Cover-up

Murray Waas - He's like Jason Leopold only with real sources.

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Rove-Novak Call Was Concern To Leak Investigators (05/25/2006):
"On September 29, 2003, three days after it became known that the CIA had asked the Justice Department to investigate who leaked the name of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, columnist Robert Novak telephoned White House senior adviser Karl Rove to assure Rove that he would protect him from being harmed by the investigation, according to people with firsthand knowledge of the federal grand jury testimony of both men."

DeLay Turns to Stephen Colbert

Hey Fungua - apparently someone else was unclear about Stephen Colbert's version of identity-satire...You got to check out the title DeLay's organization choose!

Oh - the DeLay organization now is hosting the FULL VIDEO of Colbert's interview...

Think Progress : "A good sign that Tom DeLay doesn?t have the facts on his side: the top source for his latest defense against his critics is Stephen Colbert.

This morning, DeLay?s legal defense fund sent out a mass email criticizing the movie ?The Big Buy: Tom DeLay?s Stolen Congress,? by ?Outfoxed? creator Robert Greenwald.

The email features a ?one-pager on the truth behind Liberal Hollywood?s the Big Buy,? and the lead item is Colbert?s interview with Greenwald on Comedy Central "

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

ABC News: The Blotter

Is it just me or does this thing have absolute freedom and terror written all over it. The revolution eats its own.

The Blotter: "Federal officials say the Congressional bribery investigation now includes Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, based on information from convicted lobbyists who are now cooperating with the government."

AP Wire | 05/24/2006 | Cheney may be called in CIA leak case

AP Wire | 05/24/2006 | Cheney may be called in CIA leak case:

"WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney could be called to testify in the perjury case against his former chief of staff, a special prosecutor said in a court filing Wednesday.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald suggested Cheney would be a logical government witness because he could authenticate notes he jotted on a July 6, 2003, New York Times opinion piece by a former U.S. ambassador critical of the Iraq war.

Fitzgerald said Cheney's 'state of mind' is 'directly relevant' to whether I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, the vice president's former top aide, lied to FBI agents and a federal grand jury about how he learned about CIA officer Valerie Plame's identity and what he subsequently told reporters.

Libby 'shared the interests of his superior and was subject to his direction,' the prosecutor wrote. 'Therefore, the state of mind of the vice president as communicated to (the) defendant is directly relevant to the issue of whether (the) defendant knowingly made false statements to federal agents and the grand jury regarding when and how he learned about (Plame's) employment and what he said to reporters regarding this issue.'"

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Architect of New War on the West

Finally a body of writing to analyze thinking. If you find a link to his article, post here...

Architect of New War on the West: "MADRID -- From secret hideouts in South Asia, the Spanish-Syrian al-Qaeda strategist published thousands of pages of Internet tracts on how small teams of Islamic extremists could wage a decentralized global war against the United States and its allies."

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Lawmaker: Marines deliberately killed Iraqis - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com

MSNBC.com: "WASHINGTON - A Pentagon probe into the death of Iraqi civilians last November in the Iraqi city of Haditha will show that U.S. Marines 'killed innocent civilians in cold blood,' a U.S. lawmaker said Wednesday.

From the beginning, Iraqis in the town of Haditha said U.S. Marines deliberately killed 15 unarmed Iraqi civilians, including seven women and three children."

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Wired News-- The Ultimate Net Monitoring Tool

Wired News is reporting that the NSA monitoring tools are off the shelf software.

The equipment that technician Mark Klein learned was installed in the National Security Agency's "secret room" inside AT&T's San Francisco switching office isn't some sinister Big Brother box designed solely to help governments eavesdrop on citizens' internet communications.

Rather, it's a powerful commercial network-analysis product with all sorts of valuable uses for network operators. It just happens to be capable of doing things that make it one of the best internet spy tools around.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Oh, then, I feel much better

Bush reverses stand on spy program oversight Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House, in an abrupt reversal, has agreed to let the full Senate and House of Representatives intelligence committees review President George W. Bush's domestic spying program, lawmakers said on Tuesday.

The Republican chairmen of the Senate and House panels disclosed the shift two days before a Senate confirmation hearing for Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden as the new CIA director, which is expected to be dominated by concern over the program.

Ben Metcalf, "On Simple Human Decency"

You have to check this out. From the latest Harpers. It's not on their website yet, so check this pdf of it.

Out of Context both historically and politically, but here you go

This Week on the Guerrilla Radio Show! (Tuesday, 05.16.06)
Live Webcast- GMT 2:00 am on Wednesday, 05.17.06

This Week on the Guerrilla Radio Show! (Tuesday, 05.16.06)

Skepticism

The Guerrilla Radio Show can be heard live on KCSB 91.9 FM (Los Angeles to
Sacramento) or via World Wide Web-cast (http://www.kcsb.org/webcast.html)
every Tuesday night from 7:00-8:00 PM (Pacific Daylight Time). You can also
listen to archived episodes of the show by logging on to the Guerrilla Radio
Show¹s website @ http://www.guerrillaradioshow.com

Monday, May 15, 2006

Federal Source to ABC News: We know who you're calling

ABC News: "A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

'It's time for you to get some new cell phones, quick,' the source told us in an in-person conversation.

ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation."

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Condoleezza Rice at Boston College? I quit.

The Boston Globe:
"An open letter to William P. Leahy, SJ, president of Boston College.

DEAR Father Leahy,

I am writing to resign my post as an adjunct professor of English at Boston College.

I am doing so -- after five years at BC, and with tremendous regret -- as a direct result of your decision to invite Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to be the commencement speaker at this year's graduation."

Cheney's Notes

More evidence for the theory that Cheney is really in control and will take the hit on this. Slowly leak that Cheney was really behind this. The question that the adminstration faces is merely strategic. The plan before everything hit the fan was to have Cheney take the blame so that the Repub nominee in 2008 had a shot. Since the shit is hitting the fan as far as everything else in this adminstration goes, why not send him up now, rather than later? This way, Repubs. still have a shot in the midterms.
Fitzgerald. I am increasingly thinking that his slow pace is a not a coincidence nor methodical plodding, but rather either his being duped by the admin or him being in with them.

The NYT Article

and the Newsweek article

Yous Guys seen this?

Last one for a while. I'll stop posting every little thing that I think you two should see. This one is again from Boing Boing. But, I mean perfect dark...

http://hardlightfilms.com/deviation/

Saturday, May 13, 2006

Your World. Delivered. To the NSA.--Funny pic From Cory Doctorow's Webspace

Your World. Delivered to the NSA

Worse and Worse

From the Post:

The government again invokes state secrecy. The case of Khaled al-Masri has been fairly well documented. A German citizen taken from Macedonia and "rendered" to Afghanistan and then released after 5 months because they thought he was someone else when they abducted him. The guy wants compensation and an apology. The government says, the abduction, etc. "clearly involve clandestine activity abroad....there is no way that the case can go forward without causing the damage to the national security."

Verizon Sued for Giving NSA Phone Records - Yahoo! News

Yahoo! News: "TRENTON, N.J. - Two New Jersey public interest lawyers sued Verizon Communications Inc. for $5 billion Friday, claiming the phone carrier violated privacy laws by turning over phone records to the National Security Agency for a secret government surveillance program.
ADVERTISEMENT

Attorneys Bruce Afran and Carl Mayer filed the lawsuit Friday afternoon in federal district court in Manhattan, where Verizon is headquartered."

Friday, May 12, 2006

Fun with Statistics

All this reading about polls made me think of this exchange between Kent Brockman and Homer Simpson:

Kent: Mr. Simpson, how do you respond to the charges that petty vandalism such as graffiti is down eighty percent, while heavy sack-beatings are up a shocking nine hundred percent?

Homer: Aw, people can come up with statistics to prove anything, Kent. Fourteen percent of people know that.

Kent: I see. Well, what do you say to the accusation that your group has been causing more crimes than it's been preventing?

Homer: [amused] Oh, Kent, I'd be lying if I said my men weren't committing crimes.

Kent: [pause] Well, touche'.

Media Matters--Post Poll Flawed

Flawed Wash. Post/ABC News poll suggested no link between NSA data collection and warrantless spying -- despite Post's own contrary report
[snip]
However, the poll question affirmatively claimed that the NSA is not "listening to or recording the conversations" captured by the data collection program. This statement suggests -- falsely, according to the Post itself -- that the data collection program is separate from the NSA's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, first publicly revealed by The New York Times in December 2005. In fact, according to a May 12 Post article, the two programs are directly linked: "Government access to call records is related to the previously disclosed eavesdropping program, sources said, because it helps the NSA choose its targets for listening. The mathematical techniques known as 'link analysis' and 'pattern analysis,' they said, give grounds for suspicion that can result in further investigation." In other words, according to The Washington Post itself -- and contrary to the poll question -- the NSA might well be "listening to or recording the conversations" of at least some Americans as a direct result of its analysis of the phone record data the NSA is collecting.

Land of the free, home of the brave

The Washington Post, after being scooped by USA Today, conducts a poll:

46. If you found out that the NSA had a record of phone numbers that you yourself have called, would that bother you, or not? IF YES: Would it bother you a lot, or just somewhat? 66% say 'no.'

And,

47. Do you think it is right or wrong for the news media to have disclosed this secret government program? 42% say it is wrong.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Morales and Chávez rebuked at EU summit

score one for Freidman and Fukuyama...when was reducing poverty bad performance? But I guess that's the claim of captialists- 'economic development' leads to 'poverty reduction'. Publicly owning the means of production just leads to totalitarian facism-- see, Schuessel says, Chavez just wants 'us' to be poor...

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Morales and Chávez rebuked at EU summit: "EU leaders today rounded on Bolivia and Venezuela for challenging free market policies at a summit of European and Latin American leaders in Vienna.

Wolfgang Schuessel, the Austrian chancellor and the event's host, told the two countries open markets were key to promoting economic growth and prosperity.

'There are always two possibilities in life. Either you want to open your markets or you don't want to open your markets - it's your choice,' he said. 'But the reality is ... open market societies are better in their performance than closed, restricted structures.'"

Trouble

When USA Today breaks a story...Well, I'm not even going to link to it.

Bush?s Approval Rating Drops Below 30% in first poll

Washington Wire » Bush?s Approval Rating Drops: "President Bush?s job-approval rating has fallen to its lowest mark of his presidency, according to a new Harris Interactive poll. Of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed in a telephone poll, 29% think Mr. Bush is doing an ?excellent or pretty good? job as president, down from 35% in April and significantly lower than 43% in January."

Thursday, May 11, 2006

USATODAY.com - NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

Qwest as John Proctor?:

"Among the big telecommunications companies, only Qwest has refused to help the NSA, the sources said. According to multiple sources, Qwest declined to participate because it was uneasy about the legal implications of handing over customer information to the government without warrants."

[snip]

"The sources said the NSA made clear that it was willing to pay for the cooperation. AT&T, which at the time was headed by C. Michael Armstrong, agreed to help the NSA. So did BellSouth, headed by F. Duane Ackerman; SBC, headed by Ed Whitacre; and Verizon, headed by Ivan Seidenberg.

With that, the NSA's domestic program began in earnest.

[snip]

The NSA, which needed Qwest's participation to completely cover the country, pushed back hard.

Trying to put pressure on Qwest, NSA representatives pointedly told Qwest that it was the lone holdout among the big telecommunications companies. It also tried appealing to Qwest's patriotic side: In one meeting, an NSA representative suggested that Qwest's refusal to contribute to the database could compromise national security, one person recalled.

In addition, the agency suggested that Qwest's foot-dragging might affect its ability to get future classified work with the government. Like other big telecommunications companies, Qwest already had classified contracts and hoped to get more.

Unable to get comfortable with what NSA was proposing, Qwest's lawyers asked NSA to take its proposal to the FISA court. According to the sources, the agency refused.

The NSA's explanation did little to satisfy Qwest's lawyers. "They told (Qwest) they didn't want to do that because FISA might not agree with them," one person recalled. For similar reasons, this person said, NSA rejected Qwest's suggestion of getting a letter of authorization from the U.S. attorney general's office. A second person confirmed this version of events."



USATODAY.com - NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls

USATODAY.com - NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls: "The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY."

[snip]

"It's the largest database ever assembled in the world," said one person, who, like the others who agreed to talk about the NSA's activities, declined to be identified by name or affiliation. The agency's goal is "to create a database of every call ever made" within the nation's borders, this person added.

[snip]

With access to records of billions of domestic calls, the NSA has gained a secret window into the communications habits of millions of Americans. Customers' names, street addresses and other personal information are not being handed over as part of NSA's domestic program, the sources said. But the phone numbers the NSA collects can easily be cross-checked with other databases to obtain that information.

Former FCC Chair Reed Hunt on NSA data mining

The General and the Telephone Companies :
"No one should imagine that what NSA has done, if reports are accurate, is normal behavior or standard procedure in the interaction between a private communications network and the government. In an authoritarian country without a bill of rights and with state ownership of the communications network, such eavesdropping by people and computers is assumed to exist. But in the United States it is assumed not to occur, except under very carefully defined circumstances that, according to reports, were not present as NSA allegedly arm-twisted telephone companies into compliance. That is a topic that can't be avoided in the general's hearing, if he gets that far."

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Security issue kills domestic spying inquiry - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com

Security issue kills domestic spying inquiry - U.S. Security - MSNBC.com:
"WASHINGTON - The government has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter.

The inquiry headed by the Justice Department?s Office of Professional Responsibility, or OPR, sent a fax to Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., on Wednesday saying they were closing their inquiry because without clearance their lawyers cannot examine Justice lawyers? role in the program.

?We have been unable to make any meaningful progress in our investigation because OPR has been denied security clearances for access to information about the NSA program,? OPR counsel H. Marshall Jarrett wrote to Hinchey. Hinchey?s office shared the letter with The Associated Press."

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Wired News: Ex-NSA Chief Assails Bush Taps

Wired News: Ex-NSA Chief Assails Bush Taps:
"NEW YORK -- Former National Security Agency director Bobby Ray Inman lashed out at the Bush administration Monday night over its continued use of warrantless domestic wiretaps, making him one of the highest-ranking former intelligence officials to criticize the program in public, analysts say.

'This activity is not authorized,' Inman said, as part of a panel discussion on eavesdropping that was sponsored by The New York Public Library. The Bush administration 'need(s) to get away from the idea that they can continue doing it.'"

Monday, May 08, 2006

USATODAY.com - Bush approval rating hits new low: "WASHINGTON ? President Bush's approval rating has slumped to 31% in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, the lowest of his presidency and a warning sign for Republicans in the November elections.

The survey of 1,013 adults, taken Friday through Sunday, shows Bush's standing down by 3 percentage points in a single week. His disapproval rating also reached a record: 65%. "

AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: Potential Evidence Surfaces of Bush's Illegal Spying

AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: Potential Evidence Surfaces of Bush's Illegal Spying: "Five months after news of the NSA's warrantless spying program broke, and after we've learned numerous details of the program's extent, a Portland, Ore., attorney may have finally obtained hard evidence of illegal wiretaps by the government."

Aljazeera.Net - Iran letter makes fresh offer to US

Aljazeera.Net - Iran letter makes fresh offer to US: "'President Ahmadinejad has written a letter to George Bush, which is to be handed to the Swiss embassy,' Gholam Hossein Elham, an Iranian government spokesman, told reporters."

The New York Times > Washington > Image >

The image ?http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2006/05/08/washington/08stakes1.650.jpg? cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

is this the weight of incompetence on their shoulders or just a facist march?

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Tax dollars at work...


A photo I took during my recent trip to D.C. This is the "new" front of the Department of Education.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Bush says fight against terror is 'World War III' - Yahoo! News

All the speculation about Bush's messianic and evangalistic side, and his wanting to start World War III appears to have been wrong.

Bush doesn't want to start World War III, Bush apparently thinks he already started it.

Bush says fight against terror is 'World War III' - Yahoo! News:

"WASHINGTON (AFP) - US
President George W. Bush said the September 11 revolt of passengers against their hijackers on board Flight 93 had struck the first blow of 'World War III.'

In an interview with the financial news network CNBC, Bush said he had yet to see the recently released film of the uprising, a dramatic portrayal of events on the United Airlines plane before it crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

But he said he agreed with the description of David Beamer, whose son Todd died in the crash, who in a Wall Street Journal commentary last month called it 'our first successful counter-attack in our homeland in this new global war -- World War III'.

Bush said: 'I believe that. I believe that it was the first counter-attack to World War III.

'It was, it was unbelievably heroic of those folks on the airplane to recognize the danger and save lives,' he said."

Friday, May 05, 2006

ANALYSIS-Turkish military build-up pressures Iraq, U.

ANALYSIS-Turkish military build-up pressures Iraq, U.:

"ISTANBUL, May 4 (Reuters) - Turkey has massed troops along its Iraqi border to increase pressure on the United States and the new government in Baghdad to act against a growing threat from Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq."


And Turkey has also developed a working relationship -- a 'pact' if you will -- with Iran in this endeavor.

Thursday, May 04, 2006

Crooks and Liars: "Bill Kristol, who is one of the major players in the group called PNAC, joined the set of the 'Colbert Report,' and I think was taken off guard right at the outset of the show because he had to answer questions that our media never asks. PNAC envisioned America attacking the Middle East since the middle '90's and for some inexplicable reason (that was a joke) the media never questions him or his members which have lined the walls of Bush's cabinet about PNAC and how it influenced our foreign policy, which led us to attack Iraq.

Colbert immediately called him on it and Kristol was quite embarrassed talking about it.

Video-WMP Video-QT"
Rumsfeld was questioned today by an impertinent audience member (who turned out to be a 27-year employee of the CIA). There is CNN video at this link as well. Rumsfeld is...not doing very well.

Think Progress » Transcript: Rumsfeld Called Out On Lies About WMD:

QUESTION: So I would like to ask you to be up front with the American people, why did you lie to get us into a war that was not necessary, that has caused these kinds of casualties? why?

RUMSFELD: Well, first of all, I haven?t lied. I did not lie then. Colin Powell didn?t lie. He spent weeks and weeks with the Central Intelligence Agency people and prepared a presentation that I know he believed was accurate, and he presented that to the United Nations. the president spent weeks and weeks with the central intelligence people and he went to the american people and made a presentation. i?m not in the intelligence business. they gave the world their honest opinion. it appears that there were not weapons of mass destruction there.

QUESTION: You said you knew where they were.

RUMSFELD: I did not. I said I knew where suspect sites were and ?

QUESTION: You said you knew where they were Tikrit, Baghdad, northeast, south, west of there. Those are your words.

RUMSFELD: My words ? my words were that ? no, no, wait a minute, wait a minute. Let him stay one second. Just a second.

QUESTION: This is America.

RUMSFELD: You?re getting plenty of play, sir.

QUESTION: I?d just like an honest answer.

RUMSFELD: I?m giving it to you.

QUESTION: Well we?re talking about lies and your allegation there was bulletproof evidence of ties between al Qaeda and Iraq.

RUMSFELD: Zarqawi was in Baghdad during the prewar period. That is a fact.

QUESTION: Zarqawi? He was in the north of Iraq in a place where Saddam Hussein had no rule. That?s also?

RUMSFELD: He was also in Baghdad.

QUESTION: Yes, when he needed to go to the hospital.

Come on, these people aren?t idiots. They know the story.

(PROTESTER INTERRUPTS)

RUMSFELD: Let me give you an example.

It?s easy for you to make a charge, but why do you think that the men and women in uniform every day, when they came out of Kuwait and went into Iraq, put on chemical weapon protective suits? Because they liked the style?

(LAUGHTER)

They honestly believed that there were chemical weapons.

(APPLAUSE)

Saddam Hussein had used chemical weapons on his own people previously. He?d used them on his neighbor (AUDIO GAP) the Iranians, and they believed he had those weapons.

We believed he had those weapons.

QUESTION: That?s what we call a non sequitur. It doesn?t matter what the troops believe; it matters what you believe.

MODERATOR: I think, Mr. Secretary, the debate is over. We have other questions, courtesy to the audience."

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Bush challenges hundreds of laws - The Boston Globe:
"President Bush has quietly claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws enacted since he took office, asserting that he has the power to set aside any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution."

Monday, May 01, 2006

In Lodi Terror Case, Intent Was the Clincher - Los Angeles Times:
SACRAMENTO ? "The government had no direct evidence. The confession was vague and even contradictory. And the statements about attacking American targets came only after heavy prompting from FBI interrogators.

[snip]

In his closing comments to the jury, Assistant U.S. Atty. Robert Tice-Raskin summed it up: 'Hamid Hayat had a jihadi heart and a jihadi mind.'

That was the clincher for the jury, which last week found him guilty of one count of providing material support to terrorists and three counts of lying to federal agents. He now faces up to 39 years in prison. "
The Raw Story | ABC News: Homeland Inspector General says he was pressured to 'tone down' criticism of Bush before election:

"Clark Kent Ervin [former inspector general for Homeland Security] says he was confronted personally by then Secretary Tom Ridge ?to intimidate me, to stare me down, to force me to back off, to not look into these areas that would be controversial, not to issue critical reports.?

Ervin will appear this evening on ABC News? Nightline in advance of the publication of his memoirs, ?Open Target: Where America is Vulnerable to Attack.?"