Based on the character of Obama and his inspired dedication there may be ample reason to believe that he is acting in a particular manner so as not to get certain people all defensively paranoid and start increasing the shredding or setting up a stronger opposition.

Bush is given no reason to believe he will be prosecuted or even investigated further...or Cheney either.

Israel is led to believe that Obama perceives Iran the same way Israel perceives Iran and that he will act accordingly so no need to act desperate in regards to Iran at this time.

Maybe Obama is misdirecting expectations of what he might do so opposition will be relaxed. I certainly hope so. Through out the campaign he acted with integrity and conscience but I have become suspicious and attribute dishonesty because of 8yrs of the Bush liar. It is why I remain hopeful and optimistic about his actions and will remain so until he proves I should believe differently. Just saying...

By the way, are you aware that every day in this country, criminal convictions go up on appeal, and appellate review courts find that while Constitutional violations occured, the remaining evidence of guilt was compelling enough that the appeals courts decide to leave the convictions undisturbed?

Coming to this discussion late, but:

Why not attempt trial in a federal district court, and see if a conviction can stand notwithstanding the constitutional violations? There are myriad ways the constitutional infirmities could be found and a conviction yet upheld.

Otherwise, release KSM and have CIA folks stay on him like white on rice.

That report came out in November 2007. What has happened in the meantime?

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2009/01/tail-dog-wag.html

Yes, Massah! Yes, Massah!

"The U.S., together with France, had authored the recent UN Gaza ceasefire resolution but then, in the evening of January 8 between 9:15pm and 10:15pm, was the only one to abstain from it. How come?

Julian Berger wrote for The Guardian on January 9:

The US change of mind came at the last moment, as a result of White House intervention following a call from Olmert. Rice was overridden and in the final vote, the US abstained. In her remarks afterwards, Rice made clear she backed the resolution, saying the US "fully supports" its goals, text and objectives.

Aluf Benn for Haaretz reported yesterday:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice supported the UN Resolution and assisted with its formulation. Livni was in contact with Rice in an attempt to soften its wording.

At the last minute, at 3:30 A.M., Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also intervened with a desperate phone call to President George W. Bush, requesting that the United States veto the resolution. Bush refused, simply instructing Rice to abstain from the vote.

Now Olmert gives his version of that day:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was left shame-faced after President George W. Bush ordered her to abstain in a key UN vote on the Gaza war, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday.

"She was left shamed. A resolution that she prepared and arranged, and in the end she did not vote in favour," Olmert said in a speech in the southern town of Ashkelon.

...

The United States, Israel's main ally, had initially been expected to voted in line with the other 14 but Rice later became the sole abstention.

"In the night between Thursday and Friday, when the secretary of state wanted to lead the vote on a ceasefire at the Security Council, we did not want her to vote in favour," Olmert said

"I said 'get me President Bush on the phone'. They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn't care. 'I need to talk to him now'. He got off the podium and spoke to me.

"I told him the United States could not vote in favour. It cannot vote in favour of such a resolution. He immediately called the secretary of state and told her not to vote in favour."

Bush was in Philadelphia on January 8 talking about the no child left behind sham between 11am and 12am. The time difference between Israel and U.S. eastern is -7 hours. If Olmert called at 3:30 that would have been 8:30pm in Washington DC, not during any official speech in Philadelphia, but right before the Security Council meeting.

So Olmert is exaggerating his influence here - he did not get Bush to interrupt a speech, but he did get him to change a UN vote..

But the essence is clear. Israel called and the U.S. president did as he was told to do.

Dog, Tail, Wag, whatever ..."

I like it that this is the shit Joan Walsh wants her mag connected to.

-- Wallaby

You just gave away your game in your own words. Not that every one with a nose to blow wasn't on to you're sickfuck bullshit, but still, nice of you to expose yourself so clearly. We always knew you were a pathetic and desperate troll but you just puked on your shirt in public.

You are stupider than I thought. You think the Aug. 6, 2001, intel briefing was news? The fact that bin Laden was determined to strike in the US was news to exactly nobody--except maybe head-in-the-sand morons like you.

Tell me, precisely, what actionable intelligence was contained in that simple line. What should the government have done? What precise precautions should have been taken? I want precise, detailed answers, not silly Leftist cant, which is all you seem to be good at.

All those quotes do not demonstrate anything about what the intelligence actually indicated. More likely they all got briefings from someone who wanted it to be true. I do not believe that careful intelligence, year in and year out, using many independent sources could be so wrong. It was politics, not intelligence. All you have to do is find a source who will tell you what you want to hear, and you have "intelligence".

The following is the full text of an Aug. 6, 2001, intelligence briefing for President George W. Bush that outlined al-Qaida plans to strike within the United States.

Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and �bring the fighting to America.�

After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a ...(redacted portion) ... service.

An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an ... (redacted portion) ... service at the same time that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the operative�s access to the US to mount a terrorist strike.

The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Ladin�s first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own US attack.

Ressam says Bin Ladin was aware of the Los Angeles operation.

Although Bin Ladin has not succeeded, his attacks against the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Ladin associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.

Al-Qa�ida members -- including some who are US citizens --have resided in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks. Two al-Qa�ida members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our Embassies in East Africa were US citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.

A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Ladin cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.

We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a ... (redacted portion) ... service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of �Blind Shaykh� �Umar �Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.

Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.

The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our Embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/WHI404A.html