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Confidential intelligence documents obtained by The Times show that Iran is working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb. The notes, from Iran’s most sensitive military nuclear project, describe a four-year plan to test a neutron initiator, the component of a nuclear bomb that triggers an explosion. Foreign intelligence agencies date them to early 2007, four years after Iran was thought to have suspended its weapons programme. An Asian intelligence source last week confirmed to The Times that his country also believed that weapons work was being carried out as recently as 2007 — specifically, work on...

Have you heard the one about the pimp, prostitute, politician and the community organizer? Well, thanks to San Diego private investigator Derrick Roach, Californians are not laughing at what is turning into a political nightmare for California Attorney General Jerry Brown and ACORN. On Tuesday, November 24, Attorney General Brown appeared on KABC’s “Peter Tilden Show” after it was revealed that some 20,000 documents had been thrown into a National City dumpster by ACORN employees. The documents were thrown out in advance of state investigators arriving at the local ACORN office to conduct an investigation resulting from national media attention....

On Tuesday November 24th, the day after Big Government broke the story revealing tens of thousands of documents containing sensitive material had been unceremoniously dumped in a trash bin behind the San Diego ACORN office, Attorney General Jerry Brown appeared on Talk Radio KABC’s Peter Tilden Show. Considering this document dump occurred just a few days after the Attorney General had announced an investigation of this very same office, we anticipated his righteous anger at this obvious afront to the integrity of his investigation and the people of California’s right to investigate all evidence pertaining to the operations of ACORN.

A new U.S. EPA analysis requested by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) is spawning a lobbying frenzy among Midwestern utilities that claim the document shows they will be treated unfairly under federal climate legislation. They say the assessment (pdf) reveals that states like California will receive a financial windfall under a global warming bill, while states like Wisconsin will not get enough help and will have to spike electricity rates as a result. "The EPA document just confirms the formula will disadvantage Midwest states for decades to come while the coastal states will hit a 'federal jackpot' every year over the...

The CIA released the documents today that former Vice President Dick Cheney requested earlier this year in an attempt to prove his assertion that using enhanced interrogation techniques on terror detainees saved U.S. lives. The documents back up the Bush administration's claims that intelligence gleaned from captured terror suspects had thwarted terrorist attacks, but the visible portions of the heavily redacted reports do not indicate whether such information was obtained as a result of controversial interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding. Cheney's initial request in the spring that the documents be declassified was rejected by the CIA. Lawmakers derided his claims...

(CNSNews.com) – Michael Copps, a commissioner with the Federal Communications Commission and its former acting chairman, has circulated an internal report examining the state of media journalism in America and discussing ways to address issues such as the rise of media conglomerates and the prevalence of opinion journalism.

Venezuela and Bolivia are supplying Iran with uranium for its nuclear program, according to a secret Israeli government report obtained Monday by The Associated Press. The two South American countries are known to have close ties with Iran, but this is the first allegation that they are involved in the development of Iran's nuclear program, considered a strategic threat by Israel.

The draft document for the United Nations anti-racism conference, dubbed Durban II, is problematic both for Israel and western democracies in general, Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva Roni Leshno Yaar told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. "At this stage it is not possible to say what in the text would improve, if at all. In fact I expect the text to get only worse on all issues which are important for western democracy," Leshno Yaar said in a telephone interview from Geneva. He spoke as representatives from 190 nations have been meeting in Geneva to debate the language...

American Patrol Report Letter to Supreme Court Justices I am writing about a possible threat to all of humanity. Under present law the President of the United States has sole authority to authorize the use of nuclear weapons. The possibility of holding the fate of the entire human race in ones hands is an awesome responsibility. The person to whom we grant that responsibility must be of the highest moral and ethical character. While the popular vote is a necessary prerequisite to assume the powers of the presidency, it should not be sufficient. I have become aware of serious questions...

I have been trying to get a response from the web site ever since Pelosi announced it. At first I just got time outs. Now I can't even get a DNS response. I know I'm being very cynical and paranoid, but could this be deliberate.

Declaration falls through the cracksThe Supreme Court's rare copy is safely tucked away, then forgotten for seven years, a spokeswoman says. By Steve Chawkins, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer January 19, 2008 When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to locate a rare, vintage copy of the nation's founding document, try looking behind the filing cabinet. That was a lesson learned the hard way at the Supreme Court, where a 185-year-old facsimile of the Declaration of Independence gathered dust for seven years, tucked behind the office furniture, a court spokeswoman acknowledged this week. Commissioned by John Quincy...

After a tense weekend that saw a marked escalation in an already brutal war of words between the two Democratic frontrunners, Barack Obama’s campaign launched a new salvo Monday with a Web site designed to track and respond to attacks by Hillary Clinton’s campaign. “We're asking all of you to be vigilant and notify us immediately of any attacks from Sen. Clinton or her supporters as soon as you see them so that we can respond with the truth swiftly and forcefully,” campaign spokesman Bill Burton wrote supporters. “[These] attacks could be phone calls, literature drops, blog posts, mail pieces...

VALENCIA, Spain - A U.N. climate change conference argued over words and phrases Wednesday in drafting a scientific report that will guide governments for years to come on their global warming policies. One dispute involving the U.S. delegation centered on whether human activity could lead to "abrupt or irreversible" effects on the Earth's climate, said participants in the meeting. Another focused on India's concerns over "adaptation" to global warming, a notion that implies greater financial aid to developing countries, participants said on condition of anonymity since the talks were confidential. They were just two of many unresolved issues raised during...

Now that Sandy Berger has been almost given a pass for his "activities" ... what if Karl Rove (or some other Bush Administration official) would have done what Sandy did? How would the mainstream media react? How would Hillary react? How would Reid and Pelosi react? How would Kennedy react? How would Dean react?

One day in the winter of 1996, while 12-year-old Suad Leija was getting ready for school, more than a dozen armed FBI agents raided her family's Chicago-area home. They were looking for her stepfather, Manuel Leija-Sanchez, who federal authorities believe runs a document-fraud network -- producing fake passports, Social Security cards, driver's licenses and a variety of other official papers -- with cells throughout the United States. That cold morning, the agents were too late. Manuel Leija-Sanchez had fled during the night to Mexico after he was tipped off to the impending raid, his stepdaughter recalled. The business continued to...

Excerpts on fake documents from President Bush's May 15 national address on immigration reform: "Comprehensive immigration reform must include a better system for verifying documents and work eligibility. A key part of that system should be a new identification card for every legal foreign worker. This card should use biometric technology, such as digital fingerprints, to make it tamperproof. A tamperproof card would help us enforce the law and leave employers with no excuse for violating it." --- Highlights of a bill the Senate passed in May: - Requires employers and subcontractors to use an electronic system within 18 months...

WASHINGTON - Forgers are making tens of millions, and possibly billions, of dollars selling counterfeit Social Security cards, driver's licenses, immigrant registration cards and other papers to an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. The dominant forgery-and-distribution network in the United States is allegedly controlled by the Castorena family, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say. Its members emigrated from Mexico in the late 1980s and have used their printing skills and business acumen to capture a big piece of the booming industry. Only trained experts can spot the fakes, and the Castorena Family Organization - or CFO, as officials call...

WASHINGTON - Muslim-Americans trying to re-enter the United States after international travel should record instances in which they're singled out as security risks, a civil rights group said Tuesday. The Council on American-Islamic Relations asked traveling Muslims to record any examples of excessive security checks or fingerprinting when returning from a religious conference in Canada this weekend or from the annual hajj to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, next month. Last year, three dozen Muslim-American men and women were searched, questioned, fingerprinted and photographed without explanation at two western New York border crossings after returning from a from an Islamic conference in...

The Instruction tacitly dismisses the tendentious claims that homosexuality is innate, or unchangeable, or changeable only in rare circumstances. While it acknowledges the disorder can be deep-seated in some persons, it maintains that it may also be just an adolescent hang-up one can leave behind. Here the Church's moral wisdom rescues her from the errors of politicized academic fashion. To treat adult homosexuality (except in rare cases) as a self-indulgent prolongation of juvenile weakness and infatuation may rattle some gay ideologues, but it's more realistic and more charitable than the standard APA account. In summary form, the Church is saying,...

UNITED NATIONS - The U.N. employees union has criticized Secretary-General Kofi Annan for retaining his former chief-of-staff as an adviser despite accusations the aide authorized shredding three years of files on the corrupt oil-for-food program for Iraq. The Independent Inquiry Committee led by former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker criticized Iqbal Riza for giving approval to shred the documents on April 22, 2004 — a day after the U.N. Security Council authorized an investigation into the oil-for-food program. A resolution adopted by the Staff Council, the union's executive, and obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, said keeping Riza as a...

ALI BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Photographers here are proving that a picture is truly worth a thousand words in fighting the war on terrorism. “Our images tell the military story to the American public, our children and their children, and beyond,” said Master Sgt. Maurice Hessel, base multimedia center manager and still photographer. “Military photographers have had a tremendous impact on history and document the horrors of war,” said Sergeant Hessel, who is deployed from McConnell Air Force Base, Kan. “The men and women of the U.S. military are considered heroes in the eyes of most Americans, and I believe...

UNITED NATIONS - History's largest gathering of world leaders fell far short Friday of completing the major changes U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sought to fight poverty, terrorism and human rights abuses — but the leaders took a first step. Their approval of a modest document, which commits governments to achieving U.N. goals to combat poverty and creates a commission to help move countries from war to peace, came alongside important developments in other areas. Meetings on the sidelines of the summit marking the United Nations' 60th anniversary produced rare Arab-Israeli contacts, further talks on Iran's nuclear ambitions and a new...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday adopted a watered-down document on poverty, human rights and U.N. reform for world leaders to approve at a summit this week, after shedding many of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's most ambitious goals during weeks of bitter debate. The compromise 35-page document is supposed to launch a major reform of the United Nations itself and galvanize efforts to ease global poverty. But to reach a consensus, most of the text's details were gutted in favor of abstract language. A definition of terrorism and details on how to replace the discredited U.N. Commission...

The Mexican national indicted by a federal grand jury in a multimillion-dollar scheme to distribute millions of phony identification documents to illegal aliens in the United States is, according to authorities, a leader of a crime syndicate that specializes in document fraud. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who sought the indictment after a lengthy investigation, said millions of phony documents were sent to illegal aliens in the United States in the past five years, including 3 million that were shipped to the Los Angeles area alone. The documents were available on the street for $80 to $300, authorities...

COVINGTON, Tenn. (AP) - Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen put a halt Friday to document shredding in the state personnel department after learning that files were destroyed involving sexual harassment investigations of two men he appointed. The governor ordered the move until a new law can be passed to address the handling of such documents. The order requires the agency "to retain all investigative records, including those related to workplace harassment," said his spokeswoman, Lydia Lenker. The state's previous practice was meant to "protect people who would come forward," the governor said during an appearance in Covington, explaining that department investigators...

The American Civil Liberties Union has been shredding some documents over the repeated objections of its records manager and in conflict with its longstanding policies on the preservation and disposal of records. The matter has fueled a dispute at the organization over internal operations, one of several such debates over the last couple of years, and has reignited questions over whether the A.C.L.U.'s own practices are consistent with its public positions. The organization has generally advocated for strong policies on record retention and benefited from them, most recently obtaining and publicizing documents from the government about prisoners at Guantánamo Bay,...

Many judges these days like to refer to the Constitution of the United States as a "living, breathing document", implying that its text is designed to be flexible. It is not. The Constitution is a set of rules, and like any other set of rules, it is meant to be strict and uncompromising. Of course, the Constitution can be modified through the amendment process, but once ratified, any amendment becomes like the rest of the Constitution; rigid. And while any amendment may be repealed, as was the case with the 18th Amendment (The Prohibition Act), until that happens, it is...

I turned my eyes away from "In God We Trust," engraved deeply in the stone above the Speaker's chair, and walked under the direct stone gaze of Moses as I left the chambers of the U.S. House of Representatives. I walked through statuary hall in the U.S. Capitol, where Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were among the first presidents to attend regular church services. The House chaplain had given the opening prayer to start the legislative day and our member's chapel in the Capitol was open for morning meditation as I walked briskly across the Capitol grounds to the Supreme...

Pentagon Document: U.S. Paid Pro-Saddam Figures, Chinese and French Charles R. Smith Monday, Feb 28, 2005 Millions Missing – French, Chinese Companies Involved Newly released Pentagon documents show that a former member of Saddam Hussein's inner circle has resurfaced inside the new Iraqi government, bringing charges of corruption, bribery and bid-rigging. The documents also indicate that many firms – including French and Chinese ones that had cozy relationship's with Saddam's regime – continue to reap millions in contracts from Iraq's new governing authorities. As a result, millions of U.S. aid dollars and billions in Iraqi government funds have disappeared in...

Sandy Burglar? Thursday January 13, 7:00 pm ET Ibd Scandal: Anyone remember Sandy Berger? To the media, the former national security adviser who might have lifted sensitive documents is a forgotten man. Not entirely forgotten, though. A couple of media outlets -- the New York Post and Fox News -- say the criminal probe of the Berger case is in front of a federal grand jury. But then, no one would ever mistake the Post or Fox with being part of the establishment media. As Washington scandals go, the Berger case had a short shelf life. It was in the...

The respected columnist Andres Oppenheimer of the Miami Herald has gotten hold of a pretty seamy secret document showing an emerging alliance between South America and the Arab League. The 28-page draft document for a May 10-11 summit in Brazil will endorse Arab terrorism and condemn Israel. It would also 'study' the 'root causes' of terrorism, and 'distinguish' the kinds of terrorism they justify and the kinds they can condemn without consequence. We all well know what that means. Oppenheimer writes: My conclusion: South American countries are playing with fire by extending the focus of the summit to Middle Eastern...

My email to the FCC - fccinfo@fcc.gov - on 9/22/04 Where is the FCC on CBS? CBS News is investigating ITSELF on felonious behavior? Isn't this the job of the FCC? What if, after three months, CBS finds NOTHING? Is that when the FCC kicks in? This issue should be front and center at any and all staff meetings. No FCC investigation will be noticed - by everyone on the Internet. I fully expect a response from you within one day. Thanks for your help. The FCC responds 10/06/04 - You are receiving this email in response to your inquiry...

Iraqi intelligence documents, confiscated by U.S. forces and obtained by CNSNews.com , show numerous efforts by Saddam Hussein's regime to work with some of the world's most notorious terror organizations, including al Qaeda, to target Americans. They demonstrate that Saddam's government possessed mustard gas and anthrax, both considered weapons of mass destruction, in the summer of 2000, during the period in which United Nations weapons inspectors were not present in Iraq. And the papers show that Iraq trained dozens of terrorists inside its borders. One of the Iraqi memos contains an order from Saddam for his intelligence service to support...

"Lockhart, the second Kerry ally to confirm contact with Burkett, said he made the call at the suggestion of CBS producer Mary Mapes. . . Yesterday's action comes 12 days after CBS reported that Mapes had obtained memos from the files of Lt. Col. Jerry Killian..."

A 1973 email from Lt. Col. Jerry Killian's Yahoo! email address to Maj. Gen. Bobby Hodges seems to confirm the authenticity of the disputed Bush National Guard documents, according to CBS News and Dan Rather. New York, Sept. 19, 2004 (CBS/Pair o' D News) CBS News has obtained an email written from Lt. Col. Jerry Killian, George W. Bush's Commander in the Texas Air National Guard, to Major General Bobby Hodges, Killian's immediate superior, which tends to confirm the authenticity of disputed documents that CBS News obtained from Killian's personal file earlier this month. The email, sent on August 24,...

In an article Burkett wrote for the Internet last year he compared Bush to Hitler and Napoleon as one of "the three small men" who sought to rule through tyranny. "Three small men who wanted to conquer and vanquish," Burkett wrote. Burkett confirmed authorship of that article in the February Chronicle interview.

[Robin] Rather, who was chairwoman of the Save Our Springs Alliance at the time the peace pipe was passed around in 1999, says it's been a long time since business and environmental leaders have discussed major issues. "It's obviously long overdue," Rather says. "I hope it will be productive." Rather has been one of the more vocal critics of Real Estate Council of Austin] RECA and the Austin..[Chamber of Commerce] over the past year. Rather says she hopes dialogue will help those involved "get back to respecting and liking each other as human beings." "I'm very confident that once we...

Check out the latest on the CBS "Fake" documents here

Quote of the Week: "This is regarding the silly column that a major Texas newpaper published a few days ago about how Texas Democrats supposedly have no "shining stars." Every Democrat is a leader. As soon as enough Democrats stop waiting for "superstars" and realize that we are all leaders, this state will turn from "red" to "blue" so fast it will make Karl Rove's head spin." David Van Os - Democratic Candidate for Supreme Court

I have committed myself deeply to the democratic political processes of our society, because I believe that “su voto es su voz” – your vote is your voice – and that participation in the political process is one of the highest marks of good citizenship. To that end, I have attended every Texas State Democratic Convention since 1974; I have served as Democratic County Chairman for Travis County, I have served as a Democratic Precinct Chair in both Travis and Bexar Counties, and I have served as president of the Northeast Austin Democrats and chairman of the North East Bexar...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE May 26, 2004 DFA Contact: Laura Gross, 802-651-3200 Gov. Howard Dean and Democracy for America Endorses David Van Os for Texas Supreme Court San Antonio, Texas—David Van Os, Democratic candidate for the Texas Supreme Court, has been endorsed by Gov. Howard Dean, honorary chair and founder of Democracy for America (www.democracyforamerica.com). Van Os is part of the “Dean Dozen,” a select group of socially progressive, fiscally responsible candidates that represent the spirit of grassroots democracy in this country. On behalf of the candidates, Democracy for America has reached out to their supporters to inform them that Van...

On behalf of our membership the Texas Democratic Veterans Executive Committee is proud to announce that we hereby endorse David Van Os for Texas Supreme Court Place 9. In this endorsement we are proud to join with: Texas AFL-CIO, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Communications Workers of America, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, State Association of Electrical Workers, United Auto Workers, American Federation of Government Employees, Texas Carpenters & Millwrights Regional Council of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters & Joiners of America, Texas Working Families Political Action Committee, Rio Grande Valley Teachers Association, Austin Black Lawyers Association, Hispanic Bar Association of...

I have a 30 plus year experience of working within and around litigators...I would guess that I have worked with over 100 attorneys and on and with about 40 cases... When I needed an attorney for a case of pure retaliatory abuse that denied me medical care that I had both earned and paid for, I studied the resumes and reputations of attorneys throughout Texas. David Van Os had and has the highest rating and reputation for ethics of any attorney in Texas. And after dealing with him, I would certainly confirm that he has been the most principled and...

Rep. Cox Requests House Rathergate Probe A senior House Republican has formally requested a congressional investigation into an apparent criminal conspiracy to rig the 2004 presidential election by forging records from President Bush's National Guard service and having them reported by CBS News.

"Well, if you agree with Rather, maybe you should give just a smidgen more slack to George W. Bush about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Bush's sources were more solid by several orders of magnitude than Rather's, and yet it is "obvious" to so many that Bush lied while Rather deserves the benefit of the doubt. George W. Bush had the head of the CIA, the intelligence agencies of all our allies, the Clinton administration, the United Nations, and most of the establishment media generally backing his understanding of the threat from Iraq. Dan Rather...

No Disputing It: Blogs Are Major Players Netizen's late-night post questioning CBS claims about Bush's service spreads at warp speed. By Peter Wallsten Times Staff Writer September 12, 2004 WASHINGTON — These days, CBS News anchor Dan Rather and his colleagues at the network's magazine program "60 Minutes II" are enduring an unusual wave of second-guessing by some of the public and fellow journalists. For that, they can thank "Buckhead." It was a late-night blog posting by this mystery Netizen that first questioned the validity of documents Rather cited Wednesday as proof that George W. Bush did not fulfill his...

Bush's Guard Service and the Right Wing's 60 Minutes Mythology by Salvador Peralta published by The Progressive Trail Bush's Guard Service and the Right Wing's 60 Minutes Mythology On Wednesday of this week, CBS's 60 Minutes aired a segment which shed some light on President Bush's failure to fulfill his military obligations to the Texas Air National Guard. 60 Minutes Later, the Right Wing punditry started to respond... The documentation that 60 Minutes used as the basis for their story included the following: A memo ordering Bush to take a physical A memo discussing "options of how Bush can get...

CBS Lies. Will Dan Rather Get Away With It This Time? Written by Doc Farmer Sunday, September 12, 2004 Last week, 60 Minutes The Sequel (This Time It's Personal) ran a hard-hitting no-hold-barred investigative report trashing President George W. Bush. This is the fourth or fifth time CBS News has done this. Normally, this is done in the fashion of taking Bush-bashing books being sold by a publisher owned by the parent company of CBS News (Viacom) and doing puffball interviews with the authors. This time, however, CBS decided to raise, ad nauseum, the already discredited canard regarding Dubya's National...

I don't usually talk about politics in my journal, but I just can't help it in this case. This CBS forged memos thing is just absolutely hilarious and sickening at the same time. I've been glued to the computer over the past few days reading everything there is to read. I've been very interested in all of the technical explanations and the many examples of comparisons between the memos, including the exact match between one of the memos and the exact same thing typed in Microsoft Word and the inexact match between one of the memos and the exact same...

This would be tremendous if it turns out to be the case. You would have forged documents, somehow or another appearing in the hands of DNC staffers, turned over to the Kerry campaign, who then slips them to CBS (Kerry's best friend in the mainstream media) so that they can be used as "damning evidence" against President Bush by Dan Rather on one of the premiere investigative news shows in America. This, my friends, could be the Democrat party's Watergate. Think about it, though there are obvious differences between the two scenarios, there are a lot of fundamental conceptual similarities....