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A friend is attending the US bishops' meeting in Baltimore this week and sent along the following. (One must find ways to keep oneself amused... and awake.) These are all actual words used by the bishops from the last hour of the bishops’ meeting yesterday. Just combine any word from Column A with any word from Column B with any word from Column C. The system pretty much gives you an idea as to the content of most of the USCCB documents. Column A Column B Column C Thoughtful Scientific Collaboration Simultaneous Evolving Ministry Relevant Human Structure Universal Shifting Development...

A group of House Republicans called Wednesday for a congressional investigation into the improper handling of classified documents by President Clinton's national security adviser, Sandy Berger. Berger admitted last year that he deliberately took classified documents out of the National Archives in 2003 and destroyed some of them at his office. He pleaded guilty in federal court to one charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified material and was fined $50,000. Ten lawmakers led by House Armed Services Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., and Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., released a letter calling for the House Government Reform Committee to...

As part of our Guest Essay series, I asked Joseph Shahda to write for us on the topic of translating Sadaam Hussien's captured documents. Mr. Shahda, who goes by the screen name "jveritas" on FreeRepublic.com, has had a article written about him in the Boston Globe: ( http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/03/18/us_puts_iraqi_documents_on_the_web/ ) "Joseph Shahda earns his living as an engineer. But in his spare time, he's an intelligence agent, working to ferret out the truth about the regime of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. When the US government on Thursday began publishing captured Iraqi government documents on the Internet, Shahda eagerly began to...

The Department of Transportation, acting through a Security and Prosperity Partnership "working group," is preparing in 2007 to issue North American biometric border passes to Mexican, Canadian, and U.S. "trusted travelers" according to documents released to WND columnist and author Jerome R. Corsi under a Freedom of Information Act request. "The FOIA documents show the organizational chart and the composition of a 'shadow Department of Transportation' which includes formal membership from Mexico and Canada's Departments of Transportation," asserts Corsi. "SPP has in effect created a fully-functioning trilateral Department of Transportation which will dictate policy to Mary Peters as soon as...

WASHINGTON The cooling-off period ends today on documents temporarily sealed by President Bush in the bribery case of Congressman William Jefferson. The Louisiana Democrat has been the focus of prosecutors and investigators who suspect him of taking 400-thousand dollars in bribes from a business executive. Bush placed materials seized from Jefferson's Capitol Hill office off limits for 45 days, but that time is up. A court will decide if the F-B-I's searches in May were an unconstitutional intrusion. Until a judge rules, prosecutors won't examine the materials agents seized.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2006 – A new policy directive and field manual released today establish crystal-clear guidelines on U.S. military detention and interrogation policies and further the Defense Department’s longstanding policy of humane treatment for all detainees, defense officials told Pentagon reporters today. DoD released two new documents today: DoD Directive 2310.01E, which provides overarching guidance on DoD’s detainee operations worldwide, and Army Field Manual 2-22.3, which lays out specific guidelines for those directly involved in detention and interrogation efforts. The new DoD directive, “The Department of Defense Detainee Program,” describes core policies critical to ensuring detainees are treated humanely...

Microsoft plans this week to charge a nominal fee for Office 2007 Beta 2 downloads. Consumers who download the 2007 Microsoft Office system Beta 2 will be charged US$1.50 per download, beginning Wednesday at 6 p.m. PDT, a Microsoft representative said.

College students accustomed to hearing news on the Iraq War from professors and protesters who have never actually been there might find the documents retrieved by the U.S. forces there to be of interest. Thomas Joscelyn, a terrorism researcher, told the audience that “It shouldn’t really be a surprise to us,” about Saddam’s relationship with Islamic terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden. Michael Tanji the former Chief of the Document and Media Exploitation Division at the Defense Intelligence Agency said that “the sheer size of this problem is something people really don’t appreciate.” When it comes to...

Justice seeks end to delays in review of documents seized in raid WASHINGTON The Justice Department today opposed further delays in the bribery investigation of Representative William Jefferson, saying the agency should be allowed to review documents seized in a search of the congressman's office. On Monday, Chief U-S District Judge Thomas F. Hogan rejected requests from Jefferson and fellow lawmakers seeking the return of the material from the May raid on Capitol Hill. Jefferson is now seeking to delay the judge's ruling while he appeals. Hogan dismissed arguments by Jefferson and a bipartisan group of House leaders that the...

ARTICLE ON IRAQI DOCUMENTS. WHERE DID IT GO?

Mexican authorities have arrested the leader of a wide-reaching organization that allegedly made and distributed forged immigration and identification documents in numerous U.S. cities, U.S. officials said Monday. Pedro Castorena, 42, was arrested Saturday in the western city of Guadalajara while carrying two counterfeit Mexican identification documents that bore his photograph but an assumed name, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, said in a statement. Castorena's arrest "deals a serious blow to one of the largest fraudulent document organizations in the United States," said Julie Myers, the Department of Homeland Security's assistant secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A blueprint for trying to start a war between the United States and Iran was among a "huge treasure" of documents found in the hideout of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraqi officials said Thursday. The document, purporting to reflect al-Qaida policy and its cooperation with groups loyal to ousted President Saddam Hussein, also appear to show that the insurgency in Iraq was weakening. The al-Qaida in Iraq document was translated and released by Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafak al-Rubaie. There was no way to independently confirm the authenticity of the information attributed to al-Qaida. Although the...

GREENBELT, Md. - Nigeria's vice president sought up to $500,000 and a stake in a technology venture in his country, according to statements Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) made to an FBI informant that were detailed in court documents filed in a bribery probe of the congressman. Jefferson allegedly told the FBI informant that he had delivered "African art," which authorities believe was code for cash, to the Potomac, Md., home of the wife of Nigerian Vice President Atiku Abubakar at midnight last July 31. Details of the alleged deal were included in an affidavit filed in U.S....

Luis Hernandez is laughing as he sells fake drivers licenses and Social Security cards to illegal immigrants near a park known for shady deals. The joke, to him, is the government's promise to put people like him out of business with a tamperproof ID card. "One way or another, we'll always find a way," said Hernandez, 35, a sidewalk pitchman who is part of a complex counterfeiting network operating around MacArthur Park, a teeming area near downtown. No matter what the federal government does, sellers vow to keep providing authentic-looking IDs for as little as $150, to anyone who wants...

WASHINGTON — President Bush stepped into the Justice Department's constitutional confrontation with Congress on Thursday and ordered that documents seized in an FBI search of a congressman's office be sealed for 45 days. "The Department of Justice's search was part of an important investigation of alleged public corruption. At the same time, the bipartisan leadership of the House of Representatives believe the search violated the constitutional principle of separation of powers and the speech and debate clause of the Constitution," according to the president's statement.

WASHINGTON - President Bush stepped into the Justice Department's constitutional confrontation with Congress on Thursday and ordered that documents seized in an FBI raid on a congressman's office be sealed for 45 days. The president directed that no one involved in the investigation have access to the documents under seal and that they remain in the custody of the solicitor general.

WASHINGTON - The FBI's raid on a Democrat's office rippled through Capitol Hill Wednesday, with Republicans demanding that the bureau surrender documents and other items its agents seized under what lawmakers said were unconstitutional circumstances. "I think those materials ought to be returned," said House Speaker Dennis Hastert, adding that the FBI agents involved "ought to be frozen out of that (case) for the sake of the Constitution." A day earlier, the Illinois Republican complained personally to President Bush about the Saturday night raid of Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record)'s legislative office, saying it violated the Constitution's separation...

SAN FRANCISCO - The question of whether documents obtained during the Bush administration's domestic spying program should remain under seal is one of the central issues in a lawsuit challenging the program. The lawsuit, brought in U.S. District Court by privacy advocate Electronic Frontier Foundation, accuses AT&T Inc. of illegally cooperating with the National Security Agency to make communications on AT&T networks available to the spy agency without warrants. The goal of the lawsuit is to dismantle warrantless eavesdropping on Americans in the United States, a practice the Bush administration confirmed in December. U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker set a...

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union have asked the FBI to reveal any post-Sept. 11 surveillance of Southern California Muslims. The ACLU made the request for documents Monday, after Islamic leaders said the FBI gave them little information when they alleged that investigators had been monitoring local Muslims and mosques. Using the Freedom of Information Act, the ACLU filed the request on behalf of six Islamic organizations, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, along with several individual Muslims. Shakeel Syed, head of the Islamic Shura Council, said many Southern California Muslims...

The treasure trove of captured documents from Saddam Hussein’s regime collectively known as Harmony, which are now available for translation by anyone with access to the internet, continues to yield indications of WMD programs. As much of the press continues to pick around at intelligence assessments and analyses pre- and post- war which were in error, it is carfeully averting its eyes from evidence that Saddam was hiding the illegal weapons he had, was working closely with terrorists and had every intention of continuing to produce WMDs as soon as the sanctions program -already weakened-was over. The bloggers are not...