This Is Not America...Re-Create "76"

What is it going to take? This sounds like a page out of Nazi Germany or the Old Soviet Union. This is not what this nation is supposed to be about! And you wonder why my anger grows daily! Re-Create “68”…Hell we’re getting closer to having to have a Re-Create “76”.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Former detainees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement accuse the agency in a lawsuit of forcibly injecting them with psychotropic drugs while trying to shuttle them out of the country during their deportation.

Raymond Soeoth, pictured here with his wife, says he was injected with drugs by ICE agents against his will.

One of the drugs in question is the potent anti-psychotic drug Haldol, which is often used to treat schizophrenia or other mental illnesses. Doctors say they are required to see patients in person before such drugs are administered.

Two immigrants, Raymond Soeoth of Indonesia and Amadou Diouf of Senegal in West Africa, told CNN they were injected with the drugs against their will.

Both are plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union against the government. They are seeking an end to the alleged practice and unspecified damages. Watch why the former detainees claim abuse »

Dr. Paul Appelbaum, a professor of psychiatry, law and ethics at Columbia University, reviewed both men's medical records for this report and was stunned by what he discovered.

"I'm really shocked to find out that the government has been using physicians and using potent medications in this way," said Appelbaum, who also serves as a member of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law.

"That is the sort of thing that would be subject to a malpractice claim in the civilian world."

The allegations of ICE forcibly drugging deportees were raised last month by Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Connecticut, during the re-nomination hearing of ICE chief Julie Myers.

"The information the committee has received from ICE regarding the forced drugging of immigration detainees is extremely troubling, particularly since it appears ICE may have violated its own detention standards," Lieberman spokeswoman Leslie Phillips told CNN in an e-mail.

"Senator Lieberman intends to follow up with ICE to ensure that detainees are not drugged unless there is a medical reason to do so."

ACLU attorney Ahilan Arulanantham, who is representing Soeoth and Diouf, said, "It would be torture to give a powerful anti-psychotic drug to somebody who isn't even mentally ill. ... But here, it's happening on U.S. soil to an immigrant the government is trying to deport."

Responding to Lieberman's written questions, Myers said 1,073 immigration detainees had "medical escorts" for deportation since 2003.

From October last year to the end of April this year, she said 56 received psychotropic medications during the removal process. Of those, 33 detainees received medication "because of combative behavior with the imminent risk of danger to others and/or self," she said.

"First, I am aware of, and deeply concerned about reports that past practices may not have conformed to ICE detention standards," Myers said.

She added no detainee should be "involuntarily medicated without court order," except in emergency situations.

But both Soeoth and Diouf say they had not exhibited any combative behavior.

Soeoth, a Christian minister from Indonesia, spent 27 months in detention awaiting deportation after his bid for political asylum was rejected. Hours before he was to be sent back home on December 7, 2004, he says guards injected him with a mystery drug that made him groggy for two days. See the document that shows Soeoth was injected

"They pushed me on the bench, they opened my pants, and they just give me injection," he said through broken English.

He says he was taken to Los Angeles International Airport while in this drug-induced stupor, but two hours before takeoff, airline security refused to transport him, so ICE agents returned him to his cell at Terminal Island near Los Angeles. Terminal Island, once a federal prison, is a crowded facility along the ocean where hundreds of illegal immigrants await deportation.

Soeoth's medical records indicate he was injected with Cogentin and Haldol, even though those same records show he has no history of mental illness.

In the records, the government says he was injected with the drug after he said he would kill himself if deported -- a remark Soeoth denies ever making.

ICE said in a written statement it couldn't respond to specific allegations due to pending litigation.

"Department of Homeland Security law enforcement personnel may not and do not prescribe or administer medication to detainees," the ICE statement said. "Only trained and qualified medical professionals, including officers of the U.S. Public Health Service, may prescribe or administer medication."

But, Diouf says, he was injected on the plane right before he was to be deported. He said he even had a federal stay of his deportation -- and the paperwork to prove it -- but his U.S. government escorts wouldn't let him show it to the pilot of the plane preparing to fly him out of the country. See Diouf's stay of deportation document

That's when, he says, "I was wrestled to the ground and injected through my clothes."

A government report says he was medicated because he did not follow orders.

In both cases, Diouf and Soeoth remain in the United States pending a decision in the case. If they lose, they may land back in the hands of ICE, once again facing deportation.

Soeoth says he's traumatized by what happened. "I know this country [is] very generous to immigrants," he says. "What they did to me was very, very bad."

Washington Post Detainee Health Care Series – Day 1

May 11, 2008

The Washington Post began a four part series on Sunday, May 11th on detention health care. The first article in the series and the companion CBS “60 Minutes” piece presented information on a number of detainee cases and incidents occurring before the transition of the DIHS from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to ICE and before ICE assumed greater administrative control over DIHS. Nonetheless, these pieces are very disturbing as they provide a very limited view of a complex and important topic.

If you read the first article, you may also be interested in the following:

Myths vs. Facts regarding the May 11, 2008, article:

Myth: “During the intake screening, a part-time nurse began a computerized medical file on Osman, a routine procedure for any person entering the vast prison network the government has built for foreign detainees across the country. But the nurse pushed a button and mistakenly closed file #077-987-986 and marked it "completed" -- even though it had no medical information in it.”

Fact: What was marked “Completed” was the physical exam appointment, which is why the individual did not receive a follow up physical examination. The medical record had the intake screening in it and did not show any significant health problems. Mr. Osman’s medical record was active for the duration of detention.

Myth: “About 33,000 people are crammed into these overcrowded compounds on a given day, waiting to be deported or for a judge to let them stay here.”

Facts: ICE detention facilities are not experiencing overcrowding conditions. In fact, ICE takes appropriate and necessary action to ensure that facilities do not exceed their capacity.

Myth: “The detainees have less access to lawyers than convicted murderers in maximum-security prisons, and some have fewer comforts than al-Qaeda terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.”

Fact: Individuals who are detained while in administrative removal proceedings are entitled to an attorney at no expense to the government and we provide all detainees with a list of pro bono representatives. All facilities are expected to abide by the ICE National Detention Standards. Under these standards, attorneys are entitled to, and receive, more access than any other visitor to ICE facilities, and cannot be compared to how “convicted murderers” are treated. The facility shall permit legal visitation seven days a week, including holidays, for a minimum of eight hours per day on weekdays.

Given the comprehensive ICE National Detention Standards, developed in consultation with a number of immigrants’ advocacy groups and the American Bar Association, it is hard to imagine how the treatment of detainees can be in any way be compared to Guantanamo Bay. It bears noting that neither reporter has requested to tour a single ICE detention facility. Numerous reporters from a number of media have requested and been provided tours resulting in more balanced stories.

Myth: “The most vulnerable detainees the physically sick and the mentally ill, are sometimes denied the proper treatment to which they are entitled by law and regulation. They are locked in a world of slow care, poor care and no care, with panic and cover-ups among employees watching it happen, according to a Post investigation.”

Fact: Sick call requests are prioritized 24/7 based on urgency of medical treatment. They are triaged daily and scheduled accordingly. Those in need of immediate treatment are seen right away and lower priority cases are scheduled as appropriate.

Myth: “There is evidence that infectious diseases, including tuberculosis and chickenpox, are spreading inside the centers.”

Fact: Varicella (chicken pox) is a highly contagious communicable disease and very little exposure time is required for transmission to an individual who is not immunized. Most developing countries do not routinely vaccinate for chicken pox; in the United States, routine vaccination began in 1995. Therefore it is expected that individuals in our care who are not born in the U.S. will not be vaccinated. If one person enters a facility with active lesions (most likely infected in their country of nationality), and exposes other individuals who have never had Varicella and are not immune, transmission is likely to occur.

Facilities with DIHS staffing have strict protocols in place for management of Varicella, including restricted movement of exposed, non-immune persons, and contact investigation for the entire incubation period for exposed persons who are not immune and vaccination. The fact that DIHS initiated a vaccination protocol is indicative that we were proactive in intervening to halt further transmission; this was an appropriate and timely intervention.

In addition, DIHS implements a state-of-the-art screening program for tuberculosis using a digital chest radiograph to screen detainees. This system produces a result within four hours and allows providers to place patients with a finding suspicious for active tuberculosis in an airborne infection isolation room before ever being placed in the general detention population. All TB patients are managed in accordance with Centers for Disease Control guidelines. Additionally, DIHS initiated and provides national and international leadership for the Transnational Tuberculosis Continuity of Care Workgroup, which facilitates bi-national and international referrals for tuberculosis patients to enable them to continue their treatment without interruption in their countries of nationality following repatriation.

This is a national initiative involving partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state and local health departments, nongovernmental partners, the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission, foreign governmental TB control programs, and foreign consulates, and is proving highly successful. In a recent evaluation, between January 1, 2004 and July 31, 2006, DIHS helped 221 active TB patients complete their treatment regimen through these partnerships.

Myth: “These way stations between life in and outside the United States are mostly out of sight: in deserts and industrial warehouse districts, in sequestered valleys next to other prisons or near noisy airports. Some compounds never allow detainees outdoor recreation; others let them out onto tiny dirt patches once or twice a week.”

Fact: All ICE Service Processing Centers and Contract Detention Facilities have outside recreation areas. Further, it is factually inaccurate to say that detainees are only allowed outdoor recreation once or twice per week. Detainees are provided outside recreation five times per week, weather permitting.

Myth: “When doctors and nurses at the immigration compounds believe that detainees need more than the most basic treatment, they have to fax a request to the Washington office, where four nurses, working 9 to 4, East Coast time, five days a week, make the decisions.”

Fact: If a detainee requires off-site care, the facility where they are housed submits a request by means of email or fax. Submissions are adjudicated by the next business day, but no more than 72 hours after receipt. If the request is urgent or emergent, the medical care is provided and the managed care requests are adjudicated after the fact.

Myth: “To this end, the agency recently increased its inspections of facilities and is in the process of creating an inspection group at headquarters to review serious incidents, including deaths or allegations that standards are not being met.”

Fact: ICE implemented the Detention Facilities Inspection Group (DFIG) within the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility in February 2007. The DFIG provides objective oversight and independent validation of the detention facility inspection program. It also conducts immediate focused reviews of serious incidents involving detainees.

Myth: “A new director for health services arrived six months ago, following a stretch when the agency was run first by Sampson and then by a second interim director. The new boss is LaMont W. Flanagan, who brought with him the credential of having been fired in 2003 by the state of Maryland for bad management and spending practices supervising detention and pretrial services. An audit found that Flanagan had signed off on payments of $145,000 for employee entertainment and other ill-advised expenditures. His reputation was such that the District of Columbia would not hire him for a juvenile-justice position.”

Fact: Mr. Flanagan served as Commissioner of the Maryland Pretrial Detention and Services system for 12 years. In May, 2003, he resigned, five months after the election of the new Governor. On May 14, 2003, the newly appointed Secretary of the Department of Public Safety announced the resignation of Commissioner Flanagan in writing stating, "He served the Department with distinction during his tenure, and we wish him every success in the future". During Commissioner Flanagan's tenure, he was lauded by the media, his superiors, the legislature and his peers for his programmatic initiatives and superior management in corrections.

Editorials and articles from the Baltimore Sun have lauded the performance and leadership of Flanagan. (May 29, 1992-June1, 1992-May 24, 1999- April 8, 2000). In addition, two months after the resignation of Commissioner Flanagan, the Maryland State Senate passed a resolution congratulating and recognizing Mr. Flanagan for “Outstanding and Dedicated Service to the State of Maryland as Commissioner of Pre-trial and Detention Services”

In February, 2005, two years after Commissioner Flanagan's resignation, the Maryland Department of Legislative Services conducted a routine audit of his former agency, the Division of Pretrial Detention. The audit noted that the agency's annual budget requests submitted to the Maryland General Assembly did not adequately disclose general fund entertainment-related expenditures which totaled approximately $145,000 during fiscal years 2002 to 2004. The entertainment-related expenditures emanated from an “Inmate Welfare Fund" mandated by a Federal Consent Decree governing the agency.

The Inmate Welfare Fund emanated from the profits from commissary and telephone receipts. The Inmate Fund was utilized exclusively for the benefit of inmates, providing social, cultural and educational initiatives for inmate programs and activities. This program assisted in reducing violence by seventy-one percent and providing inmates extracurricular activities. All expenditures were reviewed and approved by finance and budget authorities in the Office of the Secretary of Public Safety and the State Comptroller.

Commissioner Flanagan had no direct check writing authority and each expenditure was a requisition request with a three-level management review/approval process above the Commissioner.

In 2004, the Executive Director of the Department of Human Services for the District of Columbia asked Mr. Flanagan to apply for the position of Juvenile Services Administrator. Flanagan interviewed for the position and was designated by the press as a major candidate. Advocates within the Juvenile Justice community impressed upon the Mayor that a corrections administrator was not their preference for administering the juvenile services program. The Mayor appointed a juvenile justice advocate as the juvenile services administrator.

Subsequently, Mr. Flanagan was appointed by Mayor Williams to the position of Deputy Director for administration in the Department of Human Services where he served with distinction for two years.

Mr. Flanagan is not the director of DIHS. He is the Detention Health Care Unit Chief, within DRO where he serves as the liaison with DIHS. Mr. Flanagan does not make clinical decisions; however he has been instrumental in overseeing several aspects of the transition and increasing the staffing at all DIHS facilities.

Myth: “An entry-level emergency medical technician, with barely any training, had done Guevara's intake screening and physical assessment at the Otero County immigration compound in New Mexico. Under DIHS rules, those tasks are supposed to be done by a nurse.”

Fact: The ICE National Detention Standards require that intake screening and physical assessments be conducted by trained personnel, including Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT).

Myth: “His wife, pregnant at the time with their second child, recalled that she rushed to the hospital, but ICE guards would not let her inside until the Mexican Consulate interceded. Guevara's mother waited five hours before they let her in. By then he was brain dead.”

Fact:
Otero County officers were providing security coverage during Mr. Guevara’s hospitalization. ICE contacted Mr. Guevara’s family so they could report to the hospital immediately to see their family member and to speak with the doctor regarding his condition. ICE was never made aware that there was a delay in their ability to see Mr. Guevara and we have no record of the Mexican Consulate interceding.

Myth: “The government's internal medical records say Dantica died of pancreatitis. A one-page death certificate in his file has "VOID" stamped across it. Two outside doctors who reviewed his medical records for The Post said he probably died of heart problems.”

Fact: There is no space on the actual death certificate in which to enter the cause of death. This likely explains why Mr. Dantica’s death certificate does not indicate the cause of death. The VOID mentioned in the article on the death certificate is a security feature to prevent forgery.

Myth: “But internal documents and interviews reveal unsafe conditions that forced the agency to relocate all 404 detainees that month. An audit found 53 incidents of medication errors. A riot in August pushed federal officials to decrease the dangerously high numbers of detainees, many of them difficult mental health cases, and caused many health workers to quit. Finally, the facility lost its accreditation.”

Fact: San Pedro was temporarily closed because of the need to perform significant work on the fire suppression system and to replace the boiler. A decision was made that it would be a life safety issue to house the detainees there while the fire suppression system was offline while undergoing repairs. That would have placed the detainees in a potentially dangerous situation. We opted to relocate them.

In addition, and for clarification, San Pedro lost its ACA accreditation for not having been in compliance with one mandatory standard. That standard had to do with the manner in which caustic and toxic substances (like cleaning supplies, oil, gas, bleach, etc) are stored and inventoried. The facility immediately addressed the deficiency and were then in compliance with the standard again. Nonetheless, because the standard is mandatory, not having been in compliance with it was the cause for the loss of accreditation.

Some Detainees Are Drugged For Deportation

Immigrants Sedated Without Medical Reason

by Amy Goldstein and Dana Priest | Washington Post Staff Writers

Page A1; May 14, 2008

The U.S. government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country, according to medical records, internal documents and interviews with people who have been drugged.

The government's forced use of antipsychotic drugs, in people who have no history of mental illness, includes dozens of cases in which the "pre-flight cocktail," as a document calls it, had such a potent effect that federal guards needed a wheelchair to move the slumped deportee onto an airplane.

Detainee Health Care: The Rest of the Story

Recently, several media have been reporting on the medical care of detainees in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. Unfortunately, the reporting on this issue has been misleading and exaggerated.

On May 5, the New York Times published an article about the few deaths that have regrettably occurred in ICE facilities. That article was followed by an inflammatory editorial. On May 11, the Washington Post began a four-part series of articles about the same subject, and CBS’s “60 Minutes” aired its story that same night. Given the imbalanced and inaccurate portrayal of the quality of medical care provided to our detainees, ICE is compelled to correct the record.

For specific responses to the New York Times and Washington Post articles, please refer to our Myths vs. Facts page.

All medical facilities at detention centers owned or contracted by ICE are required to be compliant with health care standards from the American Correctional Association, the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, the Joint Commission, and the ICE National Detention Standards, which surpass industry standards in their stringency and commitment to detainee health and comfort. Many of the state and local facilities unfairly criticized in the aforementioned media adhere to these or comparable standards.

Last year, ICE spent nearly $100 million providing medical care to detainees, almost double the funding of just five years ago. While the ICE detainee population has increased by more than 30 percent since 2004, the mortality rate declined from 29 in calendar year 2004 to 7 in calendar year 2007.

The number of deaths per 100,000 people is dramatically lower in ICE facilities than in U.S. prisons and jails, not to mention among the general U.S. population.

In 2005, the mortality rate for ICE detainees was 7.5 per 100,000, compared with 540.5 among inmates at U.S. prisons and jails. For the general population, the rate was even higher: 798.8 and 826 in fiscal years 2005 and 2007, respectively. ICE’s new oversight procedures have helped decrease the mortality rate even further, to 4.3 in 2007. For further information, please refer to our Fact Sheets on Detainee Health Care and the DRO: Detainee Mortality Rates.

Despite ICE’s best efforts to inform the media of the facts relating to its health care efforts, the New York Times and the Washington Post refused to acknowledge the increased funding for detainee health care or the decrease in mortality rates. This absence of true and unbiased reporting is unfortunate. The public deserves to know that their tax dollars are being used effectively and that we have a commitment to provide detainees with a safe and humane environment pending a decision on their case.

ICE routinely provides medical care for life-threatening conditions, such as cardiac arrest, kidney disease, high risk pregnancies, HIV/AIDS, hypertension, and diabetes. ICE detainees also receive dental visits, physical exams, sick call visits, prescriptions for drugs filling and mental health visits.

Staff working with ICE detainees are trained to spot suicide risks and to use prevention and intervention techniques. In the last 12 months, psychologists and social workers have managed a daily population of over 1,350 seriously mentally ill detainees without a single suicide. For more information, please refer to our Suicide Prevention Initiatives.

In recent years, ICE has made significant strides to increase its detention oversight and accountability. For example, ICE established the Detention Facilities Inspection Group in February 2007. This independent component has the responsibility of reviewing and validating detention inspections and ensuring the consistent application of agency standards to make certain that corrective actions are taken. ICE has also contracted with an independent company to place full-time quality assurance professionals at each of our 40 largest facilities and to arrange for rotational visits to our smaller facilities.

The detention of individuals who are unlawfully present in the United States and pending removal raises strong opinions and merits a more balanced view. We regret that the New York Times, the Washington Post, and “60 Minutes” have failed to provide such balanced reporting. This website and its contents are meant to correct the record and provide a comprehensive overview of ICE’s commitment to detainee health care.

Full statement for the Washington Post, May 7, 2008

Full statement for “60 Minutes”, May 7, 2008

Months in the planning, Monday’s massive raid on an Iowa kosher slaughter house involved 16 local, state and federal agencies, led by ICE, resulting in 300 arrests and a “reignited debate” over such sweeps, a Des Moines Register team follows up.

Charges Against 9/11 Suspect Dropped

His Statements Were the Result of Abusive Interrogation, Officials Say

By Josh White and Julie Tate

Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 14, 2008; Page A04

U.S. authorities have long considered Mohammed al-Qahtani one of the most dangerous alleged terrorists in U.S. custody, a man who could have been the 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11, 2001, plot if he had not been denied entry into the country.

But yesterday, amid concerns about using information obtained during abusive military interrogations, a top Pentagon official removed Qahtani from the military commission case meant to bring justice to those behind the vast Sept. 11 conspiracy.

Susan J. Crawford, the appointed official who decides which cases will be heard in the largely untested commission process, dismissed the charges against Qahtani while affirming those against five other alleged terrorists to stand trial at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Prosecutors reserve the right to charge Qahtani again, and the military says it can hold him without trial for the duration of the counterterrorism wars. But his defense lawyers and officials familiar with the case say it is unlikely that Qahtani will face new charges because he was subjected to aggressive Defense Department interrogation techniques -- such as intimidation by dogs, hooding, nudity, long-term isolation and stress positions.

Those techniques were later rescinded because of concerns about their legality. In 2005, an official military investigation concluded that Qahtani's interrogation regimen amounted to abuse.

Officials close to the case said Crawford's office was reluctant to sanction the charges against Qahtani because prosecutors had little evidence against him outside of his own coerced confessions, a point that most certainly would have become a central issue at trial.

"Their case was only based on evidence derived from torture," said Army Lt. Col. Bryan Broyles, who represents Qahtani. "In six-plus years, the evidence comes down to what they beat out of him. The prosecution evidence was entirely unreliable and inadmissible."

Crawford has not commented publicly since taking over as the top official for military commissions, and a Pentagon spokesman said yesterday she has not explained her decision. Officials close to the case said the office's top legal adviser, Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas W. Hartmann, concluded in an analysis that Qahtani's case was too weak to prosecute.

"Decisions relating to joining several accused are based upon such factors as the nature of the offenses, the evidence and applicable rules of procedure," said Navy Cmdr. J.D. Gordon, a Pentagon spokesman.

"My guess is that they will never charge him at all," said Charles D. "Cully" Stimson, a lawyer with the Heritage Foundation and former deputy assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs. "It may be next to impossible to prove a case against him without what came out of his mouth."

From the outset, Qahtani's case appeared to be an odd companion to the co-conspirator trial, as the other cases involve detainees -- such as alleged mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed -- held by the CIA, and they involve high-level allegations of conspiracy to commit the attacks, including financing, running al-Qaeda training camps and helping the hijackers carry out the plot. Qahtani is alleged to be a field operative.

Human rights organizations have been warning that harsh treatment of detainees would come back to haunt the U.S. government.

"Statements obtained using interrogation techniques explicitly approved by then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld are so tainted by torture that the current Pentagon has determined that they cannot be used, even in military commissions which allow the use of certain evidence obtained through abuse," said Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch.

Although some of the other five detainees were subjected to harsh interrogations by the CIA, the military organized a coordinated effort to re-interview them after they arrived at Guantanamo Bay in September 2006, using rapport-building methods. The results yielded incriminating evidence, officials said. But the same "clean teams" were not successful with Qahtani.

"Qahtani has never made a statement that was not extracted without torture," said Vincent Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which also represents Qahtani.

The charges approved against the alleged co-conspirators detail 169 overt acts in support of the Sept. 11 attacks, including murder, attacking civilians, attacking civilian objects, terrorism and providing material support for terrorism. Barring a continuance, the five suspects should appear in a Guantanamo Bay courtroom within the next month for an arraignment, but those involved in the cases say a joint trial is unlikely to begin before next year.

One issue that could further complicate the Sept. 11 case is the disqualification of Hartmann by a judge in another military commission because of alleged bias in favor of the prosecution. Hartmann has been deeply involved in the conspiracy case, also.

But Stimson said that "anytime Hartmann touches something, you're giving the defense an opportunity to tee up the unlawful command influence issue."

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Programs Which the Government Claims Are Aimed At Foreign Enemies are being Used Against American Citizens within the United States

The U.S. government has repeatedly claimed that it was launching aggressive programs solely at foreign enemies, and then launched them at American citizens. For example:

• In 2002, the Pentagon announced that it was considering spreading false propaganda in the foreign press. However, the military has spread propaganda within the U.S. in an operation so aggressive that one participant, a military analyst, called it "psyops on steroids"

• For many years, the government has claimed that it was only spying on foreigners. But it is now clear that the government is massively spying on American citizen's home and cellphone calls, email and internet usage, credit card and other financial transactions, and just about every other facet of our personal lives.

Can anyone see a pattern here?

Given the above, should we believe that the following programs will just be limited to foreigners?

• The Pentagon is running an artificial intelligence program to see how people will react to propaganda and to government-inflicted terror. The program is called Sentient World Simulation:

"U.S defense, intel and homeland security officials are constructing a parallel world, on a computer, which the agencies will use to test propaganda messages and military strategies.

Called the Sentient World Simulation, the program uses AI routines based upon the psychological theories of Marty Seligman, among others. (Seligman introduced the theory of 'learned helplessness' in the 1960s, after shocking beagles until they cowered, urinating, on the bottom of their cages.)

Yank a country's water supply. Stage a military coup. SWS will tell you what happens next.

The sim will feature an AR avatar for each person in the real world, based upon data collected about us from government records and the internet."

• And as former former Congressman Dan Hamburg and others have pointed out:

Beginning in 1999, the government has entered into a series of single-bid contracts with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) to build detention camps at undisclosed locations within the United States. The government has also contracted with several companies to build thousands of railcars, some reportedly equipped with shackles, ostensibly to transport detainees."

But many people have pointed out that the laws governing the program are so vague that they could lead to the imprisonment of American citizens for simply speaking out against the government (see also this)

Actions which the government claims were launched against non-U.S. citizens have in the past been used against Americans within the United States. Why should we believe any differently about its new, even more tyrannical programs?

AND THEN THERE IS THIS GARBAGE!

Democrats have settled on a plan that would provide the $183.8 billion for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan during fiscal 2008, plus money for the initial months of fiscal 2009, which begins Oct. 1. Blue Dogs objected to a plan that would have included a $52 billion education program for veterans but not offset that cost with new revenue.

To meet the Blue Dogs’ demands for offsets, the bill is expected to propose a new 0.5 percent surtax on adjusted gross income above $500,000 for individuals and $1 million for joint filers. The tax, which probably will face serious opposition in the Senate, would raise an estimated $54 billion over 10 years, more than enough to pay for the education benefits.

END POST…BIG FLUSHING SOUND!