Bush won't supply subpoenaed documents

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent Thu Jun 28, 7:26 PM ET

WASHINGTON - President Bush, in a constitutional showdown with Congress, claimed executive privilege Thursday and rejected demands for White House documents and testimony about the firing of U.S. attorneys.

His decision was denounced as "Nixonian stonewalling" by the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Bush rejected subpoenas for documents from former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor. The White House made clear neither one would testify next month, as directed by the subpoenas.
Presidential counsel Fred Fielding said Bush had made a reasonable attempt at compromise but Congress forced the confrontation by issuing subpoenas. "With respect, it is with much regret that we are forced down this unfortunate path which we sought to avoid by finding grounds for mutual accommodation."
The assertion of executive privilege was the latest turn in increasingly hostile standoffs between the administration and the Democratic-controlled Congress over the Iraq war, executive power, the war on terror and Vice President Dick Cheney's authority. A day earlier, the Senate Judiciary Committee delivered subpoenas to the offices of Bush, Cheney, the national security adviser and the Justice Department about the administration's warrantless wiretapping program.
While weakened by the Iraq war and poor approval ratings in the polls, Bush has been adamant not to cede ground to Congress.
"Increasingly, the president and vice president feel they are above the law," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said Bush's assertion of executive privilege was "unprecedented in its breadth and scope" and displayed "an appalling disregard for the right of the people to know what is going on in their government."
White House press secretary Tony Snow weighed in with unusually sharp criticism of Congress. He accused Democrats of trying "to make life difficult for the White House. It also may explain why this is the least popular Congress in decades, because you do have what appears to be a strategy of destruction, rather than cooperation."
Over the years, Congress and the White House have avoided a full-blown court test about the constitutional balance of power and whether the president can refuse demands from Congress. Lawmakers could vote to cite witnesses for contempt and refer the matter to the local U.S. attorney to bring before a grand jury. Since 1975, 10 senior administration officials have been cited but the disputes were all resolved before getting to court.
Congressional committees sought the documents and testimony in their investigations of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' stewardship of the Justice Department and the firing of eight federal attorneys over the winter. Democrats say the firings were an example of improper political influence. The White House contends that U.S. attorneys are political appointees who can be hired and fired for almost any reason.
In a letter to Leahy and Conyers, Fielding said Bush had "attempted to chart a course of cooperation" by releasing more than 8,500 pages of documents and sending Gonzales and other officials to Capitol Hill to testify.
The president also had offered to make Miers, Taylor, political strategist Karl Rove and their aides available to be interviewed by the Judiciary committees in closed-door sessions, without transcripts and not under oath. Leahy and Conyers rejected that proposal.
The Senate Judiciary Committee's senior Republican, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said the House and Senate panels should accept Bush's original offer.
Impatient with the "lagging" pace of the investigation into the U.S. attorney firings, Specter said he asked Fielding during a phone call Wednesday night whether the president would agree to transcripts on the interviews. Fielding's answer: No.
"I think we ought to take what information we can get now and try to wrap this up," Specter told reporters. That wouldn't preclude Congress from reissuing subpoenas if lawmakers do not get enough answers, Specter said.
Fielding explained Bush's position on executive privilege this way: "For the president to perform his constitutional duties, it is imperative that he receive candid and unfettered advice and that free and open discussions and deliberations occur among his advisers and between those advisers and others within and outside the Executive Branch."
This "bedrock presidential prerogative" exists, in part, to protect the president from being compelled to disclose such communications to Congress, Fielding argued.
In a slap at the committees, Fielding said, "There is no demonstration that the documents and information you seek by subpoena are critically important to any legislative initiatives that you may be pursuing or intending to pursue."
It was the second time in his administration that Bush has exerted executive privilege, said White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto. The first instance was in December 2001, to rebuff Congress' demands for Clinton administration documents.
The most famous claim of executive privilege was in 1974, when President Nixon went to the Supreme Court to avoid surrendering White House tape recordings in the Watergate scandal. That was in a criminal investigation, not a demand from Congress. The court unanimously ordered Nixon to turn over the tapes.

Sự can thiệp của đế quốc mang lại gì cho trẻ thơ Iraq?

Trong 11 năm Iraq bị cấm vận, 500,000 trẻ nhỏ và thiếu niên đã chết vì thiếu thốn, nhưng như vậy chưa thấm thía gì so với bây giờ vì chúng phải đối diện với bạo lực chết chóc hàng ngày. Ngoài chết chóc vì bom đạn ra, chúng còn chịu ~ hậu quả về nặng nề về tâm lý mà khó có thể cân đo đong đếm chính xác được.

Trích Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/25/AR20070625019...

...Iraq's conflict is exacting an immense and largely unnoticed psychological toll on children and youth that will have long-term consequences, said social workers, psychiatrists, teachers and aid workers in interviews across Baghdad and in neighboring Jordan.

"With our limited resources, the societal impact is going to be very bad," said Haider Abdul Muhsin, one of the country's few child psychiatrists. "This generation will become a very violent generation, much worse than during Saddam Hussein's regime.

Since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, 4 million Iraqis have fled their homes, half of them children, according to the United Nations Children's Fund. Many are being killed inside their sanctuaries -- at playgrounds, on soccer fields and in schools. Criminals are routinely kidnapping children for ransom as lawlessness goes unchecked. Violence has orphaned tens of thousands...."

...Abdul Muhsin started to focus on children only last year. Like many of the estimated 60 psychiatrists who remain in Iraq, he treated only adults before the invasion. Back then, he said, children with psychological problems were a rarity.

Inside his bare office at Ibn Rushed Psychiatric Hospital, where armed guards frisk patients at the entrance, he flipped through a thick ledger of patients. In the past six months, he has treated 280 children and teenagers for psychological problems, most ranging in age from 6 to 16. In his private clinic, he has seen more than 650 patients in the past year.

In a World Health Organization survey of 600 children ages 3 to 10 in Baghdad last year, 47 percent said they had been exposed to a major traumatic event over the past two years. Of this group, 14 percent showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. In a second study of 1,090 adolescents in the northern city of Mosul, 30 percent showed symptoms of the disorder.

...Many of the children Abdul Muhsin treats have witnessed killings. They have anxiety problems and suffer from depression. Some have recurring nightmares and wet their beds. Others have problems learning in school. Iraqi children, he said, show symptoms not unlike children in other war zones such as Lebanon, Sudan and the Palestinian territories.

On this morning, 4-year-old Muhammad Amar had a blank look on his soft, round face framed with curls of black hair. When mortar shells pummeled his street seven months ago, he was too terrified to cry. "He remained still, in shock. He froze," said his father, Amar Jabur, standing in the sunlit courtyard of Ibn Rushed. Muhammad is showing signs of epilepsy and had a mild seizure the night before.

Abdul Muhsin said he believes there could be a link between the explosions and the seizure, and recommended a brain scan to rule out other causes. At the very least, he said, the violence worsened the child's condition.

After the visit, Jabur cast a glance at his silent son. "It is quite possibly because of the fear," he said. "We adults are afraid of what's happening in Iraq. How do you think it will affect the children?"

Three months ago, Abdul Muhsin treated his most horrific case. A 13-year-old girl had been kidnapped in Baghdad's Mansour neighborhood and held for a week in a house with 15 other girls. Some were raped in front of her, another was fatally shot. The girl was released after her parents paid a $6,000 ransom. But she is still imprisoned by her experience.

"She was in a terrifying condition," recalled Abdul Muhsin. "She was shouting. She abused her parents verbally and physically."

He and other child specialists say as many as 80 percent of traumatized children are never treated because of the stigma attached to such ailments....

...At Sadr General, as many as 250 children arrive for treatment every day, nearly double from last year. "We only treat the first 20 children who arrive and then we run out of drugs," Sahib said. There is no child psychiatrist on staff...

Parents Lost

---

At the orphanage, Dina Shadi sleeps a few feet away from Marwa Hussein. Twelve-year-old Dina had recently received two telephone calls from relatives. She learned that her 17-year-old brother had been killed and that her aunt had been kidnapped and executed.

"She totally collapsed," Tahsin recalled.

"I was not able to control myself that day. I cried," Tahsin said, her voice cracking. "There is a great amount of sadness here. No matter what we do for the children, it will never replace the kindness of their mother and father."

"Now Dina expects another call with more bad news. She has a very dark image of the future. More and more, she's afraid of the future."

UNICEF officials estimate that tens of thousands children lost one or both parents to the conflict in the past year. If trends continue, they expect the numbers to rise this year, said Claire Hajaj, a UNICEF spokesperson in Amman, Jordan.

While many children at the orphanage have lost one or both parents, others have been abandoned or sent here because their parents can no longer afford to care for them.

"The tragedy is that there's an upswing in number of children who are losing parents, but you see a decrease in the ability of the government, the community and even the family to care for separated and orphaned children because of violence, insecurity, displacement, stress and economic hardship," Hajaj said. "These kids are definitely the most vulnerable around."

Bombs have exploded near Alwiya, and the sound of gunfire is frequent. There is always the possibility of an attack. In January, mortar shells landed in a Baghdad school, killing five girls.

Tahsin still had one more task this day. She had to inform two motherless sisters that their father, a Sunni truck driver, would not be coming to see them. He had been kidnapped by Shiite gunmen at a fake checkpoint and executed...

May mắn cho các 'nhà dân chủ' VN

Đấu tranh cho "dân chủ" ở nước "độc tài" VN sướng quá, được lãnh tiền đô gửi về cứ thế mà chửi ĐCS. Cùng lắm là bị bắt rồi lại thả ra chẳng hề hấn gì. Nếu các "nhà dân chủ" như Lý, Đài, Nhân,... mà chống chế độ ở 1 nước "dân chủ" như Phi thì đã đc quân đội hay cảnh sát cho đi đầu thai mấy kiếp rồi.
Dưới đây là tin tức về "hoạt động dân chủ" sôi nổi ở Philippines. Ngoài "tự do bầu cử" ra, cảnh sát, quân đội, và người của các phe phái CT ở Phi còn được tự do bắn giết và bắt cóc để sàng lọc các thành phần chính trị. Từ 2001 đến nay, đã có 800 vụ giết người và 200 vụ bắt cóc CT mà chính quyền chưa đem ra tòa xử vụ nào hết!!!
Ch phủ Mỹ nhảy dựng lên mỗi khi cq VN bắt 1 vài tên nặc nô chửi mướn. Nào là họp báo, "lên tiếng", "áp lực", hăm he bỏ VN vào danh sách này danh sách nọ..., trong khi đó Phi ám sát, bắt cóc CT hà rầm nhưng Mỹ lại tỉnh bơ! Hai phản ứng trái ngược nhau cho cùng môt hành động đó nói lên điều gì?
Thật ra chúng 0 có gì trái ngược nhau cả mà lại là nhất quán. Mỹ bênh các "nhà dân chủ" VN và làm ngơ trườc ~ giết chóc, bắt bớ CT ở Phi là vì các "nhà dân chủ" VN và Ch phủ Phi đều hoạt động phục vụ cho quyền lợi CT của Mỹ thì dĩ nhiên đại ca phải ứng xử 1 cách có lợi cho em út rồi?
Rights group exposes Philippine abuses
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070628/ap_on_re_as/philippines_dirty_war;_ylt=Ar...

By HRVOJE HRANJSKI, Associated Press Writer Wed Jun 27, 10:41 PM ET

MANILA, Philippines - A human rights group accused the Philippine military of waging "a dirty war" against left-wing activists, and said the government has not prosecuted a single soldier for the killings or forced disappearances.

In a new report highlighting years of abuse in the Philippines, the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said it had conducted more than 50 interviews with witnesses and relatives of victims of political killings, who pointed their fingers at security forces.

Two preliminary reports from a government commission that investigated killings last year and a U.N. human rights expert in January also implicated soldiers.
"There is strong evidence of a 'dirty war' by the armed forces against left-leaning activists and journalists," said Sophie Richardson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
She said the failure to prosecute soldiers or police suspected in these killings "shifts the spotlight of responsibility to the highest levels of the government."
The local human rights group Karapatan has reported that more than 800 people have been killed and another 200 abducted since President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came to power in 2001. Most of the victims belonged to leftist groups linked by the military to a low-level communist insurgency that has dragged on for 39 years in parts of the countryside.
Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said he will study the report and may comment on it later Thursday. Arroyo and the military have repeatedly denied the killings are part of a state policy to defeat insurgents, and have blamed them on an internal purge within the communist movement.
In one attack last year, police said masked gunmen dragged a Methodist pastor, Isaias Santa Rosa, a member of the left-wing National Peasant Movement, from his home in central Albay province and fatally shot him.
The body of a soldier with military identification was found near the pastor, apparently accidentally shot by other gunmen. In May, police filed a murder complaint naming two army majors and 10 other men, but the case has not moved forward.
Human Rights Watch said it was "unable to uncover a single case of apparent extrajudicial killing in recent years for which a member of the armed forces was successfully prosecuted."
The killings "appeared to shift into a higher gear" after Arroyo accused left-wing political parties of plotting her ouster last year, the group said. Months later, Arroyo declared an all-out war against the rebel New People's Army.
"None of the incidents investigated by Human Rights Watch involved anyone who was participating in an armed encounter with the military or was otherwise involved in NPA military operations. Each victim appears to have been individually targeted for killing," the rights group said.
The government has created special courts to investigate the killings, but officials have complained they cannot prosecute cases unless witnesses overcome their fears and testify.
The Supreme Court has called for a meeting of judges, police officials and human rights advocates next month to discuss steps to end the killings.

Những người VN vong thân vong bản

Trong khi cả thế giới nghi ngờ các đế quốc, đặc biệt là Mỹ và 0 muốn Bush chõ mũi vào chuyện nước họ thì ngược lại có 1 số ng VN tự cho mình khôn hơn ng khác nhưng lại cứ tối ngày thích xoăn xoe cầu cạnh Mỹ xía mồm vào chuyện chính trị của VN! Đặc biệt với kinh nghiệm của chính VN, hậu quả ghê gớm và tàn khốc của sự can thiệp chính trị, quân sự của Mỹ vẫn đang còn hằn đậm trên quê hương mà mắt mũi đầu óc của họ ở đâu mà 0 thấy gì hết nhẩy?

Tâm lý con ng thường là: "Cứt của ng ta thì thối, cứt của mình thì thơm" còn đối với cái đám ng VN ngu muội vong thân vong bản này, thì hoàn toàn ngược lại, Mỹ có làm gì VN họ cũng 0 dám hó hé mà chỉ luôn để giành hết sức lực chống lại ng cùng dân tộc thôi!

Poll: Global distrust of U.S. is growing

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-06-27-global-poll_N.htm?csp=34

WASHINGTON (AP) — Unease with American foreign policy and President Bush has intensified in countries that are some of the closest U.S. allies and around the globe, while Russia and China also face growing international wariness, a survey released Wednesday said.

Support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq, the NATO military action in Afghanistan and worldwide American efforts against terrorism have dropped since 2002, according to an international survey by the non-partisan Pew Research Center. Views of the U.S. in much of the Muslim world remain particularly negative.

In one measure of Bush's unpopularity, the poll showed he is less trusted on foreign policy than Russian President Vladimir Putin by allies Britain, Germany and Canada, even as faith in Putin has plummeted. About half in the U.S. say they have little or no trust in either leader's conduct of foreign affairs.

Bush's sagging numbers partly reflect widespread opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq. Of the countries surveyed — which included the U.S. — more people favored the removal of American forces from Iraq in all but Israel, Ghana, Nigeria and Kenya.

"Even though there is a mixed view of the United States around the world, there is increasing disapproval of the principal cornerstones of our foreign policy," said Pew President Andrew Kohut.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Iraq | China | American | George W Bush | Russia | Japan | Pakistan | South Korea | United States | India | NATO

Speaking at the Islamic Center of Washington on Wednesday, Bush accused religious extremists in the Middle East of seeking to fan anti-American sentiment.

"This enemy falsely claims that America is at war with Muslims and the Muslim faith, when in fact it is these radicals who are Islam's true enemy," he said.

The poll covered 46 nations plus the Palestinian territories.

The U.S. is still seen favorably in most countries surveyed, including India, Japan, Italy, Israel and many countries in Africa. American culture and technology are widely admired, and many believe a better life can be had by moving to the U.S.

Yet wide-ranging majorities think the U.S. does not consider their interests when formulating foreign policy; worry that U.S. customs are hurting their countries; and think the U.S. contributes to the gap between rich and poor nations.

As the U.S. has waged its war on terrorism over the past five years, its overall image has worsened. It has dropped from 75% favorable in Britain in 2002 to 51% now; from 60% to 30% in Germany; and from 64% to 56% in Mexico.

Views of the U.S. have also slipped in Russia, Indonesia, Canada, China and India. The U.S. is seen favorably by 9% in NATO ally Turkey, the lowest of any country measured; 13% in the Palestinian territories; and by 15% in Pakistan and 20% in Jordan, both terror-war partners.

Though Putin is popular in Russia, his worldwide image has declined. Only in China, Ukraine and a handful of African nations did most express trust in his foreign policy.

Views of Russia are mixed, with slightly favorable opinions in the U.S., China, India and South Korea. Majorities in most European countries express worries about reliance on Russian energy, following last year's Russian cutoff of natural gas to Ukraine during a clash over prices.

Though more than half the nations polled have positive views of China, its image has widely worsened. China is seen most favorably by countries in Africa and Latin America, where its trade has recently grown, and in Asia, though two-thirds in regional rival Japan view it negatively.

Majorities in most countries think China's economic growth is good for them, with concerns expressed in Western Europe and India. Unease with Beijing's military was wider spread, with majorities in most countries surveyed expressing worries — notably neighbors Japan and South Korea, much of Europe and the U.S.

The report also found:

•Concern over environmental issues has grown more than any other world problems the poll tested. The U.S. was viewed as the primary culprit by far, trailed distantly by China.

•37% in the U.S. named the environment as a major concern — less than in any other advanced nation surveyed.

•The spread of nuclear weapons and ethnic hatred were the two most often cited worries in the Middle East. For sub-Saharan Africa, it was AIDS and other diseases, and the gap between rich and poor.

•While views of American people have gotten worse in many countries, they are generally better liked than the U.S. itself.

The polling was conducted last April and May, in most countries by face-to-face interviews, some by telephone and some using both methods.

The number of people interviewed in each country ranged from 500 to 3,142, with the margin of sampling error ranging from plus or minus 2 to 4 percentage points. Most of the surveys were national, though in eight nations — Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Pakistan, China, India, Ivory Coast and South Africa — they were mostly or completely urban.

Những người VN ngu muội

Mỹ giàu nứt đố đổ vách, có tiền vung vãi khắp nơi thế giới để xây dựng "tự do dân chủ nhân quyền" trên xứ người nhưng ngay trên nước Mỹ vào bệnh viện mà 0 có tiền cũng bị quăng ra đường như thường. Người 0 có tiền thì 0 bằng con chó của người có tiền! Như vậy mà vẫn có khối ng VN ngu muội tin Mỹ còn hơn ông nội của họ!

LA Skid Row patient dumping alleged

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070627/ap_on_re_us/homeless_dumping

Wed Jun 27, 10:16 AM ET

LOS ANGELES - Prosecutors have filed civil complaints against two hospitals and a transportation service accusing them of dumping homeless patients in Skid Row, including a paraplegic man found crawling in a gutter.

Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Feliz and Methodist Hospital in Arcadia were accused of dumping two patients each in the downtown area over 14 months. The four people were sent there not by informed choice and without any plan for followup medical care so that the hospitals could rid themselves of the expense of caring for them, the compaints said.

Empire Enterprises, whose van driver allegedly left paraplegic Gabino Olvera at a Skid Row park as spectators protested, was named as a coconspirator. Olvera, 54, was found wearing a soiled hospital gown and a colostomy bag.

The complaints, filed Tuesday, seek fines against the hospitals and a court order banning the practice of dumping patients. City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is trying to use a state law concerning unfair business practices against the hospitals.

Kaylor Shemberger, executive vice president CHA Health Systems, the parent company of Hollywood Presbyterian, issued a statement saying Olvera told the van driver where to drop him off, against hospital policy.

"Following this incident, we instituted several new policies and intensified training to make sure nothing of the sort happens again," Shemberger said.

Methodist Hospital said its officials wanted to review the complaint before commenting.

Last year, the city's attorney's office filed false imprisonment and dependent care endangerment charges against Kaiser Permanente — the nation's largest nonprofit health maintenance organization — after a patient from Kaiser Permanente's Bellflower hospital was seen wandering Skid Row in a hospital gown.

Kaiser Permanente agreed last month in a settlement with the city to institute new discharge rules, provide more training for employees and allow a former U.S. attorney to monitor its progress.

Hollywood Presbyterian later said it too would adopt the same discharge rules for homeless patients. Delgadillo said at the time that Hollywood Presbyterian's adoption of the rules would have little effect on any legal action by his office.

Allegations that hospitals have dumped homeless patients in Skid Row have investigated by police and the city attorney's office for months.

Lưu manh đế quốc mướn lưu manh xã hội đen ám sát Castro

CIA plot to kill Castro detailed

By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press Writer

HAVANA - The CIA recruited a former FBI agent to approach two of America's most-wanted mobsters and gave them poison pills meant for Fidel Castro during his first year in power, according to newly declassified papers released Tuesday.

Contained amid hundreds of pages of CIA internal reports collectively known as "the family jewels," the official confirmation of the 1960 plot against Castro was certain to be welcomed by communist authorities as more proof of their longstanding claims that the United States wants Castro dead.

Communist officials say there have been more than 600 documented attempts to kill Castro over the decades. Now 80, Castro has not been seen in public since handing power to his younger brother Raul while recovering from intestinal surgery last July. But in a letter published on Monday, the elder Castro claimed without providing details that President Bush had "authorized and ordered" his killing.

And while Cuban government press officials didn't return a call seeking reaction Tuesday, the release of the newly declassified CIA documents had already been noted in state media.

"Upon the orders of the White House, the Central Intelligence Agency tried to assassinate President Fidel Castro and other former personalities and leaders," the Communist Party newspaper Granma said Saturday. "What was already presumed and denounced will be corroborated."

Other aborted U.S. attempts to kill Castro, who rose to power in January 1959 in a revolution that ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista, have been noted in other declassified documents.

The papers released Tuesday were part of a report prepared at the request of CIA Director James Schlesinger in 1973, who ordered senior agency officials to tell him of any current or past actions that could potentially violate the agency's charter.

Some details of the 1960 plot first surfaced in investigative reporter Jack Anderson's newspaper column in 1971.

The documents show that in August 1960, the CIA recruited ex-FBI agent Robert Maheu, then a top aide to Howard Hughes in Las Vegas, to approach mobster Johnny Roselli and pass himself off as the representative of international corporations that wanted Castro killed because of their lost gambling operations.

At the time, the bearded rebels had just outlawed gambling and destroyed the world-famous casinos American mobsters had operated in Havana.

Roselli introduced Maheu to "Sam Gold" and "Joe." Both were mobsters on the U.S. government's 10-most wanted list: Momo Giancana, Al Capone's successor in Chicago; and Santos Trafficante, one of the most powerful mobsters in Batista's Cuba. The agency gave the reputed mobsters six poison pills, and they tried unsuccessfully for several months to have several people put them in Castro's food.

This particular assassination attempt was dropped after the failed CIA-sponsored Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in April 1961. The CIA was able to retrieve all the poison pills, records show.

CIA plot to kill Castro detailed - Yahoo! News

CIA sống trên pháp luật

Có ~ người VN ngô nghê nghĩ rằng ở Mỹ mọi người đều bình đẳng trước pháp luật. Các cơ quan công quyền đều phải chịu trách nhiệm trước pháp luật nếu họ vi phạm pháp luật. Mỹ nói cái gì thì họ lập tức lặp lại như con vẹt!

CIA declassifies 1970s records on illegal surveillance

Thu Jun 21, 6:48 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Documents from the 1970s that detail more than two decades of the CIA's illegal spying activities on US soil have been declassified and are now available on the Internet, officials said Thursday.

The 693-page file details the Central Intelligence Agency's illegal activities, such as tapping reporters' phones, engaging in surveillance on students, opening mail, plotting assassinations and human experimentation.

The documents -- the so-called "family jewels" -- are part of official investigations and reforms instituted in 1973 on the order of then CIA chief James Schlesinger, after he discovered illegal activities had been ongoing since the 1950s.

The files were posted online by the National Security Archives at George Washington University.

Until now, only a few dozen pages from the file have been declassified, but with heavy redactions.

The release offers "a glimpse of a very different time and a very different agency," said a statement by CIA director Michael Hayden.

The CIA also declassified 11,000 pages of analyses of Soviet and Chinese domestic policies, information on the Warsaw Pact military programs and hundreds of pages about the A-12 spy plane.

"This is the first voluntary CIA declassification of controversial material since (former CIA director) George Tenet in 1998 reneged on the 1990s promises of greater openness at the agency," said National Security Archive director Thomas Blanton.

Schlesinger commissioned the report after learning that former CIA agents were involved in the Watergate scandal which led to president Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974.

US journalist Seymour Hersh broke the story of the CIA's decades of unlawful activities in a front page New York Times story in December 1974.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070621/pl_afp/usintelligencecia_070621224826