FANTASYFREDDY'S BLOG

I am such a big fan, and here is his music!!! Really!! acid jazz, played w/ the "Morpheus Quintet", playing "A VERY STILL LIFE"!!! It sounds awesome!! Keeps changin tempo!!

At least he has a sense of humor after so many years in jail!!! "A VERY STILL LIFE".. LOL!!

We love you Jack!!!!!!!!

One day the whole world will agree with you!!!!

Love,

Freddy

ps: oh, and speaking of death, I am quickly losing any hope of the world's financial markets going anywhere but down, for a while. i pray I am wrong, but am not counting on it!!! yes, it makes me sick too. i mean, we would have a prosperous and peaceful world right now, relatively at least, if Gore and Kerry were in power, as they were elected properly by the American populace.. but NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

ok, enuf of this.. this all just makes me wanna puke like John Belushi and Garrett Morris in their Vomitorium scene on an old SNL. i love that scene soooo much!! the projectile vomit!! "what did you eat?" "the cat a l'lorange".. "bllleaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!" lol!!!! f

my favorite line of King's is:

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!"

YEAAAHHHHHH!!!!! ONLY WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!

Here is the full text of the speech, copied from "americanrhetoric.com", and is widely available on the web:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

We cannot turn back.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream."¹



I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from areas where your quest -- quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.

Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."²

This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning:

My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.



And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that:

Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual:

Free at last! Free at last!

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!³


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Book/CDs by Michael E. Eidenmuller, Published by McGraw-Hill (200

¹ Amos 5:24 (rendered precisely in The American Standard Version of the Holy Bible)

² Isaiah 40:4-5 (King James Version of the Holy Bible). Quotation marks are excluded from part of this moment in the text because King's rendering of Isaiah 40:4 does not precisely follow the KJV version from which he quotes (e.g., "hill" and "mountain" are reversed in the KJV). King's rendering of Isaiah 40:5, however, is precisely quoted from the KJV.

³ At: http://www.negrospirituals.com/news-song/free_at_last_from.htm

Video Source: Linked directly to: http://www.earthstation1.com/

Also in this database: Martin Luther King, Jr: A Time to Break Silence

External Link: http://www.mlkmemorial.org/

External Link: http://www.thekingcenter.org/

Copyright Status: Text, Audio = Restricted, seek permission. Images & Video = Uncertain.

Copyright inquiries and permission requests may be directed to:

Estate of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
Intellectual Properties Management
One Freedom Plaza
449 Auburn Avenue NE
Atlanta, GA 30312
Fax: 404-526-8969

just as i have suspected since i heard that a colleague of my dad's got brain or jaw cancer and knew it was caused by his cell phone, as the cancer happened just where he held the phone.

well, at least I now will have some studies to back up my hunches, so can win these in court now!!!!

i have always known this is the biggest case in history, just waiting for us!!

shalom!
F

here's the article, from nytimes.com:

July 24, 2008, 11:20 am

Prominent Cancer Doctor Warns About Cellphones

The head of a prominent cancer research institute has warned his faculty and staff to limit cellphone use because of a possible cancer risk, The Associated Press reports.
Dr. Ronald B. Herberman, the director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, notes that while the evidence about a cellphone-cancer link remains unclear, people should take precautions, particularly for children.
“Really at the heart of my concern is that we shouldn’t wait for a definitive study to come out, but err on the side of being safe rather than sorry later,” Dr. Herberman told The Associated Press.
Earlier this year, three prominent brain surgeons raised similar concerns while speaking on “The Larry King Show.” Their concerns were largely based on observational studies that showed only an association between cellphone use and cancer, not a causal relationship. The most important of these studies is called Interphone, a vast research effort in 13 countries, including Canada, Israel and several in Europe.
Some of the research suggests a link between cellphone use and three types of tumors: glioma; cancer of the parotid, a salivary gland near the ear; and acoustic neuroma, a tumor that essentially occurs where the ear meets the brain. All these tumors are rare, so even if cellphone use does increase risk, the risk is still very low.
On Wednesday, Dr. Herberman sent a memo to about 3,000 faculty and staff saying that children should use cellphones only for emergencies because their brains are still developing. He advised adults to keep cellphones away from the head and use the speakerphone or a wireless headset, he said.
“Although the evidence is still controversial, I am convinced that there are sufficient data to warrant issuing an advisory to share some precautionary advice on cellphone use,” he wrote in his memo.
To read my recent Well column that explores the data on cellphones and cancer, click here.

just follow this link.. you have to give them address and phone number. they send one in 4-6 weeks. and request a donation to buy more.

very easy.

here's the copy of the e mail i just got from moveon.org, at the end of this post..

Barak is not perfect , or nearly as good as i would be, but he is so much better than mccain it is not funny. this really is the choice of eternal world war or not, although he is still way way to in favor of continuing the war in afghanistan i believe. i mean, getting bin laden and buddies is one thing, taking over a nation is quite another..

i don't think he gets that. i mean, the afghanistan war is what took down the soviet union, and we are fighting those same people who we armed to the teeth with our best stinger missiles. yeah, ronald reagan was a fuckin genius!! alzheimer's sucks!!

L8!
F

the link:

Hey,
Want a free Obama button? MoveOn's giving them away totally free--no strings attached. I just got mine, and wanted to share the opportunity with you.
Click this link to get a free Obama button:
http://pol.moveon.org/obamabuttons/?id=-5263578-nldAgHx
Thanks!


Chip in to keep these free..

Madness and Shame
By BOB HERBERT

Published: July 22, 2008
You want a scary thought? Imagine a fanatic in the mold of Dick Cheney but without the vice president’s sense of humor.

In her important new book, “The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals,” Jane Mayer of The New Yorker devotes a great deal of space to David Addington, Dick Cheney’s main man and the lead architect of the Bush administration’s legal strategy for the so-called war on terror.

She quotes a colleague as saying of Mr. Addington: “No one stood to his right.” Colin Powell, a veteran of many bruising battles with Mr. Cheney, was reported to have summed up Mr. Addington as follows: “He doesn’t believe in the Constitution.”

Very few voters are aware of Mr. Addington’s existence, much less what he stands for. But he was the legal linchpin of the administration’s Marquis de Sade approach to battling terrorism. In the view of Mr. Addington and his acolytes, anything and everything that the president authorized in the fight against terror — regardless of what the Constitution or Congress or the Geneva Conventions might say — was all right. That included torture, rendition, warrantless wiretapping, the suspension of habeas corpus, you name it.

This is the mind-set that gave us Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and the C.I.A.’s secret prisons, known as “black sites.”

Ms. Mayer wrote: “The legal doctrine that Addington espoused — that the president, as commander in chief, had the authority to disregard virtually all previously known legal boundaries if national security demanded it — rested on a reading of the Constitution that few legal scholars shared.”

When the constraints of the law are unlocked by the men and women in suits at the pinnacle of power, terrible things happen in the real world. You end up with detainees being physically and psychologically tormented day after day, month after month, until they beg to be allowed to commit suicide. You have prisoners beaten until they are on the verge of death, or hooked to overhead manacles like something out of the Inquisition, or forced to defecate on themselves, or sexually humiliated, or driven crazy by days on end of sleep deprivation and blinding lights and blaring noises, or water-boarded.

To get a sense of the heights of madness scaled in this anything-goes atmosphere, consider a brainstorming meeting held by military officials at Guantánamo. Ms. Mayer said the meeting was called to come up with ways to crack through the resistance of detainees.

“One source of ideas,” she wrote, “was the popular television show ‘24.’ On that show as Ms. Mayer noted, “torture always worked. It saved America on a weekly basis.”

I felt as if I was in Never-Never Land as I read: “In conversation with British human rights lawyer Philippe Sands, the top military lawyer in Guantánamo, Diane Beaver, said quite earnestly that Jack Bauer ‘gave people lots of ideas’ as they sought for interrogation models.”

Donald Rumsfeld described the detainees at Guantánamo as “the worst of the worst.” A more sober assessment has since been reached by many respected observers. Ms. Mayer mentioned a study conducted by attorneys and law students at the Seton Hall University Law School.

“After reviewing 517 of the Guantánamo detainees’ cases in depth,” she said, “they concluded that only 8 percent were alleged to have associated with Al Qaeda. Fifty-five percent were not alleged to have engaged in any hostile act against the United States at all, and the remainder were charged with dubious wrongdoing, including having tried to flee U.S. bombs. The overwhelming majority — all but 5 percent — had been captured by non-U.S. players, many of whom were bounty hunters.”

The U.S. shamed itself on George W. Bush’s and Dick Cheney’s watch, and David Addington and others like him were willing to manipulate the law like Silly Putty to give them the legal cover they desired. Ms. Mayer noted that Arthur Schlesinger Jr., the late historian, believed that “the Bush administration’s extralegal counterterrorism program presented the most dramatic, sustained and radical challenge to the rule of law in American history.”

After reflecting on major breakdowns of law that occurred in prior administrations, including the Watergate disaster, Mr. Schlesinger told Ms. Mayer: “No position taken has done more damage to the American reputation in the world — ever.”

Americans still have not come to grips with this disastrous stain on the nation’s soul. It’s important that the whole truth eventually come out, and as many of the wrongs as possible be rectified.

Ms. Mayer, as much as anyone, is doing her part to pull back the curtain on the awful reality. “The Dark Side” is essential reading for those who think they can stand the truth.

Well, not in so many words.. He used a lot more! But that's pretty much what he meant!
Here is the excerpt reported by CBS!
You tell 'em John!! F

CBS) Sen. John Kerry believes that the presumptive Republican nominee for president is adhering to the Bush Administration orthodoxy in ways that call into question his carefully-nurtured image as a political maverick.

"John McCain has changed in profound and fundamental ways that I find personally really surprising, and frankly upsetting," the Democratic Senator from Massachusetts said on CBS' Face The Nation.

"This is a different John McCain. This is not the Senator John McCain; this is want-to-be president John McCain.

"And the result is that John McCain has flip-flopped on more issues than I was even ever accused possibly of thinking about! I mean, this is extraordinary what he's done: He's changed on taxes; he's now in favor of the Bush tax cut. If you like the Bush economy, if you like the Bush tax cut and what it's done to our economy, making wealthier people wealthier and the average middle class struggle harder, then John McCain is going to give you a third term of George Bush and Karl Rove.

"If you like what has happened to oil prices, John McCain is going to continue that policy. If you like what you see about health care, John McCain has no health care plan.

"I would have at least expected the John McCain that I knew back then to realize what almost every person in the Pentagon has admitted. There are very few who walk around and say, 'Going into Iraq was the right thing to do, and we should have done it, or do it again if I have the chance.' John McCain does.

"I'm challenging Senator McCain's judgment," Kerry said, "that says, 'There's no violent history between Sunni and Shia.' That's wrong. His judgment that says, 'This is going to increase the stability of the Middle East.' It hasn't, it's made it less stable. The judgment that says, quote, 'This will be the best thing for America and the world in a long time. It's the worst thing that we've done in a long time. And he's turned his [focus] away from Afghanistan and al Qaeda and made America less safe. That's dangerous for our country."

Kerry criticized McCain's continued support of the occupation, given the effect of a continuing presence of U.S. troops on the situation in Iraq and the region at large. He pointed to remarks by leaders in the Middle East who told him during a recent visit, "You, America, have served up to Iran Iraq on a platter."

"They are outraged by the ineptitude of what has been done by those who decided it was smart to go into Iraq," said Kerry, who feels the Republican Party is now in turmoil over the "reality" of McCain's position, which is that "he has a plan for staying in Iraq and Barack Obama has a plan for getting out of Iraq."

Seriously, the immediate high from weightlifting is powerful and wonderful! And also, the added strength and good looks you will get will not hurt you one bit!!

And yes, I still deeply and powerfully and fiercely and passionately believe that to save the world we must legalize all "drugs" now and forever. And I believe it was unconstitutional to ever make them illegal. And violative of our "Declaration of Independence" and it's goal of guaranteeing "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." I could, and will at some point soon, go through this argument in much more detail. Just remember, we live in a Constitutional Democracy, not a Democracy. (Well, this all supposes we forget that the last two elections were stolen.. ie that we live in a dictatorship!).. But, for a moment, forgetting that fact... Congress far exceeded its rights under the Constitution by declaring WAR on AMERICANS!!! Just because someone wants to do something in a democracy does not mean it's ok. It has to be ok by the CONSTITUTION. And making drugs illegal and criminalizing "possession" is not. Nuff said. I'm going to bed. I can go through the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence point by point, but I'm tired right now, so for fun do it yourselves before I do!!

I love you all!!
Goodnight!!
Love,
Freddy and Baby
Woof!
PS: Never forget, all "drugs" were legal in USA when the Constitution and Declaration of Independence were written, in 1776, all the way up to 1913 or so. For you kids born recently, Ronald Reagan and his speed-addled (sorry, "pep-pill-addled") wife Nancy started the modern "War on Drugs" around 1980. The US now has the highest number of people in jail of any nation in the world, and the highest per capita ratio also. By far!! Millions in jail for non-violent drug offenses. Thousands have died in jail for such "offenses".

The fact that all drugs were legal from 1776 until 1913 alone says to me that it is unconstitutional to make them illegal!! Alcohol was illegal too once. Prohibition didn't work then and it's not now. How could prohibition of one food (alcohol) be a mistake and of other foods (marijuana, opium, etc.) not be a mistake? It can't.

PROHIBITION IS ILLEGAL AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL!!!!

LEGALIZE IT!!!! (as the Great Bob Marley sings!)
Peace! - F

pps: Oh, and don't forget: FOR ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY UNTIL THE LAST 100 YEARS, ALL "DRUGS" WERE LEGAL IN ALL NATIONS AND LANDS BEFORE THERE WERE NATIONS. FOR MILLIONS OF YEARS. OUR ANCESTORS ALL CONSUMED WHAT WE NOW CALL "DRUGS", AND MANY WE HAVE NOT DISCOVERED YET PROBABLY. WHO IS WRONG: ALL HUMANS FOR ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY, OR A FEW PSYCHOTIC "DRUG WARRIORS" OF THE LAST 30 YEARS???!!!?!?! FUCKIN' PSYCHOS!!!

I wish this nation, and the world, a happy 4th of July!! I love America very much!! That is why I keep trying to make us a nation loved by the whole world, and one that stands up for what our founders wanted in the Declaration of Independence!! you know, that "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness" stuff... what ever happened to that? Has it been lost or forgotten? Often seems so!

Well, I pray for the earth and us that we now elect Barak, and end this War, and bring all the troops home immediately!! God willing!! By all the troops, I do mean all the troops. I really feel that the safest America is one with all our troops at home. Other nations can defend themselves just fine! If there is an emergency, God forbid, I'm sure we will rise to the occasion. Otherwise, we should have all our troops home right now. Germany, Japan, Korea, etc. do not need our help right now. Actually, they are incredibly prosperous. And we can trust them to defend themselves. It is absurd to suggest otherwise. And these wars must end. Now. That is in OUR power to do so. Just bring the troops home, and the war is over. Simple!

I love you all!
Peace!
Love,
Freddy and Baby
ps: I'm sure you all know, and hopefully love, Doonesbury! Here is the latest (well, yesterday's) strip about how necessary it is for our nation to adjust course right now, towards peace. Here's the link: http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html?uc_full_date=20080703
pps: i love Gary Trudeau (and his wife from the Today Show, but not like that!) soooo much!! Happy 4th you two!!!!! sososos xoxoxoxox f

THIS OIL and WAR mess is messing up the whole world, including our economy, big time. I still have lots of faith in this market. And in this world. I just think it will take a lot longer to get out of this mess than we think. And we are probably not near the worst. This is all just my prediction: I pray hard that I am wrong, and that we can all together pull ourselves out of this quick! A quick good start would be ending all foreign wars, and bringing home all troops to American soil. And heavily arm them. And to end the "War on Drugs" which is a war on PEOPLE, not drugs... PEOPLE!!!!

As for what I would invest in now, right now: probably Brazil, Agriculture (AGU, POT, and MOS), (MON makes stuff like the hormones I won't drink milk from cows they feed it to, as well as weed killer and crops resistant to it, so they are too sketchy in my book!), oil and oil services stuff (PBR, SII, and others I am sure...).. AS for GREEN companies, like First Solar (fslr), some of the other solar cos, and TRN (wind), and all the other wind and geothermal cos.. I FULLY SUPPORT WHAT THEY DO!! I AM JUST SCARED TO BE IN THEM IN THIS MARKET!! I AM PRETTY MUCH SCARED SHITLESS RIGHT NOW OF THIS MARKET. I PRAY I AM WRONG AND IT TURNS AROUND, BUT I DO NOT SEE THAT RIGHT NOW.. I SEE THAT WHEN OBAMA IS IN OFFICE. IF MC CAIN IS ELECTED, I SEE AN ENDLESS WAR, A MILITARY DRAFT OF ALL YOUNG ADULTS AGES 18-25, AND A DEPRESSION. THEN A SPREADING WORLD WAR. SO, I OBVIOUSLY SEE THE NEED TO TRY TO ELECT OBAMA RIGHT NOW!!

SHALOM!
FREDDY AND BABY

These methods were called torture by US troops and officials. Now, Bush and his flunkies call same techniques "enhanced interrogation"!! Sleep deprivation has always been known to be a torture technique. Who are they kidding? NOt even themselves, I am sure!! Here's the article in todays NYT!! .. love, F


China Inspired Interrogations at Guantánamo

By SCOTT SHANE
Published: July 2, 2008

WASHINGTON — The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay in December 2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including “sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”

Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From the Air Force Prisoners of War (pdf)
Documents Released at Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing on SERE Tactics(pdf)

What the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them false, from American prisoners.

The recycled chart is the latest and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Some methods were used against a small number of prisoners at Guantánamo before 2005, when Congress banned the use of coercion by the military. The C.I.A. is still authorized by President Bush to use a number of secret “alternative” interrogation methods.

Several Guantánamo documents, including the chart outlining coercive methods, were made public at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing June 17 that examined how such tactics came to be employed.

But committee investigators were not aware of the chart’s source in the half-century-old journal article, a connection pointed out to The New York Times by an independent expert on interrogation who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The 1957 article from which the chart was copied was entitled “Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From Air Force Prisoners of War” and written by Alfred D. Biderman, a sociologist then working for the Air Force, who died in 2003. Mr. Biderman had interviewed American prisoners returning from North Korea, some of whom had been filmed by their Chinese interrogators confessing to germ warfare and other atrocities.

Those orchestrated confessions led to allegations that the American prisoners had been “brainwashed,” and provoked the military to revamp its training to give some military personnel a taste of the enemies’ harsh methods to inoculate them against quick capitulation if captured.

In 2002, the training program, known as SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape, became a source of interrogation methods both for the C.I.A. and the military. In what critics describe as a remarkable case of historical amnesia, officials who drew on the SERE program appear to have been unaware that it had been created as a result of concern about false confessions by American prisoners.

Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said after reviewing the 1957 article that “every American would be shocked” by the origin of the training document.

“What makes this document doubly stunning is that these were techniques to get false confessions,” Mr. Levin said. “People say we need intelligence, and we do. But we don’t need false intelligence.”

A Defense Department spokesman, Lt. Col Patrick Ryder, said he could not comment on the Guantánamo training chart. “I can’t speculate on previous decisions that may have been made prior to current D.O.D. policy on interrogations,” Colonel Ryder said. “I can tell you that current D.O.D. policy is clear — we treat all detainees humanely.”

Mr. Biderman’s 1957 article described “one form of torture” used by the Chinese as forcing American prisoners to stand “for exceedingly long periods,” sometimes in conditions of “extreme cold.” Such passive methods, he wrote, were more common than outright physical violence. Prolonged standing and exposure to cold have both been used by American military and C.I.A. interrogators against terrorist suspects.

The chart also listed other techniques used by the Chinese, including “Semi-Starvation,” “Exploitation of Wounds,” and “Filthy, Infested Surroundings,” and with their effects: “Makes Victim Dependent on Interrogator,” “Weakens Mental and Physical Ability to Resist,” and “Reduces Prisoner to ‘Animal Level’ Concerns.”

The only change made in the chart presented at Guantánamo was to drop its original title: “Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance.”

The documents released last month include an e-mail message from two SERE trainers reporting on a trip to Guantánamo from Dec. 29, 2002, to Jan. 4, 2003. Their purpose, the message said, was to present to interrogators “the theory and application of the physical pressures utilized during our training.”

The sessions included “an in-depth class on Biderman’s Principles,” the message said, referring to the chart from Mr. Biderman’s 1957 article. Versions of the same chart, often identified as “Biderman’s Chart of Coercion,” have circulated on anti-cult sites on the Web, where the methods are used to describe how cults control their members.

Dr. Robert Jay Lifton, a psychiatrist who also studied the returning prisoners of war and wrote an accompanying article in the same 1957 issue of The Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, said in an interview that he was disturbed to learn that the Chinese methods had been recycled and taught at Guantánamo.

“It saddens me,” said Dr. Lifton, who wrote a 1961 book on what the Chinese called “thought reform” and became known in popular American parlance as brainwashing. He called the use of the Chinese techniques by American interrogators at Guantánamo a “180-degree turn.”

The harshest known interrogation at Guantánamo was that of Mohammed al-Qahtani, a member of Al Qaeda suspected of being the intended 20th hijacker in the Sept. 11 attacks. Mr. Qahtani’s interrogation involved sleep deprivation, stress positions, exposure to cold and other methods also used by the Chinese.

Terror charges against Mr. Qahtani were dropped unexpectedly in May. Officials said the charges could be reinstated later and declined to say whether the decision was influenced by concern about Mr. Qahtani’s treatment.

Mr. Bush has defended the use the interrogation methods, saying they helped provide critical intelligence and prevented new terrorist attacks. But the issue continues to complicate the long-delayed prosecutions now proceeding at Guantánamo.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Qaeda member accused of playing a major role in the bombing of the American destroyer Cole in Yemen in 2000, was charged with murder and other crimes on Monday. In previous hearings, Mr. Nashiri, who was subjected to waterboarding, has said he confessed to participating in the bombing falsely only because he was tortured.

Here's the full story.. Soooooo sad!! Rest in Peace Esmin Green!! Your death will save thousands from a smiliar fate, around the world!! Sooooo cruel!!! -F

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A 49-year-old woman collapsed and died on the floor of a waiting room at a Brooklyn psychiatric hospital and lay there for more than an hour as employees ignored her, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union, which on Tuesday released surveillance camera video of the incident.


Surveillance video shows a woman lying on the hospital floor for almost an hour before anyone helped her.

Esmin Green was involuntarily admitted to the psychiatric emergency department of Kings County Hospital Center on June 18 for what the hospital describes as "agitation and psychosis."

Upon her admission, Green waited nearly 24 hours for treatment, said the civil liberties union, which was among the groups filing suit against the facility last year seeking improved conditions for patients.

The surveillance camera video shows the woman rolling off a waiting room chair, landing face-down on the floor and convulsing. Her collapse came at 5:32 a.m. June 19, the NYCLU said, and she stopped moving at 6:07 a.m. During that time, the organization said, workers at the hospital ignored her.

At 6:35 a.m., the tape shows a hospital employee approaching and nudging Green with her foot, the group said. Help was summoned three minutes later. Watch the surveillance video »

In addition, the organization said, hospital staff falsified Green's records to cover up the time she had lain there without assistance.

"Contrary to what was recorded from four different angles by the hospital's video cameras, the patient's medical records say that at 6 a.m., she got up and went to the bathroom, and at 6:20 a.m. she was 'sitting quietly in waiting room' -- more than 10 minutes since she last moved and 48 minutes after she fell to the floor."

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which oversees the hospital, released a statement Tuesday saying it was "shocked and distressed by this situation. It is clear that some of our employees failed to act based on our compassionate standards of care."

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WABC: Woman dies in hospital waiting room
After a preliminary investigation, the corporation said it suspended or terminated six employees, "including staff involved with the direct care of the patient as well as managers of security and clinical services," the statement said.

A Health and Hospitals Corporation spokeswoman said it was aware of the discrepancies in Green's record when it began the preliminary investigation on June 20. That information is now in the hands of various investigatory agencies, she said.

The corporation pledged to put "additional and significant" reforms in place in the wake of the incident.

The civil liberties group and the Mental Hygiene Legal Service filed suit against Kings County in May 2007 in federal court, alleging that conditions at the facility are filthy. Patients are often forced to sleep in plastic chairs or floors covered in urine, feces and blood while waiting for beds, the groups allege, and often go without basic hygiene such as showers, clean linens and clean clothes. The lawsuit claims that patients who complain face physical abuse and are injected with drugs to keep them docile.

The hospital, the suit alleges, lacks "the minimal requirements of basic cleanliness, space, privacy, and personal hygiene that are constitutionally guaranteed even to convicted felons."

The video sent the organizations back into court Tuesday, demanding immediate reform.

"What's happening in Kings County Hospital is an affront to human dignity," New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman said in a written statement. "In 2008 in New York City, nobody should be subjected to this kind of treatment. It should not take the death of a patient to get the city to make changes that everyone knows are long overdue."

The Department of Justice recently initiated an investigation into conditions at the hospital, the organization said, prompting the facility to improve some of its problems. "But the culture of abuse and neglect remains and, as evidenced by the June death, the situation is too dire to wait for the Justice Department to act," the group said.

Among the reforms agreed to in court Tuesday by the hospital are additional staffing; checking of patients every 15 minutes; and limiting to 25 the number of patients in the psychiatric emergency ward, officials said. In addition, the hospital said it is expanding crisis-prevention training for staff; expanding space to prevent overcrowding; and reducing patients' wait time for release, treatment or placement in an inpatient bed.

On Monday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he was appalled by the surveillance video.

"Look, I saw the film like everybody else did and I was -- horrified is much too nice a word. Disgusted I think is a better word. I can't explain what happened there."


Green, a native of the island of Jamaica, lived alone in Brooklyn's Brownsville neighborhood. She had no close family in the United States, and her neighbor Beatrice Wallace described her as a quiet woman who had few visitors and spent most of her free time at church.

The medical examiner is withholding autopsy results pending further study and investigation into the precise cause of death.

Financier Starts Sentence in Prostitution Case

By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
Published: July 1, 2008

The bad news arrived by phone last week on Little St. James Island, the palm-fringed Xanadu in the Caribbean where Jeffrey E. Epstein, adviser to billionaires, lives in secluded splendor.

Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office
Jeffrey E. Epstein's booking photo.
Report to the Palm Beach County jail, the caller, Mr. Epstein’s lawyer, said.

So over the weekend Mr. Epstein quit his pleasure dome, with its staff of 70 and its flamingo-stocked lagoon, and flew to Florida. On Monday morning, he turned himself in and began serving 18 months for soliciting prostitution.

“I respect the legal process,” Mr. Epstein, 55, said by phone as he prepared to leave his 78-acre island, which he calls Little St. Jeff’s. “I will abide by this.”

It is a stunning downfall for Mr. Epstein, who grew up in Coney Island and went on to live the life of a billionaire, only to become a tabloid monument to an age of hyperwealth. Mr. Epstein owns a Boeing 727 and the largest town house in Manhattan. He has paid for college educations for personal employees and students from Rwanda, and spent millions on a project to develop a thinking and feeling computer and on music intended to alleviate depression.

But Mr. Epstein also paid women, some of them under age, to give him massages that ended with a sexual favor, the authorities say.

Federal prosecutors initially threatened to bring him to trial on a variety of charges and seek the maximum penalty, 10 years in prison. After years of legal wrangling, Mr. Epstein pleaded guilty to lesser state charges.

Upon his release from jail, he must register as a sex offender wherever he goes in the United States.

People from all walks of life break the law, of course. But for the rich, wrapped in a cocoon of immense comfort, it can be easy to yield to temptation, experts say.

“A sense of entitlement sets in,” said Dennis Pearne, a psychologist who counsels people on matters related to extreme wealth. The attitude, he said, becomes, “I deserve anything I want, I can have anything I want — and I can afford it.”

To prosecutors, Mr. Epstein is just another sex offender. He did what he did because he could, and because he never dreamed he would get caught, they say. Mr. Epstein’s defenders counter that he has been unjustly persecuted because of his wealth and lofty connections.

Sitting on his patio on “Little St. Jeff’s” in the Virgin Islands several months ago, as his legal troubles deepened, Mr. Epstein gazed at the azure sea and the lush hills of St. Thomas in the distance, poked at a lunch of crab and rare steak prepared by his personal chef, and tried explain how his life had taken such a turn. He likened himself to Gulliver shipwrecked among the diminutive denizens of Lilliput.

“Gulliver’s playfulness had unintended consequences,” Mr. Epstein said. “That is what happens with wealth. There are unexpected burdens as well as benefits.”

Those benefits are on full display on his island where, despite his time in jail, Mr. Epstein has commissioned a new estate. The villa will occupy the island’s promontory, which offers views of the Atlantic on one side and the Caribbean on the other. It will have a separate library to house Mr. Epstein’s 90,000 volumes, a Japanese bathhouse and what he calls a “Ziegfeld” movie theater.

For now, however, those visions of a private paradise have been replaced by the cold reality of a jail cell.

The legal drama began in 2005, when a young woman who gave Mr. Epstein massages at his Palm Beach mansion told the local police about the encounter. She was 14 at the time, and was paid $200.

The police submitted the results of their investigation to the state attorney, asking that Mr. Epstein be charged with sexual relations with minors. His lawyers say Mr. Epstein never knew the young women were under age, and point to depositions in which the masseuses — several of whom have filed civil suits — admitted to lying about their age.

In July 2005, a Florida grand jury charged Mr. Epstein with a lesser offense, prostitution. Mr. Epstein’s legal team, which would eventually include the former prosecutor Kenneth W. Starr and the Harvard law professor Alan M. Dershowitz, was elated: Mr. Epstein would avoid prison.

But then the United States attorney’s office in Miami became involved. Last summer, Mr. Epstein got an ultimatum: plead guilty to a charge that would require him to register as a sex offender, or the government would charge him with sexual tourism, according to people who were briefed on the discussions.

David Weinstein, an attorney in the government’s Miami office, declined to discuss the specifics of the case. But he did address the subject of Mr. Epstein’s means and prominent legal team, and dismissed a proposal by Mr. Epstein’s lawyers — who opposed the application of federal statutes in the case — that he be confined to his house in Palm Beach for a probationary period.

“In their mind that would be an adequate resolution,” Mr. Weinstein said. “Our view is that is not enough of a punishment to fit the crime that occurred.”

The lurid details of the case have captivated wealthy circles in Palm Beach and New York and transformed Mr. Epstein, who shuns publicity and whose business depends on discretion, into a figure of public ridicule.

He said he has been trailed by stalkers and has become the target of lawsuits. In recent months, he said, he received over 100 letters a week asking for money or jobs as a masseuse. He recently received a package of gold-tinted condoms.

It has been a long, strange journey from Coney Island, where Mr. Epstein grew up in middle-class surroundings. He taught briefly at Dalton, the Manhattan private school, and then joined Bear Stearns, becoming derivatives specialist. He struck out on his own in the 1980s.

His business is something of a mystery. He says he manages money for billionaires, but the only client he is willing to disclose is Leslie H. Wexner, the founder of Limited Brands.

As Mr. Epstein explains it, he provides a specialized form of superelite financial advice. He counsels people on everything from taxes and trusts to prenuptial agreements and paternity suits, and even provides interior decorating tips for private jets. Industry sources say he charges flat annual fees ranging from $25 million to more than $100 million.

As it became clear in recent months that he was headed for jail, Mr. Epstein tried to put on a brave face.

“Your body can be confined, but not your mind,” he said in a recent interview by phone.

But the strains were showing. “I am anxious,” he said in another recent interview, referring to how inmates would treat him. “I make a great effort to treat people equally, but I recognize that I might be perceived as one of the New York arrogant rich.”

Jail will certainly be a big change. Mr. Epstein is a man of precise, at times unconventional, habits. He starts his mornings with a secret-ingredient bran muffin prepared by his chef. He seems to have a germ phobia. He never wears a suit, preferring monogrammed sweatsuits and jeans. And he rarely attends meetings — “I never have to be anywhere,” he tells his pilots, when he cautions them to avoid flying through chancy weather.

Looking back, Mr. Epstein admits that his behavior was inappropriate. “I am not blameless,” he said. He said he has taken steps to make sure the same thing never happens again.

For starters, Mr. Epstein has hired a full-time male masseur (the man happens to be a former Ultimate Fighting champion). He also has organized what he calls a board of directors of friends to counsel him on his behavior.

And Mr. Epstein has changed his e-mail address to alert people that he will be unavailable for the next 18 months. The new address indicates he is “on vacation.”

OBVIOUSLY, THE MAIN WORRY PEOPLE HAVE IS THAT THEIR HOME WILL BE INVADED BY CRIMINALS, NOT POLICE.. When I was young, the police accidentally raided our home.. several came commando style, and I tried to tell my mom I saw them coming, but before she understood what I was saying they were in the kitchen with their guns drawn!! This really happened in Worcester Mass, when I was like 8!!! Then they said, "Sorry, wrong home.. We had a report of a robbery in progress and saw movement in the kitchen. Wrong house." and left!! The "movement in the kitchen" was me, my brother (about 6) and my mom eating breakfast before school!! There were huge windows and they could have seen we were not theives if they had tried! We were all sooooo lucky we weren't shot!!

But obviously, people's main worry is that criminals would invade their homes, not police.. but it does happen, as it did to our family!

Shalom!
Freddy

\Ps: the way every sodomy case I know of "came up" was by local police hearing a male gay couple was gay and watching through their windows and waiting till they had sex, then "busting" them for "breaking the sodomy laws".. such total wackos!! L8! -F

AS many of you know, i was the first, and to my knowledge only, presidential candidate to ever fight to legalize sodomy. And read Scalia's dissent in this case: he said that this now means we must legalize drugs and prostitution and porn.. or something like that!! Well, he is right, we must!!

i believe the court sided with me because they wanted to take away a major embarassment of the US, for being soooo totalitarian. But they left the rest of the evil system in place (drug laws, prostitution laws, etc.).. you know, throw the dog a bone!

ok, i better sleep already.. here's the article by Linda Greenhouse... enjoy! -F

Libertarians Join Liberals in Challenging Sodomy Law
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: March 19, 2003

The constitutional challenge to the Texas ''homosexual conduct'' law that the Supreme Court will take up next week has galvanized not only traditional gay rights and civil rights organizations, but also libertarian groups that see the case as a chance to deliver their own message to the justices.

The message is one of freedom from government control over private choices, economic as well as sexual. ''Libertarians argue that the government has no business in the bedroom or in the boardroom,'' Roger Pilon, vice president for legal affairs at the Cato Institute, said today, describing the motivation for the institute, a leading libertarian research organization here, to file a brief on behalf of two gay men who are challenging the Texas law.

Dana Berliner, a lawyer for the Institute for Justice, another prominent libertarian group here that also filed a brief, said, ''Most people may see this as a case purely about homosexuality, but we don't look at it that way at all.'' The Institute for Justice usually litigates against government regulation of small business and in favor of ''school choice'' tuition voucher programs for nonpublic schools.

''If the government can regulate private sexual behavior, it's hard to imagine what the government couldn't regulate,'' Ms. Berliner said. ''That's almost so basic that it's easy to miss the forest for the trees.''

The Texas case is a challenge to a law that makes it a crime for people of the same sex to engage in ''deviate sexual intercourse,'' defined as oral or anal sex. In accepting the case, the justices agreed to consider whether to overturn a 1986 precedent, Bowers v. Hardwick, which upheld a Georgia sodomy law that at least on its face, if not in application, also applied to heterosexuals.

While the Texas case has received enormous attention from gay news media organizations and other groups that view the 1986 decision as particularly notorious, it has been largely overshadowed in a busy Supreme Court term by the challenge to the University of Michigan's affirmative action program. The justices accepted both cases on the same day last December, and briefing has proceeded along identical schedules. The Texas case will be argued March 26 and the Michigan case six days later, on April 1.

Although libertarian-sounding arguments were presented to the court as part of the overall debate over the right to privacy in the Bowers v. Hardwick case, they were not the solitary focus of any of the presentations then. The Institute for Justice had not yet been established, and the Cato Institute, which dates to 1977, had not begun to file legal briefs. Whether the arguments will attract a conservative libertarian-leaning justice like Clarence Thomas, who was not on the court in 1986, remains to be seen.

More traditional conservative groups have entered the case on the state's side, among them the American Center for Law and Justice, a group affiliated with the Rev. Pat Robertson that is a frequent participant in Supreme Court cases.

The split among conservatives demonstrates ''a diversity of opinion among our side,'' Jay Alan Sekulow, the center's chief counsel, said today. He said the decision to come in on the state's side presented a ''tough case, one that we approached with reluctance.'' He said he decided to enter the case after concluding that acceptance of the gay rights arguments by the court might provide a constitutional foundation for same-sex marriage.

The marriage issue also brought other conservative groups into the case on the state's side. ''The Texas statute is a reasonable means of promoting and protecting marriage -- the union of a man and a woman,'' the Family Research Council and Focus on the Family told the court in a joint brief.

While the Texas case underscores the split between social and libertarian conservatives, it is evident at the same time that the alliance between the libertarians and the traditional civil rights organizations is unlikely to extend further. The two are on opposite sides in the University of Michigan case, with both the Cato Institute and the Institute for Justice opposing affirmative action while nearly every traditional civil rights organization has filed a brief on Michigan's side. The Bush administration, which filed a brief opposing the Michigan program, did not take a stand in the Texas case.

In 1986, when the court decided Bowers v. Hardwick, half the states had criminal sodomy laws on their books. Now just 13 do. Texas is one of four, along with Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, with laws that apply only to sexual activity between people of the same sex. The sodomy laws of the other nine states -- Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Utah and Virginia -- do not make that distinction. The Georgia law that the Supreme Court upheld was later invalidated by the Georgia Supreme Court.

The Texas law is being challenged by John G. Lawrence and Tyron Garner, who were found having sex in Mr. Lawrence's Houston apartment by police officers who entered through an unlocked door after receiving a report from a neighbor that there was a man with a gun in the apartment. The neighbor was later convicted of filing a false report. The two men were held in jail overnight, prosecuted and fined $200 each. Represented by the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, they challenged the constitutionality of the law and lost in a middle-level state appeals court. The Texas Supreme Court refused to hear the case.

The United States Supreme Court's decision to take the case has been interpreted on both sides as an indication that the court is likely to rule against the state. Both Texas and the organizations that have filed briefs on its side devote considerable energy in the briefs to trying to convince the justices that granting the case was a mistake, a choice of tactics that is usually an indication of concern that a decision that does reach the merits will be unfavorable.

If the justices do strike down the Texas law, the implications of the decision will depend on which route the court selects from among several that are available. The court could find that by singling out same-sex behavior Texas has violated the constitutional guarantee of equal protection. Because the Bowers v. Hardwick decision did not address equal protection, instead rejecting an argument based on the right to privacy, such a decision would not necessarily require the court to overrule the 1986 precedent.

The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund's brief for the two men urges the court to go further and rule that any law making private consensual sexual behavior a crime infringes the liberty protected by the Constitution's due process guarantee. Several arguments in its brief appear tailored to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who voted with the majority in Bowers v. Hardwick but is now assumed, on the basis of her later support for abortion rights and her votes in other due process cases, to be at least open to persuasion.

For example, the brief includes a quotation from Jane Dee Hull, then the Republican governor of Arizona, where Justice O'Connor once served in the Legislature, on signing a bill repealing the state's sodomy law in 2001. ''At the end of the day, I returned to one of my most basic beliefs about government: It does not belong in our private lives,'' Governor Hull said.

the obvious solution to this problem is to legalize possession of drugs, an inherently nonviolent "crime".. but that is not what is discussed in this awesome piece describing SWAT teams in small towns (and big cities) gone wild.. here's the piece.. enjoy! -f

Op-Ed Columnist

The SWAT Syndrome

By JOHN TIERNEY
Published: June 20, 2006

Of all the excuses for weakening the Fourth Amendment, the weirdest was the one offered by Justice Antonin Scalia last week in a Michigan drug case.

He wrote the majority opinion allowing police officers to use evidence found in a home even if they entered without following the venerable rule to knock first and announce themselves. To reassure traditionalists, Scalia declared that unreasonable searches are less of a problem today because of "the increasing professionalism of police forces."

Well, it's true that when police show up at your home in the middle of the night, they're better armed and trained than ever. They now routinely arrive with assault rifles, flash grenades and battering rams.

So if your definition of a professional is a soldier in a war zone, then Scalia is right. The number of paramilitary raids has soared in the past two decades as cities, suburbs and small towns have rushed to assemble their very own SWAT teams.

Some police veterans complain about "militarizing Mayberry," and can't figure out why towns averaging one homicide a decade need paramilitary units. But younger cops like the glamour — our very own SWAT team, just like on TV! Who wants to patrol a beat when you could be playing commando?

And who can resist free gear from Washington? Congress encouraged the SWAT syndrome by directing the Pentagon to give local police departments old machine guns, armed personnel carriers and helicopters. The federal government has also helped subsidize drug raids and encouraged locals to be aggressive by letting them keep a cut of the drug dealers' assets.

The SWAT teams were originally supposed to deal with extraordinary threats, like hostage situations, snipers and heavily armed drug gangs. Since 9/11, of course, they've been justified for combating terrorists. But such situations are so rare that the teams have had to invent new missions to keep busy — and to pay for their operations by finding assets to seize.

Most of the time they're used simply to carry out searches for drugs, often on the basis of dubious tips from informants, often against small-time dealers and other people with no history of violence. The commandos have a proclivity for going to the wrong address, and they tend to be impatient with anything that gets in their way. In articles about SWAT raids, a motif is the shooting of family pets in front of children.

It's hard to know how many botched and unnecessary raids there have been, because police don't systematically track their errors, and the victims often have little recourse. But in a forthcoming report for the Cato Institute, Radley Balko concludes that mistakes have been made in more than 200 raids over the past decade.

He finds that overzealous raiders caused the deaths of a dozen nonviolent offenders, like recreational marijuana smokers and gamblers. In a Virginia suburb of Washington earlier this year, an optometrist being investigated for betting on sports was standing unarmed outside his town house, offering no resistance, when a SWAT officer's rifle discharged and killed him.

Balko also finds that two dozen people died in raids who were not guilty of any crime, like a Mexican immigrant killed by Denver police raiding the wrong home. Some died because they understandably assumed the masked invaders were criminals and picked up weapons to defend themselves. Some were innocent bystanders, like an 11-year-old boy shot in Modesto, Calif., and a 57-year-old woman in Harlem who had a heart attack when police set off a flash grenade during a raid based on a faulty tip.

"Prosecutors typically let police officers off the hook when they mistakenly shoot a civilian," Balko says, "on the theory that mistakes are understandable during the confusion of a raid. Fair enough. But civilians don't get the same deference. My research shows that when someone on the other end of a botched raid mistakes a police officer for an intruder and shoots in self-defense, his odds of facing jail time are about one in two."

The best way to avoid these mistakes would be to save SWAT teams for real crises and let police execute search warrants the old-fashioned way. They could find out, for instance, if they're at the wrong address before anyone pulls the trigger.

But thanks to the Supreme Court, they now have less reason to knock first and shoot later. They can be more professional than ever.

For Further Reading
"Railroaded Onto Death Row?" by Radley Balko. Fox News, February 23, 2006.
Collected articles on Cory Maye by Radley Balko. The Agitator, 2006.
“War on Crack Retreats, Still Taking Prisoners" by Tim Egan. The New York Times, February 28, 1999.
"Court Limits Protection Against Improper Entry" by Linda Greenhouse. The New York Times, June 16, 2006.
"Leniency in Fairfax", Editorial. The Washington Post, March 25, 2006.
"Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis" by Christian Parenti. Verso Books, May 1999. E-Mail John Tierney
Columnist Page

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times (photo of
John Tierney.)