t r u t h o u t | The PATRIOT Act's War on Charity:
"The PATRIOT Act's War on Charity
Tuesday 05 August 2008
by: Maya Schenwar, t r u t h o u t | Report
Since the PATRIOT Act's passage almost seven years ago, many of its adverse effects on activist organizations and peace groups have become plain. The law grants the government broad new surveillance privileges and access to private property, and protests and demonstrations have been heavily monitored and contained in the wake of 9/11. But according to a new report, the worst effects on nonprofit organizations have garnered little attention. New powers granted to the Treasury Department currently allow the government to shut down charities based on unfounded claims; to bar nonprofits from operating in some international disaster zones, and to freeze the assets of 'designated' charities, leaving large sums of money intended for humanitarian causes to fester indefinitely in Treasury vaults."
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The Bush Adminstrations War on Charity
CBS Edits Another Major Gaffe By McCain
CBS News omitted a second McCain falsehood:
his characterization of Iraq war as
"the first major conflict since 9/11"
On the July 22 broadcast of the CBS Evening News, while airing portions of an interview anchor Katie Couric conducted that day with Sen. John McCain, CBS News did not air McCain's response to a question in which he characterized the Iraq war as "the first major conflict since 9/11," apparently disregarding the war in Afghanistan, which Couric addressed in her question and which began in October 2001. As Media Matters for America and others documented, CBS News also did not air McCain's false assertion that the 2007 U.S. troop surge "began the Anbar Awakening" and instead aired spliced video of McCain's interview with Couric, expunging the false statement and tacking on a response he gave to a different question.Couric asked: "Sen. [Barack] Obama also told me, Sen. McCain, that the money spent on those additional troops, on the surge, might have been more effective had it gone to Afghanistan or even to a better energy policy in the United States. What's your response?" McCain replied: "The fact is we had four years of failed policy. We were losing. We were losing the war in Iraq. The consequences of failure and defeat of the United States of America in the first major conflict since 9/11 would have had devastating impacts throughout the region and the world." In fact, nearly a year and a half before the Iraq war, the United States initiated Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) in order to "counter terrorism and bring security to Afghanistan." According to the Department of Defense, 554 Americans had lost their lives as a result of OEF and 2,257 had been wounded as of July 19.
