In this Issue:

Commentary:	He Knew All Along
Monday Night with Mike:	Dallas Mixer Scheduled for March 6
Double Your Donation:	Does your Company offer Matching Gifts?
US Torture Policy:	New Allegations from Gitmo
Alito thanks Focus on the Family:	Sends thank-you to Dobson

He Knew All Along
By Rev. Michael Piazza

He knew all along. Appropriately enough, on Ash Wednesday, a day of repentance, the Associated Press released videotapes proving that President George W. Bush was fully and completely informed about the impending disaster that Hurricane Katrina was bringing to New Orleans. At the August 28 briefing, the president was told exactly what to expect: The chief scientist of the National Hurricane Center warned that a major levee breach was “obviously a very, very grave concern.” Yet FOUR days after Hurricane Katrina hit, President George W. Bush declared to the American people, “I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” What a liar. Michael Brown told the president that if New Orleans flooded the Superdome emergency shelter would likely be under water and short on supplies, creating a “catastrophe within a catastrophe” but nothing was done. Experts and officials implored the president to prepare for, as the AP described it, “devastation of historic proportions.”

President Bush didn't ask a single question during the briefing. In the next two days he campaigned out west, played guitar at birthday parties, and and went on vacation while the worst natural disaster in American history killed more than 1,300 people and displaced hundreds of thousands. He knew. He knew all along but did nothing. This is the man charged with protecting us?

Perhaps if there had been more whites in New Orleans, or more Republicans, or more oil companies this threat might have warranted Mr. Bush’s attention. Yet, even now, no one seems to be paying attention or holding the administration accountable for being unprepared and for lying to us.

Iraq slips ever closer to civil war because we invaded their country under false pretenses, completely unprepared to deal with the consequences. Again, lies and ineptitude have cost thousands of American lives, and tens of thousands of Iraqi lives, with no end in sight. Why didn’t we take time to prepare and strategize for the aftermath? Because the neo-cons in the administration knew that if we got too far away from September 11 American fear would diminish and we wouldn’t be so easily manipulated. To be sure, the congress is culpable for this deception and manipulation as well. They went along with the Administration lest they appear “weak on terrorism” and lose their jobs.

The administration forces free elections to be held in Palestine, but when democracy doesn’t work like they think it should they shut off aid to the Palestinians and try to force the economic collapse of the duly elected government. I didn’t want a Hamas-run Palestine either, but, unlike the President, I didn’t force a premature election.

And don’t get me started about the domestic spying deceptions …

Rev. Shelley Hamilton keeps asking how bad it has to be before Americans take to the streets. I keep wondering how dishonest and inept a President has to be before 40% of Americans quit approving of the job he is doing. The trouble is NONE of the above news ever gets reported on Fox; the other news sources seem afraid that they will appear unpatriotic so they soft pedal the issues. You and I are going to have to take responsibility for uncovering the facts and spreading the word.

You can help by forwarding this e-letter to as many people as possible. This is Lent. Let’s call the nation to repent for electing a man who has lied to us—not about sex with an intern, but about our security and the very core values that are American. Maybe for Lent we should all take up the cause of truth-telling, even to those who do not want to hear.

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H4PJ Dallas Mixer: Monday Night with Mike
Monday, March 6 | 5pm-7pm | Minc Lounge

This month’s Monday Night with Mike will be held March 6 at Minc in Dallas. The event will begin at 5pm and last until around 7pm. Minc is located at 813 Exposition.

Monday Night with Mike is a free event. Everyone is invited! This is a great way to meet new people that are passionate about our issues.

Michael Piazza, President of Hope for Peace & Justice, will speak about current issues and H4PJ. Please mark your calendar for this special event on March 6.

Remember to invite your friends and family!

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US Torture Policy: New Allegations from Gitmo
First Violation of McCain Torture Amendment Alleged
Released on February 28, 2006 by the Center for Constitutional Rights

NEW YORK - February 28 - The first violation of the McCain torture amendment was alleged in federal court in an emergency injunction to end further torture of Guantánamo detainees. The court made public today an injunction filed on Friday by cooperating attorneys from Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan working with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which won the landmark Supreme Court case establishing the Guantánamo detainees' right to challenge their detention in U.S. court (Rasul v. Bush).

"If I were Senator John McCain, I would be the angriest man in America today." said Rick Murphy, a partner with Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan, which provides pro-bono counsel to detainee Mohammed Bawazir.

After being imprisoned without charges for over three years, Mr. Mohammad Bawazir began a hunger strike in August 2005. As recent news accounts have confirmed, military personnel responded with several actions designed to inflict pain, torture and punishment for the hunger strike. The cruel and inhumane treatment is detailed in today's filing, which alleges that the torture is a flagrant violation of both the McCain torture amendment, which became law as the Detainee Treatment Act, and the Constitution. The filing charges that Guantánamo personnel:

• Forcibly strapped Mr. Bawazir into a restraint chair, tying his legs, arms, head, and midsection to the chair.
• Inserted of a feeding tube that was larger than the tube that had previously been left in Mr. Bawazir's nose, increasing the pain of the insertion and extraction.
• Poured four bottles of water into his stomach through the nasal gastric tube every time he was fed even though Mr. Bawazir has never refused to drink water by mouth.
• Restrained Mr. Bawazir in the chair for extended periods at each feeding.
• Denied Mr. Bawazir access to a toilet while he was restrained and then for an additional hour or more after he was released from the chair.
• Placed Mr. Bawazir in solitary confinement.

"Mere days after signing the McCain Amendment, the Bush Administration engaged in some of the most flagrant acts of torture that have occurred in Guantánamo. The horrific misuse of the emergency restraint chair and the medical abuses served no purpose other than to terrorize nonviolent prisoners into ending their hunger strike." said Gitanjali S. Gutierrez, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights. "Senator McCain led an important fight to ban torture, but will he stand up for it now that the Bush Administration is breaking the law?"

CCR and its cooperating attorneys will continue to challenge the torture, mistreatment and illegal detainment of the Guantánamo prisoners in federal court.

Click here to Demand a Full Investigation into US Torture Policy

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Alito writes thank-you to Religious Right
Letter to James Dobson called ‘inappropriate’
By Pam Zubeck of the Colorado Springs Gazette

A thank-you note from recently appointed Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito to Focus on the Family founder James Dobson is “grossly inappropriate conduct,” an Alito opponent said Wednesday.

“He kind of sounds like the winning political candidate doing a victory lap and thanking his backers,” said Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. “He’s not sounding like a fair and independent judge.”

Dobson, head of the conservative Christian ministry that reaches more than 200 million people worldwide through broadcasts and publications, read Alito’s note on his Wednesday radio program.

The note thanks Dobson and his listeners for supporting him during his confirmation hearings in the U.S. Senate.

Alito wrote that “the prayers of so many people from around the country were a palpable and powerful force. As long as I serve on the Supreme Court I will keep in mind the trust that has been placed in me,” Dobson said, reading from the letter on his radio broadcast.

A Supreme Court spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Dobson, an abortion opponent, had urged his listeners to support the nominations of Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts. On Wednesday, he said that support had “affected history” by helping put Alito and Roberts on the court in time to hear a pending case on an abortion procedure that opponents call partial-birth abortion.

“The people listening to us out there helped to make this happen. They responded, they called,” Dobson said.

Lynn, with Americans United, said the note can be interpreted as a pledge to rule as Dobson wants on key issues, such as gay marriage, abortion and church-state separation.

“This strongly suggests Alito is going to do just what he was entrusted to do — change the law dramatically in many key areas,” said Lynn, whose group opposed Alito’s nomination.

“I think this is grossly inappropriate conduct on the part of Justice Alito,” he said, noting he’s never heard of a Supreme Court justice writing such a letter. “It sounds like he’s carrying a right wing agenda instead of being a justice for all the people.”

Lynn called Dobson’s reading the note on the air “astonishingly strange conduct” indicative of a “self-congratulatory impulse on the part of Dobson.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Text of Alito’s letter to Dobson

Here is the text of a letter that Focus on the Family founder James Dobson said he received from Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Dobson read the letter on his radio broadcast Wednesday.

Dear Dr. Dobson:

This is just a short note to express my heartfelt thanks to you and the entire staff of Focus on the Family for your help and support during the past few challenging months.

I would also greatly appreciate it if you would convey my appreciation to the good people from all parts of the country who wrote to tell me that they were praying for me and for my family during this period.

As I said when I spoke at my formal investiture at the White House last week, the prayers of so many people from around the country were a palpable and powerful force.

As long as I serve on the Supreme Court I will keep in mind the trust that has been placed in me.

I hope that we’ll have the opportunity to meet personally at some point in the future.

In the meantime my entire family and I hope that you and the Focus on the Family staff know how we appreciate all that you have done.

Sincerely yours,

Samuel Alito

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