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House Holds Rare Secret Session on Spy Bill
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| shaolin_Z |
Sweet, I was just waiting for this day to come. 
| quote: | House Holds Rare Secret Session on Spy Bill
The House of Representatives postponed a vote on a spy bill Thursday after Democrats agreed to a request from Republicans to hold a rare secret session to discuss what they termed classified security matters. It marked the first time a secret session was held in a quarter of a century and only the sixth time in the House’s history. We speak with Ohio Congressmember Dennis Kucinich, who refused to attend the secret session.
[rush transcript]
AMY GOODMAN: Congressman Dennis Kucinich joins us right now, though. The Ohio congress member, former presidential candidate, has just come from Washington, where he refused last night to attend a secret session of Congress.
Welcome to Democracy Now!
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Thank you, Amy. I also, yesterday on the floor of the House, spoke in support of the winter soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan, and what they’re doing, I think, is so important here in Silver Spring.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, talk about what happened, only the sixth time in history did Congress, in a sense, go dark. C-SPAN went black, the screen.
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Right. Well, the—one of the Republican leaders said that he had some secret information that he had to communicate with rest of Congress, and so he asked the Congress to go into secret session. I went to the floor of the House in that preliminary session and pointed out that this hasn’t happened but five times in 182 years, and I said that there should be a very high bar that has to be passed before we go into secret session. As soon as I said that, the member of Congress who asked for it started to backpedal a little bit. It will be interesting to see what kind of gravity came out of that meeting. My guess is that it had more to do with the desire of the administration to try to push for the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act than it had to do with any compelling new information about national security.
AMY GOODMAN: The President and the Republicans wanting to push through legislation that would grant immunity to the telecom companies for spying on Americans?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, that’s part of it, of course, but I’m thinking that yesterday there really was an attempt to try to basically use the procedure of a secret meeting to ratchet up the pressure to pass FISA and by—essentially, the Democrats called the bluff of the Republicans. And we’ll see if anything was produced in that meeting, because, actually, at any time Congress can vote to release the transcripts, make them public. And if that happens and it wasn’t a serious enough matter, there could be really extreme political repercussions, because we shouldn’t be going into secret session. I mean, there’s a reason why you don’t. You have a House of Representatives; it’s the people’s House. Transparency, it’s essential for a democracy. It’s very dangerous to have these things.
AMY GOODMAN: Explain how it works. 7:30, they sweep the Congress, all the members, to make sure you have no wires on you?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Right. Well, everyone asked—you know, now, I haven’t been in one of these for years. I do not sign the pledge of, quote, “confidentiality,” unquote, because what you essentially do is you give up your conscience. And when you go into these meetings, if something is being told that’s a lie, you can’t go outside and say they lied to you.
But I will tell you this, Amy, that in the times that I went to these—when I was an early member of Congress, I’d go to these sessions, and, you know, they were lying to members. And they would—so then you would be told this information, they’d try to propagandize the members. You can’t go outside and talk about it, because you’d be violating the confidentiality. I just stopped going to them, because I realized that they were attempts to try to spin the members of Congress under the pretext of a national security secret. I think democracy functions much better in sunlight than in the dark.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Congressman Kucinich, I want to thank you very much for being with us today. We’re spending the hour with soldiers, with veterans, who have come here to the National Labor College to talk about their own experiences. Again, this against the backdrop, the surprise last night of the secret session of Congress.
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, you know, they’re telling their stories about a war that’s based on lies and the war that was concocted in secret. Here we are.
AMY GOODMAN: Can I ask you a quick question? In this presidential year, you were a presidential candidate. Big debate over Michigan and Florida. Your name, together with Hillary Clinton’s name, was on the Michigan ballot. What is your take on what should happen there and why Barack Obama, John Edwards did not have their name on the ballots then and what should happen now?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Well, you know, I basically, you know, ignored the directive of the party leaders.
AMY GOODMAN: And so did Hillary Clinton.
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: Yeah, right. And so, I think, you know, this is something that’s going to have to be worked out. I mean, the Democratic Party is going through a very dangerous period right now. Keeping that party together so it can be competitive in November is going to be a great challenge. And so, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have a lot of work to do.
AMY GOODMAN: Are you going to endorse someone?
REP. DENNIS KUCINICH: You know, I reserve the right to do that. I haven’t made any decision yet.
AMY GOODMAN: Congressman Kucinich, thanks very much for joining us, the congressman from Ohio. He’s just won his Democratic primary in Ohio. He’s here at the Winter Soldier hearings that are taking place in Silver Spring, Maryland. |
Source: Democracy Now |
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| shapes |
| Sounds like big stuff's going on. Could be a "THROW AWAY THE CONSTITUTION" bill. |
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| guerra-monstru |
| quote: | It gets worse...something is happening behind closed doors.
I dont know if its BS but the REX 84 camps do exist and they are HUGE and 2 Bush place some law in place stating the goverment can pre-emp the Constution and Bill of rights to keep continuiety during an emergency
SPECIAL "CLOSED SESSION" OF U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES DISCUSSED A LOT MORE THAN THE PENDING SECURITY SURVEILLANCE PROVISIONS
LAST NIGHTS SESSION WAS ONLY THE FOURTH TIME IN 176 YEARS THAT CONGRESS CLOSED ITS DOORS TO THE PUBLIC
Word has begun leaking from last nights special, closed-door session of the United States House of Representatives.
Not only did members discuss new surveillance provisions as was the publicly stated reason for the closed door session, they were also bluntly warned about :
the imminent collapse of the U.S. economy to occur by September 2008,
the imminent collapse of US federal government finances by February 2009,
the possibility of Civil War inside the USA as a result of the collapse,
advance round-ups of "insurgent U.S. citizens" likely to move against the government,
The detention of those rounded-up at "REX 84" camps constructed throughout the USA,
the possibility of retaliation against members of Congress for the collapses,
the location of "safe facilities" for members of Congress and their families to reside during expected massive civil unrest
the necessary and unavoidable merger of the United States with Canada (for its natural resources) and with Mexico (for its cheap labor pool),
the issuance of a new currency - THE AMERO - for all three nations as the proposed solution to the coming economic armageddon.
Members of Congress were FORBIDDEN to reveal what was discussed and ABC News via WCPO web site at the link below CONFIRMS congress members were FORBIDDEN to talk about it!
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Don't worry American's your congressmen and women will be safe:stongue: |
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| Q5echo |
does it count for anything to any of you that we're actually able to talk about this?
how does the mere fact that they told you they were going into secret session impress upon the idea that something truly diabolical is going to happen?
...or does it just reinforce inexplicit fears that you already have?
those are rhetorical questions btw. i know its the latter b/c none of you have yet to be specific enough about your ideas that something truly diabolical is going to happen to actually have an answer. |
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| pkcRAISTLIN |
| quote: |
Word has begun leaking from last nights special, closed-door session of the United States House of Representatives. |
obviously someone wasn't informed that this was a "secret" meeting. |
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| Q5echo |
so Kucinich, basically said he was offered but refused to go because he doesn't want to be lied to?
do you not see how stupid that is on his part? |
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| Krypton |
Looks like the House partied without us...:(
Damned hardline Republicans always using national security as an excuse to further curtail our civil liberties. It's sad that they are just becoming more and more conservative as the likes of Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh make it plain to see. |
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| Krypton |
| quote: | Originally posted by Q5echo
so Kucinich, basically said he was offered but refused to go because he doesn't want to be lied to?
do you not see how stupid that is on his part? |
Did you read his entire statement? If this special session is used to propagandize the House as he saw it a couple decades ago, then he would be obligated to keep it a secret. Closed sessions really are contrary to the transparency a democracy should have. |
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| Q5echo |
| quote: | Originally posted by Krypton
Did you read his entire statement? |
yes. all 4 paragraghs :rolleyes:
| quote: | | If this special session is used to propagandize the House as he saw it a couple decades ago, then he would be obligated to keep it a secret. |
right. don't you see how senseless that is? he's keeping himself from information that he's already assumed is false. it really doesn't matter if he's held to confidence about it. if its so horrible or disingenuous nothing should keep him and others from exposing it, he's a respected member of the US Congress FFS! UNLESS IT REALLY DOES CONCERN SECURITY ISSUES AND HE"S THE ONE DOING THE PROPAGANDIZING.
Congress doesn't need to declare to the world once every 25 years "hey everybody, we're going into Executive session!" just to "propagandize the members" wtf does that mean anyway????????
choosing not to expose himself to it only keeps him more ignorant. and why he'd do that under the pretense of being duped and controlled and not being able to do something about it as a senior member of Congress makes no sense.
no, i think he's just being an obstinate child and trying to make a statement and do a little "propagandizing" himself.
no, he's positively shown to his contituancy that he's not going to be cowtowed by the diabolical Buler regime!...awesome job!..his work is done :rolleyes:
does he feel that he's the only one in Congress smart enough to realize he's being used?
| quote: | | Closed sessions really are contrary to the transparency a democracy should have. |
do you think that closed sessions are at all necessary or not? |
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| Krypton |
| quote: | Originally posted by Q5echo
right. don't you see how senseless that is? he's keeping himself from information that he's already assumed is false. it really doesn't matter if he's held to confidence about it. if its so horrible or disingenuous nothing should keep him and others from exposing it, he's a respected member of the US Congress FFS! UNLESS IT REALLY DOES CONCERN SECURITY ISSUES AND HE"S THE ONE DOING THE PROPAGANDIZING.
Congress doesn't need to declare to the world once every 25 years "hey everybody, we're going into Executive session!" just to "propagandize the members" wtf does that mean anyway????????
choosing not to expose himself to it only keeps him more ignorant. and why he'd do that under the pretense of being duped and controlled and not being able to do something about it as a senior member of Congress makes no sense.
no, i think he's just being an obstinate child and trying to make a statement and do a little "propagandizing" himself.
no, he's positively shown to his contituancy that he's not going to be cowtowed by the diabolical Buler regime!...awesome job!..his work is done :rolleyes:
does he feel that he's the only one in Congress smart enough to realize he's being used? |
Fair enough, agree to disagree..
| quote: | | do you think that closed sessions are at all necessary or not? |
Absolutely not. We're talking about the warrentless survellience. them if the people are not invited to such an important debate. I never give the benefit of the doubt the government. You seem to give the American government a blank check on anything it wants to do. Nationalism is dangerous. |
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| DJ Shibby |
| quote: | Originally posted by Q5echo
does it count for anything to any of you that we're actually able to talk about this?
how does the mere fact that they told you they were going into secret session impress upon the idea that something truly diabolical is going to happen?
...or does it just reinforce inexplicit fears that you already have?
those are rhetorical questions btw. i know its the latter b/c none of you have yet to be specific enough about your ideas that something truly diabolical is going to happen to actually have an answer. |
You know just as much as we do, yet you presume so much. Hmmm.... |
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| DJ Shibby |
| quote: | Originally posted by Krypton
Looks like the House partied without us...:(
Damned hardline Republicans always using national security as an excuse to further curtail our civil liberties. It's sad that they are just becoming more and more conservative as the likes of Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh make it plain to see. |
This is basically it.
Civil liberties won't be an issue in 2000 years, but right now we seem mired in the fight between class lines and social lines. It's very, very backwards, to say the least. |
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