A Patriot Acts: Alex Jones

Good for him. I love dude.

Because really, I can't figure out his angle.

I don't know why he'd do it the way he does if he's lying.

I don't get it.

So, I buy it.

Sold.


(...)


Besides, he makes a lot of sense.

The world sucks, and The Bush Crime Family has proven time and time again to be evil representatives of evil friends. The world sucks proves this, as for the last 25 years Bush's have destabilized and frightened the world, for 12 years under Bush Sr. as VP and President from 1980 to 1992, and Bush Jr. from the year 2000 to Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, Iran, Avian Flu, Syria, North Carolina Harbor, and beyond...

That's 17 years of "Bushit" (Dope Poet Society), and that's about enough.


(...)


You go Alex Jones, tell us what's up.

Infowars.com

Prominent Physics Professor Refutes “Official” 9/11 Story

Planes causing collapse bad science, Thermite charges suspect

Infowars | November 11, 2005

RELATED:

Prof. Jones' Article Questioning the 'Official Story' of 9/11

Steven E. Jones Bio & CV

The controlled demolition of the twin towers and building 7

Prisonplanet WTC 7 Archive

Case For WTC Tower Demolition Sealed By Griffin

Steven E. Jones, Professor of Physics at Brigham Young University reported to the Deseret Morning News and later revealed on the Alex Jones Radio Show that through imperical research he has come to discover that the World Trade Center towers could not have possibly collapsed due to the impact of the jets that hit the buildings on September 11th. While this news may not seem particularly shocking to many in the 9-11 Truth Movement, Jones’ testimony is representative of the growing list of many prominent Americans that have gone public in recent time exposing the systematic cover-up of 9-11.

According to Professor Jones, all of the laws of science and mathematics point directly to the controlled demolition of the World Trade Center and not to fire bringing down the three towers.

Through his intensive and methodical research, Jones has come to realize that the speed and symmetry of the collapse of the WTC buildings prove that the so-called official story must be false. He points to venting or squibs (smoke puffs) present around the collapsing structures as being direct indicators of the use of pre-positioned explosives. He also noted that the way that NASA infrared satellites and aircraft were able to take photos of the burning wreckage and molten steel for weeks was indicative of a massive use of thermite in the structure.

For Jones, the real problem with the official line on 9/11 is that it relies on wrong-headed science that starts with a conclusion and seeks out evidence that supports that theory to the exclusion of all others in order to cover up what really happened on September 11th. FEMA, the 9/11 Commission, and even the National Institute of Standards and Technology had all started with the supposition that what caused the WTC collapses was the impact of the jets and their exploding fuel and ignored any and all evidence to the contrary even though their findings were “highly unlikely.”

The Deseret Morning News article reports Jones’ major points of concern:

These observations were not analyzed by FEMA, NIST nor the 9/11 Commission, he says.

• With non-explosive-caused collapse there would typically be a piling up of shattering concrete. But most of the material in the towers was converted to flour-like powder while the buildings were falling, he says. "How can we understand this strange behavior, without explosives? Remarkable, amazing — and demanding scrutiny since the U.S. government-funded reports failed to analyze this phenomenon."

• Steel supports were "partly evaporated," but it would require temperatures near 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit to evaporate steel — and neither office materials nor diesel fuel can generate temperatures that hot. Fires caused by jet fuel from the hijacked planes lasted at most a few minutes, and office material fires would burn out within about 20 minutes in any given location, he says.

• Molten metal found in the debris of the World Trade Center may have been the result of a high-temperature reaction of a commonly used explosive such as thermite, he says. Buildings not felled by explosives "have insufficient directed energy to result in melting of large quantities of metal," Jones says.

• Multiple loud explosions in rapid sequence were reported by numerous observers in and near the towers, and these explosions occurred far below the region where the planes struck, he says.

No third party was ever called on to examine ground zero and Jones lamented the government’s decision to so quickly ban any investigation of the crime scene and to haul all of the wreckage away to China before it could be examined by any third party investigators. Many like Jones are now coming forward with skepticism this such as fire engineering which went public that the WTC was a crime scene and shouldn’t have been hauled away and that fire could not possibly make towers collapse.

He also described the findings of Underwriter’s Lab and Kevin Ryan who used complex models in the testing of the collapse and revealed that it was impossible for the jet-fuel and fire alone to cause any of the three buildings to collapse

Now Jones, who is head of research in fusion and solar energy at BYU, is calling for an independent, scientific investigation that would focus on the physics of the WTC collapse and not be guided by political constraints and efforts to limit the findings to the “official story” that the buildings collapsed because a hijacked plane was crashed into them.

REAL SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/sept11/prof_jones_refutes_official_911_story.htm







BONUS: Enough is enough, if it worked once they'll do it again, and if they do it again, they'll do it again, and then... we're screwed.

Infowars.com

GOP memo touts new terror attack as way to reverse party's decline

Capitol Hill Blue | November 10, 2005
By DOUG THOMPSON

A confidential memo circulating among senior Republican leaders suggests that a new attack by terrorists on U.S. soil could reverse the sagging fortunes of President George W. Bush as well as the GOP and "restore his image as a leader of the American people."

The closely-guarded memo lays out a list of scenarios to bring the Republican party back from the political brink, including a devastating attack by terrorists that could “validate” the President’s war on terror and allow Bush to “unite the country” in a “time of national shock and sorrow.”

The memo says such a reversal in the President's fortunes could keep the party from losing control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections.

GOP insiders who have seen the memo admit it’s a risky strategy and point out that such scenarios are “blue sky thinking” that often occurs in political planning sessions.

“The President’s popularity was at an all-time high following the 9/11 attacks,” admits one aide. “Americans band together at a time of crisis.”

Other Republicans, however, worry that such a scenario carries high risk, pointing out that an attack might suggest the President has not done enough to protect the country.

“We also have to face the fact that many Americans no longer trust the President,” says a longtime GOP strategist. “That makes it harder for him to become a rallying point.”

The memo outlines other scenarios, including:

--Capture of Osama bin Laden (or proof that he is dead);

--A drastic turnaround in the economy;

--A "successful resolution" of the Iraq war.

GOP memos no longer talk of “victory” in Iraq but use the term “successful resolution.”

“A successful resolution would be us getting out intact and civil war not breaking out until after the midterm elections,” says one insider.

The memo circulates as Tuesday’s disastrous election defeats have left an already dysfunctional White House in chaos, West Wing insiders say, with shouting matches commonplace and the blame game escalating into open warfare.

“This place is like a high-school football locker room after the team lost the big game,” grumbles one Bush administration aide. “Everybody’s pissed and pointing the finger at blame at everybody else.”

Republican gubernatorial losses in Virginia and New Jersey deepened rifts between the Bush administration and Republicans who find the President radioactive. Arguments over whether or not the President should make a last-minute appearance in Virginia to try and help the sagging campaign fortunes of GOP candidate Jerry Kilgore raged until the minute Bush arrived at the rally in Richmond Monday night.

“Cooler heads tried to prevail,” one aide says. “Most knew an appearance by the President would hurt Kilgore rather than help him but (Karl) Rove rammed it through, convincing Bush that he had enough popularity left to make a difference.”

Bush didn’t have any popularity left. Overnight tracking polls showed Kilgore dropped three percentage points after the President’s appearance and Democrat Tim Kaine won on Tuesday.

Conservative Pennsylvania Republican Senator Rick Santorum told radio talk show host Don Imus Wednesday that he does not want the President's help and will stay away from a Bush rally in his state on Friday.

The losses in Virginia and New Jersey, coupled with a resounding defeat of ballot initiatives backed by GOP governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in California have set off alarm klaxons throughout the demoralized Republican party. Pollsters privately tell GOP leaders that unless they stop the slide they could easily lose control of the House in the 2006 midterm elections and may lose the Senate as well.

“In 30 years of sampling public opinion, I’ve never seen such a freefall in public support,” admits one GOP pollster.

Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin says the usual tricks tried by Republicans no longer work.

"None of their old tricks worked," he says.

Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) admits the GOP is a party mired in its rural base in a country that's becoming less and less rural.

"You play to your rural base, you pay a price," he says. "Our issues blew up in our face."

As Republican political strategists scramble to find a message – any message – that will ring true with voters, GOP leaders in Congress admit privately that control of their party by right-wing extremists makes their recovery all but impossible.

“We’ve made our bed with these people,” admits an aide to House Speaker Denny Hastert. “Now it’s the morning after and the hangover hurts like hell.”

REAL SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/terror/gop_memo_touts_terror_attack_as_party_decline_reverse.htm

Infowars.com

Senate Approves Limiting Rights of US Detainees

New York Times | November 11, 2005

By Eric Schmitt

Washington - The Senate voted Thursday to strip captured "enemy combatants" at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, of the principal legal tool given to them last year by the Supreme Court when it allowed them to challenge their detentions in United States courts.

The vote, 49 to 42, on an amendment to a military budget bill by Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, comes at a time of intense debate over the government's treatment of prisoners in American custody worldwide, and just days after the Senate passed a measure by Senator John McCain banning abusive treatment of them.

If approved in its current form by both the Senate and the House, which has not yet considered the measure but where passage is considered likely, the law would nullify a June 2004 Supreme Court opinion that detainees at Guantánamo Bay had a right to challenge their detentions in court.

Nearly 200 of roughly 500 detainees there have already filed habeas corpus motions, which are making their way up through the federal court system. As written, the amendment would void any suits pending at the time the law was passed.

The vote also came in the same week that the Supreme Court announced that it would consider the constitutionality of war crimes trials before President Bush's military commissions for certain detainees at Guantánamo Bay, a case that legal experts said might never be decided by the court if the Graham amendment became law.

Five Democrats joined 44 Republicans in backing the amendment, but the vote on Thursday may only be a temporary triumph for Mr. Graham. Senate Democrats led by Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico said they would seek another vote, as early as Monday, to gut the part of Mr. Graham's measure that bans Guantánamo prisoners from challenging their incarceration by petitioning in civilian court for a writ of habeas corpus.

So it is possible that some lawmakers could have it both ways, backing other provisions in Mr. Graham's measure that try to make the Guantánamo tribunal process more accountable to the Senate, but opposing the more exceptional element of the legislation that limits prerogatives of the judiciary. Nine senators were absent for Thursday's vote.

Mr. Graham said the measure was necessary to eliminate a blizzard of legal claims from prisoners that was tying up Department of Justice resources, and slowing the ability of federal interrogators to glean information from detainees that have been plucked off the battlefields of Afghanistan and elsewhere.

"It is not fair to our troops fighting in the war on terror to be sued in every court in the land by our enemies based on every possible complaint," Mr. Graham said. "We have done nothing today but return to the basics of the law of armed conflict where we are dealing with enemy combatants, not common criminals."

Opponents of the measure denounced the Senate vote as a grave step backward in the nation's treatment of detainees in the global war on terror. "This is not a time to back away from the principles that this country was founded on," Mr. Bingaman said during floor debate.

Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, chairman of the Judiciary Committee and one of four Republicans to vote against the measure, said the Senate was unduly rushing into a major legal shift without enough debate. "I believe the habeas corpus provision needs to be maintained," Mr. Specter said.

A three-judge panel trying to resolve the extent of Guantánamo prisoners' rights to challenge detentions sharply questioned an administration lawyer in September when he argued that detainees had no right to be heard in federal appeals courts.

The panel of the District of Columbia Circuit is trying to apply a 2004 Supreme Court ruling to two subsequent, conflicting decisions by lower courts, one appealed by the prisoners and the other by the administration.

In its June 28, 2004, decision in Rasul v. Bush, the Supreme Court ruled 6 to 3 that the Guantánamo base was not outside the jurisdiction of American law as administration lawyers had argued and that the habeas corpus statute allowing prisoners to challenge their detentions was applicable.

Under Mr. Graham's measure, Guantánamo prisoners would be able to challenge only the narrow question of whether the government followed procedures established by the defense secretary at the time the military determined their status as enemy combatants, which is subject to an annual review. The District of Columbia Circuit would retain the right to rule on that, but not on other aspects of a prisoner's case.

Detainees would not be able to challenge the underlying rationale for their detention. "If it stands, it means detainees at Guantánamo Bay would have no access to any federal court for anything other than very simple procedural complaints dealing with annual status review," said Christopher E. Anders, a legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "Otherwise, the federal courts' door is shut."

If the measure is enacted, civil liberties groups said it would appear to render moot the Supreme Court's decision on Monday to decide the validity of the military commissions that Mr. Bush wants to try detainees charged with terrorist offenses to trial. But some legal experts said the court might be able to move ahead if determined to do so.

Under the Graham amendment, the measure would apply to any application or action pending "on or after the date of enactment of this act."

Elisa Massimino, Washington director of Human Rights First, said: "The Senate acted unwisely, and unnecessarily, in stripping courts of jurisdiction over Guantánamo detainees. Particularly now, as the string of reports of abuse over the past several years have underscored how important it is to have effective checks on the exercise of executive authority, depriving an entire branch of government of its ability to exercise meaningful oversight is a decidedly wrong course to take."

The Senate vote on Thursday came just days after senators voted, for the second time in recent weeks, to back a measure by Mr. McCain to prohibit the use of cruel and degrading treatment against detainees in American custody.

Vice President Dick Cheney has appealed to Mr. McCain and to Senate Republicans to grant the C.I.A. an exemption to allow it extra latitude, subject to presidential authorization, in interrogating high-level terrorists abroad who might know about future attacks. Mr. McCain said Thursday that negotiations with the White House on compromise language were stalemated.

In addition to Mr. Specter, Republicans voting against the bill were Senators John E. Sununu of New Hampshire, Gordon H. Smith of Oregon, and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island. The five Democrats voting for the bill were Senators Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, Mary L. Landrieu of Louisiana, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Ron Wyden of Oregon.

REAL SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/senate_approves_limit_rights_detainees.htm

Infowars.com

C.I.A. Asks for Criminal Inquiry Over Secret-Prison Article

New York Times | November 8, 2005

By DAVID JOHNSTON and CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 - The Central Intelligence Agency has asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation to determine the source of a Washington Post article that said the agency had set up a covert prison network in Eastern Europe and other countries to hold important terrorism suspects, government officials said on Tuesday.

The C.I.A.'s request, known as a crimes report or criminal referral, means that the Justice Department will undertake a preliminary review to determine if circumstances justify a criminal inquiry into whether any government official unlawfully provided information to the newspaper. The possibility of this new investigation follows by less than two weeks the perjury and obstruction indictment of I. Lewis Libby Jr., then Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, in a leak case involving other news reporting about a national security issue.

Republican leaders in Congress also jumped into the matter over The Post's article, asking the Intelligence Committees of the House and the Senate on Tuesday to investigate whether classified material had been disclosed. At the same time, the Senate rejected a Democratic call for an independent commission that would conduct an investigation into claims of abuses of detainees in American custody.

Eric C. Grant, a spokesman for the newspaper, said it would have no comment on the new developments concerning its article. A spokesman for the C.I.A. said a crimes report had indeed been sent to the Justice Department but would not otherwise comment.

The front-page article, published last Wednesday, said the agency had set up secret detention centers in as many as eight countries in the last four years.

The existence of secret detention centers, and the identity of a few of the countries in which they were located, like Thailand and Afghanistan, had been previously disclosed. But the article, describing the prison system as a "hidden global internment network," told of previously undisclosed detention facilities at highly classified "black sites" in "several democracies in Eastern Europe."

The Post, citing a "request of senior U.S. officials," did not identify the Eastern European countries. But the mention of Eastern Europe stirred anxiety at the intelligence agency, particularly after Human Rights Watch, a group that has opposed American detention policies, issued a statement on Monday saying its research had tracked C.I.A. aircraft in 2003 and 2004 making flights from Afghanistan to remote airfields in Poland and Romania. The group said aircraft used in the flights had been previously flown by the C.I.A. for prisoner transport.

More broadly, former intelligence officials said the Post article had prompted concerns at the C.I.A. over threats to the agency's ability to maintain secret relationships with other intelligence services on detainee matters.

In the wake of the disclosure, the top Republican Congressional leaders - Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist - sent the chairmen of the Intelligence Committees a request Tuesday for a joint investigation into the origin of the article.

"If accurate," the letter said, "such an egregious disclosure could have long-term and far-reaching damaging and dangerous consequences and will imperil our efforts to protect the American people and our homeland from terrorist attacks."

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, said he was willing to undertake the inquiry but acknowledged that leak investigations were notoriously difficult.

Another Republican member of the Intelligence Committee, Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, indicated skepticism at such an inquiry. Mr. Lott noted that accounts of a private discussion on detainee policy between Mr. Cheney and Senate Republicans last week had also leaked to the press.

"When you get into investigations around here, where does it end?" he said. "Who is going to investigate who?"

Democrats, meanwhile, said that if Republicans wanted to pursue an inquiry, it should go beyond any leak related to secret detention facilities and cover a range of other issues that Democrats say are ripe for investigation.

"That includes the possible manipulation of prewar intelligence on Iraq, and the disclosure for political purposes of classified information involving the identity of the C.I.A. officer," said the House minority leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California.

But the Senate voted, 55 to 43, to reject an outside commission to examine detainee abuse. The measure, introduced by Senator Carl Levin of Michigan as an amendment to a broader military policy bill, was opposed by 54 Republicans and 1 Democrat, Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska.

In debate on the amendment Monday, Mr. Levin said 12 military investigations into prisoner abuse in Iraq, Afghanistan and Cuba had failed to address several important matters, including the role of contractors and Special Operations forces in interrogations.

"The investigations so far have swept critical issues under the rug," Mr. Levin said.

Republicans said that any problems had been exhaustively examined and that the armed forces had already changed many of their detention and interrogation procedures.

"In my judgment, the further investigation is simply unnecessary," said Senator John W. Warner, the Virginia Republican who heads the Armed Services Committee.

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting for this article.

REAL SOURCE - http://www.infowars.com/articles/ps/cia_secret_prisons_cia_asks_for_ciminal_inquiry.htm







BONUS: Freshly-Skimmed News...

Yahoo! News

9/11 Panel Gives White House Mixed Review

By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer 10 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Reviewing action on recommendations it made last year, the Sept. 11 commission on Monday criticized the Bush administration for not adopting standards for treatment of captured terror suspects.

The administration was given a mixed review in a report on the commission's key recommendations that were designed to help the United States better prepare for and respond to a terror attack.

There was high praise for U.S. attempts to integrate the Arab and Muslim world into the global trading system and in fighting terrorism financing.

But former commission chairman Thomas Kean, former vice chairman Lee Hamilton and the eight other members who formed the 9-11 Public Disclosure Project found much to criticize.

Their review gave the administration the grade "unfulfilled" on the commission's recommendation that the United States develop a common approach with friendly nations on the treatment of captured terror suspects. The commission also had suggested the Geneva Conventions on the law of armed conflict should be applied to military prisons and secret detention centers.

What the Bush administration still needs to do, the review said, is to adopt standards for terror suspects that are in accord with international law.

"These standards should cover the treatment of detainees held by all elements of the U.S. government," the former commission members said.

And, they said, "the United States should work with its allies to develop mutually acceptable standards for terrorist detention."

President Bush last week defended U.S. interrogation practices and called the treatment of terrorist suspects lawful. "We do not torture," Bush declared.

Congress, meanwhile, is engaged in a high-profile debate over the handling of detainees. The Senate twice has signed off on legislation to ban the cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of prisoners in U.S. custody.

The provision is included in two defense bills. The House versions of the bills do not include the language, which the White House opposes.

At Monday's presentation, commission member Richard Ben-Veniste said Iraq is on track to succeed Afghanistan as a terrorist training ground. "How much this trend has been fueled by the highly publicized reports of brutalization, humiliation and desecration cannot be measured accurately," he said.

"But the flames of extremism undoubtedly burn more brightly when we are the ones who deliver the gasoline," Ben-Veniste said.

On another front, the former commission members found insufficient progress on thwarting attempts by the al-Qaida network to acquire or make weapons of mass destruction.

On the positive side, the review cited an agreement reached last February by Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin to secure nuclear warheads and material.

Russia, for instance, has made several dozen additional nuclear warhead storage sites available for inspection and improvement, the review said.

But more than 100 research facilities worldwide — in some 40 countries — contain enough highly enriched uranium to fashion a nuclear device, and this is troubling, the report said.

"Preventing terrorists from gaining access to weapons of mass destruction must be elevated above all other problems of national security," the former commission members said. "It represents the greatest threat to the American people" and President Bush should publicly make this goal his top priority, the review said.

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SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051114/ap_on_go_ot/commission_detainees;_ylt=Avx7cnaKJfGBDINL_rguk20Gw_IE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM-







BONUS: Freshly-Charred Skinspiration... or, "Aired-Out Jordan".

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Bush Takes Fresh Shot at Iraq War Critics

By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent 20 minutes ago

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE - President Bush, heading to Asia with hopes of improving his image on the world stage, hurled a parting shot at Iraq war critics on Monday, accusing some Democrats of "sending mixed signals to our troops and the enemy."

"That is irresponsible," Bush said in prepared remarks he planned to deliver to U.S. forces during a refueling stop in Alaska. Excerpts from the remarks were released by the White House as Bush flew to Elemendorf Air Force Base on the initial leg of an eight-day journey to Japan, South Korea, China and Mongolia.

"Reasonable people can disagree about the conduct of the war, but it is irresponsible for Democrats to now claim that we misled them and the American people," Bush said in his prepared remarks.

"Only one person manipulated evidence and misled the world — and that person was Saddam Hussein," Bush added.

The president sought to defend himself against Democrats' criticism that he manipulated intelligence and misled the American people about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction as he sought grounds to go to war against Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Meanwhile, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters aboard the presidential aircraft that two agenda items on Bush's Asia trip were the huge Chinese trade surplus with the United States and a U.S.-Japanese dispute over U.S. beef imports.

Neither dispute was expected to be resolved on the president's trip, Hadley said.

"I don't think you're going to see headline-breakers" from the president's trip, Hadley said.

Iraq and other problems — from the bungled response to Hurricane Katrina to the indictment of a senior White House official in the CIA leak investigation — have taken a heavy toll on the president's standing. Nearing the end of his fifth year in office, Bush has the lowest approval rating of his presidency and a majority of Americans say Bush is not honest and they disapprove of his handling of foreign policy and the war on terrorism.

In his prepared Alaska remarks, Bush noted that some elected Democrats in Congress "have opposed this war all along.

"I disagree with them, but I respect their willingness to take a consistent stand," he said. "Yet some Democrats who voted to authorize the use of force are now rewriting the past. They are playing politics with this issue and sending mixed signals to our troops and the enemy."

In the Senate, 29 Democrats voted with 48 Republicans for the war authorization measure in late 2002, including 2004 Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, and his running mate, John Edwards of North Carolina. Both have recently been harshly critical of Bush's conduct of the war and its aftermath.

On Capitol Hill, top Democrats stood their ground in claiming Bush misled Congress and the country. "The war in Iraq was and remains one of the great acts of misleading and deception in American history," Kerry told a news conference.

Democrats offered a proposal urging the president to outline an estimate for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Senate was expected to vote on it on Tuesday, as well as on a rival GOP Iraq policy proposal that does not include a withdrawal provision.

Bush is expected to get a warmer welcome in Asia than he did earlier this month in Argentina at the Summit of the Americas, where Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez led a protest against U.S. policies and Bush failed to gain support from the 34 nations attending for a hemisphere-wide free trade zone.

Japan, the first stop on Bush's trip, and Mongolia, the last, are likely to give him the most enthusiastic response, while China and South Korea probably will be cooler but respectful.

In South Korea, Bush also will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Conference summit in Busan, where 21 member states are expected to agree to support global free-trade talks. The summit also is expected to agree to put early warning and information-sharing systems in place in case of bird flu outbreaks.

"It is good for the president to show up in Asia and say, `We care about Asia,' because that is in doubt in the region," said Ed Lincoln, senior fellow in Asia and economic studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

At his first stop, in Kyoto, Japan, the president will deliver what aides bill as the speech of the trip on the power of democracy — not only to better individual lives but contribute to the long-term prosperity of nations.

The remarks — aimed at China — will hold up such nations as Japan, Australia and South Korea as models because of their strong democratic traditions and willingness to help establish democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Bush also is expected to press China to reduce its trade surplus, revalue its currency and curb the piracy of American movies, software and other copyright material.

China's leadership in six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions also will be a key topic when Bush meets Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing.

Bush will also be working the issue when he sits down with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Kyoto and spends a day with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun ahead of the APEC meetings. Japan and South Korea are part of the six-way talks.

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SOURCE - http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051114/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_asia