Reflections on the "New American" Revolution
Thursday, July 31, 2003
U.S. Arms Diplomat Denounces North Korean Leader: "Mr. Bolton, talking to reporters after his speech, justified his bluntness by saying, 'It is important to tell the truth...
Asked if he was advocating regime change in North Korea, Mr. Bolton responded: "No." '"
From these comments, and given his Majesty's administration's penchant for deception, my guess is we are going to war with N. Korea. At least an aerial attack to kill Kim Jong Il. Which is an act of war.
This is not about support for Kim Jong, who is by all accounts the dictator of a disgraceful administration. He is a danger to his people and neighbors. But US policy is a mess.
Bush bamboozled by Ariel Sharon: "Mr Abbas is being taken for a ride, that the Americans are not really pushing Mr Sharon, and indeed, that Mr Sharon is to a lesser extent taking Mr Bush for a ride, too. "
Will the Real Howard Dean Please Stand Up? (washingtonpost.com): "The centrist Democratic Leadership Council has made Dean a target - as a liberal who could hand the presidential election to Republicans if he were to become the party's nominee."
Maybe he really has a chance, then!
Yahoo! News - BRING HOME THE TROOPS: "Paul Wolfowitz was certain the Iraqi people, eager for liberation, would throw roses at our troops. Cakewalk city, promised Cheney. Major combat is over, Bush announced at his thumbs-up aircraft carrier photo op. We'll only need to stay a few months, swore Tommy Franks. We know exactly where the WMDs are, insisted Rumsfeld. We've found the WMDs, said Bush. Well, we will find them, they all say, though not often anymore. Every single thing they tell us turns out to be dead wrong. "
Wednesday, July 30, 2003
US occupation in breach of Geneva Conventions?: "The legal position is laid down in the Geneva convention and Hague regulations. They provide that occupying powers have a duty to keep order, keep civil administration functioning and provide for immediate humanitarian need. They have no powers to engage in major political, economic or constitutional reform. They also have no power to bring into being a sovereign government since they hold no sovereignty. Only the UN can do that. The attorney's advice concluded: 'The lawfulness of any occupation after conflict has ended is still governed by the legal basis for the use of force... namely, Iraqi disarmament... the longer the occupation of Iraq continues, and the more the tasks undertaken by an interim administration depart from the main objective, the more difficult it will be to justify the lawfulness of the occupation.' "
Upbeat Tone Belies Downside Risks (washingtonpost.com): "Bush had little new to offer on why bringing stability to postwar Iraq has been so difficult or why his tax cuts have not done more to turn around an economy that has been losing jobs since the beginning of his presidency. Nor did he have new initiatives, policies or proposals. He spoke for nearly an hour in the White House Rose Garden, and for the most part, it was a pep talk designed to tamp down criticism from his opponents.
His most newsworthy statement was to take responsibility for the section of his State of the Union address alleging that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa, which his own intelligence agency said was based on unreliable information. 'I take personal responsibility for everything I say, of course,' he said. 'Absolutely.'
...With that answer, Bush tried to defuse the continuing controversy over his address, but left unanswered why, if that intelligence was as sound as he said, it has been so difficult for U.S. forces to locate weapons of mass destruction or clearer evidence of an ongoing weapons program in Iraq.
Two Democratic rivals challenged Bush on Iraq. Sen. Bob Graham
Upbeat Tone Belies Downside Risks (washingtonpost.com): "Bush had little new to offer on why bringing stability to postwar Iraq has been so difficult or why his tax cuts have not done more to turn around an economy that has been losing jobs since the beginning of his presidency. Nor did he have new initiatives, policies or proposals. He spoke for nearly an hour in the White House Rose Garden, and for the most part, it was a pep talk designed to tamp down criticism from his opponents.
His most newsworthy statement was to take responsibility for the section of his State of the Union address alleging that Iraq had tried to buy uranium in Africa, which his own intelligence agency said was based on unreliable information. 'I take personal responsibility for everything I say, of course,' he said. 'Absolutely.'
...With that answer, Bush tried to defuse the continuing controversy over his address, but left unanswered why, if that intelligence was as sound as he said, it has been so difficult for U.S. forces to locate weapons of mass destruction or clearer evidence of an ongoing weapons program in Iraq.
Two Democratic rivals challenged Bush on Iraq. Sen. Bob Graham (Fla.) questioned why Bush finally accepted responsibility for the State of the Union speech after weeks of pointing to others. 'If the president thinks this will end the controversy, he's completely wrong,' Graham said in a statement. 'It only raises more questions about what kind of cover-up has gone on inside the White House in the last few weeks in order to try"
TOMPAINE.com - Peaceful Warrior: "He spoke of the Declaration of Independence, and how its writers vowed to be free of England, where their lives were ruled and determined by one man. 'The constant rhetoric of the administration is that there's going to be one person who decides when we go to war,' he said, 'and that is such a blatant violation of every constitutional principle that our founding fathers came up with.'
'But even beyond that, it's �we the people� that this nation is about,' he continued. 'It isn't about politics or personal agendas or political agendas or economic agendas. And I believe that this war is not the right thing for America because it hasn't yet been proven conclusively that there is a threat to �we the people� -- and I think that is the sole determining factor as to whether or not this nation should ever go to war.' "
TOMPAINE.com - A Pattern Of Deception: "Outright lying is not the administration's modus operandi; willful deception is...
A hard truth appears to have escaped the notice of the public and received scant attention from the media: Bush is the first president in American history to use deceptive propaganda as his main means of communications in selling his policies. His pattern of deception continues unabated and in direct conflict with the notion of the public's informed consent that is central to American democracy. "
Yahoo! News - Bush accepts blame for Iraq intelligence row, warns on al-Qaeda: "'I take personal responsibility for everything I say, of course. Absolutely,' Bush said, when asked, after weeks of evading blame, whether he accepted responsibility for a since discredited claim that Iraq sought uranium for nuclear weapons in Africa.
But Bush, who has been criticized for holding too few formal news conferences, then quickly changed the subject, addressing the question of whether it was right to oust Saddam "
Enemy Combatant Vanishes Into a 'Legal Black Hole' (washingtonpost.com): "'People have trouble with people being taken off the streets and thrown into a legal black hole,' Newman said. "
US cuts off mobile phones in Iraq: "America's desire to rebuild Iraq in its own image even extends to setting up a mobile phone network that only works for US phones.
A Bahraini company that established a network accessible to those without American phones has been forced to scrap its plans after a week.
Batelco had started placing more than $5m of aerials and other equipment for GSM mobiles across Baghdad. Foreign businessmen and journalists were able to abandon expensive satellite phones for the first time. But mindful of its desire to set up a tender for the country's mobile network, the US authorities apparently started to put pressure on Batelco, threatening to confiscate its equipment.
'They applied enough pressure for us to push the button,' said Rashid al-Snan, the company's regional operations manager. 'I feel really sorry - sorry for the Iraqis and sorry for the foreigners who were using the network. It's a pity we had to stop. We really put in an effort and felt a cheer coming towards us from all over the world.'"
Funds for his friends, if not for you: "President George Bush is seeking funds for a controversial project to drive gas pipelines from pristine rainforests in the Peruvian Amazon to the coast.
The plan will enrich some of Mr Bush's closest corporate campaign contributors while risking the destruction of rainforest, threatening its indigenous peoples and endangering rare species on the coast.
Among the beneficiaries would be two Texas energy companies with close ties to the White House, Hunt Oil and Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), a subsidiary of Vice-President Dick Cheney's old company, Haliburton, which is rebuilding Iraq's oil infrastructure."
TIME.com-- Why U.S. Is Running Out of Gas -- Jul. 21, 2003: "Inflated oil prices and natural gas shortages are wiping out jobs and savings, thanks to three decades of bungled energy policy. Get ready for more bungling "
Senate Rejects Auto Fuel Economy Boost: "A new energy agenda being fashioned by the Senate will do little to force automakers to substantially increase fuel economy, although cars and SUVs gobble up 40 percent of the oil that is used daily in the United States.
The Senate turned back an attempt Tuesday to include in the energy bill a requirement that automobiles cut gasoline use by 45 percent over the next dozen years. Instead it approved an industry-supported measure that includes new requirements that must be considered before the government can imposing future fuel economy improvements. "
Next time a politician supports war for oil (it just happened in Iraq, and it'll happen again), remember this. They would prefer to kill American soldiers and many of the people they are fighting, rather than increase the fuel efficiency of cars and SUVs, especially. Because that's the choice we are making.
Those of us who drive cars, our gas is coming over the dead bodies of our troops and the native populations of the countries where it is extracted.
If we increase the fuell efficiency of SUVs we can easily save 365 million barrels of oil a year! That's going to cut the demand for oil, lower fuel prices, stimulate the economy and reduce pollution. That would mean that our standard of living would be increased, we wouldn't have to fight wars for oil, so we could cut our "defence" budget. and we would be a lot healthier.
GOP Senators Blame Nature for Climate Change: "Senator James Inhofe today told colleagues of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that the science shows natural variability, not human activity, is the 'overwhelming factor' influencing climate change.
Inhofe cited findings of a study by Drs. Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics that determined the 20th century was neither the warmest nor the century with the most extreme weather within the past millennium.
But a climate expert at today's hearing told Inhofe that the mainstream climate research community believes the Soon and Baliunas study is "nonsense."
The study is "fundamentally unsound," testified Michael Mann, University of Virginia environmental sciences professor and a lead author of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Assessment Report.
Natural variability is a large factor in climate change, Mann said, but it can not explain the warming of the past two decades. "
U.S. May Cut Air Marshals Despite Warning: "The Transportation Security Administration wants to reduce funding for air marshals even as the government is warning about the possibility al-Qaida may try more suicide hijackings.
The TSA is seeking approval from Congress to cut $104 million from the air marshal program to help offset a $900 million budget shortfall. It's unclear how many of the estimated several thousand air marshal jobs would be affected.
'When we are faced with more priorities than we have funding to support, we have to go through a process of trying to address the most urgent needs,' TSA spokesman Robert Johnson said. "
This is completely outrageous... get the subtext:
"What's wrong with you Americans. Get your priorities straight. We have enought money to pay for $2 Trillion in tax cuts, mostly for the richest, because they are the only ones who deserve it. The rest of you don't deserve security. Your role is to pay the debt that we'll take on to pay for the tax cuts, and the wars we are fighting to protect the wealth of the wealthy. Get over it! Geeez. We're too busy ruling the country to have you people interfering."
Senators Grill Administration Over Iraq Costs (washingtonpost.com): "Wolfowitz noted that Secretary of State Colin L. Powell is pursuing a possible resolution and said he would welcome a U.N. mandate that would enable countries to contribute more troops, 'provided it doesn't put limitations on what Ambassador [L. Paul] Bremer and our people can do in Iraq that are crucial to speeding up the transition to normalcy and stability.' "
Well, I don't think the US has shown itself capable of creating normalcy and stability anywhere. But leaving that aside, what Wolfowitz's comments say to me is this administration hasn't learned a thing. they are still giving unliateral ultimatums to the rest of the world. Support us, on our terms.
Well, that's not how relationship works, kids. If you want others to play your game with you, you need to give them something too.
Senators Grill Administration Over Iraq Costs (washingtonpost.com): "both parties also took aim at what they called the administration's 'shifting justification' for the war, saying its prewar focus on weapons of mass destruction had been superseded by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz's description of Saddam Hussein's human rights violations and Wolfowitz's claim that Iraq has become the 'central battle in the war on terror.'
'In the months leading up to the war, it was a steady drumbeat of weapons of mass destruction,' said Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee (R-R.I.). 'All the testimony this morning . . . is about what a tyrant Saddam Hussein is, who brutalizes the people. . . . So I'll ask the question, Secretary Wolfowitz: What are we doing there?'"
Thank God for senators like Lincoln Chafee and Robert Byrd who have integrity and the guts to stand up to those who try to mislead us.
We're living in a democracy, right?: "The appearance before reporters today marked the eighth time since taking office that President Bush answered questions at a formal news conference. "
8 times in almost three years. He deigns to answer questions about 3 times a year--and mostly he chooses who will ask the questions, so the reporters know not to ask anything that might invoke his majesty's displeasure.
Yahoo! News - Bush Takes Responsibility for Iraq Claim: "'I take personal responsibility for everything I say, absolutely,' the president said at a White House news conference "
Let's see if he means to be held responsible for every word he speaks. If not this statement is another misleading lie, meant to divert attention away from his actions and his accountability for them.
With responsibility comes accountability. Now that you have assumed responsibility for misleading us, Mr. Bush, will you accept the consequences of your actions? That's my question.
He's pretty good at warning others, such as Saddam, that there will be "consequences", but seems to hold himself above the idea that he should be accountable. That's probably one of his defining characteristics, in my opinion.
Monday, July 28, 2003
Yahoo! News - Pentagon's Futures Market Plan Condemned: "The Pentagon (news - web sites) is setting up a stock-market style system in which investors would bet on terror attacks, assassinations and other events in the Middle East. Defense officials hope to gain intelligence and useful predictions while investors who guessed right would win profits.
The market would work this way. Investors would buy and sell futures contracts — essentially a series of predictions about what they believe might happen in the Mideast. Holder of a futures contract that came true would collect the proceeds of investors who put money into the market but predicted wrong.
A graphic on the market's Web page showed hypothetical futures contracts in which investors could trade on the likelihood that Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) would be assassinated or Jordanian King Abdullah II would be overthrown.
Although the Web site described the Policy Analysis Market as "a market in the future of the Middle East," the graphic also included the possibility of a North Korea (news - web sites) missile attack.
That graphic was apparently removed from the Web site hours after the news conference in which Wyden and fellow Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record) of North Dakota criticizing the market.
Dorgan described it as useless, offensive and "unbelievably stupid." "
The New Yorker: Fact: "if they had not gone to Iraq they would have found Osama by now. The best people were moved away from this operation. The best minds were moved to Iraq. It’s a great shame. It’s the biggest military failure in the war on terrorism so far.
Many intelligence insiders, however, shared Gunaratna’s concerns. Cannistraro, the former C.I.A. official, said that the effort to find bin Laden had “lost at least half of its original strength.” He added, “Arabic speakers are in short supply. You still have some intelligence-collection assets in Afghanistan, but mostly it’s just small teams looking for signals. That’s because of Iraq.”
...on the eve of the bombing of Baghdad, the Bush Administration peremptorily drafted an announcement declaring that in Afghanistan the military was moving to “stability operations,” a euphemism for military deescalation. “They wanted to make it sound as if there were just a few more stitches needed in the quilt,” he said. At the time, in fact, Beers believed that the security situation in Afghanistan was so unstable that Al Qaeda might reconstitute itself there. For instance, a recent U.N. report found that the average number of attacks per month on coalition forces rose from around nine last year to more than thirty since the beginning of 2003.
The Administration, Beers said, ignored such concerns. “They didn’t want to call attention to the fact that Osama was still at large and living along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, because they wanted it to look like the only front was Iraq,” he said. “Otherwise, the question becomes: If Afghanistan is that bad, why start another war?”"
he is going to war. It feels awful: "You simply don't say no to the Americans,' said Bronislaw Komorowski, a former Polish defence minister. Others feared support for the mission could crumble as casualties were brought home.
'We thought it would be a peace mission, that he would go to help, not to fight,' said Joanna Studzinska, 28, as she waved off her husband at Wroclaw airport. 'Now I know he is going to war. It feels awful.'
There has been criticism in the US of the composition of the peacekeeping force.
'The countries involved are mostly small, poor, weak and struggling,' said Richard Betts of Columbia University's institute for war and peace studies. 'Any crumbs of attention and approval they can get from the sole superpower are useful to them.'"
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Poles lead peace effort while US piles pressure on allies: "As many as 70 countries are understood to have been approached by Washington in its trawl for military support. Several critical of the war snubbed the appeal in public.
Germany and France turned down the request to take part and Russia's defence minister, Sergei Ivanov, said Moscow had no intention of sending troops.
At least 24 countries have agreed to contribute. Most will join the Polish-led division, operating in a newly defined security zone covering southern and central Iraq. The area will stretch from the Saudi border in the west to the Iranian border in the east and include the Shia holy city of Kerbala, and Nassiriya"
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | US troops in Iraq 'are terrorist magnet': "The commander of US ground forces in Iraq today said that his soldiers had become a 'magnet' for foreign terrorists who wanted to strike at America."
Sunday, July 27, 2003
Wolfowitz Says U.S. Must Act Even on 'Murky' Data: "``The battle to secure the peace in Iraq is now the central battle in the war on terror,'' he said. "
Wolfowitz claims that the intelligence on terrorism is murky. Well, the Congressional investigation found that we had good intelligence about some of the main 9-11 terrorists. We knew they were al Qaeda, and that they were living in the US. They were actually living with an FBI informant! (The FBI is the agency responsible for countering terrorism in the US.) So what we needed was effective action from the administration on pretty clear intelligence. Not preemptive wars.
Let's talk about Afghanistan. We went in there. Overthrew the Taliban, with the loss of very few US soldiers or pilots. So far so good. A big factor in our success was buying the support of local warlords. So guess who's running Afghanistan now? The warlords. Guess what they are doing to make money. Growing heroin. Guess where that heroin is going to be consumed. Here in the US. Does a flood of heroin in our cities and towns make us safer? How many people will die from that drug supply? How many people will be killed by junkies doing crime to feed their habit? In a country the size of the US, I would guess that number is in the thousands.
That's not a good return on our war on terror. I would expect an effective policy to make us safer, not multiply dangers.
As for Afghanistan, how will it develop with an economy based on banditry/warlordism and heroin? It won't. It remains a dreadful place for women. It has a medieval justice system. The warlords are the government, legislature and judiciary in their areas. And they control the whole country.
And as for the war on terrorism, that's been replaced by the war on iraq. See the story (above) from the new yorker. and weep.
Saturday, July 26, 2003
Yahoo! News - Four more US dead in grenade attack; Saddam bodyguards detained: "Nine US soldiers have now died since the brothers were killed, in the most costly week for the US military since the end of the war was declared by President George W. Bush (news - web sites) on May 1. "
News: "Since Uday and Qusay Hussein were killed in Mosul on Tuesday, the ambushes have, if anything, become deadlier. Eight US soldiers have died, They may also hasten yet another revamp of the reconstruction effort.
Last week Paul Bremer, the chief US civilian administrator in Iraq, was in Washington to give a progress report. Outwardly he was all optimism, claiming that rebuilding was running ahead of schedule. Privately however, the message was very different, as he pleaded for more money and more personnel.
And in a rare admission of human fallibility, Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy Secretary of Defense and a prime architect of the war, conceded last week that the Pentagon had been wrong in some of its post-war assumptions, and that 'some conditions were worse than we anticipated.'"
Iraq Flap Shakes Rice's Image (washingtonpost.com): "remarks by Rice and her associates raise two uncomfortable possibilities for the national security adviser. Either she missed or overlooked numerous warnings from intelligence agencies seeking to put caveats on claims about Iraq's nuclear weapons program, or she made public claims that she knew to be false.
Most prominent is her claim that the White House had not heard about CIA doubts about an allegation that Iraq sought uranium in Africa before the charge landed in Bush's State of the Union address on Jan. 28; in fact, her National Security Council staff received two memos doubting the claim and a phone call from CIA Director George J. Tenet months before the speech. Various other of Rice's public characterizations of intelligence documents and agencies' positions have been similarly cast into doubt.
'If Condi didn't know the exact state of intel on Saddam's nuclear programs . . . she wasn't doing her job,' said Brookings Institution foreign policy specialist Michael E. O'Hanlon. 'This was foreign policy priority number one for the administration last summer, so the claim that someone else should have done her homework for her is unconvincing.'"
She won't resign and Bush won't ask her to. What's that about? Bush has been embarrased in front of the whole world, and she is clearly a party to it. So why doesn't she take responsibility for her failure? I suspect it is because she did exactly what Bush asked her to do. If that is so, then he's covering up for her, just as she is covering up for him. What a lousy can of worms of a government.
Yahoo! News - Some Parents Question Wisdom of Tax Cuts: "For millions of middle-class families, the check is in the mail — $400, $800, perhaps more — courtesy of Congress. Parents benefiting from the expanded child tax credit will welcome the cash, but some question the wisdom of such payouts at a time of deficits and cutbacks.
'I'd rather have the public services and the public schools have the money they need,' said Jean Powers, 41, a mother of two from Beaverton, Ore. 'I'm not happy with it.'
Even more displeased are some of the low-income parents not receiving the checks — notably those who earn less than roughly $26,000 and are excluded from the credit because they don't pay enough federal income tax.
'I'm very angry,' said Linda Hayes, 40, an office manager in Grand Rapids, Mich. A single mother, she supports a 14-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter on a $23,000 salary.
'I'm tired of working hard and still not being able to provide properly for my children,' she said. 'I'm tired of having to choose canned vegetables instead of fresh ones. I feel I don't count, my kids don't count.'
She said some better-off families might simply invest their payments; she would have used hers to get car repairs and corrective lens for her son, who lacks medical insurance. "
Yahoo! News - 3 U.S. Troops Die in Iraq Grenade Attack: "A grenade attack killed three U.S. soldiers and wounded four Saturday while they guarded a children's hospital in Baqouba, a town northeast of Baghdad.
The deaths of the soldiers from the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division brought to 161 the number of troops killed in action in Iraq (news - web sites) since the start of the war, 14 more than in the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites). "
3 a day. That's more than a thousand troops in a year. That is a steep price to pay for -- what?
It's a waste of life. It's an abuse of the troops. It's an abuse of power.
This is a stinking mess, and the people who got us into it aren't going to be able to do anything than get us deeper in the shit. I feel sorry for the troops, the Iraqi people, and I feel the institutions that protect us from abuses of power such as happened in Iraq are being eroded here in the US. I am not sure that our government is not becoming dictatorial. I fear for us.
Friday, July 25, 2003
U.S. Hopes Deaths Won't Spur Iraq Crisis: "The U.S. commander in northern Iraq (news - web sites) said Friday he hopes the killing of Odai and Qusai Hussein will not shatter the region's relative calm and spirit of cooperation with American occupiers.
Since the raid in which Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s son were killed, four U.S. soldiers died in ambush attacks in and around Mosul. "
Compassion and the Tax Cuts: "Congress is proposing to tighten requirements for workers receiving temporary welfare aid � mandating 40 hours of work from them rather the current 30. This means a parent will need more child-care aid in order to be free for the required low-wage job. Some 350,000 impoverished children will likely be denied care in the next five years. No help is in the offing as the Republicans shrink the federal revenue flow and channel tax cuts to the upper brackets. "
Yahoo! News - U.S. Sues Quaker Group Over Unpaid Taxes: "Adams, 50, has refused to pay at least some of her federal taxes since 1974 and owes the government more than $42,000 in back taxes, interest and fines.
'They can do things like the checkoff for the presidential election campaign; they could easily do an accommodation for a peace-tax fund,' Adams said Wednesday from her Willingboro, N.J., home.
The IRS upped the ante in the ongoing dispute Tuesday when it sued her employer for refusing to garnish her wages. It wants to lodge a 50 percent penalty � more than $21,000 � against the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, a regional Quaker organization. "
Children (Still) Left Behind (washingtonpost.com): "this year's tax bill did nothing for the low-income group, though the cost would have been trivial in the context of the tax bill -- just $3.5 billion. To address this inequity, the Senate passed a separate measure that both fixed the low-income problem and made more high-earning taxpayers eligible for the credit; the Senate paid for its $10 billion measure by increasing customs users' fees. But the House, where leaders are hostile to tax credits for those who don't pay income taxes, used the opening as an excuse to pass another huge tax cut, knowing full well the Senate would never go along.
The House bill is an embarrassment -- unaffordable and unfair. As to cost: Its $82 billion price tag was unconscionable even before the grim new deficit projections. As to fairness: Consider a bill that's kinder to members of Congress than to soldiers or the working poor...
It shouldn't take $50 billion to solve a $3.5 billion problem.
"
Bush Considers New Overhaul of Postwar Iraq Administration (washingtonpost.com): "President Bush is contemplating the second overhaul in three months of his post-war administration of Iraq, as the White House faces up to the enormity of the task and the need to demonstrate progress to maintain political support for the effort...
As part of an effort to beef up the reconstruction, the White House is considering asking several major figures, including former secretary of state James A. Baker III, to help with specific tasks like seeking funds from other countries or helping restructure Iraq's debt."
Whenever the going gets tough, Bush calls for Baker. What will he be able to do in Iraq? Hopefully he'll get us out of there and the UN in. That's the best hope for us, for the Iraqi's and the international community.
White House, CIA Kept Key Portions of Report Classified (washingtonpost.com): "President Bush was warned in a more specific way than previously known about intelligence suggesting that al Qaeda terrorists were seeking to attack the United States, a report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks indicated yesterday. Separately, the report cited one CIA memo that concluded there was 'incontrovertible evidence' that Saudi individuals provided financial assistance to al Qaeda operatives in the United States. "
David Kelly, the British WMD investigator who committed suicide, dissed by Downing Street: "The Government had tried to play down Dr Kelly's importance to discredit him as the BBC's main source for the claim that Downing Street 'sexed up' the September dossier. No 10 claimed Dr Kelly was a 'technical adviser', and 'he was not someone who had access to the intelligence which was in the dossier'.
But Dr Kelly not only had access to intelligence on Iraq but was consulted by the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and the Ministry of Defence on processing such intelligence.
He was also becoming increasingly sceptical about Iraq's alleged arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in the time leading up to his death. It was Dr Kelly who exposed claims by George Bush, Tony Blair and Colin Powell that mobile biological warfare units had been found in Iraq as false."
Rumsfeld breaks military protocol to release grisly photos of Saddam's sons: "Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the decision to break with military protocol and release the photos had been difficult, but 'I feel it was the right decision and I'm glad I did it. "
I can understand the desperation to prove they are dead, but not the hypocrisy. Just a few months ago Rumsfeld was accusing the Iraqi's of breaching the Geneva conventions by showing dead US troops on TV. What is different about this? Why isn't he respecting the Geneva Conventions now?
White House secrecy fails the nation: "'We were never able to get much of the material we requested from the National Security Council,' said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), former ranking member of the House intelligence committee. 'The nation was not well-served by the administration's failure to provide this critical information.' "
Congressional Reports: Joint Inquiry into Intelligence Community Activities before and after the Terrorist Attacks of September 11, 2001:Read the report from the Joint Congressional Inquiry into the activities of the U.S. Intelligence Community. Note how key questions were not answered by the White House.
White House, CIA Kept Key Portions of Report Classified (washingtonpost.com): "President Bush was warned in a more specific way than previously known about intelligence suggesting that al Qaeda terrorists were seeking to attack the United States, a report on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks indicated yesterday. Separately, the report cited one CIA memo that concluded there was 'incontrovertible evidence' that Saudi individuals provided financial assistance to al Qaeda operatives in the United States.
These revelations are not the subject of the congressional report's narratives or findings, but are among the nuggets embedded in a story focused largely on the mid-level workings of the CIA, FBI and U.S. military.
Two intriguing -- and politically volatile -- questions surrounding the Sept. 11 plot have been how personally engaged Bush and his predecessor were in counterterrorism before the attacks, and what role some Saudi officials may have played in sustaining the 19 terrorists who commandeered four airplanes and flew three of them into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
...With respect to Bush, the congressional panel indicated that it tried to determine "to what extent the President received threat-specific warnings during this period" -- but obtained only limited information."
By the way, one of the findings is that "From at least 1994, and continuing into the summer of 2001 [when Bush was on vacation in Texas for a month] the intelligence community recieved information indicating that terrorists were contemplating, among other means of attack, the use of aircraft as weapons."
I note Condoleeza Rice's prior emphatic denial that "anybody" ever warned of such a thing.
Was Bush warned specifically about the threat of an attack using aircraft? This must be investigated by the Keane commission, which is currently being stalled by the White House. I wonder why?
Thursday, July 24, 2003
TOMPAINE.com - James Carville's Rx For Democrats: "'Look at the fiscal health of the U.S.,' he began. 'They inherited a $5.6 trillion surplus and plunged the nation into debt.' Average Americans will be paying for the Bush tax cut for decades with higher taxes, he said. 'That is taxation without representation. That is the antithesis of everything that is most American.'
On foreign policy, he said America used to be respected abroad 'for strength, values and the ability to work with others.' But the 'arrogant, go-it-alone' administration policies have reversed all that, he said. 'Never has there been a time when America is less able to lead.'
On the looming right-wing takeover of the federal judiciary and current Supreme Court, he said, 'You got Pat Robertson praying for people to die right now. That's the level they're going to.'
'If you look at every policy, pension reform, guess who gets the shaft? Tort reform, guess who gets the shaft? Environmental reform, you know the level of hypocrisy,' he said. 'If it comes to who is going to get a break, people who make $1 million today or young kids who will make the country tomorrow, you don't even have to look.'"
AlterNet: The Truth about the Lies: "We don't know yet, we may never know, whether the evidence was simply ignored, made up or cooked. What we do know is they never had the evidence they claimed to have. We never had to go to war," says Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington.
Why did the President use forged evidence in the State of the Union address?: "Representative Henry Waxman transmitted a letter to Condoleezza Rice demanding answers to a specific area of concern in this whole mess. His letter goes on to repeat, in scathing detail, the multifaceted claims made by the Bush administration regarding an Iraqi nuclear weapons program, and deconstructs those claims with a fine scalpel. 'What I want to know is the answer to a simple question: Why did the President use forged evidence in the State of the Union address?' the letter concludes. 'This is a question that bears directly on the credibility of the United States, and it should be answered in a prompt and forthright manner, with full disclosure of all the relevant facts.' "
AlterNet: The Dog Ate My WMDs: "After several years teaching high school, I've heard all the excuses. I didn't get my homework done because my computer crashed, because my project partner didn't do their part, because I feel sick, because I left it on the bus, because I had a dance recital, because I was abducted by aliens and viciously probed. Houdini doesn't have as many tricks. No one on earth is more inventive than a high school sophomore backed into a corner and faced with a zero on an assignment.
No one, perhaps, except Bush administration officials forced now to account for their astounding claims made since September 2002 regarding Iraq's alleged weapons program.
After roughly 280 days worth of fearful descriptions of the formidable Iraqi arsenal, coming on the heels of seven years of UNSCOM weapons inspections, four years of surveillance, months of UNMOVIC weapons inspections, the investiture of an entire nation by American and British forces, after which said forces searched 'everywhere' per the words of the Marine commander over there and 'found nothing,' after interrogating dozens of the scientists and officers who have nothing to hide anymore because Hussein is gone, after finding out that the dreaded 'mobile labs' were weather balloon platforms sold to Iraq by the British, George W. Bush and his people suddenly have a few things to answer for. "
AlterNet: Time to Come Clean, Mr. President: "What amazes me is that the President himself is not clamoring for an investigation. It is his integrity that is on the line. It is his truthfulness that is being questioned. It is his leadership that has come under scrutiny. And yet he has raised no question, expressed no curiosity about the strange turn of events in Iraq, expressed no anger at the possibility that he might have been misled. How is it that the President, who was so adamant about the dangers of WMD, has expressed no concern over the where-abouts of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?
Indeed, instead of leading the charge to uncover the discrepancy between what we were told before the war and what we have found � or failed to find � since the war, the White House is circling the wagons and scoffing at the notion that anyone in the Administration exaggerated the threat from Iraq. "
Pre-emptive war : "Congress needs to wake up and recognize that Mr. Bush's war in Iraq may be only the opening chapter in a foreign policy adventure that can have deep and destructive ramifications for America's role in the world and for domestic well-being and progress at home. Who will step back and examine what is being wrought? "
The dizzying costs of war: "The cost of the Iraq war is $70 billion and climbing at a dizzying rate of a little more than $2 a millisecond. The real-time counter Cost of War website tracks the price tag for the war as it increases with dizzying speed. Better yet, the site also lets you know just what we could have done with the same amount of taxpayer dollars. Right now, for example, we could have paid for one year of healthcare for more than $70 million kids. This site is a must for any concerned citizen. "
Deutch Sees Consequences in Failed Search for Arms (washingtonpost.com): "Former CIA director John M. Deutch told Congress yesterday that failure to find chemical or biological weapons in Iraq would represent 'an intelligence failure . . . of massive proportions.'
'It means that . . . leaders of the American public based [their] support for the most serious foreign policy judgments -- the decision to go to war -- on an incorrect intelligence judgment,' Deutch said during testimony before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
The impact, he said, would be felt 'the next time military intervention is judged necessary to combat the spread of weapons of mass destruction -- for example in North Korea -- there will be skepticism about the quality of our intelligence.'"
There will be skepticism. But maybe not just about the intelligence. I for one would be highly skeptical of the Bush administration's use of it, as well.
DeLay Is to Carry Dissenting Message on a Mideast Tour: "'I'm sure there are some in the administration who are smarter than me, but I can't imagine in the very near future that a Palestinian state could ever happen,' he said in an interview today, as he prepared to leave for a weeklong official tour.
'I can't imagine this president supporting a state of terrorists, a sovereign state of terrorists,' he said. 'You'd have to change almost an entire generation's culture.' "
Interesting point. Which nation's culture would need to change, exactly? Clearly there has been terrorism on both sides.
Maybe there an end to the occupation might also help?
Bush & Terror: An Exchange with Norman Mailer: "a military response to 9/11 was an error. Going into Afghanistan became an adventure that ended as a cipher. (The warlords are back in power and bin Laden is still at large, even though our military entrance into Afghanistan came because the Taliban refused to turn over bin Laden. For icing on the cake, the Taliban now seems to be returning.) Iraq was even less to the stated purpose. Embarking on a full-scale war to rid oneself of terrorists is analogous to hunting a hornet with a Sherman tank...
While there's no use in being a politician if you can't lie to pick up votes, Bush has abused the privilege. So we suffered all the damage that has been laid on America by the administration prevaricating at top speed all the way to Iraq, misspeaking so egregiously that 25 percent of the nation still thinks that Saddam Hussein was the genius behind 9/11 "
Jewish Settler Population Grows Despite Peace Moves: "The Jewish settler population in the Palestinian Territories grew by more than 5,000 in the first half of 2003, despite U.S.-backed peace moves requiring an end to construction at settlements, Israel said on Thursday.
The figures could complicate Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas's talks on Friday in Washington, where he will urge President Bush to increase pressure on Israel to implement peace moves and release Palestinian prisoners."
Why would that "complicate" talks? Surely this is one of the key issues, and has to be addressed. Unless of course Bush doesn't intend to address key issues. In which case he is clearly not going to create peace.
3 More U.S. Soldiers Killed in Iraq as Resistance Continues: "Three soldiers with the Army's 101st Airborne Division were killed in an ambush here early this morning that involved what one local resident said was an attack by insurgents armed with grenades and Kalashnikov automatic rifles.
Military officials offered no information about who was behind the attack, and the ambush undermined hopes that the slaying on Tuesday of Saddam Hussein's two sons, Uday and Qusay, would weaken resistance to American forces. "
Why Commander in Chief Is Losing the War of the 16 Words (washingtonpost.com): "controversy had erupted after revelations that the White House and the CIA had battled last fall over removing similar language from the Oct. 7 speech.
When the White House attempted last Friday to portray Tenet's intervention in that episode as solely a technical matter involving intelligence sourcing, the CIA responded by letting it be known that Tenet had objected to exactly the same language that was in the State of the Union address.
The fact that it was backed up by memos forced the White House to go through the embarrassment of having Hadley publicly acknowledge he was at fault for not remembering in January that the White House had removed the same language just three months earlier."
Hadley is number 2 at the National Security Council. If he can't remember removing a justification for an unprecedented, pre-emptive war from the President's speech, on the urging of the Director of the CIA , what hope is there that he can do anything competently? And if these are the people who draft Bush's speech's, then why should we trust anything he says.
Clearly Bush doesn't care if what he says is true or not -- he has made no apology at all.
A first grader wouldn't get away with this. Why does Bush?
Bush shouldn't be held accountable for what he says--Poor child. it's not his fault! Someone else made him do it.(washingtonpost.com): "Asked again yesterday whether Bush should ultimately be held accountable for what he says, White House press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters, 'Let's talk about what's most important. That's the war on terrorism, winning the war on terrorism. And the best way you do that is to go after the threats where they gather, not to let them come to our shore before it's too late.' "
Cheney: Threat Posed by Hussein Justified Invasion (washingtonpost.com): "Ignoring threats posed by Saddam Hussein would have been 'irresponsible in the extreme,' Vice President Dick Cheney said today, doing his part to defend the Bush administration's mission in Iraq.'"
No one was ignoring the threats posed by Saddam Hussein. Iraq had been under strict sanctions since 1991. Its air space was largely patrolled by US and UK war planes. They regularly attacked Iraqi positions on the ground. The US had attacked Iraq with many missiles in the late 1990's after it called for the inspectors to leave. The CIA was getting almost all its information about Iraq from the inspectors. And before the war, the world was united in having the inspectors go back to Iraq. And the Iraqi's were co-operating fully. They were destroying Al Samud missiles. Even so, despite all that, the Bush bullies invaded.
Cheney claims that the intelligence available pointed out the threat to America. He fails to point to the intelligence that said if we invaded we would face a guerilla war. He fails to point to the evidence that contradicted the intelligence he cites, even though he had it before the war.
I note that retired intelligence officials have called for his resignation, and I concur. Please resign Mr. Cheney. And take Mr. Bush with you when you're going. You've done enough damage.
"Bush, his top aides and GOP congressional leaders have been aggressively trying to counter embarrassing questions about prewar intelligence and the performance of Bush's national security team. The administration's campaign has focused on how Iraqis have been liberated -- how the war has made the world safer -- and away from questions about Iraqi weapons programs and why no weapons of mass destruction have been found.
That effort has been hampered by an ever-changing White House story -- from first blaming the CIA and then the British to new revelations by Stephen Hadley, deputy national security adviser, that contradict earlier statements by his boss, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice."
Congress Has Second Thoughts On Patriot Act: "Taking a clear stand against anti-privacy provisions in the Patriot Act, the U.S. House of Representatives in an overwhelmingly bipartisan effort last night agreed to an amendment that would bar federal law enforcement from carrying out secret ”sneak and peek” searches without notifying the target of the warrant.
The Otter Amendment, added to the Commerce, Justice and State Departments funding bill and named after Rep. C.L. ”Butch” Otter, an Idaho Republican, passed by an extraordinary margin of 309 to 118, with 113 Republicans voting in favor.
”Not only does this provision allow the seizure of personal and business records without notification, but it also opens the door to nationwide search warrants and allowing the CIA (news - web sites) (Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites)) and NSA (National Security Agency) to operate domestically,” Otter said. "
Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Wolfowitz Concedes Errors on Iraq (washingtonpost.com): "Before the invasion, for example, U.S. intelligence agencies were persistent in warning the Defense Department that Iraqis would resort to 'armed opposition' after the war. The Army's chief of staff warned that a larger stability force would be needed.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his team disagreed, confident that Iraqi military and police units would help secure a welcoming nation.
The State Department and other agencies spent many months and millions of dollars drafting strategies on issues ranging from a postwar legal code to oil policy. But after President Bush granted authority over reconstruction to the Pentagon, the Defense Department all but ignored State and its working groups....
Civil servants who had helped plan U.S. peacekeeping operations in Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo said it was imperative to maintain a military force large enough to stamp out challenges to its authority right away. Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, then-Army chief of staff, thought several hundred thousand soldiers would be needed.
Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz rebutted him sharply and publicly.
"It's hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-Saddam Iraq than it would take to conduct the war itself and to secure the surrender of Saddam's security forces and his army," Wolfowitz told the House Budget Committee on Feb. 27. "Hard to imagine."...
Jay M. Garner, who was appointed to be the first civilian coordinator in the occupation, said in an interview that he asked Wolfowitz for an expert on Iraqi politics and governance.
Wolfowitz turned not to the roster of career specialists in the State Department's Near Eastern Affairs bureau, but to a political appointee in the bureau: Elizabeth Cheney, coordinator of a Middle East democracy project and daughter of the vice president; she recruited a State Department colleague who had worked for the International Republican Institute...
Lacking virtually any working phones, Garner's staff members could hardly communicate with one another at their headquarters in Hussein's 258-room Republican Palace. They were not prepared for an overhaul of Iraqi media. They had few means of projecting a sense of American intentions or authority.
"
News: "Stephen Hadley, Mr Bush's deputy national security adviser, said on Tuesday that he had been told by the CIA of the agency's scepticism towards the reports last autumn, and had ordered them to be removed from the text of an important speech by the President in Cincinnati last October.'We had opportunities here to avoid this problem,' he said. 'We didn't take them.'
This version is very different from the claim by Mr Hadley's boss, Condoleezza Rice, that the CIA warnings never reached the higher echelons of the White House. "
As U.S. Lowered Sights, Information Poured In (washingtonpost.com): "After weeks of difficult searching for the top targets on the U.S. government's list of most-wanted Iraqi fugitives, U.S. military commanders two weeks ago switched the emphasis of their operations, focusing on capturing and gathering intelligence from low-level members of former president Saddam Hussein's Baath Party who had been attacking American forces, according to military officials.
That shift produced a flood of new information about the location of the Iraqi fugitives, which came just before today's attack in which Hussein's two sons were killed by U.S. forces in the northern city of Mosul, the officials said."
Death toll in Liberian capital rises to 600: "
The civilian death toll in Liberia's civil war soared to more than 600 yesterday, according to government officials, as fighting raged for a fifth day between rebels and government forces for control of the capital, Monrovia.
As mortars and machinegun-fire ripped through residential districts, panicked residents and aid workers appealed for foreign troops to intervene and re-establish peace. The United Nations refugee agency described the situation in the capital as 'horrific'.
West African ministers and security officers met yesterday in Senegal to discuss the deteriorating situation but failed to thrash out a regional solution to restore peace. The ministers are expected to renew their appeals to Washington to step in.
The heaviest gunfire rang out from the bridgeheads leading to the city centre - where the fighting has been concentrated since Friday - and on a road encircling the city, which is built on a chain of coastal islands.
The EU's aid coordinator, David Parker, said at least 200,000 displaced people were sheltering in Monrovia's football stadiums and ruined Masonic lodge. All lacked adequate food or clean water.
'The UN's warehouses are right in the fighting. If they've been looted, the city will run out of food next week,' Mr Parker said by phone from Monrovia, as sub-machinegun fire crackled nearby.
US diplomats in Monrovia yesterday removed 26 corpses from the embassy gates, where frantic civilians imploring America to intervene deposited them in protest on Monday."
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Amnesty accuses US-led forces of abuses: "Amnesty International today accused the US-led occupying forces in Iraq of failing to uphold human rights in their treatment of Iraqi civilians.
The group is to present a memorandum detailing 'allegations of ill-treatment by coalition forces and inhumane detention conditions' to Paul Bremer, the head of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq, today.
A team of eight Amnesty workers have been in Iraq for the last week collecting testimonies from alleged victims of human rights abuses committed under the CPA. The allegations include the shooting of a 12-year-old boy during house-to-house searches by US troops, and reports of Iraqis detained by coalition forces being subjected to torture.
In many cases, it is alleged that people have been snatched from the street without warning and denied access to relatives and lawyers while in jail - a 'strong echo' of methods used by Saddam Hussein's regime, according to Amnesty...The head of Amnesty 's delegation to Iraq, Mahmoud Ben Romdhane, said that after more than 100 days of occupation, the promises of human rights for all Iraqis have yet to be fulfilled"
Bush Holds Off on Help for Liberia When Logic and Humanity Demand Action by US : "NEW YORK--'If war is forced upon us,' Bush once proclaimed, 'we will liberate the people of Iraq (news - web sites) from a cruel and violent dictator.' Now Liberia, a nation founded by former American slaves and whose Constitution, flag, language and civil administration are modeled on those of the United States, is deteriorating as a bloody civil war devolves into total anarchy. Close to a thousand civilians have died, caught in the crossfire between government and rebel forces, during the last few days alone. Here is Bush's stirring message of hope for the miserable people of Liberia: 'We continue to monitor the situation very closely.'
...Taking a stance which defies common decency and common sense, we're now stiff-arming people who are literally dying for our help--while forcing ourselves on others who are willing to die to avoid our presence. Apparently, whether or not Bush "liberates" you has nothing to do with how badly your country needs liberation."
Tuesday, July 22, 2003
Yahoo! News - Bush Adviser Apologizes Over Iraq Claim: "The controversial passage citing a British intelligence report 'should have been taken out of the State of the Union,' Hadley said. He said he was taking responsibility on behalf of the White House staff just as Tenet had for the CIA.
'There were a number of people who could have raised a hand' to have the passage removed from the draft of Bush's Jan. 28 address, Hadley said. 'And no one raised a hand.'
'The process failed,' said White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett.
Still, Bartlett said that Bush, while perturbed by the developments, 'has full confidence in his national security adviser, his deputy national security adviser and the director of central intelligence.' "
His loyalty to people who take the responsibility for him is touching.
Report on USA Patriot Act Alleges Civil Rights Violations: "A report by internal investigators at the Justice Department has identified dozens of recent cases in which department employees have been accused of serious civil rights and civil liberties violations involving enforcement of the sweeping federal antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act.
The inspector general's report, which was presented to Congress last week and is awaiting public release, is likely to raise new concern among lawmakers about whether the Justice Department can police itself when its employees are accused of violating the rights of Muslim and Arab immigrants and others swept up in terrorism investigations under the 2001 law.
The report said that in the six-month period that ended on June 15, the inspector general's office had received 34 complaints of civil rights and civil liberties violations by department employees that it considered credible, including accusations that Muslim and Arab immigrants in federal detention centers had been beaten.
The accused workers are employed in several of the agencies that make up the Justice Department, with most of them assigned to the Bureau of Prisons, which oversees federal penitentiaries and detention centers."
Monday, July 21, 2003
Who's Unpatriotic Now?: "while we're on the subject of patriotism, let's talk about the affair of Joseph Wilson's wife. Mr. Wilson is the former ambassador who was sent to Niger by the C.I.A. to investigate reports of attempted Iraqi uranium purchases and who recently went public with his findings. Since then administration allies have sought to discredit him � it's unpleasant stuff. But here's the kicker: both the columnist Robert Novak and Time magazine say that administration officials told them that they believed that Mr. Wilson had been chosen through the influence of his wife, whom they identified as a C.I.A. operative.
Think about that: if their characterization of Mr. Wilson's wife is true (he refuses to confirm or deny it), Bush administration officials have exposed the identity of a covert operative. That happens to be a criminal act; it's also definitely unpatriotic.
So why would they do such a thing? Partly, perhaps, to punish Mr. Wilson, but also to send a message.
And that should alarm us. We've just seen how politicized, cooked intelligence can damage our national interest. Yet the Wilson affair suggests that the administration intends to continue pressuring analysts to tell it what it wants to hear. "
Bush administration risks destroying best military in Iraq--the US Army: "Of the Army's 33 combat brigades, 16 are in Iraq; this leaves us ill prepared to cope with genuine threats. Moreover, military experts say that with almost two-thirds of its brigades deployed overseas, mainly in Iraq, the Army's readiness is eroding: normal doctrine calls for only one brigade in three to be deployed abroad, while the other two retrain and refit.
And the war will have devastating effects on future recruiting by the reserves. A widely circulated photo from Iraq shows a sign in the windshield of a military truck that reads, 'One weekend a month, my ass.'
To top it all off, our insistence on launching a war without U.N. approval has deprived us of useful allies. George Bush claims to have a 'huge coalition,' but only 7 percent of the coalition soldiers in Iraq are non-American and administration pleas for more help are sounding increasingly plaintive.
How serious is the strain on our military? The Brookings Institution military analyst Michael O'Hanlon, who describes our volunteer military as "one of the best military institutions in human history," warns that "the Bush administration will risk destroying that accomplishment if they keep on the current path.""
U.S. Troops Face More Iraq Road Bombings: "In the past week, three roadside bombs have exploded, each killing an American soldier, and troops discovered and defused at least one other. Four soldiers have died in attacks from rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire, the weapons used in nearly all attacks before last week. "
"Resistance fighters 'pose no strategic threat,' says administrator, L. Paul Bremer, as 2 U.S. Soldiers Killed: ...his guardedly upbeat message, meant perhaps to reassure a shaken public about the visibly increasing costs of occupying Iraq, came even as violence and unrest there continued.
On Sunday, two American soldiers died in an ambush west of the northern city of Mosul, in a Sunni tribal area beyond the central triangle where most attacks have occurred."
In the southern city of Najaf, United States marines found themselves in a standoff with more than 10,000 mainly Shiite demonstrators, angered by rumors that American troops had harassed a cleric who had condemned the United States-led occupation.
The media provide better intelligence than the CIA: "the CIA did not bother to first examine the documents. An Italian journalist turned the papers over to the American Embassy in Rome that same month, but the CIA station chief in Rome apparently tossed them out, rather than send them to analysts at Langley. At a congressional hearing last week, the CIA’s Tenet was unable to explain why. “The CIA dropped the ball,” said Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois. (Incredibly, the Italian press, which doesn’t let the facts get in the way of a good conspiracy theory, appeared to have higher standards than the CIA. The Italian reporter, Elisabetta Burba, worked for Panorama, a weekly magazine owned by Italy’s conservative Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. She went to Niger and checked out the documents but declined to use them because she feared they were bufala—fraudulent—and she would lose her job.) "
This points to something that has been clear to me since the end of the war and the beginning of the charges about dodgy intelligence: all the doubts about the Niger uranium were reported before the war. I knew about them just from reading the online media. So why did the politicians wait till after the war to start complaining?
The information that this was bad intelligence was available. But those in power turned a blind eye. And the media failed to investigate. They belittled the few who opposed the war. Downplayed the demonstrations. Highlighted whatever the [unattributed] sources wanted them to write.
Well thanks. CIA. Media. Politicians. You all need to do your jobs a lot better. Bush's deceptions about almost everything are transparent. So why are they almost never exposed in the media?
Sunday, July 20, 2003
Report on USA Patriot Act Alleges Civil Rights Violations: "A report by internal investigators at the Justice Department has identified dozens of recent cases in which department employees have been accused of serious civil rights and civil liberties violations involving enforcement of the sweeping federal antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act.
...Ms. Comstock noted that the department was continuing to review accusations made last month in a separate report by the inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, that found broader problems in the department's treatment of hundreds of illegal immigrants rounded up after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."
Phony Iraq attack intelligence still being used by White house: "The claim, which has since been discredited, was made twice by President Bush, in a September Rose Garden appearance after meeting with lawmakers and in a Saturday radio address the same week. Bush attributed the claim to the British government, but in a 'Global Message' issued Sept. 26 and still on the White House Web site, the White House claimed, without attribution, that Iraq 'could launch a biological or chemical attack 45 minutes after the order is given.'"
CHENEY ENERGY TASK FORCE DOCUMENTS FEATURE MAP OF IRAQI OILFIELDS: "Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption and abuse, said today that documents turned over by the Commerce Department, under court order as a result of Judicial Watch?s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit concerning the activities of the Cheney Energy Task Force, contain a map of Iraqi oilfields, pipelines, refineries and terminals, as well as 2 charts detailing Iraqi oil and gas projects, and ?Foreign Suitors for Iraqi Oilfield Contracts.? The documents, which are dated March 2001, are available on the Internet at: www.JudicialWatch.org. "
CAREFUL: THE FB-EYE MAY BE WATCHING: "I'll tell you what, Marc. Someone in the shop that day saw you reading something, and thought it looked suspicious enough to call us about. So that's why we're here, just checking it out. Like I said, there's no problem. We'd just like to get to the bottom of this. Now if we can't, then you may have a problem. And you don't want that.'
...why anyone would find media criticism suspicious, or if maybe the sight of a dark, bearded man reading in public is itself enough to strike fear in the heart of a patriotic citizen.
My co-worker, Craig, says that we should probably be thankful the FBI takes these things seriously; I say it seems like a dark day when an American citizen regards reading as a threat, and downright pitch-black when the federal government agrees."
Americans say Time for Someone New: "Bush Job Performance Slips to 53% Positive, 46% Negative; More Voters (47%) Say It's Time for Someone New Than Say He Deserves Re-election; Two-in-Three Say it Makes No Difference if WMDs Are Never Found, According to Newest Zogby America Poll"
IVINS: The Peace from Hell: "Maj. Gen. Carl Strock said Monday electricity and water in Baghdad are still below prewar levels. The New York Times noted, in its Timesly way, 'The assessment appeared to run counter to earlier assurances by the Pentagon ...' Rumsfeld, with his usual cocksure breeziness, said on May 15: 'A few areas have challenges, to be sure. But most areas are progressing and a growing number actually have conditions that are today estimated to be better than prior to the recent war.' What number, from what to what? Out of how many?
When is the Washington press corps going to figure out that's precisely the kind of statement by Rumsfeld that needs extensive deconstruction? The New Republic's ruthless dissection of the administration's lies: ruthless dissection of the administration's lies, deceptions and flimflam in its June 30 issue (subscription required--free four week trial available) is a stinging rebuke to the disgraceful level of journalism we are now getting in this country. "
Drudging Up Personal Details (washingtonpost.com): "Some folks in the White House were apparently hopping mad when ABC News correspondent Jeffrey Kofman did a story on Tuesday's 'World News Tonight' about the plummeting morale of U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq.
So angry, in fact, that the next day, a White House operative alerted cyber-gossip Matt Drudge to the fact that Kofman is not only openly gay, he's Canadian."
Saturday, July 19, 2003
GOP's double standard on presidential lies: "There is hardly a peep out of Republicans over whether Bush has broken the covenant of trust he made with Americans and made a mockery out of the men and women who are dying in Iraq. Troops and even some officers in the field are openly grumbling that they no longer know why they are there."
Kelly put under 'intolerable' pressure by the ministry of defence: "Kelly said he had been put under 'intolerable' pressure by his employer, the ministry of defence, when it released his identity.
'I am shocked, I was told the whole thing would be confidential,' he told the paper. "
US Marines help mass murderer to escape in Iraq, by mistake: "new source of tension between his troops and local Iraqis: the locals' anger that Mohammed Jawad Anayfas escaped U.S. custody. The locals say Anayfas was responsible for mass killings of thousands of their neighbors who opposed Saddam in the early 1990s.
The subject came up when Wolfowitz visited a mass grave estimated by U.S. officials to have held the remains of as many as 15,000 Iraqis. The site is about a mile south of the town of Mahawil, on land that local Iraqis say was owned by Anayfas.
Anayfas was picked up by U.S. military forces on an unrelated charge. About a month ago, while he was being transferred from Baghdad to Um Qasr in southern Iraq, he managed to convince his holders that he was an innocent farmer. Not only was he allowed to leave, he was even given transportation, Conway said. "
AlterNet: Palast the Iconoclast: "retired Lt. Colonel Bill Burkett of the Texas Air National Guard (TANG), who states on camera that shortly after George W. became Texas' governor in the 1990s, he witnessed a speakerphone call from the Texas governor's office to TANG, and overheard the caller tell Guard officers to 'clean [Bush's] records from his files.' Palast says that after the call, Burkett 'asked the officers if they'd carried out the questionable orders, and they said 'absolutely.' They pointed, and Burkett saw in the [shredding designated] trashcan George W. Bush's ... pay [and retirement points] records.'
Controversy has simmered for decades over George W.'s Vietnam era service record; critics have long charged he went AWOL from the Guard for long periods of time. The allegedly trashed documents, which had been undisclosed for years, could have proved whether or not G.W. had been absent without leave while he was in TANG.
If Bush went AWOL, this would have been desertion during wartime. 'Punishment for Air National guardsmen who missed two days of work was to be sent to Vietnam,' Burkett also said, according to Palast, interviewed in Santa Monica, California, before flying to London to broadcast the expose. "
Iraq war: An armed corporate takeover?: "On May 1, The Wall Street Journal announced the discovery of a 100-page document, outlines for contracts reorganizing the Iraqi economy ... what appears to be a massive invasion by corporate lobbyists.
'Iraqis used to fear Saddam's police, now they have to fear Sony's lawyers, if they get caught with an illegal dub of a Madonna CD. Hillary Rosen, of the Recording Industry of America, is rewriting Iraq's intellectual copyright laws. Microsoft and American Express lobbyist Grover Norquist is rewriting Iraq's tax laws ... They're creating a new lobbyists' corporate Disneyland. Iraq's becoming a corporate client state ... Apparently, it's what the American government's been accused of: A plan to privatize and take over Iraq's oilfields. An armed corporate takeover is what's occurring,' insists Palast. "
Fixing Education: "Between one-third and one-half of the school buildings in the United States are somewhere between dilapidated and flat falling apart. "
If we want a better economy and a better society, we'd better do something about public education in the US. It's a disaster.
The reasons why are easy to find. Poor teachers. Poor facilities. Poor administration and leadership. And coupled with all of these has been a starvation diet financially.
Well, guess what. Like Anita Roddick says, "if you think education is expensive, try ignorance."
Kids are intelligent. We're teaching them to be dumb in the US. And what is the result? We need to import skilled workers to keep the economy going. We build jails to deal with the socially deprived. We spend 10 times as much to warehouse some of the product of our educational system in jail as we did to educate them.
If we can afford a $40 Billion war and $48 Billion a year to keep an army in Iraq, we can afford to educate our own kids. If we can afford pre-emptive war, why aren't we pre-emptively educating our kids. That will pre-empt sending our kids to jail, and produce a very healthy return on our investment. And gues what. We'll save lives and cut crime too.
So why aren't we doing it?
A Firm Basis for Impeachment: "with the discrediting of the Niger buy and the equally dubious citation of a purchase of aluminum tubes (which turned out to be inappropriate for the production of enriched uranium), one can imagine the disappointment at the White House. There was no evidence for painting Saddam Hussein as a nuclear threat.
The proper reaction should have been to support the U.N. inspectors in doing their work in an efficient and timely fashion. We now know, and perhaps the White House knew then, that the inspectors eventually would come up empty-handed because no weapons of mass destruction program existed ? not even a stray vial of chemical and biological weapons has been discovered. However, that would have obviated the administration's key rationale for an invasion, so lies substituted for facts that didn't exist.
And there, dear readers, exists the firm basis for bringing a charge of impeachment against the president who employed lies to lead us into war."
A Firm Basis for Impeachment: "The buck stops with Bush and his national security advisor, who is charged with funneling intelligence data to the president. That included telling the president that the CIA's concerns were backed by the State Department's conclusion that "the claims of Iraqi pursuit of natural uranium in Africa are highly dubious."
Rice has tried to fend off controversy by claiming ignorance. On 'Meet the Press' in June, Rice claimed, 'We did not know at the time ? no one knew at the time, in our circles ? maybe someone knew down in the bowels of the agency, but no one in our circles knew that there were doubts and suspicions that this might be a forgery.' On Friday, Rice admitted that she had known the State Department intelligence unit 'was the one that within the overall intelligence estimate had objected to that sentence' "
The press gives Bush a free ride on his lies: "most of the press keeps missing the larger story. Deception has become the hallmark of this president.
Whether the issue is leaving no child behind or who actually benefits from the tax cuts or what kind of drug coverage the administration's Medicare amendments will really provide or how the Bush Clear Skies Act actually degrades clean-air standards, the press has given the administration an astonishingly free ride.
...Bush gets a free pass time after time. The press holds back partly because of America's vulnerability to terrorism, which Bush's handlers exploit shamelessly. The administration is also very effective at pressuring and isolating reporters who criticize Bush, so working reporters bend over backwards to play fair. And the administration benefits from a stage-managed right-wing media machine that has no counterpart on the liberal left.
The press has even stopped making a fuss over the fact that this president has all but stopped holding press conferences. In his Africa trip, Bush intervened to limit questions, even as his African presidential hosts were indicating that press questions were welcome.
Investigations of administration deceptions about how many jobs the tax cuts will create or the actual effects on children of high-stakes testing combined with funding cuts or the saga of how the Pentagon tried to take over the CIA - these are not opinions. They are what journalism is all about. "
Hydrogen Cars Not Needed, U.S. Experts Say: "Farrell and Keith, associate professor of engineering and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, noted that hydrogen is derived mostly from oil and coal, which produce substantial carbon dioxide.
They said better fuel efficiency, improvements to car technology and stricter environmental rules could reduce air pollution at less than 100th the cost of hydrogen cars and would be more effective for several decades.
'Automobile manufacturers don't need to invest in anything fancy. A wide number of technologies are already on the shelf,' Farrell said. 'The cost would be trivial compared to the changes needed to go to a hydrogen car.'
Other scientists have also questioned the benefits of hydrogen fuel cells. Leading environmental groups have also criticized the U.S. government and Europe for failing to put renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power at the heart of their hydrogen policies. "
Why are gas prices rising again?: "'Fundamentally, you've got the low level of stocks, particularly of gasoline stocks, and the slower-than-expected return of Iraqi oil in the market,' said Prudential Bache broker Christopher Bellew. "
Seems like the invasion of Iraq has destabilized the oil markets.
The compassion of Marie Antoinette "Mr. Bush is making things worse with his fiscal recklessness and his practice of forcing states and school districts to spend money on new programs without helping to pay the bill. Washington should be lending a hand, not adding to the local burden — showing all the compassion of Marie Antoinette."
Can you just imagine the scene:
Demonstrations on the mall. Helicopters flying over head. Streets closed off all over DC.
Inside the oval office.
Two men playing video war games.
1st Man: What's going on outside? They with us or against us?
George Tenet: The middle class is revolting!
1st Man: Let them eat the tax cuts I gave the rich.
Going Home, to Red Ink and Blues: "Washington is not just aloof from the pain out here in real America, but is making matters worse.
People across America will pay the price for Washington's indifference in lower-quality schools, fewer chances to go to college, less police protection and diminished medical care. The unlucky ones among us, like Douglas Schmidt, will never recover. A 37-year-old epileptic, he depended on drugs that cost $13 a day and were paid for by the state. State budget cuts meant he lost that benefit, and he ran out of pills in late February.
A week later, he had a severe seizure, his heart stopped, and he suffered permanent brain damage, leaving him in what doctors called a 'persistent vegetative state.'...
The bills so far for treating Mr. Schmidt? About half a million dollars, borne by taxpayers...
What's growing in Oregon is anger.
"This woman was saying to me, People should be on the streets with pitchforks, saying: `Revolt! Revolt!' " said Ms. Stern, the county commissioner. "There's a groundswell starting. I can feel this energy coming."
Will this fury be directed at President Bush in the next election? I'm not sure. People here complain vigorously about state or local officials, but Mr. Bush seems an afterthought. Still, when the topic comes up, many people are scathing about the Bush administration's spending $4 billion a month in Iraq while letting small towns beg for scraps. "
Ford S.U.V.'s Use More Gas Than Before: "The average fuel economy of the Ford Motor Company's sport utility vehicles will be worse for the 2003 model year than the previous year, the company said in a report issued on Thursday."
Lots of people have speculated on why we are at war in Iraq. Clearly, it had nothing to do with WMD. That was clear even before the war. It clearly had something to do with oil. Now why are we so concerned about oil that we would spend $40 Billion + and send our young to die in the desert? We wouldn't be dependent on foreign oil the way we are today if US carmakers had continued to improve fuel efficiency in their cars. US consumers are to blame for buying these hulking monsters for their trips to the mall and work. We all have to wake up to the violence that our consumption does to the rest of the world.
British scientist dies after being exploited by UK Government: "Dr Kelly's death had immense political implications, increasing pressure for a full, independent judicial inquiry into the whole affair. That pressure will only be partly alleviated by Downing Street's announcement yesterday of a judicial inquiry focusing just on the microbiologist's death and which will not be extended to cover the issue of the accuracy of the two dossiers making the case for war on Iraq.
The talk in Westminster was that the Defence Secretary, Geoff Hoon, would have to resign "
Friday, July 18, 2003
Yahoo! News - Democrat Eyes Potential Grounds for Bush Impeachment: "U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Bob Graham said on Thursday there were grounds to impeach President Bush (news - web sites) if he was found to have led America to war under false pretenses.
While Graham did not call for Bush's impeachment, he said if the president lied about the reasons for going to war with Iraq (news - web sites) it would be 'more serious' than former President Bill Clinton (news - web sites)'s lie under oath about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky.
'If in fact we went to war under false pretenses that is a very serious charge,' Graham, the senior U.S. senator from Florida, told reporters in New Hampshire. "
U.S. Had Uranium Papers three months before the State of the Union address(washingtonpost.com): "The State Department received copies of what would turn out to be forged documents suggesting that Iraq tried to purchase uranium oxide from Niger three months before the president's State of the Union address, administration officials said.
The documents, which officials said appeared to be of 'dubious authenticity,' were distributed to the CIA and other agencies within days. But the U.S. government waited four months to turn them over to United Nations weapons inspectors who had been demanding to see evidence of U.S. and British claims that Iraq's attempted purchase of uranium oxide violated U.N. resolutions and was among the reasons to go to war. State Department officials could not say yesterday why they did not turn over the documents when the inspectors asked for them in December."
That's a valid question. And why shouldn't we have an answer. Why didn't they turn them over? Why didn't they stop the President from repeating the claims when they knew them to be false? Given the misleading excuses for the abuse of these claims from the White House and GOP, these are urgent questions that an independent inquiry should be investigating immediately.
That was the end of him: "The Ministry of Defense said Kelly may have been the source for a British Broadcasting Corp. report that Blair aides gave undue prominence to a claim that Iraq could launch chemical or biological weapons on 45 minutes' notice.
The ministry said Friday that Kelly was told he had violated civil service rules by having unauthorized contact with a journalist, but 'that was the end of it.' It said Kelly was not threatened with suspension or dismissal. "
Is it legal or ethical for an employer to reveal its employee's in this way, in service of their vendetta against the BBC, and in an attempt to force a journalist to reveal a source--something which even a judge does not have the power to do?
I don't think so. And for the Ministry to claim now that "'that was the end of it" is callous. That was not the end of it. It was the beginning of a massive diversion of attention away from the real issue--why did the UK and US go to war in Iraq.
Kelly's death was the end of it. And the beginning of the end of this outrageous abuse of government and military power. Hoon and Blair should resign. So should Bush and Cheney.
The death of innocents however is happening all over the world in the "war on terror". So I don't expect any of them will resign. They don't have enough honor to do so. This tragic expisode is evidence to me of their lack of comprehension about the consequences of their actions. They think they can do anything they like, mislead us anyway they like. And then claim, well if we were wrong, history will vindicate us.
No. History won't vindicate you, unless you write it yourself, as you are trying to do now.
News: "Tony Blair defied critics of the war against Iraq last night by declaring, in effect, that he will be vindicated by history even if weapons of mass destruction are not found. "
I am really curious about that. What is it about history that will make it accept that an illegal war was waged based on support that was manufactured through false claims?
What is it about hindsight that will make it ok to abuse people the way Tony Blair used a civil servant/consultant, so that he loses his life a few days later--probably by suicide caused by severe depression?
The Iraq war is not a simple matter. Hussein was an appalling dictator. But the US and UK have not defeated him. They have created the worst of both worlds.
They invaded and caused all the instability of going against the rest of the world. But they have not achieved any of the aims they claimed to seek.
They have occupied the country, and failed to create stability, security or peace.
They have beaten the regular army in Iraq, but it has gone underground. It is still fighting, and killing our soldiers.
They have gone after weapons of mass destruction, but not found any.
They cancelled elections, and now hold only the promise of democracy up to the Iraqi's.
They trumpeted themselves as liberators. But they immediately censored the press--the first sign of freedom and something we in the US should be championing.
So this war has been a complete disaster so far. And now they are further corrupting the political institutions in the west as they seek to maintain the false impression that what they did was somehow justified. Will history vindicate them? Well I don't know. But to think that such a claim justifies the failure to account for actions that are now being questioned is a grandiose delusion.
News you won't be seeing on Fox: Murdoch-owned Sky TV suspends journalists over bogus story: If you live in the US, my guess is you won't be seeing news like this on broadcast/mass media, about how the Murdoch owned sattelite TV network falsified its reports in the Iraq war. The Guardian reports today that, "Sky News faked a television report from a Royal Navy submarine during the Iraq war, according to a documentary team that filmed on the same vessel.
The Sky report, which was 'security cleared' by a Ministry of Defence official and shown on at least one other British TV network, purported to show the preparation and firing of a cruise missile.
But the submarine was docked and the documentary crew says the events were staged for the benefit of Sky's camera.
Last night, after being alerted to the story by the Guardian, Sky launched an investigation and suspended the journalists involved.
The contested report will be shown as part of BBC2's Fighting the War series on Sunday, alongside footage of missiles being fired from HMS Splendid for real. "
Anyone else feeling like they are just getting 'security cleared' news, and not the real thing?
British Expert on Iraqi Arms dead, just days after being used by Ministry of Defence in feud with BBC: "Friends of Dr David Kelly have spoken of his deep unhappiness at his treatment since he revealed he had spoken to the BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan, saying he was 'served up' to politicians who put 'intolerable pressure' on him.
One scientist colleague described him as a man of deep integrity and said the way he had been treated as a 'ping pong' ball in a political game was 'absolutely inexcusable'.
Tom Mangold, a television journalist and close friend of Dr Kelly, said he had spoken this morning to the government adviser's wife, Janice. She had said her husband was deeply unhappy and furious at how events had unfurled.
'She told me he had been under considerable stress, that he was very, very angry about what had happened at the committee, that he wasn't well, that he had been to a safe house, he hadn't liked that, he wanted to come home,' Mr Mangold told ITV News.
'She didn't use the word depressed, but she said he was very, very stressed and unhappy about what had happened and this was really not the kind of world he wanted to live in.' "
Another casualty of the Iraq war? This man was used by the British Minister of Defense to force the BBC to reveal the source of some very controversial information. Their attempt didn't work. But it looks like they have precipitated the death of an honest man. This is a good example of how the political process is being corrupted by the US and UK to support their war policies.
Postwar Window Closing in Iraq, Study Says (washingtonpost.com): "the report represents, in many respects, a critical assessment of the Bush administration's postwar plan.
It implicitly faults the administration for failing to adequately involve the international community and the United Nations in reconstruction activities. 'The scope of the challenges, the financial requirements, and rising anti-Americanism in parts of Iraq argue for a new coalition that includes countries and organizations beyond the original war fighting coalition,' the report says.
The report also notes that the administration, by vesting virtually all reconstruction authority in the Pentagon, chose a new model for postwar management that cut out many agencies more experienced in the field and relied on the Defense Department's 'relatively untested capacities.'"
