Reflections on the "New American" Revolution
Friday, April 30, 2004
US & British troops in torture scandal: "An inquiry has found that Iraqi prisoners were beaten, threatened with mock execution, stripped and sexually humiliated.
According to one of the guards facing the possibility of court martial, Staff Sergeant Ivan 'Chip' Frederick, a prisoner died under the stress of interrogation last November and his killing was covered up.
... Staff Sgt Frederick has claimed that the human rights abuses at the prison were systematic. He said he asked his superior officers for guidance several times and was ordered to do what he was told.
His uncle, William Lawson, claims the sergeant, a former civilian prison guard, was taking the blame for the actions of private contractors who gave the orders.
'They were told to go back in there and do what these contractors told them to. The big story is the war crimes committed by civilian contractors,' Mr Lawson said."
Ireland abandons electronic voting for elections in June: "The independent commission that yesterday forced the Government to abandon electronic voting in June's European and local elections believes paper records will be needed if voters are ever to accept the system.
In a brief report yesterday, the Commission on Electronic Voting found that the security of the voting system could not be guaranteed in time for the elections to be held.
However, The Irish Times understands that the commission believes that voting paper records of some kind will be needed to ensure public confidence, given 'the damage' that has been caused.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, again ruled out such paper records yesterday. 'No such system has been developed anywhere. There is a proposal for one in California in 2005, but nothing has been developed.'"
California Bars a Firm's Voting Machines in November Election: "California will prohibit the use of 15,000 of voting machines from Diebold Inc. in the November election because of of security and reliability concerns, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley announced today.
Mr. Shelley also said that he was recommending that the state's attorney general look into possible civil and criminal charges against Diebold, and said that the company may have committed fraud in its dealings with the state.
... 'It is a good day for democracy,' said Aviel D. Rubin, a professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University and a leading critic of the company's technology. 'Those machines are poorly designed and full of bugs and security flaws.' Michael Wertheimer, a former official of the National Security Agency who tested Diebold machines at the request of the state of Maryland and found that the election systems could be easily hacked by insiders or outsiders' "
Let this be the end of arguments that there are no problems with these machines. Now it's urgent to prevent fraud anywhere and everywhere they are used.
Iraq Rebuilding Aid Unspent, Tapped to Pay Expenses (washingtonpost.com): "Seven months after Congress approved the largest foreign aid package in history to rebuild Iraq, less than 5 percent of the $18.4 billion has been spent and occupation officials have begun shifting more than $300 million earmarked for reconstruction projects to administrative and security expenses.
Recent reports from the Coalition Provisional Authority, the CPA's inspector general and the U.S. Agency for International Development attest to the growing difficulties of the U.S.-led reconstruction effort. And they have raised concerns in Congress and among international aid experts that the Bush administration's ambitious rebuilding campaign is adrift amid rising violence and unforeseen costs. "
That's an understatement. These non-partisan reports document an extraordinary failure, and possible contempt of Congress.
Military accused of violating Falluja ceasefire -- 'It's hell...everything will be destroyed': "'The Americans have violated the ceasefire. They are attacking us with jet fighters, tanks and artillery. The US snipers are on every roof and minaret. They don't care who they shoot. They are shooting old people, women and children.Where is the UN in all this?' "
Searchable Database Charts Administration Lies: "The Center for American Progress (CAP) today launched a comprehensive Claim vs. Fact database at www.claimvfact.org that documents statements from conservatives like President Bush, Vice President Cheney, members of Congress and Fox News personalities and compares those statements to the facts. Each fact is sourced and in many cases includes a web link directly to that source."
In Front of Your Nose: "If America's leaders hadn't made so many bad decisions, they might have had a chance to shape Iraq to their liking. But that window closed many months ago. "
Pentagon's No. 2 Flubs Iraq Casualties: "Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was asked about the toll at a hearing of a House Appropriations subcommittee. 'It's approximately 500, of which - I can get the exact numbers � approximately 350 are combat deaths,' he responded
... American deaths Thursday were at 722 - 521 of them from combat"
Wolfowitz has misled Congress all the way. He said that oil revenues would pay for the occupation and rebuilding of Iraq. Wrong! By $20 Billion for this year, alone.
He said that we wouldn't need more troops for peacekeeping and occupation. Wrong! We need them badly now. So badly we're keeping about 25,000 soldiers there who should be coming home for leave, after already having had their missions extended.
Do these people in the administration not fear any accountability?
I suspect that if things go on this way, there will be a mutiny in the armed forces.
Iraqi general receives hero's welcome as US marines leave Fallujah: "A general in Saddam Hussein's former army entered Fallujah to a hero's welcome as US marines left their main foothold in the flashpoint city after a bloody month-long siege.
The marines insisted they would patrol the insurgent bastion side by side with a newly formed Fallujah Brigade and vowed to bring to justice the killers of four US contractors brutally massacred on the town's main street late last month."
Well, this is good news and bad news.
The good news is that it breaks the deadlock and the threat of violence in Fallujah. Thank God for that. Perhaps our rulers are beginning to change their failed policies.
The bad news is that this is a terrible defeat for the American occupation, and a clear victory for Al Sadr. The marines declared they would show the Fallujans who was boss. They are now retreating in favor of a general from Saddam's army! And he is welcomed as a liberator.
Dick Cheney, eat your words about the US being welcomed as liberators. That was a cruel miscalculation, chicken hawk!
Iraqi Prison Photos Mar U.S. Image: "'Photos of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners drew international condemnation on Friday, prompting the stark conclusion that the U.S. campaign to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis is a lost cause.
This is the straw that broke the camel's back for America,' said Abdel-Bari Atwan, editor of the Arab newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi. 'The liberators are worse than the dictators.' "
Cheney staff accused of role in CIA leak: "Vice President Cheney was aware of a meeting held by his staff that started a chain of events that ended with the 'effective betrayal of our country,' former U.S. diplomat Joseph Wilson charged Thursday in an interview with USA TODAY.
... Knowingly revealing a CIA operative's name is a federal offense. Last July's leak of the name and CIA status of Valerie Plame, Wilson's wife, mushroomed into a red-hot controversy by fall. The leak is being investigated by the Justice Department (news - web sites). Columnist Robert Novak, who first reported the news about Plame, has said his original source was "two senior administration officials.""
Thursday, April 29, 2004
Dutch security chief's warning: "'those fighting terrorism are not winning. There is not even a prospect of winning.'
According to Mr Hulst, the fear of attacks is encouraging a further polarisation within society and also dominating the agendas of the West's political leaders."
The Bush strategy of a war on terrorism is failing. Why? Because it is an eye for an eye, against a culture and paradigm that is seeking exactly this response. He is giving terrorists exactly what they want. More violence, more extremism, more polarisation. He is degrading that which is most important to us: freedom. He is doing that by infringing on our rights to justice and other civil rights. And he justifies that with his war on terror. So he is really the terrorists best ally. He's feeding a cycle of destruction of our society, and he's at the center. So he's much more effective than the terrorists.
He's like a virus that's invaded our system, taken it over and using it for it's own ends. The end will be the destruction of the host, unless we remove the virus.
Luckily we have a chance to do that in Nov. Get out and vote. And bring a friend with you. Vote Kerry, even if its just to rid of the virus.
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
Siege of Fallujah provokes second mutiny: "A second unit of the Iraqi armed forces has mutinied at Fallujah after being involved in heavy fighting with insurgents Ali Allawi, the Iraqi Defence Minister, said yesterday."
This is a deepening crisis--with the hand over of "soveriegnty" only 2 months off, the Iraqi police are proving to be useless. Possibly they will be hated as well as useless, if they are percieved to be allied with unpopular US actions. What hope is there for freedom when there is no security?
Bush and Cheney to Face 9/11 Commission Today (washingtonpost.com): "Panel investigators have discovered evidence that casts doubt on several official narratives that emerged about that day. One focuses on early White House statements that Bush initially did not return to Washington on Sept. 11 because he was told the White House received a phone call saying that Air Force One was a target. The caller is said to have used a classified code word, 'angel,' for the aircraft. The investigators have looked into the story and found no evidence of any such call, according to a source familiar with the staff findings who asked for anonymity because the information was not supposed to be disclosed. "
Support for War Is Down Sharply, Poll Concludes: "Asked whether the United States had done the right thing in taking military action against Iraq, 47 percent of respondents said it had, down from 58 percent a month earlier and 63 percent in December, just after American forces captured Saddam Hussein. Forty-six percent said the United States should have stayed out of Iraq, up from 37 percent last month and 31 percent in December."
The President's Testimony: "Mr. Bush conditioned his cooperation on stipulations that range from the questionable to the ridiculous.
... If Mr. Bush or any of his successors have the tragic misfortune to be in command at a time when terrorists strike the country, killing thousands of innocent civilians, they should be expected to cooperate with the official investigations, and to do so in a way that puts their statements on the record and into history."
900 soldiers and Marines have been wounded in Iraq in April".. So far in April, more than 900 soldiers and Marines have been wounded in Iraq, more than twice the number wounded in October, the previous high. With the tally still climbing, this month's injuries account for about a quarter of the 3,864 U.S. servicemen and women listed as wounded in action since the March 2003 invasion.
About half ... arrive on stretchers at the hospitals operated by the 31st CSH. "These injuries," said Lt. Col. Stephen M. Smith, executive officer of the Baghdad facility, "are horrific.""
Burning with anger: Iraqis infuriated by new flag that was designed in London: "'What gives these people the right to throw away our flag, to change the symbol of Iraq?' asked Salah, a building contractor of normally moderate political opinions. 'It makes me very angry because these people were appointed by the Americans. I will not regard the new flag as representing me but only traitors and collaborators.'
The outburst of fury over the flag highlights the extraordinary ability of US leaders and the Iraqi Governing Council to alienate ordinary Iraqis, already angered by the bloody sieges of Fallujah and Karbala. And yesterday, in the hotbed of Iraqi rebellion, the flag was burnt in public in a demonstration of public anger."
A Series of Explosions Rocks Fallujah: "'A U.S. soldier died Tuesday in Baghdad, raising the U.S. death toll for April to 115 — the same number killed during the invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) last year. Up to 1,200 Iraqis also have been killed this month.
... They took a heavy beating,' said Col. Brad May, commander of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment. 'Our goal ... is to continue to pressure al-Sadr and his militia. We are not going away.' "
Are these tactics that will work against people who believe in martyrdom, and therefore don't care if they are killed? I don't believe so, and I think events on the ground prove that. The more force we use, the more support the resistance gets.
(I am not going to use the term "insurgents". We are insurgents in Iraq. We are foreign fighters in Iraq. We are killing more innocent Iraqis than the suicide bombers. So let's not hide behind grand phrases that suggest we are defending freedom or creating democracy. After all, how can you create freedom by beating a person into the ground?)
Diplomats' letter to Blair: Full text: "However much Iraqis may yearn for a democratic society, the belief that one could now be created by the Coalition is naive."
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
What the experts say about Iraq: "In possibly the most stinging rebuke ever to a British government by its foreign policy establishment, 52 former ambassadors and international officials have written to Tony Blair telling him he is damaging UK (and western) interests by backing George W. Bush's misguided policies in the Middle East. It would be comforting to imagine that their comments will be heeded.
... In Iraq itself, the letter says, the indiscriminate use of force and heavy weapons "have built up rather than isolated the opposition", while there "was no effective plan for the post-Saddam settlement". The critique is trenchant and almost wholly accurate."
Justices Hear Arguments in Energy Task Force Case: "The Supreme Court argument about Vice President Dick Cheney's energy policy task force on Tuesday finally came down to this question: Is the presidency entitled to special treatment?
Underlying the case, although barely mentioned in the courtroom, is a politically charged election-year dispute over the Bush administration's efforts to avoid making public the names of energy industry officials whom it consulted when developing its energy policy in early 2001.
... The federal district court here said the groups were entitled to try to prove that the industry executives were so intimately involved in the process as to have become de facto panel members, thus requiring it to conduct business in public under a 1972 law, the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The federal appeals court ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to hear the administration's appeal."
Huge US attack to crush Iraq rebels: "Until now, the US has avoided launching an all-out offensive against Najaf for fear of antagonising Iraqi Shias. In recent weeks, however, US officials in Baghdad have been repeatedly threatening to kill or capture Mr Sadr, who has led an uprising against the US occupation.
On Monday US troops killed dozens of his supporters instead. The move is likely to inflame Shia opinion against America, making enemies of the people who initially welcomed the invasion because it rid them of Saddam Hussein.
Yet if there is any strategic thinking on the US side about how to deal with the Najaf standoff, it was hard to find it there yesterday.
The Guardian, which was given rare access into the territory defended by Mr Sadr's army, found his fighters digging in for battle along Kufa's dusty main road. In front of the library, two men wearing red kaffir headdresses chatted next to a machine gun. Trenches had been dug outside Kufa's gold-domed mosque.
The popular sentiment was not hard to fathom - alongside portraits of Mr Sadr were slogans that read: 'Yes to the armed resistance' and 'Death to America'. "
The Siege of Falluja, a Test in a Tinderbox: "The siege in Falluja is a case study in mistaken assumptions, dashed hopes, rivalry between the Army and the Marine Corps, and a tragedy that became a trigger, Pentagon officials, senior officers and independent military analysts said Tuesday.
The chain of decisions leading to the standoff that has made the city of nearly 300,000 people in the Sunni heartland a symbol of the insurgency also illustrates conflicting military strategies and shifting political aims. The fate of Falluja has become a possible harbinger for all of Iraq."
The undisguised unilateralism of the US: "the US government has unilaterally committed itself to a one-sided policy in the Israel-Palestine conflict; second, that the US is now paying the price for having no effective post-invasion plan for Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein"
No democracy in this here United States: "vigorous debate is supposedly one of the most important underpinnings of a functioning democracy, and in George W. Bush's Washington, we keep seeing again and again that it doesn't exist.
President Bush routinely ducks both his political opponents and the media, and when he does bow to convention, it's within parameters far more controlled than any president of modern times. At his recent press conference, reporters were not permitted to ask follow-up questions, a proscription that enabled him to get away with the usual first-pass evasion that most politicians make while never being confronted with the second, more specific question ('But sir, with all due respect...').
'Recently, he spoke to the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and, unlike every president in recent times before him, did not take unrehearsed questions from his Fourth Estate audience, submitting only to pre-selected, written questions.
'The absence of democratic exchange is not limited to the administration. On Capitol Hill, the lack of actual dialogue is, if anything, worse. Think about this paradox: Congress is the ground zero of our democracy, right? Yet today, there is precious little democracy on Capitol Hill. Democrats are excluded from meetings. Bills are rewritten at the last minute in the meetings from which Democrats are excluded.
'An allegation arises in Bob Woodward's book that the administration perhaps illegally moved $700 million toward Iraq War planning without telling Congress. Republican congressional leaders are asked about it; they cannot refute it, instead dancing around the question and trying to change the subject. And even this issue -- quite similar to the Reagan administration's bypassing of the Boland Amendment, which resulted in a serious probe and a presidential crisis -- fades to black.' "
Bush partisan claims "he has never really been interested in politics": "Houston attorney John E. O'Neill, the Navy veteran who has emerged recently as a harsh and ubiquitous critic of John Kerry's military service, tells reporters that he has never really been interested in politics and isn't motivated by partisan interests. In the media, O'Neill is often described simply as a Vietnam vet still enraged by the antiwar speeches Kerry delivered more than 30 years ago. That was when O'Neill first came to public attention as a clean-cut, pro-war protege of the Nixon White House's highest-ranking dirty trickster (aside from the late president himself), Charles Colson.
'Colson, who went to prison for Watergate crimes, saw O'Neill as a perfect foil to Kerry, whom Nixon and his aides feared as a decorated, articulate and reasonable opponent of the war and their regime. Indeed, O'Neill was perfect -- a crewcut officer who had served on the same Navy swift boat that Kerry had commanded, although their stints in the Mekong Delta didn't overlap. In June 1971, Colson brought O'Neill up to Washington for an Oval Office audience with Nixon. His impressions live on in a memo filed later:
' 'O'Neill went out charging like a tiger, has agreed that he will appear anytime, anywhere that we program him and was last seen walking up West Executive Avenue mumbling to himself that he had just been with the most magnificent man he had ever met in his life.'
'Now O'Neill has emerged from those decades of silence, roaring denunciations of the man who will become the Democratic nominee for president this summer...His law firm boasts long-standing and powerful connections with the Bush White House.'"
Bush changes the conversation: It's the Personality, Stupid: "Republican flacks are peddling this line--Kerry is grating, he doesn't wear well, he looks French, he's not as natural as Bush, and besides, the senator and his wife are too rich to relate to ordinary folks. (That's the reason for the focus on Kerry's wealth--ironically, from people supporting the son of a president and grandson of a senator who summers in Kennebunkport)."
Saudi FM sounds 'alert' on state of relations with US, warns on Iraq: "Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal warned that US-Saudi relations were being dangerously undermined by misconceptions about alleged Saudi support for militant groups.
Separately in an interview published by The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday the prince also said the planned handover of power in Iraq will not work unless the country's new rulers have an army with real power."
Bush-Cheney Vision of Power: "As Linda Greenhouse recently pointed out in The New York Times, the legal arguments the administration is making for the secrecy of the energy task force are 'strikingly similar' to those it makes for its right to detain, without trial, anyone it deems an enemy combatant. In both cases, as Ms. Greenhouse puts it, the administration has put forward 'a vision of presidential power . . . as far-reaching as any the court has seen.'
That same vision is apparent in many other actions. Just to mention one: we learn from Bob Woodward that the administration diverted funds earmarked for Afghanistan to preparations for an invasion of Iraq without asking or even notifying Congress.
What Mr. Cheney is defending, in other words, is a doctrine that makes the United States a sort of elected dictatorship: a system in which the president, once in office, can do whatever he likes, and isn't obliged to consult or inform either Congress or the public.
Not long ago I would have thought it inconceivable that the Supreme Court would endorse that doctrine. But I would also have thought it inconceivable that a president would propound such a vision in the first place. "
Iraq is "Wild West" Where U.S. Relies on Private Security: "The blurring of lines between active-duty U.S. soldiers and contracted security personnel is causing unease in Congress, as violence continues to rise in Iraq.
Some lawmakers worry that private security forces operate too far outside U.S. military control - and laws. And experts wonder what would happen if a contractor did something tragically wrong, like shoot an Iraqi child.
Thirteen Democrats wrote Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld this month to argue that providing security in a hostile area is a classic mission for the military.
'It would be a dangerous precedent if the United States allowed the presence of private armies operating outside the control of a governmental authority and beholden only to those that pay them,' wrote the Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
In Iraq, they said, the private armies need proper screening and supervision, or they could increase Iraqi resentment.
Roughly 20,000 private security contractors from dozens of companies operate in Iraq under contract with the Coalition Provisional Authority, the U.S.-led governing body in Iraq, plus the Defense Department and other U.S. agencies. Thousands more are on assignments for the United States and others worldwide, including in Afghanistan (news - web sites), taking on jobs like guarding officials, protecting buildings and supply convoys, and training police and soldiers.
Inside the Pentagon (news - web sites), some see these private security contractors as a smart way to plug holes left by post-Cold War downsizing and the added demands of the war on terror.
... As the violence swells, the contractors have evolved into supplemental forces and taken on risks as they find themselves in shootouts or targets of the insurgency.
Citing security concerns, defense officials won't talk about the rules covering contractors' use of force. Although experts say the policy can vary by contract, private contractors generally are allowed to fire in self-defense but not to fire first.
Even so, they have been involved in several firefights from Mosul in the north to Najaf in the south, and at least a handful of security contractors have died.
'It's the Wild West,' said Peter Singer, an expert on the privatized military industry and a foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington"
Yahoo! News - Fighting in Holy City of Najaf Kills 64: "U.S. troops fought gunbattles with militiamen overnight near the southern holy Shiite city of Najaf, killing 64 gunmen and destroying an anti-aircraft system belonging to the insurgents, the U.S. military said Tuesday."
What would it be like if they weren't careful?
"It was one of the heaviest fights with the militia, as U.S. troops are trying to carefully hike up the pressure on the gunmen loyal to radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. U.S. troops moved into a base in Najaf, but promised to stay away from the sensitive Shiite holy sites at the city's heart.
Meanwhile, as the United Nations prepared to discuss the formation of a caretaker government due to take power on June 30, U.S.-appointed Iraqi leaders complained that the administration will not have real sovereignty as promised by American administrators for months.
'I think the sovereignty will be weak and not complete,' said Mahmoud Othman, a member of the Governing Council."
Attacks halt rebuilding of Iraq: "Vital reconstruction work in Iraq has almost completely ground to a halt after being 'screwed up' by the deteriorating security situation in the country, senior coalition officials have told the Guardian.
Unless the situation improves dramatically in the next few weeks, essential work on the electricity network will not be complete before the extreme heat of the summer arrives, raising the prospect of months of power cuts similar to those that led to riots and widespread discontent last year, the officials warned.
'It is screwing up the timetables completely, so for things like electricity, essential work that should have been done over the last three or four weeks has not been done,' one senior official said. "
Monday, April 26, 2004
Lawyers Try to Gag FBI Worker over 9/11: "Sibel Edmonds was subpoenaed by a law firm representing more than 500 family members and survivors of the attacks to testify that she had seen information proving there was considerable evidence before September 2001 that al-Qa'ida was planning to strike the US with aircraft. The lawyers made their demand after reading comments Mrs Edmonds had made to The Independent.
But the US Justice Department is seeking to stop her from testifying, citing the rarely used 'state secrets privilege'. Today in a federal court in Washington, senior government lawyers will try to gag Mrs Edmonds, claiming that disclosure of her evidence 'would cause serious damage to the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States."
Doesn't the Bush administration want the truth to come out? That's the inference here, and is part of a pattern of intimidation, character assasination and denial by the administration when faced with evidence of its failings.
Saturday, April 24, 2004
Blair condemns Israel and opens rift with US: "We condemn the targeted assassination of Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi just as we condemn all terrorism, including that perpetrated by Hamas"
Exactly. This is what the Bush administration should be saying too--if it really was serious about stopping terrorism. If it was serious, it would object to all terrorism, including that by Israel. Seems many Americans don't realize that terrorism can be an act of a state. It's not just Arab muslims or IRA extremists or ETA. Terror is the use of force to intimidate and polarize. We should be very cautious about our war on terror, in case it perpetrates terrorism.
Since Bush always defends Israel's right to self-defence after these illegal assasinations, one can only assume he thinks terrorism is fine for his friends. It's only a problem when someone he doesn't like does it.
What that tells me is that he is using the war on terror as a smokescreen, to justify the policies that he otherwise would have pursued anyway.
US military 'pressuring' journalists: "The US military has been accused of threatening the media covering the conflict in Iraq and pressuring journalists into presenting a one-sided picture of events."
Hear no evil, read no evil, speak drivel: "As the iconic image of the 'war president' has tattered, another picture has emerged. Bush appears as a passive manager who enjoys sitting atop a hierarchical structure, unwilling and unable to do the hard work a real manager has to do to run the largest enterprise in the world. He does not seem to absorb data unless it is presented to him in simple, clear fashion by people whose judgment he trusts. He is receptive to information that agrees with his point of view rather than information that challenges it. This leads to enormous power on the part of the trusted interlocutors, who know and bolster his predilections.
At his press conference, Bush was a confusion of absolute confidence and panic. He jumbled facts and conflated threats, redoubling the vehemence of his incoherence at every mildly sceptical question. He attempted to create a false political dichotomy between 'retreat' and his own vague and evolving position on Iraq, which now appears to follow senator John Kerry's, of granting more authority to the UN and bringing in Nato.
The ultimate revelation was Bush's vision of a divinely inspired apocalyptic struggle in which he is the leader of a crusade bringing the Lord's 'gift.' 'I also have this belief, strong belief that freedom is not this country's gift to the world. Freedom is the Almighty's gift to every man and woman in this world. And as the greatest power on the face of the earth we have an obligation to help the spread of freedom.' But religious war is not part of official US military doctrine. "
Bush to Make Decision on Possible Attack on Falluja: "Facing one of the grimmest choices of the Iraq war, President Bush and his senior national security and military advisers are expected to decide this weekend whether to order an invasion of Falluja, even if a battle there runs the risk of uprisings in the city and perhaps elsewhere around Iraq.
After declaring on Friday evening in Florida that 'America will never be run out of Iraq by a bunch of thugs and killers,' Mr. Bush flew to Camp David for the weekend, where administration officials said he planned consultations in a videoconference with the military commanders who are keeping the city under siege.
But in interviews, administration and senior military officials portrayed Mr. Bush's choices as dismal.
'It's clear you can't leave a few thousand insurgents there to terrorize the city and shoot at us,' one senior official involved in the discussions said on Saturday. 'The question now is whether there is a way to go in with the most minimal casualties possible.'"
Let's be clear about this. Bush is responsible for these war plans. He is managing the Iraq occupation. The deaths there are as a result of his decisions. He chose the war. He is prosecuting the war. And he must be held accountable for it.
Fallujah Residents Report US Forces Engaged in Collective Punishment: "Three families of refugees from the besieged city of Fallujah who are seeking refuge in the Al-Adhamiya neighborhood of Baghdad, described the conditions in the embattled city of Fallujah as 'a horrible disaster.' A man called Khaled Abu Mujahed, speaking from Fallujah on behalf of the Islamic Party, stated that while some relief supplies are getting inside the city, a great number of families remain trapped in their homes, and the stench of dead bodies has become overpowering.
Iraqi refugees from Fallujah hold up banners as they protest in the center of Baghdad, Iraq, against US Army forces, Wednesday, April 21, 2004. Many Iraqi families left Fallujah in the past ten days and the US military only allowed about ten families to return Wednesday, turning hundreds of people away at a checkpoint. (AP Photo/Samir Mizban)"
Collective punishment is a war crime, prohibited under the Geneva Convention. For the US military to be holding an entire city hostage like this is an abomination, and totally undermines any claim that we're there to bring freedom to the Iraqi people.
The siege of Fallujah shows the reality. We're there to subjugate them, and kill them if they don't surrendur. We're there to take their wealth, build military bases so we can dominate the surrounding countries, and hand over Iraqi economy to US corporations.
This week the administration told Congress that we won't be handing power to the Iraqi's in June. The US Ambassador will be viceroy. The US military will be in power. The new Iraqi administration will be a puppet.
It's all just as Osama Bin Laden foretold. The US will invade and occupy an arab oil state. Which makes Bush even more of an idiot than i believed possible. He's the best recruiting tool for terrorists against the US.
Inquiry After Israeli Forces Caught Using Boy as Shield: "A photograph of a Palestinian boy tied to an Israeli police jeep has been handed to justice officials charged with investigating complaints over the use of 'human shields' against demonstrators.
The boy, 13-year-old Mohammed Bedwan, and three adult protesters were tied to border police vehicles last week during one of what have become almost daily demonstrations against the routing of the Israeli government's barrier through Palestinian land.
... Rabbi Arik Ascherman, who heads the organizationRabbis for Human Rights, says he was also tied to the front of a separate jeep, along with a Palestinian and a Swedish activist from the International Solidarity Movement, after they protested that the boy had been beaten after he was detained. He said he himself was head-butted by the border police unit commander when he was arrested."
Missile Defense Agency Faulted On Testing and Accountability (washingtonpost.com): "A congressional audit of the Bush administration's efforts to build a nationwide defense against ballistic missile attack warned yesterday that the system, due to be fielded later this year, will be 'largely unproven' because of a lack of realistic testing.
The report, by the General Accounting Office, said that the eight flight intercepts attempted so far have been largely 'repetitive and scripted,' and that critical parts of the system have yet to be flight-tested together.
Some elements that were to be part of the initial deployment phase have been deferred because of developmental glitches and production delays, the report noted. Nevertheless, the cost in 2004 and 2005 for developing and fielding the initial system -- which is to include 20 missile interceptors and several ground- and sea-based radars -- rose by $1.12 billion, to $7.36 billion, over the past year, the report disclosed.
Some of the report's sharpest criticisms were reserved for how the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency has accounted for its activities. The report faulted the agency for frequently shifting goals and providing incomplete information about costs and performance to Congress.
The report's title -- 'Actions Are Needed to Enhance Testing and Accountability' -- summed up GAO concerns.
A number of the report's findings echo earlier reviews by the GAO and others, but the study represents the most extensive assessment so far by the agency, an investigative branch of Congress. It comes as the Pentagon is preparing to start lowering the first interceptor missiles into newly built silos in Alaska and California and declare the system operational during the summer or autumn. "
U.S. Official Acknowledges Mistakes in Iraq (washingtonpost.com): "The U.S. administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer, acknowledged Friday that mistakes had been made in the occupation of the country and invited former Iraqi army officers who served under ousted president Saddam Hussein to help establish a new national force.
Bremer's statements came the same day a rebellious Shiite cleric, Moqtada Sadr, threatened to launch suicide bombings if U.S. forces entered the holy city of Najaf, where he has taken refuge. 'We will all be time bombs in the face of the enemy,' Sadr told followers at Friday prayers."
Americans believe Saddam terror link: "82 per cent of respondents believed most experts supported the notion that Iraq was providing 'substantial support' to al-Qa'ida - a contention that President Bush has been forced to disavow. Almost 60 per cent were unaware that world opinion was against the war in Iraq, with 21 per cent saying the world was behind the US-led invasion and 38 per cent saying views were 'evenly divided'.
The poll also showed a correlation between people's ignorance and their political affiliation. Among those who believed WMD had been found in Iraq, 72 per cent said they would vote to re-elect Mr Bush in November and 23 per cent said they supported his Democratic challenger, John Kerry. Among those who knew that no WMD had been found,74 per cent supported Mr Kerry and 23 per cent backed the President. "
This poll shows something that we need to take really seriously. Most people are totally misinformed. Furthermore, they are willing to vote the way they always did.
That is a problem. These are not times like before. These are times when the radicals are hiding in conservative clothing. And they are herding the country over a precipice.
Our media is largely failing to portray the underlying reality. They simply report the administration line, or they actively distort reality with Soviet style propaganda in support of the Bush administration. (I'm thinking Fox and AM talk radio especially.)
How can we wake people up here, before they find themselves without rights in a land that has been taken over by a minorty of very rich people?
US admits it will still control Iraq after transfer: "The US has made clear that the transfer of sovereignty to a provisional Iraqi government on 30 June will be a limited affair, and that ultimate authority will reside at a gigantic new US embassy in Baghdad and with the military occupation force.
In sometimes heated hearings on Capitol Hill this week, senior Bush administration officials admitted they did not know who would be in the new government, precisely what powers it would exercise, nor the exact shape of the new Security Council resolution that Washington is seeking at the United Nations.
Marc Grossman, Under-Secretary of State for political affairs, said the government would put 'a very important Iraqi face' on many aspects of the country's life. But the US military, not the Iraqi security forces, would be in charge of all security matters.
Asked what would happen if the temporary government acted at variance with US foreign policy - such as by seeking closer ties with Iran - Mr Grossman implied that would not be tolerated. 'That is why we want to have an American ambassador in Iraq,' he noted cryptically.
The limitations can only complicate US efforts to win a fresh resolution at the UN, whose special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has been finalising the new government. Its main task will be to prepare for elections next year, but some Security Council members may now balk at conferring UN legitimacyon a new Iraqi government whose powers are so limited."
The image turning America against Bush: "The photographs that President George Bush does not want the American public to see show the flag-draped coffins containing the bodies of American servicemen and women - dying in Iraq at a rate of between four and six a day - being returned to the US and to their families.
Aware of the power of these pictures and their potential to inflict political damage on Mr Bush as he campaigns for re-election, his chief political adviser, Karl Rove, is desperate that they should not be published. Under a White House directive, the press has not been permitted to photograph the return of such coffins for more than a year. But last week 361 images of military coffins being returned to Dover air force base in Delaware were released to an internet news site under the Freedom of Information Act.
... Bush has not yet attended a single funeral service for any of those killed in Iraq something that has outraged many of the families. Polls suggest that public approval of the President's handling of the war and the occupation is down from 51 per cent to 44 per cent.
Since their release, the photographs have been published prominently by newspapers and received widespread coverage by the television networks triggering further debate about the war. Only Rupert Murdoch's Fox News has declined to show the pictures or report any discussion about the White House's decision to prevent their publication."
Arab ally snubs Bush amid 'unprecedented hatred' for US: "A growing rift between America and the Arab world was exposed yesterday when two Middle Eastern allies delivered damaging rebuffs to President George Bush's policies in the region.
King Abdullah of Jordan flew home from the US after abruptly cancelling a meeting planned for today with the president in Washington. The king's move came as the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, said there was more hatred of Americans in the Arab world today than ever before.
King Abdullah and Mr Mubarak are two of the most moderate leaders in the Middle East and the two normally closest to the US. "
Iraqi debacle: At least the illusions are gone--International Herald Tribune: "It now appears that the U.S. effort to remake Iraq as a viable and peaceful democratic state is likely to end in failure. If indeed that happens, it will be tragic for those in Iraq who long for peace, order and liberty.
For the United States, it will involve a certain amount of humiliation. But it is to be hoped that it will also involve the destruction of three dangerous illusions which have warped U.S. foreign policy in the post-9/11 era.
The first of these illusions is the belief that pre-emptive strikes are required to deal with rogue states in the new era. After Sept. 11, it was confidently predicted, containment no longer worked against the Saddam Hussein's of the world.
But one year after regime change, it's clear that the Iraqi threat could have been contained as indeed it had been contained since the 1991 Gulf War. For Saddam, far from being an ideological fanatic, was a cynical calculator whose overriding concern was to hold onto power and to exercise it ruthlessly over the unfortunate people of Iraq.
True, containment can't work against terrorists who can run and hide, but rogue states are different; they have a return address. And it should have been clear that Saddam knew if he smuggled weapons of mass destruction to Al Qaeda or used banned weapons against U.S. interests, his regime would have met massive retaliation from Washington. Of course, we now know he didn't even possess those weapons.
Yet for preventive war advocates, containment is a discredited policy; in the case of Iraq, it meant, as The Weekly Standard's neoconservative editors warned, coddling a suicidal tyrant. Never mind that containment (sanctions, naval blockade, no-fly zone) kept that suicidal tyrant in his box for over a decade. And never mind that although containment lacked the political sex appeal of 'liberation,' it at least recognized the dangers of unintended consequences that a liberated Iraq has now delivered."
Violence flares in Iraq as US raises alarm over troop shortage: "Some 25 Iraqis and seven US soldiers were killed in violence across Iraq (news - web sites) as the United States raised the alarm over troop shortages in the lead-up to the June 30 handover of power.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) appealed to US allies for more soldiers following the announced withdrawal of Spanish, Honduran and Dominican Republic troops during the bloodiest month for coalition forces in Iraq since the fall of Baghdad a year ago.
Central Command head General John Abizaid told The New York Times that the security situation was liable to worsen as the deadline for returning sovereignty to Iraq approached and that more US troops could be needed.
... Around 718 US troops have now died since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March last year, including more than 500 killed in action, most in fighting with insurgents following the rapid overthrow of the regime of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites).
No reliable figures for total Iraqi casualties are available, but a US commander said this month the figure was more than 700 in April alone, when Shiite Muslim militias opened a second front to the south of Baghdad in addition to the long-standing Sunni insurgency to the west and north."
Friday, April 23, 2004
HHS Refuses to Release Medicare Estimates: "Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson is refusing to make public or give congressional Democrats the Bush administration's estimates of the cost of last year's Medicare legislation.
... Bush and Thompson said repeatedly that the legislation would cost no more than $400 billion over 10 years, even as Medicare's top analyst forecast that it would cost at least $100 billion more.
``The range of our estimates was $500 billion to $600 billion all the way through the process,'' Richard Foster, Medicare's chief actuary, told a congressional panel in March. Bush and Thompson have said they were unaware of Foster's estimates until after Bush signed the Medicare law in December.
... ``The response is completely inadequate,'' Waxman said in a statement. ``The Administration is stonewalling our investigation. We are evaluating our next steps.'' "
Terror Case Is Cleared For Trial: "the judges rejected the government's argument that courts cannot interfere in the war on terror, saying Brinkema was within her power to order that depositions be taken of witnesses being held overseas who prosecutors said were out of the purview of the courts.
The court also pointed out that even the government had admitted that some of the al Qaeda witnesses in their statements tend to exonerate Moussaoui from a Sept. 11 role.
'If Moussaoui had no involvement in or knowledge of Sept. 11, it is entirely possible that he would be found not eligible for the death penalty,'' the opinion said."
Archbishop attacks government: "'A government that habitually pressed its interests abroad in ways that ignored manifest needs and priorities in the wider human and non-human environment, habitually repressed criticism or manipulated public media - such a regime would, to say the least, jeopardise its claim to obedience because it was refusing attention ... It would be concerned finally about control and no more; and so would be a threat to its citizens and others.' "
This says a lot about the danger of the Bush administration--it is concerned with control, obessessed with it. Why? So it can pursue it's policies regardless of the interests of truth, justice or other human rights. Ultimately all it cares about is power. What does it want to do with power? It wants to enrich itself. And who is it? It is a very small group of very rich people and their sycophants, who number many more.
US role in Middle East vilified at emergency meeting of Islamic countries: "The UN should be given a central role in Iraq as soon as possible, to avert a slide into greater anarchy and halt the US-led forces' 'sheer disregard' for civilians and holy sites, an emergency meeting of Muslim states in Kuala Lumpur declared yesterday.
The Organisation of Islamic Conferences also condemned Washington for supporting Israel's latest Palestinian initiative.
The Malaysian prime minister, Abdullah Badawi, who is the OIC's current chairman, said George Bush's abandonment of the road map to peace could "wreck the entire peace process in the Middle East"."
BBC cuts back Iraq staff: "The BBC has dramatically scaled back its staff in Iraq and banned programme-makers from organising any new trips there amid the deteriorating security situation."
Thursday, April 22, 2004
What Colin Powell Saw but Didn't Say: "Woodward reports that in July 2002 Bush ordered the use of $700m to prepare for the invasion of Iraq, funds that had not been specifically appropriated by Congress, which alone holds that constitutional authority. No adequate explanation has been offered for what, strictly speaking, might well be an impeachable offence. "
1,700 extra troops could be sent to Iraq to replace Spaniards: "Britain's military planners are drawing up contingency plans to send up to 1,700 extra troops to Iraq in response to the escalating violence."
US U-turn on hiring of Ba'ath party members: "The US administration in Baghdad is to begin hiring former Ba'ath party members and senior army officers as it relaxes some of the key ideological concepts behind the past year's occupation.
In an address to be made on Iraqi television today, Paul Bremer, the US administrator in Baghdad, will announce a 'reform' of the procedures behind his tough de-Ba'athification policy, which has excluded thousands of Iraqi teachers, civil servants and military officers from work.
The policy change appears designed to answer the criticism made of Mr Bremer's administration this month by Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN special adviser on Iraq.
Last night Mr Bremer's aides sought to play down the changes, but in practice the reforms should mean several thousand former Ba'athists will be able to return to work. "
Flight from the fight in Iraq: "Two American soldiers have deserted, claiming asylum in Canada rather than serve in Iraq. They argue that the war is illegal under international law "
Photos of Soldiers' Coffins Revive Controversy (washingtonpost.com): "In March 2003, on the eve of war in Iraq, the Pentagon ordered an end to all media coverage of ceremonies for the returning remains of soldiers killed overseas. Although Dover already had such a policy, the Pentagon action enforced a military-wide ban on images of flag-draped caskets that dated to late 2000 but had not been followed.
With few exceptions, the ban had remained in force until recent days. But last week, about 350 photos from Dover were released under a Freedom of Information Act request by Russ Kick, a First Amendment advocate who runs a Web site called the Memory Hole (www.thememoryhole.org). Dover recommended that Kick's request be denied, but officials at Air Mobility Command headquarters at Scott Air Force Base in Illinois authorized the release on appeal. After Kick posted the photos, they appeared on other Web sites, including the Drudge Report.
The sudden spread yesterday of the Dover photos of flag-draped caskets returning from Iraq came a day after Tami Silicio and her husband and co-worker, David Landry, were fired for the photo she took at Kuwait International Airport of caskets in an aircraft. The photo was published Sunday on the front page of the Seattle Times. "
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: What Went Wrong?: "President Bush, while willing to spend vast sums on the military, wasn't willing to spend enough on security. And 9/11 didn't shake the administration's fanatical commitment to privatization and outsourcing, in which free-market ideology is inextricably mixed with eagerness to protect and reward corporate friends.
Sure enough, the administration was unprepared for predictable security problems in Iraq, but moved quickly � in violation of international law � to impose its economic vision. Last month Jay Garner, the first U.S. administrator of Iraq, told the BBC that he was sacked in part because he wanted to hold quick elections. His superiors wanted to privatize Iraqi industries first � as part of a plan that, according to Mr. Garner, was drawn up in late 2001.
Meanwhile, the administration handed out contracts without competitive bidding or even minimal oversight. It also systematically blocked proposals to have Congressional auditors oversee spending, or to impose severe penalties for fraud.
Cronyism and corruption are major factors in Iraq's downward spiral. This week the public radio program 'Marketplace' is running a series titled 'The Spoils of War,' which documents a level of corruption in Iraq worse than even harsh critics had suspected. The waste of money, though it may run into the billions, is arguably the least of it � though military expenses are now $4.7 billion a month. The administration, true to form, is trying to hide the need for more money until after the election; Mr. Cordesman predicts that Iraq will need 'in excess of $50-70 billion a year for probably two fiscal years.'
More important, the 'Marketplace' report confirms what is being widely reported: that the common view in Iraq is that members of the U.S.-appointed Governing Council are using their positions to enrich themselves, and that U.S. companies are doing the same. President Bush's idealistic language may be persuasive to Americans, but many Iraqis see U.S. forces as there to back a corrupt regime, not democracy.
Now what? There's a growing sense of foreboding, even panic, about Iraq among national security experts. 'This is an extremely uncertain struggle,' says Mr. Cordesman, who, to his credit, also says the unsayable: we may not be able to 'stay the course.' But yesterday Condoleezza Rice gave Republican lawmakers what Senator Rick Santorum called 'a very upbeat report.'
That's very bad news. The mess in Iraq was created by officials who believed what they wanted to believe, and ignored awkward facts. It seems they have learned nothing"
Panel Casts Vote Against Calif. Machines: "California should ban the use of 15,000 touch-screen voting machines in the November election because the equipment malfunctioned in last month's primary, an advisory panel said Thursday.
The state Voting Systems and Procedures Panel said that the machines made by Diebold Election Systems did not perform well last month and that many voters in San Diego County were turned away.
The panel cited a litany of other problems, including fears that the systems are vulnerable to security breaches.
The 8-0 recommendation affects machines only in San Diego, Solano, Kern and San Joaquin counties. If Secretary of State Kevin Shelley goes along with the recommendation, those counties will have to revert to paper ballots. "
President Owes America Answers on Iraq: "President Bush is a man of absolutes. Either we stay the course in Iraq, or we cut and run. Either we fight terrorists on the streets of Iraq, or we fight them on the streets of New York or Washington. Either we support the President's policies absolutely, or we give aid and comfort to the enemy.
No, no, a thousand times no. Either-or propositions like those invoked by the President to describe the war in Iraq are nothing more than politically inspired slogans, like last year's ill-advised 'Mission Accomplished' banner, designed to whip up emotions while masking the complexity of national security considerations.
Fighting in the streets of Iraq has not prevented terrorists from striking in Saudi Arabia or Bali or Madrid, and there is no guarantee that it will prevent them from striking again in the United States. Just this week, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge disclosed the formation of a federal task force to respond to heightened threats that al Qaeda will strike again in the United States sometime before the November elections. Significant events, including the dedication of the World War II memorial in Washington and the political conventions in New York and Boston, are among those viewed as prime targets for a new al Qaeda offensive.
This is the sobering reality. Osama bin Laden remains at large, and his minions appear to be multiplying, not diminishing. If anything, the war in Iraq has served as a rallying cry for anti-American and anti-democratic extremists in the Middle East and beyond. Sadly, given the distraction from the war on terror that the war in Iraq has proved itself to be, the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden, when and if it comes, is likely to be an anti-climactic footnote to a widening and ever more deadly surge in international terrorism.
...The fact is, while espousing hard-line rhetoric and iron-clad resolve, this Administration has ducked and bobbed and weaved at every opportunity. In the Administration's ever-shifting explanation for the war in Iraq, the face of our enemy has ricocheted over the past 12 months from Saddam Hussein and his Republican Guard to disgruntled Baathist dead-enders to foreign terrorists taking advantage of the unrest in Iraq to pursue their agenda of jihad to today's vague assortment of thugs and fanatics opposed to democracy for Iraq.
We hear the refrain: Stay the course. Stay the course. Exactly what course is it we are supposed to be staying in Iraq? The President failed to explain that to the American people at his press conference. How did we get from protecting the United States from the threat of weapons of mass destruction to the vague notion of fighting extremists opposed to democracy in Iraq? The President failed to explain that fact as well. Where were those extremists before the invasion? Why is it that they are emerging in force only now, a full year after the fall of Baghdad. Could it be that this Administration has created America's own worst nightmare because of its colossal arrogance, clumsy mistakes, and painful misjudgments on virtually every aspect of the war in Iraq?
These are not the questions of an unpatriotic or reckless opposition. These are not questions intended to demoralize America or hearten our enemies. Rather, these are the questions that a free and open society - the kind of democratic society we envision for Iraq - is expected to pose of its leaders. And these are the kind of questions that a democratic nation's leader is beholden to answer. Dogmatic admonitions and grandiose allusions will not suffice. In a democratic society, the people demand and deserve the simple and unvarnished truth."
Wise words from Sen. Robert Byrd.
Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Yahoo! News - Pentagon: Iraq War Faces $4B Shortfall: "'When the service chiefs last talked about this, there was, I think, a $4 billion shortfall,' Myers told the House Armed Services Committee. 'We thought we could get through all of August. We'd have to figure out how to do September.' "
Get another credit card, like the rest of us, General! Mr. Bush seems to have worked out that one--he's run up about $2 Trillion in debt so far.
Bush and Cheney to Appear Before 9/11 Panel on April 29 (washingtonpost.com): "President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney will appear April 29 before the commission investigating the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, an official said Wednesday. "
Appearing together is a disgrace. It continues on their past performance of slow-walking, denying access and funding etc. I am so disgusted with this guy who invokes the memory of the dead to justify his aggressive stupidity, and then seeks to avoid the legitimate and essential inquiry into why those people died on 9/11.
Based on all i have read in the media so far, I am clear that it was primarily a failure of leadership--which makes a mockery of his claim to be a strong leader. He's anything but. He's a war-monger, a hot-head and a careless, feckless, power-hungry, privilege-junkie who can act like a best buddy as he stabs you in the back and steals your wallet at the same time.
Did I miss anything?
Violence in Iraq Forces 2 Big Contractors to Curb Work: "The insurgency in Iraq has driven two major contractors, General Electric and Siemens, to suspend most of their operations there, raising new doubts about the American-led effort to rebuild the country as hostilities continue."
Let's give credit where it is due: Bush has achieved another incredible trifecta. Invaded a country that was no threat to the US. Allowed Al Qaida a year to re-establish themselves. Given terrorists exactly what they wanted to recruit more members and stir up hatred against the US: kill muslim civilians in an Arab Oil State.
US heading for another election fiasco as reforms fail: "The United States may be on the way to another Florida-style presidential election fiasco this year because legislation passed to fix the system has either failed to address the problems or has broken down because of missed deadlines and unmet funding targets.
Such is the conclusion of a damning new report by the US Commission on Civil Rights, a bipartisan government body which previously looked into the Florida mess and found alarming evidence of voter disenfranchisement among poor and minority groups, incorrectly compiled voter rolls and other glaring irregularities. 'Many of the problems that the commission previously cautioned should be corrected yet prevail ... Unless the government acts now, many of those previously disenfranchised stand to be excluded again,' the report said.
The commission's criticisms focused on the failure to implement President George Bush's Help America Vote Act (Hava), passed in October 2002, which promised $4bn to help states overhaul antiquated voting machinery - notably the notorious punchcard devices that caused so much trouble in Florida - and sought to set up a nationwide system of provisional voting for people who believe they have a right to vote but find themselves omitted from the official list.
It said that out of 22 key deadlines that have come and gone since the act's passage, only five have been met. Most seriously, an oversight committee designed to advise states on streamlining their voting procedures and implementing the act's provisions was not appointed until last December, 11 months behind schedule. Most states are unlikely to make reforms before the presidential election on 2 November.
In addition, the Bush White House has consistently proposed less money than promised by the act..."
Surprise, surprise. I also read today in the Contra Costa Times that Diebold had willfully broken their contract with Alameda County in the March election. It's so bad that 'The problems with voting equipment in Alameda, San Diego and Orange counties prompted state lawmakers last month to propose urgency legislation banning the use of electronic voting machines in the upcoming presidential election."'
State official slams electronic voting machine maker: "California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley on Wednesday accused Diebold Election Systems of jeopardizing the March primary by selling California counties voting equipment was not fully functional or adequately tested.
According to a staff report released Wednesday by Shelley's office, the risk of using an untested voting system was illustrated by the failure of hundreds of voter-card encoders in Alameda and San Diego counties - a failure that prevented an unknown number of voters from casting ballots."
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Bush's Prewar Funding Is Criticized: "the Bush administration diverted money allocated for the war in Afghanistan for 'preparatory tasks' in the Persian Gulf region, such as upgrading airfields in Kuwait.
'Congress, which is supposed to control the purse strings, had no real knowledge or involvement, had not even been notified the Pentagon wanted to reprogram money,' Woodward wrote in 'Plan of Attack.' "
Americans Squirm as U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Surges: "65 percent said there had been an 'unacceptable' number of U.S. military casualties while 33 percent said the level was 'acceptable.'
Analysts said the mounting U.S. death toll illustrates the rising difficulty of the military task and threatens to undermine public support for Bush's Iraq policies during a presidential election year.
'What it shows is that the breadth of the insurgency is increasing, that our troops are confronting firefights on multiple fronts, and the sophistication of the insurgents is growing,' said Cato Institute defense analyst Ted Carpenter.
'This doesn't bode well for the fate of our mission, unfortunately.'
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has expressed surprise at the recent level of U.S. military deaths in Iraq."
Arab Democrats Feel Betrayed by Bush (washingtonpost.com): "Democratically inclined commentators in the region's online media are reeling from what they feel is the one-two-three punch of President Bush's rejection last week of Palestinians' 'right of return' to their families' former homes in what is now Israel; Bush's endorsement of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon's plan to withdraw from Gaza and make permanent some Jewish settlements on the West Bank; and Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi. "
Mubarak: Arabs Hate US More Than Ever: "Arabs in the Middle East hate the United States more than ever following the invasion of Iraq and Israel's assassination of two Hamas leaders, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said in comments published Tuesday. Mubarak, who visited the United States last week, told French newspaper Le Monde that Washington's actions had caused despair, frustration and a sense of injustice in the Arab world.
'Today there is hatred of the Americans like never before in the region,' he said ...
He blamed the hostility partly on U.S. support for Israel, which assassinated Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi in a missile strike in the Gaza Strip Saturday weeks after killing his predecessor, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
'At the start some considered the Americans were helping them. There was no hatred of the Americans. After what has happened in Iraq, there is unprecedented hatred and the Americans know it,' Mubarak said.
'People have a feeling of injustice. What's more, they see (Israeli Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon acting as he pleases, without the Americans saying anything.' "
U.S. Says Troops Killed Iraq Journalists: "The U.S. military acknowledged Tuesday that American soldiers killed two employees of a U.S.-funded Iraqi television station, saying the men may have failed to heed warning shots. A wounded cameraman said troops opened fire immediately on their vehicle.
... The shooting of Al-Iraqiya correspondent Asaad Kadhim and his driver, Hussein Saleh, was galling for many employees because their station — funded by the Pentagon (news - web sites) and broadcasting from U.S. coalition headquarters — is derided by many Iraqis as a source of American propaganda."
Poll Shows New Gains for Bush: "During the past five weeks, however, Bush's reelection campaign has spent about $50 million on television ads"
Yahoo! News - Cheney Was Unwavering in Desire to Go to War: "it began the first minutes of the presidency, when Bush said they were going to go full steam ahead. There is such a tendency, Cheney said, to hold back when there is a close election, to do what the New York Times and other pundits suggest and predict. 'This guy was just totally different,' Cheney said. 'He just decided here's what I want to do, and I'm going to do it. He's very directed. He's very focused.
... In early January 2001, before Bush was inaugurated, Cheney passed a message to the outgoing secretary of defense, William S. Cohen, a moderate Republican who served in the Democratic Clinton administration.
"We really need to get the president-elect briefed up on some things," Cheney said, adding that he wanted a serious "discussion about Iraq and different options." The president-elect should not be given the routine, canned, round-the-world tour normally given incoming presidents. Topic A should be Iraq.'
... "The vice president, after 9/11, clearly saw Saddam Hussein as a threat to peace," Bush said in an interview last December. "And was unwavering in his view that Saddam was a real danger.""
Monday, April 19, 2004
The New York Times > Books > Books of the Times | 'Plan of Attack': A Heady Mix of Pride and Prejudice Led to War: "In reporting that General Franks said in September 2002 that his people had been 'looking for Scud missiles and other weapons of mass destruction for 10 years and haven't found any yet,' Mr. Woodward adds: 'It could, and should, have been a warning that if the intelligence was not good enough to make bombing decisions, it probably was not good enough to make the broad assertion, in public or in formal intelligence documents, that there was `no doubt' Saddam had WMD.' Vice President Dick Cheney had done exactly that just days before.
... Woodward describes Mr. Cheney as having been a "powerful, steamrolling force" for military intervention, "a rock," in President Bush's words, who was "steadfast and steady in his view that Saddam was a threat to America and we had to deal with him." The "self-appointed special examiner of worst-case scenarios," Mr. Cheney, who had been defense secretary during the first gulf war in 1991, harbored "a deep sense of unfinished business about Iraq," Mr. Woodward writes, and in January 2001, before the inauguration, he passed a message to the outgoing defense secretary, William S. Cohen, stipulating that Topic A in Mr. Bush's foreign policy briefing should be Iraq.
... President Bush, the object of so much jockeying for position among cabinet members, emerges from this book as a more ambiguous figure than the commanding leader portrayed by Mr. Woodward in 'Bush at War.' In some scenes he is depicted as genuinely decisive (as in his choice to go to United Nations in 2002). In others he seems merely childish (eyeing Gen. Henry Shelton's peppermint during a meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, until the general passed it over.)
Sometimes Mr. Bush comes across as instinctive and shrewd (dismissing a C.I.A. presentation on weapons of mass destruction as 'not something that Joe Public would understand or would gain a lot of confidence from'). Sometimes he sounds petulant and defensive (saying of Mr. Powell, 'I didn't need his permission' to go to war). And sometimes he simply seems like someone trying to live up to the 'Persona' outlined by his political adviser Karl Rove in a campaign brief: a 'Strong Leader' with a penchant for 'Bold Action' and 'Big Ideas.'
Mr. Bush and the people around him - most notably Mr. Rove, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, the national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz - are constantly talking about the importance of showing resolve, of standing firm, of talking the talk and walking the walk. And as plans for war advance, this posture becomes part of the momentum toward war. As Mr. Bush himself says of the weeks leading up to the war: 'I began to be concerned at the blowback coming out of America: `Bush won't act. The leader that we thought was strong and straightforward and clear-headed has now got himself in a position where he can't act.'"
Iraq is Not Vietnam. It May Become Worse.: "The similarities between Iraq and Vietnam run both shallow and deep. The shallow similarities are obvious and can serve to signal our attention. But it is the deeper similarities, those that shape policy and drive alternatives, that should signal our fears. For they point to the possibility of an outcome perhaps even more calamitous than in Vietnam. "
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: The Wrong War: "American troops are enduring the deadliest period since the start of the war. And while they continue to fight courageously and sometimes die, they are fighting and dying in the wrong war.
.... The United States was attacked on Sept. 11, 2001, by Al Qaeda, not Iraq.
... President Bush may truly believe, as he suggested at his press conference last week, that he is carrying out a mission that has been sanctioned by the divine. But he has in fact made the world less safe with his catastrophic decision to wage war in Iraq. At least 700 G.I.'s and thousands of innocent Iraqis, including many women and children, are dead. Untold numbers have been maimed and there is no end to the carnage in sight.
Meanwhile, instead of destroying the terrorists, our real enemies, we've energized them. The invasion and occupation of Iraq has become a rallying cry for Islamic militants. Qaeda-type terror is spreading, not receding. And Osama bin Laden is still at large.
Even as I write this, reporters from The Times and other news outlets are filing stories about marines dying in ambush and other acts of mayhem and anarchy across Iraq. This was not part of the plan. The administration and its apologists spread fantasies of a fresh dawn of freedom emerging in Iraq and spreading across the Arab world. Instead we are spilling the blood of innocents in a nightmare from which many thousands will never awaken."
Spain will never again turn back on UN, says new defence minister: "MADRID (AFP) - Spain's new defence minister said that his country would never again "turn its back" on the UN or the Spanish people, an allusion to the sending of troops to Iraq (news - web sites) last year by the ousted conservative government.
'We will never again turn our back on the United Nations,' said Jose Bono.
'Nor will we turn our backs on Spaniards -- be they rightwing or leftwing -- who neither understand nor accept the presence of Spanish troops in Iraq,' he said.
'One cannot act against the Spanish people,' said Bono, alluding to the decision by former conservative prime minister Jose Maria Aznar to send Spanish forces to Iraq in the teeth of massive popular opposition last August.
New Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero on Sunday vowed to pull the troops out, thereby fulfilling a key election pledge.
Bono dubbed the Iraq war and the subsequent US-led occupation 'illegitimate' as well as based on 'a cause that the (war's) promotors have themselves had to recognise as false,' namely Iraq's alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction. "
The message that the Spanish decision sends is that a democracy abides by the will of it's people. That should hearten "lovers of freedom" everywhere. For Spain to continue to support the occupation of Iraq by the US would be an affront to democracy. And if the purpose of occupying Iraq was to establish democracy and freedom, as Bush claims, he ought to support the will of the Spanish people.
The fact that the chicken hawks are squawking about sending messages to the terrorists just shows how bankrupt their policies are. Sadly, they are not paying the bills for those policies. We are. And more fool on us if we re-elect these bozo's who are undermining democracy all over the world, in the name of freedom.
Friends, we have entered fully into Orwellian times. It's time to wake up. Regime change in DC is what lovers of freedom and supporters of democracy need now.
Bush Bemoans Spanish Troops' Iraq Pullout: "President Bush scolded Spain's new prime minister Monday for his swift withdrawal of troops from Iraq and told him to avoid actions that give 'false comfort to terrorists or enemies of freedom in Iraq.' "
This just shows how hollow Bush's commitment to democracy is. He applauded former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar for committing Spanish troops when 90% of the Spanish people were against it. Now he berates the current Prime Minister who was elected on a platform that called for removal of the troops.
In addition, he does not comment on the fact that the Spanish troops would not be pulled out if he had turned over the administration of Iraq to the UN, which is something that he should have done from the beginning, if he had the interests of the Iraqi people at heart.
Sadly, all this is a smokescreen. Bush has no interest in democracy. He wasn't democratically elected himself. He said it would be easier to rule if this was a "dictatorship", and he has shown disdain for the institutions of government by his actions, secrecy and lack of attention. He's a disgrace and a dangerous man in a position of great power.
Sunday, April 18, 2004
The New York Times > International > Middle East > Security Companies: Shadow Soldiers in Iraq: "Far more than in any other conflict in United States history, the Pentagon is relying on private security companies to perform crucial jobs once entrusted to the military. In addition to guarding innumerable reconstruction projects, private companies are being asked to provide security for the chief of the Coalition Provisional Authority, L. Paul Bremer III, and other senior officials; to escort supply convoys through hostile territory; and to defend key locations, including 15 regional authority headquarters and even the Green Zone in downtown Baghdad, the center of American power in Iraq.
... By some recent government estimates, security costs could claim up to 25 percent of the $18 billion budgeted for reconstruction, a huge and mostly unanticipated expense that could delay or force the cancellation of billions of dollars worth of projects to rebuild schools, water treatment plants, electric lines and oil refineries.
In Washington, defense experts and some leading Democrats are raising alarms over security companies' growing role in Iraq.
'Security in a hostile fire area is a classic military mission,' Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island, a member of the Armed Service committee, wrote last week in a letter to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed by 12 other Democratic senators. 'Delegating this mission to private contractors raises serious questions.'
... Determined to transform the military into a leaner but more lethal fighting force, Mr. Rumsfeld has pushed aggressively to outsource tasks not deemed essential to war-making. But many Pentagon and authority officials now concede that the companies' expanding role is also a result of the administration's misplaced optimism about how Iraqis would greet American reconstruction efforts."
Calm before the storm in Baghdad: "The threat from the 'Combined Mujahideen Brigades' to launch operations in Baghdad is being taken seriously. Security officials circulated a warning last week prompting many media organisations and contractors involved in reconstruction work to pull out.
... Privately, CPA officials say they were surprised by the recent unrest. David Richmond, the British Government's representative in Baghdad, admitted that the current situation was 'extremely difficult'."
Spanish Leader Orders All 1,300 Troops in Iraq to Withdraw: "Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Sunday he had ordered Spanish troops withdrawn from Iraq as soon as possible.
... Zapatero spoke just hours after the new Socialist government was sworn in."
Yahoo! News - Revolts in Iraq Deepen Crisis In Occupation: "'worries about a different kind of civil war have been generated by reports that Iraq's ethnic Kurds are fighting alongside U.S. Marines and against the insurgency.
Guerrillas coming out of Fallujah have complained bitterly that Kurdish militiamen known as pesh merga are deployed against them. The Kurds are members of the 36th Battalion of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps, built from several exile-based militias that supported the U.S.-led campaign against Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). Commanders of another, overwhelmingly Arab Iraqi army battalion refused to fight alongside the Marines.
... The politicians the Americans wanted to become popular have lost out to the guys the Americans didn't want to become popular,' said an Iraqi adviser to the occupation authority. 'It was exactly the outcome they did not want.'"
Revolts in Iraq Deepen Crisis In Occupation: "'The Fallujah problem and the Sadr problem are having a wider impact than we expected,' a senior U.S. official involved in Iraq policy said. In Baghdad and Washington, officials had initially concluded that addressing those problems would not engender much anger among ordinary Iraqis. 'Sadr's people and the people of Fallujah were seen as isolated and lacking broad support among Iraqis,' the official added.
Instead, the official said, 'The effect has been profound.'
The violence has brought the U.S.-funded reconstruction of Iraq to a near-halt, according to U.S. officials and private contractors.
Thousands of workers for private contractors have been confined to their quarters in the highly fortified Green Zone in Baghdad that also houses the headquarters of the U.S. occupation authority. Routine trips outside the compound to repair power plants, water-treatment facilities and other parts of Iraq's crumbling infrastructure have been deemed too dangerous, even with armed escorts.
Compounding the problem is a growing fear that insurgents will seek retribution against Iraqis working for private contractors and the occupation authority. Scores of Iraqis have stopped showing up for their jobs"
Bush asked for military 'options' in Iraq in November 2001: "Rumsfeld about possible actions in Iraq just two months after the September 11 attacks, while the United States was embroiled in the war in Afghanistan
... "The president apparently did talk to Don Rumsfeld and say to him, you know, 'I need to know what my options might be concerning Iraq'," Rice told "Fox News Sunday."
"We planned for Afghanistan, we fought the war in Afghanistan. By the end of November, things started to wind down in Afghanistan, and I do think the president's mind was beginning to move to what else he would have to do to deal with the blow, with the threat that had emerged as a result of 9/11."
A new book said Bush began planning to attack Iraq in December two years ago despite repeated comments Washington was seeking a diplomatic way out of the standoff with Baghdad."
99 U.S. Soldiers in Iraq Killed in April: "The deaths brought to 99 the number of U.S. troops killed in violence since April 1."
Saturday, April 17, 2004
War's Full Fury Is Suddenly Everywhere: "The atmosphere in Iraq has completely changed. In just a week, a fading guerrilla war has exploded into a popular uprising. 'Six months of work is completely gone,'' said a State Department official working in southern Iraq. 'There is nothing to show for it.''
It was as if the clock had been set back to the early days of occupation. Again tanks are blasting apart targets in Baghdad neighborhoods. Cities like Falluja and Ramadi are under siege or, more accurately, re-siege.
But there is a difference. Back then, last April, when I was a reporter embedded with the United States Army, Iraq seemed as if it was slowly coming under control. Now, after three months on my current stint here, that nascent sense of order is collapsing into chaos.
... Why now?
two things happened - clear in retrospect - that helped unravel what little hope was here.
The first was hundreds of miles away. On March 22, in the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces assassinated Sheik Ahmed Yassin, the leader of Hamas and a hero to Palestinians. Outraged Arabs hit the streets in Baghdad and other Middle Eastern capitals. Many Americans in Iraq braced for reprisals.
A few days after Sheik Yassin was killed, American authorities shut down the Hawza newspaper, the mouthpiece of Moktada al-Sadr, a radical Shiite cleric. The paper had been accused of printing lies. But closing it only played into Mr. Sadr's hand, fueling huge protests by his followers.
Then Falluja happened. The group that took responsibility said it was avenging Sheik Yassin.
The sheik's ghost returned to Iraq once more, on April 2, when Mr. Sadr announced that he was opening the Iraqi chapters of Hezbollah and Hamas, pro-Palestinian groups responsible for attacks on Israel.
The next day American authorities announced arrest warrants for several of Mr. Sadr's followers. His was soon to follow. Last Sunday, Iraq erupted. Mr. Sadr ordered his followers to take over government offices in Shiite areas across the country. In just days, the fighting pulled in thousands of people who weren't fighters before, and who took on a new identity. Until then, the insurgency had been a mysterious force behind a red and white checkered scarf. It had no uniform, no ideology, no face.
But Mr. Sadr provided that. Posters of him are everywhere now, even in Sunni strongholds like Falluja, something unthinkable before this crisis."
Memo to Bush: How to Evade Questions, Gracefully: "This is the first time I've seen a president who was not prepared."
Bush's strength is also his weakness - he's an unmovable rock | csmonitor.com: "Like all computers, the president moves quickly and crisply, but the very thing that allows him to move so fast, a preprogrammed set of assumptions on most issues, can lead (and has led) to poor choices. This administration sees the world in binary code (good/evil, right/wrong). A series of if/then statements determines the course of action. And once the decision has been made, there's no questioning it. Examples abound.
If we cut taxes, then the economy will improve. This is a fact in the president's mind. You say the evidence hasn't borne this out so far? You say the cuts have led to massive deficits? That's irrelevant. Don't you know the if/then sequence?"
9/11: A failure of Leadership: "Despite all the faults and errors that occurred prior to Sept. 11 in all the agencies of government, there is one place that is supposed to check them and set priorities for the nation as a whole, and its address is 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."
Refugees tell of rising anger in Fallujah | csmonitor.com: "the problem is no longer between the Americans and Moqtada al-Sadr's army. Now, the problem is between America and Iraq"
The offense in Bush's 9/11 defense | csmonitor.com: "We all know by now that, on Aug. 6, 2001, Mr. Bush received a briefing from the CIA warning about 'patterns of suspicious activity ... consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks.' That's not a 'historical' document, as National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice testified before the 9/11 Commission last week - that's an alarm bell that should have been heard.
But Bush wasn't listening, at least not closely. He said: 'There was nothing in this report to me that said, 'Oh, by the way, we've got intelligence that says something is about to happen in America.'' It was not a warning, he continued, about 'a hijacking of an airplane to fly into a building,' but rather about possibly 'hijacking of airplanes in order to free somebody that was being held as a prisoner in the United States.'"
U.S. Closes Two Highways Into Baghdad: "BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military closed down two major highways into Baghdad on Saturday in the latest disruption caused by intensified attacks by anti-U.S. insurgents. U.S. and Iraqi negotiators reported progress in talks aimed at easing the fighting in Fallujah, while the besieged city saw its quietest day yet.
Sections of the two highways, north and south of the capital, were closed off to repair damage from a mounting number of roadside bombs. Commanders suggested the routes remained vulnerable to attacks by insurgents who have been targeting U.S. military supply lines."
Kerry Attacks Bush Officials Who Received Draft Deferrals: "'I'm tired of these Republicans, who spend so much time denigrating Democrats and other people's commitment to the defense of our nation,' Mr. Kerry, the Democrats' presumptive presidential nominee, told thousands of students at the University of Pittsburgh.
'I went,' added Mr. Kerry, a decorated Navy combat veteran. 'I'm not going to listen to them talk to me about patriotism and how asking questions about the direction of our country somehow challenges patriotism, because asking questions about the direction of our country is patriotism.'
The sharp words came a day before Mr. Cheney was expected to attack Mr. Kerry when the vice president delivered the keynote address at the National Rifle Association convention in Pittsburgh..
Mr. Cheney received a student deferment from the draft in 1963, when he was attending Casper College in Wyoming, and another when he went to graduate school in 1965. As an expectant father the next year, he received a hardship deferment. "
9/11 Files Show Warnings Were Urgent and Persistent: "the lengthy documentary record makes clear that predictions of an attack by al Qaeda had been communicated directly to the highest levels of the government.
The threat reports were more clear, urgent and persistent than was previously known. Some focused on al Qaeda's plans to use commercial aircraft as weapons. Others stated that Osama bin Laden was intent on striking on United States soil. Many were passed to the Federal Aviation Administration.
While some of the intelligence went back years, other warnings - including one that Al Qaeda seemed interested in hijacking a plane inside this country - had been delivered to the president on Aug. 6, 2001, just a month earlier.
The new information produced by the commission so far has led 6 of its 10 members to say or suggest that the attacks could have been prevented, though there is no consensus on when, how, or by whom. The commission's chairman, Thomas H. Kean, a Republican, has described failures at every level of government, any of which, if avoided, could have altered the outcome. Mr. Kerrey, a Democrat, said, 'My conclusion is that it could have been prevented. That was not my conclusion when I went on the commission.'
... Mr. Bush, who is in the midst of a campaign for re-election, said last week that none of the warnings gave any hint of the time, place or date of an assault. "Had I known there was going to be an attack on America I would have moved mountains to stop the attack," he said."
