Reflections on the "New American" Revolution
Saturday, July 31, 2004
Bush--The Arabian Candidate, Largely Funded by Saudis: "Unger estimates that $1.476bn has made its way over time from the Saudis to the House of Bush, and its allied companies and institutions. He writes: 'It could safely be said that never before in history had a presidential candidate - much less a presidential candidate and his father, a former president - been so closely tied financially and personally to the ruling family of another foreign power. Never before had a president's fortunes and public policies been so deeply entwined with another nation.' "
Frenchmen Say Guantanamo Detention Was Like Hell: "Mourad Benchellali and Nizar Sassi had concerns 'about the interrogation techniques and medical experiments' at Guantanamo, Jacques Debray said outside the headquarters of the DST domestic intelligence service where the two men were being questioned.
A letter from Sassi said 'bizarre' medicines had been given to inmates at night and that one caused some prisoners to break out in spots, Debray told reporters. He gave no other details.
'Each of (the two men) used the same expression, 'We have emerged from hell',' Debray said."
Citing His Success in Policy, Bush Re-enters Fray: " President Bush opened a new campaign offensive on Friday by saying that he had delivered results in education, health care, the economy and national security, ... On each issue, he said, 'we are turning the corner, and we're not turning back.'"
Running on results? Great... his results are trillions of dollars in debt, a rise in terrorism, an invasion that has killed almost 1,000 of our troops and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, and on and on... anybody who really votes for Bush's results will vote against him.
By their fruits, you shall know them!
High Qaeda Aide Retracted Claim of Link With Iraq: "A senior leader of Al Qaeda who was captured in Pakistan several months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks was the main source for intelligence, since discredited, that Iraq had provided training in chemical and biological weapons to members of the organization, according to American intelligence officials.
Intelligence officials say the detainee, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a member of Osama bin Laden's inner circle, recanted the claims sometime last year, but not before they had become the basis of statements by President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and others about links between Iraq and Al Qaeda that involved poisons, gases and other illicit weapons."
So the source of these claims retracted his statements last year, but Bush and Cheney are continuing to claim that there was an operational link. Even after the 9/11 commission refuted that, they continued to claim it. And they want another four years? They should get four years in prison.
Friday, July 30, 2004
The New York Times > National > New Deficit View to Fuel Campaign Fight: "The White House's projection of a record federal deficit that could approach $450 billion this year will further fuel a campaign-season dispute over President Bush's handling of the economy.
Bush's budget office planned to release its latest forecast Friday. Its magnitude, described by congressional aides speaking on condition of anonymity, will easily surpass last year's $375 billion, the largest ever in dollar terms."
And you know what they say about this? "it shows improvement over early this year"! God help us.
What it shows is that this crew are totally out of control. Demanding even larger tax cuts as they borrow hundreds of billions to pay for the deficit. They must be completely insane.
Yahoo! News - New York oil contract sets new record 43.48 dollars: "New York's main crude oil contract surged in opening trade to a new all-time record... Light sweet crude for delivery in September rose 73 cents to 43.48 dollars a barrel."
See what having a "strong leader" and someone who represents "big oil" gets you... a crappy economy, stunning budget deficits as far as anyone can see and now: an oil price shock... that should help the overall economic decline that Bush seems so resolute about leading us into, given the threats to the oil supply as a result of the Iraq invasion.
I don't care what you say, we should still make the tax cuts for millionaires permanent. That is all what we need now. That and anti ballistic missile defence and a war against Iraq.
U.S. Economy Slows Dramatically in Spring: "The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of just 3 percent in the spring, a dramatic slowdown from the rapid pace of the past year, as consumer spending fell to the weakest rate since the slowdown of 2001, the government reported Friday.
... gross domestic product, the country's total output of goods and services, slowed sharply in the April-June quarter from a 4.5 percent growth rate in the first three months of the year.
The size of the slowdown caught economists by surprise. Many had been looking for GDP (news - web sites) growth to come in around 3.8 percent in the second quarter. Even that would have been a sharp deceleration for an economy that had been growing at a 5.4 percent annual rate through the year ending in March."
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Iraq now an Al-Qaeda battleground, British report says: "The US-led coalition's failure to restore security has turned Iraq into a battleground for the likes of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, a British parliamentary committee said.
In a major report on the war on terrorism, the House of Commons foreign affairs committee said the lack of law and order had created a 'vacuum' for criminals and militias, with 'appalling consequences' for the Iraqi people. "
Yahoo! News - Iraq now an Al-Qaeda battleground, British report says: "The US-led coalition's failure to restore security has turned Iraq into a battleground for the likes of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network, a British parliamentary committee said.
In a major report on the war on terrorism, the House of Commons foreign affairs committee said the lack of law and order had created a 'vacuum' for criminals and militias, with 'appalling consequences' for the Iraqi people. "
I.R.S. Says Americans' Income Shrank for 2 Consecutive Years: "Adjusted for inflation, the income of all Americans fell 9.2 percent from 2000 to 2002, according to the new I.R.S. data"
The New York Times > Washington > Whistle-Blowing Said to Be Factor in an F.B.I. Firing: "A classified Justice Department investigation has concluded that a former F.B.I. translator at the center of a growing controversy was dismissed in part because she accused the bureau of ineptitude, and it found that the F.B.I. did not aggressively investigate her claims of espionage against a co-worker.
The Justice Department's inspector general concluded that the allegations by the translator, Sibel Edmonds, "were at least a contributing factor in why the F.B.I. terminated her services," and the F.B.I. is considering disciplinary action against some employees as a result, Robert S. Mueller III, director of the bureau, said in a letter last week to lawmakers. A copy of the letter was obtained by The New York Times."
The Unbearable Costs of Empire: "the U.S. simply can't afford the role of global cop
... For fiscal 2005, which begins in October, the U.S. gross federal debt is projected to be $8.1 trillion, or 67.5% of GDP. By the time 100,000 U.S. troops were in Vietnam in 1965, it was 46.9% and falling.
One technical point that's vitally important here: It's the gross federal debt and deficits that matter, not the smaller 'debt held by the public' and 'unified budget deficit' that are generally cited in the press. For example, the most commonly reported estimate of the annual federal budget deficit is $478 billion for 2004. But this number is misleading, ... The annual federal budget deficit is, therefore, $639 billion, according to the numbers from the Congressional Budget Office. This is 5.6% of GDP, a near-record level for the post-World War II era. "
Iraq may fail as a state, warn MPs: "The government's handling of the 'war on terror' received a damning appraisal this morning, as senior MPs warned that, more than a year after the invasion, Iraq was in danger of turning into a 'failed state' and that Afghanistan 'could implode'.
... the "coalition's failure to bring law and order to parts of Iraq created a vacuum into which criminal elements and militias have stepped".
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
On the 2nd Night, Unity Is the Theme for the Democrats: "In America, the true patriots are those who dare speak truth to power. The truth we must speak now is that America has responsibilities that it is time for us accept again.'"
GOP Senator Criticizes Bush for Iraq War: "Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee criticized the Bush administration on Tuesday for a 'host of mistakes' in its postwar reconstruction of Iraq, saying the country is less secure than before and that basic infrastructure is still not working.
The senator, who was the only Republican to vote against the White House war resolution in October 2002 leading up to the invasion of Iraq, said the U.S. effort will fail if the White House does not work more closely with other countries in the region and re-engage itself in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
Election Fraud: "t's election night, and early returns suggest trouble for the incumbent. Then, mysteriously, the vote count stops and observers from the challenger's campaign see employees of a voting-machine company, one wearing a badge that identifies him as a county official, typing instructions at computers with access to the vote-tabulating software.
When the count resumes, the incumbent pulls ahead. The challenger demands an investigation. But there are no ballots to recount, and election officials allied with the incumbent refuse to release data that could shed light on whether there was tampering with the electronic records.
This isn't a paranoid fantasy. It's a true account of a recent election in Riverside County, Calif., reported by Andrew Gumbel of the British newspaper The Independent. Mr. Gumbel's full-length report, printed in Los Angeles City Beat, makes hair-raising reading not just because it reinforces concerns about touch-screen voting, but also because it shows how easily officials can stonewall after a suspect election."
Fear of Fraud: "Jeb Bush says he won't allow an independent examination of voting machines because he has 'every confidence' in his handpicked election officials. Yet those officials have a history of slipshod performance on other matters related to voting and somehow their errors always end up favoring Republicans. Why should anyone trust their verdict on the integrity of voting machines, when another convenient mistake could deliver a Republican victory in a high-stakes national election? "
Monday, July 26, 2004
Western Ways Force Iraq to Trim Water Projects: "Rising security and other overhead costs of Western contractors are cutting into the billions of dollars set aside for some 90 planned water projects, allowing them to supply only half the potable water originally expected, Iraqi officials say.
Scaling back the projects by that much would vastly reduce the benefits for the citizens of a country that already meets no more than 60 to 80 percent of the demand for water on a given day, depending on the region. The Iraqi government estimates may also have wider repercussions, because they provide the first concrete measure of how the continuing violence in Iraq could affect the $18.4 billion reconstruction program approved by Congress last fall.
That program covers numerous infrastructure areas, including transportation, oil, electricity, sewage - and of course water, the sector covered by the Iraqi estimates. Over all, about $4.3 billion was set aside for water and public works, of which about $2.8 billion has been released so far."
UN envoy slams US-led invasion: "'The war in Iraq was useless, it caused more problems than it solved, and it brought in terrorism,' said Brahimi, in Austria for an official visit.
The UN official said he believed Iraq could eventually become a normal country, but that 'the question is, how long that will take and how much it will cost. So far the cost has been very high.'
Iraq's interim government, he said, faced a challenge in proving that it was not 'a puppet of the Americans, which is difficult to do when there are 150,000 foreign soldiers in the country.' "
Officers Question Visibility of Army in Iraq (washingtonpost.com): "The new argument against 'presence' as a military goal was put most strongly by Keith W. Mines, a former Special Forces officer who served a tour last year as the U.S. occupation authority's representative for Al Anbar Province in western Iraq. 'The presence of foreign security forces is provoking the very instability that must diminish in order for the process to work,' Mines, who is now a State Department diplomat, wrote in an essay published by the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a pro-defense think tank that tends to espouse mainstream Republican views. 'Coalition forces are not only not stopping most of the violence, they are the active force which is provoking it.'
In a follow-up internal cable sent last month on the State Department's formal 'dissent channel,' Mines also argued for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops, with a reduction from dozens of bases now to just seven in January, followed by a complete pullout in the spring.
... Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack Jr., who commanded the 82nd Airborne Division in western Iraq for much of the past year, said he generally endorses the idea of putting Iraqi security forces at the fore while U.S. troops move to the background. The problem, he said in a talk in Washington last month, was that the U.S. aid program has been too sluggish to put that theory into practice."
Sunday, July 25, 2004
The New York Times > Washington > In a Shift, Bush Moves to Block Medical Suits: "The Bush administration has been going to court to block lawsuits by consumers who say they have been injured by prescription drugs and medical devices.
... The administration said its position, holding that individual consumers have no right to sue, actually benefited consumers.
... Bush administration officials said their goal was not to shield drug companies, but to vindicate the federal government's authority to regulate drug products."
This is the crowd that wants to eliminate government, get it out of our lives, except for blocking our right to redress against bad products and services. Then it has the gall to say it is protecting consumers. Right! This crowd should be in jail for fraud.
What is really going on here is an attempt to eliminate the judiciary. They intend to control everything that happens in our society, and the judiciary are independent. Therefore they have to curb the power of the judges and juries. They already control 2 branches of government, and now they are curbing the powers of the people to seek redress through the third branch.
They are putting judges in place who agree with their agenda. So they know they will be supported in their illegal acts to concentrate power in the executive.
Look at their efforts to put people in jail without the right to see a lawyer, seek a writ of habeas corpus--in other words, without any human rights! Coupled with that, they denied the Geneva conventions apply to people they choose. In other words, they think they can do anything they want--even kill people who they are holding in prison.
That is the kind of government this GOP wants. And if you vote for them, you should be clear what you are doing: you are voting for a dictatorship and an end to the American Republic.
Don't be fooled by their "patriot" spiel. They are subversives. They are stealing your country and making a mockery of your constitution. It puts power in us, "the People". They don't trust the people. They don't want independence. They want power.
Wake up! There is great evil in the country, but it's not all Al Qaeda. It's at the highest levels of our government and needs to be excised. And out best chance in coming right up in Nov.
Vote Kerry.
Spinning Our Safety: "Maybe it's because so many of those federal twits who missed the 10 chances to stop the 9/11 hijackers, who blew off our Paul Reveres - Richard Clarke, Coleen Rowley and the Phoenix memo author - still run things. Call me crazy, Mr. President, but I don't feel any safer.
The nation's mesmerizing new best seller, the 9/11 commission report, lays bare how naked we still are against an attack, and how vulnerable we are because of the time and money the fuzzy-headed Bush belligerents wasted going after the wrong target.
Even scarier, the commissioners expect Congress, which they denounced as 'dysfunctional' on intelligence oversight, to get busy fixing things just as lawmakers are flying home for vacation.
The report offers vivid details on our worst fears. Instead of focusing on immediately hitting back at Osama, Bush officials indulged their idiotic id�e fixe on Saddam and ignored the memo from their counter-terrorism experts dismissing any connection between the religious fanatic bin Laden and the secular Hussein.
'On the afternoon of 9/11, according to contemporaneous notes, Secretary Rumsfeld instructed General Myers to obtain quickly as much information as possible,' the report says. ' The notes indicate that he also told Myers that he was not simply interested in striking empty training sites. The secretary said his instinct was to hit Saddam Hussein at the same time - not only bin Laden.'
At the first Camp David meeting after 9/11, the report states, 'Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz made the case for striking Iraq during 'this round' of the war on terrorism.'
Six days after the World Trade Center towers were pulverized, when we should have been striking Osama with everything we had, the Bush team was absorbed with old grudges"
Saturday, July 24, 2004
Richard Clarke on 9/11 Report: Honorable Commission, Toothless Report: "mericans owe the 9/11 commission a deep debt for its extensive exposition of the facts surrounding the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. Yet, because the commission had a goal of creating a unanimous report from a bipartisan group, it softened the edges and left it to the public to draw many conclusions. Among the obvious truths that were documented but unarticulated were the facts that the Bush administration did little on terrorism before 9/11, and that by invading Iraq the administration has left us less safe as a nation. (Fortunately, opinion polls show that the majority of Americans have already come to these conclusions on their own. )
What the commissioners did clearly state was that Iraq had no collaborative relationship with Al Qaeda and no hand in 9/11. They also disclosed that Iran provided support to Al Qaeda, including to some 9/11 hijackers. These two facts may cause many people to conclude that the Bush administration focused on the wrong country. They would be right to think that.
So what now? News coverage of the commission's recommendations has focused on the organizational improvements: a new cabinet-level national intelligence director and a new National Counterterrorism Center to ensure that our 15 or so intelligence agencies play well together. Both are good ideas, but they are purely incremental. Had these changes been made six years ago, they would not have significantly altered the way we dealt with Al Qaeda; they certainly would not have prevented 9/11. Putting these recommendations in place will marginally improve our ability to crush the new, decentralized Al Qaeda, but there are other changes that would help more.
First, we need not only a more powerful person at the top of t"
G.O.P. Blames Clinton for Intelligence Failures: "'The report covers eight years of the Clinton administration and eight months of the Bush administration,' Mr. Hastert said, insisting at the same time that he did not want to see the report turned into a 'political football' during an election year.
... Representative Roy Blunt of Missouri, the House Republican whip, said that "clearly eight months of the Bush administration was not going to change all of the policies and procedures of eight years of the Clinton administration."
This slanted criticism would have more credibility if they took some cognizance of the Bush administration's failures. As it is, they are just throwing shit and hoping some of it will stick. I can smell it boys... you stink.
Correcting the Record on Sept. 11, in Great Detail: "Bush received an August 2001 briefing on evidence of continuing domestic terrorist threats from Al Qaeda."
Bush continues to lie about this. He did nothing to prevent the attacks. He continued to say he would have done something if he was warned. Now he's been warned again and he says he'll do something if he decides its necessary.
We can't afford someone so unconscious and so arrogant in power.
Is Bush Trustworthy?: "When asked by The New York Times and CBS News in June whether Mr. Bush was being completely honest about the war in Iraq, 20 percent of voters said he was mostly lying and 59 percent said he was hiding something. Only 18 percent thought he was telling the entire truth."
Trouble ahead for Bush from 9/11 panel: "Members of the commission investigating the September 11 terror attacks have injected a potentially unsettling element into President George Bush's re-election campaign by deciding not to disband.
... the decision ensures that 9/11 and Iraq will remain at the forefront of the election campaign. "
Friday, July 23, 2004
Guantanamo Techniques Improperly Used Elsewhere, Report Finds: "Military interrogators working in Iraq and Afghanistan improperly embraced harsh techniques that had been approved only for use on detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a 321-page report released Thursday by the Army Inspector General.
The report, written by Lt. Gen. Paul Mikolashek, said commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan incorporated the harsher techniques into their interrogation policies based in part on memos they had read about the Guantanamo interrogations.
But the report said the commanders failed 'take into account that different standards applied' to Guantanamo, where suspected members of al-Qaida were not covered by the Geneva Conventions, and in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the Geneva Conventions largely applied. "
More Troops Killed in July than June in Iraq, says Military: "More U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq during the first three weeks of July than in the entire month of June, dashing hopes that the handover of sovereignty at the end of last month would ease U.S. losses or bring Iraqis a respite from violence.
During June, 26 American soldiers died in hostile fire in Iraq. As of Thursday, 30 had been killed so far in July, according to numbers from U.S. Central Command.
The fighting between insurgents and American soldiers has not diminished, particularly in Iraq's Anbar province, where U.S. forces had scaled back patrols after more than a year of fierce battles.
On Wednesday, a U.S. Marine convoy was hit by a roadside bomb in Ramadi, the provincial seat, and the firefight that followed raged for most of the day. By the end, 25 insurgents were killed and 14 troops were wounded. "
Who was to blame? We still do not have the answers, say disappointed relatives: "'It's not that I am surprised, because politicians have always been the same for hundreds of years. What angers me and annoys me is that no one has been held accountable for what they didn't do,' she says. 'No one has been fired, and no one has been reprimanded, and some have even been promoted.' "
Who was to blame? We still do not have the answers, say disappointed relatives: "With the level of failure that took place, with the degree of death, how come after all of this, they could discover there was no one really accountable?"
LA Weekly: News: The Cheney Connection: "If these were legitimate business payments, why route them to secret foreign bank accounts? Were they, perhaps, just old-fashioned, Enron-style boodling? Or destined to be laundered as bribes? Or were they ultimately intended for GOP coffers (one of the hypotheses Judge Van Ruymbeke is not excluding)? And where did the rest of the $180 million go?"
Pentagon Finds, Releases Bush's Missing Guard Records (washingtonpost.com): "Like records released earlier by the White House, the newly released computerized payroll records show no indication Bush drilled with the Alabama unit during July, August and September of 1972. Pay records covering all of 1972, released previously, also indicated no guard service for Bush during those three months.
The records do not give any new information toward determining whether Bush kept his National Guard commitments during 1972"
Accounting and Accountability: "Last month we learned that the United States, while it has spent vast sums on the war in Iraq, has so far provided almost no aid. Of $18.4 billion in reconstruction funds approved by Congress, only $400 million has been disbursed.
Almost all of the money spent by the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq until late June, came from Iraqi sources, mainly oil revenues. This revelation helps explain one puzzle: the sluggish pace of reconstruction, which has yet to restore many essential services to prewar levels.
... the [Iraq] war, fed by the failure of reconstruction, goes on. The transfer doesn't seem to have made any difference: more American soldiers were killed in the first three weeks of July than in all of June, even though Knight-Ridder reports that the U.S. military has stopped patrolling in much of Anbar Province, the heart of the insurgency.
And while the U.S. has yet to disburse any significant amount of aid, the Government Accountability Office says that war costs for this fiscal year alone will run $12.3 billion above Pentagon projections.
Will anyone be held accountable? "
U.S. Teaches Torture: "Remember how congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle deplored the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib as "un-American"? Last Thursday, however, the House quietly passed a renewed appropriation that keeps open the U.S.�s most infamous torture-teaching institution, known as the School of the Americas (SOA), where the illegal physical and psychological abuse of prisoners of the kind the world condemned at Abu Ghraib and worse has been routinely taught for years.
... The interrogation manuals long used at the SOA were made public in May by the National Security Archive, an independent research group, and posted on its Web site after they were declassified following Freedom of Information Act requests by, among others, the Baltimore Sun. In releasing the manuals, the NSA noted that they “describe ‘coercive techniques’ such as those used to mistreat the detainees at Abu Ghraib.”
The Abu Ghraib torture techniques have been field-tested by SOA graduates — seven of the U.S. Army interrogation manuals that were translated into Spanish, used at the SOA’s trainings and distributed to our allies, offered instruction on torture, beatings and assassination. As Dr. Miles Schuman, a physician with the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture who has documented torture cases and counseled their victims, graphically wrote in the May 14 Toronto Globe and Mail under the headline “Abu Ghraib: The Rule, Not the Exception”:
“The black hood covering the faces of naked prisoners in Abu Ghraib was known as la capuchi in Guatemalan and Salvadoran torture chambers. The metal bed frame to which the naked and hooded detainee was bound in a crucifix position in Abu Ghraib was la cama, named for a former Chilean prisoner who survived the U.S.-installed regime of General Augusto Pinochet. In her case, electrodes were attached to her arms, legs and genitalia, just as they were attached to the Iraqi detainee poised on a box, threatened with electrocution if he fell off. The Iraqi man bound naked on the ground with a leash attached to his neck, held by a smiling young American recruit, reminds me of the son of peasant organizers who recounted his agonizing torture at the hands of the Tonton Macoutes, U.S.-backed dictator John-Claude (Baby Doc) Duvalier’s right-hand thugs, in Port-au-Prince in 1984. The very act of photographing those tortured in Abu Ghraib to humiliate and silence parallels the experience of an American missionary, Sister Diana Ortiz,” who was tortured and gang-raped repeatedly under supervision by an American in 1989, according to her testimony before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus."
U.S. Public Found to Reject Detainee Torture and Coercion: "66 percent of the U.S. believe that 'governments should never use physical torture' and that 60 percent believe that all captured individuals should have the right to appeal their status to a neutral judge, even if they are not conventional soldiers as defined by the Geneva Conventions.
Seventy-seven percent of respondents said a soldier should have the right to refuse to follow an order if he or she believes that it was a violation of international law.
It also found that supporters of President George W. Bush (news - web sites) were more likely to support harsher treatment of detainees than independents or respondents who said they intended to vote for Sen. John Kerry (news - web sites) in the November elections. Forty-four percent of the 892 randomly chosen adults said they intended to vote for Kerry; 40 percent for Bush, four percent for independent candidate Ralph Nader (news - web sites), while the rest gave not answer or were undecided.
Survey conducted by the University of Maryland's Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA)"
Thursday, July 22, 2004
Panel Warns Deadlier Attacks Are Likely: "The commission chairman, Thomas H. Kean, said the worst failure of all was 'a failure of imagination,' in the sense that the signs had existed for years that an attack was coming. As the report itself put it, 'The 9/11 attacks were a shock, but they should not have come as a surprise.'"
Still no accountability!
Bush Talks of Peace and Prosperity (washingtonpost.com): "President Bush turned abruptly last night from the martial rhetoric that had marked the first year of his reelection campaign and unveiled fall themes emphasizing his quest for peace abroad and his plans to make the nation more prosperous through what he called 'a new era of ownership.'
Bush said his goals include improving accountability in high school education and making health care more available and affordable. Responding to the economic hardships that have hurt his approval ratings, Bush said he wants to make the nation 'even more job-friendly' through such longtime conservative goals as restraining regulations, taxes and lawsuits."
The resolute "War President" is now calling himself the Peace President (he makes a great pair with Ariel Sharon)... I'm just waiting to hear him accuse Kerry of U-turns!
Panel: U.S. Underestimated Pre-9/11 Threat (washingtonpost.com): "...'none of the measures adopted by the U.S. government from 1998 to 2001 disturbed or even delayed the progress of the al Qaeda plot. Across the government, there were failures of imagination, policy, capabilities and management.'
The report adds: 'The most important failure was one of imagination. We do not believe leaders understood the gravity of the threat.'
... Bush said. "I assured them that where government needs to act, we will."
Bush said. "I assured them that where government needs to act, we will.""
Right! Bush didn't act before when he recieved warnings saying "BIN LADIN DETERMINED TO ATTACK U.S." I don't expect him to do anything useful now.
U.S. Reports 94 Cases of Prisoner Abuse: "The U.S. military has found 94 cases of confirmed or alleged abuse of prisoners by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan since the fall of 2001, the Army's inspector general said Thursday in a long-awaited report made public at a hastily called Senate hearing.
The number is significantly higher than all other previous estimates given by the Pentagon, which had refused until now to give a total number of abuse allegations.
... In contrast to its own findings that there were no systemic problems, however, the Army report also cites a February report from the International Committee for the Red Cross that alleged that "methods of ill treatment" were "used in a systematic way" by the U.S. military in Iraq."
Yahoo! News - New hostage drama grips Iraq as US military slays 25 rebels: "Several foreigners taken hostage in Iraq were dressed in orange outfits similar to those worn by prisoners at the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and then slain by their captors. "
This "war on terror" is a war we can never win. We value human life. The terrorists don't. Every time we sacrifice our human rights, we give them a victory. Every time we deny others human rights we sacrifice our security. And these gruesome deaths in orange jump suits confirm that. They are a message that says, you have abused our brothers, and now we are killing you in revenge.
So that's what the war in terror is doing. It is escalating the cycle of violence. It is degrading us. And it is feeding the very thing we are trying to stop. It is an appalling policy. It must be stopped, along with pretty much all the other policies of this current administration.
Bush out. Kerry in. He's not so different in his focus, but I think he'll use different methods. And that could make a huge difference.
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Panel to Hear of Halliburton Waste (washingtonpost.com): "[Halliburton procurement officer] Mancini said in a recent interview, he watched as colleagues at Halliburton subsidiary KBR paid inflated fees for cell phone services, bought hundred of rolls of duct tape for $60 each and obscured the waste by failing to file paperwork properly. In one case, he said, a fellow procurement employee recorded a multimillion-dollar purchase as a $200 order, then dismissed it as a mistake.
After he and others raised questions, Mancini said, the company sent in a team to prepare for government audits. 'The waste was unbelievable,' said Mancini, who left KBR after three months. 'This was pure negligence.'
Stories like Mancini's will be the focus of a hearing today by the House Committee on Government Reform, as it examines allegations of waste, abuse and profiteering related to the Army's contracts in Iraq with Halliburton, the oil services company that Dick Cheney ran from 1995 to 2000. "
All this is coming at a time when the troops are running out of ammunition, and the army and air force are running out of funds to fight the war in Iraq. Why? Because of the cost of the contracts with Halliburton in large part.
So what is the war about? Enrichment for Halliburton shareholders?
War Funds Dwindling, GAO Warns (washingtonpost.com): "Already, the GAO said, the services have deferred the repair of equipment used in Iraq, grounded some Air Force and Navy pilots, canceled training exercises, and delayed facility-restoration projects. The Air Force is straining to cover the cost of body armor for airmen in combat areas, night-vision gear and surveillance equipment, according to the report.
The Army, which is overspending its budget by $10.2 billion for operations and maintenance, is asking the Marines and the Air Force to help cover the escalating costs of its logistics contract with Halliburton Co. But the Air Force is also exceeding its budget by $1.4 billion, while the Marines are coming up $500 million short. The Army is even having trouble paying the contractors guarding its garrisons outside the war zones, the report said. "
What a fiasco! The armed services are forgoing training to fund their contracts with Halliburton! And the White House has the gall to say, "This president has said repeatedly the troops will have what they need, when they need it. That's why he has stood steadfastly in support of funding for our troops."
Report Criticizes Halliburton Iraq Logistics Deal: "KBR has contracts in Iraq worth up to $18 billion"
U.S. Toll at 900 as Six More Hostages Held in Iraq: "The U.S. death toll since the start of the war rose to 900 when a roadside bomb killed a soldier. "
Ala. Doctor Reactivated for Iraq War at 68: "At 68, many people are slowing down. Not John Wicks: He's going to Iraq. Wicks, a psychiatrist, has been called out of military retirement by the Army to fill a shortage of mental health experts needed to help soldiers cope with combat. He could be gone as long as a year. "
Things are getting really desperate when they are recalling people in their late 60's.
Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Republicans Blast President Bush on Environment: "'It's almost as if the motto of the administration in power today in Washington is not environmental protection, but polluter protection,' he said. 'I find this deeply disturbing.' "
A Shrinking Base Among Military Families (washingtonpost.com): "There's not a lot of positive affirmation about why George W. Bush should be president. We just want to let people know, he's not as bad as people think"
Monday, July 19, 2004
US Media Kills Story that Iraqi PM Executed 6 Prisoners: "Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi personally executed six suspected insurgents in a Baghdad police station.
The story by award-winning Australian journalist Paul McGeough said that the prisoners were handcuffed and blindfolded, lined up against a courtyard wall and shot by the Iraqi PM. Dr Allawi is alleged to have told those around him that he wanted to send a clear message to the police on how to deal with insurgents. Two people allege they witnessed the killings and there are also claims the Iraqi interior minister and four American men were present. "
Saturday, July 17, 2004
'Secret Film Shows Iraq Prisoners Sodomized': "Seymour Hersh... said: 'The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack, of the boys shrieking. And this is your government at war.'
He accused the US administration, and all but accused President George Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney of complicity in covering up what he called 'war crimes'. "
Friday, July 16, 2004
Medical Class Warfare: "Kerry offers a health care plan that would extend coverage to most of those now uninsured, paid for by rolling back tax cuts for those with incomes over $200,000. President Bush offers a tax credit that would extend coverage to fewer than 5 percent of the uninsured, plus a new tax break for the affluent that would actually increase the number of uninsured. "
Medical Class Warfare: "Kerry offers a health care plan that would extend coverage to most of those now uninsured, paid for by rolling back tax cuts for those with incomes over $200,000. President Bush offers a tax credit that would extend coverage to fewer than 5 percent of the uninsured, plus a new tax break for the affluent that would actually increase the number of uninsured. "
Thursday, July 15, 2004
More cases of mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners : "More cases of possible mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners have come to Congress' attention and need investigation by the Pentagon, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Thursday
... each day that comes along, new incidents that occurred in the past" are revealed and will need to be investigated, Warner said.
Despite a number of hearings and media revelations in the months since the abuse scandal broke, questions linger about the extent of wrongdoing at U.S. military prisons, how it happened and who should be held accountable."
What about the images in Fahrenheit 911? Who's investigating the abuse of the prisoners filmed by Michael Moore?
Election Troubles Already Descending on Florida: "Florida is grappling with some of the same problems that threw the 2000 presidential election into chaos, as well as new ones that critics say could cause even more confusion this November. "
The CIA's Prisoners (washingtonpost.com): "FOR DECADES the United States led the denunciation of despots whose enemies 'disappear' -- vanish into official custody, with no accounting for their whereabouts or treatment, no notification of their families and sometimes, no acknowledgement that they are being held. Now that same term is being applied to prisoners held by the Bush administration in the war on terrorism. According to the International Red Cross, a number of people apparently in U.S. custody are unaccounted for. Most are believed to be held by the CIA in secret facilities outside the United States. Contrary to the Geneva Conventions, the detainees have never been visited by the Red Cross; contrary to U.S. and international law, some reportedly have been subjected to interrogation techniques that most legal authorities regard as torture. According to the independent group Human Rights Watch, this exceptional practice is 'perhaps unprecedented in U.S. history.' Like the Pentagon's mishandling of Iraqi detainees, it cries out for congressional review and reform.
... What is known, mostly through leaks to the media, is that several of the CIA's detainees probably have been tortured -- and that a controversial Justice Department opinion defending such abuse was written after the fact to justify the activity. "
Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Senate Intelligence investigation flawed: "The Senate investigation of pre-war intelligence repeated the mistakes it was designed to address, reports Julian Borger "
Advocates of War Now Profit From Iraq's Reconstruction: "Lobbyists, aides to senior officials and others encouraged invasion and now help firms pursue contracts. They see no conflict."
Monday, July 12, 2004
Bush: Safely in Denial (washingtonpost.com): "The election may be interrupted. New York may be attacked. Still, we are safe. Check that: We are safer."
Americans Deserve Look at US Emergency Defense Plans: "The real threats to freedom come not from Islamic terrorists, but from the American government. They whisper that we must sacrifice freedom so that freedom will be secure. If Americans yield to the fear of fear itself, then the terrorists have already won.
... Some documents have been released, some have been leaked, some are still hidden lest Congress find them in an election year. They argue more or less explicitly that in time of war the president as commander in chief can suspend the Bill of Rights, hold men it has designated as enemy aliens indefinitely without trial or legal counsel, imprison American citizens in the same circumstances, authorize moderate or even intense torture for intelligence purposes, and suspend the treaty-authorized Geneva Conventions. Indeed, one memo seems to suggest that there is no limit to the power of what the president can order in wartime. Commander in chief has morphed into generalissimo "
The Senate report on Iraq intelligence: "the senate committee found that Doug Feith, the undersecretary of defence for policy, had set up an Iraq 'intelligence cell' inside the Pentagon to forage through old reports about links between Baghdad and al-Qaida, which Mr Feith's boss, Donald Rumsfeld, and the vice-president, Dick Cheney, used to second guess the CIA's scepticism on the matter. Much of the intelligence it processed came from the Iraqi National Congress (INC) and its leader, Ahmad Chalabi. "
Did White House pressure CIA on Iraq?: "The report quotes the CIA's highest-ranking analyst as saying she instructed her underlings to write a 'speculative piece' that would 'lean far forward' and 'stretch to the maximum the evidence' in response to senior policymakers' interest in links between Al Qaeda and Saddam [Hussein]."
Bush is "stubborn and arrogant": "The good news for President Bush is that he has dominated media coverage in recent months, a new study says.
... The most prevalent message about Bush, says the study, is that he is "stubborn and arrogant." Second most prevalent: Bush "lacks credibility." Third: The president is a "strong and decisive leader." Of all the comments about character, 56 percent were negative toward Bush, and 16 percent positive.
"
The Erosion of Bush's Rationales : "'The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is nearing completion of a final, probably unanimous report that will stand by the conclusions of the panel's staff and largely dismiss White House theories both about a close working relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda and about possible Iraqi involvement in Sept. 11, commission officials said.
'The report, which is expected to be made public several days before the panel's mandated deadline of July 26, will also probably be unwelcome at the White House because it will document management failures at senior levels of the Bush administration that kept the government from acting aggressively on intelligence warnings in the spring and summer of 2001 of an imminent, catastrophic terrorist attack, the officials said.'"
Setback for Bush as senators question Iraq war: "In a damaging setback for the Bush re-election campaign, leading Republicans in the US Senate are now openly saying that they might not have voted to give President George Bush authority to use force against Iraq if they had known how wrong intelligence was on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
'I don't know if the votes would have been there,' Mr Pat Roberts, Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said yesterday when asked about the 77-23 vote in the Senate on October 11th 2002.
The committee's report on Friday, which said most Bush administration pre-war claims about Iraq's unconventional weapons were unfounded, has propelled the war in Iraq to the forefront as the central driving issue in the presidential election campaign.""
US Aura probe launch deferred: "The US space agency NASA has deferred the launch of a new satellite that is designed to check the health of the Earth's atmosphere.
The three-tonne vehicle, called Aura, is now due to take off on Monday."
Report Says CIA Distorted Iraq Data: "Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), said that had Congress known before the vote to go to war what his committee has since discovered about the intelligence on Iraq, 'I doubt if the votes would have been there.'
Roberts characterized some of the redacted parts of the Senate report as 'specific details that would make your eyebrows even raise higher.'"
Friday, July 02, 2004
Yahoo! News - US generates 112,000 jobs in June, far fewer than expected: "American employers hired 112,000 extra workers in June, fewer than half the number predicted by analysts, government data showed in a sign the spectacular labour market boom may be fizzing out.
Economists had forecast a gain of 250,000 jobs in June, following a three-month explosion in which employers took on 912,000 extra workers, including 235,000 jobs in May.
The disappointing result called into question the strength of the labor market just two days after Federal Reserve (news - web sites) policymakers raised short-term interest rates for the first time in four years"
U.S. Job Growth Slows Down in June: "Employers hired less help in June than economists anticipated - adding 112,000 new payroll jobs - and the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.6 percent for a third straight month.
President Bush, defending his handling of the economy as he seeks a second term, told a White House audience: 'We don't need a boom-or-bust type growth.' "
Yahoo! News - Bush Plan Opens More Forests to Logging: "Governors would have to petition the federal government to block road-building in remote areas of national forests under a Bush administration proposal to boost logging.
... "Basically I think this proposal takes away protections on a national level" against road-building and logging, Robert Vandermark, co-director of the Heritage Forest Campaign, said Thursday. He and other environmentalists said it is unlikely that governors in pro-logging states would seek to keep the roadless rule in effect."
Cheney Unrelenting on War Policy: "Cheney, addressing Republican supporters at the National D-Day Museum, also leveled implicit criticism at Bush's predecessor, former President Clinton (news - web sites).
'Consider for a moment how matters stood at the time when President Bush and I were sworn into office on Jan. 20th, 2001,' he said. 'Terrorists were on the offensive around the world, emboldened by many years of unanswered attacks. Repeatedly, they had struck America with little cost or consequence.' "
Consider for a minute the response of Cheney and Bush to these terrorists who were, in his words, "on the offensive": they did less than nothing, until the terrorists attacked. They went on vacation. They degraded the response to terror. They put Cheney in charge of counter terrorism and he never held a meeting. This is gross negligence, and he has the gall to criticise Clinton! Cheney, you are unspeakable.
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Administration Changing Review at Guant�namo Bay: "As of Wednesday, administration officials were still portraying the court's rulings as a victory for President Bush that incidentally raised 'some concerns' that needed to be addressed. In Mr. Bush's first full day back in Washington since the court's decision, his spokesman, Scott McClellan, suggested that the administration might seek to comply with the court's mandates by adjusting the plan for annual reviews.
"We want to make sure that we put a process in place that respects the concerns that the Supreme Court raised and does so in a way that is consistent with the authority of the president to exercise his constitutional responsibility during a time of war," Mr. McClellan said. He emphasized the court's recognition of Mr. Bush's authority rather than the limits on it imposed by the ruling.
"We are a nation at war and the president does have the right to detain enemy combatants during this time of conflict and hold them during that conflict," he said. "The court recognized that, but at the same time they expressed some concerns.""
Yahoo! News - GOD BLESS THE LEFTIE LIMBAUGH: "We are fighting for our nation's soul. The right-wing Republicans who control the government and the media have no intention of sharing their power. Thus they present themselves and their ideas--that we should spend our national treasury on invading oil-producing nations but not on national healthcare, that it's acceptable to throw people into concentration camps--as the living embodiment of what it means to be American. Meanwhile the neofascist bullies slime everybody else--the majority--as 'anti-American.'
The United States is living under ideological apartheid.
... The current situation calls for radical, loud, even ugly, tactics. ... Here in America, one unfair, dissembling movie by a liberal loudmouth like Michael Moore, no matter how successful, could never be powerful enough to counter the millions of conservative lies disseminated by thousands of talk radio stations and newspapers every minute of every day of every year. But it's a beginning."
Reporter describes media's battle to cover a secretive White House: "reporting on the 43rd presidency 'often feels like being on one side of a war against a disciplined, clever enemy that fervently believes in the righteousness of its cause.
'The relationships between the press and all modern White Houses have been like that, of course,' she told the audience in Rosenfeld Hall. 'The difference is that this administration has turned that tension into a fine art -- and fundamentally altered the relationship between the White House and the press.' "
Supreme Court Pushes Bush Back: "'Before Abu Ghraib, the government was saying, 'Trust the executive, the other branches have no role,' ' says Harold Koh, dean of Yale Law School. 'Now the court responds, 'Yes, Congress must authorize and the courts must review.' '
Mr. Koh adds, 'They've completely rejected the notion that the president should be allowed to handle this alone.'"
Dude, Where's That Elite?: "the idea of a liberal elite originated on the left, among early 20th-century anarchists and Trotskyites who noted, correctly, that the Soviet Union was spawning a 'new class' of power-mad bureaucrats. The Trotskyites brought this theory along with them when they mutated into neocons in the 60's, and it was perhaps their most precious contribution to the emerging American right. Backed up by the concept of a 'liberal elite,' right-wingers could crony around with their corporate patrons in luxuriously appointed think tanks and boardrooms - all the while purporting to represent the average overworked Joe.
"
Dude, Where's That Elite?: "the idea of a liberal elite originated on the left, among early 20th-century anarchists and Trotskyites who noted, correctly, that the Soviet Union was spawning a 'new class' of power-mad bureaucrats. The Trotskyites brought this theory along with them when they mutated into neocons in the 60's, and it was perhaps their most precious contribution to the emerging American right. Backed up by the concept of a 'liberal elite,' right-wingers could crony around with their corporate patrons in luxuriously appointed think tanks and boardrooms - all the while purporting to represent the average overworked Joe.
"
Dude, Where's That Elite?: "the idea of a liberal elite originated on the left, among early 20th-century anarchists and Trotskyites who noted, correctly, that the Soviet Union was spawning a 'new class' of power-mad bureaucrats. The Trotskyites brought this theory along with them when they mutated into neocons in the 60's, and it was perhaps their most precious contribution to the emerging American right. Backed up by the concept of a 'liberal elite,' right-wingers could crony around with their corporate patrons in luxuriously appointed think tanks and boardrooms - all the while purporting to represent the average overworked Joe.
"
Pentagon Alerted to Trouble in Ranks: "A 1998 study estimated that one-third of military recruits had arrest records. A 1995 report found that one out of four Army career enlisted personnel had committed one or more criminal offenses while on active duty. Yet many were allowed to reenlist or received promotions. Some received good-conduct medals or held top secret security clearances, the research found.
The 1995 study cited the case of one soldier who was promoted to sergeant despite a record of behavior that included multiple assaults, drunk and disorderly conduct, property destruction and obstruction of justice.
As recently as last year, only a month before some of the worst abuses of Iraqi detainees occurred at Abu Ghraib prison, one of the reports said some troops were in positions 'where destructive acts could have the most serious consequences.'
'An immediate problem faced by Defense is that there are military personnel with pre-service and in-service records that clearly establish a pattern of substandard behavior,' the 2003 report said.
'These individuals constitute a high-risk group for destructive behavior and need to be identified.'
... The military services have resisted improving screening procedures because that "would reduce applicant supply," the 2003 report said, alluding to problems some services have had in recent years meeting recruitment goals."
Media blocked from Saddam hearing: "Much of the world's press has been excluded from Saddam Hussein's court appearance today following an extraordinary decision by the Iraqi judge hearing the case to allow just one western newspaper to attend.
John Burns of the New York Times will be the only journalist from the western print media to witness today's historic hearing, which is being held in top secret - with even the judge's identity remaining confidential.
Bizarrely, his copy will not be made available to other newspapers under the usual pooling arrangements.
Instead, Burns plans to hold a press conference in Baghdad immediately after the hearing where newspaper correspondents from around the world will be given the chance to ask questions.
CNN and al-Jazeera were the only two broadcasters at the hearing, with CNN's Christiane Amanpour one of only a handful of journalists allowed into the courtroom."
Jobless Claims Up by 1,000: "The number of new people signing up for jobless benefits rose slightly last week... new filings for unemployment insurance rose by a seasonally adjusted 1,000 to 351,000 for the week ending June 26. Economists were forecasting a decrease in claims to around 345,000."
The New York Times > International > Middle East > First Public Appearance by Former Dictator in 7 Months: "'I am Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq,' Mr. Hussein replied twice when he answered the judge, whose first question was to ask his name.
According to the report, by the CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour, who was present in the courtroom, Mr. Hussein appeared defiant but focused and coherent. At one point he said, 'This is all a theater; the real criminal is Bush.'"
Bush, your terrible "mission accomplished" in Iraq is this: you have managed to put yourself in the same league as monsters like Saddam Hussein. If you don't know why you are despised in the rest of the world, this is the reason: you are a dictator, you have taken a great country and political system and cynically used it for your own ends, plundered it with your cronies, and more. God forgive you, and please come to your senses.
1 in 6 Iraq Veterans Is Found to Suffer Stress-Related Disorder: "Almost 17 percent of those who fought in Iraq reported symptoms of major depression, severe anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder, compared with about 11 percent of the troops who served in Afghanistan.
The rates were slightly higher than those found among soldiers in the 1991 Persian Gulf war, and lower than the rates in Vietnam veterans. But mental health studies of soldiers in those earlier conflicts were carried out years � in the case of Vietnam, decades � after the troops returned home. The new study examined soldiers before deployment and within three to four months after they returned."
Conservative Groups Work to Place Nader on the Ballot: "Conservative groups have already mobilized for Mr. Nader in Oregon as well as in Arizona, where 46 percent of the registered voters who signed petitions last month to get Mr. Nader on the ballot were Republicans, almost double the percentage of Democrats or Independents, according to a state Democratic Party lawyer.
In Wisconsin, a conservative group said it was preparing to follow Oregon's example, by urging Republicans to sign petitions when Mr. Nader's signature drive begins next month.
'We'll definitely be spreading the word that we'd like to see Nader on the ballot,' said Cameron Sholty, the Wisconsin state director for Citizens for a Sound Economy, a conservative antitax group. 'We'll do phone trees and friends-of-friends, and those Nader events will be a great way to drive our membership to get out to sign petitions for Nader.' "
