Monday, April 30, 2007
The Press As Accomplices, Rather Than The Guardians Of Truth And Shiners of The Light Of Day On Misdeeds Of The Powerful:
Frank Rich: All the President's Press
"Somehow it's hard to imagine David Halberstam yukking it up with Alberto Gonzales, Paul Wolfowitz and two discarded 'American Idol' contestants at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Before there was a Woodward and Bernstein, there was Halberstam, still not yet 30 in the early 1960s, calling those in power to account for lying about our 'progress' in Vietnam. He did so even though J.F.K. told the publisher of The Times, 'I wish like hell that you'd get Halberstam out of there.' He did so despite public ridicule from the dean of that era's Georgetown punditocracy, the now forgotten columnist (and Vietnam War cheerleader) Joseph Alsop.
It was Alsop's spirit, not Halberstam's, that could be seen in C-Span's live broadcast of the correspondents' dinner last Saturday, two days before Halberstam's death in a car crash in California. This fete is a crystallization of the press's failures in the post-9/11 era: it illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows. Such is literally the case at the annual dinner, where journalists serve as a supporting cast, but it has been figuratively true year-round. The press has enabled stunts from the manufactured threat of imminent 'mushroom clouds' to 'Saving Private Lynch' to 'Mission Accomplished,' whose fourth anniversary arrives on Tuesday. For all the recrimination, self-flagellation and reforms that followed these journalistic failures, it's far from clear that the entire profession yet understands why it has lost the public's faith..."
Frank Rich: All the President's Press
"Somehow it's hard to imagine David Halberstam yukking it up with Alberto Gonzales, Paul Wolfowitz and two discarded 'American Idol' contestants at the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner. Before there was a Woodward and Bernstein, there was Halberstam, still not yet 30 in the early 1960s, calling those in power to account for lying about our 'progress' in Vietnam. He did so even though J.F.K. told the publisher of The Times, 'I wish like hell that you'd get Halberstam out of there.' He did so despite public ridicule from the dean of that era's Georgetown punditocracy, the now forgotten columnist (and Vietnam War cheerleader) Joseph Alsop.
It was Alsop's spirit, not Halberstam's, that could be seen in C-Span's live broadcast of the correspondents' dinner last Saturday, two days before Halberstam's death in a car crash in California. This fete is a crystallization of the press's failures in the post-9/11 era: it illustrates how easily a propaganda-driven White House can enlist the Washington news media in its shows. Such is literally the case at the annual dinner, where journalists serve as a supporting cast, but it has been figuratively true year-round. The press has enabled stunts from the manufactured threat of imminent 'mushroom clouds' to 'Saving Private Lynch' to 'Mission Accomplished,' whose fourth anniversary arrives on Tuesday. For all the recrimination, self-flagellation and reforms that followed these journalistic failures, it's far from clear that the entire profession yet understands why it has lost the public's faith..."
The Lies That Took A Fearful Nation To War:
Bill Moyers: Buying the War
"How did the mainstream press get it so wrong? How did the evidence disputing the existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein to 9-11 continue to go largely unreported? 'What the conservative media did was easy to fathom; they had been cheerleaders for the White House from the beginning and were simply continuing to rally the public behind the President - no questions asked. How mainstream journalists suspended skepticism and scrutiny remains an issue of significance that the media has not satisfactorily explored,' says Moyers. 'How the administration marketed the war to the American people has been well covered, but critical questions remain: How and why did the press buy it, and what does it say about the role of journalists in helping the public sort out fact from propaganda?'
In 'Buying the War' Bill Moyers and producer Kathleen Hughes document the reporting of Walcott, Landay and Strobel, the Knight Ridder team that burrowed deep into the intelligence agencies to try and determine whether there was any evidence for the Bush Administration's case for war. 'Many of the things that were said about Iraq didn't make sense,' says Walcott. 'And that really prompts you to ask, 'Wait a minute. Is this true? Does everyone agree that this is true? Does anyone think this is not true?''..."
Why Do The American People's Representatives Keep Doing Business With Businesses Like This?
Thomas D. Williams: Pentagon Contractors Owe $7.7 Billion in Unpaid Taxes
"A federal watchdog agency insists that its investigations clearly show the US government is facing serious long-term funding shortfalls, while federal contractors, doctors and medical suppliers, regularly receiving federal Medicare money, owe billions in unpaid taxes.
Earlier this month, Comptroller General David M. Walker of the US General Accountability Office opened one of his critical summary presentations to a Defense Department acquisition conference with: 'The federal government is on a 'burning platform,' and the status quo way of doing business is unacceptable....'
He cited 'past fiscal trends and significant long-range challenges; selected trends ... having no boundaries;' outlandish government funding demands due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina; outdated federal policies and practices; and finally, 'rising public expectations' for results.
Within the past six years, said Walker, the government's long-term financial exposures in debt, health and Social Security have jumped 147 percent to $50.5 trillion. If this trend continues, said the GAO report, federal spending will need to be cut by 60 percent and taxes will have to double to balance the budget in the year 2040. To close off this sweeping gap, the economy would demand double-digit growth for every single year for 75 years, he said.
Meanwhile, a recent GAO inquiry reveals that about 113,800 contractors working for a variety of federal agencies, including the Pentagon and the General Services Administration, have built up $7.7 billion in unpaid taxes..."
Bill Moyers: Buying the War
"How did the mainstream press get it so wrong? How did the evidence disputing the existence of weapons of mass destruction and the link between Saddam Hussein to 9-11 continue to go largely unreported? 'What the conservative media did was easy to fathom; they had been cheerleaders for the White House from the beginning and were simply continuing to rally the public behind the President - no questions asked. How mainstream journalists suspended skepticism and scrutiny remains an issue of significance that the media has not satisfactorily explored,' says Moyers. 'How the administration marketed the war to the American people has been well covered, but critical questions remain: How and why did the press buy it, and what does it say about the role of journalists in helping the public sort out fact from propaganda?'
In 'Buying the War' Bill Moyers and producer Kathleen Hughes document the reporting of Walcott, Landay and Strobel, the Knight Ridder team that burrowed deep into the intelligence agencies to try and determine whether there was any evidence for the Bush Administration's case for war. 'Many of the things that were said about Iraq didn't make sense,' says Walcott. 'And that really prompts you to ask, 'Wait a minute. Is this true? Does everyone agree that this is true? Does anyone think this is not true?''..."
Why Do The American People's Representatives Keep Doing Business With Businesses Like This?
Thomas D. Williams: Pentagon Contractors Owe $7.7 Billion in Unpaid Taxes
"A federal watchdog agency insists that its investigations clearly show the US government is facing serious long-term funding shortfalls, while federal contractors, doctors and medical suppliers, regularly receiving federal Medicare money, owe billions in unpaid taxes.
Earlier this month, Comptroller General David M. Walker of the US General Accountability Office opened one of his critical summary presentations to a Defense Department acquisition conference with: 'The federal government is on a 'burning platform,' and the status quo way of doing business is unacceptable....'
He cited 'past fiscal trends and significant long-range challenges; selected trends ... having no boundaries;' outlandish government funding demands due to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina; outdated federal policies and practices; and finally, 'rising public expectations' for results.
Within the past six years, said Walker, the government's long-term financial exposures in debt, health and Social Security have jumped 147 percent to $50.5 trillion. If this trend continues, said the GAO report, federal spending will need to be cut by 60 percent and taxes will have to double to balance the budget in the year 2040. To close off this sweeping gap, the economy would demand double-digit growth for every single year for 75 years, he said.
Meanwhile, a recent GAO inquiry reveals that about 113,800 contractors working for a variety of federal agencies, including the Pentagon and the General Services Administration, have built up $7.7 billion in unpaid taxes..."
Friday, April 27, 2007
The Bush Presidency:
Margaret Carlson: Bush Mired in Stealth, Lies and Cover-Ups
"The Bush administration will do, say and spend anything to maintain its façade of command and control.
To hear them tell it, the administration would be winning the war, if only those traitorous Democrats would stop pointing out that they aren't. Everything would be fine at Walter Reed Army Hospital and likewise New Orleans, if only the locals weren't wasting money. Those fired U.S. attorneys? Mishandled maybe, but they were properly let go 'for performance-related reasons.'
Two of the most disgraceful attempts to replace the truth with propaganda were brought to vivid light on Tuesday at a congressional inquiry into the death of Corporal Pat Tillman, killed by friendly fire in 2004, and the capture of Private Jessica Lynch.
In the interest of their own PR machine, which has spent more than a billion dollars on propaganda, the Pentagon shamed itself by lying about what really happened to these two heroic patriots, who need no government flackery to make them so..."
The Environment:
AlterNet: Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water
"All across the United States, municipal water systems are being bought up by multinational corporations, turning one of our last remaining public commons and our most vital resource into a commodity.
The road to privatization is being paved by our own government. The Bush administration is actively working to loosen the hold that cities and towns have over public water, enabling corporations to own the very thing we depend on for survival.
The effects of the federal government's actions are being felt all the way down to Conference of Mayors, which has become a 'feeding frenzy' for corporations looking to make sure that nothing is left in the public's hands, including clean, affordable water..."
Margaret Carlson: Bush Mired in Stealth, Lies and Cover-Ups
"The Bush administration will do, say and spend anything to maintain its façade of command and control.
To hear them tell it, the administration would be winning the war, if only those traitorous Democrats would stop pointing out that they aren't. Everything would be fine at Walter Reed Army Hospital and likewise New Orleans, if only the locals weren't wasting money. Those fired U.S. attorneys? Mishandled maybe, but they were properly let go 'for performance-related reasons.'
Two of the most disgraceful attempts to replace the truth with propaganda were brought to vivid light on Tuesday at a congressional inquiry into the death of Corporal Pat Tillman, killed by friendly fire in 2004, and the capture of Private Jessica Lynch.
In the interest of their own PR machine, which has spent more than a billion dollars on propaganda, the Pentagon shamed itself by lying about what really happened to these two heroic patriots, who need no government flackery to make them so..."
The Environment:
AlterNet: Fighting the Corporate Theft of Our Water
"All across the United States, municipal water systems are being bought up by multinational corporations, turning one of our last remaining public commons and our most vital resource into a commodity.
The road to privatization is being paved by our own government. The Bush administration is actively working to loosen the hold that cities and towns have over public water, enabling corporations to own the very thing we depend on for survival.
The effects of the federal government's actions are being felt all the way down to Conference of Mayors, which has become a 'feeding frenzy' for corporations looking to make sure that nothing is left in the public's hands, including clean, affordable water..."
Monday, April 23, 2007
Funding Ever More War In Iraq:
Jason Leopold: Government Report Slams 'Emergency' War Funding Request
"Nearly half of the $94 billion in emergency funding President Bush says Congress needs to immediately make available to continue to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would actually be used to finance non-urgent items related to the so-called 'longer war on terror.' The revelation once again casts further doubt on the president's assertion that the Army will run out of funding this month for US troops fighting in those regions, according to a report issued by the nonpartisan research arm of Congress.
The president and officials at the Department of Defense appear to be using a bulk of the emergency spending request sent to Congress more than two months ago to pay for items unrelated to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. And moreover, using the emergency budget request to escape Congressional scrutiny to finance measures deemed controversial, according to the report..."
Paul Krugman: A Hostage Situation
"There are two ways to describe the confrontation between Congress and the Bush administration over funding for the Iraq surge. You can pretend that it's a normal political dispute. Or you can see it for what it really is: a hostage situation, in which a beleaguered President Bush, barricaded in the White House, is threatening dire consequences for innocent bystanders - the troops - if his demands aren't met.
If this were a normal political dispute, Democrats in Congress would clearly hold the upper hand: by a huge margin, Americans say they want a timetable for withdrawal, and by a large margin they also say they trust Congress, not Mr. Bush, to do a better job handling the situation in Iraq.
But this isn't a normal political dispute. Mr. Bush isn't really trying to win the argument on the merits. He's just betting that the people outside the barricade care more than he does about the fate of those innocent bystanders.
What's at stake right now is the latest Iraq 'supplemental.' Since the beginning, the administration has refused to put funding for the war in its regular budgets. Instead, it keeps saying, in effect: 'Whoops! Whaddya know, we're running out of money. Give us another $87 billion.'
At one level, this is like the behavior of an irresponsible adolescent who repeatedly runs through his allowance, each time calling his parents to tell them he's broke and needs extra cash.
What I haven't seen sufficiently emphasized, however, is the disdain this practice shows for the welfare of the troops, whom the administration puts in harm's way without first ensuring that they'll have the necessary resources..."
Jason Leopold: Government Report Slams 'Emergency' War Funding Request
"Nearly half of the $94 billion in emergency funding President Bush says Congress needs to immediately make available to continue to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan would actually be used to finance non-urgent items related to the so-called 'longer war on terror.' The revelation once again casts further doubt on the president's assertion that the Army will run out of funding this month for US troops fighting in those regions, according to a report issued by the nonpartisan research arm of Congress.
The president and officials at the Department of Defense appear to be using a bulk of the emergency spending request sent to Congress more than two months ago to pay for items unrelated to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. And moreover, using the emergency budget request to escape Congressional scrutiny to finance measures deemed controversial, according to the report..."
Paul Krugman: A Hostage Situation
"There are two ways to describe the confrontation between Congress and the Bush administration over funding for the Iraq surge. You can pretend that it's a normal political dispute. Or you can see it for what it really is: a hostage situation, in which a beleaguered President Bush, barricaded in the White House, is threatening dire consequences for innocent bystanders - the troops - if his demands aren't met.
If this were a normal political dispute, Democrats in Congress would clearly hold the upper hand: by a huge margin, Americans say they want a timetable for withdrawal, and by a large margin they also say they trust Congress, not Mr. Bush, to do a better job handling the situation in Iraq.
But this isn't a normal political dispute. Mr. Bush isn't really trying to win the argument on the merits. He's just betting that the people outside the barricade care more than he does about the fate of those innocent bystanders.
What's at stake right now is the latest Iraq 'supplemental.' Since the beginning, the administration has refused to put funding for the war in its regular budgets. Instead, it keeps saying, in effect: 'Whoops! Whaddya know, we're running out of money. Give us another $87 billion.'
At one level, this is like the behavior of an irresponsible adolescent who repeatedly runs through his allowance, each time calling his parents to tell them he's broke and needs extra cash.
What I haven't seen sufficiently emphasized, however, is the disdain this practice shows for the welfare of the troops, whom the administration puts in harm's way without first ensuring that they'll have the necessary resources..."
Friday, April 20, 2007
Gun Nation:
Democracy Now! - Headlines for April 20, 2007
"Virginia Tech Gunman Managed to Buy Guns Despite Mental Illness
...The Associated Press is reporting the gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, should not have been able to purchase the guns he used in the massacre. Federal regulations bar the sale of guns to individuals who have been 'adjudicated mentally defective.' In 2005, a judge ruled Cho 'presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness.' The ruling came after two female students accused Cho of stalking them. But it appears the judge's ruling was never conveyed to federal authorities. This allowed Cho to pass the instant background check needed to buy the weapons. Virginia State Police maintains the sale was legal under state law.
Virginia Governor Form Panel to Review All Aspects of Shooting
...Meanwhile the New York Times is reporting as many as eight teachers in the English Department at Virginia Tech formed an ad hoc task force 18 months ago to discuss how to handle Cho because he was scaring his classmates and teachers. School administrators took no action in response to their concerns..."
Democracy Now! - Headlines for April 20, 2007
"Virginia Tech Gunman Managed to Buy Guns Despite Mental Illness
...The Associated Press is reporting the gunman, Cho Seung-Hui, should not have been able to purchase the guns he used in the massacre. Federal regulations bar the sale of guns to individuals who have been 'adjudicated mentally defective.' In 2005, a judge ruled Cho 'presents an imminent danger to himself as a result of mental illness.' The ruling came after two female students accused Cho of stalking them. But it appears the judge's ruling was never conveyed to federal authorities. This allowed Cho to pass the instant background check needed to buy the weapons. Virginia State Police maintains the sale was legal under state law.
Virginia Governor Form Panel to Review All Aspects of Shooting
...Meanwhile the New York Times is reporting as many as eight teachers in the English Department at Virginia Tech formed an ad hoc task force 18 months ago to discuss how to handle Cho because he was scaring his classmates and teachers. School administrators took no action in response to their concerns..."
Next Target: Iran
Georgetown Times: McCain Jokes About Bombing Iran
"...Republican Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain spent nearly 90 minutes talking to [ed. and taking questions from] nearly 500 people who crammed into the Murrells Inlet VFW Hall Wednesday morning...
...Another man — wondering if an attack on Iran is in the works — wanted to know when America is going to 'send an air mail message to Tehran.'
McCain began his answer by changing the words to a popular Beach Boys song.
'Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,' he sang to the tune of Barbara Ann..."
Leaving The Execution of the Right Of Franchise To Questionable Technology:
The Brad Blog: EXCLUSIVE: ES&S TOUCH-SCREEN VOTING SYSTEMS FOUND VULNERABLE TO 'SERIOUS' VIRAL VOTE-FLIPPING ATTACK; U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION REFUSES TO ISSUE WARNING
"While revelations surrounding the mysterious 18,000 'undervotes' in the November 2006 U.S. House election between Christine Jennings and Vern Buchanan in Florida's 13th Congressional district continue to inform the nation about the dangers of electronic voting machines, new information has recently come to light exposing a shocking lack of responsible oversight by those entrusted with overseeing the certification of electronic voting systems at the federal level.
An investigation into what may have gone wrong in that election has revealed a serious security vulnerability on some, and possibly all, versions of the iVotronic touch-screen voting system widely used across the country. The iVotronic is a Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) touch-screen voting machine manufactured by Elections Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S), the nation's largest distributor of such systems.
The vulnerability is said to allow for a single malicious user to introduce a virus into the system which 'could potentially steal all the votes in that county, without being detected,' according to a noted computer scientist and voting system expert who has reviewed the findings.
And yet, despite their federal mandate to serve as a 'clearinghouse' to the nation for such information, a series of email exchanges between an Election Integrity advocate and officials at the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) has revealed that the federal oversight body is refusing to notify states of the alarming security issue.
The recent email conversation shows that even in light of the EAC's review of the warning from the computer scientist who characterized the 'security hole' as severe, needing to be 'taken very seriously,' and among the most serious ever discovered in a voting system, the EAC is unwilling to take action.
Recent reports by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have taken the EAC to task for a failure to meet their legislated mandate for informing the public and elections officials about such matters. However, a review of the email communications to and from the EAC's Jeannie Layson shows that the federal body is steadfast in their refusal to take action to alert either elections officials or the public about the security risk recently discovered by a team of eight noted computer scientists..."
Better Consumer Food Information:
International Business Times: Bill Would Require Labels on Cloned Food
"Steaks, pork chops, milk and other products from cloned livestock would have to be clearly labeled on grocers' shelves under a bill pending in the California Legislature.
If passed, the requirement could be more stringent than federal rules. The Food and Drug Administration is poised to give final approval to meat and milk from cloned animals without any special labeling, though a bill introduced in Congress would require it.
State Sen. Carole Migden said consumers deserve to know what they're buying and to be able to decide if they want to eat food from cloned animals. That is especially true because the long-term consequences of eating artificially produced animals cannot yet be studied, she said.
'Wouldn't you like to know if you're drinking milk from a cloned cow, or feeding your children pork chops from a somatic cell nuclear transfer event?' Migden, a Democrat from San Francisco, asked during a news conference last week before the Senate Health Committee voted 6-4 along party lines to support her bill. A similar bill has been introduced in the California Assembly.
Migden was flanked by organic dairy farmers and other supporters wearing cow costumes and carrying placards that read 'Not Milk - Cloned food is coming but you can stop it.'
She said the bill isn't designed to undermine the Food and Drug Administration but noted the agency's problems in approving and regulating painkillers.
'They're an overburdened agency and not always 100 percent correct,' she said. 'They've been duped before on ... Celebrex and Vioxx.'
Migden pointed to recent polls she said suggest the FDA's ruling on cloned food could be influential with consumers.
A Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology survey found that 64 percent of respondents were leery of animal cloning. But a University of Maryland poll found that the same percentage said they would buy, or consider buying, such food if the government said it was safe..."
When Will The DEA Stop Standing In The Way Of The Safest Alternatives To From Big Pharma?
CBS News: Marijuana May Fight Lung Tumors, Cannabis Compound Slows Cancer Spread In Mice
"...In lab and mouse studies, the compound, known as THC, cut lung tumor growth in half and helped prevent the cancer from spreading, says Anju Preet, PhD, a Harvard University researcher in Boston who tested the chemical.
While a lot more work needs to be done, the results suggest THC has therapeutic potential, she tells WebMD.
Moreover, other early research suggests the cannabis compound could help fight brain, prostate, and skin cancers as well, Preet says.
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
The finding builds on the recent discovery of the body's own cannabinoid system, Preet says. Known as endocannabinoids, the natural cannabinoids stimulate appetite and control pain and inflammation.
THC seeks out, attaches to, and activates two specific endocannabinoids that are present in high amounts on lung cancer cells, Preet says. This revs up their natural anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammation can promote the growth and spread of cancer.
In the new study, the researchers first demonstrated that THC inhibited the growth and spread of cells from two different lung cancer cell lines and from patient lung tumors. Then, they injected THC into mice that had been implanted with human lung cancer cells. After three weeks, tumors shrank by about 50 percent, compared with tumors in untreated mice..."
Georgetown Times: McCain Jokes About Bombing Iran
"...Republican Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain spent nearly 90 minutes talking to [ed. and taking questions from] nearly 500 people who crammed into the Murrells Inlet VFW Hall Wednesday morning...
...Another man — wondering if an attack on Iran is in the works — wanted to know when America is going to 'send an air mail message to Tehran.'
McCain began his answer by changing the words to a popular Beach Boys song.
'Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran,' he sang to the tune of Barbara Ann..."
Leaving The Execution of the Right Of Franchise To Questionable Technology:
The Brad Blog: EXCLUSIVE: ES&S TOUCH-SCREEN VOTING SYSTEMS FOUND VULNERABLE TO 'SERIOUS' VIRAL VOTE-FLIPPING ATTACK; U.S. ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMMISSION REFUSES TO ISSUE WARNING
"While revelations surrounding the mysterious 18,000 'undervotes' in the November 2006 U.S. House election between Christine Jennings and Vern Buchanan in Florida's 13th Congressional district continue to inform the nation about the dangers of electronic voting machines, new information has recently come to light exposing a shocking lack of responsible oversight by those entrusted with overseeing the certification of electronic voting systems at the federal level.
An investigation into what may have gone wrong in that election has revealed a serious security vulnerability on some, and possibly all, versions of the iVotronic touch-screen voting system widely used across the country. The iVotronic is a Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) touch-screen voting machine manufactured by Elections Systems & Software, Inc. (ES&S), the nation's largest distributor of such systems.
The vulnerability is said to allow for a single malicious user to introduce a virus into the system which 'could potentially steal all the votes in that county, without being detected,' according to a noted computer scientist and voting system expert who has reviewed the findings.
And yet, despite their federal mandate to serve as a 'clearinghouse' to the nation for such information, a series of email exchanges between an Election Integrity advocate and officials at the U.S. Elections Assistance Commission (EAC) has revealed that the federal oversight body is refusing to notify states of the alarming security issue.
The recent email conversation shows that even in light of the EAC's review of the warning from the computer scientist who characterized the 'security hole' as severe, needing to be 'taken very seriously,' and among the most serious ever discovered in a voting system, the EAC is unwilling to take action.
Recent reports by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have taken the EAC to task for a failure to meet their legislated mandate for informing the public and elections officials about such matters. However, a review of the email communications to and from the EAC's Jeannie Layson shows that the federal body is steadfast in their refusal to take action to alert either elections officials or the public about the security risk recently discovered by a team of eight noted computer scientists..."
Better Consumer Food Information:
International Business Times: Bill Would Require Labels on Cloned Food
"Steaks, pork chops, milk and other products from cloned livestock would have to be clearly labeled on grocers' shelves under a bill pending in the California Legislature.
If passed, the requirement could be more stringent than federal rules. The Food and Drug Administration is poised to give final approval to meat and milk from cloned animals without any special labeling, though a bill introduced in Congress would require it.
State Sen. Carole Migden said consumers deserve to know what they're buying and to be able to decide if they want to eat food from cloned animals. That is especially true because the long-term consequences of eating artificially produced animals cannot yet be studied, she said.
'Wouldn't you like to know if you're drinking milk from a cloned cow, or feeding your children pork chops from a somatic cell nuclear transfer event?' Migden, a Democrat from San Francisco, asked during a news conference last week before the Senate Health Committee voted 6-4 along party lines to support her bill. A similar bill has been introduced in the California Assembly.
Migden was flanked by organic dairy farmers and other supporters wearing cow costumes and carrying placards that read 'Not Milk - Cloned food is coming but you can stop it.'
She said the bill isn't designed to undermine the Food and Drug Administration but noted the agency's problems in approving and regulating painkillers.
'They're an overburdened agency and not always 100 percent correct,' she said. 'They've been duped before on ... Celebrex and Vioxx.'
Migden pointed to recent polls she said suggest the FDA's ruling on cloned food could be influential with consumers.
A Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology survey found that 64 percent of respondents were leery of animal cloning. But a University of Maryland poll found that the same percentage said they would buy, or consider buying, such food if the government said it was safe..."
When Will The DEA Stop Standing In The Way Of The Safest Alternatives To From Big Pharma?
CBS News: Marijuana May Fight Lung Tumors, Cannabis Compound Slows Cancer Spread In Mice
"...In lab and mouse studies, the compound, known as THC, cut lung tumor growth in half and helped prevent the cancer from spreading, says Anju Preet, PhD, a Harvard University researcher in Boston who tested the chemical.
While a lot more work needs to be done, the results suggest THC has therapeutic potential, she tells WebMD.
Moreover, other early research suggests the cannabis compound could help fight brain, prostate, and skin cancers as well, Preet says.
The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.
The finding builds on the recent discovery of the body's own cannabinoid system, Preet says. Known as endocannabinoids, the natural cannabinoids stimulate appetite and control pain and inflammation.
THC seeks out, attaches to, and activates two specific endocannabinoids that are present in high amounts on lung cancer cells, Preet says. This revs up their natural anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammation can promote the growth and spread of cancer.
In the new study, the researchers first demonstrated that THC inhibited the growth and spread of cells from two different lung cancer cell lines and from patient lung tumors. Then, they injected THC into mice that had been implanted with human lung cancer cells. After three weeks, tumors shrank by about 50 percent, compared with tumors in untreated mice..."
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Iraq:
BBC News: Payouts reveal Iraq civilian toll
"A civil liberties group has obtained files from the US Army on compensation claims to Iraqi and Afghan civilians killed and hurt by coalition forces.
The American Civil Liberties Union received the records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Of the 496 claims, 164 resulted in cash payments to families, the ACLU says. Many files relate to civilian deaths at checkpoints or near US convoys.
The military only pays compensation in cases not involving combat activity.
If it does not accept responsibility for the civilian's death, the military can make a discretionary 'condolence' payment, which is offered without admission of fault and is capped at $2,500.
In the 164 claims resulting in payments, about half were for compensation and the remainder condolence payments.
The New York-based ACLU believes the files it has received are a very small proportion of those held by the defence department, and is pressing it to disclose them all..."
Intelligence Failure?
Le Monde (FR) - September 11, 2001: The French Knew Much About It
BBC News: Payouts reveal Iraq civilian toll
"A civil liberties group has obtained files from the US Army on compensation claims to Iraqi and Afghan civilians killed and hurt by coalition forces.
The American Civil Liberties Union received the records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Of the 496 claims, 164 resulted in cash payments to families, the ACLU says. Many files relate to civilian deaths at checkpoints or near US convoys.
The military only pays compensation in cases not involving combat activity.
If it does not accept responsibility for the civilian's death, the military can make a discretionary 'condolence' payment, which is offered without admission of fault and is capped at $2,500.
In the 164 claims resulting in payments, about half were for compensation and the remainder condolence payments.
The New York-based ACLU believes the files it has received are a very small proportion of those held by the defence department, and is pressing it to disclose them all..."
Intelligence Failure?
Le Monde (FR) - September 11, 2001: The French Knew Much About It
Friday, April 13, 2007
The War On Terror As An Excuse To Wage War On The Rights Of Americans:
Raw Story: Top Democrat: Intel czar's wiretap plans are 'deeply troubling'
"A proposal by President Bush's new Director of National Intelligence to expand the intelligence community's authority to wiretap individuals in pursuit of the administration's 'terrorist surveillance program' was called 'deeply troubling' by a Democratic Congressman who promised his subcommittee would investigate the matter.
'I have been extremely concerned about even the legality of the Administration's warrantless wiretapping program for a long time, so of course, a proposed expansion is deeply troubling,' Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties told RAW STORY in an exclusive statement.
'Just when you thought they couldn't do any more damage to the Constitution and Americans' civil liberties, they come out with this?' he added..."
Raw Story: Top Democrat: Intel czar's wiretap plans are 'deeply troubling'
"A proposal by President Bush's new Director of National Intelligence to expand the intelligence community's authority to wiretap individuals in pursuit of the administration's 'terrorist surveillance program' was called 'deeply troubling' by a Democratic Congressman who promised his subcommittee would investigate the matter.
'I have been extremely concerned about even the legality of the Administration's warrantless wiretapping program for a long time, so of course, a proposed expansion is deeply troubling,' Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties told RAW STORY in an exclusive statement.
'Just when you thought they couldn't do any more damage to the Constitution and Americans' civil liberties, they come out with this?' he added..."
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Politicizing The DoJ:
...and then not being willing to take responsibility for it.
LA Times: Officials' e-mail may be missing, White House says
"The White House said Wednesday that it may have lost what could amount to thousands of messages sent through a private e-mail system used by political guru Karl Rove and at least 50 other top officials, an admission that stirred anger and dismay among congressional investigators.
The e-mails were considered potentially crucial evidence in congressional inquiries launched by Democrats into the role partisan politics may have played in such policy decisions as the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.
The White House said an effort was underway to see whether the messages could be recovered from the computer system, which was operated and paid for by the Republican National Committee as part of an avowed effort to separate political communications from those dealing with official business..."
AP: Leahy: 'I Do Not Believe the White House'
"President Bush's aides are lying about White House e-mails sent on a Republican account that might have been lost, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy suggested Thursday, vowing to subpoena those documents if the administration fails to cough them up.
'They say they have not been preserved. I don't believe that!' Leahy shouted from the Senate floor.
'You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers,' said Leahy, D-Vt. 'Those e-mails are there, they just don't want to produce them. We'll subpoena them if necessary.'
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said there is no effort to purposely keep the e-mails under wraps, and that the counsel's office is doing everything it can to recover any that were lost.
'The purpose of our review is to make every reasonable effort to recover potentially lost e-mails, and that is why we've been in contact with forensic experts,' he said.
Leahy scoffed.
'I've got a teenage kid in my neighborhood that can go get 'em for them,' he told reporters later..."
...and then not being willing to take responsibility for it.
LA Times: Officials' e-mail may be missing, White House says
"The White House said Wednesday that it may have lost what could amount to thousands of messages sent through a private e-mail system used by political guru Karl Rove and at least 50 other top officials, an admission that stirred anger and dismay among congressional investigators.
The e-mails were considered potentially crucial evidence in congressional inquiries launched by Democrats into the role partisan politics may have played in such policy decisions as the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.
The White House said an effort was underway to see whether the messages could be recovered from the computer system, which was operated and paid for by the Republican National Committee as part of an avowed effort to separate political communications from those dealing with official business..."
AP: Leahy: 'I Do Not Believe the White House'
"President Bush's aides are lying about White House e-mails sent on a Republican account that might have been lost, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy suggested Thursday, vowing to subpoena those documents if the administration fails to cough them up.
'They say they have not been preserved. I don't believe that!' Leahy shouted from the Senate floor.
'You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers,' said Leahy, D-Vt. 'Those e-mails are there, they just don't want to produce them. We'll subpoena them if necessary.'
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said there is no effort to purposely keep the e-mails under wraps, and that the counsel's office is doing everything it can to recover any that were lost.
'The purpose of our review is to make every reasonable effort to recover potentially lost e-mails, and that is why we've been in contact with forensic experts,' he said.
Leahy scoffed.
'I've got a teenage kid in my neighborhood that can go get 'em for them,' he told reporters later..."
Mismanagement, Fraud, Waste and Abuse:
Jason Leopold: Congressional Report: Gross Mismanagement of Iraq Funds
"A damning report issued last month by the nonpartisan research arm of Congress says the Department of Defense continues to overstate its financial needs, by tens of billions of dollars, to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The agency also casts serious doubt on President Bush's statements that money to fund the war will dry up by the end of the month if his budgetary demands are not immediately met.
The 45-page report, 'The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11,' prepared for Congress by the Congressional Research Service, warned lawmakers that before they release additional funds to the Pentagon for the Iraq war, they should first demand that Defense Department officials provide an accurate accounting of how the money is being spent.
Since 2001, the Pentagon has grossly mismanaged the $510 billion spent thus far on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; has used money earmarked for equipment upgrades to finance fighting on the battlefield, and has refused to provide Congress with a transparent accounting of the money it has spent and intends to spend, according to the CRS report.
'Congressional leaders have promised more scrutiny of the administration's requests for a [fiscal year] 2007 supplemental and [fiscal year] 2008 war costs. The [fiscal year] 2007 supplemental requests an additional $93.4 billion for war costs, which would bring DOD's annual war cost to $163.4 billion, the highest to date and 40 percent more than in 2006. If enacted, cumulative war costs would reach $607 billion,' the report says. 'Thus far, Congress is receiving fairly detailed quarterly reporting on various metrics for success in Iraq...but cost is not one of those metrics.'
Exacerbating the issue is the fact that the Department of Defense 'has periodically revised the figures shown for each operation in previous years, suggesting questions about the validity of its figures,' the report says, adding that some of the department's supplemental requests for 2007 include '$2 billion from some unknown source,'..."
On Torture:
Mohamad Bazzi: The CIA's Italian Job
"... In February an Italian judge indicted twenty-six Americans--a US Air Force colonel and twenty-five suspected CIA operatives, including the former Rome station chief and former Milan sub-station chief--for their role in the months-long plot to abduct Nasr. Although none of the suspects are in custody, the trial is set to begin June 8, and it has already become an embarrassment for the Bush Administration and the Italian government.
The public relations disaster may have saved others from abduction and torture. 'I suspect that Abu Omar's case has slowed down the policy of renditions,' said John Sifton, senior researcher on terrorism and counterterrorism at Human Rights Watch. 'It was an incredible embarrassment for the CIA. Undoubtedly, it made them think twice about other abductions.'
But the star witness, Nasr, might not be able to testify in Italy. He was released from an Egyptian prison in February, but his lawyer says he is not allowed to leave the country or to make any public statements. 'The Egyptian authorities warned him that if he speaks about the case, he will be sent back to prison,' said Zayyat. (Egyptian officials had made good on an earlier threat to throw Nasr back in prison: After being released in April 2004, he was arrested twenty days later when the secret police learned that he had been discussing his abduction.)
American and Egyptian officials have refused to comment on the case. Egypt has even refused to confirm or deny that it had Nasr in custody. But a Cairo appeals court ordered his release after he'd been held in prison for four years without charge. And now Egypt, the second-largest recipient of US foreign aid after Israel, is trying to save its benefactor from further embarrassment by preventing Nasr from testifying in Italy. 'The Americans want this case to go away,' Zayyat said. 'They don't want Abu Omar to publicly describe what happened to him.'
It's hard to believe that the CIA didn't know what would happen to Nasr. 'Egypt's intelligence services are infamous for using torture,' said Sifton. 'The Americans knew that by sending him to Egypt, he would be tortured,' Zayyat said. 'They wanted someone to do this dirty work for them,'..."
BBC News: Egypt torture centre, report says
"Human rights group Amnesty International has released a highly critical report on Egypt's record on torture and illegal detention.
The issue was recently highlighted by the emergence of mobile phone film of policemen raping a man with a stick.
The report says Egypt has become an international centre for interrogation and torture on behalf of other states as part of the 'war on terror'.
There was no immediate reaction from the Egyptian government..."
Jason Leopold: Congressional Report: Gross Mismanagement of Iraq Funds
"A damning report issued last month by the nonpartisan research arm of Congress says the Department of Defense continues to overstate its financial needs, by tens of billions of dollars, to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The agency also casts serious doubt on President Bush's statements that money to fund the war will dry up by the end of the month if his budgetary demands are not immediately met.
The 45-page report, 'The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11,' prepared for Congress by the Congressional Research Service, warned lawmakers that before they release additional funds to the Pentagon for the Iraq war, they should first demand that Defense Department officials provide an accurate accounting of how the money is being spent.
Since 2001, the Pentagon has grossly mismanaged the $510 billion spent thus far on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars; has used money earmarked for equipment upgrades to finance fighting on the battlefield, and has refused to provide Congress with a transparent accounting of the money it has spent and intends to spend, according to the CRS report.
'Congressional leaders have promised more scrutiny of the administration's requests for a [fiscal year] 2007 supplemental and [fiscal year] 2008 war costs. The [fiscal year] 2007 supplemental requests an additional $93.4 billion for war costs, which would bring DOD's annual war cost to $163.4 billion, the highest to date and 40 percent more than in 2006. If enacted, cumulative war costs would reach $607 billion,' the report says. 'Thus far, Congress is receiving fairly detailed quarterly reporting on various metrics for success in Iraq...but cost is not one of those metrics.'
Exacerbating the issue is the fact that the Department of Defense 'has periodically revised the figures shown for each operation in previous years, suggesting questions about the validity of its figures,' the report says, adding that some of the department's supplemental requests for 2007 include '$2 billion from some unknown source,'..."
On Torture:
Mohamad Bazzi: The CIA's Italian Job
"... In February an Italian judge indicted twenty-six Americans--a US Air Force colonel and twenty-five suspected CIA operatives, including the former Rome station chief and former Milan sub-station chief--for their role in the months-long plot to abduct Nasr. Although none of the suspects are in custody, the trial is set to begin June 8, and it has already become an embarrassment for the Bush Administration and the Italian government.
The public relations disaster may have saved others from abduction and torture. 'I suspect that Abu Omar's case has slowed down the policy of renditions,' said John Sifton, senior researcher on terrorism and counterterrorism at Human Rights Watch. 'It was an incredible embarrassment for the CIA. Undoubtedly, it made them think twice about other abductions.'
But the star witness, Nasr, might not be able to testify in Italy. He was released from an Egyptian prison in February, but his lawyer says he is not allowed to leave the country or to make any public statements. 'The Egyptian authorities warned him that if he speaks about the case, he will be sent back to prison,' said Zayyat. (Egyptian officials had made good on an earlier threat to throw Nasr back in prison: After being released in April 2004, he was arrested twenty days later when the secret police learned that he had been discussing his abduction.)
American and Egyptian officials have refused to comment on the case. Egypt has even refused to confirm or deny that it had Nasr in custody. But a Cairo appeals court ordered his release after he'd been held in prison for four years without charge. And now Egypt, the second-largest recipient of US foreign aid after Israel, is trying to save its benefactor from further embarrassment by preventing Nasr from testifying in Italy. 'The Americans want this case to go away,' Zayyat said. 'They don't want Abu Omar to publicly describe what happened to him.'
It's hard to believe that the CIA didn't know what would happen to Nasr. 'Egypt's intelligence services are infamous for using torture,' said Sifton. 'The Americans knew that by sending him to Egypt, he would be tortured,' Zayyat said. 'They wanted someone to do this dirty work for them,'..."
BBC News: Egypt torture centre, report says
"Human rights group Amnesty International has released a highly critical report on Egypt's record on torture and illegal detention.
The issue was recently highlighted by the emergence of mobile phone film of policemen raping a man with a stick.
The report says Egypt has become an international centre for interrogation and torture on behalf of other states as part of the 'war on terror'.
There was no immediate reaction from the Egyptian government..."
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
The GOP's Political Smears:
Paul Krugman: Sweet Little Lies
"Four years into a war fought to eliminate a nonexistent threat, we all have renewed appreciation for the power of the Big Lie: people tend to believe false official claims about big issues, because they can’t picture their leaders being dishonest about such things.
But there’s another political lesson I don’t think has sunk in: the power of the Little Lie — the small accusation invented out of thin air, followed by another, and another, and another. Little Lies aren’t meant to have staying power. Instead, they create a sort of background hum, a sense that the person facing all these accusations must have done something wrong.
For a long time, basically from 9/11 until the last remnants of President Bush’s credibility drowned in New Orleans, the Bush administration was able to go big on its deceptions. Most people found it inconceivable that an American president would, for example, assert without evidence that Saddam and Al Qaeda were allies. Mr. Bush won the 2004 election because a quorum of voters still couldn’t believe he would grossly mislead them on matters of national security.
Before 9/11, however, the right-wing noise machine mainly relied on little lies. And now it has returned to its roots..."
On Iran:
Noam Chomsky: What If Iran Had Invaded Mexico?Putting the Iran Crisis in Context
"Unsurprisingly, George W. Bush’s announcement of a 'surge' in Iraq came despite the firm opposition to any such move of Americans and the even stronger opposition of the (thoroughly irrelevant) Iraqis. It was accompanied by ominous official leaks and statements — from Washington and Baghdad — about how Iranian intervention in Iraq was aimed at disrupting our mission to gain victory, an aim which is (by definition) noble. What then followed was a solemn debate about whether serial numbers on advanced roadside bombs (IEDs) were really traceable to Iran; and, if so, to that country’s Revolutionary Guards or to some even higher authority.
This 'debate' is a typical illustration of a primary principle of sophisticated propaganda. In crude and brutal societies, the Party Line is publicly proclaimed and must be obeyed — or else. What you actually believe is your own business and of far less concern. In societies where the state has lost the capacity to control by force, the Party Line is simply presupposed; then, vigorous debate is encouraged within the limits imposed by unstated doctrinal orthodoxy. The cruder of the two systems leads, naturally enough, to disbelief; the sophisticated variant gives an impression of openness and freedom, and so far more effectively serves to instill the Party Line. It becomes beyond question, beyond thought itself, like the air we breathe.
The debate over Iranian interference in Iraq proceeds without ridicule on the assumption that the United States owns the world. We did not, for example, engage in a similar debate in the 1980s about whether the U.S. was interfering in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, and I doubt that Pravda, probably recognizing the absurdity of the situation, sank to outrage about that fact (which American officials and our media, in any case, made no effort to conceal). Perhaps the official Nazi press also featured solemn debates about whether the Allies were interfering in sovereign Vichy France, though if so, sane people would then have collapsed in ridicule..."
The 2004 Election:
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman: Ohio’s Election Protection Movement Wins Two Big Victories
"In a victory for election protection activists, Ohio’s powerful GOP Chair Bob Bennett will be forced to face a public hearing on his removal as Chair of the Cuyahoga (Cleveland) Board of Elections. And in a second triumph, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has agreed, as part of a legal settlement, to take possession of the ballots and other key documents from the disputed 2004 election that gave George W. Bush a second term in the White House. Brunner has requested the resignations of the entire scandal-plagued Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, which Bennett has chaired. Two Democratic members and one Republican have complied with her request. The BOE’s executive director, Michael Vu, previously resigned amidst a cloud of scandal resulting from a mishandled primary election and more than $12 million in budgetary overruns. Two BOE workers have been given 18-month prison sentences for felony convictions stemming from what a government prosecutor called the “rigging” of an officially mandated recount for the 2004 presidential election..."
Paul Krugman: Sweet Little Lies
"Four years into a war fought to eliminate a nonexistent threat, we all have renewed appreciation for the power of the Big Lie: people tend to believe false official claims about big issues, because they can’t picture their leaders being dishonest about such things.
But there’s another political lesson I don’t think has sunk in: the power of the Little Lie — the small accusation invented out of thin air, followed by another, and another, and another. Little Lies aren’t meant to have staying power. Instead, they create a sort of background hum, a sense that the person facing all these accusations must have done something wrong.
For a long time, basically from 9/11 until the last remnants of President Bush’s credibility drowned in New Orleans, the Bush administration was able to go big on its deceptions. Most people found it inconceivable that an American president would, for example, assert without evidence that Saddam and Al Qaeda were allies. Mr. Bush won the 2004 election because a quorum of voters still couldn’t believe he would grossly mislead them on matters of national security.
Before 9/11, however, the right-wing noise machine mainly relied on little lies. And now it has returned to its roots..."
On Iran:
Noam Chomsky: What If Iran Had Invaded Mexico?Putting the Iran Crisis in Context
"Unsurprisingly, George W. Bush’s announcement of a 'surge' in Iraq came despite the firm opposition to any such move of Americans and the even stronger opposition of the (thoroughly irrelevant) Iraqis. It was accompanied by ominous official leaks and statements — from Washington and Baghdad — about how Iranian intervention in Iraq was aimed at disrupting our mission to gain victory, an aim which is (by definition) noble. What then followed was a solemn debate about whether serial numbers on advanced roadside bombs (IEDs) were really traceable to Iran; and, if so, to that country’s Revolutionary Guards or to some even higher authority.
This 'debate' is a typical illustration of a primary principle of sophisticated propaganda. In crude and brutal societies, the Party Line is publicly proclaimed and must be obeyed — or else. What you actually believe is your own business and of far less concern. In societies where the state has lost the capacity to control by force, the Party Line is simply presupposed; then, vigorous debate is encouraged within the limits imposed by unstated doctrinal orthodoxy. The cruder of the two systems leads, naturally enough, to disbelief; the sophisticated variant gives an impression of openness and freedom, and so far more effectively serves to instill the Party Line. It becomes beyond question, beyond thought itself, like the air we breathe.
The debate over Iranian interference in Iraq proceeds without ridicule on the assumption that the United States owns the world. We did not, for example, engage in a similar debate in the 1980s about whether the U.S. was interfering in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, and I doubt that Pravda, probably recognizing the absurdity of the situation, sank to outrage about that fact (which American officials and our media, in any case, made no effort to conceal). Perhaps the official Nazi press also featured solemn debates about whether the Allies were interfering in sovereign Vichy France, though if so, sane people would then have collapsed in ridicule..."
The 2004 Election:
Bob Fitrakis & Harvey Wasserman: Ohio’s Election Protection Movement Wins Two Big Victories
"In a victory for election protection activists, Ohio’s powerful GOP Chair Bob Bennett will be forced to face a public hearing on his removal as Chair of the Cuyahoga (Cleveland) Board of Elections. And in a second triumph, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner has agreed, as part of a legal settlement, to take possession of the ballots and other key documents from the disputed 2004 election that gave George W. Bush a second term in the White House. Brunner has requested the resignations of the entire scandal-plagued Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, which Bennett has chaired. Two Democratic members and one Republican have complied with her request. The BOE’s executive director, Michael Vu, previously resigned amidst a cloud of scandal resulting from a mishandled primary election and more than $12 million in budgetary overruns. Two BOE workers have been given 18-month prison sentences for felony convictions stemming from what a government prosecutor called the “rigging” of an officially mandated recount for the 2004 presidential election..."
Friday, April 06, 2007
The Lies That Took A Fearful Nation To War:
Matt Renner: Pentagon Office Created Phony Intel on Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
"Newly released documents confirm that a Pentagon unit knowingly cooked up intelligence claiming a direct link between Iraq and al-Qaeda in order to win support for a preemptive strike against the country.
A report prepared by the Defense Department's Inspector General for Carl Levin, the Democratic Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, explicitly shows how former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith used his defense department position to cook intelligence claiming a connection between the terrorist organization and Saddam Hussein's regime.
The Inspector General's report, 'Review of the Pre-Iraqi War Activities of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy,' focuses specifically on Feith's intelligence gathering operations in the months prior to the March 2003 invasion. An executive summary of the report was declassified in February. The full report was declassified and released Thursday at Levin's request.
'It is important for the public to see why the Pentagon's inspector general concluded that Secretary Feith's office 'developed, produced and then disseminated alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and al-Qaeda relationship,' which included 'conclusions that were inconsistent with the consensus of the Intelligence Community,' and why the Inspector General concluded that these actions were 'inappropriate,'' Levin said. 'Until today, those details were classified and outside the public's view.'
Documents released in conjunction with the inspector general's findings include a July 25, 2002 memorandum and briefing from Feith's Office of Special Plans titled 'Iraq and al-Qaida: Making the Case' that claimed a 'mature, symbiotic relationship [between Iraq and al-Qaida]' existed.
But according to the IG's declassified report, 'a Senior Intelligence Analyst working in the Joint Intelligence Task Force-Combating Terrorism (JITF-CT) countered point-by-point, each instance of an alleged tie between Iraq and al-Qaida...'
According to the IG report, both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) had throughly examined the possibility of an active relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida and determined there were 'no conclusive signs [of a relationship],' and 'direct cooperation ... has not been established.'
Feith's Office of Special Plans, however, created a briefing based on a previous report, 'Assessing the Relationship Between Iraq and al Qaida.' The presentation was aimed at discrediting the conclusions of the CIA and the DIA..."
Matt Renner: Pentagon Office Created Phony Intel on Iraq/al-Qaeda Link
"Newly released documents confirm that a Pentagon unit knowingly cooked up intelligence claiming a direct link between Iraq and al-Qaeda in order to win support for a preemptive strike against the country.
A report prepared by the Defense Department's Inspector General for Carl Levin, the Democratic Chairman of the Armed Services Committee, explicitly shows how former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith used his defense department position to cook intelligence claiming a connection between the terrorist organization and Saddam Hussein's regime.
The Inspector General's report, 'Review of the Pre-Iraqi War Activities of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy,' focuses specifically on Feith's intelligence gathering operations in the months prior to the March 2003 invasion. An executive summary of the report was declassified in February. The full report was declassified and released Thursday at Levin's request.
'It is important for the public to see why the Pentagon's inspector general concluded that Secretary Feith's office 'developed, produced and then disseminated alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and al-Qaeda relationship,' which included 'conclusions that were inconsistent with the consensus of the Intelligence Community,' and why the Inspector General concluded that these actions were 'inappropriate,'' Levin said. 'Until today, those details were classified and outside the public's view.'
Documents released in conjunction with the inspector general's findings include a July 25, 2002 memorandum and briefing from Feith's Office of Special Plans titled 'Iraq and al-Qaida: Making the Case' that claimed a 'mature, symbiotic relationship [between Iraq and al-Qaida]' existed.
But according to the IG's declassified report, 'a Senior Intelligence Analyst working in the Joint Intelligence Task Force-Combating Terrorism (JITF-CT) countered point-by-point, each instance of an alleged tie between Iraq and al-Qaida...'
According to the IG report, both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) had throughly examined the possibility of an active relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida and determined there were 'no conclusive signs [of a relationship],' and 'direct cooperation ... has not been established.'
Feith's Office of Special Plans, however, created a briefing based on a previous report, 'Assessing the Relationship Between Iraq and al Qaida.' The presentation was aimed at discrediting the conclusions of the CIA and the DIA..."
Employee Surveillance:
Democracy Now! - Headlines for April 5, 2007
"Wal-Mart Accused of Infiltrating Anti-Wal-Mart Group; Spying on Critics
A former worker at Wal-Mart is claiming the company is running a sophisticated surveillance operation that targets employees, journalists, stockholders and critics of the company. The claims were made by Bruce Gabbard who was fired last month for intercepting and recording phone calls to and from a New York Times reporter. Gabbard told the Wall Street Journal he was part of a broader surveillance operation run out of Wal-Mart's Arkansas headquarters. Gabbard also revealed that Wal-Mart infiltrated the group Up Against the Wal last year by sending a long-haired employee wearing a wireless microphone to one of the group's meetings. A Wal-Mart surveillance van was stationed outside the meeting in order to listen in to what was happening. Wal-Mart also reportedly closely monitored the internet and phone usage of employees at work. Managers received a list of email addresses and phone numbers with which their employees have communicated, and a list of Web sites visited. Wal-Mart also developed a system to read the personal emails of workers sent or received from private accounts such as Hotmail or Gmail..."
The Emerging National Security State:
Democracy Now! - Secret FBI Unit Detained War Protesters In 2002
"New revelations have linked the FBI to the interrogation and detention of anti-war protesters in Washington, D.C. According to unearthed police records, a secret FBI intelligence unit helped detain and question a group of protesters in a downtown parking garage in April 2002. Some of the protesters were interrogated on videotape about their political and religious beliefs.
According to the police records, the protesters were targeted largely because they were wearing the color black and perceived by police to be anarchists. In one section of the police log, an officer reports: 'There are reportedly 15 anarchists at 13th and K being interviewed. The subjects reportedly had a passkey to a building, but it's unknown how they came to be in possession of it.'
After the protesters were detained, FBI agents dressed in street clothes separated members to question them one by one about protests they attended, whom they had spent time with recently, what political views they espoused and the significance of their tattoos and slogans.
For years, law enforcement authorities suggested the incident never happened. According to the Washington Post, the revelations provide the first public evidence that Washington-based FBI personnel used their intelligence-gathering powers in the District to collect purely political intelligence.
The police records came to light out of a lawsuit filed on behalf of the protesters by the Partnership for Civil Justice..."
Democracy Now! - Headlines for April 5, 2007
"Wal-Mart Accused of Infiltrating Anti-Wal-Mart Group; Spying on Critics
A former worker at Wal-Mart is claiming the company is running a sophisticated surveillance operation that targets employees, journalists, stockholders and critics of the company. The claims were made by Bruce Gabbard who was fired last month for intercepting and recording phone calls to and from a New York Times reporter. Gabbard told the Wall Street Journal he was part of a broader surveillance operation run out of Wal-Mart's Arkansas headquarters. Gabbard also revealed that Wal-Mart infiltrated the group Up Against the Wal last year by sending a long-haired employee wearing a wireless microphone to one of the group's meetings. A Wal-Mart surveillance van was stationed outside the meeting in order to listen in to what was happening. Wal-Mart also reportedly closely monitored the internet and phone usage of employees at work. Managers received a list of email addresses and phone numbers with which their employees have communicated, and a list of Web sites visited. Wal-Mart also developed a system to read the personal emails of workers sent or received from private accounts such as Hotmail or Gmail..."
The Emerging National Security State:
Democracy Now! - Secret FBI Unit Detained War Protesters In 2002
"New revelations have linked the FBI to the interrogation and detention of anti-war protesters in Washington, D.C. According to unearthed police records, a secret FBI intelligence unit helped detain and question a group of protesters in a downtown parking garage in April 2002. Some of the protesters were interrogated on videotape about their political and religious beliefs.
According to the police records, the protesters were targeted largely because they were wearing the color black and perceived by police to be anarchists. In one section of the police log, an officer reports: 'There are reportedly 15 anarchists at 13th and K being interviewed. The subjects reportedly had a passkey to a building, but it's unknown how they came to be in possession of it.'
After the protesters were detained, FBI agents dressed in street clothes separated members to question them one by one about protests they attended, whom they had spent time with recently, what political views they espoused and the significance of their tattoos and slogans.
For years, law enforcement authorities suggested the incident never happened. According to the Washington Post, the revelations provide the first public evidence that Washington-based FBI personnel used their intelligence-gathering powers in the District to collect purely political intelligence.
The police records came to light out of a lawsuit filed on behalf of the protesters by the Partnership for Civil Justice..."
Thursday, April 05, 2007
On Diplomacy and Pragmatism vs Confrontation
Too bad Team Bush will find it impossible to learn any lessons from this episode.
VALI NASR and RAY TAKEYH: What We Can Learn From Britain About Iran
"Through the capture of and subsequent announcement that it would release 15 British sailors and marines, the Islamic Republic of Iran sent its adversaries a pointed message: just as Iran will meet confrontation with confrontation, it will respond to what it perceives as flexibility with pragmatism. This message is worth heeding as the United States and Iran seem to be moving inexorably toward conflict.
The timing of the Britons’ capture was no accident. The incident followed the passage of a United Nations resolution censuring Iran for its nuclear infractions, the dispatch of American aircraft carriers to the Persian Gulf and the American sanctioning of Iranian banks. Although the Bush administration has been busy proclaiming its increasingly confrontational Iran policy a success, Tehran’s unsubtle conduct in the Persian Gulf suggests otherwise.
Had the British followed the American example, once the sailors and marines were seized, they could have escalated the conflict by pursuing the matter more forcefully at the United Nations or sending additional naval vessels to the area. Instead, the British tempered their rhetoric and insisted that diplomacy was the only means of resolving the conflict. The Iranians received this as pragmatism on London’s part and responded in kind..."
Too bad Team Bush will find it impossible to learn any lessons from this episode.
VALI NASR and RAY TAKEYH: What We Can Learn From Britain About Iran
"Through the capture of and subsequent announcement that it would release 15 British sailors and marines, the Islamic Republic of Iran sent its adversaries a pointed message: just as Iran will meet confrontation with confrontation, it will respond to what it perceives as flexibility with pragmatism. This message is worth heeding as the United States and Iran seem to be moving inexorably toward conflict.
The timing of the Britons’ capture was no accident. The incident followed the passage of a United Nations resolution censuring Iran for its nuclear infractions, the dispatch of American aircraft carriers to the Persian Gulf and the American sanctioning of Iranian banks. Although the Bush administration has been busy proclaiming its increasingly confrontational Iran policy a success, Tehran’s unsubtle conduct in the Persian Gulf suggests otherwise.
Had the British followed the American example, once the sailors and marines were seized, they could have escalated the conflict by pursuing the matter more forcefully at the United Nations or sending additional naval vessels to the area. Instead, the British tempered their rhetoric and insisted that diplomacy was the only means of resolving the conflict. The Iranians received this as pragmatism on London’s part and responded in kind..."
Rewarding Loyalty, Irrespective Of The Will Of Congress:
NY Times: Bush Uses Recess to Fill Envoy Post and 2 Others
"President Bush used the Congressional recess on Wednesday to push through his choice to be ambassador to Belgium and to fill two domestic policy positions, provoking Democratic ire with all three appointments.
The ambassadorship will be filled by Sam Fox, a major Republican donor who had withdrawn his name for the job in late March when it became clear that Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee were lining up against him.
Mr. Fox donated $50,000 to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that opposed Senator John Kerry during his 2004 presidential campaign. The group attacked Mr. Kerry’s record in the Vietnam War with advertising that included unsubstantiated accusations that he had not earned his war medals.
'It’s sad but not surprising that this White House would abuse the power of the presidency to reward a donor over the objections of the Senate,' Mr. Kerry said Wednesday in a statement. 'Unfortunately, when this White House can’t win the game, they just change the rules, and America loses,'..."
A Conflict Of Interest:
NY Times: College Officers Profited by Sale of Lender Stock
"The directors of financial aid at Columbia University, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California held shares in a student loan company that each of the universities recommends to student borrowers, and in at least two cases profited handsomely.
The personal stake of the three university officials in the company, now known as Student Loan Xpress, is the latest revelation in an expanding investigation by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York into the relationships between student loan companies and universities. Student Loan Xpress is one of the 'preferred lenders' recommended at all three universities.
Government filings show that the three officials sold shares in a stock offering by the parent company of Student Loan Xpress in 2003 and held additional stock options in the company, known as Education Lending Group. One of the officials made more than $100,000, according to documents and lawyers in Mr. Cuomo’s office. In one case, that of Texas, the official says he was invited to invest in the company.
The documents show the largest gains went to David Charlow, executive director of financial aid at Columbia University..."
On Torture:
AP: U.S. agents eye secret prisons in Ethiopia
"CIA and FBI agents hunting for al-Qaida militants in the Horn of Africa have been interrogating terrorism suspects from 19 countries held at secret prisons in Ethiopia, which is notorious for torture and abuse, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.
Human rights groups, lawyers and several Western diplomats assert hundreds of prisoners, who include women and children, have been transferred secretly and illegally in recent months from Kenya and Somalia to Ethiopia, where they are kept without charge or access to lawyers and families.
The detainees include at least one U.S. citizen, and some are from Canada, Sweden and France, according to a list compiled by a Kenyan Muslim rights group and flight manifests obtained by AP..."
NY Times: Bush Uses Recess to Fill Envoy Post and 2 Others
"President Bush used the Congressional recess on Wednesday to push through his choice to be ambassador to Belgium and to fill two domestic policy positions, provoking Democratic ire with all three appointments.
The ambassadorship will be filled by Sam Fox, a major Republican donor who had withdrawn his name for the job in late March when it became clear that Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee were lining up against him.
Mr. Fox donated $50,000 to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that opposed Senator John Kerry during his 2004 presidential campaign. The group attacked Mr. Kerry’s record in the Vietnam War with advertising that included unsubstantiated accusations that he had not earned his war medals.
'It’s sad but not surprising that this White House would abuse the power of the presidency to reward a donor over the objections of the Senate,' Mr. Kerry said Wednesday in a statement. 'Unfortunately, when this White House can’t win the game, they just change the rules, and America loses,'..."
A Conflict Of Interest:
NY Times: College Officers Profited by Sale of Lender Stock
"The directors of financial aid at Columbia University, the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Southern California held shares in a student loan company that each of the universities recommends to student borrowers, and in at least two cases profited handsomely.
The personal stake of the three university officials in the company, now known as Student Loan Xpress, is the latest revelation in an expanding investigation by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York into the relationships between student loan companies and universities. Student Loan Xpress is one of the 'preferred lenders' recommended at all three universities.
Government filings show that the three officials sold shares in a stock offering by the parent company of Student Loan Xpress in 2003 and held additional stock options in the company, known as Education Lending Group. One of the officials made more than $100,000, according to documents and lawyers in Mr. Cuomo’s office. In one case, that of Texas, the official says he was invited to invest in the company.
The documents show the largest gains went to David Charlow, executive director of financial aid at Columbia University..."
On Torture:
AP: U.S. agents eye secret prisons in Ethiopia
"CIA and FBI agents hunting for al-Qaida militants in the Horn of Africa have been interrogating terrorism suspects from 19 countries held at secret prisons in Ethiopia, which is notorious for torture and abuse, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.
Human rights groups, lawyers and several Western diplomats assert hundreds of prisoners, who include women and children, have been transferred secretly and illegally in recent months from Kenya and Somalia to Ethiopia, where they are kept without charge or access to lawyers and families.
The detainees include at least one U.S. citizen, and some are from Canada, Sweden and France, according to a list compiled by a Kenyan Muslim rights group and flight manifests obtained by AP..."
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Darryl Mason: THE LAST DAYS OF PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
"President Bush began expressing doubts about the Project For A New American Century's (PNAC) plan to reshape the world via American militarism/imperialism when it became clear to him that the Iraq War was not working, sometime in mid-2004. Since then, it's taken a great deal of effort by key NeoCons to keep Bush on song.
PNAC was the Round Table of the NeoCons in the 1990s, and the key players went on to take key roles in the first George W. Bush administration, including vice-president and defence secretary. Other NeoCons filtered out into the media and think tanks from where they shouted down any and all opposition to the Iraq War, no matter how realistic or well-informed the opposing views were. Many of which, it should be noted, were far more accurate about how the Iraq War would turn out than the promises wailed from the rooftops by the NeoCon aligned media, and their echo-chambers across Coalition of the Willing nations.
One of the founding members of PNAC, Paul Wolfowitz, left the White House after barracking for the Iraq War and now holds an extremely influential position in global economic affairs as president of the US-controlled World Bank. He is now helping to indebt Iraqis for generations to come with a series of interest-and-conditions heavy WB loans for 'development' of the oil and energy infrastructure.
The PNAC published a stream of documents and policies on how to reshape the world in America's image, and favour, during the late 1990s. There was a particular focus on ramping up defence spending to Cold War levels, so on that count the NeoCons can claim a monumental victory. Overthrowing Saddam Hussein was, of course, also one of their key plans.
So Bush did what they wanted, and what he honestly believed needed to be done, and began the Iraq War. It didn't turn out the way the NeoCons had promised him it would, and by late 2005 it was becoming clear the Iraqis were probably never going to build a statue honouring Bush in 'Freedom Square' (where Saddam's biggest statue once stood), and that the majority of Iraqis hated his guts, and blamed him for all the misery they were enduring.
Bush, as could be expected, got angry with the NeoCons and lost faith in their belief system of projecting military-backed imperialism into the heart of the Middle East. President Bush clearly believed and believes still that the world will be a better place if Iraqis are free and democratic. The NeoCons, however, never told the president the truth : it was total chaos across the entire Middle East that they were seeking; a millennial shake-up of Arab and Muslim power and influence and control of the world's most valuable fuel source.
Bush clearly believed he was doing the Right Thing in invading and occupying Iraq, and it's taken a lot of effort from the NeoCons to keep Bush away from the 'old friends' network of his father, who can see the war is destroying the United States, internally and externally. Robert Gates becoming defence secretary was a concession the NeoCons had no choice but to suffer.
To help get Bush back on the side of the NeoCons, and refocused on the PNAC view of how the 21st century should, and must, unfold, NeoCon-aligned 'historian' Andrew Roberts quickly wrote and published the book History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900.
It was the sort of book that was perfect for Bush. Straightforward, uncomplicated, lots of talk about his heroes, Churchill and Washington, and how their unshakable faith in their actions, despite the death and destruction all around, changed America and the world. For the better.
Naturally, Roberts' book got rave reviews in the hard right, ultra-conservative aligned media, which neon-signed to President Bush that this was a history book that he should take seriously. Roberts' book is a Volume-Goes-To-11 revisionist slab of NeoCon propaganda, but it said all the things that President Bush wanted to hear...
...Lesson Five: Iran Iran Iran Iran Iran Iran Iran Iran:
the neoconservatives left Bush with the overarching instruction -- namely, the only thing that he should concern himself with, the only thing that really matters, is Iran. Forget every other issue -- the welfare of the American people, every other region around the world -- except the one that matters most:
The closing note was a more serious one. Roberts said that history would judge the president on whether he had prevented the nuclearization of the Middle East. If Iran gets the bomb, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other countries will follow. 'That is why I am so pleased to be sitting here rather than in your chair, Mr. President.' There was no response, other than a serious frown and a nod.
Irving Kristol has written in the past about the need to exploit religious and moral concepts in order to manipulate the masses, and his intellectual North Star, Leo Strauss, has advocated -- as Strauss scholar Shadia Drury documented-- that 'those in power must invent noble lies and pious frauds to keep the people in the stupor for which they are supremely fit' -- a view Kristol has endorsed.
One can see that dynamic powerfully at work in the interaction between these neoconservatives and the President. They have seized upon the President's evangelical fervor and equated his 'calling' to wage war for Good in the world with the neoconservative agenda of endless wars in the Middle East.
And the more unpopular the President becomes as a result, the more of a failure these policies are, the more strongly they tell him to ignore all of that, that none of it matters, that his God and history will conclude that he did The Right Thing, provided that he continues steadfastly to pursue their agenda.
And the President believes that. That is why nothing will stop him in pursuing the path he created years ago when, in January, 2002, he became convinced to name not only Iraq, but also Iran, as standing members of the 'Axis of Evil' (even though our relations with Iran were rapidly improving at the time) and cited the 9/11 attacks in order to all but vow war on those countries, despite their having nothing to do with those attacks.
The President's 'lessons' at the feet of neoconservatives continue, and he is as faithful a student as ever..."
"President Bush began expressing doubts about the Project For A New American Century's (PNAC) plan to reshape the world via American militarism/imperialism when it became clear to him that the Iraq War was not working, sometime in mid-2004. Since then, it's taken a great deal of effort by key NeoCons to keep Bush on song.
PNAC was the Round Table of the NeoCons in the 1990s, and the key players went on to take key roles in the first George W. Bush administration, including vice-president and defence secretary. Other NeoCons filtered out into the media and think tanks from where they shouted down any and all opposition to the Iraq War, no matter how realistic or well-informed the opposing views were. Many of which, it should be noted, were far more accurate about how the Iraq War would turn out than the promises wailed from the rooftops by the NeoCon aligned media, and their echo-chambers across Coalition of the Willing nations.
One of the founding members of PNAC, Paul Wolfowitz, left the White House after barracking for the Iraq War and now holds an extremely influential position in global economic affairs as president of the US-controlled World Bank. He is now helping to indebt Iraqis for generations to come with a series of interest-and-conditions heavy WB loans for 'development' of the oil and energy infrastructure.
The PNAC published a stream of documents and policies on how to reshape the world in America's image, and favour, during the late 1990s. There was a particular focus on ramping up defence spending to Cold War levels, so on that count the NeoCons can claim a monumental victory. Overthrowing Saddam Hussein was, of course, also one of their key plans.
So Bush did what they wanted, and what he honestly believed needed to be done, and began the Iraq War. It didn't turn out the way the NeoCons had promised him it would, and by late 2005 it was becoming clear the Iraqis were probably never going to build a statue honouring Bush in 'Freedom Square' (where Saddam's biggest statue once stood), and that the majority of Iraqis hated his guts, and blamed him for all the misery they were enduring.
Bush, as could be expected, got angry with the NeoCons and lost faith in their belief system of projecting military-backed imperialism into the heart of the Middle East. President Bush clearly believed and believes still that the world will be a better place if Iraqis are free and democratic. The NeoCons, however, never told the president the truth : it was total chaos across the entire Middle East that they were seeking; a millennial shake-up of Arab and Muslim power and influence and control of the world's most valuable fuel source.
Bush clearly believed he was doing the Right Thing in invading and occupying Iraq, and it's taken a lot of effort from the NeoCons to keep Bush away from the 'old friends' network of his father, who can see the war is destroying the United States, internally and externally. Robert Gates becoming defence secretary was a concession the NeoCons had no choice but to suffer.
To help get Bush back on the side of the NeoCons, and refocused on the PNAC view of how the 21st century should, and must, unfold, NeoCon-aligned 'historian' Andrew Roberts quickly wrote and published the book History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900.
It was the sort of book that was perfect for Bush. Straightforward, uncomplicated, lots of talk about his heroes, Churchill and Washington, and how their unshakable faith in their actions, despite the death and destruction all around, changed America and the world. For the better.
Naturally, Roberts' book got rave reviews in the hard right, ultra-conservative aligned media, which neon-signed to President Bush that this was a history book that he should take seriously. Roberts' book is a Volume-Goes-To-11 revisionist slab of NeoCon propaganda, but it said all the things that President Bush wanted to hear...
...Lesson Five: Iran Iran Iran Iran Iran Iran Iran Iran:
the neoconservatives left Bush with the overarching instruction -- namely, the only thing that he should concern himself with, the only thing that really matters, is Iran. Forget every other issue -- the welfare of the American people, every other region around the world -- except the one that matters most:
The closing note was a more serious one. Roberts said that history would judge the president on whether he had prevented the nuclearization of the Middle East. If Iran gets the bomb, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other countries will follow. 'That is why I am so pleased to be sitting here rather than in your chair, Mr. President.' There was no response, other than a serious frown and a nod.
Irving Kristol has written in the past about the need to exploit religious and moral concepts in order to manipulate the masses, and his intellectual North Star, Leo Strauss, has advocated -- as Strauss scholar Shadia Drury documented-- that 'those in power must invent noble lies and pious frauds to keep the people in the stupor for which they are supremely fit' -- a view Kristol has endorsed.
One can see that dynamic powerfully at work in the interaction between these neoconservatives and the President. They have seized upon the President's evangelical fervor and equated his 'calling' to wage war for Good in the world with the neoconservative agenda of endless wars in the Middle East.
And the more unpopular the President becomes as a result, the more of a failure these policies are, the more strongly they tell him to ignore all of that, that none of it matters, that his God and history will conclude that he did The Right Thing, provided that he continues steadfastly to pursue their agenda.
And the President believes that. That is why nothing will stop him in pursuing the path he created years ago when, in January, 2002, he became convinced to name not only Iraq, but also Iran, as standing members of the 'Axis of Evil' (even though our relations with Iran were rapidly improving at the time) and cited the 9/11 attacks in order to all but vow war on those countries, despite their having nothing to do with those attacks.
The President's 'lessons' at the feet of neoconservatives continue, and he is as faithful a student as ever..."
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
The Lies That Took A Fearful Nation To War:
Dave Lindorff: The Fall Guy
"...So the real question then is, who is behind those forged documents?
There is an interesting story here—and an important mystery to be solved.
As it happens, way back in early 2001 there was a burglary at the Niger Embassy in Rome and another at the home of the Niger ambassador. Police investigating the crimes found that the only things stolen were official stationery and some official stamps. A cleaning lady and a former member of Italy’s intelligence service were arrested for the crimes. They were odd burglaries, to be sure, since there is precious little one could use or sell such documents for, given the country involved. It might make sense to steal official stationery from the French Embassy in Rome, which a thief might use to finagle a pass to the Cannes Festival. But Niger?
Jump to October, 2001. A few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, accompanied by his ministers of defense and intelligence, made a visit to the White House. There he reportedly handed over the forged Niger documents (they were on Niger government stationery, and had Niger government stamps!), which appeared to be receipts for uranium ore, made out to Saddam Hussein. Now forget the matter of why either Hussein or Niger’s government would want paper receipts for such an illegal transaction, and forget the matter of how Hussein would have transported 400 tons of yellow dust across the Sahara to his country without somebody’s noticing. The simple fact is that Bush’s own intelligence experts at the CIA and State Department promptly spotted the forgeries, and they were dumped.
We know this because we know, from the likes of onetime National Security Council counterterrorism head Richard Clarke and former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, that Bush was pushing for war with Iraq almost as soon as he finished reading My Pet Goat following the attack on the Twin Towers. Surely if the White House had even thought those Niger documents might be legit, they would have leaked or broadcast them all over creation.
They didn’t. The documents were deep-sixed, and mentioned to no one.
But according to some dedicated investigative reporters at the respected Italian newspaper La Repubblica, they resurfaced before long at a very suspicious meeting. This meeting occurred in December, 2001 in Rome, and included Michael Ledeen, an associate of Defense Department Undersecretary for Policy Douglas Feith and a key figure in the White House’s war propaganda program; Larry Franklin, a top Defense Intelligence Agency Middle East analyst who later pleaded guilty to passing classified information to two employees of the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC); convicted Iraqi bank swindler Ahmed Chalabi, then head of the CIA-created Iraqi National Congress; and Harold Rhode of the Defense Department’s Office of Special Plans (OSP), that office set up by the White House and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld under Feith’s direction to manufacture 'evidence' to justify a war on Iraq. Also at this peculiar meeting were the heads of the Italian Defense Department and of SISMI, the Italian intelligence agency.
According to La Repubblica, it was at that meeting that a plan was hatched to resurrect the forged Niger documents and give them credibility by recycling them through British intelligence...
...Bush lyingly implied that this was new information, when in fact he knew—had to know—that the 'evidence' in British hands was the same set of documents he had been offered by Berlusconi almost a year and a half earlier, which had been declared to be bogus.
No mainstream American media organization has published the details of this story as reported in Italy. Most Americans, consequently, don’t know what a grand lie Bush and the White House perpetrated upon them and the Congress in order to win approval for an attack on Iraq..."
Dave Lindorff: The Fall Guy
"...So the real question then is, who is behind those forged documents?
There is an interesting story here—and an important mystery to be solved.
As it happens, way back in early 2001 there was a burglary at the Niger Embassy in Rome and another at the home of the Niger ambassador. Police investigating the crimes found that the only things stolen were official stationery and some official stamps. A cleaning lady and a former member of Italy’s intelligence service were arrested for the crimes. They were odd burglaries, to be sure, since there is precious little one could use or sell such documents for, given the country involved. It might make sense to steal official stationery from the French Embassy in Rome, which a thief might use to finagle a pass to the Cannes Festival. But Niger?
Jump to October, 2001. A few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, accompanied by his ministers of defense and intelligence, made a visit to the White House. There he reportedly handed over the forged Niger documents (they were on Niger government stationery, and had Niger government stamps!), which appeared to be receipts for uranium ore, made out to Saddam Hussein. Now forget the matter of why either Hussein or Niger’s government would want paper receipts for such an illegal transaction, and forget the matter of how Hussein would have transported 400 tons of yellow dust across the Sahara to his country without somebody’s noticing. The simple fact is that Bush’s own intelligence experts at the CIA and State Department promptly spotted the forgeries, and they were dumped.
We know this because we know, from the likes of onetime National Security Council counterterrorism head Richard Clarke and former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, that Bush was pushing for war with Iraq almost as soon as he finished reading My Pet Goat following the attack on the Twin Towers. Surely if the White House had even thought those Niger documents might be legit, they would have leaked or broadcast them all over creation.
They didn’t. The documents were deep-sixed, and mentioned to no one.
But according to some dedicated investigative reporters at the respected Italian newspaper La Repubblica, they resurfaced before long at a very suspicious meeting. This meeting occurred in December, 2001 in Rome, and included Michael Ledeen, an associate of Defense Department Undersecretary for Policy Douglas Feith and a key figure in the White House’s war propaganda program; Larry Franklin, a top Defense Intelligence Agency Middle East analyst who later pleaded guilty to passing classified information to two employees of the America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC); convicted Iraqi bank swindler Ahmed Chalabi, then head of the CIA-created Iraqi National Congress; and Harold Rhode of the Defense Department’s Office of Special Plans (OSP), that office set up by the White House and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld under Feith’s direction to manufacture 'evidence' to justify a war on Iraq. Also at this peculiar meeting were the heads of the Italian Defense Department and of SISMI, the Italian intelligence agency.
According to La Repubblica, it was at that meeting that a plan was hatched to resurrect the forged Niger documents and give them credibility by recycling them through British intelligence...
...Bush lyingly implied that this was new information, when in fact he knew—had to know—that the 'evidence' in British hands was the same set of documents he had been offered by Berlusconi almost a year and a half earlier, which had been declared to be bogus.
No mainstream American media organization has published the details of this story as reported in Italy. Most Americans, consequently, don’t know what a grand lie Bush and the White House perpetrated upon them and the Congress in order to win approval for an attack on Iraq..."
Monday, April 02, 2007
Even The Bush Faithful Can't Support Him Anymore:
NY Times: Ex-Aide Says He’s Lost Faith in Bush
"In 1999, Matthew Dowd became a symbol of George W. Bush’s early success at positioning himself as a Republican with Democratic appeal.
A top strategist for the Texas Democrats who was disappointed by the Bill Clinton years, Mr. Dowd was impressed by the pledge of Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, to bring a spirit of cooperation to Washington. He switched parties, joined Mr. Bush’s political brain trust and dedicated the next six years to getting him to the Oval Office and keeping him there. In 2004, he was appointed the president’s chief campaign strategist.
Looking back, Mr. Dowd now says his faith in Mr. Bush was misplaced.
In a wide-ranging interview here, Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s leadership..."
The Environment:
This is the first step toward a long-overdue Carbon Tax...
5-4:
Stevens, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer
vs.
Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito.
NY Times: Justices Rule Against White House on Emissions
"The Supreme Court ruled today, in what amounts to a rebuke of the Bush administration, that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide from automobile emissions, and that it has shirked its duty in not doing so.
In a 5-to-4 decision, the court found that the Clean Air Act expressly authorizes the E.P.A. to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, contrary to the E.P.A.’s contention, and that if the agency still insists that it does not want to regulate those emissions, it must give better reasons than the 'laundry list' of invalid considerations it has offered so far..."
NY Times: Ex-Aide Says He’s Lost Faith in Bush
"In 1999, Matthew Dowd became a symbol of George W. Bush’s early success at positioning himself as a Republican with Democratic appeal.
A top strategist for the Texas Democrats who was disappointed by the Bill Clinton years, Mr. Dowd was impressed by the pledge of Mr. Bush, then governor of Texas, to bring a spirit of cooperation to Washington. He switched parties, joined Mr. Bush’s political brain trust and dedicated the next six years to getting him to the Oval Office and keeping him there. In 2004, he was appointed the president’s chief campaign strategist.
Looking back, Mr. Dowd now says his faith in Mr. Bush was misplaced.
In a wide-ranging interview here, Mr. Dowd called for a withdrawal from Iraq and expressed his disappointment in Mr. Bush’s leadership..."
The Environment:
This is the first step toward a long-overdue Carbon Tax...
5-4:
Stevens, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer
vs.
Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Alito.
NY Times: Justices Rule Against White House on Emissions
"The Supreme Court ruled today, in what amounts to a rebuke of the Bush administration, that the Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate carbon dioxide from automobile emissions, and that it has shirked its duty in not doing so.
In a 5-to-4 decision, the court found that the Clean Air Act expressly authorizes the E.P.A. to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, contrary to the E.P.A.’s contention, and that if the agency still insists that it does not want to regulate those emissions, it must give better reasons than the 'laundry list' of invalid considerations it has offered so far..."
