Wednesday, May 30, 2007
The So-Called War On Terror:
Paul Krugman: Trust and Betrayal
"...When Rudy Giuliani says that Iran, which had nothing to do with 9/11, is part of a 'movement' that 'has already displayed more aggressive tendencies by coming here and killing us,' he should be treated as a lunatic.
When Mitt Romney says that a coalition of 'Shia and Sunni and Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda' wants to 'bring down the West,' he should be ridiculed for his ignorance.
And when John McCain says that Osama, who isn’t in Iraq, will 'follow us home' if we leave, he should be laughed at.
But they aren’t, at least not yet. And until belligerent, uninformed posturing starts being treated with the contempt it deserves, men who know nothing of the cost of war will keep sending other people’s children to graves at Arlington."
Food:
Steve Ettlinger: From a Chinese Oil Refinery To Your Twinkie - Food Makers Don’t Often Know Where The Chemicals In Their Products Come From
"When I began researching the ingredients for Twinkies, I naively thought that their raw materials were extracted from nuts, beans, fruit, seeds or leaves, and that they came from the United States. I was looking to link places with foods — along the lines of California wine or Maine lobster, but for thiamine mononitrate. It turned out that I was way off.
Although eight of the ingredients in the beloved little snack cake come from domestic corn and three from soybeans, there are others — including thiamine mononitrate — that come from petroleum. Chinese petroleum. Chinese refineries and Chinese factories. And there are other unexpected ingredients that are much harder to trace. So much for the great “All-American” snack food..."
Energy Politics:
William Engdahl: Darfur? It's the Oil, Stupid … China and USA in New Cold War over Africa's Oil Riches
"...The case of Darfur, a forbidding piece of sun-parched real estate in the southern part of Sudan, illustrates the new Cold War over oil, where the dramatic rise in China's oil demand to fuel its booming growth has led Beijing to embark on an aggressive policy of-ironically-- dollar diplomacy. With its more than $1.3 trillion in mainly US dollar reserves at the Peoples' National Bank of China, Beijing is engaging in active petroleum geopolitics. Africa is a major focus, and in Africa, the central region between Sudan and Chad is priority. This is defining a major new front in what, since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, is a new Cold War between Washington and Beijing over control of major oil sources. So far Beijing has played its cards a bit more cleverly than Washington. Darfur is a major battleground in this high-stakes contest for oil control..."
Paul Krugman: Trust and Betrayal
"...When Rudy Giuliani says that Iran, which had nothing to do with 9/11, is part of a 'movement' that 'has already displayed more aggressive tendencies by coming here and killing us,' he should be treated as a lunatic.
When Mitt Romney says that a coalition of 'Shia and Sunni and Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda' wants to 'bring down the West,' he should be ridiculed for his ignorance.
And when John McCain says that Osama, who isn’t in Iraq, will 'follow us home' if we leave, he should be laughed at.
But they aren’t, at least not yet. And until belligerent, uninformed posturing starts being treated with the contempt it deserves, men who know nothing of the cost of war will keep sending other people’s children to graves at Arlington."
Food:
Steve Ettlinger: From a Chinese Oil Refinery To Your Twinkie - Food Makers Don’t Often Know Where The Chemicals In Their Products Come From
"When I began researching the ingredients for Twinkies, I naively thought that their raw materials were extracted from nuts, beans, fruit, seeds or leaves, and that they came from the United States. I was looking to link places with foods — along the lines of California wine or Maine lobster, but for thiamine mononitrate. It turned out that I was way off.
Although eight of the ingredients in the beloved little snack cake come from domestic corn and three from soybeans, there are others — including thiamine mononitrate — that come from petroleum. Chinese petroleum. Chinese refineries and Chinese factories. And there are other unexpected ingredients that are much harder to trace. So much for the great “All-American” snack food..."
Energy Politics:
William Engdahl: Darfur? It's the Oil, Stupid … China and USA in New Cold War over Africa's Oil Riches
"...The case of Darfur, a forbidding piece of sun-parched real estate in the southern part of Sudan, illustrates the new Cold War over oil, where the dramatic rise in China's oil demand to fuel its booming growth has led Beijing to embark on an aggressive policy of-ironically-- dollar diplomacy. With its more than $1.3 trillion in mainly US dollar reserves at the Peoples' National Bank of China, Beijing is engaging in active petroleum geopolitics. Africa is a major focus, and in Africa, the central region between Sudan and Chad is priority. This is defining a major new front in what, since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, is a new Cold War between Washington and Beijing over control of major oil sources. So far Beijing has played its cards a bit more cleverly than Washington. Darfur is a major battleground in this high-stakes contest for oil control..."
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Iraq's Oil:
Ann Wright: What Congress Really Approved: Benchmark No. 1: Privatizing Iraq's Oil for US Companies
"On Thursday, May 24, the US Congress voted to continue the war in Iraq. The members called it 'supporting the troops.' I call it stealing Iraq's oil - the second largest reserves in the world. The 'benchmark,' or goal, the Bush administration has been working on furiously since the US invaded Iraq is privatization of Iraq's oil. Now they have Congress blackmailing the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi people: no privatization of Iraqi oil, no reconstruction funds.
This threat could not be clearer. If the Iraqi Parliament refuses to pass the privatization legislation, Congress will withhold US reconstruction funds that were promised to the Iraqis to rebuild what the United States has destroyed there. The privatization law, written by American oil company consultants hired by the Bush administration, would leave control with the Iraq National Oil Company for only 17 of the 80 known oil fields. The remainder (two-thirds) of known oil fields, and all yet undiscovered ones, would be up for grabs by the private oil companies of the world (but guess how many would go to United States firms - given to them by the compliant Iraqi government.)
No other nation in the Middle East has privatized its oil. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iran give only limited usage contracts to international oil companies for one or two years. The $12 billion dollar 'Support the Troops' legislation passed by Congress requires Iraq, in order to get reconstruction funds from the United States, to privatize its oil resources and put them up for long term (20- to 30-year) contracts.
What does this 'Support the Troops' legislation mean for the United States military? Supporting our troops has nothing to do with this bill, other than keeping them there for another 30 years to protect US oil interests. It means that every military service member will need Arabic language training. It means that every soldier and Marine would spend most of his or her career in Iraq. It means that the fourteen permanent bases will get new Taco Bells and Burger Kings! Why? Because the US military will be protecting the US corporate oilfields leased to US companies by the compliant Iraqi government. Our troops will be the guardians of US corporate interests in Iraq for the life of the contracts - for the next thirty years. With the Bush administration's 'Support the Troops' bill and its benchmarks, primarily Benchmark No. 1, we finally have the reason for the US invasion of Iraq: to get easily accessible, cheap, high-grade Iraq oil for US corporations..."
Ann Wright: What Congress Really Approved: Benchmark No. 1: Privatizing Iraq's Oil for US Companies
"On Thursday, May 24, the US Congress voted to continue the war in Iraq. The members called it 'supporting the troops.' I call it stealing Iraq's oil - the second largest reserves in the world. The 'benchmark,' or goal, the Bush administration has been working on furiously since the US invaded Iraq is privatization of Iraq's oil. Now they have Congress blackmailing the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi people: no privatization of Iraqi oil, no reconstruction funds.
This threat could not be clearer. If the Iraqi Parliament refuses to pass the privatization legislation, Congress will withhold US reconstruction funds that were promised to the Iraqis to rebuild what the United States has destroyed there. The privatization law, written by American oil company consultants hired by the Bush administration, would leave control with the Iraq National Oil Company for only 17 of the 80 known oil fields. The remainder (two-thirds) of known oil fields, and all yet undiscovered ones, would be up for grabs by the private oil companies of the world (but guess how many would go to United States firms - given to them by the compliant Iraqi government.)
No other nation in the Middle East has privatized its oil. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iran give only limited usage contracts to international oil companies for one or two years. The $12 billion dollar 'Support the Troops' legislation passed by Congress requires Iraq, in order to get reconstruction funds from the United States, to privatize its oil resources and put them up for long term (20- to 30-year) contracts.
What does this 'Support the Troops' legislation mean for the United States military? Supporting our troops has nothing to do with this bill, other than keeping them there for another 30 years to protect US oil interests. It means that every military service member will need Arabic language training. It means that every soldier and Marine would spend most of his or her career in Iraq. It means that the fourteen permanent bases will get new Taco Bells and Burger Kings! Why? Because the US military will be protecting the US corporate oilfields leased to US companies by the compliant Iraqi government. Our troops will be the guardians of US corporate interests in Iraq for the life of the contracts - for the next thirty years. With the Bush administration's 'Support the Troops' bill and its benchmarks, primarily Benchmark No. 1, we finally have the reason for the US invasion of Iraq: to get easily accessible, cheap, high-grade Iraq oil for US corporations..."
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Energy Politics:
Mr. Garb makes good points, until he begins talking about nuclear power as a solution.
Frank G. Zarb: How to Win the Energy War
"With gas prices hitting yet another all-time high, consider this: while history is littered with examples of countries that were forced to change their domestic and foreign policies because of the lack of a natural resource, there are very few notable instances of nations that had the ability to eliminate such a vulnerability but didn’t. America’s current energy condition, however, is a spectacular example of such a failure. Consider four facts:
No. 1: The United States is very vulnerable to the interruption of its imported oil supply.
No. 2: This dependence on oil has a huge effect on our foreign, military and economic policies.
No. 3: America could have reduced its vulnerability if it had taken decisive action after the 1973 Arab oil embargo. (In 1973 America imported 35 percent of the oil it used; today that figure is greater than 60 percent.)
No. 4: We have never adopted a credible plan to reduce our dependency principally because of a lack of political will..."
Mr. Garb makes good points, until he begins talking about nuclear power as a solution.
Frank G. Zarb: How to Win the Energy War
"With gas prices hitting yet another all-time high, consider this: while history is littered with examples of countries that were forced to change their domestic and foreign policies because of the lack of a natural resource, there are very few notable instances of nations that had the ability to eliminate such a vulnerability but didn’t. America’s current energy condition, however, is a spectacular example of such a failure. Consider four facts:
No. 1: The United States is very vulnerable to the interruption of its imported oil supply.
No. 2: This dependence on oil has a huge effect on our foreign, military and economic policies.
No. 3: America could have reduced its vulnerability if it had taken decisive action after the 1973 Arab oil embargo. (In 1973 America imported 35 percent of the oil it used; today that figure is greater than 60 percent.)
No. 4: We have never adopted a credible plan to reduce our dependency principally because of a lack of political will..."
Monday, May 21, 2007
Corporate Power and Influence:
Let's remember that it was Dick Cheney's actions as Bush 41's SecDef, at the request of companies like Halliburton, that created the contractor paradise that Haliburton has enjoyed ever since. He was, of course, handsomely rewarded for his actions, and will continue to do be rewarded after serving as Vice President of the United States...
CorpWatch: Goodbye Houston: An Alternative Annual Report on Halliburton
"CorpWatch and its partners today released an alternative annual report on Halliburton titled: 'Goodbye Houston' The new report was prepared in association with Halliburton Watch and the Oil & Gas Accountability Project.
The new report (the fourth in the series) is being issued on the eve of Halliburton's annual general meeting in Woodlands, Texas, on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007. An in-depth, hard-hitting report, 'Goodbye Houston,' provides a detailed look at Halliburton 's military and energy operations around the world as well as its political connections. It includes a series of recommendations for the company and its shareholders as well as for the United States policymakers.
Halliburton is one of the 10 largest contractors to the U.S. military. It has earned over $20 billion from the U.S.military in war-related contracts in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. This cash bonanza may well be over because of the cancelation of its two most lucrative contracts: oil infrastructure reconstruction and military base support..."
Economics:
William Greider: The Establishment Rethinks Globalization
"...Free-trade believers insist US workers can defend themselves by getting better educated, but Gomory suggests these believers simply don't understand the economics. 'Better education can only help,' he explains. 'The question is where do you put your technology and knowledge and investment? These other countries understand that. They have understood the following divergence: What countries want and what companies want are different.'
The implication is this: If nothing changes in how globalization currently works, Americans will be increasingly exposed to downward pressure on incomes and living standards. 'Yes,' says Gomory. 'There are many ways to look at it, all of which reach the same conclusion.'
I ask Gomory what he would say to those who believe this is a just outcome: Americans become less rich, others in the world become less poor. That might be 'a reasonable personal choice,' he agrees. 'But that isn't what the people in this country are being told. No one has said to us: 'You're probably a little too rich and these other folks are a little too poor. Why don't we even it out?' Instead, what we usually hear is: 'It's going to be good for everyone. In the long run we're going to get richer with globalization,''
Gomory and Baumol are elaborating a fundamental point sure to make many economists (and political leaders) sputter and choke. Contrary to dogma, the losses from trade are not confined to the 'localized pain' felt by displaced workers who lose jobs and wages. In time, the accumulating loss of a country's productive base can injure the broader national interest--that is, everyone's economic well-being..."
Washington Politics:
Sidney Blumenthal: All hail the king
"Loyalty has always been the alpha and omega of George W. Bush's presidency. But all the forms of allegiance that have bound together his administration -- political, ideological and personal -- are being shredded, leaving only blind loyalty. Bush has surrounded himself with loyalists, who fervently pledged their fealty, enforced the loyalty of others and sought to make loyal converts. Now Bush's long downfall is descending into a series of revenge tragedies in which the characters are helpless against the furies of their misplaced loyalties and betrayals. The stage is being strewn with hacked corpses -- on Monday, former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty; imminently, World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz; tomorrow, whoever remains trapped on the ghost ship of state. As the individual tragedies unfold, Bush's royal robes unravel..."
On Security vs Liberty:
Bruce Schneier: Is Big Brother a Big Deal?
"...The fear isn't an Orwellian government deliberately creating the ultimate totalitarian state, although with the U.S.'s programs of phone-record surveillance, illegal wiretapping, massive data mining, a national ID card no one wants and Patriot Act abuses, one can make that case. It's that we're doing it ourselves, as a natural byproduct of the information society.We're building the computer infrastructure that makes it easy for governments, corporations, criminal organizations and even teenage hackers to record everything we do, and -- yes -- even change our votes. And we will continue to do so unless we pass laws regulating the creation, use, protection, resale and disposal of personal data. It's precisely the attitude that trivializes the problem that creates it."
Occupying Iraq:
Pete Moore: The secret Iraq documents my 8-year-old found
"...When I started studying the massive archive of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the American occupation government that ruled Iraq from April 21, 2003, to June 28, 2004, I expected my experience to be different. I didn't think any letters would fall in my lap, because the archive is paperless. The first archive of occupation created during the IT era, the CPA's virtual history can be found online at www.cpa-iraq.org, on thousands of pages that each begin 'Long live the new Iraq!'
But I forgot to factor in the ubiquity of human error, and of Microsoft Word. It turns out the IT era really is different, after all. It took my 8-year-old son just a few seconds to shake loose some hidden history from within the official transcript of the CPA.
My son made his discovery while impatiently waiting to play a computer game on my laptop. As part of a research project, I had downloaded 45 documents from a section of the CPA Web site known as Consolidated Weekly Reports. All but three of the documents were Microsoft Word. I had one of the Word documents up on my screen when my son starting toying with the computer mouse. Somehow, inadvertently, he managed to pull down the 'View' menu at the top of the screen and select the 'Mark up' option. If you are in a Word document where 'Track changes' has been turned on, hitting 'Mark up' will reveal all the deletions and insertions ever made in the document, complete with times, dates and (sometimes) the initials of the editors. When my son did it, all the deleted passages in a document with the innocuous name 'Administrator's Weekly Economic Report' suddenly appeared in blue and purple. It was the electronic equivalent of seeing every draft of an author's paper manuscript and all the penciled changes made by the editors. I soon figured out that with a few keystrokes I could see the deleted passages in 20 of the 42 Word documents I'd downloaded. For an academic like myself it was a small treasure trove, and after I'd stopped hooting and hollering it took some time before I could convince my startled son that he hadn't done anything wrong..."
Domestic Surveillance:
Glenn Greenwald: The administration's FISA falsehoods continue unabated
"Mike McConnell, the Bush administration's Director of National Intelligence, has a remarkably dishonest Op-Ed in The Washington Post this morning, in which he argues for completely unspecified 'updates' and 'changes' to FISA in order to expand -- yet again -- the Government's powers of eavesdropping on Americans. McConnell's entire argument for expansion of surveillance powers rests on a patent falsehood..."
Let's remember that it was Dick Cheney's actions as Bush 41's SecDef, at the request of companies like Halliburton, that created the contractor paradise that Haliburton has enjoyed ever since. He was, of course, handsomely rewarded for his actions, and will continue to do be rewarded after serving as Vice President of the United States...
CorpWatch: Goodbye Houston: An Alternative Annual Report on Halliburton
"CorpWatch and its partners today released an alternative annual report on Halliburton titled: 'Goodbye Houston' The new report was prepared in association with Halliburton Watch and the Oil & Gas Accountability Project.
The new report (the fourth in the series) is being issued on the eve of Halliburton's annual general meeting in Woodlands, Texas, on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007. An in-depth, hard-hitting report, 'Goodbye Houston,' provides a detailed look at Halliburton 's military and energy operations around the world as well as its political connections. It includes a series of recommendations for the company and its shareholders as well as for the United States policymakers.
Halliburton is one of the 10 largest contractors to the U.S. military. It has earned over $20 billion from the U.S.military in war-related contracts in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. This cash bonanza may well be over because of the cancelation of its two most lucrative contracts: oil infrastructure reconstruction and military base support..."
Economics:
William Greider: The Establishment Rethinks Globalization
"...Free-trade believers insist US workers can defend themselves by getting better educated, but Gomory suggests these believers simply don't understand the economics. 'Better education can only help,' he explains. 'The question is where do you put your technology and knowledge and investment? These other countries understand that. They have understood the following divergence: What countries want and what companies want are different.'
The implication is this: If nothing changes in how globalization currently works, Americans will be increasingly exposed to downward pressure on incomes and living standards. 'Yes,' says Gomory. 'There are many ways to look at it, all of which reach the same conclusion.'
I ask Gomory what he would say to those who believe this is a just outcome: Americans become less rich, others in the world become less poor. That might be 'a reasonable personal choice,' he agrees. 'But that isn't what the people in this country are being told. No one has said to us: 'You're probably a little too rich and these other folks are a little too poor. Why don't we even it out?' Instead, what we usually hear is: 'It's going to be good for everyone. In the long run we're going to get richer with globalization,''
Gomory and Baumol are elaborating a fundamental point sure to make many economists (and political leaders) sputter and choke. Contrary to dogma, the losses from trade are not confined to the 'localized pain' felt by displaced workers who lose jobs and wages. In time, the accumulating loss of a country's productive base can injure the broader national interest--that is, everyone's economic well-being..."
Washington Politics:
Sidney Blumenthal: All hail the king
"Loyalty has always been the alpha and omega of George W. Bush's presidency. But all the forms of allegiance that have bound together his administration -- political, ideological and personal -- are being shredded, leaving only blind loyalty. Bush has surrounded himself with loyalists, who fervently pledged their fealty, enforced the loyalty of others and sought to make loyal converts. Now Bush's long downfall is descending into a series of revenge tragedies in which the characters are helpless against the furies of their misplaced loyalties and betrayals. The stage is being strewn with hacked corpses -- on Monday, former Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty; imminently, World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz; tomorrow, whoever remains trapped on the ghost ship of state. As the individual tragedies unfold, Bush's royal robes unravel..."
On Security vs Liberty:
Bruce Schneier: Is Big Brother a Big Deal?
"...The fear isn't an Orwellian government deliberately creating the ultimate totalitarian state, although with the U.S.'s programs of phone-record surveillance, illegal wiretapping, massive data mining, a national ID card no one wants and Patriot Act abuses, one can make that case. It's that we're doing it ourselves, as a natural byproduct of the information society.We're building the computer infrastructure that makes it easy for governments, corporations, criminal organizations and even teenage hackers to record everything we do, and -- yes -- even change our votes. And we will continue to do so unless we pass laws regulating the creation, use, protection, resale and disposal of personal data. It's precisely the attitude that trivializes the problem that creates it."
Occupying Iraq:
Pete Moore: The secret Iraq documents my 8-year-old found
"...When I started studying the massive archive of the Coalition Provisional Authority, the American occupation government that ruled Iraq from April 21, 2003, to June 28, 2004, I expected my experience to be different. I didn't think any letters would fall in my lap, because the archive is paperless. The first archive of occupation created during the IT era, the CPA's virtual history can be found online at www.cpa-iraq.org, on thousands of pages that each begin 'Long live the new Iraq!'
But I forgot to factor in the ubiquity of human error, and of Microsoft Word. It turns out the IT era really is different, after all. It took my 8-year-old son just a few seconds to shake loose some hidden history from within the official transcript of the CPA.
My son made his discovery while impatiently waiting to play a computer game on my laptop. As part of a research project, I had downloaded 45 documents from a section of the CPA Web site known as Consolidated Weekly Reports. All but three of the documents were Microsoft Word. I had one of the Word documents up on my screen when my son starting toying with the computer mouse. Somehow, inadvertently, he managed to pull down the 'View' menu at the top of the screen and select the 'Mark up' option. If you are in a Word document where 'Track changes' has been turned on, hitting 'Mark up' will reveal all the deletions and insertions ever made in the document, complete with times, dates and (sometimes) the initials of the editors. When my son did it, all the deleted passages in a document with the innocuous name 'Administrator's Weekly Economic Report' suddenly appeared in blue and purple. It was the electronic equivalent of seeing every draft of an author's paper manuscript and all the penciled changes made by the editors. I soon figured out that with a few keystrokes I could see the deleted passages in 20 of the 42 Word documents I'd downloaded. For an academic like myself it was a small treasure trove, and after I'd stopped hooting and hollering it took some time before I could convince my startled son that he hadn't done anything wrong..."
Domestic Surveillance:
Glenn Greenwald: The administration's FISA falsehoods continue unabated
"Mike McConnell, the Bush administration's Director of National Intelligence, has a remarkably dishonest Op-Ed in The Washington Post this morning, in which he argues for completely unspecified 'updates' and 'changes' to FISA in order to expand -- yet again -- the Government's powers of eavesdropping on Americans. McConnell's entire argument for expansion of surveillance powers rests on a patent falsehood..."
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Domestic Surveillance:
Jason Leopold and Matt Renner: Former Deputy AG on Wiretapping: "White House Tried to Coerce Ashcroft"
"...The surveillance program was secretly authorized by President Bush after 9/11 to monitor communications between alleged terrorist suspects abroad and US citizens without first obtaining approval from a special court designated to authorize such activities under guidelines known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The program has come under fire by civil liberties groups and Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who said innocent American citizens have been caught up in the wiretaps.
Comey told lawmakers that his refusal to reauthorize the spy program resulted in a hastily arranged late-night meeting at a hospital, where then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and President Bush's former Chief of Staff Andrew Card tried to coerce a barely conscious John Ashcroft to approve the controversial eavesdropping program. Comey said he also was present at the meeting.
Ashcroft was in intensive care at the time, hospitalized with pancreatitis, but, according to Comey, Ashcroft was able to rebut the arguments made by Gonzales and refused to sign the authorization. Comey testified that Ashcroft had not recertified the program earlier because he had reservations about its legality. Comey assumed control of Ashcroft's duties as attorney general after Ashcroft was hospitalized. Under federal law, the spy program was supposed to be recertified by the Department of Justice every 45 days.
Comey described in extraordinary detail how the March 9, 2004 meeting at the hospital unfolded..."
New York IFP: Bill bans illegal govt eavesdropping
"The US house of representatives today passed a bill outlawing illegal domestic wiretapping by the government.
An amendment to the House Intelligence Reauthorization Bill by Representatives Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) states that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) shall be the exclusive means by which domestic electronic surveillance for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence information may be conducted, and makes clear that this applies until specific statutory authorization for electronic surveillance, other than as an amendment to FISA, is enacted..."
Politicizing The DoJ:
Michael Winship: Keep Out the Vote
"...What's the real motive for knocking off those eight, now nine, maybe more, US attorneys - Republican appointees all - apparently replaced for insufficient fealty to the Bushie party line? In part, the truth may be lurking in the upcoming 2008 elections.
The White House, Attorney General Gonzales and the Justice Department have tried to hide their real reasons, citing 'performance concerns' as the reason for firing the prosecutors and blaming various underlings for mishandling the dismissals, then throwing them to the wolves, too - the latest being Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, who announced his resignation Monday. McNulty's the guy who indiscreetly told a Congressional hearing that the person behind the dismissal of Arkansas US Attorney Bud Cummins was Karl Rove, who wanted Cummins replaced with his buddy Tim Griffin. Oops.
Scratch the surface of anything vaguely nefarious at 1600 Pennsylvania and sooner or later you're likely to hit The Rovester. His most famous bit of dark wizardry is to take a negative about his own guy and turn it into a positive - or, rather, a negative against the other side. In 2004, Rove defused rumors about the president's blotchy National Guard career by orchestrating attacks on John Kerry's legitimate Vietnam combat record. The Swift Boat Vets for Truth set sail and the rest is revisionist history. Klassic Karl.
Rove's dancing the same kind of fandango around the issue of scamming at the polls. With the notoriety of alleged electoral skullduggery in 2000, 2002 and 2004 snapping at collective Republican rear ends, he has swiveled those allegations 180 degrees into attacks against Democrats for supposedly encouraging fraudulent registration and voting..."
The Lies That Took A Fearful Nation To War:
Ray McGovern:How George Tenet Lied
"...Tenet’s book is a self-indictment for the crimes with which Socrates was charged: making the worse cause appear the better, and corrupting the youth.
But George is not the kind to take the hemlock. Rather, with no apparent shame, he accepted what one wag has labeled the 'Presidential Medal of Silence' in return for agreeing to postpone his Nixon-style 'modified limited hangout' until after the mid-term elections last November..."
Jason Leopold and Matt Renner: Former Deputy AG on Wiretapping: "White House Tried to Coerce Ashcroft"
"...The surveillance program was secretly authorized by President Bush after 9/11 to monitor communications between alleged terrorist suspects abroad and US citizens without first obtaining approval from a special court designated to authorize such activities under guidelines known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The program has come under fire by civil liberties groups and Republican and Democratic lawmakers, who said innocent American citizens have been caught up in the wiretaps.
Comey told lawmakers that his refusal to reauthorize the spy program resulted in a hastily arranged late-night meeting at a hospital, where then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and President Bush's former Chief of Staff Andrew Card tried to coerce a barely conscious John Ashcroft to approve the controversial eavesdropping program. Comey said he also was present at the meeting.
Ashcroft was in intensive care at the time, hospitalized with pancreatitis, but, according to Comey, Ashcroft was able to rebut the arguments made by Gonzales and refused to sign the authorization. Comey testified that Ashcroft had not recertified the program earlier because he had reservations about its legality. Comey assumed control of Ashcroft's duties as attorney general after Ashcroft was hospitalized. Under federal law, the spy program was supposed to be recertified by the Department of Justice every 45 days.
Comey described in extraordinary detail how the March 9, 2004 meeting at the hospital unfolded..."
New York IFP: Bill bans illegal govt eavesdropping
"The US house of representatives today passed a bill outlawing illegal domestic wiretapping by the government.
An amendment to the House Intelligence Reauthorization Bill by Representatives Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ) states that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) shall be the exclusive means by which domestic electronic surveillance for the purpose of gathering foreign intelligence information may be conducted, and makes clear that this applies until specific statutory authorization for electronic surveillance, other than as an amendment to FISA, is enacted..."
Politicizing The DoJ:
Michael Winship: Keep Out the Vote
"...What's the real motive for knocking off those eight, now nine, maybe more, US attorneys - Republican appointees all - apparently replaced for insufficient fealty to the Bushie party line? In part, the truth may be lurking in the upcoming 2008 elections.
The White House, Attorney General Gonzales and the Justice Department have tried to hide their real reasons, citing 'performance concerns' as the reason for firing the prosecutors and blaming various underlings for mishandling the dismissals, then throwing them to the wolves, too - the latest being Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty, who announced his resignation Monday. McNulty's the guy who indiscreetly told a Congressional hearing that the person behind the dismissal of Arkansas US Attorney Bud Cummins was Karl Rove, who wanted Cummins replaced with his buddy Tim Griffin. Oops.
Scratch the surface of anything vaguely nefarious at 1600 Pennsylvania and sooner or later you're likely to hit The Rovester. His most famous bit of dark wizardry is to take a negative about his own guy and turn it into a positive - or, rather, a negative against the other side. In 2004, Rove defused rumors about the president's blotchy National Guard career by orchestrating attacks on John Kerry's legitimate Vietnam combat record. The Swift Boat Vets for Truth set sail and the rest is revisionist history. Klassic Karl.
Rove's dancing the same kind of fandango around the issue of scamming at the polls. With the notoriety of alleged electoral skullduggery in 2000, 2002 and 2004 snapping at collective Republican rear ends, he has swiveled those allegations 180 degrees into attacks against Democrats for supposedly encouraging fraudulent registration and voting..."
The Lies That Took A Fearful Nation To War:
Ray McGovern:How George Tenet Lied
"...Tenet’s book is a self-indictment for the crimes with which Socrates was charged: making the worse cause appear the better, and corrupting the youth.
But George is not the kind to take the hemlock. Rather, with no apparent shame, he accepted what one wag has labeled the 'Presidential Medal of Silence' in return for agreeing to postpone his Nixon-style 'modified limited hangout' until after the mid-term elections last November..."
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Politicizing the DoJ:
Democracy Now! - Investigative Journalist Greg Palast Reports on the Firing of New Mexico Attorney David Iglesias
"...GREG PALAST: ...In the 2004 presidential election, Republican operatives blocked a quarter-million new voters nationwide from voting on grounds they brought the wrong IDs to the poles. To justify this massive blockade, Republican officials wanted Iglesias to arrest some voters to create a high publicity show trial. Iglesias went along with the game. Just before the 2004 election, he held a press conference announcing the creation of a vote fraud task force. But the prosecutor drew the line at arresting innocent voters.
DAVID IGLESIAS: They were telling Rove that I wasn’t doing their bidding. I wasn't filing these voter fraud cases.
GREG PALAST: The evidence fellow Republicans gave him was junk. He refused to bring a single prosecution.
DAVID IGLESIAS: It was the old throwing pasta at the wall trick, that he’s throwing up pasta. Something’s got to stick, and it didn't.
GREG PALAST: For failing to bring the voting cases, Iglesias paid with his job.
DAVID IGLESIAS: They wanted a political operative who happened to be a US attorney, and when they got somebody who actually took his oath to the Constitution seriously, they were appalled and they wanted me out of there. The two strikes against me was, I was not political, I didn't help them out on their bogus voter fraud prosecutions.
GREG PALAST: Rove personally ordered his removal. As a prosecutor, Iglesias says that if missing emails prove the firing was punishment for failure to bring bogus charges, Mr. Rove himself is in legal trouble.
DAVID IGLESIAS: If his intent was, look what happened with Iglesias, if that was his intent, he’s in big trouble. That is obstruction of justice, one classic example.
GREG PALAST: Iglesias believes the real reasons for the firings are in what are called the missing emails, emails sent by the Rove team using Republican Party campaign computers, which Rove claims can't be retrieved. But not all the missing emails are missing. We have 500 of them. Apparently the Rove team misaddressed their emails, and late one night they all ended up in our inboxes in our offices in New York City.
And as Iglesias predicted, they reveal a story the party would rather keep buried. Voting rights attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., reviewed the evidence in our cache of emails and concluded:
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.: They ought to be in jail for doing this, because they knew it was illegal, and they did it anyway.
GREG PALAST: What is it that was so obviously illegal that law professor Kennedy thought they deserved prison time? The evidence that shook him was attached to fifty of the secret emails, something that GOP party chiefs called caging lists, thousands of names of voters. Notably, the majority were African American. Kennedy explained how caging worked.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.: Caging is an illegal way of getting rid of black votes. You get a list of all the black voters. Then you send a letter to their homes. And if the person doesn't sign it at the homes, the letter then is returned to the Republican National Committee. They then direct the state attorney general, who is friendly to them, who’s Republican, to remove that voter from the list on the alleged basis that that voter does not live in the address that they designated as their address on the voting application form.
GREG PALAST: In all, the Republican Party challenged nearly three million voters, a mass attack on minority voting rights virtually unreported in the US press.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.: So they disenfranchised millions of black voters who don't even know that they’ve been disenfranchised.
GREG PALAST: Page after page of voters with this address, Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, hundreds, thousands of soldiers and sailors targeted to lose their vote. Go to Baghdad, lose your vote..."
Trusting The Right Of Franchise To Questionable Technology:
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman:The Globalization of Electronic Election Theft
"From Ohio and California to Scotland and France, the disputes surrounding electronic voting machines have gone truly global.
E-voting machines have already been extensively studied and condemned by a wide range of expert committees, commissions and colleges, including the General Accountability Office, the Carter-Baker Commission, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, Stanford University and others. Rigging of a recount in Cleveland has resulted in two felony convictions. The failures of e-voting machines have been the subject of numerous documentary films, including the aptly titled HBO special 'Hacking Democracy.'
Now the secretaries of state in Ohio and California are subjecting e-voting to still more official review. Ohio's Jennifer Brunner has announced she'll seek bids to conduct independent studies of both touch-screen machines, which record votes electronically, and optical scanners, which tabulate paper ballots electronically.
Brunner has already removed the entire board of elections of Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) in part because of a major fiasco caused by new electronic machines in the state's 2006 primary election. Voting rights activists vehemently opposed the $20 million purchase, but it was rammed through by Board Chair Robert Bennett and Executive Director Michael Vu.
The machines then caused long reporting delays. Vu resigned under pressure from the board. Bennett then resigned - along with the rest of the board - under pressure from Brunner. Bennett chairs the Ohio Republican Party, works closely with White House advisor Karl Rove, and was instrumental in delivering Ohio's decisive votes to George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election. Two felony convictions have so far arisen from what prosecutors call a 'rigged' recount that occurred that year in Cleveland, under Bennett's supervision..."
Democracy Now! - Investigative Journalist Greg Palast Reports on the Firing of New Mexico Attorney David Iglesias
"...GREG PALAST: ...In the 2004 presidential election, Republican operatives blocked a quarter-million new voters nationwide from voting on grounds they brought the wrong IDs to the poles. To justify this massive blockade, Republican officials wanted Iglesias to arrest some voters to create a high publicity show trial. Iglesias went along with the game. Just before the 2004 election, he held a press conference announcing the creation of a vote fraud task force. But the prosecutor drew the line at arresting innocent voters.
DAVID IGLESIAS: They were telling Rove that I wasn’t doing their bidding. I wasn't filing these voter fraud cases.
GREG PALAST: The evidence fellow Republicans gave him was junk. He refused to bring a single prosecution.
DAVID IGLESIAS: It was the old throwing pasta at the wall trick, that he’s throwing up pasta. Something’s got to stick, and it didn't.
GREG PALAST: For failing to bring the voting cases, Iglesias paid with his job.
DAVID IGLESIAS: They wanted a political operative who happened to be a US attorney, and when they got somebody who actually took his oath to the Constitution seriously, they were appalled and they wanted me out of there. The two strikes against me was, I was not political, I didn't help them out on their bogus voter fraud prosecutions.
GREG PALAST: Rove personally ordered his removal. As a prosecutor, Iglesias says that if missing emails prove the firing was punishment for failure to bring bogus charges, Mr. Rove himself is in legal trouble.
DAVID IGLESIAS: If his intent was, look what happened with Iglesias, if that was his intent, he’s in big trouble. That is obstruction of justice, one classic example.
GREG PALAST: Iglesias believes the real reasons for the firings are in what are called the missing emails, emails sent by the Rove team using Republican Party campaign computers, which Rove claims can't be retrieved. But not all the missing emails are missing. We have 500 of them. Apparently the Rove team misaddressed their emails, and late one night they all ended up in our inboxes in our offices in New York City.
And as Iglesias predicted, they reveal a story the party would rather keep buried. Voting rights attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., reviewed the evidence in our cache of emails and concluded:
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.: They ought to be in jail for doing this, because they knew it was illegal, and they did it anyway.
GREG PALAST: What is it that was so obviously illegal that law professor Kennedy thought they deserved prison time? The evidence that shook him was attached to fifty of the secret emails, something that GOP party chiefs called caging lists, thousands of names of voters. Notably, the majority were African American. Kennedy explained how caging worked.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.: Caging is an illegal way of getting rid of black votes. You get a list of all the black voters. Then you send a letter to their homes. And if the person doesn't sign it at the homes, the letter then is returned to the Republican National Committee. They then direct the state attorney general, who is friendly to them, who’s Republican, to remove that voter from the list on the alleged basis that that voter does not live in the address that they designated as their address on the voting application form.
GREG PALAST: In all, the Republican Party challenged nearly three million voters, a mass attack on minority voting rights virtually unreported in the US press.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY, JR.: So they disenfranchised millions of black voters who don't even know that they’ve been disenfranchised.
GREG PALAST: Page after page of voters with this address, Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, hundreds, thousands of soldiers and sailors targeted to lose their vote. Go to Baghdad, lose your vote..."
Trusting The Right Of Franchise To Questionable Technology:
Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman:The Globalization of Electronic Election Theft
"From Ohio and California to Scotland and France, the disputes surrounding electronic voting machines have gone truly global.
E-voting machines have already been extensively studied and condemned by a wide range of expert committees, commissions and colleges, including the General Accountability Office, the Carter-Baker Commission, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, Stanford University and others. Rigging of a recount in Cleveland has resulted in two felony convictions. The failures of e-voting machines have been the subject of numerous documentary films, including the aptly titled HBO special 'Hacking Democracy.'
Now the secretaries of state in Ohio and California are subjecting e-voting to still more official review. Ohio's Jennifer Brunner has announced she'll seek bids to conduct independent studies of both touch-screen machines, which record votes electronically, and optical scanners, which tabulate paper ballots electronically.
Brunner has already removed the entire board of elections of Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) in part because of a major fiasco caused by new electronic machines in the state's 2006 primary election. Voting rights activists vehemently opposed the $20 million purchase, but it was rammed through by Board Chair Robert Bennett and Executive Director Michael Vu.
The machines then caused long reporting delays. Vu resigned under pressure from the board. Bennett then resigned - along with the rest of the board - under pressure from Brunner. Bennett chairs the Ohio Republican Party, works closely with White House advisor Karl Rove, and was instrumental in delivering Ohio's decisive votes to George W. Bush in the 2004 presidential election. Two felony convictions have so far arisen from what prosecutors call a 'rigged' recount that occurred that year in Cleveland, under Bennett's supervision..."
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Iraq:
Let's remember that when Assistant to the President on Economic Policy Larry Lindsey, a leading formulator of Bush's $1.35 billion tax cut plan, said that the war could cost US$ 200 billion, he was promptly fired.
The San Francisco Chronicle: UCSF / Experts tally Iraq war's health cost
"Few saw it coming, but six years into combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, health care providers are overwhelmed by the demand of returning veterans suffering from mental health stress or traumatic brain injury.
Few understood the financial impact war would have on the Veterans Affairs medical system, projected by a Harvard economist's study earlier this year to be as much as $600 billion.
But Linda Bilmes, a professor at the Kennedy School of Government and author of the study, said Wednesday that disability claims were slamming the system, with more than 25 percent of returning veterans filing. Roughly 180,000 claims needed to be addressed -- on top of 400,000 pre-existing claims from veterans of past wars, many of whom are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.
At a teach-in at UCSF on Wednesday about the health effects of the Iraq war, Bilmes calculated that the loss of income and economic contribution from those veterans and the dead, in addition to the current and future expenses of the war, could cost the United States as much as $1 trillion to $2 trillion..."
Is this is one of the areas where 'progress' (a phrase that is one of Bush's absolute favorites) is being made in Iraq?
NY Times: Billions in Oil Missing in Iraq, US Study Finds
"Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq's declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report.
Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15 million daily.
The report does not give a final conclusion on what happened to the missing fraction of the roughly two million barrels pumped by Iraq each day, but the findings are sure to reinforce longstanding suspicions that smugglers, insurgents and corrupt officials control significant parts of the country's oil industry.
The report also covered alternative explanations for the billions of dollars worth of discrepancies, including the possibility that Iraq has been consistently overstating its oil production.
Iraq and the State Department, which reports the numbers, have been under relentless pressure to show tangible progress in Iraq by raising production levels, which have languished well below the United States goal of three million barrels a day. Virtually the entire economy of Iraq is dependent on oil revenues..."
Pentagon P.R.:
NY Times: Pentagon Opens Inquiry of Troop-Support Group
"The Pentagon is looking into complaints that Defense Department officials charged with building public support for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan might have engaged in improper fund-raising and unauthorized spending, officials said Friday.
The inspector general is examining whether officials who run 'America Supports You,' a three-year-old Pentagon program lauded by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, helped arrange a fund-raiser for a private foundation set up last December by former Bush administration appointees. The foundation raises money to help troops and their families.
The inquiry is also looking into whether money used for 'America Supports You' and other public outreach programs has been shifted improperly from Pentagon accounts intended for other purposes..."
...and the revolt of the (retired) Generals, which begs the question of links between media companies and the defense industry:
Keith Olberman: General Batiste Asked to Leave CBS Over Ad
"General Batiste says he resigned because he couldn't stand what former secretary of defense Rumsfeld was doing to the military, and he is still paying the price. The general, who describes himself as a diehard Republican, has been asked to leave his position as a consultant to CBS News because of that ad. That means he is free to join us tonight for an exclusive interview..."
Let's remember that when Assistant to the President on Economic Policy Larry Lindsey, a leading formulator of Bush's $1.35 billion tax cut plan, said that the war could cost US$ 200 billion, he was promptly fired.
The San Francisco Chronicle: UCSF / Experts tally Iraq war's health cost
"Few saw it coming, but six years into combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, health care providers are overwhelmed by the demand of returning veterans suffering from mental health stress or traumatic brain injury.
Few understood the financial impact war would have on the Veterans Affairs medical system, projected by a Harvard economist's study earlier this year to be as much as $600 billion.
But Linda Bilmes, a professor at the Kennedy School of Government and author of the study, said Wednesday that disability claims were slamming the system, with more than 25 percent of returning veterans filing. Roughly 180,000 claims needed to be addressed -- on top of 400,000 pre-existing claims from veterans of past wars, many of whom are experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder.
At a teach-in at UCSF on Wednesday about the health effects of the Iraq war, Bilmes calculated that the loss of income and economic contribution from those veterans and the dead, in addition to the current and future expenses of the war, could cost the United States as much as $1 trillion to $2 trillion..."
Is this is one of the areas where 'progress' (a phrase that is one of Bush's absolute favorites) is being made in Iraq?
NY Times: Billions in Oil Missing in Iraq, US Study Finds
"Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq's declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report.
Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15 million daily.
The report does not give a final conclusion on what happened to the missing fraction of the roughly two million barrels pumped by Iraq each day, but the findings are sure to reinforce longstanding suspicions that smugglers, insurgents and corrupt officials control significant parts of the country's oil industry.
The report also covered alternative explanations for the billions of dollars worth of discrepancies, including the possibility that Iraq has been consistently overstating its oil production.
Iraq and the State Department, which reports the numbers, have been under relentless pressure to show tangible progress in Iraq by raising production levels, which have languished well below the United States goal of three million barrels a day. Virtually the entire economy of Iraq is dependent on oil revenues..."
Pentagon P.R.:
NY Times: Pentagon Opens Inquiry of Troop-Support Group
"The Pentagon is looking into complaints that Defense Department officials charged with building public support for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan might have engaged in improper fund-raising and unauthorized spending, officials said Friday.
The inspector general is examining whether officials who run 'America Supports You,' a three-year-old Pentagon program lauded by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, helped arrange a fund-raiser for a private foundation set up last December by former Bush administration appointees. The foundation raises money to help troops and their families.
The inquiry is also looking into whether money used for 'America Supports You' and other public outreach programs has been shifted improperly from Pentagon accounts intended for other purposes..."
...and the revolt of the (retired) Generals, which begs the question of links between media companies and the defense industry:
Keith Olberman: General Batiste Asked to Leave CBS Over Ad
"General Batiste says he resigned because he couldn't stand what former secretary of defense Rumsfeld was doing to the military, and he is still paying the price. The general, who describes himself as a diehard Republican, has been asked to leave his position as a consultant to CBS News because of that ad. That means he is free to join us tonight for an exclusive interview..."
Friday, May 11, 2007
Politicizing The DoJ:
Murray Waas: NATIONAL JOURNAL: Administration Withheld E-Mails About Rove (05/10/07)
"The Bush administration has withheld a series of e-mails from Congress showing that senior White House and Justice Department officials worked together to conceal the role of Karl Rove in installing Timothy Griffin, a protégé of Rove's, as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
The withheld records show that D. Kyle Sampson, who was then-chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, consulted with White House officials in drafting two letters to Congress that appear to have misrepresented the circumstances of Griffin's appointment as U.S. attorney and of Rove's role in supporting Griffin.
In one of the letters that Sampson drafted, dated February 23, 2007, the Justice Department told four Senate Democrats it was not aware of any role played by senior White House adviser Rove in attempting to name Griffin to the U.S. attorney post. A month later, the Justice Department apologized in writing to the Senate Democrats for the earlier letter, saying it had been inaccurate in denying that Rove had played a role.
Brad Berenson, an attorney for Sampson, said in an interview that his client did not intend to mislead Congress. Sampson, he said, signed off on the February 23 letter based on representations made by the White House that it was accurate.
The withheld e-mails show that Sampson's draft was forwarded for review to Chris Oprison, an associate White House counsel, who approved the language saying that Justice was not aware of Rove having played any role in supporting Griffin. But an earlier e-mail from Sampson to Oprison that has already been made public indicates that the two men discussed Rove and then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers as being at the forefront of Griffin's nomination..."
Murray Waas: NATIONAL JOURNAL: Administration Withheld E-Mails About Rove (05/10/07)
"The Bush administration has withheld a series of e-mails from Congress showing that senior White House and Justice Department officials worked together to conceal the role of Karl Rove in installing Timothy Griffin, a protégé of Rove's, as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
The withheld records show that D. Kyle Sampson, who was then-chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, consulted with White House officials in drafting two letters to Congress that appear to have misrepresented the circumstances of Griffin's appointment as U.S. attorney and of Rove's role in supporting Griffin.
In one of the letters that Sampson drafted, dated February 23, 2007, the Justice Department told four Senate Democrats it was not aware of any role played by senior White House adviser Rove in attempting to name Griffin to the U.S. attorney post. A month later, the Justice Department apologized in writing to the Senate Democrats for the earlier letter, saying it had been inaccurate in denying that Rove had played a role.
Brad Berenson, an attorney for Sampson, said in an interview that his client did not intend to mislead Congress. Sampson, he said, signed off on the February 23 letter based on representations made by the White House that it was accurate.
The withheld e-mails show that Sampson's draft was forwarded for review to Chris Oprison, an associate White House counsel, who approved the language saying that Justice was not aware of Rove having played any role in supporting Griffin. But an earlier e-mail from Sampson to Oprison that has already been made public indicates that the two men discussed Rove and then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers as being at the forefront of Griffin's nomination..."
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Iraq:
NY Times: Chevron Seen Settling Case on Iraq Oil
"Chevron, the second-largest American oil company, is preparing to acknowledge that it should have known kickbacks were being paid to Saddam Hussein on oil it bought from Iraq as part of a defunct United Nations program, according to investigators.
The admission is part of a settlement being negotiated with United States prosecutors and includes fines totaling $25 million to $30 million, according to the investigators, who declined to be identified because the settlement was not yet public.
The penalty, which is still being negotiated, would be the largest so far in the United States in connection with investigations of companies involved in the oil-for-food scandal..."
War For Profit:
Tim Shorrock: George Tenet cashes in on Iraq
"If you go by the book jacket of his new memoir, 'At the Center of the Storm,' George Tenet is enjoying the life of a retired government servant teaching at Georgetown University, where he was appointed to the faculty in 2004. The former CIA director played up the academic image when he kicked off the recent media blitz for his new book by doing an interview for CBS's '60 Minutes' from his spacious, book-lined office at the university. His academic salary, and the reported $4 million advance he received from publisher HarperCollins, should provide the former CIA director with more than enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his days and leave a substantial fortune to his children.
But those monies are hardly Tenet's entire income. While the swirl of publicity around his book has focused on his long debated role in allowing flawed intelligence to launch the war in Iraq, nobody is talking about his lucrative connection to that conflict ever since he resigned from the CIA in June 2004. In fact, Tenet has been earning substantial income by working for corporations that provide the U.S. government with technology, equipment and personnel used for the war in Iraq as well as the broader war on terror.
When Tenet hit the talk-show circuit last week to defend his stewardship of the CIA and his role in the run-up to the war, he did not mention that he is a director and advisor to four corporations that earn millions of dollars in revenue from contracts with U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense. Nor is it ever mentioned in his book. But according to public records, Tenet has received at least $2.3 million from those corporations in stock and other compensation. Meanwhile, one of the CIA's largest contractors gave Tenet access to a highly secured room where he could work on classified material for his book.
Tenet sits on the board of directors of L-1 Identity Solutions, a major supplier of biometric identification software used by the U.S. to monitor terrorists and insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. The company recently acquired two of the CIA's hottest contractors for its growing intelligence outsourcing business. At the Analysis Corp. (TAC), a government contractor run by one of Tenet's closest former advisors at the CIA, Tenet is a member of an advisory board that is helping TAC expand its thriving business designing the problematic terrorist watch lists used by the National Counterterrorism Center and the State Department.
Tenet is also a director of Guidance Software, which makes forensic software used by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence to search computer hard drives and laptops for evidence used in the prosecution and tracking of suspected terrorists. And Tenet is the only American director on the board of QinetiQ, the British defense research firm that was privatized in 2003 and was, until recently, controlled by the Carlyle Group, the powerful Washington-based private equity fund. Fueled with Carlyle money, QinetiQ acquired four U.S. companies in recent years, including an intelligence contractor, Analex Inc.
By joining these companies, Tenet is following in the footsteps of thousands of other former intelligence officers who have left the CIA and other agencies and returned as contractors, often making two or three times what they made in their former jobs. Based on reporting I've done for an upcoming book, contractors are responsible for at least half of the estimated $48 billion a year the government now spends on intelligence..."
NY Times: Chevron Seen Settling Case on Iraq Oil
"Chevron, the second-largest American oil company, is preparing to acknowledge that it should have known kickbacks were being paid to Saddam Hussein on oil it bought from Iraq as part of a defunct United Nations program, according to investigators.
The admission is part of a settlement being negotiated with United States prosecutors and includes fines totaling $25 million to $30 million, according to the investigators, who declined to be identified because the settlement was not yet public.
The penalty, which is still being negotiated, would be the largest so far in the United States in connection with investigations of companies involved in the oil-for-food scandal..."
War For Profit:
Tim Shorrock: George Tenet cashes in on Iraq
"If you go by the book jacket of his new memoir, 'At the Center of the Storm,' George Tenet is enjoying the life of a retired government servant teaching at Georgetown University, where he was appointed to the faculty in 2004. The former CIA director played up the academic image when he kicked off the recent media blitz for his new book by doing an interview for CBS's '60 Minutes' from his spacious, book-lined office at the university. His academic salary, and the reported $4 million advance he received from publisher HarperCollins, should provide the former CIA director with more than enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his days and leave a substantial fortune to his children.
But those monies are hardly Tenet's entire income. While the swirl of publicity around his book has focused on his long debated role in allowing flawed intelligence to launch the war in Iraq, nobody is talking about his lucrative connection to that conflict ever since he resigned from the CIA in June 2004. In fact, Tenet has been earning substantial income by working for corporations that provide the U.S. government with technology, equipment and personnel used for the war in Iraq as well as the broader war on terror.
When Tenet hit the talk-show circuit last week to defend his stewardship of the CIA and his role in the run-up to the war, he did not mention that he is a director and advisor to four corporations that earn millions of dollars in revenue from contracts with U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense. Nor is it ever mentioned in his book. But according to public records, Tenet has received at least $2.3 million from those corporations in stock and other compensation. Meanwhile, one of the CIA's largest contractors gave Tenet access to a highly secured room where he could work on classified material for his book.
Tenet sits on the board of directors of L-1 Identity Solutions, a major supplier of biometric identification software used by the U.S. to monitor terrorists and insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. The company recently acquired two of the CIA's hottest contractors for its growing intelligence outsourcing business. At the Analysis Corp. (TAC), a government contractor run by one of Tenet's closest former advisors at the CIA, Tenet is a member of an advisory board that is helping TAC expand its thriving business designing the problematic terrorist watch lists used by the National Counterterrorism Center and the State Department.
Tenet is also a director of Guidance Software, which makes forensic software used by U.S. law enforcement and intelligence to search computer hard drives and laptops for evidence used in the prosecution and tracking of suspected terrorists. And Tenet is the only American director on the board of QinetiQ, the British defense research firm that was privatized in 2003 and was, until recently, controlled by the Carlyle Group, the powerful Washington-based private equity fund. Fueled with Carlyle money, QinetiQ acquired four U.S. companies in recent years, including an intelligence contractor, Analex Inc.
By joining these companies, Tenet is following in the footsteps of thousands of other former intelligence officers who have left the CIA and other agencies and returned as contractors, often making two or three times what they made in their former jobs. Based on reporting I've done for an upcoming book, contractors are responsible for at least half of the estimated $48 billion a year the government now spends on intelligence..."
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Polticizing the DoJ:
Murray Waas: Justice Official Says He Was Directed To Call Fired Prosecutors (05/03/07)
"The chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty has told congressional investigators that phone calls he placed to four fired U.S. attorneys -- calls that three of the prosecutors say involved threats about testifying before Congress -- were made at McNulty's direction.
Michael Elston, the chief of staff, told congressional investigators in a closed-door session on March 30 that McNulty specifically instructed him to make the phone calls after the Justice Department's No. 2 official learned that the fired prosecutors might testify before Congress about their dismissals..."
Media Consolidation:
This is representative of a trend that is in the opposite direction of what would benefit the public interest. The public is best served by a diverse media landscape, more real reporters asking real questions about matters in the local, state, national, and international news arenas.
NY Times: Reuters Approached About a Takeover
"Reuters, the 156-year-old news agency and the world’s largest publicly traded provider of financial data, has been approached by the Thomson Corporation of Canada about a takeover, a person close to the situation said today.
The approach came just three days after the News Corporation’s $5 billion offer for Dow Jones & Company and sent up other media shares, including Pearson, as investors speculated on more takeovers in the industry..."
Media: When The Business Office Controls The Editorial Office:
Slashdot.org - PC World Editor Resigns When Ordered Not to Criticize Advertisers
"'Editor-in-Chief Harry McCracken quit abruptly today because the company's new CEO, Colin Crawford, tried to kill a story about Apple and Steve Jobs.'
The link discusses that the CEO was the former head of MacWorld and would get calls from Jobs. Apparently he also told the staff that product reviews had to be nicer to vendors who advertise in the magazine. The sad thing is that given the economics of publishing in this day and age, I doubt anything even comes of this even tho it essentially confirms that PC World reviews should be thought of as no more than press releases. I know that's how I will consider links from them in the future. But congratulations to anyone willing to stick to their guns on such matters..."
Journalism Under Threat:
Democracy Now! - Headlines for May 4, 2007
"...Egyptian Court Sentences Al Jazeera Reporter
In Egypt, a court has sentenced an Al Jazeera reporter to six months in prison in absentia for producing a film highlighting police torture. Howayda Taha was charged with 'harming Egypt's national interest.'
U.S. Continues to Hold Journalists Without Charge
The United States also came under some criticism on World Press Freedom Day for continuing to jail two Muslim journalists without charge. The Pulitzer Prize winning Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein has been held in a U.S. prison in Iraq for the past 13 months. Meanwhile the U.S. has been detaining the Al Jazeera camerman Sami al-Haj at Guantnanamo since June 2002.
U.S. Military Handbook Labels Media 'A Threat'
Meanwhile a new U.S. military handbook officially states that soldiers should view the media as a threat alongside Al Qaeda, computer hackers, drug cartels, warlords and militias. The handbook was published by the Army's 1st Information Operations Command. The Army has also placed new restrictions on the use of blogs and private emails by soldiers. Soldiers sending emails or posting items on blogs must now first clear the content with a superior officer. Many believe the rules will likely result in the end of all military blogging..."
Africa:
Democracy Now! - Headlines for May 3, 2007
"Somalia Installs CIA-Linked Warlord As Mayor of Mogadishu
In Somalia, the U.S.-backed transitional government has installed one of the country's most feared and ruthless warlords as the new mayor of Mogadishu -- Mohamed Dhere. According to the Associated Press, Dhere has long cooperated with the CIA..."
Murray Waas: Justice Official Says He Was Directed To Call Fired Prosecutors (05/03/07)
"The chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty has told congressional investigators that phone calls he placed to four fired U.S. attorneys -- calls that three of the prosecutors say involved threats about testifying before Congress -- were made at McNulty's direction.
Michael Elston, the chief of staff, told congressional investigators in a closed-door session on March 30 that McNulty specifically instructed him to make the phone calls after the Justice Department's No. 2 official learned that the fired prosecutors might testify before Congress about their dismissals..."
Media Consolidation:
This is representative of a trend that is in the opposite direction of what would benefit the public interest. The public is best served by a diverse media landscape, more real reporters asking real questions about matters in the local, state, national, and international news arenas.
NY Times: Reuters Approached About a Takeover
"Reuters, the 156-year-old news agency and the world’s largest publicly traded provider of financial data, has been approached by the Thomson Corporation of Canada about a takeover, a person close to the situation said today.
The approach came just three days after the News Corporation’s $5 billion offer for Dow Jones & Company and sent up other media shares, including Pearson, as investors speculated on more takeovers in the industry..."
Media: When The Business Office Controls The Editorial Office:
Slashdot.org - PC World Editor Resigns When Ordered Not to Criticize Advertisers
"'Editor-in-Chief Harry McCracken quit abruptly today because the company's new CEO, Colin Crawford, tried to kill a story about Apple and Steve Jobs.'
The link discusses that the CEO was the former head of MacWorld and would get calls from Jobs. Apparently he also told the staff that product reviews had to be nicer to vendors who advertise in the magazine. The sad thing is that given the economics of publishing in this day and age, I doubt anything even comes of this even tho it essentially confirms that PC World reviews should be thought of as no more than press releases. I know that's how I will consider links from them in the future. But congratulations to anyone willing to stick to their guns on such matters..."
Journalism Under Threat:
Democracy Now! - Headlines for May 4, 2007
"...Egyptian Court Sentences Al Jazeera Reporter
In Egypt, a court has sentenced an Al Jazeera reporter to six months in prison in absentia for producing a film highlighting police torture. Howayda Taha was charged with 'harming Egypt's national interest.'
U.S. Continues to Hold Journalists Without Charge
The United States also came under some criticism on World Press Freedom Day for continuing to jail two Muslim journalists without charge. The Pulitzer Prize winning Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein has been held in a U.S. prison in Iraq for the past 13 months. Meanwhile the U.S. has been detaining the Al Jazeera camerman Sami al-Haj at Guantnanamo since June 2002.
U.S. Military Handbook Labels Media 'A Threat'
Meanwhile a new U.S. military handbook officially states that soldiers should view the media as a threat alongside Al Qaeda, computer hackers, drug cartels, warlords and militias. The handbook was published by the Army's 1st Information Operations Command. The Army has also placed new restrictions on the use of blogs and private emails by soldiers. Soldiers sending emails or posting items on blogs must now first clear the content with a superior officer. Many believe the rules will likely result in the end of all military blogging..."
Africa:
Democracy Now! - Headlines for May 3, 2007
"Somalia Installs CIA-Linked Warlord As Mayor of Mogadishu
In Somalia, the U.S.-backed transitional government has installed one of the country's most feared and ruthless warlords as the new mayor of Mogadishu -- Mohamed Dhere. According to the Associated Press, Dhere has long cooperated with the CIA..."
