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Video: Alternative
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Censured Casualties
features rare footage
of war crimes against the Iraqi people suffered during
and after the Gulf War. The footage is from former Attorney
General Ramsey
Clark in his attempt to document the injustice
of United States military actions in the region.
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Video: Alternative
Views
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Another Unknown
War
features a film on the
struggle of the indigenous people of West Papua to remain
sovereign in the face of an Indonesian invasion backed
by world capital. Footage of Noam
Chomsky on Western involvments in the region and
the relation to East Timor.
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Doug's New Books & Related
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TV/Radio
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Tuesday, August 31, 2004
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The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Demonstrations: Hundreds Are Arrested as Protests Escalate
a nasty day in NY as police hit protestors hard and Republicans fill the air with empty blather
The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Demonstrations: Hundreds Are Arrested as Protests Escalate
Over 1000 arrested. Excerpt: "Police repulsed anarchists, gay activists and other protesters across Manhattan on Tuesday, arresting about 1,000 people as they tried to block traffic and many as they simply walked on sidewalks. The action prevented what was to have been a major show of civil disobedience outside Madison Square Garden on the second night of the Republican convention.
A police spokeswoman, Officer Jennara Everleth, said that over 1,000 arrests were made at various protests around the city. That raised to 1,600 the total number of people taken into custody for convention-related protests since August 26, according to Everleth."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A51447-2004Sep1?language=printer
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The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > The Overview: Giuliani Lauds Bush's Leadership on Terror as Convention Opens
Preparing for their opening night activities, the Republicans leaked that former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani will try to assimilate Bush to Churchill, intoning: “Winston Churchill saw the dangers of Hitler, when his opponents and much of the press characterized him as a warmongering gadfly.” While it is easy to see Bush as a warmonger it is hard to view him as Churchillian, or even as a gadfly. Giuliani presented a long, droning speech that constantly evoked 9/11 and Bush, defended Bush’s Iraq policy as part of the war on terror, and generally presented Bush as a great wartime leader a la Churchill. In a lackluster and surprisingly flat speech, John McCain claimed that September 11 had created a new world and that Bush had risen to the occasion as a great leader. Speaker after speaker evoked Bush and 9/11, as if Bush’s mere connection with the moment should qualify him for re-election. While McCain tried to evoke remembrances of American unity after September 11 and tried to convey that Bush had helped unify the country, the protestors outside and the large segment of the country that absolutely hates Bush belied McCain’s banal and dishonest rhetoric.
Macho masculinity also served as an undercurrent of the Republican convention, trying to evoke the image that Republicans are more manly than wimpy and Frenchified cosmopolitan Democrats, as warhero John McCain and tough-guy Rudy Giuliani stood center stage during Day 1 of the convention, while action-hero-turned-California-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger stood in the wings ready to swagger into the keynote a following night. Not by accident these macho men are also among the few moderate Republicans with the party keeping its hardright power-cadre out of sight.
The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > The Overview: Giuliani Lauds Bush's Leadership on Terror as Convention Opens
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The New York Times > AP > National > After Citing Doubt, Bush Declares 'We Will Win' Terror War
Bush flip flops! After realistically conceding that the War on Terror doesn't have an end-point, he now thumps his chest and says "We Will Win!" to get back on the macho track that Republican convention is promoting. It is interesting that Bush off says impolitic things off the cuff, admitting, for example, the other day that Iraq is a "catastrophic success" and that mistakes were made [only the first part about Iraq as a catastrophe is true]; one hopes that during the campaign Bush will be Bush and the public can see him as he is: a dangerous incompetent and rightwing ideologue
The New York Times > AP > National > After Citing Doubt, Bush Declares 'We Will Win' Terror War
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The New York Times > AP > International > Video Claims to Show Execution of 12 Nepalese Hostages in Iraq
Although the US media have been ignoring Iraq and the Republicans gloss it over at the convention it continues to be a mess
The New York Times > AP > International > Video Claims to Show Execution of 12 Nepalese Hostages in Iraq
Although Bush and his allies continued to tout his alleged successes in the “war on terrorism” in fact his efforts had been a miserable failure, with chaos in Afghanistan and Iraq, growing numbers of Al Qaeda and other terrorist forces, and continuous alienation from the closest US allies who have distanced themselves from US policy under Bush. An article in the Los Angeles Times by Patrick J. McDonnell, “sovereignty Iraq Just as Deadly to US Forces (September 1, 2004), indicated that two months after the US handed over sovereignty to Iraq, “more than 110 US troops have been killed and much of the country remains hostile territory.” Moreover, nationwide “US forces are being attacked 60 times per day on average, up 20% from the three-month period before the handover.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-military31aug31,1,7236884.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Iraqi insurgent strategy seemed to oscillate between attacking US forces, fighting them intermitted, disrupting oil installations and the economy, and hitting soft targets. On September 11, there were reports that 12 Nepalese workers had been reportedly kidnapped and executed in Iraq and there were conflicting stories whether sabotage of Iraq oil installations had brought exports completely to a halt or merely disrupted supplies.
There were also reports of how the US occupation forces had destroyed the ancient archaeological site of Babylon, as well as allowing other sites and national treasures to be looted.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1294027,00.html
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Monday, August 30, 2004
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Ray McGovern: 'Swift intelligent smokescreen'
a good analysis by exCIA official Ray McGovern on Bush's attempts to throw a smokescreen over his intelligence 9/11 and Iraq failures. In fact, the Swift Boat BigTime Liar ads can also be seen as a smokescreen shot up by a Bush Sleeper Cell to deflect attention from real issues while smearing Kerry: this weekend Bush seems to have called for a truce concerning Kerry's and his Vietnam record but in fact Bush's Guard Service and possible AWOL should be an issue
The Smirking Chimp
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Ruy Teixeira: 'What that 'awful' LA Times poll really means'
here's a good analysis of the alarming LA Times polls that seemed to have indicated Bush has pulled ahead of Kerry and that the Swift Boat Liar and Smear ads were working; in fact, closer analysis indicates that the episode may have harmed a desperate Bush and helped Kerry
The Smirking Chimp: "Ruy Teixeira: 'What that 'awful' LA Times poll really means'"
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washingtonpost.com: The Republican Convention:Bush's Flip-Flopping and Extremism
here's a good analysis of Bush's flip-flopping in Wash Post editorial: "In looking back to four years ago, we are struck by the ways in which the Bush presidency has been different from the way it was originally sold to the country. Mr. Bush promoted himself to voters in the 2000 campaign as a bipartisan uniter, not a divider, but in office he has too often embraced a my-way-or-the-highway style of governing that has served to polarize voters. Mr. Bush the candidate promised a "humble" foreign policy; Mr. Bush the president has too often adopted a highhanded approach to the world that alienated allies. As the convention opens, Mr. Bush seems interested in presenting his, and his party's, kinder, gentler side -- GOP moderates dominate the list of prime-time speakers -- but this image promises to be a tougher sell than it was four years ago.
washingtonpost.com: The Republican Convention
Also in the Post, a good critique of Bush's extremism:
"People remember embarrassing phrases from the last Bush campaign: The promise to be "a uniter, not a divider," which presaged the most polarizing presidency of recent times; the promise to conduct a "humble" foreign policy. But if you read George W. Bush's convention speech of four years ago, it's amazing how honestly it heralds the hair-raising radicalism that followed. It's full of macho lines about bold action and seizing the moment and appointments with greatness. And the central rhetorical device in the first part of the speech is a refrain:
"This administration had its moment; they had their chance; they have not led. We will," Bush declared repeatedly.
He wasn't kidding. Even before Sept. 11, 2001, Bush signaled his future impatience with Europe's diplomats by tearing up both the Kyoto environment treaty and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. He delivered the most radical tax cut since 1981 and transformed federal education policy, and the early signs were that he really meant to privatize Social Security. It isn't true, as some now suppose, that Bush's radicalism is merely the product of 9/11 -- that extraordinary times drove an otherwise temperate man to extraordinary measures. Bush behaved extraordinarily in ordinary times too. As he promised in his convention speech four years ago, "We will write not footnotes but chapters in the American story."
Part of me quite likes this. There's plenty of stuff that's wrong with the world, and presidents ought to be activists. Bush's radicalism -- his willingness to see problems and embrace bold solutions despite urgings of caution from all sides -- can be glorious when applied to a good cause: Think of his huge expansion of international AIDS funding, which goes way beyond anything the Clinton administration ever contemplated. But Bush's radicalism has a scary side as well, and it goes to the heart of his fitness for a second term. In his zeal to be a strong leader, and in his disdain for policy detail, Bush sometimes defends positions that have no intellectual basis.
This weakness is most commonly associated with his war in Iraq -- a radical policy that has backfired on him. Even if you accept the case for war, the way Bush has argued it raises fundamental character issues. Why did he claim links between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein despite the lack of evidence? Had he failed to absorb the facts, or was he being plain dishonest? Why did he allow the postwar planning to be so scandalously poor? Could he not be bothered to cross-examine the officials who were drawing up plans that would determine his standing in history? Bush appears to have been deaf to the chorus of outside experts who warned that nation-building would be difficult. Doesn't this illustrate a lazy lack of curiosity about how bold ideas will play out in the real world? Doesn't this raise doubts about Bush's fitness to be president?
The same goes, until a few days ago at least, for the more recent handling of the Iraq question. Bush has been so caught up on his strong-leader kick that he has found it difficult to pause, adjust his policies and admit error -- even when error became obvious. Confronted with the prisoner abuse scandal, he has sought to scapegoat a few junior officials and move on rather than admit that his lawyers' dismissal of the usual rules of war has been proved disastrous. Confronted with the absence of weapons of mass destruction, Bush has failed to acknowledge a mistake -- even though he could explain at the same time that statesmen make decisions on the basis of imperfect information and that the best information was that Iraq had such weapons. This sort of honest but subtle argument is alien to the strong leader's style. As Bush reportedly once said, "I don't do nuance."
The clearest illustration of this inflexibility is not Iraq. It is the central plank of the economic agenda: the tax cuts. These were conceived when the economy was booming and huge budget surpluses were expected, but when the boom turned into bust, Bush showed no ability to course-correct. Almost unbelievably, Bush not only rammed through the huge tax cut he had promised in the campaign: He cut taxes again in 2002 and a third time in 2003. Even now he seems ready to sign an appalling pork-ridden corporate tax reduction. In the past, ambitious tax cuts have tended to happen only once every two decades or so. Before Reagan's in 1981, you have to go back to 1964 to find anything comparable. Bush's tax radicalism is breathtaking.
Again, this is not just a policy issue; it goes to Bush's character. How can he push such a dramatic shift in economic policy without grappling with the basic point that his cuts are unaffordable? He chants that he will halve the deficit within five years, but this is beside the point: The cost of the tax cuts falls mainly beyond the five-year window, as does the cost of the baby-boomers' retirement. Perhaps Bush fails to understand that his policies are unsustainable, or perhaps he understands but refuses to say so. In other words he is either ignorant or dishonest: Neither suggests that he deserves the trust of the electorate."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45418-2004Aug29.html?nav=hcmodule
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Vast Anti-Bush Rally Greets Republicans in New York
Here's my overview of the protests against Bush in NY: The buzz on protests against the Republicans in NY during their convention began in earnest with reports in the alternative media presenting a detailed description of what to expect from marches, art projects, bicyclists, anarchists, and mass demonstrations. The Bush administration had been making clear for weeks that they were going to blame any excessive disruption or violence on the Democrats, leading to a rash of charges that excessive violence might help Bush. A coalition of environmental groups began holding daily vigils at the World Trade Center site to inform the nation that the area was still contaminated with toxins and to denounce the Bush administration EPA, which soon after September 11 proclaimed the area safe. The Bush administration claim was disproved by later studies that documented serious illness among workers in the area and dangerous contamination still in the area.
A variety of protests unfolded on the eve of the convention with a group of more than 100 women in a “Axis of Eve” coalition exposing themselves to “expose and depose” President Bush panties, containing slogans “Lick Bush," "Give Bush the Finger" and "Drill Bush Not Oil." On Friday, August 27, a Brooklyn group “Mothers Opposing Bush” assembled their “Kids for Kerry” and marched across the Brooklyn Bridge strollers in hand. A protest in NY by bike riders on Saturday yielded 5000 cyclers against Bush, 100 arrests, and blocked streets causing “massive disruptions” to traffic according to NY police. In Central Park, Quakers and the families of soldiers killed in the Iraq war laid out 972 pairs of combat boots to symbolize those who have lost their lives. On the Long Island beaches, antiwar activists flew an airplane trailed by a large banner reading "Give Bush a Pink Slip." At Ground Zero, another group opposed to the policies of President Bush sounded 2,749 bells -- one for each victim of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. And 25,000 activists for abortion rights crossed the Brooklyn Bridge to protest Bush administration policies.
On the weekend before the convention, New York was eerily deserted in Times Square and other popular locations as many New Yorkers fled the city in fear of disruption from terrorism and protesters. But on Sunday hundreds of thousands of Bush administration opponents poured into Manhattan's streets Sunday on the eve of the Republican National Convention, angrily denouncing Bush and the war in Iraq and demanding the United States withdraw its forces. Wearing badges that read “Re-Defeat Bush!” and banners proclaiming “Bush lied, thousands died.” “Save a Tree - Plant a Bush Back in Texas,” read one placard, while another stated “Bush - You're Fired!”, referring to a motto that has infused popular culture borrowed from the reality television show “The Apprentice,” set in New York City.
An estimated 500,000 peaceful protestors marched in good spirit through Manhattan, placards proclaiming “Drop Bush, Not Bombs” and “Eradicate Mad Cowboy Disease” they shouted out antiBush slogans decrying his tax cuts for the rich, oil, repressive domestic policies, failed environmental policies, and incompetence as president. Decked out in brightly colored T-shirts with slogans like “No More Years” or that denounced Bush as a liar and warmonger, there were also fly swatters with Bush’s face, pallbearers carrying a thousand mock coffins draped in black representing the US soldiers killed in Iraq, and a paper-mache tank moved along the march with Bush’s head decked out in cowboy hat peeking out.
As the marchers pasted Madison Square Garden, chants of “LIAR! LIAR!” filled the air. When confronted with Republican groups chanting “four more years!” the crowd responded with “Four more months!” NBC News showed joyous marchers streaming by a belligerent Republican yelling “Four more years!” and a middle-aged Jewish woman stopped and looked him in the eye and said “For what?” reducing the shouter to silence.
At 7th Avenue and 34th street, proBush supporters confronted demonstrators with a sign “Support President Bush—Trust Jesus” while one self-described “rightwing conservative Christian” shouted “Trust Jesus!”Tthe crowd chanted back “Who would Jesus bomb!” When confronted by a Kerry is Unfit” sign the group shouted “Shame! Shame!” at the woman advancing righting antiKerry smears.
Flanked by police in riot gear and led by a line of celebrities including Jesse Jackson, actor Danny Glover, and filmmaker Michael Moore, the protesters moved through the fortified city on a circular route that took them through midtown and past Madison Square Garden, where the convention opens Monday The marchers, chanting slogans like "No more years" and carrying anti-Bush signs, filled nearly 20 city blocks on a sunny, steamy day and took six hours to complete, forming a raucous but peaceful spectacle providing excellent footage for TV. After the march, some protestors went up to Times Square where they confronted Republicans in midtown hotels and restaurants, leading to the arrest of more than 50 for blocking the entrances to the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square and the Milford Plaza on 8th avenue. A group Queer Fist tried to disrupt traffic in the Theater District where Republicans were planning to go to Broadway shows. Others wandered to Central Park, where they had been denied a permit, congregating in groups of less than 20 to avoid arrest. A man in an oversized Dick Cheney mask danced, dangling a tiny puppet of George W. Bush in front of him. A group calling themselves “Raging Grannies” sang songs that parodied familiar melodies to spoof Bush and Cheney such as one to the tune of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” that rang: “No more lies from Dick and Georgie/We deplore their wartime orgy!”
Meanwhile, the Republicans kicked off their convention festivities with Dick Cheney making a speech on Ellis Island, in a controlled zone far from protestors, where he could celebrate George W. Bush as a great “war president” (failing to note that the wars are a result of his failing to shut down Al Qaeda and the terrorism in Afghanistan and then moving to Iraq to creating another war that is a breeding zone for terrorism and anti- Americanism that will make the US the most hated country in the world for years to come). Campaigning in West Virginia, George W. Bush deemed “Iraq” a “catastrophic success,” leading Vice-Presidential candidate John Edwards to retort that Bush was only half-right, that “it was catastrophropic to rush to war without a plan to win the peace.”
Preparing for their opening night activities, the Republicans leaked that former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani will try to assimilate Bush to Churchhill, intoning: “Winston Churchhill saw the dangers of Hitler, when his opponents and much of the press characterized him as a warmongering gadfly.” While it is easy to see Bush as a warmonger it is hard to view him as Churchhillian, or even as a gadfly.
The New York Times > Washington > Campaign 2004 > Vast Anti-Bush Rally Greets Republicans in New York
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Sunday, August 29, 2004
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The New York Times > AP > National > Up to 250, 000 Expected at NYC Protests
big protests are getting underway in NY on eve of Republican convention as Bushites infest Sunday talk television, spewing their empty generalities
The New York Times > AP > National > Up to 250, 000 Expected at NYC Protests
The march is underway. Excerpt: "Tens of thousands of Bush administration opponents poured into Manhattan's streets Sunday on the eve of the Republican National Convention, angrily denouncing the war in Iraq and demanding the United States withdraw its forces.
Flanked by police in riot gear and led by a line of celebrities including actor Danny Glover and filmmaker Michael Moore, the protesters moved through the fortified city on a circular route that took them through midtown and past Madison Square Garden, where the convention opens Monday.
The marchers, chanting slogans like "No more years" and carrying anti-Bush signs, filled nearly 20 city blocks on a sunny, steamy day with temperatures in the upper 80s. Supporters leaned from windows to cheer them on. Organizers claimed up to 250,000 people would participate in what was expected to be the largest march of the week."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A44003-2004Aug29?language=printer
Update on NY demo
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/politics/campaign/29CND-PORT.html?hp
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A Failure of Accountability (washingtonpost.com)
Accountability has disappeared for the Bush administration and Pentagon: "ONLY A FEW years ago, it seemed the slightest suggestion of malfea- sance by a presidential administration -- allegations of tampering with a minor administrative office, say, or indications that a cabinet secretary might have understated the amount of money given to a former girlfriend -- could trigger a formidable response from the other two branches of government: grand juries, special prosecutors, endless congressional hearings, even impeachment proceedings. Some of that auditing, especially during the Clinton administration, went too far. Yet now the country faces a frightening inversion of the problem. Though there is strong evidence of faulty and even criminal behavior by senior military commanders and members of President Bush's cabinet in the handling of foreign detainees, neither Congress nor the justice system is taking adequate steps to hold those officials accountable.
Investigations by the Army, including one completed last week, could result in prosecution or disciplinary action for up to 50 persons involved in the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. But almost all are low-ranking soldiers; the most senior officer to be targeted is a female reserve brigadier general, who plausibly argues she has been scapegoated by higher-ranking officers. The military investigations and a separate probe by a panel picked by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld have issued reports making it clear that senior commanders in Iraq and the civilian leadership at the Pentagon also bear specific responsibility for an affair that has gravely damaged the U.S. mission in Iraq and American prestige around the world. But no court, prosecutor or disciplinary panel is even considering action against these top officials. Only one more congressional hearing, by the Senate Armed Services Committee, is planned."
In particular, Rumsfeld is beyond accountability, refusing to admit any mistakes and escaping all responsibility: " What's particularly troubling about this breakdown of checks and balances is that some of the most disturbing behavior by senior officials has yet to be thoroughly investigated. For example, Mr. Rumsfeld is now known to have approved, in December 2002, the use of dogs to frighten detainees under interrogation. That technique, which was immediately adopted in Afghanistan and later in Iraq, was described by Army Maj. Gen. George R. Fay as "a clear violation of applicable laws and regulations." Mr. Rumsfeld has also publicly acknowledged that he ordered that some prisoners in Iraq not be registered with the International Red Cross, an unambiguous violation of Army regulations and the Geneva Conventions. Yet Mr. Rumsfeld has never been called upon to explain these actions to legal investigators or to Congress.
The former commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, also issued an interrogation policy allowing the illegal use of dogs. Subsequently, he testified under oath to Congress that he had never approved this or other illegal measures listed above his signature. No formal criminal or administrative action against him is under consideration. Former CIA director George J. Tenet, according to Mr. Rumsfeld, requested that detainees in Iraq be concealed from the Red Cross. According to Gen. Fay's investigation, CIA operatives abused detainees, introduced improper interrogation methods to the theater and contributed substantially to the breakdown of discipline at Abu Ghraib. Yet the only investigation of the agency and its leaders is being conducted by its own inspector general."
A Failure of Accountability (washingtonpost.com)
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Saturday, August 28, 2004
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National Post-- Montreal man downed U.S. Plane, CSIS told
From Canada, comes a report that the Nov 2001 downing of an American Airlines plane over NY was an al Qaeda hit; I watched this event unfold over the day and was astonished that Bush administration officials from the beginning ruled out a terrorist attack and continue to take this line to this day; I have no way of knowing whether the report cited here is al Qaeda disinformation but it makes it clear that the 2001 AA disaster should be further looked into
National Post
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The New York Times > International > Middle East > INSURGENCY: In Western Iraq, Fundamentalists Hold U.S. Forces at Bay
more evidence that the US is losing big in Iraq: "While American troops have been battling Islamic militants to an uncertain outcome in Najaf, the Shiite holy city, events in two Sunni Muslim cities that stand astride the crucial western approaches to Baghdad have moved significantly against American plans to build a secular democracy in Iraq.
Both of the cities, Falluja and Ramadi, and much of Anbar Province, are now controlled by fundamentalist militias, with American troops confined mainly to heavily protected forts on the desert's edge. What little influence the Americans have is asserted through wary forays in armored vehicles, and by laser-guided bombs that obliterate enemy safe houses identified by scouts who penetrate militant ranks. Even bombing raids appear to strengthen the fundamentalists, who blame the Americans for scores of civilian deaths....The militants' principal power center is a mosque in Falluja led by an Iraqi cleric, Abdullah al-Janabi, who has instituted a Taliban-like rule in the city, rounding up people suspected of theft and rape and sentencing them to publicly administered lashes, and, in some cases, beheading. But Mr. Janabi appears to have been working in alliance with an Islamic militant group, Unity and Holy War, that American intelligence has identified as the vehicle of Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist with links to Al Qaeda whom the Americans have blamed for many of the suicide bombings in Baghdad, which is just 35 miles from Falluja, and in other Iraqi cities.
The videotapes showing the killing of the guard commander, the humiliation of the governor, and the beheading of the Egyptian all display the black-and-yellow flag of the Zarqawi group as a backdrop, and the passages of the Koran chanted as an accompaniment to the killings are drawn from passages of the Muslim holy book that have accompanied some of the videotaped pronouncements by Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden. Iraqis who have watched the Falluja tapes say the Egyptian's executioner speaks in a cultured Arabic that is foreign, possibly Jordanian or Palestinian."
The New York Times > International > Middle East > INSURGENCY: In Western Iraq, Fundamentalists Hold U.S. Forces at Bay
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washingtonpost.com: Najaf Militiamen Surrender Shrine
As Iraqis contemplate the destruction of old Najaf, many blame the US and Iraqi government. Excerpt: "Anger at the Americans and the interim government was easy to find among civilians who stepped gingerly into the streets Friday to inspect horrendous damage in sections of the city of 600,000. Millions of Muslims worldwide know Najaf from pilgrimages to the Imam Ali shrine and the seminaries that long made the city the world's leading center of study for Shiites.
"We blame Ayad Allawi and the government for this damage," said Jasim Aziz, 31, referring to the Iraqi interim prime minister. Aziz had traveled from Balad, 140 miles to the north, to visit the shrine. "They could have waited until Sistani arrived and solved the problems without destroying the city and killing all the civilians and the Iraqis."
"They asked the Americans to destroy the city," said Hussein Mailu, 55, referring to government leaders. "If they did not ask them, they wouldn't do it. Is this the democracy of Allawi? Saddam was so bad but he didn't do this thing," he said, referring to former president Saddam Hussein. "It was beautiful, but not any more."
washingtonpost.com: Najaf Militiamen Surrender Shrine
In another attack on oil installations, an oilpipeline burned east of Baghdad
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41478-2004Aug28?language=printer
As the fighting in Najaf appears to be over, the question arises: who won? Obviously, Sistani has shown himself to have more political authority and power than the Iraqi government, al-Sadr, or the US. Al-Sadr got away with amnesty and his troops and militia to fight another day and the US once again, like Fallajuh, is withdrawing after fighting to a draw, killing many, and destroying sectors of an important Iraqi city.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/weekinreview/29FILK.html?hp
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Friday, August 27, 2004
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The New York Times > Washington > Prisoners: Rumsfeld Denies Abuses Occurred at Interrogations
Rumsfeld's lost his mind {probably long ago}. Here's a journalistic way of saying the dude's insane: "In his first comments on the two major investigative reports issued this week at the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Thursday mischaracterized one of their central findings about the American military's treatment of Iraqi prisoners by saying there was no evidence that prisoners had been abused during interrogations."
The New York Times > Washington > Prisoners: Rumsfeld Denies Abuses Occurred at Interrogations
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The New York Times > International > Middle East > Militants Leave Shrine as Cease-Fire Deal Appears to Hold
As quiet sets over Najaf there was astonishment at the degree of devastion. Excerpt: "The end of the fighting here revealed a city center utterly devastated. Hotels crumbled into the street. Cars lay blackened and twisted where they had been hit. Goats and dogs lay dead on the sidewalks. Pilgrims from out of town and locals coming home walked the streets agape, shaking their heads, stunned by the devastation before them.
"Look at all the damage," an Iraqi man said to a friend as he walked down a street whose every building had been broken and crushed. "Let God take revenge on the Americans for this."
While the wreckage inspired anger in many Iraqis here, for others it prompted mainly despair. At an intersection here, Fadel Hejab spent much of the day trying to reassemble his livelihood: a small metal cart from which he sold light bulbs, electrical fixtures and parts.
Somehow, the fighting had tossed Mr. Hejab's stand out into the street, blown it over and smashed it flat. Crouched over the mess, he paused to consider his future.
"I will try to fix it and start again," Mr. Hejab said. "What else shall I do?"
The New York Times > International > Middle East > Militants Leave Shrine as Cease-Fire Deal Appears to Hold
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Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Al-Sadr tells fighters to disarm
while the Najaf wars seemed to have quieted down, violence continues in the rest of Iraq which will probably disappear from US media radar for a while: "Elsewhere in Iraq, the violence continued today as a car bomb exploded in the northern city of Mosul, wounding at least 10 Iraqi civilians. The US military said the blast, at 11am local time (0800 BST), appeared to be aimed at a US military convoy.
In Baghdad, insurgents launched a series of grenade attacks on a US patrol, wounding 12 soldiers. Four suspects were detained in connection with the attacks, the US military said.
US marines and Iraqi national guardsmen seized a large cache of weapons and bomb-making equipment in a raid on a house in al-Haswa, 25 miles south of Baghdad.
Five suspects were arrested in the operation. Iraqi insurgents have repeatedly used al-Haswa as a base to launch attacks and detonate roadside bombs against US military convoys"
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Al-Sadr tells fighters to disarm
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Kerry-Loathing Swift Boaters Sinking Facts
Here's one of the more detailed critiques of Swift Boat Thug Lies. Excerpt: "By now, you doubtless know the backstory of how events 9000 miles and three and a half decades distant have come to dominate the 2004 election. A book called Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry kicked off the fuss. The television commercials that followed it were created by the same outfit who produced the doofus-in-a-tank-helmet ad that helped doom Michael Dukakis when he was running against Dubya’s dad. The most effective publicity, however, derives from SBVfT members (they number roughly 250, 0.0001 percent of those who served in Vietnam) working the radio and television talk-show circuit and, lately, the major network news programs as well.
Financing for the organization derives in large part from a Texas fat cat who’s an old, close pal of Karl Rove. The White House, needless to say, disavows any connection, stating that Mr. Bush never has and never will say anything to dishonor Mr. Kerry’s service.
You’re doubtless also aware that since waking up to the knife at his jugular, Mr. Kerry has called on the publisher of Unfit for Command (Regnery, home to Laura Ingraham and William F. Buckley Jr.) to pull the book from the shelves, and on the F.E.C. to look into Bush links to the TV commercials—chances of which are as likely as Ho Chi Minh City changing its name back to Saigon. Mr. Kerry has also accused Mr. Bush of having the SBVfT "do his dirty work for him," and demanded that the President denounce the group’s activities. Mr. Bush predictably has declined to cooperate, artfully saying that he wants all soft-money "527 Committee" ads off the air, not just those of SBVfT—a prescription that would hurt Democrats far more than Republicans. So that’s not going to happen, either. A spokesman for Mr. Bush, meanwhile, has suggested that Mr. Kerry’s unpunctual lather may be a sign of mental unbalance—precisely what another spokesman hinted about John McCain when he exploded over Bush-supporting ads questioning his patriotism during the 2000 South Carolina primary. In between hugging Commander-in-Chief Bush and being bussed on the forehead by him, Mr. McCain himself has likened the SBVfT’s campaign to what was done to him when he ran for President (so has Vietnam triple-amputee Max Cleland, who was defeated for re-election to the Senate from Georgia under similar circumstances). Mr. McCain branded the SBVfT charges "dishonest and dishonorable" and echoed Mr. Kerry’s recommendation to Mr. Bush—to zero effect.
Finally, if you read The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe or the Los Angeles Times (unlike, oh, 99 percent or so of the voting public), you’re cognizant, too, that exhaustive investigation of official U.S. Naval records fails to substantiate a single one of the SBVfT’s major charges. Instead, the commendations and "after-action reports" in Pentagon archives contradict them—sometimes in words written by those presently doing the accusing. Ten of the 11 men who sailed in the two boats Mr. Kerry commanded also back their former skipper. The eleventh, a laid-off "home inspection field manager" named Steven Michael Gardner, is an SBVfT member who accuses Mr. Kerry of repeatedly shying from engaging the enemy. "He wouldn’t go in there and search," Mr. Gardner told The Boston Globe in March. "That is why I have a negative viewpoint of John Kerry."
What amounts to cowardice in wartime is a damning charge. But there’s one little catch. By Mr. Gardner’s own admission, then-Lt. Kerry threatened to court-martial him for machine-gunning a sampan from which he thought fire was coming. When the shooting stopped, Mr. Kerry—who’d been in the wheel house when Mr. Gardner, then others opened up without order—personally inspected the flimsy native craft. No weapons were found, just a woman and the body of a little boy. "[Mr. Kerry was] screaming at the top of his lungs," Mr. Gardner told The Globe. "‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’"
Green Beret Lt. Jim Rassman didn’t think he was being fired at when a mine explosion blew him off Mr. Kerry’s Swift boat; he knew the splashes all around him were being made by real ammo. "I was sure I was going to die," he said. Then, above him, a long right arm reached out to pull him to safety; it belonged to John Kerry, who’d been thrown against the wheel house by the blast, which wounded Mr. Kerry’s left arm, according to the citation that accompanied his Bronze Star. Said Mr. Rassmann: "He saved my life."
Not according to Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. They say no one was firing anywhere near Lts. Rassmann and Kerry that day.
SBVfT has also been challenging Mr. Kerry’s Silver Star, claiming, among other things, that a Viet Cong guerrilla he leapt out of the boat to pursue and kill during the encounter that led to the award of the second-highest decoration for gallantry the Navy bestows, was unarmed, clad in a loincloth, only a boy and—to top it off—shot in the back. Mr. Kerry’s crewmates that day have repeatedly said otherwise, stating that the V.C. was gunned down only after he’d come close to blowing up the boat and all aboard with a B-40 rocket, and appeared set to fire another. Despite their testimony, and Naval records backing Mr. Kerry, the SBVfT’s tale was gaining traction.
Then last weekend an officer of unassailable reputation stepped forward. Breaking a 35-year silence, Chicago Tribune editor William Rood—the only other surviving commander of the three-boat engagement (Lt. j.g. Donald Droz, the third and Mr. Kerry’s best friend in Vietnam, was later killed in action)—wrote a front-page, 1,700-word account that left SBVfT’s claims dead in the water. For starters, Mr. Rood reported that there was not just a single Viet Cong but two (both fully clothed); that one was armed with a rocket-launcher; and that when he returned from dispatching him, Mr. Kerry had the weapon in tow. To prove it, The Trib published a snap of a grinning Mr. Rood and a somber John Kerry, a loaded rocket-launcher slung over his shoulder.
Mr. Rood’s story also demolished Mr. Gardner’s claims of Mr. Kerry’s timidity in the face of the enemy.
Before the boats set out, Mr. Kerry—in operational command that day—took Droz and Mr. Rood aside and laid out a plan "about not responding the way boats usually did in an ambush." Instead of gunning it for safety, they’d head directly at their attackers, beach the boats and fight them toe-to-toe. Said Mr. Rood: "It worked."
But Mr. Rood was at his most powerful explaining his motives. "Many of us wanted to put it all behind us—the rivers, the ambushes, the killings," he wrote. "But Kerry’s critics, armed with stories I know to be untrue, have charged that the accounts of what happened were overblown …. Their version of events has splashed doubt on all of us. It’s gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there …. My intent is to tell the story here and to never again talk publicly about it."
And the vets private detectives ferreted out to destroy Mr. Kerry? This much is clear: None come remotely close to being as decorated as the man they vilify; some appear to lead postwar lives that haven’t quite worked out; and the highest-ranking SBVfTer—retired Rear Admiral Roy Hoffmann—has trouble keeping his story straight. In May, he told a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter that he didn’t know Mr. Kerry personally (though Mr. Kerry served under his command) and had "no first-hand knowledge to discredit Kerry’s claims to valor." Earlier this month, he was telling Sean Hannity the opposite. Not only did he now know Mr. Kerry "well," but had "operated very closely with him"—newfound intimacy that led him to conclude that Mr. Kerry was, as the admiral puts it on SBVfT’s Web site, "vain and prone to impulsive judgment ... a ‘loose cannon.’"
http://www.observer.com/pages/frontpage3.asp
and here's an account of how two more Vets came to Kerry's defense
http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-318270.php
And one of the Swift Vets loses his job over for lying
http://www2.kval.com/x30530.xml?ParentPageID=x2649&ContentID=x46673&Layout=kval.xsl&AdGroupID=x30530
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Thatcher family had bags packed ready to flee to US, police say
One of the more bizarre stories of recent times has Maggie Thatcher's son Mark implicated in a plot to overthrow with mercenaries an African country and caught just before fleeing to US. Excerpt: "Sir Mark Thatcher was preparing to flee South Africa when he was arrested over his alleged involvement in a botched coup attempt, police in Cape Town alleged yesterday.
As the apparent plot to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea continued to unravel, the elite Scorpions police unit said it had arrested Sir Mark after learning that he had put his house on the market, arranged to sell four of his cars, found boarding school places in the US for his two children and bought his family plane tickets to the US.
When officers arrived at his home in the upmarket Constantia suburb of Cape Town at 7am on Wednesday, they found the Thatchers' suitcases packed and in the hall. The house had been placed on the market for 22m rand (£1.8m).
"That's why we moved to arrest him," Sipho Ngwema, spokesman for the Scorpions, told the Guardian. "We did not want him to leave the country while we were investigating him."
Further details of the charges against Sir Mark emerged yesterday. According to police, they have evidence that he invested $271,000 to fund the logistics of the coup attempt. Mr Ngwema said the Scorpions were confident they had evidence against Sir Mark that will stand up in court. "We have evidence that Thatcher has been financing the plot against Equatorial Guinea. We found information when we searched his residence that is going to assist us in the case."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/equatorialguinea/story/0,15013,1292129,00.html
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Thursday, August 26, 2004
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More Americans Are Living in Poverty, Census Bureau Says
Census Bureau figures confirm Kerry's take on the economy, things are getting worse for more and more people: "The number of Americans living in poverty rose by 1.3 million last year, to 35.9 million, while those without health insurance climbed by 1.4 million, to 45 million, the Census Bureau reported today.
It was the third straight annual increase for both categories.
The figures, which the administration issued a month earlier than usual, quickly became the focus of political charges.
"Today confirms the failure of President Bush's policies for all Americans," Senator John Kerry said, referring to the new data. "Under George Bush's watch, America's families are falling further behind."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/26/national/26cnd-cens.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=
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Sistani Arrives in Najaf; Dozens Killed in Kufa; Oil pipeline blown up
Sistani's arrival in Iraq gets off to a bloody start. Excerpt: "More than two dozen Iraqis were killed and many more wounded Thursday in two separate assaults hours before Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, arrived in this holy city to lead the march for peace they were planning to attend.
"The 75-year-old Sistani, who returned from London where he was receiving medical treatment, was said by aides to be resting in a private home in Najaf after he arrived in a long convoy from Basra in the south.
"Sistani's mission, he has said, is to bring an end to three weeks of furious fighting between American troops and the militia of Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr, who are holed up in the sacred shrine of Imam Ali in Najaf. Both American and Iraqi officials, while worried about aspects of Sistani's plan, have expressed the hope that he can succeed.
"The day did not have a promising beginning, however.
"In the morning, a U.S. Marine was killed in action in the Najaf fighting, the second to die in two days, bringing to 11 the number of American service personnel lost here since fighting broke out Aug. 5.
"Later, unknown assailants, for unknown reasons, attacked some of the thousands of Iraqis heading for the peace march. No one claimed responsibility.
"The first of the assaults came in the form of mortar rounds fired into a crowd gathered at a mosque in the Najaf suburb of Kufa waiting to march to the shrine. Early reports said 27 people died while more than 60 people were wounded."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34370-2004Aug26.html
As the day went on, chaos intensified. In one report: "At least 15 people were killed, according to Najaf hospital officials, when Iraqi forces trying to prevent people from making their way to Najaf's Old City, where the Imam Ali shrine is located, opened fire over the heads of people. The crowd stampeded, with some people helping the wounded away from the violence.
Casualty numbers climbed throughout the day. Reuters and Agence France-Presse reported that according to the health ministry, 74 people were killed today. Altogether, the ministry said in a statement, around 95 people had been killed in Kufa and Najaf during the past 24 hours, The Associated Press reported."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/26/international/middleeast/26CND-IRAQ.html?hp
The sabotoge of pipelines in southern Iraq have cut oil exports in half
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Oil-Attack.html
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Wednesday, August 25, 2004
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Abuses at Prison Tied to Officers in Intelligence
Reports are coming out fast and furious on Iraq prison abuse, this one nailing military intelligence and "contractors"
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/26/politics/26abuse.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=
Recent reports on Iraq prison abuse blow away the Bush administration and Pentagon claims that Abu Ghraib scandal was a mere "aberration". Excerpt: "What began several months ago with the emergence of shocking photographs showing a handful of U.S. troops abusing detainees in Iraq has led this week to a broad indictment of U.S. military leadership and acknowledgement in two official reports that mistreatment of prisoners was more widespread than previously disclosed.
The reports have served to undercut earlier portrayals of the abuse as largely the result of criminal misconduct by a small group of individuals. As recently as last month, an assessment by the Army's inspector general concluded the incidents could not be ascribed to systemic problems, describing them as "aberrations."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A33789-2004Aug25?language=printer
The CIA is also implicated in the prison abuses, big heads should roll for this
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A33805-2004Aug25?language=printer
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MPs plan to impeach Blair over Iraq war record
British MPs construct a plan to impeach Blair on "high crimes and misdemeanors" for his and Bush's Iraq invasion; exactly what should be done in the US
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5001689-111381,00.html
An argument for Blair's impeachment
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5001743-111381,00.html
Meanwhile, high drama in Najaf as al-Sistani plans to march to invasion to demand that US troops and al-Sadr militia abandon the holy mosque as battle continues near it
http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5001692-103550,00.html
Another version in the London Independent that has done some of the best reporting on Iraq
http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=555155&host=3&dir=75
NYT setting the stage for what promises to be a dramatic day in Iraq
http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=555155&host=3&dir=75
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Questions about Bush's Guard service unanswered
Now that we've had days of scrutiny of Kerry's Vietnam service let's look at Bush's 1972-3 Guard service and especially his AWOL year: No one yet has seen him on duty either in Alabama or Texas; is he the Invisible Man? I don't think so. Excerpt: "At a time when Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has come under fire from a group of retired naval officers who say he lied about his combat record in Vietnam, questions about President Bush's 1968-73 stint in the Texas Air National Guard remain unresolved:
Why did Bush, described by some of his fellow officers as a talented and enthusiastic pilot, stop flying fighter jets in the spring of 1972 and fail to take an annual physical exam required of all pilots?
What explains the apparent gap in the president's Guard service in 1972-73, a period when commanders in Texas and Alabama say they never saw him report for duty and records show no pay to Bush when he was supposed to be on duty in Alabama?
Did Bush receive preferential treatment in getting into the Guard and securing a coveted pilot slot despite poor qualifying scores and arrests, but no convictions, for stealing a Christmas wreath and rowdiness at a football game during his college years?"
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=17558
More on Bush Lies about his military service from David Corn who documents how for years Bush repeatedly claimed he was in the Air Force when he fact he was in the National Guard; will Air Force Veterans for Truth go after Bush?
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=17554
Now we learn that Bush's top outside lawyer advised the Not so Swift and Not so Truthful Vietnam Vets who smeared Kerry. Did he tell them that their lies and smears were legal and that Georgie approved?! In any case, a flash bulletin just indicated he resigned from the Bush campaign
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/25/politics/campaign/25swift.html?hp
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Tuesday, August 24, 2004
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American Forces Press Into the Inner Ring of Najaf's Old City
The US has been bombarding old Najaf, wrecking parts of the old city and is now very close to the mosque
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/24/international/middleeast/24CND-IRAQ.html?hp
meanwhile, all hell is breaking loose in other parts of Iraq, with near assassination of two Iraqi ministers and the usual violence
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/24/international/middleeast/24CND-BOMB.html?pagewanted=print&position=
In a powerful column, Jimmy Breslin writes of all the US soldiers killed over the weekend and the vileness of Bush who sent them to horrible death. Excerpt: "There were four Marines and an Army soldier killed in Iraq in one 24-hour period over the weekend.George Bush, who does not like people who go to war, probably will say that they are not dead. As of Aug. 20, we list 952 of our troops killed in fighting.That is the Defense Department figure. When the figure goes over 1,000, that can be devastating in an election.But the figure of 1,000, so easily remembered, already has been reached. That was on July 7, when a rocket-propelled grenade killed Pfc. Samuel Bowen of Cleveland. The people keeping track at the Army Times newspaper, which has given the best, and often the only, coverage of the war, made Bowen the 1,000th. The Army Times, with no election to effect, properly includes deaths in Afghanistan.The names of the dead in Iraq over the weekend have not been released yet, except for Army Pfc. Kevin A. Cuming, 22, of White Plains. And so you sat yesterday with all these Department of Defense death notices for the last weeks covering the desk and you glanced at them, with the ages of the dead reaching up from the paper to grab your throat. Now and then you called one of their homes to get a small idea of what they were like when they lived, and what we have lost in a war that now pleases only the mentally unbalanced.Printing as many names and as often as possible is a gloomy task.
These are the deaths that the president and his people try to sneak past the country. The dead were brave men. The president is craven. He buries the war, and the news reporters, indolent and in fear of authority, follow like cattle going into pens. For so long, the public believed the news it was given. Saddam Hussein was going to blow us up with an atom bomb! The Muslims of Iraq love us!"
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=17531
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Bush Team Lacks Clear Economic Plan, Critics Say and Bush and Herbert Hoover
Bush critics are attacking is lack of an economic plan: "High oil prices, a stagnant labor market -- and the lack of a more forceful response from the Bush campaign -- have sparked worry among White House allies that the administration's economic team has been too content cheerleading in defense of past policies instead of setting more detailed plans for a second term.
While the economic recovery hummed along, there were few complaints about the low-key styles of Treasury Secretary John W. Snow, Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans, National Economic Council director Stephen Friedman and Council of Economic Advisers Chairman N. Gregory Mankiw -- especially after the internal bickering that marred the tenure of Bush's first economic team. But recent news, from slowing economic growth to wilting job creation, has changed the landscape. With the Republican convention a week away, allies and opponents are clamoring for more specifics."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27055-2004Aug23.html
The Guardian is comparing Bush's record with Herbert Hoover's
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1288712,00.html
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Kerry Team Lines Up Vietnam Witnesses
Kerry gets more witnesess to testify for his version of events, refuting Swift Boat Liars;
Bush Again Declines To Condemn Attack Ad
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A26519-2004Aug23?language=printer
Howard Kurtz blames the media for overblowing the story
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A28035-2004Aug24?language=printer
The Press Pundits are all over the story, there are give Op-Ed pieces in the Wash Post alone; E.J. Dionne says that the event is a test for the media and for Bush and that both are failing: the media because they have confused the issue, given voices to lies and smears, and Bush because he has not straight out condemned the group [but we know well that Bush himself is part of the sleaze along with Karl Rove]. Excerpt: "Yesterday Bush offered what you might call a nuanced response to the controversy over the anti-Kerry ads. While praising Kerry's service, Bush issued only a blanket condemnation of all ads by outside groups. What Bush really needs to do is tell the inappropriately named Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to stop smearing Kerry's service record and urge his big money contributors to stop bankrolling the distortions.
This is also a test for the media. We see here a fascinating and ugly development in the politics of annihilation. A supposedly outside group raises money from close Bush supporters, staffs itself with political operatives close to Bush and the Republicans, and then puts up several hundred thousand dollars worth of television ads. This is, as one operative with years of experience in Republican campaigns put it, "a professional hit." Suddenly, questions about Kerry's service that were asked and answered months ago become big news again.
To their credit, several news organizations -- the New York Times, Chicago Tribune and The Post among them -- have run reports exposing the distortions, inconsistencies and fabrications of the anti-Kerry crowd, and the links between this operation and the Bush machine.
But this hasn't stopped the run of unproven innuendo. Even highly respected Republicans have jumped in. "There's got to be some truth to these charges," Dole, a true war hero, said on CNN."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A27208-2004Aug23?language=printer
But cable TV continues to let the Swift Boat Liars on day after day and repeat their charges without refutation. Ben Wasserman in the LA Times documents recent Fox presentations, made after all the major allegations of the Not So Swift and Not so Truthful Vets had been strongly put in question for first-person testimony and official document. The Fox spinner report the allegations against Kerry and fail to counter them, despite the fact that the major charges have all been strongly rebuted; CNN is not much better. The conservative media are deeply partisan and totally dishonest;
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=17537
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Iraqi Teens Abused at Abu Ghraib, Report Finds
The beginnings of what will be scandalous stories of US mistreatment of teens in Iraqi prisons are starting to come out. Excerpt: "An Army investigation into the Abu Ghraib prison scandal has found that military police dogs were used to frighten detained Iraqi teenagers as part of a sadistic game, one of many details in the forthcoming report that were provoking expressions of concern and disgust among Army officers briefed on the findings.
Earlier reports and photographs from the prison have indicated that unmuzzled military police dogs were used to intimidate detainees at Abu Ghraib, something the dog handlers have told investigators was sanctioned by top military intelligence officers there. But the new report, according to Pentagon sources, will show that MPs were using their animals to make juveniles -- as young as 15 years old -- urinate on themselves as part of a competition.
"There were two MP dog handlers who did use dogs to threaten kids detained at Abu Ghraib," said an Army officer familiar with the report, one of two investigations on detainee abuse scheduled for release this week. "It has nothing to do with interrogation. It was just them on their own being weird."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A27048-2004Aug23?language=printer
Rumsfeld is requested to testify at Abu Ghraib but refuses
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A27828-2004Aug24?language=printer
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Monday, August 23, 2004
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Bush blathers and refuses to denounce smear group
Today, the cowardly George W. Bush emerged from his Crawford Texas ranch swaggering and bantering with Cheney, Rummy, and Rice, basically saying the same thing that his campaign has said for weeks, namely that they would be for closing down all the "independent" groups putting out campaign ads (easy to say, since most are Democrat). But Bush refused to condemn the lies and slime that everyone knows is part of his campaign and funded by his supporters. Excerpt: But the Kerry campaign said the president's intervention fell short of the clear denunciation it had demanded. Democrats said the president's remarks treated the veterans' claims as no worse than other attack ads by supposedly independent groups, questioning the group's source of finance rather than the substance of the ads, which they reject as a smear.
Mr Kerry's running mate, John Edwards, said: "The moment of truth came and went, and the president still couldn't bring himself to do the right thing. Instead of hiding behind a front group, George Bush needs to take responsibility and demand that the ad come off the air."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uselections2004/story/0,13918,1289546,00.html
Cable news, meanwhile, has made a complete muddle of the issue, failing to come right out and see the Swift Boat Thugs are liars and part of the Republican Smear Patrol
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/24/politics/campaign/24watch.html?pagewanted=print&position=
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Bush Smear Patrol on the Defensive
Kerry has out an ad aggresively attacking the Bush administration for smearing his Vietnam record and so far Bush has refused to distance himself from the mendacious ads. Former Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole went on the offensive against Kerry and got caught up in false statements and there appears to be a backlash against the Republican smear campaign with prominent Republicans coming out against the ads as more Vets speak up to defend Kerry's version of Vietnam.
Dole, the GOP's 1996 nominee, also questioned Kerry's commendations. "Three Purple Hearts and never bled that I know of," Dole said of the medal one gets for a combat injury. "I mean, they're all superficial wounds. And as far as I know, he's never spent one day in the hospital. I don't think he draws any disability pay. He doesn't have any disability. And boasting about three Purple Hearts when you think of some of the people who really got shot up in Vietnam."
Dole erroneously stated, "He got two in one day, I think." Kerry's Purple Hearts were received for different injuries over his four-month tour in Vietnam, during which he also received a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. Kerry spokesman Chad Clanton said, "It's unfortunate that senator Dole is making statements that U.S. Navy records prove false."
On ABC's "This Week," former White House chief of staff John D. Podesta tackled Bush's National Guard service during Vietnam. "Senator Kerry carries shrapnel in his thigh as distinct from President Bush who carries two fillings in his teeth from his service in the Alabama National Guard, which seems to be his only time that he showed up," Podesta said.
As part of its counteroffensive, the Kerry campaign is trying to mobilize veteran supporters nationally to rebut the attacks. In campaign offices, veteran-to-veteran phone calls are taking place. In Wisconsin, a battleground state, the campaign organized veteran house parties and events -- one featuring former senator Max Cleland (D-Ga.), who lost three limbs in Vietnam.
The campaign got some unexpected help from Wisconsin state Rep. Terry M. Musser, a Vietnam veteran and co-chairman of Wisconsin Veterans for Bush. Musser lambasted the Bush-Cheney campaign in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel over Republican attacks on Kerry's military record. "I think it's un-American to be attacking someone's service record. Period," Musser said in a Washington Post telephone interview. "The president has an opportunity here to stand up and demand that the attacks be stopped."
In Colorado, Jim Russell, who participated in Swift boat operations when Kerry did, wrote a letter to the editor of the Telluride Daily Planet to angrily dispute the claim that Kerry was not under enemy fire when he rescued Jim Rassman from the water, a feat that brought Kerry a Bronze Star and Purple Heart.
"I was on No. 43 boat, skippered by Don Droz, who was later that year killed by enemy fire," Russell wrote in the letter. "Forever pictured in my mind since that day over 30 years ago [is] John Kerry bending over his boat picking up one of the rangers that we were ferrying from out of the water. All the time we were taking small arms fire from the beach; although because of our fusillade into the jungle, I don't think it was very accurate, thank God. Anyone who doesn't think that we were being fired upon must have been on a different river."
In North Carolina, Kerry running mate John Edwards overshadowed his economic message for rural communities when he again called on Bush to publicly reject the two ads from the Swift boat veterans attacking Kerry's service. "In the last 24 hours, we have not heard a thing from President Bush. The American people deserve to hear from the president that the ads should come off the air," Edwards said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24891-2004Aug22.html
There is also a growing backlash against refighting the Vietnam war when there are other issues facing the country. Here's an excellent account by Ellen Terich: "While an over-the-hill group of men are obsessing about a war that ended nearly 40 years ago, the issues of concern to women, children and ordinary citizens of all ages are being ignored. While a crazed coterie of old warriors bring up a long buried and once controversial period of time in our nation's history in order to smear John Kerry, we have lost sight of the things that really matter today: health care; jobs; the budget deficit; education; terrorism; and all the issues that concern our children's future.The Republicans are doing it once again: using an irrelevant issue to try to win an election. They used a longstanding prison furlough policy in Massachusetts to demonize Michael Dukakis with the infamous "Willie Horton" ads. The dishonest ads worked and the Republicans won the White House.They used it against Clinton, with a whole series of accusations about his alleged affairs with women as well as his lack of service in Vietnam. That time, however, the Republicans lost the election.The Republicans, it should be obvious by now, are like cornered animals. When they have nothing to run on, when they are losing, they conjure up some irrelevant issue with which they viciously attack an opponent and tug at the emotions of an otherwise uninformed electorate. The fact is that the Republicans can never win on the strength of their ideas alone. The Democrats always have better ideas on health care, education, Social Security, Medicare, the economy and energy because their plans are always geared to help the maximum number of people rather than being handouts to corporations and the wealthy. So in order to counter a better set of ideas the Republicans have to slander their opponents with some controversial issue that can not only appeal to the fears and anger of the public, but give the news media a juicy piece of scandal to obsess on."
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=17528
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Another Bloody Day in Iraq and Halliburton scams millions
More violence and mayhem throughout Iraq. Excerpt: "US forces renewed their assault yesterday on Mehdi Army positions in and around Najaf's old city with an early morning bombing raid and an advance which brought tanks at some points to within 400 metres of the shrine of Imam Ali.
The renewed fighting came amid fresh violence elsewhere in Iraq and growing fears about the welfare of three Western journalists who disappeared on the road between Baghdad and Najaf. There was a prison break-out in the southern city of Amarah, the corpse of a kidnapped Iraqi intelligence agent was found in Basra and fighting flared in and near Baghdad.
George Malbrunot of Le Figaro newspaper and Christian Chesnot of Radio France International failed to contact their editors on Thursday. Enzo Baldoni, an Italian journalist, was also reported missing on Friday. The body of his driver was found in Najaf at the weekend."
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=554119
A shocking number of US troops were killed but the daily carnage barely makes it on the TV news. Example: buried at the end of a story on the freed US journalist (documenting the destruction of Iraq's archaeological treasures, one of the many major scandals of Bush's Pandora's Box), one reads: "Five American Marines Killed
In Anbar Province, the heart of the Sunni insurgency, five American marines with the First Marine Expeditionary Force were killed in separate incidents, the United States military command in Baghdad said Sunday.
One marine was killed in action Saturday and three others died Saturday of wounds received while conducting `security and stability operations` in the province, the military said. Another marine was killed Saturday when his Humvee flipped after running into a tank.
A roadside bomb attack on Sunday on an American military convoy outside the northern city of Mosul killed one soldier and wounded another, the military said. The wounded soldier was in stable condition. The Associated Press quoted Dr. Muhammad Ahmed, of Al Jumhuri Hospital in Mosul, as saying that two Iraqi children were also wounded in the blast.
Dexter Filkins reported from Baghdad for this article and Alex Berenson from Najaf. Sabrina Tavernise contributed reporting from Najaf."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/23/international/middleeast/23CND-IRAQ.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=
But big bucks are being made and big bucks are being scammed with both the US military and Halliburton unable to account for some major money:
"Missing: One giant generator owned by the United States military. Estimated cost: $734,863
Last seen: Somewhere in Iraq.
While much of the media is focused on the pitched battle over the control of the holy shrine in Najaf, a bigger scandal is brewing in Iraq that may well have an equally important effect on the future of the U.S. occupation.
A team of auditors was dispatched to Iraq in late January this year after a string of internal reports showed that the military was wasting billions of dollars of taxpayer money. They have issued eleven reports since June 25, almost all of which have pointed to the misuse of the money allocated for reconstruction, be it Iraqi or Congress-appropriated funds.
According to two of these reports issued in late July by Stuart Bowen, the auditor-inspector general of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), not only have a full one-third of the items purchased by the Pentagon gone MIA (including the pricey generator), but a whopping. $1.9 billion or more of Iraqi oil revenue has also mysteriously disappeared.
Embarrassed military authorities did eventually track down the missing generator and much of the money, both of which seemed to have ended up with none other than Halliburton. As it turns out they weren't missing after all; it's just that Dick Cheney's former employer had misplaced or conveniently forgotten to turn in the receipts to the correct people.
But the Pentagon was not able to explain just how Halliburton gained possession of Iraqi funds when neither the United States Congress nor the Iraqi government authorized their transfer to Halliburton in the first place. Worse yet, the man who authorized the allocation – CPA chief Paul Bremer – had already quietly left Iraq just as the reports were being released.
Yet days after the much-touted "transfer of sovereignty," the White House revealed an even more startling detail about the reconstruction effort: In over a year, the CPA had managed to spend just 2 percent of the $18.4 billion earmarked for the immediate reconstruction of Iraq. And not a penny was spent on the two areas where the Iraqi people were suffering the most: healthcare or water and sanitation."
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/19620/
And the Republican Right refights the Vietnam War, is this to deflect attention from the massive scandal that is Iraq?
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Sunday, August 22, 2004
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Najaf Still in Play
Fighting continues in Najaf; and here's a sample of the violence that continues through Iraq and citing of killing of growing number of US troops:
"In the Anbar province, the heart of the Sunni insurgency, four U.S. Marines with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force were killed in separate incidents, the military announced Sunday.
One Marine was killed in action Saturday and two others died Saturday of wounds received while conducting "security and stability operations" in the province, the military said. Another Marine was killed Saturday when his Humvee flipped after running into a tank, the military said.
A roadside bomb attack Sunday targeting a U.S. military convoy outside the northern city of Mosul killed one U.S. soldier assigned to Task Force Olympia and wounded another, the military said. The injured soldier was in stable condition. Two Iraqi children also were injured in the blast, said Dr. Mohammed Ahmed of al-Jumhuri hospital.
As of Friday, 949 U.S. service members have died since the beginning of military operations in Iraq in March 2003, according to the U.S. Defense Department. "
In other episodes: " a suicide bomber detonated the car, laden with explosives, as al-Khadran was traveling to work in a small convoy, said Gen. Waleed al-Azawi, chief of police for Diyala province. Both fatalities and seven of the injured were al-Khadran's bodyguards, he said. One civilian was also wounded.
In Jur al-Nadaf, 12 miles south of Baghdad, attackers sprayed a police vehicle with machine-gun fire, killing two policemen before fleeing, said police Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman of the Interior Ministry.
In Baghdad, assailants fired two mortar shells into the city center on Sunday, wounding at least one civilian and damaging a shop and several houses, said Abdul-Rahman.
In the southern city of Basra, an Iraqi intelligence officer kidnapped nearly a week ago and threatened with death if U.S. and Iraqi forces did not end the violence in Najaf was found dead, his body riddled with bullets, police said Sunday.
In a video shown Tuesday on the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera television station, a group calling itself the Defense of the Holy Sites Brigades said they had snatched the man.
Abdul Jawad's body was found in a deserted area Saturday, said Basra police commander Brig. Gen. Mohammed Kadhim al-Ali. It wasn't clear if the group was behind Abdul Jawad's slaying.
On Saturday in Najaf, U.S. troops and al-Sadr's fighters fought brief but heavy clashes, punctuated by gunfire and explosions, with one blast hitting the street 50 yards from the Imam Ali Shrine."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A23404-2004Aug22?language=printer
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Swift boat skipper: Anti-Kerry vets not there that day — I was
here's the article that demonstrates the mendacity of Bush Sleaze Machine Swift Boat Operatives; the liars should hide in shame; Cmrd. Willian Root who was there refutes the account of Bush's Liars who were not there
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print.php?sid=17513
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Saturday, August 21, 2004
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Officer From Another Swift Boat Breaks Silence and Defends Kerry
More support for Kerry on Swift Boat controversy: William Rood an editor at the Chicago Tribune who was a commander in Vietnam and present at the disputed event speaks out for the first time: he basically affirms Kerry's account and reveals the Swift Boat Republican Thugs to be liars, typically of Bush/Rove politics, using lies and slime to win elections. CBS had a strong account tonight affirming Rood's version, pointing out that the ad was made by the same Republican slime gang that made the Willie Horton ad, and pointing to longtime Bush Sr. and Jr connections of the group funding the slime and lies
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/22/politics/campaign/22swift.html
Republicans are set to portray any antiBush protests in NY as sanctioned by Democrats
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/22/politics/campaign/22repubs.html?hp
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Is John McCain becoming the pivotal factor in the 2004 election?
How long will John McCain campaign for George Bush? Remember he was Bush's opponent in 2000, and became very bitter about how Bush defeated him in the South Carolina primary -- see link below. John McCain, evidently, was courted by John Kerry as a potential VP candidate. And in the current mess created by the allegations (and lies) against Kerry by so-called "swift boat veterans against kerry", McCain has come to Kerry's defense over the swift boat veterans' allegations. McCain is walking a tough line: He is currently the most respected political figure in the nation (see the nyt article content). If he comes to the defense of Kerry too vocally, he will undermine is alleged support for Bush. At the same time, his ethical code evidently won't let him allow the swift boat veterans claims to go unchallenged. And the critics of the "swift boat veterans against Kerry" show the smoking gun evidence that the financial support for the smear ends in the White House.
Last night, Mark Shields and William Kristol almost shouted at each other in disputing the "facts" relevant in the "swift boat veterans against Kerry" fiasco on the jim lehrer newshour. And on Bill Moyers' NOW, Kathleen Hall Jamieson's incisive analysis exposed the methods Bush's supporters are using in twisting the facts of this 30 ear old event. One of the upshots, evidenlty, is that we will re visit, again, Bush's own military record -- or lack of a military record.
extracts from nyt:
... Mr. Bush's embrace had effectively empowered Mr. McCain to keep speaking out. "It's almost liberating," the adviser said, "because they also need him to continue to be independent."
[The idea of an "embrace" is both real -- e.g., the now famous "bearhug" and "kiss" in the recent photos, and metaphorical, e.g., the putative "embrace" by McCain of Bush's re-election, inspite to the shabby way Bush attacked McCain -- it was racist -- in South Carolina, during the 2000 election. (Remember that in 2000, Bush played the race card against McCain, by among other things, speaking at Bob Jones University.)]
From that challenge, Mr. McCain has not shrunk. Since joining the president on the trail, he has attacked Mr. Bush's proposal to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage as "antithetical in every way to the core philosophy of Republicans." He has called on the president to denounce commercials by some supporters questioning Mr. Kerry's Vietnam service, describing the advertisement as "the same kind of deal that was pulled on me," in 2000 by Bush supporters.
Mr. Bush has so far ignored Mr. McCain's demand to condemn the advertisements, and Mr. McCain has declined to discuss whatever he may have privately urged the president to do. All that has left some Democrats skeptical about the whole arrangement, and may create some risk that Mr. McCain will alienate the very swing voters who so admire him.
"Bush is so desperate to ride Senator McCain's wave that he's taking the idea of kiss and makeup a little too far," said Mr. Kerry's spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter. "Maybe now he'll take McCain's advice and denounce the dishonest and dishonorable ads attacking Kerry's military record."
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Friday, August 20, 2004
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Tribal Politics and the Upcoming Elections
There is more at stake for Indigenous peoples in the United States than simply the election of a president. What is at stake is making sure that important issues of tribal sovereignty are not used as simple campaign tactics. David Wilkins, Professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota provides useful recommendations: Wilkins: Indigenous voices and American politics
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Abu Ghraib Probe Points to Top Brass
While it appears higher-ups in military brass in Iraq will be held responsible for prison abuse it looks like the thugs in the Bush administration and Pentagon who set the policy will go free. Excerpt: "An Army investigation into the role of military intelligence personnel in the abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison reports that the scandal was not just caused by a small circle of rogue military police soldiers but resulted from failures of leadership rising to the highest levels of the U.S. command in Iraq, senior defense officials said"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17092-2004Aug19.html
There are also reports that medical doctors falsified records at the prison: "Reuters, meanwhile, reports that an article published in the prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet, alleges that US military doctors played a role in the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib. The report, written by University of Minnesota bioethicist Steven Miles, cites evidence that some doctors "falsified death certificates to cover up killings and hid evidence of beatings."
"The medical system collaborated with designing and implementing psychologically and physically coercive interrogations," the University of Minnesota professor said. One detainee, who collapsed after a beating, was revived by medics so that the abuse could continue, Miles said. "Army officials stated that a physician and a psychiatrist helped design, approve and monitor interrogations at Abu Ghraib," he wrote in his study based on evidence from US congressional hearings, sworn statements of detainees and soldiers, medical journal accounts and aid agency information"
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0820/dailyUpdate.html?s=ent2
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Friendly Fire: The Birth of an Anti-Kerry Ad
Vietnam just won't go away; Iraq will probably be haunting US politics 30 years from now. Key points: Bush used political connections to avoid Vietnam service and went AWOL for a year and now he's totally responsible for the Iraq mess
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/politics/campaign/20swift.html?hp
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Thursday, August 19, 2004
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Former Iraq Arms Inspector Faults Prewar Intelligence
For the first time Condi Rice is blamed for US intelligence failures. Here's excerpt: "A former Bush administration official who led the fruitless postwar effort to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq told Congress on Wednesday that the National Security Council led by Condoleezza Rice had botched intelligence information before the war and was "the dog that did not bark" over Iraq's weapons program."
"In uncharacteristically caustic remarks about his former colleagues, the weapons inspector, David Kay, said the National Security Council had failed to protect President Bush from faulty prewar intelligence and had left Secretary of State Colin L. Powell "hanging out in the wind" when he tried to gather intelligence before the war about Iraq's weapons programs."Dr. Kay did not identify Ms. Rice by name in his often-impassioned testimony. But his remarks were clearly aimed at her performance and reflected a widespread view among intelligence specialists that Ms. Rice, perhaps Mr. Bush's most trusted aide, and the National Security Council have never been held sufficiently accountable for intelligence failures before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the Iraq war."
Former Iraq Arms Inspector Faults Prewar Intelligence
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Michael Kieschnick: Don't forget the scandals bubbling on the back burner
Bush-Cheney scandals bubbling away all over the place, just waiting to explode
The%20Smirking%20Chimp
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Graham Rayman: Report: Bush showed 'reckless disregard' after 9/11
The Bush Administration and EPA failed to adequately warn, monitor and test environmental hazards after the 9/11 attacks
The%20Smirking%20Chimp
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Wednesday, August 18, 2004
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Impact of Michael Scheuer's "Imperial Hubris" is Growing
For Scheuer, "Religion's role is central to our conflict in the Middle East". In an op ed, Rod Dreher in the Dallas Morning News observes that "The enemy is not just terrorism, some generic evil," says the 9-11 Commission report. "It is the threat posed by Islamist terrorism." Continues Dreher, "It's more than a little ridiculous, three years after 19 Muslims flew airplanes into buildings for the greater glory of God, to see a government panel direct Americans to think about the central role that religion plays in this war. But I'm glad it did, because our continued refusal to come to terms with the essentially religious nature of the conflict prevents us from devising effective plans to combat the enemy."
That's the thrust of Imperial Hubris, an important new book by Michael Scheuer, a senior CIA analyst who published under the pen name Anonymous. Scheuer argues that America's willful ignorance of Islam, as well as the role that religion plays in the psychology of the Muslim world, causes us to mischaracterize and underestimate Osama bin Laden.
For a lengthy collection of extracts from Imperial Hubris, click on http://slate.msn.com/id/2103748/
Here are samples:
Osama Doesn't Hate Our Freedom
Page 8: The fundamental flaw in our thinking about Bin Laden is that "Muslims hate and attack us for what we are and think, rather than what we do." Muslims are bothered by our modernity, democracy, and sexuality, but they are rarely spurred to action unless American forces encroach on their lands. It's American foreign policy that enrages Osama and al-Qaida, not American culture and society.
Page 11-13: How is the United States threatening Muslim lands? The post-9/11 crackdowns on Muslim charities have effectively ended tithing, which is one of the five pillars of Islam; our casual denunciations of "jihad" sneer at a central tenet of the Muslim faith. America supports corrupt anti-Muslim governments in Uzbekistan and China, "apostate" governments in the Middle East, and the new Christian state of East Timor. And, above all, it continues to house occupying forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Osama Isn't a Madman
Page 114-6: Bin Laden isn't a loose cannon trying to bring the world to Armageddon. He's an eloquent and rational actor, more CEO than gangster. He often blames Muslims for their failure to repel Western invaders. His analyses of al-Qaida's victories and defeats are often more cogent than Western leaders' tirades against him.
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Unravelling the Swift Boat Allegations About Kerry
While the "truth" will never be entirely known, the money behind this anti-Kerry strategy in this so-called "Swift Boat" incident persuades me that Kerry is mostly correct in his account of events in Vietnam. Below are extracts from a lengthy collection of claims and counter-claims about what is "true" about decades-ago events in a "war" that America "lost" and most Americans want to forget. John McCain, actively supporting Bush's reelection, insists that Kerry "served honorably in Vietnam".
From L A Times
A television ad [by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth] that has aired in three key battleground states and a new book have created a political furor over John F. Kerry's Vietnam War record, calling into question his character, credibility and a central tenet of his campaign — that his combat experience helps qualify him to be president.
The ad, the book and the people behind them have become staples of conservative talk shows and Internet sites. The claims — that Kerry lied about his war experiences, didn't deserve his medals and betrayed soldiers everywhere by protesting the war after serving in it — also have been recited in the mainstream media, along with denials of the allegations.
What military documentation exists and has been made public generally supports the view put forth by Kerry and most of his crewmates — that he acted courageously and came by his Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts honestly. This view of Kerry as war hero is supported by all but one of the surviving veterans who served with him on the two boats he commanded.
None of the critics quoted in the ad actually served on the boats with Kerry. Some of them also have given contradictory accounts and offered conflicting recollections.
...
"The Swift boat ad is full of lies. Thirteen men who never served with John Kerry lie about knowing him and viciously attack his record," said Kerry campaign manager Mary Beth Cahill in an e-mail to supporters last week. "It is a new low for the Republicans."
A liberal independent organization is weighing in on the controversy with a new ad today, demanding that President Bush urge that the ad be taken off the air.
...
Members of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth say they have received $300,000 in new donations since the ad began airing Aug. 5. The group's initial ad buy was $500,000.
The group's leaders confirmed that Robert J. Perry, a Texas homebuilder, was their biggest original financier. Perry has given money to Bush's last four campaigns and is a major GOP donor in Texas.
John O'Neill, a former Swift boat commander who served in Vietnam and a longtime Kerry foe, has been promoting his book — "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry" — on cable-TV talk shows such as "Crossfire" and "Hardball." The book, which amplifies the charges in the ad, began trickling into stores last week. It already tops the Amazon.com bestseller list, and a chapter has been posted on a conservative website.
It is too soon to tell whether the claims are resonating with voters, but political observers say they could pose a serious risk for the Democratic candidate, particularly in such a close race.
...
Many in the Swift boat group seem to be motivated as much by anger about Kerry's protest activities as they are about his actions in combat. In their affidavits, several write about Kerry's testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
In his April 1971 statement to the Senate panel, Kerry cited Vietnam atrocities that had been alleged by his group of antiwar veterans. And in blunt rhetoric, he questioned government policy that widened the toll among soldiers and civilians: "We learned the meaning of free-fire zones, shooting anything that moves, and we watched while America placed cheapness on the lives of Orientals."
...
But the anti-Kerry faction has not definitively proved that Kerry was the sole source of the Bronze Star battle account. And according to Elliott, Kerry's immediate commander, Swift boat officers involved in battles normally were involved in drafting the after-action report, which in this case described repeated fire from small arms and automatic weapons.
Rassmann, whose life was saved, stands by Kerry.
"Their new charges are false; their stories are fabricated, made up by people who did not serve with Kerry in Vietnam," he wrote in a commentary last Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal. "They insult and defame all of us who served in Vietnam."
...
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Can Sadr's "David" Strategy Vanquish the American "Goliath"?
The Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds are watching Najaf.
from usa today
... For the U.S., the crisis offers only lose-lose options. An Allawi-ordered, American-led attack that destroys the shrine might produce a tactical win but a strategic loss that turns Iraq's majority Shiites against the U.S.-backed government. If Allawi backs down, he will prove his government is powerless to halt factional fighting and broaden support for al-Sadr.
Like the U.S., Iraq's Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds are watching Najaf to see whether Allawi is up to the job of stabilizing the country:
• The Shiites, who were persecuted by Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s ruling Sunnis, were thought by U.S. planners to be reliable supporters of the Iraqi leader's ouster. But early U.S. failures to stabilize Iraq, restore electricity and bring jobs alienated many Shiites.
• Saddam's loyalists retain power in the Sunni triangle near Fallujah. The U.S. decision to allow Sunnis to stay in charge saved scores of lives but left the city an armed enclave awaiting signs of weakness from the central government.
• Kurds in northern Iraq agreed not to secede in June, when Allawi's government agreed to recognize Kurdish autonomy, at least until elections are held. Allawi's failure to neutralize al-Sadr could encourage the Kurds to break away from a unified Iraq.
To his credit, Allawi grasps the significance of this moment. An Iraqi moment, in which the Americans can do little but hope the turning point shifts in their favor.
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Tuesday, August 17, 2004
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Dana Milbank Does Us a Favor By Gathering the Latest Crop of Bush's Malapropisms
Wash Post
Ladies and gentlemen, the Bushism has returned. The malapropisms that adorned Bush's 2000 campaign before going into remission during much of his presidency have reemerged to garnish his reelection bid.
Example: in his speech to the minority journalists this month, Bush offered this definition of policy toward Native Americans: "Tribal sovereignty means that, it's sovereign. I mean, you're a -- you're a -- you've been given sovereignty and you're viewed as a sovereign entity. And therefore the relationship between the federal government and tribes is one between sovereign entities."
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Monday, August 16, 2004
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Chavez Appears to Survive Referendum (washingtonpost.com)
Chavez supporters claim a win but opponents cry foul; the first report I read had opponents winning and Chavez forces crying foul so Venezuela will continue to be highly conflicted (with a little help from the CIA)
Chavez Appears to Survive Referendum (washingtonpost.com)
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Battle for Iraq's future
Democracy under siege in Iraq
News
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Sunday, August 15, 2004
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Kerry leading Bush in key swing states
Yahoo News
...Although polls show the US presidential race a virtual dead heat, Democrat John Kerry appears to be gaining an edge over George W. Bush among the key states that could decide the outcome.
An AFP review of various polls showed the Massachusetts senator leading in the hunt for the decisive 538 electoral votes that are apportioned among the states and awarded in separate winner-take-all contests.
Nationwide, the November 2 election is shaping up as every bit as close as the 2000 cliffhanger in which outgoing vice president Al Gore won the popular tally but lost to the Republican Bush by five electoral votes.
Voter surveys show Bush and Kerry running even. A Pew Research Center poll released Thursday put Kerry ahead 47-45 percent while a Gallup study Friday had Bush on top 48-47 percent, both margins statistically insignificant.
But with the electorate highly polarized and largely decided, Kerry seemed to have an advantage among the 16 "battleground" states stretching from Oregon to Florida that are considered still up for grabs.
The states account for 177 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win. Polls show the Democrat leading in 10 states with 119 electoral votes, Bush ahead in one state with six, and five states with 52 electors a tossup.
Added to the other states where no change is believed likely from 2000, the breakdown would give Kerry a 291-195 lead in electoral votes. But with 11 weeks to go before the election, the political chessboard could be easily upset...
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Bush's Declining Fortunes
David Broder in Seattle Times on Bush' declining fortunes:
The factors that make President Bush a vulnerable incumbent have almost nothing to do with his opponent, John F. Kerry. They stem directly from two closely linked high-stakes policy gambles that Bush chose on his own. Neither has worked out as he hoped.
The first gamble was the decision to attack Iraq; the second, to avoid paying for the war.
The rationale for the first decision was to remove the threat of a hostile dictator armed with weapons of mass destruction. The weapons were never found. [Check out this article in Slate, where the author accuses of Bush, given his "negatives", of having to look backward for signs of his achievements, especially in the apologetics for no WMD.]
The rationale for the second decision — the determination to keep cutting taxes in the face of far higher spending for Iraq and the war on terrorism — was to stimulate the American economy and end the drought of jobs. The deficits have accumulated, but the jobs have still not come back. [check out this report by concord coalition.]
... Just before the new numbers came out [an anemic 32,000 jobs in the last quarter], the president was bragging to campaign audiences, "When it comes to creating jobs for America's workers, we've turned the corner, and we're not turning back."
Democrats are making that phrase as famous — or infamous — as the "Mission Accomplished" sign on the aircraft carrier Bush visited to celebrate prematurely the end of major fighting in Iraq.
Bush has suffered other blows to his credibility — a survey of seniors last week showed major doubts about his touted Medicare prescription-drug plan.
But they pale in importance compared to Iraq and the economy. In The Washington Post's polls every month since January, more voters have voiced disapproval of his performance on those two issues than approval.
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More on Crowds for Kerry
This is another report on John Kerry campaign stop in Portland Oregon
Boston Globe (A similar story appeared in the NYT.)
-- By 9 a.m. on Friday, throngs of John F. Kerry supporters clogged the city center, blocking the garage where Julie Edwards parks for work. So rather than fight the crowd, the 41-year-old Republican joined it.
Four hours later, as the Democratic nominee was wrapping up his stump speech, Edwards finally made it through security. As she trudged toward the stage, it was not the candidate who amazed her but the massive crowd that turned out for him, even as President Bush was speaking just outside town.
"I've never seen anything like this," she said, surveying the more than 40,000 audience members. "This is going to make a real statement, a swing state turning out [for Kerry] like this, especially with Bush in town. I worry for Bush."
After worrying about their message, advertisements and grass-roots drive, the Bush campaign now has another concern on the horizon: the buzz generated by theatrical events, celebrity endorsements, and heavy supporter turnout on the other side, adding the glow of momentum to the Kerry campaign in a race that is locked in a statistical dead heat in most voter surveys.
Kerry, with the help of an occasional rock star joining him on stage, has sustained crowds into the tens of thousands since the convention in Boston, in a few instances clearly dwarfing the ticketed events President Bush tends to hold. Kerry, with fewer security concerns than a sitting president, can throw open his doors in ways Bush cannot, giving him a logistical advantage in building big audiences.
Crowd size can be an unreliable measure of how a campaign is progressing -- especially after a political convention that gave star billing to the candidate. But as the campaigns continue to chase each other from swing state to swing state, holding events within days -- or even hours -- of each other in the same media markets, the large crowds play to Kerry's advantage and generate a persistent story line in the local media wherever he goes: that the Kerry camp is more open to members of the public. And this, it is said, comes from both political parties.
To that end, Kerry campaign aides collect stories about closed Bush events from the local press, and gleefully celebrate stories about undecided voters turned away at the door. As all campaigns do, the Kerry staff keeps statistics -- and on occasion exaggerates them -- on the size of the crowds.
And the aides unabashedly add side attractions to lure audience members; on Friday, rock star Jon Bon Jovi and actor Leonardo DiCaprio teamed up with Kerry in Portland, instantly adding a level of glamour to his event. Across town, meanwhile, Bush was announcing new funding to deepen the Columbia River shipping channel, before holding an invitation-only rally with about 2,300 loyalists....
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Saturday, August 14, 2004
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washingtonpost.com: Al Qaeda Showing New Life
Bush's claims that he has "turned the corner" in the war on terror are put in question by analyses showing al Qaeda mutating into new forms, as hatred of Bush and the US intensifies
washingtonpost.com: Al Qaeda Showing New Life
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Truce Talks Collapse in Holy City of Najaf (washingtonpost.com)
truce talks collapse in Najaf and dangers of blood bath persist
Truce Talks Collapse in Holy City of Najaf (washingtonpost.com)
here's an excellent account that provides background to Najaf, making it clear that a deliberate US provocation opened the current round of fighting. The article also indicates how the incursion could be a desperate attempt by the Bush administration to win a decisive battle that could help it argue that they "have turned the corner in Iraq." A failure, however, could be catastrophic for the region and for Bush's re-election.
http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/19538/
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At least 40,000 turn out for Kerry rally in Portland
Seattle Times
Kerry yesterday drew at least 40,000 to a riverfront rally, a show of strength in a Northwest state that was barely won by Al Gore four years ago.
Kerry hit on familiar themes of helping middle-class Americans get better jobs, health care and education. And, in a state with National Guard and reserve units now serving amid the perils of post-war Iraq, Kerry pledged to "never send Americans into war without a plan to win the peace — never."
The gathering was one of the largest — if not the largest — Kerry has drawn in a two-week, 22-state cross-country swing that followed his nomination at the Democratic Convention in Boston and ended here in Portland. City officials said it was the biggest gathering in Portland for a politician in at least a decade. ...
"I've never seen anything like this, even when Bobby Kennedy and [Bill] Clinton were here"....
Earlier this summer, national polls showed Kerry and Bush locked in a tight race, dead even or separated by a few percentage points. But eight polls taken in Oregon since June indicate that Kerry has pulled ahead in the state race by anywhere from 4 to 9 points. "Oregon is a battleground state, but it is not a toss-up state," said Portland pollster Tim Hibbitts, who did not conduct any of the eight tracking polls but said his own unpublished polling data show the same trend.
Oregon has consistently had some of the highest unemployment rates in the country, but Hibbitts said he believes that Iraq has emerged as a dominant issue among the state's voters. "It reaches into a simple kind of concern of what is the endgame — where is the light at the end of the tunnel," Hibbitts said.
At yesterday's rally, state Democratic politicians who preceded Kerry to the park stage tried to play to that concern. "As president, Kerry will make certain our veterans, their families are honored, respected and protected in battle and at home," said Rep. Darlene Hooley, D-Oregon.
Kerry, following his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, took the stage after 1 p.m., appearing energized by what he called "this incredible sea of people."
During his speech, Kerry devoted most of his time to domestic concerns, chiding Bush for reducing the tax burden on the wealthy while increasing the load on the middle class, and for failing to come up with a plan for improving health insurance. Earlier in the day, Kerry seized on a new Congressional Budget Office study showing that, since 2001, one-third of the benefits from the Bush tax cuts have gone to the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, shifting more of the tax burden to middle-income taxpayers.
"Government is not supposed to make choices that favor just the powerful special interests, the people with the money who can go to Washington and have access average people can't have," Kerry said.
Kerry has promised to roll back tax cuts for households making more than $200,000.
But in the end, Kerry turned to some of the major issues that have arisen since the Sept. 11 attacks. He said the best way to wage a war on terror was by having the best intelligence.
With the bus tour now at an end, Kerry plans to take a day off to enjoy a favorite sport. "One of the things that has kept me going is the knowledge that tomorrow I get a free day at the Columbia River Gorge, and I'm going wind surfing," Kerry said.
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Boutros Boutros-Ghali: US Torture Sets Back Cause of Human Rights in Arab World
The former secretary-general of the United Nations, Boutros Boutros-Ghali's comments are adapted from a conversation with NPQ on May 6.
There are three results from the revelations of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American forces in Iraq. First, the image of the United States has become very negative, especially in the Arab world.
Second, they damage the role of organizations all around the world that deal with the protection of human rights and humanitarian law in the time of war. I am the president of the Egyptian Commission on Human Rights. It will be more difficult for me now to say, “Look, the international community is demanding that we clean up the human rights situation, to take care of this or that.” The response will be: “The superpower is not respecting human rights in Iraq or Guantanamo,” so the pressure is off. Different governments all over the world will say that security is more important than the protection of human rights, that in the case of terrorist action we can ignore human rights.
Third, these photos are a gift to Al Qaeda and to other terrorist groups that will be formed in the future, all over the world.
To be dynamic, terrorism needs a war. Terrorism has grown as a result of the wars in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Chechnya. Terrorists were trained in these places. They obtained arms there. These wars helped them find recruits and mobilize young terrorists.
We have the continuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And we have the war inside Iraq. The terrorists need this war. Nothing is more important to them. The day you have no more war in Iraq and Chechnya or confrontation in Palestine, then terrorism will wither.
The aim of the international community after 9/11 was to fight terrorism. Through the war in Iraq we aren’t fighting terrorism but stimulating it....
At present, however, there is a crisis of credibility between the Iraqi people and the US-led coalition. The only way to overcome that is for the UN participation to be real and not just camouflage or a decoration that hides a continuing American presence. If the perception of the Iraqi people is that there is no difference between the role of the UN and the US, then the UN role will not be very constructive.
SUPERPOWER LIMITS | There are two limits: One, public opinion in the US does not favor the US playing the role of global policeman. Two, whatever the power of the US, it doesn’t have the capacity on its own to cope with Iraq, let alone all the other crises that have emerged simultaneously around the world—war in the south of Sudan and genocide in Darfur, Ivory Coast, Colombia, Georgia. Even if it is outside the framework of the UN, the US needs allies and a multilateral approach for this multitude of problems. Even as the No. 1 global power, it needs others.
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Friday, August 13, 2004
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Bush’s CIA nominee has alarmed civil libertarians with a plan that would authorize the agency to arrest U.S. citizens.
Goss wants authorization to allow CIA to arrest US citizens
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Thursday, August 12, 2004
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The Post on WMDs: An Inside Story (washingtonpost.com)
WASH POST reviews how they missed it on WMD; their OpEd team was also gung ho for Iraq and some continue to froth for an Iran war; this is a lowpoint in WP history
The Post on WMDs: An Inside Story (washingtonpost.com)
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Former Illinois Replublican Governor Won't Endorse Keyes
from chicago sun times
... Even former [Republican] Governor James R. Thompson has refused to endorse Republican U.S. Senate nominee Alan Keyes ... saying some of Keyes' stands on the issues made him "uncomfortable." ... Thompson had turned down pleas to jump into the race himself....
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Alan Keyes on Carpetbagging (His Own)
Lately I have been following the response to the charge "carpetbagger", against Alan Keyes, for jumping into the Illinois Senate race against Barack Obama, justifying his move with more than just a little hypocrisy. (I am using the google news lert service, with the keywords, "Obama Keyes Carpetbagger".) Here's an extract from a a binghampton ny newspaper that really lays the issue on Keyes's "hypocrisy":
... There is irony in Keyes' decision, however, because in 2000, he said: "I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented by Hillary Clinton's willingness to go into a state she doesn't even live in and pretend to represent people there. So I certainly wouldn't imitate it."
But when reminded recently about that statement, Keyes offered a tortured explanation of "very deep differences between what I am doing and Hillary Clinton. She used the state of New York as a platform for her own personal ambition. I had no thought of coming to Illinois to run until the people here in the state party decided there was a need. Just as people faced with a flood, or people in the case of 9/11, would call on folks, firefighters and others, to help them deal with the crisis that they were faced with.
"... But from the point of view of my own personal principles, I believe in federalism. And I had to think this through based on my respect for the principle of state sovereignty.
"But I think when you have a candidate like Barack Obama who has turned his back on the principles of our national union, you have to stand in defense of those principles just as Lincoln did in the run-up to the Civil War. He understood that our respect for state sovereignty must be limited by our commitment to defending the principles of our national union. And that's what I am doing."
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Wednesday, August 11, 2004
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America's Worst College Let's choose our president by popular vote
Tim Noah's right that we should abolish at once the idiotic electoral college; its a bit more controversial if it should be a straightup popular vote, but certainly this would be infinitely better than the current archaic system
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Fred Kaplan: 'Spies like Goss: How much of a hack is Bush's CIA nominee?'
appointment of Republican/Bush partisan/former CIA hack as head of CIA is obviously a Bush election gambit and Cheney power play as Goss, like Cheney and Rumsfeld, support strong head of CIA and not a more powerful intelligence czar; if the Dems strongly oppose Goss, the Bush Gang can say that they are politicizing national security (which he has already done by nominating such a partisan figure!)
The Smirking Chimp
the Dems see the appointment as political, but are cautious in responding
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A54947-2004Aug10?language=printer
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Tuesday, August 10, 2004
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Istanbul 'bombers' declare war on Europe
bad blowback begins from Bush/Blair Iraq invasion; they should have gone after al Qaeda
Independent News: ""
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Bush campaign holds rally in Va.; Dems sense weakness
Bush blunders on campaign trail; check this out:
"Bush criticized Kerry's plan to eliminate the tax cuts for those making more than $200,000 a year, saying that the "the rich in America happen to be the small business owners" who put people to work.
Bush also said high taxes on the rich are a failed strategy because "the really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway."
Asked about that comment, Jonathan Beeton, spokesman for Kerry's campaign in Virginia, said "George Bush can speak with authority about really rich people. ... That's his base, so I'm sure he knows what he's talking about. But that doesn't make it right."
Bush campaign holds rally in Va.; Dems sense weakness
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Iraq on a knife-edge
here's a good summary of Bush's Big Mess in Iraq; note that oil supplies have been disrupted in the south at a time when prices are at an all-time high; Bush and his neocons have done a wonderful job of destabilizing the Middle East and endangering oil supplies
News
More on Sadr resistance and disruption of oil supplies
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52881-2004Aug9.html
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Monday, August 09, 2004
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The New York Times > AP > International > Chalabi Says Charges Are Part of Conspiracy
The Chalabis fight back, obviously Iraqi internal politics are utterly chaotic
The New York Times > AP > International > Chalabi Says Charges Are Part of Conspiracy
and the military situation is also chaotic, Bush's Pandora's Box is a big mess and there is no imaginable solution until Bush is retired in Crawford
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/09/international/middleeast/09CND-IRAQ.html?hp
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David Kusnet: 'Turning a phrase, not a corner'
here's a good critique of the utter bankruptcy and failure of Bush's reelection campaign this summer: his punch lines were "we've turned the corner" and "results matter.' But the corners turned and cut by the Bush Gang all lead into the abyss, the results are all terrible, and the Dems have effectively punctured the Bush Gang rhetoric. I would go further and argue that so far Bush's rhetoric as to results and corners turned are basically lies: that economy is producing jobs and healthy; that Bush is producing peace and stability; that the US is stronger and safer, etc. These are all Big Lies and it is unbelievable how the mainstream media lets Bush get away with this day after day
The Smirking Chimp
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Sunday, August 08, 2004
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Los Angeles Times: Soldiers Detail Iraqi Abuse of Prisoners
Oregon national guard soldiers tried to stop abuse of Iraq prisoners but were rebuked and ordered to leave; this is more evidence that abuse and torture were high-level policy not low-level deviance
Los Angeles Times: Soldiers Detail Iraqi Abuse of Prisoners
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Behind the swift boat smear: Texas donor's influence far more visible than he is
a rightwing bigtime Republican donor is behind attack ads on Kerry's military record
The Smirking Chimp: "Behind the swift boat smear: Texas donor's influence far more visible than he is"
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Saturday, August 07, 2004
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The New York Times > International > Middle East > Marines Pushing Deeper Into City Held by Shiites
fighting goes on and on in Iraq despite calls for ceasefire; in bizarre episode (see end of story), a dude faked a beheading, ran it on the Internet, and then signalled it was a fake to show that anything could be fabricated, put on the Internet, and then circulated through the media, including BBC
The New York Times > International > Middle East > Marines Pushing Deeper Into City Held by Shiites
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Stephen Pizzo: 'Raise the economy threat to 'high"
good account of Bush's wrecking of the economy
The Smirking Chimp
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Inside the torture pens of Gitmo: Terrorism suspect's suit tells of U.S. abuse"
more on US torture in Gitmo, a lot of testimony is leaking out that Iraq prison torture had its origins in the Cuban prison and thus was major Bush administration/Pentagon prisoner interrogation procedure [indeed, they started with John Lindh, the "American Taliban," and Rumsfeld admitted and bragged that they'd treated him roughly
The Smirking Chimp: "
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Bush administration outs al Qaida double agent, blows undercover operation
here's an interesting story indicating that arrest of al Qaeda dudes in Pakistan this week BLEW an undercover Pakistan sting operation; earlier I'd read in debka.com, an Israeli intelligence site, that the guys arrested in Pakistan were much lower level that the Bush goons were claiming and that they'd gotten the "surveillance" info from the Internet! this is thus another example of BUsh bungling and manipulating the "war on terror" for domestic political purposes
The Smirking Chimp
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Friday, August 06, 2004
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washingtonpost.com: Bush Hits 'Legacy' College Admissions
BUsh attacks himself in decrying "Legacy" college admissions (would he ever have gotten into Yale or Harvard Business School without family connections? The Univ of Texas Law School deserves credit and boosted its prestige by denying the hapless Shrub admission)
washingtonpost.com: Bush Hits 'Legacy' College Admissions
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Tongue-twisted Bush is bent on self-harm
The media makes fun of Bush gaffes but the soundbites the last couple of days on the election trail have him telling whopper after whopper about the great jobs he is creating, how he's producing peace, how he's strengthing the US: has there ever been a more Orwellian discourse where phrases are their opposite?
News
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Iraq puppet government set to use martial law in terror fight
another sign that things are worse in Iraq than bush administration and media is letting on
Independent News
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The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Failure of Leadership
Bush's lies, deceptions, and blunders are creating a crisis of leadership. Here's Bob Herbert on his latest "misspeaking": "The pressure may be getting to Mr. Bush. He came up with a gem of a Freudian slip yesterday. At a signing ceremony for a $417 billion military spending bill, the president said: 'Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.' "
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Failure of Leadership:
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Thursday, August 05, 2004
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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: 'Bush breaks environmental promise'
RFK Jr. on Bush's terrible record on the environment
The Smirking Chimp
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Wednesday, August 04, 2004
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David Sirota & Christy Harvey: 'They knew...
an excellent analysis of the coverup of Bush administration mendacity on Iraq
The Smirking Chimp: "'"
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Tuesday, August 03, 2004
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Dem pundits plan to lose this race the same way they did in 2000
the Bush Gang plans to mock and ridicule Kerry in their convention and campaign as if he were "undistinguished and risible." Say what? compared to the genuinely risible Bush who also is the worse president ever, Kerry looks good. Kerry, as of now, has pledged to take the high road so its up to us on the left to ridicule Bush and make it clear that its utterly ludicrious that such an incompetent is in the White House and wants four more years....
Dem pundits plan to lose this race the same way they did in 2000
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Sibel Edmonds: 'Public letter to 9/11 Commission Chair from FBI whistleblower'
here's a letter from FBI whistleblower of the incredible Bush administration and FBI incompetency before and after 9/11 and its cover-up by the 9/11 commision
The Smirking Chimp
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New documents implicate U.S. forces in rape and sodomy of Iraqi prisoners
here's an incredibly detailed report from Rolling Stone on Iraq prisoner abuse, a top that has been ignored by the media recently; this report makes clear responsibility of many, many senior officiers and official US army policy and that the abuses were greater and even more disgusting than previously documented
The Smirking Chimp: "New documents implicate U.S. forces in rape and sodomy of Iraqi prisoners"
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Monday, August 02, 2004
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The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Reading the Script
Paul Krugman points to importance of media watchdogs like the Daily Howler and the notion that cable news plays out the "script" everyday of focusing on issues that Republican spinners concoct for the line of the day; corporate television is a disgrace to journalism and has a lot to answer for
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: Reading the Script
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Dark tales from the Iraqi front
Most US troops work to rebuild, handle tough situations, but sometimes things go wrong.
csmonitor
The US military currently has 140,000 troops in Iraq, most of whom spent the bulk of their time in reconstruction efforts, working side-by-side with Iraqis to rebuilt their country, according to the Agence France-Presse. Columnist Ken Dilanian wrote Sunday in the Phildelphia Inquirer, of his second trip to Iraq, that he still believes "the US-led effort in Iraq is accomplishing many good things, most of which get no publicity. And I still think it's too early to abandon hope that a stable and democratic Iraq will emerge from this crucible."
But he also adds that the insurgency has been much more successful that the US media has given it credit. He says most Iraqis are not seeing the progress they had anticipated, and that they are not blaming the insurgents, but the Americans. This has led to tensions on both sides, with some US troops crossing a line in their treatment of Iraqis, sometimes committing atrocities against them. On the other hand, US troops also face an increasingly dangerous situation....
It gets worse:
...some US troops crossing a line in their treatment of Iraqis, sometimes committing atrocities against them. On the other hand, US troops also face an increasingly dangerous situation.
One case involving US soldiers is being currently being tried at Fort Carson in Colorado. US soldiers who pushed two Iraqis off a bridge after the men had missed a curfew were told to coverup the incident, according to three US Army commanders. The Associated Press reported over the weekend that the commanders testified under immunity Friday on the third and final day of a hearing to determine whether three soldiers will be court-martialed. One of the soliders charged in the incident had earlier testified that he had been ordered to push the men off the bridge.
Family members of the Iraqis say one of the men drowned, but the Army commanders who testified said both men made it out of the water safely. The family has offered to have the body exhumed and autopsied to prove their claim. ...
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Sunday, August 01, 2004
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Guardian | The mask of altruism disguising a colonial war
i read one and only one article in the Los Angeles Times in 1992 during the first Sudan intervention that allegedly happened because big new oil discoveries were in the works; now it looks like this may be a motivation in current crisis, although this is the first report I've read that indicates this
Guardian | The mask of altruism disguising a colonial war
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Ron Reagan: 'The case against George W. Bush'
Ron Reagan attacks Bush's mendacity, erosion of trust and confidence, the neocons, and attempts to profit from his father's death; its interesting to see how many intelligent Republicans have turned on Bush: John Dean, Kevin Phillips and now Ron Reagan
The Smirking Chimp: "Ron Reagan: 'The case against George W. Bush'"
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