Them

While waiting at the checkout at Loblaws this morning, I run over to grab a copy of the Toronto Star. Not knowing exactly what day it is, I grab a copy of Saturday's paper and hand it to the woman behind the register.

Her (holding paper out and reading the huge headline): "What Took You?" What does that mean? It sounds like something is missing.

Me: Probably "What took you so long?" ... Considering all the other horror stories from down there. [Including Bush's refusal of aid from Canada.]

Her: Right! Of course. That's it. ... You'd think so much more could be done, but maybe we don't know all of the logistics.

Me: Well, it's not like they didn't know the storm was coming.

Her (shaking head): We think of them as such a powerful country, but ...

Me (surprised, then very consciously avoiding pronouns): It wasn't a big concern. It's just a lot of misplaced priorities.

Walking out, I'm amazed at her use of that one word. Them. Not us. Not we. Them.

The United States is now one of those other countries that exist outside the place I live. Powerful and important, of course, but definitely Not Us.

Life In Canada ...

has begun.

I probably won't be updating this blog very much over the next week or two. Check out wmtc for what I/we are up to.

Goodbye, New York -- Hello, Toronto!

On Tuesday, August 30, 2005 -- 6,814 days since I moved to New York City from Burlington, Vermont -- Laura and I will drive to Mississauga, Ontario.

We will have the dogs and some essentials with us, as most of our stuff was moved out last Friday.

The next ICB post will come from a basement in Port Credit.

Yay!

Bubble Boy

Crusader Bunnypants:

Our efforts in Iraq and the broader Middle East will require more time, more sacrifice and continued resolve. ... What is important is that Iraqis are now addressing these issues through debate and discussion -- not at the barrel of a gun.

Three points:

1. "the broader Middle East"? What the hell does that mean? Iran? Syria?

2. "more sacrifice"? Most Americans are not sacrificing a damn thing -- and a clear majority are against the occupation. Asking them to do something more than slap an easily-removed magnet on the back of their cars will only increase that number.

3. "not at the barrel of a gun"? The man is flat-out delusional. Nope, no problem with violence in Iraq. No, siree! Maybe he's kept so shielded from reality -- so far into his own bubble -- that he thinks the American troops are getting rose petals tossed at them in Iraq.

Blabbermouths

Harsh words from Tom DeLay:

The President began this mission with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered questions. A month later, these questions are still unanswered. There are no clarified rules of engagement. There is no timetable. There is no legitimate definition of victory. There is no contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our overextended military. There is no explanation defining what vital national interests are at stake. There was no strategic plan for war when the President started this thing, and there still is no plan today.

Has the Bug Man had a change of heart? Nope. He uttered these words about Bill Clinton and Kosovo on April 28, 1999.

Thanks to The Strategery of Life. While trying to find the date for this quote, I found these other gems from the same time period (I guess way more than 2,000 American troops died in Kosovo, because these patriotic men have yet to get as angry and outspoken about the wasted lives and money in Iraq):

"[The President] is once again releasing American military might on a foreign country with an ill-defined objective and no exit strategy. He has yet to tell the Congress how much this operation will cost. And he has not informed our nation's armed forces about how long they will be away from home. These strikes do not make for a sound foreign policy."
Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)

"No goal, no objective, not until we have those things and a compelling case is made, then I say, back out of it, because innocent people are going to die for nothing. That's why I'm against it."
Sean Hannity, Fox News, April 5, 1999

"Well, I just think it's a bad idea. What's going to happen is they're going to be over there for 10, 15, maybe 20 years."
Joe Scarborough (R-FL)

"Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have to give up their life?"
Sean Hannity, Fox News, April 6, 1999

"Bombing a sovereign nation for ill-defined reasons with vague objectives undermines the American stature in the world. The international respect and trust for America has diminished every time we casually let the bombs fly."
Representative Tom Delay (R-TX)

"If we are going to commit American troops, we must be certain they have a clear mission, an achievable goal and an exit strategy."
Karen Hughes, speaking on behalf of presidential candidate George W. Bush

Another Reason To Love Fox News

From La Habra, California:

A couple whose home was wrongly identified on national television as belonging to an Islamic radical has faced harassment, and police are providing special protection. ...

John Loftus, a former federal prosecutor who appears on the Fox News segment "Inside Scoop with John Loftus," gave out the house address during the broadcast.

He said the home belonged to Iyad Hilal, whose group, Loftus said, has ties to those responsible for the July 7 bombings in London. But Hilal moved out of the house about three years ago. ...

Loftus also apologized and told the Los Angeles Times last week that "mistakes happen."

The FBI also notes that Hilal -- the guy who hadn't lived in the house for three fucking years -- is not suspected of any terrorist acts.

Some of the vandalism included spraypainting the word "terrist" on the house. ... Hmmm, could the culprit be this man?

More On The Public Execution Of Jean Charles de Menezes

Everything we have been told about this incident has been a lie.

From Sunday's Observer (emphasis mine):

Police officers from the team involved in the fatal shooting of Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes did not believe he posed 'an immediate threat'.

Senior sources in the Metropolitan Police have told The Observer that members of the surveillance team who followed de Menezes into Stockwell underground station in London felt that he was not about to detonate a bomb, was not armed and was not acting suspiciously. It was only when they were joined by armed officers that his threat was deemed so great that he was shot seven times.

Sources said that the surveillance officers wanted to detain de Menezes, but were told to hand over the operation to the firearms team. ...

A police source said: 'There is no way those three guys would have been on the train carriage with him [de Menezes] if they believed he was carrying a bomb. Nothing he did gave the surveillance team the impression that he was carrying a device.' ...

The Observer now understands that seconds before the firearms team entered the tube train carriage, a member of the surveillance squad using the codename Hotel 3 moved to the doorway and shouted: 'He's in here.' De Menezes, in all likelihood alarmed by the activity, stood and moved towards the doorway. He was grabbed and pushed back to his seat. The first shots were then fired while Hotel 3 was holding him. ...

For reasons as yet unclear, members of the firearms team have yet to submit their own account of the events to the IPCC. The two members of the team believed to have fired the fatal shots are known to have gone on holiday immediately after the shooting. ...

Meanwhile, questions have been raised about the accuracy of the police intelligence that led to the raid on the block of flats occupied by de Menezes. It was initially suggested that the flat was connected to the man known as Hussein Osman, who was arrested in Italy. On the Saturday after the shooting, officers raided the flat in a high-profile operation watched by the world's media. As a result, a man, identified only as 'C', was arrested 'on suspicion of the commission, instigation or preparation of acts of terrorism'. But he was released on 30 July with no charge, raising the possibility that the flats had no connection with the bombings.

Your Liberal Media At Work

Angela K. Brown, Associated Press:

CRAWFORD, Texas - A patriotic camp with a "God Bless Our President!" banner sprung up downtown Saturday, countering the anti-war demonstration started by a fallen soldier's mother two weeks ago near President Bush's ranch.

"Patriotic" versus "anti-war"? Very nice.

A poster at Mandate, My Ass notes that CNN was the only (?) media outlet to change "patriotic camp" to "pro-Bush camp."

You're Spreading Something

Bush, in his radio address today:

... we're spreading the hope of freedom across the broader Middle East.

Bush has given up on spreading actual freedom, and has now settled for merely the hope of freedom.

Next month, Bush will combat hunger in America by asking those in need of food to simply imagine a sandwich.

It all sounds a bit like when Fearless Leader downgraded the ominous threat of mushroom clouds over our citites to hand-wringing over some "weapons of mass destruction-related program activities."

The Words Of Missy Comley Beattie

Lexington Herald-Leader:

He is number 1,828, 1,829 or 1,830. We don't know for sure, because so many died last week.

Marine Lance Cpl. Chase Johnson Comley died when his vehicle was hit head on by a suicide bomber. His death admits his family to a club no one wants to join: the grieving, questioning families who have heard the dreaded ring of the doorbell followed by a messenger's words, "We regretfully inform you that your son ..."

You realize that nothing you've thought, done or felt has prepared you for this reality. The feeling is so much worse than a broken heart. It is an evisceration.

As I write, Chase is being flown to Dover Air Force Base. His 6-foot-4 body is in a coffin draped with the American flag. He loved his family, his country, his Sayre classmates and his life, but we don't think he loved his mission in Iraq. ...

For those of you who still trust the Bush administration -- and your percentage diminishes every day -- let me tell you that my nephew Chase Johnson Comley did not die to preserve your freedoms. He was not presented flowers by grateful Iraqis, welcoming him as their liberator.

He died fighting a senseless war for oil and contracts, ensuring the increased wealth of President Bush and his administration's friends.

He died long after Bush, in his testosterone-charged, theatrical, soldier-for-a-day role, announced on an aircraft carrier beneath a "Mission Accomplished" banner that major combat was over.

He died in a country erupting into civil war and turned into a hellhole by Bush, a place where democracy has no chance of prevailing, a country that will become a theocracy like Saudi Arabia. ...

Consider what the money spent on this could have done for health care, our children's education or a true humanitarian intervention in Sudan. And then think about Bush's inauguration. Picture the lavish parties, the couture gown worn by Laura Bush. And imagine the cost of the security for the event.

And then think about Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld when he visits our troops. Picture his heavily armored vehicle, a machine impregnable to almost anything the insurgents toss in its path, while our troops are not provided sufficient armor to survive an improvised explosive device. ...

For many Americans, the war is an abstraction. But it is not an abstraction for the innocent Iraqis whose lives have been devastated by our smart bombs. And it certainly is not an abstraction for those of us who have heard the words that change lives forever.

So think of my family's grief -- grief that will never end. Think of all the families. Think of the wounded, the maimed, the psychologically scarred. ...

And, finally, think about flowers: The flowers for Chase Comley will be presented not by grateful Iraqis but by loved ones honoring him as he's lowered to his grave and buried in our hearts.

He's A Bust

President Bush is a Leader who has the courage to lead. It is political courage. ... It differs from combat courage in that it is thought oriented not reaction oriented. ... By owning a bust of President Bush, Commander in Chief you will be making a statement and in a politically charged environment, it takes courage.

Only $1,995!

Government: Release Of Abu Ghraib Prison Photos Could Cause Riots

Maybe ya shoulda thought of that before you did all the torturing, raping and murdering.

Releasing pictures and videotapes of detainee abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison would aid al-Qaida recruitment, weaken Afghanistan and Iraqi governments and incite riots against US troops, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff says.

The warning by Gen. Richard B. Myers was contained in court papers filed in US District Court in Manhattan and recently unsealed. ... Myers said the release of the pictures "pose a clear and grave risk of inciting violence and riots against American troops and coalition forces." ...

He said the photographs and videos would be used in a propaganda campaign by insurgents in Afghanistan and Iraq who "use any means necessary to incite violence" against innocent civilians to undercut the US mission.

Knowing that the Pentagon has admitted that as many as 90% of the Iraqis being imprisoned and tortured are completely innocent and had been simply grabbed off the street, my irony meter just exploded.

"Shedding Unreality"

Washington Post, August 14, 2005:

The Bush administration is significantly lowering expectations of what can be achieved in Iraq, recognizing that the United States ... no longer expects to see a model new democracy, a self-supporting oil industry or a society in which the majority of people are free from serious security or economic challenges ...

"What we expected to achieve was never realistic given the timetable or what unfolded on the ground," said a senior official involved in policy since the 2003 invasion. "We are in a process of absorbing the factors of the situation we're in and shedding the unreality that dominated at the beginning."

... Many of Baghdad's 6 million people go without electricity for days in 120-degree heat. Parents fearful of kidnapping are keeping children indoors. ...

Last week was the fourth-worst week of the whole war for U.S. military deaths in combat, and August already is the worst month for deaths of members of the National Guard and Reserve. Attacks on U.S. convoys by insurgents using roadside bombs have doubled over the past year ...

George W. Bush, aboard Air Force One, June 4, 2003:

I'm the master of low expectations.

News Of The Weak

US Struggling to Get Soldiers Improved Armor

For the second time since the Iraq war began, the Pentagon is struggling to replace body armor that is failing to protect American troops from the most lethal attacks by insurgents.

The ceramic plates in vests worn by most personnel cannot withstand certain munitions the insurgents use. But more than a year after military officials initiated an effort to replace the armor with thicker, more resistant plates, tens of thousands of soldiers are still without the stronger protection because of a string of delays in the Pentagon's procurement system.

The troops still do not have proper body armor! Shouldn't someone in the self-proclaimed party of personal responsibility be, you know, like, held accountable for this massive, on-going fuck-up? ... Oh, who am I kidding ...

Bush: Iraqis 'Are Taking Control of Their Country'

As they complete a draft democratic constitution by the Aug. 15 deadline, Iraq's elected leaders are taking "a critical step on the path to Iraqi self-reliance," President Bush said today during his weekly radio address. In so doing, "Iraqis are taking control of their country," he said.

Actually, the Iraqis are taking control of their country by blowing up more and more of the invaders.

Bush refuses to rule out force against Iran

... Bush refused to rule out the use of force against Iran over the Islamic Republic's resumption of nuclear activities, in an interview with Israeli television aired Friday.

When asked if the use of force was an alternative to faltering diplomatic efforts, Bush said: "All options are on the table. The use of force is the last option for any president. You know we have used force in the recent past to secure our country," he said in a clear reference to Iraq ...

Where have we heard those words before? And Chimpy is once again using the utterly false, continually-exposed-as-a-lie connection between 9/11 and Iraq.

London bombings: the truth emerges

The suicide cell that killed 52 people on 7 July is not linked to those alleged to be behind the second London attacks on 21 July, according to the initial findings of the biggest anti-terrorist investigation held in Britain. An investigation into the four suicide bombers from the first attacks and the people alleged to be behind the July 21 plot has found no evidence of any al-Qa'ida "mastermind" or senior organiser. [my emphasis]

Arianna Huffington: It Takes a Village to Smear Cindy Sheehan

The right wing attacks on Cindy Sheehan -- desperate, pathetic, and grasping at straws -- expose much less about their target than about the attackers. ... [T]hey’ve shown absolutely no compunction about turning the sleaze machine on an undercover agent who’d spent her career working to protect us from weapons of mass destruction, a Silver Star/Purple Heart veteran who volunteered to fight in a war the administration chickenhawks gamed the system to avoid, and now the mother of a dead soldier.

9/11: Able Danger

This week:

More than a year before the Sept. 11 attacks, a small, highly classified military intelligence unit identified Mohammed Atta and three other future hijackers as likely members of a cell of Al Qaeda operating in the United States, according to a former defense intelligence official and a Republican member of Congress.

In the summer of 2000, the military team, known as Able Danger, prepared a chart that included visa photographs of the four men and recommended to the military's Special Operations Command that the information be shared with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the congressman, Representative Curt Weldon of Pennsylvania, and the former intelligence official said Monday.

The recommendation was rejected and the information was not shared ... The account is the first assertion that Mr. Atta, an Egyptian who became the lead hijacker in the plot, was identified by any American government agency as a potential threat before the Sept. 11 attacks.

See also this article in the St. Petersburg Times.

Naturally, the Commission's first thought was to deny and try to cover-up the story:

Al Felzenberg, who had been the commission's chief spokesman, said Tuesday the panel was unaware of intelligence specifically naming Atta. But subsequent information provided Wednesday confirmed that the commission had been aware of the intelligence, he said.

Oops.

However, the Times shows its ignorance (or worse) in stating that this is "the first assertion" that Atta "was identified by any American government agency as a potential threat."

According to 911truth.org:

In fact, such assertions date back to German press reports of September 2001 and October 2002, when several German newspapers reported that the CIA had Atta under observation during the first six months of 2000, while he was still living in Germany.

According to the German reports of Sept. 2001, the CIA in 2000 watched as Atta "bought chemicals" in Frankfurt and later tracked him to Berlin, where he received an entry visa from the US consulate in May 2000.

(According to official US timelines of his activities, Atta entered the United States for the first time in June 2000, although witness accounts reported in local papers after 9/11 place him in Florida months earlier.)

The more you read, it becomes increasingly apparent that Atta and many of the 19 hijackers were under surveillance by both US and foreign government agencies, both in the US and abroad. ... And the differences in timelines is also quite common. There is clear evidence, such as signed leases, of some of the hijackers living in the US months before the FBI say they arrived.

Daniel Hopsicker -- whose investigative work in Florida on the hijackers is unmatched -- writes:

The importance of this week's revelation that an Army intelligence unit was tracking Mohamed Atta's movements in the US during 1999 and 2000 is so mind-boggling that it seems nobody quite gets it yet ...

9/11 Commission spokesman Al Felzenberg on Thursday excused the Commission's decision to withhold from their Report any mention of the Army Able Danger intelligence unit in Tampa [because] information provided to them by military officers in the unit did not agree with the FBI's timeline concerning Atta's arrival in the US ...

Here's the big question nobody seems to be ready to ask: Upon what basis did the 9/11 Commission conclude that the FBI's timeline was correct and that an elite Army Intel unit was mistaken in saying they were tracking Mohamed Atta roaming freely across America during 1999 and 2000?

Don't miss Justin Raimondo.

New Airline Regulations Proposed

I would finally be able to bring my icepick with me when I fly.

CIA Commander In Tora Bora Admits US Allowed Osama Bin Laden To Escape Capture In November 2001

Newsweek:

[I]n a forthcoming book, the CIA field commander for the agency's Jawbreaker team at Tora Bora, Gary Berntsen, says he and other U.S. commanders did know that bin Laden was among the hundreds of fleeing Qaeda and Taliban members. Berntsen says he had definitive intelligence that bin Laden was holed up at Tora Bora -- intelligence operatives had tracked him -- and could have been caught. ...

[His account] backs up other recent accounts, including that of military author Sean Naylor, who calls Tora Bora a "strategic disaster" because the Pentagon refused to deploy a cordon of conventional forces to cut off escaping Qaeda and Taliban members. Maj. Todd Vician, a Defense Department spokesman, says the problem at Tora Bora "was not necessarily just the number of troops."

Bernsten's admission confirms several stories that were published back in 2002. Here are snips from three entries from the Complete 9/11 Timeline (with links to the actual articles):

November 16, 2001: Al-Qaeda, Taliban Leaders Reportedly Escape Afghanistan

According to Newsweek, approximately 600 al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters, including many senior leaders, escape Afghanistan on this day. There are two main routes out of the Tora Bora cave complex to Pakistan. The US bombed only one route, so the 600 escaped without being attacked using the other route. Hundreds continue to use the escape route for weeks, generally unbothered by US bombing or Pakistani border guards. US officials later privately admit they lost an excellent opportunity to close a trap. [Newsweek, 8/11/02 (B)] On the same day, the media reports that the US is studying routes bin Laden might use to escape Tora Bora [Los Angeles Times, 11/16/01], but the one escape route is not closed, and apparently bin Laden and others escape into Pakistan using this route several weeks later ...

November 28, 2001: Bin Laden Reportedly Escapes Tora Bora by Helicopter

A US Special Forces soldier stationed in Fayetteville, North Carolina, later (anonymously) claims that the US has bin Laden pinned in a certain Tora Bora cave on this day, but fails to act. Special Forces soldiers allegedly sit by waiting for orders and watch two helicopters fly into the area where bin Laden is believed to be, load up passengers, and fly toward Pakistan. No other soldiers have come forward to corroborate the story, but bin Laden is widely believed to have been in the Tora Bora area at the time. [Fayetteville Observer, 8/2/02] ... Newsweek separately reports that many locals "claim that mysterious black helicopters swept in, flying low over the mountains at night, and scooped up al-Qaeda's top leaders." [Newsweek, 8/11/02 (B)]

Early December 2001: Battle for Tora Bora Is Called Charade

The Daily Telegraph later reports on the battle for Tora Bora around this time: "In retrospect, and with the benefit of dozens of accounts from the participants, the battle for Tora Bora looks more like a grand charade." Eyewitnesses express shock that the US pinned in Taliban and al-Qaeda forces, thought to contain many high leaders, on three sides only, leaving the route to Pakistan open. An intelligence chief in Afghanistan's new government says, “The border with Pakistan was the key, but no one paid any attention to it. In addition, there were plenty of landing areas for helicopters had the Americans acted decisively. Al-Qaeda escaped right out from under their feet.” [Daily Telegraph, 2/23/02] ... An Afghan intelligence officer says he is astounded that Pentagon planners did not consider the most obvious exit routes and put down light US infantry to block them. It is later widely believed that bin Laden escapes along one of these routes on November 30 or December 1, walking out with about four loyal followers. [Christian Science Monitor, 3/4/02; Christian Science Monitor, 3/4/02 (B)] Al-Qaeda's number two leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, also escapes the area. [Knight Ridder, 10/20/02]

See also: November 14, 2001: Al-Qaeda Convoy Flees to Tora Bora; US Fails to Attack and Mid-November 2001: Afghan Politician Says Mohammed Atef US Policy Prevented bin Laden Capture.

This is big news, but Newsweek makes no mention of it on its cover.

Sibel Edmonds Speaks

Go buy the current issue of Vanity Fair (Jennifer Aniston cover). There is a lengthy article about Sibel Edmonds, who I have written about before. (There is also what looks like a great article on the darker side of military recruitment.)

In June, Edmonds posted this to her website (emphasis mine):

Over four years ago, more than four months prior to the September 11 terrorist attacks, in April 2001, a long-term FBI informant/asset who had been providing the bureau with information since 1990, provided two FBI agents and a translator with specific information regarding a terrorist attack being planned by Osama Bin Laden.

This asset/informant was previously a high-level intelligence officer in Iran in charge of intelligence from Afghanistan. Through his contacts in Afghanistan he received information that: 1) Osama Bin Laden was planning a major terrorist attack in the United States targeting 4-5 major cities, 2) the attack was going to involve airplanes, 3) some of the individuals in charge of carrying out this attack were already in place in the United States, 4) the attack was going to be carried out soon, in a few months.

The agents who received this information reported it to their superior, Special Agent in Charge of Counterterrorism, Thomas Frields, at the FBI Washington Field Office, by filing "302" forms, and the translator, Mr. Behrooz Sarshar, translated and documented this information. No action was taken by the Special Agent in Charge, Thomas Frields, and after 9/11 the agents and the translators were told to "keep quiet" regarding this issue.

The translator who was present during the session with the FBI informant, Mr. Behrooz Sarshar, reported this incident to Director Mueller in writing, and later to the Department of Justice Inspector General. The press reported this incident, and in fact the report in the Chicago Tribune on July 21, 2004 stated that FBI officials had confirmed that this information was received in April 2001, and further, the Chicago Tribune quoted an aide to Director Mueller that he [Mueller] was surprised that the Commission never raised this particular issue with him during the hearing.

Mr. Sarshar reported this issue to the 9/11 Commission on February 12, 2004, and provided them with specific dates, location, witness names, and the contact information for that particular Iranian asset and the two special agents who received the information. I provided the 9/11 Commission with a detailed and specific account of this issue, the names of other witnesses, and documents I had seen. Mr. Sarshar also provided the Department of Justice Inspector General with specific information regarding this case.

The 9/11 Commission ignored all of this information, and the people currently in power steadfastly refuse to admit that there were specific warnings of any kind before 9/11.

One day, we will be much closer to the truth of what happened on September 11, 2001 than we are right now -- and that will be because of patriots like Sibel Edmonds.

Happy Anniversary!

Think Progress notes that today

marks the four-year anniversary of the day President Bush received a President's Daily Brief (PDB) entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US." There are many eerie similarities between now and August 6, 2001. Chief among them is that the threat of terrorism remains high, President Bush is at his ranch in Crawford, and Osama bin Laden is on the loose looking to inflict greater terrorist damage.

Click the link for more.

The Cost Of War

Army: Soldier Just Back From Iraq Kills Wife, Self:

On Wednesday, nine days after [Stephen S.] Sherwood Sherwood returned from a tour in Iraq, he apparently shot and killed his wife before turning the gun on himself in their Fort Collins home ... The couple's 8-month-old child was in the care of a neighbor when the couple were killed ... She said Sherwood enlisted in January 2004 ... when his wife became pregnant because it was the only way he could get health insurance.

Two Iraq Veterans Commit Suicide Near Fort Hood:

Two young Fort Hood [Texas] soldiers who served in the Iraq war have killed themselves in separate incidents ... Sgt. Robert Decouteaux, 24, of Rosedale, N.Y., died Saturday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. ... And on Monday morning, Spc. Robert Hunt, 22, of Houston, was found dead in his apartment ... Hunt's cause of death was listed as asphyxiation.

Meanwhile, Chimpy McShithead enjoys his month-long vacation.

America Hates America

"As US troops endured a deadly week in Iraq, 61 percent of Americans polled say they disapprove of the way President George W. Bush is handling the war in Iraq, according to a new Newsweek poll. Thirty four percent say they approve. This is Bush's lowest rating on Iraq and the first time it has dropped below 40 percent in the Newsweek poll. ... Meanwhile, Bush’s approval ratings have dropped to 42 percent."

That 61% represents a 7% drop in the last month.

Putting Things Right

Bombs exploding all over Iraq, close to 1,800 American troops dead and thousands more maimed for life, and at least $200 billion of our tax money down the shitter.

So what is George W. Bush's latest bold plan of action (besides taking his usual August vacation -- his 50th trip to Crawford in five years)?

Renaming his War on Terror™!

That's right, it will now be known as "a global struggle against violent extremism".

Please make a note of it.

!

Powerline:

It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.

Click at your own risk.

The Execution Of Jean Charles de Menezes

Xymphora has five great posts on the public execution of Jean Charles de Menezes by the British police and the ever-changing "facts" of the story.

Yesterday, in a New York Times Op-Ed, Haim Watzman defended the shooting, saying Mr. Menezes raised suspicions by "wearing a long coat out of place on a hot summer day jumping over a turnstile and running for a crowded subway train."

However, according to the Guardian (in a story published on the same day), the Metropolitan police have admitted that Mr. Menezes "was not wearing a heavy jacket that might have concealed a bomb, and did not jump the ticket barrier when challenged by armed plainclothes police."

War Based On Lies and Unwinnable, But Not A Mistake

According to a USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup poll.

For the first time, a majority of Americans (51%) say the Bush administration lied about whether Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

A majority (58%-37%) say the United States won't be able to establish a stable, democratic government in Iraq.

About one-third (32%) say the United States can't win the war in Iraq. Another 21% say the US could win the war, but they don't think it will.

Yet, a majority (53%-46%) also believe the war was not a mistake.

Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center: "People are giving bleak assessments on the one hand, and on the other hand [they're] saying maybe it was still the right thing to do."

Of course, most supporters of the war aren't doing anything for the effort -- slapping a removable magnetic ribbon on your bumper doesn't count as a sacrifice -- so as long as the war doesn't actually hit home for them, why the hell not keep at it?

Rape, Necrophilia, Sodomy ...

Wanna know why the Bush administration is defying a court order to release additional pictures and videos shot at Abu Ghraib? The May 8, 2004 Boston Herald gives us a clue:

Signaling the worst revelations are yet to come, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said the additional photos show "acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman." [...]

The unreleased images show American soldiers beating one prisoner almost to death, apparently raping a female prisoner, acting inappropriately with a dead body, and taping Iraqi guards raping young boys, according to NBC News.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said the scandal is "going to get worse" and warned that the most "disturbing" revelations haven't yet been made public.

"The American public needs to understand, we're talking about rape and murder here," he said. "We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience; we're talking about rape and murder and some very serious charges."

Seymour Hersh added:

The women were passing messages saying "Please come and kill me, because of what's happened". ... The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling. The worst about all of them is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking.

More at Kos.

I thought the Bush Regime is proud of how its spreading democracy. The non-US world has known about these pictures and videos for more than a year. Shouldn't we see what our tax dollars are paying for?

Torture R Us

Washington Post:

The Bush administration in recent days has been lobbying to block legislation supported by Republican senators that would bar the U.S. military from engaging in "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of detainees, from hiding prisoners from the Red Cross, and from using interrogation methods not authorized by a new Army field manual.

New York Times:

Lawyers for the Defense Department are refusing to cooperate with a federal judge's order to release secret photographs and videotapes related to the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. ...

The photographs were some of thousands turned over by Specialist Joseph M. Darby, the whistle-blower who exposed the abuse at Abu Ghraib by giving investigators computer disks containing photographs and videos of prisoners being abused, sexually humiliated and threatened with growling dogs. ...

In early June, Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of Federal District Court in Manhattan ordered the release of the additional photographs, part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union to determine the extent of abuse at American military prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan and at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba ...

Bush On The Defensive, Media Still Clueless

John King, CNN, July 20, 2005:

Well, White House officials say it's ridiculous to think the president would rush a decision to do that, because however the Karl Rove case turns out, whether it damages the president long term or not, this is something that will be very influential in this president's short-term political standing over the next few months, and then his political legacy over the next quarter century or more . . . the idea that they said, 'Oh my God, we're in trouble because of Karl Rover; we need to rush this' -- I think that's a bit of a stretch.

"Supreme Court Pick Shifts Attention From Rove, Agent Disclosure," Bloomberg News, July 20, 2005:

Bush accelerated his search for a Supreme Court nominee in part because of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's name, according to Republicans familiar with administration strategy.

Bush originally had planned to announce a replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on July 26 or 27, just before his planned July 28 departure for a month-long vacation at his Crawford, Texas, ranch, said two administration officials, who spoke on the condition they not be named.

The officials said those plans changed because Rove has become a focus of Fitzgerald's interest and of news accounts about the matter.

Thanks to Billmon.

That's When I Reached For My Tinfoil

London Underground bombing 'exercises' took place at same time as real attack

A consultancy agency with government and police connections was running an exercise for an unnamed company that revolved around the London Underground being bombed at the exact same times and locations as happened in real life on the morning of July 7.

On a BBC Radio 5 interview that aired on the evening of the 7th, the host interviewed Peter Power, Managing Director of Visor Consultants, which bills itself as a 'crisis management' advice company ... Power was a former Scotland Yard official, working at one time with the Anti-Terrorist Branch.

Power told the host that at the exact same time that the London bombings were taking place, his company was running a 1,000 person strong exercise which drilled the London Underground being bombed at the exact same locations, at the exact same times, as happened in real life.

Well, this is certainly something that should be investigated.

I must note that there are factual errors in that story. The US military and NORAD were running up to half a dozen different mock hijacking drills on 9/11 at the same time the actual hijackings were taking place -- that is established fact (and one reason why the military fighter jet response was slow and/or non-existent) -- but flying planes into the WTC and Pentagon were not part of the drills.

Quite a few bloggers have been investigating Power and these claims, which I have to get caught up on.

Turd Blossom

Joseph Cannon writes:

It's impossible to follow -- or even to summarize -- all of the theories and informed speculations regarding Karl Rove, Plame-gate, and the apparent get-out-of-jail-free card handed to Bob Novak. Those following the controversy should take a look at [this].

And this and this and this. Go have fun.

Here's a scary quote from Judith Miller:

I won't testify. The risks are too great. The government is too powerful.

Fair And Balanced

Some people actually still believe that Fox is a news channel.

The Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch's Fox News channel was under fire yesterday for comments by some of its leading journalists in response to the London bombs.

Speaking about the reaction of the financial markets, Brit Hume, the channel's Washington managing editor, said: "Just on a personal basis ... I saw the futures this morning, which were really in the tank, I thought 'hmm, time to buy'."

The host of a Fox News programme, Brian Kilmeade, said the attacks had the effect of putting terrorism back on the top of the G8's agenda, in place of global warming and African aid. "I think that works to our advantage, in the western world's advantage, for people to experience something like this together, just 500 miles from where the attacks have happened."

Another Fox News host, John Gibson, said before the blasts that the International Olympic Committee "missed a golden opportunity" by not awarding the 2012 games to France. "If they had picked France instead of London to hold the Olympics, it would have been the one time we could look forward to where we didn't worry about terrorism. They'd blow up Paris, and who cares?" ...

This likely won't get much traction in the US, because the media here is too liberal.

Bonus Idiot: Rush Limbaugh, July 7:

It's like I said -- 40 people dead, 150 seriously wounded, 1,000 wounded, out of over 1 million people in that transit tube. It's not a successful terrorist attack, folks. They didn't succeed in doing anything ...

Judith Miller, Treasonous Scum

Re New York Times reporter Judith Miller being jailed for refusing to divulge her source to a grand jury investigating the Bush administration's leak of an undercover CIA operative's name:

To lump Miller with journalists who have been sent to prison while hellbent on exposing corruption is a gross perversion. Miller has been aiding and abetting war criminals for years.

Miller is the worst of the worst -- way worse than the suckups at Fox -- because her lies appeared at the top of the front page of the New York Times -- and were used by the Cheney administration as evidence to hoodwink the public into supporting their illegal invasion of Iraq. She has the blood of thousands of dead Americans and Iraqis on her hands and she belongs on trial at the Hague with Cheney, Rumsfeld, Myers, etc.

How did Miller and the Junta work together? Boiled way down, it went like this:

1. A Cheney flak (often Ahmad Chalabi) tells Miller the Lies O' The Day.

2. Miller writes up the lies and the Times publishes them above the fold.

3. Cheney goes on TV and says "Fact X" is true and points to the Times as evidence for that truth.

It worked the other way, too. Less than two weeks after Cheney delivered the first speech in which he fingered Iraq as Washington's next target, Miller wrote a front page story for the Times -- "Threats and Responses: The Iraqis; U.S. Says Hussein Intensifies Quest for A-Bomb Parts" -- mentioning the infamous "aluminum tubes."

The fact that the Times hasn't fired her for her obvious lies (the lies of Jayson Blair are about .00001% as severe) speaks volumes about how much political cover the "Paper of Record" is willing to provide for the Cheney administration.

This is a excellent source of information on Miller, with dozens of links to news coverage (pro and con) of her activities. Here are two good ones:

Slate, July 2003, "The Times Scoops That Melted: Cataloging The Wretched Reporting Of Judith Miller"

See The Forest, "Everything You Need To Know About Judith Miller, Including Nasty Gossip"

Also: In June 2003, the Washington Post reported that

Miller played a highly unusual role in an Army unit assigned to search for dangerous Iraqi weapons, according to U.S. military officials, prompting criticism that the unit was turned into what one official called a 'rogue operation.'

More than a half-dozen military officers said that Miller acted as a middleman between the Army unit with which she was embedded and Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi, on one occasion accompanying Army officers to Chalabi's headquarters, where they took custody of Saddam Hussein's son-in-law. She also sat in on the initial debriefing of the son-in-law, these sources say.

Since interrogating Iraqis was not the mission of the unit, these officials said, it became a 'Judith Miller team,' in the words of one officer close to the situation.

And when the woman referred to by many lefty bloggers as The Queen Of Iraq was asked about her erroneous WMD reports, she said:

You know what. I was proved fucking right. That's what happened. People who disagreed with me were saying, 'There she goes again.' But I was proved fucking right.

Frankly, America, I Don't Give A Damn!

Fiddle-dee-dee!

I'm An Angry, Semi-Employed, Catfood-Eating Crackpot Loser ...

... too untalented or too lazy to get a real job in journalism.

Or so Garry Trudeau seems to think.

Catapulting The Propagandists

Fox:

A contingent of conservatives talk radio hosts is headed to Iraq this month on a mission to report "the truth" about the war: American troops are winning, despite headlines to the contrary.

The "Truth Tour" has been pulled together by the conservative Web cast radio group Rightalk.com and Move America Forward, a non-profit conservative group backed by a Republican-linked public relations firm in California.

"The reason why we are doing it is we are sick and tired of seeing and hearing headlines by the mainstream media about our defeat in Iraq," Melanie Morgan, a talk radio host (search) for KSFO Radio in San Francisco and co-chair of Move America Forward, said.

If these talk show hosts haven't actually been to Iraq, how do they know the news being reported from Iraq is wrong? I mean, Fearless Leader says the US is winning -- isn't that truth enough for them?

Retired Col. Buzz Patterson, host of "The Buzz Cut" on Rightalk: "The war is being won, if not already won, I think. [Iraq] is stabilized and we want the soldiers themselves to tell the story." ... Maybe these non-mainstream media types can ride around admiring the Iraq countryside in an unarmored, convertible Hummer. Since the war has already been won, they should enjoy the scenery. And maybe a picnic of delicious turkee.

One quoted critic of the trip is Peter Beinart, who is identified as the "editor of left-leaning The New Republic magazine." ... Uh-huh.

I'll bet these people don't actually touch any piece of earth within 1,000 miles of Iraq.

Consistency

George W. Bush, Remarks to Reporters, April 4, 2002:

No nation can negotiate with terrorists. For there is no way to make peace with those whose only goal is death.

The Sunday Times of London, US 'in talks with Iraq rebels', June 26, 2005:

After weeks of delicate negotiation ... a small group of insurgent commanders apparently came face to face with four American officials seeking to establish a dialogue with the men they regard as their enemies. The talks on June 3 were followed by a second encounter 10 days later ... further talks are planned in the hope of negotiating an eventual breakthrough that might reduce the violence in Iraq

George Orwell, 1984:

There was, of course, no admission that any change had taken place. Merely it became known, with extreme suddenness and everywhere at once, that Eastasia and not Eurasia was the enemy.

Thanks to Billmon.

Down In The Dumps

Man Pulled From Women's Outhouse Tank
Teenager Reports Seeing Man's Face In Toilet

A man is facing charges after police said they pulled him from a tank under a women's toilet that was filled with human waste.

Police said that Gary Moody, 45, was under a log cabin outhouse off the Kancamagas Highway in Albany [New Hampshire]. ...

Police said that they got a call from the parents of a teenage girl who said that when she went to use the facilities, she saw Moody's face staring back at her from the hole. ...

Police said they don't know how long Moody was in the tank, but they said the door to it was locked, which means he must have gone in through the toilet. They said they don't know why he was there. ...

The Liberal Media, Once Again

Number of news segments that mentioned these stories over seven weeks (May 1, 2005 to June 20, 2005):

                    ABC  CBS  NBC  CNN  FOX  MSNBC

Downing Street Memo   0    0    6   30   10    10
Natalee Holloway     42   70   62  294  148    30
Michael Jackson     121  235  109  633  286   106

"Last Throes" = Another 12 Years

Donald Rumsfeld, June 26, 2005:

We're not going to win against the insurgency. The Iraqi people are going to win against the insurgency. That insurgency could go on for any number of years. Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years.

Donald Rumsfeld, February 7, 2003:

It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.

And one more, for laughs:

Dick Cheney, March 16, 2003:

[M]y belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. ... I think it will go relatively quickly ... weeks rather than months.

Dead Americans: 1739.

How To Behave While Invading A Foreign Country And Torturing And Killing A Shitload Of Innocent Civilians

NYT:

American troops in Iraq are getting a new list of dos and don'ts on how to behave in the war zone from their top ground commander.

At a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday, the officer, Gen. George W. Casey Jr., briefly referred to the 11 rules he had issued on wallet-size laminated cards ...

General Casey's command has ordered 170,000 of the cards and 1,000 2-feet-by-3-feet posters emblazoned with the rules, which advise the 139,000 troops in Iraq on topics including learning Iraqi customs and searching for creative solutions to knotty problems. ...

One of the rules is "Be patient. Don't rush to failure." Oh, the irony.

But what I want to know is: How thick are these cards? Perhaps the troops can scotch tape them to the sides of their vehicles for additional protection against bombs.

"Maybe I'll Enlist If There's Another 9/11"

Some quotes from young Republicans, asked in August 2004: "Would you be willing to put on the uniform and go to fight in Iraq?"

Vivian Lee, 17, Los Angeles, CA:

Frankly, I want to be a politician. I'd like to survive to see that. ... As long as there's a steady stream of volunteers, I don't see why I necessarily should volunteer.

Chris Cusmano, 21, Rocky Point, NY:

If there was a need presented, I would go.

Tiffanee Hokel, 18, Webster City, IO:

I think I could do more here. We don't have to be there physically to fight it.

Matthew Vail, 25, Huntsville, AL:

I'm in college right now, but who knows? The bug may get me after college.

This was almost one year ago. ... I wonder how many of these young people enlisted. Someone should do a follow-up.

Meanwhile, today's New York Times reports that Bush has asked the major networks to broadcast a speech he will give on Tuesday at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, NC. According to the Times, "the speech is timed to mark the first anniversary of the end of the American occupation and the transfer of power to the Iraqis."

End of the occupation? ... Transfer of power?

Did I miss something?

Do You Feel A Draft?

Pentagon Building Teen Database For Military Recruiting:

The Defense Department began working Wednesday with a private marketing firm to create a database of all U.S. college students and high school students between 16 and 18 years old, to help the military identify potential recruits in a time of dwindling enlistment in some branches. ...

The new database will include an array of personal information including birth dates, Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, grade point averages, ethnicity and what subjects the students are studying. ...

"The purpose of the system ... is to provide a single central facility within the Department of Defense to compile, process and distribute files of individuals who meet age and minimum school requirements for military service," according to the official notice of the program.

But, hey, don't worry.

The Pentagon's statements added that anyone can "opt out" of the system by providing detailed personal information that will be kept in a separate "suppression file."

Drunk Steals Plane, Flies Around NYC Area Unnoticed For 5 Hours

From today's New York Post:

In a jaw-dropping breach of post-9/11 aviation security, a drunken student pilot stole a single-engine Cessna 172 from the airport in Danbury, Conn., and flew around the metropolitan area with two pals unnoticed for five hours early yesterday, authorities said.

When the plane, short of fuel, landed safely at 4:10 a.m. on a taxiway at the Westchester County Airport, "a significant number of beer cans" clattered to the ground, said County Executive Andrew Spano. ... Patricio's blood-alcohol level was allegedly 0.15 percent. ...

Patricio wanted to fly to New Haven, but got lost, said authorities. The Federal Aviation Administration has no record of where Patricio flew, an agency spokesman said.

Reason #38,926,738,821 Why The Democrats Are Spineless, Cowardly Losers

Under fire from Republicans and some fellow Democrats, Sen. Dick Durbin apologized Tuesday for comparing American interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to Nazis and other historically infamous figures. "Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line," the Illinois Democrat said. "To them I extend my heartfelt apologies."

His voice quaking and tears welling in his eyes, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate also apologized to any soldiers who felt insulted by his remarks. ... "I made reference to Nazis, to Soviets, and other repressive regimes. Mr. President, I've come to understand that's a very poor choice of words."

And so here we have Reason #38,926,738,821 of why the Democrats are spineless, cowardly losers.

Durbin reads these horror stories from Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan and somehow corrals enough guts to speak the truth, to say flatly and without qualification that the US's whole-hearted embrace of torture, rape and murder is no different from any other despotic regime, and when a few assholes get annoyed that the truth is being spoken, rather than standing up for his comments, and trotting out more pictures and more horror stories, Durbin suddenly acts like a cowed puppy, head down, tail between his legs, submitting to the dominance of the alpha male.

And all this unfolds as more photos and videos of US-sanctioned and US-approved torture are about to be released.

Mark Morford's latest column is depressing, yes, but also cathartic:

Why are major American media not swarming all over the Downing Street Memos thing? Why is the entire nation not just appalled and disgusted and aghast at finding seemingly irrefutable proofs about what we all already knew, which is that BushCo planned to invade Iraq long before 9/11 and needed to find a way to justify it?

And, we now know, he was even willing to go so far as to rig the intelligence and "fix the facts" and screw the U.S. economy and screw any sort of exit strategy and screw the potential for lost lives and let's just blindly stomp on in there and bomb the living crap outta Saddam despite the undeniable pre-Iraq evidence that Saddam had zero WMDs and that his nuclear program was "effectively frozen," and despite how BushCo and the CIA and FBI and DOD and the Clinton administration and your grandma all knew it? ...

Answer: Because it's not really news. Not anymore. ...

Here is the American cynic's view: It is almost too late to care about the lies. It is almost pointless to scream and rant and point fingers of blame. We all know who is to blame, and it ain't Saddam, and it ain't Osama, and it ain't "terror," and it ain't our "freedoms." Bush has driven us so deep into the Iraq hellhole it serves almost no purpose to whine about the obvious deceptions and blatant whorelike pre-9/11 machinations that got us here. ...

[But] shouldn't Bush be held accountable? Shouldn't he be made to answer for these lies, these obvious abuses of power?

Answer: You're goddamn right he should. He should also be strapped to an incredibly uncomfortable chair and made to look at the smoking bones of ten thousand dead Iraqi children. But that's just me. ...

BushCo survived the illegal sanctioning of inhumane torture. They survived a gay male prostitute acting as a journalist. They survived Enron and Diebold and the rigging of the first election and they will survive Downing Street simply because all the people who should be on the attack about these atrocities all work for the guys who committed them.

A Reagan-Loving, Cheeto-Munching Clean Freak

Meet Saddam Hussein.

He also had some advice for the single GIs:

You gotta find a good woman. Not too smart, not too dumb. Not too old, not too young. One that can cook and clean.

And he hates Froot Loops. Hates.

Marines Still Forced To Buy Own Equipment

Arizona Republic:

John Tod of Mesa had been prepared to face Father's Day worrying about his son's pending date with the war in Iraq.

Then Uncle Sam stepped in with more disappointing developments.

Marine Pfc. Jeremy Tod called home with news that his superiors were urging him and fellow Marines to buy special military equipment, including flak jackets with armor plating, to enhance the prospects of their survival.

The message was that such purchases were to be made by Marines with their own money.

"He said they strongly suggested he get this equipment because when they get to Iraq they will wish they had," Tod said.

Total estimated cost: $600. ...

Besides the essential flak jacket with steel "trauma" plates, the shopping list for the young Marine included a Camelbak (water pouch) special ballistic goggles, knee and elbow pads, a "drop pouch" to hold ammunition magazines and a load-bearing vest.

It's becoming an old refrain:

December 17, 2003 - US soldiers lack best protective gear

March 16, 2004 - Army Learns Lessons On Equipping Troops

March 26, 2004 - Soldiers in Iraq still buying their own body armor

October 31, 2004 - GIs Lack Armor, Radios, Bullets

Nearly $300 billion has been earmarked for the Junta's wars and the troops still have to pony up the cash for their own protection.

Back To Lie #1 (Iraq & 9/11)

In his weekly radio address yesterday, George W. Bush claimed that the US is at war in Iraq because of the September 11, 2001 attacks:

We went to war because we were attacked, and we are at war today because there are still people out there who want to harm our country and hurt our citizens.

Too damn stupid to keep his lines (and lies) straight, Bush has reverted back to Lie #1. ... Let's review the facts (as expertly compiled and posted by LynnTheDem at Democratic Underground):

Sky News (London): "One question for you both [Blair and Bush]. Do you believe that there is a link between Saddam Hussein, a direct link, and the men who attacked on September the 11th?" ... Bush: "I can't make that claim."

Bush: No Evidence Saddam Hussein Involved in Nine-Eleven Attacks

Rice: US Never Said Saddam Was Behind 9/11

Rumsfeld Sees No Link Between Saddam Hussein, 9/11

Wolfowitz: Iraq Was Not Involved In 9-11 Terrorist Attacks, No Ties To Al-Qaeda

No Proof Links Iraq, al-Qaida, Powell Says

No evidence of Iraq-Al Qaeda ties: 9/11 commission

CIA Review Finds No Evidence Saddam Had Ties to Islamic Terrorists

Brent Scowcroft, Republican foreign policy advisor: "Don't Attack Saddam. It would undermine our antiterror efforts. There is scant evidence to tie Saddam to terrorist organizations, and even less to the Sept. 11 attacks."

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw: "What I'm asked is if I've seen any evidence of that. [Iraq links to al Qaeda] And the answer is: I haven't.”

A dossier prepared by the British Intelligence agencies MI6 and MI5 "showed no discernible links between Iraq and al-Qaida."

Richard Kerr, a former deputy CIA director who lead an internal review of the CIA's prewar intelligence: "The CIA has not found any proof of operational ties between al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein's regime."

Richard Clarke, former terrorism chief under Bush: "There's absolutely no evidence that Iraq was supporting al Qaeda, ever."

Bush's first hand-picked weapons hunter, Dr. David Kay: "[W]e simply did not find any evidence of extensive links with Al Qaeda, or for that matter any real links at all." Kay called a speech where Cheney made the claim there was a link, as being "evidence free."

Bush's second hand-picked weapons hunter, Dr. Charles Dueffler reported no WMD stockpiles in Iraq, no capability since 1991, no evidence of ties to al Qaeda, no serious threat

The White House’s own publication on Iraq, A Decade of Defiance and Deception, makes no mention of Osama bin Laden or al Qaeda.

The 2002 congressional joint intelligence committee’s report on the 9/11 attacks reported that the Bush administration had no evidence to support its claim that Iraq was supporting al-Qaeda.

According to a top secret document leaked by British intelligence officials, "there is nothing but enmity between Iraq and Al Qaeda."

Three former Bush administration officials who worked on intelligence and national security issues have stated that the prewar evidence tying al Qaeda to Iraq was tenuous, exaggerated, and often at odds with the conclusions of key intelligence agencies.

"[A]nalysts at the Central Intelligence Agency have complained that senior administration officials have exaggerated the significance of some intelligence reports about Iraq, particularly about its possible links to terrorism, in order to strengthen their political argument for war, government officials said. ... [FBI] investigators said they were baffled by the Bush administration's insistence on a solid link between Iraq and Osama bin Laden|s network. "We've been looking at this hard for more than a year and you know what, we just don't think it's there," a government official said."

The Bush administration’s claim that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had ties to al Qaeda — one of the administration’s central arguments for a pre-emptive war — appears to have been based on even less solid intelligence than the administration’s claims that Iraq had hidden stocks of chemical and biological weapons. Nearly a year after U.S. and British troops invaded Iraq, no evidence has turned up to verify allegations of Saddam’s links with al Qaeda, and several key parts of the administration’s case have either proved false or seem increasingly doubtful.

Official Verdict: White House Misled World Over Saddam-Al Qaeda Ties

Splendid

FBI Managers Admit They Didn't Seek Out Terrorism Expertise After Sept. 11

In sworn testimony that contrasts with their promises to the public, the FBI managers who crafted the post-Sept. 11 fight against terrorism say expertise about the Mideast or terrorism was not important in choosing the agents they promoted to top jobs. And they still do not believe such experience is necessary today even as terrorist acts occur across the globe. ...

Asked about his grasp of Middle Eastern culture and history, [the FBI's current terror-fighting chief, Executive Assistant Director Gary] Bald responded: "I wish that I had it. It would be nice."

Simply amazing.

60 Years Later, Reporter's Censored Stories About WWII A-Bomb Radiation Discovered

AP:

The censored stories written by an American journalist [George Weller] who sneaked into a southern Japanese city soon after it was leveled by a U.S. atomic bomb have surfaced six decades later.

They offer an unflinching account about the "wasteland of war" and its radiation-sickened inhabitants. ... By hiring a Japanese rowboat, catching trains and later posing as a U.S. Army colonel, Weller, an award-winning reporter for the now-defunct Chicago Daily News, slipped into Nagasaki in early September 1945 ...

It was about a month after the two A-bomb strikes -- the first in Hiroshima on Aug. 6, the second in Nagasaki on Aug. 9 -- that had led to Tokyo's Aug. 15, 1945, surrender ending the war. ...

Carbon copies of his stories, running to about 25,000 words on 75 typed pages, along with more than two dozen photos, were discovered by his son, Anthony, last summer at Weller's apartment in Rome, Italy ...

Weller's reports can be found on the website of the Mainichi Daily News.

An Imminent Threat Based Upon No Evidence

Back on May 1, I linked to a story about two 16-year-old girls from New York City who were arrested and imprisoned for seven weeks by Homeland Security in a maximum-security juvenile detention center in Berks County, Pennsylvania.

Yesterday, the Times had a long front-page story about one of the girls, Tashnuba Hayder.

This is an amazing paragraph:

According to a government document provided to The Times by a federal official, the F.B.I. asserted that the girls presented "an imminent threat to the security of the United States based upon evidence that they plan to be suicide bombers." The document cited no evidence. And in background interviews, federal officials were quick to play down the case as soon as reporters called ...

Arrested as an imminent threat to the security of the United States and jailed for seven weeks based upon no evidence.

Hayder discusses her ordeal at length, saying that

the government treated her like a criminal simply for exercising the freedoms of speech and religion that America had taught her.

As she tells it, F.B.I. agents tried to twist mundane details of her life to fit the profile of a terrorist recruit, and when they could not make a case, covered their tracks by getting her out of the country.

As for the other side of the story, well, who the hell knows:

Federal officials will not discuss the matter. ... It is not known what prompted the authorities to investigate Tashnuba ... a court has sealed the case record at the F.B.I.'s request and barred participants from disclosing government information. The government has declined repeated requests to present its side.

Hayder was released in May on the condition that she leave the US immediately. She is now in Bangladesh and says the experience has taught her a valuable lesson about the United States.

"I see now you have no privacy, no liberty."

Freedom Is Heavy

Reuters:

US F-16 fighter planes dropped a series of 500 lb (220 kg) bombs on insurgent targets in western Iraq overnight as the US military launched a heavy offensive against rebels near the Syrian border.

Nine of the powerful bombs were dropped, the US military said, two of them targeting suspected rebel safe houses near the town of Qaim, an insurgent stronghold on the Euphrates river about 20 km (12 miles) east of Iraq's border with Syria.

Suspected? Based on what evidence? ... What size bomb do you drop on people when you are "kinda, sorta sure" they are evildoers? Only 250 lbs.?

Was it only 25 months ago that Bush declared victory?

1,655 Americans have died since "Mission Accomplished."

Which Flight 77 Hijacker is "Mosear Caned"?

On September 14, 2001, at about 10:11 am according to this CNN transcript, the official list of the 9/11 hijackers was first announced to the world.

Leon Harris, CNN anchor: Folks, we are going to break into this press conference by the mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, because we have some breaking news. Leon Harris here at the CNN Center in Atlanta, but we're going now to Washington D.C., where our Kelli Arena is standing by. She has got some breaking news on the identities of those 18 hijackers. Kelli, take it away.

Kelli Arena, CNN correspondent: Well, Leon, we did manage -- CNN managed to grab a list of the names of the 18 suspected hijackers that is supposed to be officially released by justice sometime later today. I will do my best to read, to read the names, some are a bit unfamiliar. On American flight 11, the first name Walid Al Shehhi (ph), the second, Wellal Sheyi (ph), also known as Wahidal Sheyi. ... third name, Mohammed Atta (ph). ... Abdul Ala Mari (ph) and Setam Segani (ph), Marwanal Shehhi on the list as well. They are looking an awful lot alike here, Leon.

Marwan Al Shehhi, a UAE passport. Fayez Ahmed, Mahad Al Shari (ph), Hanza Al-Gari (ph), Amdad Al Dandi (ph). Let me stop here for a moment. We have a few more names to read. The way this is working out, there were five hijackers on two planes, four hijackers on two others. We are told by law enforcement sources that most of these names in some way connect in some way to indirectly or directly to Osama bin Laden.

Continuing on, united Airlines flight number 93, Almad Alhanawi (ph), Almed Alnami (ph), Ziad Girad (ph) and Sayd Algamdi (ph). American Airlines flight number 77. Cammid Al-Madar, and Mosear Caned (ph), Majar Mokhed (ph), Nawar Al Hazni (ph) and Salem Al Hazni (ph). ... Again, this list not officially released yet by the Justice Department. We obtained this list of name through sources -- Leon.

First of all, Arena's list has 19 names, not 18. And within about four hours, the FBI did release its official list of 19 hijackers. The phoentic spellings in the CNN transcript are a bit rough -- but they do match what the FBI released

Flight 11
CNN               FBI
Walid Al Shehhi   Waleed M. Alshehri 
Wellal Sheyi      Wail Alshehri 
Mohammed Atta     Mohamed Atta 
Abdul Ala Mari    Abdulaziz Alomari 
Setam Segani      Satam Al Suqami

Flight 175
CNN               FBI
Marwan Al Shehhi  Marwan Al-Shehhi 
Fayez Ahmed       Fayez Ahmed 
Mahad Al Shari    Mohald Alshehri 
Hanza Al-Gari     Hamza Alghamdi 
Amdad Al Dandi    Ahmed Alghamdi 

Flight 93
CNN               FBI
Almad Alhanawi    Ahmed Alhaznawi 
Almed Alnami      Ahmed Alnami 
Ziad Girad        Ziad Jarrahi 
Sayd Algamdi      Saeed Alghamdi 

Flight 77
CNN               FBI
Cammid Al-Madar   Khalid Al-Midhar
Majar Mokhed      Majed Moqed 
Nawar Al Hazni    Nawaq Alhamzi 
Salem Al Hazni    Salem Alhamzi 
Mosear Caned      Hani Hanjour

-- with one glaring exception. "Mosear Caned" does not sound anything like "Hani Hanjour." ... So who was "Mosear Caned" and why was he dropped from the first list and replaced by Hanjour?

Part of the Hanjour problem is that almost every single report describes him as about as bad a pilot as you could possibly imagine, and considering the way Flight 77 hit the Pentagon (twisting through a rapid descent and leveling out about 20 feet off the ground), it's impossible that a pilot of Hanjour's limited skills could have done it.

More manifest questions: Initial FBI reports state that the names of two Florida men -- Adnan Bukhari and Ameer Bukhari -- were on the manifests of either Flight 11 and/or 175. When it raided some Florida homes on September 12, the FBI learned that one of the Bukhari brothers was alive (he was held, questioned and released) and the other one had died exactly one year earlier.

However, those two names do not appear on any version of the released manifests. So if the Bukharis were on the actual manifests (perhaps being used by two hijackers as aliases), then how did the FBI know who was using the fake names? And how did they get their names and pictures to release on 9/14?

Also, in the days following the attacks, before the official lists were released, John Ashcroft stated there were somewhere between 12 and 24 hijackers. What names on the announced manifests had been thought of as possible terrorists? And why were they ruled out as terrorists?

Further, it's possible that as many as 10 of the 19 hijackers are still alive. Many came forward in the weeks after the attacks after seeing their pictures splashed across TV screens and newspapers around the world.

In the face of this evidence, however, the FBI never changed its initial list -- indeed, it maintains that the list is still 100% correct -- and the 9/11 Commission continued this fiction by never mentioning the fact of the "still-alive" hijackers.

We have absolutely no idea who was on any of those four planes. We cannot trust what the Bush administration has told us. Neither airline has ever released a complete list of passengers -- and if such a list was produced now, it would be extremely suspect.

Undeniable Iraq Lies

Michael Smith, in Britain's Sunday Times:

Ministers were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal.

The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier.

The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of BlairÂ’s inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was "necessary to create the conditions" which would make it legal.

This was required because, even if ministers decided Britain should not take part in an invasion, the American military would be using British bases. This would automatically make Britain complicit in any illegal US action.

The text of the briefing paper is here.

Eric Margolis lays it out as plain as day, in today's Toronto Sun:

In July 2002, the head of MI-6, Britain's secret intelligence service, briefed Prime Minister Tony Blair and his cabinet on U.S. plans to attack Iraq.

Sir Richard Dearlove ("M" to James Bond fans) reported that U.S. President George Bush had decided to invade oil-rich Iraq in March 2003, in a war "to be justified by the conjunction of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. The intelligence and facts are being fixed around the policy."

Translation: The U.S. and British governments would concoct charges against Iraq to justify war.

After Britain's attorney general warned that unprovoked invasion of Iraq would violate international law, Dearlove opined with oily cynicism, "If the political context were right, people would support regime change." Translation: Use propaganda and scare tactics to whip up war fever.

British and U.S. intelligence agencies were ordered to produce "evidence" to justify a war. In the U.S., faked "evidence" and grotesque lies were fed to the frightened public by pro-war neo-conservatives and frenzied national media. The U.S. Congress clapped for war like trained seals.

In October 2002, Bush actually claimed in a national speech that Iraqi "drone" aircraft were poised to shower germs and poison gas on America. Vice-President Dick Cheney insisted this absurd allegation was the "smoking gun" that justified invading Iraq. Blair ordered his cabinet to support the invasion. ...

And so it went. Lie after lie. Scare upon scare. Fakery after fakery, trumpeted by the tame media that came to resemble the lickspittle press of the old Soviet Union. Ironically, in the end, horrid Saddam Hussein turned out to be telling the truth all along, while Bush and Blair were not.

Here's an excellent recap of events. ... NBC News reports there are seven such memos. While Bush and Blair have both huffed and puffed about what these minutes say, neither of them have questioned their authenticity.

It would be nice if the American media remembered that in 2002, the Bush administration moved $700,000,000 from the war in Afghanistan to preparation for an Iraq invasion.

But seriously, what else is needed -- what more could possible be necessary -- to put the entire Bush and Blair administrations in shackles and try them for war crimes?

I'd also like to see every elected official in Washington -- Democrat and Republican -- who supported this treasonous gang of murderers forced to resign. Every single member of the mainstream media who continues to ignore these truths and offer lame excuses (or thinks we should obsess on Michael Jackson or another white runaway bride) should know that they have the blood of tens thousands and thousands of men, women and children -- including more than 1,700 dead Americans -- on their hands.

Hard Work

Cindy Sheehan is furious at George W. Bush for saying it's "hard work" comforting those who have had family members killed in Iraq.

Hard work is seeing your son's murder on CNN one Sunday evening while you're enjoying the last supper you'll ever truly enjoy again.

Hard work is having three military officers come to your house a few hours later to confirm the aforementioned murder of your son, your first-born, your kind and gentle sweet baby.

Hard work is burying your child 46 days before his 25th birthday.

Hard work is holding your other three children as they lower the body of their big [brother] into the ground.

Hard work is not jumping in the grave with him and having the earth cover you both. ...

We're watching you very carefully and we're going to do everything in our power to have you impeached for misleading the American people.

Beating a political stake in your black heart will be the fulfillment of my life ...

Yet They Get Upset When We Call Them Nazis

From 365gay.com:

Christian Coalition: Gays Should Wear Warning Labels

The leader of a conservative Christian lobby group suggests that gays should be required to wear warning labels.

"We put warning labels on cigarette packs because we know that smoking takes one to two years off the average life span, yet we 'celebrate' a lifestyle that we know spreads every kind of sexually transmitted disease and takes at least 20 years off the average life span according to the 2005 issue of the revered scientific journal Psychological Reports," said Rev. Bill Banuchi, executive director of the New York Christian Coalition.

Maybe something like this:

Spot the Liar

May 30, 2005

"I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."
Dick Cheney, CNN

Last week

"I think the more accurate way to approach this right now is to concede that ... this insurgency is not going to be settled, the terrorists and the terrorism in Iraq is not going to be settled, through military options or military operations."
Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq

CIA Allowed Two 9/11 Hijackers To Enter US

Los Angeles Times, June 10, 2005:

A chilling new detail of U.S. intelligence failures emerged Thursday, when the Justice Department disclosed that about 20 months before the Sept. 11 attacks, a CIA official had blocked a memo intended to alert the FBI that two known Al Qaeda operatives [9/11 hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar] had entered the country. ...

If the FBI had received the official communique from the CIA's special Osama bin Laden unit when it was ready for transmittal in January 2000, its agents likely could have tracked down the men, according to U.S. intelligence officials familiar with a newly declassified report of the Justice Department's inspector general. ...

One of the well-known missed opportunities was the fact that Almihdhar and Alhazmi had rented a room in the Lemon Grove home of a well-established local FBI informant [Abdussattar Shaikh]. ...

Yup, two of the future terrorists had an FBI informant as a landlord!

Slick

Of course, you had to read a non-US newspaper to get this story ('cuz our media's so gosh-durn liberal and all):

George Bush's decision not to sign the United States up to the Kyoto global warming treaty was partly a result of pressure from ExxonMobil, the world's most powerful oil company, and other industries, according to US State Department papers seen by the Guardian.

The documents, which emerged as Tony Blair visited the White House for discussions on climate change before next month's G8 meeting, reinforce widely-held suspicions of how close the company is to the administration and its role in helping to formulate US policy.

In briefing papers given before meetings to the US under-secretary of state, Paula Dobriansky, between 2001 and 2004, the administration is found thanking Exxon executives for the company's "active involvement" in helping to determine climate change policy, and also seeking its advice on what climate change policies the company might find acceptable. ...

Until now Exxon has publicly maintained that it had no involvement in the US government's rejection of Kyoto. But the documents, obtained by Greenpeace under US freedom of information legislation, suggest this is not the case.

Not Necessarily The News

Richmond Times-Dispatch:

The U.S. Special Operations Command has hired three firms to produce newspaper stories, television broadcasts and Web sites to spread American propaganda overseas.

The Tampa-based military headquarters, which oversees commandos and psychological warfare, may spend up to $100 million for the media campaign in the next five years. ...

The contract calls for the firms to produce print articles, video and audio broadcasts, Internet sites and novelty items, like T-shirts and bumper stickers, for foreign audiences. Video products will include newscasts, hour-long TV shows and commercials.

As George Bush said recently: "See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."

Federal law prohibits sending propaganda to Americans ...

Well, alright then.

Another Nail In The Coffin

AP:

The Republican chairman walked off with the gavel, leaving Democrats shouting into turned-off microphones at a raucous hearing Friday on the Patriot Act.

The House Judiciary Committee hearing, with the two sides accusing each other of being irresponsible and undemocratic, came as President Bush was urging Congress to renew those sections of the post-Sept. 11 counterterrorism law set to expire in September.

Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the panel, abruptly gaveled the meeting to an end and walked out, followed by other Republicans. ...

As Americablog puts it:

The House Republicans just shut down the Patriot Act hearings while the Democrats were still talking. It was absolutely amazing. Then they shut the mics off on the Dems. Even more amazing is that the House Republicans have the nerve to do this during a hearing on, what?, the Patriot Act! A hearing about our concerns about shutting down free speech and civil rights and the Constitution. So what do they do, they simply shut down open debate in the US Congress. Horrifying.

Video links. Amazing stuff, as Sensenbrenner, clearly unhappy with the entire premise of democracy and honest debate, simply grabs his marbles and runs off, like a petulant 6-year-old.

Another Army Kidnapping

I posted about the Army apparently kidnapping Ever Jandres, a 24-year-old learning-disabled epileptic, here. Here's another case, from today's Seattle Post-Intelligener:

Marine recruiters began a relentless barrage of calls to Axel [cobb] as soon as the mellow, compliant Sedro-Woolley High School grad had cut his 17th birthday cake. And soon it was nearly impossible to get the seekers of a few good men off the line. ...

[When Alex's mother] went to Seattle for the Folklife Festival and Axel was home alone, two recruiters showed up at the door. ... The sergeant was friendly but, at the same time, aggressively insistent. This time, when Axel said, "Not interested," the sarge turned surly, snapping, "You're making a big [bleeping] mistake!"

Next thing Axel knew, the same sergeant and another recruiter showed up at the LaConner Brewing Co., the restaurant where Axel works. And before Axel, an older cousin and other co-workers knew or understood what was happening, Axel was whisked away in a car.

Even after reducing its recruiting goals for May, the Army came up about 25% short, the fourth consecutive monthly shortfall in the number of new recruits. .. Is this how they are making up some of that shortfall?