MAY 2003 ARCHIVE
MAY 2003 ARCHIVE
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It Was the Lying, Right? Clinton, Bush and Impeachment By DAVE LINDORFF May 31, 2003 Everyone agreed that it was not the sex. It was the lying, right? If having extramarital sex in the White House were an impeachable offense, the impeachment of presidents would long ago have become a routine affair. We'd have seen Roosevelt, Ike, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Bush the Elder in the dock for sure, and maybe Ron, too. But everyone agreed it wasn't the sex that got President Clinton in trouble. It was the lying. The audacious bending of the meaning of the word is and the word sex. Right? But has lying ever been practiced so blatantly as it is being practiced today in the White House Big Fish Being Wiped Out, Study Warns Independent Media Center May 26, 2003 Industrial fishing fleets have scoured the world's oceans for the past five decades. A bombshell report released earlier this month by the journal Nature suggests results are worse than anyone expected: big fish populations have plummeted across-the-board by at least 90% since 1950. From the tropics to the poles, cod, halibut, flounder, blue marlins, sailfish, swordfish, dolphins and sharks are being wiped out. "We have forgotten what we used to have," says Jeremy Jackson of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. "We had oceans full of heroic fish--literally sea monsters. People used to harpoon three-meter long swordfish in rowboats. Hemingway's Old Man and the Sea was for real." Well Connected Web Site Center for Public Integrity May 23, 2003 The three largest local phone companies control 83 percent of home telephone lines. The top two long distance carriers control 67 percent of that market. The four biggest cellular phone companies have 64 percent of the wireless market. The five largest cable companies pipe programming to 74 percent of the cable subscribers nationwide. Those findings come from the Center for Public Integrity’s unprecedented examination of the telecommunications industry, the centerpiece of which is a first-of-its-kind, 65,000 record, searchable database containing ownership information on virtually every radio station, television station, cable television system and telephone company in America. Curious about who owns your local media, telephone and cable company? This searchable database contains basic information on every radio and television station in America as well as every cable television system and telephone company. You may search by company, by call sign or by area. Searchers will find basic information on some of the most important telecommunication companies, including a brief corporate profile and basic financial information. Questionable priorities Defense Bill Deploys ABM System Global Security Newswire May 23, 2003 Both ( House and Senate) bills approved the administration’s $9.1 billion request for missile defense programs, including authorization of the White House request for an initial deployment of the national missile defense system by October 2004. Although the system is still under development and has not yet been proven through operational testing, as major systems normally are before deployment, the administration is planning to deploy an initial element, consisting in part of 10 land-based interceptors by October 2004 and 10 more the following year, as well as 20 sea-based interceptors. Both Houses also passed Democrat-sponsored amendments requiring the setting of performance criteria for developing missile defense systems that will be evaluated through operational testing. “Currently, none of the missile defense programs under development, under the Missile Defense Agency, have established performance criteria, meaning essentially there are no standards for when a system reaches any particular milestone or has completed its development. These standards did exist under the Clinton administration but were removed by the current administration,” said Senator Jack Reed (D-R.I.). Memorial Day & Candor In Journalism Bill Moyers, Commentary NOW May 23, 2003 EXCERPT I can only speak for myself, of course. And I confess to thinking of journalism as the social equivalent to a medical diagnosis. My doctor owes me candor; I pay him for it. Candor could save my life. I like to think journalists are paid for candor, too; society needs to know what could kill us, whether it's too many lies or too much pollution. Think of journalism as a kind of early warning system — iceberg spotting in the choppy waters of democracy. But there's another reason for what we do. I'm reminded of it every year at this time, when my thoughts about the honor and respect we pay to our nation's soldiers on Memorial Day are colored by its proximity to D-Day. Every Memorial Day I think about what these men did and what we owe them. They didn't go through hell so Kenny Boy Lay could betray his investors and workers at Enron, or for a political system built on legal bribery. It wasn't for corporate tax havens in Bermuda, or an economic system driven by the law of the jungle, or so a handful of media buccaneers could turn the public airwaves into private sewers. Sure, to paraphase Donald Rumsfeld, freedom makes it possible for people to be crooks, but so does communism, and fascism, and monarchy. Democracy is about doing better. It's about fairness, justice, human rights, and yes, it's about equality, too; look it up. I was never called on to do what soldiers do; I'll never know if I might have had their courage. But a journalist can help keep the record straight, on their behalf. They thought democracy was worth fighting for, even dying for. The least we can do is to help make democracy worthy of them. FCC Threatens Media Democracy! Citizen Works May 22, 2003 The Federal Communications Commission is threatening to overhaul the rules that govern ownership of newspapers, television and radio stations. FCC Chair Michael Powell has said repeatedly that the rules are outdated (because of the Internet) and should be changed. But what he doesn't admit is that the easing of ownership restrictions will leave a few giant media companies in control of what most people see, read and hear. Tax Bill Gimmickery-No Wonder Bush Loves It by Robert Greenstein, Richard Kogan, and Joel Friedman Center on Budget and Policy Priorities May 22, 2003 -True Cost Likely to be $800 Billion or More -More Lavish Benefits for High-income Families and Stingier Benefits for Lower-income Working Families -Likely to Lead to More Tax Sheltering The Thin Green Line By Mark Hertsgaard AlterNet May 22, 2003 EXCERPT Frank Luntz, a Republican political strategist...in a memo leaked earlier this year to the New York Times, called the environment "the single biggest vulnerability for the Republicans and especially for George Bush." It's not hard to see why. The environment has become a mom-and-apple-pie issue in America, and Republicans are on the wrong side of it. According to a Gallup poll released in April, 61 percent of Americans say they are either active participants in or sympathizers with the environmental movement. Eighty percent favor stricter emissions standards for business. Only seven percent endorse the Bush-Cheney view that government is regulating too much. US Senate Repeals Low Yield Nuclear Weapon Research Ban VOA News May 21, 2003 EXCERPT The U.S. Senate has repealed a decade-old ban on research into low-yield tactical nuclear weapons, while requiring President Bush to get congressional approval before producing them. The Bush administration says it wants to research and develop smaller nuclear weapons of five kilotons or less. Critics charge that lifting the ban will encourage other countries to pursue nuclear weapons with far greater destructive force. Tuesday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld rejected the criticism, saying the Pentagon only wants to research new nuclear weapons that could destroy chemical and biological weapons buried deep underground. The House of Representatives is set to debate a similar measure Wednesday, as it prepares its version of the 2004 spending bill. TV Shows Cut by Half after Media Mergers Chirldren Now May 21, 2003 As the Federal Communications Commission prepares to announce sweeping changes to regulations governing how many media outlets a single company can own, a new study shows a dramatic decrease in children's TV programming following a rise in media consolidation. The Green Party Dilemma The Green Party Dilemma By Kirstin Marr and Robert Miranda, Green Party AlterNet May 21, 2003 EXCERPT The Green Party is moving beyond the simplistic debate over whether or not we are a hindrance to the progressive movement in this country. Indeed, the Greens stand in the way of a two party system that has given its soul to Corporate America. The Greens are proceeding onward, and in doing so continue to be the fastest growing political third party in the United States. The Greens are a political party with a vision and mission that is unambiguous. We say we are free to disagree and because we do, we intend to challenge a two party system that sells our government to the highest bidder year after year. We grow our party for the purpose of building a progressive movement designed to reclaim our democracy. We are progressive citizens committed to cleaning out special interest money from our elected officials, building a grassroots democracy, fostering global responsibility and peace, and promoting sustainable economics. Rupert Murdoch's Digital Death Star By Jeffrey Chester AlterNet May 20, 2003 Even as Michael Powell and the GOP sweep away long-standing media ownership safeguards, media mogul Rupert Murdoch is mobilizing to further expand his TV empire beyond broadcast and cable. His plans to acquire the key direct broadcast satellite service (DBS) – DirecTV – will allow Murdoch to advance his conservative political agenda, creating new channels and services that disseminate the rightwing ideology now espoused by Fox News. WorldCom Fined, Then Awarded Lucrative Federal Contract Citizen Works May 20, 2003 Why did the federal government give WorldCom/MCI a contract to rebuild Iraq’s wireless network the same day that it announced the largest penalty yet assessed on any single company involved in the recent corporate crime wave? For that matter, why is a company that committed the biggest accounting fraud in history not simply barred from receiving government contracts and FCC licenses? Tax Package a "Jobs Bill" Mark Shields Independent Columnist May 17, 2003 EXCERPT Bush prefers to call his tax cut a "jobs bill." That is what the president's men called the $1.3 trillion Bush tax cut of 2001. In fact, just a year ago, the White House announced that that "tax cut will help create 800,000 jobs by the end of 2002." That did not, you may have noticed, work out. The U.S. economy, which has lost 500,000 jobs in the last three months alone, has, according to one study, lost 563 jobs every hour of every working day since George W. Bush became president. Live Sicker, Die Younger By Julie Winokur, AlterNet May 15, 2003 According to the Institute of Medicine, some 18,000 people die prematurely every year as a result of being uninsured. If that isn't an epidemic, then what is? That's like having six September 11ths every year. It makes a mockery of our preoccupation with bio-terrorism and small pox vaccines. While we direct inordinate resources toward a potential threat, we are allowing real people to die real deaths every day on the home front. As if this weren't dire enough, now even the future of our existing subsidized programs is in jeopardy. Nearly every state has announced plans to trim Medicaid, potentially leaving millions more without any coverage in the coming year. Republicanism in Texas Putting the Legislature out of our misery Molly Ivins May 15, 2003 The creepy thing about the far-right Republicans, who are definitely in the majority in the House, is not that they are dismantling government because they won't raise taxes -- they're dismantling government because they think it shouldn't help people. They really think that health and human services should not be provided. It's an old line among liberals that anti-choice people care more about the unborn than they do about the born, but I'm telling you that it's not just some clever line -- these people are writing it into the state budget. Bush Consolidates Right Wing Judiciary Morning Edition, NPR May 12, 2003 Audio Link NPR's Debbie Elliott profiles Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor, another controversial court of appeals nominee coming from the White House. Civil rights groups say the conservative Pryor -- a champion of state's rights -- is a threat to some of the basic rights that federal courts have historically protected. NY Times
"Blair Problem" symptomatic of careless, slovenly journalistic
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Weapons of Mass Destruction: Who Said What When May 29, 2003 CounterPunch Wire How Significant are the Administration's Proposed Increases in Foreign Development Aid? Paper [PDF], 11pp. Center on Budget and Policy Priorities May 27, 2003 EXCERPT The Bush foreign aid budget represents progress but expected increases would fall well short of what was advertised, aid would remain below levels from 1946-1996, and the U.S. would continue to rank last among donor nations in aid as a share of GDP. Same Old Shellgame What Sharon Wants, Sharon Gets By KATHLEEN CHRISTISON CounterPunch May 26, 2003 EXCERPT Few (in the media) note that Ariel Sharon has long spoken of accepting a so-called Palestinian "state," but a state so truncated (encompassing only about 40 percent of the West Bank in multiple small disconnected segments, including none of Jerusalem, and completely surrounded by Israeli territory) that it would be a travesty of commonly accepted notions of independence and sovereignty. There is nothing in the Israeli cabinet decision or in Sharon's personal "commitment" to the roadmap to indicate that his destructive view of Palestinian nationhood and the right to statehood has changed. Essentially, Sharon has maneuvered a compliant United States into a situation in which he has carte blanche to do whatever he wants with the roadmap. The U.S. has all it needs from him in the form of a pro forma acceptance of its peace plan, and it will now accommodate him completely, because in the end the primary US interest, among Bush administration policymakers, in Congress, among most of the media, and among the uncaring public, lies less in forging a genuine (that is, a just and therefore a stable) peace between Israel and the Palestinians than simply in enabling and guaranteeing whatever the government of Israel wants. Minister Without Portfolio By John B. Judis The American Prospect May 2003 EXCERPT An exposé of Bush administration methods using defense industry associates to build a "Coalition of the Willing" through bribery and extortion. It explains the role and influence of non-government neoconservative operatives such as Bruce Jackson and Randy Scheunemann. "Whatever one thinks of NATO expansion and the war in Iraq, it should be clear that something is very wrong here. NATO expansion is not necessarily a bad thing. And some countries may have wanted to endorse the American invasion of Iraq. But the Bush administration shouldn't be holding entry into NATO hostage to support for its war in Iraq, or trying to gull the public about the size of its "Coalition of the Willing." Even worse, it shouldn't be getting a private citizen -- with no accountability to the public, the Congress or even the administration itself -- to do its dirty work. Will it take the Bush administration's equivalent of the Iran-Contra scandal to stop these kinds of practices?" Who Benefits? Lifting the Sanctions on Iraq By STANDARD SCHAEFER CounterPunch May 23, 2003 EXTRACT 1) Smugglers (under the sanction regime) will simply become legitimate mercantilists. This means that the profits from Iraqi products will continue to flow out of Iraq, not back into the domestic economy. 2) Various holders of the $400 billion dollar Iraqi debt and to 3) Rebuilders of the infrastructure, such as Bechtel and Halliburton. It is a time to change the way underdeveloped nations are treated. As much debt as possible should be forgiven. Not all. Russia, for example, is owed $4 billion and needs it to pay its debts. France, who certainly the US does not mind slighting, should as Soros says, lose their investment, as should Citibank and all the US corporations who used fronts and intermediaries to get around sanctions. Companies like RJ Reynolds, who illegally sold billions of dollars of cigarettes in Iraq through intermediaries, should be tried for tax evasion, if not treason, and forced to pay a huge fine, equal to at least the amount of lost tax revenue. This money could go to the UN fund for Iraq. The UN should help guide the Iraqi economy toward a post-oil economy and set up a tariff regulation advisory board to protect fledgling Iraqi industries such as agriculture. Money spent to build infrastructure should not only to restoring airports and harbors, but to schools and educational equipment, to building Iraqi state-owned pharmaceutical factories, to modernizing existing equipment. Land reform will be needed. Everything should be done to keep the mercantile class (former smugglers) from repatriating their money abroad. This may well involve a little wealth redistribution. Blix suspects Iraq may not have WMD TheStraitsTimes May 23, 2003 BERLIN -- The chief United Nations weapons inspector said he was starting to suspect Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, and that his teams remain ready to help in the country if required, a newspaper reported on Friday. 'I am beginning to suspect there possibly were none,' Dr Hans Blix said in an interview with the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel. If that were the case, he said, Iraq's evasive behaviour in recent years could be due to Saddam Hussein's fixation with Iraqi honour and wish to dictate the conditions under which people could enter the country. Bush Administration Ignores International Criminal Court Milosevic in The Hague Gary J. Bass From Foreign Affairs May/June 2003 EXTRACT As the most important moment for international justice since the trial of Adolf Eichmann in 1961, Milosevic's trial is a possible watershed. Charged with committing genocide and crimes against humanity in Bosnia and crimes against humanity in Kosovo and Croatia, he is the first former head of state to land in the dock of an international war crimes tribunal. The trial's success or failure will therefore shape all future efforts at punishing the world's bloodiest war criminals... The Bush administration, desperate to avoid giving encouragement to the ICC, has essentially ignored the trial rather than seize the opportunity it affords to remind Muslims worldwide of how U.S. power was used, albeit belatedly, to save Muslim lives in the former Yugoslavia. But those who see the Milosevic case primarily in terms of its role in the progressive evolution of an international legal order -- whether supportive human rights lawyers or nervous sovereignty-minded American officials -- are missing the point. The tribunal's most important impact will be not in the legal sphere but in the political one. Success will be measured by how much the enterprise helps sideline dangerous leaders, shame perpetrators and bystanders, and soothe victims. The ultimate objective -- which is still in doubt -- is less to create some dazzling supranational legal precedent than to demonstrate that administering justice can contribute to reconciliation and moderation, in the Balkans and, by extension, elsewhere as well. Bush 'is on Brink of Catastrophe' by Roland Watson in Washington Common Dreams May 23, 2003 The most senior Republican authority on foreign relations in Congress has warned President Bush that the United States is on the brink of catastrophe in Iraq. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that Washington was in danger of creating “an incubator for terrorist cells and activity” unless it increased the scope and cost of its reconstruction efforts. He said that more troops, billions more dollars and a longer commitment were needed if the US were not to throw away the peace. UN Resolution on Iraq BBC News 22 May, 2003 EXTRACT -US and UK to maintain most of the power -Occupying forces to remain till new government formed -Situation to be reviewed within a year -UN to appoint special representative to help form new government -Sanctions to be lifted, though arms embargo will stay -Russian and French companies will be able to complete lucrative contracts -Return of UN weapons inspectors to be considered -$1bn Iraq Development Fund to be launched This resolution gives official blessing to a new era, an era of what the American right like to believe is the "benevolent hegemony" of the United States in Iraq, and maybe around the world. Making Peace at the UN The Economist May 22, 2003 "The United Nations’ Security Council is set to approve an American-backed resolution lifting sanctions against Iraq. After several rewrites, the American-sponsored draft will be put to a vote by the 15-member council on Thursday May 22nd." "France, Germany and Russia, the three countries that led opposition to the war, have said they will vote for the resolution, even though it does not go as far as they would like." "...it is clear that America and Britain intend to remain firmly in control of Iraq, and its vast reserves of oil, and will hand over power to no other body than a democratically elected Iraqi government, whenever that appears." "Political Intelligence" Prewar Views of Iraq Threat Are Under Review by C.I.A. New York Times By JAMES RISEN May 21, 2003 EXCERPTS The Central Intelligence Agency has begun a review to try to determine whether the American intelligence community erred in its prewar assessments of Saddam Hussein's government and Iraq's weapons programs, several officials say. The previously undisclosed C.I.A. review was initially prompted by a request last October from Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld to Mr. Tenet, a senior intelligence official said Monday.Intelligence officials said that several C.I.A. analysts had quietly complained that senior Defense Department officials and other Bush administration officials sought to press them to produce reports that supported the administration's positions on Iraq. In addition, several current and former C.I.A. officers who have been upset about what they believe has been the politicization of intelligence concerning Iraq were the first to disclose the existence of the new C.I.A. review. The team plans to compare (previously classified intelligence) reports with what has actually been discovered in Iraq since the war ended. American Rule, Not Democracy In Iraq's Future by Jacob Levich The Albion Monitor May 21, 2003 EXCERPTS One month after the fall of Baghdad, the U.S. has successfully liberated the people of Iraq from meaningful involvement in decisions about their own future. A designer regime, concocted behind closed doors by Pentagon and State Department planners, is now being imposed on Iraq with great speed and without any kind of popular consent. Iraq's nascent "democratic transition government" is window-dressing for a military dictatorship charged with insuring that U.S. policy goals -- especially the disposition of Iraq's vast petroleum reserves -- are protected from any troublesome outbreaks of democracy. The existence of a bribery program is not openly acknowledged, but can be inferred from leaks surrounding the April 10 assassination of U.S.-sponsored Shiite cleric Abdul Majid al Khoei in Najaf. Shortly after his death, U.S. intelligence sources revealed that Khoei had been provided with $13 million to buy the loyalty of Shiite leaders. Um, Folks, This Doesn't Look Like Victory By Molly Ivins AlterNet May 22, 2003 Much as I hate to interrupt what is apparently a deeply felt triumphalism on the American right, now that it's over, does anyone see any reason for our having invaded Iraq? I realize that's what we all kept trying to figure out before the invasion, but don't you think it should at least be visible in hindsight? Good thing we won the war, because the peace sure looks like a quagmire. The other day, we announced we were going to shoot looters, and when that produced nightmare scenarios of children dead for stealing bread, we had to cancel that plan. Now we're going to try gun control – that should have the enthusiastic support of the NRA. A White House Fluent In Language Of Fanatics May 21, 2003 Arianna Huffington Online The defining trait of the fanatic -- be it a Marxist, a fascist, or, gulp, a Wolfowitz -- is the utter refusal to allow anything as piddling as evidence to get in the way of an unshakable belief. Bush and his fellow fanatics are the political equivalent of those yogis who can hold their breath and go without air for hours. Such is their mental control, they can go without truth for, well, years. Because, in their minds, they're always right. Evidence builds that there's still not enough troops in Iraq to win the peace Bush shakes up Iraq team BBC News May 11, 2003 Excerpt "The United States administrator for Baghdad, Barbara Bodine, is returning to Washington amid criticism that vital services are not being restored quickly enough. he expected departure on Sunday of Ms Bodine - who was in effect Baghdad's post-war mayor - is seen as part of a more general shake up of President George Bush's post-war Iraq team. Last week Paul Bremer, a former terrorism expert, was appointed overall administrator for Iraq - a move which demotes the current head, retired general Jay Garner." Iraqis have become increasingly frustrated that their lives remain in chaos after one month has passed since regime removed... US seeks absolute power to rule Iraq for year By David Rennie in Washington The Guardian May 10. 2003 Britain and America yesterday asked the international community to grant them a sweeping mandate to rule Iraq as "occupying powers" for at least a year, effectively relegating the United Nations to an advisory role. A toughly worded draft resolution, handed to the UN Security Council, called for the immediate lifting of 12 years of sanctions against Iraq and the use of oil revenues to fund reconstruction. Less rewarding tasks of aid, law enforcement and justice handed to UN Blueprint gives coalition control of oil and politics May 10, 2003 The Guardian America and Britain yesterday laid out their blueprint for postwar Iraq in a draft resolution to the United Nations security council, naming themselves as "occupying powers" and giving them control of the country's oil revenues. The Post-War Iraq Paradox Don't Lift the Sanctions Yet! by RAHUL MAHAJAN CounterPunch May 9, 2003 For a dozen years, every time we in the anti-sanctions movement talked about the suffering caused by the sanctions (well over 500,000 children under the age of five dead and a society in ruins), the constant refrain from the Bush administration, the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration -- was that the suffering was not caused by sanctions but by the regime. Once the regime is destroyed, miraculously, the Bush administration realizes overnight that sanctions were actually harmful and that it's necessary to remove that burden from the Iraqi people in order to provide humanitarian aid and reconstruction. War and Intelligence The New Yorker: Online Only Seymour M. Hersh May 7, 2003 And one of the things that's very troubling to me about this Administration, and one of the things that I was writing about in this article, is that this is a group of people who are very much committed to groupthink. They're committed to the notion that they know the truth and anybody who disagrees doesn't. I quote somebody as saying that they see themselves as being on the side of the angels and everybody else as fools. In covering Washington for forty years, I've never seen a group of people who have been so unwilling to hear the other side, who are so quick to see criticism not as loyal opposition but as betrayal. At the same time, this is an Administration that is really fractured. There are deep fault lines between the State Department and the Pentagon, between the C.I.A. and the Pentagon, and the Pentagon has won most of the fights. They control intelligence. Rumsfeld also has his finger on the personnel changes in the military command; he wants his people everywhere. But there's a lot of differing opinions, a lot of dissension, and a lot of people who don't like what's going on. US says Halliburton Deal Includes Operating Iraq Oil Fields Citizen Works May 7, 2003 Halliburton contract encompasses the operation of Iraqi oil fields, slightly more than just putting out oil well fires as was previously announced. This feature also seems to contradict the Bush Administration claim that Iraqi oil belongs to the Iraqi people. Additionally, Citizen Works, a progressive action organization created by Ralph Nader, has said that "it's extremely troubling that our government is using taxpayer money to deliver lucrative contracts to companies like Halliburton that have used offshore subsidiaries to maneuver around restrictions on doing business with state sponsors of terrorism." Bush's moral authority... US deals with terrorist group to counter Iran activity in Iraq Asia Times May 7,2003 At the end of its military operation in April, the US military reached a ceasefire agreement with an Iraqi-based Iranian group, the Mujahideen-e Khalq Organization (MKO), a group declared by the US and British members of the "coalition of the willing" as terrorist. In the post-Saddam era, the US government's fear of Iran's capability to expand its influence in Iraq through pro-Iranian Iraqi Shi'ite groups capitalizing on the Iraq Shi'ites' politicization seems to have convinced it of the utility of the MKO. Although it is too weak and isolated to become an alternative to the Iranian regime, its Iraq-based fighters could be used to dissuade Tehran from backing the Iraqi Shi'ites. Washington's apparent intention of using the MKO to pressure the Iranian government demonstrates an expanding state of hostility toward Iran in the United States that could potentially lead to major conflicts of a political and military nature. Iraq's special envoy, with a special task - anti-terrorism By David Isenberg Asia Times May 7, 2003 Once upon a time, in an administration both far away and far right, a newly-hired bureaucrat, known as Jerry to his friends...(L Paul Bremer III). As Bremer has no particular Persian Gulf or Iraqi expertise, his selection seems to signal that the Bush administration is less interested in a democratic revival of Iraq than in ensuring that it cannot serve in the future as an kind of base for threats against the American homeland, which was one of the rationales offered by the Bush administration for its invasion in the first place. Hard Line Used to Leverage Soft Line Again This tactic didn't play well in the UN. Let's see if Rummy and Powell learned anything. New York Times May 7, 2003 EXCERPT Administration officials have sought to resolve their policy differences, which pit those pushing for confrontation with the Pyongyang government against those advocating further talks... While North Korea's confrontational announcement at the Beijing talks dominated the headlines, U.S. officials have concluded that the North Koreans did lay a proposal on the table, though one completely unacceptable to the Bush administration. Immediately after the meeting, some officials had argued that there was likely no reason to hold further talks. According to U.S. officials, North Korea said it would give up its nuclear weapons and missiles only after the United States fulfilled a long list of conditions. The conditions included full diplomatic relations with the United States and Japan and completion of two light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea to help alleviate the country's energy shortages. North Korea offered only to announce its intention to give up its nuclear programs as the United States began to fulfill its end of the bargain, officials said. Assuming North Korea accepts the administration's conditions for more talks, the United States would likely counter with a proposal equally unacceptable to Pyongyang, officials said. Depending on the North Korean response, U.S. officials would then need to assess whether there is a basis for continuing the meetings. New Overseer Named By Bush Rumfeld's Team miscalculated regarding Chalabi and the Shiites. New York Times May 6, 2003 President Bush appointed a new civilian administrator for Iraq today, settling a sharp disagreement between the State and Defense Departments over how best to manage that country during its recovery and reconstruction. Security Council expresses concern at security conditions in Afghanistan US Loses Focus In Afghanistan UN News Center May 6, 2003 After hearing a briefing by the top United Nations envoy in Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, the members of the Security Council today expressed serious concern at the deterioration of security in many areas of the country and the recent attacks on UN and other personnel of aid organizations, and called on all concerned to work towards peace. Bush Focus on Blockade of N. Korea Blockades often considered an "act of war" By DAVID E. SANGER New York Times May 5, 2003 Tacitly acknowledging that North Korea may not be deterred from producing plutonium for nuclear weapons, President Bush is now trying to marshal international support for preventing the country from exporting nuclear material, American and foreign officials say. "It's a fantasy to think you can put a hermetic seal around North Korea and keep them from getting a grapefruit-size piece of plutonium out of the country," said Ashton B. Carter, a Harvard professor who worked on Korea issues in the Clinton administration, said today. "To allow North Korea to go nuclear is a major defeat for U.S. security." No Grasp Why a far-reaching American empire will not serve anyone's interests, least of all ours. By Jeff Faux The American Prospect May 2, 2003 EXCERPT To regain traction in American politics, the Democrats must challenge Bush premises 1)that terrorism is a matter of good versus evil and has nothing to do with America's behavior in the world, 2)that American interests are served by empire and 3)advocate a competent homeland-security system that could defend against both terrorists and abuse of the Constitution. Neither the world nor our own people need empire; we need safety. And it is the obligation of the party in opposition to foster a debate on how to achieve it in a way that will allow Americans to get on with the process of nation building at home. Cleric's Killing a Real Setback to U.S. -- CIA lost an ally and $13M By Knut Royce NYNewsday.com Washington Bureau May 2, 2003 EXCERPT Washington -- The United States suffered a major blow in its campaign to recruit friendly Shia clerics inside Iraq last month when it lost an influential religious ally to an angry mob -- and up to $13 million the CIA had given him to cultivate supporters. Witnesses to the slaying said that as al-Khoei was being stabbed, a number of $100 and $50 bills in U.S. currency spilled out of his clerical robes. "There was some American money flying around with lots of blood on it," said one of the witnesses. "I don't know where the $13 million is... A good chunk of it is missing," said a well placed intelligence source. Bushies Impatient with Rummy Mess Gen Garner Out in Iraq Shuffle - Gen Powell's Man is In By Knut Royce NYNewsday.com Washington Bureau Chief May 2, 2003 EXCERPT Washington -- In an apparent acknowledgment that postwar reconstruction efforts in Iraq are floundering, the White House plans to name a politically astute career diplomat to replace Jay Garner as the civilian administrator of the country, sources said Thursday. L. Paul Bremer, ambassador-at-large for counterterrorism in the Reagan administration, will report directly to the White House, sources said. It was not immediately clear whether Garner, a retired Army lieutenant general who reports to the Pentagon, will stay on under Bremer. Garner was handpicked in January to oversee the reconstruction by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. |