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1-15 DECEMBER 2004
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White House Untroubled by Kerik's
Ethics
Josh Marshall
Talking Points Memo, 13 December 2004
...White House officials, including Scott McClellan seem to make
quite clear that they were aware of all the issues now
being discussed about Bernard Kerik's background. And that it
was only the alleged nanny problem, which they had no way of
discovering absent Kerik's volunteering the information, that
came as a surprise. And that it was that alone that sank his
nomination. ...But look what that means. They seem to be
stipulating to their knowing about and being untroubled by a)
Kerik's
long-standing ties to an allegedly mobbed-up Jersey
construction company (see yesterday's
piece in the Daily News and
tomorrow's in the Times), sub-a) that Kerik received
numerous
unreported cash gifts from Lawrence Ray, an executive at
said Jersey construction company (Ray was later
indicted along with Edward Garafola, Sammy "The Bull"
Gravano's brother-in-law, and Daniel Persico, nephew of Colombo
Family Godfather Carmine "The Snake" Persico and others on
unrelated federal charges tied to what the Daily News
called a "$40 million, mob-run, pump-and-dump stock
swindle." b) that Riker's Island prison
became a
hotbed of political corruption and cronyism on his watch, c)
that he is
accused by nine employees of the hospital he worked at
providing security in Saudi Arabia of using his policing powers
to pursue the personal agenda of his immediate boss, d) that a
warrant for his arrest (albeit in a civil case) was issued
in New Jersey as recently as six years ago, e) that as recently
as last week he was
forced to testify in a civil suit in a case covering the
period in which he was New York City correction commissioner, in
which the plaintiff, "former deputy warden Eric DeRavin III
contends Kerik kept him from getting promoted because he had
reprimanded the woman [Kerik was allegedly having an affair
with], Correction Officer Jeanette Pinero," or f) his
rapid and unexplained departure from Baghdad.
None of this stuff gave the White House or Al Gonzales second
thoughts?
As Regis would say, is that your final answer? |
Exodus of Staff Hobbles the FBI
The bureau is struggling with rapid turnover among top officials
and analysts. The disorder further weakens efforts at a
post-9/11 makeover.
By Richard B. Schmitt
LA Times, 12 December 2004
The rapid turnover of top-level managers and highly trained
specialists since Sept. 11 is causing disorder within the FBI
and undercutting its efforts to meet the mandate of Congress to
dramatically expand its intelligence and counter-terrorism
capabilities. Its new intelligence arm, which is to form the
core of a transformed FBI, is losing dozens of analysts who are
supposed to connect the dots to protect the country from another
terrorist attack. |
Deception SOP
Pentagon Weighs Use of Deception in a
Broad Arena
By THOM SHANKER and ERIC SCHMITT
NYT, 13 December 2004
The Pentagon is engaged in bitter, high-level debate over how
far it can and should go in managing or manipulating information
to influence opinion abroad, senior Defense Department civilians
and military officers say. ...Critics of the proposals say such
deceptive missions could shatter the Pentagon's credibility,
leaving the American public and a world audience skeptical of
anything the Defense Department and military say - a repeat of
the credibility gap that roiled America during the Vietnam War.
The efforts under consideration risk blurring the traditional
lines between public affairs programs in the Pentagon and
military branches - whose charters call for giving truthful
information to the media and the public - and the world of
combat information campaigns or psychological operations.
The question is whether the Pentagon and military should
undertake an official program that uses disinformation to shape
perceptions abroad. But in a modern world wired by satellite
television and the Internet, any misleading information and
falsehoods could easily be repeated by American news outlets. |
Military Appeals Court Reverses
Heterosexual Sodomy Conviction
By JOHN FILES
NYT, 13 December 2004
A military appeals court has overturned the conviction of a
soldier for heterosexual sodomy in a decision that legal
scholars and advocates for gay rights say may have broader
implications for gays serving in the armed forces.
The decision, issued late last month by the United States Army
Court of Criminal Appeals, was based in part on the Supreme
Court opinion in Lawrence v. Texas, which declared last year
that the Texas sodomy statute violated the right to privacy.
The case before the Army court involved a male Army specialist
who admitted that he had engaged in consensual oral sex in a
barracks room with a female civilian whom he had met at a
nightclub. But those seeking to abolish the military's "don't
ask, don't tell" policy, and some legal experts, say the ruling
is also applicable to private gay sex - thus cracking the
foundation of the military's rationale for requiring gays to
serve in silence. |
GOP May Target Use of Filibuster
Senate Democrats Want To Retain the Right to Block Judicial
Nominees
By Helen Dewar and Mike Allen
Washington Post, 13 December 2004
As speculation mounts that Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist
will step down from the Supreme Court soon because of thyroid
cancer, Senate Republican leaders are preparing for a showdown
to keep Democrats from blocking President Bush's judicial
nominations, including a replacement for Rehnquist.
Republicans say that Democrats have abused the filibuster by
blocking 10 of the president's 229 judicial nominees in his
first term -- although confirmation of Bush nominees exceeds in
most cases the first-term experience of presidents dating to
Ronald Reagan. Describing the filibusters as intolerable, Senate
Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has hinted he may resort to
an unusual parliamentary maneuver, dubbed the "nuclear option,"
to thwart such filibusters. |
Let's call it what it is...Christian
intolerance and bigotry
Christian Conservatives Press Issues in Statehouses
By NEELA BANERJEE
NYT, 13 December 2004
Energized by electoral victories last month that they say
reflect wide support for more traditional social values,
conservative Christian advocates across the country are pushing
ahead state and local initiatives on thorny issues, including
same-sex marriage, public education and abortion. "I think
people are becoming emboldened," said Michael D. Bowman,
director of state legislative relations at Concerned Women for
America, a conservative Christian advocacy group based in
Washington. "On legislative efforts, they're getting more gutsy,
and on certain issues, they may introduce legislation that they
normally may not have done. |
Test Finds 39% Worthless/Inaccurate
Help Line for Medicare
By ROBERT PEAR
NYT, 12 December 2004
Medicare's toll-free telephone line, one of the main vehicles
for disseminating information about new prescription drug
benefits and drug discount cards, gives accurate answers less
than two-thirds of the time, Congressional investigators say. In
a test of the service, the investigators, from the Government
Accountability Office, found that 29 percent of callers received
inaccurate answers, while 10 percent got no answers at all. |
Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and an
Autocratic State Is a Requisite for Bush's War On Terror
Mystery Cloaks Couple's
Firing as Risks to U.S.
By JAMES DAO
NYT, 12 December 2004
The Afsharis, who passed background checks when they were
hired - he in 1996, she in 1997 - were not even aware of the new
reviews until they were told that they had failed. In their
suit, they do not question the government's right to conduct
background checks. But their lawyers contend that the Kafkaesque
nature of the process - in which the rules were unclear and
perhaps unwritten - has made it impossible for them to defend
themselves. "How can we expect the people of the Middle East to
emulate our democratic ideals abroad when we fail to apply those
ideals to people like the Afsharis here?" ..."I've told Ali's
story to a lot of people," said Travis Goldsmith, a computer
engineer who worked with Mr. Afshari. "They don't believe that
this could happen in this country." |
Kerik's Position Was Untenable
By ELISABETH BUMILLER and ERIC LIPTON
NYT, 12 December 2004
Mr. Kerik's housekeeper situation was only the latest question
to be revealed about the nominee. A series of critical news
reports about questionable actions had begun to surface about
Mr. Kerik, threatening to turn his Senate confirmation into a
lengthy embarrassment for the administration. The reports looked
at Mr. Kerik's use of city personnel while in office, potential
conflicts between his business life and the role of the Homeland
Security Department, and events growing out of his personal
financial difficulties several years ago. ...One Democratic
Senate staff member, who has been following the nomination
process closely and asked not to be identified because of the
political sensitivity of the matter, said he was convinced that
the nanny question was not the sole reason that Mr. Kerik had
dropped out. "Multiple media organizations were pursuing
multiple stories" that would be potentially damaging to Mr.
Kerik, he said. Because many of these questions had not yet been
answered by the administration, the staff member said,
"fundamentally, he was a bad pick." The staff member added: "The
process worked here." |
"Personal reasons"
Kerik Pulls Out as Bush Nominee for
Homeland Security Job
By ERIC LIPTON and WILLIAM K.
RASHBAUM
NYT, 11 December 2004
Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner,
abruptly withdrew his name from consideration to be President
Bush's secretary of homeland security late Friday night because
of questions related to the immigration status of a former
household employee. ...In reviewing his personal finances this
week as he prepared for confirmation hearings, Mr. Kerik said in
a statement issued late Friday, he had determined that a
housekeeper and nanny he once employed was not clearly a legal
immigrant and that he had not properly paid taxes on her behalf.
"I uncovered information that now leads me to question the
immigration status of a person who had been in my employ as a
housekeeper and nanny," Mr. Kerik said. "It has also been
brought to my attention that for a period of time during such
employment required tax payments and related filings had not
been made. "Within two days after the issue first surfaced, it
became apparent to all involved that Mr. Kerik had no choice but
to withdraw his name, said former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who
had urged Mr. Bush to nominate Mr. Kerik. The hiring of an
illegal immigrant or failure to pay taxes had forced the
withdrawal of other cabinet nominations - from Bobby Ray Inman,
to Kimba M. Wood to Zoe Baird. For Mr. Kerik, the case was
particularly troubling, because as secretary of Homeland
Security Mr. Kerik would be in charge of enforcing the nation's
immigration laws.
SEE ALSO:
Kerik Withdraws Nomination for Homeland Security Post
By Ron Hutcheson
Knight Ridder Newspapers, 11 December 2004
His resignation came after media reports focused on
his rapid rise from financial difficulties to multimillionaire
status as well as some of his controversial exploits as New
York's police commissioner. In a front-page story Friday
morning, The New York Times reported that Kerik, who just five
years ago faced lawsuits for delinquent payments on a New Jersey
condominium, had become a multimillionaire investor in a company
that manufactures stun guns. The story suggested that Kerik
could reap even bigger financial gains if he took charge of the
Homeland Security Department. But it wasn't clear whether the
article played any role in Kerik's withdrawal, and White House
officials refused to go beyond Kerik's terse explanation. |
Anti-Terrorism Costs Hidden in Utility
Bills
Utilities win rate increases to recoup security costs following
9/11
By Brock N. Meeks
MSNBC, 9 December 2004
All across the country Americans are fighting terrorism, one
utility bill at a time. Public utility companies from sea to
shining sea have spent hundreds of millions requisitioning,
reviving or retro-fitting security measures in the aftermath of
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. And now these companies want
their money back, most of it in the form of higher rates for
their customers. The federal government stepped in quickly after
9/11 and set precedent for allowing such rate increases. Two
days after the terrorist attacks in 2001, the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, which regulates rates for wholesale
electricity and natural gas shipments, told companies it would
approve costs to upgrade security. The commission followed up
with an order that defined the expenses as “prudently incurred
costs necessary to further safeguard the reliability and
security of our energy and supply infrastructure.” |
Think Again: 'Everything is Not Enough'
by Eric Alterman with Paul McLeary
Center for American Progress, 10 December 2004
The notion of a liberal media bias has grown so firmly codified
in the right wing's DNA that it is now simply taken for granted,
and it continuously perpetuates itself despite a overwhelming
stream of contrary evidence.
SEE ALSO:
'Big Ideas Need Sharp Elbows'
The Nation, [from the December 27, 2004 issue] |
A Domestic Policy in Sharp Focus
Bush Approach to Be More Disciplined and Aggressive
By Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen
Washington Post, 10 December 2004
A former White House official said: "On all levels, the
administration in Term 2 is promoting people who owe their
careers to this president -- people are forced to be loyal."
Bush is also not retaining some officials, such as HHS Secretary
Tommy G. Thompson, who are not close personally to the president
and are distrusted by some inside the White House. Bush also
chose to let Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, a lightning rod
from criticism this term, resign without a fight. Bush is left
with a team largely devoid of politicians with higher
aspirations or independent power bases. The transition is
evidence of Bush's strategic approach. The president has
confined most deliberations over staffing to Card, Rove and Dina
Powell, head of presidential personnel. In staff meetings, Card
has made it clear that all staff decisions run through Powell's
office and are not to be leaked. Few did, which is highly
unusual for such high-profile decisions. For Cabinet picks, the
first loyalty test was keeping their selection a secret.
Everyone passed. Once his team is set, Bush plans to move fast
on the domestic front. Republican sources said the first major
issue the White House wants the congressional leadership to
bring up in the new year is Bush's plan to restrict medical
malpractice claims by limiting to $250,000 noneconomic damages,
which compensate a victim for pain and suffering. Yet the
president's plan to create private Social Security accounts for
younger workers will put the new team to its toughest test early
on. |
Internet Drug Exporters Feel Pressure
in Canada
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
NYT, 11 December 2004
...online pharmacies are having an ever more difficult time
finding supplies because, they say, the major pharmaceutical
companies are threatening wholesalers who do business with them.
American consumers of prescription drugs, most of whom are
elderly, are not likely to notice the changes anytime soon, if
at all. But as the industry casts about the world to fill its
growing orders, the drugs that people think they are getting
from Canada may actually be supplied by pharmacies in Europe,
Australia, Israel and Latin America. Even in Manitoba, the
birthplace of the business, regulators warned the province's
pharmacists that their licenses could be suspended in January if
they continued to fill American prescription orders without
proper physician oversight. |
Companies Doing Away with Pensions
NPR Morning Edition, Friday , 10 December 2004
A 401K savings plan isn't your father's retirement plan, but it
is the choice of more and more corporations trying to stabilize
the bottom line. NPR's Inskeep talks with Dallas Salisbury,
President and CEO of the Employee Benefit Research Institute,
about IBM's decision to jettison traditional pensions -- and why
the move represents the future of retirement options. |
Official Who Criticized Homeland
Security Is Out of a Job
Inspector General had reported mismanagement, waste and security
flaws
By BRIAN ROSS AND RHONDA SCHWARTZ
ABC News, 9 December 2004
The man who has issued many critical reports about the
mismanagement and security flaws at the Department of Homeland
Security was told Wednesday night that he was out of a job.
Clark Ervin made himself very unpopular by issuing a series of
stinging reports on security programs that he said had failed,
officials he called inept, and fraud that he suspected. His
year-end report, out today, alleges that millions of dollars
have been wasted or are unaccounted for by the department.
"There isn't a concern about the importance of spending every
single dollar to the maximum effect of the core mission of the
department," Ervin told ABC News. |
Borrow, Speculate and Hope
By PAUL KRUGMAN
NYT, 10 December 2004
If Mr. Bush were to say in plain English that his plan to solve
our fiscal problems is to borrow trillions, put the money into
stocks and hope for the best, everyone would denounce that plan
as the height of irresponsibility. The fact that this plan has
an elaborate disguise, one that would add considerably to its
costs, makes it worse. And maybe the fact that serious financial
experts, the sort qualified to be Treasury secretary, understand
all this is the reason why John Snow has just been reappointed.
|
Anti-Terror Bill Worries Civil
Liberties Groups
By CURT ANDERSON
AP at FindLaw.com, 9 December 2004
People indicted on terror charges will have a much harder time
getting free on bail under a provision in the new intelligence
bill. The provision also broadens the government's authority to
spy on terror suspects. Critics say the enforcement powers,
attached to the bill with little debate in Congress, weaken
civil liberties and privacy rights that already were undermined
by the Patriot Act that was approved shortly after the Sept. 11
attacks. |
EPA Relying on Industry for Water
Safety
By JOHN HEILPRIN
AP via FindLaw.com, 9 December 2004
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency issued new
voluntary guidelines Thursday that rely on industry to secure
drinking water and wastewater treatment plants against attack.
The guidelines for improving designs and operations were written
by industry groups with EPA financing. The guidance urges
improved water security designs and operations, and greater use
of online monitoring to protect against the potential misuse of
contaminants. ...But Erik Olson, a lawyer at the environmental
group Natural Resources Defense Council, said industry had
strongly objected to giving EPA more authority on water
security.
"There's still no authority for federal officials to order a
crackdown on security threats at drinking water and sewage
plants," Olson said. "We're very concerned the security of the
nation's water supplies is turned over to industry with minimal
federal oversight." |
Shift Toward Skepticism
Insensitivity for Civil Rights Panel
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
NYT, 10 December 2004
It is not that the new chairman of the United States Commission
on Civil Rights doubts racial discrimination still exists, as
his detractors have charged, it is that he is not quick to see
it. He is not sure he has personally experienced it. "I just
assume somewhere in my life some knucklehead has looked at me
and my brown self and said that they have given me less or
denied me an opportunity," said the chairman, Gerald A.
Reynolds, 41, an African-American lawyer. "But the bottom line
is, and my wife will attest to this, I am so insensitive that I
probably didn't notice." It is an outlook that could not be more
different from that of his predecessor, Mary Frances Berry, whom
President Bush declined to reappoint. Instead the president
chose Mr. Reynolds, a fellow conservative who once described
affirmative action as a "big lie," as chairman of the
47-year-old advisory panel with a storied history of pushing the
government to combat discrimination. |
White House Defends Commandments
Displays
By GINA HOLLAND
AP at FindLaw.com, 9 December 2004
The Bush administration on Wednesday urged the Supreme Court to
allow Ten Commandments displays on government property, adding a
federal view on a major church-state case that justices will
deal with early next year. The government has weighed in before
in religion cases at the high court, including one earlier this
year that challenged the words "under God" in the classroom
recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance. The government supported
a California school district in that case. Now, it is backing
two Kentucky counties that had framed copies of the Ten
Commandments in their courthouses. The American Civil Liberties
Union sued McCreary and Pulaski counties, claiming the displays
were an unconstitutional promotion of religion. The group won.
Justices will hear arguments, probably in February, in the
counties' appeal and in a second case involving a Texas homeless
man who wants a 6-foot granite monument removed from the state
Capitol grounds. |
A
gift for Osama...
Appealing to a Higher Authority
Federal energy regulators smooth the way for liquefied
natural gas terminals
By Kevin Bogardus
Center for Public Integrity, 7 December 2004
 After
scores of private meetings with Big Oil giants such as
ExxonMobil and ChevronTexaco, the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission is aggressively undermining the authority of state
and local governments to reject dozens of proposed liquefied
natural gas facilities all across the country. ...Critics worry
about the safety risks— including potential terrorist
attacks—associated with LNG facilities. If a spill from an LNG
tanker ignites, it could endanger surrounding communities,
according to several experts interviewed by the Center.
[See map of new sites.] |
Fmr. Counterterror Chief Richard Clarke
on Intel Bill, Iraq and the Threat of Another Attack on the U.S.
DemocracyNow!, 8
December 2004
Listen to
Segment || Download
Show mp3
Watch 128k stream
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Read Transcript
First, today, we have seen the unusual, which are press
reports on an assessment of the situation in Iraq by the CIA'S
Station Chief in Iraq. Normally those things are top-secret and
no one ever sees them. But for some reason this one has made it
out into the public. And what the CIA’s outgoing Station Chief;
the man who is leaving the job there after some time in Baghdad,
his assessment is that things are going very badly in Iraq and
that we could end up with a civil war. Please note this is not
what the president has told you. This is not what Secretary of
Defense Rumsfeld said even this week. But within the government,
within the classified world, the assessment is things are going
very badly indeed.
SEE ALSO:
Will More Power for Intelligence Chief
Mean Better Results?
By DOUGLAS JEHL
NYT, 8 December 2004
Jeffrey H. Smith, a former general counsel of the C.I.A.,
said he had found considerable "confusion and contradiction"
within the intelligence bill. "Lawyers across the intelligence
community will be arguing about what these provisions mean for
many months to come," Mr. Smith said ... the national
intelligence director will be constrained in the ability to
wield that authority, operating at an altitude a further
bureaucratic step removed from spies, analysts and others on
whom intelligence successes and failures ultimately depend. "The
danger is that by putting someone above the fray, you leave him
without a day-to-day window into what any of the agencies are
really doing," said Michael Scheuer, the former senior C.I.A.
official whose book, "Imperial Hubris," is critical of how the
agency and the government as a whole have addressed the
terrorist threat. |
Officer Alleges CIA Retaliation
Lawsuit Says Agency Urged False Reporting on Iraqi Arms
By Dana Priest
Washington Post, 9 December 2004
A senior CIA operative who handled sensitive informants in Iraq
asserts that CIA managers asked him to falsify his reporting on
weapons of mass destruction and retaliated against him after he
refused. The operative, who remains under cover, asserts in a
lawsuit made public yesterday that a co-worker warned him in
2001 "that CIA management planned to 'get him' for his role in
reporting intelligence contrary to official CIA dogma."
...In the lawsuit, the officer asserts that CIA managers
retaliated against him for refusing their demands by beginning a
counterintelligence investigation of allegations that he had sex
with a female asset and by initiating an inspector general's
investigation into allegations that he stole money meant to be
used to pay human assets.
Those investigations, the lawsuit asserts, were "initiated for
the sole purpose of discrediting him and retaliating against him
for questioning the integrity of the WMD reporting . . . and for
refusing to falsify his intelligence reporting to support the
politically mandated conclusion" of matters that are redacted in
the lawsuit.
The lawsuit marks the first public instance in which a CIA
employee has charged directly that agency officials pressured
him to produce intelligence to support the administration's
prewar position that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were a
grave and gathering threat, and to suppress information that ran
counter to that view. |
Lack of oversight power endangers civil
liberties
House Passes Intelligence Reform Bill
By James Kuhnhenn
Knight Ridder Newspapers, 8 December 2004
Some Democrats also objected to the legislation, saying it
didn't provide enough safeguards to prevent intelligence from
being used for political purposes or to achieve predetermined
policy objectives. "One of the bill's most glaring shortcomings
is that it does not guarantee that dissenting or alternative
views will ever be clearly stated to the president," said Rep.
David Obey, D-Wis. "That was a major problem in the decision to
go to war in Iraq."
SEE ALSO:
House Overwhelmingly Approves Broad
Overhaul of Intelligence
(NYT) |
President's
Policies Won't Deliver Promised Deficit Cuts
Economic Policy Institute, 8 December 2004
The federal budget deficit level is currently 3.6 percent of
the gross domestic product (GDP), or $413 billion. In February,
the Bush administration set a goal of reducing the federal
budget deficit to 1.6 percent of the gross domestic product
(GDP) in five years, by fiscal year 2009. Today¹s
SNAPSHOT by Economic Policy Institute economists Max
Sawicky and Lee Price, examines how likely that goal is to be
met, given current policies and trends. EPI found that the
projected fiscal 2009 deficit, as a result of policies enacted
by the Congress and approved by the President, will be 3.4
percent of GDP. |
The Coming Energy Crisis
Michael Klare
TomDispatch.com, 8 December 2004
See Spot run. See gas prices rise. See Dick dig for oil in
Alaska. See well-heads and pipelines in Iraq burn. See Hummers
hum down our highways. Hum, hum, hum. See George take on the
Axis of Evil. See military bases being built across the
oil-lands of the Earth. See the neocons covet Iran. Covet,
covet, covet. See the public look away. See an energy crunch
loom. See energy terrorism grow. See… |
Bernard Kerik: "Political Criticism is
Our Enemy's Best Friend"
DemocracyNow!, 7 December 2004
Prior to becoming a New York police officer, he spent four
years in Saudi Arabia overseeing security for the royal family.
In one of his first moves after learning of his new job, Kerik
had to sell off $5 million worth of stock in Taser, the stun gun
manufacturer. |
White House: Borrowing to Help Fund
Social Security Plan
By Adam Entous
Reuters, 6 December 2004
The White House said on Monday it would borrow money to help
pay for adding personal retirement accounts to Social Security,
after ruling out tax increases to finance a transition experts
say could cost $1 trillion to $2 trillion over 10 years.
President Bush has made reform of the U.S. retirement program a
top priority for his second term, and he used a private meeting
with congressional leaders on Monday to press for action next
year. "Most members (of Congress) recognize that the system
needs to be fixed," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.
SEE ALSO:
Inventing a Crisis
By PAUL KRUGMAN
NYT, 7 December 2004
Privatizing Social Security - replacing the current system, in
whole or in part, with personal investment accounts - won't do
anything to strengthen the system's finances. If anything, it
will make things worse. Nonetheless, the politics of
privatization depend crucially on convincing the public that the
system is in imminent danger of collapse, that we must destroy
Social Security in order to save it.
...Social
Security is a government program that works, a demonstration
that a modest amount of taxing and spending can make people's
lives better and more secure. And that's why the right wants to
destroy it. |
Texas to Florida: White House-Linked
Clandestine Operation Paid for "Vote Switching" Software
By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal, 6 December 2004
The manipulation of computer voting machines in the recent
presidential election and the funding of programmers who were
involved in the operation are tied to an intricate web of shady
off-shore financial trusts and companies, shady espionage
operatives, Republican Party politicians close to the Bush
family, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
contract vehicles.
An exhaustive investigation has turned up a link between current
Florida Republican Representative Tom Feeney, a customized
Windows-based program to suppress Democratic votes on touch
screen voting machines, a Florida computer services company with
whom Feeney worked as a general counsel and registered lobbyist
while he was Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives,
and top level officials of the Bush administration.
According to a notarized affidavit signed by Clint Curtis, while
he was employed by the NASA Kennedy Space Center contractor,
Yang Enterprises, Inc., during 2000, Feeney solicited him to
write a program to "control the vote." At the time, Curtis was
of the opinion that the program was to be used for preventing
fraud in the in the 2002 election in Palm Beach County, Florida.
His mind was changed, however, when the true intentions of
Feeney became clear: the computer program was going to be used
to suppress the Democratic vote in counties with large
Democratic registrations.
SEE ALSO:
A STOLEN ELECTION
THE VIEW FROM MY BLACK HELICOPTER
by Greg Palast
The Nation, 29 December 2004 issue
I'd just stepped out of my black helicopter to read that one
of my favorite journalists, David Corn, had attacked my analysis
of the vote in Ohio as the stuff of "grassy knoll conspiracy
theorists." ("A Stolen Election," The Nation, November 29
issue.) |
Christian Fundamentalist America?
We'll get back to you on that.
Scottie & Me
(formerly known as Ari & I)
White House Press Briefing with Scott McClellan
by Russell Mokhiber
Common Dreams, 6 December 2004
Mokhiber: Scott, on the Middle East - many evangelical
Christians in the United States are supporting right-wing Jews
in Israel who want to rebuild the temple on the Temple Mount in
Jerusalem. They (Evangelical Christians) believe this is a
prerequisite for Christ's return to earth.
They believe that when Christ returns to earth - they call this
the rapture - he will take back with him the true believers. And
the rest - the non believers - Jews, Muslims - will be left
behind to face a violent death here on earth.
My question is, as a born again Christian, does the President
support efforts to rebuild the temple on the Temple Mount?
Scott McLellan: Russ, we can sit here and talk about
religious issues. I will be glad to take your question, and if
there is more, I will get back to you on that.
Mokhiber: Is he a born again Christian?
Scott McLellan: Thank you. (McLellan abruptly ends the
press briefing and walks out.) |
Proposal Would Hit Blue State Taxpayers
By Warren Vieth
LA Times via Yahoo!News, 6 December 2004
As President Bush lays the groundwork for a possible overhaul
of the U.S. tax code, one option under consideration would deal
its biggest financial blow to citizens of blue states such as
California and New York. Some conservative activists are urging
the Bush administration to scrap the federal deduction for state
and local taxes as part of a broader plan to revamp the nation's
tax system. Although the proposal would hurt some taxpayers in
nearly every state, it would hit hardest in states with
higher-than-average income levels and bigger-than-average state
and local tax burdens. High on the list are a number of blue
states — those that were carried by Democrat Sen. John F. Kerry
in last month's presidential election. |
Bush Plans to Dump Civil Rights Panel
Chief
By Johanna Neuman
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times, 5 December 2004
President Bush plans to name a new chairman and vice chairman of
the Civil Rights Commission as early as Monday, a move that
could end the tumultuous reign of its current chairwoman, Mary
Frances Berry. Berry, who has been a member of the commission
for 24 of its 47 years, has been a bane to presidents who tried
to fire or dodge her, and she has been the subject of repeated
Government Accountability Office reports alleging mismanagement. |
At F.D.A., Strong Drug Ties and Less
Monitoring
By GARDINER HARRIS
NYT, 6 December 2004
When federal drug officials suspected in 1992 that a popular
allergy pill might cause heart problems, they turned to their
own scientists. Their trial confirmed the danger, and the drug
was pulled from the market. Eight years later, similar worries
surrounded the arthritis pill Vioxx. But by then, the Food and
Drug Administration had shifted gears, slashing its laboratories
and network of independent drug safety experts in favor of
hiring more people to approve drugs, changes that arose under an
unusual agreement that has left the agency increasingly reliant
on and bound by drug company money. Discovering Vioxx's dangers
would take four more years. That delay has led to a firestorm of
criticism. Members of Congress, an internal F.D.A. whistleblower
and prominent medical journals have said the agency is incapable
of uncovering the perils of drugs that have been approved and
are in wide distribution. Some have accused it of being cozy
with drug makers. |
Washington Post Reporting on Economics
is Strikingly Incompetent
Brad DeLong's Web Site, 4 December 2004
If the Washington Post wants to be a major newspaper, it
needs to hire reporters who either (a) know some economic
theory, or (b) are curious enough to learn some economic theory
on the job. |
Happy Holidays: Teaching morality of the
Christian right
God, American History and a
Fifth-Grade Class
By DEAN E. MURPHY
NYT, 5 December 2004
What has ensued has opened a window on the increasingly
high-pitched struggle taking place in a number of schools across
the country over how much God should be taught in American
history, a battle that has raged for many years but is
intensifying as conservative groups feel invigorated in pushing
their viewpoint and as defenders of a more secular approach are
put more on the defensive. |
Dead Voters on Rolls, Other Glitches
Found in 6 Key States
By Geoff Dougherty Sarah Frank contributed to this report from
Chicago Tribune, 4 December 2004 |
Kerik Nomination is a Ticking Time Bomb
Ellis Henican
Newsday.com, 3 December 2004
SEE ALSO:
For Kerik, a Blunt New Yorker, a
Complex Washington Task
By KEVIN FLYNN, CHRISTOPHER DREW and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
NYT, 5 December 2004 |
Bob in Paradise
How Novak created his own ethics-free zone.
By Amy Sullivan
Washington Monthly, 2 December 2004 |
False Data Found in Abstinence Program
Projects for millions of kids mislead them about sex,
lawmaker's report says
By Ceci Connolly
Washington Post via Mercury News, 2 December 2004
Among the misconceptions Waxman's investigators cited:
• A 43-day-old fetus is a ``thinking person.''
• HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and
tears.
• Condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31
percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse.
One curriculum, called ``Me, My World, My Future,'' teaches that
women who have an abortion ``are more prone to suicide'' and
that up to 10 percent of them become sterile. This contradicts
the 2001 edition of a standard obstetrics textbook that says
fertility is not affected by elective abortion, the Waxman
report said. |
Birth Control Programs At Risk
Birth-control programs are under attack. And with bigger
conservative majorities, Bush can continue to chip away at
reproductive rights.
Newsweek Commentary, 3 December 2004 |
Conyers and
Other Congressman to Hold Forum on Voting Irregularities in Ohio
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT, 3
December 2004
A Press Release from Congressman John Conyers, Jr.,
Fourteenth District, Michigan, Ranking Member of Committee on
the Judiciary, and Dean of the Congressional Black Caucus
Rep. John Conyers, Jr. and other Representatives will be holding
the first congressional forum on election irregularities in
Ohio, the pivotal state in the presidential election. The forum
will include leading advocates, election experts and
investigators who have reviewed the myriad of election day and
recount problems in Ohio, as well as numerous individuals who
experienced problems and outright disenfranchisement on election
day. Among other things, the forum, which is open to the public,
will concentrate on many of the issues raised in letters from
Ranking Member Conyers and other Members to Kenneth Blackwell
[http://www.house.gov/judiciary_de...(PDF)]. |
Corrupt?
Absolutely.
Tom DeLay unites the critics of the
Republican Congress.
By Chris Suellentrop
Slate, 2
December 2004
When House Republicans voted last month to allow
members who have been indicted to keep their leadership
positions—a decision that ought to be remembered as the "DeLay
rule"—political writers from David Brooks to E.J. Dionne to John
Podhoretz howled that Republicans had finally completed their
slow transformation into the entrenched, arrogant, and sleazy
Democratic majority they defeated in 1994. |
From Bush Aide, Warning on Social
Security
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
NYT, 3 December 2004
Calling the current system of Social Security benefits
unsustainable, a top economic adviser to President Bush on
Thursday strongly implied that any overhaul of the system would
have to include major cuts in guaranteed benefits for future
retirees. "Let me state clearly that there are no free lunches
here," said N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the Council of
Economic Advisers, at a conference on tax policy here. |
Scalia To Synagogue - Jews Are Safer
With Christians In Charge
by Thom Hartmann
TomPaine.com, 2 December 2004
Antonin Scalia, the man most likely to be our next Chief Justice
of the Supreme Court, turned history on its head recently when
he attended an Orthodox synagogue in New York and claimed that
the Founders intended for their Christianity to play a part in
government. Scalia then went so far as to suggest that the
reason Hitler was able to initiate the Holocaust was because of
German separation of church and state. |
Two Networks Bar Church Ad Welcoming
Gays
By Michael Paulson
Boston Globe, 2 December 2004
Two broadcast networks are refusing to air an ad from the United
Church of Christ because the spot, intended to make the point
that the Protestant denomination is welcoming, briefly shows two
men who are holding hands being turned away from an unnamed
church. ...CBS and NBC both described the spot as too
controversial. In a letter to the denomination, a CBS official
said, ''Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay
couples and other minority groups by other individuals and
organizations, and the fact that the Executive Branch [the Bush
Administration] has recently proposed a constitutional amendment
to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this
spot is unacceptable for broadcast." |
The Fastest Way
To Send a Message
Why is James Baker talking to the
president via the New York Times op-ed page?
By
Fred Kaplan
Slate, 2 December 2004
Most intriguing is an
op-ed piece in today's New York Times by
James A. Baker III,
urging President George W. Bush to promote the resumption of
negotiations, adding, "The time to start is now." The article is
fascinating not so much for what it says but for the fact that
Baker wrote it at all. ...It's worth recalling
the last time Baker wrote a Times op-ed
piece. It was in August 2002, as the Bush administration was
getting set to invade Iraq. In his piece, Baker supported
invasion, but he urged Bush not to "go it alone" and to "reject
the advice of those who counsel doing so." ..."The road to
peace," Baker writes, "does not run through just Jerusalem or
just Baghdad. … Today it runs through both." This is a clear
reference to the slogan that Bush's neoconservative advisers
liked to recite before the invasion of Iraq: "The road to
Jerusalem runs through Baghdad." In other words, to topple
Saddam would be to remove a leading supporter of Palestinian
terrorism; moreover, a stable, democratic Iraq would light a
blazing trail of freedom across the Middle East. Once this
theory proved fanciful, Bush's critics liked to twist the
slogan—the road to Baghdad, they said, runs through Jerusalem.
In other words, the insurgency can't be defeated—and America's
image in the region can't be repaired—until the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is addressed. Baker is telling Bush
that the critics are right—the road runs both ways. |
Think Again: ‘Chilling’ the Press
by Eric Alterman and Paul McLeary
Center for American Progress, 2 December 2004
...the media are no longer to be treated as a necessary
protection of the people’s right to know, but rather as a
nuisance to be neutered so that power may roll along merrily and
unhindered by too many uncomfortable questions. Disdain for the
fundamental functions of reporting and the accountability it
inspires has long been evident among many denizens of the Bush
administration. Of late it has also filtered down the state
level as well. We see it in Texas; we see it in New York; and
most recently, we see it next door to the nation’s capitol in
Maryland. |
Activist Chief at CalPERS Is Voted Out
Short term for advocate of corporate ethics
By Marc Lifsher
LA Times, 2 December 2004
Sean Harrigan was ousted Wednesday as the president of the
California Public Employees' Retirement System board, marking
the unseating of one of corporate America's most nettlesome
critics. Harrigan's downfall came at the hands of an obscure
agency, the state Personnel Board, which voted 3 to 2 to remove
him as its representative to the $177-billion pension fund. The
move is effective Jan. 1, ending Harrigan's two years as
president, a period punctuated by sharp conflicts between
CalPERS and such big corporations as Walt Disney Co., Safeway
Inc. and Coca-Cola Co. Some shareholder, union and consumer
activists denounced Harrigan's removal as a blow to efforts by
the nation's largest pension fund to influence corporate
behavior on such issues as executive pay and shareholder
democracy. But business groups and Republican Party officials
hailed the move as a necessary reining in of an overzealous
crusader who pushed CalPERS into the middle of the protracted
Southern California supermarket strike and lockout this year and
tried to unseat Safeway's CEO.
SEE ALSO:
Business Applauds Shake-Up at CalPERS
Ouster of the fund's chief comes amid rising corporate
resistance to greater oversight.
LA Times, 2 December 2004 |
Something's Fishy in Ohio
by Jesse Jackson
Common Dreams, 2 December 2004
In the Ukraine, citizens are in the streets protesting what
they charge is a fixed election. U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell expresses this nation's concern about apparent voting
irregularities. The media give the dispute around-the-clock
coverage. But in the United States, massive and systemic voter
irregularities go unreported and unnoticed.
SEE ALSO:
Ohio Tally Fit for Ukraine
by Juan Gonzalez
Common Dreams, 2 December 2004
It has been a month now and we still don't have a clear count of
the votes for our own presidential race from the state of Ohio.
For those who may have forgotten, Ohio supposedly assured George
W. Bush a second term in the White House - only the most
important job on the planet.
SEE ALSO:
Voters to Challenge US Election
by Julian Borger
The Guardian via Common Dreams, 1 December 2004
George Bush's victory in the US presidential election will be
challenged in Ohio's supreme court today, when a group of
Democratic voters will allege widespread fraud. |
Undermining democracy at home
Next Question
Reporters Walk Line Between Deference and Diligence in Quizzing
Bush
By Mike Allen
Washington Post, 1 December 2004 |
|
|
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An Open Letter to Bush: Stop Destroying
the Mosques of Iraq
By RALPH NADER
Counter Punch, 9 December 2004 |
U.S. Gives Rosy Picture of Rebuilding
Iraq, While People on the Streets Seethe
By Tim Johnson and Omar Jassim
Knight Ridder Newspapers, 9 December 2004
Deep within the Green Zone, the fortified home of Iraq's interim
administration, U.S. officials offered an upbeat assessment
Thursday of their multibillion-dollar efforts to rebuild the
country. Out in the streets of Baghdad, though, it's a parallel
universe.
Twenty months after Saddam Hussein's removal from power,
electricity blinks on and off. Jobs are scarce. The rat-a-tat of
automatic gunfire erupts nearly hourly. Criminal kidnappings for
ransom have soared. Parents fear to let their children out for
long periods, even to go to school.
Stop just about anyone on the street, and the complaints spill
out in torrents. |
Leadership Means You Don't Have to Tell
the Truth
Yahoo!News, 10 December 2004
The Bush administration moved swiftly to quell criticism from
troops Thursday by outlining plans to protect all military
vehicles used in Iraq. But two companies under contract to the
Pentagon said their offers to boost production went unheeded.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who said Wednesday, "You go
to war with the Army you have, not the Army you might want or
wish to have" when confronted by troops about the lack of armor,
vowed more would be done.
On Thursday, Rumsfeld softened his tone. "It doesn't happen
instantaneously, but it has been happening pretty rapidly," he
said.
A day earlier, he had called it "a matter of physics, not a
matter of money ... It's a matter of production and the
capability of doing it." But spokesmen for two companies
making armor for vehicles said Thursday they had offered to step
up the pace of production:
• Former Republican congressman Matt Salmon of Arizona, a
spokesman for ArmorWorks in Tempe, Ariz., said his company will
finish a $30 million contract with the Pentagon this month to
make 1,500 armor kits for Humvees. "We are at 50% capacity, and
we could do a lot more," he said. "They are aware of it."
• Armor Holdings of Jacksonville told the Army last month it
could add armor to as many as 550 trucks a month, up from 450,
said Robert Mecredy of its aerospace and defense group. "We're
prepared to build 50 to 100 vehicles more per month," he said.
Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said the Pentagon
had no immediate response. |
Fear Hamstrings Quest for Intelligence
in N. Iraq
Threats of Bomb Attacks, Reprisals Keep Soldiers Behind Armor,
Citizens Silent
By Scott Wilson
Washington Post, 11 December 2004
In the numbingly cold hours before dawn, dozens of Iraqi men
raised their hands and pressed them against the wall of a low
building in this village, under the watch of American troops.
The only sounds were the buzz of attack helicopters and howls of
dogs. Silhouetted by the headlights of a hulking U.S. Army
assault vehicle... Over the next four hours last Tuesday, more
than 200 men endured the same procedure, as U.S. troops compiled
a book of mug shots that included almost every man of military
age in this village of mud-walled houses on the Tigris River.
Thirty-four were linked to the insurgency by at least one of two
informants, who later reviewed the men's pictures at an Army
post in Mosul, 10 miles north of here. "I don't care about their
hearts and minds, because in a place like this we know where
their hearts lay," said Lt. Col. Todd McCaffrey as he watched
the suspects, some frightened, others nonchalant, all shivering.
"I'm more interested in what they know." The search for
information about Iraq's insurgency has become the most crucial
task facing battlefield commanders as they struggle to subdue
violent regions like this one before the scheduled Jan. 30
elections. But intelligence-gathering by the front-line forces
that need to know the most is proving difficult in a region
increasingly gripped by fear. |
Pace of Armored Vehicle Production
Debated
NPR Morning Edition, 10
December 2004
President Bush says military personnel in Iraq are right to
question whether they're getting the best possible equipment,
but the White House insists armored vehicles are being produced
as fast as possible. Some contractors disagree. NPR's Vicky
O'Hara reports.
SEE ALSO:
Armor Scarce for Big Trucks Transporting
Cargo in Iraq
By THOM SHANKER and ERIC SCHMITT
NYT, 10 December 2004
Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the ranking Democrat on
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and one of the harshest
critics of the administration's Iraq policies, said troops lack
some protective equipment, in part, because of the urgency with
which the United States went to war. "This was a war of choice,
not necessity, to be waged on our timetable, not Saddam's," Mr.
Biden said in a statement. "And why is it that, 20 months after
Saddam's statue fell, our troops still don't have the protection
they need? Congress has given this administration virtually
every dollar it has asked for in Iraq." |
Insurgent Attacks on Iraqi Workers
Intensifies
NPR Morning Edition, Friday , 10 December 2004
Insurgents in Iraq step up attacks on workers contributing to
the reconstruction of the battered nation. Commanders in Iraq
say the U.S. can't withdraw its troops until Iraqis are able to
take responsibility for their own security. NPR's Tom Gjelten
reports. |
US Tied Over Nuclear Kingpin
By Kaushik Kapisthalam
Asia Times, 10 December 2004
The United States is selling the theory that the Pakistan-based
nuclear proliferation ring has been broken up and its
mastermind, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, has been "brought to justice".
He is under house arrest in Pakistan. Unfortunately, as much as
the Bush administration would like to wish away the Khan issue,
it continues to dog two of the biggest foreign-policy crises for
the US. The first one is Iran. With the re-election of President
George W Bush, the neo-conservatives within the administration
want to ensure that the Bush second term looks at every option,
including a military one, to prevent Tehran from developing and
deploying nuclear weapons. But then again, the neo-conservatives
do not want to talk directly to the hardline Iranian regime, and
have let Britain, France and Germany do the negotiations with
Iran, in conjunction with the International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) doing the verification. But so far, the Iranians have
been playing a clever game of hide-and-seek by agreeing to stop
uranium enrichment one day, and denying it the next. And IAEA
inspectors, mindful of the Iraq weapons of mass destruction
assessments, have been cautious about giving conclusive findings
on Iran's nuclear weapons program. In this ambiguity, Iran could
stall and dodge its way into presenting the world a set of nukes
as a fait accompli. One man holds the key to this puzzle - Khan.
It now appears that Khan not only sold advanced
uranium-enrichment centrifuges to Iran; he likely sold it an
actual nuclear weapon design along with nuclear fuel material,
according to a report issued by the US Central Intelligence
Agency on November 23. |
Iraq Violence Will Get Worse, Says CIA Chief
By David Rennie in Washington and Robin Gedye
Telegraph, 8 December 2004
The CIA's station chief in Baghdad has sent a bleak cable to
Washington, giving warning that the situation in Iraq is getting
worse and may not improve any time soon. The senior undercover
operative, whose 300-man post represents the largest CIA
presence abroad since the Vietnam War, offered his blunt
assessment that the political, economic and security situation
in Iraq was deteriorating and was likely to get worse in coming
months, with more violence and clashes between ethnic and
religious groups |
Fallujah, the
Morning After
By
Bing West
Slate, 8 December 2004
 The
main shopping road through town stretched long and straight,
empty of any person or vehicle, the aluminum shutters of
hundreds of shops twisted at a thousand angles, buildings ripped
open, exposing demolished rooms and sagging roofs, telephone
poles snapped and canted, the dangling lines curled and snarled
like the webs of giant, crazed spiders. It looked like a savage
tornado had roared through the downtown district, smashing all
in its path, pausing capriciously to pulverize various buildings
before moving relentlessly on. ..."It's a good day when you get
into it," Cpl. Michael Yerena, the vehicle commander in the
second Humvee, said to me. "You feel you've earned your pay." |
Intel Agent Strapped to Gurney and
Flown Out of Iraq by U.S. Army After Reporting Torture of
Detainees
DemocracyNow!, 9 December 2004
Listen to
Segment || Download
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Immediate relocation and an eight month psychological
examination was Sergeant Ford's response from the army to his
report of prisoner mistreatment.
SEE ALSO:
Army SOP
Whitewashing Torture?
A veteran sergeant who told his commanding officers that he
witnessed his colleagues torturing Iraqi detainees was strapped
to a gurney and flown out of Iraq -- even though there was
nothing wrong with him.
By David DeBatto
Salon.com
On June 15, 2003, Sgt. Frank "Greg" Ford, a
counterintelligence agent in the California National Guard's
223rd Military Intelligence (M.I.) Battalion stationed in
Samarra, Iraq, told his commanding officer, Capt. Victor Artiga,
that he had witnessed five incidents of torture and abuse of
Iraqi detainees at his base, and requested a formal
investigation. Thirty-six hours later, Ford, a 49-year-old with
over 30 years of military service in the Coast Guard, Army and
Navy, was ordered by U.S. Army medical personnel to lie down on
a gurney, was then strapped down, loaded onto a military plane
and medevac'd to a military medical center outside the country.
...Col. C. Tsai, a military doctor who examined Ford in Germany
and found nothing wrong with him, told a film crew for Spiegel
Television that he was "not surprised" at Ford's diagnosis. Tsai
told Spiegel that he had treated "three or four" other U.S.
soldiers from Iraq that were also sent to Landstuhl for
psychological evaluations or "combat stress counseling" after
they reported incidents of detainee abuse or other wrongdoing by
American soldiers. |
SEE ALSO:
Icarus (Armed with Vipers) Over Iraq
The loosing of air power on Iraq's cities is the great missing
story of the postwar war. Is there no reporter out there willing
to cover it?
Tom Engelhardt
Mother Jones, 6 December 2004
 ...much
of the city of Falluja has just been devastated in fighting in
which American fire power of every sort was called in. The
razing of that city began with weeks of "targeted" air attacks
on what were termed insurgent "safe havens." Falluja is now a
wasteland and, while fantasies about its reconstruction abound,
the fighting only continues. |
Iraq-Bound Troops Confront Rumsfeld
Over Lack of Armor
By ERIC SCHMITT
NYT, 8 December 2004
In an extraordinary exchange at this remote desert camp, Defense
Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld found himself on the defensive
today, fielding pointed questions from Iraq-bound troops who
complained that they were being sent into combat with
insufficient protection and aging equipment.
SEE ALSO:
Rumsfeld vs. the American Soldier
What Rummy's survival says about Bush's plans for his second
term.
By Fred Kaplan
Slate, 8 December 2004
SEE ALSO:
Lost in a Masquerade
By MAUREEN DOWD
NYT, 9 December 2004
Rummy, however, did not hesitate to give the back of his hand
to soldiers about to go risk their lives someplace he didn't
trouble to go. He treated Thomas Wilson - the gutsy guardsman
from Tennessee who asked why soldiers had "to dig through local
landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic
glass to up-armor our vehicles, and why don't we have those
resources readily available to us?" - as if he were a pesky
Pentagon reporter. The defense chief used the same coldly
cantankerous tone and squint he displays in press briefings, an
attitude that long ago wore thin. He did everything but slap the
kid in the hospital bed. |
The Suicide Supply Chain
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
NYT, 9 December 2004
From what I can tell from the new organizational flow chart
for U.S. intelligence that Congress adopted yesterday, it is a
god-awful combination of new titles and jobs at the top, without
clear lines of authority to the people on the ground. One thing
I've learned from 25 years in the newspaper business (which is
just another form of intelligence gathering) is this: Whenever
you add a new layer of editors on top of reporters, and don't
get rid of some of the old layer of editors, all you get is
trouble. You get less intelligent. The right way to improve U.S.
intelligence is to get more people on the ground who speak the
languages we need and who can think unconventionally. If that
sounds blindingly obvious to you, it is, but it is precisely the
shortage of such people that explains to me America's greatest
intelligence failure in Iraq - a failure we are paying for
dearly right now. |
Annan Under Attack II
The International Herald Tribune,
8 December 2004
The tale told about the alleged UN oil-for-food scandal gets
taller with each telling. The U.S. General Accounting Office
estimated that Saddam Hussein skimmed $10.1 billion under UN
noses, but it was soon discovered that this included $5.7
billion in oil smuggling by Saddam for which the UN had no
responsibility. That didn't stop UN bashers from latching on to
the higher number - until they found an even more staggering $21
billion cited in a U.S. Senate subcommittee report. But that
included all of Saddam's illegal oil revenues going back to 1991
- five years before the oil-for-food program was ever conceived.
Charles Duelfer, the CIA's Iraq weapons inspector, put Saddam's
total illicit income related to oil-for-food at $1.74 billion.
But don't expect to find that figure cited in the press and
Congressional attacks. |
Iraqi Prisoner Abuse Reported After Abu
Ghraib Disclosures
By NEIL A. LEWIS
NYT, 7 December 2004
Two Defense Department intelligence officials reported observing
brutal treatment of Iraqi insurgents captured in Baghdad in
June, several weeks after disclosures of abuses at Abu Ghraib
prison created a worldwide uproar, according to a memorandum
disclosed Tuesday. The memorandum, written by the director of
the Defense Intelligence Agency to a senior Pentagon official,
said that when the two members of his agency objected to the
treatment, they were threatened and told to keep quiet by other
military interrogators. |
Officials Military Not Answer in Iraq
UPI in SpaceWar.com, 3 December 2004
The U.S. military is flooding Iraq with 12,000 more troops in
time for the January election, but military commanders say they
should not be expected to be the solution to Iraq's problems.
And the problems are myriad: The Sunni insurgency is
increasingly violent and frequently targets Iraqi government
forces; unemployment remains high; basic services are still
struggling throughout much of the country; and the occupation is
viewed as an irritant in the least case and an outrage in many
places. Insurgent attacks on Friday alone claimed 30 Iraqis,
half of whom were police in a Baghdad police station. ...The
(insurgency) has yet to win one tactical fight, he said, but
pointed out the same could be said for the Vietcong in Vietnam.
That outgunned insurgent group -- along with the Soviet- and
Chinese-supported North Vietnamese Army -- ultimately succeeded
in expelling the United States and ultimately forcing the
surrender of the South Vietnamese government the United States
propped up. |
Pakistan Test-Fires Nuclear-Capable
Missile
AFP in SpaceWar.com, 8 December 2004
Pakistan on Wednesday test-fired a medium range ballistic
missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead but insisted it
was not sending a signal to India amid continuing peace moves
with its regional rival. |
Torture In Our Names
DailyCamera.com, 5 December 2004
The first requirement here is that we look at what we are
doing — and not blink, not use euphemisms. Despite the Red
Cross' polite language, this is not "tantamount to torture."
It's torture. It is not "detainee abuse." It's torture. If they
were doing it to you, you would know it was torture. ...In the
name of Jesus Christ Almighty, why are people representing our
government, paid by us, writing filth on the Korans of helpless
prisoners? Is this American? Is it Christian? What are our moral
values? Where are the clergymen on this? |
2 C.I.A. Reports Offer Warnings on
Iraq's Path
By DOUGLAS JEHL
NYT, 7 December 2004
A classified cable sent by the Central Intelligence Agency's
station chief in Baghdad has warned that the situation in Iraq
is deteriorating and may not rebound any time soon, according to
government officials. The cable, sent late last month as the
officer ended a yearlong tour, presented a bleak assessment on
matters of politics, economics and security, the officials said.
They said its basic conclusions had been echoed in briefings
presented by a senior C.I.A. official who recently visited Iraq. |
|
45 Million Children To Die in Next
Decade Due to Rich Countries' Miserliness
by Jim Lobe
Common Dreams, 6 December 2004
Unless the world's
wealthiest countries comply with their past pledges, some 45
million children in the worlds poor countries will die
needlessly over the next decade, according
a new report released Monday by British-based development
group, Oxfam.
Despite the fact that Group of Seven (G7) countries Germany,
France, Italy, Japan, Britain, the United States, and Canada are
richer than they have ever been, they are spending only half as
much in real terms in development assistance as they did in
1960, according to the report, "Paying the Price." |
Carnage becoming Routine in Iraq:
Another Bloody Sunday
Informed Comment, 6 December 2004 |
Insurgents
Step Up Attacks in Iraq
AP via NYT, 6 December 2004
U.S. troops fought a gunbattle with insurgents along a busy
street in Baghdad on Monday, sending passers-by scurrying for
cover, witnesses said, while five U.S. troops were reported
killed in separate clashes in a volatile western province as
insurgents step up attacks ahead of next month's elections. The
violence came a day after gunmen ambushed a bus carrying unarmed
Iraqis to work at a U.S. ammo dump near Tikrit, killing 17 and
raising the death toll from three days of intensified insurgent
attacks to at least 70 Iraqis. |
Gunmen Raid U.S. Consulate in Saudi
Arabia
By CHRISTINE HAUSER
NYT, 6 December 2004
A group of attackers stormed the American Consulate in the Saudi
Arabian city of Jidda today, using explosives at the gates to
breach the outer wall and enter the compound, the Saudi Interior
Ministry said in a statement. |
Does America Know its Enemy?
AP via San Antonio Express-News, 5 December 2004
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the
result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the
enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat."
Sun Tzu,
The Art of War' |
U.S. Slows Bid to Advance Democracy in
Arab World
By JOEL BRINKLEY
NYT, 5 December 2004
When Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and other senior
American officials arrive at a summit meeting in Morocco next
week that is intended to promote democracy across the Arab
world, they have no plans to introduce any political initiatives
to encourage democratic change. ...Administration officials and
their allies defend the change in strategy, saying the United
States should no longer try to take the lead. |
Insurgents Kill 21 Iraqis in Separate
Attacks
AP via NYT, 5 December 2004
Gunmen ambushed a bus full of Iraqis working for the U.S.
military, killing 17 civilians and wounding 13 in Tikrit on
Sunday, while a car bomb and a gun attack killed four members of
the Iraqi security forces elsewhere in northern Iraq.
...Officials had hoped the Fallujah assault would put the rebels
on the defensive throughout Iraq. But the latest attacks,
including a Baghdad suicide bombing at a police station that
killed seven Saturday, showed they remain capable of hitting
where they choose. |
|
Dynamite in the Center of Town:
Bhopal at Twenty
by Joshua Karliner
CorpWatch.org, 2
December 2004 |
Iraq Adopts Terror Alert System
The Onion, 1 December 2004
The Iraqi Department of Homeland Security recently released a
10-level, color-coded homeland security advisory system that
will alert citizens to the risk of a terrorist attack within
Iraq's borders. The country's current threat level is elevated,
or Code Yellow-Orange. Citizens living in towns with populations
of 1,500 or more should prepare for the smoke of burning
vehicles to obscure the sun and expect hostages to be tortured
for several days before being killed. Should the terror risk
level rise to Code Orange-Yellow, it is likely that hostages
will be left alive only long enough to dig their own graves. |
Rumsfeld, Others May Be Investigated,
Tried by German Court
by Jessica Azulay
New Standard, 4 December 2004
In a daring application of a new German law, a US-based group
has asked German prosecutors to probe and indict 10 top American
officials for tortures committed in Iraq -- crimes from which
they have thus far been insulated. |
Up to 30 Reported Killed in Rebel
Attacks in Baghdad
By ROBERT F. WORTH and TERENCE NEILAN
NYT. 3 December 2004
Rebels made major attacks today against a Shiite mosque
and a police station in Baghdad, killing up to 30 people,
including at least 16 police officers. It was the second
straight day of attacks in Baghdad after a peri0d of relative
calm, further underscoring the capital's vulnerability to
insurgent violence as the January elections approach. |
Iraq's Silent Dead
American behavior and self-perceptions
reveal the ease with which a civilized country can engage in
large-scale killing of civilians without public discussion.
Jeffrey Sachs
TomPaine.com, December 2004
November 2004 has the dubious distinction of being tied with
April as the bloodiest months in Iraq for American soldiers. In
both months, at least 135 U.S. servicemen or women died. But
it's anyone's guess as to which months were the bloodiest for
Iraqi citizens. No one is counting their deaths—and the American
media isn't reporting on it, either. Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia
University's Earth Institute goes where the mainstream media
doesn't tread: deep into a war where civilians are targets as
often as insurgents. |
Psy-Ops and News
Juan Cole
Informed Comment, 2 December 2004 |
Restoring Relations with Europe Takes
More than Nice Words
by Ivo Daalder
Center for American Progress, 30 November 2004
Will Bush change policy in the ways his rhetoric implies? Not
likely. In the same press conference in which he said he would
reach out to friends and allies he also noted that he would
continue making decisions with little regard to the perspectives
of these same friends and allies. "I will reach out to others
and explain why I make the decisions I make." Not much comfort
to those others who, even knowing the explanation, profoundly
doubt the decisions this president has made. |
U.S. to Increase Troop Strength in Iraq by 12,000
By DAVID STOUT
NYT, 2 December 2004
American forces in Iraq will be expanded by about 12,000 troops
to provide better security as the Jan. 30 elections approach,
military officials said today.
SEE ALSO:
Pentagon to Extend Tours for Some G.I.'s
in Iraq for Vote
(AP in NYT) |
Fallouja Fight Among Deadliest in Years
for U.S.
Last month's battle left 71 American troops dead and 623
injured. But the numbers are low for such urban warfare, a
commander says.
By Patrick J. McDonnell and John Hendren
LA Times, 2 December 2004
Seventy-one U.S. troops died in the November battle to retake
the city of Fallouja, according to the top Marine commander in
Iraq, a toll significantly higher than the previous count of 51
deaths. An additional 623 American troops were wounded, said
Marine Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, up from an injury count of 425
issued more than two weeks ago. The Fallouja offensive made
November one of the two most deadly months for American military
personnel since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003. |
U.N. Blueprint for a More Secure World
Kofi Annan welcomes a report setting a stronger role for the
organization.
By Kofi A. Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations.
LA Times, 2 December 2004
The full text of "A More Secure World" can be found at
www .un.org/secureworld. |
Bush soft on democracy abroad
A Softer Tone From Bush on Ukraine Points to a Quandary for U.S.
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
NYT, 30 November 2004
Publicly, the United States has condemned the official
victory of Viktor F. Yanukovich, the prime minister and the
candidate backed by Russia, over the official loser, the
Western-leaning Viktor A. Yushchenko. Last week, Secretary of
State Colin L. Powell made an unusually tough statement warning
of "serious consequences" to the American-Ukrainian relationship
if the allegations of fraud were not cleared up. Privately,
administration officials have been in regular contact with
Russian and Ukrainian officials to push for compromise. On
Monday, Mr. Powell spoke to the Russian foreign minister, Sergey
V. Lavrov, as well as to Mr. Kuchma, and reaffirmed, Mr. Powell
said, "that we hope that the Ukrainians would find a legal way
forward." |
Inconsequential...
U.S. Generals in Iraq Were Told of
Abuse Early, Inquiry Finds
By Josh White
Washington Post, 1 December 2004
Herrington's findings are the latest in a series of
confidential reports to come to light about detainee abuse in
Iraq. Until now, U.S. military officials have characterized the
problem as one largely confined to the military prison at Abu
Ghraib -- a situation they first learned about in January 2004.
But Herrington's report shows that U.S. military leaders in Iraq
were told of such allegations even before then, and that
problems were not restricted to Abu Ghraib. Herrington, a
veteran of the U.S. counterinsurgency effort in Vietnam, warned
that such harsh tactics could imperil U.S. efforts to quell the
Iraqi insurgency -- a prediction echoed months later by a
military report and other reviews of the war effort. |
134 US killed in November, Iraqi
casualties uncounted
Car Bomb Kills Seven, Wounds 20 in Iraq
By Sabah al-Bazee
Reuters , 1 December 2004
A car bomb in a crowded market north of Baghdad killed at
least seven civilians and wounded 18 Tuesday as a U.S. military
patrol passed by. |
Also inconsequential...
Red Cross President Plans Visit to
Washington on Question of Detainees' Treatment
By NEIL A. LEWIS
NYT, 1 December 2004
Officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross said
Tuesday that the organization's president, M. Jakob Kellenberger,
was hoping to visit Washington soon to press senior Bush
administration officials about the treatment of detainees at
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Committee officials in Washington, and at
the organization's headquarters in Geneva, said that Mr.
Kellenberger had made visits to Washington before. But it was
clear that any coming visit would be used to raise at a high
level the issues contained in a Red Cross report charging that
the American military had used psychological and physical
coercion on detainees that was "tantamount to torture." |
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