Friday, June 04, 2004
Heading to D.C.; Light Blogging Ahead
"I wake up thinking about the astonishing amount of harm these people have done to our national interest on every level, and it takes a tremendous act of will not to write about it every day."- Gary Trudeau (Doonesbury)
Fahrenheit 9/11
The trailer for the Michael Moore movie: http://www.fahrenheit911.com/trailer/windows/medium.php
What’s Happening, Iraq:
Chalabi: Iranian agent? Dupe? Fall Guy?
Did the Iranians set him up, part of their masterful manipulation of the Administration, or is Chalabi the Master (less likely).
The basics:
Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi leader and former ally of the Bush administration, disclosed to an Iranian official that the United States had broken the secret communications code of Iran's intelligence service, betraying one of Washington's most valuable sources of information about Iran, according to United States intelligence officials…
The F.B.I. has opened an espionage investigation seeking to determine exactly what information Mr. Chalabi turned over to the Iranians as well as who told Mr. Chalabi that the Iranian code had been broken, government officials said. The inquiry, still in an early phase, is focused on a very small number of people who were close to Mr. Chalabi and also had access to the highly restricted information about the Iran code. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/02/politics/02CHAL.html?hp
Truthout’s William Rivers Pitt:
It is difficult to imagine a worse situation for the Bush administration than what is currently unfolding. Chalabi is completely the creation of those running the White House and the Pentagon. This is widely known. If it is true that, as they were anointing Chalabi, he was funneling Iranian disinformation straight to the highest levels of our government, who subsequently gave him intelligence data which he handed over to Iran...if this is indeed true, it is a disaster of millennial proportions for the administration. It reveals this White House to be saps, played like violins by Iran in a masterful intelligence operation that removed a long-time enemy of Tehran while setting the stage for a fundamentalist Shia regime in Iraq that would become a boon ally. How any aspect of this helps George W. Bush and his crew is hard to see. http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/060104A.shtml
Bush and Chalabi: Pulling a Kenny Boy
Chronic liars have an advantage: Many of us can’t believe that they ‘lie as they breathe’, so we give them the benefit of our doubts. Bush and Co. don’t deserve such generosity.
Recall his bragging about his long affiliation with supporter Kenneth Lay of Enron, then after Lay’s downfall, Bush claimed that Lay was a (Gov) Richards supporter when he opposed her in the ’94 Texas election. As Reagan used to say, (to Carter), ‘there you go again.’
THE PRESIDENT: Chalabi?
Q Yes, with Chalabi.
THE PRESIDENT: My meetings with him were very brief. I mean, I think I met with him at the State of the Union and just kind of working through the rope line, and he might have come with a group of leaders. But I haven't had any extensive conversations with him.
Then there was Bush last February, on Meet The Press (emphasis added):
Russert: If the Iraqis choose, however, an Islamic extremist regime, would you accept that, and would that be better for the United States than Saddam Hussein?
President Bush: They're not going to develop that. And the reason I can say that is because I'm very aware of this basic law they're writing. They're not going to develop that because right here in the Oval Office I sat down with Mr. Pachachi and Chalabi and al-Hakim, people from different parts of the country that have made the firm commitment, that they want a constitution eventually written that recognizes minority rights and freedom of religion.
Finally, this entry, from the US Embassy web site:
President Bush says he had a "good talk" for about 30 minutes November 27 with four members of Iraq's Governing Council at Baghdad International Airport, following his surprise meeting with U.S. troops there.
Briefing the White House press pool accompanying him on Air Force One as he returned to the United States after the two-and-one-half-hour stop in Baghdad, Bush said he and L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, met with Jalal Talibani, the current president of the council, Raja Habib Khuzaii, Ahmed Chalabi, and Mowaffak Rubaie. http://tokyo.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-20031201-07.html
Speaking of lies, recall the anti-French sentiment of 2002-2003:
American anger at France over its refusal to support war in Iraq reached new heights yesterday when President George Bush took a direct swipe at President Chirac.
"I doubt he'll be coming to the ranch any time soon," was Mr Bush's tart comment in an interview with NBC News, when asked about Jacques Chirac – a reference to the informal summits Mr Bush likes to hold with favored foreign leaders at his cherished retreat in Crawford, Texas. Many in his administration – by implication, himself among them – had the impression "that the French position was anti-American", the President said.
...
In Paris, one French official was told by a White House official that "I have instructions to tell you our relations have been degraded", while senior Bush aides met on Monday to decide on the nature of the punishment.
The likely sanctions will include steps to marginalize France within Nato, and efforts to downgrade or even bar French participation in US- sponsored international meetings http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0426-06.htm
Alas, reality has been altered:
"I've never been angry at the French. France has been a longtime ally."
Asked whether that meant that he would invite Mr. Chirac to the Bush ranch in Crawford, Tex., Mr. Bush replied, "If he wants to come and see cows, he's welcome to come out here and see some cows."
This time, he has Chirac’s help, as the NY Times explains:
Privately, the two men are said to believe that they have no choice except to bury their mutual anger over Iraq, find areas of agreement and move on. Mr. Bush needs the help of the Europeans, both in rebuilding Iraq and in remaking his image during the election campaign as a president who has not alienated some of America's most important allies.
Mr. Chirac has told some European counterparts in recent weeks that Mr. Bush and his aides refuse to listen to anyone and has harshly criticized the administration's handling of the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians. But he is well aware that Mr. Bush may be re-elected and that they may have to coexist for another four years. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/03/international/europe/03FRAN.html
Chalmers Johnson asks:
Please tell us more about your notion of "full sovereignty" for Iraq. Will this be like our returning Okinawan sovereignty to Japan in 1972, when we retained exclusive control over the 38 military bases on the island and the deployment and behavior of American forces on them?
Please tell us: If we plan to return Iraq to the Iraqis, why is the U.S. currently building fourteen permanent bases there? http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/index.mhtml?pid=1468
Our Withdrawal from Fallujah (and other cities) as seen by the Independent:
US marines pulled out last month and an Iraqi security force hastily formed from Saddam Hussein's old army moved in. The fighting was over as abruptly as it had begun, with US commanders lauding the peace deal.
"It's an Iraqi solution to an Iraqi problem," said a marine general optimistically. Fallujah has since become a model for dealing with the Shia uprising in the south.
But few on the ground share such optimism. There may be peace, but officers say Fallujah has simply been handed over to the insurgents.
A US officer said: "All we've succeeded in doing is paying off the mujahideen to stop shooting at us. There's a cauldron of hate out there and its going to boil over." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/06/03/wirq03.xml&site=5
And, re Allawi’s reign:
The appointment of Iyad Allawi as Iraq's interim Prime Minister this weekend was being seen as an American-backed coup which wrong-footed Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations envoy supposed to be putting together the interim government which will wield "sovereignty" after 30 June.
The more that is learnt, however, about the sudden emergence of Mr Allawi, a man close to the CIA and MI6, the more it appears the appointment of the new government has been hijacked by the ambitious politicians of the Iraqi Governing Council - the very body it was meant to replace. The only question is whom the IGC was conspiring with as its members picked jobs for themselves.
But whatever the answer, the appointment of Mr Allawi is the culmination of a series of spectacular U-turns that has given President George Bush and his administration the appearance of lurching in a panic from one flawed policy on Iraq to the next. Since last November every decision seems to have been taken with an eye to one political event alone: Mr Bush's bid for re-election this November http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=526332
More signs of Chaos
As the US spends billions to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure, there is increasing evidence that sensitive military equipment, apparently new components for oil rigs and water plants and even entire buildings are being plundered from the country. In what some experts call a massive looting operation, at least 100 semi-trailers loaded with what is billed as scrap metal are streaming each day into Jordan, one of six countries that share a border with Iraq ...
"There is a gigantic salvage operation, stripping anything of perceived value out of the country," said John Hamre, president and chief executive of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, which sent a team to Iraq and issued a report on reconstruction efforts at the request of the Pentagon last July. "This is systematically plundering the country," Mr Hamre said. http://www.theage.com.au/
Tenet’s Exit:
A CIA chief does the President’s bidding; Tenet was loyal and helpful, frequently taking the blame, though he couldn’t have been pleased with the ongoing pressure exerted on the Agency to supply ‘fitting’ intelligence.
Voter Registration: Is it Worthwhile?
Looking back to last Sunday’s Boston Globe article on the subject, it seems that voter registration has not resulted in higher voting rates, raising the question as to the worth of the Effort. We all need to do what makes us feel productive, especially to oust the Bush Crowd, but the article raises an important question:
At the same time, Motor Voter’s legacy might give pause. Apparently, motor voters don’t necessarily trend Democratic so much as apathetic. Since the law’s passage, registration is up, but voting isn’t- and the Census Bureau found that, strangely enough, fewer people said they were registered in 1996, three years after Motor Voter went into effect, than in 1992, the year before. As Wattenberg writes in his book “Where Have All the Voters Gone?” (2002), “The Motor Voter procedures apparently made registering so easy that many forgot that their names were on the voting ledgers.” www.boston.com (pay)
…seems that an equal effort needs to be expended to make sure those registrants actually vote.
Bush Gets a Lawyer:
Its import was dismissed by the White House, but consider:
Bush Knew About Leak of CIA Operative's Name
Witnesses told a federal grand jury President George W. Bush knew about, and took no action to stop, the release of a covert CIA operative's name to a journalist in an attempt to discredit her husband, a critic of administration policy in Iraq.
Their damning testimony has prompted Bush to contact an outside lawyer for legal advice because evidence increasingly points to his involvement in the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to syndicated columnist Robert Novak.
The move suggests the president anticipates being questioned by prosecutors. Sources say grand jury witnesses have implicated the President and his top advisor, Karl Rove. http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/printer_4629.shtml
” Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides”
”President George W. Bush's increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood swings has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately express growing concern over their leader's state of mind.” http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4636.shtml
What’s Happening: Congo:
The latest- uranium- from the land that’s had more than its share of tragedy since 1961,
President Joseph Kabila ordered the zone closed three months ago amid growing concerns that unregulated nuclear materials could get into the hands of so-called rogue nations or terrorist groups. Yet 1,000 miles away from the capital, Kinshasa, thousands of diggers are still hacking away at a dark cavity of open earth in this southeastern village, filling thousands of burlap sacks a day with black soil rich in cobalt, copper and radioactive uranium.
The illegal mining provides stark evidence of how little control Africa's third-largest nation has over its own nuclear resources, highlighting the government's weak authority beyond the capital in the aftermath of Congo's devastating 1998-2002 war.
"They're digging as fast as they can dig, and everyone is buying it," John Skinner, a mining engineer in the nearby town of Likasi, said of the illegal freelance mining at Shinkolobwe. "The problem is that nobody knows where it's all going. There is no control."
The raw uranium is an inadvertent addition to the miners' real prize high-grade cobalt in lucrative concentrations and there is no evidence Congo's uranium is being spirited away to terrorists. The United States, which pressured Kabila to close the mine out of concern over the uranium, said in March it did not believe there was any "worrisome movement" of the radioactive ore at Shinkolobwe.
But some proliferation experts worry because the digging is uncontrolled, and they caution that even small amounts should be tracked for misuse. http://printerfriendly.abcnews.com/printerfriendly/Print?fetchFromGLUE=true&GLUEService=ABCNewsCom
-R
"I wake up thinking about the astonishing amount of harm these people have done to our national interest on every level, and it takes a tremendous act of will not to write about it every day."- Gary Trudeau (Doonesbury)
Fahrenheit 9/11
The trailer for the Michael Moore movie: http://www.fahrenheit911.com/trailer/windows/medium.php
What’s Happening, Iraq:
Chalabi: Iranian agent? Dupe? Fall Guy?
Did the Iranians set him up, part of their masterful manipulation of the Administration, or is Chalabi the Master (less likely).
The basics:
Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi leader and former ally of the Bush administration, disclosed to an Iranian official that the United States had broken the secret communications code of Iran's intelligence service, betraying one of Washington's most valuable sources of information about Iran, according to United States intelligence officials…
The F.B.I. has opened an espionage investigation seeking to determine exactly what information Mr. Chalabi turned over to the Iranians as well as who told Mr. Chalabi that the Iranian code had been broken, government officials said. The inquiry, still in an early phase, is focused on a very small number of people who were close to Mr. Chalabi and also had access to the highly restricted information about the Iran code. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/02/politics/02CHAL.html?hp
Truthout’s William Rivers Pitt:
It is difficult to imagine a worse situation for the Bush administration than what is currently unfolding. Chalabi is completely the creation of those running the White House and the Pentagon. This is widely known. If it is true that, as they were anointing Chalabi, he was funneling Iranian disinformation straight to the highest levels of our government, who subsequently gave him intelligence data which he handed over to Iran...if this is indeed true, it is a disaster of millennial proportions for the administration. It reveals this White House to be saps, played like violins by Iran in a masterful intelligence operation that removed a long-time enemy of Tehran while setting the stage for a fundamentalist Shia regime in Iraq that would become a boon ally. How any aspect of this helps George W. Bush and his crew is hard to see. http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/060104A.shtml
Bush and Chalabi: Pulling a Kenny Boy
Chronic liars have an advantage: Many of us can’t believe that they ‘lie as they breathe’, so we give them the benefit of our doubts. Bush and Co. don’t deserve such generosity.
Recall his bragging about his long affiliation with supporter Kenneth Lay of Enron, then after Lay’s downfall, Bush claimed that Lay was a (Gov) Richards supporter when he opposed her in the ’94 Texas election. As Reagan used to say, (to Carter), ‘there you go again.’
THE PRESIDENT: Chalabi?
Q Yes, with Chalabi.
THE PRESIDENT: My meetings with him were very brief. I mean, I think I met with him at the State of the Union and just kind of working through the rope line, and he might have come with a group of leaders. But I haven't had any extensive conversations with him.
Then there was Bush last February, on Meet The Press (emphasis added):
Russert: If the Iraqis choose, however, an Islamic extremist regime, would you accept that, and would that be better for the United States than Saddam Hussein?
President Bush: They're not going to develop that. And the reason I can say that is because I'm very aware of this basic law they're writing. They're not going to develop that because right here in the Oval Office I sat down with Mr. Pachachi and Chalabi and al-Hakim, people from different parts of the country that have made the firm commitment, that they want a constitution eventually written that recognizes minority rights and freedom of religion.
Finally, this entry, from the US Embassy web site:
President Bush says he had a "good talk" for about 30 minutes November 27 with four members of Iraq's Governing Council at Baghdad International Airport, following his surprise meeting with U.S. troops there.
Briefing the White House press pool accompanying him on Air Force One as he returned to the United States after the two-and-one-half-hour stop in Baghdad, Bush said he and L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, met with Jalal Talibani, the current president of the council, Raja Habib Khuzaii, Ahmed Chalabi, and Mowaffak Rubaie. http://tokyo.usembassy.gov/e/p/tp-20031201-07.html
Speaking of lies, recall the anti-French sentiment of 2002-2003:
American anger at France over its refusal to support war in Iraq reached new heights yesterday when President George Bush took a direct swipe at President Chirac.
"I doubt he'll be coming to the ranch any time soon," was Mr Bush's tart comment in an interview with NBC News, when asked about Jacques Chirac – a reference to the informal summits Mr Bush likes to hold with favored foreign leaders at his cherished retreat in Crawford, Texas. Many in his administration – by implication, himself among them – had the impression "that the French position was anti-American", the President said.
...
In Paris, one French official was told by a White House official that "I have instructions to tell you our relations have been degraded", while senior Bush aides met on Monday to decide on the nature of the punishment.
The likely sanctions will include steps to marginalize France within Nato, and efforts to downgrade or even bar French participation in US- sponsored international meetings http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0426-06.htm
Alas, reality has been altered:
"I've never been angry at the French. France has been a longtime ally."
Asked whether that meant that he would invite Mr. Chirac to the Bush ranch in Crawford, Tex., Mr. Bush replied, "If he wants to come and see cows, he's welcome to come out here and see some cows."
This time, he has Chirac’s help, as the NY Times explains:
Privately, the two men are said to believe that they have no choice except to bury their mutual anger over Iraq, find areas of agreement and move on. Mr. Bush needs the help of the Europeans, both in rebuilding Iraq and in remaking his image during the election campaign as a president who has not alienated some of America's most important allies.
Mr. Chirac has told some European counterparts in recent weeks that Mr. Bush and his aides refuse to listen to anyone and has harshly criticized the administration's handling of the crisis between Israel and the Palestinians. But he is well aware that Mr. Bush may be re-elected and that they may have to coexist for another four years. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/03/international/europe/03FRAN.html
Chalmers Johnson asks:
Please tell us more about your notion of "full sovereignty" for Iraq. Will this be like our returning Okinawan sovereignty to Japan in 1972, when we retained exclusive control over the 38 military bases on the island and the deployment and behavior of American forces on them?
Please tell us: If we plan to return Iraq to the Iraqis, why is the U.S. currently building fourteen permanent bases there? http://www.nationinstitute.org/tomdispatch/index.mhtml?pid=1468
Our Withdrawal from Fallujah (and other cities) as seen by the Independent:
US marines pulled out last month and an Iraqi security force hastily formed from Saddam Hussein's old army moved in. The fighting was over as abruptly as it had begun, with US commanders lauding the peace deal.
"It's an Iraqi solution to an Iraqi problem," said a marine general optimistically. Fallujah has since become a model for dealing with the Shia uprising in the south.
But few on the ground share such optimism. There may be peace, but officers say Fallujah has simply been handed over to the insurgents.
A US officer said: "All we've succeeded in doing is paying off the mujahideen to stop shooting at us. There's a cauldron of hate out there and its going to boil over." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/core/Content/displayPrintable.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/06/03/wirq03.xml&site=5
And, re Allawi’s reign:
The appointment of Iyad Allawi as Iraq's interim Prime Minister this weekend was being seen as an American-backed coup which wrong-footed Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations envoy supposed to be putting together the interim government which will wield "sovereignty" after 30 June.
The more that is learnt, however, about the sudden emergence of Mr Allawi, a man close to the CIA and MI6, the more it appears the appointment of the new government has been hijacked by the ambitious politicians of the Iraqi Governing Council - the very body it was meant to replace. The only question is whom the IGC was conspiring with as its members picked jobs for themselves.
But whatever the answer, the appointment of Mr Allawi is the culmination of a series of spectacular U-turns that has given President George Bush and his administration the appearance of lurching in a panic from one flawed policy on Iraq to the next. Since last November every decision seems to have been taken with an eye to one political event alone: Mr Bush's bid for re-election this November http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=526332
More signs of Chaos
As the US spends billions to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure, there is increasing evidence that sensitive military equipment, apparently new components for oil rigs and water plants and even entire buildings are being plundered from the country. In what some experts call a massive looting operation, at least 100 semi-trailers loaded with what is billed as scrap metal are streaming each day into Jordan, one of six countries that share a border with Iraq ...
"There is a gigantic salvage operation, stripping anything of perceived value out of the country," said John Hamre, president and chief executive of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, which sent a team to Iraq and issued a report on reconstruction efforts at the request of the Pentagon last July. "This is systematically plundering the country," Mr Hamre said. http://www.theage.com.au/
Tenet’s Exit:
A CIA chief does the President’s bidding; Tenet was loyal and helpful, frequently taking the blame, though he couldn’t have been pleased with the ongoing pressure exerted on the Agency to supply ‘fitting’ intelligence.
Voter Registration: Is it Worthwhile?
Looking back to last Sunday’s Boston Globe article on the subject, it seems that voter registration has not resulted in higher voting rates, raising the question as to the worth of the Effort. We all need to do what makes us feel productive, especially to oust the Bush Crowd, but the article raises an important question:
At the same time, Motor Voter’s legacy might give pause. Apparently, motor voters don’t necessarily trend Democratic so much as apathetic. Since the law’s passage, registration is up, but voting isn’t- and the Census Bureau found that, strangely enough, fewer people said they were registered in 1996, three years after Motor Voter went into effect, than in 1992, the year before. As Wattenberg writes in his book “Where Have All the Voters Gone?” (2002), “The Motor Voter procedures apparently made registering so easy that many forgot that their names were on the voting ledgers.” www.boston.com (pay)
…seems that an equal effort needs to be expended to make sure those registrants actually vote.
Bush Gets a Lawyer:
Its import was dismissed by the White House, but consider:
Bush Knew About Leak of CIA Operative's Name
Witnesses told a federal grand jury President George W. Bush knew about, and took no action to stop, the release of a covert CIA operative's name to a journalist in an attempt to discredit her husband, a critic of administration policy in Iraq.
Their damning testimony has prompted Bush to contact an outside lawyer for legal advice because evidence increasingly points to his involvement in the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to syndicated columnist Robert Novak.
The move suggests the president anticipates being questioned by prosecutors. Sources say grand jury witnesses have implicated the President and his top advisor, Karl Rove. http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/printer_4629.shtml
” Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides”
”President George W. Bush's increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood swings has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately express growing concern over their leader's state of mind.” http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4636.shtml
What’s Happening: Congo:
The latest- uranium- from the land that’s had more than its share of tragedy since 1961,
President Joseph Kabila ordered the zone closed three months ago amid growing concerns that unregulated nuclear materials could get into the hands of so-called rogue nations or terrorist groups. Yet 1,000 miles away from the capital, Kinshasa, thousands of diggers are still hacking away at a dark cavity of open earth in this southeastern village, filling thousands of burlap sacks a day with black soil rich in cobalt, copper and radioactive uranium.
The illegal mining provides stark evidence of how little control Africa's third-largest nation has over its own nuclear resources, highlighting the government's weak authority beyond the capital in the aftermath of Congo's devastating 1998-2002 war.
"They're digging as fast as they can dig, and everyone is buying it," John Skinner, a mining engineer in the nearby town of Likasi, said of the illegal freelance mining at Shinkolobwe. "The problem is that nobody knows where it's all going. There is no control."
The raw uranium is an inadvertent addition to the miners' real prize high-grade cobalt in lucrative concentrations and there is no evidence Congo's uranium is being spirited away to terrorists. The United States, which pressured Kabila to close the mine out of concern over the uranium, said in March it did not believe there was any "worrisome movement" of the radioactive ore at Shinkolobwe.
But some proliferation experts worry because the digging is uncontrolled, and they caution that even small amounts should be tracked for misuse. http://printerfriendly.abcnews.com/printerfriendly/Print?fetchFromGLUE=true&GLUEService=ABCNewsCom
-R
Tuesday, June 01, 2004
Saudi Instability Raising Fears of oil crisis
This ‘instability is of vital import. The Guardian states it more strongly than American and Saudi media. Nick Mathiason and Mark Townsend
Oil prices are set to surge after al-Qaeda gunmen killed at least 16 people, including a Briton, and seized 50 hostages yesterday during an indiscriminate rampage through the Saudi Arabian city of Khobar.
In a day that left the oil city, in the east of the country, littered with bodies and bullet-riddled buildings and cars, the terrorists attacked four compounds housing foreign workers, seized American and Italian hostages and fought running battles through the streets.
The US embassy advised all Americans to leave the increasingly troubled country, and the Foreign Office repeated its warning for Britons to avoid all but essential travel to Saudi Arabia.
Oil analysts in London and Washington warned of severe repercussions. Economists called the attack their worst nightmare come true.
It could send oil prices above $42 a barrel, pushing the average price of petrol in Britain beyond the £4-a-gallon barrier. The rise would renew fears of a world energy crisis not seen since the early Seventies. Prices have already risen amid fears Saudi Arabia would be unable to defend its oil industry from terrorists.
Repeated attacks could push oil prices above the economically devastating $50 a barrel, City experts warn. http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4935769-110491,00.html
What’s Happening, Iraq:
The Tuesday headlines are that U.S. troops are to pulled back from military engagements and instead to provide “assistance” to the new “government.” But, elsewhere is the reality that truces are coming undone and 5 Americans died in ongoing fighting.
Meanwhile, the confusion / incompetence goes on. The Administration’s assertion that the CIA’s man Ayad Allawi has “broad support” from Iraqis was beyond laughable. Mike Allen and Robin Wright’s report:
The Bush administration appeared to be caught off guard and somewhat confused yesterday after the Iraqi Governing Council nominated a physician with longtime CIA ties as the post-occupation prime minister. Officials in Washington scrambled to respond after the Iraqis took the public lead in a process that was supposed to be run by a U.N. envoy.
In a telephone conversation at 2:30 p.m., a senior U.S. official involved in Iraq policy sounded uncertain about whether Ayad Allawi would head Iraq's interim government after the United States transfers limited authority on June 30.
"We may or may not have heard the last word on the prime minister," the official said. "You have to put a lot of pieces together first."
A senior administration official in Baghdad said that L. Paul Bremer, the civilian U.S. administrator, and Robert D. Blackwill, the U.S. presidential envoy to Iraq, knew about the impending selection on Thursday. But officials in Baghdad feared a leak and told few officials in Washington. Some members of President Bush's war cabinet knew where the process was heading but were surprised by the timing of the council's decision. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64453-2004May28?language=printer
Media: Action: Write in!CNN reporter Kelli Arena wasn’t the only one guilty of such in the last days. But this one is a grabber.
[Kelli] ARENA: Neither John Kerry nor the president has said troops pulled out of Iraq any time soon. But there is some speculation that al Qaeda believes it has a better chance of winning in Iraq if John Kerry is in the White House.
Maybe advertisements that note Al Qaeda’s support of Kerry’ are next.
If you want to say something, you can call CNN, or say hi to Ms Arena via:
Atlanta:
404-827-1500
Washington:
202-898-7900
kelli.arena@turner.com
Media: Air America: Despite some well-publicized notes that it’s having (predictable) financial difficulties, apparently they’re doing better than one would think. A preliminary analysis of radio ratings shows Air America's "The O'Franken Factor" attracting more listeners than Rush Limbaugh in New York City.
Election Ads: Record Lies from the Bushies:
Dana Milbank and Jim VandeHei’s article in Monday’s Washington Post notes the “unprecedented negativity” of the Republican effort.
It was a typical week in the life of the Bush reelection machine.
Last Monday in Little Rock, Vice President Cheney said Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry "has questioned whether the war on terror is really a war at all" and said the senator from Massachusetts "promised to repeal most of the Bush tax cuts within his first 100 days in office."
On Tuesday, President Bush's campaign began airing an ad saying Kerry would scrap wiretaps that are needed to hunt terrorists.
The same day, the Bush campaign charged in a memo sent to reporters and through surrogates that Kerry wants to raise the gasoline tax by 50 cents.
On Wednesday and Thursday, as Kerry campaigned in Seattle, he was greeted by another Bush ad alleging that Kerry now opposes education changes that he supported in 2001.
The charges were all tough, serious -- and wrong, or at least highly misleading. Kerry did not question the war on terrorism, has proposed repealing tax cuts only for those earning more than $200,000, supports wiretaps, has not endorsed a 50-cent gasoline tax increase in 10 years, and continues to support the education changes, albeit with modifications.
Scholars and political strategists say the ferocious Bush assault on Kerry this spring has been extraordinary, both for the volume of attacks and for the liberties the president and his campaign have taken with the facts. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3222-2004May30?language=printer
Anti Islamic sentiment in Britain
Fro the Guardian (Jamie Doward and Gaby Hinsliff)
Hostility towards Islam permeates every part of British society and will spark race riots unless urgent action is taken to integrate Muslim youths into society, according to a devastating report.
The Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia (CBMI), which is chaired by a key government adviser to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, warns that more and more Muslims feel excluded from society and simmering tensions, especially in northern English towns, are in danger of boiling over. http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,11374,1227977,00.html
Abuse: November ’03 Warnings
Douglas Jehl and Kate Zernike’s article sees November as when the Army was first being alerted as to the mass jailing of many on scant evidence.
Hundreds of Iraqi prisoners were held in Abu Ghraib prison for prolonged periods despite a lack of evidence that they posed a security threat to American forces, according to an Army report completed last fall.
The unpublished report, by Maj. Gen. Donald J. Ryder, reflects what other senior Army officers have described as a deep concern among some American officers and officials in Iraq over the refusal of top American commanders in Baghdad to authorize the release of so-called security prisoners. Some of those prisoners were held for interrogation at Abu Ghraib in the cellblock that became the site of the worst abuses at the prison.
General Ryder, the Army's provost marshal, reported that some Iraqis had been held for several months for nothing more than expressing "displeasure or ill will" toward the American occupying forces. The Nov. 5 report said the process for deciding which arrested Iraqis posed security risks justifying imprisonment, and for deciding when to release them, violated the Pentagon's own policies. It also said the conditions in which they were held sometimes violated the Geneva Conventions. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/30/international/middleeast/30ABUS.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Richard A. Serrano’s LA Times article pinpoints November as when the Red Cross was stating its concerns:
Nov. 6 report by the International Committee of the Red Cross gave the Army a detailed catalog of sexual and physical abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and said the military had promised to correct the problems.
The report provides details of what Army officials were told about the abuses early on and raises further questions about the adequacy of the military's response. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-prison29may29,1,3957769.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Next Bush Budget: Unsurprising Bad News:
The tax cuts for the comfortable and very wealthy continue, the cuts for those in need continue. Jonathan Weisman’s Washington Post article gave the details.
The White House put government agencies on notice this month that if President Bush is reelected, his budget for 2006 may include spending cuts for virtually all agencies in charge of domestic programs, including education, homeland security and others that the president backed in this campaign year.
The administration has widely touted a $1.7 billion increase in discretionary funding for the Education Department in its 2005 budget, but the 2006 guidance would pare that back by $1.5 billion. The Department of Veterans Affairs is scheduled to get a $519 million spending increase in 2005, to $29.7 billion, and a $910 million cut in 2006 that would bring its budget below the 2004 level.
Also slated for cuts are the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Small Business Administration, the Transportation Department, the Social Security Administration, the Interior Department and the Army Corps of Engineers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58762-2004May26?language=printer
Paul Krugman conveys his outrage
But unless taxes are increased again, the answer will have to be severe program cuts, which will fall mainly on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — because that's where the bulk of the money is.
For most families, the losses from these cuts will far outweigh any gain from lower taxes. My back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that 80 percent of all families will end up worse off; the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities will soon come out with a more careful, detailed analysis that arrives at a similar conclusion. And the only really big beneficiaries will be the wealthiest few percent of the population. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/01/opinion/01KRUG.html
Kerry Moves Further Right; Yields on Democracy
Glenn Kessler’s piece in the Washington Post describes Kerry’s making national security numero uno.
Sen. John F. Kerry indicated that as president he would play down the promotion of democracy as a leading goal in dealing with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China and Russia, instead focusing on other objectives that he said are more central to the United States' security. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A689-2004May29.html
D.C. Chaos: Known to All
The Wall Street Journal (Robert Block, Gary Fields) summarizes the problems between Homeland Security and Justice.
This week's government warning of a possible terrorist attack in the U.S. has exposed and aggravated simmering tensions between the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security over which should act as the nation's main terrorism warning bell.
Homeland Security, charged by law with analyzing intelligence to assess threats, is the lead designated agency for issuing threat advisories. But officials there say they had little advance notice before Attorney General John Ashcroft issued his broad warning on Wednesday. Moreover, Homeland Security officials believed the information being used by Justice, much of which had been known for some time, was not new or specific enough to merit an announcement or other action.
Consequently, hours before Mr. Ashcroft said "credible intelligence from multiple sources" indicated that al Qaeda is planning an attack in the U.S. in the next few months, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said on television that the information didn't warrant raising the color-coded alert level to orange from yellow. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108569612893123401,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us
-R
This ‘instability is of vital import. The Guardian states it more strongly than American and Saudi media. Nick Mathiason and Mark Townsend
Oil prices are set to surge after al-Qaeda gunmen killed at least 16 people, including a Briton, and seized 50 hostages yesterday during an indiscriminate rampage through the Saudi Arabian city of Khobar.
In a day that left the oil city, in the east of the country, littered with bodies and bullet-riddled buildings and cars, the terrorists attacked four compounds housing foreign workers, seized American and Italian hostages and fought running battles through the streets.
The US embassy advised all Americans to leave the increasingly troubled country, and the Foreign Office repeated its warning for Britons to avoid all but essential travel to Saudi Arabia.
Oil analysts in London and Washington warned of severe repercussions. Economists called the attack their worst nightmare come true.
It could send oil prices above $42 a barrel, pushing the average price of petrol in Britain beyond the £4-a-gallon barrier. The rise would renew fears of a world energy crisis not seen since the early Seventies. Prices have already risen amid fears Saudi Arabia would be unable to defend its oil industry from terrorists.
Repeated attacks could push oil prices above the economically devastating $50 a barrel, City experts warn. http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4935769-110491,00.html
What’s Happening, Iraq:
The Tuesday headlines are that U.S. troops are to pulled back from military engagements and instead to provide “assistance” to the new “government.” But, elsewhere is the reality that truces are coming undone and 5 Americans died in ongoing fighting.
Meanwhile, the confusion / incompetence goes on. The Administration’s assertion that the CIA’s man Ayad Allawi has “broad support” from Iraqis was beyond laughable. Mike Allen and Robin Wright’s report:
The Bush administration appeared to be caught off guard and somewhat confused yesterday after the Iraqi Governing Council nominated a physician with longtime CIA ties as the post-occupation prime minister. Officials in Washington scrambled to respond after the Iraqis took the public lead in a process that was supposed to be run by a U.N. envoy.
In a telephone conversation at 2:30 p.m., a senior U.S. official involved in Iraq policy sounded uncertain about whether Ayad Allawi would head Iraq's interim government after the United States transfers limited authority on June 30.
"We may or may not have heard the last word on the prime minister," the official said. "You have to put a lot of pieces together first."
A senior administration official in Baghdad said that L. Paul Bremer, the civilian U.S. administrator, and Robert D. Blackwill, the U.S. presidential envoy to Iraq, knew about the impending selection on Thursday. But officials in Baghdad feared a leak and told few officials in Washington. Some members of President Bush's war cabinet knew where the process was heading but were surprised by the timing of the council's decision. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A64453-2004May28?language=printer
Media: Action: Write in!CNN reporter Kelli Arena wasn’t the only one guilty of such in the last days. But this one is a grabber.
[Kelli] ARENA: Neither John Kerry nor the president has said troops pulled out of Iraq any time soon. But there is some speculation that al Qaeda believes it has a better chance of winning in Iraq if John Kerry is in the White House.
Maybe advertisements that note Al Qaeda’s support of Kerry’ are next.
If you want to say something, you can call CNN, or say hi to Ms Arena via:
Atlanta:
404-827-1500
Washington:
202-898-7900
kelli.arena@turner.com
Media: Air America: Despite some well-publicized notes that it’s having (predictable) financial difficulties, apparently they’re doing better than one would think. A preliminary analysis of radio ratings shows Air America's "The O'Franken Factor" attracting more listeners than Rush Limbaugh in New York City.
Election Ads: Record Lies from the Bushies:
Dana Milbank and Jim VandeHei’s article in Monday’s Washington Post notes the “unprecedented negativity” of the Republican effort.
It was a typical week in the life of the Bush reelection machine.
Last Monday in Little Rock, Vice President Cheney said Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry "has questioned whether the war on terror is really a war at all" and said the senator from Massachusetts "promised to repeal most of the Bush tax cuts within his first 100 days in office."
On Tuesday, President Bush's campaign began airing an ad saying Kerry would scrap wiretaps that are needed to hunt terrorists.
The same day, the Bush campaign charged in a memo sent to reporters and through surrogates that Kerry wants to raise the gasoline tax by 50 cents.
On Wednesday and Thursday, as Kerry campaigned in Seattle, he was greeted by another Bush ad alleging that Kerry now opposes education changes that he supported in 2001.
The charges were all tough, serious -- and wrong, or at least highly misleading. Kerry did not question the war on terrorism, has proposed repealing tax cuts only for those earning more than $200,000, supports wiretaps, has not endorsed a 50-cent gasoline tax increase in 10 years, and continues to support the education changes, albeit with modifications.
Scholars and political strategists say the ferocious Bush assault on Kerry this spring has been extraordinary, both for the volume of attacks and for the liberties the president and his campaign have taken with the facts. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A3222-2004May30?language=printer
Anti Islamic sentiment in Britain
Fro the Guardian (Jamie Doward and Gaby Hinsliff)
Hostility towards Islam permeates every part of British society and will spark race riots unless urgent action is taken to integrate Muslim youths into society, according to a devastating report.
The Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia (CBMI), which is chaired by a key government adviser to the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, warns that more and more Muslims feel excluded from society and simmering tensions, especially in northern English towns, are in danger of boiling over. http://www.guardian.co.uk/race/story/0,11374,1227977,00.html
Abuse: November ’03 Warnings
Douglas Jehl and Kate Zernike’s article sees November as when the Army was first being alerted as to the mass jailing of many on scant evidence.
Hundreds of Iraqi prisoners were held in Abu Ghraib prison for prolonged periods despite a lack of evidence that they posed a security threat to American forces, according to an Army report completed last fall.
The unpublished report, by Maj. Gen. Donald J. Ryder, reflects what other senior Army officers have described as a deep concern among some American officers and officials in Iraq over the refusal of top American commanders in Baghdad to authorize the release of so-called security prisoners. Some of those prisoners were held for interrogation at Abu Ghraib in the cellblock that became the site of the worst abuses at the prison.
General Ryder, the Army's provost marshal, reported that some Iraqis had been held for several months for nothing more than expressing "displeasure or ill will" toward the American occupying forces. The Nov. 5 report said the process for deciding which arrested Iraqis posed security risks justifying imprisonment, and for deciding when to release them, violated the Pentagon's own policies. It also said the conditions in which they were held sometimes violated the Geneva Conventions. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/30/international/middleeast/30ABUS.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Richard A. Serrano’s LA Times article pinpoints November as when the Red Cross was stating its concerns:
Nov. 6 report by the International Committee of the Red Cross gave the Army a detailed catalog of sexual and physical abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and said the military had promised to correct the problems.
The report provides details of what Army officials were told about the abuses early on and raises further questions about the adequacy of the military's response. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-prison29may29,1,3957769.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Next Bush Budget: Unsurprising Bad News:
The tax cuts for the comfortable and very wealthy continue, the cuts for those in need continue. Jonathan Weisman’s Washington Post article gave the details.
The White House put government agencies on notice this month that if President Bush is reelected, his budget for 2006 may include spending cuts for virtually all agencies in charge of domestic programs, including education, homeland security and others that the president backed in this campaign year.
The administration has widely touted a $1.7 billion increase in discretionary funding for the Education Department in its 2005 budget, but the 2006 guidance would pare that back by $1.5 billion. The Department of Veterans Affairs is scheduled to get a $519 million spending increase in 2005, to $29.7 billion, and a $910 million cut in 2006 that would bring its budget below the 2004 level.
Also slated for cuts are the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Small Business Administration, the Transportation Department, the Social Security Administration, the Interior Department and the Army Corps of Engineers. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A58762-2004May26?language=printer
Paul Krugman conveys his outrage
But unless taxes are increased again, the answer will have to be severe program cuts, which will fall mainly on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — because that's where the bulk of the money is.
For most families, the losses from these cuts will far outweigh any gain from lower taxes. My back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that 80 percent of all families will end up worse off; the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities will soon come out with a more careful, detailed analysis that arrives at a similar conclusion. And the only really big beneficiaries will be the wealthiest few percent of the population. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/01/opinion/01KRUG.html
Kerry Moves Further Right; Yields on Democracy
Glenn Kessler’s piece in the Washington Post describes Kerry’s making national security numero uno.
Sen. John F. Kerry indicated that as president he would play down the promotion of democracy as a leading goal in dealing with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, China and Russia, instead focusing on other objectives that he said are more central to the United States' security. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A689-2004May29.html
D.C. Chaos: Known to All
The Wall Street Journal (Robert Block, Gary Fields) summarizes the problems between Homeland Security and Justice.
This week's government warning of a possible terrorist attack in the U.S. has exposed and aggravated simmering tensions between the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security over which should act as the nation's main terrorism warning bell.
Homeland Security, charged by law with analyzing intelligence to assess threats, is the lead designated agency for issuing threat advisories. But officials there say they had little advance notice before Attorney General John Ashcroft issued his broad warning on Wednesday. Moreover, Homeland Security officials believed the information being used by Justice, much of which had been known for some time, was not new or specific enough to merit an announcement or other action.
Consequently, hours before Mr. Ashcroft said "credible intelligence from multiple sources" indicated that al Qaeda is planning an attack in the U.S. in the next few months, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said on television that the information didn't warrant raising the color-coded alert level to orange from yellow. http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB108569612893123401,00.html?mod=home_whats_news_us
-R
