Friday, October 22, 2004
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
CIA Report Naming Names Being Held…till after November 2: Robert Scheer has the scoop.
It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago."It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed," an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that "the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward."When I asked about the report, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she and committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) sent a letter 14 days ago asking for it to be delivered. "We believe that the CIA has been told not to distribute the report," she said. "We are very concerned." http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-scheer19oct19,1,654534,print.column?coll=la-util-op-ed
Fraud (Pennsylvania, Florida) Updates :
As per some ballots in Hamilton County, Ohio leaving off Kerry and Edwards, the reports continue.
Republican operatives working to re-elect President Bush submitted last-minute requests in Philadelphia on Friday to relocate 63 polling places.
Bush's Pennsylvania campaign staff filed the requests, using the names of two Republicans running for the U.S. Congress and seven Republican ward leaders.
Of the 63 requests for changes, 53 are in political divisions where the population of white voters is less than 10 percent.
"I think this is more evidence of Republicans working to disenfranchise low-income and minority voters," said Mark Nevins, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. John Kerry. "It's despicable."
Bob Lee, voter registration administrator for the City Commission, said the requests appear to be "discriminatory" and were filed too late to be eligible for a hearing on Wednesday.
"They're trying to suppress the vote," Lee said of Republicans.
Deborah Williams, a minister running against Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, said the Republican State Committee asked if it could use her name in the effort.
One of the polling places is in a district office of state Sen. Vince Fumo, a Democrat. Two are in local bars, 43 are allegedly inaccessible to the handicapped and 17 are in businesses or homes where voters could be intimidated, according to the requests. http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/9947413.htm
Rampant voter fraud in Florida will disqualify 200,000 mainly Democratic and African American voters on November 2, according to an article in next week’s Harper’s by Greg Palast, the BBC investigative reporter who in 2000 broke the original story regarding the infamous felon list in Florida. Palast’s findings were echoed in the October 14 New York Times Op Ed by Paul Krugman. http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=1972&blz=1
With memories of 2000 and the state's bitter fight over ballots still fresh, Floridians began casting votes Monday and within an hour problems cropped up.
In Palm Beach County, the center of the madness during the recount four years ago, a Democratic state legislator said she wasn't given a complete absentee ballot when she asked to opt for paper instead of the electronic touch-screen machines. And in Orange County, the touch-screen system briefly crashed, paralyzing voting in Orlando and its immediate suburbs.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041018/D85PUJCG0.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: Iraq Paying Reparations?! The Iraqis have been forced to pay $1.8 billion in reparations, 78% of it going to multinational corporations. That’ll help them to get on their feet.
Next week, something will happen that will unmask the upside-down morality of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. On October 21, Iraq will pay $200m in war reparations to some of the richest countries and corporations in the world.
If that seems backwards, it's because it is. Iraqis have never been awarded reparations for any of the crimes they suffered under Saddam, or the brutal sanctions regime that claimed the lives of at least half a million people, or the US-led invasion, which the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, recently called "illegal". Instead, Iraqis are still being forced to pay reparations for crimes committed by their former dictator.
Quite apart from its crushing $125bn sovereign debt, Iraq has paid $18.8bn in reparations stemming from Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion and occupation of Kuwait. This is not in itself surprising: as a condition of the ceasefire that ended the 1991 Gulf war, Saddam agreed to pay damages stemming from the invasion. More than 50 countries have made claims, with most of the money awarded to Kuwait. What is surprising is that even after Saddam was overthrown, the payments from Iraq have continued.
Since Saddam was toppled in April, Iraq has paid out $1.8bn in reparations to the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), the Geneva-based quasi tribunal that assesses claims and disburses awards. Of those payments, $37m have gone to Britain and $32.8m have gone to the United States. That's right: in the past 18 months, Iraq's occupiers have collected $69.8m in reparation payments from the desperate people they have been occupying. But it gets worse: the vast majority of those payments, 78%, have gone to multinational corporations, according to statistics on the UNCC website.
Away from media scrutiny, this has been going on for years. http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5040740-103390,00.html
Casualties:
It began with the killing of two Iraqi civilians in a suicide bomb attack against an American military convoy in the northern city of Mosul last Monday. It ended Sunday evening, when a car bomb killed seven Iraqi police officers and civilians at a Baghdad cafe where police officers had apparently broken their fast during this month of Ramadan.
A weeklong effort to tally Iraqi casualties shows soldiers, insurgents, politicians, journalists, a judge, a medic and restaurant workers among the victims. They included Dina Mohammed Hassan, a television reporter killed by three men who called her a collaborator, and Ali Hussein's son and nephew, nighttime guards who died when Americans bombed a restaurant in Falluja.
From Oct. 11 to Oct. 17, an estimated 208 Iraqis were killed in war-related incidents, significantly higher than the average week; 23 members of the United States military died over the same period. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/19/international/middleeast/19casualties.html?oref=login&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
Post War Planning:Even though the neocons were acutely aware of the steps necessary to privatize Iraq (see Naomi Klein’s September Harpers article http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html ), their general failure to anticipate what post-war Iraq would be like is now legendary. Still, I couldn’t resist posting this:
In March 2003, days before the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, American war planners and intelligence officials met at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina to review the Bush administration's plans to oust Saddam Hussein and implant democracy in Iraq.
Near the end of his presentation, an Army lieutenant colonel who was giving a briefing showed a slide describing the Pentagon's plans for rebuilding Iraq after the war, known in the planners' parlance as Phase 4-C. He was uncomfortable with his material - and for good reason.
The slide said: "To Be Provided." http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9927782.htm
Election Scenarios: 5 to contemplate:
“In the meantime, we are left with nothing to cling to but the election administrator's prayer: Lord, let this election not be close”. http://slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2108339&
Polls: Yes, still even. I’m still (since Spring) of the thought that Kerry needs either Ohio or Florida.
New Hampshire: Kerry 46, Bush 41 (Suffolk University)
Florida: Kerry 50, Bush 49 (Survey USA)
Pennsylvania: Kerry 51, Bush 45 (Survey USA)
Arkansas: Bush 51, Kerry 46 (Survey USA)
North Carolina: Bush 50, Kerry 47 (Survey USA)
Colorado: Bush 51, Kerry 45 (Gallup)
Minnesota: Bush 47, Kerry 47 (Rasmussen)
New Jersey: Kerry 49, Bush 45 (Quinnipiac)
New Jersey: Kerry 51, Bush 38 (Star-Ledger)
Ohio: Kerry 48, Bush 46 (University of Cincinnati)
Oregon: Kerry 50, Bush 44 (Research 2000)
Oregon: Bush 48, Kerry 43 (Riley Research)
Electoral:
Electoral Vote Predictor: Kerry 284, Bush 247
The Hotline: Bush 227, Kerry 214
2.004k.com: Kerry 289, Bush 232
Slate: Kerry 284, Bush 254
Race 2004: Kerry 218, Bush 205
MyDD: Kerry 316, Bush 222 http://politicalwire.com/
-R
It is shocking: The Bush administration is suppressing a CIA report on 9/11 until after the election, and this one names names. Although the report by the inspector general's office of the CIA was completed in June, it has not been made available to the congressional intelligence committees that mandated the study almost two years ago."It is infuriating that a report which shows that high-level people were not doing their jobs in a satisfactory manner before 9/11 is being suppressed," an intelligence official who has read the report told me, adding that "the report is potentially very embarrassing for the administration, because it makes it look like they weren't interested in terrorism before 9/11, or in holding people in the government responsible afterward."When I asked about the report, Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), ranking Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee, said she and committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.) sent a letter 14 days ago asking for it to be delivered. "We believe that the CIA has been told not to distribute the report," she said. "We are very concerned." http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-scheer19oct19,1,654534,print.column?coll=la-util-op-ed
Fraud (Pennsylvania, Florida) Updates :
As per some ballots in Hamilton County, Ohio leaving off Kerry and Edwards, the reports continue.
Republican operatives working to re-elect President Bush submitted last-minute requests in Philadelphia on Friday to relocate 63 polling places.
Bush's Pennsylvania campaign staff filed the requests, using the names of two Republicans running for the U.S. Congress and seven Republican ward leaders.
Of the 63 requests for changes, 53 are in political divisions where the population of white voters is less than 10 percent.
"I think this is more evidence of Republicans working to disenfranchise low-income and minority voters," said Mark Nevins, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. John Kerry. "It's despicable."
Bob Lee, voter registration administrator for the City Commission, said the requests appear to be "discriminatory" and were filed too late to be eligible for a hearing on Wednesday.
"They're trying to suppress the vote," Lee said of Republicans.
Deborah Williams, a minister running against Democratic incumbent U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, said the Republican State Committee asked if it could use her name in the effort.
One of the polling places is in a district office of state Sen. Vince Fumo, a Democrat. Two are in local bars, 43 are allegedly inaccessible to the handicapped and 17 are in businesses or homes where voters could be intimidated, according to the requests. http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/9947413.htm
Rampant voter fraud in Florida will disqualify 200,000 mainly Democratic and African American voters on November 2, according to an article in next week’s Harper’s by Greg Palast, the BBC investigative reporter who in 2000 broke the original story regarding the infamous felon list in Florida. Palast’s findings were echoed in the October 14 New York Times Op Ed by Paul Krugman. http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout5.php&id=1972&blz=1
With memories of 2000 and the state's bitter fight over ballots still fresh, Floridians began casting votes Monday and within an hour problems cropped up.
In Palm Beach County, the center of the madness during the recount four years ago, a Democratic state legislator said she wasn't given a complete absentee ballot when she asked to opt for paper instead of the electronic touch-screen machines. And in Orange County, the touch-screen system briefly crashed, paralyzing voting in Orlando and its immediate suburbs.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041018/D85PUJCG0.html
What’s Happening, Iraq: Iraq Paying Reparations?! The Iraqis have been forced to pay $1.8 billion in reparations, 78% of it going to multinational corporations. That’ll help them to get on their feet.
Next week, something will happen that will unmask the upside-down morality of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. On October 21, Iraq will pay $200m in war reparations to some of the richest countries and corporations in the world.
If that seems backwards, it's because it is. Iraqis have never been awarded reparations for any of the crimes they suffered under Saddam, or the brutal sanctions regime that claimed the lives of at least half a million people, or the US-led invasion, which the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, recently called "illegal". Instead, Iraqis are still being forced to pay reparations for crimes committed by their former dictator.
Quite apart from its crushing $125bn sovereign debt, Iraq has paid $18.8bn in reparations stemming from Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion and occupation of Kuwait. This is not in itself surprising: as a condition of the ceasefire that ended the 1991 Gulf war, Saddam agreed to pay damages stemming from the invasion. More than 50 countries have made claims, with most of the money awarded to Kuwait. What is surprising is that even after Saddam was overthrown, the payments from Iraq have continued.
Since Saddam was toppled in April, Iraq has paid out $1.8bn in reparations to the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC), the Geneva-based quasi tribunal that assesses claims and disburses awards. Of those payments, $37m have gone to Britain and $32.8m have gone to the United States. That's right: in the past 18 months, Iraq's occupiers have collected $69.8m in reparation payments from the desperate people they have been occupying. But it gets worse: the vast majority of those payments, 78%, have gone to multinational corporations, according to statistics on the UNCC website.
Away from media scrutiny, this has been going on for years. http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,5040740-103390,00.html
Casualties:
It began with the killing of two Iraqi civilians in a suicide bomb attack against an American military convoy in the northern city of Mosul last Monday. It ended Sunday evening, when a car bomb killed seven Iraqi police officers and civilians at a Baghdad cafe where police officers had apparently broken their fast during this month of Ramadan.
A weeklong effort to tally Iraqi casualties shows soldiers, insurgents, politicians, journalists, a judge, a medic and restaurant workers among the victims. They included Dina Mohammed Hassan, a television reporter killed by three men who called her a collaborator, and Ali Hussein's son and nephew, nighttime guards who died when Americans bombed a restaurant in Falluja.
From Oct. 11 to Oct. 17, an estimated 208 Iraqis were killed in war-related incidents, significantly higher than the average week; 23 members of the United States military died over the same period. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/19/international/middleeast/19casualties.html?oref=login&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
Post War Planning:Even though the neocons were acutely aware of the steps necessary to privatize Iraq (see Naomi Klein’s September Harpers article http://www.harpers.org/BaghdadYearZero.html ), their general failure to anticipate what post-war Iraq would be like is now legendary. Still, I couldn’t resist posting this:
In March 2003, days before the start of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, American war planners and intelligence officials met at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina to review the Bush administration's plans to oust Saddam Hussein and implant democracy in Iraq.
Near the end of his presentation, an Army lieutenant colonel who was giving a briefing showed a slide describing the Pentagon's plans for rebuilding Iraq after the war, known in the planners' parlance as Phase 4-C. He was uncomfortable with his material - and for good reason.
The slide said: "To Be Provided." http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9927782.htm
Election Scenarios: 5 to contemplate:
“In the meantime, we are left with nothing to cling to but the election administrator's prayer: Lord, let this election not be close”. http://slate.com/Default.aspx?id=2108339&
Polls: Yes, still even. I’m still (since Spring) of the thought that Kerry needs either Ohio or Florida.
New Hampshire: Kerry 46, Bush 41 (Suffolk University)
Florida: Kerry 50, Bush 49 (Survey USA)
Pennsylvania: Kerry 51, Bush 45 (Survey USA)
Arkansas: Bush 51, Kerry 46 (Survey USA)
North Carolina: Bush 50, Kerry 47 (Survey USA)
Colorado: Bush 51, Kerry 45 (Gallup)
Minnesota: Bush 47, Kerry 47 (Rasmussen)
New Jersey: Kerry 49, Bush 45 (Quinnipiac)
New Jersey: Kerry 51, Bush 38 (Star-Ledger)
Ohio: Kerry 48, Bush 46 (University of Cincinnati)
Oregon: Kerry 50, Bush 44 (Research 2000)
Oregon: Bush 48, Kerry 43 (Riley Research)
Electoral:
Electoral Vote Predictor: Kerry 284, Bush 247
The Hotline: Bush 227, Kerry 214
2.004k.com: Kerry 289, Bush 232
Slate: Kerry 284, Bush 254
Race 2004: Kerry 218, Bush 205
MyDD: Kerry 316, Bush 222 http://politicalwire.com/
-R
Sunday, October 17, 2004
