fuck bush

'Israeli Holocaust of Arabs will fail' | Jerusalem Post

2008-05-09T22:22:00.002-05:00

"If the Germans could not succeed in eliminating the Jewish people in the Holocaust, then neither will the campaign that the Israelis are now perpetrating against millions of Palestinians and billions of Arabs and Muslims succeed," Sheikh Kamal Khatib, deputy head of the radical northern faction of the fundamentalist Islamic Movement Friday.

60 years have passed since the Nakba, during which time our nation has been exposed to all types of attack. Today, as we mark 60 years since the Nakba, they are threatening us with a holocaust in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Iran and in all of our lands," he said, speaking at a rally marking 60 years since the Nakba, or 'catastrophe' of the Palestinian people.

"In the beginning, in 1948, we were 450,000 Palestinians and today we are but 300,000 thorns in their sides, and rocks on their chests. We vow to be Palestinian Arabs - Muslims and Christians," he said.

"We are here to stay, like the oil of the Galilee, the grapes of the Galilee, and the Jaffa orange," he continued, directing his words towards Israel.

Americans become Bush’s cannon fodder as political charlatan plays last card

2007-01-18T16:30:00.000-06:00

SaudiDebate.com - Americans become Bush’s cannon fodder as political charlatan plays last card:

Digging the hole deeper

The long and short of it is that by going from “staying the course” to changing the course in Iraq, toward a surge, President Bush has made a bad situation worse for everyone – Americans, Iraqis and the peoples of the Middle East.

US forces cannot pacify Baghdad, with or without Iraqi army and police units, whose members, at any rate, in addition to being incompetent, are notorious for placing their sectarian, ethnic and tribal loyalties above their national obligations. Last year two attempts were made at pacification of the capital and both failed.

Involving more military forces, as the lessons of Vietnam attest, is not the answer.

Time and again over the last four years, President Bush resorted to prime-time to address the nation on the situation in Iraq. Each one of those speeches, almost without exception, was replete with misjudgments of the realities on the ground, unwarranted, at times even comical, upbeat assessments, and forecasts of victories that just never materialized.

This week, against the backdrop of over 3,000 Americans killed in the war, and untold numbers of Iraqi deaths, Bush gave yet another speech to the American people whose thrust, effectively, is that their boys in uniform fighting in Iraq will soon be engaged in daily house-to-house and street-to-street combat with Iraqi militants fighting on their turf.

This segues to what the president had told his fellow-Americans in Sept. 2006 about what he thought the war in Iraq was about. “The safety of America,” he said, “depends on the outcome of the battles in the streets of Baghdad.”

Most Americans hope to God that their president will be proven wrong on that count too, for the ancient, mean streets of Baghdad are not a safe place for American boys to be hanging out in at night.

Many more sons will die while the Democrats do nothing to stop the war

2007-01-08T01:02:00.000-06:00

Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Many more sons will die while the Democrats do nothing to stop the war:

For if the Democratic Congress is unwilling to use any means at its disposal to fulfil its democratic mandate, then it will be left to the public to make their displeasure known. It is two years and tens of thousands of lives, some of them American, before the next presidential election. The American people clearly don't want this. A CBS poll last month showed that 18% wanted to see an increase in troop levels compared with 59% who want them either decreased or withdrawn completely. The question is: what are they going to do about it?

The tragic answer is probably nothing. For while opposition to the occupation is clearly broad, its depth is more difficult to fathom. 'It's rare when people seriously publicly engage,' says Leslie Cagan, the national coordinator of the largest anti-war organisation, United for Peace and Justice. 'They watch it on TV, they read about it in the newspapers. They get angry, but that doesn't necessarily mean they engage. So it's difficult to know the depth of feeling.'

We have been here before. Sensing the unpopularity of the war in Vietnam, Nixon stood for the presidency in 1968 claiming he had a secret plan to end the conflict. It was so secret the Vietnamese hadn't even heard of it. There was no doubt that feelings ran deep then, but it would be another seven years before American troops withdrew. 'How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?' a young John Kerry asked the Senate foreign relations committee in 1971. We have long known it was a mistake. Sadly, the last person to die for it is still a long way off.

Israel wants Iran bombed, so they naturally come to the US for mercenaries

2007-01-05T00:13:00.000-06:00

Israeli General urges US-Israel strike against Iran:

In a stark statement published on Saturday Brigadier General Oded Tira observed, 'President Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran. As an American strike in Iran is essential for our existence, we must help him pave the way by lobbying the Democratic Party (which is conducting itself foolishly) and US newspaper editors. We need to do this in order to turn the Iranian issue to a bipartisan one and unrelated to the Iraq failure.'

Because of the dramatic loss of political power of the Bush-Cheney administration, General Tira urges the Israel Lobby to, 'turn to Hillary Clinton and other potential presidential candidates in the Democratic Party so that they support immediate action by Bush against Iran.'

In another move designed to strengthen Bush politically, General Tira urges the Israel Lobby to exert its influence on European countries so that, 'Bush will not be isolated in the international arena again.'

As if all of that Israel-lobbying in America and Europe were not enough, General Tira proposes an even more aggressive political tactic, 'We must clandestinely cooperate with Saudi Arabia so that it also persuades the US to strike Iran. For our part, we must prepare an independent military strike by coordinating flights in Iraqi airspace with the US. We should also coordinate with Azerbaijan the use of airbases in its territory and also enlist the support of the Azeri minority in Iran. In addition, we must immediately start preparing for an Iranian response to an attack.'

Truth at last, while breaking a U.S. taboo of criticizing Israel

2007-01-03T21:17:00.000-06:00

ei: Truth at last, while breaking a U.S. taboo of criticizing Israel:

Anti-Arab bigotry is rarely condemned in Israeli public discourse, in which Palestinians are routinely construed as a 'demographic threat.' Palestinians in Israel's soccer league have played to chants of 'Death to Arabs!' Israeli academic Daniel Bar-Tal studied 124 Israeli school texts, finding that they commonly depicted Arabs as inferior, backward, violent, and immoral. A 2006 survey revealed that two-thirds of Israeli Jews would refuse to live in a building with an Arab, nearly half would not allow a Palestinian in their home, and 40 percent want the government to encourage emigration by Palestinian citizens. Last March, Israeli voters awarded 11 parliamentary seats to the Israel Beitenu Party, which advocates drawing Israel's borders to exclude 500,000 of its current Palestinian citizens.

Some say that Palestinian citizens in Israel enjoy better circumstances than those in surrounding Arab countries. Ironically, white South Africans made identical claims to defend their version of apartheid, as is made clear in books such as Antjie Krog's Country of My Skull.

Americans are awakening to the costs of our unconditional support of Israel. We urgently need frank debate to chart policies that honor our values, advance our interests, and promote a just and lasting peace in the Middle East. It is telling that it took a former president, immune from electoral pressures, to show the way.

The debate should now be extended. Are Israel's founding ideals truly consistent with democracy? Can a state established in a multiethnic milieu be simultaneously 'Jewish' and 'democratic'? Isn't strife the predictable yield of preserving the dominance of Jews in Israel over a native Palestinian population? Does our unconditional aid merely enable Israel to continue abusing Palestinian rights with impunity, deepening regional hostilities and distancing peace? Isn't it time that Israel lived by rules observed in any democracy - including equal rights for all?

Baghdad Burning: A Lynching

2007-01-01T02:49:00.000-06:00

Baghdad Burning:

It's official. Maliki and his people are psychopaths. This really is a new low. It's outrageous- an execution during Eid. Muslims all over the world (with the exception of Iran) are outraged. Eid is a time of peace, of putting aside quarrels and anger- at least for the duration of Eid.

This does not bode well for the coming year. No one imagined the madmen would actually do it during a religious holiday. It is religiously unacceptable and before, it was constitutionally illegal. We thought we'd at least get a few days of peace and some time to enjoy the Eid holiday, which coincides with the New Year this year. We've spent the first two days of a holy holiday watching bits and pieces of a sordid lynching.

America the savior… After nearly four years and Bush's biggest achievement in Iraq has been a lynching. Bravo Americans.

Maliki has made the mistake of his life. His signature and unhidden glee at the whole execution, especially on the first day of Eid Al Adha (the Eid where millions of Muslims make a pilgrimage to Mecca), will only do more to damage his already tattered reputation. He's like a vulture in a suit (or a balding weasel). It's almost embarrassing. I kept expecting Muwafaq Al Rubaii to run over and wipe the drool from the corner of his mouth as he signed for the execution. Are these the people who represent the New Iraq? We're in so much more trouble than I ever thought.

And no- not the celebrations BBC are claiming. With the exception of a few areas, the streets are empty.

...

From the video that was leaked, it was not an executioner who yelled "long live Muqtada al-Sadr". See, this is another low the Maliki government sunk to- they had some hecklers conveniently standing by during the execution. Maliki claimed they were "some witnesses from the trial", but they were, very obviously, hecklers. The moment the noose was around Saddam's neck, they began chanting, in unison, "God's prayers be on Mohamed and on Mohamed's family…" Something else I didn't quite catch (but it was very coordinated), and then "Muqtada, Muqtada, Muqtada!" One of them called out to Saddam, "Go to hell…" (in Arabic). Saddam looked down disdainfully and answered "Heya hay il marjala…?" which is basically saying, "Is this your manhood…?".

Someone half-heartedly called out to the hecklers, "I beg you, I beg you- the man is being executed!" They were slightly quieter and then Saddam stood and said, "Ashadu an la ilaha ila Allah, wa ashhadu ana Mohammedun rasool Allah…" Which means, "I witness there is no god but Allah and that Mohammed is His messenger." These are the words a Muslim (Sunnis and Shia alike) should say on their deathbed. He repeated this one more time, very clearly, but before he could finish it, he was lynched.

...

Then again, one could argue that it was a judge who gave them that false information. A judge on the Iraqi appeals court- one of the judges who ratified the execution order. Everyone knows Iraqi judges under American tutelage never lie- that explains CNN's confusion.

Muwafaq Al Rubai was said he was "weak and frightened". Apparently, Rubai saw a different lynching because according to the video they leaked, he didn't look frightened at all. His voice didn't shake and he refused to put on the black hood. He looked resigned to his fate, and during the heckling he looked as defiant as ever. (It's quite a contrast to Muhsin Abdul Hameed's public hysterics last year when the Americans raided his home.)

It's one thing to have militias participating in killings. This is allegedly the democracy the Americans flaunt. Is this how bloodthirsty and frightening we've become? Is this what Iraq stands for now? Executions? I'm sure the rest of the Arab countries will be impressed.

One of the most advanced countries in the world did not help to reconstruct Iraq, they didn't even help produce a decent constitution. They did, however, contribute nicely to a kangaroo court and a lynching. A lynching shall go down in history as America's biggest accomplishment in Iraq. So who's next? Who hangs for the hundreds of thousands who've died as a direct result of this war and occupation? Bush? Blair? Maliki? Jaffari? Allawi? Chalabi?

Saddam a martyr

2006-12-31T00:17:00.000-06:00

Saddam a martyr - lawyers: World: Iraqi Dossier: News24:

Lawyers for Iraqi ex-president Saddam Hussein said his execution on Saturday was a 'political assassination' and that the former leader died 'a martyr', according to a statement.

'President Saddam Hussein died a martyr... faced with the power and injustice of those who stole his rights from him as well as those of his own defence,' said the statement.

'The martyr chose his martyr path voluntarily and consciously to highlight that the struggle between law and power would not end here,' it said.

'The defence team will not close the book on this matter and will pursue its struggle, using all legal paths available locally and internationally until public opinion gets the truth about this political assassination.'

The lawyers repeated their assertions that the trial was a 'masquerade' and 'a flagrant violation of international law'.

Saddam 'will remain a symbol for all those who fight against law by force ... and he is now in Paradise, God willing,' said the statement.

A dictator created then destroyed by America

2006-12-30T00:23:00.000-06:00

Independent Online Edition > Robert Fisk:

[H]istory will record that the Arabs and other Muslims and, indeed, many millions in the West, will ask another question this weekend, a question that will not be posed in other Western newspapers because it is not the narrative laid down for us by our presidents and prime ministers - what about the other guilty men?

No, Tony Blair is not Saddam. We don't gas our enemies. George W Bush is not Saddam. He didn't invade Iran or Kuwait. He only invaded Iraq. But hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians are dead - and thousands of Western troops are dead - because Messrs Bush and Blair and the Spanish Prime Minister and the Italian Prime Minister and the Australian Prime Minister went to war in 2003 on a potage of lies and mendacity and, given the weapons we used, with great brutality.

In the aftermath of the international crimes against humanity of 2001 we have tortured, we have murdered, we have brutalised and killed the innocent - we have even added our shame at Abu Ghraib to Saddam's shame at Abu Ghraib - and yet we are supposed to forget these terrible crimes as we applaud the swinging corpse of the dictator we created.

Who encouraged Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, which was the greatest war crime he has committed for it led to the deaths of a million and a half souls? And who sold him the components for the chemical weapons with which he drenched Iran and the Kurds? We did. No wonder the Americans, who controlled Saddam's weird trial, forbad any mention of this, his most obscene atrocity, in the charges against him. Could he not have been handed over to the Iranians for sentencing for this massive war crime? Of course not. Because that would also expose our culpability.

And the mass killings we perpetrated in 2003 with our depleted uranium shells and our 'bunker buster' bombs and our phosphorous, the murderous post-invasion sieges of Fallujah and Najaf, the hell-disaster of anarchy we unleashed on the Iraqi population in the aftermath of our 'victory' - our 'mission accomplished' - who will be found guilty of this? Such expiation as we might expect will come, no doubt, in the self-serving memoirs of Blair and Bush, written in comfortable and wealthy retirement.

Eid Mubarak!

2006-12-29T23:00:00.000-06:00

JUSGlobal - press release:

Eid Mubarak!

On the occasion of Eid Al-Adha, 1427, we would like to take a moment to send our sincere greetings to you and your family on this blessed occasion and to share the good news of the Islamic awakening that is upon us.

As the end of the year approaches, we would also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Muslims on the progress we have made during this past year. Many more of you now see that the Ummah is a nation at war against an aggressive American foreign policy that will not stop until our lands are decimated, our resources are pilfered and our religion has been subdued. Many more of you now see that the events of 911 were not the beginning of this war but were a response to a decade of abuse beginning with the occupation of the land of the two holy mosques, the brutal embargo that killed over 1 million of our children in Iraq, and the indiscriminate bombings of Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq and the continuing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that has gone on for half a decade.

It is no longer hidden from any of us, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, that America’s agenda has nothing to do with “terrorists” and has everything to do with controlling Muslim land, resources and minds. Five years on in this so-called war on terror the Mujahideen have proven once again that Allah is capable of all things.

In Afghanistan, Commander of the Faithful Mullah Omar has waged an unprecendeted defense after US forces claimed to be “moping up” in 2002. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has been formed, Shariah law has been implemented in the that lands it controls and Afghans are flocking to support the Mujahideen.

Moreover, in Iraq, three years on in the illegal occupation of the country, our second Islamic Emirate has been formed, the new Islamic State of Iraq, and our Mujahideen have put up an impressive and relentless resistance against the worlds largest superpower proving that all the military hardware in the world can not defeat the hand made weapons of the Mujahideen if Allah wills it. The Islamic awakening is indeed occurring among the youth and the sincere ones and Allah has honored their efforts. The US is now entrenched in a war it can not win and both Muslims and non-Muslims are awakening to the real agenda behind this current assault on Islam.

While the media battle remains front and center in this conflict, like all the others, it is also a difficult battle. With mainstream news reporting having digressed to merely party-line propaganda, now more than the Muslim voices must speak. At JUS, over the past year, we have brought back the popular Jihad Unspun as a free daily news source in order to counter the sea of misinformation. We have repositioned JUSone to a news magazine with indpeth articles that reflect the thoughts and views of Muslims and we are working on a variety of initiatives to better our reach and effectiveness.

The Long and Miserable Life of George W. Bush

2006-12-29T11:35:00.000-06:00

This from my DailyKos diary

As the grandson of a Nazi-sympathizer, and the son of a war-criminal, what could we have really expected? As the son of a mother who lifted her leg and pissed on the victims of Katrina; and the brother of someone whose baby-sitter somehow killed herself by running herself over with her own car; and another brother who has lived a, lets say, dubious life, what could we have really expected? After failing at every single venture he had ever attempted; after executing more people in the State of Texas than any other Governor to ever serve in the United States; after stealing the election in 2000; lying America into war; stealing the election in 2004; and lying about the Democrats in 2006, what could we have really expected?

The short answer is: Nothing good.

The longer answer is still being written in front of our eyes. Soon the 3000th body will drop dead to the ground in Iraq; the 30,000th will become wounded, and possibly disfigured physically, if not mentally, forever. Soon the next uncounted innocent Iraqi will die. The damage to the unborn is yet to come, but can be expected.

Soon, Saddam Hussein will be dead. After receiving decades of support from successive Administations; after receiving Weapons of Mass Destruction from the American government; after being given the green-light to reclaim what Iraq still considered its Nineteenth Province in 1991; after over a million of his citizens were killed thanks to sanctions created, for all practical purposes, by the United States; after not receiving a fair trial; Saddam will hang.

But we have bigger problems that hanging a thousand Saddam's would not cure. It is our President, not their President, who used chemical weapons in Fallujah. It was our President, not their President, who tortured hundreds in the pursuit of his extreme ideology. It was, our President, not theirs, that used the CIA torture flights in violation of International Law. It is our President, and not theirs, who has created 1.5 million Iraqi refugees as a result of his illegal war. It is our President, and not theirs, who took away our civil rights; who tapped our calls; who terrorized us with the threats of impending attacks that were never real; who can make any one of us an 'enemy combatant' and lock us away in a legal black-hole for the rest of our lives. That was not Saddam Hussein, that is George Bush.

And it is not over: Will our President, this delusional, dim-witted, idiot listen to the voices in his head and decide to invade Syria, Iran, or North Korea? Will felons and re-tread war-criminals continue to befoul the White House? Will the media continue to lie for this man? Will the right-wing propagandists continue to blame American citizens who do not have what it takes to 'win in Iraq'?

Will the Opposition Party grow a stronger spine in time to defend our Constitution, and toss this murderer to the curb? Or, will they simply write letters that never get answered, and tell us why impeachment just isn't the right thing to do? Will the leader in the Senate wake from his perpetual state of slumber and actually fight?

The other President is being hanged; but, after all this, one must wonder whether the rope could possibly hold two. There has never been a more disgusting, murdering, lying, repulsive, animal to suck air into its lungs in the past sixty-one years. And, he is the President of the United States--for another 752 days...

683 people killed in the conflict in 2006

2006-12-27T13:38:00.000-06:00

B'Tselem - Press Releases - 28 Dec. 06: 683 people killed in the conflict in 2006:

B'Tselem publishes its 2006 annual statistics. This past year, we witnessed a deterioration in the human rights situation in the Occupied Territories , particularly in the increase in civilians killed and the destruction of houses and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. At the same time, there was an improvement regarding violations of the right to life of Israeli civilians.

Casualties (figures in parenthesis indicate the total figure since the beginning of the intifada)

According to B'Tselem's research, from January to December 27, 2006, Israeli security forces killed 660 (4005) Palestinians in the West Bank and in Israel . This includes 141 (811) minors. At least 322 (1920) of those killed did not take part in the hostilities at the time they were killed. Another 22 (210) were targets of assassinations. In the Gaza Strip alone, since the capture of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, Israeli forces killed 405 Palestinians, including 88 minors. Of these, 205 did not participate in the fighting when killed.

Palestinians killed 17 (701) Israeli civilians in 2006, both in the West Bank and inside Israel . This includes 1 (119) minor. In addition, Palestinians killed 6 (316) members of the Israeli security forces.

House Demolitions

Israel demolished 292 houses military operations in the Occupied Territories , 279 of them in the Gaza Strip. These were home to 1,769 people. Some 80 of these demolitions were conducted after the home-owners received advance warning to the demolition. In addition, Israel demolished 42 homes in East Jerusalem that were built without a permit. These were home to about 80 people.

Checkpoints and restrictions on movement

Deep within the West Bank, Israel currently maintains 54 permanent checkpoints, staffed most of the time. 12 other checkpoints are within the city of Hebron . In addition, according to UN OCHA, there are on average some 160 flying checkpoints throughout the West Bank every week. In addition to the checkpoints, the Israeli military has erected hundreds of physical obstacles such as concrete blocks, dirt piles and trenches to restrict access to Palestinian communities. Palestinians have restricted access to some 41 roadways in the West Bank . Israelis have unlimited access to these roadways.

Prisoners and Detainees

As of November, Israel held 9,075 Palestinians in custody, including 345 minors. Of these, 738 (22 minors) were held in administrative detention, without trial and without knowing the charges against them.

Israel blocks another UN fact-finding mission in Beit Hanoun | Bush's State Department not interested in pursuing the issue either

2006-12-23T21:22:00.000-06:00

ei: Israel blocks another UN fact-finding mission:

Israel has shut down another internationally mandated investigation of its military actions. Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and his high-level fact-finding mission, authorized by the UN's Human Rights Council, have been refused entry by Israel for so long that they have been forced to call off the visit. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mark Regev disingenuously claimed that Israel had not denied entry, but simply not yet reached a decision. The families of the 19 Palestinian civilians slain at Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on 8 November 2006 will apparently not see even an approximation of justice at this time.

Tutu and Professor Christine Chinkin noted in an 11 December 2006 statement:

...We find the lack of co-operation by the Israeli Government very distressing, as well as its failure to allow the Mission timely passage to Israel. This is a time in our history that neither allows for indifference to the plight of those suffering, nor a refusal to search for a solution to the present crisis in the region.

State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack in his 9 November 2006 press conference made clear the United States is unprepared to push Israel on its investigation:

Well, look, we or nobody else can do an investigation. Israel is a democracy and as such it will look into these matters and determine what exactly happened. They have done that in the past. We, as well as others, when there have been terrible accidents around the world because of military actions, have investigated these things. If there were mistakes that were made that contravene regulations, we have held our own people to account and I expect that that is the same type of approach that the Israeli Government would take. That is the way democracies work.

...

[I]t's not up to the United States or anybody else to investigate this matter on the Israeli side. We have full faith that they will investigate it. They take this very seriously. They have-I think they understand exactly what happened and they are taking it seriously.

In other words, Israeli impunity seems certain to continue.

With American assurances such as those proffered by McCormack, there is little reason to doubt that Israeli officials thought they would be able to keep the international community out of any investigation. After all, in 2002 Israel successfully placed one impediment after another in front of the team of UN professionals that was supposed to investigate Israel's military actions in Jenin. Eventually, an impotent UN was unable to carry out an investigation of suspected war crimes. In regard to Jenin, Peter Bouckaert, senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, declared in a 3 June 2002 press release:

The abuses we documented in Jenin are extremely serious, and in some cases appear to be war crimes. Criminal investigations are needed to ascertain individual responsibility for the most serious violations. Such investigations are first and foremost the duty of the Israeli government, but the international community needs to ensure that meaningful accountability occurs.

The international community never did hold Israel accountable. On 8 November more innocent Palestinian civilians paid a terrible cost for the ongoing failures of the international community.

James Baker evaded Iraq sanctions to collect a quick $30,000,000 cut | Member emeritus of the Bush Crime Family used Israelis to avoid US sanctions

2006-12-22T13:14:00.000-06:00

Arutz Sheva - Israel National News:

Baker hired Nir Gouaz, president of Caesar Global Securities in Israel, to collect a debt from the Hussein regime in 1998.

Baker is a senior partner at the Houston-based law firm Baker Botts, which made some $30 million in fees from the deal that the Israeli businessman mediated.

Gouaz said the Iraqi regime owed some $1.65 billion to the Korean Hyundai Engineering firm for a series of construction projects on which it defaulted in the wake of the Gulf War. U.S. legal sanctions on Iraq did not apply to Israelis, hence Baker’s request that Gouaz mediate the deal. The Bank of Jordan was also involved in the transactions.

Palestinians have become targets in Iraq's chaos

2006-12-22T02:56:00.000-06:00

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 12/21/2006 | Palestinians have become targets in Iraq's chaos:

For half an hour last week, mortar rounds rained down on Baghdad's largest Palestinian enclave. Neither Iraqi police at a station nearby nor U.S. troops at a base adjacent to the neighborhood responded.

At the end of the attack, the Palestinians counted their losses: six dead and 29 injured, including a repairman next to the compound's generator, two neighborhood boys with their heads and stomachs split open in the billiards hall, and the bean-seller beside his pushcart who screamed 'Save me!' before he died.

Most heartbreaking, survivors said, were the corpses of 14-year-old Noura Mohamed, who was decapitated while standing in her garden, and 13-year-old A'isha Ahmed, who was hit by the last mortar of the evening as she stood on a balcony to check on her brother and father as they helped the wounded.

It was the bloodiest assault so far in what has become a long stream of attacks on Palestinians, whose community has been here since the establishment of Israel in 1948 but who've never been granted Iraqi citizenship.

The United Nations refugee agency condemned the barrage, which it blamed on Shiite Muslim militiamen of the Mahdi Army, and blasted U.S. and Iraqi troops for failing to protect the Palestinians.

Iraqi officials shrugged off the incident, saying everyone in Iraq is a target and that Palestinians should approach the Iraqi interior ministry - which is widely infiltrated by Shiite militias - instead of complaining to aid agencies.

Bush Crime Family editing opinion pieces critical of impending invasion into Iran | Daddy Bush Felon Eliot Abrams involved in the cover-up

2006-12-21T16:33:00.000-06:00

The Washington Note:

Informed Comment has more on this.

UPDATE: The piece the crime family is trying to edit can be found here in its full version. The New York Times printed an edited version on 12/22. Here is an explanation of the deleted portions, also from the 12/22 New York Times.

These comments from a letter written by Flynt Leverett, 'a former government official who worked at the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of State, and on the National Security Council staff of the George W. Bush administration, is now a senior fellow and Director of the Geopolitics of Energy Initiative at the New America Foundation':

Mr. Pollack also supports the administration's reluctance to engage with Iran, in contrast to my consistent and sharp criticism of that position. It would seem that, if one is expounding views congenial to the White House, it does not intervene in prepublication censorship, but, if one is a critic, White House officials will use fraudulent charges of revealing classified information to keep critical views from being heard. My understanding is that the White House staffers who have injected themselves into this process are working for Elliott Abrams and Megan O'Sullivan, both politically appointed deputies to President Bush's National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley.

Their conduct in this matter is despicable and un-American in the profoundest sense of that term. I am also deeply disappointed that former colleagues at the Central Intelligence Agency have proven so supine in the face of tawdry political pressure. Intelligence officers are supposed to act better than that.

For more on this felon now inside the Bush Crime Family, see the following links:

Track his criminal past with Reagan, and the Bush's here
Most recently:

Abrams' involvement in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict is unclear. According to an unnamed U.S. government consultant “with close ties to Israel” interviewed by Seymour Hersh, Israel had put together bombing plans long before Hezbollah kidnapped the two Israeli soldiers, which set off the conflict. As they developed their plans early this summer, according to the consultant, Israeli officials went to Washington “to get a green light for the bombing operation and to find out how much the United States would bear … Israel began with Cheney. It wanted to be sure that it had his support and the support of his office and the Middle East desk [where Abrams is ensconced] of the National Security Council” (New Yorker, August 21, 2006).

Eliot Abrams: From Iran-Contra to Bush's Democracy Czar

Iran-Contra Figure to Lead Democracy Efforts Abroad

Back in Political Forefrunt: Iran-Contra Figure Plays Key Role in Mideast

And this beauty from March 2003, regarding the aftermath of Iraq

"We recognize that military action in Iraq, if necessary, will have adverse humanitarian consequences," Abrams said at a news conference Monday. "We have been planning over the last several months, across all relevant agencies, to limit any such consequences and provide relief quickly."

Abrams said the U.S. military plan was "carefully tailored" to limit the displacement of Iraqi civilians and damage to the country's infrastructure in hopes of minimizing the humanitarian crisis.

Further evidence that the world hates the US 'because we can buy houses here' and because 'they hate freedom' | A piece from North Korea

2006-12-21T15:01:00.000-06:00

The Few, the Proud: Marine Charged in Killings of 24 Iraqi Civilians | Wuterich, the animal, orders others to "shoot first and ask questions later"

2006-12-21T13:22:00.000-06:00

Squad Leader Charged in Killings of 24 Iraqi Civilians - New York Times:

A Marine Corps squad leader was charged Thursday with 13 counts of murder in the killings of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha last year, his attorney said, and other Marines are expected to be charged.

Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich was charged with 12 counts of murdering individuals, plus one count of murdering six people by ordering Marines under his charge to ''shoot first and ask questions later'' when they entered a house, according to charging sheets released by defense attorney Neal Puckett.

Iraq: More Hellish Now Than Under Saddam | Son of Bush continues his Oedipal battle to cause more death, destruction, and bloodshed than his father

2006-12-20T16:56:00.000-06:00

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Iraq: More Hellish Now Than Under Saddam:

The tragedy unleashed by the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq defies description.

According to the most recent findings of the Lancet medical journal, the number of 'excess deaths' in Iraq since the U.S. invasion is more than 650,000. 'Iraq is the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world,' according to Refugee International: nearly two million Iraqis have fled the country entirely, while at least another 500,000 are internally displaced.

Basic foods and necessities are beyond the reach of ordinary Iraqis because of massive inflation. 'A gallon of gasoline cost as little as 4 cents in November. Now, after the International Monetary Fund pushed the Oil Ministry to cut its subsidies, the official price is about 67 cents,' the New York Times notes. 'The spike has come as a shock to Iraqis, who make only about $150 a month on average -- if they have jobs,' an important proviso, since unemployment is roughly 60-70 percent nationally.

October 2006 proved to be the bloodiest month of the entire occupation, with more than six thousand civilians killed in Iraq, most in Baghdad, where thousands of additional U.S. troops have been sent since August with the claim they would restore order and stability in the city, but instead only sparked more violence. United Nations special investigator Manfred Nowak notes that torture 'is totally out of hand' in Iraq. 'The situation is so bad many people say it is worse than it has been in the times of Saddam Hussein.' The number of U.S. soldiers dead is now more than 2,900, with more than 21,000 wounded, many severely.

The underlying trend is clear: Each day the occupation continues, life gets worse for most Iraqis. Rather than stemming civil war or sectarian conflict, the occupation is spurring it. Rather than being a source of stability, the occupation is the major source of instability and chaos.

Bush, listening to the voices of death in his head, set to send 30,000 more potential corpses to the pyre for the sake of his ideology and legacy

2006-12-20T14:07:00.000-06:00

Bush defies commanders by bolstering troops | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited:

George Bush today confirmed that a temporary increase in US troops for Iraq is under consideration, despite the opposition of his top generals.

In an interview with the Washington Post, the US president also acknowledged for the first time that the US is not winning the war in Iraq, reversing a declaration in November when he said: 'Absolutely we're winning'.

Mr Bush is expected to unveil his new strategy for Iraq early in the new year. Despite the opposition of his joint chiefs of staff and his top commander in the Middle East, General John Abizaid, the president appears to be leaning towards the idea of a temporary surge - six to eight months - of 20,000 to 30,000 troops in 'one last big push'.

The president has, however, persuaded Tony Blair of the need not to set a timetable to pull troops out of Iraq, according to Iraq's vice president.

Speaking to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York yesterday, Tareq al-Hashemi reportedly said that the prime minister was originally in favour of a timetable but was 'brainwashed' by Mr Bush into changing his mind on the subject.

Assassinating Gemeyel and blaming Syria was just a start for Bush | Syria in Bush's Crosshairs

2006-12-19T23:01:00.000-06:00

TIME.com: Syria in Bush's Crosshairs:

American officials say the U.S. government has had extensive contacts with a range of anti-Assad groups in Washington, Europe and inside Syria. To give momemtum to that opposition, the U.S. is giving serious consideration to the election- monitoring scheme proposed in the document, according to several officials. The proposal has not yet been approved, in part because of questions over whether the Syrian elections will be delayed or even cancelled. But one U.S. official familiar with the proposal said: 'You are forced to wonder whether we are now trying to destabilize the Syrian government.'

Some critics in Congress and the Administration say that such a plan, meant to secretly influence a foreign government, should be legally deemed a 'covert action,' which by law would then require that the White House inform the intelligence committees on Capitol Hill. Some in Congress would undoubtedly raise objections to this secret use of publicly appropriated funds to promote democracy.

Bush bows down to his two keepers: The House of Saud and Israel | US considers naval build-up as warning to Iran

2006-12-19T22:41:00.000-06:00

US considers naval build-up as warning to Iran | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited:

The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D Eisenhower has been in the region since September, along with four other ships and submarines carrying 6,500 sailors. The navy could move other carriers into the region within six weeks. The USS Stennis, a cruiser which was scheduled to deploy in early 2007 in any event, would be the most likely ship to be deployed.

However, if the US were to contemplate a military strike, it would need far more than two carriers, said Reva Bhalla, an analyst at Strategic Forecasting Inc. The US deployed five carriers ahead of the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Outgoing UN secretary general Kofi Annan said yesterday that military intervention in Iran would be 'unwise and disastrous', as the Security Council debated a resolution that would impose sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme. 'I believe that the council, which is discussing the issue, will proceed cautiously and try and do whatever it can to get a negotiated settlement,' he said.

The latest draft resolution would order all countries to ban the supply of specified materials and technology that could contribute to Iran's nuclear programmes.

Reports that the US is leaning towards an even stronger posture against Iran reflects indications that Washington wants to deepen its military presence in the region. It follows warnings from Saudi Arabia that it would fund Sunni militias in Iraq in the event of a US troop withdrawal. 'The aircraft carrier is a way of assuring the Saudis that the inclination is to do more rather than less, and that we are not going to leave them in the lurch,' said John Pike, a military analyst.

Another Bush Lie Exposed | Iraqi Women's Bodies Are Battlefields for War Vendettas

2006-12-19T19:15:00.000-06:00

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Iraqi Women's Bodies Are Battlefields for War Vendettas:

Almost four years into the Bush Administration's ill fated adventure in Iraq, Iraqi women are worse off than they were under the Baathist regime in a country where, for decades, the freedoms and rights enjoyed by Iraqi women were the envy of women in most other countries of the Middle East.

Before the U.S. invasion, Iraqi women had high levels of education. Their strong and independent women's movement had successfully forced Saddam's government to pass the groundbreaking 1959 Family Law Act which ensured equal rights in matters of personal law. Iraqi women could inherit land and property; they had equal rights to divorce and custody of their children; they were protected from domestic violence within the marriage. In other words, they had achieved real gains in the struggle for equality between women and men. Iraqi women, like all Iraqis, certainly suffered from the political repression and lack of freedom, but the secular -- albeit brutal -- Baathist regime protected women from the religious extremism that denies freedom to a majority of women in the Arab world.

The invasion of Iraq, however, changed the status of Iraqi women for the worse. Iraq's new colonial power, the United States, elevated a new group of leaders, most of who were allied with ultra conservative Shia clerics. Among the Sunni minority, the quick disappearance of their once dominant political power led to a resurgence of religious identity. Consequently, the Kurds, celebrated for their history of resistance to the Iraqi dictator, were able to reclaim traditions like honor killings, putting thousands of women at risk.

Iraqi sectarian conflict has exacerbated violence against women, making women's bodies the battlefields on which vendettas and threats are played out. My organization, The Global Fund for Women, and the humanitarian community has long known that the presence of military troops in a region of conflict increases the rate of prostitution, violence against women, and the potential for human trafficking.

Blood-thirsty Right-Wing Extremists ready themselves for fresh Iraqi blood | Their only fear? Will the American public let it continue?

2006-12-19T17:32:00.000-06:00

A WHOLE NEW WAR By JOHN PODHORETZ - New York Post Online Edition: Seven:

Can it work?

That may be the wrong question. The right question may be: Will America allow it to work?

When you use an army to 'establish security,' you are not engaging a police force. You are assigning the task to highly armed men who aren't trained as police officers. You are talking about sending soldiers door to door, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood.

They're going to shoot people. They're going to blow up buildings, as they did in Fallujah.

They're going to be engaged in firefights by insurgents, and they're going to return fire. That will result in civilian casualties on the streets of Baghdad (or, as we saw in Lebanon last summer, in insurgent and militia casualties that we will be told falsely are civilian casualties).

What happens when these horrible tragedies of war occur? Will America's leading centrists - the politicians, anchorpersons, editorialists, writers and speakers who haven't quite given up on the mission in Iraq - discuss these events as part and parcel of an effort to save the people of Baghdad from chaos and carnage as we attempt to act decisively to win the war?

Or will they, instead, retreat in horror from the images on their TV sets and denounce the barbarous nature of the new U.S. mission? Will they see the battle for Baghdad as a heroic and dangerous task or as the new Abu Ghraib on a larger scale?

The toxic nature of the discussion on Iraq guarantees there will be Abu Ghraib-like talk from some quarters. If it becomes the dominant talking point, there's no way we will be able to sustain the mission, for it will be derailed by war-crime accusations and congressional hearings.

Blair gets smacked by UK Think Tank appraisal of his performance as Bush's lap-dog

2006-12-19T17:09:00.000-06:00

Al Jazeera English - Europe:

Terrible mistake

The report said Blair's support for the US-led invasion of Iraq was a 'terrible mistake' leading to a 'debacle' that will have repercussions on policy for years. It said: 'The root failure [of Blair's foreign policy] has been the inability to influence the Bush administration in any significant way despite the sacrifice - military, political and financial - that the United Kingdom has made.'

Chatham House also said that the British prime minister had been unable to prevent Britain's standing in the Middle East from sliding.

The report also said Blair had been slow to realise the consequences of a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan on the back of drug-trafficking. It said this was 'unforgivable given the link between heroin consumption on British streets and the strengthening of warlordism in Afghanistan'.

Lord Wallace, former director of studies at Chatham House, told Al Jazeera's Inside Story programme that the UK did not wield influence over the US as popular perception is led to believe.

'There is a lot of myth about how special our relationship is with the US. We shouldn't assume that we are more special than Washington's other allies,' he said. On Blair's recent visit to the Middle East, Lord Wallace, said: 'It would have been a much more effective trip if Blair was visiting the Middle East representing Europe rather than being seen as the mouth piece of George Bush [the US president].'

A link to the full Chatham House working paper is here.

It is indeed a shame that Blair did not listen to this group in 2004 when Chatham House published a paper outlining the bleak prospect ahead for Iraq, summarized here:

Unfortunately for the region, the future of Iraq resides on a precipice, with many powerful forces pulling like gravity in the direction of the abyss. The hope is that briefing papers such as this can provide sage advice to policy makers who can admit their numerous and repeated mistakes and correct their folly in time to derail the oncoming disaster. Maybe it is too late for that though. After reading this report I am reminded of this passage from a Seymour Hersh article:

Ehud Barak, the former Israeli Prime Minister, who supported the Bush Administration's invasion of Iraq, took it upon himself at this point to privately warn Vice-President Dick Cheney that America had lost in Iraq; according to an American close to Barak, he said that Israel "had learned that there's no way to win an occupation." The only issue, Barak told Cheney, "was choosing the size of your humiliation." Cheney did not respond to Barak's assessment. [emphasis added]

Will Bush's thirst for hegemony backfire? | Move to the Euro by Iran | Announcement of Gulf States/EU Free Trade Agreement

2006-12-19T16:03:00.000-06:00

KAVKAZ CENTER:

The Iranian government has finally developed a new weapon that can destroy the financial system underpinning the American Empire. The U.S. dollar dominance is coming to an end. A hundred years ago the U.S. currency's dominance was referred to as "dollar diplomacy". After the end of the Second World War, and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, that policy evolved into "dollar hegemony."

A day before Iran announced converting its dollar-denominated assets held overseas into Euros, Sultan Nasser al-Suweidi, the United Arab Emirates' central bank governor, said that 'we're waiting for a clear trend to emerge before converting our reserves into Euros or any other currency.'

The bank holds 98% of its reserves in greenbacks but plans reducing its dollar holdings to between 50% and 90%.

Analysts aroused fears over Iran's move, warning it would prompt another U.S. war in the region. When other countries, like Iran, sought payment of oil in other currencies, most notably Euro, the punitive action was in order.

The American President George W. Bush's Shock-and-Awe in Iraq was not about Saddam's nuclear ambitions, or the alleged link to Al Qaeda network which the U.S. blames for September 11 attacks, it's about defending the dollar, and setting an example that anyone who seeks payment for oil in currencies other than U.S. Dollars, which is what Saddam did in 2000, would be likewise punished.

But if the U.S. decided to commit the same mistake it made in Iraq again; i.e. invading Iran, it will definitely bring an end to its political hegemony not just the hegemony of its currency, in the region and the world.

History teaches that an empire should go to war for either defending itself or benefiting from war; otherwise, as Paul Kennedy stated in his The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, 'a military overstretch will drain its economic resources and precipitate its collapse'.

This comes at a time when the Gulf States are moving away from a GCC and entering into a free-trade agreement with the EU. Who needs dollars???

An agreement between the two trading blocs is “imminent,’’ Sheikh Ebrahim bin Khalifa al-Khalifa told reporters in Dubai yesterday.

The office of EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has said that he may visit the Middle East next month in an attempt to conclude free-trade talks with the six Gulf states, that also includes Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, which have been under way for 15 years.

A free-trade accord would reduce barriers and fuel trade between the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), which pumps about a fifth of the world’s crude oil, and the 25-nation EU.

Negotiations cover market access on goods and services, common rules and disciplines on intellectual property rights, competition, dispute settlement or rules of origin.

American 'whistle-blower' abused by Bush's Brown-shirts in Iraq | Another suit for Rumsfeld

2006-12-17T23:30:00.000-06:00

Former U.S. Detainee in Iraq Recalls Torment - New York Times:

The detainee was Donald Vance, a 29-year-old Navy veteran from Chicago who went to Iraq as a security contractor. He wound up as a whistle-blower, passing information to the F.B.I. about suspicious activities at the Iraqi security firm where he worked, including what he said was possible illegal weapons trading.

...

Mr. Vance went to Iraq in 2004, first to work for a Washington-based company. He later joined a small Baghdad-based security company where, he said, “things started looking weird to me.” He said that the company, which was protecting American reconstruction organizations, had hired guards from a sheik in Basra and that many of them turned out to be members of militias whom the clients did not want around.

Mr. Vance said the company had a growing cache of weapons it was selling to suspicious customers, including a steady flow of officials from the Iraqi Interior Ministry. The ministry had ties to violent militias and death squads. He said he had also witnessed another employee giving American soldiers liquor in exchange for bullets and weapon repairs.

Blair, learning from Bush, whores himself to the Saudi Royal Family

2006-12-17T16:45:00.000-06:00

Cloak, dagger, bluff, blackmail, and Tony's nervous protector - Sunday Times - Times Online:

Saudi Arabia is a country which would normally be a pariah state, failing every test of human rights. It practises torture, sharia law and systematic bribery (a Saudi prince even sued Rolls-Royce for not delivering on a bribe). The country has been of no noticeable assistance in modernising or stabilising its region and financed the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Selling arms to such a country might be thought beyond Blair’s moral pale. Not so. As with the Afghan opium trade, money talks and sometimes money requests silence.

...

Last Thursday he changed his mind. Why? What or who had got at him? The truth is that SFO investigators, operating under new arrangements with the Swiss, were about to request the opening of certain Swiss bank accounts.

The Saudis went berserk. They threatened to withdraw the next stage of Al-Yamamah, for 72 Typhoon jets. Lord Bell was hired to threaten every Labour MP with defence work in his constituency. The rule of law was subjected to the full majesty of the rule of public relations. At this flick of blackmail (and probable bluff), the British government crumpled and summoned the hapless Goldsmith to clear up the mess. An inquiry that expediency would never have begun was ignominiously ended.

How to Lose an Army | Will the Bush Crime Family do Israel's bidding and invade Iran?

2006-12-17T12:51:00.000-06:00

How to Lose an Army:

The Bush administration, for its part, will be tempted to do what small men have done throughout history when in trouble: try to escalate their way out of it. The White House has already half-convinced itself that the majority of its troubles in Iraq stem from Iran and Syria, a line the neocons push assiduously.

The departure of Donald Rumsfeld, which was greeted in the Pentagon with joyful choruses of “Ding-dong, the witch is dead,” may help to avert an invasion. His successor, Robert Gates, has no background in defense and is therefore likely to defer to the generals, for good or for ill. In this case for good, as the generals emphatically do not want a war with Iran. But for Gates to block White House demands for an attack on Iran, he would have to threaten to resign. Is he the sort of man to do that? That’s not how bureaucrats build their careers, an observation that holds for the generals as well.

The elephant in the parlor is, of course, the fact that Israel wants an attack on Iran, and for Republicans and Democrats alike, Israel is She Who Must Be Obeyed. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ran to Washington as soon as the election was over, and the subject of his discussions with President Bush is easy to imagine. Who will do the dirty deed and when? Iran has already announced that it will consider an attack by Israel an attack by the U.S. as well and respond accordingly, so the difference may not much matter.

...

Perhaps the greatest danger lies in the fact that, just as the French high command refused to consider the possibility of a German attack through the Ardennes in 1940, Washington will not consider the possibility that an attack on Iran could cost us our army in Iraq. We have made one of the most common military mistakes—believing our own propaganda. Over and over, the U.S. military tells the world and itself, “No one can defeat us. No one can even fight us. We are the greatest military the world has ever seen!”

Unfortunately, like most propaganda, it’s bunk. The U.S. Armed Forces are technically well-trained, lavishly resourced Second-Generation militaries. They are today being fought and beaten by Fourth-Generation opponents in Iraq and Afghanistan. They can also be defeated by Third-Generation opponents who can react faster than America’s process-ridden, PowerPoint-enslaved military headquarters. They can be defeated by superior strategy, by trick, by surprise, and by preemption. Unbeatable militaries are like unsinkable ships: they are unsinkable until something sinks them.

If the U.S. were to lose the army it has in Iraq to Iraqi militias, Iranian regular forces, or a combination of both, cutting our one line of supply and then encircling us, the world would change. It would be our Adrianople, our Rocroi, our Stalingrad. American power and prestige would never recover. Nothing, not even Israel’s demands, should lead us to run this risk, which is inherent in any attack on Iran.

Blair has no respect for the rule of law | Bush Crime Family's puppy is learning when to heel to the House of Saud | Good Puppy, Good!

2006-12-16T22:57:00.000-06:00

Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | The BAE affair sends all the wrong signals:

...Britain has signalled to the world that, where defence contracts are concerned, it has a flexible code of business ethics. It appears not to frown on the use of prostitutes or payments to slush funds to help secure a deal. It has also signalled that the office of the attorney general is not independent, as it ought to be in a democracy, but takes its orders from the Prime Minister. Those signals also carry consequences, corroding public trust and damaging the reputation of British business.

The real long-term view recognises that upholding the rule of law is not in conflict with the 'wider public interest'. It is what gives government legitimacy, without which it has no authority to dictate what is or is not a matter of national security

Why did Blair stop the investigation of Saudi Fraud? | Do the Saudis direct UK foreign policy? | Was the Bush Crime Family involved in ending it?

2006-12-16T22:24:00.000-06:00

Independent Online Edition > UK Politics:

Police: we were bugged in effort to halt BAe Saudi arms inquiry | The PM's defence that stopping a Serious Fraud Office investigation was 'in the national interest' is unravelling

Investigators were about to gain access to Swiss banking documents that, they believed, could have provided strong evidence of corruption. Last month Mr Turner said the Saudi government had halted commercial talks over the 10bn [pounds] Eurofighter deal because of anger over the SFO inquiry. It is believed that the story was orchestrated by Lord Bell, who has run a PR campaign on behalf of the defence firm and the Saudi royal family.

It was claimed scrapping the contract for 72 Typhoon fighters would threaten 50,000 jobs. But international law forbids countries from using commercial considerations to exempt firms from anti-corruption prosecutions.

The exemption helps explain why Mr Blair ordered the preparation of a special Cabinet Office report, arguing that Britain's security was at stake. Whitehall sources say Downing Street was keen that Des Browne, the Secretary of State for Defence, and Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, shared responsibility for the decision to scrap the inquiry. But they were only asked for tightly defined assessments of the effects of a downturn on defence and foreign relations.

One week after Cheney gets bitch-slapped in Riyadh | Blair cancels investigation into Saudi Fraud | 16 more Saudis released from Guantanamo

2006-12-16T16:23:00.000-06:00

Saudi inquiry decision faces legal challenge | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited:

The Campaign against the Arms Trade and the Corner House, a social and environmental justice group, believe the grounds for the decision - made after the prime minister warned it was against Britain's security and foreign policy interests - could be subject to judicial review. David Pannick QC has been hired.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development also signalled that it would launch its own investigation. Britain is a signatory to the 30-nation grouping's anti-bribery convention.

Yesterday confusion deepened as Tony Blair and Lord Goldsmith offered apparently conflicting explanations. Mr Blair told reporters at the European Council in Brussels that he accepted 'full responsibility' for ending the inquiry. It could have provoked years of 'ill-feeling' with Saudi Arabia, a crucial ally in the Middle East, he said. 'Leave aside the effect on thousands of British jobs and billions worth of pounds for British industry ... Our relationship with Saudi Arabia is vitally important for our country in terms of counterterrorism, in terms of the broader Middle East and in terms of helping in respect of Israel and Palestine.'

...

Sir Nicholas Lyall, a former attorney general, said that while he agreed with the judgment it was "absolutely astonishing" that Mr Blair should get involved in what was a matter for the independent prosecuting authority. "The prime minister ... doesn't seem to understand our constitution," he said. "He seems to be stepping in and seeking to rule the roost.

Meanwhile, sixteen of, as Rumsfeld characterized those in Guantanamo: "...the best-trained, most vicious killers on the face of the earth" are released and are relaxing comfortably in a Riyadh hotel, having their arranged wedding plans scheduled:

Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz underlined that the Saudi government was working to free its citizens in Guantanamo, telling the state news agency that the release of the 16 was due to ``efforts exerted by Saudi authorities.''

The 16 were being held in custody for investigation, as have most of the previous Saudi citizens returned from Guantanamo, ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Mansour al-Turki told AP.

He did not elaborate on the investigation, but al-Shimri said returned prisoners are usually questioned to determine why they were in the locations where they were captured - Pakistan or Afghanistan, in most cases.

They were initially staying at a Riyadh hotel before being moved into a detention facility. Their families were notified about their arrival and will start seeking permission to see them, al-Shimri said.

Our leaders should be tried in Baghdad

2006-12-16T16:15:00.000-06:00

Telegraph | Comment | Our leaders should be tried in Baghdad:

When they stood at their lecterns in Washington to make their best fist of the Iraq Study Group's report, Tony looked like King George VI in his last painful months of life and George looked like a care-home patient using someone else's teeth. Having to digest such damning remarks as 'the situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating' clearly didn't make them feel younger than springtime.

Blair called the Baker-Hamilton report 'helpful', which was an odd adjective, since both men parked it almost the moment they walked stiffly off the podiums. Tony flew home to help the police with their inquiries (no doubt an ageing process). Now he has to work out what to say about Carne Ross's accusation that the British Government 'knew', really did know, that there were no WMD in Iraq.

George went to the Pentagon for day-long meetings about how to spin the Baker-Hamilton report. When he came out, he had a little train of solemn old men with him: the Chiefs of Staff, the senior Pentagon policy wonks, Cheney, Rummy.

Rummy? How odd, in British eyes, to see Donald Rumsfeld still standing beside the Commander-in-Chief. When Tony Blair sacks his Defence Secretary, the bloke reels out five minutes later for his very last drive in the chauffeured car. In America, you get until January for the changeover.

Odder, to British ears, was Bush's line about what he'd been doing with this high-up bunch of seniors. They had had, he said, a 'very candid and fruitful discussion about how to secure this country and how to win a war that, uh, that, uh, we now find ourselves in'. Find ourselves in? Doesn't he hear what comes out of his mouth?

...

Those two blood-soaked old warmongers, Bush and Blair, should both be impeached. Try 'em in Baghdad, I say.

"Enemy Combatants" My Ass... | Bush's Gulag in Guantanamo

2006-12-16T16:04:00.000-06:00

Out of Gitmo, in the clear | Chicago Tribune:

The Associated Press was able to track 245 of those formerly held at Guantanamo. The investigation, which spanned 17 countries, found:

- Once the detainees arrived in other countries, 205 of the 245 were either freed without being charged or were cleared of charges related to their detention at Guantanamo. Forty either stand charged with crimes or continue to be detained.

- Only a tiny fraction of transferred detainees have been put on trial. The AP identified 14 trials, in which eight men were acquitted and six are awaiting verdicts. Two of the cases involving acquittals--one in Kuwait and one in Spain--initially resulted in convictions that were overturned on appeal.

- The Afghan government has freed every one of the more than 83 Afghans sent home. Lawmaker Sibghatullah Mujaddedi, the head of Afghanistan's reconciliation commission, said many were innocent and ended up at Guantanamo because of tribal or personal rivalries.

- At least 67 of 70 repatriated Pakistanis are free after spending a year in Adiala Jail. A senior Pakistani Interior Ministry official said investigators determined that most had been 'sold' for bounties to U.S. forces by Afghan warlords who invented links between the men and Al Qaeda. 'We consider them innocent,' said the official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

- All 29 detainees who were repatriated to Britain, Spain, Germany, Russia, Australia, Turkey, Denmark, Bahrain and the Maldives were freed, some within hours after being sent home for 'continued detention.'

Former Iraqi Prime Minsiter Jaafari demands America's withdrawl

2006-12-16T15:57:00.000-06:00

IRIB PERSIAN NEWS PAGE:

Former Iraqi Prime Minister, also Head of the Da'avat Islami party on Saturday urged for the withdrawl of American forces from Iraq.

After visiting Syrian Arab Republic's officials, Ibrahim Ja'afari reiterated in a press conference in Damascuss that Iraq is seeking cooperation with the regional countries, specially the Islamic Republic of Iran and Syrian Arab Republic to study the timetable of the withdrawl of occupier forces from Iraq.

The former Iraqi prime minister underlined that no nation accepts to be under the reign of occupier forces and we demand the withdrawl of American forces from Iraq.

Bush's CIA and their war-crimes: Rendition through Italy for purposes of out-sourcing Torture in violation of International Law

2006-12-16T11:47:00.000-06:00

Testimony Helps Detail CIA's Post-9/11 Reach - washingtonpost.com:

All told, the U.S. agency took part in the seizure of at least 10 European citizens or legal immigrants, some of them from countries not cited in that list of 'dangerous people' received by the Italian spies. Four renditions occurred on European soil: in Sweden, Macedonia and Italy. Six operations targeted people who were traveling abroad or who had been captured in Pakistan; European intelligence agencies provided direct assistance to the CIA in at least five of those cases, records show.

Each prisoner was then secretly handed over to intelligence services in the Middle East or Africa with histories of human rights abuses. Some remain imprisoned in those countries; others have been taken to the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. One man was later released after being taken from the Balkans to Afghanistan, the victim of an apparent case of mistaken identity.

In the early stages, the CIA had prepared even more ambitious plans, according to the depositions from the Italian intelligence officials, who testified last summer during a criminal investigation into a CIA-sponsored kidnapping of a radical Islamic cleric in Milan.

For example, Pignero said in his deposition that the CIA's Rome station chief had offered in 2002 to abduct a fugitive leader of the Red Brigades -- a Marxist network blamed for dozens of assassinations in Italy -- who had found refuge in South America. 'The Americans would capture him and turn him over to us, and we in return would have to 'extradite' him to Italy without any legal proceedings,' Pignero said.

In exchange, the CIA wanted help in abducting Islamic radicals living in the Italian cities of Turin, Vercelli and Naples, Pignero said. Italian intelligence officials rejected the offer, he added, because it was 'contrary to international laws.'

U.N. unit to review Israeli barrier damage claims | Needless to say, the bastion of human rights, the US voted 'no'

2006-12-15T20:41:00.000-06:00

Reuters AlertNet - U.N. unit to review Israeli barrier damage claims:

The United Nations General Assembly on Friday overwhelmingly approved plans for a U.N. registry to record and process claims of damages caused by Israel's construction of its West Bank barrier.

Israel rejected the move, saying it had set up a mechanism to help those harmed by the structure, which it says is to keep out suicide bombers but which Palestinians see as a land grab to preempt talks on the borders of an eventual Palestinian state.

The barrier, a mix of electronic fences and walls, has been under construction since 2002 and eventually will stretch more than 400 miles (650 km), curling around Israeli settlements as it cuts deep into Palestinian lands.

A resolution adopted by a vote of 162 to 7 with 7 abstentions called for the establishment within six months of a three-member board and a secretariat to record and process damage claims.

...

Palestinian U.N. Observer Riyad Mansour, calling for the measure's approval, said Israel "must comply or be compelled to comply with its legal obligations under international law." "The international community must hold Israel accountable for its illegal actions" in Palestinian areas, he said.

...

The United States, Israel's closest ally, was among those voting "no."

Race to the Moon for Nuclear Fuel | Is there ever enough money for these filthy Republicans?

2006-12-15T18:38:00.000-06:00

Wired News: Race to the Moon for Nuclear Fuel:

NASA's planned moon base announced last week could pave the way for deeper space exploration to Mars, but one of the biggest beneficiaries may be the terrestrial energy industry.

Nestled among the agency's 200-point mission goals is a proposal to mine the moon for fuel used in fusion reactors -- futuristic power plants that have been demonstrated in proof-of-concept but are likely decades away from commercial deployment.

Helium-3 is considered a safe, environmentally friendly fuel candidate for these generators, and while it is scarce on Earth it is plentiful on the moon.

As a result, scientists have begun to consider the practicality of mining lunar Helium-3 as a replacement for fossil fuels.

'After four-and-half-billion years, there should be large amounts of helium-3 on the moon,' said Gerald Kulcinski, a professor who leads the Fusion Technology Institute at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Last year NASA administrator Mike Griffin named Kulcinski to lead a number of committees reporting to NASA's influential NASA Advisory Council, its preeminent civilian leadership arm.

The Council is chaired by Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Hagan 'Jack' Schmitt, a leading proponent of mining the moon for helium 3.

Schmitt, who holds the distance record for driving a NASA rover on the moon (22 miles through the Taurus-Littrow valley), is also a former U.S. senator (R-New Mexico).

Iraq aid agency, the Red Crescent, 'attacked' by US again

2006-12-15T18:15:00.000-06:00

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iraq aid agency 'attacked' by US:

The Iraqi Red Crescent, the country's biggest humanitarian organisation, has accused United States troops of attacking its offices and vehicles. The organisation's vice-president said attacks by US-led forces were the biggest problem it faced.

The Red Crescent, which has a staff of 1,000 and 200,000 volunteers, is the only Iraqi aid group working across the country's 18 provinces. The US military said it was checking the allegations.

Jamal al-Karbouli, Vice-President of the Iraqi Red Crescent, said the latest incident occurred last week in the central city of Falluja.

'We had our offices attacked by American forces. They detained the volunteers and staff for more than two hours,' Mr Karbouli said. He added that two Red Crescent cars had been burned.

Mr Karbouli was speaking at a meeting of international Red Cross organisations in Geneva.

He went on to give other examples of alleged US harassment, including attacks on the organisation's headquarters in Baghdad over the past three years. 'Four to five times they have attacked the headquarters, they break doors and windows, just to see. And they didn't find anything and they left,' he said.

U.S. Troops Raid Fallujah General Hospital Again

2006-12-15T18:09:00.000-06:00

News & Analysis: U.S. Troops Raid Hospital Again:

Iraqi doctors and medical staff are outraged over yet another U.S. military raid at Fallujah General Hospital. The raid followed a roadside bombing Dec. 7 where four Iraqi policemen were killed and two injured. The injured were taken to Fallujah General Hospital.

Shortly after this attack, a U.S. Marine who was on a patrol in the city was wounded by a gunshot.

'U.S. soldiers replied to the source of fire then headed straight to the general hospital across the (Euphrates) river hoping that they had shot and injured the sniper,' an eyewitness told IPS.

'American soldiers seem to have some imagination to think wounded fighters might go to that so-called hospital,' a retired surgeon told IPS. 'We know that they do not trust that place because of the continuous raids by the U.S., and lack of everything in that hospital.' The hospital is functioning at minimal capacity due to lack of medicines and equipment, the surgeon said.

Eyewitnesses at Fallujah General Hospital said U.S. soldiers raided the hospital 'as if it were a military target.'

'We panicked at the way they entered, kicking open doors and blasting locked ones,' a nurse told IPS. 'A doctor tried to tell them he had keys for the locked doors, but they pointed their guns to his face. Then they told us to go out of the building and they kept us under guard in the garden until the early hours of next morning.'

The nurse said the soldiers 'would not even allow us to get some blankets to keep us warm; the temperature was below five degrees centigrade.'

Doctors and medical staff were arrested and insulted, and some were called terrorists, witnesses said. The hospital was then closed, and could no longer offer even minimal treatment.

Those sounds in your head are of the million souls that your have had murdered, tortured, and burned | You can't retire from being a war-criminal

2006-12-15T17:31:00.000-06:00

AlterNet: The War Crimes Case Against Donald Rumsfeld:

Donald Rumsfeld was one of the primary architects of the Iraq war. On September 15, 2001, in a meeting at Camp David, Rumsfeld suggested an attack on Iraq because he was deeply worried about the availability of 'good targets in Afghanistan.' Former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill reported that Rumsfeld articulated his hope to 'dissuade' other nations from 'asymmetrical challenges' to U.S. power. Rumsfeld's support for a preemptive attack on Iraq 'matched with plans for how the world's second largest oil reserve might be divided among the world's contractors made for an irresistible combination,' Ron Suskind wrote after interviewing O'Neill.

Rumsfeld defensively sought to decouple oil access from regime change in Iraq when he appeared on CBS News on November 15, 2002. In a Hamlet moment, Rumsfeld proclaimed the United States' beef with Iraq has 'nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil.' The Secretary doth protest too much.

Prosecuting a war of aggression isn't Rumsfeld's only crime. He also participated in the highest levels of decision-making that allowed the extrajudicial execution of several people. Willful killing is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, which constitutes a war crime. In his book, Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib, Seymour Hersh described the 'unacknowledged' special-access program (SAP) established by a top-secret order Bush signed in late 2001 or early 2002. It authorized the Defense Department to set up a clandestine team of Special Forces operatives to defy international law and snatch, or assassinate, anyone considered a 'high-value' Al Qaeda operative, anywhere in the world. Rumsfeld expanded SAP into Iraq in August 2003.

But Rumsfeld's crimes don't end there. He sanctioned the use of torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, which are grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, and thus constitute war crimes. Rumsfeld approved interrogation techniques that included the use of dogs, removal of clothing, hooding, stress positions, isolation for up to 30 days, 20-hour interrogations, and deprivation of light and auditory stimuli. According to Seymour Hersh, Rumsfeld sanctioned the use of physical coercion and sexual humiliation to extract information from prisoners. Rumsfeld also authorized waterboarding, where the interrogator induces the sensation of imminent death by drowning. Waterboarding is widely considered a form of torture.

Rumsfeld was intimately involved with the interrogation of a Saudi detainee, Mohamed al-Qahtani, at Guantánamo in late 2002. General Geoffrey Miller, who later transferred many of his harsh interrogation techniques to Abu Ghaib, supervised the interrogation and gave Rumsfeld weekly updates on his progress. During a six-week period, al-Qahtani was stripped naked, forced to wear women's underwear on his head, denied bathroom access, threatened with dogs, forced to perform tricks while tethered to a dog leash, and subjected to sleep deprivation. Al-Qahtani was kept in solitary confinement for 160 days. For 48 days out of 54, he was interrogated for 18 to 20 hours a day.

No release for Guantanamo detainees | Bush to simply let them die in his 'legal black hole'

2006-12-15T13:50:00.000-06:00

Telegraph | News | No release for Guantanamo detainees:

Of the 435 detainees currently being held at Guantanamo, only 10 have so far been charged with terrorism-related offences. A further 14 detainees – the so-called high value detainees such as Khaled Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks – are also expected to face trial now that the US Congress has passed the Military Commission Act, which will finally enable America to commence trials of Guantanamo detainees next year.

But of the remainder an estimated 200 detainees face being held indefinitely at Guantanamo because they are deemed a threat to international security even though there is insufficient evidence to bring them before a military commission.

John Bellinger, the legal advisor at the US state department who is responsible for defending Guantanamo's legal status, said the hard core of the detainees will continue to be held indefinitely either because they are considered a security threat, or because there is nowhere to send them if the military authorities at Guantanamo decide to release them.

'The remaining people – other than the ones who have been approved for release – really do pose a threat,' Mr Bellinger said in an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph. 'Ten per cent of the people we have released have gone right back to fighting generally in Afghanistan. It's hard to tell exactly how many people would go back to actual acts of terrorism, or whether they would just go back to fighting in Afghanistan.'

Sins of Commission | The Bush Crime Family and its use of torture | This is your President's handiwork

2006-12-14T22:36:00.000-06:00

Sins of Commission:

Have Republicans become the party of torture, secret prisons, and indefinite detention? In his speech last month on signing the Military Commissions Act (MCA), President Bush declared that the bill “sends a clear message. ... We will never back down from the threats to our freedom.” “Rough interrogation” (a.k.a. torture) in the name of freedom may be Bush’s clearest ideological legacy.<

The president endlessly reminds listeners that “the U.S. does not torture” and that “torture is not an American value.” But “What is torture?” is the Bush version of the Pontius Pilate question. He appears to be using the definition of torture crafted by Justice Department official John Yoo: if detainees weren’t maimed or killed, they weren’t tortured. And the Justice Department acts as though, even if detainees are killed during interrogations, it is best to treat the deaths as harmless errors.

The MCA was rushed through Congress in September to overturn a Supreme Court decision that struck down Bush’s military tribunals and his scorning of the Geneva Conventions. The new law—far more dangerous than the more controversial Patriot Act—is perhaps the biggest disgrace Congress has enacted since the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850. Stephen Gray, the author of Ghost Plane, notes, “The act grants fewer rights to defendants than the Nazis got at Nuremberg.'

...

As long as the Justice Department doesn’t prosecute federal torturers, Bush can continue denying U.S. torture. People killed during interrogations thus remain the exceptions that prove the rule that the U.S. never tortures. The military classified the deaths of at least 34 detainees as suspected or confirmed homicides; the CIA has released no tally of its morgue entries.

The New Yorker noted, “under the Bush administration’s secret interrogation guidelines, the killing of Jamadi might not have broken any laws.” Unfortunately, there is no reason to assume that Bush has not given interrogators a license to kill. Steven Bradbury, head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, told a closed session of the Senate Intelligence Committee early this year that Bush could order killings of suspected terrorists within the United States. When Newsweek contacted the Justice Department to verify this novel legal doctrine, spokeswoman Tasia Scolinos stressed that Bradbury’s comments occurred during an “off-the-record briefing.” Any Bush-ordered killings within the United States would also presumably be off the record.

President Bush has been able to seize nearly boundless power because his administration has been able to control what Americans know. But this control is crumbling. Democratic congressional investigations, court cases, and the military tribunals themselves could unearth far more damaging documents and photographs than anything seen thus far.

The MCA is “enabling act” legislation that preserves the appearance of law while empowering the commander in chief to do as he pleases. Bush’s torture policies may signal that he accepts the dicta of Richard Nixon: “When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” But the firewall of high approval ratings that buttressed Bush when the first Abu Ghraib photos leaked is gone. The media is exasperated with the administration’s penchant for secrecy. Much of Bush’s conservative intellectual bodyguard has given up the fight. It remains to be seen how much dunking, thumping, and cold water the Bush team can survive.

How the filthy flea-bitten British Lap-dog'd bastard lied about Iraq

2006-12-14T20:22:00.000-06:00

Independent Online Edition > UK Politics:

The Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

A devastating attack on Mr Blair's justification for military action by Carne Ross, Britain's key negotiator at the UN, has been kept under wraps until now because he was threatened with being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act.

In the testimony revealed today Mr Ross, 40, who helped negotiate several UN security resolutions on Iraq, makes it clear that Mr Blair must have known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction. He said that during his posting to the UN, 'at no time did HMG [Her Majesty's Government] assess that Iraq's WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests.'

Mr Ross revealed it was a commonly held view among British officials dealing with Iraq that any threat by Saddam Hussein had been 'effectively contained'.

He also reveals that British officials warned US diplomats that bringing down the Iraqi dictator would lead to the chaos the world has since witnessed. 'I remember on several occasions the UK team stating this view in terms during our discussions with the US (who agreed),' he said.

'At the same time, we would frequently argue when the US raised the subject, that 'regime change' was inadvisable, primarily on the grounds that Iraq would collapse into chaos.'

As in Kuwait in 1991, A Bush condemns Palestinians to a humanitarian dilemma | Like Father, Like Son

2006-12-14T18:57:00.000-06:00

UNHCR | Iraq Emergency:

The UN refugee agency said here Thursday it was alarmed by a militia attack on a Palestinian neighbourhood in Baghdad which left at least nine people dead, including several children, and it appealed to countries to provide a humanitarian solution for Palestinians attempting to flee Iraq.

Local militia reportedly shelled the Al Baladiya area for three hours on Wednesday with no attempt by the Iraqi police or multinational forces to halt the attack. The militia also blocked ambulances from taking the dead and wounded to hospital. At least nine people were reportedly killed and many injured during the attack.

'We are very alarmed by this attack and dismayed by the lack of protection given to the Palestinians in Iraq. They have very limited freedom of movement and no possibility to leave the country – unlike Iraqis – to find a safe haven, nor any community to protect them,' said Radhouane Nouicer, UNHCR's Geneva-based deputy director for the region.

'We are urgently appealing to the Iraqi government and the multinational forces to provide protection and safety or an alternative safe location for this targeted group. We also ask the world to stop turning their back and provide a humane solution and safe haven to these people who have no way out,' he added.

Israel high court authorizes war-crimes against Palestinians | How could the Bush, another political assasinator, say anything against that?

2006-12-14T18:31:00.000-06:00

JURIST - Paper Chase: Israel high court rules some targeted killings legal:

The Israeli Supreme Court ruled Thursday that not all targeted killings of Palestinian militants are prohibited by international law. Two Israeli human rights groups filed a petition in 2002 seeking a ban on the Israeli policy, which government officials defend as the most effective method of stopping Palestinian terrorists from bombing Israel targets. The high court acknowledged that some killings were not legal, but refused to order a complete ban:

Thus it is decided that it cannot be determined in advance that every targeted killing is prohibited according to customary international law, just as it cannot be determined in advance that every targeted killing is permissible according to customary international law. The law of targeted killing is determined in the customary international law, and the legality of each individual such act must be determined in light of it.

Reaction to the court's judgement from Haaretz:

"The High Court has given its authorization to extrajudicial executions and war crimes," said National Democratic Assembly MK Jamal Zahalka.

"The issue must be transferred to the international courts," continued Zahalka. "The matter is not an internal Israeli one, but rather must be dealt with within an international framework."

MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al) said in response that, "This is the continuation of the High Court's security-oriented stance, which since 1967 has authorized expropriation, expulsion, uprootings, and assassinations."

Pinochet is Gone, but His Methods Are Still with Us

2006-12-13T23:20:00.000-06:00

Pinochet is Gone, but His Methods Are Still with Us:

Torture, secret prisons and disappearances: all feature prominently in the legacy of Augusto Pinochet. It is a matter of great regret that the former Chilean dictator - brought to power in a CIA-backed coup on September 11 1973 - avoided trial for gross abuses of human rights in his ravenous pursuit of power. But it is a matter of even greater regret that the same tools and the same sponsors are back in action today, with the same impunity, as part of the 'war on terror' launched after September 11 2001.

When the Bush administration brought 14 of its most highly valued terrorism suspects to Guantanamo Bay from secret prisons in various countries in September, the US president himself acknowledged for the first time the existence of a network of CIA prisons. This was intended to close a chapter that had become embarrassing to Washington. The US practice of illegal kidnapping known as 'extraordinary rendition', and the secret detention and torture that was part of it, had - after more than four years - finally become a scandal condemned by many European politicians, UN officials and international lawyers, as well as US-based human-rights groups.

But, as a new report from the British monitoring group Cageprisoners reveals, the men held in Guantanamo Bay are only the tip of the iceberg: thousands more are hidden elsewhere, outside the law. The 'war on terror' is taking a terrible toll on Muslim families and societies through a vast programme of secret detention and torture.

Bush to seek $100 billion more war funds | More body bags ahead

2006-12-13T21:10:00.000-06:00

Reuters AlertNet - Bush to seek $100 bln more war funds-US House report:

President George W. Bush will soon seek about $100 billion in additional emergency funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a report on Wednesday by Democratic staffers for two key panels in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Such a large request would mark a rapid escalation in the cost of the Iraq war at a time when public support is plummeting and Bush is looking for new answers to stem violence that threatens to spin out of control.

In a broad report criticizing Republicans' fiscal decisions, Democratic staffers on the House Appropriations Committee and House Budget Committee also noted that Congress already had appropriated about $379 billion for the war in Iraq.

'The administration is expected to submit an additional request early next year that will total roughly $100 billion. At least three-quarters of this request will support operations in Iraq,' according to the report.

Baghdad car bombing kills 63 amid 5 more U.S. troop deaths | Meanwhile, Tony Snow listens to the voices in his head for a new lie about the carnage

2006-12-13T16:51:00.000-06:00

DenverPost.com - Baghdad car bombing kills 63 amid 5 more U.S. troop deaths:

A suicide bomber struck a crowd of mostly poor Shiites in Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 63 people and wounding more than 200 after luring construction workers onto a pickup truck by offering them jobs as they were eating breakfast.

The blast, condemned by Shiite and Sunni lawmakers, came on a day that saw the U.S. military report the deaths of five more troops. At least 59 other Iraqis also were killed or found dead, including an AP Television News cameraman who was shot while covering clashes in Mosul.

The Baghdad suicide attack shattered storefront windows, dug craters in the road and set fire to several cars. People rushed to the devastated area to see if friends or relatives had been killed or wounded. Mangled bodies were piled up at the side of the road and partially covered with paper. Two men sat on the sidewalk, crying and covering their faces with their hands.

Bush smells fresh blood in Somalia: U.S.-backed UN resolution risks wider war | Bush support of Somali war-lords was not enough

2006-12-13T16:28:00.000-06:00

Somalia: U.S.-backed UN resolution risks wider war:

Fearful that Islamist forces are transforming Somalia into a safe haven for al Qaeda, the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush is pushing a new UN Security Council resolution that some experts here believe could spark a wider war in the Horn of Africa.

The resolution would exempt a proposed African “peace support” force from a longstanding arms embargo on Somalia despite warnings by the powerful Islamic Courts Union (ICU) that it will oppose any deployment of foreign forces on behalf of the Ethiopia-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

...

“The draft resolution the U.S. intends to present to the UN Security Council ... could trigger all-out war in Somalia and destabilize the entire Horn of Africa region by escalating the proxy conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea to dangerous new levels,” warned the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

This summer, Bush paid-off Somali war-lords, loyal to Bush's extremist views of Islam:

Secretary-General Kofi Annan told reporters at a news conference on June 15 that, “it was wrong for the United States government to support warlords in Somalia. ‘I would not have recommended to the UN or the Security Council to support warlords,” Mr. Annan said.

Reports began circulating around June 6 that the U.S. was backing the same warlords that drove them out of the war-torn Horn of Africa nation a decade ago. Foreign press outlets such as the London’s Guardian Unlimited said the Bush administration funneled $100,000 to $150,000 a month to “proxies” based at a CIA-controlled base in Nairobi, Kenya. The International Crisis Group reported that the money was funneled through the Pentagon’s Joint Combined Task Force.

"Don't push me cuz I am close to...the...edge!"

2006-12-13T16:10:00.000-06:00

With every day a wasting, with the number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq now standing at 2,920 and climbing, Bush is dawdling.

The decider can’t seem to decide what to do about Iraq.

He is too prideful, too headstrong, too macho, too ignorant, and too foolish to do the sensible thing, which happens to be what a majority of the American people want, and that’s to set a timetable for withdrawal and get out of there.

No, that’s not on Bush’s agenda.

He’s already torn up the fig leaf that James Baker gave him to exit stage right.

Bush is crazy enough to still think he can wrest victory from the jaws of defeat, when he’s just going to end up throwing more bodies into those bloody jaws.

source

Bush, with the blood of 100s of thousands dripping from his fangs, looks for more bodies to sacrifice for his legacy

2006-12-13T15:38:00.000-06:00

TomPaine.com - Bush v. The Two Majorities:

Ignoring all sense, the president is trying to cobble together, brick by brick, an Iraqi government that is able and willing to do what Maliki’s regime can’t or won’t do: break the back of the Muqtada al-Sadr Mahdi Army and redouble the offensive against the Sunni-led Iraqi resistance. The whole thing is out in public view, and in the worst possible manner: first Bush met with Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, the fanatical cleric who heads the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a militia-based religious party; then he met yesterday with Tariq al-Hashemi, the leader of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the Sunni religious party linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. The two religious leaders, Hakim and Hashemi, are engaged in open plotting to create a new coalition to replace Maliki.

It’s a desperate gamble by Bush, as the clock runs out, to salvage the occupation of Iraq. Both Hakim and Hashemi are tired, worn-out figures, the preferred puppets who’ve been mainstays of every single Iraqi government—transitional, interim and otherwise—that has been installed by the United States since the March 2003 invasion. But a “new” Iraqi government, one made up of reshuffled, washed-and-dried puppets, won’t work this time either.

That’s because vast majorities of both Sunnis and Shiites want the United States to leave Iraq, period. So, any Iraqi government installed by the United States and created under U.S. pressure, and which endorses the continued presence of American troops in Iraq will have zero credibility. The fact that Bush is meeting with the conspirators so openly, amid widespread reports that Bush and Khalilzad are working overtime to assemble the new coalition, dooms it from the start. It’s precisely the mistake that Khalilzad made earlier this year, when he pressured Iraqis to dump former Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and install the hapless Maliki in his place. That made Maliki look exactly like what he was: a hand-picked hand puppet. Now it will be worse, in spades.

In the middle of all this maneuvering, during a week in which President Bush has tried to portray himself as consulting with State Department and Pentagon officials, “outside experts,” U.S. military leaders in the field, Khalilzad, and even the hated realists of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group, the president flummoxed his own staff and press aides. First he said that he’d reveal all about his “new” Iraqi policy before Christmas—and then suddenly announced that instead he’d wait until 2007 to tell us what it is. It was a Keystone Cops performance that made him look even more foolish than usual.

Bush's Pakistani Puppet burbs in the general direction of Pakistan

2006-12-13T14:23:00.000-06:00

Karzai Says Pakistani Collusion Threatens Region - New York Times:

In strikingly strong language, President Hamid Karzai warned today that a failure to bring peace to Afghanistan would destroy the whole region, and laid blame squarely on neighboring Pakistan.

As if to underscore his warning, as Mr. Karzai arrived here, a suicide bomber blew himself up in the neighboring province of Helmand, narrowly missing the provincial governor, but killing eight people, civilians and bodyguards in his office.

“Afghanistan either has to be fixed and be peaceful or the whole region will run into hell with us,” Mr. Karzai told a small group of journalists during a visit to this southern city, his hometown, which has been reeling from almost daily suicide bombings in the last 10 days. “It’s not going to be like the past, that only we suffer. Those who cause us to suffer will burn in hell with us. And I hope NATO recognizes this.” Mr. Karzai charged that elements of the Pakistani government were still supporting Islamic militants, as they had in the past, and that if such sources of terrorism were not defeated today, Afghans and international soldiers would continue to die.

“The state of Pakistan was supporting the Taliban, so we presume if there is still any Taliban, that they are still being supported by a state element,” he said.

“In Afghanistan we are fighting the symptoms of terrorism, not the roots of it,” the president added. “We feel we should go to the sources of terrorism and fight it there, or we’ll keep losing men, Afghan and international, in a vicious circle.”

A response to the Ishaqi Massacre | Meanwhile, Bush listens to the voices in his head and considers sending more targets

2006-12-13T00:29:00.000-06:00

Jihad Unspun - A Clear View On The US War On "Terrorism":

Day after day the Crusader enemy shows his ugly face and reveals his hidden bitterness towards the Muslims. And day after day, the whole world realizes the lie called democracy that the United States Loser administration tries to promote in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries.

As the Unites States Loser army suffers daily losses, it has become obvious to the public that this army has failed to break the will of Mujahideen. We now see their anger, hatred and rancor toward unarmed Muslim openly, trying to weaken the will of Mujahideen.

Two days before, they executed two unarmed families of farmers in the Ishaqi island district in northern Baghdad province. Following that, their warplanes bombarded two homes, reducing them to rubble and killing and injuring dozens of them, mostly woman and children. As they usually do when they commit like crimes, they lied saying that the fault belonged to the Mujahideen.

We tell him (the American enemy) that the Islamic state of Iraq will not let this crime go without punishment, and that the Mujahideen are determined to avenge the blood of our innocent women and children who were the victims of this ugly Crusaders' massacre. We call on our people in Ishaqi to be patient, and to ask Allah to reward them for their loss. May Allah accept our martyrs, and heal our wounded for He is the All-Hearer and the Responder.

Bush diplomat warns Syria and Iran over Lebanese protests | Carries water for Israel | Another victory for the Bush Administration over Dissent

2006-12-12T19:50:00.000-06:00

Middle East Online:

Rice rejected mounting calls to deal directly with Damascus and Tehran as part of efforts to end the crisis in Iraq -- a key recommendation issued last week by the influential Iraq Study Group.

And she warned Syria and Iran that the United States had no intention of trading off its support for the moderate government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora for their help in ending the bloodshed in Iraq.

'The fact of the matter is that Syria is engaged in a policy that is being demonstrated right now in the streets of Lebanon, where there is an attempt to bring down the Siniora government using or supporting extremist forces,' she said.

'In no way is the US going to get into a situation where it is even a conceivable notion on the part of Syria or Iran that the future of Lebanon would somehow be compromised for other interests of the US,' she said.

'I want to make it very clear that the future of Lebanon is not an issue for negotiation with anybody,' she said.

Annan urges US to uphold rule of law principles in farewell speech | Bush trys to focus on a shiney object in the back of the room

2006-12-11T20:15:00.000-06:00

JURIST - Paper Chase: Annan urges US to uphold rule of law principles in farewell speech:

Although increasingly interdependent, our world continues to be divided – not only by economic differences, but also by religion and culture. That is not in itself a problem. Throughout history human life has been enriched by diversity, and different communities have learnt from each other. But if our different communities are to live together in peace we must stress also what unites us: our common humanity, and our shared belief that human dignity and rights should be protected by law.

That is vital for development, too. Both foreign investors and a country's own citizens are more likely to engage in productive activity when their basic rights are protected and they can be confident of fair treatment under the law. And policies that genuinely favor economic development are much more likely to be adopted if the people most in need of development can make their voice heard.

In short, human rights and the rule of law are vital to global security and prosperity. As Truman said, 'We must, once and for all, prove by our acts conclusively that Right Has Might.' That's why this country has historically been in the vanguard of the global human rights movement. But that lead can only be maintained if America remains true to its principles, including in the struggle against terrorism. When it appears to abandon its own ideals and objectives, its friends abroad are naturally troubled and confused.

And states need to play by the rules towards each other, as well as towards their own citizens. That can sometimes be inconvenient, but ultimately what matters is not convenience. It is doing the right thing. No state can make its own actions legitimate in the eyes of others. When power, especially military force, is used, the world will consider it legitimate only when convinced that it is being used for the right purpose – for broadly shared aims – in accordance with broadly accepted norms.

No community anywhere suffers from too much rule of law; many do suffer from too little – and the international community is among them. This we must change.

The US has given the world an example of a democracy in which everyone, including the most powerful, is subject to legal restraint. Its current moment of world supremacy gives it a priceless opportunity to entrench the same principles at the global level. As Harry Truman said, 'We all have to recognize, no matter how great our strength, that we must deny ourselves the license to do always as we please.'

Italy court sets January hearing into Bush's CIA abduction case

2006-12-11T16:04:00.000-06:00

JURIST - Paper Chase: Italy court sets January hearing in CIA abduction case:

An Italian court has set a hearing for January 9 to determine whether to issue indictments for over 30 US and Italian intelligence agents in the alleged kidnapping and extraordinary rendition of Egyptian cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr. Italian prosecutors last week asked a judge to issue indictments for 26 US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents and five officials from the Italian Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISMI), including former SISMI chief Nicola Pollari. Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, claims he was tortured after being grabbed off a street in Milan and ultimately sent to Egypt. If Judge Caterina Interlandi determines that there is enough evidence to proceed to trial in the case, the trial would be the first criminal prosecution stemming from US rendition practices.

In October, prosecutors said they had completed their investigation into the incident and would once again press for the extradition of 26 American agents believed to be involved in the case. If extradition is once again denied, Milan prosecutor Armando Spataro has said he would be forced to try the US agents in absentia. This summer, several Italian intelligence agents were arrested , and last month the Italian cabinet removed Pollari from his post, despite his denials of involvement in the incident

Bush's War-Crimes Cover-up

2006-12-11T10:10:00.000-06:00

village voice > news > Nat Hentoff by Nat Hentoff:

The Pentagon will submit for congressional approval a $125 million plan to build a compound at Guantanamo to house, among others, terrorism suspects to be tried there, in the first American war-crimes trials since World War II. Many of the prisoners already at Guantanamo have been locked up there since 2002.

In view of the greatly expanded definition of 'enemy combatants' in the Military Commissions Act of 2006, which George W. Bush signed in October, the Pentagon would be well advised to greatly increase the number of cells in the new compound. Under the new law, the president can designate as 'an enemy combatant' any noncitizen picked up anywhere in the world, even permanent legal alien residents here.

These newly imprisoned 'enemy combatants' will include not only those engaged in direct hostilities against the United States, but also loosely defined 'supporters' of the enemy.

Passionately arguing against this legislation on the Senate floor, Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont claimed, 'This provision would perpetuate the indefinite detention of hundreds of individuals . . . without any recourse to justice whatever. . . . This is un-American!'

Israel blocks UN mission to Beit Hanun | Bush is silent

2006-12-11T09:42:00.000-06:00

Middle East Online:

Israel has blocked a UN human rights fact-finding mission led by South African Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu into the killing of 19 Palestinians in their homes in the Gaza Strip, a United Nations official in Geneva said Monday.

Israeli authorities will not grant Tutu and his team the necessary travel authorisation, the official, who declined to be named, added.

The UN Human Rights Council voted on November 15 to set up the fact-finding mission into the deaths during an Israeli artillery bombardment in Beit Hanun. The mission was intended to assess the situation of victims, address the needs of survivors, and make recommendations on ways 'to protect Palestinian civilians against further Israeli attacks'.

Human Rights Day 2006 | Kofi Annan discusses our war-criminal

2006-12-11T09:07:00.000-06:00

Human Rights Day 2006:

[W]e need an anti-terrorism strategy that does not merely pay lip-service to the defence of human rights, but is built on it .

All states agreed last year that 'terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes' is 'one of the most serious threats to international peace and security'. They were right. Terrorism in itself is an assault on the most basic human rights, starting with the right to life.

But states cannot fulfil that obligation by themselves violating human rights in the process. To do so means abandoning the moral high ground and playing into the hands of the terrorists. That is why secret prisons have no place in our struggle against terrorism, and why all places where terrorism suspects are detained must be accessible to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Leading promoters of human rights undermine their own influence when they fail to live up to these principles.

We must fight terrorism in conformity with international law, those parts of it that prohibit torture and inhumane treatment, and those that give anyone detained against his or her will the right to due process and the judgement of a court. Once we adopt a policy of making exceptions to these rules or excusing breaches of them, no matter how narrow, we are on a slippery slope. The line cannot be held half way down. We must defend it at the top.

As Pinochet finally rots in hell, the world's newest "oldest living war-criminal", Henry Kissinger, awaits the same fate...

2006-12-10T19:20:00.000-06:00

Bush and his DHS Passenger Scoring | Is it Illegal?

2006-12-10T01:21:00.000-06:00

Wired News: DHS Passenger Scoring Illegal?:

A newly revealed system that has been assigning terrorism scores to Americans traveling into or out of the country for the past five years is not merely invasive, privacy advocates charge, it's an illegal violation of limits Congress has placed on the Department of Homeland Security for the last three years.

The Identity Project, founded by online rights pioneer John Gilmore, filed official objections to the Automated Targeting System, or ATS, on Monday, calling the program clearly illegal.

The comment cited a little-known provision in the 2007 Homeland Security funding bill prohibiting government agencies from developing algorithms that assign risk scores to travelers not on government watchlists.

'By cloaking this prohibited action in a border issue ... the Department of Homeland Security directly and openly contravenes Congress' clear intent,' wrote project members Edward Hasbrouck and James Harrison.

...

The system appears to fly in the face of legal requirements Congress has placed in the Homeland Security appropriations bills for the last three years, which states, "None of the funds provided in this or previous appropriations Acts may be utilized to develop or test algorithms assigning risk to passengers whose names are not on government watch lists.

The prohibition most recently appeared in section 514(e) of Congress' 2007 appropriation, which was signed into law by President Bush on Oct. 4th. It's one of a set of restrictions on the long-delayed and scandal-plagued replacement for the current domestic air travel watchlist system.

Leave Iraq now; don't wait until 2008 election day

2006-12-10T01:07:00.000-06:00

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 12/07/2006 | Leave Iraq now; don't wait until 2008 election day

Let's get a few more things straight right now.

There's no victory waiting for President Bush in Iraq, and nothing that his father's friends say or do can save him from an ignominious end to his presidency in two years and two months, or from the judgment of history.

There will be no convenient and successful negotiation of a 'decent interval' with our enemies Iran and Syria to cover our withdrawal from a war that we should never have started.

There can be no successful Vietnamization in Iraq - standing up more and better Iraqi army and police units and handing control over to them - when all we're doing is arming and training more recruits for the civil war that clogs the streets of Baghdad with the corpses of the victims of a Sunni-Shia bloodbath.

What we need to do is what none of the commissions and their reports dared to suggest: Begin withdrawing American forces from Iraq right now. Not in 2008. Not after the American death toll has crossed 5,000. Not just in time for a presidential election.

If you worry about the future of Iraq, don't. It will remain what it's always been: a violent, angry land of warring tribes only occasionally beaten and bludgeoned into submission by a homegrown despot like Saddam Hussein.

If you worry about added turmoil and instability in the Middle East, pull some of those departing American forces back to Kuwait and leave them there on standby. Then redirect thought, energy and effort into salvaging Afghanistan, finding Osama bin Laden, saving Lebanon, negotiating peace between Israel and its enemies, rebuilding the U.S. Army and Marine Corps and, oh yes, ending the uncivil war between Republicans and Democrats.

There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there's only one way to leave Iraq: Load our people up on their trucks and tank transporters and Bradleys and Humvees and head for the border. Now.

Black-market weapon prices surge in Iraq

2006-12-10T00:56:00.000-06:00

Black-market weapon prices surge in Iraq - Africa & Middle East - International Herald Tribune:

[T]hree types of American-issued weapons are now readily visible in shops and bazaars here as well: Glock and Walther 9-millimeter pistols, and pristine, unused Kalashnikovs from post-Soviet Eastern European countries. These are three of the principal types of the 370,000 weapons purchased by the United States for Iraq's security forces, a program that was criticized by a special inspector general this fall for, among other things, failing to properly account for the arms.

The weapons are easy to find, resting among others in the semihidden street markets here, where weapons are sold in tea houses, the back rooms of grocery kiosks, cosmetics stores and rug shops, or from the trunks of cars. Proprietors show samples for immediate purchase and offer to take orders — 10 guns can be had in two hours, they say, and 100 or more the next day.

'Every type of gun that the Americans give comes to the market,' said Brig. Hassan Nouri, chief of the political investigations bureau for the Sulaimaniya district. 'They go from the U.S. Army to the Iraqi Army to the smugglers. I have captured many of these guns that the terrorists bought.'

The 'Other War' Bush started: Saving Afghanistan

2006-12-10T00:49:00.000-06:00

Foreign Affairs - Saving Afghanistan - Barnett R. Rubin:

Contrary to the claims of the Bush administration, whose attention after the September 11 attacks quickly wandered off to Iraq and grand visions of transforming the Middle East, the main center of terrorism 'of global reach' is in Pakistan. Al Qaeda has succeeded in reestablishing its base by skillfully exploiting the weakness of the state in the Pashtun tribal belt, along the Afghan-Pakistani frontier. In the words of one Western military commander in Afghanistan, 'Until we transform the tribal belt, the U.S. is at risk.'

Far from achieving that objective in the 2001 Afghan war, the U.S.-led coalition merely pushed the core leadership of al Qaeda and the Taliban out of Afghanistan and into Pakistan, with no strategy for consolidating this apparent tactical advance. The Bush administration failed to provide those Taliban fighters who did not want to defend al Qaeda with a way to return to Afghanistan peacefully, and its policy of illegal detention at Guantanamo Bay and Bagram Air Base, in Afghanistan, made refuge in Pakistan, often with al Qaeda, a more attractive option.

The Taliban, meanwhile, have drawn on fugitives from Afghanistan, newly minted recruits from undisrupted training camps and militant madrasahs, and tribesmen alienated by civilian casualties and government and coalition abuse to reconstitute their command structure, recruitment and funding networks, and logistical bases in Pakistan. On September 19, 2001, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf told his nation that he had to cooperate with Washington in order to 'save Afghanistan and Taliban from being harmed'; accordingly, he has been all too happy to follow the Bush administration's instructions to focus on al Qaeda's top leadership while ignoring the Taliban. Intelligence collected during Western military offensives in mid-2006 confirmed that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) was continuing to actively support the Taliban leadership, which is now working out of Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province, in western Pakistan. As a result, a cross-border insurgency has effectively exploited Afghanistan's impoverished society and feeble government.

Frank Rich on the ISG: The Sunshine Boys Can’t Save Iraq

2006-12-10T00:33:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Pottersville: The Sunshine Boys Can’t Save Iraq:

By prescribing such placebos, the Iraq Study Group isn’t plotting a way forward but delaying the recognition of our defeat. Its real aim is to enact a charade of progress to pacify the public while Washington waits, no doubt in vain, for Mr. Bush to return to the real world. The tip-off to the cynical game can be found in a single sentence: “We agree with the goal of U.S. policy in Iraq, as stated by the president: ‘an Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself, and defend itself.’ ” This studious group knows that even that modest goal, a radical devaluation of the administration’s ambition to spread democracy throughout the Middle East, has long been proven a mirage. The Iraqi government’s ability to defend anything is so inoperative that the group’s members visited the country but once, with just one (Chuck Robb) daring to leave the Green Zone. The Bush-Maliki rendezvous 10 days ago was at the Four Seasons hotel in Amman.

The only recommendations that might alter that reality, however evanescently, come not from “The Way Forward” but from its critics on the right who want significantly more troops and no withdrawal timetables whatsoever. But a Pentagon review leaked to The Washington Post three weeks ago estimates that a true counterinsurgency campaign would “require several hundred thousand additional U.S. and Iraqi soldiers as well as heavily armed Iraqi police,” not the 20,000 or so envisioned as a short-term booster shot by John McCain.

Since these troops don’t exist and there is no public support in either America or Iraq for mobilizing them, the president can’t satisfy the hawks even if he chooses to do so. Since he’s also dead set against a prompt withdrawal, we already know what his policy will be, no matter how many “reviews” he conducts. He will stay the course, with various fake-outs along the way to keep us from thinking we’ve “lost,” until the whole mess is deposited in the lap of the next president.

here is your iraq study group, and i did it for free...

2006-12-09T22:09:00.000-06:00

the answer is ‘there is no answer’. why can’t people just be happy with the fact that not every situation can be fixed by the americans???? you go into a country, occupy it, torture it, kill it, burn it, and then sit there on your asses and say, ‘gee, how do we fix it now???’

the way americans fix iraq is to leave immediately, promise to never do it again, pay billions of dollars in reparations, imprison the bush administration, and hope and pray that the rest of the world does not treat you as badly as you treat them.

the iraqis will take care of it. they are big boys. the american sympathizers and traitors will be hung like the dogs they are, and life will go on. as they choose, not as america chooses.

now, you can stay and continue to get killed, if you wish, but, it makes more sense to just leave, no?

Iran offers to help U.S. withdraw from Iraq

2006-12-09T16:48:00.000-06:00

Iran offers to help U.S. withdraw from Iraq - Africa & Middle East - International Herald Tribune:

Iran's foreign minister delivered a blunt challenge to the United States on Saturday, saying Tehran is willing to help U.S. troops withdraw from neighboring Iraq but only if Washington makes some tough policy changes.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki claimed U.S. troops were responsible for at least half the violence tearing apart Iraq and that their departure would pay security dividends for the entire region.

'If the United States changes its attitude the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to help with the withdrawal from Iraq,' Mottaki told the International Institute of Strategic Studies conference here. 'Fifty percent of the problem of insecurity in Iraq is the presence of foreign troops.'

Mottaki echoed calls made last week by Iran's top national security official, Ali Larijani, for Gulf Arab countries to eject American bases in their countries and establish a regional security pact with Iran. Mottaki went further and offered deeper cooperation with the six Gulf Arab states on energy, tourism, business and counter-narcotics.

GOP senator says war may be 'criminal'

2006-12-08T19:09:00.000-06:00

AP Wire | 12/08/2006 | GOP senator says war may be 'criminal':

Oregon Sen. Gordon Smith, a Republican who voted in favor of the Iraq war in 2002 and has supported it ever since, now says the current U.S. war effort is 'absurd' and 'may even be criminal.'

In an emotional speech on the Senate floor Thursday night, Smith called for changes in U.S. policy that could include rapid pullouts of U.S. troops from Iraq. He said he never would have voted for the conflict if he had known the intelligence that President Bush gave the American people was inaccurate.

'I for one am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day,' Smith said. 'That is absurd. It may even be criminal. I cannot support that anymore. ... So either we clear and hold and build, or let's go home.'

...

Smith said he is 'tired of paying the price of 10 or more of our troops dying a day. So let's cut and run or cut and walk, but let us fight the war on terror more intelligently than we have because we have fought this war in a very lamentable way.'

War-Criminal retires

2006-12-08T18:48:00.000-06:00

Today, you spoke of your reading list. Of reading about wars and death. May you have the rest of your life to read, as you sit in 4 x 6 prison cell in the basement of the Hague… may your nights be filled with the screams and the blood of those you have killed. May you live a long life and have each day be a painful reminder of how awful, how blood-thirsty, how murderous your days have been.

Bush Crime Family weakens national security to appease India

2006-12-08T18:45:00.000-06:00

Irritant words diluted, not gone- The Economic Times:

The final version of the US-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act still contains the clauses that India had found unacceptable—but in a more diluted form. New Delhi feels that the draft legislation contains ``certain extraneous and prescriptive provisions.’’

Words like certifications and determinations, which had legal ramifications, have now been changed to a milder ``description’’ and ``assessment’’ of steps. The language of the clauses is more conciliatory and positive. For example, the president’s annual certification on India’s non-proliferation record has now been changed to an assessment.

The Iran clause, the one major political irritant, still finds a place in the act—not once but twice— but again in a more conciliatory tone. The wording has been reworked from the Congress’ seeking a presidential determination, to the Senate version seeking a ``description and assessment of the specific measures that India has taken to fully and actively participate in US and international efforts to dissuade, isolate and, if necessary, sanction and contain Iran for its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction,”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in her letter to the legislators before the reconciliation process started, had said that in the senate version, the Iran reference would be viewed by India as an imposition of conditions. New Delhi had wanted the clause to be dropped altogether, and taken the stand that no foreign country can take away a nation’s sovereign right to conduct foreign policy.

Bush assures India that the Congress and its lawmaking does not matter!

2006-12-08T17:48:00.000-06:00

We will be bound only by 123 nuclear agreement: India (3rd Roundup) - India:

'The government welcomes the outcome of the conference in the US Congress that has reconciled the Waiver Bills earlier passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate respectively which would enable resumption of civilian nuclear energy cooperation between India and the USA,' the statement added.

'The US administration has assured us that once passed, this legislation would enable it to fulfil all its commitments and obligations under the 18 July Joint Statement and the Separation Plan,' it stressed.

'The enactment of the waiver has wider implications for India's access to international cooperation in civilian nuclear energy and is, therefore, of historic significance,' the ministry said.

'Our obligations and commitments will be those that we undertake in the bilateral 123 Agreement. We expect that to adhere to the July 18 Joint Statement and the Separation Plan,' the ministry underlined, making a crucial distinction between a law of the US and the bilateral agreement which will be the sole binding document relating to civil nuclear cooperation between the two countries.

'We look forward to working with the US administration for an early conclusion of a satisfactory agreement,' the ministry said.

Will Lebanon again become a casualty of American expediency?

2006-12-08T17:29:00.000-06:00

The Daily Star - Editorial - Will Lebanon again become a casualty of American expediency?:

The report by Washington's Iraq Study Group is a sweeping document that may lead to profound change in the Middle East - or to nothing at all. Whatever the case, governments in this part of the world would do well to recognize that the report is not about Iraq: It is about how to protect America's interests as it gets out of Iraq. Only by appreciating this distinction can indigenous players hope to safeguard their own interests as the executive and legislative branches of the US government decide what, if anything, to do about the report's recommendations.

This will mean different things to different state and non-state actors. For many, Washington's desire to keep Iraq from falling apart, and so to improve stability across the region, will mesh perfectly with their own goals. For others, the particular mechanisms by which the Americans seek to accomplish these tasks might constitute a threat that is nothing less than existential. One of these potential casualties is Lebanon, whose chronic instability makes it a prime candidate for a 'solution' that looks expedient from the US perspective but condemns the Lebanese people to yet another era of foreign domination. Both the government headed by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and the opposition led by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah need not just to be aware of this peril but also to guard against it, and actively so.

Another War-Crime: US raid killed civilians, Iraqi officials claim

2006-12-08T14:36:00.000-06:00

US raid killed civilians, Iraqi officials claim | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited:

Iraqi officials today contradicted US claims that 20 al-Qaida militants had died in a coordinated US air and ground assault, saying instead that 17 civilians had been killed.

...

[P]olice and officials in the town of Ishaqi said the bodies of 17 civilians, including six women and five children, were found in the rubble of two homes.

"The Americans have done this before, but they always deny it," Amer Alwan, the mayor of Ishaqi, was quoted as saying by Reuters. "I want the world to know what's happening here."

TV news footage showed more than a dozen charred and bloodied bodies laid out in rows, covered in blankets.

Suit by Iraqis and Afghans claims Rumsfeld ordered torture

2006-12-08T12:33:00.000-06:00

Suit by Iraqis and Afghans claims Rumsfeld ordered torture | csmonitor.com:

'The secretary of Defense personally issued orders and authorized illegal interrogation techniques and caused torture,' says ACLU lawyer Lucas Guttentag. '[Rumsfeld] was directly and personally involved.'

Mr. Guttentag says that Rumsfeld also 'failed to take the required actions to stop abuse in the face of overwhelming uncontroverted evidence that he received and was aware of.'

The Defense secretary had been notified of the abuses via Red Cross reports, human rights organization reports, military internal reports, and FBI reports, according to documents obtained by the ACLU under the Freedom of Information Act, Guttentag says.

In addition to Rumsfeld, the suit names Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of coalition forces in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, Col. Janis Karpinski, commander of the military unit that ran detention facilities in Iraq, and Col. Thomas Pappas, commander of the military unit that gathered intelligence in Iraq.

The civil suit was filed by lawyers with the ACLU and Human Rights First. It says Rumsfeld and the officers violated constitutional protections, international law, and the Geneva Conventions. The suit seeks compensatory damages and a judicial declaration that the legal rights of the detainees were violated under the Constitution, the Geneva accords, and other international law.

Do they REALLY hate us for our Freedom?? | The Few, the Proud: Another marine to face murder trial

2006-12-07T21:48:00.000-06:00

BBC NEWS | Americas | Iraq marine to face murder trial:

The hearing at Camp Pendleton Marine base in southern California ordered Sgt Hutchins to stand trial on 23 April next year on charges of murder, conspiracy and kidnapping.

He could face life in prison if convicted.

Sgt Hutchins is alleged to have masterminded a plan to kill Hashim Ibrahim Awad, a disabled Iraqi grandfather and former policeman.

...

When they failed to find him, the men became frustrated and dragged a disabled grandfather, Hashim Ibrahim Awad, from his home, bound and beat him and then shot dead.

Bush is the root of effort to topple Lebanese government

2006-12-07T20:33:00.000-06:00

McClatchy Washington Bureau | 12/07/2006 | Analysts: U.S. at root of effort to topple Lebanese government:

American political leaders watched with alarm during the past week as the Hezbollah militia laid siege to the U.S.-backed Lebanese government, but few would acknowledge publicly what most analysts and politicians here say is obvious: American policy may bear much of the blame.

Many in Beirut say that U.S. failure to stop Israel's onslaught against Hezbollah last summer crippled the Lebanese government - a U.S. ally - while strengthening Hezbollah - a U.S. enemy. That created an environment in which the Shiite Muslim militia could call for overthrowing Sunni Muslim Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and his Cabinet.

This summer was a catastrophe on many levels. This summer was bad news,' said a Western diplomat in Beirut, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation. 'In general, Lebanon is in a much, much weaker position now than it was in June. There's no question at all levels - politically, economically, in terms of unity - everything is much worse now than it was in June.'

How did the U.S. response contribute to that?

'It was painful to be here this summer, you know. I'll just leave it at that,' the diplomat said.

Hezbollah officials have harped on the Lebanese government's reliance on U.S. help at a time when American policy makers weren't putting pressure on Israel to stop its aerial bombardment.

'It's no coincidence that all those who supported Israel in the war are today supporting what remains of this falling government,' Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday night via video feed to a cheering crowd of thousands.

'Does any Lebanese accept ... supporting a government that George Bush and (Israeli Prime Minister) Ehud Olmert support?' he asked.

The sea of men, women and children booed and screamed for the government's downfall.

A damning indictment of a President and his policy

2006-12-07T00:18:00.000-06:00

Independent Online Edition > Leading Articles:

A more devastating indictment of the strategy of a sitting American president could not be imagined. The cross-party Iraq Study Group's recommendations on future US policy in that blighted country were made public yesterday. Gone are the illusions of 'progress' and 'victory' peddled by George Bush - and, until recently, Tony Blair. Instead, it paints an unvarnished picture of the 'dire' reality in Iraq. It breaks new ground not in the proposals it makes, but in the bluntness with which it speaks truth to power.

...

Most important, however, is the reaction of this most obstinate of presidents. Mr Bush says he will take the report "very seriously". But he has hitherto shown little inclination to engage Iran and Syria, and none whatsoever to put pressure on Israel. He still talks of "seeing the job through", and says the ISG report is just one of several sets of proposals he is considering.

But none will be as authoritative. Can he now, for once, take the advice of people whose views are not his own? It is most certainly his best chance, and probably his last one, of salvaging something from one of the greatest foreign disasters in American history.

Bush Crime Family: You are Next! | U.S. torture statute put to the test

2006-12-06T23:42:00.000-06:00

U.S. torture statute put to the test - Newsday.com:

For 12 years the U.S. federal Torture Statute lay unused. Wednesday, federal prosecutors finally unleashed it.

The target of the first indictment under the 1994 anti-torture law was the 29-year-old son of the notorious former Liberian President Charles Taylor, Charles McArthur Emmanuel -- more commonly known as Charles "Chuckie" Taylor.

...

'This is a huge precedent,' said a source close to the investigation. 'If the U.S. is willing to prosecute its own citizens for this , then certainly we'll be willing to prosecute foreigners who have been involved in torture or who are trying to hide in the U.S. It just illustrates the U.S. isn't messing around.'

...

'This is very significant in terms of the U.S. indicating that torture is not acceptable,' said Elise Keppler, counsel with Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program. 'And we'll be looking to the U.S. government to take this law further and apply it in other cases.'

The Few, The Proud: US Marines prepare charges in Haditha Iraqi civilian massacre

2006-12-06T16:51:00.000-06:00

JURIST - Paper Chase: US Marines prepare charges in Haditha Iraqi civilian killings:

The US military is close to charging at least five US Marines in connection with the deaths of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November, a military spokesperson said late Tuesday. Though specific details have not yet been disclosed, some Marines may be charged with murder and others with the lesser charge of negligent homicide. The 24 deaths prompted two separate military investigations: one conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigation Service, aimed at determining whether to prosecute the soldiers involved, and an investigation into decisions made by Marine leadership led by US Army Major General Eldon Bargewell. An anonymous US official familiar with the NCIS investigation, speaking in May, suggested the Marines murdered in cold blood, and the probe concluded in August that evidence exists to support murder allegations. Bargewell's report has not yet been released, but officials briefed on the investigation said that there was evidence that soldiers concealed and destroyed evidence relating to the incident and were reluctant to hand over evidence.

Lt. Col. Jeffrey R. Chessani, the US Marine commander in charge of the Third Battalion, First Marine Regiment implicated in the Haditha incident, told the Washington Post in August that he did not order an immediate investigation into the deaths because he did not suspect any wrongdoing. Lt. Gen. James Mattis, the officer responsible for determining whether to charge the Marines involved, attracted press attention in 2005 when he told a panel discussion that 'It's fun to shoot people'

IMPEACH THESE FUCKING ANIMALS

2006-12-06T16:25:00.000-06:00

Bush's Pentagon Wrongfully Withholding Images of Detainee Abuse, ACLU Tells Court

2006-12-06T16:15:00.000-06:00

American Civil Liberties Union : Pentagon Wrongfully Withholding Images of Detainee Abuse, ACLU Tells Court:

Amrit Singh, the ACLU attorney who argued the case before the court today, said the government is attempting to radically expand the exemptions allowed under the Freedom of Information Act for withholding records.

“Under the government’s logic, records that uncover the most egregious government misconduct would be afforded the greatest protection from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. That cannot be,” said Singh. “These images shed light not only on the scope of prisoner abuse by U.S. forces, but also on command responsibility for that abuse. The public has a right to examine these images for itself.”

The government agrees that the final ruling on appeal with respect to the 21 images will also apply to other images of prisoner abuse that it is withholding on the same grounds. So far, the government has identified approximately 23 such images of prisoner abuse.

Bush 'Privacy Board' Another Lie

2006-12-06T15:55:00.000-06:00

Wired News: Bush 'Privacy Board' Just a Gag:

The first public meeting of a Bush administration 'civil liberties protection panel' had a surreal quality to it, as the five-member board refused to answer any questions from the press, and stonewalled privacy advocates and academics on key questions about domestic spying.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which met Tuesday, was created by Congress in 2004 on the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, but is part of the White House, which handpicked all the members. Though mandated by law in late 2004, the board was not sworn in until March 2006, due to inaction on the part of the White House and Congress.

The three-hour meeting, held at Georgetown University, quickly established that the panel would be something less than a fierce watchdog of civil liberties. Instead, members all but said they view their job as helping Americans learn to relax and love warrantless surveillance.

'The question is, how much can the board share with the public about the protections incorporated in both the development and implementation of those policies?' said Alan Raul, a Washington D.C. lawyer who serves as vice chairman. 'On the public side, I believe the board can help advance national security and the rights of American by helping explain how the government safeguards U.S. personal information.'

Board members were briefed on the government's NSA-run warrantless wiretapping program last week, and said they were impressed by how the program handled information collected from American citizens' private phone calls and e-mail.

But the ACLU's Caroline Fredrickson was quick to ridicule the board's response to the administration's anti-terrorism policies, charging that the panel's private meetings to date largely consisted of phone calls with government insiders and agencies.

'When our government is torturing innocent people and spying on Americans without a warrant, the PCLOB should act -- indeed, should have acted long ago,' Fredrickson said. 'Clearly you've been fiddling while Rome burns. This board needs to bring a little sunshine. So far America is kept in the dark -- and this is the first public meeting you have had.'

FISA? Bush's FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool

2006-12-06T15:25:00.000-06:00

FBI taps cell phone mic as eavesdropping tool | CNET News.com:

The FBI appears to have begun using a novel form of electronic surveillance in criminal investigations: remotely activating a mobile phone's microphone and using it to eavesdrop on nearby conversations.

The technique is called a 'roving bug,' and was approved by top U.S. Department of Justice officials for use against members of a New York organized crime family who were wary of conventional surveillance techniques such as tailing a suspect or wiretapping him.

Nextel cell phones owned by two alleged mobsters, John Ardito and his attorney Peter Peluso, were used by the FBI to listen in on nearby conversations. The FBI views Ardito as one of the most powerful men in the Genovese family, a major part of the national Mafia.

The surveillance technique came to light in an opinion published this week by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He ruled that the 'roving bug' was legal because federal wiretapping law is broad enough to permit eavesdropping even of conversations that take place near a suspect's cell phone.

Ethnic Cleansing and Israel’s Racist Discourse

2006-12-05T20:59:00.000-06:00

Palestine Chronicle - Ramzy Baroud: Ethnic Cleansing and Israel’s Racist Discourse:

“The term ethnic cleansing refers to various policies of forcibly removing people of another ethnic group. At one end of the spectrum, it is virtually indistinguishable from forced emigration and population transfer, while at the other it merges with deportation and genocide.”

According to this definition, and others including those emerging in the 1990s, following the ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, Palestinians have been and remain victims of a determined and unwavering ethnic cleansing policy that began in 1947-48 and continues until today.

However, it is important that when we examine the subject of ethnic cleansing in Palestine, we take into account its various dimensions, one of which is the accompanying racist discourse, which has become part and parcel of Israel’s ethnic cleansing policies.

Any act of collective punishment — whether ethnic cleansing or genocide or any other — is often preceded and or adjoined by a racist discourse that dehumanizes the victim and justifies the crime on baseless grounds, a concoction of lies and fibs that may appeal to national or religious psyches, but fails the test of law, morality or basic human norms and expectations.

Without such discourse, which depicted the original inhabitants of Palestine as cancerous, subhuman and a nuisance in the face of civilization and progress — as defined by the founders of the Zionist movement — it would not have been possible to carry out a systematic campaign of murder and ethnic cleansing in 1947-48, which saw the killing of an estimated 13,000 Palestinians, the forcible eviction of 850,000 and the depopulation and subsequent destruction of nearly 500 villages and localities. Without such a racist discourse it would have been difficult, to say the least, to carry out scores of preempted massacres, including Deir Yassin, Tantoura, Abbasiyya, Beit Daras, Bir Al-Saba’, Haifa and so forth.

Rights groups: Israel tortures Palestinian detainees | Bush Crime Family looks on and takes notes

2006-12-05T20:27:00.000-06:00

Rights groups: ISA tortures detainees | Jerusalem Post:

'The truth is that these complaints are not examined,' said Abram. 'This is the cover-up that the government uses to convince well-meaning people that there is no torture in Israel.' Other speakers maintained that although the Shin Bet did not systematically use the torture techniques that were outlawed by the High Court or similar, pain-causing methods, it continued to employ them in some instances and had found new ones to humiliate and dehumanize the detainees.

PCATI attorney Samah Elkhatib-Ayoub said that since the beginning of the second intifada, her organization had received complaints from detainees on a daily basis of 'new, original and more sophisticated interrogation methods than in the past.' These included hanging detainees upside down by their feet and hands, tearing out beards, choking, applying the banana bend (in which the detainee's hips and chest are pulled back), and the half banana bend, applying the frog squat and violent shaking.

Elkhatib-Ayoub said that in addition to these methods, detainees were also beaten by soldiers between their arrest and transfer to the interrogation facility, barred from seeing a lawyer, and held in substandard detention conditions.

Italy to probe CIA rendition

2006-12-05T20:16:00.000-06:00

Al Jazeera English - Europe:

Suspects include 26 Americans, most believed to be CIA agents, as well as six Italians, including Nicolo Pollari, the former head of Italy's SISMI military intelligence agency.

Prosecutors believe the CIA agents, with help from SISMI, grabbed Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr off a Milan street, bundled him into a van and flew him out of Italy from a US airbase. Nasr, an Egyptian also known as Abu Omar, says he was tortured by Egyptian agents under questioning there with electric shocks, beatings, rape threats and genital abuse.

Nasr also said in an 11-page handwritten account that he was offered freedom if he collaborated with authorities, but he refused. A high-ranking SISMI suspect says the CIA wanted the agency to help it abduct the imam but that he declined.

Do they really hate us for our freedom???

2006-12-04T19:46:00.000-06:00

Marine convicted of rape in Philippines | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle:

A young U.S. Marine faces 40 years in jail after being convicted Monday of rape in a landmark case that has become a symbol for women's rights and national sovereignty in the Philippines.

Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Benjamin Pozon rejected Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith's claim that the woman was a willing partner, saying she was too drunk to have consented to having sex.

Three other Marines were acquitted of complicity for allegedly cheering on Smith in the back of a moving van.

Chavez hails landslide election victory as defeat of 'devil' Bush

2006-12-04T18:39:00.000-06:00

Independent Online Edition > Americas:

Emboldened by a landslide election victory, the Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez is poised to forge ahead with his 'Bolivarian revolution' - but analysts warned that the US may continue to try to undermine him.

Mr Chavez secured about 61 per cent of Sunday's vote and immediately told supporters that his third term would see an 'expansion of the revolution' that has seen the establishment of social programmes for the poor using the country's oil wealth.

'Long live the revolution. Venezuela is demonstrating that a new and better world is possible and we are building it,' Mr Chavez said from the balcony of the presidential palace on Sunday evening. Repeating an attack on the US President, George Bush, he said: 'It's another defeat for the devil, who tries to dominate the world. Down with imperialism.'

Muslim Political Analyst Says The 21st American Century Is About To End

2006-12-04T15:35:00.000-06:00

Jihad Unspun - A Clear View On The US War On "Terrorism":

Throughout the Muslim world America's credibility has plummeted to an all-time low. The ferocity of the resistance in Iraq and Afghanistan has broken the back of the US army and forced President Bush to abandon his plans to advance democracy. Bush unable to extricate America from Iraq and Afghanistan has had to revert to the 'Truman Doctrine' and seek the help of secular autocracies like Syria, Iran and Pakistan. Instead of reshaping the Muslim world in America's image, the nefarious policies of the Bush administration has Islamized the region, politicized the Muslim masses to awaken from their spiritual slumber and galvanized the Muslim intelligentsia into a powerful force for political Islam- to sum up the last six years- it is suffice to say that America is precipitating the birth of the Caliphate.

After two decades of dominating world affairs, America finds itself at the mercy of her friends and enemies. Graham Fuller former vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council described America's predicament correctly when he wrote in the latest issue of the National Interest, 'diverse countries have deployed a multiplicity of strategies and tactics designed to weaken, divert, alter, complicate, limit delay or block the Bush agenda through death by a thousand cuts.'

So what happens after America has fallen from its perch as the world's sole super power? Europe is too divided to take up the mantle of the leading state. Russia has yet to translate her economic strength into political capital to position its self as the pre-eminent power. Both China and India lack the political will and the experience to affect world politics. For the foreseeable future, both countries will be confined to their respective spheres of influence.

The country that wishes to supplant America must possess a huge population, abundant resources, a universal ideology and the political will to succeed. The most obvious candidate is the Muslim world under the Caliphate, which Bush has often spoken about.

Does the Bush Crime Family Care? Is it really part of their plan? Is it more treasonous war-profiteering? Or, are they simply incompetent?

2006-12-03T20:34:00.000-06:00

U.S. Report Finds Fault in Training of Afghan Police - New York Times:

Five years after the fall of the Taliban, a joint report by the Pentagon and the State Department has found that the American-trained police force in Afghanistan is largely incapable of carrying out routine law enforcement work, and that managers of the $1.1 billion training program cannot say how many officers are actually on duty or where thousands of trucks and other equipment issued to police units have gone.

In fact, most police units had less than 50 percent of their authorized equipment on hand as of June, says the report, which was issued two weeks ago but is only now circulating among members of relevant Congressional committees.

In its most significant finding, the report said that no effective field training program had been established in Afghanistan, at least in part because of a slow, ineffectual start and understaffing.

...

The training experts say the United States made some of the same mistakes in training police forces in Afghanistan that it made in Iraq, including offering far too little field training, tracking equipment poorly and relying on private contractors for the actual training. At the same time, these experts say, the failure to create viable police forces to keep order and enforce the law on a local level has played a pivotal role in undermining the American efforts to stabilize both countries.

In Afghanistan, the failure has contributed to the explosion in opium production, government corruption and the resurgence of the Taliban.

In Iraq, the challenge is even larger: Sectarian death squads have infiltrated the police force and helped push the country to what many are now calling a civil war.

Saddam's national address to the people of Iraq, 24 March 2003 | 'The enemy is trapped in the sacred land of Iraq''

2006-12-03T20:20:00.000-06:00

'The enemy is trapped in the sacred land of Iraq' | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited:

Therefore, after underestimating you ... the enemy is trapped in the sacred land of Iraq which is being defended by its great people and army.

O brave fighters, hit your enemy with all your strength. O Iraqis, fight with the strength of the spirit of jihad which you carry in you and push them to the point where they cannot go on.

You (fighters) will reap stability and dignity with victory. For our martyrs the prize of heaven and for you the prize of honour which satisfies God and which will be recorded by history. The lesson you teach the enemy will make them think twice, and even be incapable, of attacking you, your nation and humanity again.

Hit them so that good and its people may reign and evil evicted back to its place. Mothers, daughters, fathers and sons, together with all the faithful and good, will sleep in comfort after being terrified by aggression. Your struggle will dishearten the aggressor. Oh Arabs, oh faithful of the world, oh those who support justice and oppose evil, we herald the victory that God has promised us in the conflict against the lowlifes and enemies of humanity.'

Kofi Annan: Life is worse now under the American Occupation than it was under Saddam

2006-12-03T20:12:00.000-06:00

Al Jazeera English - Middle East:

Annan said he agreed with Iraqis who say that life is worse now than it was under Saddam.

'I think they are right in the sense of the average Iraqi's life,' he said.

'If I were an average Iraqi obviously I would make the same comparison - that they had a dictator who was brutal but they had their streets, they could go out, their kids could go to school and come back home without a mother or father worrying, 'Am I going to see my child again?' Annan said.

'When we had the strife in Lebanon and other places, we called that a civil war - this is much worse [...]And the Iraqi government has not been able to bring the violence under control.'

Since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, which was not approved by the UN Security Council and Annan subsequently called 'illegal', divisions among UN members have sharpened. 'I really believed that we could have stopped the war and that if we had worked a bit harder, given the inspectors a bit more time, we could have,' Annan said.

On Tape: An 'Enemy' Interrogation | Will it show the American animals torturing him?

2006-12-03T18:47:00.000-06:00

On Tape: An 'Enemy' Interrogation - Newsweek Periscope - MSNBC.com:

Padilla's lawyers recently moved to have the entire case dropped because of government conduct that allegedly included subjecting him to sleep deprivation, extreme cold, injecting noxious fumes into his cell and giving him mind-altering drugs. Justice lawyers said there was not a 'shred of record evidence' to support claims of 'torture,' but have declined to address specific interrogation techniques. Defense lawyers then submitted an affidavit from psychiatrist Dr. Angela Hegarty, who asserted Padilla was so 'traumatized' by his treatment that he cannot bear to watch tapes of his interrogation, and when 'approached by his lawyers, he begs them, 'Please, please, please' not to have to discuss his case.' Hegarty says Padilla is suffering from post-traumatic-stress disorder and cannot assist in his defense—a claim that could be a basis to put off his trial. Another new affidavit says Padilla suffers from 'facial tics' and bodily 'contortions,' and fears that his lawyers are government agents. Human-rights lawyer Scott Horton said he expects lawyers for other Qaeda detainees at Gitmo to make similar claims, and also to press for access to tapes of clients' interrogations. 'This is going to wind up being an enormous issue,' he said.

Are George W. Bush lovers certifiable?

2006-12-03T01:22:00.000-06:00

NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE - NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE:

The thesis draws on a survey of 69 psychiatric outpatients in three Connecticut locations during the 2004 presidential election. Lohse’s study, backed by SCSU Psychology professor Jaak Rakfeldt and statistician Misty Ginacola, found a correlation between the severity of a person’s psychosis and their preferences for president: The more psychotic the voter, the more likely they were to vote for Bush.

But before you go thinking all your conservative friends are psychotic, listen to Lohse’s explanation.

“Our study shows that psychotic patients prefer an authoritative leader,” Lohse says. “If your world is very mixed up, there’s something very comforting about someone telling you, ‘This is how it’s going to be.’”

...

Lohse says the trend isn’t unique to Bush: A 1977 study by Frumkin & Ibrahim found psychiatric patients preferred Nixon over McGovern in the 1972 election.

He's The Worst Ever

2006-12-02T18:52:00.000-06:00

He's The Worst Ever - washingtonpost.com:

Despite some notable accomplishments in domestic and foreign policy, Nixon is mostly associated today with disdain for the Constitution and abuse of presidential power. Obsessed with secrecy and media leaks, he viewed every critic as a threat to national security and illegally spied on U.S. citizens. Nixon considered himself above the law.

Bush has taken this disdain for law even further. He has sought to strip people accused of crimes of rights that date as far back as the Magna Carta in Anglo-American jurisprudence: trial by impartial jury, access to lawyers and knowledge of evidence against them. In dozens of statements when signing legislation, he has asserted the right to ignore the parts of laws with which he disagrees. His administration has adopted policies regarding the treatment of prisoners of war that have disgraced the nation and alienated virtually the entire world. Usually, during wartime, the Supreme Court has refrained from passing judgment on presidential actions related to national defense. The court's unprecedented rebukes of Bush's policies on detainees indicate how far the administration has strayed from the rule of law.

Three Car Bombs Target Shiite Areas Of Baghdad; 91 Dead, Dozens Wounded

2006-12-02T18:05:00.000-06:00

Jihad Unspun - A Clear View On The US War On "Terrorism":

The attacks come as 12 more bodies of Sunnis who had been handcuffed and shot were found by police. It was not made clear where the bodies were located in early official reports.

The Islamic State of Iraq has declared Jihad against the Shiites after Shia gunmen and Al-Mahdi army militia went on a rampage destroying burning mosques with Sunni worshippers inside as well as homes of Sunni. Shia deaths squads have been operating openly in the country, in plain view of US forces and often wearing government uniforms. Recently Sunnis were rounded up at a Baghdad university with the help of so-called government “Shock Troops” and once identified were kidnapped. Several were found dead in the days that followed.

This is likely just the beginning of a fresh wave of attacks to come and Sunni Mujahideen vow to cleanse Baghdad of the Americans and their Shiite collaborators.

Time is on the Taliban's side

2006-12-02T17:29:00.000-06:00

Asia Times Online :: South Asia news - Time is on the Taliban's side:

The feared symptom is that public opinion back home vital to sustaining military involvement will gradually sour in a prelude to withdrawal.

Regardless of whether adjustments are made, a regrouped Taliban contingent estimated at 10,000 fighters is prepared to take the fight to 'surprising' levels against international forces through the winter and on for as long as it takes to bleed Western resolve. Commander Mullah Obaidullah warned on Thursday that the possibility of more NATO troops 'does not worry the Taliban, [but] rather will make it easier for our combatants to attack them'.

These are more than fighting words. Suicide and roadside bombings targeting foreign troops and government officials have increased fourfold this year, up to 600 a month, with violence recorded in all but two of the country's 34 provinces. Officials say between 3,700 and 4,000 people have died in insurgent-related violence this year, including at least 186 coalition troops.

The Iraq Study Group of Good Ol' Boys and War-Criminals

2006-12-01T20:34:00.000-06:00

The Iraq Study Group: Official damage control and cover-up:

The Iraq Study Group is charged with bringing 'fresh eyes' to the Middle East conflict. However, one glance at the directors of the ISG should remove any illusions. The ISG’s leaders are world-renowned American elites and Cold Warriors, each of whom played major roles in the crimes of the Reagan-Bush and Clinton administrations.

These are very old eyes, on very blood-soaked globalists who seek to fine-tune, perfect, and expand the war, not end it:

Its co-chairs are James A. Baker III and Lee Hamilton. The chairmanship by this tag-team of war criminals itself promises more of the same.

Former secretary of state Baker’s deep and extensive political and business connections to the Bush family, and high-level role in the Bush and Reagan-Bush administrations is well known. It was Baker who personally intervened to install George W. Bush as president in 2000. It was Baker, member of the Carlyle Group, who laid the groundwork behind 9/11 and the 'war on terrorism'. It is James A. Baker Institute for Institute for Public Policy pushing many aspects of on oil and petrodollar conquest. Now it is Baker coming to George W. Bush’s aid again, with 'better ideas', by way of George H.W. Bush, Brent Scowcroft and Henry Kissinger.

Hamilton is co-chair of the infamous 9/11 Commission, a blatant cover-up. Hamilton’s role with the ISG marks his third chairmanship of official cover-ups: Iran-Contra, 9/11, and now Iraq.

Al Jazeera Interview: Ahmadinejad wants US out of Iraq

2006-12-01T18:44:00.000-06:00

Al Jazeera English - Middle East:

When asked if he ever envisioned himself discussing Iraq with the US and if there was anything he wanted from the Americans, Ahmadinejad said: 'We don’t want anything from America, just leave the Iraqis alone.'

'They know how to govern themselves and provide their own security. The problem is with the presence of the US. Let them leave and the Iraqis will be fine.'

He accused Washington of exacerbating tensions between Iraq's deeply divided communities, saying it is 'afraid of an independent Iraq'. 'We know that the Americans and the Britons want to leave Iraq ... But they want to leave a scorched earth for the Iraqi people,' he said.

'They have started doing things like creating sedition among Iraqis - Sunnis and Shia, Kurds and Shia.'

Ahmadinejad also said supporters of the Lebanese opposition led by Hezbollah, which is believed to have links with Iran, had a right to demonstrate against the government. 'In a land of democracy it is natural for people to voice their opinions, after all the government has to serve their people,' he said.

Robert Fisk: Like Hitler and Brezhnev, Bush is in Denial

2006-11-30T21:12:00.000-06:00

Independent Online Edition > Robert Fisk:

More than half a million deaths, an army trapped in the largest military debacle since Vietnam, a Middle East policy already buried in the sands of Mesopotamia - and still George W Bush is in denial. How does he do it? How does he persuade himself - as he apparently did in Amman yesterday - that the United States will stay in Iraq 'until the job is complete'? The 'job' - Washington's project to reshape the Middle East in its own and Israel's image - is long dead, its very neoconservative originators disavowing their hopeless political aims and blaming Bush, along with the Iraqis of course, for their disaster.

...

Even Hitler must chuckle at this bloodbath, he who claimed in April 1945 that Germany would still win the Second World War, boasting that his enemy, Roosevelt, had died - much as Bush boasted of Zarqawi's killing - while demanding to know when General Wenck's mythical army would rescue the people of Berlin. How many "Wencks" are going to be summoned from the 82nd Airborne or the Marine Corps to save Bush from Iraq in the coming weeks? No, Bush is not Hitler. Like Blair, he once thought he was Winston Churchill, a man who never - ever - lied to his people about Britain's defeats in war. But fantasy knows no bounds.