Haven’t been up to speed on the other open threads. Pardon me if this is redundant.
But…
Did I really read this?
“Our Soldiers showed amazing restraint,” Abrams said. He said children as young as 6 were throwing Molotov cocktails at the vehicles. “Our Soldiers did not return fire because they were only children.”
Posted by: koreyel | Aug 8 2004 5:16 utc | 1
The NYT prints the Declaration of War against Iran and tells us why.
… senior administration and intelligence officials say they are seeking ways to step up unspecified covert actions intended, in the words of one official, “to disrupt or delay as long as we can” Iran’s efforts to develop a nuclear weapon. …
The desire to pursue a broader strategy against Iran’s nuclear ambitions is driven … by increasingly strong private statements by Israeli officials
like a fashion show at Barneys visiting the Repub convention does cost some thousands of Dollars. Says one Repub donar:
“I don’t think anybody is happy about writing the check. But it’s a cost of doing business.”
A chart shows how the $144.4 billion for Iraq could have been spent to safeguard Americans. How about printing this as a poster and display it at any post office and WalMart?
Misreading The Truth In Sudan warns against intervention.
three myths of one of the worst humanitarian crises – that the Janjaweed are the sole source of trouble and are acting only as proxies for Khartoum; that the conflict pits light-skinned Arabs against black Africans; and that the Sudanese government can immediately end the war whenever it wishes …
With outside action threatened, there is little incentive for the rebels to negotiate a lasting cease-fire.
Likewise, the threat of international peacekeeping troops could provoke further violence in an already unstable Muslim world.
Not mentioned is the magic word: OIL.
WaPo editorial on Sudan presses for African peacekeepers. Measuring what countries have done, the piece says one should not measure:
The United States has done more to help Darfur than any other country; France, which for a long time was reluctant to antagonize Sudan’s government, has now used its military base in neighboring Chad to assist Darfuri refugees; the Netherlands has given generously, most recently to finance relief helicopters. But the leaders of these countries should not be measuring their efforts against one another
No mentioning of the magic word either.
An OpEd by a CARE manager (and former Marine colonel) says the world has to do something for Sudan, but does not give ideas what to do. Oil anyone?
Juan Cole looks at the internatonal response to the blown sting operation against Al Qaeda.
LA Times explains souvereignity in Iraq
“Our job is to support the governor,” said Graham, a cerebral, soft-spoken commander who has the look of an Oxford don in combat fatigues. “But not to give any ground and not to let him wobble too much.”
Humanitarian tasks for US forces in Iraq – just turn away.
The man who pays an anti-Kerry campaigns
Advising the government on what to do and then get paid to do it.
Screw the veterans
Posted by: b | Aug 8 2004 8:10 utc | 2
Here is another angle to the Sudan story and another one from Trinidad of all places.
and then there is this
When the Sudan government supported militias against the local population, driving out whole villages from the oil-producing regions to prevent attacks being made on the oil pipelines, the US continued with the peace negotiations
Posted by: Dan of Steele | Aug 8 2004 9:50 utc | 3
@ koreyel
Looks like the battle for the hearts and minds is not going well 🙁
Posted by: Dan of Steele | Aug 8 2004 9:54 utc | 4
The Home Secretary has warned that American-style openness over the al-Qaeda threat risked exposing politicians to ‘ridicule’, and dismissed calls for him to supply more details to the British public as ‘arrant nonsense’.
In a startling sideswipe at the White House – which put troops around what it said were new targets in New York last week, only for it to emerge that the intelligence underpinning the supposed threat was years old – David Blunkett says he is not prepared to discuss security operations simply to ‘feed the news frenzy’ in a slow summer. The Home Secretary, writing in The Observer today, is understood to be furious with David Davis, his Tory shadow, whom he had offered a confidential briefing about the arrests of 13 terror suspects in Britain last week.
…
Blunkett’s words reflect a growing row over political handling of intelligence, with accusations in Washington that George Bush may be overemphasising the threat in order to boost his chances in November’s presidential election – and in London, a new willingness by the Tories to make political capital out of the terror issue.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Aug 8 2004 10:57 utc | 5
b,
Classy guy, that Bob Perry (“The man who pays an anti-Kerry campaigns“).
This passage says it all:
Like many prominent building companies, Perry Homes has been sued dozens of times. Last year, Perry was among several developers watching as the Legislature imposed strict limits on civil lawsuits, particularly claims brought by homeowners alleging shoddy construction.
Critics called the seats where he and other builders watched the legislative debate the “owner’s box,” because much of their money had gone to advocacy groups fighting for limits on the civil court system, as well as politicians who supported those efforts. During that debate, the governor put a Perry Homes executive on a panel established to put in place new restrictions on claims against builders.
Yeah, but he has no axe to grind with John Kerry. He just like “good government.” uh huh.
This is just like putting Ken Lay on your energy task force.
Iraq restores death penalty ‘for certain crimes’
Iraq restores death penalty
Can’t see any reference to torture, rape and sodomy of men, women and children, aerial bombardment of civilian areas, wedding parties or mosques, the use of cluster bombs against civilians, fraudulent misappropriation of billions of dollars, machine-gunning people to death at checkpoints, carrying out an illegal invasion or anything like that – it’ll probably be in the small print, eh?
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 8 2004 11:57 utc | 7
Sealed done deal.
No media coverage of Iraq……….
Whores
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Aug 8 2004 13:31 utc | 8
CP,
It’s amazing. They’d rather report that there is no news on the terrorism front than that there is news in Iraq.
No doubt they’ve seen the chart and are just doing their job to help the cause.
Misleading headline of the day: ‘Iraq PM Allawi appeals to militants.’
Allawi reads US script to Iraqis, in English, and broadcasts it mainly via Western media
It is a matter of record that very few people actually find Allawi appealing. His English language broadcasts are all directed at you, dear readers, he doesn’t broadcast to the Iraqi people in Arabic. It is also an error to think of him as ‘the Iraq PM’ – in truth Allawi is the Prime Minister of a television studio starring in a non-reality politics TV show and that is where he does his master’s work.
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 8 2004 14:36 utc | 11
the slaughter continues
the criminal conspiracy continues
still steel
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Aug 8 2004 14:40 utc | 12
Iraqi Resistance sends reply to Allawi
Four explosions boom across Baghdad
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 8 2004 16:15 utc | 13
A stream of completely indecipherable chatter that intelligence agents had been trying to decode for the past three and a half years has turned out to be the utterances of President George W. Bush, the White House confirmed today.
Posted by: b | Aug 8 2004 16:35 utc | 14
” Allawi is the PM of a television studio…..”
garden sculpture comes to mind
Posted by: anna mist | Aug 8 2004 16:59 utc | 15
Protected by 100 guards … Allawi announced the reinstatement of the death penalty, part of a new approach for putting down the 15-month insurgency in Iraq.
Ode to the New Republican Guard:
100 guards guarding Allawi in New Iraq..100 guards in Iraq…you bribe another thus hiring another, 101 guards guading Allawi in Iraq.
101 guards guarding Allawi in New Iraq..101 guards in Iraq…you bribe another thus hiring another, 102 guards guading Allawi in Iraq.
102 guards guarding Allawi in New Iraq..102 guards in Iraq…you bribe another thus hiring another 103 guards guading Allawi in Iraq.
….
Posted by: koreyel | Aug 8 2004 17:16 utc | 16
I remember the John Wayne “Hellfighters” movie well. So that’s Red, eh? Ain’t the Internet grand? Thanks, Nemo.
Posted by: Kate_Storm | Aug 8 2004 18:15 utc | 19
BBC reporting that an Iraqi Islamic Group have kidnapped an Iranian Diplomat because he was inciting trouble!
WTF!
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Aug 8 2004 19:03 utc | 20
More on the Iranian
TEHRAN, Aug. 8 (Xinhuanet) — The Iranian embassy in Baghdad confirmed Sunday that its consul in Karbala had been kidnapped,state television reported.
Fereydun Jahani had been appointed Karbala consul last Wednesdayand was held hostage Sunday on the road connecting Baghdad and Karbala, the television reported.
Karbala is an important Shiite holy city 80 km south of Bagdad.A video released earlier on Sunday by Arab-language Al-ArabiyaTV channel showed Jihani along with nine forms of hisidentification, his passport and a business card.
Claiming themselves as “Islamic Army in Iraq”, the kidnappersaccused Jihani of fanning sectarian clashes in Iraq, warning Irannot to interfere in Iraq’s affairs, according to Al-Arabiya.Iran, a Shiite Muslim country with close ties to Iraq’s majorityShiite population, is blamed for supporting Iraq’s Shiite politicalparties with money and intelligence, an allegation strongly deniedby the Iranian government.
Jihani became the second senior diplomat kidnapped in Iraq inrecent weeks.
An Egyptian diplomat called Mohammed Mamdouh Helmi Qutb wasabducted on July 23 and later freed on July 26.
More than 70 foreigners have been seized in Iraq in recentmonths by insurgents who want to force coalition members to pullout their forces and foreign companies to stop supporting coalitiontroops.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Aug 8 2004 19:04 utc | 21
Alawi starts cleaning the house Iraq Seeks Arrest of Ahmad Chalabi
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq has issued an arrest warrant for Ahmad Chalabi, a former governing council member, on money laundering charges and another for Salem Chalabi, the head of Iraq’s special tribunal, on murder charges, Iraq’s chief investigating judge said Sunday.
Posted by: b | Aug 8 2004 19:16 utc | 22
@b
It just gets more and more bizarre!
Negroponte is working overtime!
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Aug 8 2004 19:36 utc | 23
Coalition of the killing – junior partners struggling to keep pace with US output – figures set to improve officials claim
British military police have opened investigations into the deaths of 48 Iraqis – a jump of nearly a third in the previously disclosed official figure, The Independent on Sunday can reveal.
The Ministry of Defence also admitted on Friday that armed forces police have investigated, or are still looking into, a total of 94 cases of alleged deaths in custody, illegal shootings, injuries and suspected ill-treatment involving British troops.
The latest figures, which are a significant rise in the last official statistics released by defence ministers in June, are set to climb even higher, officials have admitted….
British Ministry of Defence inquiry into 48 suspect deaths in Iraq
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 8 2004 23:13 utc | 24
Found – Blair’s secret chemical weapon
Prozac found in British drinking water
So that’s how the Brits are sedated into putting up with that despicable poodle Blair.
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 9 2004 0:13 utc | 25
A moment to muse on oil shocks,environmental disasters, and why ostriches with necks in the sand tend to get elected…
WHY DO SOME SOCIETIES MAKE DISASTROUS DECISIONS?: JARED DIAMOND
(The mas is a renowned scientist and won a pulitzer)
Posted by: Ramlad | Aug 9 2004 4:12 utc | 26
Ramlad- thanks to the Jared Diamond link. He has another excellent article on the Edge site that is sort of a short version of Guns, Germs and Steel.
13,000 years of history in six pages.
Here’s my even shorter version-
agriculture (favorable native species), domestication of (more varities of favorable) animals, east-west migration of the same (vs less easily adaptable north-south), increase in populations, germs from domestic animals and people living close together, stratified societies with some people with leisure/study time, stronger tools, exploration, unintentional and intentional genocide…
leading to your link and my question.. will the world become an oily Easter Island by the application of the economics of “rational selfishness” to a futile end?
…or will we choose to address the need to move beyond the fossil fuel era by rational problem solving?
we know the answer if the chimp and his handlers continue in power.
Posted by: fauxreal | Aug 9 2004 7:13 utc | 27
From: ASZ News Syndicate Classifieds
Beginning Blogger Seeks Experienced Individual to Manage Comments Section
I’d Be Sharpening My Resume, NEMO.
Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 9 2004 8:45 utc | 29
GUNGA DIN TO RUN IN ILLINOIS
Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie
Posted by: Lord Curzon | Aug 9 2004 9:15 utc | 30
Fauxreal: Well, if it were just oil. The trick is that we may have that collapse of resources with basically fresh water and food, with fisheries going down right now. Mankind can live without oil and has – though no oil would basically means a sharp decrease of population, but not a 90% drop probably. If the rest of the natural resources shrink and disappear because we’ve fucked the planet, then a 90% decrease or complete extinction are possible. Oil is just the tip of the iceberg, and it’s why it’s so freakin bad that even the obvious tip doesn’t cause reactions and adjustments by governments and people.
Oh well, if mankind dies off, it’ll just be the end of another stupid species. Surprising survival against all odds would hint on the other hand that there may be something worthy in it.
Posted by: CluelessJoe | Aug 9 2004 10:11 utc | 32
Fauxreal and CluelessJoe:
What worries me is that so many species are disappearing while the ostriches preen in full splendour. Sort of like the mine owners in montana that Diamond refers to – the negative
externalities of their mining activities never seemed to have bothered their sleep.
BTW – the last line of my previous post should have said man instead of mas – check twice, post once!
Posted by: Ramlad | Aug 9 2004 10:37 utc | 33
Salon has a (not very fresh) story that identifies the translator in AbuGraibh who has raped a young Iraqi as Adel L. Nakhla.
His resumee is available online.
Posted by: b | Aug 9 2004 13:01 utc | 34
Wish you were here? – “No!” – Ahmad and Salem Chalabi
Tourism a hard sell in lawless Iraq
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 9 2004 14:04 utc | 35
From my jaundiced perspective, renewed weakness in the US economy hardly comes as a surprise. It’s an unmistakable outgrowth of an upturn that has been of highly dubious quality from the start. The consensus view is that America has entered nothing more than a “soft patch” — the momentary lapses that most recoveries experience before resuming their upward march. Now that the major equity market indexes have all hit new lows for the year, there will undoubtedly be a rush of buy recommendations from that same optimistic consensus. My advice: Look before you leap at the siren song of the mythical recovery. …
For my money, there can be no mistaking the reality check of this summer’s disappointing data. This recovery now looks more mythical than ever.
The current downturn will be long and hard for many people, but if it sinks Bush it may be worth it. Unfortunatly the problem then will be in Kerrys lap and (like Iraq) he has no chance to solve it without very harsh measures. Shouldn´t Bush have to clean up the mess he made? Yeah I know – he would increase the mess…
Posted by: b | Aug 9 2004 14:25 utc | 36
Making Sure All the Votes Get Counted
Posted by: Earl Long | August 9, 2004 05:29 AM
From the above post may come the reason that Powell is NOT going to be at the Repub convention.
…
Thirteen Democratic members of the House of Representatives, raising the specter of possible civil rights violations that they said took place in Florida and elsewhere in the 2000 election, wrote to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in July, asking him to send observers.
After Annan rejected their request, saying the administration must make the application, the Democrats asked Secretary of State Colin Powell to do so.
The issue was hotly debated in the House, and Republicans got an amendment to a foreign aid bill that barred federal funds from being used for the United Nations to monitor U.S. elections, The Associated Press reported.
In a letter dated July 30 and released last week, Assistant Secretary of State Paul Kelly told the Democrats about the invitation to OSCE, without mentioning the U.N. issue.
“I am pleased that Secretary Powell is as committed as I am to a fair and democratic process,” said Democratic Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, who spearheaded the effort to get U.N. observers.
….
Posted by: sukabi | Aug 9 2004 14:54 utc | 37
Bush-backers-only policy riles voters at RNC rallies
…
Republicans contend they foiled a plot by America Coming Together, a 527 organization that supports the Democratic Party, to disrupt the New Mexico rally. The 527 groups are so named for the provision in the tax code that applies to tax-exempt political organizations that operate outside party and candidate organizations.
RNC spokesman Yier Shi said RNC campaign rallies are not official visits, but party events designed to energize the Republican base . He said everyone is welcome at the rallies as long as they support President Bush.
Shi said similar forms are used at other reelection and fund-raising rallies sponsored by the RNC.
He added that the decision was made to use the forms at the New Mexico rally after the local RNC office received ”suspicious calls” about the event before it was advertised. He said the caller identification indicated some numbers were from cellphones of members of America Coming Together.
Does this smack of abuse of power to anyone else? So they’ve gotten lists of members of ACT and their cellphone numbers. Where did they get the lists?
Posted by: sukabi | Aug 9 2004 15:12 utc | 38
@Nemo:
It appears to me that Disney’s Fantasy Land sitting beside the ziggurat at Ur, would be a trifle tacky.
By the way:
Are the ancient sites stll in pretty good condition, post-war? I read somewhere that the ziggurat was pretty badly damaged, but that much of what had been looted had been recovered at the Museum of Antiquities. What’s the status overall of the historic sites?
Posted by: FLASHHARRY | Aug 9 2004 16:09 utc | 39
‘Can’t Blair See that this Country
is About to Explode? Can’t Bush?’
Posted by: sukabi | Aug 9 2004 16:11 utc | 40
Al-Jazeera banned – home movies make a comeback
Militants behead man in video on Internet
Really dreadful news from Iraq
Iraq stops pumping oil from Basra oil fields
There’s some talk about scores being killed and hundreds injured too, but little attention is being paid to such trivial matters.
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 9 2004 16:27 utc | 41
@ FLASH HARRY
Well, thousands of pieces are still missing although some five thousand have been recovered. Some valuable items have, surprise surprise, turned up in the USA. There is no doubt that major damage is being done to Iraq’s heritage by occupation troops and by contractors. The full extent of the damage cannot yet be assessed as the Iraqi Culture Minister (yes, from ‘sovereign Iraq’), is not allowed to visit the sites and Iraqi heritage experts are not permitted to visit the damaged sites.
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 9 2004 16:43 utc | 42
Connect the dots…
ERINYS – the company that guards Iraq’s entire oil industry
Oil pumping stops because of security problem for ERINYS
Salem Chalabi, ERINYS company lawyer in trouble
Blackmail is such an ugly word and one hesitates to use it…..and yet…..
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 9 2004 16:54 utc | 43
Hot potato
Polish troops hand back military authority in two Iraqi provinces to USA
…because of the worsening security situation
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 9 2004 17:11 utc | 44
John Kerry comes up with novel approach to fighting terror and promoting a sense of shared community responsibility – spy on your neighbors
Kerry – Form neighborhood anti-terror watch groups
“Keep a special eye out for the brown ones, or the guys in robes. If you see any of them hanging around mosques that could be a sign. And dates and figs – they eat a lot of those. Red checkered scarves on the laundry line? A sure sign. Especially watch out for brown guys who don’t drink, do drugs or screw a lot of women and who pray a lot. Those guys are very suspect. And if you hear any of them complaining about America invading or bombing Arab countries, send in a report. And women dressed in burkas and abayas, they should be on your list too. And if they speak in a foreign language, that’s a bad sign. Yeah, and if they don’t do Christmas. What to do if some strange brown people move into the neighborhood? Hell, what have people always done in the USA?”
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 9 2004 17:59 utc | 45
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 9 2004 18:14 utc | 46
@sukabi
Powerful piece by Fisk. I expect the Independent will be banned now.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Aug 9 2004 18:22 utc | 48
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
US struggles to defend Iraqi closure of Al-Jazeera office in Baghdad – August 9th
A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.
U.S. Battles Shi’ite Militia…
OK, that’s enough of all that Constitution crap….
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 9 2004 19:23 utc | 49
Worrying evidence of use of hallucinogenic substances by Iraqi Olympic committee
ATHENS, Greece – The leaders of Iraq’s restored Olympic committee held out hopes Monday that the games could achieve what has so far proved elusive in their homeland: a pause in the bombings and street battles…
Iraq hope Olympics will halt fighting
”It’s not the winning – it’s the taking part that counts!” – Anonymous Iraqi Resistance fighter
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 9 2004 19:47 utc | 50
Plame leak case – a firmer clue emerges
Just what DID Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby say?
Seems like journalists can keep some things secret – when they want to.
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 9 2004 22:18 utc | 51
US Justice Department took gamble not to tell Las Vegas about terror threat
Knowledge of terror threat withheld from Las Vegas
What’s the most important thing to the American people? Terror? No – it’s the economy stupid. Anyway, the people that go to Las Vegas are all gamblers – what harm is there in exposing them to an additional risk? It’s kinda like living on the edge for them, except they don’t know about it.
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 9 2004 22:26 utc | 52
@Nemo:
What is the current electrical generation overall in Iraq, percentage-wise vis-a-vis prewar.
How bad have the NeoCon Edisons farked that up?
Posted by: FLASHHARRY | Aug 9 2004 22:55 utc | 53
@ FLASH HARRY
I wrote to you about that but it seems that there is a ‘problem’ with some emails at this time. I will make a new address and send you links again. The electricity supply is poor, they say eight hours a day but it is often less than that and the times it is on vary. In places outside Baghdad it is worse. Of course in the Green Zone and in American military bases it is on 24 hours a day! Many people think that the on / off supply is used like a control or a punishment. Explosions knock power out in some areas too. The off / on means refrigerators and freezers go off and food goes off quickly in the heat. Many people rely upon generators but not all can afford them. The power has not reached pre-war output and the only good thing is that the destruction of offices and the sacking of state employees and the ingenious way that people tap into power lines means that nobody pays for electricity – yet.
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 9 2004 23:13 utc | 55
@Nemo:
Thanks, I figured as much.
And you stole my headline for tomorrow:
In Re:
Fay Wray
Posted by: FLASHHARRY | Aug 9 2004 23:27 utc | 56
the the yahoo link from Nemo-
In an order issued July 20 but not made public until Monday, U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan ruled that Time’s Matthew Cooper and “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert were required to testify “regarding alleged conversations they had with a specified executive branch official.”
NBC News issued a statement saying that Russert already had been interviewed under oath by prosecutors on Saturday under an agreement to avoid a protracted court fight. The interview concerned a July 2003 phone conversation he had with Vice President Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby.
…no doubt, when Libby falls on his sword, the plausible deniablity will be that Cheney knew nothing about this dirty trick.
because, of course, there is no accountability within the Bush junta…and Libby will only go down because people like Russert decide the Bush scum are not worth a night in jail. After all, why should he be the only one to go to jail for revealing state secrets and compromising the hunt for WMD….supposedly the justification for invading Iraq, even now.
btw, Nemo, Osama doesn’t want to spend the money on whores…does he want to spend the money on education for women so they aren’t forced to marry to be able to survive? Or is he like the Wahabbists in Saudi Arabia?
Does he think women should be hidden behind the veil? Does he think women should have the same right to divorce that a man does? Does he think that women should have a place in the public sphere?
From what I understand, he’s no better than his fellow business partners in Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: fauxreal | Aug 9 2004 23:34 utc | 57
In these troubled, scandal-ridden times, a heart warming story
Muslims help Americans to cover their asses
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 9 2004 23:34 utc | 58
@ fauxreal
I’ll get back to you on that one – we don’t want anyone thinking I’ve a direct line to the Bat-cave
😉
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 9 2004 23:38 utc | 59
Phones Ringing In Orderly Rooms All Over Albania
Don’t Fret None Nemo: A Team’s Coming In.
Posted by: FLASHHARRY | Aug 9 2004 23:57 utc | 60
America doomed – Grand Duchy of Fenwick declares for the Iraqi Resistance
Ashcroft declares state of emergency – warns American public to be on the look-out for this terrorist cell
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 10 2004 0:26 utc | 61
Ray McGovern looks at reasons the Bush junta are still floating that election-cancelling trial balloon.
…I remember a while back this year that Paul Krugman wrote a column, long before this talk of cancelling elections, saying that we should all recognize that this gang of thugs have not shown us just how low they will sink to keep their power.
When I’m confronted with this idea again, I have that strange feeling…like when you’re in the midst of some horrible crisis, and you know it’s going on, but at the same time there is an unreality about it all, and everyone still goes about their business, yet there is a huge disconnect between what you need to face and what you want to face.
I felt the same way when the prison torture photos came out.
McGovern does mention that a wish to avoid an independent prosecutors long-arm on charges of war crimes is one more reason for the Bush junta to stop an election. McGovern mentions, too, that the Bush crew knows the videos of the rape of children will be revealed soon.
It’s amazing to me that no media “personality” will say that an attack would most likely favor Bush, not harm him, as he is trying to claim.
but if they do cancel elections, as in cancel and not postpone, then there will be massive civil disobedience in this country. I know it. Too many people have had enough.
Posted by: fauxreal | Aug 10 2004 0:49 utc | 62
Your friendly police chief suggests:
Ghalib al-Jazairy, Najaf’s police chief, admitted several of the captives were policemen from stations in Basra and Amara, who had joined the militia.
…
On Sunday, Mr Jazairy’s uncle, who was also his driver, was kidnapped by the militia and his car was stolen. In the car, the militia found documents written by Mr Jazairy to the interior ministry recommending that Najaf’s water and electricity supply be cut off. He admitted writing them as a “suggestion” to the ministry.
The Guardian: Violence spreads in Iraq
Posted by: b | Aug 10 2004 7:38 utc | 64
Responding to President Bush’s challenge to clarify his position, Sen. John F. Kerry said Monday that he still would have voted to authorize the war in Iraq even if he had known then that U.S. and allied forces would not find weapons of mass destruction.
…
Bush challenged Kerry to answer whether he would support the war “knowing what we know now” about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction that U.S. and British officials were certain were there.
In response, Kerry said: “Yes, I would have voted for the authority. I believe it was the right authority for a president to have.”
WaPo: In Hindsight, Kerry Says He’d Still Vote for War
That´s not Bush light, that´s Bush medium weight.
Posted by: b | Aug 10 2004 9:00 utc | 65
@ b
The full story of the deliberate degrading of Iraqi utilities suggests that the ‘document find’ you refer to reflects neither a novel nor an originally ‘local’ approach:
Unmasked: the war against Iraqi children
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 10 2004 10:24 utc | 66
Taking liberties – how to try to build up your market share when your competitor has a better product and aggressive negative ad-campaigns have failed
No cheers for Al Hurra
Benjamin Hu’s article Friday about Al Hurra, the latest media project of the Board of Broadcasting Governors (BBG), is right on the mark (“Al Hurra introduction prompts ire,” World).
The board claims Radio Sawa is a success, a mantra it repeats tirelessly before Congress and in the press in the hopes it will be believed. To the contrary, since Radio Sawa began broadcasting to the Middle East, Arab and Muslim public opinion about the United States has plummeted precipitously, as documented in reports by the Pew Research group, the Heritage Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations and the report to Congress by a group headed by Edward P. Djerejian, a former ambassador to Israel who is director of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.
By all accounts, the board’s media projects in the Middle East are dysfunctional. They certainly are disconnected from U.S. public diplomacy.
We believe the board has an obligation to function in the national and public interest. In this instance, the national interest means being a functional, fully integrated part of the U.S. public diplomacy effort. The public interest means spending taxpayer funds responsibly rather than on boondoggles. It also means the board should not cut Voice of America (VOA) radio broadcasts, including English, to fund pet projects that are not subjected to any kind of research to determine if they are being effective. With regard to VOA, broadcasting in English on radio is the most cost-effective way of reaching the rest of the world, where English is the second language of choice for millions of non native English speakers.
The Board of Broadcasting Governors also needs to be reminded that the Hollywood/Madison Avenue approach to dealing with the Arab and Muslim world has been tried and has failed.
Congressional and research reports, scholarly and analytical articles all have reached the same conclusion: U.S. public diplomacy, particularly the international broadcasting component, is in disrepair and is misdirected. It’s time for the White House, Congress and the State Department to fix this problem.
Until that happens, there should be no confidence in the actions of the Board of Broadcasting Governors, particularly in its radio and television programs to the Arab and Muslim world.
GARY A. MARCO
President
AFSCME Local 1418
Alexandria Va.
TIM SHAMBLE
President
AFGE Local 1812
Sterling
Letters to the editor – Washington Times, March 9th 2004
….By Henninger’s estimation, the biggest problem the Coalition Provisional Authority has faced in Iraq is its inability to win the “the war of ideas, images and public relations.” To improve the situation, the First Marine Expeditionary Force and U.S. Army in Iraq intend to “equip and upgrade seven defunct Iraqi-owned TV stations in Al Anbar province — west of Baghdad — so that average Iraqis have better televised information than the propaganda they get from the notorious Al-Jazeera….”
…Thus far, most of the millions of taxpayer dollars spent sponsoring pro-U.S. television networks have gone to naught.
The Arab-language satellite television station Al Hurra — “the Free One” in Arabic — which is based in Springfield, Va., has “inspire[d] mixed emotions in its Middle East audience,” the Christian Science Monitor’s Gregory D. Johnsen recently reported. Launched in mid-February with a first-year budget of $62 million, Al Hurra is supposed to be an alternative to news stations like Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiyya. While President Bush hoped Al Hurra would cut through the “hateful propaganda that fills the airwaves in the Muslim world,” and promote debate in the region, his hopes have not been realized. Instead it appears to critics that Al Hurra has already become just another state-run propaganda vehicle.
Hopes for another U.S.-backed television network the Iraqi Media Network and its broadcast channel Al Iraqiyah “have dimmed, despite spending nearly $200 million on two Pentagon contractors hired to launch the media company,” the Los Angeles Times’ Edmund Sanders recently reported. The contract was recently transferred from San Diego-based Science Applications International Corp. to Florida equipment maker Harris Corp. According to Sanders, “The station has suffered from management turnover and poor ratings. Some U.S. and Iraqi advisors left, complaining that coalition officials tried to use the station as a public-relations vehicle….”
Media malfunctions April 23rd 2004
Planting the ‘good news’ angle in the media
The Image War – Al-Hurra – The American based ‘Arab media service’ – May 16th 2004
Aggressive marketing – samples
Condoleezza Rice attacks al-Jazeera – June 7th 2004
Colin Powell calls al-Jazeera coverage ‘horrible’ – July 16th 2004
Testing consumer reaction – the results are the last straw
UAE US Embassy study of Arab TV viewing habits reveals that al-Jazeera is still far and away the most popular choice while al-Hurra is only watched by 2% of viewing audience:
US Embassy UAE – Arab media study – July 26th 2004 (.pdf file)
Forget free-market competition
Iraq closes al-Jazeera’s Baghdad office August 8th 2004
Coincidental timing, that US Embassy survey and the closure, eh? Moon of Alabama – bringing you the truth behind the stories.
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 10 2004 11:12 utc | 67
Friends in high places – packing ’em in before November
Porter Goss to be new head of CIA
The neo-con project is in safe hands – even if Kerry gets in.
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 10 2004 11:40 utc | 68
Taking liberties II – How ‘temporary’ can be made to mean ‘permanent’.
“…Mr. Allawi’s police shut down the station’s Baghdad bureau on Saturday for at least 30 days. The office will be allowed to reopen only if Al Jazeera agrees to change its policies
Thwarting Al Jazeera’s news coverage will not halt the violence that has been tearing Iraq apart for the past 16 months. But it may spare Mr. Allawi the embarrassment of having that violence so visible to a worldwide audience. It may also give his government a freer hand to abuse human rights and pursue personal political vendettas in the name of restoring law and order….
Banning bad news in Iraq
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 10 2004 12:39 utc | 69
Good (not quite) clean American fun
Whack the Iraq game – is it funny or what?
Having ‘live’ targets dressed up as Iraqis – what a masterstroke!
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 10 2004 13:03 utc | 71
Countdown to slaughter
Massive attack feared – US military orders Najaf residents to evacuate their homes
* al-Sistani offside = Check
* al-Jazeera banned = Check
* Cosmetic show of concern for civilians carried out = Check
Looks like the US is all ready to roll.
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 10 2004 13:16 utc | 72
And you’re told they’re all angry young men?
Iraqi resistance fighter pictured today in Sadr City, Baghdad
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 10 2004 14:08 utc | 75
Pilot attacked in cockpit – plane forced to return to airport
Terror attack in airplane
Damn! Just when you’re looking out for suspicious dark skinned guys a stunt like this gets pulled – I wonder where the attacker was trained? Qatar perhaps?
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 10 2004 14:17 utc | 76
Policing, Iraqi style
June 29th, Baghdad – Iraqi police beating and torturing helpless prisoners, including at least one 14 year old boy.
The Iraqi police at work – GRAPHIC IMAGES
The US troops who observed and intervened in this incident were ordered to back off. Isn’t ‘freedom’ an extraordinary thing?
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 10 2004 14:45 utc | 77
@Nemo:
Re; the Irish
Colonel Spicer really likes that kind of work don’t he now?
Posted by: FLASHHARRY | Aug 10 2004 15:23 utc | 78
War is a racket – Example number 23,654,449
On James Woolsey, ex CIA chief and war profiteer
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 10 2004 17:17 utc | 79
…Things fall apart; the center cannot hold;
Iraqi South threatens break up
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 10 2004 18:17 utc | 80
On the morning of 9/11 Lt.-General Mahmoud Ahmad, the director of the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence was having breakfast with Porter Goss and Bob Graham. Condi Rice has denied she was present at that meeting, and/or that she met Mahmoud during that visit. According to the Washington Post, the meeting lasted till the second WTC hit. Graham has said they were discussing – Bin Laden.
Mahmoud stayed in the US until sept. 16. He met Tenet, with whom he had made friends with in May 01 (Tenet went to Islamabad.) In October, Mahmoud was forcibly retired.
Mahmoud is the man who ordered Omar Sahid Sheikh (also Umar, Ahmad, Saeed, Sheik, etc., a British citizen) — the man convicted of the killing of Daniel Pearl, though it unlikely he is guilty — to wire 100,000 dollars to one of Mohammed Atta’s bank accounts in Florida. The FBI has confirmed this story, which was broken by the Indian Press. It was on CNN, amongst others. Then, smoke blew about and someone else was substituted for Omar Sheik. Then the story died. Sheikh has never been questioned about his role in 9/11, nor, need I add, has Mahmoud. Two questions to the British Parliament (about Sheik) went nowhere.
Graham and Goss chaired the Congressional Inquiry investigating 9/11, as everyone knows… after doing all they could to stall its opening.
One article (Mahmoud, etc.) from the Asia Times:
Link
Posted by: Blackie | Aug 10 2004 18:18 utc | 81
Blackie- what did Bob Graham do to try to stop an investigation into 9-11?
From what I remember, he was one of the people in Congress who kept asking about releasing the redacted pages, about the ridiculousness of all the info that was declared state secret after the fact when Bush didn’t like it.
Where are your links to back up the assertion that Bob Graham tried to stop an investigation, because that’s not what I remember, and if I’m wrong, I’d like to see the info.
Posted by: fauxreal | Aug 10 2004 18:46 utc | 82
@ Fauxreal – here’s a google search on the above issue, which also involves Porter Goss
Posted by: sukabi | Aug 10 2004 19:10 utc | 83
fauxreal, I meant that B. Graham has been cleverly playing both sides of the fence. He has pushed the ‘failure to predict and prevent’ pov hard – thereby distracting from other more germane issues (who? why? how to bring them to justice?) and obscuring the fact that he was one of the few ‘lower’ members of Gvmt. to receive an explicit warning before 9/11. He prevented a real investigation taking place. A question of interpretation, sure…
The links are a mixed bag:
August 28, 2002
B. G.: There were many sources within the federal government collecting information. There was no single source that was looking at all that information to try to see if there was a pattern, a picture, a plot, that began to emerge. Had that happened, then I think another series of questions would have been asked, more information would have been collected…
Link
October 7, 2002
In this video, Randy Glass, a private US citizen working as an undercover agent in a government sting operation, discusses how he learned about a threat to the World Trade Center and tried to warn various officials in government before 9/11. Florida State Senator Ron Klein and US Senator Bob Graham admit being given a warning by Randy Glass in the months before 9/11.
Link
December 18, 2002
G. IFILL: “Senator Graham, are there elements in this report, which are classified that Americans should know about but can’t?”
B. G.: “Yes, going back to your question about what was the greatest surprise. I agree with what Senator Shelby said the degree to which agencies were not communicating was certainly a surprise but also I was surprised at the evidence that there were foreign governments involved in facilitating the activities of at least some of the terrorists in the United States.”
Link
May 12, 2003:
Sen. B.G. on Sunday accused the Bush administration of engaging in a “coverup” of intelligence failures before and after the Sept. 11 attacks to shield it from embarrassment, and said the war with Iraq has allowed Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups to become a greater threat to Americans than ever before. …. Graham, a presidential candidate and former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also accused the administration of jeopardizing the safety of Americans by blocking the release of a landmark congressional report on the government failures that preceded the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Link
same date, Statement B. G. to the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States:
..American people deserve answers about what our government knew about al Qaeda and the potential for terrorist attacks on our homeland before 9-11, and how we responded to that information. But more importantly, we need to know what we should be doing to detect, deter and disrupt future terrorist attacks. The final report was adopted by each committee on December 10, 2002, and was filed with the House and Senate on December 20th. ….
That final report remains classified to this day, 153 days after it was filed. All of us are extremely frustrated that the de-classification process is taking so long. But we are hopeful that we will be able to soon provide the American people with all of our report but for those portions that determined to address genuine national security concerns.
Link
Partial hang out. He knew beforehand. A lot of BS…
Posted by: Blackie | Aug 10 2004 19:54 utc | 84
@Blackie, yes it was a Let It Happen Operation.
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Aug 10 2004 20:21 utc | 85
Since when did a little murdering, looting or running private militias make you a bad guy?
…The final list of 18 candidates for the 9 October polls also includes northern Uzbek regional commander General Abd al- Rashid Dostum, one woman and a poet…
….The Afghan-UN”s Joint Election Management Body cut five candidates deemed unqualified or unsuitable from the list, but nevertheless allowed some of the most controversial figures to run.
The election commission forwarded objections against three candidates – accused of murder, looting and running private militias – but it decided not to axe these candidates….
Candidates listed for Afghanistan elections
Great news from Afghanistan! The project to overthrow a criminally corrupt regime of fanatical murdering thugs and replace it with – well, unless the poet or the woman gets in – a regime of criminally corrupt, fanatical murdering thugs is continuing at a dizzying pace. Isn’t regime change a wonderful thing?
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 10 2004 21:02 utc | 86
August 2004
Pile the bodies high at Austerlitz and Waterloo,
Shovel them under and let me work-
I am the grass; I cover all.
And pile them high at Gettysburg
And pile them high at Ypres and Verdun.
Shovel them under and let me work.
Two years, ten years, and passengers ask the conductor:
What place is this?
Where are we now?
I am the grass.
Let me work.
Carl Sandburg
45 bodies found in Spanish civil war mass grave
Exhumation finished in Bratunac
234 bodies exhumed from Bosnia mass grave
Ivory Coast – mass graves discovered
NATO troops find human remains in Afghanistan – possible mass grave site
Where are we now? The same place we’ve always been it seems – each day more anonymous dead being tipped into pits in far away lands and places. We carry on as best we can and avoid speaking of it, especially when the killers might be our own people.
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 10 2004 22:18 utc | 87
Bad apples – the rot spreads
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US military investigators have recommended punishment, including possible criminal charges, against several military intelligence officers who worked at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison, a news station reported.
…Citing unnamed sources, the NBC News said a report prepared under Major General George Fay but not yet made public, implicates military intelligence officers in addition to the military police already charged….
US military intelligence implicated in Abu Ghraib scandal: report
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 11 2004 0:42 utc | 88
Oh great
Kerry’s ‘top Middle East advisor’ – Mel Levine
What’s up? Couldn’t he find a Palestinian or an Iraqi? Or would it be cynical of me to speculate that Kerry’s choice has more to do with electoral politics and voting blocs in the USA? Just what the prospects of peace with justice in the Middle East needed, eh? Now there’s no doubt at all about the kind of policy we can expect from Kerry.
Posted by: Nemo | Aug 11 2004 4:53 utc | 89