State of the Union Address, January 2003

Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.

Remarks by President Bush and Prime Minister Allawi …, September 2004

Q Right here, Mr. President, thank you. Why do you think the CIA’s assessment of conditions in Iraq are so much at odds with the optimism that you and Prime Minister Allawi are expressing at the moment?

PRESIDENT BUSH: The CIA laid out a — several scenarios that said, life could be lousy, like could be okay, life could be better. And they were just guessing as to what the conditions might be like. …

Juan Cole asks the question every voter in the US should be asked: What if what is happening in Iraq would happen at the appropriate scale in the US and the European Union would say “freedom and democracy are just around the corner”?

Passenger Cat Stevens Gets Plane Diverted

A London-to-Washington flight was diverted to Maine on Tuesday when it was discovered passenger Yusuf Islam — formerly known as singer Cat Stevens — was on a government watch list and barred from entering the country, federal officials said.
…
Homeland Security Department spokesman Dennis Murphy identified the passenger as Islam. “He was interviewed and denied admission to the United States on national security grounds,” Murphy said, and would be put on the first available flight out of the country Wednesday.

Cat Stevens – Peace Train

Now I’ve been crying lately,
thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating,
why can’t we live in bliss

Cause out on the edge of darkness,
there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country,
come take me home again

Context:
Small Kindness
Yusuf Islam
Cat Stevens Lyrics
NYT – U.S. Wants All Air Traveler Files for Security Test

Hattip to reader Harry Chapin

In today’s address to the US General Assembly Bush said:

Both the American Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaim the equal value and dignity of every human life. That dignity is honored by the rule of law, limits on the power of the state, respect for women, protection of private property, free speech, equal justice, and religious tolerance.

Some delegates may have read today’s LA Times: U.S. Probing Alleged Abuse of Afghans

The dead soldier, identified as Jamal Naseer, a member of the Afghan Army III Corps, was severely beaten over a span of at least two weeks, according to a report prepared for the Afghan attorney general. A witness described his battered corpse as being “green and black” with bruises.

Alleged American mistreatment of the detainees included repeated beatings, immersion in cold water, electric shocks, being hung upside down and toenails being torn off, according to Afghan investigators and an internal memorandum prepared by a United Nations delegation that interviewed the surviving soldiers.

Some of the Afghan soldiers were beaten to the point that they could not walk or sit, Afghan doctors and other witnesses said.

Others delegates may have read yesterday’s Guardian: After Abu Ghraib

Like most Iraqi women, Alazawi is reluctant to talk about what she saw but says that her brother Mu’taz was brutally sexually assaulted. Then it was her turn to be interrogated. “The informant and an American officer were both in the room. The informant started talking. He said, ‘You are the lady who funds your brothers to attack the Americans.’ I speak some English so I replied: ‘He is a liar.’ The American officer then hit me on both cheeks. I fell to the ground.

Alazawi says that American guards then made her stand with her face against the wall for 12 hours, from noon until midnight. Afterwards they returned her to her cell. “The cell had no ceiling. It was raining. At midnight they threw something at my sister’s feet. It was my brother Ayad. He was bleeding from his legs, knees and forehead. I told my sister: ‘Find out if he’s still breathing.’ She said: ‘No. Nothing.’ I started crying. The next day they took away his body.”

Kofi Annans Opening remarks (PDF) included the general theme of the rule of law beginning in Mesopotamia.

Much of Hammurabi’s code now seems impossibly harsh. But etched into its tablets are principles of justice that have been recognised, if seldom fully implemented, by almost every human society since his time:

• Legal protection for the poor.
• Restraints on the strong, so they cannot oppress the weak.
• Laws publicly enacted, and known to all.

That code was a landmark in mankind’s struggle to build an order where, instead of might making right, right would make might.
…
Yet today the rule of law is at risk around the world.
…
In Iraq, we see civilians massacred in cold blood, … At the same time, we have seen Iraqi prisoners disgracefully abused.
…
I believe we can restore and extend the rule of law throughout the world. But ultimately, that will depend on the hold that the law has on our consciences.

Guess who received warm applause.

Just as I start to write about Iran and the IAEA, George Monbiot of The Guardian comes up with much better writing in Proliferation treaty .

Here is the world’s most nonsensical job description. Your duty is to work tirelessly to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. And to work tirelessly to encourage the proliferation of the means of building them. This is the task of the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed El Baradei.
…
His agency’s motto – “Atoms for Peace” – wasn’t always a lie. In 1953, when Eisenhower founded it with his famous speech to the United Nations, people really seemed to believe that nuclear fission could solve the world’s problems.
…
The nuclear powers, he said, “should… make joint contributions from their stockpiles of normal uranium and fissionable materials” which should then be given to “the power-starved areas of the world”, “to provide abundant electrical energy”. This would give them, he argued, the necessary incentive to forswear the use of nuclear weapons.
…
Now there are about 20 countries which, as a result of foreign help for their civilian nuclear programmes, could, if they choose, become nuclear weapons states within months. When Russia shipped uranium and the technologies required to build a bomb to Iran, it not only had a right to do so: under the non-proliferation treaty, it had a duty to do so.

It’s not yet clear whether Iran has stepped over the brink. It is plainly enriching uranium and producing heavy water, which could enable it to build both uranium- and plutonium-based bombs. But both processes are also legitimate means of developing materials for nuclear power generation.
…
Both the US and the UK have abandoned their own obligations to disarm, and appear to be contemplating a new generation of nuclear weapons. Both governments have also suggested that they would be prepared to use them pre-emptively. Iran is surrounded by American military bases, and is one of the two surviving members of the axis of evil. The other one, North Korea, has been threatening its neighbours with impunity. Why? Because it has the bomb. If Iran is not developing a nuclear weapons programme, it hasn’t understood the drift of global politics.

Let me add some links to further the point. The International Atomic Energy Agency was setup after Eisenhower´s speech to the UN General Assembly. Any sovereign country may sign the IAEA statute and join or leave the organization at its will.

The US pressure on the IAEA and Iran is ridicules, when the US supports Israel not only by harmless giveaways like 5,000 smart bombs but also by not discussing Israel’s nuclear weapons at the IAEA. The US also refrains from pressure on South Korea that has, unlike Iran, broken its IAEA obligation at least twice in recent years.
Other friends of the US suspect of military nuclear ambitions are Japan and Taiwan.

Iran today announced to restart work on machines for enriching uranium. There are legal duties for IAEA members to support this. There is no legal ground to hinder Iran by any means.

When Eisenhower initiated “Atoms for Peace”, the promise was to help countries to develop civil nuclear capacity while the military nuclear powers would diminish their arsenals. Part one of these promises were fulfilled, part two never got traction.

This is the reason why there are Bush Aides Divided on Confronting Iran Over A-Bomb. There are no good options until the US restrains itself from the US plan for new nuclear arsenal and gets equal handed and serious about proliferation.

Admission free!

You don´t have to agree to send troops into a battle zone, but if troops are send to a battle zone they should be in a state that serves the purpose. Thomas E. Ricks reports in WaPo about a battalion of the South Carolina National Guard that yesterday left for Iraq. Their task in Iraq will be to escort support convoys, i.e. riding shotgun for KBR trucks, in northern Iraq.

This is an artillery battalion (“They don´t know friend from foe, just valuable targets.”) filled up with a hodgepodge of personal from other units. The last two month they were retrained to military police and infantry tasks.

During this time they:
– were on duty and training 7 days a week usually more than 12 hours a day
– had only one leave of 36 hours total on Labour Day
– were not allowed to wear civilian cloth, even when off duty
– had fights between soldiers
– were barred to leave their rooms when off duty since Labour Day
– had a high rate of AWOL and other incidents.

The share of National Guards and Reserve troops in Iraq will increase during the current rotation with more call ups for Guard troops coming. Moral of troops in Iraq is already low and with these new troops coming in, it will sink to the bottom. How can you expect these troops to fight in a classic guerrilla war? You can not and sending them is a crime in and of itself regardless of the any underlying reason for the war.

Science based lesson for my stepson´s after school job. When serving in a restaurant:

• make sure you are seen as an individual
  • wear something that makes you distinguishable from other waiters/waitresses
  • introduce yourself to your guests by name
  • entertain the customer with simple jokes or puzzles
• recognize customer as individual
  • call customers by name
  • squat next to the table so you are on eye level and more intimate with the customer
  • repeat customers order, slightly mimicry customers tone and behaviour
  • briefly touch the customer, preferable at the shoulder
• tips increase with bill size, so it´s sell, sell, sell
  • suggest appetizer
  • check during dinner for new rounds of drinks
  • suggest dessert
• make paying the check enjoyable
  • forcast good weather
  • write Thank You on check
  • draw little pictures on check
  • use tip trays with credit card emblem
• give customers candy or chocolates

Megatips (PDF)

by anna missed

For those watching the radar screen on the movements of our own religious insurgency stateside would have noticed that GWBushes own “general” Jim Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith Based and Community Initiatives, has received $1.5 billion war chest funds through GWB’s own Executive Order.

Towey has put these funds to work, opening offices now in the Dept’s of Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Urban Development, Justice, Labor, Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, and the Agency for International Development, and the Small Business Administration. He also has revised Dept. of Labor rules that exempt religious organizations from provisions of the Civil Rights Act that forbid discrimination in employment based on religion. One could presume that the infiltration of government ministries with that other kind of ministry may preclude a sneak attack on the 1st Amendment.

While we know Towey gave opening remarks, last year to Reverend “the separation of religion and politics, is what satan likes best” Moon’s Unification Churches 3 day God and World Peace celebration — a lesser known interview with televangelist Robert Shuller may be more telling — as to future tactics.

At Shullers Crystal Cathedral Ministry:

J.Towey, “over the decades there was this idea that there should be this strict separation of church and state, that what we banished the faith based organization, the faith voice from the public square”.
R.Shuller, “that is a face of extremism”
J.Towey, “yes sir”
R.Shuller, “extremism”
…
R.Shuller,”well I think there’s loads of possibilities and opportunities for this church, which is so powerful at the freeway hub of one of the great counties of the world to do more than it’s ever done, we have always been undercapitalized, with running a television program and buildings, all of which is history for us now. We are facing our next 50 years now and we want to become the most effective church in really changing our society where there really hurting, so lets work together, okay?”
J.Towey,” that’s a great idea, thank you”

And it should also be mentioned that Shullers Crystal Cathedral Ministries “Hour of Power” church services has recently been chosen by the US Armed Forces Radio and Television Network to be broadcast to cities and bases in over 165 countries worldwide and to all ships at sea.

Among the many implications set forth here, I wonder, if the last man to leave Iraq and then seek help for PTS at the local VA– will simply be given cab fare to the nearest annex of the Crystal Cathedral?

Moon-fly Emereton cited in the Weekend Open Thread Bill Moyers speech at the Society of Professional Journalists conference. Moyers explains the danger of the Rapture believers.

These true believers subscribe to a fantastical theology concocted in the l9th century by a couple of immigrant preachers who took disparate passages from the Bible and wove them into a narrative millions of people believe to be literally true.

According to this narrative, Jesus will return to earth only when certain conditions are met: when Israel has been established as a state; when Israel then occupies the rest of its “biblical lands;” when the third temple has been rebuilt on the site now occupied by the Dome of the Rock and Al Aqsa mosques; and, then, when legions of the Antichrist attack Israel. This will trigger a final showdown in the valley of Armageddon during which all the Jews who have not converted will be burned. Then the Messiah returns to earth.

Bin Laden, as many others in the Middle East, sees a connection.
OBL tape Feb. 2003 (BBC)

We are following up with great interest and extreme concern the crusaders’ preparations for war to occupy a former capital of Islam, loot Muslims’ wealth, and install an agent government, which would be a satellite for its masters in Washington and Tel Aviv, just like all the other treasonous and agent Arab governments.

This would be in preparation for establishing the Greater Israel.

The Iraq occupation, in preparation for establishing the Greater Israel, has happend. Step 2 is starting now.

The petition, which termed evacuating settlements “a crime against humanity,” a “national crime” and “a clearly illegal act,” urged soldiers to “listen to the voice of their national and human conscience.”
…
“In light of the Sharon government’s intent to destroy communities in the land of Israel and deliver them into the hands of the enemy, to violently uproot their residents and expel them, we declare that this expulsion and uprooting are a national crime and a crime against humanity, a display of tyranny, wickedness and arbitrariness, whose goal is to deprive Jews of their right to live in their land, merely because they are Jews. …”
Rightists say evacuation is a crime against humanity (Haaretz)
Leon Wieseltier discusses this in Extirpation (TNR – free reg. req.)

It has been argued, and persuasively, that the movement to settle and hold land captured in 1967, in particular the West Bank and Gaza Strip, has changed Orthodox Judaism more profoundly than any event since the Holocaust.
Respected rabbis based in New York have issued Halakhic decrees forbidding any Jew from ceding even an inch of soil of the Old Testament land of Israel.
…
The parallel talk of Holocaust and Armageddon has sparked debate within Israel on the dangers of disengagement versus the risks of a concussive Jewish backlash.
…
“We sense that the level of threat to the Temple Mount from the standpoint of extreme and fanatic Jewish elements carrying out a terrorist attack in order to ‘reshuffle the cards,’ to serve as a catalyst to a change in the entire political initiative [the disengagement process] – this level has risen in recent months and more so in recent weeks.”
…
Speaking of the extremists dream to remove the “abomination” as they call it, from the Temple Mount, [Shin Bet chief Avi] Dichter declared that Jewish terror could pose a significant strategic threat to Israel as well as the Jews of the Diaspora, “turning the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians into a confrontation between 13 million Jews and one billion Muslims around the world.”
Is Jewish terror next? (Haaretz)

Osama agrees with Avi.
OBL tape Jan. 2004 (BBC)

There is also the fierce attempt to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque and destroy the jihad and the mujahideen in beloved Palestine by employing the trick of the roadmap and the Geneva peace initiative.

The Americans’ intentions have also become clear in statements about the need to change the beliefs, curricula and morals of the Muslims to become more tolerant, as they put it.

In clearer terms, it is a religious-economic war.

The occupation of Iraq is a link in the Zionist-crusader chain of evil.

The second World War can be seen as a fight between one fanatic ideology against the rest of the world. Now we see a devolping conflict between three fanatic religious ideologies. Two of these are in a temporary coaltion against the third one which probably has the larger base. The ideologic religious geographic stripline between the camps coincidents with the economic striplines of control over oil and water. The chances to stop this religious-economic war may be small. But we better try to break this Chain of Evil.

Suggestive Content: Use at Your Own Risk!

New Blood at Heart of Kerry Campaign reports The Washington Post. The media echo on the Kerry campaign is slightly better now, so this may have been the decisive. At least there are some punch lines:

“Dick Cheney got $2 million. What did we get?” the ad’s narrator says. “A $200 billion bill for Iraq, lost jobs, rising health care costs. It’s time for a new direction.”

“You deserve a president who will not play politics with national security, who will not ignore his own intelligence while living in a fantasy world of spin …”

Still Kerrys speech style is terrible.

Cont. reading: Kick Ass

GOOD NEWS!

CNN: Ford ups guidance
MSNBC: Ford raises earnings outlook
Reuters: Ford lifts profit forecasts
Newsday: Ford Raises Quarter, Full-Year Outlook
Bloomberg: Ford Boosts Third-Quarter Earnings Forecast to 10C-15C/Share

That is interesting. Should I add Ford to my portfolio?

Cont. reading: Good News

by koreyel

Bob Herbert of the NYT continues to smash the Bush Administration with nearly divine inspiration.

His latest seems almost like an artful montage of paragraphs borrowed from the Moon of Alabama.

It is rare to see a columnist be so deadly blunt:

Although he died bravely, Lieutenant VandeGeer’s death was as senseless as those of the 58,000 who died before him in the fool’s errand known as Vietnam.

And then this:

Since we learned nothing from Vietnam, we are doomed to repeat its agony, this time in horrifying slow-motion in Iraq.

Fool’s errand… We learned nothing… we are doomed to repeat its agony.

Wow. Herbert’s pen is as far from elite as it is from effete. He can flat out write when he gets irked up.

Along these lines I sense that the rage at Bush’s Iraq-mess is regaining traction. The reality that the war is going badly is leaking with a steady hiss into the mainstream. Anger is redoubling. People are wearing red on Fridays because they are seething red everyday of the week.

Anger is a powerful human force. It can move elections.

Think of it this way: there are probably at least 3 billion people who wake up everyday damning the very names of Bush and Cheney. That’s a lot of semi-focused consciousness.

Would that we could all coordinate our thoughts at one chosen time and chant a select group of powerful mantras. I suspect… Bush-Cheney would break out in hives, if not shrivel up and blow away. As it is, our semi-focused rage may be enough to sweep these criminals into history’s ashcan.

So keep on keeping on. Wear red. Feel red. You have the right and the duty to be enraged. Focus your anger like a laser beam on the right foreheads. They’ve earned your wrath, your disgust, and your condemnation.

Be beautifully furious. Justice may depend upon your rage.

BBC Annan Interview

Q: So you don’t think there was legal authority for the war?

A: I have stated clearly that it was not in conformity with the Security Council – with the UN Charter.

Q: It was illegal?

A: Yes, if you wish.

Q: It was illegal?

A: Yes, I have indicated it is not in conformity with the UN Charter, from our point of view and from the Charter point of view it was illegal.

Last year the US Congress answered the administration´s “urgent request” by agreeing on $18.4 billion non military spending for Iraq. By now $1.14 billion have been urgently spend. Yesterday the administration asked Congress to move $3.46 billon of the US pledged money to security – that at least is what you will hear in the news.

Cont. reading: Hope as a Budget Item

In July I wrote a piece Tin Foil Hat Required about “Jack” Idema and friends torturing and running a private prison in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Today Idema and his folks were sentenced to 10 years in comfortable Afghan prison cells.

Soj of Flogging the Simian has researched and written extensively on the issue. The story makes most spy / terror / comedy fiction look like scientific papers. Take some time to follow her trail.

Reuters:

Ivan, a large storm, started to lash the Gulf, disrupting the regions oil and natural gas production and import.

Ivan the Terrible was

a man who believed himself chosen to save the souls of his people, but who brutally put thousands to death …
…
Ivan had huge ambitions for his new Imperial dynasty. He launched a holy war … showing no mercy to these Muslim peoples and decimating their cultural heritage. Ivan’s conquest … gave birth to a … personality cult glorifying him as the Orthodox crusader.

Please stay away from various Ivans.

… Billmon went “to be off on a boat for a week or so”. I have no idea what happened to him since – let´s just hope he is well.

This site was created to carry comments on Billmon´s posts after he turned off comments at the Whiskey Bar. Here well used Open Threads were added, as were some posts from fellow bar flies and my rants. This morning someone commented:

seems like less and less posts lately. i’m not on the same scale of intellect as most of you but i wanted to let you know i check this site several times daily and do really appreciate your insight. some of the best links to info also. thanks!

The Whiskey Annex has hardly traffic anymore and here at the Moon Of Alabama traffic dropped from some 1,200 hits per day to less than 1,000. Worse, comments to hits ratio has halved from some 8% to 4%. Without Billmon or more active participation from the bar flies this site looses its purpose.

I do not have the talent, cultivation, knowledge, background and time to create the content needed to keep this side running all by myself. If you see value in keeping the Moon shining please contribute.

You may want to write several short pieces a week and post them here. Drop me a note and you will have a posting account. You may like to write a piece just once a while and have it posted – send it via email and I will take care of it (address on the About page).

If writing posts doesn’t fit you, please comment. Let’s know your thoughts and feelings, drop some links, suggest discussions – it’s what keeps this site going. And if you find something valuable here, let it be known elsewhere too.

However, thanks for visiting and your participation.

for you convenience … please share your news and views

Talafar in north western Iraq is primarily inhabited by Turkmen, an ethnic minority in Iraq.

The city of some 155,000 was under the Northern No-Fly Zone US and British forces set up after the first Gulf War to protect Northern Iraq from Saddam´s Air Force. From May 2000 on, after receiving some anti-aircraft artillery fire from around Talafar coalition forces started to drop bombs.

On 16 June 2001 a missile hit a soccer field in the town while a game was under way killing 23 people. Iraqis blamed the coalition forces, US military sources said the explosion was not due to a US-British airstrike, but an errant surface-to-air missile.

The US forces around Talafar are allied with the Iraqi Security Forces, which in the north are nearly exclusively Kurdish Peshmerga fighters. As Juan Cole reports :

The US wanted the Türkmen security forces of Telafer [obviously they are governing themselves] to make searches in some houses. The Türkmen security forces rejected this since they knew the people, who were also Türkmen. Upon US insistance on the operation, the security chief of Telafar stepped back and the US appointed a Kurd, Hurshit Hasso as security chief, who immediatley started the operation using support of Kurdish troops from Zaho and Erbil. These troops participated as Iraqi Security forces. Now much of the civilian population is in the Kamber valley and are afraid that the Kurds will bring their families along, settle for good and thus change the balance for the national census in Iraq, which is to be held on Oct 12.

From the Turkmen and Turkish perspective this is a power and land grab scheme of the Kurds, supported by US forces. In the last two weeks the US forces put Tall`Afar under siege and bombed parts of the city. Some 100 people are reported to have died and some 50,000 have fleed from the city to the country side. The US troops than barred the refugees from returning to the city.

The Washington Post describes how an obviously Kurdish informer is leading US troops to harass the Turkmen population.

The Iraqi known as “The Source” slipped the borrowed U.S. military fatigues over his clothes in the back of the armored personnel carrier. He donned a black ski mask that covered everything but his eyes.

He stepped out of the back of the vehicle and addressed the interpreter who would in turn address the company commander who would lead the search for terrorists this day.

“The village. He wants you to arrest all the men in the village,” the interpreter told Army Capt. Eric Beaty, commander of Company C, 5th Battalion, 20th Infantry Regiment.

“They’re all bad?” Beaty asked.

The interpreter consulted The Source. “Yes, all bad,” he said.
…
“You have the right to remain silent,” one soldier told an uncomprehending detainee in English. “Anything you say will result in a punch in the face.”
…
“All of the village, they are terrorists,” The Source told two journalists after he finished.

Asked how he knew, he said: “I have one guy here, and he passed along the information to me.”

Asked how he could be sure, he said: “Yes, they are terrorists. They all have the long beard. They had the beard, but some of them they shaved.”

The Source declined to give his name. He then asked: “Is the commander going to pay me any money? If you are an informant, they are supposed to give you money.”

The Turkish government has send a strict ultimatum to the US saying if operations continue in Talafar “Turkey’s cooperation on issues regarding Iraq will come to a total stop” and “Of course we won’t limit ourselves to words. We never shy away from carrying out whatever is necessary.”. Such a step would deny the US the important use of the airbase of Incirlic in Turkey and stop any supply coming through Turkey to US troops in northern Iraq. The Turkish opposition parties have taken an even harder stance. The US now caved in to this and Turkmen people are allowed back to Talafar.

The complete lack of knowledge of the US commanders to the obvious power schemes and ethnic sensitivities is incredible. Aside from that, the dependency on Turkish support is a sine qua non to their further operations in northern Iraq. To endanger this support is as stupid as is gets. The atmosphere in the command ranks of course trickles down the ranks leading to the maddening behaviour of the troops on the ground and the loss of any support in the population.

Lord, please let it rain brain.