Open Weekend Thread
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Posted by b on January 7, 2006 at 19:53 UTC | Permalink | Comments (55)
DeOut
What has triggered Tom DeLay to step away from regaining his position as House majority leader?
Was it just the petition for new leadership elections some Republicans floated? I had expected DeLay to fight that one down.
Yesterday Time reported Duke Cunningham wore a wire while cooperating with the prosecutors in his bribe case. That wire must have caught some interesting talk.
Was Jack Abramoff also wearing one throughout the 18 month he is said to have cooperated with the investigation? Transcripts of such bugged conversations in which he bribes politicians should be even more interesting than Cunnigham's.
Maybe yesterdays Time piece made DeLay understand how huge the upcoming train really is. He sure knows about bugs.
Roy Blunt, who now wants DeLay's post permanently, will have to have the same fear. But he wants the job dearly.
Fine with me, the longer this scandal series takes, the better.
Posted by b on January 7, 2006 at 19:07 UTC | Permalink | Comments (11)
Anthrax
Via Crooks and Liars some thoughts from The Bulldog Manifest pointing out the biggest mystery of the last years.
Between Oct. 4 and Dec. 4, 2001, 389 stories appeared in the New York Times with "anthrax" in the headline." During the same period, 238 "anthrax" stories appeared in the Washington Post.
U.S. made anthrax, spread on U.S. soil, right after 9/11. Who???
Whoever solves the above question will have broken the cabal.
Why aren´t there any takers ...
Posted by b on January 6, 2006 at 22:01 UTC | Permalink | Comments (13)
Sowing Tribulation
sowing tribulation - detail
by anna missed
paint on wood,38"x27", 2005
full, uncompressed (140kb)
Coalition aircraft flew 52 close air support missions Jan. 3 for Operation Iraqi Freedom. These missions included support to Coalition troops, infrastructure protection, reconstruction activities, and operations to deter and disrupt terrorist activities.
Royal Air Force GR-4s provided close air support to Coalition troops in contact with anti-Iraqi forces in the vicinity of Bayji.
Centcom, Air Componant Data
BAIJI - A U.S. air strike killed up to 14 members of a single family and wounded at least two people in an attack on a house in Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad, on Monday night, an Iraqi security force spokesman said. Police in nearby Tikrit put the death toll at six. The U.S. military, responding to an inquiry, said aircraft had targeted a house after three men suspected of planting a roadside bomb were seen entering the building. They gave no death toll.
Reuters, Security incidents in Iraq, Jan. 3
The U.S. military on Friday announced the deaths of six more American troops killed in the recent barrage of violence that has swept Iraq, bringing to 11 the number of troops killed on the same day.
AP, 11 U.S. Troops Killed in One Day in Iraq, Jan. 6
Posted by b on January 6, 2006 at 14:20 UTC | Permalink | Comments (27)
Stupid Propaganda
The British government had made a big fuzz claiming Iran to be behind a new type of IED trigger used in Basra in south Iraq. It had to retract that claim:
Britain has dropped the charge of Iranian involvement after senior officials had repeatedly accused the Tehran regime of supplying sophisticated explosive devices to insurgents. Government officials now acknowledge that there is no evidence, or even reliable intelligence, connecting the Iranian government to the infra-red triggered bombs which have killed 10 British soldiers in the past eight months.
So the story of Iran supporting guerrilla in Iraq is, for now, inoperative. This after the news in all western countries had played it up. Don´t expect any station or major paper to report the retraction.
But wait, there is another war going on. The Sunday Times, just a few days ago:
British troops set to deploy to southern Afghanistan this spring could sustain losses on a scale not seen since the Falklands war, military intelligence officers have warned.
They say insurgent forces in the south are preparing for a large offensive by Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, backed by sophisticated weapons and training from Iran.
Ahhh, here we go again. But why should a Shia Iran support a radical Sunni insurgency in Afghanistan? The Taliban, a creation of the CIA and Pakistan's ISI and financed by Saudi interests, is operating in south east Afghanistan, along the Pakistani border.
Both, geography and political/religious alignment, make the claim unbelievable.
What is next? Zarqawi and Ahmadinejad sighted in a North Korean love hotel?
The Lincoln group, Rendon and others get $300 million to come up with propaganda. For such a bag of money, the U.S. taxpayer should demand a better product.
Posted by b on January 5, 2006 at 19:19 UTC | Permalink | Comments (4)
Open Thread
Other news and views ...
Posted by b on January 5, 2006 at 8:41 UTC | Permalink | Comments (64)
Sharon Out
With Sharon out of politics, will the road map he had buried be revived, or will the Israeli right be the stronger force?
From a recent LA Times OpEd West Bank buildup
And who will get those $3 million bribes now?THE WEST BANK settlements of Ariel and Karnei Shomron are about to expand. In mid-December, Israel's Housing Ministry invited bids from contractors on lots for 137 new homes. The decision was made "with the knowledge of the prime minister," according to a source who spoke off the record because that's how sources tell the important parts of stories. No matter that the "road map," the 2003 document that remains the U.S. plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, explicitly states that Israel must freeze all settlement activity. ...
Posted by b on January 5, 2006 at 8:18 UTC | Permalink | Comments (16)
I Want Fireworks
King George III declares laws written and adopted by the elected Parliament are only exercisable in accordance to His interpretation.
Recently the parliament saw a need to spend additional tax money on firefighters and decreeded a law to instruct the executive to act accordingly, i.e. to hire more firefighters.
The King, as head of the executive branch, did not mind firefighters, but he preferred to watch fireworks over any firefighters he had ever seen.
He signed the law the Parliament had adopted, as he has technical had to, but in doing so he also advised the executive he presided to interpret the law to his desire.
He ordered his subordinate to spend the additional money on fireworks to be launched at a time and location of his pleasure.
The executive branch shall construe these provisions relating to planning and making of budget recommendations in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authority to require the opinions of the heads of departments, to supervise the unitary executive branch, and to recommend for congressional consideration such measures as the President shall judge necessary and expedient.
Legal details are here and here.
But where is the outrage?
Posted by b on January 4, 2006 at 22:37 UTC | Permalink | Comments (12)
"Hero"
This WaPo oped by a father of a GI who died in Iraq is worth a read in full: A Life, Wasted
Anyhow, some excerpts:
The words "hero" and "patriot" focus on the death, not the life. They are a flag-draped mask covering the truth that few want to acknowledge openly: Death in battle is tragic no matter what the reasons for the war. The tragedy is the life that was lost, not the manner of death. Families of dead soldiers on both sides of the battle line know this. Those without family in the war don't appreciate the difference.
...
The day his unit returned home to waiting families, we received the second urn of ashes. This lad of promise, .. , came home in one coffin and two urns. We buried him in three places that he loved, a fitting irony, I suppose, but just as rough each time.
...
.. being a hero comes from respecting your parents and all others, from helping your neighbors and strangers, from loving your spouse, your children, your neighbors and your enemies, from honesty and integrity, from knowing when to fight and when to walk away, and from understanding and respecting the differences among the people of the world.
...
But their deaths will not be in vain if Americans stop hiding behind flag-draped hero masks and stop whispering their opposition to this war. Until then, the lives of other sons, daughters, husbands, wives, fathers and mothers may be wasted as well.
Posted by b on January 4, 2006 at 21:38 UTC | Permalink | Comments (2)
Pain Medication
NYT reporter Risen's new book will be interesting. Some early nuggets are to be found in this AP piece and in Time.
(T)he book said a CIA officer mistakenly sent one of its Iranian agents information that could be used to identify virtually every spy the agency had in Iran. The book said the Iranian was a double agent who turned over the data to Iranian security officials.
Is that the background of the "Chalabi gives information to Iranians" story?
Maybe, but the more important stuff is the NSA spying and there are some interesting details.
First not from the book but from Slate this:
A former telecom executive told us that efforts to obtain call details go back to early 2001, predating the 9/11 attacks and the president's now celebrated secret executive order. The source, who asked not to be identified so as not to out his former company, reports that the NSA approached U.S. carriers and asked for their cooperation in a "data-mining" operation, which might eventually cull "millions" of individual calls and e-mails.
So the spying did not start with 9/11, but earlier, without presidential war power or other legal bullshit. Who initiated this and why?
Risen does not yet answer that question, but according to Time:
Risen writes that with the White House's anything-goes mandate in place, everything went. While the NSA began monitoring communications of some Americans suspected of links to al-Qaeda--snooping on "millions of telephone calls and e-mail messages on American soil" ...
From a censored letter from house minority leader Pelosi to the NSA's Hayden this:
You indicated that you were treating as a matter of first impression, [redacted] being of foreign intelligence interest. As a result, you were forwarding the intercepts, and any information [redacted] without first receiving a request for that identifying information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The NSA started snooping on people in the U.S. before 9/11. They snooped on "millions of calls and e-mails". They are forwarding (yes, it is ongoing) their catches (Can you imagine their criteria for forwarding? Remember - it started prior to 9/11!) to the FBI and who knows to whom else.
Are you still feeling save?
Note the morals of the man behind all of this:
Bush summoned CIA director George Tenet to the White House to ask what intelligence Abu Zubaydah had provided his captors. According to Risen's source, Tenet told Bush that Abu Zubaydah, badly wounded during his capture, was too groggy from painkillers to talk coherently. In response, Bush asked, "Who authorized putting him on pain medication?"
Posted by b on January 3, 2006 at 21:36 UTC | Permalink | Comments (16)
A Turkish Non-Denial
There is a lot of talk on the net and in the previous thread about a coming attack on Iran. We all try to get a grip on this. Will it come? When? Is there confirmation?Reading this Reuters piece, my bullshit detector went off.
Turkey said on Monday that newspaper reports which say the United States has asked Ankara for permission to use military bases in Turkey for possible attacks on neighbouring Iran are not connected with reality.I did not remember the detail of using Incirlik or other Turkish soil for an Iran attack, so I tried to find a source for this. I did not succeed.
...
The foreign ministry named no newspapers, but Israel's Jerusalem Post, Germany's Tagesspiegel and Turkey's Sabah newspaper are among those that have published reports speculating that the United States would like to be able to use Turkish soil if it decided to launch an attack on Iran.
...
The U.S. military uses Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey for planes supplying U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.
It appears the Turkish government just denied something that nobody alleged, but the real issue at hand is not denied. There have been several reports about lots of high level talks between visitors from the U.S. administration and the Turkey government in connection with an air attack on Iran.
The initial one was on December 13 in Cumhyriet, a major left leaning Turkish daily. But at least the English version does not say anything about usink Turkish soil.
On December 23 DDP, a German news agency, had a report (in German) by Udo Ulfkotte, a veteran journalist well connected to various secret services. He writes about possible attacks from Diego Garcia and aircraft carriers.
The Tagesspiegel reports mentioned by Reuters (1 and 2, Dec 28, in German) do not say anything about Incirlik or attacks from Turkish soil either.
A search in the Jerusalem Post archive does not find any recent articles mentioning 'Incirlik' or 'Incerlik'.
A SPIEGEL round up written December 30 has this bit.
Regardless what the prospects are for a strike, there's little chance a US air strike against Iran would be launched from its military base in the Turkish city of Incirlik, but it is conceivable that the United States would inform Turkey prior to any strike.The Turkish government denies reports about an attack on Iran involving the Incirlik airport or other Turkish soil. Reuters mixes in a graph, that says such reports have happened. But none of the reports i find, even those mentioned by Reuters, includes the titbit the Turkish government denies.
One can take this as a confirmation of the original reports. The recent visits of the FBI chief, the CIA chief and the NATO General Secretary, within days and last month visit of the Turkish Chief of Staff to Washingon are indeed in preparation of an air attack on Iran.
Then again, it may all just be PsyOps. Why is Reuters pushing this with false claims?
Posted by b on January 3, 2006 at 20:03 UTC | Permalink | Comments (21)
Pipeline Powerplay
The current spat between Russia and Ukraine about the price of natural gas has an interesting side effect.
The current pipeline system between Russia and western Europe is criss crossing the countries who, through various colored U.S. sponsored revolutions, have loosend their ties to Russia.
They have introduced free markets, flat tax systems and in general desocialised their societies. They are also applying for membership into the European Union and NATO.
Russia of course does not like to lose influence over its neighbors and is pulling strings to realign these countries. But western Europeans also have problems with the changes.
While these "new" countries introduce libertarian economies with low taxes for companies and less social security for their people, they induce international companies to move their production from old Europe to their soil. The result is a "race to the bottom" in taxes, social services and wages.
At the same time these countries expect and do get money from the E.U. netpayers which happen to be those countries that are losing the jobs.
Given this background, the great energy game is getting even more important.
The fact that the "new" countries are also transit land for the gas pipelines from Russia to western Europe gives them quite a power should there ever be a serious spat between old and new Europe. Their open political stand against the planned sub baltic sea pipeline from Russia to Germany is witness hereof.
But the current situation, where the Ukraine, in a price dispute with Russia about gas, is threatening to take 15% of transit gas as a fee, is exactly the argument for the otherwise disputed new pipeline.
Indeed I suspect this is one of the major reasons for Russia to take a harder than usual stand against the Ukraine. It demonstrates to western Europe, and especially to Germany, that independence from pipeline infrastructure on foreign ground might be worth the higher initial investment.
But this also only a start of what we will see in future energy disputes. Europe depends on Russian fossile energy and this dependency will increase over time. With it, Russian influence will also increase while U.S. influence may decline.
Additional links:
BBC: Energy and the new world power play
PINR: Battle for Eastern Europe
Posted by b on January 2, 2006 at 14:46 UTC | Permalink | Comments (33)
Open Thread 06-1
News and views ...
Posted by b on January 1, 2006 at 18:37 UTC | Permalink | Comments (69)