NYT’s long Sunday top piece on the botched occupation is quite a read:
Misjudgments Marred U.S. Plans for Iraqi Police

Before the war, the Bush administration dismissed as unnecessary a plan backed by the Justice Department to rebuild the police force by deploying thousands of American civilian trainers. Current and former administration officials said they were relying on a Central Intelligence Agency assessment that said the Iraqi police were well trained. The C.I.A. said its assessment conveyed nothing of the sort.
After Baghdad fell, when a majority of Iraqi police officers abandoned their posts, a second proposal by a Justice Department team calling for 6,600 police trainers was reduced to 1,500, and then never carried out. During the first eight months of the occupation — as crime soared and the insurgency took hold — the United States deployed 50 police advisers in Iraq.
Against the objections of Colin L. Powell, then the secretary of state, the long-range plan was eventually reduced to 500 trainers. One result was a police captain from North Carolina having 40 Americans to train 20,000 Iraqi police across four provinces in southern Iraq.

—
and yeah, Bush raises taxes:
Despite Pledge, Taxes Increase for Teenagers

The $69 billion tax cut bill that President Bush signed this week tripled tax rates for teenagers with college savings funds, despite Mr. Bush’s 1999 pledge to veto any tax increase.

—
Good read too on Khalizad’s cabinet:
Wary Americans Hope New Cabinet Will Help Stabilize Iraq
Money quote:

One high-ranking American officer put it bluntly. “The crucial question is what they’ve learned from the experience of the Jaafari government,” he said. “So far, the Shia have not demonstrated that they can govern, and they have to demonstrate that now.”

Hmm The Shia can´t govern? Why not try to get some Sunni strongman …
—
Today’s Frank Rich column liberated here:
Rich on how the religious right was used to market The Da Vincy Code movie, how Rove uses them, how the Democrats are using them and why that may fail.

When senators as different as Mr. Frist and Mrs. Clinton both earn bipartisan ridicule for their pandering, you have to believe that there’s a god other than Karl Rove watching over American politics after all.

Posted by: b | May 21 2006 8:45 utc | 3

The New Yorker: HOLLYWOOD HERESY – Marketing “The Da Vinci Code” to Christians.

The Internet, intrinsically hospitable to such a purpose, has grown a busy marketplace of “Da Vinci” debunkers, anticipating the big-budget film version of Brown’s tale, now arriving in theatres. Prospective moviegoers who have spent time at a Web site called The Da Vinci Dialogue, the most polished of these efforts, have been informed that the story is deeply anti-Christian, a pseudo history “fraught with inaccuracies” and “spiritual tripe.” They have been offered the opinion that, of its type, the book was only “moderately engaging,” attracting fans who were easily gulled and perhaps just a bit dim.
What is striking about these assertions is that they are part of a marketing project paid for by Sony Pictures Entertainment, the studio that has invested more than two hundred million dollars in producing “The Da Vinci Code” and distributing and marketing it worldwide.

Posted by: b | May 21 2006 10:50 utc | 5

The Unvarnished Immigration Debate
Best article I have seen on this subject. Exposes the alliances of the usual suspects that have made this rat’s nest what it is.

Posted by: Groucho | May 21 2006 13:46 utc | 7

And Little Petey Beinhart Cures America of What Politically Ails It
Hopefully the Young DLC doctor will also present a cure for cancer and AIDS by noon.
He’s a precocious little bastard, born in 1971.

Posted by: Groucho | May 21 2006 14:17 utc | 9

Mearsheimer, Walt, and AIPAC
Long, but very THOROUGH!

Posted by: Groucho | May 21 2006 18:42 utc | 11

What Is The Real Purpose Of Bush’s NSA Surveillance?
Incredible;
Turns out, in the late 90s the NSA had developed but then later dropped a well-designed communications surveillance program, ThinThread, that protected privacy concerns through encyption and that was much more efficient than the NSA’s patently illegal warrantless spying adopted after the 2001 attacks.
WHY in the world would the NSA and White House have instead pushed for the massive spying that violates basic Privacy and legal protections? The articles above and below suggest the answer — the vast warrantless spying was pushed by Hayden and the White House, because it was much more vulnerable to abuse and ‘fishing’ expeditions, precisely the kinds of intrusive and intimidating pressure that kills free speech and that discourages rigorous investigative journalism into governmental abuses, partisan spying, discovery of covert actions, and cultivation of insider sources revealing endemic improprieties.
Christ, but the foulness of everything these political hacks and illegitimate ‘leaders’ and bureaucratic operatives do extends through a multitude of layers. It’s almost a full-time job cutting through the bullshit and trying to remain modestly informed and up-to-date on their schemes and rackets.
Re-meme-ber, the Patriot Act wasn’t really Bush’s idea. How quickly we forget
1. Many of the provisions were originally from Clinton’s anti-terrorism bill of 1996
and
2. How the Dems rolled over like a well trained dog.
Also see, The Press and the USA Patriot Act

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 22 2006 2:53 utc | 13

Krugman takes on Lieberman. Talk-Show Joe

Mr. Lieberman’s defenders would have you believe that his increasingly unpopular positions reflect his principles. But his Bushlike inability to face reality on Iraq looks less like a stand on principle than the behavior of a narcissist who can’t admit error. And the common theme in Mr. Lieberman’s positions seems to be this: In each case he has taken the stand that is most likely to get him on TV.
You see, the talking-head circuit loves centrists. But a centrist, as defined inside the Beltway, doesn’t mean someone whose views are actually in the center, as judged by public opinion.
Instead, a Democrat is considered centrist to the extent that he does what Mr. Lieberman does: lends his support to Republican talking points, even if those talking points don’t correspond at all to what most of the public wants or believes.
But this “center” cannot hold. And that’s the larger lesson of what happened Friday. Mr. Lieberman has been playing to a Washington echo chamber that is increasingly out of touch with the country’s real concerns. The nation, which rallied around Mr. Bush after 9/11 simply because he was there, has moved on — and it has left Mr. Lieberman behind.

Posted by: b | May 22 2006 6:29 utc | 15

Q: Why did the Iranian chicken cross the road?
A: To spread a deadly epidemic disease among the decadent citizens of the Great Satan!

Posted by: ralphieboy | May 22 2006 8:34 utc | 17

Groucho refers us to Mark Helprin’s views on the immigration debate. While appropriately cynical about those whose interests are promoted by cheap immigrant labor, there are a couple of things I didn’t like about the piece – the characterization of some parties in the debate as America haters, for example, and Helprin’s glib assertion that “the borders are easy to seal”(I disagree).
A sympathetic portrayal of this writer, which nevertheless lays out ways in which his viewpoint probably differs from a typical MoA reader, can be found in a Harvard Magazine article http://tinyurl.com/colrx

Posted by: mistah charley | May 22 2006 14:30 utc | 19

Hell, Mister C., I once was known to agree with Krauthammer, on an issue.
Actually, this view of the ME, is the flavor sold at the Pentagon currently. And it apparently has a very loyal following.
Check out THE LONG WAR
Nice little Power Pointy thingy.

Posted by: Groucho | May 22 2006 15:23 utc | 21

[Content of this spam post deleted
b.]

Posted by: mortensens | May 22 2006 17:09 utc | 23

It is not to be construed as medical advice
thanks for the clarification

Posted by: annie | May 22 2006 17:38 utc | 25

Okay, the “Jews must wear badges” story cratered, let’s try the poor suffering Iranian prisoner ploy!

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 22 2006 18:47 utc | 27

Personal Data of 26.5 Million Veterans Stolen

Every living veteran is at risk of identity theft after thieves stole an electronic data file this month containing the names, birthdates and social security from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee, VA Secretary R. James Nicholson said today.

I never understood how in the U.S. a name, a birthdate and a SoSec number is enough to get a credit card and to get an “identity”. This must at sometime end in mass fraud.
We have national ID cards and quite a bit of bureocrathy around it. But nobody who doesn´t look like me and shows my ID will be able to get a credit card on my name.

Posted by: b | May 22 2006 19:09 utc | 29

Seymour Hersh LISTENING IN

A security consultant working with a major telecommunications carrier told me that his client set up a top-secret high-speed circuit between its main computer complex and Quantico, Virginia, the site of a government-intelligence computer center. This link provided direct access to the carrier’s network core—the critical area of its system, where all its data are stored. “What the companies are doing is worse than turning over records,” the consultant said. “They’re providing total access to all the data.”
…
Instead, the N.S.A. began, in some cases, to eavesdrop on callers (often using computers to listen for key words) or to investigate them using traditional police methods. A government consultant told me that tens of thousands of Americans had had their calls monitored in one way or the other. “In the old days, you needed probable cause to listen in,” the consultant explained. “But you could not listen in to generate probable cause. What they’re doing is a violation of the spirit of the law.”

Posted by: b | May 22 2006 20:26 utc | 31

Iraq doctor brings evidence of US napalm at Fallujah
By Andra Jackson
May 23, 2006
EVIDENCE to support controversial claims that napalm has been used by US forces in Iraq has been brought to Australia by an Iraqi doctor.
Dr Salam Ismael, of the Baghdad-based group Doctors for Iraq, said the evidence pointed to the use of napalm on civilians during the second siege of Fallujah in November 2004.
It is contained in film and photographs that doctors took of bodies they collected when they were finally allowed to enter the city after being barred for three days of the military operation.
“We said that napalm had been used, because napalm is a bomb which is a fuel bomb that burns only on the exposed part of the body, so that the clothes will not be affected,” Dr Ismael said from Perth at the start of a speaking tour.
Doctors For Iraq, an independent group founded in 2003, is calling for an international investigation that would allow the bodies to be exhumed for autopsies “because we want to know the truth of what happened”.
Dr Ismael said the napalm was a modification from the 1990s of the wind-driven napalm chemical bombs used by the US in Vietnam in the 1960s.
The US Government admits using white phosphorus in Iraq but denies using napalm.
Dr Ismael said the pattern of burns on bodies collected in Fallujah suggested otherwise.
Asked to respond to the napalm allegations, a Pentagon spokesman said only that the US did not target civilians. It was up to the Iraqi Government to decide if international investigators should be allowed into Fallujah.
Dr Ismael will speak at a Unity for Peace public meeting at RMIT on Thursday night and at Melbourne University on Friday.

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 23 2006 0:00 utc | 33

From the humorous if it didn’t involve real people getting really hurt department:
The Beeb has been prattling on about this for a while now:
Taleban commander still at large
The Taleban commander Mullah Dadullah has not been captured, a spokesman for the US-led forces in southern Afghanistan has said.

Last week Afghan officials indicated they had caught the commander, who is believed to be the Taleban’s military leader in southern Afghanistan.
Mullah Dadullah is also high on the US most wanted list.
The US military spokesman said although a senior Taleban member had been caught, it was not Mullah Dadullah.
“We have, in fact, captured a high-ranking Taleban who does fit the general description of Mullah Dadullah but I can confirm to you it is not Mullah Dadullah,” Major James Yonts told the BBC.
Officials said on Friday the Taleban commander had been seized in the southern province of Kandahar, even though a man claiming to be Mullah Dadullah later told the BBC he was still free, and not far from Kandahar. . . . .”

Here’s the kicker if you’ll forgive the pun.

During two calls to a BBC Pashto service correspondent in Pakistan, the man said he was the one-legged Islamic commander who had been leading Taleban insurgents in Kandahar and Helmand provinces.
The man said it was possible the authorities had mistakenly arrested one of the several thousand innocent people who had lost their limbs by stepping on a landmine during the ongoing Afghan conflict. . . . ”

In a land occupied by foreign invaders all one-legged men are Taleban.
That is the real issue. We know that Afghanis deeply resent any uninvited foreigner in their country, eg When the Soviet bear was rollicking about the place this was widely acknowledged and the resistance was hailed as heros by the mainstream media. Now the invaders are USuk and the usual suspects, all resistance to this unwarranted and uninvited intrusion are “Taleban” whatever that means. Presumably it refers to the last administration. This makes as much sense as labelling all insurgents in Iraq as Ba’athist or Saddamist.
Sure some may be remnants of the former regime (whose actual crimes have never been clearly spelt out. 911 someone says? . . . Ummm . . . What Afghanis were on those planes? Should Venezuala get the UN to mount an attack on the US population cause BushCo won’t hand over Luis Posada Carriles? )
But we all know the futility of expecting the self serving tosspots who win under the great US democratic system, to hold consistent ethical positions so no point in going there.
The practical issue is one that the ‘usual suspects’ need to pay considerable heed to. That is that in order to create the myth that things were getting better for the USuk meglamaniac vision of ruling the world by stealing it’s energy resources back home where the ninnies vote for them, the political class in the US decided to ‘draw down’ it’s Afghani troops and move them to Iraq. That way some troops in Iraq could go home.
Natch the usual suspects were somewhat sceptical and it took a hard sell. At the time the joint was quiet, something which had more than a little to do with it being mid-winter. In addition USuk had run around the Southern Provinces where the bulk of the ‘troubles’ had been happening and paid out small deposits to the rural population. The money was to help the people find other income streams than poppies. The balance of this money (which was a considerable sum) was to be paid spring 06 when it could be seen if the farmers had complied or not. . . Well this is what they were told . . .
Trouble is by that time a heap of the US forces had bolted and they seem to have ‘forgotten’ to pay the balance due. Undoubtedly the check is in the mail.
Anyway beginning 06 was the time that most of the usual suspects plus a number of unusual ones were meant to review where they were up to and either leave or agree to stay a little longer.
A sizeable chunk of the unusual bolted, while the rest had their arms twisted into agreeing to move into areas formerly occupied by US forces.
Even my mob seem to have agreed to stay a bit longer. PM Clark forgot to tell the population a few relevant details like how the US Republican Machinery had been caught involving itself in NZ’s election, the rethugs had been siding with the Tories of course. That was leaked by the leader of a minor Tory Party in competition with the Nats for the selfish vote and, truth be told, probably the free money as well.
Instead the carrot of a free trade agreement was waved about to try and get the population warm and fuzzy about hanging out with war-crims.
That strategy wasn’t particularly successful, particualarly since Australia’s terms of trade have worsened since they were cajoled into an Oz-US free Trade “agreement”, so the ever vigilant Ms Clark, undoubtedly concerned not to have to deal with the 21st century equivalent of finding a horse’s head in the futon agreed to continue the NZ Army engineers presence in and around Bamiyan Valley. Undoubtedly a there will also be a squad of NZ SAS murderers assassinating whatever unfortunate loses the US unIntelligence lottery that week, but they will be moved around continuously and won’t be taking up a defensive position anywhere so are unlikely to face major casualties unless an unfortunate lottery loser resists his/her execution.
Anyway summer is on the way and the Afghanis seem to have decided that it is time for all the invaders to piss off. They have had more than ample opportunity to grab OBL but that adventure has been pretty half hearted since they were outwitted at Tora Bora. The mayor of Kabul doesn’t come across as a bloke who would be much use when the talking finishes and the guns come out.
Most importantly life has been getting worse under the inconstantly incompetent USuk puppet administration that the mayor heads up.
Here’s a recent appalling example:
100 dead in Afghanistan air strike

Almost 100 people have been killed in a US-led air strike in southern Afghanistan, the governor of Kandahar province and military officials said today.
A statement released by US-led forces said 20 Taliban fighters had been killed in the attack on the village of Azizi, and that there were “an unconfirmed 60 additional Taliban casualties”.
Earlier today, the governor, Asadullah Khalid, said 16 civilians had died in the attack, which happened late yesterday and early today.
He said another 16 people had been wounded and taken to hospitals in Kandahar City, and put the death toll among Taliban fighters at 60. An injured civilian later died, a doctor said. . . . “

So it is likely there cannot be any sort of “phased withdrawal” from this disastrous attempt to satisfy the assholes in the US who demanded “an eye for an eye” after a tiny drop of the misery and chaos caused by the march of corporate greed around the rest of the world was finally visited upon the fountainhead of corporate inhumanity.

Posted by: Anonymous | May 23 2006 1:06 utc | 35

File under, WTF?
So it’s official we have finally reached the thoughtcrime stage…???

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 23 2006 1:45 utc | 37

@Gylangirl – thanks for yr. post on the Sexism – I saw that & wondered if I’d post it, but have gotten tired of being the only person around here who doesn’t actively support it..
Christ…I can hardly remember back to the good old days when I thght. nuclear war was the worst thing imaginable…
Along those lines, here’s a serious charmer for those who think that watching the development of the neo-feudal police state is like watching glaciers melt…turns out it is quite a bit like that in that its accelerating quite rapidly.
We haven’t gotten yet to the point that the UStreasury deliberately bankrupted by the Wall Street Fascists sells off entire military bases to the Pirates – though they are selling off segments of them – eg. housing – but I’ve been waiting for the Pirates to officially start armies of their own like dem ole feudal lords of yore…Well…I need wait no longer…Ted Koppel has just come out in favor of it…I’ll just link to the site that blogged it & y’all can click through…(even though digby is a sexist pig, he should get credit for this…) link
“So, if there are personnel shortages in the military (and with units in their second and third rotations into Iraq and Afghanistan, there are), then what’s wrong with having civilian contractors? Expense is a possible issue; but a resumption of the draft would be significantly more controversial….
“So, what about the inevitable next step — a defensive military force paid for directly by the corporations that would most benefit from its protection? If, for example, an insurrection in Nigeria threatens that nation’s ability to export oil (and it does), why not have Chevron or Exxon Mobil underwrite the dispatch of a battalion or two of mercenaries?”
Koppel notes that Cofer Black, formerly a high-ranking C.I.A. officer and now a senior executive with Blackwater USA, “has publicly said that his company would be prepared to take on the Darfur account.”
He concludes: “The United States may not be about to subcontract out the actual fighting in the war on terrorism, but the growing role of security companies on behalf of a wide range of corporate interests is a harbinger of things to come.”

Posted by: jj | May 23 2006 2:55 utc | 39

Growing Odds Over Policy on Palestinian Arabs

congressional officials also are confirming a report this month in the Jerusalem Post that said the State Department sent a memo to key lawmakers outlining other reasons the bill would make poor foreign policy. Among them is language in the bill that would restrict diplomacy with Palestinian Authority officials, even if they were not members of Hamas – a group America and the European Union consider a terrorist organization – which won legislative elections in January.
clip
In Congress, the legislative battle over the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act has driven a handful of lawmakers into open opposition. Rep. Betty McCollom, a Democrat of Minnesota, demanded a public apology this month from Aipac after reading comments from one of its supporters who said her opposition to the bill was paramount to “support for terrorists.”
Rep. Gary Ackerman, a Democrat of New York who has often been a reliable vote for pro-Israel legislation, compared the attack on his colleague to the tactics of the Taliban.
Yesterday, the office of Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat of Oregon, sent an e-mail to reporters announcing that the congressman would lead the fight against the Aipac-backed legislation. In a statement, Mr. Blumenauer said, “By placing permanent restrictions on the tools that the United States can use to promote Palestinian reform and Israeli security, this is the wrong answer to a most difficult challenge.”
One congressional source confirmed yesterday that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has asked that the legislation receive more votes from the minority party than the Republicans.
Some dovish pro-Israel organizations have also come out against the bill. The president of the Israel Policy Forum, Seymour Reich, acknowledged yesterday that while public statements from Israel’s ambassador and foreign minister have supported the House’s legislative efforts, “All indications from Jerusalem is that they want flexibility and they want to provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinians,” he said.
Yesterday, a spokesman for Aipac, Josh Block, said in a statement: “This legislation sets out a clear path for the Hamas government: end your support for terrorism and recognize Israel’s right to exist and you will be recognized as a legitimate member of the international community. But until those conditions are met, the United States will not allow American taxpayer dollars to be used to support or legitimize a terrorist-led Palestinian Authority.”

Posted by: annie | May 23 2006 7:44 utc | 41

I agree on the wisdom of considering Wikipedi as a possibly tainted “resource”, like most of the mainstream media. It
can, however, still be useful. I find the following quote from its article on the Kam Air Flight 904 crash
last February to be revealing

Conspiracy theories accusing the US of playing a role in the crash have sprouted on the internet, backed mainly by anti-US entities. These theories are not based on any evidence found.

Protecting naive internet surfers against conspiracy theories would seem to be a new spiritual work of mercy.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | May 23 2006 8:37 utc | 43

This story of anti-terrorist activity in Switzerland from the Los Angeles Times (of all places) merits attention:

I won’t tell you that all the Muslims who frequent the center are all saints, but … the only men I met who were in contact with terrorist groups belonged to intelligence services of foreign countries

The foreign intelligence service most in evidence in the article is that of Syria. One notes that, except for the Swiss SAP and SRS, occidental (American, British, Israeli, etc.) intelligence services are conspicuous by their absence in this story, a circumstance which, five years after 9/11/2001, is truly hard to believe. One assumes that there are literally hundreds, perhaps thousands, of similar infiltrations and smear operations in progress throughout the world.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | May 23 2006 10:16 utc | 45

US,
re your WTF? link involving the police investigating the author of a piece of criminal fiction: there is a similar story involving Edgar Allan Poe. One of his short stories (based on the actual murder of a small girl) is said to contain details that could have been known only to police investigators or the perpetrator.
Nevermore?
But hey, when a government bases both its foreign policy and domestic security methods on fictionalized accounts and contrived stores, they must get nervous over other prople’s fiction. Same applies to the Catholic Curch & Dan Brown.

Posted by: ralphieboy | May 23 2006 10:59 utc | 47

Maybe its old by it was new to me and somehow funny:
After numerous rounds of “We don’t even know if Osama is still alive,”on TV, Osama himself decided to send George Bush a letter in his own handwriting to let him know he was still in the game.
Bush opened the letter and it appeared to contain a single line of coded message:
VWVSO – 370HSSV-0773H
Bush was baffled, so he e-mailed it to Condi Rice. Condi and her aides had not a clue either, so they sent it to the FBI. No one could solve it at the FBI so it went to the CIA, then to the NASA. Eventually they asked Britain’s MI-6 for help. Within a minute MI-6 cabled the White House with this reply: “Tell the President he’s holding the message upside down.”

Posted by: b | May 23 2006 12:58 utc | 49

uh-oh

Posted by: beq | May 23 2006 15:59 utc | 51

me too, annie. I read the comments and wonder, even, if he’s some sort of plant to distract from the recent admission of the killing of women and children…put him out there and discredit him…as I noted on Hullabaloo.
I wonder about his name, Macbeth– that sounds so theatrical, tho maybe it’s just his real name.
And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
The instruments of darkness tell us truths…
I just wonder if he’s a plant.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
If not, I hope he can face his detractors on, say, national television with, say, pictures.

Posted by: fauxreal | May 23 2006 20:06 utc | 53

link is no longer working

Posted by: annie | May 24 2006 2:13 utc | 55

Here’s IVAW’s statement:
Iraq Veterans Against the War recently learned of a video interview with Jesse MacBeth that directs viewers to IVAW’s website and phone number.  IVAW was not made aware of the creation of this video program and our input on it was never sought by its producers.  Jesse MacBeth is not a spokesperson for IVAW and any claims made by MacBeth about his service have not been verified.  We are currently investigating these claims and will have a full statement pending its resolution.link

Posted by: jj | May 24 2006 3:17 utc | 57

anna missed, under the video was a comment section, i checked the comments and there were many from guys in the military saying he was a fraud. plus i googled his name and read comments on other blogs. here’s one from forum.military.com
last night after you linked there were at least 500 comments all within 24 hrs.

Posted by: annie | May 24 2006 3:28 utc | 59

the 2006 veterans for peace convention will be held in seattle come august – keynote speaker will be “confessor” john perkins. it was at last year’s convention in dallas that cindy sheehan upped & squatted outside king george’s setprop in crawford. maybe the hitman can be coaxed out of retirement.

Posted by: b real | May 24 2006 3:40 utc | 61

In light of recent developments. How many here re-meme-ber the DC Sniper? Staring, John Allen Muhammad, his trusty sidekick, Lee Boyd Malvo and guest staring ol’ Chief Charles —like a duck in a noose –Moose.
Well, gather round kids, pull up a stool, pour us all a stiff one barkeep –put it on my tab– and let me share a bizzare story…

Posted by: Uncle $cam | May 24 2006 8:33 utc | 63

and then there’s this

Reports in the Associated Press say Franklin was an analyst for the FBI’s Critical Infrastructure Protection . But family members say they never really knew much about what she was doing for the FBI. She wouldn’t say a word about the details of the job, even to her father, a former Air Force radar instructor who had held a high-level security clearance.
But she did tell her parents that she expected to be transferred to the nation’s new homeland security agency – and that she wasn’t sure whether the transfer would take her to a new city. The chance of a transfer to a new location led Linda and Ted Franklin to sell their home and move into a rental property, Franklin’s family members said.
They were at Home Depot buying supplies for the move when she was shot.
“I was just talking to her the other day as she was cleaning out her apartment,” MaryAnn Moore said. “She said ‘there’s three white vans parked outside right now.’ She said there were more white vans in DC than any other kind of car.”

Posted by: annie | May 24 2006 17:05 utc | 65