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February 18, 2007
OT 07-16
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In Baghdad, Rice Acknowledges Frustrations in U.S
And why are there frustrations in the U.S.?
Rice asked insistently about the progress of legislative bills that would regulate the exploration and revenue sharing of the country’s oil reserves, according to Iraqi officials who spoke to her.
Iraqi officials tasked with creating a draft law have failed to present a bill to parliament. At stake is the extent to which the central government will control exploration and management of oil fields and whether revenue will be distributed equally across the country.
Iraq’s oil reserves are concentrated in the northern Kurdish area and provinces in the predominantly Shiite south.
“I did hear it’s almost complete,” Rice said about a status report she received on the draft of the bill. “I’ve heard that it’s complete before. And this time, I hope it really is almost complete — as in complete.”
I was wondering why she made this suprise visit. The new oil laws still not signed, two months tardy.
Posted by: anna missed | Feb 18 2007 9:21 utc | 2
Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army’s Top Medical Facility
Life beyond the hospital bed is a frustrating mountain of paperwork. The typical soldier is required to file 22 documents with eight different commands — most of them off-post — to enter and exit the medical processing world, according to government investigators. Sixteen different information systems are used to process the forms, but few of them can communicate with one another. The Army’s three personnel databases cannot read each other’s files and can’t interact with the separate pay system or the medical recordkeeping databases.
The disappearance of necessary forms and records is the most common reason soldiers languish at Walter Reed longer than they should, according to soldiers, family members and staffers. Sometimes the Army has no record that a soldier even served in Iraq. A combat medic who did three tours had to bring in letters and photos of herself in Iraq to show she that had been there, after a clerk couldn’t find a record of her service.
Shannon, who wears an eye patch and a visible skull implant, said he had to prove he had served in Iraq when he tried to get a free uniform to replace the bloody one left behind on a medic’s stretcher. When he finally tracked down the supply clerk, he discovered the problem: His name was mistakenly left off the “GWOT list” — the list of “Global War on Terrorism” patients with priority funding from the Defense Department.
…
Benware walked around the corner to arrange a dental appointment — his teeth were knocked out in the accident. He was told by a case manager that another case worker, not his doctor, would have to approve the procedure.
“Goddamn it, that’s unbelievable!” snapped his wife, Barb, who accompanied him because he can no longer remember all of his appointments.
Not as unbelievable as the time he received a manila envelope containing the gynecological report of a young female soldier.
Next came 7 a.m. formation, one way Walter Reed tries to keep track of hundreds of wounded. Formation is also held to maintain some discipline. Soldiers limp to the old Red Cross building in rain, ice and snow. Army regulations say they can’t use umbrellas, even here. A triple amputee has mastered the art of putting on his uniform by himself and rolling in just in time. Others are so gorked out on pills that they seem on the verge of nodding off.
…
Rice asked insistently about the progress of legislative bills that would regulate the exploration and revenue sharing of the country’s oil reserves, according to Iraqi officials who spoke to her.
Some of these Iraqi officials better watch what they say !
This is quite a revealing article. Should be worth it’s own thread “Rice Asking Insistently” where we can all add updates on the progress of the success of the War.
Posted by: DM | Feb 18 2007 11:11 utc | 4
The book: The Secret Government : The Constitution in Crisis : With Excerpts from an Essay on Watergate by Bill D. Moyers, Henry Steele Commager
ISBN: 0932020844. Based on the acclaimed PBS documentary, The Secret Government analyzes the threats to constitutional government posed by an illegitimate network of spies, profiteers, mercenaries, ex-generals and “superpatriots” who have tried, at various times, to take foreign policy into their own hands.
Here is the full 90 minutes: PBS-The-Secret-Government-1987
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 18 2007 22:10 utc | 5
I’m still trying to figure out what to make of this.
The GOP is “outraged” by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s latest Democrat appointment to the Homeland Security panel. So far, so good.
Turns out Pelosi’s appointment is Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA), who is still trying to appeal last year’s conviction on bribery charges after federal agents found and siezed US$90,000 that was stashed in his freezer.
Now I’m all, like, hominuh? I mean, God’s balls, at least Tom DeLay had the good sense to open some offshore accounts, didn’t he? Is Jefferson being rewarded for being a Democrat or for being a cartoonishly sloppy crook?
Posted by: Monolycus | Feb 19 2007 6:00 utc | 6
Rajiv Chandrasekaran exposes life in the Green Zone: Mission imperial
One morning, as a throng of Shia pilgrims jostled their way inside the Imam Kadhim shrine in northern Baghdad, a suicide bomber detonated his explosives belt. A second bomber waited round the corner and set off his belt when survivors ran away from the first blast. Then a third bomber blew himself up. And a fourth. The courtyard of the shrine filled with smoke and the screams of the dying. Blood pooled on the concrete floor. Dazed young men staggered about seeking help. Other survivors stacked the maimed on to wooden carts and pushed them toward wailing ambulances.
When I arrived at the scene an hour later, I saw corpses covered with white sheets. Arms and fingers had been blown onto third-story balconies. Piles of shoes belonging to the dead dotted the floor. Later, I saw dozens of bodies piled outside the morgue, covered with blue sheets, rotting under the sun.
That evening, I met a group of CPA staffers for dinner in the palace. Nobody mentioned the bombings. The shrine was just a few miles north of the Green Zone, no more than a 10-minute drive away. Had they heard about what had happened? Did they know dozens had died? “Yeah, I saw something about it on the office television,” said the man to my right. “But I didn’t watch the full report. I was too busy working on my democracy project”
what a coincident!!
Iraqi Sunni Lands Show New Oil and Gas Promise
the timing is really excellent!
Huge petroleum deposits have long been known in Iraq’s Kurdish north and Shiite south. But now, Iraq has substantially increased its estimates of the amount of oil and natural gas in deposits on Sunni lands after quietly paying foreign oil companies tens of millions of dollars over the past two years to re-examine old seismic data across the country and retrain Iraqi petroleum engineers.
…
while it would take years actually to begin pulling gas and oil out of the fields even if the area soon became safe enough for companies to work in, energy corporations have been excited about the area’s potential, even if it falls short of reserves in the Shiite south and Kurdish north.
The analysis, still little known outside a small circle of specialists, is important enough that on Friday, Brig. Gen. John R. Allen of the Second Marine Expeditionary Force, who is deputy commanding general of Multi-National Force-West, which has responsibility for Anbar Province, made the long trip into the desert to visit the blue wellhead. General Allen’s duties include promoting the economic development of the province.
…..
“It’s phenomenal standing here,” General Allen said. “What this does is it gives Anbar and the Sunnis an economic future different from phosphate and cement,” he said, referring to products of some of the aging factories in the area.
“This gives them a future and a hope,” he said.
gag me please. that our military is so obviously shill for the oil companies, that they will say anything to get the sunnis on board w/this rape.
meanwhile..behind the firewall
Draft Law on Oil Money Moves to Iraqi Cabinet
The first step has been taken toward approving legislation that would govern the development of Iraqi oil fields and the distribution of oil revenues.
watch a few more market bombs go off if it doesn’t move fast enough.
Posted by: annie | Feb 19 2007 15:03 utc | 8
Haaretz book review: The pessimist was right
The title of Dan’s book, which has recently come out in Hebrew (Yedioth Ahronoth, Hemed Books), may be “Ariel Sharon: An Intimate Portrait,” or “Sharon’s secrets,” but it does not reveal many intimacies or secrets. The deep abomination that Sharon felt toward Arafat was no secret; the new revelation Dan offers is that the Mossad made a failed attempt on the Palestinian leader’s life during the first Lebanon War in 1982, a failure that caused Sharon to regard the espionage agency and its capabilities with coolness and suspicion. Dan claims that Sharon aspired to have Arafat killed, and that only his personal promise to George Bush prevented the death of the Palestinian president.
But not for long, it seems. Dan reveals a little and conceals much when he hints that Arafat’s death was not caused by any illness.
…
Speaking of George Bush, with whom Sharon developed a very close relationship, Uri Dan recalls that Sharon’s delicacy made him reluctant to repeat what the president had told him when they discussed Osama bin Laden. Finally he relented. And here is what the leader of the Western world, valiant warrior in the battle of cultures, promised to do to bin Laden if he caught him: “I will screw him in the ass!”
Interesting: A new tactic of openly attacking bases. This was north of Baghdad. I wonder when one of the new small “bases” that are part of the “surge” within Baghdad will get hit.
Two soldiers killed in Iraq base attack
Insurgents launched a brazen coordinated attack on a U.S. combat post Monday, sending in a suicide bomber and clashing with American troops. Two U.S. soldiers were killed and 17 wounded, the military said.
The assault began with a suicide bomber exploding a vehicle outside the base north of Baghdad, said the military statement. It gave no further details beyond the number of dead and wounded.
Residents said U.S. forces fought with militants after the suicide bomber tried to break through barriers around the base near Tarmiyah, about 30 miles north of Baghdad. For hours, helicopters were seen landing at the base and leaving.
Finally he relented. And here is what the leader of the Western world, valiant warrior in the battle of cultures, promised to do to bin Laden if he caught him: “I will screw him in the ass!”
that would be a perfect coupling
Posted by: remembereringgiap | Feb 19 2007 16:57 utc | 11
annie @8
Yep. Same thought blared in my mind as I caught a glimpse of those two stories on the same NYT page. Not even any mention of estimate of the size of putative oil reserves in Anbar.
Oil companies never announce new finds without some estimate, even when they qualify the estimate as “preliminary”and “rough”. In fact, no oil company or consultant is named or credited with the “new find.” More of the same old same, like bernhard’s new post on ‘official sources”.
Instead, a general, who probably knows next to nothing about oil biz, is ordered to go out and create a news story. (note: No oil execs willing to squander their own credibility.) So that someone pressing the Baghdad govt can say, “The NYT reported today. Now just sign here on this dotted line, so we can dig up that oil for you.”
Surely everyone everywhere, by now, is onto this particular strategem of planting bogus stories in the NYT, so that govt officials can quote it as authority, don’t you think? US govt completely out of new feints?
Posted by: small coke | Feb 19 2007 17:47 utc | 12
very good analysis of the christian right today on democracynow by chris elliot…no, not chris elliot…by chris hedges talking ’bout his new book, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America
Posted by: b real | Feb 19 2007 17:56 utc | 13
small coke, i think it is no coincidence whatso ever that as the stalled oil law finally edges its way into parliment the media and US governement are dangling carrots in the ‘new sunni’ province. the oil companies are probably saying anything to get their psa’s including making promises to explore in anbar whether there is anything there or not. i think it is shameful we have our military out there trumping this rip off.
no doubt rice brought with her some extra incentives to grease the wheels as a messenger from chevron or whoever. she was probably traveling w/some bearing pt representative.
there are probably aggreements iraq has to make in terms of how many permanent ‘security forces’ they have to allow for each cpmpany so even if the official occupation trims down, there are forces in place for permanent occupancy.
the whole thing just makes me want to vomit.
Posted by: annie | Feb 19 2007 17:59 utc | 14
annie, I think the Sunnis are way too smart to buy that story.
The only way the NYT report could possibly assist in ramming the oil bill through the Baghdad cabinet would be if some Sunni politicians, like politicians everywhere, are simply looking for political cover, an excuse to sign on, when the actual reasons for agreement are hidden (whether blackmail, payment for services rendered, threats against families, whatever).
Posted by: small coke | Feb 19 2007 18:15 utc | 15
Yikes! where’s Monolycus! Minor nuclear accident at Younggwang Nuclear Power Plant, South Korea
GLIDE Number: NC-20070219-9967-KOR
Date / time: 19/02/2007 07:06:25
Event: Nuclear Event
Area: Asia
Country: South Korea
State/County: Province of Jeolla
City: Yeongggwang
Number of Deads: None or unknow
Number of Injured: None or unknow
Damage level: Minor
Description:
A malfunction caused a shutdown of a nuclear power reactor at one of South Korea’s atomic power plants, authorities said Sunday. Operators at the Younggwang Nuclear Power Plant in South Jeolla Province said operations of Unit No. 1 were suspended a little past 6 p.m., after a malfunction was detected.
“There was no radiation leakage, and once experts determine the exact cause of the malfunction, operations will begin again,” said a spokesman for the plant, located 322 kilometers south of Seoul. Minor malfunctions that could lead to a shutdown are not reported to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Any news on this Monolycus? Hope you are well…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 19 2007 18:38 utc | 16
Damn Typepad not responding… I’ll try again.
I’m fine… I’m about five or six hours ENE of Yeonggwang. Hadn’t heard anything about this until you brought it to my attention. I’m not seeing any alerts and the Digital Chosunilbo doesn’t have any coverage (It’s also 4am here, so that might change).
Sounds like a pretty minor mishap from your link, but I’ll let you know if I hear anything or if anything changes.
Posted by: Monolycus | Feb 19 2007 19:59 utc | 17
small coke, i doubt sunnis read the nyt. the chances this story is floating aroundin iraq is probably zilch. most likely a pr scam for our benefit. it also harps on the issue that the problems are mostly rooted in the sect based regional issues instead of the overall problems of the psa’s that infect all regions/contracts.
i agree about crooked bribed politicians who are ingrained in the parliment specifically to make sure the ol interests are represented. i would imagine any representative who signs to the theft would be signing his own death warrant, and anyone who won’t will be marked by assasination from the occupying power.
one of the bs stipulations of the ‘deal’ is any contract once agreed apon by the gov representative oil council once it goes to parliment would require a 60/40 vote to reject any individual proposal. in other words, these kinds of requirements are written intothe bills to tie the hands of parliment. i just think most iraqis are smarter than that. for one thing, on any given day it is very rare even 60% of parliment is present.
i really wonder how many deaths will occur across the region util they bend, or if they ever will. it’s a nightmare.
Posted by: annie | Feb 19 2007 20:06 utc | 18
small coke, i doubt sunnis read the nyt. the chances this story is floating aroundin iraq is probably zilch. most likely a pr scam for our benefit. it also harps on the issue that the problems are mostly rooted in the sect based regional issues instead of the overall problems of the psa’s that infect all regions/contracts.
i agree about crooked bribed politicians who are ingrained in the parliment specifically to make sure the ol interests are represented. i would imagine any representative who signs to the theft would be signing his own death warrant, and anyone who won’t will be marked by assasination from the occupying power.
one of the bs stipulations of the ‘deal’ is any contract once agreed apon by the gov representative oil council once it goes to parliment would require a 60/40 vote to reject any individual proposal. in other words, these kinds of requirements are written intothe bills to tie the hands of parliment. i just think most iraqis are smarter than that. for one thing, on any given day it is very rare even 60% of parliment is present.
i really wonder how many deaths will occur across the region util they bend, or if they ever will. it’s a nightmare.
Posted by: annie | Feb 19 2007 20:09 utc | 19
Fascists to bush – Screw Congress, who needs ’em anyway…
Conservatives to Bush: Issue More Executive Orders
With President Bush unable to get much traction so far in moving his agenda through Congress or in improving his job-approval ratings with the public, White House advisers are casting about for ways to jump-start his final two years, including issuing executive orders to get things done without having to ask for support from the Democratic-controlled Congress.
“He should get a list of the executive orders for the last 200 years, as a guide, and choose what he wants to do,” says an informal Bush adviser. One proposal that fiscal conservatives are pushing is to halve all capital-gains taxes, as a way to encourage investment and job creation.
Some conservatives argue that even if Bush somehow regains his political footing, whatever he might work out with the Democratic majority in Congress wouldn’t be very good legislation, so he should go the executive-order route and bypass Congress altogether. Viva Le Dictator
Posted by: jj | Feb 19 2007 21:20 utc | 20
annie, doesn’t US, ahem, Iraq govt still have a state-friendly television station where it can amplify whatever news it chooses? Even so, you are probably right about the NYT story being for domestic disinformation.
But are there any NYT readers who still believe this sort of story?! No named sources, no oil details. Basically, it says a general showed reporters a well head in Anbar and said “there is oil in Anbar.”
Again you are probably correct about the real point of the story – to “inform” readers that the obstacle to passing the oil law is Sunni resistance, due to unequal geographic distribution. Perpetrate this meme in order to obscure the real cause of broad Iraqi resistance to the law: the fact that the law protects oil industry hegemony rather than Iraqi interests.
Does the presentation get that part of the story under readers’ surely rather considerable BS radar?
Posted by: small coke | Feb 19 2007 21:47 utc | 21
doesn’t US, ahem, Iraq govt still have a state-friendly television station where it can amplify whatever news it chooses?
i am sure all the stations that are allowed to exist are somewhat state friendly or they would have gone the way of the one’s that weren’t (at least 3 news station massacres in iraq i can recall). syria has a station that broadcasts all over iraq that supports the resistance and shows risistance battles all day long. i am sure that iraqis are very aware of the oil law fiasco. possibly not on an every day occurance, in fact, mmaybe they won’t get electricity during the news hr if it gets passed, or something equally as crappy or worse like there will be multiple neighborhood surge stories or whatever.
most iraqis, like most US, think we are there for the oil, so they won’t be fooled by this. if it was something they wanted to pass it would have happened a long time ago. i wonder when the news of the details will come out? before it passes? i read somewhere most members of parliment had not even seen the propasals. it is so criminal.
this story on the front page is to be distributed far and wide domestically to counter all the negative press that is sure to follow. i bet if you head over to freeper land it is being hail mary’d right now..
Posted by: annie | Feb 19 2007 22:16 utc | 22
this story on the front page
Interesting. In my edition it was on the inside, same page as story about oil law advancing in Baghdad.
Different topic
Quoted at length over at Pat Lang’s site: anna missed on the roots of neoconservative appeal.
Posted by: small coke | Feb 20 2007 3:08 utc | 23
Second extract of writes Rajiv Chandrasekaran Emerald City: The project
O’Beirne’s staff asked questions in job interviews that could have got an employer in the private sector hauled into court. (The Pentagon was exempted from most employment regulations because it hired people – using an obscure provision in federal law – as temporary political appointees.) Did you vote for George Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two CPA staffers said that they were asked if they supported Roe v Wade (the ruling that effectively legalised abortion in the US). One former CPA employee, who had an office near the White House liaison staff, wrote an email to a friend describing the recruitment process: “I watched resumés of immensely talented individuals who had sought out CPA to help the country thrown in the trash because their adherence to ‘the president’s vision for Iraq’ [a frequently heard phrase at CPA] was ‘uncertain’.”
Another CPA staffer told me that when he went to the Pentagon for his predeployment interview, one of O’Beirne’s deputies launched into a 10-minute soliloquy about domestic politics that included statements opposing abortion and supporting capital punishment. The staffer didn’t agree with what was said, but he nodded. “I felt pressure to agree if I wanted to go to Baghdad,” he said.
…
Murray Waas: The Libby-Cheney Connection
If Libby is found guilty, investigators are likely to probe further to determine if Libby devised what they consider a cover story in an effort to shield Cheney. They want to know whether Cheney might have known about the leaks ahead of time or had even encouraged Libby to provide information to reporters about Plame’s CIA status, the same sources said.
…
Had Cheney testified, he would have been questioned about whether he encouraged, or had knowledge of, the leaking of Plame’s CIA status. Sources close to the case say that Cheney would have also been sharply questioned as to why, when presented by Libby with what prosecutors regarded as a cover story to explain away Libby’s role in the leak, Cheney did nothing to discourage him.
…
More to Riverbend’s account linked above: WaPo
On Monday, a Baghdad woman said she was sexually assaulted by an Iraqi Interior Ministry official after she was detained over the weekend.
Iraqi officials initially condemned the reported rape and vowed to hold the perpetrator responsible. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office, which issued a statement naming the woman, also promised to investigate. It is unclear why Maliki’s office named her. The Washington Post does not identify reported victims of sexual crimes.
The woman is a Sunni, and the ministry is controlled by Shiites. Reports of rape are unusual in Iraq. The woman offered an emotional, detailed account in television interviews.
Hours after announcing the investigation, Maliki’s office released another statement saying the woman’s claims were determined to be unfounded. A spokesman said the report had been fabricated by Arab news stations to undermine the Baghdad security plan.
Maliki is pouring high octane gaz into the fire of civil war.
The Imperial System: Hierarchy, Networks and Clients : The Case of Somalia
The imperial system is much more complex than what is commonly referred to as the “US Empire”. The US Empire, with its vast network of financial investments, military bases, multi-national corporations and client states, is the single most important component of the global imperial system . Nevertheless, it is overly simplistic to overlook the complex hierarchies, networks, follower states and clients that define the contemporary imperial system . To understand empire and imperialism today requires us to look at the complex and changing system of imperial stratification.
P.S. I have a request, does anyone have a username and password they would be willing to share for watching English Al Jazeera online? I had thought it was free when I first posted about it, perhaps it was for a time, but it now is no longer free, seems you have to have a subscription.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 20 2007 14:56 utc | 28
Connecting the dots… just wondering. Perhaps the US feels the oil law in Iraq must be signed, sealed, and delivered before we go bomb Iran. Perhaps they are aware that once we invade Iran, no self-respecting Iraqi body, even a quisling one, would sign it. I too noticed the two front page stories in the NYT and the Sunni oil story and wondered what that was all about. The juxtaposition was too odd to be coincidence. To me it seemed like the “oil found in Sunni heartland” story was a wedge aimed at driving back the forces that want centralized power in Iraq and to drive forward the forces in favor of partition. On the other hand if there is no real credence to the story whatsoever, then it’s hard to imagine it having any effect at all. I agree the Iraqis (Sunnis) are not so dumb as to sign their rights to their oil away based on some flimsy NYT story.
Well just thinking out loud here.
Posted by: Bea | Feb 20 2007 15:47 utc | 29
Democracy Now: New Iraq Oil Law To Open Iraq’s Oil Reserves to Western Companies
Tuesday, February 20th, 2007
New Iraq Oil Law To Open Iraq’s Oil Reserves to Western Companies
The Iraqi blogger Raed Jarrar has obtained a copy of the proposed oil law and has just translated it into English. He discusses the new law with Antonia Juhasz, author of “The Bush Agenda: Invading the World One Economy at a Time.” In one of the first studies of Iraqi public opinion after the US-led invasion of March 2003, the polling firm Gallup asked Iraqis their thoughts on the Bush administration’s motives for going to war. One percent of Iraqis said they believed the motive was to establish democracy. Slightly more – five percent – said to assist the Iraqi people. But far in the lead was the answer that got 43 percent – “to rob Iraq”s oil.”
Well, with the four-year mark of the Iraq war less than a month away, the answer may come into clearer view. After a long negotiation process involving US officials, the Iraqi government is considering a new oil law that would establish a framework for managing the third-largest oil reserves in the world.
What would this new law mean for Iraq? With me now from Washington DC is Raed Jarrar – He is the Iraq Project Director for Global Exchange. He has obtained a copy of the proposed oil law which he translated from Arabic and posted on his website. And Antonia Juhasz is on the phone with us — She has written extensively about the economic side of the US occupation of Iraq and is the author of the book, “The Bush Agenda: Invading the World One Economy at a Time.” Antonia is a Tarbell Fellow at Oil Change International. We welcome you both to Democracy Now!
* Raed Jarrar Iraq Project Director for Global Exchange. He is an Iraqi blogger and architect. He runs a popular blog called “Raed in the Middle.”
* Antonia Juhasz, author and activist. She is a Tarbell Fellow at Oil Change International. Her latest book is called “The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Econony at a Time.”
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 20 2007 15:59 utc | 30
@Uncle $cam #30
I think this is good news. The more light on this beast, the better. Let’s link this up on every blog we can think of.
Also, can anyone liberate this Wall Street Journal article on Iranian oil drying up? It is very intriguing to me. I am wondering where it fits in this whole picture.
Posted by: Bea | Feb 20 2007 16:10 utc | 31
Iraqi intelligentsia targeted by “surge” operations
Sunday Times UK
Later the same night, security forces raided a compound containing the homes of 110 university professors and their families. Professor Hameed al-Aathami described what happened: “They dragged us out of our beds as we slept with our wives and children, took us outside, bound our hands and blindfolded us. They beat, cursed and insulted us.”
Dr Salah Bidayat, the dean of the school of law, fired two shots from his licensed gun in the air to get the soldiers’ attention. “They caught him, lay him on the ground and proceeded to beat, kick and curse him in the most aggressive manner and when he explained we were teachers and professors they told him you are all a bunch of asses and terrorists,” Aathami said.
“They gathered all the men in the centre of the compound and proceeded to their homes, where they broke furniture, stole money, mobile telephones and jewellery as we sat outside listening to our women and children scream and cry,” he said.
“It was very hard for us to go through this. This is the security crackdown they have been bragging about. There is no such thing as a security plan; it is all an attempt to rid the country of the few remaining educated and decent people,” said Aathami, who is planning to leave Iraq as soon as he can.
Posted by: Bea | Feb 20 2007 16:25 utc | 32
A quite understandable account on the way Libby/Cheney outed Wilson/Plame:
Trial Spotlights Cheney’s Power as an Infighter
But a close reading of the testimony and evidence in the case is more revelatory, bringing into bolder relief a portrait of a vice president with free rein to operate inside the White House as he saw fit in order to debunk the charges of a critic of the war in Iraq.
…
Bea wrote:
Connecting the dots… just wondering. Perhaps the US feels the oil law in Iraq must be signed, sealed, and delivered before we go bomb Iran.
Yes, that was always the NeoNut plan as laid out in PNAC – first stop by Iraq to secure the oil. Then, it’s on to Iran.
Posted by: jj | Feb 20 2007 17:49 utc | 34
this is funny. if you are not german you should know that achsel means armpit and bösen means evil. or to spell it out Axis of Evil
Posted by: dan of steele | Feb 20 2007 18:28 utc | 35
Remember the student who was tasered at UCLA? Well he is suing. Remember the video where he was screaming “I have a medical condition?” Well guess what — he suffers from bipolar disorder. The neurochemistry of a patient with bipolar disorder goes haywire under stress. I can only imagine what types of consequences this kid suffered after such a trauma.
What an abomination. I would say the university should prepare to shell out quite a bit of money over that incident.
Posted by: Bea | Feb 20 2007 19:01 utc | 36
i am feeling like going out of my mind. i have made a friend thru the internet who lives in baghdad. she is an engineer and got accepted to work at a company in UAE but after a few months they still could not get her visa thru. she says jordan, syria, it is becoming impossible to leave the country. she is feeling worse and worse all the time. this morning i called an immigration lawyer to see if there is anyway we cn get her into canada or possibly the US (not her first choice as you can imagine, she hasn’t said this but..)
i have contacted one of my best friends raghida, rami khouri’s sister who lives in arizona to see if maybe rami can help. i wish i could do something else. i should have started this months ago when i first knew she was rejected for the UAE. she has never ask for my help but the emaili got from her this morning is so frightful. the sabrine as you can imagine just sends massive fear for all women in baghdad, as if they could even have more fear when they are already feeling so much. how do they even go out to get food. my god.
sorry i haven’t been posting much. what can i say. that i am going crazy with frustration?????????
that i may turn into a total basket case.
if anyone has any ideas or contacts that could get her out of baghdad please let me know. ASAP
Posted by: annie | Feb 20 2007 19:05 utc | 37
this may have been posted above, but it didn’t jump at me scrolling thru:
the (oil) draft law: in arabic; translation by Raed (links to pdfs)
link
the full implications are still unclear, but from a cursory perusal, it looks like it effectively cuts Iraq into 3. More thought and comments needed.
Posted by: Noirette | Feb 20 2007 20:07 utc | 38
Off the cuff annie and not encouraging:
One of the problems is that the US never accepted refugees from Iraq. EU countries have followed suit; in fact, what has happened, is that the rich have been able to settle in England, but almost no arrivals / potential refugees / immigrants trying to enter *legally* have arrived, in France (probably O, doesn’t accept anyone anyway except for one or two for the press), Switzerland to our amazement, maybe under 200 a year since 03, Germany, possibly at bit more, I don’t have the stats to hand (hard to get anyway, iffy, etc.) – I speak more of ambiance and facts on the ground as I see them. Countries like Canada and New Zealand take only ‘proper people’, see their criteria on the internet.
The W Gvmts. seem to adhere to the idea that a country occupied by the US cannot have masses of refugees leaving. In any case none – as I see it – apply the ‘regular’ (eg Swiss) criteria for accepting refugees, such as being tortured by the ‘home’ Gvmt. for reasons of political dissidence or religious persecution or being randomly shot if you step into the street etc. They are more likely to be arrested at the border for being terrorists (I exagerate, but it is close.) Anyway, it looks like non-rich Iraqis have not sought to exploit the various immigration avenues that might possibly be open to them, in a consistent way, which is understandable in view of the state of the country and the lack of organization, information, possibility for groups to act, the lack of clear laws, the foreign embassies that are non existent or shut, etc. Think of the crackdowns in for ex. Holland and Sweden against ‘muslim immigrants’ – ok against those who are there, but it is hardly encouraging for those who might want to come in. They stiffened the laws etc.
A second prob. is that neighboring countries are straining – many have done a tremendous amount (eg Jordan, Syria) and they don’t want to enstore legal acceptance; the refugees now number close (including illegals) to 2 million. Nor can they make a public stance saying: these people are our people now, and we will integrate them.
So leaving Iraq and finding official acceptance elsewhere is very difficult, more a matter of dodging under the radar and accepting illegal existence somewhere or other, or of using money and personal contacts to buy one’s way in. Or, possibly, finding a job -but officially, it is hard, as the story of your friend shows. Marriage can be an avenue. As can getting other papers, these can be bought. In short, legal avenues look dim. Extreme creativity is needed. e mail me if only for commiseration.
Posted by: Noirette | Feb 20 2007 21:14 utc | 39
if any barflies have connections to the academic world, especially as regards media or cultural studies, please give me an email. Thanks
Posted by: Rowan | Feb 20 2007 22:00 utc | 41
BAGHDAD, Feb 20 (KUNA) — A joint force of the Iraqi Army and US troops Tuesday bombarded the office of Shiite leader Muqtada Al-Sadr in Al-Shula area, west of Baghdad, a security source told KUNA.
The source said some 14 military vehicles are now surrounding the office and Iraqi and US soldiers could be seen confiscating material and documents.
Bea @ 31,
This doesn’t seem to be the article RawStory is referring to, but it is the same date, same publication, same subject: How Iran is vulnerable to a decline in oil exports
And a more informative news piece from the LA Times last month – U.S. puts squeeze on Iran’s oil fields
The typical Western reader could be expected to draw two conclusions from all that,
1) The stupid Iranians don’t know how to manage their oil fortune, so it’s OK for us to make a grab for it,
2) Sanctions or a temporary oil shock caused by war may be painful, but it’s better than having the Iranian oil dry up long term.
Posted by: Alamet | Feb 21 2007 0:27 utc | 43
it is so quiet around gere tonight.
Philippines army is ‘in denial’
Last Updated: Wednesday, 21 February 2007, 05:15 GMT
E-mail this to a friend Printable version
Philippines army is ‘in denial’
Philippines President Gloria Arroyo in 2001
Arroyo should do more, says the UN envoy
A UN envoy has accused the army in the Philippines of being “in a state of almost total denial” about a wave of political killings.
Many of these killings have been “convincingly attributed to them”, said special rapporteur Philip Alston.
One human rights group says since President Gloria Arroyo took power in 2001, 830 activists have been killed.
…..
The human rights group Karapatan says that 832 extra-judicial killings since 2001 can be blamed on the security forces.
Posted by: annie | Feb 21 2007 7:30 utc | 45
for anyone following the libby trial, you have probably been watching the end of day recaps on politics TV. if not..
this one is a bang
Posted by: annie | Feb 21 2007 8:11 utc | 47
When many here linked to Riverbend’s incredibly sad and moving post about the rape of the young Iraqi woman I thought that it could be a significant event. Maliki handled it very poorly and it looks like the whole thing refuses to die. Maliki just fired another Sunni minister who had the audacity to speak out against it.
I don’t see how Maliki can save this any more. when he decided to publicly praise the men who are accused of the rape, I think he made a blunder of epic proportions. No matter how much you hate another tribe I don’t believe anyone can consider rape an acceptable practice.
maybe he really does want to quit as PM and this will offer him a way out and an alternative to a bullet in the back of his head.
link
Posted by: dan of steele | Feb 21 2007 11:13 utc | 48
IRAN – IRAN – IRAN
B’s post #42 makes one wonder when we will be hearing about more evidence from the seized computers and stuff about Iranian involvement in Iraq. And speaking of speculation, here’s a comment lifted from ‘Left Coaster’ Blair Sends Bush A Message On Iran
“What do you want to bet they know the exact mileage to the Kuwait border, so when the ‘get the f’ out of town’ message comes”
And what do you want to bet that the British commander already has an “understanding” with the local militias for safe passage? Centuries of imperialism make one both cynical and pragmatic. – sagesource
Posted by: Rick | Feb 21 2007 11:40 utc | 49
A good piece on Putin – recommended: The west may yet come to regret its bullying of Russia
While Putin appears to have been conducting his diplomacy over the past decade from weakness and the west from strength, the reverse has been nearer the truth. Britain and America have been led by essentially reactive politicians with no grasp of history. A terrorist outrage or a bombastic speech and they change policy on the hop. When Bush and Blair go, they will leave a world less secure and more divided in its leadership than when they arrived. Their dismissive treatment of Russia’s recovery from cold war defeat has been the rhetoric of natural bullies.
Russia and the west have everything to gain from good relations. Putin has struggled to modernise his economy while holding together a traumatised and shrunken Russian federation. The west may feel he errs towards authoritarianism, but second-guessing Russian leaders is seldom a profitable exercise. This is a huge country, rich in natural and human resources. It is hard to think of somewhere the west would be better advised to “hug close”. Instead, Putin will hand his successor an isolated and bruised nation. Under a less confident president, it could retreat into protectionism and alliances the west will hate. To have encouraged that retreat is truly stupid.
Third part of Rajiv Chandrasekaran excerpts from “Emerald City”:
‘There’s a lot left to be done’
Because of bureaucratic delays, only 2% of the $18.4bn (£9.5bn) Supplemental [as the CPA’s US-funded budget was known] had been spent. Nothing had been expended on construction, healthcare, sanitation or the provision of clean water, and more money had been devoted to administration than all projects related to education, human rights, democracy and governance combined. At the same time, the CPA had managed to dole out almost all of a $20bn (£10bn) development fund fed by Iraq’s oil sales, more than $1.6bn (£820m) of which had been used to pay Halliburton, primarily for trucking fuel into Iraq.
…
In an interview before his departure, Bremer insisted to me that Iraq was “fundamentally changed for the better” by the occupation. The CPA, he said, had put Iraq on a path towards a democratic government and an open economy after more than three decades of a brutal socialist dictatorship. Among his biggest accomplishments, he said, were the lowering of Iraq’s tax rate, the liberalisation of foreign-investment laws and the reduction of import duties.
…
Iraqis needed help – good advice and ample resources – from a support corps of well-meaning foreigners, not a full-scale occupation with imperial Americans cloistered in a palace of the tyrant, eating bacon and drinking beer, surrounded by Gurkhas and blast walls.
“If this place succeeds,” a CPA friend told me before he left, “it will be in spite of what we did, not because of it.”
Samuelson in WaPo Storm Cloud at the Global Bazaar?
One big worry now is the “yen carry trade.” Investors (speculators?) borrow at 1 or 2 percent in yen, convert the yen into other currencies (say, Brazilian reals or Turkish lira) and reinvest the funds in those countries at much higher interest rates. For Brazil and Turkey, three-month rates are roughly 13 and 19 percent. Low interest rates on Swiss franc loans have also inspired a sizable “carry trade,” says Grant’s Interest Rate Observer. The danger is that a sharp shift in exchange rates (either the borrowing or lending currency), or higher interest rates in the lending country, could make these appealing trades unprofitable. A panic might ensue as investors seek to escape. Historically, “excess liquidity” often evaporates through losses.
Global finance is a dark hole. There are more investors in more countries moving more money into more securities in more other countries than ever before. Herd behavior sometimes overwhelms the natural tendency of markets to self-correct, often harmlessly to everyone but overeager investors. Large losses in one market could trigger selling in others. Confidence and spending could weaken. What’s unnerving about the global money bazaar is not what we know; it’s what we don’t know.
Guguguguuuuckert:
Bush Friends, Loyal and Texan, Remain a Force
Israel Hernandez was a fresh-faced college graduate from the Texas border town of Eagle Pass in the summer of 1993 when he landed a job in Dallas as the personal aide to the part-owner of the Texas Rangers George W. Bush.
Together, they spent months driving the dusty back roads of the Lone Star State to promote the team, Mr. Hernandez behind the wheel of Mr. Bush’s Lincoln Town Car.
“He would speak to a rotary or chamber and say, ‘You need to come to the ballpark and we’ll make it Athens, Texas, Day.
…
Their George W. Bush is the compassionate conservative … a man unafraid of giving promotions to openly gay people, as he did with Mr. Hernandez, …
Ahhh – “months driving the dusty back roads of the Lone Star State”
For those interested in the Libby trial and what it means for Cheney, here are two comprehensive write-ups:
The Next Hurrah: Indicting Dick
The Libby-Cheney Connection
Posted by: Bea | Feb 21 2007 16:24 utc | 55
Funny thing about fear… it does more than get people to support things that aren’t in their own interests, it’ll pad your office’s budget if you land a sweet security job subsidized by Joe Taxpayer…
Responding, a Justice spokesman pointed to figures showing that prosecutors in the department’s headquarters for the most part either accurately or underreported their data — underscoring what he called efforts to avoid pumping up federal terror statistics.
The numbers, used to monitor the department’s progress in battling terrorists, are reported to Congress and the public and help, in part, shape the department’s budget.
“For these and other reasons, it is essential that the department report accurate terrorism-related statistics,” the audit concluded.
Fine’s office took care to say the flawed data appear to be the result of “decentralized and haphazard” methods of collection or disagreement over how the numbers are reported, and do not appear to be intentional.
Still, the errors led Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., to question whether the department had exaggerated the number of terror cases.
Not sure if that constitutes “profiteering” or not, but I’m pretty sure that like all advertising, it creates a growing demand that did not used to exist… at least I assume so. Since it’s apparently so damned good for everyone, it’s hard to know how sacrosanct the data actually are.
Posted by: Monolycus | Feb 21 2007 16:29 utc | 56
from the headlines on today’s democracynow,
Audit: Terror Statistics Inaccurate, Inflated
And finally, a new audit has found widespread inaccuracy in how the government collects statistics on terrorism. The Justice Department Inspector General says hundreds of completely unrelated cases have helped inflate numbers on offenses and prosecutions. Offenses including drug trafficking, marriage fraud and immigration violations were among those wrongly included. Just two of twenty-six collections of statistics were found to be accurate. The Bush administration has previously cited the statistics in efforts to provide evidence of successes in prosecuting terrorism cases.
apart from the announcement, this is not new news, but it’s good to finally see gvt acknowledgment that they’ve been lying to us.
Posted by: b real | Feb 21 2007 17:16 utc | 57
Affidavit: McVeigh had high-level help
According to Oklahoma bombing conspirator, ranking officials were involved in the attack
Oklahoma City bombing conspirator Terry Nichols says a high-ranking FBI official “apparently” was directing Timothy McVeigh in the plot to blow up a government building and might have changed the original target of the attack, according to a new affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Utah.
…
McVeigh told him he was recruited for undercover missions while serving in the military, according to Nichols. He says he learned sometime in 1995 that there had been a change in bombing target and that McVeigh was upset by that.
“There, in what I believe was an accidental slip of the tongue, McVeigh revealed the identity of a high-ranking FBI official who was apparently directing McVeigh in the bomb plot,” Nichols says in the affidavit.
Nichols also says that McVeigh threatened him and his family to force him to rob Roger Moore, an Arkansas gun dealer, of weapons and explosives. He later learned the robbery was staged so Moore, who was in on the phony heist, could deny any knowledge of the bombing plot if the stolen items were traced back to him, Nichols claims.
He adds that Moore allegedly told his attorney that he would not be prosecuted in connection with the bombing because he was a “protected witness.”
Moore could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
In addition, Nichols says McVeigh must have had help building the bomb. The device he and McVeigh built the day before the bombing did not resemble the one that ultimately was used, Nichols says, and “displayed a level of expertise and sophistication” that neither man had.
Posted by: annie | Feb 21 2007 17:18 utc | 58
—–BEGIN PGP MESSAGE—–
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3Sok7+diH2McVXwfHnbhxX7tW6KH
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nuff said…
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 21 2007 18:50 utc | 59
Annie,
as Noirette wrote they are closing the borders on Iraq. I would guess best way to get out would be to go by car through backroads to a neighbouring state especially if she has friends or family there.
Because the main problem is not getting to stay in a foreign country it is getting there at all. At least that is the case with the european countries. Through transporter responsibility the airlines has been charged with keeping refugees out, so that they never arrive and can claim refugee status.
Through what I read in the papers many iraqis try to flee across Turkey.
I hope your friend makes it. I hope they all do.
Posted by: a swedish kind of death | Feb 21 2007 21:06 utc | 60
Maybe We Deserve to Be Ripped Off By Bush’s Billionaires
While America obsessed about Brittany’s shaved head, Bush offered a budget that offers $32.7 billion in tax cuts to the Wal-Mart family alone, while cutting $28 billion from Medicaid.
…
a guy I know who works in the office of Senator Bernie Sanders sent me an email. He was trying very hard to get news organizations interested in some research his office had done about George Bush’s proposed 2008 budget, which was unveiled two weeks ago and received relatively little press, mainly because of the controversy over the Iraq war resolution. All the same, the Bush budget is an amazing document. It would be hard to imagine a document that more clearly articulates the priorities of our current political elite.
…
Sanders’s office came up with some interesting numbers here. If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family — the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune — would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the next ten years.
The proposed reductions to Medicaid over the same time frame? $28 billion.
…
Some other notable estimate estate tax breaks, versus corresponding cuts:
* Cox family (Cox cable TV) receives $9.7 billion tax break while education would get $1.5 billion in cuts
* Nordstrom family (Nordstrom dept. stores) receives $826.5 million tax break while Community Service Block Grants would be eliminated, a $630 million cut
* Ernest Gallo family (shitty wines) receives a $468.4 million cut while LIHEAP (heating oil to poor) would get a $420 million cut
And so on and so on. Sanders additionally pointed out that the family of former Exxon/Mobil CEO Lee Raymond, who received a $400 million retirement package, would receive about $164 million in tax breaks.
Compare that to the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which Bush proposes be completely eliminated, at a savings of $108 million over ten years. The program sent one bag of groceries per month to 480,000 seniors, mothers and newborn children.
emptywheel has a good take on the last day in the Libby case: Madness! Madness! Madness!
But Fitzgerald wasn’t done with reappropriating Wells’ schtick. After doing a number of things with his rebuttal–finally establishing Valerie Wilson as a person, getting weedier than I have ever been, countering Jeffress’ “Perry Mason moment” with his own, accusing Cheney of obstructing justice–Fitzgerald returned to his explanation of why obstruction was so important. He wasn’t yelling, like Wells had done. Rather, he used the same barely controlled outrage voice he used in the press conference where he announced charges against Libby. His voice cracked, as it had before.
If Libby gets a guilty verdict, may Fitzgerald be able to “flip” him to get a better case on Cheney for obstruction of justice?
Or would Libby just outwait the case up to his pardon? If he does has Fitzgerald enough to go after Cheney? The evidence certainly points to such a case.
nothing good will come from this:
Blackwater brass forms intelligence company
Cofer Black, vice chairman of Blackwater USA, announced Tuesday the formation of a new CIA-type private company to provide intelligence services to commercial clients.
The executive roster for the new venture, Total Intelligence Solutions, is loaded with veterans of U.S. intelligence agencies, including two other Blackwater officials.
A spokeswoman for Total Intelligence said there is no corporate affiliation with Blackwater, the Moyock, N.C.-based private military company, but the new firm clearly has a Blackwater stamp.
…
Blackwater’s primary specialties are tactical training and security, but it is no stranger to the intelligence world. The 10-year-old company’s first security contract, awarded in 2002, was for a classified operation. In his book “Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror,” author Robert Young Pelton identified the company’s client as the CIA.
…
“Total Intel brings the intelligence gathering methodology and analytical skills traditionally honed by CIA operatives directly to the board room,” Black said in a statement Tuesday. “With a service like this, CEOs and their security personnel will be able to respond to threats quickly and confidently – whether it’s determining which city is safest to open a new plant in or working to keep employees out of harm’s way after a terrorist attack.”
Surge grows. Little noticed, little reported. The announcement was made in the weekend news dump on Friday.
1000 more troops – a whole extra Command structure – will be “surged” to Iraq next month.
The commanding general of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division and his headquarters of 1,000 troops will deploy to Iraq next month to take command of U.S. forces in southern Baghdad. In Iraq, Lynch will command a task force of about 20,000 troops in southern Baghdad. He said his 3rd Infantry headquarters has orders to deploy by March 25.
In late January Salon had an article about US hawks on Iraq, including AEI’s Kagan, who were criticizing Bush’s “surge” plan because it would mingle U.S. troops with Iraqi forces under Iraqi command.
“Any kind of military operation — but especially counterinsurgency — only succeeds when there is a high degree of unity of command,” said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University, who advised the Iraq Study Group. “You want to have very clear, smooth and defined lines of control. If you have dual forms of command, you have, at the start, introduced an undesirable complication. You can only have one chef stirring the pot.”
So already there seems to be confusion about where Iraqi command leaves off and US command will start. Now there is another US command group in Baghdad.
Is anyone keeping track of this who can explain how all these command groups work together? What would be Lynch’s relationship to Petraeus, for example?
Does this make any sense to someone? On Democracy Now a retired AF Col speculated that this command might be intended to command a build up of US troops next to Iran’s border, not to invade but to prevent Iranian troops crossing into Iraq, in the event of some future provocation.
With Blair reducing Brit forces, and Denmark pulling out, it gets harder to believe that US really would launch any attack on Iran. US will have Iraqi troops guarding their backs and their supply lines in the south.
Posted by: small coke | Feb 22 2007 4:13 utc | 64
Be Afraid, Very Afraid, Department
TerroristWarning.Com
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To receive terrorist warnings to your email address sign up here.
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Posted by: Rick | Feb 22 2007 4:14 utc | 65
I’ve been waiting to hear of “BlackStinkyWater forming “intel” Co.” – overthrowing govts. domestic & foreign, perhaps?
Posted by: jj | Feb 22 2007 6:08 utc | 66
IMPT post, Annie. So, Oklahoma City was a State Political Police operation as well. Art. notes that they couldn’t imagine why State would be involved. Easy. A Major anti-American bill was rammed through in it’s wake, an impt. precursor to post 911 Anti-Patriot Act, but I don’t know much more about it. I recall reading someone in “Justice Dept.” said it could only be passed after such a bombing. Warning…Fascist State Police At Work…
Posted by: jj | Feb 22 2007 6:21 utc | 67
Annie, jj, et al, can you say, “Western Goals Foundation“…?
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 22 2007 7:03 utc | 68
Yet, another dumpster dive at dkos…
Who Corrupted the GAO?
Sad to see such outstanding posts get no play. It garnered a mere 18 comments…and no recommends.
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Feb 22 2007 7:44 utc | 69
@small coke – Lynch would be under Petraeus command – could be for Iran or could not be …
—
National Guard May Undertake Iraq Duty Early
The Pentagon is planning to send more than 14,000 National Guard troops back to Iraq next year, shortening their time between deployments to meet the demands of President Bush’s buildup, Defense Department officials said Wednesday.
…
The unit from Oklahoma, a combat brigade with one battalion currently in Afghanistan, had not been scheduled to go back to Iraq until 2010, and brigades from the other three states not until 2009. Each brigade has about 3,500 soldiers.
…
He also noted that one of the brigade’s battalions that could deploy to Iraq next year was now in Afghanistan and was not scheduled to return until April, which would leave its soldiers with just over a year at home before having to leave for Iraq in June 2008. He said discussions were under way with top Army officials about providing necessary equipment and extra compensation for reservists in the Oklahoma Guard’s 45th Brigade Combat Team if the unit was sent back to Iraq two years earlier than planned.
Capt. Christopher Heathscott, a spokesman for the Arkansas National Guard, said the state’s 39th Brigade Combat Team was 600 rifles short for its 3,500 soldiers and also lacked its full arsenal of mortars and howitzers.
Scarping the bottom …
@ Unca #69 (dude)
Sad to see such outstanding posts get no play. It garnered a mere 18 comments…and no recommends.
Badger was here lamenting the same kind of thing recently (viz. worthwhile posts seemingly garner no interest). I can only say that it is still worthwhile to write and post… and pray somebody somewhere still gives a rat’s backside. Matter of faith in the right thing and not being plowed under by the hopelessness of it all (as was Billmon’s wont… and mine as well).
As for the GAO…
I hinted as an aside in my #58 that government numbers are becoming increasingly suspect. The only thing that surprises me is that it took so long for the GAO in particular to show signs of it.
Posted by: Monolycus | Feb 22 2007 8:26 utc | 71
Calamari anyone:
New Zealand fishermen land massive squid
New Zealand fishermen may have caught the largest Colossal squid ever found — weighing around 450kg (992 pounds) and with rings the size of tires.
The adult Colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) was caught by fishermen long lining for toothfish in deep ocean off Antarctica, New Zealand Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton said on Thursday in announcing the catch.
…
Local media said early estimates put the squid at 10 meters (30 feet) in length and weighing 450 kg (992 pounds) — 150 kg (330 pounds) heavier than the next biggest specimen found.
Thanks for your dumpster diving, Uncle. Not terribly surprising that no one commented, as kos – as well as billmon, of course – are charter members of the Destroy America Now Club. I would expect that diaries opposing those policies would get one banned. After all, Unca Georgie ain’t bankrolling nothin’ that gets in the way of his Plundering.
Speaking of which, anyone who understands that importance of strengthening organized labor in America, will be delighted to know that Soros is helping gut the autoworkers, by investing $200M, for starters, in a goddamn chinese car co. planning to flood our market w/their crap. link
Listening to the radio. A trucker just called in & said that they are having a Mandatory meeting w/”Homeland Security” dept. Monday. They will all be REQUIRED to become spies, reporting anything they see on the highways. …
Posted by: jj | Feb 22 2007 9:55 utc | 73
Sunni-Shiite conflict & revenge, or just the standard filth of nowomansland? Maliki, shiite, fires sunni who called for investigation of rape victim
Posted by: jj | Feb 22 2007 10:20 utc | 74
Bill Lind is 100% right here: A Swedish Lesson
Defining military intelligence as “correction from below” also carries the culture of a Third Generation military over into the intelligence process. Just as another of those words that speak volumes, Auftragstaktik, builds tactics on the understanding that the levels of command nearest to the fight have the clearest tactical picture, so underrättelser builds military intelligence on the same understanding. The two work hand-in-glove: junior leaders act on the basis of what they see, not detailed orders from remote headquarters, and they simultaneously feed what they see into an intelligence process that is eager for their corrections. Neither action eliminates uncertainty in war, because nothing can, but both speed adaptation to it, which is the goal in maneuver warfare.
We could, of course, learn from the Swedes and make “correction from below” definitional to our intelligence process, just as we could learn from the Germans and adopt mission order tactics instead of issuing detailed, controlling orders. But when you are the self-proclaimed “greatest military in all of history,” why should you learn from anyone else? Just as blindness leads to hubris, so hubris leads inevitably to blindness.
Mission creep?
Doesn’t it seem like just yesterday that all military agreed that no more troops were needed in Iraq? As the preznit assured us,” if the generals wanted them, we would send them.”
The U.S. general commanding the security crackdown in Baghdad said Friday that he has asked for reinforcements beyond the 17,000 U.S. combat troops already committed to the Iraqi capital as part of President Bush’s emergency build-up.
Army Maj. Gen. Joseph Fil, commanding general of the 1st Cavalry Division based at Fort Hood, told a Pentagon news conference that he has requested additional forces to provide attack helicopters and combat engineers to bolster efforts to regain control of the capital city of 5 million.
Fil’s request, if approved, could boost the U.S. buildup planned for Baghdad by more than 7,500 soldiers — or about a 44 percent increase.
Asked about Fil’s request for more troops, Army Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros, a Pentagon spokesman, noted that Defense Department officials on Jan. 11, the day after Bush announced his escalation plan, had cited the likelihood of additional troop deployments.
“Other combat-support and combat-service support units may also be deployed as necessary once new requirements are assessed,” Ballesteros said.
link
And per #64
Commanders also were “looking hard” at bringing another Army division headquarters into the Baghdad region to command security operations in the city’s suburbs, Fil said.
Posted by: small coke | Feb 22 2007 15:21 utc | 76