Back in mid May I had some suspicion around the Comey testimony. While Deputy Attorney General JamesComey rushed to the hospital where Gonzales and Card were trying to convince Ashcroft to sign off a special program he also alarmed FBI director Mueller. Later on Mueller like Comey and some 30 other folks threatened to resign over the White House’s handling of the program.

As the original eavesdropping program was about foreign calls to the U.S., not domestic ones, I asked Why Was FBI Director Mueller Involved?

I suggested that a different, so far unknown program was involved. Now via Think Progress there is some confirmation.

Last week Steven Bradbury, the principal deputy assistant attorney general and the head of the Office of Legal Counsel testified before a Congress sub-committee:

REP. WATT: I’m not asking you to make anything public. I’m asking you, does that mean that the former attorney general had some reservations about — legal reservations about some aspects of the program, Mr. Bradbury?

MR. BRADBURY: Well, all I’ll say is what the attorney general has said, which is that disagreements arose, disagreements were addressed and resolved; however, those disagreements did not — were not about the particular activities that the president has publicly described, that we have termed the Terrorist Surveillance Program.

The disagreement happened in March 2004, the start of the election season. It was about some illegal domestic program and the White House was heavily involved.

My best guess is that this program was digging up dirt about political oppenents.

There is no proof for this yet, but usually some D.C. insider will spill the beans on stuff like this one or the other day.

Stay tuned …

Annals of selective data:

Neocon "surge" architect Fred Kagan writes an OpEd in the LA Times about Al-Anbar province in western Iraq: Al Qaeda’s new enemy — Iraqis

Violence in the provincial capital has dropped precipitately, from 108 deaths a week in mid-February to seven in the second week of May.

We are now in the second week of June.  Doesn’t Kagan have more current numbers than the second week of May? Or is he using selective data to support his argument?

Lets google a bit:

Cont. reading: Kagan’s Selective Data

Al-Sadr sat down for an hour long interview with the state-operated Iraqi television, McClatchy reports.

He spoke against sectarian strife and against fundamentalist Sunni forces. While he agrees to good relations with Iraq’s neighbors, he is against any intervention from Iran or the Arab states.

The Maliki government is unwilling or uncapable to do its job, he says. The culprit of the sorry state of Iraq and its people is, in his view, the U.S. occupation. 

Al-Sadr didn’t argue to attack U.S. forces. He didn’t call "Death to America". He didn’t threaten to attack the U.S. homeland. He is, or at least he consistently seems to be,  a nationalist who doesn’t like to see his country turning into a dump.

But is he "anti-American"?

McClatchy seems to think so:

The tone of his statements weren’t surprising. Al-Sadr has been consistently anti-American since his Mahdi Army militia first rebelled against the U.S. presence in 2004.

Is it now "anti-American" to argue against the occupation of Iraq by U.S. troops? Is it "anti-American" to work in one’s national interest? Is it "anti-American" to call for an end of the occupation?

If that is the case, about half of all U.S. nationals are "anti-American".

So what is McClatchy suggesting here?

When Bush announced plans to open missile defense sites in Poland and Chenya, he gave Russia the creeps.

The U.S. said those silo-bunkered rockets would be against an Iranian threat. Later it was added that they would protect Europe.

But for some curious reasons Russians fear that these harmless defense missiles could endanger them.

Now Putin came up with an interesting idea.

Why not put these rockets into Azerbaijan? That country is a northern neighbor of Iran. From there, radar surveillance of Iranian missile launches and defense measures against any long range Iranian missiles would be easy to do.

Putin has already cleared the idea with the president of Azerbaijan and there is even a radar site already available on a Russian base. His troops would help to put everything else in place and would make sure that any U.S. personal would be kept well.

"What is not to love with that idea George?"

Cont. reading: Putin’s Missile Defense Joke

A short update to the recent judgement against the Federal Communication Commission.

The FCC wanted to fine broadcasters for the casual use of words like "fuck" and "shit" within their programs. The court cited Bush’s and Cheney’s public use of such words and declared the FCC ruling illegal.

Now FCC Chairman Kevin Martin released a public statement (pdf) on the decision:

Today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said the use of the words “fuck” and “shit” by Cher and Nicole Richie was not indecent. 

I completely disagree with the Court’s ruling and am disappointed for American families.  I find it hard to believe that the New York court would tell American families that “shit” and “fuck” are fine to say on broadcast television during the hours when children are most likely to be in the audience.
…

In total the FCC statement includes the word "fuck" six times and "shit" four times. It is publicly available on the FCC website during the hours when children are most likely to surf the Internets. It continues:

If we can’t restrict the use of the words “fuck” and “shit” during prime time, Hollywood will be able to say anything they want, whenever they want.

Imagine that, people being able to say anything they want, whenever they want. We can’t have that.

Unless such people are heading the administration or the FCC.

Several thousand Turkish troops crossed into northern
Iraq early Wednesday to chase Kurdish guerrillas who operate from bases there, Turkish security officials told The Associated Press.

link

Even though the report says that the Turkish move is "limited", the Iraqi Kurds will support their PKK brothers who for decades fight in eastern Turkey and hide in north Iraq.

I do expect this to escalate over the next weeks.

Who ever claimed that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, is working in the interest of his people will have to reconsider.

In blantent hypocrisy Abbas today expressed his deep fear that the Palestinians are on the verge of civil war:

"Regarding our internal situation, what concerns us all is the chaos, and more specifically, being on the verge of civil war," Abbas said in a televised speech ..
…

He added that he has spent hundreds of negotiating hours trying to halt the bloodshed because the internal fighting is as bad as, or even worse than, the occupation.

Hamas did win the last election against Abbas’ Fatah. Since then Abbas is doing everything he can to undermine a Hamas administration.

Cont. reading: Hypocrite Mahmoud Abbas

News & views …

Please comment.

During the last month month U.S. media was filled with damning reports and comments on Hugo Chávez’s move not to renew the license of RCTV. The Venzuelan TV station had supported the illegal, CIA backed coup against the elected President in 2002.

Congress member Tom Lantos (D-Calif) opined in the Miami Herald:

I urge regional leaders such as Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and others to galvanize a single voice to echo the sentiments already issued by Chile’s Senate, which expressed its ”strong rejection” of the plan to squash RCTV. Keeping quiet on this matter is a vote against independent thought in Venezuela and throughout the region. It is a vote against the history of the Americas.

The time for silence is over.

We will watch with amazement now as the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs will look at his clock and recognize that the time of silence is over. He will now fight for independent thought in Pakistan. He will use Congress’ power of the purse to immediately block billions of dollars of U.S. aid used to prop up the military dictatorship of Pervez Musharraf.

After all, over the weekend Pervez Musharraf shut down not one but all critical TV stations in Pakistan:

President Pervez Musharraf has cracked down on Pakistan’s television networks in a move against growing calls for a return to democracy. Several stations were taken off the air at the weekend and yesterday Gen Musharraf introduced emergency legislation providing for stiff fines and the closure of channels deemed to have broken the law.

Brace yourself for a huge storm of outrage throughout the liberal U.S. media and editorial calls for Musharraf’s ouster.

Or maybe not.

If the asshole suckers of the Cheney administration can spew stinking shit, the teevee can do so too:

Reversing decades of a more lenient policy, the [Federal Communications Commission] had found that the mere utterance of certain words implied that sexual or excretory acts were carried out and therefore violated the indecency rules.

But the judges said vulgar words are just as often used out of frustration or excitement, and not to convey any broader obscene meaning. “In recent times even the top leaders of our government have used variants of these expletives in a manner that no reasonable person would believe referenced sexual or excretory organs or activities.”

Adopting an argument made by lawyers for NBC, the judges then cited examples in which Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney had used the same language that would be penalized under the policy. Mr. Bush was caught on videotape last July using a common vulgarity that the commission finds objectionable in a conversation with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain. Three years ago, Mr. Cheney was widely reported to have muttered an angry obscene version of “get lost” to Senator Patrick Leahy on the floor of the United States Senate.

The wankers at the F.C.C. will appeal the fuckin’ decision.

It always was inherent injustice to classify those who fought the U.S. troops in Afghanistan as something else than prisoner of wars or simple criminal civilians under the Geneva convention.

To cover up that basic injustice a pseudo-legal system was developed around military tribunal. The U.S. Supreme Court declared that system to be illegal.

The U.S. military came up with a new system legislated by Congress in the Military Commissions Act. That new system today received a probably letal blow.

Under the new act, the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay have to be classified by some Combatant Status Review Tribunals, a military panel. The panel has found some prisoners to be "enemy combatants." These are to be arrained in a court of military commissions.

Today the case of the now 20 year old Canadian Omar Khadr was on trial. After five minutes, the judge threw the case out. According to the law only "alien unlawful enemy combatant" can be judged by the court.

Cont. reading: Once Illegal, Always Illegal

The NYT reports on the progress of the "surge":

The American assessment, completed in late May, found that American and Iraqi forces were able to “protect the population” and “maintain physical influence over” only 146 of the 457 Baghdad neighborhoods.

In the remaining 311 neighborhoods, troops have either not begun operations aimed at rooting out insurgents or still face “resistance,” according to the one-page assessment, which was provided to The New York Times and summarized reports from brigade and battalion commanders in Baghdad.

The U.S. is only able to hold a third of Baghdad. But the NYT gives some false hope:

Cont. reading: Iraq Outlook

Terror plot tops 9/11
Plot to blow up JFK airport thwarted
Foiled Terror Plot Could Have Caused Incredible Damage

The Alleged Plan to Bomb JFk, i.e. to blow up some fuel pipes or depots, fits with the Miami 7 plot to blow up the Sears Towers and the ‘mist on a plane’ alleged attempt to blow up planes with some mystic liquid explosives.

In all cases the alleged plot was technically not feasable. The plotters lacked the knowledge needed to harm their alleged target. They didn’t have the materials needed.

In the first two cases longterm sting operations were ongoing and in the third case the people in question had been under surveillance for over a year.

In all cases the people in question were a bit dumb and deranged and none of them had any connection to proven terror cells. All plots were simply duds.

But like usualy the administration has the media jump up and down. Page 1 stories in major Sunday papers and wall to wall coverage in the cable news.

Could journalists please start to think before reporting such propaganda?

Mohamed ElBaradei is acting quite undiplomatic to stop the people who want to bomb Iran.

"I wake every morning and see 100 Iraqis innocent civilians are dying," he said. "I have no brief other than to make sure we don’t go into another war or that we go crazy into killing each other. You do not want to give additional argument to new crazies who say ‘let’s go and bomb Iran.’"

But for "the crazies" Iran is only small change. The real perceived enemies, the last big holdouts against a global empires are Russia and China.

They are the targets "the crazies" are really yearning for. In a well sourced piece in the Congressional Quarterly Jeff Stein writes:

The same top Bush administration neoconservatives who leap-frogged Washington’s foreign policy establishment to topple Saddam Hussein nearly pulled off a similar coup in U.S.-China relations—creating the potential of a nuclear war over Taiwan, a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell says.

[…]

“The Defense Department, with Feith, Cambone, Wolfowitz [and] Rumsfeld, was dispatching a person to Taiwan every week, essentially to tell the Taiwanese that the alliance was back on,” Wilkerson said, referring to pre-1970s military and diplomatic relations, “essentially to tell Chen Shui-bian, whose entire power in Taiwan rested on the independence movement, that independence was a good thing.”

[…]

The independence issue, agrees China experts Richard Bush and Michael O’Hanlon, is Beijing’s third rail—touch it and you die.

“Even if the odds are fairly low of miscalculation leading to war, and war then bringing in the United States, this scenario is scary,” they recently wrote in The Washington Times.

A Taiwanese declaration of independence, they said, “could result in the first major war between nuclear weapons states in history, with no guarantee it would be successfully concluded prior to a major escalation.”

"The crazies" certainly didn’t talk to Taiwan like this without some coverage from the vice-side of the White House.

Though some names have changed, the "new crazies" are the same as the old ones who started the war on Iraq. At least the top guy didn’t change at all. The big targets may be out of reach right now, but the crazies are still very active on the smaller one:

[S]enior officials at the State Department are expressing fury over reports that members of Vice President Cheney’s staff have told others that Mr. Cheney believes the diplomatic track with Iran is pointless, and is looking for ways to persuade Mr. Bush to confront Iran militarily.

[…]

In interviews, people who have spoken with Mr. Cheney’s staff have confirmed the broad outlines of the report, and said that some of the hawkish statements to outsiders were made by David Wurmser, a former Pentagon official who is now the principal deputy assistant to Mr. Cheney for national security affairs.

These people are reckless enough to get into war with China. They certainly have no qualms to engineer something, maybe anything, to get going on Iran.

No wonder ElBaradei is breaking etiquette to sound the alarm.