The Leaf Chronicle - www.theleafchronicle.com - Clarksville, TN: "U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr., D-Tenn., called for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's resignation and urged President Bush to replace him with former Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell.

Ford said if he were President Bush, 'I would do whatever I could to persuade Powell to take the (position).'"

(Via AlterNet.)

Rumsfeld Faces Growing Revolt by Retired Generals - New York Times: "An expanding group of influential former military officers is calling for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation in a public rebellion that has become a significant challenge to the Pentagon's civilian leadership.

The uproar is significant because for the first time the criticism of Mr. Rumsfeld is coming from some recently retired generals who were involved in planning or execution of Iraq policy.

Though their critiques differ in some respects, a common thread is that Mr. Rumsfeld's assertive style has angered many in the uniformed services as he has sought to establish more clear-cut civilian control over the Pentagon and at times involved himself in the details of war-planning more than his predecessors.

The outcry against Mr. Rumsfeld also appears to be part of a coalescing of concerns among military officers that, three years into the Iraq war, the effort is taking a mounting toll on the armed forces, with little sign that the American troops will be able to withdraw in large numbers anytime soon."

(Via NY Times.)

Report: US becomes a state sponsor of terrorist groups: "In Raw Story today, a report that the Pentagon has unleashed the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), an exile Iranian organizationpreviously identified as a ‘foreign terrorist organization’ by our State Department in its annual report on terrorism.*

The Pentagon is bypassing official US intelligence channels and turning to a dangerous and unruly cast of characters in order to create strife in Iran in preparation for any possible attack, former and current intelligence officials say.

...

The MEK, in fact, was the only identified terrorist group with substantial operations on soil controlled by Saddam’s regime. Other terrorist camps were located in the Kurdish-controlled north. From page 116 of the State Department’s 2002 report:

Description
The MEK philosophy mixes Marxism and Islam. Formed in the 1960s, the organization was expelled from Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and its primary support now comes from the Iraqi regime. The MEK’s history is studded with anti-Western attacks as well as terrorist attacks on the interests of the clerical regime in Iran and abroad. The MEK now advocates a secular Iranian regime.

Activities
The worldwide campaign against the Iranian Government stresses propaganda and occasionally uses terrorist violence. During the 1970s, the MEK killed US military personnel and US civilians working on defense projects in Tehran and supported the takeover in 1979 of the US Embassy in Tehran."

(Via Martini Republic.)

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Gingrich Criticizes Bush, Aids Enemy: "Newt Gingrich's sudden criticism of the administration's actions in Iraq received a fair amount of attention, but as part of that speech, Gingrich also criticized Bush's illegal NSA eavesdropping. The New York Sun reported"

...

"The greatest evil of the last five years isn't that our government pursued disastrous and illegal policies, it's that the administration and its supporters attempted to immunize themselves from criticism for those actions, thus depriving our democracy of its greatest strength. To watch the people responsible for that dissent-quashing now stand up and voice the very criticisms they've long equated with treason is far too infuriating to celebrate. It is important to ensure that the people responsible for the indescribable mess our country is in on so many levels not be allowed to extricate themselves from responsibility. There has been one political faction which has run every part of our country for the last five years and they are responsible for everything that has happened. We know who they are and it is critically important that they not be permitted to play-act as a legitimate opposition."

(Via AlterNet.)

AlterNet: War on Iraq: Now He Tells Us: "On Monday, Colin Powell said he never believed that Iraq posed an imminent threat -- and that Bush followed Cheney's misleading advice instead.

The president played the scoundrel -- even the best of his minions went along with the lies -- and when a former ambassador dared to tell the truth, the White House initiated what Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald calls 'a plan to discredit, punish or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson.' That is the important story line.

If not for the whistle-blower, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, President Bush's falsehoods about the Iraq nuclear threat likely would never have been exposed."

(Via AlterNet.)

Salon.com | News Wires: "Fossils have long provided snapshots of the human family tree, but a new find in Africa gives scientists a kind of mini home movie showing man's primal development.

Because the 4.2-million-year-old fossil is from the same human ancestral hot spot in Ethiopia as remains from seven other human-like species, scientists can now fill in the gaps for the most complete evolutionary chain so far.

'We just found the chain of evolution, the continuity through time,' said Ethiopian anthropologist Berhane Asfaw, co-author of the study being reported Thursday in the journal Nature. 'One form evolved to another. This is evidence of evolution in one place through time.'"

(Via Salon.)

Schneier on Security: Air Force One Security Leak: "Last week the San Francisco Chronicle broke the story that Air Force One's defenses were exposed on a public Internet site:

Thus, the Air Force reacted with alarm last week after The Chronicle told the Secret Service that a government document containing specific information about the anti-missile defenses on Air Force One and detailed interior maps of the two planes -- including the location of Secret Service agents within the planes -- was posted on the Web site of an Air Force base.

The document also shows the location where a terrorist armed with a high-caliber sniper rifle could detonate the tanks that supply oxygen to Air Force One's medical facility."

(Via Schneier on Security.)

Monstrous Bush Lie for April 10, 2006: "‘I knew exactly what was going to happen when I committed these troops into harm’s way.’

Answer to question about Iraq at Johns Hopkins University, April 10 2006."

(Via Martini Republic.)

AlterNet: Blogs: The Mix: Forgers named, backstory still murky: "We have a sense of who wrote the Niger documents, and not much else.

The London Times reports that it was Maiga Zakariaou and Laura Montini who did it. That takes care of that, doesn't it? 'That' being the mystery of who wrote the infamous and forged Niger documents Bush used to argue that we should reinvade Iraq"

(Via AlterNet.)

Boing Boing: NPR "Xeni Tech": surveillance drones over LA skies: "UAVs have long been used by American military forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere -- but now, law enforcement agencies back home are exploring uses here in the US. In a recent House hearing, police agencies and private entities argued for more widespread use, and the FAA has launched a new office for drone-related regulations.

...

When the craft reached about 250 feet above ground, we couldn't hear it, and could barely see it. On board the SkySeer's four-pound body is a GPS tracking system and tiny cameras that shoot digital video, then send it wirelessly back to the ground."

(Via BoingBoing.)

AlterNet: Blogs: PEEK: Exclusive: Gitmo lawyer interviewed: "Denbaux is the co-author of two stunning reports published earlier this year. These reports are the first detailed analysis of data recently made public by the government on the Guantanamo Bay detainees. These data included the government's accusations against the detainee and the official account of the circumstances of his capture. It was Denbaux and his colleagues who discovered that 55% of the detainees held at Gitmo hadn't committed any hostile acts against the USA, by the government's own estimation."

(Via AlterNet.)