Pope Stops Short of Apology to Muslims

Pope Stops Short of Apology to Muslims - Forbes.com: "Pope Benedict XVI 'sincerely regrets' offending Muslims with his reference to an obscure medieval text that characterizes some of the teachings of Islam's founder as 'evil and inhuman,' the Vatican said Saturday.

But the statement stopped short of the apology demanded by Islamic leaders around the globe, and anger among Muslims remained intense. Palestinians attacked five churches in the West Bank and Gaza over the pope's remarks Tuesday in a speech to university professors in his native Germany. "

(Via Google News.)

Jersey hustler

Jersey hustler: "But now, in the aftermath of 'The Path to 9/11' -- the heavily fictionalized and politically distorted docudrama that he served as a paid advisor for and publicly defended -- it is becoming sadly obvious that his integrity was overrated. For money and a moment of Hollywood glitz, he sold out what should have been the crowning achievement of a career in public service.

...

"While Kean also claimed that he had corrected inaccuracies during filming, with the full cooperation of the producers, he took the opportunity during the panel discussion to reiterate the film's central falsehood. 'I mean, we had chances during the Clinton administration to actually get [Osama] bin Laden!' Kean exclaimed. 'I mean we had him in our sights, and we didn't pull the trigger. We didn't pull the trigger. The CIA had him a number of times and didn't pull the trigger.'

Nowhere does the 9/11 Commission report make that bald assertion -- and as the controversy over the film escalated, Kean backed away from his confident assertions of 'accuracy.' In a conference call with journalists the week that the movie aired, he admitted that portions of the script had been based on sources other than the commission's report -- which meant that he and the producers had misled the public and the press from the beginning."

(Via Salon.)

Lawyer Says FCC Ordered Study Destroyed

Lawyer Says FCC Ordered Study Destroyed: "So Former Chairman Michael Powell commissions a study to prove that allowing corporations to own multiple stations in regions doesn’t actually hurt the public’s interest in quality or quantity of local news information and the study shows the exact opposite: local media ownership DOES give the consumer greater and more relevant local news.

What’s a Bush appointee to do?

Bury the report in a drawer and order all the work product to be destroyed–destroyed, not shoved in a vault, not filed in some "mislabeled" folder to be shuffled in some bureaucratic hell. Then go ahead and approve more corporation ownership of local stations, thereby working against the public interest of which they are charged. Current Chairman Kevin Martin claims he was unaware of the report in his letter to Barbara Boxer."

(Via Crooks and Liars.)

Lawmaker Admits He Took Illegal Gifts

Lawmaker Admits He Took Illegal Gifts: "Representative Bob Ney of Ohio admitted Friday that he had effectively put his office up for sale to corrupt Washington lobbyists and a foreign businessman in exchange for illegal gifts that included lavish overseas trips, the use of skyboxes at sports arenas in the Washington area and thousands of dollars worth of gambling chips from London casinos.

In a plea agreement announced by the Justice Department, Mr. Ney, a six-term Republican who once seemed poised to rise far in the House leadership, admitted to a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy and to making false statements about the gifts."

(Via NY Times.)

Gen. Powell opposes Bush tribunals

Gen. Powell opposes Bush tribunals : "Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has gotten some high-powered support for his opposition to the Bush administration’s proposals on how to conduct military tribunals of detainees captured as part of the Global War on Terror.

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a retired four-star Army general and another retired four-star Army general, Gen. John W. Vessey, have sent McCain letters which the senator has kindly made public. Their sentiments echo a protest over the administration's approach to the Geneva Convention that a couple of dozen other retired senior officers such as Gen. John Shalikashvilli and Adm. Stanfield Turner have voiced in a letter this week to senators.

Download powellvessey_letters.pdf

Download generals_letter.pdf

In his letter, Powell says 'The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. To redefine Common Article 3 would add to those doubts. Furthermore it would put our own troops at risk.'"

(Via The Chicago Tribune.)

America the pathological

America the pathological: "the UN says the US is lying again about nuclear material in the near east. So what else is new?"

(Via Martini Republic.)

Pakistan Parliament condemns remarks

Pakistan Parliament condemns remarks: "ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Parliament on Friday passed unanimous resolutions against Pope Benedict XVI for his comments about Islam and called on him to retract the remarks.

Both the National Assembly and the Senate adopted unanimous resolutions condemning the Pope's remarks.

The National Assembly resolution said the "derogatory remarks" by the Pope had hurt Muslim sentiments across the world, could cause divisions between religions and violated the United Nations charter on human rights"

(Via Google News.)

No peacekeepers, no peace

No peacekeepers, no peace:
"The clock is ticking in Darfur.

The African Union's monitoring mission in the west Sudan region is cash-poor, ineffective and undermanned at 7,000 soldiers. The United Nations wants to take over peacekeeping duties when the monitoring mission's mandate expires at the end of September. Yet Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, has threatened to send his army to fight any U.N. troops in Darfur. If the African Union pulls out in two weeks, and no blue helmets take their place, there won't be any outsiders to witness, much less prevent, what is happening in Darfur, where a massive military offensive against the civilian population is under way.

Despite a high-profile peace agreement signed in May by the government in Khartoum and one of the rebel groups, the situation on the ground in Darfur has grown more dire. Tuesday, Jan Egeland, the U.N. humanitarian chief, told reporters that 'in many ways Darfur is in freefall at the moment,' with some areas simply too dangerous for humanitarian aid workers to provide relief. Thirteen aid workers have been killed in Darfur since the peace agreement was signed."

(Via Salon.)

Measuring the Collapse of Traditional States

Measuring the Collapse of Traditional States: "The latest World Bank study on failed and failing states (now called "fragile states") shows just how rapidly the global situation is deteriorating. As reported in the Washington Post by Karen DeYoung, the number of states that could provide logistical bases and ungoverned spaces for terrorists, transnational criminal organizations and other armed non-state groups has jumped from 17 in 2003 to 26 this year.

The growth of "black holes" and stateless regions is even more alarming when compared to a similar study done by the Bank in 1996, when only 11 states fell into the category of failed states."

(Via The Counterterrorism Blog.)

Bush: capturing bin Ladin “not a top priority use of American resources.”

Bush: capturing bin Ladin “not a top priority use of American resources.” :
"VIDEO: Bush tells Barnes that getting bin Ladin is “a low priority.”

Unbelieveable.

A week ago: “Bin Laden and his terrorist allies have made their intentions as clear as Lenin and Hitler before them. The question is: Will we listen?”"

(Via Martini Republic.)

US embassy: Assad allows attack, offer "protection" and aim at confusion

US embassy: Assad allows attack, offer "protection" and aim at confusion: "According to well informed Syrian sources, today's Terrorist attack against the US embassy in Damascus is one of the "Machiavellian" Assad operations. Let's remind ourselves that the Syrian regime's senior strategists and intelligence officers were trained by the sophisticated "intox" schools of the former Soviet's KGB. One of the main tactics of this old school, refined by Hafez Assad during his rule of Syria is based on the following concept: If the equation is to your disadvantage, create a new problem, offer to solve it, obtain recognition; and by that you'd change the equation."

(Via The Counterterrorism Blog.)

NSA Bill "Major Disaster," Mainstream Civil Lib Group

NSA Bill "Major Disaster," Mainstream Civil Lib Group : "What started out as Senator Specter wanting to rein in the president's program has turned on its head and is now not just a legislative ratification of the program, but an expansion of warrantless wiretapping of Americans.

It would allow the NSA to turn its vacuum cleaners on even domestic phone calls and emails of citizens.

And -- they do all of this in Alice-in-Wonderland fashion by defining all kinds of categories of surveillance to be not surveillance.

The bill is basically saying that any time you are targeting a foreigner, even if you are collecting calls to us citizens, that's not surveillance.

And anytime you are targeting nobody, but scooping up vast quantities of calls, that's not surveillance.

This bill goes light years or miles beyond the Patriot Act."

Emphasis Mine

(Via a DefenseTech.)

How We Let Osama Get Away

Defense Tech: How We Let Osama Get Away: "Five years ago tomorrow, three thousand people were killed in my home town. And the bastards who masterminded this mass murder have gotten away with it, thanks in part to the actions of our government and its allies. Sure, hunting for a single, clever man in a vast world is an extremely difficult task. It gets even harder, when there's anything less than 100% commitment and focus to catching him.

By now, you probably know that Pakistan has signed a 'truce' with the militants who many believe are harboring bin Laden. You know that the CIA has shut down its Osama-hunting shop. But what you may not know -- and what the Washington Post reveals today -- is that there hasn't been a 'credible lead' on the Al-Qaeda chieftain's whereabouts in 'more than two years. Nothing from the vast U.S. intelligence world -- no tips from informants, no snippets from electronic intercepts, no points on any satellite image -- has led them anywhere near the al-Qaeda leader.'"

(Via a DefenseTech.)

Bush commits MiniTruth to Iraq War effort

Bush commits MiniTruth to Iraq War effort: "This is emblematic of the Bush approach: the fact that policies are failing isn’t seen as a problem, it’s the fact that the failing policies are perceived as failing. They work to fix the perception, not the problem. Rethinking a foundering strategy is beyond them, but staging a photo-op or issuing faked statistics in press releases to cover up the fact that a strategy is foundering comes naturally."

(Via Martini Republic.)

More deceit from Bush’s tortured speech

More deceit from Bush’s tortured speech : "Second, the idea that Abu Zubaydah’s interrogation tipped off the U.S. to the existence of Ramzi bin Al Shibh is just an outright lie. A Nexis search for “Ramzi Binalshibh” between September 11, 2001 and March 1, 2002–the U.S. captured Abu Zubaydah in March 2002–turns up 26 hits for The Washington Post alone. Everyone involved in counterterrorism knew who bin Al Shibh was. Now-retired FBI Al Qaeda hunter Dennis Lormel told Congress who Ramzi bin Al Shibh was in February 2002. Abu Zubaydah getting waterboarded and spouting bin Al Shibh’s name did not tell us anything we did not already know."

Emphasis Mine

(Via Martini Republic.)