ls.pol

A new low for Giuliani

2007-04-27T14:25:00.001-04:00

A new low for Giuliani : It is not true, as Giuliani claimed in New Hampshire, that nobody understood the threat posed by al-Qaida before September 2001. The Clinton administration mobilized against the millennium plot in the months before December 1999, thwarted more than one al-Qaida conspiracy and spent billions of dollars on counterterrorist planning and programs. When Bill Clinton departed, he and his staff tried to warn President Bush and the incoming national security team to take the jihadists seriously, and were contemptuously ignored.

The new Republican administration disregarded many warnings, in fact, and neglected the threat until it was too late. That is a matter of public record.

(Via Salon.)

The Great Wall of Segregation...

2007-04-27T01:50:00.001-04:00

The Great Wall of Segregation...: "Which is the wall the current Iraqi government is building (with the support and guidance of the Americans). It's a wall that is intended to separate and isolate what is now considered the largest 'Sunni' area in Baghdad- let no one say the Americans are not building anything. According to plans the Iraqi puppets and Americans cooked up, it will 'protect' A'adhamiya, a residential/mercantile area that the current Iraqi government and their death squads couldn't empty of Sunnis.

The wall, of course, will protect no one. I sometimes wonder if this is how the concentration camps began in Europe. The Nazi government probably said, 'Oh look- we're just going to protect the Jews with this little wall here- it will be difficult for people to get into their special area to hurt them!' And yet, it will also be difficult to get out.

The Wall is the latest effort to further break Iraqi society apart. Promoting and supporting civil war isn't enough, apparently- Iraqis have generally proven to be more tenacious and tolerant than their mullahs, ayatollahs, and Vichy leaders. It's time for America to physically divide and conquer- like Berlin before the wall came down or Palestine today. This way, they can continue chasing Sunnis out of 'Shia areas' and Shia out of 'Sunni areas'."

(Via Baghdad Burning).

Sunday in the Market With McCain

2007-04-08T20:45:00.000-04:00

Sunday in the Market With McCain: JOHN McCAIN’S April Fools’ Day stroll through Baghdad’s Shorja market last weekend was instantly acclaimed as a classic political pratfall. Protected by more than a hundred American soldiers, three Black Hawk helicopters, two Apache gunships and a bulletproof vest, the senator extolled the “progress” and “good news” in Iraq. Befitting this loopy brand of comedy — reminiscent of “Wedding Crashers,” in which Mr. McCain gamely made a cameo appearance — the star had a crackerjack cast of supporting buffoons: Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who told reporters “I bought five rugs for five bucks!,” and Representative Mike Pence of Indiana, who likened the scene to “a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime.”

(Via The NY Times.)

The Army is ordering injured troops to go to Iraq

2007-03-11T19:34:00.000-04:00

The Army is ordering injured troops to go to Iraq: "This is not right," said Master Sgt. Ronald Jenkins, who has been ordered to Iraq even though he has a spine problem that doctors say would be damaged further by heavy Army protective gear. "This whole thing is about taking care of soldiers," he said angrily. "If you are fit to fight you are fit to fight. If you are not fit to fight, then you are not fit to fight."

As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq, a unit of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga., is deploying troops with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical records.

(Via Salon.)

700k Homeless Nationwide

2007-02-28T09:24:00.000-05:00

700k Homeless Nationwide: "A groundbreaking survey of homelessness being released today found that 704,000 people nationwide sought shelter at least once in a three-month period.

Families with children accounted for one-third of those seeking emergency shelter or transitional housing between February and April 2005, the most recent period studied, according to the report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The rest were individuals, mostly adult men. Nearly half were black.

The count covered only those seeking shelter, not people living on the street, so the total number of homeless people would be higher."

(Via Wonkette.)

Bush Meets With Anti-Semite Who Celebrated The Killing Of American Soldiers

2007-02-27T14:44:00.000-05:00

Bush Meets With Anti-Semite Who Celebrated The Killing Of American Soldiers : "President Bush reportedly met yesterday with Walid Jumblatt, a member of the Lebanese Parliament who has repeatedly called for U.S.-backed regime change in Syria.

...

Jumblatt's meeting with the White House is notable not just because of his radical foreign policy views. In the past, Jumblatt has cheered the deaths of American soldiers in Iraq, referred to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as 'oil-colored,' and claimed the real axis of evil is one of 'oil and Jews.'"

(Via Think Progress.)

Wal-Mart Names 9 Cities for Jobs Plan

2007-02-19T12:34:00.000-05:00

Salon.com | News Wires: "Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced Monday its plans for nine stores in areas in need of economic revitalization and said it will use those stores to help other businesses in the area develop.

...

'We're looking at working families that need us the most,' Menzer said. 'That's where we want to go.'

...

In April, Wal-Mart Chief Executive Lee Scott said the company planned to build 50 stores in areas with high crime or high unemployment. At the store on Chicago's west side and at the nine identified Monday, Wal-Mart will offer advertising to the other businesses in local newspapers and through the in-house audio feed in Wal-Mart stores.

At each of the 10 stores, five small businesses will be picked each quarter for the special treatment, the ultimate focus of which will be 'how to take advantage of having a Wal-Mart in your market,' Menzer said."

(Via Salon.)

Iraq War Plan Assumed Only 5,000 U.S. Troops Still There by December 2006

2007-02-15T16:46:00.000-05:00

Iraq War Plan Assumed Only 5,000 U.S. Troops Still There by December 2006: "The U.S. Central Command's war plan for invading Iraq postulated in August 2002 that the U.S. would have only 5,000 troops left in Iraq as of December 2006, according to the Command's PowerPoint briefing slides, which were obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and are posted on the Web today by the National Security Archive (www.nsarchive.org).

The PowerPoint slides, prepared by CentCom planners for Gen. Tommy Franks under code name POLO STEP, for briefings during 2002 for President Bush, the NSC, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, the JCS, and Franks' commanders, refer to the 'Phase IV' post-hostilities period as 'UNKNOWN' and 'months' in duration, but assume that U.S. forces would be almost completely 're-deployed' out of Iraq within 45 months of the invasion (i.e. December 2006).

'Completely unrealistic assumptions about a post-Saddam Iraq permeate these war plans,' said National Security Archive Executive Director Thomas Blanton. 'First, they assumed that a provisional government would be in place by 'D-Day', then that the Iraqis would stay in their garrisons and be reliable partners, and finally that the post-hostilities phase would be a matter of mere 'months'. All of these were delusions.'

...

POLO STEP was a coded compartment created during the Clinton administration to encompass covert Iraq and counter-terrorism plans and activities. In the mid-1990s, the compartment specifically included the targeting of Osama bin Laden. Following the September 11 attacks, CentCom, among other military and national security components, used the designation to cover planning for the war in Iraq. (Note 1)"

(Via The National Security Archives.)

Stop Him Before He Gets More Experience

2007-02-11T22:11:00.000-05:00

—

Stop Him Before He Gets More Experience: "The day after the resolution debacle, I spoke with Senator Obama about the war and about his candidacy. Since we talked by phone, I can't swear he was clean, but he was definitely articulate. He doesn't yet sound as completely scripted as his opponents — though some talking-point-itis is creeping in — and he isn't remotely defensive as he shrugs off the race contretemps du jour prompted by his White House run. Not that he's all sweetness and light. 'If the criterion is how long you've been in Washington, then we should just go ahead and assign Joe Biden or Chris Dodd the nomination,' he said. 'What people are looking for is judgment.'

What Mr. Obama did not have to say is that he had the judgment about Iraq that his rivals lacked. As an Illinois state senator with no access to intelligence reports, he recognized in October 2002 that administration claims of Saddam's 'imminent and direct threat to the United States' were hype and foresaw that an American occupation of Iraq would be of 'undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.' Nor can he be pilloried as soft on terrorism by the Cheney-Lieberman axis of neo-McCarthyism. 'I don't oppose all wars,' he said in the same Chicago speech. 'What I am opposed to is a dumb war.'"

(Via NY Times.)

Palestinians sign deal on unity government

2007-02-08T15:34:00.000-05:00

: "Rival Palestinian factions signed a deal to form a unity government at talks in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, Al Jazeera television reported.

The report said delegations from the Islamist group Hamas, which won the last Palestinian elections, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction would meet Saudi King Abdullah after the signing.

Earlier Palestinian ambassador to Saudi Arabia Jamal al-Shobaki told Reuters: 'We have agreed to form a national unity government. The agreement will be signed very soon.'"

(Via Google News.)

A Serious Problem with the Surge

2007-01-25T15:48:00.000-05:00

A Serious Problem with the Surge: "The Bush administration has finally turned its attention in a serious way to the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. It has, of course, been seriously deteriorating for some time and the attention is likely to be brief.

...

What has changed in the past 18 months? The Taliban have new weapons, vehicles, communications equipment with encryption, and outreach and propaganda facilities.

It is overdue to seriously rethink how to try to retake the initiative. Al Qaeda and the Taliban have gone from a defeated, dejected force under fire even from fellow travelers, to resilient heroes in the past two years.

Given the lack of security, people are helping the Taliban, if not for conviction, then out of fear that, ultimately, the Taliban will return, as they have in several provinces already."

(Via The Counterterrorism Blog.)

US soldier jailed for Iraq deaths

2007-01-25T15:45:00.000-05:00

US soldier jailed for Iraq deaths: "A US soldier has been jailed for 18 years after pleading guilty to murdering three Iraqi detainees.

...

The men initially told prosecutors that they shot the detainees because they were trying to escape.

But during his trial, Hunsaker testified that Sgt Girouard gave an order to kill them.

'He told us to cut the zip ties, tell them to run and shoot them. I went out and did just that,' he told the court."

(Via BBC News.)

Trouble for Ahmadinejad

2007-01-25T15:40:00.000-05:00

Trouble for Ahmadinejad: "Is there actually something promising happening in this whole Iran nuclear drama? A number of recent indications suggest that Iranian President Ahmadinejad is in trouble, and his uncompromising stance on the nuclear program is being questioned within Iran.

If Ahmadinejad continues to make his own mistakes, will the West have waited out, perhaps unintentionally, Iran' unyielding position on the nuclear program? These domestic rumblings suggest that even in pursuing a grand bargain with Iran (as has been suggested by several experts) it may be best to take it slow. A real negotiation could do without Ahmadinejad' ultimatums and exclamations.

First there was the election in December where Ahmadinejad supporters lost to more moderate candidates. Also in December, students protested during Ahmadinejad' speech at Amir Kabir University. Last week BBC reported that 50 Iranian MPs signed a letter calling for Ahmadinejad to answer questions on the nuclear program, and 150 members blamed him for economic problems."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Cheney Rejected Iranian Offer in 2003

2007-01-19T16:30:00.000-05:00

Cheney Rejected Iranian Offer in 2003: "Last night Colin Powell's former right-hand man, Colonel Larry Wilkerson, told BBC Newsnight that Vice President Cheney rejected a conciliatory offer from Iran back in the spring of 2003. Don't forget this isn't the first time the White House has turned down such an offer"

(Via Crooks and Liars.)

Republicans Halt Ethics Legislation

2007-01-18T19:46:00.000-05:00

Republicans Halt Ethics Legislation: "Senate Republicans scuttled broad legislation last night to curtail lobbyists' influence and tighten congressional ethics rules, refusing to let the bill pass without a vote on an unrelated measure that would give President Bush virtual line-item-veto power.

The bill could be brought back up later this year. Indeed, Democrats will try one last time today to break the impasse. But its unexpected collapse last night infuriated Democrats and the government watchdog groups that had been pushing it since the lobbying scandals that rocked the last Congress. Proponents charged that Republicans had used the spending-control measure as a ruse to thwart ethics rules they dared not defeat in a straight vote.

'It's as obvious as the sun coming up somewhere in this world that they tried to kill this bill,' a furious Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said last night in an interview. 'And all 21 Republican senators up for reelection are going to have to explain how they brought down the most significant reform ever to come before this Congress. They brought this baby down.'"

(Via AMERICAblog.)

Images of Hanging Make Hussein a Martyr to Many

2007-01-06T13:36:00.000-05:00

Images of Hanging Make Hussein a Martyr to Many: "In the week since Saddam Hussein was hanged in an execution steeped in sectarian overtones, his public image in the Arab world, formerly that of a convicted dictator, has undergone a resurgence of admiration and awe.

On the streets, in newspapers and over the Internet, Mr. Hussein has emerged as a Sunni Arab hero who stood calm and composed as his Shiite executioners tormented and abused him.

'No one will ever forget the way in which Saddam was executed,' President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt remarked in an interview with the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot published Friday and distributed by the official Egyptian news agency. 'They turned him into a martyr.'"

(Via NY Times.)

How ExxonMobil Funded Global Warming Skeptics

2007-01-05T13:56:00.000-05:00

How ExxonMobil Funded Global Warming Skeptics: "According to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, oil company ExxonMobil 'has funneled nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of 43 advocacy organizations that seek to confuse the public on global warming science.' The report compares the tactics employed by the oil giant to those used by the tobacco industry in previous decades, and identifies key individuals who have worked on both campaigns. Would a 'global warming controversy' exist without the millions of dollars spent by fossil fuel companies to discredit scientific conclusions?"

(Via /.)

10% of Active Journalists in Iraq Were Killed in 2006

2007-01-05T10:09:00.000-05:00

10% of Active Journalists in Iraq Were Killed in 2006: "After an estimated 10 percent of active journalists in Iraq died in 2006, the rest are asking themselves what lies ahead for them in the New Year.

A report released by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RWB, also known as Reporters sans Frontieres), on the last day of 2006 described Iraq as 'the world's most dangerous country for the media.' The group said it had called upon Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to put a stop to 'hostile accidents' against journalists.

The RWB says 64 journalists and media assistants were killed in Iraq during 2006, 'more than twice the number in the 20-year Vietnam war.' Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, 139 journalists have been killed in Iraq, 90 percent of them Iraqis, RWB says.

The survey says what journalists in Iraq know too well.

'The security situation in Baghdad and other insecure parts of the country made journalists suffer heavily, and be victimised in the worst possible form in the conflict in 2006,' Hamid Mohammed Ali, member of the administrative council of the Kurdistan Journalists Syndicate (KJS) told IPS. The KJF is one of the two press unions in Iraq, with the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, that are recognised by the International Federation of Journalists."

(Via AlterNet.)

Second NORK Nuclear Test?

2007-01-05T05:40:00.000-05:00

Second NORK Nuclear Test?: "ABC's Jonathan Karl is quoting a 'senior defense officials' claiming that North Korea has made preparations for a second nuclear test.

...

But, first, my favorite Clinton-era Defense Department joke:

Q. What would you do if the North Koreans tested a nuclear weapon?

A. Tell them to test the other one.

That, of course, isn't funny now that the Bush Administration has let these guys separate another 20-43 kilograms of plutonium — enough for several more nuclear weapons beyond the one, possibly two, that North Korea had in January 2001."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

FBI Details Possible Detainee Abuse

2007-01-03T13:27:00.000-05:00

FBI Details Possible Detainee Abuse : "FBI agents documented more than two dozen incidents of possible mistreatment at the Guantanamo Bay military base, including one detainee whose head was wrapped in duct tape for chanting the Quran and another who pulled out his hair after hours in a sweltering room.

Documents released Tuesday by the FBI offered new details about the harsh interrogation practices used by military officials and contractors when questioning so-called enemy combatants.

The reports describe a female guard who detainees said handled their genitals and wiped menstrual blood on their face. Another interrogator reportedly bragged to an FBI agent about dressing as a Catholic priest and 'baptizing' a prisoner.

Some military officials and contractors told FBI agents that the interrogation techniques had been approved by the Defense Department, including directly by former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld."

(Via Salon.)

POLL: Active Duty U.S. Soldiers Disapprove Of Bush Handling Of War, Do Not Support Escalation

2007-01-01T20:51:00.000-05:00

POLL: Active Duty U.S. Soldiers Disapprove Of Bush Handling Of War, Do Not Support Escalation: "The Military Times released a new poll yesterday of 6,000 active duty U.S. military personnel. The results were revealing. Some highlights:

- Only 35 percent said they approve of the way President Bush is handling the war, while 42 percent said they disapproved.

- 50 percent believe success in Iraq is likely, down from 83 percent in 2004.

- 38 percent believe the United States should send more troops to Iraq. 39 percent believe we should maintain current levels or reduce the number of troops, including 13 percent who support complete withdrawal.

- 72 percent believe the military is 'stretched too thin to be effective.'"

(Via Think Progress.)

President Bush’s Deep Respect for the Rule of Law

2007-01-01T02:31:00.000-05:00

President Bush’s Deep Respect for the Rule of Law: "The President is certainly right that it is is a good thing that Saddam Hussein was given a trial, represented by lawyers, with an opportunity to contest his guilt, before being deemed to be guilty. That is how civilized countries function, by definition. In fact, allowing people fair trials before treating them as Guilty is one of the handful of defining attributes — one could even say (as the American Founders did) a prerequisite — for countries to avoid tyranny.

That is why it is so reprehensible and inexpressibly tragic that the Bush administration continues to claim — and aggressively exercise — the power to imprison and punish people without even a pretense or fraction of the due process that Saddam Hussein enjoyed. The Bush administration believes that it has the power to imprison whomever it wants, for as long as it wants, without even giving them access to the outside world, let alone 'a fair trial.' The power which it claims — which it has seized — extends not only to foreign nationals but legal residents and even its own citizens"

(Via Crooks and Liars.)

A Lynching...

2006-12-31T19:46:00.000-05:00

A Lynching...: "It's official. Maliki and his people are psychopaths. This really is a new low. It's outrageous- an execution during Eid. Muslims all over the world (with the exception of Iran) are outraged. Eid is a time of peace, of putting aside quarrels and anger- at least for the duration of Eid.

This does not bode well for the coming year. No one imagined the madmen would actually do it during a religious holiday. It is religiously unacceptable and before, it was constitutionally illegal. We thought we'd at least get a few days of peace and some time to enjoy the Eid holiday, which coincides with the New Year this year. We've spent the first two days of a holy holiday watching bits and pieces of a sordid lynching."

(Via Baghdad Burning.)

Executing Saddam on Eid al-Adha is a Mistake

2006-12-31T02:57:00.000-05:00

Executing Saddam on Eid al-Adha is a Mistake: "However, the timing of Saddam's execution has a deleterious effect that is more difficult to measure empirically. Eid al-Adha is one of Islam's two most important holidays, and today throughout the Muslim world the holiday is being overshadowed by Saddam's execution. A source in the Muslim community reports that in Saudi Arabia, some Muslims simultaneously watched the Eid salat on one television channel and Saddam's execution on another. One woman in Saudi Arabia commented that she found this 'unsettling,' and not because she has any warm feelings for Saddam. Rather, for many Middle Easterners, Saddam's execution seemingly intrudes on what should be a time of celebration for them: it is an intrusion because the Iraq war is extremely unpopular throughout the Middle East, and the televised execution is a stark reminder that the war is still raging. (Reuters also reports on Middle Eastern consternation about the timing of the execution.) The same Muslim source speculates that for other Middle Easterners, the execution may be a painful reminder that they have little recourse against the dictatorial regimes that rule them without the United States. The negative symbolism is heightened by linking the execution to Eid."

(Via The Counterterrorism Blog.)

End of Another Year...

2006-12-30T00:57:00.000-05:00

End of Another Year...: "You know your country is in trouble when:

The UN has to open a special branch just to keep track of the chaos and bloodshed, UNAMI.
Abovementioned branch cannot be run from your country.
The politicians who worked to put your country in this sorry state can no longer be found inside of, or anywhere near, its borders.
The only thing the US and Iran can agree about is the deteriorating state of your nation.
An 8-year war and 13-year blockade are looking like the country's 'Golden Years'.
Your country is purportedly 'selling' 2 million barrels of oil a day, but you are standing in line for 4 hours for black market gasoline for the generator.
For every 5 hours of no electricity, you get one hour of public electricity and then the government announces it's going to cut back on providing that hour.
Politicians who supported the war spend tv time debating whether it is 'sectarian bloodshed' or 'civil war'.
People consider themselves lucky if they can actually identify the corpse of the relative that's been missing for two weeks.

A day in the life of the average Iraqi has been reduced to identifying corpses, avoiding car bombs and attempting to keep track of which family members have been detained, which ones have been exiled and which ones have been abducted."

...

"That is Iraq right now. The Americans have done a fine job of working to break it apart. This last year has nearly everyone convinced that that was the plan right from the start. There were too many blunders for them to actually have been, simply, blunders. The 'mistakes' were too catastrophic. The people the Bush administration chose to support and promote were openly and publicly terrible- from the conman and embezzler Chalabi, to the terrorist Jaffari, to the militia man Maliki. The decisions, like disbanding the Iraqi army, abolishing the original constitution, and allowing militias to take over Iraqi security were too damaging to be anything but intentional."

(Via Baghdad Burning.)

ThinkFast

2006-12-28T15:03:00.000-05:00

ThinkFast: "'Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth.' Some uninhabited islands have been covered in recent years, but disappearance of Lohachara, an island off the coast of India that was 'once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented.'

British and Iraqi soldiers raided a police station in Basra on Monday, uncovering 'appalling' detainee conditions. 'More than 100 men were crowded into a single cell, 30 feet by 40 feet, he said, with two open toilets… A significant number showed signs of torture. Some had crushed hands and feet…, while others had cigarette and electrical burns and a significant number had gunshot wounds to their legs and knees.'"

(Via Think Progress.)

The Sankei Article on Japanese Nukes

2006-12-27T00:57:00.000-05:00

The Sankei Article on Japanese Nukes: "Here is the link to the Japanese language Sankei Shimbun story about a Japanese government study on developing nuclear weapons."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Flood of Secret Docs Coming

2006-12-26T23:51:00.000-05:00

Flood of Secret Docs Coming: "Secret documents 25 years old or older will lose their classified status without so much as the stroke of a pen, unless agencies have sought exemptions on the ground that the material remains secret...

And every year from now on, millions of additional documents will be automatically declassified as they reach the 25-year limit, reversing the traditional practice of releasing just what scholars request...

Gearing up to review aging records to meet the deadline, agencies have declassified more than one billion pages, shedding light on the Cuban missile crisis, the Vietnam War and the network of Soviet agents in the American government."

(Via a DefenseTech.)

U.S. Blocks Arms, Technology To Israel

2006-12-26T23:48:00.000-05:00

U.S. Blocks Arms, Technology To Israel: "The Bush administration has blocked arms and technology transfers to Israel.

Israeli and U.S. sources said the State Department has blocked the transfer of weapons and technology to the Jewish state over the last three months. The sources said the halt reflected deteriorating relations between the two countries since the end of the war in Lebanon in August 2006.

'Nobody will say openly that there is a problem,' a government source said. 'But there is a serious problem that reflects the marginalization of Israel in U.S. strategy.'

The unofficial suspension of U.S. arms deliveries began in late September, the sources said. They said the suspension halted the airlift of air-to-ground and other munitions conducted during and immediately after the Israeli war with Hizbullah."

(Via a DefenseTech.)

America Has Become Incarceration Nation

2006-12-26T20:10:00.000-05:00

America Has Become Incarceration Nation: "The United States has now become the world leader in its rate of incarceration, locking up its citizens at 5-8 times the rate of other industrialized nations."

(Via AlterNet.)

Nobel Laureat Attacks Medical Intellectual Property

2006-12-25T22:30:00.000-05:00

Nobel Laureat Attacks Medical Intellectual Property: "'Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who was fired by the World Bank blasted drug patents in an editorial in the British Medical Journal titled 'Scrooge and intellectual property rights.' 'Knowledge is like a candle, when one candle lights another it does not diminish its light.' In medicine, patents cost lives. The US patent for turmeric didn't stimulate research, and restricted access by the Indian poor who actually discovered it hundreds of years ago. 'These rights were intended to reduce access to generic medicines and they succeeded.' Billions of people, who live on $2-3 a day, could no longer afford the drugs they needed. Drug companies spend more on advertising and marketing than on research. A few scientists beat the human genome project and patented breast cancer genes; so now the cost of testing women for breast cancer is 'enormous.''"

(Via /.)

Morning Eye-Opener

2006-12-24T01:14:00.000-05:00

Morning Eye-Opener: "UN Security Council sanctions on Iran are a big deal. The groundwork for the action has also demonstrated how far America and Russia are drifting apart."

(Via Martini Republic.)

W56 Safety Problem?

2006-12-22T22:46:00.000-05:00

W56 Safety Problem?: "Now we have learned that in March 2005, there was a "near-miss" event while disassembling another W56 warhead. Apparently the production technicians were using a faulty tool, putting too much pressure on the warhead. On November 29, 2006, Pantex was only fined $110,000 — 18 months after the near-miss incident. What was not made public at the time the fine was levied, however, is that according to safety experts knowledgeable about this event, it could actually have resulted in the detonation of the warhead. This incident was particularly dangerous because the W56 warhead was deployed in 1965, pre-dating the three basic enhanced safety features which reduce the possibility of an accidental detonation that are now required on more modern weapons."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Congressman Criticizes Election of Muslim

2006-12-21T01:21:00.000-05:00

Congressman Criticizes Election of Muslim: "In a letter sent to hundreds of voters this month, Representative Virgil H. Goode Jr., Republican of Virginia, warned that the recent election of the first Muslim to Congress posed a serious threat to the nation's traditional values.

...

"I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America and to prevent our resources from being swamped," said Mr. Goode, who vowed to use the Bible when taking his own oath of office.

Mr. Goode declined Wednesday to comment on his letter, which quickly stirred a furor among some Congressional Democrats and Muslim Americans, who accused him of bigotry and intolerance."

(Via NY Times.)

If You Want The Truth, Speak To A Democrat

2006-12-20T14:10:00.000-05:00

If You Want The Truth, Speak To A Democrat: " I have an huge hard-on for the Comptroller General, David Walker, a Clinton appointee (the CG is a seven-year appointment. It will be a sad day for America when he has to step down).

Let's just say that he does not have good news for us:

Despite improvement in both the fiscal year 2006 reported net operating cost and the cash-based budget deficit, the U.S. government's total reported liabilities, net social insurance commitments, and other fiscal exposures continue to grow and now total approximately $50 trillion, representing approximately four times the Nation's total output (GDP) in fiscal year 2006, up from about $20 trillion, or two times GDP in fiscal year 2000.

As this long-term fiscal imbalance continues to grow, the retirement of the "baby boom" generation is closer to becoming a reality with the first wave of boomers eligible for early retirement under Social Security in 2008.

Given these and other factors, it seems clear that the nation's current fiscal path is unsustainable and that tough choices by the President and the Congress are necessary in order to address the nation's large and growing long-term fiscal imbalance.

Um, as an accountant, let me translate this for you: The US is broke. Flat out, bankrupt. Further mucking this picture up is that the government's accounting system is so screwy that the GAO refuses to certify the report that it is required to make to Congress on an annual basis!"

(Via Martini Republic.)

Morning Eye-Opener

2006-12-20T14:04:00.000-05:00

Morning Eye-Opener: "Our military spending is almost the exact same as the rest of the world's. Obviously, the solution to any problems with it is to make it bigger. Can anyone other than the very most cornfed Americans think that that will help, after six years of financially devastating leadership? The Clown in Chief has only two years left to fulfill his goal of bankrupting America, and he's evidently pulling out all stops."

(Via Martini Republic.)

China to Buy 4 Westinghouse Nuclear Reactors

2006-12-17T18:44:00.000-05:00

China to Buy 4 Westinghouse Nuclear Reactors: "China will buy four Westinghouse nuclear reactors in a deal that shows the continued attractiveness of American technology, but may also stir worries in Washington that the United States is selling its competitive advantage an industry at a time.

Energy Secretary Samuel W. Bodman of the United States and Ma Kai, the minister of China%u2019s National Development and Reform Commission, signed a memorandum of understanding for the reactors in in Beijing on Saturday. The deal calls for the state-owned China National Nuclear Corporation to buy the reactors from the Westinghouse Electric Company, which the Toshiba Corporation, based in Tokyo, bought earlier this year."

(Via NY Times.)

A Chilling Look at the Taliban's Success

2006-12-17T13:31:00.000-05:00

A Chilling Look at the Taliban's Success: "In a fascinating find Newsweek has published a nine-page 'book of rules' that the Taliban is distributing in its areas of control in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The list itself is not earth-shattering, ... But what is shows is that the Taliban leadership has the time and space to fashion such a handbook, something a group cannot do when it is seriously pressed militarily or living primarily on the run."

(Via The Counterterrorism Blog.)

Israel and Nuclear Opacity

2006-12-17T13:27:00.000-05:00

Israel and Nuclear Opacity: "Readers have probably already noted that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ventured beyond the carefully worded description of Israel's nuclear status — Israel will not be the first country to introduce nuclear arms in the region — in effect confirming Israel's possession of nuclear weapons. Olmert, after making the standard statments, objected to comparing Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons with that of the United States, France, Russia — and Israel.

Oops."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Abbas election call raises civil war fear

2006-12-16T19:36:00.000-05:00

Abbas election call raises civil war fear: "THE Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas threw down a challenge to the government of the militant group Hamas yesterday by calling fresh elections, raising tensions that have already prompted warnings of civil war.

...

Last night gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons exchanged fire at Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. In Gaza City, thousands of Hamas supporters marched and 18 people were wounded in clashes between the political camps."

(Via Google News.)

"These people should be court-martialed"

2006-12-13T11:25:00.000-05:00

"These people should be court-martialed": "When a Christian group shot a video inside the Pentagon that featured uniformed senior military officers talking about their evangelical faith, Mikey Weinstein went on the attack. Himself a former Air Force lawyer and Air Force Academy grad, Weinstein, who is Jewish, is the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. He founded the MRFF earlier this year to oppose the spread of religious intimidation in a military increasingly dominated by evangelical Christians."

(Via Salon.)

Morocco under the assault of Islamists

2006-12-12T04:55:00.000-05:00

Morocco under the assault of Islamists: "In fact not a week goes by without a story of arrests of alleged terrorists, radical imams and cells preparing youngsters for the Jihad in Iraq.

Back at the end of November, authorities dismantled a cell in the same Casablanca slum where the fourteen bombers of the May 2003 originated. This cell composed of 13 men was headed by Abu Zubair Al Maghribi who had been watched by police for a few months because of his contacts with the Algerian terror group GSPC.He had recruited very rapidly 12 men, martyr candidates for the Jihad in Morocco and Iraq. In fact, they had planned to build a training camp in the Atlas mountains and had picked targets they could attack in Morocco. Including the British and US embassies and consulates alike.

...

Considering these facts, it is not surprising that CIA agents have come to Morocco to investigate the extent of the recruiting for Iraq's suicide missions. Indeed the number of Moroccans fighting in Iraq has skyrocketed in the past few years. According to the Spanish El Pais, over 500 suicide attacks have occurred in Iraq since the start of the war, 90% of them have been perpetrated by foreigners and a majority of them have been Moroccans."

(Via The Counterterrorism Blog.)

Outrage over killing of Gaza boys

2006-12-11T19:23:00.000-05:00

Outrage over killing of Gaza boys: "The killing of three sons of a top intelligence officer in Gaza has caused widespread outrage among Palestinians.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said the attack by gunmen in Gaza City was 'an ugly and inhuman crime'.

'Words stop at the extent of this crime,' said the children's father, Baha Balusheh, who is linked to Mr Abbas's Fatah party.

The gunmen fired dozens of bullets at the car in which the children, aged six to 10, were travelling to school.

An adult was also killed in the attack which took place in a street crowded with children."

Emphasis Mine

(Via BBC News.)

Rumsfeld Wants Torture Case Dismissed

2006-12-08T09:41:00.000-05:00

Rumsfeld Wants Torture Case Dismissed : "Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that would hold him personally responsible for allegations of torture in oversees military prisons.

The lawsuit, filed by two civil rights groups, describes the imprisonment of nine foreigners detained in Iraq and Afghanistan. The lawsuit contends the men were beaten, suspended upside down from the ceiling by chains, urinated on, shocked, sexually humiliated, burned, locked inside boxes and subjected to mock executions.

President Bush has called the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq the biggest mistake of the war.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First say Rumsfeld and top military officials authorized such abuses and should be held liable in federal court."

(Via Salon.)

Panel: Bush Iraq policy ‘not working‘

2006-12-06T16:16:00.000-05:00

Panel: Bush Iraq policy ‘not working‘: "President Bush's policy in Iraq 'is not working,' a high-level commission said bluntly on Wednesday, prodding the administration to use diplomacy to stabilize the country and allow withdrawal of most American combat troops by early 2008.

'There is no path that can guarantee success, but the prospects can be improved,' the commissioners said after an exhaustive review of a war that has taken the lives of more than 2,900 U.S. troops and grown so unpopular at home that it helped trigger a Democratic takeover of Congress in last month%u2018s elections.

President Bush received the report in an early morning meeting at the White House with commission members. He pledged to treat each proposal seriously and act in a 'timely fashion.'

The report painted a grim picture of Iraq nearly four years after U.S. forces toppled Saddam Hussein . It urged Bush to embrace steps he has thus far rejected, including a call to involve Syria and Iran in negotiations over Iraq%u2018s future."

(Via Google News.)

Democrats Won, But Arabs in America Still Suffer from Bush's War on Terror

2006-12-06T15:40:00.000-05:00

But Arabs in America Still Suffer from Bush's War on Terror: "But all this has not stopped the government from continuing its harassing of Al-Arian. Judge Moody recently ruled that compelling Al-Arian to testify in the grand jury investigation of the International Institute of Islamic Thought in Herndon, Va., would not violate the plea agreement. Several people close to the case fear that the current attempt to make Al-Arian testify is part of an effort to charge him with perjury and set him up for a new trial. The assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia, Gordon Kromberg, like many involved in the case, has made derogatory and racist comments about Muslims. When Al-Arian's lawyers asked Kromberg to delay the transfer of the professor to Virginia because of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan they were told 'if they can kill each other during Ramadan they can appear before the grand jury.' Kromberg, according to an affidavit signed by Al-Arian's attorney, Jack Fernandez, also said: 'I am not going to put off Dr. Al-Arian's grand jury appearance just to assist in what is becoming the Islamization of America.'"

(Via AlterNet.)

A vote for more cooked intelligence?

2006-12-03T22:12:00.000-05:00

A vote for more cooked intelligence?: "Little-known documents link Rumsfeld replacement Robert Gates with the kind of trumped-up reports that unleashed the Iraq war.

Dec. 4, 2006 | Robert Gates won't be forced to run much of a gauntlet Tuesday during his Senate confirmation hearing on the way to becoming the next secretary of defense. The former CIA director has bipartisan support. And during his interrogation, Washington's near-total preoccupation with the situation in Iraq will crowd out any serious probing of Gates' past, including his murky role in the Iran-Contra scandal and the cooking of intelligence on the Soviet Union during Gates' tenure at the CIA more than a decade ago."

...

"But in the rush to discharge Rumsfeld, the Senate may not fully explore a blemish in Gates' dossier that seems particularly relevant now. A close examination of Gates' record, including little-known documents obtained by Salon from the National Security Archive, shows that as Gates was rising through the echelons of the CIA in the late 1980s to be CIA director in 1991, he was involved in the trafficking of intelligence reports that relied on compromised sources to show an exaggerated foreign threat. With the U.S. struggling for an exit strategy from Iraq and eyeing adversaries like Iran, President Bush has selected a man to head the Pentagon who was once in charge during an intelligence fiasco not unlike the one that unleashed the Iraq war.

In September 1995, CIA Inspector General Frederick Hitz recommended that Gates be held accountable for his role in hyperbolic intelligence reporting on the danger posed by the Soviet Union. In those reports, the CIA relied on sources the agency knew or should have known had been under Moscow's influence, Hitz found. At that time, though, a robust Soviet threat was music to the ears of some hard-liners in Washington, and the trumped-up intelligence made it into the hands of the president and Pentagon leaders."

Emphasis Mine

(Via Salon.)

U.N. Secretary Says Iraq Is Engulfed in Deadly Civil War

2006-12-03T19:16:00.000-05:00

U.N. Secretary Says Iraq Is Engulfed in Deadly Civil War: "Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, said Sunday that Iraq had descended into a civil war that was even deadlier and more anarchic than the 15-year sectarian bloodshed that tore apart Lebanon.

'When we had the strife in Lebanon and other places, we called that a civil war; this is much worse,' Mr. Annan said in an interview with the BBC.

In making his remarks, Mr. Annan joined a growing number of foreign and Iraqi leaders, policy makers and news organizations who say that Iraq is in the grip of civil war. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said last Wednesday at a conference in the United Arab Emirates that Iraq is in a civil war. A former Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi, said the same last March.

The Bush administration has not characterized the conflict as a civil war."

(Via NY Times.)

Bush isolation exposed by memo

2006-12-03T19:02:00.000-05:00

Bush isolation exposed by memo: "President George W. Bush's isolation over Iraq deepened on Sunday following the publication of the leaked memo from sacked defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld calling for a 'major adjustment' in Iraq policy.

John Warner, the outgoing Republican chairman of the Senate armed services committee, told NBC's Meet the Press that the president should respect the will of the people, and seek agreement with the Democrat leaders of the new Congress on a new Iraq policy.

...

White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley on Sunday tried to play down the significance of the Rumsfeld memo, which was leaked to the New York Times and which included an option to 'begin modest withdrawals of US and coalition forces (start taking our hands off the bicycle seat)' — a policy shift favoured by the Democrats."

(Via MSNBC.)

World AIDS Day 19

2006-12-01T16:35:00.000-05:00

World AIDS Day 19: "This is World AIDS Day. The first was in 1988. 'Silence is death,' Kofi Annan says. 'This year alone, well over four million people were newly infected and nearly three million people died of the disease.'

-Africa not faring well, UN official says. Stop AIDS, Keep the Promise.

-AIDS is a leading cause of death for African Americans, who accounted for nearly half of newly diagnosed HIV/AIDS cases last year, even though they are only 12 percent of the population. African Americans accounted for 66 percent of women with AIDS in 2005 and 67 percent of children under 13 with AIDS."

(Via Martini Republic.)

Pelosi Picks Reyes to Head Panel on Intelligence

2006-12-01T16:17:00.000-05:00

Pelosi Picks Reyes to Head Panel on Intelligence: "Incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi today named Representative Silvestre Reyes of Texas to become next chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, ending weeks of closed-door lobbying and public posturing among top candidates for the post.

By choosing Mr. Reyes, a Vietnam veteran and former Border Patrol agent who has served on the committee since 2001, Ms. Pelosi passed over the panel's top Democrat, Rep. Jane Harman of California, with whom Ms. Pelosi has long feuded.

...

'His appreciation for the dangers inherent in the operation of secret activities in a democracy ensures that he will be a zealous protector of the civil liberties that define us as a nation,' she said.

Unlike Ms. Harman, Mr. Reyes voted against the congressional resolution authorizing the United States to go to war in Iraq."

(Via NY Times.)

Protesters Seek Leader's Ouster in Lebanon

2006-12-01T14:30:00.000-05:00

Protesters Seek Leader's Ouster in Lebanon: "BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Hundreds of thousands of protesters from Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies massed Friday in downtown Beirut seeking to force the resignation of Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, who was holed up in his office ringed by hundreds of police and combat troops.

The protest, which police estimated at 800,000, created a sea of Lebanese flags that blanketed downtown and spilled onto the surrounding streets. Hezbollah officials put the number at 1 million -- one-fourth of Lebanon's population."

(Via NY Times.)

No graceful exit

2006-12-01T03:11:00.000-05:00

No graceful exit: "The Baker Commission will reportedly advocate the beginning of troop withdrawals but leave unclear what the pace of such a pullback should be and whether combat brigades would merely be redeployed to safer bases inside Iraq. According to the Times, the study group is fixated on Washington's favorite fig leaf, a diplomatic effort designed to obscure the weakness of the American position by reaching out to Iran and Syria.

It is easy to guess why the commission has apparently confused blandness with boldness: an irresistible temptation to tiptoe through the tulips in trying to sway the dead-enders in the White House. Baker and his Democratic co-chairman Lee Hamilton clearly believed that a 10-0 consensus -- even with blurry language -- was more potent than a sharply worded, but divided, committee report.

Still, many in Washington believe that the imprimatur of Baker and Company alone will work miracles. 'It's the preface to the final stage,' said a prominent Republican who has served in prior administrations. 'It sends the message that Republicans are pretty frustrated on the ground in Iraq and pretty frustrated on the ground at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. It makes the White House know that 'stay the course' at any level is not a winning solution.'"

(Via Salon.)

U.S. Will Pay $2 Million to Lawyer Wrongly Jailed

2006-11-29T23:49:00.000-05:00

U.S. Will Pay $2 Million to Lawyer Wrongly Jailed: "The federal government agreed to pay $2 million Wednesday to an Oregon lawyer wrongly jailed in connection with the 2004 terrorist bombings in Madrid, and it issued a formal apology to him and his family.

The unusual settlement caps a two-and-a-half-year ordeal that saw the lawyer, Brandon Mayfield, go from being a suspected terrorist operative to a symbol, in the eyes of his supporters, of government overzealousness in the war on terrorism.

...

Despite doubts from Spanish officials about the validity of the fingerprint match, American officials began an aggressive high-level investigation into Mr. Mayfield in the weeks after the bombings. The fact that he had represented a terrorism defendant in a child-custody case in Portland spurred further interest in him. Using expanded surveillance powers under the USA Patriot Act, the government wiretapped his conversations, conducted secret searches of his home and his law office and jailed him for two weeks as a material witness in the case before a judge threw out the case against him.

The settlement includes an unusual condition that frees the government from future liability except in one important area: Mr. Mayfield is allowed to continue a lawsuit seeking to overturn parts of the Patriot Act as a violation of the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure."

(Via Google News.)

A Story We Should All Know

2006-11-29T19:18:00.000-05:00

A Story We Should All Know: "'I have come to America seeking three things. An acknowledgement that the United States government is responsible for kidnapping, abusing and detaining me; an explanation as to why I was singled out for this treatment; and an apology because I am an innocent man who has never been charged with any crime.' -- Khaled El-Masri, a victim of extraordinary rendition.

The case of our client Khaled El-Masri is one we should all be watching carefully. Yesterday, he stood up in a courtroom to challenge the Bush administration's use of 'extraordinary rendition,' abduction, detention and interrogation in secret overseas prisons.

While it is a credit to our system of justice that Mr. El-Masri can now demand accountability from his CIA kidnappers, all of us must ask, how have we let our country stray so far from its ideals?

Mr. El-Masri's story is a frightening catalogue of abuses. A father of six, he was forcibly abducted in Macedonia while on vacation, handed over to the CIA and flown to a secret interrogation center in Afghanistan where he was beaten, drugged and repeatedly denied legal counsel. After two months, CIA operatives informed director George Tenet that they were holding an innocent man. But it still took two more months before he was released -- flown in secret to Albania and left alone on a hillside in the middle of the night.

People need to hear his story, and the agencies and private companies responsible must face real justice for their violations of U.S. laws as well as universal human rights laws."

(Via AfterDowningStreet.org.)

Pakistan tells NATO to “accept defeat by Taliban”

2006-11-29T18:22:00.000-05:00

Pakistan tells NATO to “accept defeat by Taliban”: "Senior Pakistani officials are urging Nato countries to accept the Taliban and work towards a new coalition government in Kabul that might exclude the Afghan president Hamid Karzai.

Pakistan's foreign minister, Khurshid Kasuri, has said in private briefings to foreign ministers of some Nato member states that the Taliban are winning the war in Afghanistan and Nato is bound to fail. He has advised against sending more troops."

(Via Crooks and Liars.)

Assassination by Polonium

2006-11-29T15:04:00.000-05:00

Assassination by Polonium: "Everyone has probably caught the bits and pieces of headlines on the former Russian spy, Alexander Litvinenko, who was poisoned and died last week. There is little conclusive information and the assassination has been linked in the press both to the murder of Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and the Yukos affair. It's a James Bond style mystery, but in that great BBC news voice.

The interesting part is that he was poisoned with polonium-210, an extremely rare and highly radioactive element. It is even rarer in quantities that could be used for poisoning, since they would have to be manmade. Most of the news sources are quoting experts as saying that the Po-210 could have only been produced in major laboratory. This point makes the theories (which I will describe below) about Litvinenko's death very troubling from the standpoint of securing access to radioactive materials"

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

What is Russia's Real Game (Again, with Viktor Bout?)

2006-11-29T15:01:00.000-05:00

What is Russia's Real Game (Again, with Viktor Bout?): "But there is another, barely noticed development in the United States that should be extremely worrisome. A small sporting goods store in rural Pennsylvania was just busted for selling telescopic rifle scopes, binoculars and optics, which need State Department export authorization, to a Russian company that did not have such a license.

As the my colleauge and co-author Stephen Braun write in the Los Angeles Times, the affidavit for carrying out the search states that the Russian company is 'Tactica Ltd., a Moscow firm that was described by investigators as 'a member of the 'Vympel Group,' which is a known identifier for an elite counter-terrorism unit that is controlled by the Russian Federal Security Service [formerly the KGB].''"

(Via The Counterterrorism Blog.)

Vote Disparity Still a Mystery In Fla. Election For Congress

2006-11-29T12:25:00.000-05:00

Vote Disparity Still a Mystery In Fla. Election For Congress: "Almost since the time the votes were tallied here on election night, the race for Florida's 13th Congressional District has been surrounded by a contentious mystery:

Why were there no votes for Congress recorded from more than 18,000 people who chose candidates in other races?"

(Via Wonkette.)

Order freezing alleged terrorist funds ruled down

2006-11-29T11:52:00.000-05:00

Order freezing alleged terrorist funds ruled down: "A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled that the Bush administration violated the Constitution when it froze the assets of more than two dozen alleged terrorist groups after the Sept. 11 attacks.

U.S. District Judge Audrey B. Collins, in a ruling released Monday, held that an executive order Bush issued Sept. 24, 2001 — designating 27 groups and individuals as 'specially designated global terrorists' — was 'unconstitutionally vague.'

Collins said the order was flawed because it failed to explain the criteria used to make the designations and because it included no process to challenge the decision.

'The president's designation authority is subject only to his unfettered discretion,' the judge said. "

(Via Google News.)

EU nations 'knew about CIA jails'

2006-11-28T16:16:00.000-05:00

EU nations 'knew about CIA jails': "Many EU nations were aware that the CIA used their territory for the transfer or detention of terror suspects, a draft European parliament report says.

The report follows months of investigation by a special committee of MEPs led by an Italian, Claudio Fava.

'Many governments co-operated passively or actively (with the CIA),' said Mr Fava, quoted by AFP news agency.

He accused top EU officials including foreign policy chief Javier Solana of failing to give full details to MEPs.

The report echoed allegations made in June by the Council of Europe - Europe's leading human rights watchdog - that European states were complicit in illegal CIA operations as part of the US-led 'war on terror'."

(Via BBC News.)

Salvaging Bush's Mideast disaster

2006-11-28T16:15:00.000-05:00

Salvaging Bush's Mideast disaster: "The real 'front line of the war on terror' is Palestine. By brokering a lasting peace, the U.S. can make up for Bush's colossal blunders."

...

"As the Iraqi debacle lurches from dreadful to nightmarish, with 140,000 U.S. troops caught in a vicious purgatory, it is all too easy to forget that the real 'front line of the war on terror' is in Jerusalem, not Baghdad. The Israeli-Palestinian crisis is not a matter that America wants to deal with. There is zero debate about it in Congress, where unswerving support for Israel continues to be the only thing that Democrats and Republicans agree on. It divides the left. It is such an emotional, sensitive issue that most people don't even bring it up. And it's easy to simply dismiss it as intractable.

But like it or not, the fact remains that the now 39-year-long Israeli occupation of Palestinian land continues to be the most incendiary issue in the Arab-Muslim world, the single thing that most inspires hatred of the U.S. A U.N.-sponsored group recently found that tensions between Islam and the West are caused not by religion but overwhelmingly by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has acquired a symbolic significance larger than itself. The conflict affects virtually every problem in the region, including Iraq -- a fact recognized by world leaders from British Prime Minister Tony Blair to Jordan's King Abdullah to the leaders of France, Spain and Italy, who just presented their own peace plan. Until the U.S. brokers a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians -- and only America can do it -- we will stumble impotently around in the Middle East, despised by all except the corrupt despots we prop up, while the anti-American rage that breeds jihadists grows."

(Via Salon.)

AIDS to Be 3rd Leading Cause of Death

2006-11-28T01:26:00.000-05:00

AIDS to Be 3rd Leading Cause of Death: "Within the next 25 years, AIDS is set to join heart disease and stroke as the top three causes of death worldwide, according to a study published online Monday.

When global mortality projections were last calculated a decade ago, researchers had assumed the number of AIDS cases would be declining. Instead, it's on the rise. Currently ranked fourth behind heart disease, stroke, and respiratory infections, AIDS is set to become No. 3, say researchers in a new report in the Public Library of Science's Medicine journal. It accounts for about 2.8 million deaths every year. But the researchers estimate a total of nearly 120 million people could die in the next 25 years.

Overall, the researchers predict that in three decades, the causes of global mortality will be strikingly similar worldwide - apart from the prevalence of AIDS in poorer countries. Most people will be dying at older ages of noninfectious diseases like cardiovascular disease, stroke and cancer."

(Via The Drudge Report.)

Iraq 'on the brink of civil war'

2006-11-28T01:17:00.000-05:00

Iraq 'on the brink of civil war': "The United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has publicly said that Iraq is teetering on the brink of civil war.

Mr Annan said concerted action to dampen the vicious sectarian violence gripping Iraq was urgently needed.

The continuing and escalating violence in Iraq has prompted a flurry of diplomatic activity this week.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani is due to meet Iran's supreme leader, while US President George W Bush flies to Jordan later to meet Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki."

(Via BBC News.)

Christian Coalition loses leader in dispute

2006-11-25T02:31:00.000-05:00

Christian Coalition loses leader in dispute: "The Florida pastor recently tapped to lead the Christian Coalition of America resigned his position in a dispute about conservative philosophy - more than a month before he was to fully assume his post, he said this week.

The Rev. Joel Hunter, of Northland, A Church Distributed, in Longwood, Fla., said he quit as president-elect of the group founded by evangelist Pat Robertson because he realized he would be unable to broaden the organization's agenda beyond opposing abortion and same-sex marriage.

He hoped to include issues such as easing poverty and saving the environment.

'These are issues that Jesus would want us to care about,' Hunter said.

The resignation took place Tuesday during an organization board meeting. Hunter said he was not asked to leave.

'They pretty much said, 'These issues are fine, but they're not our issues; that's not our base,' ' Hunter said. A statement issued by the coalition said Hunter resigned because of 'differences in philosophy and vision.' The organization, headed by President Roberta Combs, claims a mailing list of 2.5 million."

(Via The Daou Report.)

Lebanon death 'may presage coup'

2006-11-25T00:59:00.000-05:00

Lebanon death 'may presage coup': "This week's killing of Lebanese politician Pierre Gemayel may be the first shot in a coup against the government, says a top US official.

John Bolton, the American ambassador to the United Nations, said recent probes into political killings in Lebanon suggested Syrian involvement.

He told the BBC that if Syria was deemed to have been involved, the implications were serious.

Saturday sees the second day of a strike protesting at the killing.

Many shops closed on Friday with business leaders saying they hoped the action would move Lebanon closer to a 'national dialogue' and ward off the threat of division and street protests."

(Via BBC News.)

Bush: Iraq's just like Vietnam!

2006-11-19T15:49:00.000-05:00

Bush: Iraq's just like Vietnam!: "I'm not sure if this is the smartest rhetorical tack for the preznit to take:

President Bush, on his first visit to a country where America lost a two-decade-long fight against communism, said Friday the Vietnam War's lesson for today's confounding Iraq conflict is that freedom takes time to trump hatred.

Uh hunh. Freedom®, indeed. Does he even know we lost that war? Does he know Vietnam is still a (nominally) communist country?

A baby boomer who came of age during the turbulent Vietnam era and spent the war stateside as a member of the Texas Air National Guard, the president called himself amazed by the sights of the one-time war capital.

What's that old joke? The difference between Vietnam and Iraq is that Bush sure had an exit strategy for Vietnam [rimshot]."

(Via AlterNet.)

U.N. Says Sudan Terrorizing Civilians

2006-11-19T02:21:00.003-05:00

U.N. Says Sudan Terrorizing Civilians: "The Sudanese army and government-backed militias are committing acts of 'inexplicable terror' against civilians, including children, in Darfur, the U.N.'s top humanitarian official said Saturday.

Spiraling violence in the conflict-wracked region of western Sudan is reaching its worst level since fighting erupted more than three years ago, Jan Egeland, the U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said.

'The government and its militias are conducting inexplicable terror against civilians,' he said in an Associated Press interview just after returning from his final trip to the area before his term as U.N. humanitarian chief ends in December.

'The government is arming Arab militias more than ever before ... the angst is that we may be reverting to the same level of violence' as in 2003, he said."

(Via Salon.)

Sudan accepts UN 'help' in Darfur

2006-11-19T02:21:00.002-05:00

Sudan accepts UN 'help' in Darfur: "Sudan says it welcomes the United Nations' support for the African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur but denies the UN will take command.

Sudan has always rejected plans to replace the AU force with a larger, stronger UN mission.

On Thursday, UN chief Kofi Annan had said a compromise had been reached for a hybrid UN-AU force, to break the deadlock over the Darfur mission.

More than 200,000 people have died in three years of conflict in the region.

About three million have fled their homes."

(Via BBC News.)

Plutonium Found in Iran Waste Facility

2006-11-19T02:21:00.001-05:00

Plutonium Found in Iran Waste Facility: "International Atomic Energy experts have found unexplained plutonium and highly enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for an explanation, an IAEA report said Tuesday.

The report, prepared for next week's meeting of the 35-nation IAEA, also faulted Tehran for not cooperating with the agency's attempts to investigate suspicious aspects of Iran's nuclear program that have lead to fears it might be interested in developing nuclear arms.

And it said it could not confirm Iranian claims that its nuclear activities were exclusively nonmilitary unless Tehran increased its openness.

'The agency will remain unable to make further progress in its efforts to verify the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran,' without additional cooperation by Tehran, said the report, by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei."

(Via Salon.)

Hamas' Military Wing Calls for Muslims to Attack American Targets

2006-11-19T02:21:00.000-05:00

Hamas' Military Wing Calls for Muslims to Attack American Targets: "In the wake of reports that an Israeli tnak strike killed 18 people in the Gaza Strip, Hamas' military wing issued a call for Muslims around the world to attack American targets.

This is dangerous for several reasons. One is that Hamas has a broad financial infrastructure inside the United States and enjoys some support among parts of the U.S. Islamic community, so there would be little need infiltrate operators. There could be people already here willing to carry out such attacks.

A second reason is that Hamas has traditionally not advocated attacks on the United States. But this call by the Hamas military wing is unambiguous: "America is offering political, financial and logistic cover for the Zionist occupation crimes, and it is responsible for the Beit Hanoun massacre. Therefore, the people and the nation all over the globe are required to teach the American enemy tough lessons," Hamas' military wing said in a statement sent to The Associated Press."

(Via The Counterterrorism Blog.)

Fast condoms on sale in S Africa

2006-11-06T18:48:00.000-05:00

Fast condoms on sale in S Africa: "Condoms, which promoters say can be put on in just one second, are going on sale in South Africa this week.

"Using an ordinary condom is a real pain," says Pronto condom designer Willem van Rensburg.

"By the time the condom is on, the mood is halfway out the window." Pronto condoms do not need to be unwrapped.

Mr van Rensburg told the BBC he hopes it will encourage people to use condoms in a country where 5.5m people have HIV - one of the world's highest figures.

"If you're slow, it'll take you three seconds. You can really do it in one," Mr van Rensburg's former business partner Roelf Mulder told the AFP news agency."

(Via BBC News.)

Missing Soldier Believed Alive, U.S. Says

2006-11-05T18:51:00.001-05:00

Missing Soldier Believed Alive, U.S. Says: "A senior U.S. military spokesman said Thursday that an Iraqi American soldier kidnapped in Baghdad 10 days ago was believed to be alive and in the hands of his original captors.

Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell identified the soldier as 41-year-old reservist Ahmed Qusai al-Taayie and said that Taayie was visiting his in-laws and his wife on Oct. 23, the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, when he was abducted by three carloads of armed men. Since then, the military has conducted intensive searches for the soldier, who moved to the United States as a teenager and returned to Iraq as a translator in the U.S. Army Reserve in November 2005, Caldwell said."

(Via a DefenseTech.)

Melting Arctic Ice Has Consequences

2006-11-05T18:51:00.000-05:00

Melting Arctic Ice Has Consequences: "OriginalArlen writes to tell us about some compelling global warming coverage in the Washington Post. First there is an article about a study indicating that melting Arctic ice is threatening polar bears with extinction. The article quotes an environmentalist: "This study is the smoking gun. Skeptics, polluting industries and President Bush can't run away from this one." And the polar melting is opening new shipping lanes. The second article details a trip late in October through the Northwest Passage by a Canadian icebreaker. Never before in history could this trip have been accomplished so late in the year; ice would have choked off the passage. Estimates of when the passage might be navigable by commercial shipping range from 2020 to the end of the century. "

Emphasis Mine

(Via /.)

Post-Saddam Iraq: The War Game

2006-11-04T17:03:00.000-05:00

Post-Saddam Iraq: The War Game: "In late April 1999, the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), led by Marine General Anthony Zinni (ret.), conducted a series of war games known as Desert Crossing in order to assess potential outcomes of an invasion of Iraq aimed at unseating Saddam Hussein. The documents posted here today covered the initial pre-war game planning phase from April-May 1999 through the detailed after-action reporting of June and July 1999.

...

The results of Desert Crossing, however, drew pessimistic conclusions regarding the immediate possible outcomes of such action. Some of these conclusions are interestingly similar to the events which actually occurred after Saddam was overthrown. (Note 1) The report forewarned that regime change may cause regional instability by opening the doors to "rival forces bidding for power" which, in turn, could cause societal "fragmentation along religious and/or ethnic lines" and antagonize "aggressive neighbors." Further, the report illuminated worries that secure borders and a restoration of civil order may not be enough to stabilize Iraq if the replacement government were perceived as weak, subservient to outside powers, or out of touch with other regional governments. An exit strategy, the report said, would also be complicated by differing visions for a post-Saddam Iraq among those involved in the conflict.

The Desert Crossing report was similarly pessimistic when discussing the nature of a new Iraqi government. If the U.S. were to establish a transitional government, it would likely encounter difficulty, some groups discussed, from a "period of widespread bloodshed in which various factions seek to eliminate their enemies." The report stressed that the creation of a democratic government in Iraq was not feasible, but a new pluralistic Iraqi government which included nationalist leaders might be possible, suggesting that nationalist leaders were a stabilizing force. Moreover, the report suggested that the U.S. role be one in which it would assist Middle Eastern governments in creating the transitional government for Iraq."

(Via The National Security Archives.)

NORK Nuke Missile?

2006-11-03T16:46:00.000-05:00

NORK Nuke Missile?: "So, my initial speculation about the cause of failure for North Korea’s nuclear test—remember that I thought the NORKS tried to reduce the size of the warhead with fancy implosion techniques—seems to have gained some credibility. (See So, Like, Why Didn’t It Work?, October 10, 2006)

Andrew Koch called my hypothesis “the most popular working assumption inside the U.S. intelligence community at the moment” which, you know, is kind of cool."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Darfur militias 'kill children'

2006-11-03T16:37:00.000-05:00

Darfur militias 'kill children': "Militias backing Sudan's government have killed at least 63 people in attacks in Darfur in the past week, African peacekeepers say.

At least 27 of the victims are thought to be children under the age of 12.

The attacks were carried on camps for the displaced in the rebel stronghold of Jebel Moon, in West Darfur.

The government says it is disarming the Janjaweed militia but a BBC correspondent in Sudan says all the evidence points to the exact opposite."

(Via BBC News.)

Evangelist Admits Meth, Massage, No Sex

2006-11-03T16:35:00.000-05:00

Evangelist Admits Meth, Massage, No Sex: "Evangelist Ted Haggard admitted Friday that he bought methamphetamine and received a massage from a gay prostitute who claims he was paid for drug-fueled trysts by the outspoken gay marriage opponent.

Haggard resigned Thursday as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and stepped down as leader of his Colorado megachurch while the two groups investigate the allegations."

(Via Google News.)

Hamas in the New York Times

2006-11-03T16:22:00.000-05:00

Hamas in the New York Times: "On Wednesday, the New York Times ran an op-ed by Ahmed Yousef, titled “Pause for Peace,” in which Yousef calls for a “hudna,” (which he describes as a “long term truce”) between Israel and the Palestinians. The Times identifies Yousef only as “a senior adviser to the Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya.”

Yousef is actually ideally situated to be Haniya’s senior advisor, specifically to attempt to bring Hamas’ message to a Western audience, as Yousef himself spent many years in America as the head of a Hamas front group"

(Via The Counterterrorism Blog.)

Republicans Court the Bigot Vote

2006-11-03T16:18:00.000-05:00

Republicans Court the Bigot Vote: "Ah, autumn -- a brisk snap in the air, the deep hues of trees changing colors ...and Republicans telling you that black men are coming to have sex with your daughters.

All right, that isn't completely accurate. Black men are coming to have sex with your daughters, Republicans warn, but gays are also going to turn you into one of them, and if we don't act soon the halls of power will be crawling with sex perverts.

We've all heard about the ad directed against Senate candidate Harold Ford in Tennessee, in which a ditzy young woman squeals, "I met Harold Ford at the Playboy party!" and closes the ad with, "Harold, call me!" -- and you know what they'll be doing if he does. But that isn't even the most racist ad that has been aired in that state, nor is the one that features thumping jungle drums every time Ford's name is mentioned.

...

Ford's opponent, Bob Corker, condemned that ad, as he did the "Call me!" ad (which was produced by the national Republican Party). But there are lots of Republicans in Tennessee who want to make extra sure that voters know that Harold Ford is black, black, black. Faced with a dynamic, skilled candidate in Ford and a mediocre one of their own in Corker, combined with a national mood decidedly unfavorable to Republicans, the GOP decided to hitch its wagon one more time to the bigot vote."

(Via AlterNet.)

Red cross confirmes ethnic cleansing in Kagera, Tanzania

2006-10-31T20:55:00.000-05:00

Red cross confirmes ethnic cleansing in Kagera, Tanzania: "Evidance of the serious human right abuse in Kagera, Tanzania, is accumulating! But there are still no reports from independent observer inside Kagera. Lorries now pick people from their homes during nighttime. My impression is that too many "follow the situation from a distance", not realizing that there are already enough evidance for immediate observation on site!"

(Via Hans Rosling.)

Money trails lead to Bush judges

2006-10-30T22:17:00.000-05:00

Money trails lead to Bush judges: "At least two dozen federal judges appointed by President Bush since 2001 made political contributions to key Republicans or to the president himself while under consideration for their judgeships, government records show. A four-month investigation of Bush-appointed judges by the Center for Investigative Reporting reveals that six appellate court judges and 18 district court judges contributed a total of more than $44,000 to politicians who were influential in their appointments. Some gave money directly to Bush after he officially nominated them. Other judges contributed to Republican campaign committees while they were under consideration for a judgeship.

Republicans who received money from judges en route to the bench include Sens. Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Sens. George Voinovich and Mike DeWine of Ohio, and Gov. George Pataki of New York."

(Via Salon.)

Surveillance as Performance Art

2006-10-29T19:29:00.000-05:00

Surveillance as Performance Art: "Hasan Elahi has been making his every movement public, after being detained by the FBI (and then cleared) when entering the country:

For the next few months, every trip Elahi took, he’d call his FBI agent and give the routing, so he didn’t get detained along the way. He realized, after a point -- why just tell the FBI -- why not tell everyone?

So he hacked his cellphone into a tracking bracelet which he wears on his ankle, reporting his movements on a map -- log onto his site and you can see that he’s in Camden. But he’s gone further, trying to document his life in a series of photos: the airports he passes through, the meals he eats, the bathrooms he uses. The result is a photographic record of his daily life which would be very hard to falsify. We all know photos can be digitally altered... but altering as many photos as Elahi puts online would require a whole team trying to build this alternative path through the world. "

(Via Schneier on Security.)

Tackling Global Warming Cheaper Than Ignoring It

2006-10-29T19:25:00.000-05:00

Tackling Global Warming Cheaper Than Ignoring It: "'In a report commissioned by the UK government, respected economist Sir Nicholas Stern concludes that mitigating global warming could cost around 1% of global GDP if spent immediately, but ignoring the problem could cost between 5% and 20% of global GDP. The 700-page study represents the first major report on climate change from an economist rather than a scientist. The report calls for the introduction of green taxes and carbon trading schemes as soon as possible, and calls on the international community to sign a new pact on greenhouse emissions by next year rather than in 2010/11. At the very least the UK government is taking the report seriously; both major parties are proposing new green taxes. Stern points out, however, that any action will only be effective if truly global.'"

(Via /.)

The Torture Election

2006-10-29T17:30:00.000-05:00

The Torture Election: "The Congressional campaign of 2006 slouches toward election day through a grotesque landscape of torture and excuses for torture, scabrous messages from a Congressman to young boys, a Congressional cover-up of the same, murder and countermurder every day in Iraq (a heart-stopping 655,000 Iraqis have died since the invasion, according to a Johns Hopkins study), and nuclear fallout from North Korea (of the political if not the literal kind).

The stakes, as President Bush likes to say--and on this point he is correct--could scarcely be higher. But they include one stake he never mentions: the future of constitutional government in the United States, which his presidency and his party have put in serious jeopardy. The old (lower case) republican system of checks and balances and popular liberties, you might say, is in danger of replacement by a new (upper case) Republican system of arbitrary one-party rule organized around an all-powerful presidency. That many-sided danger, of course, is the subject of this series of articles. It is simply impossible to know in advance when, in a great constitutional crisis, the decisive turning point--the irrevocable capsizing--might come. We are left wondering whether we are witnessing just one more swing of the familiar old American political "pendulum," bound by its own weight to swing back in the opposite direction, or whether this time the pendulum is about to fly off its hinge and land us with a crash in territory that we have never visited before. There are strong arguments on both sides of the question. Yet there can be little doubt that the election on November 7 will be an event of the first importance in the story. If, by handing one or both houses of Congress to the Democrats--something that current polls say is likely--the public breaks the Republican Party's current monopoly on government power, an important beachhead of resistance will have been gained. But if the public assents to the status quo--confirming and deepening the ratification of Republican one-party rule already conferred in 2002 and 2004 (we cannot count the election of 2000, since Vice President Al Gore won the popular vote that year), it will be hard to see where the path away from the precipice lies."

(Via The Nation.)

Bush Signs Bill Enabling Martial Law

2006-10-28T19:27:00.000-04:00

Bush Signs Bill Enabling Martial Law: "An anonymous reader writes to point us to an article on the meaning of a new law that President Bush signed on Oct. 17. It seems to allow the President to impose martial law on any state or territory, using federal troops and/or the state's own, or other states', National Guard troops. From the article:

'In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law. It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.'"

(Via /.)

Ethnic cleansing in Kagera in NW Tanzania??

2006-10-26T01:50:00.000-04:00

Ethnic cleansing in Kagera in NW Tanzania??: "Are human rights respected during the repatriation of refugees from Kagera Region in Tanzania to Rwanda? Tanzania is highly respected for the way this low-income countries has treated refugees from nearby war-torn countries, in spite of limited support from the international community. I have in the past personally visited such refugee communities along the boarder with Mozambique and Burundi. I was deeply impressed by the respectful integration of the refugees.

In 2006 the Tanzanian president decided to repatriate the refugees from Rwanda that stay in Kagera Region. This is acceptable as conditions have improved in Rwanda and as the track-record of Tanzania suggests that refugees will be correctly treated. I was therefore disturbed when I learnt from a very reliable source in Geneva that local authorities are using the repatriation to also expulse Tanzanian citizen that are children of Rwandan immigrants that arrived several decades ago and since long have Tanzanian citizenship."

(Via Hans Rosling.)

Making Iranian Uranium

2006-10-24T21:11:00.000-04:00

Making Iranian Uranium: "Reuters’ Mark Heinrich reports that Iran has completed a second 164 centrigue cascade at the Natanz pilot fuel enrichment plant—but that the Iranians are conducting only “dry runs” without any uranium:

“The second cascade was brought on line earlier this month but they appear to be just running it empty. That is, vacuum-testing to assess durability,” said the diplomat, close to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

George Jahn with AP had a similar story, but his nearly 800 word article was hacked to death by a number of newspapers. (The link I posted has everything, I think). ElBaradei confirmed the second cascade during his visit to the US (see stories by WaPo’s Linzer and NYT’s Sanger), adding that Iran was ready to introduce uranium into the new cascade."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

REPORT: Bush Officials Were ‘Rooting’ For North Korea to Test Nuclear Weapon

2006-10-24T16:54:00.000-04:00

REPORT: Bush Officials Were ‘Rooting’ For North Korea to Test Nuclear Weapon : "Senior Bush administration officials wanted North Korea to test a nuclear weapon because it would prove their point that the regime must be overthrown.

This astonishing revelation was buried in the middle of a Washington Post story published yesterday. Glenn Kessler reports from Moscow as he accompanies Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:

Before North Korea announced it had detonated a nuclear device, some senior officials even said they were quietly rooting for a test, believing that would finally clarify the debate within the administration."

(Via a DefenseTech.)

GOP, looking for racist votes, burns cash in Tennessee

2006-10-24T16:49:00.000-04:00

GOP, looking for racist votes, burns cash in Tennessee: "The Republican ad that villifies Democratic candidate for Senate Harold Ford, a black man, as a playboy who wants white women, will certainly backfire. It wasn’t an ad grown in Tennessee—it was an ad cultivated by RNC apparatchiks outside the state, who thought that pandering to old stereotypes might help out their candidate."

(Via Martini Republic.)

The Lancet Study...

2006-10-22T18:12:00.000-04:00

The Lancet Study... : "This has been the longest time I have been away from blogging. There were several reasons for my disappearance the major one being the fact that every time I felt the urge to write about Iraq, about the situation, I'd be filled with a certain hopelessness that can't be put into words and that I suspect other Iraqis feel also.

...

The latest horror is the study published in the Lancet Journal concluding that over 600,000 Iraqis have been killed since the war. Reading about it left me with mixed feelings. On the one hand, it sounded like a reasonable figure. It wasn't at all surprising. On the other hand, I so wanted it to be wrong. But... who to believe? Who to believe....? American politicians... or highly reputable scientists using a reliable scientific survey technique?

...

The chaos and lack of proper facilities is resulting in people being buried without a trip to the morgue or the hospital. During American military attacks on cities like Samarra and Fallujah, victims were buried in their gardens or in mass graves in football fields. Or has that been forgotten already?

...

Let's pretend the 600,000+ number is all wrong and that the minimum is the correct number: nearly 400,000. Is that better? Prior to the war, the Bush administration kept claiming that Saddam killed 300,000 Iraqis over 24 years. After this latest report published in The Lancet, 300,000 is looking quite modest and tame. Congratulations Bush et al."

(Via Baghdad Burning.)

U.S. Questioned About Arar Torture Case

2006-10-20T09:40:00.000-04:00

U.S. Questioned About Arar Torture Case : "Days before the Bush administration put Canadian citizen Maher Arar on a plane for Syria, Canadian law enforcement officials advised their U.S. counterparts that evidence of terrorist links by Arar was not definitive.

Why the Bush administration still shipped Arar to Syria -- where he was tortured -- and whether he remains on the United States' terror watch list are still unknown. Administration officials refuse to talk about the case.

It has been a month since a Canadian commission cleared Syrian-born Arar of all suspicion of terrorist activity, yet Arar still can't get into the United States, one of his lawyers, Michael Ratner, said Thursday.

John Cavanagh, director of the Institute for Policy Studies, asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to clear Arar's name and let him come into the United States this week to receive a human rights award.

Gonzales did not reply, Cavanagh said. At the Justice Department, a spokesman said he was unaware of the letter and could not comment."

(Via Salon.)

GOP Calls for Withdrawal of Candidate

2006-10-20T09:38:00.000-04:00

GOP Calls for Withdrawal of Candidate: "Orange County Republican leaders on Thursday called for the withdrawal of a GOP congressional candidate they believe sent a letter threatening Hispanic immigrant voters with arrest.

Tan D. Nguyen denied knowing anything about the letter in an interview Thursday with The Associated Press but said he fired a campaign staffer who may have been responsible for it.

County Republican Chairman Scott Baugh, however, said that after speaking with state investigators and the company that distributed the mailer, he believes Nguyen had direct knowledge of 'obnoxious and reprehensible' letter. He told the AP that the party's executive committee voted unanimously to urge Nguyen to drop out of the race against Democratic U.S. Rep. Loretta Sanchez."

(Via Salon.)

No Further Tests, North Korea Reportedly Tells China

2006-10-20T09:36:00.000-04:00

No Further Tests, North Korea Reportedly Tells China: "Thousands of citizens and soldiers rallied Friday in the North Korean capital to cheer the country's recent nuclear test, North Korea's official news agency reported.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, meanwhile, was reported to have told a visiting Chinese delegation that the communist nation wasn't planning more nuclear tests."

(Via NY Times.)

North Korea plutonium test confirmed

2006-10-18T00:37:00.000-04:00

ArmsControlWonk: North Korea plutonium test confirmed: "The Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a very short statement confirming that the North Korean test was nuclear. Thom Shanker and David Sanger's article in the New York Times says that US intelligence has concluded that the test was a plutonium device, not uranium. Sig Hecker knows a thing or two about North Korea's plutonium (see p.5 of that link, paragraph starting with 'So they slid open the wooden box and inside were two glass jars &mdash two marmalade jars actually &mdash with screw on tops.')

...

The NYT article also has an interesting section on what this plutonium vs. uranium determination may mean politically. Uranium would mean Clinton messed up, plutonium suggests the error was on Bush's watch:

...

Unlike the Clinton administration in 1994, the current Bush administration chose not to threaten to destroy North Korea’s fuel and nuclear reprocessing facilities if they tried to make weapons.

Emphasis mine. In a particularly insightful comment on the same page:

"According to the unclassified November, 2002 CIA estimate here :

We assess that North Korea embarked on the effort to develop a centrifuge-based uranium enrichment program about two years ago.

Which would mean that the effort to develop a uranium enrichment program did not even start until the end of 2000. The estimate goes on to say that a uranium processing plant would not be fully operational until the middle of the decade, at the earliest."

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

N. Korea Apparently Preparing Nuke Test

2006-10-18T00:10:00.000-04:00

N. Korea Apparently Preparing Nuke Test: "SEOUL, South Korea Oct 17, 2006 (AP)— Satellite images indicate North Korea appears to be getting ready for a second nuclear test, officials said Tuesday, as the defiant communist regime held huge rallies and proclaimed that U.N. sanctions amount to a declaration of war.

China, the North's longtime ally and biggest trading partner, warned Pyongyang not to aggravate tensions. The U.N. has condemned the Oct. 9 atomic blast, and U.S. nuclear envoy Christopher Hill told reporters in Seoul on Tuesday that another nuclear explosion would be "a very belligerent answer" to the world."

(Via Google News.)

A Week of Bombings in Mindanao: Making Sense of It All

2006-10-17T00:14:00.000-04:00

A Week of Bombings in Mindanao: Making Sense of It All: "A spate of bombings rocked the southern Philippines over the past six days. The attacks have been clearly pinned on the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) operatives and should be seen as both an attempt to distract the attention of the security forces from their ongoing offensive in Jolo and as payback for the arrest of Dulmatin’s – the top JI operative in the Philippines – wife on 3 October.

1. The Attacks:
Ten people were killed and over 40 were wounded in a string of bombings across Mindanao and Jolo. In all, four bombs went off and three were defused. The first bomb went off in a crowded marketplace in Makilala, North Cotabato, and killed eight. The bomb was a cell phone-detonated 81-mm mortar round. A second bomb, hidden inside a black backpack, was defused in front of the Makilala municipal hall. That was followed by a bomb of a similar design in Tacurong, Sultan Kudarat. It was also placed in a market and killed two. A bomb twice as large was placed in front of the new shopping mall in Cotabato City, but failed to detonate, an apparent malfunction in its cell phone-detonator. On Sunday, three people were wounded when a bomb went off at a police camp in Jolo. That same day a bomb was defused in a crowded market in Padian, Zamboanga del Sur. That bomb was fairly sophisticated and one press report described it as made of “ammunition from a rocket-propelled grenade, 60-mm. mortar, and 40-mm. and M203 plastic pipe with TNT flakes, one kilo of mixed TNT flakes with ammonium nitrate, blasting caps, and an alarm clock in a backpack.” An M79 grenade went off in the marketplace, but there were no casualties as the police had cleared the area."

(Via The Counterterrorism Blog.)

Bush Keeps Revising War Justification

2006-10-16T13:56:00.000-04:00

Bush Keeps Revising War Justification : "President Bush keeps revising his explanation for why the U.S. is in Iraq, moving from narrow military objectives at first to history-of-civilization stakes now.

Initially, the rationale was specific: to stop Saddam Hussein from using what Bush claimed were the Iraqi leader's weapons of mass destruction or from selling them to al-Qaida or other terrorist groups.

But 3 1/2 years later, with no weapons found, still no end in sight and the war a liability for nearly all Republicans on the ballot Nov. 7, the justification has become far broader and now includes the expansive 'struggle between good and evil.'

Republicans seized on North Korea's reported nuclear test last week as further evidence that the need for strong U.S. leadership extends beyond Iraq.

Bush's changing rhetoric reflects increasing administration efforts to tie the war, increasingly unpopular at home, with the global fight against terrorism, still the president's strongest suit politically."

(Via Salon.)

DPRK Test: What About that Radionuclide Data?

2006-10-13T17:48:00.000-04:00

ArmsControlWonk: DPRK Test: What About that Radionuclide Data?: "NHK and Yonhap have both reported on what Japan and South Korea have found in the atmosphere after the DPRK’s Monday test: bagel.

According to NHK:

Japan’s 47 prefectures say no radioactive substances have been detected at any measuring points in a survey conducted one day after North Korea’s claimed nuclear test.

The prefectures took samples of dust and rain from the air on Tuesday as part of an emergency government monitoring program.

They say the survey shows no trace of radioactive substances peculiar to a nuclear explosion, and that air radiation levels are normal.

Other government checks, including an air survey of radioactive substances from a Self-Defense Forces’ training plane, have also shown no unusual data."

It looks like they were too aggressive in their development, and their big test failed because of it.

(Via ArmsControlWonk.com.)

Sorry just won’t cover it. . . .

2006-10-11T15:22:00.000-04:00

Sorry just won’t cover it. . . .: "British Medical Journal Lancet publishes a study on the number of Iraqi deaths caused by our invasion:

The death toll among Iraqis as a result of the US-led invasion has now reached an estimated 655,000, a study in the Lancet medical journal reports today.

The figure for the number of deaths attributable to the conflict - which amounts to around 2.5% of the population - is at odds with figures cited by the US and UK governments and will cause a storm, but the Lancet says the work, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, has been examined and validated by four separate independent experts who all urged publication.

In October 2004, the same researchers published a study estimating that 100,000 Iraqis had died as a result of the war since the beginning of the March 2003 invasion, a figure that was hugely controversial. Their new study, they say, reaffirms the accuracy of their survey of two years ago and moves it on."

(Via Martini Republic.)