A new low for Giuliani

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...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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

: "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

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

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.)