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26 May 2004
General in Abuse Scandal Replaced
By Rory McCarthy
The Guardian (UK), 26 May 2004
EXCERPT: Washington is to replace its most senior general in Iraq, Ricardo
Sanchez, after he came under intense political pressure to explain the
prison abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib. Lt Gen Sanchez is likely to be replaced
by a much more senior commander, probably a four-star general, according to
reports in the American press. Gen Sanchez has been pressed to explain
exactly how much he knew of the abusive treatment meted out by to Iraqi
prisoners over the past year. He has also been criticised for allowing
military intelligence officers to have control over "high-value" Iraqi
suspects in prison. US administration officials said the decision to move
Gen Sanchez had been under con sideration for several months, before the Abu
Ghraib scandal broke. But doubt has been cast over his next posting. He was
to have led the prestigious US Southern Command in Miami, but a posting of
that importance would have entailed confirmation hearings in the Senate at a
time when Gen Sanchez's role in the Abu Ghraib scandal is still mired in
controversy.
U.S. Civilian Working at Abu Ghraib
Disputes Army's Version of His Role in Abuses
By JOEL BRINKLEY
New York Times, 26 May 2004
EXCERPT: John B. Israel, an Iraqi-American Christian and one of two civilian
contractors implicated in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, returned home to
California a few weeks ago and, until Monday, was living quietly with his
wife, Rosa. In an interview on Monday at their home in Santa Clarita,
Calif., Ms. Israel said that her husband had not even hired a lawyer. Mr.
Israel, who was born in Baghdad in 1955, was one of three Iraqi-Americans
working as translators at Abu Ghraib. The Army report on the abuses
described him as "either directly or indirectly responsible for the abuses
at Abu Ghraib."
SEE ALSO:
Who Would Try Civilians of U.S.? No One in
Iraq
By ADAM LIPTAK
New York Times, 26 May 2004
EXCERPT: Though civilian translators and interrogators may have participated
in the abuse at Abu Ghraib prison, prosecuting them will present challenges,
legal experts say, because such civilians working for the military are
subject to neither Iraqi nor military justice. On the basis of a referral
from the Pentagon, the Justice Department opened an investigation on Friday
into the conduct of one civilian contractor in Iraq, who has not been
identified. "We remain committed to taking all appropriate action within our
jurisdiction regarding allegations of mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners," Mark
Corallo, a Justice Department spokesman, said in a statement. Prosecuting
civilian contractors in United States courts would be "fascinating and
enormously complicated," said Deborah N. Pearlstein, director of the U.S.
law and security program of Human Rights First. It is clear, on the other
hand, that neither Iraqi courts nor American courts-martial are available.
In June 2003, L. Paul Bremer III, the chief American administrator in Iraq,
granted broad immunity to civilian contractors and their employees. They
were, he wrote, generally not subject to criminal and civil actions in the
Iraqi legal system, including arrest and detention.
An Eye on Power
By Bill Moyers
TomPaine.com, 24 May 2004
EXCERPT: The secrecy today is so thick as to be all but impenetrable. In
earlier times there were padlocks for the presses and jail cells for
outspoken editors and writers as our governing bodies tried to squelch
journalistic freedom with blunt instruments of the law. Now, the
classifier's 'top secret' stamp, used indiscriminately, is as potent a
silencer as a writ of arrest. It's so bad the president and CEO of the
Associated Press, Tom Curley, last week called publicly for a media advocacy
center to lobby in Washington for an open government. "You don't need to
have your notebook snatched by a policeman," he said, "to know that keeping
an eye on government has lately gotten a lot harder." With little public
debate congress gives government agencies the right to search your home,
office, telephone logs, e-mails, medical records, restaurant receipts, even
banking and credit card information without your consent or knowledge. The
president signs an executive order postponing thousands of declassified
documents that are 25 years old or more. He signs another executive order
sending hundreds of millions of tax dollars to religious organizations with
no obligation to show us where the money's going or how it's being used. For
the first time in history the vice president is given the power to decide
what is classified and what is not. Behind closed doors, key environmental
protections are shredded and in the middle of the night, without so much as
a single fingerprint left in the margin, an anonymous hand inserts into an
omnibus bill a loophole providing billions of dollars in subsidies to
powerful clients. Secrecy poisons democracy and there is only one antidote.
When a student asked the journalist Richard Reeves to define "real news," he
answered, "It's the news we need to keep our freedom." It's not just
government that's squeezing out this news. Some of the media giants are
doing it themselves. As they consolidate ownership they are shrinking their
news holes, isolating public affairs far from prime-time. A study by Mark
Cooper of the Consumer Federation of America reports that nearly two-thirds
of today's newspaper markets are monopolies. Take a look at a recent book
called Leaving Readers Behind: The Age of Corporate Newspapering, published
as part of the project on the state of the American newspaper under the
auspices of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the leadership of Gene Roberts,
the former managing editor of The New York Times . The report describes "a
furious unprecedented blitz of buying, selling, and consolidating of
newspapers from the mightiest daily to the humblest weeklies."
Delusions of Triumph
By PAUL KRUGMAN
New York Times, 25 May 2004
EXCERPT: Republicans, we hear, are frustrated by polls showing that the
public has a poor opinion of George Bush's economic leadership. In their
view, the good news about Mr. Bush's economic triumphs is being drowned out
by the bad news from Iraq. ...Funny, isn't it? In 2002, Republican
strategists used the impending Iraq war to distract the public from the
miserable economic news. Now they're complaining that Iraq is taking voters'
focus off the economy. But is the economic news really that good? No. While
the recent economic performance is better than in the administration's first
three years, it isn't at all exceptional by historical standards. And after
those three terrible years, the economy has a lot of ground to make up.
...Here's one way to look at it. The job forecast in the 2002 Economic
Report of the President assumed that by 2004 the economy would have fully
recovered from the 2001 recession. That recovery, according to the official
projection, would lead to average payroll employment of 138 million this
year 7 million more than the actual number. So we have a gap of 7 million
jobs to make up. And employment is chasing a moving target: it must rise by
about 140,000 a month just to keep up with a growing population. In April,
the economy added 288,000 jobs. If you do the math, you discover that
President Bush needs about four years of job growth at last month's rate to
reach what his own economists consider full employment. The bottom line,
then, is that Mr. Bush's supporters have no right to complain about the
public's failure to appreciate his economic leadership. Three years of lousy
performance, followed by two months of good but not great job growth, is not
a record to be proud of.
Spain Had Doubts Before U.S. Held Lawyer
in Madrid Blasts
By SARAH KERSHAW and ERIC LICHTBLAU
New York Times, 26 May 2004
EXCERPT: Days after the train bombings in Madrid last March killed 191
people, the Spanish authorities, unable to find a match with a set of
fingerprints found on a plastic bag full of detonators, sent the Federal
Bureau of Investigation a digital copy, hoping the bureau could find what
they could not. The F.B.I. quickly and confidently found a match to a
Portland-area lawyer, setting in motion a chain of events that led the
authorities in the United States to link the wrong man to those
fingerprints, tie him to Islamic terrorists, arrest him on a
material-witness warrant, jail him for 14 days, drop the entire case on
Monday and then face withering questions about how the investigation could
have gone so wrong. Court records unsealed Tuesday showed that the Spanish
authorities had raised questions about the F.B.I.'s fingerprint match to the
lawyer, Brandon Mayfield, 37, weeks before his May 6 arrest. Yet F.B.I.
officials were so confident of a match they described as "100 percent," the
court papers show, that they never bothered to look at the original print
while they were in Madrid on April 21, meeting with Spanish investigators.
...Muslim groups attacked the F.B.I. for its handling of the Mayfield case
and accused it of ethnic profiling, bureau officials said that his status as
a Muslim had nothing to do with the case against him.
Dangers of a
'faith-based' foreign policy
Bush's Epic Gamble
By DAVID BROOKS
New York Times, 2004
EXCERPT: Last night, George Bush made it clear that American military
victories alone will not secure Iraq. We keep winning victories, but somehow
the violence just keeps on coming. Furthermore, American nation-building
will not secure Iraq. We've tried to pour money into Iraq, to build a decent
nation and then hand it back gift-wrapped to the Iraqi people. But that
turns out not to work either. The longer we keep control, the bigger the
mess grows. The only real way to secure Iraq, Bush argued, is through
self-governing democracy. Only representative self-government denies the
terrorists the pretext they need to kill. It is only through the mundane
acts of democratic citizenship that Iraqis will be able to build a civil
society. It is only through self-government that Iraq can become secure. The
political transition Bush described implies an infinitude of concrete acts.
The 400 parties that now exist in Iraq will have to meld into just a few.
Conferences will convene, and people will debate. Politicians will vie for
power; petitions will be signed; protests will be lodged. That, Bush
implied, is the only practical path to normalcy. It's a huge gamble to think
that the solution to chaos is liberty. But it's fitting that during the
gravest crisis of his presidency, President Bush reverted to his most
fundamental political belief. He began this war in Iraq repeating the
sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence, that our creator has
endowed all human beings with the right to liberty, and the ability to
function as democratic citizens. He said last night with absolute confidence
that the Iraqis are democrats at heart. Bush is betting his presidency, and
the near-term future of this nation, on that central American creed.
Pentagon Reportedly Scraps Boeing Tanker
Deal
By REUTERS, 25 May 2004
EXCERPT: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has decided to scrap a $23.5
billion Air Force plan to lease and buy 100 Boeing Co. aerial refueling
tankers, congressional and defense sources said Tuesday. Rumsfeld ordered
two more studies on the need to replace the current fleet of aging KC-135
tankers to be completed by Nov. 1, which would allow funding to be included
in the Bush administration's fiscal-year 2006 budget request, the sources
said. Pentagon officials called lawmakers on Tuesday to inform them of the
decision, noting that even if a formal analysis of the alternatives
recommended leasing tankers, the Air Force deal with Chicago-based Boeing
would have to be renegotiated.
When Advocates Become Regulators
President Bush has installed more than 100 top officials who were once
lobbyists, attorneys or spokespeople for the industries they oversee.
By Anne C. Mulkern
Denver Post, 23 May 2004
Courtesy of DavidSirota.com
EXCERPT: ...more than 100 high-level officials under Bush who helped govern
industries they once represented as lobbyists, lawyers or company advocates,
a Denver Post analysis shows. In at least 20 cases, those former industry
advocates have helped their agencies write, shape or push for policy shifts
that benefit their former industries. They knew which changes to make
because they had pushed for them as industry advocates. The president's
political appointees are making or overseeing profound changes affecting
drug laws, food policies, land use, clean-air regulations and other key
issues. Government watchdogs call it a disturbing trend, not adequately
restrained by existing ethics laws. Among the advocates-turned-regulators
are a former meat-industry lobbyist who helps decide how meat is labeled; a
former drug-company lobbyist who influences prescription-drug policies; a
former energy lobbyist who, while still accepting payments for bringing
clients into his old lobbying firm, helps determine how much of the West
those former clients can use for oil and gas drilling. "When you go to work
in lobbying, it is clearly understood and accepted that your job is to
advocate for the interests of those who hired you," said Terry L. Cooper, a
University of Southern California ethics and government professor. "When you
go to work in government, you are supposed to be responsible for upholding
and maintaining whatever you can identify as the public interest." The
Bush administration says the regulators were chosen for their abilities.
Watchdog Group Report: Most NPR Sources
are Conservative
By Peter Goodman
Newsday via Common Dreams, 25 May 2004
EXCERPT: Despite a perception that National Public Radio is politically
liberal, the majority of its sources are actually Republicans and
conservatives, according to a survey released today by Fairness and Accuracy
in Reporting, a left-leaning media watchdog. "Republicans not only had a
substantial partisan edge," according to a report accompanying the survey,
"individual Republicans were NPR's most popular sources overall, taking the
top seven spots in frequency of appearance." In addition, representatives of
right-of-center think tanks outnumbered their leftist counterparts by more
than four to one, FAIR reported. Citing comments dating to the Nixon
administration in the 1970s, the report said, "That NPR harbors a liberal
bias is an article of faith among many conservatives." However, it added,
"Despite the commonness of such claims, little evidence has ever been
presented for a left bias at NPR."
25 May 2004
Plan? Not
exactly!
With Time Running Out, Bush Tries a Five Point Shot
The White House, 24 May 2004
EXCERPT FROM BUSH WAR COLLEGE SPEECH: Our coalition has a clear goal,
understood by all -- to see the Iraqi people in charge of Iraq for the first
time in generations. America's task in Iraq is not only to defeat an enemy,
it is to give strength to a friend - a free, representative government that
serves its people and fights on their behalf. And the sooner this goal is
achieved, the sooner our job will be done. There are five steps in our plan
to help Iraq achieve democracy and freedom. We will hand over authority to a
sovereign Iraqi government, help establish security, continue rebuilding
Iraq's infrastructure, encourage more international support, and move toward
a national election that will bring forward new leaders empowered by the
Iraqi people.
SEE ALSO:
Bush Outlines Plan for Returning Sovereignty to
Iraq (NPR)
Pentagon Failed to Provide Congress with
the Complete Taguba Report
NPR Morning Edition, 25 May 2004
Staffers on the Senate Armed Services Committee say hundreds or possibly
thousands of pages are missing from copies they received of Maj. Gen.
Antonio Taguba's report on Iraqi prisoner abuses. Some committee staffers
question whether the Pentagon is complying with the panel's hearings on the
abuses in good faith. NPR's David Welna reports.
SEE ALSO:
No. 2 Army General to Move In as Top U.S.
Commander in Iraq
By ERIC SCHMITT and THOM SHANKER
New York Times, 24 May 2004
EXCERPT: The top American officer in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, will
leave his command this summer, to be replaced by the Army's second-ranking
general, senior Pentagon officials said Monday. The change is part of an
overhaul of the American command structure in Iraq that will put a
higher-ranking officer in charge. Pentagon officials said that replacing
General Sanchez with the Army vice chief of staff, Gen. George W. Casey Jr.,
in no way reflected on General Sanchez's handling of the widening
prisoner-abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison, outside of Baghdad, which was
under his authority.
Bush Can't Win Election Now; Kerry Can
Only Lose It
A softly-softly long game will put a Democrat in the White House
By Martin Kettle
The Guardian, 25 May 2004
EXCERPT: Whoever said that misfortunes come in threes must have had George
Bush in mind these past few days. First the US president falls off his
mountain bike and grazes his face. Then Michael Moore's anti-Bush movie gets
the top prize at the Cannes film festival. And now, to cap a lousy weekend,
it looks as if Bush is going to lose the election in November. ... The
fundamental justification for saying this is the fact that the US opinion
polls have gone into a new and different phase for Bush in the past month or
so. It's not simply that Kerry has moved slightly ahead of him in the most
recent polling - although he has, by between two and five points in most May
surveys. It's that some of the broader trends in public opinion are making
things significantly less favourable for Bush and more favourable for Kerry.
As evidence, have a look at the answers to one of Zogby International's
questions to American voters 10 days ago. Do you think the United States is
headed on the right track or on the wrong track, Zogby asked? In April, 49
per cent said wrong track, against 44 per cent who said right track. By May,
however, the "wrong track" score had risen to 54% and the "right track"
score had fallen to 40 per cent. That is a big swing on an indicator that
normally spells bad news for an incumbent. Turning it around is no easy
task. But something similar also appears to be happening in a shift that the
Democratic party pollster Stan Greenberg reported last week. Was the war in
Iraq worth the cost of US lives and dollars, or not worth it, Greenberg
asked? At the end of March, 48 per cent of Americans thought it was worth
the cost, against 47 per cent who thought it wasn't. Two months on, 55 per
cent think the war was not worth it, with those who think it was now down to
41 per cent. That's another big shift. This is beginning to look like a
critical mass.
SEE ALSO:
The Man Who Should Be President
(BushWhackedUSA: The Blog)
Of Mice and Men: Administration Lied About
Air Quality at Ground Zero
By Matt Bivens
The Nation, 24 May 2004
EXCERPT: "Mice exposed to WTC dust showed ... marked bronchial
hyperreactivity." -- from "Health and Environmental Consequences of the
World Trade Center Disaster," May 2004. The above-cited study, from the
journal Environmental Health Perspectives, makes for chilling reading.
Because mice weren't the main victims of World Trade Center dust -- that
toxic cocktail launched into the air of New York city by 90,000 liters of
jet fuel burning at above 1,000 degrees Celsius, and then by the collapse of
the towers. New Yorkers were breathing soot, metals, hydrochloric acid;
cement dust, glass fibers, asbestos; lead, PCBs, dioxins and more. In fact,
air sampling of the plume of smoke rising from the site found it to have a
pH level of 9 or 10 -- roughly that of ammonia. So what happens when New
Yorkers for miles around are breathing in acids and asbestos and worse? The
study reports that pregnant women within a 10-block radius of the trade
center at the time of the 9/11 attack were twice as likely to have
smaller-than-average babies. It reports that 332 fire fighters have had to
take more than a month's medical leave over severe coughs and respiratory
symptoms (termed "World Trade Center cough" in their medical files). In
general, it finds, many previously healthy persons living near Ground Zero
began to experience coughing, wheezing and shortness of breath. And it notes
that 3,000 children lived within 1 kilometer of the site -- which burned for
more than three months -- and that 5,500 children went to school there.
They'll need close watching, too.
One of a Kind: Bill Moyers Wins Another
Peabody
AP, 24 May 2004
EXCERPT: Displaying what's been called "a soft, probing style," Moyers
investigates the world from the eye of the storm. His is the sort of calm,
reasoned perspective that has never been needed more from the media -- for,
increasingly, it's the media that call the shots on what we know. "This is a
media environment we live in," Moyers said. "The media is our habitat."
Unfortunately, fewer and bigger companies lay claim to our media-habitat.
Moyers has been a lonely but defiant voice alerting citizens to the growing
control of media conglomerates. The noose drew a bit tighter with the recent
marriage of Universal Studios and NBC (part of the vast General Electric
empire). The NBC Universal slogan is "Imagine the Possibilities." Moyers
doesn't have to imagine. He has long called attention to the impact of Big
Media on the democratic process and on news organizations that report on it.
And although he has secured a large measure of independence by raising funds
to finance his own production company, Moyers worries for his journalist
brethren, including those at NBC News and CBS News, where he has worked in
the past. "On the whole," he said, "journalists today work for news
divisions that are owned by big corporations that have business with the
government, and want to please the government." The result increasingly is
what he terms "a cartel of corporations and political powers that determines
what is heard, seen and read." For Moyers, these are possibilities that
every citizen should imagine, before it's too late.
White House Not Doing Enough to
Secure Weapons Materials, Analysts Say
Report Urges Tighter Nuclear Controls
By Peter Slevin
Washington Post, 24 May 2004
EXCERPT: Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. wondered aloud one day in 2002 whether
someone could build an atomic weapon from parts available on the open
market. His audience, the leaders of the government's nuclear laboratories,
said it could be done. Then do it, the Delaware Democrat, then chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, instructed the scientists in a
confidential session. A few months later, they returned to the soundproof
Senate meeting room with a workable nuclear weapon, missing only the fissile
material. "It was bigger than a breadbox and smaller than a dump truck, but
they were able to get it in," Biden said in a recent speech. The scientists
"explained how -- literally off the shelf, without doing anything illegal --
they actually constructed this device." The relative ease with which U.S.
scientists built an explosive nuclear weapon illustrates the need to secure
plutonium and highly enriched uranium scattered in armories and research
sites around the world, a pair of Harvard University researchers argue in a
new study that contends the Bush administration is not doing enough.
Is Missile Defense Really Needed?
San Francisco Chronicle, 23 May 2004
EXCERPT: President Ronald Reagan had a dream. Let's build a missile shield
that will protect us from our enemy's nuclear missiles. In popular culture,
we called it Star Wars and ever since, our country has been spending
billions of dollars to try to create an anti-ballistic missile system. Now,
the Bush administration plans to deploy a national missile defense system in
California and Alaska that has already cost $130 billion. This year, the
Bush budget calls for spending yet another $10.2 billion. But who is the
enemy? If it's North Korea, diplomatic reassurance that we will not invade
that country will work better than a still unproven missile system. If it's
China, why have we given them "most-favored nation" trade status? If it's
Iran, they do not have the nuclear material or the missiles with which to
attack the United States. If it's al Qaeda, no missile shield will protect
us from a dirty bomb, the dispersion of biological or chemical weapons or
suicide bombers who decide to detonate themselves in our shopping malls. But
the real problem with the missile shield is that scientists say there is
virtually no proof that we Americans have gotten anything for our billions
of dollars. Nevertheless, President Bush is determined to get Star Wars up
and running by Sept. 30, before the presidential election. ...Star Wars,
like the war in Iraq, is a military choice, not a necessity. We don't need
more weapons to secure our future. What we need are solutions to the ethnic
and religious clashes and political and economic inequities that divide the
people on this planet.
Average Gas Price Hits New Record
Reuters, 23 May 2004
EXCERPT: The average U.S. retail gasoline price hit $2.0744 a gallon on May
21 amid higher crude oil prices and U.S. demand, and may rise further if oil
production is kept low, an industry analyst said on Sunday. The national
average for self-serve regular unleaded gas jumped more than 14 cents per
gallon from two weeks ago, according to the nationwide Lundberg survey of
about 8,000 gasoline stations. The price has spiked 59 cents per gallon
since its recent lows on Dec. 19 and is about 55 cents higher than a year
ago, according to the survey. Survey editor Trilby Lundberg does not foresee
any key factors changing in the near term that could bring gasoline prices
down such as a crash in crude oil prices or significant reduction in demand.
Poll: Iraq Taking Toll On Bush
CBS News, 24 May 2004
EXCERPT: Growing public concern about the war in Iraq, the coming handover
of power to Iraqis on June 30, and the prisoner abuse scandals there, have
taken their toll on evaluations of President George W. Bush. And the last
few weeks have provided no good news on the domestic front: Americans have
lackluster expectations for the economy, and the new worry of rising gas
prices. The Presidents approval rating has dropped to a new low of 41
percent, and more than six in ten say the country is heading in the wrong
direction. There is another good reason for the Presidents series of
speeches on plans for Iraq, the first of which takes place tonight. Even
though opinions of Bushs Democratic challenger, Senator John Kerry, havent
changed much, Bushs troubles have given Kerry a clear lead in the horserace
-- if the November election were being held today. Independent voters seem
to have been especially affected. Overall, 49 percent of registered voters
now say they would vote for Kerry, 41 percent for Bush.
Bushs overall job approval rating has continued to decline. 41 percent
approve of the job he is doing as President, while 52 percent disapprove --
the lowest overall job rating of his presidency. Two weeks ago, 44 percent
approved. A year ago, nearly two-thirds did.
The Ultimate Insider
Richard N. Perle's Many Business Ventures Followed His Years as a Defense
Official
By David S. Hilzenrath
Washington Post, 24 May 2004
EXCERPT: On one level, Perle's business career is like those of many former
Washington officials who used the expertise and contacts gained in
government to carve niches in the corporate world. But more than most, Perle
also has maintained an active public policy role. Perle, 62, is best known
in recent years for his advocacy of war with Iraq and tough measures to
fight terrorism. Over the weekend, Perle was trying to rally support for
Ahmed Chalabi, the embattled head of the Iraqi National Congress, who for
years Perle has backed. Perle also is an author and lecturer, a resident
fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and was a foreign policy adviser
to George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign.
SEE ALSO:
A Tragedy of Errors
(The Nation)
24 May 2004
Prospect of remarkably huge windfalls...
Wall Street Firms Funnel Millions to Bush
Finance Sector Produces Surge of Cash to President Who Cut Taxes on
Dividends, Gains
By Thomas B. Edsall and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post, 24 may 2004
EXCERPT: At Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., a suggestion from chief executive E.
Stanley O'Neal is not to be taken lightly. O'Neal eliminated 24,000 jobs,
froze pay and steadily pushed out competitors for executive power, including
colleagues who had championed his rise up the corporate ladder. "Ruthless,"
O'Neal has reportedly told colleagues, "isn't always bad." So it came as no
surprise that when O'Neal sent letters to senior executives at Merrill Lynch
in early June asking them to contribute to President Bush's reelection
campaign, the response was prompt and generous. Between June 12 and June 30
of last year, the Bush-Cheney campaign was inundated with 157 checks from
Merrill Lynch executives and at least 20 from their spouses; 140 checks were
for the maximum allowed by law: $2,000. Total take generated by the O'Neal
letter: $279,750 in less than three weeks. When that total is combined with
the rest of the money contributed to Bush by employees during the current
election cycle, Merrill Lynch personnel have given $459,050, according to
Dwight Morris & Associates, which studies political money. The money flowing
from Merrill Lynch employees is part of a $12.14 million tidal wave of cash
to the Bush campaign from the finance and insurance sectors.
The administration has proposed the creation of "Lifetime Savings Accounts,"
to which any individual could contribute as much as $7,500 a year. The
capital gains, dividends and interest earned in the accounts would be free
of taxation, and the money could be withdrawn at any time for any reason.
The proposed savings accounts contrast sharply with existing tax-free
accounts, which are often restricted to lower- and middle-income savers,
have much lower annual contribution limits and can be accessed only for
certain expenditures, such as retirement, education and health care. Under
the proposal, a family of four could shield earnings of as much as $30,000 a
year from taxation. That would, in effect, eliminate capital gains, dividend
and interest taxation for most families. The median pre-tax income for a
family of four is $63,278, and only very high-income families could afford
to put as much as $30,000 annually into a tax-free savings account. In a
major boon for Wall Street, the new accounts would make traditional bank
accounts all but obsolete. The Securities Industry Association (SIA) firmly
backs the proposal. "Lifetime Savings Accounts will allow people to save
more of their money tax-free," said Richard Hunt, SIA senior vice president
for federal policy. "SIA has strongly advocated the expansion and
enhancement of savings and investment options available to Americans," the
organization said in a statement. Bush's plans for Social Security are
potentially even more lucrative for the securities industry. The president
has repeatedly said he would like to allow individuals to divert some
percentage of their Social Security taxes into personal investment accounts,
which in many cases would be managed by financial services firms. The idea
-- a centerpiece of Bush's 2000 campaign -- has gone nowhere. But White
House economic policy aides have said Social Security reform could become
the crowning domestic achievement of a Bush second term.
SEE ALSO:
Spheres of Influence: The Bush Campaign Pioneers
(Washington Post)
Journalists Subpoenaed in CIA Leak Case
By Scott Spoerry
CNN, 22 May 2004
EXCERPT: Two journalists, including NBC's Tim Russert, have been subpoenaed
by the Justice Department in the investigation into who leaked the name of a
covert CIA operative, according to the journalists' media outlets. Russert,
host of NBC's "Meet the Press," and Time Magazine columnist Mathew Cooper
received subpoenas from investigators trying to learn who disclosed the
identity of Valerie Plame, wife of former U.S. diplomat Joseph Wilson.
Wilson, a longtime career Foreign Service officer with expertise in African
affairs, believes his wife's name was leaked by Bush administration
officials in retaliation for his criticism of the administration.
Bush's Uncle Runs 'Terror Bank'
Max Blumenthal (blog), 23 May 2004
EXCERPT: If this doesn't raise questions about how the Bush family's
financial interests have dictated US foreign policy, I don't know what will:
The Treasury Department has fined Riggs Bank in DC $25 million for violating
money laundering laws. This stems from an investigation into Riggs' failure
to report bank accounts used to finance terrorism. One of those accounts
belongs to Princess Haifa al-Faisal, the wife of Saudi ambassador Prince
Bandar al-Sultan. According to the Washington Post, she may have used
a Riggs account to donate money to a charity that then gave some of it to
the Sept. 11 terrorists. The CEO of Riggs' investment arm is Jonathan Bush,
George W. Bush's uncle. Jonathan Bush is a Bush "pioneer" because he donated
over $100,000 to the Bush 2000 campaign. The federal investigation into
Riggs also centered on whether US oil companies had used the bank as a
conduit for bribes to Equatorial Guinea's dictator, Teodoro Obiang. I find
it interesting that despite Obiang's record as torturer and mass murderer,
Bush has courted him as a major ally.
Wall Street to Toast Its G.O.P. Overseers
During Convention
By Michael Slackman
New York Times, 21 May 2004
EXCERPT: Despite the talk about protesters overwhelming the Republican
National Convention in New York City this summer, one sector of the city is
rolling out the red carpet: Wall Street and its investment banks. They are
showering the conventioneers with money for parties and other events to make
the Republicans feel right at home. Some of the main parties will be for
Republican members of Congress who oversee the financial services industry.
There will be brunches, dinners, dancing and late-night concerts for the
conventioneers throughout the city. One of the most celebrated guests will
be Representative Michael G. Oxley of Ohio, chairman of the House Committee
on Financial Services, which oversees Wall Street, banks and the insurance
industry. Mr. Oxley will be toasted at a dinner party in the Rainbow Room,
at a loft with sweeping views of the Hudson River and at a financial
services round- table brunch, according to people who work in the financial
industry, who say their firms plan to contribute to the three events. But
the partying does not stop there.
SEE ALSO:
Pioneers Fill War Chest, Then Capitalize
(WP)
Book Excerpt
The Big Lie
By Nicholas von Hoffman
TomDispatch, 23 May 2004
EXCERPT: Americans believed, as they usually do when their government
and their television tell them something, but the rest of the world laughed
every time George Bush or Colin Powell or Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld
thought up yet one more scary reason to invade Iraq. The ill-constructed,
clumsy untruths were surprisingly crude for people who have had years to
practice the craft of mass deception, and they had only to speak their
latest falsehood to be cheered by their countrymen and disbelieved by
non-Americans everywhere. It's not easy to pull off the Big Lie and George
Bush failed; though, in mitigation, pulling off a bait-and-switch war
demands skillful finagling and this one was complicated. There was the bait
(terrorism), then the switch (weapons of mass destruction), then a switch
again (kill the dictator), and yet again (regime change). A politician has
to be an accomplished teller of tall tales and absurd fibulations to bring
off such a demarchi. Even the masters of mass prevarication occasionally
fail.
Playing Dirty: The Cloak and Dagger World
of Political Campaigns
By Joshua Green
The Atlantic, June 2004 issue
EXCERPT: As voters turn their attention toward the coming
presidential election, an abiding question from the previous one frustrates
Democrats: How is it, they wonder, that Al Gore told small fibs and was
branded a liar while George W. Bush told big ones and was elected President?
Gore's many exaggerations may have been foolishthat he had somehow invented
the Internet, that he grew up on a Tennessee farm, and so on. But surely,
this line of thinking goes, they paled alongside Bush's audacious claim that
he could cut taxes by $1.3 trillion, effortlessly privatize Social Security,
and still balance the budget. ... A decade ago opposition research was
largely the domain of college kids. Today it is a profession run by seasoned
investigators, most of whom learned their craft on one side or another of
the Clinton scandals (Comstock, Griffin, and David Bossie for the
Republicans; Lehane, his partner Mark Fabiani, and Kerry's research director
Mike Gehrke for the Democrats). The elite purveyors of "personal
destruction" whom Clinton both feared and employed have become the leading
lights in the low-lit world of opposition research. The prosecutorial
tactics and general savagery honed during the Clinton years are the
hallmarks of their work. Instead of at high-profile congressional hearings,
these battles are conducted from the shadows and waged mostly through the
media. As the 2000 election showed, Republicans are particularly adept
combatants. Moreover, in John Kerry they have the advantage of an opponent
who is largely undefined in the public's thinking. And as in 2000, the
election will depend a great deal on how successful Republicans are at the
dark art of opposition research.
Rightwing "Compassion"
Coalition Promoting Drug Discount Cards
By ROBERT PEAR
New York Times, 23 May 2004
EXCERPT: Experts cite various reasons for the low participation including
the fact that some people are not aware of the programs. In some states,
applicants face several bureaucratic hurdles to qualify for benefits. Some
states already have state-financed programs to help low-income people with
their drug costs. The Bush administration recently decided that hundreds of
thousands of Medicare beneficiaries in these programs in Connecticut,
Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts
could automatically qualify for the subsidy of $600 a year. The
administration is considering whether to allow automatic enrollment for
other low-income Medicare beneficiaries. Democrats recently introduced
legislation that would require President Bush to take that step. "There is
growing evidence that the savings offered via the drug discount card may be
minimal or illusory," said Senator Jeff Bingaman, Democrat of New Mexico,
the sponsor of the Senate bill. "The only clear benefit is the $600 in
transitional assistance. Unfortunately, very few low-income people even know
it exists."
22-23 May 2004
Bush attempts to make lemonade
President Plans Drive To Rescue Iraq Policy
Speeches, U.N. Action Will Focus on Future
By Robin Wright
Washington Post, 23 May 2004
EXCERPT: "There's a sense that this week is our chance to create some
movement in a different direction. We'll start talking about the future, not
the past, by focusing on the U.N. resolution and [U.N. envoy Lakhdar]
Brahimi's transition process. Sure there'll still be plenty of arguments,
but it will be about the future, and that's a healthy change," said a senior
State Department official who would speak only on condition of anonymity.
The diplomatic campaign is a response to serious reversals over the
past two months and to growing turmoil. Last week alone, the U.S.-appointed
president of the Iraqi Governing Council was assassinated and a cabinet
official was almost killed in a suicide bombing; in a disputed episode, more
than 40 people were killed by U.S. troops at what Iraqis said was a wedding
party; and 16 arrest warrants were issued for aides or associates of Ahmed
Chalabi, a longtime Pentagon favorite to help lead postwar Iraq, on charges
related to financial issues, leading him to sever ties with the U.S.-led
coalition.
The road ahead could get bumpier. France and Germany are urging that
any new U.N. resolution stipulate a cutoff date for U.S. and foreign forces
in Iraq. And negotiations by the U.N. and U.S. envoys in charge of
identifying a new president, prime minister, two vice presidents and more
than two dozen cabinet ministers have been complicated by a Kurdish threat
not to participate unless a Kurd gets one of the two top positions.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.)
criticized Bush's plans for Iraq's future as imprecise. "I am very hopeful
that the president and his administration will articulate precisely what is
going to happen as much as they can, day by day, as opposed to a
generalization," the Associated Press quoted Lugar as saying yesterday at
Tufts University.
In the first of at least six presidential speeches on Iraq before June
30, Bush will particularly try to counter growing criticism that Washington
has lowered the goal posts for its year-long occupation, U.S. officials
said. Critics and Iraq experts have charged that the administration has
backed down from its original pledge to create a strong new democracy that
would be a catalyst for a broad political transformation in the Middle East
and is instead settling on an exit strategy that will leave a fragile
government unable to protect itself.
Kerry: "Did the training wheels fall off?"
Bush Falls on Bike Ride
President suffers minor scrapes during jaunt on his ranch
From Dana Bash
CNN, 22 May 2004
EXCERPT: President Bush fell off his bicycle Saturday while riding on his
ranch, according to White House spokesman Trent Duffy. ...Bush suffered
minor abrasions to his chin, upper lip, nose, right hand and both knees, but
was able to ride back home, Duffy said.
Moore's Anti-Bush Film Wins Cannes Prize
'Fahrenheit 9/11,' an Indictment of White House After Sept. 11 Attacks, Wins
Top Prize at Cannes
The Associated Press, 22 May 2004
EXCERPT: American filmmaker Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11," a scathing
indictment of White House actions after the Sept. 11 attacks, won the top
prize Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival. "Fahrenheit 9/11" was the first
documentary to win Cannes' prestigious Palme d'Or since Jacques Cousteau's
and Louis Malle's "The Silent World" in 1956. "What have you done? I'm
completely overwhelmed by this. Merci," Moore said after getting a standing
ovation from the Cannes crowd. ...Moore was momentarily flabbergasted when
he took the stage to accept the award, a big difference from his fiery
speech against President Bush after winning the best-documentary Academy
Award for 2002's "Bowling for Columbine." "You have to understand, the last
time I was on an awards stage, in Hollywood, all hell broke loose," Moore
said. ...Just back in Cannes after his daughter's college graduation in the
United States, Moore dedicated the award to "my daughter and to all the
children in America and Iraq and throughout the world who suffered through
our actions."
Hawks Eating Crow
By Eric Alterman
The Nation, 21 May 2004
EXCERPT: The Bush Administration has not made it easy on its supporters.
David Brooks now admits that he was gripped with a "childish fantasy" about
Iraq. Tucker Carlson is "ashamed" and "enraged" at himself. Tom Friedman,
admitting to being "a little slow," is finally off the reservation. Die-hard
Republican publicist William Kristol admits of Bush, "He did drive us into a
ditch." The neocon fantasist and sometime Republican speechwriter Mark
Helprin complains on the Wall Street Journal editorial page--the movement's
Pravda--of "the inescapable fact that the war has been run incompetently,
with an apparently deliberate contempt for history, strategy, and thought,
and with too little regard for the American soldier, whose mounting
casualties seem to have no effect on the boastfulness of the civilian
leadership." Most of the regretful hawks blame the Administration for its
failure to execute what they consider a noble endeavor. But it is a noble
endeavor only in the way it would be noble to give all your money to one of
those deposed Ethiopian princesses who fill your inbox with pleas to send
them all your money for a guarantee of future riches. In other words, yes,
while it might have been nice to liberate Iraq from Saddam's clutches, it
was a lot more likely that under Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Co., we would
end up arresting innocent people, holding them without trial and
systematically torturing and sexually humiliating them; all the while
saying, as the Daily Show's Rob Corddry so brilliantly put it, "Remember,
it's not important that we did torture these people. What's important is
that we are not the kind of people who would torture these people."
Wal-Mart Threat Fuels New Urban Politics
(Part IV in a series)
By Glen Ford and Peter Gamble
Black Commentator, 20 May 2004
EXCERPT: Great social movements may be sparked by outrage, but they are
sustained by dreams. For generations, Black folks dreamed of the death of
Jim Crow, finally marshalling extraordinary energies to end legal
segregation and, in the process, transform the nation. Now the tyranny of
concentrated wealth threatens to moot the democratic rights won so dearly,
forty years ago. In the previous era, the sum of many oppressions came to be
symbolized by the image of one man: Birmingham Police Commissioner Eugene
'Bull' Connor, the epitome of southern, racist state violence. Today, the
corporate-propelled economic Race to the Bottom has, not a face but, more
appropriately, a logo: that of Wal-Mart, the world's biggest and most
rapacious business. Like 'Bull' Connor, Wal-Mart's malevolence has
galvanized a deep and broad opposition. As Connor personified centuries of
racial oppression, Wal-Mart is truly the 'model' of predatory, global
capitalism, the destructive force that rezones American cities, sets wage
standards and even conducts diplomacy with other nations.
Bush Outsourced Fundraising & Voter
Operations
The Daily Mislead, 21 May 2004
EXCERPT: According to a new report, the Bush Administration has taken its
strong support for outsourcing further than previously thought -- opting to
move key political operations offshore. India's Hindustan Times reports
that, during a 14 month period from 2002 to 2003 when the Republican Party
was playing up patriotism, its fund-raising and vote-seeking campaign was
performed in part by two call centers located in India. According to the
report, the Republican National Committee shipped the India operation its
voter database for 125 local staff to use to "solicit political
contributions ranging between $5 and $3,000 from thousands of registered
Republican voters." While the contract for running the campaigns was
originally awarded to Washington-based Capital Communications Group, "for
cost and efficiencies gains, the company outsourced the work to HCL
Technologies that in turn sent it offshore." Public pressure has forced
President Bush has to downplay his support for outsourcing. But this new
story is consistent with his Administration's actions in support of shipping
American jobs overseas. Late last year, the New York Times reported that the
Bush Commerce Department co-sponsored a conference at the lavish Waldorf
Astoria hotel in New York that was designed to "encourage American companies
to put operations and jobs in China". Then, this year, the President's top
economic adviser said outsourcing was "a plus for the economy".
Still At Its Mercy
The world economy remains vulnerable to the price of oil
The Economist, 20 May 2004
EXCERPT: The debate (within OPEC) over quotas is not about how much more oil
to put on to the market next week, but about what signal to send to their
biggest consumers, and each other, regarding the medium-term future. The
balance they want to strike is between, on the one hand, avoiding the
appearance of caving in to pressure from America for lower prices and, on
the other, deflecting measures aimed at economising on the use of oil which
would trim their longer-term incomes. None of this has much to do with
short-term supply. ...If that is not the issue, what then has caused the
recent rise in prices? Three related things, or so it seems: surging demand;
petroleum-distribution bottlenecks, especially in the United States; and
speculation aimed at pricing in the risk of some big future setback in
supply. In short, sensitivity to oil continues to bedevil the world economy.
Incomes and jobs around the world still hinge on the price of a commodity
which comes chiefly from extremely unstable parts of the world, supplied
through a market that is rigged at every turn. When the price does next
subside, and the opportunity again arises to use taxes to weaken OPEC by
discouraging western consumption of oil, America's government, especially,
might bear this in mind.
Bush Officials Weaken Organic Food
Standards: Public Shut Out
BushGreenWatch, 21 May 2004
EXCERPT: The Bush Administration is giving Americans new reason to watch
what they eat. Over the course of 10 days last month, the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA) issued three "guidances" and one directive -- all legally
binding interpretations of law -- that threaten to seriously dilute the
meaning of the word organic and discredit the department's National Organic
Program. The changes -- which would allow the use of antibiotics on organic
dairy cows, as well as synthetic pesticides on organic farms, and more --
were made with zero input from the public or the National Organic Standards
Board (NOSB), the advisory group that worked for more than a decade to help
craft the first federal organic standards, put in place in October 2002.
Pelosi Calls Bush "Incompetent," GOP
Demands Apology
News10.com, 21 May 2004
EXCERPT: House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco Democrat, is at
the center of a mini political storm after calling President George W. Bush
"incompetent" and saying he is responsible for the death of Americans in
Iraq. Pelosi, a frequent critic of the president, was unsparing in her
comments about him. "Bush is an incompetent leader," Pelosi told the San
Francisco Chronicle in an interview Wednesday in her Capitol office. "In
fact, he's not a leader. He's a person who has no judgment, no experience
and no knowledge of the subjects that he has to decide upon." Pelosi went on
to say that the only way to get America's allies to commit more troops to
Iraq is to replace the president in the November election.
21 May 2004
Just incredible incompetence...
Wardens Chosen to Establish Iraq Prison System Had Past Abuse
Allegations
By Brian Ross
ABC News, 20 May 2004
EXCERPT: A number (four of six) of former state prison commissioners
chosen by the Bush administration to establish a prison system in Iraq
left their old posts after allegations of neglect, brutality and inmate
deaths, an investigation by ABCNEWS has found. ...A senior Justice
Department official said the department was aware of the backgrounds of
the men before they were sent to Iraq, but they were among the few
willing to go there.
SEE
ALSO:
Screening of Prison Officials Is Faulted by Lawmakers
By FOX BUTTERFIELD and ERIC LICHTBLAU
New York Times, 21 May 2004
EXCERPT: The use of American corrections executives with abuse accusations
in their past to oversee American-run prisons in Iraq is prompting concerns
in Congress about how the officials were selected and screened. Senator
Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, sent a letter yesterday to
Attorney General John Ashcroft questioning what he described as the
"checkered record when it comes to prisoners' rights" of John J. Armstrong,
a former commissioner of corrections in Connecticut.
Mutiny by 4 Republicans Over Bush's Tax
Cutting Forces Delay on the Budget Vote
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
New York Times, 20 May 2004
EXCERPT: Unable to a squelch a six-week mutiny over President Bush's
tax-cutting agenda, Senate Republican leaders on Thursday conceded that they
could not muster enough votes to pass a $2.4 trillion budget plan and
abruptly postponed a vote until at least next month. ...The battle on
Thursday was over a central difference between budget resolutions passed
earlier this year by the House and Senate. Four Senate moderates - John
McCain of Arizona, Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins, both of Maine, and
Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island - had insisted on attaching a provision that
would have applied pay-as-you-go-rules for the next five years. The House
budget resolution called only for a pay-as-you-go rule that would apply to
new spending programs outside of defense and domestic security. The Bush
administration staunchly supported the House approach, determined to
permanently extend the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 rather than let them expire
over the next several years.
Douglas Feith
What has the Pentagon's third man done wrong? Everything.
By Chris Suellentrop
Slate, 20 May 2004
EXCERPT: Of all the revelations that have surfaced about the Abu Ghraib
prison-abuse scandal so far, the least surprising is that Douglas Feith may
be partly responsible. Not a single Iraq war screw-up has gone by without
someone tagging Feithwho, as the Defense Department's undersecretary for
policy, is the Pentagon's No. 3 civilian, after Donald Rumsfeld and Paul
Wolfowitzas the guy to blame. Feith, who ranks with Wolfowitz in purity of
neoconservative fervor, has turned out to be Michael Dukakis in reverse:
ideology without competence. ...if he isn't fully culpable for all these
fiascos, he's still implicated in them somehow. He's a leading indicator,
like a falling Dowsomething that correlates with but does not cause
disaster. ...Fallows wrote in the Atlantic of the office of the
secretary of Defense, particularly Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Feith: "What
David Halberstam said of Robert McNamara in The Best and the Brightest
is true of those at OSD as well: they were brilliant, and they were fools."
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26 May 2004
Elephant in the room...
The Bush and Kerry Tilt
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
New York Times, 26 May 2004
EXCERPT: George Bush and John Kerry disagree on almost every issue, with
one crucial exception: they compete to support a myopic policy that is
unjust, that damages our credibility around the world and that severely
undermines our efforts in Iraq. It's our Israel-Palestine policy, which
has become so unbalanced that it's now little more than an embrace of
the right-wing jingoist whom Mr. Bush unforgettably labeled a "man of
peace": Ariel Sharon. American presidents have always tried to be honest
brokers in the Middle East. Truman, Johnson and Reagan were a bit more
pro-Israeli, while Eisenhower, Carter and George H. W. Bush were a bit
cooler, but all aimed for balance. President Bush tossed all that out
the window as he snuggled up to Mr. Sharon. Mr. Bush gazes admiringly as
Mr. Sharon responds to terrorist attacks by sending troops to bulldoze
Palestinian homes and shoot protesters, and he dropped President
Clinton's intensive efforts to reach a peace deal. Prof. Michael Hudson
of Georgetown University describes present Middle East policy as "a
bumbling incompetence, running here or there but doing nothing
consistently. Our embrace of Mr. Sharon hobbles us in Iraq even more
than those photos from Abu Ghraib. Iraqis (in contrast with, say,
Kuwaitis) genuinely sympathize with the Palestinians, and everywhere
I've been in Iraq ordinary people have asked me why Americans provide
the weapons Mr. Sharon uses to kill Palestinians
Occupation Has Boosted Al Qaeda, Says
Thinktank
By Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian, 26 May 2004
EXCERPT: The occupation of Iraq has provided a "potent global
recruitment pretext" for al-Qaida and probably increased worldwide
terrorism, a leading thinktank said yesterday. Despite some losses, al-Qaida
has more than 18,000 potential terrorists at large and its ranks are
growing, the International Institute for Strategic Studies said, adding
that al-Qaida now had a presence in more than 60 countries. Last night,
a new warning emerged from the US that al-Qaida-type terrorists are
preparing to launch a major attack in the US this summer. The warning
came from a counter-terrorism official who told Associated Press that
the intelligence was the most disturbing garnered since the September 11
attacks. The IISS survey said that despite the death or capture of half
of its 30 senior leaders, as well as some 2,000 rank-and-file
supporters, a rump leadership of the al-Qaida network was still intact.
"Christian nations' forcible occupation of Iraq, a historically
important land of Islam, has more than offset any calming effect of the
US military withdrawal from Saudi Ara bia," the IISS said. It added:
"With Osama bin Laden's public encouragement, up to 1,000 foreign
jihadists have infiltrated Iraq." The earlier invasion of Afghanistan
forced al-Qaida to change its tactics, said the IISS. "While al-Qaida
lost a recruiting magnet and a training, command and operations base, it
was compelled to disperse and become even more decentralised, 'virtual',
and invisible". It delegated more responsibility to "local talent," with
recruits becoming "less religiously absolute in mindset [and] closer to
their enemies in background". This could make them more open to
penetration by western security and intelligence agencies, the thinktank
suggested. Any security offensive against al-Qaida must be accompanied
by political developments, such as the democratisation of Iraq and the
resolution of conflict in Israel, it said. In a report
uncharacteristically critical of America, the IISS warned that Iraq is
facing a "security vacuum".
The President's Speech
New York Times editorial, 25 May 2004
EXCERPT: f President Bush had been talking a year ago, after the fall of
Baghdad, his speech at the Army War College last night might have
sounded like a plan for moving forward. He was able to point to a new
United Nations resolution being developed in consultation with American
allies, not imposed in defiance of them, and to a timetable for moving
Iraq toward elected self-government. He talked in general terms of
expanding international involvement and stabilizing Iraq. But Mr. Bush
was not starting fresh. He spoke after nearly 14 months of policy
failures, none of them acknowledged by the president, which have left
Iraq increasingly violent and drained Washington's credibility with the
Iraqi people and the international community. They have been waiting for
Mr. Bush to make a clean break with those policies. He did not do that
last night. The speech reflected the fact that Mr. Bush has been
backtracking lately, but he did not come close to charting the new
course he needs to take. His "five steps" toward Iraqi independence were
merely a recitation of the tasks ahead. ...The president still has a
number of speeches left to deliver before June 30. We hope he will use
them to come up with a more specific plan, to stop listing the things we
already knew needed to be done and to explain to us how he intends to do
them. An acknowledgment of past mistakes would be nice.
SEE
ALSO:
Iraq Speech: Bush Offers Nothing New
Except Prison
By Jim Lobe
IPS via Common Dreams, 25 May 2004
EXCERPT: Launching a new effort to stem the plummeting loss in public
confidence in his Iraq policy, U.S. President George W Bush reiterated
his commitment to bringing ''freedom'' and self-government to Baghdad
and warned that U.S. failure will ''only mark the beginning of peril and
violence''. Addressing a respectful and unusually restrained group of
mid- and senior-level officers at the Army War College in Carlisle,
Pennsylvania, Bush stressed that the stakes in Iraq, which he called
''the central front in the war on terror'', were extremely high while
suggesting that U.S. occupation forces may be more likely to seek
political solutions than to resort to military force against suspected
rebels or other malcontents. Citing the U.S. Marines' recent agreement
with to permit an all-Iraqi force, including senior officers of
dissolved Revolutionary Guard, to take responsibility for security in
Fallujah, Bush made clear that he fully endorsed such an arrangement
despite complaints, particularly from neo-conservative and right-wing
hawks, that the Fallujah deal amounted to ''appeasement''. ... ''We want
the Iraqi people to know that we trust their growing capabilities, even
as we help build them''.
SEE ALSO:
Blair Jumps the Gun on Iraqi Veto
By Michael White, Ewen MacAskill and Richard Norton-Taylor The Guardian
(UK), 26 May 2004
EXCERPT: Tony Blair jumped the gun yesterday when he unequivocally
promised that the new government in Baghdad will be able to exercise a
veto over controversial US-led military operations after the handover of
sovereignty on June 30. The prime minister's remarks at his monthly
Downing Street press conference appeared to go further than the White
House, Pentagon or Foreign Office. It was left to Downing Street
officials to insist that the remarks applied to British forces, though
not necessarily to US troops. The prime minister, trying to address
widespread scepticism in the Arab world and Europe that the transfer of
power will be genuine, said: "Let me make it 100% clear, after June 30
there will be the full transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi government.
"If there is a political decision as to whether you go into a place like
Falluja in a particular way, that has to be done with the consent of the
Iraqi government and the final political control remains with the Iraqi
government." Mr Blair's words go significantly further than the stance
of Washington. The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, spelled out the
US position, stressing that if they disagreed with the new Iraqi
authorities on certain operations, "US forces remain under US command
and will do what is necessary to protect themselves."
SEE ALSO:
AUDIO LINK
U.S. Strategy in Iraq
NPR's Diane Rehm Show, 25 May 2004
We'll hear several perspectives on President Bush's plan of action in
Iraq.
Tony Blankley, "The Washington Times"
Anthony Cordesman, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies
Ivo Daalder, senior fellow in foreign policy studies at the Brookings
Institution, co-author of "America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in
Foreign Policy" (Brookings, Nov 2003)
What Powers Should be Handed Over?
Three Key Questions the US Must Face
Experts list functions to give new interim rulers credibility
Richard Norton-Taylor, Ewen MacAskill, and Clare Dyer
The Guardian, 24 May 2004
EXCERPT: Washington wants to retain authority over the Development Fund
for Iraq, established by the UN security council and supplied by revenue
from the sale of Iraqi oil. Three major unanswered questions remain
about the status of US-led foreign forces in Iraq and their
relationship, militarily and legally, with Iraqi security forces. We
asked a group of experts to respond to them:
1 What powers do the Americans have to hand over to convince Iraqis and
the world that they control their own sovereign state?...
2 Should the new Iraqi government have a veto over operations by the
US-led multinational force?...
3 To what extent should Iraq have its own power over its oil reserves?
Abuse of Captives More Widespread, Says Army
Survey
By DOUGLAS JEHL, STEVEN LEE MYERS and ERIC SCHMITT
New York Times, 25 May 2004
EXCERPT: An Army summary of deaths and mistreatment involving prisoners
in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan shows a widespread pattern
of abuse involving more military units than previously known. The cases
from Iraq date back to April 15, 2003, a few days after Saddam Hussein's
statue was toppled in a Baghdad square, and they extend up to last
month, when a prisoner detained by Navy commandos died in a suspected
case of homicide blamed on "blunt force trauma to the torso and
positional asphyxia." Among previously unknown incidents are the abuse
of detainees by Army interrogators from a National Guard unit attached
to the Third Infantry Division, who are described in a document obtained
by The New York Times to have "forced into asphyxiation numerous
detainees in an attempt to obtain information" over a 10-week period
last spring. The document, dated May 5, is a synopsis prepared by the
Criminal Investigation Command at the request of Army officials
grappling with intense scrutiny prompted by the circulation the
preceding week of photographs of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib. It lists
the status of investigations into three dozen cases, including the
continuing investigation into the notorious abuses at Abu Ghraib. In one
of the oldest cases, involving the death of a prisoner in Afghanistan in
December 2002, enlisted personnel from an active-duty military
intelligence unit at Fort Bragg, N.C., and an Army Reserve
military-police unit from Ohio are believed to have been "involved at
various times in assaulting and mistreating the detainee." The Army
summary is consistent with recent public statements by senior military
officials, who have said the Army is actively investigating nine
suspected homicides of prisoners held by Americans in Iraq and
Afghanistan in late 2002. But the details spelled out paint a broad
picture of misconduct, and show that in many cases among the 37
prisoners who have died in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, the
Army did not conduct autopsies and says it cannot determine the causes
of the deaths.
Saudis Increase Oil Production, But
Other Opec Nations Don't
Reuters via New Zealand Herald, 25 May
2004
EXCERPT: Dissent has emerged in Opec after Saudi Arabia announced
unilateral plans to raise supply and asked Opec to endorse a big
increase in cartel output limits to lower crude prices. Hopes that the
Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries might swiftly back a
Saudi plan to lift supply limits by 2 million to 2.5 million barrels
daily, or 8 to 11 per cent, have been dashed. Some in Opec are angry
that Riyadh has decided to lift its production to just over 9 million
barrels daily in June, a rise of about 10 per cent, without Opec
approval. "They can't. It's a mistake. Saudi Arabia can't decide alone
to increase production," Libya's Oil Minister Fethi bin Chetwane said.
The comments bode ill for Opec unity at a time when US oil prices are
near 21-year highs, peaking last week at US$41.85 ($68.91) a barrel. US
Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said the Saudis had promised to raise
June output to 9.1 million barrels a day, slightly more than the 9
million indicated in a statement from Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi on
Friday.
25 May 2004
US Intelligence Fears Iran Duped Hawks
into War
Inquiry into Tehran's role in
starting conflict; Top Pentagon ally Chalabi accused
By Julian Borger
The Guardian (UK), 25 May 2004
EXCERPT: An urgent investigation has been launched in Washington into
whether Iran played a role in manipulating the US into the Iraq war by
passing on bogus intelligence through Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National
Congress, it emerged yesterday. Some intelligence officials now believe
that Iran used the hawks in the Pentagon and the White House to get rid
of a hostile neighbour, and pave the way for a Shia-ruled Iraq.
According to a US intelligence official, the CIA has hard evidence that
Mr Chalabi and his intelligence chief, Aras Karim Habib, passed US
secrets to Tehran, and that Mr Habib has been a paid Iranian agent for
several years, involved in passing intelligence in both directions. The
CIA has asked the FBI to investigate Mr Chalabi's contacts in the
Pentagon to discover how the INC acquired sensitive information that
ended up in Iranian hands. The implications are far-reaching. Mr Chalabi
and Mr Habib were the channels for much of the intelligence on Iraqi
weapons on which Washington built its case for war. "It's pretty clear
that Iranians had us for breakfast, lunch and dinner," said an
intelligence source in Washington yesterday. "Iranian intelligence has
been manipulating the US for several years through Chalabi." Larry
Johnson, a former senior counter-terrorist official at the state
department, said: "When the story ultimately comes out we'll see that
Iran has run one of the most masterful intelligence operations in
history. They persuaded the US and Britain to dispose of its greatest
enemy."
The Last Man Standing
By Tom Engelhardt
TomDispatch, 23 May 2004
EXCERPT: Success, I guess, is in the eye of the beholder, though for
many months a definition of success in Iraq was offered by this
administration. We were told again and again by American officials and
spokespeople, military and civilian, in Washington and Baghdad, that
because they wanted us to fail, they would increase their acts of
violence as we got ever closer to the so-called transfer of power. That
spike of violence would be a sign of enemy "desperation." As we close in
on June 30, however, the line has suddenly changed. The former starting
spot for what was to be a long Iraqi slide downhill, if not into peace,
at least off the front pages of American papers in time for the November
election, has now become but another moment after which we are to expect
a further escalation of violence -- undoubtedly because they see us at
that "brink of success." (General Myers's statement, by the way, gives
new meaning to an old Cold War phrase, "brinkmanship," or perhaps it
just redefines delusional behavior.) Most strikingly, neither General
Myers, nor the President, nor anyone else in a position of what once
would have been called responsibility has acknowledged that anything new
is being said. Isn't that exactly the way language works in Bush World?
The words just alter slightly and everyone carries on. I think George
Orwell once wrote something about this, but I can't seem to remember
what. It must have gone down a personal memory hole.
US Obstructed Medical Care in Fallujah
By Dahr Jamail
The New Standard via ZNet, 23 May 2004
EXCERPT: Doctors from the General Hospital of Fallujah, as well as
others involved with clinics throughout the city, are reporting that US
Marines obstructed their services during the fighting that engulfed this
city in April. They also said US snipers intentionally targeted their
clinics and ambulances in the city during the siege. "The Marines have
said they didnt close the hospital, but essentially they did," said Dr.
Abdul Jabbar, an orthopedic surgeon at the General Hospital. "They
closed the bridge which connects us to the city, closed our road, and
the area in front of our hospital was full of their soldiers and
vehicles." Major T.V. Johnson, public affairs officer for the 1st Marine
Division, said the effective sealing off of the hospital from the city
was an essential part of his units strategy, and pointed out that the
bridge leading to it was reopened on April 17, two weeks into the
intense fighting. "The cordon around the city was wholly necessary for
the military operations in Fallujah," Johnson said. "As soon as it was
possible from a military standpoint, the cordon was adjusted to allow
greater access to the hospital." He declined to explain what military
criteria were applied to determine the necessity of segregating the
hospital from the city.
Under International Pressure, Israeli
Troops Pull Back from Rafah
By Chris McGreal
The Guardian (UK), 25 May 2004
EXCERPT: Israeli forces pulled out of most of the Rafah refugee camp
last night amid criticism of the rising civilian death toll and
widespread destruction caused by Operation Rainbow. Israeli military
chiefs denied they were abandoning the sweep through the camp in
southern Gaza - ostensibly in search of weapons-smuggling tunnels -
which was billed as the operation to break Hamas and Islamic Jihad in
the area. Senior officers described the pullback as "taking a deep
breath" before continuing the assault. "The operation will carry on as
long as we stay there," said Major General Dan Harel, the Israeli army
commander in the area. "It will go in different intensities."
SEE ALSO:
The Tanks at the Rafah Zoo
(Guardian via ZNet)
New UN Resolution Gives Broad Powers to U.S.
Troops
By Evelyn Leopold and Steve Holland
Reuters, 24 May 2004
EXCERPT: The United States and Britain asked U.N. members on Monday to
endorse a hand-over of power to a new Iraqi interim government but
proposed U.S. troops could "take all measures" to keep order. The draft
U.N. Security Council resolution, which asks for support for a U.S.-led
multinational force, however, gives no date for the withdrawal of
foreign troops. It is also silent on the future of U.S. prisons and
Iraqi control over its own forces. An interim government drawn from
Iraq's various religious and ethnic communities is expected to be formed
in the next week or so, with help from U.N. Iraq envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.
No vote is expected until Brahimi reports back to the council. The
resolution, presented to the council, would support the formation of a
"sovereign interim government" to take office by June 30. It says that
government would "assume the responsibility and authority for governing
a sovereign Iraq." "This resolution marks a new phase in the transition
to democracy for Iraq. It recognizes the end of the occupation and the
beginning of sovereignty for the Iraqi people," said White House
spokesman Scott McClellan. The measure would give Iraq's new ministers
control of oil revenues but keep an international audit board for a year
to check on expenditures, in order to encourage foreign investments.
A Foreign Policy, Falling Apart
By Robert G. Kaiser
Washington Post, 23 May 2004
EXCERPT: We have come to a delicate moment in an absorbing drama. The
actors seem unsure of their roles. The audience is becoming restless
with the confusion on stage. But the scriptwriters keep trying to
convince the crowd that the ending they imagined can still, somehow,
come to pass. The authors stick to their plotline even as its
plausibility melts away, and why not? For months the audience kept
applauding; many of the reviewers were admiring, while many others kept
still. No more. Senior military officers, government officials,
diplomats and others working in Iraq, commentators, experts and analysts
have all joined a chorus of doubters that is large and growing. And the
applause -- in this case, public approval as measured in polls -- is
fading. Already, some of the authors' friends are grabbing them by their
rhetorical lapels. "Failures are multiplying," wrote George Will, the
conservative columnist, yet "no one seems accountable." The original
script included parts for American soldiers and diplomats, Iraqis, Arabs
and Europeans, but many declined to play along or refused to perform as
directed. No matter -- the authors promised to "stay the course." A
quick look back at the list of promises made and then abandoned
demonstrates how little the play now conforms to the original scenario.
And by the way, just what is that "course" we are staying on?
Chalabi Denies Passing Secrets to Iran
By Knut Royce
NewsDay.com, 24 May 2004
EXCERPT: Struggling to save his political future in Iraq, Ahmad Chalabi
dominated the major news shows yesterday with bitter denunciations of
the Central Intelligence Agency for allegedly spreading what he claimed
were false reports that he and his political organization had passed
sensitive U.S. secrets to Iran. Yet even as Chalabi, once the Pentagon's
favorite Iraqi politician, was defending himself, there were reports
that his problems are only worsening. An intelligence source confirmed
to Newsday reports in Time and Newsweek that the FBI had launched an
investigation into who in the administration had passed the classified
material to his Iraqi National Congress.
Israeli 'Ashcroft' Condemns Offensive
In Gaza
Deputy Premier Says Images Evoke Holocaust Memories
By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post, 24 May 2004
EXCERPT: One of the key political moderates in Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon's cabinet deplored on Sunday the Israel army's offensive in
the Gaza Strip, saying television images reminded him of the suffering
of his family during the Holocaust. In stark and emotional language,
Deputy Prime Minister Yosef Lapid, who also holds the Justice Ministry
portfolio and is a Holocaust survivor, told Israeli radio that the
country risked further international condemnation if the army continued
its campaign of pursuing Palestinian gunmen, demolishing homes and
expelling civilians from the heart of the populous Rafah refugee camp.
"On TV I saw an old woman rummaging through the ruins of her house
looking for her medication, and it reminded me of my grandmother who was
thrown out of her house during the Shoah," or Holocaust, Lapid said in a
radio interview after the weekly cabinet session. "We look like monsters
in the eyes of the world," he added. "This makes me sick." Lapid also
confirmed during the interview that the army is considering destroying
hundreds more houses to expand the security corridor between the camp
and the Egyptian border to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Gaza.
Israel has already destroyed an estimated 1,300 houses in the area since
the start of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000, uprooting more
than 11,000 people.
24 May 2004
Film Emerges of Iraq Wedding Before
Attack
IAN SWANSON
Scotsman.com, 24
EXCERPT: A Video has been broadcast showing a wedding party in Iraq
shortly before US warplanes are said to have attacked, killing up to 45
people. Footage from the home video along with shots from the aftermath
of the attack were broadcast by Associated Press Television News. The
broadcast came ahead of a crucial speech tonight by President George
Bush, in which he will set out his plans to tackle the handover of power
in Iraq. The US has insisted it was targeting foreign fighters and has
denied there was any evidence of a wedding. But the video shows the
bride arriving in a white pick-up truck and being quickly ushered into a
house by a group of women. Outside, men recline on brightly coloured
silk pillows, relaxing on the carpeted floor of a large goat-hair tent
as boys dance to tribal songs. Those killed in the attack included the
cameraman, Yasser Shawkat Abdullah, who was hired to record the
festivities, which ended on Tuesday night before the planes struck. The
US military says it is investigating the attack, which took place in the
village of Mogr el-Deeb about five miles from the Syrian border, but
claim the target was a safe house for foreign fighters. Brig Gen Mark
Kimmitt, the chief US military spokesman in Iraq, said: "There was no
evidence of a wedding: no decorations, no musical instruments found, no
large quantities of food or leftover servings one would expect from a
wedding celebration. "There may have been some kind of celebration. Bad
people have celebrations too."
SEE ALSO:
AP: Video Show Iraq Wedding Celebration
(AP)
Afghan Deaths Linked to Unit at Iraq
Prison
By DOUGLAS JEHL and DAVID ROHDE
New York Times, 24 May 2004
EXCERPT: A military intelligence unit that oversaw interrogations at Abu
Ghraib prison in Iraq was also in charge of questioning at a detention
center in Afghanistan where two prisoners died in December 2002 in
incidents that are being investigated as homicides. For both of the
Afghan prisoners, who died in a center known as the Bagram Collection
Point, the cause of death listed on certificates signed by American
pathologists included blunt force injuries to their legs. Interrogations
at the center were supervised by Company A, 519th Military Intelligence
Battalion, which moved on early in 2003 to Iraq, where some of its
members were assigned to the Joint Interrogation and Debriefing Center
at Abu Ghraib. Its service in Afghanistan was known, but its work at
Bagram at the time of the deaths has now emerged in interviews with
former prisoners, military officials and from documents.
Troops Supporting the Troops
Washington Post, 23 May 2004 (Revisited)
EXCERPT: Gary Myers, the civilian attorney for Frederick, said he is
asking the military to add investigators to his legal team so he can
track down Reese and other witnesses, several of whom have been
reassigned to military posts throughout Iraq. Myers said he will also
request that immunity be granted to a number of military personnel who
he said have firsthand knowledge of what took place in Tier 1A. "We
intend to seek immunity for a myriad of officers who are unwilling to
participate in the search for the truth without protecting themselves,"
Myers said yesterday. "We are definitely interested in talking to
Captain Reese." Attorney Paul Bergrin, who represents another of the
charged MPs, Sgt. Javal S. Davis, said the soldiers were simply
following the lead of military intelligence officers. "There are no ifs,
ands or buts," Bergrin said. "They did order it. They were told
consistently, 'Soften them up; loosen them up. Look what's happening in
the field. Soldiers are dying in droves. We need more intelligence . . .
' "Nobody put it in writing; no one's going to be stupid enough
for that. My client went to Sergeant Frederick and questioned him:
'Should we be following these orders?' And Sergeant Frederick said,
'Absolutely. We're saving American lives. That's what we wear the
uniform for.' "
Jordan Tip Exposed Chalabi as Iran
"Spy"
By NILES LATHEM
New York Post, 22 May 2004
EXCERPT: Jordan's King Abdullah fueled the U.S. move against Iraqi
leader Ahmed Chalabi by providing bombshell intelligence that his group
was spying for Iran, The Post has learned. An explosive dossier that the
Jordanian monarch recently brought with him to White House sessions with
President Bush detailed Mafia-style extortion rackets and secret
information on U.S. military operations being passed to Iran, diplomats
said. That new information led to the Bush administration's decision to
stop its $340,000-a-month payments to Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress
and back an aggressive Iraqi criminal probe into his activities. The
file was compiled by Jordan's intelligence service, which has had an
interest in Chalabi since the 1990s, when the Iraqi exile leader was
convicted in absentia for embezzling millions of dollars.
This should play well on Al Jazeera...
Iraqis Denied Right to Sue Troops Over War Crimes
By Kamal Ahmed
The Observer (UK), 23 May 2004
EXCERPT: British and American troops are to be granted immunity from
prosecution in Iraq after the crucial 30 June handover, undermining
claims that the new Iraqi government will have 'full sovereignty' over
the state. Despite widespread ill-feeling about the abuse of prisoners
by American forces and allegations of mistreatment by British troops,
coalition forces will be protected from any legal action. They will only
be subject to the domestic law of their home countries. Military sources
have told The Observer that the question of immunity was central to
obtaining military agreement on a new United Nations resolution on Iraq
to be published by the middle of next month. The new resolution will
lift the arms embargo against Iraq, allowing the country to rearm its
80,000-strong army in readiness for taking over the nation's security
once coalition forces finally leave.
SEE ALSO:
Experts Discuss What Powers Should be Handed
Over (Guardian)
SEE ALSO:
Bush to Give New Pledge on 'Full Sovereignty'
(Guardian)
Next up for the title "Butcher of Baghdad"...
5,500 Iraqis Killed, Morgue Records Show
By Daniel Cooney AP, 23 May 2004
EXCERPT: More than 5,500 Iraqis died violently in just Baghdad and three
provinces in the first 12 months of the occupation, an Associated Press
survey found. The toll from both criminal and political violence ran
dramatically higher than violent deaths before the war, according to
statistics from morgues. There are no reliable figures for places like
Fallujah and Najaf that have seen surges in fighting since early April.
Indeed, there is no precise count for Iraq as a whole on how many people
have been killed, nor is there a breakdown of deaths caused by the
different sorts of attacks. The U.S. military, the occupation authority
and Iraqi government agencies say they don't have the ability to track
civilian deaths. But the AP survey of morgues in Baghdad and the
provinces of Karbala, Kirkuk and Tikrit found 5,558 violent deaths
recorded from May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared an end to major
combat operations, to April 30. Officials at morgues for three more of
Iraq's 18 provinces either didn't have numbers or declined to release
them. The AP's survey was not a comprehensive compilation of the
nationwide death toll, but was a sampling intended to assess the levels
of violence. Figures for violent deaths in the months before the war
showed a far lower rate.
SEE ALSO:
Iraq Body Count
SEE ALSO:
Bloody Hands: Bush vs. Bin Laden
(BushWhackedUSA)
The Photos Are Us: What Have We
Done?
By Susan Sontag
The Guardian, 24 May 2004
EXCERPT: The slogans and phrases fielded by the Bush administration and
its defenders have been chiefly aimed at limiting a public relations
disaster - the dissemination of the photographs - rather than dealing
with the complex crimes of leadership, policies and authority revealed
by the pictures. There was, first of all, the displacement of the
reality on to the photographs themselves. The administration's initial
response was to say that the president was shocked and disgusted by the
photographs - as if the fault or horror lay in the images, not in what
they depict. There was also the avoidance of the word torture. The
prisoners had possibly been the objects of "abuse", eventually of
"humiliation" - that was the most to be admitted. "My impression is that
what has been charged thus far is abuse, which I believe technically is
different from torture," secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld said at a
press conference. "And therefore I'm not going to address the torture
word." Words alter, words add, words subtract. It was the strenuous
avoidance of the word "genocide" while the genocide of the Tutsis in
Rwanda was being carried out 10 years ago that meant the American
government had no intention of doing anything. To call what took place
in Abu Ghraib - and, almost certainly, in other prisons in Iraq and in
Afghanistan, and in Guantanamo - by its true name, torture, would likely
entail a public investigation, trials, court martials, dishonourable
discharges, resignation of senior military figures and responsible
cabinet officials, and substantial reparations to the victims. Such a
response to our misrule in Iraq would contradict everything this
administration has invited the American public to believe about the
virtue of American intentions and America's right to unilateral action
on the world stage in defence of its interests and its security. Even
when the president was finally compelled, as the damage to America's
reputation everywhere in the world widened and deepened, to use the
"sorry" word, the focus of regret still seemed the damage to America's
claim to moral superiority, to its hegemonic goal of bringing "freedom
and democracy" to the benighted Middle East. Yes, Mr Bush said in
Washington on May 6, standing alongside King Abdullah II of Jordan, he
was "sorry for the humiliation suffered by the Iraqi prisoners and the
humiliation suffered by their families". But, he went on, he was "as
equally sorry that people seeing these pictures didn't understand the
true nature and heart of America".
Israeli Minister Calls Home Demolitions 'Inhumane'
Member of Ariel Sharon's cabinet causes
political storm when his criticism of house demolitions is interpreted
as comparing the Israeli army's actions to Nazi crimes.
By Chris McGreal in Rafah and Conal Urquhart in Jerusalem The Guardian,
24 May 2004
EXCERPT: The Israeli army resumed its assault on Rafah refugee camp
yesterday as a member of Ariel Sharon's cabinet caused a storm when his
criticism of house demolitions as "inhumane" was interpreted as
comparing the Israeli army's actions to Nazi war crimes. A week into
Operation Rainbow, which has left around 50 people dead, tanks and
troops went back to the heart of the al-Brazil section of Rafah as heavy
fire and attacks by helicopter gunships reverberated across much of the
camp. There were no immediate reports of casualties yesterday, but house
demolitions continued. The worst damage was in al-Brazil where fleeing
residents reported seeing armoured bulldozers pulling down homes. Tanks
also destroyed greenhouses that provided much of the fresh produce for
Rafah, and olive groves on the edge of the camp. Later there were
reports of a partial pullback from the Tel-Sultan area occupied since
last Tuesday.
REVISITED:
The Jesus Landing Pad: Bush White House checked
with rapture Christians before latest Israel move (Village Voice)
SEE ALSO:
Sharon's Shell Game in Rafah (ZNet)
Nothing New in the Bush
Doctrine: BBC Interview with Noam Chomsky
BBC via BushWhackedUSA, 24 May 2004
EXCERPT:
NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, it depends. It is recognised to be revolutionary.
Henry Kissinger for example described it as a revolutionary new doctrine
which tears to shreds the Westphalian System, the 17th century system of
International Order and of course the UN Charter. But nevertheless, and
has been very widely criticised within the foreign policy elite. But on
narrow ground the doctrine is not really new, it's extreme. JEREMY
PAXMAN: What was the United States supposed to do after 9/11? It had
been the victim of a grotesque, intentional attack, what was it supposed
to do but try...?
NOAM CHOMSKY: Why pick 9/11? Why not pick 1993. Actually the fact that
the terrorist act succeeded in September 11th did not alter the risk
analysis. In 1993, similar groups, US trained Jihadi's came very close
to blowing up the World Trade Center, with better planning, they
probably would have killed tens of thousands of people. Since then it
was known that this is very likely. In fact right through the 90's there
was technical literature predicting it, and we know what to do. What you
do is police work. Police work is the way to stop terrorist acts and it
succeeded.
JEREMY PAXMAN: But you are suggesting the United States in that sense is
the author of Its own Nemesis.
NOAM CHOMSKY: Well, first of all this is not my opinion. It's the
opinion of just about every specialist on terrorism. Take a look, say at
Jason Burke's recent book on Al-Qaeda which is just the best book there
is. He runs through the record of how each act of violence has increased
recruitment financing mobilisation, what he says is, I'm quoting him,
that each act of violence is a small victory for Bin Laden.
JEREMY PAXMAN: But why do you imagine George Bush behaves like this?
NOAM CHOMSKY: Because I don't think they care that much about terror, in
fact we know that. Take say the invasion of Iraq, it was predicted by
just about every specialist in intelligence agencies that the invasion
of Iraq would increase the threat of Al-Qaeda style terror which is
exactly what happened.
SEE ALSO:
Bloody Hands: A Simple Bar Graph
(BushWhackedUSA)
22-23 May 2004
U.S. Disputed Protected Status of Iraq
Inmates
By DOUGLAS JEHLand NEIL A. LEWIS
Washington Post, 23 May 2004
EXCERPT: Presented last fall with a detailed catalog of abuses at Abu
Ghraib prison, the American military responded on Dec. 24 with a
confidential letter to a Red Cross official asserting that many Iraqi
prisoners were not entitled to the full protections of the Geneva
Conventions. The letter, drafted by military lawyers and signed by Brig.
Gen. Janis Karpinski, emphasized the "military necessity" of isolating
some inmates at the prison for interrogation because of their
"significant intelligence value," and said prisoners held as security
risks could legally be treated differently from prisoners of war or
ordinary criminals. But the military insisted that there were "clear
procedures governing interrogation to ensure approaches do not amount to
inhumane treatment." In recent public statements, Bush administration
officials have said that the Geneva Conventions were "fully applicable"
in Iraq. That has put American-run prisons in Iraq in a different
category from those in Afghanistan and in Guantαnamo Bay, Cuba, where
members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban have been declared unlawful
combatants not eligible for protection. However, the Dec. 24 letter
appears to undermine administration assertions of the conventions' broad
application in Iraq.
Prison Visits By General Reported In
Hearing
Alleged Presence of Sanchez Cited by Lawyer
By Scott Higham, Joe Stephens and Josh White
Washington Post, 23 May 2004
EXCERPT: A military lawyer for a soldier charged in the Abu Ghraib abuse
case stated that a captain at the prison said the highest-ranking U.S.
military officer in Iraq was present during some "interrogations and/or
allegations of the prisoner abuse," according to a recording of a
military hearing obtained by The Washington Post. The lawyer, Capt.
Robert Shuck, said he was told that Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez and
other senior military officers were aware of what was taking place on
Tier 1A of Abu Ghraib. Shuck is assigned to defend Staff Sgt. Ivan L.
"Chip" Frederick II of the 372nd Military Police Company. During an
April 2 hearing that was open to the public, Shuck said the company
commander, Capt. Donald J. Reese, was prepared to testify in exchange
for immunity. The military prosecutor questioned Shuck about what Reese
would say under oath. "Are you saying that Captain Reese is going to
testify that General Sanchez was there and saw this going on?" asked
Capt. John McCabe, the military prosecutor. "That's what he told me,"
Shuck said. "I am an officer of the court, sir, and I would not lie. I
have got two children at home. I'm not going to risk my career."
Evidence Is Cited Linking Koreans to
Libya Uranium
By DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD
New York Times, 23 May 2004
EXCERPT: International inspectors have discovered evidence that North
Korea secretly provided Libya with nearly two tons of uranium in early
2001, which if confirmed would be the first known case in which the
North Korean government has sold a key ingredient for manufacturing
atomic weapons to another country, according to American officials and
European diplomats familiar with the intelligence. A giant cask of
uranium hexafluoride was turned over to the United States by the Libyans
earlier this year as part of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's agreement to give
up his nuclear program, and the Americans identified Pakistan as the
likely source. But in recent weeks the International Atomic Energy
Agency has found strong evidence that the uranium came from North Korea,
basing its conclusion on interviews of members of the secret nuclear
supplier network set up by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the former head of
Pakistan's main nuclear laboratory. Two years ago, the United States
charged that North Korea was working to build its own uranium-based
nuclear weapons, which would require the same raw materials.
US Military Concedes Women May Have
Died in Airstrike in Iraq
AFP, 21 May 2004
EXCERPT: The US military conceded Friday that four to six women may have
died in a US air strike that targeted foreign fighters in western Iraq
earlier this week. "There were a number of women, a handful of women. I
can't remember if it was four or six, that were actually caught up in
the engagement. They may have died from some of the fire that came from
the aircraft," military spokesman Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt said.
But he insisted ground troops taking part in the operation did not "not
shoot women and children." The coalition said earlier that a helicopter
fired on a house, sheltering foreign fighers, killing 41 people
Wednesday. Iraqis who said they lost friends and relatives have claimed
the attack hit homes in a village just outside the town of Qaim, on the
Syrian border, after a wedding party. Arab satellite news channel Al-Arabiya
aired footage of bodies wrapped in blankets and loaded on trucks, and
said the dead included women and children.
SEE ALSO:
Wedding Party Massacre in Iraq
(Guardian)
U.S. Investigates 12 More Prisoners
Tortured Abused to Death
Worst abuses took place on single day last year
MSNBC News, 21 May 2004
EXCERPT: The investigation of the treatment of prisoners from the
wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has uncovered 12 more detainees who have
died in U.S. custody, defense officials said Friday. Defense
officials told reporters that the Army had investigated the deaths of 32
detainees in Iraq and five others in Afghanistan since August 2002, 12
more than the Defense Department reported two weeks ago. The victims are
from 33 separate cases, two of which involved more than one death. Nine
of the cases remain open, and eight of those are classified as
homicides, NBC News Tom Busby reported. Those deaths, six of which
occurred in Iraq, are believed to have followed assaults by U.S.
soldiers before, during or after interrogations.
Soldier Says Intelligence Directed
Abuse
High-ranking intelligence officers allegedly involved
By Josh White and Scott Higham
Washington Post, 20 May 2004
EXCERPT: The first military intelligence soldier to speak openly about
alleged abuse at Abu Ghraib, Provance said in a telephone interview from
Germany yesterday that the highest-ranking military intelligence
officers at the prison were involved and that the Army appears to be
trying to deflect attention away from military intelligence's role.
Since the abuse at Abu Ghraib became public, senior Pentagon officials
have characterized the interrogation techniques as the willful actions
of a small group of soldiers and a failure of leadership by their
commander. Provance's comments challenge that, and attorneys for accused
soldiers allege that the techniques were directed by military
intelligence officials.
US General Linked to Abuse Scandal
Leaked memo reveals control of prison passed to
military intelligence to 'manipulate detainees'
By Julian Borger
The Guardian, 22 May 2004
EXCERPT: Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, head of coalition forces in
Iraq, issued an order last October giving military intelligence control
over almost every aspect of prison conditions at Abu Ghraib with the
explicit aim of manipulating the detainees' "emotions and weaknesses",
it was reported yesterday. The October 12 memorandum, reported in the
Washington Post, is a potential "smoking gun" linking prisoner abuse to
the US high command. It represents hard evidence that the maltreatment
was not simply the fault of rogue military police guards. The memorandum
came to light as more details emerged of the extent of detainee abuse.
Formal statements by inmates published yesterday describe horrific
treatment at the hands of guards, including the rape of a teenage Iraqi
boy by an army translator.
SEE ALSO: The Images That Shamed America
(Guardian)
SEE
ALSO:
The Sexual Sadism of Our Culture in Peace
and War
By Katharine Viner
The Guardian, 22 May 2004
EXCERPT: I received some horrific photographs by email yesterday.
Purporting to be from Iraq, they depicted the sexual abuse of women by
US servicemen. On some, chadors were hitched up over the women's heads.
On others, the women were naked while they were raped by groups of men.
It is impossible to tell whether the photographs are real - those images
we know have been seen by American senators - or faked. They make you
sick to your stomach. And they look strangely familiar - like the XXX
films in hotel rooms, like those "live rape!" emails sent to internet
users, like porn. If the photographs are genuine, they are the visual
evidence of the sexual abuse of Iraqi women - abuse which we already
know is common, with or without these grotesque images. We know that
such images exist, because a US government report confirmed it. And we
know that Iraqi women are being raped throughout the country, because
both Amal Kadham Swadi, the Iraqi lawyer, and the US's own internal
inquiry say that abuse is systemic and widespread. We also know this
because all wars feature the abuse of women as a byproduct, or as a
weapon. The ancient Greeks considered rape socially acceptable; the
Crusaders raped their way to Constantinople; the English invaders raped
Scottish women on Culloden Moor. The first world war, the second world
war, Bosnia, Bangladesh, Vietnam - where the gangrape and murder of a
peasant woman by US soldiers was photographed in stages by one if its
participants.
SEE ALSO:
Report Details Iraqi Prisoner Abuse
(AP)
Chalabi's Seat of Honor Lost to Open
Political Warfare With U.S.
By DAVID E. SANGER
New York Times, 21 May 2004
EXCERPT: By all appearances, Ahmad Chalabi reached the pinnacle of
influence in Washington four months ago, when he took a seat of honor
right behind Laura Bush at the president's State of the Union address.
To all the world, he looked like the Iraqi exile who had returned home
victorious, a favorite of the Pentagon who might run the country once
the American occupation ended. In fact, as Mr. Chalabi applauded
President Bush, his influence in Washington had already eroded. The
intelligence about unconventional weapons that his Iraqi National
Congress helped feed to senior Bush administration officials and
data-starved intelligence analysts evidence that created the urgency
behind the march toward war was already crumbling. Intelligence
officials now argue some of it was fabricated. The much-discussed,
much-denied effort by Pentagon officials to install him as Iraq's leader
had already faded. By Thursday morning, when his home and office were
raided by the Iraqi police and American troops seeking evidence of
fraud, embezzlement and kidnapping by members of his Iraqi National
Congress and perhaps an explanation of his dealings with Iranian
intelligence Mr. Chalabi was already engaged in open political warfare
with the Bush administration.
This Week: Support America, Dump Bush
By Terry Jones
The Guardian, 22 May 2004
EXCERPT: Tony Blair tells us that we should do everything we can to
support America. And I agree. I think we should repudiate those who
inflict harm on Americans, we should shun those who bring America itself
into disrepute and we should denounce those who threaten the freedom and
democracy that are synonymous with being American. That is why Tony's
recent announcement that he wishes to stand shoulder to shoulder with
George Bush is so puzzling. It's difficult to think of anyone who has
inflicted more harm on Americans than their current president. Since he
assumed the title of most powerful man in the world, 4 million Americans
have lost their health insurance and 2 million jobs have disappeared.
According to a CNN report, "half of all Americans are living from
paycheque to paycheque - effectively one paycheque away from poverty".
And Mr Bush's latest budget proposes to withdraw support of all kinds
for working families earning less than $35,000 a year. At the same time
the national debt has rocketed to more than $26,000 for every family. As
for bringing America into disrepute, Mr Bush scores a high rating here
too. No American president has been so successful in making Americans
ashamed of being American. According to a Gallup poll last year, the
majority of Americans - 64% - "cite a fear of unfriendliness as the top
concern of travelling abroad". And that was before the photos. Nowadays,
I suppose, the main motive for Americans to travel abroad must be to get
away from Bush's doublespeak. During a run-up to an election, all
administrations will try to claim credit for spreading largesse even
where they don't deserve it, but Bush's administration has gone one
further by trying to claim credit for largesse it has actually been
doing its damnedest to stop.
AUDIO LINK
Iraq Interview
PRI's The World, 21 May 2004
(13:00)
President Bush says America must stay the course in Iraq. But a growing
chorus of voices is now saying that the United States has veered well
off course. Host Marco Werman speaks with three experts who have some
ideas for how the US can get back on track: Danielle Pletka is vice
president for foreign and defense policy studies at the American
Enterprise Institute. Joseph Cirincione is director of nonproliferation
at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Peter Galbraith is a
senior diplomatic fellow at the Center for Arms Control and
Non-Proliferation.
AUDIO LINK
The Spoils of War
By Minnesota Public Radio's Market Place, 20-23 April 2004
EXCERPT: The spoils of war add up to more than capturing expansive
palaces and luxury cars. As Marketplace reporters have discovered, not
all of the $22 billion being spent to rebuild Iraq is going where it
should. Who's watching the money as it streams through Baghdad? Just
about no one, and bribes and black marketeering are rampant, witnesses
say. A leading anti-corruption group claims that at least 20% of U.S.
money spent in Iraq is being lost to corruption. From Halliburton
subsidiaries charging double for gas, Iraqi officials and Arabic
translators unrestrained from pocketing millions of dollars, or even
members of the interim governing Council accusing each other of taking
tens of millions in bribes.
Marketplace's four-part series was produced by Karen Lowe. "Spoils of
War" was produced in cooperation with the Center for Investigative
Reporting, with funding from The Economist magazine.
21
May 2004
Arrogance as usual...
U.S. Reaffirms Its Account of Attack That Killed 40 Iraqis
By DEXTER FILKINS and EDWARD WONG
New York Times, 20 May 2004
EXCERPT: The chief military spokesman in Iraq said today that the
authorities stood by their version of an American attack that killed
about 40 Iraqis near the volatile border with Syria. American officials
said they had fired on a suspected guerrilla safe house, but Iraqis said
the Americans had strafed civilians at a wedding party. "The
intelligence that we had suggested that this was a foreign fighter rat
line, as we call them, one of the way stations," the spokesman, Brig.
Gen. Mark Kimmitt, said in a news conference. "We are satisfied at this
point that the intelligence that led us there was validated by what we
found on the ground, and it was not that there was a wedding party going
on." But General Kimmitt said that American authorities would open an
investigation into the attack "because of the interest that's been shown
by the media."
SEE
ALSO:
US War Planes Kill 40 Iraqis
Near the Syrian Border
By Juan Cole
Informed Comment, 20 May 2004
EXCERPT: ...I wish the US military spokesmen could be more gracious
about such errors. They seemed to deny having hit civilians, and
insisted it was a righteous strike, even as all the reports were coming
on the Arab satellite channels about the dead at the wedding party.
Can't they just say that they are deeply sorry for the Iraqis' loss, and
that they are not sure what went wrong, and will investigate? If they
did kill so many women and children, surely that is a mistake no matter
how you parse it, and they may as well admit it. It is this arrogance
and instistence that the US is always right that has caused almost 90%
of the Iraqis to come to view the Americans as occupiers rather than
liberators.
Update 5/20: I just saw Gen. Kimmit on television denying that US forces
saw any children at the site that was hit. But video and Arab television
and press reports clearly show women and children casualties! This way
lies a further erosion of the credibility of the US military in Iraq.
Definitely a Cover-Up
Former Abu Ghraib Intel Staffer Says Army Concealed Involvement in
Abuse Scandal
By Brian Ross and Alexandra Salomon
ABC News, 20 May 2004
EXCERPT: Dozens of soldiers other than the seven military police
reservists who have been charged were involved in the abuse at Iraq's
Abu Ghraib prison, and there is an effort under way in the Army to hide
it, a key witness in the investigation told ABCNEWS.
AUDIO
LINK
Marines Disciplined for Prisoner Abuse a Year Ago
NPR Morning Edition, 20 May 2004
EXCERPT: Three Marines were punished for abusing an Iraqi prisoner of
war last May, just weeks after the end of major combat operations,
according to a Marine investigation report obtained by NPR. All three
received confinement, a reduction in rank and forfeiture of pay. In a
separate case, a Marine reservist and a camp commander face
courts-martial in the June 2003 death of a Baath Party official. NPR's
Libby Lewis reports.
AUDIO LINK
Iraqi-Born Swede Claims Abuse in Abu Ghraib
NPR"s All Things Considered, 20 May 2004
In the latest allegation of abuse to emerge from Abu Ghraib, an
Iraqi-born Swedish citizen says he's filed a compensation claim with the
U.S. Army for torture he endured at the prison camp last fall. Now
recuperating in the United States, Saleh -- who asked NPR not to use his
first name -- says he also witnessed U.S. prison guards kill five
inmates without provocation. NPR's Ari Shapiro reports. [Editor's note:
This piece contains graphic language.]
Officials Seize Files of Top Iraqi Leader Once
Backed by U.S.
By DEXTER FILKINS
and KIRK SEMPLE
New York Times, 20 May 2004
EXCERPT: The offices and home of Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi politician
once favored by the Pentagon but now at odds with the American
authorities, were raided by the authorities today and computers and
documents were seized. Witnesses said the raiding party involved about
100 American and Iraqi law enforcement officers, including officials
believed to be from the F.B.I. and the C.I.A. A spokesman for the
American occupation authorities said that the Coalition Provisional
Authority and its top official, L. Paul Bremer III, had not been
involved in the raids, and he referred all questions to the Iraqi
police, which, the spokesman said, had planned and conducted the
operations. Mr. Bremer, the spokesman said, "did not know the operation
was occurring today" and was notified only after it had been completed.
He did not confirm witness accounts that American troops were involved.
Reporters who entered the office compound after the raid found a scene
of destruction. Computers had been seized, furniture had been
overturned, doors broken down and framed photographs of Mr. Chalabi
smashed. Aides to Mr. Chalabi said members of the raiding party had
helped themselves to food and beverages from the refrigerator. "My house
was attacked," Mr. Chalabi said during a televised news conference in
Baghdad. "We avoided by a hair's breadth a clash with my guards." He
held up a framed picture with its glass cracked the work of the
raiding party, he said and accused the soldiers and the police of
ransacking and "vandalizing" his office. Mr. Chalabi blamed the American
occupation authorities for ordering the raid, saying they were angry
about his recent criticism of the coalition authority and the Bush
administration's plans for the transition back to Iraqi governance.
SEE ALSO:
Chalabi's Seat of Honor Lost to Open Political
Warfare With U.S. (NYT)
SEE ALSO:
Iraqi Police Backed by U.S. Soldiers Raid Home
of Prominent Iraqi Politician and Pentagon Ally
(AP)
SEE ALSO:
Chalabi's INC Received at Least $33
Million
By Carol Giacomo, Diplomatic Correspondent
Reuters, 20 May 2004
EXCERPT: The United States paid Ahmad Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress
at least $33 million since March 2000, according to a congressional
report made public on Thursday. The report by the Government Accounting
Office, the investigative arm of the U.S. Congress, found $33 million in
funds from the State Department and did not include any funds from the
Pentagon or other U.S. agencies, a congressional source told Reuters.
Chalabi, a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, was
once hailed by many in the Bush administration as the likely next leader
of a post-Saddam Iraq. But he has taken a fall after increasingly
clashing with Washington on issues like how much power would be handed
over to Iraqis when the country regains sovereignty on July 1.
Did he say when things might get better?
Bush Says Iraq Violence May Worsen Before Transfer
By Scott Lindlaw
Associated Press , 20 May 2004
EXCERPT: President Bush sought to rally Republican lawmakers around his
Iraq plan Thursday, saying Iraqis are ready to "take the training wheels
off" by assuming some political power. ...Several GOP lawmakers who
attended the meeting said Bush told his audience to brace for more
violence after June 30 and he predicted insurgents would try to disrupt
subsequent elections.
Broken Engagement
The strategy that won the Cold War could help bring democracy to the
Middle East-- if only the Bush hawks understood it.
By Gen. Wesley Clark
Washington Monthly, May 2004
EXCERPT: During 2002 and early 2003, Bush administration officials put
forth a shifting series of arguments for why we needed to invade Iraq.
Nearly every one of these has been belied by subsequent events. We have
yet to find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; assuming that they
exist at all, they obviously never presented an imminent threat.
Saddam's alleged connections to al Qaeda turned out to be tenuous at
best and clearly had nothing to do with September 11. The terrorists now
in Iraq have largely arrived because we are there, and Saddam's security
forces aren't. And peace between Israel and the Palestinians, which
prominent hawks argued could be achieved "only through Baghdad," seems
further away than ever.
Advocates of the invasion are now down to their last argument: that
transforming Iraq from brutal tyranny to stable democracy will spark a
wave of democratic reform throughout the Middle East, thereby
alleviating the conditions that give rise to terrorism. This argument is
still standing because not enough time has elapsed to test it
definitively--though events in the year since Baghdad's fall do not
inspire confidence.
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