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20090326

Barack Obama

Politics

Afghanistan

Police

Pakistan

"Obama's Afghanistan plan calls for 4,000 more U.S. troops." ... "[Democratic] President Obama announced Friday a proposal to stem the worsening insurgency in Afghanistan by sending 4,000 more [United States] U.S. troops and additional civilian aid workers, while also increasing aid to neighboring Pakistan." ... "Obama said his objective is to suppress the spreading insurgency by placing more emphasis on building local governments, wooing the civilian population with aid and providing more help to the Afghan army instead of a deploying a large number of combat troops." ... "Check out Obama's address [PDF]" ... ""The situation is increasingly perilous," Obama said. "It has been more than seven years since the Taliban was removed from power, yet war rages on, and insurgents control parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan."" ... "Key elements of the plan include:" ... "• Sending the 4,000 new troops, who would train Afghan soldiers and police. The plan includes a goal of having 134,000 soldiers in the Afghan army, up from about 65,000 soldiers now. "That is how we will prepare Afghans to take responsibility for their security, and how we will ultimately be able to bring our troops home," Obama said." ... "Pakistan long sponsored the Taliban regime that ruled Afghanistan and harbored al-Qaeda terrorists until overthrown by U.S. forces in 2001. Many Taliban members remain in the mountainous border region between the two countries." -By David Jackson with contributions by Tom Vanden Brook and John Fritze

-USATODAY

20090325

Afghan

Pakistan

Military

Intelligence

Politics

History

"Afghan Strikes by Taliban Get Pakistan Help, U.S. Aides Say." ... "The Taliban’s widening campaign in southern Afghanistan is made possible in part by direct support from operatives in Pakistan’s military intelligence agency, despite Pakistani government promises to sever ties to militant groups fighting in Afghanistan, according to American government officials." ... "The support consists of money, military supplies and strategic planning guidance to Taliban commanders who are gearing up to confront the international force in Afghanistan that will soon include some 17,000 American reinforcements." ... "Support for the Taliban, as well as other militant groups, is coordinated by operatives inside the shadowy S Wing of Pakistan’s spy service, the Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence, the officials said. There is even evidence that ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence] operatives meet regularly with Taliban commanders to discuss whether to intensify or scale back violence before the Afghan elections." ... "American officials have complained for more than a year about the ISI’s support to groups like the Taliban. But the new details reveal that the spy agency is aiding a broader array of militant networks with more diverse types of support than was previously known — even months after Pakistani officials said that the days of the ISI’s playing a “double game” had ended." ... "Pakistan’s military and civilian leaders publicly deny any government ties to militant groups, and American officials say it is unlikely that top officials in Islamabad [Pakistan's capital] are directly coordinating the clandestine efforts. American officials have also said that midlevel ISI operatives occasionally cultivate relationships that are not approved by their bosses." ... "The ISI helped create and nurture the Taliban movement in the 1990s to bring stability to a nation that had been devastated by years of civil war between rival warlords, and one Pakistani official explained that Islamabad needed to use groups like the Taliban as “proxy forces to preserve our interests.”" ... "Little is publicly known about the ISI’s S Wing, which officials say directs intelligence operations outside of Pakistan. American officials said that the S Wing provided direct support to three major groups carrying out attacks in Afghanistan: the Taliban based in Quetta, Pakistan, commanded by Mullah Muhammad Omar; the militant network run by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar; and a different group run by the guerrilla leader Jalaluddin Haqqani." -By Mark Mazzetti and Eric Schmitt

-NYTimes

Hillary Clinton

Barack Obama

Mexico

Illegal

Drug

Enforcement

Military

Health

Brazil

Colombia

"Clinton: U.S. Drug Policies Failed, Fueled Mexico's Drug War." ... "Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton traveled to Mexico on Wednesday with a blunt mea culpa, saying that decades of U.S. anti-narcotics policies have been a failure and have contributed to the explosion of drug violence south of the border." ... ""Clearly what we've been doing has not worked," Clinton told reporters on her plane at the start of her two-day trip, saying that [United States] U.S. policies on curbing drug use, narcotics shipments and the flow of guns have been ineffective." ... ""Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade," she added. "Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police, of soldiers and civilians."" ... "More than 7,000 Mexicans have been killed in the bloodletting since January 2008, with the gangs battling authorities and one another for supremacy." ... "The [Democratic President] Obama administration announced Tuesday that it is sending hundreds more agents and extra high-tech gear to the border to intercept weapons and drug proceeds heading south." ... "Last month, former presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico called on the United States in a report to consider legalizing marijuana use and focusing more on treatment for drug users. Obama has emphasized his support for expanded treatment facilities, although not for allowing marijuana use. " (1, 2) -By Mary Beth Sheridan

-WashingtonPost

20090321

Israeli

Religious

Terrorism

Military

War Crimes

Politics

Land

Palestinian

Human

Rights

Investigation

"Israelis told to fight 'holy war' in Gaza." ... "Many Israeli troops had the sense of fighting a "religious war" against Gentiles during the 22-day offensive in Gaza [Palestinian territory], according to a soldier who has highlighted the martial role of military rabbis during the operation." ... "The soldier testified that the "clear" message of literature distributed to troops by the rabbinate was: "We are the Jewish people, we came to this land by a miracle, God brought us back to this land and now we need to fight to expel the Gentiles who are interfering with our conquest of this holy land."" ... "After the offensive, Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group called for the dismissal of the military's head chaplain, Rabbi Avichai Rontzki, a brigadier general. It said that he had distributed to troops a booklet saying that it was "terribly immoral" to show mercy to a "cruel enemy" and that the soldiers were fighting "murderers"." ... "The longer transcript conveys a fuller sense of the debate involving graduates from the Yitzhak Rabin military preparatory course." ... "The latest casualty figures published by the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights list the names of 1,434 dead of whom they say 926 were civilians, 236 fighters and 255 police officers." -By Donald Macintyre

-Independent.co.uk

Israeli

Religious

Terrorism

Military

Politics

Land

Palestinian

Noteworthy

"Israeli Soldier Says Military Rabbis Framed Gaza Mission as Religious." ... "A soldier involved in Israel's recent military offensive in the Gaza Strip [Palestinian territory] said in published reports Friday that the military's rabbinical staff distributed material characterizing the operation as a religious mission to "get rid of the gentiles who disturb us from conquering the holy land."" ... "In the second day of published accounts from soldiers critical of the conduct of the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, the daily Maariv ran excerpts of an interview with a squad commander in Israel's Givati Brigade. He was identified only by his first name, given as Rahm." ... "The daily quoted him as saying that the Gaza operation from the beginning had "the feeling of almost a religious mission."" ... ""The military rabbinate brought many magazines and articles with a very clear message: 'We are the Jewish people, a miracle brought us to the land of Israel, God returned us to the land, and now we have to struggle so as to get rid of the gentiles who disturb us from conquering the holy land.' All the feeling throughout all this operation of many of the soldiers was of a war of religions," he said. "As a commander, I tried to explain that the war is not a war of Kiddush Hashem [the sanctification of God's name, including through martyrdom] but over the stopping of the launching of the Qassam rockets."" ... "The soldiers' accounts were elicited by the head of a training school for future military recruits. At a recent gathering, graduates of the school described how the realities of military life clashed with the values taught in the school's curriculum." ... "The school is named in honor Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli leader who signed the 1993 Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians and who was assassinated by an Israeli who opposed the agreements. The school is secular in nature and its graduates would likely be sensitive to the intrusion of religious politics into the conduct of a military operation, said retired Brig. Gen. Meir Elran, a security analyst with the Israeli Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University." ... "Given that one of Israel's chief struggles is against organizations, such as Hamas, that entwine religion and violence, the presence of similar material among Israeli soldiers is disturbing, Elran said. " -By Howard Schneider

-WashingtonPost

20090215

Secret

Criminal

Torture

War Crimes

Prison

Psychological

Terrorism

Military

Government

Medical

Human

Rights

Law

Guantánamo

Cuba

"Former Gitmo Guard Tells All." ... "Army Private Brandon Neely served as a prison guard at Guantánamo [US military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba] in the first years the facility was in operation. With the [Republican President] Bush Administration, and thus the threat of retaliation against him, now gone, Neely decided to step forward and tell his story. “The stuff I did and the stuff I saw was just wrong,” he told the Associated Press. Neely describes the arrival of detainees in full sensory-deprivation garb, he details their sexual abuse by medical personnel, torture by other medical personnel, brutal beatings out of frustration, fear, and retribution, the first hunger strike and its causes, torturous shackling, positional torture, interference with religious practices and beliefs, verbal abuse, restriction of recreation, the behavior of mentally ill detainees, an isolation regime that was put in place for child-detainees, and his conversations with prisoners David Hicks and Rhuhel Ahmed. It makes for fascinating reading." ... "Neely’s comprehensive account runs to roughly 15,000 words. It was compiled by law students at the University of California at Davis and can be accessed here." ... "... Neely and other guards had been trained to the U.S. military’s traditional application of the Geneva Convention rules. They were put under great pressure to get rough with the prisoners and to violate the standards they learned. This placed the prison guards under unjustifiable mental stress and anxiety, and, as any person familiar with the vast psychological literature in the area (think of the Stanford Prison Experiment, for instance) would have anticipated produced abuses. Neely discusses at some length the notion of IRF (initial reaction force), a technique devised to brutalize or physically beat a detainee under the pretense that he required being physically subdued. The IRF approach was devised to use a perceived legal loophole in the prohibition on torture. Neely’s testimony makes clear that IRF was understood by everyone, including the prison guards who applied it, as a subterfuge for beating and mistreating prisoners—and that it had nothing to do with the need to preserve discipline and order in the prison." ... "[Neely] describes body searches undertaken for no legitimate security purpose, simply to sexually invade and humiliate the prisoners. This was a standardized [Republican President] Bush Administration tactic–the importance of which became apparent to me when I participated in some Capitol Hill negotiations with White House representatives relating to legislation creating criminal law accountability for contractors. The Bush White House vehemently objected to provisions of the law dealing with rape by instrumentality. When House negotiators pressed to know why, they were met first with silence and then an embarrassed acknowledgement that a key part of the Bush program included invasion of the bodies of prisoners in a way that might be deemed rape by instrumentality under existing federal and state criminal statutes. While these techniques have long been known, the role of health care professionals in implementing them is shocking." ... "Neely’s account demonstrates once more how much the Bush team kept secret and how little we still know about their comprehensive program of official cruelty and torture." -By Scott Horton

-Harpers.org

Testimony of Spc. Brandon Neely.

The Guantánamo Testimonials Project.

Testimonies of Military Guards.

humanrights.ucdavis.edu

20090214

Military

Torture

Prison

Psychological

Terrorism

War Crimes

Medical

Human Rights

Law

Guantánamo Bay

Cuba

"Former Gitmo guard recalls abuse, climate of fear." ... "Army Pvt. [Private] Brandon Neely was scared when he took Guantanamo's first shackled detainees off a bus. Told to expect vicious terrorists, he grabbed a trembling, elderly detainee and ground his face into the cement — the first of a range of humiliations he says he participated in and witnessed as the prison was opening for business." ... "Neely has now come forward in this final year of the detention center's existence, saying he wants to publicly air his feelings of guilt and shame about how some soldiers behaved as the military scrambled to handle the first alleged al-Qaida and Taliban members arriving at the isolated [United States] U.S. Navy base." ... "His account, one of the first by a former guard describing abuses at Guantanamo, describes a chaotic time when soldiers lacked clear rules for dealing with detainees who were denied many basic comforts. He says the circumstances changed quickly once monitors from the International Committee of the Red Cross arrived." ... "Neely, [now] 28, describes a litany of cruel treatment by his fellow soldiers, including beatings and humiliations he said were intended only to deliver physical or psychological pain." ... "Only months had passed since the [2001 September] Sept. 11 attacks, and Neely said many of the guards wanted revenge. Especially before the first Red Cross visit, he said guards were seizing on any apparent infractions to "get some" by hurting the detainees. The soldiers' behavior seemed justified at the time, he said, because they were told "these are the worst terrorists in the world."" ... "He said one medic punched a handcuffed prisoner in the face for refusing to swallow a liquid nutritional supplement, and another bragged about cruelly stretching a prisoner's torn muscles during what was supposed to be physical therapy treatments." ... "He said detainees were forced to submit to take showers and defecate into buckets in full view of female soldiers, against Islamic customs. When a detainee yelled an expletive at a female guard, he said a crew of soldiers beat the man up and held him down so that the woman could repeatedly strike him in the face. " -By Mike Melia

-AP via -Yahoo

The Guantánamo Testimonials Project.

humanrights.ucdavis.edu

20090212

Criminal

Drug

War

Government

Law

Politics

Health

Brazil

Mexico

Colombia

World

"Latin American Panel Calls U.S. Drug War a Failure." ... "As drug violence spirals out of control in Mexico, a commission led by three former Latin American heads of state blasted the [United States] U.S.-led drug war as a failure that is pushing Latin American societies to the breaking point." ... ""The available evidence indicates that the war on drugs is a failed war," said former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, in a conference call with reporters from Rio de Janeiro [Brazil]. "We have to move from this approach to another one."" ... "The commission, headed by Mr. Cardoso and former presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and César Gaviria of Colombia, says Latin American governments as well as the U.S. must break what they say is a policy "taboo" and re-examine U.S.-inspired antidrugs efforts. The panel recommends that governments consider measures including decriminalizing the use of marijuana." ... "The report, by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, is the latest to question the U.S.'s emphasis on punitive measures to deal with illegal drug use and the criminal violence that accompanies it. A recent Brookings Institution study concluded that despite interdiction and eradication efforts, the world's governments haven't been able to significantly decrease the supply of drugs, while punitive methods haven't succeeded in lowering drug use." ... "The three former presidents who head the commission are political conservatives who have confronted in their home countries the violence and corruption that accompany drug trafficking." ... "The report warned that the U.S.-style antidrug strategy was putting the region's fragile democratic institutions at risk and corrupting "judicial systems, governments, the political system and especially the police forces."" ... "Latin America, he [former President of Colombia César Gaviria] said, should adapt a more European approach, based on treating drug addiction as a health problem." -By José de Córdoba with contributions by David Luhnow, Louise Radnofsky and Evan Perez

-WSJ.com

20090207

Dick Cheney

Criminal

KBR/Halliburton

Corporation

Government

Politics

Military

People

Texas

Iraq

Nigeria

Oil

Construction

"KBR wins contract despite criminal probe of deaths." ... "Defense contractor KBR Inc. [Incorporated] has been awarded a $35 million Pentagon contract involving major electrical work, even as it is under criminal investigation in the electrocution deaths of at least two [United States] U.S. soldiers in Iraq." ... "The announcement of the new KBR contract came just months after the Pentagon, in strongly worded correspondence obtained by The Associated Press, rejected the company's explanation of serious mistakes in Iraq and its proposed improvements. A senior Pentagon official, David J. Graff, cited the company's "continuing quality deficiencies" and said KBR executives were "not sufficiently in touch with the urgency or realities of what was actually occurring on the ground."" ... ""Many within DOD (the Department of Defense) have lost or are losing all remaining confidence in KBR's ability to successfully and repeatedly perform the required electrical support services mission in Iraq," wrote Graff, commander of the Defense Contract Management Agency, in a [September] Sept. 30 letter." ... "Graff rejected the company's claims that it wasn't required to follow U.S. electrical codes for its work on U.S. military facilities in Iraq." ... "The deaths of [Staff Sergeant Christopher Lee] Everett and [Staff Sergeant Ryan] Maseth are among the 18 under review by the Pentagon's inspector general." ... "KBR was previously owned by Halliburton Co. [Company], the oil services conglomerate that former [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney once led." ... "Separately, court papers filed in Houston [Texas] on Friday show KBR is preparing to plead guilty to federal bribery charges for promising and paying tens of millions of dollars in bribes to officials in Nigeria in exchange for engineering and construction contracts between 1995 and 2004." -By Kimberly Hefling

-AP via -Yahoo

Nuclear

Science

Secrets

Investigation

Military

Intelligence

History

Legal

Politics

Pakistan

Iran

Libya

North Korea

British

Italian

Switzerland

International

"Nuclear Scientist A.Q. Khan Is Freed From House Arrest." ... "Early yesterday, the Pakistani scientist at the center of one of history's worst nuclear scandals walked out of his Islamabad [Pakistan's capital] villa to declare his vindication after five years of house arrest. "The judgment, by the grace of God, is good," a smiling Abdul Qadeer Khan told a throng of reporters and TV crews." ... "Moments earlier, a Pakistani court had ordered the release of the metallurgist who had famously admitted selling nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Through years of legal limbo, Khan, 72, had never been charged, and now he never will be. "The so-called A.Q. Khan affair is a closed chapter," a Pakistani government spokesman said." ... "Nearly five years after Khan's smuggling operation came to light, the international effort to prosecute its leaders is largely in shambles, yielding convictions of only a few minor participants and no significant prison time for any of them." ... "Khan's international network collapsed in 2003 after U.S. [United States], British and Italian officials halted a Libya-bound ship in the Mediterranean loaded with machine parts used to make enriched uranium." ... "That discovery was the culmination of more than a decade of secret investigation by the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] and other agencies of the business dealings of Khan, one of Pakistan's best-known scientists and the father of the country's nuclear weapons program." ... "U.S. and U.N. [United Nations] investigators ultimately accused Khan of heading a sophisticated network of businesses and front companies that manufactured and sold components needed to make nuclear bombs. But while the factories and shipping offices were dismantled, Khan proved to be beyond Washington's reach. Pakistan's then-President Pervez Musharraf, confronted with evidence of Khan's deeds, persuaded the scientist to make a public confession but then officially pardoned him. Khan would remain under house arrest, but Pakistani officials refused to allow him to be questioned by U.S. officials or investigators of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog." ... "Efforts to prosecute alleged members of the network in Switzerland touched off a series of squabbles between Swiss and U.S. officials. Swiss prosecutors accused the [Republican President] Bush administration of withholding critical evidence needed to put three Swiss businessmen -- a father and two brothers who worked with Khan in the 1980s and 1990s -- behind bars." ... "Last month, one of the brothers confirmed in a Swiss television interview that he had been working undercover for the CIA, prompting the Swiss parliament to ask why Switzerland had not been informed about covert action inside its territory. " -By Joby Warrick

-WashingtonPost

20090206

John A Boehner

Peter Hoekstra

Secret

Trip

Lawmaker

Electronic

Communications

Military

Ohio

Mich

Iraq

"Congressman Twitters an Iraq Security Breach." ... "A congressional trip to Iraq this weekend was supposed to be a secret." ... "But the cat’s out of the bag now, thanks to a member of the House Intelligence Committee who broke an embargo via Twitter." ... "A delegation led by [Ohio Republican Representative and] House Minority Leader John A. Boehner , R[Republican]-Ohio, arrived in Iraq earlier today, and because of [Michigan Republican Representative] Rep. Peter Hoekstra , R-Mich. [Republican-Michigan], the entire world — or at least Twitter.com readers—now know they’re there." ... "“Just landed in Baghdad [Iraq's capital],” messaged Hoekstra, a former chairman of the Intelligence panel and now the ranking member, who is routinely entrusted to keep some of the nation’s most closely guarded secrets." ... "Before the delegation left Washington, they were advised to keep the trip to themselves for security reasons." ... "Not only did Hoekstra reveal the existence of the lawmakers’ trip, but included details about their itinerary in updates posted every few hours on his Twitter page, until he suddenly stopped, for some reason, on Friday morning. " -By John M. Donnelly

-CQPolitics.com

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20020615 Joseph Cirincione, chief author of a book published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace on nuclear proliferation and the director of the Endowment's nonproliferation project, "said at least eight countries have nuclear weapons -- the United States, Russia, Britain, France, China, Israel, India and Pakistan -- and three more are apparently seeking them -- Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Four countries, he said, have in recent years given up their weapons -- South Africa and the former Soviet republics Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan."
-From: "Israel Has Sub-Based Atomic Arms Capability." - 20020615-By Walter Pincus -WashingtonPost

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20090128

Sweden

Military

Switzerland

Politics

Media

Entertainment

"Alba schools Fox’s O’Reilly in WW II history." ... "Jessica Alba is setting the record straight: Sweden was neutral during World War II." ... "Alba and Fox TV show host Bill O’Reilly traded punches last week after the presidential inauguration. After Alba told a Fox reporter that O’Reilly was “kind of an a-hole;” he retaliated by calling her a “pinhead” for telling a reporter to “be Sweden about it,” assuming she meant Switzerland." ... "“I want to clear some things up that have been bothering me lately,” Alba blogged on MySpace Celebrity. “Last week, Mr. Bill O'Reilly and some really classy sites (i.e.TMZ) insinuated I was dumb by claiming Sweden was a neutral country. I appreciate the fact that he is a news anchor and that gossip sites are inundated with intelligent reporting, but seriously people... it's so sad to me that you think the only neutral country during WWII was Switzerland.”" ... "Although Switzerland is more frequently cited as an example of neutrality, Sweden did indeed follow a policy of neutrality during World War II. History point to Alba." -By Courtney Hazlett

-MSNBC

20090126

War Crimes

Criminal

Military

Law

Politics

"1 in 4 Americans believe the Bush administration committed war crimes." ... "In a new telephone survey, Rasmussen Reports has found that 25 percent of voters “believe [Republican] President Bush and senior members of his administration are guilty of war crimes.” Forty-four percent of Democrats and 21 percent of unaffiliated voters believe that war crimes were committed while just 4 percent of Republicans believe the same." -By Matt Corley

-ThinkProgress.org

20090122

Secret

Intelligence

Databases

Federal

Military

Spy

Computer

Search Engine

Technology

EMail

Communications

Terrorism

Politics

"Intelligence Agencies' Databases Set to Be Linked: After Years of Bureaucratic Snags, System Aims to Ease Communications, Give Spies Access to More Data." ... "[United States] U.S. spy agencies' sensitive data should soon be linked by Google-like search systems, nearly five years after the intelligence community was rebuked by the 9/11 Commission for failing to "connect the dots" and detect the attack." ... "Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell has launched a sweeping technology program to knit together the thousands of databases across all 16 spy agencies. After years of bureaucratic snafus, intelligence analysts will be able to search through secret intelligence files the same way they can search public data on the Internet." ... "Mr. McConnell's new technology program is also addressing a more basic problem: Spies often have trouble emailing colleagues in other U.S. intelligence agencies, because email addresses aren't readily accessible, and messages sometimes get eaten by security filters. Mr. McConnell aims to solve that by uniting the agencies' email systems into a single system with a full directory that links names, expertise and addresses." ... "Mr. McConnell's team says this effort, called the Information Integration Program, has experienced officials working on it full-time and is designed to deliver tangible products every few months." ... "The first stage of the initiative is to merge the email systems of the six largest intelligence agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency and the NSA [National Security Agency]." -By Siobhan Gorman

-WSJ.com

20090121

Barack Obama

Federal

Military

Prison

Terrorism

Law

Politics

Guantanamo

Cuba

Canada

"Obama Seeks Halt to Legal Proceedings at Guantanamo." ... "In one of its first actions, the [Democratic President] Obama administration instructed military prosecutors late Tuesday [January 20, 2009] to seek a 120-day suspension of legal proceedings involving detainees at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- a clear break with the approach of the outgoing [Republican President] Bush administration." ... "The instruction came in a motion filed with a military court in the case of five defendants accused of organizing the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The motion called for "a continuance of the proceedings" until May 20 so that "the newly inaugurated president and his administration [can] review the military commissions process, generally, and the cases currently pending before military commissions, specifically."" ... "The same motion was filed in another case scheduled to resume Wednesday, involving a Canadian detainee, and will be filed in all other pending matters." ... "Such a request may not be automatically granted by military judges, and not all defense attorneys may agree to such a suspension. But the move is a first step toward closing a detention facility and system of military trials that became a worldwide symbol of the Bush administration's war on terrorism and its unyielding attitude toward foreign and domestic critics." ... "The Supreme Court ruled that, contrary to [Republican President Bush] administration claims, detainees at Guantanamo were entitled to challenge their detentions and that the naval base was not beyond the reach of federal law." ... "Eventually more than 550 detainees were released; only three were ever put on trial and convicted." -By Peter Finn

-WashingtonPost

20090114

Torture

War Crimes

Government

Military

Terrorism

Intelligence

Detainees

Medical

Human

Rights

Law

Inpector

Guantanamo Bay

Cuba

Saudi

"Detainee Tortured, Says U.S. Official: Trial Overseer Cites 'Abusive' Methods Against 9/11 Suspect." ... "The top [Republican President] Bush administration official in charge of deciding whether to bring Guantanamo Bay [Cuba] detainees to trial has concluded that the [United States] U.S. military tortured a Saudi [Arabia] national who allegedly planned to participate in the [September] Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, interrogating him with techniques that included sustained isolation, sleep deprivation, nudity and prolonged exposure to cold, leaving him in a "life-threatening condition."" ... ""We tortured [Mohammed al-]Qahtani," said Susan J. Crawford, in her first interview since being named convening authority of military commissions by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in February 2007. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution." ... "Crawford, a retired judge who served as general counsel for the Army during the [Republican President] Reagan administration and as Pentagon inspector general when Dick Cheney was secretary of defense, is the first senior Bush administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo to publicly state that a detainee was tortured." ... "Crawford, 61, said the combination of the interrogation techniques, their duration and the impact on Qahtani's health led to her conclusion. "The techniques they used were all authorized, but the manner in which they applied them was overly aggressive and too persistent. . . . You think of torture, you think of some horrendous physical act done to an individual. This was not any one particular act; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for. And coercive. Clearly coercive. It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge" to call it torture, she said." ... ""I sympathize with the intelligence gatherers in those days after 9/11, not knowing what was coming next and trying to gain information to keep us safe," said Crawford, a lifelong Republican. "But there still has to be a line that we should not cross. And unfortunately what this has done, I think, has tainted everything going forward."" ... "Crawford said she believes that coerced testimony should not be allowed. "You don't allow it in a regular court," said Crawford, who served as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces from 1991 to 2006." ... "In May 2008, Crawford ordered the war-crimes charges against Qahtani dropped but did not state publicly that the harsh interrogations were the reason. "It did shock me," Crawford said. "I was upset by it. I was embarrassed by it. If we tolerate this and allow it, then how can we object when our servicemen and women, or others in foreign service, are captured and subjected to the same techniques? How can we complain? Where is our moral authority to complain? Well, we may have lost it."" ... "The harsh techniques used against Qahtani, she said, were approved by [Republican President Bush's] then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld." (1, 2, 3) -By Bob Woodward with contributions by Julie Tate and Evelyn Duffy

-WashingtonPost

20090110

War Crimes

Human Rights

Military

Politics

Israel

Palestine

"UN calls for war crimes probe into IDF shelling of civilian-occupied building in Gaza." ... "With fighting all around them, Israel Defense Forces [IDF] troops knocked on the door of the Samouni clan in Gaza City [Gaza, Palestine] last weekend and told them to leave, directing them to the building owned by a relative. Twenty-four hours later, three shells slammed into the structure where dozens of people were huddling, according to survivor accounts Friday." ... "A newly released United Nations report said 30 people died in the shelling, citing four unidentified survivors who spoke by telephone. It called the shelling "one of the gravest incidents" to happen since Israeli infantry and armored troops entered Gaza [2009 January] Jan. 4 to quell Hamas rockets on Israel." ... "Other accounts given to The Associated Press and an Israeli human rights group provided lower casualty figures, but all agreed that shells hit the large, unfinished warehouse-like building a day after Israeli troops told them to get inside it for their safety." ... "Allegra Pacheco, a senior UN [United Nations] official in Jerusalem [Israel's capital] who helped draft the report on the incident for OCHA, added: "We are not making an accusation of deliberate action" by the Israelis." ... "UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the UN report should be the basis for an investigation of "war crimes elements." Her spokesman, Rupert Colville, said the "war crimes elements" would refer to allegations that Israel impeded medical teams trying to care for wounded civilians and failed to care for those injured in the attack." ... "Pillay told an emergency meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that any harm to Israeli civilians by Hamas rockets was unacceptable, but it did not excuse abuses carried out by Israeli forces in response." ... "On Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva accused Israel of "unacceptable" delays in letting rescue workers reach three Gaza City homes hit by shelling, where they eventually found 15 dead and 18 wounded, including young children too weak to stand."

-Ha'aretzDaily

Corporate

Government

Accounting

Politics

History

Military

Reconstruction

Gas

Alberto Gonzales

Torture

Law

Intelligence

Pat Tillman

Afghanistan

Guantánamo

Iraq

"Eight Years of Madoffs." ... "Three days after the world learned that $50 billion may have disappeared in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, The Times led its front page of [2008 December] Dec. 14 with the revelation of another $50 billion rip-off. This time the vanished loot belonged to American taxpayers. That was our collective contribution to the $117 billion spent (as of mid-2008) on Iraq reconstruction — a sinkhole of corruption, cronyism, incompetence and outright theft that epitomized [Republican President] Bush management at home and abroad." ... "The source for this news was a near-final draft of an as-yet-unpublished 513-page federal history of this nation-building fiasco. The document was assembled by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction — led by a Bush appointee, no less. It pinpoints, among other transgressions, a governmental Ponzi scheme concocted to bamboozle Americans into believing they were accruing steady dividends on their investment in a “new” Iraq." ... "The report quotes no less an authority than Colin Powell on how the scam worked. Back in 2003, Powell said, the Defense Department just “kept inventing numbers of Iraqi security forces — the number would jump 20,000 a week! ‘We now have 80,000, we now have 100,000, we now have 120,000.’ ” Those of us who questioned these astonishing numbers were dismissed as fools, much like those who begged in vain to get the Securities and Exchange Commission to challenge Madoff’s math." ... "What’s most remarkable about the Times article, however, is how little stir it caused. When, in 1971, The Times got its hands on the Pentagon Papers, the internal federal history of the Vietnam disaster, the revelations caused a national uproar. But after eight years of battering by Bush, the nation has been rendered half-catatonic. The Iraq Pentagon Papers sank with barely a trace." ... "After all, next to big-ticket administration horrors like Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo and the politicized hiring and firing at Alberto Gonzales’s Justice Department, the wreckage of Iraq reconstruction is what Ralph Kramden of “The Honeymooners” would dismiss as “a mere bag of shells.” The $50 billion also pales next to other sums that remain unaccounted for in the Bush era, from the $345 billion in lost tax revenue due to unpoliced offshore corporate tax havens to the far-from-transparent disposition of some $350 billion in Wall Street bailout money. In the old Pat Moynihan phrase, the Bush years have “defined deviancy down” in terms of how low a standard of ethical behavior we now tolerate as the norm from public officials." ... "Not even a good old-fashioned sex scandal could get our outrage going again. Indeed, a juicy one erupted last year in the Interior Department, where the inspector general found that officials “had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives." ... "Back in the day, an oil-fueled scandal in that one department alone could mesmerize a nation and earn [Republican President] Warren Harding a permanent ranking among our all-time worst presidents. But while the scandals at Bush’s Interior resemble Teapot Dome — and also encompass millions of dollars in lost federal oil and gas royalties — they barely registered beyond the Beltway. Even late-night comics yawned when The Washington Post administered a coup de grâce last week, reporting that Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne spent $235,000 from taxpayers to redo his office bathroom (monogrammed towels included)." ... "It took 110 pages for the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan research organization, to compile the CliffsNotes inventory of the Bush wreckage last month. It found “125 systematic failures across the breadth of the federal government.” That accounting is conservative. There are still too many unanswered questions. " ... "Just a short list is staggering. Who put that bogus “uranium from Africa” into the crucial prewar State of the Union address after the C.I.A. [Central Intelligence Agency] removed it from previous Bush speeches? How high up were the authorities who ordered and condoned torture and then let the “rotten apples” at the bottom of the military heap take the fall? Who orchestrated the Pentagon’s elaborate P.R. [Public Relations] efforts to cover up Pat Tillman’s death by “friendly fire” in Afghanistan? " -By Frank Rich

-NYTimes

20090108

Israel

Palestine

People

Military

Politics

"Red Cross criticises Israel for blocking access to Gaza injured." ... "Israel today came under fierce criticism from humanitarian groups for delaying access to the injured during its offensive in Gaza [Palestine area] as fresh fighting killed at least 11 people, taking the death toll over 700." ... "The unusually strong condemnation coincided with a UN [United Nations] announcement that it was suspending its operations in the territory in response to what it said were Israeli attacks." ... "The International Committee of the Red Cross accused Israel of "unacceptable" delays in letting rescue workers reach three homes in Gaza City that had been hit by shelling." ... "The group said the Israeli army refused rescuers permission to reach the site in the Zaytun neighbourhood for four days. Once Red Cross teams reached the area yesterday, they found four small children next to their dead mothers at one home. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all, there were at least 12 corpses lying on mattresses." ... "In another house, a rescue team found 15 survivors, including several wounded. In yet another home, rescuers found three bodies. Israeli soldiers posted at a military position nearby ordered the rescue team to leave the area, which it refused to do." ... ""This is a shocking incident," said Pierre Wettach, the Red Cross's head for the region. "The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded."" ... "Other groups such as Médecins Sans Frontières have also criticised Israel for blocking access to people injured during the crisis." ... "Israel has also come under strong criticism from the UN, which said it was halting all aid shipments into Gaza, citing attacks on UN staff and buildings." ... "The announcement came shortly after the driver of a UN truck was shot and killed by tank fire near an Israeli border as he was about to pick up an aid shipment. The UN said the delivery had been coordinated with Israel and that the vehicle carried a UN flag and insignia. Earlier this week, at least 40 people were killed when two UN schools were hit by Israeli gunfire." -By Mark Tran

-Guardian.co.uk

Corporate

Government

Military

Virginia

Iraq

Afghanistan

"Army Sends 'Dear John Doe' Letters to Families of Fallen Troops." ... "The Army mistakenly sent letters addressed "Dear John Doe" to 7,000 family members of soldiers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan, unleashing calls from troubled relatives and prompting a formal apology yesterday from the Army's top general." ... "The letters, mailed late last month by the Army's Casualty and Mortuary Affairs Operation Center in Alexandria [Virginia], contained information about private organizations that assist families of the fallen. But in what the Army called a printing error by a contractor, the letters did not contain specific names and addresses; instead, they had the placeholder greeting "Dear John Doe."" -By Ann Scott Tyson

-WashingtonPost

Israel

Palestine

Iraq

Afghanistan

Military

Terrorism

Political

History

"The lessons of Gaza." ... "The Israeli military action in Gaza [Palestine area] raises both moral questions and strategic ones. The moral issues are more complex than partisans on either side are prepared to admit. Not so the strategic issues: here the verdict is clear. Israel's return to Gaza constitutes a tacit admission of strategic failure now stretching back four decades." ... "Indeed, the punishment inflicted on the residents of Gaza all but ensures its perpetuation." ... "For the United States, engaged in a struggle against radical Islamists that mirrors Israel's conflict with the Palestinians, the implications of this story are several. Israeli troubles in the West Bank [Palestine area] and Gaza over the past 40 years suggest the following:" ... "First, getting in may be easy; getting out is the hard part. Once embraced, a tar baby becomes impossible to release. For this reason, the notion that intervention offers a handy problem solver is an illusion." ... "Second, occupation by outsiders produces alienation, resistance, and radicalization, nowhere more so than in the Islamic world. The longer the stay, the more severe the reaction." ... "Third, as instruments of pacification, conventional armies possess modest utility. Rather than facilitating political solutions, coercion only exacerbates the underlying problem." ... "This approach hasn't worked for Israel and won't work for the United States. Yet this approach describes US policy in the global war on terror, which has been based on expectations of intervention, occupation, and superior military power enabling the United States to dictate the conditions in which Muslims in places as remote as Iraq and Afghanistan should live." ... "Even if Israel seemingly has no choice, the United States does. To exercise that choice by replicating the errors Israel has made in its relations with the Palestinians would be the height of folly." -By Andrew J. Bacevich

via -BostonGlobe

Israel

Palestine

Syria

Egypt

Military

Intelligence

Terrorism

Politics

Poor

Families

Food

Health

Human Rights

"An Unnecessary War." [by former Democratic President Jimmy Carter] ... "I know from personal involvement that the devastating invasion of Gaza [Palestine area] by Israel could easily have been avoided." ... "After visiting Sderot last April and seeing the serious psychological damage caused by the rockets that had fallen in that area, my wife, Rosalynn, and I declared their launching from Gaza to be inexcusable and an act of terrorism. Although casualties were rare (three deaths in seven years), the town was traumatized by the unpredictable explosions. About 3,000 residents had moved to other communities, and the streets, playgrounds and shopping centers were almost empty. Mayor Eli Moyal assembled a group of citizens in his office to meet us and complained that the government of Israel was not stopping the rockets, either through diplomacy or military action." ... "Knowing that we would soon be seeing Hamas leaders from Gaza and also in Damascus [Syria's capital], we promised to assess prospects for a cease-fire. From Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who was negotiating between the Israelis and Hamas, we learned that there was a fundamental difference between the two sides. Hamas wanted a comprehensive cease-fire in both the West Bank [Palestine area] and Gaza, and the Israelis refused to discuss anything other than Gaza." ... "We knew that the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza were being starved, as the U.N. [United Nations] special rapporteur on the right to food had found that acute malnutrition in Gaza was on the same scale as in the poorest nations in the southern Sahara, with more than half of all Palestinian families eating only one meal a day." ... "Palestinian leaders from Gaza were noncommittal on all issues, claiming that rockets were the only way to respond to their imprisonment and to dramatize their humanitarian plight. The top Hamas leaders in Damascus, however, agreed to consider a cease-fire in Gaza only, provided Israel would not attack Gaza and would permit normal humanitarian supplies to be delivered to Palestinian citizens." ... "After extended discussions with those from Gaza, these Hamas leaders also agreed to accept any peace agreement that might be negotiated between the Israelis and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who also heads the PLO, provided it was approved by a majority vote of Palestinians in a referendum or by an elected unity government. " -By Jimmy Carter

-WashingtonPost

Dick Cheney

Douglas J Feith

"Scooter" Libby

Noteworthy

Military

Politics

History

Book

Petroleum

Money

Israel

Palestine

"Neoconservatism dies in Gaza: he recent Israeli offensive has put the final nail in the coffin of the [Republican President] Bush administration's Middle East fantasy." ... "The Gaza War of 2009 is a final and eloquent testimony to the complete failure of the neoconservative movement in United States foreign policy. For over a decade, the leading figures in this school of thought saw the violent overthrow of [Iraqi leader] Saddam Hussein and the institution of a parliamentary regime in Iraq as the magic solution to all the problems in the Middle East. They envisioned, in the wake of the fall of Baghdad [Iraq's capital], the moderation of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the overthrow of the Baath Party in Syria and the Khomeinist regime in Iran, the deepening of the alliance with Turkey, the marginalization of Saudi Arabia, a new era of cheap petroleum, and a final resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on terms favorable to Israel. After eight years in which they strode the globe like colossi, they have left behind a devastated moonscape reminiscent of some post-apocalyptic B movie. As their chief enabler prepares to exit the White House, the only nation they have strengthened is Iran; the only alliance they have deepened is that between Iran and two militant Islamist entities to Israel's north and south, Hezbollah and Hamas." ... "The neoconservatives first laid out their manifesto in a 1996 paper, "A Clean Break," written for an obscure think tank in Jerusalem [Israel's capital] and intended for the eyes of far right-wing Israeli politician Binyamin Netanyahu of the Likud Party, who had just been elected prime minister. They advised Israel to renounce the Oslo [Norway's capital] peace process and reject the principle of trading land for peace, instead dealing with the Palestinians with an iron fist. They urged Israel to uphold the right of hot pursuit of Palestinian guerrillas and to find alternatives to Yasser Arafat's Fatah for the Palestinian leadership. They called forth Israeli airstrikes on targets in Syria and rejection of negotiations with Damascus [Syria's capital]. They foresaw strengthened ties between Israel and its two regional friends, Turkey and Jordan." ... "They advocated "removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq," in part as a way of "rolling back" Syria. In place of the secular, republican tyrant, they fantasized about the restoration of the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq, and thought that a Sunni king might help moderate the Shiite Hezbollah in south Lebanon. (Yes.) They barely mentioned Iran, though it appears that their program of expelling Syria from Lebanon and weakening its regime was in part aimed at depriving Iran of its main Arab ally. In a 1999 book called "Tyranny's Ally: America's Failure to Defeat Saddam Hussein," David Wurmser argued that it was false to fear that installing the Iraqi Shiites in power in Baghdad would strengthen Iran regionally." ... "The signatories to this fantasy of using brute military power to reshape all of West Asia included some figures who would go on to fill key positions in the Bush administration. Richard Perle, a former assistant secretary of defense under Reagan, became chairman of the influential Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, a civilian oversight body for the Pentagon. Douglas J. Feith became the undersecretary of defense for planning. David Wurmser first served in Feith's propaganda shop, the Office of Special Plans, which manufactured the case for an American war on Iraq, and then went on to serve with "Scooter" Libby in the office of [Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney." ... "The neoconservatives used their well-funded think tanks, including the American Enterprise Institute, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP, an organ of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and the Hudson Institute, among others, to promote this agenda of the conquest of Iraq as a solution of all ills." ... "The biggest danger facing the United States is that there will be no true "Clean Break" -- that the neoconservatives will somehow find a way to survive the Bush administration, and continue to influence American foreign policy." (1, 2) -By Juan Cole

-Salon

20081223

Health

Military

Lawsuit

KBR

Corporate

Politics

Unsafe

Ice

Iraq

"Soldiers Accuse KBR Of Knowingly Exposing Troops To Deadly Toxin In Iraq." ... "Controversial military contractor KBR has racked up quite a record of endangering the lives of U.S. [United States] soldiers serving in Iraq. Over the years, the former Halliburton subsidiary has been accused of everything from giving troops ice tainted with “traces of body fluids and putrefied remains” to ignoring warnings of unsafe wiring that led to troop deaths." ... "Earlier this month, attorneys for 16 members of the Indiana National Guard filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that they “knowingly exposed the soldiers to a cancer-causing toxic chemical.” In a special report last night, CBS News revealed that KBR knew of the toxic exposure to hexavalent chromium long before it informed the guardsmen:"

"Now CBS News has obtained information that indicates KBR knew about the danger months before the soldiers were ever informed." ... "Depositions from KBR employees detailed concerns about the toxin in one part of the plant as early as May of 2003. And KBR minutes, from a later meeting state “that 60 percent of the people … exhibit symptoms of exposure,” including bloody noses and rashes." ... "Gentry says it wasn’t until the last day of August in 2003 - after four long months at the facility - that he was told the plant was contaminated."
WATCH: "KBR Accused In Toxic Scandal" via -CBSNews

"After receiving a briefing on the case on Monday, [Indiana Democratic Senator] Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN [Democratic-Indiana]) told CBS that “KBR has a lot to answer for“:"

"“Look, I think the burden of proof at this point is on the company,” Bayh said. “To come forward and very forthrightly explain what happened, why we should trust them, and why the health and well-being of our soldiers should continue to be in their hands.”"

"In a statement to CBS, the company denied all charges, saying, “We deny the assertion that KBR harmed troops and was responsible for an unsafe condition.” According to CNN, “an estimated 275 American soldiers may have been exposed to the chemical” at the KBR water plant, “over a period of months through mid- to late-2003.”" -By Matt Corley

-ThinkProgress.org

20081222

Military

KBR

Corporate

Politics

Indiana

Iraq

"Did Contractor Expose Troops To Toxin? CBS Evening News Exclusive: American Soldiers Are Dying Of Lung Cancer - And May Have Been Knowingly Exposed." ... "The military contractor Kellogg Brown and Root, known as KBR, has won more than $28 billion in U.S. military contracts since the beginning of the Iraq war. KBR may be facing a new scandal. First, accusations its then-parent company Halliburton was given the lucrative contract. And later, allegations of shoddy construction oversight that resulted in Americans getting electrocuted. Now, some other American soldiers say the company knowingly put their lives at risk, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian and investigative producer Laura Stricklerexclusively report." ... "In April of 2003, James Gentry of the Indiana National Guard arrived in Southern Iraq to take command of more than 600 other guardsmen. Their job: protect KBR contractors working at a local water plant." ... ""We didn't question what we were doing, we just knew we had to provide a security service for the KBR," said Battalion Cmdr. [Commander] Gentry." ... "Today James Gentry is dying from rare form of lung cancer. The result, he believes, of months of inhaling hexavalent chromium - an orange dust that's part of a toxic chemical found all over the plant." ... "At least one other Indiana guardsman has already died from lung cancer, and others are said to be suffering from tumors and rashes consistent with exposure to the deadly toxin." ... "Now CBS News has obtained information that indicates KBR knew about the danger months before the soldiers were ever informed." -By Armen Keteyian

-CBSNews

WATCH: "KBR Accused In Toxic Scandal"

-CBSNews

20081218

Dick Cheney

Criminal

Torture

War Crimes

Prisons

Law

Military

Intelligence

Politics

Corporate

Media

Iraq

"If Bush and Cheney Commit War Crimes and Everyone Knows It, But Does Nothing, Are They Still Crimes?" ... "As Jon Ponder noted here on Tuesday, a bi-partisan U.S. [United States] Senate panel has found [PDF] that [Republican President] George W. Bush was responsible for approving War Crimes (torture and abuse) at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, [Republican Vice President] Dick Cheney admitted in a recent interview to helping to approve War Crimes (torture and abuse) in interrogations, and the corporate media --- with the lone exception of MSNBC --- have been virtually as silent on what may be the most offensive crimes ever committed by an Executive Branch in the U.S. as they were during the lead-up to and follow-through on the War on Iraq, when those same officials sent our nation into war on the basis of demonstrable lies." ... "George Washington University's highly-respected constitutional law professor Jonathon Turley, noting the War Crimes now known and admitted to by Bush and Cheney, asked Keith Olbermann Tuesday night, "If someone commits a crime and everyone's around to see it and does nothing, is it still a crime?"" ... "During the discussion, Turley mentioned --- no less than three different times --- that it'll be up to the citizens whether or not any action is actually taken to prosecute those who committed these crimes." ... ""It will ultimately depend on citizens, and whether they will remain silent in the face of a crime that's been committed in plain view," Turley suggested. "It is equally immoral to stand silent in the face of a war crime and do nothing, and that is what the citizens are doing."" ... "He went on to argue: "There's this gigantic yawn as we hear about a war crime on national television being discussed matter-of-factly by the Vice President."" -By Brad Friedman

-BradBlog.com

WATCH "Countdown: Jonathan Turley and Bush Admin War Crimes."

-Keith Olbermann via -FireDogLake'sYouTube

Barack Obama

Gay

Politics

Religion

Book

People

Children

Girls

Schools

Pakistan

Palestine

British

Soviet

Military

History

"Three Cups of Tea for Rick Warren." ... "Rick Warren is providing the invocation for the [Democratic President Elect Barack Obama's] presidential inauguration. As a pastor whose books have been read by tens of millions of Americans and whose voice is respected by an equal or larger number, he has tremendous influence and power. And as an open homophobe who aggressively works to wound gay people in this country (as well as pretty much anybody else who doesn’t believe with his own particular and peculiar recently-invented version of Christian theology) he should be the guy with the bull’s-eye on his back for the progressive movement." ... "But consider that metaphor for a moment. In Pakistan there are entire regions filled with people who not only hate gays but hate Americans as well, regardless of religion. We've tried bombing them (as the Soviets did, and the British before them). Three consecutive Western empires have tried threatening them, starving them, poisoning them, infiltrating them, and overpowering them - all without success." ... "And then Greg Mortenson came to one of their villages, had three cups of tea with them (a metaphor for hospitality - they nursed him back to health after a mountain climbing injury - and the title of his best-selling book), and now in dozens of these formerly Taliban-controlled villages the people are rejecting the Taliban, embracing modernity, and openly proclaiming themselves as our friends." ... "His "weapon" for this conversion? He built schools for their children, particularly their previously-banned-from-school girls." ... "We pushed the Palestinians on the West Bank to have open and democratic elections, assuming that because they were using the tool of our culture (the secret ballot) they’d vote in people reflecting the values of our culture. Instead, they voted in Hamas, a group that is openly hostile to us and our allies. Hamas’ “weapon” for winning the hearts and minds of the Palestinians? They supported schools, hospitals, and fed and clothed people." ... "You’d think that we’d have learned from these experiences - particularly those of us who call ourselves “progressives” - that you get your desired results faster when you embrace, engage, and nurture your “enemies” than when you physically or rhetorically bomb them." ... "Barack Obama has learned that lesson, and is applying it in inviting Rick Warren to perform the invocation for his inauguration. In doing so, he is reaching out a hand to those who today are - out of fear and ignorance - pushing away gays the same way their intellectual ancestors pushed away African Americans when anti-miscegenation laws were supported by most of these same “fundamentalist” Christian churches in the 1950s and 1960s." -By Thom Hartmann

-ThomHartmann.com

20081216

Dick Cheney

Torture

War Crimes

Criminal

Terrorism

Intelligence

Politics

Military

Prison

Law

Guantanamo_Bay

Cuba

"Cheney was key in clearing CIA interrogation tactics: The vice president [Republican Dick Cheney] says that the use of waterboarding was appropriate and that the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should stay open until 'the end of the war on terror.'" ... "[Republican] Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that he was directly involved in approving severe interrogation methods used by the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency], and that the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, should remain open indefinitely." ... "Cheney's comments also mark the first time that he has acknowledged playing a central role in clearing the CIA's use of an array of controversial interrogation tactics, including a simulated drowning method known as waterboarding." ... ""I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared," Cheney said in an interview with ABC News." ... "Asked whether he still believes it was appropriate to use the waterboarding method on terrorism suspects, Cheney said: "I do."" ... "His comments come on the heels of disclosures by a Senate committee showing that high-level officials in the [Republican President] Bush administration were intimately involved in reviewing and approving interrogation methods that have since been explicitly outlawed and that have been condemned internationally as torture." -By Greg Miller

-LAtimes

Corporate

Government

Christmas

Debt

History

Accounting

Politics

Homeowners

Auto

Military

Space

"Bailout payout tops $8 trillion." ... "As the holiday season commences, it’s worth taking stock of the last gift that [Republican] President George W. Bush and the 110th Congress have left for U.S. [United States] taxpayers." ... "It’s a package of about $8.7 trillion dollars’ worth of potential taxpayer commitments for loans, guarantees and other bailout goodies for businesses and distressed homeowners." ... "Amid the tissue paper:" ... "• More than $1.5 trillion in Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. [Corporation] loan guarantees, including a $139 billion assist to the lending arm of General Electric Corp." ... "• $1.8 trillion in cash, tax breaks and loan guarantees doled out from the Treasury Department to taxpayers, financial institutions and credit companies." ... "• $300 billion for homeowners from the Federal Housing Authority." ... "• $25 billion in assistance for auto companies from a program overseen by the Energy Department, which is separate from the bailout proposal that tanked last week in the Senate." ... "• And $5 trillion worth of new money, loan guarantees and loosened lending requirements from the Federal Reserve Bank." ... "According to Bianco Research President James Bianco, who crunched these numbers, that amounts to more government aid and assistance than nine other historic bailouts and big government outlays combined." ... "The New Deal, for instance, cost an estimated $32 billion in its day, which would be about $500 billion in today’s dollars. The Marshall Plan cost about $12.7 billion, which is the equivalent of a paltry $115.3 billion. The Louisiana Purchase? The French got $15 million, which would be worth about $217 billion today." ... "If you take those three items, add in the adjusted costs of the Race to the Moon, the savings and loan crisis, the Korean War, the Iraq war, the Vietnam War and assistance for NASA [National Aeronautics and Space Administration ], you still get to just $3.92 trillion — not even half of the taxpayers’ exposure today, according to Bianco." -By Jeanne Cummings

-Politico.com via -AP

20081213

Iraq

Reconstruction

Money

Politics

Foreign

Production

Accounting

Investigations

Federal

History

Military

Law

"Official History Spotlights Iraq Rebuilding Blunders." ... "An unpublished, 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country, and then molded into a $100 billion failure by bureaucratic turf wars, spiraling violence and ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society and infrastructure." ... "The history, the first official account of its kind, is circulating in draft form here and in Washington among a tight circle of technical reviewers, policy experts and senior officials. It also concludes that when the reconstruction began to lag — particularly in the critical area of rebuilding the Iraqi police and army — the Pentagon simply put out inflated measures of progress to cover up the failures." ... "In one passage, for example, [Republican President Bush's] former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell is quoted as saying that in the months after the 2003 invasion, the Defense Department "kept inventing numbers of Iraqi security forces — the number would jump 20,000 a week! 'We now have 80,000, we now have 100,000, we now have 120,000.'"" ... "Mr. Powell's assertion that the Pentagon inflated the number of competent Iraqi security forces is backed up by [Lieutenant General] Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the former commander of ground troops in Iraq, and L. Paul Bremer III, the top civilian administrator until an Iraqi government took over in June 2004." ... "Among the overarching conclusions of the history is that five years after embarking on its largest foreign reconstruction project since the Marshall Plan in Europe after World War II, the United States government has in place neither the policies and technical capacity nor the organizational structure that would be needed to undertake such a program on anything approaching this scale." ... "The bitterest message of all for the reconstruction program may be the way the history ends. The hard figures on basic services and industrial production compiled for the report reveal that for all the money spent and promises made, the rebuilding effort never did much more than restore what was destroyed during the invasion and the convulsive looting that followed." ... "By mid-2008, the history says, $117 billion had been spent on the reconstruction of Iraq, including some $50 billion in United States taxpayer money." ... "Five years after the invasion of Iraq, the history concludes, "the government as a whole has never developed a legislatively sanctioned doctrine or framework for planning, preparing and executing contingency operations in which diplomacy, development and military action all figure."" ... "Titled "Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience," the new history was compiled by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, led by Stuart W. Bowen Jr., a Republican lawyer who regularly travels to Iraq and has a staff of engineers and auditors based here." ... "The manuscript is based on approximately 500 new interviews, as well as more than 600 audits, inspections and investigations on which Mr. Bowen's office has reported individually over the years. Laid out for the first time in a connected history, the material forms the basis for broad judgments on the entire rebuilding program." ... "In the preface, Mr. Bowen gives a searing critique of what he calls the "blinkered and disjointed prewar planning for Iraq's reconstruction" and the botched expansion of the program from a modest initiative to improve Iraqi services to a multibillion-dollar enterprise." -By T. Christian Miller and James Glanz

-ProPublica.org -NYTimes

Hard Lessons: The Iraq Reconstruction Experience.

(PDF) Original Document

via -NYTimes

20081212

Bob Corker

David Vitter

Richard Shelby

Foreign

Money

Auto

Makers

Michigan

Working

People

Military

Japan

Tenn

Germany

Korea

Ala

"Anger grows in Michigan over Southern opposition to auto loans." ... "Mark Dobias, a small-town lawyer from Michigan's Upper Peninsula, hasn't always been the domestic auto industry's biggest fan. But when it became clear that a few senators from places like Alabama and Louisiana were determined to do anything to block any aid to General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford, it got to him." ... ""This is regional economic warfare. Pure and simple. The wounded Rustbelt being bayoneted in the throat by economic interests in the East and Sunbelt with aid from their political toadies," he wrote me. He's normally a laid-back guy with a puckish sense of humor, but the hypocrisy was, he said, a bit much." ... ""Michigan is a great state. It has good people - hard-working people who make things. The nation has gained from its natural resources and industrial capacity. And now … we will remember this in the same way that Georgia remembers William Tecumseh Sherman," the union general whose armies laid the Southern state waste." ... "What was highly unusual, in Michigan's quarrelling political culture, was the unanimity with which the state's various factions united in support of trying to help the automakers - and disdain for the senators who would prevent that effort." ... "The thoroughly Republican Detroit News normally denounces any government aid program. But not this time. In a highly rare front-page editorial, it pleaded "we urge the Senate, please give Detroit a chance to make things right … we appeal to Senate Republicans to act not in support of the domestic auto makers, but in the interest of the national economy and national security - we still need an arsenal of democracy."" ... "True, the News did publish a piece by freshman [Tennessee Republican Senator] Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn. [Republican-Tennessee]) that called on Congress to impose much harsher conditions on the companies and their workers as a precondition for any aid. He also called for more involvement by Congress in actually running these companies. But the newspaper shot back, that "like most of Washington, Corker is ill-informed of the forces roiling the domestic auto industry."" ... "There was bitterness, too, in Detroit [Michigan] at the men blocking the bailout. Some cattily noted that when [Louisiana Republican Senator] Sen. David Vitter (R., La. [Republican-Louisiana]) vowed a filibuster, it was the first time he had gotten national press attention since being linked to a Washington prostitution scandal." ... "Sens. [Alabama Republican Senator] Richard Shelby (R., Ala. [Republican-Alabama]) and Corker both represent states where foreign, nonunion automakers have significant operations. Mr. Corker, a freshman who won a narrow victory in 2006, is insisting that the United Auto Workers accept wage cuts so that workers make no more than nonunion workers in the South, such as the [Japan's] Nissan employees in his state." ... "Alabama, a right-to-work state, has granted vast concessions to win [auot manufacturing] plants operated by [Japan's] Toyota, [Germany's] Mercedes-Benz, [Japan's] Honda, and [South Korea's] Hyundai." -By Jack Lessenberry

-ToledoBlade.com

20081211

Torture

Prisons

War Crimes

Secret

Military

Government

Intelligence

Law

Investigation

Human Rights

Politics

History

McCain

Ariz

Mich

Guantanamo

Cuba

Iraq

Afghanistan

China

Korea

"Bipartisan Report: Rumsfeld Responsible for Detainee Abuse: Senate Committee Finds Officials Made Decisions That Led to Offenses Against Prisoners." ... "A bipartisan panel of senators has concluded that [Republican President Bush's] former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials bear direct responsibility for the harsh treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay [Cuba], and that their decisions led to more serious abuses in Iraq and elsewhere." ... "In the most comprehensive critique by Congress of the military's interrogation practices, the Senate Armed Services Committee issued a report yesterday that accuses Rumsfeld and his deputies of being the authors and chief promoters of harsh interrogation policies that disgraced the nation and undermined U.S. security. The report, released by Sens. [ Senators] Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.[ Democratic-Michigan]) and John McCain (R-Ariz.[ Republican Arizona]), contends that Pentagon officials later tried to create a false impression that the policies were unrelated to acts of detainee abuse committed by members of the military." ... ""The abuse of detainees in U.S. [United States] custody cannot simply be attributed to the actions of 'a few bad apples' acting on their own," the report states. "The fact is that senior officials in the United States government solicited information on how to use aggressive techniques, redefined the law to create the appearance of their legality, and authorized their use against detainees."" ... "The report is the most direct refutation to date of the administration's rationale for using aggressive interrogation tactics -- that inflicting humiliation and pain on detainees was legal and effective, and helped protect the country. The 25-member panel, without one dissent among the 12 Republican members, declared the opposite to be true." ... "The [Republican President Bush's] administration's policies and the resulting controversies, the panel concluded, "damaged our ability to collect accurate intelligence that could save lives, strengthened the hand of our enemies, and compromised our moral authority."" ... "A Defense Department spokesman noted that the Pentagon cooperated extensively with the Senate investigation and has taken numerous steps in recent years to ensure the humane treatment of detainees." ... "The panel's investigation focused on the Defense Department's employment of controversial interrogation practices, including forced nudity, painful stress positions, sleep deprivation, extreme temperatures and the use of dogs. The practices, some of which had already been adopted by the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] at its secret prisons, were adapted for interrogations at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and later migrated to U.S. detention camps in Afghanistan and Iraq, including the infamous Abu Ghraib prison." ... "The true genesis of the decision to use coercive techniques, the report said, was a memo signed by [Republican] President Bush on [February] Feb. 7, 2002, declaring that the Geneva Convention's standards for humane treatment did not apply to captured al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. As early as that spring, the panel said, top administration officials, including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, participated in meetings in which the use of coercive measures was discussed. The panel drew on a written statement by Rice, released earlier this year, to support that conclusion." ... "In July 2002, Rumseld's senior staff began compiling information about techniques used in military survival schools to simulate conditions that U.S. airmen might face if captured by an enemy that did not follow the Geneva conditions. Those techniques -- borrowed from a training program known as Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape, or SERE -- included waterboarding, or simulated drowning, and were loosely based on methods adopted by Chinese communists to coerce propaganda confessions from captured U.S. soldiers during the Korean war." ... "The SERE program became the template for interrogation methods that were ultimately approved by Rumsfeld himself, the report says." -By Joby Warrick and Karen DeYoung

-WashingtonPost

[PDF] "Senate Armed Services Committee Inquiry Into The Treatment of Detainees In U.S. Custody." ... “What sets us apart from our enemies in this fight… is how we behave. In everything we do, we must observe the standards and values that dictate that we treat noncombatants and detainees with dignity and respect. While we are warriors, we are also all human beings” -- General David Petraeus

via -WashingtonPost

20081210

Terrorism

Criminal

Political

History

Corporate

Religion

Prison

Pat Robertson

Abortion

Gay

Rights

Law

California

Texas

Iraq

Military

"Bush Awards Presidential Citizen Medal To Watergate Crook Chuck Colson." ... "Established in 1969, the Presidential Citizens Medal is the second highest honor for a civilian, recognizing Americans “who have performed exemplary deeds of service for the nation.”" ... "Today, [Republican] President Bush honored 24 recipients of this year’s award, including actor Gary Sinise and Teach for America founder Wendy Kopp. Also included in that mix was Chuck Colson, “the first member of the [Republican President] Nixon administration to serve prison time for Watergate-related offenses.” Colson was President Nixon’s counsel from 1969-1973 and pleaded guilty in 1974 to obstruction of justice. Colson received a one to three year sentence, but served just seven months. David Plotz at Slate described Colson’s role in the Nixon administration:"

"As special counsel to the president, he [Chuck Colson] was [Republican President] Richard Nixon’s hard man, the “evil genius” of an evil administration. According to Watergate historian Stanley Kutler, Colson sought to hire Teamsters thugs to beat up anti-war demonstrators, and he plotted to raid or firebomb the Brookings Institution. He eventually pleaded guilty to scheming to defame Daniel Ellsberg and interfering with his trial."

"Since that time, Colson has become an evangelical prison reformer, running the nonprofit Prison Fellowship, which advocates for “privately run prisons and the delivery of all social services by faith-based groups.” However, according to author Allan Lichtman in “White Protestant Nation,” Colson has also remained involved in conservative politics:"

"Colson brought together politically conservative Catholics and Protestands for a statement of common beliefs, advised conservative politicians including Texas [Republican] governor George W. Bush, and worked with Christian right leaders Pat Robertson and James Dobson on the development of political strategy. He disseminated conservative messages on sex roles, abortion, homosexuality, pornography, gay rights, and separation of church and state in his radio broadcasts and columns, reaching millions of Americans."

"On October 3, 2002, Colson was also one of the co-signers of a letter from prominent evangelical leaders supporting an invasion of Iraq. More recently he has spoken out in favor of California’s Prop. 8, accusing the LGBT community of “anti-religious bigotry.”" -By Amanda Terkel

-ThinkProgress.org

20081209

Military

Inpector

Safer

Vehicles

Technology

Politics

MRAPS

Iraq

"Pentagon ignored danger of roadside bombs, report finds." ... "The military ignored steps before the invasion of Iraq that could have prevented the staggering number of casualties from roadside bombs, the Pentagon's acting inspector general charged Tuesday." ... "The IG's [Inspector General's] report says that the military knew years before the war that mines and homemade bombs, which the military calls "improvised explosive devices," would be a "threat . . . in low-intensity conflicts" and that "mine-resistant vehicles" were available." ... ""Yet the military did not develop requirements for, fund or acquire" safer vehicles, the report says. The military invaded Iraq in 2003 "without having taken available steps to acquire technology to mitigate the known mine and IED [Improvised Explosive Device] risk to soldiers and Marines."" ... "Even after the war was under way, as the devices began taking a deadly toll and field commanders pressed for vehicles that were better protected from roadside bombs, the Pentagon was slow to act, the report says." ... "The IG's office is headed by Acting Inspector General Gordon Heddell." ... "Explosive devices, including roadside bombs and mines, have caused nearly 25,000 deaths and injuries, according to the Pentagon, the top cause of death for U.S. [United States] service members in Iraq." ... "The IG report says that the military "stopped processing" a 2005 request for 1,169 MRAPS [Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles] from commanders in the field. " -By David Goldstein

-McClatchyDC.com

Blackwater

Investigation

Corporate

Military

California

North Carolina

Iraq

International

Politics

"Plea by Blackwater guard helps indict 5 others." ... "In the first public airing of an investigation that remains a source of international outrage, the Justice Department unsealed its case against five private security guards, built largely around the chilling testimony of a sixth guard about the 2007 shootings that left 17 unsuspecting Iraqi civilians dead at a busy Baghdad [Iraq's capital] traffic circle." ... "In pleading guilty to manslaughter, the sixth security guard, Jeremy Ridgeway of California, described how he and the other guards used automatic rifles and grenade launchers to fire on cars, houses, a traffic officer and a girls' school. In addition to those killed, at least 20 people were wounded." ... "The six guards were employed by Blackwater Worldwide, the largest security contractor in Iraq; the company, based in North Carolina, has not been charged in the case." ... "Ridgeway said in the court documents unsealed Monday that the episode in Nisour Square on Sept. 16, 2007, started when the guards opened fire on a white Kia sedan "that posed no threat to the convoy."" ... "The case remained a sore point during the [Republican President] Bush administration's negotiations with Iraq for an agreement setting new rules for the continuing presence of U.S. [United States] troops. Ultimately, a major provision of the agreement ended immunity for private contractors working in Iraq." (1, 2) -By Ginger Thompson

-IHT.com

20081207

Barack Obama

Medical

Politics

History

Hawaii

Japan

Vietnam

Iraq

"Obama Selects Shinseki for Veterans Affairs Secretary." ... "On the 67th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, [Democratic] President-elect Barack Obama Sunday nominated [Retired Army General] Gen. Eric Shinseki (Ret.), a Japanese-American born in Obama's home state of Hawaii, to become Secretary of Veterans Affairs." ... "“We owe it to all our veterans to honor them as we honored our greatest generation, not just with words, but with deeds,” said Obama, tasking him with a modernization of the Department so troops get the medical care “far too few” are receiving right now." ... "Obama said Shinseki, the first Asian-American named to his cabinet, was the right person to cut red tape, boost funding, and bring benefits to veterans." ... "“There is no one more distinguished, more determined, or more qualified to build this V.A. [Veterans Affairs] than the leader I’m announcing as our next Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Gen. Eric Shinseki,” Obama said." ... "“No one will ever doubt that this former Army chief of staff has the courage to stand up for our troops and our veterans. No one will ever question whether he will fight hard enough to make sure they have the support that they need.”" ... "The former Army Chief of Staff, criticized years ago by his Pentagon bosses for saying that “several hundred thousand soldiers” would be needed to wage the Iraq war successfully, today pledged to reform the Department to give troops a “smooth, error-free, no-fail, benefits-assured transition into our ranks as veterans.”" ... "“A word to my fellow veterans: if confirmed, I will work each and every day to ensure that we are serving you as well as you have served us. We will pursue a 21st-century V.A. that serves your needs,” promised Shinseki, who lost part of his foot in Vietnam." ... "“We will open doors, new doors of opportunity so you can find a good job, support your families when you return to civilian life. And we will always, we will always honor the sacrifices of those who have worn the uniform and their loved ones.”" -By Matt Jaffe

-ABCNEWS.com

20081206

Iraq

Corporate

Military

Federal

Investigation

"Blackwater Guards Indicted In Deadly Baghdad Shooting: 5 Face Trial Over Incident That Killed 17 Civilians, Sources Say." ... "Five Blackwater Worldwide Security guards have been charged in a September 2007 shooting that left 17 Iraqi civilians dead and raised questions about the U.S. government's use of security contractors in combat zones, according to two sources familiar with the case." ... "The guards, all former U.S. military personnel, worked as security contractors for the State Department, assigned to protect U.S. diplomats and other nonmilitary officials in Iraq." ... "Federal prosecutors obtained the indictment Thursday, and it was sealed. Channing Phillips, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District, declined to comment on the investigation. The exact nature of the charges could not be determined." ... "The sources said the government is bringing the charges under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which has been previously used to prosecute only cases referred to federal prosecutors by the Defense Department for crimes committed by military personnel overseas." -By Del Quentin Wilber

-WashingtonPost

20081203

Dick Cheney

KBR

Corporation

Iraq

Texas

Indiana

Military

Employees

Health

"Ex-Guardsmen sue KBR over alleged poisoning." ... "KBR Inc. [KBR is a former subsidiary of Halliburton, the corporation formerly run by Republican Vice President Dick Cheney] was sued by ex-members of the Indiana National Guard and accused of knowingly exposing employees and the soldiers protecting them to cancer-causing dust at an Iraqi worksite in 2003." ... "Sixteen soldiers said in a complaint in federal court in Evansville, Ind. [Indiana], that Houston[Texas]-based KBR and related companies are responsible for chromium poisoning at Qarmat Ali, Iraq." ... "The plaintiffs, from the Tell City, Ind., Guard unit, were providing security for KBR during repairs of a water-treatment plant, according to the complaint. The site was contaminated for six months by hexavalent chromium, a carcinogen in powdered compounds used to control corrosion, it said." ... "“The Tell City Guardsmen were repeatedly told that there was no danger on site, even after KBR managers knew that blood testing of American civilians exposed onsite confirmed elevated chromium levels,” the soldiers’ lawyers said in court papers." ... "Hexavalent chromium on first exposure causes nosebleeds, respiratory ailments and rashes, which the soldiers said KBR officials told them was caused by dry desert air or sand allergies, according to the complaint. Chromium poisoning is irreversible, it said." ... "KBR sought to conceal the contamination and, once it was discovered, to limit exposed individuals’ knowledge about the level of poisoning they had suffered, the soldiers claimed." ... "Ed Blacke, who worked as a medic at Qarmat Ali, testified that KBR fired him when he discovered the chromium exposure and tried to warn workers."

-Bloomberg via -Chron

20081202

Dick Cheney

KBR

Corporation

Military

Laborers

Human Rights

Texas

Iraq - India

Nepal

Sri Lanka

Bangladesh

"Military contractor in Iraq holds foreign workers in warehouses." ... "About 1,000 Asian men who were hired by a Kuwaiti subcontractor to the U.S. [United States] military have been confined for as long as three months in windowless warehouses near the Baghdad [Iraq's capital] airport without money or a place to work." ... "Najlaa International Catering Services, a subcontractor to KBR [formerly a Halliburton subsidiary, the corporation formerly run by Republican Vice President Dick Cheney], an engineering, construction and services company, hired the men, who're from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. On Tuesday, they staged a march outside their compound to protest their living conditions." ... "The laborers said they paid middlemen more than $2,000 to get to Iraq for jobs that they were told would earn them $600 to $800 a month." ... "The conditions in which the men have been held appear to violate guidelines the U.S. military handed down in 2006 that urged contractors to deter human trafficking to the war zone by shunning recruiters that charged excessive fees." -By Adam Ashton

-McClatchyDC.com

20081121

Electric

Cars

Industry

Manufacturing

Technology

Transportation

Infrastructure

Jobs

Consumer

Military

Historic

San Francisco

Sacramento

California

Michigan

Oregon

Washington

Global

Planet

Climate

Emissions

"Recharge America with Electric Cars." ... "Today, our country is facing a set of seemingly insurmountable problems:"

"• an economic meltdown of historic proportions"
"• a car industry crashing, because of a lack of innovation and growth"
"• oil dependence transferring our wealth abroad"
"• an extended military presence in the Middle East"
"• and climate change, which threatens the health of our planet"

"Yesterday, joined by San Jose [California] Mayor Chuck Reed and Oakland [California] Mayor Ron Dellums I [San Francisco, California's mayor Gavin Newsom] announced a nine-step policy plan for transforming the Bay Area into the "Electric Vehicle (EV) Capital of the U.S. [United States]" In support of this initiative Better Place, a global electric transportation company announced that it would enter the U.S. market with California as its first state, beginning in the Bay Area." ... "Commercial availability of electric cars is targeted to begin in 2012, and Better Place estimates its network investment in the Bay Area will total $1 billion when the system is fully deployed. I welcomed Better Place's announcement and anticipate many other EV companies will focus on the Bay Area as a top-priority market." ... "Electric vehicles represent an overarching, game-changing solution that allows us to transform, and recharge the American transportation sector for the 21st century. By accelerating the conversion of the car industry from its oil dependent past, to a new electric century, we can jump start the car industry, eliminate our dependence on oil, reduce our required presence in the middle east, create millions of jobs, and eliminate a significant portion of our CO2 emissions." ... "This plan ties together a triangle of influence that can get our nation back on track: Detroit [Michigan] car makers who know how to scale production, working in concert with San Francisco's culture of innovation, aided by Sacramento [California's capital] and Washington DC [America's capital] policy-making. The goal is to create a sustainable strategic advantage for the US instead of a series of bailouts." ... "As California prepares to launch this electric recharge infrastructure project, it can also serve as a blueprint for a more widely integrated solution." ... "California can generate upwards of $2.5B in new investment in jobs and the economy for the infrastructure effort, with billions more in cars and battery sales to consumers. The nation as a whole can trigger tens of billions in infrastructure, manufacturing and innovation investment. At the same time, this conversion reduces the cost to the consumer and nation per mile we drive. California, followed by the western US states of Oregon and Washington are ready to drive this effort." -By Gavin Newsom

-HuffingtonPost.com

20081115

Global

Financial

Crisis

Terrorism

Intelligence

Nuclear

Pakistan

China

Afghanistan

Yemen

"Experts See Security Risks in Downturn: Global Financial Crisis May Fuel Instability and Weaken U.S. [United States] Defenses." ... "Intelligence officials are warning that the deepening global financial crisis could weaken fragile governments in the world's most dangerous areas and undermine the ability of the United States and its allies to respond to a new wave of security threats." ... "U.S. government officials and private analysts say the economic turmoil has heightened the short-term risk of a terrorist attack, as radical groups probe for weakening border protections and new gaps in defenses. A protracted financial crisis could threaten the survival of friendly regimes from Pakistan to the Middle East while forcing Western nations to cut spending on defense, intelligence and foreign aid, the sources said." ... "The crisis could also accelerate the shift to a more Asia-centric globe, as rising powers such as China gain more leverage over international financial institutions and greater influence in world capitals." ... "Some of the more troubling and immediate scenarios analysts are weighing involve nuclear-armed Pakistan, which already was being battered by inflation and unemployment before the global financial tsunami hit. Since September, Pakistan has seen its national currency devalued and its hard-currency reserves nearly wiped out." ... "Analysts also worry about the impact of plummeting crude prices on oil-dependent nations such as Yemen, which has a large population of unemployed youths and a history of support for militant Islamic groups." ... "Annual spending for U.S. intelligence operations currently totals $47.5 billion, a figure that does not include expensive satellites that fall under the Pentagon's budget." ... "U.S. officials are following developments with particular concern because of Pakistan's critical role in the campaign against terrorism, as well as the country's arsenal of dozens of nuclear weapons. Al-Qaeda has appealed directly to Pakistanis to overthrow their government, and its Taliban allies have launched multiple suicide bombings, some aimed at economic targets such as the posh Marriott hotel in Islamabad [Pakistan's capital], hit in September." ... "Economic and social unrest has helped drive recruiting for militant groups that cross into Afghanistan to attack U.S. troops." ... "China already was on track to surpass the United States as the world's largest economy, perhaps as early as 2030. Now, many experts believe the global recession could help it do so faster." (1, 2, 3) -By Joby Warrick

-WashingtonPost

20081112

Auto

Makers

Jobs

Government

History

Military

Politics

Ohio

"Failure of auto industry could set off catastrophe." ... "Advocates for the nation's automakers are warning that the collapse of the Big Three -- or even just General Motors -- could set off a catastrophic chain reaction in the economy, eliminating up to 3 million jobs and depriving governments of more than $150 billion in tax revenue." ... ""We've got to do this because the cost of inaction is so high to communities, to workers, to companies," said [Ohio Democratic Senator] Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio. He was among many lawmakers worried that an industry collapse would be devastating for everything from school districts to small businesses." ... "Even if just GM [General Motors] collapsed, the failure could bring down the other two companies -- and even the U.S. [United States] operations of foreign automakers -- as parts suppliers run out of money and shut down." ... "Concern about the automakers hit new heights Friday when GM and Ford reported they spent a combined $14.6 billion more than they took in last quarter. GM said it could run out of money by the end of the year." ... "Ford said it could last through 2009, but only because it arranged a hefty credit line last year." ... "All this comes after tight credit and economic uncertainty in October reduced U.S. auto sales to their lowest level in 25 years -- with no rebound in sight." ... "The Big Three have cut their combined U.S. hourly work force more than 40 percent since 2005, from 244,000 to about 139,000." ... "Brown, the Ohio senator, said letting the industry collapse would also be a national security risk, eliminating companies that were essential in two world wars." -By Tom Krisher and Ken Thomas

-AP via -Yahoo

Blackwater

Corporate

Military

Federal

Investigation

Iraq

"Blackwater likely to be fined millions in Iraq weapons case." ... "The State Department is preparing to slap a multi-million dollar fine on private military contractor Blackwater USA for shipping hundreds of automatic weapons to Iraq without the necessary permits." ... "Some of the weapons are believed to have ended up on the country's black market, department officials told McClatchy, but no criminal charges have been filed in the case." ... "The expected fine is the result of a long-running federal investigation into whether employees of the firm shipped weapons hidden in shrink-wrapped pallets from its Moyock, N.C. [North Carolina] headquarters to Iraq, where Blackwater is the State Department's largest personal security contractor." ... "Since the arms shipment allegations first became public 14 months ago, Blackwater, which has received $1.2 billion in federal contracts, according to the Web site fedspending.org, has consistently denied involvement in illicit arms trafficking." ... "However, the State Department found that Blackwater shipped 900 weapons to Iraq without the paperwork required by arms export control regulations, one department official said. Of that number, 119 were "particularly ... erroneous," he said." ... "Blackwater employees are also the subjects of a Justice Department probe into the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad's [Iraq's capital] Nisoor Square on Sept. [September] 16, 2007." ... "A federal grand jury is weighing whether to indict the Blackwater guards who were involved in the killings." -By Warren P. Strobel

-McClatchyDC.com

20081109

Secret

Military

Law

Politics

Terrorism

Intelligence

Virginia

World

Syria

Pakistan

"Secret Order Lets U.S. Raid Al Qaeda." ... "The United States military since 2004 has used broad, secret authority to carry out nearly a dozen previously undisclosed attacks against Al Qaeda and other militants in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere, according to senior American officials." ... "These military raids, typically carried out by Special Operations forces, were authorized by a classified order that [Republican President Bush's] Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed in the spring of 2004 with the approval of President Bush, the officials said. The secret order gave the military new authority to attack the Qaeda terrorist network anywhere in the world, and a more sweeping mandate to conduct operations in countries not at war with the United States." ... "In 2006, for example, a Navy Seal team raided a suspected militants’ compound in the Bajaur region of Pakistan, according to a former top official of the Central Intelligence Agency. Officials watched the entire mission — captured by the video camera of a remotely piloted Predator aircraft — in real time in the C.I.A.’s [Central Intelligence Agency] Counterterrorist Center at the agency’s headquarters in Virginia 7,000 miles away." ... "Some of the military missions have been conducted in close coordination with the C.I.A., according to senior American officials, who said that in others, like the Special Operations raid in Syria on Oct. 26 of this year, the military commandos acted in support of C.I.A.-directed operations." ... "According to a senior administration official, the new authority was spelled out in a classified document called “Al Qaeda Network Exord,” or execute order, that streamlined the approval process for the military to act outside officially declared war zones." ... "It was issued after the Bush administration had already granted America’s intelligence agencies sweeping power to secretly detain and interrogate terrorism suspects in overseas prisons and to conduct warrantless eavesdropping on telephone and electronic communications." (1, 2) -By Eric Schmitt and Mark Mazzetti

-NYTimes

20081106

Chinese

Hackers

Government

E-Mail

Network

Military

Technology

Intelligence

Politics

"Chinese hack into White House network." ... "Chinese hackers have penetrated the White House computer network on multiple occasions, and obtained e-mails between government officials, a senior US [United States] official told the Financial Times." ... "On each occasion, the cyber attackers accessed the [Republican President Bush] White House computer system for brief periods, allowing them enough time to steal information before US computer experts patched the system." ... "US government cyber intelligence experts suspect the attacks were sponsored by the Chinese government because of their targeted nature. But they concede that it is extremely difficult to trace the exact source of an attack beyond a server in a particular country." ... "The official said the Chinese cyber attacks had the hallmarks of the “grain of sands” approach taken by Chinese intelligence, which involves obtaining and pouring through lots of - often low-level - information to find a few nuggets." ... "Some US defence companies have privately warned about attacks on their systems, which they believe are attempts to learn about future weapons systems." ... "The National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force, a new unit established in 2007 to tackle cyber security, detected the attacks on the White House. But the official stressed that the hackers had only accessed the unclassified computer network, not the more secure classified network." ... "The US has increased efforts to tackle cyber security, particularly since Chinese hackers believed to be associated with the Peoples’ Liberation Army last year perpetrated a major attack on the Pentagon." ... "US military computer experts battled for weeks against a sustained attack that eventually overcame the Pentagon’s defences. The cyber attackers managed to obtain information and emails traffic from the unclassified computer system that supports Robert Gates, the defence secretary. Pentagon IT technicians were forced to take the network down for days to conduct repairs." -By Demetri Sevastopulo

-FT.com

20081103

Barack Obama

John McCain

Sarah Palin

2008 Election

Economy

Politics

War

Iraq

World

"Francis Fukuyama." ... "I’m voting for Barack Obama [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] this November for a very simple reason. It is hard to imagine a more disastrous presidency than that of [Republican] George W. Bush. It was bad enough that he launched an unnecessary war and undermined the standing of the United States throughout the world in his first term. But in the waning days of his administration, he is presiding over a collapse of the American financial system and broader economy that will have consequences for years to come. As a general rule, democracies don’t work well if voters do not hold political parties accountable for failure. While John McCain [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] is trying desperately to pretend that he never had anything to do with the Republican Party, I think it would a travesty to reward the Republicans for failure on such a grand scale." ... "McCain’s appeal was always that he could think for himself, but as the campaign has progressed, he has seemed simply erratic and hotheaded. His choice of Sarah Palin [2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential Candidate] as a running mate was highly irresponsible; we have suffered under the current president who entered office without much knowledge of the world and was easily captured by the wrong advisers. McCain’s lurching from [Republican President] Reaganite free- marketer to populist tribune makes one wonder whether he has any underlying principles at all." -By Francis Fukuyama

-AmConMag.com

20081029

Barack Obama

Media

2008 Election

Families

Economy

Military

Ohio

Missouri

Kansas

New Mexico

Florida

Arizona

Iraq

"30-minute Obama ad shows campaign muscle." ... "[2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Illinois Senator] Sen. Barack Obama's 30-minute TV ad, which ran simultaneously on broadcast and cable networks at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday, is muscle-flexing that has little precedent, a campaign advertising expert said." ... ""It's evidence, if you needed any, that the Obama campaign has more money than there is ad time left to buy," said Evan Tracey, director of the Campaign Media Analysis Group. "This is flexing the muscles."" ... ""The strategic brilliance of this for Obama is that he is going to consume about 24 hours of the news cycle," Tracey said. "It boxes [John] McCain in, takes the oxygen out of the room."" ... "In the carefully produced infomercial, Obama laid out his plans for the economy and for bringing an end to the war in Iraq." ... "It also featured stories of struggling families in swing states such as Ohio and Missouri and included testimonials from high-profile supporters, including Kansas [Democratic Governor] Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and New Mexico [Democratic Governor] Gov. Bill Richardson." ... "Obama's Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, was not mentioned, nor was the GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican]. The spot ended with a brief, live Obama address to a rally in Florida, another hotly contested state in this year's campaign." -By Richard Allen Greene

-CNN

WATCH Barack Obama ad: "American Stories, American Solutions."

"Obama: "I'm reminded every single day that I am not a perfect man. I will not be a perfect president. But I can promise you this: I will always tell you what I think and where I stand. I will always be honest with you about the challenges we face. I will listen to you when we disagree. And, most importantly, I will open the doors of government and ask you to be involved in your own democracy again."" - BarackObama.com

20081020

John McCain

Barack Obama

Military

Politics

2008 Election

Nevada

Iraq

Afghanistan

Vietnam

History

"McCain Lies Again, Repeats False Claim He ‘Received The Highest Honor And Awards’ From Every Vets Group." ... "Yesterday, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain (R-AZ [Republican-Arizona]) held a telephone town hall meeting, in which “thousands” of Nevadans — according to the McCain campaign — called to listen in. Among some of the hostile, pointed, and critical questions came one from a veteran, who challenged McCain on his voting record regarding funding for the Veterans Administration and veterans’ priorities:"

"Q: I know you voted for lesser increases, and sometimes they were so much less, and our VA desperately needs the money. Can you tell me why you would vote for less money for the VA when there’s a war going on?"
"M: Well of course I have not and I’m afraid I’ve been endorsed by the VFW in every election that I’ve been in. I have been — received the honors, the highest honor and awards from all our veterans organizations for my consistent support of them. I don’t know what you’re looking at, but the DAV, the VFW, the American Legion, all of them have given me their highest awards for my consistent support of them."

"As ThinkProgress has repeatedly [-] documented, McCain is either willfully lying or he is delusional about his record — and the meaning of “highest awards.” In fact, McCain has recently stood on the opposite side of all three of the groups he mentioned:"

"– Disabled American Veterans (DAV): In a list of 36 “key votes,” shows McCain “Voted Against Us” 16 times. ([2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack] Obama “Voted With Us” 17 times, and against only once.)"
"– Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW): Endorsed [Virginia Democratic Senator] Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA [Democratic-Virginia]) GI Bill that McCain vigorously opposed; called McCain’s alternative GI Bill “very partisan” and said they “didn’t have much input” in its crafting."
"– American Legion: Endorsed Webb’s GI Bill and criticized McCain’s concern about how it would affect retention, saying the bill “would encourage young men and women to join the military.”"

"Just last week, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave McCain a grade of D for his record of voting against veterans. (Obama got a B.) The Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) have noted that in its “Key Votes,” McCain “Voted Against Us” 15 times and “Voted For Us” only 8. (Obama voted for VVA 12 times, and against only once.)" ... "Earlier this month, [Texas Democratic Representative] Rep. Chet Edwards (D-TX [Democratic-Texas]), a leading veterans advocate, excoriated McCain in an interview with ThinkProgress: “If you look at John McCain’s record on veterans issues, it’s a failed one.” It’s a sentiment IAVA executive director Paul Rieckhoff agrees with. Noting McCain’s dismal voting record on VA funding, Rieckhoff told ThinkProgress, “If he says the VA’s not working, it’s in part because he hasn’t funded it properly.”"

"Update In an interview with Richmond's [Virginia's capital] WTVR on Friday, McCain repeated his favorite lie: "I've been a friend of the veterans for a long time and I've received every award from every major veterans organization." He added, "I'm proud of my support for the veterans."" -By Ali Frick

-ThinkProgress.org

20081009

Noteworthy

Sarah Palin

Military

Terrorism

Alaska

Federal

Oil

Land

Money

Politics

International

Law

2008 Election

"Alaskan Independence Party: The Last Refuge of a Scoundrel." ... "[2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah] Palin, it could be argued, following her own logic, thinks so little of America's perfection that she continues to "pal around" with a man--her husband, actually--who only recently terminated his seven-year membership in the Alaskan Independence Party. Putting plunder above patriotism, the members of this treasonous cabal aim to break our country into pieces and walk away with Alaska's rich federal oil fields and one-fifth of America's land base--an area three-fourths the size of the Civil War Confederacy." ... "AIP's charter commits the party "to the ultimate independence of Alaska," from the United States which it refers to as "the colonial bureaucracy in Washington." It proclaims Alaska's 1959 induction as a state "as illegal and in violation of the United Nations charter and international law."" ... "AIP's creation was inspired by the rabidly violent anti-Americanism of its founding father Joe Vogler, "I'm an Alaskan, not an American," reads a favorite Vogler quote on AIP's current website, "I've got no use for America or her damned institutions." According to Vogler AIP's central purpose was to drive Alaska's secession from the United States. Alaska, says current Chairwoman Lynette Clark, "should be an independent nation."" ... "Vogler was murdered in 1993 during an illegal sale of plastic explosives that went bad. The prior year, he had renounced his allegiance to the United States explaining that, "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government." He cursed the stars and stripes, promising, "I won't be buried under their damned flag...when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home." Palin has never denounced Vogler or his detestable anti-Americanism." ... "Palin's husband Todd remained an AIP party member from 1995 to 2002. Sarah can be described in McCarthy-era palaver as a "fellow traveler." While retaining her Republican registration, she attended the AIP's 1994 convention where the party called for a draft constitution to secede from the United States and create an independent nation of Alaska. The McCain Campaign has reluctantly acknowledged that she also attended AIP's 2000 Convention. She apparently found the experience so inspiring that she agreed to give a keynote address at the AIP's 2006 convention and she recorded a video greeting for this year's 2008 convention." -ByRobert F. Kennedy Jr.

-HuffingtonPost.com

20081007

Secret

Iraq

Afghanistan

Military

Terrorism

Politics

McCain

Obama

2008 Election

"New U.S. intelligence report warns 'victory' not certain in Iraq." ... "A nearly completed high-level U.S. [United States] intelligence analysis warns that unresolved ethnic and sectarian tensions in Iraq could unleash a new wave of violence, potentially reversing the major security and political gains achieved over the last year." ... "U.S. officials familiar with the new National Intelligence Estimate said they were unsure when the top-secret report would be completed and whether it would be published before the Nov. 4 presidential election." ... "More than a half-dozen officials spoke to McClatchy on condition of anonymity because NIE's, the most authoritative analyses produced by the U.S. intelligence community, are restricted to the president, his senior aides and members of Congress except in rare instances when just the key findings are made public." ... "The new NIE, which reflects the consensus of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, has significant implications for Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, whose differences over the Iraq war are a major issue in the presidential campaign." ... "The findings seem to cast doubts on McCain's frequent assertions that the United States is "on a path to victory" in Iraq by underscoring the deep uncertainties of the situation despite the 30,000-strong U.S. troop surge for which he was the leading congressional advocate." ... "But McCain could also use the findings to try to strengthen his argument for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq until conditions stabilize." ... "For Obama, the report raises questions about whether he could fulfill his pledge to withdraw most of the remaining 152,000 U.S. troops _ he would leave some there to deal with al Qaida and to protect U.S. diplomats and civilians _ within 16 months of taking office so that more U.S. forces could be sent to battle the growing Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan." ... "The findings of the intelligence estimate appear to be reflected in recent statements by Army [General] Gen. David Petraeus, the former top U.S. commander in Iraq, who has called the situation "fragile" and "reversible" and said he will never declare victory there." -By Jonathan S. Landay, Warren P. Strobel and Nancy A. Youssef with contributions by Leila Fadel

-McClatchyDC.com

McCain

Terrorism

Finance

History

Secret

Government

Intelligence

Military

Politics

Iran

Nicaragua

Foreign

Arizona

2008 Election

"McCain linked to private group in Iran-Contra case." ... "GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] presidential nominee John McCain has past connections to a private group that supplied aid to guerrillas seeking to overthrow the leftist government of Nicaragua in the Iran-Contra affair." ... "The U.S. Council for World Freedom was part of an international organization linked to former Nazi collaborators and ultra-right-wing death squads in Central America." ... "The council's founder, retired Army [Major General] Maj. Gen. John Singlaub, said McCain became associated with the organization in the early 1980s as McCain was launching his political career in Arizona." ... "Covert arms shipments to the rebels called Contras, financed in part by secret arms sales to Iran, became known as the Iran-Contra affair. They proved to be the undoing of Singlaub's council." ... "In 1987, the Internal Revenue Service withdrew the tax-exempt status of Singlaub's group because of its activities on behalf of the Contras." ... "Elected to the House in 1982 and at a time when he was on the board of Singlaub's council, McCain was among Republicans on Capitol Hill expressing support for the Contras, a CIA[Central Intelligence Agency]-organized guerrilla force in Central America. In 1984, Congress cut off CIA funds for the Contras." ... "Months before the cutoff, top [Republican President] Reagan administration officials ramped up a secret White House-directed supply network and put National Security Council aide Oliver North in charge of running it. The goal was to keep the Contras operational until Congress could be persuaded to resume CIA funding." ... "Singlaub's private group became the public cover for the White House operation." ... "Secretly, Singlaub worked with North in an effort to raise millions of dollars from foreign governments." -By Pete Yost

-APvia -Yahoo

20081006

John McCain

Racist

Terrorism

Money

History

2008 Election

Phoenix

Arizona

Military

Law

Foreign

"Why McCain's Time With Council Of World Freedom Matters." ... "Since Sunday, Democrats have been buzzing about the re-revelation that during the 1980s, [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain served on the board of a far-right conservative organization that had supplied arms and funds to paramilitary organizations in Latin America." ... "Democratic strategist Paul Begala lit the fire when, during an appearance on Meet the Press, he warned that this relatively obscure detail from McCain's past could draw him into a guilt-by-association game he was bound to regret." ... ""John McCain sat on the board of...the U.S. Council for World Freedom," said Begala, "The Anti-Defamation League, in 1981 when McCain was on the board, said this about this organization. It was affiliated with the World Anti-Communist League - the parent organization - which ADL said 'has increasingly become a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact for extremists, racists and anti-Semites.'"" ... "But McCain's involvement in the U.S. Council for World Freedom, which extended from 1981 through, possibly, 1986 is significant -- not merely because it ties him to unsavory characters but because it firmly associates him with a foreign policy that was, at the time and still, controversial." ... "The USCWF was founded in Phoenix, Arizona in November 1981 as an offshoot of the World Anti-Communist League. The group was, from the onset, saddled with the disreputable reputation of its parent group. The WACL had ties to ultra-right figures and Latin American death squads. Roger Pearson, the chairman of the WACL, was expelled from the group in 1980 under allegations that he was a member of a neo-Nazi organization." ... "It [The USCWF] claimed to support "pro-Democratic resistance movements fighting communist totalitarianism." And during the 1980s it became a vehicle for the [Republican President] Reagan administration to prop up some of the more totalitarian, anti-communist efforts in Central America." ... "The funders of the U.S World Council of Freedom read like a who's who list of prominent conservative figures. Joe Coors, the Republican Beer baron was reportedly a big donor. Time Magazine wrote that the Christian Broadcasting Network was a backer as well. The Washington Times newspaper, owned by the controversial Reverend Sun Myung Moon, started a fundraising drive of its own." ... "Through it all, McCain was a member." ... "... McCain's association with a group that reportedly circumvented law, financed right-wing military institutions, and engaged in sometimes brutal anti-communist tactics, could be telling for some voters." -By Sam Stein

-HuffingtonPost.com

20080925

John McCain

Barack Obama

Financial

Law

Veterans

Housing

Energy

2008 Election

Iran

"McCain has not sponsored a banking bill this Congress." ... "[2008 Election] Republican presidential nominee John McCain has not introduced any banking or housing bills in the 110th Congress, while [2008 Election Presidential] Democratic rival Barack Obama has proposed five." ... "Obama’s legislation calls for bolstering housing assistance for veterans, amending the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 to provide shareholders with an advisory vote on executive compensation, halting mortgage transactions that promote fraud, authorizing local and state governments to crack down on companies that invest in Iran's energy sector and authorizing a pilot program to prevent at-risk veterans from becoming homeless." -By Bob Cusack

-TheHill.com

20080923

Secret

Afghanistan

Military

2008 Election

Terrorism

Politics

Dutch

Canadian

"'Grim' Afghanistan Report To Be Kept Secret by US." ... "US intelligence analysts are putting the final touches on a secret National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Afghanistan that reportedly describes the situation as "grim", but there are "no plans to declassify" any of it before the [2008] election, according to one US official familiar with the process." ... "According to people who have been briefed, the NIE will paint a "grim" picture of the situation in Afghanistan, seven years after the US invaded in an effort to dismantle the al Qaeda network and its Taliban protectors." ... "Seth Jones, an expert on Afghanistan at the Rand Corporation think tank, called the situation in Afghanistan "dire."" ... ""We are now at a tipping point, with about half of the country now penetrated by a range of Sunni militant groups including the Taliban and al Queida," Jones said. Jones said there is growing concern that Dutch and Canadian forces in Afghanistan would "call it quits."" ... ""The US military would then need six, eight, maybe ten brigades but we just don't have that many," Jones said." ... "Last week, Admiral Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress "we're running out of time" in Afghanistan. "I'm not convinced we're winning it in Afghanistan," Adm. Mullen testified." ... "Perhaps foreshadowing the NIE assessment on Afghanistan, Adm. Mullen told Congress, "absent a broader international and interagency approach to the problems there, it is my professional opinion that no amount of troops in no amount of time can ever achieve all the objectives we seek in Afghanistan."" (1, 2) -By Brian Ross

-ABCNEWS.com

Iraq

Investigators

Reconstruction

Accounting

Politics

"$13 Billion in Iraq Aid Wasted Or Stolen, Ex-Investigator Says." ... "A former Iraqi official estimated yesterday that more than $13 billion meant for reconstruction projects in Iraq was wasted or stolen through elaborate fraud schemes." ... "Salam Adhoob, a former chief investigator for Iraq's Commission on Public Integrity, told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee, an arm of the Democratic caucus, that an Iraqi auditing bureau "could not properly account for" the money." ... "While many of the projects audited "were not needed -- and many were never built," he said, "this very real fact remains: Billions of American dollars that paid for these projects are now gone."" ... "He said a report that went to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other top Iraqi officials was never published because "nobody cares" about investigating such cases. Many investigators, he said, feared for their safety because 32 of his co-workers have been murdered. " -By Dana Hedgpeth with contributions by Julie Tate

-WashingtonPost

20080920

John McCain

2008 Election

"Anchorage Paper: McCain Confuses National Guard and Army Troops." ... ""

-EditorAndPublisher.com

20080915

John McCain

Sarah Palin

Federal

Money

Politics

Immigration

Religion

Alaska

Russia

Iraq

Military

2008 Election

"John McCain's Journey From Maverick to Liar." ... "When Jon Stewart asked [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate John] McCain last year, "Are you going into crazy base world?" the celebrated maverick acknowledged, "I'm afraid so."" ... "McCain flip-flopped on the [Republican President] Bush tax cuts. He abandoned immigration reform. He reached out to Jerry Falwell and other religious conservatives." ... "It wasn't enough. And so, in a move that even one of his longtime advisers conceded (in a remark captured by an open microphone) was disturbingly "cynical," McCain gave the base [2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential Candidate] Sarah Palin." ... "So far, the main "maverick" actions that McCain has promised as the next Republican president are to trim nonmilitary Democratic spending and continue the Iraq war. You can't get more conventional than that." ... "And even that message has been somewhat undermined by disclosures that Palin was a champion of those costly federal earmark projects she has lobbied for in Alaska—where, you know, you can see Russia." ... "At this point, McCain has taken the obvious way out—launching a series of distracting attacks on [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Barack Obama, with slim regard for truth." ... "The ads have spurred a backlash, the consequences (or lack) of which may well decide the election." ... "For 18 months, Obama has wagered all his chips on the (quaint? idealistic? brilliant?) idea that the American people are tired of the same old sleazy and divisive politics. McCain has now chosen to bet against him." ... "And we are the cards." -By John Aloysius Farrell

-usnews.com

20080913

John McCain

Barack Obama

Military

Investment

Arizona

2008 Election

"McCain on FCS: Flip-flop or fib?" ... "Has [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain renounced his longtime antagonism toward the Army’s Future Combat Systems?" ... "On [September] Sept. 8, the Republican presidential candidate told a rally crowd in Lee’s Summit, Mo. [Missouri], about an [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack] Obama video message to a liberal advocacy group." ... "“He promised them he would, quote, ‘slow our development of Future Combat Systems,’” McCain said, according to wire reports. “This is not a time to slow our development of Future Combat Systems.”" ... "Flashback to July, however, when his campaign furnished McCain’s economic plan to The Washington Post, declaring that “there are lots of procurements — Airborne Laser, [C-17] Globemaster, Future Combat System [sic] — that should be ended and the entire Pentagon budget should be scrubbed.”" ... "In fact, McCain has long criticized the over-budget, behind-schedule FCS program. In 2005, he blasted the Army for allowing the program to balloon to $161 billion, and forced the service to rewrite the main FCS contract." ... "So where does McCain really stand? Some bloggers and analysts have suggested that he used the term “future combat systems” generically. Obama’s campaign maintains their candidate was speaking specifically about FCS, in which case McCain may be twisting his rival’s words." ... "Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute called it deceitful." ... "“McCain’s interpretation of Obama’s position is typical of the way in which the Republicans have twisted Democratic views in order to undercut their opponents and at the same time obscure the past positions of the Republicans,” Thompson said. “Future Combat Systems is the centerpiece of Army modernization. However, McCain has been more critical of it than anyone else in the chamber. Obama has been much more detailed and thoughtful in his comments about future military investment than McCain’s very superficial statements.”" -By Bradley Peniston with contributions by Antonie Boessenkool

-ArmyTimes.com

20080912

Sarah Palin

Terrorism

Politics

Iraq

Military

Intelligence

2008 Election

"Out of bounds! Palin confuses Iraq with al Qaida." ... "Throw the flag on: [2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential Candidate] Sarah Palin." ... "Call: Pass interference." ... "What Happened: On the 7th anniversary of the [September] Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Palin linked Iraq to those attacks. " ... "Why that's wrong: The bipartisan National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States said it found "no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaida cooperated on attacks against the United States."" ... "The panel also said that contacts between al Qaida and Iraq before the attacks "do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship."" ... "The group's conclusion confirmed similar findings by the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] and other U.S. intelligence agencies. [Republican] President Bush, who once claimed such a pre 9-11 connection to Iraq, has since backed off." -By Steven Thomma

-McClatchyDC.com

20080903

Sarah Palin

Iraq

Military

Politics

Alaska

Gas

Companies

2008 Election

"Palin: Iraq war 'a task that is from God'." ... "Alaska [Republican Governor] Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church that the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a "task that is from God."" ... "In an address last June, the [2008 Election] Republican vice presidential candidate also urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion natural gas pipeline in the state, calling it "God's will."" ... ""Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God," she said. "That's what we have to make sure that we're praying for, that there is a plan and that plan is God's plan."" ... "Palin told graduating students of the church's School of Ministry, "What I need to do is strike a deal with you guys." As they preached the love of Jesus throughout Alaska, she said, she'd work to implement God's will from the governor's office, including creating jobs by building a pipeline to bring North Slope natural gas to North American markets." ... ""God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that," she said." -By Gene Johnson

-AP via -Yahoo

WATCH: "Sarah Palin: War in Iraq is "God's Plan""
WATCH: "Sarah Palin: Alaskan Pipeline is "God's Will""

20080902

Sarah Palin

Iraq

Foreign

Military

Terrorism

Politics

Alaska

Massachusetts

2004 Election

2008 Election

"Palin's Church May Have Shaped Controversial Worldview." ... "A review of recorded sermons by Ed Kalnins, the senior pastor of Wasilla Assembly of God [Wasilla, Alaska] since 1999, offers a provocative and, for some, eyebrow-raising sketch of [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate Sarah] Palin's longtime spiritual home." ... "In his sermons, Kalnins did not hide his affections for certain national politicians." ... "During the 2004 election season, he praised [Republican] President Bush's performance during a debate with [2004 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate and Massachusetts Senator] Sen. John Kerry, then offered a not-so-subtle message about his personal candidate preferences. "I'm not going tell you who to vote for, but if you vote for this particular person, I question your salvation. I'm sorry." Kalnins added: "If every Christian will vote righteously, it would be a landslide every time."" ... "Months after hinting at possible damnation for Kerry supporters, Kalnins bristled at the treatment President Bush was receiving over the federal government's handling of Hurricane Katrina. "I hate criticisms towards the President," he said, "because it's like criticisms towards the pastor -- it's almost like, it's not going to get you anywhere, you know, except for hell. That's what it'll get you."" ... "Much of his support for the current administration has come in the realm of foreign affairs. Kalnins has preached that the 9/11 attacks and the invasion of Iraq were part of a "world war" over the Christian faith, one in which Jesus Christ had called upon believers to be willing to sacrifice their lives."

"What you see in a terrorist -- that's called the invisible enemy. There has always been an invisible enemy. What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what's going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. ... We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith. ... Jesus called us to die. You're worried about getting hurt? He's called us to die. Listen, you know we can't even follow him unless you are willing to give up your life. ... I believe that Jesus himself operated from that position of war mode. Everyone say "war mode." Now you say, wait a minute Ed, he's like the good shepherd, he's loving all the time and he's kind all the time. Oh yes he is -- but I also believe that he had a part of his thoughts that knew that he was in a war."

... "In his sermons, Pastor Kalnins has also expressed beliefs that, while not directly political, lie outside of mainstream Christian thought." ... "He preaches repeatedly about the "end times" or "last days," an apocalyptic prophesy held by a small but vocal group of Christian leaders. During his appearance with Palin in June, he declared, "I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states in the last days, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to come to the state to seek refuge and the church has to be ready to minister to them."" ... "He also claims to have received direct "words of knowledge" from God, providing him information about past events in other people's lives." -By Nico Pitney and Sam Stein

-HuffingtonPost.com

John McCain

Military

Politics

Ads

Vietnam

History

2008 Election

Watch -

"Former POW says McCain is "not cut out to be President"." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain has been exploiting his prisoner of war experience every chance he gets. He has used this story to justify everything from not knowing how many homes he has to his healthcare plan to his marital infidelities to his taste in music. The McCain campaign is even using his POW story in paid ads. But now a veteran who was a prisoner with McCain in Vietnam is explaining loud and clear that being a POW does not qualify McCain to lead our country." ... "We are sure this video will draw an onslaught of right-wing attacks, but we bring it to you because it is our job to continue to convey the truth together and give these issues national attention. As Dr. Butler has said, McCain does not have the temperament to have his finger near the red button. Get this video to everyone you know—friends, family members, coworkers, and especially those who don't share your political views. The video is designed to reach them. Get it on your social networking sites like Digg. And get it to every blog, newspaper, and TV station that has ever overplayed McCain's POW story. It is time to fight back with truth!" ... "The mainstream press has already begun to call out McCain for overusing his POW story. And it's cut across all political persuasions. * "Whether he's deflecting criticism over his health-care plan or mocking a tribute to the Woodstock music festival, Senator John McCain has a trump card: the Hanoi Hilton. — Edwin Chen, Bloomberg * "Noun, Verb, POW" — Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic Monthly * "The McCain campaign's constant invocation of the candidate's POW past is weird bordering on irrational..." — Ana Marie Cox, TIME * "I think they are going to it way too many times." — Howard Fineman, Newsweek" ... "Remember how Joe Biden got the press to refer to Rudy Giuliani as "A noun, a verb, and 9/11"? Well, let's actually take Andrew Sullivan's lead here and get the media to boil McCain down to a similar phrase: "A noun, a verb, and POW." Considering how often the McCain campaign invokes his POW story, isn't that what they're already doing?"

-BraveNewPac -BraveNewFilms.org

20080901

Sarah Palin

Foreign

Military

2008 Election

Watch -

"Tucker Bounds on Palin's National Security Experience." ... "Campbell Brown interviews Tucker Bounds on [2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential Candidate] Sarah Palin's national security experience"

-CNN

via

-TPMTV .TalkingPointsMemo

20080830

Sarah Palin

Alaska

Newspapers

Iraq

Military

Politics

McCain

2008 Election

"2 Top Alaska Newspapers Question Palin's Fitness." ... "For the past 24 hours, the pages and web sites of the two leading papers up there have raised all sorts of issues surrounding [2008 Election Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah] Palin, from her ethics problems to general lack of readiness for this big step up." ... "A reporter for the Anchorage daily, Gregg Erickson, even did an online chat with the Washington Post, in which he revealed that Palin's approval rating in the state was not the much-touted 80%, but 65% and sinking -- and that among journalists who followed her it might be in the "teens." He added: "I have a hard time seeing how her qualifications stack up against the duties and responsibilities of being president.... I expect her to stick with simple truths. When asked about continued American troop presence in Iraq, she said she knows only one thing about that (I paraphrase): no one has attacked the American homeland since [Republican President] George Bush took the war to Iraq."" ... "Dermot Cole, a columnist for the Fairbanks paper, observed that he thinks highly of Palin as a person but "in no way does her year-and-a-half as governor of Alaska qualify her to be vice president or president of the United States." ... ""One of the strange things Friday was that so many commentators and politicians did not know how to pronounce her name and had no clue about what she has actually done in Alaska....I may be proven wrong, but the decision announced by McCain strikes me as reckless. She is not prepared to be the next president should something happen to McCain."" -By Greg Mitchell

-HuffingtonPost.com

20080829

Sarah Palin

John McCain

Politics

People

Family

Drugs

Health

Federal

Foreign

Military

Terrorism

Alaska

Idaho

2008 Election

"On Sarah Palin." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain has selected Alaska [Republican] Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. [Governor] Gov. Palin was first elected to the position in 2006 and previously served as the mayor of Wasilla (pop. 5,470) [Alaska]. She also served on the town's city council. She has a degree from the University of Idaho where she minored in political science. That is the extent of her political experience." ... "Her biography is fascinating. She is only 44 years-old. She eloped with her highschool sweetheart, a Yup'ik Eskimo. They have five children named: Track 18, Bristol, 17, Willow, 13, Piper, 7, and Trig (who was born on April 18th). Trig has Down's Syndrome. The Palins knew that Trig had an extra chromosome but decided to go ahead with the pregnancy." ... "She has admitted to smoking the ganja [marijuana] but says she didn't enjoy it. She was the runner-up in the Miss Alaska contest." ... "I am not aware of Palin having any knowledge or experience with foreign affairs, terrorism, the armed forces, or the federal bureaucracy." ... "Considering [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain's age and history with cancer, this pick has extra importance. It's hard to envision Gov. Palin becoming president on short notice. It also undermines McCain's focus on foreign policy and experience." -By BooMan Tribune

20080828

KBR

Corporation

Jordan

Nepal

Workers

Human

Rights

Iraq

Military

California

"KBR, Partner in Iraq Contract Sued in Human Trafficking Case." ... "Agnieszka Fryszman, a partner at Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, said 13 Nepali men, between the ages of 18 and 27, were recruited in Nepal to work as kitchen staff in hotels and restaurants in Amman, Jordan. But once the men arrived in Jordan, their passports were seized and they were told they were being sent to a military facility in Iraq, Fryszman said." ... "As the men were driven in cars to Iraq, they were stopped by insurgents. Twelve were kidnapped and later executed, Fryszman said. The thirteenth man survived and worked in a warehouse in Iraq for 15 months before returning to Nepal." ... "The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in California on behalf of the workers' families and the survivor, claims that the trafficking scheme was engineered by KBR and its Jordanian subcontractor, Daoud & Partners, according to Fryszman." -By Dana Hedgpeth

-WashingtonPost

KBR

Lawsuit

Human

Rights

Iraq

Nepal

Workers

Company

Military

"KBR Suit Alleges 'Forced Labor' and 'Slavery'." ... "We've now looked through the lawsuit against KBR that we told you about this morning. The complaint (pdf) alleges that the company -- the biggest U.S. [United States] contractor in Iraq during the period at issue -- engaged in a human trafficking scheme whereby 12 Nepali men were brought to Iraq to work and were prevented from leaving. The men were then kidnapped by insurgents, and all but one were executed." ... "In sum: "Defendants' actions as set forth above constitute the torts of trafficking in persons, involuntary servitude, forced labor, and slavery."" ... "This is hardly the first time that KBR has been in hot water, of course. As we noted back in June, the company "was criticized in March for making troops sick by failing to provide clean water. And top military officials have given false statements to Congress to quell controversy over the company." In addition, at least two female former KBR employees in Iraq have alleged that they were raped or sexually assaulted by co-workers, and that KBR was less than aggressive in investigating their claims." -By Zachary Roth

-TPMMuckracker .TalkingPointsMemo

20080827

Iraq

Military

Money

"U.S. increases spending on contractors in Iraq." ... "The United States is spending more money than ever on private security contractors in Iraq as thousands of troops return home amid steady declines in insurgent attacks, federal records show." ... "This year, spending on contractors, who protect diplomats, civilian facilities and supply convoys, is projected to exceed $1.2 billion, according to federal contract and budget data obtained by USA TODAY. Most of that bill — about $1 billion —is State Department spending, which is up 13% over 2007. The remaining $200 million covers Pentagon contracts." ... "A Congressional Budget Office report released this month showed that U.S. agencies spent a total of $85 billion on contractors of all types in Iraq from 2003 through 2007 — about 20% of all U.S. spending for operations in the country during that period." ... "Some security costs may be undocumented because they're buried inside contracts for other services, the report said." ... "That's an unacceptable lack of clarity, says [Pennsylvania Democratic Representative] Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa [Democratic-Pennsylvania]., who chairs the House subcommittee that controls defense spending. He has proposed to cut $4.5 billion from contracting accounts in next year's defense budget and add $943 million to other Pentagon accounts so more of the work can be shifted to civilian government employees." -By Peter Eisler

-USATODAY

20080825

WATCH

2008 Election

Politics

Noteworthy

Iraq

Military

Global

Climate

Environment

Fiscal

History

Iowa

"Full Text: Former U.S. Rep. Jim Leach Speech to Democratic National Convention." ... [Speech by Iowa Republican Representative Jim Leach:] "In troubled times, it was understood that country comes before party, that in perilous moments mutual concern for the national interest must be the only factor in political judgments. This does not mean that debate within and between the political parties should not be vibrant. Yet what frustrates so many citizens is the lack of bipartisanship in Washington and the way today’s Republican Party has broken with its conservative heritage." ... "The party that once emphasized individual rights has gravitated in recent years toward regulating values. The party of military responsibility has taken us to war with a country that did not attack us. The party that formerly led the world in arms control has moved to undercut treaties crucial to the defense of the earth. The party that prides itself on conservation has abdicated its responsibilities in the face of global warming. And the party historically anchored in fiscal restraint has nearly doubled the national debt, squandering our precious resources in an undisciplined and unprecedented effort to finance a war with tax cuts." ... "America has seldom faced more critical choices: whether we should maintain an occupational force for decades in a country and region that resents western intervention or elect a leader who, in a carefully structured way, will bring our troops home from Iraq as the heroes they are. Whether it is wise to continue to project power largely alone with flickering support around the world or elect a leader who will follow the model of General Eisenhower and this president’s father and lead in concert with allies." ... "Whether it is prudent to borrow from future generations to pay for today’s reckless fiscal policies or elect a leader who will shore up our budgets and return to a strong dollar. Whether it is preferable to continue the policies that have weakened our position in the world, deepened our debt and widened social divisions or elect a leader who will emulate John F. Kennedy and relight a lamp of fairness at home and reassert an energizing mix of realism and idealism abroad." ... "The portfolio of challenges passed on to the next president will be as daunting as any since the Great Depression and World War II. This is not a time for politics as usual or for run-of-the-mill politicians. Little is riskier to the national interest than more of the same. America needs new ideas, new energy and a new generation of leadership." ... "Hence, I stand before you proud of my party’s contributions to American history but, as a citizen, proud as well of the good judgment of good people in this good party, in nominating a transcending candidate, an individual whom I am convinced will recapture the American dream and be a truly great president: the senator from Abraham Lincoln’s state—Barack Obama. Thank you." -By Jim Leach

via -Clips&Comment

WATCH: Jim Leach, Republican of Iowa at the Democratic National Convention

20080819

Afghanistan

French

Terrorism

History

"Taliban kill 10 French troops in Afghanistan." ... "Taliban insurgents killed 10 French soldiers and wounded 21 in a major battle in Afghanistan, the French president's office said on Tuesday, the biggest single loss of foreign troops in combat there since 2001." ... "The Taliban have gradually closed in on Kabul [Afghanistan's capital] in the past year, making travel south, west or east of the capital extremely hazardous for troops, aid workers and civilians and spreading fear among the population." ... "The battle that ensued lasted deep into the night and the mixed French, Afghan and U.S. force summoned reinforcements and air support, General Jean-Louis Georgelin, chief of the army general staff, told a news conference in Paris." ... "France has 2,600 troops in Afghanistan, after Sarkozy sent an extra 700 soldiers this year in response to a U.S. call for NATO allies to provide more forces to check a surge in violence." ... "TALIBAN CLOSING IN" ... "The Taliban have stepped up attacks in provinces bordering the Afghan capital over the past year, closing in from the volatile south and east, where the bulk of the fighting has occurred since militants relaunched their insurgency in 2005." (1, 2, 3) -By Sayed Salahuddin with contributions by James Mackenzie, Elyas Wahdat in Khost, Jon Hemming, and Michael Winfrey

-Reuters

20080814

Barack Obama

John McCain

Ron Paul

Military

People

Overseas

Politics

History

Iraq

2008 Election

"Troops Deployed Abroad Give 6:1 to Obama." ... "During World War II, soldiers crouching in foxholes penned letters assuring their sweethearts that they'd be home soon. Now, between firefights in the Iraqi desert, some infantrymen have been sending a different kind of mail stateside: two or three hundred dollars -- or whatever they can spare -- towards a presidential election that could very well determine just how soon they come home." ... "According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate] Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain's haul." -By Luke Rosiak

-OpenSecrets.org

Recipient	Total
Obama, Barack Paul, Ron McCain, John Huckabee, Mike Thompson, Fred Romney, Mitt Clinton, Hillary	$60,642 $45,512 $10,665 $7,950 $6,350 $5,550 $3,240

via: OpenSecrets.org

20080813

John McCain

Randy Scheunemann

Money

Politics

Georgia

Russia

Military

Arizona

2008 Election

"While Aide Advised McCain, His Firm Lobbied for Georgia: Campaign Dismisses Timing of Phone Call, Contract." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain's top foreign policy adviser prepped his boss for an April 17 phone call with the president of Georgia and then helped the presumptive Republican presidential nominee prepare a strong statement of support for the fledgling republic." ... "The day of the call, a lobbying firm partly owned by the adviser, Randy Scheunemann, signed a $200,000 contract to continue providing strategic advice to the Georgian government in Washington." ... "The McCain campaign said Georgia's lobbying contract with Orion Strategies had no bearing on the candidate's decision to speak with President Mikheil Saakashvili and did not influence his statement. "The Embassy of Georgia requested the call," said campaign spokesman Brian Rogers." ... "But ethics experts have raised concerns about former lobbyists for foreign governments providing advice to presidential candidates about those same countries. "The question is, who is the client? Is the adviser loyal to income from a foreign client, or is he loyal to the candidate he is working for now?" said James Thurber, a lobbying expert at American University. "It's dangerous if you're getting advice from people who are very close to countries on one side or another of a conflict."" ... "For months while McCain's presidential campaign was gearing up, Scheunemann held dual roles, advising the candidate on foreign policy while working as Georgia's lobbyist. Between Jan. 1, 2007, and May 15, 2008, the campaign paid Scheunemann nearly $70,000 to provide foreign policy advice. During the same period, the government of Georgia paid his firm $290,000 in lobbying fees." ... "Since 2004, Orion has collected $800,000 from the government of Georgia." -By Matthew Mosk and Jeffrey H. Birnbaum with contributions by Alice Crites

-WashingtonPost

John McCain

Randy Scheunemann

Politics

Georgia

Russia

Taiwan

Macedonia

Romania

Latvia

Law

2008 Election

"McCain adviser got money from Georgia." ... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate] John McCain's chief foreign policy adviser and his business partner lobbied the senator or his staff on 49 occasions in a 3 1/2-year span while being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by the government of the former Soviet republic of Georgia." ... "The payments raise ethical questions about the intersection of Randy Scheunemann's personal financial interests and his advice to the Republican presidential candidate who is seizing on Russian aggression in Georgia as a campaign issue." ... ""Scheunemann's work as a lobbyist poses valid questions about McCain's judgment in choosing someone who — and whose firm — are paid to promote the interests of other nations," said New York University law professor Stephen Gillers. "So one must ask whether McCain is getting disinterested advice, at least when the issues concern those nations."" ... ""If McCain wants advice from someone whose private interests as a once and future lobbyist may affect the objectivity of the advice, that's his choice to make."" ... "Scheunemann's firm lobbied McCain's office on four bills and resolutions regarding Georgia, with McCain as a co-sponsor or supporter of all of them." ... "In addition to the 49 contacts with McCain or his staff regarding Georgia, Scheunemann's firm has lobbied the senator or his aides on at least 47 occasions since 2001 on behalf of the governments of Taiwan and Macedonia, which each paid Scheunemann and his partner Mike Mitchell over half a million dollars; Romania, which paid over $400,000; and Latvia, which paid nearly $250,000." -By Pete Yost

-AP via -Yahoo

Georgia

Russia

Belgium

France

Military

History

"Georgia Says Russian Troops Move Beyond Conflict Zone (Update2)." ... "Georgia accused Russia of sending troops beyond the South Ossetia [Republic of Georgia region] conflict zone in violation of a cease-fire. A Russian official denied the claim, saying the troops are eliminating Georgia's ability to renew attacks." ... "Georgian Security Council chief Kakha Lomaia said a column of Russian troops may be moving from the city of Gori [Republic of Georgia] toward the Uplistsikhe military base, which Georgian forces abandoned earlier in the conflict. The Russians are advancing ``well beyond the conflict zone,'' he said today." ... "The Russian troop movements come one day after Georgia and Russia agreed to a European Union-brokered peace plan to end five days of fighting. EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels [the capital of Belgium and the European Union] to push the peace deal forward. The 27-nation bloc may send military personnel to monitor the cease-fire, said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country brokered the accord." ... "Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said Russian tanks continue to operate within Georgia, destroying ``infrastructure,'' as Russia said it was responding to sporadic attacks by Georgian snipers while observing the terms of a cease-fire declared by [Russian] President Dmitry Medvedev." ... "Medvedev ordered a halt to the military campaign, which was sparked by fighting between Georgia and South Ossetia on Aug. 7. Saakashvili said Russia launched a ``well-planned invasion'' of Georgia the next day. Nogovitsyn said Georgia planned its incursion into South Ossetia in advance and expected to meet resistance only from Ossetian forces and the 588 Russian peacekeepers deployed in the region." ... "South Ossetia and Abkhazia broke away from Georgian control in wars in the early 1990s and Russian forces have been stationed as peacekeepers in the regions under a Commonwealth of Independent States mandate. Most people living in both regions have Russian passports. Saakashvili yesterday said Georgia is quitting the CIS, a loose association of all former Soviet republics except the three Baltic states. " -By Henry Meyer and Lucian Kim

-Bloomberg

20080812

Barack Obama

Family

Hawai'i

Journalist

Politics

Military

Sports

Illinois

2008 Election

"Akaka defends Obama's Hawaii vacation from ABC commentator: Journalist questions [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack] Obama's vacation in 'foreign' destination." ... "A group called Asian Americans for Obama sent out a media alert yesterday with the headline, "BREAKING: Hawai'i is a State," as U.S. [Unisted States Hawaii Democratic Senator] Sen. Daniel Akaka and others defended U.S. [Illinois Democratic Senator] Sen. Barack Obama's decision to spend a weeklong vacation in the Islands." ... "Obama had another casual day yesterday: Visit his grandmother at her Makiki apartment again, watch a movie at the Ward Complex theaters and go to dinner. But his choice of vacation destinations — his hometown of Honolulu — prompted [Disney TV's] ABC News' Cokie Roberts to twice call Hawai'i a "foreign" and "exotic" vacation destination for the man who wants to be president." ... ""I know his grandmother lives in Hawai'i," Roberts said on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos. "And I know Hawai'i is a state. But it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place. He should be in Myrtle Beach if he's going to take a vacation at this time."" ... "But Akaka didn't see any humor in Roberts' comments." ... ""Saying our 50th state is somehow 'foreign,' does a great disservice to the hardworking, patriotic Americans who call Hawai'i home," Akaka said. "For months, people have been asking me, 'When is Sen. Obama going to come home?' I'm so glad he found time to visit his sister and his grandmother, and for him and his family to bond and recharge in his home state. Hawai'i is a great U.S. destination; just ask the 5.5 million Americans who visited last year for business and pleasure."" ... "Akaka's press secretary, Jesse Broder Van Dyke, wants Roberts to see firsthand evidence of Hawai'i's history and its role in the country's future." ... ""I would love to take Ms. Roberts on a tour of O'ahu, with stops at the Arizona Memorial and Punchbowl, followed by a visit with Hawai'i Army National Guard soldiers training for their second deployment to the Middle East," he said. "Then I would take her to Eastside Grill to watch Team USA women's volleyball and Bryan Clay. I would introduce her to Hawai'i residents so she could witness our diversity and learn about the aloha spirit. Part of what makes America great is the unique contributions of all 50 states. Sen. Obama has every right to come home and visit his sister and grandmother."" -By Dan Nakaso

-HonoluluAdvertiser.com

20080806

John McCain

Oil

Politics

Military

2008 Election

Arizona

Calif

Fla

Iraq

International

"Bundler Collects From Unlikely Donors." ... "The bundle of $2,300 and $4,600 checks that poured into [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign on March 12 came from an unlikely group of California donors: a mechanic from D&D Auto Repair in Whittier [California], the manager of Rite Aid Pharmacy No. 5727, the 30-something owners of the Twilight Hookah Lounge in Fullerton [California]." ... "But the man who gathered checks from them is no stranger to McCain -- he shuttled the Republican on his private plane and held a fundraising event for the candidate at his house in Delray Beach, Fla [Florida]." ... "Harry Sargeant III, a former naval officer and the owner of an oil-trading company that recently inked defense contracts potentially worth more than $1 billion, is the archetype of a modern presidential money man." ... "Some of the most prolific givers in Sargeant's network live in modest homes in Southern California's Inland Empire. Most had never given a political contribution before being contacted by Sargeant or his associates. Most said they have never voiced much interest in politics. And in several instances, they had never registered to vote. And yet, records show, some families have ponied up as much as $18,400 for various candidates between December and March." ... "Both Sargeant and the donors were vague when asked to explain how Sargeant persuaded them to give away so much money." ... "His firm, International Oil Trading Co. (IOTC), holds several lucrative contracts with the Defense Department to carry fuel to the U.S. military in Iraq." ... "The work has not been without controversy. Last month, [California Democratic Representative] Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif. [Democratic-California]) initiated a review of IOTC's contract to determine whether it was overcharging the military for jet fuel, and to learn how the company, which did not submit the lowest bid, landed the contract to supply the fuel." (1, 2) -By Matthew Mosk with contributions by Ashley Surdin, Lucy Shackelford, Alice Crites and Julie Tate

-WashingtonPost

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Dick Cheney

Halliburton KBR

Blackwater

Corporate

Government

Disaster

Politics

Military

Peoples

Health

Investigators

Hurricane Katrina

Housing

Iraq

Cayman Islands

"No Crisis Is Immune From Exploitation Under Bush." ... [By HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON:] "Tucked away on the Cayman Islands sits Ugland House, an unassuming, nondescript building of modest scale and size. However, according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), this five-story office building is home to more than 18,000 corporate entities, nearly half of which have U.S. [United States] ties." ... "In the past few years, the number of corporations flocking to places like the Cayman Islands to evade U.S. taxes has exploded. One of these companies, [Republican Vice President Dick Cheney's] former Halliburton subsidiary KBR, has used offshore tax havens to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in federal taxes. To no one's surprise, instead of cracking down on KBR, the [Republican President] Bush administration has rewarded the company in April of this year with a 10-year, $150 billion contract in Iraq." ... "There appears to be no crisis, tragedy or disaster immune from exploitation under the Bush administration. The examples of the waste, fraud and abuse are legion -- from KBR performing shoddy electrical work in Iraq that has resulted in the electrocution of our military personnel according to Pentagon and Congressional investigators, to the firing of an Army official who dared to refuse a $1 billion payout for questionable charges to the same company. In another scam, the Pentagon awarded a $300 million contract to AEY, Inc. [Incorporated], a company run by a 22-year-old who fulfilled an ammunition deal in Afghanistan by supplying rotting Chinese-made munitions to our allies." ... "But the fraud and waste are not limited to the war. In the weeks after Hurricane Katrina, for example, FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] awarded a contract worth more than $500 million for trailers to serve as temporary housing. The contractor, Gulf Stream, collected all of its money even though they knew at the time that its trailers were contaminated with formaldehyde." ... "While touting fiscal responsibility, [Republican] President Bush and his administration have lined the pockets of political cronies like Halliburton and Blackwater. While calling for earmark reform, the president has allowed no-bid and questionable contracting throughout the federal government to dwarf earmark spending by a 10-to-1 ratio." -By Hillary Rodham Clinton

-WSJ.com

20080805

Dick Cheney

Iraq

Military

Intelligence

Terrorism

Politics

History

Book

"Did White House fake link between Saddam and Al Qaeda?" ... "First, former CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] Director George Tenet told the president it was a "slam dunk" that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Then came efforts by the [Republican President] Bush White House to discredit critics, like ambassador Joe Wilson, who questioned the wisdom of going to war in Iraq." ... "Now comes a new book by author Ron Suskind claiming that the [Republican President Bush] White House ordered the CIA to forge and backdate a handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein to link the Iraq regime to Al Qaeda. The White House calls the assertion nonsense." ... "In “The Way of the World,” to be published today, Suskind writes:"

"The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001. It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq –- thus showing, finally, that there was an operational link between Saddam and al Qaeda, something the vice president’s office [Republican Dick Cheney] had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade Iraq. There is no link."

"Suskind says the order to forge such a letter was written on “creamy White House stationery” but gives no details about how it was created or how it was delivered to Iraq." -By Johanna Neuman

-LAtimes

Political

Terrorism

Intelligence

Crime

Noteworthy

Government

Law

Iraq

Military

History

Journalist

"Author claims White House knew Iraq had no WMD: Journalist Ron Suskind says [Republican President] Bush ordered forgery linking Saddam, al-Qaeda." ... "President Bush committed an impeachable offense by ordering the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency] to to manufacture a false pretense for the Iraq war in the form of a backdated, handwritten document linking Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, an explosive new book claims." ... "The charge is made in “The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism” by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind, released today." ... "Suskind says he spoke on the record with U.S. [United States] intelligence officials who stated that Bush was informed unequivocally in January 2003 that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. Nonetheless, his book relates, Bush decided to invade Iraq three months later — with the forged letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam bolstering the U.S. [United States] rationale to go into war." ... "“It was a dark day for the CIA,” Suskind told TODAY co-host Meredith Vieira on Tuesday. “It was the kind of thing where [the CIA] said, ‘Look, this is not our charge. We’re not here to carry forth a political mandate — which is clearly what this was — to solve a political problem in America.’ And it was a cause of great grievance inside of the agency.”" ... "The author writes that Bush’s action is “one of the greatest lies in modern American political history” and suggests it is a crime of greater impact than Watergate." ... "The letter" ... "On page 371 of “The Way of the World,” Suskind describes the [Republican President Bush's] White House’s concoction of a forged letter purportedly from the hand of [Iraqi intelligence chief Tahir Jalil] Habbush to Saddam Hussein to justify the United States’ decision to go to war." ... "CIA officers [Bob] Richer and John Maguire, who oversaw the Iraq Operations Group, are both on the record in Suskind’s book confirming the existence of the fake Habbush letter." -By Bob Considine

-MSNBC

WATCH: Ron Suskind interview on TODAY show.

Government

Intelligence

Secretly

Marketing

Media

Opinion -