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It's a Small World and Shrinking. !-)
World News
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2008 World History
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Top
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
WORLD News:
20080706
 John
McCain -  Karl
Rove -  Money
-  Oil
-  Health
Care - US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
-  Military
-  Terrorism
- 2008
Election -  Massachusetts
"Kerry:
McCain's Judgment Is Dangerous." ... "[Massachusetts
Democratic Senator] Sen. John Kerry believes that the presumptive Republican
nominee for president is adhering to the [Republican President] Bush Administration
orthodoxy in ways that call into question his carefully-nurtured image
as a political maverick." ... ""John McCain has changed in profound and
fundamental ways that I find personally really surprising, and frankly
upsetting," the Democratic Senator from Massachusetts said on CBS' Face
The Nation." ... ""This is a different John McCain. This is not
the Senator John McCain; this is want-to-be president John McCain." ...
""And the result is that John McCain has flip-flopped on more issues than
I was even ever accused possibly of thinking about! I mean, this is extraordinary
what he's done: He's changed on taxes; he's now in favor of the Bush tax
cut. If you like the Bush economy, if you like the Bush tax cut and what
it's done to our economy, making wealthier people wealthier and the average
middle class struggle harder, then John McCain is going to give you a third
term of George Bush and Karl Rove." ... ""If you like what has happened
to oil prices, John McCain is going to continue that policy. If you like
what you see about health care, John McCain has no health care plan." ...
""I would have at least expected the John McCain that I knew back then
to realize what almost every person in the Pentagon has admitted. There
are very few who walk around and say, 'Going into Iraq was the right thing
to do, and we should have done it, or do it again if I have the chance.'
John McCain
does." ... ""I'm challenging Senator McCain's judgment,"
Kerry said, "that says, 'There's no violent history between Sunni and Shia.'
That's wrong. His judgment that says, 'This is going to increase the stability
of the Middle East.' It hasn't, it's made it less stable. The judgment
that says, quote, 'This will be the best thing for America and the world
in a long time. It's the worst thing that we've done in a long time.
And he's turned his [focus] away from Afghanistan and al Qaeda and made
America less safe. That's dangerous for our country.""
-FaceTheNation
-CBSNews
 WATCH
Kerry list McCain's Flip-Flops
20080703
US
- Afghanistan
- Countries
"US
military extends Afghanistan tour of 2,200 Marines after saying it would
not." ... "The 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which
is doing combat operations in the volatile southern region, will stay an
extra 30 days and come home in early November rather than October, Marine
[Colonel] Col. David Lapan confirmed Thursday." ... "Commanders faced with
increasing violence have said they need at least 7,500 more troops in Afghanistan."
... "There are 32,000 [United States] U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan,
14,000 serving with the NATO-led coalition and 18,000 conducting training
and counterinsurgency." ... "The NATO force includes more than 52,000 troops
from as many as 40 countries." -AP
via -IHT.com
20080702
John
McCain -  Carl
H Lindner Jr - Terrorism
- Money
-  Illegal
- Military
-  Politics
-  Federal
-  Investigation
- International
-  Food
- Colombia
- US
-  Arizona
-  Ohio
- 2008
Election
"McCain
Backer's Firm Pleaded Guilty To Funding Terrorist Group In Colombia."
... "The co-host of a recent top-dollar fundraiser for [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain oversaw the
payment of roughly $1.7 million to a Colombian paramilitary group that
is today designated a terrorist organization by the United States." ...
"Carl H. Lindner Jr., the billionaire Cincinnati [Ohio] businessman, was
CEO [Chief Executive Officer] of Chiquita Brands International from 1984
to 2001, and remained on the company's board of directors until May 2002.
Beginning under his tenure, Chiquita executives paid hundreds of thousands
of dollars to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (known by the
Spanish acronym AUC), which is described
by George Washington University's National Security Archive as an "illegal
right-wing anti-guerrilla group tied to many of the country's most notorious
civilian massacres."" ... "Following a Justice Department indictment
[pdf] last year, Chiquita admitted
to illegally funding the paramilitaries and agreed to pay a $25 million
fine. Chiquita's payments to the AUC began in 1997 and lasted seven years;
roughly half of the funds came after the group was designated
a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the U.S. State Department in 2001."
... "According to the Justice Department, the payments "were reviewed and
approved by senior executives" of Chiquita, who knew by no later than September
2000 "that the AUC was a violent, paramilitary organization."" ... "Late
last week, Lindner co-hosted a $25,000-per-person fundraiser for McCain
and the Republican Party in the wealthy Indian Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati,
Ohio. The event raised about $2 million; Lindner also serves on McCain's
Ohio Victory Team." ... "While Lindner was CEO of Chiquita, the company
began sending money to the AUC through its shipping subsidiary Banadex.
A report
by the Organization of American States states that Banadex also engaged
in arms trafficking, helping to deliver 3,000 Nicaraguan AK-47 rifles and
millions of rounds of ammunition to the AUC in 2001. According to federal
prosecutors, when company officials realized the arrangement was illegal,
they switched to making the payments in cash." -By
Nico
Pitney -HuffingtonPost.com
Secret
- Torture
- War
Crimes - Prisons
- US
- Guantanamo
- Cuba
- Chinese
- Korean
-  History
- Medical
-  Science
-  Psychological
- Military
-  Intelligence
- Politics
- Investigators
"China
Inspired Interrogations at Guantánamo." ...
"The military trainers who came to Guantánamo Bay [Cuba] in December
2002 based an entire interrogation class on a chart showing the effects
of “coercive management techniques” for possible use on prisoners, including
“sleep deprivation,” “prolonged constraint,” and “exposure.”" ... "What
the trainers did not say, and may not have known, was that their chart
had been copied verbatim from a 1957 Air Force study of Chinese Communist
techniques used during the Korean War to obtain confessions, many of them
false, from American prisoners." ... "The recycled chart is the latest
and most vivid evidence of the way Communist interrogation methods that
the United States long described as torture became the basis for interrogations
both by the military at the base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and by
the Central Intelligence Agency." ... "Some methods were used against a
small number of prisoners at Guantánamo before 2005, when Congress
banned the use of coercion by the military. The C.I.A. is still authorized
by [Republican] President Bush to use a number of secret “alternative”
interrogation methods." ... "Several Guantánamo documents, including
the chart outlining coercive methods, were made public at a Senate Armed
Services Committee hearing June 17 that examined how such tactics came
to be employed." ... "But committee investigators were not aware of the
chart’s source in the half-century-old journal article, a connection pointed
out to The New York Times by an independent expert on interrogation who
spoke on condition of anonymity." ... "The 1957 article from which the
chart was copied was entitled “Communist Attempts to Elicit False Confessions
From Air Force Prisoners of War” and written by Alfred D. Biderman, a sociologist
then working for the Air Force, who died in 2003. Mr. Biderman had interviewed
American prisoners returning from North Korea, some of whom had been filmed
by their Chinese interrogators confessing to germ warfare and other atrocities."
... "Those orchestrated confessions led to allegations that the American
prisoners had been “brainwashed,” and provoked the military to revamp its
training to give some military personnel a taste of the enemies’ harsh
methods to inoculate them against quick capitulation if captured." ...
"In 2002, the training program, known as SERE, for Survival, Evasion, Resistance,
Escape, became a source of interrogation methods both for the C.I.A. and
the military. In what critics describe as a remarkable case of historical
amnesia, officials who drew on the SERE program appear to have been unaware
that it had been created as a result of concern about false confessions
by American prisoners." ... "The only change made in the chart presented
at Guantánamo was to drop its original title: “Communist Coercive
Methods for Eliciting Individual Compliance.”" (1, 2)
-By Scott
Shane -NYTimes
PDF
Documents via NYTimes:
"Communist
Attempts to Elicit False Confessions From the Air Force Prisoners of War
(pdf) [September
1957 article by A. D. Biderman, Bull, N.Y. Acad. Med, Vol. 33, No.9, pp
616-625. 10 pages. NB: p. 4 (619), Communist Coercive Methods for Eliciting
Individual Compliance]."
"Documents
Released at Senate Armed Services Committee Hearing on SERE Tactics (pdf)."
20080630
John
McCain -  Barack
Obama - US
- Military
- 2008
Election - World
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Israel
- Jordan
- Germany
- France
- Britain
- Ireland
"Former
Nato commander questions value of McCain's military experience."
... "A top supporter of [2008 Election Democratic Presidential Candidate]
Barack Obama has questioned the value of Republican [2008 Election Presidential
Candidate] John McCain's military experience, suggesting it did not qualify
him to be president." ... "Former Nato [NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization]
commander Wesley Clark described Mr McCain as "untested and untried", lacking
the executive experience needed to lead the country." ... ""He [McCain]
has been a voice on the Senate armed services committee. And he has travelled
all over the world. But he hasn't held executive responsibility. That large
squadron in the navy that he commanded - that wasn't a wartime squadron,"
Mr Clark said. "I don't think getting in a fighter plane and getting shot
down is a qualification to become president."" ... "Mr Obama hopes to beef
up his foreign-policy credentials with a visit to Iraq and Afghanistan
later this year. His campaign announced at the weekend that the Democratic
candidate would go to the Middle East and Europe next month. Mr Obama will
visit Israel, Jordan, Germany, France and Britain, but does not apparently
plan to stop in Ireland, where he has ancestral roots in Co Offaly [Ireland,
Irish county in the Province of Leinster]." ... ""This trip will be an
important opportunity for me to assess the situation in countries that
are critical to American national security and to consult with some of
our closest friends and allies about the common challenges we face," Mr
Obama said." -By Denis Staunton
-IrishTimes.com
John
McCain -  Bud
Day - 2004
Election - Ads
- Military
- History
- Vietnam
- US
- Arizona
- Massachusetts
- 2008
Election
"McCain
Uses Swift Boat Vet Bud Day To Rebut Wesley Clark."
... "[2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona Senator]
Sen. John McCain's campaign on Monday launched the McCain "Truth Squad"
- a group of political and Vietnam contemporaries who would counter attacks
on the Senator's military record." ... "In hopes of nipping any criticism
in the bud, the campaign brought on board a man quite familiar with how
these types of attacks gain legs: Bud Day, a fellow POW who was part of
the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that worked so hard to defame [2004 Election
Presidential Candidate and Massachusetts Democratic Senator] Sen. John
Kerry's own Vietnam record." ... "On the conference call, Day - in addition
to the other participants - decried comments made by [General] Gen. Wesley
Clark over the weekend, in which he questioned whether McCain's war experience
really qualified him to be commander-in-chief. Defending McCain's service,
Day was quick to personalize his remarks, attacking Clark's military record
in the process." ... "That Day would politicize Vietnam in his defense
of McCain is not surprising. During the 2004 campaign, he said of Kerry:
"My view is he basically will go down in history sometime as the Benedict
Arnold of 1971." And after appearing in a national advertisement for the
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign, Day formed the Vietnam Veterans
Legacy Foundation, an extension of the Swift Boat effort." ... "Not willing
to let the irony go unnoticed, Kerry
lashed out at McCain, on Monday, for using the same smear merchant
he once decried." ... ""Colonel Day's comments today only further highlight
the McCain campaign's disregard for a new kind of politics," said Kerry.
"John McCain condemned these kinds of attacks in 2004 when he called the
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth 'dishonest and dishonorable.' Senator McCain
should condemn these remarks and cut ties with the Colonel and anyone else
connected to SBVT. Day's comments only serve to disparage all those who
served on swift boats in Vietnam."" -By
Sam
Stein -HuffingtonPost.com
John
McCain - Bud
Day - Politics
- 2004
Election - Ads
-Military
- History
- Vietnam
- Belgium
- US
- Massachusetts
-  Texas
-  Missouri
- 2008
Election
"Price
of Power: McCain accepts ex-Swift Boaters' donations."
... "Republican [2008 Election Presidential Candidate] John McCain, who
four years ago condemned independent ads challenging Democrat[ic Senator
from Massachusetts and 2004 Election Presidential Candidate] John Kerry's
military record, has accepted nearly $70,000 for his presidential campaign
from the top donors of the group behind the attack ads and their relatives,
a USA TODAY analysis shows." ... "In 2004, the Swift Boat Veterans for
Truth (later called SwiftVets and POWS for Truth) bankrolled ads charging
that Kerry had lied about the incidents in Vietnam that led to his military
decorations. The group included former members of the Navy who served in
the same kind of river patrol boats as Kerry. McCain, a former Vietnam
prisoner of war, called the group's advertising "dishonest and dishonorable.""
... "Bob Perry, a Texas builder who gave nearly $4.5 million to Swift Boat
Vets, and his wife, Doylene, each have given $4,400 to McCain's presidential
campaign, some of which went to an account for legal and accounting expenses,
records show." ... "Other donors include Sam Fox, a St. Louis [Missouri]
businessman who was named [United States] U.S. ambassador to Belgium last
year by President Bush." ... "On Monday, Kerry and national Democratic
Party officials sharply criticized McCain for including retired Air Force
colonel Bud Day in a conference call with reporters to defend McCain's
military service. Day had appeared in Swift Boat ads." -By
Fredreka Schouten -USATODAY
John
McCain -  Tom
Loeffler - Susan
E Nelson -  Gordon
England -  EADS
- European
- Military
-  Aircraft
-  Manufacturing
- Politics
- Government
-  Auditors
- US
- 2008
Election
"McCain’s
Boeing Battle Boomerangs." ... "Government auditors
ruled that the Air Force made "significant errors" when it rebid the [aerial
refueling tanker] contract and awarded the $35 billion project to Boeing's
chief rival, partners European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co. [Company]
(or EADS) and Northrop Grumman. It's likely the Air Force will have to
redo the bid yet again, which analysts say will delay the replacement of
the fleet's 1950s-era refueling tankers. The auditors' ruling has also
cast light on an overlooked aspect of [2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate John] McCain's crusade: five of his campaign's top advisers and
fund-raisers—including Tom Loeffler, who resigned last month as his finance
co-chairman, and Susan Nelson, his finance director—were registered lobbyists
for EADS." ... "Critics, including some at the Pentagon, cite in particular
two tough letters McCain wrote to Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England
in 2006 and another to Robert Gates, just prior to his confirmation as
Defense secretary. In the first letter, dated [September] Sept. 8, 2006,
McCain wrote of hearing from "third parties" that the Air Force was about
to redo the tanker competition by factoring in European government subsidies
to EADS—a condition that could have seriously hurt the EADS bid. McCain
urged that the Pentagon drop the subsidy factor and posed a series of technical
questions about the Air Force's process. "He was trying to jam us and bully
us to make sure there was competition by giving EADS an advantage," said
one senior Pentagon official, who asked for anonymity when discussing a
politically sensitive matter. The assumption within the Pentagon, the official
added, was that McCain's letters were drafted by EADS lobbyists. "There
was no one else that would have had that level of detail," the official
said." -By Michael Isikoff
-Newsweek
20080628
US
- Afghanistan
- Pakistan
- Military
- Terrorism
- Intelligence
- Illegal
-  Drug
- Money
- Human
Rights -  Reconstruction
- Police
"Pentagon
report: Taliban regroups, likely to up pace of attacks in Afghanistan."
... "The Taliban has regrouped after its initial fall from power in Afghanistan
and the pace of its attacks is likely to increase this year, according
to a Pentagon report that offers a dim view of progress in the nearly seven-year-old
war." ... "Noting that insurgent violence has climbed, the report said
that despite U.S. and coalition efforts to capture and kill key leaders,
the Taliban is likely to "maintain or even increase the scope and pace
of its terrorist attacks and bombings in 2008."" ... "The Taliban, it said,
has "coalesced into a resilient insurgency."" ... "Vast problems — corruption,
the illegal poppy trade, human rights abuses and slow progress in reconstruction
— were detailed, as well as the struggle to train and equip the Afghan
Army and police." ... "The report described a dual terror threat in Afghanistan
that includes the Taliban in the south, and "a more complex, adaptive insurgency"
in the east. That fragmented insurgency is made up of groups ranging from
al-Qaida and Afghan warlords such as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's radical Hezb-i-Islami
group to Pakistani militants such as Jaish-e-Mohammed." ... "Insurgents
will continue to challenge the government in southern and eastern Afghanistan,
and the may also move to increase their power in the north and west, the
report predicted." (1, 2,
3)
-By Lolita C. Baldor with contributions by Robert
Burns -AP
via -StarTribune
-Defenselink.mil Publications[PDFs]:
"Report
on Progress toward Security and Stability in Afghanistan."
"United
States Plan for Sustaining the Afghanistan National Security Forces."
-Defenselink.mil/Pubs
20080625
McCain
- Bin
Laden -  Chris
Shays -  Charlie
Black - Terrorism
- Politics
- History
- 2004
Election - 2008
Election -  Connecticut
- US
- Pakistan
"McCain
In 2004: "Bin Laden May Have Just Given Us A Little Boost"."
... "Back in 2004['s election], as [2008 Election Republican Presidential
Candidate John] McCain was stumping in Connecticut on behalf of GOP [GOP=Grand
Old Party=Republican Connecticut Representative] Rep. Chris Shays, McCain
said flatly that the recent release of an Osama Bin Laden tape had likely
given the GOP a "little boost."" ... "This is courtesy
of The Hour, a daily paper in Norwalk, Connecticut, in November of that
year [2004] (also verified in Nexis)..."
"But
as McCain greets two breakfast-eating business partners, one from Stamford
[Connecticut] and the other from Bridgeport [Connecticut], the topic turns
to the presidential race. The two men tell the senator they support [Republican]
President George W. Bush, and to that end, McCain says, "(Osama) Bin Laden
may have just given us a little boost. Amazing, huh?".... " ... "The two
men, who requested anonymity, nod their heads in agreement. Later, while
riding with Shays on an RV to a rally at the Stamford Government Center,
McCain further explains, "(The video) is helpful to President Bush because
it puts the focus on the war on terrorism.""
"The
reference was to a tape of Bin Laden that had emerged a few days earlier.
The McCain camp didn't immediately return an email." ... "[McCain's top
adviser Charlie] Black also said that the assassination of [Pakistan's
Presidential Candidate] Benazir Bhutto had also helped McCain, something
the McCain camp also disavowed. But back in December [2007], when the assassination
happened, he [McCain] said
it could "serve to enhance" his "credentials."" -By
Greg Sargent -TPMElectionCentral
.TalkingPointsMemo
20080624
McCain
-  Charles
R Black Jr - Foreign
- Money
- Politics
- Human
Rights - 2008
Election - Arizona
- US
- Pakistan
- Angola
- Philippines
- Zaire
now: Democratic Republic of the Congo - Nigeria
- Somalia
- Kenya
"Terror
Strike Would Help McCain, Top Adviser Says." ...
"A top adviser to [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and
Arizona Senator] Sen. John McCain said that a terrorist attack in the United
States would be a political benefit to the presumptive Republican presidential
nominee, a comment that was immediately disputed by the candidate and denounced
by his Democratic rival." ... "Charles R. Black Jr., one of McCain's most
senior political advisers, said in an interview with Fortune magazine that
a fresh terrorist attack "certainly would be a big advantage to him." He
also said that the December assassination of former Pakistani prime minister
Benazir Bhutto, while "unfortunate," helped McCain win the Republican primary
by focusing attention on national security." ... "The comment reinjected
the fear of terrorism into the campaign as both candidates had been shifting
their conversation to the economy and $4-per-gallon gasoline." ... "The
comments also returned the political spotlight to McCain's advisers and,
in particular, to Black, who has drawn criticism for his long lobbying
career and his representation of controversial foreign governments. McCain
has been criticized for surrounding himself with top advisers who were
lobbyists." ... "Black and his lobbying partners were at times registered
foreign agents for a collection of U.S.-backed foreign leaders whose human
rights records were sometimes harshly criticized, even as American conservatives
embraced their opposition to communism. They included Angolan guerrilla
leader Jonas Savimbi, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Mobutu Sese
Seko of Zaire, Nigerian [General] Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Somali President
Mohamed Siad Barre, and the countries of Kenya and Equatorial Guinea, among
others." (1, 2)
-By Michael D. Shear with contributions by Karl Vick
and Alice Crites -WashingtonPost
 Tom
Ridge - John
McCain - Money
- Politics
- Albania
- US
-  Pennsylvania
- 2008
Election
"Ridge
lobbies for Albania, but doesn't report it." ...
"[Republican President Bush's] Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge
registered with the Department of Justice as a lobbyist for the government
of Albania nearly two years after winning an almost half-million dollar
lobbying contract, Roll
Call reports this morning." ... ""I didn't think it was [necessary]
to register," the Capitol Hill newspaper quotes the former [Republican]
Pennsylvania governor and national co-chair of [2008 Election Republican
Presidential Candidate] John McCain's presidential campaign as saying."
-By Brett Lieberman -PennLive.com
20080623
McCain
- Charlie
Black - Terrorism
- 2008
Election - Ariz
- US
- Pakistan
"McCain
Adviser: Terrorist Attack Would Help McCain in Election."
... "McCain
adviser Charlie Black told Fortune Magazine that national security
events help [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate and Arizona
Senator] Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. [Republican-Arizona.]" ... ""The assassination
of [Pakistani Presidential Candidate] Benazir Bhutto in December was an
'unfortunate event,' says Black. 'But his knowledge and ability to talk
about it reemphasized that this is the guy who's ready to be Commander-in-Chief.
And it helped us.' As would, Black concedes with startling candor after
we raise the issue, another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. 'Certainly it
would be a big advantage to him,' says Black."" -By
Jake Tapper -ABCNEWS.com
20080622
US
- Iraq
- Afghanistan
- Military
- Terrorism
-  Media
- Politics
- McCain
- 2008
Election
"Now
That We’ve ‘Won,’ Let’s Come Home." ... "The Iraq
war’s defenders like to bash the press for pushing the bad news and ignoring
the good. Maybe they’ll be happy to hear that the bad news doesn’t rate
anymore. When a bomb killed at
least 51 Iraqis at a Baghdad market on Tuesday, ending an extended
run of relative calm, only one of the three network newscasts (NBC’s)
even bothered to mention it." ... "The only problem is that no news from
Iraq isn’t good news — it’s no news. The night of the Baghdad bombing the
CBS war correspondent Lara Logan appeared
as Jon Stewart’s guest on “The Daily Show” to lament the vanishing television
coverage and the even steeper falloff in viewer interest. “Tell me the
last time you saw the body of a dead American soldier,” she said. After
pointing out that more soldiers died in Afghanistan than Iraq last month,
she asked, “Who’s paying attention to that?”" ... "Should voters tune in,
they’ll also discover that the [2008 Election Republican Presidential Candidate
John] McCain policy is nonsensical on its face. If “we are winning” and
the surge is a “success,” then what is the rationale for keeping American
forces bogged down there while the Taliban regroups
ominously in Afghanistan? Why, if this is victory, does Mr. McCain
keep threatening that “chaos and genocide” will follow our departure? And
why should we take the word of a prophet who failed
to anticipate the chaos and ethnic cleansing that would greet our occupation?"
... "Vanished into the memory hole are such earlier
examples of the McCain Iraq wisdom as “the end is very much in sight”
(April 9, 2003) and “there’s not a history of clashes that are violent
between Sunnis and Shiites” (later that same month)." -By
Frank
Rich -NYTimes
[Note: there is a very long history
of violent clashes between the Sunnis and Shiites.]
|
|
