I question the reporter's intelligence on this matter. my legal source told me yesterday when we discussed options that Fitzy could ask for a continuance with the current grand jury. that option would make the most sense because the two parties know each other and the current jury is obviously up to speed. the other thing my guy said was that by Fitzy not issuing "findings," which was announced yesterday that he would not, indictments are definitely coming. the only reason, it would seem, to continue this investigation would be to run the flag up to the top of the pole, because it seems the Cheney is most likely already fried.

[...]It is now quite clear that the outing of Valerie Plame was part of a broader White House effort to mislead and manipulate U.S. public opinion as part of an orchestrated effort to take us to war. The unraveling of the Valerie Plame affair has exposed their scam--and it extends well beyond compromising the identity of a CIA officer. In short, the Bush administration organized and executed a classic "covert action" program against the citizens of the United States.

Covert action refers to behind-the-scenes efforts by U.S. intelligence agencies to plant stories, manipulate information and shape public opinion. In other words, you write stories that reporters will publish as their own, you create media events that tout a particular theme, and you demonize your opponent. Traditionally, this activity was directed against foreign governments. For example, the U.S. used covert action extensively in Greece in the 1960s to help fend off communists. Covert action also played a major role in rallying world support for the Afghanistan mujahideen following the Soviet invasion in 1979.

Revelations during the past week about the Plame affair make it clear that the Bush administration used covert action against its own citizens. Consider, for example, the charge that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Niger. The key event in this disinformation campaign was the intelligence manufactured by the Italians. The Italian intelligence service, SISME, provided the CIA with three separate intelligence reports that Iraq had reached an agreement with Niger to buy 500 tons of yellowcake uranium (October 15, 2001; February 5, 2002; and March 25, 2002). The second report, from February, was the subsequent basis for a DIA analysis, which led Vice President Cheney to ask the CIA for more information on the matter. That request led to the CIA asking Ambassador Joe Wilson to go check out the story in Niger.

We learned last May that in the summer of 2002, the Bush administration told our British allies that they would "fix the facts" around the intelligence. In other words, the United States sought to manufacture a case that Iraq was trying to build a nuclear capability. Note, not only did bogus intelligence reports and fabricated documents surface, but senior administration officials--Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Cheney--went to great lengths to try to convince Americans that the United States would soon face the wrath of Iraqi attacks. Remember the smoking mushroom cloud? [...]

****************

I remember a "smoking mushroom" cloud, but, contrary to the "little humito" reports of Carlos Casteneda, I found eating them works better...

It's nice to hear that Bono/U2 brought up the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. I wonder if t/he/y mentioned the economic articles?

Oh, and about the Bush - Rove conversation of two years ago, what did the president know and when did he know it...These guys are the worst chess kibbitzers I've seen in years.

Whoops, I forgot to link the above article - credit to Larry C. Johnson: 'Dick Cheney's covert action'

There, that's better.

Archives - October 19, 2005

(Long, sorry for the bandwidth, but...)

Psych War in Afghanistan
Since September 11, we've all become uncomfortably familiar with names like Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, Fallujah and maybe even Bagram in Afghanistan. They're all places we now associate with human rights violations or worse - military atrocities and possibly potential war crimes. But after our first story tonight, you can add another placename to that list - Gonbaz in southern Afghanistan, about a 100km from the former Taliban stronghold of Kandahar.
In recent months, the former Muslim extremist Taliban and their al-Qa'ida allies have launched more attacks against US forces than at any time since the Americans first invaded in 2001. Earlier this month, Dateline's John Martinkus was in Afghanistan to cover their elections, but his story tonight actually starts with some startling footage from another Australian, photojournalist Stephen Dupont, who, while he was embedded with the Americans, managed to record some of the grotesque tactics being used by Australia's allies in that part of the world. Dateline should warn you that this report does include some pretty disturbing scenes, particularly for any Muslim viewers. [f12501f]

REPORTER: John Martinkus

This is how the Americans are now fighting in Afghanistan - loaded up with guns and loud music. The racks of speakers on top of this Humvee are a bizarre weapon dreamt up by the army's PsyOps unit - experts in psychological warfare.
The idea is that the music will flush the Taliban out of their hiding places in the mountains.
The Taliban banned music when they ruled Afghanistan so these troops are hoping that the sound of Fleetwood Mac will provoke them into an attack.
No-one can say if the music is having the desired effect but the Afghan special forces, travelling with the Americans seem to appreciate it.

SOLDIER: Pull people out, search their house looking for weapons obviously, and for anything that indicates that they're responsible for tonight's attack.

A few hours ago there was an ambush near here. One American and one Afghan army soldier have been killed. Two Taliban have also been shot dead. These soldiers have been sent to the village of Gonbaz to find those involved in the attack.

SOLDIER: Just go ahead and supervise the search, I want to talk to this guy.
How you doing? My name is Lieutenant Nelson. We apologise for the... sorry for the interruption. We want to make it safe for these guys.

All the soldiers in this unit have served in Iraq. The endless searches and interrogations are familiar work for an army used to occupation.

SOLDIER: He's very upset. We're not the kind of soldiers who want to come through and arrest a bunch of people and raid their houses.

As the level of attacks by insurgents has risen in southern and eastern Afghanistan, killing 1,400 people in the last six months, the main problem has become finding the enemy.

SOLDIER: This guy was sitting right out the front here watching us.

The soldiers look for weapons but the search is frustrating and ultimately pointless.

SOLDIER: You know what that is? I can tell you what is right now - that's a battery pack made to power that radio. That's all it is. Some shit he put together because he couldn't find the parts.

Many attacks are the result of crude, home-made bombs, which the army calls improvised explosive devices or IEDs. Anything with batteries is potentially dangerous.

SOLDIER: That is enough juice, by the way, ..to set something off. That's enough juice, yeah. One of those is...you only need - you know the 55-90 Yeah. You know after a 55-90 is dead and unusable, it still got enough juice to set off an IED. We found this bad boy, so we're kind of oh, oh...

Eventually two of the villagers are bound and questioned before the troops leave to camp nearby. The next morning, anti-Taliban propaganda messages are read out over the loudspeakers.

LOUDSPEAKERS (Translation): When you look at them, these men, they are the servants of Pakistan and slaves to the Punjabis.

SOLDIER: Tell them to stop right there. Hey, John, tell them to stop right there. Tell him to stop. Bus! Bus, bus, bus. Tell him we're going to come to them.

Two civilians wounded in the previous night's attack are brought in seeking treatment.

SOLDIER: Is this one of the guys that was wounded last night? Can you bring my aid bag over, somebody? It's sitting right on the top of my truck.

MAN (Translation): I was providing for my children. I was working. In the afternoon, before sunset.

MAN 2 (Translation): The evening prayer wasn't finished. That's when he was shot.

SOLDIER (Translation): Which side? Did the Americans shoot him?

MAN 2 (Translation): Yes, it was the Americans. He never thought the Americans would shoot civilians. They didn't differentiate between enemy and civilians.

SOLDIER: That definitely looks like our work, huh? Looks like shrapnel wounds.

The man's son is also hurt, cut by shrapnel. The soldiers admit they're responsible for the injuries but no-one seems too concerned.

SOLDIER: It looks like the bullet actually cut and grazed him. It doesn't feel like the bullet is in.

Civilian casualties in this war are common when the only way to distinguish the enemy from the population is whether they are shooting at you or not.

SOLDIER: It doesn't actually feel too bad. It's OK, just got to look at his leg, OK?

A helicopter is later called in to evacuate them to the base hospital.
The troops head back to the village of Gonbaz trying to find the endlessly elusive enemy. There's nothing subtle about their approach.
The soldiers terrify this old man in the mosque.

SOLDIER: Tell him I'm sorry about the way we came in, but I called to see if there was anyone there, you know.

Interrogations continue in an attempt to find those in the village who are associated with the militants.

SOLDIER: That's OK. If you can give us that information, we can actually reward you. If you can give us that information, you will be doing a lot to help the people around here who are innocent and shouldn’¥ be arrested. Because I am trying to do what I can right now, to find the bad guys because we don't want to end up having to punish everyone.

VILLAGER (Translation): I have no knowledge of the Taliban themselves. I do not know the person who reports to the Taliban in this village or who from the Taliban side is asking about the Americans.

SOLDIER: I just have one more question for him. You just tell him, that it's really important that you help me, 'cause I'll say it again. What my commander wants to do with all the forces in this whole area is round up everyone in this town since no-one is helping us and nobody is turning over the people in this village who actually are part of the attack.
So I'm gonna be leaving in about five minutes this is going to be your last chance to try to help yourself.

At the top of the hills above the village the soldiers have taken the tactics of psychological warfare to a grotesque and disturbing extreme. US soldiers have set fire to the bodies of the two Taliban killed the night before. The burning of the corpses and the fact that they've been laid out facing Mecca is a deliberate desecration of Muslim beliefs.

SOLDIER: Wow, look at the blood coming out of the mouth on that one, fucking straight death metal.

PsyOps specialist Sergeant Jim Baker then broadcast an inflammatory message over the loudspeakers in order to taunt and bait the enemy.

SGT JIM BAKER Attention, Taliban, you are all cowardly dogs. You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burned. You are too scared to come down and retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be.

SOLDIER 2: The first message we sent was - Attention, Mullah Tahir, Mullah Sadar, Mullah Kairadullah, Mullah Abdullah Khan and other Taliban, we know who you are. Your time in Afghanistan is short. You attack and run away like women. You call yourself Talibs but you are a disgrace to the Muslim religion and you bring shame upon your family. Come and fight like men instead of the cowardly dogs you are.
And the second one. Attention Mullah Tahiir and other Taliban fighters, we have you surrounded, there is no way for you to escape. Come down from the mountains now and you will not be harmed. We will give you food and cold water. If you persist and stay in the mountains it will become your graveyard.

The soldiers say they're burning the bodies for hygiene purposes but out here, far away from the village, this appears to make no sense.
These soldiers have clearly been trained to denigrate and enrage Muslims. Such blatant disrespect for the corpses of their enemy is a breach of the Geneva Convention. It also heightens the perception of local people that the Americans are just as barbarous as the Taliban say they are.
Australian troops operate out of the same army base and in the eyes of the locals, as members of the same coalition, there is no distinction between American and Australian forces.
This is what happened in Afghanistan the last time American soldiers were accused of mocking Islam. In May this year, reports that the Koran had been desecrated in Guantanamo Bay sparked unrest in the eastern city of Jalalabad. Rioters forced the foreign aid community to flee and destroyed their offices and vehicles.
Now I'm on my way to that same city, Jalalabad, home to Afghanistan's deeply conservative Pashtun majority. Parliamentary elections are due to be held here soon - the first in 36 years - and foreign aid workers have again left the city, fearing a repeat of the violence. I want to find out more about how the ongoing war is affecting Afghanistan's fragile democracy.
Strangely enough, I come across an Afghan-Australian, Dr Farooq Mirranay, running for election in Jalalabad. He's returned after 17 years of exile to help rebuild his country. At a campaign rally, he attacks the tribal warlords who remain the real powerbrokers here.

DR FAROOQ MIRRANAY SPEECH (Translation): These people have been unfaithful to Afghanistan. Their mission is to change the direction of the democracy. They want to make a mess of our good and proper election process and to give it a bad name.

In the vacuum following the fall of the Taliban, many warlords are trying to use this election to consolidate their power.

MIRRANAY SPEECH (Translation): You will have to be very cautious, my dear friends. Here we have many candidates who would like to upset the voting process. They're standing after being bribed by others, wanting to divide the votes of the villages and districts.

Haji Zaman is a leader in nearby Tora Bora. He sided with the US in 2001 when it came looking for Osama bin Laden, and now he's backing Mirranay.

HAJI ZAMAN (Translation): Those Taliban act in the name of al-Qa'ida and maybe under other opposition forces too. But let me stress one thing for you - if the locals defend their country, no-one will interfere.

But Haji Zaman is also critical of the Americans, accusing them of harassing innocent civilians in their search for the militants.

HAJI ZAMAN (Translation): In our country, certain people are in conflict with each other and they tip them off to the foreigners and the intelligence. The foreigners raid their houses following baseless reports and they find nothing - no arms, no al-Qa'ida, no narcotics, nothing.

Even with the support of leaders like Haji Zaman, Mirranay can't take any chances. He's cancelled his program to campaign in areas like Tora Bora after another candidate, Safia Siddiqi, was attacked.

SAFIA SIDDIQI: My bodyguard and also the driver, they were in the front. When they first shoot, my bodyguard said...asked the driver, "Please stop, please stop," because, you know, it was a very small way, we couldn't move faster and we had to stop there.
Then, first...after that my brother and me, we just lay down, first on the seat then after the dd-dd-dd - when they start shooting and firing, then we just lay down on the floor. I was on the ground and my brother was just on top of me and he said, "Safia, please, I want you...please I want you don't lose yourself. And if you are dying, I'm dying with you." It was really terrible.

The attacks on candidates have drastically curtailed the campaign. Few are now prepared to travel outside the provincial capital.

MIRRANAY: I received a call from my HQ in Kabul and they said, "You are not allowed to go to the village because security situation is not good."

REPORTER: Who do you think is behind the threats against you?

MIRRANAY: Actually I think it's... Most people know we have al-Qa'ida, Taliban, Hezb-i-Islami. And Pakistan, our neighbouring country, really don't want peace in Afghanistan.

Brigadier Abdul Ghafour, the main police spokesman in Jalalabad, agrees that Pakistan is trying to destabilise Afghanistan.

ABDUL GHAFOUR (Translation): Be they the Taliban, terrorists or al-Qa'ida, we can fight them. Unfortunately they are sent over on a mission of destruction and due to the short distance they cross back quickly. They're raised in Pakistan, not here in Afghanistan.

He says the police arrest many Pakistani agents in Jalalabad. Pakistan security forces have long supported the Taliban and, according to local police, they still operate here.

GHAFOUR (Translation): Another good example is that approximately 1,200kg of explosives and 5000 fuses were brought into Nagrahar through Pakistan. As I said, they were brought in onion bags that we confiscated.

Behind me is the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. The militants who are seeking to disrupt the election and attack American forces are able to cross very freely through the mountain passes behind me. On the other side is Pakistan's tribal areas. Now the Pakistani military are unable or unwilling to go into those areas to secure them and block the routes through which the militants travel back and forth. And they say that Osama bin Laden himself is actually seeking refuge in this area behind me.
On the same day I was filming at the border, Pakistan's President, Pervez Musharraf, responded to international criticism and said he would erect a fence to keep the militants from crossing. Looking at this terrain, it's an absurd suggestion. He was merely paying lip-service to his backers in Washington.
I'm traveling to the neighbouring province of Kunar to get another perspective on the war. In August the Taliban filmed this attack on a US army helicopter near here. 16 marines died, along with three Navy SEALs that they were attempting to rescue.

GUIDE (Translation): The American helicopter which was shot that was also on the left side of us. Yes, you can see that now.

Less than an hour later, I'm going on a patrol down the same road with the US Marines. They're hunting for insurgents who've been spotted not far from here.

SOLDIER: A few insurgents coming, probably 80 - they're never really quite sure how many. And if the insurgents are there and they wanna get into a fight, then we'll bring the fight to them.

Although the casualty rate among US troops in Afghanistan is a lot lower than Iraq, 200 have been killed so far - 82 of those this year alone. Shortly after I left, these marines had their base attacked. One of their Humvees was also blown up by an improvised explosive device or IED, seriously wounding four marines.
The soldiers don't know where the enemy is but in this part of the country there is a lot of contact. Stuck on the roads in their vehicles, they are often ambushed.

REPORTER: Can you tell us what's going on? What are you looking for?

SOLDIER: Anybody with weapons. They'll have lookouts up on the ridge lines like this. And they'll start radioing in all the way down the valley to let the guys now if there's an ambush set up or if they got guys working on the road, they'll give them a heads-up from a long ways off. They usually see us coming from miles away. They've been having fucking white puffs of smoke lately. They've been doing that a lot.

REPORTER: So what are we doing now?

SOLDIER: We're gonna head up the road. We're gonna find out... We put a patrol out here.

This is the place where the insurgents had been spotted and where local police have arrested a man who had unusual homemade bomb or IED.

REPORTER: So he was caught with an IED, yeah?

SOLDIER: Oh, yes, he was caught with an IED. We're gonna bring some EOD guys down and see what it's made out of and see if it was used in other further attacks or past attacks and see what kind of stuff we are working with because it was supposedly brought over from Pakistan.

CHRISTOPHER HAGAN: So it's the first... I've seen 0.82 mortar rounds, they're everywhere around here but I've never seen one used like an IED. And this one, it looks like it's a brand-new mortar round, probably from China so it's showing they are using fresh explosives that they probably carried over from somewhere.

REPORTER: Yeah. So you think they come from Pakistan, these ones?

HAGAN: I don't...I don't know. I'll say I don't know.

Because Pakistan's involvement in the insurgency is politically sensitive, the lieutenant couldn't admit what his men already had told me. Off-camera he agreed it was obvious where the mortar, which had been wired to two landmines, had come from. Later he also told me about a daring attack on his platoon just two weeks earlier.

CHRISTOPHER HAGAN: That ambush was pretty wild, yeah. What was really strange was it was the first time that they had shot at us from like very close. Normally they shoot at us from like about 700m - it's like just right at the max range of their weapons. These guys, a lot of them were pretty close. They were shooting at us from houses, they were shooting at us from like cornfields, like everywhere basically. They were using like little kids as distractors, because before we went to the ambush site, before we got ambushed they had these like kids standing in pairs up along the road. They looked kind of nervous. I mean, there's kids everywhere and stuff but in this one part the kids tend to stay away from the US forces but when we went there this one time they were kind of standing deliberately and making it a point to shake each one of our hands. We were like, "OK, what's going on?" and then they just opened up on us. And you know, pretty wild.
There's no lie there is a pretty heavy enemy presence up in those mountains. That's where all the enemy hides out because the terrain there is just so difficult to operate in. Because, you know, a marine with his pack and everything will be carrying literally over 100 pounds of gear and you've got these insurgents who are just carrying, you know, like pyjamas and an AK, and they can run like the wind, they know where to hide, they know all the trails and everything.

Unable to travel far from their fortified bases, the troops are resupplied and flown in and out on choppers. One soldier told me he felt like he was fighting on the moon.
Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, recently told journalists he didn't think there was a need for US military activity in Afghanistan any longer and operations such as house searches and air strikes should be curtailed.
But as this footage from photojournalist Stephen Dupont reveals, the US-led operations are still being carried out. In the south, where these troops are based, more than two dozen Afghan soldiers, 18 police, two US soldiers and five aid workers have been killed in the last fortnight.
The response US troops are provoking with their psychological warfare is set to continue well into the future and Australian troops operating from the same base as these men will also be in the firing line.

I am part of a forum involved in dicussions of health care in this country and education. It is amazing to me that people can't get past the illegal alien situation. I keep saying - ok address the issue if you believe it is an issue but do it in a practical way.

When facts are put on the table that say the statistics say a very small percentage on the "dole" are illegal aliens they don't buy it. Some also say we should forget about giving money to the poor nations.

I say - look at it from a practical stand point. (as Bono is) It is wonderful to say "what will the Christian do" but that isn't the practical way to look at it. If we don't help the poor in our country they will not be protected against disease that will be among all populations. TB is on example. Measles is another.

The bird flu is something we really have to pay attention to. Are we going to be there to help the poor countries where a disease like that can get a real foothold or are we going to worry about ourselves. If we just worry about ourselves the pandemic will quickly become an out of control catastrophy. Bush putting boots on the ground is stupid. Flu is contagious I think 24 hours before you know you have it. How do you quarentine an entire population?

There is no saying for sure that the bird flu will skip to humans in a form that will become contagious but if we allow Bush hacks to be in charge of the CDC and the agencies that can make a huge difference we are sunk. If we continue to tell the scientists and medical community of this nation that their services are no longer needed we are in a boat load of trouble.

This 'hire the hack' menatlity has got to stop pronto. Responsibility and obligation to the job has to become the norm again. A "Katrina" in the medical world could crush our civilization.

Sorry about the spelling. I'm on my sisters computer. Watching the niece and nephew this weekend.

American Soldiers

2,229 American soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan for Bush's evil lies.

Gag Order Lifted On Canadian Torture Charges Against Bush
by Lawyers against the War

The charges stem from the notorious cases of torture practiced by U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. They were laid on the occasion of George W. Bush’s controversial visit to Canada in November 2004. The charges were laid under sections of the Canadian Criminal Code enacted pursuant to the United Nations Torture Convention which requires extra-territorial jurisdiction to be exercised against officials, even Heads of State, who authorize or are otherwise responsible for torture. [...]

[...]“This is a very important victory”, said Gail Davidson, who laid the charges and, along with Howard Rubin, argued the case for LAW, “because it ensures that the proceedings will be scrutinized by people in Canada and throughout the world, to make sure that the law is applied fairly and properly and, above all, to make sure that Bush doesn’t get away with torture.”

“The American legal system seems incapable of bringing him to justice and there are no international courts with jurisdiction. So it’s up to Canada to enforce the law that everybody has signed on to but nobody else seems willing to apply.”

The next hearing in the case will take place on November 25th 2005, at 10:00 a.m. at the B.C. Supreme Court, 800 Smithe Street, Vancouver, B.C., when government lawyers have said they will argue that the case is no longer “moot” because the Attorney General of Canada has not yet consented to the prosecution. Toronto law professor Michael Mandel, co-chair of LAW, calls this argument “bogus”: “He’s still guilty of torture, he’s still on the loose and we still have our obligations under the UN Convention to bring torturers to justice.”

**********************

Well, Chili just rescinded the immunity of Pinochet - we can dream.

I believe Bush's response to Bono's comment was: "You're right...You know what would cheer me up is if you sang that 'I've got you Babe, song' for me..." (stolen from fark.com headline, but I thought it was too funny not to share)

Several great articles on lewrockwell.com! Here are three of them. Repealing the 13th amendment; We don't want your fiendish war (a great, great article); and Save the army's reputation!

It's the nukes, stupid

And it's one, two, three, what are we fightin' for?

Cheney's Covert Action

Our eternal stay in Iraq

War, oh, what a glorious war! How can any normal person not want war over peace?

Being under Bush's intoxicating crap for five years how can a person not become a neocon, a fundie, or a evan?

Mr. David Corn,

Another good update. It is hard to not feel a little happy about the clusterf**k of "helpful aides" trying to help monkey-boy by blowing his cover story. Poetic justice if even in small measure.

I guess as the heat goes up in the kitchen more and more of the waxy facades just melt into piles and drips. Thank goodness for small favors.

Sealed? I hope so, I could relish the exposure of these liars and slugs for a while longer. I say seal 'em and put a "do not open until Xmas" sticker on 'em.

Thanks for the updates and the inside scoop(s)!

Great posts lately!

Thanks

Kirk

Yes, it's true, David, one day Scott McClellan is going to have to come out. He may not know it yet, but we all do.

If Scotty McClueless does not know he has been lying he is as dumb as a box of rocks. That is a few IQ points less than a bag of hammers.

St. Irenaeus has said, "The glory of God is man fully alive." Gerald says, "The glory of Bush is man fully dead."

America is second to no one.

The U.S. has a long-standing and accelerating policy of arming, training, and aiding some of the world's most oppressive and repressive regimes.

how is it you (and bono) go on (and on) about Bush's anti-aids effort in africa and not mention clinton (who has not solicited aggrandizement)? i would personally be interested in an objective comparison, and i would also be interested why bono ignored his (very significant) contributions.

MAD

CC Young - Bill Clinton has been out of office for five years, why should we be talking about him here? But, this link provides a photo of Bono on stage with the 42nd president and others at the World Economic Forum in January of this year.

Opposing the draft is one way to have our government become more prudent in starting wars. Bush's lies caused our soldiers to die.

I must be candid with Cornposters. The more I hear from veterans who glorified wars the more excitement I sense in these people. They talk of that endless rush in the kill and the wonderful smell of napalm in the morning and burning human flesh in the evening. War can become an addiction. I sense that more and more Americans are becoming addicted to wars.

Gerald,

While I'm opposed to a draft, this war was started without a compulsory service obligation in this country. Other than, of course, the economic necessities. Remember Jessica Lynch joined because she couldn't get a job in her West Virginia hometown.

But, the draft was one of the catalyzing issues that galvanized opposition to the Viet Nam conflict.

BTW, are you familiar with the work of Blase Bonpane?

Dan Simpson: Invade Syria? Insane
U.S. forces have started fighting Syrians at Iraq's border. Can anybody say 'Cambodia'?
Wednesday, October 19, 2005

*********
Anybody elese catch the grilling Sleezy got at the Senate Foreign Relations committee yesterday? She was especially questioned by Barbara Boxer - and one of the issues that came up was whether Bush would have to obtain new Congressional approval to widen the war.

RS, the name, Blase Bonpane, does not sound familiar. Please offer info or a link to go surface for some info.

US policy and the 'Oval Office cabal'

By Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON - As top officials in the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office await possible criminal indictments for their efforts to discredit a whistle-blower, a top aide to former secretary of state, Colin Powell, on Wednesday accused a "cabal" led by Cheney and Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld of hijacking US foreign policy by circumventing or ignoring formal decision-making channels.

Lawrence Wilkerson, a retired colonel, also charged that, as national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice was "part of the problem" by not ensuring that the policy-making process was open to all relevant participants. Wilkerson served as Powell's chief of staff from 2001 to 2005 and when Powell was chairman of the joint chiefs of staff of the US Armed Forces during the administration of former president, George H W Bush.

"In some cases, there was real dysfunctionality," said Wilkerson, who spoke at the New America Foundation (NAF), a prominent Washington think tank. "But in most cases ... she made a decision that she would side with the president to build her intimacy with the president."

"The case that I saw for four-plus years was a case that I have never seen in my studies of aberrations, bastardizations and perturbations in the national-security [policy-making] process," he said.

"What I saw was a cabal between the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made."

Wilkerson also stressed the "extremely powerful" influence of what he called the "Oval Office cabal" of Cheney and Rumsfeld, both former secretaries of defense with a long-standing personal and professional relationship.

He said they both were members of the "military-industrial complex" that former president, Dwight Eisenhower, warned the nation against in his 1961 farewell address.

*****end of clip*****

I might have posted this under different cover on the last thread but if so here it is again.

capt

Blase Bonpane

Try:

http://www.zmag.org/bios/homepage.cfm?authorID=54

http://officeoftheamericas.org/

Blase Bonpane's World Focus on Adelphia Cable Television
Check local listings.
Blase Bonpane's World Focus now on KPFK Pacifica Radio 90.7!
Sundays at 10:00 AM - TUNE IN!

27 Well, if you and I can easily find this article, it stands to reason Ms. Boxer and every other congressperson can as well. So, everybody knows but no one is brave enough to stand up and start the committees and processes that are needed to put a stop to all of it. Or the doomsayers are right and they (congress) are all in on it and have no intention of stopping it. As I recall, there was talk at some point that Nixon was seriously considering the use of nuclear weapons in Cambodia/Viet Nam. I am more concerned for my children and grandchildrens' futures than for my own.

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB81/

When the lunatics are running the asylum we all have reason to be concerned for us, and all generations that follow or never come to be?

Robb,

As I understand it, and this came from a book written in the last couple of years, whose name I forget but drew heavily on recently released documents...Nixon DID have a secret plan to end the war in Viet Nam. He would send word to the Chinese that he was prepared to use nuclear weapons unless the North Vietnamese stopped their activities in the South.

The Chinese turned around and said in effect, we do not control the Vietnamese, in fact, they fought us for a thousand years. Thankfully, Nixon's bluff being called, he did not pull that trigger.

Robert,

Capt's link at 33 seems to suggest it was the Soviets Tricky Dick was trying to impress. Either way, the "baby with a loaded gun" analogy seems appropriate.

Seven minutes to midnight.

Sealed Indictments in the Leak Case?
I don't like the sound of that!

Delay's Mug Shot
What? No Booking Number!

Robb,

I'm amazed at the beauty and efficacy of the internet as a research tool. And Capt's link to the National Security Archives is certainly useful and appropriate. They are an invaluable resource which I've used frequently.

Anyway, with just a little work I was able to find the book I was refering to:

The Vietnam War Files: Uncovering the Secret History of Nixon Era Strategy (Modern War Studies)
by Kimball, Jeffrey

How Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger pursued their public vow to end the Vietnam War and win the peace has long been entangled in bitter controversy and obscured by political spin. Recent declassifications of archival documents, on both sides of the former Iron and Bamboo Curtains, have at last made it possible to uncover the truth behind Nixon's and Kissinger's management of the war and to better understand the policies and strategies of the Vietnamese, Soviets, and Chinese. Drawing from this treasure trove of formerly secret files, Jeffrey Kimball has excerpted more than 140 print documents and taped White House conversations bearing on Nixon-era strategy. Most of these have never before been published and many provide smoking-gun evidence on such long-standing controversies as the "madman theory" and the "decent-interval" option. They reveal that by 1970 Nixon's and Kissinger's madman and detente strategies had fallen far short of frightening the North Vietnamese into making concessions. By 1971, as Kissinger notes in one Key document, the administration had decided to withdraw the remaining U.S. combat troops while creating "a healthy interval for South Vietnam's fate to unfold." The new evidence uncovers a number of behind-the-scenes ploys--such as Nixon's secret nuclear alert of October 1969--and sheds more light on Nixon's goals in Vietnam and his and Kissinger's strategies of Vietnamization, the "China card," and "triangular diplomacy." The excerpted documents also reveal significant new information about the purposes of the LINEBACKER bombings, Nixon's manipulation of the POW issue, and the conduct of the secret negotiations in Paris--as well as other key topics, events, andissues. All of these are effectively framed by Kimball, whose introductions to each document provide insightful historical context. Building on the ground-breaking arguments of his earlier prize-winning book, "Nixon's Vietnam War, Kimball also offers readers a concise narrative of the evolution of Nixon-era strategy and a critical assessment of historical myths about the war. The story that emerges from both the documents and Kimball's contextual narratives directly contradicts the Nixon-Kissinger version of events. In fact, they did "not pursue a consistent strategy from beginning to end and did "not win a peace with honor.

"Baby with a loaded gun"? Perhaps, but Nixon himself called it the "Madman Theory."

FEMA Official Says Boss Ignored Warnings
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

try:

http://hnn.us/articles/10428.html

quite specific to the question.

The tension on this blog is thicker than shark fin soup, and equally as tasty. I feel privileged to be among the near literati. The coming climax is hard to hold. It's like going into a bar and asking the bartender for an explosion. And she gives it to you and you drink it down. You feel it curl into every nerve ending and the rocket goes off.

Glad to see you're right in the thick of it, Mr. Corn; many happy postings to you. I'll be right here on this end.

New Evidence on the Secret Nuclear Alert of October 1969:
The Henry A. Kissinger Telcons

April 2005 Newsletter

William Burr and Jeffrey Kimball

In two articles we published in January 2003 on President Richard M. Nixon’≥ secret nuclear alert of October 13-28, 1969, we were able to establish that the rumored operation had in fact taken place, to describe the manner of its execution, and to solve the mystery of why Nixon ordered it.(1) Intent upon settling the Vietnam War on his own terms, Nixon hoped the alert would "jar" both the Soviet Union and the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam) into making concessions. The alert, whose official name was "Joint Chiefs of Staff Readiness Test," failed in its purpose, but it was one of the early exercises of Nixon’≥ self-styled "madman theory"—¶quot;the principle of the threat of excessive force."(2)

*****end of clip*****

The most recent publication from Burr and Kimball that I can find.

capt

One has to ask....can a person become President, and get re-elected, WITHOUT some sort of scandal creeping in before the 8 years are up? Watergate, Iran-Contra, Monica, Plame, take your pick.

Makes you yearn for the good old days, when the biggest scandal was whether Gerald Ford falling down too much, or whether Jimmie Carter lusted in his thoughts (or drank Billy Beer).

Bob in North Dakota

Nostalgia is not what it used to be.

Oh, Bob, wait a second wasn't that the same Gerald Ford who became president because Nixon resigned in disgrace?

And wasn't a certain Mr. Hamilton Jordan investigated for inhaling certain white powders, while Chip Carter toked up in the White House?

Indictment Is Easy Way Out For Bush Officials

Should Rove, Libby, Cheney and others be indicted in the CIA leak case it will be akin to slipping out the back door

Steve Watson | October 20 2005

Should Bush Administration Officials be indicted and forced to resign over the Plame case in the coming weeks, the left will undoubtedly declare a major victory for justice and truth. We say that should this happen the truth will consequently be buried and injustice will once again prevail.

To see the likes of Rove and Cheney skulking off back into the undergrowth, undoubtedly with massive paychecks will be no victory for the truth movement at all. These men should be held up to account for multiple illegal corporate wranglings, for high treason for the Coup de Tat on 9/11 and for crimes against humanity due to their involvement in the illegal and unjust war in Iraq.

Allowing them to get away with simple perjury over the Plame leak case will allow them to return back to what they know best, how to influence Government policy and advance the elite agenda whilst NOT in power. And Whilst many will wait around the front so to speak, cheering and celebrating this "victory", Rove et al will simply sneak out of the back door.

*****end of clip*****

A little reminder, a reality check or just a skunk at the picnic. Read 'em and weep.

capt

Capt #41. Good article. Thanks.

There are a few names that will do far more nefarious things when not under the yoke of "on premises" west wing oversight and whatever measure of control that might apply.

The reactionaries LOVE the death penalty.

The treasonous bastards deserve to be shot for the lies that made America an aggressor nation.

A return to "private" status does not seem fitting punishment for their crimes.

capt

Jimmy Carter lusted in his thoughts? How dare he!

Real Republicans, take note: There is a HUGE DIFFERENCE between "Conservative Republican Values" and "NeoConservative Values."

Conservative Republicans: STRONGLY favor protecting our civil liberties - Truly American

NeoConservatives: See our civil liberties as an unnecessary restriction on government power.

Conservative Republicans: STRONGLY favor a smaller, less intrusive government- Truly American

NeoConservatives: Are Willing to spend money (and expand government reach) without restraint, provided it helps them further their agenda.

Conservative Republicans: STRONGLY favor Fiscal Responsibility and reducing taxes - GOOD FOR AMERICA

NeoConservatives: Fool the public into thinking a "tax cut" (Paid for with PRINTED MONEY) is actually beneficial. -hiding the fact that it amounts to little more than a loan that the taxpayer (or their children) will have to repay WITH INTEREST.

I am not a statistician and I am not a rocket scientist. But, I am an observer of human nature.

I was thinking about what we do know about the Federal Grand Jury for Treasongate -- we know (according to Matthew Cooper) that the majority is African-American and disproportionally women.

Then I thought about those recent poll numbers that said that 2% of African-Americans support bush. (That would be Condi and Clarence -- Colin changed his mind.)

Then I thought about the Washington DC vote results in the last presidential election:

Kerry    202,970     90%
Bush      21,256     9%
Others 2,854 1%

Then I read the Federal Grand Jury Handbook (the Jury is made up of 23 members; 16 in attendance makes a quorum) and saw that it takes only TWELVE (12) members to get an indictment:

"...Only after each grand juror has been given the opportunity to be heard will the vote be taken. It should be remembered that at least 16 jurors must be present and 12 members must vote in favor of the indictment before it may be returned."

I realize this is pretty useless information, but it makes me feel good to think it could be payback time -- Black Americans holding all those powerful white folks to account!

Micki,

"Rove et al will simply sneak out of the back door." (from #47)

Maybe a bit of that poetic justice is in play. That back door was for the colored folk years ago. Now the pudgy white-boy has to use that exit?

I wish I had artistic ability, I would love a "Rockwell" like scene of Rove and Cheney (and the rest) sneaking out the back door.

capt

"Many are they who are touched at the heart by these things. those they sent forth they knew; now in place of the young men urns and ashes are carried home to the houses of the fighters.... The citizens speak: their voice is dull with hatred. The curse of the people must be paid for.": Agamemnon (lines 432-436, 456-7, Grene and Lattimore translation)

=
"In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. And if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us.": Thich Nhat Hanh - Vietnamese monk, activist and writer.

=
"The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.": Thomas Jefferson

=
"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." : George Washington

=
Our country is the world, our countrymen are all mankind. We love the land of our nativity, only as we love all other lands. The interests, rights, and liberties of American citizens are no more dear to us than are those of the whole human race. Hence we can allow no appeal to patriotism, to revenge any national insult or injury: William Lloyd Garrison, Declaration of Sentiments, Boston Peace Conference, 1838

===

Thanks ICH newsletter!

Did any of you catch the mug shot of DeLay? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Go to Raw Story. He looks like he's enjoying the fingerprinting.

Venezuelan Invasion?
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Thursday that his government is preparing for a possible U.S. invasion Chavez, a vocal critic of "imperialism" and the Bush administration, said he was not against the American people just the current government.

Tom, Dick, and Harry

Tom DeLay booked in Houston on conspiracy, money laundering charges

Wilkerson says Cheney hijacked U.S. policy

Visit our Some Senators find Miers' questionnaire 'insulting, incomplete'

Robert, #26, I wonder if that isn't the whole point of outsourcing. PNAC plans on perpetual war, but recruiting numbers won't support it. What better way to get recruits than to leave people with a starve or serve option? I put nothing past these vile creatures.

micki, capt. - and when they leave by the back door, will Scotty take notice, or just tell the press they were never there at all.

sublingual and capt. - are we speaking of Scotty coming out with the truth, or just coming out?

robert schwartz - great posts. #27 Syria - is this what the 101st has been deployed for? New in Septemebr says 20,000 deployed. They are not all there yet, more going by Thanksgiving.

Opposition to the draft did help congeal the anti-war effort. Maybe their plan after Nam was to wait until we got older and became our parents. The 76 million Americans that screamed for an end to that war sit on their assess, vote for nobody and are engulfed in apathy.

So now we find out that Kissinger and Nixon held us out on Nuke Alert. The average boomer doesn't even know who Kissinger is or where Cambodia is.

Does PNAC hold regular member meetings and have they aligned their goals with the book of Revelations?

David, you seem engrossed waiting for the shoe to drop. I can't believe anyone here finds it as a surprise that these people would lie to their own mother.

RS, thank you for the information! I will have to spend sometime reading about the Office of the Americas. I like their mission statement.

John Paul II said that if you want peace, work for justice.

We, as Americans, must be vigilant to all kinds of terrorism from the muslims to Americans.

America has many problems because our policians have been corrupt for many years.

saladin - starve or serve? How about freeze or serve? Is that Vile Creatures of Intelligent Design, or did they (shudder) Evolve?

geof01, whatever works! I could believe that the vile creatures did crawl out of some fetid, primordial soup somewhere!

Bradblog says conservative group denounces mAnn Coulter!

Plans: Next, War on Syria?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6099353/site/newsweek/

Did anyone catch Condi lying to the senate yesterday? She couldn't say we would disengage from Iraq in ten years, but we have a new plan starting next week.

Her big lie in this whole thing is that we are training the Iraqis to take care of themselves, but will not acknowledge that this will ever succeed.

Al, she acknowledged that OBL is dead! Reading that was worth it for that one sentence! Thanks.

Ann must be in emotional pain over this rejection. As a neocon wasn't she aware that they have been known to eat their own?

OBL is dead? Merry Christmas means F**K You? She wants to kill everyone in the subway? And I thought she was just a poster child for Bill O'Reilly.

The neo cons might want to invade other countries but it just isn't going to happen, we don't have the men, material, equipment, or the heart for another conflict in any area of the world, But the good news is that we can outsource our empire to the chinese they have the soldiers and we just print money to pay them that way it is a win, lose situation the chinese end up owning the world and the US pays for it. Great scenario. Genius planning I never saw this coming.

Prosecutors Find Rove, Libby Spoke of Contact With Media

by John Solomon

WASHINGTON — Prosecutors have gathered evidence that top White House aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby exchanged information about their contacts with reporters regarding Valerie Plame in the days just before the CIA officer's cover was blown.

Rove told grand jurors it was even possible he first learned inside the White House from Libby that Bush administration critic Joe Wilson's wife worked for the CIA, according to people directly familiar with the testimony of President Bush's closest political adviser. The disclosure is the first known intersection between two central figures in the criminal investigation into the leak of Plame's identity.

Rove testified that his discussions with Libby before Plame's identity was made public were limited to information reporters had passed them, the people said. Some evidence prosecutors have gathered conflicts with Libby's account of dealings with reporters.

Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald must determine whether the contacts were part of a concerted effort to illegally divulge Plame's CIA identity and undercut her husband's public criticism of the Iraq war or simply the trading of news and rumors that typically occurs inside the White House.

The prosecutor also is examining whether any witnesses gave false testimony or withheld information from the investigation. His spokesman, Randall Samborn, declined comment Wednesday.

The Rove-Libby contacts were confirmed to The Associated Press by people directly familiar with testimony the two witnesses gave or were shown before the grand jury. All spoke solely on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy of the proceedings.

*****end of clip*****

More "good news" ~!

capt

The sealed indictment idea is a great topic, and the discussion here is educational. I just don't know if I can stand any more waiting!

I'm sure Patrick Fitzgerald will take my personal need-to-know into consideration in plotting his course...

" are we speaking of Scotty coming out with the truth, or just coming out?"

Just the truth, or a little of the truth. They are all hypocrites and haters no matter their orientation or proclivities.

I could live to hundred and never know and still not care about the other. Every single neocon mouthpiece could be quadra-sexual or asexual, it would not make them any smarter or their lies any less tragic.

capt

http://billmon.org/

This is the type of thing that chaps my hide~!

Check it out.

AAAARRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH!

capt

geof01, Miss Condi is an accomplished person -- she plays the piano, ice skates and lies with abandon! Her main area of expertise is lying.

Saladin, oh! It may have made you feel good all over to read Ann C's words that *validate* your belief about OBL. But really! She's not exactly a reliable source. He may be deader than a doornail, I don't know that for certain. How do you know that?

OSL - Alive or Dead

Alive or Dead
It's all in our head
So let me just say
Its bigger than that
and it won't go away

There once was a fellow named Osama
Wanted dead or alive was the drama.
Some said he had a bad kidney
But Bush and his pals don't kid me,
These bogeymen inflict their own trauma.

My, we're poets are we?
Yes.

Capt,
Thanks for the billmon link. I'm at my sisters house and I don't have my favorites and I am in the dark. It least I saw the 'mug shot'. Still can't get over that. He looks like a little kid who just made his first communion.

It makes my skin crawl to know that that bozo Brown ate a leisurly dinner while people were fighting for lives. FEMA is there to save lives. I studied FEMA and it is a crucial link in the chain during a disaster. And we had a hack running it and we have a new hack running it. Let's hope with Wilma the new hack is better than the old hack.

Mr Brown, Mr Brown
He's a Clown
That Mr. Brown

My dinner's gettin' cold
Just you wait, like me
Why's everybody always pickin' on me?

CBS News has a harsh look at Iraq.

Total Disconnect On Iraq Realities

...Insurgents are not responsible for all the incidents, either. Among the most dangerous things on that or any other road here are American military convoys. Come too close, which is to say within 100 yards, and you can be shot. Mistake their hand signals, and you can be shot.

The problem is that the troops use military gestures and, for the most part, few people here -least of all Iraqis -have any idea of what they are trying to convey. That danger combined with the traffic jams they create has made the Americans no friends here, although no one in Washington or the military seems to have grasped that either...

Here's a little more of the CBS link. Disgusting.
------------

At least the troops are subject to some discipline and rules of engagement. The Private Security Details, or PSDs, drive as fast as possible, guns bristling, bulling their way through traffic in SUVs. The vehicles, of course, are guaranteed to make them a target. But maybe that's the point.

Apparently answerable to no laws, not even those of courtesy, PSDs who shoot at civilians are not known to stop and check what they have done. And the only thing they do more often than shoot is shout -f*** off!-at anyone who gets in their way.

Maybe they do it because they can. What’≥ the point of having guns, wrap-around shades, lots of kit that looks like it came from the props department of an action movie, and a body that seriously hints at steroid abuse if you can’¥ enjoy it? Once inside their home turf of the Green Zone, they can't - except for posing for each other, that is.

Tom Delay was booked!! Yeah!!! What a scum bag.

I love this blog; so much information.

I like the idea of secret indictments if that means he keeps investigating. Let's snag Bush too.

There Once Was an Ambassador in Niger
Who clamimed the docs came from a forger
They called the reporters
To get back at Joe Wilson
Now look at the position they're all in.

There once was a gang needing conviction,
The blogs were abuzz with prediction.
The media stopped being so adoring,
In fact they returned to exploring,
Pushing us to the brink of sedition.

There once was a fine man named Fitz
With a reputation to get some "admits."
He went after the riff, the raff, and rove,
*Scooting* unexpectedly into an aspen grove
And now we await what transmits.

jeez louise micki, I don't know that OBL is dead "for sure" and I don't feel "validated" by that psycho coulter, I just found it very interesting that she would say something in direction opposition to the bushco rhetoric. I do believe that the evidence points to the conclusion that he is dead, part of that evidence being an obituary in an Egyptian newspaper. Not to mention the fact that the biggest liars on the planet keep dredging up his name whenever they need to resurrect the boogeyman. You are welcome to believe whatever you want. But if those liars say it, I doubt it automatically. You still believe that fairy tale about 9/11? Tell me how you know for sure it is the truth. You believe bushco? Do you feel validated because the "top dems" claim it as the gospel?

TIME WILL TELL...

In the October 21, 2005, NYT, by Don Johnston:

"...But Mr. Rove and Mr. Libby may not be the only people at risk. There may be others in the government who could be charged for violations of the disclosure law or of other statutes, like the espionage act, which makes it a crime to transmit classified information to people not authorized to receive it.

It is still not publicly known who first told the columnist Robert D. Novak the identity of the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson. Mr. Novak identified her in a column on July 14, 2003, using her maiden name, Valerie Plame. Mr. Fitzgerald knows the identity of this source, a person who is not believed to work at the White House, the lawyers said...."

#83 Saladin...when you ask questions that aren't in the mode of "have you stopped beating your wife" I'll respond. (not that I have a wife)

Jeez louise yourself!

micki, read again what you wrote to me. I found it very offensive. If you think I put any faith in anything coulter has to say, you haven't been reading my posts. I asked you a question, in the same mode you addressed me, and I gave you a sincere answer. BTW, I don't really care if you answer me or not, the question was rhetorical. Who cares who murdered 3000 people, lets just accept the story and move on to the important issues, like Ms. miller, I'm sure fitzy will break the whole thing wide open. And who will save us from bushco, will it be clinton or kerry? Gee, I just can't wait to see who will be the next "we will fight the waronterra" better candidate!

After hearing David Gergen on CNN, it seems the "BB" (Beyond Bush) talk needs to began. How do we handle 3 more years of a president who has been discredited and lost his brain trust. If he can't be impeached and found guilty on what has happened, is there a way to get congress to approve the right replacements? No more leniency in picking one's staff, he is now under the supervision of congress or court supervision.

-------

#19 The rest of Iraneaus's quote is "And the life (or glory) of man is the vision of God"

I guess Bush has the wrong vision for God? Certainly he seems to have a wrong vision for the USA and world.

Bush says focused on job not 'background noise'

By Tabassum Zakaria
Thu Oct 20, 5:22 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Thursday he was focused on doing his job rather than the "background noise" of a series of political headaches that have hurt his popularity

"There's some background noise here, a lot of chatter, a lot of speculation and opining. But the American people expect me to do my job, and I'm going to," Bush said in the White House Rose Garden after talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Sen. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), a New York Democrat, said the president's comments were too dismissive of serious national security leaks, and "there is nothing trivial about the investigation into the leaking of a CIA operative's identity."

"Part of the president's job is to make sure his staff obeys the laws and he should make sure that anyone indicted in this dastardly outing of a covert operative is immediately dismissed from the White House," Schumer said in a statement.

The president's top political adviser, Karl Rove, and Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, are at the center of the prosecutor's investigation into the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame. Plame's diplomat husband criticized the administration's prewar intelligence on Iraq.

Any indictments are expected to be announced by the time the grand jury expires on October 28.

Recent opinion polls showed the president's job approval ratings at their lowest ever in the aftermath of the slow federal response to Hurricane Katrina in August, high gas prices and uneasiness over the Iraq war.

*****end of clip*****

Background noise is all Bush hears? His staff is being indicted for treasonous acts against the citizens he claims to be protecting.

Bush needs to be impeached. It is the ONLY message he needs to hear.

Background noise? What a jerk.

capt

A Palpable Silence at the White House

Few Ready to Face Effects of Leak Case

By Jim VandeHei and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, October 21, 2005; A01

At 7:30 each morning, President Bush's senior staff gathers to discuss the important issues of the day -- Middle East peace, the Harriet Miers nomination, the latest hurricane bearing down on the coast. Everything, that is, except the issue on everyone's mind.

With special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald driving his CIA leak investigation toward an apparent conclusion, the White House now confronts the looming prospect that no one in the building is eager to address: a Bush presidency without Karl Rove. In a capital consumed by scandal speculation, most White House senior officials are no more privy than outsiders to the prosecutor's intentions. But the surreal silence in the Roosevelt Room each morning belies the nervous discussions racing elsewhere around the West Wing.

Out of the hushed hallway encounters and one-on-one conversations, several scenarios have begun to emerge if Rove or vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis Libby is indicted and forced out. Senior GOP officials are developing a public relations strategy to defend those accused of crimes and, more importantly, shield Bush from further damage, according to Republicans familiar with the plans. And to help steady a shaken White House, they say, the president might bring in trusted advisers such as budget director Joshua B. Bolten, lobbyist Ed Gillespie or party chairman Ken Mehlman.

These tentative discussions come at a time when White House senior officials are exploring staff changes to address broader structural problems that have bedeviled Bush's second term, according to Republicans who said they could speak candidly about internal deliberations only if they are not named. But it remains unclear whether Bush agrees that changes are needed and the uncertainty has unsettled his team.

"People are very demoralized and unhappy," a former administration official said. "The leak investigation is [part of it], but things were not happy before this took preeminence. It's just been a rough year. A lot has gotten done, but nothing is easy."

Bush implicitly acknowledged the distractions in answer to a reporter's question during a Rose Garden appearance with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday, while reassuring the public that he remained focused on the pressing matters of state facing his White House.

"There's some background noise here, a lot of chatter, a lot of speculation and opining," Bush said. "But the American people expect me to do my job, and I'm going to."

*****end of clip*****

No, Mr. Bush, we expected you to "do your job" and you failed again. The proof is, at this point, a given. You did not do your "job."

You had a chance, years ago, to fire the traitors and end the lies but you thought you and your staff of sycophants thought you were above the law. You thought the law never applied to you and your "operatives."

No Mr. Bush, nobody, not even those on your "team", not even your crime family members expect you are capable of "doing your job."

America used to have high ideals and lofty rhetoric about who and what we all are and you have reduced the high ideals to slogans and lies and made our once great nation into a banana republic. We are now seen as an aggressor nation, the kind that has your Sec State telling congress that it was never about the Taliban or Al Qaeda, now it is about an "Effort to 'Redesign Middle East'?

More lies, more war, more crimes, and the domestic problems are just BACKGROUND NOISE?

We need to impeach the SOB anything less would be un-American.

capt

Does democracy lead to the end of terrorism?

The Bush administration says it does, but experts are increasingly doubtful.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

The Bush administration has pushed ahead with its idea that bringing democracy to the Middle East will lead to a state of affairs where, as the President put it recently, "extremists will be marginalized and the flow of violent radicalism to the rest of the world will slow and eventually end."

Increasingly, however, foreign policy experts, commentators, and even US military commanders on the ground in Iraq are starting to doubt that this is true. The Los Angeles Times reported last week that some senior US officials no longer believe that establishing democracy in Iraq "can erode and ultimately eradicate the insurgency gripping the country."

Even as millions of Iraqis voted in the recent constitutional referendum, these officials are concerned that the quest for democracy in Iraq, at least in its current form, could actually strengthen the insurgency. Experts on the

*****end of clip*****

Democracy as a way to eradicate terrorism was absurd to begin with. It was an excuse, a false purpose, a lie.

The real purpose was to enrich the military industrial complex and make a play for world domination.

capt

Micki and Saladin
They both hate Bush yet they fight each other
Was 9/11 a plot by the Right?
We don't know for sure, but O' Brother
Somethin' ain't right, so we blog and we blog Tryin' to get it straight
Don't fight each other - it's THEM we HATE

"If you hate a person, you hate something in him that is part of yourself. What isn't part of ourselves doesn't disturb us." ~ Hermann Hesse (1877 - 1962)

Congressman wants new Able Danger probe

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 (UPI) -- A vocal House Republican is calling for a new probe into what he says is a "witch-hunt" by defense officials against a Sept. 11 intelligence whistleblower.

Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Penn., told United Press International that officials at the Defense Intelligence Agency, or DIA, had "conducted a deliberate campaign of character assassination" against the whistleblower, retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer.

Shaffer has said that a highly classified Pentagon data-mining project he worked on, codenamed Able Danger, identified the ringleaders of the Sept. 11 terror attacks as linked to al-Qaida more than a year before they hijacked four planes and crashed them, killing nearly 3,000 people.

Weldon told UPI he had written to the Department of Defense inspector general to ask for "an immediate formal inquiry, with people testifying under oath," into what he called "a clear witch-hunt" against Shaffer, who has been on administrative leave while minor allegations about some expenses are investigated.

Weldon's move comes after Shaffer said that boxes of his personal effects, returned to him by the DIA earlier this month, contained both government property and classified documents.

"Sending classified material through the mail is a felony, and much more serious than any of these minor, trumped up charges against (Shaffer)," he said, adding that "I want the appropriate persons held accountable."

Weldon said that the DIA had now taken steps to fire Shaffer. "It's outrageous and scandalous," he said.

A DIA spokesman had no immediate comment.

*****end of article*****

Is some accountability creeping back into the government? I hope so. Lies upon lies are getting real old and any measure of justice is a welcome change from the status quo.

capt

According to strong evidence you have obtained? Pardon me, but the hell with that. If you have a source, give us more than that. If you have some other kind of "evidence," can we be told the nature of this evidence? I would think that in this of all cases we could dispense with this maddening reporterly info hoarding. Unless of course you're working on a story and just giving us an early scoop, in which case... Never mind. AM

Rice scientists build world's first single-molecule car

10/20/2005

'Nanocar' with buckyball wheels paves way for other molecular machines

Rice University scientists have constructed the world's smallest car -- a single molecule "nanocar" that contains a chassis, axles and four buckyball wheels.

The "nanocar" is described in a research paper that is available online and due to appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Nano Letters.

The "nanocar" is described in a research paper that is available online and due to appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Nano Letters.

"The synthesis and testing of nanocars and other molecular machines is providing critical insight in our investigations of bottom-up molecular manufacturing," said one of the two lead researchers, James M. Tour, the Chao Professor of Chemistry, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science and professor of computer science. "We'd eventually like to move objects and do work in a controlled fashion on the molecular scale, and these vehicles are great test beds for that. They're helping us learn the ground rules."

The nanocar consists of a chassis and axles made of well-defined organic groups with pivoting suspension and freely rotating axles. The wheels are buckyballs, spheres of pure carbon containing 60 atoms apiece. The entire car measures just 3-4 nanometers across, making it slightly wider than a strand of DNA. A human hair, by comparison, is about 80,000 nanometers in diameter.

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This is some crazy cool stuff. The whole nano-technology will change the world.

The studies on laminar flows and friction on a nano-scale are changing our most basic understanding of how things work. Too cool for school!

capt

Speaking of Poetry, found this in "The Progressive" this morning.
________________
FOLDING THE FLAG

With a lover or friend
stretch it out at waist-height
and parallel to the ground.
Fold lengthwise so blue midnight

and its strict constellation
vanishes under pure-white
and blood red, a frission
along the stripes, shot

between you. Fold again
lengthwise, a lot like unmaking
a bed in which no one
is ever just sleeping.

The stars should stay outside
as in the universe.
From the stripy end, fold
it up in small triangles.

kissing when you meet.
Tuck in the end, creating
a cocked newspaper hat
from whole cloth, a thing

useful in comforting
a suddenly public wife
suddenly veiled, her gold ring
shining like eternal life,

like moist eyes, like the bright stars
in her jaunty souvenir cap,
the weight of their universe
pressing into her lap.

-Jay Rogoff

Very moving.

Thanks Hajji

capt

Stronger Than Steel, Harder Than Diamonds: Researcher Developing Numerous Uses For Extraordinary 'Buckypaper'

2005-10-21

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Working with a material 10 times lighter than steel -- but 250 times stronger -- would be a dream come true for any engineer. If this material also had amazing properties that made it highly conductive of heat and electricity, it would start to sound like something out of a science fiction novel. Yet one Florida State University research group, the Florida Advanced Center for Composite Technologies (FAC2T), is working to develop real-world applications for just such a material.

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I swear, not one of us will be able to even dream what the future will hold.

I believe the ideal of burning fossil fuels and hydrocarbon based processes that are killing us and our planet will, in time, be as obsolete as burning whale oil.

capt

Capt,
My husband watched Nova last week and they had a show on DNA and what they can do with it now. The scientist said that the technology is going to explode in the next several years.

Toon of the day: Bono Brunch

#89
I can't believe some of the things I hear about this white house. I wish I led such a privileged and fairy tale life.
People are demoralized and unhappy. Well, think about he soldiers who signed up for 6 more years with a bonus of $15,000 and poof it was gone.

Or how about the soldier in Iraq who thought he was going home to his family but...his time got extended.

Or the people in the superdome in NO.

I could go on and on. The poverty in this country has grown while they fight their warped war on terror.

The White House is soooooo clueless.

....one of the most thermally conductive materials known, buckypaper....

an awesome new technology, that.

Congress Set to Pass Law Eliminating Liability For Vaccine Injuries

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Vaccine Information
Center (NVIC) is calling the "Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug
Development Act of 2005"(S. 1873), which passed out of the U.S. Senate HELP
Committee one day after it was introduced "a drug company stockholder's dream
and a consumer's worst nightmare." The proposed legislation will strip
Americans of the right to a trial by jury if harmed by an experimental or
licensed drug or vaccine that they are forced by government to take whenever
federal health officials declare a public health emergency.
The legislation's architect, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Chairman of the
HELP Subcommittee on Bioterrorism and Public Health Preparedness, told the
full HELP Committee yesterday that the legislation "creates a true
partnership" between the federal government, the pharmaceutical industry and
academia to walk the drug companies "through the Valley of Death" in bringing
a new vaccine or drug to market. Burr said it will give the Department of
Health and Human Services "additional authority and resources to partner with
the private sector to rapidly develop drugs and vaccines." The Burr bill gives
the Secretary of DHHS the sole authority to decide whether a manufacturer
violated laws mandating drug safety and bans citizens from challenging his
decision in the civil court system.
-------------
More back stabbing from our dear leaders. Thanks congress, we know you have our best interests at heart. Now I suppose they just scream "pandemic" and everyone will be forced to get a shot, they could purposely infect us with the flu and there would be no recourse.

Congress Set to Pass Law Eliminating Liability For Vaccine Injuries

WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Vaccine Information
Center (NVIC) is calling the "Biodefense and Pandemic Vaccine and Drug
Development Act of 2005"(S. 1873), which passed out of the U.S. Senate HELP
Committee one day after it was introduced "a drug company stockholder's dream
and a consumer's worst nightmare." The proposed legislation will strip
Americans of the right to a trial by jury if harmed by an experimental or
licensed drug or vaccine that they are forced by government to take whenever
federal health officials declare a public health emergency.
The legislation's architect, Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), Chairman of the
HELP Subcommittee on Bioterrorism and Public Health Preparedness, told the
full HELP Committee yesterday that the legislation "creates a true
partnership" between the federal government, the pharmaceutical industry and
academia to walk the drug companies "through the Valley of Death" in bringing
a new vaccine or drug to market. Burr said it will give the Department of
Health and Human Services "additional authority and resources to partner with
the private sector to rapidly develop drugs and vaccines." The Burr bill gives
the Secretary of DHHS the sole authority to decide whether a manufacturer
violated laws mandating drug safety and bans citizens from challenging his
decision in the civil court system.
-------------
More back stabbing from our dear leaders. Thanks congress, we know you have our best interests at heart. Now I suppose they just scream "pandemic" and everyone will be forced to get a shot, they could purposely infect us with the flu and there would be no recourse.

We are told that eight indictments have already been prepared, with the possibility of another ten.

From: Alternet

Colin Powell told John McCain he showed the infamous memo with Plame's identity on it two just two people; Dick Cheney and George Bush.

Dear Stan,

I do not like bush or what he stands for. I do not like his policies. I do not like his War. I do not like his lies. I do not like anything about him. Saladin probably feels the same way. I am not "fighting" with her. I just disagree with some of what she believes -- and, again, she feels the same way about me.

Just because we both dislike bush, it does not follow that we will agree on other matters. But, thanks for your peacekeeping efforts.

BTW, I enjoy your poetry.