Pro-Israel interests are a fixture in American politics

If you are wondering why our Democratic congress sold us down the river, it goes like this.

(1); President Bush has requested $2.4 billion in military aid to Israel as part of his 2008 fiscal year budget submitted to Congress.

(2); Pro-Israel interests are a fixture in American politics, having developed an organized presence in Washington and across the country that is backed by generous campaign contributions and intensive lobbying.

On the lobbying front, the pro-Israel community is led by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which Fortune magazine ranks as one of the top lobbying groups in the country. AIPAC spent more than $1.1 million lobbying in 2001, roughly the same amount it spent in 2000.

(3); Senator Carl Levin D was one of the top recipients of campaign money from AIPAC to the tune of $93,000 for this cycle, and $657,887 since his time in office.

(4); AIPAC Demands "Action" on Iran


February 24 / 25, 2007

"An American Strike on Iran is Essential for Our Existence"

SNIP

Now, as Israeli calls for a U.S. attack on Iran become more shrill by the day, AIPAC recognizes that the American people profoundly distrust Vice President Cheney and the nest of neocon liars he has sheltered. The Bush-Cheney war machine has been pretty well exposed, and that must worry the warmongers within the group. Israeli Defense Force chief artillery officer Gen. Oded Tira has griped that "President Bush lacks the political power to attack Iran," adding that since "an American strike in Iran is essential for [Israel's] existence, we must help him pave the way by lobbying the Democratic Party (which is conducting itself foolishly) and US newspaper editors. We need to do this in order to turn the Iran issue to a bipartisan one and unrelated to the Iraq failure." Tira urges the Lobby to turn to "potential presidential candidates. . . so that they support immediate action by Bush against Iran," while Uri Lubrani, senior advisor to Defense Minister Amir Peretz, tells the Jewish Agency's Board of Governors that the US "does not understand the threat and has not done enough," and therefore "must be shaken awake."

SNIP

No thanks this time, AIPAC. You're just not credible. Can't do it for you. My constituents aren't into more war, and they think this whole Iran thing's a lot of hype. I can't support nuking Iran, and frankly, I don't see how you can either. I don't think you speak for all or even most American Jews, and you can't scare me this time by accusations of anti-Semitism. I can't have an attack on Iran my conscience, sorry. I'd rather be defeated in the next election. Keep your money; I just can't do what you ask.

Will the Congress targeted by the Lobby be able to say that? If it doesn't, all the belated, posturing moves to limit Bush's power, withdraw troops and end the imperialist war in Iraq will mean nothing. An attack on Iran will unleash the gates of hell. The attackers will argue that a new situation makes all prewar debate irrelevant (or even if encouraging doubt about the "existential" cause, downright treasonous). The fascistic proclivities of the administration will blossom immediately. The legal basis has been laid for the repression of the dissent an Iran attack will naturally inspire. Prison camps, suspension of habeas corpus. The proponents of the war are comfortable with these things, and the waters have already been tested.

Wolfowitz should wise up and quit spitting on his comb

Charlie Rose Show

Spitman puts on a poor performance, as he tries to justify his actions at the World Bank, while bolstering his ego. Charlie asks him a few questions more than once, but the only answers he got were irrevelent to the subject matter.

Here in Oregon the show is at 12:00 AM, and I doubt that any uninformed people are watching at this hour. Why do all of the neonservative ideologues think that there is an audience for political spin and misrepresentation for the facts. Everybody who has read the PNAC agenda and their plans for control of the whole Middle East are amazed at the Ludicrous lack of accountability and the lack of admission of facts that speak for themselves. This was an interview of sorts, but Wolfie changed the subject to Africa or other third world countries every time he was asked anything about Iraq. In my opinion he made himself look very guilty, not only about the loss of his position, but also about his involvement in Iraq.

There are some great comments on the blog below the video. One of them was actually in defence of Spitman...ROTFLOL

Impeach Cheney First

Why impeach Cheney? Let us count the ways

The People vs. Richard Cheney
By Wil S. Hylton
GQ

March 2007 Issue

Resolved, that Richard B. Cheney, vice president of the United States, should be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors and that these articles of impeachment be submitted to the American people.

When the Founding Fathers crafted the U.S. Constitution, they wanted to be sure that the president, vice president, and other ranking officials could be evicted more easily than the British monarchy. To ensure that the process would be swift and certain, they made it simple: Only two conditions must be met. First, a majority of the House of Representatives must agree on a set of charges; then, two-thirds of the Senate must agree to convict. After that, there is no legal wrangling, no appeal to a higher authority, no reversal on technical grounds. There is not even a limit on what the charges may be. As the Constitution describes it, the cause may be "treason, bribery, and other high crimes and misdemeanors," but even these were left deliberately vague; as Gerald Ford once pointed out while still serving in the House of Representatives, the only real definition of an "impeachable offense" is "whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history."


Article I

In his conduct of the office of the vice president of the United States, Richard B. Cheney, contrary to his oath to faithfully execute the office of vice president of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws of this nation be upheld, has deliberately obstructed the nation's intelligence-gathering capacity, in that:

(1) During the several months preceding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the vice president endeavored to bypass the role of the Central Intelligence Agency as the nation's principal filter of raw intelligence, directing subordinates within the agency to "stovepipe" raw intelligence directly to his office.

(2) As a result of this policy, the vice president became privy to unanalyzed, unverified data that should not have been available to him, including documents that seemed to indicate that Saddam Hussein may have attempted to purchase yellowcake uranium from the African country of Niger in February 1999.

(3) Relying on these documents, and ignoring the CIA's assessment that they were most likely fabrications, the vice president proceeded to publicize the Niger documents and encouraged the president to refer to them in his 2003 State of the Union address, deliberately obstructing the role of the CIA and promoting known forgeries to bolster his case for war.

(4) At the same time, acting personally and through his subordinates, the vice president conspired with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to create a substitute intelligence agency within the Pentagon, known as the Office of Special Plans, with instructions to contradict unfavorable information emerging from the CIA.

(5) Under this mandate, the Office of Special Plans sought to undermine the authority legally vested in the CIA, cultivating intelligence sources known to be discredited and embarking on extralegal "missions" to Iraq without consulting the nation's legitimate intelligence services.

(6) In these distortions of the nation's intelligence-gathering process, the vice president, acting personally and through subordinates, has obstructed the democratic institutions of the nation and undermined the rule of law.

In all of this, Richard B. Cheney has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as vice president and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.

Article II

Using the powers of the office of the vice president of the United States, Richard B. Cheney, contrary to his oath to faithfully execute the office of vice president of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws of this nation be upheld, has personally deceived the American people, in that:

(1) During the several months preceding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, and thereafter, the vice president became aware that no certain evidence existed of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, a fact articulated in several official documents, including:

(a) A report by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency, concluding that "there is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons, or where Iraq has - or will - establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities."

(b) A National Intelligence Estimate, compiled by the nation's intelligence agencies, admitting to "little specific information" about chemical weapons in Iraq.

(c) A later section of the same NIE, admitting "low confidence" that Saddam Hussein "would engage in clandestine attacks against the U.S. Homeland," and equally "low confidence" that he would "share chemical or biological weapons with al-Qa'ida."

(d) An addendum by the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, asserting that Hussein's quest for yellowcake uranium in Africa was "highly dubious" and that his acquisition of certain machine parts, considered by some to be evidence of a nuclear program, were "not clearly linked to a nuclear end use."

(e) A report by the United States Department of Energy, stating that the machinery in question was "poorly suited" for nuclear use.

(2) Despite these questions and uncertainties, and having full awareness of them, the vice president nevertheless proceeded to misrepresent the facts in his public statements, claiming that there was no doubt about the existence of chemical and biological weapons in Iraq and that a full-scale nuclear program was known to exist, including:

(a) March 17, 2002: "We know they have biological and chemical weapons."

(b) March 19, 2002: "We know they are pursuing nuclear weapons."

(c) March 24, 2002: "He is actively pursuing nuclear weapons."

(d) May 19, 2002: "We know he's got chemical and biological...we know he's working on nuclear."

(e) August 26, 2002: "We now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons... Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us."

(f) March 16, 2003: "We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons."

(3) At the same time, despite overwhelming skepticism within the government of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda - resulting in the conclusion of the 9/11 Commission that "no credible evidence" for such a link existed, and the CIA's determination that Hussein "did not have a relationship" with Al Qaeda - the vice president continued to insist that the relationship had been confirmed, including:

(a) December 2, 2002: "His regime has had high-level contacts with Al Qaeda going back a decade and has provided training to Al Qaeda terrorists."

(b) January 30, 2003: "His regime aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al Qaeda. He could decide secretly to provide weapons of mass destruction to terrorists for use against us."

(c) March 16, 2003: "We know that he has a long-standing relationship with various terrorist groups, including the Al Qaeda organization."

(d) September 14, 2003: "We learned more and more that there was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda that stretched back through most of the decade of the '90s, that it involved training, for example, on biological weapons and chemical weapons."

(e) October 10, 2003: "He also had an established relationship with Al Qaeda - providing training to Al Qaeda members in areas of poisons, gases, and conventional bombs."

(f) January 9, 2004: "Al Qaeda and the Iraqi intelligence services...have worked together on a number of occasions."

(g) January 22, 2004: "There's overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi government"

(h) June 18, 2004: "There clearly was a relationship. It's been testified to. The evidence is overwhelming."

(4) Through all of these misrepresentations, the vice president knowingly skewed the public's perception of reality, clouded the nation's ability to weigh evidence, and willfully disrupted the function of American democracy.

In all of this, Richard B. Cheney has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as vice president and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.

ARTICLE III

In his conduct of the office of the vice president of the United States, Richard B. Cheney, contrary to his oath to faithfully execute the office of vice president of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws of this nation be upheld, has deliberately embraced and sheltered a known criminal, to the great detriment of American policy, in that:

(1) During the months preceding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the vice president, acting personally and through his subordinates, granted special access to the Iraqi exile Ahmed Chalabi, relying on Chalabi for intelligence about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction, despite an outstanding warrant for Chalabi's arrest on charges of bank fraud in the nation of Jordan, grave concerns from the CIA about Chalabi's credibility, and a 2002 British assessment that Chalabi was "a convicted fraudster."

(2) As the initial stage of the war concluded and Chalabi's claims proved false, the vice president nevertheless continued privately to champion Chalabi as a leader for the new Iraqi government, ignoring a litany of troubling accusations and events, including:

(a) May 19, 2004: The Department of Defense discontinues monthly payments to Chalabi, pending charges of fraud.

(b) May 20, 2004: U.S. troops, along with Iraqi forces, storm Chalabi's home, seizing documents and computers for a criminal probe.

(c) June 2004: The New York Times reports that Chalabi has disclosed U.S. secrets to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

(3) When an employee of the Coalition Provisional Authority named Thomas Warrick voiced concerns about Chalabi to his superiors, the vice president intervened to demand that Warrick be fired, causing Warrick's unique contributions to the occupation - including a series of prescient written warnings about the rise of insurgency - to be lost, and the nation's ability to function at war compromised.

(4) As late as November 2005, the vice president continued to offer public support and safe harbor to Chalabi, inviting him to visit the White House and providing personal welcome to a known criminal.

In all of this, Richard B. Cheney has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as vice president and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.

ARTICLE IV

In his conduct of the office of the vice president of the United States, Richard B. Cheney, contrary to his oath to faithfully execute the office of vice president of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws of this nation be upheld, has maintained an improper and unethical relationship with his former employers at Halliburton and has promoted its agenda and interests over those of the American people, in that:

(1) In September 2003, the vice president claimed to have "severed all my ties with the company" and to have "no financial interest in Halliburton of any kind," where in truth he did, at that time, continue to earn more than $150,000 per year in delayed compensation from Halliburton, as well as a portfolio in excess of 230,000 stock options of the company, worth more than $10 million.

(2) Bolstered by this economic incentive to promote the interests of Halliburton, the vice president did choose to remain silent as the company was exposed in a series of financial scandals at the expense of the American people, including:

(a) February 2002: Halliburton is forced to pay $2 million after being charged by the Justice Department for fraud committed against the Pentagon during the vice president's tenure as CEO.

(b) May 2002: The company is investigated by the SEC for fraudulent accounting practices and inflation of its stock price during the vice president's tenure as CEO.

(c) March 2003: The company is investigated by a congressional committee for receiving favorable contracts from the Pentagon, outside normal review processes.

(d) May 2003: The company admits to having bribed a Nigerian official with millions of dollars in exchange for tax exemptions.

(e) December 2003: The company is found by the Defense Contract Audit Agency, a unit of the Pentagon, to have overcharged and defrauded the government of more than $100 million.

(f) January 2004: The company admits that its employees have accepted $6 million in kickbacks from a Kuwaiti company in exchange for a portion of U.S. government contracts.

(3) Through his silence on these and other scandals involving his former employer and source of several million dollars in assets, the vice president exhibited not only a failure of leadership but a lack of integrity that has tarnished the office of the vice president.

In all of this, Richard B. Cheney has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as vice president and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.

ARTICLE V

Using the powers of the office of the vice president of the United States, Richard B. Cheney, contrary to his oath to faithfully execute the office of vice president of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws of this nation be upheld, has granted improper and unlawful influence over national policy to an anonymous cabal of corporate lobbyists, in that:

(1) In January 2001, the vice president did oversee a secret task force composed of corporate lobbyists and executives from the oil, gas, coal, and nuclear-energy sector, known collectively as the National Energy Policy Development Group, instructing them to meet regularly and develop the nation's energy policy.

(2) By conducting these meetings in secret, the vice president did endeavor to impart influence to corporate interests without public knowledge, eclipsing not only the oversight function of Congress generally but the specific role of the energy committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

(3) During the course of these secret meetings, the vice president allowed lobbyists representing the oil, coal, gas, and nuclear-energy industries to compose, word-for-word, the national energy policy adopted by the Department of Energy, in gross violation of the public trust and all ethical norms.

In all of this, Richard B. Cheney has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as vice president and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.

ARTICLE VI

In his conduct of the office of the vice president of the United States, Richard B. Cheney, contrary to his oath to faithfully execute the office of vice president of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws of this nation be upheld, has prevented, obstructed, and impeded the administration of justice, in that:

(1) On March 25, 2002, and thereafter, the vice president did willfully disobey court orders to identify the members of the National Energy Policy Development Group.

(2) In September 2002, and prior thereto, the vice president did also refuse requests by Representatives Henry Waxman and John Dingell, as well as the Government Accountability Office, to release transcripts and papers produced by the aforementioned group.

(3) In both of these cases, the requested names and documenting papers were deemed necessary to resolve by direct evidence fundamental, factual questions relating to the vice president's reliance on special interests and corporate lobbyists in the formation of national policy, and the release of said papers was ordered by the United States District Court and upheld by the United States Court of Appeals.

(4) In refusing to produce said names, transcripts, and papers, and by continuing to keep the deliberations of the National Energy Policy Development Group secret, the vice president, substituting his judgment for the authority of the federal courts and ignoring the doctrine of congressional oversight, did assume to the office of the vice president authority, functions, and judgments forbidden by the United States Constitution.

In all of this, Richard B. Cheney has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as vice president and subversive of constitutional government, to the great prejudice of justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States.

Wherefore, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office.

What Congress Really Approved: Benchmark No. 1: Privatizing Iraq’s Oil for US Companies

t r u t h o u t

By Ann Wright
Guest Contributor
Saturday 26 May 2007

On Thursday, May 24, the US Congress voted to continue the war in Iraq. The members called it “supporting the troops.” I call it stealing Iraq’s oil - the second largest reserves in the world. The “benchmark,” or goal, the Bush administration has been working on furiously since the US invaded Iraq is privatization of Iraq’s oil. Now they have Congress blackmailing the Iraqi Parliament and the Iraqi people: no privatization of Iraqi oil, no reconstruction funds.

This threat could not be clearer. If the Iraqi Parliament refuses to pass the privatization legislation, Congress will withhold US reconstruction funds that were promised to the Iraqis to rebuild what the United States has destroyed there. The privatization law, written by American oil company consultants hired by the Bush administration, would leave control with the Iraq National Oil Company for only 17 of the 80 known oil fields. The remainder (two-thirds) of known oil fields, and all yet undiscovered ones, would be up for grabs by the private oil companies of the world (but guess how many would go to United States firms - given to them by the compliant Iraqi government.)

No other nation in the Middle East has privatized its oil. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Iran give only limited usage contracts to international oil companies for one or two years. The $120 billion dollar “Support the Troops” legislation passed by Congress requires Iraq, in order to get reconstruction funds from the United States, to privatize its oil resources and put them up for long term (20- to 30-year) contracts.

Lurita Doans Blackberry

Federal Computor World magazine

Doan’s BlackBerry talks

Published on May 28, 2007

You know that you didn’t have a good week if your name is uttered in the same breath as the Bush administration’s punching bag, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Last week, Lurita Doan, administrator at the General Services Administration, managed to reach that esteemed pinnacle.

Many people have tuned out the whole Doan drama, with its many twists and turns. The entire Doan affair has left many in a quandary about how to deal with GSA and the administrator in particular. There also is ongoing concern that Doan’s problems could bleed beyond her office to have a broader impact on GSA, which has been working to turn itself around.

Yet even amid that quagmire, the findings of the Office of Special Counsel on allegations that Doan violated the Hatch Act seemed to stand out. The OSC report states that Doan violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits using the business of government for political purposes, and the report all but accused the administrator of lying.

A case in point: Doan’s BlackBerry.

Doan has insisted that she didn’t remember the details of the meeting and that she didn’t believe it was inappropriate. She said she didn’t pay much attention during the briefing ... which included slides on vulnerable Democrats ... because she was using her BlackBerry. The special counsel sought to corroborate the BlackBerry distractions, yet when investigators reviewed Doan’s personal and government e-mail messages during the post-lunch meeting, there was no evidence that Doan would have been particularly distracted.

"The documentation establishes that Ms. Doan received nine e-mail messages to her private e-mail account on Jan. 26, 2007, with the latest one received at 1:08 p.m.," the report states. The meeting took place from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. "The documentation Ms. Doan provided concerning her private e-mail account did not establish that she sent, read, composed, deleted or moved any messages during the January meeting."

Doan’s response so far focused on the report being made public, not on the alleged Hatch Act violations. On May 24 Doan’s personal attorney, Michael Nardotti, sent a testy letter to Scott Bloch, the special counsel, asking for the report to be withdrawn because it was made public.

Nardotti expressed "utter outrage that the confidentiality of the report" made its way into the public sphere.

Doan has until June 1 to file her official response. We can only assume that Gonzales will not be reviewing that response.

Andy Card Booed at University of Massachusetts

Raw Story

Hundreds boo former Bush chief of staff at University of Massachusetts commencement ceremony Adam Doster
Published: Saturday May 26, 2007

Andrew Card, President George W. Bush's former Chief of Staff, was showered with a chorus of boos and catcalls from students and faculty of the University of Massachusetts while receiving an honorary degree Friday. Protesters, who caught the embarrassing scene on video, attached anti-Card signs to their robes and drowned out Provost Charlena Seymour's remarks about Card's "public service." Even faculty sitting on stage joined in on the action, screaming

Lincoln's Warning to "We The People".

LINCOLNS WARNING

Monarchy is sometimes hinted at as a possible refuge from the power of the people. In my present position I would be scarcely justified were I to omit exercising a warning voive against returning despotism.

There is one point to which I ask attention: it is the effort to place capitol on an equal footing with, if not above labor in the structure of our government. I bid the laboring people to beware of surrendering a power that they allready possess, amd which surrendered will surely be used to close the door to advancement to such as they, and fix new disabilities and burdons upon them, till all of liberty be lost. Labor is prior to and independent of capitol. Capitol is only the fruit of labor and never could have existed had not labor previously existed. Labor is much the superior and deserves much the higher consideration.

Congress hands Duhbya the keys to war in Iran

VIDEO

The Jerusalem Post

President George W. Bush said Thursday he would work with allies to beef up sanctions on Iran after a new UN report showing that Tehran is accelerating its uranium enrichment program in defiance of international demands.

"We need to strengthen our sanctions regime," Bush said in a Rose Garden news conference. Leaders of Iran "continue to be defiant as to the demands of the free world," he said.

The president said he had directed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to work with European partners to "develop further sanctions."

Bush's comments on Iran came against a backdrop of rising tensions. The UN's nuclear watchdog agency on Wednesday accused Iran of accelerating its uranium enrichment program in defiance of international demands. The US has moved two aircraft carriers and seven other ships into the Persian Gulf in a show of force. And Iran has been increasing its detention of American citizens.

"The world has spoken and has said no nuclear weapons programs. Yet they're constantly ignoring the demands," Bush said.

The rhetoric on Iran increased ahead of a meeting in Baghdad on Monday between US and Iranian diplomats - one of the few such meetings since formal relations were frozen in 1980 - to deal with stabilizing Iraq.

Bush also hailed the recently negotiated compromise with the Democratic-run Congress that will pay for the war in Iraq through September without strings attached. The bill, being voted on in both the House and Senate on Thursday, "reflects a consensus that the Iraqi government needs to show real progress in return for America's continued support and sacrifice," Bush said.

He noted that the legislation contained various goals for Iraqi progress and said "meeting these benchmarks will be difficult; it's going to be hard for this young government."

Bush said the measure would help to put pressure on the Iraqi government to perform better.

The legislation would help to pay for the president's recent troop buildup designed to secure Baghdad and other volatile areas. "This summer is going to be a critical time for the new strategy," Bush said. He said the last five brigades - about 15,000 troops - of his buildup are scheduled to arrive in Baghdad next month.

"We are going to expect heavy fighting in the next weeks and months and we can expect American and Iraqi casualties," Bush said. "We will stay on the offense," he added, repeating a favorite refrain: "It's better to fight them there than to fight them here."

U.S. navy begins war games on Iran's doorstep

Alertnet

By Mohammed Abbas
MANAMA, May 24 (Reuters)

- The U.S. navy began war games on Iran's doorstep on Thursday, navy officials said, a day after a large flotilla of U.S. ships entered the Gulf in a dramatic daytime show of military muscle.

The group includes two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, whose presence adds to the pressure on the Islamic Republic to abandon its own nuclear ambitions, which the West says are an attempt to develop atomic weapons.


From U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. 5th Fleet Public Affairs Office

GULF OF OMAN (May 22, 2007) - Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis (CVN 74), nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 69), and amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6) transit the Gulf of Oman. These ships along with USS Antietam (CG 54), USS Preble (DDG 88), USS O'Kane (DDG 77), USS Higgins (DDG 76), USS Denver (LPD 9) and USS Russell (DDG 59) are part of three different strike groups: John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Group, Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, and Bonhomme Richard Expeditionary Strike Group. All three strike groups are deployed in support of maritime security operations. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jon Hyde

Keith Olbermann Special Comment 5/23/07

ONCE AGAIN THE PRESIDENT HAS A PROBLEM NAMED *MONICA*

Depleted Uranium Iraqi Health Crisis

When a depleted uranium warhead is used it turns to fine dust that becomes airborne or goes into the water table. This is affecting the health of Iraqi's and our troops. Some studies have been done in England and it has been detected in the air there, which is a couple of thousand miles away. If this gets into the upper atmosphere like the dust from China did in 1961, it will be spread worldwide, or allready has. I remember here in Oregon that for a long time after the dust storms in China that I had a muddy windshield every morning.

Warning: Graphic content in the following artical

DEPLETED URANIUM

Rampant Hatch Act Violations by Chicken Hawks

Yes, the Bush Administration violated the Hatch Act numerous times. When will they face a Special Prosecutor to be held accountable?

White House officials conducted 20 private briefings on Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election for senior officials in at least 15 government agencies covered by federal restrictions on partisan political activity, a White House spokesman and other administration officials said yesterday.
The previously undisclosed briefings were part of what now appears to be a regular effort in which the White House sent senior political officials to brief top appointees in government agencies on which seats Republican candidates might win or lose, and how the election outcomes could affect the success of administration policies, the officials said.

The story that should bring down the republican party

DAILY KOS

by clammyc
Tue May 22, 2007 at 12:23:03 PM PDT

But only if it gets told, gets told loudly, clearly, simply and repetitively. It is still unfolding, even though it has been happening for years. It is pervasive, deep, goes against the very first and most basic premise of democracy and is a concerted effort by many individuals and organizations throughout the republican party, its affiliated "associations" as well as many levels of government whose primary purpose is to ensure that this most basic premise of democracy is not subverted.

The story, of course, is election fraud. Gaming the electoral system from the inside. To unfairly favor republicans. Favors and promotions for those who go along. Demotions, firings and blacklisting of those who don’t. Nonexistent charges of voter fraud and threats or coercion for these charges to be investigated. Illegal redistricting. Petty lawsuits against the Voting Rights Act. Voter ID laws that border on illegal, if not overtly illegal. Conflict of interest between party "reelection officials" and Secretary(ies) of State. Get accustomed to hearing about it, prepare yourself to say it. And not just things that can be dismissed such as exit poll discrepancies or hackable voting machines. The real deal. The whole enchilada.

Buzzflash

Greg Palast, Author of Armed Madhouse, on How Rove May Have Already Stolen the 2008 Election

Submitted by BuzzFlash on Thu, 05/17/2007

BuzzFlash: You’re having incredible success with the new expanded paperback edition of Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans -- Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild. Of course, the electronic voting machines and how they function is a very significant issue, but your specialty has really been how the Bush/Rove GOP political machine keeps persons who are likely to vote Democratic or Independent from voting.

Greg Palast: Yes. People ask me: Are they going to steal the 2008 election? No, they’ve already stolen the 2008 election. We still have a chance of swiping it back, but the reason I’ve expanded and put out the new edition of Armed Madhouse is to tell you how they will steal in 2008, and what to do about it. That’s one of the main new things. Plus a special chapter on New Orleans and my bust down there.

Of course, I was very flattered that the first review of the new edition of Armed Madhouse was written by Karl Rove and the Rove-bots -- it was subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee -- I can’t make this up. On February 7th, the Rove team, which had been writing several e-mails screaming about Armed Madhouse and "that British reporter," Greg Palast, were gloating that no U.S. media had picked up my stories. And they had a .pdf file attached. Of course, the reason my book was subpoenaed is that it has to do with the US prosecutor firings. The prosecutor firings were 100% about influencing elections -- not about loyalty to Bush, which is what The New York Times wrote. The administration team couldn’t tolerate appointees who wouldn’t go along with crime. In the book I present the evidence that Karl Rove directed a guy named Tim Griffin to target suppressing the votes of African American students, homeless men, and soldiers. Nice guy. They actually challenged the votes and successfully removed tens of thousands of legal voters from the voter rolls, same as they did in 2000. But instead of calling them felons, they said that they had suspect addresses.

James Comey testifies before Senate Judiciary

JFK Speech on Secret Societies and Freedom of the Press

Draft Al Gore Campaign (Sign the petition)

It's time to impeach Alberto Gonzales

Arbusto' stands up for Alberto'

Bush: Gonzales 'has done nothing wrong'

VIDEO

Are Saudis setting up a monopoly by Buying GE Plastics?

Forbes

Saudis Buying GE Plastics
Parmy Olson
May 18 2007

General Electric

LONDON - General Electric is set to sell its plastics division to Saudi Basic Industries, Saudi Arabia's largest industrial firm, an official source told Forbes.com on Friday. GE Plastics had originally been expected to sell for around $10 billion, but reports say the unit could fetch as much as $11 billion. A source close to the situation would not confirm the transaction's value but said the deal would be announced Monday.

SABIC is one of the world's largest makers of polyethylene and polypropylene, materials that are heavily used in consumer products like plastic grocery bags, packaging and bottles. Its first-quarter profits jumped 50% to $1.7 billion, and it saw revenues of $23 billion last year.

The company is 70% owned by the Saudi government and 30% owned by private investors in the Middle East. One cost advantage it has over competitors like Shell Chemicals, Exxon Mobil Chemical and Basell Holdings is the relative ease with which it can get access to cheap and abundant supplies of oil and natural gas in the region.

Its close proximity to fast-growing China and India, where demand for industrial materials is booming, also gives it the upper hand on transport costs.

SABIC in acquiring GE Plastics is apparently setting the stage for more ties to China and India, and is investing in petro chemical and plastics industries there. This will set China up for the increasing use of plastics in automobile manufacture etc., while giving Saudi Arabia a means of using their main resource (oil) for manufacturing their own raw plastics.

This looks like a win win situation for Saudi Arabia and China, but not so good for the US. We will be paying more for oil and plastics both, while trying to put more energy effecient automobiles and trucks on the market. They have allready been invented many years ago, and our Corporate Government will be forced to put them on the market, but if we don't get on track, we'll be buying them from Japan and China.

Sabic plans $1bn China petrochem investment

19th May 2007

BEIJING: Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic), the world's largest petrochemical firm by market value, may invest just over $1 billion in a petrochemical plant in China, a senior industry source said yesterday.

The deal, likely to be finalised in days, will mark a breakthrough for international companies seeking a foothold in China's fast expanding petrochemical market as it comes at a time when Beijing appeared to be shifting to self-reliance in building the booming sector.

Under the pact Sabic would join its Chinese partner, state-run Sinopec Corporation in building a one million tonne a year naphtha cracker to produce ethylene, a key building block for petrochemicals, in the northern city of Tianjin, the source said.

Sabic would also own a 50 per cent stake in two production lines of polyethylene - raw material for plastics - and one mono ethylene glycol facility, an intermediate for chemical fibre, with total investment worth some $500 million, the source said.

From fuel tanks to wire harness and from instrument panels to exciting new molded windshields, virtually every current and developmental plastic component
for vehicles will be represented by technologies at
NPE 2006: The International Plastics Showcase.

Wolfowitz erodes credibility of World Bank and Bush administration

Wall Street Journal

"snip"

'Crisis in Leadership'

The report voices specific concern that the "crisis in leadership" may "have a highly negative impact" on a key bank project: raising billions of dollars from rich countries to replenish the International Development Association, the part of the bank that lends to the world's poorest countries.

Both the Bush administration and the bank, then, stand to emerge tarnished from the whole affair. For the White House, the forced departure of Mr. Wolfowitz, a former deputy defense secretary and close ally of Vice President Dick Cheney would come as a further setback at a time when the administration is bleeding top personnel and is widely criticized abroad for launching the Iraq war.

Administration officials now say Mr. Wolfowitz, and the White House itself, may have erred in pursuing a highly legalistic defense instead of a quieter political campaign to restore his reputation. Mr. Wolfowitz hired top-flight Washington defense lawyer Robert Bennett after the controversy began to swell last month, then showered the board with legal briefs complete with exhibits and appendixes.

The dust-up has also shined a light on the World Bank's internal flaws, as senior staffers routinely leaked confidential documents and scrambled to justify management shortcomings in the institution's handling of the compensation package for Mr. Wolfowitz's girlfriend, Shaha Riza.

The talks begun yesterday reflect rapidly eroding support for Mr. Wolfowitz, who as late as Tuesday night had appealed to the board to let him stay on. A crucial change in the landscape came when Bush administration officials on Tuesday decided to abandon their heretofore stalwart defense of Mr. Wolfowitz. That move came after European finance officials openly scoffed at U.S. suggestions, during a Treasury-led conference call about an unrelated matter, that there was still room for Mr. Wolfowitz to restore his standing within the bank and keep his job.

Gonzales' Deputy AG Nails him with Testimony

Breaking News: Slight Delay on Wolfowitz dismissal

US set to yield on Wolfowitz

Financial Times

By Krishna Guha in Washington

Updated: 5 minutes ago
The board of the World Bank on Wednesday delayed deliberations on the fate of Paul Wolf­owitz for several hours at the request of the US amid mounting indications that a divided Bush administration was close to conceding that the bank president would have to stand down.

US set to yield on Wolfowitz
Financial Times

Alberto Gonzales browbeats the critically ill.

Courtesy of Teak

Ashcroft went into the ICU at George Washington Hospital with acute pancreatitis, and Comey became acting attorney general. We knew the bare outlines of this story already. But oh my goodness, it's a whomping good yarn when it comes from the guy in the armchair next to the hospital bed.

Says Comey today: "Over that week I communicated that as acting attorney general that I would not certify [the program's] legality. The next day, on Wednesday, March 10, 2004, I was headed home. My security detail was driving me." Comey got a call from Ashcroft's chief of staff, who said that although Mrs. Ashcroft had "banned all visitors" from her husband's room in the ICU, where he was in his sixth day, a call had just come to his hospital room indicating that Gonzales, then White House counsel, and Andy Card, then Bush's chief of staff, were on their way. (Comey seemed to recall that the call to Ashcroft came from the president; he says it certainly came from the White House.)


Pulling the Plug

By Dahlia Lithwick
Posted Tuesday, May 15, 2007, at 6:28 PM ET

James Comey

It's hard to take any pleasure from the depiction of government officials in critical condition being manipulated in their hospital beds by soulless White House flunkies. But Senate Democrats are all smiles as former Deputy Attorney General James Comey goes before the Senate judiciary committee this morning. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., can barely stop grinning long enough to ask his next question. Because Alberto Gonzales truly is the gift that keeps on giving. Only a handful of reporters are on hand, at what should have been a rerun of Comey's devastating House testimony two weeks ago. But we are treated to Grey's Anatomy meets The West Wing.

And maybe that's why the Democrats finally have reason to grin. They have failed so far to take down Attorney General Alberto Gonzales with tales of the man's hackery, sycophancy, and boundless apathy. But now we're being treated to a graphic retelling of the AG's efforts to browbeat a critically ill man into signing off on the National Security Agency's illegal surveillance program.

Bush's new War Czar confirms "The Long War"

Pentagon general to be 'war czar'

By BEN FELLER, Associated Press Writer
18 minutes ago

In the newly created position, Lute would serve as an assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser, and would also maintain his military status and rank as a three-star general, according to a Pentagon official.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Bush had not yet made an announcement.

Creation of the new job comes as the administration tries to use a combat troop buildup in Iraq to bring a degree of calm so political reconciliation can take hold.

The White House has sought a war coordinator to eliminate conflicts among the Pentagon, the

Major General Douglas Lute: "The long war amounts to an offensive from the Horn of Africa to the borders of Afghanistan".

I would like to add that this can only happen if approved by congress, and as far as I'm concerned this is once again confirmation of the incompetency of the Bush administration and their overbearing policies that have so far over-ridden the intelligence and the military in the handling of this war. There are more ex generals and ex CIA men than you can shake a stick at, and most of them are calling for an end to this terrible occupation of a country that was defeated in the first month of war.

Pentagon plans for 'long war' on terror


By Peter Spiegel
Published: August 25 2005 03:00

The obstinacy of the Iraqi insurgency and the sudden surge in violence in Afghanistan may make it appear that the US military in the region is spending all of its time fighting a war on two fronts.

But senior officers within US Central Command, the Pentagon body responsible for the Middle East and surrounding regions, have already begun planning for what one top commander terms "the long war": the battle that will come once Iraq and Afghanistan are finally pacified.

According to Major General Douglas Lute, who as director of operations for Centcom is responsible for near-term planning, the long war amounts to an offensive from the Horn of Africa to the borders of Afghanistan to ensure that al-Qaeda and its affiliated terror organisations do not find a safe haven once they are forced out of their current bases.

To Maj Gen Lute and his Centcom counterparts, the Iraqi insurgency - which he argues is 90 per cent home-grown - may prove a short-term challenge, but the growing threat from a loosely affiliated network of extremists runs the risk of causing more damage in the region, indeed worldwide.

"The broader fight for Central Command, while we deal with both those insurgencies, is against the extremist network," he said. "This is the cellular, franchised, network-like structure where al-Qaeda holds the ideological standard - bin Laden, al-Zawahiri are still the standard-bearers for the ideology - but increasingly, we've seen beneath the umbrella of that ideology a loose, not-at-all hierarchical network of franchises, if you will, crop up that we believe constitute a regional and even global threat. "We call that the long war."

On the most basic level, Maj Gen Lute said, that offensive was likely to include tracking Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who has emerged as a leader of the Iraqi insurgency, once the war in Iraq is over. To Centcom, Mr Zarqawi is not in Iraq to die for the cause, but rather to build on his network and take the fight to the entire region.

"We're concerned in our area of operations about what happens to Zarqawi when Iraq is stabilised, which we believe it eventually will be, and the path of least resistance takes Zarqawi somewhere else," Maj Gen Lute said. "It is clear that even a network as I've described, which is not fundamentally state-based or state-sponsored, still requires some sort of physical sanctuary where they can organise themselves, train themselves, marshal forces, marshal assets, and then proceed from there."

An Appeal to American People Against the War in Iraq

Dr Nasir Khan

The former prime minister of Malaysia Dr Mahathir Mohamad appeals to the Americans to stop killing the people of Iraq. Right from the start this was a blatant war of aggression and a major crime against humanity. However, a growing number of Americans oppose Bush's policy of war to gaining 'victory' in Iraq. But are they in a position to influence him to change his disastrous course? I believe, people have the power to influence the Bush Administration. The great American people have to rise to the occasion to stop this barbarous and cowardly war of Bush.


Iraq, An Appeal to the American People

It is time we renounce killing masses of people in order to solve international disputes

by Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad

Global Research, May 10, 2007


The war in Iraq is getting worse. More and more American soldiers are being killed. Of course Iraqis are being killed in greater numbers.

This war was started by President Bush and supported by Prime Minister Tony Blair. They had lied in order to invade Iraq.

What has this war gained for America and Britain? Nothing except the unnecessary deaths of American soldiers, destruction of Iraq and higher oil prices. There is no democracy in Iraq, for which American soldiers were supposed to die.

Invading a country today does not end in conquest and subjugation of the people. The occupying forces would be continuously attacked by guerrillas and terrorists.

War is no longer an option for even the most powerful countries in the settlement of international disputes.

Killing people to achieve a national objective is primitive and barbaric.

Modern wars kill and destroy more.

The majority of those killed are non-combatants; old people, sick people, children and babies.

War makes a mockery of our claims to be civilised, to care for human life, human rights etc.

War reduces us to being brutish animals.

It is time we renounce killing masses of people in order to solve international disputes. It is time we renounce WAR! Defensive war would not be necessary in the absence of wars of aggression. Trillions of dollars would be saved as nations scale down their war machines.

I appeal to the American people to reject candidates in the Presidential primaries and election who do not reject killing people, who do not reject war as a policy option for the United States of America.

Elect only candidates who categorically declare they reject war and killing people.

If the United States does this, then candidates in elections in other countries will have to reject war.

Americans – you have a duty to yourselves – you have a duty to humanity at large.

Please do not fail in this moral duty.

Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad

Chairman,

Perdana Global Peace Organisation

Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad is the former Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Posted by Dr Nasir Khan at 2:48 PM

Why is Bush supporting a Dictatorship in Pakistan?

Pro-Democracy rumblings in Pakistan: Should Musharraf - and Bush - be worried

Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani army general who stole his country's government in a 1999 coup, and has ruled dictatorially since then as its "president general," has been no friend of democracy.

Still, that hasn't stopped "democracy"-exporting Team Bush from showering Musharraf's regime with billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars for its unspecified role in the so-called war on terror. (To date, no one in Washington has indicated just what Americans may have gotten for their investment.)


Mian Khursheed/Reuters

Suspended Pakistani High Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry greeted lawyers who support him as he set off from Islamabad for Lahore this past weekend
Now, Musharraf is wrestling with the kind of annoying problem that tends to emerge whenever abusers of democratic institutions and the rule of law act on their drunk-with-power whims. Several weeks ago, the "president general" fired Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the chief justice of Pakistan's High Court. His reason for the sacking: As the BBC reports, "It has been alleged that...Chaudhry illegally used his position in an attempt to procure a top police job for his son." Still, Chaudhry, "who became chief justice in 2005, has earned a reputation for challenging human-rights abuses and government wrongdoing," and is considered a popular public official.



Witness for Pakistan's suspended judge shot dead


Pakistan's suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry (L) comforts Shadana Raza (C), the widow of Syed Hammad Raza, at her residence in Islamabad May 14, 2007. Gunmen shot dead Raza, regarded as a key witness by the legal team representing Chaudhry in his fight against a move by President Pervez Musharraf to sack him. REUTERS/Mian Khursheed


Witness for Pakistan's suspended judge shot dead

ISLAMABAD (Reuters)
Mon May 14, 2007 5:47 PM IST

Gunmen shot dead on Monday a Supreme Court official, regarded as a key witness by the legal team representing Pakistan's suspended chief justice in his fight against a move by President Pervez Musharraf to sack him.

Syed Hammad Raza, an additional registrar of the Supreme Court, was shot at point-blank range by two or three gunmen just before dawn at his home in the capital, Islamabad, police and relatives said.

"He was an important person in our case," Munir Ahmed Malik, a lawyer on suspended Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry's legal team, told Reuters.

Chaudhry has been at the centre of a judicial and political crisis since President Pervez Musharraf moved to sack him two months ago over undisclosed allegations of misconduct.


Pakistan's worst political street violence in two decades



Pakistani policemen stand next to closed shops during a strike in Lahore May 14, 2007. A Pakistani opposition strike virtually shut down Karachi and other major cities on Monday after nearly 40 people were killed and about 150 wounded in Pakistan's worst political street violence in two decades. REUTERS/Mohsin Raza



Pakistani cities virtually shut down by strike

By Kamran Haider
Mon May 14, 2007 8:56 PM IST
KARACHI (Reuters)

A Pakistani opposition strike virtually shut down Karachi and other major cities on Monday after nearly 40 people were killed and about 150 wounded in Pakistan's worst political street violence in two decades.

A Star dies in Brightest Supernova

Well...we can thank our lucky stars that our Sun is a small star and that this super nova was in another galaxy 240 million light years away, and in reality happened 240 million years ago. It has taken that long for the light to travel here to reveal what actually happened in cosmic history. It's like any other news...we don't really know exactly what happened, and while we are reading it we are missing what's happening in the here and now...Heehehehe


~VIDEO~

MSNBC

Scientists identify brightest supernova


WASHINGTON - Scientists say they have detected the brightest stellar explosion ever recorded, a new breed of supernova that may well be repeated sooner than they previously thought.

The violent explosion was observed by ground-based telescopes as well as NASA's orbiting Chandra X-Ray Observatory in a galaxy far from our own Milky Way. But the observations hint that an erupting star in our own galaxy, called Eta Carinae, could be close to the same kind of blast, astronomers say in a paper to be published in The Astrophysical Journal.

For years, scientists have been looking for a blast this big, but never found one until last September. After months of analysis, the research team discussed their findings at a news conference Monday here at NASA Headquarters.

GENERAL JOHN BATISTE *DUTY, HONOR, DISSENT*

Dear Mr. President

Democrats urge Bush to end World Bank crisis

The White House continues to stand by World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz, despite a panel's findings that he broke rules by promoting his girlfriend

Reuters
Last updated at 12:25pm on 10th May 2007

Senior U.S. Democrats urged President George W. Bush to step in to end the "historic crisis" over Paul Wolfowitz's World Bank leadership as pressure mounted for him to resign to avoid a possible divisive vote.

The World Bank's 24-nation board of member countries is set to meet on Friday to decide Wolfowitz's fate over a controversial pay and promotion deal that he approved in 2005 for his companion, bank Middle East expert Shaha Riza.

The board is divided. European countries are pushing for Wolfowitz to step down and the United States is shoring up support for him among a clutch of allies like Canada and a few Asian and African countries.

In a letter to Bush, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Democratic Sens. Patty Murray, Richard Durbin and Charles Schumer warned that the crisis was damaging the institution and undermining U.S. interests, especially its traditional role in choosing the bank's president.

"We urge you to take decisive action quickly to bring this crisis to a close," they told Bush, echoing concerns expressed by other prominent Democrats, including presidential candidates Bill Richardson and John Edwards.

This is about a lot more than Shaha Riza

Huffington Post
Jan 20, 2006

Paul Wolfowitz Busy Neo-Conning the World Bank: Staff Rebellion Brewing

According to one senior insider who feels as if Wolfowitz is gut-punching the most talented teams at the bank and indicated that morale is plummeting, "Wolfowitz just does not talk to his Vice Presidents. He speaks to a few close advisors -- Kevin Kellems, Robin Cleveland, Karl Jackson, some others -- but a lot of very good people are leaving

Olbermann: Coverage of GOP Reps Begging Bush for Honesty

More White House e-mail missing

CNN Video

The Amazing Erase


CREW Chief on Fitzgerald and the Missing Emails

By Matt Renner and Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t Report

Wednesday 18 April 2007

A couple of weeks before I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, was indicted on perjury and obstruction of justice charges, then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers was told that an internal White House probe determined that millions of administration emails dating back to 2003 were lost.

Miers immediately informed Patrick Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor appointed to investigate whether administration officials knowingly leaked the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson, about the administration's lost emails, a government watchdog group has claimed, but Miers may not have told Fitzgerald the extent of the White House's email problem.

During a wide-ranging interview with Truthout on Monday, Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), and CREW's Chief Counsel Anne Weismann said they believe Miers did not fully inform Fitzgerald about the millions of emails the White House lost between 2003 and 2005. As a result, the CREW attorneys said it's likely that Fitzgerald did not obtain all of the evidence related to the leak investigation - particularly emails sent during that time period by Karl Rove that may further implicate the White House political adviser in the Plame Wilson leak.

The latest revelation by CREW provides new insight into how Fitzgerald first became aware that some emails related to the leak investigation were not turned over to FBI investigators in the fall of 2003, which the special prosecutor disclosed in a court filing in January 2006.

"We assume this is what [Fitzgerald] was referring to [in his court filing], but we do not know how deep the briefing given to him by Miers was," Sloan said.

In a story first reported by Truthout last year, Fitzgerald revealed that his investigative team "learned that not all email of the Office of the Vice President and the Executive Office of the President for certain time periods in 2003 was preserved through the normal archiving process on the White House computer system," according to the January 2006 court filing. Less than two weeks after Fitzgerald revealed that emails from the White House were missing, 250 pages of emails from President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney's offices were turned over to investigators working for the special prosecutor - more than two years after the investigation had begun.

The White House offered no official explanation concerning the circumstances regarding the sudden reappearance of the emails it turned over to Fitzgerald on February 6, 2006. At the time, a White House spokeswoman would only say that staffers "discovered" the batch of documents during a search.

In October of 2005, the White House Office of Administration discovered that White House emails had not been archived in accordance with the Presidential Records Act, according to Sloan. The Office of Administration briefed Miers about the lost emails and Miers is said to have immediately informed Fitzgerald's staff about the issue due to the fact that Fitzgerald had subpoenaed White House emails sent in 2003. However, according to Sloan, Fitzgerald's staff was briefed before a complete audit of the email records could be taken.

The Office of Administration audit concluded that more than five million emails had been lost. Sloan, who said her organization had obtained information about the extent of the emails the White House lost from two sources - one a former Bush administration official - believes this "suggests that Fitzgerald might not have gotten the complete story."

Media largely ignored Fitzgerald revelation that White House may have destroyed emails


Thu, Feb 2, 2006 5:34pm EST

A February 1 New York Daily News article by staff writer James Gordon Meek reported that in a recent letter to defense attorneys for former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the lead prosecutor in the CIA leak case, wrote that numerous White House emails from 2003 are missing from White House computer archives. A Media Matters for America survey of coverage following the publication of Meek's article found that major news outlets have -- with only a few exceptions -- ignored this story.

VOTEVETS.ORG~Veterans for ending war

PBS had a good interview last night with Jon Soltz of votevets.org vs Melanie Morgan of moveamericaforward, a right wing organisation to promote the Bush agenda. Jon did a good job of countering this agressive viper, who looks to me like she would be a candidate for combat on the front lines. The actual interview is about 1/3 of the way into the video.

PBS VIDEO

Queen Elizabeth plants some trees in DC

The Governor General looks on as Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II participates in the ceremonial tree planting at Rideau Hall.

Photo Information
Date: October 14, 2002
Queen Elizabeth II is well known for planting trees in her country and has managed to plant a tree in a garden outside the NASA flight center commemorating her visit. She also planted a tree at the British embassy before leaving for London Tuesday.
I wonder if she really felt comfortable with Duhba and his Healthy Forest's Iniative, which enabled the logging of unprecedented amounts of forest including old growth that was formerly protected by environmental laws. Or if that isn't enough, if she remembers Ronny Raygun's famous statements about saving the trees.

Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, in 1979
"If you've seen one redwood, you've seen them all."

"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do."
1981
"A tree is a tree. How many more do you have to look at?".

Condi Rice was on Chevron board during oil scandal

Condoleezza Rice was a Chevron Director from 1991 until January 15, 2001 when she was transferred by President George Bush Jr. to National Security Adviser. Previously she was Senior Director, Soviet Affairs, National Security Council, and Special Assistant to President George Bush Sr. from 1989 to 1991.

Chevron Seen Settling Case on Iraq Oil

By CLAUDIO GATTI and JAD MOUAWAD
Published: May 8, 2007

Chevron, the second-largest American oil company, is preparing to acknowledge that it should have known kickbacks were being paid to Saddam Hussein on oil it bought from Iraq as part of a defunct United Nations program, according to investigators.

The admission is part of a settlement being negotiated with United States prosecutors and includes fines totaling $25 million to $30 million, according to the investigators, who declined to be identified because the settlement was not yet public.

According to the Volcker report, surcharges on Iraqi oil exports were introduced in August 2000 by the Iraqi state oil company, the State Oil Marketing Organization. At the time, Condoleezza Rice, now secretary of state, was a member of Chevron’s board and led its public policy committee, which oversaw areas of potential political concerns for the company.

Ms. Rice resigned from Chevron’s board on Jan. 16, 2001, after being named national security advisor by President Bush.

Duhba impresses the Queen

Commander guy? Good Lord! No wonder the world is in such a pickle.

The U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps marches across the South Lawn during the Arrival Ceremony for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and His Royal Highness The Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh Monday, May 7, 2007, on the South Lawn. White House photo by Lynden Steele

Yep...Here we go with the real reasons behind the visit. Scripted speeches for both Duhbya and Queen Elizabeth. There is a whole lot in both speeches about the Anglo-American Alliance, and the ties that bind between Great Briton and the United States. This is clearly a photo-op to boost both the US and Great Briton in their position on the Middle East and to gain favor for both governments who are losing the support of the people.

Whitehouse Video"

Queens visit and the Anglo-American Special Relationship

Queen Elizabeths visit to the US is not just about celebrating the 400th anniversery of the founding of the Jamestown settlement in Virginia. It is mostly about what is called the Anglo-American Special Relationship, a continuation of what was called the Anglo-American Alliance in WW2. The state visit carries huge symbolic significance as a powerful declaration of the ties that bind the United States and Great Britain, which comprise the most enduring and successful alliance in modern history. The Queen has served selflessly on the world stage as a great ambassador for the British people for over half a century. Her visit to the United States is an important exercise in public diplomacy that will reinforce and strengthen this Relationship.

The Anglo-American War of Terror: An Overview

by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, December 21, 2005


Iran and Syria: Next Phase of the War

Confirmed in national security documents, a central objective of this war is the conquest and confiscation of Middle East oil wealth. In this regard, the broader Middle East – Central Asian region encompasses some 70 percent of the World’s oil and gas resources, more than thirty times those of the US.

The Anglo-American oil giants in alliance with Wall Street and the military-industrial complex are indelibly behind America’s war agenda.

The next phase of this war is Iran and Syria, which have already been identified as targets.

Iran is the country with the third largest oil and gas reserves (10%) after Saudi Arabia (25%) and Iraq (11%). The US is seeking with the complicity of the UN Security Council to establish a pretext for the bombing of Iran, which is presented as a threat to world peace.


Israel is slated to play a key role in launching the military operation against Iran.

This operation is in a state of readiness. Were it to occur, the war would extend to the entire Middle Eastern region and beyond. At the same token, Israel would become an official member of the Anglo-American military axis.

In early 2005, several high profile military exercises were conducted in the Eastern Mediterranean, involving military deployments and the testing of weapons systems. Military planning meetings were held between the US, Israel and Turkey. There has been a shuttle of military and government officials between Washington, Tel Aviv and Ankara.

Intense diplomatic exchanges have been carried out at the international level with a view to securing areas of military cooperation and/or support for a US-Israeli led military operation directed against Iran. The UN Security Council resolution regarding Iran’s nuclear program provides a pretext, which the US plans to use to justify military intervention.

Of significance is a November 2004 military cooperation agreement between NATO and Israel. A few months later, Israel was involved for the first time in military exercises with NATO, which also included several Arab countries.

A massive buildup in military hardware has occurred in preparation for a possible attack on Iran. Israel has taken delivery from the US of some 5,000 "smart air launched weapons" including some 500 BLU 109 'bunker-buster bombs.


Nuclear Weapons in Conventional War Theaters: "Safe for Civilians"

An attack on Iran using tactical nuclear weapons (mini-nukes) has also been contemplated. Tactical nuclear weapons with an explosive capacity between one third to 6 times a Hiroshima bomb have been cleared for use in conventional war theaters. .

The mini-nukes have been redefined as a defensive weapon, which is "safe for civilians" "because the explosion is underground". The Senate in a December 2003 decision, has authorized their use in conventional war theaters

Air strikes against Iran could contribute to extending the war to the broader Middle East Central Asian region. Tehran has confirmed that it would retaliate if attacked, in the form of ballistic missile strikes directed against Israel (CNN, 8 Feb 2005). These attacks could also target US military facilities in the Persian Gulf, which would immediately lead us into a scenario of military escalation and all out war.

In recent developments, Israel’s armed forces have been ordered by Prime minister Ariel Sharon, "to be ready by the end of March [2006] for possible strikes" on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities (The Sunday Times, 11 December 2005).

Meanwhile, Iran is building its air defense capabilities. Russia has recently announced that it plans to sell to Iran some 29 Tor M-1 anti-missile systems.

The planned attack on Iran should also be understood in relation to the timely withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, which has opened up a new space, for the deployment of Israeli forces. The participation of Turkey in the US-UK-Israeli military operation is also a factor, following an agreement reached between Ankara and Tel Aviv.


Global Military Agenda

The war in the Middle East is part of a carefully defined military agenda. Formulated in September 2000, a few months before the accession of George W. Bush to the White House, the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) published its blueprint for global domination under the title: "Rebuilding America's Defenses."

The PNAC is a neo-conservative think tank linked to the Defense-Intelligence establishment, the Republican Party and the powerful Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) which plays a behind-the-scenes role in the formulation of US foreign policy.


The PNAC's declared objectives are:

defend the American homeland;

fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars;

perform the "constabulary" duties associated with shaping the security environment in critical regions;

transform U.S. forces to exploit the "revolution in military affairs;"

Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who now heads the World Bank, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney, had commissioned the PNAC blueprint prior to the 2000 presidential elections.

The PNAC outlines a roadmap of conquest. It calls for "the direct imposition of U.S. "forward bases" throughout Central Asia and the Middle East "with a view to ensuring economic domination of the world, while strangling any potential "rival" or any viable alternative to America's vision of a 'free market' economy" (See Chris Floyd, Bush's Crusade for Empire, Global Outlook, No. 6, 2003)

Distinct from theater wars, the so-called "constabulary functions" imply a form of global military policing using various instruments of military intervention including punitive bombings, covert intelligence operations and the sending in of US Special Forces, etc.


~Windows Media Video~

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