Joining my cousins for a bath

Joining my cousins for a bath
happy or sad, at least the bath seems pleasant

THIS IS THEPOLITICAL BLOG OF MICHAEL ROLOFF

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Occasional comments on politics also see: http://www.artscritic.blogspot.com for occasional comments on all the arts, especially in Seattle; http://handke-discussion.blogspot.com/ and http://handke-trivia.blogspot.com/ and http://www.handke.scriptmania.com andhttp://www.handke.scriptmania.com/favorite_links_1.html and ten sub sites if you want to be excessively well informed about the Austrian author Peter Handke

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

michaelroloff - 12:57 PM ET March 22, 2006 (#2989 of 3013)

wednesday morning supplements..
All the news that's fit to slant

ROBERT FISK
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST

It is a bright winter morning and I am sipping my first coffee of the day in Los Angeles. My eye moves like a radar beam over the front page of the Los Angeles Times for the word that dominates the minds of all Middle East correspondents: Iraq. In post-invasion, post-Judith Miller mode, the U.S. press is supposed to be challenging the lies of this war. So the story beneath the headline "In a Battle of Wits, Iraq's Insurgency Mastermind Stays a Step Ahead of U.S." deserves to be read. Or does it?
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/263664_fisk21.html



===
Who Does The President Think He's Kidding?

Bush: "First -- just if I might correct a misperception, I don't think we ever said, at least I know I didn't say that there was a direct connection between September 11th and Saddam Hussein." Follow the link to see Keith Olbermann fact-check the president.
http://tompaine.com/#passiton

Josh Marshall About Bush: "Of course, that's not what happened. We were there. We remember. It wasn't a century ago. We got the resolution passed. Saddam called our bluff and allowed the inspectors in..



http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007956.php
===

Bush says Iraq pullout up to 'future presidents'

Warns leaving too soon would boost Al Qaeda

By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | March 22, 2006

WASHINGTON -- President Bush suggested yesterday that US troops might stay in Iraq beyond his presidency, which ends in 2009, saying at a press conference that the issue of removing troops from the country ''will be decided by future presidents and future governments of Iraq."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/03/22/bush_says_iraq_pullout_up_to_future_presidents/?p1=email_to_a_friend
============
Time to Exit Iraq, A Leading Paper Declares

Editorials criticizing our adventure in Iraq are a dime a dozen, but very few have called for a U.S. pullout. But on Sunday, one of the most respected papers, The Des Moines Register, called on the president to set a timetable for a phased American withdrawal.
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/pressingissues_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002200415

===

Washington's 2006 National Security Strategy Confirms a Policy Void

Drafted By: Dr. Michael A. Weinstein
http://www.pinr.com

With the release on March 16, 2006 of its National Security Strategy ( N.S.S.), Washington completed its overview of diplomatic, defense and security policy that included Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's reorganization of the State Department and U.S. aid programs, and the Defense Department's Quadrennial Defense Review ( Q.D.R.).
===

Iraqi Foreign Minister Gave Us Pre-war WMD Details
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0321-09.htm



Bush's world of illusion



Sidney Blumenthal
17 - 3 - 2006



On the eve of the third anniversary – 20 March 2003 – of the invasion of Iraq, President Bush began the fourth of his series of speeches in his second term attempting to articulate his strategy for the war. None of his previous explanations had succeeded in bolstering public confidence, so he tried again. His speech

on 13 March at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies was a reiteration of the theme he had elaborated in his last round.
Bush is rigidly adhering to the guidelines suggested by public opinion specialist Peter Feaver, a professor at Duke University recently hired to serve on the National Security Council.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy/illusion_3367.jsp


wednesday eve supplements..
Newspaper Guild objects to NYT editor's book writing policy
http://www.observer.com/20060327/20060327___media_offtherecord.asp
New York Observer Times executive editor Bill Keller says in a March 2 memo that editors should be told in advance of a book project even if the topic is off the reporter's beat. (The memo notes a recent "tidal surge in the yearning of Times staffers to put their wisdom between hard covers.") The Newspaper Guild has called a grievance meeting to object to Keller's account of the rules.



Saddam fury at WMD hunt; Tapes show bid to prove world wrong. Exasperated, besieged by global pressure, Saddam Hussein and top aides searched for ways in the 1990s to prove to the world they'd given up banned weapons. 3/23
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/401797p-340361c.html
===

Sidney Blumenthal: The love song of Francis +ukuyama; +ukuyama's effort to rescue the reputation of neoconservatism echoes the dissidents' attempts to distance communism from Stalin.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/sidney_blumenthal/
2006/03/
you'll have to search for this yourself since AUNTIE objects to the complete name of francis +ukuyama even when it is part of a htlm tag!!!
===
Garrison Keillor: Message to White House co-pilot: Eject now
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0603220023mar22,1,1051828.story


===
Rumsfeld’s Harvest: Argentina’s Navy Spy Scandal
One year after Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld’s visit to Buenos Aires, brutal memories have once again been awakened in Argentina

Rumsfeld’s ill-advised policy of rehabilitating Latin America’s armed forces begins to yield its bitter fruit

Rather than enforcing probation for its ghastly human rights atrocities from 1976 to 1983, the Pentagon puts Argentine military at the top of the hemispheric pecking order

Rare opportunity to tame an unregenerate military is frittered away



http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2006/06.20_Argentina_Spying_Rumsfeld.html

===

A Tomdispatch Interview with Chalmers Johnson (Part 2)
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=70576

==

THE NYT'S WOMAN PROBLEM Garance Franke-Ruta, The American Prospect. Is The New York Times still pro-choice? You wouldn't know it from reading the op-ed page. http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/33860/

===

Norman Solomon, AlterNet. On the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion, don't forget the media spin that helped make this war possible. http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/33661/
===

Bush Slipping and Spinning on Iraq and Wiretaps

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/capitalgames?bid=3&pid=70720
==
Despite the Bush administration's P.R. excesses, no groundwork is being laid for a fuel source transition to anything that might rescue us from "oil addiction" and climate disaster in the coming decades. Internationally-acclaimed scientist and author of The Weather Makers, Tim Flannery, explains the how and why in plain English.
==
Robert Scheer | Bush Bombs in Cleveland
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0322-30.htm
==

Despite the Bush administration's P.R. excesses, no groundwork is being laid for a fuel source transition to anything that might rescue us from "oil addiction" and climate disaster in the coming decades. Internationally-acclaimed scientist and author of The Weather Makers, Tim Flannery, explains the how and why in plain English.

http://www.oriononline.org/pages/oo/sidebars/front/index_Flannery.html



Benchmarks: US Iraq casualties stay high
By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst
WASHINGTON, March 22 (UPI) -- As Iraq teeters on -- or over -- the brink of civil war the pressure is not easing on the hard-pressed U.S. ground forces there.
Over the past month, the average rate at which U.S. troops have been killed in Iraq has significantly fallen, the but the rates at which they are being wounded have dramatically increased.

Ceres Releases First-Ever Ranking of 100 Global Companies on Climate Change Strategy



http://upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/view.php?StoryI [...]

http://www.greenbiz.com/


http://www.wbcsd.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?type=DocDet&ObjectId=MTg1NTM

Bush's Media Blame Game
by Norman Solomon, TomPaine.com
When the going gets bad, the White House attacks the messengers, just like their ideological forefathers under Nixon.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/23/bushs_media_blame_game.php

Although Judge Scullin was appointed to the FISA Court in 2004, his name had not previously appeared in news stories about the Court or in published lists of its current membership, such as this one (now updated): http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/court2005.html
Although Judge Scullin was appointed to the FISA Court in 2004, his name had not previously appeared in news stories about the Court or in published lists of its current membership, such as this one (now updated): http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/court2005.html



Secrecy News has been named "resource of the week" (thanks) by ResourceShelf.com, which provides a daily survey of news, documents and tools for information professionals. See: http://www.resourceshelf.com/2006/03/resource-of-week-secrecy-news.html

Will Your Job Survive?
by Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect
Nothing short of a radical reordering of our economy will stop 56 million jobs from being sent overseas.
http://www.tompaine.com



The website freedominfo.org, sponsored by the National Security Archive, has produced a splendid new catalog of freedom of information laws in some 60 countries around the world, with links to underlying statutes and related background information (flagged by BeSpacific.com). See: http://www.freedominfo.org/


Then, what you'd be likely to see -- what's really there, just hidden from our view (not to say our taste buds) -- is about four ounces of crude oil. Throw in those luscious red raspberries and that cup of java (another three ounces of crude), and don't forget those modest additions of butter, milk, and salt (another ounce), and you've got a tiny bit of the Middle East right here in my kitchen.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid [...]
///
The RNC Paid More Than a Million Dollars Defending a GOP Operative Convicted of Vote Tampering in New Hampshire. Now He is Directly Tied to Making 75 Calls to the Current Head of the RNC During His Phone-Tampering Days. Why Isn't This a Bigger Issue? (Scroll Down)
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?
articleId=1a0f8a86-a086-40a6-8963-65395f7767fc
///
What we’ve lost in Iraq
Zaid Salah
22 - 3 - 2006 The effect of three years of war and occupation can be measured in the dire condition of Iraq’s economy and its people’s daily lives, says Zaid Salah.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflict-iraq/lost_3377.jsp
///
The Narcosphere is buzzing with activity on Colombia. Sean Donahue
reports that a general believed to be a former paramilitary fighter
and to have maintained ties with right-wing death squads while rising
through the ranks and leading key military operations has been placed
in charge of the Colombian armed forces:...

"Uribe brought in Montoya, long a favorite of the U.S., to help
rehabilitate the military's image following a hazing scandal.
Montoya, however, has his own dark past - throughout a long career,
working to consolidate resource-rich areas, the general has
frequently been charged with working hand in hand with right-wing
paramilitaries. At the press conference announcing Montoya's
promotion, Uribe said 'In this moment of our Nation's history we need
triumphant commanders. We don't need commanders to justify defeats'
and called for 'a final victory' -- giving Montoya a clear go-ahead
to use any means necessary to crush resistance in Colombia."

Read the full story, here:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/3/22/11659/5815

michaelroloff - 1:09 PM ET March 24, 2006 (#3001 of 3013)

friday noon sups


In Charge, Except They're Not
By E. J. Dionne Jr.Friday, March 24, 2006; Page A19
Is President Bush the leader of our government, or is he just a right-wing talk-show host?
The question comes to mind after Bush's news conference this week in which he sounded like someone who has no control over the government he is in charge of. His words were those of a pundit inveighing against the evils of bureaucrats
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301133.html



Ganging Up On Feingold
by Russ Baker, TomPaine.com
Republican shamelessness betrays their fear of Feingold, while Democratic silence betrays their fear of taking a stand.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/24/ganging_up_on_feingold.php
===



Bush's FISA Defiance
by John W. Dean, FindLaw.com
Why Bush does not want Congress to retroactively approve his illegal wiretaps.
http://www.tompaine.com/

The record of a September 2005 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "ABLE DANGER and Intelligence Information Sharing" has recently been published. See: http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2005_hr/shrg109-311.html
===

The French Popular Front of 1936: Historical lessons in the "First Job Contract" struggle http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/fr36-m24.shtml
===

In light of recent developments in Bolivia, PINR encourages you to read:
"Bolivia's Evo Morales Shifts the Hemispheric Balance of Power"
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=417

------------------------------

Ukraine: Delicate Elections Will Have Deep International Significance
Drafted By: Dr. Federico Bordonaro
http://www.pinr.com
==

Of Course It's a Civil War
By Charles KrauthammerFriday, March 24, 2006; Page A19
Today's big debate over Iraq seems to be: Is there or is there not a civil war? Yes, say the defeatists, citing former prime minister Ayad Allawi, a man with an ax to grind against the current (elected) government, which excluded him.
No, not really, not yet, not quite, say U.S. officials and commanders, as well as Iraq's president, also hardly the most neutral of observers.
This debate appears to be important because the perception that there has been an outbreak of civil war following the Samarra bombing
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/23/AR2006032301157.html


Latest Impeachable Offense: When Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/arti [...]
2006/03/24/bush_shuns_patriot_act_requirement/
Milbank: Why did

Post.com editors settle for Domenech?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2006/03/17/DI2006 031701098.html
Embattled Bush still makes reporters seem small, powerless
http://nationaljournal.com/powers.htm
National Journal
William Powers writes: "Somehow, even when this president is riding low
with the public, he still has a way of making the journalists who cover
him seem small and powerless --

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/24/EDGU9GJG0B1.D TL on Bush and Helen Thomas.
==

Published on Friday, March 24, 2006 by the

Boston Globe
Bush Shuns Patriot Act Requirement



In addendum to law, he says oversight rules are not binding
by Charlie Savage

WASHINGTON - When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress about how the FBI was using the act's expanded police powers.



==

Che Rides Again (On a Mountain Bike)
Nick Miroff on How George Bush Unified a Continent

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=71996

===
Chad Heeter | My Saudi Arabian Breakfast
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0324-21.htm
===

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2563/Strangers to the Truth

By

Joel Bleifuss

Coming soon to a media market near you:

The GOP (Grand Old Prevaricators), who brought you the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth in 2004, have been test-marketing another TV ad campaign.

==

By John Simpson

BBC World Affairs Editor

Even at the time of Saddam's fall, people were wary of the future

The first thing that struck me about Baghdad when I saw it in April 2003, a few days after the fall of Saddam Hussein, was how poor it had become. I hadn't been allowed back there since 1991, after the first Gulf War.

The second thing I noticed was a real sense of foreboding, even among the people who greeted me effusively because they thought I was an American.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4825200.stm

===

THE FIX IS IN FOR BUSH
SENATE RACES TO MAKE THE ILLEGAL LEGAL

ACROSS the U.S. capital, lawmakers are scurrying from pillar to post in a frantic effort to put lipstick on a pig.

http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/14165442.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp

===

The immigration debate, resonating in political campaigns from Texas to Iowa, creates special problems for the Republican Party: It's the Slave Wage Republicans (Bush) Vs. the Racist Republicans (Tancredo)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0603250053mar25,1,3756193.story?coll=chi-news-hed

===

Bush's Requests for Iraqi Base Funding Make Some Wary of Extended Stay
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0324-06.htm

Mike Davis | Who Is Killing New Orleans?
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0324-34.htm

==
Rumors of Civil War
Iraq can be saved from civil war--if the United States keeps its nerve.
by Frederick W. Kagan & William Kristol
04/03/2006, Volume 011, Issue 27

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/012/011mozrq.asp


the front line to the unemployment line

March 26, 2006

BY

CHERYL L. REED Staff Reporter
Mark Wirth Jr., a 21-year-old from Orland Park, figures the skills he learned as a combat Marine are too valuable to waste waiting tables
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-vetjo [...]

===

Former DeLay Aide Enriched By Nonprofit

Bulk of Group's Funds Tied to Abramoff

By

R. Jeffrey Smith Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 26, 2006; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/25/AR2006032501166.html

==

http://satiricalpolitical.com/?p=60

====

ivo daalder, one of the few babblers at brookings worth reading...

A Revolution in Middle East Affairs?


http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/daalder/blog.htm

Two Theories of Ijtihad

Common Ground News Service, March 21, 2006

Muqtedar Khan, Nonresident Fellow, Saban Center for Middle East Policy, Foreign Policy Studies



http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/fellows/khan20060321.htm

===

michaelroloff - 10:33 PM ET March 27, 2006 (#3010 of 3013)

monday evening vitamins
Scott Ritter: Americans Share Blame for War
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0327-01.h [...]



====
Cynthia Tucker: War Hawks Show Callous Disregard for Working-Class Troops
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucas/20060326/cm_ucas/
warhawksshowcallousdisregardforworkingclasstroops
===
Many journos reflect the view that Iraq war has gone horribly wrong
(WP)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/26/AR2006032601233_pf.html

===
THE THOMAS BUTLER AFFAIR

Dr. Thomas C. Butler is one of the rather few people in the history
of humanity of whom it can be truly said that he helped to save
millions of lives. A specialist in the plague and other infectious
diseases, his research helped lead to the adoption of oral
hydration as a standard treatment for diarrhea in the Third World
and elsewhere.

But in post-9/11 America, Dr. Butler is also a convicted criminal.

Because he apparently committed certain violations of the laws
governing the transport of toxic agents used in his medical
research, he was investigated and prosecuted as if he were a
potential terrorist. In 2004, he was sentenced to a term of two
years in prison, which he recently completed.

The strange tale of Dr. Butler is explored this week in an
exhaustive seven-part series in the Cleveland Plain Dealer
beginning March 26. See "Plagued by Fear" reported by John Mangels
here:

http://www.cleveland.com/plague/

Some related material in support of Dr. Butler from the Federation
of American Scientists is available here:

http://www.fas.org/butler/index.html
===
Waging A Long Peace
by Elizabeth Spiro Clark, TomPaine.com
Bush's insidious new national security strategy gives Democrats an opportunity to define themselves.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/27/waging_a_long_peace.php
===
Beyond AIPAC
by Joseph Massad, Counterpunch
Giving undue credit to the powers of the Israel lobby lets the U.S. off the hook for its foreign policy choices.
http://www.tompaine.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Posting # 11 Tuesday, March 21

TO SEE PREVIOUS POSTS USE THE "SEARCH THIS BLOG" FUNCTION


jack shafer vrs. judith miller et al
http://www.slate.com/id/2138161/

Judith Miller's New Excuse
The former Times reporter tells Vanity Fair the "slanderous" bloggers destroyed her.
By Jack Shafer
Posted Thursday, March 16, 2006, at 8:11 PM ET ....



In December 2002, Jack Shafer penned the first of his 20 columns about "Miss Run Amok." In April 2003, he twice chided Miller for her "rococo—and somewhat creepy—sourcing" in her front-page scoop on an Iraqi chemical-weapons scientist. In May 2003, he tracked the evolution of Miller's WMD coverage: "By May 7 she was writing about MET Alpha's search not for WMD but for an ancient copy of the Talmud!" he wrote. By the end of May, with WMDs still failing to materialize, he called for a re-examination of Miller's reportage on the topic. In June, he defended Miller's brass-knuckled reporting tactics while remaining unimpressed with the quality of her journalism: "[I]f she caused soldiers to cave out of fear, she did us all a great service by exposing their weakness. When the greatest army in the history of the world can't stand up to one belligerent harpy of a reporter, freedom is in trouble." In July, he catalogued Judy's "melted" Times scoops, and in August he wondered if Saddam himself was the source feeding disinformation to an eager Judith Miller. In September came his whacking of Miller's uncritical reporting on then Undersecretary of State John Bolton's congressional testimony. In a February 2004 article pegged to Michael Massing's essay in the New York Review of Books, he asked that Miller's work be re-examined: "If a messenger persists in delivering inflated and deceptive information—information that benefits her government sources—doesn't she deserve a good public flogging?" In April, he defended a reporter's right to get the story wrong, occasionally, before launching into a discussion of the "elephant in the New York Times newsroom"—Judith Miller's WMD reporting, as it were. On May 17, 2004, after then Secretary of State Powell confessed that he and the CIA had been duped by faulty weapons intelligence, he marveled that, until Miller is brought to account, "we'll be occupying a bizarro world in which the secretary of state is more accountable than the New York Times." The next day, he demanded the surrender of Judy after Knight Ridder reporter Jonathan S. Landay discredited one of her main WMD sources. On May 25, 2004, as whispers confirmed that the Times was finally preparing an editor's note on the newspaper's WMD coverage, he found balm in the thought that the public would soon have closure in the Miller scandal. When the note appeared in the Times the next day, he dubbed it "more 'mini culpa' than mea culpa" before hoping that the newspaper's journalism would be more rigorous in the future. In October, he wrote that Miller, subpoenaed by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald in the Plame investigation, should thank him "for her instant make-over from journalistic pariah to First Amendment martyr." In September 2005, upon Miller's capitulation to Fitzgerald's demands, he chastised the Times' editorial page for its fixation on Miller's "plight." In October, Shafer again called on the Times to fully explain the Miller imbroglio. In December, he criticized the unorthodox reporting methods she used in one of her books where she covers Israeli authorities' interrogation of a suspect


michaelroloff - 2:06 PM ET March 18, 2006 (#2971 of 2983)

intelligence and surveillance matters
"This file contains document relevant to the Mukhabarat or Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS), it explains the structure of the IIS," according to the DNI synopsis of the document (record number CMPC-2003-006430). In fact, the document was written in 1997 by John Pike (then at FAS, now at GlobalSecurity.org), except for an added cover page which is handwritten in Arabic. The newly released documents may be found here: http://fmso.leavenworth.army.mil/products-docex.h [...]

See also "U.S. Reveals Once-Secret Files From Hussein Regime" by Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times, March 17: http://digbig.com/4gtdq

The interesting possibility that raw intelligence materials like these could be productively assessed by members of the public working together online was optimistically considered by former intelligence officer Michael Tanji. "A successful collaborative analysis of Iraqi documents has implications that go beyond just this problem set. Such an endeavor will not go unnoticed by the reform-minded in the intelligence community," he wrote. See "An Army of Analysts," by Michael Tanji, The Weekly Standard, March 14: http://digbig.com/4gtdr
Writing in the blog GroupIntel, Mr. Tanji also had a provocative response to the March 13 Secrecy News story on the new intelligence community document marking "RELIDO." See his "RELIDO: Why Bother?": http://blog.groupintel.com/2006/03/15/relido-why-bother/
BILL TO AUTHORIZE WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE INTRODUCED Senate Republicans led by Sen. Mike DeWine yesterday introduced a bill that would authorize warrantless intelligence surveillance for up to 45 days, after which it could be renewed upon review by the Attorney General. The bill would require notification to Congress of various aspects of the program. But significantly, it would impose no external constraints on domestic surveillance by the executive branch. The bill would also impose penalties of up to $1 million and/or 15 years in prison for unauthorized disclosure of classified information relating to such surveillance activity. Stung by criticism that this approach could be used to punish reporters who write about illegal government surveillance, the Senators declared that the proposed penalty, in an amendment to 18 U.S.C. 798, "does not apply to journalists." Thus, while the current 18 U.S.C. 798(a) apparently prohibits unauthorized disclosures of certain specific types of classified information by "any person", the new proposed section 798(b) would only apply to "any covered person," which means someone who has authorized possession of the classified information, but not a reporter or other recipient of the information. See "DeWine, Graham, Hagel and Snowe Introduce the Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006," news release, March 16: http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_cr/dewine031606.html On March 13 Sen. Russ Feingold introduced a resolution to censure President Bush for what he described as a violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. See: http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_cr/s031306.html



michaelroloff - 2:22 PM ET March 18, 2006 (#2972 of 2983)

saturday supplements


The Real Daily Horror Story in Iraq That Bush Wants to Cover Up with PR Diversions that the Mainstream Press Swallows Like Caviar: The Muslim pilgrims' road to the holy city of Karbala was a highway of bullets and bombs for Shiites on Friday. Drive-by shootings and roadside and bus bombs killed or wounded 19 people, ratcheting up the sectarian tensions gripping Iraq.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060318/ap_on_re_mi_e [...]--
===

News & Analysis ----------------------------------------- France: Political issues in the fight against the government's "First Job Contract" http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/leaf-m18.shtml France: Hundreds of youth arrested following anti-government protests http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/fran-m18.shtml
===

U.S. War Spending to Rise 44% to $9.8 Billion a Month, Report Says
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0317-01.htm

====

Amid mounting sectarian violence, political stalemate continues in Iraq
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/ira2-18m.shtml

===

Zaki Chehab | They Ask, We Ask: Was it Worse Under Saddam?
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0317-20.htm

Friday, March 17, 2006

summa post ten March 14-17/06

http://www.unitedforpeace.org/
===
What I Heard about Iraq
Eliot Weinberger
In 1992, a year after the first Gulf War, I heard Dick Cheney, then secretary of defense, say that the US had been wise not to invade Baghdad and get 'bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq'. I heard him say: 'The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is: not that damned many.'
In February 2001, I heard Colin Powell say that Saddam Hussein 'has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours.'
That same month, I heard that a CIA report stated: 'We do not have any direct evidence that Iraq has used the period since Desert Fox to reconstitute its weapons of mass destruction programmes.'
In July 2001, I heard Condoleezza Rice say: '

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v27/n03/wein01_.html
--
Global warming reaches 'tipping point' - report
Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:38 AM IST



The department still needs to approve a few polling place changes but otherwise gave its blessing to plans to hold elections for mayor, City Council and other posts on April 22. Department officials also said they will send observers to monitor the balloting.
Black leaders have charged that Louisiana officials have not done enough to ensure that voters scattered by the storm will be able to vote. The state plans to set up satellite polling places around the state for New Orleans residents driven from their homes, but chose not to create such stations outside Louisiana.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060317/ap_on_re_us/katrina_new_orleans_elections;_ylt=ApfGkHoaIGN3QSg0f1dmii6s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM -
===
------------------------------

17 March 2006

In light of today's analysis on Costa Rica, the following are recent PINR analyses that cover other countries in the region:
"Chile Enters Period of Political Normalization"
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=426
"Bolivia's Evo Morales Shifts the Hemispheric Balance of Power"
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=417
"Intelligence Brief: Elections in Honduras"
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=411
"Summit of the Americas Fails to Establish Agreement on F.T.A.A."
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=402
"Intelligence Brief: Rumsfeld Visits Paraguay and Peru"
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=351
"Venezuela's Hugo Chavez Makes His Bid for a Bolivarian Revolution"
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=285
"Uruguay Completes the Leftward Realignment of the Southern Cone"
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=233
Bush Administration Renews "Preemptive War" Strategy
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/nsec-m17.shtml
===
U.N. Creates New Watchdog Over U.S. Opposition
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0316-04.htm

War Is Here
by Robert Dreyfuss, TomPaine.com
The Iraqi Civil War has begun -- but to understand it think Beirut, not Bull Run.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/16/civil_war_is_here.php
===
Sen. Harkin: "We have a President who likes to break things. He has broken the federal budget, running up $3 trillion in new debt. He has broken the Geneva Conventions, giving the green light to torture. He has repeatedly broken promises – and broken faith – with the American people. And now, worst of all, he has broken the law."
http://www.tomharkin.com/
===
Since today's dispatch is by a former federal prosecutor, let me suggest a small "law" of my own, one fit for the present moment: When it comes to the Bush administration, whatever the subject may be and however bad you think things are, they're going to be at least several fallback positions worse than whatever top administration officials may be fessing up to at any given moment. This, after all, is the administration of adamant denials, followed by forceful non-confessions, followed by proud statements, followed by limited hang-outs, followed by even more grudging, only slightly less limited hang-outs....
Reprogramming the Infinite Loop
The NSA Spying Debate
By Elizabeth de la Vega
It has now been three months since the Bush administration reluctantly admitted that it has been conducting warrantless surveillance on American citizens, despite the explicit prohibitions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Since then, the public has been treated to endless and, unfortunately, fruitless discussion about the issue. We have experts and scholars earnestly responding, and responding yet again, to administration arguments (both legal and factual) that can best be described as protean, internally inconsistent, and occasionally evanescent. We have the administration refusing to explain the program, but enjoining everyone to "trust them." And we have legislators trying to "fix" a problem that is undefined by proposing new laws that the administration doesn't want. We are, in short, trapped in an infinite loop.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=69308
===
Right-Wing Blocks Funding For Port Security, Disaster Preparedness
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/03/16/port-security-funding/

America's nuclear hypocrisy undermines its stance on Iran
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/oped/bal-op.
nuclear16mar16,1,5340915.story?coll=bal-oped-headlines
===

mission accomplished according to CNN

====
THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 2006
WP's Pincus isn't terribly concerned about sources drying up
( http://www.cjr.org/issues/2006/2/Glenn.asp)
Columbia Journalism Review

Despite the chill being generated by the Valerie Plame and Wen Ho Lee
cases, Washington Post veteran Walter Pincus says he isn't terribly
alarmed that sources will dry up. "You never know who's dissuaded
during
these periods when the government is more active in trying to stop
leaks,"
he tells David Glenn. "But in the national security field, people who
get
concerned find a way" to get the information out.
Posted at 10:49:33 AM
===
Officer Says He Wrongly Approved Use of Dogs
Tactic Employed At Abu Ghraib
By Josh WhiteWashington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 16, 2006; Page A01
The top U.S. military intelligence officer at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq testified yesterday that he inappropriately approved the use of dogs for interrogations without consulting higher-ranking officers, accepting responsibility for giving his subordinates an aggressive tool that was used to terrify detainees.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/15/AR2006031502621.html


http://www.salon.com/news/abu_ghraib/2006/03/14/introduction/
===
Libby Lawyers Subpoena New York Times, Judy Miller (NYT)
Lawyers for I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney who faces charges of obstruction of justice, are seeking documents concerning the disclosure of the identity of undercover C.I.A. operative Valerie Plame
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/16/politics/16leak.html
===
FRANCIS FUKUYAMA: Your provocative new book, American Vertigo, begins with an attack on the thoughtless European anti-Americanism that has become rampant since the Iraq war, and argues persuasively that the only antidote for it is to take a fresh look at America, at its virtues as well as its vices. This is frequently something done much better by non-Americans, and you are following in the footsteps of one of the most acute observers of all time—Alexis de Tocqueville.
Nonetheless, I want to begin by criticizing something I think you've gotten wrong, namely your dislike of Las Vegas. You find that sex is packaged there in a way that makes it, ironically, puritanical and sterile. This comes as a result of your visits to a strip club and one of those famous legal brothels in rural Nevada, and you keep referring to Las Vegas with considerable distaste throughout the rest of the book.
Now, I happen to know Las Vegas very well, not because I go to strip clubs or brothels, but because I've been going out there regularly with my family to visit relatives for the past 15 years. And that is precisely my problem with your account: You have this image of Las Vegas as "sin city", and then you were disappointed with the poor quality of the sin.
But this view of Las Vegas is at least thirty years out of date. Las Vegas is a real city with real people, not just sex workers, in it. It has been on and off the fastest growing city in the fastest growing county in the United States, with an incredible amount of energy and entrepreneurship. Much of the new employment centers around the gaming industry, but Las Vegas is as economically diverse as other American cities. It is home to huge numbers of retirees, like my relatives; it is the location of Nellis Air Force Base, host to Red Flag exercises and a lot of defense contractors; it has a burgeoning high-tech industry that has escaped the high costs of California; and it has a large Latino population working mainly in low-skill service industries and manufacturing.
©Damir Marusic
http://www.the-american-interest.com/cms/bhl.cfm
Siege of Jericho prison: US, Britain complicit in Israeli war crime
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/jeri-m16.shtml
Intelligence Brief: Sectarian Violence Moves Iraq Closer to Civil War

Drafted By:
http://www.pinr.com

Between March 13-14, Iraqi security forces uncovered at least 86 bodies in Baghdad. The victims were all murdered, many killed in large groups as a result of gunshot wounds to the head. Some 29 bodies killed in this manner were found in a Shi'a neighborhood in eastern Baghdad, while 15 bodies, all victims of strangulation, were discovered in the back of a truck in a Sunni Arab neighborhood in western Baghdad.
Garrison Keillor | Day of Reckoning For the Current Occupant
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0315-35.htm
Deleted Webpages from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration
exclusive: Federal agency removes health info for gay-lesbian-bi-trans
populations. The Memory Hole restores it
http://www.thememoryhole.org/
Garrison Keillor | Day of Reckoning For the Current Occupant
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0315-35.htm
Guatemala's Cursed Armed Forces: Washington's Old Friend is Back in Town
http://www.coha.org/NEW_PRESS_RELEASES/New_Press_Releases_2006/COHA%20Opinion/COHA_Opinion_06.08_Guatemala_Military.html
Jonathan Tasini | Stand Up to the Beltway Democrats
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0315-29.htm
and more. . .
===
This Magazine is Great. That's All. [Unbeige]
Just a "this is cool" type of link: We happened upon the web-based magazine Polar Inertia earlier today and it's just terrific. It sometimes takes us a little while to get into photography journals, but this one is so well designed and consistent, it just keeps us flipping the pages.
http://www.polarinertia.com/
===
Center for Constitutional Rights: Attorneys Representing Guantanamo Detainees React to Shocking Guantanamo Suicide Letter Just Released by the US
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0315-03.htm

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

# 9 Wednesday March 15/06 post

==
WPer: "I think we're getting 90 percent of the story" in Iraq http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2006/03/14_iraq.shtml

UC Berkeley News

That statement from Post reporter Jackie Spinner prompted disbelieving guffaws from a UC Berkeley audience. "The Iraq war has so polarized this country," she said. "That's why you hear hisses and boos and claps, depending on what you're saying -- people want to hear journalists reaffirm their previously held beliefs about the war. And I don't do that. I simply speak what I see. And I'm sorry if that's offensive to people, but I'm a journalist." PLUS: "Why did it never cross my mind that [Saddam Hussein] didn't have [WMDs] but wanted us to believe that he did?" says NYT reporter John Burns. Posted at 11:25:53 AM

===

Posted on Tue, Mar. 14, 2006

U.S. military airstrikes significantly increased in Iraq

By Tom Lasseter

Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - American forces have dramatically increased airstrikes in Iraq during the past

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/14098490.htm

===

Lessons of Iraq War Start With US History

by Howard Zinn

On the third anniversary of President Bush's Iraq debacle, it's important to consider why the administration so easily fooled so many people into supporting the war.

I believe there are two reasons, which go deep into our national culture.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0314-24.htm

==

Bush's Fake Aid
by Joshua Kurlantzick, Rolling Stone
Add the Millenium Challenge Account to the long list of Bush's failed initiatives. This time, the losers are the world's poor.
http://www.tompaine.com

==

* THE REST OF THE ABU GHRAIB PHOTOS AND VIDEOS: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/33561/ *PORN STAR AT THE WHITE HOUSE: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/33453/ * CARTOON SENSITIVITY; SOUTH PARK EDITION: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/33562/ *CNN INCORRECTLY CHALLENGES FEINGOLD ON CENSURE: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/33483/

==

15 March 2006

In light of the recent violence in Nigeria, PINR encourages you to read its January 31 Intelligence Brief on the country. Indeed, as PINR warned in November 2005, expect an "escalation of violence by N.D.P.V.F. members against government security forces and Western energy interests in the Niger Delta."

"Intelligence Brief: Iran, Nigeria"
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=430

==

A Grand Unifying Theory Of Everything Seth Lloyd believes that "the universe is a gigantic quantum computer. When you zap things with light to build quantum computers, you're hacking existing systems. You're hijacking the computation that's already happening in the universe, just like a hacker takes over someone else's computer." Wired 03/14/06

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.03/play.html?pg=4

==

Dollar may lose Arab customers over DPW

LONDON, March 14 (UPI) -- Arab nations are exchanging dollars for euros in the wake of congressional rejection of the Dubai Ports World takeover of U.S. ports management.

The United Arab Emirates, which includes Dubai, said it was looking to move one-tenth of its dollar reserves into euros, the Independent reported Tuesday.

The move helped lower the value of the dollar Monday and boost the price for euros.

"The issue is whether we will see similar attitudes taken by other Middle Eastern banks," said Monica Fan of RBC Capital Markets. "It is a question of momentum."

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060314-100659-5146r

===

Blair Told Of US Mess In Post-War Iraq

by Hannah K. Strange
UPI U.K. Correspondent
London (UPI) Mar 15, 2006
British Prime Minister Tony Blair received stark warnings from senior diplomatic and military staff three years ago that the United States was mishandling the post-war occupation of Iraq with disastrous effects, a series of leaked memos has revealed.

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Blair_Told_Of_US_Mess_In_Post_War_Iraq.html

===

Flint: It's clear that King's best days at CNN are behind him http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114227406585896793-uGIZfOaGW4ACJJTOItCH9Sh2MIY_20060322.html?mod=blogs Wall Street Journal These days, Larry King seems more interested in celebrities and crime, diminishing not only his own reputation and influence, but that of CNN as well, says Joe Flint. King's ratings have dropped as viewers switch to more aggressive cable talk shows. Flint writes: "The real trouble is that Mr. King often appears disengaged. He seems to do little research before sitting down with guests."

===

Pass It On: You Have A Right To Know!

A new, easy, on-line FOIA request form. As they say, there is no better way to send a strong signal that American citizens believe in the rule of law then exercising your constitutional rights.
http://tompaine.com/#passiton

=

New York Times assigns Kornblut to cover Hillary Clinton http://observer.com/20060320/20060320_Gabriel_Sherman_pageone_offtherec.asp New York Observer The assignment signals a formal shift in the Times' coverage of Hillary Clinton from local officeholder to national personality, reports Gabriel Sherman. Until now, the Senator had been covered through the paper's Metro desk. "[Anne] Kornblut joins a scrum of no fewer than four Times reporters following Mrs. Clinton," writes Sherman. PLUS: Fortune managing editor Eric Pooley announces office hours

NYT Mag photo makes presidential hopeful Warner look freakish (NYO) http://observer.com/20060320/20060320_Gabriel_Sherman_politics_newsstory3.asp ===

Impeachable Strategy
by David Corn, TomPaine.com
Democrats who believe that impeachment will come before they control the House are wasting precious time.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/15/impeachable_strategy.php ===

Understanding Islamism
by Rami G. Khouri, TomPaine.com
The Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas are winning because of political and national grievances, not religious fantasies.
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/15/understanding_islamism.php

===

President Bush this week said that a newspaper -- the Los Angeles Times -- had published details of a new technology used to defend against improvised explosive devices, and that jihadists used details from that newspaper story to develop techniques for defeating the new technology. Noah Shachtman of DefenseTech.org argues that there is reason to doubt the President's account. See "The Enemy is Me," March 14: http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002238.html

==

"In another sign of increasing government secrecy, the Federal Aviation Administration has removed from its Web site the transcript of a heated public hearing during which pilots ridiculed no-fly zones that have surrounded Washington since 9/11," writes Lance Gay of Scripps Howard News Service. See "FAA yanks potentially 'sensitive' information from Web site," March 15: http://tinyurl.com/zedcv

===

"Intelligence in the Civil War" is the topic of a new study published by the Central Intelligence Agency. See: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/civilwar/docs/Civil_War.htm ===

IMPEACHMENT TALK GOES MAINSTREAM William Goodman, AlterNet. From the Wall Street Journal to MSNBC, talk of impeachment is no longer on the fringe. http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/33373/ ===

Published on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 by the

Inter Press Service

US Abuses, Sense of Irony Missing in Rights Report

by William Fisher

NEW YORK - Noah S. Leavitt, an attorney who has worked with the International Law Commission of the United Nations in Geneva and the International Court of Justice in The Hague, told IPS: "The sad reality is that because of the [George W.] Bush administration's haughty unilateralism and its mockery of international prohibitions on torture, most of the rest of the world no longer takes the U.S. seriously on human rights matters."

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0314-07.htm

===

Al Gore, the Victim of a Presidential Mugging, says "I truly believe that American democracy faces a time of challenge and trials that are more serious than we have ever faced."

http://www.palmbeachdailynews.com/news/content/news/AlGore0313.html

===

Orville Schell on Journalism under Siege in Baghdad

Back in September 2004, the Wall Street Journal's Farnaz Fassihi, then covering Iraq, wrote an email to friends that began: "Being a foreign correspondent in Baghdad these days is like being under virtual house arrest." A year and a half later, it's still a striking account to read, because the grim news she was delivering both as a reporter -- "One could argue that Iraq is already lost beyond salvation. For those of us on the ground it's hard to imagine what if anything could salvage it from its violent downward spiral…" --

'"Ladies and Gents," the South African pilot matter-of-factly announces over the intercom, "we'll be starting our spiral descent into Baghdad, where the temperature is 19 degrees Celsius."

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=68077

Understanding Slobodan Milosevic: between the cold war and Iraq


Tom Gallagher
13 - 3 - 2006

Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of Serbia and Yugoslavia found

dead in his cell in The Hague on 11 March 2006, was an unscrupulous opportunist whose brazen defiance of western democratic states and the United Nations in the 1990s ended in only a narrow defeat. He showed how precarious and shallow was the peace following the long cold war, even in the heart of Europe. He recognised the weakness of the democratic world, its complacency and even moral abdication in the face of the flagrant manipulation of nationalism, and its unwillingness to take risks to defend the Bosnian state and its largest group, the Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) from massacre and ethnic cleansing.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/conflict-yugoslavia/slobodan_3345.jsp
Former top judge says US risks edging near to dictatorship

· Sandra Day O'Connor warns of rightwing attacks
· Lawyers 'must speak up' to protect judiciary

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1729396,00.html
-----------------------------------------
Media lies and hypocrisy in wake of Milosevic's death
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/milo-m13.shtml

==

The War Dividend: The British companies making a fortune out of conflict-riven Iraq

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article350959.ece

===






It's Regime Change, Again
by Tom Porteous, TomPaine.com
The White House is making the same mistakes with Iran as it did with Iraq. This time, the damage to America will be much worse
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/10/its_regime_change_again.php
==

Death squads operated from inside Iraqi government, officials say

By Matthew Schofield

Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Senior Iraqi officials Sunday confirmed for the first time that death squads composed of government employees had operated illegally from inside two government ministries.

==
A copy of the DNI memo, marked For Official Use Only (not RELIDO), was
obtained by Secrecy News.

See "Intelligence Community Implementation of Releasable by Information
Disclosure Official (RELIDO) Dissemination Marking," DCID 8 Series
Policy Memoranda 1, June 9, 2005:

http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/dcid8-memo.html

A copy of the directive, marked For Official Use Only, was obtained by
Secrecy News.

See "Intelligence Community Policy on Intelligence Information
Sharing," DCID 8/1, June 4, 2004:

http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/dcid8-1.html

==

Sen. Russ Feingold announced yesterday that he would introduce a
resolution to censure President Bush for "authorizing the illegal
wiretapping program and then misleading the country about the
existence and legality of the program." See:

http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_cr/feingold031206.html

==

See "Secrecy Under Scrutiny" by David E. Kaplan, U.S. News and World
Report, March 20:

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060320/20qa.htm

A sidebar takes a look at Freedom of Information Act policy. See
"Finding out what Uncle Sam has on you" also by David E. Kaplan:

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/060310/10foia.htm

==

Money's Going to Talk in 2008

'Entry Fee' for Presidential Race Could Be $100 Million

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/10/AR2006031002425.html





Feingold to Call for Rare Presidential Censure
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0312-08.htm

===

Vanity Fair: Bush Had Ties to Abramoff

Vanity Fair: Bush Had Ties to Abramoff, Joked With Him About About Weightlifting

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON- Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff says President Bush knew him well enough to joke with him about weightlifting. "What are you benching, buff guy?" Abramoff said Bush asked him. The president has said he doesn't know Abramoff.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/print?id=1701909

==

Disaster Warning from UN: Death of the World's Rivers
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0312-04.htm

===

Michael Schwartz on Rebellion and Pacification in Iraq

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=67354


The Broken Branch: An Unusual Lawsuit Takes Congress to Task For Shoddy and Partisan Lawmaking, In Which A Bill Is Unconstitutionally Being Treated as Law
By JOHN W. DEAN
----

Friday, Mar. 10, 2006

Two seasoned non-partisan Congress-watchers have teamed up (again) to report some bad news about Congress, assessing a decade of Republican rule. Thomas Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, and Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, have written a new book, The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get it Back on Track .

While I am familiar with the prior work of Mann and Ornstein, which is always distinguished by its excellence, all that I know about their new book, to be published in June 2006, is the pre-publication description. According to the publisher (Oxford Press), this latest work reveals that after forty years of Democratic control, the House of Representatives was in need of reform. But that did not happen.

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dean/20060310.html

===

Sandra Day O'Connor Warns Against Partisan GOP DeLay/Bush Dictatorship.

http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/attytood/archives/002903.html

===

IN OTHER NEWS

When Congress moved to sink a deal that would have passed control of six major American ports to a company owned by the government of Dubai, President Bush threatened a veto. Now, the company, Dubai Ports World, has resolved the problem by backing away from the deal in the face of overwhelming opposition from Congress. The position of the president, that "in order to win the war on terror, we have got to strengthen our relationships and friendships with moderate Arab countries in the Middle East," has failed to impress members of Congress concerned about their prospects in this year's mid-term elections. As Irwin M. Stelzer wrote in The Daily Standard this week, protectionism of this type may well undermine the economic forces which have created so much wealth in this country over the last sixty years.

Still, it hasn't been all bad for the president. Yesterday, Bush signed into law the latest version of the Patriot Act, extending indefinitely all of the original act's provisions but two, and those two for another 4 years. The Patriot Act has been the source of so much debate in the last 4 years, and yet, somehow, it was ultimately extended with little opposition, and signed with little fanfare.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/011/935cfvos.asp

===

Norton stepping down as interior secretary; "...among the most outspoken cheerleaders for controversial drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and she repeatedly raised the ire of environmentalists by making it easier -- and faster -- for companies to win permits to explore for resources in public lands, particularly throughout the west."

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/government/article/
0,2777,DRMN_23906_4531005,00.html

==

Cheney Quotes Racist Anti-Semite to Demonstrate 'Progress' In the Middle East

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/03/10/cheney-quotes-racist-anti-semite/

Clinton Quiet About Past Wal-Mart Ties

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2006/03/10/128145
-clinton-quiet-about-past-wal-mart-ties

==

In the first 68 days of the Zapatista "Other Campaign" in Mexico, Narco News' "Other Journalism" has published 247 original reports, video newsreels, radio reports, audio files, and original translations: 64 of them original reports in English... almost one per day, reported by Authentic Journalists all volunteering our time and labor

http://www.narconews.com/otroperiodismo/

===

Though many experts consider the NSA program to be illegal because it violates the clear language of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Commentary author Gabriel Schoenfeld argues that disclosure of the program is the crime that should be investigated and prosecuted. That perspective is examined in "Bill Keller in Chains: Commentary's case for prosecuting the Times under the Espionage Act" by Jack Shafer, Slate, March 9: http://www.slate.com/id/2137792/

===

> Alterman tried to sound alarm bell re Bush's war on press in '05 (CAP) http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=1468765

===

The Espionage Statutes and Publication of Defense Information," Columbia Law Review, May 1973, vol. 73, pp. 929-1087 (a large 6.3 MB PDF file): http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/edgar.pdf

===

Judge Says Libby Can See Bush Briefings

Bottom of Form 1

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: March 10, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/politics/10wire-libby.html?hp&ex=1142053200&en=d1a0b5fd93061bff&ei=5094&partner=homepage

CIA ON THE PRESIDENT'S DAILY BRIEF Some new details on the preparation of the President's Daily Brief (PDB) and its presentation to the President and a small number of other officials are discussed in a Central Intelligence Agency declaration filed last week in the prosecution of former Vice Presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. "Six mornings a week, intelligence briefers meet with the President and selected senior Executive officials to provide a daily intelligence briefing. Each briefer meets with one or more designated officials to present an oral briefing and a binder containing written materials for each official's review," wrote CIA official Marilyn A. Dorn. She argued in her declaration that responding to Mr. Libby's request for production of various PDBs and related material would be extremely burdensome and might also infringe on executive privilege. See her March 2, 2006 declaration (filed March 3) here: http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/libby030306.pdf A March 7 response from Mr. Libby is available here: http://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/libby030706.pdf

===

"It is impossible to talk about groups of people without generalizing," the document explains. "It then follows that it is hard to talk about the culture of a group without generalizing. This handbook attempts to be as accurate and specific as possible, but inevitably contains such generalizations." A copy of the new Handbook was obtained by Secrecy News. See "Arab Cultural Awareness: 58 Factsheets," DCSINT Handbook No. 2, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, US Army Training and Doctrine Command, January 2006: http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/army/arabculture.pdf



://www.boell.de/downloads/demokratiefoerderung/dobbins_americas_role.pdf

http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=3980
09 March 2006

In July 2003, shortly after the U.S.-led intervention in Iraq, PINR wrote, "If current trends persist in Iraq, most likely U.S. and U.K. support for the occupation of Iraq will continue to fall. More analysts and politicians are warning that the only way to create stability in Iraq is to drastically increase the amount of troops on the ground to an approximate force of 225,000, up from the current force of 156,000. ... failure to create stability will further anger the Iraqi people, thus creating more support for attacks on coalition troops, and also lead to major political fallout for both the Bush and Blair administrations."

That telling analysis from July 2003 can be read at:

"Coalition Forces Find Themselves in a Predicament"
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=65

For PINR's most recent analysis on Iraq, please see:

"Red Lines Crisscross Iraq's Political Landscape"
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=449

==

House Votes to Dump State Food Safety Laws
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0309-06.htm

===

Warner: Civil war would warrant Iraq pullout

By Gordon Trowbridge
Times staff writer

The U.S. should pull its forces out of Iraq if that country descends into a sectarian civil war, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said March 7.

Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a strong supporter of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, said he was speaking only for himself and not other Republicans, and that he doesn't believe the term "civil war" now applies to Iraq. But his statements raise the possibility that a worsening of the security situation could turn calls for a pullout into a bipartisan chorus.

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-1588471.php

===

WASHINGTON - More and more people, particularly Republicans, disapprove of

Top of Form 1

Bottom of Form 1

President Bush 's performance, question his character and no longer consider him a strong leader against terrorism, according to an AP-Ipsos poll documenting one of the bleakest points of his presidency.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060310/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_ap_poll

==

is called "churning" in some other context, no?

US says its closing Abu Ghraib prison and moving 4500 prisoners to other jails in Iraq. Bush administration-condoned and outsourced torture and human rights abuses continue, but now with new addresses.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/iraq_abughraib_dc

===

"From the beginning of the occupation, any claims the occupying power had to legitimacy were sacrificed when most cities were left to govern themselves. In June 2004, when the Bush administration officially handed "sovereignty" (which it already didn't possess) to the Iyad Allawi government which it had put in power, it withdrew any claims it might have had to such authority; and yet it also failed to deliver any of the ingredients of sovereignty to its supposed successor..."

Michael Schwartz on Disintegrating Iraqi Sovereignty

http://us.f307.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?Search=&Idx=1&YY=38760&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b

===

Joysey. Judge Says Port Lease Remains Valid

By JANET FRANKSTON Associated Press Writer

(AP) - NEWARK, N.J.-A New Jersey judge on Thursday axed a bid by officials from two states to end Port Newark's lease with a company that plans to sell operations at major U.S. ports to an Arab-owned company.

Superior Court Judge Patricia K. Costello denied a request by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to immediately terminate its 30-year agreement with London-based Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Co. However, the judge said the bi-state agency's lawsuit against the company can continue.

http://news.findlaw.com/ap/f/66/03-09-2006/f6a1001417d3f0a0.html

Company based in Dubai ready to give up attempt to take management stake in U.S. ports

By ANDREW TAYLOR Associated Press Writer

(AP) - WASHINGTON-A Dubai-owned company said Thursday that it was prepared to give up its management stake in some U.S. ports, a move made as congressional leaders warned President George W. Bush that both the House of Representatives and Senate appeared ready to block the takeover.

http://news.findlaw.com/ap/p/56/03-09-2006/9a610011fe4f9c60.html

SSA MARINE here in Seattle, I was betting on them right off the bet. Theres no one else who can handle it.

===

As Bill Conroy and Narco News continue to investigate and uncover
documents regarding the allegations of massive corruption in the
Bogotá office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the
Colombian newsmagazine Cambio (owned and directed in part by former
drug legalization supporter Gabriel García Marquéz) has dug up a
juicy tidbit of its own. In this week's issue, whose cover reads "The
Price of Justice," the magazine reveals that on January 31 of this
year the U.S. Justice Department received the last $1.3 million of an
$83 million payment from the family of slain Colombian paramilitary
boss and narco-trafficker Gonzalo "The Mexican" Rodríguez Gacha. In
return for the massive payment, the family - Rodríguez' widow and
seven of his "heirs" - received immunity from prosecution, which they
were facing from the Jacksonville, Florida U.S. District Court.

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2006/3/9/174557/4342

====

DeLay On Abramoff: I Love You, I Love You Not, I Love You…

DeLay, Northern Mariana Islands,

1997 :

When one of my closest and dearest friends, Jack Abramoff, your most able representative in Washington, D.C., invited me to the islands, I wanted to see firsthand the free-market success and the progress and reform you have made.

DeLay, in a letter to his constituents,

2/6/06 :

The reality is, Jack Abramoff and I were not close personal friends.I met with him only occasionally…

CNN, on DeLay's reaction to the new Vanity Fair article,

3/9/06 :

==

The imprisoned president


Sidney Blumenthal

Republicans representative of their permanent establishment have recently and quietly sent emissaries to President Bush, like diplomats to a foreign ruler isolated in his forbidden city, to probe whether he could be persuaded to become politically flexible. These ambassadors were not connected to the elder Bush or his closest associate, former national security advisor

Brent Scowcroft , who was purged in 2005 from the president's foreign intelligence advisory board and scorned by the current president.

Scowcroft privately tells friends who ask if he could somehow help that Bush would never turn to him for advice. So, in one case, a Republican wise man, a prominent lawyer in Washington who had served in the Reagan White House, sought no appointments or favours and was thought to be unthreatening to Bush, gained an audience with him. In a gentle tone, he explained that many presidents had difficult second terms, but that by adapting their approaches they ended successfully, as President Reagan had.

http://www.opendemocracy.net/democracy/imprisoned_3321.jsp

===

Senator Resumes Lobbyist Huddles

Santorum Suspended Sessions Jan. 30

By

Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Charles Babington Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, March 9, 2006; Page A04

After saying in January that he would end his regular meetings with lobbyists, Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa.), the third-ranking GOP leader in the Senate, has continued to meet with many of the same lobbyists at the same time and on the same day of the week.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/08/AR2006030802449.html

===

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Posting # 8, March 8/06

is appropriate indeed that the first time voters will be offered an opportunity to weigh in on the question of whether to impeach President George W. Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors is at a New England town meeting in a community chartered two years before the Declaration of Independence was drafted. http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?bid=1&pid=66527


==

US ambassador to UN warns of "painful consequences" for Iranhttp://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/iran-m08.shtml
Britain: Government minister admits US "rendition" planes landed in UKhttp://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/rend-m08.shtml===
08 March 2006In February 2006, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) quoted PINR's February 2005 report on South Korea. The CFR report can be found here:
"South Korea Looks for New Role"http://www.cfr.org/publication/9805/south_korea_looks_for_new_role.html
The PINR analysis in question can be found at:
"South Korea Seeks Strategic Focus Among the Behemoths"
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac\u003dview_report&report_id\u003d267 \n
\n \u003d\u003d\u003d\nCampaign to Defend the Constitution: New Ad Campaign Blasts Religious Right Leaders for Ties to Abramoff, Casinos \nhttp://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0307-02.htm\nCenter on Budget and Policy Priorities: Flawed Formula Could Mean Fewer Section 8 Housing Vouchers In 2007\nhttp://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0307-10.htm\n \n\nPinch Gets Chilly Reception at \'State of the Times\' Speech (Gawker)The first question was about the stock options that Sulzberger got rid of to give himself and the other execs big bonuses. He deflected that question, but then business columnist Floyd Norris asked it again, quoting more numbers. Norris asked him to rescind his bonuses to save jobs. \nMedia Mob\n: Sulzberger discussed the paper\'s efforts to expand its online and digital operations in a newspaper industry that\'s mired in struggle. ",1]
);
//-->
http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=267

===
Campaign to Defend the Constitution: New Ad Campaign Blasts Religious Right Leaders for Ties to Abramoff, Casinos http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0307-02.htm
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Flawed Formula Could Mean Fewer Section 8 Housing Vouchers In 2007http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0307-10.htm

Pinch Gets Chilly Reception at 'State of the Times' Speech (Gawker)The first question was about the stock options that Sulzberger got rid of to give himself and the other execs big bonuses. He deflected that question, but then business columnist Floyd Norris asked it again, quoting more numbers. Norris asked him to rescind his bonuses to save jobs. Media Mob : Sulzberger discussed the paper's efforts to expand its online and digital operations in a newspaper industry that's mired in struggle.
NYP
: Newspaper Guild members have already had to give up their raises for the year to rescue their embattled healthcare coverage, and 500 employees are losing their jobs. \n\nhttp://www.gawker.com/news/arthur-sulzberger-jr/a-spy-reports-floyd-norris-doesnt-like-the-state-of-the-times-158951.php \n\n\u003d\u003d\u003d\nRetired Lieutenant General William Odom was the director of the National Security Agency between 1985 and 1988. Currently a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a professor at Yale University, Odom has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration\'s foreign policy. \n\n \nhttp://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2522/\nBrit Gov Minister Says Guantanamo Must Close to Save Democracyhttp://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0308-07.htm\n\n\u003d\u003d\u003d\nBush Continues to Get Walloped in the Polls, As He Should\nhttp://poll.gallup.com/content/?ci\u003d21808 \n \n\u003d\u003d\nAbramoff Starts Naming Republican Names: Conrad Burns, McCain, Bush, Newt Gingrich, Ken Mehlman. New Vanity Fair article tell-all: "Any important Republican who comes out and says they didn\'t know me is almost certainly lying." \n",1]
);
//-->
NYP: Newspaper Guild members have already had to give up their raises for the year to rescue their embattled healthcare coverage, and 500 employees are losing their jobs.
http://www.gawker.com/news/arthur-sulzberger-jr/a-spy-reports-floyd-norris-doesnt-like-the-state-of-the-times-158951.php
===
Retired Lieutenant General William Odom was the director of the National Security Agency between 1985 and 1988. Currently a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and a professor at Yale University, Odom has been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration's foreign policy.

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2522/
Brit Gov Minister Says Guantanamo Must Close to Save Democracyhttp://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0308-07.htm
===
Bush Continues to Get Walloped in the Polls, As He Shouldhttp://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=o6npotbab.0.6jmpotbab.ruvvpabab.9014&p=http%3A%2F%2Fpoll.gallup.com%2Fcontent%2F%3Fci%3D21808

==
Abramoff Starts Naming Republican Names: Conrad Burns, McCain, Bush, Newt Gingrich, Ken Mehlman. New Vanity Fair article tell-all: "Any important Republican who comes out and says they didn't know me is almost certainly lying."
\nhttp://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/3/8/11633/33597 \n\u003d\u003d\u003d\n-->IMPEACHING GEORGE W. BUSH Onnesha Roychoudhuri, AlterNet. From discussion to action -- Michael Ratner and his fellow lawyers have drafted a call to impeach President Bush. \nhttp://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/32977/ -->EXCERPT: ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT Center for Constitutional Rights A new book lays out four clear legal arguments that point to impeachment of President Bush as a necessary remedy for the violation of our Constitution. \nhttp://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/32866/ \n \n \n\u003d\u003d\nJoseph DuRocher A Veteran\'s Letter to the President: "I Return Enclosed the Symbols of My Years of Service"\nhttp://www.commondreams.org/views06/0308-34.htm \n\u003d\u003d\n\n\'Unitary Executive\' Or Autocracy? by Paul Waldman, TomPaine.comThe Bush administration has replaced the rule of law with the rule by one. \n",1]
);
//-->
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=o6npotbab.0.dkmpotbab.ruvvpabab.9014&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailykos.com%2Fstoryonly%2F2006%2F3%2F8%2F11633%2F33597
===
-->IMPEACHING GEORGE W. BUSH Onnesha Roychoudhuri, AlterNet. From discussion to action -- Michael Ratner and his fellow lawyers have drafted a call to impeach President Bush. http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/32977/ -->EXCERPT: ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT Center for Constitutional Rights A new book lays out four clear legal arguments that point to impeachment of President Bush as a necessary remedy for the violation of our Constitution. http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/32866/


==
Joseph DuRocher A Veteran's Letter to the President: "I Return Enclosed the Symbols of My Years of Service"http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0308-34.htm
==
'Unitary Executive' Or Autocracy? by Paul Waldman, TomPaine.comThe Bush administration has replaced the rule of law with the rule by one.
\nhttp://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/08/unitary_executive_or_autocracy.php \n \u003d\u003d\u003d\nAllan Jalon A Break-In to End All Break-Inshttp://www.commondreams.org/views06/0308-27.htm\n\n \u003d\u003d\u003d\n \nWeaponizing the Shark and Other Pentagon Dreams\nShark and Awe\n\nFrom the Annals of Full-Spectrum Dominance\nBy Tom Engelhardt \n \nhttp://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx\u003dx&pid\u003d66469\n \n\nGOP Crooks in Congress Will Try to Cover-up Bush\'s Illegal Spying. Crooks Stick Together, Until the Thieves Fall Out.\n\nhttp://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/14033159.htm \n\u003d\u003d\n\nThe U.S. Government\'s Flawed Response to Hurricane Katrina: Why It Should Be Viewed as a Human Rights Failure, and What the Consequences of That Could Be ",1]
);
//-->
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=rj7gotbab.0.m99hotbab.tiniiyn6.149445&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tompaine.com%2Farticles%2F2006%2F03%2F08%2Funitary_executive_or_autocracy.php
===
Allan Jalon A Break-In to End All Break-Inshttp://www.commondreams.org/views06/0308-27.htm
===

Weaponizing the Shark and Other Pentagon Dreams
Shark and Awe
From the Annals of Full-Spectrum Dominance
By Tom Engelhardt

http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=66469

GOP Crooks in Congress Will Try to Cover-up Bush's Illegal Spying. Crooks Stick Together, Until the Thieves Fall Out.
http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=tzomntbab.0.5w7lntbab.ruvvpabab.9014&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mercurynews.com%2Fmld%2Fmercurynews%2Fnews%2Fpolitics%2F14033159.htm
==
The U.S. Government's Flawed Response to Hurricane Katrina: Why It Should Be Viewed as a Human Rights Failure, and What the Consequences of That Could Be
\nBy NOAH LEAVITT
\n \nhttp://writ.news.findlaw.com/leavitt/20060307.html\n secrecy_news-request@lists.fas.org \n \u003d\u003d \ndick cheney is keeping all options open vis a vis iran, and so am i vis a vis the bird killer from wyoming..\n \n\u003d\u003d\u003d\n\n\n\nU.S. envoy says "We opened Pandora\'s box" in Iraq\nBy Borzou Daragahi\nLos Angeles Times\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n PREV 1 of 2 NEXT \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n \nAmbassador Zalmay Khalilzad sees potential for all-out civil war.\n\n \n \nKARIM KADIM / AP\nAn Iraqi woman walks past the wreckage of a car following an explosion in Baghdad on Monday. Violence, much of it with sectarian overtones, left at least 18 Iraqis dead across the country. One ",1]
);
//-->
By NOAH LEAVITT

http://writ.news.findlaw.com/leavitt/20060307.htmlhttp://mail.google.com/ym/Compose?To=secrecy_news-request@lists.fas.org&YY=77986&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b
==
dick cheney is keeping all options open vis a vis iran, and so am i vis a vis the bird killer from wyoming..

===
U.S. envoy says "We opened Pandora's box" in Iraq
By Borzou Daragahi
Los Angeles Times
PREV 1 of 2 NEXT

Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad sees potential for all-out civil war.

KARIM KADIM / AP
An Iraqi woman walks past the wreckage of a car following an explosion in Baghdad on Monday. Violence, much of it with sectarian overtones, left at least 18 Iraqis dead across the country. One
\n\nBAGHDAD, Iraq \nhttp://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002848965_iraq07.html \n\n\u003d\u003d\n \nhttp://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-envoy7mar07,0,3620947.story?coll\u003dla-home-headlines \n\n \n\u003d\u003d\n\nSenior Iraqi General Killed in Ambush\nAt Least 20 Die, 50 Hurt in Renewed Violence\n\nBy John Ward Anderson and Ann Scott Tyson \nWashington Post Foreign ServiceTuesday, March 7, 2006; Page A01 \n\n\nBAGHDAD, March 6 -- The top commander of the Iraqi army division in Baghdad was killed Monday when his car came under small-arms fire while traveling through the capital, the U.S. military said.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n \nhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030600798.html \n\n \u003d\u003d\u003d\u003d\n",1]
);
//-->
U.S. soldier was reported killed Monday in a combat incident in western Iraq.
BAGHDAD, Iraq
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002848965_iraq07.html
==

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-envoy7mar07,0,3620947.story?coll=la-home-headlines

==
Senior Iraqi General Killed in Ambush
At Least 20 Die, 50 Hurt in Renewed Violence
By John Ward Anderson and Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Foreign ServiceTuesday, March 7, 2006; Page A01
BAGHDAD, March 6 -- The top commander of the Iraqi army division in Baghdad was killed Monday when his car came under small-arms fire while traveling through the capital, the U.S. military said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/06/AR2006030600798.html
====
KATRINA REVISITEDBy Terence SamuelWhile the recriminations continue, New Orleans remains a city suspended between the living and the dead. \nhttp://taponline.c.topica.com/maaeyPSaboN9BbOgIFMbaehosu/ \n \n\n\u003d\u003d\u003d\nBush, lies, and videotape\nBy James Carroll March 6, 2006\n\n\nIF GEORGE W. BUSH were a character in a novel or a play, last week might have been the turning point in the narrative. He was shown on film being explicitly warned, just hours before Hurricane Katrina hit, that the levees in New Orleans were vulnerable. \n\n\u003d\u003d\u003d\nhttp://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/03/06/bush_lies_and_videotape/ \n \u003d\u003d\u003d\n \nREALITY TIMEBy Michael TomaskyThree more years of this? Honest conservative intellectuals: your country needs you. \nhttp://taponline.c.topica.com/maaeyPSaboN9zbOgIFMbaehosu/ \n \nUS holding thousands without trial Torture in Iraq worse since Abu Ghraib\nhttp://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/guan-m07.shtml\u003d\u003d\n07 March 2006",1]
);
//-->
KATRINA REVISITEDBy Terence SamuelWhile the recriminations continue, New Orleans remains a city suspended between the living and the dead. http://taponline.c.topica.com/maaeyPSaboN9BbOgIFMbaehosu/

===
Bush, lies, and videotape
By James Carroll March 6, 2006
IF GEORGE W. BUSH were a character in a novel or a play, last week might have been the turning point in the narrative. He was shown on film being explicitly warned, just hours before Hurricane Katrina hit, that the levees in New Orleans were vulnerable.
===
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/03/06/bush_lies_and_videotape/===

REALITY TIMEBy Michael TomaskyThree more years of this? Honest conservative intellectuals: your country needs you. http://taponline.c.topica.com/maaeyPSaboN9zbOgIFMbaehosu/

US holding thousands without trial Torture in Iraq worse since Abu Ghraibhttp://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/mar2006/guan-m07.shtml==
07 March 2006
Recent developments in Iraq call attention to PINR\'s last in-depth analysis on the country: \n"Red Lines Crisscross Iraq\'s Political Landscape"http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac\u003dview_report&report_id\u003d449 \n\nAlso, instability in Afghanistan calls attention to PINR\'s last Intelligence Brief on the country: \n"Intelligence Brief: Afghanistan"http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac\u003dview_report&report_id\u003d435 \n\n\nThe Coming Resource Wars by Michael T. Klare, TomPaine.com It\'s official. America\'s closest ally has announced that climate change has ushered in an era of violent conflict over energy, water and arable land. \n\nhttp://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/07/the_coming_resource_wars.php \n\u003d\u003d\u003d\nAPRIL 1st COMES EARLY THIS YEAR!\n \nIraq going \'very well,\' top Pentagon general says; congressman asks \'why believe him?\'\nBy PAULINE JELINEK Associated Press Writer",1]
);
//-->
Recent developments in Iraq call attention to PINR's last in-depth analysis on the country:
"Red Lines Crisscross Iraq's Political Landscape"http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=449
Also, instability in Afghanistan calls attention to PINR's last Intelligence Brief on the country:
"Intelligence Brief: Afghanistan"http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=435
The Coming Resource Wars by Michael T. Klare, TomPaine.com It's official. America's closest ally has announced that climate change has ushered in an era of violent conflict over energy, water and arable land. http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=iq9dntbab.0.qmkentbab.tiniiyn6.149445&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tompaine.com%2Farticles%2F2006%2F03%2F07%2Fthe_coming_resource_wars.php
===
APRIL 1st COMES EARLY THIS YEAR!

Iraq going 'very well,' top Pentagon general says; congressman asks 'why believe him?'
By PAULINE JELINEK Associated Press Writer
\nhttp://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/03-06-2006/6b96001a5776006b.html\n \n \nFace to Face-The Recent Spike in Violence in Iraq\nThe Washington Examiner, March 2, 2006\nIvo H. Daalder, Senior Fellow, \nForeign Policy Studies \nhttp://www.brookings.edu/views/interviews/daalder/20060302.htm\n \n \nWe\'re in a civil war now; it\'s just that not everybody\'s joined in," said retired Army Maj. Gen. William L. Nash, a former military commander in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "The failure to understand that the civil war is already taking place, just not necessarily at the maximum level, means that our counter measures are inadequate and therefore dangerous to our long-term interest. \n\nhttp://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage/story?id\u003d1689688&page\u003d1\n \n\u003d\u003d\n \nAmnesty International has claimed that use of torture by US-trained security forces in Iraq is increasing and that thousands of prisoners are being denied basic human rights. ",1]
);
//-->

http://news.findlaw.com/ap/o/51/03-06-2006/6b96001a5776006b.html


Face to Face-The Recent Spike in Violence in Iraq
The Washington Examiner, March 2, 2006Ivo H. Daalder, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies
http://www.brookings.edu/views/interviews/daalder/20060302.htm


We're in a civil war now; it's just that not everybody's joined in," said retired Army Maj. Gen. William L. Nash, a former military commander in Bosnia-Herzegovina. "The failure to understand that the civil war is already taking place, just not necessarily at the maximum level, means that our counter measures are inadequate and therefore dangerous to our long-term interest.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/WNT/IraqCoverage/story?id=1689688&page=1

==

Amnesty International has claimed that use of torture by US-trained security forces in Iraq is increasing and that thousands of prisoners are being denied basic human rights.
\nhttp://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F5E4492C-4F1F-48A7-BA54-DC12AB6481A3.htm\n\u003d\u003d\n \nHSBC cool on acquisitions as profits hit $21bnBy Peter Thal Larsen and Jane Croft in London and Francesco Guerrera in Hong KongPublished: March 6 2006 09:43 Last updated: March 6 2006 21:39\n\nhttp://news.ft.com/cms/s/c81331bc-acf3-11da-9643-0000779e2340.html\n \n \nGlobe praises New Republic, Economist and Atlantic Monthly\nhttp://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/03/05/old_media_new_faces/ \n\nBoston Globe The three magazines look at complexities, contradictions, and deceptions, says a Boston Globe editorial. "It\'s a refreshing contrast to the flood of quick-hit news about the same famous celebrities doing the same famous things: dating, divorcing, and over- or undereating." \n\n\u003d\u003d\u003d\u003d\u003d\n \n \nThe lie of the storm\n \nMarch 5, 2006\nTELEVISION IMAGES can be misleading, but not in the case of the shadowy video that showed President Bush sitting quietly in Texas as he heard that Hurricane Katrina, bearing down on the Gulf Coast, was going to be \'\'the Big One." Dressed in a suit coat even though he was on vacation, he looked like a president but did not act like one. Despite the warning on Sunday, Aug. 28, Bush let several crucial days slip by before he rallied the resources of the federal government to deal with this epochal disaster. \n",1]
);
//-->
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/F5E4492C-4F1F-48A7-BA54-DC12AB6481A3.htm
==

HSBC cool on acquisitions as profits hit $21bnBy Peter Thal Larsen and Jane Croft in London and Francesco Guerrera in Hong KongPublished: March 6 2006 09:43 Last updated: March 6 2006 21:39
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c81331bc-acf3-11da-9643-0000779e2340.html


Globe praises New Republic, Economist and Atlantic Monthly
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/03/05/old_media_new_faces/
Boston Globe The three magazines look at complexities, contradictions, and deceptions, says a Boston Globe editorial. "It's a refreshing contrast to the flood of quick-hit news about the same famous celebrities doing the same famous things: dating, divorcing, and over- or undereating."
=====


The lie of the storm

March 5, 2006
TELEVISION IMAGES can be misleading, but not in the case of the shadowy video that showed President Bush sitting quietly in Texas as he heard that Hurricane Katrina, bearing down on the Gulf Coast, was going to be ''the Big One." Dressed in a suit coat even though he was on vacation, he looked like a president but did not act like one. Despite the warning on Sunday, Aug. 28, Bush let several crucial days slip by before he rallied the resources of the federal government to deal with this epochal disaster.
\nhttp://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/03/05/the_lie_of_the_storm/ \n\n\u003d\u003d\u003d\n \n \nBush admin uses war on terror to justify war on journalists http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/05/rs.01.html\n\n\n\nPorts Deal Fearmongering by Edward S. Walker, Jr., TomPaine.com The facts about U.S. port security do not support the election-year rhetoric. \nhttp://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/03/06/ports_deal_fearmongering.php \n\u003d\u003d\u003d\nKnight Ridder wants NYT and WP to acknowledge its stories http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id\u003d11164\nRomenesko Memos On Feb. 7, Knight Ridder reported on a State Department reorganization that sidelined career arms control experts who don\'t share the Bush administration\'s mistrust of international arms negotiations and agreements. The Washington Post published a similar story two weeks later. On Thursday, the New York Times reported that fines for mine safety violations are down in the Bush administration. Knight Ridder reported that in January. Knight Ridder\'s Washington editors want both papers to acknowledge their stories. Posted at 12:55:04 PM \n",1]
);
//-->

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/03/05/the_lie_of_the_storm/
===


Bush admin uses war on terror to justify war on journalists http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/05/rs.01.html
Ports Deal Fearmongering by Edward S. Walker, Jr., TomPaine.com The facts about U.S. port security do not support the election-year rhetoric. http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=s7nbmtbab.0.yltbmtbab.tiniiyn6.149445&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tompaine.com%2Farticles%2F2006%2F03%2F06%2Fports_deal_fearmongering.php
===
Knight Ridder wants NYT and WP to acknowledge its stories http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=11164
Romenesko Memos On Feb. 7, Knight Ridder reported on a State Department reorganization that sidelined career arms control experts who don't share the Bush administration's mistrust of international arms negotiations and agreements. The Washington Post published a similar story two weeks later. On Thursday, the New York Times reported that fines for mine safety violations are down in the Bush administration. Knight Ridder reported that in January. Knight Ridder's Washington editors want both papers to acknowledge their stories. Posted at 12:55:04 PM
\nSATURDAY, MARCH 4, 2006 Calame won\'t recommend that the Times mention KR\'s story http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id\u003d11170\n\nRomenesko Memos Washington Post New York Times public editor Byron Calame responds to Knight Ridder Washington editor Clark Hoyt\'s complaint about KR not getting credit in a Times story on mine safety violation fines: "I believe The Times\'s March 2 article was based on \'a data analysis by The New York Times\' that constituted original work. ...Bottom line, Clark, I don\'t believe it was unethical of The Times not to refer to the earlier articles. So, as public editor, I won\'t be urging the The Times to publish any acknowledgment of the K-R article." (Read Hoyt\'s response \nhttp://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id\u003d11171\nand Deborah Howell\'s column \nhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/03/AR2006030302222.html\n \naddressing Hoyt\'s memo.\nSchanberg calls ombuds\' responses "defensive and unconvincing" (Letters) http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id\u003d11172\n\n\u003d\u003d\u003d\u003d\nThe opening statements from the February 28 hearing on "Wartime Executive Power and the NSA\'s Surveillance Authority" may be found here: ",1]
);
//-->

SATURDAY, MARCH 4, 2006 Calame won't recommend that the Times mention KR's story
http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=11170
Romenesko Memos Washington Post New York Times public editor Byron Calame responds to Knight Ridder Washington editor Clark Hoyt's complaint about KR not getting credit in a Times story on mine safety violation fines: "I believe The Times's March 2 article was based on 'a data analysis by The New York Times' that constituted original work. ...Bottom line, Clark, I don't believe it was unethical of The Times not to refer to the earlier articles. So, as public editor, I won't be urging the The Times to publish any acknowledgment of the K-R article." (Read Hoyt's response http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=11171
and Deborah Howell's column
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/03/AR2006030302222.html
addressing Hoyt's memo.
Schanberg calls ombuds' responses "defensive and unconvincing" (Letters) http://poynter.org/forum/view_post.asp?id=11172
====
The opening statements from the February 28 hearing on "Wartime Executive Power and the NSA's Surveillance Authority" may be found here:
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_hr/index.html#nsa2
\nThe view that the NSA surveillance activity is illegal was elaborated in a legal memorandum that was presented to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court last week by the Center for National Security Studies and the Constitution Project. See: \nhttp://www.constitutionproject.org/article.cfm?messageID\u003d145 \nAlso last week, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) introduced legislation to establish "to investigate the instances of warrantless wiretapping and spying on U.S. citizens by the National Security Agency and other departments of Government." See his March 2 introductory statement and the text of his bill here: \nhttp://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_cr/s2362.html \n\u003d\u003d\u003d \n\n\n\n\n\nCONSTITUTIONAL LAW, EDUCATION LAW, GOVERNMENT LAW, MILITARY LAWRumsfeld v. Forum for Academic & Institutional Rights, Inc., No. 04–1152 (U.S.S.C. March 06, 2006)Because Congress could require law schools to provide equal access to military recruiters without violating the schools\' freedoms of speech or association, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals erred in holding that the Solomon Amendment likely violates the First Amendment. \nTo read the full text of this opinion, go to:http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/us/000/041152.html",1]
);
//-->
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_hr/index.html#nsa2
The view that the NSA surveillance activity is illegal was elaborated in a legal memorandum that was presented to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court last week by the Center for National Security Studies and the Constitution Project. See: http://www.constitutionproject.org/article.cfm?messageID=145
Also last week, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) introduced legislation to establish "to investigate the instances of warrantless wiretapping and spying on U.S. citizens by the National Security Agency and other departments of Government." See his March 2 introductory statement and the text of his bill here: http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_cr/s2362.html
===
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, EDUCATION LAW, GOVERNMENT LAW, MILITARY LAWRumsfeld v. Forum for Academic & Institutional Rights, Inc., No. 04–1152 (U.S.S.C. March 06, 2006)Because Congress could require law schools to provide equal access to military recruiters without violating the schools' freedoms of speech or association, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals erred in holding that the Solomon Amendment likely violates the First Amendment. To read the full text of this opinion, go to:http://laws.lp.findlaw.com/us/000/041152.html
\nSOME NEW DOD DIRECTIVES\nThe constant administrative churning of the defense policy process\nhas yielded several notable new Department of Defense directives\nand instructions, such as the following.\nU.S. policy on handling classified NATO information is addressed in\n"United States Security Authority for North Atlantic Treaty\nOrganization Affairs," DoD Directive 5100.55, February 27, 2006:\nhttp://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/d5100_55.pdf\nContinuity of military operations "under all circumstances across\nthe spectrum of threats" is prescribed in "Defense Continuity Plan\nDevelopment," DoD Instruction 3020.42, February 17, 2006:\nhttp://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/i3020_42.pdf\nAn updated Instruction entitled "Technical Surveillance\nCountermeasures (TSCM) Program" was issued by Under Secretary of\nDefense for Intelligence Stephen A. Cambone on February 22, 2006:\nhttp://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/i5240_05.pdf\n \nJOUSTING OVER THE SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE\n"I am increasingly concerned that the Senate Intelligence Committee\nis unable to carry out its critically important oversight and\nthreat assessment responsibilities due to stifling partisanship\nthat is exhibited through repeated calls by Democrats on the\ncommittee to conduct politically-motivated investigations," wrote\nSenate Majority Leader Bill Frist in a March 3 letter to Minority",1]
);
//-->

SOME NEW DOD DIRECTIVES
The constant administrative churning of the defense policy process
has yielded several notable new Department of Defense directives
and instructions, such as the following.
U.S. policy on handling classified NATO information is addressed in
"United States Security Authority for North Atlantic Treaty
Organization Affairs," DoD Directive 5100.55, February 27, 2006:
http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/d5100_55.pdf
Continuity of military operations "under all circumstances across
the spectrum of threats" is prescribed in "Defense Continuity Plan
Development," DoD Instruction 3020.42, February 17, 2006:
http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/i3020_42.pdf
An updated Instruction entitled "Technical Surveillance
Countermeasures (TSCM) Program" was issued by Under Secretary of
Defense for Intelligence Stephen A. Cambone on February 22, 2006:
http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/i5240_05.pdf

JOUSTING OVER THE SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE
"I am increasingly concerned that the Senate Intelligence Committee
is unable to carry out its critically important oversight and
threat assessment responsibilities due to stifling partisanship
that is exhibited through repeated calls by Democrats on the
committee to conduct politically-motivated investigations," wrote
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist in a March 3 letter to Minority
\nLeader Sen. Harry Reid.\nhttp://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_cr/frist030306.pdf\n"I agree with Senator Frist," Senator Reid replied, "the\nRepublican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee has been\nbogged down by partisanship."\n"When faced with strong evidence that the Bush Administration has\nmisused intelligence..., time and again the Senate Intelligence\nCommittee has ducked its responsibilities and refused to hold the\nAdministration accountable. The recent record of the\nRepublican-controlled committee is most notable for its abdication\nof authority and responsibility," Sen. Reid said.\nhttp://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_cr/reid030306.html\n\u003d\u003d\u003d\u003d\nDahr Jamail Follows the Trail of Torture\nhttp://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx\u003dx&pid\u003d65894\n\u003d\u003d\u003d\n \n\n\'Abritrary\' Detention Fueling \'Dire\' Situation in Iraq: Amnesty\nhttp://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0305-01.htm \n\u003d\u003d\u003d\n ",1]
);
//-->

Leader Sen. Harry Reid.
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_cr/frist030306.pdf
"I agree with Senator Frist," Senator Reid replied, "the
Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee has been
bogged down by partisanship."
"When faced with strong evidence that the Bush Administration has
misused intelligence..., time and again the Senate Intelligence
Committee has ducked its responsibilities and refused to hold the
Administration accountable. The recent record of the
Republican-controlled committee is most notable for its abdication
of authority and responsibility," Sen. Reid said.
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2006_cr/reid030306.html
====
Dahr Jamail Follows the Trail of Torture
http://www.tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?emx=x&pid=65894
===

'Abritrary' Detention Fueling 'Dire' Situation in Iraq: Amnestyhttp://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0305-01.htm
===

Published on Sunday, March 5, 2006 by the \nlndependent/UK \n\nUK Ministers Back \'Terminator\' GM Crops\nWebsite reveals plan to scrap prohibition on seeds that threaten Third World farmers with hunger \nby Geoffrey Lean\n \nMinisters are trying to scrap an international agreement banning the world\'s most controversial genetic modification of crops, grimly nicknamed "terminator technology", a move which threatens to increase hunger in the Third World. \n\nTheir plans, unveiled in a new official document buried in \n \nhttp://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article349331.ece\n\u003d\u003d\u003d\u003d\n \n \nPakistanis revile Bush visit\n \nBY JAMES RUPERTSTAFF CORRESPONDENTMarch 4, 2006\nISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistanis shut down their country with a nationwide strike and protests Friday as President George W. Bush flew here from India for talks with President Pervez Musharraf.After Air Force One landed at an air base in Rawalpindi Friday night -- with window shades down and running lights turned off -- Bush\'s entourage was whisked into a bubble of protection and official welcome \n\n \nPakistani officials said they deployed 6,000 police in Rawalpindi and Islamabad to enforce calm. The eastern end of Islamabad, where the main government buildings are clustered, was sealed off by police and decorated as though for Christmas with strings of tiny white lights on fences, bushes, trees and curbsides. The lights surrounded Musharraf\'s presidential palace, a heavily defended compound where Bush attended a formal dinner. \n",1]
);
//-->
Published on Sunday, March 5, 2006 by the
lndependent/UK
UK Ministers Back 'Terminator' GM Crops
Website reveals plan to scrap prohibition on seeds that threaten Third World farmers with hunger
by Geoffrey Lean

Ministers are trying to scrap an international agreement banning the world's most controversial genetic modification of crops, grimly nicknamed "terminator technology", a move which threatens to increase hunger in the Third World.
Their plans, unveiled in a new official document buried in

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article349331.ece
====


Pakistanis revile Bush visit

BY JAMES RUPERTSTAFF CORRESPONDENTMarch 4, 2006
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistanis shut down their country with a nationwide strike and protests Friday as President George W. Bush flew here from India for talks with President Pervez Musharraf.After Air Force One landed at an air base in Rawalpindi Friday night -- with window shades down and running lights turned off -- Bush's entourage was whisked into a bubble of protection and official welcome

Pakistani officials said they deployed 6,000 police in Rawalpindi and Islamabad to enforce calm. The eastern end of Islamabad, where the main government buildings are clustered, was sealed off by police and decorated as though for Christmas with strings of tiny white lights on fences, bushes, trees and curbsides. The lights surrounded Musharraf's presidential palace, a heavily defended compound where Bush attended a formal dinner.
\nhttp://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wopaki0304,0,1419046.story?coll\u003dny-homepage-bigpix2005 \n\n\u003d\u003d\n \n06 March 2006In light of recent developments in Pakistan and in South Asia with the India-U.S. nuclear deal, PINR recommends you read its past analysis on Pakistan that was widely commented on in Pakistani and Indian dailies when first released in the Fall of 2005: \n\n"Pakistan: a Geopolitical Crux"http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac\u003dview_report&report_id\u003d337\n \n \nTheir Master\'s Voice\nBy \nMax Rodenbeck \n\nMessages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden\n \nedited and with an introductionby Bruce Lawrence, translated from the Arabic by James Howarth\n \nVerso, 292 pp., $16.95 (paper)\n\n",1]
);
//-->

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-wopaki0304,0,1419046.story?coll=ny-homepage-bigpix2005
==

06 March 2006In light of recent developments in Pakistan and in South Asia with the India-U.S. nuclear deal, PINR recommends you read its past analysis on Pakistan that was widely commented on in Pakistani and Indian dailies when first released in the Fall of 2005:
"Pakistan: a Geopolitical Crux"http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=337

Their Master's Voice
By
Max Rodenbeck
Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden
edited and with an introductionby Bruce Lawrence, translated from the Arabic by James Howarth

Verso, 292 pp., $16.95 (paper)

\nby Peter L. Bergen\n \nFree Press, 444 pp., $26.00\n1.\n \n \n \nhttp://www.nybooks.com/articles/18750\n \n \n \n\'The Biggest Secret\'\n \nBy \nThomas Powers \n\nState of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration \n\nby James Risen\n \nFree Press, 240 pp., $26.00\n1.\n \n \nhttp://www.nybooks.com/articles/18730\n \n\n2300 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq, Thousands Seriously Wounded, Tens of Thousands of Iraqis Killed. For What? For a Lie? \n\n \n \n",1]
);
//-->
The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda's Leader

by Peter L. Bergen

Free Press, 444 pp., $26.00
1.



http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18750



'The Biggest Secret'

By
Thomas Powers
State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration
by James Risen

Free Press, 240 pp., $26.00
1.


http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18730

2300 U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq, Thousands Seriously Wounded, Tens of Thousands of Iraqis Killed. For What? For a Lie?



http://icasualties.org/oif/
\n\u003d\u003d\u003d\n \n \nFirebrand director Spike Lee has found an unlikely new target for his latest spray: the secretary of state. \nSays Lee: "I dislike Condoleezza Rice more than [President] Bush. The thing about it is that she\'s gotten a free ride from black people." \nOh no, he didn\'t. \n"People say, \'She\'s so successful\' and \'Look at her position as a black woman.\' She is a black woman who grew up in Birmingham, Ala., and said that she never experienced a day of racism in her life," Lee tells the April issue of Stuff magazine. \n\n"Condi, stop smoking that crack!" \n"I know you love your Ferragamo shoes, but come on. While people were drowning in New Orleans, she was going up and down Madison Ave. buying Ferragamo shoes. Then she went to see \'Spamalot.\'" \nYou heard the man, Madame Secretary. Put down the crack pipe.\n \nhttp://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/396582p-336150c.html\n\u003d\u003d\u003d\n\n\n\n\n\nDriller killers\' spread a new horror in Iraq\nHala Jaber\n\n\n\n\n\nTHERE was no sign of danger as Mohammed Sammarai arrived at his brother Mustafa\'s home for lunch last week, no hint that this would be their last meal together. \n\n\n \n ",1]
);
//-->
http://icasualties.org/oif/
===


Firebrand director Spike Lee has found an unlikely new target for his latest spray: the secretary of state.
Says Lee: "I dislike Condoleezza Rice more than [President] Bush. The thing about it is that she's gotten a free ride from black people."
Oh no, he didn't.
"People say, 'She's so successful' and 'Look at her position as a black woman.' She is a black woman who grew up in Birmingham, Ala., and said that she never experienced a day of racism in her life," Lee tells the April issue of Stuff magazine.
"Condi, stop smoking that crack!"
"I know you love your Ferragamo shoes, but come on. While people were drowning in New Orleans, she was going up and down Madison Ave. buying Ferragamo shoes. Then she went to see 'Spamalot.'"
You heard the man, Madame Secretary. Put down the crack pipe.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/396582p-336150c.html
===

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MICHAEL ROLOFF http://www.facebook.com/mike.roloff1?ref=name exMember Seattle Psychoanalytic Institute and Society this LYNX will LEAP you to all my HANDKE project sites and BLOGS: http://www.roloff.freehosting.net/index.html "MAY THE FOGGY DEW BEDIAMONDIZE YOUR HOOSPRINGS!" {J. Joyce} "Sryde Lyde Myde Vorworde Vorhorde Vorborde" [von Alvensleben] contact via my website http://www.roloff.freehosting.net/index.html