Daniel Ellsberg on US plans to invade Iran

From The Next War

By Daniel Ellsberg

A hidden crisis is under way. Many government insiders are aware of serious plans for war with Iran, but Congress and the public remain largely in the dark.

... We face today a crisis similar to those of 1964 and 2002, a crisis hidden once again from the public and most of Congress. Articles by Seymour Hersh and others have revealed that, as in both those earlier cases, the president has secretly directed the completion, though not yet execution, of military operational plans—not merely hypothetical “contingency plans” but constantly updated plans, with movement of forces and high states of readiness, for prompt implementation on command—for attacking a country that, unless attacked itself, poses no threat to the United States: in this case, Iran.

According to these reports, many high-level officers and government officials are convinced that our president will attempt to bring about regime change in Iran by air attack; that he and his vice president have long been no less committed, secretly, to doing so than they were to attacking Iraq; and that his secretary of defense is as madly optimistic about the prospects for fast, cheap military success there as he was in Iraq.

Even more ominously, Philip Giraldi, a former CIA official, reported in The American Conservative a year ago that Vice President Cheney’s office had directed contingency planning for “a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons” and that “several senior Air Force officers” involved in the planning were “appalled at the implications of what they are doing—that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack—but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objection.”

Several of Hersh’s sources have confirmed both the detailed operational planning for use of nuclear weapons against deep underground Iranian installations and military resistance to this prospect, which led several senior officials to consider resigning. Hersh notes that opposition by the Joint Chiefs in April led to White House withdrawal of the “nuclear option”—for now, I would say. The operational plans remain in existence, to be drawn upon for a “decisive” blow if the president deems it necessary.

Many of these sources regard the planned massive air attack—with or without nuclear weapons—as almost sure to be catastrophic for the Middle East, the position of the United States in the world, our troops in Iraq, the world economy, and U.S. domestic security. Thus they are as deeply concerned about these prospects as many other insiders were in the year before the Iraq invasion. That is why, unlike in the lead-up to Vietnam or Iraq, some insiders are leaking to reporters. But since these disclosures—so far without documents and without attribution—have not evidently had enough credibility to raise public alarm, the question is whether such officials have yet reached the limit of their responsibilities to our country.

Assuming Hersh’s so-far anonymous sources mean what they say—that this is, as one puts it, “a juggernaut that has to be stopped”—I believe it is time for one or more of them to go beyond fragmentary leaks unaccompanied by documents. That means doing what no other active official or consultant has ever done in a timely way: what neither Richard Clarke nor I nor anyone else thought of doing until we were no longer officials, no longer had access to current documents, after bombs had fallen and thousands had died, years into a war. It means going outside executive channels, as officials with contemporary access, to expose the president’s lies and oppose his war policy publicly before the war, with unequivocal evidence from inside.

Simply resigning in silence does not meet moral or political responsibilities of officials rightly “appalled” by the thrust of secret policy. I hope that one or more such persons will make the sober decision—accepting sacrifice of clearance and career, and risk of prison—to disclose comprehensive files that convey, irrefutably, official, secret estimates of costs and prospects and dangers of the military plans being considered. What needs disclosure is the full internal controversy, the secret critiques as well as the arguments and claims of advocates of war and nuclear “options”—the Pentagon Papers of the Middle East. But unlike in 1971, the ongoing secret debate should be made available before our war in the region expands to include Iran, before the sixty-one-year moratorium on nuclear war is ended violently, to give our democracy a chance to foreclose either of those catastrophes.

The personal risks of doing this are very great. Yet they are not as great as the risks of bodies and lives we are asking daily of over 130,000 young Americans—with many yet to join them—in an unjust war. Our country has urgent need for comparable courage, moral and civil courage, from its public servants. They owe us the truth before the next war begins.

Tagged: usa, military, war, peace, nuclear, iran, vietnam, iraq, war+on+terror

Israel admits to using phosphorus bombs in Lebanon

"Israel has acknowledged for the first time that it attacked Hezbollah targets during the second Lebanon war with phosphorus shells. White phosphorus causes very painful and often lethal chemical burns to those hit by it, and until recently Israel maintained that it only uses such bombs to mark targets or territory.

"The announcement that the Israel Defense Forces had used phosphorus bombs in the war in Lebanon was made by Minister Jacob Edery, in charge of government-Knesset relations. He had been queried on the matter by MK Zahava Gal-On (Meretz-Yahad).

"'The IDF holds phosphorus munitions in different forms,' Edery said. 'The IDF made use of phosphorous shells during the war against Hezbollah in attacks against military targets in open ground.'

"Edery also pointed out that international law does not forbid the use of phosphorus and that 'the IDF used this type of munitions according to the rules of international law.'

"Edery did not specify where and against what types of targets phosphorus munitions were used. During the war several foreign media outlets reported that Lebanese civilians carried injuries characteristic of attacks with phosphorus, a substance that burns when it comes to contact with air.

"In one CNN report, a casualty with serious burns was seen lying in a South Lebanon hospital.

"In another case, Dr. Hussein Hamud al-Shel, who works at Dar al-Amal hospital in Ba'albek, said that he had received three corpses 'entirely shriveled with black-green skin,' a phenomenon characteristic of phosphorus injuries."
Haaretz via South News

White phosphorus (weapon) at Wikipedia

Tagged: war+crimes, israel, army, military, lebanon

Bush thinking of 'replacing' Iraqi government?

A whole new definition of Democracy

"Bush's Midas touch has turned Democracy into a sort of fundamentalism -- a stand-in for whatever is in the Bush admin's best interest.

"So now that the Iraqi government is grower further and further from the Bush administration, in response to the needs of its actual constituency, it looks like the administration may be looking into changing the regime it installed to change the Saddam regime."
AlterNet (Click the short video at top-right of the page).

Lid dip to Nora from Extra!Extra!.

Tagged: bush, usa, iraq

Corporate torture in Iraq

"In 2003, Haider Muhsin Saleh, was living in Dearborn Michigan. A former opponent of Saddam Hussein, he had once been imprisoned and tortured by Saddam's secret police in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Upon being released he had fled to Sweden and become a Swedish citizen. When the Hussein regime fell, Mr. Saleh heeded the United States' call for expatriates to return to and rebuild Iraq. He did so with his own funds. Upon his arrival in September of 2003 he was detained and sent to the same Abu Ghraib prison where he had been previously tortured by Saddam Hussein. Instead of getting a chance to rebuild his country he became prisoner #151138 and was subjected to 'interrogation.'

"Mr. Saleh's genitals were roped
to those of other prisoners"

"Mr. Saleh's genitals were roped to those of other prisoners; his penis stretched with a rope and beaten with a stick; his own semen poured on his head; his naked body poured cold water upon it in the dead of winter; his naked body shocked with an electric stick; his neck wrapped with a belt which allowed him to be dragged; his head beaten with a pistol and slammed against a wall; his anus probed; his body urinated upon. Yet this 'interrogation' was different than the others. It was conducted not by soldiers but average American citizens, serving as contractors with major American corporations, CACI and Titan.

"In discussions about the corporate beneficiaries of the War in Iraq, prominent companies like Halliburton are discussed often. What remains under-reported and under-appreciated is the fact that this war has afforded a vast collection of corporations to reap the benefits of lucrative government contracts. A number of such companies are involved in supervising, maintaining, and providing support for the numerous prisons in Iraq in the areas of interrogation, interpretation, and translation.

"In 2004, a major Philadelphia law firm, the Center For Constitutional Rights, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Chicago School of Law, and a handful of volunteers a group of lawyers in the United States brought a civil suit on behalf of Mr. Saleh and the hundreds of others Iraqi prisoners abused and tortured by American contractors working for CACI and Titan. The thirty one count complaint accused CACI and Titan of a whole host of common law torts (such as assault and battery), as well as violations of international human rights, and a RICO (Racketeer Influenced & Corrupt Organizations ACT) conspiracy. The essential theory of the case was that CACI and Titan had a financial motive to increase the amount of interrogation they conducted. The longer the 'interrogations' went the more they got paid. By 2004, Titan was earning 96% of its revenue from government contracts ..."
Counterpunch

What is the Titan Corporation?
What is CACI International?
What are private military corporations?
CACI covered at rotten.com

Tagged: usa, iraq, war+on+terror, corporations, human+rights, torture

Is Google evil?

"Internet privacy? Google already knows more about you than the National Security Agency ever will. And don’t assume for a minute it can keep a secret. YouTube fans--and everybody else--beware.

"Google Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the two former Stanford geeks who founded the company that has become synonymous with Internet searching, and you’ll find more than a million entries each. But amid the inevitable dump of press clippings, corporate bios, and conference appearances, there’s very little about Page’s and Brin’s personal lives; it’s as if the pair had known all along that Google would change the way we acquire information, and had carefully insulated their lives—putting their homes under other people’s names, choosing unlisted numbers, abstaining from posting anything personal on web pages.

"That obsession with privacy may explain Google’s puzzling reaction last year, when Elinor Mills, a reporter with the tech news service cnet, ran a search on Google ceo Eric Schmidt and published the results: Schmidt lived with his wife in Atherton, California, was worth about $1.5 billion, had dumped about $140 million in Google shares that year, was an amateur pilot, and had been to the Burning Man festival. Google threw a fit, claimed that the information was a security threat, and announced it was blacklisting cnet’s reporters for a year. (The company eventually backed down.) It was a peculiar response, especially given that the information Mills published was far less intimate than the details easily found online on every one of us. But then, this is something of a pattern with Google: When it comes to information, it knows what’s best.

"From the start, Google’s informal motto has been 'Don’t Be Evil,' and the company earned cred early on by going toe-to-toe with Microsoft over desktop software and other issues. But make no mistake. Faced with doing the right thing or doing what is in its best interests, Google has almost always chosen expediency. In 2002, it removed links to an anti-Scientology site after the Church of Scientology claimed copyright infringement. Scores of website operators have complained that Google pulls ads if it discovers words on a page that it apparently has flagged, although it will not say what those words are. In September, Google handed over the records of some users of its social-networking service, Orkut, to the Brazilian government, which was investigating alleged racist, homophobic, and pornographic content.

"Google’s stated mission may be to provide 'unbiased, accurate, and free access to information,' but that didn’t stop it from censoring its Chinese search engine to gain access to a lucrative market (prompting Bill Gates to crack that perhaps the motto should be “Do Less Evil”). Now that the company is publicly traded, it has a legal responsibility to its shareholders and bottom line that overrides any higher calling.

"So the question is not whether Google will always do the right thing — it hasn’t, and it won’t. It’s whether Google, with its insatiable thirst for your personal data, has become the greatest threat to privacy ever known, a vast informational honey pot that attracts hackers, crackers, online thieves, and—perhaps most worrisome of all—a government intent on finding convenient ways to spy on its own citizenry ..."
Mother Jones

Tagged: google, internet, liberty, privacy, civil+rights

OUT OF IRAQ: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now

Simon & Schuster's release notice for the new book:

OUT OF IRAQ: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now

By George S. McGovern and William R. Polk

Former Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern and veteran Middle East expert William Polk call for a phased withdrawal of American troops from Iraq to begin by December 31, 2006, and to be completed within six months, in their new book, OUT OF IRAQ: A Practical Plan for Withdrawal Now (Simon & Schuster; October 3, 2006; $15.00). McGovern and Polk are blunt in their judgment – now shared by many senior military commanders, intelligence officers, and diplomats – that the Bush Administration's decision to invade and occupy Iraq was a "calamitous mistake." They present an incisive analysis of the way they believe Americans were misled into the Iraq war and assess the damage it has caused to Americans, Iraqis, and U.S. standing in world affairs. But their unique contribution to the ongoing debate about the war is a highly specific, 24-point plan for how to stop the hemorrhaging and get out of Iraq with the least possible human and financial cost.

McGovern and Polk write: "Changing a misguided course would not, as some have charged, be a sign of weakness that would encourage our enemies and dishearten our friends; rather, it would be a sign of strength and good sense. It is neither wise nor patriotic to continue an ill-conceived blunder that is wasting the lives of young American soldiers and Iraqi civilians while threatening the moral and fiscal integrity of the nation we all love. It is now a matter of great urgency, in the interests of both the United States and Iraq, for us to begin systematically bringing our troops home and starting the healing process."

As the authors note, more than 2,500 Americans have been killed in Iraq, more than 16,000 have been wounded, and more than 40,000 have suffered severe psychological injury. No one knows how many Iraqi civilians have been killed, but estimates run from 30,000 to 100,000. The war is currently costing the United States $10 million per hour, $237 million per day, $ 7 billion per month. According to the most comprehensive estimates, the material costs of the war will ultimately reach about /$2 trillion /– about $8,000 for every man, woman, and child in America.

How to Get Out of Iraq
After more than three years of warfare and occupation in Iraq, a graceful exit cannot be accomplished perfectly. Costs will have to be paid, the authors warn. But the longer we delay in facing realities, the higher those costs will be. Managing them is better than continuing to incur more. To that end, McGovern and Polk lay out a detailed plan to show how our exit could be accomplished in such a way as to minimize the damage done both to Iraq and to America. The proposed steps include:

• The withdrawal of all foreign troops, including our own. Staying in Iraq is not an option. Even among Americans who were the most eager to invade Iraq, probably a majority now urge that we find a way out. They include civilian strategists, senior military commanders and combat soldiers. Withdrawal is not only a political imperative but also a strategic requirement. As the American command and senior civil and military officers have repeatedly admitted, Iraq has become the primary recruiting and training ground for terrorists. McGovern and Polk suggest that phased withdrawal should begin on or before December 31, 2006, with a promise to make every effort to complete it by June 30, 2007.

• The Iraqi government would be wise to request the short-term services of an international force, including Arab and Muslim troops, to police the country during and immediately after the period of American withdrawal.

• If requested, America should do all it can to assist the Iraqi government in creating and training a national police force during the period of withdrawal. The authors suggest that the American withdrawal package should include a provision of $1 billion for this purpose – roughly the cost of four days of the American occupation.

• The United States should immediately release all prisoners of war to the Iraqi government and close its detention centers.

• America should not encourage Iraq to reconstitute a large, heavily armed military. In the past, Iraqi armies have been a threat to civil institutions rather than a defense force. America cannot prevent the reconstitution of an Iraqi army, but it should not, as it is currently doing, encourage it at an estimated cost of $2.2 billion.

• The withdrawal of American forces must include immediate cessation of work on U.S. military bases. Fourteen "enduring bases" for American troops are now under construction in Iraq. The largest five are already massive, amounting to virtual cities. Closing the bases is doubly important: for America, they are expensive and will be redundant; for Iraqis, they symbolize a hated occupation and would prevent any Iraqi government from feeling independent. Absent an American withdrawal and deactivation of the military bases, the insurgency will almost certainly continue.

• The U.S., along with its embassy, should withdraw from the Green Zone, the vast American complex in the center of Baghdad.

• At least 25,000 mercenaries (euphemistically known as Personal Security Detail) are now active in Iraq, provided by a whole new industry of more than 50 "security" firms. They must be withdrawn rapidly and completely. Although hired either directly or indirectly with U.S. government funds, these men operate outside the control of the British and American armies and are not subject to Iraqi justice; they are literally the "loose cannons" of the Iraq war. The way to withdraw them is simple: stop the payments we make to them.

• The United States must assist the Iraqis in digging up and destroying land mines and unexploded ordnance, and in cleaning up depleted uranium in artillery shells and their targets.

• America should make a generous contribution toward the rebuilding of the Iraqi infrastructure destroyed during the war, the value of which has been estimated at between $100 billion and $200 billion.

• The U.S. should aid in the repair of damage to Iraqi cultural sites like Babylon by U.S. military facilities.

• The United States should pay for an independent audit of billions of dollars generated by the sale of Iraqi petroleum that was turned over to the American-run Coalition Provisional Authority for the benefit of the Iraqi people. Much of this money, along with other funds paid to American contractors, has been misused or misappropriated.

• America should make reparations to Iraqi civilians for loss of lives and property it caused in the war and during the occupation. Possible compensation for deaths and grievous wounds would add up to the cost of about three days of the American occupation of Iraq, but it would make an enormous difference in Iraqi attitudes toward the United States.

• The United States should encourage with large-scale assistance various UN agencies as well as non-governmental organizations to help reconstitute the devastated Iraqi public health system.

• Finally, America should express its condolences for the large number of Iraqis killed, incapacitated, incarcerated and/or tortured. This gesture may seem difficult to many Americans, but it would do more to assuage the sense of hurt in Iraq than all of the above actions.

McGovern and Polk estimate that the cost of the programs they propose might total roughly $13.25 billion. Assuming that these programs save America two years of occupation, they would offset expenditures of at least $350 billion and more likely $400 billion to $500 billion. Much more important but of incalculable value are the savings to be measured in what otherwise are likely to be large numbers of shattered bodies and lost lives.

"We are not recommending 'cut and run'"
The authors write: "Let us be absolutely clear: we are not recommending what opponents of withdrawal call 'cut and run.' What we are proposing will avoid the danger of being forced out; rather, American forces will leave in an orderly way, on a reasonable schedule and in a manner that will prevent further damage to American interests. Withdrawal will cause some damage. But damage is inevitable, no matter if we stay or leave."

McGovern and Polk are particularly alarmed by the prospect of what has been called the "long war" against the "universal enemy," now being advocated by some neoconservatives and others who refuse to recognize that the Iraq war has been a terrible miscalculation. This is a recipe for disaster, say McGovern and Polk, that could bring upon us, our children and our grandchildren the nightmare described by George Orwell in his novel /1984/. Then we would not even know for what or against whom we were fighting, but we would be in danger of losing the very things we were supposedly fighting to preserve.

OUT OF IRAQ puts forth a clear, responsible and practical plan for getting out of America's most excruciating conflict since Vietnam, from one of our most respected statesmen and a leading international policy expert. The systematic and sensible program for a speedy troop withdrawal from Iraq that millions of Americans have been waiting for, it is certain both to spark controversy and to advance discussion of the issue that has become the central concern of our national life.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

George S. McGovern, the Democratic Party's nominee for president in
1972, served in the House of Representatives from 1957 to 1961, ran the Food for Peace Program under President Kennedy and served in the Senate for eighteen years. He was the president of the Middle East Policy Council in Washington, D.C., for six years, and then served as ambassador to the UN Agencies on Food and Agriculture in Rome under President Clinton. He holds the Distinguished Flying Cross for service as a bomber pilot in World War II and the Presidential Medal of Freedom for humanitarian service. He has homes in South Dakota and Montana.

William R. Polk studied at Harvard and Oxford and taught at Harvard until he was appointed the member of the State Department's Policy Planning Council responsible for the Middle East in 1961. He served as head of the interdepartmental task force on the Algerian war and was a member of the crisis management subcommittee during the Cuban missile crisis. In 1965, he became professor of history at the University of Chicago and founded its Middle Eastern Studies Center. In 1967, he became president of the Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Affairs. At the request of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, he negotiated a ceasefire between Israel and Egypt in 1970. In 1972, he founded a consulting and investment company. The author of several books on history, international relations and the Middle East, he now lives and writes in the south of France.

Tagged: iraq, war+on+terror, bush, usa

654,000 stuffs happen

By Marty Kaplan

"Since the Iraq invasion, 654,000 more Iraqis have died because of it than would have died in a comparable period before it, according to a new Johns Hopkins University study just published on the online site of the respected British medical journal, The Lancet.

"The Bush Administration pegs the number around 30,000. Percentages can't do justice to that discrepancy.

"The Johns Hopkins findings will no doubt be roundly attacked, but they can't be blamed on mischief by George Soros or the liberal media. And even if you think the number should be a tad lower -- say, half-a-million civilian casualties -- it's hard to dismiss it, as Rummy did with the initial post-invasion looting and violence, as the bad stuff that happens to good liberators.

"Half-a-million is the kind of shocking casualty toll we might have anticipated from one of Saddam's WMDs being sold to al-Qaeda and being unleashed on an American city.

"Half-a-mlllion dead from violence is what you might expect from a campaign of genocide, ethnic cleansing, a horrible civil war.

"The one thing it's not is acceptable collateral damage from a humanitarian effort to liberate a people from a dictator ..."
Huffington Post

393 related news articles »

The Lancet study in PDF format

Tagged: iraq, war, war+crimes, war+on+terror, usa, bush, rumsfeld

Major protest against Coca-Cola in India

"Over a thousand villagers protested at Coca-Cola’s north India headquarters in Gurgaon [last week], demanding that the company take immediate actions to clean up its act in India or leave India.

"The protest at Coca-Cola’s headquarters comes at the end of the 'Water Rights Tour', where residents from the village of Mehdiganj in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh traveled across the state to raise awareness on the issue of groundwater depletion and pollution by the Coca-Cola company and Pepsico.

"Close to 1,500 villagers also protested at the Parliament of India in Delhi on Tuesday, demanding that the government take action against the Coca-Cola company and Pepsico.

"The village of Mehdiganj and surrounding villages have been experiencing severe water shortages since Coca-Cola started bottling operations in the village, and the remaining groundwater and the soil have been polluted as a result of the bottling plant’s operations.

"A recent study of water conditions in eight villages within a 3 kilometer radius of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Mehdiganj found that the number of wells that had dried up increased seven-fold since Coca-Cola commenced operations in the area, and on an average, the water levels in the wells in the area had dropped 18 feet.

"The Central Pollution Control Board of India, the primary environmental regulatory agency, has also confirmed high levels of lead, cadmium and chromium in the sludge being produced by the Coca-Cola plant."
Scoop

Coca-Cola sucking communities dry :: Boycott Coca-Cola Campaign

ICLEI Water Campaign :: Campaign to Hold Coca-Cola Accountable

Wilson's Almanac Action Page :: Wilson's Almanac Action Photos

Tagged: environment, progressive, activism, water

Israel used new weapon in Gaza Strip: TV claim

"An investigative report to be aired on Italian television Wednesday raises the possibility that Israel has used an experimental weapon in the Gaza Strip in recent months, causing especially serious physical injuries, such as amputated limbs and severe burns.

"The weapon is similar to one developed by the U.S. military, known as DIME, which causes a powerful and lethal blast, but only within a relatively small radius.

"The Italian report is based on the eyewitness accounts of medical doctors in the Strip, as well as tests carried out in an Italian laboratory. The investigative team is the same one that exposed, several months ago, the use by U.S. forces in Iraq of phosphorous bombs, against Iraqi rebels in Faluja."
Haaretz.com via SouthNews

Tagged: army, military, israel, lebanon

'Darfur aid situation critical'

Rome - "Sudan's Darfur region remains the most pressing humanitarian problem in the world, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on Monday in a report detailing food emergencies in 40 countries.

"'The already precarious food supply situation (in Darfur) may worsen if deteriorating security disrupts the main harvest due to start in the coming few weeks,' the UN agency warned in a report.

"'The main concern is the declining stocks and whether supplies will be adequate to meet demand without world prices surging to even higher levels,' said the FAO report.

"'While the situation in Darfur remains the most critical, elsewhere in eastern Africa, despite improved prospects for the 2006/07 crops in some areas, floods, erratic rains and conflict-related displacement have negatively affected the food situation,' said the report.

Cumulative impact of HIV/Aids

"'Most of the region's pastoral areas have yet to recover from the successive poor rains that severely affected livestock and resulted in acute food shortages and migration of thousands of people in search of water and food,' it added.

"'In Somalia, a severe food crisis is expected to persist throughout the country for the rest of 2006, affecting at least 1.8 million people,' said the UN agency.

"'The majority of the population of the Central African Republic is facing food insecurity following disruption in production and marketing activities as a result of civil strife,' it said.

"In southern Africa, about 542 000 tons of cereals is needed 'due largely to inadequate production, high unemployment, low purchasing power and the cumulative impact of HIV/Aids', said the report."
News24

Darfur food situation may worsen :: Forty countries face food shortages, Darfur crisis is the most ... ::
Africa: 40 Countries Face Food Shortages Worldwide :: all 12 news articles »

Tagged: aids, poverty, hunger, food, sudan, darfur, africa

In case I disappear

By William Rivers Pitt

" ... If you write a letter to the editor attacking Bush, you could be deemed as purposefully and materially supporting hostilities against the United States. If you organize or join a public demonstration against Iraq, or against the administration, the same designation could befall you. One dark-comedy aspect of the legislation is that senators or House members who publicly disagree with Bush, criticize him, or organize investigations into his dealings could be placed under the same designation. In effect, Congress just gave Bush the power to lock them up.

"By writing this essay, I could be deemed an 'enemy combatant.' It's that simple, and very soon, it will be the law. I always laughed when people told me to be careful. I'm not laughing anymore.

"In case I disappear, remember this. America is an idea, a dream, and that is all. We have borders and armies and citizens and commerce and industry, but all this merely makes us like every other nation on this Earth. What separates us is the idea, the simple idea, that life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are our organizing principles. We can think as we please, speak as we please, write as we please, worship as we please, go where we please. We are protected from the kinds of tyranny that inspired our creation as a nation in the first place ..."
Truthout

Tagged: usa, liberty, authoritarianism, bush

Warner: Iraq `drifting sideways'

"Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, offered his bleakest public assessment of the war in Iraq on Thursday after returning from a daylong tour of the country.

"While continuing to support the U.S. mission and counseling patience, the Virginia Republican said security had deteriorated in key regions and the Iraqi government has yet to assert control.

"'It seems to me the situation is simply drifting sideways,' Warner told reporters after completing his eighth trip to Iraq. 'It was a markedly different trip from ones before. We just did not have the freedom and ability to travel where I have been before.'"
Chicago Tribune

Tagged: iraq, war+on+terror, usa, military

Numbers of Iraq displaced rise inexorably

Iraq - "The number of Iraqis displaced by violence since the bombing in Samarra in late February this year has now increased to nearly 190,000 in the 15 central and southern governorates with 9,000 people on average being displaced weekly.

"IOM, which is monitoring and assessing newly displaced populations in Iraq through its partners while working closely with the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration (MoDM), says the displacement is increasingly looking like permanent settlement and there is urgent need for shelter and employment solutions for these families."
International Organization for Migration

Tagged: iraq, war+on+terror

On Friday, September 29, it's mourning in America

The following is from an editorial from Buzzflash:

Just as it is hard to fully comprehend the grief of a beloved friend or relative killed needlessly in an accident, it is excruciatingly painful to try to come to terms with the pernicious betrayal of our Constitution and liberty that occurred in the Senate on Thursday, September 28.

In the past week alone, we have seen factual evidence that belies the need for the power play/pre-election attack on our Constitution. In fact, these developments indicate that giving Bush even more unprecedented power is not only unconscionable; it puts the national security of the United States of America in peril:

Bush’s newly "revamped" top 16 intelligence agencies reached the conclusion that the Iraq War had become a primary cause in the growth of terrorists and the increased threat of terrorism to the United States. Bush called the report of his own top intelligent agencies "naïve." Meanwhile, a second U.N. report came to the same conclusion as the American spy agencies. The U.N. also reported that more Iraqis may now be being tortured under U.S. occupation than were tortured under Saddam Hussein.

And there is a second National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report just on Iraq that the Bush Administration will not release until after the election. So it clearly must be even more harsh in its assessment of the Iraq War than the White House "selective conclusions" Executive Summary of the first NIE, which was revealed by the New York Times.

On September 25, retired American generals provided testimony that Donald Rumsfeld and the Bush Administration threatened to fire any member of the Pentagon brass that provided a plan for keeping the peace in Iraq after the invasion. They testified that Rumsfeld, who has no combat experience, has made peremptory, uninformed and arrogant decisions that have resulted in the needless deaths of American Gis and Iraqis.

Bob Woodward, for many years the loyal Royal Court reporter of the Bush Administration, now has been stricken with a case of reality. In his latest book, he apparently reports, according to "60 Minutes," "that the Bush administration has not told the truth regarding the level of violence, especially against U.S. troops, in Iraq. He also reveals key intelligence that predicts the insurgency will grow worse next year."

According to Woodward, insurgent attacks against coalition troops occur, on average, every 15 minutes, a shocking fact the administration has kept secret. "It’s getting to the point now where there are eight-, nine-hundred attacks a week. That's more than 100 a day. That is four an hour attacking our forces," says Woodward.

The situation is getting much worse, says Woodward, despite what the White House and the Pentagon are saying in public. "The truth is that the assessment by intelligence experts is that next year, 2007, is going to get worse and, in public, you have the president and you have the Pentagon [saying], 'Oh, no, things are going to get better,'" he tells Wallace. "Now there’s public, and then there’s private. But what did they do with the private? They stamp it secret. No one is supposed to know," says Woodward.

"The insurgents know what they are doing. They know the level of violence and how effective they are. Who doesn't know? The American public," Woodward tells Wallace.

Woodward’s view is confirmed by the National Intelligence Estimate and a report that this summer set a record for Iraqi civilian deaths in recent years.

What’s more, a poll in Iraq reported in the Washington Post indicates 60% of Iraqis support attacks on American GIs. We repeat, while Bush is saying we are fighting the terrorists in Iraq, the overwhelming majority of Iraqis believe killing American soldiers is justifiable! The population we are supposedly liberating and bestowing democracy on in Iraq supports the deadly assaults on our military.

For 59% of Americans, Iraq is already in a civil war. And the "confidence in Iraq policies" dropped to 20% in the U.S.
And, according to the Washington Post, "A strong majority of Iraqis want U.S.-led military forces to immediately withdraw from the country, saying their swift departure would make Iraq more secure and decrease sectarian violence, according to new polls by the State Department and independent researchers."

In addition, "Almost four in five Iraqis say the U.S. military force in Iraq provokes more violence than it prevents."

Meanwhile, the Bush vaunted efforts to train the Iraqi police and army are being proven a sham. An Iraqi police academy that was built as a war profiteering gift to some American firm is a total failure, symbolic of the Bush Administration’s fiasco in Iraq:
"A $75 million project to build the largest police academy in Iraq has been so grossly mismanaged that the campus now poses health risks to recruits and might need to be partially demolished, U.S. investigators have found. The Baghdad Police College, hailed as crucial to U.S. efforts to prepare Iraqis to take control of the country's security, was so poorly constructed that feces and urine rained from the ceilings in student barracks. Floors heaved inches off the ground and cracked apart. Water dripped so profusely in one room that it was dubbed ‘the rain forest.’"

We are losing the war in Afghanistan to a resurgent Taliban, who is being given safe harbor by our "major ally," Pakistan. And the leaders of Afghanistan and Pakistan aren’t even cooperating with each other.

We could go on and on. This is just the tip of the iceberg – all from just the last week ...
Buzzflash

Tagged: bush, iraq, disinfo, disinformation, war, peace, war+on+terror, cia

Aussies give Iraq war a big thumbs down

"The annual Lowy Institute for International Policy public opinion poll shows the vast bulk of Australians do not believe the war in Iraq has reduced the threat of terrorism.

"The figures are in accord with a United States intelligence report released last week, which finds Iraq is a breeding ground for terrorism.

"The Lowy Institute survey finds 84 per cent of Australians polled do not believe the war in Iraq has reduced the threat of terrorism.

"The poll shows 91 per cent of those surveyed believe the war has damaged the United States' reputation in the Muslim world.

"It also finds the majority of people surveyed do not believe the war will lead to the spread of democracy in the Middle East.

"A total of 85 per cent of respondents believe the experience in Iraq should make nations more cautious about using military force to deal with rogue states.

"The institute's director, Allan Gyngell, says there is 'no doubt' now about what Australians think of the war."
ABC News

See also Doctors push for Iraq pull-out: "Doctors are starting a national campaign calling on the Federal Government to pull Australian troops out of Iraq, saying soldiers are suffering psychological trauma."

Tagged: australia, iraq, usa, war+on+terror

Book says Bush ignored urgent warning on Iraq

WASHINGTON - "The White House ignored an urgent warning in September 2003 from a top Iraq adviser who said that thousands of additional American troops were desperately needed to quell the insurgency there, according to a new book by Bob Woodward, the Washington Post reporter and author. The book describes a White House riven by dysfunction and division over the war.

"The warning is described in 'State of Denial,' scheduled for publication on Monday by Simon & Schuster. The book says President Bush’s top advisers were often at odds among themselves, and sometimes were barely on speaking terms, but shared a tendency to dismiss as too pessimistic assessments from American commanders and others about the situation in Iraq.

"As late as November 2003, Mr. Bush is quoted as saying of the situation in Iraq: 'I don’t want anyone in the cabinet to say it is an insurgency. I don’t think we are there yet.'"
Common Dreams

President's Advisor denies Bush in 'state of denial

White House Accuses Woodward of Bias :: US on defensive over Woodward book :: Reuters AlertNet :: U.S. News & World Report :: Bloomberg :: The Age :: all 721 news articles »

Tagged: usa, iraq, war+on+terror, bush, disinfo, disinformation, cia, war

Brazil's biofuel plan 'unsustainable'

"Brazil's president Lula recently wrote a short essay summing up the benefits of biofuels for his country (earlier post). He spoke of a new development paradigm, based on biofuels production, which not only brings energy security and environmental benefits, but social development to the many rural poor as well. Through biodiesel and ethanol, the state reduces its fossil fuel import bills (money which can be spent on poverty eradication and reducing social inequalities) and recognizes the productive capacities of the poor instead of viewing them as mere recipients of aid. Lula added that such a paradigm can be applied elsewhere in the South, notably in Africa.

"Giulio Volpi of WWF-Brazil later responded to the President's vision and partly disagrees. He says the Brazilian government is promoting the use of biodiesel produced from soya beans to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, by clearing large areas of Amazonian rainforest to grow soybeans. This is too high an environmental price for this policy to be sustainable."
Biopact

Green Fuel's Dirty Secret

Tagged: bioenergy, biofuel, sustainability, brazil, oil, energy, environment

Habeas Corpus, RIP (1215 - 2006)

By Molly Ivins

"Oh dear. I’m sure he didn’t mean it. In Illinois’ Sixth Congressional District, long represented by Henry Hyde, Republican candidate Peter Roskam accused his Democratic opponent, Tammy Duckworth, of planning to 'cut and run' on Iraq.

"Duckworth is a former Army major and chopper pilot who lost both legs in Iraq after her helicopter got hit by an RPG. 'I just could not believe he would say that to me,' said Duckworth, who walks on artificial legs and uses a cane. Every election cycle produces some wincers, but how do you apologize for that one?

"The legislative equivalent of that remark is the detainee bill now being passed by Congress. Beloveds, this is so much worse than even that pathetic deal reached last Thursday between the White House and Republican Sens. John Warner, John McCain and Lindsey Graham. The White House has since reinserted a number of 'technical fixes' that were the point of the putative 'compromise.' It leaves the president with the power to decide who is an enemy combatant.

"This bill is not a national security issue—this is about torturing helpless human beings without any proof they are our enemies. Perhaps this could be considered if we knew the administration would use the power with enormous care and thoughtfulness. But of the over 700 prisoners sent to Gitmo, only 10 have ever been formally charged with anything. Among other things, this bill is a CYA for torture of the innocent that has already taken place.

"Death by torture by Americans was first reported in 2003 in a New York Times article by Carlotta Gall. The military had announced the prisoner died of a heart attack, but when Gall saw the death certificate, written in English and issued by the military, it said the cause of death was homicide. The 'heart attack' came after he had been beaten so often on this legs that they had 'basically been pulpified,' according to the coroner.

"The story of why and how it took the Times so long to print this information is in the current edition of the Columbia Journalism Review. The press in general has been late and slow in reporting torture, so very few Americans have any idea how far it has spread. As is often true in hierarchical, top-down institutions, the orders get passed on in what I call the downward communications exaggeration spiral.

"For example, on a newspaper, a top editor may remark casually, 'Let’s give the new mayor a chance to see what he can do before we start attacking him.'

"This gets passed on as 'Don’t touch the mayor unless he really screws up.'

"And it ultimately arrives at the reporter level as 'We can’t say anything negative about the mayor.'

"The version of the detainee bill now in the Senate not only undoes much of the McCain-Warner-Graham work, but it is actually much worse than the administration's first proposal. In one change, the original compromise language said a suspect had the right to 'examine and respond to' all evidence used against him. The three senators said the clause was necessary to avoid secret trials. The bill has now dropped the word 'examine' and left only 'respond to.'

"In another change, a clause said that evidence obtained outside the United States could be admitted in court even if it had been gathered without a search warrant. But the bill now drops the words 'outside the United States,' which means prosecutors can ignore American legal standards on warrants ..."
Truthdig

Tagged: torture, usa, human+rights, civil+rights, war+on+terror, authoritarianism, liberty