Left I on the News  

Quote of the Day

"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned the U.S. government Sunday that if it tried to invade Venezuela or impose a trade blockade against his country, he would shut off Venezuelan oil supplies to the United States."

"Please note that paragraph 7 contains language that may be offensive to some readers."

"In his speech, Chavez also called Bush an 'asshole' for, he said, supporting a short-lived coup in 2002 that briefly toppled him."

Happy Birthday Frederic!

Those wacky British and their respect for law

"Britain's Army chiefs refused to go to war in Iraq amid fears over its legality just days before the British and American bombing campaign was launched, The Observer can today reveal.

"The disclosure came as it also emerged that [Lord] Goldsmith [the Attorney-General] was forced hastily to redraft his legal advice to Tony Blair to give an 'unequivocal' assurance to the armed forces that the conflict would not be illegal.

"It is understood that it was only after seeing Goldsmith's final legal advice, given days before the outbreak of war, that [Chief of Defence Staff Sir Michael] Boyce gave his approval [for British troops to participate in the invasion of Iraq]."

"The attorney general initially told Tony Blair that an invasion of Iraq would be illegal without a new resolution from the United Nations and only overturned his advice when Washington ordered Downing Street to find legal advice which would justify the war.

"The devastating claim will be made by eminent QC and Labour peer Baroness Helena Kennedy in a television interview today. Her position as a member of the highest echelons of the legal community will add credence to her claims that the British government could find only two senior lawyers in the UK prepared to back the case for the invasion."

A real pinpoint shooting in Gaza

"An Israeli army officer has been suspended after an unarmed Palestinian youth was shot in the back at close range as he waved goodbye to a delegation of visiting United Nations aid workers. Yousef Bashir, 15, remains in serious condition at a hospital. He is partially paralyzed beneath his shoulder blades.

"'The boy was no more than five metres from us, waving goodbye after our visit, with his back to the Israeli observation post,' said one of the U.N. field staff. 'It was absolutely quiet. But then a single shot was fired. The boy fell to his knees and then he collapsed on the ground. It was like slow-motion video. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind the bullet came from the Israeli army position. They were only about 20 metres away. There was nothing else going on. There is no other explanation.'"

"The shooting comes as the most severe incident in the Bashir family's long struggle with the IDF. Nearly three years ago, the army confiscated a large swath of the family property to increase the buffer zone for the Jewish settlers of nearby Kfar Darom. In the process, the family said their greenhouses were demolished, nearly 120 date palms were uprooted and IDF actually moved into the home, establishing military positions on the second and third floors, replete with a closed-circuit television camera and camouflage netting.

"Khalil Bashir, a school principal in the nearby town of Deir Al-Ballah, has refused to vacate the home and has moved the family - elderly mother, wife and five children - to a single room on the ground floor.

"On Feb. 3 - just as the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon unveiled plans for a unilateral withdrawal of the Israeli settlements in Gaza, including Kfar Darom - the Bashir family and other property owners in the neighbourhood were served written orders by the IDF for additional land confiscations."

Sniper attacks like this one on unarmed Palestinians are, in fact, routine occurances, as are the demolishing of date trees and all the other indignities suffered by the Bashir family. The only thing distinguishing this incident is that the Israeli soldiers had the audacity to carry it out in front of U.N. workers. If they had just waited two minutes until the U.N. workers left, they could have claimed that the boy was "throwing rocks" or "looked like he was pulling a gun out of his pocket" and the incident wouldn't have even been reported.

And still, the evacuation of the illegal Israeli settlements is being "discussed," as if there is anything to discuss.

Another "pinpoint" strike in Gaza

"An Israeli helicopter fired missiles at a car in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing three people - including an Islamic Jihad militant - and wounding 15 others, doctors said.

No, of course it wasn't:

"The airstrike was carried out in a densely populated residential area, and three children were among the wounded, said doctors at Gaza's Shifa Hospital. One girl was in critical condition and another boy was seen bleeding from his head."

Shooting the messenger

"Clare Short is unlikely to be expelled from Labour despite a growing backlash over her UN bugging claims, senior party figures indicated today.

"Labour chairman Ian McCartney said he was not 'going to make her a martyr'."

There is talk of Short's "claims" and "reckless allegations." I know "the best defense is a good offense," but considering this talk comes from people who made "claims" and "reckless allegations" about the imminent threat from stockpiles of weapons of mass destructions in Iraq, isn't this a bit much?

He works hard for his money

Elections in Iraq

The "evil empire"

"In January 1982, President Ronald Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the economy of the Soviet Union through covert transfers of technology that contained hidden malfunctions, including software that later triggered a huge explosion in a Siberian natural gas pipeline, according to a new memoir by a Reagan White House official.

"Reed writes that the pipeline explosion was just one example of "cold-eyed economic warfare" against the Soviet Union that the CIA carried out under Director William J. Casey during the final years of the Cold War.

"'In order to disrupt the Soviet gas supply, its hard currency earnings from the West, and the internal Russian economy, the pipeline software that was to run the pumps, turbines, and valves was programmed to go haywire, after a decent interval, to reset pump speeds and valve settings to produce pressures far beyond those acceptable to pipeline joints and welds,' Reed writes.

"'The result was the most monumental non-nuclear explosion and fire ever seen from space,' he recalls, adding that U.S. satellites picked up the explosion. Reed said in an interview that the blast occurred in the summer of 1982."

Headline of the Day

"U.S. to use land mines timed to self-destruct" (Source)

How deep can Bush pile the slander against Cuba?

"President Bush gave the federal government new powers to keep American boats out of Cuba...Bush listed a long list of grievances with Cuba, some of them decades old, in explaining his Thursday evening move.

"The president said the passage of American boats into Cuban waters could bring injury or death to anyone on the vessels, 'due to the potential use of excessive force, including deadly force, against them by the Cuban military.'"

"'Moreover, such boats and ships bring money and commerce into Cuba' Bush said. Castro's government may use such cash to support terrorist activities, he said."

"Bush said Castro's government had used sometimes deadly force against American and Cuban citizens over the past decade and might do so again."

"Further, he said top Cuban officials have said repeatedly that the United States intended to invade Cuba, despite explicit denials from the United States."

"U.S. officials said Cuba has not been cooperating in achieving the goal of safe, orderly and legal immigration."

And last but definitely not least:

"The Bush administration has accused Cuba of meddling in Latin America, sometimes in collaboration with the country's main South American ally, Venezuela."

I'd say Bush appears to be divorced from reality, but that would imply there was evidence he was ever married.

Press cheerleading for U.S. foreign policy is nothing new

"In 1920 [Walter Lippmann] and a colleague, Charles Merz, wrote in...an article in The New Republic magazine...that the [New York] Times had reported the imminent or actual end of the Soviet regime 'not once or twice – but 91 times – in the two years from November, 1917 to November 1919.'"

Peaceful protest, violent response

"At least two Palestinians were killed Thursday and dozens were wounded when Israeli security forces clashed with thousands of protestors demonstrating against the separation fence in the West Bank village of Bidu, west of Jerusalem, Palestinian sources said."

In some articles, the Israelis claim the Palestinians were "throwing stones." No doubt a few were, most likely at the tanks and bulldozers, in an almost symbolic attempt to stop them. Deadly force would hardly be the appropriate response even if they were. As far as I know not a single Israeli soldier has ever been killed by a "stone thrower."

Once again, from David Rovics:

On one side is the fighter jet
On the other side the stone
On one side is the slave
On the other is the throne
For the many there are checkpoints
While foreign soldiers rule the street
For one side there is victory
But the people don't accept defeat

The word you need to know is occupation
The very definition of a land without a nation
And if peace is what you're after then let us not deceive
It will come on the day the tanks return to Tel Aviv

Compassionate conservatism

"With Haiti inching toward civil war, President George W. Bush said yesterday the U.S. Coast Guard would turn back any Haitians fleeing in boats to U.S. shores."

And in today's job news...

And here in Santa Clara County, the heart of Silicon Valley, a "very, very ugly" county budget picture will result in 1,200 layoffs in the coming year. Among other consequences, "the county will be forced to turn away 2,000 to 4,000 mentally ill patients," and "severe slashes also are expected in public health programs, including the Prenatal Substance Abuse Program, which helps about 70 pregnant women year-round deliver healthy babies."

All this in the richest, most technologically-advanced country the world has ever known. Something is very wrong. It's called capitalism, the system which puts profits (and the wars which are necessary to keep the profits coming) before people.

Here's how it looks on the other side of the aisle:

"With the creation of new jobs and the implementation of several programs in 2003, Cuba attained a 68% employment rate by the end of last year, representing a five point increase over eight years, as was announced yesterday during the annual meeting of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

"That indicator is in the range of target figures for the European Union for 2010, while at the same time, unemployment in Cuba stands at 2.3%, one of the lowest rates in the world, noted Minister Alfredo Morales Cartaya.

"Last year, a total of 128,122 new jobs were created, 48% of them in the eastern provinces and mainly benefiting young people and women."

Quote of the Day

"We are now approaching a long presidential election campaign, in the course of which issues on which I have strong views will be widely discussed and debated. I would not wish those views to be attributed to you or the president at any time, and especially not during a presidential campaign."

Knight-Ridder suggests this answer:

"Perle's resignation coincides with the publication of a book he co-authored calling for 'bold action' against Iran, North Korea and other 'sponsors of terrorism,' including U.S. ally Saudi Arabia. The book, An End To Evil: How to Win The War on Terrorism, co-authored with David Frum, argues that Iran and North Korea 'present intolerable threats to American security.'

"'We must move boldly against them both and against all the other sponsors of terrorism as well: Syria, Libya and Saudi Arabia. And we don't have much time,' the book argues."

The (Gun) shot that may start an avalanche

"Dramatic new evidence pointing to serious doubts in the government about the legality of the war in Iraq was passed to government lawyers shortly before they abandoned the prosecution of the GCHQ whistleblower Katharine Gun.

"The Guardian has learned that a key plank of the defence presented to the prosecutors shortly before they decided to abandon the case was new evidence that the legality of the war had been questioned by the Foreign Office.

"It is contained in a document seen by the Guardian. Sensitive passages are blacked out, but one passage says: 'The defence believes that the advice given by the Foreign Office Legal Adviser expressed serious doubts about the legality (in international law) of committing British troops in the absence of a second [UN] resolution.'

"It is understood that the FO legal team was particularly concerned about the lack of a second UN resolution authorising the use of force and pre-emptive military action."

The Independent has a nice background article on Katherine Gun's life and the events which led to the whistle-blowing incident.

Followup: Normon Solomon details the treatment of this story by the U.S. press, or rather the lack of it, not now, but before the invasion, during the Security Council debate, when Gun actually leaked the memo and when the story was highly relevant.

Gun (not) shy

BBC reports that "[Katherine Gun] walked free on Wednesday when the prosecution offered no evidence." Here's the best part of the article:

"The same [government] spokesperson suggested the case might have been dropped as Mrs Gun planned to argue she leaked the e-mail to save lives from being lost in a war, something that could persuade a jury and would lead to the reputation of the Official Secrets Act being damaged.

"Our correspondent said this suggested the government had made a political calculation that a random selection of a dozen jurors would be likely to be so instinctively anti-war than an acquittal would be likely."

Kerry (Heart) Greenspan

Back on the issue of Kerry and gay marriage, AP reports today that "Gay rights groups are going easy on Kerry" because, even though he opposes gay marriage, his position is better than Bush's. No doubt the same thing was said about Bill Clinton back when he was running against Bob Dole. That would, of course, be the Bill Clinton who brought us "Don't ask, don't tell" and signed the "Defense [sic*] of Marriage Act."

* Pronounced "sick"

Death in Palestine, then and now

In Palestine today, there's no question about who killed Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall, nor about the excessive blood and violence involved in their gruesome deaths. It was the Israelis. Or, as Ariel Sharon (not Left I) describes them: "the Jews." Rachel and Tom didn't die for anyone's sins. But they did die in an attempt to help free an oppressed people. May their deaths not have been in vain.

Donsense of the Day

"We have no plans to do anything. By that, I don't mean we have no plans. Obviously, we have plans to do everything in the world that we can think of. But we—there's no intention at the present time, or no reason to believe, that any of the thinking that goes into these things year in and year out would have to be utilized." - Donald Rumsfeld

Link via Cursor.

What delicious timing

Fox's owner, Rupert Murdoch, along with his wife and son, have already donated the maximum amount to George Bush's re-election campaign.

John Kerry on gay marriage

This is what supporting "Anybody but Bush" gets you.

Being a Harvard professor is no guarantee of intelligence

"Dershowitz...characterized the 15-judge panel of the ICJ as a 'kangaroo court,' likening it to a southern United States court during an era of heightened racial tension. 'The ICJ is not fit to handle the case because its judges take orders from their governments...This is a lawsuit involving the tyrannies versus the democracies, and since there are more tyrannies than democracies in the world, Israel will lose,' he said."

As if that wasn't enough, here's what Dershowitz says about the wall:

"I've examined the fence. A very, very small part of it is wall, most of it is a moveable fence. In fact, yesterday, much of it was moved and it will continue to move all the time."

Dershowitz makes a powerful argument...against tenure.

The other "School of the Americas"

Another 1,600 students from 21 countries begin medical studies
"As of March, more than 8,000 young people from Latin America, the Caribbean, some African countries and the United States will be receiving training as doctors. [60 of them from the United States, including 6 more in the latest group]"

You say you missed this story? Of course you did. A search of Google News for "Latin American School of Medical Studies" turns up precisely one article, the Granma article from which the above information is taken. Yahoo News turns up nothing at all.

Justice in America - Part II

"The Supreme Court, acting on a case that has become a cause celebre among capital punishment opponents, overturned the death sentence of a long-serving Texas inmate who claimed prosecutors played dirty and withheld evidence at his trial.

"[Delma] Banks was able to document how prosecutors kept quiet as key witnesses against Banks lied on the stand, and how the state hid those witnesses' links to police through round after round of appeals."

The "credenza defense" crumbles further

"George Bush set the US on the path to war in Iraq with a formal order signed in February 2002, more than a year before the invasion, according to a book published yesterday.

"Rumsfeld's War is by Rowan Scarborough, the Pentagon correspondent for the conservative Washington Times newspaper, which is known for its contacts in the defence department's civilian leadership.

"'On February 16 2002, Bush signed a secret national security council directive establishing the goals and objectives for going to war with Iraq, according to classified documents I obtained,' Mr Scarborough wrote, in an account of the 'global war on terrorism' as seen from the office of Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary.

"The next month, he writes, the head of central command, General Tommy Franks, conducted a 'major Iraq war exercise code-named 'Prominent Hammer', and in April he briefed the joint chiefs of staff on the invasion plan."

The battle is joined - Part II

When Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of a bus, it was the trigger that started something way bigger than one woman or one bus. San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, with the aid of more than 3000 couples who gratefully accepted his invitation to get married, may well have triggered the start of another epic battle. One person by themselves cannot change history - both Parks and Newsom stood on the shoulders of thousands of others. But one person can fire the shot which triggers an avalanche.

The battle is joined - Part I

Haiti

Justice in America

Is Scott Peterson guilty of killing his wife? I have no idea. Will he get a fair trial? It seems highly unlikely.

Political humor of the day

"The Democratic primary is down to a two-man race between John Edwards, who's worth 50 to 75 million dollars, and John Kerry, whose wife is worth between 500 and 700 million. So it's a classic battle - between the 'haves' and the 'really haves.'" - Jay Leno

Eyewitness reporting from Iraq

"Repeatedly, in Baghdad, Hillah, Tikrit, Mosul and Fallujah Iraqis have told me that they were robbed by American troops during raids and at checkpoints. Unless there is a monumental conspiracy on a nationwide scale by Iraqis, some of these reports must bear the stamp of truth.

"Travelling back from Fallujah to Baghdad after dark last month, I saw mortar explosions and tracer fire around 13 American bases--not a word of which was later revealed by the occupation authorities. At Baghdad airport last month, five mortar shells fell near the runway as a Jordanian airliner was boarding passengers for Amman. I saw this attack with my own eyes. That same afternoon, General Ricardo Sanchez, the senior US officer in Iraq, claimed he knew nothing about the attack, which--unless his junior officers are slovenly--he must have been well aware of."

Could there be any bigger contrast between Robert Fisk and the notorious Judith Miller of the "esteemed" New York Times, who recently admitted in a rare moment of candor: "My job isn't to assess the government's information and be an independent intelligence analyst myself. My job is to tell readers of The New York Times what the government thought about Iraq's arsenal"?

Understatements 'r' us

Economic Forecasts Were Off
"President Homer Simpson Bush last week caused a stir when he declined to endorse a projection, made by his own Council of Economic Advisers, that the economy would add 2.6 million jobs this year. But that forecast, derided as wildly optimistic, was one of the more modest predictions the administration has made about the economy over the past three years.

"Two years ago, the administration forecast that there would be 3.4 million more jobs in 2003 than there were in 2000. And it predicted a budget deficit for fiscal 2004 of $14 billion. The economy ended up losing 1.7 million jobs over that period, and the budget deficit for this year is on course to be $521 billion."

Those pesky logistics

"In letters last week to Amnesty International, Human Rights First and Human Rights Watch, a senior military official said it was unlikely that they would be allowed to attend any military tribunals at Guantanamo. The official, Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Hemingway, a chief legal adviser in the office of military commissions, wrote that space would be limited if and when tribunals were held at Guantánamo.

"'It is expected that limited courtroom seating and other logistical issues will preclude attendance by many who desire to observe military commission proceedings,' he wrote." (Source)

"More than 80 members of the news media, both from the United States and abroad, are expected to attend any tribunals, officials said."

Sharon - long on promises, short on action

"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon spoke in private conversations in the last few days of his intention to evacuate all the settlements in the Gaza Strip and 17 others in the West Bank."

"Israel will...ask the United States for a 'compensation package' in exchange for evacuating settlements in the Gaza Strip and West Bank."

And, the usual reminder that all the settlements are illegal under the Geneva Convention, as well as various U.N. resolutions. Not that either of those things carries much weight in this world. Unless the U.S. wants to use them as a justification for war against Iraq.

Remember this quote in August

We shall see. If so, it'll be a first.

Followup: Apparently Boston, where the Democrats will hold their convention, may not be as hospitable:

"Protesters at this summer's Democratic National Convention in Boston may be confined to a cozy triangle of land off Haymarket Square, blocked off from the FleetCenter and convention delegates by a maze of Central Artery service roads, MBTA train tracks, and a temporary parking lot holding scores of buses and media trucks.

"Under a preliminary plan floated by convention organizers, the 'free-speech zone' would be a small plot bounded by Green Line tracks and North Washington Street, in an area that until recently was given over to the elevated artery. The zone would hold as few as 400 of the several thousand protesters who are expected in Boston in late July." [Emphasis added]

Wiley Miller

Stop Nader?

The greatest healthcare system in the world...

How many times have you heard American politicians talk about the U.S. as having "the greatest healthcare system in the world"? Perhaps they should read this:

In health, Canada tops U.S.
"Our neighbors to the north live longer and pay less for care. The reasons why are being debated, but some cite the gap between rich and poor in the U.S.

"An impressive array of data shows that Canadians live longer, healthier lives than we do. What's more, they pay roughly half as much per capita as we do ($2,163 versus $4,887 in 2001) for the privilege.

"Exactly why Canadians fare better is the subject of considerable academic debate. Some policy experts say it's Canada's single-payer, universal health coverage system. Some think it's because our neighbors to the north use fewer illegal drugs and shoot each other less often with guns (though they smoke and drink with gusto, albeit somewhat less than Americans).

"Still others think Canadians are healthier because their medical system is tilted more toward primary care doctors and less toward specialists. And some believe it's something more fundamental: a smaller gap between rich and poor.

"'There isn't a single measure in which the U.S. excels in the health arena,' says Dr. Stephen Bezruchka, a senior lecturer in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington in Seattle. 'We spend half of the world's healthcare bill and we are less healthy than all the other rich countries.'

"'Fifty-five years ago, we were one of the healthiest countries in the world,' Bezruchka continues. 'What changed? We have increased the gap between rich and poor. Nothing determines the health of a population [more] than the gap between rich and poor.'"

No Platt Amendment for Iraq?

"Iraq's interim leaders said Sunday that they could not negotiate a formal agreement with the American military on maintaining troops in Iraq, and that the task must await the next sovereign Iraqi government.

"Members of the Iraqi Governing Council, appointed by the Americans in July, said they had reached a consensus that the issue was too momentous to handle without a popular mandate."

Political humor of the day

"I had a call from George Bush today. He wanted to know if I wanted to form an AWOL club." - Stephen Funk, Iraq war resister, just released after six months in the brig after going AWOL when ordered to go to Iraq

Civil rites

The Battle of Algiers redux...in Basra

"The family of an Iraqi headmaster who was seen being beaten with a rifle butt by British soldiers before they took him away, was told he had died in custody of a 'sudden heart attack'.

"But his son, who was also arrested, told The Independent on Sunday yesterday that he heard his father screaming as he was beaten, and the family says that the headmaster's body was bruised and covered in blood." (Source)

The end of the world as we know it

Pentagon tells Bush: climate change will destroy us
"Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters..

"A secret report, suppressed by US defence chiefs and obtained by The Observer, warns that major European cities will be sunk beneath rising seas as Britain is plunged into a 'Siberian' climate by 2020. Nuclear conflict, mega-droughts, famine and widespread rioting will erupt across the world.

"The document predicts that abrupt climate change could bring the planet to the edge of anarchy as countries develop a nuclear threat to defend and secure dwindling food, water and energy supplies. The threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism, say the few experts privy to its contents.

"'Disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life,' concludes the Pentagon analysis. 'Once again, warfare would define human life.'"

Ted Rall

The end of the universe is...not so near

Why do science writers make a mockery of themselves by printing such ridiculously, and impossibly, accurate "estimates" of almost totally unknowable things? The article which accompanies the graphic talks about the end occuring in 30 billion years, vs. "81.3 billion years" in the graphic, suggesting a rather wide margin of error in the data, to put it mildly, and even that is just a theory based on rather tenuous evidence, described in the article as "highly uncertain."

But my absolute favorite part of the article is this:

"The measurements raise new questions about NASA's decision, which is now being reviewed, to let the Hubble Space Telescope die a slow death in space over the next several years rather than trying another maintenance mission with the space shuttle."

The Terminator quakes in fear

The Battle of Algiers - ****

Coincidentally, that very same question came up yesterday when Democracy Now! replayed John Kerry's 1971 testimony before Congress. Evidently Lt. William Calley had recently been indicted for the atrocities at My Lai. Kerry acknowledges Calley's likely guilt, but suggest that the responsibility is far greater, extending to those who created the concept of "free-fire zones," those who train soldiers to shout "kill," and so on. It's a very interesting part of his testimony (which you can listen to at the link above), equally as memorable as the more famous "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam?" line. Too bad Kerry seems to have forgotten it.

Anyway, go see The Battle of Algiers as soon as you can. You can watch a trailer which will give you a nice flavor of the movie here and visit the "official movie site" with links to a variety of reviews (the New York Times one was quite interesting) here. And while you're at it, re-read the lyrics of David Rovics' Occupation, written about Palestine but just as relevant to Algeria, Iraq, and many other places and times. Or his equally relevant Resistance:

You can say that it's about the savages
You can say you have a better way to live
You can call it Manifest Destiny
You can talk of all your civilization will give
You can say that we're a thing of history
And progress is the future you will bring
You can send your armies to these mountains
You can say we'll prosper beneath your king

(Chorus)
But there will always be resistance
The next battle will always be near
As long as you have everything
There will be those who have nothing to fear
And little by little, or maybe all at once you will lose
Because our future is not yours to choose

La lucha continua.

British war crimes in Iraq

"It was dawn when the squad of British soldiers raided the Ibn Al Haitham hotel. Baha Mousa's night shift on the reception desk was coming to an end and his father had just arrived to drive him home.

"The soldiers ordered Baha, 26, to lie on the black tiled floor of the lobby with six other hotel employees, their hands on their heads.

"Troops searched the building and arrested the staff, driving them off to a British military base in Basra, southern Iraq. It was only a formality and the men would be released shortly, they said.

"Four days later Baha was dead.

"When his father, Daoud Mousa, a stout colonel in the Basra police force, arrived at the British military morgue to identify his son's body he was confronted with a bruised, bloodied and badly beaten corpse.

"'When they took the cover off his body I could see his nose was broken badly,' he said. 'There was blood coming from his nose and his mouth. The skin on his wrists had been torn off. The skin on his forehead was torn away and beneath his eyes there was no skin either. On the left side of his chest there were clear blue bruises and also on his abdomen. On his legs I saw bruising from kicking. I couldn't stand it.'

"Two other hotel staff, who have been questioned by investigators, described in interviews with the Guardian how they were repeatedly punched, kicked and forced to crouch in stress positions for two days and two nights.

"One of the survivors was so badly beaten he suffered kidney failure, according to British military medical records. None was ever found to have committed a crime.

"To date no British soldier has been arrested or charged in connection with Baha's death, or the beating of the six others.

"The death of Baha Mousa is not an isolated case. Military investigators are studying the cases of seven Iraqis who died between April and September. Six are thought to have died in British custody and one was shot.

"Families have been promised inquiries, condolences have been offered, witnesses have given filmed testimony but no British soldier has been charged with any crime in connection with the deaths."

Still more lies by the Bush administration uncovered

"The Central Intelligence Agency has acknowledged that it did not provide the United Nations with information about 21 of the 105 sites in Iraq singled out by American intelligence before the war as the most highly suspected of housing illicit weapons.

"Both George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, and Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, said the United States had briefed United Nations inspectors on all of the sites identified as 'high value and moderate value' in the weapons hunt."

"Senior administration officials said Friday night that Ms. Rice had relied on information provided by intelligence agencies when she assured Senator Levin, in a letter on March 6, 2003, that 'United Nations inspectors have been briefed on every high or medium priority weapons of mass destruction, missile and U.A.V.-related site the U.S. intelligence community has identified.'"

Of course, we know how much "value" was contained in those "high and moderate value" targets. Exactly as much as was contained in the low value targets. Bupkis. But the U.S. government did think there was a possibility that Iraq had weapons, and it appears that they wanted to ensure that Hans Blix & Co. did not find them, so that the U.S. could claim justification for the invasion once it happened and they did find the stockpiles. That would not only have justified the invasion itself, but also their public distrust in the ability of Blix to find the weapons and thus the "urgency" to rush to war. Didn't work out that way, as we all know. Those stubborn things called "facts" got in the way.

New use for the Hubble telescope uncovered

Fed Officials Say Jobs on Way Eventually
"A chorus of Federal Reserve officials tried on Friday to reassure Americans that new jobs will emerge to replace the millions of jobs lost in recent years, but warned workers must add skills to stay competitive."

As noted here before, this whole notion that "workers must add skills to stay competitive" is complete and utter nonsense. What skills could the call-center employee whose job has been outsourced to India have learned to "stay competitive" with that lower-wage Indian worker? And even if they, or a garment worker, or a steelworker, could somehow become trained to become a Ph.D. microbiologist to get a job working in the biotech industry, it is utter fantasy to think that there are, or will ever be, as many of those highly skilled jobs as there were of the ones which have been lost.

Political humor of the day

"President Bush said today the only time two men should ever be in bed together is when one is a lobbyist and the other is a politician" - Jay Leno

More flagrant lies from Colin Powell

"We have to keep in mind that in the larger scheme of things, the question of stockpiles isn't the main question we should focus on. He had the intention, the capability and the delivery system."

As I've written before, if this man had an ounce of integrity, he'd still be fifteen ounces short of a pound.

By the company they keep ye shall know them

Another portrait of one of the "worst of the worst"*

"Jamal al-Harith, also known as Jamal Udeen, a 35-year-old website designer from Manchester of Jamaican descent, claimed that he was on a backpacking holiday trekking from Pakistan to Iran when he was captured by the Taliban and imprisoned. Instead of freeing him, the Americans, when they came, sent him off to Cuba."

*According to Donald Rumsfeld

Job creation?

Mankiw does it again

"The latest edition [of the just-released Economic Report of the President] questions whether fast-food restaurants should continue to be counted as part of the service sector or should be reclassified as manufacturers.

"The reports asks 'When a fast-food restaurant sells a hamburger, for example, is it providing a 'service' or is it combining inputs to 'manufacture' a product?'"

Ludicrously, the report says the following:

"Sometimes, seemingly subtle differences can determine whether an industry is classified as manufacturing. For example, mixing water and concentrate to produce soft drinks is classified as manufacturing. However, if that activity is performed at a snack bar, it is considered a service."

The key thing about "service" is this - an economy cannot sustain itself on service. Imagine a small town which gets no tourism. These days, an awful lot of people can be employed in the town at Starbucks, McDonalds, Wal-Mart, etc., selling things to each other. But sooner or later, the shelves are bare, and someone's got to restock them. If the town isn't growing food to put back on the shelves of the Starbucks and McDonalds, and if it isn't manufacturing goods to put back on the shelves of Wal-Mart, the town is in big, big trouble. Somewhere, somehow, people actually have to grow things and make things. And if all that happens "somewhere else," the situation is simply not sustainable. Going back to the CEA's soda example, if there were actually a soda manufacturing plant in the town, they could sell those finished bottles of soda to neighboring towns, money would come back in, and everything would be in balance. But if the only soda being "manufactured" in the town is at McDonalds, the town is on a one-way street headed downhill.

Israel and the U.S.

"The Israeli air force took delivery Thursday of the first two of more than 100 US-built F-16I jets, a new generation of warplane which will soon make up the backbone of Israel's fleet.

"Experts say the ultra-sophisticated development of the battle-tested F16 Fighting Falcon, to be named Sufa (Storm in Hebrew), sports a much-increased range of 1,500 kilometres (around 930 miles) without needing in-flight refuelling, allowing them to reach anywhere in the Middle East.

"Media reports said this new capability could allow the Israeli Air Force (IAF) to hit suspected nuclear targets in Iran, as it did in Iraq in June 1981 when it bombed the Osirak reactor near Baghdad.

"Funding for the contract comes from US military aid to Israel which totals around two billion dollars per year."

US military vs. Iraqi civilians - the war crimes (and the lies) continue

And the U.S. military? They claim that "one 'guerilla' was killed and nine others were captured." The "collateral damage"? Not even worth mentioning.

Political humor of the day

"Today President Bush said he was troubled by gay people getting married in San Francisco. He said on important issues like this, the people should make the decision, not judges. Unless, of course, we're choosing a President. Then he prefers judges." - Jay Leno

Second outrageous headline in one day

"Case set to be dropped against GCHQ mole who blew whistle on US bugging"

Bush family values

Just when you thought the media couldn't get more sycophantic...

"5 Gitmo Guests Released To Brits"

Quote of the Day

"Give my regards to your tribes and to the Sunna clergy and tell them that Sistani 'kisses their hands' and begs them to unite with all Iraqis -- Shia, Kurds, Christian and Turkmen. You just unite, and count on me to stand up to the Americans!" - Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani (Source)

Democratic liberals speak out on gay marriage

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has an excellent idea: "I ask the President to meet Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin and discuss with them why they simply want the same rights as a couple of 51 years that my wife and I enjoy today.'' (Lyon and Martin, the pioneering lesbian couple who founded the very first lesbian organization Daughters of Bilitis in 1955, were the first couple to receive a same-sex marriage license issued by San Francisco) And while the President is discussing that with them, perhaps he can explain to them why his marriage is "threatened" by theirs.

Ricin goes the way of Iraqi WMD?

"NBC News has learned investigators are looking into the possibility that there never was any ricin attack in the first place.

Since ricin comes from the castor bean, and some nontoxic parts of the plant are used to make paper, it might be possible that the tests found traces of the plant [i.e., part of the paper], but not ricin."

John Edwards

The other shoe drops - or is it the tenth shoe? I've lost count.

"The United States justified the 1999 bombing of Yugoslavia with false claims of genocide being committed in Kosovo, an OSCE official and participant in peace talks during the war in the province said in comments published today.

"Bo Pellnas, a member of the OSCE mission in Belgrade, said there were some 1,200 OSCE observers in Kosovo who could confirm genocide did not take place, reports Sofia daily Monitor.

"Pellnas said he was certain the US had assisted secessionist guerrillas in the province since 1998, and saw them as a future ally in a ground assault on Belgrade." (Source)

Does the U.S. ever start a war without lying about it?

Have they tried Google?

"CIA agents have resorted to offering cash rewards on the world wide web in the increasingly desperate hunt for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

"The web page says cash will be paid for details of the 'location of stocks of recently made chemical or biological weapons, munitions, missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, or their component parts.'" (Source)

Quote of the Day

"The responsibility for every death in Iraq, be it soldier or civilian, Iraqi, American, British, or others, lies with Saddam Hussein, who chose war over complying with UN resolutions." - unidentified "Pentagon official," responding to a report by the Project on Defense Alternatives which estimates 6,000 civilian deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq and takes the Pentagon to task for refusing to count or even estimate those numbers.

John Kerry - who is he?

Followup: A new article in Editor & Publisher takes up the question of the culpability of the press (specifically the New York Times and it's star WMD reporter Judith Miller) in hyping the alleged existence of WMD in Iraq. The "press" may not yet be examining its own role, but at least the "meta-press" is.

Where some of the lost jobs went

"Prosecutors on Wednesday suggested former Tyco International Ltd. finance chief Mark Swartz was responsible for tens of thousands of lost jobs.

"Assistant District Attorney Marc Scholl accused Swartz of slashed expenses by cutting jobs and closing factories as Tyco made hundreds of company acquisitions while giving himself salary increases and buying lavish homes using company loans.

"Swartz is expected to be the only defense witness against charges he and former Tyco chairman Dennis Kozlowski looted Tyco of $600 million.

"During the last six years Kozlowski and Swartz ran the Bermuda-based conglomerate and initiated plans to cut more than 70,000 jobs."

The death toll soars in Palestine

"27 Palestinians have been killed and 147 others wounded by Israeli troops over the past week. The Palestinian death toll since September 2000, until February 13, reached 2,968 while the number of wounded was 38,727."

One more thing continues along with the slaughter. The deafening silence of the American press and politicians.

That didn't take long

Feb. 17, 2004: "Treasury Secretary John W. Snow distanced himself on Tuesday from the Bush administration's official prediction that the nation would add 2.6 million jobs by the end of this year."

We also learn that:

"Still stinging from criticism by Democrats about comments by a top White House aide in support of 'outsourcing,' or shifting jobs to low-wage countries, Mr. Snow said those remarks had been 'misinterpreted' and were not meant to condone the loss of American jobs."

"The movement of American factory jobs and white-collar work to other countries is part of a positive transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocation."

More of the same in today's news, as Siemens announces they "will relocate most of the 15,000 programming jobs in US and Western Europe to low-cost countries." Not to worry, though, there might be jobs for 45 of them if they can learn to make windows and doors. All part of that "positive transformation."

Economic "rebound"

But why is there any "rebound" at all? USA Today wants us to believe that "Most economists credit Bush's tax cuts in rebound." Unfortunately, the article from which this headline is taken quotes exactly one economist (from the investment firm Goldman Sachs) as making this claim, and then follows it with a list of four other reasons for the "rebound" (cuts in interest rates by the Federal Reserve, government spending, the sinking dollar, and the business cycle), and concludes with an accurate statement from a Harvard economics professor: "Economics is not a laboratory science like chemistry. We usually can't run controlled experiments and isolate the effect of any particular factor." However that doesn't stop Bush, or USA Today, from claiming that tax cuts are a "big reason" for the "rebound."

Political humor of the day

"The White House finally found one guy who says he kinda' remembers serving with President Bush on National Guard duty in Alabama. Amazing! Now if they can find someone who remember Bush working on an economic plan!"

"The White House is starting to backtrack a little bit on the whole National Guard thing. Like today they said that President Bush may not have actually attended the National Guard, but he did attend National Guard related program activities."

More on Wal-Mart

40 + 5 - 4800 = 1 Job-loss "recovery"

"Nearly seven months after textile giant Pillowtex shut down, wiping out 4,800 jobs in the largest mass layoff in North Carolina history, the hunt for work is growing more pressing.

"Of the 4,300 Pillowtex workers in Cabarrus and Rowan counties who lost their jobs, ESC officials estimate that 400 have found work. Perdue Farms' chicken-processing plant in Concord took about 50, and NorthEast Medical Center has hired about 25, ESC officials said.

"At least 1,500 have flooded local colleges, particularly Rowan-Cabarrus Community College, where many are wrestling with fractions or algebra after decades away from the classroom.

"Others have retired, or moved away.

"But perhaps as many as 1,800 people are like Eddie Cruey - still hunting for work."

Followup: For the mathematically challenged, let me note that 400 workers out of 4800 having found jobs is 8%. The remainder, 92%, are not working, seven months after being laid off. If you think this isn't typical, you're either delusional or your name is George Bush. Or both.

Racism in America

Jerry Bremer, the law of the land

"Bremer was asked what would happen if Iraqi leaders wrote into the interim charter that Islamic sharia law is the principal basis of legislation. 'Our position is clear,' Bremer replied. 'It can't be law until I sign it.'

"Bremer must sign all measures passed by the 25-member council before they can become law."

Although it has passed virtually unreported in the U.S. press, somewhere between 10,000 and 200,000 (!) people demonstrated in Spain yesterday, "demanding an immediate military withdrawal and the return of sovereignty to the Iraqi people." Hopefully they will be joined on March 20 by even larger numbers of Americans, and others around the world.

The New York Times covers for itself, and for Katherine Harris

It's no surprise, then, that the Times continues the coverup even in this editorial, which says "Florida voting rights advocates are bracing for a rerun of the mistakes of 2000." The fact, of course, and the Times knows this very well, is that the purging of tens of thousands of voters from the Florida voting rolls in 2000 was no "mistake."

BBC under attack

Quote of the Day

"No jury-rigged procedures can justify the shredding of the Geneva Conventions and violation of fundamental due-process rights. A once-a-year, non-independent review panel is now being held up as evidence of fair treatment. That is a sham. It's not justice to jail a man without charge for years, then offer him a chance to protest his innocence tarred by a presumption of guilt." - William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International, USA, referring to the status of prisoners at Guantanamo (Source)

In the article from which the quote is taken, Knight-Ridder also quotes Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Paul Butler, who claims that "detainees were sent [to Guantanamo] only after an arduous process that included an assessment by a team of military lawyers, intelligence officials and federal law-enforcement agents of the individual's possible threat. A general then reviewed each case, and a Pentagon panel in Washington gave the final go-ahead for the prisoner's transfer to Guantanamo." Right. And that's how 13-year-old Naqibullah, who was "standing next to some men with guns," ended up in Guantanamo. U.S. credibility on this issue is about as great as their credibility on claims of WMD in Iraq. None.

Gay marriage

Warmongers

Warmonger: One who advocates or attempts to stir up war.

"A joint British and American spying operation at the United Nations scuppered a last-ditch initiative to avert the invasion of Iraq, The Observer can reveal.

"Senior UN diplomats from Mexico and Chile provided new evidence last week that their missions were spied on, in direct contravention of international law.

"The former Mexican ambassador to the UN, Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, told The Observer that US officials intervened last March, just days before the war against Saddam was launched, to halt secret negotiations for a compromise resolution to give weapons inspectors more time to complete their work.

"Aguilar Zinser claimed that the intervention could only have come as a result of surveillance of a closed diplomatic meeting where the compromise was being hammered out. He said it was clear the Americans knew about the confidential discussions in advance. 'When they [the US] found out, they said, 'You should know that we don't like the idea and we don't like you to promote it.''"

More on the "worst of the worst"

"'I hadn't done anything, but they suspected me because I was standing next to some men who had guns,' he said.

"'I told them I was innocent. I don't even know how to use a gun.'"

Mass graves in Iraq

Health care in Iraq - a disaster "made in America"

"Are things going badly in Iraq? No, they're much, much worse, and with folks like Bremer in charge, the future's so dark they've gotta wear night-vision goggles."

"At Baghdad's Central Teaching Hospital for Children, gallons of raw sewage wash across the floors. The drinking water is contaminated. According to doctors, 80 percent of patients leave with infections they did not have when they arrived.

"'The word 'big' is not enough to express the disaster we are facing,' said Ahmed A. Muhammad, the hospital's assistant manager.

"'It's definitely worse now than before the war,' said Eman Asim, the Ministry of Health official who oversees the country's 185 public hospitals. 'Even at the height of sanctions, when things were miserable, it wasn't as bad as this. At least then someone was in control.'

"While Health Ministry officials say no comprehensive health survey has been conducted since the war, several doctors here said that infant mortality is up. Of 48 babies recently brought to the neonatal clinic at Yarmuk Hospital, 19 died, said Tala al-Awqati, a pediatrician. 'That is twice as many as last year,' she said.

"Dr. Asim, the Health Ministry official, recently inspected 40 hospitals around the country. 'There were days I came back crying,' she said."

"To be sure, Iraq's hospitals were in bleak shape before the American-led invasion last year. International isolation and the sanctions imposed after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 had already shattered a public health care system that was once the jewel of the Middle East. Crucial machines stopped working. Drugs were in short supply."

"American officials say things will get better. It will just take time. Last year, $550.6 million was spent on public health in Iraq, according to the Health Ministry. This year, it is expected to increase to $1.7 billion, including nearly $500 million to fix crumbling infrastructure and build new facilities." [Unclear what "last year" and "this year" refer to]

"Instead of spending $400 million on hospital refurbishment (no doubt designated for some Bechtel subsidiary), Bremer should let the Cubans take over. Cuba has the lowest infant mortality rate in the Americas (yes, lower than the United States), and they didn't accomplish that by concentrating on 'hospital refurbishment' (though I'm sure they did that too), but by understanding public health (water, sewage, nutrition) and providing free health care (as Iraq did, of course) with clinics in every neighborhood."

Gay marriage pioneers

"At a point in life when most people are focused on retirement, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, 83 and 79, wrote their names onto a page in history Thursday by the simple act of getting married.

"Fifty-one years after they first moved into an apartment together, the two longtime political activists sealed their vows at San Francisco City Hall in the first government-sanctioned same-sex marriage in the country."

Blaming the victim

Headlines

Followup: The Los Angeles Times, for example, gets it right: "Panel to Review Guantanamo Detainees." The Washington Post offers another reasonable alternative: "Rumsfeld Announces Panel to Review Guantanamo Detainees."

More followup: If anyone has a worse headline than the Times it's the BBC, whose headline reads: "Guantanamo inmates get new rights" followed by the explanation - "Prisoners held by the US at Guantanamo Bay are now to have their detentions reviewed once a year." Such a deal! People held without charges and without any legal basis will have their "detentions" reviewed once a year. Gee, how generous can you get? Unfortunately these "detentions" aren't exactly like the ones when you had to stay after school for two hours.

By the way, this hardly qualifies as a "right." A "right" is something that someone can't take away from you. This is simply a changed policy (and an alleged future one at that, not something that is actually happening), which could just as easily be reversed tomorrow. The plain fact of the matter is that those prisoners do not have any rights. Not one.

Is Howard Dean a closet leftist?

Big brother gets bigger

What isn't disclosed in news reports is whether a court order was required to authorize this secret monitoring, but there isn't any indication that there was such a court order. You might think, "well, they were investigating a serious crime." True enough. But, in conjunction with the recent attempt to subpoena records from antiwar groups and the National Lawyers Guild in conjunction with a mere civil disobedience action that occured, can you really assume that this kind of spying won't become a routine thing? After all, the government can always claim that there is a chance that an antiwar activist might possibly meet with a Muslim activist who might meet someone who once went to Afghanistan and met Osama bin Laden. To me, there is something very creepy about this development, even if it occurs in conjunction with a missing persons case (not a murder case for most of the period during which it occured).

More slaughter in Gaza

As songwriter David Rovics sings:

You ask me how it is
That I dare to take a side
You say I loathe myself
For pointing out that you have lied
You say it's tribal warfare
But I disagree
For the dynamics of the situation
Are not difficult to see
On one side is the fighter jet
On the other side the stone
On one side is the slave
On the other is the throne
For the many there are checkpoints
While foreign soldiers rule the street
For one side there is victory
But the people don't accept defeat

(Chorus)
The word you need to know is occupation
The very definition of a land without a nation
And if peace is what you're after then let us not deceive
It will come on the day the tanks return to Tel Aviv

Followup: Today's San Francisco Chronicle carries an AP summary of "major Israeli military operations against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip in recent months." How much slaughter is going on? The list, which contains 11 different incidents, doesn't even include last Saturday's attack. "Only" two Palestinians were killed and ten more wounded (three "critically"; for all we know they may have already died, since the media never follows up on these things). Pretty telling that that wasn't "major" enough to make the list.

Also unclear on the concept

"Marine Commandant Gen. Michael Hagee told the Senate Armed Services Committee he was 'absolutely convinced' during the war planning stage that Saddam 'had chemical weapons, if not biological weapons, and that he would use them' as soon as American troops crossed over the Iraqi border." (Source)

By the way, just so readers are clear about Left I's position, I am not saying that if Iraq did have both chemical weapons and long-range missiles, that I think that an invasion would have been justified in that situation either, for countless reasons, most of which have been discussed here in the past. It's important for opponents of the war to keep this in mind, however, because it's too easy to get caught up in criticizing the details of what did happen ("the intelligence was wrong" "No, Bush lied about the intelligence" etc.) and to forget that the entire enterprise was an unjustified and unjustifiable illegal outrage, regardless of the details.

Quote Donsense of the Day

"I don't remember the statement [Tony Blair's statement that Iraq had WMD that could be deployed within 45 minutes] being made, to be perfectly honest." - Donald Rumsfeld

"The claim, which has since been discredited, was made twice by President Bush, in a September Rose Garden appearance after meeting with lawmakers and in a Saturday radio address the same week. Bush attributed the claim to the British government, but in a 'Global Message' issued Sept. 26 and still on the White House Web site, the White House claimed, without attribution, that Iraq 'could launch a biological or chemical attack 45 minutes after the order is given.'"

Don't believe everything you read

I haven't seen the papers, but I'm skeptical. Why? Here's what the "respected South Korean human rights advocate" says about the papers, which he obtained from an alleged North Korean defector: "'I am absolutely convinced [the letters] are genuine, no doubt about it,' Kim said. He carefully studied the paper and the handwriting and official seal on the documents before deciding to release them, he said." What? The defector says he "snatched a handful of papers off a desk, crumpled them into a ball and threw them into the wastebasket. He later took the basket and hid the papers in his clothing." So we have some mysterious papers that were purportedly on a desk in North Korea. And a South Korean human rights advocate is able to example the paper and the handwriting and draw a conclusion based on that? What kind of nonsense is that? Do all North Koreans engaged in torture have a recognizable handwriting?

Clearly, I have no information bearing on this allegation. I do have a long history of seeing one lurid charge after another hurled against Iraq, Cuba, North Korea, etc., etc., 1% of which (or less) ever turn out to be true, so to say that I believe in innocent until proven guilty in this case would be an understatement. And when someone claims he can determine anything based on the "paper" and "handwriting" (of an unknown person!), I'm afraid his credibility is nil.

The LA Times does provide quite a number of statements which support my supposition.

"As with allegations about the North Korean nuclear weapons program, defectors may be motivated to exaggerate or forge documents to obtain money or win asylum for their families.

"The North Korean defectors, and other human rights activists working in Seoul, dismissed claims by a defector who gave the BBC a graphic description of watching a family being gassed to death as scientists watched. They said the man's previous statements, including his claim to have been a top security official, had been discredited."

"'It's a trite method for the present U.S. administration to invent lies and justify a war of aggression under that pretext,' an unnamed Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying."

Unclear on the concept

Jon Stewart on George Bush on Meet the Press

Say it with me. Bush lied, thousands died.

Let's play dictionary

Note how the human being is dwarfed, and even the bulldozer looks small. This is a massive structure.

Some definitions:

Fence: "A structure serving as an enclosure, a barrier, or a boundary, usually made of posts or stakes joined together by boards, wire, or rails."

Wall: A continuous structure of masonry or other material forming a rampart and built for defensive purposes.

Quote of the Day

"Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade" - Gregory Mankiw, chairman of Bush's Council of Economic Advisors

Mankiw also says:

"The movement of American factory jobs and white-collar work to other countries is part of a positive transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocation."

Is Big Brother watching?

"Every day, according to a recent National Security Agency briefing, the United States and its eavesdropping partners intercept more that 650 million 'events': radar signals, radio and data transmissions, satellite, cell and land-line phone calls, faxes and e-mail and text messages.

"The signals, in dozens of languages — and sometimes encrypted with sophisticated codes — flow into a dozen or so centers around the world where the majority are processed automatically by computers. Some of the information ultimately finds its way into the 10,000 thematic and geographic 'product reports' that are sent each day to analysts at the NSA, CIA and military intelligence agencies and commands."

Kevin Cooper update

Crackdown on Cuba Americans

The supposed rationale for the embargo, the "legal" reason, is "trading with the enemy" - Cuba is a "threat" to "national security." Of course this is complete nonsense. The real reason is that the U.S. doesn't want an experiment in socialism to succeed; they want to be able to continue pointing to Cuba as an economic failure. Curiously, whenever Cuba talks about the effect of the embargo on the Cuban economy (billions of dollars over the years), the U.S. always poo-poohs this as an "excuse" and claims the embargo has no effect. If so, then why this new crackdown? Why does Snow talk about "cutting off American dollars headed to Fidel Castro" and "[putting a] stop to another illegal pathway for U.S. dollars to Castro's wallet"? The U.S. loves to anthropomorphize, so it's never clear if they are using "Castro" as a synonym for "Cuba," or trying to imply that Castro is somehow personally enriching himself. If the latter, it would be the coarsest slander (especially coming from the notoriously self-enriching Bush administration), since there isn't the slightest evidence that Fidel Castro is anything but the hardest working political leader in the world, totally dedicated to the welfare of his country without a trace of self-aggrandizement (go to Cuba and you'll see plenty of pictures of Che, and other dead Cuban heroes, on walls, but none of Fidel).

For those who haven't thought too much about the embargo (also called the "blockade" by many of its opponents) against Cuba, it's worth thinking of the high-tech analogy. Imagine if Microsoft set out to crush a smaller rival, a much smaller rival, one so small you've probably never heard of them, let's call them CubaSoft. Now imagine they're doing so in the absence of any law which will restrain their behavior. Imagine if they went to their customers and said, if you buy any software from CubaSoft, we won't let you buy any of our software. Imagine if they went to software stores (back in the day when software was actually sold in stores) and said, if you sell CubaSoft software, you can't sell our software. Imagine if they prevented MSN subscribers from visiting the CubaSoft website, and prevented Hotmail users from sending email to CubaSoft. Imagine if they threatened to pull their sponsorship from a software developer's conference if they allowed anyone from CubaSoft to register. None of these analogies is exxagerated in the slightest compared to what the U.S. is doing to Cuba. Now think about how incredible it is that Cuba has managed to stand up to this constant pressure, the price they are paying for doing so, and the absolutely despicable nature of the people who maintain this policy, claiming that they are doing the Cuban people a favor by making them suffer.

Death nears for Kevin Cooper

It's not enough they search your pockets...

"An American Airlines pilot asked Christians on his flight to identify themselves and discuss their religion with non-Christian passengers, the airline said."

Left I's Thought for the Day

The "war on terror" is more of a danger to Americans than any threat from terrorism (or, more aphoristically, the cure is worse than the disease).

Lazy blogging Sunday

KOS has a letter from the head of Catholic Peace Ministry who has been subpoenaed about the meeting of a local antiwar group. He notes:

"The proceeding will be behind closed doors. We may not have an attorney present. We have the right to plead the Fifth Amendment, refusing the answer questions that might incriminate us.  The government, then, can offer us immunity from prosecution, in which case we will obliged to answer under threat of contempt of court and could be imprisoned for the length of the Grand Jury session, 18 months, should we continue to refuse to answer."

The "worst of the worst"?

"Mohammed Ismail Agha..., who was seized about a year after a U.S.-led coalition ousted the governing Taliban, said he and a friend had left their farming community in search of work when Afghan militiamen stopped them.

"'They said, 'Come and join us,' but we told them we are poor people, jobless, and we don't want to join the militia, we want to earn money,' Agha said. 'Then they said, 'You are Taliban.''"

"Agha said he was handed over to U.S. soldiers, who first took him to the southern city of Kandahar and then to Bagram, where he was held in solitary confinement. He lost track of his friend, Mohammed Wali, in Kandahar and has not seen him since."

"Agha said his family feared he was dead or had traveled to neighboring Pakistan or Iran to find work. It was not until 10 months into his detention that family members received a letter from him, through the international Red Cross, saying he was still alive."

"He said U.S. forces interrogated him at Bagram Air Base, north of the capital, Kabul, about whether he was a Taliban supporter. Yet once he reached Cuba, there were few questions."

FU, Tim Russert

Fidel Castro is the greatest leader alive in the world today, as well as one of the greatest thinkers in the world. If only the rest of the world, most especially including the U.S. and Britain, had leaders that were that "mad," the world would be a much, much better place.

Some readers of Left I on the News may think Fidel Castro is a deplorable Communist who imprisons "journalists" and is running his country into the ground economically. Tim Russert and George Bush undoubtedly think that. But on what grounds Fidel Castro could conceivable be described as a "madman," I have no idea. No, I take that back. Fidel has the idea that his country is an independent country, capable of charting its own course politically and economically, without bowing to the imperialist colossus to the north. Perhaps he is mad. After all, the rational thing to do, the "sane" thing to do, would be to accept your position of subservience in the world.

Calling Fidel Castro a "madman," of course, is precisely that - name-calling. Which is what schoolyard bullies like George Bush and Tim Russert excel in, when they have nothing intelligent to say.

Quote of the Day

"My job isn't to assess the government's information and be an independent intelligence analyst myself. My job is to tell readers of The New York Times what the government thought about Iraq's arsenal." - Judith Miller (Source)

Remind me why the New York Times is paying this woman a salary, when a simple typesetter (does that job title still exist even in the absence of type to set?) would do?

Credit to Atrios for spotting the story.

Civilian deaths in Iraq pass 10,000

The Independent also says that "no one knows Iraqi military deaths to the nearest 20,000," which is a pretty grim statement, since it suggests that the number is very high. And, as Left I on the News periodically reminds our readers, Iraqi soldiers were equally "innocent," and equally less deserving to die, than Iraqi civilians. Most of them were conscripts, but even if they weren't, they died protecting their country from an illegal foreign invasion, surely not a "crime" punishable by death no matter how heinous the leadership of their country.

All of these Iraqis, the 10,000 civilian dead and the untold numbers of military dead, were human beings, with family, friends, and lives. All of them are now dead as a result of the U.S./U.K. invasion, an invasion which occured, we are now told (see item just below), not because their country was actually a threat to anyone, but because their country had the "ability" to make weapons at sometime in the distant future. And the blood of all of them is on the hands of the greatest war criminals in the world today, the "leaders" in Washington, D.C. and London.

Today's Bushit

"For the parents of the soldiers who have fallen who are listening, David Kay, the weapons inspector, came back and said, in many ways Iraq was more dangerous than we thought." (Source)

I know cognitive dissonance is a powerful thing, and undoubtedly most of the family and friends of soldiers who have died fighting this war think that they did so "defending America" or some similar platitude. But surely more and more of them are coming to the realization that their loved one died fighting a Potemkin enemy in order to fill the coffers of Halliburton and Bechtel and, incidentally, to keep George Bush in office (and many other reasons which my readers are well aware of). All the more so on a day in which Bush also said of Saddam Hussein: "He had the ability to make weapons at the very minimum." In other words, yet another retreat, from "stockpiles of weapons" to "weapons programs" to "weapons program-related activities" and now to "the ability to make weapons."

On March 20, the world will speak out against the war and occupation. Military families, both the families and friends of those who have died, and even more so the families and friends of those who are still there, will be an essential part, possibly the most important part, of that protest.

Bearing out this thesis in an article in the Independent, which reports:

"When Tony Blair was preparing Britain for the war in Iraq 12 months ago, he had the unanimous backing of the families of the nation's troops who were being sent there. But now many of the relatives of the 58 Britons who have died in Iraq are openly accusing Mr Blair of having misled them about the case for invading the country."

Activists under attack

"DES MOINES, Iowa - In what may be the first subpoena of its kind in decades, a federal judge has ordered a university to turn over records about a gathering of anti-war activists.

"In addition to records about who attended the forum, the subpoena orders the university to divulge all records relating to the local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, a New York-based legal activist organization that sponsored the forum.

"Those served subpoenas include the leader of the Catholic Peace Ministry, the former coordinator of the Iowa Peace Network, a member of the Catholic Worker House, and an anti-war activist who visited Iraq in 2002.

"They say the subpoenas are intended to stifle dissent.

"The forum, titled 'Stop the Occupation! Bring the Iowa Guard Home!' came the day before 12 protesters were arrested at an anti-war rally at Iowa National Guard headquarters in Johnston. Organizers say the forum included nonviolence training for people planning to demonstrate.

"According to a copy obtained by The Associated Press, the Drake subpoena asks for records of the request for a meeting room, 'all documents indicating the purpose and intended participants in the meeting, and all documents or recordings which would identify persons that actually attended the meeting.'

"It also asks for campus security records 'reflecting any observations made of the Nov. 15, 2003, meeting, including any records of persons in charge or control of the meeting, and any records of attendees of the meeting.'"

Winnebagos of Death

Today, Knight-Ridder fills us in on the background of that story:

"The charge that Iraq had mobile biological warfare research laboratories came solely from a defector provided to U.S. intelligence officials by Iraqi exile leader Ahmed Chalabi, said senior U.S. officials, revealing the oversight for the first time Thursday.

"The Defense Intelligence Agency, which debriefed the defector, flagged the information he provided as questionable in 2002. Top DIA officials helped draft an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, or NIE, on Iraq's weapons programs and reviewed Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 2003 speech to the U.N. Security Council, but never raised their own agency's doubts about the source, said two senior officials.

"'It was never made clear to us that' the information was dubious, said a senior State Department official."

More on Kevin Cooper

"Meanwhile, the California Supreme Court agreed Friday to review the latest attempt to prove that police tampered with evidence to frame Cooper. A former reporter submitted a declaration earlier this week saying she was told by a San Diego man who claimed to be a former San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy that evidence was planted in Cooper's case and that he didn't commit the crimes.

"Authorities, however, have spoken to the man and established that he never worked in law enforcement or had involvement in the Cooper case. John Kochis, the San Bernardino prosecutor at Cooper's 1984 trial, Friday called the petition 'meritless, groundless and factually inaccurate.'"

What is it with the phrase "no doubt"? According to the article, "prosecutors and death-penalty advocates say the case has been thoroughly reviewed and there are no doubts about Cooper's guilt." [Emphasis added] Well, I'll be glad to concede that they may have "no doubts." But how anyone could say there are "no doubts," when "six jurors have declared they now have doubts because of evidence they did not get at trial" is simply beyond me.

Unfortunately for Cooper, time is not on his side. As with the invasion of Iraq, when the "authorities" decide "we just can't wait any longer" (to satisfy their thirst for blood), no amount of reasonable doubt will stand in their way.

Israel continues to depopulate Gaza...of Palestinians

"An Israeli helicopter fired a missile into a car traveling in a crowded Gaza City street Saturday, killing a leader of the militant Islamic Jihad group and a 12-year-old boy on his way to school. The attack wounded 10 Palestinians, three of them critically."

Again, forced to repeat something I've said in the past, I ask - "What moral code, what international law (take your pick) allows Israel to execute alleged (not even formally charged with a crime, nevertheless convicted) "criminals" (and I use that word simply to view the situation from the Israeli government point of view, not to suggest that people fighting back against occupation are doing something criminal) by firing missiles on a crowded street, killing and injuring multiple bystanders in the process?" I mean, I know some people believe in "an eye for an eye." But I don't remember reading in the Bible about "an eye and an arm and a leg for an eye." And I especially don't remember reading about "your eye and an eye of the innocent guy next to you for an eye."

Will the U.S. issue a condemnation, especially considering the liklihood that both the missile and the helicopter gunship were manufactured in the U.S. and/or paid for with U.S. tax dollars? The media knows the answer, because they don't even bother making a phone call to get a ritual "no comment" from U.S. authorities any more.

Followup: In a total shocker, the New York Times headlines the story: "Israeli Attack on Militants Also Kills Boy."

Soldiers speak

"Stop letting your proud men and women die so senselessly. If we are going to die for our country let it be for something we can really be proud of. I just don't see us making the US any safer from terrorists because of what we are doing in Iraq."

The latest Bushit

"Some prewar intelligence assessments by America and other nations about Iraq's weapon stockpiles have not been confirmed. We are determined to figure out why." (Source)

As far as the commission, just a brief note. Orcinus discusses at length one of the co-chairs, rabid right-winger Laurence Silberman. The Washington Post tells us what we need to know about Chuck Robb, the other co-chair: "In 1991, Robb was among only 10 Democrats who voted for to give then-President George H.W. Bush authority to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait." And then we have the third big name, John McCain, a man who has been actively campaigning for the re-election George Bush within just the last few weeks. Not to mention that he has already prejudged the case, when he said just today:

"The president of the United States, I believe, did not manipulate any kind of information for political gain or otherwise."

Followup: In it's article on the appointment of the commission, here's how the New York Times characterizes John McCain: "Mr. Bush's bitter rival for the 2000 Republican presidential nomination." The fact that he's now campaigning for Bush, or the fact that he's already publicly pronounced Bush innocent of any wrongdoing? Not mentioned. I know that people suffer from short-term memory loss when they get old, but I didn't realize it happened to newspapers too. Evidently so.

More followup: Knight-Ridder reminds of more of Chuck Robb's background:

"Robb...long has advocated a tough policy toward Saddam. As a member of the Senate in 1998, Robb advocated lifting an executive order banning political assassinations, as a warning to Saddam."

Quote of the Day

"I had a couple of initial reactions. Then I had a more mature reaction" - Greg Thielmann, at that time in charge of analyzing the Iraqi weapons threat for Colin Powell intelligence bureau at the State Department, commenting on Powell's presentation to the United Nations last February.

"Intelligence agents intercepted the tubes in 2001, and the CIA said they were parts for a centrifuge to enrich uranium -- fuel for an atom bomb. But Thielmann wasn't so sure.

"Experts at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the scientists who enriched uranium for American bombs, advised that the tubes were all wrong for a bomb program. At about the same time, Thielmann's office was working on another explanation. It turned out the tubes' dimensions perfectly matched an Iraqi conventional rocket.

"Houston Wood was a consultant who worked on the Oak Ridge analysis of the tubes. He watched Powell's speech, too.

"'I guess I was angry, that’s the best way to describe my emotions. I was angry at that,' says Wood, who is among the world’s authorities on uranium enrichment by centrifuge. He found the tubes couldn’t be what the CIA thought they were. They were too heavy, three times too thick and certain to leak.

"'Wasn't going to work. They would have failed,' says Wood, who reached that conclusion back in 2001.

"Thielmann reported to Secretary Powell's office that they were confident the tubes were not for a nuclear program. Then, about a year later, when the administration was building a case for war, the tubes were resurrected on the front page of The New York Times.

"'I thought when I read that there must be some other tubes that people were talking about. I just was flabbergasted that people were still pushing that those might be centrifuges,' says Wood.

"In his U.N. speech, Secretary Powell acknowledged there was disagreement about the tubes, but he said most experts agreed with the nuclear theory.

"'There is controversy about what these tubes are for. Most U.S. experts think they are intended to serve as rotors in centrifuges used to enrich uranium,' said Powell.

"'Most experts are located at Oak Ridge and that was not the position there,' says Wood, who claims he doesn’t know anyone in academia or foreign government who would disagree with his appraisal. 'I don’t know a single one anywhere.'"

Sharon drops the other shoe

"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon may seek to move settlers from the Gaza Strip to settlements in the West Bank under his plan for 'unilateral disengagement' from the Palestinians, officials in his office said today."

A few more facts from the article which shed a little light on the situation:

About 7,500 Israeli settlers live in fortified enclaves in the Gaza Strip, among more than 1.2 million Palestinians. In the West Bank, about 230,000 settlers live in 125 settlements, among more than 2 million Palestinians.

Better late than never?

Ritter v. Kay

Strong job growth?

"The major U.S. stock indexes were mixed Friday after data showed that the jobless rate fell to the lowest level in two years and that job growth was strong, but not quite as strong as expected.

The U.S. Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls grew by 112,000 in January, the strongest one-month gain since December 2000, but was below expectations of growth of 150,000 or more."

"This new number is a huge retreat from the administration's previous projection made when it was selling its tax cuts. In February the Council of Economic Advisers projected 344,000 per month job growth starting in mid-2003 if the tax cuts were passed and roughly 250,000 jobs created per month without the tax cuts [by comparison, the "two million" estimate means 200,000 jobs created per month].

"Monthly job creation of 200,000 and maintaining unemployment at its current level is far from a satisfactory economic performance. It takes 170,000 new jobs each month just to provide jobs for an expanding population and workforce and 300,000 new jobs each month to lower the unemployment rate by one percentage point over the course of a year."

Followup: AP has a different take, describing the jobs growth as "fewer than expected but enough to keep alive hope for a turnaround in the struggling job market." AP quotes White House spokesperson Scott McClellan, who says "Since August of last year, there have been 366,000 new jobs created. The economy is continuing to grow strong and that jobs are being created." McClellan, and the AP, fail to note that that number is just slightly more than the CEA promised would be created each month.

As a side note, however, readers should take none of this too seriously, because these statistics are even less solid than political polls. The AP article includes this interesting information:

"Some economists think hiring really is occurring in the economy, but it is not being reflected in the Labor Department's monthly survey of business payrolls. In the separate survey of households, employment jumped by 496,000 last month.

"The household survey counts self-employed workers and contract workers, which are increasing. The survey of businesses does not.

"'They're not recording the outside contractors — they're not reflecting something that is tremendously fundamental now to the American corporate scene, and that's outsourcing to outside contractors,' Mayland said.

"The Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics acknowledged the continuing discrepancies, and said it is investigating."

"Growing" threat?

Australia knew

"Australian troops fighting in Iraq were told in an official briefing days before entering the country that Saddam Hussein did not have the capability to launch weapons of mass destruction against its neighbours."

"Mr Hill, who is widely acknowledged as Australia's top expert on Saddam's weapons programs, said that during the eight years he spent travelling to Iraq as a senior UN weapons inspector he was asked only once to brief officials in Canberra about the threat posed by Saddam."

U.S. government quakes in fear of Cuban musicians and Cuban women

Cuban musicians are, of course, not the only Cubans who have been denied visas to visit the United States, nor are they the most important. The U.S. government continues to deny visas to the wives of two Cubans imprisoned in the U.S., two of "the Five" who were convicted of "spying" for the "crime" of infiltrating terrorist groups in Miami to try to prevent acts of terrorism against Cuba. In an outrageous violation of human rights, the women have been denied visas under a law which prohibits the entry into the country of "suspected intelligence agents, saboteurs, or individuals who could overthrow the U.S. government by force, violence or other illegal methods." There isn't the slightest evidence that this description applies to these two women, as if they could actually perform any acts of intelligence or sabotage in a visit to the U.S. and to their husbands in prison in which they would undoubtedly be under surveillance for every single second.

For more on the case of the Five, visit the Free the Five website.

Kevin Cooper convicted with planted evidence?

Today, four days before the scheduled execution on Monday evening, comes absolutely blockbuster news. Speaking on Pacifica's Flashpoints program, a former UPI reporter who covered the trial, and who was absolutely convinced of Cooper's guilt at the time, comes forward and tells of a chance meeting several years after the trial with a policeman, who told her that he had planted Cooper's blood at the scene! Don't ask why she hasn't come forward before, while Cooper has been rotting in jail.

Incredibly, this news doesn't seem to have appeared anywhere else, despite the fact that the woman revealed this information at a press conference in Los Angeles today! Certainly it isn't appearing on NewsNight with Aaron Brown, which I happen to be watching as I write this and which has just finished a long segment on the oh-so-important Martha Stewart trial. But let a man be about to die for a crime that it not only appears that he didn't commit, but for which he was actually framed up by the police, and rest assured that won't make the threshhold of "importance" for CNN.

A reminder that this is the place to go for more information on Kevin Cooper, but before you do that, read the earlier posts on Cooper on this site here and here.

Understatement of the Day

"We may have overestimated the progress Saddam was making." - CIA director George Tenet (Source)

Some help in the search for WMD?

"Opportunity rolled forward about 10 feet overnight, leaving it halfway to an outcrop of rocks that scientists want to spend days studying, said Guy Webster, a spokesman for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It was the first time the rover had moved since leaving its lander Saturday."

Quote of the Day

"When the facts of Iraq are all in, we will neither be completely right nor completely wrong." - CIA director George Tenet (Source)

Of course, when Tenet talks about "when" the facts are in, he demonstrates that he lives in another world, since in this one, no one is even looking for WMD in Iraq any more. Tenet also claims "We are nowhere near 85 percent finished," which is actually correct, but only if he's talking about the duration of the "search" and not the actual results. Bush, and Tenet, would like to tell the American people that we won't have all the facts until, oh, say, 2008 or so. So on that scale, we've barely started.

Will "retraining" cure the "job-loss recovery"?

"San Jose State University President Joseph Crowley laid out a plan Wednesday for cutting up to $18 million from the campus budget and said he would do everything possible to protect the educational mission and avoid layoffs in the face of sharp declines in state funding.

"The state chancellor of the California State University system already has said CSU's 23 campuses will serve 20,000 fewer students than expected next year to live within its shrunken budget. Students probably will pay higher fees, and some will receive less financial aid."

Expendable Iraqis, ignorant Americans

"US army Colonel William Mayville apologised today for the killing of an Iraqi child by mortar rounds fired by his forces as the boy's family picnicked in the northern oil region of Kirkuk.

"The family was out on a picnic for the Muslim holidays of Eid al-Adha some 10 kms south of Kirkuk when US mortar rounds landed around lunch time, according to Iraqi police Lieutenant Laith Naji el-Obeidi.

"Mayville said troops of his 173rd Airborne Brigade opened fire because they suspected insurgents were in the area. He said the soldiers found responsible for the deadly error would be held accountable.

"He added he ordered the payment of $US2,500 ($A3,270) in compensation for the family of the nine-year-old boy, Bassam Sami Awwad, and $US1,500 ($A1,965) for each of the three injured."

Aside from what this tells us about American media, the story itself is rather telling about the modus operandi of U.S. troops in Iraq. U.S. troops in Iraq are being killed, almost exclusively, by roadside bombs, as well as the occasional morter being lobbed into their bases. Responding to this by firing morters at "an area" where you "think" there are insurgents is simply an absurd military strategy, particularly when you're in the midst of a vast civilian population. Only a military which assigned no value at all to the lives of the people whose country it was occupying could adopt such a strategy. Which, of course, is precisely the case. Even if they're willing to pay $2,500. Because to a military which has spent more than $100 billion fighting a war, $2,500 is precisely nothing (0.0000025% to be exact).

Is Blair Cooked?

"Iraq probably has no weapons of mass destruction in the commonly understood sense of the term - namely a credible device capable of being delivered against a strategic city target.

"It probably still has biological toxins and battlefield chemical munitions, but it has had them since the 1980s when US companies sold Saddam anthrax agents and the then British Government approved chemical and munitions factories.

"Why is it now so urgent that we should take military action to disarm a military capacity that has been there for 20 years, and which we helped to create?

"Why is it necessary to resort to war this week, while Saddam's ambition to complete his weapons programme is blocked by the presence of UN inspectors?"

"I have heard it said that Iraq has had not months but 12 years in which to complete disarmament, and that our patience is exhausted.

"Yet it is more than 30 years since resolution 242 called on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.

"We do not express the same impatience with the persistent refusal of Israel to comply."

Followup: Incidentally, you have to stop and think about what Blair had to say. If you were the leader of Britain, and someone told you that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that it could use within 45 minutes, wouldn't you want to know whether they were referring to a weapon which might drop in the middle of London, or one which could only make it as far as Tikrit? Wouldn't there be a little difference as far as the national security of your country? Tony Blair, unlike George Bush, is not an intellectual lightweight. It simply strains credulity that he wouldn't have asked such a question. And if the answer was "I don't know what it refers to," wouldn't that answer suggest that the credibility of the source was somewhere between minimal and non-existent?

Quote Donsense of the Day

"As Dr. Kay has testified, what we have learned thus far has not proven Saddam Hussein had what intelligence indicated and we believed he had, but it has also not proven the opposite." - Donald Rumsfeld

No one can ever accuse Rumsfeld of failing a course in formal logic. Common sense, definitely. Formal logic, no.

And by the way, what has been proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that the claims of certainty and "no doubt" by the Bush and Blair administrations were a complete and utter fabrication. And of course it is those claims on which the justification for "immediate threat requiring preemptive action" (in the realm of international law), or "just war" (in the realm of morality) rest.

Reuters holds Tony Blair's feet (or mouth) to the fire

Sept., 2002:

"Saddam Hussein is continuing to develop WMD, and with them the ability to inflict real damage upon the region and the stability of the world.

"What I believe the intelligence has established beyond doubt is that Saddam has continued to produce chemical and biological weapons, that he continues in his efforts to develop nuclear weapons and that he has been able to extend the range of his ballistic missile programme.

"I am in no doubt that the threat is serious and current, that he has made progress on WMD, and that he has to be stopped."

March 18, 2003:

"We are asked now seriously to accept that in the last few years -- contrary to all history, contrary to all intelligence -- Saddam decided unilaterally to destroy those weapons. I say that such a claim is palpably absurd."

July, 2003:

"For me, the jury is not out. I have absolutely no doubt at all that we will find evidence of weapons of mass destruction programmes."

September, 2003:

"I've got no doubt at all that they will find evidence that those programmes were continuing well after Iraq was saying they'd been discontinued and shut down."

Followup: The BBC adds its own collection of quotes, including some of the above and others. Here's one gem from the same July, 2003 speech: "I don't concede it at all that the intelligence at the time was wrong."

British bombshell - Intelligence chief says "don't blame us"

"The intelligence official whose revelations stunned the Hutton inquiry has suggested that not a single defence intelligence expert backed Tony Blair's most contentious claims on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. [Emphasis added]

"As Mr Blair set up an inquiry yesterday into intelligence failures before the war, Brian Jones, the former leading expert on WMD in the Ministry of Defence, declared that Downing Street's dossier, a key plank in convincing the public of the case for war, was "misleading" on Saddam Hussein's chemical and biological capability. Writing in today's Independent, Dr Jones, who was head of the nuclear, chemical and biological branch of the Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) until he retired last year, reveals that the experts failed in their efforts to have their views reflected.

"Dr Jones, who is expected to be a key witness at the new inquiry, says: 'In my view, the expert intelligence analysts of the DIS were overruled in the preparation of the dossier in September 2002, resulting in a presentation that was misleading about Iraq's capabilities.'"

As a minor aside to my British readers, is there a shortage of periods in Britain? Or perhaps printing ink? Is that why British papers insist on omitting the period after abbreviations? Or do they need language lessons from the country where "English completely disappears" (Henry Higgins)?

Save Kevin Cooper, Part II

You can listen to a long interview with Kevin Cooper to hear what he has to say (MP3 download here). I'm sure Arnold has better things to do. It's only a man's life.

Two Years Amassed

As far as we know, here's why Hamdi has so far lost two years of his life:

"Hamdi's family has said Hamdi, a college student, was spending the summer in Pakistan helping refugees when he crossed into Afghanistan, was swept up by Taliban fighters and forced to fight in the war."

Liberal Democrats with principle

Powell has his standards!

"A senior administration official said that during a three-day pre-speech review, Powell rejected more than half of a 45-page assessment on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction compiled by Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, and based on materials assembled by pro-invasion hard-liners in the Pentagon and the White House.

"Powell also jettisoned 75 percent of a separate report on al-Qaida, said the official."

"Sizzling" economy

The only statistic to back up the "sizzling" claim in the article is the mysterious "PMI" manufacturing index of the Institute for Supply Management, which "rose to 63.6 in January -- the highest since late 1983." Go to the ISM site, and again try to find a single piece of actual data to back up this "sizzling" claim. There are various tables with "indexes," and claims that this or that is "growing compared to last month," etc., but no actual data about actual manufacturing. Reuters summarizes the report by telling us that "manufacturing surged to a 20-year high at the start of the new year as factories scrambled to keep up with demand." Really? Did the U.S. (not U.S.-based companies with overseas manufacturing capability, but the U.S. itself) actually make more automobiles, more steel, more textiles, more appliances, etc. than at any time in the last 20 years? Did a manufacturing workforce with 26,000 fewer people actually produce more goods than they did the previous month? This simply isn't credible. But that won't prevent this story from being widely reported in the media. After all, it's "good news." The fact that it isn't true? Picky, picky.

"Democracy" at work

"The Federal Election Commission reported last Friday that somehow, even without Kerry, Dean and Bush taking federal money, the FEC Matching Campaign Fund is experiencing a shortfall. The Kucinich Campaign is owed over $2 million as of today, but the FEC will only be contributing 46 cents on the dollar due to lack of funds. We will receive the balance sometime after April 15th."

Meanwhile the New York Times has run an editorial arguing that Kucinich and Al Sharpton should be excluded from future debates. Sure. I mean, come on, it's not like they're on the ballot or anything.

"Fair" and "democratic" elections in Iraq? Perhaps the U.S. would be a better place to start.

Quote of the Day

"I think we need a President who gets it right the first time." - Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry

Evidence? We don't need no steenkin' evidence!

"Or maybe it's the local radio station's moving billboard that greeted people en route to the San Mateo County courthouse. The one with the picture of a prison-jumpsuit-clad Scott Peterson in his blond phase and a running tally to the listener poll, 'Guilty?' or 'Innocent?'"

The "free market"

The fact, of course, evident to anyone with two eyes, is that in the media, as well as in business in general (wages, benefits, etc.), the "free market," if left to its own devices, will keep driving everything lower and lower in its never-ending quest for more and more profit. It was capitalism, not Satan, that was responsible for what happened at the Super Bowl yesterday.

Political humor of the day

"Punxsutawny Phil saw his shadow on Monday, predicting six more weeks of winter. As George Bush calls it - reliable intelligence." - Jay Leno

Political humor of the day

"Bush isn't an idiot - he's an intellectual celibate." - Comedian Bill Santiago

Language

The latest from Sharon

But to me, the most interesting part of Sharon's announcement was this: ""I am working on the assumption that in the future there will be no Jews in Gaza." Not Israelis. Jews. And Western politicians and media talk about Osama bin Laden, or the mullahs in Iran, as being religous fanatics. Well, they are, but by far the most powerful religious fanatics in the world are in power not in Tehran, but in Jerusalem. Although some might say that the ones in Washington give them a good run for their money.

Followup: The real question is, by the time Israel withdraws from Gaza, will there be any Palestinians left alive there? There are four fewer just today. Wholesale slaughter doesn't begin to describe what's going on there.

More followup: Incidentally, for what it's worth, as far as I can determine the last time the word "Palestine" left George Bush's lips was at a press conference on October 28, 2003. No one seems to be keeping track of Palestinian fatalities (Palestinian Center for Human Rights has information, but no up-to-date statistics I could find), but I think we can safely say that while George Bush has remained silent, more than a hundred Palestinians, probably many more, have died. That's not to imply that Bush had anything useful to say on Oct. 28. If I were to try to find the last time a U.S. official actually condemned the wanton killing of Palestinians, I'm sure I'd be in for a long search.

And on a lighter note...

"Balance" at the BBC

"I believe we have made major efforts to ensure that the issues and events surrounding Iraq have been properly reported. Let me explain how we have done that.

"Some weeks ago I set up a committee which ... decided to prevent any senior editorial figures at the BBC from going on the anti-war march; it was that committee which insisted that we had to find a balanced audience for programmes like Question Time at a time when it was very hard to find supporters of the war willing to come on.

"And it was that same committee when faced with a massive bias against the war among phone-in callers, decided to increase the number of phone lines so that pro-war listeners had a better chance of getting through and getting onto the programmes. All this was done in an attempt to ensure our coverage was balanced."

"It's an extraordinary definition of 'balance', isn't it? He admits to deliberately rigging audiences and phone-ins, in order to create an impression of 'balance' amongst the British public that does not exist. Instead of representing the major views according to the proportion in which they are held, he wants to represent all the possible views, even if this meanings utterly distorting the country's prevailing view. Naturally, this serves government - by manufacturing an apparent 50-50 split, government is better able justify taking a 'tough decision', which was finally balanced. It's fortunate that the polling companies don't use a similar methodology.

Bush opens his mouth...and you know what that means

Q: I'd like to ask you about this intelligence investigation that you're going to order. Do you think that the country is owed an explanation about the Iraq intelligence failures before the election, so that voters have this information when they elect a new President?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, the -- first of all, I don't know all the facts. We do know that Saddam Hussein had the intent and the capabilities to cause great harm, we know he was a danger. And he was not only a danger to people in the free world, he was a danger to his own people; he slaughtered thousands of people, imprisoned people.

What we don't know yet is what we thought and what the Iraqi Survey Group has found, and we want to look at that. But we also want to look at our war against proliferation and weapons of mass destruction, kind of in a broader context. And so I'm putting together an independent, bipartisan commission to analyze where we stand, what we can do better as we fight this war against terror.

What? No Osama bin Laden?

Possible "misjudgments"

"President Bush will establish a bipartisan commission in the next few days to examine American intelligence operations, including a study of possible misjudgments about Iraq's unconventional weapons, senior administration officials said Sunday."

How about we establish a people's commission to examine the definite lies that came out of the Bush administration (not to mention the New York Times)? "Possible" "misjudgments" indeed.

Headlines

And who would know more about intelligence failures than George Bush?

Wal-Mart kills straw men (and a lot more)

Wal-Mart, like (virtually) all companies under capitalism (there are rare exceptions), is "bent" on just one thing - maximizing profits. The fact that that happens to come at the expense of destroying small-town America, driving down wages, and shipping jobs overseas is just the consequence, not their actual goal.

In today's San Jose Mercury News, columnist Dan Gillmor focuses on Wal-Mart, and says "The Wal-Mart never-ending drive for low prices is also fundamentally admirable." If those prices came about because, as Gillmor says, "Wal-Mart has been a genuine innovator in the use of technology to handle its inventory and purchasing," that would indeed be admirable. But the fact is that for every penny Wal-Mart has saved with technology, they've saved many dollars by paying low wages and offering miserly benefits. Not content to stop there, Wal-Mart, by virtue of its huge size and purchasing power, forces lower and lower prices on its suppliers, who in turn can only survive by offering their workers lower wages, fewer benefits, and shipping jobs to lower-wage countries.

"Fundamentally admirable"? I think not.

Last month, at a rally in San Jose in support of the striking and locked out Southern California grocery workers, one of the picket signs read "Amigo, you are about to cross a line of dignity and honor. If you cross to avoid losing your car or your house, keep in mind that what you are about to lose is your soul." Thanks to Wal-Mart and other companies like it, and fundamentally thanks to capitalism, America is losing its soul.

Does not compute...

"A key member of the Senate Intelligence Committee said Sunday the United States has no defense against threats to release biological weapons inside airplanes except to cancel suspect flights."

"The air inside the [Super Bowl] stadium will be monitored for biological and chemical weapons."

And when al Qaeda members start talking to each other every day about smuggling biological weapons aboard every single flight, will we simply cancel air flight entirely?

Raise your hand if you think this has more to do with recent revelations putting the Bush administration on the defensive and less to do with anything al Qaeda has been doing (or talking about) lately.

Electronic voting

"Poll workers in Alameda County noticed something strange on election night in October. As a computer counted absentee ballots in the recall race, workers were stunned to see a big surge in support for a fringe candidate named John Burton.

"Concerned that their new $12.7 million Diebold electronic voting system had developed a glitch, election officials turned to a company representative who happened to be on hand.

"Lucky he was there. For an unknown reason, the computerized tally program had begun to award votes for Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante to Burton, a socialist from Southern California.

"Similar mishaps have occurred across the country since election officials embraced electronic voting in the wake of the Florida vote-counting debacle of 2000.

"In Riverside County during the 2000 presidential election, a computer from Sequoia began dropping touch-screen ballots from the vote tally. A Sequoia salesman who was on hand intervened and fixed the problem.

"Two years later in Bernalillo County, N.M., neither local election officials nor a Sequoia representative noticed on election night that a programming error was causing a computer running Microsoft SQL server software to delete 25 percent of ballots cast by early voters. Three days later, a Democratic Party lawyer spotted a discrepancy between the number of voters who signed in at the polls and the number of digital ballots counted. Sequoia then managed to recover the lost votes.

"Responded Sequoia spokesman Alfie Charles: 'It was just a bug in Microsoft that required an additional step in converting data into the database format. There was a patch that was later applied by Microsoft.' [Left I note: Ah, that's comforting. Just another Microsoft bug.]

"Following November's election in Santa Clara County, Sequoia sent over a group of blue-coated technicians to make adjustments to voting machines that experienced battery problems. For three weeks, the workers, employed by a Sequoia subcontractor, took apart the machines, removing their circuit boards and making adjustments.

"Nevertheless, Santa Clara County officials didn't know the name of the subcontractor and hadn't verified the identities of the workers it hired when the Mercury News made an inquiry. They also hadn't documented the changes being made to the machines. [Left I note: I seem to recall that the "Mission: Impossible" crew specialized in things like this.]

"To find out such information, 'you'd have to contact Sequoia,' said Assistant Registrar of Voters Elaine Larson."

Lazy Sunday

In the context of the controversy over CBS's refusal to air the MoveOn.org ad, Body and Soul takes on the bigger question of issue advertising in the media.

KOS and Atrios (read the linked post and then keep scrolling down to the next three or four posts) take on the new "it was all the CIA's fault for providing faulty intelligence" line.