Left I on the News  

Question to ponder

Just my thought for the day to keep you busy while I'm gone.

Light posting alert

Feel free to use this post as an open thread to talk amongst yourselves (How about that? Two words ending in consonant-s-t in the same post!) Trolls, please refrain from posting; if you have nothing else to do, please take Dick Cheney's advice.

The word you need to know is "occupation"

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 the U.S.

- David Rovics, Occupation

Unclear on the concept

"Some people in Muslim cultures identify democracy with the worst of Western popular culture and want no part of it.' he said. 'When I speak about the blessings of liberty, coarse videos and crass commercialism are not what I have in mind. There is nothing incompatible between democratic values and high standards of decency.'"

The "good news" from Iraq

"More than a year into an aid effort that American officials likened to the Marshall Plan, occupation authorities acknowledge that fewer than 140 of 2,300 promised construction projects are under way.

"More than a year later, supplies of electricity and water are no better for most Iraqis, and in some cases are worse, than they were before the invasion in the spring of 2003.

"On Sunday a local paper reported that new sewage flooding in five poorer neighborhoods of eastern and western Baghdad was raising serious fears of disease."

A simple question

Watch for the expose in the next Michael Moore movie!

Somebody get Tony Blair a new hymnal

"Two days after Bush declared that 'the bitter differences [within NATO] of the war are over,' Blair acknowledged Monday that they aren't.

"'There's no point in our standing here and saying, you know, all the previous disagreements have disappeared. They haven't,' Blair said."

Iraqi "sovereignty"

And here's the first example - the "old" Iraqi flag now flying over the building housing the Iraqi government; the "new" (Bremer-approved) flag presumably consigned to the dustbin of history along with Bremer himself:

Who knows? One day, Iraq might even get its own top-level domain on the Internet, not one owned by a company in Texas under indictment.

Paul Bremer must be getting old

"Anybody who has any doubts about whether Iraq's a better place today than it was 14 months ago - go down to see the mass graves of Hillah. Or visit Hallabja, where Saddam gassed thousands of people. Or see any of the torture chambers or rape rooms around this country."

Is Iraq better off? One thing for sure. If the U.S. hadn't killed tens of thousands of them in the 1991 war, tens of thousands of Iraqis would be better off. If the U.S. hadn't encouraged revolts by the Kurds and the Shia following that war, and then left them out to dry, the mass graves of Hillah wouldn't have existed. If the U.S. hadn't been providing military intelligence to Iraq in 1988 for its war against Iran, along with chemical weapons, then the mass graves of Hallabjah might not have existed. If the U.S. hadn't pushed through (and then enforced and kept in place) a decade of cruel sanctions against Iraq, another million Iraqis would still be alive. If the U.S. hadn't invaded in 2003, at least ten thousand more Iraqis, and possibly twice that number, would also still be alive. Is Iraq better off? There are one hell of a lot of Iraqis who definitely aren't, thanks to the U.S.

Quote of the Day

"Earlier today, 15 months after the liberation of Iraq, and two days ahead of schedule, the world witnessed the arrival of a free and sovereign Iraqi government."

- George Bush (Source)

Political humor of the day

"Say what you will about the Administration, when they set an arbitrary deadline for a symbolic gesture...they mean it."

- Jon Stewart on The Daily Show

Must have slipped their minds

"A letter about detainee policy sent in 2002 from the State Department's legal adviser to the Justice Department's deputy assistant attorney general made no attempt at bureaucratic pleasantries.

"William H. Taft IV said that Justice's legal advice to President Bush about how to handle detainees in the war on terrorism was 'seriously flawed' and its reasoning was 'incorrect as well as incomplete.' Justice's arguments were 'contrary to the official position of the United States, the United Nations and all other states that have considered the issue,' Taft said. [Ed. note: picky, picky, picky!]

"Taft's Jan. 11 letter, obtained by The Washington Post, was omitted from the hundreds of pages of documents released Tuesday by the Bush administration. The release was part of an effort to present the administration's policies on detainees since Sept. 11, 2001, as fully compliant with domestic and international law."

Capitalism kills

"In an article a few years ago in The Journal of the American Medical Association, Dr. Barbara Starfield of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine took a look at the overall health of the American people, and compared conditions here to those in other industrialized countries.

"What she found was disturbing.

"'The fact is that the U.S. population does not have anywhere near the best health in the world,' she wrote. 'Of 13 countries in a recent comparison, the United States ranks an average of 12th (second from the bottom) for 16 available health indicators.'

"She said the U.S. came in 13th, dead last, in terms of low birth weight percentages; 13th for neonatal mortality and infant mortality over all; 13th for years of potential life lost (excluding external causes); 11th for life expectancy at the age of 1 for females and 12th for males; and 10th for life expectancy at the age of 15 for females and 12th for males.

"Last week I talked with Dr. Starfield, an internationally respected physician, professor and researcher, and asked whether the situation had improved over the last four years.

"'It's getting worse,' she said, noting, 'We've done a lot more studies in terms of the international comparisons. We've done them a million different ways. The findings are so robust that I think they're probably incontrovertible.'"

• United States
• Infant mortality rate: 6.63 deaths/1,000 live births
• Life expectancy at birth: total population: 77.43 years, male: 74.63 years, female: 80.36 years

• Poor third-world country
• Infant mortality rate: 6.45 deaths/1,000 live births
• Life expectancy at birth: total population: 77.04 years, male: 74.77 years, female: 79.44 years

All statistics are courtesy of the CIA, who doesn't take note in these aggregated statistics that the U.S. data strongly reflect economics, with Americans who aren't even remotely as "poor" (financially) as Cubans having substantially higher infant mortality rates and substantially lower life expectancies (for example, in 1999, the infant mortality rate in the U.S. was 7.0 infant deaths per 1000 live births. The rate for White infants was 5.8 while the rate for Black infants was 14.1).

Capitalism kills.

Ah, the sweet smell of "sovereignty"

"U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer has issued a raft of edicts revising Iraq's legal code and has appointed at least two dozen Iraqis to government jobs with multi-year terms in an attempt to promote his concepts of governance long after the planned handover of political authority on Wednesday.

"Some of the orders signed by Bremer, which will remain in effect unless overturned by Iraq's interim government, restrict the power of the interim government and impose U.S.-crafted rules for the country's democratic transition. Among the most controversial orders is the enactment of an elections law that gives a seven-member commission the power to disqualify political parties and any of the candidates they support.

"The effect of other regulations could last much longer. Bremer has ordered that the national security adviser and the national intelligence chief chosen by the interim prime minister he selected, Ayad Allawi, be given five-year terms, imposing Allawi's choices on the elected government that is to take over next year.

"Bremer also has appointed Iraqis handpicked by his aides to influential positions in the interim government. He has installed inspectors-general for five-year terms in every ministry. He has formed and filled commissions to regulate communications, public broadcasting and securities markets. He named a public-integrity commissioner who will have the power to refer corrupt government officials for prosecution.

"As of June 14, Bremer had issued 97 legal orders, which are defined by the U.S. occupation authority as 'binding instructions or directives to the Iraqi people' that will remain in force even after the transfer of political authority. An annex to the country's interim constitution requires the approval of a majority of Allawi's ministers, as well as the interim president and two vice presidents, to overturn any of Bremer's edicts. A senior U.S. official in Iraq noted recently that it would 'not be easy to reverse' the orders."

"The orders include rules that cap tax rates at 15 percent, prohibit piracy of intellectual property, ban children younger than 15 from working, and a new traffic code that stipulates the use of a car horn in 'emergency conditions only' and requires a driver to 'hold the steering wheel with both hands.'"

One of the most important edicts was issued by Bremer just two days before he slinked (slunk?) out of town:

"On Saturday, Bremer signed an edict that gave U.S. and other Western civilian contractors immunity from Iraqi law while performing their jobs in Iraq."

Taking care of the natives

"In addition to democracy, the United States is bringing business technology to Iraq. As the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority prepares to hand power next week to a newly constituted Iraqi government, technologists within the authority are huddling with Iraqi officials to complete information systems to ensure the country can operate and maintain the power plants, refineries, hospitals, and thousands of other infrastructure elements under construction. [Ed. note: all those "infrastructure elements" that were destroyed by U.S. bombing in 1991 and kept from being rebuilt by the sanctions]

"At the heart of the plan is an effort to introduce an asset-management system to public officials who, in many cases, have never used anything more than pencil and paper to manage vital national assets. [Ed. note: has anyone ever noticed that business corruption has increased by several orders of magnitude in the U.S. (e.g., Enron) since we substituted computers for pencil and paper? I seem to remember (from reading, I'm not that old!) that the U.S. managed to keep thousands of power plants, refineries, hospitals, and other "infrastructure elements" going just fine long before the invention of computers]

"The technology behind the asset-management system would look familiar to many U.S. IT managers, built around Oracle's database, project software, and 11i business applications. That system is connected through IBM WebSphere middleware to other engineering, construction, and asset-management applications, such as MRO Software Inc.'s Maximo program, and project-management software from Primavera Systems Inc. [Ed. note: U.S. companies all, natch!] It's housed on servers located in the Program Management Office in Baghdad and is mirrored at a site in Virginia to permit remote management and updates. [Emphasis added] [Ed. note: Nothing like the "sovereignty" of someone in another country having remote control of your computers.]

"Coalition officials want to introduce the asset-management system to Iraqi administrators in small doses. At present, Plockmeyer and staff are discussing ways to apply the technology to the electricity sector around Baghdad. Under a proposed plan, the system would be deployed at one or two facilities within easy reach of the Green Zone, and Program Management Office staffers would train Iraqi nationals to use it."

And here's what else is hampering them:

"Internet access needs to be widely available if it's to be fully utilized by some of the more far-flung Iraqi ministry outposts. The violence has slowed efforts by communications contractors, including Lucent, to deploy fiber beyond Baghdad. For now, satellite links are needed to make most Internet connections."

All the news that's not fit to print

Nation's Largest Union Calls for End to U.S. Occupation of Iraq and Withdrawal of U.S. Troops
"Nearly 4000 delegates of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the nation's largest with 1.6 million members, voted unanimously at the union's national convention in San Francisco today to end U.S. occupation of Iraq and to bring U.S. troops stationed there home. 

"The strongly worded resolution pointed to military intervention aboard and attacks on workers at home.  The resolution charged the Bush administration (backed by a majority in Congress) with responsibility for declining wages and benefits, deunionization, cuts in public services, crumbling health care and educational systems, cuts in veterans benefits, escalating public debt, and eroding economic, social and personal security.

"The union proclaimed, 'We cannot solve these economic and social problems without addressing U.S. foreign policy and its consequences.'"

Fahrenheit 9/11 - Some thoughts

First of all, it's just not that good as a film. The editing is poor. Some things are present in excess (shots of Bush administration bigwigs getting ready for appearances on television), while other subjects aren't touched at all. There's an extremely poignant clip of an Iraqi woman who has lost some of her family in the bombing of Baghdad, and then much later an equally poignant view of an American woman who loses her son in the war, but no attempt to connect the two whatsoever. We get a funny bit (seen in the trailers) where Moore rides around Washington in an ice cream truck trying to read the PATRIOT act to Congress, but only the briefest attempt to illustrate the impact of the act on ordinary Americans.

The film is also politically dishonest. Because Moore is pushing the "Anybody but Bush" line with single-minded focus, he doesn't let anything, like intellectual honesty, get in his way. Discussing the "declaration of war" against Iraq, he sarcastically says "of course, the Democrats did their best to stop this drive to war, right?" and then shows a single clip of Tom Daschle saying he's voting for the resolution. Of course Moore could have also shown a clip of John Kerry saying the same thing, but that might interfere with his message. Likewise, going back to the ratification in Congress of the 2000 election results, the film includes at least a half-dozen House Democrats speaking, introducing a resolution to question the results, each of them noting that they only need one Senator to join them in this resolution to put at least a temporary break on the election grab. Again, Moore could have "brought it home" by then switching to shots of Kerry, or Ted Kennedy, or Barbara Boxer, or the other liberal members of the Senate who refused to sign on to the protest, but he doesn't.

Finally, the focus on George Bush and his family is all very interesting, but suggests that something fundamental changed in this country in 2000. Bush is uniquely incompetent, and particularly venal, but Republican and Democratic Presidents have been taking America to war after war for years, long before George Bush, something you might never guess from watching this movie. Likewise big corporations have held undue power over the events of this country, and have had Republican and Democratic politicans doing their bidding, for years, long before George Bush. United States politics have been moving steadily rightward for years; Bill Clinton is to the right of Richard Nixon. By avoiding discussion of that trend, and its underlying causes, Moore fundamentally misleads the viewer into thinking there is an individual, rather than a systemic, problem in the United States.

All this being said, the film is certainly a must-see for any politically active person. First of all, there is an unbelievable amount of footage in this movie that you just can't imagine how Moore got hold of. Everyone has heard about the famous "George Bush in the Florida classroom on 9/11" footage, but there's lots more. The most powerful of all, however, and the most valuable reason to see this movie, are the clips from Iraq. Moore starts, very effectively, with shots of Baghdad on the day before the bombing. People getting haircuts, eating ice cream cones, playing in the park, talking -- normal people leading normal lives. Then we see the shots we never saw on American television - Iraqi bodies blown to bits, blood all over, guts hanging out, the real result of "shock and awe." Not to mention similar, though less extensive, shots of American soldiers meeting similar fates. It's powerful stuff, and one can only imagine the effect on the American people had it been shown when it happened, instead of a year later.

The ultimate dishonesty in the movie comes at the very end. Moore shows the famous clip of Bush mangling a well-known quote, saying "Fool me once, shame on you...won't get fooled again." To which Moore adds in a barely audible voice, "I agree," referring to his hope that America won't "elect" Bush again. But Moore has forgotten the famous Who song that Bush was inadvertently quoting ("Won't Get Fooled Again"), and the other famous line from the same song: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

See the movie, tell your non-political friends to go and for sure they'll learn something and be amused at the same time, but lower your expectations. Any awards this film wins, like the Palme d'Or, have a major political component to them, and in my opinion are probably undeserved.

Followup: I still say that some Disney shareholder should sue Disney, especially now that predictions have come true and the movie has already become the top-grossing documentary of all time, on the same weekend that Disney's Around the World in 80 Days tanked, and has now lost Disney shareholders $80 million dollars.

I'm still here!

This is what occupation looks like

"American soldiers stormed into Sajid Kadhum Bouri al-Bawi's house three hours after midnight on May 17, breaking two doors and rousing the dozen children who live there.

"An hour later, family members recalled, the soldiers led a hooded man from the house and told the family they were arresting Bawi. Only after the soldiers left with what appeared to be a prisoner did Bawi's brother find his bloodied body, shot five times and stuffed behind a refrigerator underneath a pile of mattresses.

"The US Army is investigating the shooting [Ed: aren't they always?], and admits that Bawi was shot and killed by an American when, according to the soldiers involved, he tried to seize a soldier's weapon. [Ed: ah, the old 'he went for the gun' story]"

"According to his brothers, Bawi, like the rest of the family, welcomed the United States as liberators. ''When Saddam was captured, he hired a band for the neighborhood,' Qasim Bawi said. Family snapshots show Wathiq Kadhum, the brother with the forehead scar, frolicking in a waterfall last summer, his arm around a female US soldier."

This is what democracy looks like

In today's news:

"The weekly meeting of the Rashid district council began last Wednesday with a prayer for two of the group's 33 members. One was in critical condition at a U.S. military hospital after being shot seven times in an assassination attempt. Another was in hiding after gunmen attacked her house and killed her brother.

"'Let us remember our martyrs,' Sami Ahmed Sharif, the council chairman, intoned as his fellow members stood, turned their palms to the ceiling and bowed their heads.

"There were no other residents of the Rashid district to observe the moment of silence or the rest of the proceedings. Council members voted to close the meeting to the public because of fears that assassins would slip in and mark members for death. To enforce the decision, U.S. and Iraqi soldiers surrounded the council building and stationed snipers on the roof."

It is worth remembering back to the beginning of this "experiment in democracy":

"Despite calls from Iraqi politicians for the participants to be chosen by popular vote, the CPA deemed municipal elections too risky last summer. They worried that religious extremists and Baathists would manipulate the process. Instead, the CPA asked the Research Triangle Institute, which had a U.S. government contract to promote democracy in Iraq, to organize neighborhood caucuses to select the councils.

"Participants in the caucuses were screened by Americans who supervised the entire process. As a result, the councils were filled with people who owed their jobs more to the CPA than to the public. 'The community saw us as tools of the Americans,' said Ali Aziz, the secretary of the Rashid council. 'It was the beginning of our problems.'"

Fallujah - Who ya' gonna' believe?

"A day after an American airstrike destroyed six homes in this flash-point city, a senior Iraqi official said Sunday that 23 of 26 people killed in the attack were foreign terrorists, including men from Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Yemen."

Now, how do we know whom to believe? Well, the Guardian's claim comes from a named source, which was later backed up in a report in VOA News from "Iraqi military officers in the city of Fallujah." And the Times story? A "senior Iraqi official...who spoke on the condition of anonymity." Who was this official? What was his source of information? Was he actually in Fallujah? What is the source of his information? For all we know, this "senior Iraqi official" was Ahmad Chalabi, or perhaps Iyad Allawi, and their source of information was Paul Bremer or Mark Kimmitt.

What else can we tell about the reliability of the Times story? Here's another thing we "learn" from it: "On Sunday, there were no serious mortar attacks against American forces, no fiery sermons at the mosques, no marches in the street" [This is intended to prove that the people of Fallujah were not outraged by the attack]. Well of course there were no mortar attacks, because American forces have withdrawn from Fallujah. And as far as "marches in the street," AP reports the opposite, and it's rather hard to believe they just made this up out of whole cloth:

"Hundreds gathered in the center of this restive Sunni-Muslim city Monday to protest a U.S. airstrike that targeted a Jordanian-born militant suspected of masterminding car bomb attacks throughout Iraq. Chanting anti-U.S. slogans, the crowds accused the Americans of falsely claiming that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had sought refuge here in order to create an excuse to attack the city."

By the way, the statement made yesterday still stands. The name of Mohammed Hamadi has yet to appear in any American media outlet.

Thought for the day

"In the fall of 2002, Tenet called Condoleezza Rice's chief aide, Stephen Hadley, to warn Bush not to put anything in an upcoming speech about the alleged Iraqi attempt to purchase uranium. That sentence was struck out of the speech. But later, when Bush gave his State of the Union speech in January 2003, two months before the Pentagon's invasion, the line about the uranium reappeared. After the war, a scandal broke: the documents substantiating the charges about Niger uranium had been forged.

"Condoleezza Rice tried to get out of it by saying that Tenet had not read the speech and had to take the blame. But Tenet had already told Rice's highest aide that the allegation was false. Yet it had appeared in Bush's annual speech to Congress.

"How could such a risk be taken? Only if the Bush administration was absolutely confident that the U.S. would gain immediate, total victory in Iraq and the question of the justification for the war would never be raised. Military triumphalism, patriotic chauvinism such as followed the Gulf War of 1991, would prevail and the ruling class would not care one bit about how or why Washington got into the war.

"Had it not been for the Iraqi resistance, the question of the phony evidence about non-existent weapons of mass destruction would have been a minor footnote in history, brought up only by bourgeois dissidents and the left. The ruling class would never have paid attention to it. They would have been too busy counting their profits from the oil, from the takeover of the Iraqi economy, and from the payola flowing from construction of military bases and so on."

Breaking news - It's Nader-Camejo

"'I think the central issue of this campaign is the war in Iraq,' Camejo said. 'All of you know (Democrat John) Kerry is complaining about how Bush has carried out the invasion and the occupation but not what he keeps doing.'"

Bill Clinton - the patient war criminal

"President Bush should have let U.N. inspectors finish hunting for weapons of mass destruction before he launched the Iraq war, former president Bill Clinton said in interviews released on Sunday to promote his new book.

"In comments to CBS' "60 Minutes," Clinton said: 'In terms of the launching of the war, I believe we made an error in not allowing the United Nations to complete the inspections process.'

"'I have repeatedly defended President Bush against the left on Iraq, even though I think he should have waited until the U.N. inspections were over,' he told Time magazine."

Horrors and horrors

"Dr Fadhil al-Baddrani said the entire family of Mohammed Hamadi, a 65-year-old farmer, married with two wives, were killed. Among the dead where his wives and children. At least three women and five children were among the dead. 'The whole family is gone,' said al-Baddrani. 'The blast was so powerful it blew them to pieces. We could only recognise the women by their long hair.'"

Want to be outraged? Try some outrage at the complete moral bankruptcy of the American government. Not to mention the spinelessness and complicity of the United Nations, the American media, the Pope, John Kerry, and everyone else who doesn't raise their voice in protest against this barbarism. Not a single American media outlet has yet to even mention the name of Mohammed Hamadi.

Why doesn't Israel want the world to watch?

"A group of British politicians were shot at by Israeli soldiers during a UN-supervised fact-finding mission, they have claimed.

"The cross-party group, including MPs Huw Irranca-Davies and Crispin Blunt, was on a visit to Rafah in Gaza, where UK student Tom Hurndall was killed.

"Mr Irranca Davies said the first he knew of what was happening was when he heard the rattle of a machine gun.

"'We withdrew to the jeeps and as we were getting in, it was followed by some pretty accurate warning shots which fired above our heads and hit a building. It was a pretty clear indication they didn't want us there.'

"Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Northover said one bullet hit a wall about 10ft above her head. 'I thought 'they're trying to kill us',' she told BBC News Online. 'One of the most perturbing things was that we had been surrounded by children as we arrived, but they were not terrified by this - it's obviously a fairly common occurrence," she added.

"In an earlier statement Lady Northover, the Liberal Democrats' international development spokesperson in the Lords, said the incident had shown her 'the indiscriminate violence faced by Palestinians on a daily basis'."

Update

The "war on terror" is making us safer...not

"Intelligence chiefs are calling for the most sweeping security shake-up in the history of Westminster to prevent terrorists striking at the heart of central London.

"Amid fears that government departments and tourist landmarks such as Big Ben are under threat, intelligence experts want to set up a 'sterile security zone' around a large swath of London, blocking off key roads and sealing off the Commons debating chamber with bomb-proof screens.

"Police and anti-terror chiefs want to close roads around key ministries, including the Department of Health, Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Ministry of Defence as well as Parliament itself, which could extend from Trafalgar Square to Millbank, where MI5's headquarters are situated."

Bush and Cheney have gone too far

"When the commission studying the 9/11 terrorist attacks refuted the Bush administration's claims of a connection between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, we suggested that President Bush apologize for using these claims to help win Americans' support for the invasion of Iraq. We did not really expect that to happen. But we were surprised by the depth and ferocity of the administration's capacity for denial. President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have not only brushed aside the panel's findings and questioned its expertise, but they are also trying to rewrite history.

"Mr. Bush said the 9/11 panel had actually confirmed his contention that there were 'ties' between Iraq and Al Qaeda. He said his administration had never connected Saddam Hussein to 9/11. Both statements are wrong.

"Before the war, Mr. Bush spoke of far more than vague 'ties' between Iraq and Al Qaeda. He said Iraq had provided Al Qaeda with weapons training, bomb-making expertise and a base in Iraq. On Feb. 8, 2003, Mr. Bush said that 'an Al Qaeda operative was sent to Iraq several times in the late 1990's for help in acquiring poisons and gases.' The 9/11 panel's report, as well as news articles, indicate that these things never happened.

"Mr. Cheney said yesterday that the 'evidence is overwhelming' of an Iraq-Qaeda axis and that there had been a 'whole series of high-level contacts' between them. The 9/11 panel said a senior Iraqi intelligence officer made three visits to Sudan in the early 1990's, meeting with Osama bin Laden once in 1994. It said Osama bin Laden had asked for 'space to establish training camps, as well as assistance in procuring weapons, but Iraq apparently never responded.' The panel cited reports of further contacts after Osama bin Laden returned to Afghanistan in 1996, but said there was no working relationship. As far as the public record is concerned, then, Mr. Cheney's 'longstanding ties' amount to one confirmed meeting, after which the Iraq government did not help Al Qaeda. By those standards, the United States has longstanding ties to North Korea.

"Mr. Bush has also used a terrorist named Abu Musab al-Zarqawi as evidence of a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. Mr. Bush used to refer to Mr. Zarqawi as a 'senior Al Qaeda terrorist planner' who was in Baghdad working with the Iraqi government. But the director of central intelligence, George Tenet, told the Senate earlier this year that Mr. Zarqawi did not work with the Hussein regime, nor under the direction of Al Qaeda.

"When it comes to 9/11, someone in the Bush administration has indeed drawn the connection to Iraq: the vice president. Mr. Cheney has repeatedly referred to reports that Mohamed Atta met in Prague in April 2001 with an Iraqi intelligence agent. He told Tim Russert of NBC on Dec. 9, 2001, that this report has 'been pretty well confirmed.' If so, no one seems to have informed the C.I.A., the Czech government or the 9/11 commission, which said it did not appear to be true. Yet Mr. Cheney cited it, again, on Thursday night on CNBC.

"Mr. Cheney said he had lots of documents to prove his claims. We have heard that before, but Mr. Cheney always seems too pressed for time or too concerned about secrets to share them. Last September, Mr. Cheney's adviser, Mary Matalin, explained to The Washington Post that Mr. Cheney had access to lots of secret stuff. She said he had to 'tiptoe through the land mines of what's sayable and not sayable' to the public, but that 'his job is to connect the dots.'

"The message, if we hear it properly, is that when it comes to this critical issue, the vice president is not prepared to offer any evidence beyond the flimsy-to-nonexistent arguments he has used in the past, but he wants us to trust him when he says there's more behind the screen. So far, when it comes to Iraq, blind faith in this administration has been a losing strategy."

Quote of the Day

"To blame Saddam for Zarqawi's presence in Iraq would be like blaming Fidel Castro for instances of torture at Guantanamo Bay."

- Zachary Roth at the Columbia Journalism Review

Add 20 more dead Iraqis to the list

"In a bloody surprise attack, the U.S. military launched precision weapons into a poor residential neighborhood of Fallujah on Saturday to destroy what officers described as a safe house used by fighters loyal to Abu Musab Zarqawi and perhaps, at times, by the fugitive terrorist leader himself.

"Residents said about 20 people were killed, including women and children, despite a cease-fire with U.S. occupation forces that has brought relative peace for the last six weeks to the rebellious city 35 miles west of Baghdad. Images from the site of the blast showed two collapsed houses, with people in white robes picking through the rubble looking for buried victims and lost property."

"'He's [Zarqawi] had a number of locations,' a senior U.S. military official said of Zarqawi after the strike on Saturday. 'This may have been one of the locations where he's at. . . . We just don't have any evidence.'"

I've used this analogy before, but I can't remember if it was in this blog or not. Imagine an escaped, convicted, armed mass murderer is holed up in a shopping mall in the U.S. Do you think it would be "permissible" to drop a bomb on the mall to kill the murderer, knowing a few hundred people might be "taken out"? What about if the murderer was standing in a middle of a crowd of a dozen people? Or even had a single hostage? How would you feel if the police in your town routinely "opened up" on the subject in a situation like that, knowing that the chances that the hostage would be killed by their fire was virtually a certainty? To say the least, I doubt most people would want to live in a city like that. But when Iraqi civilians are involved, it's a different story. A very different story.

Followup: More details from the Guardian:

"Dr Fadhil al-Baddrani said the entire family of Mohammed Hamadi, a 65-year-old farmer, married with two wives, were killed. Among the dead where his wives and children. At least three women and five chil dren were among the dead. 'The whole family is gone,' said al-Baddrani. 'The blast was so powerful it blew them to pieces. We could only recognise the women by their long hair.'"

Another eyewitness report spotlights the American tactics:

"Outraged residents accused America of trying to inflict maximum damaged by firing two strikes - one first to attack and another to kill the rescuers.

"'The number of casualties is so high because after the first missile we jumped to rescue the victims,' said Wissam ali-Hamad. 'The second missile killed those trying to carry out the rescue.'"

More followup: VOA News is now reporting that "Iraqi military officers in the city of Fallujah say there is no sign any insurgents were in a house flattened during a U.S. attack that reportedly killed at least 20 civilians." Again, note how preposterous is the original American claim that they killed two of Zarqawi's associates. The Americans have no one on the ground there, how could they possibly know that? But now we have both a Guardian reporter on the scene and Iraqi military officers putting the lie to that nonsense.

Some of that good news from Iraq

OK, maybe not such good news:

"'People are depressed, so they need Viagra and other drugs to give them interest in sex,' said Talid Abdul-Amir Shebany, a balding pharmacist who tracks the changing ailments of Iraqis in a worn ledger on his desk. 'Viagra sales have at least doubled since the war ended. Lives are not good. There's bombs and tension. When you see bodies and destroyed houses, you have psychological disturbances that affect sexual desire.'"

Insights from inside Iraq

"My favorite minister, by far, is the Defense Minister, Sha’alan Hazim. According to American newspaper Al-Sabah, Mr. Sha’lan Hazim 'received a Masters degree in business administration from the UK before returning to Iraq to run a Kuwaiti bank. After being forced to leave Iraq by the former regime, Mr.Sha’alan became the head of a real-estate company in London until he returned to Iraq last June and has since worked as the governor of Qadisiya'.

"Now this is highly amusing. I must have missed something. If anyone has any information about just *how* Mr. Sha’alan Hazim qualifies as a Defense Minister, please do send it along. At a point when we need secure borders and a strong army, our new Defense Minister was given the job because he… what? Played with toy soldiers as a child? Read Tolstoy’s War and Peace six times? Was regional champion of the game Commandos?"

The forgotten, remembered

Aaboola Razak Katraan, age 19. Aadel Akgaal Bastaan, age 65. Aadheam Ali, age 45. Aahlam Jallal Nasser, age 25. Aajel Jabayer, age unknown. Aajel Jaber Hassef, age 55. Aamaed Mustafa Hameed, age 7.

Who are these people? They are the first 7 (alphabetically) of 2081 Iraqi civilians who were killed by American bombs and missiles between March 21 and July 31, 2003, who have now been thoroughly documented by the Iraq Survey Team headed up by Raed Jarrar. Each death is listed by day, place, occupation, and method of death (missile, bomb, etc.). They are the uncounted, the ones that George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, and the rest couldn't be bothered about. Every one of them has (or had) a family who deserves as much compassion as the family of Paul Johnson, murdered today by Saudi terrorists. Every one of them was as innocent as Johnson, and equally as undeserving to die. In some just future, the terrorists who murdered them all will be viewed with as much contempt, and treated the same way, as the terrorists who killed Johnson. As will the terrorist sympathizers in the Congress and Administration and media, whose words and deeds made their murders possible.

Not so funny humor of the day

"U.S. analysts also erred in their analysis of high-altitude satellite photos, repeatedly confusing Scud missile storage places with the short, half-cylindrical sheds typically used to house poultry in Iraq. As a result, as the war neared, two teams of U.N. weapons experts acting on U.S. intelligence scrambled to search chicken coops for missiles that were not there.

"'We inspected a lot of chicken farms,' said a former inspector who asked not to be identified because he now works with U.S. intelligence. His U.N. team printed 'Ballistic Chicken Farm Inspection Team' on 20 gray T-shirts to mark the futile hunt."

Cheney, Bush, and the Iraq-al Qaeda connection

There are just two problems with that line of "defense." One, it overlooks the less widely reported conclusion of the commission that, while there were "contacts" between Iraq and al Qaeda, that what limited contacts there were "did not result in any cooperation," and "do not appear to have resulted in a collaborative relationship." Evidently, according to Dick Cheney and George Bush, if I call the White House and leave a message on their answering machine, and they never get back to me, that would be "overwhelming evidence" of links between me and the White House. Nice try, but no.

The second issue is a bigger one, because it's the one the American public is being hit with repeatedly - the presence in Iraq of number one bogeyman du jour Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Bush and Cheney repeat his name as some kind of magic talisman to ward off the 9-11 commission report. But who is Zarqawi (and how many legs does he have?)? A very good overview appeared here back in February. Zarqawi is the alleged head (there aren't exactly public elections) of Ansar al Islam. Ansar al Islam is not al Qaeda, despite attempts by the administration to conflate the two. Indeed, earlier this year the very same administration claimed to have intercepted a letter from Zarqawi to bin Laden saying that al Qaeda would be welcome in Iraq. If Zarqawi was al Qaeda, or if al Qaeda was already in Iraq, that letter doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Not to mention that before the invasion, Zarqawi was based in Kurdistan, an area outside of the control of the central government of Iraq, and hardly indicative of any kind of relationship between Hussein and Zarqawi (a fact which didn't stop Colin Powell at the U.N. from citing Zarqawi's alleged chemical weapons plant in Kurdistan as a reason for attacking Iraq - a charge almost immediately proved false by journalists visiting the site). The point of all this is simple - Zarqawi may exist (or he may be dead, and he may (or may not) be carrying out terrorist activities in Iraq at this very moment. But these facts (or possibilities) have nothing to do with any links between Iraq under Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Nothing. As they so often do, the Administration is doing its best to blur the facts to confuse the public. Let's not let them get away with it.

How very curious...

"Russian intelligence services warned Washington several times that Saddam Hussein's regime planned terrorist attacks against the United States, President Vladimir Putin has said.

"The planned attacks were targeted both inside and outside the United States, said Putin, who made the remarks during a visit to Kazakhstan."

The Venezuelan recall

And why does Chavez want to pack the court?

"Political analysts say that if Mr. Chávez cannot win the recall outright, his government could count on the Supreme Court to ensure victory if the referendum results are close or disputed."

Meanwhile, over at the Washington Post, they discover the scare story that the Times ran two weeks ago and was discussed by Left I on the News - that dastardly Hugo Chavez is attempting to "buy" the election by actually spending the oil income of the country on social needs! The fiend!

"Chavez's government plans to spend at least $1.7 billion -- and perhaps twice that -- in oil revenue this year on social programs ranging from subsidized food to classes on literacy, farming, hair-styling and auto mechanics. Chavez has said his goal is a 'social transformation' that will 'redistribute national income' into the hands of the millions of poor people who have long been denied access to this country's vast oil riches.

"But critics say Chavez is pandering to the poor to save his political career and gambling irresponsibly with the long-term fiscal health of a state company that provides half the country's revenue.

"Most of the programs are directly funded and administered by the oil company. It has budgeted $1.7 billion for social projects this year, up from just a few million in past years. And Chavez recently said that he would funnel another $2 billion of company revenue into a social spending account. This week, Chavez announced that from now on, he would refer to the company as 'Petroleos del Pueblo de Venezuela,' the oil company of the 'people of Venezuela.'

"Alfredo Keller, a pollster and political analyst, said Chavez was trying to 'buy loyalty to maintain power' and 'using the oil industry as a political weapon.'

"Keller said Chavez was playing on the fears of a nation where 67 percent of the people live in poverty, 35 percent live in extreme poverty, three-quarters of the population is either unemployed or works in the informal sector, and there have been 43,000 homicides in the past five years."

Is Chavez's dastardly plan working? It sounds like it:

"At the Caracas school where Castillo was studying for his high school diploma, every one of the 30 or so students, ranging in age from 19 to 78, said they planned to vote for Chavez in the referendum. Belkis Carrillo Ibarra, 33, who wants to become a nurse, said she was so grateful for the opportunity that she planned to register to vote for the first time in her life.

'With Chavez, finally someone is helping the poor,' she said. 'This will be my first vote, and I will vote for him.'"

Murderous CIA "contractor" charged...with assault

"A contractor working for the CIA was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges stemming from the beating death of a prisoner in Afghanistan.

"Court documents say Wali had surrendered voluntarily and was being questioned by Passaro about frequent rocket attacks directed at the U.S. facility. Wali died after Passaro allegedly beat him 'using his hands and feet, and a large flashlight' during two days of interrogations, the indictment said.

"The indictment charges Passaro with two counts each of assault and assault with a dangerous weapon - the flashlight. He faces a total of up to 40 years in prison."

Dick Cheney, accurate as ever

Cheney: "There's been at least three instances here where we've had reports of aircraft approaching Washington -- a couple were confirmed hijack. And, pursuant to the president's instructions, I gave authorization for them to be taken out. Hello?"

Rumsfeld: "So we've got a couple of aircraft up there that have those instructions at the present time?"

Cheney: "That is correct. And it's my understanding they've already taken a couple of the aircraft (hijacked airliners) out."

Democrats and Republicans

"Clinton attacked Yugoslavia. He ordered the bombing of civilian targets -- homes, roads, farms, factories, hospitals, bridges, churches, monasteries, columns of refugees, TV stations, office buildings -- and killed a 'few thousand random civilians for good measure, and thus weakening the will of the population to resist, so that they would submit to NATO occupation,' as David Ramsay Steele summarizes. By attacking Yugoslavia Clinton and the Democrats basically laid the groundwork for Bush and the neocons: For Clinton and the Democrats, it is perfectly acceptable to attack other nations -- this is not a Republican proclivity -- even if they pose no threat to the United States or anybody else. The United Nations does not need to be consulted.

"Clinton sounded like Bush when he said, '[Hussein's] regime threatens the safety of his people, the stability of his region, and the security of all the rest of us. Some day, some way, I guarantee you, he'll use the arsenal. Let there be no doubt, we are prepared to act.'

"In 1998 Senate Democrats passed Resolution 71, which gave Clinton the authority to 'take all necessary and appropriate actions to respond to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end it's weapons of mass destruction programs,' in other words the authority to attack the people of Iraq who were suffering under years of brutally imposed sanctions. On December 16, 1998, Clinton attacked Iraq. Prior to this he bombed Sudan and Afghanistan. Clinton and the Democrats showed Bush and the Republicans how to go about violating the Constitution and international law."

Could it get any more upbeat?

"'We can expect more attacks in the coming few weeks, more car bombs, more suiciders, more attempts on the lives of Iraqi officials,' Bush said."

"Bush's trip to the headquarters of U.S. Central Command...was the latest in a series of presidential events that are intended to ease public concerns about the chaos in Iraq."

"Even as he was visiting the base, the U.S. military in Baghdad announced that a rocket attack on a U.S. base had killed two U.S. soldiers."

*If he'd been watching Fox News more often, he'd know the correct word is "homiciders." :-)

Political humor of the day

"I guess if you think about it, Reagan really was an American idol. He floated by on charm, he was a triumph of style over substance, and idiots across America kept voting for him."

Q: What are your qualifications to be President?

A: Jay, living in America, you should know that sometimes you don't need qualifications to be President.

Outrage at the Times

"Of all the ways Mr. Bush persuaded Americans to back the invasion of Iraq last year, the most plainly dishonest was his effort to link his war of choice with the battle against terrorists worldwide. While it's possible that Mr. Bush and his top advisers really believed that there were chemical, biological and nuclear weapons in Iraq, they should have known all along that there was no link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. No serious intelligence analyst believed the connection existed; Richard Clarke, the former antiterrorism chief, wrote in his book that Mr. Bush had been told just that."

And what is the conclusion of the Times' outrage? "President Bush should apologize to the American people." How about apologizing to the families of the 954 dead coalition soldiers (and uncounted numbers of contractors)? How about apologizing to the families of the more than ten thousand dead Iraqis? How about paying reparations to the families of those dead people out of his own pocket? How about resigning in disgrace from the office he was never elected to anyway? How about apologizing to the world for making a mockery of international law? How about submitting himself to the International Criminal Court as a war criminal?

"Apologize to the American people." Spare me.

9-11

The coalition gathers strength

"Forty-four Tongan soldiers left to serve alongside US Marines in Iraq earlier this week."

Positive thought for the day - Ashcroft behind bars

"In an exclusive interview with BreakForNews.com [Daniel Ellsberg] said that Ashcroft's legal actions against [whistleblower Sibel] Edmonds were: 'clearly intended to keep her from bringing out in public information that could lead.... to criminal indictments and possible convictions of major political figures.'

"Ellsberg says that if Edmonds' allegations are confirmed, the current Attorney General could be judged obstructive and share the fate of A.G. John Mitchell --who in Ellsberg v. Mitchell famously tried to squelch Ellsberg's 1971 revelations, and served prison time over the affair.

"'John Ashcroft may well sleep eventually in the same cell as John Mitchell,' Ellsberg said."

War crimes remembered...and continuing

American compassion

"The U.S. Army will charge a 1st Armored Division officer with murder after he allegedly shot and killed a severely wounded suspected Muqtada al-Sadr loyalist last month in the southern Iraqi town of Kufa, officials said Wednesday.

"The case...occurred on May 21 when U.S. forces fired on a vehicle carrying several al-Sadr loyalists, severely injuring the driver and a passenger, according to NBC News. After the vehicle came to a stop, the Army captain allegedly approached the car and shot the wounded driver, killing him instantly.

"Military officials told NBC's Jim Miklaszewski that the soldier was apparently acting in good faith, shooting the badly wounded driver to 'put him out of misery.'"

"Shooting a horse to put it out of its misery might be an act of good faith. Shooting a human, rather than providing medical care, is murder."

President Moron

"The ingredients for continued economic growth are present. And I'm very pleased. I'm particularly pleased because it means that workers are able to do their duties to their families."

Remember Afghanistan?

"There is no convincing evidence that any government financially supported al Qaeda before 9/11 -- other than limited support provided by the Taliban after bin Laden first arrived in Afghanistan."

The latest from Guantanamo

"A key investigator in the espionage case against former Guantánamo interpreter Ahmad I. Al-Halabi now faces criminal charges himself, including rape, sodomy, fondling girls and mishandling classified material, the Air Force acknowledged Tuesday."

Thought for the Day

The U.S. press - lagging behind as usual

Gee, what's next? Remembering that Tariq Aziz is still in custody too? Heaven only knows what's happening to him.

General al-Saadi's main "crime," of course, was telling the truth to Hans Blix and the world about (the lack of) Iraqi WMD. Wouldn't it be nice if all the people who lied about Iraqi WMD got to spend a year or two in solitary?

The story behind the story

Today, Danny Schechter breaks the "story behind the story" -- the tale of French journalist Natasha Saulnier, who uncovered the story, had it published in the French press in early April, and then struggled to get it published in the U.S. Here's part of her enlightening story:

"I then set off to contact the mainstream American press (Washington Post, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun…) thinking that they would be all too happy to print such a compelling story. Their reactions were confounding. All of them were extremely courteous and receptive. Most of them praised the article (the Washington Post said it was 'great.') Yet, none of them would touch it.

"One newspaper asked me if I could find some surviving victims to back up my story (don't you wish newspapers had been that cautious on the issue of the weapons of mass destruction?) Another one claimed that the indiscriminate shooting was part of the fog of war and should not be seen as 'atrocities' (even if that was true, shouldn't we also take into account the fact that no weapons of mass destruction were even found in this "preventive" war?) A third one told me that their policy prevented them from publishing outside contributions for such sensitive issues (even though they were provided with all the contact numbers to do the fact checking). One newspaper went so far as to propose a new angle, that of the body desecration, claiming that Americans were 'not ready' yet for the killing of civilians.

"At the end, only a British newspaper, The Independent on Sunday, ran my story."

Cooking the books

"It's a numbers error. It's not a political judgment that said, 'Let's see if we can cook the books.' We can't get away with that now. Nobody was out to cook the books. Errors crept in."

But the plain fact of the matter is that is was a political judgment that skewed the report. Because the report said "those killed dropped to 307, including 35 US citizens, from 725 in 2002, including 27 Americans." But that's preposterous, because there were 482 U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq alone in 2003, along with 93 coalition soldiers from other countries, plus some additional number killed in Afghanistan, and thousands of Iraqis, not to mention assorted (and uncounted) contractors. And, while some of those deaths occured in traffic accidents, and others occured in straightforward battles, a large number of them were killed by car bombs, improvised explosive devices, and the like. And every single one of those deaths, when reported by the U.S. government and the military on the day they occured, were described as "acts of terrorism" or having been committed by "terrorists." Every single day you can watch the news and see a news story "headline" reading "War on Terror." Practically every single day you can hear someone in the Administration describing the war in Iraq as part of the "war on terror" or even the "central front in the war on terrorism." Yet despite this overwhelming evidence that the government wants us to be convinced that hundreds of deaths (thousands counting Iraqis) that have occured were the acts of terrorists, when it comes to preparing a report on global terrorism, the State Department conveniently "forgets" that fact.

But Colin Powell says this wasn't a "political judgment." Well, I'm sure we all know how much to value the credibility of Colin Powell.

"Sovereignty," redefined

"In political sparring, Iyad Allawi, the prime minister, called for the Americans to hand over all detainees — including Mr. Hussein — to the Iraqis by June 30, when Iraq will gain limited sovereign powers. Mr. Allawi also said through a spokesman that foreign contractors should be subject to all Iraqi laws. The president, Sheik Ghazi Ajil al-Yawar, demanded that the Americans hand over Mr. Hussein's marble-tiled Republican Palace, a prominent symbol of power, to the Iraqi government after June 30.

"American officials said they did not have to meet any of the demands and were in negotiations with the Iraqi government."

Delusions of Israel supporters

• He says that the settlements are "difficult to defend militarily, impossible to defend legally." With Israel's U.S.-supplied military power, the first half of that statement is doubtful at best; applying raw force (bombs and missiles deployed against cars and apartment buildings), Israel can sustain itself militarily against the Palestinians indefinitely. Only political pressure from within and without Israel, combined with the continued resistance of the Palestinian people, will get the Israelis out. The second part of Cohen's statement is simply undeniable, but...
• Cohen then says "The longer Israel waits to deal with those settlements -- not all, mind you, but most -- the deeper it sinks into a quagmire." So even though the settlements, all the settlements, are "impossible to defend legally," that doesn't bother Cohen, he just wants Israel to surrunder "most" of them.
• Cohen: "Some of what the Jewish settlers told Goldberg is disturbing. Many of them have a contemptuous, virtually racist, view of their Arab neighbors." Virtually racist? These settlers are stone-cold racists. There isn't the slightest "virtually" about it. Any reader who doubts that can do a few minutes of Googling to dig up dozens of examples of the racist attitudes and actions of the settlers. [Note: I'm referring to some of the settlers, of course, particularly the "religiously-motivated" settlers. No doubt there are some, or even many or maybe even most, settlers who are not racist, but it's the actions of the racist ones which are what is key to shaping events.]
• Cohen says of the settlers: "While they by no means share the Islamic radicals' yen for martyrdom -- and they do not approve of the killing of innocents -- they are quite willing to die for their beliefs. Well, I don't know about the settlers per se. I do know that it is official Israeli government policy, just as it is official U.S. government policy, to approve the killing of innocents. Both governments routinely drop bombs, and shoot missiles, at targeted individuals, knowing that there are innocent civilians who will be killed, and accepting their deaths as "collateral damage." One can argue whether that is legally or morally permissable. But to argue that it isn't the case, as Cohen does, is simply delusional.

The march that didn't happen

The shopping mall plot

And, incidentally, if amidst the sound-bite journalism of TV you actually get the impression this plot was practically a done deal, here's the real story:

"Law enforcement officials said the plot was still under investigation, but they cautioned that it appeared not to have advanced beyond the discussion stage. The officials expressed doubt that Mr. Abdi had the financial, organizational or technical skills to carry out an attack."

File this story in the same folder as Jose Padilla's "dirty bomb."

Quote of the Day

"In an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio broadcast Tuesday, Brigadier-General Janis Karpinski said that Major-General Geoffrey Miller told her last autumn that prisoners 'are like dogs, and if you allow them to believe at any point that they are more than a dog then you've lost control of them.'" (Source)

Political humor of the day

"According to the New York Times, last year White House lawyers concluded that President Bush could legally order interrogators to torture and even kill people in the interest of national security - so if that’s legal, what the hell are we charging Saddam Hussein with?"

Military lies

All the (pro-imperialist) news that's fit to print

Today I learned about a different demonstration in Venezuela, one that occured the next day, on June 6. At that demonstration, there were an estimated one million people. Yet no picture of that demonstration appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, or any other mainstream paper in America, and not a single word about that demonstration appeared in the Mercury News, the New York Times, the Washington Post, or any other paper in the United States as far as I can determine. Well, of course you know the reason why. That demonstration was a demonstration of one million people in support of the Chavez government. And, since many of the people in that demonstration wore the red berets of the Bolivarian movement, I'll bet it would have made for a very powerful picture. Too powerful for the capitalist media.

"All the news that's fit to print?" Bullshit.

Followup: Just for the record, the demonstration is support of Chavez was covered by the BBC (who write about "tens of thousands" of supporters) in a reasonably extensive article, so it's definitely not as if this news item was not available to American editors.

Capitalist health care at work

In January, University of Utah hospital surgeons removed half the skull of Briana Lane, age 22 and unemployed, in order to save her life after an auto accident. But because putting the skull back in place was not quite an emergency, it was delayed by negotiations over cost.

The piece of skull remained in a freezer for three months [Ed. note: !], with Lane battling serious pain and wearing a plastic helmet for protection, feeling her brain "shifting" on her while the hospital negotiated with the state Medicaid office, which pays only for long-term "disabilities."

Her skull was finally reattached April 30.

Did he really say that?

"It's a numbers error. It's not a political judgment that said, 'Let's see if we can cook the books.' We can't get away with that now. Nobody was out to cook the books. Errors crept in."

- Colin Powell, attempting to explain the recent erroneous report on global terrorism released by the State Department.

Those generous Israelis

"Settlers' homes will be destroyed, but the infrastructure in the settlements - including water, electricity and roads - will remain.

"Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said Israel's evacuation from Gaza is intended to help bring about the rehabilitation of the Palestinian refugees - as well as take the focus off the Palestinians' claim of a right of return to Israel."

By the way, there wouldn't be just a touch of racism involved in destroying the homes of Jews (and I do mean "Jews," and not Israelis, that's how Ariel Sharon refers to the Gaza settlers, all of whom as far as I can tell are in fact Jewish Israelis) to make sure that no Palestinian ever lives in them, would there? No doubt someone will accuse me of racism (i.e., anti-Semitism) for daring to suggest such a thing.

Anonymous sources

"By reading every bylined A-section news story published in December 2003, Williams [Jason B. Williams, a New York University journalism student] determined that 40 percent of the articles invoked at least one anonymous source, that the average day's paper brought 36 such sources into the reader's home and that more than half of these people were identified, at least in part, as 'officials.'"

More dead Iraqis thanks to "bad intelligence"

"The United States launched many more failed airstrikes on a far broader array of senior Iraqi leaders during the early days of the war last year than has previously been acknowledged, and some caused significant civilian casualties, according to senior military and intelligence officials.

"Only a few of the 50 airstrikes have been described in public. All were unsuccessful, and many, including the two well-known raids on Saddam Hussein and his sons, appear to have been undercut by poor intelligence, current and former government officials said.

"The strikes, carried out against so-called high-value targets during a one-month period that began on March 19, 2003, used precision-guided munitions against at least 13 Iraqi leaders, including Gen. Izzat Ibrahim, Iraq's No. 2 official, the officials said." (Source)

O'Reilly the sane one?

O'REILLY:  Why has Bush fallen in the polls?

COULTER:  Well, I suppose the question is, why isn't he soaring in the polls?  He's running against a nitwit, the war is going magnificently well, the economy is picking back up, why isn't he at like 80 percent?

O'REILLY:  I've talked to all of our Fox News political analysts.  These are not raving liberals, all right, Ann?  None of them come close to telling me the war is going magnificently well.  What do you know that all of the Fox News military analysts don't know?
...
COULTER:  It's pretty darn safe over there.

O'REILLY:  Our Fox correspondents in Baghdad won't go out of the hotel.  That's not a good sign, Ann.
...
O'REILLY:  The weapons of mass destruction fiasco when they couldn't find them. 

COULTER:  Wait.  We have found weapons of mass destruction...

O'REILLY:  No we didn't, not to any great extent. [Editor's note - no, not to any extent]

COULTER:  That is an important point. We have found weapons of mass destruction. That is something the media is repeatedly lying about. We have not found stockpiles. We found the plants for manufacturing, we found the experiments, we found the room for human experimentation labs. We found lots of weapons of mass destruction. [Editor's note - aside from "plants" and "experiments" not being "weapons of mass destruction," no such "plants" or "experiments" have been found]

Tony Blair doesn't quite get it...

The words:

"Tony Blair could lose the next general election unless angry Labour supporters step back from the brink, a senior cabinet minister warned yesterday.

"Peter Hain became the first major figure publicly to admit the depth of the trouble facing the government, after Labour was forced into third place behind the Tories and Liberal Democrats in local elections last week. Until now, the government has insisted that the backlash was a midterm protest vote that would evaporate.

"Hain's remarks were made as it emerged that the Prime Minister may try to defuse anger about the war in Iraq with a mea culpa over the failure of the allies to find weapons of mass destruction."

"Tony Blair is preparing to defy voters' protests by sending another 3,000 British troops to Iraq. The announcement, which could come within a fortnight, is being finalised in the Ministry of Defence."

More lies of the Times

The result of the interview? Nothing. Not a word of this was ever published in the Times. Instead, coincidentally (or not), just one month after Golden interviewed the undercover agent, five other Cuban undercover anti-terrorist operatives were arrested, and subsequently convicted (these are "the Five," who are still in jail and fighting their unjust convictions). Golden's only contribution came five years later, when he finally published an article on the subject in the Times, this one painting a dire picture of the capabilities of Cuban agents in the United States, with nary a word about the activities of the CANF and other U.S.-based anti-Cuba terrorists.

Why did the Times sent a reporter to Cuba for several weeks of reporting, only to never publish a word of his findings? Perhaps one day we'll know.

President Gardener speaks

Q You do have now the personal gun of Saddam Hussein. Are you willing to give it to President al-Yawar as a symbolic gift, or are you keeping it? (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT: What she's referring to is a -- members of a Delta team came to see me in the Oval Office and brought with me -- these were the people that found Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq, hiding in a hole. And, by the way, let me remind everybody about Saddam Hussein, just in case we all forget. There were mass graves under his leadership. There were torture chambers. Saddam Hussein -- if you -- we had seven people come to my office. Perhaps the foreign press didn't see this story. Seven people came to my -- they had their hands cut off because the Iraqi currency had devalued. And Saddam Hussein needed somebody to blame, so he blamed small merchants. And their hands were chopped off, their right hand.

Fortunately, a documentary film maker went to Baghdad and filmed the -- filmed these seven men. And their story was picked up around the nation, particularly in Houston, Texas, where a person named Marvin Zindler, who runs a foundation, took great sympathy and flew them over and had new hands put on. The latest prosthesis were put on their hand -- were put on their arms. And their hands worked. I remember the guy signing "God Bless America" with his new hand in the Oval Office.

So this is the person. So needless to say, our people were thrilled to have captured him. And in his lap was several weapons. One of them was a pistol. And they brought it to me. It's now the property of the U.S. government. And I am -- I am -- it -- I'm grateful for their bravery. I'm also grateful that that part of the mission was accomplished, for the good of the Iraqi people. "

Oh, and for the record, one of the largest mass graves uncovered since the fall of Saddam Hussein was a mass grave of 300 Iraqis. They were, of course, killed by U.S. troops, not by Saddam Hussein. As for the torture chambers, what can one say? When and if a new prison is built to replace Abu Ghraib, can we please name it the "George Bush Detention Facility"? Actually the "George Bush Memorial Detention Facility" has an even nicer ring to it. One can always hope! If not, and if it turns out to be against Iraqi law to name buildings after living people, we'll just have to settle for the "Ronald Reagan Detention Facility." It will make a nice complement to the Pentagon after they rename it the "Ronald Reagan Center for Mass Murder."

The Exception to the Rulers

"Going to where the silence is. That is the responsibility of a journalist: giving a voice to those who have been forgotten, forsaken, and beaten down by the powerful. It is the best reason I know to carry out pens, camers, and microphones into our own communities and out to the wider world."

"If you are opposed to war, you are not a fringe minority. You are not a silent majority. You are part of a silenced majority. Silenced by the mainstream media."

"You have to ask the question: If we had state media in the United States, how would it be any different?" [A particularly appropriate question during this week of Reagan hagiography, I might add]

You can watch or read the transcript of the Booknotes interview on the Democracy Now! website (upper right hand corner), read excerpts of the book, and get details of her book tour (see her if you have the chance).

Read this book! And if Democracy Now! isn't part of your daily listening habits - what's wrong with you? ;-)

Get ready to be shocked...

"Cuban television tonight broadcast remarkable segments of a one hour program on Miami TV Channel 41 in which known paramilitaries from the Florida based Comandos F4 organization openly spoke of their preparation for an armed attack against Cuba.

"In moments of near-hysteria, the leader of Comandos F4, Rodolfo Frometa, said that his organization has people inside and outside Cuba ready to carry out armed acts against the Cuban government.

"The program was hosted by Oscar Asa, the nephew of former Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.

"It is illegal in the US to defend terrorist actions on TV. The promotion of the assassination of another nation's leader is also illegal under the US Neutrality Act. Nonetheless, commented round table participants, these men were able to openly sit in a studio dressed for war and happily discuss the different armaments they were using to train paramilitaries to attack Cuba, and get away with it. There couldn't be better proof of the US government's complicity with such would-be terrorists.

"Adding weight to recent accusations of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, former Venezuelan army captain Eduardo Garcia was also present in full uniform to discuss the help Comandos F4 were giving in his efforts to bring down Chavez by force. Chavez has frequently charged that Miami Cuban-American terrorist organizations are involved with Venezuelans seeking to assassinate him.

"The host of the Round Table program, Randy Alonso, simply asked viewers to form their own conclusions after seeing such an astonishing program, commenting that the message that Frometa gave was clear: his paramilitary organization was ready and trained--it just needed the money. And, said Alonso, the money is there--$36 million recently earmarked by the US government to support such groups."

Meanwhile, five Cuban patriots languish in U.S. jails for the "crime" of attempting to prevent U.S.-based terrorism against their country.

A pre-discredited report

"International outsourcing, politicians from both parties often say, has turned into a scourge of American workers, who are losing jobs on a large scale to competition from cheaper workers abroad.

"But according to the first government effort to actually measure the phenomenon, such fears may be overblown. A new report released yesterday by the Labor Department on mass layoffs found that in the first quarter of this year, 4,633 workers were laid off because their jobs were moved overseas, a mere 2.5 percent of the total of 182,456 longer-term job losses reported by companies in the period.

"Officials acknowledged that the numbers clearly undercount the total number of jobs lost offshore. For one thing, the new data covers layoffs only at companies employing at least 50 workers where at least 50 filed for unemployment insurance and the layoffs lasted more than 30 days. Even more important, the report does not account for jobs created by American companies overseas that did not involve a direct layoff in the United States."

Quote of the Day

"Finally, there's a flag-draped coffin and military funeral that President Bush wants to be associated with, and wants us to see."

- Maureen Dowd, in The New York Times

The gift that keeps on giving

"All 50,000 [British] troops who served in the first Gulf war might have been exposed to low levels of chemical warfare agents during the fighting and its aftermath, a US investigation has suggested."

Remembrance of things past

(Source)

Donsense of the Day

"When we got the data here at the State Department, I have to say we obviously did not check it thoroughly enough or verify the conclusion that had been reached because of the apparent change in the numbers and so we got the wrong data and we didn't check it enough. I think that's the simplest explanation for what happened. As the Secretary said outside, there was no attempt at manipulation or political distortion. But we did walk down a road that was the wrong one."

The Libyan bombing - just one of Reagan's crimes

"I express my deep regret because Reagan died before facing justice for his ugly crime that he committed in 1986 against the Libyan children."

Poking around the web researching this history I discovered some very interesting tinfoil which I'm going to pass on despite my general aversion to doing so. It seems there in an ex-Mossad agent named Victor Ostrovsky, who has written a book on the Mossad which alleges that Mossad agents had planted a "Trojan" in Libya, a remote-controlled machine that was sending out messages to the world (to be intercepted by U.S. and other intelligence services) containing false information about Libyan terrorist activities, and that among those was the claim that the German bombing was a Libyan operation. In other words, Ostrovsky alleges that the "evidence" that the disco bombing was a Libyan operation came from the Mossad - a black operation. Now of course I haven't the foggiest idea if any of this is true, and in poking around the web I expected to find a lot of things claiming that Ostrovsky was a fraud, a nut, or whatever. Instead, I found only a single such thing, a negative review of his book by Daniel Pipes, which only serves to give Ostrovsky more credibility in my eyes.

Maybe this is all well-known to some of you - Ostrovsky's book came out in 1990, so this is hardly a new story. But it was news to me, and I thought I'd pass it on. Whether it's true or not, it is a fact is that the evidence for Libyan involvement in the disco bombing was as scant as the evidence for WMD in Iraq, but that didn't stop Ronald Reagan from launching his deadly attack.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

If you're interested in showing this film in your area, contact Cyber Circle, which is the U.S.-Venezuela solidarity group most involved with the film. Their website is also chock full of information about Venezuela, as is the film website linked above.

See this film!

Presidential voting closing soon!

Is it important? Well, it's at least as important as choosing between Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum! (or should that be Tweedle-dumb?)

Does this qualify as "torture"?

"A California National Guardsman says three fellow soldiers brazenly abused detainees during interrogation sessions in an Iraqi police station, threatening them with guns, sticking lit cigarettes in their ears and choking them until they collapsed.

"Sgt. Greg Ford said he repeatedly had to revive prisoners who had passed out, and once saw a soldier stand on the back of a handcuffed detainee's neck and pull his arms until they popped out of their sockets."

"Ford's commanding officers deny any abuse occurred, and say investigations within their battalion and by the Army's Criminal Investigation Division determined they had done nothing wrong.

"Ford told The Associated Press that when he reported the problems last June to his commanding officers, they pressured him to drop his claims.

"'Immediately, within the same conversation, the command said, 'Nope, you're delusional, you're crazy, it never happened.' They gave me 30 seconds to withdraw my request for an investigation,' Ford said. 'I stood my ground.'

"When he insisted on an official investigation, they ordered him to see combat stress counselors, who sent him out of Iraq, he said."

Tom unwraps some tinfoil

"TAMPA - Two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, with most of the nation's air traffic still grounded, a small jet landed at Tampa International Airport, picked up three young Saudi men and left.

"The men, one of them thought to be a member of the Saudi royal family, were accompanied by a former FBI agent and a former Tampa police officer on the flight to Lexington, Ky.

"The Saudis then took another flight out of the country. The two ex-officers returned to TIA a few hours later on the same plane.

"For nearly three years, White House, aviation and law enforcement officials have insisted the flight never took place and have denied published reports and widespread Internet speculation about its purpose.

"But now, at the request of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, TIA officials have confirmed that the flight did take place and have supplied details."

Another chance to vote against Reagan

Untortured logic

"The Bush administration assures the country, and the world, that it is complying with U.S. and international laws banning torture and maltreatment of prisoners. But, breaking with a practice of openness that had lasted for decades, it has classified as secret and refused to disclose the techniques of interrogation it is using on foreign detainees at U.S. prisons at Guantanamo Bay and in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a matter of grave concern because the use of some of the methods that have been reported in the press is regarded by independent experts as well as some of the Pentagon's legal professionals as illegal. The administration has responded that its civilian lawyers have certified its methods as proper -- but it has refused to disclose, or even provide to Congress, the justifying opinions and memos.

"This week, thanks again to an independent press, we have begun to learn the deeply disturbing truth about the legal opinions that the Pentagon and the Justice Department seek to keep secret. According to copies leaked to several newspapers, they lay out a shocking and immoral set of justifications for torture. In a paper prepared last year under the direction of the Defense Department's chief counsel, and first disclosed by the Wall Street Journal, the president of the United States was declared empowered to disregard U.S. and international law and order the torture of foreign prisoners. Moreover, interrogators following the president's orders were declared immune from punishment. Torture itself was narrowly redefined, so that techniques that inflict pain and mental suffering could be deemed legal. All this was done as a prelude to the designation of 24 interrogation methods for foreign prisoners -- the same techniques, now in use, that President Bush says are humane but refuses to disclose.

"There is no justification, legal or moral, for the judgments made by Mr. Bush's political appointees at the Justice and Defense departments. Theirs is the logic of criminal regimes, of dictatorships around the world that sanction torture on grounds of 'national security.' For decades the U.S. government has waged diplomatic campaigns against such outlaw governments -- from the military juntas in Argentina and Chile to the current autocracies in Islamic countries such as Algeria and Uzbekistan -- that claim torture is justified when used to combat terrorism. The news that serving U.S. officials have officially endorsed principles once advanced by Augusto Pinochet brings shame on American democracy -- even if it is true, as the administration maintains, that its theories have not been put into practice. Even on paper, the administration's reasoning will provide a ready excuse for dictators, especially those allied with the Bush administration, to go on torturing and killing detainees.

"Perhaps the president's lawyers have no interest in the global impact of their policies -- but they should be concerned about the treatment of American servicemen and civilians in foreign countries. Before the Bush administration took office, the Army's interrogation procedures -- which were unclassified -- established this simple and sensible test: No technique should be used that, if used by an enemy on an American, would be regarded as a violation of U.S. or international law. Now, imagine that a hostile government were to force an American to take drugs or endure severe mental stress that fell just short of producing irreversible damage; or pain a little milder than that of "organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death." What if the foreign interrogator of an American "knows that severe pain will result from his actions" but proceeds because causing such pain is not his main objective? What if a foreign leader were to decide that the torture of an American was needed to protect his country's security? Would Americans regard that as legal, or morally acceptable? According to the Bush administration, they should."

Tender torture

"In the view expressed by the Justice Department memo, which differs from the broader view of the Army, physical torture 'must be equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death.' For a cruel or inhuman psychological technique to rise to the level of mental torture, the Justice Department argued, the psychological harm must last 'months or even years.'"

"Unlike documents signed by deputies in the Office of Legal Counsel, which are generally considered by federal agencies as advice, a memorandum written by the head of the office is considered akin to a legally binding document, said another former Office of Legal Counsel lawyer."

Get ready to be shocked...

"Iyad Allawi, now the designated prime minister of Iraq, ran an exile organization intent on deposing Saddam Hussein that sent agents into Baghdad in the early 1990's to plant bombs and sabotage government facilities under the direction of the C.I.A., several former intelligence officials say.

"The Iraqi government at the time claimed that the bombs, including one it said exploded in a movie theater, resulted in many civilian casualties. But whether the bombings actually killed any civilians could not be confirmed because, as a former C.I.A. official said, the United States had no significant intelligence sources in Iraq then.

"One former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was based in the region, Robert Baer, recalled that a bombing during that period 'blew up a school bus; schoolchildren were killed.' Mr. Baer, a critic of the Iraq war, said he did not recall which resistance group might have set off that bomb.

"Other former intelligence officials said Dr. Allawi's organization was the only resistance group involved in bombings and sabotage at that time."

The crippled and the learning-disabled, Israel murders them all

Quote of the Day

"If you turn on any major media channel today, it seems as if the press has caught Alzheimer's from Ronald Reagan, and forgotten who he was."

- Nora Barrows-Friedman, host of Pacifica's Flashpoints

Vote early and often

Where seldom is heard, a discouraging word

Just one word you will not see or hear. That word? "Appointed."

When will U.S. troops leave Iraq?

The Washington Post article at least has an accurate headline: "U.S. Plans Major Cut Of Forces In Korea." The San Jose Mercury News, by contrast, does its best to mislead its readers with this headline: "U.S. cutting back troops in S. Korea." You know, there are a lot of people who are "planning" to lose a lot of weight. Does this mean it would be ok if they tell their friends "I've lost a lot of weight"? I shouldn't think so.

Still more unclear on the concept

"'The United States controls all Iraqi resources now,' said Jenan Jabro, 50, tanking up his black Opel. 'So what if they have to pay a little bit for gasoline? That's nothing compared to what they get in return.'"

The Burger King administration

Story 1 - Guantanamo is under U.S. jurisdiction - :

"Bush administration lawyers...concluded that the Torture Statute applied to Afghanistan but not Guantanamo, because the latter lies within the 'special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States, and accordingly is within the United States' when applying a law that regulates only government conduct abroad."

"The Bush administration says the detainees [in Guantanamo] are not US citizens, nor are they being held on US soil, so they are not protected by laws relating to prisoners of war."

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."

It's Kucinich in a landslide!

"As the candidate for president of the United States stepped onto the stage, flashing a smile and a wave, the audience exploded with cheers and applause and screams worthy of Beatles fans.

"This went on for several minutes. Even the candidate was a little taken back. It was as though he had already won the election.

"Which, of course, he had. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) came to the Moorestown Friends School on Friday afternoon to thank the students for making him the landslide winner in their mock presidential primary. (Al Sharpton had come in second.)

"For several months, Kucinich has made it a point to visit some of the most forgotten corners of the country -- public housing complexes, down-and-out main streets and the like -- to call attention to poverty, which he calls 'a weapon of mass destruction.' At each turn, he launches into lengthy discussions on the need to pull out of Iraq, the invasion of which he voted against, and his proposals for a Cabinet-level 'Department of Peace.'"

There is hope for change in this country, as evidenced by the response of the students in this article to what Kucinich had to say, but only once decent people like Kucinich realize they have to break from the parties of war and big business and work to build the Green Party or some other independent, people's party.

Kucinich is the only candidate in the race as far as I know who has ever talked about Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) and Proportional Representation (PR), both of which are essential before Americans will ever be convinced to support a third party in significant numbers. Kucinich claims that with his 80 delegates he wants to go to the convention and use his delegates to talk to the Democrats about why we need to get out of Iraq. That isn't going to happen - Dennis Kucinich isn't going to change John Kerry's position on Iraq. But he could demand that Kerry and the Democrats endorse IRV and PR as a condition for supporting his candidacy, and threaten to take his supporters to Nader if Kerry doesn't agree. That's my suggestion for Dennis Kucinich. Think it couldn't happen? Look how much energy the Democrats focus on Ralph Nader. They are worried about Nader voters, and I guarantee they're worried about Kucinich voters too.

It's easy to make fun of Kucinich. He's still plugging away, and is going to the convention with maybe 80 delegates, while John Kerry has 4000 or so. But you know what? Every single person who voted for Kucinich in the primaries was actually voting for Kucinich. That's a percentage John Kerry can't even come close to matching.

Hey, what's the rush?

"Prime Minister Ariel Sharon coaxed Israel on Sunday toward evacuating some settlements next year."

As discussed here back in February, there are a grand total of 7,500 Israeli settlers in Gaza. They could all be relocated tomorrow if Israel wanted to do so. Talk of doing so "next year" is just that - talk.

And despite all the headlines and sound bites on the TV that "Israel votes to pull out of Gaza," that isn't even true aside from the "next year" part. Here's the fine print you won't read in most articles or hear on most coverage:

"The compromise endorsed by the ministers allows Israel to prepare logistically for the removal of settlements but does not commit Israel to evacuating any of them.

"'After completing the preparations, the Cabinet will reconvene to decide whether to evacuate settlements, how many and at what pace, based on the circumstances on the ground,' the statement said." [Emphasis added]

Before Abu Ghraib

"Shot in the leg prior to his capture, and already starving and badly dehydrated, Lindh unconscionably was left with his wound untreated and festering for days despite doctors being readily available. Denied access to a lawyer, and threatened repeatedly with death, he was duct-taped to a stretcher and left for long periods of time in an enclosed, unheated and unlit metal shipping container, removed only during interrogations, at which time he was still left taped to his stretcher."

"The judge, at the government's request, also hit him with a gag order barring him from talking about his experience. As part of his plea bargain agreement, Lindh was even forced to sign a statement saying: 'The defendant agrees that this agreement puts to rest his claims of mistreatment by the United states military, and all claims of mistreatment are withdrawn. The defendant acknowledges that he was not intentionally mistreated by the U.S. military.'"

Impossible accuracy

"The elections council said a 'preliminary' count of roughly 40 percent of voter signatures indicated Chavez opponents had gathered 2,451,821 signatures on petitions to demand the referendum."

Selective outrage

"In 2002, the 214 executions carried out in Iraq put the country in third place behind China and Iran in the grisly ranking of states where the death penalty is applied, according to the NGO Hands off Cain."

By the way, the state of Texas alone executed 152 people while George Bush was Governor. Texas has a population around 21 million, very close to that of Iraq (24 million).

Quote of the Day

"Anyone out there holding - as I gather Prime Minister Blair has recently said - the prospect that, in fact, the Iraq Survey Group is going to unmask actual weapons of mass destruction, are really delusional."

- David Kay, former chief weapons inspector

And, as usual, it's David Kay and his kind being given the chance to speak and quoted in the press. Scott Ritter, the guy who got it right? Still persona non grata. Try Google Newsing up "Scott Ritter". The single "mainstream" link you'll find is an article from Newsday (a good paper but certainly not one of the major influential news sources in this country) from early June. Beyond that, a handful of articles from the British and Canadian press, as well as the progressive U.S. media (e.g., CommonDreams). Beyond that? Bupkis.

News coverage of demonstrations (same old story)

Today's San Jose Mercury News carries a tiny news service article about nationwide demonstrations (mentioning SF, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles) in which "hundreds" marched, which is clearly an absurd description since an order of magnitude greater than that marched in San Francisco alone. No picture accompanied the article. There was a picture of a demonstration in the paper though - a demonstration of "tens of thousands" marching in Caracas against the government of Hugo Chavez. Gee, what a surprise! Demonstrate against a government that the U.S. wants to overthrow, and you'll get your picture in the paper; speak out against the U.S. government, and even a "liberal" paper like the Mercury News will do its best to ignore you.

Even the Mercury News coverage was better than that on the local NPR radio station (KQED) that I heard this morning. Their entire story? "Five people were arrested as part of a 'breakaway' from a demonstration against the war yesterday in San Francisco. They were charged with blah blah blah." Not a word about the demonstration itself [As an aside, this is why many people, including myself, resent these "breakaway" demonstrators so much. They didn't do anything to pull this march together, and then they hijack the press coverage. Why don't they just organize their own demonstration, instead of acting as parasites on someone else's hard work?]

And while I'm ranting (I know, I know, this is a broken record, it's the same story after every demonstration, indulge me, will you?), yesterday's TV coverage (TV stations are still in the habit of sending cameras) was the usual nonsense. The channel I watched featured brief sound bites from two or three marchers, then mentioned that there was a "much smaller" pro-Israel counterdemonstration (yes, like two orders of magnitude, 80 vs 8000), and then proceeded to feature two soundbites (i.e., more or less equal coverage) from those folks as well. Today that group is having a big pro-Israel rally at PacBell/SBC Park and there will be a counterdemonstration (from "our" side) to that; let's see if the TV coverage gives that counterdemonstration equal time. The TV coverage also included the usual blather about "an assortment of issues," which of course had a kernel of truth, but the overwhelming thrust of the march, both in terms of the signs carried by marchers and the speakers, was on the two central themes mentioned above; it was not just a big "catch-all" demonstration ("not that there's anything wrong with that!").

And last but not least on the TV coverage, there was not a single interview with one of the organizers of the event, nor a single shot or sound bite of any of the many excellent speakers at the event. I realize the analogy is far from perfect, but imagine if they covered a speech given by George Bush by only asking people in the crowd why they came to hear him, or what their reaction was, without letting you hear a word of what Bush himself had to say. Of course that would never happen. The organizers of the march, ANSWER in this case (and in most cases these days), put in incredible effort to make this event happen. Those people would not have been in the streets if it had not been for ANSWER. Don't they deserve to be heard from? Are the reporters under the impression that this "just happened"? The answer is "no," because there actually was a short piece on the news the previous evening, showing preparations for the march, ANSWER people loading things (the stage, etc.) into a truck, and so on. But in the reporting of the event itself, they were totally absent.

Followup: In contrast, decent articles in the Washington Post describing the Washington demo (although, based on the word of a friend who was there, their count is definitely low) and the San Francisco Chronicle describing the demo in that city.

More unclear on the concept

Unclear on the concept

"Politicians taking control of government? Is that an outrage? No, it's democracy."

Another film recommendation

An extraordinary film

The film explores the myths propagated in the media

• Hidden Occupation (the avoidance of the use of the word "occupied territories")
• Invisible Colonization (failure to focus on the way Israeli settlements are colonizing the West Bank and Gaza in clear contravention of the Geneva Convention)
• Violence in a Vacuum (the way Palestinians are portrayed as engaging in "violence" without any context, i.e., the context of the occupation and the oppression)
• Defining Who is Newsworthy (putting a human face on Israeli casualties, and rarely if ever doing so with Palestinian victims)
• The Myth of U.S. Neutrality (the old "honest broker" shibboleth)
• The Myth of the Generous Offer (the claim that Arafat rejected an incredibly generous offer at Camp David)
• Marginalized Voices (the voices of the Israeli peace movement)

You can read more about this excellent film here, or even purchase a copy here. If this film hasn't been shown on your local PBS station, you should call or write to urge them to show it; if it has been shown, be sure to write or call them to thank them for doing so (to counter the expected barrage of calls and letters they'll get castigating them for doing so). This would also be a wonderful film for any peace group to show in their community.

See this film.

The human face of Israeli oppression

"Last month, Israeli troops swept into the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza, bulldozing hundreds of homes and leaving around 60 dead. Israel says it was looking for terrorists, but by the time the army withdrew, 1,600 people were homeless. What happens to the people whose houses are destroyed? Chris McGreal asked six families to show him what they salvaged from the rubble."

Some excerpts:

The Al-Akhras family: "It was 10pm when the bulldozers came. 'All the people were fleeing their houses, but one of my brothers is handicapped and was trapped in the house. We had to carry him out as the bulldozer was hitting the building.'

The Abu Ghali family: "Aziza Abu Ghali is exhausted by her fury and can barely stand. 'My husband is 90 years old and has nowhere to sleep. The Jews are just demolishing our houses. I was shouting at the bulldozer driver: 'Don't you have children?' They kill our sons and put us in the morgue. We are praying to Allah to show them the suffering that they show us.'

"Aziza is one of the few in her street who remember how they all ended up in Rafah in 1948, just as the Israeli state was being created. She was born in the now extinct village of Yubna, which was erased and replaced with the Israeli town of Yavne. Four of her children - three sons and a daughter - were born there also. 'The Jews used their guns to make us go away. They tell lies about this now, saying we ran away on our own. Who would leave their home unless they had to?'

The Al-Wawi family: "Like many in Rafah, the latest round of mass demolitions was not the first time that Wawi had been bulldozed out of his home. He counts off the times he has had to flee his house.

"Wawi's introduction to the bulldozers came in the 70s, when General Sharon, as he then was, bulldozed about 20,000 people from their homes in the Gaza Strip. 'Sharon destroyed our house. The UN and Israelis built us new ones in Yibna.' But the bulldozers were back in 1997, as the Israeli army destroyed the very homes it had built for Palestinian refugees about 25 years earlier."

That dastardly Hugo Chavez

"With Venezuela now flush with oil money thanks to world oil prices hovering around $40 a barrel, the government has been spending furiously on education, health care and other social programs. The assistance has helped give the government a 40 percent approval rating, respectable in Latin America."

Anyone who would like to live in a country (or a state or city) which is "spending furiously on education, health care, and other social programs" rather than on war, please raise your hand.

Well, I see one hand:

"I think our people in this country are paying not just in blood and in tears, but they are paying also in the lack of schools and the lack of health care and the lack of a lot of things for a war that really didn't need to have happened the way it happened."

- Teresa Heinz Kerry, wife of presumptive Democratic Presidential nominee John Kerry

Followup: Just a note on "democracy." The recall proponents originally filed signatures which were ruled invalid for various reasons. If you've ever been involved with a third-party or an independent campaign in the United States, you know very well what would have happened then -- your candidate would not be on the ballot. No if, ands, or buts. In Venezuela, they bent over backwards, allowing extra time for the recall proponents to revalidate the signatures, something which was in fact not only not required by the law, but possibly not even legal under the law. Nevertheless they did it. Remember this the next time you hear John Kerry talking about democracy in Venezuela.

Prison abuse at Guantanamo and beyond

"After his departure, the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, gave military intelligence control over all aspects of Guantánamo, including the MPs, and Gen Miller was appointed commander."

Pot, meet kettle

"Iraqi politician Ahmad Chalabi launched a bitter attack on George Tenet Thursday, saying the outgoing CIA chief was to blame for false information on Saddam Hussein's alleged arsenal of banned weapons."

Western democracy

"Demonstrations have been banned in central Paris throughout this week to ensure no hostile protests are in evidence to disturb President George W. Bush's brief presence in the French capital on Saturday, where he will be dining with President Jacques Chirac.

"This blanket ban cannot conceal the groundswell of French hostility to the US president and the unpopularity of his policies on Iraq and the broader Middle East."

Followup: More of the same in Italy:

"Various demonstrations, including one expected to draw thousands of people Friday, were planned to protest the war in Iraq. Most of the center of Rome will be closed to traffic and airspace over it will be restricted.

"About 10,000 police will be deployed during Bush's visit, Italian officials said."

Quote of the Day

"Bremer is the dictator of Iraq. He has the money. He has the signature."

- Lakhdar Brahimi, U.N. envoy charged with putting together the new Iraqi government (Source)

Welcome to Iraq

"Death and destruction are random here (and mind you i am in Baghdad the capitol). The other day i went to get my cell phone activated and the young brother who was going to activate it told me it would take a day to get the chip i needed. So i gave him 20 dollars collateral, had tea with him and left. The next day, i returned to the store to pickup my Iraqna cell phone to find out that the brother was shot and killed yesterday (the day i met him) by the Americans as he was walking home. He had no gun and wasnt fighting anyone. I attended his Janaza in the Imam Hanifa Masjid. It was exaclty the same scene that we are so use to with the Martyrs in Palestine.

"Two days later, during Asr Prayer in the Imam Hanifa masjid, 40 hummers and 10 tanks surrounded the masjid and stormed inside with search/attack dogs, claiming that they were looking for a 'murderer'. They inturrupted the prayer, went into the sisters section, looked under sisters Jilbabs for the 'murderer' and pushed people around for information. The people were pleading with them in broken english to leave the Masjid to no avail.

"After spending a week with me, my driver, Salman Al-Bermany finaly opend up to me and told me that in January, his son Daud was studying with his friend at a shop that they opend up together when the americans came in, threw them both on the ground, put the bag over their heads and handcuffed them and took them to Sadaams former palace. Dauds legs were tied to two opposite poles and they streched him 180 degrees, questioning him if he knew the perpertrators that killed two American soliders. he was consistantly punched in the face, stomach, and genitalia, made fun of an humiliated by what my driver so ironically called a 'nigger' a Zingi (the remnance of colonialism). The Abu Ghraib prison 'scandal' is not just in Abu Ghraib. It was simply an example of how the Iraqis are being treated systematically all over the country.

"I have witnessed and expiernced the outright discust that the Americans have to the Iraqis, at Check Point where they spit on cars, On roads where they terrorize people with Tanks by running people off the road, shooting into farm feilds with nearby shepards, and straight up dissing sisters in english with the most unbelivable language. I witnessed this at checkpoints where they stop us for hours to let their tanks pass over the one bridge crossing because they bombed the other one. They way they look at us (they mistake me for Iraqi) is nothing short of straight up racism and hatered, remnant of the stares of the IDF and Israeli's.

"Brothers, I've been to Palestine and Ive seen the horrors there. and im telling you, they have made Iraq the Palestine of America. There are checkpoints every 50Kilos, innocent people are getting killed daily, homes are destroyed randomly by mortars, people are being displaced and refugee camps are begining to sprout up."

Tenet out, Bush blathers

And you won't be surprised to learn that Tenet's resignation was for "personal reasons."

Followup: Say it with me (it feels good, and good practice for November) - "George, don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out!"

Another massacre revisited

And today, the Christian Science Monitor is out with an article exploring the Tiananmen massacre, 15 years after it occured. Conventional wisdom in the Western press is that "thousands" of students were killed in that massacre. Here's what the Christian Science Monitor's investigations have revealed:

"Despite orders that the People's Liberation Army was to clear Tiananmen Square using whatever means necessary, there is no credible eyewitness testimony of a massacre of students there. No eyewitnesses at the Monument to the People's Heroes, where students were centered, ever saw one. No 'rivers of blood' flowed on the square. No rows of students were mowed down by a sudden rush of troops, as reported in European, Hong Kong, and US publications in the days, months, and years that followed.

"The actual number of students and citizens killed on the square may be as low as a dozen, according to the documents and the eyewitnesses. The medical tent on the square, originally used to comfort student hunger strikers, reported at least 10 deaths. Rather, between the morning hours of 4:45 and 6:15, some 2,000 to 3,000 students filed off the square through a cordon of troops, protected by a line of their own ranks who linked arms."

Iranian nukes

The "facts on the ground" are certainly unclear. But one thing is crystal clear - Iran has every right to develop nuclear weapons if it chooses to do so. Just as with North Korea, Iran has every reason to believe that someday, if not someday soon, they might be attacked by the United States (and, in the case of Iran, by Israel as well), and that the possession of nuclear weapons as a purely defensive measure might well be the only thing to prevent such an attack. There's a lot of talk about "peaceful" uses of a nuclear program. And there is simply no doubt that the possession of nuclear weapons by Iran or North Korea (or many other countries) will be more likely, not less likely, to ensure a peaceful future. And, sadly, that will remain true until the United States and its allies can be disarmed of their nuclear weapons, which has to be the world's ultimate goal.

Historical revisionism

Twilight Zone time

"President Bush said he was never angry with France over its refusal to back the U.S.-led war in Iraq, as both countries sought to play down past tensions ahead of the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

"'I was never angry with the French. France is a long-term ally,' Bush told the weekly Paris Match in an interview due to be published on Thursday."

Israeli "behavioral norms"

Political humor of the day

"According to Gallup Poll results released Monday, 6 percent of Americans are still undecided about whether to vote against President Bush or Democratic challenger John Kerry in November's presidential election.

"According to the poll, 46 percent of the registered voters surveyed would vote against Bush if the election were held tomorrow, while 45 percent said they were ready to vote against Kerry. Factoring in the 2 percent margin of error, the two candidates are essentially deadlocked in the race to determine which candidate America doesn't support."

Who's running the prisons in Iraq?

"One man ran a prison system in Utah where a 29-year-old schizophrenic died after he was stripped naked and strapped to a restraining chair for 16 hours.

"Another man ran the system in Arizona where 14 women were raped, sodomized or assaulted by prison guards.

"Another ran Connecticut's prison system where at least two people died after being severely beaten.

"All of the men who ran these prison systems were forced out by lawsuits or political controversy. But rather than being sent to prison themselves, these men were sent to Iraq by the US government to set up the prisons there. Actually, one prison - Abu Ghraib."

Revisiting the Iraqi wedding

"If you read the U.S. press, that question is the subject of legitimate dispute and official investigation. If you read the overseas online media, you will find little doubt that the U.S. forces, deliberately or accidentally, perpetrated a 'massacre' near the village of Qaim that killed up to 45 people, including many women and children.

"The difference in coverage of the May 19 attack illuminates a key difference in the way news organizations reach definitive judgments on matters of fact. U.S.-based news organizations, much more than their overseas counterparts, are willing to take statements from U.S. officials at face value. Overseas journalists are more likely to put faith in the accounts of Iraqi eyewitnesses and local officials.

"As a result, the story of the Iraqi civilian casualties inflicted by U.S. forces, already fading from the U.S. news cycle, remains very much alive in international commentary."

On Terrorism

"A society that is not free and not democratic is a society that's likely to breed resentment and anger. And, therefore, a society that is -- makes the recruitment of young terrorists more likely."

People like Bush pretend that terrorists just like violence for violence's sake, to put them outside the "bounds" of normal society. There are some people like that, of course, but the majority of people who are branded "terrorists" are fighting for some cause, and are generally frustrated because they aren't able to achieve their goals in more "civilized" ways.

Last night I watched the DVD of "Weather Underground," a fascinating film profiling the eponymous group. They were frustrated that marches against the Vietnam War, even marches as large as a million people, didn't seem to be doing anything to stop the war (they definitely did, but just not immediately), and felt that resorting to violence (25 successful bombings with only property destroyed and not a single person hurt or killed other than three of their own blown up making a bomb) was the way to "bring the war home to the American people" and make them realize the brutality of the actions being carried out in their name in Vietnam.

I don't pretend to understand Timothy McVeigh's philosophy, but I suspect he too was "fighting for a cause," or felt he was anyway, by planting his bomb in Oklahoma City. Both the Weather Underground and Tim McVeigh were, of course, born and lived right here in the good old "free and democratic" U.S. of A., but they still had plenty of "resentment and anger" bred into them by events. And, of course, we know that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda have stated goals too, and have "resentment and anger" not because they grew up in a society which wasn't "free and democratic," but because they oppose the U.S. role in supporting the Saudi dictatorship and the Israeli oppression (bordering on genocide) of the Palestinians, and feel frustrated at their inability to put a stop to it in any "conventional" way.

Was George Bush correct? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Stop the presses! Bush tells the truth!

That's not to say that his impromptu press conference was filled with truthful answers to questions, or even answers at all. Consider his "answer" to the question "Mr. Chalabi is an Iraqi leader that's fallen out of favor within your administration. I'm wondering if you feel that he provided any false information?" To which Bush replies, in a near non sequitur: "My meetings with him were very brief. I mean, I think I met with him at the State of the Union and just kind of working through the rope line, and he might have come with a group of leaders. But I haven't had any extensive conversations with him." After this brief visit to outer space, and reminded by the reporter that he had asked if he felt "like he misled your administration," Bush talks about unrealized expectations for disruption of oil production, large numbers of refugees, and for a short war. Not a word about expectations of finding stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, or a word about being greeted with candy and flowers. Once again, though, the reporter deserves at least part of the blame, for asking such a poor question. We don't care how Bush "feels"; and the idea that there is any question whatsoever that Chalabi "provided any false information" to the United States is beyond belief. yet there it was in the question.

Is blogging "journalism"?

"Still more bloggers see themselves as the new journalists. Many readers turn to blog news sites because they disdain "mainstream" journalism, which is viewed almost as an anachronism full of lazy co-conspirators in the national decline. Who can blame them after The New York Times' fiasco of Jayson Blair, who was caught last year making up his stories? Meanwhile, as the blog sites proliferate, they become sources of their own news, a lot of it rumor, which then takes on a life of its own.

"So blog on. If left to market forces, most blogs will live or die on their own. But get used to an era in which information becomes so ubiquitous it becomes almost useless. With a national election coming up, the stakes are high, so it's blogger—and bloggee—beware."

Scot Petersen [eWeek, 5/31/04, p. 34, "Another blog on the fire"] lays the blame for the disdain for "mainstream" journalism to the Jayson Blair affair, but as Amy Goodman writes in her new book "The Exception to the Rulers," the disdain stems far more from the Bush-Blair affair - the role of the mainstream media in echoing and amplifying the outrageous lies of George Bush and Tony Blair which led to the invasion of Iraq and the deaths of nearly a thousand coalition troops and more than ten thousand Iraqis.

Only a minority of eWeek readers or bloggers read The New York Times or have even heard of Jayson Blair, a minor reporter at best. Almost everyone, however, knows, if not by name, at least by content the work of star Times reporter Judith Miller, whose front-page stories were one of the key transmission mechanisms of these false charges to the world's public. Virtually everything Miller wrote about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, even things she wrote after the invasion, have proven false, yet she still works for the Times. And, while The Times was busy running Miller's stories, sources with a different viewpoint, such as former weapons inspector Scott Ritter, were quite literally blacklisted from the mainstream media.

It's true that some blogs are sources of news and/or rumor. But, for the most part, blogs are simply doing a different job of editing and prioritizing the news that is already out there - republishing a story from a British paper that didn't appear in the U.S. press at all, highlighting a story that appeared in The Times but was buried on page 13, fact-checking (and demonstrating to be false) a story which the real editors couldn't be bothered to do, and so on.

If eWeek were part of the mainstream media, Petersen's story might well qualify as yet another reason for blogger disdain.

What does ISM stand for?

Watching CNN Headline News today at lunch, these words crawled by: "Most manufacturing jobs since April 1973." Rubbing my eyes in disbelief, I go to CNN online, where I find "The yearlong stretch of strong growth also helped power the ISM's [Institute for Supply Management] employment index to 61.9 in May -- the highest since April 1973." But even CNN, unlike the crawl writers at CNN Headline News, recognize that the "employment index" has no relation to actual employment, since they follow that statement with this one: "But after shedding nearly 3 million jobs for more than three years, the factory sector has a long way to go to recover all the jobs lost."

Forget about 1973. The fact, as everyone knows, is that there are fewer jobs now than when George Bush took office, and a lot fewer manufacturing jobs. But Left I on the News is forced once again to stick our finger in the eye of the media, just as we did back in December when the same ISM, speaking to us through the New York Times and other members of the mindless media, told us yet another fairy tale, that "American manufacturing activity rose to its highest level in nearly 20 years."

Once again, go to the source. ISM "indices" are based on surveys of employers and have nothing to do with the real world. They don't even contain real numbers, like data for actual employment or actual manufacturing output, just their arbitrary "indices" which are supposed to indicate that things are getting better or getting worse. But, month after month, report after report, the media persist in reporting these news releases from the ISM as if they were reality and not fantasy.

Here's the reality, also reported on CNN: "The number of job cuts planned by U.S. employers rose for the second straight month in May as firms announced plans to cut more than 73,000 jobs."

Here's a little more reality. I'm not in a position to research actual employment today vs. 1973, and if you go to the Bureau of Labor Statistics web site, they don't exactly break down employment into "manufacturing." But they do show various segments, and one segment is called "Production occupations." In May, 2003, the number of people employed in that segment was 10,488,450. In May, 2000, the number of people employed in the same segment was 12,400,080. That's a decline of 15%.

And yet, viewers of CNN Headline News, at least those who read the crawl, are under the impression that there are more manufacturing jobs in the United States today that at any time since 1973. Is it any wonder there are at least some people left who think that George Bush is doing a good job?

Why do they always call it "reform"?

Reform:

1. To improve by alteration, correction of error, or removal of defects; put into a better form or condition.

2. a) To abolish abuse or malpractice in: reform the government.
b) To put an end to (a wrong).

3. To cause (a person) to give up harmful or immoral practices; persuade to adopt a better way of life.

With that preamble, here's the latest "reform" from Russia:

Russia's poorest face huge cuts in benefits

System supporting veterans, disabled people and pensioners to be swept away as Moscow reforms aim to cap compensation
"Last week, the Kremlin announced an end to this benefits system [which benefits an] estimated 102 million Russians who receive some form of privileges from the state, including the poor, veterans, pensioners and disabled people.

"'During the hardest time for Russia, immediately after the war, the metro was free for veterans,' [one veteran] said. 'And now the state says it is wealthy from oil, and even has a budget surplus, [yet] they ask us to pay.'

"The system of Soviet benefits - or privileges - is perhaps the last benevolent legacy of the Communist era. But to today's Kremlin it is a huge burden on state resources and the antithesis of the privatised Russia it wants to create.

"Viktor Tulkin, a hardline Communist MP, said: 'These reforms are a new and tragic step in the road towards the state's refusal of its social commitments. Today's pensions do not even reach 60% of the Soviet average in 1989.'

"But Russia's bureaucrats, the million-strong army tasked with implementing the Putin reforms, will keep their privileges."