TURNING and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

The Second Coming  W.B. Yeats

The Voice of the White House

Washington , D.C. , May 18, 2008 : “I have used the  Google information service for some time now for background information for my reports.

Of course I stopped using Wikipedia when I learned their ‘close connection’ with various governmental agencies and noted how they always seemed to present positive official views while trashing anyone who would dare to hold negative views towards the Fourth Reich on the Potomac.

So much for that abortion. It’s Google I am going to discuss.

With the dying of the print media, the hucksters are flocking to the internet to shove their overpriced, lead-painted Chinese imports down the public’s collective throat. Google seems to be a magnet for all the marketplace trash and now, when you click on the name, for example,  of a Civil War general, (Confederate Braxton Bragg,) I got, in rapid succession, incest porn, young gay porn, an ad for a thrill-packed weekend in sleazy and drying out Las Vegas (‘and every Super  Luxury Mini-Suite has inside plumbing or a nice balcony…’)and pictures of the general offered for sale by some other sleazy company.

It’s probably a joint scam with that fat ex-con  ‘Small Dick’ Gordon who runs a Bible rip off  and fake pet shelter (‘Baghdad Pups’) series of ripoffs on the internet.

Having had to get off the internet (some of the garbage won’t delete) and then get back on to get rid of the obnoxious trash, I later tried Google again to look up a Civil War ship.

Did I get the article I clicked on? No, I did not.

What I did get was another advert for tickets to a concert by a group called the Squashed Fetus, followed by a new site advertising over-priced and run-down beach front condos in Georgia .

Now, I don’t use Google anymore and strongly suggest that you keep your kids away from it. Some of the unwanted porn I got was hair raising. I haven’t seen anything like that since the last Bush cabinet meeting, especially the one with the stellar command  performance by ‘Wide Stance” Larry Craig..”

SECRECY NEWS

from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy

Volume 2008, Issue No. 46

May 15, 2008

CYBER SECURITY INITIATIVE IS TOO SECRET, SASC SAYS

The new National Cyber Security Initiative that is intended to reduce the vulnerability of government information networks and to devise an information warfare doctrine is so highly classified that it is undermining the deterrent value of the project, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) said in a new report.

"It is difficult to conceive how the United States could promulgate a meaningful [information warfare] deterrence doctrine if every aspect of our capabilities and operational concepts is classified," the Senate report said.

During the cold war, "deterrence was not possible without letting friends and adversaries alike know what capabilities we possessed and the price that adversaries would pay in a real conflict. Some analogous level of disclosure is necessary in the cyber domain."

(Or, as Dr. Strangelove put it 40 years ago, "The whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost if you keep it a secret!")

As things stand, the Senate report said, "virtually everything about the [cyber security] initiative is highly classified, and most of the information that is not classified is categorized as 'For Official Use Only'."

"These restrictions preclude public education, awareness, and debate about the policy and legal issues, real or imagined, that the initiative poses in the areas of privacy and civil liberties."

"The committee strongly urges the administration to reconsider the necessity and wisdom of the blanket, indiscriminate classification levels established for the initiative."

The committee's remarks on the National Cyber Security Initiative were published in its report on the 2009 defense authorization act, excerpted here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2008/sasc-cyber.html

SASC REBUFFS PENTAGON SECRECY PROPOSALS

The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) rejected several legislative proposals submitted by the Department of Defense that would have increased the Department's secrecy authority.

One proposal would have granted the Defense Intelligence Agency an extension of its "operational files" exemption from the Freedom of Information Act, which expired at the end of 2007. Such an exemption would permit the agency to dismiss FOIA requests for certain types of intelligence records without searching or reviewing the records.

Another proposal would have created new criminal penalties for the unauthorized disclosure or possession of maps and other geospatial products that have been marked for Limited Distribution (LIMDIS).

"For several years, products bearing the LIMDIS caveat have wrongfully been offered for sale to the public through a variety of means from surplus stores to on-line auctions," the Pentagon said as justification for the proposal.

"Current protection efforts have been ineffective, at least in part, because of the lack of effective penalties for unauthorized possession, sale, and use."

A third proposal would have expanded the government's authority to withhold certain unclassified homeland security information from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

The three proposals, all of which were excluded from the Senate Committee mark up of the 2009 defense authorization act, were presented earlier this year in the Pentagon's own draft of the authorization bill and were described in detail here:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2008/dod-2009.html

DOD RELEASES DIRECTIVE ON INFORMATION OPERATIONS

A 2006 Department of Defense directive on Information Operations, which had previously been withheld as "For Official Use Only," was released last week in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Federation of American Scientists.

The directive, issued by the Under Secretary of Defense (Intelligence), assigns baseline responsibilities for the conduct of information operations, an umbrella term that includes electronic warfare, computer network operations, psychological operations, military deception, and operations security.

Among related capabilities, the directive cites "public affairs," the purpose of which is "to communicate military objectives, counter misinformation and disinformation, deter adversary actions, and maintain the trust and confidence of the U.S. population, as well as our friends and allies. Effective military operations shall be based on credibility and shall not focus on directing or manipulating U.S. public actions or opinion."

The New York Times reported on April 20 that the Pentagon had mobilized numerous former military officials, some with unacknowledged financial interests in Department programs, to help generate favorable news coverage of the Bush Administration's war policies. It is not clear (to me, at least) how this practice comports with the declared Pentagon policy on public affairs, i.e. whether it violates the policy, or implements it.

See "Information Operations," Department of Defense Directive O-3600.1, August 14, 2006 :

http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/dod/info_ops.pdf

OLC VIEWS THE OFFICE OF VICE PRESIDENT, 1955-2007

The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) at the Department of Justice has been pondering the peculiar status of the Office of Vice President for decades, and has recently released a collection of more than a dozen OLC opinions regarding the Vice President, dating back to the Eisenhower Administration.

"The Vice President, of course, occupies a unique position under the Constitution. For some purposes, he is an officer of the Legislative Branch, and his status in the Executive Branch is not altogether clear," wrote William H. Rehnquist, the future Chief Justice, in a 1969 OLC opinion that foreshadowed a similar argument offered last year by Vice President Cheney.

"With regard to the Vice President there is even a constitutional question whether the President can direct him to abide by prescribed standards of conduct," asserted Antonin Scalia in a 1974 OLC opinion.

"The Vice Presidential Office is an independent constitutional office, and the Vice President is independently elected. Just as the President cannot remove the Vice President, it would seem he may not dictate his standards of conduct," the future Justice Scalia wrote.

The OLC opinions concerning the Vice President, which were previously provided to the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, were released by OLC in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Federation of American Scientists. See:

http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/olc/index.html

The Forgotten Dead

May 19, 2008

by Brian Harring

May 16, 2008 Soldier Sgt. John K. Daggett, 21, of Phoenix , Ariz. , died May 15 in Halifax , Canada , of wounds suffered May 1 in Baghdad , Iraq , when a rocket-propelled grenade struck his vehicle.

May 14, 2008 Soldier Sgt. Victor M. Cota, 33, of Tucson , Ariz. , died May 14 in Baghdad , Iraq , of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device in Kadamiyah , Iraq , May 13.

May 12, 2008 Soldier Cpl. Jessica A. Ellis, 24, of Bend , Ore. , died May 11 in Baghdad , Iraq , of wounds suffered when her vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.  Soldier Pvt. Matthew W. Brown, 20, of Zelienople , Pa. , died May 11 in Asadabad , Afghanistan , from injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident. Soldier Spc. Joseph A. Ford, 23, of Knox , Ind. , died May 10 in Al Asad, Iraq , of injuries suffered in a vehicle accident.

May 11, 2008 Soldier Pfc. Ara T. Deysie, 18, of Parker, Ariz. , died May 9 in Paktia Province , Afghanistan , of wounds suffered when his unit came under rocket-propelled grenade fire.

May 10, 2008 Soldier Spc. Mary J. Jaenichen, 20, of Temecula , Calif. , died May 9 in Iskandariyah , Iraq , of a non-combat related injury. Soldier Sgt. Isaac Palomarez, 26, of Loveland , Colo. , died May 9 in Kapisa Province , Afghanistan , of wounds suffered when his patrol encountered an improvised explosive device and came under small arms and rocket-propelled grenade fire.

May 9, 2008 Soldier Pfc. Aaron J. Ward, 19, of San Jacinto , Calif. , died May 6 in Al Anbar, Iraq , of wounds suffered when his unit came under small arms fire while conducting cordon and search operations. Soldier Spc. Alex D. Gonzalez, 21, of Mission , Texas , died May 6 in Mosul , Iraq , of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered small arms fire and a rocket-propelled grenade attack.

May 8, 2008 Two soldiers died May 7 in the Sabari District, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when their vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device: Spc. Jeremy R. Gullett, 22, of Greenup, Ky., who was assigned to the 4th Battalion, 320th Field Artillery Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky. Staff Sgt. Kevin C. Roberts, 25, of Farmington, N. M., who was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), Fort Campbell, Ky.  Four Marines died May 2 in Al Anbar province, Iraq , supporting combat operations: Lance Cpl. Casey L. Casanova, 22, of McComb , Miss. Cpl. Miguel A. Guzman, 21, of Norwalk , Calif. Lance Cpl. James F. Kimple, 21, of Carroll , Ohio Sgt. Glen E. Martinez, 31, of Boulder , Colo.

May 5, 2008 Soldier Pvt. Corey L. Hicks, 22, of Glendale , Ariz. , died May 2 in Baghdad , Iraq , of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.

May 4, 2008 Soldier Spc. Jeffrey F. Nichols, 21, of Granite Shoals, Texas , died May 1 in Baghdad from wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.

May 3, 2008  Soldier Sgt. 1st Class Lawrence D. Ezell, 30, of Portland, Texas, died April 30 in Baghdad of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit during combat operations. Soldier Sgt. Jerry L. DeLoach, 45, of Jackson , Ga. , died July 7, 2007 , at Fort Knox , Ky. He had been medically evacuated from theater, and died of a non-combat related injury.  Soldier Staff Sgt. Chad A. Caldwell , 24, of Spokane , Wash. , died April 30 in Mosul , Iraq , of injuries sustained while conducting dismounted combat operations.

May 2, 2008   Two soldiers April 30 in Baghdad , Iraq , from wounds suffered when their vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device: Cpt. Andrew. R. Pearson, 32, of Billings , Mont. Spc. Ronald J. Tucker, 21, of Fountain, Colo.

May 1, 2008    Soldier Staff Sgt. Bryan E. Bolander, 26, of Bakersfield , Calif. , died April 29 in Baghdad from wounds suffered when his vehicle struck an improvised explosive device.  Marine Sgt. Merlin German, 22 of Manhattan , N.Y. , died April 11 at Brooke Army Medical Center , San Antonio , Texas , from wounds he suffered while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq , on Feb. 22, 2005 . He was medically retired Sept. 28, 2007 , as a result of his injuries. Soldier Staff Sgt. Clay A. Craig, 22, of Mesquite , Texas , died April 29 in Baghdad , Iraq , from wounds suffered when he received small arms fire during combat operations.

April 30, 2008   Three soldiers died April 28 in Baghdad , Iraq , of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their forward operating base with indirect fire: Pfc. Adam L. Marion, 26, of Mount Airy , N.C. Sgt. Marcus C. Mathes, 26, of Zephyrhills , Fla.    Sgt. Mark A. Stone, 22, of Buchanan Dam, Texas . Soldier Pfc. William T. Dix, 32, of Culver City , Calif. , died April 27 at Camp Buehring , Kuwait , of injuries suffered in a non-combat related incident.  Soldier Sgt. 1st Class David L. McDowell, 30, of Ramona , Calif. , died April 29 in Bastion , Afghanistan , of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked using small arms fire.  Airman Senior Airman Jonathan A. V. Yelner, 24, of Lafayette , Calif. , died April 29 near Bagram , Afghanistan , of wounds suffered when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive device.

Source: http://www.defenselink.mil/Releases/

The Handy Reference Guide to Bush Disasters, Incompetencies, and Lies

by Guy Reel

The other day, as I was musing aloud about notion that George Bush is the worst president in U.S. history, an acquaintance interrupted, “What’s been so bad?” I stammered for a moment, unable to get my mind around such a large question. It was sort of like trying to summarize the mysteries of the universe: The topic is so big one doesn’t know where to start. So I decided to compile a handy reference guide to the failed policies, worst decisions, irrational practices and outrageous lies of the Bush administration.In compiling this list, I made the rule that it cannot be an inventory of policy differences between liberals and conservatives; it must differentiate between rational and irrational policies, between truth and lies, between successes and failures. In other words, this should not be a partisan list but an attempt to chronicle the failures, catastrophes and ruinous policies that are apparent to impartial observers. Contributions are welcomed.

1. Lies about an optional war. Some may argue that Bush wasn’t lying about the weapons of mass destruction — that he, and many others, believed they were there. The problem is, he, and most everyone in his administration, misrepresented (lied) about the nature of the intelligence that (they claimed) led us into war. Within the intelligence community — yes, Bush’s own intelligence community — there was much, much more disagreement about the nature and threat of these weapons (and even whether they existed) than what Bush-Cheney-Rice-Rumsfeld claimed. Also in the category of outrageous lies, it is now clear that Bush, during the run-up to the war, was routinely lying when he said he had made no decision about going to war, that he was trying to exhaust all diplomatic options. Memos and staffers have since made it clear that Iraq was a target for war even before 9/11.

2. The optional war itself. It was clear that an invasion of Iraq was not tied to 9/11 and that it would not do anything to deter terrorism and that, in fact, it would make terrorism worse. Bush and his followers might believe otherwise, but I would argue that this is empirically true. The vote for the war authorization was pushed right before a midterm election, and Bush was demanding its passage, clearly making war a political issues. That alone is outrageous conduct for a president. But I would be happy to eliminate this one from the list, if enough readers think I should.

3. The fiasco in handling the optional war that was started from lies. Even John McCain, military strategists and such right-wingers as Pat Buchanan acknowledge this one. Because of arrogance, ignorance and just plain stupidity, the war was mismanaged from the start. It led to countless unnecessary deaths, a disastrous loss of prestige and diplomatic clout for America , and, predictably, it became an al-Qaeda training and recruitment tool.

4. Tax cuts that overwhelmingly favor the rich in a time of war. It is possible, as far as policy goes, to argue for tax cuts, even in the face of crushing deficits. It may be possible to argue, in a supply-sider’s dream, that it is appropriate for the rich to garner most of the benefits for the tax cuts. But it is nearly impossible, unless one lacks sufficient powers of reasoning, to argue that we should enact tax cuts that disproportionately favor the wealthy, when war demands sacrifices and sufficient revenue to be waged successfully.

5. Trillions in new debt, and annual deficits in the half-trillion-dollar range. This may be paired with the item above. Bush and the Republicans have not only failed to pay for the tax cuts they so eagerly handed out to rich supporters who then gave them campaign contributions, they also put forth billions in new spending, making Democrats look like chumps when it comes to pork-barreling. Oh, and by the way, they also enacted the biggest entitlement program in history since Social Security, the pharmaceutical drug bill, that provided billions to drug companies while restricting drug price competition. Also, the Bush administration lied to members of his own party about the cost of the 2003 Medicare bill, just so they could be tricked into voting for it.

6. The weakening of the dollar. Again, this may be paired with the items above. Many experts have speculated that the dollar’s reign as the world currency may end fairly soon, and its displacement can be directly tied to Reagan-Bush-Bush policies favoring vast debt, massive gaps in wealth between the rich and middle class, a weakening of the manufacturing economy, and changing the U.S. from the largest creditor nation in history to the largest debtor nation in history. I won’t give Bill Clinton a pass on this one, since the manufacturing sector decline continued under his watch and, some might argue, accelerated as a result of NAFTA. But it is clear that idea that taxes are heresy under Republicans — even at the expense of the nation and at the collapse of the dollar — has taken on its Biblical status under George W. Bush.

7. The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Here was a president so disengaged that American citizens were left stranded, and people died, during his inaction. Yet, in his words, “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.”

8. The suspension of habeas corpus. This has taken several forms under George Bush — by executive decision, through legal opinion by the likes of hack John Yoo and by the establishment of prisons to hold prisoners without charge or trial. But one moment Americans should never forget is the passage of the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Congress must share the blame on this, but without Bush’s “leadership,” it never would have passed. The law cast aside the Constitution and the principle of habeas corpus, which protects against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment. The Congress also gave the president absolute power to designate enemy combatants, and to set his own definitions for torture.

9. “Enhanced interrogation”/torture/extraordinary rendition. Bush said he knew and approved of the harsh tactics that led to such outrages as Abu Ghraib. Bush says the U.S. doesn’t torture because it doesn’t torture. Whatever you call it, it amounts to an illegal usurping of executive authority. John McCain was against it before he was for it. Some Americans may believe terrorists deserve torture in some cases, and I won’t disagree; however, it is clear that, under George W. Bush, America tortured some innocent people, and in some cases it transported prisoners to other countries so they could be tortured there.

10. Halliburton/Blackwater. These companies are by symbols for the privatization of war. Military contractors, often having no accountability to anyone, have stolen billions, wasted more billions, and kidnapped, raped and murdered in the name of the United States .

11. Guantanamo . While military prisons are routine in wartime, the problem with Gitmo is that it has been set up to hold terrorists as well as the innocent. And because of the end of habeas corpus, there is no way for the innocent to be set loose. In addition, it has undoubtedly created terrorists out of innocent people; even setting loose the innocent has become a grave risk, thanks to George W. Bush. But Guantanamo is not the only place where the innocent are held. Just last month, the U.S. released AP photographer Bilal Hussein after holding him in Iraq for two years without trial.

12. Presidential signing statements. Bush has made unprecedented use of these extra-legal statements in which he declares all or part of a law unconstitutional because (he says) it encroaches on executive authority. Therefore, he’ll sign the bill but ignore the parts he disagrees with. These statements have been used on a limited basis by other presidents in particular situations. But George Bush has claimed the authority to disobey more than 750 laws. Among them, reported the Boston Globe, are “military rules and regulations, affirmative-action provisions, requirements that Congress be told about immigration services problems, ‘whistle-blower’ protections for nuclear regulatory officials, and safeguards against political interference in federally funded research. Legal scholars say the scope and aggression of Bush’s assertions that he can bypass laws represent a concerted effort to expand his power at the expense of Congress, upsetting the balance between the branches of government.”

13. The Healthy Forests Initiative — would allow more logging and development in our national parks.

14. The Clear Skies Initiative — would weaken many parts of the Clean Air Act to allow more pollutants in many areas. Aside from what these laws do is the Orwellian Newspeak — giving names to policies or laws that are, at best, misleading. (Read: Patriot Act.)

15. Mining safety. Bush cut funding for mining safety and stacked the Mine Safety and Health Administration with industry executives, who fought against better regulations to protect lives and limbs. In 2006, forty-seven coal miners died on the job, the most in any full year since 1995, when forty-seven also were killed. Thirty-three were killed last year. Not all the deaths can be blamed on Bush and his industry-friendly appointees, but most assuredly, some can.

16. The U.S. attorney scandals. In this case, seven U.S. attorneys — Republicans — were fired in 2006. The reasons for the dismissals remain unclear, but allegations were that they were made for partisan political purposes. Anyone who doubts that partisanship (see Monica Goodling) was a factor — which, by the way, undermines the justice system of the United States — has not been paying attention to the way George Bush operates. Investigations into the matter have been impeded, but it is without question that the scandal has eroded morale in the Justice Department.

17. Stop loss. This U.S. military policy amounts to a back-door draft. While legal, it erodes morale, weakens the military and subjects soldiers to repeated danger and the possibility of physical and mental problems. Apparently, a weaker military is a policy of this administration, since it has overextended personnel and refused to provide adequate body armor to troops. In addition, Bush favored cutting funding for Veterans’ Administration, denying crucial medical care to the troops that he sent to war.

18. Alienation of U.S. allies.

19. Cutting of food stamps. This could be an ideological difference, so many might argue it’s not fair game in a list of Bush disasters. However, one aspect of the Bush prescription drug plan related to this issue can’t be viewed as ideological: as reported by Salon, “More bad news about that prescription drug plan: Seniors who use it may lose their food stamps.”

20. “So?” Dick Cheneys’ response to a question noting that the vast majority of Americans believe Iraq was a mistake and want the troops to come home.

21. FISA/illegal wiretapping. Bush still claims that violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is okay because he’s fighting the terrorists. But there’s nothing in the law that prevented wiretapping; it allowed temporary wiretapping until warrants could be issued. That didn’t matter to Bush; he’d rather violate the law when possible.

22. 9/11. Bush and his administration ignored repeated warnings that a major terrorist act was pending on U.S. soil. Richard Clarke said he tried for months to have Bush and Condaleeza Rice make terrorism a priority, but they ignored him. Whether you believe Clarke or not, the fact is that there was a memo about bin Laden being determined to strike in the U.S. , and Bush went on vacation to Crawford , Texas , shortly before the Twin Towers fell.

23. Global warming. Bush now admits it’s a problem, although Bush officials trashed science by redacting independent governmentally commissioned studies on the issue. But even though he says it’s a problem he has no proposals to do anything about it in the near term.

24. Health care. More children (9 million) are without health insurance today than when Bush took office. The nation is facing catastrophic health care costs for the next century; Bush has ignored the problem.

25. Energy policy. The records of Dick Cheney’s task force on energy are secret, so we don’t know how much of the nation’s energy policy was dictated by energy companies. But it is certain that it was a great deal; Bush’s pattern in this area is the same as in others; i.e., put oil and gas officials in charge of energy policy; put pharmaceutical companies in charge of drug policy; let health industry lobbyists write health policy legislation. Gas prices have soared and record profits are now routine business for the oil companies; people think their taxes are lower under Bush, but they are paying more for gas, food and other basic necessities - and they are also paying more state and local taxes because of federal budget cuts.

26. Immigration. For Bush or against him on this issue, it can hardly be argued that he has put forth a successful policy.

27. The Pentagon information apparatus designed to praise George Bush’s war by touting military officers — paid by private contractors — as objective observers. This was a deliberate attempt to lie to the American people through a compliant and incompetent mass media.

28. Plants in press conferences. Jeff Gannon, a right-wing gay escort, was given press credentials and allowed to lob softball questions at Bush during White House news conferences.(Let’s hope that’s all he lobbed. Gannon was running around the White House at night ,all night, unescorted, on fourteen separate occasions. Ed)

29. A weaker America — we are weaker militarily, economically and on the world stage than the day George Bush took office. Some Republicans seem to fear Democrats because they say the Democrats want to destroy America . But it is hard to imagine a series of policies that have done more to hurt America than those forced upon us over the last seven years. Three-fourths of Americans know the country is on the wrong track, yet half of them support “more wrong track,” as Bill Maher put it. This is because the Republicans are very good at distracting large numbers of people from the disasters that this administration has fostered. One method they use is that they claim that criticisms of policy, particularly war policy, amount to criticisms of America . I want to make it clear that this tactic won’t work here. The above criticisms are not criticisms of America ; they are criticisms of George W. Bush. It is because I love this country that this list was compiled. It was George Bush, not America , who brought us to this place.

30. A divided America . After 9/11 Bush had that rare opportunity to unite the nation, and the world, to defeat terrorism. Instead of using this goodwill - instead of bringing us all together to fight a common enemy — he squandered it. A generation has been lost to Bush’s petty petulance and his unilateral, misguided use of executive power. One would think that most conservatives, and most Republicans, would worry about expanded executive power. But many of them haven’t. One wonders how they will feel about it when a Democrat takes office.

Guy Reel is an assistant professor of mass communication at Winthrop University . He may be reached at reelg@winthrop.edu.

The Iraq War Profiteer No One Is Talking About

May 9, 2008

by ZP Heller

Brave New Films

What's it going to take for us to hold the Iraq War profiteers accountable? The Bush administration's $3 trillion war in Iraq has been the direct cause of our current recession, and yet private defense contractors continue to reap billions in profits. I'm not even talking about KBR for the moment. That loathsome Cheney-backed Halliburton subsidiary has actually been the focus of a bit of media and Congressional attention recently (though not nearly enough) for contaminating our troops' water supplies, ignoring electrical safety standards that led to troop casualties, and dodging hundreds of millions in tax payments. No, I'm talking about L-3, the second largest employer in the Iraq occupation behind KBR.

L-3 makes about $1 billion a year off of the outsourcing of intelligence gathering in Iraq . The U.S. government hired L-3 to work with the military in interrogating and running background checks on Iraqi prisoners and civilians. L-3 now employs approximately 7,000 translators and 300 intelligence experts in Iraq , and has grown to become the ninth largest defense contractor in the U.S and the sixth largest Iraq War profiteer. While this outsourcing alone is cause for alarm, it is how L-3 runs its company that is particularly egregious.

Not only is L-3 the parent company of Titan—the company that provided the translators at Abu Ghraib prison—but they have also suffered more casualties than any other civilian contractor. 280 L-3/Titan employees have already died. According to a new report from CorpWatch, L-3/Titan employees are "dying at a rate that is far greater than that of the U.S. military itself." That is because L-3 employees face daily threats of assassination for collaborating with our military. Even worse, L-3 doesn't provide employees with proper training or medical care.

CorpWatch Managing Editor Pratap Chatterjee claims that L-3 fills positions with unqualified personnel simply to meet their contractual quotas. Of course, these interrogators, analysts, and screeners don't want to lose their jobs, since they are getting paid upwards of $100,000 a year. And so, as ex-Titan translator Marwan Mawiri has said, these translators are willing to say and do whatever it takes to keep their jobs safe. Just watch Chatterjee and Mawiri on Democracy Now, as they explain how L-3 failed to prepare employees as to what to expect in Iraq .

The Abu Ghraib scandal was a direct result of this disgraceful mismanagement, but what was L-3/Titan's response? They covered their own asses by implementing mandatory refresher courses for interrogators: power-point presentations delivered by officers, many of whom have never been interrogators themselves. CorpWatch calls these training sessions nothing more than "window dressing."

Perhaps this will be enough to prevent another scandal of Abu Ghraib's magnitude from leaking to the press, but how many L-3/Titan employees will die before the company is forced to provide adequate training for its employees? How many innocent Iraqis will be victimized and how much will we compromise in terms of national security because our government put L-3 in charge? And how many billions will our government pay L-3 along the way while we should have put reconstruction in the hands of capable Iraqis?

Meanwhile, L-3 met last week to tell its shareholders just how well their company is doing, and how much money they've made.

ZP Heller is the editorial director of Brave New Films. He has written for The American Prospect, AlterNet, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Huffington Post, covering everything from politics to pop culture.

KBR driver in Iraq again charged with child porn possession

May 9, 2008

AP

ALEXANDRIA , Va. A former bus driver for Iraq war contractor KBR Inc. who was fired in 2006 for possessing child pornography got rehired less than a year later, and has again been caught with a large collection of child porn, according to prosecutors.

Ira L. Waltrip of Lampasas , Texas , who had been working for KBR at Camp Liberty in Baghdad, was charged this week in U.S. District Court with possessing child pornography.

According to a court affidavit, KBR fired Waltrip in January 2006 when he was assigned to the Al Asad Air Base in Iraq after he was discovered with a collection of child pornography.

At the time, authorities with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service elected not to prosecute Waltrip because they said they ‘lacked sufficient evidence that the pornography in question actually depicted minors.’

KBR rehired Waltrip in December 2006 as a bus driver. Again, Waltrip was caught with an extensive library of child pornography, some of which appeared to depict children as young as four to six years old.

It is not entirely clear how Waltrip managed to get rehired by KBR. A spokeswoman for the Houston-based company, Heather Browne, issued a statement staying that KBR keeps a list of employees ineligible for rehire.

“Unfortunately, KBR’s practice on making employees ineligible for rehire was not followed in this case,” she said. “The company has addressed the situation.”

Last year, a contractor who worked at the notorious Abu Ghraib prison for L-3 communications Holdings, Inc. was sentenced to more than three years in prison on similar charges

Federal prosecutors brought the case against Waltrip and the Abu Ghraib contractor under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which allows for military contractors to be prosecuted in federal courts for crimes they commit while overseas.

Comment: Hopefully, Vice President Dick Cheney, a strong supporter of KBR, will intervene and have Bush pardon this piece of shit. After all, Bush pardoned Libby, didn’t he? Cheney understands such things very well. BH

Bush, McCain dream on in war land

May 17, 2008

by Jim Lobe

Asia Times

WASHINGTON - In separate speeches delivered an ocean apart, the two standard bearers of the United States Republican Party on Thursday offered rosy visions of a future designed to gladden the hearts of Israel-centered neo-conservatives without offering any details about how their dreams will be achieved.

In an address before the Knesset in Jerusalem marking the 60th anniversary of Israel's founding, President George W Bush predicted that 60 years from now the Jewish state will co-exist with a Palestinian homeland in a democratic Middle East where "al-Qaeda and Hezbollah and Hamas will be defeated" and "Iranand Syria will be peaceful nations, with today's oppression a distant memory ..."

He went on: "From Cairo to Riyadh to Baghdad and Beirut , people will live in free and independent societies, where a desire for peace is reinforced by ties of diplomacy and tourism and trade."

Such a "bold vision" will not "arrive easily overnight", he said. But it will be possible "so long as a new generation of leaders has the courage to defeat the enemies of freedom, to make the hard choices necessary for peace, and stand firm on the solid rock of universal values."

Just a few hours later and some 11,000 kilometers away, Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, told a partisan audience in Columbus , Ohio that, if elected, he will have "won" the Iraq war by 2013 and brought home "most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom."

By the end of his first term, he went on, the threat from the Taliban in Afghanistan will have been greatly reduced, al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his key lieutenants captured or killed, and Iran "persuaded [by] a reluctant Russia and China to cooperate in pressuring Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions, and North Korea to discontinue its own."

In contrast to Bush, however, McCain failed to mention any progress on settling the Israel-Palestinian conflict, suggesting that such an effort will not rate particularly high on his foreign policy agenda.

That should be just fine with pro-Likud neo-conservatives who, despite their appreciation for Bush's staunch support for former hard-line prime minister Ariel Sharon (whom the president Thursday praised in his speech as "warrior for the ages, a man of peace"), have been uneasy about his thus far feeble efforts to prod the two sides towards a framework peace agreement by the time he leaves office next January.

Indeed, Thursday's speeches served to underline how powerful and durable the neo-conservative vision of the world, particularly for the Middle East, remains, at least for the Republican Party, and how likely it would be that a president McCain would "stay the course" set by Bush.

Bush's speech was pure neo-conservatism, beginning with his assurance that Washington was "Israel's closest ally and best friend in the world" and featuring a familiar depiction of the world as a struggle between the forces of "good and evil", the latter embodied by the most immediate threats to Israel's security - Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria.

"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," he declared in a thinly veiled slap at the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama, who along with most of the US foreign policy establishment has called for engagement with Tehran and Damascus.

"We have heard this foolish delusion before," he said, referring to the failure of Western powers to challenge the Nazis in the 1930s, a core neo-conservative leitmotif. "We have an obligation to call this what it is - the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history," he continued, implicitly comparing the threats faced by Israel with Nazi Germany and explicitly assuring his audience that "... the world must not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon."

But Bush offered no ideas as to how his hopeful vision of the Middle East, particularly that of a "homeland [Palestinians] have long dreamed of and deserved", in 2068 will be achieved. No ideas, that is, apart from confronting "evil", presumably through military force if necessary, and steadfastly promoting basic freedoms and democracy in the region - a policy some of his neo-conservative backers believe Bush has largely abandoned as he has sought to rally Sunni Arab leaders against Iran and its allies.

McCain similarly failed to explain how he would achieve his own vision of victory in Iraq , substantial progress in Afghanistan , a defeat of al-Qaeda, and Iran 's abandonment of its alleged nuclear ambitions by 2013. His comments led Rand Beers, a top counter-terrorism official under both George H W Bush and Bill Clinton who resigned from the National Security Council in protest against the younger Bush's decision to invade Iraq , to compare the speech to Richard Nixon's "secret plan" to end the Vietnam War as a gimmick to win the 1968 presidential election.

McCain's vision for 2013 was more modest than Bush's for 2068. In addition to omitting any mention of an Israeli-Palestinian peace process, he made no predictions about "transforming" the Middle East as a whole. But the basic trajectory was consistent.

He described an Iraq at the end of his first term in office as "a functioning democracy" in which violence would be "spasmodic [but] much reduced", militias would be disbanded, al-Qaeda in Iraq defeated, the central government able to impose its authority "in every province of Iraq", and the US military presence "much smaller" and no longer engaged in combat.

And not only would the threat from the Taliban be "greatly reduced" and the al-Qaeda leadership captured or killed, he said, but a newly formed "League of Democracies" - another neo-conservative chestnut - would "apply stiff diplomatic and economic pressure" on Sudan to stop genocide in Darfur and use similar tools to end gross human rights abuses, such as human trafficking, in other parts of the world.

The absence of detail regarding how these goals will be accomplished drew mainly scorn from both Democrats and independent observers, with the former president of the influential Council

on Foreign Relations, Leslie Gelb, describing McCain's vision as "kind of a wild-eyed, unsupported prediction".

"I think John McCain has been one of the most important voices on national security policy for many years now, so it really surprises me to see him giving speeches like the one today that are almost in la la land," Gelb told reporters in a teleconference sponsored by the National Security Network.

At the same time, Senator Hillary Clinton, who is lagging behind Obama in the race for the Democratic nomination, noted that "this is not the first time Senator McCain has predicted victory in Iraq " and that his speech "promises more of the same Bush policies ..."

McCain himself suggested that his world view was not so different from Bush's. Asked later on Thursday about the president's assertion that negotiating with "terrorists and radicals" today was similar to appeasing Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, McCain said he agreed with the analogy.

Jim Lobe's blog on US foreign policy, and particularly the