Fake Plastic News

The Past and the Pending

2010-03-03T10:44:00.002-05:00

FPN has moved to a (slightly) less political format at The PastandthePending.com. Feel free to stop by and let me know what you think. I enjoyed blogging here, but wanted to take on a little more than politics and felt having the word "news" in the title limited me a bit.

Climbing Up the Walls

2009-06-02T09:37:00.001-05:00

John Cole's on fire here:

2.) No one is asking you for your support, anyway. They are just asking you stop the people who are bombing the clinics where this is done, shooting the few doctors who provide these procedures, distributing wanted signs with rewards of them, hassling and stalking the people who work there. In other words, they are asking that you treat the people threatening all of these people on a daily basis to be treated as they are- as a terror cell. But your support for their medical decision? Trust me, your moral support is the last damned thing on their mind.

3.) Andrew is wildly against single-payer. It’s socialist. Is he regularly donating to a charity that helps pay the millions of dollars of medical bills that multiple futile heart surgeries or multiple spinal surgeries these babies must endure before they die? Even the rosy scenario he posted yesterday states that only 50% might live in some diminished capacity after multiple surgeries. Or are these poor women supposed to not only give birth to a child that will probably never live a healthy day in its short life, in a risky childbirth that may kill the woman, but they also win hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills for futile procedures? Sorry about your luck, lady, but we have people’s consciences to think about here. Does Andrew think the only people going through this are upper East Side liberals with platinum health insurance and a six figure income and a disdain for human life? Is anyone in the pro-life community funding this for people? Or are they just too busy trading bomb-making tips with Operation Rescue?

What this country really needs right now is a serious case of mind your own damned business. We’ve turned into a nation of busybodies and scolds, and people just need to back off. And that goes for the people opposed to and trying to make illegal Andrew’s marriage, for people like Andrew who sound like they want the weight of the law to come down on people making tragic medical decisions that lead to late-term abortions, for the nutjobs who thought they knew better than Michael Schiavo how to handle his horrible situation with his wife, to the lunatics screaming “murder” when we do stem cell research, and so on.

I’m really sick of the crap, and I don’t mean to harsh completely on Andrew, because I sense he does struggle with these matters. But if Andrew’s conscience can’t support a late-term abortion, then right now he is sitting pretty, because under our current system, anyone who doesn’t want an abortion doesn’t have to have one.

And that really should be the end of that.

I only wish it would be.

Stop Whispering

2009-05-14T11:49:00.001-05:00

Is every arabic linguist in the military gay?

Karma Police

2009-05-13T15:50:00.001-05:00

I don't want to hear another thing about the stupid Miss California pageant.

My Iron Lung

2009-05-07T09:59:00.000-05:00

1976 Swine Flu propaganda.

Fitter Happier

2009-04-30T09:16:00.002-05:00

Hmm...

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Coming soon to a battleground state near you: a new effort to revive the image of the Republican Party and to counter President Obama's characterization of Republicans as "the party of 'no.'"

CNN has learned that the new initiative, called the National Council for a New America, will be announced Thursday.

It will involve an outreach by an interesting mix of GOP officials, ranging from 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain to Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor and the younger brother of the man many Republicans blame for the party's battered brand: former President George W. Bush.

I know Jeb isn't George W, but when you're "rebranding" your party, some new faces not named "Bush" or "McCain" might be a good idea.

Busy

2009-04-28T13:05:00.001-05:00

Work getting in the way of blogging...

High and Dry

2009-04-21T13:17:00.002-05:00

I wonder if she is also a witch:

Marissa and her parents joined a group of about 50 others at the courthouse. Before showing the photos, Mr. Skumanick explained his offer to the crowd, answering one father's question affirmatively, that -- yes -- a girl in a bathing suit could be subjected to criminal charges because she was posed "provocatively."

Mr. Skumanick told them he could have simply charged the kids. Instead, he gave them two weeks to decide: take the class or face charges.

He then told the parents and teens to line up if they wanted to view the photos, which were printed out onto index cards. As the 17-year-old who took semi-nude self-portraits waited in line, she realized that Mr. Skumanick and other investigators had viewed the pictures. When the adults began to crowd around Mr. Skumanick, the 17-year-old worried they could see her photo and recalls she said, "I think the worst punishment is knowing that all you old guys saw me naked. I just think you guys are all just perverts."

I think the outcry over "sexting" is ridiculous. Teens will be teens.

Nobody Does It Better

2009-04-16T14:44:00.002-05:00

Interesting (warning: long piece) look at how the oil fixing business works.

Dollars & Cents

2009-04-16T11:03:00.000-05:00

A tea party must watch. The guy's got stones.

No Surprises

2009-04-16T09:22:00.003-05:00

Apparently, the National Security Agency wiretapped beyond the legal limits, all by accident!

he National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, government officials said in recent interviews.

Several intelligence officials, as well as lawyers briefed about the matter, said the N.S.A. had been engaged in “overcollection” of domestic communications of Americans. They described the practice as significant and systemic, although one official said it was believed to have been unintentional.

Update (11:34AM EST): Sullivan is right, let's hear from the right wingers who were all in a tizzy about the DHS report mentioning the rist of right wing extremism (but also touches on left wing extremism). Are they concerned about everyone's civil liberties, or just their own?

Blow Out

2009-04-14T14:25:00.000-05:00

Classic.

Electioneering

2009-04-14T10:40:00.002-05:00

Time to go, Norm. There's still a chance to bow out somewhat graciously. I'd like to be proven wrong, but I don't think the modern GOP, and Norm Coleman in particular, have it in them.

Outta Here

2009-04-13T16:37:00.002-05:00

Goodbye, Harry. Hearing your voice always reminded me of home.

The Trickster

2009-04-09T09:06:00.002-05:00

Interesting:

Spies hacked into the U.S. electric grid and left behind computer programs that would let them disrupt service, exposing potentially catastrophic vulnerabilities in key pieces of national infrastructure, a former U.S. government official said Wednesday.

The intrusions were discovered after electric companies gave the government permission to audit their systems, the ex-official said. The official was not authorized to discuss the matter and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
------

"The vulnerability may be bigger than we think," the official said, adding that the level of sophistication necessary to pull off such intrusions is so high that it is "almost without a doubt" done by state sponsors.

The Wall Street Journal, which reported the intrusions earlier, said officials believe the spies have not yet sought to damage the nation's electric grid, but that they likely would try in a war or another crisis.

Chinese and Russian officials have denied involvement in hacks on U.S. systems.

Lucky

2009-04-07T12:34:00.002-05:00

Great story. Dog eats baby goats, survives on remote island after going overboard.

Give it Up

2009-04-07T11:13:00.001-05:00

Remember when the segway was a mysterious invention that was going to revolutionize the way we get from one place to the other? What, you don't really remember? Well, my memory's a bit hazy on that too, but now they Segway folks have teamed up with GM (this is what they've been spending taxpayer money on?) on be this:.

Project PUMA -- or Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility -- is a joint development program between GM and Segway, a New Hampshire-based manufacturer known for its innovative electric stand-and-ride scooter.

Looks like a segway for people who need a wheelchair. Color me unimpressed.

Just

2009-04-07T10:15:00.001-05:00

Good for the Vermont State Senate:

The Vermont Senate voted 23-5 to override Gov. Jim Douglas’s (R) veto of the marriage bill.

Let's see the Legislature step up.

Update 12:12PM EST 4/7:And the Vermont House steps up!

The Vermont House has just voted 100-49 to override Gov. Jim Douglas' (R) veto of marriage rights legislation. One hundred votes were needed to override, and exactly 100 were cast in favor.

The Tourist

2009-04-07T09:34:00.002-05:00

President Obama makes a surprise trip to Iraq:

On a trip shrouded in secrecy, President Barack Obama flew into Iraq on Tuesday for a brief look at a war he opposed as a candidate and now vows to end as commander in chief.

Obama flew into the country hours after a car bomb exploded in a Shiite neighborhood of the capital city, a deadly reminder of the violence that has claimed the lives at least 4,266 members of the U.S. military since March 2003.

The visit came at the conclusion of a long overseas trip that included economic and NATO summits in Europe and two days in Turkey.

I think it is great that he is over there, but can we stop using the "surprise" storyline each time a U.S. President goes to Iraq? There's a reason it is a "surprise": We trust nobody over there and if it wasn't a "surprise", he'd be more likely to get blown up by ~~Sadr~~, ~~Al Qaeda~~, ~~Iran's Revolutionary Guards~~, ~~Son's of Iraq~~, ~~1920 Brigade~~, ~~random Sunni~~, ~~random shiite~~, whothefknowsatthispoint.

Bulletproof...

2009-04-06T14:20:00.004-05:00

I wish he was...
I'm "glad" we will now be able to see the caskets of the fallen from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. As someone who's read a lot on the Soviet adventure in Afghanistan, I can't say I'm thrilled with the new "surge" there, but I hope seeing those who made the ultimate sacrifice will remind our Government of the true cost of the war.

Update: I highly recommend this book on the Russian-Afghan War. Scary stuff.

Climbing Up The Walls

2009-04-06T12:43:00.002-05:00

Once again, the media misses the story:

Dude just stood there and told reporters -- twice, and matter-of-factly both times -- that his friend who just killed three cops was motivated "by the Zionist-controlled government," and was upset, "that there was about to be military policing," and by "the fact that there was about to be a gun ban."

Zionist-controlled government. Was about to be military policing. The fact that there was about to be a gun ban.

Not a single one of these reporters says, "Hey, wait a minute. What?!?"

Guy says, "Zionist-controlled government," and the reporter's follow-up? "Did he have a lot of guns?"

Second reporter was even worse! He believed there was a Zionist-controlled government. That there would be military policing. That there would be a gun ban.

Follow-up: So there was never anything that made you think there could be a situation like this?

Are you kidding me? Everything that guy just told you should have been an indicator that there could be a situation like this!

What the f is wrong with these people?

Murder in Virginia

2009-04-05T09:13:00.002-05:00

CIA, Chinese Embassy bombing, Iraq, Kosovo. This reads like a Tom Clancy novel.

Reckoner

2009-03-31T11:20:00.005-05:00

One of the scariest (yet funny) anecdotes about Dick Cheney i've ever read:

In his book It Doesn't Take a Hero, retired U.S. Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf describes the evolution of the plans he and his staff made following Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait... Following one White House meeting at which he'd asked for more time and more troops, Stormin' Norman reports, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Colin Powell called to warn the Desert Storm commander that he was being loudly compared, by a top administration official, to George McClellan. "My God," the official supposedly complained. "He's got all the force he needs. Why won't he just attack?" Schwarzkopf notes that the unnamed official who'd made the comment "was a civilian who knew next to nothing about military affairs, but he'd been watching the Civil War documentary on public television and was now an expert."

And then, twenty pages later, Schwarzkopf casually drops the information that he got an inspirational gift from Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney right before the air war finally got under way. Cheney was presenting a gift to a military man, and he chose something with an appropriate theme: "(A) complete set of videotapes of Ken Burns's PBS series, The Civil War."

But that wasn't the only gift that Dick Cheney had for Norman Schwarzkopf. Having figured out that the general was being too cautious with his fourth combat command in three decades of soldiering, Cheney got his staff busy and began presenting Schwarzkopf with his own ideas about how to fight the Iraqis: What if we parachute the 82nd Airborne into the far western part of Iraq, hundreds of miles from Kuwait and totally cut off from any kind of support, and seize a couple of missile sites, then line up along the highway and drive for Baghdad? Schwarzkopf charitably describes the plan as being "as bad as it could possibly be... But despite our criticism, the western excursion wouldn't die: three times in that week alone Powell called with new variations from Cheney's staff. The most bizarre involved capturing a town in western Iraq and offering it to Saddam in exchange for Kuwait."

Really sums him up.

Knives Out

2009-03-30T11:10:00.001-05:00

John Cole presents the best response to those on the right(or left) who compare Obama's "firing" of Wagoner, to something Hugo Chavez would do:

My reliably conservative relative called me last night and asked me if I was not upset about this, and then got mad at me and told me I was just blinded by love for Obama when I said I couldn’t care less. Why would I? Few on the right have any problem telling welfare recipients what to do. I doubt Andrew has ever seen a welfare reform bill he didn’t like. Other than Josh Trevino, I don’t remember any opposition from the right about the Bankruptcy Bill and all the draconian demands placed on individuals.

This isn’t the government going to Microsoft and telling Bill gates what to do. This isn’t the government coming to your profitable small business and telling you who to hire and fire. Hell, this isn’t even the government telling GM what to do in the daily operation of their business. These are companies who have made decades of bad decisions coming to the government for yet another bailout, and as a requirement, the Obama team is demanding some leadership shake-up. Not only does it make sense to get rid of the guy who has been there for the last ten years as things went down the drain, but it would be politically impossible to bail these guys out unless some changes were made.

Parting of the Sensory

2009-03-30T10:05:00.004-05:00

David Owen had an interesting piece in the March 30th New Yorker about how the current economic mess, and our attempt to recover from it, will effect the environment. Key section:

The popular answer—switch to hybrids—leaves the fundamental problem unaddressed. Increasing the fuel efficiency of a car is mathematically indistinguishable from lowering the price of its fuel; it’s just fiddling with the other side of the equation. If doubling the cost of gas gives drivers an environmentally valuable incentive to drive less—the recent oil-price spike pushed down consumption and vehicle miles travelled, stimulated investment in renewable energy, increased public transit ridership, and killed the Hummer—then doubling the efficiency of cars makes that incentive disappear. Getting more miles to the gallon is of no benefit to the environment if it leads to an increase in driving—and the response of drivers to decreases in the cost of driving is to drive more. Increases in fuel efficiency could be bad for the environment unless they’re accompanied by powerful disincentives that force drivers to find alternatives to hundred-mile commutes. And a national carbon policy, if it’s to have a real impact, will almost certainly need to bring American fuel prices back to at least where they were at their peak in the summer of 2008. Electric cars are not the panacea they are sometimes claimed to be, not only because the electricity they run on has to be generated somewhere but also because making driving less expensive does nothing to discourage people from sprawling across the face of the planet, promoting forms of development that are inherently and catastrophically wasteful.

I can honestly say that I never really considered the fact that increased fuel efficiency standards isn't necessarily the greatest answer b/c it will just lead to more driving. As someone who lives in a Metro area and commutes by public transportation, I was never really bothered by the high gas prices last summer. Maybe the answer is keeping the prices high. Compared to other countries, we've always had it good here.

Coleman

2009-03-30T09:41:00.003-05:00

I recently attended a fundraiser for a GOP Senator (had to b/c of job) who said Norm Coleman has spent $26 million on his Senate race/recount effort and, as of now, doesn't plan on taking it to the U.S. Supreme Court, despite this.

$26 million sounds more like a California or New York Senate race. Amazing.

Mr. Plumber

2009-03-26T14:06:00.002-05:00

Why are they keeping him around?

Joe the Plumber is hitting the campaign trail again! He’s been pressed into service to do a series of events throughout Pennsylvania rallying opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act, the organizer of the events confirms.

Mr. Plumber will speak at rallies against the measure in Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, and Philadelphia on March 30th and 31st, according to a spokesperson for the anti-EFCA group Americans for Prosperity.

“The public loves Joe the Plumber,” the spokesperson, Mary Ellen Burke, claimed to me. “They see him as a role model.”

Asked whether Joe the Plumber had any particular knowledge or expertise about EFCA that might explain the decision to enlist him, Burke said that he was being enlisted to provide a “grassroots perspective” and “the working perspective” on the measure.

Pressed on whether Joe the Plumber has any particular claim to being a spokesperson on the issue, Burke replied that “he represents the American worker.”

For the life of me, I don't understand why the Republicans haven't cast Joe the Plumber aside yet. I'm guessing it is just another example of the GOP being out of touch. Remember, he's the same guy they had talk policy with Hill staffers.

Burning Down the House

2009-03-25T13:14:00.003-05:00

Overheard during a fundraiser today at lunch: The head of a prominent Hedge fund did the math and it would be cheaper for the Government to buy all foreclosed homes and burn them down, then deal with the "toxic assets" they way they currently are. Of course, that could add to the greenhouse gas issue...

Pakistan

2009-03-23T12:31:00.002-05:00

GULP:

Pakistan is 173 million people, 100 nuclear weapons, an army bigger than the U.S. Army, and al-Qaeda headquarters sitting right there in the two-thirds of the country that the government doesn't control. The Pakistani military and police and intelligence service don't follow the civilian government; they are essentially a rogue state within a state. We're now reaching the point where within one to six months we could see the collapse of the Pakistani state, also because of the global financial crisis, which just exacerbates all these problems. . . . The collapse of Pakistan, al-Qaeda acquiring nuclear weapons, an extremist takeover -- that would dwarf everything we've seen in the war on terror today.

Declassifying Torture

2009-03-23T10:25:00.003-05:00

Good news:

Over objections from the U.S. intelligence community, the White House is moving to declassify—and publicly release—three internal memos that will lay out, for the first time, details of the "enhanced" interrogation techniques approved by the Bush administration for use against "high value" Qaeda detainees. The memos, written by Justice Department lawyers in May 2005, provide the legal rationale for waterboarding, head slapping and other rough tactics used by the CIA. One senior Obama official, who like others interviewed for this story requested anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity, said the memos were "ugly" and could embarrass the CIA. Other officials predicted they would fuel demands for a "truth commission" on torture.

Spitzer Recovery Program

2009-03-23T09:10:00.002-05:00

I think i'm ready for Eliot Spitzer's second act:

Actually, there was one guy who took on the financial firms at the height of their prestige and power when the country, the media and Washington were gushing with admiration.

That man was Eliot Spitzer.

And he is my guest today, for his first interview since resigning as governor of New York.

You remember him as the governor of New York who resigned after a scandal involving prostitution. But think back before then. He was the attorney general of New York who went after Merrill Lynch, prosecuted AIG and several other institutions for practices he argued were corrupt, fraudulent and illegal. Those prosecutions were deeply controversial, and Spitzer made most of Wall Street his enemy.

Yes, he made a BIG mistake, but with the current economic crisis, I want smart people trying to solve it. And with all the openings at Treasury, there's gotta be a spot for him. Call it the Spitzer Recovery Program.

Geithner

2009-03-20T13:36:00.002-05:00

It's been lite posting the last few days b/c of work getting in the way.

But, while i'm here, I should comment on the ongoing AIG crisis. It's a disaster for the Administration, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, in particular. My guess is he will not last the next month or so. Even though it is hard to tell if his ideas are working or not, he's been a disaster in PR and behind the scenes. He's too close to Wall Street(who isn't in that world?) to deal with the current crisis fairly. Obama's going to need a sacrificial lamb, and he's the easy one. You might want to take your house off the market, Tim, you're going to need it.

Guantanamo

2009-03-18T08:51:00.004-05:00

Colin Powell's deputy, Lawrence Wilkerson talks about Gitmo. Read the whole post. It has more nuggets like this eye-opener:

Moreover, the fact that among the detainees was a 13 year-old boy and a man over 90, did not seem to faze either man, initially at least.

What an embarrassment. More like: what a war crime.

What Torture Leads To

2009-03-16T10:04:00.003-05:00

False information. Khaled Shaik Mohammed in his own words:

I gave a lot of false information in order to satisfy what I believed the interrogators wished to hear in order to make the ill-treatment stop.... I'm sure that the false information I was forced to invent...wasted a lot of their time and led to several false red-alerts being placed in the US.

Gravity Rides Everything

2009-03-13T14:21:00.005-05:00

I'm finally getting to see one of my favorite bands-Modest Mouse-tonight. My big concert-related mistake was to buy a ticket, only to sell it, to their show at the Black Cat Club in 2001(?). What the hell was I thinking?

UPDATE (3/16 11:115AM): Great show all around. Modest Mouse review and setlist here. I really enjoyed the opening act "Kinky"-Rage Against the Machine meets the Talking Heads meets Moby meets an accordion. I downloaded some of their stuff immediately after the show.

No Appraisals?

2009-03-13T11:59:00.003-05:00

What's with the reliance on unregulated broker-price-opinions in the Administration's loan modification proposal? I would think that in this market, an objective, independent appraisal would be absolutely necessary. Who is lobbying the Admin on BPOs?

UPDATE (3/16 1:20PM)New York Post with the scoop over the weekend:

Another aspect of Geithner's plan that is being questioned by lawmakers involves the house-appraisal mechanism the White House proposed using to modify existing troubled loans.

In the run-up to creating the subprime nightmare, the unregulated assessment process used the Broker Price Opinions (BPO), which uses comparable sales but has built-in biases. Among those, appraisals tend to be high because brokers don't earn a commission if a mortgage is unfunded because of a low assessment.

Also, the Automated Value Model (AVM), which relies on comparable sales, uses a computer algorithm to come up with a final assessment.

"Appraisal independence is of great importance to all homebuyers and homeowners who own or want to own a home. I have therefore fought to improve appraisal independence for many years and I am continuing to do so. Next week, the Housing Subcommittee will hold a hearing to address mortgage modifications, and I expect that home valuations will be discussed," said Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-PA), a ranking member on the Finance Committee.

According to mortgage industry sources, the Obama administration is planning to rely on these two models to rescue homeowners from foreclosure.

According to RealtyTrac, foreclosure filings in the US climbed 30 percent in February.

"Going forward, reforming the appraisal process to prevent inflated pricing will be critical to ensure we don't repeat the mistakes of the past," said Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney.

"These two models were instrumental in creating the housing bubble," says James Amorin, president of the Appraisal Institute.

According to a report sent to finance committee members, using these assessment tools could cost Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac $500 billion in potential losses in inflated valuations based on 4 million reworked loans.

In the case of loan servicers, using the AVM or BPO models to reset the existing troubled loans could add a staggering $3 trillion in potential losses to Uncle Sam's coffers based on the existing 20 million troubled loans, according to the report.

Does Santelli Think They're Losers?

2009-03-13T11:29:00.002-05:00

As always, Atrios say it best:

Deep Thought

If only Bernie Madoff hadn't tricked all those minorities into taking out subprime loans.

Foreign Policy is High School?

2009-03-13T10:05:00.000-05:00

I'm not naive to think that just because Obama may engage in direct talks with our enemies they'll suddenly become our friends, but to not engage them directly b/c it may hurt an allies' feelings is ridiculous.

What made Turkey such a valuable mediator between Israel and Syria was in part the fact that Israel and Syria refused to negotiate directly and in part Turkey's perceived (at the time) non-partiality. But it was also in large part due to the fact that the U.S. refused to engage in direct discussions with Syria, and therefore was unavailable to chaperone the talks.

The same goes even more for Turkey's potential to play a mediator role between the U.S. and Iran.

Now that the American administration has no a priori objections to direct discussions with Syria and Iran, Turkey is no longer necessary as an intermediary. So far, as Yigal Schleifer details, there's a lot of speculation and conflicting interpretations about Turkey's role, mainly coming out of Ankara. But the signs seem to be pointing to a 10th Avenue Freeze-Out.

On Fire While Biking

2009-03-13T09:24:00.001-05:00

Sad story, but a reason not to smoke while biking:

BETHPAGE, N.Y. - An 87-year-old man has died in suburban New York after his clothes caught fire while he was riding his bicycle.
Advertisement

Authorities say Joseph Rusin was likely smoking a cigarette before he became engulfed in flames while cycling down Burkhardt Avenue in Bethpage

Thursday Quick Hits

2009-03-12T11:17:00.009-05:00

This is a great way to boost California's tourism and terrible home sales numbers. I think it's a great idea. Our drug laws, especially marijuana related, have to be reformed. There are too many people taking up jail cells b/c of it.

Speaking of drug reform, where's Sen. Jim Webb been?

I recently went to an event for Senate Banking Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT). He's NOT in favor of Nationalizing banks, despite recent reports.

Michael Steele is the best spokesperson the Democrats could have. Oh wait...

I used to think Ari Fleischer was (reasonably) sane. I'm not sure the "Saddam did 9/11" nonsense will ever go away. But the question is, do they really believe it or are they intentionally keeping the misinformation out there? I think the latter, as long as there's enough conservatives that will believe it.

Speaking of Senator Webb, Where's Sen. Mark Warner been?

The Executive Assassination Ring:

"Congress has no oversight of it. It’s an executive assassination ring essentially, and it’s been going on and on and on. Just today in the Times there was a story that its leaders, a three star admiral named [William H.] McRaven, ordered a stop to it because there were so many collateral deaths.

"Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us.

"It’s complicated because the guys doing it are not murderers, and yet they are committing what we would normally call murder. It’s a very complicated issue. Because they are young men that went into the Special Forces. The Delta Forces you’ve heard about. Navy Seal teams. Highly specialized.

From Guantanamo to Mosul

2008-05-08T16:05:00.004-05:00

Former prisoner becomes a suicide bomber in Iraq:

A former Kuwaiti detainee at the US camp at Guantanamo Bay carried out a recent suicide bombing in northern Iraq, the US military has said.

A spokesman for US Central Command told the Associated Press that Abdullah al-Ajmi took part in an attack in Mosul on 29 April that killed several people.

Ajmi and two other Kuwaitis blew up two explosive-packed vehicles next to Iraqi security forces, media reports say.

The US transferred Ajmi to Kuwaiti custody from Guantanamo Bay in 2005.

He was later acquitted by a Kuwaiti court of terrorism charges.

According to Kuwaiti and pan-Arab media reports, Ajmi and his two alleged accomplices, Nasir al-Dawsari and Badr al-Harbi, were able to leave Kuwait a month ago without alerting the attention of the authorities because they had wrongly been issued new passports.

They then travelled to Syria, where Ajmi is reported to have told his family of his intentions, before heading onto Iraq.

The families of Ajmi and Harbi reportedly later received anonymous calls informing them that the men had died in Iraq.

Was he one of the detainees who was picked up/given to the US erroneously by Afghan/Pakistanis or was he really in Afghanistan for terror reasons? I don't think too highly of Kuwait's justice system, but then again, I don't know much about their justice system. That said, if he couldn't be convicted in Kuwait, was this a case of being imprisoned in Gitmo, for 3 years, making Ajmi into a terrorist?

Obama-Clark

2008-05-07T11:31:00.002-05:00

With the Democratic Primary even more locked up, talk will begin on who Obama will select as VP. I do not believe in the Obama-Clinton "dream ticket", but I think it would be important for Obama to select a "Clintonite" to help mend fences (if they really need mending). My choice would not be Evan Bayh, as I've heard elsewhere, but the same guy I suggested Senator Kerry should've selected in 04- Wesley Clark. Here's what I said then:

It is often overestimated about how important the Vice Presidential nominee is to the Presidential candidate. In my opinion, as long as the VP choice has some personal appeal, little or no baggage that would embarrass the Presidential candidate, and perhaps, comes from a State that can be put into play, he/she is a good choice. There are a lot of great people for Kerry to pick, Sen. John Edwards, Gov. Bill Richardson, Gov. Ed Rendell, Tom Brokaw, Sen. Evan Byah, etc., but nobody would be as good of a fit as General Wesley Clark. This is not the time to pick a VP surprise, like Mondale and Gore did. Yes, Clark ran for President and failed. However, he won a state (Oklahoma), he built a national organization in little time, and has a personal appeal that connected with people (more specifically vets). With Clark on the ticket, Arkansas, which is a conservative Democratic State, should be attainable as a Democratic pickup. He also should help a little in the more military friendly South.

Bush has been hammering Kerry on Kerry’s Defense and Intelligence voting record. Those of us who follow politics know that for the most part, Bush’s claims are a fraud However, many “average” Americans do not, and b/c of Kerry being a “Massachusetts Liberal”, they might believe them. With General Clark on the ticket, he adds the national security factor that cannot be argued. This ticket would be national security experience to the max and would make it nearly impossible for Republicans to say Democrats are weak on defense. Clark has more then his share of diplomacy experience, he knows foreign leaders, foreign policy, foreign cultures and our culture. He is a very intelligent man, with a Masters in politics, economics, and philosophy while he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford.

During the Vice Presidential debate, while Cheney rambles on about the WMD’s that he thinks will still be found in Iraq, Clark can say, “You’ve had your try, now it’s time to let the professionals take over.” The ability of Clark to be the bulldog on national security issues frees Kerry up to keep hitting Bush on jobs, education, etc.

Some may argue that General Clark wouldn’t be able to handle being the VP and in Kerry’s shadow. Yes, he was a high ranking General who’s used to giving the orders; however, he was also brought up through the military ranks, where he was taught to take the orders, as well. A good soldier knows his role...

The above is pretty much how I feel now. Of course, Obama doesn't have the Military/National Security experience that Kerry had/s, so adding someone who does, like Clark, is important. Moreover, unlike other Clinton surrogates, Clark hasn't been attacking Obama. That tells me something about his character. Of course, he was probably also thinking he'd want a job in an Obama Administration, but so what? Give him one, Obama: VP.

Nutter Takes On the NRA

2008-05-05T13:52:00.003-05:00

Philly's great new Mayor takes on the NRA:

Mayor Nutter this morning said the National Rifle Association owed an apology to the family of slain police officer Sgt. Stephen Liczbinski.

Nutter recently signed five local gun bills into law, including one that would outlaw the possession and sale of certain assault weapons. The NRA immediately sued the city on the grounds that the city does not have the authority to enact local gun control. They obtained a temporary restraining order to keep the city from enforcing the new laws.

Liczbinski was killed with a Chinese-made assault weapon.

"I think it's insane," Nutter said. "The fact that we put forward a piece of legislation to prevent the sale and use and transfer of assault weapons and have a Philadelphia police officer assaulted on the streets with one, I think makes it pretty clear to anyone who is confused about this issue that there's no reason for any citizen, any person other than in law enforcement or in the military to have such a weapon."

He added: "There's no legitimate argument by the NRA, they need to get in the real world where the rest of us live and come to grips with these kinds of issues. They owe an apology to the family for their staunch opposition over many, many years blocking legislative support for these kinds of matters."

We called the NRA for response and will update when we hear back.

Good for him. Philadelphia is a great city, and getting even better, but it really is suffering from major gun problems.

Another recent, high profile gun story involving Philadelphia, here.

Sneakers

2008-05-02T15:36:00.003-05:00

Why do I see guys on the subway wearing sneakers with a suit? Women wear sneakers to work so they don't have to walk far in heels.

Father Of LSD

2008-04-30T11:47:00.001-05:00

His trip is over:

Albert Hofmann, the father of the mind-altering drug LSD whose medical discovery inspired—and arguably corrupted—millions in the 1960s hippie generation, has died. He was 102.
Hofmann died Tuesday at his home in Burg im Leimental, said Doris Stuker, a municipal clerk in the village near Basel where Hofmann moved following his retirement in 1971.

For decades after LSD was banned in the late 1960s, Hofmann defended his invention.

"I produced the substance as a medicine. ... It's not my fault if people abused it," he once said.

The Swiss chemist discovered lysergic acid diethylamide-25 in 1938 while studying the medicinal uses of a fungus found on wheat and other grains at the Sandoz pharmaceuticals firm in Basel.

He became the first human guinea pig of the drug when a tiny amount of the substance seeped onto his finger during a laboratory experiment on April 16, 1943.

"I had to leave work for home because I was suddenly hit by a sudden feeling of unease and mild dizziness," he subsequently wrote in a memo to company bosses.

He said his initial experience resulted in "wonderful visions."

"What I was thinking appeared in colors and in pictures," he told a Swiss television network for a program marking his 100th birthday two years ago. "It lasted for a couple of hours and then it disappeared."

Three days later, Hofmann experimented with a larger dose. The result was a horror trip.

"Everything I saw was distorted as in a warped mirror," he said, describing his bicycle ride home. "I had the impression I was rooted to the spot. But my assistant told me we were actually going very fast."

"The substance which I wanted to experiment with took over me. I was filled with an overwhelming fear that I would go crazy. I was transported to a different world, a different time," Hofmann wrote.

Wright

2008-04-29T09:38:00.001-05:00

I didn't see the recent interview, but I agree with Newt:

ABC News' Nitya Venkataraman Reports: In a Tuesday appearance on Good Morning America, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., suggested that controversial pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright is angry with parishioner Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and may be deliberately trying to hurt his presidential bid.

Saying that Wright "went out of his way to weaken Obama" during Monday's address at the National Press Club, Gingrich told Barbara Walters "I think Reverend Wright has a greater interest in his self-importance."

Lethal Weapon

2008-04-24T15:28:00.003-05:00

I don't think we want our soliders running around with another loaded gun:

Rep. Paul Broun (R- GA) has sponsored a bill to prevent soldiers serving overseas from buying magazines of a "sexual nature" like Playboy and Penthouse. The Military Honor and Decency Act (H. R. 5821) would ensure "taxpayers will not be footing the costs of distributing pornography on military bases."

When informed that the service was paid for out-of-pocket by the soldiers, Rep. Broun pointed out that tax payer money is "used to pay military salaries, so taxpayer money is, in effect, being used to buy these materials."

Another Republican who doesn't really "support" the troops.

Then/Now

2008-04-24T13:13:00.003-05:00

Pretty cool site where people can re-create pictures taken when they were young.

Not One Of Us

2008-04-18T13:58:00.002-05:00

Liebeman is a man alone:

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), the former presidential candidate, was interviewed by the Club for Growth – the aggressively anti-tax group that criticized Huckabee at every turn during his run – where he publicly warned that former Democrat turned independent Sen. Joe Lieberman should not be a consideration as Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) running mate.

Huckabee again deflected when asked about his name being mentioned as a possible vice presidential candidate, but he was clear in saying McCain should not consider Lieberman, the Democratic Party’s 2000 vice presidential nominee.

“I certainly think Joe Lieberman should be a non-starter,” Huckabee said. “Again, it’s [McCain’s] choice, but that’s not the way you unite the Republican Party, to pick someone who’s not one of us

More here.

Added to the iPod

2008-04-17T14:22:00.002-05:00

"Machine Gun" by Portishead (welcome back)
"Waving Flags" by British Sea Power
"Right Hand On My Heart" by The Whigs
"2080" by Yeasayer (really like this one)
"If You Could Read Your Mind" by Clinic
"Magnificent 7" by The Clash (How did I miss this one?)

ATTYTOOD

2008-04-17T11:58:00.004-05:00

For the passed year, I've been considering restarting FPN, but I just couldn't get into it. Laziness? Maybe. Too busy, you ask? Nope. Burned out on politics and policy? That's more like it. Despite the fact that I worked in campaign politics in the 2006 cyle and currently work in...ugh... real estate policy. I also think the lies that have been spewing from the current administration and the media lapping them up like a kitten with warm milk, has made me turn off the news, stop reading the paper, and turn back to sports or entertainment news. Anything but the usual BS.

However, after watching a few moments of the disgraceful "debate" (before changing to the History Channel's MonsterQuest), I've realized it's the right time to get back in the game.

For the best roundup, please read Will Bunch's "Open Letter" to the debate moderators in his Attytood column. Here's a taste:

Dear Charlie Gibson and George Stephanopoulos,

It's hard to know where to begin with this, less than an hour after you signed off from your Democratic presidential debate here in my hometown of Philadelphia, a televised train wreck that my friend and colleague Greg Mitchell has already called, quite accurately, "a shameful night for the U.S. media." It's hard because -- like many other Americans -- I am still angry at what I just witnessed, so angry that it's hard to even type accurately because my hands are shaking. Look, I know that "media criticism" -- especially when it's one journalist speaking to another -- tends to be a genteel, collegial thing, but there's no genteel way to say this.

With your performance tonight -- your focus on issues that were at best trivial wastes of valuable airtime and at worst restatements of right-wing falsehoods, punctuated by inane "issue" questions that in no way resembled the real world concerns of American voters -- you disgraced my profession of journalism, and, by association, me and a lot of hard-working colleagues who do still try to ferret out the truth, rather than worry about who can give us the best deal on our capital gains taxes. But it's even worse than that. By so badly botching arguably the most critical debate of such an important election, in a time of both war and economic misery, you disgraced the American voters, and in fact even disgraced democracy itself. Indeed, if I were a citizen of one of those nations where America is seeking to "export democracy," and I had watched the debate, I probably would have said, "no thank you." Because that was no way to promote democracy.

You implied throughout the broadcast that you wanted to reflect the concerns of voters in Pennsylvania. Well, I'm a Pennsylvanian voter, and so are my neighbors and most of my friends and co-workers. You asked virtually nothing that reflected our everyday issues -- trying to fill our gas tanks and save for college at the same time, our crumbling bridges and inadequate mass transit, or the root causes of crime here in Philadelphia. In fact, there almost isn't enough space -- and this is cyberspace, where room is unlimited -- to list all the things you could have asked about but did not, from health care to climate change to alternative energy to our policy toward China to the deterioration of Afghanistan to veterans' benefits to improving education. You ignored virtually everything that just happened in what most historians agree is one of the worst presidencies in American history, including the condoning of torture and the trashing of the Constitution, although to be fair you also ignored the policy concerns of people on the right, like immigration issues....

Is This Thing On?

2008-04-17T11:32:00.001-05:00

Yes, yes indeed.

Leader of All Turkmen

2006-12-21T09:09:00.000-05:00

Dead.

Saparmurat Niyazov became Communist Party chief of what was then a Soviet republic in 1985 and was elected first president of independent Turkmenistan in 1991.

In 1999, he was made president-for-life by the country's rubber-stamp parliament.

During his reign, Mr Niyazov established a cult of personality in which he was styled as Turkmenbashi, or Leader of all Turkmens.

He renamed months and days in the calendar after himself and his family, and ordered statues of himself to be erected throughout the desert nation.

Cities, an airport and a meteorite were given his name.

Mr Niyazov was intolerant of criticism and allowed no political opposition or free media in the nation of five million people.

His laws became increasingly personal. It was forbidden to listen to car radios or smoke in public, or for young men to wear beards.

An alleged assassination attempt in 2002 was used to crush his few remaining opponents.

All candidates in the December 2004 parliamentary elections, at which there were no foreign observers, were his supporters.

Turkmenistan has vast gas reserves. Who will get to it first?

Mark Warner

2006-12-19T21:24:00.001-05:00

Just heard from a reliable source: former Virginia Governor Mark Warner (D) recently held "kitchen cabinent" level meetings over a three day span, and may re-enter the Presidential race. Apparently, Warner didn't realize so many considered him the front runner to win the nomination. Duh. Could this rumor be what prompted Senator Evan Bayh (D-Ind) to drop out so quickly?

When it rains...

2006-10-18T22:11:00.000-05:00

Rumors of 2 big stories breaking tomorrow: First,something new, a GOP Governor involved in a career ending incident, that's BIG. Second, we've heard the rumors by now, but expect another resignation soon because of a page. This time, it's a midwest Member of Congress involved, and a female page. Stay tuned...

Update 10/19 11:41 AM: Did GOP NV Gubernatorial candidate Jim Gibbons try to "assualt" someone over the weekend?

Foley to name his abuser

2006-10-17T18:13:00.000-05:00

Let me guess, the priest is now dead:

Disgraced former Congressman Mark Foley, who claimed he was sexually abused by a Roman Catholic clergyman when he was a teen, will reveal the man's identity to the Archdiocese of Miami, his attorney said Tuesday.

Pakistan Surrenders

2006-09-07T15:54:00.000-05:00

A true ally in the "War on Terror":

"With a truce between the Pakistani Taliban and Islamabad now in place, the Pakistani government is in effect reverting to its pre-September 11, 2001, position in which it closed its eyes to militant groups allied with al-Qaeda and clearly sided with the Taliban in Afghanistan. While the truce has generated much attention, a more significant development is an underhand deal between pro-al-Qaeda elements and Pakistan in which key al-Qaeda figures will either not be arrested or those already in custody will be set free."

"Appeasers"? "Surrender Monkeys?" Will they be on the list after Iran?

Spies in Lebanon

2006-09-02T13:24:00.000-05:00

Inside an Israeli spy ring. Debka:

Hizballah’s dreaded Special Security Apparatus is reported by our intelligence sources in Beirut and Israel as having broken up two spy rings of Lebanese agents which the Israeli Mossad planted inside Hizballah before and during the Lebanon war.

One worked out of Beirut, the second in South Lebanon.

The two networks, according to DEBKAfile’s sources, planted bugs and surveillance equipment at Hizballah command posts before and during the war. They also sprinkled special phosphorus powder outside buildings housing Hizballah’s war commands and rocket-launchers as markers for air strikes.

Israel warplanes and helicopters were able to hit these locations with great accuracy.

Well before the war, the Beirut ring had penetrated the inner circles of Hizballah high-ups and was reporting on their activities and movements to Israeli controllers. Its center was located in Beirut’s Shiite district of Dahya, the Hizballah stronghold. Short anonymous phone calls would give agents their rendezvous for picking up orders and spy equipment and dead drops for relaying their information.

The second network was composed of two cells operating out of the village of Itrun opposite Kibbutz Yaron and Bint Jubeil further west. Run by veterans of the South Lebanese Army (the force Israel created during its occupation), its job was to “paint” targets for the Israeli Air Force and artillery.

Their leader was Mahmoud al-Jemayel. Envelopes with their orders and espionage devices were left at a pre-assigned spot along the security fence on the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Halil Mantsur, an Itrin villager, was in charge of communications through the security fence; Muhammed Bassem, a Shiite from Bin Jubeil, ran field operations. The ring had 20 operatives recruited from South Lebanese villages and a number of Palestinians from the camps around Tyre and Sidon. They were paid $500 per month for spying on Hizballah. A local taxi driver drove the operatives to their assignments and returned them to their homes.

The Beirut ring was the more sophisticated. In addition to tactical intelligence-gathering, its wings spread outside Lebanon. Its leader, Faisal Mukleid, 29, a Shiite from Jarjuara village, was captain of small freighters which carried smuggled drugs and stolen goods between Mediterranean ports on the Italian and Egyptian coasts.

In 2000, Mukleid was picked up by the Italian navy in a customs raid. In a cell awaiting trial, he was contacted by the Mossad. In no time, he was sprung and flown to Israel where he spent several months learning how to use eavesdropping and surveillance equipment.

The Lebanese Shiite sea-captain’s first mission in Lebanon was to recruit relatives and fellow Shiites and get them planted inside the Hizballah leadership. Towards the end of the year, he and his wife joined up as members of Hizballah. Their devotion and zeal was such that they were soon promoted to the high ranks of the organization. Together with the agents they recruited, they quickly reached positions on the personal staffs of top political and military leaders, whom they accompanied more than once on trips to Tehran.

Exposing the Israeli spy rings in their midst has made Hizballah’s top people extremely jumpy and suspicious. One of their discoveries from an inquest of the war they fought with Israel in July and August is that their command structures in South Lebanon were heavily penetrated by agents working for Israel intelligence. Now they are looking over their shoulders for spies they may have missed. Tuesday night, Aug. 29, Hizballahs’ security officials detained two non-Lebanese Arabs wandering around the ruined Dahya district, taking photos and drawing maps. Several forged passports were found in their possession.

The captured Israeli agents are locked up in Hizballah jails awaiting their fate. The Hizballah security service has drawn up dossiers for their indictment, but is uncertain how to proceed. The Lebanese prosecution authorities, once dominated by Syrian influence, can no longer be counted on for convictions.

Mark Warner for Prez

2006-09-01T15:54:00.000-05:00

I've heard from a source VERY close to former VA Governor Mark Warner, that he will not be running for President. I still think he will change his mind, but it's most likely a personal decision (i.e. Mrs. Warner/kids don't want to go through with running) than a political one. Stay tuned.

This news would be a help to Al Gore.

Update 10/12/06: It's official. Concerns about not having enough time to be with wife, young kids:

Democrat Mark R. Warner, the former governor of Virginia, has decided not to run for president in 2008, Democratic officials said Thursday.

Warner scheduled a late morning news conference in Richmond to make the announcement.

"This wasn't the right time in his life. He would have to put everything else on the backburner in order to run for president and do it right, and he wants a real life," said Jim Margolis, a Warner adviser.

Lieberman

2006-08-24T10:29:00.000-05:00

Lieberman is now officially endangering Democratic chances of taking over the House:

Joseph Lieberman, who is seeking to return to the US Senate as an independent after losing his bid for re-nomination by the Democratic Party in Connecticut, will campaign today with two Republicans for office in the state, RAW STORY has learned.

A message was posted last night at the blog of Democratic challenger Ned Lamont, who bested Lieberman in the August 8 Democratic primary, indicating that Lieberman would campaign today with Republican Governor Jodi Rell and Republican Congressman Rob Simmons, both of whom are up for re-election. Jane Hamsher at the blog Fire Dog Lake added that the campaign event would occur at a submarine base in the city of Groton.

Coverage by the Associated Press refers to the event as a "strategy session" to keep the base off the list of military facilities facing closure.

Republican Congressman Rob Simmons's seat is seen to be up for grabs, as recent polls show that approval of President Bush in his district is very low. Democrats have worked to tar him as a cheerleader for the president. He is challenged in the state's second district by Joe Courtney, a former state legislator who is currently a private practice attorney.

Additionally, a recent poll by Qunnipiac shows that Connecticut's Governor Rell has a high approval rating, and that only 28% of voters said they would pick her challenger John DeStefano to be governor.

He might say he'll caucus with the Democrats if he's re-elected, but the way he'll stab them in the back is to take the Sec. of Defense position, and allow the GOP Conn. Governor to appoint his Senate successor...a Republican.

UK Terror Plot Questions

2006-08-16T10:44:00.000-05:00

Sullivan asks all the right questions, and I'm afraid we may already know the answers:

So far, no one has been charged in the alleged terror plot to blow up several airplanes across the Atlantic. No evidence has been produced supporting the contention that such a plot was indeed imminent. Forgive me if my skepticism just ratcheted up a little notch. Under a law that the Tories helped weaken, the suspects can be held without charges for up to 28 days. Those days are ticking by. Remember: the British authorities had all these people under surveillance; they did not want to act last week; there was no imminent threat of anything but a possible "dummy-run," whatever deranged guest-bloggers at Malkin say. (Correction, please.) Bush and Blair discussed whether to throw Britain's airports into chaos over the weekend before the crackdown occurred.

Then we have the following comment from Craig Murray. Craig Murray was Tony Blair's ambassador to Uzbekistan whose internal memo complaining about evidence procured by out-sourced torture created a flap a while back. He is skeptical. Money quote:

None of the alleged terrorists had made a bomb. None had bought a plane ticket. Many did not even have passports, which given the efficiency of the UK Passport Agency would mean they couldn't be a plane bomber for quite some time.

In the absence of bombs and airline tickets, and in many cases passports, it could be pretty difficult to convince a jury beyond reasonable doubt that individuals intended to go through with suicide bombings, whatever rash stuff they may have bragged in internet chat rooms.

What is more, many of those arrested had been under surveillance for over a year - like thousands of other British Muslims. And not just Muslims. Like me. Nothing from that surveillance had indicated the need for early arrests.

Then an interrogation in Pakistan revealed the details of this amazing plot to blow up multiple planes - which, rather extraordinarily, had not turned up in a year of surveillance. Of course, the interrogators of the Pakistani dictator have their ways of making people sing like canaries. As I witnessed in Uzbekistan, you can get the most extraordinary information this way. Trouble is it always tends to give the interrogators all they might want, and more, in a desperate effort to stop or avert torture. What it doesn't give is the truth ...

We then have the extraordinary question of Bush and Blair discussing the possible arrests over the weekend. Why?

I'd be interested in the number of plotters who had passports. How could they even stage a dummy-run with no passports? And what bomb-making materials did they actually have? These seem like legitimate questions to me; the British authorities have produced no evidence so far. If the only evidence they have was from torturing someone in Pakistan, then they have nothing that can stand up in anything like a court. I wonder if this story is going to get more interesting. I wonder if Lieberman's defeat, the resilience of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the emergence of a Hezbollah-style government in Iraq had any bearing on the decision by Bush and Blair to pre-empt the British police and order this alleged plot disabled. I wish I didn't find these questions popping into my head. But the alternative is to trust the Bush administration.

Been there. Done that. Learned my lesson.

Sad but True.

Lamont

2006-08-16T09:32:00.000-05:00

Lamont doesn't sound like a crazy left-wing radical to me:

In the past week, my victory in the Connecticut Senate primary has been labeled everything from the death knell of the Democratic Party to the signal of our party's rebirth. Beneath all of this punditry is a question that I want to face directly: how the experience I will bring to the U.S. Senate will help Connecticut and the Democratic Party during this time of testing for our country.

I ran at a time when people said "you can't beat a three-term incumbent," because I believed that President Bush, enabled by Sen. Joseph Lieberman, had weakened our country at home and abroad. We're weaker economically, because we're more dependent on foreign energy and foreign capital. Our national security has also been weakened, because we stopped fighting a real war on terror when we made the costly and counterproductive decision to go to war in Iraq...

Good judgment is an essential part of good governance. But we're bogged down in Iraq, and hamstrung in the war against terror, by leaders who lacked judgment, historical perspective, openness to other cultures and plain old common sense. We offer something different.

But in the final analysis, the results of this election say less about me, and more about the people of Connecticut. They turned out in record numbers; they spoke every day with a simple eloquence and urgency about the country we love. They oppose the war and the fiscal nightmare crafted by President Bush and his allies. But their vote, finally, was one based on pragmatism and reality, on optimism and hope. And it is to these ideals and values that we plan to address my campaign in the months until November.

Let's not forget he was a very successful businessman.

With Friends Like These...

2006-08-09T09:15:00.000-05:00

Sailor caught spying for Israel:

A US Navy sailor, Ariel J. Weinmann, is suspected of spying for Israel and has been held in prison for four months, according to an article published Monday in the Saudi daily Al-Watan. It reported that Weinmann is being held at a military base in Virginia on suspicion of espionage and desertion.

According to the navy, Weinmann was apprehended on March 26 "after it was learned that he had been listed as a deserter by his command." Though initial information released by the navy makes no mention of it, Al-Watan reported that he was returning from an undisclosed "foreign country." American sources close to the Defense Department told Al-Watan that Israel was the country in question.

The US Navy concluded Article 32 proceedings [a pretrial investigation] in the case of Fire Control Technician Third Class Ariel J. Weinmann on July 26, 2006," Ted Brown, a media relations officer at the US Fleet Forces Command, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. The US Fleet Forces Command is the "convening authority of the case... and will make the decision with respect to what charges, if any, will be referred to a general court-martial."

The veracity of Al-Watan's claim that Weinmann is suspected of spying for Israel remains in question, and military and Pentagon spokesmen are remaining tightlipped. A public affairs officer at the Office of Naval Intelligence told the Post that he was unaware of the allegations against Weinmann.

Al-Watan speculated that if Weinmann spied on behalf of the Mossad, it would be the biggest espionage case since Jonathan Pollard's arrest. Pollard, who worked as a civilian intelligence analyst for the US Navy, was caught in 1985 and convicted of spying for Israel. He is currently serving a life sentence in the US.

We already give Israel a ton of information and military equipment, what is it that they're really after?

Update 8/9 9:02 PM EST: Israel's off the hook. It's Russia.

Lieberman

2006-08-09T08:41:00.000-05:00

Sore Loserman is back (via Atrios):

LAUER: Let me go back to that line in your speech last night. I'll paraphrase it if you don't mind. You said, for the sake of your state, your country and my party, you will not let these results stand. It's a nice line in the speech, but the fact of the matter is there are a lot of Democrats who think that now going forward you are putting your own personal ambitions above the good of the party.

How do you respond to that?

LIEBERMAN: Well, I think it's time for somebody to break through the dominance of both parties by the margins of the parties, which happens in primaries. I think it's time for somebody to break through and say, Hey, let's cut out the partisan nonsense.
Yes, I'm a proud Democrat, but I'm more devoted to my state and my country than I am to my party. And the parties today are getting in the way of our government doing for our people what they need their government to do.

So in the end, Matt -- the great thing about America is that the people will have the last word.

...

LAUER: Senator, is there any phone call you could receive? Is there anyone in the Democratic Party who could call you today and ask you to drop out that you would listen to?

LIEBERMAN: Respectfully, no. I am committed to this campaign, to a different kind of politics, to bringing the Democratic Party back from Ned Lamont, Maxine Waters to the mainstream, and for doing something for the people of Connecticut. That's what this is all about: which one of us, Lamont or me, can do more for the future of our people here in Connecticut. And on that basis, I'm going forward with confidence, purpose and some real optimism.

He's become such an embarrasment. Where was this fire in 2000?

France-US

2006-08-06T13:31:00.000-05:00

Great quote in bold:

Col. Pat Lang (US Army, Ret.) has one of the most interesting national security/military policy blogs around. It's tough-minded and unsentimental.

This morning, he sent some of his friends a roster of four issues and questions to consider when debating the so-called US-French agreement on and Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.

They were:

1. France and the United States are not at war with each other. They cannot agree to end the fighting.

2. Hizbullah thinks it is winning both tactically and strategically. Why will it agree to anything other than a cease-fire in place?

3. Such a cease-fire will be a victory for Hizbullah.

4. Who will disarm Hizbullah if it accepts such a cease-fire?

These are good questions -- but the first resonates with me most. It's not clear that the US and France are willing to use their leverage to wrestle the warring parties down.

News organizations kept repeating "US and France agree to a peace deal" regarding the Isareal-Hezbollah situation. The only deal that would matter is an Israeli and Hezbollah a peace deal.

Iran's Bloddy Nose

2006-07-17T22:37:00.000-05:00

I think this is spot on. From Debka:

This poker game between Tehran and Washington is going back and forth over the heads of Israel and Lebanon. It is the cause of the muddled statements coming from Israeli leaders with regard to the targets of the Lebanon campaign. They range from recovering the kidnapped soldiers, to smashing the Hizballah, breaking up its terrorist infrastructure (what about its personnel?), moving their positions back from the Israeli border to one kilometer or more (depending on the estimated range of their rockets), and forcing the Lebanese government to displace the Hizballah in the south and disarming the Shiite terrorists as ordered by the Security Council.

Meanwhile, no more than 25% of Hizballah’s arsenal has been destroyed in Israel’s six-day air blitz and cannonade, and no one is quite sure what surprises are in store in the form of long-range, heavy rockets or missiles, what hardware is being smuggled from Iran via Syria past the Israeli blockade, and whether either or both will intervene at some point – and how.

The green light flashing in Washington may give Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert a latitude never before granted any Israeli premier. But it also tells the Islamic Republic that its rulers’ meddling in Iraq carries a high price tag. By pulverizing Iran’s surrogate, Israel is articulating America’s determination to smash Iran’s strength and positions of influence around the Middle East and the Persian Gulf.

This determination was sparked by an unnoticed incident in Iraq on July 4, 2006.

On that day, for the first time in the Iraq War, Nasrallah activated the three-year old sleeper terror and sabotage networks Iranian and Hizballah intelligence had established across Iraq shortly after the US invasion. He was obeying orders from Iranian supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

America’s Day of Independence 2006 was selected for this group to make its first low-key attacks against US forces in Baghdad and British units in Basra and break surface under the name of The Abu al Fadal al Abas Brigades. No one had heard of it because Tehran had kept this Iraqi arm of Hizballah dark as the ultimate weapon to spring on the Americans in Iraq at the appropriate moment.

President Bush saw that if he looked away and let Iran’s challenge burst into full-blown action without responding, America’s standing in Iraq and the rest of the region would be forfeit. He was further stirred into a response by Tehran’s developing appetite for quick gains. On July 12, believing they had got away with it in Iraq, Iran and Hizballah followed it up by opening a second front against Israel, America’s ally: the Shiite terrorists kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.

That was the last straw, but George W. Bush turned it around as a boomerang to hit Tehran. The Israeli Defense Forces, there to hand, were more than ready to punish Hizballah and had been raring to go after five years of forced restraint against the Lebanese group and Palestinian terrorists. For Bush, this course offered America the chance of a bold, efficient blow against a Shiite extremist terrorist group without a single American soldier having to step onto the battlefield.

Therefore, Israel’s Operation Just Reward, which started out as a rescue operation for its two abducted soldiers, then a campaign to push Hizballah back from its border, within six days opened Lebanon up as a major arena for the showdown building up between the United States and Tehran over a whole bagful of issues - not least Iran’s nuclear defiance. However, the unacknowledged object of Israel’s campaign is none of the highly rational goals outlined by officials. It is to satisfy Washington that Tehran has been given a bloody nose and is ready to pull back from its deepening political, military and intelligence interference in Iraq.

What we're seeing is a proxy war, with Iran and the U.S. pulling the strings. I don't like the idea of giving the Israelis carte blanche, but I'd rather see them doing our dirty work than our men and women, who have their hands full in Iraq. I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing a major crackdown on Shiite forces in Iraq that are closely supported by Iran. IF Hizballah, Hamas AND Iranian-supported-Iraq-terror groups are cracked down on, don't be surpsised if the bombs start falling on Iranian nuclear sites. Things are happening for a reason.

The Internet is Not a Truck

2006-07-14T11:18:00.000-05:00

I know this is old news now, but whenever I need a laugh, I read Senator Ted Stevens's description of how the internet works:

I just the other day I got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?

Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially...

They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.

It's a series of tubes.

And if you don't understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

"Kill All Taigs"

2006-07-11T12:33:00.000-05:00

Check out the Irish flag in the picture. "KAT" is written on it. "Taigs"= catholics. Will Blair comment?

Update 7/14: It gets Worse. "Mickey Bo" was the 15 year old that was stomped to death by loyalists.

Northern Ireland

2006-06-15T13:55:00.000-05:00

The more things change, the more things...well they don't change:

An Ardoyne Protestant says of his neighbours across the peaceline: “I would love to burn those bastards out. The soap dodgers (derogatory name for Catholics) breed like rabbits. All you ever hear from them is whinge, whinge, whinge. Why don’t they get jobs and live like decent people?” Another says: “If I knew my neighbour was shopping in Fenianville, I’d take a pounder (hammer) and knock his head of his shoulders.”

One Ardoyne Protestant who shops in west Belfast has to hide such ‘disloyalty’: “We shop in Curley’s. It’s so cheap and who is going to know we are Prods? But we take Tesco bags with us and put the shopping in them before we go home. If I walked up that path with Curley’s bags I’d get my windies (put) in.”

An Ardoyne Catholic says: “One of my neighbours bought a suite of furniture from a place in the Shankill. I told him I wouldn’t be in his house as long as that furniture was there. He was giving money to people who (had) attacked us.”

Shirlow found much of his research depressing: “You’d see a playground on one side of the fence, and it was out of bounds for the kids on the other side of the fence. Generation after generation is growing up like this.”

Murtha's Masterstroke

2006-06-09T18:58:00.000-05:00

I have a feeling this was planned in the highest Dem circles:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Rep. John Murtha, an outspoken opponent of the war in Iraq, unexpectedly announced on Friday he will run for the No. 2 leadership post in the U.S. House of Representatives if Democrats regain control of that chamber in elections this fall.

"If we prevail as I hope and know we will and return to the majority this next Congress, I have decided to run for the open seat of the majority leader," Murtha, a Pennsylvanian, said in a letter sent to House Democrats.

"I would appreciate your consideration and vote and look forward to speaking to you personally about my decision," Murtha said in the letter.

Of course, the Dems have to take over the House for this to happen, which is no easy task, but the highly decorated Murtha as Majority Leader whould help shed theweak-in-National-Security- image the Dems have. I don't think Pelosi and Hoyer are all that close, so this would be a good way to get Hoyer nudged aside-how could he compete against the well liked Murtha? Even if it never happens, it shows that Murtha would have a big impact in a Dem House majority. Sort of like a Presidential candidate announcing early who his cabinent would be to entice general election voters. We'll see what happens.

Michigan GOP Strawpoll

2006-06-06T10:19:00.000-05:00

Interesting results:

Candidate Votes Percent

Tom Tancredo 60 18.5%

Rudy Giuliani 45 13.8%

Mitt Romney 40 12.3%

Condi Rice 39 12.0%

Newt Gingrich 38 11.7%

John McCain 38 11.7%

George Allen 21 6.5%

Mike Pence 15 4.6%

Ron Paul 14 4.3%

Mike Huckabee 6 1.8%

Bill Frist 4 1.2%

Alan Keyes 2 0.6%

Candice Miller 2 0.6%

Sam Brownback 1 0.3%

Favorites McCain and Allen are way pretty far back. I wouldn't be surprised if Tancredo makes an Independent bid to be President. He'd take a lot of right-wing votes, especially in border states, that might tilt things in the Dem direction.

A Current U.S. Senator

2006-05-24T14:12:00.000-05:00

Actually said this:

Talking about his family earlier this year, the Republican senator recalled that "Lincoln killed one of them at Antietam."

/Jeff Sessions (R-AL)

Stem Cell Shuffle

2006-05-24T13:03:00.000-05:00

Kevin Drum tracks what's happening with the stem cell legislation (Hint: Politics getting in the way, yet again.):

STEM CELLS....Steve Benen notes today that last year the House passed legislation to liberalize embryonic stem cell research. In the Senate, Bill Frist said he supported the bill and would bring it up for a vote. It's a measure that has broad bipartisan support and is extremely popular with the public.

So what happened to it? Well, George Bush claims he'll veto it. If he does, it will show up the Republican Party as captives of the Christian right, unwilling to support promising scientific research for fear of offending a small band of blastocyst rights extremists. Conversely, if he signs it, it will send James Dobson and Pat Robertson into hysterics and Republicans can kiss the 2006 midterms goodbye.

Thus Bill Frist's strategy: run and hide. Pretty gutty bunch, these Republicans, aren't they?

Let's see the Democrats put stem cells on every state ballot in November. If the GOP can do it with gay marriage or abortion, the Dems have to use the ploy too. Stem cells would be perfect.

Stasiland

2006-05-24T09:57:00.000-05:00

I highly recommend this book. Perhaps I just haven't been looking hard enough, but I feel like a lot isn't known about what happened in East Germany. Stasiland digs into that theory, and comes up with: most former West Germans don't really care, and most former East Germans want to move on, or even miss the former East Germany. The big theme of the book (and East Germany itself) is the network of informers-official and unofficial-that the East German security force (Stasi) built up. Just think about this (taken from the review linked below):

The central problem that Funder explores is rooted in a statistic mentioned early in the book: "In the GDR, there was one Stasi officer or informant for every sixty-three people. If part-time informers are included, some estimates have the ratio as high as one informer for every 6.5 citizens." This means an informer for every family, and an unthinkable post-liberation situation in which one in six people may be the one who informed on you. Furthermore, the Stasi kept files on approximately six million people, a third of the country's population.

That is unbelievable. The Stasi wanted to know everything about everybody. While many people were kept terrified, many other liked the feeling of protection. I guess living in Nazi Germany and then surviving World War 2, much of the East German population was ripe for government domination.

In depth review here.

26.5 Million Pounds

2006-05-22T10:09:00.000-05:00

Anatomy of the heist that rocked the peace process. Long, but interesting read.

CIA

2006-05-18T15:32:00.000-05:00

The CIA has a homepage for kids!

Why?

American Idol

2006-05-18T14:22:00.000-05:00

I caught about 4 mintutes of Idol last night, and I can't understand how anyone can watch it. It's a glorified karaoke contest, featuring a bunch of cheeseballs. Now this is a good show.

Iran Weapons in Iraq

2006-05-15T10:24:00.000-05:00

This could be devastating:

In the past two weeks, Iran has been pumping into Iraq two types of extra-lethal weapons in very large quantities. They have already taken their toll in the shooting down of two military helicopters - one American and one British – and an estimated 19 deaths of US military personnel.

DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources estimate the delivery to Iraqi insurgents as consisting of around 1,000 SA-7 Strela ground-air missiles made in Iran, and a very large quantity of a newly-developed roadside bomb, loaded with compressed gas instead of ball bearings and cartridges, to magnify their blast and explosive power.

The supplies have been distributed across Iraq - Basra and Amara in the south, Baghdad and its environs, Haditha in the west, and Mosul in the north.

The new bombs, developed jointly by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the Lebanese Hizballah, have already gone into service with the Shiite terrorists on the Lebanese border with Israel. Israeli military sources say it is only a matter of time before the deadly roadside bombs, already used in Iraq, will also reach Palestinian areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In Iraq, the new weaponry has had three major effects:

1. The guerrilla-terrorist groups which received the shoulder-carried, highly mobile Strela missiles have scored three hits in fourteen days. On May 6, they fired a missile from one of Basra’s crowded alleys and downed a British military helicopter, killing all four military personnel aboard. Sunday, May 14, Iraqi insurgents shot down an American helicopter, killing its two crewmen over Yussifiya, inside the Triangle of Death south of Baghdad.

2. The number of roadside bomb attacks, their precision and lethality is going up all the time. Sunday, May 14, four US soldiers died in these blasts in the western Anbar province and Baghdad, while 2 British soldiers were killed and another injured at the same time near Basra. In seven days, the British force stationed in southern Iraq lost seven men, a record for that space of time in the three-year war. In the first half of May, US troop losses spiraled to 19, most of them the victims of the new roadside bombs.

3. Together with the new Iranian weapons, a new array of Shiite terrorist groups has sprung up and is hitting American and British troops. The coalition has imposed a blackout on this disturbing development.

Until now, the insurgent forces fighting the coalition consisted mostly of Baathists, Islamist and al Qaeda. The only Shiite enemy was the radical Mogtada Sadr and his Mahdi Army. The appearance of the new Shiite insurgents is a dread milestone in the Iraq war, one which has caught US and UK commanders by surprise and unprepared for the steep rise in troop losses.

DEBKAfile’s Exclusive Iraq sources offer some information on the new groups. One is located north of Baghdad and calls itself Brigades of the Imam Kazim. Another, called Brigades of Imam Ali, claimed the attack on April 27 in Nasiriya in which one of their new roadside bombs killed two Italian troops. In the Rostumiya region south of Baghdad, a Shiite group called Brigades of the Imam Hadi has begun operating. Our sources report that this group has been firing Katyusha rockets at American bases in the region, similar to the mortar attack directed at a British base in Amara Monday, May 15.

After each attack, these unknown quantities issue bulletins describing their actions, some accompanied by video footage from the scene of action.

The blackout was imposed on the new Shiite groups in the absence of American or British intelligence on who they and their commanders are, how they operate and what makes them tick. Research must start from square one to find out whether they are being controlled from Tehran, some Iraqi Shiite faction or elements which chanced to lay hands on the new-fangled weaponry.

Could the introduction of the Iranian surface-to-air missile in Iraq have the same effect as the introduction of the stinger missile in the Soviet-Afghan War? I hope not. The stingers were a strategic and psychological nightmare for the Soviets. In a very short time, Iraqi insurgents have already downed 2 helicopters. The Afghans had similar luck:

in their first three attempts, the mujahideen downed three Soviet Hind helicopter gunships with the Stinger.

The question is: In the 80's, we let Pakistan act as the intermediary with the stinger missiles. Even though the stingers were known U.S. missiles, we kept things on the DL. Is another country supplying Iran with these missiles? China? Russia?

Update 5/16 9:47 AM From Debka:

Al Qaeda in Iraq claims to have downed 4 ‘Crusader” helicopters over Yussufiyeh Monday – not just one as the Americans reported

May 15, 2006, 6:41 PM (GMT+02:00)

The authenticity of the claim remains to be tested. Earlier, the US military reported a helicopter shot down with the loss of the two-man crew.

It was the second shot down in the same area south of Baghdad in six weeks and raised the weekend toll to US troops. Two US Marines died Sunday in combat in Anbar province and two more in a roadside bombing in Baghdad. Eight Iraqis also killed by insurgents Monday in the capital.

TIOCFAIDH ÁR LÁ

2006-05-05T09:12:00.000-05:00

25 years ago today:

The 1981 republican hunger strike was a time of violence, of sacrifice, of death and of horror, a time of huge polarisation and division which created new depths of bitterness and revitalised a flagging IRA.

Ten republicans starved themselves to death in the Maze prison near Belfast in what was a long drawn-out agony for them, and for Northern Ireland. The crisis plunged the province into one of the worst convulsions it has experienced, putting the population through communal trauma and laying the basis for a deadly cycle of increased violence.

Many deaths on the streets followed. The IRA attempt to kill Margaret Thatcher, in a revenge bomb attack on the Tory party conference in Brighton three years later, was one example.

And yet the paradox is that this struggle was to set the IRA and Sinn Fein on an unexpected new path which eventually led to the peace process. No one realised this at the time; most were aghast at the turmoil which spread from the IRA cells of the Maze to poison community relations and caused many to despair that there might never be peace. Most thought it a crushing defeat for the republicans, a view shared then by many within the IRA and Sinn Fein. Yet today Sinn Fein is the biggest nationalist party in Northern Ireland, and growing strongly in the south.

In other words, it now possesses the political status that Bobby Sands and the other strikers died for; the status Mrs Thatcher refused to grant. Before the hunger strike, Sands and other prisoners had staged years of protests in the Maze but Mrs Thatcher was adamant the IRA should be treated as common criminals.

When Sands died 25 years ago today, his 66th day of hungerstrike, he ascended into republican Valhalla, regarded as the IRA's most prominent martyr and an emblem of self-sacrifice. His portrait, repainted annually, remains one of the most prominent of the republican murals on Belfast's Falls Road.

Huge tensions grew during the campaign, which was marked by one stunning development, when Sands won a Westminster by-election from his cell. His narrow win was a propaganda victory of enormous proportions. The world's image of Sands was largely based on a photograph taken in the prison which showed him in a smiling group of prisoners, his fair hair at rock-star length. But with hindsight, it was a photograph steeped in irony. In December last year we learnt that Denis Donaldson, the IRA prisoner pictured draping an arm around Sands' shoulders, had later turned Special Branch spy.

Sands' election spurred frantic attempts to mediate or find a resolution. An envoy from the Pope spent an hour with Sands in his cell, and media from all over the world flocked to Belfast. His death provoked waves of political tumult and riot. Hostile reaction to Britain came from around the world, with several cities, including Paris and Tehran, naming streets after Sands. At least 100,000 people attended his funeral. But after 10 deaths, the protest petered out as relatives of comatose hunger-strikers, encouraged by a priest, Father Denis Faul, allowed doctors to administer food.

The Troubles took many twists, but the key development was that republicans experimented with a mixture of politics and violence. The politics prevailed. Although ostensibly a defeat, the hunger strike provided republicans with a political launching pad, the foundation of Sinn Fein's electoral success. Some observers regard it as the genesis of the peace process. What was first designed as an instrument of subversion and sabotage led to the displacement of the IRA by today's Sinn Fein.

Not everyone in republicanism has travelled with Sinn Fein on its long political march. Prominent among dissenters has been Bobby Sands' sister, Bernadette. She is married to Mickey McKevitt, who has been jailed for heading the Real IRA, the breakaway group responsible for the 1998 Omagh bombing. As head of the 32-County Sovereignty Movement, Mrs Sands-McKevitt claims Sinn Fein's backing of the peace process is a betrayal of what her brother fought and died for. But few in the republican mainstream agree with her.

Today on the 25th anniversary of her brother's death, thousands of them will gather to reaffirm his status as one of republicanism's most revered heroes.

Tora Bora of Sinai

2006-05-03T09:18:00.000-05:00

I hope the outcome of this battle is better than the original "Battle of Tora Bora":

DEBKAfile’s military sources reveal that despite comprehensive sweeps with casualties on both sides since last week, Egyptian forces have not been able to capture al Qaeda hard core leaders. The main battle has been raging three days against the fortified terrorist stronghold on Jebel Magharah, 22km SW of El Arish and west of a former al Qaeda base on Jebel Hilal (alt. 654 meters). Signals passed among the troops describe the operation as the “Tora Bora of Sinai,” naming it after the fierce epic US-al Qaeda engagement in Afghanistan three years ago.

Egypt launched a large-scale clean-up operation against al Qaeda’s various Sinai bases last week after three bomb blasts killed at least 34 people at the Sinai resort of Dahab Tuesday. They are also reported to be raiding more new al Qaeda havens around St. Catherine’s monastery and Wadi Paran in the south.

1914

2006-05-03T09:11:00.000-05:00

Operation Iranian Freedom coming soon?

America and the Europeans have co-drafted a UN Security Council Resolution with some teeth and have written into the resolution the trigger for economic sanctions against Iran if it fails to cease its nuclear program.

This is serious.

Previously, all John Bolton and Nick Burns had been able to push out of the Security Council was a declaration, which was not binding.

On the military front, Sy Hersh's sources tell him that we are planning for an invasive hot strike against Iran. My sources do not confirm the Hersh assertion that a strike against Iran will occur this summer but do suggest that there is a great deal of operations/logistics planning underway. My sources also say that if a large scale operation against Iran looked likely, we would see scores of generals in the military elect to resign rather than participate.
....

On the diplomatic front, Burns and Bolton are pushing for the imposition of sanctions against Iran -- as a way to further isolate Iran in the hope that some players in the Iranian political scene will see that they might tie an end to sanctions as well as potentially normalized relations with and security guarantee from the U.S. to standing down on Iran's nuclear program.

The problem with the sanctions track is that China and Russia are opposing, and though Europe has drafted the resolution with the U.S., many believe that Japan and Europe will be highly porous in economic flows to Iran. Thus, any sanctions regime has serious implementation flaws, and America may once again find itself (with or without Europe) mostly isolated in an effort to impose unilateral sanctions.

The toxic mix is that Iran believes that America is weak right now and will wilt when oil prices shoot higher, while on the other hand, George Bush intends to make sure that Iran and other nations don't underestimate American strength and resolve, tilting towards force when he can afford it to demonstrate power.

This mess is looking increasingly like 1914 -- when nations fell into war because of ego, attitude, poorly thought strategies regarding basic strategic interests, and miscalculation

Becuase it Worked So Well Last Time...

2006-05-01T15:34:00.000-05:00

Iran needs a Shah!

Pahlavi, who lives in exile in the United States, said he has been in contact with elements of the Revolutionary Guard that would be willing to play such a role, and activists who could help spark the civil disobedience.

He also said that the U.S. and other governments can help by imposing “smart sanctions” on the leaders of Iranian regime, but he categorically opposes U.S. military intervention.

After the revolution he envisions, Pahlavi said, he would be willing to become a constitutional monarch in Iran if an Iranian constitutional convention offered him that role. “I’m ready to serve in that capacity,” he said. “If the people so choose, it would be my greatest honor.”

Something Different

2006-04-28T13:11:00.000-05:00

What's scarier than a crocodile? A crocodile with a chainsaw:

A crocodile agitated by a chainsaw's noise has chased the man operating it and snatched the machinery from him.

Freddy Buckland was at a Northern Territory roadhouse on Friday cutting a dead tree that had fallen against a saltwater crocodile pen during Cyclone Monica when the 4.4-metre reptile struck.

"As he was trimming up the tree on the outside the croc jumped out of the water and sped along the tree about 18, 20 feet and actually grabbed the chainsaw out of his hands," said Peter Shappert, the owner of the Corroboree Park Tavern, 80km east of Darwin.

A shark with a laser may still be scarier...

Watergategate

2006-04-28T12:21:00.000-05:00

This is going to get very interesting.

More details this morning about the Brent Wilkes-Mitch Wade hooker ring, courtesy of the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Several of Wilkes' former employees and business associates say he used the hospitality suites over the past 15 years to curry favor with lawmakers as well as officials with the CIA, where both Wilkes and Wade sought contracts.

Wilkes hosted parties for lawmakers and periodic poker games that included CIA officials as well as members of the House Appropriations and Intelligence committees. Cunningham, who sat on both committees, was a frequent guest, according to some of the participants in the poker games.

And I'll be darned: Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, now the executive director of the CIA, liked to come to those "parties." The same ones now-CIA Director Porter Goss may have attended:

Now, if one of the hookers turned up dead, we'd have a Tom Clancy novel. IF CIA Director Porter Goss was at any of the parties, it is obviously a major bombshell. It would show that once again, the FBI background check were a complete failure. I would think that someone nominated to a post such as CIA Director, if he passed gas in the wrong direction, the FBI would know. Hookers at a poker party is an easy way to get blackmailed.

"Crimes Against America"

2006-04-24T14:38:00.000-05:00

A must read Glen Greenwald piece on the rise and crash of the wingnuts:

With all of the "crimes against America" that they single out, what is always missing is any identification of any actual harm to our national security. What is harmed by these crimes is always the political popularity of the President. But to them, that is the same thing. A weak George Bush means a weak America, so anyone who harms George Bush is harming America and hurting our efforts to fight The Terrorists.

During their glory years of 2002 and 2003, Bush followers became convinced that they were part of a movement that was going to lead America to renewed and profound glory under the heroic leadership of George W. Bush. They become so personally invested in the triumph of that dream. It gave them a feeling of strength and purpose. And now it has all crumbled. It's all been exposed as a sham and fraud. The President is one of the most unpopular and failed presidents we have had in some time, and their views have been rejected, discredited, and are increasingly reviled. And they are extremely angry about this and want vengeance on those they perceive as responsible.

The ever dwindling group of Bush followers has become a highly emotional group, having far more to do with psychological and emotional needs than political beliefs. Anger, hatred, rage and a desire for punishment are what fuels them, and they recognize no limits on what ought to be done to satisfy those cravings.

CIA

2006-04-19T13:41:00.000-05:00

Is the CIA reading your blog?

President Bush and U.S. policy-makers are receiving more intelligence from open sources such as Internet blogs and foreign newspapers than they previously did, senior intelligence officials said.

The new Open Source Center (OSC) at CIA headquarters recently stepped up data collection and analysis based on bloggers worldwide and is developing new methods to gauge the reliability of the content, said OSC Director Douglas J. Naquin.

"A lot of blogs now have become very big on the Internet, and we're getting a lot of rich information on blogs that are telling us a lot about social perspectives and everything from what the general feeling is to ... people putting information on there that doesn't exist anywhere else," Mr. Naquin told The Washington Times.

I guess all blog readers are not mid-twenties-bored-at-work-white-males.

Wolfmother

2006-04-19T09:26:00.000-05:00

Great new band. Zeppelinish sound. Check out "Woman" and "The White Unicorn".

"I'm the decider"

2006-04-18T16:08:00.000-05:00

Bush (once again) sounding like a spoiled 5-year old:

President Bush sharply defended Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday, saying the embattled Pentagon chief is doing a "fine job" despite calls for his resignation from six retired military generals.

Bush already had interrupted his Easter vacation at Camp David, Maryland, on Friday to release a public statement of support for the defense secretary...

"I hear the voices, and I read the front page, and I know the speculation. But I'm the decider, and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense."

The president made the comments in the Rose Garden after introducing Rob Portman, the U.S. trade representative, as his pick to be the new White House budget director.

Tom Cruise is a cannibal

2006-04-18T12:56:00.000-05:00

By now you've probably heard the lastest bizarre thing to be said by Tom Cruise:

The Mission Impossible star, 43, said: "I'm gonna eat the placenta. I thought that would be good. Very nutritious. I'm gonna eat the cord and the placenta right there."

That strikes me as a bit odd. Most new Dad's are busy crying or having a victory cigar, (or throwing up due to the fact that their responsibilities just increased ten-fold) not planning on eating their baby's placenta and cord. Can he be locked away for this? Please?

Nuclear Bunker Buster

2006-04-17T10:58:00.000-05:00

Even in animation, it looks scary.

Unequal Treatment

2006-04-14T14:12:00.000-05:00

IRA committed to peace and the political process:

IRA remains committed to ideals of Proclamation

"This Easter marks the 90th anniversary of the 1916 Rising,
a turning point in the history of Ireland.

Irish republicans remember with pride those who gave their
lives that extraordinary Easter and the leaders executed in
the weeks that followed.

The leadership of Óglaigh na hÉireann extends solidarity to
the families of all of our patriot dead from every
generation and in particular those from this phase of
struggle.

We send solidarity greetings to our imprisoned comrades and
their families.

This year we also commemorate the valiant prison Hunger
Strike of 1981. Ten brave men - freedom fighters and
patriots - died. Their legacy and that of Frank Stagg and
Michael Gaughan, lives on and their fortitude and courage
continues to inspire.

Following our statement of July 28 last year, IRA
Volunteers have adhered, in the spirit and the letter, to
the decisions and instructions outlined by the leadership.

We commend the discipline of our Volunteers and salute
their commitment.

The IRA has no responsibility for the tiny number of former
republicans who have embraced criminal activity. They do so
for self-gain. We repudiate this activity and denounce
those involved.

The IRA remains committed to the peace process. Our
decisions and actions of last July and September are proof
of that.

The leadership of Óglaigh na hÉireann believes that it is
possible to achieve the republican goal of a united Ireland
through the alternative route of purely peaceful and
democratic means.

...unlike the loyalists, who are committed to keeping their guns:

As the talking continues inside the group, the organisation has also ruled out imminent decommissioning.

"Quite frankly, decommissioning is not a word that we use in our vocabulary ? It is not on our agenda," the leadership spokesman said.

He said he was speaking "with the full authority of the Brigade Command, the Ulster Volunteer Force".

Asked to clarify his comments on weapons, he said: "I can only speak for now and for the short and medium term."

He said the loyalist war was both "justified" and "legitimate".

"The constitutional integrity of Northern Ireland was under threat.

"The pro-Union population of Northern Ireland were under threat, and this organisation responded commensurate to that level of threat."

The masked spokesman said the UVF was the first organisation "onto the stage" and would be the final organisation to leave it.

He acknowledged the significant developments within the republican movement - the ending of the armed campaign and decommissioning.

Funny how you never hear anything in the media about the loyalist terror groups who have killed almost as many as the IRA, and continue to cause trouble.

Surgery on Iran

2006-04-12T09:43:00.000-05:00

Billmon on what a "surgical" nuke strike on Iran would mean:

I've been trying to picture what the world might look like the day after a U.S. nuclear strike on Iran, but I'm essentially drawing a blank. There simply isn't a precedent for the world's dominant superpower turning into a rogue state – much less a rogue state willing to wage nuclear war against potential, even hypothetical, security threats. At that point, we’d truly be through the looking glass.

One can assume (or at least hope) that first use of nuclear weapons would turn America into an international pariah, at least in the eyes of global public opinion. It would certainly mark the definitive end of the system of collective security – and the laws and institutions supporting that system – established in the wake of World War II. The UN Security Council would be rendered as pointless as the old League of Nations. The Nuremberg Principles would be as moot as the Geneva Conventions. (To the neocons, of course, these are all pluses.)

Nuclear first use would also shatter (or at least, radically transform) the political alliances that defined America's leadership role in the old postwar order. To the extent any of these relationships survived, they’d be placed on roughly the same basis as the current U.S. protectorate over Saudi Arabia – or, even worse, brought down to the level of the old Warsaw Pact. They would be coalitions of the weak, the vulnerable and the easily intimidated.

In other words, the current hegemony of American influence and ideas (backed by overwhelming military force) would be replaced by an overt dictatorship based – more or less explicitly – on fear of nuclear annihilation. U.S. foreign policy would become nothing more than a variation on the ancient Roman warning: For every one of our dead; 100 of yours. Never again would American rulers (or their foreign counterparts) be able to hide behind the comfortable fiction that the United States is just primus inter pares – first among equals. A country that nukes other countries merely on the suspicion that they may pose a future security threat isn't the equal of anybody. America would stand completely alone: hated by many, feared by all, admired only by the world’s other tyrants. To call that a watershed event seems a ridiculous understatement.

But I can't even begin to guess what such an event would mean in immediate, tangible terms (other the creation of a large, radioactive hole about 200 miles south of Tehran). It’s entirely possible the near-term consequences wouldn't appear as cataclysmic as you might expect from such a world-shaking event – except, of course, for those poor souls unlucky enough to be living near or downwind from one of Iran's suspected nuclear weapons facilities.

Yes, the price of oil could go to $150 a barrel, and yes, Iran could retaliate with a terrorist offensive that would light Iraq and the Persian Gulf up like Roman candles. We can't rule out a major attack on American soil. (A recent report based on Saudi intelligence sources claims the al-Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps – probably the most capable terrorist support organization in the world – already has a box on its organizational chart labeled "North America.")

But, barring another 9/11, or a worldwide financial meltdown, the day after a nuclear strike on Iran might not look that much different than the day before, at least to the folks back home. The impact on oil prices – and even more importantly, on prices at the pump – might be containable, at least in the short-term, if the Straits of Hormuz remain open and the strategic oil reserve does what it's supposed to do. (Very big ifs, to be sure, but not impossible ones. Neither of the last two wars in the gulf turned into the energy catastrophes everyone had feared when they started.) Financial markets might actually rally if Wall Street judges the strike to have been a "success." As for an Iranian-backed terror offensive in Iraq, at this point you have to wonder if anyone would notice.

For most Americans, then, the initial impact of war with Iran could play out in the same theatre of the absurd as the first Gulf War and the opening phases of the Iraq invasion – that is to say, on their living room TVs. And if there's one place where a nuclear first strike could be made to appear almost normal, or even a good thing, it's on the boob tube.

After all, the corporate media complex has already shown a remarkable willingness to ignore or rationalize conduct that once would have been considered grossly illegal, if not outright war crimes. And the right-wing propaganda machine is happy to paint any atrocity as another glorious success in the battle for democracy (that is, when it's not trying to deny it ever happened.) Why should we expect something as transitory as a nuclear strike to change the pattern?

Let's be honest about it: For both the corporate and the conservative media, as well as for their audiences, an air campaign against Iran would make for great TV – a welcome return to the good old days of Desert Storm and Shock and Awe. All those jets soaring off into the desert twilight; the overexposed glare of cruise missiles streaking from their launch ships; the video game shots of exploding aircraft hangers and government buildings, the anti-aircraft tracers arcing into the night sky over Tehran – it would be war just the way we like it, far removed from the dull brown dust, raw sewage and multiple amputees of the Iraqi quagmire.

And to keep things interesting, we’d have the added frisson of nuclear weapons – a plot twist that would allow blow-dried correspondents to pose in borrowed radiation suits, give Pentagon flacks the opportunity to try out new euphemisms for killing people, and encourage retired generals to spice up their on-air military patter with knowing references to blast effects, kilotons, roentgens and fallout patterns.

What I'm suggesting here is that it is probably naive to expect the American public to react with horror, remorse or even shock to a U.S. nuclear sneak attack on Iran, even though it would be one of the most heinous war crimes imaginable, short of mass genocide. Iran has been demonized too successfully – thanks in no small part to the messianic delusions of its own end-times president – for most Americans to see it as a victim of aggression, even if they were inclined to admit that the United States could ever be an aggressor. And we know a not-so-small and extremely vocal minority of Americans would be cheering all the way, and lusting for more.

More to my point, though, I think it's possible that even something as monstrously insane as nuclear war could still be squeezed into the tiny rituals that pass for public debate in this country – the game of dueling TV sound bites that trivializes and then disposes of every issue.

We’ve already seen a lengthy list of war crimes and dictatorial power grabs sink into that electronic compost heap: the WMD disinformation campaign, Abu Ghraib, the torture memos, the de facto repeal of the 4th amendment. Again, why should a nuclear strike be any different? I can easily imagine the same rabid talk show hosts spouting the same jingoistic hate speech, the same bow-tied conservative pundits offering the same recycled talking points, and the same timid Beltway liberals complaining that while nuking Iran was the right thing to do, the White House went about it the wrong way. And I can already hear the same media critics chiding those of us in left Blogostan for blowing the whole thing out of proportion. It’s just a little bunker buster, after all.

Why should anyone or anything change? When a culture is as historically clueless and morally desensitized as this one appears to be, I don’t think it’s absurd to suppose that even an enormous war crime – the worst imaginable, short of outright genocide – could get lost in the endless babble of the talking heads. When everything is just a matter of opinion, anything – literally anything – can be justified. It’s only a matter of framing things so people can believe what they want to believe.

This is just a snippet, read the whole thing.

The Creation of Zarqawi

2006-04-10T11:03:00.000-05:00

Zarqawi's obviously a horrible person, but more I hear about him and his "rise" in the terror ranks, I'm beginning to think it could be another case of blowback:

We learn in today's Washington Post that the military is running a covert propaganda campaign aimed at exaggerating the importance of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in particular and al Qaeda in general in Iraq. In theory this is supposed to be aimed at Iraqis (which is legal), but in practice it seems to have been partially aimed at Americans (which is illegal), and as we saw with the last covert propaganda story, the distinction is pretty meaningless in the contemporary world.

There's a lot that could be said about this issue, but how about this one for starters -- information operations are always a part of war, but it should give you some pause when your main information operations are aimed at misleading people as to the fundamental nature of the conflict you're dealing with. Basically, the administration is trying to create an entirely fictional war in which the USA has over 100,000 troops stationed in Iraq because they're fighting al Qaeda. That simply isn't what they're doing. A policy that's only publicly justifiable in the context of massive deception is almost certainly going to be a bad policy.

The U.S. Government didn't create Zarqawi-he was already a terrorist-but building him up may have also helped build up his network, which now is alleged to reach many Middle Eastern countries.

They Boo Freedom

2006-04-07T08:33:00.000-05:00

From a Presidential Q & A: (Via Cunning Realist)

Q: You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you'd like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf. You are --

THE PRESIDENT: I'm not your favorite guy. Go ahead. (Laughter and applause.) Go on, what's your question?

Q: Okay, I don't have a question. What I wanted to say to you is that I -- in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate, and --

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Booo!

THE PRESIDENT: No, wait a sec -- let him speak.

Iran Threat-Tidal Wave of Rhetoric Coming

2006-04-05T13:22:00.000-05:00

A must read Early Warning:

Iran tested a new torpedo!

Iran would respond to an attack with terrorist strikes in the United States!

Nuclear diplomacy in Iran is beginning to look a lot like the United Nation's inspection work in Iraq before the 2003 war. The parties are committed to a peaceful outcome but the accumulation of bad blood torpedoes any hope for a peaceful outcome.

I know that Iran's president continues to call for the state of Israel to be "wiped off the map." I know that the country is clandestinely developing nuclear weapons, that it has been a state sponsor of terrorism for years.

The more interesting question though is whether the Iranian "threat" has reached a tipping point, where a potential threat to the West and oil is declared an imminent threat. This again mirrors Saddam Hussein's Iraq in 2003, a country on a sure path to confrontation with the United States regardless of whether it was really a threat to regional and international security, regardless of whether a peaceful outcome was even possible.

On Sunday, The Washington Post ran a front page story by Dana Priest declaring that as tensions increase between the United States and Iran, "U.S. intelligence and terrorism experts say they believe Iran would respond to U.S. military strikes on its nuclear sites by deploying its intelligence operatives and Hezbollah teams to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide."

Terrorism experts, Priest reported, consider the country's Ministry of Intelligence and Security operatives, Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah "to be better organized, trained and equipped than the al-Qaeda network."

On Monday, the Pentagon's Press Service happily picks up wire service copy about an Iranian military exercise to trumpet Iran's new torpedo and other military hardware.

Isn't it just a little transparent that a drumbeat of stories about the Iranian "threat" has begun?

In the world of threat manufacture, Iran has all the ingredients: a WMD-seeking, terrorist-sponsoring, military threat of a regime. With its torpedoes and naval mines and small boats and coastal artillery, Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz where a fifth of the world's oil transits daily. Iran could shoot its missiles at U.S. bases and oil refineries in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere. Iran's agents would attack at home. Iran is thought to already possess chemical and biological weapons. Iranian nuclear weapons, or so the story goes, lurk in the future.

No wonder to many in the administration, in the military, and in the Washington world of brilliant minds, armed confrontation with Iran is the necessary next step in the war against terrorism.

But, the tidal wave didn't start in Israel...

One of the issues that came up in many of the national security related discussions I had was that Israel has maintained and cultivated a very strong human intelligence network inside Iran. The two nations were close strategic allies 25 years ago — and continue, in many behind-the-scenes ways, to communicate and possibly even to coordinate certain actions. It doesn't mean that Israel is ready to appease Iran's regional ambitions, but it does mean that I have witnessed far more worries about Iranian President Ahmadinejad's anti-Holocaust and anti-Israel rhetoric in the U.S. than I did in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.

....Nearly everyone I spoke to in Israel who ranged in political sympathies from the Likud right to Maretz left thought that the tone of the AIPAC conference had been too shrill and that Israel thought it wrong-headed and too impulsive to be engaged in saber-rattling with Iran at this stage.

Denis Donaldson shot dead

2006-04-04T12:37:00.000-05:00

High ranking former Sinn Fein member Denis Donaldson, who was outed as a British spy, has been killed. No claim of responsibility yet. I wouldn't be surprised if this gets thrown in the "unsolved" category.

Ireland Poll

2006-04-04T09:22:00.000-05:00

Almost missed this poll over the weekend:

The great majority of Irish people are nationalists to a greater or lesser degree, favouring a united Ireland in either the short or long-term, according to the results of the latest Sunday Business Post/Red C opinion poll.

However, most of these do not believe that achieving a united Ireland is as important as other tasks facing the government.

Almost 80 per cent of Irish people would like to see a united Ireland. Almost a quarter of voters - 22 per cent - believe that ‘‘delivering a united Ireland should be the government’s first priority’’.

More than half of voters, 55 per cent, say they would like to see a united Ireland, but ‘‘other things should have priority’’.

-----
The survey, carried out among more than 1,000 voters between March 20-22 in conjunction with the tracking poll of political support, shows that these proportions are broadly reflected in attitudes among Irish people to the 1916 Rising, the 90th anniversary of which will be commemorated shortly.

Four out of five voters say the Rising was a ‘‘positive event in Irish history’’; 71 per cent believe Ireland ‘‘owes a debt to the leaders of the 1916 Rising’’, although just half of voters believe that the government’s plans for a military parade are appropriate. One fifth of voters say they ‘‘couldn’t care less’’ about the Rising.

Taken together, the figures show a large reservoir of nationalist feeling among the great mass of the Irish people, although it is striking that by far the largest group (55 per cent),while in favour of a united Ireland, believes the government should have other priorities.

However, the group that believes that a united Ireland should be the government’s first priority is also relatively large, at 22 per cent.

Clearly, this encompasses much more than just Sinn Fein supporters, who make up about 10 per cent of the electorate.

Attitudes towards a united Ireland are remarkably consistent across the various age brackets, and show that younger people tend to be at least as ‘green’ as their parents.

For example, 22 per cent of those aged 18-34 believe that delivering a united Ireland should be the government’s first priority - exactly the same proportion as in the general population.

For those aged over 65, the proportion is only slightly higher, at 26 per cent.

Of those in the largest group (55 per cent) who say they would like to see a united Ireland but ‘‘other things should have priority’’, the proportions are again broadly similar across all age groups.

The proportions are also largely consistent across all social groups, with some slight variation among the wealthy ABC1 section of the population and farmers, who are slightly (but only slightly) less ‘green’ than the population at large.

Geographically, attitudes to a united Ireland are also broadly consistent, with one exception.

Fewer people in Dublin believe a united Ireland should be the government’s first priority - 15 per cent against almost a quarter in the rest of the country.

Consequently, more people in Dublin - 61 per cent - do want to see a united Ireland but not as the government’s first priority, as opposed to the rest of the country where the proportions in this bracket are smaller.

Overall, the figures show the enduring strength of the Irish people’s attachment to the ideal of Irish unity - even if most of them are in no hurry to achieve it in practice.

The great mass of people are in the ‘soft green’ middle ground, with those who are either not interested or actively hostile to the idea in almost exactly the same proportion as those who are committed to the idea as the national priority.

The story sort of poo-poos it, but I think 22% saying a united Ireland should be the government's "first priority" is quite high. It also mentions fewer people in Dublin believe a united Ireland should be the government's top priortiy, however, if you look at the 2004 Dublin City Council election, Sinn Fein did quite well. These numbers can be spun either way, but with the parade and hoopla surrounding the 90th anniversery of the Easter Rising coming soon, I wouldn't be surprised if Sinn Fein does even better.

Phillies

2006-04-03T19:14:00.000-05:00

Happy Opening Day,

Not off to a good start, as usual. Good for Rollins-37 game hit streak. Ryan Howard may hit 50 HRs.

Zarqawi Replaced?

2006-04-03T15:11:00.000-05:00

Why isn't this story getting much attention?

Terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has sharply lowered his profile in recent months, halting his group's Internet claims as the number of big suicide bombings in Iraq — his infamous signature form of attack — has fallen.

Now, a man with close ties to Iraqi insurgent groups claims al-Zarqawi was shunted aside as political leader of a recently formed coalition of militants because they were angry at his propaganda efforts and embarrassed by his group's deadly attack on hotels in Jordan.

But others caution that the claim is hard to verify — and that perhaps the insurgents are just changing tactics.

If this is true it would be big news, and it might mean the recent letter from Zawahiri to Zarqawi, complaing about Zarqawi's "brutal tactics", could be true. I've assumed it was a forgery. Does Zarqawi get sent to some sort of terror "minor leagues"?

Update 4/5/06 10:56PM: Or, focusing on Israel now?

NY Times

2006-04-03T14:45:00.000-05:00

I don't like the new design.