Leaked: "Strikingly Negative" Iraq Report Leaked To Preempt White House Doc

Iraq has failed to meet all but three of 18 congressionally mandated benchmarks for political and military progress, according to a draft of a Government Accountability Office report. The document questions whether some aspects of a more positive assessment by the White House.

read more | digg story

Christian Zionist Promote Iran War To Bring About Armageddon

Israeli groups like AIPAC, and the US Christian right like groups like CUFI. Promote Iran War. These groups and many others are forming a voting block that has powerful connections in our war party government. Christian politicians like Ron Paul are often seen as not Zionist enough for these extreme but powerful influence groups.

read more | digg story

'Bin Laden' Options Trades Have Wall Street Whispering

The blogosphere and options trading desks have been rife with speculation about unusual options bets that some observers have dubbed "Bin Laden Trades," which are unusually large bets that the market will make a huge move in the next month.

read more | digg story

Bush Loses War on Terrorism; Begins War on Iran

Bush pimps a possible nuclear strike on Iran, though a panel of experts claim his "war on terrorism" is all but lost. Meanwhile, Col. Sam Gardiner tells CNN that the US military is already operating inside Iran. What Bush will not tell you is that the world has become a much more dangerous place because of his administration's incompetent and boneh

read more | digg story

Leaked US report stresses Iraq failures

The leaked Washington draft provides a harsh assessment of the effects of current US-led efforts to secure Baghdad. "While the Baghdad security plan was intended to reduce sectarian violence, US agencies differ on whether such violence has been reduced," it says. Although there have been fewer attacks against US forces, the number of attacks...

read more | digg story

Katrina and the White House, federal government, and FEMA brands

Two years after Katrina, the FEMA brand is still tainted (as is the brand of the White House and the entire federal government) by the relief efforts that took place after the hurricane. The question is, why?

read more | digg story

Rewritten surveillance law could give Bush more power for domestic wiretaps

The recently passed law which allows President Bush to continue wiretapping Americans' telephone calls overseas may allow for domestic spying as well, according to a new report commissioned by Congress.

read more | digg story

Homeland Security Expert Asks: What could we do with $456,278,478,000?

George Bush leaves his legacy: national debt, 43 milllion uninsured, and a war.What *could* he have done with all the money he allowed his friends to bill the U.S. taxpayer for, instead?

read more | digg story

US refuses all 'friendly fire' inquest requests

Inquests into "friendly fire" cases will never hear evidence in person from US military witnesses, the Ministry of Defense has disclosed.

read more | digg story

Union: Mexican Trucks Begin Crossing Border Saturday

Unsafe Mexican Trucks start crossing US Border on the busy Labor Day Weekend. These trucks do not have to meet US Highway standards!

read more | digg story

Audit Gives Iraq Leaders Failing Grade

U.S. government auditors are about to tell Congress that Iraqi leaders have failed to meet at least 13 of 18 benchmarks laid out to assess the effectiveness of President Bush's war strategy, a report the White House dismisses as "not news".

read more | digg story

The Great Iraq Swindle: War Profiteering 101

Great article on the swindling of the US taxpayers by corrupt contractors with gilded contracts to "rebuild" Iraq, and our inability to recoup any of our money regardless of how grossly negligent the contractors were.

read more | digg story

ABC censors Kucinich out of Debate, Poll Results, and Website AGAIN

Following last Sunday's Democratic presidential debate on ABC News' This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Dennis Kucinich's campaign asked ABC News to address issues it had with treatment Rep. Kucinich (D-Ohio) received both during the debate and afterward in ABC's online coverage.I linked the C&L blog because it had 2 links worth seeing

read more | digg story

US calls arrest of Iranians after Bush speech 'a regrettable incident'

BBC World News reported Wednesday that "an embarrassed American military has said it regrets that eight Iranians ... were arrested, handcuffed, and blindfolded by US soldiers in Baghdad." The US now acknowledges that the Iranians are engineers who were in Iraq to help rebuild the local electrical system.

read more | digg story

Fed Underestimated Debt Impact, Focused on Inflation

Policy makers have employed a range of tools since their last scheduled meeting to ease the credit crunch. They first injected the most funds into money markets since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, then cut the rate charged to banks for direct loans from the Fed.

read more | digg story

Ron Paul: Iran Attack in a Year?

Presidential candidate Ron Paul believes that an attack on Iran is highly likely within a year and that the Bush administration is simply waiting for the right opportunity

read more | digg story

Who Owns America???

Teamsters will ask court to block letting Mexican trucks into U.S.

The Teamsters Union says it'll ask a Federal Appeals Court to stop the Bush Administration from allowing Mexican trucks to carry cargo anywhere in the United States. The Union said today it's learned from the Transportation Department's Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration that the first Mexican trucks would cross the border on Saturday...

read more | digg story

Bush Talks Of Iran's 'Murderous Activities' - Ignores His

In a speech designed to shore up American public opinion behind his increasingly unpopular strategy in Iraq, the president reserved his strongest words for the regime of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which he accused of openly supporting violent forces within Iraq.

read more | digg story

Al-Sadr suspends militia activity in Iraq; Will not attack American forces

Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has ordered a six-month suspension of activities by his Mahdi Army militia in order to reorganize the force, and it will no longer attack U.S. and coalition troops.

read more | digg story

Bush Wants $50 Billion More for Iraq War on top of about $460 billion

The Washington Post reports that the money would be in addition to a $147 billion request that already is pending before Congress to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the two requests together are also in addition to the $460 billion 2008 fiscal year request for defense spending.

read more | digg story

Has Bush Boxed Himself In?

By Pat Buchanan

08/29/07 "Creators Syndicate" -- - As Americans anguish over how to extricate this country from Iraq without a disaster greater than what we now have, and without our friends suffering the fate of our friends in Cambodia and Vietnam, they had best brace themselves. This escalator is going up.

and his generals are laying out the case for a new war. And there has been no resistance offered either by a vacationing Congress or the major presidential candidates.

On CNN's "Late Edition" Sunday, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno, No. 2 commander in Iraq, said, "It is clear to me that (the Iranians) have been stepping up their support" for enemy fighters in Iraq.

"They do it from providing weapons, ammunition, specifically mortars and explosively formed projectiles. ... They are conducting training within Iran of Iraqi extremists to come back here and fight the United States."

Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said his troops were following 50 members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, who have been crossing the border and training fighters in Iraq. The State Department is about to declare the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization.

Earlier in August, President Bush directly charged Tehran with aiding Iraqi insurgents who are killing U.S. soldiers:

"I asked Ambassador Crocker to meet with Iranians inside Iraq ... to send the message that there will be consequences for ... people transporting, delivering EFPs, highly sophisticated IEDs, that kill American troops."

The EFPs are roadside bombs that penetrate Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Abrams tanks. They have taken the lives of scores of U.S. soldiers.

Whether Bush has made the decision to attack the al Quds training camps inside Iran, he has painted himself into a corner.

If he does not strike the camps, he will be mocked by the War Party as a weak commander in chief, too timid to use U.S. power to protect soldiers he sent into battle or to punish those killing them.

Thus, Bush must either announce that his diplomacy has worked, and attacks out of Iran have diminished or been halted, or he will have to explain why the Top Gun of the carrier Lincoln was too wimpish to do his duty by the soldiers he sent to fight.

Who is pushing for attacks on Iran? Israel and its lobby. Vice President Cheney. Sen. Joe Lieberman, who has been calling for air strikes on Al Quds camps for months. And a War Party facing lasting disgrace for having lied the country into an unnecessary war, and for having assured the American people it would be a "cakewalk."

The arguments for war on Iran are both strategic and political.

Israel is terrified Iran will end its nuclear monopoly in the Middle East and wants an all-out U.S. war on Iran to prevent it. The War Party fears Iran may acquire a nuclear weapon, which would inhibit U.S. freedom of action in the Gulf and convince the Arab states that the United States is yesterday and they must appease Iran or go nuclear themselves.

As for Bush and Cheney, if they go home without hitting Iran's nuclear sites, and Iran acquires a nuclear weapon, the Bush Doctrine will have been defied by the Ayatollah as well as Kim Jong-il, and their legacy will be a no-win war in Iraq.

The War Party is thus seeking an excuse to launch air strikes on Iran, as that would trigger Iranian counterstrikes on our forces. Then they will have their long-sought casus belli for U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.

First, the al Quds camps, then Natanz, Isfahan and Bushewr.

Initially, Americans might cheer the bombing of Iran, and Congress would head for the tall grass. But as U.S. strikes would be an act of war, rallying the Iranians behind the failing regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and igniting a long war the end of which we cannot see and the troops for which we do not have, there are powerful arguments against a new war.

Iran and the United States would both pay a hellish price, and Iran at least seems to recognize it. Both the Iraqi and Afghan governments say Iran is behaving as a good neighbor. There is evidence Tehran's nuclear program is faltering, or being curbed. Iran is said to be making concessions to U.N. inspectors.

Iran has released an American seized in response to our seizure of five Iranian "diplomats" in Iraq. Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, in a letter to the Washington Post, denies Iran is aiding the Iraqi insurgency and calls on the U.S. government to "proffer evidence" and "provide the list of Iranian agents who it alleges are operating in Iraq."

If there is a rush to war here, it is not on the part of Iran.

As Bush is preparing for war on Iran, if he has not already decided on war, where is Congress, which alone has the constitutional power to authorize a war?

Or has it given Bush and Cheney another blank check?

Bush Heads to Gulf Coast, Still Misleading on How Little He Sent to Rebuild

Less than $35 billion in federal funds actually available to rebuild the region. Most of the $114 billion Bush administration officials refer to was for the emergency response, not to help rebuild the region. Still the White house continues to mislead the public about our country's investment in rebuilding the Gulf Coast and New Orleans...

read more | digg story

Inflation crunch could hit world economies

Food prices have been rising through the year, and reduced harvests due to flooding and drought look to exaggerate the problem, setting potential problems with inflation just at the time when central banks are looking to cut interest rates to help troubled stock markets.

read more | digg story

Pot Growers Are New Target in "War on Terror"

John P. Walters, President Bush's drug czar, said of pot growers "[They're] violent criminal terrorists." and "[They] wouldn't hesitate to help other terrorists get into the country with the aim of causing mass casualties."

read more | digg story

CheneyBush's "Mercenary" Legions

Authoritarian rulers with private armies and spies, as history has shown, are dangerous to democracy. That's where America is at this juncture, and we're going to have to battle fiercely to claw our way back to some sort of governmental sanity and balance.

read more | digg story

More Investors Are Betting on Stock Market Doomsday Scenario

Not everyone on Wall Street is convinced that the worst is over. In fact, some investors are betting tens of millions of dollars that the market is headed for a selloff -- a major selloff.

read more | digg story

Who's profiting from the Iraq war?

In a few weeks, Gen. David Petraeus and the Bush administration will report to Congress on the progress of the U.S. military's troop surge in Iraq. But some of the war's winners are already clear: military contractors who supply everything from bodyguards to bombs, clean socks to ready-to-eat meals.

read more | digg story

CAIR: Media Cowers in Face of Islamist Threat

On August 24th, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), issued a “News Release” trumpeting the role CAIR played in getting the Christian TV program “Live Prayer with Bill Keller” off the air in Tampa, Florida. It is troubling that a national broadcaster would terminate a program based on the demands of an Islamist hate group

read more | digg story

The airlines lied to Congress and the public

In 1999, the nation's airlines promised Congress they would revamp their operations and offer a “service commitment” that they dubbed "Customers First." In 2007, air travel is worse than ever. What happened?

read more | digg story

Fleischer blames Dems for Gonzales' mistakes

Ex White House press secretary Ari Fleischer thinks that the rotten Democrats are to blame for Alberto Gonzales' fall from grace. His comments are comical.

read more | digg story

Gonzales's Exit Gives Democrats Advantage in White House Probes

The departure of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, while removing a political burden on President George W. Bush, gives congressional Democrats new power to expand investigations of White House scandals.

read more | digg story

Obstacles Keep Iraqi Refugees From U.S.

Despite a stepped-up commitment from the United States to take in Iraqis who are in danger because they worked for the military, few are signing up to go, officials say.

read more | digg story

Markets Mauled

Markets fell hard and wide Tuesday, as a combination of bad news and low volume reminded Wall Street of the uncertainty plaguing investors, despite the relative stability of the past few days.

While dropping throughout the day, the Dow Jones industrial average took an especially steep dive in the last hour of trading to close down 2.1%, or 280.28 points, to 13,041.85, with the Nasdaq Composite Index finishing down 2.4%, or 60.61 points, to 2,500.64, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index falling 2.4%, or 34.43 points, to 1,432.36.

All in all, it's the kind of day that might make adherents to the Goldilocks scenario--that the markets are "just right"--reconsider their belief in fairy tales.

“There was more bad news than good news,” said Jefferies analyst Art Hogan, in an understatement, adding that investors were reminded they’re not out of the woods yet.

Financials led the way after Merrill Lynch (nyse: MER - news - people ) published a report downgrading Bear Stearns (nyse: BSC - news - people ), Lehman Brothers (nyse: LEH - news - people ), and Citigroup (nyse: C - news - people ).

Hogan also noted Wall Street was also shaken by reports surrounding Barclays (nyse: BCS - news - people )’ exposure to credit issues (See "Barclays Sinks On Sachsen Worries").

Wall Street also extended its retreat on Tuesday as investors cautiously awaited minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting, hoping it would provide insight into whether it may cut rates.

Analysts said there was little news to send prices sharply lower. But the market's overall difficult mood since the turbulence of earlier in August, coupled with light volume, helped skew price swings—especially ahead of the Fed report.

Hogan argued the news was coupled with the Tuesday’s announcement from the Conference Board that its Consumer Confidence index slipped to 105.0 in August from 11.9 in July, spurred by falling home prices (See “Housing Hits Consumer Confidence”)

Economists expected a reading of 104.5.

Although the index dropped, Birinyi Associates research analyst Cleveland Rueckert argued instead that because the result beat expectations, he does not believe the announcement had too much of an influence on Tuesday’s movement.

“We haven’t had this kind of day in a while,” Hogan said. “And it’s not surprising with a low volume day in the summer.”

Rueckert looks to mid-September, when financial companies begin to release their quarterly earnings report, and “Wall Street gets a better idea of what’s going on and who is exposed to what.”

As previously noted, the Financial sector was hit hard as Lehman Brothers fell 6.0%, or $3.47, to $54.28, Bear Stearns dropped 3.4%, or $3.37, to $108.42, and Citigroup lowered 3.5%, or $1.65, to $46.14.

In the energy sector, Exxon Mobil (nyse: XOM - news - people ) fell 2.5%, or $2.12, to $83.00 and Chevron (nyse: CVX - news - people ) dropped 3.1%, or $2.70, to $84.30.

The industrials and materials sector also dropped, as Boeing (nyse: BA - news - people ) lowered 2.9%, or $2.89, to $95.65, Caterpillar (nyse: CAT - news - people ) dropped 2.4%, or $1.79, and $74.21, and Lockheed Martin (nyse: LMT - news - people ) tumbled 4.5%, or $4.62, to $97.79.

Brace yourself for the insolvency crunch

The liquidity crunch is not yet over: the insolvency crunch has hardly begun.

Repercussions will follow for the man on the street

Yes, investors are jumping back into the stock markets, hoping this is just another routine shake-out - much like February 2007, or May 2006 - before the rally resumes. The `buy-on-dips’ orthodoxy dies hard.

And yes, speculators have renewed their leveraged bets on the yen and Swiss franc carry trades, borrowing cheap in Tokyo and Zurich to play global assets. The core belief is that nothing has really changed, that the world economy is still in rude good health.

Be very careful. Interest rates in Europe and Asia are that much higher now, with delayed effects starting to bite hard. Japan’s economy has stalled to 0.1pc growth in Q2; the euro-zone has slowed to 0.3pc; and China’s refusal to import (by currency manipulation) makes it a drain on world demand. Above all, the credit bubble that perpetuated the rally of the last eighteen months beyond its natural life has definitively burst.

Credit spreads on the iTraxx Crossover (a good barometer of corporate bonds) have ballooned 180 basis points since February. The cost of borrowing for most firms in Europe and North America has jumped from circa 6.5pc to 8.3pc, if they can get it.

Many cannot. Germany’s Chamber of Industry told me yesterday that it had been flooded with distress calls from family Mittlestand firms unable to roll over credit lines. In Canada and Australia, junior mining finance has dried up almost entirely.

Global junk bond issuance has been frozen for two months. Fresh sales of collateralized debt obligations – the CDOs of subprime notoriety: a $1 trillion sold last year - have all but stopped. Banks have yet to off-load $300bn of debt from leveraged buy-out deals, forcing them to keep the liabilities on their books. They are all snake-bitten now.

The private equity buy-out premium – which pushed up the price/earnings ratio on the MSCI-600 of “median” stocks to a record high of 20 in May - has vanished. The P/E ratios on the DOW 30 big stocks are much lower – because they are too big even for the big cat predators, KKR and Carlysle – but they are not low, given the late stage of the cycle. In reality, an earnings bubble and ultra-cheap credit have flattered profits.

So no, the world has changed, dramatically. Whether this means a protracted global downturn and a “profits recession” depends on how quickly the central banks choose to respond, and how far they are willing to go.

Ben Bernanke is looking hawkish to me, given the shock of what happened on Monday when yields on 3-month US Treasury notes plunged at the fastest pace ever recorded, a panic flight to safety that no living trader had ever seen before.

Why? Because trust had collapsed to such a degree that players with a lot of cash no longer believed it safe to leave wealth in bank accounts, or the money market funds of brokerage companies - (exposed as they are to short-term commercial paper and subprime CDOs). This did not occur after 9/11, or in the heat of the October 1987 crash. Nor did was there such a banking panic in October 1929. (it hit in August 1931). If you think this is of no importance, or that this will pass swiftly, you have a strong nerve.

“When you have a run on the money markets like this, it is bound to spill over into the real economy,” said Albert Edwards, global strategist at Dresdner Kleinwort.

“We already thought there was a 40pc chance of a US recession before all this happened, but the risks are now much higher and don’t forget that rates on adjustable mortgages will keep rising until a peak next March, so the maximum pain will be in the second and third quarters of 2008,” he said

“There will be large bankruptcies, and liquidity is not going to help because too many people bet the farm at the top of the cycle, and they’re now insolvent. A lot more bodies are going to be floating to the surface before this is over,” he said.

The belief that Europe would somehow be insulated has been tested over the last two weeks. Two German banks have required bail-outs on subprime bets – Sachsen LB for Eu 17.3bn, IKB for Eu 8.1bn.

Alexander Stuhlmann, boss of WestLB, confessed that the German banking system was in a "not uncritical situation". Jochen Sanio, head of the German regulator BaFin, said a few days earlier that the country faced the worst banking crisis 1931.

Hence the continued actions of the European Central Bank, which has quietly injected 85bn euros in extra liquidity so far this week, almost as much as it did on the first day of emergency stimulus in early August.

“Banks are still thirsty for credit, and the spreads have been amazing. This is not business as usual at all,” said Julian Callow, chief Eurozone economist for Barclays Capital and an expert in the arcane field of central bank operations. (He used to work for the Bank of England.)

To clarify: the ECB allotted an extra Eu 45bn extra through a `weekly refi’ on Tuesday; and then Eu 40bn in a 3-month offer on Wednesday to stop the short-term commercial paper market seizing up.

What we know is that 146 banks bid for loans on Wednesday, some clearly in such distress that they were willing to pay up to 5pc interest – a full 1pc above the ECB’s benchmark rate.

Just like the dotcom bust: when the US sneezes, Europe catches… you know the rest.

In a warped sense, one has to admire the cool way that Americans – who save nothing, in aggregate – tapped into the vast savings pool of thrifty Germans to finance their speculative excesses, and then left the creditors holding a chunk of the subprime losses.

Was it sharp practice, in the same way that foreigners were recruited by Lloyds of London in 1986 and 1987 – before the impending asbestos losses were known – and place like cannon fodder on “spiral syndicates” to absorb crippling losses? (Lloyds denies this occurred).

I am endebted to Randall W.Forsyth from Barron’s for this delicious quote from a hedge-fund operator, recounting with disgust what happened this time in a letter to clients.

'Real money' (U.S. insurance companies, pension funds, etc.) accounts had stopped purchasing mezzanine tranches of U.S. subprime debt in late 2003 and [Wall Street] needed a mechanism that could enable them to 'mark up' these loans, package them opaquely, and EXPORT THE NEWLY PACKAGED RISK TO UNWITTING BUYERS IN ASIA AND CENTRAL EUROPE!!!!

"These CDOs were the only way to get rid of the riskiest tranches of subprime debt. Interestingly enough, these buyers (mainland Chinese banks, the Chinese Government, Taiwanese banks, Korean banks, German banks, French banks, U.K. banks) possess the 'excess' pools of liquidity around the globe. These pools are basically derived from two sources: 1) massive trade surpluses with the U.S. in U.S. dollars, 2) petrodollar recyclers. These two pools of excess capital are U.S. dollar-denominated and have had a virtually insatiable demand for U.S. dollar-denominated debt . . . until now.

More Iran news

President Ahmadinejad: Political might of Iraq's occupiers is braking up: "I truly declare that the political power of occupiers is on the decline and the region will witness the emergence of a big power," underlined the president. "We are ready to help restore security of the region through collective cooperation with our regional friends and Saudi Arabia," he pointed out.

Bush warns Iran over insurgents : In a speech to US war veterans in Reno, Nevada, Mr Bush renewed charges that Tehran has provided training and weapons for extremists in Iraq. "The Iranian regime must halt these actions," he said.

Bush warns of 'holocaust' if Iran gets nukes : US President George W Bush warned today that letting Iran acquire atomic weapons risked putting the Middle East 'under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust.'

Pat Buchanan: Democrats will fall in line with 'popular' war on Iran: "They're laying down a predicate for military strikes on the al-Quds camps inside Iran. ... And I think then they'd go for the nuclear sites. "

Study: US preparing 'massive' military attack against Iran: The United States has the capacity for and may be prepared to launch without warning a massive assault on Iranian uranium enrichment facilities, as well as government buildings and infrastructure, using long-range bombers and missiles, according to a new analysis.

Ahmadinejad: Iran to give crushing response to any possible hostile actions: He went on to say that Iraqi occupiers do not favor unity among regional nations and want to pit them against one another so as to continue their presence in Iraq.

Iran 'resolves' plutonium issue : Iran has resolved questions posed by the UN's nuclear watchdog about its plutonium experiments, Tehran says.

Washington Times acknowledges reckless GOP spending

This morning, the Washington Times may have shocked its conservative readership by pointing out that Republicans, more so than Democrats, are responsible for today's budget mess.

read more | digg story

Iran To Invade Iraq

Iranian President Says Its Time For Iranian Rule In Iraq

read more | digg story

Iraqi refugees are 'forgotten people': World Vision

"The US government does not want to recognize them. The European Union wants to keep quiet on it," and the refugees are also a sensitive matter for the Jordanians, Dean Hirsch, World Vision's international president, told AFP.

read more | digg story

The Fed's Subprime "Solution"

Q. Why does the Fed come to the rescue? A. Because "while the risks inherent in the business of lending and borrowing should be finally borne by the public, the profits of that line of work should mainly accrue to the lenders and borrowers." In other words, the Fed works for the banks.

read more | digg story

President Ahmadinejad Says Iran Ready to Fill Power Vacuum in Iraq

TEHRAN, Iran — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Tuesday that a power vacuum is imminent in Iraq and said that Iran was ready to help fill the gap.

read more | digg story

Letterman: Gonzales stepping down but 'can't recall' why

The Alberto Gonzales resignation provided the inevitable subject of David Letterman's top ten list -- and a good bit of quip fodder for his opening monologue -- on Monday evening's installment of CBS's Late Show.

read more | digg story

Congressman wants ISPs to be Copyright Police

With warrentless wiretapping sweeping the US, a leading congressman is proposing similar measures for the Internet. This isn’t an attempt at ‘fighting terror’ but instead a new measure to reduce so-called ‘piracy’ by making the ISPs the police force.

read more | digg story

Gonzales' replacement - there won't be any nominee.

What Bush and Rove managed to do is to "set up" congress yet again. Not only will there never be a confirmation hearing for a new DOJ head, there won't even be a nominee. Why would Bush need one? His dream candidate is already in place.

read more | digg story

1 million Shiites ordered out of Karbala

U.S., Iraqi forces kill 33 militants in heavy fighting in holy city

read more | digg story

Gonzales Goes But Investigation Must Continue

Only a continued inquiry into the lawlessness of the soon-to-be-former Attorney General will achieve what is the essential purpose of this Congress: the restoring of the rule of law to a country deeply damaged by petty little men who chose personal loyalties and political expediency over their duty to the Republic.

read more | digg story

Sugar the other White Drug

Bush Gets Away with Lies, Lies and More Lies in History-Illiterate America

George Bush and other Iraq War supporters have argued that if we withdraw from Iraq the result will be like the killing fields of Cambodia -- an odd comparison considering that the US has direct responsibility for that holocaust.

read more | digg story

How many Bush administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?

The answer is seven:

* One to deny that a light bulb needs to be replaced.

* One to attack and question the patriotism of
anyone who has questions about the light bulb.

* One to blame the previous administration for
the need of a new light bulb.

* One to arrange the invasion of a country rumored
to have a secret stockpile of light bulbs.

* One to get together with Vice President Cheney
and figure out how to overpay Halliburton one
million dollars for each light bulb.

* One to arrange a photo-op session showing
Bush changing the light bulb while dressed in a
flight suit and wrapped in an American flag.

* And finally, one to explain to Bush the difference
between screwing a light bulb and screwing the
country. [anon]

Why Bush stands by his incompetent twit friends

The more radioactive his aides become, the more Bush embraces them.

read more | digg story

US ambassador to UN: Middle East turmoil could cause world war

"Zalmay Khalilzad told the daily Die Presse the Middle East was now so disordered that it had the potential to inflame the world as Europe did during the first half of the 20th century," Reuters reports.

read more | digg story

Edwards wants law against ''Brownies''

John Edwards said at a Hurricane Katrina conference he would propose what he called "Brownie's Law" requiring that qualified people, not political hacks, lead key federal agencies.

read more | digg story

The Pot-Pushing "Terrorists" Under Your Bed

"The Bush administration barely waited for the smoke to clear at "Ground Zero" before trotting out a yearlong, multimillion dollar ad campaign alleging that US pot smokers financially sponsor international terrorism. Not surprisingly, after the initial "shock and awe" of the ads wore off, viewers resoundingly rejected the feds' dubious charge."

read more | digg story

The Nation -- Gonzales Goes But Investigation Must Continue

"Alberto Gonzales was the 'Enabler General' for the imperial Bush presidency," said People For the American Way President emeritus Ralph G. Neas upon learning of the Attorney General's decision. "He undermined the Constitution, made a mockery of the rule of law, and turned the Justice Department into an arm of the Bush Administration's political ..

read more | digg story

Bush appointed high ranking defense official under investigation

Yep another one... Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Paul Brinkley, a former Silicon Valley executive who currently heads an economic task force in Baghdad, is being accused by Defense Department investigators of mismanaging government money, public drunkenness and sexual harassment, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

read more | digg story

CNN: Bush Plans To Install High School Friend Clay Johnson At DHS

This morning, CNNreported that “very senior level sources” inside the White House say that Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff will replace Alberto Gonzales. Additionally, these sources say Chertoff will be replaced at Homeland Security by Clay Johnson III, the Deputy Director for OMB. Johnson went to both prep school and college with Bush.

read more | digg story

About-face on Iran coming?

A new US strategy for victory in Iraq may be in the works

By Hassan Nafaa

08/27/07 "Al-Ahram" -- - That the US is knee-deep trouble in Iraq is hardly in dispute. Few inside or outside the US contest that fact or doubt the reasons that led to it. And yet, some still argue that the whole thing is little more than correctable "mistakes" by a reckless administration. Others wonder if a face-saving exit is still possible. But at least a few maintain that a "strategic victory" is attainable in Iraq.

For a long time, the current US administration refused even to admit committing mistakes in Iraq. For a long time, it maintained that victory was around the corner. The admission that a real problem exists came hesitantly and late. It came only after the Baker-Hamilton Commission issued its well-known report last year. Even then, the current administration kept arguing that the problems it was facing in Iraq were no more than "snags" attributed to "tactical errors" that can be corrected and that a complete and unambiguous victory was not to be ruled out. In short, the US administration rejected the prognosis offered by the Commission and went on doing things its own way.

The commission said that the situation in Iraq would get worse unless a major policy change occurred. It reviewed a number of options, but ruled them all out because of concern for the US reputation and Iraq's stability. Those options included: quick withdrawal from Iraq, maintaining the current policies with no change, increasing the number of troops, or dividing Iraq into three parts. After excluding those options, the report suggested a new policy based on two components. The first component was external, involving a "new diplomatic offensive" to rally international support and help Iraq.

The second component was internal, focusing on helping Iraq help itself. The commission made 78 recommendations, suggesting that the US launch a diplomatic offensive in an attempt to reassure the world that the US was not after Iraq's oil and didn't want to have military bases in that country against the wishes of its people.

It made two main conclusions. One was that the US couldn't get out of the Iraqi morass without the help of others. The second was that the Middle East crises were interlinked, and the US needed to address all of them simultaneously. The report urged the current administration to build bridges with both Syria and Iran and make a renewed bid to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

But the US administration went for the exact opposite. Instead of gradually reducing its fighting troops and redeploying them outside turbulent Iraqi towns, the US administration decided to increase troops and send them into more battles inside turbulent areas in the hope of quashing or at least weakening the resistance.

Instead of courting Iran and Syria, the US administration decided to tighten sanctions against them and isolate them internationally. And instead of doing more to settle the Arab-Israeli conflict, a matter that would have required serious pressures on Israel and attempts to unify the Palestinian position, the US administration decided to alienate Hamas and impose a stricter blockade on the Palestinian people. The US administration blocked all attempts to unify Palestinian factions and encouraged Israel to adopt hard-line and belligerent policies.

This approach, which hardly differed from earlier US policies, deepened the dilemma of the US administration. As a result, the security and military situation in Iraq got worse. And the Lebanon war last year didn't, as some hoped, weaken "the axis of the extremists" in the region. On the contrary, Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas, and Jihad emerged stronger, while pro- US forces looked hapless and lame. Consequently, the US administration found itself in a more awkward place than it was at the time the Baker-Hamilton Commission was issued two years ago. All the US administration did was waste time and money to no avail.

Because the US administration knows that time is running out, it has to do one of two things. Either it accepts defeat and pulls out immediately, which would damage the US standing as a superpower. Or it escalates the confrontation through an all-out attack on the "axis of the extremists." The latter option cannot be ruled out, considering how rightwing and dogmatic this administration is and how inept is the man who leads it. The only problem is that this second option is too perilous, for the prospects of a decisive victory are nil in the long run.

Some members of the neoconservative US elite, who haven't yet despaired of winning the war in Iraq, are now busy looking for a third option. Among the barrage of ideas that surfaced of late, the views of William S Lind are interesting. Lind is the director of the Centre for Cultural Conservatism at the Free Congress Foundation. He summed up his views on the Iraqi debacle in an article published 30 July in The American Conservative under the title, "How to win in Iraq".

In that article, Lind notes that the US administration still defines victory as it did at the war's outset: an Iraq that is an American satellite, friendly to Israel, happy to provide the US with a limitless supply of oil and vast military bases from which American forces can dominate the region. None of these objectives, he argues, are now attainable. Lind believes that the attempts to quell urban disturbances in Iraq are based on the wrong assumptions. He argues that the war can still be won on a strategic level, not through "small tactical gains." Lind suggests that the new US strategy must employ what the British military theorist Basil Liddell-Hart called an "indirect approach."

The threat facing the US is not coming from any state, but from a collection of groups using non-conventional methods commonly labelled "terrorism", Lind argues. Such groups can only flourish in situations where governments are weak. He calls for a new strategy of three elements to win the war on a "strategic" level.

The first element is to engage Iran in a rapprochement, just as the US did with China in the early 1970s. At the time, China was creating more than one Vietnam in order to sap the US power. Likewise, the groups hostile to the US are trying to create more than one Iraq in order to baffle the Americans. Lind believes that it would be hard to undermine such groups without having a strong government in Iraq, which requires rapprochement with Iran. He admits that pro-Iranian Shiites may end up dominating the Iraqi government, but that should not be a problem so long as a strong Iraqi state evolves.

The second element of Lind's strategy is to allow the Sadr group, which is popular in Iraqi streets, to achieve its full political potential. The US will have to pay a price for that, such as giving up the prospect of military bases in Iraq. So far, the US has been trying to suppress the Sadr group while favouring unpopular, pro-American groups. This approach, Lind says, has weakened successive governments and reduced their ability to control the situation on the ground. Lind admits there is no guarantee Al-Sadr would be able to form a strong Iraqi government, but the chance is worth taking. The US administration, he says, must allow Al-Sadr, or anyone who can, to establish a strong government in Iraq.

The third element of the strategy is to withdraw all US forces within 12-18 months. This move would provide enough time for Al-Sadr or other parties to put together a government. This wouldn't be the withdrawal of a defeated army, Lind argues, but a step toward strategic victory. Withdrawal would be good for the army and for the US public, he argues.

The above strategy may exacerbate the Sunni- Shiite divisions not just in Iraq but across the region, but Lind is not worried about that. In fact, he believes those divisions might prove beneficial to the new US strategy in the region.

These are quite disturbing proposals. Lind's ideas entail certain risks to the Arab world and Iran. Admittedly, Tehran may be temporarily pleased to see a friendly government in Iraq, but the cost may prove too high. The US is likely to use Shiite-Sunni divisions to turn Sunni Arab countries against Iran. The main beneficiary of Lind's proposed strategy would be Israel and the US. The implications for the Sunnis and the Shiites are frightening. It seems that the US is heading toward a dual containment policy of both Shiite fundamentalism and Sunni Wahhabism. So perhaps this is time for Shias and Sunnis, as well as Arabs and Iranians, to sit together and talk.

The Great Iraq Swindle

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.