I don't know why, I love her like I do

Via Crooks and Liars:

Former Cook County GOP Chairman beaten by wife for prostitutes

OK, what do you do when your wife comes home late at night unexpectedly, only to find you in the childrens playroom with two prostitutes, whereupon she begins beating on your dumb ass with a Guitar Hero controller and punching at you? Call the cops of course, and have her arrested! is the obvious answer.[...]

According to the police report, Eni Skoien became enraged and attacked her husband early Sunday morning when she discovered him with two prostitutes.

The police report said Gary Skoien acknowledged to authorities that the women were prostitutes. But he later denied that and tried unsuccessfully to have the report changed.
[...]
According to the report, 36-year-old Eni Skoien came home about 1:15 a.m. Sunday and, after discovering the women in the home, struck Gary Skoien, 55, with a closed fist and several times with a toy guitar. The beating left him bloodied, police said.
[...]
Following Sunday's incident, Gary Skoien petitioned for and received an order of protection barring his wife from their home and from contacting him or their children for 21 days.

Republican chutzpa, he gets 2 hookers and she has her home & children taken away!

And I hate to make light of this serious family tragedy, but I will anyway: In comments, (after all the 'but think about the children' comments), was "yes, think of the children, now they have to share a controller!"

But compared to this next guy that guy was a prince! Via Wikileaks:

The "dirty bomb" that disappeared

It has all the makings of a great story. But outside of the US state of Maine and select counter-terrorism circles, you won't have heard about it. For this is a story with all the right ingredients but one wrong ingredient.

On the right side is a leaked FBI intelligence report, Obama's inauguration, a multi-million dollar trust fund, a woman, uranium, thorium, the first attempt to build a "dirty bomb" on US soil, and, of course, murder.

On the wrong is the body of James G. Cummings, white supremacist millionaire, found in his Belfast home on December 9, 2008, shot to death.

After local police attended the scene, the FBI moved in and sealed off the building. Men in protective suits descended on the home but police refused to comment about what they found. Mrs. Cummings was taken into custody.

Then on January 12, 2009, Wikileaks revealed a confidential FBI field intelligence report on the incident as part of a Presidential inauguration threat analysis.[1]

According to the FBI report, Cummings had four lots of one gallon containers of bomb-grade hydrogen peroxide, uranium, thorium (also radioactive), lithium metal, thermite, aluminum powder, beryllium (radiation booster), boron, black iron oxide and magnesium ribbon.
[...]
The FBI states it also seized literature on how to build “dirty bombs” and information about cesium-137, strontium-90 and cobalt-60 and other radioactive materials.
[...]
Local tradesmen who worked at the Cummings home told Maine reporters that Cummings was an ardent admirer of Adolf Hitler and had a collection of Nazi memorabilia around the house, including a prominently displayed flag with a swastika.

Hmm, maybe the relative punishments fit the crimes.

THIS is an actual terrorist! And a civilian broke the law and executed a terrorist. A terrorist that had gathered radioactive materials and explosives and literature to combine them to use them to assassinate the President and overthrow our government. Umm, where is the outrage amongst republicans!? Why isn't this story 24/7 on all major media outlets!?

Could it be because the 'victim' was white and rich and male?
I dunno, but this seems just like a '24-Jack Bauer' scenario that Cheney et al love to refer to.

p.s. Jack Bauer, just like Murphy Brown, are fictional characters. The rest of us live in a reality based world.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

The Bush Doctrine Formula; Jus ad bellum

Bush Secret Order To Send Special Forces Into Pakistan

A secret order issued by George Bush giving US special forces carte blanche to mount counter-terrorist operations inside Pakistani territory raised fears last night that escalating conflict was spreading from Afghanistan to Pakistan and could ignite a region-wide war.
[...]
Following Bush's decision, US navy Seals commandos, backed by attack helicopters, launched a ground raid into Pakistan last week which the US claimed killed about two dozen insurgents. Pakistani officials condemned the raid as illegal and said most of the dead were civilians.
[...]
The move is regarded as unprecedented in terms of sending troops into a friendly, allied country.

This latest invasion, against a country that Bush has said:

- July, 2008 "Pakistan is a strong ally and a vibrant democracy."

- July 2008 Pakistan has been a strong partner in the fight against violent extremism

-September 2006 This President is a strong defender of freedom and the people of Pakistan, and I appreciate your leadership.

The Bush Doctrine specifically delineated the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan as 'preemptive war' when they stated that

"Some have said we must not act until the threat is imminent."

Let me be clear: Analysts differed on several important aspects of these programs and those debates were spelled out in the estimate. They never said there was an imminent threat.

Bush would have done well not to make that distinction, since it is the difference between a just war and "Due to the speculative nature of preventive war, in which the adversary may or may not be a future threat, preventive war is considered an act of aggression in international law"

If there is not an 'imminent threat' it is a "Preventive war", which is illegal.

And now Bush has taken his doctrine to a whole new level by attacking what he has said is a sovereign, democratically elected, ally in the war on terror.

Preemptive war v. Preventive war.
This is not just semantics, it is the definition of the difference between a international war crime of aggression and defending your country against an imminent threat.



(h/t to The Vidiot for the inspiration for this post.)



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Into the valley of Death, Rode the six five hundred.

500th U.S. service member dies in Afghanistan

[...]
Twenty-two U.S. service members were killed in Afghanistan in August, part of a recent increase in American deaths there. In June, 28 U.S. service members died in Afghanistan -- the United States' highest one-month total in that country.

Including deaths from the United States' coalition partners, 46 service members were killed in August, equaling the coalition total for June. Forty-six is the highest one-month total for coalition forces.

But that's just 'us', what about 'them'?

UN backs Afghan civilian deaths claims

The US-led coalition has acknowledged that five civilians - two women and three children - were killed in the air strikes in Herat.

An Afghan investigation has already found that the strikes killed 90 civilians.

Now the human rights team with the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan says it has found convincing evidence that 90 civilians were killed in the attack, including 60 children.

It shouldn't need repeating, but as I've said before, if you use air strikes in a civilian populated area to kill alleged extremists ... let's just say the cure is worse than the disease.

Here's a math question: How many lives of innocent civilians are worth the life of a 'terrorist?' Follow up: How many 'terrorists' are created from their surviving family members when you kill innocent people?
Your time is up, put down your pencils. (Note to Bushco; next time show work.)

While Americans, and our media, are distracted by the dog & pony donkey & elephant show this is a reminder of the blood that's shed for their bread & circuses.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Git mo' Justice

So Hamdan, 'worst of the worst', the 'sexiest prosecution' that was ordered just in time for the election cycle, the 1st man to be rushed to trial in Gitmo ... gets 5 months. (Not that Bushco will actually let him go, even if they applauded the 'fair trial.')

In a trial where the prosecution gets to present 'evidence' obtained thru torture, gets to use secret evidence the defense can't see, has a jury of 6 US Military officers, (out of a pool of 13), and only has to have a two thirds majority for a guilty verdict finds Hamdan guilty ... and hands down a 5 month sentence.

[snark]Woo-hoo, the system works![/snark]

Aside from that, this little tidbit regarding the Hamdan verdict stood out to me:

Defense lawyers said that ever since Hamdan was designated in July 2003 to face one of the very first trials, he had been separated from other detainees, in virtual solitary confinement with long periods of no sunshine.

Prosecutors and prison camps officials say there is no such thing as solitary confinement at Guantánamo.

"no such thing as solitary confinement at Guantánamo." WTF!? USA: Guantánamo Bay - New report shows 80% of detainees in solitary confinement



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

I Wonder What the King is Doing Tonight?

Continuing Ellroon's Camelot theme:

What merriment is the king pursuing tonight?
The candles at the court, they never burned as bright.
I wonder what the king is up to tonight?

Bush uses anti-terror funds to strengthen Pakistan air force

The Bush administration faced congressional criticism today for diverting funds from Pakistan's faltering fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida to pay for upgrades of the US-built F-16 combat planes.

The White House spokeswoman, Dana Perino, today insisted the F-16s had a role in counterterrorism operations. "The F-16s that they have are used in counterterrorism operations," Perino said. "We made them available to the Pakistanis and they need to be maintained."
[...]
The move puts President George Bush at odds with Congress, which last year passed legislation specifying that the money be used for counter-terrorism or law enforcement.
[...]
A state department official said the timing was dictated by a need to make payment to Lockheed by the end of July.

Oh, well, that explains it, we needed to give the $$ to Pakistan so that they can give it to Lockheed ... wait, what!?

OK, let's get a few facts straight here: America didn't 'make available' the F-16s we sold them to Pakistan, and it's been controversial for over 20 years.
F-16s don't 'target' terrorists, they target homes and villages, an F-16 can only kill a person by killing a lot of the people around them. Even 'smart bombs' are still bombs and they will always incur 'collateral damage' AKA innocent people.
Combating terrorism is more about winning hearts and minds than achieving military victories. Every time you kill civilians you create more people who hate you.

OK, 'nuff said, let's move on:

U.S. Rushes to Change Workplace Toxin Rules

Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush administration a rule making it tougher to regulate workers' on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins.

The agency did not disclose the proposal, as required, in public notices of regulatory plans that it filed in December and May. Instead, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao's intention to push for the rule first surfaced on July 7, when the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) posted on its Web site that it was reviewing the proposal, identified only by its nine-word title.

The text of the proposed rule has not been made public

OK, outrage fatigue has set in so I'd just like to mention that Bush's policies have killed more Americans than terrorism.

Next up:

An American General confirms George Bush has committed war crimes

Well, I'll tell you what the king is feeling tonight:
He's numb!
He shakes!
He quails! He quakes!
And that's what the king is doing tonight.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

Just runnin' scared each place we go

As the McCain campaign deconstructs into flip-flopping, hypocrisy, and general hackery, a truly horrible video (above) has been presented on the McCain web site, criticizing Barack Obama.

In the opening sequence, these letters appear on the screen, below Obama's picture:

A L Q D C MT RY

Not clear enough? Al Qaeda Documentary? Or Al Qaeda Commentary?

It quickly morphs into The Obama Iraq Documentary. Nice.

There is speculation in the blogosphere that Alex Castellanos is behind this video. Who? This guy:

The Republican media consultant Alex Castellanos has been called the father of the modern political attack ad — an appellation he might not offer up himself, though we suspect he’s kinda proud of it. Although Castellanos has served on the GOP media team in every general election since 1988, his most infamous spot ran in the 1990 North Carolina Senate race between Jesse Helms and Harvey Gantt, the former mayor of Charlotte, who also happened to be an African-American. The commercial was called “Hands,” and it showed a white guy sitting at a table, the camera trained on his mitts as he crumpled up a job-rejection notice. “You needed that job and you were the best qualified,” intoned the voice-over. “But they gave it to a minority because of a racial quota.” Ugly? Sure. But it won reelection for Helms. In this year’s Republican race, Castellanos worked on Mitt Romney’s primary bid, but today he sits on what’s known as the McCain Ad Council, a group of A-list Republican admen serving as outside media advisers to the GOP standard-bearer.

McCain is an empty suit, trying to appeal to the hawks, Religious Right, and Big Government Republicans that have taken over the party of Dwight Eisenhower. McCain may have had ideals, ethics, morals at some point, but he threw them into the trash to appeal to the party's base.

This is all he has left: Obama = Al Qaeda. As a defense against Bush = McCain advertising, it ain't working so well.

Bastard.

(h/t julian from dm.com)

Doctor, Doctor, Give Me the News!

General Who Probed Abu Ghraib Says Bush Officials Committed War Crimes

The Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison accused the Bush administration Wednesday of committing “war crimes” and called for those responsible to be held to account.
[...]
“After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes,” Taguba wrote. “The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”
[...]
Doctors and mental health experts examined 11 detainees held for long periods in the prison system that President Bush established after the 9-11 terrorist attacks. All of them eventually were released without charges.

The doctors and experts determined that the men had been subject to cruelties that ranged from isolation, sleep deprivation and hooding to electric shocks, beating and, in one case, being forced to drink urine.
[...]
The Defense Department responds to concerns raised by the International Committee for the Red Cross, he said, which has access to detainees under military control.

"the International Committee for the Red Cross ... which has access to detainees under military control" Well that's just a bald faced lie:

Documents Confirm US Hid Detainees From Red Cross

The U.S. military hid the locations of suspected terrorist detainees and concealed harsh treatment to avoid the scrutiny of the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to documents that a Senate committee released Tuesday.

“We may need to curb the harsher operations while ICRC is around. It is better not to expose them to any controversial techniques,” Lt. Col. Diane Beaver, a military lawyer who’s since retired, said during an October 2002 meeting at the Guantanamo Bay prison to discuss employing interrogation techniques that some have equated with torture. Her comments were recorded in minutes of the meeting that were made public Tuesday. At that same meeting, Beaver also appeared to confirm that U.S. officials at another detention facility - Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan - were using sleep deprivation to “break” detainees well before then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld approved that technique. “True, but officially it is not happening,” she is quoted as having said.

A third person at the meeting, Jonathan Fredman, the chief counsel for the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center, disclosed that detainees were moved routinely to avoid the scrutiny of the ICRC, which keeps tabs on prisoners in conflicts around the world.

“In the past when the ICRC has made a big deal about certain detainees, the DOD (Defense Department) has ‘moved’ them away from the attention of the ICRC,” Fredman said, according to the minutes.
[...]
Fredman of the CIA also appeared to be advocating the use of techniques harsher than those authorized by military field guides “If the detainee dies, you’re doing it wrong,” the minutes report Fredman saying at one point.

There you have it in (literally) a nutshell. But wait! There's more!

I guess they 'did it wrong' a bunch (VIA Think Progress):

At today’s House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil Rights hearing on torture, Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, told Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) that over 100 detainees have died in U.S. custody, with up to 27 of these declared homicides

NADLER: Colonel Wilkerson, in your prepared testimony, you write that “as I compiled my dossier for Secretary Powell, and as I did further research, and as my views grew firmer and firmer I had to reread that memo (of February 7, 2002), “I needed to balance in my own mind the overwhelming evidence that my own government had sanctioned abuse and torture, which at its worse had led to the murder of 25 detainees and at least 100 detainee deaths. We have murder at least 25 people in detention. That was the clear low point [lower end of the range] of the evidence.” Your testimony said 100 detainees have died in detention; do you believe the 25 of those were in effect murdered?

WILKERSON: Mr. Chairman, I think the number’s actually higher than that now. Last time I checked it was 108, and the total number that were declared homicides by the military services, or by the CIA, or others doing investigations, CID, and so forth — was 25, 26, 27.

NADLER: Were declared homicides?

WILKERSON: Right, starting as early as December 2001 in Afghanistan.

NADLER: And these were homicides committed by people engaged in interrogations?

WILKERSON: Or in guarding prisoners, or something like that. People who were in detention.

NADLER: They were in detention, not trying to escape or anything, declared homicides by our own authorities.

Maybe, just maybe, impeachment should be off the table. Just because Bush 'unsigned' the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court doesn't mean Bush et al can't be subject to it once they have left office.

We can only hope.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

the ink of a scholar is worth a thousand times more than the blood of a martyr

GWBush stepped in some horse doo doo today:

In a speech to Israel's Knesset, Bush said: "Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along."

"We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

Of course, his loyal minions claim he wasn't trying to smear Obama:

The White House said Bush's comment wasn't a reference to Obama.

"It is not," press secretary Dana Perino told reporters in Israel. "I would think that all of you who cover these issues and have for a long time have known that there are many who have suggested these types of negotiations with people that the president, President Bush, thinks that we should not talk to. I understand when you're running for office you sometimes think the world revolves around you. That is not always true. And it is not true in this case."

Sure. That's why it was done in the Knesset; Bush can claim that Republicans are better defenderers of Israel. And it's bullshit on so many levels. And who was the genius speechwriter that came up with this? We can't blame Frum for this, I don't think he's that stupid.

Harry Reid has a pretty good take on it:

“Not surprisingly, the engineer of the worst foreign policy in our nation’s history has fired yet another reckless and reprehensible round. More than seven years into his Presidency and in the sixth year of the directionless Iraq war, President Bush has yet to learn that his brand of divisive partisan rhetoric is precisely what has made America and our allies less secure. And for the President to make this statement before the government of our closest ally as it celebrates a remarkable milestone demeans this historic moment with partisan politics.

“President Bush’s own actions demonstrate that he believes negotiations – at the right moment, under the right conditions and with the right leaders – can both show strength and produce results. He has relied on negotiations with North Korea and Libya, two state sponsors of terror. And by conducting discussions with Russia, China, Libya, North Korea and Iran in recent years, President Bush has demonstrated his belief that negotiations can be a tool to advance America and Israel’s national security interests. I call on the President to explain the inconsistency between his Administration’s actions and his words today.”

Obama's response was OK, just OK, but Kevin Drum's take is spot on:

Over in Israel today, George Bush got right down to business and compared Democrats to the Hitler appeasers who sold out Czechoslovakia just before World War II. Barack Obama shot back that this was a "false political attack" and that Bush was a liar.

. . . I still think I would have preferred something like a Reaganesque shake of his head followed by "It's always Munich with these guys, isn't it?" There are times when mockery is the best policy.

And as proof that GWBush's statement is sheer partisan hackery, here's his SecDef just yesterday in the WaPo:

The United States should construct a combination of incentives and pressure to engage Iran, and may have missed earlier opportunities to begin a useful dialogue with Tehran, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday.

Does this mean he will be reprimanded by Bush? McCain, of course, fellates supports Bush:

Senator John McCain, who has been critical of President Bush on the environment and other policies this week, on Thursday morning wholeheartedly endorsed Mr. Bush’s veiled rebuke in the Israeli Knesset of Senator Barack Obama that talking to “terrorists and radicals'’ was no different than appeasing Hitler and the Nazis.

“Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain,'’ Mr. McCain told reporters on his campaign bus after a speech in Columbus, Ohio. “I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.'’

Note the obligatory Reagan idolatry. But oft-sensible conservative Andrew Sullivan thinks:

This is manna for the Obama campaign, sent straight from Heaven. Who wouldn't want to run against this president this November? By conflating Bush and McCain on this, the White House has done the Democrats a massive favor.

McCain's invocation of Reagan's vision is pretty myopic. Fred Kaplan in Slate:

Part of the Soviet failure in Afghanistan was due to the fact that the Reagan administration was feeding billions of dollars in arms to Afghanistan's Islamic resistance. Reagan and, even more, his intensely ideological CIA director, William Casey, saw the battle for Afghanistan as a titanic struggle in the war between Eastern tyranny and Western freedom.

. . . After the last Soviet troops departed, Afghanistan fell off the American radar screen. Over the next few years, Shevardnadze's worst nightmares came true. The Taliban rose to power and in 1996 gave refuge to the—by then—much-hunted Bin Laden.

Oh yeah, those were our terrorists. So Reagan was doing his presidential duty by talking with those terrorists, as well as creating Iran-Contra, but now Bush and McSame won't talk to anybody?

Bastards.

Here's Lupe Fiasco's "American Terrorist":

The Reign in Spain Declines To Extradict Due to Pain

Spain drops extradition attempt against Guantánamo torture pair

Spain yesterday dropped its attempt to extradite two British residents who had been freed from Guantánamo Bay, after accepting that torture they suffered during five years of American custody had left them too weak to stand trial.
[...]
The Madrid judge who issued the warrant, Baltasar Garzon, accepted British medical reports which found the men were suffering from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other serious medical conditions.

Banna is said to be severely depressed, suffering from PTSD, and to have diabetes, hypertension and back pain, as well as damage to the back of his left knee. Deghayes is also suffering from PTSD, and depression, is blind in his right eye, and has fractures in his nasal bone and his right index finger. Both men are said to be at high risk of suicide.

And Bush says he doesn't torture.

One would think it would end there, but the British Home Office still wants to not only break these men, but break their families:

The Home Office refused to guarantee to let the pair stay with their families in Britain and said: "Their immigration status is under review."

Deghayes and Banna arrived back in Britain with a third British resident, Abdennour Samuer. Banna, from north-west London, was arrested in the Gambia in 2002 after he did not accept an MI5 request to become an informant.

I guess that's not surprising since they don't mind sending political refugees back to their home countries to a fate worse than, but including, death.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

One third-degree mortally wounded, gloomy, gloomy way

Karzai Only Controls 1/3 of Afghanistan

February 28, 2008; 2:23 AM

WASHINGTON -- More than six years after the U.S. invaded to establish a stable central regime in Afghanistan, the Kabul government under President Hamid Karzai controls just 30 percent of the country, the top U.S. intelligence official said Wednesday.

National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the resurgent Taliban controls 10 percent to 11 percent of the country and Karzai's government controls 30 percent to 31 percent. The majority of Afghanistan's population and territory remains under local tribal control, he said.
[...]
In 2007, insurgency-related violence killed more than 6,500 people, including 222 foreign troops. Last year was the deadliest yet since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

Officials estimate that up to 40 percent of proceeds from Afghanistan's drug trade _ an amount worth tens of millions of dollars _ is used to fund the insurgency.

And in related news:

Fresh cheap heroin headed for New England

Feb 28, 2008

The booming poppy harvest in Afghanistan could soon become New England's heroin problem.

Ahh, the Bush policy of the 'free market' at work.[/snark]

Bush et al were so desperate to invade Iraq that after 6 1/2 years of war in Afghanistan they only manage to control 3 times more area than the Taliban does. And somehow heroin keeps entering our country regardless of the DHS and their 900,000 people on the 'Terrer Watch List.'

Just a quick question: What terrifies you more; The reality of your child being exposed to cheaper heroin or the fantasy of a 'ticking time bomb' somewhere in America?



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

You will come to know, When the bullet hits the bone

Bhutto Report: Musharraf Planned to Fix Elections

NAUDERO, Pakistan — The day she was assassinated last Thursday, Benazir Bhutto had planned to reveal new evidence alleging the involvement of Pakistan’s intelligence agencies in rigging the country’s upcoming elections, an aide said Monday.

Bhutto had been due to meet U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., to hand over a report charging that the military Inter-Services Intelligence agency was planning to fix the polls in the favor of President Pervez Musharraf.

Safraz Khan Lashari, a member of the Pakistan People’s Party election monitoring unit, said the report was “very sensitive” and that the party wanted to initially share it with trusted American politicians rather than the Bush administration

"the report was “very sensitive” and that the party wanted to initially share it with trusted American politicians rather than the Bush administration"

I think that says it all.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

I'd die for you, I'd cry for you, I'd do anything, I'd lie for you, You know it's true, Baby I'd die for you

It's happening in Pakistan:

Twin suicide car bomb attacks killed 15 people in the Pakistani garrison town of Rawalpindi on Saturday, the military said, the eve of the return of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif from exile in Saudi Arabia.

It's happening in Afghanistan:

A suicide bomber killed nine civilians, six of them children, and an Italian soldier on the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday, NATO said.

It's certaily happening in Iraq:

Friday noon, two car bombs targeted two police patrols in two different locations in Mosul killing 9 and injuring 21 others.. The first one was a suicide car bomb in Al-Mithaq square targeting a police patrol and few minutes later another car exploded at Al-Baath intersection targeting another police patrol and the result was 9 killed ( 6 of them were policemen ) and 21 injured ( including 8 policemen ).

What's the cause? Of course it's Islamist fundamentalists, who hate us for our freedoms. according to GWBushCo:

They hate our freedoms -- our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.

Actually, no.

It turns out that suicide bombers hate occupying forces, pretty much everywhere. Robert Pape, Political Science Professor at the University of Chicago wrote a book titled "Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism". Here's what he says, interviewed by the radical leftist magizine "The American Conservative":

The American Conservative: Your new book, Dying to Win, has a subtitle: The Logic of Suicide Terrorism. Can you just tell us generally on what the book is based, what kind of research went into it, and what your findings were?

Robert Pape: Over the past two years, I have collected the first complete database of every suicide-terrorist attack around the world from 1980 to early 2004. This research is conducted not only in English but also in native-language sources—Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, and Tamil, and others—so that we can gather information not only from newspapers but also from products from the terrorist community. The terrorists are often quite proud of what they do in their local communities, and they produce albums and all kinds of other information that can be very helpful to understand suicide-terrorist attacks.

This wealth of information creates a new picture about what is motivating suicide terrorism. Islamic fundamentalism is not as closely associated with suicide terrorism as many people think. The world leader in suicide terrorism is a group that you may not be familiar with: the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.

This is a Marxist group, a completely secular group that draws from the Hindu families of the Tamil regions of the country. They invented the famous suicide vest for their suicide assassination of Rajiv Ghandi in May 1991. The Palestinians got the idea of the suicide vest from the Tamil Tigers.

TAC: So if Islamic fundamentalism is not necessarily a key variable behind these groups, what is?

RP: The central fact is that overwhelmingly suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland. From Lebanon to Sri Lanka to Chechnya to Kashmir to the West Bank, every major suicide-terrorist campaign—over 95 percent of all the incidents—has had as its central objective to compel a democratic state to withdraw.

TAC: That would seem to run contrary to a view that one heard during the American election campaign, put forth by people who favor Bush’s policy. That is, we need to fight the terrorists over there, so we don’t have to fight them here.

RP: Since suicide terrorism is mainly a response to foreign occupation and not Islamic fundamentalism, the use of heavy military force to transform Muslim societies over there, if you would, is only likely to increase the number of suicide terrorists coming at us.

Since 1990, the United States has stationed tens of thousands of ground troops on the Arabian Peninsula, and that is the main mobilization appeal of Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda. People who make the argument that it is a good thing to have them attacking us over there are missing that suicide terrorism is not a supply-limited phenomenon where there are just a few hundred around the world willing to do it because they are religious fanatics. It is a demand-driven phenomenon. That is, it is driven by the presence of foreign forces on the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland. The operation in Iraq has stimulated suicide terrorism and has given suicide terrorism a new lease on life.

TAC: If we were to back up a little bit before the invasion of Iraq to what happened before 9/11, what was the nature of the agitprop that Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were putting out to attract people?

RP: Osama bin Laden’s speeches and sermons run 40 and 50 pages long. They begin by calling tremendous attention to the presence of tens of thousands of American combat forces on the Arabian Peninsula.

In 1996, he went on to say that there was a grand plan by the United States—that the Americans were going to use combat forces to conquer Iraq, break it into three pieces, give a piece of it to Israel so that Israel could enlarge its country, and then do the same thing to Saudi Arabia. As you can see, we are fulfilling his prediction, which is of tremendous help in his mobilization appeals.

TAC: The fact that we had troops stationed on the Arabian Peninsula was not a very live issue in American debate at all. How many Saudis and other people in the Gulf were conscious of it?

RP: We would like to think that if we could keep a low profile with our troops that it would be okay to station them in foreign countries. The truth is, we did keep a fairly low profile. We did try to keep them away from Saudi society in general, but the key issue with American troops is their actual combat power. Tens of thousands of American combat troops, married with air power, is a tremendously powerful tool.

Now, of course, today we have 150,000 troops on the Arabian Peninsula, and we are more in control of the Arabian Peninsula than ever before.

TAC: If you were to break down causal factors, how much weight would you put on a cultural rejection of the West and how much weight on the presence of American troops on Muslim territory?

RP: The evidence shows that the presence of American troops is clearly the pivotal factor driving suicide terrorism.

(Note: emphasis mine)

Ok, kids, now do you get it? Do you see how badly we've allowed ourselves to be duped, lied to? Gawd a'mighty, how much more jingoistic jargon do we need to hear before we realize that we've totally screwed the pooch with this one?

Oh, and for all the Right-wingers who yearn for 'victory' in Iraq, and war with Iran and domination of Syria and a wall around Israel and free oil from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and privatization of all American services both at home and abroad?

Go to hell. You don't even deserve to die.

cuz everybody knows, I'm a man with a mission

9/11 changed everything! It's a post-9/11 world! Global war on Islamowankerism!

No, not Rudy Giuliani's campaign slogans, but close: Slogans thrown around by GWBush and Right-wingers, and even some lefties, in recent years.

We're being pressed to accept a war on any form of terroristic activity, except when we aren't actually at war against terrorists. Exhibit 1: Osama Bin Laden.

Exhibit 2: Luis Posada:

In the first Congressional hearing held on the controversial case of violent Cuban exile Luis Posada Carriles, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight invited National Security Archive Senior Analyst Peter Kornbluh to testify on formerly top secret CIA and FBI intelligence reports linking Posada to the October 6, 1976 bombing of a Cuban civilian airliner. In his testimony, Kornbluh argued that the declassified records demonstrated that Posada had concrete foreknowledge of the bombing; was in possession of a surveillance report on Cuban targets that included the doomed plane; received coded messages immediately after the plane went into the ocean from the men who placed the bombs; and was quickly identified by multiple FBI and CIA sources in Venezuela as one of two masterminds of the attack that claimed the lives of all 73 passengers and crew.

Kornbluh called Posada “one of the most prolific purveyors of political violence in recent history” and said that the evidence in the plane bombing was “more than sufficient” to have detained Posada for acts of international terrorism under the Patriot Act. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales refused to designate Posada as a terrorist and a judge dismissed immigration fraud charges against him last spring. Posada now lives freely in Miami, as does Orlando Bosch, who the CIA and FBI both identify as a co-conspirator in the plane bombing. “The United States now finds itself in the frankly inexplicable position of having not one but both men who our own intelligence agencies identified as responsible for bringing down a civilian airliner living free and unfettered lives in Florida,” Kornbluh told the Committee.

Nice to know our government, kept small and weak by the conservatives in power now (note: irony) has done so much to protect us. They can talk ATT into spying on my email, but can't actually be bothered to find actual terrorists, even when they know where they are.

Oh, and that horrible, brutish dictator of Cuba, Castro, would like to get his hands on Posada. But no, we can't have that, now, can we?

Because besides bombing innocents. Posada wants to oust Castro. And nothing else matters:

The idealized Cuban landscapes that Luis Posada Carriles paints are nothing like the world he inhabits -- a world of conspiracies to murder Fidel Castro, bomb his hotels and blow up his freighters.

The 68-year-old Posada is already known as a Bay of Pigs veteran, former CIA operative, accused bomber of a jetliner in which 73 people died and alleged mastermind of a streak of bombings in Cuba last summer.

Here are many more links to Posada's long history of terrorism. And his ties to U.S. interests.

The incompetence, it overwhelms.

Bastards.

Update: darkblack adds in the comments that as usual, a Bush is involved (from 2002):

The brother of President George Bush, the Florida governor, Jeb Bush, has been instrumental in securing the release from prison of militant Cuban exiles convicted of terrorist offences, according to a new book. The Bush family has also accommodated the demands of Cuban exile hardliners in exchange for electoral and financial support, the book suggests.

It was the heat of the moment

(AFP Photo)

GWBush's BFF Musharraf, a partner in the Global War on Terrorism™ has gone off the reservation, and the Times of India has some perspective:

Pakistani military ruler Pervez Musharraf's has defied the advice of his American benefactors in imposing martial law and Emergency, but Washington appears set to finesse the situation yet again because of what it sees as the overall US interest in the so-called war on terror.

The first sign that Washington is ready to wink at Musharraf's crackdown came when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stopped short of condemning the development and instead described it as "highly regrettable."

. . . But the statements fell well short of the kind of condemnations Washington routinely issues against countries, excepting vassal states, that suppress democratic rights, indicating that the administration was already finessing Musharraf's crackdown.

. . . Musharraf also rejected Fallon's offer to send US troops to the region, saying American forces would only exacerbate the situation, and demanding instead that Washington supply more military hardware.

. . . Musharraf's journey from Washington's poster boy to possibly its problem child has been gradual but understated. Publicly, the Bush administration still swears by him; privately, it began swearing at him some months back when reports first surfaced that he was holding back on Washington in its war on terror.

But instead of dumping him overnight as it often does with odious dictators, Washington decided that the delicate war on terror business demanded a gradual transition in Pakistan, a country seen as the ground zero of world terrorism.

That was when the Bush administration decided to interject Benazir Bhutto, the discredited former prime minister who was not even getting a low level state department appointment till last year.

Well. Indeed. A viewpoint not likely to be heard in the "free" mainsream media here. What they don't mention is the purported reasons for the State of Emergency:

The Pakistani leader, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, declared a state of emergency on Saturday night, suspending the country’s Constitution, blacking out all independent television news reports and filling the streets of the capital with police officers and soldiers.

The move appeared to be an effort by General Musharraf to reassert his fading power in the face of growing opposition from the country’s Supreme Court, civilian political parties and hard-line Islamists. Pakistan’s Supreme Court was expected to rule within days on the legality of General Musharraf’s re-election last month as the country’s president, which opposition groups have said was improper.

Interestingly, many Pakistani newspapers still have their web sites up:

Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has declared emergency rule and suspended the country's constitution.
Troops have been deployed inside state-run TV and radio stations, while independent channels have gone off air.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who condemned the moves, has been replaced and is being confined to the Supreme Court with 10 other judges.

It comes as the court was due to rule on the legality of Gen Musharraf's re-election victory in October.

And here:

President General Pervez Musharraf, in his capacity as the chief of army staff, on Saturday declared emergency rule in the country, suspended the country’s constitution, and issued a new Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO).Text of emergency proclamation

. . . Soon after the proclamation of emergency by Gen Musharraf, an eight-member bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, reportedly set aside the decision. Setting aside General Musharraf’s proclamation of emergency, the panel asked all members of the superior judiciary against taking oath under the new PCO.

The Supreme Court, in its order, termed Gen Musharraf’s action “illegal and unconstitutional” and asked the corps commanders and all civil and military officials not to take oath under the PCO. Till filing of this report, the judges of the SC were still inside the court building.

. . . There were also reports that some of the lawyers, including the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, have been taken into custody. Mr. Ahsan’s wife told reporters that her husband was arrested soon after the imposition of emergency.

Although news of a possible emergency rule had been doing rounds for the past several days, on Saturday it became quite evident when a large contingent of paramilitary troops started to arrive in Islamabad, and cable operators were asked to pull the plug on all independent news channels, including DawnNews, Geo, ARY and Aaj TV.

Land telephone lines and mobile phones are also partially down in Islamabad and communication has become almost impossible in many parts of the capital. TV channels and newspapers had been reporting for the past few days that the government had made up its mind to declare emergency rule.

Here is a link to several other Pakistani newspapers. Inerestingly, several seem to present the Musharraf side of the story. Clearly, this is a totalitarian country, unlike the U.S. where press and media would never unquestioningly present the administration story.

Oh, wait . . . never mind.

Nuke Heads on the Block

Stop me if you've heard this one; Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, Paul Wolfowitz, and Donald Rumsfeld conspire to trash the reputation of a CIA specialist in WMDs, while breaking American and international law. Sound familiar? But I'm not talking about Valerie Plame, she was just the latest episode ... that we know about.

I'm referring to Rich Barlow, a former covert CIA operative, analyst, WMD specialist, and Pentagon WMD specialist who has been trying to clear his name for almost 20 years.

In the late 80s, in the course of tracking down smugglers of WMD components, Barlow uncovered reams of material that related to Pakistan. It was known the Islamic Republic had been covertly striving to acquire nuclear weapons since India's explosion of a device in 1974 and the prospect terrified the west - especially given the instability of a nation that had had three military coups in less than 30 years . [...]
He soon discovered, however, that senior officials in government were taking quite the opposite view: they were breaking US and international non-proliferation protocols to shelter Pakistan's ambitions and even sell it banned WMD technology.
[...]
Next he discovered that the Pentagon was preparing to sell Pakistan jet fighters that could be used to drop a nuclear bomb.
[...]
the nuclear weapons programmes of Iran, Libya and North Korea - which British and American intelligence now acknowledge were all secretly enabled by Pakistan - would never have got off the ground. "None of this need have happened," Robert Gallucci, special adviser on WMD to both Clinton and George W Bush, told us.
[...]
As the first Gulf war came to an end with no regime change in Iraq, a group of neoconservatives led by Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Lewis "Scooter" Libby and Donald Rumsfeld were already lobbying to finish what that campaign had started and dislodge Saddam. Even as the CIA amassed evidence showing that Pakistan, a state that sponsored Islamist terrorism and made its money by selling proscribed WMD technology, was the number one threat, they earmarked Iraq as the chief target.

There's so much more I encourage you to read the whole thing.



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

I read the news today ... ohhhh, boy.

Artist's conception of Gonzo & attorney
Gonzales Lawyers Up with Sideshow George Terwilliger.
***********
Rice Says Iran 'Lying' About Nukes
[...]
"There is an Iranian history of obfuscation and, indeed, lying to the IAEA," she said, referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Golly, that would strike terror into my heart ... except for the fact that the IAEA has credibility and Rice has lied about this exact issue before.

***********
Six-Figure Bonuses Retain US Commandos

The Pentagon has paid more than $100 million in bonuses to veteran Green Berets and Navy SEALs, reversing the flow of top commandos to the corporate world where security companies such as Blackwater USA are offering big salaries.
[...]
1,200 of the military's most specialized personnel near or already eligible for retirement have opted for payments of up to $150,000 in return for staying in uniform several more years.

Wow, how bad is it when only 1,200 think $150,000 is worth re-upping!?

************
U.S. says 15 civilians, including 9 children, killed in raid in Iraq

[...]
The statement says ground forces secured the area and determined "15 terrorists, six women and nine children were killed."

Is it just me or does anyone else think killing 15 innocent women and children for 15 alleged terrorists is too high a price to pay?

***************
ACLU Tries to Prevent Deportee Druggings

LOS ANGELES - The American Civil Liberties Union filed a motion to stop immigration authorities forcibly drugging deportees as they are put on commercial flights back to their home countries.

The motion, filed Tuesday in federal court, comes after an immigration official testified in the Senate last month that 50 immigrants over a seven-month period were forced to take psychotropic drugs. Many of them had no psychiatric diagnosis.

I guess the War on Brown People trumps the War on Drugs.

***************
Jimmy Carter: US Tortures Prisoners

WASHINGTON - The U.S. tortures prisoners in violation of international law, former President Jimmy Carter said Wednesday, adding that President Bush makes up his own definition of torture.

“Our country for the first time in my life time has abandoned the basic principle of human rights,” Carter said on CNN. “We’ve said that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to those people in Abu Ghraib prison and Guantanamo, and we’ve said we can torture prisoners and deprive them of an accusation of a crime.”

Bush, responding to an Oct. 4 report by The New York Times on secret Justice Department memorandums supporting the use of “harsh interrogation techniques,” defended the techniques Friday by proclaiming: “This government does not torture people.”

Carter said the interrogation methods cited by the Times, including “head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures,” constitute torture “if you use the international norms of torture as has always been honored - certainly in the last 60 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated.

“But you can make your own definition of human rights and say we don’t violate them, and you can make your own definition of torture and say we don’t violate them,” Carter said.

Actually Mr. President, it's simpler than that. Whenever Bush says something you can bet the opposite is true.

Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

empire sews the seed of hate

Believe it or not, this image is not Photoshopped!

I hate all Iranians, US aide tells MPs

Britsh MPs visiting the Pentagon to discuss America's stance on Iran and Iraq were shocked to be told by one of President Bush's senior women officials: "I hate all Iranians."

And she also accused Britain of "dismantling" the Anglo-US-led coalition in Iraq by pulling troops out of Basra too soon.

The all-party group of MPs say Debra Cagan, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Coalition Affairs to Defence Secretary Robert Gates, made the comments this month.

What's the deal with Bushco and their jackbooted fembots!?



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak

She never said that we would, curse, cry and scream and lie

A senior leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq was killed in a US air strike in Iraq this week, a US military commander said Friday, calling it a key loss to a group already fractured by US operations.
[...]
"Abu Usama al-Tunisi was one of the most senior leaders within Al-Qaeda in Iraq," said Anderson, the chief of staff of Multi-National Corps Iraq.

The general said the September 25 strike that killed al-Tunisi was a "significant blow" to al Qaeda in Iraq, which he said has been severely disrupted by US operations and may now be reassessing its position in Iraq.

Yet on the very same day:

A wave of bombings and shootings swept Iraq yesterday, killing at least 50 persons and raising fears that al Qaeda has begun a promised new offensive. The U.S. military acknowledged that violence was on the upswing and blamed it on the terrorist movement.

Isn't it amazing what disrupted, fractured, and leaderless people can do if they just put their mines to it.

Come up and be a kite

Arianna & Huffington Post organized a special screening of the new film "The Kite Runner" on the Paramount lot last night which we attended. This film is based on the remarkable book by Khaled Hosseini, which chronicles the rapid and heartbreaking changes in Afghanistan in the last 20 years, starting with the fall of the Afghan monarchy, continuing with the Russian invasion, and ending with the rule of the Taliban. All this is told through the story of a young boy, who escapes with his father to Pakistan and then America, but who has to return to Kabul as an adult to finish some surprising, and dangerous business.

Here is the wikipedia entry about the book, and here's the entry for the film.

The films is really 3 stories: Amir, the young boy of privilege but not courage, who eventually finds the strength to atone for his earlier shame and take charge of his life; the recent history of Afghanistan and its invaders; and finally, the brutality of the Taliban, and the hypocrisy that seems to be a part of all totalitarian regimes.

This last part is the most politically relevant today, as many in the US seem to feel that Taliban isn't that harsh or dominant in that region. And while many here also tend to confuse the 2 major -stans with each other, Pakistan is shown to be much different from Afghanistan. Of course, artistic license may affect the presentation. Still, the differences are startling.

Mark Kleiman, fellow L.A. blogger who also saw the film, posts this about it:

From a commercial perspective, the political timing of the film wasn't ideal. In its unblinking depiction of the disgusting viciousness of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, The Kite Runner could have been the Casablanca of the Global War on IslamoFascismoTerrorismo Nastitude. That's not the message most likely to resonate with the moviegoing public right now; the people who would otherwise like to hear it won't want to be reminded of the way the Bush Administration took its eye off the ball in Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban resurgence, in order to invade and occupy Iraq.

In case anyone has forgotten, the Taliban has had its share of US support. Recognize the guy on the right, the only one smiling because he's holding a butch, manly rifle?

Yep, it's Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA). Bastard.

It's due to be in theaters Nov. 2nd. Go see it, don't take young children (PG-13 is really generous, it ought to be R for violence).

Update: Changed title to a better one.

I'm a Chiquita Banana and I'm Here to Slay

In Terrorism-Law Case, Chiquita Points to US
Firm Says It Awaited Justice Dept. Advice

On April 24, 2003, a board member of Chiquita International Brands disclosed to a top official at the Justice Department that the king of the banana trade was evidently breaking the nation’s anti- terrorism laws.

Roderick M. Hills, who had sought the meeting with former law firm colleague Michael
Chertoff, explained that Chiquita was paying “protection money” to a Colombian
paramilitary group on the U.S. government’s list of terrorist organizations. Hills said he knew that such payments were illegal, according to sources and court records, but said that he needed Chertoff’s advice.
[...]
Chertoff, then assistant attorney general and now secretary of homeland security, affirmed that the payments were illegal but said to wait for more feedback, according to five sources familiar with the meeting.
[...]
The company has already pleaded guilty to making $1.7 million in payments to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), and it agreed to pay a $25 million fine.
[...]
In the plea agreement, Chiquita officials said they knew that AUC was blamed
for numerous killings and kidnappings in the region
[...]
Prosecutors say senior company executives were aware of the designation in 2002, and internal Chiquita records state that the company’s outside legal counsel warned them in February 2003 that they “must stop payments.”
[...]
The attorney general of Colombia, Mario Iguaran, and other Colombian officials have
dismissed Chiquita’s assertions that it was a victim of extortion and paid AUC to
protect its workers. An Organization of American States report in 2003 said that
Chiquita participated in smuggling thousands of arms for paramilitaries into the
Northern Uraba region, using docks operated by the company to unload thousands of
Central American assault rifles and ammunition.

What better example of the corruption of the Bush regime can one have?



Cross posted at VidiotSpeak