Fold/Spindle/Mutilate 2.1
An Online Dowser and Filter Of Important Information
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
A leading aide to the former secretary of state Colin Powell has accused Vice-President Dick Cheney of creating the climate in which prisoner abuse could flourish, and implied that he might have committed war crimes.
Lawrence Wilkerson, General Powell’s chief of staff until January this year, alleged that US policy on Iraq before and after the March 2003 invasion had been hijacked by an alliance between Mr Cheney and the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld
Fineman: Bush administration not “fully candid” on war because it “underestimate[d] the intelligence of the American people”
Appearing on the November 28 edition of MSNBC’s Imus in the Morning, Newsweek chief political correspondent Howard Fineman declared that the Bush administration was not “fully candid” about the war in Iraq because the “honest” argument for going to war seemed too “complicated and convoluted” for the American people and the world. “[W]hat they did was underestimate the intelligence of the American people,” Fineman said, adding that the proper case for war “was that we can’t let this madman … Saddam Hussein, sit on top of the largest or second-largest pool of oil in the world and siphon off billions of dollars to pay protection money, essentially, to the Osama bin Ladens of the world.”
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post reports on a recent exchange between Donald Rumsfeld and General Peter Pace, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The subject was torture:
When
UPI’s Pam Hess asked about torture by Iraqi authorities, Rumsfeld
replied that “obviously, the United States does not have a
responsibility” other than to voice disapproval.But Pace had a different view. “It is the absolute responsibility of
every U.S. service member, if they see inhumane treatment being
conducted, to intervene, to stop it,” the general said.Rumsfeld interjected: “I don’t think you mean they have an obligation to physically stop it; it’s to report it.”
But Pace meant what he said. “If they are physically present when
inhumane treatment is taking place, sir, they have an obligation to try
to stop it,” he said, firmly.
This is why Abu Ghraib
happened: because of people like Rumsfeld, who insisted on cutting
corners, using clever circumlocutions in place of plain language, and
refusing to take a firm stand on doing the right thing. Pace is having
none of it, and good for him.
The military may not always live up to its ideals, but at least they
insist on having some. Rumsfeld should have been fired long ago for not
understanding this.
Tomgram: Dreyfuss on Bush’s Deadly Dance with Islamic Theocrats
During his embattled summer vacation in Crawford, Texas, George Bush managed to launch a new promotional ditty for his war in Iraq: “As Iraqis stand up, we will stand down.” Since then there has been much commentary from the administration, from military officials, and from the media on the question of how successfully the Iraqi military is actually “standing up.” (Not especially successfully is the usual answer.) There has, however, been scarcely any serious discussion about what that new Iraqi army, heavily infiltrated by Shiite and Kurdish militiamen from the ruling parties in the Iraqi government, is actually going to stand up for. And yet this is an important question.
Only recently, for instance, American forces uncovered some striking evidence of what our new Iraq has increasingly come to look like. In a bunker in Baghdad they discovered a detention and torture center run by the Interior Ministry, itself headed by Bayan Jabr, a senior member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. SCIRI is the main Shiite religious party in the government and has a 20,000-man strong militia, the Badr Organization. While the bunker’s discovery caused an uproar here (and in Iraq), it is but the tip of the iceberg. In some sense, it is not even a new story.
For well over a year now, Human Rights Watch has been cataloguing Interior Ministry abuses and warning about a human rights catastrophe unraveling in “our” Iraq. Last July, Peter Beaumont of the British Observer revealed that the Shiite religious/political powers-that-be had set up not one detention-and-torture center but a whole “ghost network” of them — in some cases, he gave locations
President’s speech on Iraq strategy conjures a dreamworld
by James Ridgeway
WASHINGTON, D.C.–President Bush
This advertisement was deemed not suitable for air by Microsoft’s lawyers
By Robert Parry
Despite pretty words about democracy and freedom, George W. Bush
SOUTHAMPTEN, N.Y., Nov. 30 (UPI) — A federal judge has ruled that the Shinnecock Indians — the first settlers of New York’s Long Island — are a bona fide Indian tribe.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Thomas Platt is the best news the tribe has had since white settlers arrived in 1640, Newsday reported Wednesday.
It was unclear how the court decision would affect the Shinnecock’s more than 3-year-old application to the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs to win official federal recognition.
The intensely private tribe, long limited to 800 acres, wants to expand its land holdings and build a casino.
Modern-day Shinnecocks are living through a momentous chapter in their history, said former tribal trustee Fred Bess.
“We thoroughly understand our history and what our fight is, which is to stand up and get what is duly ours. It wasn’t the time or place a hundred years ago,” Bess told Newsday.
“I believe this is the right time and the right generation,” Bess said.
By Rob Capriccioso
Inside Higher Ed
Left-leaning students at Hampton University have felt for some time that campus administrators favor conservative groups and limit the free speech of liberal ones. Their argument has gained steam – and faculty members’ support – over the past month, as seven students who helped organize a gathering opposing the Bush administration face a hearing Friday that could lead to their expulsion.
Students on about 200 campuses across the country participated November 2 in an event sponsored by the nonprofit group World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime, which encouraged students to walk out of classes to signal dissatisfaction with the Bush administration. Student organizers at Hampton didn’t want to “encourage people just to stay in bed sleeping” that day, says Aaron Ray, a sophomore.
So they created fliers, focused on Hurricane Katrina, Sudan, homophobia and other issues, which they planned on handing out at the university’s student center.
“We just wanted to talk to students and encourage them to think about what’s going on in our world and how they can make a contribution,” says Ray. “The whole purpose was to get the student body aware and take intelligent action.”
About 30 minutes into their distribution effort, which Ray notes was peaceful, campus police officers showed up, saying that administrators viewed the activity as violating university policy. Officers took down student identification information from 7 of the approximately 20 organizers. Students also say the officers shot video footage.
Karl Rove
On March 21, 1973 John Dean spoke these words to the President of the United States,
By David Whitney and Margaret Talev – Bee Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON – For more than a year, Rep. John Doolittle’s connections with Jack Abramoff, a one-time high-flying Washington lobbyist, have made occasional news.
A company run by Doolittle’s wife did work for Abramoff, and the grand jury investigating his activities served her with a subpoena. Doolittle belatedly reported using Abramoff’s skybox for a fundraiser. A former Doolittle staffer had joined Abramoff’s lobbying team. And records show Abramoff, his associates and their clients, primarily Indian tribes, have contributed at least $140,000 to the Roseville Republican’s campaigns and political action committees since 1999.
Now, an admission of criminal wrongdoing by a former partner of Abramoff is boosting scrutiny of Doolittle, who is reported by national news organizations to be among lawmakers and Bush administration officials whose activities interest federal investigators.
Doolittle’s office maintains it has heard nothing from the Justice Department or a grand jury looking into Abramoff, and that the congressman has not hired a lawyer in the matter.
by David Sirota
The right-wing’s stealth assault on workers’ wages rages on in America at the state and local level. But every so often, we get a big victory. Today is one of those days, as the New Mexico Court of Appeals rejected Big Money’s efforts to gut Santa Fe’s living wage ordinance. The ruling has major national implications.
As attorney Paul Sonn, who defended the living wage ordinance, said “It
by David Sirota
This photo (at right) running on today’s Associated Press wire shows Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) laughing it up with Goldman Sachs’ CEO at the celebration of the groundbreaking of the company’s new New York City headquarters. I wonder if they are laughing about how much New York’s politicians sold out New York taxpayers by giving away hundreds of millions of dollars to the company, which is one of the wealthiest in the world? Because boy, at a time of federal, state, and local deficits, that’s really hilarious, isn’t it? (I’m being sarcastic)
Here’s what I’m talking about: Goldman Sachs managed to use its well-oiled political machine to actually get New York officials to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate welfare for the company – one of the richest in the world – to build its new headquarters. This, at a time when the federal, New York state, and New York city governments face massive budget deficits.
The Downtown Express, a weekly Manhattan paper, has the specifics of the taxpayer giveaways – giveaways that are coming as these same political leaders are cutting essential government services:
Attention On Bill Frist, Tom DeLay’s Charges Of Ethical, Legal Violations…
Lawmaker Quits After He Pleads Guilty to Bribes
By Jonathan D. Salant
Nov. 29 (Bloomberg) — Lobbyist Jack Abramoff sought the
help of U.S. Interior Department officials to save the job of an
Indian leader under fire for $37 million in fees his tribe paid
Abramoff and a partner, according to interviews and e-mails.
The department's Bureau of Indian Affairs last year ruled
that Lovelin Poncho should remain head of the Coushatta Tribe of
Louisiana. The bureau acted after Poncho sought help from
Abramoff, who called then-Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven
Griles and other Interior Department officials, according to a
person familiar with the issue.
The ruling thwarted efforts by tribal members who opposed
the payments to Abramoff and wanted the bureau's support in
ousting Poncho. “Maybe this explains why we hit such a wall in
trying to have the BIA cooperate,'' said lawyer Jimmy Faircloth,
who at the time represented a dissident faction within the
Coushattas and is now is now the tribe's attorney.
Abramoff is at the center of both a Justice Department-led
investigation and a probe by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee
into his dealings with Indian tribes and other lobbying clients.
The Senate panel is looking into more than $80 million the
casino-owning tribes paid Abramoff and partner Michael Scanlon.
Scanlon, 35, pleaded guilty on Nov. 21 to one count of
conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with a Justice Department
probe of Abramoff's alleged efforts to buy off public officials.
The American press is predictably ignoring the story. Yet it is only too plausible that Bush wanted to wipe out what he saw as a nest of terrorists.
By Juan Cole
Last week, the British newspaper the Daily Mirror reported that George W. Bush had told U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair in April 2004 that he was planning to bomb the Al-Jazeera offices in Qatar. The report, based on a leaked top-secret government memo, claimed that Blair dissuaded Bush from bombing the Arab cable news channel’s offices. An anonymous source told the Mirror, “There’s no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn’t want him to do it.” The Mirror quoted a government spokesperson, also anonymous, as suggesting that Bush’s threat had been “humorous, not serious.” But the newspaper quoted another source who said, “Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men.”
White House press secretary Scott McClellan brushed off the report, telling the Associated Press in an e-mail, “We are not interested in dignifying something so outlandish and inconceivable with a response.” In a response to a question asked in Parliament, Tony Blair denied that Bush had told him he planned to take action against Al-Jazeera. The two men involved in the leak have been charged with violating Britain’s Official Secrets Act.
The report kicked off a furor in Europe and the Middle East. It was, predictably, virtually ignored by the American press. It would be premature to claim that the Mirror’s report, based on anonymous sources and a document that has not been made public, proves that Bush intended to bomb Al-Jazeera. But the frightening truth is that it is only too possible that the Mirror’s report is accurate. Bush and his inner circle, in particular Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, had long demonized the channel as “vicious,” “inexcusably biased” and abetting terrorists. Considering the administration’s no-holds-barred approach to the “war on terror,” the closed circle of ideologues that surround Bush, and his own messianic certainty about his divine mission to rid the world of “evil,” the idea that he seriously considered bombing what he perceived as a nest of terrorist sympathizers simply cannot be ruled out. Add in the fact that the U.S. military had previously bombed Al-Jazeera’s Kabul, Afghanistan, and Baghdad, Iraq, offices (the U.S. pleaded ignorance in the Kabul case, and claimed the Baghdad bombing was a mistake), and the case becomes stronger still.
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