Saturday, November 12, 2005

News you might have missed this week

What did you miss this week? Maria uses the headlines from Democracy Now! this week to bring you up to speed.

Iraquí: "Los estadounidenses bombardearon todo, nuestras casas están destruidas"

Maria: Hola. De parte de "Democracy Now!" trece cosas que vale hacer notar este fin de semana. Paz.


Iraquí: "Los estadounidenses bombardearon todo, nuestras casas están destruidas"
La mayor parte de las comunicaciones con los pueblos sunitas de Husayabah y Qaim fue cortada. Un periodista Iraquí en Husayabah dijo a Al-Jazeera: "La ciudad carece por completo de todo lo indispensable para las necesidades básicas de la vida. No hay combustible y el invierno está por llegar. No hay comida y no hay servicios de ningún tipo, ni siquiera servicios médicos". El periodista dijo que las ambulancias no pudieron responder a las emergencias debido a que no se permite la movilización dentro de la ciudad. Un residente de Qaim dijo a Reuters: "Destruyeron Qaim, los estadounidenses bombardearon todo, nuestras casas están destruidas, nuestros hijos son victimas y queremos una solución. ¿Qué debemos hacer? Necesitamos una solución". Los residentes fueron forzados a abandonar la localidad a pie. Associated Press informó que las fuerzas comandadas por Estados Unidos advirtieron por altavoces que dispararían a quienes se marcharan en vehículos. Estados Unidos dijo que la Operación "Cortina de Acero" era necesaria para evitar que combatientes extranjeros ingresen a Irak a través de la frontera con Siria. Mientras tanto, políticos sunitas criticaron los ataques dirigidos por Estados Unidos. El principal dirigente del Partido Islámico Iraquí, Mohsen Abdul-Hamid, dijo: "Rechazamos todas las operaciones militares contra civiles porque dichas acciones llevan a la muerte de gente inocente y a la destrucción de pueblos y ciudades".

Cinco soldados estadounidenses acusados de golpear a detenidos iraquíes
Mientras tanto, las Fuerzas Armadas anunciaron el lunes que se presentaron cargos contra cinco soldados estadounidenses por asestar golpes de puño y puntapiés a detenidos en Irak. Las golpizas ocurrieron hace dos meses.

Regresa a DC Ahmed Calabi, antes exiliado iraquí y desacreditado
El ex director del Congreso Nacional Iraquí, Ahmed Chalabi, llegará a Washington esta semana, en su primer viaje oficial en más de dos años. Planea hablar el miércoles en el American Enterprise Institute (Instituto de la Empresa Estadounidense) y se reunirá con la Secretaria de Estado, Condoleezza Rice, y con el Secretario del Tesoro, John Snow. Antes de la invasión a Irak, Chalabi tenía vínculos cercanos con el Pentágono y con algunos reporteros entre los cuales se encontraba Judith Miller, del New York Times. Chalabi fue acusado de proporcionar información inventada sobre las armas en Irak a las agencias de inteligencia estadounidenses y a periodistas, antes de la invasión a Irak. También surgieron preguntas acerca de sus cercanos vínculos con Irán. Durante el fin de semana, Chalabi estuvo en Teherán para entrevistarse a puertas cerradas con funcionarios iraníes de alto rango, entre ellos El Presidente Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. El año pasado, la Agencia de Inteligencia de Defensa concluyó que la inteligencia Iraní había utilizado a colaboradores de Chalabi para proporcionar información errónea a Estados Unidos.

La Casa Blanca recibió en 2002 advertencias de que Irak no estaba vinculado con Al Qaeda
El New York Times informa que el gobierno de Bush fue advertido en febrero de 2002 de que los informes de inteligencia sobre presuntos vínculos entre Irak y Al-Qaeda probablemente contenían datos falsos producidos por un integrante de Al-Qaeda detenido en Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, el gobierno de Bush ignoró las advertencias de la Agencia de Inteligencia de Defensa (DIA, por sus siglas en inglés) acerca de que el detenido, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, estaba mintiendo. Sus falsas afirmaciones fueron usadas reiteradas veces para justificar la invasión a Irak. Ocho meses después de que la DIA hizo esas advertencias, el Presidente Bush pronunció un importante discurso en Cincinnati en el que dijo: "Nos enteramos de que Irak entrenó a miembros de Al-Qaeda en la fabricación de bombas y venenos y gases." Este año, la revista Newsweek reveló que Al-Libi podría haber empezado a hablar en los interrogatorios luego de ser torturado. Al-Libi fue capturado en noviembre de 2001 en Afganistán. Fue entregado a la CIA para que lo interrogara y finalmente enviado a Egipto.

Corte Suprema decidirá sobre uso de tribunales militares en Guantánamo
La Corte Suprema de Estados Unidos anunció el lunes que decidirá si el gobierno de Bush puede utilizar tribunales militares para enjuiciar a los prisioneros detenidos en la Bahía de Guantánamo. En julio, un tribunal federal de apelaciones integrado por tres jueces decretó que un tribunal compuesto íntegramente por militares podía enjuiciar y sentenciar a Salim Ahmed Hamdan, un hombre Yemini acusado de ser el guardaespaldas y chofer de Osama Bin Laden. El lunes, el Presidente de la Corte Suprema, John Roberts, se retiró del caso debido a que él fue uno de los jueces del tribunal de apelaciones que dictaminó anteriormente en este caso.

El Senado votó para privar a prisioneros del derecho a impugnar su detención
El Senado votó el jueves en Capitol Hill para despojar a los prisioneros detenidos en la Bahía de Guantánamo del derecho a impugnar su detención ante tribunales de Estados Unidos. La medida, presentada por el Senador republicano Lindsey Graham, anularía una decisión de la Corte Suprema del año pasado. El New York Times informa que la enmienda dejará sin efecto las impugnaciones legales presentadas por 200 de los 500 prisioneros detenidos actualmente en Guantánamo. Cinco demócratas se unieron a 44 republicanos para aprobar la medida por 49 votos contra 42. Sin embargo, el New York Times informa que la victoria puede ser transitoria, debido a que nueve senadores estaban ausentes y presionan para que se realice una segunda votación el lunes 14.

Senado ordena a Rumsfeld que revele información sobre prisiones secretas
También el jueves, el Senado aprobó una enmienda a un proyecto de ley que ordena al Secretario de Defensa, Donald Rumsfeld, informar al Congreso acerca de los establecimientos carcelarios secretos administrados por Estados Unidos en el extranjero.

Lott sospecha que compañeros republicanos filtraron la existencia de las prisiones
Mientras tanto, el Los Ángeles Times informa que el Senador republicano Trent Lott dijo que senadores de su propio partido podrían ser los responsables de la filtración. Lott dijo que las instalaciones de las prisiones secretas fueron discutidas en un banquete republicano en Capitol Hill, que se llevo a cabo el 1 de noviembre, un día antes que el Post publicara su informe. El Vicepresidente Cheney asistió a ese banquete. Lott dijo: "No sé de dónde más pudo haber surgido... me pareció que al menos uno de esos informes surgió directamente de aquel lugar".

CIA advertida sobre procedimientos en los interrogatories
Según el New York Times, el inspector general de la CIA advirtió a la agencia que sus procedimientos en los interrogatorios podrían estar violando la Convención Internacional Contra la Tortura. En un informe, el inspector general dijo que las técnicas "crueles, inhumanas o degradantes" utilizadas en lugares secretos en el mundo podrían exponer a los agentes a responsabilidades jurídicas. Estas técnicas incluyen "el submarino", en la que se priva al detenido de aire, como si se estuviera ahogando. La Casa Blanca presiona en la actualidad por una enmienda del Congreso que exima a los agentes de la CIA de la prohibición por parte del Senado de utilizar torturas en los interrogatorios realizados en el extranjero.

Funcionario de la CIA revela presupuesto de la agencia
Otra noticia sobre los servicios de Inteligencia: una funcionaria de la CIA parece haber revelado el presupuesto de la agencia, que ha sido durante mucho tiempo un secreto nacional. En una conferencia de inteligencia en San Antonio la semana pasada, la subdirectora de Inteligencia Nacional, Mary Margaret Graham, dijo que el presupuesto anual de inteligencia es 44 mil millones de dólares.

Atentado suicida con bombas en restaurante de Bagdad
En Irak, dos bombarderos suicidas atacaron hoy un restaurante en Bagdad que es frecuentado por fuerzas de seguridad iraquíes, dejando un saldo de por lo menos 33 personas muertas y otras 19 heridas. Mientras tanto, un atentado con coche-bomba mató a siete reclutas del ejército en el pueblo de Tikkrit. En otras noticias sobre Irak, las Fuerzas Armadas estadounidenses admitieron el miércoles que causaron la muerte de varios civiles durante los ataques llevados a cabo esta semana en el pueblo de Husaybah, cerca de la frontera con Siria. Las fuerzas estadounidenses invadieron este pueblo el sábado, alegando que se había convertido en un caldo de cultivo de insurgentes extranjeros. El New York Times informa que aviones de la Marina destruyeron un hogar donde presuntamente se escondían insurgentes, matando a por lo menos cinco civiles que estaban adentro.

Judith Miller deja el New York Times
El New York Times anunció la renuncia de la periodista Judith Miller. Miller estuvo presa durante 85 días este año por negarse a testificar ante un gran jurado en el caso de filtración de la CIA. Fue liberada tras recibir autorización para testificar de su fuente, el asistente de la Casa Blanca acusado Lewis Libby. Miller, que fue elogiada al comienzo por defender la libertad de prensa, recibió críticas luego, cuando los editores del periódico la acusaron de haberlos engañado acerca de sus vínculos con la Casa Blanca. El trabajo periodístico de Miller también fue criticado por sus informes en el período previo a la guerra de Irak. Miller escribió una serie de artículos que afirmaban que Saddam Hussein tenía en su poder armas de destrucción masiva, afirmaciones que resultaron ser falsas. En una carta al editor publicada en la edición de hoy del New York Times, Miller escribió: "Decidí renunciar debido a que en los últimos meses me he convertido en noticia, algo que un periodista del New York Times nunca quiere ser". Un portavoz del Times dijo: "Se dejó claro a Miller que no podía seguir trabajando como periodista de ninguna clase" en el periódico.

Ali recibe la Medalla Presidencial de la Libertad
En Washington, el legendario boxeador Muhammad Ali fue galardonado el miércoles con la Medalla Presidencial de la Libertad. Ali es considerado el mejor boxeador de la historia del deporte. En su apogeo, apoyó el movimiento musulmán negro y criticó la Guerra de Vietnam. En 1967 fue despojado de su titulo de campeón de los pesos pesados por negarse a luchar en Vietnam. Las declaraciones de Alí que siguen fueron tomadas del documental "When We Were Kings" (Cuando fuimos reyes), sobre el combate de 1974 en el que Ali recuperó el título de campeón mundial, contra George Foreman en Kinshasa, que llegó a ser conocido como "La pelea en la jungla": "Si, estoy en África. Si, África es mi hogar. Maldito sea Estados Unidos y lo que Estados Unidos piensa. Si, vivo en Estados Unidos, pero África es el hogar del hombre negro, y yo fui un esclavo hace 400 años, y vuelvo a casa para pelear junto con mis hermanos".

Maria: In English, here are thirteen headlines fom Democracy Now! Remember that the headlines are provided daily in English and Spanish and please pass on to your friends. Peace.

Iraqi: "Americans Bombed Everything, Our Houses Are Destroyed"
Most communication to the Sunni towns of Husaybah and Qaim has been cut off. An Iraqi journalist in Husaybah told Al-Jazeera "The city is suffering a complete lack of all of life's basic necessities. There is no fuel and winter is upon us. There is no food and there are no services whatsoever, not even health services." The journalist said that ambulances have been unable to respond to emergencies because no movement is allowed in the city. "They destroyed Qaim, Americans bombed everything, our houses are destroyed, our children are victims and we want a solution," one resident told Reuters. "What do we have to do? We need a solution." Residents have been forced to flee the town on foot. The Associated Press reported that the U.S.-led forces warned over loudspeakers that anyone leaving the town in vehicles would be shot. The U.S. said Operation Steel Curtain was needed to stop foreign fighters from crossing the Syrian border. Meanwhile Sunni politicians criticized the U.S.-led attack. The head of the moderate Iraqi Islamic Party Mohsen Abdul-Hamid said "We reject all military operations directed against civilian targets because such acts lead to the killing of innocent people and the destruction of towns and cities."

Five U.S. Soldiers Charged With Beating Iraqi Detainees
The military announced Monday five U.S. soldiers had been charged with punching and kicking detainees in Iraq. The beatings occurred two months ago.

Once Disgraced Iraqi Exile, Ahmed Chalabi, Returns to DC
The former head of the Iraqi National Congress Ahmed Chalabi is heading to Washington this week for his first official trip in over two years. He is planning on speaking at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday and will be meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary John Snow. Before the invasion of Iraq, Chalabi had close ties to the Pentagon as well as some reporters including Judith Miller of the New York Times. He has been accused of feeding fabricated information about Iraq's weapons capabilities to US intelligence agencies and to journalists ahead of the Iraq invasion. Questions have also arisen over his close ties to Iran. Over the weekend Chalabi was in Tehran for closed-door meetings with high-ranking Iranian officials including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Last year the Defense Intelligence Agency concluded Iranian intelligence had used aides of Chalabi to pass disinformation to the United States.

La Casa Blanca recibió en 2002 advertencias de que Irak no estaba vinculado con Al Qaeda
El New York Times informa que el gobierno de Bush fue advertido en febrero de 2002 de que los informes de inteligencia sobre presuntos vínculos entre Irak y Al-Qaeda probablemente contenían datos falsos producidos por un integrante de Al-Qaeda detenido en Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, el gobierno de Bush ignoró las advertencias de la Agencia de Inteligencia de Defensa (DIA, por sus siglas en inglés) acerca de que el detenido, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, estaba mintiendo. Sus falsas afirmaciones fueron usadas reiteradas veces para justificar la invasión a Irak. Ocho meses después de que la DIA hizo esas advertencias, el Presidente Bush pronunció un importante discurso en Cincinnati en el que dijo: “Nos enteramos de que Irak entrenó a miembros de Al-Qaeda en la fabricación de bombas y venenos y gases.” Este año, la revista Newsweek reveló que Al-Libi podría haber empezado a hablar en los interrogatorios luego de ser torturado. Al-Libi fue capturado en noviembre de 2001 en Afganistán. Fue entregado a la CIA para que lo interrogara y finalmente enviado a Egipto.

Supreme Court To Rule on Guantanamo Military Tribunals
The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday it will decide whether the Bush administration can use military tribunals to try detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay. In July a three-judge federal appeals court upheld that a tribunal made up entirely of military officials could try and sentence Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemini man accused of being Osama Bin Laden's bodyguard and driver. On Monday Chief Justice John Roberts recused himself from the case since he was one of the appeals court judges who previously ruled on the case.

Senate Votes To Remove Prisoners' Right to Challenge Detentions
On Capital Hill Thursday, the Senate voted to take away Guantanamo Bay prisoners' right to challenge their detentions in United States courts. The measure, put forward by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, would override a Supreme Court decision last year. The New York Times reports the amendment would nullify legal challenges currently filed by nearly 200 of the 500 detainees currently held at Guantanamo. Five Democrats joined 44 Republicans to pass the measure by a vote of 49 to 42. However the New York Times reports the victory may be short-lived as nine senators were absent, and are pushing for a second vote as early as Monday.

Senate Orders Rumsfeld to Disclose Secret Prisons
Also Thursday, the Senate passed an amendment to a defense bill that mandates Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to inform Congress on US-run secret prison facilities in foreign countries.

Lott Suspects Fellow Republicans in Prison Disclosure
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports Republican Senator Trent Lott said senators from his own party might be responsible for the leak. Lott said the secret prison facilities were discussed at a Republican luncheon on Capitol Hill -- one day before the Post published its report November 2nd. Vice President Cheney was among those in attendance. Lott said : "Information that was said in there, given out in there, did get into the newspaper. I don't know where else it came from…. It looked to me that at least one of those reports came right out of that room."

CIA Warned On Interrogation Procedures
The CIA’s inspector general has warned the agency its interrogation procedures could violate the international Convention Against Torture. This according to the New York Times. In a report, the inspector general said "cruel, inhuman or degrading" techniques used in secret locations around the world could expose agents to legal liability. These techniques include waterboarding, in which the detainee undergoes the experience of drowning. The White House is currently pushing a Congressional amendment that would exempt CIA agents from a Senate ban on torture for interrogations conducted overseas.

CIA Official Discloses Agency's Budget
In other intelligence news, a CIA official appears to have disclosed the agency's budget -- long a national secret. At an intelligence conference in San Antonio last week, Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Collection Mary Margaret Graham, said the annual intelligence budget was $44 billion.

Suicide Bombing Hits Baghdad Restaurant
In Iraq, two suicide bombers struck a Baghdad restaurant frequented by Iraqi security forces today, killing at least 33 people and wounding 19 others. Meanwhile a car bombing in the town of Tikkrit killed seven army recruits. In other Iraq news, the US military admitted Wednesday it caused civilian casualties during this week’s assault on the town of Husaybah, close to the Syrian border. US forces launched an invasion of the town Saturday, claiming it has become a hotbed for foreign insurgents. The New York Times is reporting Marine aircraft destroyed one home where insurgents were allegedly hiding, killing at least five civilians inside.

Judith Miller Leaves The New York Times
The New York Times has announced the retirement of reporter Judith Miller. Miller spent 85 days in jail this year for refusing to testify before the grand jury in the CIA leak case. She was released after receiving a waiver from her source, indicted White House aide Lewis Libby. Initially praised as a champion of press freedom, Miller drew criticism when her editors accused her of misleading them on her contacts with the White House. Miller's work has also come under question for her reporting in the lead-up to the Iraq war. Miller wrote a series of articles alleging Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, allegations that turned out to be false. In a letter to the editor printed in today's New York Times, Miller wrote: "I have chosen to resign because over the last few months, I have become the news, something a New York Times reporter never wants to be." A Times spokesperson said "it had been made clear to Ms. Miller that she would not be able to continue as a reporter of any kind" at the newspaper.

Ali Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom
And in Washington, legendary boxer Muhammad Ali was awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom Wednesday. Ali is considered the greatest boxer in the history of the sport. In his prime he was an outspoken advocate of the Black Muslim movement and a critic of the Vietnam War. In 1967, he was stripped of his heavyweight title for refusing to fight in Vietnam. This is from When We Were Kings, the documentary about Ali's 1974 championship bout with George Foreman in Kinshasa that came to be known as "the Rumble in the Jungle": "Yeah, I'm in Africa. Yeah, Africa is my home. Damn America and what America thinks. Yeah, I live in America, but Africa is the home of the black man, and I was a slave 400 years ago, and I'm going back home to fight among my brothers."




Friday, November 11, 2005

Senators Who Want To Overthrow Courts and Dopes on TV

Good evening. We'll start by noting two things from Democracy Now!



Senate Votes To Remove Prisoners' Right to Challenge Detentions
On Capital Hill Thursday, the Senate voted to take away Guantanamo Bay prisoners' right to challenge their detentions in United States courts. The measure, put forward by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, would override a Supreme Court decision last year. The New York Times reports the amendment would nullify legal challenges currently filed by nearly 200 of the 500 detainees currently held at Guantanamo. Five Democrats joined 44 Republicans to pass the measure by a vote of 49 to 42. However the New York Times reports the victory may be short-lived as nine senators were absent, and are pushing for a second vote as early as Monday.

C.I. had a strong post on this at The Common Ills this morning. I did pass on to C.I. what my prof said, to take it easy on Friday and C.I. would have just done a link fest but then the articles in the Times comes along. C.I. discussed the five Dems who broke ranks to say, "I support detainment based solely on the say so of Bully Boy and I don't need no stinkin' court review!"
Here's C.I. talking about the disgusting five:

The vote passed thanks to five so-called Democrats who felt this was just the thing the country needed. Five Democrats voted for this ___. The five idiots, losers, creeps and disgusting ___s? No list of disappointments is ever complete without Joe Lieberman.
Kent Conrad's spine goes in an out. On this vote, it collapsed yet again allowing him to join the five. Ben Nelson (Nebraska) who's does the best Joe Lieberman impression in the Senate is a familiar face on lists of disappointments.
Fourth on the list, Mary Landrieu -- who apparently has tired of waking the displaced from Hurricane Katrina to traipse through shelters for photo ops and footage (which she'd be wise not to use in a 2008 campaign). If you missed it:
AMY GOODMAN: They said they didn't want to us film inside there. Has anyone been allowed to film?
WILLIAM ANSARDI: Mary Landrieu was here with her film crew.
AMY GOODMAN: The senator?
WILLIAM ANSARDI: The senator, yes.
AMY GOODMAN: Did they ask your permission to take your picture?
WILLIAM ANSARDI: They didn’t ask my permission. She came in and did showboating up there, and they took pictures of everybody sleeping about 10:00-10:30 at night. I didn't see her ask anybody how they were doing or anything. But she just come in and did her little crew. And she left. I haven't seen her since. Peyton and Eli Manning came here and they did more for the spirit of these people than what Mary Landrieu and all these other great politicians we got.
The fifth vote was Ron Wyden. I'm not sure whether it's fair to make a joke about Wyden because I'm honestly not sure he knew what he was voting for. Take yesterday:
AMY GOODMAN: Senator Wyden, we only have 30 seconds. I just want to follow up on the discussion we had earlier, you might have caught the tail end of, and that is that the President's appointment of Stewart Simonson, who is head of Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness within the Department of Health and Human Services being the former corporate council of Amtrak. Do you think this is another example of crony appointments that could endanger this country like Michael Brown, former head of FEMA?
SEN. RON WYDEN: This should be a very important hearing where he's questioned thoroughly about how he's going to act in the public interest. Too often these kinds of appointments are just skated through. Those days are over.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, he already is head of it.
SEN. RON WYDEN: Well, I think what we've got to do is look further into his background and make sure that the positions that he's going to stake out are in the public interest.
"Too often these kinds of appointments are just skated through. Those days are over." "This should be a very important hearing where he's questioned throughly . . ."
From the HHS website:
Stewart Simonson was sworn in as the Assistant Secretary for Public Health Emergency Preparedness at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on April 28, 2004.
A year and a half ago Simonson took office and Wyden thinks they should question him before he assumes the position . . . that he's been serving in for over a year and half?
Like I said, I'm not sure Wyden knew what he was voting for. Maybe the newlywed's mind is on other things?
The five should be all embarrased to show their faces. They should be ashamed of themselves. We can take comfort in the fact that none serve on the Judiciary Committee since their vote is a slap to the judiciary. It's also a slap against what America is supposed to stand for.


The next item was a hard one to chose. But finally Elaine and I decided to go with this one.

Robertson Warns Town Over Rejecting "Intelligent Design" Proponents
Christian televangelist Pat Robertson is again drawing controversy for a statement made on his program "The 700 Club." On Thursday, Robertson was asked to comment on a vote in the Pennsylvania town of Dover that removed school board members who advocated "intelligent design". Robertson said: "I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city. And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there." In August, Robertson was forced to apologize after he called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Does Pat Robertson think that he's God? Or does he think God is Pat Roberston's puppet, there to be Pat Robertson's bidding? Pat Robertson is an idiot and should be off the air waves already.
Which reminds me of a e-mail I got the day after Halloween that I wanted to talk about already but just found the time.

Alberto lives in Dallas, TX and they have a channel there that's the urban channel. Or that's what they called it. Mainly it was just reruns of Beverly Hillbillies and The Lucy Show. So Alberto's stuck handing out candy because his wife is taking the kids trick or treating and he turns on the TV and can't find a thing to watch. So he figures he'll watch the urban channel. He hadn't watched in awhile. It turned into a fundamentalist channel with whites and Hispanics.
These two people are on there saying that Halloween is the devil's birthday and that's why it's celebrated and telling people not to go trick or treating or let their kids go. They go into this supposed history of Halloween but don't know what they're talking about and were either idiots or liars. 'Devil will swoop down and grab your kids' and other crap like that. Alberto's question was how are people allowed to lie like that on TV?

I don't know, Alberto, but Bill O'Lielly's been doing it for some time. (There's also a Bill O'Lielly item at Democracy Now! today.) But it's scary because a lot of people will believe something just because it's on TV. I'm sure some were believing that the Devil really would pop up, grab their kids and run off. People get to lie and if we really had free speech (or equal time) that wouldn't be so bad. But we don't have that so it's the freaks with money and a desire to lie that seem to get the TV stations.


Now be sure to read Elaine's commentaries because we're both using the same two items and Elaine said she was tired and wondered if I'd like to just do the thing where we each comment on a headline from Democracy Now! I like that. I like doing little essays too. I'm cool with whatever. But be sure to check out Like Maria Said Paz for Elaine's take on the above.

Everybody have a great weekend and I'll probably post something this weekend.







Thursday, November 10, 2005

Judy goes Dexy stays

Good evening. How's everyone doing?

Did the sun shine a little brighter today? Did we have world peace? Did all the mainstream press do their job?

Let's note this from Democracy Now!

Judith Miller Leaves The New York Times
The New York Times has announced the retirement of reporter Judith Miller. Miller spent 85 days in jail this year for refusing to testify before the grand jury in the CIA leak case. She was released after receiving a waiver from her source, indicted White House aide Lewis Libby. Initially praised as a champion of press freedom, Miller drew criticism when her editors accused her of misleading them on her contacts with the White House. Miller’s work has also come under question for her reporting in the lead-up to the Iraq war. Miller wrote a series of articles alleging Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, allegations that turned out to be false. In a letter to the editor printed in today’s New York Times, Miller wrote: "I have chosen to resign because over the last few months, I have become the news, something a New York Times reporter never wants to be." A Times spokesperson said "it had been made clear to Ms. Miller that she would not be able to continue as a reporter of any kind" at the newspaper.

Huh.

Judy Miller's gone.

But nothing's really changed, has it? Dexter Filkins still clowns.

Could it be that the problem goes beyond Judy?

Gasp!

That's it!

But Tony tells me you wouldn't know it to travel around online. Tony said it's as though there was one and only one clown and today she got fired from the circus.

Yep, it's all Judy Miller to hear the web gloat. So that must mean that today's New York Times was just an outstanding paper, right?

Wrong.

In the reality based world, you could check out C.I.'s "NYT: Judy's gone but don't celebrate -- Dexy (among others) remains (editorial):"

Round, round, round, he gets around. And this morning's he's out of the Green Zone. Who let the propagandist out? Who? Who? Who? Who let the propagandist out?
Yes, Dexter Filkins. A man present at the November 2004 slaughter in Falluja who was too busy grooving on good vibrations to tell the truth. (So busy that it took him days and days and days -- was it five? -- for his "award winning" article to make it into print.)
Now Dexy's hooked his star to Chalabi. Did they fly into DC together? Did Chalabi's niece, the former Times' employee, join them.
Former Times' employee, we're not supposed to mention that. Because if the paper of record doesn't mention it, it just didn't happen. Right? In their world, that's how it works.
So Dexy Filk files "Iraqi Deputy, Back in U.S., Strives to Rebuild Reputation." From DC. Presumably the black t-shirt clad Geen Zone body guards didn't accompany him but was he still packing his piece? Propagandist and gun slinger.
Filk tells you that Chalabi dismissed questions of WMD and his own involvement with the lies. Well, he found the perfect paper to appear in, didn't he? The Times dismisses their own involvement in that as well. Irony, this is the edition of the paper that also announces Judith Miller's departure. Chalabi's being rehabiliated and Miller's leaving the paper. It's the life cycle of corporate media.
So Filk hems and haws but never explores. Never addresses the huge monies (government monies, US government monies) paid to Chalabi over the years, never addresses so much. Does he cover his eyes when he "reports"? Is that the explanation for his "award winning" Falluja reporting?
Miller's gone and there's a lot of back slapping going on online. Of the Times reporters, Miller got America over to Iraq, Dexter keeps us there.
Today, Dexy plays freak of nature. He offers us on the one hand (Chalabi didn't provide info on WMD that effected our decision), on the other hand a current investigation is studying it and on the third hand:
Another report, issued in 2004 by the Senate intelligence committee, did conclude that parts of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq produced in 2002 had been based on information provided by a defector associated with Mr. Chalabi's group who had previously been identified as a fabricator.
Here's a tip for Dexy, besides humans not having three hands, the Sentate intel committee says it happened. That's the report you start with. You don't muddy the waters. (Unless you're the New York Timid.)
Each day in Iraq, Dexy manages to get out the talking points so it's not surprising that he's trying to once again tell which way the administrative winds are a blowing. (This was Chalabi's latest audition. Apparently not successful enough to give Filkins the ultimate answer so hems and he haws.)
I'm sure Dexy was well recieved at the AEI sponsored dinner. I'm sure to him it was quite amusing, the seating arrangement. But "safe in His Green Zone," Filkins apparently hasn't learned that America's not laughing with him. (If he's hearing snickers, they're at him, at him.)
With 2058 American troop fatalities and 15,568 American troops wounded in action, I'm doubting many Americans find either seating arrangements or the attempts to rehabilitate Chalabi amusing. He's had enough access, take away his keys and cut him off.

Where are the brave online voices on Dexter Filkins?

Tony said to note Lambert from Corrente because that's the only other person he saw addressing the fact that Miller's departure still leaves other clowns at the New York Times.

C.I. had two entries up today worth noting and I know that because my prof distributed copies of them in class today. He is so cool. :D

He goes we're going to talk about the issue of dissent in war time, the issue of a patsy and the issue of ethics.

He thinks Judy's a patsy. A willing one but still a patsy. And he thinks she had plenty of encouragement from people at the paper in higher positions than she was.

Nina's in that class with me and she brought up the issue of 'bash the bitch' and how if this was about holding press clowns accountable all the gas bags online would be pointing out Dexter Filkins in this morning's paper.

We had thirty minutes on Dexter. :D We were discussing his Falluja reporting and there were two in class who weren't familiar with Dexter so we had to bring them up to speed.

Prof agreed that part of the Judy feeding frenzy had to do with the joy some have on trashing women but he added it also has to do with Judy being a "safe target." It's real easy three years after her work was seriously questioned to come along and say, "Nah nah, Judy's a liar!"

He said it's harder with Dexter Filkins because the criticism of him hasn't been as vocal online. People hold back the same way they held their breath until it was announced Iraq had no WMD.
Before that, and prof talked about some of his own friends, there was a fear that since there were no WMD, Bully Boy would try to plant some. But when the official report came out saying no WMD you got a lot of, "See I told you!" from people who were silent because they were too scared to stake out a position.

There's a guy in my class named Barry and I didn't know him at all and never thought much of him until today. Turns out Barry reads The Common Ills. Barry goes that C.I. takes on Filkins and not once and then move on. Barry goes a lot of people are going "chemicals were used in Falluja!" right now but where the hell were they for the last year? They kept their mouths shut about Falluja and they kept their mouths shut about Dexter.

I was so impressed with Barry. :D I told him that after class.

Should Dexter be stripped of his prize was 1 question prof asked. Everyone agreed he should be. He was in Falluja and he saw stuff he never put into his dopey, full of crap, white wash, rah-rah story.

This one guy goes that Dexter advanced his own career for about five minutes but the fallout for his propaganda will last much longer than five minutes. He goes that kind of propaganda kept America believing falsely that we were "winning" and that we were conducting ourselves in an honorable manner. He goes Dexter damaged the country and he damaged his own name.

I know he damaged our country and Iraq but I really hope it's true that he damaged his own name too. Lot of people don't want to talk about Filkins and when we met up with P.J. in DC (who works for the Washington Post), we heard all about how Dexter Filkins was a laughing stock in the press corp.

He doesn't deserve to keep his award and he should have never gotten it to begin with.

He's awful because of his lying about Falluja but it's not just him and Judy.

So I guess my point here is I won't be popping a bottle of bubbly and patting myself on the back and saying, "All is now right in the world!" Cause Judy's leaving didn't change a damn thing.

The other entry the prof passed around was "NYT: Drums keep pounding rhythm to the brain and the stenography goes on" and here's a bit of that one:

Kirk Semple and Sabrina Tavernise continue the New York Timid's long standing practice of printing anything they're told and without any attempt to actually witness anything with their own eyes in "U.S. Reports Iraqi Civilian Casualties in Anti-Insurgent Sweep." (You actually get rewarded for that at the paper unless you become a national joke -- see previous entry.) How many times can they type "The military said" in one article. And why are they unable to find one Iraqi witness, a resident of Husayba. One of the most laughable sentences includes a "military said, according to a witness."
Did they leave the Green Zone? The end credits tell us that Semple was somewhere in Husayba (Tavernise is listed as being in Baghdad). Apparently he was far from the action. No crusading reporter he.
Suddenly, the story breaks to tell you about a copy of a speech that John McCain will give today. That belongs in a story on D.C. (in the Washington section). Apparently even they got bored typing "military said."
Yes, the stenography goes on. The stenography goes on . . .

After class, prof pulled me aside and goes C.I. worked like crazy on those and noted another entry from the night before. He goes to tell C.I. to take a little break and not burn out. I told him that there was no break coming but I'd pass it on.

But yeah, C.I. did some amazing work and it stands out because so much of the stuff online today was a bunch of gas bags gloating over something they latched onto when it got popular. If the gas bags had any bravery, they would have been all over Dexter today.

I called Kat today and she told me she'd visited her friend who does the music class and all the students were all over her about Dexter Filkins and how come he hadn't been fired. So there's a bicoastal response on this among college students. We pay attention.

It goes back to what Maria's been saying and people my age have been seeing. We are rejecting this war and the Bully Boy. And reporters who threw in their lot with administration propaganda are being noticed.









Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Trent Lott and Daily Whiner/Jerk Off

Good evening, remember to check out Elaine at Like Maria Said Paz. We're going to start with two things from Democracy Now! and Elaine's got the same two things.

UN Extends U.S.-led Foreign Troop Presence
In other Iraq news, the UN Security Council voted unanimously Tuesday to extend the mandate of U.S.-led military forces by one year. There are nearly 180,000 foreign troops currently in Iraq.

Lott Suspects Fellow Republicans in Prison Disclosure
Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports Republican Senator Trent Lott said senators from his own party might be responsible for the leak. Lott said the secret prison facilities were discussed at a Republican luncheon on Capitol Hill -- one day before the Post published its report November 2nd. Vice President Cheney was among those in attendance. Lott said : "Information that was said in there, given out in there, did get into the newspaper. I don't know where else it came from…. It looked to me that at least one of those reports came right out of that room."

Guilty dog barking? That's what my dad asked. Lott's saying the leak came out of a Republican luncheon and Lott was there. Is he worried that people will suspect him? If he is worried, why is he worried? Cause he's feeling guilty?

All I'm saying is that it's awful funny that Lott steps up to blow the whistle on his buddies.

Awful funny.

Delia e-mailed me to ask if Bob Somerby is an idiot or what?

I'll go with idiot.

He trashed and trashed Joe Wilson. Now a lot of stuff that he called "lies" isn't and his new talking point is that Dems saw the same intelligence.

He gets this prissy tone and lectures about how "liberals" should talk.

Sorry, Somersby, I don't need a lecture from someone who's pressed Republican talking points and trashed Joe Wilson.

So if you read the prissy lecture from Bob Somerby today, I have three points.

1) Why are you reading a sell out who doesn't give a damn about anything unless it's kissing Al Gore or Bill Clinton's butt?

2) Why are you reading about intel from an idiot who never wrote one word about Iraq. Oh sure, prissy loves to tell you what got said on those Chat & Chews and praise love of his life Willie Kristol but what has he written about Iraq?

Not one goddamn thing. And that's quoting my ma. When Ma curses, watch out.

Yeah, in March, we'll have been over there for three years and Mr. Brave Voice has not once dealt with reporting from Iraq.

Is it because Hillary supported the war and he wants Hillary in the White House?

You don't know.

You just know he has nothing to say that matters.

But he picks up his dainty tea cup and gets all prissy.

He keeps saying he's changing his focus but then he gets back in the ring to push another GOP talking point.

He claims he's worried about the public debate but what has he said about the Iraq reporting?
Not a damn thing. He's just a prissy little Clintonista who embarrasses himself a little more each day. If he's going to focus on eduction, focus on that.

If he's going to run and hide because he can't handle discussing reality, then do it already.

But quit pushing the damn GOP talking points and injecting yourself into conversations that you've done nothing to advance.

He just shows up to cluck like an old hen.

Cluck, cluck, cluck, cluck.

3) Go to Media Matters and you'll find this:

Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee have repeatedly disputed the claim that members of Congress and the White House have equal access to intelligence information. During a November 4 press conference, Rockefeller and Feinstein directly addressed this issue. Both noted, for example, that committee members are not privy to the Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB) -- a written summary of intelligence information that the CIA provides to the president. (The White House even withheld from Senate investigators the PDBs on Iraq delivered to the Oval Office prior to the war.):
ROCKEFELLER: I mean, one of things that they -- that Chairman Roberts likes to do is to try to point out that there were a lot of Democrats who voted for the -- going to the United Nations, and if that didn't work, going to the war. And then people say, "Well, you know, you all had the same intelligence that the White House had." And I'm here to tell you that is nowhere near the truth. We not only don't have, nor probably should we have, the Presidential Daily Brief, we don't have the constant people who are working on intelligence who are very close to him. They don't release their -- an administration which tends not to release -- not just the White House, but the CIA, DOD [Department of Defense], others -- they control information. There's a lot of intelligence that we don't get that they have.
[...]
FEINSTEIN: As was said, the president gets intelligence that we do not get. The president is the -- White House is the owner of intelligence. We do not see the Presidential Daily Brief. Therefore, it is conceivable that the president would have had information that was not available to the Senate or to the Congress.
Former Sen. Bob Kerrey (D-NE), who served as vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, also made this point during an appearance on the October 8, 2004,
edition of CNN's American Morning:
KERREY: The president has much more access to intelligence than members of Congress does [sic]. Ask any member of Congress. Ask a Republican member of Congress, do you get the same access to intelligence that the president does? Look at these aluminum tube stories that came out the president delivered to the Congress -- "We believe these would be used for centrifuges." -- didn't deliver to Congress the full range of objections from the Department of Energy experts, nuclear weapons experts, that said it's unlikely they were for centrifuges, more likely that they were for rockets, which was a pre-existing use. The president has much more access to intelligence than any member of Congress.
Indeed, the White House's involvement in development of the aluminum tubes allegation provides an example of how the administration's access to intelligence on Iraq differed from that of Congress. In particular, the aluminum tubes story exhibits the "very close" relationship -- which Rockefeller noted -- between the White House and those "working on intelligence."
An October 3, 2004, New York Times
article detailed how the unfounded claim that Iraq had acquired aluminum tubes designed to enrich uranium became one of the administration's primary pieces of evidence that Saddam Hussein was attempting to reconstitute Iraq's nuclear weapons program. According to the Times, while the CIA assessments provided to policy-makers during the buildup to war omitted crucial dissenting views regarding the probable use of the tubes, administration officials "repeatedly" discussed dissenting opinions with the agency:
From April 2001 to September 2002, the agency wrote at least 15 reports on the tubes.
[...]
But several Congressional and intelligence officials with access to the 15 assessments said not one of them informed senior policy makers of the Energy Department's dissent. They described a series of reports, some with ominous titles, that failed to convey either the existence or the substance of the intensifying debate.
[...]
"They never lay out the other case," one Congressional official said of those C.I.A. assessments.
The Senate report provides only a partial picture of the agency's communications with the White House. In an arrangement endorsed by both parties, the Intelligence Committee agreed to delay an examination of whether White House descriptions of Iraq's military capabilities were "substantiated by intelligence information." As a result, Senate investigators were not permitted to interview White House officials about what they knew of the tubes debate and when they knew it.
But in interviews, C.I.A. and administration officials disclosed that the dissenting views were repeatedly discussed in meetings and telephone calls.
The timing of the statements
The claim that Congress and the White House saw the "same intelligence" also ignores that the Bush administration's
public pronouncements concerning Iraq began long before any substantial intelligence analysis arrived on Capitol Hill. According to Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the environment created by these definitive statements may have contributed to the intelligence community's faulty judgments on Iraq. These fundamental analytical flaws were clearly evident in the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which -- as Human Events' Jeffrey noted above -- informed lawmakers' positions on the war.
In the "
Additional Views" section of the Senate Intelligence Committee's "phase one" report, Sens. Rockefeller, Levin, and Richard J. Durbin (D-IL) provided numerous examples of conclusive public statements made by administration officials in the weeks and months prior to Congress' receipt of the NIE. The report itself concluded that the key judgments contained in the NIE -- which summarized all available intelligence assessments on the threat posed by Iraq -- were "either overstated, or were not supported by, the underlying intelligence reporting" and that the intelligence community "did not accurately or adequately explain to policymakers the uncertainties behind the judgments" in the document. According to an April 19, 2004, Washington Post report by assistant managing editor Bob Woodward, Stuart A. Cohen, acting chairman of the National Intelligence Council at the time the NIE was being prepared, admitted seeking to "avoid equivocation" in the document wherever possible so it would not amount to "pablum." Rockefeller, Levin, and Dubin argued that, in public statements made in the summer and fall of 2002, the administration "repeatedly overstated what the Intelligence Community assessed at the time":
These high-profile statements in support of the Administration's policy of regime change were made in advance of any meaningful intelligence analysis and created pressure on the Intelligence Community to conform to the certainty contained in the pronouncements.
The three senators further stated that, by not examining the basis for the administration's statements, the "phase one" report had not adequately addressed the effect they may have had on the intelligence community's assessments:
As a result, the Committee's phase one report fails to fully explain the environment of intense pressure in which Intelligence Community officials were asked to render judgments on matters relating to Iraq when policy officials had already forcefully stated their own conclusions in public. As noted above, administration officials were not simply recipients of intelligence. Whereas most members of Congress did not see a full assessment of the Iraqi threat prior to the delivery of the NIE, the president and his aides received daily intelligence briefings on Iraq throughout 2002. And more recent evidence -- such as the
Downing Street Memo -- has further suggested that the administration participated actively in the interagency debates concerning what information would be included in the intelligence reports on Iraq.

He just needs to pack it in if he has nothing to contribute.

He's had his little war on Joe Wilson for two years and he's not man enough to admit where he's wrong or tell the whole story. He's a sorry excuse for a "brave voice."

I just think he needs to run to education and shut up already. It's like Betty said to me, "Who is this prissy white man to lecture to blacks about what is and what isn't racism?"

Prissy old white men seem to feel they know it all about racism.

I told Betty she should invent a twist where Betinna ends up with Bob Somerby so she can take on the "brave liberal voice" who thinks he knows more than she what racism is and isn't. That made her laugh. :D

I need to note her thing she put up Monday because I don't think I got around to doing that.
It's called "From buffets to smokes" and here's a taste of it:

I know they're trying hard for business at "Dollar China" but I wonder what happens when Thomas Friedman leaves?I'm thinking they talk about the "fat assed blow hard."
That was what one old lady called Thomas Friedman today as she struck him repeatedly with her handbag.
"'We deserve to lose.' We deserve to! America hater! Move to Russia!" the elderly woman screamed as she swung the handbag over and over.I marveled at her upper body strength as well as her sheer deterimination.
Later, after Thomas Friedman stopped sobbings, he asked me why I did nothing to come to his aid?"Betinna, it's almost as though you enjoyed it!" he whimpered."
There is a lot of truth to that," I said for fun knowing I could get away with it because Thomas Friedman loves to be quoted.
That was the end of that because already Thomas Friedman was recasting the elderly woman who had accosted him into a young teenager from the Bronx in a "Hello Kitty t-shirt" who was taken with his "manly insight."

There's a lot of Thomas Friedman in Bob Somerby.

Beau wrote back and wanted to note that his favorite of everything C.I.'s done is "Reading Press Releases Live From The Green Zone" and to suggest that everybody read that if they haven't already. Sounds good to me.






Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Iraq, Falluja, Filkins and Beau's e-mail

Good evening and we'll start with Democracy Now!

Chalabi Heads Back to D.C.; No Investigation Yet on Iran Spy Charges
The Wall Street Journal reports 17 months have passed the Bush administration announced a full criminal inquiry into allegations that Iraqi exile Ahmad Chalabi leaked U.S. intelligence secrets to Iran. Since then FBI hasn't even interviewed Chalabi or any U.S. official connected to the matter. Chalabi is arriving in Washington today for his first official visit in two years. He is planning on speaking at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday and will be meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary John Snow.

Canadian Teen At Guantanamo to Face Military Tribunal
The Pentagon filed war crimes charges against five more detainees at Guantanamo. Those charged include Omar Khadr, a Canadian citizen who has been held by the US since he was 15 years old. Khadr's attorney Muneer Ahmad protested Monday's decision saying "Through torture, abuse, and three years of illegal detention, this government has robbed Omar of his youth... The fact that this Administration has seen fit to designate a child for trial by military commission is abhorrent." The Bush administration has refused to provide assurances that they will not seek the death penalty against him. Khadr was detained in Afghanistan allegedly after throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier.


Democracy Now! also notes the one year anniversary of the slaughter of Falluja. As my buddy Wally noted this morning, C.I. had a link up to the Italian footage last night. Which brings up an e-mail by Beau.

Beau writes noting that "suddenly" people want to talk about Falluja online. They don't seem to know anything though, do they?

As Beau points out, C.I. has not let go of Falluja or the Green Zone reporting. If you wanted someone calling Dexter Filkins crappy reporting at the New York Times out, you've had that at The Common Ills. Beau says he kept waiting to see someone, anyone, comment on Dexter Filkins today but no one did.

"There are a lot of people who didn't seem to give a damn, maybe they blogged on it once or twice but they never stayed on it and they certainly didn't call Dextroid to the carpet," Beau writes.

I think Beau's right. C.I.'s been the one leading the cry against Filkins reporting. C.I.'s gotten nasty e-mails especially before this summer. One of the most anoying things about all the empty chatter about Judy Miller this summer has been how the blogs have acted like Judy Miller was the only one lying at the paper. C.I. made the point time again that if Miller got us over there it was the reporting by Filkens that kept us there.

For anyone new to this, Filkins witnessed the slaughter of Falluja. You can't tell it from his rah rah articles. And he even got an award for that crap.

So today's the anniversary and Beau writes he checked out 77 blogs and though most were noting the anniversary, no one was calling Dexter Filkens out for his "reporting."

Filkins has gotten a pass for a year and you have to wonder is it a lack of bravery or is it just ignorance that keeps people from calling him out?

Dad thinks it's because so many are uninformed and only repeat what everyone else is saying.
He goes C.I. is a reader. C.I.'s not chasing down the blogs trying to find out what the "hot" thing to write about is. Or looking to see if it's "safe" to call someone out.

Imagine all those Judy Miller whiners, if they'd taken half their space to note Dexter Filkens' Falluja Lies, imagine the kind of traction the truth about Falluja could have right now?

But they're either too scared to stand up without everyone else standing up with them or they missed Filkins "reporting" because they don't really read.

That's why they write idiotic things like "Cindy Sheehan is not asking for the troops to be brought home." They write it and they get it pointed out that they're wrong and they still act like they're right.

The Falluja slaughter is a big thing in my home and C.I.'s refusal to act like it didn't happen is one of the things that got my whole family interested in The Common Ills to begin with. There are people who follow the "hot" topic and really do nothing much that they can point to. Then there are people who take brave stands.

One day Dexter Filkins will be stripped of the award he won for his Falluja "reporting." And when people look back to see who noted reality in real time, they'll see C.I. Beau sent me some posts he found by searching the web. You have "left" sites applauding Filkins Falluja Lies in real time. You have people afraid to stop their flag waving. You read the posts and you can see they come close to expressing some doubts but then they pull back and usually add, "I support the troops."

That's why The Common Ills was needed. No more bullshit. No more "I'll repeat all the right-wing slogans and no one will attack me!" type of "criticsm." Lot of cowards who were as cowardly as the mainstream media was until public opinion changed.

Beau pointed out in his e-mail that it was coming up on the one year anniversary of The Common Ills and asked if C.I. was going to note it? I don't think so. It's too "self-referential" for C.I. But I'll try to note it here when the time rolls around and try to work up some sort of retrospective. It's so funny because C.I. made a point of noting my one month anniversary and I know C.I. will note other people's yearly anniversaries.

I can't believe how much things have changed in a year and I give credit to both C.I. and The Common Ills community because while others played it "safe," they and C.I. haven't. I know it's influenced me, my family and my friends. I'll talk to Gina and Krista and see if they want to do something at their round-robin on the anniversary too.

One voice can make a difference and I think C.I. has. So I'll note it here.

I know The Third Estate Sunday Review will want to but C.I. will probably torpedo it so I'll talk to Elaine and Rebecca and Cedric to see if they want to do anything on it too.

I'll also add that Democracy Now! has covered Falluja seriously and at length too. But I'm talking about websites here.













Monday, November 07, 2005

Husaybah, Qaim and Chalabi

Good evening. We'll start by noting two things from Democracy Now!


Iraqi: "Americans Bombed Everything, Our Houses Are Destroyed"
Most communication to the Sunni towns of Husaybah and Qaim has been cut off. An Iraqi journalist in Husaybah told Al-Jazeera "The city is suffering a complete lack of all of life's basic necessities. There is no fuel and winter is upon us. There is no food and there are no services whatsoever, not even health services." The journalist said that ambulances have been unable to respond to emergencies because no movement is allowed in the city. "They destroyed Qaim, Americans bombed everything, our houses are destroyed, our children are victims and we want a solution," one resident told Reuters. "What do we have to do? We need a solution." Residents have been forced to flee the town on foot. The Associated Press reported that the U.S.-led forces warned over loudspeakers that anyone leaving the town in vehicles would be shot. The U.S. said Operation Steel Curtain was needed to stop foreign fighters from crossing the Syrian border. Meanwhile Sunni politicians criticized the U.S.-led attack. The head of the moderate Iraqi Islamic Party Mohsen Abdul-Hamid said "We reject all military operations directed against civilian targets because such acts lead to the killing of innocent people and the destruction of towns and cities."

Once Disgraced Iraqi Exile, Ahmed Chalabi, Returns to DC
The former head of the Iraqi National Congress Ahmed Chalabi is heading to Washington this week for his first official trip in over two years. He is planning on speaking at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday and will be meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary John Snow. Before the invasion of Iraq, Chalabi had close ties to the Pentagon as well as some reporters including Judith Miller of the New York Times. He has been accused of feeding fabricated information about Iraq's weapons capabilities to US intelligence agencies and to journalists ahead of the Iraq invasion. Questions have also arisen over his close ties to Iran. Over the weekend Chalabi was in Tehran for closed-door meetings with high-ranking Iranian officials including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Last year the Defense Intelligence Agency concluded Iranian intelligence had used aides of Chalabi to pass disinformation to the United States.


So we're seeing more slaughter and we're all supposed to be good and happy about it. We are "liberators" the Bully Boy told us. Iraqis want us out and when we attack their cities, it's not all that surprising.

In class today, my favorite prof said this sort of thing happens because we don't pay attention. I know he meant "we" as a country but I still think he's wrong. I think we could pay attention more but I think in the last year or so, you've seen more Americans start to pay attention.

The mainstream media doesn't pay attention and that hasn't changed. But the people have started paying attention and that's why you see people seeking out other ways to get their news like Democracy Now! or Indymedia or websites or reading The Progressive or whatever.

I can just speak for me and the changes I see around me and the e-mails I get from people coming here but there is an waking up period going on. You hear it in your conversations and I agree that we need more people waking up but it's like Dad always says, "Change doesn't just happen like a sun rise." So everyone getting the word out to people they know helps and if we could all turn on the people around us, we'd see huge changes. I think we're change and I think we're going to see a lot more.

But maybe I'm just feeling like that because I'm reading Margaret Cho's I Have Chosen To Stay And Fight. We're reading that as one of the books for our "Five Books, Five Minutes" feature at The Third Estate Sunday Review. We did one Sunday but we read stuff even when there's not time to do a feature. Even if we don't have time to write something, we're still discussing the books during the week, so that's pretty cool. We're reading two this week and hoping to pick up three we read already but haven't had time to do discuss.

Now on the Chalabi thing, I want to note C.I.'s "NYT has to promote the AP today because NYT has little news:"

A question I sometimes get from visitors is "Aren't you too hard on Dexter Filkins?" No. I'm obviously not hard enough on him judging by the stenography in today's paper: "Chalabi, in Tehran, Meets With Iranian President Before Traveling to U.S. Next Week."
He goes to great length to quote Chalibli and makes little effort to inform readers of certain realities. Such as the Times acting as a megaphone for Chalibli's point of view. Dexter's not unaware that a niece of Chalabli was working for the Times in Iraq. But that's left out as is any harsh reality that might intrued on, "I will be back!" and the talk of how he might, MIGHT, be doing a little mission in Iran for the US government. There's no indication made of any attempts to determine the veracity of Chalibli's claims, they're just quickly rushed into print.

Be sure and check out Elaine's Like Maria Said Paz.

Now here's the question from the e-mails for today. Rebbie e-mails to complain about her boyfriend. When they have sex, she has a problem. He's too wide for her. I read Rebbie's e-mail and honestly wondered why she was writing because everyone's heard the one about Cinderella and finding the right one by whether or not her foot fits in the shoe.

I mentioned Rebbie's e-mail to my youngest sister and she goes that the Cinderella story is meaningless because women always try to purchases shoes that their feet are too big for. She said she bets Rebbie is thinking that she will stretch out the way a shoe will.

I don't know about that but I won't pretend to know what I don't.

Here's what I know. She and her boyfriend are having sex. It causes her pain. It's been 3 weeks and she's still in pain. I think it's time for Rebbie to carry her shoe somewhere else to find a fit because nothing's changed and I doubt it will.

To put a fancy word to it, Rebbie and her boyfriend are "incompatible." I don't think that's going to change and as a guy I'll tell you that we're not real big on the "let's stay together but stop having sex" plan (which Rebbie wants to offer to him).








Sunday, November 06, 2005

11 important headlines from last week

If you missed the news last week, you're in luck. I'm putting up Maria's rundown of eleven important headlines from Democracy Now! in Spanish and in English.

"La iglesia de Bush exhorta a los soldados estadounidenses a retirarse"
Maria: Hola. De parte de "Democracy Now!" once cosas que vale hacer notar este fin de semana. Paz.

La iglesia de Bush exhorta a los soldados estadounidenses a retirarse
El Presidente Bush y Dick Cheney afrontan más oposición a la guerra de Irak, esta vez de su propia iglesia. La semana pasada la Iglesia Metodista Unida aprobó una resolución que pedía el retiro de los soldados de Irak. Una parte de la resolución decía: "Como personas de fe, alzamos nuestras voces para protestar contra la tragedia de la injusta guerra en Irak. Se perdieron miles de vidas y cientos de miles de millones de dólares se desperdiciaron en una guerra que Estados Unidos inició y nunca debió comenzar". La junta de la iglesia también le pidió al Congreso que creara una comisión independiente y bipartidista para investigar el trato de Estados Unidos a los detenidos en el extranjero.

Octubre es el cuarto mes con más bajas estadounidenses en Irak
Las bajas estadounidenses en Irak siguen en aumento. Siete soldados estadounidenses murieron el lunes, elevando a 92 el número de muertes de este mes. Esto provocó que octubre fuera el cuarto mes con más bajas de soldados estadounidenses en la guerra.

Senadores demócratas impusieron una sesión cerrada sobre información previa a la Guerra
El martes en Capitol Hill, los demócratas obligaron a los senadores republicanos a realizar una sesión a puertas cerradas para cuestionar la información utilizada por el gobierno de Bush para justificar la invasión a Irak. En un procedimiento inusual, se pidió al público que se retirara, se cerraron las puertas y se atenuó la iluminación de la cámara del Senado. La información detrás de la invasión estadounidense a Irak sigue siendo un asunto clave tras la acusación la semana pasada de Lewis Libby, jefe de personal del Vicepresidente Cheney, con relación al caso de filtración de que Valerie Plame era una agente encubierta de la CIA. Poco antes de imponer la sesión a puertas cerradas, el líder demócrata de la minoría del Senado, Harry Reid, dijo: "La acusación de Libby permite ver de qué se trata esto realmente, como este gobierno fabricó y manipuló información para "vender" la guerra de Irak e intentó destruir a aquellos que se atrevieran a cuestionar sus acciones". Los republicanos desestimaron la sesión cerrada alegando que era una maniobra política. Sin embargo, acordaron realizar una revisión bipartidista de la investigación de la Comisión de Inteligencia del Senado sobre la información previa a la guerra. Los demócratas dijeron que esta investigación era inadecuada.

Libby renunció luego que se presentaran cinco acusaciones en su contra por el caso de filtración de la CIA
Por primera vez en 130 años, un funcionario de la Casa Blanca ha sido acusado de crímenes cometidos en el desempeño de su cargo. El viernes, Lewis "Scooter" Libby fue acusado de cinco cargos de obstrucción de la justicia, perjurio a un gran jurado y de realizar falsas declaraciones a agentes del FBI durante la investigación de la filtración de la CIA. Si es declarado culpable, Libby afronta hasta 30 años en prisión y 1,25 millones de dólares en multas. Hasta el viernes, Libby era una figura central en la Casa Blanca donde desempeñaba tres altos cargos: jefe de personal del Vicepresidente Cheney, asesor de seguridad nacional del Vicepresidente y colaborador del presidente. El fiscal especial Patrick Fitzgerald anunció que daría curso a la acusación el viernes. El asesor principal del Presidente Bush, Karl Rove, hasta el momento no ha sido acusado por su participación en la filtración de que Valerie Plame, esposa del embajador Joseph Wilson, era una agente encubierta de la CIA. Pero Rove sigue siendo investigado. El domingo, líder de la minoría del Senado, Harry Reid, exhortó a Bush a disculparse y a Rove a renunciar. Bush y Cheney elogiaron a Libby por su desempeño. El principal candidato para reemplazar a Libby es David Addington, quien actualmente es el asesor jurídico del Vicepresidente. Hace tres años Addington escribió un documento que afirmaba que la guerra contra el terrorismo dejaba sin efecto las limitaciones de interrogar a los detenidos de la Convención de Ginebra. El embajador Wilson acusó a Libby y a la Casa Blanca de revelar que su esposa, Valerie Plame, era una agente encubierta. Wilson dijo: "Funcionarios de alto rango del gobierno utilizaron el poder de la Casa Blanca para convertir nuestras vidas en un infierno en los últimos 27 meses. Pero lo que es aún más importante, lo hicieron en un intento por cubrir las mentiras y desinformación utilizadas para justificar la invasión a Irak. Ese es el principal crimen".

Índice de aprobación de Bush sigue cayendo
Nuevas encuestas indican que la confianza de la población en el gobierno de Bush sigue en descenso. Una nueva encuesta de ABC News/Washington Post indica que el índice de aprobación de Bush es de 39 por ciento, el más bajo en toda su presidencia. Mientras tanto, el 46 por ciento de la población encuestada asegura que el nivel de honestidad y ética del gobierno ha decaído bajo el mandato de Bush. Sólo el 15 por ciento considera que Bush ha reestablecido la honestidad y ética al gobierno. Esta noticia surge tras lo que la revista Time describió como la peor semana de la presidencia de Bush. En un período de cuatro días, el número de estadounidenses muertos en Irak superó los 2.000, Harriet Miers renunció a su candidatura a la Corte Suprema y se presentaron cargos contra Lewis "Scooter" Libby, quien renunció. Time lo describió como "la semana infernal" de Bush.

Italia advirtió a Estados Unidos sobre documentos de la vinculación entre Irak y Níger
Mientras tanto, el gobierno italiano dice que advirtió al gobierno de Bush que los documentos que indicaban que Irak intentaba comprar uranio a Níger eran falsos. El Senador italiano Massimo Brutti dijo que la advertencia fue realizada en el mismo período en que Bush afirmó que Irak intentaba comprar uranio a Níger en su discurso de Estado de la Unión en enero de 2003. Más adelante Brutti exhortó a Associated Press que retirara su afirmación. La afirmación acerca de Níger jugó un papel clave en el intento del gobierno de Bush de justificar la guerra de Irak. La información de que Valerie Plame era una agente encubierta de la CIA fue revelada luego de que su esposo, el ex embajador estadounidense Joseph Wilson, cuestionara la vinculación de Irak con Níger.

Human Rights Watch identifica a Polonia o Rumania como ubicación de las prisiones secretas de la CIA
El gobierno de Bush se niega a confirmar o desmentir el informe del Washington Post de que la CIA está utilizando una prisión secreta de la era soviética en Europa del Este para mantener cautivos a prisioneros. La cárcel es aparentemente parte de una red mundial de prisiones administradas por la CIA en varios países. A pedido de funcionarios estadounidenses, el Post no reveló la ubicación de las instalaciones. Human Rights Watch identificó a Polonia y Rumania como posibles ubicaciones, tomando en cuenta los registros de vuelos de aviones de la CIA que transportaban detenidos desde Afganistán. Un portavoz del Ministerio de Defensa de Polonia negó las acusaciones al Financial Times. Un portavoz rumano se negó a hacer comentarios. La agencia de noticias France Presse informa que el Ministro del Interior de la República Checa, Frantisek Bublan, dice que recientemente rechazó un pedido de Estados Unidos para establecer un centro de detención en su territorio.

La Cruz Roja pide tener acceso a detenidos en prisiones secretas
El Comité Internacional de la Cruz Roja solicitó tener acceso a los prisioneros detenidos en las prisiones secretas de la CIA en Europa del Este. La existencia de los establecimientos no identificados fueron reveladas en la edición del miércoles del Washington Post. Mientras tanto, la Unión Europea anunció que investigará las denuncias realizadas por Human Rights Watch de que en Polonia y Rumania posiblemente haya prisiones secretas. Ambos países negaron las acusaciones.

Historiador: Agencia de Seguridad Nacional falsificó pruebas del incidente del Golfo de Tonkin
El New York Times informa que surgieron nuevas pruebas acerca del incidente del Golfo de Tonkin en 1964 que precipitó el inicio de la Guerra de Vietnam. Un historiador de la Agencia de Seguridad Nacional (NSA, por sus siglas en inglés) determinó que funcionarios de la agencia falsificaron documentos intencionalmente para que pareciera que Vietnam del Norte había atacado buques destructores estadounidenses en el Golfo de Tonkin. Tras el supuesto ataque, el entonces presidente Johnson ordenó responder con ataques aéreos en blancos de Vietnam del Norte, y utilizó el incidente para persuadir al Congreso de que aprobara la resolución del Golfo de Tonkin, que provocó el inicio de la guerra. El historiador de la NSA determinó que la información puede haber sido falsificada por funcionarios de inteligencia, no por motivos políticos sino para cubrir errores anteriores cometidos por funcionarios de inteligencia. Sin embargo, el Times informa que también se encubrió la explicación del historiador, que fue publicada por primera vez en una revista interna confidencial de la Agencia de Seguridad Nacional en 2001. El artículo del historiador permanece en confidencialidad. Según el Times, quienes hacen las políticas en la NSA temieron que la publicación del estudio histórico podría provocar comparaciones incómodas con la información falsa utilizada para justificar la guerra en Irak.

Se intensifican disturbios en los suburbios de Paris
En Francia, se cumple el octavo día de disturbios en varios suburbios de Paris. La violencia comenzó el 27 de octubre tras la muerte de dos adolescentes en la región pobre de Clichy-sous-Bois. Los dos adolescentes se electrocutaron en una reja eléctrica mientras huían de la policía. Los padres de uno de los jóvenes presentaron una queja ante las autoridades locales. Los suburbios albergan una gran comunidad de inmigrantes del norte de África, donde predomina el desempleo crónico y la pobreza. Los disturbios se extendieron a al menos 20 localidades. La policía dice que ya efectuó más de 140 arrestos. El Ministro del Interior de Francia, Nicolas Sarkozy, es blanco de criticas por llamar a los jóvenes de los suburbios "escoria", y jurar una "guerra sin piedad" contra ellos.

Funeral de Rosa Parks en Detroit
El miércoles en Detroit más de 4.000 personas asistieron al funeral de la pionera de los derechos civiles Rosa Parks. El funeral duró más de siete horas, tres horas más de lo que estaba previsto. Entre los invitados se encontraba el Reverendo Jesse Jackson, el ex Presidente Bill Clinton, y la cantante Aretha Franklin. Parks falleció el 24 de octubre, a los 92 años de edad.

Maria: In English, here are eleven stories fom Democracy Now! Remember that the headlines are provided daily in English and Spanish and please pass on to your friends. Peace.

Bush's Church Calls for U.S. Troop Withdrawal
President Bush and Dick Cheney are facing more opposition about the war in Iraq - this time from their own church. Last week the United Methodist Church passed a resolution calling for the U.S. to withdraw from Iraq. The resolution read in part "As people of faith, we raise our voice in protest against the tragedy of the unjust war in Iraq. Thousands of lives have been lost and hundreds of billions of dollars wasted in a war the United States initiated and should never have fought." The church board also called on Congress to create and independent, bipartisan commission to investigate U.S. treatment of detainees overseas.

October Marks Fourth Deadliest Month for U.S. In Iraq
And U.S. losses in Iraq continue to rise. Seven U.S. soldiers were killed on Monday bringing the monthly death toll to 92. This made October the fourth deadliest month of the war for U.S. troops.

Senate Democrats Force Closed Session on Pre-War Intelligence
On Capital Hill Tuesday, Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into closed session to question intelligence used by the Bush administration to justify the invasion of Iraq. In the rare move, public spectators were cleared out, the doors were closed and the lights were dimmed in the Senate chamber. The intelligence behind the US invasion of Iraq remains a key issue with last week’s indictment of Vice President Cheney chief of staff Lewis Libby over the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Shortly before forcing the closed session, Democratic Senate Minority leader Harry Reid said: "The Libby indictment provides a window into what this is really all about, how this administration manufactured and manipulated intelligence in order to sell the war in Iraq and attempted to destroy those who dared to challenge its actions." Republican leaders dismissed the closed session as a political stunt. However, they agreed to a bi-partisan review of a Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation into pre-war intelligence. Democrats have called the investigation inadequate.

Libby Resigns After Five Count Indictment in CIA Leak Case
For the first time in 130 years, a White House staff member has been indicted for crimes committed in the office. On Friday, Lewis "Scooter" Libby was indicted on five counts of obstruction of justice, perjury to a grand jury and making false statements to FBI agents during the CIA leak investigation. If convicted, he faces up to 30 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines. Until Friday Libby was a central figure in the Bush White House holding three top positions: chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, national security adviser to the vice president and assistant to the president. Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald announced the indictment on Friday. President Bush's chief advisor Karl Rove has so far escaped indictment for his role in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame, the wife of Ambassador Joseph Wilson. But Rove remains under investigation. On Sunday Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called on Bush to apologize and for Rove to resign. Bush and Cheney have both praised Libby for his service. The top candidate to replace Libby is David Addington who currently works as the vice president's legal counsel. Three years ago he wrote a memo that asserted the war on terrorism renders obsolete the Geneva Convention's limitations of questioning detainees. Ambassador Wilson accused Libby and the White House of outing his wife, Valerie Plame. He said, "Senior administration officials used the power of the White House to make our lives hell for the last 27 months. But more important, they did it as part of a clear effort to cover up the lies and disinformation used to justify the invasion of Iraq. That is the ultimate crime."

After "Week From Hell" Bush's Approval Rating Drops
New polls show that the public trust in the Bush administration has reached a new low. A new ABC News/Washington Post Poll has found Bush's approval rating to be just 39 percent - the lowest of his presidency. Meanwhile 46 percent of the country says the level of honesty and ethics in the government has declined under Bush. Only 15 percent of the country feel Bush has restored honesty and ethics to the government. This comes after what Time Magazine described as the worst week of Bush's presidency. Within a span of four days the U.S. death toll in Iraq topped 2,000, Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court and Lewis Scooter Libby was indicted and resigned. Time described it as Bush's QUOTE "Week from Hell."

Italy Warned US On Iraq-Niger Documents
Meanwhile, the Italian government says it warned the Bush administration documents purporting to show an Iraqi attempt to buy uranium from Niger were fakes. Italian Senator Massimo Brutti said the warning was issued around the same time President Bush made the claim in his State of the Union speech of January 2003. Brutti later called the Associated Press to retract the statement. The claim played a key part in the Bush administration’s attempts to justify the war on Iraq. CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity was leaked after her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, questioned the Iraq-Niger connection.

HRW Identifies Poland or Romania as Location of Secret CIA Prison
The Bush administration is refusing to confirm or a deny a Washington Post account that the CIA is using a secret, Soviet-era prison run in Eastern Europe to hold prisoners. The prison is apparently a part of global network of CIA-run prisons in several countries. At the request of US officials. the Post did not reveal the location of the facilities. Human Rights Watch has identified Poland and Romania as likely locations, citing flight records of CIA aircraft transporting detainees from Afghanistan. A spokesperson for the Polish defense ministry denied the allegations to the Financial Times. A Romanian spokesperson declined comment. Agence France Presse is reporting Czech Republic Interior Minister Frantisek Bublan says his country recently turned down a US request to set up a detention center on its territory.

Red Cross Calls for Access to Detainees in Secret Prisons
The International Committee of the Red Cross has called for access to detainees held in secret CIA prisons in Eastern Europe. The unidentified facilities were revealed in Wednesday's Washington Post. Meanwhile, the European Union announced it would be looking into allegations made by Human Rights Watch that Poland and Romania are the likely sites of the prisons. Both countries have denied the allegations.

Historian: NSA Falsified Gulf of Tonkin Evidence
The New York Times is reporting new evidence has emerged about the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1964 that precipitated the escalation of the Vietnam War. A National Security Agency historian has determined officers at the agency knowingly falsified intelligence in order to make it look as if North Vietnam had attacked U.S. destroyers in the Tonkin Gulf. Following the alleged attack, Johnson ordered retaliatory air strikes on North Vietnamese targets and used the event to persuade Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which led to the escalation of the war. The NSA’s historian determined the intelligence may have been falsified not for political reasons but to cover up earlier mistakes made by intelligence officers. However, the Times reports there has also been a cover up of the historian’s account, which was first published in a classified in-house journal of the National Security Agency in 2001. The historian’s article remains classified. According to the Times, policymakers at the NSA feared the release of the historical study might prompt uncomfortable comparisons with the flawed intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq.

Riots Intensify in Paris Suburbs
In France, clashes intensified as rioting in several Paris suburbs entered its eight day. The violence started October 27 following the deaths of two teenagers in the poor area of Clichy-sous-Bois. The two teens were electrocuted in a power grid while fleeing from police. One of the child’s parents has filed a complaint with local authorities. The suburbs are home to a large North African community and plagued by chronic unemployment and poverty. Unrest has now spread to at least 20 towns. Police say they’ve made over 140 arrests. French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has drawn criticism for calling the suburban youths "scum," and pledging a "war without mercy" on them.

Funeral Service Held For Rosa Parks in Detroit
In Detroit Wednesday, over 4,000 mourners attended a funeral service for civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks. The service lasted over seven hours, three hours past its scheduled time. Guests included the Rev. Jesse Jackson, former President Bill Clinton, and singer Aretha Franklin. Parks died on October 24th at the age of 92.