White House Withholds Hundreds of Abramoff Documents

Today Chairman Waxman asks White House Counsel Fred Fielding to turn over more than 600 pages of documents relating to the activities of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff that are being withheld because they involve internal White House deliberations.

The text of the letter follows:

Dear Mr. Fielding:

The White House is withholding hundreds of pages of documents about the activities of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff on the grounds that these documents involve internal White House deliberations. Unless the President is prepared to assert executive privilege over these documents, they should be turned over to the Oversight Committee without further delay.

When Mr. Abramoff pleaded guilty to corruption charges in January 2006, White House officials stated emphatically that Mr. Abramoff was a virtual stranger to the White House. President Bush said, "I don't know him." White House spokesman Scott McClellan asserted that "there were only a couple of holiday receptions that he attended, then a few staff-level meetings on top of that." Through a spokesperson, Karl Rove, then Senior Advisor to the President, said, "Mr. Rove remembers they had met at a political event in the 1990s. … Since then, he would describe him as a casual acquaintance." Ken Mehlman, the former Director of the White House Office of Political Affairs, said: "Well, Abramoff is someone who we don't know a lot about. … We know what we read in the paper." More...

Russia's ex-KGB chief warns secret elite over feud

The former head of the Soviet KGB warned on Wednesday that a conflict between rival Russian security services could lead to "big trouble" and urged feuding clans to unite around President Vladimir Putin.

Details have emerged of a feud between rival groups of secret service officers who form the bedrock of Putin's team. Observers warn it could split the ruling elite at a critical time when Putin is preparing to leave office.

The battle came to light this month after agents from the Federal Security Service (FSB), controlled by Nikolai Patrushev, arrested senior officers from the anti-drugs service, controlled by Viktor Cherkesov, for corruption and abuse of office.

Vladimir Kryuchkov, Soviet KGB chief from 1988 to 1991, published an open letter in the Zavtra newspaper on Tuesday warning that the sides must make peace.

"We approach the sides in the conflict and say: 'Make a step towards each other!' Otherwise -- and you should trust our experience -- there could be big trouble and that must not be allowed," the letter says. Reuters

Scholar links Bush's US and Hirohito's Japan

A top US scholar of wartime Japan said Wednesday that the Bush administration's "war on terror" bore close parallels to Japan's past militarism through a defiance of international law.

Herbert Bix, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for his landmark biography of wartime emperor Hirohito, said he believed US aerial bombings and alleged use of torture in Afghanistan and Iraq constituted war crimes.

"The current American rampage in Iraq and elsewhere, not to mention the Bush administration's threats of war against Iran, so clearly replicates Imperial Japan during the period when its leaders willfully disregarded international law and pursued the diplomacy of force," Bix said during a visit to Tokyo.

Japan defied the Nine-Party Treaty guaranteeing China's sovereignty, signed in 1922 in Washington, when imperial troops invaded Manchuria in 1931.

Bix compared Japan's action to current US efforts to scuttle the Treaty of Rome establishing the International Criminal Court, which President George W. Bush argues could unfairly target Americans.

He also said that senior US leaders -- not just rank-and-file soldiers -- should have been held to account for the killings of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town of Haditha.

"US war criminality is justice institutionalised, as Japan's once was," Bix said. AFP

Is Bush crazy?

Near the end of this interview Bush says;

"Whether it be Afghanistan or Iraq, we got more work to do. We the free world has more work to do, and I believe those of us who live in liberty have a responsibility to promote forms of government that deal with what causes 19 kids to get on airplanes to kill 3000 students."

What is he talking about???

Giuliani is Mideast's worst nightmare

President George W. Bush's approval ratings may be in the doldrums and he's only got just over another year to go, but before we order the celebratory fireworks here's a thought. The next American president could make this one look like a Boy Scout.

As the months pass, the next election looks like a race between Democrat Hillary Clinton and the former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani for the Republicans. I'm no fan of the coolly calculating Clinton but given the alternative, she's the one I'll be rooting for.

At the same time, I have serious doubts as to whether certain American states are ready for a woman president and although the American voters have shown they're fed up with Republicans they may reluctantly settle for the usual middle-aged white man over a former First Lady, no matter how bright and formidable she may be.

But here's the problem. Whereas post 9-11 Giuliani was generally considered a competent, nice-guy keen to roll up his sleeves in order to put his city to rights, in recent months the mask has come off. In short, Giuliani is no benign patriotic do-gooder. He's a hawkish, sabre-rattling, pro-Israel, nationalistic neocon. Online Journal

Bush: ‘I Know I Would Respond’ If Iran Were To Attack Israel

Before his press conference today, President Bush met exclusively with a group of GOP congressional leaders. According to Fox News, which spoke with some of the members at that discussion, Bush unequivocally promised that he would attack Iran if Iran “were ever to attack Israel.” Bush told the lawmakers, “I know I would respond. … In order for diplomacy to be effective, all options have to be on the table.”

Weapons Industry Dumps Republicans, Backs Hillary

The U.S. arms industry is backing Hillary Clinton for President and has all but abandoned its traditional allies in the Republican party. Mrs Clinton has also emerged as Wall Street's favourite. Investment bankers have opened their wallets in unprecedented numbers for the New York senator over the past three months and, in the process, dumped their earlier favourite, Barack Obama.

Mrs. Clinton's wooing of the defence industry is all the more remarkable given the frosty relations between Bill Clinton and the military during his presidency. An analysis of campaign contributions shows senior defence industry employees are pouring money into her war chest in the belief that their generosity will be repaid many times over with future defence contracts.

Employees of the top five U.S. arms manufacturers -- Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop-Grumman, General Dynamics and Raytheon -- gave Democratic presidential candidates $103,900, with only $86,800 going to the Republicans. "The contributions clearly suggest the arms industry has reached the conclusion that Democratic prospects for 2008 are very good indeed," said Thomas Edsall, an academic at Columbia University in New York. London Independent

Iran warns U.S. of "quagmire"

Iran warned the United States on Wednesday it would find itself in a "quagmire deeper than Iraq" if it attacked the Islamic state, and Russia stepped up efforts for a diplomatic solution to Tehran's nuclear row with the West.

The warning by the head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, a target of new U.S. sanctions announced last week, added to angry rhetoric between the two old foes that has prompted speculation of possible U.S. military action.

U.S. President George W. Bush this month suggested a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War Three but the White House said on Tuesday it remained determined to resolve the stand-off peacefully.

"If the enemies show inexperience and want to invade Islamic Iran, they will receive a strong slap from Iran," Jafari said in comments carried by the semi-official Fars News Agency.

"The enemy knows that if it attacks Iran it, will be trapped in a quagmire deeper than Iraq and Afghanistan, and they will have to withdraw with defeat," he told a parade in north-central Iran, without mentioning the United States by name. Full article

US speeding up anti-missile plans: Moscow

Russia accused the United States on Wednesday of accelerating attempts to deploy anti-missile defences in central Europe, despite Moscow's request for a freeze on the project.

Washington's negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic over installing the defences "have not only not been suspended, but additional measures are being taken to speed them up," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin. "There is the impression that the United States is trying to make the realisation of its plans irreversible," Kamynin said in a statement.

Kamynin also reiterated Moscow's dismissal of US accusations that Iran presents a military threat. Russia does not support "a holy alliance against this country," he said.

The ministry spokesman accused Washington of failing to make good on a promise to put US proposals for resolving the dispute into concrete terms, while also failing to take seriously Russia's own proposals.

"Unfortunately the American side prefers not to pay attention that Russia's offer is an alternative -- not a support" for US plans, he said. AFP

CIA chief backs rendition flights

The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, General Michael Hayden, has defended the methods it uses to interrogate terror suspects.

Gen Hayden said programmes such as extraordinary rendition produced what he said was irreplaceable intelligence.

Under the programme, terror suspects are transported to secret prisons in countries with less stringent interrogation rules.

Mr Hayden, speaking in Chicago, said the leads gained justified rendition.

"The irreplaceable nature of that intelligence is the sole reason why we have what I admit freely is a very controversial programme."

The CIA had produced thousands of intelligence reports from the "fewer than 100 hardened terrorists" detained since 2002, Mr Hayden told the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

'Water-boarding' controversy

His comments came as President George Bush's nominee for US attorney general came under fire for his position on interrogation techniques. BBC

The Bush Era's Dark Legacy of Torture

It is impossible to tell the difference between the dark stories emerging from Bush's "extraordinary renditions" policy and the Hollywood fiction about horrible torture.

There's a scene in the political drama Rendition where Peter Sarsgaard -- playing a well-meaning but ultimately cowardly senior aid to a powerful senator -- unsuccessfully approaches the icy head of the CIA's counterterrorism unit (Meryl Streep) about the case of Anwar El-Ibrahimi, an Egyptian immigrant with an American wife and child who has been kidnapped by hooded CIA operatives at Chicago's O'Hare Airport on erroneous suspicions of terrorist ties and sent to be tortured in an unidentified North African country (presumably Egypt). Put off by her arrogance and frustrated by her rebuff, Sarsgaard's character says in a stern up-close whisper, "Perhaps I should have a copy of the Constitution delivered to your office."

Streep answers archly: "What are you taking issue with?" she hisses. "The disappearance of a particular man? Or a national security policy?"

To anyone opposed to the government practice of snatching people off the street, erasing any record of their whereabouts, flying them off to a black hole in some human rights-violating netherworld, and subjecting them to sadistic torture techniques in the name of a "war on terror," the answer is painfully obvious. But in our enduringly surreal political era, the question cuts to the heart of the actual debates that are currently playing out on Capitol Hill. More...

Battle for the Republic

The American Police State

A Dallas jury, a week ago, caused a mistrial in the government case against this country’s largest Islamic charity. The action raises a defiant fist on the sinking ship of American democracy.

If we lived in a state where due process and the rule of law could curb the despotism of the Bush administration, this mistrial might be counted a victory. But we do not. The jury may have rejected the federal government’s claim that the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development funneled millions of dollars to Middle Eastern terrorists. It may have acquitted Mohammad el-Mezain, the former chairman of the foundation, of virtually all criminal charges related to funding terrorism (the jury deadlocked on one of the 32 charges against el-Mezain), and it may have deadlocked on the charges that had been lodged against four other former leaders of the charity, but don’t be fooled. This mistrial will do nothing to impede the administration’s ongoing contempt for the rule of law. It will do nothing to stop the curtailment of our civil liberties and rights. The grim march toward a police state continues.

Constitutional rights are minor inconveniences, noisome chatter, flies to be batted away on the steady road to despotism. And no one, not the courts, not the press, not the gutless Democratic opposition, not a compliant and passive citizenry hypnotized by tawdry television spectacles and celebrity gossip, seems capable of stopping the process. Those in power know this. We, too, might as well know it. More...

US accused of torture...yet again

THE United States's willingness to resort to harsh interrogation techniques in its so-called war on terror undermined human rights and the international ban on torture, a United Nations spokesman says.

Manfred Nowak, UN Special Rapporteur on torture, said the US's standing and importance meant it was a model to other countries which queried why they were subject to scrutiny when the US resorted to measures witnessed at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib prison.

Mr Nowak was speaking after releasing his finding that the use of torture was routine and widespread in Sri Lanka ,despite laws against it.

"I am very concerned about the undermining of the absolute prohibition of torture by interrogation methods themselves in Abu Grahib, in Guantanamo Bay and others, but also by rendition and the whole CIA secret places of detention. All that is really undermining the international rule of law in general and human rights but also the prohibition of torture," said Mr Nowak.

"(Other countries) say why are you criticising us if the US, the most democratic country with the oldest history of human rights, if they are torturing you should first go there. It has a negative effect because the US is a very powerful and important country and many other countries take the US as a model." More...

Reports of Blackwater immunity deal embarrass Rice

Reports that State Department investigators offered immunity deals to security guards accused of shooting dead 17 Iraqis dealt an embarrassing blow to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday.

According to the Washington Post, FBI agents now investigating the Baghdad shootings involving the Blackwater security firm are barred from using any of the information obtained during an earlier State Department probe.

One law enforcement official told the Post that some of the Blackwater guards had refused interviews with the Federal Bureau of Investigation which took over the investigation this month, citing the earlier immunity promises.

The deals "make things a lot more complicated and difficult," the official told the Post.

The move is set to reignite the controversy over the shootings in the Iraqi capital on September 16 and the role of private security firms such as Blackwater USA in the war-torn country.

If confirmed, the deals could complicate efforts to prosecute the guards, especially as the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security did not have the authority to grant immunity, unnamed officials told The New York Time. (AFP)

Pentagon: Electromagnetic pulse bombs from 2012

A presentation given by a US Air Force official may have - temporarily, at least - laid to rest one of the wilder and wackier secret superweapon conspiracy theories of recent times.

The superweapon in question is the dreaded "E-bomb", aka "Electromagnetic pulse weapon (EMP)" "High Power Microwave (HPM)" and so on, depending on the exact details.

Most people are familiar with the fact that a nuclear weapon gives off a powerful electromagnetic pulse when detonated. Just as an ordinary-strength RF transmission induces tiny electrical flows in receiving antennae, a nuclear bomb's much more intense EMP can cause damaging spikes in exposed electronic circuitry, potentially knackering it.

Ever since the effect was noted, various people have speculated that it would be interesting to use a suitable nuke, not to leave one's enemy atomised and/or glowing in the dark, but rather to fry all his electronics.

One way of doing so might be to let off the nuke just outside the atmosphere above the location to be EMPed. The eponymous Russkie space zappers in the Bond flick Goldeneye were supposed to be some kind of E-bomb, for instance. More...

Russia begins large-scale military exercises in Far East

Russia began on Sunday large-scale military exercises in the Far East to practice interoperability between troops, the press office of the Far Eastern military district said.

"The strategic command-and-staff military exercises to practice control of force groupings in the Eastern region, East-2007, are being held in accordance with the training plans of the Russian Armed Forces. The exercises will be held from October 28 through November 3," the press office said.

The exercises will be supervised by Yuri Baluyevsky, chief of the Russian Armed Forces General Staff, and will aim to practice measures to localize internal armed conflicts, destroy illegal armed formations and terrorist groups, the press office said.

In addition, the exercises are intended to study the operation of the single system of troops' logistic and technical support in the Far Eastern region, the press office said. RIA Novosti

Sarkozy Touts 'Mediterranean Union' Plan

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has reiterated his plan to set up a Mediterranean Union, a loose grouping of countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea, in 2008 -- a move that is likely to raise eyebrows in some parts of Europe.

"I invite all the heads of state and government of countries bordering the Mediterranean to meet in France in June 2008 to lay the foundations of a political, economic and cultural union founded on the principles of strict equality", Mr Sarkozy said during his visit to Morocco on Tuesday (23 October).

He added that "in the Mediterranean will be decided whether or not civilisations and religions will wage the most terrible of wars...whether or not the North and the South will clash".

The idea of a Mediterranean Union is not a completely new one -- it was floated by Mr Sarkozy leader during the French presidential campaign in spring of this year.

Under the plans, the group should tie southern Europe with Northern Africa as well as Israel and its Arab neighbours and tackle topical issues such as counter-terrorism, immigration, energy, trade, water and sustainable development. Business Week

CFR President: $200 Oil If War With Iran

Richard Haass the President of the Council on Foreign Relations and Bilderberg luminary was recently interviewed by Katie Couric on the situation with Iran. During the interview, Haass predicted that the crisis over Iran’s nuclear program could come to a head within the next few months and that war with Iran would result in oil prices rising to $200 a barrel. Haass also made it clear that sanctions would not be effective in changing Iran’s stance on their nuclear program and that there was a real possibility of a U.S. military strike on Iran using aircraft and cruise missiles. When Couric specifically asked Haass if he thought we would see a war with Iran, he responded.

“I don’t think we are talking about invasion, the U.S. doesn’t have ground troops. There could be a military strike using aircraft and cruise missiles, but if you ask me over the next year or two years can I imagine the U.S. and Iran moving to conflict? The short answer is yes. Is it definite? Obviously not, but is it a real possibility; for sure.”

Haass also mentioned in the interview that war with Iran would result in the oil price reaching $200 a barrel. This specific prediction from Haass is interesting considering reports from previous Bilderberg meetings that the global elite have been seeking an increase in oil prices as part of an effort to further squeeze the U.S. middle class.

A $200 oil price is certainly not out of the realm of possibility considering oil recently eclipsed the $90 a barrel mark More....

Secret move to upgrade air base for Iran attack plans

The US is secretly upgrading special stealth bomber hangars on the British island protectorate of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, according to military sources.

The improvement of the B1 Spirit jet infrastructure coincides with an "urgent operational need" request for £44m to fit racks to the long-range aircraft.

That would allow them to carry experimental 15-ton Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs designed to smash underground bunkers buried as much as 200ft beneath the surface through reinforced concrete.

One MOP - known as Big Blu - has already been tested successfully at the US Air Force proving ground at White Sands in New Mexico. Tenders have now gone out for a production model to be ready for use in the next nine months.

The "static tunnel lethality test" on March 14 completely destroyed a mock-up of the kind of underground facility used to house Iran's nuclear centrifuge arrays at Natanz, about 150 miles from the capital, Tehran. More....

ElBaradei: Military Strike On Iran ‘Would Lead Absolutely To Disaster’

Prior to the Iraq war, International Atomic Energy Agency chairman Mohammed ElBaradei warned there was “no evidence of ongoing prohibited nuclear or nuclear-related activities in Iraq.” He was subsequently smeared by the administration, but ultimately vindicated as the recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize for getting it right.

Today on CNN, ElBaradei sounded alarms about the Bush administration’s increasingly hawkish rhetoric in regards to Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions. “We have the time” to use diplomacy, ElBaradei urged. There is “no military solution” with Iran:

I very much have concern about confrontation, building confrontation, Wolf, because that would lead absolutely to a disaster. I see no military solution. The only durable solution is through negotiations and inspections. … My fear if that we continue to escalate from both sides from both sides that we would end up into a precipice, we would end up into an abyss.

Watch it:

ElBaradei poured water over Vice President Cheney’s confident declaration last week that “Iran is pursuing technology that could be used to develop nuclear weapons. The world knows this.” While ElBaradei did not rule out Iran having an “intent” to obtain nuclear weapons, he explained that there is no evidence that Iran is currently pursuing such a program right now: More...

GOP Senator: Bush 'dead right' about 'World War III' with Iran

Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) appear on CBS' Face the Nation to discuss the Bush Administration's posturing against Iran, and whether or not "World War III" is imminent, given increasing rhetoric among the Administration and the news media alike.

Levin and Graham both see Iran as a danger, and both in one way or another support the "military option" to address it. Levin seeks a more diplomatic approach with a secondary "military option" in light of recent sanctions, and insists that the zeal with which the Administration props up Iran as a threat will only serve to strengthen the "fanatics" that will present themselves as martyrs in the public eye.

Graham calls for the United States to be aggressive in seeking to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon. Graham insists that "time is not on our side" against a regime that has openly expressed what he says is a desire to "destroy Israel," and that he says seeks to enrich uranium for weapons purposes rather than simply adopt nuclear power. More....

Top US general praises man who got US into Iraq, WMD fabricator Ahmad Chalabi

Chalabi, fomer dissident who pushed bogus WMD claims, assumes a new post in Iraq's government

At least Ahmad Chalabi seems to be taking the "Pottery Barn rule" to heart.

The controversial Iraqi politician and alleged Iranian intelligence asset -- perhaps as responsible as anyone in drumming up false pre-war claims about Saddam Hussein's weapons capabilities -- has reemerged as a central figure in the latest US attempts to put his broken country back together.

Chalabi's latest job, according to McClatchy Newspapers, is lobbying Iraq's central government to build on security gains to provide "better electricity, health, education and local security services to Baghdad neighborhoods." More...

Egypt launches nuclear power program

President Hosni Mubarak said that Egypt is to build several nuclear power stations, relaunching a nuclear program frozen more than 20 years ago.

Mubarak said a decree would be issued in a few days' time to establish a higher council for the peaceful use of nuclear energy, the official MENA news agency reported.

Mubarak said the program will be developed in cooperation with the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "within a framework of transparency and respect of commitments to the nuclear non-proliferation system."

Egypt initiated a nuclear energy program in the 1970s but abandoned it in 1986 after the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe. Mubarak's regime recently outlined plans to revive it.

The 79-year-old president did not say which countries would cooperate in the construction of the power stations, nor how many were planned, but last year he discussed nuclear cooperation during visits to Russia and China.

Egypt has sought to reassure the international community by insisting that it will not import enriched uranium, amid tensions over the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea. More...

Hersh: US, Israel support PKK

Seymour Hersh

PKK Kurdish rebel group and its sister organization, PEJAK, have been receiving support from the US and Israel, an American journalist claims.

"In the past months, Israel and the United States have been working together in support of PKK and its Iranian offshoot PEJAK, I was told by a government consultant with close ties to the Pentagon," said Pulitzer Prize-winning, Seymour Hersh.

In an interview with Turkish gazette, Zaman, the leading American investigative journalist also revealed that the White House has lost control over PKK which has gone rogue.

Earlier, the renowned American journalist accused Washington and the Zionist regime of providing PKK and PEJAK with 'training and equipment' in a secret ploy to destabilize the region.

Commenting on PEJAK, Hersh asserted that Washington considers it as “part of an effort to explore alternative means of applying pressure on Iran.” Press TV

The Turks are coming

"We have no friends other than the mountains." - Kurdish proverb

With more than 100,000 troops and all those F-16s, tanks and helicopter gunships massed on the Turkish-Iraqi border, the new George W Bush greater Middle East war - that is, the Turkish invasion of Iraqi Kurdistan - is ready to roll.

This "war on terror" blockbuster spin-off may screen against the wishes of Hollywood, sorry, Washington market gurus; anyway the fireworks are unlikely to start before the crucial Washington face-to-face on November 5 between Bush and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyep Erdogan.

To say this is all part of a "structural crisis" between Turkey and the US would be the understatement of the century. Turkey is actually deciding nothing less than its real geopolitical position in a mesmerizing balancing act involving Iran, Israel, the Arab world, Europe, Russia and the US. Asia Times

The dark forces driving Bush’s absolute power

Gordon Brown’s speech last Thursday at Westminster University was striking for a lot of reasons. It has been a while since a Labour prime minister spoke so forcefully about a thing called freedom. Whether out of an attempt to regain the political initiative or because he has seen abuse of executive power up close, Brown homed in on one of the more worrying threats to liberty today: overweening executive power. Blair revelled in this power, as George Bush and Dick Cheney do on a far larger scale.

In Britain, most of the leading parties support greater parliamentary control over war powers, especially after the debacle of Iraq, a war whose mistakes were compounded by too tight a circle of executive decision-making. In America, congressional resistance to presidential power is nearing a historic nadir; and we live in a time of a resurgent imperial presidency. The attacks of 9/11 would doubtless have increased presidential power. Emergencies always do. But no one could have predicted the sheer scale of what has happened and the extreme to which it has now gone.

There is one core reason for this and his name is Dick Cheney. Many of us who were initially sympathetic to the Bush administration and sup-portive of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have spent the past six years trying to make sense of what appeared to be a series of inexplicable mistakes: the secret authorisation of torture against US law and the Geneva conventions; the use of false intelligence in waging war on Iraq; the construction of Guantanamo Bay and the imprisonment and torture of countless innocent people across the globe, some in secret black sites; and the repeated, express intent of the president to ignore laws passed that he had signed – because they allegedly violated his constitutional authority as president. The Sunday Times

Over 100 Iraqi troops poisoned in Baghdad

Baghdad, Oct 27, (VOI) – More than 100 Iraqi servicemen in Baghdad were poisoned during breakfast on Saturday morning and were taken to several hospitals in the Iraqi capital for treatment, an Iraqi official said.

"Over 100 Iraqi soldiers from a company affiliated with the army's 6th division, who are serving in the Green Zone, were poisoned this morning, but not fatally," Spokesman for the Baghdad security plan Brigadier Qasim Ata told the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI).

"More than half of those poisoned were released from hospitals after treatment," he added.
Ata did not provide further details of the type of food that soldiers had for breakfast or the staff responsible for the food supply, but said that investigation is currently underway. Voices of Iraq

No plan, no peace in Iraq

How did the US come to invade Iraq with no post-war plan for governing Iraq - and how much did Tony Blair know of the matter? John Ware reports in the first of two articles linked to a new TV series.
"Iraq will be better," declared Tony Blair five days after the fall of Saddam.

"Better for the region, better for the world, better, above all, for the Iraqi people."

That contrasts starkly with the 1.000,000 or so civilians dead, four million refuges inside and outside Iraq, 4,141 coalition solders who have died and the cost to the UK of well in excess of £5bn.

Yet it's now clear that Mr Blair knew before the invasion that America's planning for post-war recovery was woefully inadequate - and so was Britain's. BBC

Will Bush really bomb Iran?

In the white desert sands of New Mexico, close to where the first atom bomb was detonated, America’s biggest conventional weapon was tested last spring. A 30,000lb massive ordnance penetrator, known as the Big Blu or the Mother of All Bombs, was placed inside a tunnel to test its explosive power against hard, deeply buried bunkers and tunnels designed to conceal weapons of mass destruction.

The monster bunker-buster was so heavy, it could not fly. But the blast was a huge success, rippling through the tunnels and destroying everything in its wake.

Today the Big Blu might as well have “Tehran” written on its side in the same way that the Iranians love to parade missiles marked “Tel Aviv”. Tucked away in an emergency defence spending request, the US air force has just asked Congress for $88m to equip B2 stealth bombers, the black warriors of the skies, with racks strong enough carry the huge bomb. London Times

Pentagon reels from second major nuclear arms blunder in a month

The Pentagon was reeling last night from the American military's second major nuclear weapons blunder in a month.

Congress is demanding a full scale investigation and serious questions are being asked about the competence of the officers in charge of the world's mightiest arsenal.

The latest outrage came as Commander Michael Portland, the officer in charge of the USS Hampton, the most advanced nuclear attack submarine in the world, was fired after it was discovered that he had neglected to make basic daily safety checks.

Last month 70 US airmen were demoted after they lost track of six nuclear-armed cruise missiles and allowed them to be flown halfway across America by a bomber crew that didn't even know they were there. UK Daily Mail

FEMA Held Fake News Conference During Wildfires

The U.S. government's main disaster-response agency apologized on Friday for having its employees pose as reporters in a hastily called news conference on California's wildfires that no news organizations attended.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, still struggling to restore its image after the bungled handling of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, issued the apology after The Washington Post published details of the Tuesday briefing.

"We can and must do better, and apologize for this error in judgment," FEMA deputy administrator Harvey Johnson, who conducted the briefing, said in a statement. "Our intent was to provide useful information and be responsive to the many questions we have received." Reuters

Yet More Condi Rice Pudding

In announcing her latest "steps" in the Bush-Cheney campaign to effect regime change in Iran, Condi Rice claimed they were necessary because Iran had again rejected the offer originally made "on our behalf" back in May, 2006, by Javier Solana – the European Union Minister of Foreign Affairs – "to support a civil nuclear program in Iran under international supervision if it agreed to give up pursuit of the fuel cycle."

Some offer! It is undeniably true that Iran – as a member of the General Conference of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a signatory to the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons – has an "inalienable right" to pursue the nuclear fuel cycle.

So, when Iran rejected Rice's ultimatum to give up its "inalienable rights," her stooge Bonkers Bolton managed to ram through UN Security Council Resolution 1696, which began – if you can believe it – by

"Reaffirming its commitment to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and recalling the right of States Party, in conformity with Articles I and II of that Treaty, to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination." More....

America’s self-defeating hegemony

Pre-emption is fully justified vis-à-vis stateless terrorists wielding such weapons. But it cannot be the core of a general non-proliferation policy, whereby the United States intervenes militarily everywhere to prevent the development of nuclear weapons

When I wrote about the “end of history” almost twenty years ago, one thing that I did not anticipate was the degree to which American behaviour and misjudgements would make anti-Americanism one of the chief fault-lines of global politics. And yet, particularly since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, that is precisely what has happened, owing to four key mistakes made by the Bush administration.

First, the doctrine of “pre-emption,” which was devised in response to the 2001 attacks, was inappropriately broadened to include Iraq and other so-called “rogue states” that threatened to develop weapons of mass destruction. To be sure, pre-emption is fully justified vis-à-vis stateless terrorists wielding such weapons. But it cannot be the core of a general non-proliferation policy, whereby the United States intervenes militarily everywhere to prevent the development of nuclear weapons. More...

Iran threatens to hit back with 'decisive strike' if U.S. bombs its nuclear sites

Iran has threatened to hit back with 'an even more decisive strike' if the U.S. bombs its nuclear sites.

The warning from the head of the Revolutionary Guards came in response to tough American sanctions against Tehran.

The sanctions are designed to cut off financial support for the Revolutionary Guards, the elite Iranian force designated a 'proliferator of weapons of mass destruction' by Washington.

But the force's new chief, General Mohammad Ali Jaafari, insisted that Iran was ready to defend itself. UK Daily Mail

Arsonist Bush is torching the world, so why isn't he being punished?

No criminal is as heinous as the serial killer who murders a number of individuals to fulfill his deranged desires.

But what about a nation that becomes a serial aggressor, invading one country after another to greedily gain their natural wealth, or to make them low-wage, sweatshop locales that profiteering corporations can run away to, closing unionized plants at home and killing good, domestic jobs in the exploitative process?

Isn't that what the Bush administration's foreign policy is really all about, behind the tawdry propaganda camouflage of waging a war on terror?

If current saber rattling comes to its ominous conclusion, America will soon attack Iran, the third victim of orchestrated mass murder militarily inflicted upon people who've done nothing to deserve our bombs and missiles explosively crashing into their humble hovels. Online Journal

Pentagon reels from second major nuclear arms blunder in a month

The Pentagon was reeling last night from the American military's second major nuclear weapons blunder in a month.

Congress is demanding a full scale investigation and serious questions are being asked about the competence of the officers in charge of the world's mightiest arsenal.

The latest outrage came as Commander Michael Portland, the officer in charge of the USS Hampton, the most advanced nuclear attack submarine in the world, was fired after it was discovered that he had neglected to make basic daily safety checks. UK Daily Mail

Guantanamo military lawyer breaks ranks to condemn 'unconscionable' detention

An American military lawyer and veteran of dozens of secret Guantanamo tribunals has made a devastating attack on the legal process for determining whether Guantanamo prisoners are "enemy combatants".

The whistleblower, an army major inside the military court system which the United States has established at Guantanamo Bay, has described the detention of one prisoner, a hospital administrator from Sudan, as "unconscionable".

His critique will be the centrepiece of a hearing on 5 December before the US Supreme Court when another attempt is made to shut the prison down. So nervous is the Bush administration of the latest attack – and another Supreme Court ruling against it – that it is preparing a whole new system of military courts to deal with those still imprisoned. London Independent

From CIA Jails, Inmates Fade Into Obscurity

On Sept. 6, 2006, President Bush announced that the CIA's overseas secret prisons had been temporarily emptied and 14 al-Qaeda leaders taken to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But since then, there has been no official accounting of what happened to about 30 other "ghost prisoners" who spent extended time in the custody of the CIA.

Some have been secretly transferred to their home countries, where they remain in detention and out of public view, according to interviews in Pakistan and Europe with government officials, human rights groups and lawyers for the detainees. Others have disappeared without a trace and may or may not still be under CIA control.

The bulk of the ghost prisoners were captured in Pakistan, where they scattered after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Washington Post

US Backed Terrorist Group Explode Car Bomb In Iran Killing 11 Iranian Soldiers, 31 Wounded

A War On Terrorism or a War Of Terrorism?

Reports as usual vary wildly and small wonder that some news sources are trying to pin this on yet another subsidiary of "Al Qaeda". But this wasn't a suicide attack.

The terrorists drove a car, packed with explosives, up to a bus carrying soldiers of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Some reports say that they forced the bus to stop by firing on it with automatic weapons, others that they blocked the road with the car while pretending to have broken down. Either way, they quickly escaped on motorbikes before detonating the car bomb by remote control. Democrats.com

Poisoned ex-Russian spy Litvinenko WAS a paid-up MI6 agent

The former Russian spy poisoned in a London hotel was an MI6 agent, the Daily Mail can reveal.

Alexander Litvinenko was receiving a retainer of around £2,000 a month from the British security services at the time he was murdered.

The disclosure, by diplomatic and intelligence sources, is the latest twist in the Litvinenko affair, which has plunged relations between London and Moscow to their lowest point since the Cold War.

On the day of the poisoning, November 1, former KGB agent Mr Litvinenko met prime suspect Andrei Lugovoy at the Millennium Hotel in Grosvenor Square, London. UK Daily Mail

Iran warns: we're ready for war after US sanctions

Iran has responded fiercely to the United States' unilateral imposition of sanctions, declaring that the measures are doomed to fail.

The head of the Revolutionary Guards, singled out by Washington as a "supporter of terrorism", insisted that his troops are more than ever ready to defend the ideals of the revolution, according to the BBC.

Foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini declared: "The hostile American policies towards the respectable people of Iran and the country's legal institutions are contrary to international law, without value and - as in the past - doomed to failure."

The sanctions, the most severe action taken against Iran since the aftermath of 1979 revolution, are designed to cut international financial support to Teheran's theocratic regime and target the Revolutionary Guards in particular.

Announcing the decision, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted that a "diplomatic solution" to the differences between Iran and the West was still possible but described the actions as part of a decision "to confront the threatening behaviour of the Iranians". London Telegraph

US imposes new sanctions on Iran

The US has stepped up its sanctions on Iran for "supporting terrorists" and pursuing nuclear activities.

The new measures target the finances of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and three state-owned banks.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the moves were part of "a comprehensive policy to confront the threatening behaviour of the Iranians".

But Iran said the latest "hostile policies" were counter to international law, and accused the US of hypocrisy. US imposes new sanctions on Iran

BBC News
Thursday, October 25, 2007

The US has stepped up its sanctions on Iran for "supporting terrorists" and pursuing nuclear activities.

The new measures target the finances of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and three state-owned banks.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the moves were part of "a comprehensive policy to confront the threatening behaviour of the Iranians".

But Iran said the latest "hostile policies" were counter to international law, and accused the US of hypocrisy.

The US declared the Revolutionary Guards a "proliferator of weapons of mass destruction", a reference to ballistic missiles they are allegedly developing, while their elite overseas operations arm, the Quds Force, was singled out as a "supporter of terrorism". BBC News

Hillary Campaigners Try to Censor Ron Paul

Hillary Clinton Rally at Auraria Campus, Denver, CO. Hillary’s campaign staff admit to being told to Censor Ron Paul’s campaign and were caught in the act.

Pentagon Holds ‘Bloggers Roundtables’ To Cater To Right-Wing Noise Machine

Today, Glenn Greenwald observes that the military has become “rapidly politicized, fully incorporated into…the model of the Republican right-wing noise machine.” Since January, the Pentagon has sought advice from “political hacks” like Bush/Cheney ‘04 aide Steve Schmidt who recently “went over to Iraq to look at the communications capabilities” of the military.

Another aspect of this politicization is the budding ties between the right-wing blogosphere and the military. Last October, the Pentagon announced that it was “starting an operation akin to a political campaign war room” in order to “set the record straight” on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. New teams were to “develop messages” focusing “on newer media, such as blogs.”

In February, the Pentagon began holding Bloggers Roundtables to “provide source material for stories in the blogosphere concerning the DoD and the Global War on Terrorism.” But at these roundtables, the Pentagon has reserved space almost exclusively for conservatives and military bloggers. Some examples of the bloggers on the roundtables just this month:

Wizbang
Weekly Standard
Threats Watch
Qando.net
U.S. Cavalry On Point
Griff Jenkins (Fox News anchor)
Air Force Pundit
Military.com
Defense Technology International
Austin Bay

When the program was started in February, the calls occurred approximately once a week; since September, the Defense Department PR team has surged the roundtables’ frequency to nearly every day. Many of these conservative bloggers regularly appear on the calls, receiving unfettered access to military strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan. One military official explained the real intent: More...

"Thought Crime Bill" Could Ensnare Peaceful Activists

Fears that government could define "Internet radicalization" and criticism as terrorism mount, violent comments left on messageboards by trolls could be exploited to entrap peaceful 9/11 truthers

A new bill that recently passed the House and is headed for Senate approval has online activists worried that the vague definitions used for defining the Internet's contribution to radicalization of potential terrorists could lead to a government crackdown on talk radio, free speech and the 9/11 truth movement.

The bill is H.R. 1955: Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 and passed Congress after a bipartisan vote on October 23rd.

Ostensibly, the bill targets United States citizens because of its constant reference to basic Constitutional protections, but this has led some to fear that it is intended to shut down free speech on the Internet and stifle patriot and alternative talk radio networks.

The bill defines "violent radicalization" as "The process of adopting or promoting an extremist belief system for the purpose of facilitating ideologically based violence to advance political, religious, or social change." Prison Planet

Rights groups file French torture case vs Rumsfeld

Human rights groups have filed a lawsuit in France alleging that former U.S. defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld allowed torture at U.S.-run detention centers in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The plaintiffs, which include the French-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) and the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), say Rumsfeld authorized interrogation techniques that led to rights abuses.

The United States says it does not torture, though it has authorized several methods widely condemned by rights groups such as exposure to extreme temperatures and 'waterboarding', or simulated drowning.

"We will only stop once the American authorities involved in the torture program are brought to justice," CCR chief Michael Ratner said in a statement posted on the FIDH Web site. Reuters

The Vice President had trouble keeping his eyes open during the White House Cabinet meeting Wednesday. He is a heart patient, and is is possible that the medication made him drowsy.

Rudy Jokes About Torture: ‘On That Theory, I’m Getting Tortured Running For President’

Asked last night in Iowa about Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey’s refusal to call waterboarding torture, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) said “it depends on the circumstances” and “on who does it” because “liberal newspapers have exaggerated it.”

Giuliani then called liberals “silly” for describing “sleep deprivation” as torture, joking that “on that theory, I’m getting tortured running for president of the United States”:

And I see, when the Democrats are talking about torture, they’re not just talking about even this definition of waterboarding, which again, if you look at the liberal media and you look at the way they describe it, you could say it was torture and you shouldn’t do it. But they talk about sleep deprivation. I mean, on that theory, I’m getting tortured running for president of the United States. That’s plain silly. That’s silly. Think Progress

Putin: No saber-rattling over Iran

Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, has lashed out at the US for bringing negotiations to a dead end by imposing new sanctions on Iran. Putin warned strongly against new international sanctions on Iran, saying they would lead to a dead end.

“Why worsen the situation and bring it to a dead end by threatening sanctions or military action,” he said on Thursday in a reference to the US push for further sanctions on Iran.

Putin which is currently in Portugal for a summit with leaders of the European Union, said that Iran's nuclear standoff can be resolved like the North Korea case.

“Not long ago, it didn't seem possible to resolve the situation with North Korea's nuclear program; but we have practically solved it relying on peaceful means,” he said at a news conference after talks with Portuguese President Anibal Cavaco Silva.

“Running around like a madman with a razor blade, waving it around, is not the best way to resolve the situation,” he added. Press TV

Endgame for Iraqi Oil?

Before the invasion of Iraq, while millions demonstrated in the streets, often waving homemade placards with "No Blood for Oil" – or equivalents like "Don't Trade Lives for Oil" and like "How Did USA's Oil Get Under Iraq's Sand?" – the Bush administration said remarkably little about the vast quantities of petroleum on which Saddam Hussein's regime was perched. The President did, however, speak reverently about preserving not Iraq's "energy reserves" but its "patrimony," as he so euphemistically put it. The American mainstream media followed suit, dismissing arguments about the significance of Iraqi and Middle Eastern oil as the refuge of, if not scoundrels, then at least truly simpleminded dissidents who knew not whereof they spoke. Generally, in our news pages and on the TV news, with Iraq at the edge of a shock-and-awe invasion, Iraqi energy reserves were dealt with as if no more than a passing thought, as if the Middle East's main export was hummus.

Little has changed. When former Fed chief Alan Greenspan recently indicated in passing in his memoir that the war was "about oil," there was a brief firestorm of scorn in Washington; an administration spokesperson termed it "Georgetown cocktail party analysis" ("A refill of crude, please, straight up…") and Greenspan quickly began to backtrack under the pressure. Oil? Who us? The Bush administration's plans to protect the Oil Ministry in Baghdad and Iraq's major oil fields amid otherwise unchecked chaos in April 2003 were certainly noted in the news, but went largely uncommented upon (unless you were an Internet news jockey).

Zundel Prison Mail withheld for almost three years - out of spite

Intermittently, I reported that there were huge problems in Mannheim with Ernst's mail in that many letters did not seem to reach him. We tried repeatedly t get to the bottom of this miserable situation but were blocked at every turn.

Now this latest, received today:

[START] Surprise, Surprise! I was called to the "Kammer" yesterday and told that I could go through two large boxes of mail that were never processed by Dr. Meinerzhagen.

Ingrid, some scheme that was from that man! So far, I have found 15 thick letters from C. M. over 2 1/2 years that were never even looked at - unopened! I found four letters from [Attorney] Doug Christie. I found three letters so far from [Attorney] Barbara K., - her and Doug's Christmas cards from 2006-2006! Lots of letters from K.S., likewise. Several letters from Jerome Brentar [an old friend who has since passed away ].

Simply unbelievable what was done! Incredibly kind, encouraging, uplifting letters! I will have days of sorting, weeks to respond and to answer people's questions. I'll report more tomorrow, worked 20 hours on it yesterday. More

Iraq threatens to cut off oil to Turkey if sanctions approved

The speaker of Iraq's parliament warned Turkey on Thursday that his government would cut off the flow of oil from northern Iraq if Ankara followed through on its threat to level economic sanctions against the country.

Mahmoud al-Mashhadani's comments came a day after Turkey's top leadership agreed to recommend the government take economic measures to force cooperation by Iraqis against Kurdish rebels who have been staging cross-border attacks against Turkish troops.

"Northern Iraq cannot be pressured," al-Mashhadani told reporters in the Syrian capital of Damascus. "Iraq is a rich country, and if there are economic pressures, we will cut off the Ceyhan pipeline," he said, referring to two oil pipelines that run from northern Iraq to Turkey's Ceyhan oil terminal on the Mediterranean Sea. More...

Tough-talking Sarkozy Melts on Moscow Visit

French President Nicolas Sarkozy made his first official visit to Russia this week. Talking to press on the results of the summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Sarkozy said that the two countries will develop cooperation on energy issues and that significant progress has been made in resolving disagreements over Iran's nuclear program.

Before the visit took place there were some doubts about a positive outcome, primarily due to President Sarkozy's openly pro-American stance and his recent criticism of Russia's perceived ambitions. Sarkozy has indicated that he preferred closer relations with the U.S. to those with Russia even before he was elected. After winning the presidency, he criticized Russia for "complicating" international problems and for alleged aggressiveness in international relations.

Hovever, before the start of the visit, French journalists and political experts tried to play down Sarkozy's tone. Speaking at the video conference held by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti, Daniel Vernet of the Le Monde newspaper pointed out that "For the French president, tough statements are his ordinary style of political discourse, but our analysts have never viewed such statements as attacks against Russia." The journalist added that Sarkozy "always holds tough discussions, even with Euro­pean partners of France, not to mention his statements on domestic political issues." Moscow Neews