Since last time...

There's a lot of material below, most of which is related to Iraq. It's the condensed version of links I've collected over the past 2+ weeks. Enjoy.

* Julian Borger of the Guardian has an interesting profile of the Wilsons of Plamegate fame. Speaking of Plamegate, Michael Tomasky observes that the country's leading editorial pages are ignoring the scandal and David Corn explains why the scandal has lost steam.

* Joseph Wilson is helping to publicize a study conducted by Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner, a war gamer who taught strategy and military operations at the National War College, which found that the Bush administration made up or distorted more than 50 news stories related to the war in Iraq.

* Jim Wilkinson, the Pentagon's press handler at Central Command in Doha, Qatar, is mentioned several times in Gardiner's study. Wilkinson has shifted his efforts from the Middle East to Madison Square Garden in NYC. He's set to be the director of communications for next year's Republican National Convention. This story was first reported by the NY Observer, but the paper has the annoying habit of not archiving their stories so I can't link to the original.

* Six months on, and still no signs of WMD. Regarding nukes, Josh Marshall says: "The imminent threat, it seems, was that Saddam was lusting in his heart for nukes, not that he was doing anything to get them." Plus, a shocking revelation from Al Jazeera: "There are weapons of mass destruction all over Iraq and they were used this year. Iraqi children continue to find them every day."

* The Bush administration has banned all media images of returning coffins from Iraq. The press is continuing to underreport the numbers wounded and killed, while UPI reports that "hundreds of sick and wounded U.S. soldiers including many who served in the Iraq war" languish in Georgia barracks "while they wait -- sometimes for months -- to see doctors." Support the troops, indeed.

* "The overall mood of Iraqis has darkened over the last months as they have come to feel that, with the UN on the sidelines, they are dealing with an old fashioned colonial regime," Patrick Cockburn writes in an eye-opening report from Baghdad.

* Suzanne Goldenberg of the Guardian reports on a study by the Project on Defence Alternatives that found that as many as 15,000 Iraqis, including up to 4,300 civilian noncombatants, were killed in the first month of war.

* "The U.S. military should be investigating the deaths of dozens of Iraqi civilians killed by its troops," writes Jim Lobe. But it isn't even keeping track of the numbers killed, according to a study released by Human Rights Watch.

* "Well-spun by U.S. and British press handlers, the wire services announced the unanimous passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1511 as a victory for American diplomacy," avers Ian Williams. "And so it was, in the sense that a bald man winning a hair brush in a raffle could claim a victory."

* Seymour Hersh examines the “stovepiping” of Iraq intelligence, and argues that members of the Bush administration were not "consciously lying" about Iraq. Rather, "What was taking place was much more systematic—and potentially just as troublesome." In response, Dennis Hans wonders if Hersh been taken for a ride.

* Referring to Iraq, Trent Lott says we should "mow the whole place down" if we have to. Perhaps we should just turn it into a parking lot, like Ronny said we should have done with 'Nam...

* The infamous Rumsfeld memo that was leaked to the press is pretty telling. As David Corn put it: "With these comments, Rumsfeld veered dangerously close to becoming one of those root-cause-symps who routinely are derided by hawks for arguing that the United States and other nations need to address the forces that fuel anti-Americanism overseas -- in the Muslim world and elsewhere." Fred Kaplan of Slate went as far as to label the memo, "Rumsfeld's Pentagon Papers."

* Ehsan Ahrari asks some pertinent questions regarding the war on "political Islam": "Why should even the American people believe any future rationale that their government offers for bringing about any more regime change in Muslim regions in the coming months or years? And if the American people should not believe their government about that issue, why shouldn't Muslims believe that military invasion of Iraq or any other country in the future would be part of a larger war against Islam? Someone in Washington ought to be paying a lot of attention to these highly contentious issues, rather than just showing their dismay or by asking such seemingly naive questions as, 'why do they hate us?' or 'why do Muslims think the war on terrorism is really a war against Islam?'" In related news: some fear that a Sunni-Shiite alliance is coming to fruition, while Neil Clark of the Guardian writes about the return of Arabophobia.

* A coincidence?: "More than 70 American companies and individuals have won up to $8 billion in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan over the last two years, according to a new study by the Center for Public Integrity. Those companies donated more money to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush—a little over $500,000—than to any other politician over the last dozen years, the Center found." Also read about the $87 Billion Money Pit.

* Christian Aid, a British humanitarian group, released a scathing report prior to the Madrid conference on Iraq a few weeks ago that charged it could only account for $1 billion out of at least $5 billion in oil revenues and foreign assets that have been seized by the occupational authorities since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime.

* The Washington Post reports that a survey of US troops conducted by the military newspaper Stars and Stripes has found that "half of those questioned described their unit's morale as low and their training as insufficient, and said they do not plan to reenlist."

* There were 233 attacks on US forces in the last week alone. Alas, by Bush logic, such attacks are actually signs of our success in country.

* "In Iraq, private contractors do just about everything a soldier would do," reports the AP's Jim Krane.

* In an interview with Archaeology, Matthew F. Bogdanos, head investigater of the looting at the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad, revealed that there are a total of 10,100 artifacts missing from the museum now.

* Noam Chomsky writes about the Iraq war and the contempt for democracy.

* "The 'war on terror' is being used as an excuse to further US energy interests in the Caspian," declares Lutz Kleveman in the Guardian. Recall Brooke Shelby Biggs's 2001 piece on how the war in Afghanistan was linked to the pipeline politics of Central Asia.

* "Up to 40 countries are believed to be capable of manufacturing nuclear weapons, underlining the need to reinforce and update the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," The Australian reports. Paul Woodward of War in Context comments on this piece of news: "If Bill Clinton had really wanted to leave a lasting impact on the world, he should have grasped an opportunity that is unlikely to present itself again: To lead a global campaign for nuclear disarmament. Non-proliferation and disarmament are inseparable goals -- unless you believe that the rules of the nuclear club are rules that non-members will always feel duty-bound to obey. 'Safe in our hands, but not in yours' is a neo-colonial message that the post-colonial world refuses to accept." Meanwhile, the Pentagon is looking to invest in "mini-nukes."

* The Black Commentator chronicles the potential effects of an OPEC shift away from the US Dollar and towards the Euro. William Clark argued prior to the Iraq war that this was the real reason the US was preoccupied with removing Saddam Hussein.

* Mark Morford spells it out: "George W. Bush and his entire senior administration lied, and continue to lie, flagrantly, openly, knowingly, with full intent, about the need to drive this nation into a brutal and unwinnable and fiscally debilitating war, one that protects no one and inhibits no terrorism and defends nothing but BushCo's own petrochemical cronies and political stratagems."

* Dante Chinni of the CSM details the White House whine ("It's all the media's fault!"), while Newsweek examines the Bush administration's war on the press.

* In this week's NY Times Magazine, David Rieff picks up where Frontline left off in a piece on the "Blueprint for a Mess" in Iraq. He writes, "many officials in the United States, both military and civilian, as well as many Iraqi exiles, predicted quite accurately the perilous state of things that exists in Iraq today...What went wrong is that the voices of Iraq experts, of the State Department almost in its entirety and, indeed, of important segments of the uniformed military were ignored."

* Ugly tactics: The GOP is revivifying their racist poll intimidation tactics in Kentucky, although the "party of Lincoln" is doing its best to justify the actions. Josh Marshall has the goods on this, as well as the smoking-gun flyer which initiated the call for poll monitoring.

* Thankfully, TIA's dead. "But," writes Nancy Kranich, "the controversy over this attempt to collect and compile information about the activities of American citizens may have diverted attention from a similar state-based program with equally disturbing implications." The ACLU has more on MATRIX, or "Total Information Awareness Reloaded."

* Truthout has an informative interview regarding what you need to know about the electronic voting scandal. Remember, the theft of your vote is just a chip away.

* The Israeli Ministry of Defence finally published its planned route for the "separation barrier" being built along the West Bank. According to Ed O'Loughlin of the Sydney Morning Herald, the wall will make "a number of deep intrusions into the West Bank to loop around Jewish settlements, leaving about 70,000 Palestinians and up to 10 per cent of West Bank territory on the 'Israeli' side." Palestinians living near the barrier have been ordered by the IDF to obtain special permits to live in their own homes. As of now, this decree affects 12,000 Palestinians, with another 40,000 likely to come once the wall is completed.

* Mike Davis comments on the irony of California wildfires: "Right now, as I watch San Diego's wealthiest new suburb, Scripps Ranch, in flames, I recall the Schwarzenegger fund-raising parties hosted there a few weeks ago. This was an epicenter of the recent recall and gilded voices roared to the skies against the oppression of an out-of-control public sector. Now Arnold's wealthy supporters are screaming for fire engines, and 'big government' is the only thing standing between their $3 million homes and the ash pile."

* The Memo is the daily bible at Fox News. Someone leak it, please! Salon has more on the inside story at Fox. Plus: Fox threatens to sue its savior, The Simpsons.

* The US economy showed very positive growth in the last quarter, although a boost in jobs has yet to be seen. Paul Krugman is skeptical about what this means for the long haul. He writes, "My purpose is not to denigrate the impressive estimated 7.2 percent growth rate for the third quarter of 2003. It is, rather, to stress the obvious: we've had our hopes dashed in the past, and it remains to be seen whether this is just another one-hit wonder."

* Robert Pollin outlines a different path for the US economy. "The cornerstone of an alternative policy approach in the United States is to return to the basic commitment that emerged out of the Great Depression, the New Deal, and World War II, and was sustained, for the most part, through the 1960s," he declares. "This is to promote full employment at decent wages. The corollary to a policy of full employment at decent wages is that workers can afford to spend money, which then maintains overall spending in the economy at a high level. This creates the further benefit of businesses wanting to increase their investments to meet the demands of an expanding market."

* Robert Jensen asks, What is a morally defensible level of consumption?

* The Bush administration continues to drag its feet on the 9/11 investigation and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's Iraq investigation. Or maybe "stonewall" is a better way of putting it.

* Kenny Ausubel explains how Republican strategists, led by uber-pollster Frank Luntz, are planning to spin their way to a cleaner, greener future.

* Old news: Bush's grandather was in bed with the Nazis. This was confirmed by the AP. Joe Conason stresses that this doesn't reflect one bit on George W. Bush. Quite true. But it does have something to say about where all that Bush family wealth comes from.

* Atrios is being threatened with a subpoena by right-wing columnist, and self-avowed Paul Krugman stalker, Donald Luskin.

* Dont' be an idiot!