The past week+

I will not be posting again till some time after the New Year since I don't have steady access to a computer. In the meantime, check out what's below.

* Is the Search for WMD Over? "After eight months of fruitless search, George Bush has in effect washed his hands of the hunt for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction," the Independent reports. David Kay is also set to leave his post as head of the Iraq Study Group prior to submitting a report about what the search turned up -- virtually nothing.

* "The number of U.S. service members killed and wounded in Iraq has more than doubled in the past four months compared with the four months preceding them," Vernon Loeb of the Washington Post reports. Additionally, the total number of soldiers evacuated from Iraq is nearing 11,000.

* John Sloboda, a co-founder of the Iraq Body Count project, wonders why there is no official death toll in Iraq.

* The Pentagon has issued a stop-loss order in order to prevent the further erosion of troops available for service and deployment.

* Antonia Zerbisias opines about the Pentagon's creation of a "Good News Network" in order "to do an end run around the networks and beam directly from its press centre in Iraq. Just in time for election year 2004, the satellite service will counteract all those terrible stories of bombings, shootings, killings and maiming from the, you know, war."

* This AP report about military operations in and around Samarra, Iraq provides a vivid illustration of the brutalities of the US occupation. No more Mr. Nice Guy, indeed.

* The Bush administration went too far with its Iraq-uranium claims, according to the Washington Post. Ya don't say!

* By now, you've no doubt seen the infamous photo of Donald Rumsfeld greeting Saddam Hussein with a warm handshake on a visit to Baghdad in 1983. New documents have emerged about a trip the following year, in 1984, meant to shore up relations between the US and Iraq.

* It's time to come clean about the effects of depleted uranium, says Steven Rosenfeld.

* Rogue No More?: Following news that Libya has abandoned its WMD program, the UN Security Council is set to explore a resolution proposed by Syria calling for a WMD ban across the Middle East. Obviously, this resolution is aimed at Israel.

* According to a report in Yediot Aharonot, George Bush told an Israeli journalist that "we must get rid of" Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

* Ali Abunimah and Gideon Levy comment on the reappearance of the "relative calm" meme in media discussion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

* Stephen Zunes argues that "when it comes to the Israel/Palestinian issue, the Democratic establishment is virtually indistinguishable from the Bush administration."

* Paul Burrows addresses the Geneva Initiative in a two-part feature on ZNet: Part I & Part II. Also, leading Christian and Jewish conservatives are urging Bush to ignore the initiative and not push Israel on any moves towards peace.

* Peter Bergen tackles the slippery question, "What is al Qaeda?"

* Commenting on the fallout of a "distracted America," Martin Walker contends that "Historians may yet look back to define the Bush pesidency as the era when America's moment of undisputed power began to give way to a new balance among a series of regional powers, each able to challenge American dominance in its own sphere of influence."

* As Pakistan cracks down on militants following recent assassination attempts against Pervez Musharraf, the Guardian's Peter Preston warns of a nightmare scenario if the military dictator is displaced from power.

* The tragedy of the earthquake near Bam, Iran is staggering. If you'd like to contribute to the relief effort, get in touch with National Iranian American Council or the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

* Kris Axtman of the CSM reports on the ignored terror threat at home -- in Texas.

* Parts of Patriot Act II were signed into law under the cover of Saddam Hussein's capture on December 13. How convenient.

* "Hundreds of videotapes that federal prison officials had claimed were destroyed show that foreign nationals held at a New York detention facility after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were victims of physical and verbal abuse by guards," reports Dan Eggen of the Washington Post. An article from last year's Post offered a glimpse into the detention facilities.

* The investigation into the Valerie Plame scandal is "gathering momentum," according to the Washington Post. Let's hope so. As Bernard Weiner says, it's about time to out the leakers.

* Slate's Timothy Noah wonders, "What does a guy have to do to get a congressional bribe investigated?"

* "The nation's official jobless rate is 5.9%," the LA Times reports, "a relatively benign level by historical standards. But economists say that figure paints only a partial — and artificially rosy — picture of the labor market." If you take into account the underemployed and those that have given up looking for work, the rate rises to 9.7%.

* As the offshoring of the US service sector continues apace, Bob Herbert of the NY Times is worried about the "white collar blues."

*In a column for the SF Chronicle, Harley Sorensen introduces a lecture by Dr. Stephen Bezruchka on "Health and Poverty in the US."

* Hunger and homelessness is on the rise in major US cities, according to a 25-city survey commissioned by the US Conference of Mayors.

* Double failures: NAFTA and the "export model of agriculture."

* Jim Lobe wonders if Dick Cheney's on his way out.

* As the LA Times reports that white men overwhelmingly support George W. Bush, Arlie Hochschild addresses why "the people most hurt by Bush's policies are his strongest supporters" in an interview with Buzzflash. Hochschild, a sociologist at UBerkeley, elaborated on the reasons blue-collar white males support Dubya in an October article for TomDispatch.com.

* "The broad outlines of the Bush re-election campaign strategy have begun to appear," observes Dave Lindorff, "and they present an ugly picture."

* Check out the National Resources Defense Council's accounting of the Bush administration's environmental record. It's a good companion to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s article, "Crimes Against Nature," from a December issue of Rolling Stone.

* Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber's 1997 book, Mad Cow USA: Could the Nightmare Happen Here?, is available for download. It's quite relevant now.

* Would you like some modern-day slavery with that glass of OJ? The Palm Beach Post presents a special report on the behind-the-scenes abuses and injustices endured by Florida's migrant population, many of whom work within the orange juice industry.

* Rewind: Editor & Publisher runs down 2003's most significant press issues, David Shaw dissects the past year's media lowpoints, and Barry Crimmins takes a look at the "war year in review."

* Paul Krugman's been on fire recently. In varying articles over the past few weeks, he's addressed the "death of Horatio Alger," called for a truthful accounting of the current state of the world, and offered some useful tips for enterprising journalists.

* Justin Raimondo thinks Pope John Paul II is the "man of the year" for standing up to the war party.

* Irene Gendzier examines the political legacy of Edward Said.

* Dell DeChant and Juliet Schor have some interesting things to say about the workings of consumer culture.

* Looking for some new reading for the new year? Check out Dissident Voice's lengthy list of recommended books.

Break

I'm on hiatus for a bit as I visit family for the holidays. I'll be back when I can get access to a computer again, hopefully in a week or so.

9/11 Chair: Attack Was Preventable

Well, this is certainly interesting:

For the first time, the chairman of the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks is saying publicly that 9/11 could have and should have been prevented, reports CBS News Correspondent Randall Pinkston.

"This is a very, very important part of history and we've got to tell it right," said Thomas Kean.

"As you read the report, you're going to have a pretty clear idea what wasn't done and what should have been done," he said. "This was not something that had to happen."

Appointed by the Bush administration, Kean, a former Republican governor of New Jersey, is now pointing fingers inside the administration and laying blame.

"There are people that, if I was doing the job, would certainly not be in the position they were in at that time because they failed. They simply failed," Kean said.

Update: Kean has toned down his comments.

War still a lie

"With no weapons, no ties, and no truth, the capture of Saddam was merely the most massive and irresponsible police raid in modern times," Derrick Z. Jackson writes in the Boston Globe. "We broke in without a search warrant. Civilian deaths constituted justifiable homicide. America was again above the law. We have taught the next generation that many wrongs equal a right. In arrogance, we boasted, 'We got him!' The shame is that we feel none for how we got him. The capture of this dictator, driven by the poison of lies, turned America itself into a dictator."

Arab and Iraqi media

The NY Times reports on the creation of Al Hurra, "a slickly produced Arab-language news and entertainment network" that is "meant to be America's 'fair and balanced' pan-Arab answer to outlets like Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite network that White House officials accuse of fanning anti-Americanism in the Persian Gulf region."

In related stories, the Washington Post and Village Voice explore some of the debates over the control, funding, and scope of a post-Saddam media infrastructure in Iraq.

Blurring the lines between war and entertainment

"In a new twist on President Eisenhower's concept of a 'military-industrial complex,'" Nick Turse writes in the LA Times, "a 'military-entertainment complex' has sprung up to feed both the military's desire for high-tech training techniques and the entertainment industry's desire to bring out ever-more-realistic computer and video combat games. Through video games, the military and its partners in academia and the entertainment industry are creating an arm of media culture geared toward preparing young Americans for armed conflict."

The construction issue

xymphora has some interesting comments about the "real scandal of the collapse of the WTC towers."

The Right to Life

Sara Khorshid asks the forbidden question, "Does the fact that Saddam wiped out thousands of Iraqis justify thousands more killed by US forces?"

If there is one issue that underlines the bankruptcy of the American-led "war on terror," it is the lack of any serious discussion in the media about the effects of the military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan on civilian populations.

Eating their own

From the NY Times:

A new Democratic group that is running advertisements against Howard Dean and has not yet disclosed its sources of financing has introduced by far the toughest commercial of the primary election season.

Though the advertisement, which began running on Friday in South Carolina and New Hampshire, is paid for by Democrats, it offers a taste of a likely Republican strategy against Dr. Dean should he win the presidential nomination.

The spot opens with a Time magazine cover featuring Osama bin Laden as synthesizer music seemingly out of a post-apocalyptic science fiction movie is heard.

As the camera focuses on Mr. bin Laden's eyes. the following words flash on the screen: "Dangerous World," "Destroy Us," "Dangers Ahead" and "No Experience."

"Americans want a president who can face the dangers ahead," an announcer intones. "But Howard Dean has no military or foreign policy experience. And Howard Dean just cannot compete with George Bush on foreign policy. It's time for Democrats to think about that — and think about it now."

Absolute morons. Hey, Democrats, why not just concede the 2004 election right now? Might as well, if you're going to be running ads for the GOP even before you have a viable candidate.

Patriotism Police

Unauthorized dissent

Welcome to a free Iraq: "GIs Beat, Kill, Arrest, Disperse Pro-Saddam Protesters in Tikrit"

Update: Robert Fisk reports of "unarmed supporters of Saddam Hussein being gunned down in semi-darkness as they fled from Americans troops." At least 18 were killed in 3 separate Iraqi cities.

Putting the freedom genie back in the bottle

In Newsweek, Steven Levy writes that an internet "that encourages censorship, surveillance and suppression of the creative impulse" is not too far away.

Victor's justice

Interesting counterpoint offered in response to the "We got him!" crowd by David Walsh:

If every crime attributed to Hussein since the Baathists took power for good in 1968 were true, his hands would still not be stained with a fraction of the blood spilled by a series of US presidents over the same general period. Under Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, four million Vietnamese lost their lives as the result of US intervention, along with an estimated one million Cambodians and half a million Laotians. In Indonesia in 1965, a CIA-supported coup resulted in the deaths of another half a million people. Between 1954 and 2002, 300,000 Guatemalans are estimated to have met their deaths as the result of US-backed government repression. Another 100,000 are thought to have died in El Salvador.

In Argentina and Chile in the 1970s, with the capable assistance of the Nixon-Kissinger and Carter-Brzezinski regimes, military butchers tortured and murdered 50,000 people. Hundreds of thousands, if not more, Iraqis, including half a million children, have encountered a tragic fate as the result of the two wars conducted by US forces, and a decade of devastating sanctions under Bush and Clinton.

The Afghan catastrophe since 1979 has resulted in another one million deaths, and one should add the lives of 3,000 innocent Americans lost in the terrorist attacks of September 2001, which was one of the byproducts of the disastrous US encounter with the Central Asian nation.

And for all the talk about the Kurds, the US has stood shoulder to shoulder with the worst oppressor of that people, the Turkish regime. Indeed, the arrest of Hussein, carried out with US assistance, resembled nothing so much as the capture of Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan in February 1999.

Yes, yes. I can hear the cries of "moral equivalency" already.

A perfect gift

This should be on everyone's shopping list this holiday season. And for anyone out there shopping for me, yes, I'd take that figure over my beloved Ann.

Good question

If Americans don't believe in "class warfare"...

Language matters

"Listen to Democrats and progressives these days and you often hear a neutered language that is part Ivy League policy salon, part Beltway operative, and part sensitivity training class," writes Jonathan Rowe. "Might this have something to do with the fate of our causes politically?"

Ms. Gun's conscience

Katharine Gun. Name sounds familiar? No? The woman who leaked that NSA memo about the US spying on delegates at the UN last winter. Still not ringing any bells? Hmm. Why do you think that is?

Still trying to connect Iraq & 9/11

The Mohammad Atta meeting with an Iraqi agent in Prague is struck down for the umpteenth time in the NY Times. Have no fear, you Iraq-9/11 conspiracists. The Telegraph reports that Atta "was trained by Saddam"!

Update: The Telegraph story looks like it's based on a fake document. Gee, I'm shocked.

From watch dog to lap dog...

"Remember Joseph Wilson? Valerie Plame?" asks Edward Wasserman. "Probably not. They had a moment of fierce media notoriety a few months ago. The full story has never been told, but they're not in the news anymore. The Washington press corps apparently decided that respecting one journalist's dubious secrecy pledge outweighed any professional duty to get to the bottom of a nasty, and potentially explosive, instance of deceit and reprisal."

Hussein's capture

On the news that Christmas came early for the Bush administration in the form of Saddam Hussein's capture, I have little to say that hasn't been expressed elsewhere. Of the responses I have bothered to read, Billmon, Patrick Cockburn, David Corn, and David Lindorff seem to contextualize this event best.

At an objective level, the capture is a welcome development. I would prefer that our American war criminals weren't overseeing it, but the chance that Hussein might be brought before a tribunal of sorts to account for his crimes of the past 2+ decades is something that can be seen as a boon to international justice. The least we can hope for is a open trial with international oversight, if not outright coordination, where Hussein and his accusers are both given liberty to present a fair case.

Unfortunately, the prospects look dim for a full accounting since the United States cannot be too eager for Hussein to air the dirty laundry about US support in the 1980s, the greenlight over the 1990 invasion of Kuwait, where Iraq got the bulk of its weapons program, what happened to the weapons program following 1991, the effects and rationale of the sanctions, the run up to this past year's war, etc. This narrative contains a whole slew of inconvenient details that reveal the American preoccupation with "justice in Iraq" to be an outright sham. I cannot imagine the US government allowing this material to be documented in a heavily scrutinized, public forum.

On the homefront, this development contains significant amounts of political capital for George Bush, mostly because it helps further obscure the reasons offered for going to war, along with the true motives related to geostrategic positioning. The impact this will have once the '04 election rolls around will depend on a bunch of factors, most significantly how the recolonization reconstruction goes, how many US soldiers are killed and maimed, and how much continued resistance is offered by the amalgam of Baathists, non-Iraqis, and, yes, ordinary Iraqis.

More stuff

Yes, still busy. Here's an update.

* More than 1/3 of the soldiers being trained by the US to join the new Iraqi army have quit. Pauline Jelinek of the AP reports that this development "holds considerable symbolism because Bush administration officials have placed great importance on handing to Iraqis some of the duties performed by the 130,000 Americans occupying the country."

* Seymour Hersh details the US military's creation of Vietnam-like assassination squads to hunt down "Baathist remnants" in Iraq. In this article for the New Yorker, he elaborates on the activities of Task Force 121 and the growing collaboration between American and Israeli military personnel, which the Pentagon is now denying.

* Worthy vs. unworthy victims: Iraq's Health Ministry and the Coalition Provisional Authority have ordered a halt to the counting of civilians killed during the American invasion. Meanwhile, the death toll from the Hussein regime continues to be copiously documented (as it should be). But, as the Iraqi Governing Council looks to set up a war crimes tribunal, Peter Phillips bitterly observes that "the US government's interest in addressing mass graves and war crimes extends only to our opponents and that we tolerate such inhuman behavior among those who support our political agendas."

* "After listening to all the promises about democracy and lectures on civil rights," Tod Robberson reports from Baghdad, "Iraqis increasingly are telling their American occupiers that it's time to put up or shut up." Plus: Democracy or hypocrisy?

* Thousands of Iraqis have participated in demonstrations against "terrorism and sabotage" in varying cities around their country. Some pictures here, here, and here. Juan Cole provides some context.

* Jim Lobe writes that "conflicting and contradictory policies reflect the absence of a coherent underlying strategy" for the Bush administration in Iraq.

* Someone please tell the US military that transporting Israeli tactics to the Arab world will not work.

* The Guardian has a special report on the privatisation of war.

* 15 children have been killed in two separate assaults by the US military in Afghanistan over the past week.

* What has gone so badly wrong in Afghanistan? ask Conor Foley and Mark Lattimer.

* Bradley Burston breaks down the varying proposals for peace between Israelis and Palestinians in Ha'aretz.

* In order to pull back from the brink of apocalypse, Robert Jay Lifton says the United States needs to step off the "superpower treadmill."

* The WHO estimates that global warming killed 150,000 people in 2000 and, if current trends continue, the death toll will likely double within the next 30 years.

* "The world is running out of fresh water," write Tony Clarke and Maude Barlow. "By the year 2025, there will be 2.6 billion more people on Earth than there are today. As many as two-thirds of those people will be living in conditions of serious water shortage, and one-third will be living with absolute water scarcity."

* The recently passed Medicare reform bill is "an object lesson in the putrefaction of democracy in the US," according to David Walsh.

* There's been a bunch of recent e-voting developments. Drop by Black Box Notes for a rundown.

* From Cursor: "A day after Rep. Dennis Kucinich lambasted Ted Koppel for asking why, given his low poll numbers, he was still in the presidential race, ABC pulled three 'off-air producers' from the campaigns of Kucinich, Al Sharpton and Carol Moseley Braun. 'Obviously, ABC is retaliating for my challenge to Ted Koppel,' said Kucinich. 'They have proven my point, which is the media, and now specifically ABC, is now trying to set the agenda for this election.'" FAIR has more on ABC's narrowing of the field.

* Dick Cheney and his entourage went on a hunting expedition this past week. Actually, it was more like a staged slaughter.

Recap

I am still quite busy, so posting will be sporadic for the next week+. With that in mind, here's some stuff from the past few days.

* An international court has "convicted three Rwandan news media executives of genocide for helping to incite a killing spree by machete-wielding gangs who slaughtered about 800,000 Tutsis in neighboring Rwanda in early 1994," the NY Times reports. "'The power of the media to create and destroy human values comes with great responsibility,' the court said in a 29-page summary of its judgment. 'Those who control the media are accountable for its consequences.'" This is an historic decision and, considering how the bulk of the media performed in the run up to war in Iraq, one with quite interesting implications.

* Wagging the Bird: Bush's trip to Iraq on Thanksgiving featured a fake Turkey and a bogus story about a mid-air encounter with a British Airways flight.

* Why are the Bushies reluctant to ask the UN for help in Iraq? Two words: military bases.

* David Walsh dissects the massacre in Samarra. Oh, and are we doing body counts, now?

* Getting tough in Iraq: "'You have to understand the Arab mind,' Capt. Todd Brown, a company commander with the Fourth Infantry Division, said as he stood outside the gates of Abu Hishma. 'The only thing they understand is force — force, pride and saving face.'" I can hear Edward Said gritting his teeth in heaven from here.

* It'll be interesting to see how the occupational authorities tap dance around the growing calls for elections in Iraq. This was allegedly a war to bring democracy, not impede its progress, right?

* According to the French magazine Le Canard Enchaine, 1,700 US soldiers have deserted their posts in Iraq, many of them going AWOL once they returned to the US for leave.

* UN: Where's that weapons report, Mr. Kay?

* George Monbiot says the world is running out of oil, but nobody dares mention this fact in public. Monte Paulsen addresses this issue in relation to two recent books on the topic.

* "Federal authorities this year mounted one of the most extensive investigations of domestic terrorism since the Oklahoma City bombing," a Texas TV station reports. Yet this plot is being generally ignored by the rest of the media.

* Maher Arar was sent off to Syria to be tortured by the US government. Another victim of "post-9/11 panic," Benamar Benatta, "spent the past 26 months in federal prisons, much of that time in solitary confinement -- even though the FBI formally concluded in November 2001 that he had no connection to terrorism," according to the Washington Post.

* The US is facilitating the use of torture worldwide by exporting over $20 million in equipment that can be used to abuse detainees, according to Amnesty International. The US has also gained the reputation since the initiation of the "war on terror" for handing over suspects to governments which typically engage in human rights abuses.

* Amnesty International is also criticizing the US for whitewashing the deaths of two prisoners who were held (and likely tortured to death) at the Bagram air base in Afghanistan.

* James Meek of the Guardian details the situation inside the Guantanamo Bay detention facility via interviews with former prisoners. Check out part I and part II of his report.

* How is Bush going to try to get re-elected? Ivan Eland says by generating crises and winning votes by pretending to solve them.

* "A study that compared humans with other species concluded there are 1,000 times too many humans to be sustainable," writes Jennifer Viegas of Discovery News.

* Reuters reports that two of the top climate experts in the US have remarked that there is "no doubt" that the threat of global warming is real and that the consequences are grave. Michael McCarthy of the Independent provides even more evidence.

* A UN report has found that, after a steady decline throughout the first half of the 1990s, the number of people suffering from chronic hunger rose by 18 million in 2000. 842 million people currently suffer from the crisis, with approximately 25 million dying each year. The numbers of afflicted are also climbing at the rate of about 5 million per year.

* Some other numbers to think about: 14 million, 35.9 billion, and one.

* If you're looking for a gift for your children this holiday season, why not give them a postcard with the estimates of the national deficit they'll be dealing with once they reach adulthood.

* Federal spending has risen by more than 16% since Dubya arrived in DC. Some conservatives aren't very happy about this.

* Clueless George: "In order to understand why George W. Bush doesn't get it, you have to take several strands of common Texas attitude, then add an impressive degree of class-based obliviousness," writes Molly Ivins. "What you end up with is a guy who sees himself as a perfectly nice fellow -- and who is genuinely disconnected from the impact of his decisions on people."

* "America is a country that now sits atop the precarious latticework of myth," writes Anna Quindlen. "It is the myth that work provides rewards, that working people can support their families. It’s a myth that has become so divorced from reality that it might as well begin with the words 'Once upon a time.'"

* "Democrats and a legal watchdog group have asked Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate allegations that Republicans offered a House member $100,000 in contributions for his son's election campaign if he would vote for a Medicare prescription drug benefit passed by Congress last month," USA Today reports. Slate's Timothy Noah follows up with an analysis, "Who Tried To Bribe Rep. Smith?"

* How's the economy doing? Mark Weisbrot takes a closer look.

* "The Geneva Initiative shows that a comprehensive negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians is possible," declares Stephen Zunes. "The question is whether the United States will allow it to happen." Ali Abunimah, on the other hand, isn't quite so optimistic.

* The EUMC has published its controversial report on anti-semitism. A friendly reminder: anti-Zionism is not anti-semitism.

* Henry Kissinger greenlighted Argentina's "dirty war." Yet more evidence that this man should be tried for "crimes against humanity." Read the case against Kissinger penned by Christopher Hitchens in Harper's: part I; part II.

Time off

I will be taking the next few days off from blogging b/c I'm swamped with other stuff. I'm not sure when I'll be resuming, but probably towards the end of this week or the beginning of the next.

Also note that I've changed some blog details, including my contact email address. I'm using the new email address to better isolate spam and segregate blog mail from other mail. You can still reach me at my previous address, if you prefer.