Rice defends Bush policy on Iran as ’successful’, said same about Iraq in 2001

“‘I think this is called a successful multilateral coalition of states that have the same view’ that Iran should be rewarded for its cooperation or isolated for its defiance, Rice said.

She added: ‘I would like to see what other options there are for the international community, given that this policy is one that I think is the best course for us.’”AFP

This can only mean one thing: because everything is working, there needs to be war.

Why? Because she said the same about Iraq:

US military spending reaches levels of WWII

I take it this is Bush’s strategy to jump-start the US economy?

As Congress and the public focus on more than $600 billion already approved in supplemental budgets to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for counterterrorism operations, the Bush administration has with little notice reached a landmark in military spending.

When the Pentagon on Monday unveils its proposed 2009 budget of $515.4 billion, annual military spending, when adjusted for inflation, will have reached its highest level since World War II. NY Times

Dalai-Iran-Torture cocktail ala Bush

This is something only Bush can pull off: photo op with the Dalai Lama, justifying torture and rallying for war with Iran at the same time. Check out the picture in combination with the hedlines on the right right on the NY Times site:

Ginsberg Election Day inspiration

Come along, come along
the end of Vietnam war
dirty smart bombs and napalm
and US army whores

come along, come along
hey baby don’t be late
come along, come along
let’s celebrate Watergate

Come along, come along,
Poor Nixon’s in his home,
Come along, come along
Sitting under Teapot Dome

come along come along
forget their heroin
smoke some grass and relax
and forget your bloody wine

come along, all-americans
and let’s be number two
number one was a pissy-assed act that we all went through

come along, save the whales
and save the humans, too
and the ladies and the fairies
and the communists true blue

come along out of the cold war
the planet is still here
we got to save our mama
nothing more we have to fear (…)

come along and breathe together
and conspire to be here now
come along, come along
the hour is at hand
when all this mighty nation
that smokes across the land
can wake up again
and shake off our Indochina scream

and hear eight hundred thousand orphaned babies they all dream
come along, oh modern nation
and get down on your knees
and ask the gods and buddas up there???
to forgive us if they please
we have killed two million people
we have wounded millions more (…)

Allen Ginsberg - End the Vietnam War

Al Jazeera turns 10

They grow up so fast. Soon it will be a teenager and will start to be difficult: Middle-eastern news station Al Jazeera is turning 10 years old today. link

For a peek behind the scenes at this extraordinary network, watch the documentary Control Room. It’s quite good.

Iraq’s President Talabani backs ‘Iran-Syria plan’ to give them more influence in Iraq

Ever since former Secretary of State James Baker showed up on the Daily Show last week (watch the excellent interview here.) I have been wondering what those “alternatives” are he is supposedly is coming up with for the Bush administration to fix Iraq. And why is his groups paper coming out AFTER the election? Are the things they are dreaming up to “fix” Iraq really that extrodinary/extreme/scary?

The BBC has some insight:

Violence in Iraq could end “within months” if Iran and Syria joined efforts to stabilise the country, says Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

He told the BBC the move would “be the beginning of the end of terrorism”.

The idea for the US to open talks with Iran and Syria over Iraq is said to be under consideration by a panel of experts examining US policy on Iraq.

The panel, led by a former US secretary of state, is also said to think that “staying the course” is untenable. BBC

Gives a new meaning to the popular GOP-propaganda line “when they stand up, we stand down” doesn’t it? Handing Iraq over to Iran… and I thought I had heard it all.

Merkel rules out military option for dealing with Iran

BERLIN - German Chancellor Angela Merkel has underlined there can be “no military option” for dealing with Iran’s nuclear programme, a spokesman said Monday.

“The door for negotiations remains open,” said chief German government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm.

Wilhelm added: “The chancellor has expressed the view that there is no military option.”

US President George W. Bush has repeatedly said he does not rule out any option for dealing with Iran’s nuclear programme, which is widely believed to be aimed at building nuclear weapons. DPA

Danke! (This time for real.)

100,000 March Against U.S. and Israel in Baghdad

Not part of the plan, I take it? (Of course not. We all know there isn’t even a plan. This is the Bush administration we’re talking about here.)

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 4 — More than 100,000 followers of the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched today to show support for Hezbollah, denouncing Israel and the United States for the violence in Lebanon.

The protesters filled 20 blocks of a wide boulevard and dozens of side streets in the Shiite-dominated Sadr City section of the capital. New York Times

Haifa under siege

I wouldn’t want to give the impression I do not feel for the Israelis who have been living in fear for the last fifty years, give or take a few millennia. The BBC, being the journalistic demigods with far reach that they are, have this quite touching story about how the inhabitants of Haifa, Israel, are coping

But still, let’s keep some perspective here. Are we seriously to believe this was all and exclusively about those Three Israeli Soldiersâ„¢?

Blair accuses Iran of arms supply to Hezbollah

British PM Tony Blair joins Israel, Bush in blaming Iran:

Tony Blair has accused Iran of supplying weapons to attack UK troops in Iraq, and of giving arms to Hezbollah so it could target Israel.

In a statement, he told MPs it was important to implement a 2004 UN resolution calling for Hezbollah to be disbanded and support for it to end.

(…) Iran has also denied arming insurgents in Iraq but it has stepped up rhetoric against Israel and the US in recent days, warning any attack on Syria would “definitely make the Zionist regime face unimaginable losses”. BBC

The other shoe drops: Iran

How could the “crisis” in Israel/Lebanon/Gaza get any worse? President Bush accused Iran of orchestrating Hezbollah through its contacts in Syria, thereby being the Big Bad behind it all:

“Syria is trying to get back into Lebanon, it looks like to me. We passed the United Nations Resolution 1559 and finally this young democracy became whole by getting Syria out. And there are suspicions that the instability created by the Hezbollah attacks will cause some in Lebanon to invite Syria back in and that would be against the United Nations policy and it is against the U.S. policy,” (President Bush) said.

(…) Earlier, White House Spokesman Tony Snow said the next steps are up to them. “Hezbollah started this and Iran and Syria, its backers, ought to be using their influence to get Hezbollah to stop firing rockets and return the soldiers,” he said. Voice of America

This sure is a convenient way to “soften the ground” for possible military actions against Iran.

Iran

General Casey demontrates how close we are to go to war with Iran:

The BBC has more saber rattling here.

From world leader to rogue nation

In the days immediately following the attacks of Sept. 11, the world overwhelmingly stood with the United States. The French newspaper Le Monde even wrote on Sept. 12, “Today we are all Americans,” to express a sentiment felt throughout the world: If America’s freedom was being attacked, so was the freedom of anyone in the world, and the world needed to stand united in support.

This sentiment went far beyond a few words. NATO members agreed to recognize the terrorist attacks as an act of war that, per its charter, would warrant a response from all its members - an unprecedented action. No one was forcing foreign nationals to side with the U.S. call to take out the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, yet many offered military or humanitarian support.

Since then, the international goodwill has been squandered through President George W. Bush’s pet projects. The years before the World Trade Center towers were leveled in an explosion of kerosene and hate seem like memories from a past life. But unquestioning support of American ideals now seems unlikely to occur if - god forbid - another attack of this scale should occur.

The reason for this is a dramatic change in U.S. foreign policy that harkens back to times most Europeans hoped had ended. A vendetta to take down America’s enemies quickly followed, and justice went out the window just as quickly. (The mere existence of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, not to mention secret CIA-operated prisons worldwide, are a sad testaments to this new goal.)
Read entire entry

Bush on Iran

President Bush in a press conference this afternoon:

The doctrine of prevention is to work together to prevent the Iranians from having a nuclear weapon. I know — I know here in Washington prevention means force. It doesn’t mean force, necessarily. In this case, it means diplomacy. And by the way, I read the articles in the newspapers this weekend. It was just wild speculation, by the way. What you’re reading is wild speculation, which is — it’s kind of a — happens quite frequently here in the nation’s capital. White House

It’s a non-denial. He is not saying that the article in the New Yorker (Required reading straight from Seymour Hersh here) everyone is quoting is wrong, he is just saying it’s speculation.

But good to know the president is reading newspapers.

Secretary of state will not cure ills caused by president

At first I thought I was seeing an early April Fools’ joke - after all, admitting mistakes is the last thing I expect a member of President George W. Bush’s Cabinet to do. But the headline on the BBC’s Web site, “Rice admits multiple Iraq errors,” was not meant to be funny, even though everything even remotely touched by the war in Iraq is becoming more absurd by the day.

As part of a trip to England, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave a speech in Blackburn. She said, “I know we’ve made tactical errors - thousands of them, I’m sure,” in regard to Iraq, but also said that on the whole the U.S. government had made “the right strategic decisions.”

The trip was off to a bad start when it became public Rice would not be visiting a local mosque as planned because of protests in the area.

But even with spin, such a hurdle can be taken. Rice simply called the demonstrators that chanted “Condoleezza Rice go home” an example of free speech. Obviously it was, but it’s also hard to deny that if her speech had been held in the United States, such protestors would have been forced to stand in a “free speech zone” (Bush-speak for “out of sight”).

It was soon after her speech in Blackburn that the trip became even more absurd. The press conference following Rice’s speech included some rather peculiar talking points, a list that may as well be distributed as an example of what’s wrong with U.S. foreign policy.
Read entire entry

Bush’s India trip

Just saw this caption under a photo depicting the mauhem and protests surrounding President Bush’s trip to India in the St. Petersburg Times:

As the president tries diplomacy, protesters chant “Death to Bush” and hold a mock funeral.

I know what you are thinking: He is trying diplomacy?

Torturing international relations

You’d think a self-proclaimed fan of freedom such as President George W. Bush would be onboard when it came to banning torture. But his recent threat to veto a bill that would effectively ban U.S. personnel from engaging in torture is proof that the president is trying to keep doors open that should never have been opened in the first place.

Prisoners released from the internment camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have repeatedly alleged they were mistreated. Most of the inmates of Guantanamo Bay have been held for several years without access to a lawyer and even without formally being charged. This flies in the face of the U.S. Bill of Rights, but since the camp is conveniently located away from American soil, the Bush administration argues it does not apply.

Amnesty International, the Red Cross and other human rights groups have been largely stonewalled in their attempt to corroborate reports of torture. Access to the facility is so limited that even the total number of inmates remains disputed. As of June, the number is said to be around 520.

In conjunction with the well-known pictures of inmates being mistreated in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, reports of cruel conditions or full-blown torture gain in credibility. The death of at least one “ghost,” a prisoner without documentation held by U.S. intelligence, further backs up the claim that the United States may be involved in torturing inmates in locations such as Guantanamo Bay and secret prisons in other locations.

The existence of such secret prisons and the method of handing over prisoners to foreign governments, which then do the “dirty work” on our government’s behalf, are also becoming more and more credible. One case of such “torture tourism” is Maher Arar, a 35-year-old Canadian engineer who claims to have been “apprehended” while switching planes in New York. He was then deported to Syria where he was held for 10 months and tortured. The New York Times has corroborated most of his claims, which begs the question of whether this was an isolated case.

Up to now, the Bush administration has been successful at keeping its hesitation to ban torture out of the public view. But Bush is threatening to veto a bill solely because an amendment attached to the bill would ban U.S. personnel from engaging in practices deemed “cruel, inhumane or degrading.”

The bill’s amendment was authored under the leadership of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, and was passed by an impressive 90-9 vote in the Senate despite Bush’s veto threat.
Read entire entry

Bush refuses to rule out force against Iran

“The use of force is the last option for any president. You know we have used force in the recent past to secure our country,” (President Bush) said in a clear reference to Iraq, which the United States invaded in March 2003. AFP

Oh the irony… First we are told that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction because Bush wanted to settle a score with Saddam Hussein. But now that there actually is a country that fits all the claims the U.S. had made about Iraq, the U.S. is tied down in the country that didn’t even have any means to threaten the U.S.

Casting blame on media shortsighted

Earlier this week, Newsweek retracted a story in which it claimed that the Koran had been desecrated by U.S. officials to pressure inmates at Guantanamo Bay. Bush administration officials were quick to blame Newsweek for the international backlash against the United States and claimed the ill will such nations harbor is the fault of the media.

White House officials also said the retraction was “a good first step,” but called for “more action.”

It is clearly regrettable that Newsweek did not check their facts before running this potentially inflammatory story. But it is ridiculous to suggest that the media has created the ill will toward the United States that is found in many nations, especially in the Middle East.

There are plenty of witnesses who claim abuse is occurring in installations such as Guantanamo Bay. One such allegation included female U.S. interrogators throwing blood at male inmates and telling them it was menstrual blood. This is largely why the reports about a Koran being flushed down a toilet to make inmates talk seemed so plausible.

If such incidents are occurring, it is the men and women who perpetrate them — not the journalists who report them — who are to blame.

But instead of using an apparent blunder to extort favorable commentary from the media, the allegations should be investigated. If such incidents are indeed occurring, the backlash will be even bigger once news about them leaks.

The amazing adventures of Ahmed Chalabi

The situation in Iraq can be best characterized by telling the tale of Ahmed Chalabi. After being one of the main lobbyists for the war and a main source for the claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, Chalabi had a falling out with the U.S. administration, only to become one of the big players in the newly formed Iraq government.

Chalabi has had quite an illustrious past. He was born in Iraq in 1944 to a wealthy Shi’a family. His family, however, left Iraq in the mid-’50s, allowing Chalabi to study in the United Kingdom and United States, receiving a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Chicago.

In 1977, Chalabi founded the Petra Bank in Jordan and that’s where it starts to get murky. When his bank went broke, he was tried in absentia and convicted of bank fraud. There are stories that he had to flee the country in the trunk of a car, accounts he himself has dismissed as politically-motivated rumors, labeling them “ridiculous.” In fear of the outstanding 22-year prison sentence with hard labor, he is no longer able to visit Jordan.

Most Americans first took note of Chalabi when the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 and made him one of the ruling members on the interim governing council. But his involvement in the war started before the invasion.

His agenda to take out Saddam Hussein was featured in front-page stories written by Judith Miller for The New York Times that prominently shilled for the war - albeit only named as an anonymous source.

But Chalabi also fed information to the CIA that we now know was untrue. Nicknamed “Curveball,” he essentially told the Bush administration what it wanted to hear to justify an invasion of Iraq. He was banking on a position in the government of Iraq once Saddam was taken out, and looking at how things played out he got what he wanted, albeit with some detours.
Read entire entry

President Bush backs EU on Iran

“I have told our European friends who are handling the negotiations on behalf of the rest of the world that we want to help make sure the process goes forward, and we’re looking at ways [to do this],” President Bush after meeting with the IAEA, Tursday. BBC

Seems like the only choice, since invasion apparently is ridiculous.

But seriously, with troops tied up in Iraq and Afghanistan that’s likely the only way to go about it for now. Watch President Bush get the Nobel Peace Prize because his military is spread too thin to bomb Iran to bits.

Syria hands over Saddam’ s half-brother

Is Syria trying to play nice now? (emphasis added)

The Iraqi government said today that it had imprisoned a half-brother of Saddam Hussein, a suspected major financier of the insurgency and for several years the head of the country’s domestic intelligence and security service, once the most feared agency in Iraq.

The half-brother, Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan al-Tikriti, is No. 36 on the list of 55 most-wanted Iraqis that the American government compiled after the fall of Baghdad in April 2003. He is believed by Iraqi officials and American commanders to have funneled large amounts of money from Syria, where he sought refuge after invasion, to guerrilla cells here in Iraq. He was apparently captured in Syria with the help of the Syrian government over the weekend.
The New York Times

Middle East ball game

Israel is officially blaming Syria for the suicide bombing that occurred in Tel Aviv on Friday, killing five.

The U.S. ambassador to Syria was already recalled after the attack that killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Iran soon thereafter vowed it would back Syria if the U.S. showed any plans to take on Syria.

Last Sunday Vice President Dick Cheney mused that when “you look around the world at potential trouble spots, Iran is right at the top of the list.” He then added that Israel “might well decide to act first” on taking out Iran.

So here’s the ball game: Syria supposedly attacked Lebanon and now Israel. Meanwhile Iran is developing nuclear arms and officially backs Syria. VP Cheney said if Israel wants to take out Iran, he’s all for it.

Time to get nervous.

Bush calls plans to attack Iran ‘ridiculous’

“This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous.”

? President Bush at a news conference in Europe today.

Hmmm…. Why am I not buying it? Oh, here’s why:

“Yes, I told the Prime Minister there are no war plans on my desk.”

? President Bush at a press conference in Australia on June 13, 2002. He was responding to a question asking if the U.S. was planning to attack Iraq.

We now know that the Bush administration was hell-bent on taking out Saddam at that point.