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Feith based intelligence

On Newsweek's website you can flip through a short PDF slideshow of a presentation produced by the Pentagon in 2002. The presentation purports to show that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda were working together and had been for years. Not only was this a presentation of intelligence at odds with what the legitimate intelligence community was saying, but the first slide in the presentation provides reasons why the intelligence community had it wrong. This hardly looks like the product of an office doing only policy work, rather than intelligence.

But that is what the Pentagon is claiming in a 53-page public rebuttal to a classified report by the Pentagon's Inspector General on the work of Doug Feith and the Office of Special Plans.

The sort of work that office did has long been known thanks to numerous sources, including Karen Kwiatkowski.

Military explosions shake sections of Vieques

Today, Friday, February 9, 2007 at 11:15AM, four intense detonations shook several zones of Vieques. The windows in the office of the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques (CRDV) at the Peace and Justice Camp, in front of what used to be the entrance to the naval base here, vibrated as a result of the explosions that frightened tourists at the Sun Bay Public Beach on Vieques south coast. From high points in the Destino sector, a large cloud was seen from the explosion that forms part of the Navy’s “clean up” process.

At the January meeting of the Resotation Advisory Board (RAB) that meets periodically with representatives of government agencies and the company (CHM2Hill) in charge of the clean up, the CRDV and the RAB’s community members unanimously demanded the detonations stop. Despite the demands of the community that for over a year has argued for the cessation of the detonations until an adecuate monitoring system can guarantee that military toxics dispersed into the air from the explosions are not getting to the civilian sector of Vieques.

Governor Anibal Acevedo Vilá ordered the President of the PR Environmental

Overblown threat and Islamophobia

Analysts both in the Muslim and the Western world by and large agree that “fear” and lack of objective dialogue are the root cause of Islamophobia and Anti-Americanism. And while the debate on which one of the two ignited the other is still ongoing, one fact remains irrefutable: more people were victimized as a result of Islamophobia than the other way around.   

A recent public opinion survey conducted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) indicates that Muslims are still viewed negatively in the U.S. There are estimated 7 million Muslims in America and over 50 thousand in Central Ohio alone- the majority being Somalis.

America’s big chance: turning a crisis into a good opportunity

Charles Mercieca, Ph.D.
President, International Association of Educators for World Peace
Dedicated to United Nations Goals of Peace Education,
Environmental Protection, Human Rights & Disarmament
Professor Emeritus, Alabama A&M University

Since George W. Bush assumed the US presidency in January 2001, numerous articles and books were written that were mostly critical of his foreign policies. Some of the leading American journals referred to Bush’s foreign policy as the cowboy diplomacy. He replaced diplomacy, where healthy dialogues might have served to solve numerous problems, with military action which brought back to our earthly society the rule of the jungle. This is based on the dictum: “Do it my own way or I simply proceed to devastate you.”

Actions Louder than Words

100 Senators quietly vote: majority oppose escalation

This MyDD blog entry and this Politico article describe this PDF showing the results of a poll of all 100 U.S. Senators. It asks how they voted on the war in 2002, whether they regret that vote, whether they support escalating the war, and whether they support ending the war by a certain date. This fairly well cuts through the courageous debate over whether to have a debate over whether to meaninglessly dissent from Bush's escalation plans for a war that most Americans want ended.

The first thing that stands out is that Senators Byrd and Cardin, rather than saying that Yes they support ending the occupation by a certain date, both wrote in the word "Immediate." That's 2 Senators for ending the thing. 98 to go.

Ohio's spreading stolen 2004 election scandal claims another victim

With two felony convictions already in its wake, Ohio's spreading stolen 2004 election scandal has claimed another victim---Michael Vu, the controversial executive director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections.

Hired in 2003 with the support of the Democratic Party, Vu was in charge of administering the electoral process in Ohio's biggest county.  Centered in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County regularly gives huge majorities to Democratic candidates, and was expected to help put John Kerry into the White House in 2004.  

But as chaos ensued on election day, long lines, malfunctioning machines, suspiciously low turnouts in inner city precincts, lost ballots and dubious vote counts turned Democrats against Vu.  Independent researchers calculate that the irregularities may have cost Kerry thousands of votes.

Vu also supervised the purchase of some $20 million in electronic voting equipment, a decision bitterly opposed by grassroots activists, and featured in a major documentary film recently broadcast nationwide on HBO.  Upon installation for the 2006 election, much of the equipment malfunctioned. 

Will they nuke Iran?

President Nixon, a very good poker player, once defined the art of brinkmanship as persuading your opponent that you are insane and, unless appeased by pledges of surrender, quite capable of blowing up the planet.

            By these robust standards George Bush is doing a moderately competent job in suggesting that if balked by Iran on the matter of halting its nuclear program, he'll dump a couple of nukes on that country's relevant research sites, or tell Israel to do the job for him. In Washington, there are plenty of rational people in Congress, think tanks and the Pentagon who think he's capable of it.

Dems change the gas and claim it's a new car

Democrats on Capitol Hill see the world through bureaucratic shades and have been circulating this self-congratulatory Email:

"Over the last four years,the Republican Congress failed to conduct oversight on the Iraq war and failed to hold the Administration accountable for the conduct of the war. In contrast to this dismal record, in the last five weeks, the new Democratic-led Congress is already exercising vigorous oversight and demanding accountability from the Administration on the Iraq war. Attached is a list of 52 House and Senate hearings that have already occurred on issues related to the Iraq war. There will be numerous other hearings by both House and Senate committees on issues related to the Iraq war over the next several months."

The science of evil and its use for political purposes

EVIL: 1 a: morally reprehensible : sinful, wicked b: arising from actual or imputed bad character or conduct 2 aarchaic : inferior b: causing discomfort or repulsion : offensive c: disagreeable 3 a: causing harm : pernicious b: marked by misfortune : unlucky [Merriam-Webster Online]

Ladysmith sings beyond the blues

Review of Ladysmith Black Mambazo
Southern Theater
Columbus, Ohio

If music be magic, the hypnotizing harmonies of Ladysmith Black Mambazo manage to go even a step beyond.

Performing before a packed house of devoted fans who braved last night's deep snows, these eight magnificent South African men warmed a lot of hearts. Led by Joseph Shabalala, who founded the group 46 years ago (but who looks way too young for that), the deep, exquisitely soft acapello tones filled the theater with a sound that is hauntingly spiritual and entrancing.

Mixing their show with simple, good-natured humor and some high-stepping calesthenic dancing, the evening quickly took on the aspect of a friendly visit with a very nice group of people from a country recently---miraculously---liberated from the very Hell of the world's most bitterly entrenched racism.

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