Liberty in the Middle East

From the Guardian:

He [Bush] rejected any notion of a "graceful exit" as unrealistic: "It's in our interests to help liberty prevail in the Middle East, starting with Iraq. And that's why this business about graceful exit simply has no realism to it at all."

When Bush speaks of the prevalence of liberty in the Middle East, all I can think of is liberty for him and his oil industry cronies to further exploit the oil wealth of the region for their own interests.

I say no to you, Bush. Am I totally off my rocker, or what?

Here's a link to the article from The Guardian, which describes Bush's continued support for Nouri al-Maliki, and occupation: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1961618,00.html

A Strategy to Deceive Congress and the American People

This is from Elizabeth de la Vega's indictment of Bush et al., Conspiracy to Defraud the United States:

the defendants and WHIG executed a calculated and wide-ranging strategy to deceive Congress and the American people by making hundreds of false and fraudulent representations that were only half-true, or literally true but misleading; by concealing material facts; and by making statements without a reasonable basis and with reckless indifference to their truth, regarding, among other things:

(a) their true intent to invade Iraq;
(b) the extent of military buildup and force used against Iraq without notice to or approval by Congress;
(c) their true purpose in seeking a Congressional resolution authorizing the use of military force against Iraq;
(d) their true intent to use their involvement in seeking a UN resolution requiring Iraq to cooperate with weapons inspectors as a sham; and
(e) their claimed justifications for invading Iraq, including but not limited to:
* The alleged connection between Saddam Hussein and the attacks of September 11, 2001;
* The alleged connection between Iraq and al Qaeda;
* The alleged connection between Saddam Hussein and any terrorists whose primary animus was directed towards the United States;
* Saddam Hussein's alleged intent to attack the United States in any way;
• Saddam Hussein's possession of nuclear weapons and the status of any alleged ongoing nuclear weapons programs;
* The lack of any reasonable basis for asserting with certainty that Saddam Hussein was actively manufacturing chemical and biological weapons; and
*The alleged urgency of any threat posed to the United States by Saddam Hussein.

read more: Bush Administration Conspiracy to Defraud the United States.

Mayfield to be Compensated $2M

This is a pretty amazing case of FBI wrong doing. The Spanish authorities told the FBI repeatedly that Mayfield's prints did not match. FBI computer analysis confirmed this. But they arrested him anyway. And now they claim that it wasn't because Mayfield had recently converted to Islam:

U.S. Settles Suit Filed by Ore. Lawyer
$2 Million Will Be Paid For Wrongful Arrest After Madrid Attack

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 30, 2006; Page A03

The U.S. government agreed yesterday to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit filed by an Oregon lawyer who was arrested and jailed for two weeks in 2004 after the FBI bungled a fingerprint match and mistakenly linked him to a terrorist attack in Spain.

Under the terms of the settlement filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Portland, the government also issued an unusual apology to Brandon Mayfield for the "suffering" caused by his wrongful arrest and imprisonment. It acknowledged that the ordeal was "deeply upsetting" to Mayfield and his family.

Mayfield will be able to continue pursuing his legal challenge to the constitutionality of the USA Patriot Act anti-terrorism law, which was used to obtain his personal records while he was under investigation.

...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/
article/2006/11/29/AR2006112901179.html

Mist and Smoke

Democracy in Iraq

Click on images for links to full resolution versions.

Tree and Blue Sky

view toward library and red square:


Tree and Blue Sky

Letter to the "Prez"

"Prez" in quotes because his official election status is dubious.

I just sent this email off to the #1 and #2. I don't think they'll like it very much. But I don't like what they are doing to the USA, to the people, to the world, to humanity in general.

Without further ado:

Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney,

It is obvious that the situation in Iraq is dire and that it is only getting worse. The vast majority of Iraqis want the US military to withdraw. The Iraqis further believe that sectarian violence and tensions will actually be reduced if the USA leaves Iraq alone. It seems that, at the very least, setting an timetable for withdrawal deserves to be on the table for discussion.

Your invasion and occupation of Iraq has the appearance of a project in venture capitalism gone drastically awry. But, as obvious as the failure is to the rest of the world, you are still wedded to your notions of success. Your belief in success is delusional. What will it take to bring disillusion to the White House?

Only the introduction of an international consortium, founded in genuine altruistic intentions, can restore true stability and security to Iraq.

In order to achieve true and lasting security in Iraq and the region, the USA (and other Western Interests with an eye for exploitation) must rescind all economic ties to the oil wealth of Iraq. That is, American and other Western business interests must not be allowed to profit any further from the disaster in Iraq, or from the eventual development of the petroleum extraction industry there.

The conduct of your administration regarding the invasion and occupation of Iraq brings shame to the USA. Shame on you. Americans know that justification for the invasion was based on lies and deliberate falsehoods. You are under investigation by the American people for prewar intelligence fraud.

It's time to think, and then think again.

Sincerely,

Robert Whitlock

Bush Administration to Receive Indictment for Prewar Planning Fraud

How timely for this book to be published now, as a newly elected congress is preparing inhabit the Capitol building in D.C. And just in time for the holiday season.

What would really be appropriate during this bleak time in the USA would be to make this indictment real. Let's follow through with a real hearing in a Court of Law with Subpoena Power. Let the accused stand trial. No?

Have a good week:

[from tomdispatch.com]

...De la Vega has drawn up that indictment -- a "hypothetical" one, she hastens to add -- convened that grand jury, and held seven days of testimony. Yes, it's a grand jury directly out of her fertile brain and the federal agents who testify are fictional, but all the facts are true. She understands the case against the Bush administration down to the last detail; and she's produced, to my mind, the book of the post-election, investigative season: United States v. George W. Bush et al.

It's a Tomdispatch.com book project, produced in conjunction with Seven Stories Press, a superb independent publisher, and officially published on December 1st. I think it's simply sensational. It makes a "slam dunk" case for the way we were defrauded into war; despite the grim subject matter, it's a beautifully designed little book, a pleasure to hold in your hand; and, because de la Vega is a natural as a writer, it's also thoroughly enjoyable reading...
...
Today, United States v. George W. Bush et al remains in the realm of fiction, but tomorrow, if you lend a hand… who knows? Tom

A Fraud Worse than Enron
By Elizabeth de la Vega

Elizabeth de la Vega, appearing on behalf of the United States. That is a phrase I've uttered hundreds of times in twenty years as a federal prosecutor. I retired two years ago. So, obviously, I do not now speak for any U.S. Attorney's Office, nor do I represent the federal government. This should be apparent from the fact that I am proposing a hypothetical indictment of the President and his senior advisers -- not a smart move for any federal employee who wishes to remain employed. Lest anyone miss the import of this paragraph, let me emphasize that it is a DISCLAIMER: I am writing as a private citizen.

Obviously, as a private citizen, I cannot simply draft and file an indictment. Nor can I convene a grand jury. Instead, in the following pages I intend to present a hypothetical indictment to a hypothetical grand jury. The defendants are President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and former Secretary of State Colin Powell. The crime is tricking the nation into war--in legal terms, conspiracy to defraud the United States. And all of you are invited to join the grand jury.
...

link to original: http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=142875

Mark Danner: Fantasies, Delusions and Faulty Imaginations of Success in Iraq

Here is a short excerpt from an article by Mark Danner. It can be found in several locations on the Internet, but I will link to a copy posted by Tom Englehardt at Tomdispatch.com.

The machinations of the war industry have led America down a cruel and disparaging road. The war machine has decimated Iraq. Where once there was stability and civil discourse, now there is chaos and violence. Where once families felt secure in their neighborhoods and livelihoods, now thousands of Iraqis flee their homeland daily. They flee Iraq because the US occupation of Iraq has brought, instead of liberation, intolerable chaos, violence, and an environment where destitution and criminality prevail:

Anyone seeking to understand what has become the central conundrum of the Iraq war -- how it is that so many highly accomplished, experienced, and intelligent officials came together to make such monumental, consequential, and, above all, obvious mistakes, mistakes that much of the government knew very well at the time were mistakes -- must see beyond what seems to be a simple rhetoric of self-justification and follow it where it leads: toward the War of Imagination that senior officials decided to fight in the spring and summer of 2002 and to whose image they clung long after reality had taken a sharply separate turn.
...
Since the first thrilling night of shock and awe, reported with breathless enthusiasm by the American television networks, the Iraq war has had at least two histories, that of the war itself and that of the American perception of it. As the months passed and the number of attacks in Iraq grew, the gap between those two histories opened wider and wider. And finally, for most Americans, the War of Imagination -- built of nationalistic excitement and ideological hubris and administration pronouncements about "spreading democracy" and "greetings with sweets and flowers," and then about "dead-enders" and "turning points," and finally about "staying the course" and refusing "to cut and run" -- began, under the pressure of nearly three thousand American dead and perhaps a hundred thousand or more dead Iraqis, to give way to grim reality.

The election of November 7, 2006, marks the moment when the War of Imagination decisively gave way to the war on the ground and when officials throughout the American government, not least the President himself, were forced to recognize and acknowledge a reality that much of the American public had discerned months or years before. The ideological canopy now has lifted. The study groups are at their work. Americans have come to know what they do not know. If confronted with that simple question the smiling President Ahmadinejad of Iran put to Mike Wallace last August -- "I ask you, sir, what is the American Army doing inside Iraq?" -- how many Americans could offer a clear and convincing answer?
...

http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=142383

Rumsfeld in Trouble

Reuters photo©: "torturer in chief?"

Rumsfeld okayed abuses says former U.S. general
Sat Nov 25, 2006 11:45 AM ET

MADRID (Reuters) - Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the prison's former U.S. commander said in an interview on Saturday.

Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski told Spain's El Pais newspaper she had seen a letter apparently signed by Rumsfeld which allowed civilian contractors to use techniques such as sleep deprivation during interrogation.

Karpinski, who ran the prison until early 2004, said she saw a memorandum signed by Rumsfeld detailing the use of harsh interrogation methods.

"The handwritten signature was above his printed name and in the same handwriting in the margin was written: "Make sure this is accomplished"," she told Saturday's El Pais.

"The methods consisted of making prisoners stand for long periods, sleep deprivation ... playing music at full volume, having to sit in uncomfortably ... Rumsfeld authorized these specific techniques."

The Geneva Convention says prisoners of war should suffer "no physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion" to secure information.

read the whole thing