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Quote of the Day

Now, there are some who would like to rewrite history – revisionist historians is what I like to call them.
 – George W. Bush

The Heretik

Voice of America

Iraq to Host Security Talks on March 10

By VOA News
28 February 2007

Iraq has announced an initial conference of world and regional powers will be held in Baghdad on March 10 to discuss ways to stabilize Iraq.

The Iraqi government Wednesday said it is inviting neighboring states and permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to the meeting.

The United States and Syria have confirmed that they will attend the meeting, and Iran is considering the invitation.

The White House Wednesday said U.S. participation in the meeting does not change its policy regarding Iran and Syria. Spokesman Tony Snow said the U.S. is not recognizing Iran diplomatically nor engaging in bilateral talks with Iran.

The U.S. has accused Syria of allowing foreign fighters to cross its border into Iraq, and has said insurgents have used Iranian-made weapons in attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq. Both Iran and Syria deny the allegations…

… on talks with Iran and Syria, here’s a blast from the past.
BBC News

Thursday, 7 December 2006, 21:44 GMT

Bush: No early Iran-Syria talks

US President George W Bush has ruled out early talks with Iran and Syria on tackling Iraq’s unrest, after meeting Tony Blair at the White House.

Their talks came a day after a damning US report called for such a move as part of a change in strategy on Iraq.

The two leaders agreed that a new way forward was needed on Iraq…

[Remember when “new way forward” was the slogan du jour?  I’m almost getting nostalgic for all the slogans cast aside in favor of new ones.—Caro]

Signe Wilkinson, Philadelphia Daily News

… to Bush BEFORE the attack, this time.
consortiumnews.com

Bush Faces Opposition on Iran Attack

By Robert Parry
February 27, 2007

A number of U.S. military leaders, reportedly including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have waged an extraordinary behind-the-scenes resistance to what they fear is a secret plan by George W. Bush to wage war against Iran.

One intelligence source told me that Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Peter Pace, has explored the possibility of resigning if Bush presses forward with air attacks against Iran, a war strategy that might be done in coordination with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Though Pace has given no public signal on resigning, he has undercut Bush’s case for an expanded Middle East war by challenging the administration claims about Iran’s alleged sponsorship of attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and by telling Congress that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have eroded American military capability to confront another crisis…

Sources familiar with concerns inside the Pentagon have told me that senior U.S. military commanders, including Pace, have publicized their differences with the White House as part of a shadow bureaucratic battle to head off Bush’s Iran war plans…

… some of the lies BEFORE the attack, this time.
TPM Muckraker

Today’s Must Read
By Paul Kiel – February 27, 2007, 9:17 AM

Two weeks ago, the Bush administration organized an intelligence briefing for journalists in Iraq to demonstrate that Iran was providing weapons to Iraqi insurgents. According to the anonymous briefers, the weapons — particularly explosively formed penetrators or E.F.P.s — were manufactured in Iran and provided to insurgents by the Quds Force — a fact that meant direction for the operation was “coming from the highest levels of the Iranian government.”

Well. A raid in southern Iraq on Saturday seems to have complicated the case. There, The Wall Street Journal reports (sub. req.), troops “uncovered a makeshift factory used to construct advanced roadside bombs that the U.S. had thought were made only in Iran.” The main feature of the find were several copper liners that are the main component of EFPs. But, The New York Times reports, “while the find gave experts much more information on the makings of the E.F.P.’s, which the American military has repeatedly argued must originate in Iran, the cache also included items that appeared to cloud the issue.”

Among those cloudy items were “cardboard boxes of the gray plastic PVC tubes used to make the canisters. The boxes appeared to contain shipments of tubes directly from factories in the Middle East, none of them in Iran.”…

Shame on you for thinking we are.
Electronic Iraq

New Oil Law Seen as Cover for Privatization

Emad Mekay, Electronic Iraq, 28 February 2007

WASHINGTON (IPS) – The U.S.-backed Iraqi cabinet approved a new oil law Monday that is set to give foreign companies the long-term contracts and safe legal framework they have been waiting for, but which has rattled labor unions and international campaigners who say oil production should remain in the hands of Iraqis.

Independent analysts and labor groups have also criticized the process of drafting the law and warned that that the bill is so skewed in favor of foreign firms that it could end up heightening political tensions in the Arab nation and spreading instability.

For example, it specifies that up to two-thirds of Iraq’s known reserves would be developed by multinationals, under contracts lasting for 15 to 20 years.

This policy would represent a u-turn for Iraq’s oil industry, which has been in the public sector for more than three decades, and would break from normal practice in the Middle East…

Dubya’s World

… wherever the oil is, there we are.
Black Agenda Report

Africa – Where the Next US Oil Wars Will Be

by BAR Managing Editor Bruce Dixon

The Pentagon does not admit that a ring of permanent US military bases is operating or under construction throughout Africa.  But nobody doubts the American military buildup on the African continent is well underway.  From oil rich northern Angola up to Nigeria, from the Gulf of Guinea to Morocco and Algeria, from the Horn of Africa down to Kenya and Uganda, and over the pipeline routes from Chad to Cameroon in the west, and from Sudan to the Red Sea in the east, US admirals and generals have been landing and taking off, meeting with local officials.  They’ve conducted feasibility studies, concluded secret agreements, and spent billions from their secret budgets. 

Their new bases are not bases at all, according to US military officials.  They are instead “forward staging depots”, and “seaborne truck stops” for the equipment which American land forces need to operate on the African continent.  They are “protected anchorages” and offshore “lily pads“  from which they intend to fight the next round of oil and resource wars, and lock down Africa’s oil and mineral wealth for decades to come.

BAR caught up with Chicago‘s Prexy Nesbitt, one of the architects of the US anti-apartheid movement in the 1970s and ‘80s.  We asked Dr. Nesbitt about the importance to Africans and African Americans of George Bush’s Feb. 7 announcement of AFRICOM, the new Pentagon command for the African continent.

“It means a tremendous amount to Africans, because African people, from working people to university elites all follow very closely everything that the US government does wherever it does it in the world.  …More and more African Americans in the US are following carefully what’s the US is doing in Africa, but not enough… What we’re seeing (is) …a US military penetration of the African continent and that this penetration is…motivated by the US quest…for new sources of oil and other minerals.”

In other words, it’s about the oil.  And the diamonds, and the uranium, and the coltan.  But mostly about the oil…

[Think about this for a minute, friends.  The same right wingers who oppose the development of alternative sources of energy are also promoting the building of permanent U.S. bases all over world, or at least wherever there is oil.  Those people DON’T WANT US to be free of our oil dependence.  They’d rather that we fight wars and dominate others to maintain that dependence.  Has there ever been a more wrongheaded bunch in positions of power?—Caro]

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… of the people who are pushing the oil agenda that we’re failing in our imperial ambitions.  It’s everyone else’s fault.  From the right-wing crazies at
NewsMax

Perle: Bush Failed by his Own People

Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com
Monday, Feb. 26, 2007

Richard Perle tells NewsMax that key members of the Bush administration have failed the president – and Perle names names.

In a wide-ranging interview, the former assistant Secretary of Defense under President Reagan and chairman of the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee from 2001 to 2003 under President Bush calls former Secretary of State Colin Powell a “disaster” and says current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “was in way over her head from the beginning.”

Others fall within his sights: Al Franken, Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha, and George Tenet, among others…

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Army Times

Walter Reed patients told to keep quiet

By Kelly Kennedy – Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Feb 28, 2007 10:42:37 EST

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit say they have been told they will wake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m., and that they must not speak to the media.

“Some soldiers believe this is a form of punishment for the trouble soldiers caused by talking to the media,” one Medical Hold Unit soldier said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

It is unusual for soldiers to have daily inspections after Basic Training.

Soldiers say their sergeant major gathered troops at 6 p.m. Monday to tell them they must follow their chain of command when asking for help with their medical evaluation paperwork, or when they spot mold, mice or other problems in their quarters.

They were also told they would be moving out of Building 18 to Building 14 within the next couple of weeks. Building 14 is a barracks that houses the administrative offices for the Medical Hold Unit and was renovated in 2006. It’s also located on the Walter Reed Campus, where reporters must be escorted by public affairs personnel. Building 18 is located just off campus and is easy to access…

Rob Rogers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Crooks and Liars

Bush Nominates Swift Boat Veterans Donor to Ambassadorship
By: Nicole Belle on Tuesday, February 27th, 2007 at 4:15 PM – PST

Slated for discussion today with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is the nomination of Sam Fox to the Ambassador post for Belgium.

Who is Sam Fox?  Well, according to WhiteHouseForSale.org, Sam Fox is a Bush Ranger, responsible for millions of dollars of donations to both the Bush/Cheney campaigns and the Republican Party.  He’s also a charter member of the Libby Defense Fund. In other words, this guy is neck deep in the Bush/Cheney circles.

But Bob Geiger points out that some of Fox’s support really can only be categorized as unsavory:

(W)hat’s especially interesting is that if you really look under the hood of where this guy’s political heart is at, you find that in late 2004 he gave $50,000 to no less solid citizens than the Swift Boat Liars who made it their mission to discredit a highly-decorated Vietnam Veteran in John Kerry.

Now if that won’t buy you an ambassador’s post from George W. Bush, nothing will…

McClatchy Newspapers

Posted on Wed, Feb. 28, 2007

Political interference alleged in sacking of a U.S. attorney

By Marisa Taylor
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - The U.S. attorney from New Mexico who was recently fired by the Bush administration said Wednesday that he believes he was forced out because he refused to rush an indictment of local Democrats a month before November’s Congressional elections.

U.S. Attorney David Iglesias said two members of Congress separately called in mid-October to inquire about the timing of an ongoing probe of a kickback scheme and appeared eager for an indictment to be issued on the eve of the elections in order to benefit the Republicans. He refused to name the members of Congress because he said he feared retaliation.

Two months later, on Dec. 7, Iglesias became one of six U.S. attorneys ordered to step down for what administration officials have termed “performance-related issues.” Two other U.S. attorneys also were asked to resign…

… but we have no standing?  The Constitution is our contract for living together, but we have no standing?
The New York Times

Government by Law, Not Faith

Published: February 28, 2007

The Supreme Court hears arguments today in a case that could have a broad impact on whether the courthouse door remains open to ordinary Americans who believe that the government is undermining the separation of church and state.

The question before the court is whether a group seeking to preserve the separation of church and state can mount a First Amendment challenge to the Bush administration’s “faith based” initiatives. The arguments turn on a technical question of whether taxpayers have standing, or the right to initiate this kind of suit, but the real-world implications are serious. If the court rules that the group does not have standing, it will be much harder to stop government from giving unconstitutional aid to religion…

In his decision for the appeals court, Judge Richard Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, in Chicago, convincingly explained why this argument is inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s precedents on the Establishment Clause.

Procedural issues like standing can have an enormous impact on the administration of justice if they close the courthouse door on people with valid legal claims. The Supreme Court has made it clear that taxpayers may challenge government assistance to religion. The justices should affirm Judge Posner’s ruling so the courts can move on to the important question: Do the Bush administration’s faith-based policies violate the Constitution?

[Posner comes up with some weird stuff from time to time, but he’s right on this one.—Caro]

AMERICAblog

Only 2 super-efficient cars available in US compared to 113 in Europe
by Chris in Paris · 2/28/2007 04:08:00 AM ET

Doggone socialists have all of the choices while the free market US economy has only two options. Sounds a lot like the old Soviet days when the Lada offered either with or without a radio. So where are all of the so-called free market Republicans? Oh that’s right, they’ve been on the “let industry dictate policy” bandwagon and made sure they were lending a helping hand with the Soviet-ization of Big Auto, ridding them of any need to offer fuel efficiency. Who could ever forget Reagan starting the removal of fuel efficiency standards and then the Gingrich Congress implementing the final blow to any hope of minimum standards? Once again, witness Republican economics at work and try hard to figure out how it differs with Soviet style economics…

The debate by some is that the European cars are using diesel which is dirty, though the new breed of diesels are much cleaner so relying on that excuse is no longer valid.

… of an enduring Democratic majority.
Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research

The Unmarried Women’s Agenda: Priorities for the 110th Congress

February 28, 2007

In 2006, unmarried women voted for change in dramatically large numbers. On the eve of the election, more than two-thirds of unmarried women believed the country was on the wrong track, less than one-third approved of the job Congress was doing, and 54 percent said that they used their vote to voice their dissatisfaction with politics in Washington. Unmarried women were overwhelmingly against the war and the current status quo, particularly the neglect of health care and the economy.

This important survey, of 1,000 unmarried women, was conducted after the 100 hours agenda was adopted at the outset of the new Congress. The survey looks at the issues important to these change voters and how they could be impacted for 2008, with the goal of raising their participation…

·         Unmarried women are optimistic that the new Congress will bring needed change; unmarried women who are politically engaged are more optimistic about the new Congress and aware of their legislative accomplishments than those who are less politically engaged.

·         Getting out of Iraq and reforming health care top the agenda for unmarried women.

·         On their own and financially on the edge, unmarried women seek economic relief from stagnant wages and rising costs.

The Hill

February 28, 2007

Our troops have been treated disgracefully at Walter Reed
By Brent Budowsky

In the case of American troops killed in action in what the Marine Corps pathologist calls preventable casualties, our government is charged with the moral equivalent of negligent homicide.

In the case of wounded American troops who are disrespected, abused or mistreated in military hospitals our government is charged with the moral equivalent of criminal negligence. On this count I take responsibility and plead guilty for not knowing about this and acting to stop it. Shame on me.

In the case of politicians who let these wrongs persist while accusing opponents of not supporting our troops, you are charged with the moral equivalent of perjury.

In the case of politicians who walk by homeless veterans living on grates and hungry with pain, and don’t wage a historic battle to end this harvest of shame, you are charged with ignoring the Golden Rule, Sermon on the Mount and our national anthem.

For government that increases our troops in Iraq while allowing some to continue to be killed by preventable deaths, you are charged with the moral equivalent of murder…

Brent Budowsky is a contributing editor to Fighting Democrats News Service. He is a former aide to ex-Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and to the House Democratic Leadership with then-Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.) as chief deputy whip. Contact Brent Budowsky at brentbbi@webtv.net.

[Click through to see what our Congress can do to help the wounded troops, and call or write your representatives to see that they do it.—Caro]

Bomb within earshot of Cheney kills 23
BAGRAM, Afghanistan – In what the Taliban claimed was an assassination attempt, a suicide bomber attacked the main gate of a U.S. military base Tuesday within earshot of Vice President Dick Cheney. The explosion killed 23 people, including two Americans, and delivered a propaganda blow that undercut the U.S. military and the weak Afghan government it supports.