[Peace] News notes 2006-02-12

[Carl Estabrook]

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        Notes from last week's "global war on terrorism,"
        for the February 12, 2006, meeting of AWARE, the
        "Anti-War Anti-Racism Effort" of Champaign-Urbana.
        (Sources provided on request; paragraphs followed
	by a bracketed source are substantially verbatim.)
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	JON STEWART: "I'm joined now by our own vice-presidential firearms
	mishap analyst, Rob Corddry. Rob, obviously a very unfortunate
	situation. How is the vice president handling it?"
	ROB CORDDRY: "Jon, tonight the vice president is standing by his
	decision to shoot Harry Whittington. According to the best
	intelligence available, there were quail hidden in the brush.
	Everyone believed at the time there were quail in the brush.
    	      "And while the quail turned out to be a 78-year-old man,
	even knowing that today, Mr. Cheney insists he still would have
	shot Mr.  Whittington in the face. He believes the world is a
	better place for his spreading buckshot throughout the entire
	region of Mr. Whittington's face."
	JON STEWART: "But why, Rob? If he had known Mr. Whittington was
	not a bird, why would he still have shot him?"
	ROB CORDDRY: "Jon, in a post-9-11 world, the American people
	expect their leaders to be decisive. To not have shot his friend
	in the face would have sent a message to the quail that America is
	weak."  --The Daily Show

[1] The theme of the week is that things fall apart, especially now for
the USG.  That skittering sound you hear is all manner of rat abandoning
the foundering Bush-Cheney ship of state.  The Bushites and their wars are
under attack from what should be their political supporters --
prominently, elements within the CIA, and Republican politicians who want
to be president: notably a Vietnam war criminal, a Medicare crook, and a
self-promoter.  But Senators McCain, Frist, and Obama are not the only
Republicans sniping at the administration.  (I know the last is not
formally a Republican, but the difference is only factional.)

[2] More importantly, the government's only true enemy -- at least the
only one they're really scared of -- continues to grow restless, and
that's what the administration is really attending to.  A Pew Research
survey finds Democrats with "a sizable lead in the congressional horse
race and an advantage on most major issues." In a generic ballot,
Democrats lead by 50% to 41% among registered voters and retain "a huge
advantage on traditional party strengths like the environment and health
care." Democrats also lead the ability "to deal with the economy (by
46%-36%) and reform the federal government (42%-29%). Terrorism, and to a
lesser extent crime, remain the GOP's only strong issues."
[people-press.org] The latest Fox News poll shows similar results: by a
margin of 42% to 34%, Americans think Democrats should take control of
Congress in this year's elections. There is in fact now a serious
possibility that the Republicans could lose control of the House of
Representatives this fall, and at least a statistical possibility that
they could lose the Senate.

[3] Meanwhile, Democratic and Republican senators said Sunday that Special
Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald should investigate Vice President Cheney and
others in the CIA leak probe if they authorized an aide to give secret
information to reporters. Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) and Sen. George Allen
(R-VA), said a full investigation is necessary ... According to court
documents disclosed last week, Libby told a federal grand jury that he
disclosed in July 2003 the contents of a classified National Intelligence
Estimate as part of the Bush administration's defense of intelligence used
to justify invading Iraq. Fitzgerald said in the documents it was his
understanding that "Mr. Libby testified that he was authorized to disclose
information about the NIE to the press by his superiors." [AP]

[4] President Bush came under fire from angry Republicans Friday for his
failed policies on Iraq, health care, immigration and other hot-button
issues in a closed meeting meant to rally shell-shocked party members for
this year's congressional elections. Some went so far as to call Bush an
"embarrassment" to the party and the nation and grumbled that the party
would stand a better chance in the November mid-term elections if he were
not President, although none went so far as to suggest he be impeached ...
at least not yet. [CHB]

[5] On Tuesday Congresswoman Heather Wilson, Republican of New Mexico,
apparently resisted Karl Rove's threats and called for a full
congressional inquiry into the Bush administration's warrantless
wiretapping program. Because Representative Wilson chairs the House
Intelligence Subcommittee with oversight responsibility for the National
Security Agency ... When Attorney General Alberto Gonzales appeared before
the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday -- even though he was not
compelled to testify under oath -- he plainly failed to answer key
questions about the legality and constitutionality of this eavesdropping
program. We still don't know why the administration failed to obtain the
warrants required under law by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,
and we still don't know how many Americans were spied upon... [okcitykid]

[6] A leaked House select committee report on the response to hurricane
Katrina, titled "A Failure of Initiative," turns out to be far from the
GOP whitewash that Democratic leaders expected when they boycotted the
committee upon its creation last September.  Ripping into the federal
government's "blinding lack of situational awareness," the report,
composed entirely by Republican House members, unsparingly chastises the
government's failures ... "All the little pigs built houses of straw," the
report notes in an apt though somewhat unfortunate metaphor. [WP]

[7] Outraged intelligence professionals say President George W. Bush is
"cheapening" and "politicizing" their work with claims the United States
foiled a planned terrorist attack against Los Angeles in 2002 ... a
longtime field operative of the Central Intelligence Agency says "He is
basing this absurd claim on the same discredited informant who told us Al
Qaeda would attack selected financial institutions in New York and
Washington." Within hours of the President's speech Thursday claiming his
administration had prevented a major attack, sources who said they were
current and retired intelligence pros from the CIA, NSA, FBI and military
... disputed the President's remarks. [CHB]

[8] An article in Foreign Affairs by a former CIA official who coordinated
U.S. intelligence on the Middle East says that, "Official intelligence on
Iraqi weapons programs was flawed, but even with its flaws, it was not
what led to the war ... intelligence was misused publicly to justify
decisions already made" As usual what's interesting isn't the information,
which everyone knows, but the source.
	Retired CIA official Paul Pillar, who managed the writing of the
National Intelligence Estimates on Iran from 2000 to 2005, also says that
"Iranian perceptions of threat, especially from the United States and
Israel, were not the only factor, but were in our judgment part of what
drove whatever effort they were making to build nuclear weapons." [Cursor]

[9] In recent national television appearances, Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist backed away from support of President Bush in preparation for a 2008
presidential run ... Frist has said, "I would have probably put more
troops in [Iraq] if the decision had been up to me." As for the Bush
budget, he said: "We are spending too much in Washington, D.C." [but] "I
am opposed to cutting the Guard myself."Frist would not be in the post if
Bush had not withdrawn support from Sen. Trent Lott as majority leader
after the 2002 elections. [Novak]
	The WP reports that With a 2008 campaign in the offing, McCain has
begun an intensive courtship of Bush's financial and political networks."
Recent polls show him as the best shot Republicans have to hold the
presidency. After the scandal involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff,
Republicans are scrambling to associate themselves with McCain's image as
a reformer. Obama's attempt to do the same led to an amusing spat between
them this week. McCain has been meeting with big GOP donors in key states.
Meanwhile, a piece runs inside on Mark Warner, Democratic presidential
hopeful and former governor of Virginia, who is currently spending his
days touring New Hampshire. And the NYT Sunday magazine features Iraq war
critic and dark-horse 2008 presidential nominee Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb).
[Slate]

[10] No wonder Cheney is shooting at his own supporters, figuratively and
literally: his latest victim is a 78-hunter, whom Cheney hit with shotgun
pellets during a quail hunting trip in Texas this weekend.  The victim is
said to be "alert and doing fine" -- but so are Cheney's figurative
targets.

[11] Federal agents [are] rapidly expanding [a] criminal investigation
into the New York Times article published in December that disclosed the
existence of a ... domestic eavesdropping program ... conservatives have
attacked the disclosure of classified information as an illegal act,
demanding a vigorous investigative effort to find and prosecute whoever
disclosed classified information. An upcoming article in Commentary
magazine suggests that the newspaper may be prosecuted for violations of
the Espionage Act and says, "What The New York Times has done is nothing
less than to compromise the centerpiece of our defensive efforts in the
war on terrorism"... [NYT]

[12] A provision in a Defense appropriations bill offering pharmaceutical
companies vaccine liability protection, was added "after the conference
had concluded" and "at the specific direction of the speaker of the House
and the majority leader of the Senate." [Cursor]

[13] While President Bush's budget calls for 141 programs to be cut or
killed, Newsweek's Allan Sloan discovered that "with no fanfare
whatsoever, Bush stuck a big Social Security privatization plan in the
federal budget proposal." [Cursor]

[14] A report from Tokyo chronicles the arrest and conviction of a small
group of antiwar activists, for handing out fliers protesting "Japan's
first dispatch of troops to a war zone since the Second World War."
[Cursor]

[15] Hamas joins call for calm in cartoon row. [turkishpress.com]

[16] The LAT on Sunday had another story of a suicide by an Iraq war
veteran -- a 40ish former marine who told of "young Afghans rounded up by
a CIA special operations team. The CIA officers made no great secret of
what they were doing, he said, but were dismissive of the Marines and
pulled rank when challenged ... he had been told by soldiers who had been
present that the detainees were being interrogated and tortured, and that
they were sometimes given psychotropic drugs. Some, he believed, had died
in custody ... He said the CIA team had put detainees in cargo containers
aboard planes and interrogated them while circling in the air. He'd been
on board some of these flights, he said, and was deeply disturbed by what
he'd seen." [LAT]

[17] For a note on how the administration's difficulties may affect their
actions in the Middle East, see "A U.S. War Plan?" in CounterPunch
<http://counterpunch.org/estabrook02102006.html>.

[18] Finally, the right-wing daily in this one-newspaper town, the
"Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette," contained two surprises in its editorial
section on Sunday.  The first -- on the first page, above the fold -- was
a piece attacking the "isolationism" canard dished out by Bush in his SOTU
speech.  It points out that
	"The term 'isolationist' didn't arise until the late nineteenth
century, when it was made popular by Alfred Thayer Mahan, an ardent
militarist, who used the term to slur opponents of American imperialism.
As historian Walter McDougall has pointed out, America's 'vaunted
tradition of "isolationism" is no tradition at all, but a dirty word that
interventionists, especially since Pearl Harbour, hurl at anyone who
questions their policies.' That's pretty consistent with the way the
president used the term. During the speech, he presented the choice on
Iraq in the bipolar manner that has become his trademark:  On Iraq, either
you're with the president, or you're with the isolationists ... Setting up
the isolationist straw man was a cynical tactic used to frame the debate
over Iraq, not a serious characterization of a real position on foreign
policy ... A November Pew poll found that 42 per cent of Americans believe
that the United States should 'mind its own business internationally and
let other countries get along the best they can on their own.'" (Phrasing
the question in a less tendentious manner has produced even higher numbers
for the position Bush caricatures.)  Interestingly, the article, featured
prominently in the paper, is not on the paper's website -- but I did find
it online in the Kuwaiti Times.
	The second surprise was the appearance of real anti-Semitism in an
editorial cartoon.  It shows a group of Jewish settlers on the West Bank
-- drawn with big noses, wild eyes, and scruffy beards -- firing guns and
shouting "Judaism is a religion of peace" and "Let the bombings begin"...
	Oh, wait a minute: the caricatures are supposed to be of Arabs or
Muslims, juxtaposing calls for bombing with "*Islam* is a religion of
peace."  That's OK, then.

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  C. G. Estabrook, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  109 Observatory, 901 South Mathews Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801
  ### <www.carlforcongress.org> <www.newsfromneptune.com> ###
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