[Peace] News notes for the AWARE meeting 2007-08-19

[C. G. Estabrook]

SUNDAY 19 AUGUST 2007
(On this day in 1988, a report by the US defense secretary and the 
chairman of the joint chiefs of staff concluded that "stress, task 
fixation and unconscious distortion of data may have played a major 
role" in the shooting down of an Iranian commercial jet liner by a US 
warship; the conclusion would undoubtedly have been the same if an 
Iranian warship off New York had shot down a US commercial flight. On US 
military reports, see [3] below.)

[1] From today's New York Times: "Broad new surveillance powers approved 
by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct 
spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include — without 
court approval — certain types of physical searches on American soil and 
the collection of Americans’ business records ... lawmakers, in a 
frenetic, end-of-session scramble, passed legislation they may not have 
fully understood and ... may grant the government the right to collect a 
range of information on American citizens inside the United States 
without warrants, as long as the administration asserts that the spying 
concerns the monitoring of a person believed to be overseas ... The 
legislation gives the director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, 
and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales broad discretion in enacting 
the new procedures and approving the way surveillance is conducted ... 
Democratic leaders ... did not work forcefully to block its passage ... 
At a tense meeting last week with lawyers from a range of private groups 
active in the wiretapping issue, senior Justice Department officials 
refused to commit the administration to adhering to the limits laid out 
in the new legislation and left open the possibility that the president 
could once again use what they have said in other instances is his 
constitutional authority to act outside the regulations set by Congress 
[which are] just advisory. The president can still do whatever he wants 
to do. They have not changed their position that the president’s Article 
II powers trump any ability by Congress to regulate the collection of 
foreign intelligence."

[2]  McClatchy Newspapers reported last week that "the president's top 
aides have been engaged in an intensive internal debate [about Iran]. 
Vice President Cheney ... proposed launching airstrikes at ... the Quds 
force, a special unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps ... The 
debate has been accompanied by [a USG and media campaign of ] 
allegations about Iranian meddling in Iraq ... [But it is not] clear 
from the evidence the administration has presented whether Iran, which 
has ... ties to several Iraqi Shiite groups, including the Mahdi Army of 
... Muqtada al Sadr and the Badr Organization, which is allied with the 
U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, is a major 
cause of the anti-American and sectarian violence in Iraq ...  At other 
times, administration officials have blamed the Sunni Muslim group al 
Qaida in Iraq for much of the violence.  For now, however, the president 
appears to have settled on a policy of stepped-up military operations in 
Iraq aimed at the suspected Iranian networks there ... The U.S. military 
launched one such raid [10 days ago] in Baghdad's predominantly Shiite 
Sadr City district ...Cheney ... argues for military action [while] 
Secretary of State Rice opposes this idea ... Defense Secretary Robert 
Gates has stated publicly that 'we think we can handle this inside the 
borders of Iraq' ... a Cheney spokesperson said only that 'the vice 
president is right where the president is' on Iran policy. Bush left no 
doubt at [last week's] news conference that he intended to get tough 
with Iran ... The Bush administration has launched what appears to be a 
coordinated campaign to pin more of Iraq's security troubles on Iran ... 
Proposals to use force against Iran over its actions in Iraq mark a new 
phase in the Bush administration's long internal war over Iran policy. 
Until now, some hawks within the administration — including Cheney — are 
said to have favored military strikes to stop Iran from furthering its 
suspected ambitions for nuclear weapons."

[3] Both the administration and the Democrats, trying to finesse the 
popular opposition to the war on Iraq, have insisted that all depends on 
Gen. Petraeus' report on "progress," due in September.  This week it 
emerged that the report is being written in the White House...

[4] "Bush's brain," Karl Rove, resigned from the White House this week, 
and none of the reasons suggested for it seems to make much sense.  The 
official explanation is so obviously false that it must have been meant 
to seem so.  The only reason that makes sense to me is that Rove lost an 
internal bureaucratic struggle, and the presumed winner would be Cheney 
and the faction that is planning to attack Iran.  Rove's departure may 
mean that the attack is that much closer.

[5] World financial markets were disordered this week because the 
wealthy in the US are running out of poor people in need of housing to 
exploit.  The solution for the moment at least was found in having 
central banks in the the US and EU give large amounts of money to other 
banks.  Many fear though that the disorder may presage a real decline of 
economic activity in the US, i.e., a recession.

[6] All sides have committed war crimes in Somalia's conflict this year, 
according to Human Rights Watch.  It says the worst abuses have been by 
Ethiopian soldiers, who are supporting the government against 
insurgents. Ethiopians have often indiscriminately attacked civilian 
areas and looted hospitals, its report says. [The report is too 
well-mannered to note that the Ethiopian invasion was engineered by the 
US, because the Somalis formed a popular government that we didn't like.]

[7] Jose Padilla, illegally imprisoned and tortured by the USG for three 
years, was found guilty of conspiracy this week.  Padilla's comment on 
the situation was that he thought a civilian trial shouldn't occur -- 
because it was unfair to George Bush!  If you want to know what the CIA 
did to Padilla in your name, reread 1984 and note how Winston Smith came 
to love Big Brother.

[8] Corporations and the CIA have manipulated information on Wikipedia, 
the popular online encyclopedia.  WikiScanner, a new Web site that 
traces the source of millions of changes, reveals that  PepsiCo, Diebold 
and Wal-Mart among others, in addition to the CIA, have removed 
disobliging references to themselves.

--Carl Estabrook <www.newsfromneptune.com>

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