Preparing the Battlefield
Monday 07 July 2008 by: Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker
The Bush Administration steps up its secret moves against Iran.

Late last year, Congress agreed to a request from President Bush to fund a major escalation of covert operations against Iran, according to current and former military, intelligence, and congressional sources. These operations, for which the President sought up to four hundred million dollars, were described in a Presidential Finding signed by Bush, and are designed to destabilize the country's religious leadership.
The covert activities involve support of the minority Ahwazi Arab and Baluchi groups and other dissident organizations. They also include gathering intelligence about Iran's suspected nuclear-weapons program.

A big lump of coal for Democratic voters and anti-war activists... the House followed the Senate's lead in capitulating to Bush, again....

House Approves $70 Billion More for War
Dec 19, 5:42 PM (ET) By ANDREW TAYLOR
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congress approved $70 billion Wednesday for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, a bitter finish for majority Democrats who tried to force a change in President Bush's war policy.

The House's 272-142 vote also sent the president a $555 billion catchall spending bill that combines the war money with money for 14 Cabinet departments.

Bush and his Senate GOP allies forced the Iraq money upon anti-war Democrats as the price for permitting the year-end budget deal to pass and be signed. But other Democrats were eager to avoid being seen as not supporting troops who are in harm's way - and avoid weeks of bashing by Bush for failing to provide that money.

"This is a blank check," complained Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. "The new money in this bill represents one cave-in too many. It is an endorsement of George Bush's policy of endless war."...

Olbermann states it succinctly at the end- "You sir, have NO BUSINESS being president!"

Froomkin's magnificent timeline of Bush/Cheney lies and warmongering on Iran. The original is loaded with links to sources. This piece of work is a blueprint for impeachment...

A Pattern of Deception
By Dan Froomkin Wednesday, December 5, 2007; 2:27 PM

pResident Bush changed the way he talked about Iran in August: He stopped making explicit assertions about the existence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program.

On Monday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a new national intelligence estimate in which the nation's 16 intelligence agencies concluded that Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program four years ago -- a dramatic rejection of an earlier set of findings.

Bush yesterday said he was only briefed about the new estimate last week.

But a close examination of his word choice over the past year suggests that he learned something around August that got him to stop making claims that were apparently no longer supported by American intelligence.

Instead of directly condemning Iranian leaders for pursuing nuclear weapons, he started more vaguely accusing them of seeking the knowledge necessary to make such a weapon.

As he did that, he and the vice president accelerated their rhetorical efforts to persuade the public that the nuclear threat posed by Iran was grave and urgent. Bush even went so far in late August and October as to warn of the potential for a nuclear holocaust....

Operation Iraqi Freedom Exposed: Bush Negotiates Permanent Presence in Iraq
2007-12-03
By Marjorie Cohn

The revelation that Bush will sign an agreement for a permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq before his term is up confirms the real reason he invaded Iraq and changed its regime.

It was never about weapons of mass destruction. It was never about ties between Saddam and al Qaeda. And it was never about bringing democracy to the Iraqi people. These claims were lies to cover up the real motive for Operation Iraqi Freedom: to create a permanent American presence in Iraq. With Bush's November 26, 2007 announcement that the United States and Iraq were negotiating a permanent "security relationship," his lies have been exposed...

CIA Venezuela Destabilization Memo Surfaces
November 28th 2007, by James Petras
On November 26, 2007 the Venezuelan government broadcast and circulated a confidential memo from the US embassy to the CIA which is devastatingly revealing of US clandestine operations and which will influence the referendum this Sunday, December 2, 2007.

The memo sent by an embassy official, Michael Middleton Steere, was addressed to the Director of Central Intelligence, Michael Hayden. The memo was entitled 'Advancing to the Last Phase of Operation Pincer' and updates the activity by a CIA unit with the acronym 'HUMINT' (Human Intelligence) which is engaged in clandestine action to destabilize the forth-coming referendum and coordinate the civil military overthrow of the elected Chavez government. The Embassy-CIA's polls concede that 57 per cent of the voters approved of the constitutional amendments proposed by Chavez but also predicted a 60 per cent abstention....

Ah yes, the plans for permanent occupation of Iraq are finally revealed...
White House Releases "Principles" for Permanent Iraqi Presence By Spencer Ackerman - November 26, 2007, 11:12AM
So it begins. After years of obfuscation and denial on the length of the U.S.'s stay in Iraq, the White House and the Maliki government have released a joint declaration of "principles" for "friendship and cooperation." Apparently President Bush and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed the declaration during a morning teleconference.

Naturally, the declaration is euphemistic, and doesn't refer explicitly to any U.S. military presence...

F.B.I. Says Guards Killed 14 Iraqis Without Cause November 14, 2007
By DAVID JOHNSTON and JOHN M. BRODER
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 — Federal agents investigating the Sept. 16 episode in which Blackwater security personnel shot and killed 17 Iraqi civilians have found that at least 14 of the shootings were unjustified and violated deadly-force rules in effect for security contractors in Iraq, according to civilian and military officials briefed on the case.

The F.B.I. investigation into the shootings in Baghdad is still under way, but the findings, which indicate that the company’s employees recklessly used lethal force, are already under review by the Justice Department.

Prosecutors have yet to decide whether to seek indictments, and some officials have expressed pessimism that adequate criminal laws exist to enable them to charge any Blackwater employee with criminal wrongdoing. Spokesmen for the Justice Department and the F.B.I. declined to discuss the matter...

The U.S. House Just Voted $50 Billion More for War
Submitted by davidswanson on Wed, 2007-11-14
Organizations and individuals who fail to criticize this new funding vote will relinquish the right to criticize the occupation of Iraq. If you silently support funding it, you oblige yourself to remain silent on the horrors of it. We are citizens, not partisans, and only as citizens will we survive this ordeal. If this passes the Senate (or is altered in a conference committee) and is sent to the White House, Bush will have the option of accepting $50 billion more for his ongoing crime. If Bush vetos, or the Senate rejects, or the $50 billion runs out, we'll be back in the House - and with what strength to press for an end to these bills? What strength remains after caving in completely this evening? What peace pledge? What Out of Iraq Caucus? What Progressive Caucus? What opposition party? The silence of millions of Americsns who have demanded an end to funding for the past year or for the past five years is absolutely deafening. It's the sound of our tombs. Speak now, people, or forever forget about peace...

What the hell happened to the the Out of Iraq Caucus???...

(11/14/2007) Liberal Democrats back party's war bill

3 leading House anti-war Democrats said they now back a $50 billion bill that funds the war but calls for most troops to come home by December 2008.

Their support paves the way for the bill's passage Wednesday.

Woolsey-Lee-Waters Support Bill

Israeli military vehicles enter Lebanon
Sat, 10 Nov 2007 11:47:29
In defiance of the United Nations Security Council's Resolution 1701, three Israeli armored vehicles have entered Lebanese territory.

Lebanese official said that three Israeli armored vehicle crossed the Blue Line, separating Lebanon from Palestine, and headed toward the al- Wazzani River south of Lebanon.

Secret Source of Phony Iraq Intel Outed Nov 2 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Iraqi defector code-named "Curveball," whose false tales of biological weapons labs bolstered the U.S. case for war, wasn't the prominent chemical engineer he claimed to be and invented stories to help his case for asylum in Germany, a new report says.

"Curveball" is Rafid Ahmed Alwan, who did study chemical engineering but made poor grades and never managed a biological weapons facility, according to CBS'"60 Minutes," which will broadcast on Sunday a report describing how Alwan became a secret intelligence source...

Guard Uses Taser on Man Holding Newborn By JUAN A. LOZANO Tue Aug 14
HOUSTON - In a confrontation captured on videotape, a hospital security guard fired a stun gun to stop a defiant father from taking home his newborn, sending both man and child crashing to the floor. Now William Lewis says his baby girl suffers from head trauma because she was dropped.

"I've got to wonder what kind of moron would Tase an adult holding a baby," said George Kirkham, a former police officer and criminologist at Florida State University. "It doesn't take rocket science to realize the baby is going to fall."...

The Great Iraq Swindle By Matt Taibbi Rolling Stone Thursday 23 August 2007 - How Bush allowed an army of for-profit contractors to invade the US Treasury.

How is it done? How do you screw the taxpayer for millions, get away with it and then ride off into the sunset with one middle finger extended, the other wrapped around a chilled martini? Ask Earnest O. Robbins - he knows all about being a successful contractor in Iraq.

You start off as a well-connected bureaucrat: in this case, as an Air Force civil engineer, a post from which Robbins was responsible for overseeing 70,000 servicemen and contractors, with an annual budget of $8 billion. You serve with distinction for thirty-four years, becoming such a military all-star that the Air Force frequently sends you to the Hill to testify before Congress - until one day in the summer of 2003, when you retire to take a job as an executive for Parsons, a private construction company looking to do work in Iraq...

All I can say is, Holy Shiite! If this is what makes it to the internet it makes one wonder what's discussed in private....

Hail Caesar by digby
I've been getting a lot of emails about this group Family Security Matters which boasts such right wing luminaries as Barbara Comstock, Monica Crowley, Frank Gaffney, Laura Ingraham and James Woolsey among others on its board of directors. It seems like they are just another of the dozens of wingnut welfare programs devoted to throwing good money after bad keeping conservative operatives gainfully employed.

The emails I'm getting say they are busily scrubbing articles all over the place. When you look at what they've left up you have to wonder what could possibly be so bad they have to scrub it.

This one is still in the Google cache for now, and it's certainly a keeper. Here, for posterity is:

Exclusive: Conquering the Drawbacks of Democracy
Author: Philip Atkinson
Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
Date: August 3, 2007

While democratic government is better than dictatorships and theocracies, it has its pitfalls. FSM Contributing Editor Philip Atkinson describes some of the difficulties facing President Bush today.

President George W. Bush is the 43rd President of the United States. He was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2005 after being chosen by the majority of citizens in America to be president.

Yet in 2007 he is generally despised, with many citizens of Western civilization expressing contempt for his person and his policies, sentiments which now abound on the Internet. This rage at President Bush is an inevitable result of the system of government demanded by the people, which is Democracy... (read on if you're in the mood for nausea)