Returning Iraqi exiles story overhype

I knew those stories about returning exiles entering Iraq from camps in Syria were too good to be true, i wish I could find some better reporting though, this peice from tomdispatch.com does a good job conceptually, yet dosen't win in the details department.

Tomgram: Michael Schwartz, Why Bush Won't Leave Iraq
Whoa, let's hold those surging horses in check a moment. Violence has lessened in Iraq. That seems to be a fact of the last two months -- and, for the Iraqis, a positive one, obviously. What to make of the "good news" from Iraq is another matter entirely, one made harder to assess by the chorus of self-congratulation from war supporters and Bush administration officials and allies, as well as by the heavy spin being put on events -- and reported in the media, relatively uncritically.

An exception was Damien Cave of the New York Times, who had a revealing piece on a big story of recent weeks: The return of refugee Baghdadis -- from among the two million or more Iraqis who had fled to Syria and other countries -- to the capital. This has been heavily touted as evidence of surge "success" in restoring security in Baghdad, of a genuine turn-around in the war situation. In fact, according to Cave, the trickle of returnees, which had actually been lessening recently, has been heavily "massaged by politics. Returnees have essentially become a currency of progress."

Those relatively modest returnee numbers turn out to include anyone who crossed the Syrian border heading east, including suspected insurgents and Iraqi employees of the New York Times on their way back from visits to relatives in exile in Syria. According to a UN survey of 110 families returning, "46 percent were leaving [Syria] because they could not afford to stay; 25 percent said they fell victim to a stricter Syrian visa policy; and only 14 percent said they were returning because they had heard about improved security." And that's but one warning sign on the nature of the story under the story.

A recent Pew Research Center poll of American reporters who have been working in Iraq finds that "[n]early 90 percent of U.S. journalists in Iraq say much of Baghdad is still too dangerous to visit" and many believe that "coverage has painted too rosy a picture of the conflict." In an on-line chat, the reliable Thomas Ricks of the Washington Post (and author of the bestselling book Fiasco), just back from Baghdad himself, offered his own set of caveats about the situation. He suggested that, in addition to the surge of U.S. troops into the capital's neighborhoods, some combination of other factors may help explain the lessening violence, including the fact that "some Sunni neighborhoods are walled off, and other Sunni areas have been ethnically cleansed. In addition, the Shiite death squads, in addition to killing a lot of innocents, also killed some of the car bomb guys, I am told." Of the dozens of American officers he interviewed, none were declaring success. "[T]o a man, they were enormously frustrated by what they see as the foot-dragging of the Baghdad government." And he points out that violence in Baghdad "is only back down to the 2005 level -- which to my mind is kind of like moving from the eighth circle of hell to the fifth." In 2005, or early 2006, of course, such levels were considered catastrophic.

Robert Parry of Consortium News points out that, while "good news" dominated front pages here, "the darker side" of "success" has "generally been shoved into brief stories deep inside the newspapers." He adds that "the harsh repression surrounding the ‘surge' has drawn far less U.S. press attention," even as "Iraq steadily has been transformed into a more efficient police state than dictator Saddam Hussein could have ever imagined."

Jim Lobe of Interpress Service interviewed surge "skeptics" who "argue that the strategy's ‘ground-up' approach to pacification -- buying off local insurgent and tribal groups with money and other support -- may have set the stage for a much bigger and more violent civil war or partition, particularly as U.S. forces begin drawing down from their current high of about 175,000 beginning as early as next month."

Michael Schwartz, a Tomdispatch regular on Iraq these last years, takes up this changing post-surge landscape and what exactly it may mean for the Iraqis -- and for us. Tom

Plunge Protection Team meets in secret

Woah, so these guys think they can hide behind some notion of executive shield?!

THE TREASURY'S MISSING MINUTES MYSTERY

November 29, 2007 -- AFTER a year and a half of stalling, the US Treasury finally complied with The Post's requests for information about The President's Working Group on Financial Markets - by delivering 177 pages of crap.

In essence, the Treasury's Freedom of Information officials said that the Working Group - affectionately nicknamed the Plunge Protection Team - doesn't keep records of its meetings.

How interesting and convenient!

Included in the 177 pages that the Treasury said responded to our request on the actions of The President's Working Group were 53 pages on which something was redacted - blacked out so that the discussion was unreadable.

Many of those 53 pages contained no words at all - just a big black blob.

Starting in June of 2006 The Post asked for an accounting of the actions of The President's Working Group, which was formed under President Reagan. The Group seems to have the ill-defined task of keeping an eye on the financial markets. We also asked for e-mails related to our request through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

The Working Group operates out of the Treasury Department and includes the heads of the various exchanges in the US, as well as top-ranking government officials.

Hank Paulson, the Treasury Secretary, and Ben Bernanke, the head of the Federal Reserve, are the two most prominent members.

Back in August, Paulson said in a television interview that "we've reenergized The President's Working Group on Financial Markets."

The Wall Street Journal last year said that Paulson, upon becoming Treasury Secretary, was insisting that the Working Group meet every six weeks.

Whatever the schedule of meetings, one of those meetings occurred on Aug. 17 - the day the Federal Reserve surprised the financial markets with a cut in its discount rate.

According to records that someone else got from Bernanke's office through a FOIA request, there was an 11 a.m. conference call on Aug. 17 of the "PWG" - the President's Working Group.

Fed Governor Kevin Warsh and Patrick Parkinson, a Treasury staffer, took part in that call, according to Bernanke's phone log.

The day before - Aug. 16 - Bernanke and Paulson had lunch, but it isn't clear whether this was just two guys having a meal or if it, too, was related to The President's Working Group.

Hours after that lunch, word got around on Wall Street that the Fed was about to make a move and the stock market staged a tremendous rally.

The next day those rumors of Fed action proved accurate.

So what's the Working Group up to?

I suspect the group is ready to come to the rescue of the financial markets - even equities - in the case of a meltdown.

And as I've said in the past, that would be a completely acceptable task as long as it remains a limited power that is used infrequently.

But who decides when a rescue is needed?

And if no records are kept, who is held accountable if The Working Group's power is abused?

George Stephanopoulos, a former top aide to President Clinton, tried to calm fears right after the terrorist attack in 2001 by explaining that The President's Working Group was at the ready to prop up the stock market.

I, too, had a similar conversation with a Fed official in Sept. 2001.

But the chance of abus ing this presi dential man date - even for personal gain - is great whenever an orga nization operates in secrecy.

And that's exactly how The President's Working Group is operating.

Included in the pile of manure we received from Treasury this week is an internal e-mail dated April 9, 2007 that Heidilynne Schultheiss, director of the Treasury's Office of Financial Market Policy, sent to six people.

The subject "Minutes of PWG Meetings?"

"Hi All, We received a FOIA request asking for minutes of meetings of the President's Working Group on Financial Markets (PWG). As far as we know, minutes are not (and never have been) kept . . . A search of our records turned up nothing," Schultheiss wrote.

That same day someone at Treasury named Mary Kertz e-mailed a bunch of folks "re: meeting notes from last PWG meeting on Financial Markets."

The e-mail said: "Thanks. Just spoke with Norman - he said the Fed Chairman had said he believed minutes were recorded for these meetings. Strange."

I don't know who Norman is. But I agree that having a powerful organization like this meet in secret is very, very strange.

And extremely dangerous. john.crudele@nypost.com

Marx Cafe tonight!

Hey, I'm back from the dead, I'll be playing at Marx tonight, 9-11pm. I have been on sort of a vacation from the internet for some time, also went to England for three weeks, so been out of the loop. All that's changing tonight, come get your 2-step bassline fix with me!

Marx Cafe
3203 Mount Pleasant St. NW

Seeya tonight!

Marx Cafe tonight!

Hey guys, I'll be playing at Marx Cafe tonight from 10-2am. and I DO have new music this time. woo hoo! Seeya there.

3203 Mt. Pleasant St. NW

fuzzy bush math

These jokers haven't produced an honest deficit prediction since they came into office. Each year we hear the news that the OMB numbers predict a budget shortfall or an increase in year to year deficit spending, then magically when the real numbers are released they are able to share the good news that the deficit has been pared down and we were able to do better than their initial estimates. What they aren't saying is that only the rate of increase was slowed, based on their "predictions". IT HAPPENS EVERY YEAR!

Fuzzy Bush math
You're about to hear that the budget deficit is falling. Don't believe it, warns Fortune's Allan Sloan. The deficit is much, much bigger than you think.
FORTUNE Magazine

By Allan Sloan, Fortune senior editor-at-large
September 4 2007: 8:10 AM EDT

(Fortune Magazine) -- There will be lots of celebrating in Washington next month when the Treasury announces that the federal budget deficit for fiscal 2007, which ends Sept. 30, will have dropped to a mere $158 billion, give or take a few bucks.

That will be $90 billion below the reported 2006 deficit, and will be toasted by the White House and Treasury as a great accomplishment.

But I have a nasty little secret for you, folks. If you use realistic numbers rather than what I call WAAP -- Washington Accepted Accounting Principles -- the real federal deficit for the current fiscal year is more than 2 1/2 times the stated deficit.

Why am I inflicting this information on you? Because there's been so much joyous noise about the budget emanating from Washington, despite the subprime mess and market meltdowns (which don't bode particularly well for future tax collections), that my natural contrarianism makes me feel like bombing the buzz machine.

In addition, so many investors (and speculators) are fleeing to the supposed safe haven of Treasury securities lately that it's a good time to take a look at what's really going on with the federal budget.


Welcome to Bailout City

If a publicly traded corporation tried keeping books the WAAP way rather than the GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) way, its auditors would be on the phone to the SEC before you could say "Sarbanes-Oxley."

But this is the federal government, which operates its unique budget accounting system regardless of which party's running the show. Making the deficit look smaller than it really is helps whoever's in power, be it today's borrow-and-spend crew or yesteryear's tax-and-spenders.

Let me show you how this works, using numbers from the recent update issued by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. (I'm giving you the simplified version to keep your eyes from glazing over. You can find the detailed version in "The numbers" on the right.)

We'll start with Social Security, which will take in about $78 billion more in payroll and income taxes than it shells out. The Treasury takes that cash, gives the trust fund IOUs for it, and spends it. That $78 billion isn't in the stated deficit.

Wait, there's more. The Treasury will fork over $108 billion of interest on the trust fund's $2.2 trillion of Treasuries -- but will give the trust fund IOUs, not cash. They won't count in the deficit either. Add that $186 billion to the stated budget deficit, and it more than doubles, to $344 billion.

The stated deficit, you see, measures how much less cash Uncle Sam takes in than he spends. That's fine for gauging the deficit's impact on the economy, which is what budget experts generally do. But if you're trying to assess Uncle Sam's overall fiscal condition, as I am, you should count those IOUs in the deficit because they have to be paid someday.


More sugar for Schwarzman

Now, let's move on. We end up with a total deficit of more than $400 billion by undoing another piece of WAAP ledger-demain: the $97 billion increase in Treasury securities held by "other government accounts" such as federal employee pension funds.

Thanks to the magic of Washington math, that doesn't increase the deficit, even though it increases the government's overall debt. Don't you wish you could keep books this way at home?

I worry that the happy news may produce unhappy long-term results by making politicians even less inclined than usual to inflict pain on voters by raising taxes or trimming future benefits to keep entitlements from overwhelming the public fisc.

Budget office director Peter Orszag warns that at their current growth rate, Medicare and Medicaid will devour 20% of our gross domestic product in 2050 -- more than today's entire federal budget. Yech!

So even though the deficit's smaller than it was and financial markets (for now) love Treasury securities, don't take next month's budget numbers at face value. If you do, you're setting yourself up to be WAAPed.

Matthew's Cooking Narrative Episode 2

Green Zone Slime, WTF?!

The part about this guy watching cartoons during a meeting with Congressmen is so mind numbingly insane, I'm having trouble accepting it despite the fact I read it with my own eyes. With intellectual heavy weights like Muwaffaq al-Rubaie in charge, I can see how only three of eighteen benchmarks were met.

Rap Sheets
Lawmakers Describe 'Being Slimed in the Green Zone'

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 31, 2007; Page A13

The sheets of paper seemed to be everywhere the lawmakers went in the Green Zone, distributed to Iraqi officials, U.S. officials and uniformed military of no particular rank. So when Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) asked a soldier last weekend just what he was holding, the congressman was taken aback to find out.

In the soldier's hand was a thumbnail biography, distributed before each of the congressmen's meetings in Baghdad, which let meeting participants such as that soldier know where each of the lawmakers stands on the war. "Moran on Iraq policy," read one section, going on to cite some the congressman's most incendiary statements, such as, "This has been the worst foreign policy fiasco in American history."

The bio of Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher (D-Calif.) -- "TAU (rhymes with 'now')-sher," the bio helpfully relates -- was no less pointed, even if she once supported the war and has taken heat from liberal Bay Area constituents who remain wary of her position. "Our forces are caught in the middle of an escalating sectarian conflict in Iraq, with no end in sight," the bio quotes.

"This is beyond parsing. This is being slimed in the Green Zone," Tauscher said of her bio.

More than two dozen House members and senators have used the August recess to travel to Iraq in the hope of getting a firsthand view of the war ahead of commanding Gen. David H. Petraeus's progress report in two weeks on Capitol Hill. But it appears that the trips have been as much about Iraqi and U.S. officials sizing up Congress as the members of Congress sizing up the war.

Brief, choreographed and carefully controlled, the codels (short for congressional delegations) often have showed only what the Pentagon and the Bush administration have wanted the lawmakers to see. At one point, as Moran, Tauscher and Rep. Jon Porter (R-Nev.) were heading to lunch in the fortified Green Zone, an American urgently tried to get their attention, apparently to voice concerns about the war effort, the participants said. Security whisked the man away before he could make his point.

Tauscher called it "the Green Zone fog."

"Spin City," Moran grumbled. "The Iraqis and the Americans were all singing from the same song sheet, and it was deliberately manipulated."

But even such tight control could not always filter out the bizarre world inside the barricades. At one point, the three were trying to discuss the state of Iraqi security forces with Iraq's national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, but the large, flat-panel television set facing the official proved to be a distraction. Rubaie was watching children's cartoons.

When Moran asked him to turn it off, Rubaie protested with a laugh and said, "But this is my favorite television show," Moran recalled.

Porter confirmed the incident, although he tried to paint the scene in the best light, noting that at least they had electricity.

"I don't disagree it was an odd moment, but I did take a deep breath and say, 'Wait a minute, at least they are using the latest technology, and they are monitoring the world,' " Porter said. "But, yes, it was pretty annoying."

It was the bio sheets that seemed to annoy the members of Congress the most. Just who assembled them is not clear. E-mails to U.S. Central Command's public affairs office in Baghdad this week went unanswered.

"I had never seen that in the past. That's new," said Porter, who was on his fourth trip to Iraq. "Now I want to see what they're saying about me," he added, when he learned of the contents of his travel companions' rap sheets.

For one, the quotations appeared to be selected to divide the visitors into those who are with the war effort and those who are against. For another, they were not exactly accurate. Under "latest Iraq vote," Tauscher's bio noted that she had voted in favor of legislation requiring the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq within 120 days of the bill's enactment.

She did vote that way -- in May. On Aug. 2, Tauscher voted in favor of her own bill, which mandates that troops be granted a leave from combat at least as long as their last combat deployment before being shipped back to Iraq. That vote might have been a little too popular with the soldiers she was meeting, Tauscher said.

Still, Porter was quick to add, for all the drawbacks, the trip was worth it.

"No doubt you will have people speak the company talking points," Porter said. "But I spent time with people who were not officers, four of them from Nevada, two who were very blunt" about their support for the war and their anger over partisan fighting in Washington.

"I tend to lean with the rank-and-file members of military who have nothing to gain," he added. "They want to go home as soon as possible."

after Gonzo, who? nobody.

I nominate Mr. Bean!

Gonzales' replacement - there won't be any nominee.
August 27, 2007 - 4:59pm.

By ROB KEZELIS

The tubes of the internets are abuzz with today's breaking news - the resignation of the worst attorney general our country has ever experienced. Of course, the president blamed Democratic politicians for dragging a good man through the mud, one who had done nothing wrong. Gonzales added to the carnival atmosphere by claiming that his worst day "serving the public" was better than his father's best day.

The next hottest issue is who will replace Gonzo. My guess is none of the above.

Let's take a look at today's reality. Our congress, as compliant, spineless and corruptable as ever, is so afraid of taking a real stance, that it is highly unlikely that even a Chertoff, an Addington, or even a Libby or Fielding would be oppsed by them. The longer that the Democratic-led congress remains clueless and impotent, the more breathing room the president has. The odds are good, given past behavior, that the Senate would eventually cave in to the president's wishes, even if Jack the Ripper, RIchard Speck, or Mr. Bean was nominated.

But, I suspect that the White House is content to do nothing. Especially now. You never push against an enemy that is busy self-destructing, and the Democratic leadership sure seems to be doing that. Of course, the White House meltdown continues unabated as well. Rove, Libby, and many others are gone, and Gonzales is following in their wake. Still, the White House is in power, and that power remains significant, what with unfettered, uncontrolled domestic spying approved by the congress, and personally controlled by the top man at the DOJ. As I said, a LOT of power.

Bush knows that a truly useful candidate would never pass through the senate, not even if he selected a senator like Hatch. Why pick a fight that might cause the democrats to organize and stand up for a change, instead of slinking away like a slimy snake, fearful, scared, clueless?

Besides, there is no need to make a choice. The status quo suits Bush perfectly. Not only do the Democrats scurry around, worrying who he might pick, but they will waste energy making demands of Bush to play fair and be nice. The louder those claims are, the more foolish and weak the Dems look.

The secret behind the resignation's timing is simple - Bush did not want to go through a messy nomination hearing. And given his promise not to inject an appointment while congress is not in session, some think that he is boxed in. They would be wrong.

When Gonzales was still #1, his top deputy resigned. That left Paul Clement as the next highest ranking DOJ employee. Now that Gonzo is leaving, while those top spots remain open, he takes charge.

What Bush and Rove managed to do is to "set up" congress yet again. Not only will there never be a confirmation hearing for a new DOJ head, there won't even be a nominee. Why would Bush need one? His dream candidate is already in place.

Let's look at Clement's dirty laundry: He clerked for two of the biggest neocon judges, Laurence H. Silberman (DC Circ) and Justice Antonin Scalia. He worked for Kirkland and Ellis, the GOP dream firm. In fact, he was hired to work for Ken Starr. He worked for then Senator John Ashcroft, before he was hired to write the supreme court briefs in support of the GOP in Bush v. Gore.

No matter how you slice it, Clement is a clone of the worst aspects of both Ashcroft and Gonzales, except that by all accounts, he is also brilliant and extremely ideological. And on top of all that, he is friendly, personable, and has a nice smile, with no smirk to be found.

Clement is Bush's wet dream candidate - he could not have picked a better nominee - except he doesn't even have to officially pick him now. Clement remains in place and in charge as long as no other nominee is selected by Bush.

Why would Bush risk energizing the left and the center with a worse nominee? Why would Bush remove a dream candidate who will pursue White House political and legal strategies for the next 18 months without the slightest hint of remorse? Why spend the time and energy vetting, questioning and searching, when from Bush's point of view Clement is the perfect man for the job. Committed, loyal, political, smart, neoconservative, and ideologically tested and found to be true.

For these reasons, Bush make play at a new nominee, just to keep the critics guessing and confused. He may even dangle a few names, in an effort to split the Dems and keep the GOP in line. He might even promise things in exchange for "support for my new choice", while all the time, he won't have to lift a finger, in fact, he won't lift a finger to pick anyone. Clement's already there.

Ditch Mitch!

I just read about this happening in KY. This should be replicated on a state by state basics. Bands of angry mobs following each senator around 24/7 wherever they go, being so loud that no effort can drown out our demands. These scumbags work FOR US!!!

read all about it here, http://www.ditchmitchky.com/

and here, http://www.hillbillyreport.com.

The first step would be to compile a list of every senators home addresses, establish a scheduling committee to determine when and where these people will be within earshot of their constituents. Then follow them around with dogged persistence until they get the message. If the success of this first effort in KY can be used as a guide, 200-300 protestors is enough of a presence to make a statement, so a national organization would have to be able to depend on almost 20,000 volunteers in order to make their presence felt.

This is the type of unavoidable constant effort required to dislodge these automatons from their lethargic inaction.

Youtube clip of the protest in front of Mitch Mcconnell's house.

Matthew's Cooking Narrative Episode 1

This is the first in a series of self produced cooking narratives, enjoy.

Marx Cafe tonight!

Hey all, I'll be playing records at Marx cafe tonight from 10-2am. Stop by if you can, great beer specials, 4$ Chimay and 5$ Dekoneke. I have some new records that are burning a hole in my record bag, cause these tunez are that hot!!1

203 Mt. Pleasant St. NW

tar and feather attack

Oh my, I didn't think this kind of thing happened anymore. Sends a perfectly clear message however, don't deal drugs in Belfast. Perhaps this attack had little to do with narcotics and was truly a punishment attack by the Ulster Defence Association, seems unlikely given the increasing willingness of these former paramilitary groups to participate in meaningful political reconciliation with former enemies. It's still a particularly vicious mob rule incident, whatever the man's crimes I don't feel he deservers to be treated in such a horrible and extra judicious manner. It's possible no complaint will be filed with the authorities, whomever this is in the photograph will likely have more to fear by reporting the attack than from the act itself. At any rate, that shit will not come off easy!

Tarring and feathering: a shameful echo of our past
UDA role again under spotlight
Tuesday, August 28, 2007

By Ashleigh Wallace

These are the shocking pictures which show a Belfastman being tied to a lamppost before he is tarred and feathered by two hooded men in a horrific punishment attack.

The man was targeted in the loyalist Taughmonagh estate in south Belfast on Sunday evening.

After having tar poured over his head, the victim was covered in feathers. A placard was then placed around his neck.

The brutal attack will once again raise concerns over UDA activity, although a member of the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG) has denied the incident was a UDA punishment attack, saying it was a "reaction from the community".

Local Ulster Unionist Assemblyman Michael McGimpsey branded the tarring and feathering as "ghastly" and said it "harked back to the worst days of the Troubles".

The victim was targeted on Sunday and, after being tied to a lamppost at the shops in Taughmonagh, he was tarred and feathered by two men wearing black balaclavas while a group of people - including women and children - looked on.

Family members arrived at the scene and released the man and led him away.

Colin Halliday from the UPRG, which gives political advice to the UDA, said: "This man being tarred and feathered was a community reaction. It was not a UDA punishment attack.

"There was a lot of anger within the community.

"The community demanded something be done. There were people baying for blood but that's not the way things are done now.

"There were women and children present when this was going on and what happened has sent out a very clear message."

South Belfast Assembly member Mr McGimpsey said the weekend attack was " ghastly".

He said: "If there is an accusation against an individual, then this should be dealt with by the police and the courts.

"It is wrong for anyone concerned - whether they purport to represent the community or not - to take the law into their own hands and administer this type of mob punishment.

"I know the community in Taughmonagh and community leaders have been working tremendously hard over the years to overcome negative publicity in the area.

"I feel they will see what happened on Sunday as a major setback to that hard work."

A police spokesman confirmed the PSNI received a report that a man had been assaulted in the Finwood Park area of Taughmonagh on Sunday evening.

He said: "When police arrived at the scene, no victim was located and none has since come forward."

The attack happened at a time of heightened public concerns over UDA violence. Minister for Social Development Margaret Ritchie has warned she will pull a £1.2m grant for a conflict transformation initiative if the UDA fails to move on the arms issue after recent violence in Bangor and Carrickfergus.

Last week in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, loyalist 'brigadier' Jackie McDonald challenged the Chief Constable to remove criminals from the ranks of the UDA and called for dialogue between the loyalist leadership and the Department of Social Development.

An Arab plan to end the war in Iraq

This sounds much like the plan that Colin Powell had drafted before being forced to go to the UN and lie in an attempt to legitimize our invasion of a sovereign nation. It has even less chance of being acted upon now.

Substantive Plan for Ending the Iraqi War
Jonathan Power, Arab News


Everybody out! Surely that is the only answer for Iraq. The trouble is — among all the other troubles — that no one has a plan. At best we have vague ideas — a pull back but leaving troops in their bases to do training work, a conference with the interested neighbors, or a break-up of Iraq into its constituent ethnic and religious parts. Where do we go from there, remains unanswered.

Rather bravely, if belatedly too, Sweden’s Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research (TFF) has come out with a plan. (Although I am an unpaid associate of the foundation I have had no say in the plan’s drafting.)

It begins with a telling observation: “As long as the overall perspective is concentrated on how bad and wrong everything is, it is a safe hypothesis that there will be either no withdrawal or an even worse situation after such a withdrawal... Withdrawal is not likely until many more citizens around the world can see alternatives to occupation. Elise Boulding has eloquently stated that what people can’t envision, they are not likely to fight for.”

A “withdraw-and-forget” policy à la Vietnam would be the worst and most dangerous policy.

TFF suggests that we have to establish an international peacebuilding mission under UN leadership. This will not be “just another UN mission”. It will be of a fundamentally new type. Its main ingredients must be — a clear and comprehensive mandate giving the UN control with funding secured for a least five years at the onset; partnership with influential organizations, such as the Arab League, the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, as well as nongovernmental organizations; 100,000 UN troops (I would double this figure) of which 15 percent will be acting under a robust command, as laid out in Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, 25 percent will be police and 60 percent will be civilian-humanitarian workers. No military personnel will be recruited from countries that have been occupiers and a majority will come from non-Western countries. Countries with sophisticated armies like India, France, Japan and Brazil must play a leading role.

This will be the largest ever UN mission. “It must be big enough so that it can do the job, but not so big that the Iraqis will feel that it is a new occupation.” The mission must strike a balance between the traditional “heavyweight” activities such as the military, law, institution building and physical re-building and “lightweight” people-orientated elements, such as working directly on reconciliation, forgiveness, human healing, neighborhood-regeneration, schooling, health and psychiatric care. The UN would work through two new Iraqi bodies appointed by the Iraqi government — a reconstruction and development council run by Iraqi professionals and technocrats with support from the UN and a national security council that will oversee defense, interior affairs, intelligence and national security.

Added to this there should be a South Africa-style commission so that those accused of wrongdoing can find a way to clean the sheet by owning up publicly to their crimes.

Remembering what the supposed reason was for the American-British invasion — to root out weapons of mass destruction — the UN should resolve to insist that the Middle East become a zone free of such weapons. The US and Britain should also make Iraq a hefty endowment to compensate for all the destruction they have brought about, just as Iraq was compelled to aid Kuwait after the first Gulf War. This would amount to at least $250 billion. The whole effort will demand a high-class team of high-powered international diplomats who have earned a reputation for impartiality and the ability to empathize with both sides in a conflict. Fortunately over the years the UN has built up a cadre of these — Kofi Annan could be one.

Here is a plan that will require not just American and British consent but active support from all over. It needs the full weight of the European Union and real credible backing from Moscow and Beijing. It also demands that the rest of the world pull their weight too — with troops, professionals and finance. Nearly every country in the world has a vested interest in making sure that Iraq does not go from bad to worse, that Iraq doesn’t become a major recruiting ground and front for Al-Qaeda.

For those who have doubts they should re-read the UN Charter. It was written with situations like this clearly in mind — when such is the hell that only the combined will and willingness of mankind can rectify the destruction being done.

Flemish Belgium to secede?

Who ever said that Europeans have no sense of humor?

Viewers fooled by 'Belgium split'
BBC

Belgians reacted with widespread alarm to news that their country had been split in two - before finding out they had been spoofed.

The Belgian public television station RTBF ran a bogus report saying the Dutch-speaking half of the nation had declared independence.

Later it said Wednesday night's programme was meant to stir up debate.

It appears to have succeeded. Thousands of people made panicked calls to the station and politicians complained.

"It's very bad Orson Welles, in very poor taste," said a spokesman for Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, referring to the famous director's 1938 radio adaptation of War of the Worlds. That spoof fooled many Americans into believing Martians had invaded.


We obviously scared many people - maybe more than we expected
Yves Thiran
RTBF head of news

"In the current context, it's irresponsible for a public television channel to announce the end of Belgium as a reality presented by genuine journalists," he added.

The French-language TV channel interrupted regular programming with an apparent news report, announcing that Dutch-speaking Flanders had unilaterally declared independence and that Belgium as a nation had ceased to exist.

It showed "live" pictures of cheering crowds holding the Flemish flag, huge traffic jams leading to Brussels airport, and trams stuck at the new "border".

Monarchists gather outside the Royal Palace in Brussels with Belgian flags
Monarchists rallied outside the Royal Palace after the report

The broadcast came amid an apparent growth of separatist sentiment in Flanders.

Recent regional elections have shown strong support for the far-right, nationalist Vlaams Belang party, which advocates Flemish independence.

The station's website crashed briefly as alarmed viewers sought more information, and 2,600 calls were made to a telephone number given out during the spoof.

"Our intention was to show Belgian viewers the intensity of the issue of the future of Belgium and the real possibility of Belgium no longer being a country in a few months," Yves Thiran, head of news at RTBF, told the BBC.

He said it introduced people to the debate who would otherwise have ignored it, but he admitted some may have taken it the wrong way.

"We obviously scared many people - maybe more than we expected," he said.

Diplomatic reaction

Some politicians were in on the joke, contributing interviews to the programme with their reactions to the "news". But others were not amused.

The minister for audiovisual affairs for the French-speaking community, Fadila Laanan, said the words "this is fiction" appeared on screen half an hour into the broadcast - at her insistence.

"I find it questionable to use such a tactic, which frightened people unbelievably," she said, adding that a number of people had called her in panic when the "news" broke.

The AFP news agency reported that even some foreign ambassadors in Brussels were taken in, and sent urgent messages back to their respective capitals.

Electricity in Baghdad

So now we have local militias seizing critical infrastructure to ensure that their neighborhood, clan or tribe has electricity before others. Doesn’t seem very positive at all coming right after the reports many regional power plants were beginning to take themselves off of the grid to avoid having to send power to Baghdad. Lovely.

BAGHDAD, Aug. 22 — Armed groups increasingly control the antiquated switching stations that channel electricity around Iraq, the electricity minister said Wednesday.

That is dividing the national grid into fiefs that, he said, often refuse to share electricity generated locally with Baghdad and other power-starved areas in the center of Iraq.

The development adds to existing electricity problems in Baghdad, which has been struggling to provide power for more than a few hours a day because insurgents regularly blow up the towers that carry power lines into the city.

The government lost the ability to control the grid centrally after the American-led invasion in 2003, when looters destroyed electrical dispatch centers, the minister, Karim Wahid, said in a news briefing attended also by United States military officials.

The briefing had been intended, in part, to highlight successes in the American-financed reconstruction program here.

But it took an unexpected turn when Mr. Wahid, a highly respected technocrat and longtime ministry official, began taking questions from Arab and Western journalists.

Because of the lack of functioning dispatch centers, Mr. Wahid said, ministry officials have been trying to control the flow of electricity from huge power plants in the south, north and west by calling local officials there and ordering them to physically flip switches.

But the officials refuse to follow those orders when the armed groups threaten their lives, he said, and the often isolated stations are abandoned at night and easily manipulated by whatever group controls the area.

This kind of manipulation can cause the entire system to collapse and bring nationwide blackouts, sometimes seriously damaging the generating plants that the United States has paid millions of dollars to repair.

Such a collapse took place just last week, the State Department reported in a recent assessment, which said the provinces’ failure to share electricity resulted in a “massive loss of power” on Aug. 14 at 5 p.m.

It added that “all Baghdad generation and 60 percent of national generation was temporarily lost.” By midnight, half the lost power had been restored, the report said.

With summer temperatures routinely exceeding 110 degrees, and demand soaring for air-conditioners and refrigerators, those blackouts deeply undermine an Iraqi government whose popular support is already weak.

In some cases, Mr. Wahid and other Iraqi officials say, insurgents cut power to the capital as part of their effort to topple the government.

But the officials said it was clear that in other cases, local militias, gangs and even some provincial military and civilian officials held on to the power simply to help their own areas.

With the manual switching system in place, there is little that the central government can do about it, Mr. Wahid said.

“We are working in this primitive way for controlling and distributing electricity,” he said.

Mr. Wahid said the country’s power plants were not designed to supply electricity to specific cities or provinces. “We have a national grid,” he said.

He cited Mosul and Baquba, in the north, and Basra, in the south, as being among the cities refusing to route electricity elsewhere. “This greatly influenced the distribution of power throughout Iraq,” Mr. Wahid complained.

At times the hoarding of power provides cities around power plants with 24 hours of uninterrupted electricity, a luxury that is unheard of in Baghdad, where residents say they generally get two to six hours of power a day.

Mr. Wahid said Baghdad was suffering mainly because the provinces were holding onto the electricity, but he said shortages of fuel and insurgents’ strikes on gas and oil pipelines also contributed to the anemic output in the capital.

Although a refusal by provincial governments to provide their full quotas to Baghdad could easily be seen as greedy when electricity is in such short supply, many citizens near the power plants regard the new reality as only fair; under Saddam Hussein, the capital enjoyed nearly 24 hours a day of power at the expense of the provinces that are now flush with electricity.

Keeping electricity for the provinces, said Mohammed al-Abbasi, a journalist in Hilla, in the south, “is a reaction against the capital, Baghdad, as power was provided to it without any cuts during the dictator’s reign.”

Other Iraqis are just grateful for anything that brings more comfort to their families and neighborhoods.

“We support any step that provides us with power,” said Ahmed Abdul Hussein, an ironsmith in Najaf, in the south.

The precision with which militias control electricity in the provinces became apparent in Basra on May 25 when Moktada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army carried out a sustained attack against a small British-Iraqi base in the city center, and turned that control to tactical military advantage.

“The lights in the city were going on and off all over,” said Cpl. Daniel Jennings, 26, one of the British defenders who fought off the attack.

“They were really controlling the whole area, turning the lights on and off at will. They would shut down one area of the city, turn it dark, attack us from there, and then switch off another one and come at us from that direction.

“What they did was very well planned.”

The electricity briefing began with Brig. Gen. Michael J. Walsh, commanding general of the Gulf Region Division of the Army Corps of Engineers, saying the United States had finished more than 80 percent of the projects it planned for rehabilitating the Iraqi grid.

He said that even though Baghdad now got no power from either the south or north, about a third of its electricity was still supplied by the national grid.

But General Walsh said he knew people in Baghdad were far from satisfied.

“I understand people’s impatience,” he said. “Certainly when you flip the light switch and nothing happens, you can get angry.”

Damien Cave contributed reporting from Baghdad, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from Baghdad, Basra, Najaf, Hilla and Karbala.

LOL!!

Marx Cafe tonight!

Hey guys, I'll be playing records at Marx Cafe tonight, 10-2. Seeya there!

3203 Mt. Pleasant St. NW

The United States is no more

Do you know what day it is today? Today is the day that the United States as we know it has been disolved. That's right. mark it on your calanders, as of noon today we now live in North America. Canada, Mexico and the US have merged. check it.

Speed of light broken?

Yeahh! This is great news, now we can begin to tear down and rebuild our understanding of how the universe functions, should be fun.

'We have broken speed of light'

By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 16/08/2007

A pair of German physicists claim to have broken the speed of light - an achievement that would undermine our entire understanding of space and time.

Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921

According to Einstein's special theory of relativity, it would require an infinite amount of energy to propel an object at more than 186,000 miles per second.

However, Dr Gunter Nimtz and Dr Alfons Stahlhofen, of the University of Koblenz, say they may have breached a key tenet of that theory.

The pair say they have conducted an experiment in which microwave photons - energetic packets of light - travelled "instantaneously" between a pair of prisms that had been moved up to 3ft apart.

Being able to travel faster than the speed of light would lead to a wide variety of bizarre consequences.
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For instance, an astronaut moving faster than it would theoretically arrive at a destination before leaving.

The scientists were investigating a phenomenon called quantum tunnelling, which allows sub-atomic particles to break apparently unbreakable laws.

Dr Nimtz told New Scientist magazine: "For the time being, this is the only violation of special relativity that I know of."

Pentagon auditors uncover overbilling "scheme"

HA HA HA H!!!! I think to call this a scheme gives these sisters a little more credit than they are due. From the article here it sounds like the whole thing happened due to a rather ugly and shortsighted flaw in the payment system in use at the pentagon; automatic processing of purchasing requests. Nothing terribly complicated or clever about that. It likely developed like this, one fateful day while entering PO's into the computer a simple mistake was made (the wrong amount was entered) and lo and behold the order went through the system without any problems. Then these devious "schemers" started thinking, "hmmm maybe I should try entering a slightly larger request and see if that works".. Sooner or later your billing the govt a million dollars to ship wood screws to Baghdad, I could see how that may have happened.

Pentagon Paid $998,798 to Ship Two 19-Cent Washers (Update3)

By Tony Capaccio

Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) -- A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas, U.S. officials said.

The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq, and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Pentagon records show.

The owners of C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina -- twin sisters -- exploited a flaw in an automated Defense Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or U.S. bases that were labeled ``priority'' were usually paid automatically, said Cynthia Stroot, a Pentagon investigator.

C&D and two of its officials were barred in December from receiving federal contracts. Today, a federal judge in Columbia, South Carolina, accepted the guilty plea of the company and one sister, Charlene Corley, to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to launder money, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald said.

Corley, 46, was fined $750,000. She faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years on each count and will be sentenced soon, McDonald said in a telephone interview from Columbia. Stroot said her sibling died last year.

Corley didn't immediately return a phone message left on her answering machine at her office in Lexington. Her attorney, Gregory Harris, didn't immediately return a phone call placed to his office in Columbia.

`Got More Aggressive'

C&D's fraudulent billing started in 2000, Stroot, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service's chief agent in Raleigh, North Carolina, said in an interview. ``As time went on they got more aggressive in the amounts they put in.''

The price the military paid for each item shipped rarely reached $100 and totaled just $68,000 over the six years in contrast to the $20.5 million paid for shipping, she said.

``The majority, if not all of these parts, were going to high-priority, conflict areas -- that's why they got paid,'' Stroot said. If the item was earmarked ``priority,'' destined for the military in Iraq, Afghanistan or certain other locations, ``there was no oversight.''

Scheme Detected

The scheme unraveled in September after a purchasing agent noticed a bill for shipping two more 19-cent washers: $969,000. That order was rejected and a review turned up the $998,798 payment earlier that month for shipping two 19-cent washers to Fort Bliss, Texas, Stroot said.

The Pentagon's Defense Logistics Agency orders millions of parts a year. ``These shipping claims were processed automatically to streamline the re-supply of items to combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan,'' the Justice Department said in a press release announcing today's verdict.

Stroot said the logistics agency and the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, which pays contractors, have made major changes, including thorough evaluations of the priciest shipping charges.

Dawn Dearden, a spokeswoman for the logistics agency, said finance and procurement officials immediately examined all billing records. Stroot said the review showed that fraudulent billing is ``not a widespread problem.''

``C&D was a rogue contractor,'' Stroot said. While other questionable billing has been uncovered, nothing came close to C&D's, she said. The next-highest billing for questionable costs totaled $2 million, she said.

Stroot said the Pentagon hopes to recoup most of the $20.5 million by auctioning homes, beach property, jewelry and ``high- end automobiles'' that the sisters spent the money on.

``They took a lot of vacations,'' she said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Tony Capaccio at acapaccio@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: August 16, 2007 15:16 EDT